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The Magellan Podcast


Navigating Education in the 21st Century.
Magellan partners Wayne Patton, Aaron Traphagen, and Emily Heady discuss current online education trends and topics with special guests.
Welcome back to The Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.
Students learn better when they engage with course materials as whole people—thinking, feeling, culturally rich individuals. In the online classroom in particular, though, achieving this sort of affective engagement can be challenging. Designing online curriculum to create affective engagement may take effort, but it pays dividends, not only in student learning outcomes but in multiple other areas. Affectively aware courses, for example, honor the diversity of experiences that students bring to the online classroom, and as that happens, students in the group as a whole have an opportunity to increase their cultural awareness, to learn ways to communicate with others who are not like them, and to self-reflect on their own positions and ideas.
For today’s podcast, which follows our white paper “Affective Learning in the Online Classroom,” we welcome Dr. Gena Southall, Associate Vice President for Online Education at Magellan, to discuss ways to create affective engagement online. Gena brings decades of experience as an educator, both residentially and online, and as an administrator within teacher education programs. Magellan Partner Emily Heady will join her in this conversation.
Read the White Paper on this topic by Dr. Emily W. Heady, ”Affective Learning in the Online Classroom“
Podcast Topics, Questions, and Show Notes:
- What is affective learning? Is it just finding a way to make learning experiences more emotional?
- One of the points we make in the white paper is that affective learning is good for inclusion and for welcoming all kinds of different learners into the process. How does this work, and why does it matter?
- What are some practical ways we can create affectively engaged online learning experiences?
If you or your school is looking for help with RSI, marketing and enrollment, curriculum or course development, operational services, training, or professional development, think Magellan; our team would love to help. Reach out to us at thinkmagellan.com.
Thank you for joining us on the Magellan Podcast: Navigating Education in the 21st Century.
Show Credits
Magellan Team in this podcast includes Dr. Emily W. Heady and Dr. Gena Southall. The podcast theme was written and recorded by Dr. Wayne Patton. Podcast recorded, produced, and edited by Adam Ranck.
Recommended Resources
- Doubet, K. (2022). The flexibly grouped classroom: How to Organize Learning for Equity and Growth. ASCD.

Magellan partners Wayne Patton, Aaron Traphagen, and Emily Heady discuss current online education trends and topics with special guests.