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"Simply putting traditional courses online could have negative consequences, especially for lower-performing and language minority students."

"Until further studies on the effectiveness of online learning versus in-class learning are necessary, universities would be wise to recognize that all Internet courses are not created equally,"

There are some college experiences that don't fit this mold. Many seminars and advanced courses are based on hands-on projects and small-scale discussions with professors. Those are undoubtedly valuable. But core classes tend not to be taught that way. The very classes that should establish a student's base understanding of a subject are taught like assembly lines—lecture, problem set, exam—with no quality control. Sure, the product's quality is graded, but nothing is done about defective understanding as the student is pushed down the line.

Students don't retain anything because they didn't intuitively understand it to begin with.

Why aren't we using the 300-person gathering at 10 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday as an opportunity for active peer-to-peer instruction rather than a passive, one-size-fits-all lecture?

I don’t have a fax machine. I don’t need one very often, but every once in a while it’s a really useful thing to have. With drop.io fax, you can send and receive faxes right from the web. Just right-click on the file you want to send, and choose “fax”. Then, enter the number, and presto – they get a fax. To receive one is a bit more complicated, but totally possible – just follow drop.io’s instructions.

Drop Insta-podcast

I’ve mentioned all of the things relevant here, but this is worth noting again. Here’s how simple it can be to make a podcast: one phone call. Call your drop’s number, leave a message, and boom- podcast. Or, upload a video, view it like a blog, and it’s a weekly podcast. How you create a podcast is up to you, but sharing it with the world couldn’t be easier- thanks to drop.io.

4. The work I want to use in my online class is both copyrighted and free of any license. Are there any specific provisions of the copyright law that apply to online classroom use? Yes, Section 110(2) of the copyright law (otherwise known as the “TEACH Act”) specifically applies to displaying images, playing motion pictures or sound recordings, or performing works in your online class. Since this section applies to any “transmissions” of performances or displays, cable television classes would also be included here. There are a number of institutional and faculty member obligations that must be fulfilled in order to use the TEACH Act. Consult your library or university counsel on whether and how the TEACH Act is implemented locally. If your university cannot or does not wish to comply with TEACH Act obligations, consider whether what you have in mind for your online course is a fair use. (See question #5, below.) If you wish to explore the TEACH Act option, read on for a description of a faculty member’s obligations. Generally, to perform or display a work in your online class the work must be used under your supervision as part of the class session as part of systematic mediated instructional activities (see 4j, below) directly and materially related to the teaching content The work must be lawfully made and not excerpted from a product that was specifically designed and marketed for use in an online course. Furthermore, there are three additional requirements: You must password protect or otherwise restrict access to your online class Web site to enrolled students, and You must reasonably prevent your students from being able to save or print the work, i.e., control the “downstream” uses, and You must include a general copyright warning on your class Web site.

Also, providing a URL or linking to a work is always an option. The copyright law never precludes you from linking to a copyrighted work on a legitimate Web site.