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From the website:  (and there is a companion website, see below) In spite of the proliferation of online learning in higher education, creating online courses can still evoke a good deal of frustration, negativity, and wariness in those who need to create them. Essentials of Online Course Design takes a fresh, thoughtfully designed, step-by-step approach to online course development. At its core is a set of standards that are based on best practices in the field of online learning and teaching. Pedagogical, organizational and visual design principles are presented and modeled throughout the book and users will quickly learn from the guide's hands-on approach. The course design process begins with the elements of a classroom syllabus which, after a series of guided steps, easily evolve into an online course outline. The guide's key features include: a practical approach informed by theory clean interior design that offers straightforward guidance from page one clear and jargon-free language examples, screen shots, and illustrations to clarify and support the text a Companion Website with examples, adaptable templates, interactive learning features, and online resources a checklist of online course design standards that readers can use to self-evaluate. Essentials of Online Course Design serves as a best-practice model for designing online courses. After reading this book, readers will find that preparing for online teaching is, contrary to popular belief, a satisfying and engaging experience. The core issue is simply good design: pedagogical, organizational, and visual. Companion website:  http://www.marjorievai.com/WEBSITE-CONTENTS.html

The goal of OCEP is to provide the academic community with a criteria-based evaluation tool to assess and compare the quality of online courses. The focus of the evaluation is on the presentation of the content and the pedagogical aspects of online courses, yet OCEP also considers the instructional and communication methods so vital in a successful online learning experience. Existing online courses are identified and measured against a set of objective evaluation categories. These criteria were developed through extensive research and review of instructional design guidelines from nationally recognized course developers, best practices from leading online consultants, and from numerous academic course evaluations.

"The evaluation of online courses involves many of the same criteria applied to traditional classroom courses but also necessitates the use of new criteria more directly based on the online environment. The course evaluation materials below offer a range of rubrics and guidelines for help in developing effective practices for evaluating online courses."

Good pointers on how to organize orientation to online course and how imp it is for successfull learning

This describes a really good setup for an online language course!

Seems pretty formulaic - so a good place to start!

"Whether digital media sparks fear or intrigue, it is a fundamental part of students' lives and can enrich teaching and learning in and out of the classroom. This course will examine how the creation and consumption of digital media can enhance education by engaging and empowering teachers and students. Throughout this project-based course, you will learn how to use free web 2.0 tools to create, implement, and assess digital media."

This report provides national estimates about distance education courses in public school districts. The estimates presented in this report are based on a district survey about distance education courses offered by the district or by any of the schools in the district during the 2009-10 school year.

This is higher education levels, not K-12. They interviewed chief academic officers for this info. The report shows more students taking online courses, a higher percentage of courses being online, faculty acceptance of online courses, what training faculty receive, and compares student outcomes to face-to-face.

EdX offers free online classes and MOOCs from the world's best universities. Topics include business, computer science, finance, history, literature, math, science, statistics and more. Courses are from some of the best universities in the world including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and many other universities.

"This complimentary course features a number of all time favorite ChinesePod lessons from each academic level. Users are welcomed to try all the content and tools available for each lesson including full lesson podcast, lesson dialogue, audio review, PDF transcript, annotated dialogue, vocabulary, expansion, grammar and exercises."

Thank you for sharing such a useful tool that allows the students to explore the resource of learning Chinese.

How does your online course rate according to this rubric?

You can use this to put your course online if your institution doesn't have a course management system that you are required to use. Includes some of the "collaborate" additions.

" Using TPCK with digital story issues in educational technology Abstract Digital storytelling is recognized as a motivating students in critical thinking and reflective learni ng storytelling are readily available and much easier to use today than they were in years pa convergence of these facto rs has facilitated the inclusion of digital storyte lling in p educational technology courses . Some researchers have expressed concern over approach technology instruction over careful consideration of the educational value of the tool, speculating that such are unlikely to result in powerful uses of technology in schools. Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed a conceptual framework technology an d pedagogy. With emphasis on the development of Content Knowledge (TPCK) , the model reframes for pre-service teachers. This case stud framework to a digital storytelling project in an u ndergraduate teacher education course. Keywords: digital storytelling, educational technology, Techn ological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPCK Journal of Instructional Pedagogies TPCK with Digital Storytelling digital story tell ing to investigate contemporary issues in educational technology "

You might want to print off the Power Searching quick sheet before starting with this course. "Gaming to learn" - this course is made up of challenges along with tips and tricks and keeping track of how you found things. A good learning challenge!

Sign-up for the 30-day, but a year - free! Here's info I got in an email notification: We are glad to announce a free WizIQ individual membership for K-12 and College teachers. To be eligible for this offer, teachers need email addresses associated with their educational institutes (e.g., aprofessor@college.edu or ateacher@adistrict.k12.ma.us.) If you are a teacher from K12 or a College, apply and claim your free membership by following the steps below: Steps to get free WizIQ membership: 1.Sign up for a 30-day trial by clicking on the 'Apply now' button below 2. Verify your email address from your email inbox 3. You'll receive a confirmation email from us once your free membership is approved Apply now  WizIQ's free teacher accounts give educators at accredited institutions access to a range of teaching tools. To many educators, the virtual classroom for which WizIQ is best known only means live classes, which they might not need considering they see their students in person every day. But with the WizIQ Virtual Classroom teachers can also: Offer online courses for their school Run virtual office hours and homework help Run summer school online to address transportation and facilities issues Give AP students a jumpstart with virtual summer class sessions Let athletes or homebound students work with their classes, live, even if they can't be there Easily set up classes - without IT help Bring subject matter experts into their classrooms virtually Support group and project-based learning Engage hard-to-reach parents with: Virtual parents' nights Virtual conferences Adult education and community outreach Virtual math and literacy nights Broadcast live school committee meetings on the web Record lectures or flip their classrooms Conduct virtual field trips Run professional development when and where staff are available Share teaching resources among schools Teachers can take full advantage of every WizIQ feature, including screen-sharing, polling, video-confe

Abstract from publisher - The difficulty for teachers is in understanding how to integrate, use and maintain course blogs so that they are a strong and positive educational force in the classroom. At the core of using blogs is the development of blog management strategies. Based on the authors' use of blogs in undergraduate courses, the current paper outlines an approach to blog management.

Chico's Rubric for Online Instruction offers a framework for addressing this question. Use of this rubric represents a developmental process for online course design and delivery, and provides a means for an instructor to self-assess course(s) based on University expectations. Furthermore, the rubric provides a means for supporting and recognizing a faculty member's effort in developing expertise in online instruction as part of our commitment to high quality learning environments.

At the college where I teach, professors have the unique opportunity every May to develop a course outside of their typical curriculum. Teachers get to explore their interests in new courses as diverse as "The Chemistry of Cooking" and "Writing a Film Short."

I just found this article about redesigning the syllabus. Since my students hardly every really read the syllabus, I have to come up with something new. http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/creative-approaches-to-the-syllabus/35621

Thanks for the link from the Chronicle!

Discussion on how technology is being used and why we're still struggling to give more control of learning to students. A good read!

"A 2014 paper by researchers at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, provides a tangible example: Teachers and students in the small-scale study were found to be making extensive use of the online word-processing tool Google Docs. The application's power to support collaborative writing and in-depth feedback, however, was not being realized. Teachers were not encouraging group-writing assignments and their feedback focused overwhelmingly on issues such as spelling and grammar, rather than content and organization." This really gets to the heart of the idea of combining education and technology: the technology has to serve the goal and it doesn't sound like the teachers' goals were the same as the stated goals of the assignment. So obviously Google Docs is a fantastic tool, but it has to be utilized appropriately for it to be effective.

I must say I have sat through many workshops in my tenure at my university that included the modification of some practices and even included, to my frustration, the basic structure of a lesson from stating outcomes to assessment. The problem with our particular situation is that usually it is directed to a "one-size-fits-all" use of a given technology that may not apply to many disciplines. I have found them somewhat useful for upper-level courses at times, but the language classes often pose the need for a kind of collaboration and interpersonal technology that isn't presented. Hence my desire to take this course. Another difficulty is the overwhelming number of technological applications presented--I can't tell you how many--and the students really become overwhelmed, since they often have to learn new technologies in almost many courses. Some work and some don't, and since they are the guinea pigs and there are no guarantees that everything will work as planned, and given the astounding changes in tech, the newness never seems to end, neither for the student nor the teacher. So focusing on just 1 or 2 to begin with seems like the only way to deal with it. Finally, I think that, at least in our university, the huge courses found often in the sciences reflect the slowness to adopt meaningful change. Many in these disciplines have simply used the tech to deliver more lectures on topics students must memorize, perhaps adding clickers for comprehension checks. There seems to be a great disconnect between what happens in the classroom and the amazing advances in tech they have made for their hands-on work--labs, collaborative work, etc.

It bothers me that they still talk about not having someone to talk with...  I really would like to see more of these online courses as cohort modeled courses and have synchronous voiced/video conversations as part of the curriculum.  Or if not a cohort, with other online voiced alternatives for practice.