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Facilitator Qualities and Skills These online facilitator qualities and skills started with the the QUALITIES FAQ created by the Group Facilitation Listserv GRP-FACL@CNSIBM.ALBANDY.EDU. I took the qualities posted to the list, then sorted them alphabetically. After letting them set, I started sorting and adding in context for online facilitation. I'm looking for sets of qualities and patterns. What do you think is important in the online context? What is less important? What is missing?

"Welcome to Quality Matters Quality Matters (QM) is a nationally recognized, faculty-centered, peer review process designed to certify the quality of online courses and online components. Colleges and universities across the country use the tools in developing, maintaining and reviewing their online courses and in training their faculty. "

"The main scientific problems investigated in this article deal with technical evaluation of quality attributes of the main components of e-Learning systems (referred to here as DLEs - Digital Libraries of Educational Resources and Services), i.e., Learning Objects (LOs) and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). The main research object of the work is the effectiveness of methods of DLE components quality evaluation. The aim of the article is to analyse popular existing LO and VLE technical evaluation tools, and to formulate new more complex tools for technical quality evaluation of LOs and VLEs based on requirements for flexible DLE, as well as to evaluate most popular open source VLEs against new more complex criteria. Complex tools have been created for the evaluation of DLE components, based on a flexible approach. The authors have analysed existing tools for technical evaluation of LOs, and it was investigated that these tools have a number of limitations. Some of these tools do not examine different LO life cycle stages, and other insufficiently examine technical evaluation criteria before LO inclusion in the repository. All these tools insufficiently examine LOs reusability criteria. Therefore a more complex LO technical evaluation tool is needed. It was considered that this new more complex LO technical evaluation tool should include LO technical evaluation criteria suitable for different LO life cycle stages, including criteria before, during and after LO inclusion in the repository as well as LO reusability criteria. The authors have also examined several VLE technical evaluation tools suitable for flexible DLE, and it was investigated that these tools have a number of limitations. Several tools practically do not examine VLE adaptation capabilities criteria, and the other insufficiently examines general technical criteria. A more complex VLE technical evaluation tool is needed. Therefore the authors have proposed an original more complex set of VLE tech

Education: Using e-business models to deliver quality education The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education.

"It's no secret that web design is a fast-growing industry. Virtually every type of business is in need of a quality website. There are opportunities at the large agency level down to freelancers developing small-business websites from home. So how do you break into this exciting field? With little or no experience creating websites, getting yourself up to speed can be a daunting task. There are so many different avenues of design and development to explore. Which way should you go first? Which skill sets suit you the best? We aim to give you an overview of a few things things that are essential to a well-rounded knowledge of web design. These are starting-points, if you will. Below each item, we've listed additional resources for you to continue on in your learning process. Before we get into it, heed one important lesson: You can't become a professional web designer overnight. It takes years to reach an expert level in any aspect of the field. But everybody starts somewhere, and there's no better time than the present begin your web design education."

When times are tough, institutions are under more competitive pressure than ever to do well for their students. Unfortunately this is the precise time when cash is in short supply, faculty workloads may have increased, and development/support staff and budgets are often slashed. For institutions that want to do a more effective job of competing and meeting external demands for quality, it's time for a more frugal approach to innovation. One approach to frugal innovation: help faculty share low-cost, low-risk, easy-to-explain improvements in teaching and learning with each other.  That's really two ideas, and they go well together: Faculty helping each other improve their courses (with a slight assist from staff to help them get together) Low Threshold Activities and Applications (LTAs) -- small steps toward improvement -- that each faculty member can grasp quite quickly and try safely, easily, and inexpensively and that promise real rewards if successful, e.g.  better learning, time-savings.  (For on LTAs, click here.)  "Frugal": These kinds of improvements are a good fit for peer-to-peer assistance because LTAs can be communicated quickly and easily: e.g., in: a casual conversation among faculty, a 5-15 minute workshop scheduled as an agenda item in a departmental meeting and led by a faculty member, a page-long description written by a faculty member and appearing on the web or in a newsletter, an eClip (brief video clip online that explains how to do something or why it's worth doing), or just a few sentences in an email or on a web page.

"Institutional approaches to curriculum design Curriculum design blog JISC Curriculum Design & Delivery1 * The Future of QA & QE2 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:25:50 +0000 Various group discussions and the panel session at the QA & QE in e-Learning conference at the Unive... * QA QE Toolkit3 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:03:22 +0000 A toolkit created by the QAQE SIG was the subject of discussion & consultation at the QA & QE in e-L... * Review of QAA Code of Practice4 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:41:27 +0000 Brief notes from the QA & QE in e-Learning conference at the University of Hertfordshire on 2nd July... The aim of the JISC e-Learning programme is to enable UK further and higher education to create a better learning environment for all learners, wherever and however they study. Its vision is of a world where learners, teachers, researchers and wider institutional stakeholders use technology to enhance the overall educational experience by improving flexibility and creativity and by encouraging comprehensive and diverse personal, high quality learning, teaching and research."

Writing a good research grant proposal is not easy. This document is an attempt to collect together a number of suggestions about what makes a good proposal. It is inevitably a personal view on the part of the authors; we would welcome feedback and suggestions from others. APPROACHING A PROPOSAL The first and most obvious thing to do is to read the advice offered by your funding agency. In the case of EPSRC, the primary funding body for computing science research, there is a "Guide to EPSRC Research Grants". We make no attempt to duplicate the material in the EPSRC guide or any other; you must get yourself a copy and follow the guidance closely. The most substantial part of any grant application is some form of "Case for Support". It is this case which will persuade, or fail to persuade, your funding body of the value of your proposal. Proposals range very widely indeed in their quality. You can improve your chances enormously simply by ruthlessly writing and rewriting. This document is entirely about improving your case for support.

Insulat-Ed December 10, 2008 - 7:55 pm As the scope and quality of learning that can happen outside of institutional groups continues to increase, the educational hegemony of traditional schools continues to decrease. In Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Clay Shirky writes, "Now that there is competition to traditional institutional forms for getting things done, those institutions will continue to exist, but their purchase on modern life will weaken as novel alternatives for group action arise."

eLearning Papers adds a new dimension to the exchange of information on e-learning in Europe and stimulates research. As such, the articles provide views regarding the current situation and e-learning trends in different communities: schools, universities, companies, civil society and institutions. eLearning Papers provides all those interested with an opportunity to have their texts published throughout Europe. Through these articles, the journal promotes the use of ICT for lifelong learning in Europe. The scope of the eLearning Papers reflects the four interest areas of elearningeuropa.info: schools, higher education, training and work and learning and society. All e-learning related themes are accepted as topics. The following topics are given as an example: * Technologies * Pedagogy * Process * Quality and evaluation * eInclusion * Learning environments

Searching By Looking Elsewhere Published May 11, 2009 BBC , Data , Infoskills , SEO , Search 4 Comments A couple of weeks or so ago, I got an email requesting a link to something I'd spoken about at a department meeting some time ago (the Gartner hype cycle, actually). Now normally I'd check my delicious bookmarks for a good link, or maybe even run a Google web search, but instead I ran a search for 'gartner hypecycle 2008′ on Google Images… …which is when it struck me that searching Google Images may on occasion lead to better quality, or more relevant, results than doing a normal web search, particularly if you use a level of indirection. In particular, it can often lead to a web document or post that provides some sort of analysis around a topic. (Remember, Google image search links to the web pages that contain the images that are displayed in the image search results, not just the images.)

Composica 4.0 is a social e‑learning authoring system that offers real-time collaboration among team members and provides a powerful programming- free WYSIWYG environment to create and deliver high-quality interactive e‑learning 2.0 content with embedded social media.

JISC Collections mission is to support UK education and research by delivering affordable, relevant and sustainable online content. Funded by JISC, JISC Collections provides its members with a catalogue of free and subscription-based online resources such as e-journals, e-books, full text databases, digital images, online film, and geospatial data. Core to the service provided by JISC Collections is the quality evaluation of online resources, the expert negotiation process and the efficient national licensing undertaken for each online resource. JISC Collections always strives to widen accessibility to online resources, save its members time and money and to evolve licensing in line with members needs and the digital environment.

"Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 2 By Tony Bates, on October 14th, 2009 Identifying the problem with higher education in the 21st was the easy part (Using technology to improve the cost-effectiveness of the academy: Part 1). Much more difficult is finding solutions to the problem. Summary of the problem In Part 1, I argued that the challenge for universities today is that * student numbers have increased dramatically, * students are much more varied in abilities, age, and culture, * quality of teaching, as expressed in overlarge classes, as a result has dropped and continues to drop, despite the addition of technology * the cost per graduate is increasing * the teaching and organizational models though have not changed fundamentally to adapt to these other changes."