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Virtual instruction has the potential not only to give a large number of students access to top instructors at lower cost but also to provide the incentives to attract and retain top teaching talent in the first place. 

A discussion of, and model for how interactive your classes are - with a bias towards technology but the feet firmly in teaching in general.

"LectureTools is a student response system that also allows students to take notes linked with the slides and videos presented in class, answer instructor generated questions and pose questions to the instructor. All notes, questions and activities are instantly synchronized with the LectureTools web application."

An interactive lecture is an easy way for instructors to intellectually engage and involve students as active participants in a lecture-based class of any size. Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material.

Timeline Tool 2.0 Recently improved from Timeline 1.0, The Timeline Tool 2.0 is a web- based tool that allows an instructor to construct an interactive timeline with audio and visual effects.  Multimedia Learning Object Authoring Tool enables content experts to easily combine video, audio, images and texts into one synchronized learning object.  Handwriting Toolis a language learning tool designed to help students learn to write and use asian characters. Vocabulary Memorization Platform Image Annotation Tool allows instructors to upload images and quickly create text boxes referring to parts of a diagram, painting, or photo. The tool will provide a link to the annotated image which can then be distributed to students.  Language Pronunciation Tool

Online learning styles assessments. Instructors can set up so students can take it without email registration, allowing them to see trends within a class of students to adjust teaching approaches that may be more appropriate for that group.

" The customized interface creates a one-to-one learning environment with the professor while emphasizing graphical explanations and working through solution steps. Below each lecture video are detailed notes which highlight the most important points to remember as well as common student pitfalls. A powerful search engine also locates the exact time in a lecture your problem topic is discussed. Lastly, student comments are moderated by our instructors make sure any questions you have are answered."

As I'm reading on inquiry based learning, I came across another article, I'd like to share. In this article, it discusses how inquiry-based learning projects are driven by students. This very much aligns with the questions we ask on the Flat Classroom and other projects. The one point of meaning that I'm working to understand (and finding different answers depending upon the site) is that some differentiate that students should develop the questions rather than teachers "handing them" the questions. I have a lesson plan I sent through Diigo where the instructor designed a lesson around the question "Can there be giants?" and called in inquiry based. Under this article, it may not be called true inquiry based, and yet, I'm wondering if the question is intriguing and of interest and can be used in a way to teach if it really matters where the question originates.  My class is a mix of student-created inquiries (Freshman project) and project-generated inquiries (Digiteen, Flat Classroom). Interesting. Look forward to reading and understanding more (and sharing with you.) This is another nice article on the topic. Feel free to share yours. "Inquiry-based learning" is one of many terms used to describe educational approaches that are driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons. It is inspired by what is sometimes called a constructivist approach to education, which posits that there are many ways of constructing meaning from the building blocks of knowledge and that imparting the skills of "how to learn" is more important than any particular information being presented. Not all inquiry-based learning is constructivist, nor are all constructivist approaches inquiry-based, but the two have similarities and grow from similar philosophies.

This seems stuck in the notion of the 'course' as a transferrable, replicable unit of education, without acknowledging all kinds of educational interactions that happen around courses, in one-on-one conversation etc. If a course is a knowledge dump, then it can be replaced with recorded equivalents, it seems to me. But if it is an interactive experience, a conversation among learners with the instructor as lead/expert learner, then reproducing it on a mass scale simply won't work.

Beta version of simple, easy typing courses for students. Can be managed by instructors and organized by classes. I like it so far!

Overview of the use of efolios in the Expository Writing course at the University of Washington. along with some sample portfolios. Currently the electronic portfolios are optional although having a portfolio is not. "The six TAs who chose to teach with electronic portfolios discovered many advantages to introducing this technology. They found that students learned to write for a wider audience and were able to better connect to the course outcomes by showing a greater variety of examples such as graphics and links to relevant Web pages. The electronic portfolios also simplified some logistics, allowing the instructors to easily show examples of online portfolios and students to review each other's work. "

"The old-fashioned practice of rating instructors by watching them teach is tricky, labor-intensive, potentially costly and subjective - but perhaps the best way to help them improve, according to a study released Friday by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation... "And the observers, typically the school principal, frequently don't know what to look for anyway. "The best way to evaluate teachers, while also helping them improve, is to use several measures - including data-based methods that rely on students' standardized test scores, along with an updated teacher observation system, the report found.

A great page of advice on how to manage your time. If you are an online instructor, or an online student, you'll find valuable resources here. Now if you only had the time to follow this link right? Try it, you'll like it!

NOTE: Most of those guides are linked to the information from moodle.org website. Therefore you will see some inconsistencies with screenshots.

Below are links to a series of articles that pertain to clickers in the classroom. Some articles are tips for faculty who are getting started using clickers. Other articles detail instructors' experience in using and integrating clickers in their classrooms. We have included articles regarding assessing student learning in large classes to help one with the redesign of a course that will use clickers. Further, there is a listing of popular media articles and peer reviewed journal articles.

Open Education Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.

WHY ARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SO BAD AT HIRING GOOD INSTRUCTORS?

The purpose of this site is to help instructors and parents better understand how the internet can facilitate plagiarism. We present strategies to prevent plagiarism, explain some of the underlying causes, and provide advice on dealing with cases of confirmed plagiarism.

they evaluated 390 Teach for America instructors before and after a year of teaching. Those who initially scored high for "grit"-defined as perseverance and a passion for long-term goals, and measured using a short multiple-choice test-were 31 percent more likely than their less gritty peers to spur academic growth in their students.