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This article has a follow up major piece in the June 24 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I cannot send that one to you because it is "locked." However, this piece describes what two very famous psychologists, Gosling and Pennebaker, are doing at UT Austin with online psychology classes. They describe here a synchronous massive online course in which (as now described in the Chronicle, they have 1500! students registered. Twenty four students are invited to attend F2F classes twice per week and the rest are online live. This SMOC, as they term it, allows faculty to interact live with an audience while teaching but affords huge enrollments. This seems to me to be a way of maintaining the "feel" of F2F while benefiting from the usefulness of technology. This is a very interesting development and, with these two psychologists being so well known, teachers of large lecture classes will take notice. I would love to explore the idea further!

This is pretty amazing! I wondered to what extent this was also a flipped class - did students do their readings and watch lectures before coming to class, and in the synchronous sessions, mostly focus on solving problems through group discussion? It seems to require a lot of technological and instructional support: TV studio, laptops, apps, and tutors serving as group advisors, but the better learning outcome may make it all worth it! Of course, at 500 students a class, it could save cost in a big way, too. So, are we all prepared to face the camera? :)

Although the target readership is grade 6-12 instructors, I find the methodology in this article applicable to what we are trying to do. Give it a read and see what you think.

This article outlines some ways to evaluate online courses - get faculty involved from the start and develop the rating scales...Is this authentic evaluation?

A pedagogical model for e-learning: "The five-stage model of online learning" by Gilly Salmon

Stumbled on this as I'm trying to find a way to develop an online simulated lab experience this week. It may be geared more for science and math

Since 1948 we have helped millions of students who are blind, dyslexic or have other learning disabilities achieve confidence and independence in the classroom and in life. More about our mission We work with our partners to raise awareness of learning differences.

When I was a graduate student, I volunteered with this organization (formerly known as Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic). I read fiction books and textbooks, recording in a booth on my own or with a director. Volunteers completed training to learn how to cue the audio reader to turn book pages, to transition between text and pictures or figures, and to indicate punctuations (ellipsis, quotations, subscript/superscripts, etc.). The experience helped me to improve the use of my voice in communicating to learners and the ways to chunk the information appropriate for visually impaired and dyslexic learners. As Learning Ally, the organization now offers professional development for teachers to help them with utilizing the wide range of audiobooks in their collection.

This report offers some observations on the use of multimedia resources in online courses. The focus is more on course development (both time investment and quality of materials produced) than on student experience or learning outcomes, but this can still be a valuable tool for instructors thinking about whether (and how) to use multimedia in their online course designs.

Practitioners are regularly confronted with significant events which present them with learning opportunities, and yet many are unable to recognise the learning opportunity these significant events present. The ability to recognise a learning opportunity in the workplace and learn from it, is a higher-order cognitive skill which instructors should be seeking to develop in learners.

In this article the author describes the design and development of an online learning resource: 'Video Guide to Audacity.'

This is great. I use Audacity in my Sound Design courses as one of the many design platform options.

Reconceptualization of the CoI framework that proposes learning presence as an additional construct in the framework. Reflects the unique contributions of students and teachers and embeds the social dimension as part of each presence (i.e., Social-Learning Presence, Social-Teaching Presence, and Socio-Cognitive Presence).

Kristy, thank you so much for locating and sharing this article and study. It's an important find. I really like the fact that it is hosted within our library system and that the authors are suggesting that the model may need some revisions - there is still much to learn and develop in the digital learning environments. Bookmarked!

I thought some of you might find this document helpful for thinking through your approach to plagiarism. The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national organization comprised of college and university faculty who run or have professional interest in researching and running writing programs. This document is a statement of best practices for educating students about plagiarism and for building educational environments in which academic honesty flourishes.

David, This is very useful for those of us teaching writing intensive courses - thank you.

I like that this encourages working with students (even PLAGIARISTS) in order to help them get past bad or misguided habits and develop better, more ethical writing practices. Even in the short time I've been teaching, it seems like students are becoming both (a) less attentive to issues of casual plagiarism and (b) less responsive to punitive approaches. I think these guideline could be helpful, for both online and traditional courses, in helping students to think about the kinds of writers they want to be. (...or the kinds of writers *I* want them to be)

"Encouraging Creativity in Online Courses." Though a bit older, I think this article makes some interesting points made in terms of the approach to course development. "Looking at the other side - rather than looking at boundaries, look for the solution outside the assumptions."

Written in 2006, the author shares his tips and tricks for reducing instructor workload after teaching both online and hybrid courses. Two useful tips the author shared are: 1) to create a reference list and share links to references as applicable in each learning module, and 2) to setup appropriate assessments when developing course assignments (such as mixing instructor, peer, and self-assessments) to help instructor manage workload assessment per student.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and Weber State University (Ogden, UT) have developed an Online teaching methods course that reflects state-of-the-art research and practice in foreign language education. This course is offered through WSU Online. For information concerning registration or to see an outline and syllabus, go to http://www.weber.edu/ForeignLanguages/Student_Resources/Onlinemethods.html.

This article addresses practical concerns about online discussions. It stresses the importance of having good discussion questions that are clearly linked to the learning objectives. There are also some good assessment tips.

I like the title, but I couldn't access it -- sign in required??

Yes, Peggy, the article comes from one of the main databases through the Emory Library.

Rapid prototyping uses a process/system to analyze and then develop a solution to a problem or situation. Also involving what is known as spiral prototyping it allows for a solution to be put forth, but continually augmented because of an environment that is in dynamic change. Rapid Prototyping (spiral) Model concept definition implementation of a skeletal system user evaluation and concept refinement implementation of refined requirements user evaluation and concept refinement implementation of refined requirements [etc., etc., in a continuous cycle]