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Tools, Technology and Techniques To Keep Your Online Students Engaged In a face-to-face class, students have numerous opportunities to interact with their instructor and fellow students. Creating similar opportunities for collaboration in a web-based course is one of the biggest challenges of teaching online.

This is a terrific article sharing tips about implementing new practices in your classes. Great primer on how to avoid common pitfalls, and help increase your chances for success. May the odds be ever in your favor!

"It's Super Easy to Create These Simple 'Bookmarks' so Viewers Can Pop to Different Section of Your Video"

I like this! Very helpful and I will share this with my students.

@ionstudent I agree. In fact, I just learned about this today. This can come in handy for instructor-created videos, but I can see students taking advantage of this for video projects as well.

When it comes to trying something new or looking into more tools. I believe I would like to do more research to see what other online instructors are doing. In this case, I found a great website called, eLearning Industry: www.elearningindustry.com. Here I can find articles written by online teaching professionals and for online teaching professionals. Also, the website is easy to navigate and always updated.

For the most part, students in online degree and certificate programs are learning on their own. There's no pressure to show up to a physical classroom filled with other students and an instructor, for example, and many online learners need to complete their coursework and attend live sessions around a full-time job and family obligations.

Complete resources for learning to use Unreal Engine 4. For those instructors teaching game development, this is the best and most thorough source of tutorials and videos which support learning the software package.

For Blackboard Users--Tutorials from UIS Center for Online Learning, Research and Service --Jim G

"EmergingEdTech" Engaging students and enhancing learning outcomes with Internet & Instructional Technologies. This site has lots of ideas for implementing instructional technologies and tools to make learning more engaging and productive for students and instructors, including social media.

A paper introduces a conception of discussion forums as student centred peer e-learning environments. The proffered conception positions the student as expert/facilitator at the centre of the learning event and the instructor, one step removed from the process, as overseer of the dialogue.

An article that shows how incorporating Twitter into the classroom can offer a new level of communication between students and their instructors, as well as their peers.

Vesely, P., Bloom, L., & Sherlock, J. (2007). Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3), 234-246. Vesely, Bloom, and Sherlock (2007) document that essential to the learning process is the student/student and student/teacher interaction, and building this community of learners is more challenging in online. Students in blended courses felt interaction may be better than in traditional courses. Students who feel silenced in onsite class discussions are more apt to contribute online. Seeking help can be a determining factor in successful learning. In the online communities, help is available virtually around the clock from the instructors and fellow classmates. Furthermore, through their experiences in the blended course, students would better understand the significance of managing their time, cultivating their study environment, regulating their effort, seeking appropriate support, and learning from classmates. In my experience, students reported that their online interaction with classmates had greatly assisted in their comprehension of course materials. Central to how they felt about blended learning was the quality and quantity of student and faculty interaction. In blended courses, students are often required to engage actively by reading and responding to discussion forum postings that become a permanent record of their participation and learning, rather than passively attending classes. Perceptions of interaction from faculty are also positive for blended courses. Faculty renovate their teaching methods by placing onsite lectures online and adding supplementary activities to aid student learning. Blended teaching and learning transforms education from "a command and control structure to a connect and collaborate environment" (Moskal, Dziuban, Upchurch, Hartman, & Truman, 2006) which is more student-centered than faculty-controlled. For faculty, the quality

Since many online courses are offered in a compressed format, some may think courses are "easier." This article talks about a study that was done that shows that is not the case. If there is a difference, it is because of the instructor. Interesting.

As a language instructor, I just love this idea of synchronous communication! :)

This is one of several good articles on levels of engagement from instructors in online classes

Suggestions for how to use social media projects to increase instructor presence in an online course.

This is a nice list of free educational tools for online instructors. It includes several of the tools we've explored in class and more! Check it out!

This looks like it might have some interesting things, although it is a very general gathering of tools. This is what they say... Do you support Free Technology for Teachers ? If Yes, I highly encourage you to share this Free Educational Technology Resource with fellow teachers interested in implementing Free Technology in Classroom . I am a great supporter of Free Educational Technology.

Helps Instructors create rubrics with limited time

Piazza is designed to connect students, TAs, and professors so every student can get the help they need when they need it. Today, hundreds of thousands of students across hundreds of campuses are using Piazza for their classes. It warms me to think I started something that is impacting the way students learn and the way instructors teach.