Oregon State University Ecampus

Online Learning | Feature 6 Ways to Be a Better Online Teacher --- check out #3 for a creative 'active-learning' activity that has students tweeting as various characters as they read texts from the Crusades.

What is it? This summary of research on Project Based Learning also appears in the BIE book PBL for 21st Century Success. It provides a quick look at key studies showing PBL's positive effects on student academic achievement, mastery of 21st century competences such as problem-solving and critical thinking, addressing the needs of diverse learners and closing achievement gaps, and increasing students' motivation to learn.

A feature of OSU's Google Apps suite that might be handy for student clubs / student groups -- might be especially handy in engaging off-campus students into student activities? See the video for a quick overview.

I like Central Michigan's online instructor self-check for course development. Easy to complete with simple radio buttons. I also like Michigan Comm. College's rubric style so that you can show level of progress at achieving certain standards. Great examples -- maybe something we can apply to our processes here.

I just thought this cool. Not clear how valuable the game actually is (not a lot of deets). but I love the idea of re-purposing the classic game of Clue into scenarios based on real terrorist plots, with a goal of identifying and mitigating the cognitive and anchoring bias inherent in us all. ... I also love that they came up with MACBETH as an acronym. :)

good evidence showing ability of games to result in longer retention of information ---- "8 weeks later the effects of the game were still there -- not so for the video"

I deeply respect this industry pioneer, Michael Abrash, and his talk on the current state of wearable computing really turned my head around. Thought i'd throw a link up here, just in case any of you are curious about this emerging field. (basically, just click the PDF in the first paragraph, which attempts to go through and explain everything in "simpler" terms. The short of it is that we now have the tech to deliver on the promise of VR goggles from the late 80s. And after that, within about 5 years, the world will be changed by Augmented Reality (AR) - when your cell phone can seemlessly detect and enhance everything you look at). (the tech isn't quite there for AR yet, but google released Glass to try and get ahead of the game).

Good selection of tools for online presentations, etc.