eLearn: Best Practices - Discussion Management Tips for Online Educators
Tips for online facilitators, especially relevant for those used to teaching in a physical classroom who are moving online. Good practical stuff here like saving some of your best stories to re-energize students when motivation is lagging late in the course and preparing discussion questions and replies in advance.
Blackboard vs. Moodle: North Carolina Community Colleges Assessment
Highlights from a study comparing Blackboard and Moodle with several good points. Basically, neither system is much better than the other, but switching to Moodle saves money and ultimately makes students and faculty happy.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Group Following Educators on Twitter: How to Get Beginners Started
Vicki Davis' explanation of the TweepML educators list she created based on Jane Hart's 100 learning professionals to follow. This gives you an easy way to follow a bunch of educators and e-learning people without having to manually add each person.
A slideshow about linear e-learning, games, and learning in "the flow zone." I wish a citation was provided for the stats about learning from lectures.
Free tool for course authoring. Screen captures and PowerPoint imports are paid extras, but the basic tool is free. Might be nice for creating portfolio samples if you don't have access to Captivate or Articulate.
Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities -- Campus Technology
Social networking and learning communities--moving beyond just the social aspects to reflective learning in a community. My coworker, April Hayman, is cited in the article.
The eLearning Coach » Blog Archive » 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer
Recognizing that most instructional designers don't have a degree in the field, this post argues that it's less important for IDs to have a degree than to be "self-didacts" interested in learning about everything on their own. This also includes a list of 10 qualities of instructional designers.
News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
The Obama administration is pushing for creating free online courses at the high school/community college level, focusing on basic skills and job training. Some sort of examination/assessment is also possible, plus the idea of mixing free and paid courses at community colleges to reduce the cost of tuition.
Bonk said that administration's ideas about open courses are consistent with the "convergence" he sees taking place in online learning. There is a growing belief that for many kinds of courses, there are best providers whose work can be made available online, there are large numbers of students who could benefit from those courses, and those who might benefit don't necessarily have a lot of money.
Meta-Analysis Shows Online Learning Better, Blended Even Better
According to a meta-analysis by the US Department of Education, face-to-face courses are less effective than online and blended learning. They caution against viewing this as simply a matter of the medium though. It's the changes in what online and blended learning allow (like opportunities for collaboration) that are likely making the difference.
The meta-analysis findings do not support simply putting an existing course online, but they do support redesigning instruction to incorporate additional learning opportunities online.
Free e-book in three parts: "Beyond E-Training," "Beyond the Classroom," and "Beyond Learning." Includes case studies and examples of how organizations are doing more with e-learning than traditional classroom training.
Corporate eLearning & Flash Development Portfolio -:- Clearly Trained
Portfolio with samples of simple and complex Flash simulations, corporate e-learning, and educational games. Several of the examples are from Edheads.org, some of my favorite simulations and games.
Average Pricing for Learning Management Systems in 2009
LMS pricing for low-cost systems for different sizes of implementations. I've seen complaints on the eLearning Guild discussion board that $50K for 100K users for Moodle was too high. Considering that the average price for that size is over a million dollars, $50K seems quite reasonable to me.
Lots of different ways to visualize content and create graphics. Good place to go if stuck on how to represent something visually and create relevant graphics.
7 Tips for Better E-Learning Scenarios - The Rapid eLearning Blog
Mostly common sense type stuff if you've done scenarios before, but if you've never created them this is a good way to break it down so it seems more manageable
Skills for Access : The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Accessible Multimedia for e-learning
Resources for multimedia accessibility in e-learning, including case studies. Part of their philosophy is that multimedia can actually enhance accessibility and make course designs more usable for all learners.
Accessibility of eLearning - OpenLearn - The Open University
Open course on accessibility in e-learning, starting with an overview of disability and accessibility. Also includes information on designing and evaluating courses for accessibility.
