Tools For Teaching Online

Teaching with Online Discussion Forums

A brief description of the potential for online discussion forums, with four main examples: 1) making student writing a point of discussion through webpage comments, 2) using voting mechanisms to help students evaluate writing, 3) allowing students to contribute to various online discussion communities, and 4) using wiki pages to teach revision and comparison.

Social Constructivism

Community of Inquiry

Passive v. Active Learning

Despite overwhelming research (and common sense) that passive learning is less effective than active learning, many classes emphasize passive approaches.

Passive approaches emphasize:

• Lectures
• Readings
• Watching video
• Listening to audio
• Observing demonstrations

Active approaches emphasize:

• Interaction through discussion
• Student<->student / faculty<->student interactions
• Student presentations
• Group projects
• Simulations
• Problem solving

Michael Wesch Video: The Machine is Us/ing Us:

Some Strategies for Actively Engaging Students Online

Using Online Resources to Promote Active Learning in Physics Teaching
http://technologysource.org/article/using_online_resources_to_promote_active_learning_in_physics_teaching/

Active Learning and Quality in Online Courses
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4062/is_200612/ai_n17194101

Active Learning Online By the Numbers: A Compilation of Lists from Several Scholars of Active Learning with Technology
http://wordsworth2.net/activelearning/ecacnumbers.htm

UIS Online: Carla

Web 2.0 Tools for Online Learning

Google Docs/Apps:
Google Docs for Educators Site
Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Google Apps

Blogs:
Blogs: How to Create a Blog with Blogger
Educause: 7 Things You Should Know about Blogs

Twitter
50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom
Using Twitter to Facilitate Classroom Discussions
Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter

YouTube


Digital video is growing.

YouTube is a video sharing/networking site. Recently upgraded to support high definition video, YouTube hosts billions of videos. One of its key features is the ability to embed videos on other web sites. This feature allows students to watch video content without leaving the LMS and it makes your content more visually appealing.

Other digital video services include Jing (screencasting), online media conversion with media-convert.com, Viddler (video editing and sharing).

Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About YouTube
Chronicle Article: From YouTube to YouNiversity
YouTube for Higher Education

Open Educational Resources

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resources for Teaching and Learning Online

Open Licensing: Creative Commons

Cable Green, Director of eLearning and Open Educational Resources, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

Cable's List of Open Educational Resources

Cable's Presentation to UIS:

Time Saving Tips For Online Educators

Implementing Rubrics

Rubrics are scoring tools that explicitly represent performance expectations for an assignment based on specific elements. A rubric divides the assigned work into highlighted characteristics and provides clear descriptions of work associated with each characteristic at varying levels of mastery.

Free Resources:

TeAchnology; Rubrics, Rubric Makers: links to all sorts of rubric makers for a variety of subject areas and assessment forms in K-12 environment, to printable rubric collections for all sorts of purposes, and to rubrics resources (All About Rubrics); although this is designed for K-12 teachers, much of it is applicable

Carnegie Mellon; Grading and Performance Rubrics: rationale for using rubrics and good examples from a variety of disciplines and assessment forms; higher ed specific

Rubistar: free tool to help you create rubrics for a variety of projects
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Narrated PowerPoint Lectures

Articulate Presenter:

http://www.articulate.com/community/showcase/IDTheft/player.html

Articulate Quizmaker:

http://www.articulate.com/products/demos/quizmaker/Manager/quizmaker.html

Articulate Engage Interactions:

http://www.articulate.com/products/demos/engage/engage_10/process/

Synchronous Strategies

-- Common Synchronous Strategies --

• Office hours
• Student presentations
• Guest speakers
• Textbook author interviews
• Guest instructors from distant universities
• Subject matter experts in your field
• Role-playing
• Example: Interview and Assessment Skills in Human Services
• Semester kick-off
• Introductions, Course design, Expectations
• Introduction to major projects/assignments
• Group work
• Reviews for exams
• Follow-up for muddiest point surveys/CATs
• Back-channeling (active!) for presentations, videos, and more.

-- Reasons to Supplement with Synchronous --

• Creating community among your students
• Other solutions are just too complex

-- Synchronous Tools --

• Elluminate vRoom
• Elluminate - Full version
• ooVoo - Video chat - FREE!