This blog is designed for Globe Education Network online course developers and faculty. It is intended to serve as a resource for idea-sharing, communication, and best practices associated with the development of effective, engaging, and rigorous online courses.
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Showing posts with label Online Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Online Learning. Show all posts
This site contains many video tutorials on how to use various pieces of technology. Some of the videos include:
Twitter in Depth
Wikis with PB Works
Easy Podcasting
How to User Blogger
Text to Speech Tools
Any Many More!!
Please go to this site and check out all of the fantastic tools and resources available. You may find that you lose track of time searching around all of the videos on this web site. Enjoy!
Can you believe that it is September tomorrow - wow, did the summer fly by fast! Your 25% completion deadline is approaching fast - next Monday I will be going into your courses to check for 25% completion. Please let me know if you have any concerns about meeting this deadline.
This week I came across a video titled Social Media Revolution – This 4 minute video does a fantastic job of telling the story that social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It is well worth the watch! Here is the website where this video came from.
After watching this video I couldn’t help but feel proud of the work that we are doing in our online division at GU/MSB.
One of the statistics in the video stated that a 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction. This statement impacted me greatly. For many years those who work in online education as a whole have been striving to overcome the stigma that it cannot rival face to face instruction. Although I still believe that there are certain topics that are best learned through a residential environment, this study shows all of us that online education can in fact be just as good as face to face instruction for many topics.
As online developers we are directly impacting the 1 in 6 higher education students who are enrolled in online education and are responsible for them performing just as well as those students who learn in a traditional brick and mortar classroom. This is an awesome responsibility and I believe that thus far we have lived up to the challenge!
The work that we are doing is cutting edge, impactful, and highly motivated by the changing face of communication and education. Congratulations for being so closely involved in a changing world! Don’t be afraid to work these social media avenues into your developments – your students will love being able to use them in a classroom environment!
Some very interesting news articles came out over the past week and they contain information that will help you to keep current with where online education is in the spectrum of higher education.
The first article about college life in the wireless age doesn't specifically relate to taking courses in the online environment, but it is important because it helps us to understand the lives of our students and what our competition is doing in terms of everyday campus life. Web based social networks are changing the face of our interactions with each other and these types of changes will inevitably carry over into online education. These types of changes tell us that when we design online courses it is important to keep up with the changing face of communication. Students are used to interacting over the web and our assignments, discussion boards, and group projects are just a few ways that we can guide them toward that type of interaction in our courses.
The second article confirms that online education isn't going anywhere and is in fact growing at an unpredicted pace! Every year we have double-digit growth in online education and this growth might continue due to the stagnating economy. When people don't have jobs, they go back to school. Keep this in mind as you are creating your courses. It is likely that your courses will be seen by hundreds or thousands of students. The responsibility to give these students a high level of education rests in your hands and in your course design. Have fun with it! Keep your course design fresh and interesting to keep the students engaged. Remember, when people interact with each other they are likely to view their experience as a more positive one.
