Brian Lamb, at the University of British Columbia, and his weblog on social learning, online learning, and open education

For even the most experienced classroom teacher, teaching online requires a thoughtful transition to the new environment.

Do you currently teach online? Have you thought about teaching online but for some reason haven’t done it yet? Here at CU Online, we believe in the power of online learning. Whether you currently teach online or you are thinking about doing it in the future, we are here to help you sort through this process and we hope that this handbook might help you along the way. The boundaries between traditional face-to-face courses and completely online courses are beginning to blur. Therefore, as we move forward, we all must consider when, how, and why we integrate the tools that we do into our classrooms.

Thinking about the types of media that you are using in your teaching resource, write a short risk assessment identifying IPR/copyright issues that you may face.

Think about...

Who may view your teaching resource?

Who else may access and use the teaching resource?

Who is providing information/content for your teaching resource?

How public is the information that you are using and/or providing?

Are you using examples of students’ work?

How might your project be used in a public space? Identify aspects concerning issues of ethics, dissemination and responsibilities related to ownership of project content in a public space.

Why is using a multi-media approach useful to your teaching resource?
You may want to consider the possibilities from the perspectives of your students, your colleagues, yourself and across the education sector.

Aim of session: What do you want your learners to achieve?

Outline of content: Short description of learning activities/learning outcomes.

Risk factors/copyright issues: Identifying what they are within your resources

Licences required: Identifying what licenses are involved

Identifying online learning aims and outcomes

This "Teacher Time Saver" looks at free tools for creating Web-based discussions.

Online teaching and learning in higher education is growing at an exponential rate! This growth will continue to escalate during the 21st century! The powerful tools of technology will deliver instruction in unprecedented ways. Yet, the tools of technology are only as effective as the masters of this craft. Those using technology to teach online in increasing numbers are educational leadership adjunct professors. In some cases, universities adjunct faculty members comprise 100% of their entire faculty (Babb & Mirabella, 2007). Clearly, the time has come for online universities to provide mentoring that assures the success of their greatest teaching force, its adjunct faculty. The authors present the four most research based needs entitled the four cornerstones comprising an effective mentoring program for educational leadership adjuncts. The four cornerstones of effective mentoring programs for adjuncts teaching online are professional development, effective communication, building balance, and forming relationships.

Information about Hippocampus.org and the NROC project.

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. The MIC07 conference theme Jazzing IT up with MERLOT recognizes the collaborative efforts within disciplines and the education community around the World to enhance teaching and learning through the use of Instructional Technology. Conference attendees span all disciplines and the continuum from novice to expert in the development and use of online resources. The conference is designed to foster learning, innovation and practice in the use of information, instruction, and communications technologies in higher education. It is the venue for educators, administrators, and technologists who have interests and expertise in technology-enabled teaching and learning and who recognize the need to remain current in this rapidly advancing field of educational practice and theory.

Some advances in instructional technology have emerged from the creative applications of existing technology. In this article we discuss such an innovation, the online self-organizing social system (OSOSS). Briefly described, the OSOSS structure allows large numbers of individuals to self-organize in a highly decentralized manner in order to solve problems and accomplish other goals. The OSOSS structure is neither an instructional design theory (such as those described by Reigeluth, 1999) nor an application or Internet protocol (such as Netscape or HTTP). However, due to its distributed and highly decentralized nature, the authors feel that the OSOSS structure could prove as disruptive to traditional notions of online learning as Napster proved to traditional conceptions of the Internet.

The Peer 2 Peer University announced its second round of free and open online courses today, opening sign-ups for 14 courses dealing in subject areas ranging from Physics to Transformational Art. Some of the courses were offered in the first phase of the pilot which launched last September, but seven are brand new.

Conducting professional development by email can be an effective way to reach busy teachers, tailor the content to their needs, and provide an authentic context for learning.

Sixth-grade students are relatively successful with online reading assignments, but previewing and providing them with strategies for online reading improve their comprehension.

A short presentation which introduces screencasting recording the actions and movements performed on a computer screen. Screencasts can be used to demonstrate how to use a particular piece of software website or to demonstrate a concept using the computer screen much like a classroom blackboard The recorded videos can then be shared on the web so that anyone can access your lesson The presentation offers tips for starting with screencasts some examples of excellent screencasts available on the web suggests two software options for recording screen movements on Windows operating systems and offers some options for sharing the resulting video on the web

This article reviews current best practices of online learning and teaching. Considerations to the following topics are discussed: What does it take to excel in the online environment? ; How are multiple intelligences utilized in the online classroom? How can learning objectives bet met by using best practices in online learning? How are the art of teaching and the act of learning online reflect the practices at the University of Illinois Springfield. The implications of online learning and its practical application to connect students with teachers through a global venue are explored.

Use this template to guide you through designing an online learning resource. It will help you clarify what media you may use, who is creating the content for you OER and to identify the the permissions you need to gain to use this content.