Posts Tagged 'online'

The 2009 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that enrollment rose by nearly 17 percent from a year earlier.  The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities in the United States finds approximately 4.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2008, the most recent term for which figures are available.  According to the survey, both the bad economy and the flu were significant factors contributing to the increase.

Well, it has been a while, hasn’t it?  Again.  Apparently, I have had a busy fall …

I gave a presentation at the 8th Hawaii International Conference on Education a couple of days ago, and it was called “Putting a Face on E-Learning: A Strategy to Integrate Faculty Videos into YouTube, iTunes U and a Virtual Learning Environment.”  The primary focus of my talk was to help provide some “big picture” thoughts on how faculty can work with the rest of the university (administration, marketing, etc) to help ensure long-term success.  If you are interested, you can download my presentation here.

Well, it has been a long time since my last posting.  For a number of reasons.    However, I am pleased to say that there are nine world religion video summaries that are now available on iTunes U!   They are a part of the RELS201 Introduction to World Religions course that I teach at APUS.  I hope that you find them to be useful.

Just a quick posting today.  Did you know that there are about a zillion books that are freely available/downloadable online?  Of course you knew that.  But … did you know that over 30,000 of them are nicely categorized and searchable at Project Gutenberg?  Check it out, and also look at their list of the top 100 books.

Mixed in with all of the useless stuff on the Internet, there are occasionally some great resources.  And Covenant Theological Seminary’s Worldwide Classroom is definitely one of the good ones!  They provide FREE lecture manuscripts, study guides and mp3’s for twenty courses in spirituality, Biblical studies, theology, ministry, etc.  If you are looking to deepen and expand your Christian worldview, why don’t you take some time and explore the Worldwide Classroom.

Well, believe it or not, I am now on iTunes U!  Crazy.  As part of our ongoing e-learning initiatives at AMU, I have been creating and incorporating video summaries into some of my online classes.  Within the classes, the target group has been current students.  As a next step, the university is expanding its reach outside of its digital “walls”, and has now started to provide a selection of course videos as free podcasts through iTunes U.

So … if you are interested in watching some of my weekly Introduction to the Bible video summaries, you can subscribe to this video podcast.  Let me know what you think!

Are you looking for opportunities to learn more about online education, network with other instructors, or get some practical tips for improving your online teaching techniques?  If so, why don’t you attend a conference this year?

Go to eLearning Conferences: eLearning Technology for a comprehensive list of 2009 conferences.  Happy learning (and happy travelling)!

Well, after a lot of testing, crashing, uploading, fixing, more testing and more uploading (yeesh!), I now have a full set of course videos created for RELS311 Introduction to the Bible!  Some of them are classroom specific, but most are publicly available (and will also be available as podcasts on iTunes U).  If you are curious, I have posted the course introduction video below:

In addition, I have created a “Course Videos” page that will be periodically updated with new videos, etc.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to give me ideas for new course resources!

There is a recent article at EmailWire.com that states that the model of “distance education” is over 100 years old.  Which is true.  Unfortunately, however, the article also links modern online education with older distance education.  And that, in my opinion anyway, is a faulty comparison.

What is the difference, you ask?  Good question.  :-)  

Working in a field that is “cutting edge” (relatively speaking) such as online education, e-learning, etc can sometimes feel like playing with a double-edged sword.  Not that I have actually used such a sword in real-life (and I haven’t used a light sabre either, unfortunately).  But my point is this – in any field that is characterized by innovation and growth, it is sometimes tempting to use a “new tool” simply because it is there.  There is something cool about being one of the first to do something (eg, first to use YouTube, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc).  However, there is also a downside to leading the way – sometimes we choose tools, resources, etc that do not work out as advertised, partly because no one else has field-tested them yet.

So … to help you navigate this process, I recommend that you read this brief article called “Web 2.0 Selection Criteria: Save Time Choosing an Appropriate Tool“, that lists five specific criteria that are relevant to online education.  Also, go over to Go2Web20 and browse their list of resources – it is quite informative and helpful.

Have fun being innovative!