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Learning Solutions Magazine: Nuts and Bolts: We Need New Words by Jane Bozarth
We need new words. They might have to be neologisms, or even sniglets, but we are doing many things these days in ways that we never did them before, and so there are no words for them. Jane reflects on three such instances. Can you supply the words?
Saylor.org: MMD: Mixed Emotions in Ed. Tech.
Good Morning and happy Monday! This week we see mixed emotions showing up across the world. From the UK to San Jose, CA, to the U.S. government, people are voicing their opinions. These voices are of both optimism and pessimism, uneasiness, and acceptance and rejection. We begin today with a little bit of optimism. Juan [...]…
Learning Solutions Magazine: Mobile Learning Supports Global Health by Inge de Waard
Mobile technology for healthcare delivery and support—mHealth—is growing rapidly, and mLearning is an important part of it. In fact, this area offers great opportunity for those who can create mHealth applications, including training, education, and performance support for healthcare providers and their clients. Here is an overview of this increasingly important field.
Coursera: On The Topic of Boredom
Editor’s Note: Pamela Fox is Coursera’s Lead Student Team Engineer. A few weeks ago, my colleague Julia Stiglitz and I gave a talk at the GSummit conference about motivation and accomplishment in the online classroom. We looked at the problems that students face, and what we can do to make it better for them. One problem - that anyone who’s ever been a student or teacher in any setting probably knows - is that of boredom. When I was a student in grade school and got bored, I’d daydream or doodle and wait until something exciting happened or class ended. Now, if I’m a student in an online classroom and get bored, I simply “walk with my fingers” over to my next browser tab, and start browsing Reddit or Facebook or any one of those websites that I really should block forever. Eventually I realize I completely missed the lecture and have to re-watch it later, if that ever happens. The topic of boredom is present in classrooms, regardl…
: Seven Super Idea Generators For Speaking Practice in the Virtual Classroom
1) An image paints a thousand lessons…. Online teaching presents us with lots of exciting ways to practice fluency development with our students. Multi-media and the visual arts lend themselves perfectly to learning English online. We must make the most of what technology has to offer by brain-storming and experimenting with colleagues and students.… Read the rest…
: Teacher Appreciation Week on WizIQ
Teacher Appreciation You are invited to join Teacher appreciation week on WizIQ for 5 days and throughout the year. Teacher appreciation days are important times for teachers, schools, students, parents, and communities around the globe. The dates of the celebrations may differ from country to country.… Read the rest…
: Q&A with Prof. Bhanushe, Creator of the Award Winning Webinars
Professor Mandar Lakshmikant Bhanushe , Assistant Professor-cum-Assistant Director, at the Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) of University of Mumbai’s (MU), recently received the Indian Education Award 2013 for his online course in Mathematics in the Best Webinar Series category, recognizing his efforts to make learning more easily accessible to the distance learning students.… Read the rest…
Udemy: How to Make a Map Today
Global Distribution of Earthquakes Since the 1970s Think about this – the words we use, the images we see, the multimedia we consume are all metaphors for reality. We have the real world and then there are approximations of that world. Words are metaphors for our thoughts. Images and video are metaphors of people, places, things, events. We have the real and we have those things that re-present or represent the real. The map is a metaphor of reality. The... Continue reading »…
Udacity: Coffee Break!
Welcome to the first edition of Udacity’s Coffee Break show! Hey Udacians, today we want to talk about something serious. Seriously awesome, that is. You see -- sometimes life at the office just overflows with incidental awesomeness. There is *just* so much behind-the-scenes fun, so many amazing student stories, and so many insightful comments from industry experts that we want to share with you! So, since we’re problem solvers -- and let’s face it, this is a great problem to have -- we decided to create a weekly Udacity Coffee Break to share all the tangential goodness that we see here at Udacity. It’ll never be the same thing twice, so make sure you stay tuned for exclusives on anything from course bloopers to interviews with top employers. Our inaugural post features Molly, one of the creators of the Stanford Women in CS outreach program. Listen to Molly talk about her first experiences in programming! As always, the Udacian community is what makes this…
Saylor.org: Release: A change in leadership, a new addition, and commitment to innovate
Yesterday afternoon, we officially announced the change in status for former Foundation Director Alana Harrington, who will now lead our Advisory Board. We also welcomed about Lou Pugliese as Saylor Fellow and Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Lou has serious technology chops (see the release for details), and is going to help us not only stay on course but [...]…
: How to use WizIQ to Teach Web Design to your Students
Here is how you can use the WizIQ virtual classroom to teach your students how to make their own website on Weebly. In my last post, I talked about my political and philosophical ideas about why web site creation is so important, and why you would want them to do this.… Read the rest…
Udacity: Interactive 3D Graphics Contest Update
You know the feeling of discovering a new way to experience the world? Remember the moment when, as a child, you discovered a secret ingredient to bring an experience to a whole new level? Did you ever dubiously add salt to your chocolate milk, take a sip, and realize that there was a whole new dimension to your chocolate-milking? That’s right, people. A whole new dimension. Your chocolate milk experience went from 2D to 3D. What else can bring you to a whole new dimension? Check out Udacity’s Interactive 3D Graphics course, where you can learn to make an animated 3D demo program that runs in a web browser. Eric Haines, co-author of Real-Time Rendering, joins forces with Udacity to walk you through the basic principles of interactive 3D rendering. Another fun dimension of our course is our two-part contest! The deadline for submitting entries to the first part of the contest was yesterday, and we already see many beautiful drinking birds, scenery and robots populating…
Saylor.org: Staff Snapshot: Casey Holmes, Athlete/ Dog Lover
Good afternoon! Next up in our series of Staff Snapshots, we catch-up with our Recruiting Coordinator, Casey Holmes! Hello, Casey! Hi there. So why don’t you start with telling us a little bit about yourself? Sure thing. I grew up in Darnestown, Maryland (population 6,500) on what used to be a farm (despite this, my [...]…
Coursera: The Anatomy of a Verified Certificate & Shareable Course Records
Many Courserians have been asking about how Verified Certificates and shareable course records work. We hope this helps! Verified Certificates 1: Recognition from a world renowned institution Verified Certificates are a currency for your lifelong learning achievements. With Verified Certificates, you receive official recognition from world renowned institution for successfully completing a course on Coursera. A Verified Certificates can enhance anyone’s lifelong education. You can use them to: • Build your qualifications and prove yourself in something new • List on your resume or CV and along with applications • Share your accomplishment with colleagues and friends on your personal page or social media pages • Reward yourself for your commitment to your course Remember that a Verified Certificate does not include credit towards a degree, nor does it make you a student at the respective university. It does however prove you’ve mastered the mat…
Udacity: HTML5 Game Development Contest Winners
Udacians, congratulations, you ruined productivity at the office. We already spend a lot of time being impressed by your sheer awesomeness. And lately, we spend a lot of time playing the games you created in our HTML5 Game Development course. Let’s just say, we’re going to have to play a little bit more before we get these games out of our systems. Drumroll, please.... Introducing the HTML5 Game Development Contest winners! Huge thanks to all of you who created your own games and cheered your fellow students on in the forums! Sean (Udacity Course Architect extraordinaire and one of the instructors for HTML5) weighs in with his comments on the winning entries: Best Overall Game Foxes and Shotguns by Florian, who will make a cameo in a Udacity course and get another TBD prize as he is unable to make it to I/O. Foxes and Shotguns is a remarkably simple game, which is where a lot of its appeal lies. We knew this was the winner when the Udacity office basically shut…
Udemy: How YouTube Helped John Purcell Become a Udemy Bestseller
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk here on the Udemy blog about YouTube…and for good reason. When it comes to promotional channels for your Udemy courses, you have a couple types: 1) Ad Hoc tactics that lead to quick wins 2) Long-term tactics that lead to long tail sales To further clarify, an example of an ad hoc, quick win tactic is the Reddit strategy—where past instructors posted a one-time notice about their courses and attracted hundreds of students... Continue reading »…
Udacity: Summer School 2.0 with San Jose State University and Udacity
Calling all students! What are you doing this summer? Working on your tan or working on your programming, math and psych skills? If you’re stressing about choosing one option or the other, read on to learn how you can have the best of both worlds when you sign up for Udacity’s online summer classes! If you’ve been debating whether you want to sign up for summer classes, we’ve got something that will tip the scales in favor of credit -- actually, we’ve got FIVE things that will tip the scales in favor of summer school and college credit! Come learn with Udacity and San Jose State University as we present these five summer courses: Intro to Programming (4 units) - Learn basic skills and concepts of computer programming in an object-oriented approach using Java. Intro to Psychology (3 units) - Take a journey through all of the major psychological concepts and principles. Elementary Statistics (3 units) - Describe and interpret data to make…
Saylor.org: WA State Open Course Library Completed: Confirmed Savings
In a press release (pdf) issued yesterday, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) announced the completion of the second group of the 81 highest-enrollment college courses. Available as open education resources (OER), these courses and their constituent materials are built for re-use and sharing, in and out of the classroom. Indeed, the Saylor [...]…
Saylor.org: Four MOOCs to Rule Them All?
A recent graphic (‘Major Players in the MOOC Universe‘, pictured) from the Chronicle of Higher Education has caused a small stir, mainly by those who feel left out (*cough, cough*). Some others, though, took umbrage at the inclusion of Khan Academy as a “MOOC”. A glance at the comments reveals at least a few raised eyebrows in [...]…
Learning Solutions Magazine: Book Review: Better Beginnings, by Carmen Taran by Richard Butler
No matter what kind of eLearning you are developing, one of your goals is to engage and hold onto the learners. Before you can do that, you have to capture them—get their minds engaged. According to Carmen Taran, you have about 30 seconds to do this, and here is a review of the book in which she shows you the techniques that will do just that.