News from e-Learning companies
Channel:
Khan Academy: MCAT Video Competition
Over the past 6 months we’ve added a significant amount of content, including over 150 medical and health videos, but we want to do more. We are now collaborating with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Association of American Medical Colleges (those are the folks that put together the MCAT® exam) to find new medical content creators. (See the press announcement here). Together with RWJF and the AAMC, we will sponsor a competition to encourage medical students and residents to create educational tutorials (i.e. collections of videos, questions, and articles) about concepts that will be tested by the new version of the MCAT exam, which will be administered in 2015. Announced last year, the revised MCAT exam will include concepts from psychology and sociology that provide the foundation for learning about the human and social components of health. It also will include biochemistry concepts for the first time, along with the biology, chemistry, and physics content includ…
Saylor.org: Course o
Curious about European exploration, and the cultures of Native Americans? Then look no further: our iTunes U course of the week is HIST 321: Comparative New Worlds. By the end of this course, you’ll have read many primary source documents, teaching you how “fledgling settlements” became strong European colonies and the era of new settlement impacted [...]…
Learning Solutions Magazine: Nuts and Bolts: Design Assessments First by Jane Bozarth
The matter of assessment is one of the most consistent problems I see with instructional design. The disconnect between workplace performance, course performance objectives, assessment, and content is a huge contributor to learner failure.” Here’s a simple way to fix that disconnect.
Khan Academy: Sign up your class!
Teachers, you are now able to create accounts for students of any age! For students under 13, you will need to get parent permission for them to use the site. You can download our sample permission slip to send home with your students. To add your students, visit Coach > Manage Students and click the green “Add new students” button. This opens the form for inviting students by their email addresses: If your students do not have email addresses (or you don’t have them handy), choose “create Khan Academy accounts for them.” Next, you’ll create a username and password for your first student and enter their birthdate. If they are under 13, you need to include their parent’s email address: You’ll receive a confirmation and then you can create your next student’s account. As soon as you’ve created the account, your student can start using it — so you can create accounts for your whole class one…
Udacity: Why I Love Working at Udacity
When I tell people I’m a user researcher, the response is often “hu, what’s that?” Not surprising given that my field is still relatively new. So what is a user researcher? Basically, my job is to conduct various forms of research to make sure Udacity offers a superb experience that exceeds student expectations. I report into our design team and work collaboratively with all departments at the company. A fun aspect of my job is spending time getting to know our students: understanding how and why they use Udacity, what they like about the Udacity experience, and what we can do to make Udacity even better for them. Last week I had a particularly awesome and inspiring day talking to students who attended two Udacity-sponsored meetups. At the Statistics 95 meetup I met a math teacher taking the course to refresh her statistics knowledge and brainstorm best practices in teaching statistics. She brought her two granddaughters with her and spoke passionately about…
Saylor.org: MMD: Open Sesame?
Good Morning and Happy Monday! As we enter the month of April, here at Saylor, we look at the world of open access. Some changes have occurred as to what one can easily access in the world of open education. edX, a journal’s editorial board, and others have taken a stand on what they believe [...]…
Udemy: YouTube For Business: Top Ten Strategies & Best Practices
YouTube is where the eyeballs are. In fact YouTube is now where over a billion sets of eyeballs are every single month. The vast majority of those eyeballs belong to what Google & Nielsen are now calling the ‘C Generation’. The C Generation is supposedly a state of mind and is representative of those that ‘care deeply about creation, curation, connection and community.’ Generation C is made up of 80% millennials which also happen to be YouTube’s core audience. YouTube... Continue reading »…
Learning Solutions Magazine: Accessible Online Courses: Techniques and Tips by Jenny Hill
Online courses open up a wealth of possibilities for many learners. Ensuring the accessibility of courses, including accessibility for users with physical or sensory challenges, takes advantage of eLearning’s flexibility and maximizes the potential of the learning experience. Here are five tips that show you how to remove barriers from your content.
: Do Teaching Online & Face-to-Face Classes Require Different Skills?
Can a teacher use the same teaching techniques in a face-to-face and an online course? According to a study conducted by Park, Johnson, Vath, Kubitskey, & Fishman (2013) on Examining the Roles of the Facilitator in Online and Face-to-Face Professional Development Contexts (Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 21(2), 225-245), teachers need to cater to individual learners more online than face-to-face.… Read the rest…
: Teaching Online vs. Face-to-Face Classes
What skills do teachers need to teach online? Does professional development at your college look like this? Notice the teacher presenting is on the screen teaching at a distance while a technical person and coordinator for the faculty training sits at the front of the class.… Read the rest…
: Skills Teaching Online vs. Face-to-Face Classes
What skills do teachers need to teach online? Does professional development at your college look like this? Notice the teacher presenting is on the screen teaching at a distance using WizIQ live online class, while a technical person and coordinator for the faculty training is sitting at the front of the class.… Read the rest…
Coursera: One of Coursera's Most Highly Anticipated Courses Is Finally Here!
Never before have so many Coursera Team members all enrolled for the same course… until now. We are so thrilled to introduce to you a new course from world-renowned anthropologist, Phineas Dunne. It is called Underwater Basketweaving. In this course, you will learn to weave beautiful, structurally superior wet-weave baskets in the ancient Aquacamamata style. Underwater basket weaving is a craft that seamlessly merges scientific intellectualism, manual dexterity, and deep spiritual engagement. We look forward to having you with us on this exciting journey into art and anthropology! This course will consist of short lecture and demonstration videos, between 8 and 10 minutes in length, short quizzes, and practical weaving exercises. Course officially starts soon. Make sure you sign up and tell your friends, as this course is surely one of the most highly anticipated courses we have ever had. The first 1000 students may be chosen to participate in a real life research proj…
Udemy: How to Promote Your Music: 5 Marketing Lessons for Upcoming Music Producers
I made every textbook mistake when I first started marketing and promoting my tracks, which is why I believe I am much more effective at it now. I have adopted the motto “good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment.“ We need to learn from doing, by trial-and-error. If I can help you avoid some of my first-timer mistakes, it would be a great success. Here are some lessons on how to promote your music. Because it’s... Continue reading »…
Saylor.org: March Miscellany: 17 Resources (Or So) for Those in The Know
Here are some of the better links that landed on my desk over the past month. If you’re hungry for more, you can explore past OER newsletters or take a look at our Resources and Tools features. If you liked this page, share it! And, of course, if you know of something I missed, do [...]…
Coursera: The 1 Year MOOC BA Experiment: Degree of Freedom
Editor’s note: Jonathan Haber is a Courserian who is taking classes for 12 months on Coursera to experiment with a project of his called “Degree of Freedom”. He will be guest blogging on our site throughout this next year to keep us up-to-date on his progress! Greetings fellow Courserians! Like you, I am enjoying the thrill of learning new things from some of the world’s best professors for free. But, unlike you, I may be taking more courses than would generally be considered healthy. You see, I decided earlier this year to try my own experiment within the greater MOOC experiment and find out if it’s possible to learn as much as I’d get out of a four year liberal arts degree in just twelve months using entirely free learning tools like Coursera. At my Degree of Freedom web site, I’ve been writing about the experience in order to help students, teachers, educational technology providers, and policy makers understand what works and what still…
Udacity: Guatemalan Guests at HTML5 Study Group
There’s been a lot of buzz around our weekly HTML5 study group, where course instructors Peter Lubbers, Colt McAnis and Sean Bennett are on hand to review the latest lesson and talk through questions submitted by students. We have a good time - dinner (thanks, Google!), chatting with classmates, and of course, talking about game development and HTML5, all add up to a great evening. With Peter, Colt, and Sean at the HTML5 study group! This past Monday, we had surprise guests - two students from Guatemala, Dennis and Edwin, flew into San Francisco on a school break to attend the study group in person!Meet Dennis and Edwin: Dennis is an engineer and also teaches information security and programming at Mariano Galvez University in Guatemala. Edwin will graduate in two weeks from Galileo University with a degree in Engineering, and will begin working as a developer. With Sean at Udacity's office! Dennis and Edwin, thanks for visiting! This surprise visit i…
Udemy: How to Use Social Media: Five Ways Teenagers (and Adults) Can Start Thinking Big Picture
Last week I was invited to speak to three classes at South East High School in South Los Angeles, California. A month earlier I’d filmed my Udemy presentation How to Win Friends and Influence People on Social Media in a classroom at the school, and a few teachers who had caught some of the content thought their students would value hearing my somewhat maverick perspective about it in person. I was very excited, not only because I had never spoken... Continue reading »…
Saylor.org: Educator Snapshot: Kelly Gordon, M.S. Chemistry
Hello Kelly, thanks for taking the time to let us and our readers get to know you! We’ll get started with our first question (it’s an easy one): What have you been up to with the Saylor Foundation? I have worked as a peer reviewer and also as a consulting professor to complete several peer review [...]…
Udemy: Business Wisdom: What can AC/DC and Lady Gaga teach you about business, strategy and social media?
What can you learn about creativity and innovation from The Beatles and David Bowie? What can Spinal Tap, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin teach you that an MBA cannot? What can Britney Spears and The Kaiser Chiefs teach you about enterprise? These are just some of the questions I examine in the new book and online learning programme “The Music of Business”, acclaimed by Harvey Goldsmith, the man behind Live Aid. The book offers a carefully crafted cocktail of business... Continue reading »…
Saylor.org: Response to Michael Cusumano
This post is by Sarah Foregger, Ph.D., a consultant for the Saylor Foundation in the Communication discipline. Dr. Foregger taught for several years at the University of San Diego and has worked in consulting since 2012. By Sarah Foregger, Ph.D. “We need not fear that democratizing knowledge will cheapen its worth.” In an article published [...]…