Online courses directory (23)

This course is designed to encourage educators to develop new creative habits that foster personal learning networks, content creation, and innovative learning practices that embrace curiosity, failure and reflection. Each week a new creative habit is explored through the examination and understanding of one’s own relationship to creativity. The goal of this class will be to increase awareness of personal creativity, to encourage new learning connections in an online environment, to enhance self- expression, and to increase confidence in the use of digital tools through project based activities. Participants are encouraged to share and interact to facilitate a connectivist attitude, get feedback from their peers, and to forge meaningful and personalized ideas about what living a creative life is all about. Educators will be encouraged to tap into their own creative potential while drawing on the synergy created by participating in a creative learning community. Join us in exploring the power and richness of creativity in our lives. Our hope is that participants will not only draw new meaning and strength from this process, but in turn will provide active and empowering contributions in their own learning communities.

The New York Times said 2012 was "the year of the MOOC" and EDUCAUSE said MOOCs have �the potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community.� Many elite universities are offering Massive Open Online Courses, but most colleges and educators are unsure about what MOOCs are and if they are worthwhile. Can an "open" course offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who receive no institutional credit be a worthwhile venture for a college? And can a course be effective if participants and course materials are distributed across the Web? In this class, we will briefly cover the history and development of MOOCs. Participants will engage in discussions about why institutions offer these courses, and the possible benefits to both schools and students. This four-week course will examine MOOCs from four perspectives: as a designer building a course, as an instructor, as a student, and as an institution offering and supporting a course.

Do you have a dream for an online course you have been meaning to develop? If you can dream it, you can build it! The goal of this course is help you look at the course design process from a different perspective using a backwards design approach to address your specific disciplinary needs. This 8-week course is designed for instructors, graduate students, and instructional designers regardless of their level of online teaching experience. Students will be guided through a practical process of designing online instruction or redesigning current instruction. You will design the structure of an online course, build active and engaging teaching and learning activities, and learn strategies for developing online community. The content of this course will include learning how to write measurable objectives, designing teaching and learning activities, and facilitating online community and evaluating your online course.

Ready to explore web-based tools to ignite student engagement in your K-12 classroom? This course examines various web tools and teaches the basics for integrating them into the classroom. Each week we will explore different instructional methods and utilize emerging technology tools to develop presentations, posters, binders, stories, and scavenger hunts. We will investigate the uses and good practices for both teacher-led and student-driven activities through the use of free web-based tools like Prezi, Animoto, Glogster, and many more.

Ready to explore Web-based tools to ignite student engagement in your K-12 classroom? This course examines various Web tools, reasons for using these tools in the classroom, and encourages you to experiment with the tools. Each week we will explore different instructional methods and utilize emerging technology to develop presentations, posters, organization tools, stories, and scavenger hunts. We will investigate uses and good practices for both teacher-led and student-driven activities through the use of free Web-based tools like Prezi, Wordle, Padlet, Voki, and more!

Project-based lab course on advanced skills and strategies for integrating technology into the PreK-16 classroom. Optional credit offered.

Gamification is the integration of game elements into a non-game setting

Students want to know their instructor. This challenges online faculty to integrate technologies, such as avatars, video, and social media, to introduce their digital personalities and enhance learners’ experiences. This is called “humanizing,” which, according to DuCharme-Hansen, Dupin-Bryant, 2005 “reduces the psychological distance between the students and the instructor.” As online learning initiatives continue to expand, so does the need to leverage new learning technology to ensure students feel connected and engaged with the instructor and the course material. Course Objectives: Learn how to integrate educational technology tools into an online course with an emphasis on technology that can create an instructor presence or increase personal interaction. Share insights and suggestions about how to “humanize” online courses by maximizing the use of flexible educational technology tools. Demonstrate how technology-facilitated interactions can make instructors and learners more "real" online and how this correlates with student learning and retention. DuCharme-Hanson, R. and Dupin-Bryant, P. (2005). Course Planning for Online Adult Learners. Tech Trends March/April 49 (2), 31-39.

Are you an educator? Double your impact by taking advantage of both the classroom and online environments. Explore methods to effectively combine the two formats and build a class community that engages students and supports active learning in any subject area. For educators both new and experienced. To receive a certificate of completion from the instructor the students must complete one of two options for the final project.

Introduction to Openness in Education provides a broad overview of the ways in which openness impacts many areas of education

This course will provide a generally non-technical introduction to learning analytics and how they are being deployed in various contexts in the education field. Additionally, the tools and methods, ethics and privacy, and systemic impact of analytics will be explored, presenting a broad overview of the current state and possible future directions of the field. Capturing and analyzing data has changed how decisions are made and resources are allocated in the fields of business, journalism, government, military, and intelligence. Through better use of data, leaders are able to plan and enact strategies with greater clarity and confidence. Data is a value point that drives increased organizational efficiency and a competitive advantage. Analytics provide new insight and actionable intelligence. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Amazon are investing heavily in technologies and techniques to help individuals and organizations make sense of and unlock the value within big data. In education, the use of data and analytics to improve learning is referred to as learning analytics. Software companies, researchers, educators, and university leaders are starting to recognize the value of data in improving not only teaching and learning, but the entire education industry. The growth of online learning and open online courses generates new sources of data for researchers and educators to better understand the learning experience.

Why do so many schools use letter grades? Where did they come from? What do they tell us and fail to tell us about the learners? What is the relationship between letter grades, student learning, and assessment? This six-week course will allow participants to carefully consider the history, benefits, limitations, and alternatives to using letter grades in learning environments. It will include reflection about the role of formative and summative assessment, strategies for leveraging technology for assessment, as well as exploration of authentic and alternative assessments. Other topics will include peer assessment, badges, self-assessment, and a variety of feedback sources in learning environments. As a way to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, participants will experiment with different forms of assessment and examine a variety of real world examples of learning organizations that do not use letter grades. This course is designed for individuals who aspire to work in a variety of learning organizations. Prior knowledge about curriculum development and designing lessons or learning experiences is helpful, but not required. Students will have an opportunity to earn digital badges in this course.

How do you transfer a face-to-face course to online without turning it into a correspondence course? Participants will explore online teaching in the very environment that their future students will be experiencing. Participants will understand online learning processes, how to promote interactive work and critical thinking, re-design learning activities, effectively manage the online classroom, and assess the online student

In spite of growing interest in analytics in education, most states / provinces / countries have not yet developed a systemic approach to learning analytics. Small-scale analytics projects in learning settings are helpful in advancing learning research, but do not provide the value of a systemic and strategic focus. Many interventions, such as alert systems, recommender systems, or student success systems, require cross-departmental and system-wide approaches. This online learning analytics symposium (#LAS13) will review how various institutions and regions around the world are planning and preparing for integrated and systems-wide learning analytics deployment.

College instructors who have ever thought of creating a book should rush to sign up for this no-tuition course. In less than 24 hours, spread over a few weeks, they can learn the pros and cons of peer reviews, how to write and publish a book while teaching a full load, and how to have a book on the shelves -- or better yet on iPhones -- in less than a month. Students in the course will create a book and be exposed to industry leaders and great depth of materials at a fraction of their retail costs. Our expert, Mitchell Levy, is recognized on LinkedIn as the first thought leader architect in the world. As an entrepreneur, publisher, author, and trainer, he’ll bring a number of perspectives to this topic and will facilitate two fun, interactive sessions each week with guests and examples. This course is sponsored by SoftChalk, AcademicPub, and Open Doors Group. Required materials: Title: Rapid Book Publishing by THiNKaha Publisher: AcademicPub Ordering Link: http://www.academicpub.com/rapidbookpublishing.html Ebook $47.95. This book will expire one year from date of purchase and will be accessible for an additional year after that date. Black and White Softcover: $69.71 Color SoftCover: $114.75

In this course, we will actively explore a powerful framework, Reading Apprenticeship©—described in the book, Reading for Understanding. Through video clips, readings and practice, this course provides snapshots of a proven approach to helping readers use and master a set of powerful literacy tools that will help them enjoy and understand high-quality, complex texts in and beyond school. This course is for: - Educators interested in deepening literacy with innovative, proven strategies - Teachers (K-16) supporting readers in any content area - Administrators, curriculum specialists, and teacher leaders looking for literacy professional learning that will support their schools in meeting Common Core State Standards Learn more about the Reading Apprenticeship at WestEd

This course covers the major legal issues facing academic administrators with regard to today's college students. Topics include: admissions; financial aid; student activities; intercollegiate athletics, academic standing, probation, and dismissal; alcohol and drugs; student-to-student harassment, discrimination, hazing, and violence; physical, mental, and learning disabilities; privacy rights; intellectual property matters, including music downloading, file sharing, and related copyright concerns. Required materials: Handbook for Student Law for Higher Education Administrators 2d ed., by James Ottavio Castagnera Paperback and hardback editions available from Amazon. Approximate cost: $40 There is no ebook available for this text.

Are you a life long learner? Do you like comic books? Do you think it would be interesting to discuss social issues using comic books as a lens? Are you an educator looking for different methods to present your material? If so, this course is for you! From the creator of Gender Through Comic Books (aka the SuperMOOC), this six month course will examine current social issues through comic books while understanding how popular culture is shaped by it's surroundings. We will read a variety of comic books including Scalped, Daredevil, Swamp Thing, and many more. While reading these books we will examine topics such as social inequality, the environment, government intervention, addiction, and information privacy. Using lectures, live interviews with academics and comic book professionals, discussion boards, and readings, we will learn about social issues and how they are presented in comic books and the impact that those books have had on the issues whether large or small scale. This will be more than a class - it's a formation of a community.

In this course we will explore more than 300 digital tools used to teach English as a second or foreign language. After an introduction to task-based learning, participants will have the opportunity to evaluate a wealth of Web-based and non Web-based digital tools, design digital tasks, explore authentic assessment tasks, and develop task-based lesson plans and a digital task-based syllabus. Due to the collaborative nature of this course, participants will be expected to contribute to the list of digital tools discussed throughout the course. By the end of the course, students will be highly aware of the wide range of digital tools available and will have a deep resource bank of digital-tasks to choose from when developing task-based lessons within their own language courses. Students should be interested in implementing task-based language teaching and digital tools in their language classrooms.

Join us on an exploration to uncover new technology tools to connect your classroom and students to the Common Core. Plug in with other teachers in this six-week course where you will use technology to communicate and collaborate with students and colleagues. Each week you'll experience new technology tools and explore ways these tools can support Common Core standards and help you plan and create engaging student activities. A course certificate may be earned for completing assignment tasks.