Here are a few quick tips to help you become an author in our new marketplace. We’ve seen your amazing wikis and know that other educators will find the hard work you’ve put into your teaching resources extremely valuable! Tip 1: Start with resources that have been successful with your students. A resource can be any collection of learning materials that support a unit or lesson, including activities, worksheets, lesson plans, assessments, books, presentations, games, homework, flashcards, rubrics, videos, songs, scripts, outlines, and more. The most compelling resources allow for differentiated instruction by including additional versions or questions tailored to engage diverse learners. Tip 2: Your wiki makes it easy to publish resources on TES. Apply the hard work you’ve already put into your wiki and double the reward. You can upload and publish the compelling learning materials you already have on your wiki as individual resources on TES. Tip 3: Organization is key. The first file of a resource should be an attractive title page. You’ll also want to include an introduction that gives an overview, table of contents, and explanation about implementing your resource in the classroom. Consistently label and order all files. Make your resources comprehensive by including everything needed to use them successfully (e.g., assessments alongside lesson plans). Tip 4: Include keywords, Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards in resource descriptions. Resource names should be immediately recognizable in a search result. Include keywords, phrases, grade levels, and subject areas that allow your audience to quickly identify the purpose and desired learning outcomes of your resource. Tip 5: Mind your formatting. Easy-to-read fonts are typically sans serif (e.g., Arial, Verdana) and larger than 14pt. If you’re including worksheets or handouts, provide ample white space for students to write answers. Make file formats editable, so other educators can customize resources for their classrooms. Use popular file formats that don’t require special software, such as: - Documents: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf - Images: .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp - Presentations: .ppt, .pptx, .pdf Tip 6: Stick to straightforward pricing. Simple resources (e.g., single lesson plans, worksheets, assessments) should generally be no more than $5, and more complex resources (e.g., booklets, videos, combinations of materials) may earn a higher price, up to $10. Consider customized pricing over $10 for only very complex resources (e.g., entire units, sets of activities). Tip 7: Respect any and all copyrights. For all content included in each resource, you must either be the copyright owner, receive permission from the copyright owner, or ensure that the content is covered under fair use or other applicable laws. The United States Copyright Office provides a detailed FAQ. You can also learn more about copyright for educators here. Find free materials on The Edublogger. Tip 8: Do a final check before hitting upload. Make sure your thumbnails are visually appealing and files are correctly ordered, including the title page. Check spelling, tags, and formatting. Include any attribution and copyright information. For step-by-step instructions about how to use our uploader tool, watch this brief video. Tip 9: Build your brand with your wiki. By becoming an author on TES, you can market your wiki and resources in multiple ways. Once the marketplace is open to the public, you can supplement your wiki with links to your resources on TES. You can also add links to your wiki in your resources’ descriptions to strengthen your online presence and deepen engagement with other educators. For more info, review our FAQ. Also, feel free to reach out to our content team at help@tesforteachers.com; they’re dedicated to helping you succeed as an author.

As a teacher, you’d like to keep tabs on your students’ activity on your class wiki, whether to review their contributions or answer posted questions right away. You could hover over each student and watch his or her every move, but you’d waste a lot of time.  A much better (and less creepy) way of monitoring activity is to use the notifications and monitor features. They allow you to receive an email each time a specific wiki, page, or discussion is edited. No more peering over each students’ shoulders - let our notifications track their activity for you. How to create notifications for a wiki: 1. Navigate to the wiki you’d like to monitor. 2. Click the changes (recent changes) link to go to your wiki’s change log. 3. Click the notification button at the top-right corner of the change log area, and then click add. 4. Begin typing in your wiki’s name and choose it from the list of options. Hint: the wiki you are viewing will always be the first item on the list before you begin typing. 5. Choose the type of notifications you’d like to receive, and click update. By default, you’ll receive an email each time a wiki or page you’re monitoring is updated. If you prefer to receive a single email that summarizes all of the content changes you are monitoring, go to your user account settings (from your dashboard) and change the email monitored changes field to "Yes - one email per day."  

We’re excited to launch our new marketplace for teacher-generated content and resources, tes.com! With over 7.3 million users, TES is home to the largest online network of teachers worldwide. You can access classroom resources and strategies from experienced educators all around the world, as well as share your own. To celebrate, we’re hooking up five lucky teachers with $100 DonorsChoose.org gift cards every week from now through November. Click the link below to join TES, and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win! (Find full rules here.) Join now: www.tes.com As a member of TES, you’ll enjoy: 1. Entrepreneurial Freedom - You can choose to make your content available for free or for a set price. Check out 9 tips on how to become an author. 2. Recognition - You receive 100% of proceeds from all purchases by US teachers. 3. Massive Community - TES supports 7.3 million members worldwide, including 1.8 million US teachers, and welcomes between 20,000 and 30,000 new members each month globally. 4. Business Support - You can promote yourself and your content through the authors’ shop with a bio and links to social profiles, as well as your wiki. TES’ expert Content team offers personalized guidance to help you reach your entrepreneurial goals. Our marketplace offers thousands of free and paid resources for your next lesson. Next month, we’ll integrate unique virtual classroom technology from Blendspace to help you create and deliver digital lessons using resources from tes.com.  

Today technology is transforming the eLearning industry. It is changing and will continue to change the way we communicate with learners, the way we design courses, how we learn and teach. Therefore, eLearning professionals have to adapt and find new ways to meet changing times. Simply incorporating different tools to their current eLearning training strategy isn’t enough. eLearning professionals must understand and embrace the meaning and the implications of these changes in the eLearning development process. This is not an easy task because it not only means they have to change what they do, but how they think.

Stories have captivated us as a species since the dawn of man. Through stories, we have passed on traditions, remembered the past, and carried information across the millennia. 

In today’s market, eLearning professionals and trainers need a good working knowledge of design principles. This is not to imply that they need to understand code or acquire a design degree, rather they ought to be able to identify what makes a good course and what a bad. This guide details the fundamental principles every course developer must know including how to utilize techniques to help workflow and produce significant effects in eLearning design.

Reading content on the Internet has changed the way people process information, and nowhere is this change more obvious than in fields where design must adapt to new technology such as in eLearning. eLearning course creators need to refine their content to suit learners’ behavior and accessibility to training. This is where chunking comes into play.

There is a simple way to design effective eLearning courses about any subject: brain-based learning. This instructional approach was defined by Hileman in 2006 and has since inspired many "brain compatible designers" — those who seek to understand the principle and reasoning behind their teaching.

eLearning is a valuable tool in education. Whether the goal is training or professional development, even complete college degrees, eLearning is here and here to stay. This begs the question, how can we ensure that we maximize the potential of those who are engaged in eLearning? Certainly, if there is content we expect people to learn, we want that content to "stick" in their minds and to be something they can recall later. Personalizing learning, which must include making the eLearning more human, is one important way to maximize the potential from eLearning.

eLearning professionals need to raise the bar and reset their expectations if their learners are to consider courses worthwhile. The following ten points are things we have found successful eLearning professionals do differently. We hope they can help developers change their mindsets to create the best courses possible.