Welcome to an interview with Bryce Bertola, of Park City Independent, an accredited online high school which provides online courses to students who wish to take courses not offered by their local high school. It also offers middle school courses and courses for adults who would like to complete their high school diploma rather than obtaining a GED. One of the benefits of having a bona fide high

I am coordinating a series of events in collaboration with the TLT Group, a non-profit group of higher education faculty, staff, and administrators exploring opportunities for using new technologies to improve teaching and learning. The series will be anchored around my eBook, How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread.  The events will include one webinar that will be free and open to the public followed by a series of deeper dive experiences designed to engage participants in group dialogue and reflection about the eBook's narrative which is designed to support an individual's pedagogical growth, experimentation and development. Learning Out Loud Webinar Fri, Sept 19th 11am-12pm PT/2pm-3pm ET(this event is free and open to the public)This 60-minute webinar will be interactive and provide opportunities for Q&A. It is intended for VoiceThread beginners who are seeking to learn more about the unique benefits that VoiceThread brings to the college teaching experience. I will draw largely upon my own teaching experiences and share findings from an ongoing study about how learning out loud is impacting my community college learners. Click here to registerBook Discussion & VoiceThread How-To SeriesThurs, Sept 18th through Wed, October 15th(this series is open to members of the TLT Group)This series will include: 3 synchronous events (2 how-to VoiceThread webinars with TLT staff and one online conversation with me).A complimentary copy of my eBook. An opportunity to apply your new VoiceThreading skills in a TLT VoiceThread group (a minimum of a free VoiceThread account is required).  Group members will have access to a series of VoiceThreads that I've designed to support a reflective conversation about the eBook chapters, as well as provide opportunity to actively apply some of the skills demonstrated in the eBook.Click here for more details about this series (times noted on this site are Eastern).Click here to learn more about becoming a TLT Group member.After Oct 15thContinue the learning in the VoiceThread Google+ Community.  Stay tuned! I hope to organize a Hangout on Air to showcase some of the recent innovations occurring in the VoiceThread higher education community. If you have a creative teaching use of VoiceThread you'd like to share with me, please let me know!

Packt Publishing's Moodle 2.0 Multimedia Cookbook solves a number of problems that Moodle users often encounter, especially online programs (graduate and undergraduate) that foreground collaborative, interactive learning environments. The multimedia cookbook addresses two core challenges. The first challenge is that of creating relevent, effective, nicely-sized and ready-to-use multimedia. The

by mcdarius CC-BY-NCLiquid content refers to web content that is highly shared - where the desire for sharing is driven by contagious or 'viral ideas' within the content. OK, ok. Maybe a college course syllabus won't become viral (for good reasons) but what if a course syllabus could transform into a content experience that students really wanted to look at and engage with, as opposed to resource we dictated they "must read." Are we at the tipping point for this to happen?Back in 2011, I wrote a post titled "Time for an Extreme Syllabus Make-Over?" In that post I explore the importance and value of the course syllabus to both instructors and students, ideas I still support. I also explored the value of communicating with students more visually than faculty generally do in higher education. This argument was contextualized in a brief reference to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and mentioned the general shift toward the visual digital media context our students toggle in and out of as they move between their formal (i.e. in Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, Canvas, etc.) and informal (in the open web -- YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.) environments. That dichotomy remains -- if anything, visual content has become more central to an individual's informal learning as the ownership of smartphones has accelerated in recent years.I've been reflecting a lot lately on this notion of the 21st century syllabus (and chuckling to myself that I would even use such a phrase). Three years ago, I found a visually compelling PDF to be cutting edge. Today, with so many students accessing content from smartphones, is a PDF the best format for a syllabus? I think not.  The syllabus should be a resource that could be easily accessed and bookmarked on a phone, not locked inside an LMS, and a resource that does not need to be downloaded. I receive a notification in my email each time someone downloads the "Educator's Guide to a 21st Century Syllabus" that I shared back in 2011. And each time I receive one of those notifications, I am torn -- part of me wants to take that resource down, as I think it needs some serious updating, but I also feel it is helpful to faculty who may not be ready to leave the PDF format all together.This is where digital media can really become transformative for a resource like a syllabus.    Here is my grand vision. Imagine with me. What if your syllabi were beautiful? What if they were a pleasure for students to engage with? What if they provided opportunities to not only understand and access policies, expectations, schedules and such, but for our students to meet us?  What if the syllabus became a site where former students could share voices (stories, feedback, words of encouragement) with future students? Isn't THIS what our goal should be as we move into this amazing landscape of mobile, digital media?What if these syllabi were all open websites, as opposed to documents secured inside a Learning Management System, as so many are? Thiw would encourage sharing of ideas amongst faculty and students could bookmark them on their smartphones and refer to them frequently, on the go.But beyond that, they could be linked to pre-registration experiences for learners. Why do students need to wait until after they register for a class to review a course syllabus? This has always made me scratch my head. Imagine if the registration process was truly student-centered and students could not only review the course syllabus but also experience a video from each instructor and any other creative resources designed into that syllabus.Now we're talking.Now you may be thinking, "I don't know how to make a syllabus like that" or "faculty at my institution aren't that tech savvy."  Well, you are wrong -- and I hope you take that as a challenge. In the past year, many micro-publishing tools have emerged that facilitate simple creation of beautiful, captivating single-page websites.  They are perfect for making a liquid syllabus.  In past blog posts, I've referenced Populr, Smore, and Tackk -- and all three of them make great tools for creating beautiful, mobile-friendly course syllabi (or digital flyers that link to course syllabi)!Below are a few examples of syllabi for you to explore that have been created with these micro-publishing tools.  I encourage you to view them on both a web browser and your mobile device, an important experiment for testing the value of new tools in our mobile learning society.Populr.meOffers a robust ad-free account for educators, although you would never know it based upon the design and organization of their site. Populr.me offers institutional accounts too, which could be incredible transformational for faculty across the board, as the upgraded options included blocks of content that can be customized and updated from single point and pushed out into templates across the institution. While I have not used this type of account, I imagine this being a pathway towards supporting faculty syllabus creation by establishing a template with institutional policies plugged in, saving the faculty time and creating more consistency in the student experience overall.  Of course there are many other uses too like faculty pages, faculty training offerings, events, committee meeting notes, and more. How are you using Populr.me?       Populr.me Syllabus Examples: History of Still Photography by me, Mt. San Jacinto College. I am happy to share the clone link for this syllabus with anyone who contacts me directly through my blog. :)  You'll notice that I, personally, choose to include a PDF at the bottom of my Populr.me syllabus so students who prefer the option to also print the resource have that option.English 102: Stretch Composition I - created by Stacey Anderson of CSU Channel IslandsHow to Humanize Your Online Class - created by me for CSU Channel IslandsHow to Design Your Online Course - created by me for CSU Channel IslandsDesigning Engaging Online Activities - created by me for CSU Channel Islands TackkTackk is my newest find and we are becoming very happy together. I'm using Tack to create Unit Overviews for my online class (which I write about here and plan to blog more about soon).  Tackk does not have options for creating multiple columns but the user experience is lovely -- very simple and the content is beautiful. Each Tackk also has the option to include a stream at the bottom to which viewers may comment. Tackks can be embedded (adjust the height and width provided to make it larger and fit well in your LMS) and even when embedded, the videos play great on my iPhone and iPad (which I can't say about the same YouTube videos I embed directly into Blackboard...sigh). Customizable URLs are also built right in, which is nice!       Tackk Syllabus Example:English 116: Critical Thinking & Composition by Tracy Schaelen of Southwestern College. SmoreI have not actively used Smore so it's tough for me to comment on its features. Smore offers educator accounts for $59/year and details are available here.In the limited use I have with it, it seems to have fewer layout options than Populr.me (which can be limiting for syllabus creation). Smore is marketed as a tool for creating digital"flyers." It is simple to use and the content you create is beautiful. Analytics are also included.How are you using Smore?         Smore Syllabus Example:  Disabilities in Society by Jill Leafstedt at CSU Channel Islands. (I should note that this is an old syllabus of Jill's. After learning about Populr.me she made the move and started using it for her syllabus.

Incorporating media in an online course is extremely useful, whether it be for a film / literature course, or a course (undergraduate or graduate) that uses movies, television, and other media to illustrate aspects of the content (leadership, business ethics, and history come to mind).In this post, we look at film and consider it as a part of the OpenPlan series for teaching different topics,

 As some of you know, I am completing my EdD in Educational Leadership and Management at Capella University.  My dissertation research study will explore how eBooks provided as a faculty support resource impact faculty perceptions about teaching with VoiceThread.You are eligible to participate in this study if you:are a part-time or full-time higher education faculty member in the United Stateshave a VoiceThread account (free account, individual higher educator account, department license, or site license)over the age of 18 (the previous age limit has been eliminated) Participants do not need to be actively teaching with VoiceThread, nor do they need expertise with the use of VoiceThread.For more information about how to review the full risks and benefits of participating in this study and to sign up, please click the link below:http://page.teachingwithoutwalls.com/capella-recruitmentI am happy to assist with any questions you may have. My contact information is on the website linked above or you may contact me directly through my blog using the "Contact Michelle" form on the right side.Michelle Pacansky-Brock

The iPad is becoming increasingly friendly for any time / any place learning, ranging from K-12 to graduate programs. Welcome to an interview with Dr. Allen Partridge, the eLearning Evangelist for Adobe Systems, who discusses some of the new technologies that make it possible to convert different formats to play on the iPad, including HTML5 and HTML5-enabled Captivate.1. What is your name

podcast / downloadable mp3E-Learning Queen is delighted to offer an OpenPlan Film Criticism Collaboration Paper example and template / tool. This OpenPlan offering is designed to help overcome some of the problems that accompany online collaborations. For example, lack of motivation and confusion with course procedures can cause online collaborations to fall flat. However, with wikis and other

Welcome to an interview with Joe Landsberger, who has put together extensive online study guides and study tools to meet the needs of students everywhere. While courses can be relatively easy to find and OpenCourseWare more prevalent, it is often difficult to find effective study tools, particularly in different languages. Joe Landsberger:For the past 16 years, I have researched and authored

Tomorrow, I will be making two presentations to two very different audiences. One is a free webinar I'm doing for the TLT Group (register here) -- the audience will be primarily college instructors and instructional designers. Another is for the California Community College Online Education Initiative -- the audience will be a diverse group of stakeholders collecting input about the important characteristics for a statewide LMS for California Community Colleges (for classes that are offered through OEI initative).Both of these presentations will incorporate my experiences and my students' experiences with using VoiceThread as an asynchronous discussion tool since 2007.  "Experiences" is the key word here. This is not about a tool. It's about how teaching with a tool not typically found within an LMS toolkit can create a learning environment that impacts the student learning experience differently.  It's about the importance of relationships and affective learning in an online environment.  It's about the power of the human voice when a person is trying to figure out a new idea or delivering feedback. It's about supporting and inspiring students to be vulnerable.  It's about what gets lost if online instructors rely only on the LMS toolkit.  It's about how LTI integration with web-based tools saves faculty time (and money) and lowers the barrier of adoption of emerging technologies by providing embeds with a click, secure activities, grading from the gradebook, and automatically generated student accounts (with a single sign on), and the ability for students to generate their own creations that can be shared with a public audience (or secure to just the class registrants). Below is a presentation you may review that provides the current (through Spring 2014) results of four consecutive semesters of anonymous online student surveys about how using asynchronous voice/video conversations impacts their experiences.As I reflect on these findings, I am left with one question: Are we doing it wrong?  What are your takeaways? To be clear about my relationship with VoiceThread, I am a college instructor and instructional technologist who has taught online and face-to-face with VoiceThread since 2007.  I supports faculty with the effective pedagogical application of the tool. The community college at which I teach has a sitewide license with LTI integration of VoiceThread into Blackboard and so does the university where I work as an instructional technologist. In the past, I was a paid higher education consultant for VoiceThread (to develop a higher ed webinar series) from 2012-2013.  In 2013, I authored a self-published eBook with compensation from the last months of consultancy at VoiceThread.  This eBook is available at no cost to VoiceThread site license holders and it is available for sale or rent to the general public. I receive royalties from the sales of the eBook.  I am a doctoral student working with VoiceThread as my research site to explore how the use of an eBook as a faculty support resource for a web 2.0 tool impacts faculty perceptions about the tool. Currently, I receive no income from VoiceThread.