What a fantastic group of faculty we have in this workshop! You are all keeping up and showing great progress in your course shells. This module is about communication. It is easy to take for granted the amount of information we share with students in the traditional classroom. Those before and after class conversations, the discussions that evolve during class and the details we normally provide about special projects and assignments. The same information must be shared in the online classroom. We will specifically address the crucial information students need to get started in an online course and talk about several communication tools.

Let's not forget about the importance of adding your personality to the online course. We talked about several ways you can use multimedia tools to reflect your personality in the second group meeting. What appeals to you? A simple html page such as Notes from Dr.....? A weekly blog such as the Designovations? A quick video using your webcam? A podcast using the Wimba Podcaster tool? A green screen video? Watch the design workshop for the next green screen recording date in January.

Merry Christmas!

Additional Communication Tools

Voice Thread for educators: http://ed.voicethread.com/

UCO Broncho Blogs: Quick Guide http://www.uco.edu/technology/trc/guides/blogs-wikis/Blogs-Quick%20Guide.pdf

Blogger (free) http://www.blogger.com/

Twitter (free) http://www.twitter.com/

pbWorks (free and paid) http://www.pbworks.com/

Social Media/Networks
• Ning (free) http://www.ning.com/
• Facebook (free) http://www.facebook.com/
• Delicious social bookmarking (free) http://www.delicious.com/
• Flicker (free) http://www.flicker.com/
• MindMeister-Mind Map (free) http://www.mindmeister.com/

Video Sharing
• Youtube EDU (free) http://www.youtube.com/edu
• Teacher Tube (free) http://www.teachertube.com/

Share, share, share

I spent an hour or so revisiting your posts for the transformative discussion and notes from the first group meeting several weeks ago. There are some very interesting ideas for creative assignments involving role play, ethical behavior and cultures. I also read about graded discussions that will be designed to motivate the learner to do more than merely contribute and reflective assignments that will encourage students to personalize the learning experience and think critically about applicable learning theories. Within this group, there is a great interest in a number of new web-based tools and most importantly, a shared desire among everyone to “try” something new.

With such excitement, I don’t want to slow down the enthusiasm. In fact, I encourage you to continue sharing ideas, plans and resources using the Wiki. The third activity will take you to the Wiki where you will post online resources for your online course. Let your passion for teaching become contagious and share, share, share!

One final thought, take a moment to look at the calendar. We have nine weeks left in the eLearning Course Design Workshop. That is not much time left when you think about all the work yet to do. I encourage you to manage your time well. Identify the number of lessons to write, assignments to create, exams to setup, discussions to prepare, etc. and give each task a due date. Remember to contact us when you have problems or questions. We are here to help YOU.

You are doing a great job!
Tracy