Resources, tips and more for remote and e-learning (teaching online)

Resources, tips and more for remote and e-learning (teaching online)
(I will be updating this daily with new resources)

Many teachers and schools have resources for blended learning and even for students who are home or hospital bound to "attend" class. With the COVID-19 concerns, many schools are looking at ways to support more students and staff who may be quarantined at home or ways to keep learning going if school buildings are closed.

There are a variety of resources and edtech available to help. Here is a good list of resources and tips for setting up and supporting online/e-learning/remote learning. Scroll through it.





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Google Course Builder - create your own online courses

Google Course Builder is a new resource from Google that allows you to create your own online courses. Google used it to create their Power Searching with Google online course. It has all of the software and instructions for creating an online course. Your course can contain lesson materials, student activities, and assessments. There are also instructions for integrating other Google products into your course.

The course builder does require some knowledge of HTML and JavaScript, but you can learn that online too. The site has tons of resources to help you build your course and they have Google Hangouts to help you with experts you can ask for help. The instructions are well written and step-by-step and there are checklists and timeframes to help.

This could be a great way for teachers, or schools/districts, to build their own online courses.

MIT to Offer Certificates to Students taking free online courses

MIT is one of many schools that offers free online courses. They are launching MITx, an e-learning program that will offer certificates to students who have mastered the course material. It will not be an MIT certificate, but rather one from a new organization. There will be a modest sum to receive the certificate.

This is just another way schools are reaching out and trying to get more students to take their online courses. Usually, there is no certificate or acknowledgement that you took the course.

Read more here: http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/mit_to_offer_certificates.html

Stanford Launching 14 Free Online Courses in January/February

Free online courses from universities seem to be a growing trend. I posted last school year about Einztein, a site that helps you find free online courses, and I just learned that Stanford University is offering 14 free online courses starting next month. (thanks to Open Culture for the info). Major universities, including Yale and MIT, offer online courses or course materials for free. These are great resources for students and educators.

Each of Stanford's 14 free online courses will include quizzes, discussion groups with instructors, video clips and feedback. The courses start in January and February and you can enroll now.

Here is a list of the 14 courses (from Open Culture's article):

Technology Entrepreneurship
Making Green Buildings
Anatomy
Information Theory
Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
The Lean Launchpad
Cryptography
Computer Science 101
Software Engineering for SaaS
Human Computer Intereaction
Natural Language Processing
Game Theory
Probabilistic Graphical Models
Machine Learning

If I wasn't already in my second Master's Degree program, I'd be tempted to take one of these, probably Computer Science 101. I haven't taken a CS class since college in 1988-1992 and that was Pascal and Basic. I've been teaching myself HTML and am self taught in a lot of areas of computers, but a formal course might be nice. 

Academic Earth - find free online courses

Academic Earth is a site similar to Einztein. It is a collection of links to free online courses from a variety of schools and web sites.

You can search for courses by subject, university, or instructor. Subjects include Astronomy, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Math, Physics, Psychology and much more. Universities include Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Princeton, Yale and more.

This is a good resource for finding courses for yourself, brushing up on material, or having students use it as a supplemental classroom resource.

Einztein - find free online courses and materials

Einztein is a great site that provides a listing of free online courses from around the world. The courses include text, audio, video and multimedia. The courses are all recommended by the team based on the quality of the course. They don't host the courses or create them, just link them in a searchable database and allow for comments and suggestions.

The catalog is searchable and includes courses from Stanford University, the British Museum, Cornell, Duke, MIT and many more. You can search by topic and even filter by course provider and media type. There are recommendations and reviews of the courses and even some suggestions for related courses.

They are working on expanding Einztein to have more of a "social network" feel and incorporate more suggestions, comments, and even allow people to work together and get help for the courses.

This could be great for teachers looking to expand their knowledge, to use in the classroom or to have students use it as extra help. I've viewed some of the material and it is very good.

Here are some examples of some of the courses:

HP Learning center - free classes

HP's (Hewlett Packard) Learning Center offers free, 24 hour available, online classes on software and technology.

Courses include: Photoshop, digital photography, Microsoft Office, website design, small business tips and technology, PC basics, maintenance, and security, graphic arts, and more.

Three courses I found interesting where "Technology and your elementary school/middle school/high school student"

I took a look at the one for high school students and it provides parents with information about technology that their high school student may be using and ways to keep them safe online.

Many of the courses are great for teachers and students.

Harvard WIDE World Online Classes

It is rare that I mention, let alone recommend, something that costs money, but this one is well worth it.

Harvard's Graduate School of Education has a great online program called WIDE World.

WIDE World offers online certificate courses for educators on topics ranging from Teaching for Understanding to Differentiation to Teaching with New Technologies.

They have courses of study, or you can take individual courses that you are interested in.

I have taken Teaching to Standards with New Technologies 1 and 2. I found the courses to be well designed and planned out. Each course had readings from books and web sites, online activities, research and assignments, and online discussions as part of the program. WIDE World emphasizes Understanding By Design and we used the UbD lesson format in our assignments.

There is a discounted fee for people who sign up as part of a group.

I recommend this program to my colleagues.

I would like to hear feedback from any readers who have taken courses through Harvard's WIDE World program.