Categories
Fundamentals of the Web and Distance Learning
Online Teaching: Theory and Practice
Creating a Syllabus
Instructional Design and Learning Styles
Course Management Systems and Conferencing Tools
Other Software Applications: Products, Information, and Sample UsesM
Educational Resources on the Web Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues Professional Development


Fundamentals of the Web and Distance Learning

Distance Education Clearinghouse.
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/definition.html
Offers definitions of distance learning and links to other distance education resources.

Learn the Net.com.
http://www.learnthenet.com
A good site for learning the basics of web navigation, how to download files, and much more.

Webmonkey.
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/
Offers a "How-to Library" with sections on authoring of web material, design, multimedia, and more, as well as feature articles and reference guides.
[back to top]


Online Teaching: Theory and Practice

Beaudin, Bart. "Keeping Online Asynchronous Discussions on Topic." Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 3, no. 2 (November 1999).
http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol3_issue2/beaudin.htm
This article presents results of research into techniques used by instructors in managing asynchronous online discussion.

Boettcher, Judith. "Cyber Course Size: Pedagogy and Politics." Syllabus Magazine 12, no. 8 (April 1999).
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/apr99_magfea2.html
Boettcher, of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN), discusses the question of class size in online courses.

Cotton, Eileen Giuffre. The Online Classroom: Teaching with the Internet, 4th ed.
Bloomington, IN: Grayson Bernard Publishers, 1998.
An excellent book for K-12 educators.

French, Deanie, et al. Internet Based Learning: An Introduction and Framework for Higher Education and Business. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 1999.
Aimed at both educators and trainers.

Grabe, Mark, and Cindy Grabe. Integrating the Internet for Meaningful Learning.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
A fine introduction to strategies and resources, aimed at K-12 educators.

Greatest Hits Discussions.
http://online.usu.edu/openhouse/greatest/greatesthits.html
Sample asynchronous discussions from a Utah State University instructional technology course, "Online Chats and Discussions in Education," demonstrate a moderator's use of different approaches and strategies.

A Guide to Online Teaching and Learning Activities.
http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/eddesign/resources/onlinelearning/guide/index.html
Romana Pospisal of Murdoch University in Australia offers this useful guide.

Institute for Higher Education Policy. Quality on the Line: Benchmarks for Success in Internet-Based Distance Education.
Washington, DC, April 2000.
http://www.ihep.com/quality.pdf
A study on what makes a successful online education program.

Khan, Badrul, ed. Web-Based Instruction.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, 1997.
A collection of writings on various aspects of web-based instruction.

Learner's Corner and Instructor's Corner.
http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/learning/index.html and http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/pract/index.html
These resource pages from the Canadian Office of Learning Technologies offer glossaries, directories, and various guides to support technology in education.

O'Bannon, Deborah, Jill Scott, Margaret S. Gunderson, and James Noble. "Integrating Laboratories into Online Distance Education Courses." The Technology Source: Case Studies, January/February 2000.
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/cases/2000-01a.asp
A short article about the challenges of providing hands-on lab activities in online courses.

Palloff, Rena, and Keith Pratt. Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Emphasis on strategies for creating a sense of community among online learners.

Scaling Up Class Size in Web Courses.
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~jmorris/resources/ScalingUp2.html
Joan Morris from the University of Central Florida offers strategies for handling workload in online courses.

Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology.
http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching/
A resource site, sponsored by the University of Maryland and Bell Atlantic, offering case studies and examples of the use of web-based media (including web pages, audio, video, and animation) in different teaching approaches and learning activities.

Winiecki, Donald J. "Keeping the Thread: Adapting Conversational Practice to Help Distance Students and Instructors Manage Discussions in an Asynchronous Learning Network." DEOSNEWS 9, no. 2 (1999).
http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deos/deosnews/deosnews9_2.asp
Winiecki compares the patterns of face-to-face and online asynchronous conversations and suggests some strategies for more effective communication.
[back to top]


Creating a Syllabus

Faculty Orientation Online Syllabus Checklist.
http://online.valencia.cc.fl.us/Faculty/VOfacultysyllabuscheck.htm
Valencia Community College's guidelines for online course syllabi.

The Online Course Syllabus.
http://ollie.dcccd.edu/Faculty/InfoForFaculty/DistrictResources/secure/olsyll2.hm
A syllabus template offered by Dallas TeleCollege of the Dallas County Community College District for the district's distance learning "telecourses."

Syllabus.
http://oit.idbsu.edu/fp/syllabus.htm
Skip Knox at Boise State University Computing Services offers guidelines on the basic elements of an online syllabus and tips on how to use an online syllabus for a face-to-face class.
[back to top]


Instructional Design and Learning Styles

Address Diverse Learning Styles.
http://depts.washington.edu/catalyst/method/learning_styles.html
One of the Method Guides from the University of Washington's Catalyst resource site, this page offers a number of useful suggestions.

Addressing Diverse Learning Styles Through the Use of Multimedia.
http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/resources/montgomery.html
A paper by Susan Montgomery, University of Michigan, based on the use of multimedia in an engineering class.

An Anonymous Asynchronous Web-Based Role Play.
http://www.bus.uts.edu.au/fin/staff/markf/roleplay/rp_outline.html
Description of an innovative role-playing activity at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, plus a link to a paper by Mark Freeman and John Capper about this experience.

DVC Learning Style Survey for College.
http://silcon.com/~scmiller/lsweb/dvclearn.htm
Prepared by Suzanne Miller of Diablo Valley College in California, this site explains various learning styles and offers a survey to determine your preferred learning style.

Instructional Design for Online Course Development.
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/IONresources/instructdesign.html
From the Illinois Online Network, this page explores topics related to instructional design and development of online courses. The information is presented in clear and easy-to-read fashion for nonspecialists.

Instructional Design Models.
http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/idmodels.html
Martin Ryder at the School of Education of the University of Colorado at Denver offers this collection of links organized according to different models or theories of instructional design.

Instructional Innovation Network.
http://bestpractice.net/
At this site sponsored by Arizona State and Cal Poly Pomona, follow the links to the Cooperative Learning Homepage and the Case Study Homepage, which contain explanations of each method, along with teaching materials and resources. Linked articles explain the difference between group projects and true cooperative learning.

Learning Styles and the Online Environment.
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/IONresources/learningstyles.html
This Illinois Online site offers a short explanation of learning styles and a collection of links to other resources on the subject.

Teaching and Learning Styles That Facilitate Online Learning.
http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lsrsc/one/natproj/tal/index.htm
The Australian National Training Authority sponsors this site on designing online courses with diverse learning approaches in mind.
[back to top]


Course Management Systems and Conferencing Tools

Anlon: Products and Services.
http://www.anlon.com/products/
Links to descriptions of Anlon's IntraKal course management tool.

Blackboard CourseInfo.
http://company.blackboard.com/courseinfo/ or http://product.blackboard.net/courseinfo/
Details on Blackboard CourseInfo software.

Centrinity Products.
http://www.softarc.com/products
The entry page for information about FirstClass software.

ClassPoint Product Information.
http://www.wpine.com/products/ClassPoint/
White Pine Software's web-based video system.

Conferencing Software for the Web.
http://thinkofit.com/webconf/
David Woolley's annotated lists of conferencing software, including both free and commercial varieties.

Convene.com.
http://www.convene.com/
Convene's online distance education program.

eCollege.com.
http://www.ecollege.com/
The home page for eCollege's varied products and services.

Embanet Corporation.
http://www.embanet.com/
The home page for Embanet's tools for online learning.

HyperNews.org.
http://www.hypernews.org/
Offers a free system for discussion forums.

IntraLearn.
http://www.intralearn.com/
Information about IntraLearn's software platform for online learning.

LearningSpace Website Homepage.
http://www.lotus.com/products/learnspace.nsf/wdocs/homepage/
Introduction to LearningSpace's "distributed learning environment."

MadDuck Technologies.
http://www.wcbinfo.com/ or http://www.madduck.com/
MadDuck, manufacturer of the popular Web Course in a Box software, announced its acquisition by Blackboard in March 2000; these sites offer information about developments in the product line.

NetMeeting Home.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/
Information about Microsoft Windows NetMeeting conferencing software.

Nicenet's Internet Classroom Assistant.
http://www.nicenet.org/
A free course management tool.

Online Educational Delivery Applications: A Web Tool for Comparative Analysis.
http://www.ctt.bc.ca/landonline/
Bruce Landon's site designed "to help educators evaluate and select online delivery software"; offers reviews, comparisons, and links to the major providers of course management software.

Rotor Learning Systems.
http://www.rotorcom.com/
Rotor Learning is one of the firms experimenting with synchronous courseware.

Virtual-U.
http://virtual-u.cs.sfu.ca/vuweb/
The entry point for descriptions of the Virtual-U software and research project.

WBT.
http://www.wbtsystems.com/
Information about TopClass software.

Web Based Learning Resources Library.
http://www.outreach.utk.edu/weblearning/
Maintained by Robert Jackson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, this site contains information on many types of web educational resources. See especially the sections on "Asynchronous Web Based Software Suites" and "Synchronous (Real-Time) Web Based Training Solutions."

WebBoard.
http://webboard.oreilly.com/
Overview and demonstration of the WebBoard software.

WebCT.com.
http://www.webct.com/
Home page for information about WebCT's course management software.
[back to top]


Other Software Applications: Products, Information, and Sample Uses

Adobe.
http://www.adobe.com/
Links to information about Adobe's many well-known products, including Acrobat, Acrobat Reader (a free download), Photoshop, and PageMill.

Animation Projects.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/animation.html
This page by Ed Stephan, offering a sampling of his animations, is an inspiring demonstration of what can be done with animation software.

Email Discussion Groups/Lists and Resources.
http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html
A useful page designed to be a one-stop information resource about mailing lists (listservs).

A Guide to the Educational Use of Multimedia.
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/oli/celt/edtech/multimedia/mmintro.ht
Charles Sturt University in Australia offers this guide to interactive, computer-based multimedia, including principles of design and evaluation.

Interface Design.
http://www.csu.edu.au/division/oli/celt/edtech/interface/interfac.htm#top
Tom Lawson of Charles Sturt University, Australia, provides an introduction to interface design comprised of three parts: "Interface Design and Human-Computer Interaction," "Web-Site Design," and "Web-Page Design."

LView Pro Home Page.
http://www.lview.com/
A useful and relatively inexpensive image-editing program.

Macromedia.
http://www.macromedia.com/
Home page for the manufacturer of Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Flash, Shockwave, Director, and other popular software products.

Paint Shop Pro.
http://www.jasc.com/psp.html
The image-editing product from Jasc Software.

Ulead Systems.
http://www.ulead.com/
Home page for the company that makes Ulead SmartSaver, a useful image-compression tool.

Web Page Composers

FrontPage.
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/
Microsoft's web page composing tool.

Netscape Composer.
http://www.netscape.com/
Composer is a useful composing tool included in the Communicator web browser; a free download is available.

Sound

Labtec.
http://www.labtec.com/
A manufacturer of computer microphones and other peripheral equipment.

RealProducer.
http://www.real.com/ or http://www.realnetworks.com/products/
Access to information about the RealProducer software for streaming audio.

Narrated Slide shows

PhotoPoint.
http://www.photopoint.com/
A web hosting service for slide shows and graphics.

PowerPoint.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/
Microsoft software that can be used for narrated slide shows.

QuickTime.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
Apple's well-known software for narrated slide shows, video, music, and other types of multimedia presentations.

RealSlideshow and RealPresenter.
http://www.real.com/ or http://www.realnetworks.com/products/
These sites will lead you to information about RealNetworks' software for slide shows.

Quizmaking

Hot Potatoes Homepage.
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
A useful, free suite of software for creating web-based quizzes and exercises.

University of Hawaii QuizCenter.
http://www.motted.hawaii.edu/
Provides quiz-making features as well as lists and reviews of quiz software.
[back to top]


Educational Resources on the Web

AudioOnDemand.
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/
The World Radio Network provides "on demand" audio programs from radio stations all over the world.

EcEdWeb: Economic Education Web.
http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/home.htm
Links to resources and lesson plans for incorporating web resources on economics and related topics.

Educational Object Economy.
http://www.eoe.org/
Follow the links to the EOE Learning Community and then to Learning Objects and the educational Java applet library.

E-Learning Communities.
http://www.webct.com/global/home/
WebCT's education portal has faculty-led resource sites in different subject areas. Good source for evaluated, high-quality web resources as well as book reviews.

The ImageBase, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
http://www.thinker.org/fam/thinker.html
A searchable collection of art.

Internet Scout Project.
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/index.html
An annotated and continually updated site reporting on selected educational web resources.

National Archives Online Exhibit Hall.
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/exhibits.html

The National Geographic Map Machine.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/

ZoneZero.
http://www.zonezero.com/
A bilingual (Spanish and English) site dedicated to contemporary photography.

News and Magazine Sources

The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/

The Internet Public Library: Online Newspapers.
http://www.ipl.org/reading/news/
A searchable resource that offers links to news sources worldwide, by country and language.

Maclean's Online.
http://www.macleans.ca/index.stm

The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/

Salon.
http://www.salon.com/

Sources for Information on Technology

The Chronicle of Higher Education.
http://www.chronicle.com/
A weekly journal replete with articles and job listings for instructors. Distance learning resources are accessible to nonsubscribers.

CIT Infobits.
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/infobits.html
A monthly e-mailed newsletter dealing with news and developments in technology and education; edited by Carolyn Kotlas at the University of North Carolina.

CNET.
http://www.cnet.com/
An excellent site for news of technology developments, reviews, and downloads of popular software.

CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/
A good source for daily articles dealing with business and technology.

Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/
Offers regular features dealing with distance learning and instructional technology, with past issues available to nonsubscribers.

The TLT Group.
http://www.tltgroup.org/
Affiliated with the American Association for Higher Education, this site offers resources, news, and the AAHESGIT listserv, used by instructors worldwide.

Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com/
This popular portal and directory offers quick links to a multitude of news and media sources pertaining to computers and the Internet.

Guides to Web Search and Evaluation

Advanced Web Searching.
http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/articles/web/advance.cfm
Kenton Good of the University of Alberta explains how to get the most out of using a web search engine.

Evaluating Web Resources.
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval.htm
Jan Alexander and Marsha Ann Tate at Widener University's Wolfgram Library offer checklists for evaluating sites and teaching modules on related subjects.

Search Engines.
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/ionpointers/ionpointers.html
From Illinois Online Network's "Pointers and Clickers" technology tips (October 1999), a succinct explanation of the differences among different types of search engines.

Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources.
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/web/critical.htm
Esther Grassian of UCLA College Library provides a checklist of questions to ask in evaluating a web site.

Webhound.
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/webhound/index.html
This Maricopa Community Colleges site offers tutorials on web searching skills, as well as links to other guides and tutorials. See especially the link to "What a Site!" (http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/show/what/index.html), which focuses on how instructors can find and integrate web resources into student activities.

Computer-Based Simulations

Coglab, Purdue University.
http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/
Cognitive psychology demonstrations, designed mostly for specific classes. To see demonstrations, use guest as the user ID and password. (Note that, with guest access, you cannot save data on the server.)

The Java Gas Turbine Simulator.
http://memslab.eng.utoledo.edu/~jreed/jgts/JavaGasTurbineSimulator.html
The University of Toledo College of Engineering offers a gas turbine simulator that students can manipulate.

Solar System Simulator.
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/
Sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), this simulator allows one to view parts of the solar system.

Virtual Chemistry.
http://neon.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/default.html
Research students in the department of chemistry at the University of Oxford maintain this site, which features online interactive experiments. Access is free.
[back to top]


Copyright and Intellectual Property Issues

About.com.
http://www.about.com/
At this popular portal, a search for "password protection" will lead you to resources on the subject.

Copyright Clearance Center.
http://www.copyright.com/
One of several online services that will help you find a copyright owner and secure permission to use material.

Copyright Considerations.
http://twist.lib.uiowa.edu/resources/fairuse/index.html
Sponsored by the University of Iowa, this is a well-thought-out selection of links dealing with various issues of copyright, fair use, and intellectual property.

Distance Learning: Intellectual Property.
http://distancelearn.about.com/education/distancelearn/msubip.htm
Kristin Hirst's unique compilation of links to sites dealing with various issues of intellectual property.

The UT System Crash Course in Copyright.
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm
Provided by the University of Texas, this is another well-designed and comprehensible site dealing with copyright and intellectual property. The "crash course" is extremely useful.

Webmonkey.
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/
Search for "password protection" to find useful information about the subject.
[back to top]


Professional Development

ALN Web.
http://www.aln.org/
The web site for the Sloan Foundation's Asynchronous Learning Networks provides links to discussions, workshops, and magazines of interest to online educators.

DEOS Listserv Archives.
http://www.wested.org/tie/dlrn/dlsearch.html
DEOS-L is a popular listserv for distance educators. This archive allows you to search through recent and past archives of messages.

Discussion Logs for EDTECH.
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lm =EDTECH
EDTECH is one of the lists of the H-Net mailing list discussion network. This site contains a log of its discussions.

Distance Education Resources.
http://cuda.teleeducation.nb.ca/distanceed/liste.cfm
A site sponsored by TeleEducation NB of Canada. See the sections on Professional Development, Networking, Online Discussions, and other topics of interest.

League for Innovation in the Community College.
http://www.league.org/welcome.htm
Offers a searchable database for descriptions of the League's presentations and contact information for presenters.

The Node Learning Technologies Network.
http://thenode.org/
The Node offers articles on technology in education and provides various types of online forums (some of them open to anyone and some not), as well as archives and summaries of past forums.

Office of Learning Technologies.
http://olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/
The entry point for a useful site sponsored by the Canadian government, offering a wealth of information for instructors and learners as well as a listserv database.

Tapped In.
http://www.tappedin.org/
A mostly synchronous (real-time) forum for K-12 educators, especially those with an interest in technology and education.

Selected Training Programs for Online Teaching

California State University, Hayward, Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning.
http://www.online.csuhayward.edu/Certificate/onclass1.htm

Illinois Online Network, MVCR Online Training Series.
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/mvcr.html
A series of online courses, primarily for Illinois Online Network members, but now open for those outside the state as well. MVCR stands for "Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality."

Nova Southeastern University, Graduate Teacher Education, Online Teaching and Learning Series.
http://www.fcae.nova.edu/gtep/online/OCI500501502.htm

UCLA Extension, Online Teaching Program.
http://www.onlinelearning.net/CommunitiesofStudy/neighborhoods.cfm?NB=OTP

Walden Institute, Certified Online Instructor Program.
http://www.waldeninstitute.com/coi/community/COIprog/coiprog.html

Sample Orientation Programs and Guides

DIAL program, New School University.
http://www.dialnsa.edu/stdsrv5a.htm

George Mason University's WebCT Resource Page.
http://www.irc.gmu.edu/WebCT/default.asp

Illinois Online's WebBoard Tutorial.
http://illinois.online.uillinois.edu/online/webboardtutorial/starthere.htm

IntraKal.
http://www.anlon.com/techsupport/
An instruction manual can be downloaded.

OnlineLearning.net.
http://www.onlinelearning.net/
Choose the tab for "How Online Learning Works."

SUNY Learning Network.
http://sln1.esc.edu/admin/sln/original.nsf
Follow the link for "Getting Started."

University of Central Florida.
http://reach.ucf.edu/~coursdev/learning/orient/

Web Course in a Box.
http://www.madduck.com/
As of this writing, the Web Course in a Box orientation documents were available from this site; however, changes may occur in the wake of the company's announced merger with Blackboard.

WebCT Student Guide.
http://www.webct.com/v2/guide/
[back to top]