Sloan-C: Humanizing your online course

I recently did a webinar for the Sloan Consortium (in partnership with Academic Partnerships). I'm not necessarily a pro-MOOC person, but I thought that the description of a program that was being offered was really interesting and right up my alley as far as how technology can be used to make learning more personal instead of simply more efficient.

The session was titled "Human Element: Tools for humanizing your online course." I basically gave an overview of Explain Everything to as an example of the types of media authoring tools that are now much more ubiquitous. I then shared some use case examples of the app and how it gives students a different type of voice or way to communicate their understanding. I also quickly shared some findings from my recently completed research project on screencasting and formative assessment.

I definitely was not trying to say that Explain Everything is going to change the world or make online instruction better. Instead, my intent was to share ideas for how student articulation of learning (and teacher's ongoing assessment) has many more entry points than it did even 4 or 5 years ago. Instructors who conduct online courses can look to emerging tools to bridge distance and time and make the relationship between an online instructor and his or her students more personal (and human), and not simply just settle the relationship being a manageable one that gets everyone through a semester.

Link is here: http://sloanconsortium.org/webinar_recordings — it is a bit of a process to download/update Java and then if you have a Mac you have to install some separate app, but once you get it all sorted out....enjoy!