Using Video (Pt. 2) | FREE Online Video Repositories for Higher Education

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Do you know what OER is? OER stands for open educational resources which means that the resources are accessible to anyone and are completely free. I have been consulting in this space for awhile now and will write on this topic at a later time.

In this post, I'd like to continue the series on the "Use of Video in Online Courses" by sharing some great OER video repositories in education. These repositories contain loads of educational/instructional videos that you can use in your online courses.

Using Video (Pt. 1) | 5 Types of Video Assignments for Online Courses

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Over the past decade, the use of video has increasingly become a great option for creating engaging learning activities for students in all types of courses. The use of videos are prevalent in blended courses, self-paced courses and in online in higher education. Many instructional videos are now available in the public domain that can be used in online courses. Teachers also have the option of creating their own videos to use in their course assignments. Some of the most common questions I hear from teachers involve how to create compelling video-based assignments that will enhance their students' learning experience. Here's how I look at it:

Simple C.R.A.P. Test for Your Online Courses (POSTER)

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When creating online content and developing online course materials for your students, you should make sure that they follow good design principles.

The C.R.A.P. is a checklist that can help you gauge the visual impact that your material has on its audience. The acronym C.R.A.P. stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity for short. These are important design elements that should be considered when creating online content on your school's LMS, on your website or company's intranet. For details on each element and how it relates to your online content, read my previous article HERE.
So, when you are doing content development, make sure that all of your online course content passes the C.R.A.P. test. 

Click to download the poster.

A Simple C.R.A.P. Test for Your Online Courses

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Does your online course pass for C.R.A.P.?

In instructional design, it is important to design courses that visually pass the "sniff" test. The "sniff" test I'm referring to is the one that tests for contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity or C.R.A.P. for short. This started me thinking about the courses that I design and how they would pass the C.R.A.P. evaluation. Would they pass muster?  I have to delve a little deeper.

CHECK IT OUT: E-Learning Heroes

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https://community.articulate.com/

About E-Learning Heroes
 

E-learning Heroes is the online community portion Articulate's website. Articulate is an e-learning software company that has created successful content development products such as Storyline and Articulate.

The E-Learning Heroes website is run by community leader Tom Kuhlmann who has over 20 years of experience in the business and is just loaded with tips, tricks and best practices.

Who is E-Learning Heroes intended for?
  content developer, course designers (including teachers!), e-learning specialists, instructional designers


Why use E-Learning Heroes?
 

I subscribe to E-Learning Heroes to receive emails from Tom about new additions to the community library. The uploaded templates, images, and multimedia files are great. The other experiential comments shared by members of the community give insights into solving the problems that online content developers encounter almost daily.

4 Quick takeaways about E-Learning Heroes
 
* It is the community "arm" of one of the powerhouse software companies in the e-learning field.
* It contains invaluable tutorials, tips and best practices for content developers.
* The downloads such as images and templates on E-learning Heroes website are FREE.

* The community members are friendly, comment often and willing to share their experiences.

How to Choose a Cloud Storage Provider

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In the early days of my teaching career, I had an office, a desk full of lesson plans, a file cabinet full of textbooks, a computer and a printer.  Shortly after the Internet was introduced at my school, we received school email accounts. Later on, I found myself teaching faculty how to integrate technology in their classroom and so was given some storage space on the school's main network server.

Nowadays, teachers can use cloud storage over the Internet to store  lesson plans, online textbooks, media files and more. In order to get a cloud storage account, you will need to apply for one with a cloud storage provider.  Luckily, there are many cloud storage providers out there and the best news is that they are FREE!

3 Tools for Creating Online Course Activities

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Image: WikiMedia Commons

Oftentimes, teachers who develop courses online,
find it difficult to gauge WHAT and HOW MANY activities
they should include in their courses.

Many college-level teachers have no formal training in education or background in teaching. For instance, many adjunct teachers come from professional careers after many years and then start teaching online. It is assumed that they would automatically know how to design a course, develop course activities and deliver them in an engaging way to students. So, many teachers are left to figure out how to do this all on their own.

Creating an Instructor Toolbox in your LMS

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When teaching with technology, teachers have to act as subject matter experts, instructional designers and course developers all rolled into one person. Specifically, we not only have to know our subject, but we have to be able to effectively impart that subject to our students by creating a series of engaging and interesting course activities. While there are a variety of tools available out there to do this, the main tools for creating successful courses are the Internet and your school’s online learning management system or LMS.

At my current school, my online courses are developed in the Moodle LMS. Over the years, I’ve worked in many LMS environments and have found the need to create what I call an “instructor toolbox” in my courses.

Content Developers: Don’t Forget About Meta Search Engines

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 http://pixabay.com/en/google-www-online-search-search-485611/

As online content creators, we often use search engines to look for citations, information from articles, public domain images and general background material for the content we create. While we all use the most popular search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing, we should not forget about the meta search engines.

3 Ways to Make Your Online Content Stand Out

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 http://pixabay.com/en/pencils-colored-pencils-447481/

As teachers, we need to create content for our courses, talks, workshops and just for our own notes.  Making content stand out is not only about what you say but its about HOW you say it. Luckily, there are many different ways to express what you are trying to say.  So, consider the following strategies -

How to Use YouTube's Search Filters

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Image Credit: Pixabay 

YouTube is a great resource for teachers because there are videos on any subject to choose from. There are instructional videos, informational videos, documentaries and student-created material. This type of material can work for any class. I particularly like the video channels created by individuals and companies which primarily showcase videos on a particular topic.

Finding Instructional Videos for Your Classes

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Image Credit: Pixabay 
  

I teach college-level courses in computers, mathematics and business. When I'm teaching, there are many times when I might use a video to show my students how to solve problems. Videos are great because students can download them, follow along and take notes. For my classes, I often link students to already existing videos. Existing videos are a great option because sometimes, I just don't have the time to make them myself.

Using Google Advanced Search Page to Find Free Images

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Photo from Pixabay

As a teacher, I have to create a variety of educational content for my blogs, online courses and workshops. Images offer a great way of imparting information to my students. Some of the ways that I use images are -