Winter 2012 free classes for online instructors

We have three courses for instructors which are still available for registration.

113MSCC11 Teaching Online with Moodle: online, 4 weeks, starts January 10 – this class covers the basics of teaching online and using Moodle. Participants learn about the online environment as they participate in the class and complete assignments. Development of a detailed course syllabus is the final project. Emphasis is on the unique features of online teaching and learning, and the transition from face-to-face to online.

Open to anyone who might be interested in teaching online, not just UCR Extension instructors; no previous experience required. Optional project is to produce a proposal for an online course at UCR Extension.

113MSCC10 Teaching Online with Moodle: face-to-face, 3 meetings, starts January 11th; 6-8 PM, Wednesdays at UCR Extension – same as online version listed above.

113MSCC12 Producing Media for Your Online Course: online, 3 weeks, starts February 7th. Instructors learn to produce multimedia for their online class -- assignments include recording an audio file, narrating a presentation, and recording a screencast. Requires access to a microphone or other audio recording device.

Register by contacting Student Services:
Tel: (951) 827-4105 or (800) 442-4990 toll-free
Email: register@ucx.ucr.edu (include your name, address, phone number and the course ID).

Questions: contact Brian Reilly - breilly at ucx.ucr.edu

Comments

Blackboard Podcasts

I've been searching for podcasts about Blackboard and have come across a few. Some are too site-specific while others could use a little more polish before I would recommend them to others. However, one podcast I did find to be useful and high quality is Teaching with Blackboard by Jason Rhode at Northern Illinois University. Episode 5, posted last week, discusses how to incorporate RSS feeds into Blackboard using Feed2JS , a website and tool for converting an RSS feed to JavaScript which can be copied and pasted into your Blackboard course. This gives you a relatively easy way to add dynamic content to a course. For many instructors, RSS may be a foreign language, but I think if you listen to the five minute podcast, you will learn enough to get the idea. If you want more, Jason's previous podcast covers RSS and podcasting in more detail.

Change the Text Editor in Moodle

This lesson shows how to choose an alternate text editor in Moodle. Edit profile After you login, click Edit profile under My profile settings in the Administration block. If you have moved the Administration block to the dock on the left edge of your browser, you can choose Edit profile from the menu by moving your mouse over the Administration menu on the left edge of the screen. Text editor The currently selected text editor is shown in your profile in the General section. Change the editor Click on the Text editor menu to choose a different option. The TinyMCE HTML editor was the default editor in versions of Moodle prior to 2.7 and it has a few more options than the new default editor, the Atto HTML editor. The Atto editor works with all browsers while the TinyMCE editor does not work completely with Chrome or Internet Explorer. Update Click Update profile at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

QuickSource Guides to Blackboard

The Resource Network in Harrisonburg, Virginia, publishes fold out guides to various software applications like MS Office, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat and more. They have student and instructor guides to BlackBoard for $4.00 each. Prices are lower if you buy in bulk. I got mine yesterday and they look nice and are easy to read. Each one covers the important things you need to know to use Blackboard as a student or instructor. They are also available through Amazon.com for $4.95 each.

Technology & Instruction for UNEX

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