August 2

Managing Online Learning: Free Online Courses

IMG_2802FutureLearn and The Open University with partnerships from universities across continents offer a selection of free online courses (with possibilities of gaining certificates too). Here are the five courses listed that can help you understand online learning better – you can recommend it to your students or take a look yourself if interested. Click on each link below to learn more/enroll in the course.

Get Started with Online Learning: This free online course will explain how you can study online without putting the rest of your life on hold.

Learning Online: Learning and Collaborating:Become an effective online learner and develop your online communication skills when working with others.

Learning Online: Managing Your Identity: Reflect on how you want to present yourself online and take positive steps towards these goals.

Learning Online: Reflecting and Sharing: Get the most out of online learning by reflecting and sharing your learning with others.

Learning Online: Searching and Researching: Improve your online research skills and your ability to critically analyze sources of information.

August 1

Brightspace Binder

This week, a new feature appeared for our students in D2L Brightspace. It is a learning tool called Binder, and it unifies essential functions today’s students need: it places all course materials in one place, they can reach them from any device (lap top, tablet, phone) online and offline, they can highlight the documents and study directly from the app.

Here is a brief overview:

  • For our SCSU students, it appears directly on the course content page (there is a button “Send to Binder”)
  • It is a one step process to create a Binder account and it is linked to their D2L Brightspace
  • It allows for 2 GB of space
  • It supports a variety of document types
  • They can sort and filter documents
  • They can create annotations and mark up the documents

D2L Binder2

D2L Binder