Lots of open educational resources

One of the best things about having an online classroom is that you can link to all sorts of great resources on the web (as long as they are not filtered by your school network). We'll if you're looking for resources on the web here's a great place to start (Google is also a great place to kick off your search...): The GuidetoOnlineSchools.com has a great resource of online classrooms.

Subjects include anything from Architecture to Women's Studies and the content includes audio, video, and text. All of the resources are culled from the Open Course Ware Consortium, which collects and indexes OCW from MIT, Johns Hopkins, Berkley, Tufts and many more.

Check out the GuidetoOnlineSchools.com or the OCW Consortium and link to some great content today!

3 Ways to Link to Audio in the Classroom

Did you know there are three ways to link to an audio file in your Moodle classroom? Each of the ways provides a filter that will automatically display controls to play your audio file in the classroom. It's very handy if you're creating podcasts, playing subject-related music or news broadcasts and want your students to have access to them online/outside of school.

Here's a quick run down. Hit the link below to see them in action on GlobalClassroom.us (or if you just want to listen to Vanilla Ice...):

1. upload it to your course files and then copy the link (the destination URL, which will end with .mp3). Create a hyperlink anywhere within your Moodle course and paste that URL. Moodle will automatically create a filter with audio controls for a file that ends in .mp3.

2. edit a web page or the description of an activity, click text you'd like to turn into a hyperlink, click browse, upload the file to the course files, once uploaded click the file. This will produce the same result as 1. (Below is what the audio player looks like.)
3. "add a resource", and choose "link to a file or website". Give the resource a title, and below the "Location" text box click "choose or upload a file..." Navigate again to site files by clicking browse and choose/upload the mp3 (this will show a mp3 icon on the main course page but will open the player as a new window). Instead of browsing you also can paste any mp3 URL copied from another website or from your course files to create a playable audio file (paste the URL into the "Location" text field).

Above is an image of editing a "link to a file or website" resource.

Check out this basic Moodle example which showcases each way.

You might also be interested in how this works for video, or the difference between linking to a file in your Moodle course by hyperlink vs. using the "link to a file or website" resource.

Is the site faster?

We just upgraded our main server setup, so you might noticed some very nice speed improvements on the site. We want to know what you think, let us know in the form below!

New Feature: get a course copy as an editing teacher

I wanted to let everyone know about a new feature on GlobalClassroom that does two things:

1. Helps you protect your content by sharing content with non-editing teachers
2. provides non-editing teachers the complete means to get a copy of your shared course!

On most Moodle sites worldwide, sharing a course and all of it's content with a teacher requires some manual labor (backing up the course and sending it to them) or creates a security risk (giving editing rights to another teacher puts the course in their hands, on the GlobalClassroom site editing teachers can even delete your course!).

To eliminate some of the leg work but provide a great opportunity to share resources and even complete classrooms with other teachers we've changed the non-editing teacher role. We now allow non-editing teachers in your courses to have access to the Backup and Files interfaces within your course.

In order to be listed as a non-editing teacher, the editing teacher will first have to add you using Assign Roles (this is located in the course Administration block, as are Backup and Files, though the Admin block will appear differently to non-editing teachers. Note that editing teachers are the only role in a course that can add additional users through Assign Roles).

Once a teacher is added to the non-editing role, they'll have access to the course either on their profile home page or on their My Courses tab.

If you're a non-editing teacher and you want to get a copy of a course, read on.

To start, login to the platform and access the course where you're listed as a non-editing teacher.

Next, click Backup to initiate the course backup process (this will create a zip file that you can upload and restore on the GlobalClassroom site or any other Moodle). As a non-editing teacher your administration block options will be much reduced.

The Backup process is comprised of several screens where you can choose to backup student data, no data, the course files, etc. My best recommendation, for the cleanest version of the course is to choose to backup without any user data, no logs, and no users. This will ensure that you do not inadvertently add users to another Moodle site or enroll students into your course if restored to the GlobalClassroom site.

Click through the screens of check boxes until your backup is complete (depending on the size of the course it could take several seconds or as long as a few minutes). Once the Backup is completed you'll see a screen that looks like this:

Right click on the zip file in order to save it locally to your computer. Once the download is complete you're ready to restore it for your own use!

Related:

• Backing up, restoring and importing courses (how to)

Strategies for Online Discussions - FacultyFocus

FacultyFocus is a great email newsletter I receive daily. It's got great information about how to make the most out of your online classroom (whether fully online or blended). Today I got a great article about how to best engage your students in discussion forums (one of my favorite Moodle activities).

The online facilitator (Michelle Everson, PhD) listed 5 main ways:

• Cheer students on and let them know when they are on the right track
• Highlight important points made during discussion
• Question students about their understanding or ask them to clarify remarks they have made or expand on certain ideas
• Correct misconceptions/misunderstandings
• Provide direct instruction if students appear to be struggling to understand material

Discussion forums are a great way to enhance on-topic classroom conversations and to extend your time with students (because it's available 24/7).

To read the whole article check out their site: http://www.facultyfocus.com/?p=8713 and consider joining the mailing list so you don't miss their great tips and tricks.

Related:

• using forums for peer evaluation (Real Life Moodle)
• Don't be Daunted (8 ways to grow your Moodle)
• How why and when to use Discussion Forums (Tomaz Lasic)

What is the GlobalClassroom?

This business and the service we provide to teachers nation wide is near and dear to my heart. I love helping teachers do something novel with Moodle. I get great joy out of answering tech questions, finding and fixing bugs, and even changing a password so that a student can get going on their homework again. Without that interaction on a daily basis would be a lot less enjoyable.

That being said, I want to let you know what I (Joseph Thibault) think GlobalClassroom is, where we're going and what it represents in the world of online education/elearning.

In 25 words or less, I think that GlobalClassroom is a "Moodle Community: where schools can host their classrooms securely, teachers can find professional development, and schools, businesses and other organizations can sell and deliver courses."

Let's unpack that a little bit (in more than 25 words) to look at the various pieces that contribute to our site.

1. GlobalClassroom is a community. We run one set of code the supports all of our users at GlobalClassroom.us. So when you report a bug or make a feature request using the "feedback" button (which is connected to our Uservoice account) and we fix or add it: everyone wins! All of our users are stewards of the community because each of you can reach out, give us feedback or report a bug which will benefit us all.

2. Secure hosting for schools/teachers. We offer a basic, free level of service to all teachers world wide. Teachers anywhere can register at GlobalClassroom and create Moodle-based classrooms for free. This is the standard level of Moodle which includes various capabilities and modules (quizzes, assignment dropboxes, glossaries, discussion forums and wikis). Additionally you can upload and display documents, podcasts and even video if you so choose, all in a secure classroom (password protected through the Moodle enrollment key).

For schools that want added security and control we also offer branded eSchools (starting at 10 bucks a month). These provide a way to organize a school's courses and to control access to the eSchool in order to prevent unauthorized users from joining or creating courses. It also has some handy password features and a complete user management dashboard (where you can upload accounts in bulk, and change passwords and roles).

3. Find professional development. When GlobalClassroom was founded in the early 00's, the main focus of the business was providing technology-related professional development online. We've had a really good run in the business of low-cost, facilitated, completely online courses; some of the most popular have been Podcasting, Digital Photography and Video. Today though we offer over 80 titles in such subject areas as ESL, special education, technology and leadership. What I think is unique about GlobalClassroom.us is that teachers can learn about Moodle by taking a class, and then apply those skills directly to their blended or fully online (and free) classroom. It's a great resource and chance for teachers to see something in action, learn a skill and then create resources that benefit student right away. This is the main reason we've introduced #4.

4. A market place of courses. With the open nature of GlobalClassroom.us (allowing anyone to join and being creating resources), paired with the ability to conduct online transactions we're now very happy to offer businesses, schools, teachers and pretty much anyone else with valuable ideas or content that ability to sell courses online.

Whether or not you have an eSchool, users can create content in Moodle and list a price (click for a draft of our agreement with users that opt into selling a course through the GlobalClassroom site). The course will now be available in the community search to prospective users. They can find your course and instantly purchase it either online or by contacting our student services. GlobalClassroom does take a fee in order to support the hosting, support and programming costs of managing a 100,000+ user network (10% of the total course price listed), but we think that's fair for providing a turn key course marketplace (click here for more of the Draft terms).

In the next few months and years we'll be upgrading our site to the specifications that you want most, ensuring that we're using the most updated Moodle version available, adding the popular modules users want and creating more efficient and easy ways to get started building a classroom.

We're very happy that you're here. And we're grateful for the opportunity to serve educators.

Sincerely and on behalf of the staff,

Joseph Thibault

Support

jthibault@globalclassroom.us

National Cyber Security Awareness Month (some 'freesources')

Did you know that October was National Cyber Security Awareness Month? It's part of a national campaign, supported by some high profile companies and government agencies and I think we should all take a minute to brush up on our awareness. To contribute we've pulled together a few free resources from around the web and hosted them here, in a Moodle classroom (Note that the resources are pulled from Simplemoodle.com, which is free to download SCORM on various topics, including cyber security and computer usage).

Click here to access the SCORM based "National Cyber Security Awareness Month Resources"

Also, you might wish to check out StaySafeOnline.org (home of the NCSA Month activities) where you can find out what you as educators can do to promote cyber security awareness in your students (from the site):

• Incorporate cyber security into your computer curriculum and use the USA Today cyber security lesson plans (click here to access the USA Today resources).
• Engage parents: discuss cyber security during open houses, PTA meetings, and parent teacher conferences.
• Add cyber security tips to the school’s website.
• Advocate for district-wide curriculum on cyber security, cyber safety, and cyber ethics that can be implemented district-wide.

Additionally, Google has set up a special Youtube channel to promote cyber security awareness by covering topics such as cyberbullying, internet safety, malware and good password creation. Here's another contribution by Google.

Finally, you might like this free course to download which I created as part of a grant in Vermont: Internet Safety, Acceptable Use, Research and Copyright. The course is available for download from Moodlecommons.org.

PS, if you like the SCORM resources included in the NCSAM Resources course listed above and would like to use them in your own classroom, check out our recent post about SCORM.