Resources

Resources for Online Learning and Learning Technology

For massage therapy educators, download a copy of Whitney Lowe’s article  The Challenges and Promise of E-learning in Massage Therapy (republished with permission from Massage and Bodywork Magazine)

Organizations

• Educause. This organization exists to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.
• E-Learning Guild. As a member-driven organization, the Guild produces conferences, online events, e-books, research reports, and Learning Solutions Magazine.
• Sloan Consortium. The Sloan-C is an institutional and professional leadership organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, helping institutions and individual educators improve the quality, scale and breadth of education.
• United States Distance Learning Association. The mission of the USDLA is, “…to serve the distance learning community by providing advocacy, information, networking and opportunity.”

Software Tools

• Adobe eLearning Suite. Courseware tools for authoring, simulations and media editing.
• Articulate. A company that produces elearning software and authoring tools.
• Camtasia. Software for making a movie from things you capture on your screen or on a video camera (includes audio capability). Techsmith is the company that produced Camtasia and they have other cool applications as well.
• Center for Learning & Performance Technologies. This site publishes resources about trends, technologies and tools for both formal education and training as well as next generation enterprise working/learning.
• Moodle. A course management system (CMS), also known as a learning management system (LMS), that is open source adn allows educators to create online learning sites.
• Raptivity. Software to create rapid elearning through simulations, games, etc.
• Sakai. A course management system (CMS), also known as a learning management system (LMS), that is open source and allows educators to create online learning sites.

Research & Multimedia Educational Theory

• Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. U.S. Department of Education, 2009.
• The design of instructional multimedia in e-learning: A media richness theory-based approach.
• Future Directions of Blended Learning in Higher Education and Workplace Learning Settings
• Journal for Educational Technology and Change. A cooperative blog/journal that focuses on developments, trends, ideas, concerns, and issues related to the creative use of information technology to enhance education and training in academic, commercial and governmental settings.
• Journal for Online Learning and Teaching. A peer-reviewed, open access, online publication addressing the scholarly use of multimedia resources in online education.
• The Sloan Consortium website has many articles and reports available for download.
• Excellent articles and resources on elearning at George Siemens‘ site.
• Three websites that make learning theories more accessible: 1, 2, 3

Books

• Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R. (2008). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
• Fernandes, J.P.S. (2009). Moodle 1.9 multimedia. Birmingham, UK: Packt.
• Ko, S. & Rossen, S. (2010, 3rd ed). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide. New York: Routledge.
• Reynolds, G. (2010) PresentationZen Design. Berkley, CA: New Riders
• Rice, W.H. (2008). Moodle 1.9 e-learning course development: A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle. Birmingham, UK: Packt.
• Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M. & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education. Boston: Pearson.

Miscellaneous

For those of you on Twitter, here are several hashtags to follow:

• #lrnchat
• #edutech
• #Moodle
• #elearn
• #elearning
• #lms

There are many blogs you can follow that provide excellent information.  Here is an easy way to find the most popular: go to Tony Karrer’s Top 10 eLearning Blogs.