Tag Archives: online learning

Changing the way we educate ourselves with online learning

Higher education is changing.  Universities and Colleges used to be the gatekeepers for information and learning but the key has seemed to slip from our fingers.  

Free education is often undervalued and almost universally unaccredited, perhaps because when evaluating education expense is often the indicator of quality. The more that something is offered for free, the less it is seen as a signal for quality.  However a simple scatter-plot comparing University ranking with tuition cost quickly shows us that the correlation between cost and quality is weak overall.
img28211337universities2.GIF

MITx is changing the face of online education and accredited learning but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to online learning resources.  Following is a list of over 200 web resources that are publicly available, many from Higher Education institutions.  While some of these learning websites may not engage in the most rigorous online learning pedagogy neither do many Higher Education institutions.

Table of Contents:

I. Top Picks
II. Universities and Higher Education
III. General Collections 
IV. How-to & DIY
V. Studying with Peers
VI. Online Books, eBooks, & Journals
VII. Computers, Software, & Programming
VIII. Science & Math
IX. Logic, Words, & Memory
X. Languages
XI. Music (updated to v.1.2 on 1/26/12)
XII. History
XIII. Business, Economics, Finance, & Investing 
XIV. Food, Nutrition, & Cooking
XV. Survival Tips
XVI. Documentaries & Film Studies

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I. TOP PICKS

Khan Academy
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Academic Earth – Online courses from the world’s top scholars
http://academicearth.org/

TED – Technology, Entertainment, & Design
http://www.ted.com/

MIT Open CourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

Stanford Engineering Everywhere
http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx

Open Yale Courses
http://oyc.yale.edu/

About U. – Collection of free online courses from About.com
http://u.about.com/

Wikiversity
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page

YouTube EDU
http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400

The Open University – Study at the OU
http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/

University of the People
www.uopeople.org

University of Reddit
http://ureddit.com/

Open Culture – The best free cultural & educational media on the web
http://openculture.com/

VideoLectures – Exchange ideas & share knowledge
http://videolectures.net/

CosmoLearning – Free educational website with thousands of courses & documentaries
http://www.cosmolearning.com/

================================

II. UNIVERSITIES & HIGHER EDUCATION

Lecture Fox – Free university lectures
http://lecturefox.com/

Faculty Project – The best professors from the world’s leading Universities
http://facultyproject.com/

More Open Courses:

OCW Search – Find free university courses online
http://www.ocwsearch.com/

Open Courseware Consortium
http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

Harvard Extension School – Computer Science & Technology
http://computerscience1.tv/2010/spring/

Johns Hopkins University
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/

Kaplan University
http://ocw.kaplan.edu/

Notre Dame
http://ocw.nd.edu/

Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study
http://video.ias.edu/all

Tufts
http://ocw.tufts.edu/

Utah State
http://ocw.usu.edu/

Google in Education
http://www.google.com/edu/index.html

ArsDigita University – Computer science and math lectures
http://aduni.org/courses/

UC Berkeley Webcast – Central service for online video & audio for learners around the globe
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

UC Berkeley Video Courses – Free education online
http://education.jimmyr.com/

Capilano University
http://ocw.capilanou.ca/

Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/

Delft University of Technology
http://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/

Rice University Connexions – A place to view and share educational modules
http://cnx.org/

Stanford on iTunes U – Stanford-related digital audio content
http://itunes.stanford.edu/content/overview.html

UC Irvine
http://ocw.uci.edu/

UC San Diego Podcasts
http://podcast.ucsd.edu/

University of Chicago’s Mind Online – Thought-provoking samples of critical thinking & debate
http://news.uchicago.edu/multimedia

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
http://www.uccs.edu/~math/vidarchive.html

University of Massachusetts
http://ocw.umb.edu/

University of Michigan
http://open.umich.edu/education

University of Southern Queensland
http://ocw.usq.edu.au/

University of Sydney – Podcast episodes
http://sydney.edu.au/podcasts/2011.php

University of Virginia – Podcasts & webcasts
http://www.virginia.edu/uvapodcast/

University of Washington – Computer Science & Engineering
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/course-webs.html

Utah Valley University – Online courses & open educational resources
http://open.uvu.edu/

YouTube Channels:

Stanford
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Stanford Class Central – YouTube summaries of Stanford’s online courses
http://www.class-central.com/

UC Berkeley
http://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley

University of New South Wales
http://www.youtube.com/user/UNSWelearning

Yale
http://www.youtube.com/yalecourses

India’s NPTEL
http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd

======================

III. GENERAL COLLECTIONS

Udemy – Take and build online courses on any subject
http://www.udemy.com/

Free Video Lectures – 800+ Online Courses and 19,000+ Videos from Top 30+ Universities on 35+ Categories
http://freevideolectures.com/

100 Intro Open Courses on Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Learn
http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2010/05/12/100-intro-open-courses-on-everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-learn/

Annotum (formerly Google’s Knol)
http://annotum.org/

IncrediCampus – Lectures and preparation/admission advice for college & graduate schools
http://www.incredicampus.com/

Learners TV – Thousands of downloadable video lectures on liberal arts, science, engineering, and more
http://www.learnerstv.com/

Online Education Database – 200 free online classes to learn anything
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/200-free-online-classes-to-learn-anything

Infoplease – All the knowledge you need
http://www.infoplease.com/

MERLOT – Multimedia educational resource for learning and online teaching
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/

101 Online Self-improvement Resources
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/101-self-improvement-resources/

Alison – 300 free online courses at certificate or diploma level (sign-up required)
http://alison.com/

Teaching Resources:

The Orange Grove Digital Repository – Online library of openly available instructional resources for Florida’s educators
http://www.theorangegrove.org/

Learner.org – Browse teacher resources
http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html

==============

IV. HOW-TO & DIY

WikiHow – The how-to manual that you can edit
http://www.wikihow.com/

How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Wonder How To
http://www.wonderhowto.com/categories/

Instructables
http://www.instructables.com/

Make Magazine
http://www.makezine.com/

How-to Help & Videos for Dummies
http://www.dummies.com/

VideoJug – Get good at life
http://www.videojug.com/

How to Create a Book in Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books

Let’s Make Robots
http://letsmakerobots.com/

====================

V. STUDYING with PEERS

Open Study – Study together
http://openstudy.com/

P2P University – Learn anything with your peers
http://p2pu.org/en/

Study Blue – Your digital backpack
http://www.studyblue.com/

==================================

VI. ONLINE BOOKS, eBOOKS, & JOURNALS

Google Books
http://books.google.com/

WikiBooks – Open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Planet eBook – Home of free classic literature
http://www.planetebook.com/about.asp

Open Book Project
http://openbookproject.net/

The Free Library
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/

Many Books – Ad-free eBooks
http://www.manybooks.net/

WorldCat – Collections & services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide
http://www.worldcat.org/

iBiblio – The public’s library and digital archive
http://www.ibiblio.org/

LibriVox – Free public domain audiobooks
http://librivox.org/

The Assayer – Web’s largest catalog of books whose authors have made them available for free
http://theassayer.org/

Amazon.com Free eBook Collection
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_85650291_15?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011

Scribd – Reading and publishing evolved
http://www.scribd.com/

Textbook Revolution – Student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials
http://www.textbookrevolution.org/index.php/Main_Page

Directory of Open Access Journals
http://www.doaj.org/

eReaderIQ – Recent non-public domain freebies & price-drop alerts
http://www.ereaderiq.com/

Longform – New and classic non-fiction articles curated across the web
http://longform.org/

Flatworld Knowledge – The first and largest publisher of free & open textbooks
http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/

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VII. COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE, & PROGRAMMING

W3Schools – The world’s largest web development site
http://www.w3schools.com/

Google Code University
http://code.google.com/edu/

The New Boston – Step-by-step tutorials for multiple coding languages
http://thenewboston.org/

UDacity – CS 101
http://www.udacity.com/

PHP Academy
http://www.youtube.com/user/phpacademy

Better PHP
http://www.youtube.com/betterphp

Wired How-to Wiki – Teach a kid to program
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Teach_a_Kid_to_Program

NetTuts+ – A large collection of coding tutorials
http://nettuts.com/

Tutorial Guide – The site for all your tutorial needs
http://www.tutorialguide.net/

Codecademy – Fun & interactive way to learn how to code
http://www.codecademy.com/

Free Technology Academy – High quality educational material based on free software & open standards
http://ftacademy.org/

Higher Computing for Everyone – Writing basic programs
http://www.highercomputingforeveryone.com/

HTML 5 Please
http://html5please.us/

Rails for Zombies
http://railsforzombies.org/

Ruby Warrior – Open source game to teach Ruby language
http://www.trybloc.com/courses/ruby-warrior/chapters/beginner#/1

Got API – Documentation search engine
http://start.gotapi.com/

Coding Bat – Online code practice in Java & Python
http://codingbat.com/

PySchools – Python programming language tutorial
http://www.pyschools.com/

appendTo – Learn jQuery and Javascript for free
http://learn.appendto.com/

Lynda – Online software training videos
http://www.lynda.com/

Intro to Linux
http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/bbnkp/ive_tinkered_in_ubuntu_before_but_its_the_primary/c0lzpwk

Stack Overflow – Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers
http://stackoverflow.com/

DZone – Fresh links for developers
http://www.dzone.com/links/index.html

Project Euler – A series of challenging mathematical & computer programming problems
http://projecteuler.net/

Professor Messer – CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications
  http://www.professormesser.com/

Photoshop & Graphics:

Tutorial Hero – Photoshop & Flash tutorials
http://www.tutorialhero.com/

PSD Tuts+
http://psd.tutsplus.com/

Photoshop Tutorials
http://photoshoptutorials.ws/

Graphic Tutorials
http://www.graphictutorials.net/

Photoshop Pack Graphic Design Resources
http://www.photoshop-pack.com/

PSD FanExtra Tutorials
http://psd.fanextra.com/category/tutorials/

Vandelay Design – Photoshop Tutorial Hall of Fame
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/photoshop-tutorial-tutorials/

Grokking the GIMP
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html

Video CoPilot – Tutorials for VFx & motion graphics
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

==================

VIII. SCIENCE & MATH

Google Scholar – Stand on the shoulder of giants
http://scholar.google.com/

Scirus – The most comprehensive scientific research tool on the web
http://www.scirus.com/

Cite Seer X – Access scientific and scholarly knowledge
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/

getCited – Academic database, directory, & discussion forum
http://www.getcited.org/

National Science Digital Library – Explore, share, create
http://nsdl.org/

Science Magazine Podcasts
http://www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/podcast/

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning – Science, Engineering, & Technology
http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/

KQED’s Quest – Explore science, nature, and environment stories from Northern California and beyond
http://science.kqed.org/quest/

Freelance Teacher – Videos on physics, chemistry, math, & biology
http://www.freelance-teacher.com/videos.htm

FHSST – Free high school science texts in physical sciences & math
http://fhsst.org/

Free Science Lectures – Free Science Videos & Lectures
http://www.freesciencelectures.com/

Physicist TV – Collection of science & documentary videos
http://www.physicisttv.com/

Educated Earth – Videos on astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, math, physics, and more
http://www.educatedearth.net/

cK-12 Flexbooks
http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

Paul’s Online Math Notes
http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/

Reddit’s List of Useful Online Math Resources
http://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/bqbex/lets_list_all_the_useful_free_online_math/

Math, Better Explained
http://betterexplained.com/

Astronomy & Outerspace:

Space Engine – Free space simulation software
http://en.spaceengine.org/

Google Sky
http://www.google.com/sky/

NASA for Students
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html

Scale of the Universe – Interactive Flash Animation
http://www.scaleoftheuniverse.com/

Statistics:

Vassar Stats – Concepts and applications of inferential statistics
http://faculty.vassar.edu/lowry/webtext.html

StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook
http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome.html

Connexions Collaborative Statistics
http://cnx.org/content/col10522/latest/

Handbook of Biological Statistics
http://udel.edu/~mcdonald/statintro.html

=========================

IX. LOGIC, WORDS, & MEMORY

Mind Tools – Memory improvement techniques
http://www.mindtools.com/memory.html

The Nizkor Project – List of logical fallacies
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/index.html

Wikipedia’s List of Logical Fallacies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Wikipedia’s List of Figures of Speech
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech

Tool Kit for Rhetorical Analysis
http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetorictoolkit/Tool_Kit_for_Rhetorical_Analysis.htm

KnoWord – Expand your vocabulary
http://knoword.org/

Vocabulary.com – Learn new words & explore language
http://www.vocabulary.com/

Brain Workshop – A Dual N-Back Game
http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/

Argument Mapping Tutorials
http://austhink.com/reason/tutorials/

Philosophy Bites – Podcasts of top philsophers
http://www.philosophybites.com/

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X. LANGUAGES

Basic Composition – Reading & Writing
http://www.basiccomposition.com/

BBC Languages – Beginner courses in multiple languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Foreign Service Institute Language Courses
http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

Language Guide – Foreign language vocabulary, grammar, & readings
http://www.languageguide.org/

eLanguage School – Free foreign language lessons online
http://www.elanguageschool.net/

Free Online Language Courses via About.com
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/onlinecourses/a/freelanguage.htm

DuoLingo – Learn a language for free & simultaneously translate the web
http://duolingo.com/

Babel Nation – Learning languages online for free
http://www.babelnation.com/

Transparent Language – Language learning software & resources in over 100 languages
http://www.transparent.com/language-resources/languages.html

Survival Phrases – Learn essential travel phrases, tips, and insights
http://survivalphrases.com/

Talk to Me in Korean
http://talktomeinkorean.com/

Chinese Toolbox – Software for learning Chinese through reading
http://www.chinesetoolbox.com/

LiveMocha – World’s largest language learning community
http://www.livemocha.com/

American Sign Language (ASL) University
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lesson01.htm

Handspeak – Sign language
http://www.handspeak.com/

Signing Savvy – Your sign language resource
http://www.signingsavvy.com/index.php

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XI. MUSIC

Berklee Shares – Free music lessons from Berklee College of Music
http://www.berkleeshares.com/

Music Theory – Lessons, exercises, & tools
http://www.musictheory.net/

Ear Training & Music Theory Software
http://www.trainear.com/

Basic Music Theory
http://www.howmusicworks.org/

About.com Music Education – Music theory
http://musiced.about.com/od/musictheory/u/musiced_musictheory.htm

Teoria – Music Theory Web
http://teoria.com/

Ultimate Guitar – Lessons, techniques, & styles
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/

Justin Guitar – The best guitar instruction on the web
http://www.justinguitar.com/

Chorder – Chord fingering and guitar resources
http://www.chorder.com/guitar-chords/

Funk University – Assembly of Music’s Finest
http://www.thefunkuniversity.com/

Play Bass Now – Lessons, licks, and low notes
http://playbassnow.com/

How to Play Piano
http://www.howtoplaypiano.ca/

===========

XII. HISTORY

Teacher Resources – Western Civilization (52 half-hour video programs)
http://www.learner.org/resources/series58.html

Metropolitan Museum of Art – Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

=========================================

XIII. BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, FINANCE, & INVESTING

Investopedia
http://www.investopedia.com/

Google Advisor
https://www.google.com/advisor/home

Google Finance
http://www.google.com/finance

MarketWatch by WSJ
http://www.marketwatch.com/

Main Street – Business & financial headlines & advice
http://www.mainstreet.com/

Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/

Value Based Management – Methods, models, and theories
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/

Ludwig von Mises Institute – Austrian economics and praxeology
http://mises.org/

Foundation for Economic Education
http://www.fee.org/

Library of Economics and Liberty
http://www.econlib.org/

============================

XIV. FOOD, NUTRITION, & COOKING

Good Eats Fan Page
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm

Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills
http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/

Chef Todd Mohr’s Web Cooking Classes (YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChefToddMohr

Nutrition Data – Self nutrition data; know what you eat
http://www.nutritiondata.com/

Nutrition.gov – Smart nutrition & practical tips
http://www.nutrition.gov/

Choose My Plate via USDA
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

The World’s Healthiest Foods
http://whfoods.org/foodstoc.php

Calorie King
http://www.calorieking.com/

Start Making Choices – Simple ideas for living healthier on a budget
http://www.startmakingchoices.com/index.jsp

Eat Right Nutrition Tips
http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=206

================

XV. SURVIVAL TIPS

Off Grid Survival – Wilderness and urban survival skills
http://offgridsurvival.com/

Backwoods Magazine – Self reliance and self sufficiency
http://www.backwoodshome.com/index.html

Survival Topics – Your online survival kit
http://www.survivaltopics.com/

Wilderness Survival – Free info covering all aspects of survival
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/

Discovery’s Worst-Case Scenario Video Clips
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/worst-case-scenario/

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XVI. DOCUMENTARIES & FILM STUDIES

Documentary Wire
http://www.documentarywire.com/

Factual TV – The documentary film video store
http://www.factualtv.com/

Documentary Heaven – Food for your brain
http://documentaryheaven.com/

Surf the Channel
http://www.surfthechannel.com/cat/61482.html

DocuWatch – Free streaming documentaries on Art, History, Science, and more
http://www.docuwat.ch/watch-documentaries/

Documentary Tube – Watch full-length documentaries online for free
http://www.documentarytube.com/

Documentary Log – Watch hundreds of the most interesting, popular, and full-length documentaries
http://www.documentary-log.com/

Documentary Stream
http://www.documentarystream.com/

Documentary Storm – Free streaming documentaries
http://documentarystorm.com/

Top Documentary Films – Watch free documentaries online
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Movies Found Online – Free movies & documentaries
http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/documentaries.php

Quick Silver Screen – Movies & documentaries
http://www.quicksilverscreen.ch/videos?g=5&mt=1

MVGroup Forums – An education in P2P (sign-up required)
http://forums.mvgroup.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVGroup

Film Studies:

Film Studies for Free – Web archive of notable film studies resources
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/p/open-access-film-e-books-list.html

Online Film and Movie Image Studies, PhD and MPhil Theses
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/p/online-film-and-moving-studies-phd.html

Online Film and Media Studies Journals
http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com/p/fsff-online-film-media-studies-journals.html

List taken from: https://plus.google.com/114424163811716070551/posts/bnLpsUq7rhd

Creating an Online Course

We are working with the Penn State World Campus on the creation of a course aimed at faculty and other PSU folks that are tasked with creating an online course.  We are currently in the design process of figuring out what the course should look like and determining what topics we should be covering.

What better way to help us flesh this out than to ask the community?  I received several responses from the Penn State Excellence in Teaching Ning community, members of the Schreyer’s Institute as well as past colleagues that were tasked with creating online courses.

After doing a very quick and dirty analysis, the comments fell into about 14 categories.  Some of the categories had a bit of an overlap (for instance, “design” might encompass things such as “content quality” and “scaling”).  Based on the analysis, four categories received 6 or more mentions (n = 16).

1. Technology – Not many surprises here.  Faculty asked about the appropriateness of asynchronous tools vs. synchronous tools in certain contexts, how to keep up with changing technologies and how to use technology for group work, assignments and meeting online.

One interesting theme that emerged was ‘what can I use vs. what should I use?’  Without having more context, I can only guess at what faculty were referring to but I have a general idea this question ties to policy and maybe even FERPA.  Sometimes faculty want to use certain technologies, but are afraid that they might be breaking rules or policies.

2. Time management – Many faculty asked about the time it takes to develop an online course.  In terms of teaching courses, on respondent says “it feels like a 24/7 endeavor”.  Both designing and teaching an online course are very large time commitments, especially when maintaining a high level of quality.

3. Collaboration – I was somewhat surprised at the frequency collaboration was mentioned.  Questions dealt with the types of personnel faculty would collaborate with, who sets the deadlines/timelines, what are instructional designers and why do I have to work with a team?

4. Design – This could have been number one or last on the list, depending on inclusive you want to get with the word ‘design’.  Some questions involved converting a face-to-face course to online while others mentioned how to migrate certain types of assignments meant for synchronous, face-to-face courses to an online course. 

Overall, I did not find many surprises during the small data analysis aside from the collaboration questions.  The collaboration is a tough one to answer, as most units have their own workflow and personnel that work with faculty on online course design and development.