onlinelearningcoursedesign

College life is financially taxing driving students to search for the cheapest alternatives for mainstream options. Textbook rental is one example of a service that allows students to save on their study expenses. Instead of buying an expensive book to use only once or in a single semester, why not rent it for a lower price and return it when you are done with it? There are many online textbook rental providers and the list below features some of the best out there. These services enable you to rent or buy both print and electronic textbooks. I personally prefer digital version because they are way more convenient.  For instance, e-textbooks can be accessed anywhere and can also be downloaded and used offline. Also, digital textbooks include interactive features which allow you to engage with your reading materials at a deeper level (e.g., annotations, notes, highlights, integrated dictionaries, etc). Needless to mention that e-textbooks are stored on the cloud taking nothing of yo

The purpose of this post is to provide you with a collection of some teacher and parent-tested apps to use with kids with dyslexia. The apps cover various learning areas that kids with dyslexia struggle with including reading, writing, and spelling.   These dyslexia apps offers different services including scanning tests to identify reading challenges for kids, interactive reading materials designed specifically for students with dyslexia and struggling readers, activities and games to help children with dyslexia develop key literacy skills, fun quizzes and exercises, and many more. These dyslexia apps can be used by teachers, homeschooling parents, professionals, and anyone else working with kids who struggle to read, write and spell. For those of you interested in dyslexia Chrome extensions, check out this collection of some of the best Chrome extensions for students and kids with dyslexia. 1. Lexico: A Dyslexia Reading Aid Lexico provides a distraction free interface with hi

New Year is celebrated around the world in different ways. Beyond the conventional fireworks and drinks, New Year celebrations in many countries are associated with different unique and idiosyncratic traditions some of which date back to ancient history.  It is always intriguing to learn how other people from different cultures welcome the new year and what kinds of rituals and traditions they perform right before or after the stroke of midnight. [ Related: 10 best New Year resolution ideas] In this post, I share with you some samples of New Year’s traditions from different countries around the world. I also included links to more resources to help you learn more about these traditions. You can use these materials with your students in class to introduce them to the topic of cultural diversity and how it is manifested in the different ways people celebrate the New Year.  1. United States  Americans celebrate New Year's Eve by watching a ball drop at the stroke of midnight.

One of the strategies to get students engaged and motivated to learn is to incorporate materials that they love and use in their daily life. Social media is one of them. An increasing number of our students use social media and especially Facebook to socialize, connect, and (hopefully) learn. The good news is that we can leverage the potential of this social media website to enhance students learning. How?  Facebook Templates! Facebook templates, as their name indicates, are templates modelled after Facebook. They are mock up templates that resemble the feel and look of Facebook. As teachers, we can use these editable templates for a wide variety of educational purposes including: * Character study: Ask students to create Facebook profiles for a character they studied in a novel, short story, or a movie. Encourage them to flesh out as much information about the character as they can. This can be an alternative to the traditional book report activity. * Students can also use Face

I just came across this beautiful visual on the impact of technology on classroom learning and teaching and wanted to pass along some important stats that stood out to me. Technology is radically transforming  education landscape and the stats below speak volumes to this transformation: In a 2009 report released by the National Centre for Education  Statistics with the Department of Education:74% of Pre-K to 12th grade teachers said that technology has helped them reinforce and expand content and has also motivated students to learn. 73% of these teachers also reported that technology enables them to respond to a variety of learning styles and allows them to demonstrate things that could not demonstrated otherwise. Impact of technology on student writing:  A larger majority of teachers attest to the positive influence of web technologies on students writing. For instance, 96% view that technology helped students share their work with a wider and more varied audience. Another 79% a

Stephen was first diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) by his second grade teacher. Stephen was rejected from school at the age of 8 because he could not sit still on the chair and he ended up moving to another school. Over the next 11 years he tried every possible career path till he finally found his element. From his personal story with ADHD, Stephen tries to show people how ADHD is misunderstood as the inability to focus while it is in fact  much stranger than that. It is having a hard time selecting something and giving it full attention. For Stephen, to concentrate and focus he needs something that grabs his attention or picks his curiosity. ADHD, in his eyes, is a difference in cognition not simply a disorder. People with ADHD  are attention different and not attention deficit and therefore what is needed  to fix this " disorder" is not only medication but more importantly a change in the attitude , in the way people think about ADHD. A so

Listening to Audiobooks is one of my favourite things I do every time I lace up for a run. I love self-development books and I find in them a comfortable refuge from my academic work. In fact, self development books remind me that reading is a highly enjoyable activity, one that is substantially different from reading academic journal articles and research papers. Yesterday, I finished listening to James Clear's blockbuster 'Atomic Habits' and it was such an incredible learning experience. The kind of habits we develop, that is,  those regular tiny activities we do on everyday basis, are the key to our success in life. According to Clear, there are three types of habits: outcome-based habits, process-based habits, and identity-based habits. The latter, identity habits, is what makes us who we are. While outcome and process-based habits tend to diminish as we realize our goals, identity-based habits stick with us long enough to transform our life. Clear gave the example

With the start of a new year the resolutions list starts piling up with all kinds of ideas, expectations, and projects that we hope to accomplish during the year and probably beyond. However, a number of these resolutions go to the graveyard before they see the light and some of them go the whole way to fruition.  When we decide to take a new course of break up with an old one, we are actually engaged in forming a new habit. As the psychologist William James once noted, "all our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits.”  For good habits to stick and take root they need time, deliberate practice and patience. The great thing is that once the habit is formed it goes unnoticed and we start doing it without any conscious effort. Likewise, if we are to go through with our resolutions we need to give them ample time to grow and ripen, Rome wasn't built in a day anyway. Here are few tips to help you create realizable New Year goals :  * Make sure your re

JeopardyLabs is a web tool that allows you to easily create Jeopardy-like games without the need for PowerPoint. The process to design a customized Jeopardy template is simple and easy and does not require registration. If you don't want to create your own Jeopardy template you can use ready-made templates created by other users, edit them the way you want and share them with your students.  How to use JeopardyLabs games with students? There are various ways to use JeopardyLabs games with your students. For instance, you can use them to conduct formative assessment in class.  Create templates embedding questions related to the themes, topics, and lessons you taught and get students to answer questions. Students can work in teams or individually. You can use JeopardyLabs  as exit tickets to assess students comprehension and to further consolidate their learning.  JeopardyLabs games can also be used to test students prior knowledge on a topic or to practice specific skills acros

Below are some of the best platforms and tools to use with your students to create educational games. No coding skills are required. Designing learning games is a great way to develop students' analytic thinking and foster self-expression. It is also an effective way to introduce students to basic coding and programming concepts and help them cultivate the 21st century learning skills. 1. Code Academy Code Academy offers tons of educational tutorials and guided lessons to help students learn coding. Through hands-on learning activities, students learn how to use programming languages (e.g., HTML, JavaScript, SQL, Python3, Java, CSS, C++, ETC) to construct various creations such as games, websites, pages, quizzes, and more.  Students can join the Community Chapters to interact with other students from all around the world, learn about their coding projects, and help each other. Code Academy offers a special subscription for students called Code Academy Pro Student which costs

Social emotional learning (SEL), as defined by EQ, is "the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions."  Today's technology offers numerous tools and resources to help enhance students social and emotional literacy. Below are iPad apps that you can use to this end. Check them out to learn more.  [Related: Emojis apps and tools for teachers] 1- Mood Meter Mood Meter provides students with a color-coded chart of emotions organized along two dimensions: energy and pleasantness. The chart is composed of four quadrant each of which is associated with a particular feeling. Students use the chart to plot their feelings and to provide explanations to why they are feeling the way they are. Based on students feedback, the ap

One of our priorities as teachers, educators and parents is to ensure that our students and kids use the Internet in appropriate, safe and secure ways. The best way to do it is through  education and practice. Digital literacy and digital citizenship are two key theoretical concepts to start with.  Understanding and teaching the principles of these concepts to students will definitely empower them with the required insight and know-how to help them navigate the web in a safer and effective way.  Another way to help kids make the best of the Internet is through providing them with  relevant kids-friendly search engines. These are search engines designed specifically for young audiences. As you know,  popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing offer built-in safe search features to filter out irrelevant and explicit content. For instance, Google provides these guidelines to help you learn how to filter explicit search results using safesearch setting. However, these fea

Teachers may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the multitude of resources available online. In fact, it can  take a tremendous amount of time to sift through and locate required materials to use in your teaching, a taxing task for the already overburdened teacher.  To this end, and to help teachers make better use of their time and resources I curated for you this collection of educational resources where you can access educational content to use in your own instruction. From ready-made lesson plans and study guides to practice exercises and EdTech tools, the websites below provide you with the resources you need to enhance your teaching/learning and grow professionally.  1- Khan AcademyKhan Academy provides free educational content in the form of instructional videos and practice exercises covering different subjects including math, chemistry, physics, science, arts, humanities and many more. 2- Smithsonian Learning Lab Smithsonian Learning Lab empowers learners with materials and

Below is a collection of some good music apps to use with students in school. and young. The apps offer a wide variety of educational music content that includes lessons, videos, and interactive activities all of which are designed to help students  explore the world of music in fun and engaging ways.   Using these apps, students will get to learn the basics of music composition, recognize melody and pitch, learn about different musical instruments, write their own songs, and practice their music skills via guided instruction. I invite you to check them out and share with us if you have other suggestions to add to the list. For more educational music resources, check out these list of the best piano learning apps, guitar learning apps, and educational music websites. 1. GarageBand GarageBand is Apple's staple music app. Students can use it to create and share music on the go. GarageBand offers a full-featured recording studio and a collection of Touch instruments with Live Lo

Science is all about  exploring  (and enjoying) the wonders of the world around us . Videos make this exploratory experience even engaging and fun. Through videos science is brought to life thus becoming a vibrant component of our learning experience. YouTube is the platform of choice for many science teachers and scientists who love to  share their amazing insights and experiments with the public and who generously work hard to make scientific knowledge accessible to everyone.  From learning about the functioning of our immune system to exploring the depths of quantum physics and special relativity, YouTube science channels offer a treasure trove of quality science knowledge for free. As an educator, I can not help but focus on those channels that I believe can offer an added value to science teaching and learning within and beyond the classroom. To this end, I compiled this list of what I think are some of the best science YouTube channels for teachers and students (and for all scien