Inside Online Learning

There is a lot of debate these days about the application of game-based formats in academic settings, both online and face-to-face. I've been a part of several recent discussions that made me aware I need to learn more. At this point I have more questions than answers, and just a little experience with digital badges, [...]

Can you imagine being enrolled in a course with hundreds or even thousands of classmates? What about being responsible for teaching a course with that many students? It may seem like an impossible situation, but that's exactly what's happening at Virginia Tech in John Boyer's World Regions geography course with over 2,600 students in the [...]

While many educators and employers agree that computer technology related skills are necessary for today's workforce in an increasing variety of career fields – not to mention careers of a technologically advanced future – several schools have recently decided to end their computer science programs. The State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo's computer science program [...]

This topic is not new to Inside Online Learning, but it's one that seems to be evolving as technologies advance and new approaches to online delivery are made available. Almost a year ago I described the basics of the new literacies in terms of access, analysis, media creation, and implementation, but last week I was introduced [...]

According to the latest report on eReading from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, "the increasing availability of e-content is prompting some to read more than in the past and to prefer buying books to borrowing them." Pew describes e-content as eBooks and "other long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital [...]

In last week's #IOLchat, we asked participants to share the social networking platforms they preferred for professional and educational purposes. We were both pleased and surprised to see more than just Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn mentioned. With this post, my goal is to provide an introduction to other systems currently used by educators and students for both professional [...]

Last week I had the privilege of meeting with middle and high school students to discuss blogging. Their teacher and I collaborated via Skype and email before the visit to prepare a game plan, and How are blogs used in education? was one of the questions we decided to address. He asked me to tell [...]

You can probably remember a lesson or two delivered by one of your teachers in high school or college. It may have been something that changed the way you thought about the subject matter or helped you make a connection necessary to understand a tough concept. These kinds of lessons can make a real difference [...]