FOR ONLINE STUDENTS:
Resources, Guides, Tips & Tutorials		 Updated June 12, 2008
   
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Perhaps you can supply these links for your own students as needed?

Quick Links for this page:

Learning Styles Self Assessment tools 04/27/08

Avoiding Plagiarism: A helpful resource from The OWL at Perdue. A set of articles for students and teachers. Among other helpful tips, the site offers descriptions of what constitutes plagiarized work. Also included is a page of Best Practices for Teachers. 04/11/08

E-Learning Today.com: This site has several helpful sections and articles for those relatively new to eLearning. I'm linking you to the eLearning Basics page, but tour around while you're there. If you're an eLearning provider there are materials/articles for you too. 12/05/07

Half an Hour: Things You Really Need to Learn: "Your school will try to teach you facts, which you'll need to pass the test but which are otherwise useless. In passing you may learn some useful skills, like literacy, which you should cultivate. But Guy Kawasaki is right in at least this: schools won't teach you the things you really need to learn in order to be successful, either in business (whether or not you choose to live life as a toady) or in life." Stephen Downes says, "Here, then, is my list." A good list indeed! Now all we need to do is convince our Education ministries to go for this curriculum! 09/02/06

5 Ways to Enhance Your Learning: "As adult learners and teachers, we can ride the crest of the current revolution in brain research. We can learn easier, faster, better, and more enjoyably! The new scientific understanding of our most vital organ can help us improve everything about our learning -- from choosing our best times and places to learn, to setting grander goals for how much we can grow. Based on the work of the world's leading brain researchers over the past twenty years, here are the top five ways to enhance your learning." 05/23/05

Education Planner (U.S.A.): Help categories include: Preparing, Selecting, Deciding, Applying, Paying, and Get Help Paying For College. From AES (American Education Services), "Education Planner is your one-stop education website. We have the information you need to find a career, choose a college, university or career school, apply and pay for postsecondary education, then move into the working world." 01/15/05

Education Planner (Canada): Canadian Flag Help categories include: Program search by area, Apprenticeships, Graduate Programs, Institution links. Student Services, International Students, Special Needs, Money Matters. "Education Planner is endorsed by the public post-secondary institutions of BC, managed by the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer, and funded by the BC Ministry of Advanced Education." 01/15/05

Am I ready to eLearn? Am I the type of person who can do this?

What Makes a Successful Online Student? "The online students of today consist primarily of working people who are trying to better their opportunities. This however is changing, as more and more young and older people become aware of the online model. The traditional school will never go away, but the virtual classroom is a significant player in today’s educational community. Corporations are using the online model to train technical professionals while private and public universities redefine the world as their markets. The market for students is expanding rapidly. In general, the online student should possess the following qualities..." 03/04/08

Canada Consumers' Guide to eLearning: How to select the best eLearning for yourself. When deciding on your options, "Ponder these 15 important questions. If your answer is NO to any category of question, consider moving on to another e-learning option." 04/20/04

College Bound: Help for those who are on their way to college to further their education. Financial aid info, campus tours, information, advice, coupons, student survival strategies, totally interactive, contest-clickin' fun. 04/06/02

Self-Evaluation for Potential Online Students: "Will online learning fit your circumstances, lifestyle, and educational needs? Here are some basic questions to ask yourself in deciding if an online program is right for you." 04/01/02

Online Learning Orientation: A super site for new online students; includes a section on whether online learning is right for the student, how to have online success; tutorials, getting your computer ready, some basic skills, WebCT skills, help and resources. 11/20/01

Prerequisite Skills for Online Learning: Not only tips & recommendations, but also links to resources to help you attain the necessary skills. 07/02/01

Discovery Wheel: For students: an opportunity to tell the truth to yourself about the kind of student you are and the kind of student you want to become. 04/24/01

Is On-line Learning For Me? On-line Learning Net

Are Distance Courses For Me? College of DuPage

Tips, Guides & Tutorials

Ten Tips and Tricks for the Online Student: This article is from 2004, but all the excellent tips are still relevant. I like the first one: "Read everything twice. Read everything twice." And the best one is probably #9, "Be your own guide." The author's reason for #9 is a good one -- there are still online facilitators/teachers who "have not [yet] adapted to this new classroom", whereas many students entering online learning now have been raised with the internet, with self-guidance online, and can adapt more readily to this style of learning. 06/12/08

Suite 101 courses: "Suite101.com offers FREE, fun, and accessible online learning for a wide variety of general interest courses designed with you in mind. All you have to do is pick a course or a particular lesson and simply click and learn…it's that easy!" 04/02/08

College Strategies: Just just one example of the courses appropriate for students. "The course is jam-packed with info that can save you time, money, and frustration. Many drop out of first year unnecessarily due to being unprepared. If you are already a freshman and feel you are overwhelmed, this course can help you too! ...There are no courses offered in college on “what to do once being accepted to college”, while it is such a big transition in life it should be mandatory. That is where this course comes in; after completion you will have more knowledge than most students in their senior years do and the ability to jumpstart your academic and social life so you get the most out of it. Right away!" 04/02/08

Jobprofiles.org: "We have build a collection of profiles and job descriptions about various different types of careers so you will better understand your area of study before you enter the workplace." This is an EXCELLENT site because of the variety of its offerings. Beyond those Job Profiles, their site sections include: 07/27/07

Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better: "77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning." I was going to say "for your students", but these tips are good for all of us involved in lifelong learning. 07/02/07

Study Guides & Strategies: "The Study Guides and Strategies web site is authored, maintained and supported by Joe Landsberger as an independent educational public service. Collaborative projects are developed across institutional, cultural and national boundaries. I resist advertising, registration, and distracting graphics or features that may interfere with maximizing learner access." 07/02/07

Getting the Most From Online Learning: The link is to a 4 page summary of the book, which you can buy via eLearning Guru. The summary is a good article in itself so I thought it was worth linking. 10/20/05

Virtual Training Suite for Adult and Community Learners: FREE online tutorials "...designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information literacy and IT skills. Work in your own time at your own pace - no one is monitoring you! There are quizzes and interactive exercises to lighten the learning experience." 06/17/05

Taking Charge of Learning: Tips for Students: "My recurring pedagogical theme is that each student is at the center of his or her learning. As teachers-professors we catalyze. We coach. We connect. In the end, however, each student must take personal responsibility for learning. Properly used, each student’s computer is an efficient and very effective tool that enhances the pursuit of this responsibility. Along those lines, here are some views that professors may find useful to pass along to their students." 02/09/04

Search Engine Tutorial: introduces internet searching using Flash. Links to the best of the Engines; explains Boolean operators. 12/20/03

Study Skills: Self Help Information for students 07/21/00

Eureka! An exciting online teaching project with TV Ontario offers free tutoring to students in a variety of subjects through chat and a whiteboard. Exciting. Check it out -- if nothing else, just as an idea for something YOU might like to do some day! 04/16/01

A Guide for Writing Research Papers: based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation. Prepared by the Humanities Department of the Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut.

Tools & Resources to help your eLearning experience

Engineering & other technical professionals & students: Visit the IEEE Professional Communications Society: "The PCS field of interest includes the study, development, improvement, and promotion of effective techniques for preparing, organizing, processing, editing, collecting, conserving, teaching, and disseminating any form of technical information by and to individuals and groups by any method of communication. It also includes technical, scientific, industrial, and other activities that contribute to the techniques and products used in this field." 05/14/08

Google Notebook Browser Extension: A little-known helper within Google notebooks -- easily create your URL for your website citation. This browser extension helps you take notes from websites by simply marking the text, then using a right click to get to a special “copy” command. The program automatically records the url for complete citations. Downloading this extension gives you access to this mini Google Notebook feature, which allows you to:
- Clip and collect information as you surf the web.
- Stay in your browser window.
- Organize your notes from the web page you're on. 10/21/07

bibme ~ a Free ONLINE BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERATOR: "BibMe is your one-stop source for all your bibliography needs!" Developed by Information Systems students at Carnegie Mellon University. Automatically generates correctly formatted entries for you reference list. Entries include various types (including web links). Resulting formats include MLA, APA and Chicago styles. ALSO: "Don’t remember all the information for the source you cited? No problem! BibMe allows you to search from a database of millions of entries to find your source and autofill in the information. Or, if you the source in front of you, you can enter your entries in manually." 05/18/07

How to Write Articles and Essays Quickly and Expertly: from Stephen Downes. 03/02/07

10 Academic Resources Daily: The authors' goal: "Our main purpose is to provide valuable solutions for students and young researchers; disseminate additional knowledge, skills and attitudes that are useful in their youth work; communicate within the academic community of scholars, professionals and students from all branches. We share information about scholarships, grants, conferences, study abroad opportunities, exchange and professional training programs and internships all over the world." 11/26/06

Keyboard Shortcut keys: For Windows and for Mac. 08/01/06

English Daily.com: Free Resources for Learning English Online. Useful as a reference site too. Free exercises, idioms, common abbreviations, slang, proverbs and much more. 08/24/06

Ajax Web-based software: Ajax has an MS-Word-like online word processor -- create a new file or open a .doc file from your drive, save to your hard drive, publish to the web, share & collaborate, all right from a website. They have other applications too, including a Sketch app, spreadsheet (xls) app, Tunes player, video mixing (eyespot), and more. This is from the Ajax blog: "The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Is It Time to Dump Your Desktop?” In it the author reflects on the possibility for businesses to switch to web-based software once it is “good enough” for a big percentage of users. In this article, Ajax 13 was mentioned as one of the companies that is producing online alternatives to Micrsoft's widely used Office software. The appeal that the low cost alternatives have, continues to create a growing threat to the MS Office Suite." 07/30/06

Finding Articles Online: In this article, author Mary Ellen Bates mentions several sources for an articles search, going into detail about what they have, are good for, quality, etc. "When you're looking for magazine or journal articles, search engines can be helpful, but other specialized search tools are often a better bet—particularly in the academic, scholarly and sci-tech areas." 2/27/06

Answers.com: "...delivers snapshot, multi-faceted definitions and explanations from credible, attributable reference sources on over one million topics in our database. Our editors take our content from over 100 encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases, carefully chosen for breadth and quality." 01/08/06

1-Click Answers for Windows or Mac. Here's a FREE DOWNLOAD tool -- For ultimate convenience, install 1-Click Answers software, and click on any word in any document on your screen for "Answers at your Fingertips". Our premium content together with our patented technology reduces the overload and frustration of Internet users' trying to locate high-quality reference information." Install and then you can Alt-Click on any word in any program on your screen for an instant, pop-up AnswerTip that won't interrupt your work.

I stil have GuruNet, their original application (got it many years ago) for this same task and I have to say, whatever tool you use, this kind of quick-answer tool is a grrrreat addition for any computer. Don't know what I'd do without it! 07/30/06

Acatopia.org: Acatopia is building communities around books. It's fairly new, so there aren't a lot of Q&As yet, so go ahead and post your own if you have just finished a book or textbook. "Ask any question about a book or textbook you're reading, and answer other readers' questions." What is Acatopia.org? "Acatopia's goal is to form a community to help you learn." How does Acatopia.org work?"Just search for a book you are reading, or a book you have read. You will then be able to ask any question you have, and help answer other readers' questions." 11/21/05

Understand Plagiarism: Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. "Academic writing in American institutions is filled with rules that writers often don’t know how to follow. A working knowledge of these rules, however, is critically important; inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism or the unacknowledged use of somebody else’s words or ideas. While other cultures may not insist so heavily on documenting sources, American institutions do. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from a university. This handout, which does not reflect any official university policy, is designed to help writers develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism." 01/27/05

Research Buddy 0.2: If you don't already use Mozilla Firefox, and if you're a writer or student, this might be your reason to switch. "Research Buddy saves references to webpages in a bibliographical reference format." Right from in your browser, when you find something on a webpage you'd like to reference, it's a matter of right-click and then filling in the blanks to create your bibliography, plua, "depending on the preferences, the page (and it's images) may be saved to the user's disk." 12/14/04

The Best Online Homework Help: (for gradeschool kids) "Using the Internet for homework assistance requires both awareness and participation from parents. It is important to view the Internet as a supplementary tool for learning, not as a wishing well of copy-and-paste information. Here are some useful sites that will help you enhance your child's learning experiences at home." 09/11/04/

Golden Retriever: by N-LITER Inc., a toolbar that downloads to Internet Explorer, allows users to search for and collect online information and then add notes to or highlight the desired Web pages. The software then automatically copies the Web page contents to the user's hard drive. When the online researcher wants to retrieve the information, Golden Retriever "fetches" the saved page(s), complete with the personal annotations. Highlighted pages also can be e-mailed, allowing the user to share the results of the research or to forward the information to another computer. 01/06/04

Homework Helpers: "When you've searched, queried and pleaded for answers to your homework questions to no avail, who ya gonna call? Homework busters, that's who! Here's the scoop on real people (teachers, librarians, experts, authors, and fellow students) who will answer your most perplexing homework questions via e-mail." 10/20/03

Spelling Help in a browser! ieSpell: A free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. The program installs as a new button in the IE toolbar. 09/25/03

Calculator.com: Calculators online, all varieties! Fractions, Scientific, Currency, Units, Time, etc. Send your students there and have them bookmark it. 06/04/02

Mind Tools: A useful (and fun) site that includes tools to help with Speed Reading, Time Management, and Procrastination -- presumably it helps eliminate that one! 03/24/02

iTools! A great collection of language tools. Link to it from your course home page! Includes general and specialized dictionary / thesaurus tools, translation tools, research tools, and search tools. 02/22/02

NoodleTools: "A free suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and professionals with their online research." A search wizard, research links galore, a moderated Q&A discussion, and a bibliography composer! 12/01/01

CourseReader: Conferencing software that allows offline reading and replying from/to newsgroups, courses, etc. "...Creates an educational environment that allows people to participate in courses via computer communications - even if they have expensive Internet connections, undependable electrical supplies, high telephone costs or time limited access to the Internet." 11/28/01

eGems Collector: "the easiest and fastest way to capture, organize and source your electronic research! It will help you save your valuable research "gems"- text, images and links - from the Internet, digital libraries, email and open applications." 11/28/01

ThePaperboy.com: The web's biggest collection of quality searchable links to thousands of online newspapers from around the world. 06/16/01

Electronic Resources For The Reference Desk

Librarians' Index To The Internet

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