Week 9 Forum

Week 9: Forum – What online learning tools do you know about?

• Name of the tool / technology;

• What type of online learning activity it could be used for;

• How you found out about this tool;

• Whether you have previously used this tool yourself or not, to support student learning or for some another function;

• A URL link to any further information about this tool.

As a self-employed tutor, I have mentioned cost implications to use these resources, as this is something which greatly effects my decision making when I come across new technology to use.

Zoom

Online video, familiar, accessible, used a lot in Covid. Recently it seems more expensive, and I do not think you can just sign up for 1 month at a time subscription any more. I used this resource to record my webcast flipped classroom element last term for free and found it easy to use. This would be my current preferred synchronous online teaching resource as I find the camera easy to change between a shared screen, computer screen, and vertical SLR camera view of my hands making.

Microsoft Teams

You can sign up for a 1month trial subscription before paying. I am not so familiar, and from experience last term, others do not seem to be either. It seems more complicated to share screen and record sessions, and resulted last term in only my student receiving the recording rather than myself!

My Website (Wix)

I am planning on having a private (accessible through password) section of my website which will contain resources for my students when they sign up to my class. This will include a simple step by step pages where I will be able to upload videos, and further information. I am in the process of researching whether I can add a hidden forum element here too for my students so they can access it any time and upload shareable information for asynchronous learning.

Survey Monkey

I used this last term to allow students to take part in a mini quiz (designed by me) with results being emailed automatically to me, to see that they had taken part in their asynchronous learning. I found the free service quite unreliable, with only soe results being automatically sent to me, even though all students took part. I will be looking for an alternative from now on.