100+Tools+Guides+and+Resources

Apr 15th, 2009 Perhaps you have a special skill, talent, or knowledge-base that you want to share with others, and maybe you’ve heard that teaching [|online courses]  can make you a little extra money. The resources below will help you discover how to combine both what you have to offer and what you wish to gain by guiding you through creating and establishing an [|online course] . No matter what age of student, subject you want to teach, or size of the class, you will find resources and information to bring your class online. Learning Management Systems host your online class and provide a place for students to receive and turn in assignments, class communication, and more.  Read these articles to find out everything from using a free blog to host your class to selecting and implementing a Learning Management System. You may have plenty of great ideas for your class in your head, but you will need to translate those ideas into approachable tasks for the online environment. These resources will help you do that. Find plenty of suggestions to enhance your teaching skills and to learn about special issues for online teaching with these resources. Watch these videos to get help with everything from creating your class in Moodle to using audio and visual media in your class to best teaching practices. Good educators have the ability to put themselves in their students’ shoes in order to understand how best to reach them. These resources provide information about what makes a good online learning environment for students. Make sure your online classes provide plenty of these opportunities or even point your students to these links. If you need help creating content for your class, check out these resources. Use these tools that range from catching plagiarism to reference materials to assistance with organization. These tools will help keep your online class connected through group projects, communication, and more. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">These blogs offer the latest information on distance education, including news and information for teaching and learning online. Stay on top of what is happening in the distance education world in order to keep your online courses on the leading edge. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Did you enjoy this article? [|**Bookmark it at del.icio.us »**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 18pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> [|How to Create Your Own Online Course: 100 Tools, Guides, and Resources] **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Learning Management Systems **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**Moodle**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This free and very popular course management system allows you to design a course for thousands or only a few students and gives access to creating forums, wikis, databases, and much more.
 * 2) [|**Blackboard Learn**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Blackboard is used by many institutes of higher learning, as well as other organizations, as a source of online classroom management.
 * 3) [|**eLearningZoom**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Take advantage of the free trial to see how this <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">[|application] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> works for education, organizations, and businesses.
 * 4) [|**Nicenet’s Internet Classroom Assistant**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Set up your course here and have access to conferencing, scheduling, document sharing, personal messaging, and link sharing. ** Seems like a very easy to use site but not eye catching **
 * 5) [|**FlexTraining**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This e-learning system offers a low-cost solution to providing online training and education. The home page also offers plenty of thinking-points for considering a learning management system.
 * 6) [|**Backpack**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. While not specifically a learning management system, this app is great for organizing groups and sharing information–and is available at no charge for the basic services.
 * 7) [|**OPEN Learning Management System**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This open-source management system helps online teachers with course building as well as class management activities such as creating a syllabus, discussion forum, file uploader, a grade book, calendar, and more.
 * 8) [|**Manhattan**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This free system is run on Linux and is currently being used at many colleges and universities for their online education programs. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Looks very appealing and extremely well organized….looks school like **
 * 9) [|**ATutor**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. ATutor is an open-source web-based management system that is easy for administrators to install and easy for instructors to utilize.
 * 10) [|**.LRN**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. .LRN was developed at MIT, is currently used in a wide range of educational settings, and is open-source.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Doesn’t seem user friendly at all **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Resources for Getting Your Class Online **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**How to Teach an Online Course using WordPress**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article clearly outlines how you can use a free WordPress blog to create a simple online class.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Great overview for steps one should take in creating an online class. **
 * 2) [|**How to Create Your Own Website to Support an On-line Course: tips, hints and practical information**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. If you want to design a website to support your online course, then check out this article that gives technical step-by-step directions.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">I’m not sure we need this one as the other tools would be the site, or our web page would house everything.  **
 * 3) [|**How to Set Up an Online Class Using WebCT 6**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find out how to set up your class with this Blackboard application. ** An overview…not detailed to be effective. **
 * 4) [|**How to Write a Free Online Course to Promote Your Website**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article offers suggestions for creating an online course as a marketing tool.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Interesting idea..we could create a course…What is charter school? Summit Tutorial?? **
 * 5) [|**How to Create a SCORM Compliant Quiz**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Learn to make quizzes that work seamlessly in your online environment and effectively measure student progress.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Need to make a purchase and I think we will use Moodle. **
 * 6) [|**Online classrooms for FREE?! A Review of Free Online Learning Management Systems (LMS)**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article takes a look at several different free learning management systems and offers suggestions for ease-of-use and other criteria. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Excellent resource and seems to lean toward Manhattan. **
 * 7) [|**White paper provides advice for implementing an LMS**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article offers a synopsis of a white paper that offers suggestions to get your LMS going with few problems and also includes where to access the white paper for free. ** Didn’t find helpful **
 * 8) [|**Learning Management Systems (LMS)**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find many resources to learn about the various LMS available and help you choose the right one for your online course. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Compares LMS and LCMS **
 * 9) [|**7 Tips for Selecting a LMS**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. These seven tips will put novice online course developers at ease when considering an LMS.
 * 10) [|**LMS 2.0: How to Select an Advanced Learning System**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Read this white paper to learn what to consider when selecting a system for your course.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Dead Link **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Resources for Developing Your Class **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Click through these selections offering advice and information on what a good online class should provide and how to create an online learning environment. ** EXCELLENT FLOW CHART/TIMELINE Sample **
 * 2) [|**SCORM Explained**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Learn what SCORM is and why it may be important to your online learning environment.  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Good for basic overview of scorm
 * 3) [|**How to Develop Your Online Course**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article offers a wealth of information and points of consideration when developing an effective online course. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">WOW THIS IS AN EXCELLENT STEP BY STEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Refer back to this before meeting. **
 * 4) [|**Sloan-C Events**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Many of the workshops listed here are perfect for learning how to set up your online course **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. A variety of workshops that could be helpful toward our online courses. **
 * 5) [|**E-CLASS: Creating a Guide to Online Course Development For Distance Learning Faculty**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Written by a professor, this article offers an in-depth look at how you can start a distance learning class or program within an institute of higher learning.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Not applicable at present **
 * 6) [|**Develop Online Courses**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This self-paced online course offers information that you may find helpful when first developing your online course.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">THIS IS ANOTHER PERFECT HOW TO IN CREATING ON LINE COURSE….TAKE THIS COURSE **
 * 7) [|**Nine Tips for Creating a Hybrid Course**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. If you will have students in a combination of face-to-face and online classes, this article offers plenty of suggestions. ** Excellent resource if we are considering both face-to-face and online to work in combination **
 * 8) [|**Planning online courses**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. While this class requires a fee to take, it teaches both new and experienced instructors how to get their course online.
 * 9) [|**Writing online courses**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Pay to take this class that brings together the best in teaching methods and technology to help you learn how to write a quality online course.
 * 10) [|**Tips for Developing Media-rich Online Courses**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. From thinking about the learners’ perspective to providing regular feedback to content preparation, this article helps you create an engaging, media-rich class. Good Overview article for anyone beginning to create online classes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Resources for Teaching Online **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**How to Teach an Online Class**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. These steps provide plenty of information on various aspects of teaching, including creating a syllabus, creating lessons and tests, and student contact. ** Other sites are more helpful. **
 * 2) [|**How to Set Up an E-Course**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. The advice here provides helpful ways to ensure your online class goes smoothly with tips on welcoming students, setting up "office hours," and more. TOO BASIC FOR OUR NEEDS…we don’t want just an email course.
 * 3) [|**Online Courses - Tips for Making Them Work**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This veteran online educator shares her experience and offers suggestions for creating an online educational environment that promotes student learning and satisfaction <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Limited help
 * 4) [|**Tips for Training Online Instructors**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Whether you will be hiring someone to teach your online course or you will be doing it yourself, this article offers plenty of good advice on how to make sure the teacher is prepared and equipped to teach online.  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Good Tips to read before setting up classes.
 * 5) [|**Six Tips for Students’ Online Success**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article offers advice for ways to acclimate students to an online learning environment after leaving a traditional classroom setting. ** Pretty Basic **
 * 6) [|**Teaching Online: Tips and Advice**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This site offers a listing of helpful resources that cover such topics as tips and opinions, teaching with technology, journals for teachers, and discussions.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This is more lists of tips…many good ones **
 * 7) [|**CTDLC: Teaching Tips**] <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. From the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium, get links to information on what students want from online teachers to what students say about online assessment to preventing cheating in online classes.  **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Student perspectives **
 * 8) [|**Teaching Tips Index**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This site is full of resources that any teacher, online or in the classroom, can use and range from preparing lesson plans to creating a syllabus to using inclusive language.
 * 9) [|**Tips and Tricks for Teaching Online**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This resource includes help with everything from designing the online course to assessment ideas and even includes some Blackboard tutorials.
 * 10) [|**Tips for Teaching Online**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This article offers great advice for such aspects of online teaching as keeping the lines of communication open, coping with workload, and using discussion as a tool.
 * 11) [|**Teaching Online: Tips and Tricks Part 1**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. From creating a sense of community to contact with the instructor, this article offers plenty of sound suggestions for making your online teaching experience a positive one.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">How-to Videos **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**How to Create an Online Course in Moodle!**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This video shows how to get started creating your course with Moodle.
 * 2) [|**How to Create an Online Course in Minutes**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Using eLearningZoom, this video tutorial will walk you though the initial course set-up.
 * 3) [|**Best Practices in Online Education**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Learn how UMBC motivated and stimulated students in this 2-hour presentation on best practices.
 * 4) [|**Second Life: NC State Classes Go Virtual!**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Learn how two classes at NC State successfully incorporated Second Life into their structure.
 * 5) [|**Narrative Forms in the Digital Classroom**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Discover how this literature class at Vanderbilt University utilized online technology to teach students how to improve their critical thinking and composition skills.
 * 6) [|**Opencast Project Open House at UC Berkeley**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This 1 hour video presentation discusses using audio and visual media as a tool for learning, including online learning.
 * 7) [|**Earth Internet Solutions**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Watch this video to learn how Earth Internet Solutions can help you get your class online.
 * 8) [|**Tips and Tricks for Teaching Math Online**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Whether you are planning to teach math or not, this PowerPoint presentation offers great suggestions for keeping online students engaged.
 * 9) [|**Teaching Excellence Workshop Session 4 - It’s Showtime!**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Watch as these instructors discuss tools used to enhance their online teaching.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Resources from the Student’s Perspective **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**How Students Develop Online Learning Skills**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. From online discussions to instructor techniques to connections with fellow students, you will find lots of information about how online students learn best.
 * 2) [|**Tips for online courses**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Texas A&M offers these tips to students taking online classes to ensure they get the most out of their experience.
 * 3) [|**Survival Tips for On-line Courses**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. These ten tips offer sound advice for students in general as well as online students.
 * 4) [|**The 7 Mistakes Distance Learners Make**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Help ensure your students don’t make these mistakes while taking your online class.
 * 5) [|**Study Tips for Distance Learners**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. These tips include suggestions such as "Check your email at least once a day" and "Demonstrate good communication skills."
 * 6) [|**7 Success Strategies for Distance Learners**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. These basics can apply to any student, but even more so for distance learners.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Creating Content **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**OER Commons**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Get free content for K-12, college-level classes, and other educational courses at this invaluable resource for online instructors creating their own courses.
 * 2) [|**Quia**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Access online text books; create educational games, quizzes, and other online activities; and get unlimited math questions that cover hundreds of topics.
 * 3) [|**The Online Books Page**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find a free text for your class among over 35,000 available at this site.
 * 4) [|**Open Courseware Consortium**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Why reinvent the wheel when you have access to so many great classes already developed. Check out the open courseware classes on the subject you hope to teach and see about incorporating them into your class.
 * 5) [|**Cool School**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This Canadian company will develop dynamic content targeted for K-12 for your online lessons available for a fee.
 * 6) [|**Federal Resources for Educational Excellence**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Browse through the many available resources here which include primary documents, photos, videos, and animation in subjects ranging from jazz to American literature to astronomy–and they are all free of charge.
 * 7) [|**Biz/ed**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This British site offers educational materials for students and educators in the fields of business, accounting, economics, travel and tourism, and sports and recreation.
 * 8) [|**Mrs. Glosser’s Math Goodies**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find math lessons, worksheets, and more at this site.
 * 9) [|**Distance Learning Center: Creating Online Content**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. The resources at this site from Community College of Allegheny County offer suggestions and links to places that will help you create content for your online class.
 * 10) [|**Guide to Create Content**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. If you want to stream digital media for your online class, learn how to do so with this resource.
 * 11) [|**Topmarks**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Another British website, this one finds teaching resources and educational websites based on the criteria you select. They find content for early education through adult education in a variety of subjects.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Helpful Tools **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**CopyCatch**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find out if students are plagiarizing their work by using this application.
 * 2) [|**Alphabetizer**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Paste any list into this tool to immediately create an alphabetized list easily.
 * 3) [|**Writeboard**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Create online text documents that can be edited and shared with this tool that also integrates with Backpack.
 * 4) [|**WordCounter**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. See if your students’ 1000 word papers are actually 1000 words with this online word counter tool.
 * 5) [|**Google Alerts**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find new information on your research topics or ideas for new classes by receiving email updates on any topic through Google Alerts.
 * 6) [|**Bartleby.com**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Access several handy reference books for your own personal use or to encourage students to use.
 * 7) [|**Connotea**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Research is much easier with this tool, specifically designed for researchers, that manages online references.
 * 8) [|**SiteTradr**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find out what sites educators are recommending with this tool that takes the worry out of Internet reading.
 * 9) [|**Nozbe**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Keep yourself organized with this application that allows you to keep to-do lists, manage class projects and tasks, get reminders, share with students, and even access from your mobile phone.
 * 10) [|**Notely**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Recommend this app to your students. Notely provides tools such as note-taking, a scheduler, homework planner, a calendar, and is made especially for students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Collaboration Tools **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**Zoho Show**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Zoho Show helps students create awesome presentations that can also be shared with others.
 * 2) [|**Campfire**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Set up instant chat rooms with your class or study groups using Campfire and help facilitate communication between students.
 * 3) [|**MeetWithApproval**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Plan a virtual meeting with your students with this meeting planner.
 * 4) [|**Thinkature**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Students can collaborate with each other, organize thoughts and research, and prepare papers and projects with this tool.
 * 5) [|**Wizlite**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Students can use this tool to highlight any text online and share with others while working on group projects or collaborating on assignments.
 * 6) [|**ProBoards**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Create a discussion board easily and quickly so you can create an area for class collaboration.
 * 7) [|**CiteULike**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Share scholarly articles on the Internet or have students research them, then use this tool to store, organize, and share with ease from any browser.
 * 8) [|**Google Calendar**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Use this shareable calendar to keep track of assignments, tests, deadlines, meetings, and more while keeping the whole class informed.
 * 9) [|**ThinkFold**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. ThinkFold allows groups to create interactive, real-time outlines collaboratively.
 * 10) [|**Notefish**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Students and instructors alike can save web content on Notefish notes, then organize and share notes with the class.
 * 11) [|**PBwiki**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Group collaboration is easy with this popular wiki platform.
 * 12) [|**writewith**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. For writing projects, this app keeps students working together with shared documents and tasks, discussions, and more.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Distance Education Blogs **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
 * 1) [|**Virtual High School Meanderings**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This blog looks at the many issues of distance learning, but with a specific eye on high-school online learning.
 * 2) [|**California Dreamin’**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Learn about course development, conferences on distance education, and much more with this blog.
 * 3) [|**e-Learning Evangelist**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Working in the world of e-learning since the mid-1990’s, this veteran online educator has plenty to share.
 * 4) [|**My State of Flux**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find resources, reflections, and information about online learning in this blog.
 * 5) [|**BestOnlineHighSchools.com**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find out what’s going on in the world of high school distance education by reading the information here.
 * 6) [|**Teaching and Developing Online**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This blog offers lots of advice and links to resources to enhance the online learning environment.
 * 7) [|**Thoughts from BFE**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. The technology director from the only fully online high school program in the US blogs about technology as well as online learning in both high school and higher education.
 * 8) [|**Online Learning Update**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. This news aggregator offers all the latest trends and developments in online learning.
 * 9) [|**Inside eLearning by Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Find information on creating effective teaching tools such as effectively using visuals in papers and how to use statistics to support your research.
 * 10) [|**Inspiration for Education**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. The news articles and interviews here offer uplifting stories that usually revolve around online education.
 * 11) [|**Michelle’s Online Learning Freakout Party Zone**]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">. Get tips and resources to enhance your online learning environment with this blog.