Many books recommend teaching and learning strategies based on current learning research and theory. However, few books offer illustrative examples of how to take these strategies and put them into action in the real world. The Online Learning Idea Book is filled with concrete examples of people who make learning more inspiring and engaging every day, in all kinds of settings, all over the world.

In this second volume of The Online Learning Idea Book you will find brand new and valuable ideas that you can adopt or adapt in your own instructional materials, to make them more dynamic and more worthwhile for learners and learning. These ideas will let you peek over the shoulders of some of the world's most creative instructors, instructional designers and developers, trainers, media developers, and others in order to help spark creative ideas of your own.

This hands-on resource will help you build online instructional materials or improve existing materials including online courses, modules, activities, or supplementary materials for classroom-based courses.

This book provides great tips, techniques, and tricks in the following areas: The Design and Development Process, Supporting Learning, Synchronous and Interpersonal Activities, Asynchronous and Self-Paced Activities, and NS Better Media.

Within these pages you will discover creative ways to give your online and blended instruction a boost by adopting and adapting great ideas from others.

Paperback: 400 pages
Company: Pfeiffer (2011-09-06)
ISBN: 0470472308
List Price: $60.00
Amazon Price: $39.99
Used Price: $42.10

"For those who think online learning can't be truly interactive, Patti Shank and her colleagues clearly demonstrate--in hundreds of examples--that it can. The real lesson in The Online Learning Idea Book is that technology doesn't build interactive learning; creative thinking and good, solid instructional design does. Using even a smidgen of the great ideas in this book will increase the learning effectiveness of any online program."--Marc J. Rosenberg, consultant, and author of Beyond E-Learning

"Patti Shank has collected great ideas about online learning and teaching from all over the globe. If you are an online instructor or instructional designer looking for new ways to involve and engage your learners, you'll be inspired by this book!"--Terry Morris, associate professor, William Rainey Harper Colleges

Filled with techniques, tools, tips, examples, resources, and dozens of "great ideas,? this invaluable resource helps people who are looking to build online instructional materials -- or improve existing materials -- discover and implement what the best and brightest in industry and education are doing to make online learning more engaging and compelling. Increase your know-how in the following areas:

Look and Feel: how to increase ease-of-use Graphics and Multimedia: how to make instructional graphics engaging and compelling Activities: how to make instruction itself engaging and compelling Tools: how to use a variety of online tools Instructional Design: how to design better and faster.

Paperback: 380 pages
Company: Pfeiffer (2007-02-26)
ISBN: 0787981680
List Price: $50.00
Amazon Price: $34.60
Used Price: $15.64

From admission to graduation-your personal guide to studying online

Online Education For Dummies explains the ins and outs of attending a virtual classroom, and provides you with the tools you need to hone your skills or obtain additional certification and degrees. This practical reference not only helps you get the most out of an online course, but also offers a wealth of advice to help you pick the one that matches your interests and needs.Identifies the software and hardware needed to study onlineReveals how to get financial aid, transfer credits, and manage online timeExplains how to locate legitimate online programs and avoid scams

Whether you want to earn a degree or just increase your knowledge through an online course, Online Education For Dummies is the only guide you need.

Author: Kevin E. Johnson, Susan Manning
Paperback: 360 pages
Company: For Dummies (2009-12-30)
ISBN: 0470536209
List Price: $21.99
Amazon Price: $4.58
Used Price: $3.87

The Online Teaching Survival Guide provides an overview of theory-based techniques for online teaching or for a technology-enhanced course, including course management, social presence, community building, and debriefing. Based on traditional pedagogical theory, this resource integrates the latest research in cognitive processing and learning outcomes. From a practical approach, this guidebook presents instructional strategies in a four-phase timeline, suitable for any online or blended course. Faculty with little knowledge of educational theory and those well-versed in pedagogy will find this book a key to developing their practical online teaching skills.

Author: Judith V. Boettcher, Rita-Marie Conrad
Paperback: 320 pages
Company: Jossey-Bass (2010-06-01)
ISBN: 0470423536
List Price: $38.00
Amazon Price: $27.37
Used Price: $28.99

This is a revision of the first title in Jossey-Bass' Online Teaching & Learning series. This series helps higher education professionals improve the practice of online teaching and learning by providing concise, practical resources focused on particular areas or issues they might confront in this new learning environment.

This revision includes updated activities and resources for instructors teaching online. Based on changes in technology and best practices learned from the field the revision provides new information for even seasoned online instructors.

Author: Rita-Marie Conrad, J. Ana Donaldson
Paperback: 160 pages
Company: Jossey-Bass (2011-05-17)
ISBN: 1118018192
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $20.35
Used Price: $14.84

Praise for the First Edition

"The Fielding Institute authors apply an impressive wealth of organizational management theory and experience in their analyses of computer-mediated teaching and learning. The result is an enjoyable-to-read, fresh and lively book, delivering an abundance of ideas about how to establish a supportive learning environment, design a well structured course and manage electronically mediated dialog, -- in other words, how to successfully facilitate learning in the new context of on-line distance education."
-Michael G. Moore, Pennsylvania State University and Editor, The American Journal of Distance Education

"This book is a fascinating, comprehensive, revealing array of information about online learning. It is full of practical applications and significant implications for a future where online learning will play an increasingly larger role. It is essential for any library keeping up on online learning innovations."
-Dr. Bernard J. Luskin, President and Co-CEO, GlobalLearningSystems, Inc. Visiting Professor, Claremont Graduate University

"This book not only is that rare breed that addresses online learning in both higher education and corporate environments but every chapter is intriguing, informative, and accurately grounded. This book provides a comprehensive, timely, and informative look at online learning in higher education and corporate training settings. For an update on the state of e-learning in educational and training environments, simply read this book."
-Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D., Indiana University and Courseshare.com

"Business and Learning have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship in our culture. The pace of change, however, has created separation between these two vital elements. The "Handbook of Online Learning" showcases the latest thinking and applications in learning delivery, and offers real promise that the gap is being bridged."
-D.M. Verkest, AT&T Wireless Services, Vice-President-National Operations

"The authors of this book are all experienced distance educators who know what the issues are: How are people engaged in teaching and learning at a distance "present" to one another? How do you create a community in the class? How can a teacher deal with an obstreperous student? What are the teaching/learning environments in universities and corporations as they affect distance education? The essays in this book inhabit the border where the idea of distance education meets the reality. The give practical advice and provide examples informed by both theory and experience."
-Stanley Chodorow, Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego & Former CEO, California Virtual University

Author: Kjell E. (Erik) Rudestam, Judith Schoenholtz-Read
Paperback: 520 pages
Company: Sage Publications, Inc (2009-05-15)
ISBN: 1412961033
List Price: $61.00
Amazon Price: $28.99
Used Price: $34.94

As the sixth volume of the Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning series, Conquering the Content provides a highly-practical blue-print for course development and content presentation for web-based courses. While providing guidance for incorporating learning theory into online courses, this book primarily furnishes online instructors with the practical templates, learning guides, and sample files to construct and manage their course content.

Unlike other books about online instruction that cover theories of teaching and learning, instructional design, or even graphic design this book gives the "how to" of preparing an online course by focusing on content. The much needed step-by-step guidance in this book will result in fully formed courses where high-quality content is the central feature.

Author: Robin M. Smith
Paperback: 176 pages
Company: Jossey-Bass (2008-04-11)
ISBN: 0787994421
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $20.08
Used Price: $16.62

Written by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt, experts in the field of online teaching and learning, this hands-on resource helps higher education professionals understand the fundamentals of effective online assessment. It offers guidance for designing and implementing creative assessment practices tied directly to course activities to measure student learning. The book is filled with illustrative case studies, authentic assessments based in real-life application of concepts, and collaborative activities that assess the quality of student learning rather than relying on the traditional methods of measuring the amount of information retained.

Author: Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt
Paperback: 176 pages
Company: Jossey-Bass (2008-11-24)
ISBN: 0470283866
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $19.41
Used Price: $16.73

"The best book on How to build an online teaching business that I did not write." - Kirsten Winkler, education consultant

The most important thing about this book is that Andre unflinchingly spells out the simplicity of teaching online, and strips bare the misconceptions surrounding bells, whistles, toys and technology. After reading this, you will no longer feel overwhelmed about teaching online, and you’ll avoid the many pitfalls of teachers like myself who dived into the online world without Andre as a guide. – Sylvia Guinan, edupreneur

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How To Teach Online Without Selling Your Soul is an unflinching look at the educational landscape of both present, past and future.

Besides giving a detailed overview of education between over-reliance on technology and brick and mortar "knowledge factories", this book is filled with simple and practical instructions to get anyone started making a living by teaching online and sharing their knowledge, passion and experience.

Featured within this book are a variety of essays on topics such as "Going Freelance or Working For an Online School", "How To Attract Clients Without Paying for Advertising", "Creating Your Own Learning Materials" and much more.

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André Klein is the co-founder of the popular online learning school learnoutlive [dot] com where he regularly writes about online teaching and the many different ways in which technology is taking over our lives and how to use it without being used by it.

Author: André Klein
Kindle Edition: 46 pages Kindle eBook
Company: (2011-04-30) (2011-04-30)
List Price: $4.99
Amazon Price:

In every online class, some students are wildly successful, some earn average or slightly below-average grades, some barely pass, some fail, and some drop out. Whatever a student's age, situation, or lifestyle, everything needed for successfully completing an online class is right here in this book. Each chapter covers a specific element of online learning and provides the new online student with practical strategies and how-to information so that any student can go into an online classroom prepared to succeed.
This book has strategies and tips that every online professor wants students to know before they sign up for an online class. Bowman has provided a reference tool for students to develop self-directed learning skills that will help them become secure and knowledgeable about technology, studying, communicating online, and getting work done on time.

Author: Leslie Bowman
Hardcover: 116 pages
Company: R&L Education (2010-08-16)
ISBN: 1607097478
List Price: $22.00
Amazon Price: $20.76
Used Price: $6.99