My Online Course

As many of you know, I have transitioned American Government into an MHS Learning Center Online Course  that does not utilize a traditional textbook. Besides two big collaborative projects, a major source of content is provided by audio lectures which I have created by telephone.

Advantages of MP3 Audio Lectures:

* Frees teacher to innovate rather than numbingly repeat

* All sections receive the same information

* Students can adjust presentation to customized pace

* Absent students stay “caught up” without having to resort to the notes of their peers.

* Compared to video files, audio, much easier to use.

* With planning, content is relatively easy to update.

A Sample Lecture:

Congress at Work

GCAST http://www.gcast.com/

I make the majority of my own files at Gcast. Once you set up an account, you simply dial 1-888-65-GCAST and enter your pin. After that you follow the menu options. You may abort your recording or delete after you have reviewed it. You can then post the file to your account online. In order to download the file to your computer, you click the mp3, button. When the file is on your computer, you can upload it to Moodle, email it, play it, etc. Posting it to Moodle is identical to posting Word file or pdf. It just takes a little longer since the files are larger. I usually don’t post enormous files, preferring to break lectures into sections.

Suggestions

*Present your lectures in short segments.  This has a number of advantages:

    - It's much easier to update or edit the lectures.

    - If you blank out or stumble while recording, you will be less discouraged about starting over.

    - The files are smaller and much easier to upload to Moodle

    - Students have more options in listening mode.

    - You can stay “fresh” while recording.

* Don’t script the lectures; use an outline.

* I have had fun extracting extra questions from minutiae I include in the lectures.

*Provide students with a guide.

Shameless Plugs

If you have found today’s session helpful, let administration know. I hope they will continue to provide me with time to develop in-services.

Consider subscribing to my ed tech blog: http://larryrthoughts.blogspot.com/

Laurence R. Baker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode