The resources added to this page are those that we invite our readership to contact and explore.
One of the best known summaries of research-based instructional practices is the widely disseminated
Seven Principles of Effective Teaching authored by Chickering and Gamson. As a result of their work,
Chickering and Gamson concluded that student success is related to teaching practices which encourage
(1) student-faculty contact, (2) cooperation among students, (3) active learning, (4) prompt feedback,
(5) time on task, (6) high expectations, and (7) respect for diverse talents and ways of learning. The
pedagogy represented by their framework has been recommended as a guide for evaluating the quality of
instruction associated with Internet-based courses. For an overview see Why Seven Principles?.
Merlot is a free and open resource collection available to educators. It contains links to online
learning materials with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. For Merlot resources
designed
for faculty in higher education, see Merlot
Teams LX takes on-line collaboration between students up a notch. For example, instructors
can organize students into groups and assign each group to jointly author a dynamic Web site.
When the teams' site is completed, instructors can view each group member's contributions and
grade them accordingly. See http://www.learningobjects.com. For more information about Teams LX,
see Stony Brook Instructional Computing Blackboard Team
RSS
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for distributing and gathering content from
sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs to which you have
subscribed on a specified cycle. RSS provides feed subscribers with up-to-date information
sources. A constant stream of updated online information would be beneficial to many courses.
For a tutorial, see RSS Tutorial
Skype
Skype offers peer to peer voice service for making free calls over the Internet to anyone
else who also has Skype. Itıs free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers.
To learn more about Skype, see Skype
