How to Fascinate Your Way to Students’ Hearts in Distance Learning?

Why are you captivated by some speakers but not by others? Why do you remember some people even if you met them long ago, and forget the rest who you just encountered? In a distracted, overcrowded world, how do some people help you change your behavior? How do you create connection with your students? How do you present your material so when they leave your classroom they do not only remember it, but want to talk about it and think about and will have intense and emotionally charged experience that keeps them coming up with solutions on their own? You are not going to achieve these results by purely providing information, you need to give your students something more, something that goes beyond information.

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Lessons from the Eye Movement Research: Using Pictures To Guide Learners’ Attention Online

Today’s “Hot Topics Wednesday’s” episode is a special one! I am honoring all holidays that you choose to celebrate this season and for that I prepared a surprise for you at the end of this video!

CLICK ME!

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How to Create Online Content that Gets Attention Using Human Psychology…

Today’s post is not a video. I chose to create a written blog because today’s “Hot Topics Wednesdays” post  deals with writing for the web.

Writing for web-based courses is DIFFERENT than writing for traditional courses.

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Surviving The Cyber Jungle One Breath at a Time…

Many of us dream about getting an online job. It promises a lot of flexibility, convenience, and freedom. However, when we actually start teaching online we often become overwhelmed and stressed out with the amount of work that needs to be done. Technical glitches do not enhance our overall experience.Slowly, we find ourselves “glued” to the computer 24/7, without any rest… we feel like our lives are passing by and can start to feel overworked and underpaid… Continue reading

A Winning Structure for Collaborative Activities Online

Today’s “Hot Topics Wednesdays” episode is devoted to a very common problem. Often online teachers and trainers understand the need for collaboration online. However, when they design their forums and wikis their students do not participate or do not produce high quality posts. To solve this problem, I developed a 5-step formula for an effective collaborative online activity. I hope this post will help you improve collaboration in your web-based classroom. Please watch this 4 minute video to find out how. You are also welcome to download the cheatsheet for this winning structure. Continue reading

What Charlie Sheen Taught Me About Online Learning..

Charlie Sheen

 

 

 

 

 

 

In today’s “Hot Topics Wednesdays” episode I will describe a revelation that I had after watching a program on Charlie Sheen. Good old Charlie has done some crazy things in his life, but what was intriguing to me is that he has some quailties that correlate very deeply with human psychology. These lessons can be used to our advantage when we design our online course. Watch this 4 minute video to find out more! Continue reading

Literacy Crisis: What Can Technology Do to Help?

From http://www.blingcheese.com/image/code/28/literacy.htm

Many teachers and parents are aware of the literacy crisis that exists in the United States these days. Numerous literacy programs are opening every year, however the problem seems to persist. What can technology do to help solve this issue? Continue reading

“All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy” or How Gamification Improves Your Online Classroom

gamificationToday’s Hot Topic Wednesdays’ question comes from Fiona and Carl from Australia. They ask: “How to engage highschool students online?”

I will share the wisdom of my brother, who is 13 and  is the most ingenious man on Earth… He taught me how to use my cell phone and my iPad. He also tried to teach me how to play his video games, but every time I failed miserably.

What he REALLY taught me is that there is a huge generation gap between us, despite our actual age (I am just a few years older than he is  ;-) … He represents a generation where games are an integral part of  reality. However, when I look at our school curriculum, I am amazed at how rarely gamification is used for teaching.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t try to say that we only need to play in our classes. I believe there is room for serious matters and even some struggles. I just want you to look at games differently. They are actually not just “a cute distraction” or “time fillers” when we don’t feel like teaching. Games contain a lot of useful features that help engage and support our students online.

Watch this 5 minute long video and find out some amazing features of gamification that can improve your distance teaching. Continue reading

What is YOUR online presence? A Must-See Interview with Dr. Rosemary Lehman

online presence

 

Today’s “Expert Talk” guest is Dr. Rosemary Lehman who is a true guru in distance learning in general and online presence in particular. When Rosemary talks, I sit quietly and take notes. In this video you will find out the strategies of how to build YOUR online presence and why it is important for your online class

Photo by Kirill Popov: www. kirillpopov.net

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How to Find a Job Teaching Online? Special Announcement

Thank you so much for reading my blog!

I am very excited to share my “Teach Online” guide on how to find a job in distance education. Please watch this 3-minute video that provides details on this guide. Please pass along this information to anyone who is looking to get into the distance education industry. I really hope it will help them find the job of their dreams and help them to combine their passion for teaching with the lifestyle that they deserve!

-Marina Kostina, PhD

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