Number 26 November 1, 2002	A publication of Project Eagle, St. Petersburg College

Best Bets Archives

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Academic Freebies on the Web

"We hope the idea of openly sharing course materials will propagate throughout many institutions and create a global web of knowledge that will enhance the quality of learning and the quality of life worldwide."
(Charles M. Vest, President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on MIT's OpenCourseWare Pilot)

In the spirit of the new Open Knowledge Initiative and OpenCourseWare, in which MIT is making both its courses and course management software code available to the world, this month's BEEP presents a sample of the wealth of free materials already available online to the higher education community.

Materials for E-Structors

Catalyst. University of Washington. A series of e-learning resources that includes action plans for setting up various elements of a Web-based course, including audio and video components.
Developing and Teaching an Online Course: A Faculty Handbook, May 2000. Grant MacEwan College, Alberta, Canada. An 88-page manual that includes aspects of e-course development like content, learning activities, evaluation, student guide, and more.
Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG). Tools designed for science, technology, engineering and math instructors to evaluate student learning, attitudes, and performance.
Policies, Procedures, and Forms. St. Petersburg College (FL). A collection of tools related to the development and delivery of e-courses. Forms include an online course development check list; a proctor agreement form for distance testing; an online student survey of instruction form; and many others.
Free Assessment Summary Tool (FAST). Simple online tool for instructors to assess students' impressions of their courses and their teaching.
Keirsey Temperament and Character Web Site. Online personality questionnaire that can be administered and scored for free, with additional in-depth analysis available for a fee.
Merlot. Along with its well-known and growing collection of peer-reviewed online learning materials, Merlot now also offers Teaching Well Online (Merlot TWO), which addresses issues like assessment, design, learner support, technology selection, and teaching strategies.
Plagiarism Detection. Examples include PlagiServe, which examines papers submitted electronically; Measure of Software Similarity (Moss), which finds plagiarism in programming classes; and Essay Verification Engine (EVE), with its nominal cost of $19.95 to purchase.
Syllabus Suggested Form. Honolulu Community College. Model syllabus with instructions about what to include in each section.
Teaching Goals Inventory. University of Iowa. Web tool that allows instructors to evaluate their own instructional goals. Originally developed by Patricia Cross and Thomas Angelo.
Templates for Web-Based Courses. "Syllawebs" that include templates for developing Course Webs, Lesson Webs, and Learning Objectives.
UMUC-Verizon Teaching with Technology. University of Maryland. Virtual resource site with two modules, one for use in selection of appropriate media to accomplish learning objectives, the other for faculty using technology in research assignments, small group projects, and discussions.
VARK - A Guide to Learning Styles. Tool for students to discover how they learn and teachers to understand what strategies are best for their classes.
WWW4teachers.org. University of Kansas. A "must" for e-structors at all levels, with reproducible tools that include an Assign-A-Day Assignment Calendar; QuizStar, for the creation of customized quizzes; Notable Pics, which allows K-16 teachers and students to use their own photos as the basis of a Web-based lesson; and Web Worksheet Wizard, a utility that allows creation of a lesson, worksheet, or class page, with space on the Web for storage and display. There are also links to material for professional development, a site of the week, and much more.

E-Courses, Tutorials, Learning Objects

Globewide Network Academy (GNA). A Web site listing e-courses worldwide, with a stated goal of gathering all such offerings at one location for use by everyone. GNA provides its source code and databases free, plus Web-site hosting to a number of non-profit educational organizations.
Learn the Net. Premier, multi-lingual site offering instruction on every aspect of Internet use.
Math Courses and Tutorials. Examples are Cool Math Sites and the student-produced Math for Morons Like Us, both of which can be adapted for student use at all levels.
Open CourseWare Pilot. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. First sampling of course materials created by MIT faculty and made available both to educators around the world to draw upon for their own curricula and to all learners for self-study. MIT, with Stanford University (CA), also leads an effort, known as the Open Knowledge Initiative, to design a free course-management system, whose source code will be made publicly available.
Search the Internet. University of California, Berkeley. A graduated approach in three steps that provides a form and instructions for simple searches, advanced searches, and directory use.
WebTeacher. Designed specifically for teachers who want to learn Web use for instruction, it offers both basic and advanced training, as well as free online tech support and mentoring.
World Lecture Hall. University of Texas. Links to pages created by faculty worldwide who are using the Web to deliver course materials.
World Wide Learn. Self-described as "the world's largest directory of online courses, accredited online degrees, continuing education, online training, and online education," it includes links to free online tutorials on topics like programming, Web development, Internet, E-commerce, HTML, and various popular applications.
Writing Courses and Tutorials. Some of the best are Paradigm Online Writing Assistant (POWA); Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL); and the Guide to Grammar & Writing maintained by Charles Darling, Capital Community College (CN).

A Sampler of Information E-Sources

Find Articles: The Web's Free Article Search. An archive of published articles that can be searched for free, dating back to 1998, from more than 300 magazines and journals.
Homework Central. Links to many sources of information for students of all ages. Categories are arranged by grade level, but links for high school students can be used in college classes.
Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections. Searchable database with more than 40,000 academically valuable e-sources.
Internet Public Library: Reference. Correctly self-described as "all the basic research tools that you expect to find in a library - and more!"
Martindale's - The Reference Desk. Incredibly exhaustive and award-winning Web site authored by one individual, Jim Martindale, and hosted by the University of California, Irvine. Martindale has also created a Health Science Guide and a Calculators On-line Center.
The Online Books Page. Almost ten years old, this site now links to more than 17,000 copyright-free books on the Web.
Selected E-Sources for Online Learners. St. Petersburg College (FL). Best Educational E-Practices (BEEP), Issue 10, July 1, 2001. Remarkably, all these links to free or nearly free e-sources are still active. The pricing structure for some, like Britannica.com and eBrary, has changed, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2002-2003 is now available online.

General and Miscellaneous Freebies

Ask an Expert. Links to hundreds of volunteer experts, from astronauts to zookeepers.
CNet Download.com. Up-to-date collection of downloads of all kinds, many of them free.
The Freebie Directory. Links to just about anything that can be obtained for free via the Internet.
Original Response-O-Matic Free Form Processor. Advertiser-supported Web site that allows the customization of forms of any kind, which can then be downloaded to the user's Web site.
WebED Resources. University of Washington. Exhaustive series of links to information on pedagogy and e-learning, categorized, annotated, and regularly updated.

The contents of BEEP were developed under a grant from the U. S. Department of Education (DOE). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the DOE, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.