About Online Learning Insights
I launched Online Learning Insights (OLI) in 2012 as a place to share my research and observations about online education. Thanks to blog readers and contributors, OLI has evolved into a valued and credible source for hundreds of education professionals from over 90 countries. Their contributions have led to rich discussion within OLI’s comments, on Twitter, and Google+, making OLI a place for learning and growth.
Selection of Institutions using OLI as a Resource:
- Online Learning Consortium Instructional series, “New to Online: The Essentials”
- John Hopkins University, School of Education, Professional Network Resources
- California State University Fullerton, School of Nursing, Resources for Faculty
- Rasmussen College, Faculty Teaching Series, “Fostering Presence: The Human Element and The Community of Inquiry Framework”
- University of Nebraska Medical Center, Faculty Resources for Teaching Online
- Idaho Digital Learning Initiative, Resources for Educators
- Maryland Public Television, Professional Development
Selection of Articles featuring Online Learning Insights:
- Develop Self-Motivation Skills Before Starting Online Courses, Jordan Friedman, U.S. News (2016)
- 5 Steps to Take Before Starting Online Group Work, Jordan Friedman, U.S. News (2015)
- “Using the LMS a Social Network in a Supersized Course”, (2013). EDUCAUSE, Sidneyeve Matrix.
- “Integration of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning” in the The New Horizon Report 2014, New Media Consortium.
- “Putting the U in MOOCs: The Importance of Usability in MOOC Design” by Heather Noel Young, chapter featured in The Invasion of the MOOCs: The Promise and Perils of Massive Open Online Course.
For further information about Debbie visit debbiemorrison.net.
Online Learning Insights 
Hi Debbie, I am wondering if you are ever available for consultation, or if you might refer me to someone who might be helpful to me; I lead a project which is working toward creating online learning for domestic violence advocates — we are looking for a little insight and guidance.
thank you.
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I have a suggestion/request for a post. I recently was on a panel to choose 3 online courses from my university that were innovative or did innovative things. We all had different ideas of innovation with many just being good practice and not truly innovative. I am getting a Master of Educational Technology degree and have taken several courses about online teaching but I am not sure what is innovative online teaching. I know good practice but not innovation.
Would you consider writing a post about what is innovative online teaching? I also wish I had a forum to get other educators to chime in on this. My blog is not read enough to poll my readers and I posted this request on Twitter but none of my followers responded unfortunately.
Thanks for considering.
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Terry,
Very good idea for a post. I agree with you that the term ‘innovative’ in its pairing with ‘teaching’ or ‘online teaching’ is vague and open to interpretation. Stay tuned!
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Innovation should include best practice but it may take a different approach to it. Take feedback for example. We know it is best practice to give fast and useful feedback to students but this can be accomplished in different ways. Rather than using an LMS tool, you might give feedback via audio, video, from peers or on a leaderboard. While innovation could be something completely new and different that does not include best practices, we run the risk of doing students a disservice. Maybe that is education “reform”. Innovation should aim to improve the student experience.
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Found you by accident. Now I want to say, ‘Where have you been all my life!’ (This is my way of saying thanks for your work!)
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Thank you Tracy!
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Hello Debbie,
You have a wonderful blog. Some of your advices saved my life.
And now I try to share the knowleges I received from your site with everybody who needs help.
Hope you will continue developing your awesome resource and I will stay your devoted fan.
Thank you!
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Brilliant blog Debbie. I will reference it in a presentation I am giving in London July and point people to your site. Thanks, Matthew Poyiadgi, Vice President, Pearson VUE
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Hi Matthew. Thank you so much for the kind words! Much appreciated!
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Hello Debbie,
Thank you for this wonderful blog! I think it is a valuable source for anyone interested in online education. I will be graduating from a distance education school (Open School of Journalism) in the fall of 2016. During my research on distance education and courses offered by different schools, I discovered your blog which helped me a lot in my decision to take online courses. I ended up taking a journalism course for three semesters at the school I have mentioned. I made a wise decision. And thank you for your blog!
Best,
Madeleine
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Hi Madeline. I’m so glad that you found my blog helpful and that it has supported your decision to pursue your education via online learning! Happy New Year!
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Hi Debbie, my name is Puna. A research student in University of Greenwich. l am working on MOOC for my project. I just stumbled at your blog. Very rich and educative.
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HI Puna, So glad you found my blog helpful. Thanks for reading.
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Hi Debbie, It’s really great to stumble upon your blog today! It’s very resourceful and insightful. Will surely be dropping by.
Best
Lawan
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Thanks for reading!
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Hello Debbie,
I am currently working as an Education Technology Intern for CutureWorks English as a Second Language Inc. We are working on a Project called Patha Learning – a Project-Based Online Learning program aimed at allowing faculty to accelerate in English fluency. I was wondering if you could give me some tips!? I want to know who is using online training? As our current generations become more and more involved with social media, does online training become aimed at a younger crowd, or is this only allowing companies like ours to expand into different ages of people? Just looking to get some more information from someone who has experience in the field.
Thanks,
Marga
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Hi Marga,
There are several platforms that are offering language training for second language learners. A few you may want to check out are, http://www.babbel.com/?locale=en, (which also offers an app as well as web based instruction), also University of Arizona has an online program for English as a second language http://www.cesl.arizona.edu/content/online-program. Also of interest, FutureLearn a MOOC platform has enrolled over 70,000 students https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/explore-english-language-culture. Hope that helps!
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Hello Debbie,
I am online education enthusiast and a big fan of coursera. I wonder if you ever stumbled upon iversity.org and futurelearn.com – European MOOC providers. I took several courses from both that appeared skillfully-desgined and balanced in regards to content.
Do you think they can grow and pose a competition to leading US platforms? I wonder what is actual user base of this platforms and where do they plan to expand, Is European market ready for new MOOCs?
Regards,
Janosz
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Hello Debbie –
I stumbled upon your blog when I was searching out information on MOOCs. I recently designed a MOOC formatted course for the training of online faculty and offered it to a pilot group of our instructors. I found the process of writing a MOOC difficult and will need to rewrite the course to include authentic materials and video content. Its a work in progress and we’ll try again in February.
I referenced your posting “The Making of a MOOC” in my lessons learned report. Thank you for the information – it helped to read that many hours are put in to MOOC development.
Would you have an interest in reviewing the course I wrote?
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Hi Janet,
I am glad you found my blog and that you found it helpful! Yes I would be interested in reviewing your course. Here is an email address to use morrison6@sbcglobal.net. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Debbie
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Hi. Is there a list of your blog posts by title that I’m not finding? That could be useful…
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HI Ilan, Thanks for your interest. I just added two options for searching for blog posts – you can search by ‘category’ from the drop down menu found on the right hand side of the blog main page, or from ‘archives’ which, when clicked list all posts by a given month. Hope that helps and thanks for the suggestion. Debbie
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