Blending Courses with Apex Learning

There are two components to this blog.The first one is about using Apex in the classroom.

 APEX LEARNING
Apex learning is an online course that has all of the subject areas for grades six through twelve. There can be approximately 12 units for a one credit course. Within each unit you will find four to five subunits. The basic assessment format includes quizzes, and tests which include computer scored and teacher scored. Most schools that use Apex will have a site coordinator that will assist the teachers with any technical problems.

In my opinion, the student should complete all of the subunits in each section.There should be enough content in order to make the course valid for one credit hour. The main question is, are the students going to get enough content knowledge by just taking quizzes and tests. If you look at the other subunits and each main unit, there are other additional subunits that I feel are very effective in terms of understanding content knowledge. Every subject in apex learning has a practice section. I have evaluated the practice site sections and I like the information that is presented.  The practice section has mostly equations, essay questions, and illustrations that have to be completed.

The assessment section under the computerized test, gives valuable information for evaluating the students performance. you can use the test results as a room remediation tool for the students whereby they have to correct the answers that they got wrong. Also, the assessment can be used as a review sheet for the students taking the final test.

 Voice Thread 


I stumbled on this program a few months ago but never got a chance to take a look at its components and its functionality. After investigating and playing around with it. I recorded a couple of videos and I noticed it it has some interesting aspects. First of all you can upload a PowerPoint and then comment on it in several ways.You can type in your comments with a particular icon, and then invite other students or guesst to also make comments on the particular PowerPoint or illustration that you have uploaded. All of your guests can look at the comments that were listed around the screen. Another advantage is you can create a video that shows your picture interaction with audio. If you don't want to show your personal video on the voice thread, then you have the option of just recording your audio. There are couple of advantages that I've noticed in voice thread. The first one is how easy it is to upload a file, comment and then publish it.

Check back for some embed voice thread presentations.

Craig M. Levan Ed.D

voicethread.com
 

Russian Bloggers

Мой счет blogger перечислил российских зрителей на моем blog. Так позволяет, слышат это от русских.

Voice Thread: Give it a try!

voicethread.com/share/2421163/

I just produced a test run using voice thread. This is a sharp product. Click on the link and give it a try.
Let me know how you could use this product for online education.

The top online education companies

http://2008.virtualschoolsymposium.org/exhibitors.php

This a list from the virtual symposium.

Web conferencing for sports

Most of the web conferencing that is promoted on the web is geared towards making money in the social networks. The ads for web conferencing will promote free webinars that will add the hook at the end of the presentation, and then asks you to sign up for a course which will benefit your business. That course isn't free. My question is this. Why can't you use a web conferencing site, such as coursesites.com and present a workshop that can have 50 seats in attendance? Think about it. Would this work?

High Tech Tutoring

As you know the format for tutoring is to travel to the clients house with your materials, tutor the student for 1-2 hours and then set up another appointment. Next, you would leave the clients house and return on another day.
I don't like this format. How would you like to sit at home, turn on the computer, tutor your student and shut down after an hour. Or, sit at home, tutor 10 students online, make $450 dollars in an hour, and then make another appointment. Do you like this idea? I knew you would. Any questions?