The Online Learning projects listed below are a combination of investigations into new and emerging educational technologies that may have strong implications for the world of higher education. These projects are sponsored by Online Learning in collaboration with RIT faculty, staff, and students to discover and investigate the best uses of these technologies to improve teaching and learning.
"Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe."(http://secondlife.com/whatis/) The main goal of this project is to investigate and gather best practices related to use of Second Life as an educational tool at RIT. We are looking for specific examples and guidelines that can be followed to determine with what activities it is beneficial to use Second Life as a teaching tool and what activities would be better suited for another educational environment. We are also hoping to gather information to share with faculty who are planning to use Second Life with their courses on the risks and problem that may be encountered and provide guidance on how these can best be dealt with.
RIT has investigated the use of student responses systems in the classroom for the past 2 years. This project will investigate iClicker, a competitor to the current RIT standard student responses system; Turning Technologies. The main goal of the project is for RIT to keep up on the latest advancements in the realm of student response system to make sure we are providing students and faculty with the highest quality system at the lowest possible price.
Wiki's are group-editable websites that are ideal for fast and easy collaboration. Because of their simplicity, wiki's have become a preferred method for collaboration in many classrooms, small offices, and even large scale global companies. Collaborative tools like wiki's are changing the way that we work, and the way that we learn. Probably the most recognizable wiki is Wikipedia. The purpose of the Online Learning Wiki Project is to investigate areas where wiki’s might add value to the learning and teaching process for students and faculty at RIT, and to determine whether or not to support this technology from a centralized location in Online Learning going forward.