Who Can Help When Searching for Online Resources?. Here are a few thoughts about where to find local help when searching for online instructional resources--and how to be self-supporting. [EduResources--Higher Education Resources Online]
What are the two worst things that can happen when an instructor begins to search for online learning resources? The instructor may find nothing or the instructor may find thousands of resources. Finding too little is discouraging and will most likely turn the instructor away from attempting to use online resources in the future. Finding too much is overwhelming and can also turn an instructor away from using online resources just because it is inordinately time consuming to sift through hundreds or thousands of possibilities. The third worst happening is finding some learning resources but determining that they are all of poor quality and therefore of no real use. The fouth worst outcome is to locate some useful resources and then determine that they are too expensive or that they require specialized software unavailable to students.
Absolutely, but then:
... it's important for instructors to do two things: one, learn enough about general and discipline-specific online resource sites to do some searching on their own; two, having learned what questions to ask, investigate the institution and locate what departments do provide local assistance. A third desirable option would be for instructors at an institution that does not have a help center to set up their own support group, using a listserv, weblog, and occasional luncheon meetings. This local support group will fill a gap and might eventually influence the institution to establish a more formal unit for instructional support.
Education (worldwide) needs to do more than this, as I've said before, software that supports peer-review (it was one of the intentions behind Profundis search) is my preferred 'solution'.
posted at: 10:45:27 AM 
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