How to upload an assignment on Blackboard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr8zrHQtYcQ

Why online courses should meet Accessibility guidelines

Accessibility/universal design means a service/product or an environment is usable by everyone to the greatest extent possible. This ensures equal access to learning material for students including ES Learners, those with disabilities, different learning styles, background and age.

Universal design ensures that all students have same opportunities to achieve an optimum level without using any adaptive devise. 

Universally designed learning environments are created to be accessible to everyone from the beginning. If  an online product/website meets the accessibility/UD criteria it will be automatically be ranked higher in search engines and get noticed in market/preferred by teachers.

Some features of universal accessible online product :

• Usable with assistive technology
• Navigation and Keyboarding(motor co-ordination disabilities)
• Customization of Graphics and Sounds(visual disabilities)
• Accessible search features
• Accessible Web pages(slow internet/ dial-up network)

The  federal legislation regarding accessibility of education:

• the guidelines of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 
• Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act 1998 (P. L. 102-569).

Genetically modified food -What do you need to know

You might have been noticing different labels on food items screaming things like such as  "vegan" to "gluten free" to "all natural. Food industry is trying to be transparent by stamping labels on food packages. There is also a passionate debate going over labelling food items with GMO-Genetically Modified Organisms so that consumers have a choice.The term refers to any plant or animal that has been genetically altered with DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria and viruses. The GMO controversy has brought up many questions and each time we find answer to one question, it seems, a new one has come up. You might be wondering why should I care about GMO? Who is eating them? What are the benefits or  risks of consuming GMO? How it affects the agricultural farms and the environment.

Is GMO a new technique? Yes and no. Humans have been breeding and crossbreeding varieties of food for a various reasons. But, genetic modification is different from crossbreeding because it is done at the gene level. The genomes(complete set of DNA) of widely grown crops, such as rice, potatoes, bananas, and wheat have been sequenced by scientists. Scientist can insert a gene or genes from a donor organism with desired characters into an organism that does not have the trait. This results in the formation of a new species known as transgenic. Advanced molecular biology can delete, modify, and insert any genes with precision. This modification at gene level makes crops drought and infestations resistant, increase production or add more nutritive value to the same crop.

More than 60 percent of the processed food in grocery stores contain one or more genetically modified ingredient. Several  varieties of corn, squash, canola, soybeans, and cotton are genetically modified. If  the processed food you’re eating has corn syrup, corn oil and soy meal or sugar as one of the ingredients,  chances are they are derived from genetically modified crop. Even your favorite soda may be sweetened with high-fructose syrup from GMO corn. Critics fear that these genetically engineered products may disrupt the functioning of other genes and could create toxins and allergens in foods. Claims are made that these crops are reaching our homes before  their effects are fully known. The fact is that GMO  products are tried only on animals to see their effects. Thus, the effects of genetically modified crops are not fully known on human beings because chemical compounds present in food behave differently in the human body. The long term effect of using GMO have not been studied well. Some findings reported that GMOs can cause allergies and cancer among human beings. Some research indicated that  rats fed on GMO developed tumor. Now, world is debating over the labeling food items with GMO. Anti-GMO activists say that if GMO is better, safe and no different than organic food, why not label it for consumers.


On the contrary,  if GMOs are banned completely then we would need  additional 300 million acres of farmland to meet the food production need. So, farmers might have to clear forests and wetlands. Changing climate, drought, storms, unpredictable weather, microbe attack and crop diseases are taking a toll on crop production. Genetically modified crops can solve these issues. Today, the main goal of agriculture is growing food efficiently to meet the demands of ever increasing world population.

Moreover, transgenic products undergo screening for potential toxins and allergens before they hit the supermarkets. Biotechnologists monitor the levels of nutrients, proteins, and other related things to make sure that the GMOs are substantially equivalent to the traditional plants. Contrary to often-repeated claims,  FDA has said labeling food products for GMO is not required because there's no significant evidence showing that it brings changes in food's quality, safety, "or any other attribute." Since there is no significant evidence that the GMOs, that regulatory authorities have approved, are harmful either to health or to the environment, it can be argued that these crops can help with thin resources and inadequate food production.

So, what should I do as a consumer ? Business leaders, scientists and other opponents of genetically modified crops are wrestling on this topic but many popular beliefs often do not reflect scientific evidence. All we need is trustworthy and accurate scientific results to make a decision.  I personally believe that popular opinion lack intellectual consistency somewhere and, may just be pseudoscientific claims. People those seem to be experts lack credentials. So, the best bet is to eat locally grown food as much as possible. What is your stand?

What Is The Future Of Education?

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Easy To Learn Tools for Creating Engaging Online Courses

Here is a small collection of tools those might be required for e-learning training development:

Course Authoring tools: As an instructional designer/e-learning teacher you will need a course authoring tool to create basic E-learning courses. Authoring tools help in sequencing and putting all resources (presentation, assessment, audio, video, charts, graphs, interactivity etc.) together to create a comprehensive training.

The election of an authoring device depends upon the designing needs of the training. Some authoring tools will  support a variety of media and file types, whereas a few support a limited.

There are many famous authoring tools available in the market such as Storyline, Articulate by Adobe and Captivate. These are very pricey tools. One of the best free authoring tool is CourseLab.

I think most of the ID team members are familiar/expert with one or more of such tools.

Image editing tools: Most of the images can be edited in tools such as MS paint, Google drawings, windows live photo  gallery and many other free tools available online as well. Usually, trainers/teachers know the basic photo editing but advanced editing can be done in professional software such as Photoshop. There are other tools available for creating animations, sketches and avatars.

Audio: There some very good audio editing tools available. Audacity and soundcloud are free and work great for recording, editing and uploading audio files. 

Screencasting tools: Adobe captivate and Camtasia are very powerful but expensive choices. Screencast-O-matic and Screenr are free and easy to learn alternatives.

Video: Tools like Animoto, iMovie and windows movie maker are free and easy to learn for creating videos. Youtube, schoolTube, vimeo and dailymotion are free platforms those can be used for uploading videos.

There are more tools available for creating quizzes, game based learning, collaboration-online/offline, social media tools, blogging, wiki spaces and animations. 

Engage your fans through Social media

The rise of social media has changed the way people process information. They want to be more engaged and become a part of social conversation. Your organization’s fan and supporters expect to hear your ‘voice’. Consider your experience as a student in the college listening to the professor talking for two hours in a lecture hall full of students. You can also recall your experience working in a smaller group discussing various topics with your co-learners. I am sure the smaller class which gave you an opportunity to actively engaged in talking, thinking and discussing must have been more fruitful. It is very obvious that people learn when they are engaged and feel connected with each other.

Social media can foster a better dialogue between your organization and your followers and between your followers and one another. Writing and commenting on your own post/article is an effective way to engage readers. An organization must create and develop conversation with its followers to build a stronger relationship. A few thoughtful comments can certainly go a long way. Comments are a great way to build relationships and advance discussions. Comments can offer valuable information/ opinion thus, naturally encourage traffic to your site/blog.

Once your organization posts something on any social media platform, ask readers to leave a comment or share their ideas/views to get the conversation started. It may take some time to foster an online social community. It takes commitment and focus to connect with people. In case you don’t receive a comment for a while ask people within the organization to start the conversation.

There are few things to keep in mind while engaging your followers:

• Respond to as many comments as you reasonably can because there may be many recurring questions or reactions.  . 

• Don’t be robotic or mechanical! Comment should add to the conversation and expand the narrative.

• Leave a thoughtful and insightful comment.

• Don’t forget to mention your name, email address, and link.

• Welcome divergent opinions. People might not agree with you or lead to different conclusion.

• Never add any negative comment. Carefully regulate your  ‘speech’ making sure it meets the legal guidelines.

Network for a Good Cause- Why do NPOs need Social Media

Over 47% of Non Profits organizations are utilizing the potential of Social Media for reaching out and engaging their supporters. This can be a new way to advertise your NPO as well! Major brands across the world spend millions of dollars annually to attract consumers and raise awareness of the services/products they offer. But, NPOs don’t have the benefit of heavy media budgets so they have to have other metrics to increase participation and raise funds. Social Media has a power to increase visibility and reputation of your NPO while fostering a positive feeling among its fans. It will attract more and long term donors and extend your cause to the world.

With proper planning and comprehensive social media strategies, NPOs can attract community and gain support. Social media can help turn your fans into supporters. Social media provides an opportunity to connect with people at personal and professional level. It will help you cultivate a trustworthy relationship with your fans and thus, receiving more donations and many more volunteers.

Social media sites offer a convenient way to have a  dialogue between people and organizations. The comments section in blogs, facebook or other similar sites offer a place to have a two way communication and collaboration among readers. The biggest advantage is that supporters and fans have a direct access to you. They can email, comment or donate directly. Panepento said that “In fact, the low cost of [social media] tools gives nonprofit leaders an incentive—since they can reach out to potential donors and volunteers without having to pay for direct mailings, advertising, or phone calls”(2009). There are many social sites in this cyber world those are totally free. Take a look at the  most commonly-used social media:

Blog: Blogger, wordpress, typePad,

Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, Snapchat, LinkedIn,Google+

Microblogs: Twitter

Video sharing:Youtube, vimeo,

Bookmarking sites: Stumbleupon, pinterest, delicious

Photo Sharing: Instagram,Flickr

Social News: Reddit, Digg, PopURLs

Additionally, there is a wide range of other resources such as webnairs, live sessions, hangouts and live QA sessions.

You might find it overwhelming to find that every time time you turn around you see yet another social media app is being launched and gaining popularity. NPOs need to focus on engagement and strategies implementation that bring donors and help in fundraising. It is a challenge to choose the correct social media platform for your organization and utilize it to inform and mobilize members. Effective and appropriate use of these tools depends on knowledge and dedication  of specific personnel who is explicitly responsible for social media communications.

I will discuss the benefits of using Social media for NPOs in my next article. 

Reference:

Panepento, P. (2008). Driven crazy by direct mail. The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved

from http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/Driven-Crazy-by-Direct-Mail/9688/