Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Power Searching with Google, free online course

There is an online training course Power Searching with Google running from 24 September to 5 October. It is run by Google themselves, and you can sign up for free. You get "Access to community discussion forum; The opportunity to put your new skills to test with mid and post class assessments; Support from Google course staff; An official Power Searching with Google certificate upon completion" Out of curiosity, I registered, but the dates coincide with the start of the semester, so I may not be able to give it full attention (will be embarrassing if I fail to get my completion certificate ;-) http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/

I found some detailed reflections on the last running of the course on a blog http://sylviamoessinger.wordpress.com/: the author is in Germany but writes in English, and she also has some interesting reflections on a MOOC about e-learning she took, and other aspects of teaching with technology. Her Google-course posts are here: http://sylviamoessinger.wordpress.com/category/google-powersearching/

I discovered the Google course because I was following links to information about Google's "course builder" online educational software https://code.google.com/p/course-builder/ You have to install it on your own server. There is some advice about designing online modules that I would describe as "cheap and cheerful" though it does recommend that you start by spending at least 30 minutes planning the teaching!
Photo by Sheila webber: Poppy, Sheffield Botanic Gardens, September 2012.

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