In Sync Training

InSync offers free online trainings through WebEx sessions. Take a look at the link and see if there is something that you find interesting. They have several sessions on adult learning, effective assessments, and e-learning. Also, if you cannot attend the live session, there are links to recordings of some of them.

YUDU Publishing

YUDU.com is an ePublishing library & marketplace that helps you create, enhance, share, promote and sell digital publications with the world.

Share your interests and expertise with the world.

Find interesting digital documents, magazines and ebooks - many for free and others that you can buy - and save them to your own free library. Add photos and music and bookmark your favorite websites. Start an Interest Group to share your passions and expertise or create a private group online for your club or class. Invite friends and other users to join your group and allow them to add relevant content of interest.

Be your own Publisher.

Upload your Word, Powerpoint and PDF files and convert them automatically into page-turning digital editions, ebooks, ezines and e catalogues which are hosted by YUDU for free. Add YouTube videos and other multimedia with a Plus account. Keep your publications private or share them with the world - YUDU publications are searchable by Google, Yahoo and others. Self-publishing with YUDU is quick and easy!

In addition, upload podcasts, MP3 and photos and bookmark your favourite websites with thumbnail screenshots, so you can remember them easily and encourage others to view them. Organize your published items within albums in your library and promote your digital content on your own site via embedded libraries or embedded single digital publications.

Carbon Neutral Publishing

It's not difficult to imagine the environmental benefits of publishing online with YUDU. Their system was designed with energy efficiency in mind. Each page has the lowest electronic footprint possible, whilst maintaining the highest quality viewing experience - YUDU publications use very little energy.

Online Help

These free web resources can help you make save time, save money, and succeed in your distance learning courses.

1. OpenCourseWare - Opencourseware is class material such as syllabuses, reading lists, lecture notes, and other documents that were once used in an actual classroom and are now available to the public for free. Several universities such as MIT make this valuable material available on their websites as a service to the public.

2. Question and answer websites – When you find yourself with a question, users from question and answer web sites like Yahoo Answers, Wondrir, or Answerology can help you out.

3. Online Writing Labs – Perfect for helping you polish that term paper, online writing labs (otherwise known as OWLs) give users a massive amount of information on how to write well.

4. Google Scholar – If you use Google Scholar, Google Books, and Google News, you may never have to leave your house again. These services make writing those undergrad research papers almost too easy.

5. Literature guides – Didn't read the book? No sweat. Online lit guides will walk you through the basics without charging you a dime.

6. Online classes – There's a free online class for just about every subject. From reading groups to photography, joining an online class is instant and can give you a lot of valuable information (and access to people who have the answers).

7. Ask a Librarian Service - Many states have fantastic Ask a Librarian programs that allow users to chat with a librarian live (and for free) from their home computers. California’s program Asknow.org gives access to live librarians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for all residents. To find out if your state hosts such a program enter your state’s name and “ask a librarian” in any search engine.

8. Online book archives - While newer texts are unlikely to be online, hundreds of older pieces with expired copyrights are all over the internet. The Internet Public Library, for example, offers links to hundreds of full-text books, magazines, and newspapers. Bartleby, a similar site, offers thousands of ebooks and reference materials free of charge. Readers can even download the books for free and view them on their desktop or handheld device. Project Gutenberg provides 16,000 e-books free for download, including classics such as Pride and Prejudice and The Odyssey.

9. Scholarship search engines – Money is one of the biggest concerns of college students. A scholarship search engine can help take care of that problem pronto.

10. Podcasts – iTunes has a growing number of podcasts dedicated to helping students. Download them for free and play them in your car to learn a new language, understand physics, or take legal lessons from a JD student.

Article Source

Using Jing for better communications!

Jing is a free product that you can use to better communicate with other students and professors. It allows you to record your voice and desktop, and then send a link to the video through emails, webpages, or discussions. (You can record for up to 5 minutes) It can be used in a lot of ways, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Open up team communications. If you have a lot of comments about an assignment, and don't want to type them up, just 'Jing', and then send the link to your team.
• If you are struggling with Excel or @Risk, record yourself working through a problem, send it to the professor, and then they can easily see what you are doing, or where you are making a mistake.
• Sometimes it's just nice to hear a voice. Discussion forums can get tedious with all that text. Try recording your thoughts for a discussion thread, then post the link. It's sure to get people talking!

Here's a short sample video: http://www.screencast.com/t/6N8TzVsas4

Social Networking to Connect

Social networking sites are everywhere these days. A typical graduate student has a LinkedIn account, Facebook profile, and is often tweeting away on Twitter. These sites all offer ways to connect, reconnect, and stay in tune with what is happening in the world around you and in the lives of your friends and colleagues.

There can be more than just staying connected found in these sites however. They can help find jobs, research, develop business, and generate ideas. You can follow your company CEO, favorite professor, even your direct boss along with college roommates and high school sweetheart. The benefits are countless. Twitter for business purposes is a great resources for what to tweet and how to do it to reach the appropriate audience. More and more students are creating their own blogs in addition to social networking to share their views, ideas, and opinions on current events or topics they are studying.

We live in a world of connectivity. The more connected you are, the more you can learn from, and even teach others.