About+Online+Open+Courses

Online open courses make the most of the communication and collaboration tools of the Web to bring together learners. Pioneered by educators like George Siemens and Dave Cormier, even thousands of educators have joined a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) and reaped the contributions of all.

We don't anticipate MOOCs for these Winning the Race courses, but we do believe that those who join us in our exploration of common bottlenecks for learning will take away valuable knowledge, insights, and new tools.


 * How our Winning the Race Online Open Courses Will Work**

Everyone is invited to participate to whatever degree you'd like. Check out the resources and then make any contributions. Here are some simple ways:


 * tag an additional resource using Diigo or Deliciousor Zortero or another favorite social bookmarking tool. We'll have a special tag for each course. For the Copyright Remix course the tag is "CopyrightRemix4Educators." You can use your fave and use our tag to search for others others using the same tag for their resources or you can join our Diigo groups for each course. Here's the Diigo Group for Copyright Remix.
 * blog about what you're learning about copyright and fair use and share tools and strategies. Simply use the course tag and we'll find your blog. If you're not blogging then take this opportunity to give it a try. One of the most daunting aspects of blogging for beginners is finding an audience. You don't want your blog to fall in the Internet forest. In these OOcs you'll have a ready-made audience. Blogging tools you should consider include Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, GlogsterEDU(for a visually-rich blog), and a plethora of others.
 * join the wiki discussion (see tab at top of page). Simply request membership to join this wiki and the discussion.
 * meet in our real-time sessions. These sessions are held in the Bookhenge on USDLC's beautiful Star Island and also streamed live via UStream.


 * How to Earn Certificate Renewal Credits for Winning the Race Online Open Courses**

You may be able to earn 10 clock hours leading to renewal credits for each Winning the Race course. There is a $25 tuition fee for each course and we can work with up to 25 registrants. So first 25 to register are in.

First step is vital: be sure to share the course information with your school system to request prior approval. If approved, then register for the course at www.usdlc.org Here's a sample prior approval form (both .doc and .pdf) that you can use or modify as needed.

Once you have prior approval from your school/school system, then register at **www.usdlc.org**. To register: Under **PD Registration**, click on **Register as an Individual**, complete form, submit. You will receive a confirmation of **Thank you for registering** if your registration was successful. If not, please email **info@usdlc.org** for assistance stating your course interest.]
 * [[file:prior_approval.docx]] || [[file:prior_approval.pdf]] ||

Then to earn the 10 clock hours leading to renewal credit, you should plan on:


 * 1) reading and viewing the resources before the real-time session and writing a blog entry about what you have learned and the questions you have
 * 2) participate in the real-time session in either Second Life or the UStream version
 * 3) follow-through by writing a second blog entry
 * 4) complete the final reflections and course evaluation by logging into usdlc-l2l.org with the password you created at registration. Dr. Cris Crissman will be your evaluator. Please use this email: criscrissman@gmail.com
 * 5) once your work is reviewed and approved, you will receive an eCertificate. Submit a copy of this along with a copy of your previously approved Prior Approval Form to your local system in order to receive credit

Contact info@USDLC.org for more information about renewal credits.