Topic Progress:

Previously, we considered the impact of cognitive presence on online distance learning environments. Our goal in this course is  to build on that idea with the concept of social presence, the second element of the Community of Inquiry framework.

Having completed the first course, you will have access to a blog which you should continue to use for this course. If you do not yet have a blog, please take some time to set one up and send your details to elearningfacilitator@tru.ca.

To begin, please create a new post which includes the following elements:

  • a recording of your voice,
  • an image of you, and/or,
  • an image of something that tells other people about something important to you.

You are free to decide how to incorporate those elements into your post. You may want to record a short video, upload a slideshow with voice narration, you may want to have the audio and visuals entirely separate, or you might decide to draw something. Be creative!

Below are several tools which may be useful in composing and sharing this post.

Composing
  • SoundCloud allows users to record and share audio files on the web.
  • Audacity is a free download for Mac, Linux, or Windows and allows users to record and edit audio files which can then be uploaded to a blog or service such as SoundCloud.
  • GarageBand is an audio recording and editing tool for Mac OSX or iOS.
  • iMovie is a video recording tool for Mac OSX or iOS.
  • Jing is a handy little program you can use to record a screencast of up to 5 minutes and then share through screencast.com.
  • Popcorn Maker allows you to create a mashup of online videos or sounds from YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud or other tools.
Sharing
  • The TRU Sound Collector  allows users to upload a share audio files from their own computer or via links to SoundCloud.
  • Similarly, the TRU Image Collector allows users to upload images and share them easily. The secret code to access the Image collector is ‘tru collector’ (with the space).
    • Please upload or link your sound and image to the TRU Sound and Image Collectors and then provide links in your post.

There is an extensive set of resources on recording and sharing audio at the YouShow site, a course offered by TRU between January and March 2015.

When you are finished, categorize your post under ‘otl201’ and click ‘Mark Complete’.