Q: What technology is available to make writing activity more fun for my online students?

A: NewsMaker: "really is an extremely user-friendly program that students will enjoy. Now teachers finally have a tool driven by content not the technology". Here is an overview. Newsmaker improves writing, presenting and collaborating skills when students are emotionally involved in fun news production process; there is an opportunity to interact with a global community similar to publishing a blog. It will boost creativity in your classroom, especially online. Newsmaker provides the students another way of thinking about organizing their information creatively and using their sense of humor. Newsmaker tool  limits the amount of time students spent on editing and production. Students can focus on content and learning rather than production values.

Q: What is Teachscape?

A: Teachscape is a platform for education innovation network. Its "software tools, online content, and services allow educators to assess their skills and competencies,collaborate with colleagues, build their expertise, and plan their careers".

Q: How to improve usability for my online course?

A: First - inquire information from your department regarding a usability study.There are usability testing strategies that can help you to identify changes necessary to improve your students' interaction with course materials. Numerous tools are available to address the needs: Mailchimp, IntuitionHQ, and User Testing. You can conduct a brief study to identify strengths and weaknesses of a design. You will learn if students can complete specified tasks and identify how long it takes them to do so etc.

Q: I developed an online version of my course. What is the best way to provide copyright protection at the time when students sell notes to commercial notetaking services?

A: Some faculty include a statement to the syllabus forbidding selling/buying class notes, exercises, quizzes, exams without their written permission. There are no tools to monitor the infringement of copyright when students sell notes to commercial notetaking services (FlashNote/Noteutopia/Notehall, Course Hero etc.).
Copyright protection for online course materials is a grey area. Is it legal or ethical?
There are "legal issues and the general controversy around selling class notes. Notehall and competing platform Course Hero even received a cease and desist letter from the UCSC general counsel, and it also alerted faculty members and undergraduates that the commercialization of class notes is illegal in California." 

Q: How do I check students papers for plagiarism?

A: There is Plagiarism Checker Tool: http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/help-authors.php

You can download it for free: http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/

or Turnitin

https://turnitin.com/static/products/index.php

Turnitin is very powerful but it is not free.

Look for the plagiarism checking tools incorporated into the LMS platform you use. For example, you can create Safe Assignments using Blackboard.
SafeAssign checks all submitted papers against the following databases:

• Internet - comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet
  
  
• ProQuest ABI/Inform database with over 1,100 publication titles and about 2.6 million articles from '90s to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access)
  
  
• Institutional document archives containing all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in their respective institutions
  
  
• Global Reference Database containing papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism.

Blackboard Help Articles

• About Safe Assignments
• Create & Edit Safe Assignments
• Grade & Manage Safe Assignments
• Understanding Originality Reports
• Direct Submit a Paper for Plagiarism Check

Top 10 FREE Plagiarism Detection Tools for Teachers

Google offers a Scholar Plagiarism Search tool to search " not only plagiarized phrases but also correct missing quotation marks and citations. This software scans your research paper, essay, coursework or dissertation completely from its database of internet resources, past exam papers, past essays, old dissertation papers and published journals."

Q: What 10 Edtech Tools Will Educators Use This Fall?

A: more

Q: I need my online class students to watch "An inconvenient truth" documentary. It is available via Amazon and Netflix streaming for $3.99. How can we make it available to students without them spending money for a streaming service?

A: The question is related to copyright issues. There are educational licensing options but they generally are too expensive or intended for public screening (http://www.swank.com) .

To check where movies are available, use CanIstreamit (http://www.canistream.it/).

There is FAQ article by Peggy Hoon that contains most answers to questions about using copyrighted works in your teaching: http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/bm~doc/kycrfaq.pdf

Read answer 4, part 2. My conclusion it is to ask students to pay for a movie rent for the screening assignment because of a conflicting situation with TEACH Act obligations.