Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that converts voice calls to data packets that travel over the same networks that carry data traffic. With VoIP, users with can make calls via the Internet, whether from home, an office, a hotel, or anywhere else. Institutions often save considerable costs on long distance using VoIP, and features that cost extra from traditional phone service are often included in VoIP. VoIP systems integrate with services such as e-mail and online directories, and institutions that implement VoIP can deploy converged networks that combine voice, data, emergency notification, and other systems, streamlining maintenance and reducing operational costs. By migrating phone service to the data networks that colleges and universities maintain anyway, institutions can take fuller advantage of that infrastructure while providing another imperative to ensure the reliability of those networks, which benefits all of the IP services. VoIP involves tradeoffs surrounding factors such as cost, flexibility, reliability, and user expectations, but evidence continues to mount that improvements in technology are tilting such evaluations in favor of VoIP.
In team-based learning, students work in groups on outcome-based or problem-based assignments. Assessing the work produced by teams, however, presents a significant challenge, and this difficulty is especially prominent in online environments. Developing and implementing a transparent assessment process that both supports and recognizes individual and group learning can generate a powerful combination of interdependency and peer cooperation. Online assessment tools that evaluate both individual and group effort support this dynamic, fostering the reliance on community that is becoming an increasingly important feature of the online academic landscape.
A traditional learning management system (LMS) provides a set of tools to manage learning resources, administrative functions, assessments, and grading. Alternatives to conventional LMSs include social bookmarking tools, document sharing applications, social networking sites, timeline tools, and media options available in the cloud. Institutions or individual faculty increasingly use various combinations of these and other resources to support their unique learning environments and goals and to perform all of the functions of a traditional LMS tool.
Open educational resources (OER) are any resources available at little or no cost that can be used for teaching, learning, or research. The term can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other applications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other educational material. Open resources are issued under a license that spells out how they can be used: Some may only be used in their original form; in other cases, resources can be modified, remixed, and redistributed. OER expand the access to educational resources to more learners, more of the time, and they have the potential to spur pedagogical innovation, introducing new alternatives for effective teaching.
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