Welcome to Evaluating Online Tools for the Classroom! In this course, we’ll explore choosing the right online tools for your students to use to make media, a key part of any media project. Now, many of us are familiar with creating rubrics and identifying learning objectives, but we might not think of “online tool analyst” as part of our job description. Spoiler alert: It is! In this course, we’ll look at how to select the tools to have students use throughout a media project and how to safeguard student privacy when working digitally. 

Why take this course?

• You want to learn more about how to protect student privacy online, including federal laws related to online safety. 
• You are looking for a solid list of online tools as a jumping off point as you plan an audio, video or image-based media project. 
• You want practical suggestions for how to determine if an online tool will work for your students and align with your district rules and guidelines.    
• You’re interested in earning the Evaluating Online Tools for Classroom Use micro-credential.

More About This Course

This course is divided into lessons that are a combination of text, images, videos and other interactive elements. You will also be asked to complete one assignment: evaluate the terms of service of 1-3 online tools for student media use. 

Course instructors will provide feedback on your assignment designed to help you improve your practice. Our recommendations will align with the requirements for PBS media literacy certification, which you will learn more about toward the end of the course. In addition, you can see and comment on the submissions of other educators, which many course participants have found helpful.

You can go through the course at whatever pace makes sense for you, and review anything afterwards that you might have missed. In order to receive a certificate of completion, you will need to complete all the assignments and finish the course within four weeks of starting it. If you don’t finish in time, no worries, you can always re-enroll.

Before you jump into the course, we want to remind you to OPT-IN to receive email from us so that we (your instructors!) can communicate updates to the courses and feedback on the coursework you submit. Please follow the instructions here to make sure that these settings are enabled and toggled ON.