There are a few online options available, most of which offer a free version (either for a limited time, or with fewer bells and whistles).

Doodle.com

Doodle is quite popular within our team and is a free web tool that allows you to share available slots with users (such as students). Users then choose from these slots and sign up for their choice. You can set these slots up so that there is only one slot per user (E.g. for an individual one-to-one appointment) or you can get users to choose their preferred slot(s) so that you can easily see which is the most popular date (E.g. If you wanted to pick the best date/time for a meeting).

The site offers integration with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal and Lotus Notes. In addition, the site offers Mobile Doodle and Doodle for Facebook, iGoogle and XING. The best part, it’s all free! Ok, so you have to put up with the advertising at the top and side of your screen, but for US$28 a year, you can get an ad free, customisable version.

Below is an example of appointment slots for students to choose from and sign up for….

Below is a sample schedule to determine the best date and time for a meeting. (In the example below, so far the best date/time is Thursday the 6th of May at 11am, as 4 out 5 people can attend that date/time)…

Doodle Features

• Online scheduling tool that allows participants to vote on the best time and date for them for a meeting or event
• Registration is not required to use the site
• Registered users can manage and edit their polls
• Free membership provides unlimited polls and participants – ads are displayed
• Premium membership removes ads, provides additional features, such as automatic reminders

To start using Doodle, go to: http://www.doodle.com

SuperSaas.com

Similar to Doodle.com, SuperSaas offers a free online appointment scheduling service for small users. For US$8.00 a month you can get more advanced services such as no advertising and automatic iCal (Outlook/Google calendar) synchronization.

SuperSaas received “Best User Interface of 2008” award and has many advanced features:

• Send e-mail or SMS reminders to reduce no shows
• Automated waiting lists
• Automatically synchronize with Outlook and Google Calendar
• Use your own URL and color scheme, the user does not have to know he is on another site
• Available in 6 languages

To view various demos of their online scheduling tools, go to: http://www.supersaas.com/info/demos

Checkappointments.com

Another online scheduling tool offering free features such as managing appointments online and notification emails. For US$19.95 per month there is a 2-Way Google Calendar Sync and other advanced features such as customisation and ability to embed calendar onto your website.

To view their demos, visit: http://checkappointments.com/online-demo.htm

Acuity Scheduling

Acuity is another tool to manage appointments online with a free version. This software also has a payment option for more advanced features starting at US$10 per month. The free version offers a basic scheduling site with limited customisation.

View their demo at: http://www.acuityscheduling.com/appointments.php

MemoTXT Scheduler

MEMOTXT Scheduler is another free simple calendar diary software tool for booking, managing, tracking and analysing day-to-day meetings and appointments. It also has SMS reminder capabilities (at a cost of .9p per text). There is a more advanced tool available starting at £39 per month, however the free tool should be sufficient if you don’t have that many appointments per day.

These are just 5 of the many free tools that are out there…with the option to upgrade for more functionality. The best solution really depends on your needs, but we have found that Doodle works best for us.

You may be thinking about using a wiki to support your course, to share information with colleagues, or, for example, as a repository for service information of some kind.

Wikis can be very useful and powerful tools. But before jumping in, consider if they are the right technology for you.

You may find a wiki useful if:

• You have a large group of users
• You have an initiative which require a large number of people to each add good amounts of content to one place, and to edit each others’ content
• Your initiative runs over a good period of time
• There is a clear purpose to the object itself: What is the wiki for? How will people use it? How will it be integrated into the fabric of your course/service?

If you don’t have the above requirements, you may be better off thinking about using standard webspace, or the College’s Virtual Learning Environment.

An example where a wiki might be useful: you have a course of 150 students who are expected as part of their study to contribute ideas, reviews, original content of whatever kind.  Their peers are then expected to review, comment on and further edit that content, and the resulting resource will run over coming years as a resource for the course.

An example where a wiki would be less useful:  You have a large amount of course content and want to organise and deliver it online.  Communications and publications are one way: from you to your students.

Here’s some more information about using wikis in HE: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/social-software/wiki

If you want to start or play with a wiki:

There is no ‘homegrown’ wiki service at QM, so – after giving due consideration to the kind of data you’re going to have published in the wiki – you’re going to have to use an external one.

There are many out there free to use.  One which is favoured by some in HE is Wetpaint.  You can start your wiki up in under 5 minutes and it looks to be very easy to use.  Users can also publish video, pictures, participate in discussions etc.

If you would like to have a play, either set one up yourself, or have a play with the Wetpaint wiki we’ve set up in the Distance and E-Learning Unit at QM: http://deluwiki.wetpaint.com/. There’s very little content there as it’s for demo purposes, but it’s set up so that anyone can edit and publish new pages.  Have a go and leave a comment here (below this post) or there (on the wiki) to let us know how you find it.

How to Podcast

Using the Wimba Podcaster

See: http://www.motionbox.com/welcome

Very brief note on this. It looks like a fantastic online system for sharing videos.

For me it has a few notable advantages:

• The video can be secure and shared as you would like
• It displays a ‘thumbnail’ view of the video, so it’s much easier to navigate
• You can add notes and titles to different segments of the video.

The last point there has, I think, the most potential for education. For example; a surgical procedure could add links and titles to every part of the process explaining it as it went along.

Worth a look.

Mindmeister is a free online collaborative mind mapping tool. We’ve had quite a lot of interest in mind mapping and flowchart creation tools over the last year or so. Personally I find these quite cumbersome as I think the use of the tool impedes the freeflow of thought that mindmapping is supposed to promote.

Having said that I’ve also recently been thinking more and more that hardware solutions, locally installed software, and basically anything that isn’t accessible online in some form and does not promote collaboration is essentially primitive in scope… So I’m interested in a collaborative ‘ideas’ tool like this.

So here’s the link: http://www.mindmeister.com/

Hope it’s of use and please get in touch and let us know how you find it.

I’ve tried (and usually failed) several times over the last year to try and explain it in simple terms without coming across like something of a web evangelist.

However we’ve recently happened upon a video at youtube which explains the concept brilliantly. So here it is:

I think it caught my attention as, in one form or another, it’s a topic that’s been appearing quite a lot recently in our staff development sessions. There have been a lot of discussions about concerns about opening up course materials and communications to a wider audience and a lot of desire to be more involved in this world of social links that is rapidly emerging.