For the majority of real estate educators the days when students complete an assignment and then put it in the wire box on the instructor’s desk are long gone. Especially if you’re offering online classes! In today’s world, students are completing assignments digitally using a many different on-line/cloud-based tools and applications on their computers and mobile devices.
Real Estate Instuctors – Utilizing Google Docs
Real Estate Classes – Presenting with the iPad
Using presentations/webinars is a great way to engage both remote and traditional real estate students. However, staying ahead of the curve can be a challenge when it comes to utilizing technology. If you’re using an iPad for your presentations you’re probably using Powerpoint or Keynote for iPad. Here is a great article from the Macworld with a few tips for making the process of putting your webinars together a little easier.
Apple’s $10 Keynote for iPad () lacks many of the snazzier features found in the desktop version of the product. But the program has improved markedly since its initial release, now giving you much better control of a presentation without requiring you to look at an external display. You can give impressive presentations from your iPad‚ and perhaps even leave your laptop behind‚ if you prepare well and know what to expect.
Posted in Course Design, Presentation Tips, Projectors, Software, Technology
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Tips For Making Your Real Estate Classes More Interesting
Vary what you do
It is usually more interesting for students if they can’t predict what topic, activity or item is going to be covered next. Mix things up a little, don’t go exactly by the book.
Make use of audio and visuals
Use varied elements of media: Photos (don’t overuse stock photos…it becomes boring! Use real-life photos or local properties and agents), video (If you’re not creating your own videos, Youtube most likely has several videos addressing the same topic you’re addressing), audio clips are another great way to keep things interesting (use a recording/voice clip from a colleagues presentation or an interesting clip from a seminar that you recently attended) Continue reading
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Create Great Webinars for Your Real Estate Courses
Many professional real estate educators are finding themselves in a challenging situation: the landscape for real estate education is changing. A new generation of students is signing up for classes – A more diverse, younger, and likely more tech savvy students.
A newer, great way to engage your students is by the use of webinars. Here are a few informative videos with tips on how to improve your student engagement with the use of webinars.
How to create Great Slides
Posted in Course Design, Course Design, Live Classes, Online Ed
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Marketing Your Real Estate School in the Digital Age
The days of using only print ads to market your real estate school and expecting that to be enough are over! We’ve put together a list of a few ways that you can utilize technology and the internet to market your school.
Facebook Fan Page: Facebook has 845 million monthly active users. The chances of your current and future students being among the 845 million monthly users is pretty high! Having a Facebook Fan Page for you school is a great way to keep your students engaged and up-to-date with real estate related news and events. Facebook is also a great place for you to post upcoming classes with a link to your website where they can register.
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Teamwork Stifles Creativity
Have you fallen victim the “Teamwork is in” meme in your classroom? There are absolutely quite a few benefits to teamwork in the classroom – but are you going too far with it? Take a look at the blog entry below. – What are your thoughts?
The article is a re-post. Originally posted on BigThink.com
What’s the Latest Development?
Collaboration is all the rage and solitude is out. Thanks in part to the omnipresence of social media, where everyone and everything is intimately connected, we now model the physical world on the virtual world. Our schools and businesses now go to lengths to encourage group learning. Row desks and cubicles are out; group seating and open offices are in. To accommodate the new fashion, the individual is losing ground: The average amount of space allotted to each employee has shrank 300 square feet in the last 40 years.
Dance vs. Powerpoint – A New Way of Looking at Education
As most real estate education professionals you’re probably constantly looking for new ways to keep your students engaged in the classroom. Whether you’re providing live or online classes this can be a challenge. Take a look at the video below. This video addresses an interesting concept – Yet another way of learning.
Now, we’re not saying you should hire professional dancers for your classroom (But, if you do, please make sure to record it and send us a video!). However, I don’t know about you but I picked up a lot more information from watching the dancers than I would have watching a Powerpoint presentation. What could you take from this idea and apply to your classes to make your classes more engaging?
Use dancers instead of powerpoint. That’s science writer John Bohannon’s “modest proposal.” In this spellbinding choreographed talk from TEDxBrussels he makes his case by example, aided by dancers from Black Label Movement.
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Successful Online Real Estate Students
The study described below was developed by a group of online course designers the help them gain a better understand what makes successful remote students successful. The information below is extremely important, especially if you’re providing online Real Estate classes. The article below addresses the importance of everything from time management to students remaining motivated. This entry is a little lengthy. However, if you’re a real estate education provider that is either thinking about or already is offering classes online I highly suggest at least reading the summary.
To view the original blog post click here.
Successful Online Students Identify Seven Tips
Successful online students share their secrets for getting the most from online classes, focusing on time management, active participation, and practice
By Alan R. Roper
More and more, adult learners are finding the convenience and flexibility of online learning a match for their learning goals and busy lifestyles. Online degree programs, courses, and virtual universities targeting adult learners have proliferated in the past decade. Although students can easily locate an online course or degree program that’s both convenient and accessible, they may face significant challenges in developing a new set of skills for this type of instruction.
Educators have speculated on the development of student skills necessary to succeed in online learning, but relatively few publications cover the topic from the perspective of successful online students. I developed the study summarized here to provide this perspective and to identify useful strategies that instructors can promote in their online courses.
Methodology
The study began with the development of a set of questions that emerged from a group of online course designers, faculty, and administrators I consulted for ideas. The question set was reviewed and edited by a larger group of faculty and administrators, and an online survey instrument was developed.
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Expectations Management in Online Classes
The article below was written by a University of Maryland University College staff writer. To view the original article click here. The information in this article can be applied by Real Estate Professionals offering online courses.
Effective online classes tend to be ones where communication is Inter-Active and where expectations are clearly and consistently specified and reinforced of what both instructor(s) and students will do or not do. Here are some examples of strategies for managing expectations in your online classroom, gleaned from veteran Graduate School faculty.
Communicate and Fulfill Your Pledges: Examples
Quick turnaround time when answering personal email (e.g., ≤ 2 days)
Quick turnaround time in answering (or verifying if already answered by another student) students’ questions in your administrative conference (e.g., ≤ 2 days)
Goals: Demonstrate responsiveness, accessibility, involvement, and concern — major components of student satisfaction with online classes, whether via private or public interaction. At the same time, work towards minimizing unnecessary time answering repeat questions.
Clearly state your promised turnaround time in the Read Me First or other Housekeeping section of class, such as the “Additional Information” section of the Syllabus, first class announcement, etc.
Where relevant, you can also make your turnaround time pledge in the policy note of an “administrative” conference, or in its first main topic.
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Posted in Course Design, Course Design, Live Classes, Online Ed
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Presenter Paralysis … Eight Ways to Avoid It!
By Karel Murray, CSP
I first notice that my hands are getting clammy. Wiping them carefully on my pant leg seems to help just a bit. The trickle of sweat running down the middle of my spine is dealt with my leaning back on the chair – firmly.
Handling things well so far…
It’s said that speaking in front of others is one of the most dreaded acts for the human being. What I’ve described transpired during my first professional assignment. At least one of these “symptoms” re-occurs every time I speak professionally. The “butterflies” never seem to go away. But I’ve come to understand that this is a good thing!
