AUTHORING TOOLS REPORT NOW AVAILABLE - With hundreds of authoring technologies and tools available today, the task of choosing one for your organization may seem daunting. "Authoring Tool Strategies" is a practical, hands-on report from brandon-hall.com that will help you make critical choices in determining an authoring strategy and selecting the right technology to meet your organization's content needs and goals. Written by Brandon Hall and Bryan Chapman, eLearning Analyst with brandon-hall.com and 18-year instructional design veteran, this report shares the secret to choosing an authoring tool: having a clear understanding about your own technology restrictions, instructional needs and business requirements. For more information CLICK: http://www.brandon-hall.com/auttoolstrat.html (News and Notes from brandon-hall.com, 21 May 01)

REPORT EXAMINES TECHNOLOGY SPENDING - A report from the Lumina Foundation for Education suggests that studies showing higher education technology spending between $2.7 and $4.4 billion per year may not fully capture the total cost of technology at colleges and universities. Based on a survey of state finance officers and experts and institutional representatives on technology financing, "Funding the 'Infostructure:' A Guide to Financing Technology Infrastructure in Higher Education" concludes that, because most colleges and universities lack appropriate plans and policies to finance technology, the amount of money spent on technology in higher education is unknown. Many colleges and universities fund technology as an add-on, not as an ongoing part of institutional planning. Written by Jane Wellman and Ronald Phipps, senior associates at The Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, D.C., the report suggests policies to help colleges and universities finance technology, provides a common language to describe the elements of the technology infrastructure and presents innovative funding options to help institutions keep pace with rapidly changing technology. For a complete copy of the report, visit CLICK: http://www.luminafoundation.org/Publications/new agenda.htm Select the link for "Funding the 'Infostructure:' A Guide to Financing Technology Infrastructure in Higher Education." (Syllabus e-News, Resources and Trends, 16 May 01)

ONLINE EDUCATION, VOL. 2 - This volume makes public the best of the proceedings from the 2000 Sloan Summer Workshop on Asynchronous Education Online. The workshop brought together more than 30 practitioners and administrators working at online programs funded by the Sloan Foundation. Papers report on benchmarking procedures and policies at leading distance learning academic institutions such as Penn State and the University of Maryland University College. The section on Faculty Satisfaction draws conclusions from surveys with faculty at several programs and provides insight on how to design faculty incentive programs. The section on Cost Effectiveness outlines how to measure cost effectiveness and allocate funds for online learning initiatives. The section on Learning Effectiveness helps answer the question of whether or not people learn as well online as they do on campus. This is a must-read resource for anyone serious about designing and implementing an asynchronous learning program in line with larger institutional goals (ISBN#0-9677741-1-X). For more information CLICK: http://www.scole.olin-babson.org (Virtual University Gazette, May 01)

EDUCATION RESOURCE ORGANIZATIONS DIRECTORY - Education Resource Organizations Directory (EROD) is a "metasite" provided by the U.S. Department of Education at no cost to users. The site indexes over 4,000 sites that offer information and assistance on a wide range of education-related topics. Resources are arranged and searchable by state and region, type of organization, title, subject and description. The site also includes a form to submit suggestions for additions to the directory (ISSN 1521- 92750). EROD is available at CLICK: http://www.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/ (CIT INFOBITS #34, Apr 01)

LOCATING CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS MADE EASIER - It is important for purposes of research, but often difficult, to locate published conference proceedings. To assist with this problem, the National Standards Information Organization (NISO) has published a standard on "Title Pages for Conference Publications" (ANSI/NISO Z39.82-2001). NISO is the only US group accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop and promote technical standards for use in information delivery services. With the standard, publishers and editors will better be able to prepare uniform title pages, making it easier for users to both find and cite conference proceedings. The standard applies to all disciplines, all conferences and all formats (e.g. printed, video and Web) and to published conference proceedings in various manifestations (e.g. papers, abstracts and summaries) and to all languages. A copy of the standard is available in pdf format at CLICK: http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/pdf/free/283165/Z39-82.pdf