New Canoe University announced its inaugural course, "How to Become an Ebay Auction Power Seller." New Canoe University is a brand new "online university dedicated to teaching practical skills that can be immediately applied to starting a business and earning money."

Instructors Leland Harden and Bob Heyman, both veteran auction sellers, entrepreneurs and authors, teach the Power Seller course. Their book, "The Auction-App" published by McGraw-Hill, serves as the basis for the eleven lectures and textbook for the course. The lectures are each approximately 30 minutes in duration and cover key topics such as the history of online auctions; proper listing techniques; the ingredients in a winning description; how to make first-time buyers life long customers; and how to find and secure the best sources for products.

Lectures include reviews of and links to tools, services, and product sources. The classes use innovative, Flash-based, "talking slides" of the lectures (see the demo on the site). Students can actively participate in discussions and collaborate with their fellow learners and instructors. An enrollment to the online auction Power Seller course gives students access to the material, instructors and forums for 1 year. Students may register for the class online for $99 (normally $126).

"This online education approach gives students a very practical, hands-on experience. New Canoe University narrows down topics into bite-size modules and practical procedures that can be applied immediately," said Americ Azevedo, Interdisciplinary Studies Lecturer, University of California at Berkeley, who helped New Canoe University develop its online learning environment and education methodology.

"The lectures have a Pause function, just like a VCR or DVD player, so students can click to the links provided in them and create their own bookmark lists," said Leland Harden. "Other materials will be provided from time to time as updates and downloads. And enough can't be said about the power of the collaboration. Over time there could be literally thousands of people sharing their experiences and resources together."

New Canoe University, founded in January, 2003 aims to be the leading online provider of training in practical skills that can be immediately applied by consumers to start small or home-based businesses. The company will offer low-bandwidth online courses at low-cost in short segments.

http://www.newcanoeu.com