Online Learning Update

April 30, 2010

Techniques for Enhancing Reflection and Learning in Online Learning

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Nancy O’Hanlon & Karen R. Diaz, JOLT

The authors designed new content for an online research skills course, to provide instruction and expert modeling of the process for determining bias when evaluating information sources. They also introduced a specific metacognitive strategy (self-questioning) to enhance student self-awareness. Students were encouraged to complete a self-regulated learning survey to raise their awareness of metacognitive strategies. The instructional content, an Adobe Captivate movie, described a cognitive strategy for identifying bias, MAPit, and included activities and questions throughout for students to assess their understanding. Instruction was followed by an online quiz that provided practice in applying the MAPit strategy. Metacognitive prompts within the quiz encouraged students to reflect on and assess their learning. The final course assignment (Capstone) also included application questions, with a reminder about the MAPit strategy. A review of performance on both assignments showed improvement after this intervention. When compared to a later offering of the same course where a more efficient approach to encouraging student self-questioning was applied, the improvement was sustained. This approach can be effectively implemented in a large enrollment online course.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol6no1/ohanlon_0310.htm

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What Course(s) Would You Like to Take Online?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

By KATHERINE SCHULTEN, NY Times

This weekend’s edition of Education Life explores the world of free educational material available online via the open courseware movement, with an interactive “Syllabus Sampler” that features clips from six popular online lectures. What experiences do you have with learning online? What courses do you wish you could take online? If you could design an online course or lecture that would be useful for your current interests or needs, what would it be? Who might teach it?

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/what-courses-would-you-like-to-take-online/

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Enrollment in online learning for community colleges on the rise

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

 

by Richard Webster

A recently released survey from the Instructional Technology Council (ITC) shows enrollment in on-line American community colleges increased 22% during the 2008-09 academic year, which isn’t surprising as more students requiring the flexibility of an online education are making their way into the virtual higher education world.

http://www.examiner.com/x-17574-Harford-County-Education-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m4d17-Enrollment-in-online-education-for-community-colleges-on-the-rise

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April 29, 2010

Comparing Student Achievement in Online Learning and Face-to-Face Class Formats

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Cindy Ann Dell, Christy Low, & Jeanine F. Wilker, JOLT

A research project was conducted to analyze student achievement using submitted assignments for two sections of a graduate course in human development and learning, taught both online and face-to-face, as well as three sections of undergraduate educational psychology, two of which were taught face-to-face, and one taught online. Results suggest there were no significant differences between the work submitted by students from the online sections and from the face-to-face students, and that the methods of instruction are more important than the delivery platform.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol6no1/dell_0310.htm

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Online Learning—Makes Going To Class Easier

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By Alex Strobel, Red White and Blue Press

Many people don’t continue their education or even begin the pursuit of getting a college degree for a number of reasons, but one common hindrance of getting a degree is many people either began work or a family at some point and they now find that continuing or beginning their education isn’t something that is going to be easy. However, online universities or even distance education classes from traditional universities can afford you the convenience of getting a college education or a graduate degree with classes and degree programs that are going to fit into your schedule.

http://www.rwbpress.com/2010/04/16/online-college-universities-offer-bachelor%E2%80%99s-and-master%E2%80%99s-degrees%E2%80%94makes-going-to-class-easier/

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Community colleges turn to online classes as enrollments spike

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Dennis Carter, eSchool News

Distance-learning enrollment in American community colleges jumped by 22 percent during the 2008-09 academic year, an increase fueled in part by an influx of nontraditional students who require the flexibility of online courses, according to a survey conducted by the Instructional Technology Council (ITC). The ITC, which is affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), collected 226 responses from community colleges in its annual survey, “Trends in eLearning: Tracking the Impact of eLearning at Community Colleges,” which revealed the 2008-09 increase in online enrollment. Last year’s ITC survey reported an 11-percent uptick in web-based class enrollment at community colleges.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/04/16/community-colleges-turn-to-online-classes-as-enrollments-spike/

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April 28, 2010

Online Learning: Bringing the college laboratory into students’ homes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Randy Barber, 9News Denver

Taking an online learning college course doesn’t mean students have to give up the valuable lessons learned in science. Thanks to an invention created by this week’s Colorado Company to Watch, students are able to do their experiments–including everything from mixing chemicals to dissection– from the comfort of their home.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=136879&catid=188

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More NYC schools to experiment with online learning, schedule changes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Anna Phillips, Gotham Schools

Chancellor Joel Klein is expanding a pilot program that takes the experiments city schools often conduct behind closed classroom doors and brings them to other schools.  Called Innovation Zone, or iZone, the program began this year in ten schools and will grow to include 81 schools next year. At its core is a heavy emphasis on expanding online learning, a major focus of Klein’s tenure at the Department of Education.  Of the iZone schools, more than half will adopt the “virtual school” model. This involves using online Advanced Placement classes and credit recovery courses or simply combining online work and face-to-face instruction.

http://gothamschools.org/2010/04/14/more-schools-to-experiment-with-online-work-schedule-changes/

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How to Maximize an Online Learning Program

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Rebecca Kern, US News

With a slowly recovering economy and high unemployment, more people are using online educational programs to learn new skills in order to transfer into new careers or advance in their current fields. Approximately one fourth of the 19 million students enrolled in higher education were enrolled in at least one online course during the fall of 2008. This was a 17 percent increase from the previous year, according to a 2009 report by Sloan Consortium and Babson Survey Research Group. Today, online education programs have become commonplace, with more than 3,300 of the roughly 4,500 U.S. colleges and universities offering at least one online course.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/2010/04/15/how-to-maximize-an-online-education-program.html

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April 27, 2010

Online Learning should be on agenda for community college summit

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

What should be on agenda for community college summit? – David Moltz, Inside Higher Ed

George R. Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, says “We will need to look at ways to improve both college access and student success. (The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act) will likely address the need for continued increases in federal student financial aid, but infrastructure needs, online course delivery support and the innovation and success support that would have been provided by [the American Graduation Initiative] should be reviewed. Also, we need to look at state and federal policies that make it difficult for students to transfer or otherwise complete their goals for colleges to focus on student learning and completion.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-04-16-ihe-community-college-summit-ideas16_ST_N.htm

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Moodle: The free online learning platform

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Robert Seetzen, The H

Moodle , the E-learning platform, is one of the most significant and successful projects in open source. Despite its success, with hundreds of thousands of people being taught by courses written in Moodle, as a product it is not well known. E-learning comes in many forms. For example math and vocabulary aids on CD-ROM or screencasts on YouTube are just two obvious examples from a large range of different options. Less familiar, since they frequently deal with specialised knowledge, are thousands of specific learning systems and managed online courses.

http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Moodle-The-free-e-learning-platform-966609.html

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Online Learning Computer Science 193P: iPhone Application Programming

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Brad Stone, New York Times

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur James Anthony says he is often surprised to find that other developers for the iPhone and iPod Touch have the exact same programming education he does. They, too, learned the secrets of Apple’s hit mobile devices from the Stanford course on iPhone applications, which was introduced in fall 2008 to a packed lecture hall. But while Mr. Anthony took the class as a senior at Stanford, many other members of Apple’s burgeoning developer community have tuned in to free video recordings of lectures at iTunes U, where it is often one of the most popular downloads. Stanford’s online class, Mr. Anthony says, “is pretty much the primary way to learn about iPhone development right now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/education/edlife/18IT-t.html

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April 26, 2010

Update of Online Learning Blog!

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:12 am
Hi! After a decade, it was time to update the “look” of the Online Learning Update blog. This is the same blog, but with a “new” cleaner – less clutered look.  The content and publication schedule will remain the same. The URL will remain the same. The RSS feed will continue at: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/OnlineLearningUpdate. Email delivery will continue as before.

I hope that you find our new blog will continue to be a valuable resource to you in using online learning technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

Best,

Ray Schroeder, editor

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Why Wikis? Student Perceptions of Using Wikis in Online Learning Coursework

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

by Faye Deters, Kristen Cuthrell & Joy Stapleton, JOLT

In recent years, Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts have skyrocketed in the number of users. These applications have led to new innovations for teaching and learning. Elementary education professors at a large southeastern College of Education conducted a study for the purpose of exploring student perceptions regarding the use of wikis in online instruction and potential uses for wikis in the K-12 classroom as perceived by respondents. Participants in the study were 40 students enrolled in 1 of 3 graduate level social studies methods courses. Data were collected using surveys and written reflections. Though students reported initial hesitation at learning a new technology, their overall experience using the wikis was positive. The students felt that wikis were a great collaboration tool. Principle themes that emerged from the data were the potential uses of wikis as instructional tools, potential uses for information dissemination, benefits or advantages to using wikis, and limitations regarding the use of wikis. The authors provide a list of questions developed as a result of the study that, when used prior to implementing wikis as a learning tool, will minimize the limitations associated with their use.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol6no1/deters_0310.htm
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Literature takes new direction with online learning growth

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am
Hometown Life
At the International Academy, literature is a unique vehicle of travel. From reading and analyzing literature, students can visit far off places from around the world without leaving their local community. One of the benefits of the 11th-grade International Baccalaureate English curriculum is that instructors serve as tour guides in escorting their students, covering the globe, to visit cultures unfamiliar to their own in White Lake. With the aid of novels and non-fiction memoirs written by Nobel laureates, IB English instructors journey with their students to Columbia.
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100415/LIFE/4150425
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Online Learning Lab Simulations

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Bridget McCrea, THE Journal

Using the online lab simulation program, for example, students can “visit” an actual parts shelf, look at manuals, and figure out exactly which video card will be the best match for a specific computer motherboard. Students select the right item and plug it into the computer that’s being designed. If the two parts aren’t compatible, a red “X” pops up on the screen, alerting students to the error. “In real life, if someone had grabbed a component that wasn’t correct, that item would likely present problems,” DeBroeck said, “whereas using the lab on the computer, they’re just alerted to the issue, and allowed to go back and correct the problem.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/04/15/beyond-lab-simulations.aspx

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April 4, 2010

Online Learning: Universities Use Social Media to Connect

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:20 pm
by ALICE PFEIFFER, New York Times
More important, said Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, learning online promotes digital literacy. “As we increasingly move toward an environment of instant and infinite information, it becomes less important for students to know, memorize, or recall information,” Mr. Wesch said. “They need to move from being simply knowledgeable, to being knowledge able; to examine, question, and even recreate the increasingly digital structures that shape our world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/education/31iht-riedsoc.html
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