Online Learning Update

by I Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman, the Sloan Consortium

The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that enrollment rose by almost one million students from a year earlier. The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities nationwide finds approximately 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009, the most recent term for which figures are available. “This represents the largest ever year-to-year increase in the number of students studying online,” said study co-author I Elaine Allen, Co-Director of the Babson Survey Research Group and Professor of Statistics & Entrepreneurship at Babson College. “Nearly thirty percent of all college and university students now take at least one course online.”

PDF: http://sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/class_differences.pdf

http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/class_differences

by INACOL and State of Virginia

„„ K-12 online learning is a new field consisting of an estimated $507 million market, which is growing at an estimated annual pace of 30% annually.

„„ Supplemental or full-time online learning opportunities are available to at least some students in 48 of the 50 states plus Washington, DC.

„„ 27 states, as well as Washington, DC, have statewide full-time online schools.

„„ 38 states have state virtual schools or state-led online initiatives, and Alaska is planning to open a statewide online learning network in 2011.

„„ Many virtual schools show annual growth rates between 20% „ and 45%.

„„ 75% of school districts had one or more students enrolled in an online or blended learning course.

„„ 72% of school districts with distance education programs planned to expand online offerings in the coming year.

http://www.education.virginia.gov/docs/NACOL_fastfacts-lr%20Oct%202010.pdf

 By D.D. GUTTENPLAN, NY Times

Until recently, if you wanted to take Professor Rebecca Henderson’s course in advanced strategy to understand the long-term roots of why some companies are unusually successful, you needed to be a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Ms. Henderson taught at the Sloan School of Management. Admission to the Sloan School is extremely selective, and tuition fees are over $50,000 a year. For the past two years, though, anyone with an Internet connection can follow Ms. Henderson’s lectures online, where the lecture notes and course assignments are available free through M.I.T. OpenCourseWare.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/world/europe/01iht-educLede01.html?_r=1

by Sandra Kelly, Classes2Careers

High school seniors in Manistique are taking advantage of a unique online school system to further their educations. Almost 50 students are enrolled in various AP (Advanced Placement) and college courses as way to prepare for and get ahead of their college educations. The online program offers a wide variety of courses including language courses in Spanish, French, German, etc, Calculus, Psychology, Flash Design, and many more. The AP courses are designed to help students better adjust to the demanding course loads that college can present, while the college credit courses provide students an opportunity to enter college with freshman requirements out of the way.

http://www.classes2careers.com/students-get-jump-on-college-through-online-courses/

by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Pearson, the education and media conglomerate, is betting on it. The company will announce today a plan to sell courses aimed at preparing professors to teach online. Others are already leading in this field. One is the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit that focuses on technology and online education. Sloan runs nearly 100 workshops, averaging about a week in length and costing $400 to $500 each for individuals or $3,500 for a 100-seat institutional license. It provides online training for around 2,500 instructors per year, according to John Bourne, the organization’s executive director.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/10/pearson

by ANNA MALCZYK, Mail & Guardian

If Bill Gates is excited about online education, you should be, too. In a recent letter for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates focused on the power of the internet in improving and widening access to education. He states that the internet has changed so much of what we do — from buying airline tickets to voting in elections — and that it’s high time for the education sector to catch up in this dynamic field.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-01-elearning-the-future-of-education

by the Association for Career and Technical Education

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) has released “Expanding Career Readiness Through Online Learning.” The paper describes the growth and significance of online courses and how career and technical education is supporting this work. The paper marks the beginning of ACTE’s Career Readiness Series, which will concentrate on how elements of the CTE system support students’ academic, technical and employability skill development. Online learning provides flexibility of time, location and courses offered, and it allows non-traditional students the option to pursue their education while continuing with their current job or other responsibilities. Most importantly, online learning programs can provide students with a comprehensive set of academic, employability and technical skills to ensure career readiness.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acte-launches-new-career-readiness-series-in-paper-describing-impact-of-online-learning-106437673.html

by Sue Bechard, et al; Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment

This paper represents one outcome from the Invitational Research Symposium on Technology-Enabled and Universally Designed Assessments, which examined technology-enabled assessments (TEA) and universal design (UD) as they relate to students with disabilities (SWD). It was developed to stimulate research into TEAs designed to better understand the pathways to achievement for the full range of the student population through enhanced measurement capabilities offered by TEA. This paper presents important questions in four critical areas that need to be addressed by research efforts to enhance the measurement of cognition for students with disabilities: (a) better measurement of achievement for students with unique cognitive pathways to learning, (b) how interactive-dynamic assessments can assist investigations into learning progressions, (c) improvement of the validity of assessments for students previously in the margins, and (d) the potential consequences of TEA for students with disabilities. The current efforts for educational reform provide a unique window for action, and test designers are encouraged to take advantage of new opportunities to use TEA in ways that were not possible with paper and pencil tests. Symposium participants describe how technology-enabled assessments have the potential to provide more diagnostic information about students from various assessment sources about progress toward learning targets, generate better information to guide instruction and identify areas of focus for professional development, and create assessments that are more inclusive and measure achievement with improved validity for all students, especially students with disabilities.

http://escholarship.bc.edu/jtla/vol10/4/

By Carson Kelly, Education Review

Distance learning offers a wealth of advantages – it provides a convenient way to obtain a quality education while maintaining a full-time job, it positions you for better professional opportunities and enables you to complete your studies anytime and anywhere. However, since you won’t be meeting for scheduled classes on campus each day or week, you need to have good study habits to to succeed.

http://www.educationreview.org/education/top-4-study-tips-for-distance-learners-and-students-taking-online-courses/

by Lamar University

For the first time, Lamar University will offer its winter mini-session entirely online this year, providing students with greater flexibility and additional time to complete courses. No traditional face-to-face courses will be offered during the mini-session between the fall and spring semester, but more than 30 online courses will be available. The winter mini-session will run from Dec. 16, 2010, to Jan. 7, 2011. The innovative online delivery method will avoid the problem of beginning face-to-face courses on campus, breaking for the holidays and resuming classes in January. “The winter mini-session provides a wonderful opportunity for Lamar students as well as those from other universities to advance in their studies with the flexibility and convenience of online education,” said Kevin Smith, senior associate provost.

http://www.lamar.edu/newsevents/news/207_8973.htm

by the Press and Journal

The Department of Law at RGU’s Aberdeen Business School will be launching the first Online LLB in Scotland. This degree has been accredited recently by the Law Society of Scotland. Graduates (or those with extensive relevant work experience) from a wide range of disciplines and geographical jurisdictions are expected to apply. The course is structured around an online interactive learning platform, and students will be expected to interact with each other and their expert tutors on a regular basis, using some of the most up-to-date educational technology. An LLB can be obtained over two, three or four years (three years minimum for 2011 starts), and students will be able to accelerate or decelerate the learning process by changing mode to suit changes in their personal or work environments. On-campus optional tuition sessions will be offered each semester, in order to enhance the learning experience.

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1983041/?UserKey=

by Corrinne Hess, The Milwaukee Business Journal

When Christian de Jong decided to go back to school to complete his bachelor’s degree, he knew he would need something flexible. The 33-year-old Racine man works at BBC Bar & Grill on Milwaukee’s east side and also has a wife and two children under the age of 3 at home. Online courses seemed like the only way to go. De Jong is now enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s online bachelor of science in sustainable management program at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/print-edition/2010/10/29/no-leaving-home.html

Compiled by Yaffa Klugerman, Brain Track

A recent study found that various strategies used to improve retention rates in online courses have no impact on the number of students who choose to drop out. “If someone was going to drop out of the class, they were going to drop out of the class,” noted Stacy M. Campbell, assistant professor of management at Kennesaw State and co-author of the retention study, who was quoted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Others say that different methods can indeed make a difference. The Chronicle reports that according to Ray Schroeder, director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service at the University of Illinois at Springfield, retention can be improved by assigning staff members to serve as informal advisers and advocates for online students. Such program coordinators can assist students with various matters, including communicating with professors and arranging financial aid.

http://www.braintrack.com/college-and-work-news/articles/study-focuses-on-low-retention-rates-in-online-classes-10102701

by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

The biggest factors holding back the expansion of online programs at the 183 responding colleges? Lack of instructors and support personnel (61 percent) and budget cuts (56 percent). In a presumably related pattern, 67 percent reported having growth plans fettered by “[s]tudent demand for online courses which exceeds capacity to provide these courses.” In other words, the pace at which colleges expand their online arms now depends largely on internal politics and how much money administrators can wrangle from their depleted coffers. Many institutions see online expansion as a good way to increase tuition revenue in light of reduced giving, shrunken endowments, and stingy statehouses. Online programs will still keep growing; 96 percent of respondents said they expected their institutions would expand their Web-based offerings over the next three years. The question is how quickly. Growth appears to be slowing slightly: over the last three years, 27 percent of colleges saw their online programs grow by 20 percent or more; only 13 percent predict that level of growth over the next three years.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/12/online

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

In fall 2009, George Washington University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning studied a world history class of 262 students to find the answer. “If your goal is to find a magic bullet that makes all students better, this isn’t it,” said Hugh Agnew, a professor from the Elliott School of International Affairs who taught the course. “But If your goal is to reach some students better that maybe you aren’t reaching so terribly well, then I think this is worth trying.”

http://www.convergemag.com/classtech/Podcasts-George-Washington-University.html

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

At Iowa Western Community College, some students in the emergency medical technician program don’t have time to go to campus two nights a week. They have families and jobs, and a number of them take the course so they can volunteer as emergency medical technicians, said Cherri Lynch, the emergency medical services coordinator at the college. Online, students access lectures, take exams and quizzes, and participate in threaded discussions. And on campus, they spend five Saturdays practicing the hands-on skills they need. When they take their national certification tests, the students who pick the blended approach score as high or higher than the traditional classroom students, Lynch said.

http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Hybrid-Classes-Prepare-Students-for-Careers.html

by the Northern Ohio Morning Journal

The Internet is threatening to abolish snow days for some Ohio school children this winter.  The Ohio Department of Education is permitting Mississinawa Valley Schools in Darke County near the Indiana border to have students take online classes from their homes during inclement weather. The test could determine the future of calamity days for Ohio public schools.

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/10/27/opinion/mj3552868.txt

by AJ Sanson and Rosie Githinji, Alestle Live

The “traditional classroom” setting has changed throughout the years with the growing phenomenon that is the Internet. Society today is based upon convenience and because of that universities across the nation have seen an overall increase in online classes. SIU President Glenn Poshard said it is no different at SIUE. “If you look across society today, you’re seeing more place-bound students,” Poshard said. By “place-bound,” this means more students have ties into other obligations, including jobs or being a single parent. Poshard said it is not as easy for students to make it to class, especially if they do not live in the college town or on campus. “You are seeing a lot more older, non-traditional students,” Poshard said. “Students are not able to be on campus all day.”

http://goo.gl/g3Q2R

By Elizabeth Hernandez, LA Valley Times

classes will never completely replace face-to-face classes, but due to technological advancements they are quickly becoming a contender. Universities are taking advantage of technology to provide a new and exciting way to learn course material…video games. The University of North Carolina created an online first person role-playing game on economic theory. For three units of college credit, students play online as aliens who have crash landed on a plant and must create an economic system to survive. This is just one way online classes have improved in terms of quality.

http://www.lavalleystar.com/sections/online-exclusives/a-new-educational-experience-1.1734477

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

At Iowa Western Community College, some students in the emergency medical technician program don’t have time to go to campus two nights a week. They have families and jobs, and a number of them take the course so they can volunteer as emergency medical technicians, said Cherri Lynch, the emergency medical services coordinator at the college. Online, students access lectures, take exams and quizzes, and participate in threaded discussions. And on campus, they spend five Saturdays practicing the hands-on skills they need. When they take their national certification tests, the students who pick the blended approach score as high or higher than the traditional classroom students, Lynch said.

http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Hybrid-Classes-Prepare-Students-for-Careers.html

by JUDY WEIGHTMAN, Metro

“Online courses are incredibly convenient,” says Jon Lenrow, associate dean of academic operations at Peirce College. “Students don’t need to worry about travel or parking — or even about attending class at a particular time.” With most materials available 24/7, online learning is ideal for people with crazy schedules or those at a distance, like military personnel on deployment, Lenrow says. Another group that benefits from online classes are people who are shy about participating in fast-moving discussions in a traditional classroom. Online discussions, consisting of postings on a message board, give those people time to think through their responses.

http://www.metro.us/newyork/life/article/666213–online-learning-going-viral