Online Learning Update

By Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Ed Wired

What happens when you invite the whole world to join an online class?

As The Chronicle reported last year, a growing number of educators are giving that idea a try by offering free “massive open online courses,” or MOOC’s, to anyone who wants to learn. Today, that experimental idea gained some more traction in mainstream higher education. The University of Illinois at Springfield announced a new not-for-credit MOOC devoted to examining the state of online education and where e-learning is heading. Nearly 500 people from two dozen countries have registered so far, with 1,000 expected to sign up by the time the course begins next Monday.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/u-of-illinois-at-springfield-offers-new-massive-open-online-course/31853

By Molly Farmer, Deseret News

Legislation intended to create more options for students through online courses could actually end up limiting their choices and creating major logistical problems, according to state education and charter school officials. The new law allows high school students statewide to enroll at no cost to their families in online classes from various online providers in addition to their standard high school classes. For every online class they take, however, they must drop one of the classes at their brick and mortar high school unless they plan to graduate early.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705374566/New-online-learning-law-full-of-unintended-consequences.html

By WENDY PARCEL, San Diego Union-Tribune

Online learning is the driving force in revolutionizing education. It can overcome demographic and geographic barriers that limit our student learning, as well as improve the quality of instruction while decreasing the cost to provide that instruction. As with most public schools, running a class for a small number of students hurts a school financially. At Julian Charter, sponsored by Julian Union School District, we take students from multiple locations and have them all in one class online with an instructor. This allows us to place the best instructor possible in the teaching position and allows our students access to a class they might otherwise find unavailable. Many of our students live in rural areas where access to a variety of classroom settings is not possible. In addition, we have been able to partner with the Orange County Department of Education to offer career technical education classes that we could not offer alone.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/22/technology-can-revolutionize-teaching/

by Alexa Dare, JOLT

The purpose of this paper is to interrogate critically the design and delivery of online course which address issues of race, culture, difference, or globalization. I use critical insights about how race functions in the online classroom to provide strategies for incorporating social justice into online curriculum in communication studies. I begin by summarizing key insights into the two general pedagogical issues of interest to this paper: critical intercultural communication studies and online course delivery. The first part of this essay addresses the advantages and possibilities associated with online delivery of such courses as intercultural communication. The second part teases out some of my misgivings concerning the viability and usefulness of online courses concerning communication and difference. Finally, I conclude by offering some strategies for designing antiracist and socially just classes in the online environment.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/dare_0611.htm

by Edwige Simon, JOLT

Online learning has become a critical element of the U.S higher educational landscape. Given its growth, it is likely that both current and future faculty will be engaged in some form of online learning at some point in their career. Although teaching online is an increasingly common occurrence for faculty in higher education, the transition from the physical to the virtual classroom is a challenging experience for which many faculty are unprepared. Adequate preparation to teach online is particularly important, as online learning is especially unforgiving of pedagogical shortcomings. This paper describes a case study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder, in which five graduate teaching assistants (TAs) enrolled in a graduate course that explored the theory and practice of online foreign language course design were followed. As a capstone project, TAs designed and developed a three-week non-credit online course for their language of expertise, which they taught the following summer. One major finding of this study is the importance of addressing faculty perceptions about online learning when preparing them to teach online and suggests that one way to address perception issues is to provide future faculty with a chance to experience online teaching for themselves in non-threatening conditions.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/simon_0611.htm

by Suzanne Young and Mary Alice Bruce, JOLT

The purpose of this study was to examine correlates of both online classroom community and student engagement in online learning, as well as to compare community and engagement across disciplines in higher education. Participants (n=1,410) in online courses across five colleges and in both graduate and undergraduate courses were asked to complete an online survey. The survey consisted of 23 items measuring community and engagement as well as an additional six demographic items. Factor analysis yielded the following three factors accounting for approximately 58% of the total variance: classroom community with instructors (eight items), classroom community with classmates (eight items), and engagement in learning (seven items). Discipline differences were found when examining the three factors across the colleges. Students taking courses in the College of Education reported significantly stronger feelings of community with instructors and classmates compared to all other colleges; students taking courses in the College of Health Sciences reported significantly stronger feelings of community with classmates compared to students in Business and Arts and Sciences courses. Also, students in Education and Health Science courses reported significantly stronger engagement compared to students in Arts and Sciences courses.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/young_0611.htm

by Matti Haverila, JOLT

This paper reports the findings of research into the effect of E-learning experience on students’ perceived learning outcomes. The research examines perceived learning outcomes in terms of effectiveness, amount and productivity of learning in an E-learning context. The participants were undergraduate course students at Tamk University of Applied Sciences in Tampere, Finland. The results were interpreted using a quantitative and exploratory research approach. The results suggest that a priori E-learning experience significantly correlates with perceived learning outcomes. This occurs only in a direct fashion and, surprisingly, not through any intermediary process variables in contrast to the findings in the learning model developed by Biggs and Moore. Specific recommendations for practitioners are also provided, and the implications for educators are discussed. Finally suggestions for further research on E-learning are provided.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/haverila_0611.htm

by Ankit Ranka, EdLab Columbia University

One of the features I thought of for the course platform of mSchool was to use hashtags to make the courses more dynamic. Here is how it will work – anyone who creates an online course will be able to add resources to their courses using hashtags. For example, if I create a ‘C programming course’ , I wil be able to add hashtag #programming to my tweets related to programming and all the links in those tweets will be automatically added to my course. One of the problems I have seen with online course delivery platforms is that they require a lot of effort from teachers to create and maintain courses. And they are not updated over longer periods of time. I think methods like adding resources via twitter, email and other social networking sites will make those courses more dynamic and related to the current events. These methods might also help get the unconventional teachers (I couldn’t find a better term for people who are not teachers but are willing to teach) to create courses since they won’t have to spend hours creating and maintaining their courses.

http://edlab.tc.columbia.edu/index.php?q=node/5862

By Mariel Loveland, Scribbal

According to an infographic by the Education Database Online, broadcasting courses on television began in 1971 with the Open University, a U.K.-based college and 25,000 students enrolled. In 1989 University of Phoenix launched its online college and only 12 students enrolled. Now the University of Pheonix has over 500,000 students making it the largest university in the U.S. It’s 13 times larger than the University of Arizona. The Open University, which teaches most of its classes online, is the U.K.’s largest university with 250,000 students enrolled. Even if students have a traditional college experience and don’t attend college primarily online, they’re still likely to take some classes through the Internet. Almost half of all college students take at least one class online and 3 million students in the U.S. only take online classes.

http://www.scribbal.com/2011/06/infographic-how-the-internet-is-changing-how-people-learn/

by the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service, University of Illinois Springfield

Join your colleagues for an open look at online learning trends, techniques, technologies and some great discussion panels with leaders in our field. All open! No charge. Great discussion. Links to hundreds of useful resources about online learning. Simply register with an email address at the site below and join in this worldwide collaborative event!

https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/

by Michael V. Miller, JOLT

This article argues for the extensive employment of multimedia in college courses, and also suggests that instructors jointly involve their students in the process of making such resources. To foster greater engagement, a way of thinking about multimedia within the context of a coherent online system is introduced. The article identifies the key components of this system (i.e., distribution, location, collection, conceptualization, and production), the precise ways in which various online services and tools fit into each element, and how facility can be developed in working with digital learning content across the system.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/miller_0611.htm

by Frank M. LoSchiavo & Mark A. Shatz, JOLT

Three studies were conducted to assess the effect of an honor code on self-reported cheating during online quizzes in an Introductory Psychology course. In Study 1 (N = 40), the authors found that 72.5% of students reported cheating on at least one of the 14 quizzes (M = 4.15), typically by consulting the textbook or the online course materials. In Study 2 (N = 84), students were randomly assigned to a fully asynchronous online section in which students were required to digitally sign an honor code or to a section without such a requirement.Contrary to expectations, no significant difference in self-reported cheating emerged between students who signed the honor code (61.5%) and students who did not sign the code (50%). In Study 3 (N = 165), the authors tested students in blended sections and found that students who signed an honor code were about 30% less likely to report cheating (57.6%) than those who did not sign (81.8%). The authors discuss the implications for online instruction and suggest that the immediacy (i.e., perceived social distance) of the instructor is one key factor that influences compliance with honor codes in online courses.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no2/loschiavo_0611.htm

by Christopher Dawson, ZD Net

I’ve reviewed the Chromebooks extensively and have been universally impressed. The educational possibilities in a school willing to hang its hat on Google’s cloud and embrace a collaborative approach to education are quite extraordinary. Add to that Google’s Web-based management tools and the ability to dispense with re-imaging and regular upgrades and maintenance to potentially hundreds or thousands of machines and it gets very hard to dismiss Chromebooks in educational applications. In fact, I would argue that education in general (and 1:1 in particular) is the number one use case for Google’s latest foray into personal computing.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/chromebooks-officially-on-sale-is-your-school-buying/4612?tag=nl.e623

By Trent Batson, Campus Technology

An emerging process using electronic portfolios produces evidence-based evaluations: richer data for better decisions during college and at graduation. What is a grade? It’s a summative abstraction with almost no context. For decades, those in high education and those hiring college graduates made inferences from the grades that once were accepted as valid. Can we make valid inferences from grades now? To achieve evidence-based evaluation, an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) must be available for students and faculty to use. And both students and faculty must know how to use ePortfolios. Right now, rarely do campuses have ePortfolios available for all students and faculty.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/06/08/evidence-based-evaluation-with-eportfolios-is-better-than-grades.aspx

By Trent Batson, Campus Technology

In a time of knowledge stability, teach; in a time of rapid change in knowledge, learn… Clearly, we have left the time of knowledge stability and entered a time of incredibly rapid change. Web 2.0, a term coined in 2004, is a description of the new Web architecture, but is also a historical marker between the era of comfortable stability and the era of unsettling change. Many in higher education say we have accordingly turned to learning and away from teaching, but in fact we haven’t. Most educators I talk with are unaware of the degree of change necessary today or of the degree to which deep change will continue over the coming decades. And so, the dominant emphasis on teaching remains.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011/06/15/the-problem-of-pedagogy-in-a-web-2.0-era.aspx

By Sarah Sapp, Memphis Commercial Appeal

Current or prospective college students of any age who are considering taking classes online for the first time can now benefit from Northwest Mississippi Community College’s introduction to online learning through Blackboard, the premiere Web-based technology platform for teaching and learning. “By giving everyone who is thinking of taking an online class a preview, it will allow future students to be less anxious about the online environment,” said Northwest dean of eLearning, Phyllis Johnson. “We are teaching over 300 classes online, offering something for everyone who wants to learn anywhere, anytime. That includes an online tutor and help desk that can help the students anytime.”

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jun/08/focus-schools-web-learners/

By Brian Bethel, Abilene Reporter-News

Some public universities in Texas have turned to private companies to help bump up the number of students taking online classes. The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that the University of Texas at Arlington has used Dallas-based Academic Partnerships for education and nursing programs. The company markets the program, recruits students, provides the online platform and takes at least 50 percent of the tuition costs. UTA provides the instructors. There are few local colleges — Abilene Christian University and Hardin-Simmons University — that use external companies to market their online courses. But even if they don’t, Abilene’s higher education institutions all said online courses play a significant role in their future plans — and letting prospective students know about them is key.

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2011/jun/08/abilene-area-universities-say-online-offerings/

by Directions Magazine

Eva Dodsworth, geospatial data services librarian at the University of Waterloo’s Map Library, will offer an online course titled “Introduction to Spatial Literacy and Online Mapping” under the auspices of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Directions Magazine interviewed Dodsworth to learn more about the course offering and why it was needed.

http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/geospatial-technology-meets-library-science-online-course-gets-librarians-u/182794

by eCampus News

More than 100,000 students have been recruited to online classes in Texas since 2007. Several Texas public universities have turned to private companies to help enroll thousands more students — not for classes on campus, but online. Some state leaders want to explore expanding that model. They see potential to educate more Texans at lower cost.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/several-texas-colleges-are-using-private-recruiters-for-online-classes/

By Holly Hacker, Dallas News

Today I wrote about state universities, including the University of Texas at Arlington, partnering with for-profit companies to deliver online classes. It’s an approach that’s gaining interest and traction in Texas, among people like Gov. Rick Perry and Jeff Sandefer, who has proposed some controversial “breakthrough solutions” in higher ed. There’s an interesting regulatory angle to this story, too. I spoke recently with Trace Urdan, a research analyst at Signal Hill investment bank in San Francisco. “More and more of these creative arrangements are being struck,” said Urdan, who studies the for-profit higher ed sector. One big reason, he said, is investors have shied away from for-profit universities as they’ve come under greater federal scrutiny and regulation.

http://educationfrontblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/06/online-learning-for-profits-an.html

by Paul Signorelli and Lori Reed, American Libraries

When we library staff members are struggling to respond to incoming phone calls, email, text/instant messages, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn updates, and people stopping us in hallways to ask for help, it’s easy to forget that we, too, need learning resources and communities of support. Many of us who are responsible for organizing and providing learning opportunities recognize that one of our greatest challenges is making the time to continue our own professional development so that we can better serve those who learn from what we provide. We tend to fall into the same trap that our learners encounter: As we keep up with our daily workload, we don’t seek the learning opportunities that are at the heart of our own continuing professional and personal development.

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/06062011/professional-growth-through-learning-communities