Online Learning Update

by Nicole, Online Learning Tips

We write a lot on here about using Social Media (along with other online tools etc.) to help with your learning. But what about getting to that point? What if you’re not in school yet? Have no idea what to study? Or where? Or how? 99.9% of us would go straight to Google and start Googling up a storm… “online school,” “going to college,” “online classes,” “online degrees.” The list goes on and on and on. BUT… have you considered moving your search over to Social Media?

http://onlinelearningtips.com/2011/06/03/3-ways-to-use-social-media-to-pick-a-school/

By Robyn Gee, Huffington Post

University of Southern California (USC) is set to become, “the country’s largest not-for-profit teacher prep program by 2013,” according to The Atlantic. All due to their online Masters of Arts in Teaching program – MAT@USC. USC now graduates 1500 teachers, many of whom attend classes via video chat. According to Margo Pensavalle, Professor of Clinical Education at the Rossier School of Education at USC, and a member of the faculty for the MAT@USC program, insists that the program is really top notch. “We didn’t want to be like DeVry – this is USC and we wanted to do a really good job… The syllabi for the courses are identical and the faculty are identical [to the on-campus courses],” she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/youth-radio-youth-media-international/training-teachers-online_b_871206.html

by Emily Schettler, Press-Citizen

A new degree program offered by the University of Iowa this fall will encourage students who can’t come to campus to go online instead. The university is unveiling a business degree through the Henry B. Tippie College of Business that students can obtain entirely through online classes. The program is meant for those people already working but wanting to get their degree, many of whom may have families and are unable to move to Iowa City to take classes on campus, said David Hensley, executive director of UI John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Programs.

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20110603/NEWS01/110603006/UI-offer-online-only-business-degree–

By: Chie Saito – YNN Austin

Central Texas College has already started to get the ball rolling on complying with upcoming federal mandates that put tighter regulations on schools and universities with online classes. For CTC student Sharon Blakly, taking classes online is the best option for her busy schedule. “I work four days on, four days off, 12-hour shifts so it works better in my plan,” she said. “I don’t have to drive back and forth, saves gas. I can do it at home in my pajamas.” However, federal regulations may soon change the way Blakly, and even out of state students, take CTC courses online.

http://austin.ynn.com/content/top_stories/278779/federal-regulation-could-hinder-online-college-courses

by Robin Green, Coggno

If you’re a teacher considering creating an e-learning course, put together a list of helpful resources and guidelines for creating an effective online learning experience. People choose e-learning courses for many reasons, including accessibility and flexibility. The cost effectiveness of online learning is another huge plus for many students. Learning can happen any time, anywhere, whether it’s squeezed in between work and dinner, or even on the treadmill at the gym. Creating quality online courses that motivates students and interacts with them is key to success.

http://coggno.com/learning-management-system/e-learning-course-checklist-for-teachers.html

by Learning Online Info

Technology is changing the way we communicate, as well as the way we learn. The Internet has made online learning almost instant: students can interact with each other through e-mail, online chat, and other communication software. For both students and teachers, it is important to set rules for how classmates and instructors interact with each other online. The rules for online teaching and learning shouldn’t be all that different than those for a physical classroom. Courtesy and attention are essential, but online interaction requires a few specific rules to make the experience valuable—even fun—for everyone involved.

http://learningonlineinfo.org/2011/06/01/internet-etiquette-online-learning/

by Anne Ryman, The Arizona Republic

In a push to attract more students and generate money, Arizona State University is plunging deeper into online education, hoping that more than a quarter of its students will be exclusively in virtual classes within a decade. ASU, one of the nation’s largest public universities, projects 30,000 students will attend fully online by 2020, a tenfold increase from today. Tens of thousands of additional, on-campus students would attend partly online. Most of the online-only students would be older and attend part time, but a significant share, including younger students, are expected to go entirely online.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/06/05/20110605arizona-state-online-classes.html

DeLaina Tonks, Utah Daily Herald

As the school year winds down at the Open High School of Utah, I look back at 2010-11 and am thrilled with the transformative power that technology played in preparing my students for what lies ahead. The use of technology — real-world technology — transcends the barriers of time and place and allows students access to knowledge anytime, anyplace. As an online school, our methods can be described as “one-on-one tutoring for every student in every subject”. Instruction is individualized, allowing students to work at their pace and on their needs. Our technology instantaneously tracks the students and their performance. Today’s learners are digital natives who connect to each other and to areas of interest via technology.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinion/editorial/around-the-nation/article_856b1cdd-2ab7-5b79-a8c3-e5333f3d4560.html

By Princeton Union-Eagle

Autumn, Renee’, Rosemary, Pam, Edgar, and Ellen are among an intriguing group of 100,000 Minnesotans. They range in age from 17 to more than 50. They come from everywhere, Anoka to Zimmerman, suburbs, small towns, farms and cities. They are taking online courses this year from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. Here are a few of them, followed by information about how you could join them.

http://unioneagle.com/2011/06/online-courses-at-colleges-taking-off/

by Chabot College, YouTube

This video dispels myths that online classes are easier, have no interaction with instructors, and easier in which to cheat than on campus classes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0LnA37fL0&feature=youtube_gdata

By: Mary Bart, Faculty Focus in Online Education

Experts from the Goodwin College of Professional Studies at Drexel University, shared some program best practices for “bringing the campus” to the online students. “We focused on the concept of Online Human Touch and how can we personalize the learning experience for that student,” said Betts. “What we’ve found through our research is students are more likely to persist in their online courses if they’re engaged in and outside of their courses and the educational experience is personalized.” For example, each student who’s accepted receives a congratulatory phone call from the program director or academic adviser welcoming him or her to the program. The students then go through an online orientation where the presenters include the Dean of Students and faculty, as well as representatives from the writing center, library, support services, financial aid, disability services and student life. During week two, a time when many new online students start to feel overwhelmed, the program hosts a virtual tea time. Students receive in the mail a signed invitation with a sachet of tea inviting them to join their classmates for an informal chat with instructors. Typically, 75 to 80 percent of the students attend the virtual tea.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/how-to-make-your-online-students-feel-connected/

By Debra Erdley, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

On a warm spring evening, a dozen graduate students slowly file into a second-floor classroom in Hamburg Hall at Carnegie Mellon University. More than 10,300 miles away, it’s early morning in Adelaide, Australia. When class convenes in Pittsburgh at 6 p.m., it’s 7:30 a.m. for the folks Down Under. Yet, a group of students in Adelaide is joining associate teaching professor Tim Zak’s class in Pittsburgh for a graduate business course in strategy development, courtesy of a real-time video hook-up that couldn’t be sharper if the students were in adjoining rooms.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_739650.html

by JACQUES VON LUNEN, Tri-City Herald

Western Governors University Washington, an online university created by the Legislature last year, opened its virtual doors in earnest last week, when Jean Floten became its chancellor in a ceremony in Seattle. Floten previously headed Bellevue College for more than 20 years. WGU is a nonprofit online university founded by the governors of 19 Western states in the mid-1990s. It differs from traditional universities in several ways, and not just because it has no buildings. The university now has an official presence in Washington, which will especially benefit students looking to transfer from the state’s two-year schools.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/31/1686707/online-university-opens-virtual.html

Louise Williams, The Australian

The way Bill Gates sees it, the university as we know it is an endangered species. Five years from now – on the web for free – you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world, the Microsoft billionaire said last year. And in Gates’s opinion this constantly expanding digital smorgasbord of educational choices will be better than any single university in the world. Another giant of the global digital communications revolution has a different spin. In his blog, Sergey Brin, the 36-year-old co-founder of Google, proposes bypassing centuries of scientific epistemology to close the time lag between research breakthroughs in academe and their real-world application.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-of-the-future-is-here/story-e6frgcjx-1226066713881

By Jeff Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

A university press in China appears to be selling transcripts of Yale University’s free online courses in a new volume, sparking complaints from Yale officials. Under the terms of the course giveaway, called Open Yale Courses, others cannot profit from the material. Shaanxi Normal University Press recently published the compilation of five Yale open courses, according to a post today on a Yale Alumni Magazine blog. The book reportedly lifted largely from Chinese subtitles translated by a nonprofit group called YYeT, though that group insists it was not involved in the publication, whose author is listed as Wu Han.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/yale-u-complains-that-chinese-university-press-plagiarized-free-course-materials/31609?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

UWM psychology professors Diane Reddy and Ray Fleming believe they have found a more effective way to teach undergraduate courses. Two major funding organizations agree and have invested to scale up its use at other U.S. universities, and also to scientifically identify what factors make it so successful. The online U-Pace instructional approach has been shown to improve student performance compared to traditional, in-person lecture classes at UWM. U-Pace also closes the achievement gap between at-risk college students and prepared students.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/unique-online-teaching-method-at-uwm-earns-national-attention2

By Jennifer R. Lloyd, Express-News

After introducing her fourth grade class to the Reasoning Mind online math program, Paschall Elementary teacher Ann Waring went home that night and logged on to explore the program further. At 9:30 p.m. she was surprised to find four of her students also working online with Reasoning Mind. Via email, she urged them to log off and go to bed, but when she checked later, the eager students were still answering math questions and scoring points in the game-like program. Since May 10, five classes of fourth grade students at the elementary school in Judson Independent School District have been test-driving the program for free. “Math is my worst subject. I didn’t like it,” said Fatima Delgadillo, 10, who said she now enjoys Reasoning Mind, in class and at home. “This website, it’s, like, fun and educational at the same time. … It’s on the computer and I like being on the computer.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Online-game-fuels-students-interest-in-math-1405864.php

By Karen Byrd, Red, White and Blue

Online University classes have been a popular choice over the past months for individuals who are looking to return to school or simply begin their education for the first time as accredited institutions have arisen in the past and have now established themselves as quality educational sources, which have led to everyone from unemployed individuals to high school students seeking Internet classes that may help them either train for another career or get a head start on classes for college. Yet, there are also some high school students who are using these classes as a way to better prepare themselves for not only college, but as a way to progress forward in their high school career as well.

http://www.rwbpress.com/2011/06/02/online-classes-for-high-school-students-summer-internet-classes-that-may-offer-a-head-start-for-college/

by Kui Xie, Vance Durrington & Ling Ling Yen; JOLT

This study investigated the relationship between students’ motivation and their participation in asynchronous online discussions during a 16-week online course. Fifty-six students participated in online discussion activities as a normal part of their classes. Their motivation for participating in online discussions was self-reported three times throughout the semester. The findings continue to indicate that students’ motivation has a significant relationship with their participation in online discussion activities at time two and time three. Students’ perceived value, autonomy, competence, and relatedness have different levels of impact on their online discussion behavior. This study also found that students’ intrinsic motivation and their perceived value of online discussions remained at a moderate-high level over time, although the perceived value had a significant drop from the mid-point to the end of the semester.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no1/xie_0311.htm

by Larisa A. Olesova, et al; JOLT

This study explored how instructional audio feedback was perceived by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL) students who participated in a collaborative online project involving two classes, one in Russia and the other in the US. Specifically, it examined: 1) the possible differences between EFL and ESL students’ perceptions of audio and text feedback when receiving audio feedback from a non-native speaker (NNS) and 2) the possible differences in their perceptions of the sense of presence (teaching, social, and cognitive) as determined by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework when receiving audio feedback from the NNS instructor. A mixed methods research design was utilized. The two groups preferred receiving both written and audio feedback, but their perceptions of teaching presence differed. This study has broad implications not only for online learning environments but any learning environment that includes EFL/ESL students.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no1/olesova_0311.htm

by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, today introduced legislation (H.R. 2117) to repeal two Department of Education regulations that inject the federal government into issues that are traditionally academic or state affairs. The bill repeals a new federal credit hour rule that sets a federal definition of a credit hour and it also repeals what are known as “state authorization” regulations. “These two regulations are a classic case of federal government overreach, which will unnecessarily restrict colleges and universities and will result in fewer choices for students,” Foxx said. “Plus, by curbing choice and making it difficult for institutions to expand their programs, these regulations will stifle job creation within the higher education sector at a time when we need new jobs more than ever.”

http://foxx.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=55&sectiontree=54,55&itemid=1639