Online Learning Update

By Frank Donoghue, Chronicle of Higher Education

The responses to my last post (both online and off), in which I questioned the supposed strengths of online learning, were so well informed and provocative that I think I have no choice but to return to that topic. The supporters of online learning are simply bringing me around to their way of thinking. They also have the advantage of having either taught or taken online courses, while I have only experienced a traditional college education, on both sides of the classroom. Before I revisit the topic of online learning’s strengths, though, I thought it best to return to the excellent Web site Illinois Online Network, which outlines what it considers to be both the strengths and the weaknesses of online learning. That way I can present the entirety of the debate, and invite responses from the many scholars who have enlightened me so far.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/more-on-weaknesses-on-online-learning/29888?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

by Kay Luna, Quad Cities Times

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin sees the mission of a typical university as helping students learn and graduate. But a federal investigation led by Harkin seems to show that for-profit universities such as Davenport-based Kaplan Higher Education and Clinton’s Ashford University are focused on making money, and about 87 percent of that revenue comes from the federal government, he said. After holding a series of public hearings over the past year in Washington, D.C., Harkin, D-Iowa, just held his final one last week and is beginning to write legislation to change how for-profit schools are funded. “This is an industry that needs some very careful oversight and some regulation or changes in law to make this industry more accountable to both students and to taxpayers,” Harkin said. “The information we’ve uncovered, it’s just really startling. “We are already starting to prepare legislation because this is an area that just cries out for something to be done.”

http://qctimes.com/news/local/education/article_6204d068-b5aa-11e0-923e-001cc4c03286.html

By Ashlei King, KTXS News

Summer enrollment at Abilene universities is close to where it was last year. Hardin-Simmons University’s summer enrollment is down a little from last year, but Abilene Christian University is up by 100 students. Jim Jones, Hardin-Simmons Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services, told KTXS there are different reasons why people attend summer school. “Students use it primarily to get ready for graduation or make sure they get all the classes they need to graduate on time,” Jones explained. He added that some people like to take advantage of summer classes to fix past mistakes

http://www.ktxs.com/news/28616203/detail.html

by University of California, San Francisco

August 1, 2011 marks the official start date for Designing Clinical Research (DCR) for Students and Faculty. The majority of scholars will assemble on Monday and Wednesday mornings in the traditional lecture hall at the Parnassus campus. Twenty self-selected learners will take the course completely online via the UCSF Collaborative Learning Environment, AKA Moodle. The DCR course is structured to foster the development of students’ ability to write a clinical research proposal. For the final assignment, students write a five page proposal of their research study. We plan to take the twenty proposals written by the online students and compare them to twenty proposals randomly selected from the traditional course. Two K Program scholars, blinded to the author of the proposal, will read all forty proposals and rate the proposal based on the NIH scale of 0-9. We will then compare the scores of the online students to the scores of the traditional students. Additionally, we will collect formative and summative evaluation data from the online learners on both learning progress and satisfaction with the online learning environment.

http://biomed20.ucsf.edu/2011/07/23/ctsi-embarks-on-fully-asynchronous-online-learning/

By Brianne Schaer, Daily 49er

A Cal State University online university is in the developmental stages following an initiative created by the Technology Steering Committee. The CSU Online Overview, a document from TSC outlining the initial ideas of the framework for CSU Online, states that “the California State University ‘CSU Online’ is being developed to address California’s expanding workforce needs and to provide increased individual access to high quality undergraduate and graduate education opportunities.” TSC is a group mainly comprised of campus presidents, including F. King Alexander, who provide advice and information regarding technology to the Chancellor.

http://www.daily49er.com/news/csu-plans-for-online-university-education-1.2608224

by the Candadian HR Reporter

Online education programs from post-secondary institutions are gaining credibility in the labour market, according to a survey by DeVry Institute of Technology in Calgary. “From a recruitment perspective, online degree programs and courses offered by post-secondary institutions have come a long way in the last five years,” said Greg Quinn, vice-president of retail distribution and a hiring manager at TD Canada Trust’s prairie region. “Today, technology allows for increased two-way communication, interaction and collaboration, similar to the blended learning approach that employees experience in the workplace.” Seven in 10 survey respondents believe employers see value in online education, with 49 per cent ranking online education moderately valuable and 21 per cent ranking it as highly valuable, found the survey which polled more than 500 Canadians in Alberta

http://www.hrreporter.com/ArticleView?articleid=10865&headline=online-education-gaining-credibility-in-labour-market-survey

By Dennis Carter, eSchool News

University of Oregon saw its evaluation submissions more than double last year. Students at a handful of Oregon campuses are evaluating their professors online, using a system that helps colleges save on reams of paper and gives students an alternative to popular public professor evaluation websites. Five Oregon schools, including Oregon State University, the University of Oregon, and Southern Oregon University, announced recently that students there would use web-based professor evaluation forms that would only be viewable for students, professors, instructors, and campus administrators.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/online-course-evaluations-save-universities-cash/

by Inside Higher Ed

Congressional leaders appeared late Sunday to have reached a deal on increasing the nation’s debt limit that would avoid many of higher education’s worst-case scenarios: cuts to Pell Grants, the end of subsidized student loans, or a government default that would leave student financial aid and other funding for colleges in limbo going into the fall semester. But as details about the deal began to emerge Sunday evening, it became clear that the plan leaves colleges and universities with plenty of long-term uncertainty.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/01/higher_education_in_debt_ceiling_deal

by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Even if the world were as full of high-paying out-of-state and international students as some university administrators seem to believe it is, there’s no future in a strategy of consistently raising tuition at rates in excess of inflation and the earning power of the average college degree. Online learning degrees are steadily getting better, and the cost of providing them is a small fraction of what traditional institutions spend per graduate. Faced with an either-or choice, many young college students will follow the lead of adult learners: They’ll take the affordable online learning option over the socially preferable but financially inaccessible traditional college experience.

http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Save-the-Traditional/128373/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

By MICHAEL HORN, Forbes

This past week I had the privilege of addressing a group of parents at the National Coalition for Public School Options Family Reunion in Washington, D.C. The parents there are dedicated to ensuring their children have public school options that match their children’s distinct needs. For the mother who told me about her child who has an immune disorder that renders a typical school environment a non-starter or the parents with children who have various learning difficulties or are more advanced, online learning has become a must-have. These parents are, along with the students, the real experts on online and digital learning.

http://blogs.forbes.com/michaelhorn/2011/07/22/why-soccer-moms-matter-for-digital-learning/

by Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of California community college students take online classes that require them to pay an access fee to a commercial publisher on top of their registration fee for the course. Students have complained that this practice forces them to pay twice for the same course and violates the state’s college fee law because they can’t download, print or keep the electronic texts and materials they’ve paid for. Some say they are not aware of the mandatory fee until after they’ve signed up for a class. Now, rather than recommend the fee be halted or refunded, a state task force studying the issue wants to change the law to specifically allow such online fees. The college system’s Board of Governors can change Title 5 governing college fees without Legislative approval.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/22/BA6J1KD5NB.DTL