Online Learning Update

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

Peter Shea, an associate professor of education at the State University of New York at Albany, said the study he presented here, “Does Online Learning Help Community College Students Attain a Degree?” was spurred by a series of studies published in the last two years by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College. In contrast to the CCRC studies, the Albany research found that students who had enrolled in at least one online course in their first year did not come into college with better academic preparation than did those who took no courses at a distance. And students who took online courses at a distance were 1.25 times likelier to earn a credential (certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree) by 2009 than were their peers who had not taken any online courses. Those who started college with a goal of attaining a certificate (rather than a bachelor’s degree) and took online courses were 3.22 times as likely to earn a credential than were students who did not take online courses.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/11/26/study-online-learning-finds-it-helps-not-hurts-credential-attainment

by Global Education Network

While student enrollment at colleges and universities has increased across the country, so has the amount of mobile users. With more than 45 percent of American adults owning a smartphone and 31 percent having a tablet, the informational landscape is changing continuously, and institutions are adjusting to the times. Today, students are learning and earning their degrees outside of the classroom – online. How online education is offered and delivered to students will continue to advance, much like mobile technology itself. In many ways, these advancements will depend on the innovations that tech companies will introduce to consumers in the future. With that said, here are three ways mobile usage will influence online course design and delivery.

http://world.edu/three-ways-mobile-usage-will-influence-online-course-design-delivery/

Going online by degrees at UO, OSUBy Diane Dietz, Register Guard
Long-existing state university “distance learning” programs rapidly are rebranding themselves as online education, and they’re offering full-fledged degrees to students who never set foot on campus. Colorado State, Washington State and Arizona State are among the examples. “There’s a surge of interest throughout all of higher education institutions of all types. The tools to do it are a lot more robust now and barriers to entry are much, much lower,” said Andrew Bonamici, UO associate university librarian for media and instructional services. In Oregon, Oregon State University’s Ecampus is leading the virtual stampede, offering 34 degrees that students logging on from anywhere in the world can take as long as they enroll and pay for their coursework. Ecampus enrollment growth has averaged 22 percent a year for the past three years, OSU Associate Provost Dave King said.

http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/30753891-75/online-education-students-ecampus-courses.html.csp

by Madison Fantozzi, FIUSM

Students are petitioning for its elimination and President Mark B. Rosenberg is unsure of how it can be reduced, but the Office of Internal Audit may have found a way to lower FIU Online’s distance learning fee. Auditors reported in the first audit of FIU Online in April that “significant” and “considerable” amounts of distance learning fee expenditures in fiscal year 2011-2012 violated state statute, concluding that the distance learning fee could be reduced with compliance to policy. This proved true. The distance learning fee decreased nearly 13 percent from the $199 charge in 2011 to $160 this semester for a three-credit course after the department agreed to comply and put in place better controls over its spending. However, Dean of University College Joyce Elam said the audit’s criticisms were matters of “grey areas.”

http://fiusm.com/2013/11/24/audit-reveals-distance-learning-fee-revenue-spent-outside-of-statute/

by Rich Barlow, BU Today

Help Wanted: Seeking faculty to develop MOOCs and propose ideas that will enhance BU’s value and standing in the coming era of digital learning. Grants available from BU’s Digital Learning Initiative (DLI). Meetings to brainstorm and answer questions start next Monday, December 2. Deadline for proposals is January 31, 2014. The brainstorming sessions launch three months of meetings and presentations by the DLI, the faculty-led group spearheading BU’s digital learning innovation efforts, to chart the University’s digital future.

http://www.bu.edu/today/2013/wanted-faculty-to-develop-moocs-and-help-design-bu-digital-future/

by Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun

For the first time this spring, students who want to take a class at the University of Baltimore with a Pulitzer Prize-winning civil rights historian won’t be bound by the university they chose to attend. The class, taught by local author Taylor Branch, is the University System of Maryland’s first crack at offering an online, credit course for students from any of the system’s 14 institutions, including Coppin, Towson and the University of Maryland, College Park. The style of online class that UB will offer next semester may be the first of its kind nationwide, said Raymond Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois, Springfield who studies MOOCs. Schroeder said he believes other universities across the country may adopt similar online classes, but it will likely take time.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-online-classes-20131124,0,7777096,full.story

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

An education from MIT may soon involve a freshman year spent completing online courses, two years on campus and a fourth “year” of continuous education. While students pursue their careers, they could access a growing library of online courses to refresh their knowledge, Agarwal said. “As we blend the courses, universities will take the next step,” Agarwal said. “We would be woven into the fabric of universities. And as long as we’re adding value, we have no qualms about that.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/11/25/massachusetts-institute-technology-names-edx-key-component-educational-strategy