|
Online Learning News and Research
|
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Online classes seen as new education trend - Narges Zohoury, DAILY BRUIN
Online courses are advertised on television and radio and are popular among anyone from working professionals to students who cannot wake up and make it to class on time. Though this medium of learning sometimes requires more motivation and discipline than a traditional course, their convenience has made them a new trend in education.... These courses can go on anywhere between six and 12 weeks, and communication is often done through reading course material via the Internet and posting written responses. (0) comments
The Air Force virtual education expands features
The Air Force's total force Web-based virtual education center recently added new online features to assist service members in accessing their education information and benefits without having to make a trip to the base education office. The Air Force virtual education center is designed to provide students one-stop shopping for all higher education needs. It offers a wide array of online services to empower students to actively participate in all aspects of their education and encourages progress of educational endeavors, whether it be working towards a Community College of the Air Force degree, applying for commissioning or testing for professional military education. (0) comments
Pueblo, Colo., Community College Gets Federal Grant to Train Health Workers - Jeff Tucker, The Pueblo Chieftain
Pueblo Community College will be the beneficiary of $715,000 in federal grants over the next three years to help bring continuing education to rural areas of Southern Colorado.... Beltran said PCC will be partnering with Trinidad State Junior College to provide the classes. Students at both colleges will be able to take the courses and there will be a major focus on distance learning, which includes Web and Internet courses. The training will also assist counties that are designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas and will target minority and disadvantaged individuals. (0) comments Friday, April 16, 2004
Network Nebraska opens for business - Brian Robinson, FCW
Nebraska officials this week formally launched a statewide telecommunications initiative that links government agencies, schools and colleges. Network Nebraska, a cooperative project that includes a number of different telecommunications companies, is aimed at offering affordable broadband Internet connections to all areas of the largely rural state. A major goal is to enable school and college students to get access to course material no matter where they live via state-of-the-art distance learning facilities. It also pushes the government's reach further out to these areas. (0) comments
University of Liverpool aims at 10,000 students for online degree courses - James Mortleman, VNunet
The University of Liverpool is to become Europe's largest provider of online degree courses following the acquisition of its e-learning partner by global higher education specialist Sylvan Learning Systems. As part of its buy-out of Amsterdam-based KIT eLearning earlier this month, Sylvan signed a 10-year agreement with Liverpool to significantly increase the university's online course offerings and expand student access. Paul Leng, Professor of e-learning at the University of Liverpool, said: "Under this agreement we're aiming at a target of 10,000 online students, which we expect to be able to achieve well within the 10-year time frame." (0) comments
Magic online - DAMIAN CLARKSON, ITWEB
Budding magicians around the world can now enroll for an online distance-learning diploma in magic. The Cape-based College of Magic has been offering in-depth training in the art of magic for the past 24 years and is offering the diploma online for the first time this year. The course runs over six years and costs R2000 for South African residents (or $350 for those living abroad) for the first year, says distance learning director Craig Mitchell. “The fee includes all the equipment and props necessary for the course, and can be paid online. Thereafter, students will be invited for the second year depending on how they progress.” (0) comments Thursday, April 15, 2004
Autonavigation, Links and Narrative in an Adaptive Learning Environment - T.J. Brailsford, C.D. Stewart, M.R. Zakaria, & A. Moore; WWW 2002
Abstract: The WWW is having increasingly profound effects upon education at all levels. When carefully implemented, web-based educational technologies can offer a cost-efficient means of maintaining teaching quality in the face of almost universally declining per capita resources. In this paper we will first examine the current situation with respect to technology-based learning, and highlight what we see as some of the key concerns with the current panoply. We will then go on to describe the major features and benefits of WHURLE, an experimental adaptive learning environment for the web. WHURLE is an XML-based system that stores educational content in atomistic constructs called chunks. Lessons are created, by educators, which provide a default pathway through the available chunks. This default narrative is adapted to the needs of individual learners by reference to their user profile. WHURLE also provides a robust linking system, and automatically generated navigation around the docuverse of the lesson. (0) comments
New Open Source E-Learning Book - Sir John Daniel, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education
We would like to promote and introduce a new book that Terry Anderson and Fathi Elloumi have edited from Athabasca University. It is entitled Theory and Practice of Online Learning. The book is licensed for educational and non commercial use, download and printing under a Creative Commons license. We have released it as open source so that it can be more easily accessed by professionals and hopefully used in coursework by learners throughout the world. During the two weeks since its release in mid February over 4300 individual downloads were made of the whole book, in addition to many for individual chapters. The URL for the full text as well as a link to purchase a print copy is http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book. (0) comments
Web tool secured to catch cheating - Jennifer Case, Daily Bruin
With plagiarism a constant problem on campus, administrators hope new Web sites are a creative way of attempting to stop the plagiarism for which they have been looking. The UCLA College has recently secured a site license to use Turnitin.com, a Web site designed to help faculty detect plagiarism as well as educate students on how to properly cite information. Turnitin.com was previously used in the chemistry department, and some administrators believed spring quarter was a good time to open the program up to the rest of the College. Since Turnitin.com was made available to faculty, over 40 professors have registered to use the program this quarter. (0) comments Wednesday, April 14, 2004
McGraw-Hill Higher Education Initiative Encourages College Students to Become Life-Long Voters
To support student participation in the voting process, McGraw-Hill Higher Education (MHHE) online learning sites have added a direct link to Project Vote Smart, http://www.vote-smart.org , an independent, nonpartisan, citizen's organization that provides cost free state-by-state voter registration information. The voter registration initiative was inspired by Professor Thomas E. Patterson of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and the author of two McGraw-Hill American government titles, We the People and The American Democracy. According to Professor Patterson, research shows that citizens stand a good chance of never voting if they do not vote in one of the first two or three presidential elections of their eligibility. (0) comments
Some college-bound students playing catch-up online - WAYNE ORTMAN, Associated Press
Some teenagers - high school diploma already in hand - will hit the books for more high school credit this summer so they can qualify for a South Dakota scholarship program. The Opportunity Scholarship program was approved by the Legislature in 2003 but wasn't funded until late in this year's legislative session. It offers $5,000 in scholarships over four years to vocational-technical schools and public or private colleges and universities in the state. But some high school seniors - no one is really sure how many - are just shy of the required coursework or ACT score needed to qualify and will play catch-up before the Aug. 15 application deadline. The Board of Regents, which oversees the program, will sponsor three e-learning courses through Northern State University and will allow students to retake the ACT test in June if they're short of the minimum ACT score of 24. (0) comments
Hospitals as educators - Karla Browne, the Sentinel
Education is a part of day-to-day business at area hospitals.... Staff members may not sit in class for a day or even a half-day, but instead review material on a computer, meet one-on-one with an educator, then go back into the workplace to practice the new skills. That's followed up with observation by an educator. The education industry byword for that is "blended learning," Sawyer says. Education has "become a much more participatory event. The students and the instructors interact," says Cheryl Sola, a registered nurse and training center coordinator who reports to Sawyer. (0) comments Tuesday, April 13, 2004
COPYRIGHT ISSUES IN ONLINE COURSES: A MOMENT IN TIME - Lori-Ann Claerhout, Theory and Practice in Online Learning
Introduction: Copyright, in Canada and throughout the modern technological world, is now in a state of flux. Since its promulgation in 1924, the Canadian Copyright Act has survived many new technological advances: the photocopier, radio and television broadcasting, audio- and video-recording equipment, and the advent of mainframe and personal computers. Now, further technological advances in telecommunication, such as the Internet, are stressing the Act to its fullest capacity. As they embrace new electronic technologies, online educators are in a position to lead advances in copyright law. Through involvement in Canada’s copyright consultation process, online educators are already setting the stage for this rights-balancing drama. By following proper copyright procedure in online course development, educators can sensitize their students to the traditional rights of creators and users, and the intellectual property ownership issues emerging in the electronic world. (0) comments
Blackboard Decides to See if Market Is Ready for IPOs Again - Ellen McCarthy, Bizreport
During its short, seven year existence, Blackboard Inc. has winked and nodded at speculation that it would attempt to become publicly traded company until last month, when the online learning software maker filed to raise up to $75 million in an initial stock offering. The reception Blackboard receives could be a harbinger for start-up companies and their financial backers, who have waited four years for a chance to tap the public markets. If Blackboard stock can make a respectable showing at its IPO and in the months following, other local tech firms may be more inclined to test the waters; if it falters, the dry spell may continue. (0) comments
University Administrators Say Obtaining Faculty and Management Support is the Greatest Challenge of Distance Learning - Acadient Survey
Nearly 60 percent of senior university administrative officials say obtaining management and faculty support is the greatest challenge in coordinating and conducting distance learning at their schools, according to a new survey. The survey, conducted by Acadient, a leading developer and distributor of online education, also shows that despite these challenges, annual distance learning budgets continue to grow. The survey was sent to more than 400 senior university administrators and members of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA). (0) comments Monday, April 12, 2004
How Do People Learn? - Sloan-C View
Rich with novice and expert peer-to-peer communication and resources, online environments can create learning conditions for many kinds of learners. In “Using Adaptive Hypermedia to Match Web Presentation to Learning Styles,” [1] Michael Danchak explains how environments designed for diverse learning styles can also help expand learning repertoires. (0) comments
Saudi Team in UK to Explore E-Education Possibilities - Javid Hassan, Arab News
A delegation from the Ministry of Higher Education is in London to explore opportunities for e-learning programs in Saudi Arabia. Allan Smart, a representative of the British Council in the Kingdom, said the delegates would look at various aspects of e-education and distance learning programs in the UK to see what can be done to launch them through Saudi academic institutions. The move comes as Saudi students experience growing problems in the West. Last year, over 15,500 Saudis were pursuing higher education abroad, according to Dr. Abdullah Al-Moajel, who is in charge of the cultural relations department at the Ministry of Higher Education. (0) comments
Con-text? - Mia Lobel, Michael Neubauer, Randy Swedburg, DEOSNEWS Volume 13 Issue 3 March 2004
Abstract This paper offers the analogy of pioneering, as it briefly presents the two prevailing theories about interpersonal communication and identifies respective advocates as Channel Theorists and Process Theorists. The role of self-awareness and trust formation in the online communication process is briefly discussed. It is hypothesized that an examination of Internet interactions from a process perspective will reveal that individuals encode and decode non-verbal forms of communication both consciously and unconsciously, and develop prosthetics within the medium that enhance and complete the ways they communicate and verify meaning. An example, containing mostly graphics generated during a synchronous online university course, is offered to illustrate this position. It is further suggested that interpersonal communication online is much more work than the unconscious coding/decoding that occurs face2face, and this may simply be a function of its neoteric nature. GenY is cited as the population which was born vs. immigrated onto the Internet, and it is proposed that their online interpersonal communication experience will supply the self-awareness, the data and the language needed to modify existing interpersonal communication theories to fit the nature of the new land. (0) comments Sunday, April 11, 2004
Compensation Models in Distance Education: National Survey Questionnaire Revisited - Catherine C. Schifter, JDLA
Introduction: Distance education (DE) is now closer to being main stream than many faculty and administrators in universities thought it would be. No longer is DE considered to be novel, or only for the technologically savvy. BlackBoard™ and WebCT™, the two most widely used online course management systems, have made it easier for faculty to reach out to students at any time, in any place. And yet, Bradburn (2002) reported data from the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty in the fall of 1998 that showed only six percent of instructional faculty and staff who reported teaching for-credit classes indicated they taught at least one distance education class. While the data was from 1998, the sample included 980 postsecondary institutions and a total of 18,000 returned and usable faculty questionnaires. Granted in 1998 easy access and use of the World Wide Web through web browsers was still relatively fresh. The Web was in the process of changing the nature of communication and educational opportunities, and asynchronous learning networks were being established in many institutions. So, while it may not be remarkable that only 6% of faculty reported teaching through distance education in 1998, it is an important benchmark for current thinking and planning. (0) comments
DEVELOPING TEAM SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHING TEAM PROJECTS ONLINE - Deborah C. Hurst & Janice Thomas, Theory and Practice of Online Learning
Introduction: Traditionally, the primary weakness attributed to distance education at the MBA or professional education level has been in the teaching of team or leadership aspects of the curriculum. Some academics question the suitability of a topic such as team dynamics and communications as a candidate for online learning, believing that this aspect of the curriculum cannot be adequately taught through distance means. Clearly, a lot of what occurs in typical team training programs involves experiential forms of human interaction, conflict resolution, goal setting, and so on. Questions remain regarding the ability to develop “soft” skills online. (0) comments
India's NIIT to concentrate on e-learning - Sify
NIIT Ltd is to concentrate on its online educational initiatives as the Information Technology (IT) education major expects the rollout of broadband in India to facilitate its growth, even as the company is planning for a co-branding of curriculum in the country. "The time of e-learning is here and we think it is the right time to launch enhance our presence in the e-learning space," NIIT chief operating officer Vijay K Thadani told visiting journalists in New Delhi . The thrust is to provide a blended e-learning model, which would be mixture of both online and offline modules, he said, adding NIIT would concentrate on an "industry endorsed curriculum". (0) comments Online Learning News Blog Archives OTEL - Ray's Home Page - Notebook - UIS Online - U of I Online - UIS Home Fair Use |
Online Learning Update 
