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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, May 01, 2004
Discovery and Use of Online Learning Resources: Case Study Findings - Mimi M. Recker, James Dorward, and Laurie Miller Nelson; ETS
Abstract: Much recent research and funding have focused on building Internet-based repositories that contain collections of high-quality learning resources, often called ‘learning objects.’ Yet little is known about how non-specialist users, in particular teachers, find, access, and use digital learning resources. To address this gap, this article describes a case study of mathematics and science teachers’ practices and desires surrounding the discovery, selection, and use of digital library resources for instructional purposes. Findings suggest that the teacher participants used a broad range of search strategies in order to find resources that they deemed were age-appropriate, current, and accurate. They intended to include these resources with little modifications into planned instructional activities. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for improving the design of educational digital library systems, including tools supporting resource reuse. (0) comments
A blended approach to the digital divide - RODNEY WEIDEMANN, ITWEB
For companies to truly succeed in bridging the digital divide amongst employees - the gulf that exists between the computer literate and the technology shy – a new approach to skills transfer is necessary.“Is it possible for employees to gain anything from an e-learning course when the mere mention of a mouse has these workers scrambling to get on to their desks?” asks Gary Galanti, sales and marketing director of Bridge-PT.Galanti believes that it is possible, but only through the adoption of a blended approach to the subject of learning. (0) comments
Mt. Sierra College Launches ``FlexLearn'' Program
Mt. Sierra College, a leading media arts and design, business, and technology college in the San Gabriel Valley, has introduced a relatively new concept in higher education called FlexLearn(TM). Mt. Sierra College's new FlexLearn is a flexible learning format that allows students to create their own schedule by interchangeably combining online and campus-based courses to fulfill their educational requirements. The new format is offered at no additional expense. (0) comments Friday, April 30, 2004
Initiatives to improve education system that has served the Army well - Joe Burlas, Army News Service
“We have what I consider a world-class Army and world-class leaders today -- you have to recognize they are products of the (education) system we have in place today,” said Brig. Gen. James Hirai, Army Command and General Staff College deputy commanding general. “Recognizing that level of competence, we still need to grow. We need to anticipate and prepare for the unknown.”Leveraging technologies includes distance learning via linked simulators and distance learning via the Web, but it is more. (0) comments
A plague of plagiarists in a cut-and-paste world - RUSSELL SMITH, Globe and Mail
Plagiarism is in the news: Journalists at august journals are coming out as fakes in droves. There is a plague of discovery going on that rivals the outing of priests as pedophiles or Toronto cops as crooks. Suddenly everyone's looking at everyone funny. Who is to know what great reporter is for real, after all the evidence of widespread make-believe?Simultaneously, a controversy is incubating in universities, as students are beginning to protest, for various reasons, the imposition of having to submit their essays to Internet-based copy-catching software. The most popular of these programs is Turnitin.com, created by a group of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, which reads through an essay to look for phrases that it finds repeated elsewhere on the Web; many professors won't even mark an essay until it has been vetted by Turnitin. (0) comments
Distance Education Students Moving Towards Collaborative Learning - Eva R Fåhræus, Education, Technology and Society
Abstract: Distance education has been offered to young students in Australia for about 100 years. Recently, information and communication technology has been introduced as a means to improve communication, but not all remote students have access to this new technology. This has made it difficult to arrange collaborative learning for distance-education students. In this student-focused study, more than 40 students as well as teachers and other important persons have been interviewed and observed in schools and on remote farms. Using Activity Theory for the analysis, different contradictions were identified. Lack of technology and access were not the only obstacles. The education was built on a tradition of individual learning, and the technology at hand was not supporting collaboration. However, contradictions may result in ‘expansive learning’ among students and teachers, leading to more of a development towards collaborative learning. (0) comments Thursday, April 29, 2004
Is an online PhD as good or a dud? - Straits Times
When Ms Sandra Kuntz, an adjunct nursing professor at Montana State University, presented her PhD work to a dissertation committee last December, she did not have to do so in person. Instead, she handled her defence from home, through a telephone conference call. Ms Kuntz was a student of Walden University, an institution in Minneapolis without a physical campus. The four experts on her committee were scattered nationwide. While she had met three of them only once or twice, they had been guiding her research over the last two years, largely by e-mail. As unconventional as her experience may be, her degree brought her the advancement she was hoping for: a tenure-track position at Montana State and a raise. (0) comments
Blended Leadership Development Programs - TMCNet
Ninth House, Inc., the leader in blended leadership development, today announced findings of a new study, "Blended Learning in Leadership Development: What Works(TM)" by industry analysts Bersin & Associates. This informative study examines how industry-leading companies are using blended learning to extend the reach of their leadership development programs, and finds that by incorporating the Ninth House(R) blended solution, participating organizations are able to reduce the time required for leadership development programs by 50-60% without any decrease in learner satisfaction. The study finds that in order to be a successful part of a leadership development initiative, online courseware must be high-quality and engaging. The study defines high-quality online courseware as that which uses "video, interaction, creative story lines, exercises, and recognized management experts" and cites online courses from Ninth House as an excellent example. The impact of this is clearly illustrated by the unusually high completion rates of 75-95% reported by study participants. (0) comments
UKeU project to be 'scaled down'- Mark Samuels, Vnunet
UKeU, the government's flagship online learning scheme, is to be scaled down and its work transferred to established universities. The board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) met last week to discuss plans for the troubled programme. Hefce says it is to 'continue with the plan of scaling down and transferring activities', and that future funding should support the development of elearning in universities and colleges. UKeU was set up in February 2000 to give overseas students the chance to earn degrees online, with £62m of government money allocated to Hefce for the project. But the scheme failed to meet its first-year target of 5,600 students, attracting just 900 students at a cost of £44,000 each. (Computing, March 4). (0) comments Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Dublin Institute of Technology embraces Linux-based e-learning - James Mortleman, vnunet
The Dublin Institute of Technology has said that a new e-learning system is transforming student life and its lecturers' attitudes to teaching. The Institute's WebCT system went live in September, and is used regularly by around a quarter of its 20,000 students. Kevin O'Rourke, project manager for learning technology at the Institute, said: "It's changing things for students, certainly, but also for the lecturers. "We're waking up to how technology can transform the whole of the educational experience. "One lecturer in his fifties, for example, stumbled into WebCT by accident last year and said that it has rejuvenated his whole approach to teaching." (0) comments
Federal grant benefits Missouri distance learners - Joplin Independent
The U.S. Department of Education has approved a grant that will extend access to Missouri Southern State University-Joplin's higher education and business/industrial training classes, according to Southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt and Senator Kit Bond. The two lawmakers worked together to secure the funding in the 2004 appropriations process. "The goal of the program is to increase the number of Internet and CD/DVD based courses available to Southwest Missourians," Program Manager Steve Earney said. "This will give our distance learning students Internet access to library resources and permit faculty to develop more lectures, experiments and courses that will be available through streaming video." (0) comments
Online course evaluations result in fewer respondents - A.j. Frank, Cavalier Daily
The French Department used online evaluations last semester for the first time, but this semester, French students again will write their evaluations in class following a low number of completed online evaluations in the fall, Chair Kandioura Drame said. "The online evaluations across the board were fairly low," Drame said. "At this point we feel more confident with the paper evaluations." The number of University students filling out course evaluations is declining, likely due to an increasing number of departments moving evaluations online, University Provost Gene Block told the Faculty Senate last week. (0) comments Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Masters of online collaboration - Eric Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald
The early debates about e-learning centred upon the merits of online versus classroom training. Then people started to realise there is still value in the old classroom, giving rise to the term "blended learning" - a mixture of online and classroom training. Lately, though, the industry buzz is online collaboration - where students and teachers interact. Of course, in traditional terms, mixing prescribed texts with student and teacher interaction is called classroom training - so it seems everything old is new again. It is now recognised the best e-learning isn't based upon principles of self-study but in also replicating classroom interactions online. (0) comments
University buzzing about online course possibilities - Heather Keels, Diamondback
From the University Senate to the Board of Regents to university President Dan Mote's breakfast conversations, the academic community is buzzing about online education. Many ask: Are flexible online courses more valuable than traditional courses? Are they more cost effective? Could they help accommodate the University System of Maryland's enrollment growth? Should they be available to everyone or only to working adults? What makes an online course worthwhile? Are live classroom professors a thing of the past? The senate, provost and Mote agreed yesterday to create a joint taskforce to answer questions like these surrounding online education. (0) comments
Web course raises e-crime awareness - Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly
IT staff and end-users are being taught how to recognise and respond to computer crime through an online training course. The course, which has attracted interest from companies keen to reduce their exposure to computer crime, aims to raise awareness of staff to the risks. Poor security habits by employees, including using easily guessable passwords, or disclosing confidential information to potential hackers, present one of the greatest threats to security. The course, run by security consultancy Commissum and e-learning provider Absolutely Training, allows staff to learn in 20 minute chunks by logging on at their convenience. (0) comments Monday, April 26, 2004
Online courses suit students of all ages - Andrea J. Cook, Rapid City Journal
Face-to-face meetings are rare between teachers and students enrolled in the Rapid City Academy Online, but the lack of a personal touch hasn't slowed enthusiasm for the Rapid City School District's virtual high school.In its second trimester, the online high school has 81 students, more than double the first trimester's enrollment.The growth is consistent with the national trend in online educational programs, which are growing by about 40 percent per year, according to Deb Steele, principal of the Rapid City Academy. (0) comments
Colleges to get £1 million cash for innovation in e-learning - Public Technology
A total of £1 million has been awarded to nine partnerships of colleges, sixth form institutions and adult education organisations to run ‘transformation projects’ that will examine the impact of e-learning. The projects, selected from 86 bids, will be managed by the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) on behalf of the National Learning Network – a partnership of organisations involved in e-learning within post-16 education and training. The aim of the projects is to investigate how e-learning can transform the ways in which people learn through the application of technology. They will attempt to discover what works and why, and how to overcome barriers to e-learning. Each college or partnership will receive between £50,000 and £150,000 from the Department of Education and Skills’ Standards Fund to help them release time for development of staff skills and to investigate processes to embed e-learning within the culture of institutions. (0) comments
FAU taking classical approach to the Internet - Susan T. Port, Palm Beach Post
When Kevin Petrich first proposed the idea for an online classical music station to Florida Atlantic University's administrators, he expected it would never come to fruition. "I thought if it did happen, I would be lucky if I had a couple of CDs, a microphone and mixer in a closet somewhere," said Petrich, an FAU instructor. Things worked out much better than that.... FAU's approximately 400 multimedia majors will be required to work at Wavelengths to graduate. Petrich is the sole host of Wavelengths, a classical Web cast at http://proteus.fau.edu/wavelengths. (0) comments Sunday, April 25, 2004
For-Profit Career Education Gives Universities Growth Lesson - James Flanigan, LA Times
...And yet, for all the inherent differences between for-profit colleges and major universities, the latter is clearly learning lessons from the former. USC, for instance, is talking up the prospect of using the Internet to foster long-distance learning. "These technological developments," says Provost Lloyd Armstrong, "provide new means for delivering higher education." Similarly, Harvard University is looking to online education as a way to give out more mortarboards without having to invest in bricks and mortar. (0) comments
First-of-Its-Kind Scholarships for Distance Students - PNN Online
Recognizing the growing popularity of distance education programs and subsequent needs of distance learning students, Chela Education Financing has created the first merit-based scholarship program exclusively for distance students enrolled in accredited degree programs. "We are excited to be the leader in scholarship awards for distance learners," says Doug Dolton, President and CEO, Chela Education Financing. "We recognize that distance education is one of the most powerful solutions in the education marketplace today, and we are pleased to add this scholarship to Chela's extensive list of financial aid solutions." (0) comments
A Different Course - JOHN SCHWARTZ, New York Times
.... Today, 1 in 12 college students attends a for-profit institution, and the business has grown to $23 billion in annual revenue for 2002, the latest year analyzed by Eduventures, an education market research company in Boston. The University of Phoenix alone has about 201,000 full-time adult students at 142 campuses and learning centers. Enrollment in for-profit institutions is growing at three times the rate of nonprofit colleges and universities, says Sean Gallagher, an analyst with Eduventures. (0) comments Online Learning News Blog Archives OTEL - Ray's Home Page - Notebook - UIS Online - U of I Online - UIS Home Fair Use |
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