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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, June 05, 2004
Fort Hays State looking to slow enrollment - Associated Press
Fort Hays State University enrolled its second-largest class in history this spring, leading school officials to look for the brakes. The university this week reported spring enrollment of 7,932 students, including 3,524 through the its Virtual College long-distance learning program. That was a 22.3 percent increase over the spring 2003 enrollment and second only to the 8,037 students who enrolled last fall. University President Edward Hammond said his administration will focus on absorbing the growth and not take on any more international partners. The school's Virtual College program currently works with three universities in China and the U.S. armed forces. (0) comments
Drexel CoAS moves to implement technology based learning - Carter Membrino, Drexel Triangle
This fall, Drexel will begin offering new online courses in forensic science and organic chemistry under the College of Arts and Sciences. "What we are trying to do is to provide tools to the faculty that will make their teaching better," Coordinator for e-Learning for CoAS Jean-Claude Bradley said. Bradley also teaches the organic chemistry course. Bradley's class is not completely online; it is a hybrid, incorporating online technologies into a normal classroom environment. One of the tools that he uses is a Smart Board, a marker board that records everything that is written on it digitally. (0) comments
BT wins MoD e-Learning contract
The Ministry of Defence has selected BT to provide an online learning system for its estimated 300,000 website users. The Telco won the £25m contract after beating off competition from consulting companies Deloitte and LogicaCMG. The Defence E-Learning Delivery and Management Capability (DELDMC) contract means BT will provide a central department-wide learning system for MOD website users, both civilian and in the armed forces. It is scheduled for a phased roll-out during 2004. The DELDMC will provide a central system to host, manage and deliver any e-learning packages, including internet and intranet courses or CD-Rom packages bought by the MoD. (0) comments Friday, June 04, 2004
In the Virtual Stacks, Pirated Books Find Eager Thumbs - SANDEEP JUNNARKAR, New York times
Early in his undergraduate years at Indiana University, Joseph Ruesewald said, he had trouble finding the required titles for a couple of his classes at the local bookstores. When he tried ordering the books online, he learned it would take too long for delivery. Having come of age in the era of Napster, Kazaa and other file-sharing networks infamous as bazaars for pirated music, he knew exactly how to obtain the books - if not in his hands, at least for his computer's hard drive. Over the semesters, downloading books free and reading them on his monitor became routine, he said. He learned to adjust the screen color to off-white to help reduce eyestrain and depleted his university printing allotment by running off hundreds of pages at a time. (0) comments
Penn State Outreach integrates Continuing Education and Distance Education units
Penn State Outreach has integrated its Continuing Education and Distance Education/World Campus units into a single Continuing and Distance Education unit. The new unit will streamline educational services, while increasing the focus on development and delivery of credit programming, including blended learning, across all Outreach delivery units. Gary E. Miller, associate vice president for Outreach, will oversee both Continuing Education and Distance Education programs. Peter A. Rubba, director of Academic Programs for Penn State World Campus, has been appointed director of the World Campus in the Department of Distance Education/World Campus. (0) comments
Walden University Expands Offerings to Include an Ed.D. Specializing in Leadership
Extending its commitment to develop "teachers as leaders," Walden University, a Minneapolis-based online higher education institution, launched a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) with a Specialization in Teacher Leadership degree program with a record number of enrollments -- more than 100 students -- making it one of the largest inaugural classes for a Walden program. Unlike other doctoral programs that prepare teachers for professions other than classroom teaching, Walden's program is designed for teachers who want to stay in the classroom while broadening their sphere of influence to the school, district, or state level. (0) comments Thursday, June 03, 2004
University of Florida Upgrades for Exponential E-Learning Growth - Converge
E-learning usage at the University of Florida has doubled every year since 2000, with more than 75,000 student seats in 1,300 courses in place today. As a top-tier research and land-grant institution, the university is required to aggressively conduct food and agricultural extension services to communities around the state, a role that dovetails with WebCT Vista's capabilities to support multiple institutions via a single instance of the software. Meanwhile, one of the school's main IT strategies is consolidating and centrally managing disparate systems for better service and lower cost of ownership. WebCT Vista will operate on the institution's Linux operating system, helping manage ownership costs while harnessing the deep experience of campus IT professionals. (0) comments
Michigan to Hold First Statewide Online Summer School - Converge
Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm announced the launch of Michigan Virtual Summer School, a program developed by Michigan Virtual High School (MVHS) to offer the state's high school students a more flexible option for participating in summer school courses. The new online summer program gives Michigan's high schools the opportunity to expand current traditional summer school offerings. "Students across Michigan are hungry for the chance to advance their education in high level math and science courses," said Granholm. "We can't afford to let cost, or distance, or the length of the school year limit their desire for learning." (0) comments
Online degree program to employ 400 in Beaverton - Portland, Orgeon BizJournal
Illinois-based American InterContinental University Online said Wednesday it has opened a regional admissions center in Beaverton that will employ as many as 400 Portland-area residents during its first year of operation. AIU Online is a 3-year-old program offering online degrees in a variety of vocational fields, including business administration, information technology and health care management. Based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., AIU Online is a subsidiary of Career Education Corp., which also owns Portland's Western Culinary Institute. American InterContinental University stated it operates physical campuses in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., plus two domestic locations. It said it is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. (0) comments Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Latin set for schools comeback - Katherine Sellgren, BBC News
Did Julius Caesar prove a turn-off for schoolchildren? Latin is being made available to thousands of pupils across the UK, even if there is no specialist teacher in their school. And gone are the days of wading through Julius Caesar's accounts of his Gallic wars. Pupils now get to read about the exploits of "wheeler-dealer" Caecilius who manages to offends his wife by buying the prettiest girl available at a slave market and Grumio the cook who is in and out of affairs. The Cambridge Online Latin Project, which has been tested by 2,000 pupils aged 12 and upwards over the past four years, is being rolled out nationally in September. It is hoped the e-learning course will go some way to reverse the downturn in the number of pupils learning about the ancient world. (0) comments
The Tablet: Big Machine on Campus? - Diana Middleton, Business Week
Microsoft and Thomson Learning hope that a giveaway of the nifty notebooks will spark demand among students -- and teachers. This September, some University of Virginia students will be lugging more than course outlines, gargantuan textbooks, and standard laptops. Tucked away in their backpacks, 425 students of biochemistry, psychology, or statistics will have a new, free Tablet PC, courtesy of Microsoft and Thomson Learning. The school believes the compact, portable PC, which is about the size of a typical spiral notebook, will add a new dimension to the classroom. The Tablet will let professors enliven lectures with digital extras and enable students to scrawl notes and draw diagrams while watching 3-D molecules split -- all with the touch of a stylus. (0) comments
12 Steps to Successful E-Learning - George Eybers, ITWeb (Johannesburg)
Introducing the concept of life-long learning is a massive undertaking for most organisations. It needs a major shift in culture, requiring commitment, careful implementation and ongoing support to be successful. George Eybers, chairman of Skills2learn, says there are 12 basic steps to ensuring the success of an e-learning implementation. Life-long learning is best served by on-demand e-learning, backed up by a blend of scheduled traditional and classroom training. This approach to training is often referred to as "blended learning". Perhaps the single most critical element of a successful e-learning programme implementation is to secure upper and middle management commitment, support and active participation. (0) comments Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Media Characteristics and Online Learning Technology - Patrick J. Fahy, Theory and Practice of Online Learning
Introduction: The decision to adopt online technology (defined here as predominantly Internet-based delivery, with provision for interaction throughout the process), even on a limited basis, is always complex and can be risky, especially if the adopting organization lacks structural, cultural, or financial prerequisites (Welsch, 2002). A discussion of some attributes of media and of the modes of teaching presentation and learning performance they support, in relation to some influential learning models, might help to clarify some of the implications in the choice of any specific delivery or presentation medium. (0) comments
Essex college looks to managed learning - James Mortleman, VNunet
The further education college has been piloting the system since summer 2003 and expects it to be rolled out to all of its 800 courses and 10,000 students by September. Jayne Bacon, the college's development manager for information and learning technologies, said: "Students can very quickly find relevant course materials online and tutors can communicate with students easily and effectively, as well as being able to see how individuals are progressing with a particular course." Although the college plans to develop interactive learning materials in future, Bacon said its blended learning programme would be driven by teaching requirements, not technology (0) comments
Internet Takes Blame for Increase in Cheating - Lauren Young, UCSB Daily Nexus
The number of students found guilty of academic misconduct is on the rise despite UCSB's efforts to end plagiarism. In 2002-03 the university handled 27 cases of academic misconduct, including 14 cases of Internet plagiarism, 10 cases of non-Internet plagiarism and three cases of cheating during exams. There were 19 students found guilty of academic misconduct during the Spring and Summer of 2003, of which one was expelled, 16 were suspended and two were put on academic probation. Although this year's statistics have not yet been compiled, the number of violations is expected to exceed that of last year. Campus Conduct Educator, Brandon Brod said student academic misconduct has been particularly high this year. The university has recently received 10 new cases, all of which will most likely be punished by suspension. Brod said he attributes the increased amount of plagiarism to the Internet. (0) comments Monday, May 31, 2004
The Editor in Design and Development of Online - Jan Thiessen & Vince Ambrock, Theory and Practice of Online Learning
Introduction: The editor has traditionally played a key role in the design and development of instructional and educational materials. As both the Web and the technology and processes for delivering instructional materials on it have evolved, so too has the editor’s role in course design and delivery. The typical “Web editor” has a broad and changing range of responsibilities, from editing and verifying course content to evaluating the efficacy of online instructional tools, from unsnarling copyright issues to testing and applying new multimedia applications. One aspect of the editor’s role, however, has remained unchanged in the course development process—the editor adds value to the course development value chain by improving course material quality, enhancing students’ learning experiences, and ensuring that course quality standards are set and maintained for the delivering institution. (0) comments
Blended delivery creates effective courses - Siobhan McBride, Computerworld
The hype surrounding e-learning as the sole training method has passed as organizations realise the solution is in a blended mix of course delivery. According to Pathlore director sales and services David Hobbs, e-learning will not replace existing education methods. Some organizations forget the value of classroom training in their bid to reduce the cost of their training offerings, he said, adding that both online and classroom techniques should be used, a system known as blended learning, to carry out training. He said the rapid pace of change in business makes e-learning an attractive way to get training out to staff as quickly as possible,” Hobbs said. (0) comments
Soldier's Study in Iraq Is Touch of Home - JIM SUHR, Associated Press
Army Spc. Neil Guinn isn't letting his night work repairing Blackhawk helicopters in Iraq ground his college studies back home by day. Guinn, serving at an air base north of Baghdad, is taking online courses from Southeast Missouri State University, where he's a sophomore chasing a bachelor's degree in teaching secondary education. His goal: To be a junior by the time he gets home, presumably next spring. "This deployment is putting me a little behind in school, so I want to come back to the States with as many credits as possible to continue towards graduation," he said by e-mail recently to the 9,500-student school. (0) comments Sunday, May 30, 2004
New UK centre for text mining may improve information management - Public Technology
Imagine a future in which databases are populated with accurate, valid, exhaustive, rapidly updated data where users find what they want all the time; where drug discovery costs and development time are slashed and animal experimentation is reduced through early identification of unpromising paths; where new insights are gained through integration and exploitation of experimental results, databases, and scientific knowledge; where product development archives and patents yield new directions for R&D; and where searching yields facts rather than documents to read. This is the potential of text mining. (0) comments
Less is More: Designing an Online Course - R. Thomas Berner, DEOS News
A couple of years ago the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a long article about distance education. The article focused on an instructor in meteorology who seemed chained to his computer because of his promise to answer all posts within 24 hours. The headline on the article: “The 24-Hour Professor: Online Teaching Redefines Faculty Members' Schedules, Duties, and Relationships With Students.”[1] It was an unfortunate piece of publicity for the instructor, the university and distance education. It showed that the instructor’s department had not properly prepared him to design an online course and it sent the message to would-be online instructors that teaching online was onerous and unrewarding. (0) comments
Internet Research Tracings: Towards Non-Reductionist Methodology - Lincoln Dahlberg, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication
Abstract: Internet research has become a "field" in its own right in the social sciences, already boasting a number of peer-reviewed journals, a plethora of book titles, and an international association that draws hundreds of researchers from across the globe to its annual conference. This paper contributes to this burgeoning field at a meta-methodological level by considering what is needed to achieve non-reductionist understandings of the Internet. It shows how Internet research perspectives draw upon various established media and technology research traditions. These can be grouped according to their emphasis upon three different aspects of determination influencing media technology outcomes: uses, where the instrumental use of the artifact is brought to the fore; technological, where the form of media technology is focused upon; and social, where the structuring of outcomes by social determinants is central. Consideration of the research traditions emphasizing each of these aspects gives access to previously recognized strengths and weaknesses associated with each. In particular, my critical examination highlights how each perspective can fall into overly deterministic arguments: instrumentalist, technological determinist, and social determinist. As such, I argue that to gain non-reductionist understandings of the Internet, research ideally needs to take into account the complex interplay between multiple constituting elements. I point to a number of existing media technology approaches that can help with this task. However, I also acknowledge the limitations placed on research by resource constraints and recognize that researchers may wish to follow a particular tradition and focus on a single determination. I argue that these researchers must at least recognize the multi-dimensionality of determination, and be reflexive about the limits of their approaches, methods, and findings. (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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