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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, October 16, 2004
Leading Universities Establish Consortium to Accelerate Adoption of Collaborative Education Software at Institutions Around the Globe
Members of a multi-university project on open source software for collaborative education today announced formation of the .LRN ("Dot-Learn") Consortium to accelerate and expand development of an open source application suite currently used by a quarter million students and educators at institutions of higher education and research around the globe. The .LRN Project encompasses an ongoing 10-year development effort and represents the world's largest open source project for scalable educational software. Built on the OpenACS project, .LRN applications originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and enhancements from the past several years have been deployed by the MIT Sloan School of Management as SloanSpace -- its primary means of providing class management and community support. At present, SloanSpace hosts more than 10,000 student and faculty users, amounting to 1,250+ unique logins per day. Along with the MIT Sloan School, charter members of the .LRN Consortium include Heidelberg University, The European Union-funded E-Lane Project and the University of Sydney. (0) comments
The Sakai Project Update
The Sakai Project is a $6.8M community source software development project founded by the University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, the uPortal Consortium, and the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project is producing open source Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) software with the first release in July 2004. The Sakai Educational Partners' Program (SEPP) extends this community source project to other academic institutions around the world, and is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and SEPP member contributions (0) comments
USDLA Holds 2004 Annual Distance Learning Awards Ceremony
The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) 2004 Annual Awards Ceremony was held today in San Francisco, CA in conjunction with the Fall Training and Online Learning Conference, the premier conference for USDLA .... This year's winners cover a broad spectrum of educational expertise from new approaches to collaborative learning and include the following recipients. EXCELLENCE in DISTANCE LEARNING TEACHING/Higher Education to Dr. Rebecca Weintraub, Director of the Center for Corporate and Community Education at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, Los Angeles, California. (0) comments Friday, October 15, 2004
A view from the trenches: E-learning entrepreneur Matthew Pittinsky talks about the latest trends - U.S. News
Matthew Pittinsky, 32, is cofounder and chairman of Blackboard Inc., which went public in June and whose E-learning software is now used by more than 2,000 colleges, schools, and companies worldwide. In his spare time, he's also pursuing a Ph.D. in the sociology of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, with a particular interest in how online and in-class peer relationships influence student achievement. Pittinsky, who eventually hopes to add teaching and research to his Blackboard responsibilities, recently shared his perspectives on the future—and past—of E-learning with senior writer Anne McGrath. (0) comments
University of Iowa Offers Online Learning for Alumni
UI Learning and Development and the Division of Continuing Education at the UI are offering online learning opportunities to all University of Iowa alumni. Since Oct. 1, UI graduates around the world have had access to skill-based business and information technology curriculum through the world wide web. And, through a partnership with the UI Alumni Association, UI grads can activate a free, 30-day trial of the subscriber course library. (0) comments
Tutors with infinite patience - KATIE HAFNER, New York Times News Service
Fourteen-year-old Rochelle Brown was close to solving an algebra problem. Yet she stumbled repeatedly on one calculation: -2.3 + .5. As she sat at a computer screen, she kept typing 2.8, an incorrect answer. Eventually a hint popped up: "Think about the sign of your answer." When Rochelle finally typed the correct sum, -1.8, the computer showed its appreciation by allowing her to move on to a new problem. She smiled at her small triumph.... Broadly defined, an intelligent tutoring system is educational software containing an artificial intelligence component. The software tracks students' work, tailoring feedback and hints along the way. By collecting information on a particular student's performance, the software can make inferences about strengths and weaknesses, and can suggest additional work. (0) comments Thursday, October 14, 2004
Lifelong Learning is Key Focus in Presidential Candidates' Education Plans
....As laid out on their respective election websites, the candidates are surprisingly in accord on education initiatives. For both, lifelong learning is a cornerstone to their education approaches, and they believe it iscritical to helping Americans stay competitive in an increasingly global workplace.... On President Bush's official re-election website http://www.georgebush.com , the President's education policy states that "workers need education opportunities throughout their lives to ensurethat they remain competitive in the workplace." In his second term, the President says he will eliminate barriers to "distance learning and develop an eLearning clearinghouse" to create better access to web-based programs and virtual schools. In addition, he states plansto eliminate restrictions that prevent adult or part-time students from receiving financial aid. As stated on http://www.johnkerry.com , Senator Kerry wants to create the Next Economy Lifelong Learning Initiative which he says will "ensure our workers can get the technical skills they need and can use online technologiesfor advanced training." Kerry also says he will "modernize financial aid rules to include online education." (0) comments
eCornell implements new strategic plan
eCornell has decided that its future success requires a smaller, focused organization to specialize in sales and service to corporations and individuals seeking online professional training from Cornell University. Recently eCornell completed development of 55 instructor-led online courses and nine certificate programs in management, human resources and hospitality. It will continue to build and manage strategic marketing and distribution partnerships for its current product line and for future online offerings from Cornell. eCornell, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cornell University, is a developer and marketer of online professional education courses. (0) comments
Virtual healing: Med students are honing their skills on computerized patients - Helen Fields, U.S. News
In mid-August, 54-year-old Axel Brooks came to the emergency room with an inch-long cut in the palm of his left hand. He was told to come back in two weeks, but he called in September to say he was too busy to make it and that his neighbor, a surgeon, had taken out the stitches. "It's frustrating when they cancel appointments," says first-year medical student Elizabeth West, 22. "You look forward to seeing how they're progressing." Which would make more sense if Axel Brooks were a real person. In fact, West started getting to know this imaginary patient during her first week of class at the University of Minnesota by reading his online medical records. (0) comments Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Tiny fish make big splash in e-learning - Eric Wilson, The Age Australia
Subtle changes are occurring throughout Australia's universities as e-learning forges new links between academics and students - both off and on campus - sometimes blurring the boundaries between educational sectors. This was highlighted by e-learning software executives at the WebCT user conference held at Manly in Sydney last month. Now claiming more than a million users, the platform was touted as supporting distance education and transforming university campus life. "What we have found is the students who are taking fully online courses come from on-campus too, because for one subject it might be more convenient," says Karen Gage, WebCT's vice-president of marketing. "There is also a phenomenon where different people participate when it's online, maybe because they are shy or because they want more time to compose their thoughts, which they can have online." (0) comments
South Africa: Smart boards and smart kids
It's widely recognised that this country lags behind in effective maths, science and technology teaching. Too few teachers and too few resources compound the problem. The result is learners leaving school without the ICT skills essential in today's marketplace. St Alban's College in Pretoria is one of the schools in this country that is determined to share its resources, assist with science education and change the lives of those learning in under-resourced schools. Led by Ron Beyers, the Ulwazi E-learning Project harnesses ICT and brings it directly to those who need it. The Mamelodi Broadband E-Learning Pilot Project, sponsored by the Department of Communications, has completed its first three months. Key partners include Motorola and OMEGA Digital Technologies. (0) comments
Researchers keeping digital history alive - Greg Kline, News-Gazette
News and other information contained in Web pages, government documents and sound and video are increasingly being "born digital." That's creating challenges for those concerned with preserving such material and making it available in the years to come. University of Illinois researchers may provide some solutions in a three-year $3 million project with the Library of Congress, announced this month. Among other things, they're to develop criteria for automatically collecting, capturing and preserving digital material, as well as sharing it among libraries and other repositories. (0) comments Tuesday, October 12, 2004
E-learning directory updated October 2004 - U.S. News
The number of institutions offering courses and degrees taught via E-learning technologies grows rapidly every month. To help you navigate this expanding universe, we've created a searchable directory of E-learning providers–institutions that offer courses, certificates, and degrees via Internet, video, CD-ROM, and other distance-education technologies. In the summer and fall of 2004, U.S. News surveyed over 2,750 traditional colleges in addition to several online entities ("virtual universities"). This year, for the first time, U.S. News also surveyed two-year colleges that grant associate's degrees or certificates. Institutions reported their credit-granting E-learning offerings for the 2003-2004 academic year. All institutions that we surveyed have at least two characteristics in common: They are all regionally accredited and offer E-learning courses for credit. Some of the instutitions, particularly those that offer online graduate degrees, are also professionally accredited by an appropriate association (depending on the discipline). (0) comments
MLA Promote The Provision Of e-Learning Materials By The Cultural Sector - Managing Information
For the past 18 months MLA has been working with the DfES Curriculum Online Team to promote and facilitate the provision of curriculum based e-learning materials by the cultural sector, with the following aims: to increase the use of educational content, both classroom and teacher-support resources, from the cultural sector by schools; to improve the quality and usefulness of educational content from the cultural sector; and to make it easier for teachers, pupils and parents to discover educational content from the cultural sector that is relevant to specific curriculum learning objectives." Run by the DfES, Curriculum Online is an online catalogue which gives teachers easy access to a wide range of multimedia teaching and learning resources, all linked to the curriculum in England. It is a key part of the Government's drive to increase the use of ICT in the classroom. (0) comments
Cisco provides Arabic networking curriculum - AME Info
The Cisco Networking Academy Program is a comprehensive e-learning program, which provides students with the Internet technology skills essential in a global economy. The Networking Academy program's objective is to help grow a nation's talent and knowledge pool. In providing an Arabic version, Cisco is hoping to provide a positive impact at the community's grass-roots through high schools and college education. 'Today's announcement highlights Cisco's continued commitment to the Arab world. As a comprehensive educational program, the Networking Academy curriculum will now include high-schools and graduates in Arabic speaking communities and make it easier for these people to gain essential employment, overall helping to meet the needs of the community,' said Nathalie Soueidan, Area Academy Manager for Cisco Systems GCC. (0) comments Monday, October 11, 2004
Scaling Up: From Web-Enhanced Courses to a Web-Enhanced Curriculum - Robert E. Wood, Innovate Online
In the past decade, the most important technological innovation in higher education has been the enhancement of academic courses with Web-based information and tools. With and without course management systems, instructors have progressed from using what Kuechler (1997) referred to as an "electronic reserve shelf" to extensive, interactive online resources. The World Lecture Hall, the most well-known repository of links to academic Web sites, attests to the vitality yet unevenness of this movement. A few "enhanced" courses do little more than deliver the traditional print syllabus via the Internet, but many prove that the creative possibilities of Web use are almost endless (see Mullinix and McCurry [2003] for a useful typology). (0) comments
Going Nomadic: Mobile Learning in Higher Education - Bryan Alexander, Educause Review
The combination of wireless technology and mobile computing is resulting in escalating transformations of the educational world. The question is, how are the wireless, mobile technologies affecting the learning environment, pedagogy, and campus life? To answer this question, we must assess the current state of affairs, surveying cyberculture globally and historically.1 We must consider the United States only peripherally, since it lags behind other parts of the world in several key trends. And we must carefully examine the wireless, mobile learning experience as it rapidly develops, doing our best to grasp emergent trends. (0) comments
World’s Largest e-learning Programme Rolled out to Indian Schools
Over 4,000 pupils from schools in four regions of India will have free access throughout the month of November to the prestigious Heriot-Watt SCHOLAR online learning system, thanks to the British Council and SCHOLAR’s publisher Interactive University (IU). Access to the programme will allow students and teachers to assess the benefits of SCHOLAR as a classroom and homework support aid, doing away with the need for remedial evening classes. SCHOLAR is unusual in e-learning terms in that it offers interactivity from a bank of 44,600 web pages and fosters learning communities within school groups. Subjects on offer to the schools in Delhi Metropolitan Area, Ahmenabad in Gujerat, Kalcutta, Chennai (previously Madras) include Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. SCHOLAR's fully interactive materials are supported by over 5000 quizzes and assessments so that pupils and parents can gauge their progress and teachers can focus their learning support where the pupils need it most. (0) comments Sunday, October 10, 2004
The Future of Learning Technologies: An Interview with Chris Dede by James Morrison, Innovate Online
I define learning technologies quite broadly. For example, cell phones can be a learning technology. With the right software, handheld Game Boy devices and other types of entertainment consoles can be learning technologies. My work focuses on information technologies that apply to education—devices that allow users to customize their access to information as they make decisions in an inquiry process. I would not dispute that a blackboard is a learning technology, but it is not the kind of artifact on which I focus my research. My fundamental interest is in how emerging technologies expand human capabilities for knowledge creation, sharing, and mastery, so I am most interested in the learning technologies that lend themselves to complex data manipulation, intensive collaboration, and robust archives. Today, we have an extraordinary menu of technologies that range from massively multiplayer Internet games to various types of handheld devices, and some of them are well-suited for immersive learning environments. (0) comments
Criminology online: an Italian Experience - Raffaella Sette, EURODL
In the article, my experience dealing with online courses on criminological topics carried out in the undergraduate course for "Security and Social control Operators" (University of Bologna, Italy) is illustrated. Through the distribution of an evaluation questionnaire to the participants of the course, I have had the possibility of pointing out the positive and negative aspects of the organised didactic activity and I was able to collect valuable information with the aim of reflecting on the limits and potential of online learning methodology. (0) comments
Game-Based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century - Joel Foreman, Educause Review
...To learn more about videogames in academe, I sought out the insights of five leading-edge thinkers in the field: James Paul Gee, J. C. Herz, Randy Hinrichs, Marc Prensky, and Ben Sawyer. All five had traveled to San Jose, California, in March 2004 for the Serious Games Summit at the annual Game Developers Conference. We discussed the following six topics: The dysfunctions of conventional instruction The power of simulations The importance of game-based learning communities The reasons videogames promise a better learning future The changes necessary for the new paradigm to take hold The practical steps that colleges/universities and influential academics can take to move institutions down the trail blazed by USC and others. (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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