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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, December 11, 2004
Designing Instructional Articles in Online Courses for Adult Learners - Verne Morland and Herbert Bivens, Innovate
Verne Morland and Herbert Bivens reintroduce readers to Malcolm Knowles's theory of adragogy, or adult learning. Building on Knowles’s work, researchers have identified clear, consistent principles of adult education—yet these tenets are not reflected in many training programs and academic courses. Morland and Bivens recommend resources and activities especially suited to adult learners; in particular, they provide content, organization, navigation, and integration guidelines for the creation of stellar instructional articles. Their pièce de résistance is a companion article that presents the Innovate text in prime educational format. In both word and deed, Morland and Bivens show readers how to bridge the gap between good principles and good practice. (0) comments
Diplomas from a distance - Analisa Nazareno, San Antonia Express-News
More business schools nationwide are offering online programs, according to a survey by BusinessWeek Online. The number of business schools with students taking online MBA courses rose to 81 in 2003, up from 71 two years ago. The average number of students enrolled in such programs jumped to 81 from 45 in 2001. (0) comments
School's out to shun IE - Jim Hu, CNET News
Citing security risks, a state university is urging students to drop Internet Explorer in favor of alternative Web browsers such as Firefox and Safari. In a notice sent to students on Wednesday, Pennsylvania State University's Information Technology Services department recommended that students download other browsers to reduce attacks through vulnerabilities in the Microsoft software. The university said "media reports" and a string of warnings by Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency and Response Team led to its recommendation. (0) comments Friday, December 10, 2004
Web-based tutoring gives students study aid 24/7 - By Cara Branigan, eSchool News
A commercial, web-based tutoring service is helping high schools and colleges make live instructors available 24-hours a day, seven days a week to tutor students in mathematics. At the moment, this round-the-clock tutoring service is available only for math help, but the company says on-demand assistance is available in additional subjects for nine hours each day. Gallaudet University, a school for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington, D.C., will begin offering the 24-hour, web-based tutoring service this fall. University representatives say tutoring at Gallaudet requires a diverse approach, because some of the school's students are born and reared with sign language, while others are new to their hearing loss and are better at reading than at using sign language. (0) comments
El Paso Community College is fastest growing college - Darren Meritz, El Paso Times
EPCC has become more popular than ever for students: It's now the fastest-growing community college in the nation, according to the trade publication Community College Week.... EPPC President Richard Rhodes touted distance learning, dual enrollment for high-school students taking classes for college credit, and significant strides in technology as alluring. (0) comments
Panel works to unify access to Montana long distance learning - MARY PICKETT, The Billings Gazette
Students interested in taking online classes in the future might use a single, user-friendly entry point that leads to all classes offered by state colleges and universities if recommendations by a group meeting in Billings on Thursday are carried out.... The distance-learning committee led by Lt. Gov. Karl Ohs was close to finishing its work Thursday and had hammered out a list of recommendations.... Ohs' committee proposes developing a coordinated, distance-learning program for the state that makes it easy for students to find information about all Montana online classes at a single place. (0) comments Thursday, December 09, 2004
Facilitation: the Anti-Lecture - Kaarin Record, techLearning
The best of online classrooms intelligently employ a discussion board to foster a sense of community and to become a vehicle for sharing and learning. The role of the facilitator is to enable groups of people to work cooperatively and effectively. Together, the facilitator and his or her groups combine ideas to achieve goals and objectives related to the course topics. With education constantly moving towards online-orientation, more of us will be finding ourselves in the position of running discussion boards and leading Internet-based classes. (0) comments
UK 'must sell education to world' - Sean Coughlan, BBC News
The UK must be a serious player in the global market for students if it is to prosper, says the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke. He told a British Council conference in Edinburgh that global education was worth £10.4bn a year to the economy. The British Council says there are a million overseas students in the UK and that the number of students ready to study in other countries is set to increase further. It also expects to see more "transnational" institutions, such as universities and colleges, setting up campuses abroad or offering courses by distance learning. (0) comments
Online courses perfect for some - Janet Enquist, The Porterville Recorder
After working with computers all day at Porterville College, Chris Craig goes home, eats dinner and logs on to his personal computer for another three or four hours. Craig isn't a computer addict, he's just trying to get a college education. "I work from 8 to 5:30 so online classes were the only choice," Craig said. "Chapman starts at 6 and I had no other option other than traveling to Fresno, so I chose online classes." (0) comments Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Blogging in the Big Apple - Jeffrey Piontek, techLearning
Although this is becoming more and more commonplace across the country, to me as an educator it seemed frightening. These Weblogs, or Blogs, have been described as the hierarchy of texts, images, media objects and data, archived chronologically and viewable in an HTML format. They are the newest way for students to voice their opinions and feelings online. While a few educators have already started using Blogs, many ask the potential for teaching and learning with students. What could this new technology be used for and how does current research measure up to it? (0) comments
Tech cheating turns professors into sleuths - Jeff Ballinger, The San Luis Obispo Tribune
The creative use of technology by some college students to cheat on tests and plagiarize papers is compelling professors at Cal Poly to become high-tech detectives in an increasingly sophisticated struggle for academic integrity. Del Dingus, an earth and soil sciences professor, has caught students during a quiz using cell phones to receive text messages of answers from other students. One student turned in a paper he simply photocopied from a classmate's, Dingus said, but most who plagiarize are savvier. Paper mills that sell academic papers online are now getting around the usual problem plagiarizers face when they buy an "A" paper and have to dumb it down to make it seem like their own writing. (0) comments
Don't get caught in a degree-mill scam - Marshall Loeb, CBS.MarketWatch.com
If you want to get ahead in your field but don't have time to attend daily courses at your local college, you might consider a distance learning opportunity. But before you spend the time, effort and money to get a higher education degree through correspondence courses or the Internet, make sure you aren't signing up to become a victim of fraud. The country has more than 2,600 diploma mills - set-ups that will take your money and, after little or no work on your part, give you a useless "degree." (0) comments Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Boston University Division of Extended Education selects WebCT Vista - TMCNet
Continuing education arm of 165-year-old institution intensifies focus on learning outcomes, evolving student tastes and diverse learning styles: Boston University's Division of Extended Education will use the WebCT Vista(TM) academic enterprise system to develop new degree, graduate and enrichment programs using advanced e-learning principles. The school... is currently developing these new programs: Executive Undergraduate Degree Completion; Master of Science in Computer Information Systems (MSCIS); Master of Arts in Music Education; and Certificate in Emergency Management and Organizational Continuity. (0) comments
British Library's Online Learning Package Now Live
A new online learning package showcasing the British Library's services for public librarians across the UK is now live. The package - supported by the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) - has been designed as a virtual 'tour' showing public librarians what the British Library has to offer public library users. A full roll-out of the package to English library authorities by the SCL will take place over the coming months. The tour is at http://www.bl.uk/training_package/introduction.html. (0) comments
Online university that gave cat diploma sued for fraud - MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
A Plano, Texas-based online university that supposedly granted a graduate degree in business to a pet cat was sued Monday for consumer fraud by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. Trinity Southern University, a cellular company and the two brothers who ran them are accused of misappropriating Internet addresses of the state Senate and more than 60 Pennsylvania businesses to sell bogus academic degrees and prescription drugs by spam e-mail, according to the lawsuit. Investigators paid $299 for a bachelor's degree for a Colby Nolan - actually a deputy attorney general's 6-year-old black cat - claiming he had experience that included baby-sitting and retail management. (0) comments Monday, December 06, 2004
Inclusion for Special Populations - Eva Ng-Chin, techLearning
What is inclusion? To some it means no one is left out, regardless of race, color, creed, or physical disabilities...." WEAC gives a fuller explanation of inclusion, "a term which expresses commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend. It involves bringing the support services to the child (rather than moving the child to the services) and requires only that the child will benefit from being in the class (rather than having to keep up with the other students). Proponents of inclusion generally favor newer forms of education service delivery." One of the newest forms of educational delivery for everyone is the growing number of online classes offered. Many colleges and universities are adding more online classes to their curriculum in addition to keeping the traditional classes. (0) comments
AOL, ClassesUSA Partner Up on Learning Site - Scott Van Camp, Technology Marketing
America Online and online degree portal ClassesUSA.com have partnered to provide AOL members with a directory of accredited online degree and certificate programs. As part of AOL's Research & Learn site, as of last week members could access ClassesUSA.com's list of more than 100 of the nation's top colleges and universities that offer online degrees. The partnership also provides AOL members access to content and in-depth articles about online degrees, financial aid and accreditation. "We wanted to offer something that isn't out there today -- an informational resource connected with a first-tier provider of aggregated offerings of online schools," said Martin Moe, vp AOL life management. (0) comments
For university leaders, change is good and the future is online - Tracie Mauriello, Waterbury Republican American
The welcome sign, the Web site and the letterhead still say Teikyo Post University, but the school on the city's western edge has a new owner, new trustees and a new designation as a for-profit institution now called just Post University. Everything else, though, is the same, insist campus leaders.... "Normally, if a school changes hands, it's in a lot of trouble, but that wasn't the deal here," said President Jon Jay DeTemple. "This is a different thing." ...This change is out of growth," said Jessica Welensky, president of the Student Government Association. "We're not failing; we're growing, and here's how we can grow even more." Most of that growth is likely to take place, not on the Waterbury campus, but in cyberspace. (0) comments Sunday, December 05, 2004
Is Open Source in Your CMS Future? - Syllabus
As course management systems have matured, they have encompassed wider functionality, and been integrated with numerous other campus systems. As with most large and complex systems, the unbundling of service and software components can produce greater opportunities for efficiencies and customization. No wonder, then, why open source efforts in general, and specifically Sakai, may be the wave of the future for CMS. (0) comments
Resources Needed to Make Evaluation Work - Jack J. Phillips, Patricia Pulliam Phillips, and Toni Krucky Hodges, Learning Circuits
This excerpt from the new ASTD Press book, Make Training Evaluation Work, outlines the technology (both hardware and software) and time requirements needed to implement evaluation, as well as the budgetary requirements to make it successful. (0) comments
Technology provides overseas learning - Ashley Harper, WALB-TV
Janice Daugharty is sitting in a classroom at Valdosta State University, sharing creative writing ideas with students in Bourneamouth, United Kingdom. "It's wonderful to come into this 21st century classroom, have all this equipment set up where I can go to any school and talk to students as long as I want," said Daugharty. This published author can offer advice to English students across the globe with the help of advanced technology. (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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