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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, December 18, 2004
Distance Education Strategy: Mental Models and Strategic Choices - John C. Adams, Alan T. Seagren; JDLA
What issues do distance education (DE) leaders believe will influence the future of DE? What are their colleges’ DE strategies? This qualitative study compares DE strategic thinking and strategic choices at three community colleges. Two propositions are investigated: (1) each college’s DE leaders use common strategic mental models (ways of thinking about key environmental issues and relationships), and (2) DE leaders from the three colleges employ common industry-level strategic mental models. The major findings are: (1) strategic beliefs are more varied than expected; (2) strategic choices address common DE issues but are tailored to local contexts; and (3) leaders’ beliefs and college strategic choices are aligned. (0) comments
Saudi Arabia’s US$ 30 million e-learning market set to expand by 33 % annually - Press Trust
Saudi Arabia, which allocates a major chunk of the national budget to education and vocational training, has put in place diverse initiatives that will see the Kingdom emerging as one of the biggest e-learning markets in the region, pushing its value from the current US $30 million to US$ 125 million by 2008. A detailed study, conducted by Dubai-based Madar Research, on the Saudi education and e-learning scenario forecasts that the Saudi e-learning market will expand at a compound average growth rate of 33 per cent over five years. This growth will be boosted by government-led initiatives and education projects, some of which are already in various stages of implementation. (0) comments
Exploring Ocean Life and Color on the Internet - Red Nova
A new NASA Internet tool called "Giovanni" allows high school and college students and researchers to access and analyze satellite-derived ocean color data. Ocean color data provides students with information about ocean biology by looking at phytoplankton through changes in the color of the ocean surface. "Ocean color" refers primarily to the measurement of the green pigment called chlorophyll, which is contained in phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are free-floating plants that are the foundation of the ocean's food chain. http://reason.gsfc.nasa.gov/Giovanni/ (0) comments Friday, December 17, 2004
Google Virtual-Library Agreement Is Important First Step - Gartner.com
A true global virtual library is still years away, but academic librarians and administrators should prepare for the increasing digitization and online availability of library collections. For years, academics have envisioned a free global virtual library. However, digitizing collections, protecting copyright and finding funding for such a large-scale project have been daunting obstacles. This agreement moves the vision of a virtual library a small step closer to reality. Google’s willingness to underwrite the digitizing of texts for online access removes one of the main stumbling blocks — cost. Google has also opened the door for its competitors, such as Yahoo and MSN, to become involved in major digital-library projects. (0) comments
Blackboard Adds Over 1,000 New Course Cartridges from Leading Educational Publishers This Year
Blackboard Inc.announced today that it has added 1,165 new Blackboard Course Cartridges(R) to the offerings now available to higher education institutions and individual instructors through the Blackboard Learning System(TM). To date, more than 30 of the world's leading educational publishers distribute more than 3,500 ready-to-use Blackboard-compliant courses through Blackboard Course Cartridges. With these cartridges, instructors and students can access a wide variety of educational materials online, at any time and from just about any location. (0) comments
Springer To Launch Online Archive of Scientific Journals - Bobby Pickering, eCommerceTimes
Currently, SpringerLink provides access to about 500 journals, but after the full Online Journals Archive is available, that is planned to increase to about 1,250 journals, incorporating 1.5 million articles. The OJA will be made available for subscription in 11 major subject areas, starting with Chemistry and Material Sciences in the spring of 2005. Springer is set to double the size of its SpringerLink online database by establishing an Online Journals Archive -- an expansion made possible by the completion of the merger of Springer-Verlag and Kluwer Academic Publishers in July. (0) comments Thursday, December 16, 2004
The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: Syndication and Annotation on the Web - Tony Hammond, Timo Hannay, and Ben Lund; D-Lib
RSS is one of a new breed of technologies that is contributing to the ever-expanding dominance of the Web as the pre-eminent, global information medium. It is intimately connected with—though not bound to—social environments such as blogs and wikis, annotation tools such as del.icio.us [1], Flickr [2] and Furl [3], and more recent hybrid utilities such as JotSpot [4], which are reshaping and redefining our view of the Web that has been built up and sustained over the last 10 years and more [n1]. Indeed, Tim Berners-Lee's original conception of the Web [5] was much more of a shared collaboratory than the flat, read-only kaleidoscope that has subsequently emerged: a consumer wonderland, rather than a common cooperative workspace. Where did it all go wrong? (0) comments
Google's Library Project Could Drive Content Contest -Matt Hicks, eWeek
Not content with organizing billions of Web documents, Google Inc. is leading the charge in turning library collections into searchable digital content. In announcing Tuesday that it is working with five major libraries to scan millions of books for inclusion in its Web index, Google opened another battle in the intense competition among the leading search engines. Its major search competitors will likely respond by further expanding their own indexes with sources outside of traditional Web pages, analysts said. (0) comments
Towards a unified e-learning strategy - Learning Technologies Group
Chris Yapp, Head of Public Sector Innovation, Microsoft, will lead the second of four conference tracks, ’Enabling Technologies’, at Learning Technologies 2005. Going beyond mere technology, Chris Yapp examines the greater learning environment to suggest that e-learning can transform the experience of education. By exploring the demands for an increasingly highly skilled workforce, he looks at how the UK’s current educational infrastructure needs to be re-engineered in order to make it responsive to the needs of the economy, and have the learner at its centre. (0) comments Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Chat's Positive Side: Reference Services Online - Carol Tenopir, Library Journal
"I have absolutely no regrets about enhancing our reference services through chat." "It's been a smooth and successful expansion of our existing reference service." "It's so successful we've moved from being a pilot project to an ongoing service." These are the positive voices of virtual reference, the librarians who feel chat reference is now an integral part of their library. After giving time in my column last month to negative views ("Rethinking Virtual Reference," LJ 11/1/04, p. 34), this month I've asked librarians in notable virtual reference services to tell their stories. (0) comments
Online Library Seeks Volunteers For The Frontline - ManagingInformation
The first phase of the new People's Network Service is launched to library professionals today. The People's Network Online Enquiry Service will deliver a real-time information service to the public by providing 'live' access to library and information professionals across the internet. Developed by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), the service is being delivered collaboratively by public library staff across England. http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk (0) comments
Libraries Reach Out, Online - TIM GNATEK, New York Times
The newest books in the New York Public Library don't take up any shelf space. They are electronic books - 3,000 titles' worth - and the library's 1.8 million cardholders can point and click through the collection at www .nypl.org, choosing from among best sellers, nonfiction, romance novels and self-help guides. Patrons borrow them for set periods, downloading them for reading on a computer, a hand-held organizer or other device using free reader software. When they are due, the files are automatically locked out - no matter what hardware they are on - and returned to circulation, eliminating late fees. (0) comments Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The State of Distance Education: Observations - PBS
It's hard to miss the exponential growth of distance learning options. Those institutions that paved the way, and the 'early adopters' who chose to teach and learn online have given way to adoption by every kind of educational institution, public and private. According to a recent study issued by the Sloan Consortium (Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004), online enrollments will continue their rapid growth. Distance learning is now considered strategically crucial to institutional growth. In the fall of 2002, over 1.6 million learners studied online. At that time, the overall expected growth rate was nearly 20% a year. Schools participating in the study expect the number of online students to have topped 2.6 million by this fall, exceeding growth expectations. Further, there is no evidence to suggest that this growth is approaching a plateau. (0) comments
Online learning gains in popularity - Angela Bolowana, the Mercury South Africa
Online learning in South Africa is increasing in popularity as people choose to acquire qualifications through computer-based programmes rather than through contact education. The on-line learning option has appealed to those who cannot afford to leave their homes or abandon their responsibilities to improve their qualifications. (0) comments
Online Learning Is Spreading Through Florida - JOSE PATINO GIRONA, Tampa Tribune
For the past eight years, online learning has been tugging at the sleeves of traditional secondary education, and it appears the trend will continue. ``The brick-and-mortar school of the future will look more like college campuses of the past, where students have more choices of classes and when they take them,'' said Bruce Friend, chief administrative officer for Florida Virtual School in Orlando. (0) comments Monday, December 13, 2004
Issues of Interface - Karen Swan, EURODL
Although online learning no longer entails the kinds of interface barriers it once did, recent research is making very clear that interactions with interfaces significantly affect other interactions in online courses. This paper reviews the current literature on online learning to see what it can tell us about the mediating effects of differing interfaces on the three kinds of interactions described by Michael Moore [1] - interactions with course content, interactions with instructors, and interactions with classmates. The results point to the need for further serious research in this area. (0) comments
Changing patterns of Internet usage and challenges at colleges and universities - Tena F. McQueen and Robert A. Fleck, Jr., First Monday
Increased enrollments, changing student expectations, and shifting patterns of Internet access and usage continue to generate resource and administrative challenges for colleges and universities. Computer center staff and college administrators must balance increased access demands, changing system loads, and system security within constrained resources. To assess the changing academic computing environment, computer center directors from several geographic regions were asked to respond to an online questionnaire that assessed patterns of usage, resource allocation, policy formulation, and threats. Survey results were compared with data from a study conducted by the authors in 1999. The analysis includes changing patterns in Internet usage, access, and supervision. The paper also presents details of usage by institutional type and application as well as recommendations for more precise resource assessment by college administrators. (0) comments
Firm's push for students draws critics -Rob Kaiser, Chicago Tribune
Among a flurry of investigations into for-profit education firms, several are focusing on a public company based in the Chicago suburbs where so-called "admissions advisers" use the same high-pressure tactics employed by telemarketers. At offices of Hoffman Estates-based Career Education Corp., more than 1,000 employees pound the phones, each seeking to reach 150 prospects a day and enroll at least four students for its online school per week... Career Education runs the fast-growing American InterContinential University (AIU) online school, along with 82 mostly trade-oriented schools with physical campuses, such as the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. (0) comments Sunday, December 12, 2004
Web Log Analysis: A Study of Instructor Evaluations Done Online - Kenneth J. Klassen and Wayne Smith, JITE
This paper focuses on developing a relatively simple method for analyzing web-logs. It also ex-plores the challenges and benefits of web-log analysis. The study of student behavior on this site provides insights into website design and the effectiveness of this site in particular. Another bene-fit realized from the paper is the ease with which these concepts can be discussed with students. The purpose and context of the website used are easily understood by instructors and students, providing the basis for some rich discussions regarding: web-logs in general, web-log analysis and its’ challenges, the use of data for decision-making purposes, and other aspects. (0) comments
University isn’t about bed spaces and desks - John Walu, Nairobi Standard
Today, e-Learning comes with the benefits associated with conventional distance learning such as studying at your own convenient time and location, without losing the advantages of conventional instructor-led courses such as spontaneous interaction with the teacher. It provides the learner with the best of the two worlds, coming in the form of a web-based platform that provides a richer and more enhanced learning experience. (0) comments
E-Learning Goes Global: How the Cisco Networking Academy Transforms Lives - Nader Manjiani and Tom Kelly imformit.com
With its global success in transforming lives, learning, and social paradigms, the Cisco Networking Academy Program is hailed as a remarkably successful example of a productivity pyramid metaphor. The creation, rapid growth, and global presence of a massive networking talent pool trained via the Cisco Networking Academy Program would not have been possible without a solid e-learning strategy. (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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