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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, February 26, 2005
Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles - Chris Dede, Educause Quarterly
Rapid advances in information technology are reshaping the learning styles of many students in higher education. The standard “world to the desktop” interface is now complemented by * multiuser virtual environments in which people’s avatars interact with each other, computer-based agents, and digital artifacts in a simulated context; and * augmented realities in which mobile wireless devices infuse overlays of digital data on physical real-world settings. Higher education institutions can prosper by using these emerging technologies to deliver instruction matched to the increasingly “neomillennial” learning styles of their students (0) comments
UK's first 'virtual school' gets high praise - Public Technology
Liverpool City Council's Virtual School was chosen as the overall winner in the city's first Neighborhood Renewal Awards which celebrated the achievements of projects involved in improving services and regenerating neighbourhoods in some of the most deprived areas of Liverpool. The e-learning driven virtual school aims to ensure that all the city's children in care have the same educational opportunities as other youngsters. Its 800 pupils attend local schools but are registered in the virtual school where specialist staff help them achieve academic goals. Every pupil has access to their own compute. E-learning packages, have been developed to help both youngsters and foster carers with study support materials and on line service information and advice. The virtual school also won the category for improving educational attainment (0) comments
E-Learning and Economic Development - Kelly CAREY and Stanko BLATNIK, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education
Educators need to see the world behind the text created by the Internet. The physical reality of working with students, in real time, across time and space is a staggering idea. The world it creates in the interpretation and application of its living text is beyond anything ever experienced in the world of learning and education. The Internet changes our linguistic experience with the world. Ideas exchanged between writers and readers create a fusion of horizons (Gadamer 1989) not geographically possible before this time. A new understanding, a transformation of our being takes place as we reinvent ourselves based on new experiences, new understandings and new relationships. (0) comments
E-Learning and Economic Development - Kelly CAREY and Stanko BLATNIK, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education
Educators need to see the world behind the text created by the Internet. The physical reality of working with students, in real time, across time and space is a staggering idea. The world it creates in the interpretation and application of its living text is beyond anything ever experienced in the world of learning and education. The Internet changes our linguistic experience with the world. Ideas exchanged between writers and readers create a fusion of horizons (Gadamer 1989) not geographically possible before this time. A new understanding, a transformation of our being takes place as we reinvent ourselves based on new experiences, new understandings and new relationships. (0) comments Friday, February 25, 2005
Distributed Learning for Geographically Dispersed Students - Gary Cleveland, Shawn F. Clouse, Clyde Neu; Journal of Educators Online
This article describes a program at a University that serves a large but sparsely populated state. It offers two MBA programs, a traditional full-time program and a part-time, off-campus program. Students in the off-campus program are typically early to mid-career professionals. To reach them the University’s School of Business Administration developed expertise in innovative, distributed learning. The objective of the distributed learning program was to integrate networked delivery to students across the region. Professional courses are conducted on interactive, compressed video delivered to nine sites scattered around the state. Graduate-level foundation courses, i.e., courses in the fundamentals of business administration, are delivered online to the same students. The Systems and Operations course described in this paper was the first of five foundation courses developed for delivery online. (0) comments
TaskStream backs ePortfolio study - Corey Murray, eSchool News
Ask Helen Barrett of the University of Alaska College of Education how students feel about creating learning portfolios, and she'll tell you a story about a group of high school seniors in the Pacific Northwest who got together on graduation night and built a bonfire. After four years of chronicling their high school experience, the graduates met up not to celebrate their achievements, but to watch their work go up in smoke. For years, hundreds of high schools across the country have required exiting seniors to keep academic portfolios of everything from their resume to their favorite assignments and samples of their coursework. And for years, students have resisted, viewing the assignment as just another in a long line of requirements standing between them and graduation. But thanks to digital technologies and the internet, proponents of the portfolio as a pedagogical movement--including Barrett, who has spent more than a decade studying and promoting the use of electronic portfolios in schools--believe both students and teachers are warming up to the idea. (0) comments
Wisconsin CIOs look for an IT tipping point - Les Chappell, Wisconsin Technology
2005 is pulling some long-term information technology projects into the spotlight. CIOs in Wisconsin are watching for tipping points, where incremental developments in IT turn into radical new advances in health care, education and other industries. In the days leading up to the Fusion 2005 CEO-CIO Symposium on March 2 in Madison, several of the state's IT leaders shared their views on the emerging information technology of the year. (0) comments Thursday, February 24, 2005
A Content Analytic Comparison of Learning Processes in Online and Face-to-Face Case Study Discussions - Robert Heckman and Hala Annabi, JCMC
While much research has shown that asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) can produce learning equivalent to face-to-face (FTF) classrooms, there has been little research that explicitly explores similarities and differences between the learning processes that occur in ALN and FTF activities. This study used a content analytic framework (derived primarily from previous work of Anderson, Archer, Garrison, and Rourke) to analyze transcripts from eight case study discussions, four FTF and four ALN. While previous authors developed a model that studies cognitive, social, and teaching processes in ALN discussions, the current scheme also considers characteristics of the discourse process. The findings provide evidence that ALNs generate high levels of cognitive activity, at least equal to, and in some cases superior to, the cognitive processes in the FTF classroom. The findings also suggest that students assume some aspects of the teacher's role in ALNs, and that student-to-student interactions contain a greater proportion of high-level cognitive indicators than do student-to-teacher interactions. (0) comments
Distance-Learning Law Grads Seek to Take Texas Bar Exam - Mary Alice Robbins, Texas Lawyer/New York Lawyer
The debate over whether graduates of distance-learning law schools should be allowed to take the Texas bar exam has resurfaced at the state Capitol. State Rep. Robert Talton, a Pasadena Republican and an attorney, is sponsoring H.B. 826, which would require the Texas Supreme Court to adopt rules that would allow attorneys whose law degrees are based on study by correspondence to take the Texas exam, if they've passed another state's bar exam and are licensed to practice law in another state. Under Talton's bill, the distance-learning law school graduates (0) comments
Rapid E-Learning: A Growing Trend - Dianne Archibald, Learning Circuits
To be sure, even though e-learning is having a major impact on corporate education, many believe it has never lived up to its promise. Enter rapid e-learning. Rapid e-learning is a hot topic among many workplace learning and development practitioners. In a study of Fortune 500 companies conducted by Larstan Business Reports, 85 percent said they planned to expand the role of e-learning. More important, over 80 percent of respondents said that rapid e-learning strategies would make a significant contribution to the training initiatives in their companies. (0) comments Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Study's future online - Dorothy Illing, Australian IT
IT has been hyped as the learning solution for people on the move, in the workplace and in far-flung corners of the world.Now, after a long and often bumpy ride, some of Australia's biggest employers have given e-learning the thumbs up. A survey of senior executives in 1200 organisations by recruitment firm Chandler Macleod Group found that 60per cent of respondents believed e-learning was the future for employees wanting to study and work full time. And opportunities for further education within a company were key factors in attracting and retaining staff. But many workers were not maximising the opportunities offered by their employers. (0) comments
The wave of the future in the Philippines - NEMAH HERMOSA, Manila Bulletin
The development of what has come to be known as the "knowledge society" has resulted in an increasing demand for continuing education, both formal and nonformal. Access to information and the ability to transform it into useful knowledge is key to social and economic development. Lifelong learning has become the new policy imperative for many countries, including the Philippines. The growing demand for continuing education from various sectors (government, individuals, their employers, and future employers), and the need for higher education institutions (HEIs) to rely less on public funding and generate their own income, have led HEIs to adopt new modes of educational delivery. These new modes include traditional print-based distance education as well as technology-supported distributed learning, also known as online learning or E-learning. (0) comments
College students launch online auction - eSchool News
At the end of each semester, Bentley College sophomore Shahzad Zia usually offers his used textbooks to the highest bidder on the most popular internet auction sites. This spring, he plans to list them for a more exclusive community--and save money in the process. Zia plans to post his books on College Junktion, an online auction designed by college students, for college students, that opened for business Feb. 18. Registration to the www.collegejunktion.com web site requires a valid ".edu" eMail address. Such addresses are reserved for people connected with higher-education institutions. (0) comments Tuesday, February 22, 2005
How Distance Learning Changes Faculty - Christine Uber Grosse, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning
How do faculty change as a result of teaching a distance learning course? What new knowledge, skills, and attitudes do they develop as a result of their experience? How does work in distance education affect their teaching, service, and scholarship? This study looks at how six professors in an Arizona business school changed as a result of teaching via distance. All taught in an international MBA program delivered jointly by Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management and ITESM, the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores of Monterrey, Mexico. (0) comments
E-learning project enters new phase of training - Yemen Observer
The e-learning project funded by the US Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) for select Yemeni High Schools has entered a new phase of training from January 29 – February 2, 2005 for twenty-five administrators and teachers from five Sana’a area high schools. The training, developed entirely in Arabic, centered on the inclusion of internet technologies in research and the ways that it can enhance daily teaching curriculum. The current phase builds on former workshops on student-centered instruction techniques. (0) comments
CNS: e-learning is crucial to development of UAE education sector
The conference, organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology, will run from February 19th to February 21st 2005 at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi. The forum will highlight the growing impact of electronic technology on education. 'CNS considers e-learning as a vital step in the development of the UAE's education system – the modern business environment demands computer literate graduates and e-learning is one way of making students confident of using various IT-based tools and applications,' said Tony Alam, Managing Director of CNS. The forum will concentrate on the effectiveness of e-learning in the education system, e-learning for disabled people, responsible development of e-learning, and the importance of e-learning in governments and globalization. (0) comments Monday, February 21, 2005
Gender and Learning Strategy Differences in Nontraditional Adult Students’ Design Preferences in Hybrid Distance Courses, Lynna Ausburn; JIOL
This study describes instructional design elements most valued by nontraditional adult learners in hybrid learning environments that combine limited face-to-face contact with online learning and collaboration. It identifies the online course features and instructional goals selected as most important by a sample of 67 adults. It then compares this group’s rankings with those of subgroups based on gender and preferred learning strategies as measured by the Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults (ATLAS) test. The results of the study support the application of principles of adult learning in developing online environments for adults, identify some differences in learning emphasis by gender and preferred learning strategies, and underscore the importance of providing a variety of learning options in adult learning environments with an online component. (0) comments
Online learning clears way to college for many - Nancy Buczek , Syracuse Post-Standard
Mary Ware traveled to Arizona, Cape Cod, New Jersey and Aruba while taking an Onondaga Community College online course last semester, joining the growing ranks of millions of people nationwide who have tried online learning. "Whenever there was free time I rushed out to a library or somewhere," said Ware, 59. Ware, of Homer, is among a growing population using the Internet to take college classes. Many colleges are responding by offering more online courses. More than 1.9 million students nationwide took at least one course online in fall 2003, an increase of 300,000 people over the year before, according to a study released in November by the Sloan Consortium, an organization that supports online learning, and the Sloan Center for OnLine Education, which is jointly operated by Babson College and the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. (0) comments
£20 million grant to improve universities - Sheffield Today
Sheffield's universities have been given £20 million as part of a nationwide strategy to improve teaching and learning in higher education. Hallam University will create three centres of excellence, and Sheffield two, one jointly with Leeds and York universities. A network of 74 centres in 54 institutions is being set up, with Sheffield's universities among 16 to host more than one. The Hallam centres will focus on issues like the development of e-learning in health and social care, and helping students become more employable. Sheffield's plans include a centre to transform learning methods for its 10,000 students on arts, law and social science courses. The other centre will examine ways of encouraging enterprise in students. (0) comments Sunday, February 20, 2005
Professor conducts study to examine Distance Education: Bell looks to assess DE program success - Nick Henne, East Carolinian
With ECU expanding more and more each year in Distance Education programs, a professor is in the process of conducting a study to examine the compatibility of students and this new modernized form of learning. "The intent of the study is to determine whether factors related to self regulated learning and epistemological beliefs, beliefs about knowledge and learning, are associated with learner achievement in online courses," said Paul Bell, associate professor in the Department of Health Information Management and conductor of the study. (0) comments
Usability in E-Learning - Michael J. Miller, Learning Circuits
While a large number of organizations have adopted e-learning programs, far fewer have addressed the usability of their learning applications. More attention should be devoted to assuring the usability of e-learning applications if organizations are to fully benefit from their investments. It’s no surprise that a large percentage of organizations have actively developed and implemented online learning programs. The reasons are clear: e-learning programs can be highly versatile and they have the capability to provide on-demand training that transcends geographic and time boundaries. Program offerings are frequently diverse and address the needs of employees, customers, and suppliers. The versatility, convenience, and scope of offerings would seemingly suggest that all is well for these adopters of e-learning applications. However, training practitioners within many organizations are discovering that individuals are, for the most part, not embracing the new medium of instruction to the extent that it was initially hoped. In fact, online learning programs typically exhibit higher dropout rates when compared with traditional instructor-led courses. (0) comments
Malaysian Perspective: Designing Interactive Multimedia Learning Environment for Moral Values Education - Norhayati Abd Mukti and Siew Pei Hwa, JET&S
The field of education is faced with various new challenges in meeting with the demands of teaching and learning for the 21st century. One of the new challenges is the call for the integration of ICT (Information and communication technologies) in teaching and learning as an alternative mode of instruction delivery. Multimedia technology for instance, has the potential in transforming traditional classrooms into a world of unlimited imaginary environment. This paper reports on a research project on development of an interactive multimedia courseware package for moral values education using traditional Malay oral narratives called CITRA. CITRA uses CD-ROM and the computer as a means of dissemination. It is a didactic tool created for the teaching and learning of good moral values in an interactive multimedia environment. It is made up of four learning modules: Storytelling World module, Enjoyable Reading World module, Word Enrichment Corner module, and Mind Test Land module. The tool’s most important feature is its user interaction capability. The principle objective of this project is to create a pedagogical tool that combines on-screen text, graphics, animation, audio and video in an enticing environment and thus enables the positive values and images of stories to be projected. (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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