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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, April 09, 2005
Quality Improvement, Quality Assurance, and Benchmarking - Alistair Inglis, IRRODL
Managing quality processes become critically important for higher education institutions generally, but especially for institutions involved in open and distance learning. In Australia, managers of centers responsible for open and distance learning have identified two frameworks that potentially offer ways of conceiving of the application of quality processes: the Quality Framework published in Inglis, Ling, and Joosten (1999); and the Benchmarking Framework published in McKinnon, Walker, and Davis (2000). However, managers who have been considering applying one or other framework within their institutional contexts have had to face the issue of how they should choose between, or combine the use, of these frameworks. Part of their dilemma lies in distinguishing among the related functions of quality improvement, quality assurance, and benchmarking. This article compares the frameworks in terms of their scope, institutional application, structures, and method of application, and then considers what implications the similarities and differences between the frameworks have for their use. (0) comments
Online learning goal is to increase student opportunity - Beth Bily, Grand Rapids Herald-Review
A mid-March grant by the Blandin Foundation of $525,000 will kick start online learning for the four Itasca County School districts, as well as other partners, Remer, Hill City, South Koochiching, and Floodwood. What exactly will online learning do? According to Deer River School District Superintendent Mark Adams, it will provide opportunities for advanced learning, catch-up opportunity for those who need extra help and allow the participating school districts to retain students in an era when not only declining enrollment poses threats to funding, but technological offerings elsewhere do as well. According to Blandin Foundation Grant Director Wade Fauth, the online learning project is both an economic as well as an educational opportunity. "Rural school districts are suffering. A number of districts have had a hard time getting enough students together for specialized classes," he said. "Basic education is an important consideration for the local community as we go forward in the future." (0) comments
A Nordic Net-based Course in Agroecology - Integrating student learning and teacher collaboration - Geir Lieblein et al, EURODL
This article reports the experiences from designing and running a Nordic net-based course, Ecology of Farming and Food Systems, during the spring of 2004. Our aim was two-fold: to design a course which uses an explicit experiential learning approach, and to design a clear structure for faculty collaboration across national boundaries. Kolb’s learning cycle was chosen as the basis for the course design as well as organizing teacher collaboration. Ten teachers from five different institutions/countries collaborated in developing and teaching the course. Six students representing a very wide cultural and geographical span, from China to the United States, participated in the pilot course. Quantitative and qualitative feedback in mid-term and final course evaluations indicates that students were generally very satisfied with the course. In particular, the use of a case study as starting point for learning agroecology was highly valued. Teacher collaboration organized around phases of Kolb’s learning cycle received a favourable evaluation from both students and teachers. However, improvements need to be made in terms of continuity when responsibility is transferred from module to module. We feel that our experience using Kolb’s learning cycle to structure course process and teacher collaboration may be useful to others, when student centred learning is the focus and cooperation among instructors across institutions and national borders is a challenge. (0) comments Friday, April 08, 2005
Mapping the Terrain of Online Education - Kenneth C. Green, Campus Technology
Two Sloan-C reports provide both firm definitions for and hard data about the numbers of students involved in online education. Like so many things in education and the academic community, much of the (sometimes polite, sometimes passionate) conversation about big issues is often driven by opinion and epiphany, rather than data and evidence. Certainly, the decade-long discussions on and off campus about distance and online education, fall into this mode. All (or at least many) of us have fixed and firm opinions about the efficacy and quality of online and distance education, and the impact of these programs for students and institutions. “Online education is now clearly part of the evolving, 21st century landscape of American higher education.” Consequently, it is useful and refreshing to find informative reports with credible data that help map the still somewhat uncharted territory of online and distance learning in American higher education. (0) comments
Open University - Politics
The Open University is the UK's largest university, and it differs from other higher education institutions in that its courses are designed to be studied primarily by distance learning - that is, by people studying from their homes or workplaces, in their own time. OU courses are open to anyone, regardless of educational qualifications, and since it opened in 1971, it has educated two million students. Courses use a range of teaching media - specially-produced textbooks, TV and radio programmes, audio and video tapes, computer software and home experiment kits. Personal contact and support comes through locally-based tutors, a network of 330 regional study centres in the UK and overseas and annual residential schools. (0) comments
4th century bible to be scanned and put online for public study - Public Technology
An ambitious international project to reinterpret the oldest Bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus, and make it accessible to a global audience using digital technology and drawing on the expertise of leading biblical scholars has been launched. A team of experts from the UK, Europe, Egypt , Russia and the US have joined together to reunite this iconic treasure in virtual form. This unprecedented collaborative approach to achieve reunification involves all four of the institutions at which parts of the manuscript are held : St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai; the British Library, the University of Leipzig, Germany; and the National Library of Russia, St.Petersburg.. The project encompasses four strands: conservation, digitisation, transcription and scholarly commentary to make the Codex available for a worldwide audience of all ages and levels of interest. There are plans for a range of projects including a free to view website, a high quality digital facsimile and CD Rom. It is intended that this project will be a model for future collaborations on other manuscripts. (0) comments Thursday, April 07, 2005
Is Phoenix the Future?- Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed
Much of traditional academe doesn’t know what to make of for-profit higher education. Is it to be emulated or feared? Gary A. Berg, dean of extended education at California State University Channel Islands, studied the sector — and received extensive access to University of Phoenix administrators and faculty members. The result is Lessons From the Edge: For-Profit and Nontraditional Higher Education in America, recently published as part of the American Council on Education/Praeger Series on Higher Education. (0) comments
Alabama Governor, Students See Distance Learning Technology in Action - Government Technology
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley visited students at a high school in Montgomery on Thursday, but he and the students got to take part in classes being taught as far away as Sylacauga and Hazel Green thanks to distance learning technology the Governor hopes to put in more schools throughout the state. In his 2005 State of the State Address, Governor Riley announced a new distance learning initiative for schools - ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide) -- and he proposed an education budget that includes $10 million to get the program started. "No child should be denied the opportunity to take a class simply because of where their school is located," Governor Riley said. "Yet today, many schools aren't able to offer classes in foreign languages or advanced math and science. Through ACCESS, we can use existing technology in our schools to open up a world of new opportunities for our kids." (0) comments
Online law degree? You bet - Mark Baylis, Lompoc Record
As an international commercial airline pilot, Jim Denton was sure his desire to work and simultaneously study law would be impossible. Then the Lompoc resident read about Concord Law School. The California online school is the first institution to offer a Juris Doctor (JD) degree earned wholly online and to be recognized by the California State Bar. During time zone-induced insomnia in Tokyo and layovers in Shanghai, Denton soaked up streaming video lectures and inter-student chat sessions. "The fact that I could actually attend class in Hong Kong is pretty phenomenal," Denton said. (0) comments Wednesday, April 06, 2005
UMassOnline Enrollments Grow 19 Percent in Fiscal Year 2005
UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts' Web-based learning division, today announced that online education program revenue and enrollments grew by 30 percent and 19 percent, respectively, in fiscal year 2005 (July 2004 - June 2005). Revenue from the University of Massachusetts' system online programs was $16 million, up from $12 million in FY 2004. Enrollments reached 17,554, up from 14,702 in FY 2004. More than 90 percent of the revenue is retained by the UMass campuses to support education and research programs. (0) comments
Oregon State Universtiy Ecampus comes up big for delivering best of OSU - Matt Lewis, The Daily Barometer
"Click, click, scroll, enter." Not many people think of this as their typical route to class, but more and more students are discovering the benefits of enrolling in OSU's Extended Campus, Ecampus. The Office of Distance and Continuing Education, created in 1998 and renamed Extended Campus in 2000, is responsible for setting up the foundations of the new Cascades Campus in Bend along with many other programs offered to current undergraduate and graduate students, adult learners and K-12 students. Recently, OSU's Extended Campus earned six awards for its efforts in continuing and distance education. (0) comments
Inaugural e-learning forum opens in Dubai - Sally Ann Moore, MELT Director
The first Middle East Learning Technologies (MELT) conference and exhibition was officially opened today by HE Abdul Rahman G. Al Mutaiwee, Director General of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, in the presence of global leaders in on-line learning. Hundreds of delegates from all over the Gulf region, Asia, Europe, and the USA have gathered at the Madinat Jumeirah Convention Centre to focus on the $23-billion industry that is the fastest-growing sector in international education. For the first time in the Middle East, the two-day event brings together specialists, vendors and users of e-learning and knowledge management. The conference highlights the latest research on e-learning in business, language learning using computers, and learning technology in schools and higher education. (0) comments Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Online master's degree gives teachers the tools to think globally - Craig Chamberlain, University of Illinois
All education is global. At least that’s the perspective of a new online master’s degree program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The new “Global Studies in Education” program, near the end of its first semester, aims to give educators resources and skills for teaching in an age of “global interconnectivity,” says education professor Fazal Rizvi, the program’s director. Rizvi, whose family heritage is Iranian, was born and raised in India, educated in England, and spent most of his academic career in Australia. He has been studying global issues related to education for more than a decade.... Diversity within the groups is “absolutely central to the program,” Rizvi said. That means diversity in experience, family background, subjects they teach, where they teach, etc. He hopes future classes also will include teachers from other countries. “We’re hoping that students will teach each other much more than we’ll teach them,” he said. (0) comments
Buyer Beware: Online College Degrees - Carolina Channel
Cynthia Thompson nearly has her masters degree in business, without setting foot in a classroom. "That's another milestone I've completed within my life," she said. In May, she'll get her degree from the University of Phoenix, an online university that is also an accredited university, something Thompson said was critical. "I was very concerned about that, and I wanted to make sure wherever I was going, my degree would be worth something because that's a lot of money," she said. Many schools offer online degrees now, tapping into a market of busy professionals who don't have time or access to structured local programs. But Furman University's Bill Berg warns that not every program you can find online is on the up and up. (0) comments
Web lets schools offer more courses- Maya Suryaraman, Mercury News
Amos Song, a junior at John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, is taking advanced placement calculus. But neither his teacher nor his fellow students are in Fremont. Instead Amos connects to them -- in Massachusetts, Peru and elsewhere -- via the Internet. ``It's fun to get to know your classmates through the Web,'' said Amos, 15, who has gotten online help on his homework from a student in Virginia. Distance learning, a phenomenon already entrenched in colleges and universities, is now growing explosively in public schools. (0) comments Monday, April 04, 2005
Classes with Class: Getting the Most Out of Online Education - Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
Sharon Clark's favorite time to take her abnormal-psychology class is while the roast is cooking. She heads over to the study of her Myrtle Beach, S.C., ranch house, sits down at her computer and starts responding to questions that her professor -- 2,000 miles away, at Brigham Young University in Utah -- has posted as part of the online course she's taking. "I don't have to worry about picking up the kids, driving home from work, getting dinner ready and then rushing out the door and fighting traffic to make a class on time," says Clark, a mother of three. "Once I'm home, I can start dinner and then go to the study." (0) comments
Behavioral Impact of Online Leadership Development Quantified - Center For Naval Analysis
Every year the Navy selects over 3,000 First Class Petty Officers to become CPOs. Often referred to as the "backbone" of the Navy, Chief Petty Officers are an essential part of the naval leadership team. According to the CNAC study, the Navy's first comprehensive analysis of advanced training methods and the first study ever of the behavioral impact of online training, new Chief selectees are more effective leaders as a result of Ninth House's blended leadership training. CPOs who completed the Ninth House® program increased their knowledge and retention of leadership course material from 63 percent to 91 percent - a 44 percent improvement - and demonstrated a significant behavioral change in key leadership areas. (0) comments
On-line learning transforms English language skills - Sally Ann Moore, AME Info
The GlobalEnglish Corporation will present international research showing how its on-line GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service increased language fluency by 101 points after only 24 hours of study, compared to an average of 50 points per 100 hours achieved by other methods. The results were independently measured by the Mitsubishi Corporation, using the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) to gauge improvements stemming from its on-line training programme for business English. 'Teaching English globally is a vast undertaking, so any system that achieves dramatic improvement in results will be looked at very closely and with great interest,' says MELT director Sally-Ann Moore, one of the worlds' leading experts in on-line learning. (0) comments Sunday, April 03, 2005
A Framework for Operational Decision-Making in Course Development and Delivery - Stella Porto, John Ajel, JDLA
This paper discusses factors that influence operational decision-making during curriculum and course development and delivery, how these factors integrate, findings in the literature and how they apply to the practical context. Finally, we provide a framework to support decision-making processes involved in the online instructional practice within distance education institutions. (0) comments
Students open to online unis - Tess Livingstone, Brisbane Courier Mail
More Australians are turning to online university study as Open Universities enrolments increased more than 25 per cent for the first study period this year. Open Universities Australia is a consortium of seven Australian universities – Griffith University in Queensland and Curtin, Macquarie, Monash and Swinburne universities, RMIT and the University of South Australia. General manager (business development) Cratis Hippocrates said students were becoming more aware of the flexibility and convenience of online universities, which allowed them to study at their own pace and which imposed no prerequisites or Year 12 entry requirements for entry-level courses. Students can begin their studies in any one of four intakes in March, June, September or December. (0) comments
‘Aye’ to e-learning - the Star Malaysia
Clicking on links instead of turning pages – that is how the majority of students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) prefer to study. Recently, when NUS did a survey to check if students liked to access instructional materials and presentations from home, over 70% of those surveyed answered with a resounding “Yes!” The survey helped to gauge the success of NUS's initiative to make teaching-learning material available online. All a student needed to view learning content was a networked computer. (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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