|
Online Learning News and Research
|
Saturday, June 11, 2005
FROM SKEPTICAL TO SATISFIED: TEACHING ONLINE AS A "CONVERSION EXPERIENCE" - John Sener, Educational Pathways
Six years ago, Kristen Redfield of Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina was highly skeptical about teaching English composition online; she believed that it was necessary to do the didactic component of the course via face-to-face lecture in order to motivate many of the community college students she was teaching. A few years ago, Linda Dunlap of Marist College in New York was similarly skeptical about the possibility of teaching her discipline online. "How could one possibly teach social psychology, or most psychology courses online? It just didn’t seem logical," Dunlap recalls. She thinks of psychology "as a very people-oriented field - the study of human interactions," so the idea of studying how individuals impact each other’s behavior without face-to-face interactions seemed "absurd." Fast forward to the present: Dunlap developed two fully online courses and has taught them for the past two years; she has also incorporated some aspects of online teaching into all of her traditional classroom courses. Meanwhile, Redfield has not only taught several courses online for the past five years but has also earned a doctorate in distance education via distance education. As she describes her transformation, "I actually said, ‘distance learning will never work, especially not for teaching composition,’ and yet that is specifically what I do [now] and love it." (0) comments
Virtual schools on the Internet: Could this cure education's woes? - MIKE WENDLAND, Detroit Free Press
Michigan Virtual University, the nonprofit organization created by the state to offer online training and education, is changing its focus to concentrate exclusively on high schools. Although its official name is still Michigan Virtual University, you'll be hearing about it mostly as Michigan Virtual High School, serving K-12 students and educators. The change in emphasis comes as a natural progression of Michigan's educational needs, according to Jamey Fitzpatrick, MVU's interim president. "This is where the demand is," said Fitzpatrick. "The whole concept of e-learning at the high school level is catching fire across the nation, and we in Michigan are leaders in this field." (0) comments
Electronic Full-Text Journal Articles: Convenience or Compromise - Kathleen E. Joswick, THE Journal
Multidisciplinary library databases index hundreds of journals and provide the full-text of many articles. The producers of these aggregator databases-such as InfoTrac (Expanded Academic ASAP and Info Trac School Edition), EBSCO (MAS Ultra-School Edition and Academic Search Elite), and ProQuest (Periodical Abstracts)-pull together hundreds of journals from all fields, make them accessible with an attractive interface, and market them to libraries with the promise of providing instant entrée to the world of scholarly articles. The educational community has enthusiastically embraced these full-text databases. The ability to retrieve complete articles through a library's Web site has imparted a new level of convenience to traditional research. But the full-text articles have become so popular that users are reluctant to confront their downsides; as a result, they jeopardize the effectiveness of their research. (0) comments Friday, June 10, 2005
Creating Effective Web-Based Learning Environments: Relevant Research and Practice - Kay Wijekumar, Innovate Online
In the ideal online course, students would have every tool they need to focus on content, synthesize information, actively participate in knowledge construction, and evaluate their unique learning paths. But as Kay Wijekumar documents, the constraints of Web-based course management systems (CMSs) can make it difficult for students and educators alike to achieve these goals. The author draws upon research, anecdotal evidence, and personal experience to discuss effective course design strategies and learning tasks. She also makes concrete suggestions for the improvement of CMSs. (0) comments
More students going to school online - WDBJ7
It's hard to believe but some teenagers are so busy these days they don't have time to go to school. So they're turning to the internet. Chris Hincker is a 16-year-old who truly loves tennis. Two years ago, he ranked 85th in the nation in his age group until an injury set him back. Trying to bounce back requires him to play tennis full-time, which means it's nearly impossible for Chris to attend school everyday. Through the Keystone National High School website, Chris writes papers, takes exams, and corresponds with his teachers through e-mail. It's convenient because Chris can log on and complete the work anytime of the day. (0) comments
SUNY to offer online engineering degree - Buffalo Business Journal
The University at Buffalo and two other State University of New York institutions will now offer electrical engineering students an opportunity to gain a bachelor's degree online. SUNY officials said Thursday the first-of-its-kind program will be created through the assistance of a $300,000 grant awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. UB will work in partnership with Stony Brook University and Binghamton University on the program. (0) comments Thursday, June 09, 2005
New Interactive Communities for Research & Higher Education
Research and higher education are going global and interactive with new online discussion forums on “academici. The Virtual Academy”. The start-up company academici Ltd., has launched the first networking platform exclusive to higher education and scientific research. This new community is free to join and already unites thousands of stake holders from research & higher education in over 120 countries, allowing for discussions and the exchange of ideas with a high degree of specialization across disciplinary, geographical, political and economical boundaries. (0) comments
E-Campus allows full-time workers to attend college - Kathryn Jones, Salt Lake Community College Globe
Used to be, you could go to college, study, have some free time, and never have to worry about the 'working world' until you finished school. Today, you can dream about the past all you want, but the truth is that those days, for many of us, are over. In 2001 it was estimated by Sebago Associates, an economic consulting firm, that "fifty-seven percent of all college students have jobs-and in 2000, that "one in 10 college students attended classes full-time and worked full-time." This is no easy life. But fortunately, here at SLCC, there is opportunity for easing your learning through eCampus classes-and the opportunities are growing. Currently, summer courses offer 97 choices, from American Civilization to Introduction to Surveying. The eCampus class numbers grow a bit higher in the fall. One hundred classes are offered-from Internet classes to instruction that involve television, video; DVD, chats or web-enhanced, types of learning. (0) comments
More preschoolers going online - eSchool News
Before they can even read, nearly one out of every four children in preschool is learning a skill that even some adults have yet to master: using the internet. Some 23 percent of children in nursery school--kids ages 3, 4, or 5--have gone online, according to an Education Department (ED) report. By kindergarten, 32 percent have used the internet, typically under adult supervision. The numbers underscore a trend in which the largest group of new users of the internet are kids ages 2 to 5. These figures have important implications for school systems, which must adjust their methods of instruction to accommodate an increasingly tech-savvy generation of new students, experts say. (0) comments Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Ivy League E-Learning - Demir Barlas, Line56
Cornell University is one of the premier educational and research institutions in the world. As such, the Ivy League school is known far and wide; but eCornell, the university's wholly-owned subsidiary, hasn't received much publicity, despite the ways in which it is laying the foundation for a new paradigm of e-learning. (0) comments
Winneba University of Education to be put on-line - Accra Daily Mail
Mr Kwasi Adu-Gyan, a Director at the Ministry of Communications, has said the ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Sports to put the University of Education, Winneba, on-line. This will enable the university to broadcast its academic programmes on-line and speed up the academic work of its students pursuing distance-learning programmes. The project will be undertaken through the Africa Virtual University and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)/Electronic (E)-Schools Initiative. (0) comments
Learning to enjoy e-learning - Linda Vergnani, Australian IT
While online courses are expanding rapidly, Australian universities still post out traditional print study packages to tens of thousands of students who are studying by more conventional distance education methods. Alan Smith, associate professor and director of the distance and e-learning centre at the University of Southern Queensland, says it is all about making the most of what is available. "It's really about the integration and convergence of different modes of delivery," Smith says. "We used to talk about [being] either on campus, or you are traditional distance, or you might be one of those few people who is just working online. That is all converging now. We are using online services for on-campus and distance delivery." Smith says there is also an emerging market, especially at postgraduate level, for courses where all studies can be pursued online. (0) comments Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Instructional Blogging: Promoting Interactivity, Student-Centered Learning, and Peer Input - Stuart Glogoff, Innovate
Stuart Glogoff expounds on the educational applications of blogs—simple Web pages that can have surprisingly complex classroom applications. Situating his commentary in the context of pedagogical theory, Glogoff outlines the ways in which blogs can enable receptive learning, directive learning, and guided discovery. Reflecting on successful practices in his own classroom, he also reveals how blogs can build community, promote interactivity, and increase student comprehension. This account of blogging technology as a learning tool provides models that instructors of both online and hybrid courses will find helpful. (0) comments
From Face-to-Face Classrooms to : Observations from the Field - Mohammad Issack Santally, Journal of Interactive Online Learning
In this paper, we present a case study concerning a Masters level course in Computer-mediated communications and pedagogy delivered at the University of Mauritius through e-Learning mode. We provide a brief overview of the program, its rationale and the pedagogical approaches that have been used to design the modules that are delivered in the first semester. There are currently 15 students enrolled on this course, and we relate our experiences and observations on the field in this article. We also expose our findings from a questionnaire survey that was done with the students towards the end of the semester to get the feedback on their perceptions on the program and on its pedagogical approaches. This is a very crucial step since this batch of students are supposed to be the agents of change in the reconceptualization of the teaching and learning process. We end up identifying some key factors that are perceived to be barriers to the actual wide-scale implementation of such approaches to education. (0) comments
Online learning generates educational controversy - JEFF SCHOGOL, Express-Times
The Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School says more than 4,000 students from kindergarten through eighth grade take the school's classes online. The school says it provides a flexible, individual and free education program that allows students to move at their own pace. This approach makes it easy for parents to get actively involved in their children's education, according to the school's Web site. But local school district officials say online education has distinct disadvantages and likely will not overtake traditional schooling. (0) comments Monday, June 06, 2005
The Role of Critical Thinking in the Online Learning Environment - Kelly Bruning, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning
Research indicates that critically reflective learning provides students with an opportunity to evaluate concepts learned and apply them to their experiences, contemplating its affect on future learning. This process occurs in a learning community where student interaction and feedback fuels the learning process leading to a higher level of critical reflective thinking for the learner. The challenge for online instructors is how to incorporate critical thinking in the online environment in an effective manner. This paper addresses the issue of critical thinking and how it is applied in an actual online environment through an interactive exercise created by the instructor. The exercise not only fuels student learning but also creates a learning community in which students interact and share ideas. The BUS105 Create-A-Problem exercise described in this paper incorporates critical thinking in the online environment to meet the goals of developing reflective critical thinking in students and to nurture and online learning community that can be used as a model for other online instructors. (0) comments
Students learning from afar - Erica Pippins, Montgomery Advertiser
Many schools of higher education in the area are seeing a rise in the number of students who are opting to complete courses and degree programs in cyberspace instead of the classroom. Distance learning is any type of program that allows students to do coursework outside of a campus setting, but in more recent years it's come to reflect the myriad bachelor's, master's and doctorate degree courses offered online. Local college officials say Web-based curricula have grown in recent years, especially among non-traditional students with busy schedules who like the convenience of working at their own pace. The United States Distance Learning Association estimates there will be more than 2.3 million students in the nation taking distance learning courses over the next few years. Troy University is already experiencing the online enrollment boom. (0) comments
Chinese e-learning on the rise, OCAC official says - Erica Lin, Taiwan News
The fourth International Conference on Internet Culture Education held by Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission ended yesterday. Vice Minister Chen Tsung-wen in the closing speech told attendees that "Chinese education carries the responsibility of spreading and passing down Taiwan's culture, traditional character and Chinese traditional culture.... Chen emphasized that the twentieth-first century is a century of the Internet which fostered growing trends of digital learning and life-long learning. Online teaching has also become popular. Chen also encouraged overseas educators of Chinese to transform their roles traditionally seen as teaching knowledge to new roles as knowledge integrators. Only in this way can the needs of Internet age be met and Chinese education networks expanded. The Web Site for Global Chinese Language and Culture Center built by the OCAC serves as a resource for overseas Chinese to approach traditional Chinese and Chinese culture. (0) comments Sunday, June 05, 2005
Academic Public Service Web Sites and the Future of Virtual Academic Public Service - Ellen Cohn and Bernard Hibbitts, Innovate Online
Teaching, research, service: In the traditional triumvirate of faculty workloads, service is almost always defined as a noninstructional activity external to the institution, and it is almost never associated with the Internet. Ellen Cohn and Bernard Hibbitts ask why that is the case, given that university Web sites can be used for the public good. The authors argue for the recognition of virtual public service and examine two successful academic public service Web sites at the University of Pittsburgh. One site provides up-to-the-minute news on legal issues and research; the other makes available thousands of lectures on public health topics. Both are open-access and serve a global audience. While outlining the criteria for such sites and the challenges of maintaining them, Cohn and Hibbitts make a persuasive case for an expanded definition of public service. (0) comments
Shortest distance to a new skill - Kimberly W. Moy, Boston Globe
While some of his classmates struggled to open their e-mail, Dong Chen whizzed through sample English-language lessons during an orientation session at a Chinatown computer lab. He eschewed the lab's flat-screen monitors and fast Internet connections for his own mini-laptop, which he had bought in China. ''It's the shortest way to learn. I want to go faster," said Chen, 42, who emmigrated from Guangzhou province in China last year and has been studying English for eight months. Using a combination of sitcom-like videos, electronic messages between teacher and student, and multiple-choice quizzes that are graded instantly, the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center started a new course late last month for motivated students like Chen. Known as distance learning, such classes have for a number of years offered scheduling flexibility and eliminated the commute for an array of students, from those in corporate training sessions to others in university courses and home-schooling situations. (0) comments
Conference helps teachers to prepare their own online classrooms - Shena Abercrombie, Flint Journal
...The conference covered such topics as dealing with conflict in the online classroom, encouraging participation in the online classroom, and multimedia technologies. Another big topic was plagiarism. "I think it's easier tracking plagiarism online," said instructor Ted Mikell of Oak Point, Texas . "It's like having the robotics police." Students such as Dennis Kaufman appreciate the extra work instructors put in to make the virtual classroom a better place to learn. Kaufman, 40, is a design engineering project manager for Methods Electronics in Carthage, Ill. He is completing his Baker master's of business administration. "I can't say enough about the online learning environment," he said. "You communicate through discussions. You log on whenever it's convenient for you and then post answers to the board when it's convenient for you. (0) comments Online Learning News Blog Archives OTEL - Ray's Home Page - Notebook - UIS Online - U of I Online - UIS Home Fair Use |
Online Learning Update 
