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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, September 10, 2005
How Scalable is Your Online Course? - Online Classroom
Online course scalability—the degree to which an online course can be designed to accommodate larger or more sections of online courses without sacrificing quality—depends on how expert-dependent the course is, its delivery methods, and the amount of resources available to support the unbundling of the instructor’s roles, according to Suzanne Dunn, director of product design at the R. Jan LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications of the Dallas County Community College District. (0) comments
Western Civilization Webography - John Ottenhoff, Academic Commons
Professor T. Mills Kelly, Associate Director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, and several colleagues have created an impressive Webography with student reviews of resources for western civilization courses. http://chnm.gmu.edu/webography/index.php Each website in the Project database has been reviewed by one or more students, and has a rating attached to it, based upon a series of criteria, including the site's accuracy, currency, and objectivity. In addition, each record includes a brief word annotation, describing the contents of the site and its strengths and weaknesses. All records are fully searchable, either by keyword or according to a pre-determined scheme. (0) comments
Nebraska College Shatters Enrollment Records
Peru State College has shattered all records in its 138-year history by marking a massive 16 percent growth in enrollment over this time last year. “As much as I hate to repeat myself, we’ve done it again,” said Dr. Ben E. Johnson, Peru State President. “We are happy to report that on top of last year, when we celebrated the largest incoming class in our history, Peru State is continuing that trend this year with this enormous jump in overall enrollment.” “Our internet, or what we call ‘online-only’ students climbed 123 percent this year—this is unheard of growth,” he said. “These are students who only attend Peru State through their computer.” On the same day last year, Peru had 224 such students; so far this year there are 498. (0) comments Friday, September 09, 2005
Where Do We Go From Here? The Next Decade for Digital Libraries - Clifford Lynch, DLib
The field of digital libraries has always been poorly-defined, a "discipline" of amorphous borders and crossroads, but also of atavistic resonance and unreasonable inspiration. "Digital libraries": this oxymoronic phrase has attracted dreamers and engineers, visionaries and entrepreneurs, a diversity of social scientists, lawyers, scientists and technicians. And even, ironically, librarians – though some would argue that digital libraries have very little to do with libraries as institutions or the practice of librarianship. Others would argue that the issue of the future of libraries as social, cultural and community institutions, along with related questions about the character and treatment of what we have come to call "intellectual property" in our society, form perhaps the most central of the core questions within the discipline of digital libraries – and that these questions are too important to be left to librarians, who should be seen as nothing more than one group among a broad array of stakeholders. (0) comments
Putting e-learning at top of class - Brian Skelly, Silicon Republic
Distance-learning technologies that open up access to education are going to be vital in improving Ireland’s educational standing and create the knowledge basis for economic success in the future. This was the key message from Michael Kelly, chairman of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), during last week’s international networking event for Minerva, the EU’s open and distance-learning programme, at Dublin Castle. Kelly said it was the HEA’s stated ambition that Ireland was in the top 10 OECD countries in terms of educational performance but to achieve this the issue of access needed to be addressed. “We have to ensure learners of any age are given the opportunity to succeed and thrive in the digital age,” he said. (0) comments
South Dakota Virtual Campus Seeking Students for Enrollment: e Learning Comes to South Dakota - Kay Anderson, Black Hills Portal
South Dakota Virtual Campus, the statewide online high school, is now accepting enrollments for the 2005–2006 school year. SD Virtual Campus gives students the opportunity to earn high school credits through the Internet, where classes are available anytime, anywhere. Students find this alternative to traditional scheduling and instructional strategies useful in a variety of situations. Homeschooled students and students at smaller high schools can take classes not otherwise available to them. (0) comments Thursday, September 08, 2005
Program to help college students continue studies - JULIE WURTH, THE NEWS-GAZETTE
More than 180 colleges and universities across the country, with help from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, are setting up a free online program this semester for students from schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The Sloan Consortium will offer an eight-week accelerated online semester program for students from community colleges to graduate schools in the Gulf Coast region. Classes will start in early October. http://sloansemester.org (0) comments
Using Multimedia with Blackboard for Graduate Courses in Teacher Education - Muhammad K. Betz, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning
Teaching and learning online has become a mandate for educators involved in schooling or training in post high school instructional endeavors. Ask students why they prefer online courses and the most likely answer will be that it is far and away more convenient. However, researchers claim that students often rate online courses lower than face-to-face courses thereby providing a legitimate rationale for finding ways to improve online learning efforts (Payne, 2005). This author, who has hosted almost 150 online courses from different platforms, is another researcher who is trying to improve the quality of online courses, in a general sense, by including multimediated instruction. (0) comments
What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?- Richard Halverson, Innovate Online
Schools have much to learn from video games and the gaming community. By providing compelling activities for motivating otherwise indifferent learners, video games can potentially help teachers improve the design of learning environments. However, there are considerable rhetorical and practical barriers between the schooling and gaming communities grounded in fundamentally different approaches to learning. Whereas schools are moving toward increasingly standardized learning experiences, games offer the prospect of user-defined worlds in which players try out (and get feedback on) their own assumptions, strategies, and identities. It is difficult, at first glance, to see how gaming can help teachers meet the demands of an increasingly standards-driven public schooling system. (0) comments Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Leading Consortium of Universities to Provide at Least 10,000 Student Enrollments With a $1.1 Million Commitment From Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Sloan Consortium, an international association of colleges and universities committed to quality online education, is offering students displaced by Hurricane Katrina an opportunity to continue their education at no cost. In collaboration with the Southern Regional Education Board and with a $1.1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the special accelerated program will provide a wide range of courses to serve the learning needs of students at the community college, university and graduate level, regardless of academic discipline. These courses will be given by major universities and other Sloan Consortium members. Students interested in finding out more about the program and the free courses can do so at http://www.SloanSemester.org. (0) comments
Tulane's President, Working in a Houston With a Skeletal Staff, Says Reopening by Spring Is Essential - JEFFREY SELINGO, Chronicle of Higher Education
The president of Tulane University said on Tuesday that he had little choice but to get his campus up and running by the spring if it is to survive as a national research institution, and he urged other colleges that are enrolling Tulane students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina not to encourage them to stay permanently.... But Mr. Cowen said he expected that the colleges accepting Tulane students would abide by the guidelines established by the American Council on Education and other higher-education associations on Friday. Those guidelines urge colleges to admit students only on a provisional basis, so that they remain students of their home institutions. The guidelines also suggest that the colleges not charge the students' tuition if they had already paid their home institutions and, if the students had not, to collect tuition and pass it on to the home institutions. Tulane plans to keep tuition revenue that it has already received from its students for the fall. "That allows us to have some source of revenue this fall, while we are closed," he said. (0) comments
Students to enjoy e-learning - Dyah Apsari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Living in Jakarta amid tight competition has created a need for university students to do a lot more than just attend classes.Some students may increase their skills by taking informal courses while others may seek out part-time work experience. Recognizing the ever-changing lifestyle of students, Bina Nusantara University is allowing students to adjust their class schedules with other activities. On Monday, the university launched a new learning management system called Bee Lifestyle, which allows for the involvement of both students and parents in its new e-learning system. The system gives students access to class materials, exam results and administration announcements as well as campus calendar events with just a click on its official website. (0) comments Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Online classes are a two-way street - JOHN REID BLACKWELL, TIMES-DISPATCH
When it's time for Jenn Crenshaw to teach her employment-law class, she finds the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot and turns on her laptop computer. Crenshaw's full-time job is as human-resources manager at World Access, a Henrico County-based travel insurance and assistance company.She teaches during her lunch hour, and in the mornings and evenings and on weekends.Sometimes she sits on her deck at home and goes online to communicate with her students, who also are plugged into the Internet from all over the world."I would teach for free, but they have to pay me to grade," said Crenshaw, who has been teaching for the University of Phoenix since 2002. Her courses also include organizational behavior and human-resources management for the school's MBA program. Her students have included a professional basketball player in Europe. (0) comments
New Tack Against Term Paper Providers - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
The Internet did not create the market for buying and selling term papers, but it has undoubtedly enabled it. And while states have passed laws aiming to restrict the sale of term papers, and a few colleges have sued essay providers under those laws, they’ve made relatively little headway in cracking down on the companies that sell term papers — or, in turn, stemming the tide of students who plagiarize by passing them off as their own. Wednesday, a new front was opened in the campaign. Lawyers for a graduate student named Blue Macellari filed a lawsuit in federal court in Illinois alleging that three Web sites that sell term papers made a manuscript she had written available without her permission. She is charging the owner of the sites (as well as the sites’ Internet service provider) with copyright infringement, consumer fraud and invasion of privacy, among other things. (0) comments
Riding The E-Learning Curve - Heather Clancy, CRN
A word to the wise for those responsible for certification programs: Give the people what they want. Increasingly, that means adding an online training component. When it comes to styles of instruction, the CRN Training and Certification Survey showed 30 percent of solution providers prefer the self-paced online training option, which was more than for any other type of training. Another 20 percent gave a nod to a hybrid method: an off-site, instructor-led classroom that includes an online component. (0) comments Monday, September 05, 2005
Teaching Educational Psychology in an Online Environment - The Clearninghouse
According to David Berliner (1992), Regents Professor and noted expert in teaching educational psychology, the goal of teaching educational psychology is to influence the practice of teaching. Whether it is teaching preservice teachers how to motivate their students or how to write appropriate behavioral objectives and lesson plans, educational psychology plays a vital role in preparing preservice teachers for a career in the classroom. However, over the last twenty years, a shift has occurred in how and where educational psychology is being taught at colleges and universities. This has resulted in new and dynamic ways to teach educational psychology in today's classrooms. In short, this article will look quickly at some of the changes in teaching educational psychology and focus on the newest and most innovative way of teaching the subject, online instruction. (0) comments
Students at MCC decline - Rob Adams, The Arizona Republic
Enrollment is down at Mesa Community College for the first time in 13 years. There are 307 fewer students on the roll compared with a year ago. The 1.1 percent drop has college administrators scrambling for explanations.... While overall numbers stagnate, the percentage of students enrolled as distance learners - those taking courses by Internet - has risen from 2.7 percent in 1998 to 11.6 percent in 2004. Paul Hietter, coordinator for distance learning, says interest in Internet-based coursework continues to escalate and online courses are usually the first to fill during pre-semester registration. Demand is constricted only by course availability. (0) comments
Finding the Right Online Learning Program - June Kaminski, Bella Online
Lots of choices exist for learners who wish to seriously pursue further education using an e-learning or distance learning approach. Many levels of education are available: from single courses to certificates, undergraduate bachelor's degrees, and even graduate Master's and PhD's. Finding the right program that will fit your career interests and lifestyle can be a confusing process. But, if you know what you want and where to look, the process can also be an interesting and exciting one. (0) comments Sunday, September 04, 2005
Blogs help students think for themselves - Anna Salleh, ABC Science Online
Blogging is helping students to think and write more critically, says an Australian researcher, and can help draw out people who would otherwise not engage in debate. These are the preliminary findings of PhD research by Anne Bartlett-Bragg, a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, who has been using weblogs or blogs in her own teaching since 2001. "[The students] are thinking more critically," she says. "They are learning to be responsible and they're communicating outside the boundaries of the classroom and the institution, and they like that." (0) comments
Online education starting to take hold in Minnesota - PATRICK CONDON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
By the end of his freshman year in high school, Billy Jenkins was burned-out. "They weren't teaching the things I wanted to know about," the young Minneapolis man said of the private school he was attending. "Things I wasn't interested in, they spent forever on. Other times, they'd rush through and not give me time to understand." Jenkins graduated this spring from BlueSky, a St. Paul-based charter school that offers its courses exclusively online. One of 18 members of the school's first graduating class, Jenkins is enrolled this fall at Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis. "We had a graduation ceremony, with robes and everything," he said. (0) comments
Diploma mills making millions - Emily Heffter, Seattle Times
The diploma-mill operation that sent King County sheriff candidate Jim Fuda a "diploma" in public administration may have grossed as much as $450 million over five years in an international scam, a former FBI agent and fake-diploma expert said yesterday. So-called Kingsfield University, where Fuda got his degree, is part of an elaborate operation that issued fake degrees based on little more than a phone call, said Allen Ezell, a retired FBI agent and author who is a nationally recognized expert on phony colleges. Kingsfield is one of at least 18 names the University Degree Program used to issue fake diplomas between 1998 and 2003, when it was shut down in a civil action by the Federal Trade Commission. Ezell has amassed a large collection of fake degrees, including 10 bachelor's degrees, 19 master's degrees, four Ph.D.s and two M.D.s. (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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