May 24, 2015
By Mike Bush, ABQ Journal
The ability of New Mexico’s public and private colleges and universities to offer online programs beyond the state borders just increased considerably and includes target states from coast to coast. In addition, New Mexico students who take distance education courses from institutions in those other states can now rest assured that the programs meet high, uniform standards. The state Higher Education Department announced this week that the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education – of which New Mexico is one of 16 members – unanimously approved New Mexico for membership in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement.
http://www.abqjournal.com/586393/news/nm-online-classes-will-go-out-of-state.html
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by Ryan Lasker, GW Hatchet
Before GW’s archaeology students visit Kenya, they’re going to have to see it on their computer screens. A field archaeology course run by David Braun, an associate professor of archaeology, now features a four-week-long online course that prepares students to study early human origins for six weeks over the summer at the Koobi Fora Field School in northern Kenya’s Sibiloi National Park. The class marks the University’s first online companion course for a course held abroad. With previous classes, Braun had previously typed up a 150-page manual with information on geology, ecology and evolution for students to read before heading off to Kenya. But that set the students back in learning once they got to Kenya because, “we knew that they didn’t get to read [the document],” he said.
http://www.gwhatchet.com/2015/05/18/archeology-professor-designs-first-online-companion-course-for-field-work-in-kenya/
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By Rachel Fradette, State News
My fellow procrastinators, you cannot procrastinate in these classes and expect to pass with flying colors. Online classes require participation throughout the entire class. If you wait to work on anything, you will get far behind and you can kiss that 4.0 goodbye. So if you are constantly battling your own laziness, I would recommend you either not take the class or you use it as a way to fix your problem. After each of my online classes, I had become a much more diligent student–they forced me to actively participate. Go for those online classes, but be cautious, you will have to work harder than usual.
http://statenews.com/article/2015/05/online-summer-classes-opinion
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May 23, 2015
by Patrick Murphy, Ft Wayne Journal Gazette
Online degrees are more common and accepted part of the educational landscape, according to career counselors and people like Jennifer Schramm, manager for workforce trends and forecasting with the Society for Human Resource Management. “More and more employers and job applicants are realizing the opportunities available online,” Schramm said. “And company executives and human resource professionals feel more comfortable considering and hiring individuals who obtained these types of degrees later in life.”
http://www.journalgazette.net/business/Stigma-over-online-courses-has-gone-away-6634536
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by Paul Terry, ATD
Every agency has requirements for training and professional development. From keeping Baby Boomers at the top of their game to getting a new generation of federal employees up to speed, talent development leaders need to align training with the mission and objectives of their agencies. However, most government agencies are at a crossroads. Learning and development (L&D) remains a critical need, but budgets continue to tighten. Consequently, a growing number of agencies are turning to a cost-effective, online learning environment to ensure training mandates are met while saving budget dollars. Indeed, online learning is not only economical, but when used as part of a blended solution, it is proving to be more effective than traditional training.
https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/GovLearning-Blog/2015/05/4-Steps-to-Smart-Online-Learning-at-Your-Agency
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by Lika Balenovich, University of Wisconsin
Lisa Hebgen and other TeachOnline@UW participants shared their lessons learned during mini-presentations after the Fall 2014 workshop. This past year, more than 20 faculty and instructional staff received another chance at being a student — a role reversal that allowed each of them to explore the opportunities and challenges facing today’s online learners and instructors. As participants in UW-Madison’s inaugural TeachOnline@UW learning community, participants from eight schools and colleges came together to learn and share strategies for designing and teaching quality online courses. Over 12 months, they met and completed online coursework to learn how to better design and manage courses with specific learning goals, and to explore the use of new tools to help their teaching and their students.
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May 22, 2015
By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive
Purdue has seen success with its online courses by hiring actors who can be more engaging to watch than industry professionals. Campus Technology reports that the university cut the standard 20- to 40-minute lecture series by subject-matter experts in favor of 7-minute videos from actors contracted by a studio in Dallas. The shorter videos allow specific modules to be replaced easily to update courses, and, while the actor fees are relatively hefty, in some cases they’re cheaper than experts and their work gets better outcomes, according to the article.
http://www.educationdive.com/news/purdue-hires-actors-to-deliver-online-course-content/397777/
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by Collin Binkley, The Columbus Dispatch
Miami University has failed to accommodate students with disabilities and provide them the technology they need to learn, the U.S. Department of Justice reports. The department joined an existing lawsuit filed against Miami by a blind student who said the school promised to accommodate her but failed to deliver. A statement from the department said education is “said to be the great equalizer of American society.” “However, students with disabilities continue to encounter an impenetrable glass ceiling of opportunity when schools fail to comply with the ADA,” Vanita Gupta principal deputy assistant attorney general of the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the statement. The department’s legal complaint demands that Miami provide the right accommodations to students with disabilities, and to pay damages to those harmed by its practices.
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By Jan Burns, Houston Chronicle
Students are finding out that online programs can be an affordable education path. Though not all online programs have less expensive tuition than traditional schools, the associated costs can be lower. “The financial benefits of enrolling in online programs at universities is that students do not have to pay commuting expenses, may not need additional child care, and most likely will be able to continue in their current employment while in school as they can manage their own schedule and do their coursework around their families and work obligations,” said Vickie S. Cook, Ph.D., director, Center for Online Learning, research and service/research associate professor, University of Illinois at Springfield.
http://www.chron.com/jobs/article/Learning-online-offers-many-educational-6264367.php
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May 21, 2015
by eCampus News
New course intends to give program facilitators an in-depth understanding of financial literacy. iGrad and the University of Illinois (UI) have launched a financial literacy instructor certification program, aimed at boosting instructor confidence in the subject. The online course will be led by Scott Johnson, Program Coordinator of the Illinois Online Network (ION), a faculty development program at the University of Illinois that focuses on online and technology-enhanced teaching and learning. The course will employ the classroom curriculum “Your Financial Mastery” from iGrad and “Pay Your Family First.” The 2015 “Education Program of the Year” was written by best-selling author Sharon Lechter and Certified Personal and Family Finance Educator Angela Totman.
http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/igrad-financial-literacy-243/
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By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News
According to over 70 education IT specialists, current LMS functionality is great for administrative tasks, but doesn’t provide support for the new learning approaches in today’s schools. The next generation digital learning environment (NGDLE), says a new EDUCAUSE report, will need a “Lego” approach, where components are built that allow individuals and institutions the opportunity to construct learning environments tailored to their requirement and goals.“What is clear is that the LMS has been highly successful in enabling the administration of learning, but less so in enabling the learning itself,” wrote the report’s authors. “The challenge is to build on the value of an LMS as an administrative tool by retaining what works, but not be bound to an outgoing model of teaching and learning. [This] NGDLE is what should come after the LMS era.”
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/13/post-lms-era-437/
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By Frederick Singer, Inside Higher Ed
The use of big data and predictive analytics in higher education is nascent. So-called disrupters often claim that the lecture hasn’t changed in 150 years, and that only online learning can drive transformative, game-changing outcomes for students. Of course, these claims ring hollow among today’s tech-savvy professors. Since my transition into higher education, I have been struck by the parallel journey retailers and educators face. Both have been proclaimed obsolete at various points, but the reality is that the lecture, like the retail experience, has and will continue to evolve to meet the new demands of 21st-century users.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2015/05/14/professors-should-seize-chance-use-data-improve-learning-essay
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May 20, 2015
by Ray Schroeder, Josh Kim (Dartmouth / Inside Higher Ed), Katie Blot (Blackboard), Debbie Cavalier (Berklee)
Challenged by complex and shifting funding models, higher education faces a growing urgency to balance mission and product mix to keep things afloat as enrollments and state funding decline. Adding to this complexity is the growing tension in the marketplace in which the value/currency of traditional degrees are challenged by micro-credentials and the emergence of CBE. How can institutions address these crises? Join UPCEA for this timely TweetChat by using the hashtag #HigherEdAhead on social media as online education leaders share experiences and resources and respond to your questions. A live question and answer session will occur on May 27th from 2-3PM EST.
http://upcea.edu/tweetchat
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BY DEJAN LESICAR, Plymouth Daily News
Having a laptop is especially crucial when it comes to online degrees – while having a laptop or desktop on campus makes a student’s life much easier, taking a distance course without one in our day and age is nigh impossible. Different online schools organize their laptop programs differently. Some, like Independence University, provide a new laptop on enrollment and allow the student to keep it in case he or she manages to successfully graduate. Some include laptops into their payment plans, aiming to help those students who are incapable to pay a rather hefty cost of a new laptop upfront.
http://plymouthdailynews.com/2015/05/13/american-universities-provide-laptops-make-online-courses-more-available/
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by University Herald
As soon as fall 2015, students earning their MBAs at American College Dublin (ACD) will be able to take up to half of their required credits through iLynn, Lynn University’s award-winning iPad-powered curriculum. The program will offer students the flexibility to learn online in addition to taking classes at ACD’s campus. “Students at American College Dublin will now have mobile access to Lynn’s MBA curriculum, which includes interactive course materials, videos and other rich content,” Gregg Cox, vice president for academic affairs at Lynn University, said in a statement. “It is a highly personalized education with small class sizes and unlimited use of next-generation collaboration tools.” Lynn has been using these mobile technologies on its campus for the past two years to improve student engagement and reduce the cost of traditional textbooks by up to 95 percent.
http://www.universityherald.com/articles/18725/20150506/lynn-university-american-college-dublin-to-offer-ipad-powered-online-mba.htm
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by Jeffrey Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed
Four liberal-arts colleges on Monday formed a consortium to share information about their experiments with online education, and more members may soon join in. The focus is not on bringing down the cost of education, but on improving online-teaching projects — whether all-online or hybrid courses — by sharing experiences and collaborating. The premise is that liberal-arts institutions have goals and methods for going online that are different from those of research institutions. “There’s a steep learning curve to figuring out how to use this technology with our students, and with our teaching style,” said Douglas Johnson, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research at Colgate University, a founding member of the group. By working together, he said, “we can save each other from reinventing wheels.”
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-consortiums-mission-improve-liberal-arts-teaching-online/56621
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May 19, 2015
by the Hechinger Report
Two weeks ago I wrote about the overwhelming research evidence that community college students aren’t doing as well in online classes as they are in face-to-face traditional classes. Students are failing in higher numbers and getting lower grades. That remains true, but it isn’t the whole story. Peter Shea, who is the associate provost of online learning at the University of Albany—SUNY, contacted me to share his research findings. Community college students who take online courses are more likely – 25 percent more likely to be exact – to complete their two-year associate degree or some sort of certificate than students who didn’t take any online classes. Not only are online course takers more likely to graduate, they’re more likely to graduate sooner than students who don’t take any online classes, Shea also found. He presented this research in a working paper at the American Education Research Association conference in Chicago in April 2015. “It’s a bit of a paradox,” said Shea. “They’re doing worse at the course level, but at the program level – despite lower grades – they’re finishing.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/05/11/the-online-paradox-at-community-colleges
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by Sramana Mitra, Huffington Post
The exorbitant cost of higher education is a recurrent topic of conversation, concern, and discontent these days. Against that backdrop, an announcement from edX and Arizona State University caught my attention last week. ASU and edX announced a program called Global Freshman Academy: The Global Freshman Academy (GFA) will give learners anywhere in the world the opportunity to earn freshman-level university credit after successfully completing a series of digital immersion courses hosted on edX, designed and taught by leading scholars from ASU. By allowing students to learn, explore and complete courses before applying or paying for credit, the Global Freshman Academy reimagines the freshman year and reduces academic and monetary stress while opening a new path to a college degree for many students.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sramana-mitra/how-to-dramatically-slash_b_7257134.html
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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive
New research into the most effective elements of massive open online courses and other digital learning models find the human elements to be critical. eCampus News reports peer interaction improves outcomes and instructor input, through course design or the actual teaching and facilitation of course concepts, is essential. The report also covers the evolution of online course technology, discussing the currently emerging “fourth generation,” which includes adaptive learning and competency-based models, according to the article.
http://www.educationdive.com/news/human-connections-important-for-online-courses/396232/
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May 18, 2015
By Rhea Kelly, THE Journal
Moodle has unveiled version 2.9 of the open source learning platform, featuring a navigation and user interface redesign focused on ease of use for students, educators and administrators. “Our core goal is to support and improve education by making our teachers and trainers more effective, and Moodle continues its evolution in Moodle 2.9 with enhancements for users at all levels” said Martin Dougiamas, Moodle founder and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Working from the navigation overhaul specification with the input of the HQ team and community over the past 12 months, the core interface has seen some solid progress in making Moodle simple and friendlier for educators and students.”
http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/05/11/moodle-fine-tunes-navigation-user-interface.aspx
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by ARINYA TALERNGSRI, Bangkok Post
In essence, the future of leadership development not only requires a shift in mindset, but also a transformation in approach to enhance speed, outcomes and effectiveness. In other words, it should be a development method that focuses on building capability — not just competence.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/557571/the-death-of-classroom-learning-what-got-us-here-won-t-get-them-there
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