MBAIn 2017 my Website was migrated to
the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at rjensen@trinity.edu if
you really need to file that is missing
Bob Jensen's Threads on Cross-Border
(Transnational) Training and Education
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Disclaimer: Although I really
try to separate the legitimate from the bogus
training and education programs, doing so for certain is impossible.
Always try to verify the legitimacy of any program linked in this
document.
Never take the word "accreditation at face value since that term
often is misleading.Bob
Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
|
Before reading this, you should read about asynchronous
learning at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_learning
Introductory Quotations
First Consider Learning On
Your Own
College
and University Online Rankings and Comparisons
The
Future: Badges of Competency-Based Learning Performance
Mega Universities Partnering
with Private and Public Sectors for Employee Education and Traning
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Partnerships
How to
Sign Up for a Free MOOC Course (credits have added fees)
How to
Lower the Costs of College Degrees (often at $0 tuition)
Employer-Subsidized and/or Inexpensive Online MOOC Degrees
Readings and Other Printed
References of Possible Interest
2014
Report: 83 Percent of High Schools Offer Online Courses
MOOCs Are Free and Open to Everybody in the World
Cross-Border Training
Alternatives (including languages training and learning to code)
Cross-Border Education Alternatives
Includes US News Rankings of Undergraduate Online and Various Online Graduate Programs
Online Cheating
Obama's Ideas on Affordable
Education
Assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Future of Education
Technologies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
Test Drive Running a
University ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#TestDrive
The
Dark Side of Education Technology and Online Learning
Explosive
Growth in Online Enrollments in the U.S.
(Including a
Project that Enlists Women to Help Women Learn Online)
Concerns About High Attrition Rates in Online Courses
Updates on the Quality and Extent of Distance Education in the United States
Education
Fraud and Gray Zone Warnings About Questionable Online Program
(Including the 50% Rule Controversy)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
An Innovative Online International
Accounting Course on Six Campuses Around the World
An
Internationalization Experiment With 800 Online Courses at East Carolina Univ.
Life Experience College Level Examination
Program (CLEP)
Update on Online K-12 Schools
College Credit by Telephone
Online and Other Non-Traditional Doctoral Degrees
Unaccredited
Distance Education Index
Online Graduate
Business (mostly MBA) Programs
First look for AACSB accreditation
Masters of Accounting and
Taxation Online Degree Programs
First look for AACSB accreditation
Learning
Portals and Vortals (including the demise of Fathom)
Places to Learn from Krislyn
Babson
College's experiments with "Tailor-Made Degrees"
Government and Military
Online Training and Education
International Journals,
Resources, and Newsletters for Distance Education
International Teacher
Training and Lesson Sharing
Reaching Across Boundaries:
The Bryant College-Belarus Connection
There are thousands of distance
education courses in England
OpenCourseWare (OCW)
eLearning Africa ---
http://www.elearning-africa.com/
Portal to Asian Internet Resources --- http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/PAIR/index.html
UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-learning-resources/unescomobilelearningseries/
U.S. Department of Education ---
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
Department of Education: Office of Vocational and Adult
Education ---
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/index.html?src=oc
European Centre for Higher Education ---
http://www.cepes.ro/
The term "electroThenic portfolio," or "ePortfolio": What does this mean?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ElectronicPortfolio
Search for University Lectures Available as Podcasts
Bob Jensen's threads on podcasting, Apple's iPod U, RSS, RDF are at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#ResourceDescriptionFramework
Bob Jensen's threads on science and medicine tutorials are
at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Science%20and%20Medicine
Bob Jensen's links to math helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development
(Multicultural Online Education and Open Sharing) ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-801j-cross-cultural-investigations-technology-and-development-fall-2012/
Bob Jensen's threads to free textbooks and other learning
materials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Free online tutorials in various disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm/#Tutorials
Bob Jensen's threads on accreditation controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AccreditationIssues
Bob Jensen's threads on Online Education Effectiveness and Testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineOffCampus
Online Distance Education is Rapidly Gaining Acceptance in Traditional as
Well as For-Profit Colleges ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
The Dark Side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on tools and tricks of the trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The Master List of Free
Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/
Social Networking for Education: The Beautiful and the
Ugly
(including Google's Wave and Orcut for Social Networking and some education uses
of Twitter)
Updates will be at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm
Warning
No higher education program that substitutes
“life experience” or “job experience” for academic credit in the real world is
respected in academe. This does not mean that experience is not educational. It
merely means that it is impossible or impractical to determine knowledge
attainment unless more formalized processes of courses and examinations are
administered for academic credit. Hence, a degree from any school that replaces
some courses with "experience" is not worth much more than the paper it is
printed on. Graduates from such a school should be evaluated on the basis of
their life experiences. They should not be evaluated on the basis of that
school's course credits. Paying for such credits is a waste of money in my
viewpoint.
Bob Jensen's threads on phony diploma mills are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
Phony Education and Training Search Sites
These phony education search programs sponsored by for-profit universities
are getting a bit more sophisticated by salting a very few not-for-profit
programs to make you think they are legitimate education and training search
programs. But in reality they are still phony for-profit university search
sites.
For example, I read in my old zip code 78212 into the search site
http://lpntobsnonline.org/
Sure enough, up pops the University of Phoenix and other for-profit university
alternatives. No mention is made of San Antonio's massive University of Texas
Health Science Nursing Alternative and other non-for-profit nursing education
alternatives in the area.
Boo/poo on this
http://lpntobsnonline.org/ site!
e-Education: The Shocking Future
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
Table of Contents
Introductory
Quotations
From Hapless to Helped
"autodidacts disadvantaged by distance" (Don't you love love alliteration as a
memory aid?) In the quotations below, contrast and compare the impact of
the interactive Internet and ebullient email on evolving education from 1858
versus 2001.
The Year 1858
When the University of London instituted
correspondence courses in 1858, the first university to do so, its students
(typically expatriates in what were then the colonies of Australia, Canada,
India, New Zealand, and South Africa), discovered the programme by word of
mouth and wrote the university to enrol. the university then
despatched, by post-and-boat, what today we would call the course outline, a
set of previous examination papers and a list of places around the world
where examinations were conducted. It left any "learning" to the
hapless
student, who sat the examination whenever he or she felt ready: a
truly "flexible" schedule! this was the first generation of distance
education (Tabsall and Ryan, 1999): "independent" learning for highly
motivated and resourceful autodidacts
disadvantaged by distance. (Page 71)
Yoni Ryan who wrote Chapter 5 of
The Changing Faces of Virtual
Education ---
http://www.col.org/virtualed/
Dr. Glen Farrell, Study Team Leader and Editor
The Commonwealth of
Learning
Video: Open Education for an Open World
45-minute Video from the Long-Time President of MIT ---
http://18.9.60.136/video/816
Bob Jensen's threads on open source video and course materials from
prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS ($75) ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?CO=CQ&ID=76319&PK=N1S1009
Also see "Tomorrow's College" (free)
http://chronicle.com/article/Tomorrows-College/125120/
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Minnesota State Colleges Plan to Offer One-Fourth of Credits Online by
2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3476&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
The Year 2008
The Washington Post Finds Distance Education More Profitable Than
the Newspaper Business
The Washington Post Company continues to diversify not
in journalism but in for-profit education. Last year, the company reported that
it took in more revenue from its Kaplan businesses
than the newspaper business. In filings last week with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission, the Post reported that it had purchased
an 8.1 percent stake in Corinthian Colleges Inc.
Inside Higher Ed, February 18, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/18/qt
The Year 2001
The
combination of asynchronous and synchronous materials in the WebCT
environment worked well for my students. I
felt closer to my students than I did in a live class.
When I loaded AIM and saw my students online, I felt connected to them. Each
student had an online persona that blossomed over the semester. The use of
emotions in AIM helped us create bantering communication, which contributed
to a less stressful learning environment.
At then end of the
six-week course, I was tired, but I was equally tired at the end of the live
six-week course last summer. I don’t think the online environment made my
life easier, but it made it more fun. The students appreciated the
flexibility, and they liked not having to drive to downtown Hartford for
classes. Although many of my students would have preferred a live class,
they performed well in this online class. I did not attempt to statistically
compare their performance with my past live classes, but the exam
distributions appear similar to past classes. I was happy with the overall
class performance.
One student
concluded, “Just reading the material without having anyone explain it to
you makes it more difficult to understand at first (at least for me). I
waffled between wanting online and in person teaching … . Ultimately I chose
online because this way we can do it at our own pace and we always have the
ability to go back to where we might not have understood and do it over.”
Thus, flexibility
appears to outweigh what to the student appears to be an easier way to
learn.
From "Genesis of an Online
Course" by Amy Dunbar Amy Dunbar, August 1, 2001
www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf
A free audio download of a
presentation by Amy Dunbar is available at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
Online you
get to know your students' minds, not just their faces.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., and Turoff, M. (1995). Learning
Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
As quoted at
http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/report/tid_report.html
LARSON:
You can't get further from MIT than Singapore. Singapore from here is this
way [points straight down]. We use Internet2 for connectivity. There's no
statistical difference in performance between distance learners and
classroom learners. And when there is a difference, it favors the distance
learners
"Lessons e-Learned Q&A with Richard Larson from MIT," Technology
Review, July 31, 2001 ---
http://www.techreview.com/web/leo/leo073101.asp
For those of you who think distance education is going downhill, think
again. The number of students switching from traditional brick-and-
mortar classrooms to full-time virtual schools in Colorado has soared over
the past five years…
"Online Ed Puts Schools in a Bind: Districts Lose Students,
Funding," by Karen Rouse, Denver Post, December 2, 2004 ---
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2522702,00.html
The number of students switching from
traditional brick-and- mortar classrooms to full-time virtual schools in
Colorado has soared over the past five years.
During the 2000-01 school year, the state spent
$1.08 million to educate 166 full-time cyberschool students, according
to the Colorado Department of Education. This year, the state projects
spending $23.9 million to educate 4,237 students in kindergarten through
12th grade, state figures show.
And those figures - which do not include
students who are taking one or two online courses to supplement their
classroom education - are making officials in the state's smallest
districts jittery.
Students who leave physical public schools for
online schools take their share of state funding with them.
"If I lose two kids, that's $20,000 walking out
the door," said Dave Grosche, superintendent of the Edison 54JT School
District.
Continued in the article
What's Online Learning Really Like in a Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting
Class?
The Chronicle's Goldie Blumenstyk has covered distance education for
more than a decade, and during that time she's written stories about
the economics of for-profit education, the ways that online institutions
market themselves, and the demise of
the 50-percent rule. About the only thing she hadn't done, it seemed, was to
take a course from an online university. But this spring she finally took the
plunge, and now she has completed a class in government and nonprofit accounting
through the University of Phoenix. She shares tales from the cy ber-classroom --
and her final grade --
in a podcast with Paul Fain, a Chronicle reporter.
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2008 (Audio) ---
http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i40/cyber_classroom/
-
All course materials (including textbooks) online;
No additional textbooks to purchase
-
$1,600 fee for the course and materials
-
Woman instructor with respectable academic
credentials and experience in course content
-
Instructor had good communications with students
and between students
-
Total of 14 quite dedicated online students in
course, most of whom were mature with full-time day jobs
-
30% of grade from team projects
-
Many unassigned online helper tutorials that were
not fully utilized by Goldie
-
Goldie earned a 92 (A-)
-
She gave a positive evaluation to the course and
would gladly take other courses if she had the time
-
She considered the course
to have a heavy workload
Jensen Added Comment
It wasn't mentioned, but I think Goldie took the ACC 460 course ---
Click Here
ACC 460 Government and Non-Profit Accounting
Course Description
This course covers fund accounting, budget and
control issues, revenue and expense recognition, and issues of reporting for
both government and non-profit entities.
Topics and Objectives
Environment of Government/Non-Profit Accounting
- Compare and contrast governmental and proprietary accounting.
- Analyze the relationship between GASB and FASB.
- Analyze the relationship between a budget and a Comprehensive Annual
Financial Report (CAFR).
- Determine when and how to use the modified accrual accounting
method.
Fund Accounting Part I
- Distinguish between expenses and expenditures.
- Explain the effect of encumbrances on a budget.
- Apply the principles of fund accounting.
- Determine the closing process for the fund accounting cycle.
- Explain the reconciliation of government-wide financial statements
with the fund statements.
Fund Accounting Part II
- Apply accounting procedures for recognizing revenues and other
financial resources.
- Record interfund transfers.
- Prepare fund and non-governmental accounting entries.
- Prepare a financial statement for a governmental agency.
Overview of Not-for-Profit Accounting
- Examine the funds for different types of not-for-profit
organizations.
- Compare and contrast reporting by governmental, not-for-profit, and
proprietary organizations.
Current Issues in Government and Not-for-Profit Accounting
- Analyze current issues in government and not-for-profit accounting.
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free online video courses and
course materials from leading universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
So
much learning now takes place online, including faculty office hours, study
groups, and lectures.
What extra value are you going to need to offer to bring the students of the
future to your college?
Read the new report, "The College of 2020: Students," from Chronicle Research
Services.
"THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS," The Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 2009 ---
http://research.chronicle.com/asset/TheCollegeof2020ExecutiveSummary.pdf?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
This is the first Chronicle Research Services
report in a three-part series on what higher education will look like in the
year 2020. It is based on reviews of research and data on trends in higher
education, interviews with experts who are shaping the future of colleges,
and the results of a poll of members of a Chronicle Research Services panel
of admissions officials.
To buy the full, data-rich 50-page report, see the
links at the end of this Executive Summary. Later reports in this series
will look at college technology and facilities in 2020, and the faculty of
the future.
"The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age," by Jane
Park, Creative Commons, June 26th, 2009 ---
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15522
HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology
Advanced Collaboratory) announced a new report called, “The
Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age,”
now available at MIT Press. The report is in response to our changing times,
and addresses what traditional educational institutions must know to keep
up. From the
announcement,
“Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg in
an abridged version of their book-in-progress, The Future of Thinking:
Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, argue that traditional
institutions must adapt or risk a growing mismatch between how they
teach and how this new generation learns. Forms and models of learning
have evolved quickly and in fundamentally new directions. Yet how we
teach, where we teach, who teaches, and who administers and serves have
changed only around the edges. This report was made possible by a grant
from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in connection
with its grant making initiative on Digital Media and Learning.”
A central finding was that “Universities must
recognize this new way of learning and adapt or risk becoming obsolete. The
university model of teaching and learning relies on a hierarchy of
expertise, disciplinary divides, restricted admission to those considered
worthy, and a focused, solitary area of expertise. However, with
participatory learning and digital media, these conventional modes of
authority break down.”
Not coincidentally, one of the ten principles for
redesigning learning institutions was open source education: “Traditional
learning environments convey knowledge via overwhelmingly
copyright-protected publications. Networked learning, contrastingly, is an
“open source” culture that seeks to share openly and freely in both creating
and distributing knowledge and products.”
The report is available in
PDF via
CC BY-NC-ND.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/Future_of_Learning.pdf
Also see
http://www.convergemag.com/workforce/47240132.html
Our Compassless Colleges ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Berkowitz
The Bright Future of Grand Canyon University online
The Apollo Group is the king of for-profit higher
education, parent of the University of Phoenix. By comparison, Grand Canyon
University, another for-profit college in Phoenix, is David to Apollo’s Goliath.
But that’s obviously not quite how Brian Mueller sees it. Mueller,
the
president of the Apollo Group and the driving force
behind the University of Phoenix’s highly successful online division, is betting
that Grand Canyon’s future is brighter — or perhaps more profitable — than
Apollo’s. The
two companies announced this morning that Mueller is
giving up his position at Apollo to help lead Grand
Canyon into its
recently announced initial public offering, which
was initially valued at $230 million. Compared to Apollo, which educates
hundreds of thousands of students and is 35 years old, Grand Canyon is
comparatively a toddler. Since 2004, when it was purchased by a team of
investors, it has been transformed from a struggling nonprofit Christian college
with fewer than 1,000 into a thriving institution that has about 20,000
students, most of them online. A full report on these striking developments will
be available on our Web site Thursday morning.
Inside Higher Ed, June 25, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/25/qt
Fast Growth of Online Programs Relative to "Blended Programs"
Despite the growth of “blended” education — in which instructors mix in-person
and online experiences for students — online education appears to be outpacing
it in some ways, according to
a new study by
Eduventures, the Sloan Consortium and Babson College. The report found a faster
rate of growth in the percentage of classes offered online than for blended
courses. The report found that while 55 percent of colleges offer at least one
blended course, 64 percent offer at least one online course.
Inside Higher Ed, March 13, 2007 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/13/qt
Explosive Growth in Online Enrollments in the United States
Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United
States
The Sloan Consortium and the Babson
Survey Research Group and the College Board, 2012
http://babson.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4SjGnHcStH5g9G5
Some key report findings
include:
- Over 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course
during the fall 2011 term, an increase of 570,000 students over the
previous year.
- Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least
one course online.
- Seventy-seven percent of academic leaders rate the learning outcomes
in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face.
- Only 30.2 percent of chief academic officers believe that their
faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education - a rate
that is lower than recorded in 2004
Full Report Now Available.
(PDF and several eBook formats)
"Distance Ed Continues Rapid Growth at Community Colleges," by Scott
Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, April 7, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/07/distance
Community colleges reported an 18 percent increase
in distance education enrollments in a 2007 survey released this weekend at
the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges, in
Philadelphia.
The survey on community colleges and distance
education is an annual project of the Instructional Technology Council, an
affiliate of the AACC. The survey is based on the responses of 154 community
colleges, selected to provide a representational sample of all community
colleges. Last year’s survey found community colleges reporting an increase
in distance education enrollments of 15 percent.
This year’s survey suggests that distance education
has probably not peaked at community colleges. First there is evidence that
the colleges aren’t just offering a few courses online, but entire programs.
Sixty-four percent of institutions reported offering at least one online
degree — defined as one where at least 70 percent of the courses may be
completed online. Second, colleges reported that they aren’t yet meeting
demand. Seventy percent indicated that student demand exceeds their online
offerings.
The top
challenge reported by colleges in terms of dealing with
students in distance education was that they do not fill out
course evaluations. In previous surveys, this has not been
higher than the fifth greatest challenge. This year’s survey
saw a five percentage point increase — to 45 percent — in
the share of colleges reporting that they charge an extra
fee for distance education courses.
Training
professors has been a top issue for institutions offering
distance education. Of those in the survey of community
colleges, 71 percent required participation (up from 67
percent a year ago and 57 percent the year before). Of those
requiring training, 60 percent require more than eight
hours.
Several of
the written responses some colleges submitted suggested
frustration with professors. One such comment (included
anonymously in the report) said: “Vocal conservative faculty
members with little computer experience can stymie efforts
to change when expressing a conviction that student learning
outcomes can only be achieved in a face-to-face classroom —
even though they have no idea what can be accomplished in a
well-designed distance education course.” Another response
said that: “Our biggest challenge is getting faculty to
participate in our training sessions. We understand their
time is limited, but we need to be able to show them the new
tools available....”
In last
year’s survey, 84 percent of institutions said that they
were customers of either Blackboard or WebCT (now a part of
Blackboard), but 31 percent reported that they were
considering a shift in course management platforms. This
year’s survey suggests that some of them did so. The
percentage of colleges reporting that they use Blackboard or
WebCT fell to 77 percent. Moodle showed the largest gains in
the market — increasing from 4 to 10 percent of the market —
while Angel and Desire2Learn also showed gains.
The survey
also provides an update on the status of many technology
services for students, showing steady increases in the
percentage of community colleges with various technologies
and programs.
Status of
Services for Online Students at Community Colleges
Service |
Currently Offer |
Offered a Year Ago |
Campus testing center for distance students |
73% |
69% |
Distance ed specific faculty training |
96% |
92% |
Online admissions |
84% |
77% |
Online counseling / advising |
51% |
43% |
Online library services |
96% |
96% |
Online plagiarism evaluation |
54% |
48% |
Online registration |
89% |
87% |
Online student orientation for distance classes |
75% |
66% |
Online textbook sales |
72% |
66% |
Rate of Growth in Online Enrollments ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#OnlineGrowthRates
The New University of Illinois Online Global Campus
Online-education venture at the U. of Illinois tries to distinguish itself
from other distance-learning programs
"The Global Campus Meets a World of Competition," by Dan Turner, The
Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, April 3, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i30/30a01001.htm
The University of Illinois Global Campus, a
multimillion-dollar distance-learning project, is up and running. For its
March-April 2009 term, it has enrolled 366 students.
Getting to this point, though, has looked a little
like the dot-com start-up bubble of the late 1990s. Hundreds of
Internet-related companies were launched with overly ambitious goals, only
to later face cutbacks and other struggles to stay alive. Most crashed
anyway. Some observers now say the Global Campus must try to avoid the same
fate of churning through a large initial investment while attracting too few
customers.
The project, planned about four years ago, was
designed to complement existing online programs offered by individual
Illinois-system campuses at Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, and Chicago.
Those programs primarily serve current students as an addition to their
on-campus course work. The Global Campus, in contrast, seeks to reach the
adult learner off campus, who is often seeking a more focused,
career-related certification or degree, such as completing a B.S. in
nursing.
Online education has proved popular with
institutions, students, and employers across the United States, with
opportunities and enrollment growing. According to the Sloan Consortium, a
nonprofit organization focused on online learning, the fall 2007 term saw
3.9 million students enroll in at least one online course, many at
for-profit institutions like DeVry University and the University of Phoenix.
That growing popularity, says David J. Gray, chief
executive of UMassOnline, the online-learning arm of the University of
Massachusetts system, is part of the Global Campus's problem. The Illinois
program, he says, is "fighting uphill in a market that's a lot more uphill."
The slope didn't seem as steep in the fall of 2005,
when Chester S. Gardner, then the university's vice president for academic
affairs, led a committee to investigate ideas for the future of online
education at Illinois. That resulted in a proposal and business plan
presented to the Board of Trustees the next year. The system's "existing
online programs were not structured for adult learners," says Mr. Gardner,
who is now leading the Global Campus.
The program was formally established in March 2007.
The university initially financed it with $1.5-million of general revenue.
The program started teaching its first 12 students in 2008.
Now, Mr. Gardner says, the Global Campus has a
budget of approximately $9.4-million for the 2008-9 fiscal year.
Approximately $1-million of that comes from the state, he says, and the
remaining money comes from various grants, tuition, and loans from the Board
of Trustees.
The trustees' investment has produced heavy
involvement, Mr. Gardner says. "They're acting like venture capitalists," he
notes, adding that "they're certainly doing their job of holding my feet to
the fire."
This year the 366 Global Campus students are
enrolled in five different degree and four different certificate programs;
Mr. Gardner expects the number of students to rise to around 500 by May.
Those numbers put the program on a much slower
track than earlier, sunnier estimates of 9,000 students enrolled by 2012.
Mr. Gardner says the 9,000 figure came from his 2007 budget request to the
trustees and was not precise. "We had no direct experience upon which to
base our projections," he says.
Now, Mr. Gardner says, he has more realistic
figures. Once 1,650 students are enrolled, the monthly income from tuition
will equal monthly expenses, on average. His current projections show the
Global Campus reaching that point of stability by the 2011 fiscal year.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on cross border distance education and training
alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Distance Education is Rapidly Gaining Acceptance in the 21st Century ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology and distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Online Learning Tips & Online College Reviews
---
http://www.onlinecollege.org/
CHOOSE AN
ACCREDITED ONLINE SCHOOL
An
important factor to consider is accreditation.
Traditional colleges and universities have long been
evaluated by educational accreditors who ensure that
their programs meet certain levels of quality. Regional
and national organizations now accredit online programs
too. In the United States, online colleges that are
fully accredited have been recognized by one of six
regional accreditation boards that also evaluate
traditional campuses. These include:
In
addition, the U.S.
Department of Education and
the
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
(CHEA) recognize the
Distance Education and Training
Council (DETC) as a
reputable accreditor for education programs that offer
online degrees. Once an online program becomes
accredited, it’s more likely that a traditional school
will accept its transfer credits and that employers will
recognize its value.
HOW
TO CHOOSE AN ONLINE SCHOOL
How should
someone select an online school? Just as students have
different priorities when choosing physical campuses,
they will have different criteria for choosing an online
institution. For example:
-
Prestige. Some students need a
degree from a prestigious university in order to
advance in their particular field. Others are not
concerned with elite reputations; as long as their
program is accredited, it will move them forward.
-
Expense. Some students wish to find
schools that offer the most financial aid or have
low tuition, but others - such as people with
education benefits from the military - needn’t take
cost into account.
-
Pace. Some people want to earn
their online degree as quickly as possible. They
seek accelerated degree programs or those that will
accept their previously-earned academic credits or
grant credit for life experiences (e.g., military
training). Other people prefer to learn at a slower
pace.
Clearly,
the variation among individual’s means that there will
be variation among any rankings that people would assign
to online institutions. At the same time, it is helpful
to consider as a starting point another’s list of top
online schools. The twenty online schools presented
below are all accredited by one of the six
aforementioned accrediting bodies. Factors such as
tuition, reputation, academic awards, and range of
degree programs have also been taken into account.
TOP TWENTY ONLINE
COLLEGE SCHOOLS
1.
Western Governors University has an excellent
reputation; in 2008 it received the United States
Distance Learning Association’s 21st Century
Award for Best Practices in Distance Learning. The
school was founded by the governors of nineteen western
states and it’s accredited by the Northwest Commission
on Colleges and Universities.
Competency-Based
Learning (where teachers don't selectively assign
grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors
University (with an entire history of
competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially
note the Business Administration (including
Accounting) degree programs
From a
Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors
University has grown into a formidable
competency-based online education provider. It’s
on just its second president,
Scott D.
Pulsipher, a former Silicon Valley
executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more than 70,000 students,
from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using
its affiliations with participating states (not
that all the partnerships
start smoothly,
mind you). There are six of them, and more
growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher says WGU is
in serious discussions to expand into as many as
five more states — he declines to name them — at
a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he
says. One example is an effort to minimize
student loans. Through better advising, students
are borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less
than they did three years ago, amounting to
savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better
decisions,” Mr. Pulsipher says, “when they have
more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's
threads on competency-based learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
This school is ideal for
quick learners who want an accelerated program. With
competency-based learning, students are able to progress
as quickly as they can demonstrate having mastered the
required knowledge.
A variety of online
undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered. Some
examples include baccalaureates and MBAs in business, 26
programs related to teaching, and several nursing
programs.
2.
The University of Phoenix is one of the
best-publicized online educators. It is accredited by
the Higher Learning Commission. In addition to being
experienced with web-based instruction, the University
of Phoenix has physical campuses across the United
States. As of 2008 it was the nation’s largest private
university and had an enrollment of nearly 350,000
students. The university offers more than 100 degree
programs at the
associate’s,
bachelor’s,
master’s and
doctoral levels.
3.
Florida Tech University Online is accredited by the
Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools. It has been ranked as a top
national university by
U.S. News & World Report, the Fiske Guide
to Colleges, and Barron’s Best Buys in College
Education. A special feature of instruction is the
MP3 downloads that allow students to take lectures away
from the computer.
Degrees are offered in
business, liberal arts, criminal justice, and
healthcare. Special discounts are available to members
of the military and their spouses.
4.
Capella University awards bachelor’s, master’s, and
doctoral degrees. The majority of students receive
financial aid that is unrelated to their income, and
many companies have such confidence in Capella
University that they pay for their employees’ tuition.
Degrees are awarded in:
business; computers and information technology;
education and teaching; health and medicine; the social
sciences; and criminal justice. Capella University is
accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges
and Schools.
5.
Walden University is accredited by the North Central
Association of Schools and Colleges. In a 1999 review of
fully online schools, the business magazine Fast
Company awarded its only A grade to Walden
University. US News and World Report has
described Walden as well-regarded.
Walden offers a variety
of undergraduate and graduate degrees ranging from
nursing to information technology and business,
including the MBA.
6.
California Coast University is accredited by the
Distance Education and Training Council. California
Coast offers a unique self-paced program; courses are
not structured by semesters or other traditional
timeframes, so students are able to begin at any time of
year. Degrees are awarded in business, education and
teaching, health and nursing, the social sciences, and
criminal justice.
7.
South University has been educating students for
more than a century. It is accredited by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools and offers online
degrees in business, nursing, healthcare, criminal
justice, accounting, and information technology. With a
flexible scheduling program, students may take just one
course at a time or several concurrently for accelerated
learning.
8.
Drexel University was established as a traditional
campus in 1891. This Philadelphia-based institution was
named among the “Best National Universities” by
U.S. News & World Report. Drexel is accredited
by the Middle States Association of Colleges and
Schools.
Drexel University has
offered online education since 1996. Degrees granted
include the MBA, the Master of Science in Library &
Information Science, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing,
and many others.
9.
Southern New Hampshire University is accredited by
the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. It
offers more than 50 programs leading to undergraduate
and graduate degrees and certificates. SNHU has been
named “Best of Business” by the New Hampshire
Business Review and in 2008 its business program
was deemed the best online program in its class.
10.
Vanderbilt University is a well-respected
institution with a physical campus founded in 1873. It
is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
As of 2008, Vanderbilt’s
only fully online program is the master’s degree in
nursing administration. This single program is worth
mentioning because America’s Best Graduate Schools
ranks Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing among the top
nursing programs offering master’s degrees.
11.
New England College was constructed in 1946 for
post-war education and is accredited by the New England
Association of Schools and Colleges. It offers online
master’s degrees in accounting, criminal justice
leadership, nonprofit leadership, and many other
subjects.
12.
Nova Southeastern University is the largest
independent university in Florida. It is accredited by
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and has
appeared on the Princeton Review’s list of the best
distance learning graduate schools. Nova Southeastern
offers online degrees in education and teaching.
13.
DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management
awards a great number of business degrees in many
specialty areas such as accounting, human resource
management, and financial analysis. Students may choose
to take all of their courses online or combine online
learning with campus-based instruction.
14.
Baker University features relatively low tuition and
offers a wide variety of degrees at every level in
business, computers and IT, health and medicine, and
nursing. Baker is accredited by the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools. Online learning
takes place using Blackboard, a system that creates an
online classroom setting in which instructors and
students can interact.
15.
Marist College has a physical campus in
Poughkeepsie, NY and is accredited by the Middle States
Association of Colleges and Schools. It offers online
degrees in communications, business, public
administration, information systems, and technology
management.
16.
Upper Iowa University is accredited by the North
Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It offers
degrees through campus-based learning in several states,
and its online programs include business, computers and
information technology, health, nursing, and the social
sciences.
17.
Ashford University, founded in 1918, offers
accelerated programs so that degrees can be earned in as
little as one year. Courses are 5-6 weeks long and are
taken one at a time. Examples of degrees include the
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in
Organizational Management.
18.
Kaplan University was founded in 1937 and is
accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It
offers campus-based learning and also grants online
master’s, bachelor’s, associate’s, and professional law
degrees, as well as online certificate programs. Subject
areas include business, criminal justice, IT, and
paralegal studies.
19.
Northwestern University has been among the top
schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Its
School of Continuing Studies offers an online
Master of Science in Medical Informatics online.
Students may also take distance learning courses in a
variety of other subjects.
20.
Liberty University is the world’s largest
evangelical Baptist university. In 2008 the Online
Education Database ranked Liberty third of all online
U.S. universities. More than 35 degree programs are
offered, including the Master of Arts in Marriage and
Family Therapy.
Jensen Comment
Although the above information is helpful, it should be emphasized that some of
the very best and largest online programs are really state-supported
universities not in the above ranking, including such universities as the
University of Wisconsin, the University of Maryland, the University of Illinois
(which has a new global online degree program), and virtually every other state
university in the United States. In most instances the large universities have
specialty degree programs not available in the above universities and sometimes
many more courses to choose from in a give specialty.
And there are some outstanding online community
college programs not mentioned above.
Western Governors University ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
"In Boost to Competency Model, Western Governors U. Gets Top Marks in
Teacher Ed," by Dan Barrett, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 17, 2014
---
http://chronicle.com/article/In-Boost-to-Competency-Model/147179/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based college credit ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Good Luck Jack (and Suzi): You're Going to Need All the Luck You Can
Get
"Jack Welch Moves His Online M.B.A. Program to Strayer U.," by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 11, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/jack-welch-moves-his-online-m-b-a-program-to-strayer-u/34231?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jack Welch’s online M.B.A. program began with a
bang two years ago, heralded as an
unprecedented venture that could shake up online
education.
Now Mr. Welch is shaking up his own program.
The former CEO of General Electric
said
on Friday that his management institute would move to
Strayer University from its current home at a struggling Ohio for-profit
institution called Chancellor University. The Wall Street Journal
reports that Strayer is paying about $7-million
for the program, with Mr. Welch kicking in $2-million of his own.
In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr.
Welch sounded like a baseball player who had been traded to a wealthier team
with a better chance of making the playoffs.
“We needed a bigger game,” he said. “We’re going
from 500 students with limited resources to 55,000 students with 82 campuses
and much more reach.” Strayer’s advertising and technology budgets were part
of the appeal, he added.
The Jack Welch Management Institute offers
executive M.B.A.’s as well as certificates in subjects like “becoming a
leader.” For students, part of the attraction is weekly Webcam sessions with
Mr. Welch, who weighs in on current events like the situations in Greece and
Italy.
Or baseball: One discussion focused on the umpire
whose botched
call spoiled a perfect game for the Detroit Tigers
pitcher Armando Galarraga. The umpire, Jim Joyce, admitted his error. ”We
use that as a wonderful teaching tool about coming forward when you make a
mistake,” Mr. Welch said.
Mr. Welch doesn’t call his deal with Chancellor a
mistake, saying he is “pleased as hell” with a venture that has attracted
200 students in its first 20 months. He described those students as
“high-ambition middle managers” in companies that include Microsoft, Merck,
and ESPN. Seventy percent of them either pay full tuition or have the cost
covered by their employers, he said.
Robert S. Silberman, chairman and CEO of Strayer
Education, said Mr. Welch raised the idea of a purchase to him in a
telephone call in April: “He was looking for a new academic home.”
In the course of evaluating the institute, Strayer
also looked into acquiring all of Chancellor, which was once a nonprofit
university and is now owned by private investors. But Mr. Silberman said his
company determined that the only part of the university it wanted was Mr.
Welch’s institute.
Strayer was attracted to the curriculum of the
executive-M.B.A. program and the short leadership courses. Strayer now
offers similar courses on a limited basis but is looking to offer more of
them, said Mr. Silberman. Such courses, typically paid for by students’
employers, help Strayer University keep its proportion of revenues from
federal student-aid programs well below the 90-percent maximum allowed.
The purchase will very likely be a plus for Strayer.
Unlike some of its for-profit competitors, the university has not been
tarnished by allegations of wrongdoing. And its recent declines in
enrollment—it has just reported that new-student enrollment fell by 21
percent—have been smaller than those of many other providers.
But at a time when many students are becoming
increasingly conscious of colleges’ academic reputations and averse to
high-cost educational programs, some analysts have questioned whether
Strayer’s brand is strong enough to outweigh the competitive challenges it
faces from for-profit and nonprofit colleges alike. The Welch institute
could add some luster.
"Jack Welch Launches Online MBA: The legendary former GE CEO says he
knows a thing or two about management, and for $20,000 you can, too," by Geoff
Gloeckler, Business Week, June 22, 2009 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090622_962094.htm?link_position=link1
A corporate icon is diving into the MBA world, and
he's bringing his well-documented management and leadership principles with
him. Jack Welch, former CEO at General Electric (GE) (and Business Week
columnist), has announced plans to start an MBA program based on the
business principles he made famous teaching managers and executives in GE's
Crotonville classroom.
The Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI) will officially
launch this week, with the first classes starting in the fall. The MBA will
be offered almost entirely online. Compared to the $100,000-plus price tag
for most brick-and-mortar MBA programs, the $600 per credit hour tuition
means students can get an MBA for just over $20,000. "We think it will make
the MBA more accessible to those who are hungry to play," Welch says. "And
they can keep their job while doing it."
To make the Jack Welch Management Institute a
reality, a group led by educational entrepreneur Michael Clifford purchased
financially troubled Myers University in Cleveland in 2008, Welch says.
Welch got involved with Clifford and his group of investors and made the
agreement to launch the Welch Management Institute.
Popularized Six Sigma For Welch, the new
educational endeavor is the latest chapter in a long and storied career. As
GE's longtime chief, he developed a management philosophy based on
relentless efficiency, productivity, and talent development. He popularized
Six Sigma, wasn't shy about firing his worst-performing managers, and
advocated exiting any business where GE wasn't the No. 1 or No. 2 player.
Under Welch, GE became a factory for producing managerial talent, spawning
CEOs that included James McNerney at Boeing (BA), Robert Nardelli at
Chrysler, and Jeff Immelt, his successor at GE.
Welch's decision to jump into online education
shows impeccable timing. Business schools in general are experiencing a rise
in applications as mid-level managers look to expand their business acumen
while waiting out the current job slump. The new program's flexible
schedule—paired with the low tuition cost—could be doubly attractive to
those looking to move up the corporate ladder as the market begins to
rebound.
Ted Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago's
Booth School of Business, agrees. "I think it's a good time for someone to
launch a high-profile online degree," Snyder says. "If you make the
investment in contentthat allows for a lot of interaction between faculty
and students and also among students, you can get good quality at a much
more reasonable tuition level."
Welch's Secret Weapon That being said, there are
challenges that an online MBA program like Welch's will have a difficult
time overcoming, even if the technology and faculty are there. "The
integrity and quality of engagement between faculty and students is the most
precious thing we have," Snyder says. "Assuming it's there, it dominates.
These things are hard to replicate online."
But Welch does have one thing that differentiates
his MBA from others: himself. "We'll have all of the things the other
schools have, only we'll have what Jack Welch believes are things that work
in business, in a real-time way," he says. "Every week I will have an online
streaming video of business today. For example, if I was teaching this week,
I would be putting up the health-care plan. I'd be putting up the financial
restructuring plan, talking about it, laying out the literature, what others
are saying, and I'd be talking about it. I'll be doing that every week."
Welch and his wife Suzy are also heavily involved
in curriculum design, leaning heavily on the principles he used training
managers at GE.
Continued in Article
March 6, 2010 reply from Richard Campbell
[campbell@RIO.EDU]
Jack Welch bought a bankrupt college and started
his own MBA program:
Below is a link to a very, very unusual accounting curriculum
http://www.chancelloru.edu/downloads/degrees/BSBA_Accounting.pdf
Richard J. Campbell
mailto:campbell@rio.edu
Jensen Comment
Thank you so much for this Jack Welch update Richard. I wrote previously
about the startup MBA program of Jack and his wife Suzi, and I wrote about
my concerns for how difficult it would be to succeed without accreditation.
Startup corporate MBA programs have a very, very difficult time achieving
AACSB accreditation. I really thought this startup MBA program might become
General Electric's MBA Program and that a high proportion of the students
would be GE employees.
It seemed a little less likely that Jack and Suzi would buy an entire
university that came with accreditation. Firstly, I did not think Jack and
Suzi were interested in running any programs other than MBA programs.
Secondly, some bankrupt universities have regional accreditation, but it is
rare for them to also have AACSB accreditation.
AACSB Accreditation via Partnering
One of the first for-profit venture to buy up a regionally accredited
university was UNext Corporation when it bought up Cardean University ---
Steve Orpurt taught for UNext and made a CPE presentation in one of my
technology workshops on August 11, 2001 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
UNext originated in a for-profit venture to bring education programs into
corporations in an alliance with several prestigious universities like
Stanford, Columbia, and the London School of Economics ---
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/990715/unext.shtml
Also see
http://www.learnshare.com/Press/NewsReleases/UNext.asp
And see
http://chronicle.com/article/Closely-Watched-UNext-Rolls/13982/
I think UNext now operates as the Cardean Learning Group ---
http://cardeanlearninggroup.com/
It seems to now be a distance education service provider for partnering
institutions, many of whom have AACSB accreditation.---
http://www.onlinedegrees.net/schools/cardean-university/
Hence this is an example of achieving AACSB accreditation via a partnering
arrangement to deliver online courses, although Cardean also provides
instructors and complete courses.
Two of the leading for-profit universities that went the other route by
achieving their own regional accreditations rather than buying them includes
the University of Phoenix
and
Capella Univerersity. I don't think either one of these has yet achieved
AACSB accredition. They are not likely to achieve AACSB accredition given
the strong bias of the AACSB against granting first-time accreditation to
for-profit universities.Some prestigious
corporations and consulting groups formed MBA programs that tried and failed
for years to get AACSB accreditation.
I tried to find Chancellor University in the current AACSB listing of
accredited programs ---
https://www.aacsb.net/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=AACSB&WebKey=ED088FF2-979E-48C6-B104-33768F1DE01D
There is no accredited program on the list under Chancellor or Welch.
However, in addition to having regional accreditation, Chancellor University
has added business accreditation from the
Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) ---
http://www.iacbe.org/
It is unlikely that Chancellor University will obtain AACSB accreditation
which is more of a unionized Deans Club for reputable non-profit
institutions worldwide.
More on the greatest swindles of the world
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the
biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks. At
the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial
giants getting help from the government. The company did not initially qualify
for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by
guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the
eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.
As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars
by raising money for...
Jeff Gerth and Brady Dennis,
"How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue Industrial Giant Becomes Top
Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program," The Washington Post, June 29, 2009
---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955.html?hpid=topnews
Jensen Comment
GE thus becomes the biggest winner under both the TARP and the Cap-and-Trade
give away legislation. It is a major producer of wind turbines and other
machinery for generating electricity under alternative forms of energy. The
government will pay GE billions for this equipment. GE Capital is also "Top
Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program." Sort of makes you wonder why GE's NBC
network never criticizes liberal spending in Congress.
Jensen's threads on the bank rescue swindle are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm z
Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Question
How would you advise Jack and Suzi to modify the program for greater assurance
as to success?
Answer
My advice would be to make this a GE Executive MBA Program. The business model
would be to gear it to GE professionals, especially newly hired engineers that
are strong on technical ability and weak on managerial skills, financial
management, marketing, and accounting.
The key to success would be to have GE pay the tuition as a fringe benefit to
the winning employees selected to get an MBA from Jack and Suzi. This may not be
too difficult since there are shrines throughout the world in GE facilities
where Jack Welch is worshipped as a God.
Some of the advantages of this business model are as follows:
- A major advantage of this MBA program is that students do not expect the
program to help find them careers in leading corporations. The students
would already have promising careers in GE or other corporations who partner
with GE in sending employees to the JWMI. The JWMI, therefore, would not
have to invest in a heaving marketing program to attract students. Students
would be more or less handed to the degree program on a silver platter. The
program would also not have to invest heavily in a graduate placement
program. Graduates are already employed.
- The JWMI would be assured of cream-of-the-crop student talent. Firstly,
the students obtained their jobs in a highly selective GE or other corporate
hiring process that only extends job offers competitively to the best
undergraduates in the world. Secondly, the students would have to meet added
filters of being worthy of obtaining a "free" MBA degree.
- The JWMI can hire all its new faculty from the start on the basis of
their extensive corporate experience and teaching skills. The program would
not be burdened with research faculty that are under severe pressures to
conduct research and publish papers in academic journals. Other MBA programs
in the world often have non-tenured faculty who have little choice but to
give primary time and attention to research. Teaching classes must become a
secondary priority until reaching tenure. And then the pressure to continue
research and publication does not end.
- Assuming tht JWMI will not be granting tenure to faculty, every faculty
member in the JWMI (full-time or part-time) will have contract renewal based
upon teaching performance. Lower performers can be shown the door at any
time.
There are successful business models of this nature already in existence,
although in most instances the corporation or other organization selected an
AACSB-accredited institution to devise a special curriculum for employees
seeking degrees in that institution. A few examples are summarized below.
- For many years the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia
has been running a special-curriculum online MBA program for employees of
the accounting firm PwC. The PwC employees in this program mostly have
degrees in computer science, engineering, or other technical specialties
outside business disciplines. Although PwC is generally known as a global
accounting firm and auditing firm, employees selected for the Terry School
MBA program are mostly on career tracks in the consulting division of PwC.
The objective of this program was not to qualify graduates to sit for the CPA
examination. The objective is to give these students career advancement
skills in management, marketing, finance, and accounting.
- Ernst & Young partnered with Notre Dame and the University of Virginia
to offer a special-curriculum online (will some full time intervals) program
leading to a masters degree in assurance services ---
Click Here
http://snipurl.com/eymasters
-
The Facts
-
During the first summer, you
will attend classes for 5 to 10
weeks at one of the
participating universities. You
will be eligible for E&Y
benefits and will be paid a
$1,000/month starter stipend.
-
After the first semester, you
will begin full-time client
service as an Assurance and
Advisory Business Services
professional, while taking one
class fall semester via distance
learning.
-
You will return for a second
summer of classes at the
university to complete your
master's degree.
-
All costs associated with
tuition, books, room and board,
and transportation are covered
by E&Y. A portion or all costs
associated with the program may
be taxable to you as the
participant.
- The University of Texas offers a special MBA program for Dallas-based
executives of Texas Instruments. Babson College has a masters degree program
for Lucent employees.
- Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University to
provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays the fees. See
"Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's Kelley School of Business For
Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
- US Military --- Over 4,000 training and education courses from a variety
of sources, including US Air University ---
http://www.au.af.mil/au/ "All
levels of Airmen, enlisted and officers, and civilians are educated through
in-residence or distance-learning courses to meet emerging geo-political
challenges faced by the United States. Developing adaptive and innovative
students who will produce and disseminate new ideas is crucial to the
security of our nation."
- Army Online University attracted 12,000 students during its first year
of operation and doubled in ensuing years.
Twenty-four colleges are delivering
training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's e-learning
portal. There are programs for varying levels of accomplishment, including
specialty certificates, associates degrees, bachelor's degrees, and masters
degrees. All courses are free to soldiers. By 2003, there was a capacity
for 80,000 online students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
- The U.S. IRS offers Internet education opportunities. IRS employees who
want to get ahead in the organization are heading back to the classroom -
21st century style. College level courses in accounting, finance, tax law,
and other business subjects will be available on the Internet to IRS
employees.
http://www.accountingweb.com/item/46816/101
The IRS pays the fees for all employees. The IRS online accounting classes
will be served up from Florida State University and Florida Community
College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
- For example, the IRS online accounting classes will be served up from
Florida State University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Bob Jensen's threads on available online training and education programs
are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an
online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has
since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development
that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected
programs, especially engineering. The program is highly restrictive in that
students must work for employers Must be members of Stanford's Corporate
Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree the
requirements are as follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
Most other top universities in the USA now have selected online certificate
and degree programs offered in their extension programs. Go to a university of
interest and search for "extension." It's still rare to find an online doctoral
program at a top university. For-profit universities offer more online doctoral
programs, but these tend not to be accepted very well for employment in the
Academy. In fact it may be better to not mention such doctoral degrees when
seeking employment in the Academy.
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"New Project Enlists Women to Help Women
Learn Online," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, April
29, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3738&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Gail Weatherly has
gotten phone calls from women near tears over their situations.
They’re
taking care of kids. They can’t afford child care. They can’t
make it to regular classes. And they don’t know about online
learning, said Ms. Weatherly, distance-education coordinator at
Stephen F.
Austin State University, in
Nacogdoches, Tex.
Ms. Weatherly
hopes such women could one day benefit from a project being
developed by a scattered group of women involved in distance
education.
Their work
centers on a social-networking Web site that would allow women
to share information about online education and serve as mentors
to one another. It’s called the Collaborative Online Resource
Environment for Women (Core4women), a still-in-the-works effort
that Ms. Weatherly and her colleagues described during a
workshop here Monday at the
national conference of the United States Distance Learning
Association.
The
project, billed in the presentation as “A Better Way: Women
Telling Women About Online Learning,” evolved from Ms.
Weatherly’s dissertation research at Texas A&M University.
Studies like the American Association of University Women’s
“The Third Shift” had examined
barriers to women pursuing education. Ms. Weatherly sought to
push beyond that. She looked at how earning online degrees
changed women’s lives, sometimes in major ways, like one woman
who left an abusive relationship. In the process, Ms. Weatherly
encountered research subjects who wanted to share the expertise
they had gained with other women.
Long story
short: Ms. Weatherly and some colleagues set up a pilot project
on the free social-networking site
Ning.
A scattered group of female mentors from
the the world of distance education worked with a small group of
Texas college students, victims of abuse or poverty, who signed
up to help test the private site. The project’s organizers hope
to expand the effort and gain the sponsorship of the
USDLA, which
has an offshoot called the
International Forum for Women in E-Learning.
A Chronicle
reporter was the only male in the audience Monday, but two women
present raised the subject of how the other sex fits into this:
Is there going to be a mentor network for men? And why do they
have to be separate? Why not Core4people?
In an interview
after the presentation, Ms. Weatherly responded by returning to
her research. Women shared experiences with her that they might
not have shared with a man: taking an online class when they
were expecting a child and very sick, for example. Men might be
participating more in care giving these days. Largely, though,
Ms. Weatherly said, “women still feel like they would sacrifice
going to school for their family.”
“Sometimes I
think they need another woman to say, It’s OK for you to work
and take care of your children and earn a degree – and
you can do that easier by online learning,” Ms. Weatherly said.
|
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an
online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has
since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development
that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected
programs, especially engineering. The program is highly restrictive in that
students must work for employers Must be members of Stanford's Corporate
Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree the
requirements are as follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
Most other top universities in the USA now have selected online certificate
and degree programs offered in their extension programs. Go to a university of
interest and search for "extension." It's still rare to find an online doctoral
program at a top university. For-profit universities offer more online doctoral
programs, but these tend not to be accepted very well for employment in the
Academy. In fact it may be better to not mention such doctoral degrees when
seeking employment in the Academy.
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Corporations and Universities Sign Partnership Pacts ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OnlineDegreePrograms
"New
Book by Pollster John Zogby Says Online Education Is Rapidly Gaining Acceptance,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, August 12, 23008 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3236&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
John Zogby, president & CEO
of the polling company Zogby International, says that American students are
quickly warming up to the idea of taking classes online, just as consumers
have taken to the idea of renting movies via Netflix and buying microbrewed
beer.
In a new book by Mr. Zogby released today, he said
that polls show a sharp increase in acceptance of online education in the
past year. For more on the story, see
a free
article in today’s Chronicle.
National surveys show that a majority
of Americans think online universities offer a lower quality of
education than do traditional institutions. But a prominent pollster,
John Zogby, says in a book being released today that it won't be long
before American society takes to distance education as warmly as it has
embraced game-changing innovations like microbrewed beers, Flexcars, and
"the simple miracle of Netflix."
The factor that will close that
"enthusiasm gap" is the growing use of distance education by
well-respected universities, Mr. Zogby predicts in the book, The Way
We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream
(Random House).
The book, which is based on Zogby
International polls and other studies, also touches on public attitudes
toward politics, consumer habits, spirituality, and international
affairs, and on what men and women really do want from each other. Mr.
Zogby says polls detect signs of society's emerging resistance to big
institutions, and its de-emphasis on things and places. "We're
redefining geography and space," he says—and a widening acceptance of
online education is part of the trend.
Today there is still a "cultural lag"
between the public's desire for flexible ways to take college courses
and what the most-established players offer, Mr. Zogby said in an
interview with The Chronicle on Monday. "There's a sense that
those who define the standard haven't caught on yet," he said.
But Mr. Zogby writes that polling by
his organization shows that attitudes about online education are
changing fast. His polling also points to other challenges that colleges
will face as they race to serve a worldwise generation of
18-to-29-year-olds that Mr. Zogby calls "First Globals."
In one 2007 poll of more 5,000 adults,
Zogby International found that 30 percent of respondents were taking or
had taken an online course, and another 50 percent said they would
consider taking one. He says the numbers might skew a little high
because this poll was conducted online and the definition of an online
course was broad, including certificate programs or training modules
offered by employers.
Only 27 percent of respondents agreed
that "online universities and colleges provide the same quality of
education" as traditional institutions. Among those 18 to 24 years old,
only 23 percent agreed.
An even greater proportion of those
polled said it was their perception that employers and academic
professionals thought more highly of traditional institutions than
online ones.
Rapid Shift in Attitude
Yet in another national poll in
December 2007, conducted for Excelsior College, 45 percent of the 1,004
adults surveyed believed "an online class carries the same value as a
traditional-classroom class," and 43 percent of 1,545 chief executives
and small-business owners agreed that a degree earned by distance
learning "is as credible" as one from a traditional campus-based
program.
Mr. Zogby said that differing
attitudes in two polls within a year show that "the gap was closing"—and
he said that wasn't as surprising as it might seem. As with changing
perceptions about other cultural phenomena, "these paradigm shifts
really are moving at lightning speed."
That, says Mr. Zogby, is why he writes
about online universities in a chapter—"Dematerializing the
Paradigm"—that discusses the rise of car-sharing companies like Flexcar
(now merged with Zipcar), the emergence of Internet blogs as a source of
news and information, and the popularity of microbrewed beer.
And while it may be true that
microbrews and Zipcars, at least, are still very much niche products,
Mr. Zogby says they are signs of transcendent change—just like the
distance-education courses that are being offered by more and more
institutions across the country. "When you add up all the niche
products, it's a market unto itself," he says.
In the book, Mr. Zogby also highlights
the emerging influence of the First Globals, whom his book calls "the
most outward-looking and accepting generation in American history."
First Globals, he says, are more socially tolerant and internationally
aware.
It is these First Globals, he writes,
who are shaping what he says is nothing short of a "fundamental
reorientation of the American character away from wanton consumption and
toward a new global citizenry in an age of limited resources."
Higher education, he said in the
interview, needs to take notice and adapt. These days, he said, students
are much more likely to have experienced other cultures firsthand,
either as tourists or because they have immigrated from someplace else.
Whether college for them is a traditional complex of buildings or an
interactive online message board, said Mr. Zogby, "there is a different
student on campus."
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education are at the following sites:
"How to Be an Online
Student and Survive in the Attempt," by Maria
José Viñas, Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education,
August 11, 2008 ---
Click Here
The lives of many online college students are not
easy. They have to combine jobs, house chores, family life and, on top of
all that, do some actual studying. To help online students cope with this
burden, a blog sponsored by Western Governors University offers survival
tips.
The Online Student Survival
Guide, a program that kicked off in May, is meant
to give online students tips on adjusting to online learning and staying
motivated throughout the courses, while balancing life and school. Following
the famous Latin maxim “mens sana in corpore sano”, the bloggers also write
posts on healthy eating—not only for the online students, but for their
families, too.
Once again, the link to the Survival Guide is
http://onlinestudentsurvival.com/
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
August 31, 2007 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
REDUCING ATTRITION IN ONLINE CLASSES
"Attrition rates for classes taught through
distance education are 10- 20% higher than classes taught in a face-to-face
setting. . . . Finding ways to decrease attrition in distance education
classes and programs is critical both from an economical and quality
viewpoint. High attrition rates have a negative economic impact on
universities."
In "Strategies to Engage Online Students and Reduce
Attrition Rates" (THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATORS ONLINE, vol. 4, no. 2, July
2007), the authors provide a review of the literature to determine methods
for "engaging students with the goals of enhancing the learning process and
reducing attrition rates." Their research identified four major strategies:
-- student integration and engagement
Includes "faculty-initiated contact via phone
calls, pre-course orientations, informal online chats, and online student
services."
-- learner-centered approach
Faculty "need to get to know their students and
assess each student's pre-existing knowledge, cultural perspectives, and
comfort level with technology."
-- learning communities
"[S]trong feelings of community may not only
increase persistence in courses, but may also increase the flow of
information among all learners, availability of support, commitment to group
goals, cooperation among members and satisfaction with group efforts."
-- accessibility to online student services.
Services might include "assessments, educational
counseling, administrative process such as registration, technical support,
study skills assistance, career counseling, library services, students'
rights and responsibilities, and governance."
The paper, written by Lorraine M. Angelino, Frankie
Keels Williams, and Deborah Natvig, is available at
http://www.thejeo.com/Volume4Number2/Angelino Final.pdf.
The Journal of Educators Online (JEO) [ISSN
1547-500X ]is an online,
double-blind, refereed journal by and for instructors, administrators,
policy-makers, staff, students, and those interested in the development,
delivery, and management of online courses in the Arts, Business, Education,
Engineering, Medicine, and Sciences. For more information, contact JEO, 500
University Drive, Dothan, Alabama 36303 USA; tel: 334-983-6556, ext. 1-356;
fax: 334-983-6322; Web:
http://www.thejeo.com/ .
Jensen Comment
Attrition rates are high because online students are often adults with heavy
commitments to family and jobs. Initially they think they are going to have time
for a course, but then the course becomes too demanding and/or unexpected things
happen in their lives such as computer crashes, a change in job demands (such as
more travel), family illness, marital troubles, etc. Sometimes online students
initially believe the myth that online courses are easier than onsite courses
and, therefore, take less time. About the only time saved is the logistical time
waster of commuting to and from a classroom site.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education are at the following sites:
The Dark Side of Education Technology and Online Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Updates 2007
Question
What is the rate of growth in online enrollments in the U.S.?
"More Online Enrollments," by Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, October 23, 2007
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/23/sloan
More students than ever are taking courses online,
but that doesn’t mean the growth will continue indefinitely. That’s the
takeaway from the Sloan Foundation’s latest survey, conducted with the
Babson Survey Research Group, of colleges’ online course offerings.
With
results from nearly 4,500 institutions of all types, the
report,
“Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning”,
found that in fall 2006, nearly 3.5
million students — or 19.8 percent of total postsecondary
enrollments — took at least one course online. That’s a
9.7-percent increase over the previous year, but growth has
been slowing significantly: last year, the jump was 36.5
percent.
But compared to
the growth rate for enrollment overall (1.3 percent), the
report notes, the online sector is still rapidly expanding.
Most of that expansion is happening where online classes are
already being offered.
“The number
of new institutions entering the online learning arena had
definitely slowed [by last fall]; most institutions that
plan to offer online education are now doing so,” the
report’s authors wrote.
The
institutions surveyed seem to believe that the most
important reason for offering online courses is to improve
student access, while the top cited obstacles to more
widespread online offerings are student’ discipline or study
habits, followed by faculty acceptance.
The survey
focuses solely on what it classifies as “online” courses:
those offering 80 percent or more of their content over the
Internet. As a result, trends in so-called “blended” or
“hybrid” courses, in which students occasionally meet in
person with their professors while also receiving
considerable instruction online, are not covered in the
report.
The
importance of online courses varies widely depending on the
type of institution. Public universities, for example, view
online education as much more critical to their long-term
strategies than private or even for-profit institutions. And
not surprisingly, two-year colleges have shown the most
growth, accounting for a full half of online enrollments
over the past five years:
Four-Year
Growth in Students Taking at Least One Online Course
|
Enrollment, Fall 2002 |
Enrollment, Fall 2006 |
Increase |
Compound Annual Growth Rate |
Doctoral/Research |
258,489 |
566,725 |
308,236 |
21.7% |
Master’s |
335,703 |
686,337 |
350,634 |
19.6% |
Baccalaureate |
130,677 |
170,754 |
40,077 |
6.9% |
Community colleges |
806,391 |
1,904,296 |
1,097,905 |
24.0% |
Specialized |
71,710 |
160,268 |
88,558 |
22.3% |
The
importance to online strategies is broken down in the
following chart:
% Saying
Online Education Is Critical to Their Institutions’
Long-Term Strategy
|
Public |
Private Nonprofit |
Private For-Profit |
Fall 2002 |
66.1% |
34.0% |
34.6% |
Fall 2003 |
65.4% |
36.6% |
62.1% |
Fall 2004 |
74.7% |
43.8% |
48.6% |
Fall 2005 |
71.7% |
46.9% |
54.9% |
Fall 2006 |
74.1% |
48.6% |
49.5% |
Even if
online growth can’t go on at this pace forever, most
institutions still see room for increasing enrollments:
% Saying
They Expect Online Enrollments to Increase
|
Doctoral/Research |
Master’s |
Baccalaureate |
Associate’s |
Specialized |
Expecting increase |
87.5% |
84.0% |
75.6% |
87.8% |
75.3% |
Tables
From “Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online
Learning”
The study
also found that most growth was expected at institutions
that are the most “engaged” — that is, “currently have
online offerings and believe that online is critical to the
long-term strategy of their organization. These
institutions, however, have not yet included online
education in their formal strategic plan.”
In theory, distance education is supposed to open up
an era when all students have a range of options not limited by geography. But
a new report from Eduventures finds that most
distance students enroll at distance programs run by institutions in their own
geographic regions, and that more than a third of these students take online
courses offered by an institution within a 50-mile radius.
Inside Higher Ed, March 28, 2007 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/28/qt
More and more prestigious universities are sharing course material and
lecture videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
MIT now has most of its entire curriculum of course materials in all
disciplines available free to the world as open courseware. This includes
the Sloan School of Business Courses ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Especially note the FAQs ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/OCWHelp/help.htm
By the end of the year all MIT's course materials will be available,
which is probably the most extensive freely open knowledge initiative (OKI)
in the entire world.
MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) has formally
partnered with three organizations that are translating MIT OCW course
materials into Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional
Chinese ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/Translations.htm
Question
What is the most popular download course at MIT?
Answer: According to ABC News last week it's the Introduction to Electrical
Engineering Course.
Other major universities now have huge portions of their curriculum
materials available ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
If you want to try something quite different, you might consider some
online business and accounting courses from the University of Toyota ---
http://www2.itt-tech.edu/st/onlineprograms/ (These are not free).
Other online training and education programs are listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen
Education Balance: Even Resident Students Can Benefit for Life With Some
Online Courses
"Latest Twist in Distance Ed," by Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed,
August 9, 2007 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/09/american
Turns
out, the
American University online program
is somewhat of a hybrid. While the university marketed that
first course, about terrorism and the legal system, to all
sorts of groups in an effort to gauge outside interest, all
but two of the 27 students who took the class were its own.
Many of the students were away from Washington for the
summer, living abroad or at home
“The most
important information we’ve gathered is that our distance
learning courses are most attractive to our own students,”
Ettle said. “Students know they can use credits toward a
degree, whereas some students [outside] might be unsure how
they could use the credits.”
As distance
education continues to evolve, American’s model will likely
become more common, according to Diana Oblinger, vice
president for Educause, the nonprofit group that deals with
technology issues in higher education.
“It makes
absolute sense,” Oblinger said. “Both institutions and
students are concerned about the time-to-degree. If you can
take a course while you are away and when it’s convenient,
that helps you progress toward graduation. From an
institution’s perspective, why allow your student to take
someone else’s course?”
This summer,
American is offering 25 online courses, none of which are
longer than seven weeks. The condensed schedule works well
for students who are either amidst or have just finished
study abroad programs or summer jobs and want to extend
their stays away from campus while earning credits, Ettle
said. It’s also popular with students who take on
internships during the year and want to go to school in the
summer without having a full course load.
American
provides incentives for those who are part of the distance
learning program. Starting several summers ago, the
university began giving professors whose online course
proposals were accepted a $2,500 course development grant.
Summer teaching at American isn’t a substitute for teaching
an academic year course, and the additional compensation is
only monetary incentive to teach in the summer online.
Students receive a discounted rate on summer distance
courses, and the price hasn’t changed in four years. A
three-credit course costs $2,200, which is about 30 percent
cheaper than a graduate course and about 25 percent cheaper
than an undergraduate course, Ettle said.
There are
other obvious cost savings: Students don’t have to pay for
campus housing, and the university frees up space for other
uses. The overhead cost of running a distance education
course is also significantly less than it is for a normal
classroom-based course, Ettle said.
“We’re
utilizing our facilities more efficiently,” she said. “We
want repeat customers — it’s good for them and it’s good for
us.”
Still,
American limits students to two distance courses per summer
to prevent those who are working or studying elsewhere from
overloading their schedules. The university places no
limits, though, on the number of summers a student can take
an online course.
Oblinger said it’s becoming more common for a university to
either
require or strongly suggest that
its students take an online course as a way to prepare them
for how learning often takes place in the workplace.
Continued in article
Updates 2006
Open Sharing Catching on Outside the United States
Britain’s Open University today formally begins its
effort to put its course materials and other content online for all the world to
use. With its effort,
OpenLearn, which is
expected to cost $10.6 million and is supported by the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, the university joins
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
institutions in several other countries in trying to put tools for learning
within the reach of otherwise difficult to reach populations.
Inside Higher Ed, October 25, 2006
Open2 Net Learning from Open University (the largest university in the
U.K.) ---
http://www.open2.net/learning.html
Soaring Popularity of E-Learning Among Students But Not Faculty
How many U.S. students took at least on online course from a legitimate college
in Fall 2005?
More students are taking online college courses than
ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the concept
of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s largest
association of organizations and institutions focused on online education . . .
‘We didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’
Elia Powers, "Growing Popularity of E-Learning, Inside Higher Ed,
November 10, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/10/online
More students are taking online college courses
than ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the
concept of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s
largest association of organizations and institutions focused on online
education.
Roughly 3.2 million students took at least one
online course from a degree-granting institution during the fall 2005 term,
the Sloan Consortium said. That’s double the number who reported doing so in
2002, the first year the group collected data, and more than 800,000 above
the 2004 total. While the number of online course participants has increased
each year, the rate of growth slowed from 2003 to 2004.
The report, a joint partnership between the group
and the College Board, defines online courses as those in which 80 percent
of the content is delivered via the Internet.
The Sloan Survey of Online Learning,
“Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006,”
shows that 62 percent of chief academic officers say
that the learning outcomes in online education are now “as good as or
superior to face-to-face instruction,” and nearly 6 in 10 agree that
e-learning is “critical to the long-term strategy of their institution.”
Both numbers are up from a year ago.
Researchers at the Sloan Consortium, which is
administered through Babson College and Franklin W. Olin College of
Engineering, received responses from officials at more than 2,200 colleges
and universities across the country. (The report makes few references to
for-profit colleges, a force in the online market, in part because of a lack
of survey responses from those institutions.)
Much of the report is hardly surprising. The bulk
of online students are adult or “nontraditional” learners, and more than 70
percent of those surveyed said online education reaches students not served
by face-to-face programs.
What stands out is the number of faculty who still
don’t see e-learning as a valuable tool. Only about one in four academic
leaders said that their faculty members “accept the value and legitimacy of
online education,” the survey shows. That number has remained steady
throughout the four surveys. Private nonprofit colleges were the least
accepting — about one in five faculty members reported seeing value in the
programs.
Elaine Allen, co-author of the report and a Babson
associate professor of statistics and entrepreneurship, said those numbers
are striking.
“As a faculty member, I read that response as, ‘We
didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’ ” Allen said.
“It’s a very hard adjustment. We sat in lectures for an hour when we were
students, but there’s a paradigm shift in how people learn.”
Barbara Macaulay, chief academic officer at UMass
Online, which offers programs through the University of Massachusetts, said
nearly all faculty members teaching the online classes there also teach
face-to-face courses, enabling them to see where an online class could fill
in the gap (for instance, serving a student who is hesitant to speak up in
class).
She said she isn’t surprised to see data
illustrating the growing popularity of online courses with students, because
her program has seen rapid growth in the last year. Roughly 24,000 students
are enrolled in online degree and certificate courses through the university
this fall — a 23 percent increase from a year ago, she said.
“Undergraduates see it as a way to complete their
degrees — it gives them more flexibility,” Macaulay said.
The Sloan report shows that about 80 percent of
students taking online courses are at the undergraduate level. About half
are taking online courses through community colleges and 13 percent through
doctoral and research universities, according to the survey.
Nearly all institutions with total enrollments
exceeding 15,000 students have some online offerings, and about two-thirds
of them have fully online programs, compared with about one in six at the
smallest institutions (those with 1,500 students or fewer), the report
notes. Allen said private nonprofit colleges are often set in enrollment
totals and not looking to expand into the online market.
The report indicates that two-year colleges are particularly willing to be
involved in online learning.
“Our institutions tend to embrace changes a little
more readily and try different pedagogical styles,” said Kent Phillippe, a
senior research associate at the American Association of Community Colleges.
The report cites a few barriers to what it calls the “widespread adoption of
online learning,” chief among them the concern among college officials that
some of their students lack the discipline to succeed in an online setting.
Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents defined that as a barrier.
Allen, the report’s co-author, said she thinks that
issue arises mostly in classes in which work can be turned in at any time
and lectures can be accessed at all hours. “If you are holding class in real
time, there tends to be less attrition,” she said. The report doesn’t
differentiate between the live and non-live online courses, but Allen said
she plans to include that in next year’s edition.
Few survey respondents said acceptance of online
degrees by potential employers was a critical barrier — although liberal
arts college officials were more apt to see it as an issue.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Motivations for Distance Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#Motivations
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of online learning and teaching are
at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Update in 2005
Distant distance education
Ms. Salin is part of a new wave of outsourcing to
India: the tutoring of American students. Twice a week for a month now, Ms.
Salin, who grew up speaking the Indian language Malayalam at home, has been
tutoring Daniela in English grammar, comprehension and writing. Using a
simulated whiteboard on their computers, connected by the Internet, and a
copy of Daniela's textbook in front of her, she guides the teenager through
the intricacies of nouns, adjectives and verbs.
Saritha Rai, "A Tutor Half a World Away, but as Close as a Keyboard," The
New York Times, September 7, 2005 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/education/07tutor.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126191549-1Ydu+7CY89CpuVeaJbJ4XA
The Blackboard: A tribute to a long-standing but
fading teaching and learning tool
From the Museum of History and Science at Oxford University:
Bye Bye Blackboard: From Einstein and others ---
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/blackboard/
Bob Jensen's threads on the tools of education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Controversies in Regulation of Distance Education
"All Over the Map," by Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed, December 8, 2006
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/12/08/regulation
As the distance learning market continues to grow,
state agencies charged with regulating the industry continue to operate in a
“fragmented environment,” according to a report presented Thursday at the
2006 Education Industry Finance & Investment Summit,
in Washington.
One of the main questions these agencies must
consider is what constitutes an institution having a “physical presence” in
their state. In other words, what is an appropriate test to determine
whether regulation is needed?
More than 80 percent of agencies that are included
in the report said that they use some sort of “physical presence” test. But
few agree on how to define the word “presence,” in part because there are so
many elements to consider.
That’s clear in
“The State of State Regulation of Cross-Border Postsecondary Education,”
the report issued by Dow Lohnes, a firm with a sizable
higher education practice. (The firm plans to release an updated report
early next year after more responses arrive.)
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Long-Term Future of
Education
and Education Technologies
A
Serious New Commercial Advance for Online Training and Education
"Opening Up Online Learning," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed,
October 9, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/09/cartridge
This has not exactly been a season of
peace, love and harmony on the higher education technology
landscape. A
patent fight has broken out among
major developers of course management systems. Academic
publishers and university officials are warring over
open access to federally sponsored research.
And textbook makers are taking a pounding
for — among other things — the ways in which digital
enhancements are running up the prices of their products.
In that context, many may be heartened
by the announcement later today at the Educause meeting in
Dallas that three dozen academic publishers, providers of
learning management software, and others have agreed on a
common, open standard that will make it possible to move digital
content into and out of widely divergent online education
systems without expensive and time consuming reengineering. The
agreement by the diverse group of publishers and software
companies, who compete intensely with one another, is being
heralded as an important breakthrough that could expand the
array of digital content available to professors and students
and make it easier for colleges to switch among makers of
learning systems.
Of course, that’s only if the new
standard, known as the
“Common Cartridge,” becomes widely
adopted, which is always the question with developments deemed
to be potential technological advances.
Many observers believe this one has
promise, especially because so many of the key players have been
involved in it. Working through the IMS Global Learning
Consortium, leading publishers like Pearson Education and
McGraw-Hill Education and course-management system makers such
as
Blackboard,
ANGEL
Learning and open-source
Sakai
have worked to develop the technical specifications for the
common cartridge, and all of them have vowed to begin
incorporating the new standard into their products by next
spring — except Blackboard, which says it will do so eventually,
but has not set a timeline for when.
What exactly is the Common Cartridge?
In lay terms, it is a set of specifications and standards,
commonly agreed to by an IMS working group, that would allow
digitally produced content — supplements to textbooks such as
assessments or secondary readings, say, or faculty-produced
course add-ons like discussion groups — to “play,” or appear,
the same in any course management system, from proprietary ones
like Blackboard/WebCT and Desire2Learn to open source systems
like Moodle and Sakai.
“It is essentially a common
‘container,’ so you can import it and load it and have it look
similar when you get it inside” your local course system, says
Ray Henderson, chief products officer at ANGEL, who helped
conceive of the idea when he was president of the digital
publishing unit at Pearson.
The Common Cartridge approach is
designed to deal with two major issues: (1) the significant cost
and time that publishers now must spend (or others, if the costs
are passed along) to produce the material they produce for
multiple, differing learning management systems, and (2) the
inability to move courses produced in one course platform to
another, which makes it difficult for professors to move their
courses from one college to another and for campuses to consider
switching course management providers.
The clearest and surest upside of the
new standard, most observers agree, is that it could help lower
publishers’ production costs and, in turn, allow them to focus
their energies on producing more and better content. David
O’Connor, senior vice president for product development at
Pearson Education’s core technology group, says his company and
other major publishers spend “many hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year effectively moving content around” so that
ancillary material for textbooks can work in multiple course
management systems.
Because Blackboard and Web CT together
own in the neighborhood of 75 percent of the course management
market, Pearson and other publishers produce virtually all of
their materials to work in those proprietary systems. Materials
are typically produced on demand for smaller players like ANGEL,
Desire2Learn and Sakai, and it is even harder to find usable
materials for colleges’ homemade systems. While big publishers
such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill have sizable media groups that
can, when they choose to, spend what’s necessary to modify
digital content for selected textbooks, “small publishers often
have to say no,” O’Connor says. As a result, “there are just
fewer options for people who aren’t using Blackboard and WebCT,
and more hurdles to getting it.”
Supporters hope that adoption of the
common cartridge will allow publishers to spend less time and
money adapting one textbook’s digital content for multiple
course platforms and more time producing more and better
content. “This should have the result of broadening choice in
content to institutions,” says Catherine Burdt, an analyst at
Eduventures, an education research firm. “Colleges would no
longer be limited to the content that’s supported by their LMS
platform, but could now go out and choose the best content that
aligns with what’s happening in their curriculum.”
Less clear is how successful the effort
will be at improving the portability of course materials from
one learning management system to another. If all the major
providers introduce “export capability,” there is significant
promise, says Michael Feldstein, who writes the blog
e-Literate
and is assistant director of the State University of New York
Learning Network. “This has the potential to be one of the most
important standards to come out in a while, particularly for
faculty,” says Feldstein, who notes that his comments here
represent his own views, not SUNY’s. “It would become much
easier for them to take rich course content and course designs
and migrate them from one system to another with far less pain.”
But while easier transferability would
obviously benefit the smaller players in the course management
market — and ANGEL and Sakai plan to announce today that their
systems will soon allow professors to create Common Cartridges
for export out of their systems — such a system would only take
off if the dominant player in the market, the combined
Blackboard/WebCT, eventually does the same. “I’m not sure how
excited Blackboard would be about making it easier for faculty
to migrate out of their product and into one of their
competitors,” says Feldstein.
Chris Vento, senior vice president of
technology and product development at Blackboard, was a leading
proponent of the IMS Common Cartridge concept when he was a
leading official at WebCT before last year’s merger. In an
interview, he acknowledged the question lots of others are
asking: “What’s in it for Blackboard? Why wouldn’t you just lock
up the format and force everybody to use it?” His answer, he
says, is that by helping the entire industry, he says, the
project cannot help but benefit its biggest player, too.
“This will enable publishers to really
do the best job of producing their content, making it richer and
better for students and faculty, and more lucrative for
publishers from the business perspective,” says Vento. “Anything
we can do to enable that content to be built, and more of it and
better quality, the more lucrative it is eventually for us.”
Blackboard is fully behind the project,
Vento says. Having endorsed the Common Cartridge charter,
Blackboard has also committed to incorporating the new standard
into its products, and that Blackboard intends to make export of
course materials possible out of its platform. “Exactly how that
maps to our product roadmap has not been finalized,” he said,
“but in the end, we’re all going to have to do this. It’s just a
question of when.” There will, he says, “be a lot of pressures
to do this.”
That pressure is likely to be
intensified because of the public relations pounding Blackboard
has taken among many in the academic technology world because of
its attempt to patent technology that many people believe is
fundamental to e-learning systems. O’Connor of Pearson says he
believes Blackboard could benefit from its involvement in the
Common Cartridge movement by being seen “as the dominant player,
to be someone supporting openness in the community.” He adds:
“There is an opportunity for them to mend some of the damage
from the patent issue.”
Like virtually all technological
advances — or would-be ones — Common Cartridge’s success will
ultimately rise and fall, says Burdt of Eduventures, on whether
Blackboard and others embrace it. “Everything comes down to
adoption,” she says. “The challenge with every standard is the
adoption model. Some are out the door too early. Some evolve too
early and are eclipsed by substitutes. For others, suppliers
decide not to support it for various reasons.”
Those behind the Common Cartridge
believe it’s off to a good start with the large number of
disparate parties not only involved in creating it, but already
committing to incorporate it into their offerings.
Yet even as they launch this standard,
some of them are already looking ahead to the next challenge.
While the Common Cartridge, if widely adopted, will allow for
easier movement of digital course materials into and out of
course management systems, it does not ensure that users will be
able to do the same thing with third-party e-learning tools
(like subject-specific tutoring modules) that are not part of
course management systems, or with the next generation of tools
that may emerge down the road. For that, the same parties would
have to reach a similar agreement on a standard for “tool
interoperability,” which is next on the IMS agenda.
“This is only one step,” Pearson’s
O’Connor says of the Common Cartridge. But it is, he says, an
important one.
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology and distance
education are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
The Global Technology Revolution 2020 ---
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2006/RAND_TR303.pdf
Questions
What are the most significant changes expected in higher education
by the Year 2025?
What major universities are now experimenting on the leading edge of
such changes?
Answers
Answer 1 ---
Cluster and Grid Computing! The first test linked Caltech,
Fermilab,
UC San Diego, the University of Florida, and the University of
Wisconsin
What's Microsoft been up to in
grid/distributed computing? The company's not talking, but we've
ferreted out some interesting details about the hush-hush "Bigtop"
project. Our sources say it involves loosely coupled machines, and
perhaps even a new version of Windows. Read our story for more
details on what
"Bigtop" could be, and when to expect it.
Jim Lauderback, What's New from Ziff Davis, December 30, 2004
From Syllabus News on September 24, 2002
Stanford Online Press Gets 'Clustering'
Software
Stanford's HighWire Press, an online
publisher of scientific and medical publications for researchers
and institutions, has licensed "clustering" software that will
allow it to organize its content into easy-to-navigate clusters
for end-users. HighWire licensed the Clustering Engine and
Enterprise Publisher from Vivisimo, Inc. to organize search
results and publish larger document subsets on its master site.
HighWire will offer the products to its own publishing customers
for use on their journal websites. "HighWire Press now has 13
million online articles, so researchers need tools to reduce,
refine, and tunnel into search results," said John Sack,
director of HighWire. The new software, he added, "will help
liberate readers from the need to make overly specific queries.
Instead, they can recognize interesting topic clusters and drill
down from there, in the `I know it when I see it' style."
For more information, visit:
http://highwire.stanford.edu .
"What Is Grid Computing,
Anyway?" by Tim McDonald, NewsFactor Network July 24, 2002
---
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18722.html
One
good way to gauge a new technology's degree of acceptance is to
observe whether it has moved out of the laboratory and onto
store shelves -- from science to commerce. According to that
measure, grid computing is just coming of age.
Often
called the next big thing in global Internet technology, grid
computing employs clusters of locally or remotely networked
machines to work on specific computational projects.
One
well-known example of grid computing -- sometimes called
distributed or clustered computing -- is the ongoing
SETI (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project, in which thousands
of users are sharing their unused processor cycles to help
search for signs of "rational" signals from outer space.
From
Science to Commerce
Grid
computing traditionally has been useful to researchers working
on scientific or technical problems -- much like the SETI
project -- that require a great number of computer processing
cycles or access to large amounts of data.
But
while this technology was once exclusively the province of
academics in fields like biomedicine and weather forecasting, it
has recently been making a strong foray into potentially
lucrative e-commerce sectors. Although clustering has been used
for several years as a load-balancing technique by server
hardware manufacturers, grid computing now seems to be coming of
age for other applications as well.
"Grid
computing has advanced to the point now that there are products
out there like Sun's Grid Engine Enterprise Edition,"
Aberdeen Group analyst
Bill Claybrook told NewsFactor.
Much
like a load-balancing server cluster, Sun's Grid Engine software
lets organizations create networked grids to share resources on
a wider scale and to allocate processing resources according to
department priorities.
Grid
Computing Components
Essentially, grids are built from clusters of computer servers
joined together over a local area network (LAN) or over the
Internet.
While
several grids that run over the Internet -- like the SETI
project -- have been built with proprietary software, there are
several development tools that can facilitate the growth and
adoption of grid computing.
One of
those tools is Globus, a
research and development project focused on helping software
developers apply the grid concept.
The
Globus toolkit, the group's primary offering, is a set of
components that can be used to develop grid applications. For
each component in the toolkit, Globus provides an API
(application programmer interface) for use by software
developers.
Power
to the People
Research scientists historically have been attracted to grid
computing because it uses the power of idle computers to work on
difficult computational problems.
Proponents of grid computing say the technology will enable
universities and research institutions to share their
supercomputers, servers and storage capacity, allowing them to
perform massive calculations quickly and relatively cheaply.
In line
with those expectations, HP recently announced that a
9.2-teraflop supercomputer
soon will be connected to the Department of Energy's Science
Grid. When installed, it will be the largest supercomputer
attached to a grid anywhere in the world, according to the
company.
Sharing
Data
Until
now, the problem with grid computing has been a lack of common
software for developers to work with, largely because grids rely
on Internet-based software.
In an
effort to spur broader adoption of grids, the
National Science Foundation
established the US$12.1 million Middleware
Initiative last year, and the agency has recently released
software and other tools designed to make working on grids
easier for scientists and engineers.
"Scientists are now sharing data and instrumentation on an
unprecedented scale, and other geographically distributed groups
are beginning to work together in ways that were previously
impossible," according to the Grid Research Integration
Deployment and Support Center.
First
Gaming Grid
In a
real-world example of grid computing,
IBM (NYSE: IBM)
and Butterfly.net announced in May that they would soon release
a computing grid for the video game industry. Butterfly.net
spent two years building the grid, which distributes games
across a network of server
farms using IBM e-business infrastructure technology.
Massively multiplayer games (MMGs) historically have been run on
mirrored servers that essentially duplicate copies of the MMG
universe to balance user loads.
While
this technique is designed to reduce latency for all users -- so
that each set of servers behaves responsively to user actions --
the mirroring technique limits the number of players who can
participate at one time in the same game universe.
When
load balances increase, the typical MMG response has been to add
more servers, copy the game universe and spill the extra load
into that new copy.
Now,
however, Butterfly.net's grid technology provides "cross-server
sentinels" that supports the interaction of millions of players
in one world, with server boundaries invisible to players.
According to the company, the extension of grid computing to the
gaming world lets game developers support a limitless number of
users in their MMGs.
'Taking
Hold of an Industry'
Companies are lining up to jump on the Butterfly bandwagon. This
week, for example, software development site CollabNet announced
it will work with Butterfly.net to develop an online environment
that lets game developers test their games.
"IBM's
been extremely busy on a number of fronts in grid, in terms of
investing resources and winning new partners and customers," IBM
spokesperson Jim Larkin told NewsFactor.
"Butterfly is one of the key examples thus far of how IBM has
worked with another company to help develop a computing grid
that is in the commercial arena," Larkin said. "It's a clear
example of how grid is taking hold of an industry."
"Digipede to Showcase .NET Grid Computing Solutions at
Securities Industry Association Technology Management Conference,"
PR Web, June 19, 2006 ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb400497.htm
"Grids Unleash the Power of Many," by John Gartner, MIT's
Technology Review, January 14, 2005 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/wo/wo_gartner011405.asp?trk=nl
Computer scientists in three states --
West Virginia, North Carolina, and Colorado -- are each
combining their technology resources into separate computer
grids that will give researchers, universities, private
companies and citizens access to powerful supercomputers.
The project designers say these
information aqueducts will encourage business development,
accelerate scientific research, and improve the efficiency of
government.
"Grid computing will provide 1,000
times more business opportunities than what we see over the
Internet today," says Wolfgang Gentzsch, managing director of
grid computing and networking services at MCNC in Research
Triangle Park, NC.
MCNC is spearheading North Carolina's
statewide grid development that currently includes seven
universities including North Carolina State, Duke, and the
University of North Carolina.
The North Carolina project -- which has
a goal to link 180 institutions -- is encouraging business
development through its Start Up Grid Initiative, which allows
fledgling companies to plug into the grid for up to nine months
free of charge and afterwards at discounted rates, Gentzsch
says.
Because raising capital and acquiring
technology takes up most of a new company's time, "Startups
usually only get to spend 10 percent of their time executing
their idea," says Gentzch, who has launched seven companies.
According to a 2003 report by Robert
Cohen, a Fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute, North
Carolina's grid could create 24,000 jobs and boost the state's
output by $10.1 billion by 2010 if effectively implemented.
Before statewide grids can become a
realit, the software used to share and manage resources needs to
be improved to include more standard communication protocols.
Gentzsch says the expected release of version 4.0 of the open
source Globus Toolkit, which he estimates is used by 90 percent
of grid projects, will greatly simplify connecting computers to
the grid.
Securing a location's computing
resources so that only specified resources are made available
for sharing is a significant challenge, Gentzsch says. To
protect data files, institutions must "encrypt everything," and
configure the grid network so that "the CPU cycles are separated
from the disk resources."
Gentzsch estimates that advanced
computing resource utilization is just 25 percent, and grid
computing could increase the efficiency to 75 percent.
"Back to Basics and the Next Big Thing," by Phillip D. Long,
Syllabus, August 2002, pp/ 10-11 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6590
Grid Computing: The Next Big Thing
The next big thing to transform the
Internet is likely to come from work going on with the grid. The
grid is an infrastructure that enables flexible, secure,
coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of
people, institutions, and resources.
It may be useful to recall that the
birth of the Web came from a desire to share research papers
among large numbers of particle physicists doing “big science”
at CERN, the Swiss research center. Tim Berners-Lee’s vision has
changed all our lives. In the world of international science,
its impact has been staggering. Recognizing this, the Joint
Information Systems Council (JISC), the UK analog of the
National Science Foundation, has embarked on a £98 million
project called the Core e-Science Programme, managed by the
Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) on
behalf of the UK Research Councils. The e-Science project
proposes to connect scientists with expensive remote facilities,
teraflop computers, and information resources stored in
dedicated databases. Add to these resources higher level
services such as workflow, transactions, data mining, and
knowledge discovery, and you begin to glimpse what’s envisioned.
The grid is the architecture proposed to make this a reality.
What kinds of research are we talking
about? Everything from particle physics (what goes around comes
around) to basic medical investigation. For example, our
understanding of even basic human physiology remains terribly
limited. We don’t know how multiple parameters interact over
time in fundamental processes like heart rate, blood pressure,
and other cardiovascular indicators. Imagine if 100,000 people
volunteered to wear real-time monitoring devices so that their
daily metabolic functions were recorded and analyzed in real
time. The volume of data is enormous but that’s just the
beginning. We would want to compare how the data relate to the
activities of the people as they went about their daily lives.
In the end, predicting the likelihood of an impending physical
problem becomes a potential reality. Just like the work underway
to provide predictive intervention for the replacement of
computing hardware, you can imagine high risk heart patients
wearing proactive monitors that page them to head for a cardiac
care unit because the data indicate a potential problem in the
next 24 hours. Today it may seem like science fiction, but with
research using the grid, it’s emerging into possible science
fact.
This may seem far a field from the
classroom. How far it is remains to be seen of course, but there
are people working today on applying the potential of the grid
to learning management or virtual learning environments. Better
descriptions about teaching processes and the learning objects
needed, along with work on metadata for educational objects, are
underway. So stay tuned for more about the “next big thing” in
future columns.
References
Laurillard, D. The Changing
University. 1996.
http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper13/paper13.html
Metadata for Education Group
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/regproj
The full article is at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6590
CLUSTER AND GRID COMPUTING REFERENCES ---
http://www.ic.uff.br/~vefr/research/clcomp/clustrefs.html
"Time to Hop on the Gridwagon," by Daithí Ó hAnluain, Wired
News, July 26, 2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,54098,00.html
"Grid computing was the reserve of 'big
science' five years ago," says Catlett, "But in five years, it
will be completely pedestrian. I was working on a Cray
Supercomputer in 1985, and my laptop would blow it away now!"
That's for the future. In the meantime,
Grids are currently deploying among Fortune 2000 companies to
deal with everything from batch analysis of financial data,
trend analysis of point-of-sale data, and design, engineering
and manufacture automation. Oh, and collaboration as well.
This last may seem a surprising tangent
to the pure processing power that grids typically deliver, but
collaboration and data analysis are two sides of the same
logistical coin. Engineers or scientists are increasingly
collaborating on projects and testing their theories across the
same grid. They are also dealing with terabytes of data.
It's one of the moves that makes
integration with Web services so obvious to grid gurus, like
IBM's Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP of technology strategy.
"Grid computing is really the natural
evolution of the Internet. This is really looking at the
Internet, with all its promise of universal connectivity and
reach, and making it work far better by bringing the qualities
of service that people are used to in enterprise computing, and
... (what) we all have gotten used to in utilities like
electricity (and the) telephone."
Ultimately, then, the grid could
provide computing power on a utility model for consumers or
one-off projects or simply as a means to outsource processing.
Nonetheless, big science will still be
a major part of the grid's future. A case in point is the
TeraGrid, which goes live next spring and is set to steal the
No. 2 spot from IBM's ASCI White in the world supercomputer
rankings.
"The Earth Simulator is essentially a
big computer grid," Catlett says. "A bunch of computers put in a
grid to get the power. It's a short step from putting
supercomputers in a grid across the room to doing it across the
country, or across the world."
When completed, the TeraGrid will
include 13.6 teraflops of Linux Cluster computing power
distributed at the four TeraGrid sites, capable of managing and
storing more than 450 terabytes of data. It will be connected
through a network 40 Gbps, which will become a 50 to 80 Gbps
network or 16 times faster than today's fastest research
network.
It will be used for National Science
Foundation-sponsored projects and commercial applications.
So where will it all end? Nowhere in
sight, that's for sure.
"We have the genome sequence and now
we're working on the protein folding, and it won't be long
before the life sciences are looking at whole life systems,"
Baird says. "The nature of grid computing is going to allow for
bigger and bigger science applications. As long as we keep on
putting out more power, people will design better applications
for it."
There will be one paradigm shift that
may be noticed only for what's missing: the end of technology.
"We're entering the post-technology age
where users will be able to get on with what they want to do
without worrying about making the technology work," IBM's Hawk
says.
"It used to be cool to change your own
oil. Now it's not. Soon people won't have to worry about the
technology. Grid computing is what will make that happen."
The other parts of this article are at
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,54098,00.html
"The future of computing: The next big thing?" The
Economist, January 15, 2004 ---
http://www.economist.co.uk/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2352183
IT is increasingly painful to watch
Carly Fiorina, the boss of Hewlett-Packard (HP), as she tries to
explain to yet another conference audience what her new grand
vision of “adaptive” information technology is about. It has
something to do with “Darwinian reference architectures”, she
suggests, and also with “modularising” and “integrating”, as
well as with lots of “enabling” and “processes”. IBM, HP's arch
rival, is trying even harder, with a marketing splurge for what
it calls “on-demand computing”. Microsoft's Bill Gates talks of
“seamless computing”. Other vendors prefer “ubiquitous”,
“autonomous” or “utility” computing. Forrester Research, a
consultancy, likes “organic”. Gartner, a rival, opts for
“real-time”.
Clearly, something monumental must be
going on in the world of computing for these technology titans
simultaneously to discover something that is so profound and yet
so hard to name. What is certainly monumental, reckons Pip
Coburn, an analyst at UBS, is the hype, which concerns, he says,
“stuff that doesn't work yet”. Frank Gens at IDC, another tech
consultancy, quips that, in 2004 at least, “utility” computing
is actually “futility” computing.
Yet as a long-term vision for
computing, what the likes of IBM, Microsoft and HP (and Oracle,
Sun, etc) are peddling is plausible. The question is, how long
will it take? Some day, firms will indeed stop maintaining huge,
complex and expensive computer systems that often sit idle and
cannot communicate with the computers of suppliers and
customers. Instead, they will outsource their computing to
specialists (IBM, HP, etc) and pay for it as they use it, just
as they now pay for their electricity, gas and water. As with
such traditional utilities, the complexity of the supply-systems
will be entirely hidden from users.
ER meets the Matrix The potential for a
computing infrastructure such as this to boost efficiency—and
even to save lives—is impressive. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, an
in-house guru at IBM, pictures an ambulance delivering an
unconscious patient to a random hospital. The doctors go online
and get the patient's data (medical history, drug allergies,
etc), which happens to be stored on the computer of a clinic on
the other side of the world. They upload their scans of the
patient on to the network and crunch the data with the
processing power of thousands of remote computers—not just the
little machine which is all that the hospital itself can
nowadays afford.
For its nuts and bolts, this vision
relies on two unglamorous technologies. The first is “web
services”—software that resides in a big shared “server”
computer and can be found and used by applications on other
servers, even ones far away and belonging to different
organisations. Mr Wladawsky-Berger's hospital would be getting
the patient's info from his home clinic through such a web
service.
The second technology is “grid
computing”. This involves the sharing of processing power. The
best-known example is a “search for extra-terrestrial
intelligence” project called SETI@home, overseen by the
University of California at Berkeley. Nearly 5m people in 226
countries have downloaded a screensaver that makes their
computer available, whenever it is sitting idle, to process
radio signals gathered from outer space. The aim is to find a
pattern that may be from aliens. Mr Wladawsky-Berger's hospital
would similarly crunch patient-data using the internet, or grid,
as if it were a single, giant virtual microprocessor, but for a
more earth-bound purpose.
Both technologies have made great
strides recently. Web services, for instance, need common
standards and protocols. Some basic standards already
exist—awkward acronyms such as XML, SOAP and WSDL provide a
rudimentary grammar to let computers talk to each other. But the
sticking point, says Phillip Merrick, boss of webMethods, one of
the pioneers in the field, has been the many other fiddly but
necessary protocols for security, transaction certification, and
so on. A breakthrough occurred in October, when the two
superpowers, IBM and Microsoft, simply got up on a stage
together and declared what protocols they will use. Dubbed “WS
splat” by the geeks, this ought to speed up the adoption of web
services.
Web services are currently most visible
in the business model of so-called application service
providers. These are firms that offer to host software
applications and databases for customers for a monthly fee—an
analogy would be for firms to do their e-mailing via Yahoo! or
their buying via eBay. The most successful is Salesforce.com, a
San Francisco firm that, as the name says, specialises in
software for managing customer information and marketing leads.
It says that it was poaching so much business from a more
traditional seller of customer-relations software, Siebel
Systems, that Siebel had to adopt the model itself. In October,
Siebel teamed up with IBM and now also offers its software as a
service over the internet.
Nonetheless, this particular form of
web services is overhyped, says Rahul Sood of Tech Strategy
Partners, a consultancy in Silicon Valley. Such services appeal
mostly to small businesses and firms that do not need to
customise their applications very much. For the grander
vision—the on-demand, adaptive, seamless, ubiquitous, organic
sort—a lot more needs to happen.
At the core of the vision is
flexibility—a firm must be able to make its operating costs, and
therefore its computing and information costs, totally variable
so that they go up and down with business volumes. Firms can
improve cost flexibility today, says Mr Sood, but only if they
stick with one vendor, such as IBM, or if they make only one of
their many computing functions (data storage, say) flexible. But
for computing to be bought and sold as a utility, firms must be
able to switch vendors, to do it for all their computing
functions, and with meter-based pricing. All of this will take a
few more years to get right.
Continued in the article.
The Video Game
Revolution (also available from PBS on videotape) ---
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/
This is the story of how a whimsical
invention of the 1960s helped spawn the computer industry as we
know it. Video games have influenced the way children live and
play, forever altered the entertainment industry, and even
affected the way wars are fought. See how it all began and find
out what it means for the future.
When recruiting teens for college
and/or particular careers such as accounting, here's one of the
competitive tools that we have not successfully exploited.
This type of thing is also being successfully employed in recruiting
and training, but does not seem to have widespread success in
educational institutions.
Question
What has become the most successful and most controversial
recruiting tool of the U.S. Army?
Answer
I
viewed the answer to the first question of television.
I watched this while eating breakfast on March 31.
CBS News on March 30, 2004 proclaimed that an Internet game has
become a major recruitment tool. The game that is especially
successful is called America's Army. The official
version of this game is at
http://www.americasarmy.com/
"Army Recruits Video
Gamers," CBS News, March 30, 2004 ---
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/30/eveningnews/main609489.shtml
The
soldiers are real. But they're also actors, staging scenes for
the Army's latest war game.
It's a
video game created by the U.S. Army to win over the hearts and
minds of American teenagers.
And, as
CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta reports, judging by these
faces, mission accomplished.
Game
player Rob Calcagni believes the game is going to work on a lot
of guys his age.
"Definitely, because it's a fun game," says Calcagni.
The
game, "America's Army" has become such an overnight hit, the
Army staged a tournament in New York. Recruiters were waiting at
the door.
"This
is a fantastic recruiting opportunity," says Lt. Col. John
Gillette. "We would like to sign up as many as possible. We are
looking for five to ten."
One of
these teens enlisted after playing the game, the other two are
thinking about it, which is exactly what the creator of
"America's Army" had in mind.
"We
look at all the things that the Army is doing that is under the
control of the Army that captures people's attention and the
game is number one," says the game's creator Col. Casey
Wardynksi.
America's Army has surpassed even the Pentagon's expectations.
It's now the number one online action game in the country. The
Army hasn't seen a recruiting tool this effective since "Be all
that you can be."
But
psychology professor Brad Bushman of the University of Michigan,
a critic of violent video games, complains "America's Army"
isn't real enough.
"War is
not a game," he says.
"The
video game does provide a sanitized view of violence," says
Bushman. "For example, when you shoot someone or when you are
shot you see a puff of blood; you don't see anyone suffering or
writhing in pain."
"Kids
aren't stupid," says Wardynski. "They know if they come into the
army there is a reason that we have rifles and tanks and all
that stuff."
The
players insist they understand the meaning of "game over."
"If you
are going to join the Army, you know the risk," says one gamer,
Bart Koscinski. "In this game you might die like eight times in
like 15 minutes. In real life people know what they are getting
themselves into."
New
editions of "America's Army" are now being developed for home
video game systems -- a move that will deploy even more young
cyber-soldiers to the military's virtual battlefield.
CombatSim.com ---
http://www.combatsim.com/
Welcome
to the web's largest resource of professionally-written articles
and news about military combat simulations and strategy games.
Our archives of news and articles span the golden age of this
category of games from January of 1996 to February of 2003.
DEFENSE COMBAT SIM OLYMPICS
–METHODOLOGIES INCORPORATING THE “CYBER GAMING CULTURE” bu Flack
Maguire, Michael van Lent, Marc Prensky, and Ron W. Tarr ---
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/IITSEC%20Paper%202002%20(536%20V2-Final).pdf
There have been many changes in the past
twenty years in the implementation of simulation and computer
games, including game development, usage
in fixed locations, and event-based experiences both in the
civilian and commercial spaces.
This paper examines each of these three areas individually in
order to predict their likely future
developments. It then evaluates the
dynamic potential for the military that lies at the crossroads
where these trends are merging, and
relates their interaction to the growing popularity of the
online computer gaming experience.
Although
far from a complete study, this paper aims to add to the
discussion of these industry trends.
The paper proposes that there is a strong
benefit to the military for recruiting, pre-training, and
training of active duty members
through the combination of :
·
Choosing, building, or modifying effective combat simulation
games for military use.
·
Operating computer game competitions with significant
military presence – similar to the air shows of
today
– for event-based and location-based computer gaming
competitions
·
Using the combined venues of (a) online gaming competitions,
(b) location-based game centers, and (c)
large
scale gaming competitions
·
Operating under the sports model of Leagues (by appropriate
military warfare specialty for each League)
and
further dividing the Leagues into competing Divisions.
By reaching out in this way to a wider
spectrum of possibilities for including the cyber entertainment
culture, the military will, we
predict, experience benefits in recruiting, pre-training, and
training, making further use of the
compelling attraction of computer games that has been
demonstrated by games’ recent rise to a predominant role
for military age people in our society.
"Computer Games Liven Up
Military Recruiting, Training," by Harold Kennedy, National
Defense Magazine, November 2002 ---
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/article.cfm?Id=967
Computer games—which entertain millions of U.S. teenagers—are
beginning to breathe fresh life into military recruiting and
training.
Earlier
this year, for example, the U.S. Army launched a new computer
game—called “America’s Army”—over the Internet.
Aimed
at encouraging teens to join up, it enables players to
experience both basic and advanced training, join a combat unit
and fight in a variety of environments, including arctic Alaska,
upstate New York and a third-world city.
Players
can fire on a rifle range, run an obstacle course, attend sniper
school, train in urban combat and parachute from a C-17
transport.
The
game accurately depicts military equipment, training and the
real-life movements of soldiers, said Lt. Col. George Juntiff,
Army liaison officer to the Modeling, Virtual Environment and
Simulation (MOVES) Institute, at the Naval Postgraduate School
in Monterey, Calif., which developed the game.
“America’s Army” features sound effects by moviemaker George
Lucas’ company, SkyWalker, and Dolby Digital Sound. In addition,
sound effects from the movie “Terminator II” were provided at no
charge.
The
game is getting considerable attention. During its first two
weeks, more than a million Americans downloaded the game for
free, Juntiff said.
“That’s
an enormous number,” he said. “It’s the largest release in
computer game history.”
Even
more people are likely to acquire the game starting in October,
Juntiff said, when the Army was scheduled to begin distributing
it as a free CD set to a target audience over the age of 13. The
developers plan to upgrade the game every month to attract new
players, he said.
Actually, “America’s Army” consists of two separate
games—”Soldiers,” a role-player based on Army values, and
“Operations,” a shooter game that takes players on combat
missions. It was developed and distributed at a cost of $7.5
million by MOVES and the U.S. Military Academy’s Office of
Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point, N.Y.
The
computer game is a “very cost-effective” way to reach potential
recruits, especially compared to television advertising, said
Maj. Chris Chambers, OEMA deputy director. “It is also a more
detailed means of showing the American people what we do.”
The
game also puts the Army in a positive light, said Juntiff. “It
lets people know the Army is high-tech. It’s not what they see
in the movies.”
The
game, in addition, raises ethical issues, Juntiff said. “The
game sets rules of engagement, and if you violate those rules,
you pay the price.”
Once
they enlist, recruits, these days, can expect to encounter
computer games throughout their military training, said Michael
R. Macedonia, senior scientist for the U.S. Army Simulation,
Training and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM), headquartered in
Orlando, Fla. Even well-known commercial games have been adapted
for military use, he told National Defense.
That
process began, he said, in the 1980s, when the Army modified the
Atari tank battle game, “Battlezone,” to let it have gunner
controls similar to those of a Bradley Infantry Fighting
Vehicle. The idea, he explained, was to enhance the eye-hand
coordination of armor crews.
Then,
in the mid-1990s, the Marines edited the commercial version of
the three-dimensional game “Doom” to create “Marine Doom,” to
help train four-man fire teams in urban combat.
More
recently, the Army’s Soldier Systems Center, in Natick, Mass.,
has commissioned the games developer, Novalogic, of Calabasas,
Calif., to modify the popular Delta Force 2 game to help
familiarize soldiers with the service’s experimental Land
Warrior system.
The
Land Warrior system includes a self-
contained computer and radio unit, a global-positioning
receiver, a helmet-mounted liquid-
character display and a modular weapons array that adds thermal
and video sights and laser ranging to the standard M-4 carbine
and M-16A2 rifle.
A
customized version of another computer game, Microsoft Flight
Simulator, is issued to all Navy student pilots and
undergraduates enrolled in Naval Reserve Officer Training
Courses at 65 colleges around the nation. The office of the
Chief of Naval Education and Training has installed the software
at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, and plans to
install it at two other bases in Florida.
LB&B
Associates, of Columbia, Md., has modified the game engine from
author Tom Clancy’s best-selling computer game, “Rainbow Six
Rogue Spear,” to train U.S. combat troops in urban warfare. The
game—marketed by Ubi Soft Entertainment, of San Francisco—is
based one of Clancy’s military novels.
The new
version—which is still being developed—will not be used to
improve marksmanship, but to sharpen decision-making skills at
the small-unit level, said Michael S. Bradshaw, LB&B’s Systems
Division manager. LB&B has completed a proof-of-concept version,
which “worked brilliantly,” Bradshaw said. The project, he
explained, has been turned over to the Institute for Creative
Technology for final development.
Continued in the
article
October 4, 2005 Message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
PAPERS ON THE UNIVERSITY AND THE
INTERNET
EDUCAUSE is making available online, at
no cost, THE INTERNET AND THE UNIVERSITY: FORUM 2004. The book
is a collection of papers from the Forum's 2004 Aspen Symposium.
The papers cover three areas: technology and globalization,
technology and scholarship, and technology and the brain. The
book is available in PDF format at
http://www.educause.edu/apps/forum/iuf04.asp .
The Forum on the Internet and the
University "seeks to understand how the Internet and new
learning media can improve the quality and condition of
learning, as well as the opportunities and risks created by
rapid technological innovation and economic change."
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association
whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the
intelligent use of information technology. The current
membership comprises more than 1,900 colleges, universities, and
educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with
15,000 active members. EDUCAUSE has offices in Boulder, CO, and
Washington, DC. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at
http://www.educause.edu/.
......................................................................
ACADEMIC COMMONS
In August the Center of Inquiry in the
Liberal Arts at Wabash College launched the Academic Commons --
a website offering "a forum for investigating and defining the
role that technology can play in liberal arts education." In
addition to publishing essays and reviews and showcasing
innovative projects, the site also offers the Developer's Kit,
an area for sharing project descriptions and pieces of code, and
LoLa Exchange, which shares high-quality learning objects. The
Academic Commons is available at
http://www.academiccommons.org/ .
The mission of the Center of Inquiry in
the Liberal Arts at Wabash College is "to explore, test, and
promote liberal arts education . . . [and] to ensure that the
nature and value of liberal arts education is widely understood
and to reestablish the central place of the liberal arts in
higher education."
For more information about the Center: email:
liberalarts@wabash.edu
; Web:
http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/ .
......................................................................
MORE ON GAMES AS LEARNING TOOLS
The July 2005 issue of CIT Infobits
presented a roundup of articles on computer games as learning
tools ("Games Children Play,"
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitjul05.html#4 ).
For more on this topic, see the special
issue of INNOVATE (vol. 1, issue 6, August/September 2005) which
is devoted to the "role of video game technology in current and
future educational settings." Papers include:
"What Would a State of the Art
Instructional Video Game Look Like?" by J. P. Gee, Department of
Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Changing the Game: What Happens When
Video Games Enter the Classroom?" by Kurt Squire, Assistant
Professor of Educational Technology, University of
Wisconsin-Madison
"Game-Informed Learning: Applying
Computer Game Processes to Higher Education" by Michael Begg,
David Dewhurst, and Hamish Macleod, University of Edinburgh
The entire issue is available online at
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=issue&id=9 .
You may need to register on the Innovate
website to access papers; there is no charge for registration
and access.
Innovate [ISSN 1552-3233] is a
bimonthly, peer-reviewed online periodical published by the
Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova
Southeastern University. The journal focuses on the creative use
of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes
in academic, commercial, and government settings. Readers can
comment on articles, share material with colleagues and friends,
and participate in open forums. For more information, contact
James L. Morrison, Editor-in-Chief, Innovate;
email: innovate@nova.edu
; Web:
http://www.innovateonline.info/ .
Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment and learning games
(including video games) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Important Distance Education Site
The Sloan Consortium ---
http://www.aln.org/
The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning
organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will
become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for
anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.
January 25, 2005 message from News Update
[campustechnology@newsletters.101com.com]
Internet Study Predicts Aptitude
Will Drive Class Composition
A sweeping survey of nearly 1,300
technology experts and scholars on the future of the Internet
has concluded - not surprisingly - that the Internet would reach
into and influence every corner of American life over the next
10 years. The study, released under the auspices of Elon
University and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, paints
a picture of a digital future that enhances the lives of many
but which also contains some worrisome notes.
For instance, over half of the
respondents predicted the Internet would spawn "a new age of
creativity" and that formal education would incorporate more
online classes, with students grouped by interests and skills,
rather than by age. At the same time, two-thirds predicted a
devastating attack on the country's network infrastructure would
occur or in the next 10 years, and that government and business
surveillance would rise dramatically.
Full results of the survey can be found on the Web at
http://www.elon.edu/predictions
TechKnowLogia ---
http://www.techknowlogia.org/
TechKnowLogia
is an international online journal that provides policy makers,
strategists, practitioners and technologists at the local, national
and global levels with a strategic forum to:
Explore the
vital role of different information technologies (print,
audio, visual and digital) in the development of human and
knowledge capital;
Share policies,
strategies, experiences and tools in harnessing technologies
for knowledge dissemination, effective learning, and
efficient education services;
Review the
latest systems and products of technologies of today, and
peek into the world of tomorrow; and
Exchange
information about resources, knowledge networks and centers
of expertise.
- Do
Technologies Enhance Learning?
-
Brain Research, Learning and Technology
-
Technologies at Work for:
Critical Thinking, Science Instruction, Teaching Practices,
etc...
-
Interactive TV as an Educational Tool
-
Complexity of Integrating ICTs into Curriculum & Exams
- Use
of Digital Cameras to Enhance Learning
-
Creating Affordable Universal Internet Access
Bob Jensen's threads on education technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Corporations are starting to salivate over grid computing's
potential for massive storage and processing power. Its creators --
tech and science geeks -- look forward to a new era ---
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57231,00.html
For years, connecting university and research-center
supercomputers so they could share resources simply wasn't feasible.
New standards are changing that and opening the door to new research
possibilities ---
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57265,00.html
Answer 2 ---
The Intellectual Supermarket as Conceived Today by
Fathom (Columbia University and its Fathom Partners)
"The Intellectual Supermarket," by Ada Demb, Educause Review,
July/August 2002, pp. 12-22 ---
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0240.pdf
Higher
education requires a new model, one that can operate alongside
the old model but that will expand the capacity and explode the
boundaries of the industry with its new assumptions:
-
Higher education can be accessed directly by any individual,
without the intermediary of an institution. Supported
by technology, higher education can achieve society's
long-term goal of population-wide, universal access.
-
The demand for educational programming will far exceed the
capacity of current institutions. Designers of
educational programs are unlikely to know the
characteristics of the learners who will be accessing their
material.
-
Educational programming will be of a more general
nature--modularized and accessible to a general audience,
much as is television.
- In
the context of lifelong learning, individuals will seek
education intermittently, as somewhat unrelated "events,"
over a much longer timeframe than is commonly
associated even with part-time degree work. The
learner's objectives are likely to be situationally defined
by personal or professional knowledge needs.
-
Attracted by this potential market, and enabled by the lower
barriers to entry, new providers will enter the
market--providers from outside the current educational
system.
-
The value of a brand name will be determined by the value to
the learner as much as it will be by a third party that
seeks certification.
- As
a result, radically new ways of assessing and "certifying"
learning outcomes will be needed.
The
Supermarket Analogy
By
contrast with the assumptions of the current system--a very
orderly context in which quality has been tightly
controlled--the proposed assumptions for the new model may
appear to lead to a chaotic mix of undisciplined entrepreneurial
efforts. To examine whether this new model might be a
future worth pursuing, we need a radical analogy for the higher
education industry. The analogy should be consistent with
the new assumptions and should also raise provocative questions
about possible future scenarios. An unlikely possibility
can offer insights and images for exploring this new territory:
the food-retailing industry--in particular, the supermarket.
Nine characteristics of the supermarket yield a provocative
comparison with higher education:
-
Most products in the supermarket can be characterized as
commodities: there is a minimum standard of quality the
product must meet in order to be fit for sale; beyond that
minimum, competition occurs on the basis of price and of
perceived differences in quality. Profit margins on
individual products are very small; profits are generated by
volume of sales.
-
The supermarket manager and the customer are always looking
for better-tasting, cheaper, more-nutritious goods yielding
larger profit margins.
-
The supermarket represents the quintessential example of the
movement from full-service to self-service. The
customer chooses the fruit, weighs the fruit, packages the
fruit, and then takes the fruit to the check-out line to
pay.
-
The supermarket does not take responsibility for the quality
of the customer's diet or overall physical or financial
health. The supermarket offers a fantastic array of
goods, but it is up to the customer to make order from that
array and to select items that form some sort of coherent
diet or meal plan.
-
The supermarket tailors its product line to the geographic
area it serves, but generally it offers both low- and
high-end products.
-
The customer's safety and capacity for judgment are
supported by related regulation and markets: (a) the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration and state departments of
health, which oversee the food supply from point of origin
through processing and packaging to store delivery and
purchase; (b) labeling, which details the nutritional value
of foods on packaged goods as required by law; and (c)
nutrition, food, and diet consumer education, which is
supplied through a variety of media, including schools,
public programming, and private publishing groups such as
hospitals and for-profit publications on diet and health.
-
Consumers can turn to a range of services for more
personalized attention, from health spas to personal
nutritional advisors, books and magazines, or simply
restaurants.
-
Brand names, including supermarket brands, are related to
quality and are supported by both research and advertising.
They are evaluated by independent consumer groups, although
not systematically.
-
Food producers and processors are, for the most part,
independent of the distribution system in the United States.
The "system" that has brought Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup
into supermarkets for almost one hundred years is held
together by buyer-supplier market relationships.
The
power of the supermarket analogy is revealed more fully when
undergraduate education and lifelong learning skills are
considered separately from graduate education or professional
certification. Undergraduate education as presently
offered in the United States is a commodity. The larger
higher education institutions opened up access and kept costs
(and therefore tuition) down by creating lecture courses that
could accommodate many students at one time. Even when
these lecture courses are broken down into recitation sessions
or when these institutions hire more faculty to offer smaller
classes, the basic curriculum remains the same. This is
"mass education"--higher education in the manner of Henry Ford.
There are certain minimum standards that must be met; however,
beyond those, students are choosing on the basis of price and
perceived differences in brand names. Separating
undergraduate education into its two primary components--general
education and the major--and then applying the perspective of
the supermarket analogy leads to some startling conclusions
about possible transformations of the production and
distribution system for higher education at the undergraduate
level.
Continued at
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0240.pdf
To this I might add the increasing movement for colleges and
universities to offer certificate programs in addition to
traditional degree programs. In Fall 2002, the graduate school
of business at the University of Rochester commenced a six-course
certificate program to complement its two-year MBA program.
Major universities such as Stanford University, Columbia University,
and Carnegie-Mellon are now trading on their prestige names to rake
in hundreds of millions of dollars in training programs, especially
in computer science, engineering, and information technology
training courses. Virtually all of the top business schools
have executive development certificate programs both onsite and
online.
By the Year 2025, traditional degree programs may account for
less than ten percent of the revenues of major universities who
become part of the trend for education as well as training
certificates. The "traditional one-size fits all" bachelor,
masters, and PhD degrees will fade in importance as resumes of the
future will be built upon education achievement certificates in
humanities, science, and the professions.
Top Ten Emerging
Technologies According to CFO Magazine
THE
NEED-TO-KNOW LIST
1.
XBRL
2. Business Intelligence
3. Wireless Connectivity
4. Grid Computing
5. Multivariable Testing (MVT)
6. Digital Cryptography
7. Rich Media
8. Internet2
9. Biometrics
10. Small Technology
I used the following quotation in 1994 at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/215ach06.pdf
No one has been more wrong about
computerization than George Orwell in 1984. So far, nearly
everything about the actual possibility-space that computers
have created indicates they are not the beginning of authority
but its end. In the process of connecting everything to
everything, computers elevate the power of the small player.
They make room for the different, and they reward small
innovations. Instead of enforcing uniformity, they promote
heterogeneity and autonomy. Instead of sucking the soul from
human bodies, turning computer users into an army of dull
colons, networked computers --- by reflecting the networked
nature of our brains --- encourage the humanism of their users.
Because they have taken on the flexibility, adaptability, and
self-connecting governance of organic systems, we become more
human, not less so, when we use them.
Birkerts, S. (1994). “The electric hive: two views,” Readings,
May, 17-25.
August 23, 2002 reply from Miklos Vasarhelyi
[miklosv@ANDROMEDA.RUTGERS.EDU]
Education and its future Prospects (Trends)
Institutional
-
Consolidation of educational institutions
(universities will merge)
-
States will tend to bring its several university
entities together · Super state consortia will
emerge · There will be a “career university
sector” with
-
For profit universities
-
Virtual Universities (associated or not with
existing ones) ·
-
New copyright policies, royalties for distance
learning a la the sale of a book
-
Faculty that develop a course will have
royalties rights to it
-
Universities will have the right, without
paying royalties, to use these courses
either locally or in any extended
activities
-
Organizations will have to emerge to take
education to the outer limits of current
civilization
-
The economics are such that the incremental
cost of providing usage over broadband of
highly sophisticated learning materials is
very small
-
Consequently once packages are assembled,
and their production is very expensive,
their marginal cost of utilization is close
to zero
-
Consequently model will emerge from free to
free for ‘used materials’, to name your
price, to pay over your professional career
-
Content pricing models as currently evolving
over the net and e commerce will also rule
education
-
Some states may decided to develop or
acquire educational content and make it
available for free
-
Alternate professor’s career will emerge
-
Tenure will become less common
-
A large number of faculty will emerge
as supporting faculty for modules prepared
and delivered from elsewhere
Pedagogic
-
Extensive usage of distance methods to ‘extend
the classroom’ even in traditional courses
-
Usage of mixed extended medium with many tools
-
Change in the nature of faculty control
-
Less prep time
-
Modularized content re-used in different
modules
-
Different delivery approaches
-
Separation of content and delivery
-
The best deliverers are not the best content
preparers
-
Substantive investment in packaging the
modules (that will go into several courses)
·
-
Link between courses and content for courses
will be broken
-
Package and offer content resources in
varying sizes and depths in unlimited
combinations
-
Publishers are moving now to build large
databases of content on the Web
-
These databases of content are attractive
portals for discipline knowledge ·
-
The nature of assessment will substantially
change from block tests to micro testing and
learning diagnostic tools that dynamically
change the students tasks based on the
measurement of their progress thru the distance
learning materials
-
There will be tremendous demand for the
development of both intelligent learning
assessment tools (e.g. devices that can read
an open ended exam answer, comment on it and
assess it) and information / knowledge
structure along which atoms of knowledge can
be measured and learning modules re-required
for students.
Tools
-
Teaching and learning management software
systems will be linked to their back office
administrative systems
-
Web course management tool
-
Student tracking and collaboration tools
-
An entire suite of learning aids, personal bots
will emerge
-
Personal digital assistants
-
Summarizers, finders, connectors, learners
-
The wide gulf between students and practitioners
will be narrowed by education coming to the
desktop and practicing experts made available
for testimonials, examples, actual observation
of behavior through broadband methods
-
For example a lesson about geology and oil
exploration may bring students to visually
observe man at work on oil platforms, or
drilling, or analyzing data, etc.
-
For example, while discussing strategy for
dot.com companies the CEO’s of these
companies can be brought in through
broadband to state their views or video
prepared showing facilities, products,
customers buying, etc..
-
Translation automation will allow for
substantial expansion of content markets.
-
Language will continue to be a barrier for
ubiquitous education · Physical libraries
will be transformed into study areas for
students in residential colleges (much
reduced in number) while enormous digital
libraries with most books also encompassing
video and audio and collaboration settings
will be made available for students
everywhere
Faculty
-
Highly more specialized researchers and content
developers will complement each other
-
Subsidy for research thru blind funding of
faculty salaries will become more difficult once
legislators realize that much of the delivery
will come form elsewhere
Environment
-
Tools for teaching and learning will become as
portable and ubiquitous as papers and books are
today
-
Teaching and learning anywhere any time
-
A larger percentage of content will age
rapidly
-
Alternate models for paying for education will
evolve with less of government subsidies and
more on the desk training paid by employers
-
Students will be savvy consumers with
substantive amount of choice
-
Increased level of student activism
-
Degrees may be obtained with a much
increased level of institutional mix
(courses from multiple universities)
-
Learning is moving off campus: to the home,
the workplace, the field, or wherever the
learner is
-
Students will pick up and piece together
certifications, skill sets, and knowledge
sets
|
Answer 3
--- Podcasting and
Blogs
Weblog (Blog)
Weblog = Blog =
What?
Also see
Podcasting at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#ResourceDescriptionFramework
Answer from
Whatis.com ---
A Weblog (which is sometimes
written as "web log" or "weblog") is a Web site of personal or
non-commercial origin that uses a dated log format that is
updated on a daily or very frequent basis with new information
about a particular subject or range of subjects. The information
can be written by the site owner, gleaned from other Web sites
or other sources, or contributed by users. A
Web log often has the quality of
being a kind of "log of our times" from a particular
point-of-view. Generally, Weblogs are devoted to one or several
subjects or themes, usually of topical interest, and, in
general, can be thought of as developing commentaries,
individual or collective on their particular themes. A Weblog
may consist of the recorded ideas of an individual (a sort of
diary) or be a complex collaboration open to anyone. Most of the
latter are moderated discussions.
Listing of Accounting Blogs
Among the millions of Web logs
permeating the Internet, there are some by and for accountants worth
checking out. This article includes an Accounting Blog List that you
can download, bookmark or print.
Eva M. Lang, "Accountants Who Blog," SmartPros, July 2005
---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x49035.xml
Bloggers will love TagCloud
Now, many bloggers are turning to a new service called
TagCloud
that lets them cherry-pick articles in RSS feeds by key words -- or
tags -- that appear in those feeds. The blogger selects the RSS
feeds he or she wants to use, and also selects tags. When a reader
clicks on a tag, a list of links to articles from the feeds
containing the chosen keyword appears. The larger the tag appears
onscreen, the more articles are listed.
Daniel Terdiman, "RSS Service Eases Bloggers' Pain," Wired News,
June 27, 2005 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_8
Weblog software use
grows daily -- but bloggers abandon sites and launch new ones as
frequently as J.Lo goes through boyfriends. Which makes taking an
accurate blog count tricky ---
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54740,00.html
Some eight million Americans now
publish blogs and 32 million people read them, according to the Pew
Internet & American Life Project. What began as a form of public
diary-keeping has become an important supplement to a business's
online strategy: Blogs can connect with consumers on a personal
level -- and keep them visiting a company's Web site regularly.
Riva Richmond, "Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back," The
Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2005; Page B8 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110963746474866537,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Want to start your own blog? BlogBridge ---
http://www.blogbridge.com/
What Blogs Cost
American Business, Ad Age
What Blogs Cost American Business
In 2005, Employees Will Waste 551,000 Work Years Reading ThemBy
Bradley Johnson LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Blog this: U.S. workers
in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs.
About 35 million workers -- one in four people in the labor force --
visit blogs and on average spend 3.5 hours, or 9%, of the work week
engaged with them, according to Advertising Age's analysis. Time
spent in the office on non-work blogs this year will take up the
equivalent of 2.3 million jobs. Forget lunch breaks -- bloggers
essentially take a daily...
Bradley Johnson, "What Blogs Cost American Business, Ad Age,
October 25, 2005 ---
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=46494#
Time Magazine's
choice of the 50 Coolest Websites for 2005 ---
http://www.time.com/time/2005/websites/
How do we come up with
our 50 best? Short answer: we take your suggestions,
probe friends and colleagues about their favorite
online haunts and then surf like mad. This year's
finalists are a mix of newcomers, new discoveries
and veterans that have learned some new tricks
|
|
Question
Does blogging hurt my chances for advancement?
See "Serious Bloggers," by Jeff Rice, Inside Higher Ed,
February 20, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/02/20/rice
Blog Navigation
Software
Blog Navigator is a new program
that makes it easy to read blogs on the Internet. It integrates into
various blog search engines and can automatically determine RSS
feeds from within properly coded websites.
Blog Navigator 1.2
http://www.stardock.com/products/blognavigator/
It's easy to start
your own blog. Jim Mahar's great blog was set up at
http://www.blogger.com/start
You too can set one up for free like Jim had done.
There are many other alternatives other than blogger.com for
setting up a free blog. See below.
BlogBridge ---
http://www.blogbridge.com/
Microsoft will open a
free consumer blogging service, its latest attempt to attract more
users to its MSN online service and away from rivals such as Google.
Question
A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old
and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S.
dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the
year.
What is that word?
Answer
BLOG
The other nine top words are discussed at CNN, November 30, 2004 ---
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/11/30/words.of.the.year.reut/
April 22,
2005 letter from Amy Dunbar
[Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]
I would like some advice on what news aggregator to
use for RSS feeds. I read the BusinessWeek Online article on blogs
this morning, and it piqued my interest
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm?c=bwinsiderapr22&n=link1&t=email
The
BusinessWeek Online blog,
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/
gave a link to
various blog RSS feed in a side menu:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/News_Readers/
Is anyone using blogs in classes? Any advice
on how to set up links to RSS feeds?
Thanks,
Amy Dunbar
UConn
Reply from Bob
Jensen
Hi Amy,
I don’t use blogs in class and only find time to
visit a few each week
For RSS feeds, look at the left hand column at
http://www.rss-specifications.com/blog.htm
Bob Jensen
"MBA Blogs,"
Business Week, September 12, 2005 ---
http://snipurl.com/MBAblog
You're invited you to join BW Online's new MBA Blog feature as a
guest blogger
STORY TOOLS Printer-Friendly Version E-Mail This Story
Our upcoming MBA Blog feature is an online community where you can
interact and share your pursuits of an MBA, job search, life as a
grad student, and much more. Whether you want to create your own web
log online, exchange advice, or launch a professional network - come
join our MBA Blog ---
http://mbablogs.businessweek.com/
The innovation that sends blogs zinging
into the mainstream is
RSS, or Really Simple
Syndication. Five years ago, a blogger named Dave Winer, working
with software originally developed by Netscape, created an
easy-to-use system to turn blogs, or even specific postings, into
Web feeds. With this system, a user could subscribe to certain
blogs, or to key words, and then have all the relevant items land at
a single destination. These personalized Web pages bring together
the music and video the user signs up for, in addition to news.
They're called "aggregators." For now, only about 5% of Internet
users have set them up. But that number's sure to rise as Yahoo and
Microsoft plug them.
Business Week, April 22, 2005 --- ,
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/
"Controversy at Warp
Speed," by Jeffrey Selingo, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
April 29, 2005, Page A27
The deluge of messages left Mr. Corrigan wondering how so many
people had found out about such a small skirmish on his campus.
So his assistant poked around on the Web and discovered that six
days after the protest, a liberal blog (http://sf.indymedia.org) run
by the
San Francisco Independent
Media Center
had posted an article headlined "Defend Free Speech Rights at
San Francisco State
University" that included Mr. Corrigan's
e-mail address.
It was not the first time that Mr. Corrigan has been electronically
inundated after a campus incident. Three years ago he received
3,000 e-mail messages after a pro-Israel rally was held at the
university.
EVERYONE HAS A BEEF
Conflicts on campus are nothing new, of course. But colleges
today are no longer viewed as ivory towers. Institutions of
all sizes and types are under greater scrutiny than ever before from
lawmakers, parents, taxpayers, students, alumni, and especially
political partisans. Empowered by their position or by the
fact that they sign the tuition checks, they do not hesitate to use
any available forum to complain about what is happening at a
particular institution.
In this Internet age, information travels quickly and easily, and
colleges have become more transparent, says Collin G. Brooke, an
assistant professor of writing at Syracuse University, who studies
the intersection between rhetoric and technology. Many
universities' Web sites list the e-mail addresses of every employee,
from the president on down, enabling unencumbered access to all of
them.
"That was not possible 10 years ago," Mr. Brooke says. "Maybe
I'd go to a library, find a college catalog, and get an address.
Then I'd have to write a letter. Now it's easy to whip off a
couple of sentences in an e-mail when it takes only a few seconds to
find that person's address."
Continued in article
Student Blogs
"What Your College
Kid Is Really Up To," by Steven Levy, Time Magazine, December
13, 2004, Page 12
Aaron Swartz was nervous when I
went to interview him. I know this is not because he told
me, but because he said so on his student blog a few days
afterward. Swartz is one of millions of people who
mainstream an Internet-based Weblog that allows one to punch in
daily experiences as easily as banging out diary entries with a
word processor. Swartz says the blog is meant to help him
remember his experiences during an important time for him ---
freshman year at Stanford. But this opens up a window to
the rest of us.
Continued in the
article.
See
http://www.aaronsw.com/
"Microsoft Begins
Free 'Blogging'," by Robert A. Guth, The Wall Street Journal,
December 2, 2004, Page D7 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110194455538888633,00.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news
Microsoft Corp. today will open a
free consumer "blogging" service, its latest attempt to attract
more users to its MSN online service and away from rivals such
as Google Inc.
Called MSN Spaces, the service will
allow consumers to create Web logs, or blogs, that include
pictures, music and text. Blogs are personal Web sites and
opinion journals that have gained popularity in recent years.
Early blogs focused largely on technology and politics, but
millions of computer users have now at least experimented with
the form.
It's been said that
newspapers write the first draft of history, but now there are
blogs. These days, online scribes often get the news before it's fit
to print ---
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56978,00.html
Blogs Help You Cope
With Data Overload -- If You Manage Them," by Thomas E. Weber,
The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2004, Page B1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html
If you're an information junkie,
you've probably discovered the appeal of reading weblogs, those
online journals that mix commentary with links to related sites.
Obsessive blog creators scour the Internet for interesting
tidbits in news stories, announcements and even other blogs,
culling the best and posting links. A good blog is like the
friend who always points out the best stories in the newspaper.
More and more, though, the growth
of blogs is increasing rather than reducing information
overload. By some estimates, the number of blogs out there is
nearing three million. It isn't just amateurs either: Start-up
media companies are creating blogs, too. Gawker, for example,
publishes the gadgets journal Gizmodo (
www.gizmodo.com
) and Wonkette (
www.wonkette.com ), devoted to inside-the-Beltway gossip.
To help juggle all those blogs,
I've started playing around with a relatively new phenomenon
called a newsreader. Rather than forcing you to jump from one
blog to another to keep up with new entries, newsreaders bring
together the latest postings from your favorite blogs in a
single place.
That's possible because many blogs
now publish their entries as news "feeds." These are Web formats
that make it easy for a newsreader program (or another Web site)
to grab and manipulate individual postings. For a blog
publisher, it's like sending out entries on a news wire service.
To tell whether a site offers a news feed, look for a small icon
labeled "RSS" or "Atom."
I've tested a number of popular
newsreaders. At their best, they give you a customized online
newspaper that tracks the blogs you're interested in. But using
them is only worthwhile if you're willing to invest some time
upfront getting organized.
Newsreaders come in several
varieties. One is a stand-alone software program you install on
your PC. In that category, FeedDemon ($29.95 from Bradbury
Software) is especially powerful, with extensive options for
customizing the way news feeds appear on your screen.
Other newsreaders integrate news
feeds into your e-mail on the theory that mail has become the
catchall information center for many users. NewsGator ($29 from
NewsGator Technologies) pulls feeds into Microsoft Outlook,
while Oddpost (www.oddpost.com)
combines blog feeds with an excellent Web-based e-mail service
for $30 a year. For Mac users, Apple just announced it will
include newsreader functions in the next version of its Safari
Web browser -- a sign of how important the news-feed approach is
becoming.
Overall, I had the best experience
with a service called Bloglines, and I recommend it, especially
for beginners. Bloglines (www.bloglines.com)
works as a Web service, which means there's no software to
install and you can catch up with your blogs from any Web
browser. You're no longer tied to the bookmarks on a particular
PC, so you can check postings from home, work or on the road.
The service is also free. Mark Fletcher, CEO of Trustic Inc.,
which operates Bloglines, tells me the site will use unobtrusive
Google-style ads to bring in revenue.
After starting an account, you
enter the blogs you want to track. When you visit Bloglines,
your blog list will appear on the left side of the screen, along
with a notation telling the number of new postings since your
last visit; clicking on a blog pulls the new postings into a
right-side window. The beauty of this is that you don't waste
time visiting blogs that haven't posted new entries.
Of course, it's all pointless
without interesting blogs to read. The best way to find great
blogs is to follow your curiosity, tracking back links on blogs
you visit. Here are a few to get you started:
GENERAL INTEREST:
Boing Boing (www.boingboing.net)
is one of the Web's most established blogs, and one of its most
popular, too. By "general interest," I mean of general interest
to your average Internet-obsessed technophile. The focus isn't
explicitly on technology, but expect it to skew in that
direction -- over a recent week, posting topics included robots,
comic books and a cool-looking electric plug.
ECONOMICS:
EconLog (econlog.econlib.org)
offers a thoughtful and eclectic diary of economics, tackling
both newsy developments (the real-estate market, taxes) and
theory. It also includes a list of other good economics blogs --
there are more than you might think.
GADGETS:
Engadget (www.engadget.com)
can be counted on for a good half-dozen or more news morsels
each day on digital cameras, MP3 players, cellphones and more.
When it isn't the first to stumble across something good, it
isn't shy about linking to another blog with an interesting
post, so it's usually pretty up to date.
POLITICS:
WatchBlog (www.watchblog.com)
has stuck with an interesting concept for more than a year now.
It's actually three blogs in one: separate side-by-side journals
tracking news on the 2004 elections from the perspective of
Democrats, Republicans and independents.
TECHNOLOGY:
Lessig Blog (www.lessig.org/blog).
OK, this one's about politics too. More specifically, it covers
the intersection between regulation and technology. Its author,
Stanford law professor and author Lawrence Lessig, weighs in on
copyright, privacy and other challenging topics in high-tech
society.
Blogging we will, blogging we will go! In Iran?
So what would a really
interesting and exciting piece of qualitative research on blogging
look like? And how would it get around the problems of
overfamiliarity with the phenomenon (on the one hand) and
blogospheric navel-gazing (on the other)? To get an answer, it isn’t
necessary to speculate. Just read “The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging: On
Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan,” by Alireza
Doostdar, which appears in the current issue of American
Anthropologist. A scanned copy is available here. The author is
now working at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard
University, where he will start work on his Ph.D. in social
anthropology and Middle Eastern studies. “Weblogestan” is an
Iranian online slang term for the realm of Persian-language blogs.
(The time has definitely come for it to be adapted, and adopted,
into Anglophone usage.) Over the last two years, Western journalists
have looked at blogging as part of the political and cultural
ferment in Iran — treating it, predictably enough, as a simple
manifestation of the yearning for a more open society. Doostdar
complicates this picture by looking at what we might call the
borders of Veblogestan (to employ a closer transliteration of the
term, as used specifically to name Iranian blogging). In an
unpublished manuscript he sent me last week, Doostdar provides a
quick overview of the region’s population: “There are roughly 65,000
active blogs in Veblogestan,” he writes, “making Persian the fourth
language for blogs after English, Portugese, and French. The topics
for blog entries include everything from personal diaries,
expressions of spirituality, and works of experimental poetry and
fiction to film criticism, sports commentary, social critique, and
of course political analysis. Some bloggers focus on only one of
these topics throughout the life of their blogs, while others write
about a different topic in every new entry, or even deal with
multiple topics within a single entry.”
Scott McLemee , "Travels in Weblogestan," Inside Higher Ed,
March 29, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/03/29/mclemee
Top Executives Are Finding Great Advantages to Using and Running
Blogs
"It's Hard to Manage if You
Don't Blog Business embraces the new medium as executives read—and
write—blogs," by David Kirkpatrick, Fortune Magazine,
October 4, 2004 ---
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,699971,00.html
Jonathan Schwartz, president and
COO of
Sun Microsystems, has recently criticized statements by
Intel executives, mused that IBM might buy Novell, and
complained about a CNET.com article—all by writing a blog on a
Sun website.
Yep, blogs—which are a way to post
text to a website—have found their way into business. Schwartz
is the highest-ranking executive yet to embrace the new medium,
which is burgeoning globally. About 35,000 people read his blog
(http://blogs.sun.com)
in a typical month, including customers, employees, and
competitors. Schwartz encourages
all Sun's 32,000 employees to blog, though only about 100 are
doing it so far. But they include at least three senior managers
other than Schwartz as well as development engineers and
marketers.
The company's most popular blogger
is a marketer known as MaryMaryQuiteContrary. Her blog ranges
from rhapsodies about "proxy-based aspect-oriented programming"
to musings about her desire to become a first-grade class
mother. Says Schwartz: "I don't have the advertising budget to
get our message to, for instance, Java developers working on
handset applications for the medical industry. But one of our
developers, just by taking time to write a blog, can do a great
job getting our message out to a fanatic readership." He adds,
"Blogs are no more mandated at Sun than e-mail. But I have a
hard time seeing how a manager can be effective without both."
Over at
Microsoft, some 1,000 employees blog, says a spokesman,
though no top executives do. Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most
prominent blogger, says via e-mail that "I often link to
bloggers who are not friendly to Microsoft. They know I'm
listening, and that alone improves relationships." Other tech
companies with company blogs include Yahoo, Google, Intuit, and
Monster.com. Even Maytag has a blog.
But businesses are
learning—sometimes the hard way—that this new medium has
pitfalls. David Farrell, Sun's chief compliance officer, notes
that the company will soon require employees to agree to
specific guidelines before starting blogs. Companies are also
worried about unflattering portrayals and leaks. Last year a
Microsoft contract employee posted a photo of the company
receiving a dockful of Apple computers; he was promptly fired. A
Harvard administrator and a software developer at Friendster
were also recently fired after personal blog postings.
(Microsoft, Harvard, and Friendster declined to comment.)
But some managers find that even
more important than writing blogs is reading them. During a
recent conference for Microsoft software developers, top company
executives huddled backstage reading up-to-the-minute blogs
written by the audience to get a sense of how their messages
were being received.
While most people agree on Web logs' value
for promoting student expression and critical thinking in schools,
there's no consensus on the amount of control over access and
content that educators should exercise. Blogs may become more
of an issue in college courses when and if students begin to keep
Weblogs of day to day classes, teacher evaluations, and course
content.
"Classroom Blogs
Raise Issues of Access and Privacy," by Kevin J. Delaney, The
Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2004 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109882944704656461,00.html?mod=technology%5Ffeatured%5Fstories%5Fhs
First graders at Magnolia
Elementary School used a Web log earlier this year to describe
their dream playgrounds. Monkey bars were heartily endorsed, and
live animals and bumper cars also made the cut.
Students in a handful of other
classes at the Joppa, Md., school also used blogs, some trading
riddles about book characters with peers at a school in
Michigan.
Now, county administrators have
frozen the use of blogs in the classroom amid concerns about
oversight of what students might post online. Michael Lackner, a
teacher who jump-started blog use at Magnolia last year, is
optimistic that a technological fix will be found.
But the school's experience
highlights some of the issues that educators and parents face as
blogs -- simple Web sites that follow a diary-like format --
gain entry into the nation's classrooms. While most agree on
blogs' value for promoting student expression, critical thinking
and exchange, there's no consensus on the amount of control over
access and content that educators should exercise. As blogging
spreads, it could revive debates over student expression similar
to those that have cropped up around school newspapers.
The issues surrounding blogging and
related technology in the classroom are "pretty much uncharted,"
says Will Richardson, an educational-blogging advocate and
supervisor of instructional technology and communications at
Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J.
The use of blogs in schools remains
limited but is growing, as scattered programs piloted by
tech-savvy educators generate buzz and followers. Teachers are
attracted to blogging for some of the same reasons blog use has
exploded among techies, political commentators and would-be
pundits. Blogs are cheap, thanks to free or inexpensive software
packages and services -- Hunterdon, for example, pays just $499
a year for software to run hundreds of student blogs. And their
simple format makes them easy to set up. Using tools from Six
Apart Ltd.,
Google Inc. and others, consumers can create a blog in less
than 10 minutes and post messages to it over the Web or by
e-mail. By some estimates, five million or more Americans
already have created their own blogs, with some prominent
bloggers even influencing the news and political agendas.
Students in Mr. Richardson's
high-school journalism classes, for example, never turn in hard
copies of their homework. They post all assignments to
individual blogs. Their blogs also notify them when other
students complete writing assignments, so they can read and
comment on them.
Meredith Fear, 17 years old, has
created two blogs for classes taught by Mr. Richardson. The 12th
grader says posting her work online for others to see motivated
her to do better and increased her parents' involvement in her
education. "I don't often get a chance to talk with her about
school, so having the opportunity to check her blog and see what
she was up to was a great way for me to keep up on things," says
Jonathan Fear, Meredith's father. He adds that was one factor in
overcoming his wife's original concerns that ill-intentioned
outsiders could see Meredith's writings through the blog.
Recognizing such worries, some
teachers at Hunterdon protect blogs with passwords so only they
and their students can see them, particularly for
creative-writing classes for which the subject matter is more
likely to be personal. There are other blogging precautions:
Parents have to sign releases giving permission, and only
students' first names are used online. Mr. Richardson says the
school has hosted more than 500 student blogs in the past three
years without incident.
Mr. Richardson is planning a
session with parents later this fall to teach them about the
technology and set up blogs and Web-text feeds so they can gain
access to a broader range of information from teachers and see
what their children are up to. "Kids like it. And I can see more
enhanced learning on their part," Mr. Richardson says.
At Magnolia, teachers were happy
with their classroom blogging and had plans to expand it this
school year. But Harford County public school officials notified
them this summer that such projects appeared to fall afoul of
policies regulating student communication. In particular, they
were concerned that students and others could post comments to
the blogs before they were reviewed by a teacher.
"What we want to see is a Web log
where a teacher has final control, acts as a filter for any
postings or comments," says Janey Mayo, technology coordinator
for Harford County Public Schools. "We're trying to be very
cautious with this because we're working with kids." School
administrators also want to see further research on whether
blogging has educational value at the elementary-school level,
but so far haven't found any.
Mr. Lackner believes there is
potentially a quick technical fix to the problem: A blogging
service could add a function that would forward any online
comments to a teacher for review before posting them.
Continued in the
article
July 1, 2004 message
from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
THE EDUCATED
BLOGGER
According to
David Huffaker (in "The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to
Promote Literacy in the Classroom," FIRST MONDAY, vol. 9, no. 6,
June 2004), "blogs can be an important addition to educational
technology initiatives because they promote literacy through
storytelling, allow collaborative learning, provide
anytime–anywhere access, and remain fungible across academic
disciplines." In support of his position, Huffaker provides
several examples of blogs being used in classroom settings. The
paper is available online at
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/huffaker/index.html.
First Monday
[ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose aim
is to publish original articles about the Internet and the
global information infrastructure. It is published in
cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois
at Chicago. For more information, contact: First Monday, c/o
Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor,
PO Box 87636, Chicago
IL 60680-0636
USA; email:
ejv@uic.edu; Web:
http://firstmonday.dk/.
-----
Suzanne Cadwell
and Chuck Gray of the University of North Carolina - Chapel
Hill's Center for Instructional Technology have compiled two
feature comparison tables that describe three blogging services
and four blogging applications.
Blogging Services
Feature Comparison
Using a blogging
service generally doesn't require any software other than a web
browser. Users have no administrative control over the software
itself, but have some control over a blog's organization and
appearance. Depending on the particular service, blogs can be
hosted either on the service’s servers or on the server of one’s
choice (e.g.,
www.unc.edu). Users purchasing a paid account with a service
typically will have no banner ads on their blogs, more features
at their disposal, and better customer support from the service.
The Blogging Services Feature Comparison chart is available
http://www.unc.edu/cit/blogs/blogcomparison/services/.
Blogging
Applications Comparison
Downloadable
blogging applications require the user to have access to server
space (e.g.,
www.unc.edu). Most of these applications are comprised of
CGI scripts that must be installed and configured in a user’s
cgi-bin folder. Although they are packaged with detailed
instructions, applications can be difficult to install,
prohibitively so for the novice. Blogging applications afford
users fine-grained control over their blogs, and most
applications are open-source or freeware. The Blogging
Applications Comparison chart is available at
http://www.unc.edu/cit/blogs/blogcomparison/applications/.
Question
What services are available to help you create a blog?
Answer from Kevin
Delaney
"Blogs Can Tie
Families, And These Services Will Get You Started," by Kevin J.
Delaney, The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2004, Page B1
---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html
Online Web logs, or blogs, have
long been a bastion of techy types, those prone to political
rants, and assorted gossips. But now they're making inroads
among families who want to keep up on each other's doings.
Blogs are personal Web sites where
you can post things, including photos, stories and links to
other cool stuff online. They resemble a journal, with
information arranged chronologically based on when you post it.
The simple form is a major virtue -- you don't have to think too
hard about how to organize your blog.
I've used a variety of Web sites in
recent years to share photos of my children with their
grandparents and other family far way. Lately, I've wondered if
it wouldn't be better to put photos, digital videos and other
links I want to share with my family on one Web site, making it
easier to manage and access them from afar.
With this in mind, I've been
testing three of the most popular blogging services, which are
available free or for a small monthly fee.
Blogger, a free service from Google
at www.blogger.com, promises you can create a blog in "three
easy steps." After selecting a user name and password, I chose a
name and a custom Web address. Then I selected a graphic look --
"Dots," a simple design with a touch of fun that seemed right
for a family site -- from 12 attractive templates. After that,
Blogger created my blog. Within a few minutes, I was able to put
a short text message on the site and have Blogger send e-mails
to alert my wife and father of the blog's existence.
Blogger, like the other services,
lets you further customize the organization and look of your
site and put several types of information on it. Sending text to
the blog is as easy as sending an e-mail. (In fact, Blogger and
the other services I tested even let me post text to my blog
using standard e-mail.) A Blogger button on Google's toolbar
software, which must be downloaded and activated separately,
offers the useful option of posting links to other Web sites on
your blog as you surf the Web. Another nice feature lets you
designate friends or family members who can post to the main
blog.
To put photos on any blog hosted by
Blogger, you have to download another free software package from
Picasa called Hello. Hello blocks connections to computers
operating behind what's known as a proxy server, which is a
pretty typical corporate configuration. As a result, I couldn't
upload photos from my work PC, though I was able to do so from
home.
Blogger lacks some advanced
features other services offer. But its main shortcoming is that
it doesn't let you protect your site by requiring visitors to
use a password to enter. I don't want strangers to look at
photos of my kids or search notes I'm writing for family
members. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on any plans
for such a feature, citing restrictions related to the company's
planned initial public offering.
TypePad from Six Apart, at
www.typepad.com, provides a higher-powered service for creating
blogs that does let you password protect your site. You can also
upload a broader range of files, including video clips. But the
tradeoff is a level of complexity that is unnecessarily
frustrating.
The company offers three monthly
subscription rates starting at $4.95. It costs $8.95 a month for
the version that allows you to create photo albums, a feature
that I consider essential for a family blog. Albums allow you to
avoid filling up the main blog site with strings of photos. If
you choose to password protect your blog, though, TypePad won't
let you link your blog directly to photo albums. It's a
surprising shortcoming, and Six Apart doesn't disclose it on its
site. Its support staff gave me complicated instructions for
another way to make such a link, but they never worked for me.
Six Apart Chief Executive Mena
Trott says the photo-album-linking problem is a bug the company
is working to fix. She acknowledges that parts of the service
could be easier to use, and says improvements will be made. She
also says that in practice Six Apart lets most users exceed the
company's miserly limits on blog storage space, which are 100
megabytes for the $8.95-a-month plan.
AOL's Journals service, which
requires an AOL subscription, is about as simple to use as
Blogger. It allows you to restrict public access to your blog
and provides nice albums for grouping photos. If you do decide
to restrict access, your visitors will have to register with
AOL. That registration is free, though, and many people already
have an AOL "screen name" because they use the company's instant
messaging service.
But other advanced features, such
as the button in Blogger for easy linking to Web sites, are
missing. In addition, the layout templates aren't nearly as
attractive graphically as Blogger's and TypePad's. AOL says it's
working on all of these issues, and expects to add a Web linking
button and phase out the registration requirement later this
year.
I'm not completely satisfied with
Journals, and I would be happy to use Blogger or TypePad if they
manage to work out their issues with photo albums and passwords.
In the meantime, though, I've chosen AOL's Journals to create my
family blog.
"WEBLOGS COME TO THE
CLASSROOM," by Scott Carlson, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
November 28, 2003, Page 33
They get used to supplement courses
in writing, marketing, economics, and other subjects
Increasingly, private life is a
public matter. That seems especially true in the
phenomenon known as blogging. Weblogs, or blogs, are used
by scores of online memoirists, editorialists, exhibitionists,
and navel gazers, who post their daily thoughts on Web sites for
all to read.
Now professors are starting to
incorporate blogs into courses. The potential for reaching
an audience, they say, reshapes the way students approach
writing assignments, journal entries, and online discussions.
Valerie M. Smith, an assistant
professor of English at Quinnipiac University, is among the
first faculty members there to use blogs. She sets one up
for each of her creative-writing students at the beginning of
the semester. The students are to add a new entry every
Sunday at noon. Then they read their peers' blogs and
comment on them. Parents or friends also occasionally read
the blogs.
Blogging "raises issues with
audience," Ms. Smith says, adding that the innovation has raised
the quality of students' writing;
"They aren't just writing for me,
which makes them think in terms of crafting their work for a
bigger audience. It gives them a bigger stake in what they
are writing."
A Weblog can be public or available
only to people selected by the blogger. Many blogs serve
as virtual loudspeakers or soapboxes. Howard Dean, a
Democratic presidential contender, has used a blog to debate and
discuss issues with voters. Some blogs have even earned
their authors minor fame. An Iraqi man--known only by a
pseudonym, Salaam Pax--captured attention around the world when
he used his blog to document daily life in Baghdad as American
troops advanced on the city.
Continued in the
article.
"Weblogs: a history
and perspective," Rebecca Blood, Rebecca's Pocket, September
7, 2000 ---
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
In 1998 there were just a handful
of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so
named by Jorn Barger
in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of
Infosift, began
compiling a list of "other sites like his" as he found them in
his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent
that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on
Camworld, and others
maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for
inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page
of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at
the beginning of 1999.
Suddenly a community sprang up. It
was easy to read all of the weblogs on Cameron's list, and most
interested people did. Peter
Merholz announced in early 1999 that he was going to
pronounce it 'wee-blog' and inevitably this was shortened to
'blog' with the weblog editor referred to as a 'blogger.'
At this point, the bandwagon
jumping began. More and more people began publishing their own
weblogs. I began mine in April of 1999. Suddenly it became
difficult to read every weblog every day, or even to keep track
of all the new ones that were appearing. Cameron's list grew so
large that he began including only weblogs he actually followed
himself. Other webloggers did the same. In early 1999
Brigitte Eaton compiled a
list of every weblog she knew about and created the
Eatonweb Portal. Brig
evaluated all submissions by a simple criterion: that the site
consist of dated entries. Webloggers debated what was and what
was not a weblog, but since the Eatonweb Portal was the most
complete listing of weblogs available, Brig's inclusive
definition prevailed.
This rapid growth continued
steadily until July 1999 when
Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool launched,
and suddenly there were hundreds. In August,
Pyra released
Blogger, and
Groksoup launched, and
with the ease that these web-based tools provided, the
bandwagon-jumping turned into an explosion. Late in 1999
software developer Dave Winer introduced
Edit This Page, and
Jeff A. Campbell launched Velocinews. All of these services are
free, and all of them are designed to enable individuals to
publish their own weblogs quickly and easily.
The original weblogs were
link-driven sites. Each was a mixture in unique proportions of
links, commentary, and personal thoughts and essays. Weblogs
could only be created by people who already knew how to make a
website. A weblog editor had either taught herself to code HTML
for fun, or, after working all day creating commercial websites,
spent several off-work hours every day surfing the web and
posting to her site. These were web enthusiasts.
Many current weblogs follow this
original style. Their editors present links both to little-known
corners of the web and to current news articles they feel are
worthy of note. Such links are nearly always accompanied by the
editor's commentary. An editor with some expertise in a field
might demonstrate the accuracy or inaccuracy of a highlighted
article or certain facts therein; provide additional facts he
feels are pertinent to the issue at hand; or simply add an
opinion or differing viewpoint from the one in the piece he has
linked. Typically this commentary is characterized by an
irreverent, sometimes sarcastic tone. More skillful editors
manage to convey all of these things in the sentence or two with
which they introduce the link (making them, as
Halcyon pointed out
to me, pioneers in the art and craft of
microcontent).
Indeed, the format of the typical weblog, providing only a very
short space in which to write an entry, encourages pithiness on
the part of the writer; longer commentary is often given its own
space as a separate essay.
These weblogs provide a valuable
filtering function for their readers. The web has been, in
effect, pre-surfed for them. Out of the myriad web pages slung
through cyberspace, weblog editors pick out the most
mind-boggling, the most stupid, the most compelling.
But this type of weblog is
important for another reason, I think. In Douglas Rushkoff's
Media Virus, Greg Ruggerio of the
Immediast Underground
is quoted as saying, "Media is a corporate possession...You
cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the
foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the
difference between public and audience. An audience is passive;
a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is
public in its orientation."
By highlighting articles that may
easily be passed over by the typical web user too busy to do
more than scan corporate news sites, by searching out articles
from lesser-known sources, and by providing additional facts,
alternative views, and thoughtful commentary, weblog editors
participate in the dissemination and interpretation of the news
that is fed to us every day. Their sarcasm and fearless
commentary reminds us to question the vested interests of our
sources of information and the expertise of individual reporters
as they file news stories about subjects they may not fully
understand.
Weblog editors sometimes
contextualize an article by juxtaposing it with an article on a
related subject; each article, considered in the light of the
other, may take on additional meaning, or even draw the reader
to conclusions contrary to the implicit aim of each. It would be
too much to call this type of weblog "independent media," but
clearly their editors, engaged in seeking out and evaluating the
"facts" that are presented to us each day, resemble the public
that Ruggerio speaks of. By writing a few lines each day, weblog
editors begin to redefine media as a public, participatory
endeavor
Continued at
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
The Weblog Tool
Roundup, by Joshual Allen, Webmonkey, May 2, 2002 ---
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/18/index3a.html
But then personal sites went from
being static collections of bad poetry and award banners to
constantly updated snippets of commentary, photography, sounds,
bad poetry, and links. The popularity of this format grew (for a
good primer on where weblogs came from and how they evolved, try
Rebecca Blood's
Weblogs: A History and Perspective), and people started
building applications to simplify the process of maintaining a
content-heavy personal site.
These applications have grown in
number and sophistication over the years, and with some major
upgrades appearing over the past few months (Blogger Pro,
Movable Type 2.0, Radio UserLand 8.0), I thought the time was
nigh to talk about what they do, why you might care, which one
would best suit your needs, and how they can keep you company on
those long, lonely nights, so empty since you were abandoned for
someone who could write Perl scripts.
Continued at
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/02/18/index3a.html
"Will the Blogs Kill
Old Media?" by Steven Levy, Newsweek, May 20, 2002, Page 52
From Yahoo Picks of
the Week on December 3, 2002
blo.gs
http://www.blo.gs/
Weblogs continue to grow in
popularity, no doubt in part to their immediacy. Denizens of the
Internet enjoy the opportunity to drop by and catch an
up-to-the-minute account on their favorite blog. However,
nothing is more frustrating than encountering a cobwebbed blog
that hasn't been updated in weeks. To remedy such situations,
this site offers a minute-by-minute account of over 50,000
weblogs. It doesn't get fresher than this! For utility's sake,
the site offers a tiny java applet that sits on your desktop and
continually refreshes, keeping the weblogs whirring. You can
also stop by the most popular blogs to see what kind of content
is piquing the interest of others. Whether you're a neophyte or
veteran blogger, you're sure to find an intriguing site or two
to scour.
Some time ago, Glenn
Reynolds hardly qualified as plankton on the punditry food chain.
The 41-year-old law professor at the University of Tennessee would
pen the occasional op-ed for the L.A. Times, but his name was
unfamiliar to even the most fanatical news junkie. All that
began to change on Aug. 5 of last year, when Reynolds acquired the
software to create a "Weblog," or "blog." A blog is an easily
updated Web site that works as an online daybook, consisting of
links to interesting items on the Web, spur-of-the-moment
observations and real-time reports on whatever captures the
blogger's attention. Reynold's original goal was to post witty
observations on news events, but after September 11, he began
providing links to fascinating articles and accounts of the crisis,
and soon his site, called InstaPundit, drew thousands of
readers--and kept growing. He now gets more than 70,000 page
views a day (he figures this means 23,000 real people).
Working at his two-year-old $400 computer, he posts dozens of items
and links a day, and answers hundreds of e-mails. PR flacks
call him to cadge coverage. And he's living a pundit's dream
by being frequently cited--not just by fellow bloggers, but by media
bigfeet. He's blogged his way into the game.
Some say the game
itself has changed. InstaPundit is a pivotal site in what is
known as the Blogosphere, a burgeoning samizdat of
self-starters who attempt to provide in the aggregate an alternate
media universe. The putative advantage is that this one is run
not by editors paid by corporate giants, but unbespoken
outsiders--impassioned lefties and righties, fine-print-reading
wonks, indignant cranks and salt-'o-the-earth eyewitnesses to the
"real" life that the self-absorbed media often miss. Hard-core
bloggers, with a giddy fever not heard of since the Internet bubble
popped, are even predicting that the Blogosphere is on a trajectory
to eclipse the death-star-like dome of Big Media. One blog
avatar, Dave Winer (who probably would be saying this even if he
didn't run a company that sold blogging software), has formally
wagered that by 2007, more readers will get news from blogs than
from The New York Times. Taking him up on the bet is Martin
Nisenholtz, head of the Time's digital operations.
My guess is that
Nisenholtz wins. Blogs are a terrific addition to the media
universe. But they pose no threat to the established order.
Mobile weblogging, or
moblogging, is the latest trend in the world of blogs. New software
allows users to update their weblogs remotely with cell phones and
other handheld devices ---
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,57431,00.html
The meteoric rise of weblogging is
one of the most unexpected technology stories of the past year,
and much like the commentary that populates these ever-changing
digital diaries, the story of blogging keeps evolving.
One recent trend is "moblogging,"
or mobile weblogging. New tools like
Manywhere
Moblogger,
Wapblog
and
FoneBlog allow bloggers to post information about the
minutiae of their lives from anywhere, not just from a PC.
The newest of these tools,
Kablog,
lets users update their weblogs remotely with cell phones and
other handheld devices like wireless PDAs.
Kablog works on any device running
Java 2 Platform Micro Edition, or
J2ME, a version of Java
for mobile devices. Those devices include cell phones running
the Symbian operating system, many Sprint PCS phones, the
Blackberry from RIM, and many Palm handhelds running OS 3.5,
such as Handspring's
Treo.
Todd Courtois, creator of Kablog,
offers the program for free as shareware and says that
word-of-mouth has already generated several thousand downloads
in the short time it has been available.
What distinguishes Kablog from
other moblogging software is that it does not use e-mail or text
messaging for updating weblogs. Other programs such as FoneBlog
enable users to e-mail posts from a cell phone or PDA to a
server, which uploads the entry onto a site. Kablog lets those
who use Movable Type
as their weblogging software log directly onto their sites for
updating.
Continued in the
article.
September 2, 2004
message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
RHETORIC, COMMUNITY, AND CULTURE OF
WEBLOGS
The Department of Rhetoric at the
University of Minnesota has created "Into the Blogsphere," a
website to explore the "discursive, visual, social, and other
communicative features of weblogs." Educators and faculty can
post, comment upon, and critique essays covering such areas as
mass communication, pedagogy, and virtual community. The website
is located at
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/
For more
information on weblogs in academe, see also:
"Educational
Blogging" By Stephen Downes EDUCAUSE REVIEW, vol. 9, no. 5,
September/October 2004, pp. 14-16, 18, 20-22, 24, 26
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp
"The Educated
Blogger" CIT INFOBITS, June 2004
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitjun04.html#1
January 2005
Update on Blogs
Eric Rasmusen
(Economics,
Indiana
University) has a homepage
at http://www.rasmusen.org/
His business and economics blog is at
http://www.rasmusen.org/x/
In particular he focuses on conservative versus liberal
economics and politics
Gerald (Jerry)
Trites (Accounting, AIS) has a homepage at
http://www.zorba.ca/
He runs an e-Business blog at
http://www.zorba.ca/blog.html
His site is a great source for updates on research studies in
e-Business
Some Blog
Directories
categorized directory of blogs
and journals.
www.blogarama.com - 17k
-
Cached -
More from this site
a
blog directory where users can
submit and find blogs.
www.blogcatalog.com - 23k
-
Cached -
More from this site
... Weird is our choice blog this
week, straight out of ... Blogwise often
find a blog that stands out for
its ... be featuring a new blog
every week in this slot ...
www.blogwise.com -
More from this site
... Download the Blog Search
Engine Toolbar. The blog Search
Engine is a web search resource for
finding ... Free Video Game and Online
Game Directory Web Conferencing
Small Business Forum ...
www.blogsearchengine.com -
15k -
Cached -
More from this site
blog search engine and
directory.
www.getblogs.com - 7k -
Cached -
More from this site
Bloghub.com - Your local blog
directory! ... Bloghub.com is an
international online blog
directory and community where
members from around the world gather
here ... site to our directory,
search our blog directory
or join us for ...
www.bloghub.com - 64k -
Cached -
More from this site
features a directory of political
blogs covering all viewpoints.
directory.etalkinghead.com -
9k -
Cached -
More from this site
... My Subscriptions Search The Web
Subscribe To URL. Directory.
Share. Home > Feed Directory. See
Also: Most Popular Feeds | Most Popular
Links ... View: Feed Directory |
User Directory ...
www.bloglines.com/dir - 19k
-
Cached -
More from this site
... and trackback services, and a
Blog O the Week feature. Blog
Universe. Blog directory
categorized by genre ... like you.
British Blog Directory -
BritBlog. A directory of blogs
written ...
www.lights.com/weblogs/
directories.html - 16k -
Cached -
More from this site
The BLOG page at Marketing
Terms.com - Internet Marketing
Reference. ... Blog. weblog.
---------------------------- (Requires
JavaScript ... eatonweb.com - blog
directory and portal. ...
www.marketingterms
"The Bottom Line
on Business Blogs: Entrepeneur.com, August 9, 2004
---
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,316638,00.html
They've moved beyond the realm of diarists and techies to
benefit mainstream businesses.
Anybody can go
slogging, but it is most common among teenagers
Thomas Claburn discusses
the new concept of
"slogging,"
or slanderous blogging, about someone you know or wish you
didn't. In my youth, we used to call this "gossip," and the
cardinal rule was never to put anything in writing for fear our
ill-tempered musings would be forever etched in stone and,
worse, overheard or seen by the person being dissed. But getting
"caught" by the subject is apparently the entire point of
slogging, as I understand it. I would have thought in our
overlitigated society that the voice of reason (if not
politeness and/or basic human decency) would trump that of
nastiness, but I would have been wrong.
InformationWeek Newsletter, August 31, 2005
June 1, 2006 message form
Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
THE ROLE OF EMOTION IN THE
DISTANCE EDUCATION EXPERIENCE
"Presence, a sense of 'being there,' is critical to the success
of designing, teaching, and learning at a distance using both
synchronous and asynchronous (blended) technologies. Emotions,
behavior, and cognition are components of the way presence is
perceived and experienced and are essential for explaining the
ways we consciously and unconsciously perceive and experience
distance education." Rosemary Lehman, Distance Education
Specialist Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Extension,
explores the idea that understanding the part emotion plays in
teaching and learning "can help instruct us in effective
teaching, instructional design, and learning via technology."
Her paper, "The Role of Emotion in Creating Instructor and
Learner Presence in the Distance Education Experience" (JOURNAL
OF COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE LEARNING, vol. 2, no. 2, 2006), is
available online at
http://www.jcal.emory.edu/viewarticle.php?id=45
Journal of Cognitive Affective Learning (JCAL) [ISSN: 1549-6953]
is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published twice a year
by Oxford College of Emory University. To access current and
back issues go to
http://www.jcal.emory.edu/ . For more
information, contact: Journal of Cognitive Affective Learning,
c/o Prof. Ken Carter, Oxford College of Emory University, 100
Hamill Street, Oxford, GA 30054 USA; tel: 770-784-8439; fax:
770-784-8408;
email:
kenneth.carter@emory.edu
USING BLOGGER TO GET STARTED WITH E-LEARNING
In "Using Blogger to Get Teachers Started with E-Learning"
(FORTNIGHTLY MAILING, May 25, 2006), Keith Burnett discusses how
"[s]imple class blogs can be used to post summaries of key
points, exercises, links to Web pages of value, and to provide a
sense of continuity and encourage engagement with the material."
He includes a link to an online blogging tutorial and to
examples of how some instructors are using blogs in their
classes. The article is online at
http://fm.schmoller.net/2006/05/using_blogger_t.html
Fortnightly Mailing, focused on online learning, is published
every two weeks by Seb Schmoller, an e-learning consultant.
Current and back issues are available at
http://www.schmoller.net/mailings/index.pl. For more
information, contact: Seb Schmoller 312 Albert Road, Sheffield,
S8 9RD, UK; tel: 0114 2586899; fax: 0709 2208443;
email:
seb@schmoller.net
Web:
http://www.schmoller.net/
BOOKS VS. BLOGS
"Why would I write a book and wait a year or more to see my
writing in print, when I can blog and get my words out there
immediately?" In "Books, Blogs & Style" (CITES & INSIGHTS, vol.
6, no. 7, May 2006), Walt Crawford, both a book author and a
blogger, considers the different niches and purposes of the two
communication media. The essay is online at
http://cites.boisestate.edu/civ6i7.pdf
Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large [ISSN 1534-0937], a free
online journal of libraries, policy, technology, and media, is
self-published monthly by Walt Crawford, a senior analyst at the
Research Libraries Group, Inc. Current and back issues are at
available on the Web at
http://cites.boisestate.edu/ . For more information contact:
Walt Crawford, The Research Libraries Group, Inc., 2029 Stierlin
Ct., Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94043-4684 USA; tel:
650-691-2227;
Web:
http://waltcrawford.name/
Podcasting at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#ResourceDescriptionFramework
Video Games
Answer 4 --- Serious Learning
Applications of Video Games
Question
Have video game technologies changed learning styles? I might add
that this may also be true of women past their teens since there is
now a larger target market for these women vis-à-vis young males who
are often thought of in relation to game addiction.
Answer
In the next edition of New Bookmarks, I address how serious
educators are predicting that video-style games will become a
leading pedagogy for learning in the near future.
A new industry poll reveals that more
women than teen boys are behind video game consoles. The poll also
finds that lacking a better alternative, adult women prefer war
themes over the light 'n' fluffy doll games now offered.
Wired News, August 27, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,60204,00.html
August 28, 2003 message
from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
VIDEOGAMES -- THE
NEXT EDUCATIONAL "KILLER APP"?
In
"Next-Generation: Educational Technology versus the Lecture"
(EDUCAUSE REVIEW, vol. 38, no. 4, July/August 2003, pp.
12-16, 18, 20-2), Joel Foreman, professor in George Mason
University English Department, proposes a "fringe idea" with
the potential to revolutionize the educational system. He
believes that "large lecture courses may someday be replaced
by the kind of immersive digital environments that have been
popularized by the videogame industry. Viewed in this light
the advanced videogame appears to be a next-generation
educational technology waiting to take its place in
academe."
Foreman illustrates his idea with a hypothetical Psychology
101 course that uses an immersive environment to engage
students in "learning through performance." Using the
videogame model, students would progress through several
"levels" of the course as they build upon their knowledge of
the material and meet the course's learning goals. The
article is online at
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0340.pdf.
EDUCAUSE Review [ISSN 1527-6619], a bimonthly print magazine
that explores developments in information technology and
education, is published by EDUCAUSE, 1150 18th Street, NW,
Suite 1010, Washington, DC 20036 USA; tel: 202-872-4200;
fax: 202-872-4318; email: info@educause.edu; Web:
http://www.educause.edu/. Articles from current and
back issues of EDUCAUSE Review are available on the Web at
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/.
Bob Jensen's threads on
higher education technologies are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
NEXT-Generation: Educational Technology versus the Lecture,
by Joel Foreman, EDUCAUSE Review, July/August 2003, pp. 14-22
---
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0340.pdf.
Chris Dede,
Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard
University, predicts that "shared graphical environments like
those in the multi-user Internet games Everques or Asheron's
Call" will be the learning environments of the future.
Henry Jenkins, Director of MIT's Games to Teach Project, leads
an effort to "demonstrate gaming's still largely unrealized
pedagogical potentials" and to explore "how games might enrich
the instruction...at the advanced placement high school and
early college levels." And Randy Hinrichs, Group Program
Manager for Learning Science and Technology at Microsoft
Research, claims that game technology (among other innovations)
"will move us away from classrooms, lectures, test taking, and
note taking into fun, immersive interactive learning
environments."
These
pronouncements are based on some incontestable facts.
First, the world is now populated by hundreds of millions of
game-playing devices. Second, the videogame market,
approximately $10 billion in 2002, continues to grow rapidly and
to motivate the push for increasingly sophisticated and powerful
interactive technologies. As in other areas of IT
development, these technologies are maturing and converging in
novel and unexpected ways. Text-based MUDs (Multi-User
Dungeons) and MOOs (MUDs Object-Oriented) have evolved into
massive multiplayer online communities such as Ultima and The
Sims On-line, in which hundreds of thousands of players can
simultaneously interact in graphically rendered immersive
worlds. And previously standalone game devices, such as
Sony PlayStation2 and Microsoft X box, are now Web-enabled for
geo-distributed multiplayer engagements. Imagine that all
of these networked "play stations" are "learning stations," and
you can begin to sense an instructional revolution waiting to
happen.
Still, some might
argue that higher education students already have networked
learning stations in the form of the Web-enabled PC. What
value is added by a game-based "learning station"? The
major difference is that game technologies routinely provide
visualizations whose pictorial dynamism and sophistication
previously required a supercomputer to produce. These
visualizations, best referred to as immersive worlds, can
bring a student into and through any environment that can be
imagined. Instead of learning about a subject by listening
to a lecture or by processing page-based alphanumerics (i.e.,
reading), students can enter and explore a screen-based
simulated world that is the next-best thing to reality.
Continued in the article.
"Can Grand Theft Auto
Inspire Professors?" by Scott Carson, The Chronicle of Higher
Education, August 15, 2003, Page A31
Educators say the virtual worlds of video games help students think
more broadly.
"People
ought to use Grand Theft Auto in the classroom to think about
values and ideology," James Gee a distinguished professor of
education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison says.
"There are lots of things people could learn from games."
This
isn't the talk of a hobbyist or an eccentric, but of a serious
scholar who is taking a lead in an emerging field. Mr. Gee
thinks that video games--even those like Return to Castle
Wolfenstein, in which players run around and blast Nazis--hold
the key to salvaging American education. His argument was
recently delivered in a compact book: What Video Games Have
to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Palgrave
Macmillan).
Although Mr. Gee's colleagues suggested that he was wasting his
time when he started looking into video games, in the past two
years he has found that he is part of a new and growing academic
field. "In the time that I was writing my book, the
interest in games in academe went way up," Mr. Gee says.
"It's clear that by accident, I had entered an area where a wave
of interest was coming up--and is still coming up."
New
conferences and essays dedicated to games appear all the time.
Respected scholars, like Henry Jenkins, a professor of media
studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, discuss
the cultural value of video games in the popular press.
And graduate students and professors are designing games for use
in the classroom.
Despite
the swell of interest, Mr. Gee and others say the academic study
of video games is still controversial. While some scholars
embrace research on the games, others are recoiling.
Celia
Pearce is the associate director of the Game Culture and
Technology Lab at the University of California at Irvine, where
two years ago the faculty rejected a proposal for a minor in
game design. A professor on the committee that made the
decision called the idea of a video-games minor "prurient," she
says.
She
finds it "baffling" that schools these days use a
"pre-information-society model" in teaching. "Kids are
playing games when they are not in school. They are going
from this digital environment into the classroom, and they're
suddenly in Dickens." Teachers and professors don't know
what games are, or how to use them to their own advantage, she
says. "At the worst they fear games, and at the best they
are completely ignorant of them."
Until a
few years ago, Mr. Gee was himself clueless about video games.
He became interested in the subject as he watched his son, then
6 years old, play a game called Pajama Sam. Mr. Gee
wondered what a game for adults would be like. So he
bought a game called The New Adventures of the Time Machine,
which was loosely based on the work of H. G. Wells.
"I was
floored by how long and how difficult it was," he says, sitting
in his office, one wall of which is now covered with posters of
video-game characters. He realized that the gaming
industry makes more money than Hollywood, which means that
millions of people are plunking down substantial amounts for
games that take on average 50 to 100 hours to complete--roughly
the amount of time spent in semester of college courses.
"Some young person is going to spend $50 on this, yet they won't
take 50 minutes to learn algebra," he says. "I wanted to
know why."
He says
that game manufacturers deal with compelling paradox from which
educators can learn.
Games
have to be challenging enough to entertain, yet easy enough to
solve--or at least easy enough for the player to feel like he or
she is making progress. "To me, that was the challenge
schools face," he says. "I wanted to see why these game
designers are better at that."
September 8, 2003 message
from Jon Entine
-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Entine
[mailto:runjonrun@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:11 AM
Subject: Research audit on "Body Shop" available
For
anyone studying or teaching The Body Shop, I've posted on my
website my internal 48-page audit of the company, which I've
previously only provided by email.
http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/Body_Shop_Roddick_audit.doc
It's an
extremely detailed account of the practices of this company. It
analyzes Body Shop over a range of areas including its
environmental practices, its marketing and ethics, its franchise
relations, corporate governance, product quality, etc. It's
based on more than 100 interviews, most of them recorded (and
available for fact checking).
It was
first written in 1996 and has been updated slightly. A lot of it
deals with the historical practices of the company, such as
Anita Roddick's brazen stealing of the concept, name, logo, and
products from the original Body Shop, the one founded in
Berkeley and San Francisco in 1970 that Roddick visited, then
ripped off without attribution, then lied about. The report is
very revealing about the character of Roddick and the sad,
dysfunctional, ethically-challenged multi-national corporation
she has created and continues to oversee.
The
backgrounder was prepared when Body Shop's lawyers (Lovell White
Durrant...Robert Maxwell's ex corporate swat team) and its PR
team (Hill & Knowlton ... The tobacco lobbyist PR firm) were
hired to counter articles by me, New Consumer in England, In
These Times, Stephen Corry of Survival International, and other
progressives who published fact-based accounts of the ethical
dysfunctionality of this company.
Please
feel free to use it in your research.
Regards,
-- Jon Entine
Miami University
6255 So. Clippinger Dr.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45243 (
513) 527-4385 [FAX] 527-4386
http://www.jonentine.com
Bob Jensen's threads on
higher education technologies are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Answer 4 ---
Distance Education Becomes Mainstream
Both Off Campus and In Courses On Campus
Distance Education Soared in the Latter
Part of the 1990s
Distance Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions:
2000-2001, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), July
2003 ---
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003017
This report presents data on distance
education at postsecondary institutions. NCES used the
Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (PEQIS) to
provide current national estimates on distance education at
2-year and 4-year Title IV-eligible, degree-granting
institutions. Distance education was defined for this study as
education or training courses delivered to remote (off-campus)
sites via audio, video (live or prerecorded), or computer
technologies, including both synchronous (i.e., simultaneous)
and asynchronous (i.e., not simultaneous) instruction. Data were
collected on a variety of topics related to distance education,
including the number and proportion of institutions offering
distance education courses during the 2000–2001 12-month
academic year, distance education enrollments and course
offerings, distance education degree and certificate programs,
distance education technologies, participation in distance
education consortia, accommodations in distance education
courses for students with disabilities, distance education
program goals, and factors that keep institutions from starting
or expanding distance education offerings.
Introduction
This study, conducted through the
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Postsecondary
Education Quick Information System (PEQIS), was designed to
provide current national estimates on distance education at
2-year and 4-year Title IV-eligible, degree-granting
institutions. Distance education was defined for this study as
education or training courses delivered to remote (off-campus)
sites via audio, video (live or prerecorded), or computer
technologies, including both synchronous (i.e., simultaneous)
and asynchronous (i.e., not simultaneous) instruction.
Key Findings
The PEQIS survey provides national
estimates for the 2000–2001 academic year on the number and
proportion of institutions offering distance education courses,
distance education enrollments and course offerings, degree and
certificate programs, distance education technologies,
participation in distance education consortia, accommodations
for students wit h disabilities, distance education program
goals, and factors institutions identify as keeping them from
starting or expanding distance education offerings.
The report's summary is continued at
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/publications/2003017/
October 31, 2003 message
from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
TRENDS
IN DISTANCE EDUCATION
The
American Federation of Teachers publication, AFT ON CAMPUS, is
running a series of articles on distance education trends.
In
"Trends in Distance Education" (September 2003,
http://www.aft.org/publications/on_campus/sept03/technology.html
) Thomas J. Kriger, State University of New York, writes about
how "critics of asynchronous courses and programs within higher
education have recently found unexpected support in the
corporate sector." Learners in corporations are increasingly
expressing dissatisfaction with online-only classes. This is
leading to the creation of "blended learning" -- courses that
combine "face-to-face teaching with software and Web-based
teaching." Such courses also allow faculty to retain greater
control in their distance classes.
The
October 2003 issue continues the theme with "Making the
Pedagogical Case for Blended Learning" by Cynthia Villanti,
assistant professor of humanities at Mohawk Valley Community
College, New York (
http://www.aft.org/publications/on_campus/oct03/technology.html
). She presents five primary pedagogical arguments for blended,
or hybrid, courses. These arguments include: -- enabling a
balance between faculty-centered and student-centered models; --
enabling faculty and students to develop a strong sense of
classroom community both online and in person; -- allowing for
both the "reflectiveness of asynchronous communication and the
immediacy of spoken communication;" -- helping to alleviate
faculty concerns about academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
AFT On
Campus is published eight times a year by the American
Federation of Teachers, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20001 USA; tel: 202-879-4400; email:
online@aft.org ; Web:
http://www.aft.org/ Current and back issues are
available at no cost at
http://www.aft.org/publications/on_campus/index.html.
......................................................................
NEW
RESOURCE ON ELEARNING AND COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
This
month, SYLLABUS magazine began a new, free email publication,
CMS REVIEW: A RESOURCE ON ELEARNING AND COURSE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS. This bi-monthly newsletter will provide information,
analysis, case studies, and technical tips on course management
systems (CMS) in higher education. To subscribe, go to
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2978
Syllabus [ISSN 1089-5914] is published monthly by
101communications, LLC, 9121 Oakdale Avenue, Suite 101,
Chatsworth, CA 91311 USA; tel: 650-941-1765; fax: 650-941-1785;
email: info@syllabus.com; Web:
http://www.syllabus.com/ . Annual subscriptions are free to
individuals who work in colleges, universities, and high schools
in the U.S.; go to
http://subscribe.101com.com/syllabus/ for more
information.
Bob Jensen's links on online training and education programs
can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Other documents related to this topic are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Answer 5 --- The Future of
Textbooks
The future of text books?
From Jim Mahar's blog on June 16, 2005 ---
http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/
The future of text books?
Megginson and Smart
Introdcution to Corporate Finance--Companion
Site
Wow.
I think we may have a glimpse into the future of text books with
this one. It is the new Introduction to Corporate Finance
by William Megginson and Scott Smart.
From videos for most topics, to
interviews, to powerpoint, to a student study guide, to excel
help...just a total integration of a text and a web site! Well
done!
At St. Bonaventure we have adopted the
text for the fall semester and the book actually has made me
excited to be teaching an introductory course! It is that good!!
BTW Before I get accused of selling
out, let me say I get zero for this plug. I have met each author
at conferences but do not really know either of them. And like
any first edition book there may be some errors, but that said,
this is the future of college text books!
Check out some of the online material here.
More material is available with book purchase.
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
|
Motivations for
Distance Education
Little
Red Hen Motivations
(Those professors who go it alone without much institutional support.)
June 29, 2006
message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
A
REPORT ON THE SUCCESS OF ONLINE EDUCATION
Each
year the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) conducts an annual survey on
the state of U.S. higher education online learning. This year,
the Consortium published its first annual special edition,
"Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the United States, 2005
- Southern Edition." Some of the findings reported include:
"Online
learning is thriving in the southern states. The patterns of
growth and acceptance of online education among the 16 southern
states in this report are very similar to that observed for the
national sample, with one clear difference: online learning has
made greater inroads in the southern states than in the nation
as a whole."
"[S]chools are offering a large number of online courses, and
there is great diversity in the courses and programs being
offered:
--
Sixty-two percent of southern schools offering graduate
face-to-face courses also offer graduate courses online.
--
Sixty-eight percent of southern schools offering
undergraduate face-to-face courses also offer undergraduate
courses online."
"Staffing for online courses does not come at the expense of
core faculty. Institutions use about the same mixture of core
and adjunct faculty to staff their online courses as they do for
their face-to-face courses. Instead of more adjunct faculty
teaching online courses, the opposite is found; overall, there
is a slightly greater use of core faculty for teaching online
than for face-to-face."
You can download the complete report at
http://www.sloan-c.org/
Sloan-C is a consortium of institutions and organizations
committed "to help learning organizations continually improve
quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according
to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become
a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone,
anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines."
Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. For more
information go to
http://www.aln.org/
Bob Jensen's threads on
alternatives for online training and education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
education technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Online Education Effectiveness and Testing
Barbara gave me permission
to post the following message on March 15, 2006
My reply follows her message.
Professor Jensen:
I need
your help in working with regulators who are uncomfortable with
online education.
I am
currently on the faculty at the University of Dallas in Irving,
Texas and I abruptly learned yesterday that the Texas State
Board of Public Accountancy distinguishes online and on campus
offering of ethics courses that it approves as counting for
students to meet CPA candidacy requirements. Since my school
offers its ethics course in both modes, I am suddenly faced with
making a case to the TSBPA in one week's time to avoid rejection
of the online version of the University of Dallas course.
I have
included in this email the "story" as I understand it that
explains my situation. It isn't a story about accounting or
ethics, it is a story about online education.
I would
like to talk to you tomorrow because of your expertise in
distance education and involvement in the profession. In
addition, I am building a portfolio of materials this week for
the Board meeting in Austin March 22-23 to make a case for their
approval (or at least not rejection) of the online version of
the ethics course that the Board already accepts in its on
campus version. I want to include compelling research-based
material demonstrating the value of online learning, and I don't
have time to begin that literature survey myself. In addition, I
want to be able to present preliminary results from reviewers of
the University of Dallas course about the course's merit in
presentation of the content in an online delivery.
Thank
you for any assistance that you can give me.
Barbara W. Scofield
Associate Professor of Accounting
University of Dallas
1845 E Northgate Irving, TX 75062
972-721-5034
scofield@gsm.udallas.edu
A
statement of the University of Dallas and Texas State Board of
Public Accountancy and Online Learning
The
TSBPA approved the University of Dallas ethics program in 2004.
The course that was approved was a long-standing course,
required in several different graduate programs, called Business
Ethics. The course was regularly taught on campus (since 1995)
and online (since 2001).
The
application for approval of the ethics course did not ask for
information about whether the class was on campus or online and
the syllabus that was submitted happened to be the syllabus of
an on campus section. The TSBPA's position (via Donna Hiller) is
that the Board intended to approve only the on campus version of
the course, and that the Board inferred it was an on campus
course because the sample syllabus that was submitted was an on
campus course.
Therefore the TSBPA (via Donna Hiller) is requiring that
University of Dallas students who took the online version of the
ethics course retake the exact same course in its on campus
format. While the TSBPA (via Donna Hiller) has indicated that
the online course cannot at this time be approved and its
scheduled offering in the summer will not provide students with
an approved course, Donna Hiller, at my request, has indicated
that she will take this issue to the Board for their decision
next week at the Executive Board Meeting on March 22 and the
Board Meeting on March 23.
There
are two issues:
1.
Treatment of students who were relying on communication from the
Board at the time they took the class that could reasonably have
been interpreted to confer approval of both the online and on
campus sections of the ethics course.
2.
Status of the upcoming summer online ethics class.
My
priority is establishing the status of the upcoming summer
online ethics class. The Board has indicated through its pilot
program with the University of Texas at Dallas that there is a
place for online ethics classes in the preparation of CPA
candidates. The University of Dallas is interested in providing
the TSBPA with any information or assessment necessary to meet
the needs of the Board to understand the online ethics class at
the University of Dallas. Although not currently privy to the
Board specific concerns about online courses, the University of
Dallas believes that it can demonstrate sufficient credibility
for the course because of the following factors:
A. The
content of the online course is the same as the on campus
course. Content comparison can be provided. B. The instructional
methods of the online course involve intense student-to-student,
instructor-to-student, and student-to-content interaction at a
level equivalent to an on campus course. Empirical information
about interaction in the course can be provided.
C. The
instructor for the course is superbly qualified and a
long-standing ethics instructor and distance learning
instructor. The vita of the instructor can be provided.
D.
There are processes for course assessment in place that
regularly prompt the review of this course and these assessments
can be provided to the board along with comparisons with the on
campus assessments.
E. The
University of Dallas will seek to coordinate with the work done
by the University of Texas at Dallas to provide information at
least equivalent to that provided by the University of Texas at
Dallas and to meet at a minimum the tentative criteria for
online learning that UT Dallas has been empowered to recommend
to the TSBPA. Contact with the University of Texas at Dallas has
been initiated.
When
the online ethics course is granted a path to approval by the
Board, I am also interested in addressing the issue of TSBPA
approval of students who took the class between the original
ethics course approval date and March 13, 2006, the date that
the University of Dallas became aware of the TSBPA intent
(through Donna Hiller) that the TSBPA distinguished online and
on campus ethics classes.
The
University of Dallas believes that the online class in fact
provided these students with a course that completely fulfilled
the general intent of the Board for education in ethics, since
it is the same course as the approved on campus course (see
above). The decision on the extent of commitment of the Board to
students who relied on the Board's approval letter may be a
legal issue of some sort that is outside of the current
decision-making of the Board, but I want the Board take the
opportunity to consider that the reasonableness of the students'
position and the students' actual preparation in ethics suggest
that there should also be a path created to approval of online
ethics courses taken at the University of Dallas during this
prior time period. The currently proposed remedy of a
requirement for students to retake the very same course on
campus that students have already taken online appears
excessively costly to Texans and the profession of accounting by
delaying the entry of otherwise qualified individuals into
public accountancy. High cost is justified when the concomitant
benefits are also high. However, the benefit to Texans and the
accounting profession from students who retake the ethics course
seems to exist only in meeting the requirements of regulations
that all parties diligently sought to meet in the first place
and not in producing any actual additional learning experiences.
A reply to her from Bob
Jensen
Hi Barbara,
May I share your questions and
my responses in the next edition of New Bookmarks? This
might be helpful to your efforts when others become
informed. I will be in my office every day except for March
17. My phone number is 210-999-7347. However, I can probably
be more helpful via email.
As discouraging as it may seem,
if students know what is expected of them and must
demonstrate what they have learned, pedagogy does not seem
to matter. It can be online or onsite. It can be lecture or
cases. It can be no teaching at all if there are talented
and motivated students who are given great learning
materials. This is called the well-known “No Significant
Difference” phenomenon ---
http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/
I think you should stress that
insisting upon onsite courses is discriminatory against
potential students whose life circumstances make it
difficult or impossible to attend regular classes on campus.
I think you should make the case
that online education is just like onsite education in the
sense that learning depends on the quality and motivations
of the students, faculty, and university that sets the
employment and curriculum standards for quality. The issue
is not onsite versus online. The issue is quality of effort.
The most prestigious schools
like Harvard and Stanford and Notre Dame have a large number
of credit and non-credit courses online. Entire accounting
undergraduate and graduate degree programs are available
online from such quality schools as the University of
Wisconsin and the University of Maryland. See my guide to
online training and education programs is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
My main introductory document on
the future of distance education is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
Anticipate and deal with the
main arguments against online education. The typical
argument is that onsite students have more learning
interactions with themselves and with the instructor. This
is absolutely false if the distance education course is
designed to promote online interactions that do a better job
of getting into each others’ heads. Online courses become
superior to onsite courses.
Amy Dunbar teaches intensely
interactive online courses with Instant Messaging. See
Dunbar, A. 2004. “Genesis of an Online Course.” Issues in
Accounting Education (2004),19 (3):321-343.
ABSTRACT: This paper presents a descriptive and evaluative
analysis of the transformation of a face-to-face graduate
tax accounting course to an online course. One hundred
fifteen students completed the compressed six-week class in
2001 and 2002 using WebCT, classroom environment software
that facilitates the creation of web-based educational
environments. The paper provides a description of the
required technology tools and the class conduct. The
students used a combination of asynchronous and synchronous
learning methods that allowed them to complete the
coursework on a self-determined schedule, subject to
semi-weekly quiz constraints. The course material was
presented in content pages with links to Excel® problems,
Flash examples, audio and video files, and self-tests.
Students worked the quizzes and then met in their groups in
a chat room to resolve differences in answers. Student
surveys indicated satisfaction with the learning methods.
I might add that Amy is a
veteran world class instructor both onsite and online. She’s
achieved all-university awards for onsite teaching in at
least three major universities. This gives her the
credentials to judge how well her online courses compare
with her outstanding onsite courses.
A free audio download of a
presentation by Amy Dunbar is available at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
The argument that students
cannot be properly assessed for learning online is more
problematic. Clearly it is easier to prevent cheating with
onsite examinations. But there are ways of dealing with this
problem. My best example of an online graduate program that
is extremely difficult is the Chartered Accountant School of
Business (CASB) masters program for all of Western Canada.
Students are required to take some onsite testing even
though this is an online degree program. And CASB does a
great job with ethics online. I was engaged to formally
assess this program and came away extremely impressed. My
main contact there is Don Carter
carter@casb.com . If you are really serious about
this, I would invite Don to come down and make a
presentation to the Board. Don will convince them of the
superiority of online education.
You can read some about the CASB
degree program at
http://www.casb.com/
You can read more about
assessment issues at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
I think a lot of the argument
against distance education comes from faculty fearful of one
day having to teach online. First there is the fear of
change. Second there is the genuine fear that is entirely
justified --- if online teaching is done well it is more
work and strain than onsite teaching. The strain comes from
increased hours of communication with each and every
student.
Probably the most general
argument in favor of onsite education is that students
living on campus have the social interactions and maturity
development outside of class. This is most certainly a valid
argument. However, when it comes to issues of learning of
course content, online education can be as good as or
generally better than onsite classes. Students in online
programs are often older and more mature such that the
on-campus advantages decline in their situations. Online
students generally have more life, love, and work
experiences already under their belts. And besides, you’re
only talking about ethics courses rather than an entire
undergraduate or graduate education.
I think if you deal with the
learning interaction and assessment issues that you can make
a strong case for distance education. There are some “dark
side” arguments that you should probably avoid. But if you
care to read about them, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob
Jensen
March 15, 2006 reply from Bruce Lubich
[BLubich@UMUC.EDU]
Bob, as
a director and teacher in a graduate accounting program that is
exclusively online, I want to thank you for your support and
eloquent defense of online education. Unfortunately, Texas's
predisposition against online teaching also shows up in its
education requirements for sitting for the CPA exam. Of the 30
required upper division accounting credits, at least 15 must
"result from physical attendance at classes meeting regularly on
the campus" (quote from the Texas State Board of Public
Accountancy website at www.tsbpa.state.tx.us/eq1.htm)
Cynically speaking, it seems the state of Texas wants to be sure
its classrooms are occupied.
Barbara, best of luck with your testimony.
Bruce
Lubich
Program Director,
Accounting Graduate School of Management and Technology
University of Maryland University College
March 15, 2006 reply from
David Albrecht
[albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]
At my
school, Bowling Green, student credits for on-line accounting
majors classes are never approved by the department chair. He
says that you can't trust the schools that are offering these.
When told that some very reputable schools are offering the
courses, he still says no because when the testing process is
done on-line or not in the physical presence of the professor
the grades simply can't be trusted.
David
Albrecht
March 16, 2006 reply from
Bob Jensen
Hi David,
One tack against a
luddites like that is to propose a compromise that virtually
accepts all transfer credits from AACSB-accredited universities.
It's difficult to argue that standards vary between online and
onsite courses in a given program accredited by the AACSB. I
seriously doubt that the faculty in that program would allow a
double academic standard.
In fact, on transcripts
it is often impossible to distinguish online from onsite credits
from a respected universities, especially when the same course
is offered online and onsite (i.e., merely in different
sections).
You might explain to
your department chair that he's probably been accepting online
transfer credits for some time. The University of North Texas
and other major universities now offer online courses to
full-time resident students who live on campus. Some students
and instructors find this to be a better approach to learning.
And you ask him why
Bowling Green's assessment rigor is not widely known to be
vastly superior to online courses from nearly all major
universities that now offer distance education courses and even
total degree programs, including schools like the Fuqua Graduate
School at Duke, Stanford University (especially computer science
and engineering online courses that bring in over $100 million
per year), the University of Maryland, the University of
Wisconsin, the University of Texas, Texas Tech, and even, gasp,
The Ohio State University.
You might tell your
department chair that by not offering some online alternatives,
Bowling Green is not getting the most out of its students. The
University of Illinois conducted a major study that found that
students performed better in online versus onsite courses when
matched pair sections took the same examinations.
And then you might top
it off by asking your department chair how he justifies denying
credit for Bowling Green's own distance education courses ---
http://adultlearnerservices.bgsu.edu/index.php?x=opportunities
The following is a quotation from the above Bowling Green site:
*****************************
The advancement of computer technology
has provided a wealth of new opportunities for learning.
Distance education is one example of technology’s ability to
expand our horizons and gain from new experiences. BGSU
offers many distance education courses and two baccalaureate
degree completion programs online.
The
Advanced Technological Education Degree Program is designed
for individuals who have completed a two-year applied
associate’s degree. The Bachelor of Liberal Studies Degree
Program is ideal for students with previous college credit
who would like flexibility in course selection while
completing a liberal education program.
Distance Education Courses and
Programs ---
http://ideal.bgsu.edu/ONLINE/
***************************
Bob Jensen
March 16, 2006 reply from
Amy Dunbar
[Amy.Dunbar@BUSINESS.UCONN.EDU]
Count
me in the camp that just isn't that concerned about online
cheating. Perhaps that is because my students are graduate
students and my online exams are open-book, timed exams, and a
different version is presented to each student (much like a
driver's license exam). In my end-of-semester survey, I ask
whether students are concerned about cheating, and on occasion,
I get one who is. But generally the response is no.
The
UConn accounting department was just reviewed by the AACSB, and
they were impressed by our MSA online program. They commented
that they now believed that an online MSA program was possible.
I am convinced that the people who are opposed to online
education are unwilling to invest the time to see how online
education is implemented. Sure there will be bad examples, but
there are bad examples of face to face (FTF) teaching. How many
profs do you know who simply read powerpoint slides to a
sleeping class?! Last semester, I received the School of
Business graduate teaching award even though I teach only online
classes. I believe that the factor that really matters is that
the students know you care about whether they are learning. A
prof who cares interacts with students. You can do that online
as well as FTF.
Do I
miss FTF teaching -- you bet I do. But once I focused on what
the student really needs to learn, I realized, much to my
dismay, interacting FTF with Dunbar was not a necessary
condition.
Amy
Dunbar
March 16,
2006 message from Carol Flowers
[cflowers@OCC.CCCD.EDU]
To resolve
this issue and make me more comfortable with the grade a student
earns, I have all my online exams proctored. I schedule weekends
(placing them in the schedule of classes) and it is mandatory
that they take the exams during this weekend period (Fir/Sat) at
our computing center. It is my policy that if they can't take
the paced exams during those periods, then the class is not one
that they can participate in. This is no different from having
different times that courses are offered. They have to make a
choice in that situation, also, as to which time will best serve
their needs.
March 16,
2006 reply from David Fordham, James Madison University
[fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
Our
model is similar to Carol Flowers. Our on-line MBA program
requires an in-person meeting for four hours at the beginning of
every semester, to let the students and professor get to know
each other personally, followed by the distance-ed portion,
concluding with another four-hour in- person session for the
final examination or other assessment. The students all
congregate at the Sheraton at Dulles airport, have dinner
together Friday night, spend Saturday morning taking the final
for their previous class, and spend Saturday afternoon being
introduced to their next class. They do this between every
semester. So far, the on- line group has outperformed (very
slightly, and not statistically significant due to small sample
sizes) the face-to-face counterparts being used as our control
groups. We believe the outperformance might have an inherent
self- selection bias since the distance-learners are usually
professionals, whereas many of our face-to-face students are
full-time students and generally a bit younger and more
immature.
My
personal on-line course consists of exactly the same readings as
my F2F class, and exactly the same lectures (recorded using
Tegrity) provided on CD and watched asynchronously, followed by
on-line synchronous discussion sessions (2-3 hours per week)
where I call on random students asking questions about the
readings, lectures, etc., and engaging in lively discussion. I
prepare some interesting cases and application dilemmas (mostly
adapted from real world scenarios) and introduce dilemmas, gray
areas, controversy (you expected maybe peace and quiet from
David Fordham?!), and other thought-provoking issues for
discussion. I have almost perfect attendance in the on-line
synchronous because the students really find the discussions
engaging. Surprisingly, I have no problem with freeloaders who
don't read or watch the recorded lectures. My major student
assessment vehicle is an individual policy manual, supplemented
by the in-person exam. Since each student's manual organization,
layout, approach, and perspective is so very different from the
others, cheating is almost out of the question. And the
in-person exam is conducted almost like the CISP or old CPA
exams... total quiet, no talking, no leaving the room, nothing
but a pencil, etc.
And
finally, no, you can't tell the difference on our student's
transcript as to whether they took the on-line or in-person MBA.
They look identical on the transcript.
We've
not yet had any problem with anyone "rejecting" our credential
that I'm aware of.
Regarding our own acceptance of transfer credit, we make the
student provide evidence of the quality of each course (not the
degree) before we exempt or accept credit. We do not distinguish
between on-line or F2F -- nor do we automatically accept a
course based on institution reputation. We have on many
occasions rejected AACSB- accredited institution courses (on a
course-by-course basis) because our investigation showed that
the course coverage or rigor was not up to the standard we
required. (The only "blanket" exception that we make is for
certain familiar Virginia community college courses in the
liberal studies where history has shown that the college and
coursework reliably meets the standards -- every other course
has to be accepted on a course-by-course basis.)
Just
our $0.02 worth.
David
Fordham
James Madison University
Example 1
Amy Dunbar's Online Tax Courses
I think all educators
should read at least the first 15 pages of "Genesis of an Online
Course," by Amy Dunbar at
www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf
You Can Listen to a Live Performance on How Amy Wows Her Online
Students!
A free audio download of a presentation by Amy Dunbar is
available at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
I just shared a platform
with Amy Dunbar in a workshop presented at Mercer University on
November 9, 2001. I am amazed at what both Amy and her husband
(John) are accomplishing with online teaching of income tax and tax
research.
- Although they are
teaching as full-time faculty at the University of Connecticut,
both Amy and her husband, John, teach online courses from
their house. In practice, they don't have to go to the
campus except to check mail, perform service activities, and
work face-to-face with colleagues and students when needed.
In theory, they could move to a
California beach house or a cabin on top of a Colorado mountain
and still teach all their courses for the University of
Connecticut. I should note that the students in
this online University of Connecticut program are adult learners
who almost all have current jobs in the Hartford community.
Amy teaches all her courses online, and John teaches a summer
course online. Both professors teach taxation.
- Amy won an
all-university teaching technology award from the University of
Connecticut. This is just another of her many
all-university teaching awards from the University of Texas in
San Antonio, the University of Iowa, and the University of
Connecticut. She has this rare ability of being rated
perfect by virtually any student no matter what grade she
assigns, even a failing grade. Amy's homepage is at
http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/ADunbar/Dunbaru.htm
- I don't have John's
teaching evaluation scores (I'm told they're excellent), but you
can read Amy's teaching evaluation scores on the last page
(Exhibit 5) of the document at
http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf
(Note that the highest possible rating is 10.00 in this
University of Connecticut evaluation form.
- I especially urge you
to read the student evaluation narratives at
http://www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf
- Amy developed all her
own online course materials and relies heavily on a question and
answer pedagogy using instant messaging.
- Amy's workshop
presentations and war stories about online education are
AWESOME!
So what are Amy's highly
controversial conclusions from her online courses? Go to
Page 13 in "Genesis of an Online Course," by Amy Dunbar at
www.sba.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/genesis_of_an_online_course.pdf
One of the fastest growing segments of the communication industry
is the area of Instant Messaging, where people can set up "buddy
lists" on their computer and have real time text conversations with
friends or colleagues. The problem until now has been how to capture
the corporate benefits of Instant Messaging without spending the
resources to ensure the security of the communication. Enter
Microsoft.
http://www.accountingweb.com/item/97256
You can listen to Amy Dunbar discuss the use of instant
messaging in her distance education tax courses at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
Example 2
An Innovative Online International
Accounting Course on Six Campuses Around the World
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm
A highlight for me at the
November 6-7, 1998 AICPA Accounting Educators Conference was a
presentation by
Sharon Lightner from San Diego State University and
Linard Nadig from the
University of Fribourg in Switzerland. This presentation
followed a ceremony presenting Professors Lightner and Nadig with
the $1,000 AICPA
Collaboration Award prize.
The course syllabus is
located at
http://www.aznet.net/course/doors/
Bob Jensen's Web Link ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm
"Surveying the Digital Landscape:
Evolving Technologies 2004," Educause Review, vol. 39, no. 6
(November/December 2004): 78–92. ---
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm04/erm0464.asp
Each year, the
members of the EDUCAUSE Evolving Technologies Committee identify
and research the evolving technologies that are having the most
direct impact on higher education institutions. The committee
members choose the relevant topics, write white papers, and
present their findings at the EDUCAUSE annual conference.
"Long Tails in Higher Education,"
by Saul Fisher, Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/05/27/fisher
Education
experts often wonder whether bestseller status among college
courses might provide lessons about educational markets and
planning, just as popularity shapes entertainment and cultural
products. Such speculation has grown with the advent of online
education. Some argue that by making the most popular courses
virtual, colleges can slash costs, helping to pay for low
enrollment courses.
The alternative
has been to raise revenues for low-enrollment courses by adding
enrollment. This “add seats” approach has become more attractive
in the new world of online education. Which alternative makes
more sense for colleges considering online versions of some
courses?
Cost-cutting advocates suggest that great efficiencies may
result from delivering online a small set of popular
undergraduate courses. Courses such as Chemistry 101 or
Introduction to European History would have large enrollments
and “basic” curricula. These popular courses illustrate the
“80-20 rule” — 20 percent of a resource typically generates 80
percent of the possible benefits. Popular courses may not even
constitute 20 percent of the catalogue’s contents, yet they
often represent 80 percent of enrollments. If that 80 percent
can be served through automated, virtual means, that should
release tremendous savings, offsetting the cost of courses that
don’t lend themselves as easily or cheaply to virtual delivery.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on distance
education program costs are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/distcost.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance
education alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/distcost.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education
technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
|
Learning Experimentation Motivations
Example 1 --- The SCALE Experiments ---
http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/
Quotes from Professor Burks Oakley II,
Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Asynchronous Learning Networking
Promotes Greater Communication
- 51% of students reported increased
communication with instructor
- 43% of students reported increased
communication with other students
- 40% reported increase in quality
of interactions with instructor
Asynchronous Learning Networking
Enhances the Learning Environment
- 75% of students rated their
overall experience good, very good, or excellent
- ALN enables students
to "be more prepared for class,"
gives them "a lot of time to learn out of class,"
and
allows them "to work at their own pace."
Impact on Course Grades in ECE 270,
Fall 1994, 2 traditional sections versus 3 ALN sections
Course
Grade |
Traditional |
Computer
Based |
A
B
C
D
E |
17.4%
31.8%
35.^%
6.8%
8.3% |
38.1%
26.0%
21.5%
6.6%
7.7% |
Source:
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois
For an August 2000 update, download Dan Stone's audio file
and PowerPoint file from
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
Message from Richard Reams
on May 8, 2002 (NPR = National Public Radio)
Hi Bob.
The May
7 “Soundprint” program on NPR was about technology in education,
including a story about on-line education with a focus on
Phoenix University and Temple.
The
second segment was on Training College faculty in using
technology.
http://www.soundprint.org/
Richard
Reams, Ph.D.
Senior Staff Psychologist Counseling Services
Trinity University 715 Stadium Drive #85 San Antonio, TX
78212-7200
Voice: (210) 999-7411 Fax: (210) 999-7848
rreams@trinity.edu
www.trinity.edu/departments/ccs/
You can read the following
at http://www.soundprint.org/
Online University
Just recently the world was abuzz with the possibilities of the
internet in education. On one end the classroom became a
technology lab, with veteran teachers scrambling to learn new
fangled tools. On the other end, soothsayers touted the age of
the virtual classroom. No longer would one need to trudge to a
distant classroom, the web would bring it to you. Smoke and
mirrors or reality? Find out on Soundprint.
Click Here for College
Remember the dot-com craze? Then perhaps you recollect the mad
dash by universities and others to ring in the virtual
university. The bubble may have burst but is the online
university just another bad idea? Some say yes but others say
no. But before you sign up for that virtual course, click along
with Producer Richard Paul as he investigates the state of the
online university.
Classroom Cool: Training Teachers in Using Technology
Faced with the challenge of improving student performance, many
schools turned to the widespread use of computers and the
Internet. The trend has caught many veteran teachers unawares.
Now they have to make use of the latest technology, while in
their hearts they remain uncomfortable with the new wave. Though
hard data is lacking on whether classroom high tech helps
students learn, teachers feel the hot breath of urgency to
adapt. Veteran teacher and producer Bill Drummond explores the
rush to get America's teachers wired.
Top K12's 100 Wired Schools ---
http://FamilyPC.com/smarter.asp
The winners are listed at
http://familypc.com/smarter_2001_top.asp
Why (Some) Kids Love School ---
http://familypc.com/smarter_why_kids.asp
Dropout rates are down and test scores
are up. Students are engaged in learning and their self-esteem
is soaring. So what's really going on within the classroom walls
of the country's top wired schools? By Leslie Bennetts
Linda Peters provides a frank overview of the various factors
underlying student perceptions of online learning. Such perceptions,
she observes, are not only informed by the student's individual
situation (varying levels of computer access, for instance) but also
by the student's individual characteristics: the student's
proficiency with computers, the student's desire for interpersonal
contact, or the student's ability to remain self-motivated ---
Technology Source, a free, refereed, e-journal at
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/default.asp?show=issue&id=44
IN THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 ISSUE
The Problem of Attrition
in Online MBA Programs
We expect higher attrition
rates from both learners in taking degrees in commuting programs and
most online programs. The major reason is that prior to
enrolling for a course or program, people tend to me more optimistic
about how they can manage their time between a full-time job and
family obligations. After enrolling, unforseen disasters do
arise such as family illnesses, job assignments out of town, car
breakdowns, computer breakdowns, job loss or change, etc.
The problem of online MBA
attrition at West Texas A&M University is discussed in "Assessing
Enrollment and Attrition Rates for the Online MBA," by Neil Terry,
T.H.E. Journal, February 2001, pp. 65-69 ---
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3299.cfm
Follow-up experiments also
showed that West Texas A&M's online students did not perform as well
as onsite students on examinations.
Important Distance Education Site
The Sloan Consortium ---
http://www.aln.org/
The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning
organizations continually improve quality, scale, and breadth
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will
become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for
anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.
Assessment Issues, Case
Studies, and Research --- Detail File
The Dark Side of the 21st
Century: Concerns About Technologies in Education ---
Detail File
|
New
and Expanding Market Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://ww.stanford.edu/history/fulldesc.html
Probably the most successful use of
video is the Adept program at Stanford University where engineering
students can get an entire Masters of Engineering degree almost
entirely from video courses
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cnc9838/cnc9838.html
Stanford University shook up the stuffy Ivy League and other
prestigious schools such as Oxford and Cambridge when it
demonstrated to the world that its online training programs and its
online Masters of Engineering (ADEPT) asynchronous learning degree
program became enormous cash cows with nearly infinite growth
potentials relative to relatively fixed-size onsite programs.
In a few short years, revenues from online programs in engineering
and computer science exploded to over $100 million per year.
The combined present value of the Stanford University logo and
the logos of other highly prestigious universities are worth
trillions. Any prestigious university that ignores online
growth opportunities is probably wasting billions of dollars of
potential cash flow from its logo.
Virtually all universities of highest prestige and name
recognition are realizing this and now offer a vast array of online
training and education courses directly or in partnership with
corporations and government agencies seeking the mark of distinction
on diplomas.
Example 2 --- University of Wisconsin ---
http://webct.wisc.edu/
Over 100,000 Registered Online Students in The University of
Wisconsin System of State-Supported Universities
Having a long history of extension programs largely aimed at
part-time adult learners, it made a lot of sense for the UW System
to try to train and educate adult
learners and other learners who were not likely to become onsite
students.
The UW System is typical of many other large state-supported
universities that have an established adult learning infrastructure
and a long history of interactive television courses delivered to
remote sites within the state. Online Internet courses were a
logical extension and in many instances a cost-efficient extension
relative to televised delivery.
Also check out Iowa State University Extension ---
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/
Example 3 --- Harvard University
In light of new online learning technologies, Harvard University
changed its long-standing residency requirement in anticipation of
expanding markets for "mid-career professionals" according to
Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers, EDUCAUSE
Review, May/June 2002, Page 4. Harvard has various
distance education programs, including those in the Harvard Business
School that currently cost over $4 million per year to maintain.
Example 4
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA
Program
Babson College said it will launch in
Jan. a "fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional
onsite classroom instruction with distance learning components.
The program will enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months,
and is designed for executives struggling to balance work and
personal demands in an economic recession. Intel Corp. sponsored
the program as a complement to its corporate education package,
and has modeled it with 33 employees. The blended MBA program
calls for students to attend monthly two and-a-half days of
face-to-face sessions with Babson's faculty on campus in
Wellesley. During the rest of the time, students will take part
in Internet-based distance learning sessions with their
professors and access interactive multimedia course content.
For more information, visit:
http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
Example 5 --- Texas A&M Online MBA Program in Mexico ---
http://olap.tamu.edu/mexico/tamumxctr.pdf
Some universities view online technologies as a tremendous
opportunity to expand training and education courses into foreign
countries. One such effort was undertaken by the College of
Business Administration at Texas A&M University in partnership with
Monterrey Tech in Mexico. For example, Professor
John Parnell at Texas A&M has been delivering a course for
several semesters in which students in Mexico City take the online
course in their homes. However, once each month the students
meet face-to-face on a weekend when Dr. Parnell travels to Mexico
City to hold live classes and administer examinations.
You probably won't have much difficulty making a guess as to what
many students say is the major reason they prefer online courses to
onsite courses in Mexico City?
Example 6 --- The University of Phoenix ---
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html
The University of Phoenix became the largest private university
in the world. Growth came largely from adult learning onsite
programs in urban centers across the U.S. and Canada.
The popular CBS television show called Sixty Minutes ran a
feature on the growth and future of the newer online training and
education programs at the University of Phoenix. You can download
this video from
http://online.uophx.edu/onl_nav_2.asp#
The University of Phoenix contends that online success in
education depends upon intense communications day-to-day between
instructors and students. This, in turn, means that online
classes must be relatively small and synchronized in terms of
assignments and projects.
What's Online Learning Really Like in a Government
and Not-for-Profit Accounting Class?
The Chronicle's
Goldie Blumenstyk has covered distance education for more than a
decade, and during that time she's written stories about
the economics of for-profit education, the ways that online
institutions
market themselves, and the demise of
the 50-percent rule. About the only thing she hadn't done, it
seemed, was to take a course from an online university. But this
spring she finally took the plunge, and now she has completed a
class in government and nonprofit accounting through the University
of Phoenix. She shares tales from the cy ber-classroom -- and her
final grade --
in a podcast with Paul Fain, a Chronicle reporter.
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2008 (Audio) ---
http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i40/cyber_classroom/
-
All course materials
(including textbooks) online; No additional textbooks to
purchase
-
$1,600 fee for the
course and materials
-
Woman instructor with
respectable academic credentials and experience in course
content
-
Instructor had good
communications with students and between students
-
Total of 14 quite
dedicated online students in course, most of whom were
mature with full-time day jobs
-
30% of grade from team
projects
-
Many unassigned online
helper tutorials that were not fully utilized by Goldie
-
Goldie earned a 92 (A-)
-
She gave a positive
evaluation to the course and would gladly take other courses
if she had the time
-
She
considered the course to have a heavy workload
Jensen Added Comment
It wasn't mentioned, but I think Goldie took the ACC 460 course ---
Click Here
ACC 460 Government and Non-Profit Accounting
Course Description
This course covers fund
accounting, budget and control issues, revenue and expense
recognition, and issues of reporting for both government and
non-profit entities.
Topics and Objectives
Environment of Government/Non-Profit
Accounting
- Compare and contrast governmental and
proprietary accounting.
- Analyze the relationship between GASB and
FASB.
- Analyze the relationship between a budget
and a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).
- Determine when and how to use the
modified accrual accounting method.
Fund Accounting Part I
- Distinguish between expenses and
expenditures.
- Explain the effect of encumbrances on a
budget.
- Apply the principles of fund accounting.
- Determine the closing process for the
fund accounting cycle.
- Explain the reconciliation of
government-wide financial statements with the fund
statements.
Fund Accounting Part II
- Apply accounting procedures for
recognizing revenues and other financial resources.
- Record interfund transfers.
- Prepare fund and non-governmental
accounting entries.
- Prepare a financial statement for a
governmental agency.
Overview of Not-for-Profit Accounting
- Examine the funds for different types of
not-for-profit organizations.
- Compare and contrast reporting by
governmental, not-for-profit, and proprietary organizations.
Current Issues in Government and
Not-for-Profit Accounting
- Analyze current issues in government and
not-for-profit accounting.
Bob Jensen's threads on
asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free
online video courses and course materials from leading universities
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on
assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark
side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
education technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Example 7 --- Partnerships
Lucrative partnerships between universities and corporations seeking
to train and educate employees.
The highly successful Global Executive MBA Program at Duke
University (formerly called GEMBA) where corporations from around
the world pay nearly $100,000 for one or two employees to earn a
prestigious online MBA degree ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
UNext Corporation has an exclusive partnership with General
Motors Corporation that provides online executive training and
education programs to 88,000 GM managers. GM pays the fees.
See
http://www.unext.com/
Army University Access
Online ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the
consulting division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Twenty-four colleges are delivering training and education courses
online through the U.S. Army's e-learning portal. There are
programs for varying levels of accomplishment, including specialty
certificates, associates degrees, bachelor's degrees, and masters
degrees. All courses are free to soldiers. By 2003,
there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online students.
The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University
attracted 12,000 students during its first year of operation.
It plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students in
2002. It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers
to take non-credit and credit courses from selected major
universities. The consulting arm of the accounting firm
Pricewaterhouse Coopers manages the entire system.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has a program for online
training and education for all IRS employees. The IRS pays the
fees for all employees.
The IRS online accounting classes will be served up from Florida
State University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana
University to provide an online MBA program for Deere employees.
Deere pays the fees. See "Deere & Company Turns to Indiana
University's Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in
Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
The University of Georgia partnered with the consulting division
of PwC to deliver a totally online MBA degree. The program is
only taken by PwC employees. PwC paid the development and
delivery fees. See
http://www.coe.uga.edu./coenews/2000/UGAusnews.htm
New Markets for Colleges and
Universities
Questions:
Will the most prestigious universities in the world commence to
offer more onsite non-credit and certificate programs that
(possibly) accompany their distance training, certificate, and
preparatory programs?
What's new at the University of Rochester in terms of onsite
revenue-generating programs?
Answer:
In previous editions of New Bookmarks, I have stressed that
the most profitable distance education programs are those non-credit
or certificate courses. Degree programs often struggle for a
number of reasons, not the least of which are as follows:
- Difficulty obtaining a
sufficient number of fully qualified applicants for a degree
program, especially in costly private colleges and corporate
programs.
- Difficulty in
attracting and keeping degree program students online due to the
long-term time commitment for part-time students in a complete
degree program.
- Difficulty in
maintaining academic standards (grading) online.
- Difficulty of
attracting instructors in online degree programs due to
intensive online communications with students and the need for
online students to communicate outside the working day,
especially at night and on a Saturday or Sunday.
Students bent on getting “A” grades can hound instructors to
death.
- Difficulty in getting
online degree programs accredited.
Five specialists,
especially Amy Dunbar, will address these issues on August 13 in San
Antonio ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/cepSanAntonio.htm
Many non-credit and
certificate training distance education programs, including those in
top universities, around the world are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Now it appears that in
order to expand into more profitable markets, colleges and
universities will be moving into onsite as well as online non-credit
and certificate courses and programs.
Example:
News Flash (received July 24, 2002 by mail) from The William E.
Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University
of Rochester
(one of the top graduate schools in the United States) ---
http://www.simon.rochester.edu/main/default.asp
Rochester, New York--July 17, 2002--In
fall 2002, the University of Rochester's William E. Simon
Graduate School of Business Administration will introduce a
Certificate Program with five areas of concentration: Financial
Analysis, Electronic Commerce Strategies, Health Sciences
Management, Service Management and The Design of Effective
Organizations. The program will offer busy professionals
who want to broaden their knowledge or retool their skills the
opportunity to study at a world-class business school without
committing to a full M.B.A. program.
According to the Simon School, participants will take courses
from the existing M.B.A. curriculum, taught by the School's
internationally renowned faculty, and learn alongside top
business students from around the world. The programs,
which can be completed in as little as one year of part-time
study, are targeted at professionals who want to enhance their
current performance or gain cutting-edge knowledge to change or
advance their careers.
"This
certificate is going to give you knowledge that you can put to
work right away," said Stacey R. Kole, Simon's associate dean
for M.B.A. Programs and associate professor of economics and
management. "From a perspective of time and money, it's a
relatively inexpensive way to get very high-quality training of
a targeted nature."
If a
Certificate Program participant decides to go on and earn an
M.B.A. or M.S. degree at Simon, the credits are fully
transferable. "That's one of the big pluses of this
program," said Kole. "If you want to continue with an
M.B.A. and your grades are good enough, you're a quarter of the
way done."
Participants in Simon's Certificate Program must complete five
or six designated M.B.A. courses, each of which are offered one
night a week over a 10-week period. The curriculum can be
spread out over as long as three years.
The
Certificate Program differs from the Simon School's Part-Time
M.B.A. Program by allowing students to take fewer courses (five
or six courses compared to 20 courses for part-time M.B.A.
students), while focusing on a specific area of interest rather
than pursuing a broader M.B.A. management degree. Students
who wish to continue their education upon completing the
Certificate Program will have the option to matriculate into the
part-time or full-time M.B.A. or M.S. program, provided they
maintain a 3.0 cumulative average and meet other admissions
criteria.
Certificate Programs
---
http://www.simon.rochester.edu/prostudent/Program-Shell.htm
All 5 Certificate Programs
Application
Procedure
E-Commerce
Strategy
Health
Sciences Management
Service
Management
Financial
Analysis (Capital Markets and Investments)
The
Design of Effective Organizations (Organizational Design)
Some Parts of the Corporate Online Distance Learning Business
Model Are Thriving
The LRN Center's business model is to provide legal and ethics
training courses online to corporations, law firms, and other
organizations who generally pay for employees to take courses in law
and ethics. For example, Dow Chemical contracted with LRN to
train 50,000 employees.
LRN
has similar contracts with many other corporations around the world.
I learned about the LRN Center from W. Michael Hoffman, the
Director of the Bentley College Center for Ethics. Dr. Hoffman
writes course modules for LRN in the field of ethics. After
the recent corporate scandals, LRN's prospects for the future are
very bright indeed.
LRN Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC)™ ---
http://www.lrn.com/
LRN Legal Compliance and Ethics Center
(LCEC)™ is the Web-based system that sets the standard for
workplace ethics, legal and compliance education. With
innovative technology, a powerful learning management system and
a curriculum of more than 140 courses, LCEC offers your
enterprise a complete workforce education solution.
Backed by a global network of 1,700
legal experts, LRN®, The Legal Knowledge Company™ offers an
integrated legal knowledge management system that encompasses
Expert Legal Research and Analysis, LRN KnowledgeBank®,
proactive law services and much more. See how LRN is redefining
the practice of law with innovation, efficiency and unparalleled
expertise.
LRN® , The Legal Knowledge
Company TM has been
the country's leading purveyor of expert legal knowledge since
1994, with products that include sophisticated legal research
and analysis for lawyers, databases of legal memoranda and other
materials for corporate law departments and law firms, Web-based
ethics and legal compliance education for corporate employees,
ethics and compliance consulting, and proactive law services.
The LRN mission is to bring expertise
and innovation to the creation, management and dissemination of
knowledge that helps make a critical difference to businesses,
lawyers and their clients. To accomplish this, LRN has built
itself on a firm foundation of expertise. We feature a network
of more than 1,700 of the world's finest legal minds, organized
into more than 3,000 substantive areas of the law and expertly
managed by our own team of highly experienced lawyers. Together,
our research network and management team bring expertise to
every step in the creation, capture and distribution of legal
knowledge products. Our services include:
-
LRN
KnowledgeEnvironment — an integrated platform for
sharing and disseminating knowledge on an enterprise-wide
basis. Fully customizable for our clients, this resource
facilitates communications within the legal department and
helps provide the entire enterprise with the legal and
ethics knowledge it needs.
-
LRN Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC) — the
first entirely Web-based platform designed to deliver
customized legal education and training in workplace ethics
and legal compliance to employees' desktops
-
LRN Ethics and Consulting Services — by
combining LRN expertise with a network of ethics
professionals, we help our customers develop, refine and
maximize the value in their ethics and compliance programs.
-
LRN Expert Legal Research and Analysis — focused,
fixed-price research and analysis performed by seasoned
legal professionals
-
LRN Knowledge Platform — the solution for bringing
the entire legal team, including outside counsel, together
on one platform for sharing critical legal knowledge. Every
team member can access research, contracts and every other
document from any computer with Internet access.
-
LRN KnowledgeBank — the legal knowledge management
system that combines LRN's expert legal research and
analysis, the resources of in-house attorneys and the work
product of outside counsel into a single, integrated and
searchable database
Successful companies all over the world
have grasped the power of LRN's expert-driven approach and used
it to their advantage. Contact us to learn about how we can put
our resources to work to meet your company's business
challenges.
UNext also seems to be adopting the online business training
model in a big way. One of the first major contracts obtained
by UNext was a contract to educate and train over 90,000 employees
of General Motors Corporation. You can read more about what is
happening at UNext at
http://www.unext.com/
Thomson Enterprise Learning Takes
Cardean University to Large Businesses Worldwide
Exclusive Agreement with Thomson Brings Cardean University's
Award-Winning Online Courses and M.B.A. to Large Businesses
American Marketing Association Partners
with Cardean University
Special Offer Provides Professional
Business Education Online to 38,000 Members
I had two speakers from UNext in my Atlanta workshop last year.
You can listen to their presentation and view their PowerPoint show
at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
|
Expanded
Alumni Relations
Many of the top colleges and universities are
experimenting with various new programs for alumni. For
example, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Alumni
have the following new options:
|
Cost
Savings Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://stanford-online.stanford.edu/main.html
It is possible to save enormous amounts of money using online
versus onsite education delivery. But to save enormous amounts
of money, the circumstances probably must be highly unique in which
students can succeed with very little communication and human
interaction in every course.
One such unique situation is the ADEPT online Masters of
Engineering degree program at Stanford University. The
students are mature and are all graduates in engineering or science
from top colleges in the world. The students are generally
highly motivated since a Stanford masters degree greatly improves
their career opportunities, especially in economic downturns where
competition for jobs becomes more intense. Most importantly,
the students are all extremely intelligent since Stanford can be
highly selective regarding admittance into the ADEPT program.
The unique type of student described above allows ADEPT program
to rely upon a video pedagogy where students to proceed at their own
paces with very little demanded in the way of instructor supervision
and communication. It's the
day-to-day instructional communication and supervision that comprise
most of the cost of online training and education.
Online programs that minimize this cost will probably make money as
long as sufficient numbers of students are willing to pay the fees
for the online course materials and the prestige of the course
transcripts.
Example 2 --- UNext Corporation ---
http://www.unext.com/
UNext Corporation is not a low-cost training and education
venture and is not yet a profitable venture. However, UNext
adopted a strategy that seeks to combine education prestige with
lower cost delivery. One of its headline programs entailed
partnering with five prestigious universities (Stanford, Chicago,
Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, and the London School of Economics) to
develop and continue to own and monitor 15 courses for an Executive
MBA degree. Each course's transcripts will carry the logo of
the university that "owns" that course. However, each course
will be delivered by specially-trained instructors who hire out at
much lower rates than faculty from prestigious schools that
developed the courses. In some cases the UNext instructors
have doctoral degrees, but in many cases these instructors are
highly trained specialists who do not have doctorates. These
instructors perform the labor intensive day-to-day communication and
supervision duties. The prestigious universities who "own" the
courses, however, must monitor education standards in the courses
since the names of those universities will appear on the course
transcripts.
You can listen to UNext faculty and the course designer for
Columbia University's accounting course at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
The Dark Side
All that glitters is not gold in terms of cost savings and
profits from distance education. Many of the startup ventures
are having difficulty changing faculty attitudes and attracting
paying students. To me this is not surprising since faculty by
nature are suspicious beings, and most potential customers of
distance education are not yet adequately connected to the Web.
David Noble, however, sees the early failings of many ventures as
ominous warnings that distance education is by nature inferior and
over-hyped by profit mongers.
And now, in the year 2001, these latest
academic entrepreneurs of distance education have begun to
encounter the same sobering reality earlier confronted by UCLA
and THEN, namely, that all that glitters is not gold. Columbia
University's high-profile, for-profit venture Fathom is reported
to be "having difficulty attracting both customers and outside
investors" compelling the institution to put up an additional
$10 million - on top of its original investment of $18.7 million
- just to keep the thing afloat. According to Sarah Carr's
report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia's
administrators remain behind the venture whether or not it makes
money.
Howevermuch it might enable
administrators to restructure the institutions of higher
education to their advantage vis a vis the professoriate, the
investment in online education is no guarantee of increased
revenues. "Reality is setting in among many distance education
administrators", Carr reports. "They are realizing that putting
programs online doesn't necessarily bring riches". Ironically,
among those now preaching this new-found wisdom is none other
than John Kobara, the UCLA vice chancellor who left the
university to run Arkatov's company, which was founded upon the
expectation of such riches. "The expectations were that online
courses would be a new revenue source and something that
colleges had to look into", Kobara remembered. "Today", he told
Carr, "[chancellors and presidents] are going back and asking
some important and tough questions, such as: 'Are we making any
money off of it?' 'Can we even pay for it?' 'Have we estimated
the full costs?'" Barely eight years after Lapiner and his UCLA
colleagues first caught the fool's gold fever, Kobara mused
aloud, "I don't think anybody has wild notions that it is going
to be the most important revenue source".
David F. Noble, "Fools Gold" ---
http://communication.ucsd.edu/DL/ddm5.html
Distance Education Websites ---
http://ejw.i8.com/distweb.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on alternatives for distance education
and training are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on technology in education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
|
Learning Curve and Left-in-the Dust Motivations
Example 1 --- Railroad Companies Versus
Transportation Companies
In the middle of the 20th Century, just after World War II, the
railroad industry was in pretty good shape. Passenger trains
were nearly always full going from coast-to-coast. The freight
business was highly lucrative.
New opportunities arose (especially airplanes and freight trucks)
into which railroad companies could have diversified. But the
railroads decided that they were in the business of hauling people
and freight on steel rails rather than in newer 'transportation"
alternatives.
And what happened? Airlines, automobiles, and buses stole
the entire passenger market from the railroads in the United States
(except for urban commuter lines) and about the only long-haul
passenger service had to be subsidized and run by the Federal
Government. Even the commuter lines lost huge market shares to
automobiles.
Many colleges and universities are now facing the question of
whether they are to remain only onsite (railroad) educational
institutions or whether they will enter into distance education
(transportation) missions. Some colleges that have quality
living accommodations and reputations as onsite campuses for
full-time students will probably survive long into the future just
like some railroad companies continue to hall freight and make
money. However, those colleges have minimal growth potential
vis-a-vis colleges that expand into distance education.
Example 2 --- The Learning Curve Thing
Even colleges currently resisting all opportunities for expanding
into distance education nevertheless find it utterly stupid not to
embrace newer educational technologies. Their new students are
arriving on campus with technology skills that they want to expand
upon while in college. College graduates must have technology
skills for admissions to graduate schools and employment careers.
Faculty must have technology skills if they are to help their
students improve in technology skills. And faculty soon
discover that technology skills do not come easily. They
increasingly are making demands upon their institutions to provide
hardware, software, and technicians who can help in education
technologies.
Colleges behind in the technology learning curve are now
scrambling to catch up in terms of electronic classrooms,
instructional support services, course delivery shells such as
Blackboard and WebCT, laptop computers for students and faculty,
wireless networking, etc.
Having progressed upward on the learning curve, taking on a
mission of distance education becomes more of a possibility.
Faculty who increasingly rely upon chat rooms, discussion boards,
virtual classrooms and other utilities in WebCT or Blackboard catch
on to the fact that they could be doing the same things for distant
students that they are doing for campus residents. The
opportunities for grant money and/or release time to develop a
distance education course are no longer as frightening when faculty
progress further and further along the technology learning curve.
Improved performances of technology-savvy students add more
incentives.
|
Motivations to Show the World How To Do It Right
(Duke
University Decides to Be in the Education Business Rather Than Merely
the Classroom Business)
"THE HOTTEST
CAMPUS ON THE INTERNET Duke's pricey online B-school program is
winning raves from students and rivals," Business Week,
October 27, 1997 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/1997/42/b3549015.htm
Update: The Duke MBA
--- Global Executive MBA Program (formerly called GEMBA) ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
As of Fall Semester 2001, there have been over 600 graduates from
over 38 nations. In terms of enthusiasm and alumni giving,
this program is a real winner for Duke University.
The
Duke MBA - Global Executive is every bit as academically
demanding as Duke's other two MBA programs. Global Executive
uses the same faculty base, the same rigorous grading standards,
and provides the same Duke degree. However, the content has been
adjusted to include more global issues and strategies to serve a
participant population that has far more global management
experience.
-
Like most other Executive MBA programs, the Global Executive
program is a lock-step curriculum, meaning that all students
take all courses. The courses are targeted at general
managers who have or will soon assume global
responsibilities. The program is designed for those who want
to enhance their career path within their existing company.
-
International Residencies: International residencies are an
important ingredient in a global MBA program as they add to
the value and richness of the classroom component by
providing various lenses (social, economic, cultural, etc.)
through which to view various economies and systems. Instead
of simply studying about an economy, Fuqua provides an
experiential component which adds value to the learning
experience ...
-
Global Student body: Unlike traditional Executive MBA
programs which usually have a regional draw, the flexibility
of Global Executive accommodates a student body from around
the globe. Not only are the students diverse geographically,
but they are also diverse in the types of global management
experiences that they bring to the classroom.
For the
class entering in May 2001, tuition is $95,000. Tuition includes
all educational expenses, a state-of-the-art laptop computer,
portable printer, academic books and other class materials, and
lodging and meals during the five residential sessions. The
tuition does not include travel to and from the residential
sites.
You can learn a great
deal about the extend of distance education in this program by
looking at the academic calendar at
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/global_cal2001.htm
Update: Duke's
Online Cross-Continent MBA ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/cc/cc_home.html
In Fall Semester 2001, there were 220 students tied into two
distance education centers (in Durham, N.C. and in Frankfurt) for
the Cross-Continent MBA program.
While in Germany in the
Summer of 2001, I had dinner with Tom Keller, former Dean of Duke's
Fuqua School of Business and Dean of Duke's Cross-Continent MBA
Program. Tom spent two years in the Frankfort headquarters of
Duke's Cross-Continent MBA Program. This program is quite
different from the online Global Executive MBA Program, although
both are asynchronous online programs and used some overlapping
course materials.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program
allows high-potential managers to earn an
internationally-focused MBA degree from Duke University in less
than two years, utilizing a format that minimizes the disruption
of careers and family life. It is designed for individuals with
three to nine years professional work experience.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program
will contain course work with a global emphasis in the subject
areas of Management, Marketing, Operations, Economics, Finance,
Accounting, Strategy and Decision Sciences.
Students will complete 11 core courses,
four elective courses and one integrative capstone course to
earn their MBA degree. Two courses will be completed during each
of the eight terms of the program. Depending upon their choice
of electives, students may choose to complete the one-week
residency requirements for their sixth and seventh terms at
either Fuqua School of Business location in North America or
Europe.
The two classes - one on each continent
- will be brought even closer together through a transfer
requirement built into the program. During the third term, half
of the class from Europe will attend the North American
residential session and vice versa. In the fourth term, the
other half of each class trades locations for one week of
residential learning. After the transfer residencies, the
students resume their coursework using the same Internet
mediated learning methods as before, but with global virtual
teams that have now met in a face-to-face setting
World-Class Resources
When you're linked to Duke University's Fuqua School of
Business, you're connected to a world of resources residing on a
network with robust bandwidth capabilities. Duke MBA students
have secure access to the Duke and Fuqua business library
databases as well as a network of Duke faculty and outside
experts.
World-Wide Content Delivery
The virtual classroom can take on many different forms. Here, a
faculty member prepares a macroeconomics lecture for
distribution via CD ROM and/or the Internet. Students will
download this lecture in a given week of study and follow up
with discussion and team projects.
Bulletin Board Discussion
Rich threads of conversation occur during this asynchronous mode
of communication. Professors and guest lecturers can moderate
the discussion to keep learning focused.
Real-Time Chat Session
Occurs between students and classmates as well as faculty. Here,
a student in Europe discusses an assignment with a professor in
the United States.
|
Because
It is the Thing to Do for the Betterment of All People on Earth
Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) of MIT and
Other Leading Universities
The Magnificence of Mentoring
The Magnificence of Global Outreach
From Syllabus, May
2002, pp. 41-42 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6341
Linking to Mexico:
Connectivity Without Borders
Like other
members of the Internet2 initiative, the University of Texas at
El Paso (UTEP) wanted to enhance its research and educational
power by joining the consortium of U.S. universities linked to
the ultra-high-speed network. But as a major university just
miles from the Mexican border, it also wanted to play a role in
linking Internet2 to a similar effort in Mexico and, from there,
to Central America.
UTEP is one of only 30 Internet2 gigaPOP sites,
which allows it to serve as an Internet2 host for other
institutions. To encourage scholarly and cultural exchanges with
Mexico, as well as to provide access to the latest technology in
both countries, UTEP built a high-speed, point-to-point wireless
network. The network spans about five miles from El Paso to
Mexico’s Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ). UACJ is a
member of a Mexican initiative to develop a high-speed network
compatible with Internet2.
Continued at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6341
Technology Aids for the Handicapped and Learning Challenged
"Seeing-Eye Computer Guides for the Blind," by Louise Knapp,
Wired News, March 30, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,62810,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
"Computer algorithms process the images and extract
information from them to give the user information about what
they are looking at," said Nikolaos Bourbakis, professor at
Wright State University's
College of Engineering and Computer Science in Dayton, Ohio.
Users can program iCare to feed them
information continuously or only when prompted by a question,
such as "What is directly in front of me?" or "Who just walked
into the room?"
So far, iCare's greatest talent is its
ability to translate type into spoken words. The iCare-Reader
translates text into a synthesized voice using optical character
recognition software and other software that compensates for
different lighting conditions and orientations.
David Paul, one of two blind computer
science students at Arizona State
University, or ASU, who tested the system, said speed is one
of the system's greatest assets. "It's as fast as a sighted
person could read a book -- this is one of the phenomenal things
about it."
The iCare-Reader not only enables blind
people to choose any book from the library shelf, but also
allows them to check out a restaurant menu, the size marked on a
shirt tag or the label on a soup can.
The reader doesn't translate
handwritten text well yet, but the team is still working on it.
ICare also lets the blind or visually
impaired persons navigate websites previously only accessible
with a mouse.
Screen-reader software, such as
Jaws, can translate information on a computer screen to
spoken word. But this is only useful if users are able to get to
the pages they are interested in.
"The way a blind person navigates
around the screen is with the keyboard, but there are some sites
that don't work so well with keyboard alone and have some
mouse-driven applications," said Terri Hedgpeth, disability
research specialist at ASU. "But a blind person can't tell where
the mouse cursor is, so (he or she) can't access these sites."
To overcome this problem, the ASU team
developed another facet of the system, called the
iCare-Assistant, that works with
Blackboard, software
designed to manage university course material.
"We have developed a software interface
that bridges the screen-reader software and Blackboard through
keyboard shortcuts that get you into these areas," Hedgpeth
said.
Learning-challenged
students in Ohio are using wearable computers that are helping the
kids be more independent and confident.
"A Wearable Aid for Special
Kids," by Katie Dean, Wired News, May 10, 2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,52148,00.html
Jeremy
Rossiter was not able to speak when he first entered Lisa
Zverloff's class for the multiple-handicapped. The third-grader,
who is autistic, communicated by hitting and biting. But with
the help of a wearable computer, Jeremy learned to mimic, then
utter, words and small phrases.
His
success story propelled Xybernaut, the manufacturer of the
wearable computer, into a new market.
Xybernaut is more known for supplying computers to
telecommunications companies and the military. The devices are
used for maintenance purposes in locations where carrying a
laptop is not possible, such as manholes and the tops of
telephone poles.
Credit
Zverloff, a teacher at Erwine Middle School in Akron, Ohio, with
bringing wearables into the classroom. Her experience led to the
product launch of the XyberKids wearable computers in March.
Zverloff says the durable, touch-screen portable computers have
made her students more independent and confident. Some kids use
it all day; others use it for specific activities. Several
students are able to fully participate in mainstream classrooms
while using the devices.
It all
started with a cold call to Xybernaut.
Zverloff's fiance, Eric Van Raepenbusch, a special education
teacher at Turkeyfoot Elementary, owned stock in the company and
suggested she call them.
On the
phone, she convinced a nearby sales representative to meet with
her and Jeremy -- even though the company's initial response was
along the lines of, "But ma'am, we don't use (the computers) for
people with disabilities," Zverloff said.
Jeremy
eventually tried the device and "he wouldn't put it down,"
Zverloff said. "That's the only proof I need. He didn't bite me,
scratch me, pinch me –- this is a positive thing."
The
device cost $9,000, but the company agreed to loan the device to
Zverloff, a first-year teacher at the time, to see how Jeremy
progressed.
She
replaced the belt –- made for an adult -- with a bookbag so
Jeremy would be able to carry the 6-pound, 8.4-inch touch
screen, hard drive and battery. The device runs on the Windows
operating system.
When
Jeremy touched different pictures on the screen, a
computer-generated voice dictated what the item was. He
responded better to the digitized voice because the output is
the same volume and tone every time, she said.
"After
repeated mimicking of the computer, he then started mimicking
the teacher, then he started putting utterances together,"
Zverloff said. "A three-word utterance is an amazing thing for
someone who's only been speaking for two months."
Zverloff also discovered that Jeremy was learning to spell and
read.
When
she showed him pictures of different animals, he started typing
the words and used the voice output. He regularly took the
wearable to lunch and on field trips to help him communicate
outside the classroom.
"At the
end of the year, he was reading words and sentences on a
first-grade level," she said.
Researchers are developing similar devices at Stanford
University's Center for the Study of Language and Information
(CSLI).
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,52148,00.html
Susan Spencer
is designing online economics courses for San Antonio College (SAC).
All online courses at SAC must be accessible by hearing and sight
impaired students. Susan will discuss her innovative ideas in
designing economics courses that can be delivered online to blind
students.
Susan is an
associate professor of Economics at San Antonio College. She has an
MA from Washington University, a BA in Economics from the University
of Missouri at Columbia and has worked at the Federal Reserve Board
and Bureau of Labor and Statistics in Washington, DC. In San
Antonio, she has taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio
and owned and managed Flexware Systems, Inc. a computer
software/consulting company.
Susan
Spencer's Presentation File Download:
Susan's
presentation file is not yet available. It will be here
soon.
Susan
Spencer's MP3 Audio File Download
You may
download Susan's MP3 file from the list of fMP3 files at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/
All MP3
LINKS ARE CASE SENSITIVE!
|
The Dark
Side Versus the Bright Side
The Dark Side
In spite of the successes noted above, most attempts to offer
online training and education programs by corporations, private
universities, and state-supported colleges and universities have
either failed or struggle on with negative net cash flows from the
online operations.
Aside from the success story at the University of Phoenix, it
appears that reputation and prestige of a university are necessary
but not sufficient conditions for high success in online programs.
Online programs at Carnegie-Mellon University, Columbia University,
Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Wisconsin,
University of Michigan, and other top-name schools have attracted
students who want those logos on their transcripts. The is the
main reason why many corporations partner with those particular
schools for training and education courses. This "prestige
criterion" makes it very difficult for startup education companies
or colleges with less prestigious names to expand markets with
Internet courses.
Many new online programs have failed to attract sufficient
numbers of tuition-paying students to break even on the cost of
developing and delivering those programs.
- Some like the online teacher education program at McGill
University have ceased operations. California
Virtual University never got off the ground.
National Technologica University fell on hard times with poor
timing and sold out to Sylvan Learning Systems.
- Some programs struggle on with miniscule classes while
supporting operations with outside funding or funding diverted
from onsite training and education programs.
- Monterrey Tech (which is to Mexico what MIT is to the US),
has a multimillion dollar distance education program.
The main campus has a
12-story glass tower (a beautiful building indeed) equipped with
production and delivery equipment that constitutes one of two
main transmitting facilities of the Monterrey Tech Virtual
University --- the University that delivers courses daily
to 29 campuses, 1,272 sites in Mexico, and 159 sites in 10 Latin
and South American Countries. Although this is one of
the most successful distance education programs in the world,
the number one problem still remains in finding more qualified
students who are both willing and able to pay the fees.
See
http://www.ruv.itesm.mx/
Even in established universities that offer fully-accredited
degree programs, expanding the market through online programs has
been a hard struggle. The University of Washington found that
even free-course promotions did not attract large numbers of
students.
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/about/releases/20010521freecourse.asp
The Fathom program largely run by Columbia University finds that
many of its free courses have sparse enrollments. See
http://www.fathom.com/
Links to ventures that became financial disasters are given in
the following document:
The Dark Side of the 21st
Century: Concerns About Technologies in Education ---
Detail File
The Bright Side
The bottom line seems to be that for
many universities seeking to expand markets with online programs,
the best solution to date entails partnering with corporations or
government agencies who both pay the fees and promote the programs
among their employees.
For urban areas such as Mexico City
locked in traffic jams, online education appears to have glowing
prospects.
Since the terrorist attacks on September
11, 2001, it will probably be more difficult for some foreign
students to become students on campuses of developed nations such as
the U.S. and the U.K. Online education has bright prospects of
reaching those students.
Open share initiatives such as the new
open share program in which MIT will make learning materials from
virtually all of its courses available for free online, will greatly
expand learning opportunities for nearly all people in the world. |
Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States
DOES DISTANCE LEARNING WORK?
A LARGE SAMPLE, CONTROL GROUP STUDY OF STUDENT SUCCESS IN DISTANCE
LEARNING
by James Koch ---
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/vol8_no1/fullpapers/distancelearning.htm
The relevant public policy question is
this---Does distance learning "work" in the sense that students
experience as least as much success when they utilize distance
learning modes as compared to when they pursue conventional
bricks and mortar education? The answer to this question is a
critical in determining whether burgeoning distance learning
programs are cost-effective investments, either for students, or
for governments.
Of course, it is difficult to measure
the "learning" in distance learning, not the least because
distance learning courses now span nearly every academic
discipline. Hence, most large sample evaluative studies utilize
students’ grades as an imperfect proxy for learning. That
approach is followed in the study reported here, as well.
A recent review of research in distance
education reported that 1,419 articles and abstracts appeared in
major distance education journals and as dissertations during
the 1990-1999 period (Berge and Mrozowski, 2001). More than one
hundred of these studies focused upon various measures of
student success (such as grades, subsequent academic success,
and persistence) in distance learning courses. Several asked the
specific question addressed in this paper: Why do some students
do better than others, at least as measured by the grade they
receive in their distance learning course? A profusion of
contradictory answers has emanated from these studies (Berge and
Mrozowski, 2001; Machtmes and Asher, 2000). It is not yet clear
how important to individual student success are factors such as
the student’s characteristics (age, ethnic background, gender,
academic background, etc.). However, other than knowing that
experienced faculty are more effective than less experienced
faculty (Machtmes and Asher, 2000), we know even less about how
important the characteristics of distance learning faculty are
to student success, particularly where televised, interactive
distance learning is concerned.
Perhaps the only truly strong
conclusion emerging from previous empirical studies of distance
learning is the oft cited "no significant difference" finding
(Saba, 2000). Indeed, an entire web site,
http://teleeducation.nb.ca/nosignificantdifference, exists that
reports 355 such "no significant difference" studies. Yet,
without quarreling with such studies, they do not tell us why
some students achieve better grades than others when they
utilize distance learning.
Several studies have suggested that
student learning styles and receptivity to distance learning
influence student success (see Taplin and Jegede, 2001, for a
short survey). Unfortunately, as Maushak et. al. (2001) point
out, these intuitively sensible findings are not yet highly
useful, because they are not based upon large sample, control
group evidence that relates recognizable student learning styles
to student performance. Studies that rely upon "conversation and
discourse analysis" (Chen and Willits, 1999, provide a
representative example) and interviews with students are
helpful, yet are sufficiently anecdotal that they are unlikely
to lead us to scientifically based conclusions about what works
and what does not.
This paper moves us several steps
forward in terms of our knowledge by means of a very large
distance education sample (76,866 individual student
observations) and an invaluable control group of students who
took the identical course at the same time from the same
instructor, but did so "in person" in a conventional "bricks and
mortar" location. The results indicate that gender, age, ethnic
background, distance learning experience, experience with the
institution providing the instruction, and measures of academic
aptitude and previous academic success are statistically
significant determinants of student success. Similarly, faculty
characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic background, and
educational background are statistically significant predictors
of student success, though not necessarily in the manner one
might hypothesize.
Continued in this working paper
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online
Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004," The Sloan Consortium
---
http://www.sloan-c.org/resources/survey.asp
Entering the Mainstream: The Quality
and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and
2004 represents the second annual study of the state of online
education in U.S. Higher Education. This year’s study, like last
year’s, is aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions
about the nature and extent of online education. Supported by
the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and based on responses from over
1,100 colleges and universities, this year’s study addresses the
following key questions:
-- Will online enrollments continue
their rapid growth?
Background:
Last year’s study, Sizing the Opportunity: The Quality and
Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2002 and
2003 found that over 1.6 million students were studying
online in the fall of 2002, and that schools expected that
number to grow substantially by the fall of 2003. The nearly
20% growth rate expected in online enrollments far exceeds
the overall rate of growth for the entire higher education
student population. Would this very optimistic projection be
realized, or would schools begin to see a plateau in their
online enrollments?
The evidence:
The online enrollment projections have been realized, and
there is no evidence that enrollments have reached a
plateau. Online enrollments continue to grow at rates faster
than for the overall student body, and schools expect the
rate of growth to further increase:
Over 1.9 million students were
studying online in the fall of 2003. Schools expect the
number of online students to grow to over 2.6 million by the
fall of 2004. Schools expect online enrollment growth to
accelerate — the expected average growth rate for online
students for 2004 is 24.8%, up from 19.8% in 2003. Overall,
schools were pretty accurate in predicting enrollment growth
— last year’s predicted online enrollment for 2003 was
1,920,734; this year’s number from the survey is 1,971,397.
-- Are students as satisfied with
online courses as they are with face-to-face instruction?
Background:
Schools face the “if you build it will they come?” question:
If they offer online courses and students are not satisfied
with them, they will not enroll. Do academic leaders, those
responsible for the institutions meeting their enrollment
goals, believe that students are as satisfied with their
online offerings as with their face-to-face instruction?
The evidence:
Schools that offer online courses believe that their online
students are at least as satisfied as those taking their
face-to-face offerings:
40.7% of schools offering online
courses agree that “students are at least as satisfied” with
their online courses, 56.2% are neutral and only 3.1%
disagree. Medium and large schools strongly agree (with less
than 3% disagreeing). The smallest schools (under 1,500
enrollments) are the least positive, but even they have only
5.4% disagreeing compared to 32.9% agreeing.
Doctoral/Research, Masters, and Associates schools are very
positive, Specialized and Baccalaureate schools only
slightly less so.
-- What role do schools see online
learning playing in their long-term strategy?
Background:
In order for online learning to enter the mainstream of
American higher education, schools must believe in its
importance and be willing to embrace it as part of their
long-term institutional strategies. Will online learning be
seen as a niche among higher education, or will schools see
it as an important component of their future evolution?
The evidence:
Schools believe that online learning is critical to their
long term strategy. We asked if “Online education is
critical to the long-term strategy” of the school. Every
group with the exception of Baccalaureate schools agrees
with this statement. Public and large schools were extremely
strong in their opinions (only 3% disagreeing):
The majority of all schools (53.6%)
agree that online education is critical to their long-term
strategy. Among public and private for-profit institutions
almost two-thirds (over 65% in both cases) agree. The larger
the institution, the more likely it believes that online
education is critical. Doctoral/Research, Masters, and
Associates schools are very positive, Specialized schools
slightly less positive, and Baccalaureate schools slightly
negative.
-- What about the quality of online
offerings: do schools continue to believe that it measures up?
Background:
One of the earliest perceptions about online learning was
that it was of lower quality than face-to-face instruction.
The evidence from last year’s study showed academic leaders
did not agree with this assessment. When asked to compare
learning outcomes in online courses with those for
face-to-face instruction, academic leaders put the two on
very close terms, and expected the online offerings to
continue to get better relative to the face-to-face option.
Given the continued growth in the number of students online
and the pressure that this growth brings in maintaining
quality, do academic leaders still believe in the quality of
online offerings?
The evidence:
Schools continue to believe that online learning is just as
good as being there:
A majority of academic leaders
believe that online learning quality is already equal to or
superior to face-to-face instruction. Three quarters of
academic leaders at public colleges and universities believe
that online learning quality is equal to or superior to
face-to-face instruction. The larger the school, the more
positive the view of the relative quality of online learning
compared to face-to-face instruction. Three quarters of all
academic leaders believe that online learning quality will
be equal to or superior to face-to-face instruction in three
years.
Distance Education Websites ---
http://ejw.i8.com/distweb.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on alternatives for distance education
and training are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on technology in education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
|
Models
April 4, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
BEYOND E-LEARNING
"Just when we thought we had e-learning all figured
out, it's changing again. After years of experimentation and the irrational
exuberance that characterized the late 1990s, we find our views of
e-learning more sober and realistic." In "What Lies Beyond E-Learning?"
(LEARNING CIRCUITS, March 2006), Marc J. Rosenberg suggests that over the
next few years we will see six transformations in the field of e-learning:
1. E-learning will become more than "e-training."
2. E-learning will move to the workplace.
3. Blended learning will be redefined.
4. E-learning will be less course-centric and more
knowledge-centric.
5. E-learning will adapt differently to different
levels of mastery.
6. Technology will become a secondary issue.
This article, online at
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2006/March/rosenberg.htm,
is based on Rosenberg's book, BEYOND E-LEARNING:
APPROACHES AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ENHANCE ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING
AND PERFORMANCE. (Pfeiffer, 2005; ISBN: 0787977578). For more information
about the book and a sample chapter, go to
http://www.pfeiffer.com/WileyCDA/PfeifferTitle/productCd-0787977578.html.
From U.K.'s Institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University
of Bristol
Social Science Information Gateway
http://sosig.esrc.bris.ac.uk/
March 3, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
WHAT LEADS TO ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN DISTANCE
EDUCATION?
"Achieving Success in Internet-Supported Learning
in Higher Education," released February 1, 2005, reports on the study of
distance education conducted by the Alliance for Higher Education
Competitiveness (A-HEC). A-HEC surveyed 21 colleges and universities to
"uncover best practices in achieving success with the use of the Internet in
higher education." Some of the questions asked by the study included:
"Why do institutions move online? Are there
particular conditions under which e-Learning will be successful?"
"What is the role of leadership and by whom? What
level of investment or commitment is necessary for success?"
"How do institutions evaluate and measure success?"
"What are the most important and successful factors
for student support and faculty support?"
"Where do institutions get stuck? What are the key
challenges?"
The complete report is available online, at no
cost, at http://www.a-hec.org/e-learning_study.html.
The "core focus" of the nonprofit Alliance for
Higher Education Competitiveness (A-HEC) "is on communicating how higher
education leaders are creating positive change by crystallizing their
mission, offering more effective academic programs, defining their role in
society, and putting in place balanced accountability measures." For more
information, go to http://www.a-hec.org/
. Individual membership in A-HEC is free.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
April 1, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM AND OPEN BOOK EXAMS
In "PCs in the Classroom & Open Book Exams" (UBIQUITY, vol. 6, issue 9,
March 15-22, 2005), Evan Golub asks and supplies some answers to questions
regarding open-book/open-note exams. When classroom computer use is allowed
and encouraged, how can instructors secure the open-book exam environment?
How can cheating be minimized when students are allowed Internet access
during open-book exams? Golub's suggested solutions are available online at
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v6i9_golub.html
Ubiquity is a free, Web-based publication of the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), "dedicated to fostering critical
analysis and in-depth commentary on issues relating to the nature,
constitution, structure, science, engineering, technology, practices, and
paradigms of the IT profession." For more information, contact: Ubiquity,
email: ubiquity@acm.org ; Web:
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/
For more information on the ACM, contact: ACM, One Astor Plaza, 1515
Broadway, New York, NY 10036, USA; tel: 800-342-6626 or 212-626-0500; Web:
http://www.acm.org/
NEW EDUCAUSE E-BOOK ON THE NET GENERATION
EDUCATING THE NET GENERATION, a new EDUCAUSE
e-book of essays edited by Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger,
"explores the Net Gen and the implications for institutions in areas such as
teaching, service, learning space design, faculty development, and
curriculum." Essays include: "Technology and Learning Expectations of the
Net Generation;" "Using Technology as a Learning Tool, Not Just the Cool New
Thing;" "Curricula Designed to Meet 21st-Century Expectations;" "Faculty
Development for the Net Generation;" and "Net Generation Students and
Libraries." The entire book is available online at no cost at
http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen/
.
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission
is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of
information technology. For more information, contact: Educause, 4772 Walnut
Street, Suite 206, Boulder, CO 80301-2538 USA; tel: 303-449-4430; fax:
303-440-0461; email:
info@educause.edu; Web:
http://www.educause.edu/
See also:
GROWING UP DIGITAL: THE RISE OF THE NET GENERATION
by Don Tapscott McGraw-Hill, 1999; ISBN: 0-07-063361-4
http://www.growingupdigital.com/
EFFECTIVE E-LEARNING DESIGN
"The unpredictability of the student context and
the mediated relationship with the student require careful attention by the
educational designer to details which might otherwise be managed by the
teacher at the time of instruction." In "Elements of Effective e-Learning
Design" (INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING,
March 2005) Andrew R. Brown and Bradley D. Voltz cover six elements of
effective design that can help create effective e-learning delivery. Drawing
upon examples from The Le@rning Federation, an initiative of state and
federal governments of Australia and New Zealand, they discuss lesson
planning, instructional design, creative writing, and software
specification. The paper is available online at
http://www.irrodl.org/content/v6.1/brown_voltz.html
International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning (IRRODL) [ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal
published by Athabasca University - Canada's Open University. For more
information, contact Paula Smith, IRRODL Managing Editor; tel: 780-675-6810;
fax: 780-675-672; email:
irrodl@athabascau.ca
; Web:
http://www.irrodl.org/
The Le@rning Federation (TLF) is an "initiative
designed to create online curriculum materials and the necessary
infrastructure to ensure that teachers and students in Australia and New
Zealand can use these materials to widen and enhance their learning
experiences in the classroom." For more information, see
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/
RECOMMENDED READING
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been
recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly
interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published
by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to
carolyn_kotlas@unc.ed u for possible
inclusion in this column.
Author Clark Aldrich recommends his new book:
LEARNING BY DOING: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO
SIMULATIONS, COMPUTER GAMES, AND PEDAGOGY IN E-LEARNING AND OTHER
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES Wiley, April 2005 ISBN: 0-7879-7735-7 hardcover
$60.00 (US)
Description from Wiley website:
"Designed for learning professionals and drawing on
both game creators and instructional designers, Learning by Doing explains
how to select, research, build, sell, deploy, and measure the right type of
educational simulation for the right situation. It covers simple approaches
that use basic or no technology through projects on the scale of computer
games and flight simulators. The book role models content as well, written
accessibly with humor, precision, interactivity, and lots of pictures. Many
will also find it a useful tool to improve communication between themselves
and their customers, employees, sponsors, and colleagues."
The table of contents and some excerpts are
available at
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787977357.html
Aldrich is also author of SIMULATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF LEARNING: AN
INNOVATIVE (AND PERHAPS REVOLUTIONARY) APPROACH TO E-LEARNING. See
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787969621.html
for more information or to request an evaluation copy of this title.
Bob Jensen's documents on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Ideas for Teaching Online (including Distance Education via Centra Symposium
and Webex) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Question
What is Hybrid Distance Learning
Answer:
"Putting a Faculty on Distance Education Programs, by William H. Riffee,
Syllabus, February 2003, Page 13
At a Glance: Hybrid
Distance Learning
- Hybrid Distance
Learning: A distance learning program using both electronic
delivery and local facilitators or mentors to coach, counsel,
and support students
- Ideal
Student/Facilitator Ratio: Approximately 12:1
- Facilitator Traits:
Teaching skills, clinical experience, time availability,
compatible philosophy
- Facilitator
Training: Training at host university, shadowing current
faculty member, telephone conferences, annual training updates
- Compensation:
Level based on current salary for such a professional in the
region where they are located
- Quote:
"Traditionally, distance education has been developed as
stand-alone Web-based programs with little interaction between
faculty and students other than through electronic means. The
University of Florida has found that the addition of the
facilitator/mentor faculty has brought a new dimension to
distance-based programs, one that has improved overall quality.
The additional academic experiences available to our distance
education students have put a now-familiar face on our distance
education programs."—Bill Riffee
|
"The B-School at Company
X," by: Sharon Shinn, BizEd from the AACSB, May/June 2004, pp. 32-37 (not
free online)
Corporate universities are focused, committed to employee education, and
here to stay. Traditional business schools must learn how to work with
them in creative and productive partnerships.
About
ten years ago, when corporate universities were exploding onto the scene,
sentiment was deeply divided between fear that such institutions would rob
business schools of all their students and conviction that corporate
universities would be a brief and passing phase. It turns out that
neither expectation was true. Today's corporate university is an
entrenched part of the business landscape, working hard to satisfy both its
students and the CEOs of its parent organizations by providing targeted
education that can demonstrably improve performance in the workplace.
Today's corporate university also draws heavily on the expertise of
traditional four-year universities--and some people believe that broader and
stronger partnerships between schools and businesses will shape the future
of company-based education.
While
the phrase "corporate university" has been used to mean everything from a
revamped training department to a degree-granting branch of a major
corporation, it's possible to come up with a more exact description.
One good definition comes courtesy of Mark Allen, director of executive
education at the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine
University, Culver City, California, and co-author of The Corporate
University Handbook. He believes a corporate university must
be a strategic tool that helps the parent organization achieve its mission
through educational activities. What's key, he stresses, is that
whatever training or learning is involved be tied directly to the strategic
mission of the company.
In
other words, nobody goes to Corporate U just to kill a few hours. Such
a school offers learning with a purpose--improving a specific employee's
performance in a specific area of the job in a way that's measurable.
THE
CORPORATE GOALS
Corporate universities exist to fulfill four main goals: to teach topics
like leadership and communication to executives; to standardize skills and
knowledge for certain jobs within the company; to help the company as a
whole develop a unified culture; and to develop strong networks among
employees.
Developing "soft skills" is something corporate universities do very well,
says Mike Morrison, dean of associate education and development at
University of Toyota in Torrance, California. "Part of it is, we have
to," he says. "Once people are in the work environment, they see that
the work world is very relational. Problem-solving skills, creativity
and innovation are in much higher demand, and the ability to self-design
work is critical."
Also
critical is the ability to provide mission-specific education with instant
relevance. Tom Doyle, director of Menlo Worldwide's Menlo University
in Dayton, Ohio, says, "Each of our courses is aligned with the strategic
products, services, or value propositions that we take to the marketplace.
There are no electives. You don't have to have a physical education
unit to get through."
Just
as important to many corporations is that their universities help them
create a single image of the company or a standardized protocol.
Sometimes, as with Menlo University, the school is a consolidation of a
disparate collection of training programs that used to be centered in
different departments or physical locations.
Continued in the
article
Bob Jensen's threads on education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Principles for Building Success in
Online Education, by Jacqueline Moloney and Steven Tello, Syllabus, February
2003, pp. 15-17 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7252
As higher education
adminstrators, we faced numerous challenges beginning in 1996 when we
launched our online efforts at UMass-Lowell. Which courses or programs to
migrate, what faculty to involve, and which platform to use are just a few
of the many complex decisions that institutions must confront in building
online programs. To help others, we've created a rubric that covers five
strategic areas of decision making:
- Selection of
courses and programs
- Faculty
development, support, and incentives
- Technology and
infrastructure
- Redesign of
student services
- Program and
course evaluation
A set of four
operating principles that evolved with the success of our program exist as
important guides:
- Adhere to your
campus mission
- Use
traditional academic structures and faculty to accelerate the
development of online education
- Start small,
build incrementally, and think scalability
- Build learning
communities that push the limits of new technology
Principles in
Action
Consistent with the principles above, UMass-Lowell's online education
program started very small, with a handful of pioneering faculty. Like many
public universities, we were trying to identify new markets that could bring
needed revenues to the campus and expand access to our programs. Therefore,
the online program was initiated through the Division of Continuing,
Corporate and Distance Education (CCDE) to address those campus needs. As a
self-supporting organization, CCDE was to identify strategies that would
generate sufficient revenues to cover program development and delivery
costs. Working through decisions by employing the principles previously
outlined, we were able to overcome the obstacles that often inhibit the
growth of online education.
The online program
at UMass-Lowell now offers six full degree programs and enrolls
approximately 6,000 per year. It is one of the largest online programs in
New England and is a major contributor to UMassOnline, the University of
Massachusetts system-wide effort to provide online education. The program at
Lowell is entirely self-supporting and returns significant revenues to the
campus that seed continuous growth. Below, we examine some of our formative
decisions in the five strategic areas, and consider the operating principles
that guided our choices.
Selection
of Courses and Programs
Continued at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7252
October 8, 2003 message from Laurie Padgett
[padgett8@BELLSOUTH.NET]
Lauretta,
Yes it was live chat (synchronous) using voice
(which also had a text chat box). In s particular class we would meet every
other week in the evening around 7/8. I think they lasted 1 hr to 1 1/2 hr
(I can not recall exactly). I took two classes a semester so I would attend
two live chats for every two weeks. The instructors would coordinate to
ensure they would not plan the class for the same evening. In addition to
the live chat, we also used another program that I just can not remember the
name of it (I think it might have been called Placeware). It was really neat
because it looked like an auditorium and you were a little character (or may
I say a colored dot). You could raise your hand, ask a question, type text,
etc. We would use the chat program where he would talk as he conducted the
presentation in the other program. If you had a question you would raise
your hand & then use the live chat to talk. The program was starting to get
more advanced as I graduated.
The Master's of Accounting program that I went
through (as I understand it from the professor I had) was one of the first
to go online for this particular program. I was in the first graduating
class which started April of 2000 and completed September 2001. I attended
Nova Southeastern University in Florida. (
http://emacc.huizenga.nova.edu/ )
I know that some feel that live chat (synchronous)
might not work due to time zones and some feel that the text works just as
well. From my personal experience and opinion I feel that a Master's program
in "Accounting" needs more than just text written but interaction between
your fellow classmates too. I feel it was more productive because it is like
you are sitting in a class listening to the instructor and you have the
opportunity to ask a question by typing in the box & then the instructor
sees it & answers it with his voice. Additionally, you cover much more
subject area than you can with a text chat. It really worked well.
Again, these are my opinions and each person has
his own. This is what makes us unique.
Laurie
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: peer evaluation of a web-based course
Laurie:
When you say "live" chat, are you referring to
the chats in which all students come together at the same time
(synchronous)? I tried to initiate this type of chat in my online class
and found students's schedules to be an issue.
Has anyone tried putting students into groups
to do synchronous chatting about assignments? How did this work for your
class?
Lauretta A. Cooper, MBA, CPA
Delaware Technical & Community College Terry Campus
In September 2003, Bonnie B. Mullinix
and David McCurry provide a helpful road map for online education—-in the form
of an annotated "webliography" of resource centers, professional organizations,
and other sites that promote the discussion and development of
technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments ---
http://64.124.14.173/default.asp?show=article&id=1002
Bonk, C. J. (2003).
CourseShare.com: Welcome. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from
http://www.courseshare.com/Welcome.php
Bonk, C. J., Cummings, J. A., Hara,
N., Fischler, R. B., & Lee, S. M. (2000). A ten level web integration
continuum for higher education: New resources, activities, partners,
courses, and markets. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/paper/edmdia99.html
Carlén, U. (2002, November).
Typology of online learning communities. Paper presented at the
NetLearning2002 conference, Ronneby, Sweden. Retrieved August 30, 2003, from
http://www.learnloop.org/olc/typologyOLC.pdf
Carroll, T. G. (2000). If we didn't
have the schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today?
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 1(1). Retrieved
August 30, 2003, from
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/general/article1.htm
Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S. C.
(1996, October). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever.
American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 3-6. Retrieved August
30, 2003, from
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
Lago, M. E. (2000, November). The
hybrid experience: How sweet it is! Converge. Retrieved August 30, 2003,
from
http://www.convergemag.com/Publications/CNVGNov00/hybrid/index.shtm
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding
media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Stammen, R. M. (2001, January).
Basic understandings for developing learning media for the classroom and
beyond. Learning Technology, 3(1). Retrieved August 30, 2003, from
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/january2001/#18
Testa, A. M. (2000). Seven
principles for good practice in teaching and technology. In R. Cole (Ed.),
Issues in web-based pedagogy: A critical primer (pp. 237-245). Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press.
Vest, C. M. (2003). MIT
OpenCourseWare: A message from the president. Retrieved August 30, 2003,
from
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/presidentspage.htm
"The Changing Landscape of Distance
Education: What micro-market segment is right for you?" by Judith Boettcher,
Syllabus, July 2002, pp.22-27 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6474
What
Micro-Market Segment is Right for Your Institution?
What is the state
of distance learning and online learning in higher education today? It is in
a state of evolution and development. The best strategy for traditional
non-profit institutions may be to develop a “micro-market segment” in
distance learning that is right for your institution. A possible strategy
follows:
- Do what you
are now doing, but do it with effective use of the technologies. This
means “sticking close” to your areas of expertise, but developing
faculty and student experience at using online and distance technologies
effectively.
- Select or
identify a program of study that expresses and embodies your
institution’s mission. Then plan how to invest resources, time, and
expertise in making that program and its experiences available in both
Web-enhanced online and outreach modes.
- Reach out to
students who have similar learning and career needs as your current
students, but fewer hours per week to study.
- Expand your
geographic reach to those similar students—whether it is by 30, 300, or
3,000 miles.
- Pilot and test
your outreach capability by special events and programs for your
existing students, to your alumni, and to corporate and professionals as
appropriate.
- Determine if
you need help in administration of distance/remote students, marketing
to and finding these students.
Education, and
particularly e-learning, is a huge growth market for the foreseeable future.
Depending on where you want to be, you and your institution will be a part
of it. Online and distance learning may not be a silver bullet, but it might
be one way for your institution to be reach out and provide valuable
learning experiences, enriching your on-campus students as well as serving
more remote and part-time students. “Focus and Extend”—focus on your
expertise and extend out to similar students who can now reach you via the
Internet.
Distance Education Websites ---
http://ejw.i8.com/distweb.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on alternatives for distance education and
training are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on technology in education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Types of
Institutions, Degrees, and Applications of Distance and Online
Learning |
Types of Institutions |
Degrees, Programs,
Certificates, Modules |
Distance and eLearning
Applications |
Target Market: Ages |
Target Market: Work
Commitments |
Traditional
Research and Four-Year Comprehensive |
|
Traditional undergraduate,
Master’s, Doctoral degrees |
Primarily campus-based
w/online components, Web-enhanced courses |
18-45 |
Working part-time |
|
Professional academic
degrees, i.e, Medicine, Law, Engineering, Business, etc. |
Primarily campus-based
w/online components, Web-enhanced courses |
25-55 |
Working part-time |
Community
College |
|
Associate degrees
|
Primarily campus-based |
18-45 |
Working part- or full-time |
|
Specialty trade education
|
Primarily campus-based |
24-50 |
Working part- or full-time |
|
Ad-hoc skills training |
Primarily campus-based |
16-70+ |
Working part- or full-time |
Partnerships of Academe and Education Companies, (plus Continuing Ed
divisions of traditional campus providers) |
|
Completion degrees,
Bachelors, Master’s, etc. |
Primarily online w/some
face-to-face meetings |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
|
Specialty career degrees
|
Primarily online w/some
face-to-face meetings |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
|
Career updating,
refreshing of professional degrees, continuing education modules |
Primarily online w/some
face-to-face meetings |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
|
Product and service
training |
Either online or
face-to-face or mix |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
For-Profit
Education Companies |
|
Completion degrees,
Bachelors, Master’s, etc. |
Primarily online w/some
face-to-face meetings |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
|
Specialty career degrees
|
Primarily online w/some
face-to-face meetings |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
|
Career updating,
refreshing of professional degrees, continuing education modules |
Either online or
face-to-face or mix |
24-60 |
Working full-time |
The introductory block of this
article is at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6474
Models for
Distributed/Distance Education
|
Training |
Credential/Certification |
Degree Credits |
Undergraduate Degree |
Graduate Degree |
Established College or
University
U.S and International Distance Education Course Finders |
Virtually all major college
extension programs:
Examples:
U.S.
Army
IRS
Open
University
U.
of Wisconsin
Michigan Virtual
UCLA Online
U. of Texas
Iowa
State University |
American School and Univ. --- CLU
Microsoft Certifications at many colleges
Examples:
Nearly all colleges that have training programs, especially computer
training programs and teacher certificate programs ---
Clearninghouse |
Over half of all colleges
offer courses for credit
Examples:
Open
University
Harvard
Univ..
Oxford Univ.
Stanford Online
Penn State
UCLA Online
U. of Texas
Open
University
U.
of Wisconsin
Michigan Virtual
UCLA Online
U. of Texas |
Over a third of all colleges
offer selected undergraduate degrees
Examples:
U.S.
Army
IRS
Open University
Oxford
University
UCLA Online
U. of Texas
Open
University
U.
of Wisconsin
Michigan Virtual
UCLA Online
U. of Texas |
Use great care in selecting
online graduate degrees. Many are frauds. Some are
legitimate, especially is selected areas of study such as masters
and doctorates in education, information technology, and business
Examples:
Stanford's ADEPT
Duke's Global MBA
Open
University
|
|
Training |
Credential/Certification |
Degree Credits |
Undergraduate Degree |
Graduate Degree |
Corporate-Brokered College
Delivery
U.S and International Distance Education Course Finders |
National
Technlogical University'
California's CVU
WGU
Christian
University Global Net
Hungry Minds University
|
California's CVU
WGU
Hungry Minds University |
California's CVU
WGU
Hungry Minds University |
California's CVU
WGU
Hungry Minds University |
National
Technlogical University'
California's CVU
WGU
Hungry Minds Uniiversityv
|
College Content
Corp. Delivery |
Most colleges using the
following:
eCollege
Campus
Pipeline
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan Learning
Systems
Examples:
UC Berkeley/AOL
Harvard/Pensare
Duke/Pensare
UNext/Stanford et
al. |
Most colleges using the
following:
eCollege
Campus
Pipeline
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan
Learning Systems
Blackboard
WebCT |
Most colleges using the
following:
eCollege
Campus
Pipeline
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan Learning
Systems
University
Alliance |
Some colleges using the
following:
eCollege
Campus
Pipeline
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan Learning
Systems
University
Alliance
|
Selected colleges using the
following:
eCollege
Campus
Pipeline
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan Learning
Systems
University
Alliance
|
|
Training |
Credential/Certification |
Degree Credits |
Undergraduate Degrees |
Graduate Degrees |
Corp. Content
College Delivery |
Most all college training
courses dealing with corporate products and services |
Most all colleges teaching
certification courses such as Microsoft Certification training
courses |
Sometimes colleges outsource
parts (but not all) of course content for their own courses.
Examples:
UNC's
Pre-MBA Courses Used Quisc |
|
Sometimes colleges outsource
parts (but not all) of course content for their own courses.
Examples:
UNC's
Online MBA Used Quisc
Sylvan's video content
for the Wharton School, , Johns Hopkins University (medical),
and the USC Marshall School of Business, |
|
Training |
Credential/Certification |
Degree Credits |
Undergraduate Degrees |
Graduate Degrees |
Multiple University
Partnerships |
Sometimes these partnerships
are for dedicated programs. For example Florida State
University and the Jacksonville Community College partnered to
deliver training and education courses for the U.S. Internal Revenue
Service |
|
The Haas School of Business at
the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan
Business School, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia
will offer each other's students online classes specializing in
e-business. |
Example:
Virtually all universities in the University of Wisconsin system are
cooperating of delivery on selected online degree programs.
Florida State University
contracted to develop courses for Open University |
JEBNET: Jesuit colleges team
up to offer onsite and online programs http://www.jebnet.org/
(Includes an MBA program in China.) |
College-Owned For-Profit
Corporations |
Examples:
University of Maryland University College
New
York University Online
Columbia
U. et al. Fathom
Duke Education Corp |
|
Examples:
Maryland University College
New
York University Online
Columbia
U. et al. Fathom
Duke Education Corp
Columbia Univ.
Morningside Ventures |
Examples:
Maryland University College
New
York University Online
|
Examples:
University of Maryland University College
New
York University Online
|
|
Training |
Credential/Certification |
Degree Credits |
Undergraduate Degrees |
Graduate Degree |
Other For-Profit
Corporations
U.S and International Distance Education Course Finders |
Univ. of Phoenix
The Kaplan
Colleges
DeVry Inc. and Keller Graduate
School of Management
Sylvan Learning
Systems
UNext's Cardian U.
Arthur Andersen Professional Learning
Ernst&Young Univ.
Intellinex
General Electric U.
Sun Microsystems U.
Sears University
Motorola Univ.
Fordstar
McDonald's Hamburger Univ. |
Univ. of Phoenix
The Kaplan
Colleges
DeVry Inc. and Keller Graduate
School of Management
Sylvan Learning
Systems
UNext's Cardian U.
Arthur Andersen Professional Learning
Ernst&Young Univ.
Intellinex
|
Univ. of Phoenix
The Kaplan
Colleges
Harcourt Univ.
DeVry Inc.
Sylvan Learning
Systems
UNext's Cardian U.
Arthur Andersen Professional Learning
Ernst&Young Univ.
Intellinex
General Electric U.
Sun Microsystems U.
Sears University
Motorola Univ.
|
Univ. of Phoenix
The Kaplan
Colleges
Harcourt Univ.
UNext's Cardian U.
Arthur Andersen Professional Learning
Ernst&Young Univ.
Intellinex
General Electric U.
Sun Microsystems U.
Sears University
Motorola Univ.
|
There are many fraudulent
degree programs. Buyer beware. In additon to online
graduate degrees given by reputable corporations like Motorola,
there are some respected graduate degrees.Those listed below are not
frauds.
Concord
School of Law
Jones International
Keller Graduate School of
Management
UNext's Cardian U.
|
Professional Associations. |
Almost all professional
associations are now providing or brokering continuing education
training.
|
Example:
Mortgage Bankers Assn. |
Examples:
American Colleges of the
South
American Chemical Society |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Revenue and Accreditation Hurdles
Facing Corporate Universities
One thing that just does not seem to
work is a university commenced by a major publishing house. McGraw-Hill
World University was virtually stillborn at the date of birth as a
degree-granting institution. It evolved into McGraw-Hill Online Learning (
http://www.mhonlinelearning.com/
) that does offer some interactive training materials, but the original concept
of an online university ( having distance education courses for college credit)
is dead and buried. Powerful companies like Microsoft Corporation started
up and then abandoned going it alone in establishing new online universities.
The last venturesome publishing company
to start a university and fight to get it accredited is now giving up on the
idea of having its own virtual university ---
http://www.harcourthighered.com/index.html
Harcourt Higher Education University was purchased by a huge publishing
conglomerate called Thompson Learning See
http://www.thomsonlearning.com/harcourt/ . Thomson had high hopes, but
soon faced the reality that it is probably impossible to compete with
established universities in training and education markets.
The Thomson
Corporation has announced that it will not continue to operate Harcourt
Higher Education: An Online College as an independent degree-granting
institution. Harcourt Higher Education will close on August 27, 2001. The
closing is the result of a change of ownership, which occurred on July 13,
2001, when the Thomson Corporation purchased the online college from
Harcourt General, Inc.
From Syllabus e-News on August
7, 2001
Online College to
Close Doors
Harcourt Higher
Education, which launched an online for-profit college in Massachusetts last
year, is closing the school's virtual doors Sept. 28. Remaining students
will have their credentials reviewed by the U.S. Open University, the
American affiliate of the Open University in England.
We can only speculate as to the complex
reasons why publishing companies start up degree-granting virtual universities
and subsequently abandon efforts provide credit courses and degrees online.
Enormous Revenue Shortfall (Forecast of 20,000 students in the first year;
Reality turned up 20 students)
"E-COLLEGES FLUNK OUT," By: Elisabeth
Goodridge, Information Week, August 6, 2001, Page 10
College students appear to prefer classroom instruction over online
offerings.
Print
and online media company Thomson Corp. said last week it plans to close its
recently acquired, for-profit online university, Harcourt Higher Education.
Harcourt opened with much fanfare a year ago, projecting 20,000 enrollees
within five years, but only 20 to 30 students have been attending.
Facing
problems from accreditation to funding, online universities have been
struggling mightily--in stark contrast to the success of the overall
E-learning market. A possible solution? E-learning expert
Elliott Masie predicts "more and more creative partnerships between
traditional universities and online ones."
Roosters Guarding the Hen House
Publishing houses failed to gain accreditations. I suspect that major
reason is that the AACSB and other accrediting bodies have made it virtually
impossible for corporations to obtain accreditation for startup learning
corporations that are not partnered with established colleges and universities.
In the U.S., a handful of corporations have received regional accreditation
(e.g., The University of Phoenix and Jones International Corporation), but these
were established and had a history of granting degrees prior to seeking
accreditation. In business higher education, business corporations face a
nearly impossible hurdle of achieving business school accreditation ( see
http://businessmajors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050499.htm ) since
respected accrediting bodies are totally controlled by the present educational
institutions (usually established business school deans who behave like roosters
guarding the hen house). Special accrediting bodies for online programs
have sprung up, but these have not achieved sufficient prestige vis-à-vis
established accrediting bodies.
Note the links to accreditation
issues at
http://www.degree.net/guides/accreditation.html )
Where GAAP means Generally Accepted Accreditation Principles)
All About
Accreditation: A brief overview of what you really need to know
about accreditation, including GAAP (Generally Accepted Accrediting
Practices). Yes, there really are fake accrediting agencies, and yes some
disreputable schools do lie. This simple set of rules tells how to sort out
truth from fiction. (The acronym is, of course, borrowed from the field of
accounting. GAAP standards are the highest to which accountants can be held,
and we feel that accreditation should be viewed as equally serious.)
GAAP-Approved
Accrediting Agencies: A listing of all recognized accrediting
agencies, national, regional, and professional, with links that will allow
you to check out schools.
Agencies
Not Recognized Under GAAP: A list of agencies that have been
claimed as accreditors by a number of schools, some totally phony, some
well-intentioned but not recognized.
FAQs:
Some simple questions and answers about accreditation and, especially,
unaccredited schools.
For more details on accreditation and assessment, see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Question:
Is lack of accreditation the main reason why corporate universities such as
McGraw-Hill World University, Harcourt Higher Education University, Microsoft
University, and other corporations have failed in their attempts to compete with
established universities?
Bob Jensen's Answer:
Although the minimum accreditation (necessary for transferring of credits to
other colleges) is a very important cause of failure in the first
few years of attempting to attract online students, it is not the main cause of
failure. Many (most) of the courses available online were training courses
for which college credit transfer is not an issue.
- Why did the University of Wisconsin (U of W) swell with over 100,000
registered online students while Harcourt Higher Education University (HHWU)
struggled to get 20 registered?
Let me begin to answer my own question with two questions. If you want
to take an online training or education course from your house in
Wisconsin's town of Appleton, would you prefer to pay more much more for the
course from HHWU than a low-priced tuition for Wisconsin residents at the U
of W. If you were a resident of Algona, Iowa and the price was the
same for the course whether you registered at HHWU or U of W, would you
choose U of W? My guess is that in both cases, students would choose U
of W, because the University of Wisconsin has a long-term tradition for
quality and is likely to be more easily recognized for quality on the
students' transcripts.
- Why can the University of Wisconsin offer a much larger curriculum
than corporate universities?
The University of Wisconsin had a huge infrastructure for distance education
long before the age of the Internet. Televised distance education
across the state has been in place for over 30 years. Extension
courses have been given around the entire State of Wisconsin for many
decades. The University of Wisconsin's information technology system
is already in place at a cost of millions upon millions of dollars.
There are tremendous economies of scale for the University of Wisconsin to
offer a huge online curriculum for training and education vis-à-vis a
startup corporate university starting from virtually scratch.
- What target market feels more closely attached to the University of
Wisconsin than some startup corporate university?
The answer is obvious. It's the enormous market comprised of alumni
and families of alumni from every college and university in the University
of Wisconsin system of state-supported schools.
- What if a famous business firm such as Microsoft Corporation or
Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) elected to offer a prestigious
combination of executive training and education to only upper-level
management in major international corporations? What are the problems
in targeting to business executives?
This target market is already carved out by alumni of elite schools such as
Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, London School of
Economics, Duke, University of Michigan, University of Texas, and the other
universities repeatedly ranked among the top 50 business schools in the
nation. Business executives are more often than not snobs when it
comes to universities in the peer set of "their" alma maters. Logos of
top universities are worth billions in the rising executive onsite and
online training and education market. UNext Corporation recognized
this, and this is the reason why the its first major step in developing an
online executive education program was to partner with five of the leading
business schools in the world.
- Why does one corporate university,
The University of Phoenix,
prosper when others fail or limp along with costs exceeding revenues?
The University of Phoenix is the world's largest private university.
The reason for its success is largely due to a tradition of quality since
1976. This does not mean that quality has always been high for every
course over decades of operation, but each year this school seems to grow
and offer better and better courses. Since most of its revenues still
come from onsite courses, it is not clear that the school would prosper if
it became solely an online university. The school is probably further
along on the learning curve than most other schools in terms of adult
learners. It offers a large number of very dedicated and experienced
full-time and part-time faculty. It understands the importance of
small classes and close communications between students and other students
and instructors. It seems to fill a niche that traditional colleges
and universities have overlooked.
- What major corporation signed with a major state university to
receive online MBA degrees in finance?
"Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's Kelley School of Business For
Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
You can read more about these happenings at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Especially note the prestigious universities going online at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
At the University of Wisconsin
"Online Degree Program Lets Students Test Out of What They Already Know,"
by Angela Chen, June 20, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-degree-program-lets-students-test-out-of-what-they-already-know/37097?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
The University of Wisconsin plans to start a
“flexible degree” program online focused on allowing undergraduates to test
out of material they have mastered.
The new program, geared toward working adults with
some college education, operates under a “competency based” model, said
Raymond Cross, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and
University of Wisconsin-Extension. This model is similar to the Advanced
Placement program, in which high-school students take AP tests to pass out
of college-level courses.
In the university’s new program, college courses
will be broken down into units. For example, a higher-level mathematics
class could include units such as linear algebra and trigonometry. Students
can then test out of certain units (instead of full courses) and spend time
learning only material that is new to them. Eventually, the units will build
into courses, and then a degree. The flexible-degree program and
traditional-degree program will have identical course requirements, and
since each flexible degree will be associated with a specific campus, the
student will receive a diploma from the originating campus and not from the
system.
“We’re trying to find ways to reduce the cost of
education,” Mr. Cross said. “Implicit in the model is the idea that you can
take lectures online from free sources—like Khan Academy and MITx—and
prepare yourself for the competency test. Then take the remaining courses
online at UW.”
The biggest challenge, he says, is determining how
to best test competency. Some units will require tests, while others may
require written papers or laboratory work. The difficulty of measuring
“competency’” for any unit will affect the program’s pricing structure,
which has not yet been determined.
The idea of competency-based credentials is common
in technical and health fields, Mr. Cross said, but it is rare at
traditional universities. The program is part of a push to encourage
Wisconsin’s 700,000 college dropouts to go back to a university.
“With higher ed now, people often have a piece or
two missing in their education, so we are responding to the changes in our
culture and helping them pull all these pieces together,” Mr. Cross said.
“Students already interface with a lot of different institutions and
different classes and professors, and this will help that process. I don’t
think this diminishes traditional higher ed at all. I think it’ll enhance
it.”
The first courses in the flexible-degree program
will be available starting in fall 2013. The university is still developing
exact degree specifications, Mr. Cross said. Likely degrees include business
management and information technology.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment (including distance education
assessment issues and competency-based testing) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
From Syllabus e-News on July 24, 2001
Online Degree Program to Address Teacher
Shortage
Due to increasing student enrollment, teacher
retirements, and class size reduction, California faces a crucial shortage
of elementary school teachers, which is expected to intensify over the next
ten years. In response to the problem, the Cali-fornia State University is
now offering an opportunity for undergraduates to earn their liberal studies
degree through Liberal Studies Online, an online degree completion program
for individuals working toward a California teaching credential.
Administered through CSU Chico, online courses will originate from the Chico
campus and CSU Sacramento. The first online courses will be available
beginning fall 2001.
For more information, visit
http://liberalstudies.calstate.edu.
Innovative and difficult to classify:
- Governmental Training and Education
US Military --- Over 4,000 training and education courses from a
variety of sources, including US Air University.
The U.S. IRS offers Internet education opportunities. IRS employees
who want to get ahead in the organization are heading back to the
classroom - 21st century style. College level courses in accounting,
finance, tax law, and other business subjects will be available on the
Internet to IRS employees.
http://www.accountingweb.com/item/46816/101
For example, the IRS online accounting classes will be served up from
Florida State University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville
---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
- Dedicated degree programs within universities such as the Ernst&Young
masters programs and the PwC masters of accounting or masters of assurance
services programs at various universities and the PwC MBA program at the
University of Georgia.
- Certification Examination Review Courses such as CPA review courses
Examples are listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob1.htm
InstantKnowledge
Online Study Guides ---
http://www.instantknowledge.com/
InstantKnowledge.com integrates the worlds of technology and
education to help you study.
Our
scholars create high quality, peer-reviewed educational materials,
the first of which is the series of literary KnowledgeNotes now
available on our site. Along with our technology partners, our team
is developing Seek.Find. Seek.Find. will be a searchable database
that gives you twenty-four hour access to over a million journal
articles and textbooks.
Knowledge Portals
The many knowledge portals that are springing up like wildfire.
These databases contain vast databases of knowledge that can be accessed
either for free or for fees ranging from cheap to very expensive.
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm
Prestige Logo
and Ranking for Quality in Such Surveys as the
U.S. News Rankings |
Highly important in attracting top onsite and online
students. |
Extremely important for attracting top students and
partnerings with business firms and government.
For example, the nearly $100,000 tuition for
Duke's Virtual MBA is paid by corporate partners who pay to send one
or more students per year.
For example, firms such as E&Y and PwC pay
millions to have high ranking universities offer degree programs
dedicated to their employees. |
Alumni Base
and Power Within Business Firms and Government |
Important when attracting new students such as
children of alumni |
Highly increased if
alumni work actively to promote online training and education
programs of their alma maters |
Comparative Advantage |
Year 2000
Importance |
Year 2020
Importance |
Reputation for
high quality preparatory, training, and education of minority
students, handicapped students, and religious-affiliated students |
Highly important in attracting and retaining onsite
and online students |
Extremely important for attracting top students and
partnerings with business firms and government.
For example, the IRS will be paying millions to
Jacksonville Community College to provide online accounting training
and education courses to virtually all IRS employees, many of whom
are minorities.
Gallaudet University for the hearing impaired has
a reputation for dealing with the special needs for the hearing
impaired.
Brigham Young University is the flagship
university for the Mormon Church. |
Residential
and Athletic Participation Infrastructure
on Campus |
Highly Important for Onsite Students |
Highly Important for Onsite Students,
but there will be new developments in eDorms
(University of Maryland) |
Geographic
Location |
Very important to virtually all onsite resident and
commuting students within a region |
Greatly
diminished except as an attraction to
full-time resident students (e.g., the attraction of the mountains,
the ocean, the urban attractions, foreign travel, etc.)
HDTV may restore some importance to geography since TV stations
broadcast locally. |
Comparative Advantage |
Year 2000
Importance |
Year 2020
Importance |
Language |
Very important to all onsite and online students |
Greatly
diminished as language choices increase for online
students.
For example, language students may interact online
and in teleconferencing with foreign businesses, cafes, schools, and
homes.
Webcam shopping for a dress in Paris. |
Financial
Endowment |
Very important for all onsite and online programs |
Highly important for physical plant and
onsite programs. For online programs,
equity capital markets will be more important |
Comparative Advantage |
Year 2000
Importance |
Year 2020
Importance |
Full-Line
Curriculum |
Very important for onsite programs and less important
for online programs |
Greatly diminished
importance as highly specialized online programs begin to supplement
both online and onsite curricula |
Research
Reputation |
Very important for attracting top faculty and funding |
Greatly diminished
importance as online programs begin to provide better compensation
packages and lifestyle choices to work at home where home happens to
be located |
Some corporate providers are partnering with colleges and
universities and providing their own, possibly competing, programs. For
example, Ernst & Young created Intellinex for
delivering its own training and education programs and partnered with Notre Dame
University and the University of Virginia to deliver masters of accounting
education to newly hired graduates in E&Y.
For its consulting division, PwC built a training campus in
Tampa and contracted with the University of Georgia to deliver an online MBA
program to PwC employees.
"Will the Internet Transform Higher Education?" by Walter S. Baer, The
Emerging Internet, Annual Review of the Institute for Information Studies,
Charles M. Firestone, Program Director. Copyright © 1998 Institute for
Information Studies ---
www.rand.org/publications/RP/RP685.pdf
Walter S. Baer
Senior Policy Analyst
RAND Corporation
American higher education faces formidable
challenges caused by changing student demographics, severe financial
constraints, and lingering institutional rigidities. (See Footnote 1) At the
same time, increased demands are being placed on higher education to provide
greater student access to education, better undergraduate programs, and
increased productivity. To address both sets of issues, institutions of
higher education are turning to new communications and information
technologies that promise to increase access, improve the quality of
instruction, and (perhaps) control costs.
The use of older technologies for distance learning
in post-secondary education (See Footnote 2) has already been shown to be
cost-effective in such diverse settings as the Open University in the United
Kingdom, four-year and community colleges in the United States,
satellite-delivered video courses for engineers and other professionals, and
corporate and military training. Now the Internet is being proposed as the
preferred technology to improve instruction, increase access, and raise
productivity in higher education. (See Footnote 3) College and university
instructors now routinely post their syllabi and course readings to the
World Wide Web. A few use lectures and other instructional materials
available on the Web in their own courses. A growing number of schools offer
at least some extension or degree- credit courses over the Internet. And
more ambitious plans are in various stages of preparation or early
implementation --- plans for entire virtual universities that use the
Internet to reach geographically dispersed students.
Two distinct models guide current efforts to make
use of the Internet in higher education. The
first approach seeks to improve existing
forms and structures of post-secondary instruction --- to create "better,
faster, cheaper" versions of today's courses and curricula by means of the
Internet. This model emphasizes building an on-campus information
infrastructure that provides (or will provide) high-speed Internet
connectivity to all students, faculty, administrators, and staff. Faculty
then can use this infrastructure to improve and supplement traditional
courses and degree programs. Library holdings can be digitized and made
available both on-and off-campus. (See Footnote 4). Administrative processes
can be speeded up and simplified. And although the focus remains on
on-campus instruction, this new information infrastructure can facilitate
distance learning for many categories of nontraditional, off-campus
students. While this model of Internet use in higher education requires many
changes among faculty, student, and administrative roles and functions,
it keeps most existing institutional structures
and faculty roles intact.
A different, more
radical, model envisions the Internet as
instrumental to a fundamental change in the processes and organizational
structure of post- secondary teaching and learning. According to this view,
the Internet can transform higher education into
student-centered learning rather than institution- and
faculty-centered instruction. It can allow
agile institutions --- old and new --- to leapfrog existing academic
structures and establish direct links to post-secondary students. It can
encourage new collaborative arrangements between academic institutions and
for-profit entrepreneurs and permit these partnerships to extend their reach
nationally and internationally. It can accommodate student demand for
post-secondary education in new ways that are basically campus-independent.
If the markets for post-secondary education evolve in this manner, the
Internet may well threaten existing institutions of higher education much
more than it will support them. Taking this view, celebrated management
consultant and social commentator Peter Drucker recently remarked:
"Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. . . . The
college won't survive as a residential institution."
Bob Jensen's threads on technology in education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"THE HOTTEST CAMPUS ON THE INTERNET Duke's pricey online B-school program is
winning raves from students and rivals," Business Week, October 27, 1997
---
http://www.businessweek.com/1997/42/b3549015.htm
The Duke MBA -
Global Executive is every bit as academically demanding as Duke's other two
MBA programs. Global Executive uses the same faculty base, the same rigorous
grading standards, and provides the same Duke degree. However, the content
has been adjusted to include more global issues and strategies to serve a
participant population that has far more global management experience.
- Like most
other Executive MBA programs, the Global Executive program is a
lock-step curriculum, meaning that all students take all courses. The
courses are targeted at general managers who have or will soon assume
global responsibilities. The program is designed for those who want to
enhance their career path within their existing company.
- International
Residencies: International residencies are an important ingredient in a
global MBA program as they add to the value and richness of the
classroom component by providing various lenses (social, economic,
cultural, etc.) through which to view various economies and systems.
Instead of simply studying about an economy, Fuqua provides an
experiential component which adds value to the learning experience ...
- Global Student
body: Unlike traditional Executive MBA programs which usually have a
regional draw, the flexibility of Global Executive accommodates a
student body from around the globe. Not only are the students diverse
geographically, but they are also diverse in the types of global
management experiences that they bring to the classroom.
For the class entering in May 2001, tuition is
$95,000. Tuition includes all educational expenses, a state-of-the-art
laptop computer, portable printer, academic books and other class materials,
and lodging and meals during the five residential sessions. The tuition does
not include travel to and from the residential sites.
You can learn a great deal about the extend of distance education in this
program by looking at the academic calendar at
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/global_cal2001.htm
Cross-Continent MBA --- ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/cc/cc_home.html
Following on the heels of its Global MBA online success, Duke introduced a
second online program called the Cross-Continent MBA and located its
headquarters in Frankfurt. While in
Germany in the Summer of 2001, I had dinner with Tom Keller, former Dean of
Duke's Fuqua School of Business and Dean of Duke's Cross-Continent MBA Program.
Tom spent two years in the Frankfort headquarters of Duke's Cross-Continent MBA
Program. This program is quite different from the online Global Executive
MBA Program, although both are asynchronous online programs and used some
overlapping course materials.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program allows
high-potential managers to earn an internationally-focused MBA degree from
Duke University in less than two years, utilizing a format that minimizes
the disruption of careers and family life. It is designed for individuals
with three to nine years professional work experience.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program will contain
course work with a global emphasis in the subject areas of Management,
Marketing, Operations, Economics, Finance, Accounting, Strategy and Decision
Sciences.
Students will complete 11 core courses, four
elective courses and one integrative capstone course to earn their MBA
degree. Two courses will be completed during each of the eight terms of the
program. Depending upon their choice of electives, students may choose to
complete the one-week residency requirements for their sixth and seventh
terms at either Fuqua School of Business location in North America or
Europe.
The two classes - one on each continent - will be
brought even closer together through a transfer requirement built into the
program. During the third term, half of the class from Europe will attend
the North American residential session and vice versa. In the fourth term,
the other half of each class trades locations for one week of residential
learning. After the transfer residencies, the students resume their
coursework using the same Internet mediated learning methods as before, but
with global virtual teams that have now met in a face-to-face setting
World-Class Resources
When you're linked to Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, you're
connected to a world of resources residing on a network with robust
bandwidth capabilities. Duke MBA students have secure access to the Duke and
Fuqua business library databases as well as a network of Duke faculty and
outside experts.
World-Wide Content Delivery
The virtual classroom can take on many different forms. Here, a faculty
member prepares a macroeconomics lecture for distribution via CD ROM and/or
the Internet. Students will download this lecture in a given week of study
and follow up with discussion and team projects.
Bulletin Board Discussion
Rich threads of conversation occur during this asynchronous mode of
communication. Professors and guest lecturers can moderate the discussion to
keep learning focused.
Real-Time Chat Session
Occurs between students and classmates as well as faculty. Here, a student
in Europe discusses an assignment with a professor in the United States.
Online Degree
Programs
Types
of (Mostly Profitable) Prestige Partnerings
Also see Bob Jensen's
Threads on Cross-Border (Transnational) Training and Education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Corporations and
Universities Sign Partnership Pacts
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
Corporations Provide |
Universities Provide |
Leading Example |
Other Examples |
Student Funding
Students |
General Programs
Cause Management
Course Dev. Funding
Accreditation
Full Logos |
Stanford's
ADEPT
Asynchronous Distance Education
Project with thousands of graduates and the first prestige degree
program on the web |
Duke's Online MBAs
Globaal MBA GEMBA
Cross-Continent MBA
Wharton/IBM
Harvard-Stanford Corp. |
Student Funding
Students
Some Course Materials
Knowledge Bases
Full Logos |
Dedicated Programs
Course Managements
Course Funding
Accreditation
Full Logos |
E&Y Partners
|
PwC Partners
|
Course Consulting
Media & Delivery
Instructors
Course Management
Course Funding
Student Funding |
Course Design
Academic Standards
Course Ownership
Full Logos
|
UNext
UNext Home Page
Company Overview
Cardean University
Focus is on Partnerships
Kirschenheiter Audio
K01 PhDs
K05 PB Learning
K10 Rewards
K20 Reviews |
Pensare
Pensare Home Page
What They Offer
Knowledge Community |
Instructors
Course Management
Course Funding
Cases
Videos
Knowledge Bases
Full Logos |
Students
Student Funding
Full Logos |
Academic Association Sponsorships
ACS |
Harcourt University
Morningside Ventures
Columbia University's Undergraduate Core
|
University-Owned Corporations
Course Consulting
Media & Delivery
Instructors
Course Management
Course Funding
Student Funding |
Course
Design
Academic Standards
Course Ownership
Full Logos |
Duke Corporate Ed.
Morningside Ventures
NYUonline
U. Maryland
University
College
Temple |
Fathom
(See Below)
Knowledge@Wharton |
A Distance Education
Partnership Between the University of Akron and Kent State University
"Schools collaborate to create Online Learning," Syllabus, February 2003, pp.
21-33 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7259
Two of Ohio's
largest universities are teaming to create a collaborative online learning
system that will dramatically expand their teaching and research
opportunities, while reducing information technology costs. A 20-minute
drive apart, these universities have combined enrollments of 60,000, with
more than 400 programs and 1,400 faculty members. The University of Akron
(UA) and Kent State University (KSU) are using WebCT's academic enterprise
system, WebCT Vista, to create a "shared services model" for online
learning. This model for online learning will allow the two universities to
share technology, course content, research, and faculty, which could
ultimately serve other Ohio universities and the K-12 community.
Especially
beneficial for large, multi-institution deployments, WebCT Vista is an
eLearning platform that includes a broad range of course development and
delivery, content management, and learning information management
capabilities. These are all supported by an extensible, enterprise-class
architecture. WebCT Vista gives institutions of higher education first-time
access to aggregate student learning data at the institutional level,
extending the capacity for colleges and universities to access and
strategically leverage learning information beyond an individual classroom.
Stretching
Resources Currently, UA and KSU are in the process of Web-enhancing
classroom courses that they have in common with interactive exercises,
threaded discussion groups, chats, and virtual-classroom activities. The
universities also hope to create pure distance learning courses, in which
all activities take place over the Internet. The intent is to improve
education and research, and to stretch scarce resources. Dr. Rosemary
DuMont, Associate VP of Academic Technology Services for KSU, explains, "UA
and KSU began this initiative because of concern about student success. Both
universities are extremely student-focused. WebCT Vista provides research
data for making decisions in the future regarding student retention." Over
the next five years, UA and KSU could predictably save over one million
dollars in software and hardware costs. The long-term goal is for UA and KSU
to become a national eLearning provider by taking the shared services model
to Internet2, a high-performance network that connects 200 universities.
This could generate additional revenue and prestige for both universities.
Mike Giannone,
Communications Officer at UA, says, "We will be able to develop an eLearning
curriculum for any given program by splitting, rather than duplicating the
effort. This collaboration will broaden students' exposure to programs they
might otherwise miss, while exposing faculty to research and best practices
from an expanded group of peers. It offers students at both schools more
choices in the classes they take, and where and how they will take them. The
two universities will also share grants, content, and the ability to analyze
a combined pool of learning data collected by WebCT Vista." Dr. Paul L.
Gaston, provost of KSU, exclaims, "We are excited to be able to offer an
even broader range of educational opportunities to our students through this
collaboration! We already share academic programs, so sharing online
resources is a natural next step."
Collaborative
Teaching and Research Shared services between UA and KSU are the brain child
of Dr. Thomas Gaylord, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at UA.
His vision initially created the project and continues to drive it. Dr.
Gaylord explains, "The greatest paradigm shift for education is occurring
now—it is a wonderful enlightenment. It is time to re-define what our
students are; what our faculties are; what constitutes accredibility, and so
forth. Partnerships are the ‘right' thing to do. For example, why do
numerous individual universities produce Algebra I online … when
collaboration makes sense? The University of Akron and Kent State University
will have educational advantages over other universities in the region with
probably the single, most important educational technology tool for
enhancing their long-range instructional vitalities in the coming years."
Because of the strategic impact of eLearning on both institutions, UA
President, Dr. Luis M. Proenza and KSU President, Dr. Carol A. Cartwright,
came together, with Dr. Gaylord, Dr. DuMont, and others, to drive this
collaboration. Under the direction of Dr. Gaylord and Dr. DuMont, the two
universities have installed a new high-speed fiber optic line, "GigaMAN," to
connect their information technology systems and act as a bridge for
collaborative teaching and research. Dr. Terry L Hickey, Senior Vice
President and Provost at UA, explains, "In addition to partnering with Kent
State, we eventually envision offering a shared resource for other
northeastern Ohio schools as well as the private sector
Continued at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7259
The concept of knowledge trails was really exciting, and I am
sorry that the effort had to be abandoned at Fathom. Due to cash flow
losses, Columbia University pulled the plug on Fathom. But an older
Knowledge Trails illustration indicates how exciting this could have been.
Corporations Sign
Pacts With Professors Affiliated With
Prestige Universities
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
Corporations Provide |
Professors Provide |
Example 1 |
Example 2 |
Course
Funding
Resources
Multimedia Development |
Students
Cases
Videos
Knowledge Bases
Proxy Logos |
Quisic
20 Courses for UNC
Courses for any School
Roman Weil - Chicago
Mark Albion - Harvard
J. Morgan Jones - UNC
Robert Connolly - UNC
R. Kipp Martin - Chicago
|
Concord School of Law
Harvard sues to stop others from following in
Arthur Millers video steps |
Ninth House Network buys up
intellectual property rights of leading scholars
http://www.ninthhouse.com/home.htm
The new E-Learning Resource Site is described at
http://www.ninthhouse.com/news/press/pr00/q3/august15.htm
Ninth House Network™, the
leading broadband e-learning environment for organizational
development, today announced the launch of its new corporate web
site at www.NinthHouse.com
. The new web site, which highlights Ninth House Network’s
e-learning solutions, features a comprehensive e-learning
resource center available to the general public, providing
tools, information, white papers, relevant articles and related
links that help further the understanding of the role that
e-learning plays in organizational transformation.
The Ninth House Network web
site features insight from leading business minds on a wide
range of topics, including change management, building
successful alliances and partnerships, team building, building
community, management, innovation and customer service. Using a
combination of streaming video, readable interviews, interactive
web casts and related articles and books, Ninth House Network
provides visitor access to business leaders such as Tom Peters,
Ken Blanchard, Larraine Segil, Peter Senge and Clifton Taulbert.
|
Universities Partner With Each Other
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
The Haas School of Business at the
University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan
Business School, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia
will offer each other's students classes specializing in e-business.
"So much of business education is the
network-building between the students," said Haas Dean Laura Tyson.
"What is nice here is that people in each location will now be able
to have a new selection of classes to choose from, and a new
selection of people to work with."
"In essence, this program is not only about
sharing knowledge but about sharing communities," |
JEBNET: Jesuit colleges
team up to offer onsite and online programs
http://www.jebnet.org/
(Includes an MBA program in China.) |
Virtual
Universities and Online Education/Training
Important Wall Street Journal
Special Report, e-Commerce in Education, Section R, March
12, 2001 ---
http://interactive.wsj.com/pages/ecommerce2001-2.htm
This section should be read by
all professionals in higher education. It brings us up to date
on trends in distance education both in private corporations and
traditional colleges and universities. It is a great source
for updating my threads and road show on such topics at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
There is to much in this
Special Report to summarize in one module of New Bookmarks.
The Table of Contents is as follows:
Big money is pouring
into the business of education. But it's too soon to tell
whether there will be any payoff.
Traditional
universities are taking to the Net with a wide range of
strategies.
A look at all the
different ways companies hope to make money from online
education.
Venture capitalists
have dramatically increased their investments in e-learning.
Private virtual
universities challenge many of the assumptions long held by
educators. Their own challenge: survival.
Libraries aren't going
away. But they are going to be very different.
Traditional academic
publishers are scrambling to adapt to the online world.
An entrepreneur wants
to bring U.S. universities to Spaniards -- in their own
language.
The future of
e-commerce will no doubt be littered with failed education
companies.
Companies that teach
English in Asia see their business quickly being transformed
by the Web.
A Dutch university
aims to teach students on the run, developing, in
conjunction with several companies, Europe's first common
wireless standard geared toward education applications.
Switzerland is putting
the Internet to work to relieve crowded universities and
improve teaching practices -- both while keeping down costs.
Thanks to technology,
K-12 will never look the same. Companies are plying a host
of new offerings -- from hardware and interactive software
to Internet-related tools -- to schools.
Novelist Reynolds
Price talks about teaching, writing and the literary merits
of e-mail.
Online instruction
gives people the chance to learn just about anything, from
the comfort of their own home. Anybody want to be a
beekeeper?
Online classes can be
tough to find, hard to sign up for -- and a bore once you
get there.
Schools may find they
have the computer equipment, but no way to use it. Here's
how one school and a networking firm found an answer. Do's
and Don'ts Of Web Classes How can first-time Web students
succeed in the world of online education? See a list of tips
to embrace and pitfalls to avoid.
Fettes College plans
to start broadcasting live and recorded classroom lectures
over the Internet to paid subscribers by year's end. Will it
succeed?
What was your online
learning experience like? Can the online campus ever replace
the real one? What improvements are needed? Join an online
discussion.
What do you think the
classroom of the future will look like? How can educators,
parents and students make the best use of new technology?
Join an online discussion.
Can online education
companies be profitable and educate students at the same
time? Which companies do you think will prosper in the
online education field? Join an online discussion.
The Internet does not
change everything. Some of the world's foremost thinkers
ponder the intersection of technology and education.
Why some critics give
Web-based education less-than-stellar grades.
What will college look
like in the not-so-distant future? Crookston, Minn.,
provides an early glimpse.
Sen. Kerrey and Rep.
Isakson reflect on the government's role in fostering
e-learning.
A few
selected quotations are shown below:
Entrepreneurs and investors have jumped into the world of online
education, pumping some $6 billion into the sector since 1990 --
almost half of it since 1999.
The
knowledge-enterprise industry now measures some $735 billion,
which includes spending on a host of things, such as textbooks,
software and services, according to Merrill Lynch. Analysts
there expect the online component of that to grow to $25.3
billion by 2003 from $3.6 billion in 1999. Within that, domestic
online corporate learning is expected to grow fastest: from $1.1
billion in 1999 to $11.4 billion in 2003 -- a compounded annual
growth rate of 79%. Two other key sectors --
kindergarten-through-12th grade and higher education --
anticipate annual growth rates of over 50%.
Consider what's happening at Westview High School in Poway,
Calif. This time next year, classrooms there will be stocked
with computers, and a wireless network will allow students to
access the Internet through their laptops from anywhere on
school grounds. In addition, hand-held devices will be
ubiquitous, as will virtual classrooms, so students can log on
to the Internet for assignments and participate in chat rooms
with students from other schools across the globe
The
potential for the K-12 e-learning market is huge, analysts
say (shown in millions)
Segment |
Current Market |
Potential Market |
Content |
$20 |
$4,000 |
E-commerce |
175 |
657,000 |
Infrastructure |
1,000 |
7,000 |
Supplemental services |
10 |
5,000 |
February 7, 2012 message from Fabiola Esposito (Madrid University)
My name
is Fabiola Esposito and I am writing to you on behalf of
the Spanish School of the University of Madrid .
I
have found your website (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm)
while looking for web pages for
the promotion of languages and culture and have seen
your reviews on different topics which I found very
interesting, specially the one that speaks about the
combination of synchronous and asynchronous methods when
teaching and how close one can get to the students
online.
Anyhow,
the aim of this email is that on the University of
Madrid Spanish School we have recently finished
developing our new website for offering our Spanish
courses to everyone who want to come to Madrid to study
the Spanish language and immerse into the Spanish
culture. We also offer classes focused on Spanish
literature and culture; and we offer specialized courses
in Spanish on different academic areas such as arts,
history, business and politics too.
I have
reviewed with much interest your section about
cross-border training and educational alternatives and
would like to know if you are interested in offering our
website to your visitors in case they may be interested
in spending a period learning or improving their Spanish
skills abroad. It may be interesting either for the
student community as for the educators' community, given
that we also offer courses for proficient users who want
to improve or review their knowledge on Hispanic studies
and everything related to them; language, culture,
sociology, literature, etc.
Our
Madrid University Spanish School website is
www.madrid-university.es, if
you think this might be a useful resource for your users
you can contact me or feel free to place it between your
resources.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration,
and if you have any comments or questions please don't
hesitate to contact me.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
What schools and parents spend on education, versus their
total online spending, in billions
|
Education Products/Services |
Online Spending 1999 |
Online Spending 2003* |
Schools |
$70.00 |
$0.075 |
$2.00 |
Parents |
7.00 |
0.050 |
0.75 |
*estimates
Sources: Merrill Lynch estimates; International Data Corp.
Their
strategies are as varied as the schools. Some institutions, such
as Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania, have
formed partnerships with e-learning companies like UNext.com
(www.unext.com) of Deerfield, Ill., or Pensare Inc., based in
Los Altos, Calif., to bring their courses and professors online.
Others have decided to go it alone, developing and offering
their own online courses. Some schools, including New York
University and Cornell University, have spun off their
e-learning programs as for-profit ventures.
With
the economic slowdown and the venture-capital spigot turned off,
the question now is a simple one: Can these marriages of
conventional education and e-commerce survive? Can these
for-profit arms actually turn a profit? And if so, at what
price?
"If you
have a good product and figure out how to market it and deliver
it, then you should be significantly competitive in the
marketplace," says Michael Goldstein, head of the
educational-institutions practice at Dow Lohnes & Albertson, a
law firm in Washington, D.C. "That will be difficult to do, and
there are no clear models yet in the marketplace."
Consider Fathom.com (www.fathom.com). Launched last year with a
$20 million investment from Columbia, Fathom offers a mixture of
free information -- articles, reference works and links to other
sites -- and access to for-fee online courses, all aimed at the
"lifelong learner." (Fathom takes a cut of the fee as its
payment.) On the handsomely designed site, a surfer can search
among about 600 online courses offered by a variety of schools,
including the University of Washington and Michigan State
University.
Surfers
can also follow "knowledge trails" -- a series of related links
on such topics as arts and architecture, business and finance or
science and engineering, among others.
Here's
a safe-and-steady business plan. The nation's for-profit
higher-education companies have been around for years, and they
are nothing like a typical football-obsessed college. Students
who enroll in these institutions care about one thing: classes.
They are in their mid-30s. They don't want frat parties. They
want better jobs. These schools read the want ads closely, and
they respond by offering courses in subjects such as finance,
management, nursing and information technology.
In this
business model, student tuition fees are the primary revenue
source. The beauty of this for investors is that the students
are locked into a series of courses over an extended period,
giving the companies a reliable income stream.
These
companies "know where their revenues are coming from way in
advance," says Jay Tracey, chief investment officer at Berger
Funds. In an unsteady stock market, he says, "predictability and
visibility become more important to investors than the rate of
growth." The Denver mutual-fund concern has invested in DeVry
Inc. (www.devry.com), a for-profit degree-granting enterprise,
as well as SmartForce, in corporate training.
The
largest private (and accredited) institution of higher
education:
To
get investors to pay more attention to its Internet
business, Apollo Group Inc. (
www.apollogroup.com ), a Phoenix-based education holding
company, issued a tracking stock last year for its
University of Phoenix Online unit, which has served students
over the Web for more than a decade. While some tracking
stocks haven't fared well, this one did. Thanks largely to
the fact that it's a proven, profitable business in a sea of
Internet red ink, the IPO finished the year at more than
double its September initial offering price of $14. And the
parent company's stock jumped 145% for the year.
In
the offline world, Apollo operates sites around the country
to conduct classes, often in rented facilities. Classes are
held mostly at night, so students can attend after work.
When students "enroll in a degree program, we are counting
on them taking five or six courses or more -- so that's a
repeat-revenue model for us," says Terri Heddegard, an
Apollo vice president.
Apollo says the online unit's enrollment has surged to
19,000 students, up 65% from a year earlier, out of a total
of 83,000 students in all forums including physical class
sites. The online students take classes at home, using
e-mail and Web message boards to work on group projects. The
online-class tuition cost runs $400 to $495 a credit, about
20% more expensive than tuition for the brick-and-mortar
classes, Apollo says.
For
the fiscal first quarter, ended Nov. 30, the online
institution reported net income of $5.6 million, or six
cents a share, on revenue of $34 million. Including results
from its online arm, Apollo posted profit of $25 million, or
38 cents a share, on revenue of $177 million for the same
period.
|
Shared Courseware
Shared Open Courseware (OCW) from Around the
World:
OKI, MIT, Rice, Berkeley, Yale, and Other Sharing Universities
Bob Jensen's links to electronic literature,
including free online textbooks and other learning materials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Advances in Course Open Sharing for Free: Yale is Added to the List
of Prestigious Open Sharing Universities
"The Next Level of Open Source," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed,
September 20, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/20/yale
On Tuesday,
Yale University announced that it would be
starting a version of an open access online tool for those seeking to gain
from its courses. But the basis of the Yale effort will be video of actual
courses — every lecture of the course, to be combined with selected class
materials. The money behind the Yale effort is coming from the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation, which was an early backer of MIT’s project, and
which sees the Yale project as a way to take the open course idea to the
next level.
“We want to add another dimension to open
courseware,” said Catherine Casserly, a program officer at Hewlett. She said
that video components used at MIT and elsewhere have been very popular with
people all over the world. “We’re trying to make that bridge” to the
audience for high quality American education, she said. Casserly said that
Yale’s initiative — starting with seven courses this year, with plans to
grow quickly — was the first open courseware effort based on lecture videos.
“We hope to see this spread to other universities,” she said.
Richard Baraniuk, founder of Connexions, said he
viewed Yale’s announcement as “a very positive development.” While projects
at Rice and MIT “have been opening up access to educational materials and
syllabi, the Yale project is opening up access to even more of the student
experience, namely the in-class lecture environment,” he said.
Yale officials said that they view that in-class
environment as crucial and so wanted to build their open courseware model
around it. “Education is built on direct interaction, and face to face is
ideal,” said Diana E.E. Kleiner, a professor of the history of art and
classics who is directing the project. “That’s how we intend to teach on our
campus, but also recognize that this kind of participation is not always
possible, and many around the world could benefit from greater access to
this kind of information we provide.
“Universities and colleges are the best keepers of
that kind of information in the world, but it can be locked in a kind of
vault” because only so many people can attend a given institution, or enroll
in a given course, she said.
Kleiner said that Yale officers were “very
admiring” of the model built by MIT, and she praised MIT as well for sharing
extensive information about how its program was designed. But she said that
Yale believes that course lectures “are the core content,” and need to be
central. “We’re following in MIT’s footprints, but really taking a new
step,” she said.
Continued in article
The Open-Sharing of Video Lectures Gains Momentum
The University of California at Berkeley announced
Tuesday that it would put
video of selected courses online — free to all —
through a collaboration with Google Video. The move follows a similar move
announced a week ago by
Yale University.
Inside Higher Ed, September 27, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/27/qt
Professors Sharing Their Lectures on Video
Take Five from the University of Texas
http://www.utexas.edu/inside_ut/take5/
Berkeley Open Sharing College Course Site
From the Scout Report on May 19, 2006
Webcast.Berkeley [iTunes, Real Player]
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
Over the past few years, a number of colleges and
universities have created initiatives to place some of their course
materials online for the general public. MIT was one of the first to do so,
and Berkeley has also started to offer a number of webcasts and podcasts of
select courses on this website.
Drawing on the strengths of the Berkeley Multimedia
Research Center, they have begun to place some of these excellent materials
on this site. On their well-designed homepage, visitors can either look at
an archive of course webcasts and podcasts or take a gander at the archived
webcasts that feature prominent speakers who have visited the campus. The
events archive dates back to a January 2002 appearance by Bill Clinton, and
includes dozens of interesting talks and lectures. Visitors can learn about
each event in the information section, and for some, they have the option to
download the audio portion of each event. The course section is equally
delightful, as visitors can view webcasts here, and also download podcasts.
The range of courses here is quite broad, and includes lectures on general
chemistry, wildlife ecology, and surprise, surprise: foundations of American
cyberculture. Finally, visitors can also subscribe to event and course
podcasts.
Carnegie-Mellon University joins the open sharing initiative
A collection of "cognitively informed," openly
available and free online courses and course materials that enact instruction
for an entire course in an online format.
Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University ---
http://www.cmu.edu/oli/index.html
Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS
Teacher Source: Arts and Literature ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm
Teacher Source: Health & Fitness ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/health.htm
Teacher Source: Math ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math.htm
Teacher Source: Science ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm
Teacher Source: PreK2 ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/prek2.htm
Teacher Source: Library Media ---
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/library.htm
May 3, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
RESOURCES FOR RESHAPING SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
". . . the crisis in the scholarly communication
system not only threatens the well being of libraries, but also it threatens
our academic faculty's ability to do world-class research. With current
technologies, we now have, for the first time in history, the tools
necessary to effect change ourselves. We must do everything in our power to
change the current scholarly communication system and promote open access to
scholarly articles."
Paul G. Haschak's webliography provides resources
to help effect this change. "Reshaping the World of Scholarly Communication
-- Open Access and the Free Online Scholarship Movement: Open Access
Statements, Proposals, Declarations, Principles, Strategies, Organizations,
Projects, Campaigns, Initiatives, and Related Items -- A Webliography"
(E-JASL, vol. 7, no. 1, spring 2006) is available online at
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v07n01/haschak_p01.htm
E-JASL: The Electronic Journal of Academic and
Special Librarianship [ISSN 1704-8532] is an independent, professional,
refereed electronic journal dedicated to advancing knowledge and research in
the areas of academic and special librarianship. E-JASL is published by the
Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication (ICAAP), Athabasca,
Canada. For more information, contact: Paul Haschak, Executive Editor, Board
President, and Founder, Linus A. Sims Memorial Library, Southeastern
Louisiana University, Hammond, LA USA;
email: phaschak@selu.edu
Web:
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/
Connexions at Rice University ---
http://cnx.rice.edu/
"Really Open Source," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, July 29, 2005
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/29/open
Few
projects in academe have attracted the attention and praise
in recent years of
OpenCourseWare, a program in which
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is making all of
its course materials available online — free — for anyone to
use.
In the four years since MIT launched
the effort,
use of the courseware has
skyrocketed, and several other universities have created
similar programs, assembling material from their own
courses.
With
less fanfare than MIT, Rice University has also been
promoting a model for free, shared information that could be
used by faculty members and students anywhere in the world.
But the Rice program —
Connexions
— is different in key respects. It is assembling material
from professors (and high school teachers) from anywhere, it
is offering free software tools in addition to course
materials, and it is trying to reshape the way academe uses
both peer review and publishing. The project also has hopes
of becoming a major curricular tool at community colleges.
“I was
just frustrated with the status quo,” says
Richard G. Baraniuk, in explaining
how he started Connexions in 1999. “Peer review is severely
broken. Publishing takes too long and then books are too
expensive,” he says. “This is about cutting out the
middlemen and truly making information free.”
“I was just
frustrated with the status quo,” says Richard G. Baraniuk,
in explaining how he started Connexions in 1999. “Peer
review is severely broken. Publishing takes too long and
then books are too expensive,” he says. “This is about
cutting out the middlemen and truly making information
free.”
Baraniuk is
a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice,
so many of the initial modules (which can either be
materials for a course, a lecture or any other
organizational unit) were in engineering and were submitted
by Rice professors. But as Connexions has grown (from 200
modules in its second year to 2,300), it has attracted
content in many disciplines and from many scholars.
There are
materials for courses on art history, birds, business and
graphic design. Offerings are particularly strong in music.
And participating professors come from institutions
including Cornell, Indiana State and Ohio State
Universities, and the Universities of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Wisconsin at Madison. Professors from
outside the United States have also started to use the site
— it offers materials from the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology and the University of Cambridge.
Use of
the materials has grown steadily — in May, more than 350,000
individuals used the site at some point, a mix of professors
and students, about half of them on return visits.
Continued in article
Question
How popular are these open sharing sites?
June 26, 2006 message from Jagdish S. Gangolly
[gangolly@INFOTOC.COM]
Bob,
I wanted to pitch for an article by my good friend
and colleague, Terry Maxwell:
"Universities, Information Ownership, and Knowledge
Communities"
The Journal of the Association of History and
Computing
http://www.mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCVII2/ARTICLES/maxwell/maxwell.html
Here is the teaser:
_________________________________________
The recent decision by MIT to post the information
from all its 2,000 courses free to the Web has generated tremendous
excitement online, with more than 42 million hits recorded in the first
month, according to MIT statistics 1.
The project, entitled OpenCourseWare, was initiated
by MIT professors and funded by $11 million in grants from two foundations.
As of March, 2004, 700 courses, encompassing all five schools and two-thirds
of the faculty on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, have been added to
the site (ocw.mit.edu).
The project did not start as an effort to populate
the information commons. On the contrary, in 1999, Robert Brown, MIT's
provost, asked a faculty committee to study the idea for an online
for-profit equivalent to the physical school.
However, after researching the issue, the faculty
committee concluded that a profit-making venture was not viable, suggesting
instead that the university and its faculty make its course material
available for free online 2.
As reported by Charles Vest 2, the university's
president, the OpenCourseWare initiative has had impacts both inside and
outside the university. Within MIT, professors have begun using one
another's materials to supplement their own teaching efforts, and are
discovering interdisciplinary connections that could lead to new innovations
inside the institution. Outside the university, MIT alumni, interested
individuals, and other educators from around the world are using the
courseware as a means to keep current in their fields and as models for new
courses and curriculum.
The effort has generated interest in other areas,
particularly among Intellectual Property legal commentators, who questioned
the relationship between faculty-generated course notes and university
property rights 3. Given the fact that the project is faculty-initiated and
voluntary, intellectual property issues in the curricular area between the
university and professors have not yet come to a head at MIT. However, the
project has had to navigate the murky waters of copyright in other respects,
particularly with regard to the negotiation for permissions with other
information providers 4.
Nevertheless, the project still leaves open the
question of the relative information rights of professors and universities.
In addition, it raises broader questions of the
roles both of professional disciplines and the institutional structures
developed to support them in a technological world in which traditional
boundaries between information transformation, production, and dissemination
are under strain. The following attempts to lay out some of the relevant
issues, focusing particularly on the role of the university in an online
world.
A Brief Look at the University in Society
Lying at the center of questions about university
and academic information ownership is a deeply contested vision of the role
of both scholarship and the institutions designed to support research. Do
scholars labor primarily as individual authors and inventors, or are they
members of what Enlightenment scholars termed a res publica, loosely defined
as a republic of ideas operating beyond institutional and political
boundaries? Are universities places of sanctuary for ideas, separated from
the marketplace, or information dissemination institutions situated squarely
in the market?
In her book "Who Owns Academic Work?," Corynne
McSherry 5 traces the history of modern American universities and makes a
strong case that these questions are largely unanswerable, because they
assume a stability in self-conception that is historically missing. She
argues that medieval universities and guilds were primarily envisioned as
mechanisms for monopoly control over ideas, with the former focusing on
professional control and the latter on control over invention. With the
coming of the Enlightenment, voluntary academic societies sought to break
down university monopolies on knowledge, constructing a meritocracy based on
open communication and communal enquiry, and existing in cooperation with
the growing commercial marketplace. At the institutional level,
nineteenth-century German conceptions of the university, based on Kant's
ideas in Conflict of the Faculties, envisioned the university as a place
apart from the marketplace, yet poised to provide knowledge based on reason
to political rulers. In the United States, German models of scholarly
independence blended with the British tradition of liberal arts and informed
citizenship, leading to a tension between disinterested scholarship and
community. This admixture was further complicated by the presence of private
schools funded through religious and other associations sitting
cheek-and-jowl to land-grant public universities, developed to provide
practical assistance in the development of new agricultural and mechanical
techniques.
By the twentieth century, the split between
theoretical and practical knowledge within universities was
institutionalized through a separation of faculties of arts and science from
engineering and professional school. At the same time, the continued
compartmentalization of knowledge into disciplines supported the rise of
self-contained academic communities with different standards of scholarship
and practice.
To support the engagement of the university in the
marketplace, during the 1920's several American universities, particularly
those with large engineering components, inaugurated small offices dedicated
to technology transfer, particularly the processing of patent applications
for professors. However, in a major shift, the end of the Second World War
saw a major increase in government grant programs for basic research,
insulating the academy from a necessity to rely on private funding sources
and enhancing the traditional notion of universities as the preferred site
for basic objective research separate from the commercial marketplace. At
the same time, a greater integration of the university into public life
occurred, with the provision of GI Bill grants to returning members of the
military. University enrollments doubled during the next 15 years, doubling
again within another 8 years.
By the 1990s, the position of universities within
society began to shift again. Federal funding for research slowed, along
with other public financing sources. Pressure developed to seek private
financing through partnerships with foundations and corporations.
Universities undertook attempts at more aggressive management of
intellectual assets, often bringing them into conflict with academic
communities. The rise of the Internet signaled the potential for developing
new resource streams through the development of online courses and degrees,
but no one was sure where the dividing line stood between individual and
institutional ownership of course materials.
Academic publishing, long a backwater in the
publishing industry, showed strong growth and consolidation as publishers
embraced electronic dissemination and new models of product bundling.
Here is another Terry Maxwell piece:
Toward a Model of Information Policy Analysis:
Speech as an Illustrative Example by Terrence A. Maxwell FM10 Openness
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/maxwell/
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly
email: gangolly@infotoc.com
Fax: 831-584-1896
skype: gangolly
URL:
www.infotoc.com
Blog:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/gangolly
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on copyright issues and the horrible DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Educators who do not choose to freely share their course materials may try
to sell them to other educators online ---
http://teacherspayteachers.com/
And now we can harness the internet's strengths in
order to bypass the educational publishing conglomerates and help ourselves.
Here, we will pay each other for our teaching materials and evaluate one
another's work with ratings and comments.
- As sellers, creative
teachers will get credit and income for their ideas.
- As buyers, teachers
will save huge amounts of time and use the best teacher-created,
teacher-tested practical materials available.
And the real winners will be
our students. They deserve what our best can create -- you can post and find
it here. Teachers paying teachers, an idea whose time has come.
June 29, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
TEACHERS SELL LESSON PLANS ONLINE
Entrepreneur and former public school teacher Paul
Edelman has created Teacherspayteachers.com, an website where teachers can
sell lesson plans that they have created. Sellers pay an annual fee, set
their own prices, and 15% of each sale goes to Edelman. Currently, almost
all of the lesson plans cover K-12-level subjects, but the site already
includes some university-level materials covering math, history, and
criminology. To view the site's lesson plan collection, go to
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
For more information, read "High-School Teachers
Can Buy and Sell Lessons at an eBay-Like Website."
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17043
For critical comment on the service, see TeachBay.
http://dhawhee.blogs.com/d_hawhee/2006/02/teachbay.html
Jensen Comment
Capitalist that I am, I think there are too many externalities connected with
education materials. I encourage that more consideration be given to free
open-sharing of course materials.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
OPEN ACCESS/SOURCE CONFERENCE PAPERS
The June 2006 issue of FIRST MONDAY features selected
papers from "FM10 Openness: Code, Science, and Content," a conference held in
May and sponsored by First Monday journal, the University of Illinois at Chicago
University Library, and the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation
and Technology (MERIT). The theme of the conference was open access (in
journals, communities, and science) and open source. Links to the online papers,
along with citations to those not available online, are available at
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_6/
First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online,
peer-reviewed journal whose aim is to publish original articles about the
Internet and the global information infrastructure. It is published in
cooperation with the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For
more information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor, PO
Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA;
email:
ejv@uic.edu ;
Web:
http://firstmonday.dk/
June 27, 2006 tidbit from the Scholarly Communications Blog at the University
of Illinois ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Academic Journal Trends
A survey of 400 academic
journal publishers done by the Association of Learned and Professional
Society Publishers found that:
* 90 percent of the journals
are now available online
* A fifth of the publishers are experimenting with open access journals
* 40 percent of publishers use previous print subscriptions as the base for
pricing for bundles
* Most publishers make agreements for either one year or three years
* 91 percent of publishers make back volumes available online; 20 percent
charge for access to back volumes
* 42 percent have established formal arrangements for the long-term
preservation of their journals
* 83 percent require authors to transfer copyright in their articles to the
publisher
Can History Be Open Source?
Roy Rosenzweig, a
history professor at George Mason University and colleague of the institute,
recently published a very good article on Wikipedia from the perspective of
a historian.
"Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future
of the Past" as a historian's analysis
complements the discussion from the important but different lens of
journalists and scientists. Therefore, Rosenzweig focuses on, not just
factual accuracy, but also the quality of prose and the historical context
of entry subjects. He begins with in depth overview of how Wikipedia was
created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and describes their previous
attempts to create a free online encyclopedia. Wales and Sanger's first
attempt at a vetted resource, called Nupedia, sheds light on how from the
very beginning of the project, vetting and reliability of authorship were at
the forefront of the creators.
Rosenzweig adds to a growing
body of research trying to determine the accuracy of Wikipedia, in his
comparative analysis of it with other online history references, along
similar lines of the Nature study. He compares entries in Wikipedia with
Microsoft's online resource Encarta and American National Biography Online
out of the Oxford University Press and the American Council of Learned
Societies. Where Encarta is for a mass audience, American National Biography
Online is a more specialized history resource. Rosenzweig takes a sample of
52 entries from the 18,000 found in ANBO and compares them with entries in
Encarta and Wikipeida. In coverage, Wikipedia contain more of from the
sample than Encarta. Although the length of the articles didn't reach the
level of ANBO, Wikipedia articles were more lengthy than the entries than
Encarta. Further, in terms of accuracy, Wikipedia and Encarta seem basically
on par with each other, which confirms a similar conclusion (although
debated) that the Nature study reached in its comparison of Wikipedia and
the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The discussion gets more
interesting when Rosenzweig discusses the effect of collaborative writing in
more qualitative ways.
The Asian ambitious efforts on open courseware
September 9, 2005 message from Marc Jelitto
[marc.jelitto@fernuni-hagen.de]
Dear Mister Jensen, searching for open courseware
repositories, I found your article e-Education: The Shocking Future.
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI .
Maybe you are interested in the Asian ambitious
efforts on open courseware. You find a collection on my (German) webpage:
http://marcjelitto.de/lernobje/kursrep.htm
Greetings from Germany Marc
-- Marc Jelitto, M.A.
Projekt CampusContent FernUniversitaet in Hagen
Technologie und Gruenderzentrum (TGZ) Universitaetsstr. 11 58084 Hagen,
Germany
Raum C05, 3. Stock, Block C
Tel.: (+49) 23 31 / 98 7 - 47 96 Fax: (+49) 23 31 /
98 7 - 3 97 Handy: 01 73 / 7 46 92 94 (D2)
http://www.campuscontent.org/
http://marcjelitto.de/
http://evaluieren.de/
Bravo MIT: In the spirit of sharing in
the academy: Just proves once again that givers get in return
The gist is that four years into what was originally to
be a 10-year, $100 million project, MIT has put nearly 1,000 of its 1,800
courses online, and is on track to finish the work of building the site by 2008
at a cost of $35 million. (The university is just beginning the work of
estimating the costs of sustaining the OpenCourseWare project in a “steady
state” once the buildout is finished, but expects, once the foundation money
dries up, to absorb most of the annual costs in as its regular budget.) The site
gets about 400,000 unique visits each month, or about 20,000 a day. The
individual course pages contain items commonly available on other universities’
sites like syllabi and calendars, but also more unusual features like videotaped
lectures, laboratory simulations, lecture notes (either provided by the
instructor or taken by staff members of OpenCourseWare) and even exams —
sometimes with answers. MIT “scrubs” the material to make sure that it either
complies with its Creative Commons intellectual property license or is removed
from the site.The university’s project has spawned sites in
Spain and
China
that are providing native language versions of some MIT courses (with a third,
still unendorsed by MIT, beginning in Taiwan, and another expected to be
announced in Japan next month).
Scott Jaschik, "Spreading the Wealth," Inside Higher Ed, April 7, 2005
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/04/07/mit
Faculty
participation in the MIT venture is voluntary, but about
two-thirds of MIT professors have their courses online now.
By offering to do much of the work for professors, the
OpenCourseWare effort has managed to limit the time faculty
members typically spend on getting materials for a course
online to under five hours.
And peer
pressure is building, Margulies says, not just to
participate, but to bolster the look and content of their
courses. “There has been a wholesale improvement of the
materials,” she says. Some of that movement is driven by
faculty members’ “own competitive pride of looking at what
their colleagues are doing,” she said, and some results from
other sources. “Students are asking faculty members why
their courses aren’t up.”
Margulies
gushes, and almost blushes, when she reads some of the ways
users of the site have described it in e-mail messages to
the OpenCourseWare staff: “Eighth wonder of the world,”
“coolest thing on the Internet,” “worthy of the Nobel Peace
Prize,” “like falling in love.”
“We’ve heard
all of those hundreds of times,” Margulies says. “Well,
except for ‘like falling in love’ — we’ve only gotten that
one once. We’re a bit concerned about that person.”
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
Update January 11, 2005
Reminiscent of the kids in the
back of the car on your family's vacation, the persistent question about this
technology (Learning Management Systems seems to be, "Are we there yet?"
Ira Fuchs, "Learning Management Systems," Syllabus, July/August 2004 ---
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=9675
Question
If you know what OKI is, do you also know what SAKAI
stands for?
Answer
OKI stands for the Open Knowledge Initiative and DSpace spearheaded by MIT in
conjunction with various leading universities (See below)
The OCW (Open Courseware)
announcement, almost three years ago, was open for easy
inference. MIT officials insisted that the university was not offering online
courses to students; rather, MIT faculty were putting their course
materials—syllabi and supporting resources—on the Web for others to use. In
other words, one could see the syllabus and review some of the course materials,
but not take the class. And not just a few classes. OCW’s announced goal
is to make the complete MIT curriculum—everything in the undergraduate and
graduate curriculum, across all fields, totalling some 2000 courses—available
over the next few years. Speaking at the November 2003 EDUCAUSE Conference, Anne
Margulies, executive director of the OCW project, announced that MIT has made
significant progress towards this goal: as of fall 2003, the resources for some
500 MIT courses
had been posted on the Web.
Kenneth C. Green, "Curricular Reform, Conspiracy, and Philanthropy,"
Syllabus, January 2004, Page 27 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8718
The main Open Knowledge Initiative site at MIT is at
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
In the
first week on the Web, the OCW site received more than 13 million visits from
users, about 52 percent from outside of the United States. The OCW team also
processed more than 2,000 e-mails in those first days, more than 75 percent of
them supportive of the project. The remaining 25 percent were a mix of technical
questions, inquiries about specific course offerings, and questions about
content. Less than 2 percent of those e-mails were negative.
"Open Access to World-Class Knowledge," by Anne H. Margulies,
Syllabus, March 2003, pp. 16-18 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7360
"SAKAI," The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, December 2003 ---
http://juicy.mellon.org/RIT/MellonOSProjects/SAKAI/
SAKAI
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
A grant was made to the University of Michigan,
for use by the SAKAI consortium to support the development of an open
source, feature-rich course management system for higher education.
Participating institutions have agreed to place the new learning management
system into production when the system is completed.
Project Website
The University of Michigan, Indiana University,
Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and
the uPortal consortium are joining forces to integrate and synchronize their
enormous investments in educational software to create an integrated set of
open source tools for the benefit of higher education. The new open source
software, known as SAKAI, aims to draw the “best-of-breed” from among
existing open source course management systems and related tools: uPortal,
CHEF, Stellar, Encore, Course Tools, Navigo Assessment, OnCourse, OneStart,
Eden Workflow, and Courseworks.
MIT’s Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) produced a
comprehensive framework for course management systems rather than a
production system. The SAKAI effort is the logical next step: the creation
of a comprehensive course management system and an underlying portal
framework that draw from existing efforts and integrate the finest available
modules and approaches.
The goal is an economically sustainable approach to
high quality open source learning software for higher education. The
approach promises to overcome two main barriers that have consistently
impeded such collaborative efforts: (1) unique local architectures,
including heterogeneous software, software interoperability requirements
between systems, and diverse user interfaces that hinder the portability of
software among institutions; and (2) timing differences in institutional
funding and mobilization that reduce synergy and result in fragmented, often
incomplete offerings and weak interoperability.
This consortium hopes to overcome these barriers by
relying on OKI service definitions that integrate otherwise heterogeneous
local architectures and enable the mobility of software. In addition, the
advanced course management system will use as its core-building block an
upgraded version of the Foundation-supported and highly successful uPortal
software (Version 3), a powerful, open source portal environment that will
integrate a portal specification needed for tool interoperability. The
institutions are also committed to the “synchronization of institutional
clocks,” essentially rolling out the new applications on the same schedule
to maximize the synergy of the effort.
In concert with the development effort, SAKAI is
creating a partners program that invites other institutions to contribute
$10,000 per year for three years. Partner institutions will experiment with
production versions of the software in 2004 and 2005 and investigate
sustainability options. They will receive early access to project
information; early code releases for the SAKAI framework, portal, services,
and tools; invitations to partner meetings; and technical training
workshops. Contributions from an expected minimum of 20 institutions will
support a community development staff member to coordinate partner
activities, a developer to interact with partner technical staff, another
staff member to coordinate documentation, a support staff member to respond
to inquiries, and an administrative staff member to coordinate partner
activities and facilitate responses.
Continued in article
MIT's DSpace Explained
In 1978, Loren Kohnfelder invented digital certificates
while working on his MIT undergraduate thesis. Today, digital certificates are
widely used to distribute the public keys that are the basis of the Internet's
encryption system. This is important stuff! But when I tried to find an online
copy of Kohnfelder's 1978 manuscript, I came up blank. According to the MIT
Libraries' catalog, there were just two copies in the system: a microfiche
somewhere in Barker Engineering Library, and a "noncirculating" copy in the
Institute Archives . . . DSpace is a long-term, searchable digital archive. It
creates unchanging URLs for stored materials and automatically backs up one
institution's archives to another's. Today, DSpace is being used by 79
institutions, with more on the way. But as my little story about Kohnfelder's
thesis demonstrates, archiving data is only half the problem. In order to be
useful, archives must also enable researchers to find what they are looking for.
Sending e-mail to the author worked for me, but it's not a good solution for the
masses. Long-term funding is another problem that DSpace needs to solve. "The
libraries are seeking ways of stabilizing support for DSpace to make it easier
to sustain as it gets bigger over time," says MacKenzie Smith, the Libraries'
associate director for technology. Today, development on the DSpace system is
funded by short-term grants. That's great for doing research, but it's not a
good model for a facility that's destined to be the long-term memory of the
Institute's research output. Says Smith: "We need to know how to support an
operation like this in very lean times."
Simson Garfinkel, "MIT's DSpace Explained," MIT's Technology Review, July
2005 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/07/issue/feature_mit.asp?trk=nl
Open Courseware Initiative from University of the Western Cape ---
http://elearn.nettelafrica.org/index.php?module=splashscreen
A Free Content and Free and Open Courseware
implementation strategy for the University of the Western Cape
Tertiary institutions the world over are
recognizing the value of freely sharing educational curricula and content,
collaborating in their further development and extension, and doing so under
the umbrella of free and unrestricted access to knowledge. The word “free”
in this case refers to liberty, not to absence of price, although absence of
direct price is a common side-benefit of liberty, just as it is in the
software arena.
One of the more mature programs in this area is the
Open Courseware Initiative (OCI) run by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in the USA, but many other institutions have similar
initiatives and many more are now creating open courseware initiatives of
their own.
UWC has been invited to join a global consortium of
institutions involved in OCI, membership of which has no fees or
requirements other than a commitment to OCI principles. Since the notion of
Open Content features in our Integrated Information Strategy and our
E-Learning Strategy, and UWC is widely known and respected for its work in
Free and Open Source Software, the time is opportune for us to create this
implementation strategy and to use it to build a UWC OCI-type of initiative.
The emphasis in philosophy of Free Content is on
social good through promoting collaborative development and the adaptation
and expansion of content whereas the philosophy of Open Content is access
while protecting the author’s wishes to restrict access or usage to certain
conditions. All Free Content is Open Content, but not all Open Content is
Free Content.
Open Courseware: Open Content that is arranged in
Courses and made available in a structured manner via the Internet. All Free
Courseware is Open Courseware, but not all Open Courseware is Free
Courseware.
For example, visit the NetTom Financial Analysis site at
http://cbdd.wsu.edu/kewlcontent/cdoutput/TOM505/index.htm
Chapter 1
- Syllabus NetTOM 505 - Under development [1]
- Introduction NetTOM 505 Financial Analysis PART 1 [2]
- Introduction NetTOM 505 Financial Management PART 2 [3]
Chapter 2 Outcomes Chapter 2 [4]
- Session 1: Intro to Accounting [5]
- Session 2 [6]
- Chapter 3 Outcomes Chapter 3 [7]
- Session 3: Society of Accountants in Malawi [8]
- Session 4: International Accounting Standards Board [9]
Chapter 4 Outcomes Chapter 3 [10]
- Session 5: Financial and Management Accounting [11]
Chapter 5 Outcomes Chapter 5 [12]
- Session 6: Double Entry Accounting Systems [13]
- Session 7: Balancing up the Ledger Accounts [14]
- Session 8: Trial Balance [15]
Chapter 6 Outcomes Chapter 6 [16]
- Session 9: Preparation of Income Statements [17]
- Session 10: Balance Sheet [18]
- Session 11: Cash Flow Statement [19]
Chapter 7 Outcomes Chapter 7 [20]
- Session 12: Preparation of Business Plan [21]
- Session 13: Cash Budget [22]
Chapter 8 Outcomes Chapter 8 [23]
- Session 14: Horizontal Analysis [24]
- Session 14: Calculation of Ratio Analysis [25]
- Session 15: Limitation of Ratio Analysis [26]
Chapter 9 Introduction to Part 2 [27]
Chapter 10 Outcomes Chapter 10 [28]
- Session 1: Evolution of Finance Management [29]
- Session 2: Forms of Business Organisation [30]
- Session 3: Agency Relation [31]
Chapter 11 Outcomes Chapter 11: Fundamental Concept in Financial
Management [32]
- Session 4: Time Value of Money [33]
- Session 5: Risk and Return [34]
Chapter 12 Outcomes Chapter 12: Sources of Funding for Transport Sector
[35]
- Session 4: Short Term Sources of Finance [36]
- Session 5: Share Markets and Share Valuation [37]
- Session 6: Bond and Other Long Term Finance [38]
- Session 7: Role of Privatisation [39]
Chapter 13 Outcomes Chapter 13: Risk Analysis [40]
- Session 8: Cost of Capital [41]
- Session 9: Capital Asset Pricing Model [42]
- Session 10: Capital Structure and Value of the Firm [43]
Other content Outcomes Readings Glossary
MathWorks at http://www.mathworks.com/
This software is not free, but there are many free helpers here.
Finance Helpers ---
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/finance/
Note the links to examples on the left side of the screen.
Question
How to computer present values with cash flows at regular or irregular time
intervals with equal or unequal payments?
Answer ---
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/finance/fintut21113.html
The toolbox includes functions to compute the
present or future value of cash flows at regular or irregular time intervals
with equal or unequal payments:
fvfix
,
fvvar
,
pvfix
, and
pvvar
. The -fix
functions
assume equal cash flows at regular intervals, while the -var
functions allow irregular cash flows at irregular periods.
Now compute the net present value of the sample
income stream for which you computed the internal rate of return. This
exercise also serves as a check on that calculation because the net present
value of a cash stream at its internal rate of return should be zero.
Jensen Comment
Even if you do not have the MatLab Toolbox installed, you can program the
illustrations in Excel.
From one of the leading law school advocates of open sharing
Many of Eben Moglen's papers on patents and copyrights can be downloaded from
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/
My good friend John Howland, a professor of computer science, recommends
these particular papers for starters:
Professor Moglen runs a blog called "Freedom
Now" at
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog
Entries are relatively infrequent and date back to April 2000
There are also a few links to audio and video presentations.
Bob Jensen's thread son copyright law and the
evil DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Ira Fuchs, "Learning Management Systems," Syllabus,
July/August 2004 ---
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=9675
A dialog between Syllabus Magazine (S) and Ira Fuchs (IHF)
OKI focused on this framework and the delivery of a
proof of concept, meaning a system or a pair of systems that could
demonstrate this interoperability. And that’s in fact what MIT and Stanford
achieved.
S: So OKI focused on the framework… how does the
Sakai project build on that?
IHF: The Sakai project starts out where OKI left
off by taking the architecture and the OSIDs [Open Services Interface
Definitions] and fusing them with the best of breed development—learning
management system development—from four major institutions: Stanford, MIT,
Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. The purpose is to create
a world-class production-ready system that will be open, extensible, and
scalable. And, further, a very important aspect of Sakai is that the four
institutions have agreed, in writing, as a condition of the grant, that they
will bring this new system into production on each of their campuses at the
same time, approximately a year from now. The goal is really nothing less
than delivering an LMS that colleges and universities can use and extend
with modules written at other schools, at their own school, or licensed from
commercial vendors.
S: Do you think learning management systems will be
considered a core technology for colleges and universities going forward?
And will open, interoperable systems prevail and be in common use? Are we
there yet?
IHF:I think learning management systems are a core
technology already, and that fact is, I think, both good and bad. It’s good
because learning management systems have helped the faculty and students
enormously. They make course information and content available on the Web,
and at the same time improve communication among students and faculty. But
because the LMS is already so important to the functioning of many schools,
it’s going to be hard to move away from the proprietary systems they may be
running today and to begin using open, collaboratively developed and
maintained systems. I think open systems are going to prevail, but it’s
going to take time.
S: So, in a sense, we’re not really there yet…What
are some of the steps that could move all of this forward?
IHF: That’s true, we’re not there yet. But Sakai is
about to deliver a beta release. The concept is to leverage the work of
many, many institutions to ultimately build a system that most, if not all,
institutions will want to run. But that’s not the case yet. Today, you have
a plethora of choices among learning management systems. There are sites on
the Web listing dozens of them. But for institutions seeking to move away
from their current LMS, there is a cost to change. The cost comes in many
forms, not the least of which is that people grow accustomed to an
interface. And often they’ve converted content to be used in that system. So
whatever we come up with is going to have to account for and minimize those
costs of change.
One way to minimize them is, for example, in the
case of the user interface, to have what are commonly known as skins. These
are modifiable user interfaces that are selectable by an institution, or
sometimes even by the end user, to make the system look the way they want it
to look. We’re also going to need to have tools to facilitate the
transformation of content from one system to another, to export it and then
import it into another system. So we’re going to have to do what we can to
minimize the cost of converting from one system to another.
S: Is interoperability among installed systems a
key goal for OKI?
IHF: Absolutely, that’s what OKI is all about. The
basis for all of this is to have a set of standards, of common interfaces,
APIs or OSIDs. I think this is the right time, because people have learned,
first of all, that it’s too expensive to try to develop it all on their own.
Even the biggest institutions—such as Michigan, the Indiana University,
Stanford, and MIT—have decided that building and maintaining these complex
systems on their own just doesn’t make sense any more. At the same time, the
notable, visible success of some of the open source projects—the big ones
like Linux, Apache, or MySQL—have proven that it’s possible to develop
something in the open and get people to commit to maintain and enhance the
software.
Perhaps the most important fact to remember is that
the industry we represent, higher education, is unique in our willingness to
collaborate and to share our labors, such as we have in this IT space. There
are a lot of smart people in each of these institutions, and if we can
harness them behind the same projects and use a set of standards, starting
off with a good base piece of software such as I think Sakai will deliver,
then we can do wonders.
S: What about standards for metadata? Is that
something to consider along with the interface standards?
IHF: Sure it is, and that is something, of course,
that the library community has been working on for a long time. What did
someone once say?: “The wonderful thing about standards is there are always
so many to choose from…” And we do have many metadata standards. But I think
that they will converge, at least in limited domains. When it comes to
learning object repositories, it’s going to lead to a set of metadata
schema, metadata standards that will not satisfy everyone—that’s probably
impossible—but will be good enough. Many of the Mellon-funded projects—OCW,
Sakai, LionShare at Penn State, Chandler—are all trying to converge on a
common standard for metadata.
S: Will learning management systems change
significantly in the next few years? Have they been on the right track, and
are they flexible enough to be used universally?
IHF: Learning management systems have come a long
way, but there’s still much that can be done to improve usability in
particular, especially to make it easier to publish or create new material.
It still takes too much expertise to create attractive materials from the
notes, images, and programs that faculty use to teach a course. The
proliferation of learning management systems suggests that no one system is
sufficiently feature-rich, or adequately flexible and extensible enough to
meet everyone’s needs or even most institutions’ requirements. But I hope to
see that change in the next couple of years with the advent of Sakai.
The proliferation of learning management systems
suggests that no one system is sufficiently feature-rich, or adequately
flexible and extensible enough to meet everyone’s needs or even most
institutions’ requirements.
S: Are new development tools needed?
IHF: Yes, I think we need authoring tools that
lower the effort threshold dramatically for faculty to take digitized
materials and create something esthetically pleasing as well as effective
for their teaching purposes. There are tools, but we have to make sure that
they are going to be compatible with all of the other pieces that we’re
putting together based on standards. Of course, they’re not yet very
compatible, but how could they be? They were built at some point in the past
when people weren’t worried about that.
S: What are the pieces needed so that learning
management systems can become more easily or better integrated with other
parts of the campus information system, either on the academic or on the
administrative side?
IHF: We need the middleware layer that translates
the standards, such as the OSIDs, for the actual campus infrastructures. For
example, OKI defines a set of OSIDs for authentication and authorization,
and we want developers to be able to use those OSIDs, so that the systems
will be interoperable. However, just about every campus has some
authentication system already in place, whether it’s User ID/Password, or
Kerberos, or Shibboleth. So there needs to be code which translates the
calls that use the OSIDs, to the actual campus mechanisms. This is kind of a
chicken-and-egg problem. Why create the middleware unless developers are
using the standards? Why should developers use the standards unless the
systems they are writing for have implemented the necessary middleware? But
I think it’s going to happen.
S: How do portals fit in with all of this?
IHF: There’s another project, which was funded by
the Mellon Foundation at almost the same time as OKI that has been very,
very successful—that’s uPortal. It’s in use at scores of institutions now.
It is the primary enterprise portal at those institutions. So when you ask
the question about how to make it easier to integrate the LMS with other
parts of the campus information system, I think uPortal is going to play an
important role—and Sakai is built on top of uPortal.
S: Will libraries become better integrated with the
LMS?
IHF: I think they must become better integrated
in-so-far as making it as transparent as possible to the end user—faculty or
the student—as to where the information used by the LMS is coming from or
how to search for it. And that’s a significant challenge since there are
many potential sources for the data used in an LMS. A course can use data
from online publishers, from the campus library, from another library, from
the campus repository, or even from the faculty member’s local or
server-based files. With the emergence of peer-to-peer tools, such as
LionShare, the data could even come from the personal machines of
individuals throughout the world. Somehow we need to make all of this
distributed information available in the learning management system without
the user having to learn so many different interfaces.
There are many of MIT's shared course materials (syllabi,
lecture notes, etc.) that are available free on line in virtually all academic
disciplines covered at MIT ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
There are quite a few new and updated courses in the database.
The Sloan School of Management shares undergraduate and
graduate course materials at
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/index.htm
Update on March 3, 2004
Knowledge
Wants to Be Openly Shared: One Day We Will Beat the Selfishness Out of
Academe
"DSpace partners led by MIT have bet the farm." (See Below)
Why do some
leading universities openly share knowledge while a few other leading
universities go so far as to claim property rights over the notes students take
in courses? Why do some share instructor course notes, software, and
research papers without charge whereas others charge for every word written by a
faculty member?
My really good friends in the
Computer Science Department invited me to dinner on March 2 with our Phi Beta
Kappa Visiting Scholar Hal Abelson from MIT ---
http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/%7Ehal/hal.html
The following are more-or-less footnotes to the above home page (note the free
video lectures):
Trinity University was fortunate to
be one of eight universities on this year's schedule for Professor Abelson ---
http://www.pbk.org/advocacy/visitscholar/abelson.htm#schedule
Hal
Abelson is professor of electrical engineering and computer science and a
fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is
winner of several teaching awards, including the IEEE's Booth Education
Award, cited for his contributions to the teaching of undergraduate computer
science. His research at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory focuses
on "amorphous computing," an effort to create programming technologies that
can harness the power of the new computing substrates emerging from advances
in microfabrication and molecular biology. He is also engaged in the
interaction of law, policy, and technology as they relate to societal
tensions sparked by the growth of the Internet, and is active in projects at
MIT and elsewhere to help bolster our intellectual commons.
A founding
director of the Free Software Foundation and of Creative Commons, he serves
as a consultant to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. He is co-director of the
MIT-Microsoft Research Alliance in educational technology and co-head of
MIT's Council on Educational Technology.
Professor Abelson is one of the
founding fathers of the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI/OCW) and DSpace knowledge
sharing databases that are probably the leading programs for free and open
sharing of knowledge and education materials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
He is also the Director of Public
Knowledge ---
http://www.publicknowledge.org/
OKI and DSpace
The OCW (Open Courseware)
announcement, almost three years ago, was open for easy
inference. MIT officials insisted that the university was not offering online
courses to students; rather, MIT faculty were putting their course
materials—syllabi and supporting resources—on the Web for others to use. In
other words, one could see the syllabus and review some of the course materials,
but not take the class. And not just a few classes. OCW’s announced goal
is to make the complete MIT curriculum—everything in the undergraduate and
graduate curriculum, across all fields, totalling some 2000 courses—available
over the next few years. Speaking at the November 2003 EDUCAUSE Conference, Anne
Margulies, executive director of the OCW project, announced that MIT has made
significant progress towards this goal: as of fall 2003, the resources for some
500 MIT courses
had been posted on the Web.
Kenneth C. Green, "Curricular Reform, Conspiracy, and Philanthropy,"
Syllabus, January 2004, Page 27 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8718
The main Open Knowledge Initiative site at MIT is at
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
In the
first week on the Web, the OCW site received more than 13 million visits from
users, about 52 percent from outside of the United States. The OCW team also
processed more than 2,000 e-mails in those first days, more than 75 percent of
them supportive of the project. The remaining 25 percent were a mix of technical
questions, inquiries about specific course offerings, and questions about
content. Less than 2 percent of those e-mails were negative.
"Open Access to World-Class Knowledge," by Anne H. Margulies,
Syllabus, March 2003, pp. 16-18 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7360
In another program for storage and
sharing of knowledge, Professor Abelson and his colleagues have persuaded
leading universities to participate in another program called DSpace or the
Self-Managing Library. The participating universities now include such
giants as Stanford University, University of Chicago, and other leading research
universities of the world ---
https://hpds1.mit.edu/index.jsp
John Schmitz from the University of Illinois writes as follows at
http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/john/kellogg.html
All these
can be subsumed by the biggest issue that does not seem to be more than a
blip on the land grant radar, the highly visible trend called institutional
repositories. For example, the DSpace project
is building an institutional repository for public use,
aiming at posting as much of their content as possible. Extension services
and land grants routinely post free, online content, but the
DSpace partners led by MIT have bet the farm.
Will the extension service create institutional repositories too? How far do
the land grants go? DSpace, Merlot, and other 'open content' efforts cannot
help but appear as paradigmatic land grant projects. But we're apparently
not at the table.
Student
Derivatives and Course Notes: The Gray Zone of Knowledge Sharing
"In the
meantime, University of California faculty generally own their
copyright-protected property (see the UC Policy on Copyright Ownership, August
19, 1992) and, if concerned about notes being distributed on the web, have
rights to stop it." (See below)
"Student Notes on the Web," Business
Contracts Office, UC Davis ---
http://vcadmin.ucdavis.edu/contracts/Student%20Notes.html
First, the October 1, 1999, issue of The Chronicle
for Higher Education contains an article entitled "Putting Class Notes on
the Web: Are Companies Stealing Lectures?" Interestingly, one of the
companies discussed in the article is also the one prompting the current
round of complaints - StudentU.com. If you do not have access to The
Chronicle in your office you may wish to borrow this issue from a colleague.
The article, while not going into depth on the legal issues involved, makes
clear that many institutions of higher education across the nation are
facing this same problem.
The issue of making individual student notes
available to others is not new to the University of California, of course.
Here at Davis ASUCD has provided the "Classical Notes" service to UCD
students for some time, but authorization has not been a complaint as
note-takers are required to obtain the written permission of the instructor.
In 1969 a UCLA instructor sued a commercial publisher for hiring a student
to take notes for publication without the instructor’s permission, and the
court held that such action was a violation of the California common law
copyright (California Civil Code 980 et. seq.) as well as an invasion of
privacy, and both enjoined the company from continuing while ordering
compensatory and punitive damages. (Williams v. Weisser (1969) 273 C.A.2d
726.) This settled the issue in California at the time.
However, the world-wide web and the value of
E-commerce have brought the problem back to California in the last few
years, likely because the individuals (often students) who are starting
these nationwide companies are not aware of state laws, instead operating
under the assumption that the federal copyright law governs all. I believe
it is helpful to understand how federal law does not clearly protect
instructors in this situation. Federal copyright protection of the rights to
make copies, make derivative works, distribute, perform publicly, and
display, applies to "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible
medium of expression, from which they can be perceived, reproduced or
otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or
device." (17 USCA section 102.) Although the federal law was written long
before the Internet was conceived, its application is no different whether
applied to paper class notes or the Internet version posting of them.
Certainly, no one will dispute that federal law
creates a copyright interest in the instructor’s written/printed lecture
notes, to the extent they are original work. If an instructor is reading or
reciting from his/her lecture notes, he/she is exercising his/her
performance rights under copyright law, and a duplication of that
performance by taking notes so accurate as to allow a repeat performance
would be a copyright violation. However, most instructors do not lecture so
precisely from their notes, although portions such as a poem or critical
passage may be read. If the words being said in a lecture are not otherwise
"fixed" the public performance does not of itself constitute publication (17
USCA section 101, definition of publication), so does not trigger federal
copyright protection. Even if it did, in a federal court case that looked at
the applicability of copyright to course lectures, the court held that most
statements made in a lecture can be categorized as facts or ideas that do
not belong to anyone, neither of which is copyrightable. (University of
Florida v. KPB, Inc (d.b.a. "A Notes"), 89 F.3d 773; 1196 U.S. LEXIS 18778
(11th Cir. 1996)).
The argument being made by the web-based services,
however, is that even if the lecture is protected by copyright under federal
law, each note-taker is merely writing down his/her perceptions of the
instructor’s exercise of his/her copyrights. Rather than violating the
existing copyright, the note-taker is creating a new original work of
authorship fixed in a tangible medium, and, as the author, can exercise any
of the rights provided by federal copyright law, including transferring
ownership to a note-distribution service. The services have been very
careful not to duplicate class handouts or syllabi, which would clearly be a
copyright violation. The merit of this argument has not been tested in
court. One response to this might be that the note-taker is creating a
derivative work rather than a new work. However, if so, every college
student who takes notes is creating a derivative work without express
authorization of the instructor, leading some campus attorneys to advise
instructors to begin expressly authorizing notes made for personal use to
differentiate notes for personal use from notes for sale.
Fortunately, we don’t have to get into this can of
federal worms so long as the California common law copyright continues to be
good law and is not preempted by federal law to the contrary.
In the meantime, UC faculty generally own their
copyright-protected property (see the
UC Policy on
Copyright Ownership, August 19, 1992) and, if concerned about notes
being distributed on the web, have rights to stop it. Since an ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure, instructors can announce at the first
class, and put in every syllabus, on their course web-sites, and in/on any
other teacher-student communication, a statement to the effect of:
Copyright (author’s name) (year). All
federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material
presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.
Individuals are prohibited from being paid for taking, selling, or
otherwise transferring for value, personal class notes made during this
course to any entity without the express written permission of
(author). In addition to legal sanctions, students found in
violation of these prohibitions may be subject to University
disciplinary action.
Bob Jensen's comments about sharing are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/AAAaward_files/AAAaward02.htm
The OCW (Open Courseware)
announcement, almost three years ago, was open for easy
inference. MIT officials insisted that the university was not offering online
courses to students; rather, MIT faculty were putting their course
materials—syllabi and supporting resources—on the Web for others to use. In
other words, one could see the syllabus and review some of the course materials,
but not take the class. And not just a few classes. OCW’s announced goal
is to make the complete MIT curriculum—everything in the undergraduate and
graduate curriculum, across all fields, totalling some 2000 courses—available
over the next few years. Speaking at the November 2003 EDUCAUSE Conference, Anne
Margulies, executive director of the OCW project, announced that MIT has made
significant progress towards this goal: as of fall 2003, the resources for some
500 MIT courses
had been posted on the Web.
Kenneth C. Green, "Curricular Reform, Conspiracy, and Philanthropy,"
Syllabus, January 2004, Page 27 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8718
The main Open Knowledge Initiative site at MIT is at
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Also see
http://web.mit.edu/oki/specs/index.html
OKI and OCW: Free sharing of
courseware from MIT, Stanford, and other colleges and universities.
"CourseWork: An Online Problem Set and Quizzing Tool," by Charles Kerns, Scott
Stocker, and Evonne Schaeffer, Syllabus, June 2001, 27-29. I don't
think the article is available online, although archived table of contents for
the June edition is at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/magazine.asp?month=6&year=2001
A Web-based
learning support tool that helps faculty assess student understanding will
soon be a component of the Open Knowledge infrastructure under the
development at Stanford, MIT, and other universities.
THE OPEN
KNOWLEDGE INITIATIVE (OKI)
MIT, along with its
principal partner Stanford University, has launched The Open
Knowledge Initiative (OKI), an ambitious project to develop a
modular, easy-to-use, Web-based teaching environment for assembling,
delivering, and accessing educational resources and activities.
The initiative emerged from the realization that our institutions
were repeatedly building specialized Web applications that shared
common requirements for enterprise data and services. Existing
commercial products still require extensive customization to
integrate into student information, authentication, and
authorization systems, and related data stores. Faculty using
these tools frequently complain that while sometimes helpful, they
require extra effort, forcing them to impose their style of teaching
upon the rigidly structured course system format. And changing
the color of the screen or shape of the buttons isn't the level of
customization that really supports different pedagogical approaches.
What is OKI?
OKI is about tools,
a system, and a community. It is not a new browser, document
editor, or pre-packaged content. OKI tools are the
elements that enable basic teaching on the Web and that support
specialized discipline-specific needs, pedagogical methods, or group
logistics.
OKI is being
developed with careful attention to IMS, SCORM,
AICC, Dublin Core, and related standards efforts. In
keeping with another recently announced MIT project, the
OpenCourseWare Initiative (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/ocw-facts.html)
which will make content from MIT courses available on the Web
for free, OKI is based on an open source licensing model
(there are no proprietary components). It allows the
tools, no matter who creates them, to:
- Save information about
learners, subjects, and teaching methods in the same format
- Share information
- Access other systems
like the library, the registrar, and authentication and
authorization systems
- Extend the system;
anyone can add new features and new tools.
OKI is being built
by institutions that have dealt with large open systems in academic
settings. Besides MIT and Stanford, core initial
collaborating institutions include the Dartmouth College, North
Carolina State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the
University of Wisconsin.
Recalling the vitality and
success of another open source effort, the development of the Linux
operating system, OKI hopes to build a community of
developers, teachers, educational technologists, librarians, and
researchers who will collaborate to continually improve and extend
the OKI learning management system. OKI is
committed to working with its partners and early adopters to
establish a dynamic open source framework for continued development,
support, and training.
Getting Involved
Information about the
progress of OKI can be found on the OKI Web site:
http://web.mit.edu/oki . For updates subscribe to the list
oki-announce@mit.edu using
the form on the OKI Web site. If you'd like to
contribute more directly to this effort, e-mail
oki-suggest@mit.edu.
|
October 2003 update on shared course materials from the OKI project at MIT
---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/index.htm
Also see
http://web.mit.edu/oki/specs/index.html
Most business disciplines seem to be cooperating in this sharing effort
except for accounting. I can't find any shared course materials from
financial accounting professors. However, there are two accounting courses:
Bob Jensen's threads on OKI are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Available Courses |
»
View courses alphabetically |
|
MIT Course # |
Course Title |
15.012 |
Applied Macro and International Economics Spring 2002 |
15.053 |
Introduction to Optimization Spring 2002 |
15.057 |
Systems Optimization Spring 2003 |
15.060 |
Data, Models, and Decisions Fall 2002 |
15.062 |
Data Mining Spring 2003 |
15.067 |
Competitive Decision-Making and Negotiation Spring 2003 |
15.073J |
Logistical and Transportation Planning Methods Fall 2001 |
15.081J |
Introduction to Mathematical Programming Fall 2002 |
15.084J |
Non-linear Programming Spring 2003 |
15.094 |
Systems Optimization: Models and Computation Spring 2002 |
15.224 |
Global Markets, National Politics and the Competitive Advantage
of Firms Spring 2003 |
15.269A |
Literature, Ethics and Authority Spring 2003 |
15.269B |
Literature, Ethics and Authority Fall 2002 |
15.279 |
Management Communication for Undergraduates Fall 2002 |
15.280 |
Communication for Managers Fall 2002 |
15.289 |
Communication Skills for Academics Spring 2002 |
15.301 |
Managerial Psychology Laboratory Spring 2003 |
15.310 |
Managerial Psychology Laboratory Spring 2003 |
15.343 |
Managing Transformations in Work, Organizations, and Society
Spring 2002 |
15.351 |
Managing the Innovation Process Fall 2002 |
15.389 |
Global Entrepreneurship Lab Fall 2002 |
15.394 |
Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization Spring
2003 |
15.426J |
Real Estate Finance and Investment Fall 2002 |
15.427J |
Real Estate Finance & Investments II: Macro-Level Analysis &
Advanced Topics Spring 2003 |
15.433 |
Investments Spring 2003 |
15.518 |
Taxes and Business Strategy Fall 2002 |
15.521 |
Management Accounting and Control Spring 2003 |
15.565J |
Integrating eSystems & Global Information Systems Spring 2002 |
15.566 |
Information Technology as an Integrating Force in Manufacturing
Spring 2003 |
15.568A |
Management Information Systems Spring 2003 |
15.578J |
Integrating eSystems & Global Information Systems Spring 2002 |
15.598 |
IT and Business Transformation Spring 2003 |
15.615 |
Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager Spring 2003 |
15.628 |
Patents, Copyrights, and the Law of Intellectual Property Spring
2003 |
15.647 |
Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager Spring 2003 |
15.649 |
The Law of Mergers and Acquisitions Spring 2003 |
15.660 |
Strategic HR Management Spring 2003 |
15.665B |
Power and Negotiation Fall 2002 |
15.678J |
Political Economy I: Theories of the State and the Economy Fall
2002 |
15.760A |
Operations Management Spring 2002 |
15.769 |
Operations Strategy Spring 2003 |
15.783J |
Product Design and Development Spring 2002 |
15.792J |
Proseminar in Manufacturing Fall 2002 |
15.795 |
Seminar in Operations Management Fall 2002 |
15.810 |
Introduction to Marketing Fall 2001 |
15.812 |
Marketing Management Fall 2002 |
15.821 |
Listening to the Customer Fall 2002 |
15.822 |
Strategic Marketing Measurement Fall 2002 |
15.834 |
Marketing Strategy Spring 2003 |
15.835 |
Entrepreneurial Marketing Spring 2002 |
15.902 |
Strategic Management I Fall 2002 |
15.912 |
Technology Strategy Spring 2003 |
15.928 |
Strategic Management and Consulting Proseminar: Theoretical
Foundations Spring 2003 |
15.963 |
Organizations as Enacted Systems: Learning, Knowing and Change
Fall 2002 |
15.974 |
Leadership Lab Spring 2003 |
|
From Syllabus News on October 7, 2003
WebCT Demonstrates Support for Open Knowledge
Standards
Course management system firm WebCT said last week
it had successfully prototyped an application using the Open Knowledge
Initiative (OKI) Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs) to support
interoperability among higher education applications. In the demo, the WebCT
Vista academic enterprise system automatically synchronized calendars with
Microsoft Outlook using the OKI authentication and scheduling OSIDs, or
APIs, to exchange data. This would enable both calendars to be
simultaneously updated by updating one.
The OKI aims to encourage local innovations that
can be shared across campuses and facilitate the use of new technologies
without destabilizing the overall environment.
Update September 2003
MIT's Open Source is becoming a huge academic
sharing success
From Ho Chi Minh City to Nashville, Tennessee, students are flocking to MIT's
new program that posts about 2,000 classes on the Web, for free. Meet the global
geeks getting an MIT education, open-source style. See MIT Everywhere,
Wired Magazine, September 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit.html
Every lecture, every
handout, every quiz. All online. For free. Meet the global geeks getting an
MIT education, open source-style.
Update March 17, 2003
MIT OpenCourseWare (Open Knowledge Initiative OKI and DSpace) Shares Lessons
from Pilot Project.
"Open Access to World-Class Knowledge," by Anne H. Margulies, Syllabus,
March 2003, pp. 16-18 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7360
A student in Johannesburg, South Africa. An
educator in Wiesbaden, Germany. Ethiopian refugees trying to finish an
engineering education cut short by civil war. These are just a few of the
people who have tapped the potential of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's OpenCourseWare (OCW) project, a two-year-old effort to make
available original course materials from all five of MIT's schools to
students around the world.
Started by an MIT faculty committee charged with
providing guidance on how MIT should position itself in the distance and
eLearning environment, the OCW project supports the university's interest in
contributing to the "shared intellectual commons" in higher education.
"OpenCourseWare combines two things: traditional openness and outreach, and
the democratizing influence of American education, with the ability of the
Web to make vast amounts of information instantly available," says MIT
President Charles M. Vest.
On Sept. 30, 2002, the pilot site of OCW was
launched. It offers users the opportunity to see and use course materials
from 50 MIT subjects, representing 20 individual academic disciplines and
MIT's schools of Architecture, Science, Engineering, the Sloan School of
Management, and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.
In the first week on the Web, the OCW site
received more than 13 million visits from users, about 52 percent from
outside of the United States. The OCW team also processed more than 2,000
e-mails in those first days, more than 75 percent of them supportive of the
project. The remaining 25 percent were a mix of technical questions,
inquiries about specific course offerings, and questions about content. Less
than 2 percent of those e-mails were negative.
Govert van Drimmelen, a university student in
Johannesburg, South Africa, found the video lectures of MIT Professor Gil
Strang, in Course 18.06: Linear Algebra, compelling. "I have watched some of
the video lectures from mathematics course 18.06. The lectures are wonderful
and having these available over the Internet from South Africa is a great
privilege," Van Drimmelen wrote the OCW team by e-mail. "Please continue
with this excellent project and accept my sincere thanks for the efforts.
Making the quality education of MIT more broadly available will be a valued
contribution to global education."
Dorothee Gaile, an educator and trainer of teachers
in Wiesbaden, Germany, wrote that as OCW continued to add more subjects, it
would become a remarkable resource for educators around the world. "As a
teacher of English at both high school and University of Applied Science
level in Germany, I very much appreciate having free access to the
tremendous amount of knowledge MIT is currently putting on the Web.
Congratulations on this idea and a warm thank you."
And Timothy Choe, a volunteer with an organization
called Project Detour in Africa, immediately recognized OCW's potential in
developing countries: "I recently spent time with a group of Ethiopian
refugees, living in Kenya, who will benefit greatly from this initiative.
They are students in Project Detour, an effort initiated to encourage their
continuing education while living in a country where they are not granted
access to the educational system. Many are Ethiopian-trained engineers,
whose academic pursuits were cut short by political turmoil. Just thought
you might appreciate another example of how this initiative will benefit the
world's community of knowledge seekers."
In people like these, OCW found its intended
audience—educators from around the world who can adapt the course materials
and learning objects embedded in online lecture notes into their own
pedagogy, and self-learners who will be able to draw on the materials for
self-study or supplementary use.
"I read about your initiative in the NY Times
online and have to say this is one of the most exciting applications of the
Internet to date," wrote Charles Bello. Based in Nigeria, Bello is the Web
master for www.clickafrique.com, an African Web portal. "I look forward to
taking advantage of this opportunity to ‘take a dip' in MIT's enormous
reservoir of human intellect."
Building a Sustainable Platform
For the pilot phase, the pages were built using what Cecilia d'Oliveira,
OCW's Technology Director, calls "brute-force HTML." Using Web content
editors such as Macromedia Inc.'s DreamWeaver, a team of programmers from
MIT and consulting firm Sapient Corp. built and designed the first 32
subjects. Over the course of summer 2002, templates were developed, sign-off
was secured from faculty, and the site was prepared for the pilot release.
With course materials from 18 more subjects added
to the site in December 2002, the total number of HTML pages supporting the
initial 50 subjects rose to more than 2,000, together with more than 10,000
supporting files including PDFs of lecture notes, images, and video
simulations.
The production model used for the pilot is not
scalable for what by 2007 is estimated to be more than 2,000 individual MIT
subjects published. Indeed, the OCW goals are not going to be achieved
overnight: An aggressive timeline calls for about 500 subjects to be
published by September 2003, and then 500 each year there after until the
course materials from virtually all of MIT's subjects—undergraduate and
graduate—are available to the world.
This first year of the OCW pilot is called the
"Discover/ Build" mode, where the focus is on developing the technology,
process, and organization to sustain OCW over the long term as an
organization. Over the course of the next two years, the team hopes to be
able to provide the entire curriculum track for certain MIT subject areas.
The project will take a big leap forward in April
2003 with the implementation of a content management system, which will
manage the Web pages and embed learning objects. The content management
system will also:
- Create templates that support
subject/section/component hierarchy
- Manage content items (PDFs, images,
simulations, tools), not just pages
- Offer a workflow configurable by subject,
parallel, and possibly nested, inherited
- Tag content for search-ability
- Maintain a robust, flexible, scalable
technical architecture
- Track copyright status and information on
content items
- Publish the OCW Web site
Tracking copyright status will be vital to the
long-term success of OCW. During the pilot phase, we assembled a "SWAT team"
of attorneys, graphic artists, researchers, and photo image specialists who
were charged with obtaining copyright and intellectual property clearances
for all the charts, quotes, images, and other items that were embedded in
the lecture notes that MIT professors had been using for years.
It was an arduous process, but it has paid off.
There has not been a single copyright or intellectual property infringement
claim filed against OCW. The copyright permissions process was slow and
labor-intensive, but I am confident we have developed a strong set of
alternative strategies for acquisition of copyrighted content as the project
moves toward publishing hundreds of courses in the coming years.
Reaction at Home
The faculty experience with OCW has been positive. Many professors who were
once skeptics are now ready to participate. The project is particularly
useful for courses involving intersecting disciplines. For example, while
faculty often do not have time to explore the research of peers who might be
right down the hall, one faculty member, Paul Sclavounos, has been contacted
by another researcher at MIT who wants to explore cross-disciplinary work.
Where did that professor discover Sclavounos' work?
On the site for Sclavounos' ocean engineering subject, Course 13.022:
Surface Waves and their Interaction With Floating Bodies.
"This initiative is particularly valuable for
courses covering emerging new areas of knowledge, as well as intersecting
disciplines," says Jonathan A. King, an MIT professor of molecular biology.
"Having spent many years developing a course on protein folding that served
the needs of biochemists, chemists, chemical engineers, and computational
biologists, I am delighted that this work will be made available to a far
broader audience."
Shigeru Miyagawa, an MIT professor of linguistics,
serves on the OCW Faculty Advisory Board and has two subjects on the current
site: Course 24.946: Linguistic Theory and the Japanese Language and
CMS.930/21F.034: Media, Education, and the Marketplace, a cross-listed
course that explores a broad range of issues on new media and learning.
"OCW reflects the idea that, as scholars and
teachers, we wish to share freely the knowledge we generate through our
research and teaching," Miyagawa explains. "While MIT may be better known
for our research, with OCW, we wish to showcase the quality of our
teaching."
The OCW team hopes this will be the first of many
open courseware initiatives. "This is about something bigger than MIT,"
states president Vest. "I hope other universities will see us as educational
leaders in this arena, and we very much hope that OpenCourseWare will draw
other universities to do the same. We would be delighted if—over time—we
have a World Wide Web of knowledge that raises the quality of learning—and
ultimately, the quality of life—around the globe."
Update January 25, 2003
Question:
Where can I check to see if MIT has some open share course materials in my
discipline?
Answer:
Go to MITOPENCOURSEWARE ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Unfortunately, there is not yet anything in accounting or business. But
there are economics materials, and new listings being put up frequently.
Bob Jensen's threads on the Open
Knowledge Initiative (OKI) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Update on January 30, 2003
THE SELF-MANAGING LIBRARY Software prevents scholarly schisms The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Hewlett-Packard have implemented
a new, Web-accessible system for storing, indexing, and disseminating the
university's intellectual property. DSpace is an electronic, open source
platform for storage and retrieval that lets MIT maintain its own virtual
library of digitally rendered material.
http://news.intelligententerprise.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eKcK0EWPTi0C3p0Bp8Z0At
Update on January 1, 2003
Progress on the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI)
DSpace from MIT --- http://www.dspace.org/
Welcome to DSpace,
a newly developed digital repository created to capture, distribute and
preserve the intellectual output of MIT.
As a joint project of MIT Libraries and the
Hewlett-Packard Company, DSpace provides stable long-term storage needed to
house the digital products of MIT faculty and researchers.
- For the user: DSpace enables easy
remote access and the ability to read and search DSpace items from one
location: the World Wide Web.
- For the contributor: DSpace offers the
advantages of digital distribution and long-term preservation for a
variety of formats including text, audio, video, images, datasets and
more. Authors can store their digital works in collections that are
maintained by MIT communities.
- For the institution: DSpace offers the
opportunity to provide access to all the research of the institution
through one interface. The repository is organized to accommodate the
varying policy and workflow issues inherent in a multi-disciplinary
environment. Submission workflow and access policies can be customized
to adhere closely to each community's needs.
"MIT offers courses for free on the Web," by Linda Rosencrance,
CompterWorld, October 11, 2002 ---
http://computerworld.com/news/2002/story/0,11280,75085,00.html
(I thank Stacy Kovar for pointing me toward this article.)
While MIT's
OpenCourseWare
(OCW) project isn't quite a free education, it is a new approach to the open
sharing of knowledge over the Internet.
Launched two weeks ago, anyone with an Internet
connection and a Web browser can access the syllabus, assignments, exams and
answers, reference materials and, in some cases, video lectures of MIT
courses.
First announced in 2001, the idea behind OCW is to
make course materials used in almost all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate
subjects available online, free of charge, to users anywhere in the world,
according to Jon Paul Potts, spokesman for the OCW project.
Potts said the goal of the project is to advance
technology-enhanced education at MIT and to serve as a model for university
dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age.
However, Potts said, MIT isn't putting its current
semester course offerings online; rather, it is putting up course offerings
from previous terms.
There are 32 MIT courses in 17 disciplines
available on the Web, including Introduction to Experimental Biology,
Problems of Philosophy, Linear Algebra and Macroeconomics Theory II.
Potts said MIT plans to put most of the materials
from its 2,000 courses online by the 2006-07 academic year.
He said OCW will allow faculty from other
institutions and other people to observe teaching methods and resources used
by MIT's faculty. "This is not distance learning," Potts said. "The goal is
to provide the content that supports an education."
Since the site went live, more than 130,000 users
from around the world, including Africa, Algeria, Canada, Finland and
Latvia, have accessed the site, and 1,700 of them have sent e-mails offering
comments about the site, Potts said.
Currently, individual course sites and the course
materials for the pilot phase of OCW use HTML. The course sites are static
Web pages, he said, but they use a number of additional formats, including
PDF files, Java Applets and video files.
Potts said OCW is still working on the technology
infrastructure and studying other potential platforms to determine what the
project will use in the long term. He said OCW is intended to be built using
a full-featured content management and publication production system.
The initial phase of the project, which cost $11
million, was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Many
educators, including me, have misinterpreted the concept of OpenCourseWare (OCW)
as envisioned by MIT and some other major universities.
"OpenCourseWare: Simple Idea,
Profound Implications," by Phillip D. Long, Syllabus Magazine, January 2002, pp.
12-16 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5913
On April 4, 2001,
Charles Vest, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
announced the beginning of the OpenCourseWare project (OCW) in a press
conference that was simultaneously Web cast. “As president of MIT, I have
come to expect top-level innovative and intellectually entrepreneurial ideas
from the MIT community.... I have to tell you that we went into this
expecting that something creative, cutting-edge, and challenging would
emerge. And, frankly, we also expected that it would be something based on a
revenue-producing model—a project or program that took into account the
power of the Internet and its potential for new applications in education.
OpenCourseWare is not exactly what I had expected.” Frankly, neither did
anyone else.
What is OCW?
Since its
inception, OCW has been misunderstood. The academic world has seen one or
another online degree program or commercial venture stake a claim to its
part of cyberspace. OCW is not about online degree programs. It isn’t even
about online courses for which students can audit or enroll. That’s what it
isn’t. What, then, is it?
OCW is a
process—not a set of classes. This process is intended to make the MIT
course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate
and graduate subjects available free online to any user in the world.
The goal of OCW is
to provide the content that supports an MIT education. Ultimately, the OCW
Web resource will host the materials for more than 2,000 classes taught at
MIT, presented with a coherent interface that will include sophisticated
search algorithms to explore additional concepts, pedagogies, and related
attributes across the site as well as within a course.
The OCW
announcement elicited varied reactions. Many wondered how this effort
differs from any number of instances where universities have made their
course Web sites available to the public, all or in part. The more cynical
expressed admiration for the public relations success. The announcement made
the front page of the New York Times, but skeptics asserted that OCW would
be nothing more than a traditional Web site dressed up with a new acronym.
But the elegance is in its simplicity. The closer one looks, the more one
sees.
Still, an important
and often overlooked implication of OCW is another aspect of what it is
not—it is emphatically not an MIT education. This has been emphasized by
Vest and other spokespeople for the initiative, but it bears repeating. It
is the firm tenant of OCW that the core of an MIT education is the
interaction between students and faculty in an environment that invites and
supports inquiry and questioning. OCW makes no claim or effort to
encapsulate this on the Web.
Competing
Demands
Even given the
support generally garnered on the MIT campus, some obstacles must be
overcome if OCW is to be successfully implemented and maintained.
• Time. The
prospect of putting up the content of some 2,000 courses in the next 10
years is daunting for anyone, even on a campus like MIT. This is all the
more challenging given the one thing faculty members have least
available—time. The enthusiasm and commitment toward the project is tempered
by the uncertainty surrounding the level of effort faculty will be required
to invest to make content suitable for OCW.
Teaching and
research remain prime concerns for faculty throughout institutions of higher
education nationwide and abroad. A project like this must not add
significantly to the workload of already challenged faculty members, nor can
it detract from their current commitments. A research question for such an
effort is therefore: How can we assemble and distribute content with minimal
faculty involvement?
• Reusable learning
objects. A corollary to the time-constrained faculty member is the
requirement that learning objects created for a course must be found
suitable for other purposes, such as OCW. Faculty members cannot be expected
to create content twice, once for teaching and again for presentation to the
broader academic public. Thus, a second objective for the project is
understanding the requirements for transformation of learning objects from
their in-class instructional use to their representation as meaningful
content for those interacting out of the context of the
faculty/student/course/setting intersection.
• Production
process. Putting together a Web site for a course is, despite current
technologies to assist site designers, a significant effort. Currently,
trade-offs are made in order to achieve some degree of scalability in the
various systems used to aggregate content for teaching. For example,
learning management systems may provide a limited suite of templates with
form-based content uploading, designed to distribute the labor required to
ingest and position the content within the site’s framework. The trade-off
is often restricted pedagogical flexibility and relatively basic, cosmetic
design choices for the reduction in the effort needed to auto-generate large
numbers of course “shells.” A project such as that undertaken by OCW must
incorporate new opportunities to achieve scalability for content development
while not entirely sacrificing individuality in site design.
Courseware as
Product
The higher
education community has become subject to a new force in recent years. The
trend has been referred to as “education as a good” (Schlais, 2001),
describing the increasing trend toward the privatization of knowledge.
Colleges and universities, in his view, are becoming more and more like
vendors to students, who perceive themselves as customers of college
education services. During the bloom of online distance education—curtailed
only recently by the general economic recession—competition for students
among universities led to increasing costs. Revenues were sought to replace
declining public subsidies and to support competitive consumerism.
Not-for-profit subsidiaries of traditional colleges, for-profit private
universities, and corporations emerged, seeking to gain a larger share in
what seemed an infinitely expanding demand for anywhere, anytime learning.
The privatization
of knowledge has many manifestations. One is the frightening rise in the
cost of scholarly journals. The pattern is familiar to anyone working in the
academy. Schlais describes the conundrum like this: “A faculty member spends
years of her life learning, researching, thinking, organizing, teaching, and
writing. Her university invests substantially during this process. She
publishes the fruits of her labor in a highly respected journal. And finally
her library buys a subscription to the journal, sometimes costing in the
tens of thousands of dollars per year.” Something is amiss, and our library
colleagues have been painfully aware of it for years.
Copyright and legal
interpretations deepen the concern. According to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the General Agreement on Trade in Services,
education is an international commodity. In the United States, compliance
with the WTO agreements was accomplished in part by the enactment of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998. Jessica Litman described the
relevance of these changes in her book, Digital Copyright: Protecting
Intellectual Property on the Internet (2001):
“1. The use of
digital works, including viewing, reading, listening, transporting, etc.,
requires a reproduction of the original of the work in a computer’s memory.
2. Copyright statutes give clear and exclusive control over reproduction (as
defined above) to the copyright holder. 3. For each use of the copyrighted
material, that is, each viewing, listening, transfer, the user needs to have
the statutory privilege of the copyright holder.”
Faculty members at
MIT, as well as other universities, are concerned that their intellectual
property may be locked away from their peers, as well as potential students,
behind proprietary barriers. Participating in OCW is a proactive statement
that “reflects the idea that, as scholars and teachers, we wish to share
freely the knowledge we generate through our research and teaching”
(Miyagawa, 2001). As Vest noted, “OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in a
market-driven world.” Indeed.
A New Model of
Scholarly Sharing?
OCW is often
thought of as the educational content equivalent to the open source software
movement. The analogy is appealing and reflective of many, but not all, of
its goals. Taking a closer look at what constitutes open source software
might help.
Continued at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5913
Stanford University shares course management software ---
http://getcoursework.stanford.edu/news.html
Stanford shares some Coursework Course Management Software ---
http://getcoursework.stanford.edu/
CourseWork is a open source course management
system based at Stanford University and developed by
Academic Computing in the
Stanford University Libraries and
Academic Information Resources.
Using CourseWork, instructors and TAs can set up a course Web site that
displays announcements, on-line readings, a dynamic syllabus and schedule,
on-line assignments and quizzes, a discussion forum for students, and a
grade book. CourseWork is designed both for faculty with little Web
experience, who can use CourseWork to develop their Web site quickly, and
for expert Web-users, who can use it to organize complex, Web-based
materials and link them to Web communication tools.
The CourseWork source code is free and open, and can be
downloaded from this
site for any organization to use and modify to their own needs. You will
need your own staff to install and manage the system, but the code is free
and open.
Academic Computing developed CourseWork as part of the Open Knowledge
Initiative. In this two-year project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation, a consortium of universities led by MIT are collaborating to
build the next generation of teaching and learning tools.
For more information about CourseWork, please
e-mail
coursework-info@stanford.edu.
A demo is available at
http://getcoursework.stanford.edu/overview.html
Also see
http://teachtech.stanford.edu/Resources/main.htm
Institutional Partners in the OKI initiative include the following
universities ---
http://www.cmi.cam.ac.uk/ncn/cmi-uksec-warwick-2001/kumar-slides.pdf
•MIT
• Stanford University
• North Carolina State University
• University of Michigan
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Pennsylvania
• Dartmouth College
• Cambridge University
• Harvard • University of Washington
• Others
Carnegie Mellon University
Princeton
UCB/LA
Johns Hopkins
George Washington University
None seem to have progressed as far as MIT in terms of sharing actual
course materials across multiple disciplines on campus ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
"LENS ON THE FUTURE: Open-Source Learning," by Anne H. Moore,
EDUCAUSE Review, September/October 2002, pp. 42-51 ---
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0253.pdf
The Current
Open-Source Movement
Underpinning the
current open-source courseware and knowledgeware movement in higher
education and elsewhere is a belief in the advantages to be gained through
the open development and exchange of ideas. For this discussion,
open-source development falls into two categories: (1) open-source
knowledgeware development (the tools); and (2) open-source courseware
development (the content). MIT's partnership with Stanford on the Open
Knowledge Initiative (
http://web.mit.edu/oki/ ) is an example of a project designed to develop
a learning management system, or open-source knowledgeware--Web-based tools
for storing, retrieving, and disseminating educational resources and
activities. In contrast, projects such as MIT's OpenCourseWare effort
( http://web.mit.edu/ocw/
), which aims to make instructional materials available free on the Web, and
the MERLOT project (
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po ), which endeavors to place on the Web
knowledge objects that have been evaluated for quality, represent variations
on an open-source courseware-development process.
Open-source
software development has traditions that date to the beginnings of the
Internet nearly thirty years ago. According to Eric S. Raymond, recent
technical and market forces have drawn open-source software out of its niche
role in Internet development to a larger role in defining the computing
infrastructure of the twenty-first century. Raymond also suggests that
the idea of open-source development is pursued and sustained by "people who
proudly call themselves 'hackers'--not as the term is now abused by
journalists to mean a computer criminal, but in its true and original sense
of an enthusiast, an artist, a tinkerer, a problem solver, an expert."1
Even among such rugged individualists as these, most abide by certain
principles of good practice in development and an unwritten code of ethical
development and dissemination behavior.
Similarly, many
faculty who have developed course materials for the Web have done so in an
open-source environment. Frequently, faculty have shared
technology-enhanced materials informally with colleagues, tailoring the
material for each learning situation and improving on materials in the
exchange. The MERLOT project has sought, with some success, to build
on faculty values that prize open exchanges and the peer review of
materials. Extending these values to a Web-based teaching environment,
faculty from across the nation are participating in MERLOT by creating
digitized knowledge objects (modularized materials that can be used in
teaching and learning), peer-reviewing them, and storing them in a
searchable repository that is organized by content areas and is easily
accessible for use in teaching. Like the software-development
enthusiasts in the "hacker" community, most faculty abide by certain
principles of good practice and an unwritten code of ethics. Whether
or not projects like MERLOT are long- or short-term phenomena, it is likely
that faculty will continue in the long term to devise their own teaching
materials, with and without technology, and to seek trusted colleagues'
advice in the process. Such practices are a historic tenet of academic
culture.
MIT's
OpenCourseWare (OCW) project underscores this tenet. Phillip Long
notes that OCW is often viewed as "the educational content equivalent to the
open-source software movement." Long explains that the application of
open-source principles has one intent: "to allow people to read, improve,
adapt or modify, fix, redistribute, and use open-source software." He
adds, "The definition recognizes that improvements to complex code are made
exponentially faster if more people can look at it and lend their
intellectual input toward making it work better."2 And so
it is with OCW. In aiming for an ideal of open scholarship and free
access to course materials and resources online, OCW formalizes the historic
process of collegial interaction and review for a new age. The
technologies employed in this open-educational content process serve at once
as catalysts and tools for expanding access to information in many new forms
and for encouraging broad participation in the process.
The Open Knowledge
Initiative (OKI), which provides the tools that underpin OCW, is a more
direct application of the same open-source principles. OKI developers
are seeking to create a flexible, scalable knowledge management system that
allows for innovative contributions from users in an advanced learning
arena. OKI includes collaborating institutions such as Stanford, MIT,
Dartmouth College, North Carolina State University, the University of
Pennsylvania, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. These
developers are taking aim at improving the technology-assisted teaching
environment by providing tools that are modular and easy to use. So
when faculty, staff, or students seek to access, deliver, rearrange, or
reassemble information, they can do so with the flexibility and
customization required to support many approaches to teaching and to
learning.3
Working in either
of these open-source environments (tools or content) has several benefits
for higher education institutions. First, doing so results in products
that supplement and compete in healthy ways with proprietary products,
either in the learning management systems arena (knowledgeware) or in the
publishing world (courseware). Second, working in these environments
encourages the use of standards so that users, whether institutions needing
knowledgeware or individual faculty needing courseware, can adapt products
to particular needs. Finally, participation also creates and nurtures
expertise in knowledgeware and courseware development in the academy,
complementing commercial efforts and providing alternative models and
materials.
Continued at
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0253.pdf
________________
NOTES
1
Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and
Open-Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (Cambridge, Mass.: O'Reilly,
1999), xii.
2
Phillip D. Long, "OpenCourseWare: Simple Idea, Profound Implications,"
Syllabus 15, no. 6 (January 2002): 16.
3
Charles Kerns, Scott Stocker, and Evonne Schaefer, "CourseWork: An
Online Problem Set and Quizzing Tool," Syllabus 14, no. 11 (June
2001): 27-29.
Bob Jensen's threads on education technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's commentary on the importance of sharing is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/AAAaward_files/AAAaward02.htm
From Syllabus News on May 28, 2002
Blackboard Announces Adoption Strategy for 'OKI'
Specifications
Blackboard recently announced a broad strategy to
adopt industry standard API's (Application Program Interfaces) from the MIT
Open Knowledge Initiative within the Blackboard e-Education Suite.
Blackboard's Building Blocks open architecture will base future releases on
key OKI specifications, enabling a broader variety of third party
applications to work with Blackboard. The announcement is expected to help
accelerate OKI's status as an industry standard in the higher education
market. Through their relationship as common mem- bers of the IMS Global
Learning Consortium, Blackboard and OKI institutional partners are working
together with other IMS members to help define the next generation of
interoperability standards for educational technology. For more information
on the MIT Open Knowledge Initiative, visit
http://web.mit.edu/ok
Accreditation
Issues
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
For general background on accreditation, you
can enter the search term "Accreditation" at
http://ifap.ed.gov/dev_csb/new/srchsite.nsf/Web+Search+Simple?OpenForm
There are three sources of accreditation:
-
Type 1
Accrediting agencies of the government or sanctioned by the government (for
example the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
has a government sanction) Accreditation is a tough issue that I have
not researched fully. I suspect that the main accreditation process must use
one of the Federally-approved agencies. You can see a listing at
http://ifap.ed.gov/85256508006391d1/005fd53d0d39dd4285256508006391ed/852565a7005d473f85256675004fbec9?OpenDocument
-
Type 2
Accrediting agencies that carry the logo of prestige (for example, training
courses that have Microsoft certification)
-
Type 3
Accrediting agencies that start with neither a prestige logo nor government
blessing but attempt to build a reputation through standards and membership.
For example, a relatively popular accrediting agency called Association of
Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a Type 3 agency at
http://www.acbsp.org/.
For online programs, a self-appointed accrediting association arose that
calls itself the
Association for Online Excellence at
http://www.aoaex.org/pbo.htm.
This AOAE has a relatively long list accredited
programs, including some major colleges and universities. Aee
Association for Online Excellence
A Crystal Ball
Look Into the Future
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
March 3, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
ENCOURAGING FACULTY ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR
TEACHING
"Some universities, some faculty, and even some
students have increased their personal wealth by asserting ownership of the
intellectual property created at the university. For many faculty, however,
this new entrepreneurial orientation runs deeply counter to traditions of
education and public service. Past campus debates about aspects of this
cultural shift have created an environment of distrust and rancor." In a
recent article Brian C. Donohue and Linda Howe-Steiger express their belief
that this distrust has "spilled over into faculty attitudes toward the use
of digital technologies for teaching" causing faculty to reject these
technologies. This situation can be remedied if institutions "create
incentives for faculty that balance public service goals with professional
and entrepreneurial rewards, clarify ownership and usage rights of
intellectual property generated by and for teaching, and generate additional
funding for curriculum development at universities (possibly through tax
credits)." They expand upon how to accomplish this in "Faculty and
Administrators Collaborating for E-Learning Courseware" (EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY,
vol. 28, no. 1, 2005, pp. 20-32). The article is available online, at no
cost, at
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm05/eqm0513.asp .
EDUCAUSE Quarterly, The IT Practitioner's Journal
[ISSN 1528-5324] is published by EDUCAUSE, 4772 Walnut Street, Suite 206,
Boulder, CO 80301-2538 USA. Current and past issues are available online at
http://www.educause.edu/eq/ .
Concept KnowledgeJune 18, 2006 message from Bob Kennelly
[bob_kennelly@YAHOO.COM]
I am a data analyst with
the Federal Government, recently assigned a project to integrate our
accounting codes with XBRL accounting codes, primarily for the quarterly
reporting of banking financial information.
For the past few weeks,
i've been searching the WEB looking for educational materials that will
help us map, rollup and orr olldown the data that we recieve from the
banks that we regulate, to the more generic XBRL accounting codes.
Basically, i'm hoping to
provide my team members with the tools to help them make more informed
decisions on how to classify accounting codes and capture their findings
for further review and discussion.
To my suprise there isn't
the wealth of accounting information that i thought there would be on
the WEB, but i am very relieved to have found Bob Jensen's site and in
particular an article which refers to the kind of information gathering
approaches that i'm hoping
to discover!
Here is the brief on
that article:
"Using Hypertext in Instructional Material: Helping Students Link
Accounting Concept Knowledge to Case Applications," by Dickie Crandall
and Fred Phillips, Issues in Accounting Education, May 2002, pp. 163-184
---
We studied whether
instructional material that connects accounting concept discussions with
sample case applications through hypertext links would enable students
to better understand how concepts are to be applied to practical case
situations.
Results from a laboratory
experiment indicated that students who learned from such
hypertext-enriched instructional material were better able to apply
concepts to new accounting cases than those who learned from
instructional material that contained identical content but lacked the
concept-case application hyperlinks.
Results also indicated that
the learning benefits of concept-case application hyperlinks in
instructional material were greater when the hyperlinks were
self-generated by the students rather than inherited from instructors,
but only when students had generated appropriate links.
Could anyone be so kind as
to please suggest other references, articles or tools that will help us
better understand and classify the broad range of accounting
terminologies and methodologies please?
Thanks very much!
Bob Kennelly
OFHEO
June 19, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Bob,
You may find the following documents of related interest:
"Internet Financial Reporting: The Effects of Hyperlinks and Irrelevant
Information on Investor Judgments," by Andrea S. Kelton (Ph.D. Dissertation
at the University of Tennessee) ---
http://www.mgt.ncsu.edu/pdfs/accounting/kelton_dissertation_1-19-06.pdf
Extendible Adaptive Hypermedia Courseware: Integrating Different Courses
and Web Material
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Publisher: Springer Berlin /
Heidelberg ISSN: 0302-9743 Subject: Computer Science Volume 1892 / 2000
Title: Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-Based Systems: International
Conference, AH 2000, Trento, Italy, August 2000. Proceedings Editors: P.
Brusilovsky, O. Stock, C. Strapparava (Eds.) ---
Click Here
"Concept, Knowledge, and Thought," G. C. Oden, Annual Review of
Psychology Vol. 38: 203-227 (Volume publication date January 1987) ---
Click Here
"A Framework for Organization and Representation of Concept Knowledge in
Autonomous Agents," by Paul Davidsson, Department of Computer Science,
University of Lund, Box 118, S–221 00 Lund, Sweden email:
Paul.Davidsson@dna.lth.se
"Active concept learning for image retrieval in dynamic databases," by
Dong, A. Bhanu, B. Center for Res. in Intelligent Syst., California Univ.,
Riverside, CA, USA; This paper appears in: Computer Vision, 2003.
Proceedings. Ninth IEEE International Conference on Publication Date: 13-16
Oct. 2003 On page(s): 90- 95 vol.1 ISSN: ISBN: 0-7695-1950-4 ---
Click Here
"Types and qualities of knowledge," by Ton de Jong, Monica G.M.
Ferguson-Hessler, Educational Psychologist 1996, Vol. 31, No. 2,
Pages 105-113 ---
Click Here
Also note
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#DownfallOfLecturing
Hope this helps
Bob Jensen
Babson College's
experiments with "Tailor-Made Degrees"
"Tailor-Made Degrees: Customized
Corporate Education," by Tom Moore, Syllabus, March 2002, pp. 30-33 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6135
The popular notion
of a new graduate entering "the real world" points to the fact that we
commonly view academia and the corporate environment as two disparate,
almost polarized communities. The perception may be that universities focus
on theory while businesses concentrate on practice. And to combine the
two—to influence academic curriculum on behalf of corporate needs—has
traditionally been frowned upon as a corruption of pure academic purpose.
This is not to say
that higher education has ignored the corporate community. Colleges and
universities have long offered corporate training programs and customized
courses. However, corporate offerings and traditional degree programs have
fallen into two distinct categories, usually considered to be very separate:
the graduate degree program, typically thought of as the more rigorous
education experience designed exclusively by academics, and the executive
education program, a shorter-term, not-for-credit alternative intended to
serve the corporation’s needs.
Now, due in large
part to the maturing nature and growing acceptance of distance learning, the
wall that once stood between business and academia is beginning to crumble.
Over the past few years, we’ve begun to see a blending of executive
education and graduate degree programs. The result is a new model for
professional education: the corporate-customized graduate degree program.
The Babson
College Experience
In 2000, Babson
College opened the doors of Babson Interactive, a school dedicated to
applying e-learning to innovative management education programs. The goal
was to create an e-learning/faceto- face hybrid that is both responsive to
the needs of businesses and culminates in a degree from an established
brick-andmortar university.
When I was first
hired by Babson College, I held the titles of dean of the Babson School of
Executive Education and dean of its Graduate School of Business. My
responsibilities included overseeing Babson’s MBA programs and executive
education courses at the same time. As I stepped into the position of CEO of
Babson Interactive, I relinquished my role as dean of the Graduate School
but retained my title and responsibilities as dean of Executive Education.
It was clear from the start that e-learning offered high potential for an
entirely new type of executive education, and that Babson Interactive was
the place where we would explore the possibilities.
Babson had been
watching the development of e-learning from the sidelines for quite some
time before opening Babson Interactive. At first we were, frankly, not very
interested. For the most part, the technologies appeared underdeveloped and
unproven. We had great concern that the initial technology was not robust
enough to provide the kind of insight and judgment building that we felt a
good graduate program should offer.
In the past few
years, however, we’ve seen the technology improve and have observed other
institutions implement very successful e-learning programs. I now believe
that a blended degree program—one that incorporates both elearning and
face-to-face instruction— offers an education experience that can, in fact,
be superior to the traditional classroom experience. The key is in the
proper balancing of these two learning modes.
A number of
corporations have come to Babson Interactive. In one example, Babson, along
with Cenquest, an e-learning company with expertise in creating online
courses, developed a oneof- a-kind company-customized MBA degree program for
Intel Corp. By combining the foundational and theoretical knowledge included
in a Babson graduate degree with the strategic intent of the company, the
program provided Intel with a completely new employee education option.
The customization
of the curriculum took several forms. The Intel team offered input into the
class electives. They also provided real work projects to be used as
examples and incorporated into the coursework. Through e-learning
technology, Intel executives, partners, and even customers could be included
as guest lecturers.
ROI and Student
Benefits
Corporations have
long viewed companyreimbursed education as a standard employee benefit
alongside health care and bonus programs. U.S. businesses spend $58 billion
annually on employee education. And in a market where there is always fierce
competition for top employees, offering quality education programs is seen
as essential to hiring and retaining the best and brightest.
Unfortunately, the
return-on-investment for company-reimbursed degree programs has been less
than easy to quantify. Corporations have had little influence over the
schools being attended, much less the programs being offered and the
curriculum being taught. Aside from reimbursement contingencies based on
keeping a certain grade point average, businesses have had limited input
into the nature of their employee’s for-credit education experience. The
programs are typically funded more upon faith and hope then on real data
showing that employees will learn skills that will increase their overall
value to the company.
Perhaps a larger
irony to these programs is that while they are seen as a necessary tool for
hiring and retaining employees, they often have an opposite effect. It is
not unusual for a company to pay for an employee’s graduate education only
to have that employee leave once the degree is obtained. In such cases, the
reimbursement program often becomes a company-sponsored training ground for
its competition.
Since the programs
at Babson Interactive are designed to increase an employee’s value to the
company, chances are far better that graduates will continue their careers
at the company once their degree is completed. And since employees work and
study with other employees from various corporate locations, managers see
the learning experience as providing a rare opportunity to build valuable
employee relationships across company campuses.
Lessons Learned
In the final
analysis, there is a real learning curve involved in maximizing both the
instructional and business models for this type of program. Still, it is
clear that corporate education is heading in a new direction. Companies like
Intel are looking to this new corporate education model to provide higher
quality assurances and overall increased value. By combining a traditional
graduate degree curriculum with content tailored to the needs of a company,
customized degree programs offer unprecedented benefits to both the employee
and employer and stand to ultimately redefine the relationship between
academia and the "real world."
Wireless Audio and Video Knowledge Portals ---
BeVocal
Knowledge Portals ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/portals.htm
Western Governors University,
which was founded in 1997 as a collaboration of colleges in 19 states offering
online programs, was for many years known for not meeting the ambitious goals of
its founders. Projected to attract thousands of students within a few years, it
initially attracted but scores of students. But the university has been growing
lately, and on Wednesday announced that
enrollment has hit 10,000, including students from all 50 states.
Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/05/qt
Jensen Comment
Some of the things that made WGU controversial were as follows:
-
Before spreading to other states it was sponsored by
four governors largely concerned with reducing the cost and increasing the
availability of higher education;
-
It went online before online tools were as developed as
they are today, and online learning was not yet accepted by most educators
or students;
-
It acquired an early reputation for being career
focused, which often riles humanities departments --- many educators
appeared to predict and enjoy the life-threatening struggles of WGU;
-
It was and is still a competency-based program that
takes much of the subjectivity of grading and graduation out of the hands of
instructors who traditionally have the option of fudging grades for such
things as effort.
WGU now has many undergraduate and graduate degree
programs, including those in traditional fields of business such as accounting,
marketing, etc.
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Judith Boettcher in Syllabus, June 1999, 18-24 Judith
Boettcher is affiliated with CREN. She predicts the following scenarios (which
appear to be heavily in line with the emerging WGU programs mentioned above):
1. A "career university"
sector will be in place (with important partnerships of major
corporations with prestige universities).
2. Most higher education institutions, perhaps 60
percent, will have teaching and learning management
software systems linked to their back office administration systems.
3. New career universities will focus on
certifications, modular degrees, and skill sets.
4. The link between
courses and content for courses will be broken.
5. Faculty work and roles will make a dramatic shift
toward specialization (with less stress upon
one person being responsible for the learning material in an entire course).
(Outsourcing Academics
http://www.outsourcing-academics.com/ )
6. Students will be savvy
consumers of educational services (which is consistent with the
Chronicle of Higher Education article at
http://chronicle.com/free/99/05/99052701t.htm ).
7. The tools for teaching and learning will become
as portable and ubiquitous as paper and books
are today.
An abstract from On the Horizon
http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon/online/login.asp
Will Universities Be Relics? What Happens When an Irresistible
Force Meets an Immovable Object? John W. Hibbs
Peter Drucker predicts that,
in 30 years, the traditional university will be nothing more than a relic.
Should we listen or laugh? Hibbs examines Drucker's prophesy in the light of
other unbelievable events, including the rapid transformation of the Soviet
Union "from an invincible Evil Empire into just another meek door-knocker at
International Monetary Fund headquarters." Given the mobility and cost
concerns of today's students, as well as the growing tendency of employers
to evaluate job-seekers' competencies rather than their institutional
affiliations, Hibbs agrees that the
brick-and-mortar university is doomed to extinction.
Jensen Comment
I think bricks and mortar will be around for a long time as long as young
and naive students commencing adulthood need more than just course content
in the process of becoming well-rounded adults. Behind the bricks and mortar
there are some very inspiring and motivating scholars. Even those
professors, however, must change with the times as asynchronous learning
keeps becoming more superior on tough content items ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's advice for new faculty can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm
"Continued Growth for 2 Distance Ed Models,"
by Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, June 19, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/19/distance
Two unique models of providing distance education
to mainly nontraditional students are coming into their own, each showing a
healthy expansion of enrollments and growth in available course offerings.
One, the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges & Universities, has been
enlarging since its inception, while the other, Western Governors
University, faced years of skepticism from critics who said its ambitious
goals would never be met. Now, both are touting their success with fresh
numbers and statistics, suggesting that online education needn’t only come
from large for-profit companies or local community colleges.
In 2005, Regis University
announced a consortium of colleges that would work
together, rather than compete, to share each others’ online courses in a way
that would in effect vastly expand the offerings of each of the group’s
members. Since then, the 39 founding colleges of the
OCICU have
expanded to 68, with 1,784 course enrollments over the past year.
The model is unusual in that it allows colleges
that are interested in offering courses online, but don’t necessarily have
the resources to cover every conceivable topic, to supplement their catalog
with classes that already exist — in the consortium and on the Web, but not
on their campuses. So far, seven of the member colleges, including Regis,
act as “providers,” essentially allowing other colleges in the group to pick
and choose which courses to make available to their own students, with full
institutional credit assigned through the student’s college.
“We’ve just experienced remarkable growth and great
feedback from the schools participating,” said Thomas R. Kennedy, executive
director of new ventures at Regis. “Especially as member schools ... they
don’t have any online schools whatsoever, and overnight they have one.
That’s one of the beauties of it.”
That near-instant capability can serve students in
a number of ways. Do they need to fulfill a general elective requirement,
like sociology or political science? The providers offer plenty of
possibilities for students at colleges that don’t have the resources to fill
every gap in the curriculum. What about students interested in a niche
topic, like Irish studies? Some of the providers, as well as members that
are planning on offering up courses to the rest of the consortium in the
future, have such offerings as well.
Many, but not all, of the member colleges are
religiously affiliated, and most fit the profile of small- or medium-sized
institutions in the Council of Independent Colleges that may not have the
resources to get into the distance education business on their own. Members
pay a one-time fee of $3,500 to join the consortium plus an annual fee of
$1,000, Kennedy said, to cover administrative costs. Of the approximately
$1,350 in tuition for a three-credit course, he added, about $500 would go
to the provider school per student — essentially extra cash for a course
that was already being held, he pointed out — and $700 would remain at the
student’s home college, which would incur no additional cost.
“All these provider schools are doing is opening up
their classes ... to visiting students, in a way,” he said. The key
difference, however, is that students receive credit as if they took the
courses at their own institutions, rather than as transfer credits.
Kennedy said he’s been urging member colleges to
pocket that extra tuition money “and start investing in your own online
program.”
Some are doing just that. Keuka College, in upstate
New York, administers degree completion programs by partnering with
hospitals and community colleges across the state. To help students in its
various programs who need to take a specific course or two to complete their
degrees, the college can now send them to offerings available online through
the consortium.
“We found that by using courses offered through the
consortium, we could offer students more forms of access,” said Gary Smith,
associate vice president for professional studies and international programs
at Keuka, especially for the “general education or general elective pool
that’s outside our major program offerings.”
This year, Keuka will ramp up its own online
courses by playing to its strengths: If all goes according to plan, Smith
said, the college will add classes in Asian studies to the consortium’s
lineup.
A ‘Competency-Based’ University Takes Off
Another model that’s meeting or exceeding the
expectations of its leaders is breathing a sigh of relief. Western Governors
University, founded in 1997 by 19 state governors, started with ambitious
plans to grow its enrollment and become a regional economic engine. But the
initial plans faltered and the university found itself the object of
criticism and even scorn — although that wasn’t necessarily confined to
Western Governors.
“If you go back to the mid-’90s, when the idea for
WGU bubbled up from among the conversations from the governors of the
Western states, there was at that time no clear sense of whether or not
online education would work, period, or would work with any level of success
and any decent level of quality,” said Patrick Partridge, the university’s
vice president of marketing and enrollment. But, he acknowledged, there was
plenty of skepticism in academe as well. “I think that skepticism was both
of a financial type and sort of an awareness ... of the kind of political
hurdles in the higher-ed world.”
These days, the picture for both online education
in general, and WGU in particular, seems quite a bit brighter. The nonprofit
institution, which receives no state support and sustains itself primarily
through tuition and private donations,
announced this month
that it had reached an enrollment of 10,000 students — up from 500 in 2003.
That growth can be attributed to a number of factors, including regional
accreditation, but the university also emphasizes two features that
distinguish it from most of its peers: a “competency-based” approach to
assessing students’ work, and its nationally accredited Teachers College.
From the outset, courses and curriculums are
developed with input from senior faculty together with an “outside council”
including practitioners from a given field. Course material is then assessed
to a level that’s considered “highly competent,” Partridge said, by the
developers of the course, effectively creating a standardized set of
requirements in lieu of more independent assessments by individual
instructors. Upon completion, employers can theoretically be assured that
students are proficient in a specific set of skills and knowledge.
The university doesn’t give letter grades, and it
allows students to take as long as they want in their course of study —
which could be a mixed blessing, since they pay a flat fee (a bit under
$3,000) every six months. All in all, Partridge said, “we are as different
from the other online schools as they are from” traditional higher
education. It’s a model not suited to everyone, he acknowledged, but
especially tailored to students with a certain “impatience” or
“determination” to complete in a timely manner.
Another significant draw for WGU is the Teachers
College, which, unlike any other such online program, places graduates at
schools in virtually every state. Now, at least half of WGU’s students are
enrolled in the teaching program. “[W]e offer a path to initial teacher
licensure for individuals all around the country who want to become
teachers, often later in life where returning to a traditional school of
education ... is just not that convenient,” Partridge said.
The university projects further growth in the
coming years, with a predicted enrollment of up to 15,000 in the foreseeable
future. “We really see the future as one in which the people of the United
States and the adult audience need to have very good-quality and affordable
options to either get a first bachelor’s degree or continue to pursue [a]
master’s degree, in particular change careers and pursue dreams that will in
the long run strengthen our economy, the citizenry and make our country, our
states, etc., stronger,” said Partridge.
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration ---
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html
Summer 2004 - Volume 7, Number 2
- Best Practices
for Administrative Evaluation of Online Faculty *
- A Framework for
Operational Decision-Making in Course Development and Delivery
*
- Four Families of
Multi-variant Issues in Graduate-level Asynchronous Online Courses *
- Distance
Education Strategy: Mental Models and Strategic Choices
- Student
Motivation for Learning at a Distance: Does Interaction Matter?
- Cheating in
Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism
Spring 2004 - Volume 7, Number 1
- Leadership in
Distance Education: Is It a Unique Type of Leadership - A Literature
Review
- Compensation
Models in Distance Education: National Survey Questionnaire Revisited
- Ten
Efficient Research Strategies for Distance Learning
-
A Planning
and Assessment Model for Developing Effective CMS Support
- Extending
Virtual Access: Promoting Engagement and Retention through Integrated
Support Systems
- Putting the
Distance Learning Comparison Study in Perspective: Its Role as Personal
Journey Research
Winter 2003 - Volume 6, Number 4
Fall 2003 - Volume 6, Issue 3
- Motivation and
Incentives for Distance Faculty
- The Role of
Student Affairs in Distance Education: Cyber-Services or Virtual
Communities
- Perceptions of
Faculty on the Effect of Distance Learning Technology on Faculty
Preparation Time
- Thirty-two
Trends Affecting Distance Education: An Informed Foundation for
Strategic Planning
- Instructional
Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online
Courses
- The Implications
of Brain Research for Distance Education
- Reliability and
Validity of a Student Scale for Assessing the Quality of Internet-Based
Distance Learning
- Learning from
Reflections - Issues in Building Quality Online Courses
Summer 2003 - Volume 6, Issue 2
- Distance
Education Leadership for the New Century *
- Recruitment and
Development of Online Adjunct Instructors *
- A Framework for
Design and Evaluation of Internet-Based Distance Learning Courses*
- Current Trends
in Distance Education: An Administrative Model
- Innovations in
Distance Learning Program Development and Delivery
- A Cross Sectional Review of Theory and Research in
Distance Education
Spring 2003 - Volume 6, Issue 1
- What Academic Administrators Should Know to Attract Senior Level
Faculty Members to Online Learning
- A Recommendation for Managing the Predicted Growth in College
Enrollment at a Time of Adverse Economic Conditions
- Six Factors to Consider When Planning Online Distance Learning
- Predictors of Engagement and Participation in an Online Course
- Student Preferences for Academic Structure and Content in a Distance
Education Setting
- Becoming a "Communal Architect" in the Online Classroom -
Integrating Cognitive & Affective Learning for Maximum Effect in
Web-Based Learning
Winter 2002 - Volume 5, Issue 4
- Does Policy Make a Difference? An Exploration Into
Policies for Distance Education
- An Interesting Profile-University Students who Take
Distance Education Courses Show Weaker Motivation Than On-Campus
Students
- Factors that Deter Faculty from Participating in
Distance Education
- Case-study: A Satellite-Based Internet Learning
System for the Hospitality Industry
- How Can
Instructors and Administrators Fill the Missing Link in Online
Instruction?
Fall 2002 - Volume 5, Issue 3
- Distance
Learning: Promises, Problems, and Possibilities
- A Comparison of
Student Outcomes & Satisfaction Between Traditional & Web Based Course
Offerings
- Moving Past
Time as the Criteria: The Application of Capabilities-Based Educational
Equivalency Units in Education
- An Analysis of
Online Education and Learning Management Systems in the Nordic Countries
- Ethics and
Distance Education: Strategies for Minimizing Academic Dishonesty in
Online Assessment
-
Case-Study: FGCU's Legal Studies Bachelor of Science Online Program
Summer 2002 - Volume 5, Issue 2
- Marketing
Distance Learning with an Ad Agency*
- Insulated or
Integrated: For-Profit Distance Education in the Non-Profit University*
- Distributed
Education in the 21st Century: Implications for Quality Assurance*
- e-Learning for
Smaller Rurally Based Businesses: A Demand-Led Challenge for Scottish
Educational Institutions
- Toward an
Effective Quality Assurance Model of Web-Based Learning: The Perspective
of Academic Staff
Spring 2002 - Volume 5, Issue 1
- Faculty
Philosophical Position Towards Distance Education
- All for One and
One for All: Relationships in a Distance Education Program
- Perception
Differences About Participating in Distance Education
- Maintaining
Academic Integrity in On-Line Education
- Online Versus
Traditional: A Descriptive Study of Learner Characteristics in a
Community College Setting
- Building
Learning Communities Through Threaded Discussions
Winter 2001 - Volume 4, Issue 4
- Organizational Alignment
Supporting Distance Education in Post-secondary Institutions
- Faculty Recruitment
Strategies For Online Programs
- Distance Education:
Better, Worse, Or As Good As Traditional Education?
- Quality Assurance of
Web-based Learning in Distance Education Institutions
- Faculty Pedagogical
Approach, Skill, and Motivation in Today’s Distance Education Milieu
- Offline to Online
Curriculum: A Case-Study of One Music Course
Fall 2001 - Volume 4, Issue 3
- Dealing with Problem
Students and Faculty*
- Andrological and
Pedagogical Training Differences for Online Instructors*
- Virtual Advising:
Delivering Student Services*
- The Effect of E-Mail
Messages on Student Participation in the Asynchronous On-Line Course: A
Research Note
- Improving Distance
Education: Perceptions of Program Administrators
- Maximizing the Return on
Investment for Distance Education Offerings
- Distance Learning and
Distance Libraries: Where are they now?
Summer 2001 - Volume 4, Issue 2
- Administering Distance
Courses Taught in Partnership with Other Institutions
- Distance Education:
Facing the Faculty Challenge
- Planning and Managing the
Development of Courses for Distance Delivery: Results From a Qualitative
Study
- Policies and Practices in
the Utilization of Interactive Television and Web-Based Delivery Models
in Public Universities
- Technology and Education
Online Discussion Forums: It's in the Response
- Twelve Important
Questions to Answer Before You Offer a Web Based Curriculum
Spring 2001 - Volume 4, Issue 1
- Improving Distance
Education: Perceptions of Program Administrators
- A Distance Education
Collaboration: The Learning Café Experience
- Bringing It All Together
- Ethics in Distance
Education: Developing Ethical Policies
- An Empirical Study of
Course Selection and Divisional Structure in Distance Education
Programs
Winter 2000 - Volume 3, Issue 4
- Designing and
Implementing an Internet-based Course
- How the Perspectives of
Administrators, Faculty, and Support Units Impact the Rate of DE
Adoption
- E-CLASS: Creating a Guide
to Online Course Development For Distance Learning Faculty
- Attitudes and Concerns
Towards DE: The Case of Lebanon
- Modifying the
Teaching/Learning Process in an Interactive Video Network
Fall 2000 - Volume 3, Issue 3
- Building a Faculty
Development Institute: A Case Study
- Research and Evaluation
Needs for Distance Education: A Delphi Study
- Needs, Concerns and
Practices of Online Instructors
- Tutor and Site
Facilitator Roles in Wired Class: A Web-Based Learning Environment
- The Globalization of Open
and Flexible Learning: Considerations for Planners and Managers
Question
What is the University of California's XLab?
Answer
From Syllabus News on July 27, 2004
Berkeley X-Lab to Test Social Science Theories in
Biz-World
The University of California at Berkeley Haas
School of Business has opened the XLab –- short for Experimental Social
Sciences Laboratory –- a high-tech facility to help economists, political
scientists, and other social scientists test their theories to find whether
they can be applied to real world problems in business and management.
Xlab is a part of the university’s Haas School of
Business and uses the latest wireless and notebook computer technology. The
facility, which can accommodate up to 40 participants as experimental
subjects. consists of 50 battery-powered, wireless laptops that can be
easily moved on mobile carts.
In one recent study, XLab director John Morgan, an
economist and Haas School associate professor, used the facility to find out
what produces greater revenue for sellers when a company is put up for sale
- asking for payment in shares of stock, or in cash. The test supported the
theory that shares bring in more revenue for the seller in a bidding
contest. "This idea comes from the economics literature, but it hasn't
really made its way out of the ivory tower," said Morgan. "With XLab, we
assess whether the theory works in practice and whether it will have a big
strategic payoff in the marketplace."
Read more:
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=8738
A
Cloudy Crystal Ball
For details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thefuture.htm
I recommend "Technology, Higher
Education, and a Very Foggy Crystal Ball," by Brian L. Hawkins,
Educause Review, November/December, pp. 65-73.
-
The New Market
Will Be Smaller Than Often Predicted
-
Residential Campuses Will Still Be Significant (but with
eDorms).
-
An Erosion of Traditional Markets Will Occur.
-
Institutions Will Not Effectively Participate as Stand-Alone
Entities.
-
There Will Be a Significant Market Shakeout.
-
New Extra-Institutional Solutions Will Likely Be Required.
-
The New Marketplace Will Be Associated with New Models of
Faculty Motivation.
-
The Technology Will Transform College and University
Operations.
-
The Necessary Library Infrastructure Will Be Missing.
-
There Will Be an Increase in Institutional Market
Segmentation.
|
I expect to see more corporations and accounting firms forming
their own learning corporations.
Intellinex
Ernst & Young claims to be the first Big 5 accounting firm to create a separate
operating company to provide online multimedia training and education ---
http://www.ey.com/global/gcr.nsf/US/12-11-00_-_Release_-_News_Room_-_Ernst_%26_Young_LLP
New York — December 11, 2000 — Intellinex
LLC, one of the largest providers of eLearning solutions, has completed the
previously announced acquisition of Teach.com, a leading provider of online
PC and business skills training courseware. The acquisition of Teach.com
furthers Intellinex's growth as a one-stop provider of eLearning solutions.
Teach.com offers scalable technology and
off-the-shelf courseware including an extensive library of Web-delivered
personal computer and business skills training and support courseware and
the SmartTrainer(R) content delivery platform, a proprietary 32-bit,
browser-based engine.
Including sales from Teach.com, Intellinex
is targeting revenue of over $100 million in the first 12 months of
operation. In 1999, Teach.com had $6.5 million in revenue. Its customers
include General Electric, AT&T, Dell Computer, Sun Microsystems, Johnson &
Johnson, Dow Chemical and the Internal Revenue Service. Intellinex's
customers include Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, Eli Lilly and Ernst & Young.
"The completion of this acquisition
strengthens Intellinex's position as a one-stop provider of corporate
learning solutions in the rapidly growing global eLearning market," said
Intellinex Chairman and CEO Michael Powers. "The acquisition of Teach.com
enhances our product line and our ability to provide the highest quality
products and services for our customers."
This was the first acquisition for
Intellinex. Teach.com's 90 employees at facilities in Elk Grove Village,
Ill. and Golden, Colo. have joined Intellinex and are expected to play an
important role in supporting its future growth. Terms of the acquisition are
not being disclosed.
About Intellinex Intellinex is one of the
largest providers of customized eLearning solutions that deliver and
transform the value of knowledge for companies and their customers. A new
stand-alone business of Ernst & Young LLP, Intellinex integrates innovative
technology, flexible content and learning services to help clients work
smarter. The 500 employees of Intellinex are dedicated to providing
eLearning products and services that are second to none to organizations
around the world. Visit us at www.intellinex.com.
Intellinex refers to Intellinex LLC, an
eLearning venture of Ernst & Young LLP. Ernst & Young refers to the U.S.
firm of Ernst & Young LLP and other members of the global Ernst & Young
organization.
Update
E&Y eventually sold Intellinex with contracts to continue to use Intellinex for
training of E&Y employees ---
http://www.allbusiness.com/services/educational-services/4285777-1.html
A Major Reference:
Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition Edited by D.E. Hanna
(Madison, WI: Atwood Publishing, IBN 1-891859-32-3, 2000, pp. 73-74
"Reaching Across Boundaries:
The Bryant College-Belarus Connection," Syllabus, October 2001 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5088
Using the Internet’s sphere of influence, one small
college is making an impact on the education of students in Belarus, a
country that has achieved only limited structural reform since its
independence from the former Soviet Union. Despite the country’s economic
isolation from the West, Belarusian institutions are reaching across
traditional boundaries to forge new collaborative relationships.
Emerging national consciousness in the Newly
Independent States (NIS) of Europe has produced dramatic alterations in
business, politics, economics, technology, and culture, requiring innovative
educational methodologies that better match the needs of these countries in
transition. In 1996, in response to these challenges, Bryant College
spearheaded the Collaborative Learning at a Distance (CLD) program between
Bryant and Belarus. This comprehensive joint venture is an excellent model
for using Internet technologies to advance collaborative learning,
communication competencies, and policy making.
In implementing the CLD Program, we encountered
many philosophical, logistical, and technical challenges. Two distinctly
different Belarusian institutions, the Information Technologies Center (ITC)
of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the European Humanities
University (EHU), bridged political boundaries to create a close working
relationship between a state (government-owned) and non-state (private)
institution. The shared enthusiasm of the ITC and EHU for the CLD Program
enabled them to overcome their political differences.
A Non-Hierarchical Approach
The program uses a non-hierarchical model,
emphasizing reciprocal, interactive learning across national and academic
boundaries (see figure). It is based on our belief that learning is a
collaborative process and that we learn better when we teach each other and
learn in multiple ways. Our Internet-based CLD Program focuses on a
small-scale, personalized interactive learning experience, which directly
involves the teacher/mentor, student/learner, and all other stakeholders in
the process.
This non-heirarchical pedagogical approach is
relatively unfamiliar to university educators in the NIS. A history of
centralized education and strong governmental control over curricula has
resulted in a teaching environment that does not encourage the interactive
exchange of ideas between faculty and students. At a time when funding for
educational innovation in the NIS has been curtailed, cost-effective,
collaborative distance learning projects can help address the problem of
dwindling educational resources and compensate for the legacy of 70 years of
communism.
Fostering Collaboration
Collaborative projects—including seminars for
scientists and engineers who worked for the Soviet defense industry,
distance learning courses, and the development of environmental policy
initiatives with the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus—have been led
by scholars representing diverse academic disciplines. These projects have
utilized a wide array of information technologies, including International
Virtual Roundtable Discussions via e-mail, seminars on Web site
construction, Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing between the U.S. and
Belarus, software training and development, and the use of the Internet to
promote collaborative learning across diverse cultural and political
boundaries. (The entire CLD Program is available at
http://web.bryant.edu/~history/new/course.htm).
Using these technologies, faculty, students, and
entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Belarus have formed strong ties. Faculty
exchanges have permitted collaborators to teach at participating
universities, conduct research, present training programs, lead trade
missions, and deliver papers at international conferences. On-site visits,
ranging in length from six days to six months, have played a critical role
in our ability to develop trusting relationships and set the CLD Program in
motion. We have learned that even sophisticated distance learning
technologies cannot replace the power and intensity of human interactions.
Student-centered, collaborative group projects,
standard on American campuses, are virtually unheard of in Belarus. The
introduction of divergent points of view on controversial topics into
classroom discussions is also largely absent. In fact, the educational
system of Belarus, including all curricula issues, continues to be tightly
controlled by the state. Still, the CLD Program’s use of Internet
technologies has had a powerfully democratizing influence on Belarusian
learners who have participated in this project.
Technology-enabled interactions between students
from different cultures and with different expertise and skill sets have
presented challenges. For instance, American students display an almost
casual approach to e-mail correspondence, often failing to use proper
punctuation or sentence structure. By contrast, Belarusians take particular
care in constructing well-written messages, exacerbating the time
constraints caused by limited computer laboratory access. Mentors in both
countries encouraged collaborative techniques for negotiating these barriers
to communication.
History professor David Lux noted that crucial
pedagogical issues arose during the initial offering of his course, “The
History of American Technology.” Viewing the course as an experiment to
field-test technological and pedagogical issues associated with distance
learning, Lux observed that cultural differences significantly affected how
students approached the course. Belarusian students “proved voracious in
their willingness to digest readings and engage in very sophisticated
dialogue about the meaning and content of what they were reading.” Yet, Lux
concluded that “the collaborative learning, student-project features of the
course,” so popular with Bryant students, did not initially “translate
meaningfully” into the educational culture of Belarus. With guidance and
examples from Bryant faculty and students, however, Belarusian students
gradually came to appreciate the value of collaborative projects.
In the course, “Cultures and Economies in
Transition in the Post Soviet Era,” Professors Judy Barrett Litoff and
Joseph Ilacqua described a high level of energy by students representing
diverse countries. Heated debates often ensued as students tackled the
difficult challenge of understanding societies in transition. However, their
shared experiences as students helped them to negotiate their diverse
perspectives. For example, during the Kosovo crisis in the spring of 1999,
spirited e-mail exchanges of conflicting student perspectives took place.
These discussions demonstrated the value of exploring cross-cultural and
comparative political differences in order to better understand complex
global problems.
Belarusian students enrolled in “Environmental
Policy: Technology, Business & Government,” a course offered by Professor
Gaytha Langlois, lacked a basic understanding of the governmental
infrastructure necessary to implement well-designed environmental policy
initiatives. Even Bryant students were poorly informed about how policies
are actualized in the U.S., but in Belarus, the differences in governmental
structure and practices further complicated this problem. The process of
acquainting Belarusian students with the roles that government and
non-governmental organizations play in crafting environmental and business
policy has proved to be more cumbersome than expected. Through the use of
structured International Virtual Roundtable Discussions, the ability of
government and non-governmental organizations to formulate environmental
policies became clearer.
Technical Considerations
Time differences, Internet delays, and the
technological realities of Belarus presented challenges that limited the use
of complex distance learning technologies. Consequently, we designed a
relatively inexpensive and modest program. Since access to the Web in
Belarus is often slow and unpredictable, we have provided CD-ROM versions of
the CLD Web site to Belarusian students. CD-ROMs that are run on computers
connected to the Web provide students with full entry to the CLD courses,
including the ability to access hyperlinks. In addition, through the
cooperation of information technology specialists at Bryant and EHU, a
mirror Web site has been established to enhance connectivity.
Because of the seven-hour time difference between
the east coast of the United States and Belarus, and because Belarusian
students have limited access to e-mail and depend primarily on
under-equipped (by U.S. standards) university computer laboratories for
electronic communication, synchronous and asynchronous e-mail communication
between the United States and Belarus has proved to be more difficult than
we had originally anticipated. U.S. students are routinely assigned personal
university e-mail addresses, but as a rule Belarusian students are rarely
provided one. Even when students are assigned e-mail addresses, however,
they often discover that access to university computer laboratories is
limited to 2-3 hours a week. To encourage synchronous e-mail communication
with students, Bryant faculty have adopted e-mail office hours between 11:00
a.m. until 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. in Belarus). By choosing
these e-mail office hours, we are able to avoid the busy use of the Internet
in Belarus during the mid- and late afternoon.
The most useful and successful distance learning
technique that we have introduced is the International Virtual Roundtable
Discussion (IVRD) via e-mail. This tool, utilizing the Internet to promote
cross-cultural and comparative perspectives, has been incorporated into all
CLD courses and has been enthusiastically embraced by learners. The IVRD
features structured discussions that avoid the pitfalls of unmoderated chat
rooms, yet it encourages learners to share informed opinions about specified
topics that often result in lively exchanges of viewpoints.
On occasion, we utilize Microsoft’s NetMeeting
program to provide live, two-way, global “see and talk” communication over
the Internet. The Microsoft NetMeeting program, standard on new computers,
uses simple computer accessories, including microphone, speakers, headset,
and small video camera, that cost about $100. This inexpensive technology,
although dependent upon a relatively new computer (about $1,000), replaces
the high costs of long-distance telephone charges and video conferencing.
Although two-way video and audio communications are exciting and hold great
promise, they frequently require users to have great patience and
perseverance in order to make them work properly.
The rest of the article is
at
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5088
Accessibility in Distance Education
July 1, 2005 email message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR)
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/
"The Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR) is an
online legal publication that focuses on the evolving intersection of law
and technology. This area of study draws on a number of legal specialties:
intellectual property, business law, free speech and privacy,
telecommunications, and criminal law -- each of which is undergoing
doctrinal and practical changes as a result of new and emerging
technologies. DLTR strives to be a 'review' in the classic sense of the
word. We examine new developments, synthesize them around larger theoretical
issues, and critically examine the implications. We also review and
consolidate recent cases, proposed bills, and administrative policies."
"However, DLTR is unique among its sister journals
at Duke, and indeed among all law journals. Unlike traditional journals,
which focus primarily on lengthy scholarly articles, DLTR focuses on short,
direct, and accessible pieces, called issue briefs or 'iBriefs.' In fact,
the goal of an iBrief is to provide cutting edge legal insight both to
lawyers and to non-legal professionals. In addition, DLTR strives to be the
first legal publication to address breaking issues. To that end, we publish
on the first and fifteenth of every month during the school year (September
until April) and less frequently during the summer."
Duke Law & Technology Review is available free of
charge as an Open Access journal on the Internet.
Bob Jensen's threads on the future of education technology and distance
learning are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Is your distance site operating within the law in
terms of access by disabled students?
Schools must demonstrate progress toward compliance.
Accessibility in Distance Education A Resource for Faculty in Online Teaching
--- http://www.umuc.edu/ade/
Common Questions |
What does the word "accessibility"
mean? (What
is Accessibility?) What disability laws should I know
about if I teach online? (Legal
Issues)
What do I need to consider if I have a student with a
disability in my online course? (Understanding
Disabilities)
How do I make my Web site accessible to everyone,
including students with disabilities? (How-To)
What does an accessible Web site look like? Does it have
to be text based? (Best
Practices) |
|
You can download the MP3 audio file of Susan Spencer's August 2002
presentation on this at one of my workshops ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
Although the following journal
is not devoted to education per se, it needs to be mentioned somewhere.
New
Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting
(JETA) ---
http://aaahq.org/ic/browse.htm
Abstracts are free. Full articles are not free.
Education Technology Links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's Homepage is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/
A Serious New Commercial Advance for Online Training and Education
"Opening Up Online Learning," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed,
October 9, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/09/cartridge
This has not exactly been a season of peace, love
and harmony on the higher education technology landscape. A
patent fight has broken out among major developers
of course management systems. Academic publishers and university officials
are warring over
open access to federally sponsored research. And
textbook makers are taking a pounding for — among other things — the ways in
which digital enhancements are running up the prices of their products.
In that context, many may be heartened by the
announcement later today at the Educause meeting in Dallas that three dozen
academic publishers, providers of learning management software, and others
have agreed on a common, open standard that will make it possible to move
digital content into and out of widely divergent online education systems
without expensive and time consuming reengineering. The agreement by the
diverse group of publishers and software companies, who compete intensely
with one another, is being heralded as an important breakthrough that could
expand the array of digital content available to professors and students and
make it easier for colleges to switch among makers of learning systems.
Of course, that’s only if the new standard, known
as the
“Common Cartridge,” becomes widely adopted, which
is always the question with developments deemed to be potential
technological advances.
Many observers believe this one has promise,
especially because so many of the key players have been involved in it.
Working through the IMS Global Learning Consortium, leading publishers like
Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill Education and course-management system
makers such as
Blackboard,
ANGEL Learning
and open-source
Sakai have worked to
develop the technical specifications for the common cartridge, and all of
them have vowed to begin incorporating the new standard into their products
by next spring — except Blackboard, which says it will do so eventually, but
has not set a timeline for when.
What exactly is the Common Cartridge? In lay terms,
it is a set of specifications and standards, commonly agreed to by an IMS
working group, that would allow digitally produced content — supplements to
textbooks such as assessments or secondary readings, say, or
faculty-produced course add-ons like discussion groups — to “play,” or
appear, the same in any course management system, from proprietary ones like
Blackboard/WebCT and Desire2Learn to open source systems like Moodle and
Sakai.
“It is essentially a common ‘container,’ so you can
import it and load it and have it look similar when you get it inside” your
local course system, says Ray Henderson, chief products officer at ANGEL,
who helped conceive of the idea when he was president of the digital
publishing unit at Pearson.
The Common Cartridge approach is designed to deal
with two major issues: (1) the significant cost and time that publishers now
must spend (or others, if the costs are passed along) to produce the
material they produce for multiple, differing learning management systems,
and (2) the inability to move courses produced in one course platform to
another, which makes it difficult for professors to move their courses from
one college to another and for campuses to consider switching course
management providers.
The clearest and surest upside of the new standard,
most observers agree, is that it could help lower publishers’ production
costs and, in turn, allow them to focus their energies on producing more and
better content. David O’Connor, senior vice president for product
development at Pearson Education’s core technology group, says his company
and other major publishers spend “many hundreds of thousands of dollars a
year effectively moving content around” so that ancillary material for
textbooks can work in multiple course management systems.
Because Blackboard and Web CT together own in the
neighborhood of 75 percent of the course management market, Pearson and
other publishers produce virtually all of their materials to work in those
proprietary systems. Materials are typically produced on demand for smaller
players like ANGEL, Desire2Learn and Sakai, and it is even harder to find
usable materials for colleges’ homemade systems. While big publishers such
as Pearson and McGraw-Hill have sizable media groups that can, when they
choose to, spend what’s necessary to modify digital content for selected
textbooks, “small publishers often have to say no,” O’Connor says. As a
result, “there are just fewer options for people who aren’t using Blackboard
and WebCT, and more hurdles to getting it.”
Supporters hope that adoption of the common
cartridge will allow publishers to spend less time and money adapting one
textbook’s digital content for multiple course platforms and more time
producing more and better content. “This should have the result of
broadening choice in content to institutions,” says Catherine Burdt, an
analyst at Eduventures, an education research firm. “Colleges would no
longer be limited to the content that’s supported by their LMS platform, but
could now go out and choose the best content that aligns with what’s
happening in their curriculum.”
Less clear is how successful the effort will be at
improving the portability of course materials from one learning management
system to another. If all the major providers introduce “export capability,”
there is significant promise, says Michael Feldstein, who writes the blog
e-Literate and is
assistant director of the State University of New York Learning Network.
“This has the potential to be one of the most important standards to come
out in a while, particularly for faculty,” says Feldstein, who notes that
his comments here represent his own views, not SUNY’s. “It would become much
easier for them to take rich course content and course designs and migrate
them from one system to another with far less pain.”
But while easier transferability would obviously
benefit the smaller players in the course management market — and ANGEL and
Sakai plan to announce today that their systems will soon allow professors
to create Common Cartridges for export out of their systems — such a system
would only take off if the dominant player in the market, the combined
Blackboard/WebCT, eventually does the same. “I’m not sure how excited
Blackboard would be about making it easier for faculty to migrate out of
their product and into one of their competitors,” says Feldstein.
Chris Vento, senior vice president of technology
and product development at Blackboard, was a leading proponent of the IMS
Common Cartridge concept when he was a leading official at WebCT before last
year’s merger. In an interview, he acknowledged the question lots of others
are asking: “What’s in it for Blackboard? Why wouldn’t you just lock up the
format and force everybody to use it?” His answer, he says, is that by
helping the entire industry, he says, the project cannot help but benefit
its biggest player, too.
“This will enable publishers to really do the best
job of producing their content, making it richer and better for students and
faculty, and more lucrative for publishers from the business perspective,”
says Vento. “Anything we can do to enable that content to be built, and more
of it and better quality, the more lucrative it is eventually for us.”
Blackboard is fully behind the project, Vento says.
Having endorsed the Common Cartridge charter, Blackboard has also committed
to incorporating the new standard into its products, and that Blackboard
intends to make export of course materials possible out of its platform.
“Exactly how that maps to our product roadmap has not been finalized,” he
said, “but in the end, we’re all going to have to do this. It’s just a
question of when.” There will, he says, “be a lot of pressures to do this.”
That pressure is likely to be intensified because
of the public relations pounding Blackboard has taken among many in the
academic technology world because of its attempt to patent technology that
many people believe is fundamental to e-learning systems. O’Connor of
Pearson says he believes Blackboard could benefit from its involvement in
the Common Cartridge movement by being seen “as the dominant player, to be
someone supporting openness in the community.” He adds: “There is an
opportunity for them to mend some of the damage from the patent issue.”
Like virtually all technological advances — or
would-be ones — Common Cartridge’s success will ultimately rise and fall,
says Burdt of Eduventures, on whether Blackboard and others embrace it.
“Everything comes down to adoption,” she says. “The challenge with every
standard is the adoption model. Some are out the door too early. Some evolve
too early and are eclipsed by substitutes. For others, suppliers decide not
to support it for various reasons.”
Those behind the Common Cartridge believe it’s off
to a good start with the large number of disparate parties not only involved
in creating it, but already committing to incorporate it into their
offerings.
Yet even as they launch this standard, some of them
are already looking ahead to the next challenge. While the Common Cartridge,
if widely adopted, will allow for easier movement of digital course
materials into and out of course management systems, it does not ensure that
users will be able to do the same thing with third-party e-learning tools
(like subject-specific tutoring modules) that are not part of course
management systems, or with the next generation of tools that may emerge
down the road. For that, the same parties would have to reach a similar
agreement on a standard for “tool interoperability,” which is next on the
IMS agenda.
“This is only one step,” Pearson’s O’Connor says of
the Common Cartridge. But it is, he says, an important one.
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology and distance education are
linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Free Public Affairs Case Teaching Materials and Sometimes Entire Course
Materials from the University of Washington
The Electronic Hallway ---
https://hallway.org/
The Electronic Hallway is
pleased to announce a unique and progressive new product—
Integrated
Management: A Complete Core Curriculum
— a previously untested venture
in presenting an entire course package using online technology. This package
represents a 30 week integrated core management curriculum.
Bob Jensen's threads on free online
textbooks and learning materials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Bob Jensen's threads about the popularity of online courses are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineVersusOnsite
June 29, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
A REPORT ON THE SUCCESS OF ONLINE EDUCATION
Each year the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) conducts
an annual survey on the state of U.S. higher education online learning. This
year, the Consortium published its first annual special edition, "Growing by
Degrees: Online Education in the United States, 2005 - Southern Edition."
Some of the findings reported include:
"Online learning is thriving in the southern
states. The patterns of growth and acceptance of online education among the
16 southern states in this report are very similar to that observed for the
national sample, with one clear difference: online learning has made greater
inroads in the southern states than in the nation as a whole."
"[S]chools are offering a large number of online
courses, and there is great diversity in the courses and programs being
offered:
-- Sixty-two percent of southern schools
offering graduate face-to-face courses also offer graduate courses
online.
-- Sixty-eight percent of southern schools
offering undergraduate face-to-face courses also offer undergraduate
courses online."
"Staffing for online courses does not come at the
expense of core faculty. Institutions use about the same mixture of core and
adjunct faculty to staff their online courses as they do for their
face-to-face courses. Instead of more adjunct faculty teaching online
courses, the opposite is found; overall, there is a slightly greater use of
core faculty for teaching online than for face-to-face."
You can download the complete report at
http://www.sloan-c.org/
Sloan-C is a consortium of institutions and
organizations committed "to help learning organizations continually improve
quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own
distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide
variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. For more information go to
http://www.aln.org/
Bob Jensen's threads on education technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
March 5, 2003 message from B. Loveless [info@careeradvantage.org]
Dear Professor Jensen,
I would like to know if it would be possible to place
a link on your website linking to my websites, www.community-college.org
and www.university-directory.org
. Both are free non-profit websites that provide visitors with a current and
comprehensive directory of community colleges and universities throughout the
United States. Updates to these websites are made on a regular basis to ensure
site visitors the most current and accurate directory of community colleges
and universities in their respective geographies. If it would be at all
possible to place a link from your website to community-college.org and
university-directory.org it would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Becton Loveless
http://www.community-college.org
http://www.university-directory.org
Introductory Quotations
Video: A Scenario of Higher Education in 2020
(or thereabouts)---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
A report on people who attended for-profit colleges in Florida in the past
decade concluded that the education they received was superficial and not worth
the amount of debt they accumulated ---
Click Here
Can a Huge Online College Solve California’s
Work-Force Problems?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Huge-Online-College/244054?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=f80ba3e869f84decb4965e602626b579&elq=fe9f9bb29c1f407097558d58d6c15b2f&elqaid=19912&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=9243
Jerry Brown was taking a victory lap.
The call went out to reporters early on a recent Monday morning: The
governor would attend that day’s meeting of the California Community
Colleges Board of Governors. A few minutes after 11, tieless and relaxed,
Brown slid into a seat on the dais. He was just in time — and not
coincidentally — for a discussion of the state’s newest, and wholly online,
community college.
The virtual college, the 115th institution in California’s two-year system,
is Brown’s baby, its approval in June the capstone to his sunset year in
office. The college is meant to serve a population too often left behind by
higher education: under- or unemployed adults who need new skills to land a
job, secure a raise, nab a promotion, just to maintain a toehold in a
swiftly changing workplace. An online institution, its advocates say, will
allow so-called stranded workers — there are 2.5 million Californians
without a postsecondary degree or credential between the ages of 25 and 34
alone — to take short-term courses whenever, wherever.
Reaching those workers will be necessary for the world’s fifth-largest
economy to continue to grow and thrive. And if the online college enrolls
even a fraction of its target audience, it would become the largest provider
of distance education, public or private, in the nation. The scale — and the
potential for innovation — has people across the country looking West.
Given the floor at the Board of Governors meeting, Brown, a Democrat,
couldn’t help crowing. "This is a no-brainer, it is obvious, it is
inevitable, it is a juggernaut that cannot be stopped," he said. "California
is a leader, it will lead in this. And I say, hallelujah."
For all the governor’s certitude, it may be premature to declare the online
college a sure fix to the state’s yawning gaps in educational and economic
opportunity. The unknowns are many: Will job seekers or employers find value
in an institution that offers only certificates and credentials, as is the
plan for new college, not the degrees so frequently required for
middle-class work?
Digital learning promises convenience, but will harried parents and
overburdened breadwinners be any more likely to log onto a computer than set
foot in a classroom? If they do register for an online course, will they
flourish? After all, studies consistently show that students — low-income
and first-generation students most especially — do better in face-to-face or
hybrid courses.
Backers of the new college, like Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the
community-college system, pledge to consult with employers and unions to
make sure the competency-based credentials offered are prized in the
workplace. Research has identified interventions that can help online course
takers perform well; starting from scratch, such strategies can be baked in.
"We will do as much as possible," Oakley says, "to give them the best
opportunity for success."
Continued in article
"A
Future Full of Badges," by Kevin Carey,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Future-Full-of-Badges/131455/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's Threads on Competency-Based Learning
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
More than six million USA people take online courses each year, including
one of every four undergraduates ---
http://onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradeincrease.pdf?elqTrackId=8a97109446ab42f4a6d1dd82378a5d42&elq=f017428740324fe9851503671bdc6dcc&elqaid=19259&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8759
Fee-based and free distance education training
and education alternatives ---
Scroll down this document
Many employers will pay all or part of the fees, including Starbucks, Wal-Mart,
McDonalds, etc. For example, Starbucks will pay Arizona State University tuition
even for part-time employees. McDonalds will pay tuition for onsite as well as
online courses.
Free MOOCs and other high-quality online learning
alternatives (there may be fees for certificates and transcript credits but the
MOOC learning is free for thousands of courses from prestigious universities
around the world) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Department of Education in March 2014: 17,374 online higher
education distance education and training programs altogether
Jensen Comment
Note that the hundreds of free MOOC courses from prestigious universities are
not the same as fee-based distance education degree and certificate programs
that are more like on-campus programs in terms in student-instructor
interactions, graded assignments, and examinations. Some campuses like the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee even treat online programs as cash cows
where the tuition is higher for online programs than identical on-campus
programs.
The (Department of Education Report in
March 2014) report says that American colleges now
offer 17,374 online programs altogether, 29 percent of which are master’s-degree
programs, with bachelor’s and certificate programs making up 23 percent each.
Business and management programs are the most popular, at 29 percent of the
total, followed by health and medicine programs (16 percent), education programs
(14 percent), and information technology and computers (10 percent) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/quickwire-there-may-be-fewer-online-programs-than-you-think/51163?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
"‘Volatile’ but Growing Online Ed Market," by Carl Straumsheim,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2017 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/02/report-finds-growth-volatility-online-education-market?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=50cc6fd192-DNU20170502&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-50cc6fd192-197565045&mc_cid=50cc6fd192&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Online enrollment continues to grow as the total
number of students in college shrinks. The growth is particularly strong at
private nonprofit colleges, report finds.
Continued in article
US News 2017 Ranking of the Best Nonprofit Online Colleges ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Note that US News has a new service for comparing
programs side-by-side on various criteria, including their US News Rankings
---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/compare
For example, compare the online programs of Indiana University with Texas A&M
University
NYT: The for-profit-college industry
continues to cheat students while the Trump administration and Republicans in
Congress do nothing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/predatory-colleges-students-devos.html?elqTrackId=5dc95869b80045dc96a6648f05c9c2bd&elq=8199fd0e47494950a55cdf9dbcbbfc9a&elqaid=19193&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8711
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large
online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News 2017 Ranking of the Best Nonprofit Online Colleges ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Note that US News has a new service for comparing
programs side-by-side on various criteria, including their US News Rankings
---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/compare
For example, compare the online programs of Indiana University with Texas A&M
University
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Ms. Salin is part of a new wave of outsourcing to
India: the tutoring of American students. Twice a week for a month now, Ms.
Salin, who grew up speaking the Indian language Malayalam at home, has been
tutoring Daniela in English grammar, comprehension and writing. Using a
simulated whiteboard on their computers, connected by the Internet, and a copy
of Daniela's textbook in front of her, she guides the teenager through the
intricacies of nouns, adjectives and verbs.
Saritha Rai, "A Tutor Half a World Away, but as Close as a Keyboard," The New
York Times, September 7, 2005 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/education/07tutor.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126191549-1Ydu+7CY89CpuVeaJbJ4XA
Overall, about 1.5 million out of 19 million
postsecondary students (in the U.S.) took at
least one distance education course in the 1999-2000 school year. These 1.5
million distance education students differ from other postsecondary students in
a number of respects. Compared to other students, they tend to be older and are
more likely to be employed full-time and attending school part-time. They also
have higher incomes and are more likely to be married. Most students take
distance education courses at public institutions, with more taking courses from
two-year schools than from four-year schools. The Internet is the most
common mode of delivery for providing distance education.
Testimony of Cornelia M. Ashby, Growth in Distance Education Programs and
Implications for Federal Education Policy, GAO, September 26, 2002 --- http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d021125t.pdf
Canada's Open University
Athabasca University, in Edmonton, Alberta,
said Monday (August 15, 2005) that it had become
the first Canadian university to become accredited by a regional agency in the
United States. The distance education institution, which bills itself as
“Canada’s Open University,” said it had been granted accreditation by the Middle
States Commission on Higher Education.
Inside Higher Ed, August 16, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/08/16/qt
The next big killer application for the Internet is
going to be education. Education over the Internet is going to be so big it is
going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error.
Chis Werry notes that this quote is cited by Thomas Friedman in "Next, It's
E-ducation," The New York Times, November 17, 1999, p. A29.
(See the Werry citation below)
The number of online classes offered by universities
and colleges has grown rapidly. In 1999 one in three U.S. colleges offered some
sort of accredited degree online, and approximately one million students took
online classes (13 million take traditional classes only)
Chis Werry notes that this quote is cited by P.J. Huffstutter and Robin Fields
in "A Virtual Revolution in Teaching," The Lost Angeles Times, March
3, 2000 and Alessandra Bianchi, "E is for E-school: Dot-com start-ups
go to the head of the class," INC., Juley1, 2000. (See the
Werry citation below)
More nonprofit colleges may be purchased by for-profit institutions
Sean Gallagher, a senior analyst at Eduventures, which
does research on the education industry for investors and colleges, said he is
not surprised to see an institution like Saint Mary’s turn to a place like
Regis to take over adult education programs. “Higher education is scalable and
larger providers have a huge advantage in marketing and online education,” he
said. “It’s just very difficult to develop a curriculum and manage and
market it” in adult education, when you are a small college, Gallagher
said. Eduventures — which counts both Regis and Phoenix among its
clients — has predicted that more nonprofit colleges may be purchased by
for-profit institutions. That happened this month when Bridgepoint Education, a
for-profit higher education company, bought the Franciscan University of the
Prairies. But he said the same factors that prompt that prediction may
also apply to places like Regis that are big enough to compete with the larger
for-profit institutions. Officials at Saint Mary’s said they were drawn
to Regis because it is a nonprofit institution. And Husson, the Regis
administrator, said that the university’s traditional emphasis on values and
ethics shapes all its programs.
Scott Jaschik, "How to Compete," Inside Higher Ed, March 18,
2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/18/regis
You guys are in trouble and we are going to eat your
lunch.
Michael Milken, on the future of higher education
Three hallmarks of our time:
1. Technology that brings people together;
2. The fact that we are REALLY becoming ONE world; the coming together of our
global economy;
3. The power of free markets not only is clearly demonstrated but actually
increasing in importance.
Lawrence Summers, the President-elect of Harvard University and former Secretary
of Treasury
Online you get to know your students' minds, not just
their faces.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., and Turoff, M. (1995). Learning
Networks: A Field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
As quoted at http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/tid/report/tid_report.html
Rather than technology destroying borders, the tendency seems to be to establish
‘traditional’ international campuses. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
is partnering with two Singapore universities to set up a branch campus, and
several of Australia’s universities, especially Monash and RMIT, have also
pursued this approach. Other institutions combine distance education with block
teaching as the basis of their international efforts. This strategy may be
considered high risk for all but a few brand name universities.
Nevertheless, there are some estimates that the number
of online higher education subjects available worldwide will be more than a
million within a few years (Hibbs 1999). Indeed, the US Education Department’s
America’s Learning Exchange already lists nearly one million online subjects.
The 1999 Campus Computing Survey of 557 two-and four-year colleges and
universities shows that the percentage of college courses using Web resources in
the syllabus rose from 10.9 per cent in 1995 to 33.1 per cent in 1998 and 38.9
per cent in 1999, and that more than one quarter of all college courses (28.1
per cent) have a Web page, compared to 22.5 per cent in 1998 and 9.2 per cent in
1996 (Green 1999). Harvard University now spends $US8 million per year to
maintain the online delivery of programs in its Business School alone (MacColl
1999). Various US-based web sites exist, with names implying global reach , such
as the Globewide Network Academy and the World Lecture Hall, providing
gateways to many online college and university subjects. However, Web pages are
not subjects, and subjects are not coherent courses. Many of these online
subjects are only accessible to students enrolled in the particular institution.
Quoted from Page 78 of The Business of Borderless Education, by S.C.
Cunningham, et al., (Australian Department of Education, Evaluations and
Investigations Programme of the Higher Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy ISBN
0 642 44446 3 and Online Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1
One anecdotal indicator of how
global the accounting world has become is the fact that the top two performers
on the November 2000 United States CPA examination are both from
overseas (they were also educated and work overseas) --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jun2001/inside.htm
German, Austrians Get Top Exam Honors
Werner Ellmauer of Munich, Germany, won the Elijah
Watt Sells gold medal by earning the highest overall score on the November
2000 Uniform CPA Examination, conducted by the AICPA. A total of 62,000
candidates took the exam.
Ellmauer, who graduated from Johannes Kepler
University with a master’s degree in social and economic sciences, works in
the audit practice division of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Munich.
Andreas Poelzelbauer and Erich Ploechl, both of
Vienna, Austria, won the silver and bronze awards for taking second and third
place, respectively.
Poelzelbauer, who has a master’s in business
administration from the University of Economics and Business Administration in
Vienna, works as a senior manager at Moore Stephens City Treuhand GMBH.
Ploechl, who graduated with a master’s degree from the Vienna University of
Economics, is an audit manager with Ernst & Young, Vienna.
The Sells award, created in 1923, recognizes the
contributions to the accounting profession made by Elijah Watt Sells, a
founding partner of Haskins & Sells (a predecessor to Deloitte &
Touche). Sells, who was one of the first CPAs licensed under a New York state
law enacted in 1896, was active in the establishment of the AICPA.
The top flagship state universities in the USA are under increasing pressures
from their legislators to offer more an more business degrees online, including
undergraduate business degrees, masters of accounting degrees, and MBA degrees.
The question is whether the most prestigious private universities like Stanford
and Harvard will join in the competition.
The Top MBA Programs in the World according to the Financial Times ---
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2014
The Top MBA Programs in the USA according to US News
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools
"Half of U.S. Business Schools Might Be Gone by 2020," by Patrick
Clark, Bloomberg Businessweek, March 14, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-14/online-programs-could-erase-half-of-u-dot-s-dot-business-schools-by-2020
Richard Lyons, the dean of University of
California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has a dire forecast for
business education: “Half of the business schools in this country could be
out of business in 10 years—or five,” he says.
The threat, says Lyons, is that more top MBA
programs will start to offer degrees online. That will imperil the
industry’s business model. For most business schools, students pursuing
part-time and executive MBAs generate crucial revenue. Those programs,
geared toward working professionals, will soon have to compete with elite
online alternatives for the same population.
. . .
Online MBA programs aren’t siphoning choice
students from campuses yet, says Ash Soni, executive associate dean at
Indiana University’s
Kelley School of Business. Kelley ranks 15th on
Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of full-time programs and was an
early player in online MBAs. The school draws students from across the
country, but it is more likely to compete with online MBA programs offered
by the University of North Carolina’s
Kenan-Flagler Business School and Arizona State’s
Carey School of Business. Says Soni: “If you’re a
dean from a regional school and you’re asking, ‘Are these online guys
tapping into my space?’ The answer is: maybe in the future, but not yet.”
Michael Desiderio, the executive director of the
Executive MBA Council, says change is coming, but his group isn’t panicking.
“We’re not saying it’s a threat or this is the end of the EMBA space,” he
says. “It’s stimulating a discussion: How do we adapt to continue to serve a
population that has changing needs?”
Online education is sure to shift the ways schools
compete for students. For-profit MBA programs such as DeVry’s
Keller School of Management have been the early
losers as more traditional universities go online, says Robert Lytle, a
partner in the education practice at consultancy Parthenon Group. That trend
could extend to lower-ranked schools as the big-name brands follow.
When Lytle talks to directors at schools who are
debating the merits of online learning, he tells them to stop dallying and
start building programs. “Once you get out of the top tier of schools,
you’re either already online, on your way there, or dead in the water,” he
says. It isn’t clear which online models will be most successful, but many
schools are feeling pressure to get on board. When Villanova School of
Business announced a new
online MBA program earlier this year, Dean Patrick
Maggitti said there has never been a more uncertain time in higher
education. “I think it’s smart strategy to be looking at options in this
market.”
Jensen Comment --- Where I Disagree
Firstly, this is not so much a threat to undergraduate business schools, because
most of the prestigious and highly ranked universities with MBA programs do not
even offer undergraduate business degrees. It's not likely that Harvard and
Stanford and the London Business School will commence to offer undergraduate
business degrees online.
Secondly, this is not so much a threat to masters of accounting programs,
because most of the prestigious and highly ranked universities with MBA programs
do not even offer masters of accounting degrees and do not have enough
accounting courses to meet the minimal requirements to take the CPA examination
in most states. . It's not likely that Harvard and Stanford and the London
Business School will commence to offer masters of accounting degrees online.
Thirdly, this is not so much of a threat even at the MBA level to
universities who admit graduate students with lower admissions credentials. The
US News Top MBA programs currently pick off the cream of the crop in
terms of GMAT and gpa credentials. The top flagship state universities like the
the Haas School at UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University
of Illinois pick off the top students who cannot afford prestigious private
universities. By the time all these universities skim the cream of the crop the
second-tier public and private universities struggle with more marginal students
applying for MBA programs.
It would be both dangerous and sad if the very top MBA programs introduced
lower admissions standards for online programs vis-a-vis on-campus
programs. In order to maintain the highest standards the most prestigious
universities will have to cater to the highest quality foreign students and
herein lies a huge problem. Some nations like China are notorious for fraud and
cheating on admissions credentials like the GMAT. In Russia such credentials are
for sale to the highest bidders.
The name of the game in business education is placement of graduates.
Prestigious university MBA programs are at the top of the heap in terms of
placement largely because of their successful alumni and strong alumni networks
that actively seek MBA graduates from their alma maters. This will not work as
well for online programs, especially since many of the online graduates of
prestigious university online programs will live outside the USA.
However, top flagship state universities are under increasing pressures from
their legislators to offer more an more business degrees online, including
undergraduate business degrees, masters of accounting degrees, and MBA degrees.
This is already happening as is reflected in the following rankings of online
programs by US News:
US News 2017 Ranking of the Best Nonprofit Online Colleges ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Note that US News has a new service for comparing
programs side-by-side on various criteria, including their US News Rankings
---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/compare
For example, compare the online programs of Indiana University with Texas A&M
University
I don't anticipate that the highest-prestige MBA programs will have online
degree programs anytime soon. They may have more and more free MOOCs, but that
is an entirely different ballgame if no credit is given for the MOOCs. The
highly prestigious Wharton is now offering its
first-year MBA courses as free MOOCs ---
http://www.topmba.com/blog/wharton-steps-experimentation-moocs-mba-news
Also see
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-13/wharton-puts-first-year-mba-courses-online-for-free
Who are these students taking free first-year MOOC courses from Wharton?
Some are college professors who adding what they learn in MOOCs to the courses
they themselves teach. Most MOOCs, by the way, are advanced courses on highly
specialized topics like the literature of both famous and obscure writers.
Others are basic courses that contribute to career advancement.
- For example, the business school at Penn, Wharton, now offers its core
MBA courses as free MOOCs. Some students who intently take these courses are
seeking to get into Wharton and other prestigious MBA programs.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to raise GMAT
scores to get into prestigious MBA programs and to do better in those
programs once admitted so that they too can tap those six-figure starting
salaries of graduates from prestigious MBA Programs.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to raise GMAT
scores to obtain better financial aid packages for further graduate study.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to perform
better on the job and thereby get better performance evaluations and raises.
"Change.org Petition Calls for Kaplan U. to Be Shut Down," Inside
Higher Ed, January 28, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/28/qt#249482
More than 8,500 Change.org members have signed
an online petition addressed to the chairman of
the Washington Post Company, Donald Graham, calling for a freeze on all
Kaplan University admissions until the online university changes how it
attracts its students. Shannon Croteau, a mother of three and a former
Kaplan student, led the petition drive along with a group of other former
students. "They told me they were accredited the same as Ivy League schools
were," Croteau said. "They lie and cheat. It has ruined me." The petition
title says: "Tell Kaplan and The Washington Post to Stop Cashing In On
Low-Income Students." The group is asking for Kaplan to "end unethical
business practices," which it deems predatory. The petition also cites the
GAO report that investigated 16 for-profit universities and is at the center
of debate over whether to regulate the for-profit education sector, and
calls for the Washington Post to stop denying "wrong-doing." Post officials
could not be reached for a response.
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"Do Online MBAs Make the Grade? Their popularity is soaring, but
some are diploma mills, making recruiters wary of virtual degrees. Here are
tips for picking a good program," by Jeffry Gangemi, Business Week,
August 18, 2005 ---
http://snipurl.com/Gangemy
"RIPE" FOR FRAUD. Many
of the online MBA programs are well-regarded and offer a way for busy
people, such as Bolger, to get advanced education without having to
sidetrack a career for a year or two. But, as in many growing fields,
cautions abound. Concerns about "diploma mills," or substandard institutions
without proper accreditation that offer degrees with little or no serious
work, are growing.
"There are now more fake online MBA programs in the U.S. than real ones,"
says Vicky Phillips, founder and CEO of
GetEducated.com,
a Web site that evaluates accredited online degree
programs and educates consumers about them. "It's an area that's ripe for
consumer fraud."
Diploma mills range from those practising outright deceit -- like St. Regis
University, which falsely asserted Liberian government approval and was
closed by court order in June, 2005 -- to organizations that require only a
modicum of work for a degree, says Alan Contreras, administrator of the
Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, a state organization that approves
individual degree programs. "In the case of diploma mills, I call the
schools 'suppliers' and the degree-holders 'users' because the educational
component is often minimal," notes Contreras.
CORPORATE SKEPTICS. Even with the best
programs, online students lack the means to build their professional network
or even interact in person with classmates. But the schools say that isn't a
problem.
"There's a really strong, off-the-radar network building up on its own,"
says Michael Goess, chairman of the Division of Business for Graduate
Programs at
Regis University in Denver. (Regis University is
not connected with the shuttered St. Regis school.) Goess points out that
students often arrange to meet on their own time, as well as trade e-mails
and network electronically.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
"Enrollment in Online Courses Increases at the Highest Rate Ever," by
Tavis Kaya, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 16, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/enrollment-in-online-courses-increases-at-the-highest-rate-ever/28204?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Despite predictions that the growth of online
education would begin to level off, colleges reported the highest-ever
annual increase in online enrollment—more than 21 percent—last year,
according to a
report on an annual survey of 2,600
higher-education institutions from the Sloan Consortium and the Babson
Survey Research Group.
In fall 2009, colleges—including public, nonprofit
private, and for-profit private institutions—reported that one million more
students were enrolled in at least one Web-based course, bringing the total
number of online students to 5.6 million. That unexpected increase—which
topped the previous year’s
17-percent rise—may have been helped by higher
demand for education in a rocky economy and an uptick in the number of
colleges adopting online courses.
Although the survey found sustained interest in
online courses across all sectors, there was a spike in the number of
for-profit institutions—a 20-percent increase over last year—that said
online education is critical to their long-term strategies. However, more
public colleges than private for-profits—74.9 percent versus 60.5
percent—say it’s part of their long-term plans.
Elaine Allen, associate professor of statistics and
entrepreneurship at Babson College and co-director of the Babson Survey
Research Group, said that the disproportionate increase in the for-profit
sector may mean that online programs are becoming their “bread and butter.”
Colleges are telling themselves that “if we want to grow and have profits,
we need to be in the online sector,” she said.
Increased government scrutiny of the for-profit
sector has complicated plans for expansion online. Approximately 32 percent
of for-profit institutions—compared with about 17 percent of public
colleges—said it will be difficult to comply with
government regulations on financial aid. Those new
regulations include a pending “gainful
employment” rule that could cut off federal aid to
programs with high levels of student debt relative to what students make
after graduation—a move that could slash revenue for institutions dependent
on student-aid money. “For the first time, we saw the government regulate
financial aid and some kind of return on investment,” Ms. Allen said. “The
for-profits are feeling the pressure there.”
Administrators also continue to wrestle with the
question of quality in online education. According to the survey report,
“Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010,” 66 percent
of college administrators say that online education is the same as or better
than face-to-face classes—a slight decline from last year. Still, Ms. Allen
said it appears that more faculty members are warming up to online education
as a quality alternative to face-to-face learning and are finding new ways
to use the technology.
Ms. Allen expects Web enrollment to plateau as more
competitors—whether they are Web programs from established universities or
from new for-profit institutions—hit the market. And for-profit colleges
will probably take advantage of their more-nimble business models to expand
much more rapidly online than will their government-reliant public
competitors. As more budget cuts loom, public institutions are already
beginning to “feel competition from the for-profits,” she said.
First Consider Learning on Your Own
How to Learn Accounting On Your Own
Education and Learning Tutorials
ALISON (free vocational skills courses) ---
https://alison.com/
Video:
Scenarios of Higher Education for Year 2020 (and beyond)---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
The above great video, among other things, discusses how "badges" of academic
education and training accomplishment may become more important in the job
market than tradition transcript credits awarded by colleges. Universities may
teach the courses (such as free MOOCs) whereas private sector companies may
award the "badges" or "credits" or "certificates." The new term for such awards
is a
"microcredential."
Credential (Certificate, Badge,
License, and Apprenticeship) Count Approaches 1 Million ---
Click Here
For example, credentials for computer programming skills are becoming more
popular. Some certificates supplement college diplomas, whereas others are
earned by students who did not enroll in college.
Free Book: Learning to Learn Online ---:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/learningtolearnonline/
Homeroom: The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education
--- http://www.ed.gov/blog/
Khan Academy and YouTube Channels offer free tutorials. Learners can cherry
pick topics and watch basic and advanced learning videos that vary in length
form a few minutes to longer but usually much less than an hour for each module.
These were never intended to be anything more than self-learning alternatives
for highly motivated students. Some leading universities like the University of
Wisconsin now over limited choices for taking competency examinations for
college credit, but the distance between a few learning videos and college
credit is a very long distance indeed.
More than 100
colleges have set up channels on YouTube ---
http://www.youtube.com/edu
Many
universities offer over 100 videos, whereas Stanford offers a whopping 583
Search for words like “accounting”
Khan Academy ---
https://www.khanacademy.org/
School of Open (Creative Commons) ---
http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org
IBM Certificate Badges Available
Free Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science Courses ---
https://bigdatauniversity.com/
YouTube: 3Blue1Brown (video tutorials on math, bitcoin, cryptocurrencies,
machine learning, etc.) ---
www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw/featured
Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information ---
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtN07XYqqWSKpPrtNDiCHTzU
California Community
Colleges: Online Student Readiness Tutorials ---
https://apps.3cmediasolutions.org/oei/students.html
The Open Syllabus Project
Visualizes the 1,000,000+ Books Most Frequently Assigned in College Courses ---
https://www.openculture.com/2021/02/the-open-syllabus-project-visualizes-the-1000000-books-frequently-assigned-in-college-courses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on
distance education --
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools
and Tricks of Our Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free distance education and training courses (most
from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Ten Best YouTube Channels to Learn Web Development ---
https://readwrite.com/2019/12/17/10-best-youtube-channels-to-learn-web-development/
NCES: Distance Learning Dataset Training ---
https://nces.ed.gov/training/datauser/
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
The Dartmouth (Student) E-Guide to Academic Success (free book) ---
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learning/free-study-skills-e-book/
A Master List of 1,200
Free Courses From Top
Universities: 40,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/a-master-list-of-1200-free-courses-from-top-universities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses from top universities (transcript credits
are not free and entail taking competency tests from credit providers)
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Medical Education Online ---
http://med-ed-online.net/index.php/meo
The best way to teach
yourself to code and land a 6-figure job, from 5 people who've done it ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-teach-yourself-code-and-land-6-figure-job-2019-7?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BIPrime_select&utm_campaign=BI
Prime 2020-06-25&utm_term=BI Prime Select
Over
two-thirds of software developers are actually self-taught. A
2016 survey
conducted by Stack Overflow on more than 56,000 coders also found that less
than half have a computer science degree.
One reason
that people are so keen to teach themselves how to create and engineer
software is that it's a career path that can quickly pay off — to the tune
of
$100,000
or more after just a few years of experience. While coding itself may be
considered an entry-level tech skill, it's a basic building block that can
open the door to a wide range of higher-paying positions, from tech lead or
software architect all the way up to CTO.
There has
perhaps never been a better time to take an independent approach to learning
how to code — for a couple of good reasons. First, as the pandemic continues
to lead to wide-scale layoffs, it can help to have a reliable, in-demand
skill like coding to fall back on. Second, because you can develop code
remotely and many employers need this skill, it's a perfect
recession-proof
solution for what to do next in a world where office-based work faces new
challenges.
If you want to
join the ranks of six-figure tech stars who taught themselves to code, take
a page from the playbooks of people who've done it. Business Insider spoke
with a panel of self-taught coders who leveraged their hard-won knowledge
into enviable salaries and shared the following guidance for others who
would like to follow in their footsteps.
. . .
Start by
doing — and do it online
. . .
Don't get
overwhelmed
. . .
Take
advantage of developer communities
. . .
Leverage free
resources
. . .
Try video
tutorials
Continued in
article
Jensen Comment
And remember that a computer science degree (even a Ph.D.) does not teach you
all the many coding/scriotung languages. Even as a computer science graduate you
may want to self-teach yourself some coding you did not master as a formal
student.
Bob Jensen's links to free
coding tutorials and videos ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
Lynda.com charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content
hosted on the platform ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Weinman#Lynda.com
"Lynda.com Announces $186 Million Investment," Inside Higher Ed,
January 15, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/01/15/lyndacom-announces-186-million-investment
The online learning platform Lynda.com
has set an early tone for the ed-tech venture capital
and equity market in 2015 with a $186 million investment. The private equity
company TPG Capital led the investment, while firms Accel Partners, Meritech Capital
Partners and Spectrum Equity -- as well as some of Lynda.com's earlier
investors -- also participated. Lynda.com
charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content hosted on the
platform, and will use the investment for
acquisitions and growth, the company said in a
press release.
Lynda.com has became a huge learning site with over 500 instructors ---
http://www.lynda.com/
Jensen Comment
Because of the high price for each student (in addition to textbook prices) I
would look first to see if there are good free tutorials for what you need such
as in the tens of thousands of tutorials in hundreds of learning channels now on
YouTube, the thousands of free tutorials at the Khan Academy, and the hundreds
of thousands of free learning tutorials linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Open Campus is a large provider of learning certificates. This site also has
a substantial amount of free learning resources ---
http://www.greycampus.com/opencampus
More than 100
colleges have set up channels on YouTube ---
http://www.youtube.com/edu
Many
universities offer over 100 videos, whereas Stanford offers a whopping 583
Search for words like “accounting”
Khan Academy ---
https://www.khanacademy.org
YouTube: 3Blue1Brown (video tutorials on math, bitcoin, cryptocurrencies,
machine learning, etc.) ---
www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw/featured
Harvard Extension School: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Open
Learning Course ---
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/intensive-introduction-computer-science
Links to Free Computer and Coding Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
Also see the free learning materials,
video tutorials, and even complete MOOC courses listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Google Is Offering Free Coding Lessons To Women And Minorities ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-free-coding-lessons-to-women-2014-6#ixzz35qMerq6C
Free online textbooks, cases, and tutorials in accounting, finance,
economics, and statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Warning:
Free textbooks are usually not updated often if at all. This is more problematic
in some disciplines (e.g., accounting and tax rule changes) than other
disciplines like mathematics, statistics, and languages
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Learn 46 Languages for Free Online: A Big Update to Our Master List ---
http://www.openculture.com/2013/07/learn_46_languages_for_free_online_a_big_update.html
Learn Psychology ---
http://www.learnpsychology.org/
THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?CO=CQ&ID=76319&PK=N1S1009
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
August 25, 2016 Message from Glen Gray
Collaborating with
Coursera
Empowering people
through learning
At PwC, our purpose is
to build trust in society and solve important problems. We think there's an
opportunity to do this by sharing our experience and expertise with anyone
who wants to learn. We’re joining forces with Coursera to create a series of
courses designed around topics that address big global issues, drawing on
the real-world knowledge and experience of PwC experts from around the globe
from multiple disciplines. Our first course is focused on data and
analytics, one of the biggest areas of opportunity to help solve problems in
an increasingly complex world.
All course materials can
be accessed at no charge.
(Those who want to take
the assessments and get a certification will pay a small charge). As
instructors, you may identify portions of the courses which you wish to
incorporate into your classes as assignments to help demonstrate concepts
you are teaching. We hope you will agree that this will be a valuable
resource. To learn more about and access Coursera, click here.
Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA
Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems
David Nazarian College of Business & Economics
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff ST Northridge, CA 91330-8372
http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f
Harvard Business School hopes to fundamentally change online education
with its new $1,500 pre-MBA program (only three non-credit courses for openers)
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wharton_School_of_the_University_of_Pennsylvania
Harvard Business School ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Business_School
Jensen Comment
The Wharton School shocked the world when it commenced to provide free
(non-credit) MOOCs of its actual MBA core courses. Aside from curiosity seekers
and business faculty around the world wondering how the prestigious Wharton
School teaches its core courses, many of the students taking these MOOCs are
prospective MBA students who want to get an edge before entering MBA programs of
their choice ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/moocs-upend-traditional-business-education/
Although Harvard provides hundreds of MOOCs in various disciplines, the
Harvard Business School has not been providing MOOCs. Now the HBS is proposing a
pre-MBA distance education program with a relatively low fee that may also shake
up the MBA world. Since it is not free and has admission standards it cannot be
called a MOOC.
"Harvard Business School hopes to fundamentally change online education
with its new $1,500 pre-MBA program," by Richard Feloni, Business Insider,
February 27, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-business-school-hbx-1500-online-program-2015-2
This week, Harvard Business School launched an
innovative new online education program to the public that it thinks is so
far ahead of free online courses that it's worthy of a $1,500 price tag.
The 11-week pre-MBA program called CORe accepts
about 500 students and is taught in the school's signature case-study
method. The first official session started on Feb. 25, and applications are
open for spring and summer sessions.
CORe is the flagship offering from HBS's new
digital platform,
HBX, which aims to
become a full-fledged branch of the school rather than a place to dump video
recordings of classroom lectures.
CORe is made up of three courses —
economics for managers, business analytics, and
financial accounting — and primarily
targets young professionals with liberal arts backgrounds who aspire to rise
to management or are considering getting an MBA.
Students who pass the program receive a certificate
that carries the weight of one from HBS's executive education program.
HBX chair Bharat Anand tells Business Insider that
most online course offerings are still in their infancy, where long video
lectures posted alongside multiple choice questions is the norm.
Conversely, HBX CORe is built on a proprietary
platform that uses the case-study technique that distinguishes HBS. "This
has some very interesting and exciting potential for education," Anand says.
It started as a way to find an online tool to
address the "non trivial" 20% to 30% of students accepted to HBS's MBA
program who lacked the necessary background in "the language of business":
accounting, economics, and data analysis. These students always had access
to a two-week primer before matriculating in the fall, but Anand says the
short time was insufficient for achieving a thorough understanding, and
traveling to HBS's campus before the school year officially starts could be
an inconvenience for many students.
Jensen Comment
The Wharton set of free MOOCs will probably be a better choice for students
wanting to learn a wider spectrum of business knowledge that includes things
like marketing and finance that Harvard's pre-MBA program will not offer, at
least not initially.
But there are advantages of Harvard's pre-MBA distance education program
relative to MOOCs. Firstly, there's the prestige of being one of only 500
admitted to the program. Secondly, there will be more student-to-student
learning interactions in Harvard's fee-based program. Unlike the HBS MBA program
itself I doubt if there are writing assignments and examinations that are graded
by faculty.
Given the low price and limited enrollments, I suspect that this pre-MBA
program is not (at least not yet) intended to be a cash cow program relative to
the massive cash cow MBA program and Executive MBA programs at the HBS.
"18 Free Online Business Courses That Will Boost Your Career," by John
A. Byrne, Business Insider, December 18, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-free-online-business-courses-in-january-2014-12
. . .
To learn more about these courses — and register
for them — click on the links below.
Gamification / Wharton / January 26
Globalization of Business Enterprise / IESE / January 19
Entrepreneurship 101 and Entrepreneurship 102 / MIT / January 9
ContractsX: From Trust to Promise to Contract / Harvard / January 8
Technology Entrepreneurship / Stanford / January 6
Asset Pricing – Part One / University of Chicago / January 18
Innovation and Commercialization / MIT / January 13
Grow To Greatness: Smart Growth For Private Businesses – Part II /
University of Virginia / January 12
Financial Analysis of Entrepreneurial Ideas / Babson College / January or
February
Time to Reorganize! Understand Organizations, Act, and Build a Meaningful
World / HEC Paris / January 13
Game Theory II: Advanced Applications / Stanford / January 11
U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self / MIT / January 7
Make An Impact: Sustainability for Professionals / University of Bath /
January 12
Managing People: Engaging Your Workforce / University of Reading / January
12
Decision Making in a Complex and Uncertain World / University of Groningen /
January 19
Project Management for Business Professionals / January 26
Subsistence Marketplaces / University of Illinois / January 26
DQ 101: Introduction to Decision Quality / Strategic Decisions Group /
January 15
More from John A. Byrne:
This article originally appeared at
LinkedIn. Copyright 2014. Follow LinkedIn on
Twitter.
Read more:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-mooc-courses-business-john-a.-byrne#ixzz3MLx1WEeQ
Most MOOCs are college courses
that comprise part of the curriculum at a university,
usually a leading university. The typical MOOC is the filmed
version of a complete live course on campus where onsite
students get credits for taking the course in a campus
classroom.
Online MOOC viewers usually watch the videos of an onsite
course and may even get together in online learning teams,
but viewers typically do not pay for or receive transcript
credit unless they take competency examinations that are
usually not administered by the MOOC professors. Prestigious
universities created EdX and Udacity for purposes of
competency testing and granting of transcript credits.
Most Webinars are much shorter
training modules conducted live that were never intended to
provide college course credits. They may be replayed as videos,
but viewers can usually ask questions online and interact with
the Webinar leaders only when the Webinar was first filmed.
Business firms like KPMG usually provide Webinars. Webinars are
not commonly provided by colleges and universities. Typically
Webinars are intended for employees, customers, or clients, but
these Webinars may be shared freely with college faculty and
students worldwide. Organizations like the FASB also conduct
Webinars bit do not offer MOOCs. Webinars may also be conducted
for continuing education (CEP) credits.
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of
MOOC courses and instructions on how to sigh up for (free) MOOCs ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Contrary to popular belief, the typical
MOOC is not an introductory course in a discipline. More commonly a
MOOC is an advanced specialty course in a college. For example,
MOOCs are available on the writings of great poets but not
introductory courses how to write compositions or poems. There are
exceptions of course and often the most popular MOOCs are less
advanced such as an introductory MOOC in social psychology versus an
advanced MOOC on memory and metacognition.
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of free MOOCs from prestigious
universities around the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on tens of thousands of fee-based distance education
courses around the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Advanced Technological Education Television (over 200 videos) ---
http://www.atetv.org
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
UNESCO Working Paper Series on Mobile Learning
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-learning-resources/unescomobilelearningseries/
350 Free Online Courses from Top Universities ---
http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
Note that students may often take the courses for learning purposes, but without
a grading process there is no transcript credit.
Thousands of Open Sharing "Tutorials" On YouTube from a Harvard Business School
Graduate
Khan Academy Home Page ---
http://www.khanacademy.org/
This site lists the course categories (none for accounting)
"How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education," by Clive
Thompson, Wired News, July 15, 2011 ---
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and the Khan Academy (a free, non-credit
site with hundreds of learning modules) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
A Master List of 500 Free Courses From Great Universities ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/a_master_list_of_500_free_courses_from_great_universities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, tutorials, videos, and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Open University in the United Kingdom ---
http://www.open.ac.uk/
Open Courses, Tutorials, Videos, and Course Materials from Prestigious
Universities in the USA ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Fee-Based Distance Education Alternatives Around the World ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"Carnegie Foundation and Stanford
Spinoff Team Up on Remedial Math," by Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of
Higher Education, September 24, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Carnegie-Foundation-and/141839/?cid=wc
A Stanford University spinoff and the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching plan to announce a partnership on
Tuesday to expand the distribution of online remedial-mathematics courses
that so far have tripled students' success rates in half the time.
NovoEd, an
online-learning start-up company that encourages
students to work in small groups and to learn from one another, teamed up
with the foundation to tackle what is widely considered a
nationwide crisis in remedial math.
More than 60 percent of students entering community
college require at least one remedial-math course before they can progress
to credit-bearing courses. Fewer than a third of those students complete it,
according to the foundation.
Over the past two years, the Carnegie Foundation
has been trying to improve those numbers through a remedial-math program
involving more than 40 community colleges and universities in at least 10
states.
Statway and Quantway, which together make up
Carnegie's Pathways Program, have allowed students to complete in one year
remedial-math sequences that used to take two years.
A Carnegie spokeswoman said that 17 percent of
remedial-math students in the colleges that make up the Statway network
historically have achieved math credit within three years, but 49 percent of
those in the Statway program did so within a single year. Results were
similar with the Quantway program.
The program's director and a senior managing
partner at Carnegie, Bernadine Chuck Fong, said in an e-mail on Monday that
NovoEd's focus on "student-centered, collaborative learning and pedagogy"
meshed with the foundation's collaborative strategies.
A Focus on
Collaborative Learning
Amin Saberi, co-founder and chief executive officer
of NovoEd, agreed. "By combining forces, we can scale up the curriculum and
address this national challenge head-on," he said, also in an interview on
Monday. He is on leave from Stanford, where he is an associate professor of
management science and engineering.
NovoEd started in January 2013 as an in-house
program at Stanford called Venture Lab. Its massive open online courses have
reached about 500,000 people in more than 150 countries, Mr. Saberi said.
NovoEd differs from Coursera and Udacity, two MOOC
spinoffs that were also started by Stanford professors, in its focus on
collaborative learning, Mr. Saberi said.
In NovoEd courses, students are typically assigned
to groups of four to seven, based on their experiences and locations, to
work on problems and projects together. They're also encouraged to discuss
roadblocks they've faced in their own learning and how they've overcome the
obstacles.
In the courses, students rate one another as team
members, which gives them incentives to be active participants.
Mr. Saberi said the approach the partnership will
take, which includes studying in contexts that are relevant to students, is
particularly effective with first-generation and underprepared students who
often struggle in online courses. Remedial-math students might, for
instance, study how a 20-percent interest rate on a credit card adds up over
time.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
Also don't forget the wonderful free remedial and advanced math videos at the
Khan Academy ---
https://www.khanacademy.org/
"Don’t Go Back to School: How to Fuel the Internal Engine of Learning,"
by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, May 13, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/13/dont-go-back-to-school-kio-stark/
“The present education system is the trampling
of the herd,” legendary architect
Frank Lloyd Wright lamented in 1956. Half a
century later, I started Brain Pickings in large part out of
frustration and disappointment with my trampling experience of our
culturally fetishized “Ivy League education.” I found myself intellectually
and creatively unstimulated by the industrialized model of the large lecture
hall, the PowerPoint presentations, the standardized tests assessing my rote
memorization of facts rather than my ability to transmute that factual
knowledge into a pattern-recognition mechanism that connects different
disciplines to cultivate wisdom about how the world works and a moral lens
on how it should work. So Brain Pickings became the record
of my alternative learning, of that cross-disciplinary curiosity that took
me from art to psychology to history to science, by way of the myriad pieces
of knowledge I discovered — and connected — on my own. I didn’t live up to
the entrepreneurial ideal of the college drop-out and begrudgingly graduated
“with honors,” but refused to go to my own graduation and decided never to
go back to school. Years later, I’ve learned more in the course of writing
and researching the thousands of articles to date than in all the years of
my formal education combined.
So, in 2012, when I found out that writer
Kio Stark
was crowdfunding a book that would serve as a
manifesto for learning outside formal education, I eagerly chipped in. Now,
Don’t Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything
is out and is everything I could’ve wished for when I
was in college, an essential piece of cultural literacy, at once tantalizing
and practically grounded assurance that success doesn’t lie at the end of a
single highway but is sprinkled along a thousand alternative paths. Stark
describes it as “a radical project, the opposite of reform … not about
fixing school [but] about transforming learning — and making traditional
school one among many options rather than the only option.” Through a series
of interviews with independent learners who have reached success and
happiness in fields as diverse as journalism, illustration, and molecular
biology, Stark — who herself dropped out of a graduate program at Yale,
despite being offered a prestigious fellowship — cracks open the secret to
defining your own success and
finding your purpose outside the
factory model of formal education. She notes the
patterns that emerge:
Continued in article
Khan Academy ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy
The Trouble With Derek Muller
The trouble with Robert Talbot is that he relies on Derek Muller's superficial
experiments on undergraduates and then extrapolates the findings to the entire
world. He's Exhibit A about what we warn doctoral students about when they are
learning how to conduct research and write up results of research.
In my viewpoint learning efficiency and effectiveness of any pedagogy is so
complicated in a multivariate sense that no studies, including Muller's
experiments, can be extrapolated to the something as vast as the Khan Academy.
For example, the learning from a given tutorial depends immensely on the
aptitude of the learner and the intensity of concentration and replay of the
tutorial.
For example, learning varies over time such as when a student is really bad
at math until a point is reached where that student suddenly blossoms in math.
For example, the learning from a given tutorial depends upon the ultimate
testing expected.
What they learn depends upon how we test:
It all boils down to how badly a student wants to learn something like how to
take the derivative of a polynomial. Chances are that if a student is totally
motivated and intent on learning this process, he or she can keep studying and
re-studying Khan Academy videos for mastery learning far beyond what most any
other pedagogy on this subject can offer.
The writings of Derek Muller are too superficial for my liking. Of course,
learning from the Khan Academy can be superficial if the students are not
intently focused on really, really wanting to learn. So what does that prove
about the students who are intently focused on really, really wanting to learn?
The Kahn Academy is really intended for students who
really, really want to learn. Don't knock it just because it doesn't work as
well for unmotivated students used in superficial experiments.
A Really, Really Misleading Video
Do Khan Academy Videos Promote “Meaningful Learning”?
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/expert_gently_asks_whether_khan_academy_videos_promote_meaningful_learning.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
A Really Misleading Article
"The trouble with Khan Academy," by Robert Talbert, Chronicle of Higher
Education, July 3, 2012
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/07/03/the-trouble-with-khan-academy/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Competency-Based Programs (where instructors do not assign the grades) Can
Work Well But Do Not Always Work Well
A Research Report
"Competency-Based Degree Programs in the U.S. Postsecondary Credentials for
Measurable Student Learning and Performance," Council on Adult and Experiential
Learning," 2012 ---
http://www.cael.org/pdfs/2012_CompetencyBasedPrograms
MOOC ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooc
"Who Takes MOOCs?" by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 5,
2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/05/early-demographic-data-hints-what-type-student-takes-mooc
"What You Need to Know About MOOC's," Chronicle of Higher Education,
August 20, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/
. . .
Who are the major players?
Several start-up companies are working with
universities and professors to offer MOOC's. Meanwhile, some colleges are
starting their own efforts, and some individual professors are offering
their courses to the world. Right now four names are the ones to know:
edX
A nonprofit effort run jointly by
MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley.
Leaders of the group say they intend to slowly add
other university partners over time. edX plans to freely give away the
software platform it is building to offer the free courses, so that anyone
can use it to run MOOC’s.
Coursera
A for-profit company founded by two computer-science
professors from Stanford.
The company’s model is to sign contracts with colleges that agree to use
the platform to offer free courses and to get a percentage of any revenue.
More than a dozen high-profile institutions, including Princeton and the U.
of Virginia, have joined.
Udacity
Another for-profit company founded
by a Stanford computer-science professor.
The company, which works with individual professors
rather than institutions, has attracted a range of well-known scholars.
Unlike other providers of MOOC’s, it has said it will focus all of its
courses on computer science and related fields.
Udemy
A for-profit platform that lets
anyone set up a course.
The company encourages its instructors to charge a
small fee, with the revenue split between instructor and company. Authors
themselves, more than a few of them with no academic affiliation, teach many
of the courses.
"The Future Is Now?" by Joe Hoyle, Teaching Blog, August 13,
2012 ---
http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-future-is-now.html
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs, MITx, and Courses from Prestigious
Universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives in
general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"Coursera Tops 1 Million Students," Inside Higher Ed, August
10, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/10/coursera-tops-1-million-students
Coursera, the company that provides support and Web
hosting for massive open online courses at top universities, announced
Thursday that more than 1 million students have registered for its courses.
The company now serves as a MOOC platform for 16 universities and lists 116
courses, most of which have not started yet. The students registering for
the courses are increasingly from the United States. Coursera told Inside
Higher Ed earlier this summer that about 25 percent of its students hailed
from the United States; that figure now stands at 38.5 percent, or about
385,000 students. Brazil, India and China follow, with between 40,000 to
60,000 registrants each. U.S. students cannot easily get formal credit
through Coursera or its partners institutions, but some universities abroad
reportedly have awarded credit to students who have taken the free courses.
Bob Jensen's threads on educating the masses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Started by Two Economics Professors from George Mason University ---
Click Here
Marginal Revolution University Launches, Bringing Free Courses in Economics
to the Web --- Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/10/marginal_revolution_university_launches_bringing_free_courses_in_economics_to_the_web.html
A great year for open education got even better with the launch of Marginal
Revolution University. Founded by Tyler
Cowen and Alex
Tabarrok, two econ professors at George Mason University, MRUniversity promises
to deliver free, interactive courses in the economics space. And they’re
getting started with a course on
Development
Economics, a subdiscipline that explores why some countries grow rich
and others remain poor. In short, issues that have real meaning for everyday
people worldwide.
In an
announcement on the Marginal Revolution blog last month, Cowen outlined
a few of the principles guiding the project:
1. The product is free, and we offer more material in less time.
2. Most of our videos are short, so you can view and listen between
tasks, rather than needing to schedule time for them. The average video
is five minutes, twenty-eight seconds long. When needed, more videos
are used to explain complex topics.
3. No talking heads and no long, boring lectures. We have tried to
reconceptualize every aspect of the educational experience to be
friendly to the on-line world.
4. It is low bandwidth and mobile-friendly. No ads.
5. We offer tests and quizzes.
6. We have plans to subtitle the videos in major languages. Our
reach will be global, and in doing so we are building upon the global
emphasis of our home institution, George Mason University.
7. We invite users to submit content.
8. It is a flexible learning module. It is not a “MOOC”
per se, although it can be used to create a MOOC, namely a massive, open
on-line course.
9. It is designed to grow rapidly and flexibly, absorbing new content
in modular fashion — note the beehive structure to our logo. But we are
starting with plenty of material.
10. We are pleased to announce that our first course will begin on
October 1.
Bookmark MRUniversity
and look out for its curriculum to expand. In the meantime, you can find
more courses in the
Economics section of our big list of 530
Free
Courses Online.
Marginal Revolution University Launches, Bringing Free Courses in Economics
to the Web is a post from:
Open Culture. You
can follow Open Culture on
Facebook,
Twitter,
Google Plus and by
Email.
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, tutorials, videos, and course
materials from prestigious universities and MOOCs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
I’ve just uploaded the first 8 lectures in my Behavioral Finance class
for 2012. The first few lectures are very similar to last year’s, but the
content changes substantially by about lecture 5 when I start to focus more
on Schumpeter’s approach to endogenous money ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
Related book: Debunking
Economics
Jensen Comment
These are quite good slide show lectures.
Bob Jensen's Threads on Behavioral and Cultural Economics and Finance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#Behavioral
Bob Jensen's threads on tutorials, lectures, videos and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
Bob Jensen's threads on tutorials, lectures, videos and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/09/23/behavioral-finance-lectures/
"Score One for the Robo-Tutors," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher
Ed, May 22, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/22/report-robots-stack-human-professors-teaching-intro-stats
Without diminishing learning outcomes, automated
teaching software can reduce the amount of time professors spend with
students and could substantially reduce the cost of instruction, according
to new research.
In experiments at six public universities, students
assigned randomly to statistics courses that relied heavily on
“machine-guided learning” software -- with reduced face time with
instructors -- did just as well, in less time, as their counterparts in
traditional, instructor-centric versions of the courses. This largely held
true regardless of the race, gender, age, enrollment status and family
background of the students.
The
study comes at a time when “smart” teaching
software is being
increasingly included in conversations about
redrawing the economics of higher education. Recent investments by
high-profile universities in “massively open online courses,” or MOOCs, has
elevated the notion that technology has reached a tipping point: with the
right design, an online education platform, under the direction of a single
professor, might be capable of delivering meaningful education to hundreds
of thousands of students at once.
The new research from the nonprofit organization
Ithaka was seeking to prove the viability of a less expansive application of
“machine-guided learning” than the new MOOCs are attempting -- though one
that nevertheless could have real implications for the costs of higher
education.
The study, called “Interactive Learning Online at
Public Universities,” involved students taking introductory statistics
courses at six (unnamed) public universities. A total of 605 students were
randomly assigned to take the course in a “hybrid” format: they met in
person with their instructors for one hour a week; otherwise, they worked
through lessons and exercises using an artificially intelligent learning
platform developed by learning scientists at Carnegie Mellon University’s
Open Learning Initiative.
Researchers compared these students against their
peers in the traditional-format courses, for which students met with a live
instructor for three hours per week, using several measuring sticks: whether
they passed the course, their performance on a standardized test (the
Comprehensive Assessment of Statistics), and the final exam for the course,
which was the same for both sections of the course at each of the
universities.
The results will provoke science-fiction
doomsayers, and perhaps some higher-ed traditionalists. “Our results
indicate that hybrid-format students took about one-quarter less time to
achieve essentially the same learning outcomes as traditional-format
students,” report the Ithaka researchers.
The robotic software did have disadvantages, the
researchers found. For one, students found it duller than listening to a
live instructor. Some felt as though they had learned less, even if they
scored just as well on tests. Engaging students, such as professors might by
sprinkling their lectures with personal anecdotes and entertaining asides,
remains one area where humans have the upper hand.
But on straight teaching the machines were judged
to be as effective, and more efficient, than their personality-having
counterparts.
It is
not the first time the software used in the
experiment, developed over the last five years or so by Carnegie Mellon’s
Open Learning Initiative, has been proven capable of teaching students
statistics in less time than a traditional course while maintaining learning
outcomes. So far that research has failed to persuade many traditional
institutions to deploy the software -- ostensibly for fear of shortchanging
students and alienating faculty with what is liable to be seen as an attempt
to use technology as a smokescreen for draconian personnel cuts.
But the authors of the new report, led by William
G. Bowen, the former president of Princeton University, hope their study --
which is the largest and perhaps the most rigorous to date on the
effectiveness of machine-guided learning -- will change minds.
“As several leaders of higher education made clear
to us in preliminary conversations, absent real evidence about learning
outcomes there is no possibility of persuading most traditional colleges and
universities, and especially those regarded as thought leaders, to push hard
for the introduction of [machine-guided] instruction” on their campuses.
Continued in article
"‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window
Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-range-learners-study-opens-window-into-how-students-hunt-for-educational-content-online/36137?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Concept Knowledge, Competency Testing, and Assessment of Deep
Understanding ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the explosion of distance education and training
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
The MOOC Model Revisited
"Massive Open Online Courses: How: 'The Social” Alters the Relationship
Between Learners and Facilitators'," by Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed,
April 30, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/massive-open-online-courses-how-%E2%80%9C-social%E2%80%9D-alters-relationship-between
We're getting close to the tail end of the
36-week-long experiment called #change11, or “the mother of all MOOCs.”
How can I tell?
First, I'm getting ready to facilitate my week, exploring Digital
Identities. I'm second-last in the lineup, so the fact that I'm on deck
means the whole undertaking is drawing to a close.
But it's also clear we're winding down because the #change11 conversation
hubs have begun to resemble, uh, ghost-towns. Once there were lively
debates and intense exchanges. As the winter wore into the spring of the
year, though, the tumbleweeds began to tickle.
Note to self: next time you facilitate a MOOC module, pick Week #2, not Week
#35.
Any course that runs from September through May requires stamina. When that
course is voluntary on the part of both learners and facilitators, and runs
as a series of totally separate modules, the drop-off can be fairly
significant. Erm, even my own participation as a student has crawled to a
stop over the last month or two.
I find myself wondering if the other learners will be keener than I've been?
Am I going to throw a MOOC and have nobody show up?
I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm a teacher at heart. I'll put the work into
developing my one-week course whether there are going to be 3 students or
300. But as I'm preparing, I'm thinking about what it means to facilitate in
a truly social, networked, voluntary environment like #change11.
Or the internet.
As the awareness of the MOOC experiment grows, the term is being
increasingly applied to grand-scale enterprises like the Stanford AI course
and MITx. While heady, this blurs some very important distinctions.
The MOOC model from which #change11 originates was built on the connectivist
learning theory of George Siemens and Stephen Downes. Highly social in
format, these courses tend to be experimental, non-linear, and deeply
dialogic and participatory. Contributions from participants frequently
direct the course of discussion, and the connections and ideas built between
learners can be considered as valuable as the knowledge expounded by the
facilitator.
On the other hand, the MOOC models offered by the big universities tend
towards formalized curricula, content delivery, and verification of
completed learning objectives.
Far more embedded in traditional paradigms of knowledge and teaching, these
courses only harness the connectivity of social media insofar as they enable
masses of people to link themselves to the prestige of a big-name
institution. They offer discussion boards, but their purpose is
content-focused, not connection-focused.
If I were teaching in an MITx-style course, I'd have a very different module
ahead of me, one far more familiar to me as a higher ed instructor.
I've been teaching for eighteen years. I profess to be in favour of
learner-centered classrooms. But until this MOOC module, every single course
I've taught has on some level obliged the students to be there. I am
accustomed to having the institutional powers of status, credentialism, and
grading backing me in the classroom.
In the connectivist MOOC model, I don't.
There is no bonus for learners who participate in my week of #change11. They
won't get a badge at the end, and there is no certification announcing they
completed anything. There's nothing specific for them to complete, unless I
design an exit goal as part of the week's activities. But that would be MY
exit goal: not theirs. They don't get to put the word MIT on their CV. And
while some weeks of the #change11 MOOC have allowed participants to connect
with leaders in the learning and technologies field – Howard Rheingold,
Pierre Levy – I'm among the less well-known of the 30-plus facilitators in
the year's lineup. They won't even get the relational perk of engaging with
somebody famous.Continued in article
Higher Education Bubble ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_bubble
Educating the Masses: From MITx to EDX
Harvard and MIT Create EDX to Offer Free Online Courses Worldwide ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/harvard_and_mit_create_edx_to_offer_free_online_courses_worldwide.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
It all started early last fall. Sebastian Thrun
went a little rogue (oh the audacity!) and started offering
free online courses under Stanford’s banner to mass audiences,
with each course promising a “statement of
accomplishment” at the end. Hundreds of thousands of students signed up, and
universities everywhere took notice.
Since then we have witnessed universities and
startups scrambling fairly madly to create their own MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses), hoping to gain a foothold in a new area that could
eventually disrupt education in a major way. In December,
MIT announced the creation of MITx, promising
free courses and a “certificate of completion” to students worldwide.
Sebastian Thrun left Stanford to create Udacity, and another Stanford
spinoff,
Coursera, gained instant traction when it
announced in April that it had raised $16 million in venture capital and
signed partnerships with Princeton, Penn and U Michigan.
Now comes the latest news. MIT has teamed up with
its Cambridge neighbor, Harvard, to create
a new non profit venture, EDX. To date, Harvard
has barely dabbled
in open education. But it’s now throwing
$30 million behind
EDX (M.I.T. will do
the same), and together they will offer free digital courses worldwide, with
students receiving the obligatory certificate of mastery at the end. The EDX
platform will be open source, meaning it will be open to other universities.
Whether EDX will replace MITx, or sit uncomfortably beside it, we’re not
entirely sure (though it looks like it’s the former).
Classes will begin next fall. And when they do,
we’ll let you know … and, of course, we’ll add them to our massive
collection of 450 Free
Online Courses.
For more information, you can watch the
EDX press conference
here and read an
FAQ here.
"Will MITx Disrupt Higher Education?" by Robert Talbert, Chronicle
of Higher Education, December 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2011/12/20/will-mitx-disrupt-higher-education/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
"Innovations in Higher Education? Hah! College leaders need to move
beyond talking about transformation before it's too late," by Ann Kirschner,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Innovations-in-Higher/131424/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, lectures, videos, and course
materials from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
MOOC ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooc
"Who Takes MOOCs?" by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 5,
2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/05/early-demographic-data-hints-what-type-student-takes-mooc
"Coursera Tops 1 Million Students," Inside Higher Ed, August
10, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/10/coursera-tops-1-million-students
Coursera, the company that provides support and Web
hosting for massive open online courses at top universities, announced
Thursday that more than 1 million students have registered for its courses.
The company now serves as a MOOC platform for 16 universities and lists 116
courses, most of which have not started yet. The students registering for
the courses are increasingly from the United States. Coursera told Inside
Higher Ed earlier this summer that about 25 percent of its students hailed
from the United States; that figure now stands at 38.5 percent, or about
385,000 students. Brazil, India and China follow, with between 40,000 to
60,000 registrants each. U.S. students cannot easily get formal credit
through Coursera or its partners institutions, but some universities abroad
reportedly have awarded credit to students who have taken the free courses.
Bob Jensen's threads on educating the masses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Purdue Kicks Off Global Online-Education Project," by Nick DeSantis,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/purdue-kicks-off-global-online-education-project/36339
Purdue University today joined the group of
universities that have recently announced plans to experiment with online
courses aimed at a global audience.
The new effort, called PurdueHUB-U, will serve up
modular online courses with video lectures, interactive visualizations, and
tools for students to interact with their peers and the professor. The
project’s leaders hope it will improve face-to-face classes and bring in
revenue by attracting students around the world.
PurdueHUB-U grew out of a course taught this year
on Purdue’s nanoHUB, a collaborative platform for nanotechnology research.
The course, on the fundamentals of nanoelectronics, was broken into two
parts that lasted a few weeks each. It attracted 900 students from 27
countries, most of whom paid $30 for the class and a certificate of
completion. Students also had the option to turn their certificates into
continuing-education credits for an additional $195.
Timothy D. Sands, Purdue’s provost, called that
pricing model a “low outer paywall” that was much cheaper than traditional
credit-hour charges, but not quite free. He added that the project will
first focus on developing online course materials to transform the
university’s face-to-face classes. Mr. Sands said the course modules could
also be offered to Purdue alumni, allowing them to continue their education
after they graduate.
Continued in article
Educating the Masses: From MITx to EDX
Harvard and MIT Create EDX to Offer Free Online Courses Worldwide ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/harvard_and_mit_create_edx_to_offer_free_online_courses_worldwide.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on MITx and other free courses, lectures, videos and
course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window
Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 25, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-range-learners-study-opens-window-into-how-students-hunt-for-educational-content-online/36137?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Milwaukee —
Digital natives? The idea that students are superengaged finders of
online learning materials once struck Glenda Morgan, e-learning
strategist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as “a load
of hooey.” Students, she figured, probably stick with the textbooks and
other content they’re assigned in class.
Not quite. The preliminary
results of a multiyear study of undergraduates’ online study habits,
presented by Ms. Morgan at a conference on blended learning here this
week, show that most students shop around for digital texts and videos
beyond the boundaries of what professors assign them in class.
“It’s almost like
they want to find the content by themselves,” Ms. Morgan said in an
interview after her talk, which took place in a packed room at the
9th
Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference & Workshop.
It’s nothing new
to hear that students
supplement their studies with other
universities’ online lecture videos. But Ms. Morgan’s research—backed by
the National Science Foundation, based on 14 focus-group interviews at a
range of colleges, and buttressed by a large online survey going on
now—paints a broader picture of how they’re finding content, where
they’re getting it, and why they’re using it.
Ms. Morgan borrows the
phrase “free-range learning” to describe students’ behavior, and she
finds that they generally shop around for content in places educators
would endorse. Students seem most favorably inclined to materials from
other universities. They mention lecture videos from Stanford and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology far more than the widely
publicized Khan Academy, she says. If they’re on a pre-med or
health-science track, they prefer recognized “brands” like the Mayo
Clinic. Students often seek this outside content due to dissatisfaction
with their own professors, Ms. Morgan says.
The study should be
welcome news for government agencies, universities, and others in the
business of publishing online libraries of educational content—although
students tend to access these sources from the “side door,” like via a
Google search for a very specific piece of information.
But the study also
highlights the challenge facing professors and librarians. Students
report relying on friends to get help and share resources, Ms. Morgan
says, whereas their responses suggest “much less of a role” for
“conventional authority figures.”
They “don’t want to ask
librarians or tutors in the study center or stuff like that,” she says.
“It’s more the informal networks that they’re using.”
Ms. Morgan confesses to
some concerns about her own data. She wonders how much students are
“telling me what I want to hear.” She also worries that she’s tapping
into a disproportionate slice of successful students.
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Searchh.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses,
tutorials, videos, and course materials from prestigious universities and Kahn
Academy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Thousands of Open Sharing "Tutorials" On YouTube from a Harvard Business School
Graduate
Khan Academy Home Page ---
http://www.khanacademy.org/
This site lists the course categories (none for accounting)
Khan Academy Home Page ---
http://www.khanacademy.org/
This site lists the course categories (none for accounting)
"How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education," by Clive
Thompson, Wired News, July 15, 2011 ---
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and the Khan Academy (a free, non-credit
site with hundreds of learning modules) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
2,300+ YouTube Free Educational Videos from Salman Khan
"Salman Khan: The Messiah of Math: Can an ex-hedge fund guy and his
nonprofit Khan Academy make American school kids competitive again?" by
Bryant Urstadt, Business Week, May 19, 2011 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_22/b4230072816925.htm?link_position=link3
In August 2004, Salman Khan agreed to help his
niece, Nadia, with her math homework. Nadia was headed into seventh grade in
New Orleans, where Khan had grown up, but she hadn't been placed in her
private school's advanced math track, which to a motivated parent these days
is a little bit like hearing your child has just been diagnosed with Lou
Gehrig's disease. In particular, Nadia was having trouble with unit
conversion, turning gallons into liters and ounces into grams.
Math was something Khan, then 28, understood. It
was one of his majors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along
with computer science and electrical engineering. He had gone on to get a
master's in computer science and electrical engineering, also at MIT, and
then an MBA from Harvard. He was working in Boston at the time for Daniel
Wohl, who ran a hedge fund called Wohl Capital Management. Khan, an analyst,
was the only employee.
Being a bit of a geek, Khan put Yahoo!'s (YHOO)
Messenger to work to help Nadia, using the Doodle function to let him
illustrate concepts for his niece as they spoke on the phone. Then he wrote
some code that generated problems she could do on a website. With Khan's
help, Nadia made it into the fast track, and her younger brothers Arman and
Ali signed on for Khan's tutoring as well. Then they brought in some of
their friends. Khan built his site out a little more, grouping the concepts
into "modules" and creating a database that would keep track of how many
problems the kids had tried and how they had fared, so he'd know how each of
his charges was progressing.
Messenger didn't make sense with multiple viewers,
so he started creating videos that he could upload to YouTube. This required
a Wacom tablet with an electronic pen, which cost about $80. The videos were
each about 10 minutes long and contained two elements: his blackboard-style
diagrams—Khan happens to be an excellent sketcher—and his voice-over
explaining things like greatest common divisors and equivalent fractions. He
posted the first video on Nov. 16, 2006; in it, he explained the basics of
least common multiples. Soon other students, not all children, were checking
out his videos, then watching them all, then sending him notes telling him
that he had saved their math careers, too.
Less than five years later, Khan's sideline has
turned into more than just his profession. He's now a quasi-religious figure
in a country desperate for a math Moses. His free website, dubbed the Khan
Academy, may well be the most popular educational site in the world. Last
month about 2 million students visited. MIT's OpenCourseWare site, by
comparison, has been around since 2001 and averages 1 million visits each
month. He has posted more than 2,300 videos, beginning with simple addition
and going all the way to subjects such as Green's theorem, normally found in
a college calculus syllabus. He's adding videos on accounting, the credit
crisis, the French Revolution, and the SAT and GMAT, among other things. He
masters the subjects himself and then teaches them. As of the end of April,
he claims to have served up more than 54 million individual lessons.
His program has also spread from the homes of
online learners to classrooms around the world, to the point that, in at
least a few classrooms, it has supplanted textbooks. (Students often write
Khan that they aced a course without opening their texts, though Khan
doesn't post these notes on his site.) Dan Meyer, a high school math teacher
and Stanford University PhD candidate in education, puts it this way: "If
you're teaching math in this country right now, then there's pretty much no
way you haven't heard of Salman Khan."
Continued in article
"Video: Salman Khan @ Google 'Free World Class Virtual School(s)',"
Simoleon Sense, March 28, 2011 ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/video-salman-khan-google-free-world-class-virtual-schools/
"A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man 'Academy' on YouTube: Are
his 10-minute lectures the future?" by Jeffrey Young, Chronicle of Higher
Education, June 6, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Self-Appointed-Teacher-Runs/65793/?sid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
The most popular educator on YouTube does not have
a Ph.D. He has never taught at a college or university. And he delivers all
of his lectures from a bedroom closet.
This upstart is Salman Khan, a 33-year-old who quit
his job as a financial analyst to spend more time making homemade lecture
videos in his home studio. His unusual teaching materials started as a way
to tutor his faraway cousins, but his lectures have grown into an online
phenomenon—and a kind of protest against what he sees as a flawed
educational system.
"My single biggest goal is to try to deliver things
the way I wish they were delivered to me," he told me recently.
The resulting videos don't look or feel like
typical college lectures or any of the lecture videos that traditional
colleges put on their Web sites or YouTube channels. For one thing, these
lectures are short—about 10 minutes each. And they're low-tech: Viewers see
only the scrawls of equations or bad drawings that Mr. Khan writes on his
digital sketchpad software as he narrates.
The lo-fi videos seem to work for students, many of
whom have written glowing testimonials or even donated a few bucks via a
PayPal link. The free videos have drawn hundreds of thousands of views,
making them more popular than the lectures by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, famous for making course materials free, or any other
traditional institution online, according to the leaders of YouTube's
education section.
Mr. Khan calls his collection of videos "Khan
Academy," and he lists himself as founder and faculty. That means he teaches
every subject, and he has produced 1,400 lectures since he started in 2006.
Now he records one to five lectures per day.
He started with subject matter he knows best—math
and engineering, which he studied as an undergraduate at MIT. But lately he
has added history lectures about the French Revolution and biology lectures
on "Embryonic Stem Cells" and "Introduction to Cellular Respiration."
If Mr. Khan is unfamiliar with a subject he wants
to teach, he gives himself a crash course first. In a recent talk he
explained how he prepared for his lecture on entropy: "I took two weeks off
and I just pondered it, and I called every professor and everyone I could
talk to and I said, Let's go have a glass of wine about entropy. After about
two weeks it clicked in my brain, and I said, now I'm willing to make a
video about entropy."
Some critics have blogged that this learn-as-you-go
approach is no way to run an educational project—and they worry that the
videos may contain errors or lead students astray.
But to Mr. Khan, occasional mistakes are part of
his method. By watching him stumble through a problem, students see the
process better, he argues. Sometimes they correct him in comments on his
YouTube videos, and he says this makes students more engaged with the
material. "Sometimes when it's a little rough, it's going to be a better
product than when you overprepare," he says.
The Khan Academy explicitly challenges many of
higher-education's most sacred assumptions: that professional academics make
the best teachers; that hourlong lectures are the best way to relate
material; and that in-person teaching is better than videos. Mr. Khan argues
that his little lectures disprove all of that.
Watching his videos highlights how little the Web
has changed higher education. Many online courses at traditional colleges
simply replicate the in-person model—often in ways that are not as
effective. And what happens in most classrooms varies little from 50 years
ago (or more). Which is why Mr. Khan's videos come as a surprise, with their
informal style, bite-sized units, and simple but effective use of
multimedia.
The Khan Academy raises the question: What if
colleges could be retooled with new technologies in mind?
College From Scratch Mr. Khan is not the only one
asking that question these days.
Clay Shirky, an associate teacher at New York
University and a popular Internet guru, recently challenged his more than
50,000 Twitter followers with a similar thought exercise:
"If you were going to create a college from
scratch, what would you do?"
Bursts of creativity quickly Twittered in, and Mr.
Shirky collected and organized the responses on a Web site. The resulting
visions are either dreams of an education future or nightmares, depending on
your viewpoint:
All students should be required to teach as well,
said @djstrouse. Limit tenure to eight years, argued @jakewk. Have every
high-school senior take a year before college to work in some kind of
service project away from his or her hometown, said @alicebarr. Some
Twittering brainstormers even named their fictional campuses. One was called
FailureCollege, where every grade is an F to desensitize students to failure
and encourage creativity. Another was dubbed LifeCollege, where only life
lessons are taught.
When I caught up with Mr. Shirky recently, he
described the overall tone of the responses as "bloody-minded." Did that
surprise him?
"I was surprised—by the range of responses, but
also partly by the heat of the responses," he said. "People were mad when
they think about the gap between what is possible and what happened in their
own educations."
Mr. Shirky declined to endorse any of the Twitter
models or to offer his prediction of how soon or how much colleges will
change. But he did argue that higher education is ripe for revolution.
For him the biggest question is not whether a new
high-tech model of higher education will emerge, but whether the alternative
will come from inside traditional higher education or from some new upstart.
Voting With Their Checkbooks Lately, several
prominent technology entrepreneurs have taken an interest in Mr. Khan's
model and have made generous contributions to the academy, which is now a
nonprofit entity.
Mr. Khan said that several people he had never met
have made $10,000 contributions. And last month, Ann and John Doerr,
well-known venture capitalists, gave $100,000, making it possible for Mr.
Khan to give himself a small salary for the academy so he can spend less of
his time doing consulting projects to pay his mortgage. Over all, he said,
he's collected about $150,000 in donations and makes $2,000 a month from ads
on his Web site.
I called up one of the donors, Jason Fried, chief
executive of 37signals, a hip business-services company, who recently gave
an undisclosed amount to Khan Academy, to find out what the attraction was.
"The next bubble to burst is higher education," he
said. "It's too expensive for people—there's no reason why parents should
have to save up a hundred grand to send their kids to college. I like that
there are alternative ways of thinking about teaching."
No one I talked to saw Khan Academy as an
alternative to traditional colleges (for one thing, it doesn't grant
degrees). When I called a couple of students who posted enthusiastic posts
to Facebook, they said they saw it as a helpful supplement to the classroom
experience.
Mr. Khan has a vision of turning his Web site into
a kind of charter school for middle- and high-school students, by adding
self-paced quizzes and ways for the site to certify that students have
watched certain videos and passed related tests. "This could be the DNA for
a physical school where students spend 20 percent of their day watching
videos and doing self-paced exercises and the rest of the day building
robots or painting pictures or composing music or whatever," he said.
The Khan Academy is a concrete answer to Mr.
Shirky's challenge to create a school from scratch, and it's an example of
something new in the education landscape that wasn't possible before. And it
serves as a reminder to be less reverent about those long-held assumptions.
Jensen Comment
The YouTube Education Link ---
http://www.youtube.com/education?lg=EN&b=400&s=pop
I could not find Khan Academy tutorials linked at the above site.
The Khan Academy YouTube Channel is at
http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy
The above site also links to a PBS News item about Khan Academy
Khan Academy Home Page ---
http://www.khanacademy.org/
This site lists the course categories (none for accounting)
Although Khan Academy has many general education tutorials and quite a few
things in economics and finance, I could not find much on accounting. One
strength of the site seems to be in mathematics. There is also a category on
Valuation and Investing which might be useful for personal finance.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing lectures, videos, and course
materials from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on free tutorials and videos in various academic
disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
"MIT Introduces Complete Courses to
OpenCourseWare Project," OpenCulture.com, January 13, 2011 ---
http://www.openculture.com/2011/01/mit_opencourseware_introduces_complete_courses.html
This week, MIT’s
OpenCourseWare project launched OCW
Scholar, a new series of courses “designed for
independent learners who have few additional resources available to them.”
To date, MIT has given students access to isolated materials from MIT
courses. Now, with this new initiative, lifelong learners can work with a
more rounded set of resources.
OWC
Scholar takes video lectures, homework problems,
problem solving videos, simulations, readings, etc., and stitches them into
a structured curriculum. Perfect for the self-disciplined student.
Below we have listed
the first five courses in the
OWC
Scholar collection. (They’re entirely free.) Fast
forward three years and you will find 20 courses online,
says MIT. All will be
added to our big list of
Free
Online Courses.
Physics 1: Classical Mechanics
Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism
Introduction to Solid State Chemistry
Single Variable Calculus
Multivariable Calculus
Business School Podcast Collection – Download MBA Podcasts and other
Business Podcasts ---
http://www.openculture.com/2007/02/business_school.html
Bob Jensen's threads on the sharing of course materials and videos from
various prestigious universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Video: Open Education for an Open World
45-minute Video from the Long-Time President of MIT ---
http://18.9.60.136/video/816
The Brunel Lecture Series on Complex
Systems, presented by MIT's Engineering Systems Division (ESD), was made
possible by funds assembled and underwritten by Frank P. Davidson, convener
of the Channel Tunnel Study Group (1957). It was this group's design,
accomplished by agreement with Bechtel Corporation, Brown & Root, Inc. and
Morrison-Knudsen Company, Inc. in 1959, that formed the basis of the subsea
railway link now in service between England and France.
The Financial Crisis, the Recession, and America’s Future: A Systemic
Perspective (2010)
by Charles Ferguson
filmmaker, Inside Job
Liberty by Design: An Internet Practitioner's Perspective (2009)
by Alan Davidson
Director of Goverment Relations and Public Policy for Google
View on MIT
World
From IT to Cleantech: New Sources of Innovation (2008)
by Shai Agassi
Founder and CEO, Better Place
View on MIT
World
Process Improvement in the Rarified Environment of Academic Medicine
(2007)
by Paul F. Levy
President and Chief Executive Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center
View on MIT
World
Educating Engineers for 2020 and Beyond (2006)
by Dr. Charles M. Vest
President Emeritus and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
View on MIT
World
The 21st Century is about Engineering, Systems, and Society (2005)
by Dr. A. Richard Newton
Dean of the College of Engineering at University of California at Berkeley;
Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Sciences
Engineering Engineering Systems (2004)
by Thomas L. Magnanti
Institute Professor
Dean, MIT School of Engineering
View on MIT
World
The Columbia Tragedy: System-Level Issues for Engineering (2003)
by Sheila Widnall
Member, Columbia Accident Investigation Board
Member, National Women's Hall of Fame
Institute Professor, Professor of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Engineering
Systems, Engineering Systems Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
View on MIT
World
Living with Catastrophic Terrorism: Can Science and Technology Make the U.S.
Safer? (2002)
by Lewis M. Branscomb
Co-chair, Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism,
National Research Council and Professor Emeritus, Public Policy and
Corporate Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University
View on MIT World
Simple Systems and Other Myths (2001)
by Norman R. Augustine
Former President, CEO, and Chairman and Current Chairman, Executive
Committee, Lockheed Martin Corporatio
Graduates Who Are Happy to Land Minimum Wage Careers
"Little-Known (usually unaccredited) Colleges Exploit Visa Loopholes to Make
Millions Off Foreign Students," by Tom Bartlett, Karin Fischer, and Josh
Keller, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Little-Known-Colleges-Make/126822/
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges working in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges working in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
June 19, 2010 message from Tom Hood
[tom@MACPA.ORG]
Greetings Colleagues,
I have two sons home for the summer asking if I
know of any great resources to help them get ahead of Intermediate
Accounting as they approach the fall semester. I figured I would go to the
best source I know of to help them out – these two listservs.
So can you direct me to any on-line and other
resources that may get them studying for Intermediate Accounting I and
Intermediate Accounting II?
Also, what advice would you give them on how to
approach these courses (one is in I and the older in II)?
I will also be sharing this on our student site…
On another note – we are working in an
International Pavilion on CPA Island in Second Life and our Accounting
Eductaion Pavilion (see details at
www.cpaisland.com
and
www.slacpa.org ).
We continue to offer free kiosks with links to your
colleges and universities and free areas to meet as classes. We have an
interne working this summer who can give you a demo and show you around –
just send an e-mail to my attention ad mention the CPA Island.
Thanks,
Warmest regards,
Tom
Tom Hood, CPA.CITP CEO & Executive Director
Maryland Association of CPAs Business Learning Institute
www.macpa.org
www.bizlearning.net
June 20, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Tom,
First of all consider video alternatives. More than 100 universities have
set up channels on YouTube ---
http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
Next take a topic list from a typical intermediate accounting textbook,
some of which are free (not necessarily completely up to date for rapidly
changing standards) at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Then search for the term "accounting" at
http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
Scroll down to find videos that might be relevant to intermediate accounting
topics. Some of these videos are more up to date than even the latest
textbooks.
Some of these videos are from the top teachers or top CPA firm leaders (like
Jim Turley's videos) in the world.
Also note that if you search out the instructor (usually found at her/his
university) you will often find more course materials available for
downloading. Also email messages to these instructors may result in more
shared learning materials.
But more importantly, Tom, consider the goals of your two sons in
studying for intermediate accounting. The overriding goal of an intermediate
accounting student is to eventually pass the CPA examination. For studying
intermediate accounting I would have your sons dig directly into a CPA
examination review course and focus on the answers to CPA examination
questions in the topical areas identified above in intermediate accounting
textbooks. They have to pick and chose topics found in an intermediate
accounting textbook, because many CPA examination questions come from other
courses such as advanced accounting and governmental accounting and tax
accounting and managerial accounting.
A free CPA examination review package, complete with practice questions,
answers, and examinations, is available at
http://cpareviewforfree.com/
If you want more video review modules for the CPA examination, then a
commercial package is probably better ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010303CPAExam
There are some topics that are probably not totally up to date in even
the latest available intermediate accounting textbooks. One is IFRS
although, unless your sons will be taking intermediate accounting from an
IFRS nut, I would probably not worry too much about technical IFRS problems
on the CPA examination in the near future. However, great free materials for
learning IFRS are available at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#IFRSlearning
In a typical intermediate accounting two semester sequence, much of the
first semester is spent reviewing basic accounting (especially in
universities that receive a large number of community college transfer
students). If your sons need video reviews of basic accounting, I highly
recommend Susan Crosson's video lectures. The links are at the bottom of the
page at
http://www.youtube.com/SusanCrosson
Look for "Financial Videos Organized by Topic."
Members of the American Accounting Association, including student
members, can find some instructional helper materials at the AAA Commons ---
http://commons.aaahq.org/pages/home
Click on the menu choice "Teaching" and then "Browse resources."
Implied in all the above recommendations is a learning pedagogy that
pretty much entails memory aiding and abetting in a traditional manner
(study the problems and then study the textbook answers). At the other
extreme there is better and longer-lasting metacognitive learning such as
the award-winning BAM pedagogy (for an intermediate accounting two-course
sequence) invented by Catanach, Croll, and Grinacker ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/265wp.htm
This pedagogy is more like the real world where your supervisor gives you a
problem to solve and you go out and solve it any way you can. You can study
BAM's problems, but there are no answers provided to study. Students have to
teach themselves by seeking out the answers from anywhere in the world.
Although the BAM pedagogy would be much more time consuming for your
sons, you can probably get the Hydromate Case and some of the instructional
support materials from Tony Catanach ---
anthony.catanach@villanova.edu
If Tony is not available, Noah Barsky can help ---
noah.barsky@villanova.edu
By the way, at the University of Virginia, where the BAM pedagogy was
born, the passage rate on the CPA examination rose dramatically after
switching to the BAM pedagogy in intermediate accounting, This is not
surprising since you remember best those things you had to learn on your
own. Of course many students looking for an easy way out hate the BAM
pedagogy.
Bob Jensen
Readings and Printed
References of Possible Interest
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment and accreditation --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Distance Education Websites --- http://ejw.i8.com/distweb.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the shocking future of distance education are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on technology in education are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of distance learning and education
technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Portal to Asian Internet Resources --- http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/PAIR/index.html
U.S. Department of Education ---
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
Department of Education: Office of Vocational and Adult Education ---
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/index.html?src=oc
European Centre for Higher Education ---
http://www.cepes.ro/
The Physical Sciences Resources Center ---
http://www.psrc-online.org/
A collection of information and resources for
physical sciences education is just a mouse-click away! You may search the
collection by keyword or name, or browse the collection by topic, object
type, or grade level.
General Chemistry Online ---
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml
League for Innovation in the Community College ---
http://www.league.org/
"Help Site for the Poor," Wired News, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71116-0.html?tw=wn_index_17
The site would provide information about such
basics as public safety, emergency services, education, health care and
jobs. U.S. Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Barack Obama, an
Illinois Democrat, serve as honorary co-chairmen of the group.
Continued in article
The One Economy homepage is at
http://www.one-economy.com/
Distance Learning Today will be a quarterly supplement to USA
Today newspaper
Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of The United States Distance
Learning Association, today announced his organization's sponsorship of
"Distance Learning Today," a quarterly supplement in USA TODAY. "Distance
learning is transforming the American educational landscape, through on-line
technology, video conferencing systems, satellite delivery and other media,"
Flores said. "We expect this supplement to be an invaluable guide for millions
of present and potential distance learners as well as a means for our member
institutions and corporate sponsors to reach them." The first supplement will
appear in September and is expected to exceed twenty pages. Editorial will
include features on the distance learning revolution, financing a distance
education, increasing acceptance of distance learning degrees among employers,
technology requirements and, importantly, how to evaluate the quality of a
distance learning offering. "Today, there are thousands of institutions offering
degrees and certifications for distance learners," Flores said. "It's timely to
provide the public with a reliable information resource concerning this dynamic
educational alternative." Formed in 1987, the United States Distance Learning
Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of the
distance learning community by promoting the development and application of
distance learning for education and training and by providing advocacy,
information, networking and distance learning opportunities.
PRWeb, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb396750.htm
Jensen Comment
PRWeb is a tremendous (overwhelming?) source of news in a huge set of categories
---
http://www.prweb.com/newsbycategory/index.htm
The
Dark Side of the 21st Century:
Concerns About Technologies in Education
The main
navigation page is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen
at Trinity
University
Table of Contents
ALN is defined as Asynchronous Learning Network(s) or Networking
"A Virtual Revolution: Trends in
the Expansion of Distance Education"
The U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act Undermines Public Access and Sharing
(Included Copyright Information and Dead Link Archives)
Also see Bob Jensen's threads on cheating and plagiarism
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Shrinking Customer Base for
eLearning?
Millions of Web Documents are
Not Being Archived for Future Scholars
Are Universities Becoming EMOs (Educational
Maintenance Organizations)?
Concerns About Academic Standards, School
Ethics and Student Ethics
Barriers to Distance Education
How can colleges best mix on-campus and
online delivery of instruction?
Concerns About Faculty
Resistance to Change and Mutation
Teachers Must Adapt to Changed Mindsets of Incoming Students Who Grew Up With
Computers
Concerns About Faculty Workloads and
Burnout
Online Cheating and Reduced Social
Interaction
Legal Concerns
Email and Teaching Evaluations Place Heavy
Burdens on Teachers
Student Concerns
Is your distance site operating
within the law in terms of access by disabled students?
Schools must demonstrate progress toward compliance.
The Digital Divide is Real
Lots of
Hype and Not Much Profit
Institutions, Reward Structures, and
Traditions That Defy Changes in Higher Education
Websites Failing Disabled and
Handicapped Users
Concerns About the Explosion of Online
Education
Concerns About High Attrition Rates
in Distance Education
Concerns About Residency Living &
Learning on Campus
Concerns About Impersonality and
Becoming Irrevocably Orwellian
Concerns About Making ALN Learning Too
Easy
Concerns About Making ALN Learning Too
Hard
Concerns About Corporate Influences on
Traditional Missions
Concerns About Library Services
Concerns About Academic Standards,
School Ethics and Student Ethics
Concerns About Messaging Overload
Concerns About Faculty Efficiency and
Burnout
Concerns About Misleading and
Fraudulent Web Sites
Concerns About CyberPsychology
Concerns About Computer Services and
Network Reliability
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to
Change
Concerns About Effectiveness of
Learning Technologies in Large Classes
Other Concerns
Students’ Distress with a Web-based Distance
Education Course: An Ethnographic Study of Participants' Experiences
New Foes
A Message from Peter Kenyon on November 18, 1999
The Force and the Darkside
David Noble's Concerns for Students' Privacy
Rights
Update Messages on Trends in
Corporate Education
Daring Professors
Growing Up is More Anxiety-Provoking/Stressful
Generation Gaps, Collegial Apathy or Hostility, and
Loneliness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DarkSide
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
The Downside of Electronic Commerce and Technology:
Psychological Implications ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Psychology
The
main navigation page is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Note from Bob Jensen: This article
delves rather deeply into the pedagogies of online programs such as programs at
the University of Phoenix and UNext's Cardian University.
"A Virtual Revolution: Trends in
the Expansion of Distance Education," by Thomas J. Kriger, USDLA Journal (a
refereed journal of the United States Distance Learning Association," November
2001 ---
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
This report
describes four major trends leading the growth of distance education. The
purpose is not to cover every provider but to draw a picture of the types of
organizational structures and educational activities that are on the rise.
These include:
- Existing
higher education institutions that have or are developing distance
education programs, such as e-Cornell, NYU Online, the University of
Illinois On-line; University of Maryland University College, Rio Salado
Community College, the SUNY Learning Network and Virtual Temple;
- Full virtual
universities, such as the University of Phoenix Online, Western
Governors University, Andrew Jackson University, Cappella University,
Jones International University, Kennedy-Warren University;
- Corporate
university or training institutions, such as the members of Corporate
University Xchange and Click2learn.
Corporate-university joint ventures. those that provide course management
systems such as Blackboard, Campus Pipeline, eCollege and Web CT, as well as
those who package and distribute courses or content from existing
institutions such as UNext.com, Cenquest, Fathom, Global Education Network,
Quisic and Universitas 21;
What do we learn
from these descriptions? First, we learn that the variety of new ways to
organize DE and reach new students is enormous, as is the talent that can be
brought to bear in making education attractive in the new medium. But we
also find that the way distance education is being organized and
conducted often poses serious questions.
Much of the
distance education under study here, whether non-profit or for-profit, is
built on corporate ideas about consumer focus, product standardization,
tight personnel control and cost effectiveness (maximizing course taking
while minimizing the "inputs" of faculty and development time). These
concepts are contrary to the traditional model of higher education
decision-making which emphasizes faculty independence in teaching and
research, academic control of the curriculum, academic freedom in the
classroom and collegial decision-making.
While traditional
practices are not sacrosanct, academic decision making processes have been
very successful in producing quality higher education the best in the world.
Our concern is that some of the new trends and practices described in this
report may inhibit rather than promote good education. A number of specific
concerns arose:
- Education
based primarily on the marketplace and the model of "student as
customer" is too narrow. Student and industry preferences certainly
matter in designing curricula, but if pleasing the customer is the
pre-eminent value, there is a real danger that the curriculum will
not be coherent, rigorous enough or broad enough to meet the student's
long-term interests.
- A central
characteristic of many DE providers is to "unbundle" the faculty role so
that different specialists develop the curriculum, teach the course,
evaluate student performance, etc. This allows for greater
standardization but it may not add up to better education.
-
Standardization of coursework also inhibits students from being exposed
to the diverse views of different faculty members with varying knowledge
and perspectives. This diversity is important in enabling students to
hone their own ideas and knowledge.
- Some programs
exhibited an inclination to increase class size as a means of increasing
the financial output of a course. The only proper consideration in
fixing class size is to maintain the best level to facilitate learning.
- Some programs
rely too heavily on testing for individual "outcomes" and "competencies"
while downgrading the importance of class time and social interaction in
developing deep knowledge about a subject. Along the same lines,
distance education providers too often dismiss the importance of
same-time same-place interaction rather than building it into their
programs whenever possible.
It is appropriate,
indeed essential, to present information for the DE marketplace in an
attractive, computer-friendly fashion. But over-attention to drawing
"customers" may result in technology driving the way teaching is
conducted-leading, for example, to models centered around bite-size, "point
and click" accumulations of facts rather than a more reflective, less easily
measured search for knowledge.
In the year 2000,
AFT published Distance Education: Guidelines for Good Practice. The
guidelines lay out 14 specific standards which, if observed, ensure high
quality distance education. (A synopsis of the guidelines appears in the
report's conclusion.) The guidelines advance AFT's belief that broad
academic content, high standards, personal interaction and professional
control are the key elements of educational quality. College faculty must
insist on sound practice based on a broad vision of education-one that
recognizes education is about more than facts, more than competencies, more
than career ambitions.
Education, among
other things, is about broadening intellectual horizons, relying on facts
and reason when confronting life issues and learning to listen to others and
defend ideas by the force of argument. That is why education is the
foundation of a working democracy. Because distance education is ubiquitous
and offers so much promise, faculty are obligated to carry the banner for
quality and good practice while recognizing that this will sometimes require
challenging current trends and practices
Continued at
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
Bob Jensen's documents on distance
education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Online Pedagogy at the University of Phoenix
Phoenix faculty work in a highly structured
environment. Course facilitators in traditional classes are forbidden to
lecture. Faculty are, instead, expected to closely follow Phoenix's
"teaching/ learning model," which begins with course syllabi and detailed
teaching modules developed by fulltime faculty on the main campus. In this
way, faculty responsibilities are broken down into a series of discrete
steps, such as when course development is detached from teaching. Phoenix
course modules "include guidelines for weekly assignments, group activities
and grading." Some course modules contain classroom time-management
guidelines broken down into 15-minute intervals.
Phoenix defends its practice of using these
restrictive guidelines in the name of standardization. The university's
online catalog declares: "The standardized curriculum for each degree
program provides students with specified levels of knowledge and skills
regardless of the delivery method or classroom location."
Critics argue, however, that Phoenix's course
modules violate academic freedom because they don't allow faculty members
sufficient discretion. Milton R. Blood, managing director of the American
Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business, has characterized Phoenix's
standardized curriculum as "McEducation." He explained, "It's a redefinition
of how we go about delivering higher education. The question is whether it's
really higher education when it's delivered in a franchised way."
Thomas J. Kriger, quoted from the article cited above.
Dark side questions about distance education from the Kriger
article cited above.
Evaluation of Distance Coursework Should Be Undertaken at all Levels:
Questions about DE trends and practices
1. The marketplace and the curriculum: Most of the
models outlined in this report emphasize meeting immediate market demands
for coursework as well as treating students primarily as "customers." It is
entirely appropriate to consider student and industry preferences in
designing curricula, particularly in the corporate training arena. However,
we believe that the pre-eminent perspective should be that of academic
professionals rather than the marketplace. One concern is that the pure
"student as consumer" model rests on the questionable assumption that
student-consumers know what they want when they begin an educational program
and can confidently decide what courses will lead to the desired educational
"product." Another concern is that broad-based liberal arts coursework, as
well as high academic standards, could take a back seat if market models
become dominant.
2. Technological capabilities and the curriculum:
In one of the stories cited earlier, a distance education advocate explained
that professors will have to curb their lectures in order to fit their ideas
into a 256-character dialogue box. This raises serious questions.
Technological capabilities and limitations should not be the primary factor
driving the curriculum and research required of distance education students,
rather than the rich interplay among research, curriculum and good pedagogy.
3. Faculty decision-making: To ensure that academic
decisions are made for academic reasons, a key characteristic of quality in
distance education is ensuring that faculty are in control of shaping and
approving courses and integrating them into a coherent curriculum. This is
the number one item in AFT's Guidelines for Good Practice. Another
basic precept is academic freedom; an individual faculty member should have
the authority to determine how the class will be taught.
We are concerned, however, that many of the
programs described above appear to keep authority to develop course content
confined to a very narrow circle. Some models directly challenge the idea of
academic freedom in the classroom. For example, at
the University of Phoenix, we saw that course
"facilitators" (they are not called teachers) not only are forbidden to
lecture, but also must follow detailed teaching modules.
4. Disaggregation: Many of the institutions
reviewed here are moving to a model of curriculum development and teaching
that "unbundles" the many roles of the faculty member. A process that has
traditionally been maintained from start to finish by the individual faculty
member is being parted into specializations-curriculum developers, content
deliverers, assessment specialists, etc. This can be seen most starkly in
movements such as "The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative" (NLII)
created in 1994 by Educom (now Educause), a coalition of technology
corporations, public and private colleges and universities and higher
education organizations.
Specifically, the NLII would increase student
access through the construction of a broadband network modeled on the
Internet. The program would be characterized by self-paced study instead of
academic calendars, fixed class meetings or a traditional curriculum.
Students would pursue their studies via new instructional software that
breaks down complex subjects into individual components or modules.
In 1996, Educom released a report on "The Virtual
University," which envisions the resulting new role for faculty and the
benefits for the institution.
[In the virtual university], the many roles
previously combined in a single faculty member are now disaggregated.
Faculty may specialize as developers of courses and courseware wherein they
move from being content experts to being a combination of content expert,
learning-process design expert, and process-implementation manager; as
presenters of that material; as expert assessors of learning and
competencies; as advisors; or as specialists in other evolving roles.[43]
In this view, one of the main advantages of the
NLII is that it would "reduce faculty intervention, thereby containing
costs."[44] As Massy and Zemsky explain:
Workstations don't get tenure, and delegations are
less likely to wait on the provost when particular equipment items are "laid
off." The "retraining" of IT equipment (for example, reprogramming), while
not inexpensive, is easier and more predictable than training a tenured
professor .[45]
As our report indicates, many providers in all four
categories have embraced this vision to differing extents, but the AFT
believes this is not the best route to quality. Quoting directly from the
AFT Guidelines. A number of studies have demonstrated the importance
to student learning of establishing a feedback loop between classroom
teaching, curriculum development and scholarly research. That loop becomes
inoperative when teaching faculty operate from workbooks based on a
prefabricated curriculum that the faculty member has little role in
developing, a curriculum that was not shaped directly by the practitioner's
experience in teaching these classes or conducting research on these
subjects. Students deserve teachers who know all the nuances of what they
are teaching and who can exercise professional judgment and academic freedom
in doing so.
5. Course standardization: Many of the providers
outlined above are attracted to the idea of creating consistent and
transferable courses by utilizing course management software and course
development specialists. The idea is that an institution or set of
institutions can make all of their courses have the same look and feel, and
that courses can and should be designed for longevity and transferability.
If course management software such as Web CT or Blackboard simply provide
faculty with greater technical support and facilitate the faculty member's
pedagogy, then they will be powerful teaching aids. But standardization in
programming and teaching is the wrong way to go; academic good practice
requires a faculty with differing points of view and presentation styles,
freewheeling discussion and academic freedom.
6. Class Size: AFT's distance education
practitioners report that good DE generally requires more teacher
preparation time than a traditional class as well as more time devoted to
interacting with students (through e-mail, chat rooms, etc.) Therefore, it
is important to maintain a workable class size. The concern, however, is
that commercially minded DE will expand class sizes too greatly in order to
maximize enrollments. The move on the part of some providers to concentrate
on offering high-enrollment introductory courses (such as introductory
psychology) is of particular concern because DE practitioners tell us the
students best suited to succeed in a distance education environment are not
the newcomers but those who are more mature, better prepared and able to
work independently.
Increasing class size is an integral part of the
Pew grants at Rio Salado College cited earlier. Introductory algebra, which
had the third highest enrollment of the top 25 courses in the district, was
selected for redesign. Course content was delivered via interactive
software. The restructuring increased the student/faculty ratio from 35 to
100 students per instructor, although each faculty member was assigned
teaching assistants to help with technology questions, and students had
access to a help desk.[46] AFT's Guidelines recommend that class size
be established through normal faculty channels, with a view to maintaining a
high level of interactivity. "Given the time commitment involved in teaching
through distance education," say the Guidelines, "smaller class size
should be considered, particularly at the inception of a new course."
7. "Outcomes" and Class Time: Some providers cited
in the previous chapter shift more of the educational assessment to
"outcomes." The Western Governors University emphasis on "proficiencies" is
the most extreme version of this shift. A greater emphasis on outcomes may
be warranted, but a critical question remains: Will an exclusive focus on
measurable outputs shortchange the importance of process and
interactivity in higher education?
Distance education advocates often deride what they
call "seat time"-the practice of requiring students to be together and work
together for periods of time before passing their courses. Under their
theory, if a student can demonstrate "competencies," it should not matter
how much time is spent achieving these competencies. The AFT, however,
believes that deep knowledge of a subject is not simply a matter of passing
a competency test. It does in fact require time-time in the same room or in
cyberspace-with teachers and other students chewing over ideas, hearing
contrary points of view and defending conclusions. There is reason for
concern if time on task comes to be viewed as a luxury rather than a
necessity in DE on the corporate model.
8. Same-time, same-place interaction: There is no
denying that rich interaction can take place in distance education classes,
but we believe it is equally untenable to argue that same-time, sameplace
interaction has no legitimate role in an undergraduate education. We believe
distance education should utilize every available opportunity to bring
students and faculty together at some time during an academic program. Our
concern is that providing such opportunities does not appear to be a
consideration for most of the providers we have stud-
led. It is particularly troubling to have no
sametime, same-place interchange through an entire undergraduate program.
AFT faculty who teach by distance education have reported to the union that
they believe same-time, same-place interaction should be part of any
undergraduate program. In fact, more than 70 percent say that no more than
half of a full undergraduate program should be delivered via distance
education.
In conclusion, it is proper, even necessary, for
higher education faculty to make distance education work, but that may often
mean contradicting current DE practice to affirm academic values. Faculty
must mobilize behind the principle that democratic governance rather than
top-down management produces better, more credible education. Faculty must
ensure that college degrees are awarded in the context of a coordinated
curriculum with broad-based content. Faculty must see to it that students
have the equipment, training and support to succeed in the distance
education environment and that they have appropriate academic counseling.
Faculty must make the case that time does matter-that education is
not simply a matter of passing a competency test but, whether in the same
room or far apart, being with other teachers and students chewing over
ideas, hearing contrary points of view and defending conclusions. Faculty
must assert and find ways to implement the notion that same-time, same-place
interchange is an important part of a college education. Faculty must always
affirm the importance of free exchange of ideas.
In short, faculty must insist on sound practice
based on a broad vision of education-one that recognizes education is about
more than facts, more than competencies, more than career ambitions the
things that can be easily "sold." Education is about broadening one's
intellectual horizons, learning to rely on facts and reason rather than on
prejudices when confronting life issues. It is about learning to listen to
others and defend ideas by the force of argument. It is about learning
respect and acquiring open mindedness, and as such, education is the
foundation of a working democracy.
Distance education can make an important
contribution toward achieving these goals if it is organized around
practices such as those in AFT's Distance Education: Guidelines for Good
Practice. However, no one should imagine that implementing these
guidelines will be easy in a world where the promise of big dollars and big
enrollments constantly beckons. AFT and its members, other organizations
representing the faculty and, of course, individual faculty members
themselves, will have to be prepared to take up
The U.S Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Undermines Public Access and Sharing
DMCA Link:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf
Also see Bob Jensen's threads on cheating and plagiarism
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Harvard Study: Copyright restrictions limit the spread of digital
learning tools
Copyright restrictions limit the spread of digital
learning tools in schools and colleges, according to
a new report from the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, at Harvard University.
Inside Higher Ed, July 19, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/19/qt
From the AAUP (with higher education in mind)
Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy
Considerations ---
http://www.aaupnet.org/aboutup/issues/Campus_Copyright.pdf
New Guidelines for Copyright Policies in Universities
Four associations have released a
guide for colleges to use in reviewing whether
their copyright policies reflect recent legal and technological developments.
The guide notes that colleges and their faculty members are major producers of
copyrighted material, and that professors and students also are big users of
such material — sometimes in ways that create legal difficulties. The groups
that prepared the guide are the Association of American Universities, the
Association of Research Libraries, the Association of American University
Presses, and the Association of American Publishers.
Inside Higher Ed, December 7, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/07/qt
A report released yesterday by a pair of
free-expression advocates at New York University Law School's Brennan Center for
Justice claims Web site owners and remix artists alike are finding
free-expression rights squelched because of ambiguities in copyright law. The
study argues that so-called "fair use" rights are under attack. It suggests six
major steps for change, including reducing penalties for infringement and making
a greater number of pro-bono lawyers available to defend alleged fair users.
BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 12/6/2005
Coverage at
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5983072.html">
Report at
http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/WillFairUseSurvive.pdf">a>
From the University of Illinois Scholarly Communication Blog on December 7, 2005
---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Patents can be obtained for most inventions and DNA discoveries,
but patenting tax plans borders on being rediculous
August 15, 2006 message from Scott Bonacker
[aecm@BONACKER.US]
"Widgets, soft-drink formulas, new drugs: They can
all be protected by patents. But did you ever think the clever tax-saving
strategy your financial adviser is offering up could be patented as well?
Don't dismiss the notion. Unauthorized use of a patented method might get
you into hot water.
John Rowe, executive chairman of health insurer
Aetna, knows that all too well. Within the past three years, at the
suggestion of his advisers, Rowe set up two trusts and funded them with
nonqualified stock options. An independent options valuation expert
estimated their value for BusinessWeek at $28.5 million. Rowe's so-called
grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) would pay him an annual income for a
specific time and reserve whatever is left for family members. Plus, he
could achieve dramatic gift-tax savings, says Carlyn McCaffrey, a lawyer
with Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York who is an expert on GRATs, though
not involved in the case.
But in January, Rowe was sued in U.S. District
Court in New Haven for patent infringement by Wealth Transfer Group, an
Altamonte Springs (Fla.) firm that obtained a patent on this strategy in
2003. Apparently, the plaintiff learned of Rowe's GRATs when, as a corporate
insider, he reported the transfer of the options.
Read the rest at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060727/bs_bw/id20060726214792
or when size matters:
http://tinyurl.com/qrnf8
My impression is that as a matter of public policy
patents on things like this shouldn't be granted, if indeed the underlying
tax laws are worthy of passage by our legislators.
Scott Bonacker, CPA
Springfield, MO
Question
Are you confused by the nuances of the "Fair Use" section of U.S. Copyright Law
under the DMCA?
From the Scholarly Communications Blog at the University of Illinois on June
19, 2006 ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
New Fair Use Site
The Brennan Center for
Justice at New York University School of Law has created a Web site on fair
use.
Called
The Fair Use Network,
the site says it attempts to alleviate the "mass
of confusion for artists, scholars, journalists, bloggers, and everyone else
who contributes to culture and political debate."
The site guides people on
what to do if they get a letter from a copyright owner demanding that they
cease and desist from making use of the owner's work. And the site also
explains how much people can borrow, quote or copy from another's work.
Jensen Comment
The Fair Use safe harbors are frequently violated by professors who really do
not want to know the limitations of these provisions in the law.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Question
How popular are these open sharing sites and what are the issues of copyrights?
June 26, 2006 message from Jagdish S. Gangolly
[gangolly@INFOTOC.COM]
Bob,
I wanted to pitch for an article by my good friend
and colleague, Terry Maxwell:
"Universities, Information Ownership, and Knowledge
Communities"
The Journal of the Association of History and
Computing
http://www.mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCVII2/ARTICLES/maxwell/maxwell.html
Here is the teaser:
_________________________________________
The recent decision by MIT to post the information
from all its 2,000 courses free to the Web has generated tremendous
excitement online, with more than 42 million hits recorded in the first
month, according to MIT statistics 1.
The project, entitled OpenCourseWare, was initiated
by MIT professors and funded by $11 million in grants from two foundations.
As of March, 2004, 700 courses, encompassing all five schools and two-thirds
of the faculty on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, have been added to
the site (ocw.mit.edu).
The project did not start as an effort to populate
the information commons. On the contrary, in 1999, Robert Brown, MIT's
provost, asked a faculty committee to study the idea for an online
for-profit equivalent to the physical school.
However, after researching the issue, the faculty
committee concluded that a profit-making venture was not viable, suggesting
instead that the university and its faculty make its course material
available for free online 2.
As reported by Charles Vest 2, the university's
president, the OpenCourseWare initiative has had impacts both inside and
outside the university. Within MIT, professors have begun using one
another's materials to supplement their own teaching efforts, and are
discovering interdisciplinary connections that could lead to new innovations
inside the institution. Outside the university, MIT alumni, interested
individuals, and other educators from around the world are using the
courseware as a means to keep current in their fields and as models for new
courses and curriculum.
The effort has generated interest in other areas,
particularly among Intellectual Property legal commentators, who questioned
the relationship between faculty-generated course notes and university
property rights 3. Given the fact that the project is faculty-initiated and
voluntary, intellectual property issues in the curricular area between the
university and professors have not yet come to a head at MIT. However, the
project has had to navigate the murky waters of copyright in other respects,
particularly with regard to the negotiation for permissions with other
information providers 4.
Nevertheless, the project still leaves open the
question of the relative information rights of professors and universities.
In addition, it raises broader questions of the
roles both of professional disciplines and the institutional structures
developed to support them in a technological world in which traditional
boundaries between information transformation, production, and dissemination
are under strain. The following attempts to lay out some of the relevant
issues, focusing particularly on the role of the university in an online
world.
A Brief Look at the University in Society
Lying at the center of questions about university
and academic information ownership is a deeply contested vision of the role
of both scholarship and the institutions designed to support research. Do
scholars labor primarily as individual authors and inventors, or are they
members of what Enlightenment scholars termed a res publica, loosely defined
as a republic of ideas operating beyond institutional and political
boundaries? Are universities places of sanctuary for ideas, separated from
the marketplace, or information dissemination institutions situated squarely
in the market?
In her book "Who Owns Academic Work?," Corynne
McSherry 5 traces the history of modern American universities and makes a
strong case that these questions are largely unanswerable, because they
assume a stability in self-conception that is historically missing. She
argues that medieval universities and guilds were primarily envisioned as
mechanisms for monopoly control over ideas, with the former focusing on
professional control and the latter on control over invention. With the
coming of the Enlightenment, voluntary academic societies sought to break
down university monopolies on knowledge, constructing a meritocracy based on
open communication and communal enquiry, and existing in cooperation with
the growing commercial marketplace. At the institutional level,
nineteenth-century German conceptions of the university, based on Kant's
ideas in Conflict of the Faculties, envisioned the university as a place
apart from the marketplace, yet poised to provide knowledge based on reason
to political rulers. In the United States, German models of scholarly
independence blended with the British tradition of liberal arts and informed
citizenship, leading to a tension between disinterested scholarship and
community. This admixture was further complicated by the presence of private
schools funded through religious and other associations sitting
cheek-and-jowl to land-grant public universities, developed to provide
practical assistance in the development of new agricultural and mechanical
techniques.
By the twentieth century, the split between
theoretical and practical knowledge within universities was
institutionalized through a separation of faculties of arts and science from
engineering and professional school. At the same time, the continued
compartmentalization of knowledge into disciplines supported the rise of
self-contained academic communities with different standards of scholarship
and practice.
To support the engagement of the university in the
marketplace, during the 1920's several American universities, particularly
those with large engineering components, inaugurated small offices dedicated
to technology transfer, particularly the processing of patent applications
for professors. However, in a major shift, the end of the Second World War
saw a major increase in government grant programs for basic research,
insulating the academy from a necessity to rely on private funding sources
and enhancing the traditional notion of universities as the preferred site
for basic objective research separate from the commercial marketplace. At
the same time, a greater integration of the university into public life
occurred, with the provision of GI Bill grants to returning members of the
military. University enrollments doubled during the next 15 years, doubling
again within another 8 years.
By the 1990s, the position of universities within
society began to shift again. Federal funding for research slowed, along
with other public financing sources. Pressure developed to seek private
financing through partnerships with foundations and corporations.
Universities undertook attempts at more aggressive management of
intellectual assets, often bringing them into conflict with academic
communities. The rise of the Internet signaled the potential for developing
new resource streams through the development of online courses and degrees,
but no one was sure where the dividing line stood between individual and
institutional ownership of course materials.
Academic publishing, long a backwater in the
publishing industry, showed strong growth and consolidation as publishers
embraced electronic dissemination and new models of product bundling.
Here is another Terry Maxwell piece:
Toward a Model of Information Policy Analysis:
Speech as an Illustrative Example by Terrence A. Maxwell FM10 Openness
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/maxwell/
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly
email: gangolly@infotoc.com
Fax: 831-584-1896
skype: gangolly
URL:
www.infotoc.com
Blog:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/gangolly
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
"Your Photos, Your Rights, and the Law: Answers to questions about
copyright and your rights as a photographer," by Dave Johnson, PC World
via The Washington Post, May 31, 2006 ---
Click Here
Ironically, the answer to this simple question is
not so simple anymore. But for almost any digital photo you take today, you
can count on the copyright lasting for 70 years.
Creative Commons
is a nonprofit organization that has pioneered a new
way to share creative works. The group offers a number of licenses with
names like Attribution, NoDerivs, NonCommercial, and ShareAlike.
If you choose to share your photos with a Creative
Commons license, you're telling the world that you're offering to let other
people use your photos in ways that are traditionally not supported by
standard copyright law. Using an Attribution license, for example, is like
releasing your photo in the public domain, though it requires anyone using
your photo to give you credit. Attribution-NonCommercial is similar, but
specifically prohibits people from using your photo for commercial use.
While using a Creative Commons license is a nice
idea, and you'll find a lot of people using them on sites like Flickr.com,
keep in mind that Creative Commons has no legal teeth. Only copyright law
has that.
There are three ways to copyright a photo (or any
other creative work).
Here's the easy way: Any work you create is
automatically copyrighted. In other words, you don't need to do anything at
all to receive some protection under copyright law.
However, there are copyrights--and then there are
copyrights. While technically you never have to take action to copyright a
creative work, simply putting a copyright notice on your work strengthens
your copyright protection. To assert your claim to a digital photo, for
example, just place a copyright notice somewhere on the picture. Commonly,
photographers use the text tool in a photo editing program to do this in the
lower-right corner.
The most aggressive copyright action you can take
is to register your photo with the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington,
DC. There is a form to fill out and a $30 fee to pay, but this approach
provides you with the highest level of protection available. For more info
go to the U.S. Copyright Office's
Web
site.
Continued in article
From Duke University
Arts Project: Comics about video, academe, and the law ---
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/
“Will a spiky-haired, camera-toting
super-heroine... restore decency and common sense to the world of creative
endeavor?” -Paul Bonner, The Herald-Sun
“Bound By Law lays out a sparkling, witty, moving
and informative story about how the eroded public domain has made
documentary filmmaking into a minefield.” -Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net
“Bound by Law translates law into plain English and
abstract ideas into ‘visual metaphors.’ So the comic's heroine, Akiko,
brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean 'Rights Monster' - all
the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use
and copyright infringement.”
I learned about this from the Scholarly Communications blog at the University
of Illinois on March 16, 2006 ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Bound by Law Duke Law School's Center for the Study
of the Public Domain has just released "BOUND BY LAW?" - a comic book on
copyright and creativity -- specifically, documentary film. It is being
published today under a Creative Commons License. The comic, by Keith Aoki,
James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins explores the benefits of copyright in a
digital age, but also the threats to cultural history posed by a
“permissions culture,” and the erosion of “fair use” and the public domain.
Berkman Blog 3/15/06
Free digital versions are available here.
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.html
‘The Access Principle’
The book reviews the various models to bring the
dissemination of knowledge online and to make it free, and along the way, the
book criticizes plenty of publishing practices, copyright interpretations and
scholarly traditions.
John
Willinsky, professor of language and literacy
education at the University of British Columbia, has devoted much of his
scholarship to the ideas behind the book. Among other things, he directs the
Public Knowledge Project,
which is financed by the Canadian government to promote
the free exchange of information. Willinsky responded to questions about the
themes of his book.
Scott Jaschik, "‘The Access Principle’," Inside Higher Ed, December 20,
2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/20/access
A computer scientist at Trinity University
told me that a great source for legal studies of copyright and patent law is
Eben Moglen at Columbia University ---
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/
He runs a blog called "Freedom Now" at
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog
Entries are relatively infrequent and date back to April 2000
There are also a few links to audio and video presentations.
Here's a March 7, 2005 entry at
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog
The United States Department of Justice
announced today that it would be making a radical purchasing
decision: stop dealing with the firm it considers an illegal
monopoly.
No more Microsoft Word at Main Justice.
So they will spend $13 million to acquire Word Perfect licenses from
Corel. Did they consider OpenOffice at $0? Why bother—Let’s just cut
Social Security benefits instead.
The February 16, 2005 entry contains the following quote
from "Freedom and the Robot Army"
The twenty-first century will be different. The United
States will lead the way.
The Pentagon is investing heavily
in the development of robot infantry.
Given the resources it will bring to bear, within two
decades we will see the introduction of machines that
remove all sense of consequences, personal and social,
from the business of killing. Robot infantry may or may
not prove valuable battlefield soldiers. In specialized
roles they will probably succeed in being more
cost-effective than human combatants. But at the violent
suppression of political unrest they will be
unparalleled. A brigade or two will be within the budget
of every autocrat faced with a green or orange or red
revolution. We won’t need them to be torturers, however.
For that, as we have learned, human volunteers are
always available.
|
|
From one of the leading law school advocates of open sharing
Many of Eben Moglen's papers on patents and copyrights can be downloaded from
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/
My good friend John Howland, a professor of computer science, recommends
these particular papers for starters:
Bob Jensen's threads on OKI ,DSpace, and SAKAI: Free sharing of courseware
from MIT, Stanford, and other colleges and universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Duke Law & Technology Review ---
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/
Copyright Information and Dead Links
Copyright Information ---
http://ejw.i8.com/copy.htm
Journals Associations,
Councils and Organizations
Education
General Issues
Permission
Intellectual Property
Government Law
Publishing Concerns
Libraries and Copyright
Mega Sites Music
Dead Link Archive ---
http://ejw.i8.com/copy.htm#dead
DEAD LINK ARCHIVE
For Dead Links, use Internet Archive to find a
version of these sites. Highlight and copy the URL, then go to the Way
Back Machine at
http://www.archive.org/index.html and then paste the URL into
the web address box. Often icons are not available and the most recent
listed version may not bring up the page. Go to an earlier date on the
archive list for that site. Also, if you do not find it archived, try
the Google Search Engine at
http://www.google.com
and check their archive. Songwriter and Music Copyright Resources,
http://www.npsai.com/resources.htm
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
This message is from the Director of
the Trinity University Library.
Bob Jensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 9:22 AM
To: Trinity Faculty
A number of you
have asked about the legal use of copyrighted material on your websites and
Blackboard courses. I just learned about this site, prepared at the CUNY
Baruch College, which will help. It’s an interactive guide in a flow chart
format that shows the steps you need to take to use copyrighted media in
teaching. It’s very easy to follow.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/
Both the library
and IMS are providing links to this guide from our sites, but you might find
it helpful to review it now and bookmark it for later use.
Diane
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library, Trinity University
One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212
February 2, 2005 reply from Dr. Jagdish Pathak
[jagdish@UWINDSOR.CA]
I liked the presentation. It opened in my lotus
notes browser without any problem. It is knowledge enhancing and equally
enjoyable stuff!
Jagdish Pathak, PhD
Guest Editor- Managerial Auditing Journal (Special Issue)
Accounting Systems & IT Auditing Faculty
Accounting & Audit Area
Odette School of Business
University of Windsor
401 Sunset Windsor, N9B 3P4, ON Canada
February 3, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
COPYRIGHT AND LEARNING
"Like evil trolls guarding the gates, the copyright
controllers are trying to hold sway over our actions and create walled
gardens around knowledge repositories so that they can maintain full control
over who uses applications or accesses content and when, where, and how they
use it."
In "Stealing the Goose: Copyright and Learning"
(IRRODL, November 2004) Rory McGreal calls for taking back education's "fair
use" and "fair dealing" rights that are in jeopardy as some intellectual
property owners seek to tighten control and maximize profits. The article is
available online at
http://www.irrodl.org/content/v5.3/mcgreal.html
International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning (IRRODL) [ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal
published by Athabasca University - Canada's Open University.
For more information, contact Paula Smith, IRRODL
Managing Editor; tel: 780-675-6810; fax: 780-675-672; email:
irrodl@athabascau.ca
; Web:
http://www.irrodl.org/
Money Can Buy You Anything You Want in the U.S.
Senate
You May Go to Jail for Taping and Skipping
No Fair Going to the Refrigerator During Commercials
As early as this week, the Senate may try to quickly pass a bill that would
radically change copyright law in favor of Hollywood and the music industry. One
provision: Skipping commercials would be illegal. Michael Grebb reports from
Washington.
Wired News, November 16, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65704,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
A number of influential lawyers, scholars and activists are increasingly
concerned that copyright law is curbing our freedoms and making it harder to
create anything new. This could be the first new social movement of the century.
"The Tyranny of Copyright?" by Robert S. Boynton, New York Times Magazine,
January 25, 2004 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25COPYRIGHT.html
Unfortunately for the students, their actions ran
afoul of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (D.M.C.A.), one of
several recent laws that regulate intellectual property and are quietly
reshaping the culture. Designed to protect copyrighted material on the Web,
the act makes it possible for an Internet service provider to be liable for
the material posted by its users -- an extraordinary burden that providers
of phone service, by contrast, do not share. Under the law, if an aggrieved
party (Diebold, say) threatens to sue an Internet service provider over the
content of a subscriber's Web site, the provider can avoid liability simply
by removing the offending material. Since the mere threat of a lawsuit is
usually enough to scare most providers into submission, the law effectively
gives private parties veto power over much of the information published
online -- as the Swarthmore students would soon learn.
Continued in the article
Dentists in Canada discover they have to pay fees to
Canadian music publishers for the right to play copyright music in their
offices. U.S. dentists may be surprised to find out that similar rules apply in
their country.
Katie Dean, Wired News, August 2, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64397,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
Bob Jensen's threads on the DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
November 29, 2004 message from Diane Graves
You may have already heard of the Creative Commons
licenses, but if not, take a look at this site:
http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons licenses allow the
author/creator to retain some rights, but don’t lock down the rights the way
the traditional copyright agreements do. Here is how the site describes the
options: “With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow
people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit -- and
only on the conditions you specify here. If you want to offer your work with
no conditions, choose the public domain.” You may want to look at the
EDUCATION section on the site:
http://creativecommons.org/education/
The Creative Commons has been enormously successful
since it debuted in 2001. It has the potential to be very helpful in the
higher education arena; it is already in use at MIT’s Open CourseWare and
DSpace projects and at Rice University’s Connexions Project.
I encourage you to browse through the Creative
Commons site and think about how you could use their licensing options with
your own work. It’s an exciting development with the potential to
revolutionize the way we share information in higher education.
Diane
P.S. Here are two short videos that describe the
philosophy behind the Creative Commons:
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library,
Trinity
University
One Trinity Place
,
San Antonio
,
TX
78212
email: diane.graves@trinity.edu
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
Customer Base
The Shining Star in the Beleaguered World of For-Profit Educational
Corporations
"Will Apollo Hold On to Medals, by Jesse Eisinger, The Wall Street Journal,
September 1, 2004, Page C1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,long_and_short,00.html
(Note that Among other schools, Apollo owns the University of Phoenix.)
Last week,
Apollo Group saved the for-profit education sector. At least for the
moment.
Other big companies in the group --
ITT Educational Services,
Career Education and
Corinthian Colleges -- have been battling lawsuits and dealing with
various investigations into their recruitment and placement practices,
sending their stocks plummeting.
Apollo Group, which has skirted such problems thus far, has nevertheless
skidded about 20% from a June high of $98.
But a week ago today, the company
shined. It said online-enrollment growth for the fiscal year ending August
2005 would top 40%, relieving investors who had been worried the toll of the
investigations and lawsuits were slowing growth across the sector.
The fight between the longs and the
shorts in education stocks has been one of the market's fiercest, with some
of the most influential and sophisticated investors taking opposing sides.
Apollo hasn't been targeted by shorts as much -- until recently. Its short
interest rose almost two million shares in the most recent month, but is
still relatively low compared with other education stocks.
Apollo, which declined to make
executives available to comment, has been a stunning success story. The
stock is up 9,800% since December 1994 and now has just under a $14 billion
market capitalization. It trades at a nosebleed 32.5 times next year's
earnings estimate of $2.40 a share.
Apollo sells education at
bricks-and-mortar campuses and online. To date, the company has mainly
focused on thirty-somethings, most of whom already are earning salaries of
around $55,000 to $60,000 a year. The compelling growth story is online, so
enrollment figures are watched closely.
In giving its upbeat outlook last
week, Apollo also completed the conversion of its online-division tracking
stock, University of Phoenix Online, into parent company shares. The move,
while welcome by good-governance types, could also obscure what the true
growth rate for the University of Phoenix Online will be.
Apollo will report that UOP online
had 118,000 students by the end of fiscal 2004, which ended yesterday,
analysts forecast. The company, which often underpromises and overdelivers,
said last week it expected "online degree enrollments to grow in excess of
40%" in fiscal 2005. At a 40% growth rate, the online enrollment would be
165,000 by the end of next August. However, that figure isn't only for UOP
online. The company has launched a pilot effort to go after 18- to
21-year-olds through its Western International University online unit.
WIU online growth is included in that
40% growth figure, according to Credit Suisse analyst Greg Cappelli. Apollo
declined to break out its expectations for WIU online enrollment.
Continued in the article
Soaring Popularity of E-Learning Among Students But Not Faculty
How many U.S. students took at least on online course from a legitimate college
in Fall 2005?
More students are taking online college courses than
ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the concept
of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s largest
association of organizations and institutions focused on online education . . .
‘We didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’
Elia Powers, "Growing Popularity of E-Learning, Inside Higher Ed,
November 10, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/10/online
More students are taking online college courses
than ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the
concept of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s
largest association of organizations and institutions focused on online
education.
Roughly 3.2 million students took at least one
online course from a degree-granting institution during the fall 2005 term,
the Sloan Consortium said. That’s double the number who reported doing so in
2002, the first year the group collected data, and more than 800,000 above
the 2004 total. While the number of online course participants has increased
each year, the rate of growth slowed from 2003 to 2004.
The report, a joint partnership between the group
and the College Board, defines online courses as those in which 80 percent
of the content is delivered via the Internet.
The Sloan Survey of Online Learning,
“Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006,”
shows that 62 percent of chief academic officers say
that the learning outcomes in online education are now “as good as or
superior to face-to-face instruction,” and nearly 6 in 10 agree that
e-learning is “critical to the long-term strategy of their institution.”
Both numbers are up from a year ago.
Researchers at the Sloan Consortium, which is
administered through Babson College and Franklin W. Olin College of
Engineering, received responses from officials at more than 2,200 colleges
and universities across the country. (The report makes few references to
for-profit colleges, a force in the online market, in part because of a lack
of survey responses from those institutions.)
Much of the report is hardly surprising. The bulk
of online students are adult or “nontraditional” learners, and more than 70
percent of those surveyed said online education reaches students not served
by face-to-face programs.
What stands out is the number of faculty who still
don’t see e-learning as a valuable tool. Only about one in four academic
leaders said that their faculty members “accept the value and legitimacy of
online education,” the survey shows. That number has remained steady
throughout the four surveys. Private nonprofit colleges were the least
accepting — about one in five faculty members reported seeing value in the
programs.
Elaine Allen, co-author of the report and a Babson
associate professor of statistics and entrepreneurship, said those numbers
are striking.
“As a faculty member, I read that response as, ‘We
didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’ ” Allen said.
“It’s a very hard adjustment. We sat in lectures for an hour when we were
students, but there’s a paradigm shift in how people learn.”
Barbara Macaulay, chief academic officer at UMass
Online, which offers programs through the University of Massachusetts, said
nearly all faculty members teaching the online classes there also teach
face-to-face courses, enabling them to see where an online class could fill
in the gap (for instance, serving a student who is hesitant to speak up in
class).
She said she isn’t surprised to see data
illustrating the growing popularity of online courses with students, because
her program has seen rapid growth in the last year. Roughly 24,000 students
are enrolled in online degree and certificate courses through the university
this fall — a 23 percent increase from a year ago, she said.
“Undergraduates see it as a way to complete their
degrees — it gives them more flexibility,” Macaulay said.
The Sloan report shows that about 80 percent of
students taking online courses are at the undergraduate level. About half
are taking online courses through community colleges and 13 percent through
doctoral and research universities, according to the survey.
Nearly all institutions with total enrollments
exceeding 15,000 students have some online offerings, and about two-thirds
of them have fully online programs, compared with about one in six at the
smallest institutions (those with 1,500 students or fewer), the report
notes. Allen said private nonprofit colleges are often set in enrollment
totals and not looking to expand into the online market.
The report indicates that two-year colleges are particularly willing to be
involved in online learning.
“Our institutions tend to embrace changes a little
more readily and try different pedagogical styles,” said Kent Phillippe, a
senior research associate at the American Association of Community Colleges.
The report cites a few barriers to what it calls the “widespread adoption of
online learning,” chief among them the concern among college officials that
some of their students lack the discipline to succeed in an online setting.
Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents defined that as a barrier.
Allen, the report’s co-author, said she thinks that
issue arises mostly in classes in which work can be turned in at any time
and lectures can be accessed at all hours. “If you are holding class in real
time, there tends to be less attrition,” she said. The report doesn’t
differentiate between the live and non-live online courses, but Allen said
she plans to include that in next year’s edition.
Few survey respondents said acceptance of online
degrees by potential employers was a critical barrier — although liberal
arts college officials were more apt to see it as an issue.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
WHAT HAPPENED TO
E-LEARNING?
"Thwarted
Innovation: What Happened to E-learning and Why" presents the results of the
Weatherstation Project of The Learning Alliance at the University of
Pennsylvania. This study sought to answer the question "Why did the boom in
e-learning go bust?" Over an eighteen-month period authors Robert Zemsky, an
education professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and William F. Massy,
professor emeritus of education and business administration at Stanford
University, tracked faculty and staff attitudes towards e-learning at six
colleges and universities. Their findings challenged three prevalent
e-learning assumptions:
-- If we build it
they will come -- not so;
-- The kids will
take to e-learning like ducks to water -- not quite;
-- E-learning will
force a change in the way we teach -- not by a long shot.
The complete report
is available online, at no cost, in PDF format at
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf.
The Learning
Alliance is "a provider of educational research and leadership support
services to presidents of accredited, non-profit
two- and four-year
colleges and universities. The Learning Alliance serves the mission of
higher education institutions by providing its senior administrators with
timely access to expertise, current research, and market data." For more
information, contact: The Learning Alliance, 1398 Wilmington Pike, West
Chester, PA 19382 USA; tel: 610-399-6601; fax: 815-550-8892; Web:
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/index.php.
The Weatherstation
Project was conceived as "an antidote to those first descriptions of the
market for e-learning, which were often warped by missing data and overly
hopeful assumptions about how quickly new products would come to market and
how receptive learners and instructors were likely to be."
In my opinion, the Weatherstation Project is biased from the start by
skeptics who do not balance the successes against the failures to date ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For example, the report fails to even mention one of the world's most successful
e-Learning endeavors in his own institution, the Master's of Engineering (ADEPT)
distance learning program at Stanford University even though one of the two
authors is a long-time faculty member and top administrator at Stanford.
Here are some counter examples.
New and
Expanding Market Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://ww.stanford.edu/history/fulldesc.html
Stanford University shook up the stuffy Ivy League and other
prestigious schools such as Oxford and Cambridge when it demonstrated to
the world that its online training programs and its online Masters of
Engineering (ADEPT) asynchronous learning degree program became enormous
cash cows with nearly infinite growth potentials relative to relatively
fixed-size onsite programs. In a few short years, revenues from
online programs in engineering and computer science exploded to over
$100 million per year.
The combined present value of the Stanford University logo and the
logos of other highly prestigious universities are worth trillions.
Any prestigious university that ignores online growth opportunities is
probably wasting billions of dollars of potential cash flow from its
logo.
Virtually all universities of highest prestige and name recognition
are realizing this and now offer a vast array of online training and
education courses directly or in partnership with corporations and
government agencies seeking the mark of distinction on diplomas.
Example 2 --- University of Wisconsin ---
http://webct.wisc.edu/
Over 100,000 Registered Online Students in The University of Wisconsin
System of State-Supported Universities
Having a long history of extension programs largely aimed at
part-time adult learners, it made a lot of sense for the UW System to
try to train and educate adult learners and
other learners who were not likely to become onsite students.
The UW System is typical of many other large state-supported
universities that have an established adult learning infrastructure and
a long history of interactive television courses delivered to remote
sites within the state. Online Internet courses were a logical
extension and in many instances a cost-efficient extension relative to
televised delivery.
Example 3 --- Harvard University
In light of new online learning technologies, Harvard University
changed its long-standing residency requirement in anticipation of
expanding markets for "mid-career professionals" according to Harvard
University President Lawrence H. Summers, EDUCAUSE Review,
May/June 2002, Page 4. Harvard has various distance education
programs, including those in the Harvard Business School that currently
cost over $4 million per year to maintain.
Example 4
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA Program
Babson College said it will launch in Jan.
a "fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional onsite
classroom instruction with distance learning components. The program
will enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months, and is designed
for executives struggling to balance work and personal demands in an
economic recession. Intel Corp. sponsored the program as a
complement to its corporate education package, and has modeled it
with 33 employees. The blended MBA program calls for students to
attend monthly two and-a-half days of face-to-face sessions with
Babson's faculty on campus in Wellesley. During the rest of the
time, students will take part in Internet-based distance learning
sessions with their professors and access interactive multimedia
course content.
For more information, visit:
http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
Example 5 --- Texas A&M Online MBA Program in Mexico ---
http://olap.tamu.edu/mexico/tamumxctr.pdf
Some universities view online technologies as a tremendous
opportunity to expand training and education courses into foreign
countries. One such effort was undertaken by the College of
Business Administration at Texas A&M University in partnership with
Monterrey Tech in Mexico. For example, Professor
John Parnell at Texas A&M has been delivering a course for several
semesters in which students in Mexico City take the online course in
their homes. However, once each month the students meet
face-to-face on a weekend when Dr. Parnell travels to Mexico City to
hold live classes and administer examinations.
You probably won't have much difficulty making a guess as to what
many students say is the major reason they prefer online courses to
onsite courses in Mexico City?
Example 6 --- The University of Phoenix ---
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html
The University of Phoenix became the largest private university in
the world. Growth came largely from adult learning onsite programs
in urban centers across the U.S. and Canada.
The popular CBS television show called Sixty Minutes ran a
feature on the growth and future of the newer online training and
education programs at the University of Phoenix. You can download this
video from
http://online.uophx.edu/onl_nav_2.asp#
The University of Phoenix contends that online success in education
depends upon intense communications day-to-day between instructors and
students. This, in turn, means that online classes must be
relatively small and synchronized in terms of assignments and projects.
Example 7 --- Partnerships
Lucrative partnerships between universities and corporations seeking to
train and educate employees.
The highly successful Global Executive MBA Program at Duke University
(formerly called GEMBA) where corporations from around the world pay
nearly $100,000 for one or two employees to earn a prestigious online
MBA degree ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
UNext Corporation has an exclusive partnership with General Motors
Corporation that provides online executive training and education
programs to 88,000 GM managers. GM pays the fees. See
http://www.unext.com/
Army University Access Online
---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the consulting
division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Twenty-four colleges are
delivering training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's
e-learning portal. There are programs for varying levels of
accomplishment, including specialty certificates, associates degrees,
bachelor's degrees, and masters degrees. All courses are free to
soldiers. By 2003, there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online
students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University
attracted 12,000 students during its first year of operation. It
plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students in 2002.
It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers to take
non-credit and credit courses from selected major universities.
The consulting arm of the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers
manages the entire system.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has a program for online training
and education for all IRS employees. The IRS pays the fees for all
employees. The IRS online
accounting classes will be served up from Florida State University and
Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University
to provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays
the fees. See "Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's
Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo
Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
The University of Georgia partnered with the consulting division of
PwC to deliver a totally online MBA degree. The program is only
taken by PwC employees. PwC paid the development and delivery
fees. See
http://www.coe.uga.edu./coenews/2000/UGAusnews.htm |
Bob Jensen's threads on the bright and the dark side of education
technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Your Right to X-Rated Sites"
The ACLU and the government butt heads over privacy, free speech, and protecting
kids online--again
By Anush Yegyazarian, PC World, April 7, 2004 ---
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115531,00.asp
In
early March, the Supreme Court again heard
arguments concerning the 1998
Child Online Protection Act. That act was intended to protect children
from viewing online what the law calls "material that is harmful to minors."
There are qualifications about
how such material must also lack any redeeming scientific, artistic,
political or literary value for minors. In other words, this shouldn't
affect a teen's ability to see full-frontal pictures of Michelangelo's David
or the armless and topless Venus de Milo, or even to read explicit excerpts
from anatomy texts.
What COPA intends to target is
pornography. We all know that the Web is full of it, and that it's fairly
easy to access.
Aside from what's truly
obscene--which the law and the courts have sort of, kind of, defined--what's
classified as porn or material harmful to minors tends to differ depending
on whom you ask and the age of the minor in question. But no matter how you
define it, according to the
First Amendment, adults have the right to create and to view sexually
explicit material--even if that material may be deemed pornographic or
harmful to minors.
So the question before the
Supreme Court, lawmakers, and every parent is: How do we keep sexually
explicit material available to adults but away from children?
Burden on Creators or Consumers?
Let me get a couple of
disclaimers out of the way first: I'm not a parent; I'm also not a consumer
of so-called adult entertainment.
But I like the HBO show Sex
in the City, and discussing it is a lot of fun. There are chat rooms and
sites devoted to the show, some of which may at various times include
commentary that's naughty at best and harmful to minors at worst, offering
little or no redeeming value for those minors. Do such sites have to require
proof of age for access? You can argue that they do, according to COPA.
In large part, it's the
proof-of-age requirement that has prompted the
American Civil Liberties Union and other like-minded organizations to
oppose COPA before the Supreme Court. Under the act, sites that have
"prurient" (legalese for sexually explicit material that lacks redeeming
value) material harmful to minors must require some form of ID--such as a
credit card, an adult ID, a digital certificate, and so on--to prove that
the person who wants access to the content is over 17 years old.
So what's the problem? Well,
there are a couple issues.
First, requiring an ID removes
anonymity, which would deter at least some people from going to a site. They
may be concerned about the potential stigma because they don't trust the
site to protect their privacy, or they may want to limit the number of sites
that have personal information about them. COPA does include some privacy
provisions, but whether they're sufficient is debatable.
Second, the people running such
a site may decide to self-censor, avoiding a subject--even something they're
legally allowed to discuss--because they don't want to risk running afoul of
COPA or don't want to shoulder the additional cost of implementing an
age-verification method.
The ACLU and other groups have
persuaded lower federal courts (most recently the Third Circuit Court of
Appeals) that reasons such as these are enough to shelve COPA or send it
back to the congressional drawing board. And let's not forget that a
too-broad definition of indecency helped in
striking down the 1996 Computer Decency Act.
But most importantly, adult IDs
are not the only way to protect children online. Other methods could be just
as effective without triggering self-censorship or creating problems with
free speech or privacy rights.
Other Methods of Protection
COPA required the creation of a
commission to investigate and evaluate various child-protection methods, and
to assess any adverse impact on adults who want to access adult materials.
That commission
made its report in October 2000.
Guess what? According to the
report, no single protection method is best. And requiring IDs has a
negative impact on adult access, our First Amendment rights, and privacy,
among other things. However, user- and ISP-based filtering and "greenspaces"
(domains or sites that are specifically kid-friendly, such as the recently
approved .kid domains) scored better as protection mechanisms, while
avoiding many of the negatives of requiring adult IDs.
Continued in the article
We may have to wave goodbye to
streaming media.
"Colleges That Transmit Sound and Video Online
Reluctantly Discuss Strategy for Answering Patent Claim, by Scott Carlson,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2004, Page A27.
Colleges, along with
pornography distributors and mainstream businesses, are struggling for ways
to refute claims by Acacia Research Corporation, which says it owns patents
on the streaming technology that allows Web users to transmit and play sound
and video. In letters to companies and to many colleges, Acacia is
seeking licensing deals that would pay it 2 percent of the gross revenue the
recipients derive from such online media.
Acacia has had some successes
recently. It was just granted another patent for streaming technology
in Europe. It signed up a hotel pay-per-view company and, in a coup, a
pornography company that had been part of a small group of
adult-entertainment sites fighting the patent claims in court.
Acacia has also started
sending letters to major corporations. General Dynamics, the
billion-dollar aerospace-and-defense contractor, signed a licensing deal in
late December.
Meanwhile, colleges are
reluctantly trying to decide whether to band together to challenge Acacia's
claims. Among higher-education providers, only 24/7 University, a
for-profit distance-learning company based in Dallas, is known to have
agreed to a deal.
Robert A Berman, senior vice
president for business development at Acacia, said colleges had "panicked"
and "assumed that we're asking for more than we're really asking for."
Acacia, he said, is seeking
royalties from colleges only on revenues from their distance-learning
courses. The company is willing to waive royalties on revenue from
other classes that use streaming technology. "We're talking about
licenses in the $5,000-to-$10,000-a-year range--at least for now," he said.
Acacia officials won't say
how many colleges, or which ones, they have written to. Institutions
of all sizes have received the letters, but it is unclear what criteria the
company used in choosing them.
'BUSINESS DECISION'
24/7 University struck an
agreement with Acacia early this month. Delwin Hinkle, chief executive
officer of the university, called the deal "simply a business decision."
"They tell you that they have
$55-million in the bank and that they are willing to spend that to enforce
their patents," he said. "We looked at it and said it's just another
tweak to our cost structure, and we don't have the money, the time, or the
inclination to mess with them."
Mr. Hinkle said he had tried
to contact major universities to discuss a collective defense but never got
a response. He did not consider joining in the pornography companies'
litigation. "You're known by the company you keep," he said. "No
disrespect to their business, but I'm a Baptist deacon, and I can't hang
with those boys."
E. Michael (Spike) Goldberg,
chief executive of HomegrownVideo.com, is leading the pornographers' fight
against Acacia. He has been frustrated by higher education's
unwillingness to work with him or join his case.
Continued in the article.
February 12, 2004 message from David R. Fordham
[fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
Bob,
In the IT circles, my experience has been that
Acacia has the same reputation as a shirtless, tattooed, multi-pierced
skinhead who walks up to your car at a stoplight, splashes Coke on your
windshield, wipes it off with a paper towel and demands $5 for cleaning your
car.
According to what I've heard at a lot of IT
conferences, Acacia is a firm of sleazebag lawyers whose only claim to
business legitimacy is the buying of semi-worthless patents which are vague
enough to be stretched and convoluted and contorted to cover some activity
that the general population is already engaged in (such as breathing,
eating, etc.) and then doing a lot of research to find a hapless victim who
is too clueless or too poor to afford a decent lawyer to find knowledgable
expert witnesses so the Acacia team can snow-job a clueless jury into
believing that the vague patent has been infringed. Then, Acacia uses their
"success" to scare (e.g., legal extortion?) a lot of other clueless
companies into settling for "licensing fees", which they then hold up in
other court cases as "legitimizing" their claim to the vague patent covering
the activity. They only take an interest in activities which have become
such an integral part of society as to cause great hardship if they cease,
since Acacia's goal is not to stop patent infringement as much as it is to
extort licensing fees from others who are doing all the work.
Acacia's streaming video claim is based on a patent
issued to an individual in 1992 for transmitting music electronically. But
MP3 (the Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Level 3) file format was
invented in 1989 and released to the public in 1991. The Acacia claim is
that any file which can be used to reconstruct any music or video image is
covered by their patent and cannot be transmitted electronically (e.g., like
a CD player playing in your living room while you are talking to your
grandma on the phone!) unless Acacia receives royalties. In other words, if
you sing a jingle on your digital answering machine, you are violating the
same Acacia patent which Acacia is using to sue college and universities.
From the scuttlebutt at IT conferences, Acacia's
only business is filing lawsuits. They do not invent anything, they don't
manufacture anything, they only file lawsuits and collect royalties and
fees.
I don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of
this, but I have heard many times of their questionable business practices
at conferences, and several of my student groups over the last few years
have done some research and reported on this phenomenon. One of them
described Acacia's relationship to the IT industry as the "Nigerian Treasure
Scam" is to the banking industry.
Although Acacia may have some institutions cowed,
I'm not sure based on what I've read, that it is much more than a paper
tiger that was able to snow-job some juries. (Having served on five juries,
I have positively no confidence in a jury to make a good decision on
something like this, and the judges of my experience are only marginally
better!) I know our legal people here have turned up their nose at Acacia's
"success", and aren't the least bit worried.
Check out:
http://www.streamingmedia.com/patent/
My reference to "Acacia's Flying Circus" was a
reference to Monte Python's antics, shenanigans, and sheer ludicrousness,
engaging in activities which are so bizarre as to be almost beyond belief.
(The dead parrot sketch, for example -- involving the Acacia pet store, and
their customer, the very first gullible jury they snowed.)
David R. Fordham
PBGH Faculty Fellow
James Madison University
July 2004 Update on the Fair Use Controversy in
Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law
Unlike many other countries such as Canada, educators have the luxury of
"fair use" in copyright law, although some aspects of this safe harbor are in
question under the "new" DMCA copyright law ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Under fair use provisions in the DMCA, educators can keep one photocopy of a
journal article and large portions of a book even though they did not purchase
those items. What I think is less clear is how to interpret the
spontaneity test for sharings with other
colleagues and students. If three colleagues want to each have copy of an
article from your private library, they can do so under the fair use safe harbor
statutes provided there is not sufficient time to get the item from the
publisher. There is a spontaneity test
discussed below. Probably the most violated part of the fair use statute
arises when educators share their photocopied journal articles, magazine
articles, and multimedia files with other educators or place these items on
library reserve or in Blackboard/WebCT online files for students without regard
to the spontaneity test.
You can read more
about fair use and the spontaneity test at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
July14, 2004 Update
Colloquy Live from The Chronicle of Higher Education ---
http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2004/07/copyright/
"Fair Use and Academic Publishing Wednesday, July 14, at 1 p.m., U.S. Eastern
time
Indiana University Press's withdrawal of a
scholarly book is just the latest example of copyright claims trumping
scholarship. Just what use are "fair use" provisions in copyright law if
presses lack the wherewithal to challenge such claims? What steps can be
taken by scholars to protect fair use?
Richard Byrne (Moderator):
Good afternoon. Welcome to this week's Colloquy Live. My name is Richard
Byrne. I am the editor of the Chronicle's research and publication section.
Our chat today concerns Fair Use and Academic Publishing.
Copyright laws protect the rights of authors, but
at times they also have bedeviled scholars' research efforts. The "fair use"
provisions of copyright law should provide scope for scholars to do their
work and stay on the right side of the law, but changes to copyright law and
strong challenges to fair use have made both scholars and academic presses
skittish about asserting fair use.
Our guest today, Wendy Seltzer, is a staff attorney
at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a fellow at the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard University. She will be answering questions
today about the uses that fair use can be put to in an academic setting, and
she will also discuss a few ideas that she has been kicking around about how
scholars and academic presses might assert fair use provisions of copyright
law in a more active fashion.
Thank you, Wendy, for agreeing to appear on our
chat today. Welcome.
Wendy Seltzer:
Thanks for inviting me to join you.
First let me give a few notes about fair use, an
important part of the public-private balance of copyright. It is now
codified at Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act as a limitation on the
exclusive rights of copyright holders. Fair uses are fair without the
permission of the copyright holder, even against that permission.
The law sets out a four-factor test:
1) the purpose and character of the use (non-commercial or commercial;
transformative or mere duplication)
2) the nature of the copyrighted work (fiction or nonfiction, published or
unpublished)
3) the amount used in proportion to the whole
4) the effect on the market for the work
(See
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html )
More factors in your favor makes a finding of fair
use more likely, but the law gives us no bright lines or percentages. That's
part of the reason why Lawrence Lessig has been saying that "fair use is
merely the right to hire a lawyer."
I should also note that the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and other public interest organizations do try to make it easier
to hire a pro bono lawyer in fair use cases. We think it's critically
important to preserve fair use as an actual, not merely hypothetical
defense.
Continued in the Transcript
Under the fair use safe harbor, campus libraries do not have to own
subscriptions to journal articles placed on reserve. U.S. educators can make
photocopies from their private collections and make copies of just about
anything for reserve reading purposes. They can also put their own books on
reserve whether they are hard-copy (paper) or electronic copies. Things
they can never place on reserve are original copies of items (such as books)
that are borrowed via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The ILL code dictates that
libraries may not lend or borrow for this purpose. There also is a timing
spontaneity test under fair use statutes
that is commonly violated by educators and libraries.
Fair Use statutes allow educators to share multimedia, such as video tapes of
television shows, for educational purposes. However, these items must also pass
the spontaneity test, which requires that
there wasn't a great deal of time to obtain copyright permissions. . For
example, I may make a home-recorded segment from last night's television
broadcast available to students, but fair use safe harbor does not allow me to
share with other students or educators after the network makes copies available
for sale.
For practical purposes, the Trinity University library interprets the
spontaneity test to mean that, the first semester a copy of an item
(journal article, chapter from a book, videotape, CD, etc.) is placed on
reserve, the library will not seek copyright permissions. Virtually all
materials used in subsequent semesters will need those permissions unless there
are blanket permissions by the publisher. For example, all publications of the
American Accounting Association can be used for non-commercial education
purposes at any point in time without getting express copyright permissions.
In a November 18, 2003 message, the Director of the library at Trinity
University (Diane Graves) wrote the following:
The other test we must apply deals with how much of
the material used. In the case of a book, for example, we can't copy in its
entirety a full book, or even ½ of one, if it is still in print. Even if the
book is out of print, we must be able to show that we did everything
possible to find an out-of-print dealer to sell it to us. If that fails, we
can make a full copy. In the case of copies made from journal articles, we
can most certainly make copies of articles from our originals, your
originals, or even copies we have obtained from other libraries. Any of
those can be placed on reserve.
Keep in mind that the law makes it pretty easy for active educators to go
outside the fences of "fair use." For example, suppose an educator ignores
the spontaneity test and shares materials
with other educators and students term after term. The copyright holder
must first file a complaint with that educator cease and desist. . In theory,
the educator cannot be sued for damages until receiving a warning from the
copyright holder. Also monetary damages for this educator's free
sharing are probably too small to warrant a lawsuit. If the educator or
the educator's employer profits from this sharing, however, then lawsuits may
come crashing down. It is unlikely, however, that The Wall Street
Journal will come crashing down on Professor X who puts a copy of a Wall
Street Journal article on reserve every semester. Her/his employer,
however, will object if this act violates the employer's policy of requiring
that permissions be received after the spontaneity period has passed.
Actually, most publishers of journals and magazines have made it quite easy
for educators to obtain permissions online. Also keep in mind that some
things do not require permissions. These include quotations of reasonable
length
(I
generally take liberties here) and up to thirty seconds of an audio or
video recording. These safe harbors apply to all persons and not just
educators. The purpose is to allow the works to be evaluated and
criticized in public. For example, if a publisher would not allow even a
short quotation to be published, this denial could deny critics to effectively
air their criticisms. For example, recall the furor over the CBS Reagan
Movie. Selected lines from that movie were published by critics (e.g., in
Time Magazine) before the movie became public. It is my
understanding that those critics need not obtain permission to quote small
portions of the dialog of the movie. Of course there are limits to most
anything in U.S. courts. Television news stations that aired 20 seconds of
the knock out scene from a Mike Tyson Pay-for-View prize fight a few minutes
after the loser hit the deck got into trouble.
November 23, 2003 message from Bob Woodward
[rsw@WUBIOS.WUSTL.EDU]
One of the issues relating to self publishing is
how to protect your intellectual property.
Based on his battles with record industry, Larry
Lessig has proposed Creative Commons, an alternative to Copyright.
http://creativecommons.org
While his computer seems to be off or disconnected
or something this Sun eve, Larry's blog is usually found at
http://www.lessig.org/blog/
Bob Woodward
Critics fear consumers may be
shortchanged by an agreement between the technology and recording industries
over the future of digital copyright policy.
"Downside to Digital Rights Pact," by Katie Dean, Wired News, Janaury 15,
2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57211,00.html
A new agreement
between the technology and recording industries -- touted as a boon for
consumers and businesses -- is not as rosy as it sounds, say some digital
rights groups.
On Tuesday, the
Business Software Alliance,
Computer Systems Policy Project and the
Recording Industry Association of America pledged to follow a set of
principles that address digital content issues like piracy and copy
protection while rejecting government technology mandates.
"It's sort of a
guidebook for how we all want to act in the public policy arena," said
Hilary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA.
The agreement calls
for technology and record companies to promote consumer awareness about
Internet usage and digital copying issues. It also pledges support for
technical measures that limit the illegal distribution of copyrighted
material and opposes government-imposed technical mandates.
The agreement
"minimizes the distracting public rhetoric and needless legislative
battles," she said. "Our industries need to work together for the consumer
to benefit and for our respective businesses to grow."
"There will be
continued investment in new products and new music delivery methods," she
said. "Consumers' interest in music is served if the investment in
creativity can be protected."
But some digital
rights groups said the agreement attempts leave the public without much
input on crucial issues about digital content rights.
"It is not good
news for the consumer," said Wendy Seltzer, staff attorney at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"They are trying to
take the legislative process out of the legislature and put it in the hands
of a few industry groups," Seltzer said. "There's a lot of public debate
that has to go on and we do need Congress to step in and undo the mess that
has been created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57211,00.html
Also see
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57205,00.html
"New Ways to Skirt DMCA … Legally!" by Katie Dean, Wired News, October
29, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60996,00.html
Busting open a digital lock to get hold of
copyright works normally is forbidden, but the Librarian of Congress ruled
Tuesday that there are exceptions.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA,
prohibits, among other things, bypassing any technology that controls access
to copyright material. This provision is criticized frequently by
digital-rights groups because they say it stifles many legitimate activities
in the process, including academic research, competition and innovation.
the controversial law also recognizes that there
are certain cases when circumvention should be permitted. Thus, it mandates
that every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office and the Librarian of
Congress review and grant exceptions to the anti-circumvention provision.
Those who are exempt from the rule are those who
are "adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to
make non-infringing uses of that particular class of works," according to
the DMCA.
Basically, those who have a non-infringing,
fair-use reason to circumvent copy protections should be allowed to do so.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Copyright Office released the
four "classes of works" exempted from the anti-circumvention rule. People
may bypass a digital lock to access lists of websites blocked by commercial
filtering companies, circumvent obsolete dongles to access computer
programs, access computer programs and video games in obsolete formats, and
access e-books where the text-to-speech function has been disabled.
One programmer who testified at the Copyright
Office rule-making proceedings in April was jubilant that the filtering
exemption was renewed.
"How sweet it is," said
Seth Finkelstein, a programmer and
anticensorship activist. "Without the exemption, the DMCA would make it a
violation to decrypt the blacklist to find out what (filtering companies)
are actually censoring. The actual contents of these blacklists are an
important censorship issue.
"The Copyright Office has recognized the importance
of fair use in this area affected by the DMCA," Finkelstein said. "It's not
a blanket declaration of being legal, but it's an ability to argue fair
use."
Filtering advocates had hoped the exemption would
be dropped.
"I'm disappointed because I thought we had made it
clear that the exemption is unnecessary to conduct meaningful evaluations of
filters," said David Burt, a spokesman for
Secure Computing,
which purchased N2H2, a filtering company.
He cited extensive studies from the Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation, Consumer Reports and the Department of
Justice, among others, in his testimony and said that "these methods are
adequate for evaluating filters."
Gwen Hinze, staff attorney at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the
group was pleased that the Librarian of Congress renewed and granted
important exemptions, but was disappointed that exemptions the EFF proposed
on behalf of consumers were not granted.
Continued in the article.
Question
What do garage door openers and copyright law have in common?
Answer
"Garage Doors Raise DMCA Questions," by Katie Dean, Wired News,
September 17, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60383,00.html
Manufacturers of a seemingly innocuous product -- a
garage door opener -- are embroiled in a battle that tests the limits of a
controversial copyright law.
Skylink Technologies
manufactures a universal garage door opener that can be used to open and
shut any type of garage door. Its competitor, the
Chamberlain Group,
claims that Skylink violates the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, by selling such a product.
Chamberlain alleges Skylink's handheld portable
transmitter can activate Chamberlain's garage door openers and, in doing so,
unlawfully bypasses a technology-protection measure built into the device's
software.
Skylink disagrees, and recently filed a motion in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for summary
judgment, whereby a judge decides the case instead of going to trial.
"When Chamberlain sells (its) garage door openers,
there is no restriction prohibiting the consumer from operating the garage
door with a third-party transmitter," said David Djavaherian, an attorney
for Skylink. "For a violation to occur under the DMCA, access to the
copyright work must be unauthorized."
Neither representatives of Chamberlain nor its
lawyers returned repeated calls for comment.
The case has been closely monitored by digital
rights groups like the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which has argued that the DMCA is being abused by companies
that want to stifle their competitors. The DMCA, the groups contend, also
impedes innovation.
Continued in the article.
In using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as an excuse to sue third
parties that dare to make inexpensive consumables, tech equipment makers also
cheat consumers. It's reminiscent of the telcos' fight for dominance in the '50s
---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57268,00.html
January 15, 2003
The Supreme Court rules that the 20-year extension on copyrights included in a
1998 law is not unconstitutional. It's a big
win for media corporations ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57220,00.html
Also see
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,830856,00.asp
The result of the ruling is that works copyrighted
by creators are extended until 70 years after the death of the creator,
which protects heirs of the creators. Corporations who own copyrighted works
have most of their copyrights protected for 95 years. The ruling is already
being referred to as "the Eldred decision" because Eric Eldred, who owns a
public Web library, had challenged the decision by Congress to uphold
copyright extension.
December 17, 2002 message from Davidson, Dee (Dawn)
[dgd@MARSHALL.USC.EDU]
An article in yesterday's LA Times describes
another approach to the Copyright laws debate. A new company, comprised
mostly of academics, proposes there be several copyright laws that loosen
the rules for some uses of published material while strengthening the rules
for other uses. Board members of the company include Eric Elder, an Internet
publisher who was outraged by the 1998 copyright extension ruling, Lawrence
Lessig, who was at Harvard in 1998, Hal Abelson of MIT, James Boyle of Duke,
and Eric Saltzman, a former filmmaker.
Excerpts from the article, which is quite long, are
below. I have the web link at the bottom, but if anyone can't get to the
site and wants the article, I can copy and paste.
**************************
"Into this messy and acid-edged situation comes Creative Commons, a new
nonprofit organization that will launch its first projects today. Based at
Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, Creative Commons has
a high-profile board and an ambitious mission. The goal is to promote
creativity and collaboration by developing new forms of copyright while
reinvigorating the ever-shrinking sphere of copyright-free works: the public
domain.
"Using the copyright system, we will make a wider,
richer public domain for creators to build upon and individuals to share,"
said Stanford law professor and Creative Commons Chairman Lawrence Lessig.
"Walt Disney built an empire from the riches of the public domain. We'd like
to support a hundred thousand more Walt Disneys."
As a first step, Creative Commons has developed a
group of licenses that will allow copyright holders to surrender some rights
to works while keeping others.
One license, for instance, allows people to copy or
distribute a work as long as they give the owner credit. Another allows a
work to be copied, distributed or displayed as long as it is for a
noncommercial purpose. A third license permits copying but forbids using the
work to make another, derivative work. (The licenses are legal documents,
although that doesn't guarantee that people will honor them.) .......... The
notion of loosening the bounds of copyright isn't new. For more than a
decade, the Free Software Foundation has used for its own programs and
offered others a license that guarantees the freedom to share and change
software. O'Reilly & Associates, a leading computer manual publisher, uses
the Web to publish a number of books under open-publication licenses.
Still, the notion that creation confers ownership
and that ownership is practically eternal is embedded in the system.
Since 1978, copyright protection has been automatic
on any new work -- which has made it very hard to purposely free it.
In response, Creative Commons has developed what it
is calling the Founders' Copyright. A creator agrees to a contract with
Creative Commons to guarantee that a work will enter the public domain after
just 14 years, which was the span granted by the first copyright law in
1790. O'Reilly said it will be the first to publish under these terms.
........
Another license puts work into the public domain
immediately. One of the first works to have a public domain license will be
"The Cluetrain Manifesto," an influential book on Internet marketing that
was published three years ago. It was a natural evolution, considering that
the text of "Cluetrain" was posted on the Web awhile ago by the authors.
..........
Critics already are wondering why a creator would
donate anything to the public domain beyond, for example, an unpublished or
unpublishable novel. Are people so altruistic as to create things for free?
"The same thing was said about the whole Internet a few years ago," Eldred
observed. "The existence of the Web is the answer."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-copyright16dec16.story
http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dfi%2Dcopyright16dec16§ion=%2Fbusiness
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
December 2002
The U.S. Copyright Office asked for public comment on the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, and it got it. Critics worry about everything from losing great
art to restricting blind people's access to information ---
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56963,00.html
The responses are available at
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2003/comments/index.html
Also see
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978497.html?tag=fd_lede1_hed
Bob Jensen's threads on the dreadful DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Some Good News From CIT
Infobits on October 31, 2002
ONLINE TEACHING AND
COPYRIGHT
The provisions of
the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH), which are
likely to be passed this fall, would amend the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 to
give schools and higher education institutions new rights to use copyrighted
materials for distance education. The bill would give educators "fair use"
rights that are already in place for regular classroom use.
New rights covered
include:
-- "Expanding the
range of works that may be transmitted over electronic systems to nearly all
types of materials -- although only portions of some works could be
transmitted."
-- "Allowing the
content to be transmitted to students at any location, rather than just to
classrooms, as is legal under current law."
-- "Allowing
educators to store transmitted content and give students access to it, if
only for short periods."
-- "Allowing the
conversion to digital form of analog works, such as printed or videotaped
material, but only in cases where the material is not already available in
digital form, such as on DVD."
For more
information about TEACH, read Andrew Trotter's article, "Bill Would Ease
Copyright Limits For E-Learning" (EDUCATION WEEK, October 30, 2002),
available online at
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=09copyright.h22
Really Bad News from the Electronic
Frontiers Foundation about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
"EFF Whitepaper: Unintended
Consequences Three Years under the DMCA ---
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.html
1. Executive
Summary
Since they were
enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in section 1201 of the Copyright
Act, have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop
copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to
copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose.1
In practice, the
anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of
legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy. As a result,
the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to three important public
policy priorities:
Section 1201 Chills
Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with
section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and
scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats
against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and
prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the
legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students,
programmers, and members of the public.
Section 1201
Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of
circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for
circumvention, section 1201 grants to copyright owners the power to
unilaterally eliminate the public’s fair use rights. Already, the music
industry has begun deploying “copy-protected CDs” that promise to curtail
consumers’ ability to make legitimate, personal copies of music they have
purchased.
Section 1201
Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing
on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the DMCA to hinder
their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked section 1201 to
protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as well as their
“regionalization” system limiting users in one country from playing games
legitimately purchased in another.
This document collects
a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the
DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers,
scientists, and legitimate competitors. It will be updated from time to
time as additional cases come to light. The latest version can always be
obtained at www.eff.org.
2. DMCA
Legislative Background
Congress enacted
section 1201 in response to two pressures. First, Congress was responding to
the perceived need to implement obligations imposed on the U.S. by the 1996
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty. Section
1201, however, went further than the WIPO treaty required.2
The details of section 1201, then, were a response not just to U.S. treaty
obligations, but also to the concerns of copyright owners that their works
would be widely pirated in the networked digital world.3
Section 1201 contains
two distinct prohibitions: a ban on acts of circumvention, as well as
a ban on the distribution of tools and technologies used for
circumvention.
The first prohibition,
set out in section 1201(a)(1), prohibits the act of
circumventing a technological measure used by copyright owners to control
access to their works (“access controls”). So, for example, this provision
makes it unlawful to defeat the encryption system used on DVD movies. This
ban on acts of circumvention applies even where the purpose for decrypting
the movie would otherwise be legitimate. As a result, if a Disney DVD
prevents you from fast-forwarding through the commercials that preface the
feature presentation, efforts to circumvent this restriction would be
unlawful.
Second, sections
1201(a)(2) and 1201(b) outlaw the manufacture, sale, distribution or
trafficking of tools and technologies that make circumvention
possible. These provisions ban not only technologies that defeat access
controls, but also technologies that defeat use restrictions imposed by
copyright owners, such as copy controls. These provisions prevent
technology vendors from taking steps to defeat the “copy-protection” now
appearing on many music CDs, for example.
Section 1201 also
includes a number of exceptions for certain limited classes of activities,
including security testing, reverse engineering of software, encryption
research, and law enforcement. These exceptions have been extensively
criticized as being too narrow to be of real use to the constituencies who
they were intended to assist.4
A violation of any of
the “act” or “tools” prohibitions is subject to significant civil and, in
some circumstances, criminal penalties.
3. Free
Expression and Scientific Research
Section 1201 is being
used by a number of copyright owners to stifle free speech and legitimate
scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats
against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and
prosecution of the Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have imposed a chill
on a variety of legitimate activities.
For example, online
service providers and bulletin board operators have begun to censor
discussions of copy-protection systems, programmers have removed computer
security programs from their websites, and students, scientists and security
experts have stopped publishing details of their research on existing
security protocols. Foreign scientists are also increasingly uneasy about
traveling to the United States out of fear of possible DMCA liability, and
certain technical conferences have begun to relocate overseas.
These developments
will ultimately result in weakened security for all computer users
(including, ironically, for copyright owners counting on technical measures
to protect their works), as security researchers shy away from research that
might run afoul of section 1201.5
Professor Felten’s
Research Team Threatened
In September 2000, a
multi-industry group known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)
issued a public challenge encouraging skilled technologists to try to defeat
certain watermarking technologies intended to protect digital music.
Princeton Professor Edward Felten and a team of researchers at Princeton,
Rice, and Xerox took up the challenge and succeeded in removing the
watermarks.
When the team tried to
present their results at an academic conference, however, SDMI
representatives threatened the researchers with liability under the DMCA.
The threat letter was also delivered to the researchers’ employers, as well
as the conference organizers. After extensive discussions with counsel, the
researchers grudgingly withdrew their paper from the conference. The threat
was ultimately withdrawn and a portion of the research published at a
subsequent conference, but only after the researchers filed a lawsuit in
federal court.
After enduring this
experience, at least one of the researchers involved has decided to forgo
further research efforts in this field.
Pamela Samuelson,
“Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to Science,” 293 Science 2028, Sept. 14,
2001.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/293/5537/2028
Letter from Matthew
Oppenheim, SDMI General Counsel, to Prof. Edward Felten, April 9, 2001.
http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.htm
Dmitry Sklyarov
Arrested
Beginning in July
2001, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was jailed for several weeks and
detained for five months in the United States after speaking at the DEFCON
conference in Las Vegas.
Prosecutors, prompted
by software goliath Adobe Systems Inc., alleged that Sklyarov had worked on
a software program known as the Advanced e-Book Processor, which was
distributed over the Internet by his Russian employer, ElcomSoft Co. Ltd.
The software allowed owners of Adobe electronic books (“e-books”) to convert
them from Adobe’s e-Book format into Adobe Portable Document Format (“pdf”)
files, thereby removing restrictions embedded into the files by e-Book
publishers.
Sklyarov was never
accused of infringing any copyrighted e-Book, nor of assisting anyone else
to infringe copyrights. His alleged crime was working on a software tool
with many legitimate uses, simply because third parties he has never met
might use the tool to copy an e-Book without the publisher’s permission.
In December 2001,
under an agreement with the Department of Justice, Sklyarov was allowed to
return home. The Department of Justice, however, is continuing to prosecute
his employer, ElcomSoft, under the criminal provisions of the DMCA.
Lawrence Lessig, “Jail
Time in the Digital Age,” N.Y. Times at A7, July 30, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/opinion/30LESS.html
Jennifer 8 Lee, “U.S.
Arrests Russian Cryptographer as Copyright Violator,” N.Y. Times at C8, July
18, 2001.
Scientists and
Programmers Withhold Research
Following the legal
threat against Professor Felten’s research team and the arrest of Dmitry
Sklyarov, a number of prominent computer security experts have curtailed
their legitimate research activities out of fear of potential DMCA
liability.
For example, prominent
Dutch cryptographer and security systems analyst Neils Ferguson discovered a
major security flaw in an Intel video encryption system known as High
Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). He declined to publish his
results and removed all references on his website relating to flaws in HDCP,
on the grounds that he travels frequently to the U.S. and is fearful of
“prosecution and/or liability under the U.S. DMCA law.”
Neils Ferguson,
“Censorship in Action: Why I Don’t Publish My HDCP Results,” Aug. 15, 2001.
http://www.macfergus.com/niels/dmca/cia.html
Neils Ferguson,
Declaration in Felten & Ors v R.I.A.A. case, Aug. 13, 2001.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/Felten_v_RIAA/20010813_ferguson_decl.html
Lisa M. Bowman,
“Researchers Weigh Publication, Prosecution,” CNET News, Aug. 15, 2001.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6886574.html
Following the arrest
of Dmitry Sklyarov, Fred Cohen, a professor of digital forensics and
respected security consultant, removed his “Forensix” evidence-gathering
software from his website, citing fear of potential DMCA liability.
Another respected
network security protection expert, Dug Song, also removed content from his
website for the same reason. Mr. Song is the author of several security
papers, including a paper describing a common vulnerability in many
firewalls.
Robert Lemos,
“Security Workers: Copyright Law Stifles,” CNET News, Sept. 6, 2001.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-272716.html
In mid-2001 an
anonymous programmer discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft’s proprietary
e-Book digital rights management code, but refused to publish the results,
citing DMCA liability concerns.
Wade Roush, “Breaking
Microsoft's e-Book Code,” Technology Review at 24, November 2001.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/innovation11101.asp
Foreign Scientists
Avoid U.S.
Foreign scientists
have expressed concerns about traveling to the U.S. following the arrest of
Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov. Some foreign scientists have advocated
boycotting conferences held in the U.S. and a number of conference bodies
have decided to move their conferences to non-U.S. locations. Russia has
issued a travel warning to Russian programmers traveling to the U.S.
Highly respected
British Linux programmer Alan Cox resigned from the USENIX committee of the
Advanced Computing Systems Association, the committee that organizes many of
the U.S. computing conferences, because of his concerns about traveling to
the U.S. Cox has urged USENIX to hold its annual conference offshore. The
International Information Hiding Workshop Conference, the conference at
which Professor Felten’s team intended to present its original paper, has
chosen to hold all of its future conferences outside of the U.S. following
the SDMI threat to Professor Felten and his team.
Will Knight, “Computer
Scientists boycott US over digital copyright law,” New Scientist, July 23,
2001.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns00001063
Alan Cox of Red Hat UK
Ltd, declaration in Felten v. RIAA, Aug. 13, 2001.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/Felten_v_RIAA/20010813_cox_decl.html
Jennifer 8 Lee,
“Travel Advisory for Russian Programmers,” N.Y. Times at C4, Sept.10, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/technology/10WARN.html?searchpv=past7days
IEEE Wrestles with
DMCA
The Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which publishes 30 per cent of
all computer science journals worldwide, recently was drawn into the
controversy surrounding science and the DMCA. Apparently concerned about
possible liability under Section 1201, the IEEE in November 2001 instituted
a policy requiring all authors to indemnify IEEE for any liabilities
incurred should a submission result in legal action under the DCMA.
After an outcry from
IEEE members, the organization ultimately revised its submission policies,
removing mention of the DMCA. According to Bill Hagen, manager of IEEE
Intellectual Property Rights, “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has
become a very sensitive subject among our authors. It’s intended to protect
digital content, but its application in some specific cases appears to have
alienated large segments of the research community.”
IEEE press release,
“IEEE to Revise New Copyright Form to Address Author Concerns,” April 22,
2002.
http://www.ieee.org/newsinfo/dmca.html
Will Knight,
“Controversial Copyright Clause Abandoned,” New Scientist, April 15, 2002.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992169
2600 Magazine Censored
The Universal City
Studios v. Reimerdes case6
illustrates the chilling effect that section 1201 has had on the
freedom of the press.
In that case, eight
major motion picture companies brought a DMCA suit against 2600
magazine seeking to block it from publishing the DeCSS software program,
which defeats the encryption used on DVD movies. 2600 had made the
program available on its web site in the course of ongoing coverage of the
controversy surrounding the DMCA. The magazine was not involved in the
development of software, nor was it accused of having used the software for
any copyright infringement.
Notwithstanding the
First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press, the district court permanently
barred 2600 from publishing, or even linking to, the DeCSS software
code. In November 2001, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower
court decision.
In essence, the movie
studios effectively obtained a “stop the presses” order banning the
publication of truthful information by a news publication concerning a
matter of public concern—an unprecedented curtailment of well-established
First Amendment principles.
Carl S. Kaplan,
“Questioning Continues in Copyright Suit,” N.Y. Times, May 4, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/04/technology/04CYBERLAW.html
Simson Garfinkel, “The
Net Effect: The DVD Rebellion,” Technology Review at 25, July/Aug. 2001.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel0701.asp
Xenia P. Kobylarz,
“DVD Case Clash—Free Speech Advocates Say Copyright Owners Want to Lock Up
Ideas; Encryption Code is Key,” S.F. Daily Journal, May 1, 2001.
Continued at
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.html
Question
Murat Tanju (with respect to one-time fair use under U.S. copyright law) asked
the following question:
>>"Isn't first time fair use applicable to the reader (students) who change each
time a course is given rather than the faculty who put it on reserve every
time?">>
Answer
The answer is no. Diane Graves explains this below. Long-term use of full
articles in repeated courses without copyright holder permission is definitely
not allowed. I did, however, remind all of you that the American Accounting
Association and many other academic associations does not require written
permission for articles used in education courses. See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Of course, fair use still allows quotations and excerpts without permission,
and the gray zone centers upon what proportion is fair. The real issue concerns
whether revenues of the copyright holder are seriously impaired by unfair use.
For example, I often take liberties with large cited quotations, but some of my
citations probably generate more revenues for the copyright holders if users
adopt the original works in courses. For example, if I place a long quote from
Magazine X in my New Bookmarks or messages on the AECM, professors who would
never have otherwise have known about the article and/or would not purchase the
article for themselves are not depriving the copyright holder of revenue. If
they freely distribute the article or even my long quotation to an entire class
of students, however, they are depriving the copyright holder of revenue. Loss
of revenue is the real issue! The revenue market for many publishers is the
student market. Fair use was placed into copyright law for education speed and
convenience, but it was not put there for long-term damages to publishers.
For example, I serve up a short "teaser" clip from one of my favorite
segments of in the CBS show called Sixty Minutes. My teaser video clip is at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000overview/mp3/133summ.htm#Introduction
I also have my downloaded entire segment that I played in class soon after I
downloaded a live broadcast. However, for use in subsequent semesters, I used a
purchased segment exactly like the segment I already had on my shelves.
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 4:07 PM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: RE: Re: Copyright Compliance Service
Bob,
Your understanding is correct. Our interpretation
of Fair Use (which is fairly common in the academic library world) is this:
the first time (first semester) a copy of an item is placed on Reserve, it
falls within the Fair Use category, so there is no need to seek permission
for its use. However, if the item is used for subsequent courses in other
semesters, we will require evidence that permission has been requested. So
if you have any items on reserve this fall semester that you intend to use
again in the spring, we'll call it fair use for the fall and seek copyright
permission for any use you'll have in subsequent semesters for those same
items. The Fair Use designation has to do with spontaneity--if you find
something you just HAVE to use in your class this term, you don't need to
ask permission to assign it. If you choose to use it again, it's
premeditated, in effect. You have time to plan to use it, and must request
permission to do so from the copyright holder. There is a good guide to
thinking through this process at IUPUI's website. You might want to look at
it:
http://www.iupui.edu/~copyinfo/fuchecklist.htm l Lately, the focus in
the courts has been on the economic impact of repeated, long term use of the
same item, and the availability of permissions. (See under Effect on the
IUPUI site). The fact that new students cycle through the course doesn't
seem to be a factor in the eyes of the courts. Does that answer your
question? Roger Horky is our new Manager of Copyright and Reserves. He can
answer any additional questions you have. He's at x8189;
rhorky@trinity.edu . Thanks for your
interest!
Diane J. Graves
Written Permission to Use Some Articles in Courses
is Not Required
I thought that the following message
from the Director of the Trinity University Library might be of more general
interest in this era of uncertainty over the DMCA mess.
She does not go into issues of material
placed by instructors under courses in the Blackboard server, but I assume the
same policies extend to the Blackboard server. I do remind you that many
academic associations have policies that allow distributions of their journal
articles to students. For example, all American Accounting Association journals
are subject to the following policy statement:
***************************************
Permission is
hereby granted to reproduce any of the contents of _[Name of the AAA
Journal] ___ for use in courses of instruction, as long as the source and
the American Accounting Association copyright are indicated in any such
reproductions.
Written application
must me made to the American Accounting Association, 5717 Bessie Drive,
Sarasota, FL 34233-2399, for permission to reproduce any of the contents for
use other than courses of instruction.
***************************************
I suspect that all we must do is notify
our library and/or our Blackboard master of the above policy that is printed in
the back of all AAA journals. Check with other academic associations for similar
policies.
But then again, who can trust an
accountant these days?
Bob Jensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 2:30 PM
To: Trinity Faculty/Staff
Subject: Copyright Compliance Service
To all Trinity
faculty and departmental secretaries:
Trinity has
recently reviewed its compliance with current copyright guidelines,
particularly as they relate to the library’s course reserves service. In the
past, the library accepted any and all materials faculty members wished to
place on reserve without regard for copyright compliance issues, often in
violation of copyright. Beginning this year, we have resolved to meet our
obligations to intellectual property rights holders and the law more
diligently.
Trinity’s need to
abide by copyright laws will affect the teaching faculty in many ways, the
most significant of which will be that we are changing library procedures
for placing items on reserve.
Library staff have
composed a new and formal copyright compliance policy. Please take the time
to read it; at
http://lib.trinity.edu/servcols/circ/cpyrghtp.shtml . Some of its
more important elements are:
1. When an item is placed on reserve for
the first time (ever) copyright compliance will usually not be necessary.
First-time use of an item is generally considered to be “fair use” of that
item as permitted by the US Copyright Code.
However, the library will require copyright
permission for all items placed on reserve a second or later time.
2. Faculty
members are welcome to seek copyright permissions for their reserve
materials themselves. If you obtain permission on your own, you will
need to provide proof of that permission to the reserves manager before the
material can be placed on reserve. Be aware, however, that library
resources—time and money—are limited. Please plan ahead so you have time to
identify alternatives.
3. The library has set aside a small fund
for royalty payments. At the present time, this amounts to just $50 per
instructor. We suspect that this will not be sufficient; this is a new
experience for us and we may have grossly underestimated the budgetary
requirements of full copyright compliance.
Any royalty fees beyond this amount will be
charged to the appropriate department.
4. Because the
library’s resources are so limited, instructors should designate the maximum
royalty payment they are willing to incur on each reserve item. They should
also rank their reserve requests in order of importance to the class so that
the library staff charged with obtaining copyright permissions can
prioritize the processing of their requests.
5. Any item
submitted without proof of copyright permission will not be placed on
reserve for two weeks, to permit time to process copyright permission
requests. At the end of the two-week period, the item will be placed on
reserve with the understanding that it will be removed if permission to use
it is denied. Please take into account this two-week delay when
submitting reserves.
6. To expedite the
process of securing copyright permissions, we will need as much
bibliographic information about the item as is possible. We have designed a
new reserves submission form that asks for the pertinent information. The
more complete the citation, the more quickly we can process the reserve
item.
Please note that
the library now offers an electronic reserves capability, which will affect
how we process reserves materials. We will be sending you all a short
message describing some of the more significant changes.
If you have any
questions, please contact . . [Deleted]
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library, Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive, San Antonio, TX 78212
"FAIR USE" IS GETTING UNFAIR TREATMENT
Two recent federal court rulings in Hollywood's favor could undermine consumers'
historical rights to use the content they buy
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020514_1528.htm?c=bwtechmay17&n=link13&t=email
To hear the
entertainment industry tell it, a wave of digital piracy threatens to
destroy the future of movies, records, and other media. While the danger of
piracy is real, the other side of the story is that Hollywood has been on a
remarkable legislative and legal winning streak in its campaign to win
increased protections (see BW Online, 4/18/02,
"High Tech vs. Hollywood on Capitol Hill"). Along the way, some
long-established consumer rights may disappear. And the message from the
courts so far seems to be "Get used to it."
The invention of digital media has made it possible for people without any
special skills or equipment to make copies that are essentially
indistinguishable from the originals. It has also given the creators of
media the technical means not only to prevent copies from being made but to
limit the ways consumers use products they have purchased, for example, by
blocking the playing of U.S. DVD movies in Europe or preventing certain
music CDs from being played in computers.
Copyright law has always tried to strike a delicate balance between the
rights of content creators to be compensated for their work and the rights
of consumers to use what they have paid for. But the development of digital
media and Big Media's attempt to completely control it have destroyed the
delicate equilibrium that is copyright law.
UNDER ASSAULT. Two legal doctrines, called
"first sale" and "fair use" are threatened by these technical changes. Under
first sale, the buyers of copyrighted works in the U.S. may dispose of their
purchases as they see fit (this isn't true in all countries). If you own a
book, record, or DVD, you can sell it, lend it, or give it away. Fair use is
a broader and vaguer concept, but it covers such things as quoting from a
book in a review, copying part of a work for classroom use, or, most
relevantly, making a copy of a music recording for personal use.
Both doctrines are now under assault. The most recent blow came in a May 8
ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte in San Jose, Calif., in which
he upheld the constitutionality of key provisions of the 1998 Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
This criminal case, U.S. v. Elcom Ltd., is a curious one. It began
last July when FBI agents, acting on a complaint from software maker Adobe
Systems, arrested Elcom employee Dmitry Skylarov at a hackers conference in
Las Vegas. He was charged with "trafficking" in software designed to
circumvent copy protections in Adobe's eBook Reader software, a criminal
violation of the DMCA. The case against Skylarov were eventually dropped,
and he returned to Russia, but the charges against Elcom are moving forward.
Continued at
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020514_1528.htm?c=bwtechmay17&n=link13&t=email
David
Takes on Goliath
"'Politics of Control'
Leads a Law Student to Challenge Digital-Copyright Act," by Andrea L. Foster,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2, 2002 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002080201t.htm
Benjamin G.
Edelman, a first-year student at Harvard University's law school, is the
latest academic researcher to challenge the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act.
The American Civil
Liberties Union, which is representing Mr. Edelman, last month filed a
lawsuit against N2H2 Inc., a Seattle-based Internet filtering company, in
U.S. District Court in Boston. The suit asks a judge to prevent N2H2 from
suing Mr. Edelman under the digital-copyright law should he decide to bypass
the company's encryption, which prevents him from discovering its complete
list of blocked Web sites. (See an article from The Chronicle, July 26.)
Q. How did you
become interested in Internet filtering?
A. I had been aware
of it generally for some years. It's hard to say when it all started. But
the ACLU contacted me two years ago as they were preparing to challenge a
variety of state laws requiring the use of filtering software in libraries.
Alaska, for example, had such a law, and there were some other states. ...
These laws were
unconstitutional and they were preparing to bring challenges to various
state courts. Then the Children's Internet Protection Act was passed,
mandating the use of such software nationally in all libraries and public
schools receiving federal funding. And that became the ACLU's priority and
mine.
Q. How did the
ACLU hear about you?
A. I had done some
expert work in at least one, maybe a few other cases prior to that time. I
had been working at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society here at
Harvard Law School, where I guess my name had gotten some exposure. Two
years ago, of course, I was a sophomore in college. But nonetheless, I guess
they called up and asked for me by name.
Q. Were you
already interested in computers before you came to Harvard?
A. I had been
interested in computers for about as long as I can remember. I had been
doing some computer-related work in junior high school and high school,
helping people choose computers, putting them together, designing databases
and networks. And so I came to Harvard with a particular interest in that
subject.
Q. When the
lawsuit was filed, you talked about how it concerned "technology and the
politics of control." What did you mean by that?
A. First, I should
credit the phrase to Professor [Jonathan] Zittrain of the law school, who
used it as a subtitle of his course, "Internet and Society: The Technologies
and Politics of Control." And I think he would say it's his research
interest, and it certainly is mine.
The core idea is
roughly as follows: The Internet has a certain appearance to it, when you
first connect to it, when people were first learning about it. And I suppose
in 1996, 1997, 1998, it seems like the Internet could be whatever you wanted
it to be, that no one could particularly change what it was, and no one
could stop you from doing what you wanted to do. If you wanted to put a
death threat on the Internet about your neighbor or your enemy, you could do
that, and no one could really get you. If you wanted to steal music using
the Internet, you could do that, and no one could get you. ...
The later idea --
my idea, and Zittrain's -- was that, in fact, there were a variety of forces
that for economic gain, for political gain, for other reasons, might seek to
restrict what people could and couldn't do on the Internet.
Continued at
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002080201t.htm
Take a quiz on your knowledge of the changes in fair
use and copyright laws?
"The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use," by Hall Davidson,
Tech-Learning, October 16, 2002 ---
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright.html
The summary chart is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
This is the way it happens: You're a teacher. You
find the perfect resource for a lesson you're building for your class. It's
a picture from the Internet, or a piece of a song, or a page or two from a
book in the library or from your own collection. There's no time to ask for
permission from who owns it. There isn't even time to figure who or what
exactly does own it. You use the resource anyway, and then you worry. Have
you violated copyright law? What kind of example are you setting for
students?
Or you're the principal. You visit a classroom and
see an outstanding lesson that involves a videotape, or an MP3 audio file
from the Web, or photocopies from a book you know your school doesn't own.
Do you make a comment?
The Original Intent Were the framers of the
Constitution or the barons of Old English law able to look over your
shoulder, they would be puzzled by your doubts because all of the above uses
are legal. Intellectual property was created to promote the public good. In
old England, if you wanted to copyright a book, you gave copies to the
universities. According to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, "The
primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors...but
encourage others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by
a work." In other words, copyright was created to benefit society at large,
not to protect commercial interests.
Nowhere is this statement truer than in the
educational arena. In fact, educators fall under a special category under
the law known as "fair use." The concept, which first formally appeared in
the 1976 Copyright Act, allows certain groups to use intellectual property
deemed to benefit society as a whole, e.g., in schools for instructional
use. However, it deliberately did not spell out the details. Over the years,
fair use guidelines have been created by a number of groups-usually a
combination of educators, intellectual property holders, and other
interested parties. These are not actual laws, but widely accepted "deals"
the educational community and companies have struck and expect each other to
follow.
What follows is a new version of "The Educators'
Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use," published in Technology & Learning
three years ago. As you take the quiz on page 28, you will learn that no
matter the technology-photocopying, downloads, file sharing, video
duplication-there are times when copying is not only acceptable, it is
encouraged for the purposes of teaching and learning. And you will learn
that the rights are strongest and longest at the place where educators need
them most: in the classroom. However, schools need to monitor and enforce
fair use. If they don't, as the Los Angeles Unified School District found
out in a six-figure settlement, they may find themselves on the losing end
of a copyright question.
Know Your Limitations-and Rights It has never been
a more important time to know the rules. As a result of laws written and
passed by Congress, companies are now creating technologies that block users
from fair use of intellectual property-for example, teachers can't pull DVD
files into video projects, and some computers now block users from inputting
VCRs and other devices. In addition to helping schools steer clear of legal
trouble, understanding the principles of fair use will allow educators to
aggressively pursue new areas where technology and learning are ahead of the
law, and to speak out when they feel their rights to copyright material have
been violated.
Now, take a
quiz that will assess your knowledge of what is allowable-and what
isn't-under fair use copyright principles and guidelines. There's also a
handy
chart that outlines teachers' fair use rights and responsibilities. Good
luck.
The quiz is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_quiz.html
The chart is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
From Syllabus News on October 18, 2002
MIT, Elsevier, Wiley Sue Coursepack Producer
MIT Press, Elsevier Science Inc., and John Wiley &
Sons Inc., three major publishers of scientific, technical, and medical
materials, filed suit against Gainsville, Fla.-based Custom Copies Inc.,
charging the company with unauthorized mass photocopying of material from
the publishers' books and journals. The complaint alleges that Custom Copy
produces coursepacks for sale on the campus of the University of Florida at
Gainesville, without authorization from the copyright holders. "When a
coursepack producer engages in mass photocopying of rightsholders' materials
for its own profit, without clearing rights … [it] severely harms both the
creators and the publishers of those materials," said Mark Seeley, general
counsel of Elsevier Science. The suit is being coordinated by Copyright
Clearance Center Inc., a licenser of text reproduction rights.
For more information, visit:
http://www.copyright.com
Powerful commercial
interests and tort lawyers combined forces in engineering the DMCA legislation
in the U.S that throws education and information use into a turmoil of risk and
uncertainty. An article with frightening examples is provided by Georgia
Harper, "Copyright Endurance and Change," Educause Review,
November/December 2000, pp. 20-26. She states the following on Page 21"
Some
of these changes --- licenses, access controls, certain provisions in the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) --- have the potential to
drastically undermine the public right to access information, to comment on
events, and even to share information with others.
Section 107 on "fair use"
continues to, with increased ambiguity, provide safe harbors for use of small
amounts of material, material not yet available for purchase when needed for
students, and material that should be open to criticism and review without fear
of reprisals in copyright infringement lawsuits. Nevertheless, the DMCA
has provisions that erode Section 107. Georgia Harber states the following
on Page 24:
Even
though fair use is a key "stress point," there has been no change to Section
107. The stresses on fair use result from other things:
technological "fixes" that control dissemination of copyrighted works; legal
frameworks, established to control dissemination, that marginalize fair use;
and license terms that ignore fair use as well as other public rights
protected in the Copyright Act. Ultimately, I am concerned that the
basic goal of copyright --- to improve our society by fostering creativity,
encouraging the dissemination of information, and supporting the development
of knowledge --- is endangered by the erosion of fair use in the digital
environment.
Remember, fair use embodies a balance between the competing interests of
owners and users, between control and access, between control and the First
Amendment, and it bridges the gap between a willing seller and a willing
buyer of rights to use. A diminishing role for fair use may well mean
less public access and less ability to speak, to criticize, and to comment.
An ERIC Digest from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education
(ERIC-HE) addresses some complex copyright questions related to distance
education. "Copyright Concerns in the Age of Distance Education," by law
librarian James H. Walther, is available online at
http://www.eriche.org/digests/2000-9.pdf
Things are not a whole lot better on the international scene.
An international copyright treaty proposal is stirring up U.S. opposition from
open-source developers to ISPs ---
http://www.wirednews.com/news/politics/0,1283,43820,00.html
It appears disastrous for program developers,"
Stallman said. "Many countries have laws about what kinds of software can be
developed.... Everything relating to information should be taken out of this
convention."
The treaty in question is a heretofore obscure
proposal known as the Hague Convention, which European nations generally
support, but the U.S. State Department has criticized. If countries agree to
the convention, they'd be required to enforce judgments in certain type of
civil lawsuits brought in another jurisdiction.
That prospect lightens the hearts of entertainment
lobbyists, who fear increasingly widespread piracy and the possibility of
Napster clones arising in countries that don't have laws restricting online
file-sharing.
Currently the Hague Convention includes copyright
offenses in a section that Stallman, Internet providers, and consumer groups
are lobbying to remove. Stallman, for instance, claims countries that are
even more permissive about awarding software patents could sue U.S.
programmers for violating them -- and thereby wreak havoc on the free
software movement.
But Robert Raben, who spoke on Tuesday as a
representative of the recording industry, warned that excluding copyright
from the draft convention would be a mistake: "Its intentional exclusion at
this point would be a terrible message to send to the world."
This dispute eerily mirrors a similar spat between
the entertainment industry and open source and hacking groups that also
involves copyright law. At the behest of business lobbyists, Congress
enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which limits programmers'
ability to circumvent copy protection schemes and was the recent subject of
an appeals court hearing.
Other speakers cautioned that it's too late to
perform radical surgery on the Hague Convention, which has been under
discussion since 1992 and was tentatively adopted by the 49 member nations
of the Hague Convention in June 1999. A two-stage diplomatic summit is
scheduled to begin in June 2001 and resume in 2002.
"You can't take it out of the convention, you just
can't do it," said Marc Hankin, of Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, a law
firm that deals with intellectual property disputes.
Only recently, however, have American businesses
and nonprofit groups appeared to realize the sweeping scope of the treaty.
(A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office request for comments last year went
largely unheeded.)
Sarah Deutsch of Verizon said her employer opposed
the Hague Convention. "I do think the convention is an expansion of the
rights of copyright holders," she said. In an earlier letter, Verizon said
it had "significant concerns" with the measure.
Millions of Web Documents are Not Being
Archived for Future Scholars
I find this to be an enormous problem in scholarship and research. I
download and store almost any article that I deem important in my work and
teaching. For example, I have some really important FASB documents on FAS
133 that are no longer available at the FASB Website. It becomes
discouraging to quote and cite works that are not longer available to readers.
This is a real bummer modern scholarship.
"A crisis for Web preservation Fugitive documents published on the Web are
not being preserved." by Florence Olsen, FCW.com, June 21, 2004 ---
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0621/pol-crisis-06-21-04.asp
A crisis for Web preservation Fugitive documents
published on the Web are not being preserved — From FCW.com The Federal
Depository Library Program has fallen behind in cataloging and preserving
access to government documents published only on the Web. As a result,
public access to those publications is spotty at best.
"This is not a problem; this is a crisis," said
Daniel Greenstein, head of the California Digital Library, which serves the
10 universities in the University of California system. He said information
is disappearing from government Web sites at an alarming rate.
At the Government Printing Office, which runs the
depository library program, officials are struggling with the problem, known
as fugitive documents, said Judith Russell, superintendent of documents.
Fugitive documents are electronic publications that remain outside the
federal depository collections in 1,300 libraries nationwide.
To capture those publications automatically, GPO
officials may turn to Web-harvesting technologies. In May, agency officials
published a notice asking vendors to submit information about Web-crawler
and data-mining technologies that could assist in locating fugitive
government publications…
Continued in the article
Are Universities Becoming EMOs
(Educational Maintenance Organisations)?
Some of us may be interested in these two
fascinating sites that address questions such as:
Are universities becoming EMOs (educational
Maintenance Organisations)? Are faculty being reduced to hired help? Are
university administrators becoming vendor-agents and corporate managers
(rather than Scholar-administrators?) Are faculty losing control of the
product of their labour? ... ...
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/
http://www.coolclass.com/newsletter/vol01no02-clarke.html
While I did not get into teaching to get rich (in
fact I got out of the rich corporate world and into teaching, to escape
intellectual drudgery), and I am glad that I am not at the beginning of my
career, I do feel sad about the passing of an era.
The society has to clarify what our rights as
academics are just as it is grappling with the issues of intellectual
property rights in this electronic age. Nowadays I find that school
administrators smell money a lot faster than they do intellectually
stimulating ideas. What a pity the age of scholar-administrators is coming
to an end, supplanted by that of pencil-pushing career manager-bureaucratic
education merchants. Is this the intellectual equivalent of the supplanting
of the age of chivalry by that of book-keepers?
Respectfully submitted,
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly,
Associate Professor
(j.gangolly@albany.edu ) State University of New York at Albany, Albany,
NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4949 Fax: (707) 897-0601 URL:
http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
An Editorial by Bob Jensen
HMOs and health clinics often deliver inferior medicine because there is no
competition or very little competition in a geographic market. EMOs (see
above) will not have such advantages of geographic monopoly. Education,
unlike heath care, is no longer bound by geography. EMOs face exploding
global competition to a point where only the best can thrive. To date this
is not the case with HMOs.
I tend to disagree with the EMO doom and gloom outlook for the future of
online education programs. In my opinion, such claims as "redundant
faculty" are not rooted in communications with faculty in experimenting in
quality distance education --- faculty that are nearly burned out by the
increased communications between themselves and students in respected online
programs. Online faculty in major universities are biting their knuckles
because of the increased intensity of communication in online courses and the
demands of being more creative and more of an expert to online students seeking
something akin to one-on-one tutorials with instructors. In a sense, the
distance education courses are reverting to the Oxford tutorial system.
Many of the online courses are highly Socratic.
Of course it is possible to put up an online course of the EMO variety that
has virtually no communication between instructors and students. But it is also
possible to put up a high quality, prestigious distance education course in
which the communications between faculty and students and the communications
between students and other students are much greater than in traditional
courses. This is what the SCALE experiments at the University of Illinois
try to study in much greater rigor than the off-the-wall doom and gloom
soothsayers seem to ever discover or comprehend. For links to the
SCALE experiments and an audio commentary by Dan Stone, go to MP3 audio
presentation at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm .
I predict that the problem of online education is that the eventual rewards
from great online teaching will draw the brightest and the best of our new
educators into more teaching and less research. In the past 50 years,
major universities have placed the highest rewards and honors on research and
publication performances. It is not surprising that teaching and learning
are not focused upon in doctoral programs that center 100% on research skills
and experience. It is not surprising that the American Accounting
Association Doctoral Consortium virtually ignores education technologies and the
changing times in online education. It is not surprising that researchers
strive to teach only researchers (i.e., doctoral students) and not have to face
the great unwashed (undergraduate students). It is not surprising that
researchers tend to avoid teaching undergraduates whenever possible. It is
not surprising that great teaching is not a priority for researchers who are
assigned (punished?) to teach undergraduate courses. It is not surprising
that researchers are often the least skilled in education technologies and the
least interested in taking on online courses that are very demanding in terms of
time and creativity and will draw them away from their research and publication
in top journals.
Times will be changing with respect to corporate education and online
delivery of courses. Corporations will soon be offering up compensation
packages and lifestyle packages that will attract the brightest and the best of
new talent, including newly minted doctoral students. At the moment, Sarah
Supercharged with her new Stanford University diploma in hand places highest
priority on going to a prestige university to conduct research and minimize
teaching. In was and still is a great honor for her to get her new
assistant professorship at Rochester and only have to teach one course a year.
But there will soon be a new employer on the block. Rather than endure
the strains of tenure uncertainty and stress of research and publication at the
University of Rochester, Sarah Supercharged will soon have an alternative of
making ten times as much in earnings (due to stock options and other
compensation incentives) to focus on online creativity, student communication,
and quality delivery of courses in executive education from some education
corporation (possible a corporation owned by a prestige university). And
she will be able to deliver the courses from her ocean front home in Big Sur
(California) or her horse ranch in Idaho or cattle farm in New Zealand rather
than have to endure a daily grind to her research lab in Rochester, NY.
Her students around the world will receive a wonderful ("Supercharged")
education, because she is so motivated and talented. She brings to each of
them her very best, partly because the value of her stock options depend upon
her online performance.
My worry is not that the "EMOs" will be worse than our present prestige
universities. My worry is that they will be much better, in part because
they will draw away the top talent and change priorities from research to
teaching. Research will suffer in the long run, because it will be much
more difficult to fund and to subsidize with large undergraduate lectures on
campus that in the 20th Century were the cash cows that fed research.
Education corporations will start milking those cash cows, and for-profit
corporations will be less inclined to fund basic research not tied to the bottom
line of profit.
I repeat what I said at the beginning of this editorial. HMOs and
health clinics often deliver inferior medicine because there is no competition
or very little competition in a geographic market. EMOs will not
have such advantages of geographic monopoly. Education, unlike heath care,
is no longer bound by geography. EMOs face exploding global competition to
a point where only the best can thrive. To date this is not the case with
HMOs.
Institutions, Reward
Structures, and Traditions
That Defy Changes in Higher Education
The military has a chain
of command and a tradition for carrying out orders promptly throughout the
system. A university is the antithesis of the military. There is
very little chain of command in a tenure system that allows faculty to ignore
many edicts from their "superiors" in the administrative chain of command.
Probably more at fault than tenure is the tradition of allowing faculty to make
independent decisions concerning what they put into "their" courses and what
topics they will pursue in "their" research.
Funds are rewarding
innovation and change are scarce in university budgets. Even more
constraining is the comfort a faculty member takes in student evaluations at
present and the risk and fear that hovers over innovation and risk taking.
Be assured that most
faculty members in universities are not lazy. It may appear to be a cushy
job with only nine or twelve contact hours in the classroom, but it is not at
all uncommon for faculty to put in sixty hour weeks staying abreast of the new
knowledge of their disciplines and contributing to this new knowledge with
research and writing. A huge effort is made to build and maintain a
reputation for scholarship and research. This means that there is precious
little time to carve out for learning new educational technologies.
Universities seeking to
offer online courses must often hire new faculty or attempt to make deals with
existing faculty by providing release time, summer grants, and other incentives
that often fail to have a lasting impact on genuine commitment to change and
genuine long-term contributions to innovation and online education.
University policies, resource constraints, and promotion and
tenure traditions stand in the way of competing with corporations such as UNext
that will treat instructors more like professional employees. The salaries
and benefits will be greater in the corporations, but there will not likely be
any tenure or job security. Indeed the reward packages may be so great as
to provide very real competition to universities seeking to hire the best new
faculty or retain the best tenured faculty.
Barriers to Distance Education
Students surf to class, but there's no online deluge
— From the Los Angeles Daily News
Once expected to revolutionize higher
education as the Internet transformed mass media, online education has
disappointed its early enthusiasts but has found a valuable niche serving
working adults, educators say.
"Once upon a time, in the go-go '90s,
the thought was that online education would eventually supplant (traditional
university education)," said David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at
the University of California at Berkeley.
"But it's hard to replicate some of
the things a real classroom can offer -- those face-to-face interchanges
that people often want."
Nearly a decade after the Internet became
a household fixture, the University of California system does not offer a
single online course for undergraduates during the regular school year…
For the
full story, visit:
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2266845,00.html
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
WHAT HAPPENED TO
E-LEARNING?
"Thwarted
Innovation: What Happened to E-learning and Why" presents the results of the
Weatherstation Project of The Learning Alliance at the University of
Pennsylvania. This study sought to answer the question "Why did the boom in
e-learning go bust?" Over an eighteen-month period authors Robert Zemsky, an
education professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and William F. Massy,
professor emeritus of education and business administration at Stanford
University, tracked faculty and staff attitudes towards e-learning at six
colleges and universities. Their findings challenged three prevalent
e-learning assumptions:
-- If we build it
they will come -- not so;
-- The kids will
take to e-learning like ducks to water -- not quite;
-- E-learning will
force a change in the way we teach -- not by a long shot.
The complete report
is available online, at no cost, in PDF format at
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf.
The Learning
Alliance is "a provider of educational research and leadership support
services to presidents of accredited, non-profit
two- and four-year
colleges and universities. The Learning Alliance serves the mission of
higher education institutions by providing its senior administrators with
timely access to expertise, current research, and market data." For more
information, contact: The Learning Alliance, 1398 Wilmington Pike, West
Chester, PA 19382 USA; tel: 610-399-6601; fax: 815-550-8892; Web:
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/index.php.
The Weatherstation
Project was conceived as "an antidote to those first descriptions of the
market for e-learning, which were often warped by missing data and overly
hopeful assumptions about how quickly new products would come to market and
how receptive learners and instructors were likely to be."
From Syllabus News on July 20, 2004
For-Profit Institution Popularity Slipping, Says
Online Consortium
Job candidates from traditional universities with
online programs are more likely to be hired and promoted by corporations
than candidates from for-profit providers of online education and degree
programs. That’s the conclusion of a study by the Online University
Consortium, a group of traditional universities which describes its mission
as providing “access to reputable universities that have online degree
programs you can trust.”
The OUC looked at data compiled over a recent
12-month period, gathered through surveys of corporate decision-makers
attending major trade events such as Society for Human Resource Management
and American Society for Training & Development. When compared to the
previous year's findings, OEC said it found the number of companies
preferring traditional universities is up 15 percent, with 65 percent
selecting traditional schools compared to 50 percent in 2003. OUC said it
also found that the number of companies choosing for-profit businesses
declined, with 14.3 percent now indicating they would select a for-profit
compared to 22 percent in 2003.
Deborah Besemer, president and CEO of recruitment
services provider BrassRing, said employers are avoiding schools that have
flooded the market with online degree programs and which have questionable
regard for quality. "We see this when they search for candidates and
specifically eliminate certain schools from their search. Reputation of the
educational institution is what matters the most," said Besemer. "Employers
want to hire students who have a full college experience whether online or
in the classroom. They are looking for well-educated individuals to join
their companies."
For more information on the OUC’s findings, visit
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=8543
In my opinion, the Weatherstation Project is biased from the start by
skeptics who do not balance the successes against the failures to date ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For example, the report fails to even mention one of the world's most successful
e-Learning endeavors in his own institution, the Master's of Engineering (ADEPT)
distance learning program at Stanford University even though one of the two
authors is a long-time faculty member and top administrator at Stanford.
Here are some counter examples.
New and
Expanding Market Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://ww.stanford.edu/history/fulldesc.html
Stanford University shook up the stuffy Ivy League and other
prestigious schools such as Oxford and Cambridge when it demonstrated to
the world that its online training programs and its online Masters of
Engineering (ADEPT) asynchronous learning degree program became enormous
cash cows with nearly infinite growth potentials relative to relatively
fixed-size onsite programs. In a few short years, revenues from
online programs in engineering and computer science exploded to over
$100 million per year.
The combined present value of the Stanford University logo and the
logos of other highly prestigious universities are worth trillions.
Any prestigious university that ignores online growth opportunities is
probably wasting billions of dollars of potential cash flow from its
logo.
Virtually all universities of highest prestige and name recognition
are realizing this and now offer a vast array of online training and
education courses directly or in partnership with corporations and
government agencies seeking the mark of distinction on diplomas.
Example 2 --- University of Wisconsin ---
http://webct.wisc.edu/
Over 100,000 Registered Online Students in The University of Wisconsin
System of State-Supported Universities
Having a long history of extension programs largely aimed at
part-time adult learners, it made a lot of sense for the UW System to
try to train and educate adult learners and
other learners who were not likely to become onsite students.
The UW System is typical of many other large state-supported
universities that have an established adult learning infrastructure and
a long history of interactive television courses delivered to remote
sites within the state. Online Internet courses were a logical
extension and in many instances a cost-efficient extension relative to
televised delivery.
Example 3 --- Harvard University
In light of new online learning technologies, Harvard University
changed its long-standing residency requirement in anticipation of
expanding markets for "mid-career professionals" according to Harvard
University President Lawrence H. Summers, EDUCAUSE Review,
May/June 2002, Page 4. Harvard has various distance education
programs, including those in the Harvard Business School that currently
cost over $4 million per year to maintain.
Example 4
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA Program
Babson College said it will launch in Jan.
a "fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional onsite
classroom instruction with distance learning components. The program
will enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months, and is designed
for executives struggling to balance work and personal demands in an
economic recession. Intel Corp. sponsored the program as a
complement to its corporate education package, and has modeled it
with 33 employees. The blended MBA program calls for students to
attend monthly two and-a-half days of face-to-face sessions with
Babson's faculty on campus in Wellesley. During the rest of the
time, students will take part in Internet-based distance learning
sessions with their professors and access interactive multimedia
course content.
For more information, visit:
http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
Example 5 --- Texas A&M Online MBA Program in Mexico ---
http://olap.tamu.edu/mexico/tamumxctr.pdf
Some universities view online technologies as a tremendous
opportunity to expand training and education courses into foreign
countries. One such effort was undertaken by the College of
Business Administration at Texas A&M University in partnership with
Monterrey Tech in Mexico. For example, Professor
John Parnell at Texas A&M has been delivering a course for several
semesters in which students in Mexico City take the online course in
their homes. However, once each month the students meet
face-to-face on a weekend when Dr. Parnell travels to Mexico City to
hold live classes and administer examinations.
You probably won't have much difficulty making a guess as to what
many students say is the major reason they prefer online courses to
onsite courses in Mexico City?
Example 6 --- The University of Phoenix ---
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html
The University of Phoenix became the largest private university in
the world. Growth came largely from adult learning onsite programs
in urban centers across the U.S. and Canada.
The popular CBS television show called Sixty Minutes ran a
feature on the growth and future of the newer online training and
education programs at the University of Phoenix. You can download this
video from
http://online.uophx.edu/onl_nav_2.asp#
The University of Phoenix contends that online success in education
depends upon intense communications day-to-day between instructors and
students. This, in turn, means that online classes must be
relatively small and synchronized in terms of assignments and projects.
Example 7 --- Partnerships
Lucrative partnerships between universities and corporations seeking to
train and educate employees.
The highly successful Global Executive MBA Program at Duke University
(formerly called GEMBA) where corporations from around the world pay
nearly $100,000 for one or two employees to earn a prestigious online
MBA degree ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
UNext Corporation has an exclusive partnership with General Motors
Corporation that provides online executive training and education
programs to 88,000 GM managers. GM pays the fees. See
http://www.unext.com/
Army University Access Online
---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the consulting
division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Twenty-four colleges are
delivering training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's
e-learning portal. There are programs for varying levels of
accomplishment, including specialty certificates, associates degrees,
bachelor's degrees, and masters degrees. All courses are free to
soldiers. By 2003, there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online
students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University
attracted 12,000 students during its first year of operation. It
plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students in 2002.
It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers to take
non-credit and credit courses from selected major universities.
The consulting arm of the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers
manages the entire system.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has a program for online training
and education for all IRS employees. The IRS pays the fees for all
employees. The IRS online
accounting classes will be served up from Florida State University and
Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University
to provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays
the fees. See "Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's
Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo
Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
The University of Georgia partnered with the consulting division of
PwC to deliver a totally online MBA degree. The program is only
taken by PwC employees. PwC paid the development and delivery
fees. See
http://www.coe.uga.edu./coenews/2000/UGAusnews.htm |
Bob Jensen's threads on the bright and the dark side of education
technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Barriers to Distance Education ---
http://www.emoderators.com/barriers/index.shtml
Principal Investigator: Zane L. Berge
When people within
an organization plan for using distance training and education, there are
several barriers to their efforts that they are likely to encounter.
Consideration of barriers faced by other organizations may help leaders find
solutions to reduce or to minimize obstacles in their own organization.
Using a content analysis of thirty-two, in-depth case studies of leading
organizations, this study begins to explore solutions to the barriers faced
by organizations when they use distance education.
While distance
education is on a fast growth curve right now, there are many barriers that
must be overcome. The results reported here are from persons working in
higher education (n=1276). The perspective taken is that various
organizations are at different stages or levels of capabilities with regard
to distance education-from never using distance education to other
organizations in which distance education is how they do business.
The research
questions reported on in this article are:
- do educators
perceive different barriers depending upon the maturity of their
organization's capabilities in distance education, and
- as the
organization' distance education competency as a whole matures, will the
overall number or intensity of perceived barriers to distance education
be reduced? There are additional observations included.
While numerous studies have discussed barriers to the successful
implementation of distance education, many are based on the examination of
one instructor’s experience, one distance learning environment, or one type
of distance learning program. The findings provide useful information, but
it is difficult to piece these studies together to create a holistic picture
of the barriers to distance education.
Some quantitative studies have been conducted (Berge 1998; Cegles 1998;
Dickinson et al. 1999; Rockwell et al. 1999; Yap 1996), but they tap a small
or very focused population group. A larger-scale study was still needed to
consider simultaneously the many dimensions of barriers to distance
education as perceived by people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
The
survey study reported in the following presentations and articles sought to
represent the perceptions of people who differed on six demographic
variables: (1) workplace (e.g., community college, government, nonprofit
organization, K–12 education); (2) job function (e.g., support staff,
manager, researcher, student); (3) type of delivery system used (e.g.,
audiotape, computer conferencing, interactive television [ITV]); (4)
expertise regarding distance education; (5) the stage of the respondent’s
organization with regard to capabilities in delivering distance education
(from no distance education activity to distance education being the way the
organization does business); and (6) the area in which the respondent
primarily works (e.g., fine arts, engineering, education). These studies
represent the responses of over 2500 persons.
A survey was
conducted to help better understand and more systematically study barriers
to distance education. The survey addressed six demographic variables: 1)
work place (e.g., community college, government); 2) job function (e.g.,
support staff; manager, researcher, student); 3) type of delivery system
used (e.g., audio-tape, computer conferencing, ITV); 4) expertise of the
individual regarding distance education; 5) the stage of the respondents
organization with regard to capabilities in delivering distance education;
and 6) the area in which the respondent primarily works (e.g., fine arts,
engineering, education). The focus of this presentation is on barriers to
distance education as perceived by managers and administrators.
A review of the
literature regarding the barriers to the use of educational technology in
primary and secondary education was conducted. An emphasis was placed on the
diffusion of computers in the schools, since the focus of this study is to
determine what should be expected as computer-mediated communication (CMC)
is used in schools to teach in online environments. A categorical framework,
similar to one used by the first author for analysis of barriers to the use
of CMC in higher education, was used (Berge, 1998).
The nine categories
of barriers are: academic, fiscal, geographic, governance, labor-management,
legal, student support, technical, and cultural. The literature review of
barriers to the use of educational technology in K-12 using this framework
suggested the primary areas of concern are academic, cultural, and
technical. Secondary areas of concern are labor-management and fiscal
issues, with little or no mention of geographic, governance, student
support, or legal aspects of diffusion of technology.
To test whether the
use of CMC as one important area of educational technology entering K-12
teaching and learning, a recently published four volume series of books
titled, "Wired Together: Computer-Mediated Communication in K-12" was
analyzed. Taken together, the seventy-two (72) chapters in these four books,
mostly case studies, represent a considerable body of experience in online
teaching and learning in K-12, pre- and in-service teacher training.
This content
analysis was conducted:
- to determine
how many different barriers to online teaching were mentioned across all
the contributors, i.e., to indicate the range of the obstacles, and,
- to determine
how often each particular category of barriers was mentioned, i.e., to
indicate the perceived severity of these issues. The results are quite
consistent when compared to the more general review of literature
regarding educational technology.
Combined with
demographic trends, political forces, economic factors, the need for
lifelong learning, and the changing emphases in teaching and learning, there
is a resurgence of interest in distance education both at traditional
institutions of higher education and in organizations whose sole mission is
distance education. Can higher education at "traditional" universities
change to meet the new student demands and the intense competition among
education providers that distance education brings?
Just a couple of years ago, every major game company was developing a
massively multiplayer online game, based on the attractive business premise. But
after many disappointments in recent months, the industry is realizing these
games can become tar pits.
"Online Games a Massive Pain," by Daniel Terdiman, Wired News, July
16, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,64153,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
Electronic Arts' decision to shut down development
of Ultima X: Odyssey -- the sequel to its long-running online
game Ultima Online -- may force the game industry to re-examine
what it takes to be a successful developer of massively multiplayer online
games.
Electronic Arts joins a growing list of companies
-- Cyan Worlds, Games Workshop, There Inc. -- that invested millions of
dollars in online games, only to see disappointing sales or unfinished
projects. But what's surprising about EA's setback is that it is the world's
biggest video-game software company, with plenty of cash, talent, marketing
muscle and patience to develop a franchise. Despite that, it pulled the plug
on
UXO.
What's more, over the past few years EA has pulled
the plug, or announced plans to pull the plug, on a string of MMO games:
Ultima Online II, Motor City Online, an online
Harry Potter adventure game and Earth & Beyond. Most surprising
of all, The Sims Online -- an online version of the biggest
video-game franchise in history -- has been a disappointment for the
company, by most accounts.
MMO games are notoriously hard to develop, much
harder than traditional shrink-wrapped, single-player video games. Most MMOs
create huge online worlds where thousands of players, each sitting in their
homes, interact with each other -- exploring, trading and pillaging. The
business premise to game companies is enticing: Players have to buy a copy
of the game for about $50 at a retailer, then pay an additional monthly
charge of $10 to $15 to gain entrance to the virtual world. But the
companies have to pay a lot of attention to keep the online environments
compelling and the players interested. And things that single-player games
don't need as much -- like customer support and service -- are key to
keeping subscriptions active.
"Maybe what we're learning is that (a traditional
game company) is not going to be set up perfectly to run big online games,"
said Ed Castronova, an associate professor at Indiana University, and a
moderator of Terra
Nova, a blog that discusses virtual worlds.
In contrast to EA, Sony set up an independent
division, Sony Online Entertainment, to
focus exclusively on virtual worlds, Castronova pointed out. The result:
Sony Online has had huge success with its EverQuest franchise,
with at least half a million subscribers, and its Star Wars Galaxies
world has had more than 300,000 players.
Of course, EA is not the only company that has had
problems keeping MMOs afloat. For example, Games Workshop recently announced
plans to close down
Warhammer
Online, as did Cyan Worlds
with Uru Live. And There Inc. is on the verge of abandoning
its metaverse in favor of
becoming a platform builder, some speculate.
For its part, EA disputes the notion that it has
had problems developing MMOs. Instead, it said the UXO move was
a strategic realignment of resources.
Continued in the article
Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment and learning games are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
How can colleges best mix on-campus and online
delivery of instruction?
Question
How can colleges best mix on-campus and online delivery of instruction?
"Going Hybrid," by Kristin L. Greene, Inside Higher Ed, July 20, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/07/20/strategist
Too many college and university leaders think, “We
have an online program and we have a campus program, so we can probably just
combine the two to create a hybrid program.” This usually doesn’t work well
because online and on-campus programs often appeal to different people for
different reasons, and the delivery challenges for each are also quite
different.
We’ve seen some great successes, and a few
spectacular failures, in the hybrid market model (in which 20-80 percent of
content is delivered online). From these examples, we’ve learned that
planning up front and being clear about objectives are preconditions for
success. Institutions considering hybrid models for a program, or even
several courses, must first create a “business plan” and clearly state what
they want to achieve, which students they plan to serve, and how they plan
to compete. When building this plan for your institution, you should keep
the following in mind:
The Goal. Why are you considering a hybrid
model? What is the business rationale? Are you trying to reach different, or
more, students, or trying to solve space constraints? Are you doing it
because you see an unmet need in your marketplace or because your
competitors are going hybrid and you feel the need to keep up? Are you
looking for a local, regional, or national audience? The national market is
becoming quite competitive, and programs in this space are becoming more
commodity like, so a program focusing on the regional or local market may
position your program for success.
Philosophy. A program with 20 percent of
delivery online and 80 percent on-campus is quite different from a program
with 80 percent online and 20 percent on-campus, yet they both qualify as
hybrid. Will you use the online component only for communication purposes or
for content delivery as well? How will you use adjunct faculty members — to
create the content, deliver it, or both? The philosophy you choose should
provide a blueprint or roadmap for how you will achieve your goals. Too
often in our work, we have seen institutions miss this step — they did not
identify their philosophy before jumping into the hybrid model, and later
found that it significantly impeded success. Without a philosophy, it is
difficult to communicate the value proposition internally or externally, and
it becomes challenging to make some of the difficult trade-offs inherent in
any new venture.
Target Consumer. What type of consumer is
your hybrid offering designed to attract? Adult learners tend to be more
open to an online experience because it allows them to balance their
professional and personal lives with their educational pursuits. Traditional
students — those aged 18 to 24 – tend to want face-to-face, classroom-based
learning. Corporations may prefer a little of both, to allow employees to
work and study at the same time. Segmenting the market by consumer types and
needs — adult, traditional, current, new, credit, non-credit — and designing
programs that fit these segments and needs are important early steps.
Integration. Integrating between bricks and
clicks is probably the single biggest point of failure for institutions
pursuing a hybrid model. Where does campus-based learning begin and end
relative to the online component? How do student services coordinate with
these components? What do you need to change about your student information
system? The challenges range from technology and training, to content design
and delivery, to student services. Be sure to prepare by thinking through
the entire system and how it will affect the students, the faculty, and the
staff.
Programs. Some courses and programs have
done very well online and would be logical candidates for a hybrid model
(e.g., business, IT, education), but not every course or program is
well-suited to a hybrid approach. It’s best to begin with an audit of
existing programs, dissecting the curriculum to determine how a hybrid model
might be applied. At the same time, you should do an external evaluation of
market demand and supply to determine where the best opportunities are for
introducing new programs. Again, if you consider local versus national
distribution, you may find that, on a local level, a particular hybrid
program may provide a competitive advantage in attracting students.
Core Competencies. What is your institution
known for? What do you do better than most of your peer schools? Focus your
efforts on maximizing the benefit of these core competencies and consider
outsourcing those areas that are not strengths, such as marketing, lead
management, student services, or technology.
Faculty Buy-In. Faculty members have a large
stake in content delivery because most of the time they supply the
curriculum. Whether you plan to offer incentives for faculty to adapt
content to a hybrid model or to outsource this function, faculty should be
involved in the discussions.
Hybrid courses and programs represent more of an
evolution than a revolution in educational content delivery. Hybrid delivery
represents a natural progression for many campus-based institutions to
investigate and perhaps pursue, and often can serve as a competitive
advantage in reaching a wider student population. Rigorously thinking
through process design and delivery components and planning carefully for
implementation will make the difference between those programs that succeed
in the hybrid arena and those that invest a lot of resources with little to
show for it.
Online Cheating and Reduced Social Interaction
July 30, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
NEW BOOK OF ONLINE
EDUCATION CASE STUDIES
ELEMENTS OF QUALITY
ONLINE EDUCATION: INTO THE MAINSTREAM, edited by John Bourne and Janet C.
Moore, is the fifth and latest volume in the annual Sloan-C series of case
studies on quality education online. Essays cover topics in the following
areas: student satisfaction and student success, learning effectiveness,
blended environments, and assessment. To order a copy of the book go to
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/volume5.asp. You can
download a free 28-page summary of the book from
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/vol5summary.pdf.
The Sloan
Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of institutions and organizations
committed "to help learning organizations continually improve quality,
scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own
distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide
variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/.
COMBATING CHEATING
IN ONLINE STUDENT ASSESSMENT
In "Cheating in
Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism" (ONLINE JOURNAL OF DISTANCE
LEARNING ADMINISTRATION, vol. VII, no. II, Summer
2004) Neil C. Rowe
identifies "three of the most serious problems involving cheating in online
assessment that have not been sufficiently considered previously" and
suggests countermeasures to combat them. The problems Rowe discusses are:
-- Getting
assessment answers in advance
It is hard to
ensure that all students will take an online test simultaneously, enabling
students to supply questions and answers to those who take the test later.
-- Unfair retaking
of assessments
While course
management system servers can be configured to prevent taking a test
multiple times, there can be ways to work around prevention measures.
-- Unauthorized
help during the assessment
It may not be
possible to confirm the identity of the person actually taking the online
test.
You can read the
entire article, including Rowe's suggestions to counteract the problems, at
http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html.
The Online Journal
of Distance Learning Administration is a free, peer-reviewed quarterly
published by the Distance and Distributed Education Center, The State
University of West Georgia, 1600 Maple Street, Carrollton, GA 30118 USA;
Web:
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html.
SOCIAL INTERACTION
IN ONLINE LEARNING
Among the reasons
Rowe cites (in the aforementioned paper) for cheating on online tests is
that "students often have less commitment to the integrity of
distance-learning programs than traditional programs." This lack of
commitment may be the result of the isolation inherent in distance
education. In "Online Learning: Social Interaction and the Creation of a
Sense of Community" (EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY, vol. 7, no. 3, July
2004, pp. 73-81), Joanne M. McInnerney and Tim S. Roberts, Central
Queensland University, argue that an online learner's feeling a sense of
isolation can affect the outcome of his or her learning experience. The
authors recommend three protocols to aid social interaction and alleviate
isolation among online learners:
1. The use of
synchronous communication
"Chat-rooms and
other such forums are an excellent way for students to socialize, to assist
each other with study, or to learn as part of collaborative teams."
2. The introduction
of a forming stage
"Discussion on
almost any topics (the latest movies, sporting results,
etc.) can be
utilized by the educator as a prelude to the building of trust and community
that is essential to any successful online experience."
3. The adherence to
effective communication guidelines "Foremost among these guidelines is the
need for unambiguous instructions and communications from the educator to
the students involved in the course. To this end instructions regarding both
course requirements and communication protocols should be placed on the
course web site."
The complete
article is online at
http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/7_3/8.html.
Educational
Technology & Society [ISSN 1436-4522] is a peer-reviewed quarterly online
journal published by the International Forum of Educational Technology &
Society and the IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF).
It is available in HTML and PDF formats at no cost at
http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/.
The International
Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS) is a subgroup of the IEEE
Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF). IFETS encourages discussions on the
issues affecting the educational system developer (including AI) and
education communities. For more information, link to
http://ifets.ieee.org/.
......................................................................
ONLINE COURSES:
COSTS AND CAPS
Two articles in the
July/August 2005 issue of SYLLABUS address the often-asked questions on
delivering online instruction: "How much will it cost?" and "How many
students can we have in a class?"
In "Online Course
Development: What Does It Cost?" (SYLLABUS, vol. 17, no. 12, July/August
2004, pp. 27-30) Judith V. Boettcher looks at where the costs of online
course development have shifted in the past ten years. While the costs of
course development are still significant, estimating them is not an exact
science. Boettcher, however, does provide some rules of thumb that program
planners can use to get more accurate estimates. The article is available
online at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9676.
In "Online Course
Caps: A Survey" (SYLLABUS, vol. 17, no. 12, July/August 2004, pp. 43-4)
Boris Vilic reports on a survey of 101 institutions to determine their
average course cap for online courses. The survey also tried to determine
what influences differences in setting caps: Does the delivery method used
make a difference? Are there differences if the course is taught by
full-time faculty or by adjuncts? Or if given by experienced versus
inexperienced providers? Or by the level (undergraduate or graduate) of the
course? The article is available online at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9679.
Syllabus [ISSN
1089-5914] is published monthly by 101communications, LLC, 9121 Oakdale
Avenue, Suite 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311 USA; tel: 650-941-1765; fax:
650-941-1785; email: info@syllabus.com; Web:
http://www.syllabus.com/. Annual subscriptions are free to
individuals who work in colleges, universities, and high schools in the
U.S.; go to
http://subscribe.101com.com/syllabus/ for more information.
Bob Jensen's threads on cheating are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance
education in general are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Legal Concerns
July 1, 2005 email message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR)
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/
"The Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR) is an
online legal publication that focuses on the evolving intersection of law
and technology. This area of study draws on a number of legal specialties:
intellectual property, business law, free speech and privacy,
telecommunications, and criminal law -- each of which is undergoing
doctrinal and practical changes as a result of new and emerging
technologies. DLTR strives to be a 'review' in the classic sense of the
word. We examine new developments, synthesize them around larger theoretical
issues, and critically examine the implications. We also review and
consolidate recent cases, proposed bills, and administrative policies."
"However, DLTR is unique among its sister journals
at Duke, and indeed among all law journals. Unlike traditional journals,
which focus primarily on lengthy scholarly articles, DLTR focuses on short,
direct, and accessible pieces, called issue briefs or 'iBriefs.' In fact,
the goal of an iBrief is to provide cutting edge legal insight both to
lawyers and to non-legal professionals. In addition, DLTR strives to be the
first legal publication to address breaking issues. To that end, we publish
on the first and fifteenth of every month during the school year (September
until April) and less frequently during the summer."
Duke Law & Technology Review is available free of
charge as an Open Access journal on the Internet.
Bob Jensen's threads on the future of education technology and distance
learning are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Email and Teaching
Evaluuations Place Heavy Burdens on Teachers
Fearing your student evaluations, how much time and trouble should you
devote to email questions from your students?
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail
has brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle
with how to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part
on student evaluations of their accessibility. The stakes are different for
professors today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick,
chairwoman of the sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts,
explaining that "students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of
individual faculty." Students also frequently post their own evaluations on
Web sites like
www.ratemyprofessors.com and describe
their impressions of their professors on blogs.
Jonathan D. Glater, "To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All
About Me,"
The New York Times, February 21, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html
Bob Jensen's threads on controversies over student evaluations are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation
"Email Etiquette an Oxymoron? Perhaps Not," by Sanford Pinsker,
The Irascible Professor, March 1, 2006 ---
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-03-01-06.htm
It is no secret that technology has had its impact
on teaching, but it is also no secret that there are times when the "impact"
is unwelcome, if not downright unpleasant. I am referring to the habit, by
now well established, in which students email their professors at the click
of a mouse -- and then expect the professor to respond in a heartbeat. No
request is too outlandish, as a recent article in the New York Times
demonstrated: One first-year student emailed a calculus professor asking "If
I should buy a binder or a subject notebook?"; another explained that she
was late for Monday's class because she "was recovering from drinking too
much at a wild weekend party." The war stories rattled on and on as the
article explored the ways in which student e-mail have made professors not
only "approachable" but also "on call" 24/7.
Untenured professors have good reason to worry if
students perceive them as not responding swiftly enough -- no matter how
inappropriate or downright outlandish student requests might be. After all,
most students fill out evaluation forms at the end of the semester and woe
to the professor who is perceived as dragging his or her heels when replying
to student email. As a person who was once chided for not returning student
papers promptly -- this, long before email became a fact of academic life --
I was glad that there was room on the form for the student to explain that
he expected his paper returned at the end of the class in which he had
turned it in. That, for him, defined "promptly," and I didn't meet his
definition.
No doubt every professor who skimmed the New York
Times article had an example or two drawn from personal experience. I am
hardly an exception. I remember, for example, the first-year student who
email me -- this, before our first meeting -- that she was a member of the
field hockey team and that she would be leaving class early on a number of
occasions (they were listed) and missing class altogether for away games. No
doubt she thought this was thoughtful of her and only thought otherwise when
I informed her that, at the college she was now attending, academic work
took precedence over athletics, and that we ought to discuss the matter
further in my office. I am happy to report that my reply got her thinking
but unhappy to report that her "solution" to the problem was "make-up
classes," ones I'd teach her privately during moments when she wasn't
chasing a ball with a stick.
Ironically enough, the last email I received from a
student had to do with the grade he got on a term paper (B-) that was headed
“A Grave Injustice.” I resisted the opportunity to tell him that, if this
was the largest 'grave injustice ' the world handed him, he was a fortunate
young man indeed. Instead, I began with the formulaic, "I'm sorry you're
upset but. . ." and went on to explain that it is my job to assign grades
and that is what I'd done, to the best of my ability, in his case -- as my
typed, half-page comments made clear. My point in relaying this exasperating
tale is to remind professors not to get exasperated themselves. Volleying
emails back and back is, well, unseemly, something that immature students do
but that professional teachers don't.
My hunch is that the student email problem will
only get worse. That's why it will, I believe, become crucial to establish
an email policy -- call them guidelines, rules of etiquette, whatever you
will -- and add it to course syllabi. I was hardly alone in making it clear
on my syllabi that "Adults do not like to be called after 10 PM" (some
prefer 7), and if I were still teaching I would add email to the mix.
Further, I would discourage students from emailing
me drafts of papers not only the night before they are due, but also two or
three nights before they are due. My policy, one that usually worked well,
was to inform students that, under normal circumstances, I would be happy to
comment on a one-page summary that included a working title, abstract, and
up to three paragraphs -- if the single page document were turned in a week
before the paper itself was due. "Unusual cases" (papers with grades below a
C-) were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes I would require that
the paper be rewritten after an office conference, sometimes I would ask
that a draft of the next paper be submitted at a mutually agreeable time.
Moreover, I think my etiquette rules would vary
depending on the class. First-year students are often nervous Nellies; they
want to do well but they lack confidence, sometime for good reason. My
advice would be to cut them some slack, at the same time that you make it
clear, in class, that some behavior is cheesy rather than classy. Because
I'm something of a ham, I'd ham it up from time to time in my first-year
seminar with tales, some real, some just made up, about what I called
"students from hell." Everybody laughed but got the point about what not to
do. If I were still teaching, I'd probably borrow the example about the
student who emailed about what binder to buy.
Continued in article
Student Concerns
"Three Criticisms of the Online Classroom: An examination of a higher
education online course in computer-mediated communication,"
by Jennifer A. Minotti Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) Newton,
Massachusetts, USA ---
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2002/index.html#3
Learning Technology [ISSN 1438-0625] is published quarterly by the
IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF). It is available at
no cost in HTML and PDF formats at
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/
Technological expertise, access to technology,
additional time associated with participation, and the changing role of the
instructor a just a few of the many issues the online classroom has changed
(and often times inhibited) the ways students learn (Baym, 1995, Berge &
Collins, 1996, Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, & Turoff, 1996). The three largest
issues found to affect the way students participated in a single graduate
level online course, are described below.
1. Large Time Commitment
Too much time was the biggest complaint heard by
students. Nearly every participant in the class commented about the large
time commitment the course required. Most all of the students also seemed
surprised at how much more time the online class took up over traditional
face-to-face courses. In addition, I observed that nearly every participant
was late in completing at least one assignment. In fact, many students were
late multiple assignments.
"Having taken previous online courses in addition
to this one, I definitely feel that online courses, though they provide
access otherwise not available, require much more of a time commitment than
face-to-face classes. Not only do we have weekly assignments, but the added
'checking in,' dialoguing through the week, and often troubleshooting our
technology is much more demanding than in a traditional classroom setting,
where the class meets once or twice per week."
"…We might think it would be more convenient to
participate in class wherever and whenever we wanted by means of the
Internet. However…we are not free of having a location in learing--in fact
we are more hinged to one spot (in front of the computer), because it is
there that we must do all of our work for the class (course exploration of
web sites, class projects, particpation in the newsgroup, reading of
submissions to newsgroup). It does also seem to take more time to accomplish
all that needs doing for an on-line course."
2. Dealing with Technical Problems
Technical and access issues remained the second
largest criticism and a major challenge to students, despite the best laid
plans for designing this course. In this class, students knowledge of and
access to technology varied greatly. This presented huge obstacles to
students, some of whom experienced trouble accessing the course right from
the beginning. Other students experienced problems at different points in
the class, which often made their learning experience frustrating.
"I'm a bit frustrated and caught by the technical
setup and requirements. Feedback on the process of the course to date: We
could have used the month of February to get this behind us. I have
allocated 10 hours a week to this course, using a formula of three times the
amount of face time, assuming a typical three hour per week class. My time
has been eaten up by the technical setup. I'm having a technical glitch with
my company firewall."
"Ugh…I feel like I have overcome some HUGE
obstacles just by getting into this newsgroup. The frustration and anger
levels have been high and I have recently caught myself yelling at my
computer."
3. Lack of Facilitation by the Instructor
Lastly, a lot has been written about the critical
role the instructor plays in ensuring online courses are successful (Baym,
1995, Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, & Turoff, 1996, Jones, 1995). In this class,
students really wanted, needed, and valued an active instructor, one who was
visible online providing feedback to their work, supporting and questioning
their statements, encouraging participation, and keeping the class on track.
When not online for several weeks at a time, several classmates become
disheartened. In response to the survey question, "What were you most
disappointed/surprised by?" two students wrote:
"The lack of interaction from the professor. We
really only got 'guidelines' twice this semester which was odd. Given the
topic of our class, computer-mediated communication with the professor
should have been examined. …I never knew if I was 'wrong' or totally
off-base."
"…It's lonely out here in VirtualLand. …I am
missing our teacher in this space. I understand his desire for a logos
however I'm not exactly sure that this group in in syn and heading toward
the same goal."
Conclusion
Indeed, we have a long way to go before the higher
education online classroom is as successful as our face-to-face classroom.
This will of course take time and perseverance. It will also take a critical
evaluation of what is working and not working in each course we design,
deliver, and participate in.
References
Baym, N. (1995). The emergence of community in
computer-mediated communication. In S. Jones, CyberSociety:
Computer-mediated communication and community. California: Sage.
Berge, Z.L., & Collins, M.P. (Eds.) (1996).
Computer mediated communiation and the online classroom, Volume III:
Distance learning. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., Turoff, M.
1996). Learn/ing networks: A field guide to teaching and learning online.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Jones, S.G. (1995). CyberSociety: Computer-mediated
communication and community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jennifer A. Minotti Education Development Center,
Inc. (EDC) Newton, Massachusetts, USA
jminotti@edc.org
Student Technology Assessment at the Global
Level
Executive Summary
The goal of the Computer Literacy Project is to
gain a better understanding of student perceptions on the nature of computer
literacy. The Computer Literacy Project Survey was developed over the last
three years as the foundation of research into advanced technology use in
education research. I have been particularly interested in the nature of
computer literacy at the university level and in differential notions of
computer literacy across disciplines. The survey has been electronically
distributed to universities in nine states in the U.S and five countries
outside the U.S., see Table 1. This is the first time in the history of
education research that such a systematic study on computer literacy has
been carried out using the Internet and web-based technology that has
reached international proportions. Reported here are preliminary results
from two Australian universities, one university in Hong Kong and one
university in the US.
Continued at
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2002/index.html#3
"What's wrong with PowerPoint--and how to fix it," by David Coursey,
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk September 10, 2003 ---
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914637,00.html
(Thank you Ed Scibner for pointing to this link.)
Are PowerPoint slides making us stupid? Are all
problems really just a few bullet points away from their solutions? Or is
the medium having a bad effect on the message? I'm no Marshall McLuhan or
Edward Tufte (I will pause here to let you all shout, "Damn straight!"), but
I do know something about business presentations and how they're put
together. And I know that PowerPoint too often gets in the way of the
message, replacing clear thought with unnecessary animations, serious ideas
with 10-word bullet points, substance with tacky, confusing style.
I DON'T KNOW what
McLuhan would think about PowerPoint, him being dead and all. But Tufte is
very much alive and, in
an essay appearing in the September issue of Wired, minces no words:
"PowerPoint is evil," says the Yale professor whose books have set the
standard for graphic presentation in the computer age.
Tufte says that slideware programs like PowerPoint
(there aren't many others left) "may help speakers outline their talks, but
convenience for speakers can be punishing to both content and audience." The
standard PowerPoint deck, he says, "elevates format over content, betraying
an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch."
This is especially true given that many
presenters--who really shouldn't be presenting in the first place--use
PowerPoint as a crutch. PowerPoint becomes a tool to separate the presenter
from the audience and from the message.
But it doesn't have to be this way. It's possible
to use PowerPoint as a tool (just like
the projector you probably use to display your presentation), and as a
real complement to what you're saying, without dumbing down your ideas.
Today I'd like to offer some advice to help you do just that.
- Do the presentation first, then the slides.
Many people draft and write their presentation in PowerPoint itself.
It's far better to prepare the presentation in Word (or whatever other
tool you use to write)--including all the detail you want to
present--and then transfer the highlights to PowerPoint. The one problem
with using Word for this: It doesn't have a very good outlining tool.
- Artwork has killed more presentations than
it's saved. You're not a graphic artist, and neither am I.
PowerPoint makes it too easy to add confusing graphics to presentations.
Use restraint.
- Animation is for cartoons. Animation
tends to take over the presentation, which then becomes more about the
presenter trying to make all the builds and transitions work properly
than actually presenting the content.
- Present more than the slide. Don't you
hate it when presenters stand at the front of a room and read their
slides ? Slides are supposed to convey the major points of the
presentation, reinforcing the speaker's points. Use them as prompts to
talk about specific topics, as an outline, not as the substance of the
presentation itself.
- Use the notes pages. Many people are
unaware that PowerPoint lets you attach notes to slides, which can then
be printed and used to guide you or to give to the audience. Search for
"notes" in the Help file to find out more about this feature.
- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. No, you
don't have to stand in front of a mirror and do your entire
presentation. But a sit-down with some colleagues can answer the
questions, "Do these slides make sense?" and "Is this the information
people care about?"--before you find out the hard way.
My point here is that PowerPoint glitz alone does not
an effective presentation make. While your decks shouldn't be boring, they
aren't entertainment, either. A few staging and showbiz skills help, but
most presentations are won or lost in the actual content. Your job is to
control PowerPoint. If you don't, PowerPoint will control your presentation.
The
Digital Divide is Real
In the 15th Century when
the printing press was invented, the majority of the world's population was
illiterate and could not make use of the books that poured forth. Six
hundred years later, a large proportion of the world's population still can
neither read nor write. In the 21st Century when the printing press gives
way to digital storage and networked distribution, the hardcore illiterate will
not benefit by virtue of being illiterate. An even larger number who can
read and write will still not have access anywhere close to the privileged
populace having access to modern technologies.
One day, modern
technologies will be the main agent in eradicating illiteracy and ignorance.
But in the interim decades, or even centuries, these technologies will
exacerbate the divide between those who can benefit directly from technologies
and those who are denied access for one reason or another (poverty, isolation,
religious constraints, cultural constraints, etc.)
Websites Failing Disabled Users
"Websites 'failing' disabled users," by Geoff Adams-Spink, BBC News Online,
April 14, 2004 ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3623407.stm
An investigation by the Disability Rights
Commission shows that most websites are unusable by disabled people.
This means that many everyday activities carried
out on the internet - booking a holiday, managing a bank account, buying
theatre tickets or finding a cheaper credit card - are difficult or
impossible for many disabled people.
Bert Massie, DRC Chairman described the situation
as "unacceptable", and said the organisation was determined not to allow
disabled people to be left behind by technology
A thousand websites were tested for the survey
using automated software, and detailed user testing was carried out on 100
sites, including government, business, e-commerce, leisure and web services
such as search engines.
The results showed that the worst affected group
were those with visual impairments.
Blind people involved in testing websites were
unable to perform nearly all of the tasks required of them despite using
devices such as screen readers.
"The web has been around for 10 years, yet within
this short space of time it has managed to throw up the same hurdles to
access and participation by disabled people as the physical world," said Mr
Massie.
"It is an environment that could be made more
accommodating to disabled people at a relatively modest expense."
Mr Massie warned website owners to improve
accessibility or be prepared to face legal action.
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act requires
information providers to make their services accessible.
The problems most commonly encountered by the
disabled website testers were cluttered pages, confusing navigation, failure
to describe images and poor colour contrast between background and text.
Researchers at London's City University, who
carried out the study for the DRC, also found that many web developers were
unaware of what needed to be done to make sites accessible.
Continued in the article
Good Website Design Checklist
- Provide text equivalence for non-text elements
- Ensure good color contrast between foreground and background
- Pages must be usable when scripts and applets are turned off or not
supported
- Avoid movement in pages
- Avoid pop-ups and don't change window without telling user
- Divide large blocks of information into manageable chunks
- Clearly identify the target of each link
- Use the clearest and simplest language possible
Related Documents
Is your distance site operating within the law in
terms of access by disabled students?
Schools must demonstrate progress toward compliance.
Accessibility in Distance Education A Resource for Faculty in Online Teaching
--- http://www.umuc.edu/ade/
Common Questions |
What does the word "accessibility"
mean? (What
is Accessibility?) What disability laws should I know
about if I teach online? (Legal
Issues)
What do I need to consider if I have a student with a
disability in my online course? (Understanding
Disabilities)
How do I make my Web site accessible to everyone,
including students with disabilities? (How-To)
What does an accessible Web site look like? Does it have
to be text based? (Best
Practices) |
|
You can download the MP3 audio file of Susan Spencer's August 2002
presentation on this at one of my workshops ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
Lots of
Hype and Not Much Profit
From customer to analyst to investor, the consensus is that E-learning still
has a few things of its own to learn. Until last month, the online-training
sector wasn't as hard hit by the IT spending slump as most of the tech industry
because it lets companies with tight travel and training budgets train workers
inexpensively. But all that's changed.
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eHIP0BcUEY04e0Bcm70A1
"E-Learning Struggles To Make The
Grade," by Elisabeth Goodridge, Information, May 13, 2002 ---
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020509S0011
From customer to
analyst to investor, the consensus is that E-learning still has a few things
of its own to learn. It's a technology that's being re-evaluated across the
board. There are plenty of problems, as early adopters discovered. "Many
people have been burned," Meta Group analyst Jennifer Vollmer says. "And
they're advising others to hold off if it isn't necessary."
Some of the
stumbling blocks that trip up users of E-learning technologies are
integration and interoperability problems among elements of E-learning
systems; product limitations; inadequate support services; and vendors'
financial woes.
But until last
month, the online-training sector wasn't as hard-hit by the IT-spending
slump as most of the technology industry. What E-learning had going for it
was an ability to let companies with tight travel and training budgets train
workers inexpensively.
For about a year
and a half, many providers saw double-digit revenue growth, and several
quickly became leaders in a field of hundreds. Docent, Plateau Systems, and
Saba Software emerged as top developers of learning-management systems.
Centra Software and Interwise became known for live-collaboration software,
and NetG, SmartForce, and SkillSoft gained popularity as course-content
designers.
Now, weakening
demand is evident. Centra, SmartForce, and learning-management system makers
Click2learn and DigitalThink warned in April of revenue shortfalls. On Wall
Street, many suppliers' shares have lost more than 50% of their value since
January.
Still, E-learning
has a future; what it lacks is maturity. So, while there are businesses
seeking the E-learning advantage, many are taking their time doing so.
Before investing in these systems, they want to make sure they fully
understand their own training needs, what works and doesn't in an E-learning
format, and their product options. "People are slowing down on jumping into
E-learning with both feet," says Larry Carlile, E-learning manager at
consulting firm A.T. Kearney. "From cost savings to effectiveness, there's a
better analysis these days."
Companies know that
E-learning is no longer just about immediate cost savings but about
increasing worker productivity, driving operational efficiencies, and
streamlining corporate training. "With all of these benefits, E-learning is
going to work, but we haven't found the best way to go about it," says Giga
Information Group analyst Claire Schooley.
A number of deals
in recent weeks show that many companies still believe they can make
E-learning work. The American Red Cross and learning-management system
supplier Plateau Systems cut a seven-year deal worth more than $10 million;
Pathlore Software Corp. implemented a system for Delta Air Lines Inc.; and
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. said last month that its use of the Vuepoint
Learning System to consolidate training departments will save the automaker
more than $11.9 million in five years.
Continued at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020509S0011
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change and
Mutation
Fearing your student evaluations, how much time and trouble should you
devote to email questions from your students?
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail has
brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle with how
to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part on student
evaluations of their accessibility. The stakes are different for professors
today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick, chairwoman of the
sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts, explaining that
"students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of individual faculty."
Students also frequently post their own evaluations on Web sites like
www.ratemyprofessors.com and describe their
impressions of their professors on blogs.
Jonathan D. Glater, "To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About
Me," The New York Times, February 21, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html
Bob Jensen's threads on controversies over student evaluations are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation
"Fulfilling Technology's Broken Promise: A Perspective on Educational
Technology,"
by Robert Bilyk, co-founder of lodeStar Learning Inc. and Cyber Village Academy,
T.H.E. Journal, February 2006 ---
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17933/
The Broken Promise of
Technology
The one inarguable difference between now and then has been
the promise that technology holds for the classroom teacher.
In the early 1980s, I worked with stand-alone machines that
could render stick figures on the screen and display text
and numbers. The state of the art in audio was a few timely
beeps. Nevertheless, I could envision the promise and began
creating things that I could use in the classroom to help
kids.
Over the course of time, more and
more educators have turned to technology to help kids—but
only to be disappointed time and again. Computers were
expensive, they broke or became obsolete, they didn’t talk
to one another, and they divided teachers’ allegiance
through the great schism of Macs vs. PCs. Then there was the
software that sat in shrink-wrapped packages unused.
Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) were also expensive and
inflexible. If a teacher didn’t like the pedagogy or content
of a particular lesson, she could do little to change, add,
or delete content. Teachers had to accept the bad with the
good: ILS perpetuated the existence of the stick figure;
computers threatened the existence of the teacher. At least,
that was a common apprehension.
And despite the greater use of technology, studies
such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
from the National Center for Education Statistics have shown that our
students still weren’t achieving well in math and science compared to their
European and Asian counterparts. Fortunately, today’s educators are on the
cusp of a tremendous realization: The promise that computers held for
increased student achievement are finally being realized.
The New Promise of Technology
A teacher today who dares to imagine the possibilities that current
technology affords won’t be disappointed: The total cost of ownership of a
computer continues to decrease. Software is cheap and oftentimes free.
Access to the Internet and all of the educational content that it holds is
practically ubiquitous in American schools. Standards permit dissimilar
computers to communicate with one another, and for educational content to be
searched and shared. Therefore, technology needs to be met halfway. Lead
teachers, mentor teachers, curriculum directors and administrators—teachers
in general—must dare to dream again. Schools must place networked computers
in classrooms, libraries, lobbies, and wherever else they can be safely
accessed. Accessibility to computers is essential. Teachers need to be
trained—not once but often. Professional development is also essential
because teachers need to support each another. Ideally, teachers from common
disciplines would network with one another. The use of instructional
technology by teachers to improve student achievement must become habitual.
And finally, all roads must lead to the teacher. That is, all student
performance data must flow effortlessly to the teacher.
To fulfill the promise, computer use by teachers
must become habitual, and computer use to improve student achievement must
become habitual. The advent of learning management systems like Microsoft
Class Server, Blackboard and Desire2Learn has enabled teachers to manage the
student online learning experience. Often, school districts direct this
usage to the exception—offering activities to children who are ill,
replacing snow days with online days, and providing a class to a
home-schooled child.
The snow day example was my favorite. The online
snow day was designed by well-intentioned educators, but it had its flaws.
In this example, the school trained its entire staff on an LMS so that one
day, when it snowed, students could access their courses online. On the day
it snowed, the untested system failed; staff were out of practice in
creating, assigning, and grading; and students could hardly remember how to
log on. This example might seem a little extraordinary, yet variations on
this same theme are commonplace. Rather than integrating online curriculum
into the example, schools flirt with technology at the edges, addressing the
“unusual situation” so that the business of integrating the class with
technology does not become “habitual” and second nature for teachers.
Continued in article
February 24, 2006 reply from Robert Holmes Glendale College
[rcholmes@GLENDALE.CC.CA.US]
I have spent time in these classes reflecting on
the role of the teacher. (I am mostly retired and teach one accounting class
online.) The most effective classes are those that invlove two way
communication with the students. Technology and lectures are poor
substitutes for this dialogue. The electricity that sparks in the classes as
the students offer ideas, the instructor says give me more, other students
say "I never thought about that" is something to behold. I feel sorry for
those (including my students) who have to try to get an education without
this kind of enriching excitement.
One damaging effect of the clash between the academic
and IT cultures is that teaching and scholarship have remained relatively
untouched by the new information technologies.
Edward L. Ayers (, "The Academic Culture and the IT Culture: Their Effect on
Teaching and Scholarship," EDUCAUSE Review, December 2004 ---
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm04/erm0462.asp
Edward L. Ayers is Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
and is Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
A year ago, my colleague Charles Grisham and I
wrote an EDUCAUSE Review article entitled "Why IT Has Not Paid Off As We
Hoped (Yet)." In short, we argued that information technology has not yet
transformed higher education because the areas of teaching and scholarship,
the "heart" of colleges and universities, have remained relatively untouched
by the new technologies. In this article, I’d like to continue the
discussion and also go further, exploring not only why these two areas
continue to be, for the most part, resistant to the changes but also how
technology can successfully address these core missions of higher
education.1
The Invisible Success of IT Those of us who have
been involved for a while in the long courtship between higher education and
information technology can recall many ups and downs in the last thirty
years or so.2 We remember when we first saw Mosaic, Netscape, and the World
Wide Web. At each step along the way, some of the more impressionable among
us thought that one innovation or another would push us over the top, that
we would have finally gained the critical mass that would channel the
undeniable power of information technology into higher education. We watched
as commerce was transformed, as entertainment was transformed, as personal
communication was transformed, and we kept waiting for the moment when
higher education would be transformed in the same way.
In particular, we waited for the time when the very
heart of education—the classroom and the scholarship taught in that
classroom—would be transformed. Yet despite the tremendous investment that
all institutions of higher education have made in information technology,
despite the number of classrooms wired and the number of laptops mandated,
the vast majority of classes proceed as they have for generations—isolated,
even insulated, from the powerful technologies we use in the rest of our
lives. Moreover, the form in which scholarship appears has barely changed.
Across almost every field, researchers, no matter how sophisticated the
technology they use in discovery, translate their discoveries into simple
word-processed documents. Sure, they sometimes add JPEG images and other
illustrations; and in the sciences, pre-prints rush around the world long
before print journals would be able to publish the articles. But producing
scholarly discourse in HTML and PDF formats has not changed scholarship in
any significant manner. The nature of argument has remained remarkably
resistant to innovation in rhetoric or form in every field of scholarly
endeavor.
Very real technological accomplishments have tended
to become invisible because they have been so successful. If you had told
people a decade ago that card catalogs would virtually disappear within ten
years and would be replaced by our current information-management systems,
they would not have believed you. Librarians have been the real heroes of
the digital revolution in higher education. They are the ones who have seen
the farthest, done the most, accepted the hardest challenges, and
demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the
process, they have turned their own field upside down and have
revolutionized their professional training. It is testimony to their success
that we take their achievement—and their information-management systems—for
granted.
Similarly, college and university IT professionals
have done more than anyone has asked them to do. The speed with which they
have built networks and infrastructure, trained people, and created new
student-registration and fiscal-management systems has been remarkable. And
again, their success is taken for granted, with IT becoming almost as
invisible as the electricity on which it runs. In a cruel irony, few faculty
think "Ah, I will now use technology" whenever they check to see whether a
book is in the library, or whether a student is enrolled, or whether their
paycheck has been posted. And yet many do think: "I don’t want to use
technology, or I can’t use technology, to teach in the classroom or to
disseminate my scholarship." Those faculty who have ignored all the
excitement up to this point have decided that they can withstand whatever
else is put before them until the end of their careers. They go to their
professional scholarly meetings and see only a few workshops and talks on
the new technologies; they read the job ads and see that the jobs require
exactly the same credentials as were required a quarter century ago.
The bottom line is that despite all the work and
successes of IT professionals, teaching and scholarship at leading
institutions of higher education remain relatively resistant to the
possibilities of information technology.
The Academic and IT Cultures From the viewpoint of
a dean who would love to see the transformation of higher education
accelerated, and from the viewpoint of a long-time laborer in the technology
vineyard who would love to see some of the fruit come to harvest, I’m struck
by many faculty members’ resistance to the obvious benefits of the maturing
technologies. From the viewpoint of a professor, however, I understand some
of the more obvious reasons for this resistance: shortages of time, money,
and energy. In addition, I see more systemic reasons, ones that we might
call "cultural": deeply patterned, deeply entrenched habits of thoughts and
behavior. The problem is that the academic culture and the IT culture simply
do not mix together well.
Nobody seems to like the word academic. "That’s
merely academic" is used as a dismissive description of something irrelevant
to real life, something as pointless as counting angels on the head of a pin
or writing an English composition paper on Beowulf. Any mention of the word
academic in a book review is a kiss of death. In a particularly cruel twist,
even when a nonacademic praises a book by a professor, the reviewer often
dismisses the academy in the process: "Not the boring, self-indulgent,
impenetrable, dithering book we always expect from an academic, this book is
almost as good as one written by someone who knows a lot less about the
subject."
When asked to identify ourselves, almost no
professors choose "academic" as their first choice. "College teacher" can
sometimes sound good, with its shades of the movie Dead Poets Society.
"Professor" can be OK on occasion, bringing to mind John Houseman in the
movie The Paper Chase. Saying that you work "at the college" or "over at the
university" can usually get you through a casual conversation without too
much loss of status at the tire store or supermarket.
But being more specific can often cause problems.
When I’m on an airplane and tell someone that I teach history, all too often
the response is: "Boy, I always hated history—all those names and dates." I
got some notion of this when I started to work on the subject of the Civil
War, and my mother-in-law, a very sweet woman, introduced me to one of her
friends as a "Civil War buff." I carefully tried to explain the difference
between a historian and a buff, with the main difference seeming to be that
I don’t have another job from which the Civil War is merely a hobby.
As problematic as disciplinary nomenclature can be,
adding "academic" makes it even more toxic. The title of "dean" sounds
imposing, if faintly scary (satisfyingly enough), since so few people,
including deans, know exactly what a dean does. But even I cringe when I
think about defining myself as what I actually am during most of my waking
hours: an "academic administrator." It’s hard to think of many job
descriptions (for legally paying work) that have more negative connotations
than that. The title conjures up all the mustiness of "academic" along with
all the bureaucratic, paper-pushing, rubber stamp–wielding, red
tape–entangling connotations of "administration."
On the other hand, as someone who has served on IT
committees dominated by IT staff, I know how IT people speak about
academics. I’ve seen the eye-rolling and heard the chuckling at some of the
more clueless of my academic colleagues who can’t figure out how to empty
the trashbin on their desktop computer. Still, my friends in information
technology have their own struggles. You know the stereotypes. You’ve heard
the whispers: "geek." As for me, I represent the worst of all worlds: I’m
both a lifelong academic and a longtime IT geek. But perhaps this does give
me the credentials to delve into the nomenclature of both the academic
culture and the IT culture.
For a definition of geek, I turn to a very
convenient authority, the dictionary function of Microsoft Word:
geek (n.):
1. somebody who is considered unattractive and socially awkward
(insult)
2. a carnival performer whose act consists of outrageous feats such as
biting the heads off live animals
3. somebody who enjoys or takes pride in using computers or other
technology, often to what others consider an excessive degree (informal
disapproving)
Leaving aside "biting the heads off live
animals"—an activity that, in my experience, is indulged in by only a few
academic administrators, and usually in private—I rest my case. When your
own computer program tells you that by using that very program to "an
excessive degree," you are becoming increasingly "unattractive and socially
awkward," you might suspect that you’re in trouble. If you brush that
warning aside to finish writing an article with that same program, you
really are a geek.
As is often the case with oppressed groups, the
disdain faced by those in the IT arena and those in the academic arena has
not always brought the two together in a shared bond. The two cultures have
so much to offer one another, so much to teach one another, if they would
only look past the tweed and elbow patches on the one hand and the pocket
protectors on the other. The IT industry and the academy share some obvious
and important characteristics. Both deal with intangibles, especially ideas.
Both are focused on networks and on the information those networks carry.
Both are dedicated to innovation and competition. Both are extensible
structures: build something once, and you can apply it everywhere.
But taking a clear-eyed view reveals that there’s
more to the story. As shown in Table 1, information technology and the
academy display competing characteristics.
Table 1.
Competing Characteristics
Information Technology |
The Academy |
|
- strongly
identified with a very specific location
|
|
- a
self-consciously ancient institution
|
|
- the most
stable institution across the world
|
- new
competitors continually emerge
|
-
impossible to break into top ranks
|
-
possibility of great profits
|
- no
possibility of profit at all
|
- work
performed by anonymous teams
|
- centered
on scholarly stars
|
|
- designed
to deny obsolescence
|
-
virtually instant results necessary
|
- patience
a central virtue
|
- designed
to be transparent
|
|
Since information technology has infiltrated every
nook and cranny of other parts of life, it seems to me that it must be the
academy that resists. That is because several basic paradoxes lie at the
heart of the modern American university—basic conflicts that make the
academy a fascinating place to live and a hard place to administer:
Continued in the
article
Teachers Must Adapt to Changed Mindsets of Incoming
Students Who Grew Up With Computers
"How do you communicate with students who have grown up with technology?
Schools are looking to technology for the answer," by Kevin Delaney, The Wall
Street Journal, January 17, 2005, Page R4 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110556110781524378,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report
Forget the computer lab. To hold the
attention of the tech-savvy PlayStation 2 generation, educators are working
digital technology into every corner of the curriculum.
Pioneering teachers are getting their
classes to post writing assignments online so other students can easily read
and critique them. They're letting kids practice foreign languages in
electronic forums instead of pen-and-paper journals. They're passing out
PDAs to use in scientific experiments and infrared gadgets that let students
answer questions in class with the touch of a button. And in the process,
the educators are beginning to interact with students, parents and each
other in ways they never have before.
The issue is, "how do we communicate
with students today who have grown up with technology from the beginning?"
says Tim Wilson, a technology-integration specialist at Hopkins High School
in Minnetonka, Minn. "The traditional linear approach...often seems too slow
and boring to students used to MTV, instant messaging and MP3s."
Permanent Record
Boosting this grass-roots tech effort
is a new wave of free and low-cost technologies and services. Online forums
and Web logs, or blogs, are simple to set up and free to use. So are "wikis"
-- Web pages that can be written on as well as read, making it easy for
teachers to make notes in the digital margins. Hardware, too, is getting
cheaper: Prices have fallen for everything from wireless-networking
equipment to hand-held gadgets to personal computers. And thanks to a
computerization drive of the past decade or so, 99% of public schools now
have Internet access, with an average of one computer for every five
students, according to the Department of Education.
The department recently concluded
that schools on the whole aren't doing enough with that infrastructure. But
in schools across the country, a corps of tech-savvy educators are showing
how to get the job done. Students in journalism classes at Hunterdon Central
Regional High School in Flemington, N.J., for example, never turn in
hard-copy assignments. They post them on blogs -- which allows their
teacher, Will Richardson, and their fellow students to read and post
comments about the articles.
Mr. Richardson says students like the
blogs especially as an organizing tool, letting them easily search through
past assignments. More broadly, he believes the blogs have "really profound
implications" for education: Students discuss each other's work in new ways,
such as linking to relevant information on the Web to support their
comments. In some cases, people outside the school can access the blogs,
providing students with a platform for disseminating their views. The blogs
also let parents keep up to date on their kids' assignments more easily than
ever before.
Lewis Elementary School in Portland,
Ore., also uses Web-based publishing technology to open up new possibilities
in communication. Fifth-graders send classwork, and essays and articles for
their monthly newspaper, to a wiki over the school's network. Teacher Kathy
Gould goes to the Web page and writes corrections and comments directly into
the text -- instead of posting a note in a separate "comments" section, as
with a blog. Students can then access the wiki to read and respond to her
comments.
Meanwhile, students in John
Unruh-Friesen's advanced-placement government class at Hopkins High School
conduct running debates on an online forum outside of the classroom. The
students, mostly 12th-graders, tackle issues including the presidential
election, the possibility of a military draft and the Middle East conflict.
"Some students are reluctant to
participate in class discussions," says Mr. Wilson, the
technology-integration specialist at Hopkins. "Some of those kids feel much
more comfortable interacting when they have time to craft a response."
Students in advanced foreign-language
classes at Hopkins use forums to keep online journals and interact with each
other. For example, the instructor of the fifth-year French course, Molly
Wieland, used to require students to keep paper journals in French. Since
moving those to an online forum, she says the students write more than they
did before.
The fact that they're writing for an
audience larger than just their teacher makes a difference, and what they're
saying tends to be more conversational and relevant to the students' lives.
A recent exchange between the students involved college choices and the
wisdom of rooming with your best friend in the dorm -- all in French.
Continued in the article
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Concerns About Faculty
Workloads and Burnout
Question
Why should teaching a course online take "twice as much time" as teaching it
onsite?
Answer
Introduction to Economics: Experiences of teaching this course online
versus onsite
With a growing number of courses offered online and
degrees offered through the Internet, there is a considerable interest in online
education, particularly as it relates to the quality of online instruction. The
major concerns are centering on the following questions: What will be the new
role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes
be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective
communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of
face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the
online learning environment? This paper will examine new challenges and barriers
for online instructors, highlight major themes prevalent in the literature
related to “quality control or assurance” in online education, and provide
practical strategies for instructors to design and deliver effective online
instruction. Recommendations will be made on how to prepare instructors for
quality online instruction.
Yi Yang and Linda F. Cornelious, "Preparing Instructors for Quality
Online Instruction, Working Paper ---
http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/ojdla/spring81/yang81.htm
Jensen Comment: The bottom line is that teaching the course online took
twice as much time because "largely from increased student contact and
individualized instruction and not from the use of technology per se."
Bob Jensen's threads on the positive side are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
September 2, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
SURVEY ON QUALITY AND EXTENT OF ONLINE EDUCATION
The Sloan Consortium's 2003 Survey of Online
Learning wanted to know would students, faculty, and institutions embrace
online education as a delivery method and would the quality of online
education match that of face-to-face instruction. The survey found strong
evidence that students are willing to sign up for online courses and that
institutions consider online courses part of a "critical long-term strategy
for their institution." It is less clear that faculty have embraced online
teaching with the same degree of enthusiasm. The survey's findings are
available in "Sizing the Opportunity: The Quality & Extent of Online
Education in the U.S., 2002 and 2003" by I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman,
Sloan Center for Online Education at Olin and Babson Colleges. The complete
report is online at
http://www.sloan-c.org/resources/sizing_opportunity.pdf
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of
institutions and organizations committed "to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a
part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at
any time, in a wide variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
STUDY OF ONLINE TEACHING WORKLOAD
In "Faculty Self-Study Research Project: Examining
the Online Workload" (JOURNAL OF ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING NETWORKS, vol. 8,
issue 3, June 2004), Melody M. Thompson, Director of the American Center for
the Study of Distance Education at Penn State, reports on a workload study
that was designed to go beyond anecdotal testimony. In the project six
faculty who were teaching online courses "strove to identify those tasks
that consumed a disproportionate amount of faculty time -- particularly time
taken away from actual teaching/learning interactions with students." The
study indicated that their workload "as measured by time on task, was
comparable to or somewhat less than that for face-to-face courses." The
article is available online at
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v8n3/v8n3_thompson.asp .
The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks
(JALN) [ISSN 1092-8235] is an electronic publication of The Sloan Consortium
(Sloan-C). Current and back issues are available at
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln .
Accounting professors who teach online discuss their workloads at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/cepSanAntonio.htm
"Teaching Courses Online: How Much Time Does It Take," by Belinda Davis
Lazarus, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, September 2003 ---
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v7n3/v7n3_lazarus.asp
ABSTRACT
Studies show that temporal factors like workload and lack of release time
inhibit faculty participation in developing and teaching online courses;
however, few studies exist to gauge the time commitment. This longitudinal
case study, presented at the Seventh Annual Sloan-C International Conference
on ALN, examined the amount of time needed to teach three asynchronous
online courses at The University of Michigan-Dearborn from Winter 1999
through Winter 2000. Twenty-five students were enrolled in each course.
Self-monitoring was used to measure the amount of time required to complete
the following activities: 1) reading and responding to emails; 2) reading,
participating in, and grading 10 online discussions; and 3) grading 15
assignments. Using a stopwatch, the investigator timed and recorded the
number of minutes needed for each activity. Also, all messages and
assignments were archived and frequency counts were recorded. The weekly,
mean number of minutes and assignments was entered on line graphs for
analysis. The data showed that teaching each online course required 3 to 7
hours per week, with the greatest number of emails and amount of time
required during the first and last 2-weeks of the semesters. Participation
in and grading of the discussions took the greatest amount of time and
remained steady across the semester. However unlike many live courses, the
students participated more in the discussions than the instructor did. The
number of assignments that were submitted each week steadily increased over
each semester. This case study indicates that the time needed to teach
online courses falls within the range of reasonable expectations for
teaching either live or online courses and represents the beginning of this
area of inquiry. Consequently, additional studies are needed with a variety
of instructors across a variety of courses and disciplines to further
pinpoint faculty time commitment.
KEYWORDS Online Courses, Longitudinal Experiment,
Faculty Workload, Teaching Online Courses
Personal E-mails Can Overwhelm
"Please Learn From My Mistakes," by David G. Brown, Syllabus, August 2002 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6592
I have come to the sad realization that many of the
innovations designed to keep my course fresh have failed. My memories of
failures are so poignant that it may be constructive to share them here.
They can serve as warnings to others.
Unstructured chat room discussions don’t work.
Chats lack depth. Someone new is always interrupting the online conversation
with his or her own topic just when the discussion is getting interesting.
Ungraded assignments are usually ignored. I used to
ask two students to search the Web for two or three sites that provided
alternative ways to learn the “topic of the day.” They shared information on
these sites in annotated bibliographies. An end-of-the-course evaluation,
however, revealed that their classmates never went to these sites.
My current practice is to require each student to
e-mail me with an evaluative comment regarding the sites. They know that
their comments will factor into the participation portion of their course
grades. A recent end-of-the-course evaluation now shows that the students
regard the alternate Web sites as important and useful components of the
course.
Personal e-mails can overwhelm. One semester, I
asked all of my students to send me an e-mail answer to an assigned question
each time we reached the end of a textbook chapter. The responsibility for
reading and evaluating all those submissions just about ruined my family
life. Now I have Student A e-mail a proposed answer to Students B and C.
Students A, B, and C must settle on a single answer. They teach one another,
and I have only one-third as much grading to do.
Students need to know in advance what their
responsibilities are if the computer network goes down on the eve of an
important deadline. Networks do go down. Students will panic, unless there
are instructions in the syllabus that anticipate forgiveness or outline
their alternatives.
Another semester, several weeks before the final, I
accidentally deleted all my students’ grades from the electronic grade book.
Fortunately, the syllabus stressed that each student is expected to keep a
copy of every assignment submitted and also of every grade-related message
sent to him or her. With help from the class and substantial effort, I was
able to reconstruct the gradebook. Now I print out a backup copy of grades
about every two weeks.
I’ve come to realize that students accessing
materials from course Web sites using a dial-up modem from a shared
apartment off campus cannot, or will not, wait for long downloads. I had the
bright—and well-received—idea of personalizing the list of course
assignments. For each of our 34 assignment days I added thumbnail photos of
the students responsible for presenting their special reports. Although
student reaction to this personalization was quite positive, I noticed that
they were consulting the list of assignments less frequently. A focus group
session revealed that the list was now taking longer than a minute to open.
Consulting the list was an increased burden.
My students bring their laptops to class everyday.
Even so, I’ve learned that it’s wise to exchange e-mail messages before
class when anything out of the ordinary is to occur. If, for example, my
plan for the day requires that every student have their computer, I send the
class an e-mail message.
I suspect that others have made mistakes from which
we can all learn. If you have a brief story you’d like me to share in a
future column, please e-mail me. Let me know if it’s OK to mention your name
or if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
Online Faculty Workloads
The CIT Infobits May 2002 article "Online Teaching and the 24-Hour Professor"
(
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitmay02.html#1 ) described how the Internet
is changing professors' workdays and workloads. John Messing, Director of the
Research Centre for Innovation in Telelearning Environments at Charles Sturt
University, continues this topic in "Can Academics Afford to Use E-mail?" (E-JOURNAL
OF INSTRUCTIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 5, no. 2, August 2002).
Messing reports on a study that began as "an attempt to quantify what many
educators have suspected . . . that the workload associated with the use of
online tools is considerably higher than with conventional technologies. In the
process of trying to make sense of the data, it became clear that there are a
number of issues such as increased expectations on the part of students and the
disproportionate load that administrative use of e-mail places on academics that
are rarely, if ever, considered as part of the debate.
he study analyzed the author's administrative and
course-related email messages from 1991-2001. Some of his observations:
Regarding course-related email: "While the number
of students in [his Graduate Diploma of Applied Science] course has doubled,
the volume of communication has increased 11 fold. . . ."
Regarding administrative email: "It might take a
secretary 10 to 15 minutes to duplicate and distribute meeting papers to 20
people [via email]. If it takes each recipient just 5 minutes to read,
extract, print and collect the meeting papers, that represents a total of
100 minutes. The secretary saves 10 minutes but the recipients collectively
lose 100 minutes."
He concludes, "Just how much extra time an
individual is prepared to sacrifice in order to also receive the benefits of
the use of such tools is debatable. From a personal perspective, the limit
has been reached. With well over 3000 e-mails to contend with in one
semester, the system has become a scourge rather than a blessing."
The article is available online at
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol6No_1/messing_frame.html
(HTML format) and
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol6No_1/Messing%20-%20Final.pdf
(PDF format).
e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology
(e-JIST) is published by the Distance Education Centre, University of
Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia; Web:
http://www.usq.edu.au/dec/ Current and back issues of e-JIST are
available at no cost at
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/
Concerns About Faculty Efficiency and Burnout
Barbara Brown wrote the
following:
There are many myths and tacit assumptions
about computer-mediated learning that can be explored in the Fielding
context. Much has been written about technological efficiency and the
potential of the Internet as an educational medium to save time and money or
increase productivity. The author’s experience inspires a healthy skepticism
in this regard. Having taught students in conventional classrooms for two
decades, I experienced the computer-mediated mode of instruction as more
time-consuming, at least initially, both from the standpoint of up-front
course design and later, painstaking, labor intensive hours online -
designing messages for the classroom forum, reading and downloading from the
screen, posting new material, providing feedback, checking community
bulletin boards, e-mailing student comments and grade reports, etc. In fact,
there were many times when I felt torn between my real life and my virtual
life on-screen, in an identity challenging
[Turkle, Sherry (1995), Life on the Screen:
Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.]
sort of way, simply because there did not seem to exist enough hours in the
day to do justice to both. This was the case even in an "asynchronous"
environment where I had the flexibility to conduct electronic office hours
in my bathrobe over morning coffee or post feedback in the dead of night.
Moreover, absent face-to-face contact and ordinary non-verbal clues, even
very mature students on the Internet demand more frequent interaction and
reassurance in dialogue with their professors, an observation confirmed in
student course evaluations. Students demand more feedback; and the more
feedback they receive, the more interaction they want. There are at least
two possible interpretations of this phenomenon: One is that it reflects the
way students compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction. Or, it may
be that this medium disinhibits student communication, thereby stimulating
the message exchange process. As the intellectual excitement of these
conversations grows, so does the amount of interactivity in the virtual
community.[See Rafaeli, Sheizaf and Fay
Sudweeks (1998), "Interactivity in the Nets," in Network & Net Play:
Virtual Groups on the Internet,
Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press/The MIT Press]
I estimate this
mode of instruction requires roughly 40% to 50% more work on the teacher’s
part in comparison with conventional classroom delivery. For example, where
I might put approximately 36 hours of work per week routinely into a regular
course load with a total of 120 students in four traditional class sections
at a large public university, online instruction at Fielding required 50
hours or more per week - with only 24 students in just three sections of my
digital classes. It also takes longer for faculty members and administrators
to reach consensus in electronic group meetings.
B.M. Brown
"Digital Classrooms: Some Myths About Developing New Educational
Programs Using the Internet,"
T.H.E. Journal, December 98, p. 57
The online version is at
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/current/feat04.html
Also see
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change
Concerns About the Explosion of Online Education
Concerns About High Attrition Rates
in Distance Education
From Infobits on December 21, 2001
HOW TO KEEP E-LEARNERS FROM E-SCAPING
Institutions that offer e-learning courses are
reporting high levels of student attrition and a wide gap between student
enrollments and completions. The authors of "How to Keep E-Learners from
E-scaping" (by Jim Moshinskie and the eLITE Think Tank, JOURNAL OF
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT, vol. 14, no. 1, Summer 2001, pp. 8-11)
present some techniques for getting, motivating, and keeping online
students. Although the paper focuses primarily on online corporate trainers,
the ideas are transferable to any online learning environment.
Some of the techniques outlined in the paper are
common to all instruction delivery methods; some are specific to online
teaching and learning. Here are a few of the authors' strategies:
Before the Online Course "What's in it for me?"
Before the course begins, course providers must help learners see the
benefit of taking the course and taking it online. Instructors must know
their learners' goals, work environments, and connection capabilities. If
the course is for in-service professional development, the students'
employers need to get involved in providing peer coachers and by creating
opportunities for practice and feedback.
During the Online Course Online learning can be an
isolating experience for students. During the online course, instructors
need to pay attention to feedback and human interaction to make up for the
lack of in-person contact. Strategies include giving legitimate feedback
that focuses on an individual's progress and specifically addresses
individual performance. "Chat rooms, E-mail, electronic office hours, audio
streaming, and online mentoring" all can provide the "human touch" between
instructor and student and among fellow students.
After the Online Course Recognizing that learning
is a process, not an event, instructors can support the student who
completes the course by offering follow-up communication, virtual mentoring,
and help in applying the learning in the student's workplace.
Note: the article is not available on the Web.
Check with your college or university library to obtain copies.
Journal of Interactive Instruction Development
[ISSN 1040-0370] is published quarterly by the Learning Technology
Institute, 50 Culpeper Street, Warrenton, VA 20186 USA; tel: 540-347-0055;
fax: 540-439-3169; email: info@lti.org ;
Web:
http://www.lti.org/
Concerns About Residency Living & Learning on Campus
In 1997, I listened to an address by
Robert S. Sullivan, Directory of the IC2 Institute, University of
Texas at Austin. He was extremely positive about opportunities for ALN
networking and bridging of curriculum gaps with web courses that in many
instances will become much higher in quality than a single university will
normally be able to develop only for its own campus. At the end of his address,
in response to a question from the audience, he did raise two very serious
concerns (that I paraphrased below from my videotape of his remarks):
Problem
1: One day a "university" may only be left with onsite faculty
and programs that distributed education vendors are not willing to "pay
for." There is an important debate going on that focuses on the issue of
whether the "university concept" might be undermined.
Problem
2: Students, especially undergraduate students, cannot have a
complete learning experience without being physically present on a
campus. The interpersonal and social dynamics of a campus may be put at
risk with distributed learning.
Robert S.
Sullivan, August 20, 1997 Plenary Session
Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association
Concerns
About Impersonality and Becoming Irrevocably
Orwellian
One of my students,
Elizabeth Eudy, coined the phrase "irrevocably Orwellian." At
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/eeudy/aln.htm she writes the following:
Although it is too far fetched to say that we will turn into cold, heartless
robots as a result of ALN and that our society has become
irrevocably Orwellian, the lack of face-to-face
social interaction could potentially do more harm than good in our
education. Will graduates of ALN degree programs be left wondering how they
will cope in an actual job interview? Students need social interaction as
vital component of maturation and professional development. The most
successful use of ALN thus presents itself as a combination of online
courses and real classroom interaction. The classes do not necessarily have
to meet twice or three times a week as most do now, but rather as needed by
the demands of students or by the judgment of the professor. In any case, as
the market for ALN courses expands (as it is doing) traditional universities
will have to upgrade their curriculum to ALN in order to remain competitive.
At a later
point she writes the following:
ALN courses can be dehumanized to such an extent that students will no
longer feel as if they belong to a learning community. Community is a key
concept for the learning process, and enables students to gain support from
each other. This concept is taken to the limit in traditional universities
where students belong to a university community--they live in the dorms,
they eat together at the cafeteria, they join various student organizatons,
and most importantly, they learn together. The professors and students
ideally belong to the same community of learning; although in some
universities students feel that professors are too inaccessible. Many
proponents of ALN still agree that the human component of education and
university life is necessary. Degerhan Usleul, the chief operating officer
of Interactive Learning International Corporation (ILINC), is quoted as
saying: The importance of an instructor's physical presence, complete
with body language, as well as the rapport one builds with classmates, are
not easily replaced. Jo Ann Davy continues in the article, writing that
Usluel recommends holding a physical event to help relationships,
before connecting online.
Davy, Jo Ann. "Education and Training
Alternatives." Managing Office Technology: Cleveland. April 1998.
Another
student named Katie Lawrence lists drawbacks of ALN in a term paper as follows:
- There are more
dropouts than in actual on-campus courses
- Loss of
commuinty/campus atmosphere
- There are no
current standards for program assessment, so it is difficult for
students to know which courses will be worth the money they are spending
- Often, the
high fees charged for some ALN courses go to fund actual campus courses
rather than the virtual courses being offered.
- Due to the
large number of students taking ALN courses and their tendency to
contact professors frequently, more professors or teaching assistants
are required to adequately teach a cyber course.
- "Learning
ceases to be about analysis, discussion, and examination, and becomes a
product to be bought and sold, to be packaged, advertised, and
marketed." (taken from
Dangers of
Global Education)
- Students loose
out by not actually reading published books.
- Because the
courses are developed in the Western world, Western views are spread to
all parts of the globe, which may inhibit the cultural growth of other
societies, thus creating a unified, undiverse world. Computer access and
availability and modem speed are problems for ALN courses given on
college campuses - students are often times unable to log on due to slow
modems or busy network lines.
Barbara
Brown discusses the myth of asynchronous learning impersonality:
Another myth one
frequently encounters about computer-mediated instruction is that of
impersonality. People assume that in the absence of face-to-face
interaction, relations automatically become more distant and impersonal.
Traditional distance learning formats are said to be plagued with this
problem.[9] Not so, in my experience with the interactive digital classroom.
There is a type of intimacy achievable between teachers and students in this
medium that is quite extraordinary, reminiscent of what Sproull and Keisler
refer to as "second-level" social effects of the technology. I believe this
intimacy results from a sense of shared control and esponsibility,
commitment to collaboration and dialogue, and increased willingness to take
risks in communications with others online. The verbal and writing-intensive
nature of the text-based forum network also forces one to make one’s
thoughts very explicit whenever possible; there is little room for subtlety.
As one administrator put it: "In an online environment, words matter....
Words are everything."
Also, it takes
longer for groups to reach consensus in brain-storming and problem-solving
situations online.[10] People’s feelings can be hurt easily, so more time
and effort are put into explaining meanings and supplying detailed
contextual background to enhance mutual understanding. Thus, writers get to
know one another intimately over time while computer-mediated conversations
- both formal and informal - unfold. Neither e-mail nor chat, the forum
classroom environment at Fielding calls for and inspires thoughtful,
composed (after reading and reflection) asynchronous networked interactions,
without sacrificing human warmth.
At this stage in
the evolution of Internet educational technology, we are all learners. There
is also a sense that we are innovators and early adopters who "crossed over"
early in the technology transfer and diffusion process.[11] In the Fielding
culture, this pioneer experience has come to be known as riding the waves,
or embracing the "turbulence" of rough seas - a metaphor for global and
organizational unrest as well. The attention given to group process online
and the thoughtful nature of master’s-level conversations establish an
intimacy within the group, belying the myth of impersonality.
B.M. Brown
"Digital Classrooms: Some Myths About Developing New Educational
Programs Using the Internet,"
T.H.E. Journal, December 98, pp.
57-58
The online version is at
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/current/feat04.html
"The Myths Of Growing Up Online," by Henry Jenkins, MIT's Technology
Review, September 3, 2004 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/09/wo_jenkins090304.asp?trk=nl
Alarmist and polarized rhetoric is distorting important new findings about the
risks and benefits of children's use of the Internet.
For almost a decade now, the debate about youth and
new media technologies has been polarized around two conflicting myths—let's
call them the Myth of the Columbine Generation and the Myth of the Digital
Generation. The first is driven by fear, the other hope, but both distort
the reality kids and parents must negotiate in the online world, and both
exaggerate the centrality of digital media in children's lives.
Parents, educators, and policymakers can get
whiplash trying to respond to the competing pull of these two myths. One
pulls us toward wiring every classroom in the country so that kids may enjoy
the benefits of digital access, the other mandates filtering programs in
school and library computers since kids can't be trusted once they log on.
In a classic version of the Columbine Generation
argument, Eugene Provenzo Jr., a professor of education at the University of
Chicago, argues that recent school shootings are the "result" of a "social
experiment" in giving children unfettered access to pornography and
violence. By contrast, journalist Jon Katz, in his books Virtuous Reality
and Geeks, offers a vivid version of the Digital Generation perspective,
celebrating the ways that the online world has liberated children from the
constraints of their own neighborhoods and the limitations of their
narrow-minded parents.
Anyone who has read my column over the past few
years knows I fall much closer to Katz than Provenzo. But if we are being
honest, the truth lies somewhere in the huge space in between those two
overstatements. When I went into schools around the country following the
Columbine shootings, it was clear that teachers, parents, and students had
heard plenty about the dangers of going online and little about the
benefits. The case that growing up online was going to produce a more
socially connected, better informed, and more creative generation was a
perspective that was needed to counterbalance the hysteria being generated
by the most sensationalistic news stories. I remember one student
exclaiming, "Why haven't we be told this before?"
As time has passed, I have felt a greater need to
pull back from such either-or arguments, yet to do so seems like unilateral
disarmament as long as the culture warriors are ready to pounce on any
concession. I have become increasingly concerned by the ways that television
discussions, newspaper articles, and government hearings are structured
around the assumption that this debate can be reduced to two opposing sides,
usually pushed to their extremes—making it impossible for more moderate
perspectives to be heard.
A case in point: a conference held this summer at
the University of London brought together educators, activists, and scholars
from more than 40 different countries to examine the research on the impact
of new media on children's mental and social development, and on education,
family, and community life. David Buckingham, one of the event's organizers,
opened the sessions by challenging us to move beyond the easy answers and to
acknowledge the complexities and contradictions our research was
uncovering—good advice that was hard to follow.
A highlight of the conference was London School of
Economics professor Sonia Livingstone's announcement of the preliminary
findings of a major research initiative called UK Children Go Online. This
project involved both quantitative and qualitative studies on the place of
new media in the lives of some 1,500 British children (ages 9 to 19) and
their parents. The study's goal was to provide data that policymakers and
parents could draw on to make decisions about the benefits and risks of
expanding youth access to new media. Remember that phrase—benefitsandrisks.
According to the study, children were neither as
powerful nor as powerless as the two competing myths might suggest. As the
Myth of the Digital Generation suggests, children and youth were using the
Internet effectively as a resource for doing homework, connecting with
friends, and seeking out news and entertainment. At the same time, as the
Myth of the Columbine Generation might imply, the adults in these kids'
lives tended to underestimate the problems their children encountered
online, including the percentage who had unwanted access to pornography, had
received harassing messages, or had given out personal information.
Livingstone’s report arrives at a pivotal moment:
after decades of state-supported broadcasting, the British government is
deregulating media content and opening the airwaves to greater commercial
development. The number of media channels in British homes is expanding—and
parents are being asked to play gatekeepers determining what media entered
their home without being given the training or resources needed to do that
job properly.
Continued in the article
Concerns About
Making Education and Training Too Easy
It has been demonstrated
in various ways in cognitive and learning science that making a training
environment easier may be dysfunctional in the sense that it improves short term
memory at the expense of long-term memory and performance. Complex
information needs to be multiply encoded in semantic and/or situational
associations. Computer-aided training may either enhance or detract from
long-term performance.
For example, I am inclined
to make it easier for students to find answers or get leads in each course
topic. I view it as taking the Mickey Mouse drudgeries of finding things
that consume time. I hope to provide my students with more
time to study what they find and less time trying to find what they study.
To do so I provide as much literature as possible on CD-ROMs (many of which I
record myself), my LAN hard drive, and the University's web server.
However, it is possible that the Mickey Mouse activities contribute
significantly to long-term memory. To the extent that I am making
discovery less difficult and more predictable, I might in fact be improving
students' short term performance at the expense of long-term memory and
cognition.
Robert Bjork states:
It
has now been demonstrated in a variety of ways, and with a variety of
motor, verbal, and problem-solving tasks, that introducing variation
and/or unpredictability in the training environment causes difficulty
for the learner but enhances long-term performance --- particularly the
ability to transfer training to novel but related task environments.
Robert A. Bjork
"Memory and Metamemory considerations in the Training of Human Beings,"
Metacognition: Knowing about Knowing
Edited by Janet Metcalfe and Arthru P. Shimaura
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
ISBN: 0262132982, 1994, Page 189
Click Here
to View Working Paper 265 on Metacognition
Concerns in Designs and
Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training:
Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success?
Other references are
provided later on in this document under the section entitled "Fostering
Deeper Learning: Risks of Teaching More Than You Know."
.
Concerns
About Making Education and Training Too Hard
All courses at Trinity
University are three-credit courses. Virtually all of my students are
full-time students who are taking at least five courses each semester. On
the faculty evaluation forms one of the questions reads: "How would you
rate the workload of this course?" Another question reads:
"How difficult did you find this course?" As I added more ALN
modules in place of lectures, answers to these questions virtually all moved to
"Very Heavy" and "Very Difficult." The following quotation is
representative of class concerns:
The work load was very heavy and put a strain on my other classes.
I liked the material, but weekly quizzes and examinations plus 50-90
pages of reading per class along with other classes is too much.
Actually I usually do not
assign pages to read, but in the process of studying assigned topics, my
graduate students dig out a huge amount of material that they themselves feel
they must study. In research projects constituting over 50% of the course
grade, they must seek out, sift, digest, and nurture a vast amount of learning
material. Often students must spend a great deal of time building
foundations to even study the material. For example, projects entailing
both design and implementation of relational databases entail learning how to
make complicated software work. Projects entailing how to account for
financial instruments derivatives entail learning what those financing contracts
are and how they are used in hedging strategies.
The bottom line is that it
is not be reasonable for all five graduate courses each semester to take as much
time as my courses. Students would become frustrated, angered, and
seek to somehow short circuit their effort if there was not enough time each
week to cover five similar ALN courses. Their traditional lecture
courses are often neat and tidy with problems assigned from the back of the
textbook and sufficient material in the textbook or lectures to master the
assigned materials. Students all study the same materials and can help
each other in many lecture courses. In my asynchronous modules, students
must do a lot more digging on their own and generally come away frustrated by
the "loose ends" that they neither have the time nor skills to master nor the
skills to master. For example, in the process of studying risk
exposures of derivatives contracts they encounter mathematically complex
Value at Risk
time series models. A few of the mathematically inclined students
who elect to delve into such models learn more about Value at Risk than
students who go down other avenues on their projects. Hence, students are
not all studying the same materials, and it becomes more difficult to lean on
each other for help crossing troubled waters. In many instances their
instructor, me, is not sufficiently up on the particulars of each topic to bail
them out. For more on this, skip to the section entitled
Fostering Deeper Learning: Risks of Teaching More
Than You Know.
I like to force students
to struggle on their own, because I think this prepares them for life after
graduation. However, there is a fine line in ALN between making ALN
too easy versus making ALN too hard.
I have not yet achieved the correct balance.
One example where asynchronous learning appears to achieve a good balance is the
Business Activity Model (BAM) in Intermediate Accounting at the
McIntire School of Commerce at
the University of Virginia. A portion of one of my recent email messages
is quoted below:
The mere fact
that many ALN courses are shown to improve grades and/or the rate at which
learning takes place does not imply that long-term performance has been
enhanced. It is not clear whether better performance arises from a
confounding of added sweat with ALNs. What does intrigue me, however, is how
an entire year of Intermediate Accounting (typically very tough courses
requiring memorization of lots of accounting rules and procedures) is now
being taught at the University of Virginia totally without lectures by the
two professors (Croll
and
Catanach)
who, up until 1996, lectured (quite brilliantly) in virtually every class.
Their anecdotal claims for the "BAM" non-lecture approach are that students
are doing markedly better on in course examinations, the CPA examination,
and on the job (which they can monitor since all students have internships
with firms). I now feature a multimedia workshop module of the University of
Virginia BAM ALN program. The average SAT of students in these UVA classes
is over 1300. It is not clear that BAM will work so well on lesser mortals.
One way to judge good ALN
workload balance is to keep track of teaching evaluations. Students
generally voice complaints when workloads are unreasonable (they will not always
complain when a course is too easy). The BAM asynchronous courses at
the University of Virginia have heavy workloads, but Professors Croll and
Catanach manage to pull these courses off with some of the highest instructor
evaluations in the McIntire School of Commerce.
For more detailed
information on the BAM pedagogy, I recommend the following two links:
Concerns
About Corporate Influences on Traditional Missions
There are two types of
partnerings between business firms and universities. The first type is
where the university's faculty deliver a specialized degree program to employees
of a business firm. The program is often specialized calendar, courses,
and mode of delivery. For example, the PriceWaterhouse Coopers MBA program
at the University of Georgia has a customized calendar, customized courses, and
all courses are delivered asynchronously on the web.
Another type of partnering
is where the business firms deliver courses for the university degree programs.
An example of this type of partnering is the AT&T partnering with
Western Governors University that was
announced in two magazines that I track regularly. For example, see
"AT&T Learning Network
Hosts WGU Content," T.H.E. Journal,
February 1999, 14-16.
One of my undergraduate
students, Paul Meekey, notes the rise of partnerships between universities and
corporations where the universities participate in educating and training
employees of companies. Paul's paper can be found at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/pmeekey/frame2.htm wherein he states the
following:
Employers are always trying to find ways to cut costs and now with the
introduction of ALN,
they should be able to do so. Two companies that have enabled this
technology are helping to reduce costs in their post graduate business
training programs. CIGNA
Corporation, an
insurance company located in Philadelphia has formed a partnership with
Drexell University, also in
Philadelphia to create a master's program for information systems. They came
up with a three year program that would train their students online. The
only time they actually met offline was for a two day orientation at the
Drexell campus and after that it was totally online. After the success
of the program, Metlife, another
insurance company decided to form a similar partnership with Drexel
University. One advantage to this program that both company enjoyed was that
both companies didn't have to give up their employees to go back to a
university campus for the 2 yr. graduate program.
The employees could remain working for the company, continue working on
their projects and fulfill their educational requirements after work, before
work, on their days off, or on the weekends. Richard H. Lytle, dean of
Drexel's College of Information and
Technology, says that the he is really excited that both companies are
not only using his program but applying it to software application within
their own applications of everyday work. The program helps the companies to
eliminate some costs and uncertainties of trying to hire full-qualified
employees from major universities and also the time lost when employees have
to go to these classes during normal working hours. The companies are also
using what they have learned through
Drexel University to eventually have all training in the company done
through ALN, in all departments. New York
University's School of Continuing Education also participates in online
learning, and just recently formed a partnership with IBM to offer
information systems courses for their professionals, on a global scale. We
are sure to see a huge increase in ALN used in the business environment.
Companies can keep their employees working hard and earning the profits
while training them to make them more efficient at their job. Although still
young, ALN is helping companies such as
Citicorp, NYNEX
Corp., and Sandoz to become more cost efficient in training their employees.
The above trends are a
mixed blessing. Clearly, expansion into corporate education and
training expands the market alternatives for colleges facing a shrinking and
increasingly competitive environment for traditional students and traditional
continuing education students. The flip side of the coin is that the
universities may sacrifice some of their independence in setting curricula and
course contents since corporations paying for the education and training will
dictate such matters to a large degree.
For more discussion and
references about corporate universities and partnerships between corporations
and traditional universities, see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#CorporatePartnerships and
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#ErnstandYoung
.
Concerns
About Library Services
The Internet has become
the world's library. However, content pales in comparison with
scholarly works found in libraries that contain vast resources that either are
not or cannot be digitized. Making centuries of literature available on
networks is cost prohibitive to digitize for and deliver from web servers.
Copyright restrictions deliberately protect vast bodies of new and older
literature from being digitized.
When asynchronous courses
are delivered off campus, library access becomes a major problem that is
frequently ignored in the hype of ALN promotion. One of my students, Katie
Greene, addresses this problem at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/kgreene/distanceno.htm
In the above document,
Katie provides links and references to literature on looming issues and "new
roles for librarians." She states:
Librarians must change their role if they want
to keep up with the changes in education. They will need to change in three
different ways. The first way would be that "librarians will take on a more
proactive role in the classroom and will work more collaboratively with the
teaching faculty to develop assignments that are feasible in the off-campus/
distance environment." (Lebowitz) Secondly, distance education will bring
about "greater collaboration among institutions". (Lebowitz) Because their
are no constraints on location, libraries from all over can work together to
create collections of works and pool their resources. A good example of this
cooperation, is Western Governors University, which is a university made by
the governors of the western states. Along with this cooperation, though,
"the supplying of library services will become highly competitive, and
libraries may choose to outsource the provision of services to other
institutions" (Cavanagh). Thirdly, the librarian's role "will shift to one
of facilitator/instructor, rather than provider of information." (Slade)
Librarians will now be communicating with students in remote locations via
e-mail, video conferencing, chat lines, or audio conferencing. One example
of this is at
University of Maryland University College where students can
"chat" with librarians online and ask any questions they might have.
Librarians will have to be proactive and learn about the new technologies
and make the materials available to students all over the world.
Many have already used these devices and made the information available. Old
ways included loan programs and mailing books and other materials. Now
librarians use information technology to develop online, virtual libraries.
One criticism is that distant students do not have access to as much
information, but librarians are now able to put entire works, full texts of
books, journals, references, newspapers, as well as web searches and
internet access on the internet.
Some
Examples include:
VIVA the virtual library of
Virginia - electronic collections of books, journals,
newspapers , as well as internet searches.
Online Literature Library
Internet Public Library-
references, magazines, newspapers, online texts.
Carrie-Full-Text Electronic Library.
Katie Greene raises other concerns and discusses the challenges of giving
distance learners the same access to libraries as the access available to
resident students. One wonders how top programs such as the
Duke University Global Executive MBA program and the
Ohio University Online
MBA Without Boundaries program manage to provide library resources to
students.
Judy Luther provides a
paper entitled "Distance Learning and the Digital Library: What Happens
When the Virtual Student Needs to Use the Virtual Library in a Virtual
University," Educom Review, July/August 1998, 23-26. Although no
virtual library is going to contain the text of all books and journals in a
major academic library due to copyright and impracticalities of digitizing
trillions of pages of text and graphics, there are some collaborative efforts
being made by various universities to aid students taking virtual courses off
campus. Judy Luther's article is available at
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/edreview.html.
Concerns
About Academic Standards, School Ethics, and Student Ethics
The University of Phoenix, a network of colleges run by the Apollo Group, is
drawing attention from regulators as well as Wall Street investors.
"Can For-Profit Schools Pass an Ethics Test?" by Eryn Brown, The New York
Times, December 12, 2004 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/business/yourmoney/12school.html?oref=login
Over the last few years, the
Apollo Group has watched its profile rise - mostly for the right
reasons. It has expanded its University of Phoenix to 158 campuses,
providing professional and technical degrees to working adults from Salem,
Ore., to Guaynabo, P.R. Enrollment has doubled, to 255,600 students, in just
the last four years. The market capitalization of the company, which earns a
profit, has surged 374 percent over the same period.
But these days, the Apollo Group, based in
Phoenix, may be gaining notice of a less desirable kind. In September, it
agreed to pay the federal Department of Education $9.8 million to settle
charges that its recruiting practices violated Title IV of the Higher
Education Act, which regulates how almost $70 billion of federal grants,
loans and work-study programs are distributed to students at colleges and
universities each year.
A Department of Education report asserted that the
school based its recruiters' pay on the numbers of students they brought in,
and punished underperforming recruiters by isolating them in glass-walled
rooms and threatening to fire them if they failed to meet management goals.
Enrollment-based incentives and punishments are sometimes illegal under
federal law.
Terri Bishop, a spokeswoman for Apollo, denied any
wrongdoing by the company. "We were not required to change our compensation
practices, because we were not found guilty of the allegations," she said.
Recently, a number of for-profit colleges have
faced inquiries, lawsuits and other actions calling into question the way
they pursue federal funds.
In the last year, the
Career Education Corporation of Hoffman Estates, Ill., has faced
lawsuits, from shareholders and students, contending that, among other
things, its colleges have inflated enrollment numbers. The company, which
said it considered the suits groundless, acknowledged that it was under
investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange
Commission. It declined to say what the federal officials were
investigating. The Justice Department and S.E.C. declined to discuss this or
any other active investigation.
In February, F.B.I. agents raided 10 campuses run
by
ITT Educational Services of Carmel, Ind., looking for similar problems;
the company has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
A routine government audit in December 2003 of
student aid programs at Bryman College in San Jose, Calif., part of
Corinthian Colleges, found that it was too slow to return federal aid to
the government after students withdrew from school, and it incorrectly
calculated how much it owed the government and did not keep proper records,
said a department spokeswoman, Jane Glickman.
After that, the Department of Education required
Corinthian, which is based in Santa Ana, Calif., to give its own money to
students and then seek reimbursement from the government. The requirement
was lifted on Sept. 22, but the Corinthian Web site says the S.E.C. opened
an investigation on Sept. 16 into its "projections, financial performance
and communications with securities analysts and investors during the fiscal
year ended June 30, 2004."
Such scrutiny may portend tough times for what has
been a high-flying, profitable industry. According to Department of
Education statistics, for-profit post-secondary schools, including those
that grant degrees and those that do not, enrolled 765,701 students in the
fall of 2001, the most recent year for which complete statistics are
available. That is almost 30 percent more than the 589,600 they enrolled in
1996.
The schools say they offer practical career
training in a time when job stability has vanished for many people. The
Career College Association, an industry trade group in Washington, reports
that 70 percent of the students at for-profit colleges are the first in
their families to go to college. David Longanecker, a Department of
Education official in the Clinton administration who is now the executive
director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a
research group in Boulder, Colo., said for-profit colleges like the
University of Phoenix "are emerging as an important part of the educational
system."
For-profit education companies also had the best
run of any group on Wall Street from 2000 to 2003, said Howard Block, an
analyst at Banc of America Securities in
San Francisco, which does not have a financial interest in Apollo, Career
Education, Corinthian Colleges, or ITT Educational Services, though the bank
has advised some of those companies. Over all, he noted, publicly traded
postsecondary-education stocks rose 460 percent over that period, compared
with a 24 percent loss for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.
One of my students, Sophia
Mena, at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/smena/learning.htm wrote the following:
The
first thing that came to mind when I first started researching the Virtual
Classroom is how professors monitor if students are doing their own work. In
the Traditional Classroom a professor can easily detect if a person is
cheating on their test, but how can they monitor that if someone is taking a
test by way of a computer? It seems very easy for someone to
cheat in an asynchronous learning environment. To find out more about
computer ethics you can visit:
Computer Ethics - Cyberethics:
http://www.siu.edu/departments/coba/mgmt/iswnet/isethics/index.htm
IEEE Code of Ethics:
http://www.ieee.org/committee/ethics
In the 1900s it was common
for students to take tests in the presence of the village vicar who then
certified that all conditions placed upon taking an examination were followed.
Some conditions are easily met with existing technologies such as timing the
examination and webcams and microphones that allow the examiners to view and
hear the student from most any distance around the world. Newer
technologies such as retinal scanners are emerging to verify that the student
taking the examination is truly the student who is authorized to take the
examination.
Nevertheless, there are
enormous problems with ethics and academic standards in ALN. For example,
monitoring students on chat lines becomes expensive and intrusive. Most
ALN courses assume that the email messages and chat line messages from a student
are genuine without monitoring those messages with the same scrutiny that is
given to course examinations.
In some ways investigating
suspected plagiarism is easier on the web. Unhappily, I have
discovered several instances where my students lifted parts of their work (in
two cases the entire paper) from sources that were not cited. Finding
these instances of plagiarism was much easier in their web documents due to the
ability to search for suspected phrases in web search engines.
Plagiarism has always been
and will always be a problem in education and research. The problem is
exacerbated by computing technologies due to the ease of selecting all or part
of a document and clicking on (Edit, Copy) and (Edit, Paste). Culprits do
not even have to type the text. If they cleverly use the technologies,
phrases can be easily modified so it becomes more difficult to discover that the
passage was first lifted and then modified so as to escape detection.
One problem with emerging
speech recognition technologies is that spoken words (e.g., in a
lecture or a session at a conference) can be recorded and digitized
automatically such that text that has never appeared in print is created by
speech recognition software. How easy it becomes to beat the speaker in
putting that speaker's presentation into printed text.
Faculty clinging to traditional lectures and classroom case discussions
may not even be aware that whatever went on in their classrooms is now available
at hidden sites on the web at either a public or a private web site.
Those infamous "fraternity files" have
never been so rich as they will become with speech recognition technologies.
Concerns
About Misleading and Fraudulent Web Sites
An emerging area of interest to me is
the rate at which marginal and fraudulent asynchronous courses and programs are
emerging. For example, I consider it a shame when someone other than a major
university uses a domain name of that university. One of my students, Elizabeth
Eudy, wrote the following at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/eeudy/aln.htm
I may be
mistaken in the specific case, but the person in Reykjavik, Iceland who
owns the domain name CarnegieMellon.com seems well positioned to offer
services in a way that just might be confused with services offered by a
well known U.S. university. Hundreds of examples exist of domain names
that seem purposely designed to be misleading...Two problems stem from
this: First, there is no way for the typical user to know whether the
actual location of an Internet site is in, say, Pittsburgh or Reykjavik.
Second, these sites are not under any single legal jurisdiction. The
FBI, for instance, probably has little clout in Reykjavik
Concerns
About CyberPsychology
The accelerating pace of
networking for education, entertainment, research, therapy, and commerce is
having profound psychological impacts on society.
IFOBITS in May 1998 made the following announcement about a new
CyberPsychology journal:
CYBERPSYCHOLOGY
& BEHAVIOR is a new, peer-reviewed journal for the mental health
community devoted to the "impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual
reality on behavior and society." Articles in its inaugural issue
include "The Gender Gap in Internet Use," "Internet Addiction on
Campus," "The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction,"
and "A Review of Virtual Reality as a Psychotherapeutic Tool."
Cyberpsychology
& Behavior [ISSN: 1094-9313] is published quarterly by Mary Ann Liebert,
Inc., 2 Madison Avenue, Larchmont, NY 10538; tel:
914-834-3100;
fax: 914-834-3582; email:
info@liebertpub.com; Web:
http://www.liebertpub.com/
Click Here
to View Working Paper 265 on Metacognition
Concerns in Designs and
Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training:
Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success?
Concerns
About Computer Services and Network Reliability
This morning I went to one
of our student labs to check to see if one of my new ToolBooks was being
transported properly on the Internet. I discovered that someone had wiped
out both the Internet Explorer and the Netscape Communicator web browsers on the
first three lab computers that I logged into. It is terribly frustrating
for faculty and students to repeatedly encounter hardware and software failures.
Student frustrations center around not having enough lab computers, wasting time
on lab computers that fail, having their own computers crash during the
semester, and encountering network crashes or delays due to clogged bandwidth.
An enormous problem for
universities who engage more and more in ALN courses that rely daily upon
networking systems is to keep those systems efficient and reliable for students.
Faculty members occasionally miss class due to illness or scheduling conflicts,
but faculty miss class much less often than computers crash on most campuses.
In addition, there are disruptions due to necessary maintenance and updating of
computer systems. Few, if any, campuses have budgets to provide backup
systems for disruptions of service.
There are increasing risks
of security failures on campus computers. Geeks hack or crack their
way into systems on every college campus. In most instances they do so
without intent to cause great harm. However, they may also be intent upon
bringing down the system or parts thereof. Equipping divisions (e.g., a
College of Business within the university) with their own servers, labs, and
computing maintenance centers reduces the risks of university-wide computer
system failure, but the cost becomes enormous in terms of hardware and personnel
costs. However, this may also spread technician talent so thin across the
campus that the risk of poor performance in some divisions may be increased.
There are no easy
solutions to the problem that ALN learning is absolutely dependent on
reliability of computers and networking systems.
Concerns
About Effectiveness of Learning Technologies in Large
Classes
Email messages from Roger Debreceny and
Andrew Priest
I do not doubt for a minute that small
group, f2f teaching can be highly effective. I sure hope so, because like
many of the people on this list, I have devoted many hours of my life to the
pursuit of better f2f small group teaching! <g>.
As regards large group f2f teaching, I
am much less sanguine. I lecture to a group of 750 students (!!) in one large
(ok, it’s enormous!) lecture theatre. There are clearly some benefits to
such large group teaching (mostly sociological) but not many. In most cases,
large group lectures are poorly presented, inadequately planned and almost
completely lacking in challenges to the students. Large group lectures lead, in
my view, to the "I attend, therefore I learn" syndrome. We all know that all the
evidence points to the inability of humans to concentrate in such environments
for more than a few minutes at a time. Yet we consistently ignore such evidence.
There are many problems, however, with
both small group and large group f2f teaching and learning processes. Key
amongst them is the idea that we engender in our students, that they can go to a
sage and receive knowledge in some structured fashion. Contrast that with our
research processes. OK, we do have research tutorials (e.g. at the AAA Annual
Meeting), but they are relatively rare. Research is undertaken by search for,
and integration of, knowledge. Research is much, much more like the real work
world that our graduates will experience than the f2f classroom.
Where networked technology can assist
us is to change the teaching and learning model from sage/pupil towards research
leader/co-researcher.
We should listen more to the ideas of
thinkers such as Schank (see, for example, a short article by Schank in the July
issue of Communications of the ACM).
Now, just as an example of a colleague
who has made some interesting advances in using networked technologies to move
from pedagogy more towards androgogy here is a write-up on Mark Freeman at
University of Technology, Sydney that was recently posted to ATeach-L by Andrew
Priest. We can get a flavour of a new learning environment.
Roger Debreceny
=============================
Hi Folks
Thought this article from the Business
Review Weekly http://www.brw.com.au may be
of interest.
Regards Andrew Priest
Mass lectures,
often repeated, are the usual way that university business courses cope with
cost pressures and student loads. Students are bored to tears by them. Mark
Freeman, a senior lecturer in finance at the University of Technology,
Sydney (UTS), and a specialist in teaching methods, thinks he has found a
better way: using the Internet. "The groundswell of student interest in
Web-based learning is like no other phenomenon I have seen in educational
innovation," he says, after tests involving more than 2000 students.
At 4 am students
can have lively interchanges on the site.
Business students
make up 30% of the enrolment at UTS but their courses get only 15% of total
UTS funding. Freeman felt an obligation to make learning better for students
who are struggling to hold down a job or cope with English, pay fees, mind
children and resist fatigue at night. They may travel to university and find
there are 30-40 students in a tutorial. Or part-timers might visit reserved
sections of the library, only to find that desperate students have torn out
the pages of a book or stolen it altogether.
Freeman began
Internet-based teaching in 1996 with 800 students on a basic Internet
system. Last year UTS brought in experimentally a special on-line
teacher-student pack called TopClass for messages and conferences, involving
1000 students. This year 10,500 students, nearly half the UTS student
population of 23,000, are using it. In one class of 100 last month, Freeman
found that every student had private Internet access.
Some academics
misuse the medium by merely posting their lectures on the Web, he says. This
is no better than telling students that information is in the library and
"go get it".
One of Freeman’s
examples of "new learning" is an on-line role-playing exercise this year for
post-graduate students of securities markets law. They take the identity of
people such as John Howard, Allan Fels, or securities regulators, with their
real identities staying secret until the program ends. The program was based
on a method used at Macquarie University in a simulation of Middle-Eastern
politics.
In the first week
the students describe their roles; then crises are provided, such as a
currency slump, bank failure or misleading prospectus for a privatisation.
Students must research how their character would react, and type responses
to the central on-line site. The "prime minister" can even negotiate
privately with the "stock exchange chairman", as occurs in the real world.
Freeman is the only observer able to read the messages. Since each student
researches a unique situation, cheating is difficult. In normal work,
cheating is a serious problem, now that vast amounts of material can be cut
and pasted into assignments or lifted from "cheat sites" on the Web.
In team debates,
groups take positions on issues such as corporate law reform, and hone their
responses in private conferences before posting them on the Internet. Many
students in their professional lives are already feeling the effect of
corporate law reform, and have strong opinions. Even at 4am there can be
lively interchanges among six students using the site.
Freeman says:
"Students get completely immersed in the role playing. In addition they do
not have the hang-ups often suffered by people in face-to-face arguments,
such as deferring to those of the opposite sex or those perceived to be
higher in status. Shy people are not argued down, rhetorical flourishes
can’t be used, and non-English students cope better with the language."
Later there is a
coming-out session at the university where the students show their real
identities, often to surprise and applause. The debate is also a permanent
and expandable record useful for future students. "The best part is that the
students are not learning just what I tell them, but learning to think and
make choices based on good information." An individual assignment is to
investigate and give an assessment of a domestic and international
securities regulator’s Web site, and present the results to a discussion
forum.
Freeman admits to
having the usual failures of a pioneer. "Technology in teaching can operate
like an unguided missile unless the goals are well specified, such as
changing student understanding," he says.
There is less staff
administrative work because the Web is used for announcements, such as where
to lodge assignments, errors in a text, changes to deadlines, and guides to
marking. Staff have to discourage students from calling by phone and private
e-mail, instead of logging on to the site.
But there is still
a huge workload in the Internet-posted queries. Some students at other
universities became irate when Freeman failed to respond to their queries.
Students expect staff to respond seven days a week, and mark faster. Now,
without the Internet, the requests would be totally unmanageable. "I used to
get 40 calls on my voice-mail before I even started work. This morning I had
none," Freeman says. He predicts that in the coming decade, some
universities will fail, especially those that have chased short-term
economies at the expense of quality. Students are already exercising their
consumer rights and demanding "just-in-time" learning, rather than
conforming to university teaching schedules. University teachers failing to
get average grades of "highly satisfactory" would be sacked, since students
would no longer tolerate mediocrity and would take their "business"
elsewhere.
Freeman predicted
six months ago that many universities would become user-pays systems where
for $1000, for example, students could use a bare minimum of the facilities,
and pay $100 each for a menu of add-ons such as on-line self-study material,
videos and discussion groups. Replies within 24 hours would be guaranteed
seven days a week, with a ceiling of ten sessions per subject and $100 per
chat thereafter. There could be a $500 premium service involving time with
experts face-to-face, on-line or in video-conference. "In the US, user-pays
universities have already arrived," Freeman says. "It’s no longer a
prediction."—
Andrew Priest, School of Accounting,
Edith Cowan University
Mailto:a.priest@cowan.edu.au
Mailto:apriest@imstressed.com
http://www.bs.ac.cowan.edu.au/acctinfoplus/
"Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"- SteveWright
Concerns
About Faculty Resistance to Change
Probably the major
stumbling block to education change is faculty unwillingness to venture into
technology and new learning experiments. Instead of leading the way,
faculty in traditional schools and colleges are behind corporate and
military/government trainers in adapting to technologies and learning
experimentation.
A funny thing
happened to a campus event designed to bring our faculty together to
exchange information and demonstrations of technology in the classroom.
In the three years since the conference was launched, we have had
steadily fewer faculty attending.
We surveyed our
faculty to find out why attendance had declined at our on-campus
technology conference (scheduled during a day when classes were not in
session). Results indicated that while some faculty and staff did have a
disinterest in technology, more often the problem was their frustration
with it. Among reasons for why they were not using technology in their
work, they cited lack of the following: training, support, space,
equipment, and knowledge of what was available and how items could be
obtained.
"Where Are They?": Why
Technology Education for Teachers Can Be So Difficult"
by Claudia Rebaza
http://www.microsoft.com/education/hed/vision.htm
Although the barriers
mentioned above by Dr. Rebaza are serious, in my viewpoint they tend to be
excuses rather than reasons in many instances. Far more serious are the
lack of credit given to technology innovations in promotion, pay-raise,
publication, and tenure decisions. In fact, I maintain
messages of selected "daring professor" who are willing to take chances in
adverse environments. The web address is
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm
Some email correspondence
from a faculty member at Trinity University is provided below:
- From: [Name Deleted]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 1998 12:40 PM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Web projectsDear
Bob,
Thanks for sending along your web
assignment and its rationale. I’m interested in doing a book-length project
that has web links to my own set of materials and exercises. Or even doing
the whole book in this way.
Question is, does one receive
academic credit for producing work on the internet? Have you ever discussed
this with the Administration?
Thanks,
[Name of the Trinity University
Faculty Member Deleted]
========================================================================
Reply from Bob Jensen
Hi ______
One problem with web publishing is
that if you submit your stuff to a top journal, the editor wants you to hide
your research from the world until the journal gets around to publishing
your work (which in a recent case took five years "in press" for an accepted
Jensen and Sandlin article to finally get published). I recently had another
paper accepted for publication. Then I had a long ‘fight" with the editor
over whether I can keep a "live" and ever-changing version of the essence of
that paper at my web site.
I have discussed web publishing
with administrators is many universities. They have not and cannot take much
of an official position without action by the faculty. Matters of promotion
and tenure are pretty well decided all along the way (departmental faculty,
Chair, Dean, and P&T faculty) with rare administrative reversals of
recommendations. Faculty bring individual biases into peer evaluation, and
at the moment web publishing is a new thing to most of them. Until the peer
evaluation culture is changed, web publishing will not count heavily toward
promotion, tenure, or take home pay.
The main issue is that web
publishing is not refereed with the same rigor (as refereeing in leading
journals) or, in most cases, is not refereed at all. This is a concern since
it is pretty easy to disguise garbage as treasure at a web site. Leading
journals will one day offer refereeing services for web publishing and may,
in fact, do away with their hard copy editions. Until then what do we do?
Most certainly we do not put up a web counter and brag about the number of
hits --- Playboy probably gets more hits per day than all professors
combined.
Somewhat of a substitute for hard
core refereeing is a record of correspondence that is received from scholars
and students who use your web documents. This lacks the anonymity of the
refereeing process. Also there are opportunities to cheat (I’ll lavishly
praise your work if you will adore mine in a succession of email messages),
but most scholars have more integrity than to organize that sort of
conspiracy. If you have a file of correspondence from people that your peers
know and respect, chances are that your peers will take notice. Include
copies of this correspondence in your performance reports. But this process
is more anecdotal than the genuine blind refereeing process.
Until a rigorous web refereeing
process is established, those who must evaluate a web publisher must do more
work. They must study your web materials and make their own judgments
regarding quality and relevance. It is much easier to simply tick off the
refereed hits (For when the binary scorer comes to write against your name,
he writes only ones or zeros, to him the unread articles are all the same).
It is easy to become too cynical about the refereeing process. We have all
had frustrations with bad referees, including acceptances of our weaker
output and rejections of our best work. At my web site, I have section for
my "big ones that got away." See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/#BigOnes Refereeing is a little like
democracy --- it ain’t perfect, but until a better system comes along it
beats the alternatives over the long haul.
My trouble, and I suspect that Mike
Kearl has the same problem, is that web publishing is addictive. The
responses that you get from around the world set "your tail wagging." I have
published many papers and several books (a sign of my advanced age), but I
have never had the "action" following hard copy publication that I get from
web publication. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that
more people than you can imagine stumble on your web documents while using a
search engine on the web. Not all of them send you nice messages, but a
message recently received by me last week from a total stranger is
reproduced be low:
==================================================================
- Dr. Jensen,
- Wanted to say thanks for
maintaining your Technological Glossary page. I
- am currently studying for my
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer exams. Your page has been a
god-send.
Pacificare,Network Associate II
Al Janetsky
Microsoft Certified Professional
Messages like the above message
"keep my tail wagging." I even like the messages that signal items to be
corrected --- at least those users found my stuff worth correcting. If you
have audio on your computer, you can listen to Mike Kearl discuss what makes
his "tail wag." Mike also discusses the issue that you raised in your
message to me. The web address for Mike’s audio on this is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm . That particular article is
entitled "Daring Professors" and contains audio and email messages from
other faculty members who were willing to take some chances with their
careers.
I can offer you a wagging tail and
small pay raises if you rely entirely on web publishing as evidence of
scholarship. Old hounds like me can opt for more tail wagging, but young
pups need more nourishment shoved into the other end. (Actually I still
publish hard copy to maintain respectability, but I personally am far more
proud of my "living" web research documents than my annual refereed "dead"
hits over the past few years).
Until the evaluation culture is
changed in peers who hold you on leash, try to do web publishing alongside
your refereed journal publishing. But don’t let the tail wag the dog or you
will wind up in the dog house. If your book or journal editor objects to
having your working documents published at your web site, remember who your
master is at all times. His title is Editor in Chief!
An interesting paper by William H. Geoghegan at IBM Academic Consulting is
entitled "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY?" discusses some of
the issues as to why the faculty are not yet adapting to education
technologies. Estimates run as high as 95% of higher education faculty are
not using these technologies. Geoghegan analyses social and diffusion
barriers in particular. The paper is at
http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/links/library/geoghegan/wpi.html
Bob Jensen
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of
Business Administration
Trinity.University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-736-7347 Fax: 210-736-8134
- Also see
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change
Other Concerns
Forwarded on
November 23, 2004 by Jagdish Gangolly
[JGangolly@UAMAIL.ALBANY.EDU]
REPORT RAISES QUESTIONS OVER EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT OF
COMPUTERS
A recent study of the effects of computer use on
teenage students suggests that increased computer use may result in lower
academic performance. The authors of the study, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger
Woessmann of the CESifo economic research organization in Munich, looked at
data on many thousands of students in 31 countries. Initial results
indicated a positive relationship between computers and academic
achievement, specifically in math and reading. When the results were
adjusted, however, to compensate for the higher levels of wealth and
education in homes where computers are more likely to be present, the data
showed that the more computers there are in the home, the lower the
student's performance. In addition, despite showing higher test scores for
increased time spent using computers at home, the study showed that the more
time students spent using computers at school, the lower their test scores.
According to the report, "the initial positive pattern on computer
availability at school simply reflects that schools with better computer
availability also feature other positive school characteristics." BBC, 22
November 2004 <
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4032737.stm>
"Contrarian finding: Computers are a drag on learning," by Jeffrey MacDonald,
The Christian Science Monitor, December 6, 2004 ---
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1206/p11s01-legn.html
For all the schools and parents who have together
invested billions to give children a learning edge through the latest
computer technology, a mammoth new study by German researchers brings some
sobering news: Too much exposure to computers might spell trouble for the
developing mind.
From a sample of 175,000 15-year-old students in 31
countries, researchers at the University of Munich announced in November
that performance in math and reading had suffered significantly among
students who have more than one computer at home. And while students seemed
to benefit from limited use of computers at school, those who used them
several times per week at school saw their academic performance decline
significantly as well.
"It seems if you overuse computers and trade them
for other [types of] teaching, it actually harms the student," says lead
researcher Ludger Woessmann in a telephone interview from Munich. "At least
we should be cautious in stating that increasing [access to] computers in
the home and school will improve students' math and reading performance."
With the rise of computers in classrooms, has come
a glut of conflicting conclusions about the actual value computers bring to
timeless tasks of teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. For some in
education, these results indicate how thoroughly this field of research has
come to resemble that of the conventional wisdom about weight loss, which
seems to shift with the tide. Yet others see hopeful signs of a maturing
debate, where blind faith in the educational benefits of technology is
giving way to greater appreciation for an understanding when computers are
useful and when they're not.
"You could argue that's the big issue here: People
need guidance in how to use [computers in education]," says Dr. Marcia Linn,
professor of education and director of the Technology Enhanced Learning in
Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
In surveying the gamut of research for his 2003
book "The Flickering Mind" (Random House), journalist Todd Oppenheimer
[Editor's note: The original version misstated Oppenheimer's first name.]
found most studies have overstated either the benefits or the drawbacks
computers pose in education. The most thorough studies have found computers
to have little effect either way, he said, although some guiding principles
are beginning to emerge.
Computer technology "is used too much and very
unwisely in the younger years, and not wisely enough in the older years,"
says Oppenheimer. For 15-year-olds, he says, "you'd be foolish not to use
the [World Wide] Web" for a research project, but only alongside
conventional information-gathering techniques. The big picture goal: help
students use high-quality sources.
Against this backdrop, the German study stands out
on account of two features: its unusually broad, international sample and
its bid to isolate computers as a performance-shaping factor.
Mindful that computers are more common among
affluent families, whose children often outperform more disadvantaged ones,
the University of Munich researchers controlled for such variables as
parents' education and working status.
When those were removed from the equation, having
more than one computer at home was no longer associated with top academic
performance. In fact, the study says, "The mere availability of computers at
home seems to distract students from learning." Computers seem to serve
mainly as devices for playing games.
Still, there were a few exceptions: Academic
performance rose among those who routinely engaged in writing e-mail or
running educational software.
To hear new questions raised about the educational
value of technology is music to the ears at the Waldorf schools, an
association of 350 schools where students don't touch computers until the
11th grade. There the priority lies with training students to think, says
Patrice Maynard, leader for outreach and development, because
problem-solving acumen and creativity lead to success and a joyful life.
Yet for educators in Maine, computers represent
something far more promising. There they seem to hold the key to the type of
skills employers want to see as the state says goodbye to textiles and other
antiquated industries. Maine taxpayers are investing $37 million over four
years to put laptop computers into the hands of every seventh- and
eighth-grader, as well as their 3,000 teachers.
As the debate continues, consensus holds that more
research is needed to know exactly where computers make the most difference
in an educational process. "There's this sort of bizarre belief that
computers cast a spell over students and teachers and schools," says
Christopher Dede, professor of learning technologies at the Harvard School
of Education. "Can you imagine what would happen if you had the same in
business, asking if computers were interfering with performance? It would be
a big joke."
Full semester credit courses have not tended to sell very well, and they are
very costly to produce. It may well be that short, non-credit courses have
a better market opportunity.
Something Your
(Our) College President Should be Thinking About
Tuition Revenue from Quality Non-Credit, Short, and Inexpensive Online Courses
Prestigious=University of Michigan, Inexpensive=$45.
The
material for this course takes approximately 5-10 hours which you can
complete at your convenience, a few minutes a day or all at once. A
discussion board, moderated by a course instructor, offers learners the
opportunity to express ideas, exchange opinions and post voluntary weekly
assignments. Students may enroll in this course up to four weeks after the
start date, until May 21. All students will have password-protected access
to this seminar until June 25.
Source: See the message below from Fathom
The expensive cost drivers in any
credit course arise from maintaining academic standards needed to maintain
reputation when granting course credits. Admission standards, intense
student-instructor communications, and performance standards must all be
implemented. Quality education for academic credit is very, very
expensive.
But in lifelong learning, it is not
always necessary to take the expensive route.
Delivering a non-credit course such as
the one below is in many ways more pure and a heck of a lot more fun. It's
learning for learning's sake and the instructor can focus on what he or she
probably likes best --- quality of delivery and preparation of content!.
It's the free market at its best.
Students choose to pay for the content and delivery rather than the grade.
Bad courses don't sell because they offer easier A grades. Bad courses
don't sell because they're required in the curriculum plan. Bad courses
don't sell period if they are not required and/or do not offer any grades.
What is frustrating for most of us that
are teaching credit courses is that most students are more concerned with the
grade than with the content. This cannot be the case in the course
described below. Students are only paying for learning in its purest
sense. Students in the course are not driven by the quest for a grade on a
transcript or a curriculum plan that requires three courses out of ten on the
menu in each of seven required categories.
This is also a way for administrators
and faculty to think out of the box, to imagine new ways of generating huge
amounts of lower cost tuition revenue. In managerial accounting we call
this Cost-Profit-Volume (CPV) analysis where lower cost drives up volume which
in turn drives up profits. I anticipate that prestigious colleges and
universities will one day see the CPV light and begin to offer more and more
courses like the one described below. The advantage of prestige in this
market will be the expectations by customers that prestigious schools are more
apt to have better quality controls and better faculty to draw upon for these
innovative short courses.
May 1, 2002 message from Fathom
(Note that the faculty involved are purportedly some of the best specialists in
the world: Sharon Herbert , David S. Potter , Terry Wilfong , Susan E.
Alcock)
We're excited to
tell you about a new e-course from the University of Michigan, "Daily Life
in the Eastern Roman Empire (100 BCE-100 CE): Trade, Travel, and
Transformation." To celebrate the launch of this course, we're offering a
special 20% discount if you enroll before May 15. Just enter the coupon code
ROMEMP at checkout to claim your discount.
Students in this
nine-week course will learn how great changes in the Roman empire, such as
the stirrings of early Christianity, affected the daily lives of subjects in
the Eastern Mediterranean region. Taught by a team of four University of
Michigan professors of classics, archaeology, and egyptology, the course
offers a fascinating look at various characters and occupations during this
turbulent era. To learn more or to enroll, go to:
http://www.fathom.com/course/35702802/romemp
If you are a college educator, think
about CVP analysis if you are unhappy with your present salary level and wish
that your college could generate more revenue for faculty salaries.
May 3 reply from Gary Schneider
The interesting state of affairs
that leads Fathom.com to offer low-priced on-line courses taught by stellar
faculty is explored in a New York Times article titled "Lessons Learned at
Dot-Com U.":
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
--Gary
Gary P. Schneider, Ph.D, CPA
Associate Professor of Accounting and Information Systems
University of San Diego School of Business Administration 5998
Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110-2492
I provide an introductory excerpt from
that article:
"Lessons Learned at
Dot-Com U., by Katie Hafner, The New York Times, May 2, 2002 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
Go to Fathom.com
and you will encounter a veritable trove of online courses about
Shakespeare. You can enroll in "Modern Film Adaptations of Shakespeare,"
offered by the American Film Institute, or "Shakespeare and Management,"
taught by a member of the Columbia Business School faculty.
The site is by no
means confined to courses on Shakespeare. You can also treat yourself to a
seminar called "Bioacoustics: Cetaceans and Seeing Sounds," taught by a
scientist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Or if yours is a
more public-policy-minded intellect, you can sign up for "Capital Punishment
in the United States," a seminar with experts from Cambridge University
Press, Columbia University and the University of Chicago.
What's more, all
are free.
That part was not
always the plan. Fathom, a start-up financed by Columbia, was founded two
years ago with the goal of making a profit by offering online courses over
the Internet.
But after spending more than $25 million on the venture, Columbia has
found decidedly little interest among prospective students in paying for the
semester-length courses.
Now Fathom is
taking a new approach, one that its chief executive likens to giving away
free samples to entice customers.
Call it the Morning
After phenomenon. In the last few years, prestigious universities rushed to
start profit-seeking spinoffs, independent divisions that were going to
develop online courses. The idea, fueled by the belief that students need
not be physically present to receive a high-quality education, went beyond
the mere introduction of online tools into traditional classes.
The notion was that
there were prospective students out there, far beyond the university's
walls, for whom distance education was the answer. Whether they were
18-year-olds seeking college degrees or 50-year-olds longing to sound smart
at cocktail parties, students would flock to the Web by the tens of
thousands, paying tuitions comparable to those charged in the
bricks-and-mortarboard world — or so the thinking went.
Continued at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
Virtual public schools have graduated
from only a handful a few years ago to more than 30. While most have done well,
a few bad apples have prompted states to ask for greater oversight authority.
"Online Schools Under Scrutiny," by
John Gartner, Wired News, May 3, 2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52207,00.html
More than 30
publicly funded virtual charter schools have launched during the past five
years, and parents have largely been pleased with the results.
But the alleged
mismanagement of two academies run by for-profit companies is prompting
Educators say the
Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT)
in Ohio and Einstein
Academy in Pennsylvania, both of which are run by private companies,
have ignored numerous academic guidelines while operating with questionable
accounting practices.
The
Ohio Federation of Teachers joined
with nine other teaching associations to sue the state's Board of Education,
alleging that state officials have violated state law by allowing for-profit
companies to control and operate charter schools.
Federation
president Tom Mooney said ECOT is "really being run by Bozo and Clarabell,"
claiming that management company Altair Learning Management had no
background in education or technology. However, Mooney said they were
"shrewd enough to smell a really good opportunity."
A state audit (PDF)
of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow's freshman year of 2000-2001 alleged
that Altair Learning could use a few math lessons.
The audit, which
was released in April, showed that the company overcharged the state by
$1.65 million for teaching hours it could not substantiate, and that
$500,000 worth of computer equipment given to students who left the program
were not recovered.
The auditor's
office said ECOT's net loss of $3.8 million during the school year "causes
substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
ECOT recently
agreed to pay back $1.6 million to Ohio's department of education over the
next three years. ECOT superintendent Jeffrey P. Forster, who saw 30 percent
of his students leave the program during its first year, said that because
of cost cutting, the academy is on solid financial footing.
Forster, who was a
high school principal for 35 years, said the online school helps students
who would otherwise have difficulty in public schools. "We're not getting
the captain of the football team or the prom queen here," he said.
The federation also
cites a recent charter granted directly to Akron "industrialist" David
Brennan's White Hat Management
company instead of to a nonprofit as required by state law.
Mooney said that
when legislators passed the charter school law, they never envisioned cyber
schools and "did not set up appropriate guidelines for oversight."
Motions for summary
judgments in the case, which ask the judge to rule on the validity of the
complaint, are due on May 15.
In neighboring
Pennsylvania, several
pending
lawsuits claim that online charter schools violate the state's
constitution.
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52207,00.html
A Worst-Case MOO
"Students’ Distress with a Web-based Distance Education Course: An Ethnographic
Study of Participants' Experiences"
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp00-01.html
Noriko Hara SILS Manning Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
haran@ils.unc.edu
Rob Kling The Center for Social
Informatics SLIS Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405
kling@indiana.edu
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/kling
(812) 855-9763
Many advocates of
computer-mediated distance education emphasize its positive aspects and
understate the kinds of communicative and technical capabilities and work
required by students and faculty. There are few systematic analytical
studies of students who have experienced new technologies in higher
education. This article presents a qualitative case study of a web-based
distance education course at a major U.S. university. The case data reveal a
topic that is glossed over in much of the distance education literature
written for administrators, instructors and prospective students: students'
periodic distressing experiences (such as frustration, anxiety and
confusion) in a small graduate-level course due to communication breakdowns
and technical difficulties. Our intent is that this study will enhance
understanding of the instructional design issues, instructor and student
preparation, and communication practices that are needed to improve
web-based distance education courses.
Bob Jensen's Comments
Th Hara and King study mentioned above focuses upon student messages, student
evaluations, and instructor evaluations of a single course. The
interactive communications took place using MOO software that is sometimes used
for virtual classroom settings, although the original intent of both MOO and MUD
software was to create a virtual space in text in which students or game users
create their own virtual worlds. You can read more about MUD and MOO
virtual environments at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#M-Terms. In some
universities, MOO software has been used to create virtual classrooms. In
most instances, however, these have given way to multimedia virtual classrooms
rather than entirely text-based virtual classrooms.
MOO classrooms have been used very
successfully. For example, at Texas Tech University, Robert Ricketts has
successfully taught an advanced tax course in a MOO virtual classroom when
students are scattered across the U.S. in internship programs. His course
is not an internship course. It is a tax course that students take while
away from campus on internships. Professor Ricketts is a veteran tax
instructor and taught the MOO course under somewhat ideal conditions. The
students were all familiar with electronic messaging and they all know each
other very well from previous onsite courses that they took together on the
Texas Tech Campus in previous semesters. They also had taken previous
courses from Professor Ricketts in traditional classroom settings.
In contrast to Professor Ricketts'
MOO virtual classroom, the Hara and King study reported above is almost a
worst-case scenario in a MOO virtual classroom. The instructor was a
doctoral student who had never taught the class before, nor had she ever taught
any class in a MOO virtual classroom. Half the class "had only minimal
experience with computers" and had never taken a previous distance education
course. The students had never taken a previous course of any type from
the instructor and did not know each other well. The course materials were
poorly designed and had never been field tested. Students were hopelessly
confused and did not deal well with text messaging (graphics, audio, and video
were apparently never used in the course). This seems utterly strange in
an age where text, graphics, audio, and even video files can be attached to
email messages. It also seems strange that the students apparently did not
pick up the telephone when they were so confused by the networked text
messaging.
One of the most important things to be
learned from the Hara and King study is the tendency for hopelessly confused
students to often give up rather than keep pestering the instructor or each
other until they see the light. Instructors cannot assume that students
are willing to air their confusions. A major reason is a fear of airing
their ignorance. Another reason is impatience with the slowness of text
messaging where everything must be written/read instead of having conversations
with audio or full teleconferencing.
In summary, the Hara and King study is
not so much a criticism of distance education as it is a study of student
behavior in settings where the distance education is poorly designed and
delivered. A similar outcome is reported in "Student Performance In The
Virtual Versus Traditional Classroom," by Neil Terry, James Owens and Anne Macy,
Journal of the Academy of Business Education, Volume 2, Spring 2001 ---
http://www.abe.villanova.edu/tocs01.html. An earlier report on this
topic appears in entitled "Student and Faculty Assessment of the Virtual MBA:
A Case Study," by Neil Terry, James Owens, and Anne Macy, Journal of
Business Education, Volume 1, Fall 2000, 33-38 ---
http://www.abe.villanova.edu/tocf00.html.
One of my students, Joshua
Miller, lists the following concerns:
-
may require
students to have "technological literacy" (I think this a
good thing but some of the sites I visited said otherwise)
-
content may become
subservient to the technology
-
poses new
difficulties for program evaluation and accreditation
-
could alienate
academics
-
may encounter
language barriers/translation problems
-
can be obstructed
by time zones
-
requires forms of
institutional support to be projected to distant
students
-
is complex in
relation to copyright issues
-
often requires
establishment of regional centers
-
can be costly for
students to obtain equipment
"Push for Computers in Classrooms Gathers New Foes," by
Pamela Mendels, The New York Times, December 15, 1999 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/cyber/education/15education.html
Now, a new group of educators, doctors,
psychologists and others is challenging that notion. In a draft statement on
technology literacy, a committee of the group, called the
Alliance for Childhood, says that the American approach to technology in
homes and schools has been flawed, emphasizing ephemeral vocational skills
and the razzle-dazzle of educational software, rather than helping children
think critically about technology and its appropriate use.
Among other things, the committee is urging that
computers have a restricted role, if any role at all, in elementary school
classrooms and in later years be introduced in a way that assures children
understand how computers work, can examine the appropriate place of
technology in their lives and be instilled with the idea of ethical behavior
online.
The hope, said Joan Almon, coordinator of the
group, is to influence policy makers, parents and teachers at a time when
"there is still a window," when computers have not yet become as entrenched
in life as, say, television.
The alliance, which was formed last February, plans
to incorporate as a formal nonprofit organization. Its founding members
include Almon, a long-time teacher and consultant; Jane M. Healey, an
educational psychologist and author of "Failure to Connect," a critique of
computer use in education; Stephen L. Talbott, the editor of a well-regarded
electronic newsletter examining the social implications of technology; and
Bettye Caldwell, a professor of pediatrics and former president of National
Association for the Education of Young People.
The purpose of the group is to fight what its
members see as a "toxic cultural environment" where they say children are
buffeted by stress that is leading to a decline in their well-being and an
increase in health problems like hyperactive disorders and depression. They
say that stress includes academic pressures, lack of interaction with caring
adults, and mass exposure to violence, sex and crass commercialism in
electronic media.
Related Articles
Project Trains Teachers to Use Technology
(September 15, 1999)
Survey Finds Teachers Unprepared for Computer Use
(September 8, 1999)
Focus Shifts to Effectiveness of Education Technology
(July 14, 1999)
Non-Traditional Teachers More Likely to Use the Net
(May 26, 1999
A Message from Peter
Kenyon on November 18, 1999
My own experience
is with a three-semester experiment of a non-majors "survey" course. We met
as a class once at the beginning of the semester and once again at the final
exam. Without presuming that my experience can be generalized to others,
I've made the following observations.
It was MUCH more
work to prepare and execute the course than I ever expected. I covered a
little less material than in the traditional course. Assessment was very
difficult. Student reaction was strong and about equally divided between
those who loved it and those who hated it. DL seems better suited to mature
learners with well-developed learning skills.
In the end, I
concluded their was little for me to like about this mode of instruction. It
takes away the part of my job I like best (classroom interaction) and
substituted mass quantities of gizmo tweaking (GT). Improved tools will
reduce the need for GT, but I don't see how we maintain interesting human
interaction. I use gizmos to support traditional instruction, but I have no
desire to give up the classroom.
As Barry Rice says,
the traditional classroom MAY be a dinosaur in need of extinction. But when
it does, I'll find other work to do because there's little joy for me as a
cyber-prof.
Peter Kenyon
[pbk1@AXE.HUMBOLDT.EDU ]
The most frequent refrain that I hear
from my wife is: "Did you hear what I just said?" I am sorry to say that I often
must ask Erika to repeat both that question and her comments preceding the
question. In fact, my penchant for listening without hearing has become somewhat
of a joke between us. She has threatened to learn about computers just to
communicate with me. Her problem is that she is just too busy to learn about
computers. When she does find the time, however, I'm in for big trouble.
Seriously, however, when I am in the midst of concentrating on one thing, I have
a bit of the same problem with student communications on other issues.
I agree with Peter and Ron to a
point. However, the Sloan Foundation Experiments suggest that faculty/student
and student/student communications increase with asynchronous courses. Students
who rarely take the trouble to visit faculty during office hours will send email
and chat room communications. Students have a penchant for catching us in our
offices at a bad time, and they become embarrassed that it is a bad time. The
trouble is that, being so busy, there is rarely a really good time for us to
really communicate face-to-face. Sometimes students have to wait outside our
offices, and being human, they conclude that they have better things to do with
their time --- such as seeking out a teaching assistant or another student in
the class. I sometimes think my "former" students know be better, via email,
after graduation than while they were my students. Perhaps it is because they
learn to appreciate my work more after they have graduated. But I am certain
there is more to it than that.
I taught in five universities over the
years and encountered a few, surprisingly few, professors who have great
face-to-face encounters with students outside the classroom. There are many
(like me) who seem to do better with electronic communications. Years ago, I
encountered an assistant professor from a prestigious university who reported
that the only way for faculty or students to really make contact (before email
was invented) with one of the superstars on the faculty was through written
memos even though that superstar was located two doors down the hall.
For more on the relation between
communications and pedagogy, see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/slide01.htm. For
more on student evaluations, see the course evaluations at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois. What seems to be more of a
problem with asynchronous courses seems to be faculty burn out that, in large
measure, is caused by increased communications with students. Asynchronous
courses are also more demanding on materials development. Much of what we
expound in lectures comes from long-term memory that is triggered by something
(patterns of association) in the midst of class. Beforehand, the same thoughts
may not have surfaced in our offices that surface in the middle of a class. This
makes it almost impossible to write down complete lectures for asynchronous
courses having no lectures.
Electronic communications, of course,
are not as satisfactory in many respects as face-to-face encounters. However, I
would argue that electronic communications are sometimes "closer." For example,
there are times when I feel a bit intimidated myself in the presence of some
people that I communicate freely with by email. There are people that I hate to
interrupt with a telephone call, but I am rarely embarrassed to send them email
messages. After a face-to-face or telephone visit, there are almost always
things that I belatedly think that I should have said or not said. This seems to
be less of a problem with email, and when it happens I just send out
correction/addendum messages.
My point here is to avoid associating
"closeness" with "face-to-face." We can be virtual strangers face-to-face and
close friends over a network. We may repeat daily greetings with colleagues in
the hallways who we rarely communicate with in depth. I am less close with
colleagues that I "see" in our hallways than with many of you with whom I
correspond regularly. There have been some studies (one was reported in Playboy)
showing that husbands and wives that see each other every day have a
surprisingly small amount of genuine communication except at certain peak
moments such as when they are in a car together on a long trip or awaiting a
meal by candlelight in a slow-service restaurant. Would some us learn more about
our spouses and kids if we communicated anonymously or openly with them via
email and chat rooms? Will our kids open up more to anonymous strangers on the
web than they will face-to-face with us?
But then maybe I am just "listening" to
Peter and Ron without "hearing."
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones
Distinguished Professor of Business Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212
Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Ron [mailto:rrtidd@MTU.EDU]
ent: Friday, November 19, 1999 6:55 AM
To: AECM@VAX.LOYOLA.EDU
ubject: Re: Distance Learning with traditional undergraduate students
Peter made one
comment that I suspect reflects the sentiments of many 20th century
educators- any technology that detracts from our ability to physically
connect with our students is going to diminish our career satisfaction.
While I share this sentiment whole heartedly, I believe that we confront two
inescapable realities in 21st century education.
First, distributed
education (whether distance or proximity) is going to become a more
prominent feature of the academic landscape. Second, students are going to
become increasingly comfortable with online social interaction and
communities.
Given those two
"assumptions," most (if not all) educators must learn how to develop an
appropriate classroom community in cyberspace. To me, that means having a
community that fulfills all participants' needs to connect, while achieving
academic objectives. A difficult challenge when the participants come from
two generations that define connecting and community in such different ways.
I have not had a
chance to read it, yet, but some might find "Building Learning Communities
in Cyberspace," (Palloff and Pratt) to be informative.
Ron Tidd
The
Future and Darker Sides of Distance Education
Alternative Futures for Distance Learning: The Force and the Darkside
Murray Turoff
Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science Department of
Computer and Information Science
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark NJ, 07102, USA email:
murray@vc.njit.edu
homepage: http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff/ Copyright Murray Turoff 1997
Abstract
There are forces at work that are going to reshape the practice of distance
learning and higher education in the United States. Technology only enters
as an opportunity to channel these forces in very different directions. The
channeling process is really that of administrative and management practices
and policies that govern the utilization of educational technology and
methods. While there are desirable futures possible it is becoming evident
that many current practices and related economic forces can result in a
future that is quite analogous to the "darkside" of the force.
The views expressed in this paper are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of any
organization with whom the author may have an affiliation.
Table of Contents
Introduction The Force Commercialization
The Erosion of Tenure
Faculty and Adjunct Compensation and Considerations
Performance Throughput Rates
Budget Paradoxes
Future Alternatives
Accreditation of Distance Learning
Program Support
Evaluation The Nature of Learning
Related Administrative Practices
Warped Views on Distance Education
Faculty Developed Materials
The Organization of Distance Learning
Final Conclusion and Observations
References
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/turoff11.html
http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff
http://eies.njit.edu/~hiltz
The
Sanford Report in the Stanford Report
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for the message below.
My concern with John Sanford's report is that critics of distance education
often have never tried it. Or even if they have tried it, they have never
tried it with the instant message intensity of an Amy Dunbar ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q3.htm#Dunbar
I just do not think the armchair
critics really appreciate how the Dunbar-type instant messaging pedagogy can get
inside the heads of students online.
But I think it is safe to day that the
Sanford-type critics will never have the motivation and enthusiasm to carry off
the Dunbar-type instant messaging pedagogy. For them and many of us
(actually I'm almost certain that I could not pull off what Dr. Dunbar
accomplishes), it is perhaps more "suicidal" for students.
I also think that success of distance
education depends heavily upon subject matter as well as instructor enthusiasm.
But I think there is only a small subset of courses that cannot be carried off
well online by a professor as motivated as Dr. Dunbar.
I am truly grateful that I was able to
persuade Professor Dunbar and distance education expert from Duke
University to present an all-day workshop in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel on
August 13, 2002. If our workshop proposal is accepted by the AAA, this is
an open invitation to attend. Details will soon be available under "CPE"
at
http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/2002annual/meetinginfo.htm
Thanks for helping me stay informed!
Other views on the dark side are summarized at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen
Bob,
Since I know you track information technology WRT education, I thought you
might be interested in this. The original source is the "Stanford Report"
cited below: TP is a listserv that redistributed it.
Kevin
Folks:
The article
below presents an interesting take on the limitations of technology,
teaching, and learning. It is from the Stanford Report, February 11,
2002
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/ . Reprinted with
permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu UP NEXT:
Book Proposal Guidelines
HIGH-TECH
TEACHING COULD BE "SUICIDAL"
BY JOHN SANFORD
University
educators largely extol the wonders of teaching through technology. But
skeptics question whether something is lost when professors and lecturers
rely too heavily on electronic media, or when interaction with students
takes place remotely -- in cyberspace rather than the real space of the
classroom.
Hans Ulrich
Gumbrecht, the Albert Guerard Professor of Literature, is one such skeptic.
"I think this enthusiastic and sometimes naïve and sometimes blind pushing
toward the more technology the better, the more websites the better teacher
and so forth, is very dangerous -- [that it] is, indeed, suicidal,"
Gumbrecht said, speaking at the Jan. 31 installment of the Center for
Teaching and Learning's "Award-WinningTeachers on Teaching" series.
But Gumbrecht
cautioned that there are few, if any, studies either supporting or rejecting
the hypothesis that traditional pedagogy is superior to teaching via the
Internet or with a host of high-tech classroom aids. "If [such studies]
exist, I think we need more of them," he said.
He added that he
could point only to his "intuition that real classroom presence should be
maintained and is very, very important," and emphasized the need for
educators to critically examine where technology serves a useful pedagogical
function and where it doesn't.
However, Gumbrecht
allowed that, for courses in which knowledge transmission is the sole
purpose, electronic media probably can do the job well enough. Indeed, given
the 20th century's knowledge explosion and the increasing costs of higher
education, using technology as opposed to real-life teachers for the
transmission of information is probably inevitable, he said.
In any case,
knowledge transmission should not be the core function of the university, he
added, noting that the Prussian statesman and university founder Wilhelm von
Humboldt, sociologist Max Weber and Cardinal John Henry Newman all held that
universities should be places where people confront "open questions."
"Humboldt even goes
so far to say -- and I full-heartedly agree with him -- they should ideally
be questions without a possible answer," Gumbrecht said. He asserted the
university should be a place for "intellectual complexification" and
"riskful thinking."
"We are not about
finding or transmitting solutions; we are not about recipes; we are not
about making intellectual life easy," he continued. "Confrontation with
complexity is what expands your mind. It is something like intellectual
gymnastics. And this is what makes you a viable member of the society."
Paradoxically,
"virtual" teacher-student interaction that draws out this kind of thinking
probably would be much costlier for the university than real-time, in-class
teaching, Gumbrecht said. The reason for this, he suggested, is that
responding to e-mail from students and monitoring their discussion online
would require more time -- time for which the university would have to pay
the teacher -- than simply meeting with the students as a group once or
twice a week.
In addition,
Gumbrecht asserted that discussions in the physical presence of others can
lead to intellectual innovation. He recalled a Heidegger conference he
attended at Stanford about a year ago, where he said he participated in some
of the best academic discussions of his career. Heidegger himself "tries to
de-emphasize thinking as something we, as subjects, perform," Gumbrecht
said. "He says thinking is having the composure of letting thought fall into
place." Gumbrecht suggested something similar happens during live, in-person
discussions.
"There's a
qualitative change, and you don't quite know how it happens," he said.
"Discussions in the physical presence have the capacity of being the
catalyst for such intellectual breakthroughs. The possibility of
in-classroom teaching -- of letting something happen which cannot happen if
you teach by the transmission of information -- is a strength."
Gumbrecht argued
that the way in which students react to the physical presence of one another
in the classroom, as well as to the physical presence of their professor,
can invigorate in-class discussions. "I know this is problematic territory,
but I think both the positive and negative feelings can set free additional
energy," he said. "I'm not saying the physical presence makes you
intellectually better, but it produces certain energy which is good for
intellectual production."
Asked to comment on
some of the ideas Gumbrecht discussed in his lecture, Decker Walker, a
professor of education who studies technology in teaching and learning,
agreed that pedagogy via electronic media may work best in cases where
information transmission is the goal -- for example, in a calculus course.
In areas such as the humanities and arts, it may be a less valuable tool, he
said.
In any case, the
physical presence of teachers can serve to motivate students, Walker said.
"I think young people are inspired more often by seeing other people who are
older -- or even the same age -- who do remarkable things," he said. "It
would be hard to replace this with a computer."
On the other hand,
Walker maintained that computer technology can be a useful educational aid.
One such benefit is access to scholars who are far away. "Technology can
enable a conversation, albeit an attenuated online one, with distant experts
who bring unique educational benefits, such as an expert on current research
on a fast-moving scientific topic," Walker said. "This may greatly enrich a
live class discussion with a local professor."
Walker maintained
that the university environment is not in danger of being supplanted by
technology. On the contrary, he noted, large businesses have adopted aspects
of the university environment for their employees' professional education.
For example, General Motors started GM University, whose main campus is at
the company's new global headquarters in Detroit's Renaissance Center.
Museums also
function in some ways like universities, he noted. For example, the
Smithsonian Institution has numerous research, museum and zoo education
departments
And for all the
emphasis high-tech companies put on developing devices and software for
remote communication, many have had large campuses constructed where workers
are centralized -- a nod, perhaps, to the importance of person-to-person
interaction.
Rick Reis,
executive director of Stanford's Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing and
associate director of the Learning Lab's Global Learning Partnerships, noted
that the subject of technology in education covers a lot of territory. Few
people, for example, are likely to argue that making students trudge over to
the library's reserve desk to get a piece of reading material for a course,
or making hundreds of hard copies, is preferable to posting it on the web,
Reis said. But he added that whether the kind of teaching generally reserved
for a seminar could be as effective online is an open question.
Distance Education on
the Web David Noble's Articles on Digital Diploma Mills
David Nobles' Concerns for
Students' Privacy
A Long-Standing
Critic of Distance Education, David Noble, Blasts it Once Again
"New Book by Critic of Distance
Education Describes Privacy Threats," by Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle of
Higher Education, January 18, 2002 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002011801u.htm
Distance education
threatens the privacy of students and professors because online class
discussions can be monitored in ways that are impossible in traditional
classrooms, argues David Noble, a history professor at York University, in
Toronto, and a well known critic of technology.
Mr. Noble's latest
critiques of distance education, along with revised versions of earlier
salvos that first circulated online, are collected in a new book, Digital
Diploma Mills (Monthly Review Press).
Mr. Noble says the
privacy of students and professors online is a particularly important issue
in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, because "governments have
vastly enlarged their powers of surveillance, and surveillance of electronic
communication in particular."
Some software
packages for delivering online courses can automatically capture and store
the texts of all online class discussions, or collect detailed information
about what students look at online. That worries Mr. Noble, who says that if
the material is stored and archived, it could be possible for
law-enforcement officials to demand transcripts of class discussions.
"Certainly
administrators and political authorities will be in a position to monitor
any and all such activities as never before, remotely and discreetly,
without permission or acknowledgment," writes Mr. Noble. "And they will have
ready access to extensive electronic records of course content and
communications."
Much of the new
material in Mr. Noble's book focuses on the influence of the U.S. government
-- and particularly the military -- on the continuing evolution of online
distance education. He worries that the program could lead the military to
bring greater standardization to distance education.
In particular, Mr.
Noble focuses on the U.S. military's eArmyU, a $453-million program that
will allow enlisted soldiers to take courses and earn degrees online through
partner colleges.
The project was
announced in 2000, just as some commercial distance-education efforts by
colleges and companies were beginning to falter, says Mr. Noble. He argues
that the demand for online education was not as great as colleges had
anticipated, and he sees the government's project as an effort to bolster
the use of technology in education.
Continued at
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002011801u.htm
Zuleyma Tang-Martinez apparently sides with David Noble
"Higher Education and the Corporate Paradigm: the Students are the Losers,"
by Zuleyma Tang-Martinez ---
http://www.louisville.edu/journal/workplace/tang-martinez.html
0.1. As institutions of higher education throughout
the US and abroad have adopted the corporate model, "efficiency" and profit
have been emphasized, while students have been redefined as "customers",
"consumers," and "clients." In reality, what we are currently witnessing, as
the result of this corporate paradigm, is the destruction of American higher
education. University presidents and administrators take on the roles of
Chief Executive Officers, and business managers have not supported greater
diversity or inclusiveness in academia, whether in terms of faculty or
students. The bottom line has become making money rather than educating
students or fostering an environment conducive to free intellectual inquiry
and development.
0.2. Although faculty often object to the corporate
paradigm, because of what it does to our profession and to us as
individuals, it is important to keep in mind that ultimately it is the
students and their education who suffer the most and have the most to lose.
There are three trends, dictated by the corporate approach, that profoundly
affect the quality of the education our students receive.
For the positive side, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For a summary of assessment issues, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Update Messages on Trends in
Corporate Education
I thank Dan Gode for calling my attention to the following article.
"Two years ago, learning portals popped up across the Internet’s landscape.
Today, many are buried in the dot-com rubble. What happened?" by Kim Kiser,
Online Learning ---
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/new/sept01/cover.htm
By the spring of 2001, learning portals had started
to implode like so many of the dot-coms that came before them. Among the
casualties were Headlight.com, which initially provided learning to small
and medium-sized businesses; Acadio, which targeted professionals;
EduPoint.com, which started out serving consumers, then switched to
corporate clients; TrainSeek.com, which also targeted corporations; and
consumer sites HungryMinds.com (bought by IDG Books, which adopted the name)
and FreeEdu.com, to name a few.
What went wrong? For one thing, consumers weren’t
as starved for knowledge as the founders of these companies had hoped. “The
idea of ‘If you build it, they will come’ hasn’t quite been the case,” says
Dave Egan, one of the founders of Billerica, Mass.-based TrainingNet, now
Thinq. “As individuals, we’re not likely to go to Thinq.com or
HungryMinds.com on a Saturday morning and find learning — especially if we
know full well that we could go back to work on Monday and have that course
paid for by the corporation.” Egan adds that less than one percent of his
company’s revenues came from consumers.
Corporations were wary of the portal model, too.
Michael Lodato, vice president of market development for DigitalThink in San
Francisco, which provided content to several portal companies, remembers
going on sales calls with TrainingNet in the early days. “We would walk in,
and the client would say, ‘TrainingNet, why do you have to be in the
picture? What value do you bring to the table?’ All I could see in the first
iteration of portals were massive libraries with very little advice on what
you should do with them,” he recalls.
And because many portal companies failed to help
buyers make intelligent choices about which courses best met their needs,
they failed to create demand for the content — and brought little revenue to
the organizations supplying it. “If you [as the content vendor] have 300
courses inside a portal with 60,000 choices, how often are you going to
generate revenue in that environment?” Lodato asks.
Companies like DigitalThink also found it took more
work than they expected to offer courses through a portal. “It costs money
to get your stuff over to these people. Then you have to have alliance
managers working with them and accounting people watching over it,” Lodato
says. DigitalThink, which initially signed on with about 50 portal
companies, got “nothing of any significance” from most of the relationships,
he says.
Tom Brown, vice president of sales for the Americas
for NETg, a Naperville, Ill., company that sells IT-related courses, saw
similar results. NETg currently has courses listed on several portals,
including Thinq’s, KnowledgePlanet’s and Click2learn’s. “The revenues we got
out of the portals in 2000 was minimal,” Brown says. “Out of all the portals
combined, it was in the low six figures.”
Investors also soured on the idea, as they watched
Internet companies of all kinds failing to live up to their expectations. By
the spring of 2000, TrainSeek.com and Headlight.com were among the portal
companies looking for additional funding to carry them forward until they
became profitable. “In the summer of 2000, you couldn’t do second-round
financing for a dot-com, even if it was in the training and education
space,” says Lloyd Singer, CEO of LearnCom, a suburban Chicago firm that has
been buying up training video and other content companies. At press time,
LearnCom was trying to purchase TrainSeek’s Web site and customer base.
Not all companies that boasted about their portals
two years ago have fallen on hard times. Some have lived through the
shakeout — and now downplay the fact that they were ever associated with the
portal model.
For the most part, those that survived — and, in
some cases, thrived — did so by changing their business models or
distinguishing themselves early on. TrainingNet (now Thinq) emerged as an
early leader after aggressively pursuing relationships with content
providers and assembling what may be the largest online listing of courses,
books, audio tapes and videotapes. (Today, their catalog, which isn’t easy
for the casual Web site visitor to find, has upward of 500,000 products,
including more than 4,000 online courses.)
In addition to selling courses to individuals and
building learning portals for other corporations, Thinq acquired a learning
management system and businesses that specialized in marketing, technology
and consulting in the United States and United Kingdom. “The whole idea of
marrying content, management structure, technology and services seems to be
the magic elixir corporate clients are looking for,” says Egan.
Investors seem to agree. This spring, Thinq
received $20 million in fourth-round financing from CIBC Capital Partners
and Mellon Ventures, bringing the two-year-old company’s total financing to
$66 million.
Click2learn, which dropped the dot-com from its
name and no longer has a link to its course catalog on its Web site, also
differentiated itself in several ways. Before launching its portal, the
company was well-known for its course authoring software. It also had a
learning management system — a feature few portal companies could offer in
1999. Says consultant Hall: “They were one of the first to have a portal,
but their other businesses were able to sustain that model.”
Kevin Oakes, president and CEO of the Bellevue,
Wash., company, admits that corporate customers haven’t bought large volumes
of off-the-shelf courses from the portal the way he originally hoped.
However, he explains, one reason Click2learn, which works with some 50
content companies and has nearly 10,000 offerings in its catalog, has had
some success with its portal business was because they could create both
hosted and behind-the-firewall learning sites for corporations.
“The difference between our model vs. Headlight or
TrainSeek is that our whole business wasn’t built on the ASP (application
service provider) content aggregation model,” he explains.
Learn2.com is another company that’s hanging on
after changing its name and business model several times. Originally known
as 7th Level, the company first targeted consumers, then corporations,
government agencies and small businesses with everything from courses on
Access 2000 to free tutorials on how to hang wallpaper. They also sell
courses on CD-ROM and video through retailers such as CompUSA.
Learn2.com, whose stock was dropped from the NASDAQ
in early August because of its low price, recently signed a merger agreement
with E-Stamp Corp., a dot-com that has foundered in its attempts to sell
postage online and later supply chain management software. If approved by
shareholders later this year, the merger will give Learn2.com an infusion of
cash to repay its debt and, its owners hope, stimulate growth. But analysts
aren’t optimistic about the company’s future. “The cash will take them
through a few more quarters,” says Weggen. “But they have too many lines of
business and are in too many markets.”
Weggen and others believe the tectonic movements
that caused the shake-up in the portal market haven’t ended, and that the
lessons from last century’s learning portals will become the bedrock for
learning systems of the future.
“Bringing together courses from multiple publishers
is only part of the game in terms of what it takes to serve the corporate
market,” says Scott Mellen, co-founder of the defunct Headlight.com. “That’s
only part of the challenge training managers deal with when confronted with
trying to provide skills for their employees. They want the whole suite of
functionality that’s important to business. And I think a lot of things that
happened with learning portals are helping build this ultimate thing.”
For the rest of the article, go to
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/new/sept01/cover.htm
I have an old and sadly neglected Web page (that in some ways
has become history of the early pioneers in bringing technology into accounting
education) that contains messages from various professors, some who burned out
and/or became overwhelmed by early efforts to bring technology into education
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm
Growing Up is More
Anxiety-Provoking/Stressful
What is happening to the quality of
our students?
A recent
meta-analysis of multiple studies which revealed that schoolchildren in the
1980s (i.e. our recent and current students) reported more anxiety than
child psychiatric patients did in the 1950s. Thus, our students may find
life to be far more anxiety-provoking/stressful than we did as
undergraduates.
Adding to this
finding is the one described below that indicates stress impairs the ability
to remember and learn. Taken together, these studies suggest that
significantly higher levels of anxiety/stress among the current generation
of college students may help to account for the “decline” in the quality of
academic performance that we lament. Perhaps most of our students are doing
the best they can given their life experience just as we did the best we
could given our life experience.
Richard Reams,
Ph.D.
Staff Psychologist Counseling & Career Services
Trinity University 715 Stadium Drive #78 San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
How to Sign Up for a MOOC
Most MOOC, EdX, MITx, and Harvardx courses sign ups are only available on
designated schedules. The best approach is to go to an elite university
Website and look for links to free online courses.
There are many more alternatives linked at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"What Are MOOCs Good For? Online courses may not be changing colleges as
their boosters claimed they would, but they can prove valuable in surprising
ways," by Justin Pope, MIT's Technology Review, December 15, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/533406/what-are-moocs-good-for/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141215
A few years ago, the most
enthusiastic advocates of MOOCs believed that these “massive open online
courses” stood poised to overturn the century-old model of higher
education. Their interactive technology promised to deliver top-tier
teaching from institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, not just to
a few hundred students in a lecture hall on ivy-draped campuses, but
free via the Internet to thousands or even millions around the world. At
long last, there appeared to be a solution to the problem of “scaling
up” higher education: if it were delivered more efficiently, the
relentless cost increases might finally be rolled back. Some wondered
whether MOOCs would merely transform the existing system or blow it up
entirely. Computer scientist Sebastian Thrun, cofounder of the MOOC
provider Udacity,
predicted that in
50 years, 10 institutions would be responsible for delivering higher
education.
Then came the backlash. A high-profile
experiment to use MOOCs at San Jose State University foundered. Faculty
there and at other institutions rushing to incorporate MOOCs began
pushing back, rejecting the notion that online courses could replace the
nuanced work of professors in classrooms. The tiny completion rates for
most MOOCs drew increasing attention. Thrun himself became
disillusioned, and he lowered Udacity’s ambitions from educating the
masses to providing corporate training.
But all the while, a great age of
experimentation has been developing. Although some on-campus trials have
gone nowhere, others have shown
modest success (including a later iteration
at San Jose State). In 2013, Georgia Tech
announced a first-of-its-kind
all-MOOC master’s program in computer science
that, at $6,600, would cost just a fraction as much as its on-campus
counterpart. About 1,400 students have enrolled. It’s not clear how well
such programs can be replicated in other fields, or whether the job
market will reward graduates with this particular Georgia Tech degree.
But the program offers evidence that MOOCs can expand access and reduce
costs in some corners of higher education.
Meanwhile, options for online courses continue
to multiply, especially for curious people who aren’t necessarily
seeking a credential. For-profit Coursera and edX, the nonprofit
consortium led by Harvard and MIT, are up to nearly 13 million users and
more than 1,200 courses between them.
Khan Academy, which began as a series of
YouTube videos, is making online instruction a more widely used tool in
classrooms around the world.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
I always hate to see the Khan Academy, YouTube Channels, MOOCs, and Distance
Education for fees and credits mingled together in the same article. MOOCs
are usually filmed versions of live courses at prestigious universities.
They are free by definition, although fees might be charged by third parties
for taking competency examinations for credits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"The MOOC Where Everybody Learned:
And they learned just as much as MIT students who had taken a similar course
on the campus, according to a new study." by Steve Kolowich,
Chronicle of Higher Education, September 16, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/the-mooc-where-everybody-learned/54571?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
EdX ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdX
"6 Big Takeaways From the EdX Global Forum," by Joshua Kim, Inside
Higher Ed, November 23, 2014 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/6-big-takeaways-edx-global-forum
Distance education courses are usually fee-based online courses for
credit. In many instances at major universities some sections of courses are
taught live on campus and others are taught live online ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Khan Academy and YouTube Channels offer free tutorials. Learners can
cherry pick topics and watch basic and advanced learning videos that vary in
length form a few minutes to longer but usually much less than an hour for
each module. These were never intended to be anything more than
self-learning alternatives for highly motivated students. Some leading
universities like the University of Wisconsin now over limited choices for
taking competency examinations for college credit, but the distance between
a few learning videos and college credit is a very long distance indeed.
More than 100
colleges have set up channels on YouTube ---
http://www.youtube.com/edu
Many universities offer over 100 videos, whereas Stanford offers a whopping
583
Search for words like “accounting”
"The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses (MOOCs) For
Professionals," by Maggie Zhang, Business Insider, July 8, 2014
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7
12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health's "Data
Analysis"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7#ixzz37LiJgQ57
For Members of the American Accounting Association
One of the best sessions at the AAA's 2014 Annual Meetings was the the
session
7.02 The Impact of MOOCs and Online Courses on Accounting...
A video of this entire session is now available to AAA members ---
http://commons.aaahq.org/posts/4a2206f6ab
There were three panelists including a leading technical speaker from EdX
and a professor who teaches accounting in Wharton's MOOCs of virtually all
of its MBA core courses (for free to the world).
The speakers are outstanding, but the videos do not show the PowerPoint
screens. This is a bit frustrating, but the speakers generally described
what was on each PowerPoint slide.
AAA members who did not attend the above session really missed what was
one of the best technical sessions at the 2014 Annual Meetings.
Other videos of sessions are linked at
http://commons.aaahq.org/hives/8d320fc4aa/summary
I also highly recommend watching the video of Jimmy Wales' Plenary Session.
Jimmy is the founder and CEO of Wikipedia. Wikipedia for most of us is the
most important site in the world for instant learning from an unbelievable
number of crowd-sourced encyclopedia modules. When I say unbelievable I mean
an UNBELIEVABLE number of topics covered in over 200 languages. Nearly five
million of these topics are in English. Jimmy reported that Wikipedia has
over 500 million visitors per month. The population of the USA is only about
300 million people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
Wikipedia (i//
or
i//
WIK-i-PEE-dee-ə)
is a
free-access,
free content
Internet encyclopedia, supported and hosted by the non-profit
Wikimedia Foundation. Anyone who can access the site[6]
can edit almost any of its articles. Wikipedia is the sixth-most popular
website[5]
and constitutes the
Internet's largest and most popular general
reference work.[7][8][9]
Jimmy Wales and
Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia on January 15, 2001. Sanger[10]
coined
its name,[11]
a
portmanteau of wiki (from the
Hawaiian
word for "quick")[12]
and
encyclopedia. Although Wikipedia's content was
initially only in English, it quickly became
multilingual, through the launch of versions in different languages.
All versions of Wikipedia are similar, but important differences exist
in content and in editing practices. The
English Wikipedia is now one of more than 200 Wikipedias, but
remains the largest one, with
over 4.6 million articles. As of February 2014, it had 18 billion
page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month.[13]
Wikipedia has more than 22 million accounts, out of which there were
over 73,000 active editors globally as of May 2014.[2]
Studies tend to show that Wikipedia's accuracy is similar to
Encyclopedia Britannica, with Wikipedia being much larger. However,
critics have worried that
Wikipedia exhibits systemic bias, and that its
group dynamics hinder its goals. Most
academics,
historians,
teachers
and
journalists reject Wikipedia as a reliable source of information for
being a mixture of truths, half truths, and some falsehoods,[14]
and that as a resource about controversial topics, Wikipedia is
notoriously subject to manipulation and spin.[15]
Wikipedia's
Consensus and
Undue Weight policies have been repeatedly criticised by prominent
scholarly sources for undermining
freedom of thought and leading to false beliefs based on incomplete
information.[16][17][18][19]
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
One of the great sources for accuracy arises when professors assign graduate
students to correct and otherwise improve Wikipedia modules. One of the most
important uses of Wikipedia is for people seeking to learn about medical
ailments, treatments, and medications. Among the
great happenings in Wikipedia is the truly active role medical schools play
in perfecting these medical modules since errors and misleading statements
in those modules can be particularly damaging to hundreds of millions of
users of those modules.
Of course, users of any encyclopedia or most any other academic source
must always remain skeptical. The hired editors must spend an undue amount
of time on controversial topics, particularly political topics. These
editors often warn people to be skeptical when encountering particular
modules. These editors also resist allowing the public to delete criticisms
that in the eyes of editors are justified. Virtually all of the 73,000+
editors do not want Wikipedia to become too much of a public relations
database. I applaud them for their dedication and hard work.
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and open
sharing learning materials in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's links to the library links of the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
"10
Top Education Companies of 2013," Center for Digital Education, February 14,
2013 ---
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/10-Education-Companies-2013.html
From the Scout Report on March 22, 2013
Massive open online courses move ahead amid
support and controversy
Colleges Assess Cost of Free Online-Only Courses
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/education/colleges-assess-cost-of-free-online-only-courses.html?ref=technology&_r=0
The Professors Who Make the MOOCs
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/#id=overview
Google Will Fund Cornell MOOC
http://www.cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2013/03/05/google-will-fund-cornell-mooc
California’s Move Toward MOOCs Sends Shock Waves, but Key Questions
Remain Unanswered
http://chronicle.com/article/California-Considers-a-Bold/137903/
UW-Madison to offer free public online courses starting in fall
http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/uwmadison-to-offer-free-public-online-courses-starting-in-fall-198rsr2-192186161.html
Who Owns a MOOC?
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/19/u-california-faculty-union-says-moocs-undermine-professors-intellectual-property
"The Idea Makers: Tech Innovators for 2013," Chronicle of
Higher Education, April 29, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Idea-Makers-Tech/138823/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetoo
Department of Education in March 2014: 17,374 online higher
education distance education and training programs altogether
Jensen Comment
Note that the hundreds of free MOOC courses from prestigious universities are
not the same as fee-based distance education degree and certificate programs
that are more like on-campus programs in terms in student-instructor
interactions, graded assignments, and examinations. Some campuses like the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee even treat online programs as cash cows
where the tuition is higher for online programs than identical on-campus
programs.
The (Department of Education Report in
March 2014) report says that American colleges now
offer 17,374 online programs altogether, 29 percent of which are master’s-degree
programs, with bachelor’s and certificate programs making up 23 percent each.
Business and management programs are the most popular, at 29 percent of the
total, followed by health and medicine programs (16 percent), education programs
(14 percent), and information technology and computers (10 percent) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/quickwire-there-may-be-fewer-online-programs-than-you-think/51163?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large
online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
US News: 2015 Best Colleges and
Universities ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
Frequently Asked Questions about US News Rankings ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
. . .
19. How does
U.S. News handle for-profits in the rankings?
All regionally accredited for-profit institutions are included in U.S.
News' data collection efforts. Among them are many schools that have large online
bachelor's degree programs.
Any for-profit college or university that grants
bachelor's degrees, is regionally accredited and meets the specific U.S.
News ranking criteria to be included in the Best Colleges rankings can be
ranked. However, as a result of the U.S. News eligibility standards, almost
all of the for-profit institutions have been grouped with the unranked
schools.
Why? Their bachelor's degree candidates are largely nontraditional
students in degree completion programs, for example, or they don't use SAT
or ACT test scores in admissions decisions – both of which are factors U.S.
News uses to decide if a school is eligible to be ranked.
20. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to
the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still
included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to
be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but refused to fill
out the U.S. News statistical survey in the spring and summer of 2015, we
have made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were
required to report to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores,
acceptance rates, number of faculty, and graduation and retention rates. We
also use data from other sources, such as the Council for Aid to Education
(for alumni giving rates) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(for graduation rates).
How to Use the Rankings
1. What is the best way for students and their parents to use the
rankings?
Students can use the rankings to create an initial list of schools to
consider, to narrow down that list and to compare overall academic quality.
Students can also use the data underlying the rankings to identify schools
with specific characteristics that they value.
However, the editors of U.S. News believe rankings are only one of many
criteria students should consider in choosing a college. Simply because a
school is top in its category does not mean it is the top choice for
everyone. The rankings should not be used as the sole basis to choose one
school over another.
A prospective student's academic and professional ambitions, personal
preferences, financial resources and scholastic record, as well as a
school's size, cost, programs, atmosphere and location, should play major
roles in determining a college choice.
Moreover, it is crucial to remember that schools separated by only a few
places in the rankings are extremely close in academic quality.
[Get more information on
how to use the rankings.]
2. How can I find the rank
of a particular school?
U.S. News publishes the rankings in two places: in a college guidebook,
"Best Colleges 2016,'' and on this website, which also offers the
U.S. News College Compass – home to the most
complete rankings and data. The guidebook is available for purchase at
newsstands, by calling 1-800-836-6397 or by visiting the
U.S. News store. For discounts on bulk orders of
50 or more copies, please contact
booksales@usnews.com.
Continued at
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq
US News: 2015 Best
Online Bachelor's Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
- Penn State University World Campus
- Daytona State College
- University of Illinois Chicago
- Western Kentucky University
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University—Worldwide
- Oregon State University
- Colorado State University Global Campus
- Arizona State University
- Ohio State University --- Columbus
- Pace University
- Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings?int=a2bb09&int=a56509
US News: 2015 Best
Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
1. University of
Houston
2 .Florida State University
3. Northern Illinois University
4. Penn State University World Campus
5. Central Michigan University
Graceland University
University of Nebraska --- Lincoln
8. Auburn University
Ball State University
George Washington University
11. Creighton Unversity
Emporia State University
Michigan State University
Others ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
US
News: 2015 Best Online MBA Programs
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba
1. Indiana University
(Kelly)
Temple (Fox)
University of North Carolina ---
Chapel Hill
4. Arizona State University (Carey)
University of Florida (Hough)
6 . University of Texas --- Dallas
7. Carnegie-Mellon University (Tepper)
Penn State University World
Campus
9. North Carolina State University (Jenkins)
10. Auburn University
US News: 2015
Online Higher Education Search Engine ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
"Students Avoid ‘Difficult’ Online
Courses, Study Finds," by Ann Schnoebelen, Chronicle of Higher Education,
April 26, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-avoid-difficult-online-courses-study-finds/43603?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Students just don't understand that when done correctly online courses can have
more rather than less interactions with the instructor and other students who
can help them. Of course, not all distance education courses are "done
correctly/" MOOC classes tend to be so huge that interactions are
minimized. MOOCs, however, often have some of the best lecturers in the world
and are sought after because they are free. MOOCs sometimes take advantage of
technology like screen cast videos that can be repeated over and over until
mastered. This is also the idea behind Khan Academy videos.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives around the world
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
How to Lower the Costs of College Degrees
(often at $0 tuition)
Chamber of Commerce Guide to Scholarships From Various Sources ---
https://www.chamberofcommerce.org/best-college-scholarships
Scholarships ---
https://www.mometrix.com/blog/scholarships-for-college/
Free Book: Learning to Learn Online ---:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/learningtolearnonline/
Important Scholarships in Higher Education ---
https://www.mometrix.com/blog/scholarships-for-college/
Jensen Comment
Although these are not all of the "top" scholarships, these are very important
scholarships for students to consider. I consider the top scholarships to
include the full-ride scholarships offered by virtually all universities such as
the Ivy League schools' full-ride scholarships for low income students that
cover tuition, room, board, and other incidentals. A small wave of scholarships
is commencing to form for free medical school education at NYU and Cornell.
There's also a difference between learning versus transcript credits and
badges/certifications. Thousands of MOOC courses provide free learning to
anybody from the most prestigious universities in the world. However, earning
transcript or certification credit requires some form of verification of what
students learn, and verification requires fees in most instances. But the
learning itself is free ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
There's also a rising wave of employer-funded college degrees ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#EmployerSubsidized
"How to Flatten the Cost Curve of College," by Alana Dunagan,
Chronicle of Higher Education, July 2, 2017 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Flatten-the-Cost-Curve/240486?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=ea9036e73cc942279f01b5fa4afc959a&elq=a246d4fdfd274984b5e2ea434f5675cd&elqaid=14715&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6221
Political pressure
is building to lower the cost of college, as seen in efforts in many states
to make college tuition-free. But the expenses involved in running a college
aren’t going anywhere but up, according to
data
from the National Center for Educational Statistics. Big tuition increases
are getting tougher to sell — and they are translating to smaller increases
in revenue, because of rising tuition-discount rates. The business model of
higher education is being stretched thin, and administrators are scrambling
to find pennies to pinch in order to balance budgets for another fiscal
year.
But some leaders
are taking a bolder path. Five institutions profiled in "Colleges
Transformed," my
recent paper
for the Clayton Christensen Institute, are searching for new business models
that can help them serve more students, improve work-force outcomes, and
strengthen their own fiscal sustainability.
While these institutions are diverse — small and large; public and private;
some in financial straits, others hoping to broaden their missions — all of
them are willing to look beyond incremental solutions and rethink the role
of higher education.
Each of the programs brought new students, and new types of students, into
the institution. Some of those arrivals were adult learners looking to start
or finish bachelor’s degrees. Others were looking to retrain for new
careers. Regardless, the programs allowed colleges to reach untapped pools
of students with the goal of raising their bottom line.
Simmons College, a Boston-based institution with a traditionally regional
draw, has attracted students from across the country and even globally to
its online graduate nursing, social-work, and management programs. Simmons
has seen revenues from its online programs rise to almost 40 percent of the
total, from nothing three years ago. Other programs, like
Northeastern University’s
Level
boot camp for data analytics, haven’t yet increased total institutional
revenues but represent a move into a new and fast-growing market aimed at
defining success through student outcomes in the work force — a model that
could eventually compete with traditional degrees.
Arizona State University’s
president, Michael M. Crow, has pressured the institution to redefine itself
by whom it accepts, not whom it excludes. That thinking, which cuts against
the prestige-oriented grain of higher education, inspired the
Global Freshman Academy
and other efforts there to build a more inclusive culture and pedagogy.
The
academy is a set of online courses, free and open to anyone. What sets them
apart from MOOCs, or massive open online courses, is that students who
complete them can pay to convert them into Arizona State credits, thus
completing their freshman year. That removes some of the risk of attempting
a college degree, given that many students do not complete their first year.
In
all cases, institutional leadership was crucial to inspiring and creating
these new pathways to innovation. Northeastern University’s president,
Joseph E. Aoun, has said, "It’s time to stop thinking of higher education as
an experience people take part in once during their young lives … and begin
thinking of it as a platform for lifelong learning." Under his leadership,
Northeastern has built a team assigned to future-proof the university.
For
many institutions, challenging the status quo has been driven by necessity:
an understanding that the current system of higher education can’t tweak its
way into financial sustainability, or into meeting the work-force needs of
the 21st century. That was the case for the
University of Wisconsin,
which realized that as the state diversifies out of a
manufacturing-intensive economy, the need for retraining exceeds the
system’s capacity. In response, the university developed an online
competency-based program called
UW Flex,
designed especially to meet the needs of adult learners.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Via MOOCs learning is free from thousands of courses in the most prestigious
universities in the world. However, transcript credits entail meeting academic
standards and paying for credit via some of the alternatives listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Learning is also free online when funded by some employers like Wal-Mart and
Starbucks. Starbucks even pays for Arizona State University degrees for its
part-time employees ---
https://www.starbucks.com/careers/college-plan
Probably most students pressed for funds in the USA attend classes at local
community colleges that are now free in some states and very low cost in other
states. Quality varies greatly in those colleges, but this is a good way to
conserve funding for advanced studies in higher larger state universities.
Most prestigious universities (e.g., the Ivy League, Stanford, Rice, Chicago,
etc.) are now offering free tuition or nearly free tuition to admitted students
from families earning less than $50,000 per year. The trick is to be admitted
among pools of highly-competitive applicants.
New York State is now offering free four-year degrees from state
universities, but there are some negatives such as having to pay the funding
back for students who leave the state after graduation.
Other tuition-free college alternatives ---
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/16/pf/college/states-tuition-free-college/index.html
Harvard: The Death of Supply Chain Management ---
https://hbr.org/2018/06/the-death-of-supply-chain-management?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_campaign=weeklyhotlist_not_activesubs&referral=00202&deliveryName=DM7738
Jensen Comment
Darn --- just when Walmart commenced to pay for college majors in this
discipline
Walmart’s too-good-to-be-true “$1 a day” college tuition
plan, explained ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/1/17413326/walmart-college-tuition-worker-pay-unemployment
If headlines this week
like
“Walmart’s perk for workers: Go to college for $1 a
day” (CNN) or
“Walmart to offer employees a college education for
$1 a day” (Washington Post) sound too good to be true, that’s
because they largely are. The benefit is real, but it is much more
restrictive than those headlines suggest. It’s essentially a bulk purchasing
discount for a narrow range of online college courses.
It’s also a telling
benefit on a number of levels. The labor market is getting stronger, and
employers are needing to think harder about how to invest in recruiting and
retaining employees. But the old-fashioned strategy of paying more continues
to be something corporate America resists, in part out of habit and in part
because offering higher wages is a little more complicated than it looks.
Companies like Walmart are, in essence, trying to get creative with their
compensation packages in hopes of narrowly targeting the money they expend
on the core goal of recruiting and retaining desirable workers.
The question is whether
policymakers will keep unemployment low long enough to break through the
wall of resistance to across-the-board pay hikes and force big companies to
finally just raise pay.
Walmart’s actual tuition
plan, explained
The Walmart program is
limited to online degree programs offered by three schools — the
University of Florida,
Brandman University, and
Bellevue University — and specifically
focused on bachelor’s or associate degrees in either
business or supply chain management.
You won’t, in other
words, be able to do part-time shifts at Walmart to “pay your way through
college” in the traditional sense.
But
qualifying Walmart employees (including both full-time and part-time workers
who’ve been with the company for 90 days) will get discounted tuition,
books, and access to a coach who will help them decide on an appropriate
program and shepherd them through the application process
It’s a nice opportunity
for Walmart employees to gain a chance at upward mobility off the retail
floor, and that’s likely the point. Unlike higher cash wages (which of
course can be used for online college tuition as well as rent, gasoline,
movie tickets, medical expenses, etc.), the tuition benefit is likely to be
disproportionately appealing to people who are on the more ambitious end of
the distribution. It’s an effort, in other words, to make Walmart more
attractive specifically to the most appealing set of potential workers, a
strategy other companies have pursued in recent years.
Many large employers are
trying tuition benefits
Modest tuition programs
have long been a staple of large employer benefits packages largely because
of favorable tax treatment. The IRS allows employers to give employees
several thousand dollars’ worth of tuition benefits tax-free, which makes
establishing a program something of a no-brainer for most companies big
enough to be employing a large back-office staff anyway.
But four years ago,
Starbucks blazed the trail of offering a much more
ambitious reimbursement program that essentially offered taxable
tuition subsidies rather than taxable wage increases.
The reason: Academic
research shows that workers who are interested in tuition subsidies are
different from workers who are not. While everyone likes money,
Peter Cappelli’s 2002 research indicates that the
workers who like tuition subsidies are more productive than those
who don’t, and
Colleen Manchester’s 2012 research shows that
subsidy-using employees have longer time horizons and are less
likely to switch jobs.
In March of this year, a
consortium of
big US hotels launched a generous tuition discount
program, and later that month,
McDonald’s substantially enhanced its tuition
benefits. Kroger — another top five US employer —
rolled out a new tuition program in April,
and
Chick-fil-A expanded its program in May.
These initiatives differ
in detail, but the broad story is the same. The unemployment rate is now
low, so recruiting new staff is getting harder. Companies are looking to
enhance their compensation but would like to do so in targeted ways.
Continued in article
Employer-Subsidized and/or Inexpensive Online
MOOC Degrees
You May Not Even Have to be a Full-Time Employee: Here are 15
major companies that will help you pay for college ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-pay-tuition-2018-9
Chipottle
UPS
Wells Fargo
Smuckers
Starbucks
Walmart and Sam's Club
Verizon
Bank of America
Fidelity Investments
Comcast
Disney
Best Buy
AT&T
Oracle
British Petroleum
There are many others --- See below
Chamber of Commerce Guide to Scholarships From Various Sources ---
https://www.chamberofcommerce.org/best-college-scholarships
Scholarships ---
https://www.mometrix.com/blog/scholarships-for-college/
Free Book: Learning to Learn Online ---:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/learningtolearnonline/
Important Scholarships in Higher Education ---
https://www.mometrix.com/blog/scholarships-for-college/
Jensen Comment
Although these are not all of the "top" scholarships, these are very important
scholarships for students to consider. I consider the top scholarships to
include the full-ride scholarships offered by virtually all universities such as
the Ivy League schools' full-ride scholarships for low income students that
cover tuition, room, board, and other incidentals. A small wave of scholarships
is commencing to form for free medical school education at NYU and Cornell.
There's also a difference between learning versus transcript credits and
badges/certifications. Thousands of MOOC courses provide free learning to
anybody from the most prestigious universities in the world. However, earning
transcript or certification credit requires some form of verification of what
students learn, and verification requires fees in most instances. But the
learning itself is free ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
There's also a rising wave of employer-funded college degrees ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#EmployerSubsidized
It's also becoming increasingly common for companies to help employees repay
student loans.
Following Starbucks' lead, JetBlue employees will now get free college
education in the online Arizona State University program
"JetBlue Will Pay Employees’ College Tuition Upfront," by Corinne Ruff,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 18, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/JetBlue-Will-Pay-Employees-/236144?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=2c1186cfd9b341cb9c63ee9ed19e27b4&elq=ff4810688471400f82f0d34fb98b721c&elqaid=8697&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2932
The program is the latest
company-and-college partnership
that takes cues from the Starbucks College Achievement Plan —
a program,
created in 2014, that allows employees of the coffee-shop chain to take
online classes at Arizona State University while continuing to work at the
company.
But
there’s a key difference between the JetBlue program and many other
partnerships in the Starbucks-Arizona State model.
Most of the programs either reimburse tuition costs or offer discounts,
requiring employees to foot at least some of the bill for their courses. But
JetBlue employees won’t pay anything upfront: The company will cover the
full cost of an associate degree.
To
earn a bachelor’s degree, however, students would have to cover the $3,500
capstone course at Thomas Edison State, either out of pocket or through a
scholarship.
In
August the company started a pilot version of the program with 200 employees
with at least two years’ seniority and with at least 16 credits from an
accredited college or university already in hand.
Bonny W. Simi, president of the subsidiary JetBlue Technology Ventures, says
that employees had long asked for tuition reimbursement, but that the
company wanted to go a step further and foot the whole bill.
‘Success Coaches’ Are Assigned
As interest grows
in the
unbundling of higher education
— the use of just
the learning material from the college experience — Ms. Simi says the
JetBlue program was made possible by the flexibility and affordability of
competency-based education.
"We’ve mapped out degrees so that it’s basically higher ed but stripped away
are the cafeterias, the football team, the big campuses, the dorm, and
everything," says Ms. Simi, who oversees the program. "It’s just the class."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
There are other free or highly subsidized college programs paid for by employers
such as the huge Wal-Mart program with American Public University, but the
Starbucks and JetBlue programs have the most prestigious diplomas in my opinion.
"News Analysis: Is 'Wal-Mart U.' a Good Bargain for Students?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 13, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Wal-Mart-U-a-Good/65933/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Following Starbucks employee education benefits with Arizona State
University,
Anthem Blue Cross offers education benefits with the University of Southern New
Hampshire
Walmart’s too-good-to-be-true “$1 a day” college tuition
plan, explained ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/1/17413326/walmart-college-tuition-worker-pay-unemployment
If headlines this week
like
“Walmart’s perk for workers: Go to college for $1 a
day” (CNN) or
“Walmart to offer employees a college education for
$1 a day” (Washington Post) sound too good to be true, that’s
because they largely are. The benefit is real, but it is much more
restrictive than those headlines suggest. It’s essentially a bulk purchasing
discount for a narrow range of online college courses.
It’s also a telling
benefit on a number of levels. The labor market is getting stronger, and
employers are needing to think harder about how to invest in recruiting and
retaining employees. But the old-fashioned strategy of paying more continues
to be something corporate America resists, in part out of habit and in part
because offering higher wages is a little more complicated than it looks.
Companies like Walmart are, in essence, trying to get creative with their
compensation packages in hopes of narrowly targeting the money they expend
on the core goal of recruiting and retaining desirable workers.
The question is whether
policymakers will keep unemployment low long enough to break through the
wall of resistance to across-the-board pay hikes and force big companies to
finally just raise pay.
Walmart’s actual tuition
plan, explained
The Walmart program is
limited to online degree programs offered by three schools — the
University of Florida,
Brandman University, and
Bellevue University — and specifically
focused on bachelor’s or associate degrees in either
business or supply chain management.
You won’t, in other
words, be able to do part-time shifts at Walmart to “pay your way through
college” in the traditional sense.
But
qualifying Walmart employees (including both full-time and part-time workers
who’ve been with the company for 90 days) will get discounted tuition,
books, and access to a coach who will help them decide on an appropriate
program and shepherd them through the application process
It’s a nice opportunity
for Walmart employees to gain a chance at upward mobility off the retail
floor, and that’s likely the point. Unlike higher cash wages (which of
course can be used for online college tuition as well as rent, gasoline,
movie tickets, medical expenses, etc.), the tuition benefit is likely to be
disproportionately appealing to people who are on the more ambitious end of
the distribution. It’s an effort, in other words, to make Walmart more
attractive specifically to the most appealing set of potential workers, a
strategy other companies have pursued in recent years.
Many large employers are
trying tuition benefits
Modest tuition programs
have long been a staple of large employer benefits packages largely because
of favorable tax treatment. The IRS allows employers to give employees
several thousand dollars’ worth of tuition benefits tax-free, which makes
establishing a program something of a no-brainer for most companies big
enough to be employing a large back-office staff anyway.
But four years ago,
Starbucks blazed the trail of offering a much more
ambitious reimbursement program that essentially offered taxable
tuition subsidies rather than taxable wage increases.
The reason: Academic
research shows that workers who are interested in tuition subsidies are
different from workers who are not. While everyone likes money,
Peter Cappelli’s 2002 research indicates that the
workers who like tuition subsidies are more productive than those
who don’t, and
Colleen Manchester’s 2012 research shows that
subsidy-using employees have longer time horizons and are less
likely to switch jobs.
In March of this year, a
consortium of
big US hotels launched a generous tuition discount
program, and later that month,
McDonald’s substantially enhanced its tuition
benefits. Kroger — another top five US employer —
rolled out a new tuition program in April,
and
Chick-fil-A expanded its program in May.
These initiatives differ
in detail, but the broad story is the same. The unemployment rate is now
low, so recruiting new staff is getting harder. Companies are looking to
enhance their compensation but would like to do so in targeted ways.
Continued in article
"Fiat Chrysler Offers Degrees to Employee Families
(including families of dealer employees) ," Inside Higher Ed,
November 23, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/11/23/fiat-chrysler-offers-degrees-employee-families?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b3c3eb755f-DNU20151123&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b3c3eb755f-197565045
"An Increasingly Popular Job Perk: Online Education,"
by Mary Ellen McIntire, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/an-increasingly-popular-job-perk-online-education/56771?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance
education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Of course there are thousands of free online education
and training courses available from prestigious universities such as Stanford,
MIT, and top Ivy League universities. But transcript credits are not free for
students who want credits for MOOCs on their transcripts. Of course prices are
much lower than onsite attendance credits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Added Jensen Comment
What I think is the most interesting trend in what might be termed
competency-based courses and degrees is the lowering of the bar on admissions
standards. Virtually anybody can take these newer online cheaper and/or
subsidized courses with grades awarded on the basis of competency examinations
while taking the courses. In comparison, students admitted on site to
universities like Harvard and Stanford and Arizona State University face higher
admission standards. But with grade inflation in virtually all on-site campuses
(now having median grades of A-) the standards for competency are much lower, in
my viewpoint, than the competency-based online courses
via MOOCs that dare not become shams with grade inflation.
The bottom line is that the competency standard for Harvard University and
Stanford University is being admitted to study on campus. The competency
standard for getting transcript credit for their MOOC courses is . . . er . . .
er . . . demonstrated competency in the subject matter.
If you want to make a Harvard University onsite
student or an ASU onsite student wet his pants make him accept the online
competency-based tests for the course he just received an A or B grade in from
his professor on campus.
Arizona State University is now under enormous
pressure not to make the corporate-subsidized online degrees truly
competency-based and not grade-inflated shams.
Education Technology Links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's Homepage is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/
Education & Learning: Asia Society ---
http://www.asiasociety.org/education-learning
Portal to Asian Internet Resources --- http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/PAIR/index.html
NCES: Distance Learning Dataset Training ---
https://nces.ed.gov/training/datauser/
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
The Dartmouth (Student) E-Guide to Academic Success (free book) ---
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learning/free-study-skills-e-book/
How Online Learning Compares to the Traditional Classroom ---
https://www.cpajournal.com/2018/09/27/icymi-how-online-learning-compares-to-the-traditional-classroom/
Jensen Comment
I suspect if we try hard enough we can find all sorts of things that are
controversial when comparing online versus traditional pedagogy. This begins
with defining what "learning" means and what the purposes and goals of education
and training. What follows are the many and varied types of students and well as
alternative approaches to either online or learning education. For example a
MOOC may have 50,000 students and zero personal communications between the
teacher and students. An online tutorial can have one-on-one intense
personal communications. A traditional lecture course might have over 1,000
students or it might have less than 20 students.
In the very modern online courses students may have face-to-face
communications between themselves and with their teacher. Students may have
informal online communications that resemble in many ways online communications
inside a library or in a dorm lounge.
Thus there is a very gray zone these days between "online" versus
"traditional."
And it's very shaky to say online is more cost-efficient. Residential
campuses do shift living costs from the outside world to a campus. But after
that a traditional course can be much cheaper or much more expensive than an
online course. For example, it's often possible to have a scientific lab
experience online, but it may be costly. On the other hand when very expensive
expensive equipment is needed or very dangerous chemicals are being used, the
only alternative may be onsite. There are certainly limits to online learning.
Pilot training, for example, can be taught online, but at some point the student
has to get into a real airplane. We can think of all sorts of medical school
settings that must be onsite.
Hence when we are comparing we must be very careful regarding just what it is
we are comparing. Also these days traditional courses are hybrid with some
online learning components. And online students may have to assemble sometime
for traditional learning experiences.
In any case, I don't want to detract from your reading of the above
well-intended article, especially reading of the last portions of the article.
The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning ---
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/index
Bob Jensen's threads on Open (free) learning materials, MOOCs, and tutorials
from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's treads on fee-based distance education alternatives around the
world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
For-Profit Universities Turn to Outsourcing Services and Promotions of Other
Learning Providers
"How For-Profit Education Is Now Embedded in Traditional Colleges," by
Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 4, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/How-For-Profit-Education-Is/234550?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elq=bba4a6ecbd9d4ee8bac64e878e39e15e&elqCampaignId=2155&elqaid=7399&elqat=1&elqTrackId=64428ebd44b9487a9dde5d48cd6a071e
It has come to this. A
once-soaring for-profit college company, Career Education Corporation,
recently announced that it expected to have to pay a buyer to take some of
its struggling colleges off its hands. Then it decided to just close them
altogether.
These days the fortunes of
for-profit colleges are fading fast: Many face diving enrollments and
shrinking market values. Corinthian Colleges Inc. went bankrupt this year,
and several of the companies that remain are facing heightened legal,
political, and regulatory scrutiny. Even the sector’s trade and lobbying
group, the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, has been
hit by member defections that have forced it to cut its budget and lay off
staff members.
Yet while
for-profit colleges are on the wane, there is another type
of for-profit higher-education company whose profile and
influence continues to expand. These new for-profits aren't
seeking to run college programs themselves or win the
traditional seal of accreditation. These companies do things
like help traditional colleges start online programs, or
offer colleges analysis on student behavior to help improve
retention.
Call it the
"Embedded For-Profit" sector in education, and it has become
the darling of the venture-capital crowd and attracted
billions in financial backing.
The
emergence of this new sector also brings wide-ranging and
yet-unexamined ramifications for colleges and policy makers,
not to mention the taxpayers who indirectly subsidize these
ventures.
It's
'Everywhere'
When
for-profit higher education meant the University of Phoenix
or an ITT Institute, many in traditional higher education
largely dismissed it. It was "the other."
But
these newer educational for-profits — selling things like
interactive courseware and academic-advising engines — come
much closer to teaching and other educational activities
that colleges have long done for themselves. (A whole other
universe of for-profits is springing up along the edges of
academe, including
coding boot camps.)
"Now,
‘for-profit’ is everywhere," says Jorge Klor de Alva, a
former president of the University of Phoenix and currently
president of the education-focused Nexus Research and Policy
Center
Continued in article
Educating the Net Generation
Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger, Editors
Educause,
ISBN 0-9672853-2-1 (free online)
2005
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101f.pdf
Educating the Net Generation Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger,
Editors
Chapter 1: Introduction by Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE,
and James Oblinger, North Carolina State University
Chapter 2: Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward
Understanding the Net Generation by Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE, and James
Oblinger, North Carolina State University
Chapter 3: Technology and Learning Expectations of
the Net Generation by Greg Roberts, University of Pittsburgh–Johnstown
Chapter 4: Using Technology as a Learning Tool, Not
Just the Cool New Thing by Ben McNeely, North Carolina State University
Chapter 5: The Student’s Perspective by Carie
Windham, North Carolina State University
Chapter 6: Preparing the Academy of Today for the
Learner of Tomorrow by Joel Hartman, Patsy Moskal, and Chuck Dziuban,
University of Central Florida
• Introduction • Generations and Technology
• Emerging Pattern s
• Assessing the Generations in Online Learning
• Learning Engagement, Interaction Value, and Enhanced Learning in the
Generation s
• Responding to Result s
• Excellent Teaching
• Conclusion • Endnote s
• Further Reading
• About the Authors
Chapter 7: Convenience, Communications, and
Control: How Students Use Technology by Robert Kvavik, ECAR and University
of Minnesota
If it grows, this may be a great opportunity for genuine experts who are good
at online teaching and want to "own" and "promote" their own courses
"New Adjunct-Focused Venture Wins Approval to Offer Courses," by Goldie
Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 16, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/new-adjunct-focused-venture-wins-approval-to-offer-courses/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
A new
for-profit education organization, designed to
give more academic and financial control to the adjunct instructors who
teach its online courses, has just won approval from the state of Vermont to
operate.
The Vermont State Board of Education’s approval of
Oplerno
(the company’s name stands for “open learning
organization”) means that its courses can qualify for credit at colleges and
universities, at the institutions’ discretion.
Robert Skiff, the entrepreneur behind Oplerno, says
he plans to begin offering the first classes within three weeks and to offer
as many as 100 by the end of 2014. Already, he says, more than 80 faculty
members have signed up to develop classes in the sciences, humanities, and
social sciences.
Under the Oplerno model, tuition per course would
run from about $500 to $1,500, with a maximum of 25 students per
class. Instructors will design—and own—the content and set the price of the
course, within those parameters. The instructors would then earn 80 percent
to 90 percent of the revenue the class generates.
Jensen Comment
The key to success is for instructors to be so good that they can persuade
accredited colleges and universities to offer their courses. In turn this is an
opportunity for financially-strapped schools to fill in gaps in their curricula.
Although in most instances transcript credit will be given for these courses, I
can also anticipate that some colleges may find this to be an opportunity to
provide more offerings in non-credit remedial courses.
For example, accounting Ph.D,s are among the most highly paid faculty on
campus with starting salaries now in excess of $120,000 plus summer deals. Urban
colleges can generally fill in accounting faculty gaps with local experts in
such areas as advanced tax, advanced accounting, auditing, and AIS. But remote
colleges, like most of those in Vermont, generally do not have a pool of local
experts to serve as accounting adjuncts. The above
Oplerno
innovative approach is a great way to fill in faculty gaps with outstanding
experts, some of whom may even have Ph.D. credentials such as retired accounting
faculty like me.
Even urban schools might fill in gaps. For example, this year SMU in Dallas
had a gap in faculty to teach advanced-level accounting courses. They paid my
friend Tom Selling in Phoenix a generous stipend plus air fare to commute and
teach regularly on the SMU campus in Dallas. Tom does have an accounting Ph.D.
from OSU and research and teaching experience in several outstanding
universities including Dartmouth. But he now primarily earns a living in
consulting. Those weekly flights plus long taxi rides are not only expensive to
SMU, but the the round trip travel times must be a real waste of time for Tom.
Think of how much more efficient it would be to buy Tom's online
advanced-level accounting courses if (a big IF) Tom was willing to teach online
for a much higher stipend.
I anticipate resistance from tenured faculty in some colleges and
universities to this type of coverage on the grounds that it may become an
excuse to not hire expensive faculty to serve on campus. However, I assume that
control for each outsourced course will primarily reside within each on-campus
department where local faculty generally have a lot of power in their small
domains. There can be added incentives such as the spreading of performance
raises and travel budgets over fewer onsite faculty.
The main objection, a big one, will be that faculty on campus have many more
responsibilities than to teach their courses. They assist in recruiting and
advising students and serve on all sorts of academic and administrative
committees. They are responsible for research and become a major factor in the
reputations of their departments and their colleges. They are huge factors
in alumni relations and student placement. Hence, I
foresee that outsourced coverage of courses will only be a small part of the
curriculum of any department. It could become a means of having a better
curriculum for a few courses, particularly those advanced specialty courses that
are really do well with existing onsite faculty.
The President of Northwestern University Predicts Online Learning … in
1934! ---
http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/the-president-of-northwestern-university-predicts-online-learning-in-1934.html
Only the medium was radio in those days --- the barrier then and now was
inspiring people to want to sweat and endure pain to learn
Bob Jensen's threads for online education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Bob Jensen's bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United
States
The Sloan Consortium and the Babson
Survey Research Group and the College Board, 2012
http://babson.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4SjGnHcStH5g9G5
Some key report findings
include:
- Over 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course
during the fall 2011 term, an increase of 570,000 students over the
previous year.
- Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least
one course online.
- Seventy-seven percent of academic leaders rate the learning outcomes
in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face.
- Only 30.2 percent of chief academic officers believe that their
faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education - a rate
that is lower than recorded in 2004
Full Report Now Available.
(PDF and several eBook formats)
The whole world is invited to learn from BYU's many online courses (except
for high school athletes)
"Black Mark for BYU," by Doug Lederman , Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2010
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/09/byu
Brigham Young University's Independent Study
program appears to be wildly successful. At any given time, students are
taking more than 100,000 high school courses and 22,000 college classes, for
a variety of reasons: to get courses out of the way in the summer, finish
high school or college early, or improve their performance in classes in
which they struggled. Based on those numbers and
the
fees the program charges for its
nearly
600 online courses, the program generates millions
of dollars in revenue a year. (BYU officials won't say.)
A tiny fraction of its
enrollments -- about 500 a year -- are high school athletes seeking to use
the BYU program's courses to
meet
the National Collegiate Athletic Association's freshman eligibility
standards. Yet for the second time in several
years, dealings with the high-stakes world of big-time college athletics
appear to pose a potentially serious threat to the 90-year-old program's
status. Last month,
the NCAA decided to "de-certify" the BYU program
(and one other,
the American School) as a legitimate provider of
"nontraditional" courses. The decision came in
response to a change in NCAA rules this spring requiring "nontraditional"
courses to include regular interaction between students and professors, and
to set specific timeframes in which the courses must be completed.
Brigham Young officials
expressed dismay about the NCAA's decision, which they said had caught them
by surprise. "We do want to look at what we can do to be in compliance with
what the NCAA has put in place," said Carri Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the
university.
She noted that BYU
Independent Study had made a set of changes in its programs and policies the
last time
it drew NCAA
scrutiny -- when athletes at several colleges were
found to have earned credit from their institutions for
courses at BYU in which they did little or no work (or cheated to complete).
Among other changes, Jenkins noted, BYU Independent Study altered its
policies surrounding when and how tests are administered, and stopped
letting athletes enrolled in NCAA member colleges enroll in its classes.
But the courses remain a
commonly-trod path for high school athletes seeking to meet the NCAA's
academic eligibility standards for freshman athletes, which require students
to surpass a minimum grade-point average in 16 core high school courses to
compete in their first year in college. BYU and the American School, which
is based in Illinois, are among the most common programs from which high
school athletes seek eligibility through nontraditional courses, which the
association defines as "[t]hose taught via the Internet, distance learning,
independent study, individualized instruction, correspondence, and courses
taught by similar means, including software-based credit recovery courses."
Use of the courses has
burgeoned, and in March the association's Division I members approved a rule
aimed at toughening oversight of them, said Chuck Wynne, an NCAA spokesman.
"Members were obviously concerned that prospective student-athletes were
taking these courses and not being prepared for the rigors of college
academics," he said. The changes require that instructors and students have
"ongoing access to one another and regular interaction with one another for
purposes of teaching, evaluating and providing assistance to the student
throughout the duration of the course"; that the "student's work ... is
available for review and validation"; and that "[a] defined time for
completion of the course is identified by the high school or secondary
school program."
In the wake of the rules
changes, NCAA officials began reviewing providers of nontraditional courses,
and the association has "approved a bunch" as meeting the new standards,
Wynne said. So far, only BYU Independent Study and the American School were
found to fall short. (American School responded to the NCAA's findings,
which it is appealing,
here.)
Wynne declined to specify
exactly how and why BYU was deemed to fall short of the NCAA standards. But
he said that most of the scrutiny of the nontraditional programs focused on
the lack of regular, sustained interaction between students and instructors
-- ideally interaction initiated by the instructor, designed to ensure at
least some oversight of the students' work -- and on some programs' failure
to set a minimum timeframe for the completion of course work.
One NCAA review -- "not
necessarily at BYU," Wynne said -- found that one high school athlete had
completed "a semester of algebra in six minutes."
"We understand that these
are good quality educational tools when implemented and done right," Wynne
said, noting that the NCAA is not philosophically opposed to online
learning. "It's mostly about the administration of these programs. You can
have the best curriculum in the world, but if someone does algebra in six
minutes, you know there's something wrong."
Jenkins of BYU insisted
that the six-minute-algebra incident had most definitely not taken
place in one of the university's online offerings. She said that the
university plans to do whatever it needs to to reassure the NCAA that its
courses are of high quality, and that the independent study program had not
heard from past, current or prospective students who might be concerned
about a stigma from the NCAA's action.
"For-Profit Colleges Are Projected to Sharply Increase Their Share of
Adult Students," by Kelly Truong, Chronicle of Higher Education, June
14, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/For-Profit-Colleges-Are/65942/
"Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College: A 50-year rise in
grade-point averages is being fueled by private institutions, a recent study
finds," by Catherine Rampell. The New York Times, April 19, 2010 ---
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109339/want-a-higher-gpa-go-to-a-private-college?mod=edu-collegeprep
Bob Jensen's grim threads on for-profit universities and the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Fee-Based Distance Education Degree Experiments at Yale and Stanford
"Yale Announces ‘Blended’ Online Master’s Degree," by Steve Kolowich,
Chronicle of Higher Education, March 10, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/yale-announces-blended-online-masters-degree/56003?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Yale University is creating a master’s program that
will hold many courses online, continuing the Ivy League institution’s foray
into “blended” learning.
The online program, to be offered by the Yale
School of Medicine, would aim to replicate its residential program for
training physicians’ assistants. Students would meet in virtual classrooms
where they would discuss course material using videoconferencing technology.
They would also have to complete field training — accounting for roughly
half of the coursework — in person, at Yale-approved clinics near where they
live.
It is the second professional school at Yale to try
the “blended” model for a graduate program, following the Yale School of
Nursing, which
opened a partially
online doctoral degree in 2011.
Yale has taken an active but measured interest in
online education in the past decade. In 2007 it became one of the first
elite institutions to post lecture videos online at no charge. In 2011 it
began offering online summer courses to small groups of undergraduates for
credit. In 2013 it
joined with Coursera and started building MOOCs.
But a degree program that includes fully online
courses is a step toward a different vision of how Yale and other highly
selective traditional universities are likely to incorporate online
education. Free online courses might make headlines, but tuition-based
professional degrees in high-demand fields such as health care are where
online courses, and the companies that help build them, are gaining a
foothold.
Other top-tier universities have created online
versions of their professional-degree programs, which is something Yale
noticed when
taking stock of its online presence in 2012. The
Johns Hopkins University, for example, offers an online master’s program in
public health that delivers about
80 percent of its coursework on the web.
2U, the online “enabler” company that is helping
Yale develop the new program, previously built nursing programs at
Georgetown University and Simmons College, as well as programs in public
health and health administration at George Washington University.
Institutions typically
sign contracts with companies like 2U when they
want to create new online programs as fast as possible without spending a
lot of cash upfront. That is an especially attractive option for
universities that are trying to grab a larger chunk of the market for
high-demand professional degrees in fields such as health, nursing, data
science, and business. It is there that 2U and others have found their sweet
spot. The companies provide the technology platform and marketing expertise,
and take a large share of the tuition revenues.
Yale would hire new instructors to teach courses in
the program, which is still awaiting accreditation approval. The tuition and
faculty-to-student ratio would be roughly equivalent to the residential
program.
James Van Rhee, director of the program, said he
did not know if the online version would be more profitable, but he did
expect it would expand the medical school’s reach — especially in rural
areas. The institution hopes to increase enrollments from 40, the size of
the current program, to around 300.
“I don’t know if it will be cost-efficient for us,”
said Robert J. Alpern, dean of the medical school, but “hopefully it will be
cost-efficient for the students, because they’ll be able to do it from
home.”
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an
online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has
since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development
that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected
programs, especially engineering. The program is highly restrictive in that
students must work for employers Must be members of Stanford's Corporate
Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree the
requirements are as follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
Most other top universities in the USA now have selected online certificate
and degree programs offered in their extension programs. Go to a university of
interest and search for "extension." It's still rare to find an online doctoral
program at a top university. For-profit universities offer more online doctoral
programs, but these tend not to be accepted very well for employment in the
Academy. In fact it may be better to not mention such doctoral degrees when
seeking employment in the Academy.
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Government Aid Will Still Flow to For-Profit College Programs of Dubious
Quality
"Education Dept. Will Release Stricter Rules for For-Profits but Delays One on
'Gainful Employment'," by Kelly Fields and Jennifer Gonzalez, Chronicle of
Higher Education, June 15, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Will-Release/65958/
After an intense lobbying effort by for-profit
colleges, the Education Department announced Tuesday that it will postpone
the release of a rule that proprietary institutions said would shutter
thousands of their programs.
The rule, which would cut off federal student aid
to programs whose graduates carry high student-loan debt relative to their
incomes, is one of 14 that the department and college stakeholders have been
negotiating over the past eight months. The other regulations, including one
that would tighten a ban on incentive compensation for college recruiters,
will be made public Friday.
In a call with reporters Tuesday, an Education
Department official said the agency still plans to hold for-profits
accountable for preparing their graduates for "gainful employment," but
needs more time to develop an appropriate measure of that outcome. The
official said the proposal will be released later this summer, and will most
likely be included in a package of final rules due out in November.
"We have many areas of agreement where we can move
forward," Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, said in a statement.
"But some key issues around gainful employment are complicated, and we want
to get it right, so we will be coming back with that shortly."
The delay gives for-profit
colleges more time to fight the department's proposal to bar aid for
programs in which a majority of students' loan payments would exceed 8
percent of the lowest quarter of graduates' expected earnings, based on a
10-year repayment plan. The colleges have already spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars
pushing an alternative that would require programs
to provide prospective students with more information about their graduates'
debt levels and salaries.
Their lobbying and public-relations blitz has met
with mixed success. While the department has not yet abandoned plans to
measure graduates' debt-to-income ratios, the rules that will be released
Friday would require programs to disclose their graduation and job-placement
rates and median debt levels—the approach favored by for-profits.
A Welcome Delay Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with
Signal Hill Capital Group, said the delay in releasing the rest of the rule
suggested that "the department has heard the message from industry and
Congress, and that there was some overreaching."
"Clearly, trying to gather more data before
proceeding is being responsible," he added.
For-profit colleges have complained that the
department has refused to release the data it used to justify drafting the
rule, and have questioned whether they even exist.
The fight over gainful employment comes amid
increased federal scrutiny of the for-profit sector, which educates a
growing share of students and is highly dependent on federal student aid. On
Thursday, the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will
hold a hearing to examine whether accrediting agencies are doing enough to
ensure that students studying online are getting an adequate amount of
instruction for the degrees they earn. The hearing will focus on a recent
report by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General that
questioned the decision of the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major
regional accrediting organizations, to approve accreditation of American
InterContinental University, a for-profit college owned by the Career
Education Corporation. The Senate education committee follows with a hearing
next week focused on the growth of the for-profit sector and the risks that
may pose to taxpayers.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the chairman of the
Senate committee praised the proposed rules. "The federal government must
ensure that the more than $20-billion in student aid that these schools
receive is being well spent and students are being well informed and well
served," said Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. "For-profit colleges must
work for students and taxpayers, not just shareholders."
Meanwhile, a top Republican on the panel, Sen.
Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, called the disclosures that would be required
by the rules that will be released on Friday "much better than the first
approach on gainful employment." Mr. Alexander, a former secretary of
education, had threatened to offer an amendment to withhold the funds needed
to put the rule into effect if the department followed through with its
original proposal.
"Secretary Duncan is focusing on a real problem,"
he said. "Some students are borrowing too much and not getting enough value
for what they are paying."
Tougher Stance on Recruitment But if the department
is showing signs that it may soften its stance on gainful employment, it has
dug in its heels on another controversial issue: recruiter compensation.
During negotiations over the rules, the department proposed striking a dozen
"safe harbors" from a ban on compensating recruiters based on student
enrollment. It followed through with that proposal in the rules due out
Friday, while promising to provide guidance on what is—and isn't—allowed
under the ban.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges operating in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
"How Colleges Are Buying Respect: For-profit education companies
are scooping up small schools to gain accreditation—and the financial aid
dollars that come with it," by Daniel Golden, Business Week, March 4,
2010 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_11/b4170050344129.htm?link_position=link4
TT Educational Services (ESI)
didn't pay $20.8 million for debt-ridden Daniel
Webster College in June just to acquire its red-brick campus, 1,200
students, or computer science and aviation training programs.
To ITT, the third-biggest higher-education company
in the U.S., the Nashua (N.H.) college's "most attractive" feature was its
regional accreditation, says Michael Goldstein, an attorney at Dow Lohnes, a
Washington firm that has long represented the Carmel (Ind.) company.
Regional accreditation, the same gold standard of academic quality enjoyed
by Harvard, is a way to increase enrollment and tap into the more than $100
billion the federal government pays out annually in financial aid.
The nation's for-profit higher-education companies
have tripled enrollment, to 1.4 million students, and revenue, to $26
billion, in the past decade, in part through the recruitment of low-income
students and active-duty military. Now they're taking a new tack. By
exploiting loopholes in government regulation and an accreditation system
that wasn't designed to evaluate for-profit takeovers, they're acquiring
struggling nonprofit and religious colleges—and their coveted accreditation.
Often their goal is to transform the schools into taxpayer-funded behemoths
by dramatically expanding enrollment with online-only programs; most of
those new students will receive federally backed financial aid, which is
only available at accredited colleges.
"The companies are buying accreditation," said
Kevin Kinser, an associate professor at the State University of New York at
Albany who studies for-profit higher education. "You can get accreditation a
lot of ways, but all of the others take time. They don't have time. They
want to boost enrollment 100% in two years."
By acquiring regional accreditation, trade schools
and online colleges gain a credential associated with traditional academia.
Six nonprofit regional associations set standards on financial stability,
governance, faculty, and academic programs. Normally the process takes five
years and requires evaluations by outside professors. Most for-profits have
been accredited by less prestigious national organizations. Students
enrolled at both regionally and nationally accredited colleges can receive
federal aid, but those at regionally accredited schools can transfer credits
more easily from one college to the next.
"CREATIVE ARRANGEMENTS"
For-profit education companies, including ITT and
Baltimore-based Laureate Education, have purchased at least 16 nonprofit
colleges with regional accreditation since 2004. The U.S. Education Dept.,
which doled out $129 billion in federal financial aid to students at
accredited postsecondary schools in the year ended Sept. 30, is examining
whether these kinds of acquisitions circumvent a federal law that requires a
two-year wait before new for-profit colleges can qualify for assistance,
says Deputy Education Under Secretary Robert Shireman. Under federal
regulations taking effect on July 1, accrediting bodies may also have to
notify the Education Secretary if enrollment at a college with online
courses increases more than 50% in one year. "It certainly has been a
challenge both for accreditors and the Department of Education to keep up
with the new creative arrangements that have been developing," Shireman
says.
Buying accreditation lets the new owners
immediately benefit from federal student aid, which provides more than 80%
of revenue for some for-profit colleges, instead of having to wait at least
two years. Traditional colleges are also more inclined to offer transfer
credits for courses taken at regionally approved institutions, making it
easier to attract students.
The regional accreditors, which rely on academic
volunteers, bestow the valuable credential with scant scrutiny of the
buyers' backgrounds, says Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of
the American Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers in
Washington.
March 6, 2010 reply from Jagdish Gangolly [gangolly@GMAIL.COM]
Bob,
I agree that losing accreditation can be a
disaster. But then again, how many institutions lose it? It is a black swan
event?
I abhor the thought of looking upon education as a
"business", but if we want accountability, we must recognise that there is a
business aspect to education. And it is here that some marriage of business
and education might help.
In businesses, normal attrition takes care of
efficiency and career advancement problems the same way that wars take care
of similar issues in the military. In the universities, on the other hand,
the tenure system prevents that from happening. That has two consequences:
1. It reduces mobility and promotes stagnation.
So, the only people who can and do move are the well-dressed beggars in
the blog I sent a bit earlier today.
2. The career path comes to a dead end once you
have reached the full (or chaired) slot. The result is that thew
organisation comes to resemble an inverted pyramid, obviously a
disequilibrium. Most universities solve this problem by creating fancy
titles and taking people out of the classrooms (how many Deans or vice
Presidents teach or are active in their fields?).
The businesses taking over smaller institutions
might bring better accountability and greater efficiencies.But I am not sure
it would maintain the standard of education or sustain freedom of inquiry
and academic freedom. Such universities might resemble Chinese factories
producing standardised low quality stuff at an attractive price.
Jagdish S. Gangolly
Department of Informatics College of Computing & Information State
University of New York at Albany Harriman Campus, Building 7A, Suite 220
Albany, NY 12222 Phone: 518-956-8251, Fax: 518-956-8247
March 6, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Jagdish,
Anecdotally,
I know of quite a few colleges who were put on regional accreditation
probation. The only way they saved their accreditation was to manage to get
their finances and academic standards back on track. There are of course
some that went under.
One of the
best known cases recently was Florida A&M’s loss of accreditation. This
university has since turned itself around ---
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2008/06/30/florida-am-regains-accreditation.html
Another famous case of a university that let academic standards slide was
Gallaudet University ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202453.html
I think Gallaudet turned itself around.
There are
also some Colleges of Business that were put on AACSB probation. In most of
those cases the university had to take from Peter Humanities to pay Paul
Business.
This brings
up one point concerning strategy regarding accrediting a program within a
university. In truth, AACSB accreditation is very costly with only limited
benefits to universities that have solid reputations university-wide. For
example, who cares if the Harvard Business School has AACSB accreditation?
For that matter, who cares if the University of Maine is AACSB
accreditation.
When I was
at the University of Maine (UMO) I was the person assigned the duty of
getting AACSB accreditation for UMO. Doing so was the strategy of a very
smart Dean (for four decades) of the College of Business named Stan Devino
(one of my all-time best friends in my entire life). Somehow Stan convinced
the President of UMO that getting AACSB accreditation was a great idea.
But Stan’s
secret motive was to lever UMO for more resources. At the time UMO’s College
of Business was under fed in terms of numbers of tenured business faculty,
office space, salaries of business faculty, and scholarships for the MBA
program. We got some resources to gain the initial accreditation. But in
later years when UMO budgets fell under greater stress, the College of
Business was not cut back as much as other campus programs because losing
AACSB accreditation would be devastating for UMO. I suspect the President of
UMO rued the day he helped us become attain AACSB accreditation. The College
of Business even jumped to the top of the capital expenditure list for a
great new building.
Hence, the
threat of losing accreditation is a double-edged sword that can play to the
advantage of a cunning Dean. If I was the President of a reputed college I
would probably throw any dean out of my office who proposed a quest to get
program accreditation unless there were exceptional benefits from such
accreditation. If graduates of a program virtually cannot advance unless
their program has accreditation then this is an exceptional benefit. For
example, I think this is the case for nursing programs. It is not the case
for business programs in universities have great university-wide
reputations.
Bob Jensen
Bob Jensen's threads on accreditation controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AccreditationIssues
Online Distance Education is Rapidly Gaining Acceptance in Traditional as
Well as For-Profit Colleges ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
The Dark Side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Absent Student Shadows in Class:
Virtual Students in the Classroom
April 1, 2010 message from
Robert Blystone [mailto:rblyston@trinity.edu]
I remember years ago
receiving my first FAXed term paper (35 pages). I can add a new
technological wonder to my first-time teaching experiences. One of my
students left home early for Easter. I have a lab/class that meets at 4pm
Tuesday and Thursday. She Skyped into the class by contacting another
student in the class with a laptop. She attended the class via Skype and
commented on the festivities as they happened. Amazing.
Bob Blystone
Robert V. Blystone,
Ph.D. Professor of Biology Trinity University One Trinity Place San Antonio,
Texas 78212
rblyston@trinity.edu
210-999-7243
A[ro; 2, 2010
reply from Knutel, Phillip
[pknutel@BENTLEY.EDU]
We use Saba-Centra - Skype on steroids, essentially
- in 90-100 grad classes in our MSA and other grad programs every year. We have
a camera built into the back wall of 13 "hybrid online" classrooms so online
students can see both the professor and classroom students as well as anything
on the PC or written on the Smartboard. Faculty clip on a wireless mic, and
there are built-in mics at every student seat. Online students click on a
"raise hand" icon to ask a question, and when called on, are heard via the
ceiling speakers. If online students have webcams, the class sees them as
well.
As of last semester, 37% of students attended online
vs. in the classroom, and 22% said the online option was why they chose
Bentley. 90% of in-class and online students play back recorded classes, and
unlike most online formats that struggle with simple student retention, 80% of
online students rated their experience an 8 or higher on a 1-10 scale. One of
these days, we may start advertising our hybrid-online programs, as enrollments
have grown significantly almost entirely due to word-of-mouth.
We have a TA in all these classes to monitor online
student technical/audio issues, and we also use the TA PC that we install next
to the primary classroom PC in the podium as a "hot swap" backup PC. If
anything goes wrong with the main PC, we can switch the room over to the TA PC
in a matter of seconds to keep classes running seamlessly until the next break.
These things you learn after doing this for 10 years!
Phil
Phillip Knutel, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Academic Technology, the Library, and Online Learning
Bentley University 180 Adamian Academic Center
175 Forest St.
Waltham, MA 02452
781.891.3422/3125 (fax)
April 2, 2010
reply form Peters, James M [jpeters@NMHU.EDU]
In effect, this is how I teach all my classes now.
I use Elluminate instead of Skype, which works much better because I can
broadcast what I am displaying on my in class computer and I don't broadcast a
video of the classroom, just sound and what is displaying on the computer. This
makes what on the computer much clearer. I have some students in class and some
students attending via the internet, but they are treated the same in the class
and I seamlessly switch from working with students in class and working with
those on the internet (i.e., I use Socratic Method and so classes are dialogs
and group problem solving exercises, not lectures).
Nothing really new here, at least not in my little
corner of the world.
Bob Jensen's threads on
tools and tricks of the trade are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's neglected threads on classroom design are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Design
"Colleges See 17 Percent Increase in Online Enrollment," by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 26, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Colleges-See-17-Percent/20820/
Colleges saw a 17 percent increase in online
enrollment, with more than one in four students taking at least one online
course in the fall of 2008, according to the
findings of an annual survey published on Tuesday
by the Sloan Consortium.
The growth rate eclipsed
last year's 12-percent increase and dwarfed the
1.2 percent growth rate of the overall higher-education student population.
The report, which has become a widely cited benchmark of distance learning,
found a total of more than 4.6-million online students overall. That's up
from about 3.9 million the previous year.
Despite this surge, the data suggest that not
enough institutions have taken online education into account as they conduct
planning around issues like how to deal with budget cuts and space
shortages, says A. Frank Mayadas, a special adviser to the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation.
"They have to wake up and begin to think about this
as a strategic item," Mr. Mayadas says.
The report found that public institutions are by
far the most likely to believe that online education is key to their
long-term strategy. That reflects the striking demand for online couses at
institutions like the University of Central Florida, where more than half of
the 53,500 students take at least one online course each year.
The university's online efforts stem from its
mission of providing access and its budget realities. All new construction
money is "basically frozen at the state level," says Tom Cavanagh, assistant
vice president for distributed learning.
"For us to grow, it’s going to be online until that
money is freed up again," he says.
The Sloan report is based on data collected from
more than 2,500 colleges and universities by the Babson Survey Research
Group and the College Board. Among the study's other key findings:
* Bad economic times, which traditionally drive
more people back to school, are having a particularly strong impact on
demand for online courses. Seventy-three percent of institutions report
increased demand for existing online courses, compared with 54 percent
for face-to-face. Sixty-six percent report increased demand for new
online courses. And students are clamoring for distance education at
colleges that don't offer it; 45 percent of institutions in that
category report growing demand for new online courses and programs.
* Fewer than one-third of chief academic
officers think that their faculty members accept the "value and
legitimacy" of online education, a perception that hasn't change much in
the past six years. (Another survey, released in 2009, also reflected
broad faculty suspicion
about the quality of online courses.)
* More than two-thirds of institutions have a
contingency plan to deal with a disruption from the H1N1 flu, and
substituting online for face-to-face classes is an element in 67 percent
of those plans.
* The overwhelming majority of the 4.6 million
online students — over 82 percent — are undergraduates.
I must be psychic, because I've been saying this all along ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
So has Amy Dunbar ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm
"The Medium is Not the Message," by Jonathan Kaplan, Inside Higher Ed,
August 11, 2009 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/08/11/kaplan
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education
released a report that looked at 12 years' worth of education studies, and
found that online learning has clear advantages over face-to-face
instruction.
The study, "An Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A
Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies," stated that “students
who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average,
than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face
instruction.”
Except for one article,
on this Web site, you probably didn’t hear about
it -- and neither did anyone else.
But imagine for a moment that the report came to the opposite conclusion.
I’m sure that if the U.S. Department of Education had published a report
showing that students in online learning environments performed worse,
there would have been a major outcry in higher education with calls to shut
down distance-learning programs and close virtual campuses.
I believe the reason that the recent study elicited so little commentary is
due to the fact that it flies in the face of the biases held by some across
the higher education landscape. Yet this study confirms what those of us
working in distance education have witnessed for years: Good teaching helps
students achieve, and good teaching comes in many forms.
We know that online learning requires devout attention on the part of both
the professor and the student -- and a collaboration between the two -- in a
different way from that of a face-to-face classroom. These critical aspects
of online education are worth particular mention:
- Greater student engagement: In an
online classroom, there is no back row and nowhere for students to hide.
Every student participates in class.
- Increased faculty attention: In most
online classes, the faculty’s role is focused on mentoring students and
fostering discussion. Interestingly, many faculty members choose to
teach online because they want more student interaction.
- Constant access: The Internet is open
24/7, so students can share ideas and “sit in class” whenever they have
time or when an idea strikes -- whether it be the dead of night or
during lunch. Online learning occurs on the student’s time, making it
more accessible, convenient, and attainable.
At Walden University, where
I am president, we have been holding ourselves accountable for years, as
have many other online universities, regarding assessment. All universities
must ensure that students are meeting program outcomes and learning what
they need for their jobs. To that end, universities should be better able to
demonstrate -- quantitatively and qualitatively -- the employability and
success of their students and graduates.
Recently, we examined the
successes of Walden graduates who are teachers in the Tacoma, Wash., public
school system, and found that students in Walden teachers’ classes tested
with higher literacy rates than did students taught by teachers who earned
their master’s from other universities. There could be many reasons for
this, but, especially in light of the U.S. Department of Education study, it
seems that online learning has contributed meaningfully to their becoming
better teachers.
In higher education, there
is still too much debate about how we are delivering content: Is it online
education, face-to-face teaching, or hybrid instruction? It’s time for us to
stop categorizing higher education by the medium of delivery and start
focusing on its impact and outcomes.
Recently, President Obama remarked, “I think there’s a possibility that
online education can provide, especially for people who are already in the
workforce and want to retrain, the chance to upgrade their skills without
having to quit their job.” As the U.S. Department of Education study
concluded, online education can do that and much more.
But Kaplan above ignores some of the dark side aspects of distance education
and education technology in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
The biggest hurdle, in my opinion, is that if distance education is done
correctly with intensive online communications, instructors soon become burned
out. In an effort to avoid burn out, much of the learning effectiveness is lost.
Hence the distance education paradox.
Kaplan also ignores some of the strong empirical support for online learning,
especially the enlightening SCALE experiments at the University of Illinois ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois
August 11, 2009 reply from David Albrecht
[albrecht@PROFALBRECHT.COM]
Isn't online education more expensive than face to
face? With face to face it class sizes can be a bit larger. Online, or so
I've read, requires a huge time commitment from instructor. At least, this
is what I've concluded from reading various reports.
David Albrecht
August 11, 2009 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi David,
I have a
sadly neglected Website on costs of distance education programs at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/distcost.htm
You are
raising a very complicated issue, not the least of which is that there is a
temptation in major state universities and some prestigious private
universities to turn distance education into cash cows. A recent example is
the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee that started charging higher
tuition for distance education courses that most likely are cheaper than
onsite course equivalents.
Cost varies
all over the board. Stanford adopted the ADEPT engineering masters degree to
be almost entirely a video degree program with very lite communications
between faculty and students (thereby greatly reducing faculty cost) but
having a heavy fixed cost to develop the videos. However, this pedagogy only
works with highly talented (i.e., engineering students admitted to
Stanford’s graduate program) and highly motivated (e.g., Silicon valley
engineers) who need very little hands on guidance.
In contrast,
the University of Connecticut pays Amy Dunbar to teach tax to graduate
students who occupy her time even at home with intense instant messaging.
This is almost the opposite end of the spectrum except that her students are
talented and motivated ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/Dunbar2002.htm
At the
opposite end of the spectrum we have students in need of remedial studies
who are trying to learn with a kid squirming on each knee. Effective
distance education in such circumstances is very, very expensive.
Sadly, many
distance education programs are designed on the cheap, and students are led
into ineffective courses.
Once again
one of my favorite examples of how effective distance education can be is a
case study instigated by the Chronicle of Higher Education to have one of
its editors (Goldie) take a Not-for-Profit Accounting Course at the
University of Phoenix:
The
Chronicle's Goldie Blumenstyk has covered distance education for more
than a decade, and during that time she's written stories about
the economics of for-profit education,
the ways that online institutions
market themselves, and the
demise of
the 50-percent rule. About
the only thing she hadn't done, it seemed, was to take a course from an
online university. But this spring she finally took the plunge, and now she
has completed a class in government and nonprofit accounting through the
University of Phoenix. She shares tales from the cy ber-classroom -- and her
final grade --
in a podcast with Paul Fain,
a Chronicle reporter.
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2008 (Audio) ---
http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i40/cyber_classroom/
·
All course materials (including
textbooks) online; No additional textbooks to purchase
·
$1,600 fee for the course and materials
·
Woman instructor with respectable
academic credentials and experience in course content
·
Instructor had good communications with
students and between students
·
Total of 14 quite dedicated online
students in course, most of whom were mature with full-time day jobs
·
30% of grade from team projects
·
Many unassigned online helper tutorials
that were not fully utilized by Goldie
·
Goldie earned a 92 (A-)
·
She gave a positive evaluation to the
course and would gladly take other courses if she had the time
·
She considered the course to have a
heavy workload
Since the
University of Phoenix did not have to hire a tenure-track accounting
professor with a PhD, I suspect the faculty cost is relatively low vis-à-vis
the new not-for-profit onsite courses at Rutgers. Of course since it is very
difficult to find specialists in not-for-profit specialty courses (also in
tax courses), even Rutgers might be hiring specialized practitioners for
onsite courses.
In any case,
cost analysis of online versus onsite education is very, very difficult due
to the usual suspects --- joint costs, indirect costs, and highly variable
circumstances leading to huge missing variables in cost models.
Bob Jensen
August 11, 2009 reply from Steve Markoff
[smarkoff@KIMSTARR.ORG]
Reply 1
Bob:
I've always believed that the role of the teacher
is one of FACILITATOR. My role in the classroom is making it EASIER for
information to move from one place to another - from point A to point B.
This could be from textbook to student, it could be from the outside world
to the student, from another student to the student, from the student him or
herself to that same student AND from teacher to student (me to them). In
defining the word 'teaching', I think many people overemphasize the last
transition that I mentioned, thinking that the primary movement of
information is from them(the teacher) to the students. In fact, it
constitutes a minority of total facilitated information flow in a college
classroom. I think this misunderstanding leads many to underestimate the
value of other sources in the education process other than themselves.
Online content is just one of many alternative sources.
Unfortunately, online formats do allow certain
professors to hide behind the electronic cloak and politely excuse
themselves from the equation, which greatly hurts the student. Also, online
formats can be fertile ground for professors who lack not only the desire to
'teach' but the ability and thus become mere administrators versus teachers.
steve
Hi John and Pat and Others,
I would not say that out loud to Amy Dunbar or Denny Beresford that they’re
easy graders ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
I would not say that out loud to the graduates of two principles of
accounting weed out courses year after year at Brigham Young
University where classes meet on relatively rare occasion for inspiration
about accountancy but not technical learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#BYUvideo
Try to tell the graduates of Stanford University’s ADEPT Masters of
Electrical Engineering program that they had an easier time of it because
the entire program was online.
There’s an interesting article entitled how researchers misconstrue
causality:
Like elaborately plumed birds … we preen and strut and display our
t-values.” That was Edward Leamer’s uncharitable description of his
profession in 1983.
“Cause and Effect: Instrumental variable help to isolate causal
relationships, but they can be taken too far,” The Economist, August
15-21, 20098 Page 68.
It is often the case that distance education courses are taught by
non-tenured instructors, and non-tenured instructors may be easier with
respect to grading than tenured faculty because they are even more in need
of strong teaching evaluations --- so as to not lose their jobs. The problem
may have nothing whatsoever to do with online versus onsite education ---
ergo misconstrued causality.
I think it’s very rewarding to look at grading in formal studies
using the same full-time faculty teaching sections of online versus onsite
students. By formal study, I mean using the same instructors, the same
materials, and essentially the same examinations. The major five-year,
multimillion dollar study that first caught my eye was the SCALE experiments
on the campus of the University of Illinois where 30 courses from various
disciplines were examined over a five year experiment.
Yes the SCALE experiments showed that some students got higher grades
online, notably B students who became A students and C students who became A
students. The online pedagogy tended to have no effect on D and F students
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois
Listen to Dan Stone’s audio about the SCALE Experiments ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
But keep in mind that in the SCALE experiments, the same instructor of a
course was grading both the online and onsite sections of the same course.
The reason was not likely to be that online sections were easier. The SCALE
experiments collected a lot of data pointing to more intense communications
with instructors and more efficient use of student’s time that is often
wasted in going to classes.
The students in the experiment were full time on campus students, such that
the confounding problems of having adult part-time students was not a factor
in the SCALE experiments of online, asynchronous learning.
A Statement About Why the SCALE Experiments Were Funded
ALN = Asynchronous Learning
We are particularly interested in new
outcomes that may be possible through ALN. Asynchronous computer networks
have the potential to
improve contact with faculty,
perhaps making self-paced learning a realizable goal for some off- and
on-campus students. For example, a motivated student could progress more
rapidly toward a degree. Students who are motivated but find they cannot
keep up the pace, may be able to slow down and take longer to complete a
degree, and not just drop out in frustration. So we are interested in what
impact ALN will have on outcomes such as time-to-degree and student
retention. There are many opportunities where ALN may contribute to another
outcome: lowering the cost of education, e.g., by naturally introducing new
values for old measures such as student-faculty ratios. A different kind of
outcome for learners who are juggling work and family responsibilities,
would be to be able to earn a degree or certification at home. This latter
is a special focus for us.
Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation's Program in
Learning Outside the Classroom at
http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/
Another study that I love to point to was funded by the Chronicle of
Higher Education. Read about when one of the Chronicle’s senior
editors took a Governmental Accounting Course at the University of Phoenix
during which the instructor of the course had not idea that Goldie
Blumenstyk
was assessing how difficult or how easy the course was for students in
general. I think Goldie’s audio report of her experience is still available
from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Goldie came away from the
course exhausted.
The Chronicle's Goldie Blumenstyk has covered
distance education for more than a decade, and during that time she's
written stories about
the economics of for-profit education, the ways that online institutions
market themselves, and the demise of
the 50-percent rule. About the only thing she hadn't done, it seemed,
was to take a course from an online university. But this spring she finally
took the plunge, and now she has completed a class in government and
nonprofit accounting through the University of Phoenix. She shares tales
from the cy ber-classroom -- and her final grade --
in a podcast with Paul Fain, a Chronicle reporter.
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 11, 2008 (Audio) ---
http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i40/cyber_classroom/
· All course
materials (including textbooks) online; No additional textbooks to purchase
· $1,600 fee for the
course and materials
· Woman instructor
with respectable academic credentials and experience in course content
· Instructor had
good communications with students and between students
· Total of 14 quite
dedicated online students in course, most of whom were mature with full-time
day jobs
· 30% of grade from
team projects
· Many unassigned
online helper tutorials that were not fully utilized by Goldie
· Goldie earned a 92
(A-)
· She gave a
positive evaluation to the course and would gladly take other courses if she
had the time
·
She considered the course to have a heavy workload
"U. of Phoenix Reports on Its Students' Academic
Achievement," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 5, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/06/3115n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement, released November 13,
2006, for the first time offers a close look at distance education, offering
provocative new data suggesting that e-learners report higher levels of
engagement, satisfaction and academic challenge than their on-campus peers
---
http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report/index.cfm
"The Engaged E-Learner," by Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed,
November 13, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/13/nsse
November 2, 2007 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[KOTLas@email.unc.edu]
STATISTICS ON THE STATE OF EDUCATION, U.S. AND
WORLDWIDE
The Sloan Consortium's "Online Nation: Five Years
of Growth in Online Learning," a report on the state of online learning in
U.S. higher education, is "aimed at answering some of the fundamental
questions about the nature and extent of online education." These questions
include:
-- How many students are learning online?
-- Where has the growth in online learning
occurred?
-- What are the prospects for future online
enrollment growth?
-- What are the barriers to widespread adoption of
online education?
The report, and previous years' editions, can be
downloaded at no cost at
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/index.asp
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of
institutions and organizations committed "to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a
part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at
any time, in a wide variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/
. . . .
Each year, since 2001, the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes the "Education at a
Glance" report, an "annual round-up of data and analysis on education,
providing a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on education
systems in the OECD's 30 member countries and in a number of partner
economies." Main areas covered in the reports are:
-- participation and achievement in education
-- public and private spending on education
-- the state of lifelong learning
-- conditions for pupils and teachers
The current and all past "Education at a Glance"
reports are available online at no charge at
http://www.oecd.org/document/30/0,3343,en_2649_39263294_39251550_1_1_1_1,00.html
The OECD's mission is "to help its member countries
to achieve sustainable economic growth and employment and to raise the
standard of living in member countries while maintaining financial stability
-- all this in order to contribute to the development of the world economy."
As one of the world's largest publishers in the fields of economics and
public policy, OECD monitors, analyzes, and forecasts economic developments
and social changes in trade, environment, agriculture, technology, and
taxation. For more information contact: OECD, 2 rue Andre Pascal, F-75775,
Paris Cedex 16 France; tel: +33 1.45.24.82.00; fax: +33 1.45.24.85.00;
email: webmaster@oecd.org ;
Web: http://www.oecd.org
RECOMMENDED READING
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been
recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly
interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published
by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu
for possible inclusion in this column.
"The Basement Interviews: Peter Suber" October 2007
http://poynder.blogspot.com/2007/10/basement-interviews-peter-suber.html
Journalist Richard Poynder writes on information
technology and online rights issues. In a series of interviews he speaks
with leading advocates in the open source movement. One of his recent
interviews was with Peter Suber, a leading proponent of the open access
movement and author of SPARC Open Access Newsletter and Open Access News. (Suber's
SPARC OPEN ACCESS NEWSLETTER is available at
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/archive.htm
)
The 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement, released November 13,
2006, for the first time offers a close look at distance education, offering
provocative new data suggesting that e-learners report higher levels of
engagement, satisfaction and academic challenge than their on-campus peers ---
http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2006_Annual_Report/index.cfm
"The Engaged E-Learner," by Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed,
November 13, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/13/nsse
The 2006
National Survey of Student Engagement, released
today, for the first time offers a close look at distance education,
offering provocative new data suggesting that e-learners report higher
levels of engagement, satisfaction and academic challenge than their
on-campus peers.
Beyond the numbers, however, what institutions
choose to do with the data promises to attract extra attention to this
year’s report.
NSSE is one of the few standardized measures of
academic outcomes that most officials across a wide range of higher
education institutions agree offers something of value.Yet NSSE does not
release institution-specific data, leaving it to colleges to choose whether
to publicize their numbers.
Colleges are under mounting pressure, however, to
show in concrete, measurable ways that they are successfully educating
students, fueled in part by the recent release of the
report from the
Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education,
which emphasizes the need for the development of
comparable measures of student learning. In the commission’s report and in
college-led efforts to heed the commission’s call,
NSSE has been embraced as one way to do that. In this climate, will a
greater number of colleges embrace transparency and release their results?
Anywhere between one-quarter and one-third of the
institutions participating in NSSE choose to release some data, said George
Kuh, NSSE’s director and a professor of higher education at Indiana
University at Bloomington. But that number includes not only those
institutions that release all of the data, but also those that pick and
choose the statistics they’d like to share.
In the “Looking Ahead” section that concluded the
2006 report, the authors note that NSSE can “contribute to the higher
education improvement and accountability agenda,” teaming with institutions
to experiment with appropriate ways to publicize their NSSE data and
developing common templates for colleges to use. The report cautions that
the data released for accountability purposes should be accompanied by other
indicators of student success, including persistence and graduation rates,
degree/certificate completion rates and measurements of post-college
endeavors.
“Has this become a kind of a watershed moment when
everybody’s reporting? No. But I think what will happen as a result of the
Commission on the Future of Higher Ed, Secretary (Margaret) Spelling’s
workgroup, is that there is now more interest in figuring out how to do
this,” Kuh said.
Charles Miller, chairman of the Spellings
commission, said he understands that NSSE’s pledge not to release
institutional data has encouraged colleges to participate — helping the
survey, first introduced in 1999, get off the ground and gain wide
acceptance. But Miller said he thinks that at this point, any college that
chooses to participate in NSSE should make its data public.
“Ultimately, the duty of the colleges that take
public funds is to make that kind of data public. It’s not a secret that the
people in the academy ought to have. What’s the purpose of it if it’s just
for the academy? What about the people who want to get the most for their
money?”
Participating public colleges are already obliged
to provide the data upon request, but Miller said private institutions,
which also rely heavily on public financial aid funds, should share that
obligation.
Kuh said that some colleges’ reluctance to
publicize the data stems from a number of factors, the primary reason being
that they are not satisfied with the results and feel they might reflect
poorly on the institution.
In addition, some college officials fear that the
information, if publicized, may be misused, even conflated to create a
rankings system. Furthermore, sharing the data would represent a shift in
the cultural paradigm at some institutions used to keeping sensitive data to
themselves, Kuh said.
“The great thing about NSSE and other measures like
it is that it comes so close to the core of what colleges and universities
are about — teaching and learning. This is some of the most sensitive
information that we have about colleges and universities,” Kuh said.
But Miller said the fact that the data get right to
the heart of the matter is precisely why it should be publicized. “It
measures what students get while they’re at school, right? If it does that,
what’s the fear of publishing it?” Miller asked. “If someone would say,
‘It’s too hard to interpret,’ then that’s an insult to the public.” And if
colleges are afraid of what their numbers would suggest, they shouldn’t
participate in NSSE at all, Miller said.
However, Douglas Bennett, president of Earlham
College in Indiana and chair of NSSE’s National Advisory Board, affirmed
NSSE’s commitment to opening survey participation to all institutions
without imposing any pressure that they should make their institutional
results public. “As chair of the NSSE board, we believe strongly that
institutions own their own data and what they do with it is up to them.
There are a variety of considerations institutions are going to take into
account as to whether or not they share their NSSE data,” Bennett said.
However, as president of Earlham, which releases
all of its NSSE data and even releases its accreditation reports, Bennett
said he thinks colleges, even private institutions, have a professional and
moral obligation to demonstrate their effectiveness in response to
accountability demands — through NSSE or another means a college might deem
appropriate.
This Year’s Survey
The 2006 NSSE survey, which is based on data from
260,000 randomly-selected first-year and senior students at 523 four-year
institutions(NSSE’s companion survey, the
Community College Survey of
Student Engagement, focuses on two-year colleges)
looks much more deeply than previous iterations of the survey did into the
performance of online students.
Distance learning students outperform or perform on
par with on-campus students on measures including level of academic
challenge; student-faculty interaction; enriching educational experiences;
and higher-order, integrative and reflective learning; and gains in
practical competence, personal and social development, and general
education. They demonstrate lower levels of engagement when it comes to
active and collaborative learning.
Karen Miller, a professor of education at the
University of Louisville who studies online learning, said the results
showing higher or equal levels of engagement among distance learning
students make sense: “If you imagine yourself as an undergraduate in a
fairly large class, you can sit in that class and feign engagement. You can
nod and make eye contact; your mind can be a million miles away. But when
you’re online, you’ve got to respond, you’ve got to key in your comments on
the discussion board, you’ve got to take part in the group activities.
Plus, Miller added, typing is a more complex
psycho-motor skill than speaking, requiring extra reflection. “You see what
you have said, right in front of your eyes, and if you realize it’s kind of
half-baked you can go back and correct it before you post it.”
Also, said Kuh, most of the distance learners
surveyed were over the age of 25. “Seventy percent of them are adult
learners. These folks are more focused; they’re better able to manage their
time and so forth,” said Kuh, who added that many of the concerns
surrounding distance education focus on traditional-aged students who may
not have mastered their time management skills.
Among other results from the 2006 NSSE survey:
- Those students who come to college less
well-prepared academically or from historically underrepresented groups
tend to benefit from
engagement in educationally purposeful
activities even more than their peers do.
- First-year and senior students spend an
average of about 13 to 14 hours per week preparing for classes, much
less than what faculty members say is needed.
- Student engagement is positively correlated to
grades and persistence between the first and second year of college.
- New students study fewer hours during their
first year than they expected to when starting college.
- First-year students at research universities
are more likely than students at other types of institutions to
participate in a learning community.
- First-year students at liberal arts colleges
participate in class discussions more often and view their faculty more
positively than do students at other institutions.
- Seniors at master’s level colleges and
universities give class presentations and work with their peers on
problems in class more than students at other types of institutions do.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives
around the world are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
February 2, 2007 message from Carolyn
Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
ONLINE EDUCATION TRENDS
"Making the Grade: Online Education in the United
States, 2006" is the fourth annual report on the state of online learning in
U.S. higher education conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group and the
Sloan Consortium. The report, based on responses from over 2,200 colleges and
universities, addresses these questions:
-- Has the growth of online enrollments begun to
plateau?
-- Who is learning online?
-- What types of institutions have online offerings?
-- Have perceptions of quality changed for online
offerings?
-- What are the barriers to widespread adoption of
online education?
For more
information or to download the complete report, go to
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/making_the_grade.pdf.
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of
institutions and organizations committed "to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a
part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any
time, in a wide variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/.
For a related
article, see:
"The Invisible
Professor and the Future of Virtual Faculty"
By Martha C. Sammons, Wright State University, and Stephen Ruth, George
Mason University
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND DISTANCE LEARNING
January 2007
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_07/article01.htm
"Although the online teaching continues to grow in
popularity, it places greater demands on faculty than traditional courses. The
Sloan report found that this problem exists at all levels of postsecondary
education, from doctoral-granting institutions to community colleges. A
significant number of full-time professors are thus understandably reluctant to
participate in distance learning, and faculty questions about online teaching
continue. Traditional professors are disappearing from online classrooms as
distance learning has altered their roles and responsibilities, as well as their
professional status, job security, workload, rewards, and intellectual freedom.
This article delineates some of the most significant challenges and suggests
that distance learning has created new questions about the future of virtual
faculty."
......................................................................
2007 HORIZON REPORT ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
The 2007 Horizon Report is a collaboration between
the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative that "seeks to
identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on
teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education."
Some key trends that the report calls attention to
include
-- Increasing globalization is changing the way we
work, collaborate, and communicate.
-- Information literacy increasingly should not be
considered a given.
-- Academic review and faculty rewards are
increasingly out of sync with new forms of scholarship.
-- The notions of collective intelligence and mass
amateurization are pushing the boundaries of scholarship.
-- Students' views of what is and what is not
technology are increasingly different from those of faculty.
The complete
report is available at ---
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf.
The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an "international
501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of nearly 200 leading colleges, universities,
museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the
exploration and use of new media and new technologies."
For more information, go to
http://www.nmc.org/.
The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) is a
"strategic initiative of EDUCAUSE. While EDUCAUSE serves those interested in
advancing higher education through technology, ELI specifically explores
innovative technologies and practices that advance learning." For more
information, go to
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?Section_ID=86.
In "If the Academic Library Ceased to Exist, Would We
Have to Invent It?" (EDUCAUSE REVIEW, vol. 42, no. 1, January/February 2007, pp.
6-7) Lynn Scott Cochrane argues that "if college and university libraries and
librarians didn't exist, we would certainly have to invent—better yet,
re-invent—them."
The article is available at
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0714.asp
Soaring Popularity of E-Learning Among Students But Not Faculty
How many U.S. students took at least on online course from a legitimate college
in Fall 2005?
More students are taking online college courses than
ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the concept
of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s largest
association of organizations and institutions focused on online education . . .
‘We didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’
Elia Powers, "Growing Popularity of E-Learning, Inside Higher Ed,
November 10, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/10/online
More students are taking online college courses
than ever before, yet the majority of faculty still aren’t warming up to the
concept of e-learning, according to a national survey from the country’s
largest association of organizations and institutions focused on online
education.
Roughly 3.2 million students took at least one
online course from a degree-granting institution during the fall 2005 term,
the Sloan Consortium said. That’s double the number who reported doing so in
2002, the first year the group collected data, and more than 800,000 above
the 2004 total. While the number of online course participants has increased
each year, the rate of growth slowed from 2003 to 2004.
The report, a joint partnership between the group
and the College Board, defines online courses as those in which 80 percent
of the content is delivered via the Internet.
The Sloan Survey of Online Learning,
“Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006,”
shows that 62 percent of chief academic officers say
that the learning outcomes in online education are now “as good as or
superior to face-to-face instruction,” and nearly 6 in 10 agree that
e-learning is “critical to the long-term strategy of their institution.”
Both numbers are up from a year ago.
Researchers at the Sloan Consortium, which is
administered through Babson College and Franklin W. Olin College of
Engineering, received responses from officials at more than 2,200 colleges
and universities across the country. (The report makes few references to
for-profit colleges, a force in the online market, in part because of a lack
of survey responses from those institutions.)
Much of the report is hardly surprising. The bulk
of online students are adult or “nontraditional” learners, and more than 70
percent of those surveyed said online education reaches students not served
by face-to-face programs.
What stands out is the number of faculty who still
don’t see e-learning as a valuable tool. Only about one in four academic
leaders said that their faculty members “accept the value and legitimacy of
online education,” the survey shows. That number has remained steady
throughout the four surveys. Private nonprofit colleges were the least
accepting — about one in five faculty members reported seeing value in the
programs.
Elaine Allen, co-author of the report and a Babson
associate professor of statistics and entrepreneurship, said those numbers
are striking.
“As a faculty member, I read that response as, ‘We
didn’t become faculty to sit in front of a computer screen,’ ” Allen said.
“It’s a very hard adjustment. We sat in lectures for an hour when we were
students, but there’s a paradigm shift in how people learn.”
Barbara Macaulay, chief academic officer at UMass
Online, which offers programs through the University of Massachusetts, said
nearly all faculty members teaching the online classes there also teach
face-to-face courses, enabling them to see where an online class could fill
in the gap (for instance, serving a student who is hesitant to speak up in
class).
She said she isn’t surprised to see data
illustrating the growing popularity of online courses with students, because
her program has seen rapid growth in the last year. Roughly 24,000 students
are enrolled in online degree and certificate courses through the university
this fall — a 23 percent increase from a year ago, she said.
“Undergraduates see it as a way to complete their
degrees — it gives them more flexibility,” Macaulay said.
The Sloan report shows that about 80 percent of
students taking online courses are at the undergraduate level. About half
are taking online courses through community colleges and 13 percent through
doctoral and research universities, according to the survey.
Nearly all institutions with total enrollments
exceeding 15,000 students have some online offerings, and about two-thirds
of them have fully online programs, compared with about one in six at the
smallest institutions (those with 1,500 students or fewer), the report
notes. Allen said private nonprofit colleges are often set in enrollment
totals and not looking to expand into the online market.
The report indicates that two-year colleges are particularly willing to be
involved in online learning.
“Our institutions tend to embrace changes a little
more readily and try different pedagogical styles,” said Kent Phillippe, a
senior research associate at the American Association of Community Colleges.
The report cites a few barriers to what it calls the “widespread adoption of
online learning,” chief among them the concern among college officials that
some of their students lack the discipline to succeed in an online setting.
Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents defined that as a barrier.
Allen, the report’s co-author, said she thinks that
issue arises mostly in classes in which work can be turned in at any time
and lectures can be accessed at all hours. “If you are holding class in real
time, there tends to be less attrition,” she said. The report doesn’t
differentiate between the live and non-live online courses, but Allen said
she plans to include that in next year’s edition.
Few survey respondents said acceptance of online
degrees by potential employers was a critical barrier — although liberal
arts college officials were more apt to see it as an issue.
November 10, 2006 reply from John Brozovsky
[jbrozovs@vt.edu]
Hi Bob:
One reason why might be what I have seen. The
in residence accounting students that I talk with take online classes
here because they are EASY and do not take much work. This would be very
popular with students but not generally so with faculty.
John
November 10, 2006 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi John,
Then there is a quality control problem whereever this is a fact. It
would be a travesty if any respected college had two or more categories of
academic standards or faculty assignments.
Variations in academic standards have long been a problem between
part-time versus full-time faculty, although grade inflation can be higher
or lower among part-time faculty. In one instance, it’s the tenure-track
faculty who give higher grades because they're often more worried about
student evaluations. At the opposite extreme it is part-time faculty who
give higher grades for many reasons that we can think of if we think about
it.
One thing that I'm dead certain about is that highly motivated students
tend to do better in online courses ceteris paribus. Reasons are mainly that
time is used more efficiently in getting to class (no wasted time driving or
walking to class), less wasted time getting teammates together on team
projects, and fewer reasons for missing class.
Also online alternatives offer some key advantages for certain types of
handicapped students ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
My opinions on learning advantages of E-Learning were heavily influenced
by the most extensive and respected study of online versus onsite learning
experiments in the SCALE experiments
using full-time resident students at the University of Illinois ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois
In the SCALE experiments cutting across 30 disciplines, it was generally
found that motivated students learned better online then their onsite
counterparts having the same instructors. However, there was no significant
impact on students who got low grades in online versus onsite treatment
groups.
I think the main problem with faculty is that online teaching tends to
burn out instructors more frequently than onsite instructors. This was also
evident in the SCALE experiments. When done correctly, online courses are
more communication intent between instructors and faculty. Also, online
learning takes more preparation time if it is done correctly.
My hero for online learning is still Amy Dunbar who
maintains high standards for everything:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q4.htm#Dunbar
Bob Jensen
November 10, 2006 reply from John Brozovsky
[jbrozovs@vt.edu]
Hi Bob:
Also why many times it is not done 'right'. Not
done right they do not get the same education. Students generally do not
complain about getting 'less for their money'. Since we do not do online
classes in department the ones the students are taking are the university
required general education and our students in particular are not unhappy
with being shortchanged in that area as they frequently would have preferred
none anyway.
John
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing and education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Motivations for Distance Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#Motivations
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of online learning and teaching are
at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
November 2, 2006 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
RECOMMENDED READING
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been
recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly
interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published
by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu
for possible inclusion in this column.
"Emerging Leadership Roles in Distance
Education: Current State of Affairs and Forecasting Future Trends" By
Lisa Marie Portugal ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP, vol. 4, issue 3, Summer 2006
http://www.academicleadership.org/volume4/issue3/student_research/portugal_lisa_marie2/article.html
"This paper discusses the enormous impact distance
learning has had on traditional higher education and leadership roles within
those constructs. . . . [It focuses] on transformational leadership
qualities that are necessary for current and future successful distance
education programs."
In High Schools, Technical Schools, and Colleges: Online
Enrollment is Skyrocketing
"Degrees@StateU.edu: Online University Enrollment Soars as Quality Improves;
Tuition Funds Other Projects," by Daniel Golden, The Wall Street Journal,
May 9, 2006; Page B1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114713782174047386.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
While overall higher-education enrollment in the
U.S. is virtually stagnant, online enrollment is skyrocketing, and the
recent repeal of a federal rule requiring colleges to provide at least half
of their instruction on campus will boost it more. By early 2008, one out of
10 college students will be enrolled in an online degree program,
Boston-based market research firm Eduventures estimated last year.
Public schools are driving much of the growth.
Overcoming skepticism among some faculty members, state universities are
capitalizing on their traditional advantages -- quality education at
affordable prices -- to attract a nontraditional student body: online
learners who often live out of state. What's more, the online programs
generate millions of dollars that can be ploughed back into university
operations.
At UMass, online enrollment has quadrupled to 9,200
students since 2001. Most are working adults between the ages of 25 and 50,
and 30% are from out of state, compared with 20% of on-campus students.
UMass's online applicants undergo the same admissions review as candidates
for on-campus slots and can choose among 61 programs, ranging from a
master's degree in business to certificates in gerontology and casino
management.
Tuition is slightly higher than on-campus students
pay, because Web-based courses aren't state subsidized, enabling the online
program to net a projected $10 million this year for other university
endeavors. For instance, online students pay $670 a credit toward a
professional master's degree in business administration, compared with
$540-$600 for on-campus students. Still, UMass's online program is a bargain
compared with some for-profit ones: Ms. Patel says she has paid $18,000 in
tuition for two years at UMass, while her brother paid Phoenix $24,000 over
a similar period.
"Public universities are moving into the online
environment extremely rapidly," says Gary Miller, associate vice president
for outreach at Pennsylvania State University, which has 5,691 students
taking online courses, up 18% from the prior fiscal year. "It's part of our
mission as a land grant university of reaching out to people. The question
in our case wasn't 'Should we do this?' but 'How do we do it right?' "
Continued in article
Ottawa-Carleton e-School (an example of an online high school curriculum
in Canada) ---
http://www.ottawacarletone-school.ca/viewallcourses.asp
From the University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a
comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance
education information from Wisconsin, national, and international sources.
New information and resources are being added to the Distance Education
Clearinghouse on a continual basis.
The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the
University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners and
other University of Wisconsin institutions.
Jensen Comment
This site has glossaries and many links to other distance education sites.
Bob Jensen's links to distance education sites are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
An Enduring Story for a Pioneering For-Profit Distance Learning
Institution
60,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees through its distance
learning program
Administrators say that one of the state’s top
universities — either the University of Michigan or Michigan State — will soon
partner with Central on a distance-based business program, thanks to its strong
and solid history. Likewise, leading giants in the distance education field,
including Phoenix, have turned to the relatively small Midwestern campus for
advice.
"Distance Ed Pioneer Reassesses Itself," by Rob Capriccioso, Inside Higher Ed,
May 3, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/03/central
“People are very devoted to our campus,” says Terry
Rawls, interim vice president and executive director of professional
education at Central Michigan University, “but I’m embarrassed to say that
most have never been to a Chippewa football game.”
That’s because — long before for-profit colleges
like the University of Phoenix, Strayer University and Capella University
made Internet-based education a widespread phenomenon — the institution has
been churning out a variety of long distance degrees for individuals who
live nowhere near Michigan. The university, located in Mt. Pleasant, smack
dab in the middle of the state, has awarded about 60,000 undergraduate,
graduate and doctoral degrees through its distance learning program since
1971, and about 7,000 students now enroll in distance learning courses
during any given term, according to the university. Central has 60 satellite
campuses total, with a majority of sites in Michigan, Georgia, Virginia and
Ontario.
About 10 percent of regular fulltime instructors
from the Central Michigan campus teach both online and satellite courses. A
total of over 200 faculty and staff members administer the distance
education programs. New instructors must pass a strict review by faculty
members from the main campus in order to be hired. Of all institutions in
the country, Central is the second largest granter of master’s of business
degrees to African Americans.
Administrators say that one of the state’s top
universities — either the University of Michigan or Michigan State — will
soon partner with Central on a distance-based business program, thanks to
its strong and solid history. Likewise, leading giants in the distance
education field, including Phoenix, have turned to the relatively small
Midwestern campus for advice.
But as more institutions — publics, privates and
for-profits — get into the arena that Central first started researching in
the early 1970s, administrators at the university are trying to cope with
the competition. Like many other pioneering distance education institutions,
including the University of Maryland University College, the institution is
trying to figure out how to position itself for growth, while remaining
focused on offering high quality education.
Phoenix, in particular, has recently opened several
campuses in Michigan, where Central currently has 14 satellites. There has
been concern among administrators at Central Michigan that enrollment growth
would wane, which hasn’t happened yet.
“It’s difficult for a school like CMU to say that
they’re a leader in this field in the Midwest when you’ve got all kinds of
Phoenixes popping up,” says Charles Baker-Clark, a director with the
American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, who notes that one
Phoenix campus has recently opened in his hometown of Grand Rapids. “As a
business, these kinds of shops can be much more adaptable than a traditional
university.”
For-profits aren’t the only competition. Rawls says
that many smaller public universities have created programs similar to
Central’s in various regions of the country. “It’s the state schools that
are trying to do what we’ve been doing for 35 years now. Everybody is having
problems with state appropriations,” he says. “So more people are saying,
‘Let’s reach out to adult learners to make some money.’ ”
Alan Knox, an education policy expert with the
University of Wisconsin at Madison, cautions that institutions that think of
distance learning as a money-making venture would be wise to explore
failures like Columbia University, which spent millions of dollars on a
widely heralded distance education program that failed to take off. “When
you look at the cost-benefit ratio, some assume that distance learning will
be profitable,” says Knox. “But in actuality, it is not hugely different if
you ignore the costs of building and operating bricks and mortar campuses.”
Rawls also says that Central Michigan is trying to
be proactive on the recruitment and retention front. Not an easy task,
considering the fact that the off-campus division of the university is
limited in its budget abilities to spend money on marketing. Some
for-profits spend up to 25 percent of their revenue on glossy marketing
campaigns that have nationwide appeal. “There’s no way that we can afford to
play that game,” says Rawls, even though his division is self-supporting and
provided about $5 million in profits back to the Mt. Pleasant campus over
the past year.
The off-campus programs, to date, have largely
depended on word-of-mouth advertising, but administrators are currently
upping their e-marketing efforts and working with Web-based companies on how
to optimize keyword searches.
Administrators, too, have reached out to
Eduventures, a consulting firm that focuses on the education industry, to
help the institution communicate its strengths and learn from its
weaknesses. That firm has suggested that Central focus on efforts that help
them stand out from other institutions.
“Why are we successful?” asks Rawls. “Because we
have been doing it longer than most and we are as good as or better than
anyone in the country.”
In Rawls’s book, being “good” means implementing
programs that work for adult learners, who make up the majority of consumer
of Central’s distance learning programs. The university offers a variety of
courses to meet the divergent needs of individuals, including Web-based
programs as well as traditional distance learning programs where a student
can take evening courses at a Central campus — in, for instance, Hawaii. In
Atlanta alone, Central has 12 learning centers, which makes it easier for
commuters to not have to deal with as much traffic, says Rawls.
“Our goal is to deliver the same academic
experience in terms of educational quality in both on- and off- campus
efforts,” says Cheri DeClercq, associate director of enrollment management
for Central’s off-campus programs.
DeClercq also says that Central is competitive in
terms of pricing. For most distance learning programs offered by the
institution, the cost is $345 per credit hour, whether the classes are
offered online or at satellite campuses. Many for-profit institutions charge
substantially more for online courses than they do for in-person courses
because they tend to be more attractive to students who need flexible
scheduling.
Rawls also hopes to expand the number of online
offerings vastly in the short term. About 15 percent of the classes
currently offered in the off-campus programs are online, and he wants to be
more competitive with other institutions on this front. “Central and many
other institutions around the country are trying to respond to the
for-profit market by embracing technology in ways that help students,” says
Knox.
Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s
School of Education and an expert on distance education, says that Central
should be careful what programs can and should be offered online and what
needs to be done in person. Rawls says he realizes that one of the strongest
aspects of the program to date has been the one-on-one interaction that
Central has been able to offer thousands of students at satellite campuses.
Central Michigan’s Board of Trustees has kept a
watchful eye over the growth and development of the off-campus programs. In
the early part of this decade, they explored a plan to largely expand the
off-campus program to try to create more funds. They determined that
accreditation and other concerns put the idea out of reach at that time.
“We are such a different and unique beast,” says
Rawls. He sees Central going one of two routes over the next 35 years. “We
could have a damned good extended learning program in Michigan because of
our infrastructure here already and really focus on that,” he says. “Or we
could have a worldwide online operation, leveraging on our face-to-face
presences already.”
He seems to favor a combination of the two.
DOES DISTANCE LEARNING WORK?
A LARGE SAMPLE, CONTROL GROUP STUDY OF STUDENT SUCCESS IN DISTANCE LEARNING,
by
James Koch ---
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/vol8_no1/fullpapers/distancelearning.htm
The relevant public policy question is this---Does
distance learning "work" in the sense that students experience as least as
much success when they utilize distance learning modes as compared to when
they pursue conventional bricks and mortar education? The answer to this
question is a critical in determining whether burgeoning distance learning
programs are cost-effective investments, either for students, or for
governments.
Of course, it is difficult to measure the
"learning" in distance learning, not the least because distance learning
courses now span nearly every academic discipline. Hence, most large sample
evaluative studies utilize students’ grades as an imperfect proxy for
learning. That approach is followed in the study reported here, as well.
A recent review of research in distance education
reported that 1,419 articles and abstracts appeared in major distance
education journals and as dissertations during the 1990-1999 period (Berge
and Mrozowski, 2001). More than one hundred of these studies focused upon
various measures of student success (such as grades, subsequent academic
success, and persistence) in distance learning courses. Several asked the
specific question addressed in this paper: Why do some students do better
than others, at least as measured by the grade they receive in their
distance learning course? A profusion of contradictory answers has emanated
from these studies (Berge and Mrozowski, 2001; Machtmes and Asher, 2000). It
is not yet clear how important to individual student success are factors
such as the student’s characteristics (age, ethnic background, gender,
academic background, etc.). However, other than knowing that experienced
faculty are more effective than less experienced faculty (Machtmes and
Asher, 2000), we know even less about how important the characteristics of
distance learning faculty are to student success, particularly where
televised, interactive distance learning is concerned.
Perhaps the only truly strong conclusion emerging
from previous empirical studies of distance learning is the oft cited "no
significant difference" finding (Saba, 2000). Indeed, an entire web site,
http://teleeducation.nb.ca/nosignificantdifference, exists that reports 355
such "no significant difference" studies. Yet, without quarreling with such
studies, they do not tell us why some students achieve better grades than
others when they utilize distance learning.
Several studies have suggested that student
learning styles and receptivity to distance learning influence student
success (see Taplin and Jegede, 2001, for a short survey). Unfortunately, as
Maushak et. al. (2001) point out, these intuitively sensible findings are
not yet highly useful, because they are not based upon large sample, control
group evidence that relates recognizable student learning styles to student
performance. Studies that rely upon "conversation and discourse analysis"
(Chen and Willits, 1999, provide a representative example) and interviews
with students are helpful, yet are sufficiently anecdotal that they are
unlikely to lead us to scientifically based conclusions about what works and
what does not.
This paper moves us several steps forward in terms
of our knowledge by means of a very large distance education sample (76,866
individual student observations) and an invaluable control group of students
who took the identical course at the same time from the same instructor, but
did so "in person" in a conventional "bricks and mortar" location. The
results indicate that gender, age, ethnic background, distance learning
experience, experience with the institution providing the instruction, and
measures of academic aptitude and previous academic success are
statistically significant determinants of student success. Similarly,
faculty characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic background, and
educational background are statistically significant predictors of student
success, though not necessarily in the manner one might hypothesize.
Continued in this working paper
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the future of distance education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
See the U.S. News service for finding distance education programs --- http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/elearning/elhome.htm
Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C)
The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations
continually improve the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a
part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any
time, in a wide variety of disciplines ---
http://www.sloan-c.org/
Open2 portal to learning
I think Open University in the U.K. is the largest university in the world. It
has extensive onsite and online courses. BBC News and Open University
combined forces to create the Open2 portal to learning and news ---
http://www.open2.net/
There are also various forums.
Open2 Net Learning from Open University (the largest university in the
U.K.) ---
http://www.open2.net/learning.html
Online Journal of Distance Education ---
http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/
Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration ---
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html
July 31, 2005 message received from
tjdl@genesis.coe.uh.edu
The Texas Journal of Distance Learning (
http://www.tjdl.org
), an independent, peer-reviewed online journal,
encourages, collects, and shares scholarly knowledge about all aspects of
distance learning emanating from higher education in the state of Texas. An
editorial board of recognized academics and practitioners guides and produces
the journal. The University of Houston hosts and supports the TJDL.
"Students Perceptions of Distance Learning, Online Learning and the
Traditional Classroom," by John O'Malley, Department of Management and Business
Systems Harrison McCraw, Department of Accounting and Finance Richards College
of Business State University of West Georgia Carrollton, Georgia 30118-3030 ---
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/omalley24.html
Title: Complete book of distance learning schools : everything you need to
earn your degree without leaving home.
Editor: Princeton Review
Publisher: New York : Random House, 2001
Amazon link ---
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/a4647388fffede6ea19afeb4da09e526.html
Distance education -- Directories. -- United States |
Correspondence schools and courses -- Directories. -- United States |
Universities and colleges -- Directories. -- United States |
University extension -- Directories. -- United States
"Offering Entire Degrees Online is One Key to Distance
Education, Survey Finds," by Dan Carnevale, The Chronicle of
Higher Education, November 26, 2005, Page A1
The distance-education programs that
offer entire degrees online are more successful than those that offer only a
scattering of courses, a new survey has found.
The report, titled "Achieving
Success in Internet-Supported Learning in Higher Education," was written
by Rob Abel, president of a nonprofit organization called the Alliance for
Higher Education Competitiveness. The report was set to be released this
week.
Mr. Abel says the organization wanted to
find out what made a distance-education program successful and to share the
information with other institutions. The organization surveyed officials
at 21 colleges and universities that it determined to be successful in
distance education. In their responses, college officials highlighted
the need for such common elements as high-quality courses and reliable
technology.
But what struck Mr. Abel as most
important was that 89 percent of the institutions created online degree
programs instead of just individual online courses. Online degree
programs lead to success, he says, because they tend to highlight a college's
overall mission and translate into more institutional support for the faculty
members and students working online.
"It's easier to measure the
progress at a programmatic level," Mr. Abel says. "The
programmatic approach also gets institutions thinking about student-support
services."
Of course, success is subjective, he
says, and what may be deemed successful for one institution may not work at
another.
But he found that some college officials
believe distance education has not lived up to their expectations. He
hopes that some colleges will learn from institutions that have succeeded
online. "These particular institutions didn't see this as a bust at
all," Mr. Abel says. "Maybe that just means that they set
realistic expectations."
SUCCESS STORIES
One of the institutions included in the
report is the University of Florida, which enrolls more than 6,000 students in
its online degree programs. William H. Riffee, associate provost for
distance, continuing, and executive education at the university, says Florida
decided to move forward with a strong distance-education program because so
many students were demanding it.
"We don't have enough seats for the
people who want to be here," Mr. Riffee says. "We have a lot
of people who want to get a University of Florida degree but can't get to
Gainesville."
The university does not put a cap on
enrollments in online courses, he says. Full-time Florida professors
teach the content, and part-time faculty members around the country field some
of the questions from students.
"We have learned how to scale, and
we scale through an addition of faculty," Mr. Riffee says.
"You scale by adding faculty that you have confidence will be able to
facilitate students.
Another college the organization deemed
successful in distance education is Westwood College, a for-profit institution
that has campuses all over the country, in addition to its online degree
programs. Shaun McAlmont, president of Westwood College Online, says
some institutions may have trouble making the transition to online education
because higher education tends to be slow to change.
"How do you introduce this concept
to an industry that is very much steeped in tradition?" he asks.
"You really have to re-learn how you'll deliver that instruction."
Mr. McAlmont, who has also spent time as
an administrator at Stanford University, says non-profit institutions could
learn a lot from for-profit ones when it comes to teaching over the Internet.
Continued in article
Important Distance
Education Site
The Sloan Consortium --- http://www.aln.org/
The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth according to their own
distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety
of disciplines.
Education
Fraud and Gray Zone Warnings About Questionable Online Program ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
"Distance Education: A Review
of Contemporary Literature," by Stephanie M. Bryant, Jennifer B. Kahle, and brad
A. Schafer, Issues in Accounting Education, August 2005, pp. 255-272.
This is published by the American Accounting Association and is available for a
fee ---
http://aaahq.org/pubs/electpubs.htm
Added May
31, 2003
EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research --- http://www.educause.edu/ecar/
The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR)
provides timely research and analysis to help higher education leaders make
better decisions about information technology (IT). The current environment is
characterized by a lack of reliable information on IT in higher education.
While there are ample anecdotes, there is little factual information and even
less analysis. And the central issue may not be IT.
Although controversy often accompanies large-scale
information technology projects, in many cases it is not the technical aspects
of these projects that are the most problematic. Outsourcing, network
security, e-procurement, and e-learning are examples of complex issues that
may have been triggered by information technology, but whose resolution cannot
focus on IT alone.
ECAR assembles leading scholars, practitioners,
researchers and analysts to focus on issues of critical importance to higher
education, many of which carry increasingly complicated and consequential
implications. ECAR provides educational leaders with high-quality,
well-researched, timely information to support institutional decision-making.
Added March
15, 2003
The AT&T Learning Network Community Guide http://www.att.com/communityguide/index.html
Welcome to the AT&T Learning Network Community
Guide. AT&T developed this Guide as part of its ongoing effort to help
communities take advantage of the many benefits of information technology. As
part of that effort, AT&T funded a variety of organizations to develop
public community access centers for community members who do not have other
means to connect to the Internet. This Guide is intended to be a companion
document for those centers and other technology access centers around the
country. Whether you’re involved in running a community access center or you’re
a community member interested in learning the uses and benefits of the
Internet, this Guide will help get you started. If you’re a community member
looking for ways to begin planning your own access center, you’ll find tips
on how to “kickstart” that effort.
Community access centers take many forms and take
place in many sites within the community where people gather to communicate
with and learn from one another. You may find Internet access points in a
library, a church or a senior citizen-center. Perhaps your children attend a
summer camp that has an area where they can learn about and use these
technology resources. Many organizations, like the NAACP and the National
Urban League, provide many types of services for community members and are now
branching out to bring the reach of the Internet to their centers as well. The
point is that there are many organizations, many types of centers and many
opportunities to “get connected”— often from places that may have seemed
unlikely in the past.
Added
January 1, 2003
A Special Report from the United Nations on Global Distance
Education
This December 2002 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) Division of Higher Education published a report:
"Open And Distance Learning: Trends, Policy And Strategy
Consideration." The paper's objective is "to review open and distance
learning in the context of present challenges and opportunities, examine
relevant concepts and contributions, outline current global and regional trends,
suggest policy and strategy considerations, and identify UNESCO's initiatives in
open and distance learning, including its role in capacity-building and
international co-operation." --- http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf
Note especially the astounding growth
in the number of students enrolled in online training and education courses in
developing companies. These numbers are discussed in Part IV of the UNESCO
report. Many of the numbers are for 1995 or earlier, and we can only
speculate the the numbers have increased in the last eight years. For
example, in Indonesia enrollments were reported at 350,000 in 700 distance
education courses.
You can read the following introduction
in the report at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf
As a force contributing to social and economic
development, open and distance learning is fast becoming an accepted and
indispensable part of the main- stream of educational systems in both
developed and developing countries, with particular emphasis for the latter.
This growth has been stimulated in part by the interest among educators and
trainers in the use of new, Internet- based and multimedia technologies, and
also by the recognition that traditional ways of organizing education need to
be reinforced by innovative methods, if the fundamental right of all people to
learning is to be realized.
The globalization of distance education provides many
opportunities for developing countries for the realization of their education
system-wide goals. Two main factors have led to an explosion of interest in
distance learning: the growing need for continual skills upgrading and
retraining; and the techno- logical advances that have made it possible to
teach more and more subjects at a distance.
As Member States and their governments become more
aware of the potential of open and distance learning, it is essential for
their educational planning that the opportunities offered by new technologies
be realistically examined within the framework of national development plans
in general and educational policies in particular.
Faced with new training demands and new competitive
challenges, many institutions need to undertake profound changes in terms of
governance, organizational structure and modes of operation. More and more
traditional universities are rapidly transforming themselves from single mode
to dual mode universities, recognizing the importance of distance education in
providing students with the best and most up-to-date educational resources
available in addition to the traditional teaching methods that they receive.
The increasing number of open universities being established across the world
is highly indicative of this trend.
The Division of Higher Education is proposing an
updated version of its document, Open and Distance Learning: Prospects and
Policy Considerations, published in 1997. The present paper aims to review
open and distance learn- ing in the context of present challenges and
opportunities, describe relevant
FOREWORD .................................................................................................3
CONTENTS ...................................................................................................5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................7
Challenges and opportunities ........................................................................7
Concept and contributions .............................................................................8
Present trends in open and distance learning .............................................10
Internet and Web-based education ...............................................................11
Economics of open and distance learning ...................................................11
UNESCO™s initiatives in open and distance learning .................................13
I.INTRODUCTION ........................................................................
........................15
II.CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES ................................................17
Global changes, and challenges to education .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 17
The potential of open and distance learning .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 19
III.THE CONCEPT OF OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING ...............22
Introduction ...................................................................................................22
Components of all distance learning systems .............................................25
Major contributions of open and distance learning ....................................28
General education .........................................................................................28
Teacher education .........................................................................................29
Vocational and continuing education ...........................................................31
Non-formal education ..................................................................................33
Higher education ..........................................................................................35
The role of open and distance learning in educational innovation ................36
IV.PRESENT TRENDS IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING ..........40
Global trends . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 40
Regional trends . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 42
Africa ............................................................................................................42
Arab States ....................................................................................................46
Asia and the Pacific ......................................................................................47
South Pacific .................................................................................................53
Europe ..........................................................................................................53
Latin America and the Caribbean .................................................................57
North America ..............................................................................................61
V.INTERNET USAGE AND WEB-BASED EDUCATION ......................64
Setting the global context ..............................................................................64
Web-based learning .......................................................................................65
Creating a new educational platform ..........................................................66
Individualized learning and teaching ..........................................................67
Group learning and teaching via the Internet .............................................68
Collaborative activities ..................................................................................68
The institutional impact of Internet-technologies .....................................69
VI.ECONOMICS OF OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING ...................70
The cost-efficiency of open and distance learning .
. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 70
Factors affecting the cost of open and distance learning .
. . . . . . . . . 73
Who pays? . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
. . . . . . . . 79
Qualitative considerations .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .
. . 80
VII.UNESCO ’S INITIATIVES IN OPEN AND DISTANCE
LEARNING ..........................................................................................................................83
Setting the international context: open and distance education
from the lifelong learning perspective .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Basic education for all .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 84
Adult education . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 85
Renewing and diversifying education systems .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Teacher training . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 87
Higher education . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 87
Capacity-building for open and distance learning .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
International co-operation .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................91
|
Web Portals and Higher Education:
Technologies to Make IT Personal
ID No. PUB5006
Category Publications From the EDUCAUSE Office
Author Richard N. Katz
Organization EDUCAUSE Year 2002
Subject Terms Enterprise Portals
Price $18.00
Added
August 30, 2002
HANDBOOK OF ONLINE LEARNING: INNOVATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND CORPORATE
TRAINING Edited by Kjell-Erik Rudestam and Judith Schoenholtz-Read Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002 ISBN: 0761924027 (hbk.); 0761924035 (pbk.)
From http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761924035/qid%3D1030482142/sr%3D2-1/ref%3Dsr%5F2%5F1/002-8650629-2144831#product-details
Editorial Reviews Book Description Technology-mediated instruction has taken
the university and the corporate sector by storm. As more instructors teach
online for a dispersed learning community in both academic and business
environments, there’s a need for resources that will help them adapt to this
new sort of "classroom." Educators who come out of traditional
academic institutions tend to use traditional methods when offering courses
online (e.g., lectures, textbooks and readings, examinations) rather than
attend to small-group processes and principles of what the editors of this
volume call "andragogy." This handbook goes beyond the mechanics of
how to create and direct an online learning experience to consider such a new
approach to pedagogy in doing so. Their primary purpose is to clarify the
conceptual issues that underlie effective online teaching and to offer
practical guidance to educators and corporate trainers who plan to teach in a
virtual environment. Their central tenet: the adoption of computer networks as
the teaching vehicle of the future demands a reexamination of our core beliefs
about pedagogy and how students learn. The transfer of a classroom curriculum
into cyberspace is deceptively simple, but doing so without an appreciation of
the nuances and implications of learning online ignores not only the potential
of this medium but the inevitable realities of entering it. Rather than fear
the challenges that new technology brings to systems of learning, the editors
hope to help instructors embrace it by rethinking how knowledge is acquired
and how educational processes may be optimally designed in a new age of
teaching and learning.
From the Publisher
Part I provides an overview and includes discussion
of the unique structural aspects of the electronic learning environment,
pedagogical issues, curriculum design, psychological and group dynamics, and
ethical issues.
Part II examines practical issues associated with
implementing courses online, both in the traditional university setting and in
professional/corporate training environments.
The book draws heavily on personal case examples.
Added on
March 27, 2002
Online Learning: From Philosophy to
Application - Why We Should to How We Can
By Mary Delgado, Technology and Learning, March 2002, Page 52 --- http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/mdelgado.htm
Philosophy - Why
We Should
Explore Web sites
that will help you develop a strategy for online learning from developing a
philosophy to determining scenarios for application. In other words, find out
why we should to how we can.
Distance
Learning...What is it?
This site presents an interesting critique of the nature of e-learning and how
it can or cannot fit into existing philosophies of education. Differentiates
the different kinds of courses using online structure.
Learning
To Learn: Using research to define effective distance education.
The author presents a paper of the ideas of notable writers on the subject of
the philosophy of distance education.
alt.education.distance
FAQ [part 1 of 4]
This four-part website answers frequently asked questions about distance and
online learning.
Philosophy
and Purposes of Distance Education
This lengthy paper describes the philosophy and purposes of distance education
including credit and non-credit courses, relationship of on-campus and off
campus learning, and different models of distance learning.
Constructivist
Theory Unites Distance Learning and Teacher Education
They said it couldn't be done, but here is an article that combines
constructivist theory with both distance learning and teacher education. The
authors use interviews with teachers whose teaching methods have changed after
combining constructivist theory in building online courses.
Application -- How
We Can
GOALS:
Global Online Adventure Learning Site
This is a terrific site for teachers interested in taking their students on
virtual journeys. Each location allows students to view graphics and read
about the area. They can then email the explorers with comments and questions.
The Classroom Expedition page provides lesson plans and activities.
EdWeb:
Exploring Technology and School Reform
"An intelligent, detailed, informed and practical guide, both to
education related issues concerning the Internet, and to educational resources
on the World Wide Web." (quoted from the Harvard Educational Review)
Online
Learning - an Overview
Excellent site on the pitfalls and successes of online learning for university
students. Interactive pages provide wealth of information for prospective
students of e-learning.
Planning
and Designing Educational Facilities Online
This is an online course from the University of California Riverside for all
school board members, administrators, district planners, etc., who are
involved in the planning, designing, and executing the advancement of
e-learning.
The
Web of Asynchronous Learning Networks
Visit this resource website, which is for anyone interested in asynchronous
online delivery systems.
Education Fraud
Added September 9, 2002
One of the things I do out of sheer
boredom on a long flight, is to open the airline's in-flight magazine and scan
the classified advertisements. One can usually obtain a PhD for around $350 in
cash and a seven day waiting period. There are other graduate degrees available.
My point is that technology has not
changed education fraud much over time, although phony degrees are now easier to
advertise and can pop up from Web searches. One of the things I really hate is
when the phony "college" name on the diploma is exactly like or
similar to your own. There is a diploma bucket shop in the U.K that will give
you a phony degree and let you declare the name of the college you want it to be
from, e.g., Trinity College or Trinity University. We have had some
"graduates" of that diploma mill actually contact our Career
Placements Department at the real Trinity University and ask for assistance in
getting "post-graduate" jobs.
The good news is that really phone
degrees are so commonplace that most legitimate colleges and employers are
somewhat wary. But it is easy to be careless! What amazes me is how commonplace
it is for persons to practice as "doctors" without having the proper
medical degrees and licenses. Now that's scary!
For some reason, Utah is often the
address of choice for some of these is Salt Lake City. I think Utah needs to fix
up its state laws (perhaps it has since the last time I looked).
For those with phony degrees, I can
recommend some promising investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Bob Jensen
Original
Message-----
From: Davidson, Dee (Dawn) [mailto:dgd@MARSHALL.USC.EDU]
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 12:29 PM
To: AECM@LISTSERV.LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Phony "Distance Learning" on
the Web
Good Morning, Bob and
others with a stake in Distance Learning.
This article is in
Sunday's L.A. Times. It discusses the phony diploma mills that are available
through the internet. Phony diplomas and even "schools" that award
diplomas for a small fee have been around forever. My excerpt here has 2
points of interest to us:
1. the book by John
Bear includes these places with the legitimate schools offering Distance
Learning. 2. one of the "illegitimate" places is named Trinity
College and could be easily confused with Trinity University.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diploma8sep08002107.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
'But unlike
traditional diploma mills, the online versions exploit the wide reach of the
Internet to send millions of e-mail advertisements promising degrees without
"tests, classes, books or interviews.... No one is turned down."
The history of
so-called universities that sell degrees without any education or true
evaluation of experience goes back at least to the 19th century, said John
Bear, coauthor of "Bear's Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance
Learning," which includes information on diploma mills operating on the
Internet.
"Nothing has
much changed, except that on the Internet it's so much easier," he said.
"You can set up a site in an hour and send out e-mails. Then you just
need a printing press."
There may be dozens
of these operations, with names such as Earlscroft University, thought to
originate in Belgium, and Trinity College and University, with offices in
Pakistan and Venezuela.'
dee davidson
Accounting Systems Specialist
Leventhal School of Accounting
Marshall School of Business 213.740.5018 dgd@marshall.usc.edu
Bob Jensen's threads on education
fraud are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
Added on
August 4, 2001
Free Long Book
The Changing Faces of Virtual Education --- http://www.col.org/virtualed/
Dr. Glen Farrell, Study Team Leader and Editor
The Commonwealth of
Learning
RELEASED IN JULY 2001 by The Commonwealth of Learning
(COL): The Changing Faces of Virtual Education, a study on the latest “macro
developments” in virtual education. This is a follow-up on COL’s landmark
study on current trends in “virtual” delivery of higher education (The
Development of Virtual Education: A global perspective, 1999). Both reports
were funded by the British Department for International Development and are
available on this web site.
One of the conclusions of the authors of the 1999
report was that the development of virtual education was “more rhetorical
than real!” Dr. Glen Farrell, study team leader and editor of both reports,
says “This follow-up study concludes that, two years later, virtual
education development is a lot more rhetorical, and a lot more real!”
In terms of the rhetoric, virtual education is now
part of the planning agenda of most organisations concerned with education and
training. And the terminology being used to describe the activities is even
more imprecise and confusing! On the reality side, there are many more
examples of the use of virtual education in ways that add value to existing,
more traditional delivery models. However, a remarkable feature of this
surging interest in virtual education is that it remains largely focussed on
ways to use technology to deliver the traditional educational products (i.e.,
programmes and courses) in ways that make them more accessible, flexible, and
cheaper and that can generate revenues for the institution.
As global discussions on closing the “digital
divide” have observed, it is not surprising that the report notes that a
major feature of the current state of virtual education development is that it
depends on where you live. The growth is largely occurring in countries with
mature economies and established information and communication infrastructure
(ICTs). A lack of such infrastructure, together with the lack of development
capital, means that the developing countries of the world have not been able
to, as yet, use virtual education models in their efforts to bring mass
education opportunities to their citizens.
However, the report demonstrates that there are
several trends emerging that are likely to bring about radical changes to the
way we think about the concepts of campus, curriculum, courses,
teaching/learning processes, credentials/awards and the way ICTs can be
utilised to enable and support learning. These trends, called “macro
developments” in the report, include new venues for learning, the use of “learning
objects” to define and store content, new organisational models, online
learner support services, quality assurance models for virtual education and
the continuing evolution of ICTs. Each of these “macro developments” is
defined and described in separate chapters of the report. The final chapter
looks at their impact on the development of virtual education models in the
future. While the conclusions will be of general interest, particular
attention has been paid to the role these developments are likely to have in
the evolution of virtual education systems in developing countries.
The entire study is available on-line from this page.
By clicking on the various hyperlinks below you will be able to download and
open the individual chapters or the entire book in Acrobat (.PDF) format. (The
chapter files are not created with internal bookmark hyperlinks, but the
all-in-one file has bookmarks throughout for easier navigation.) Acrobat
documents can also be resized on screen for readability but are usually best
viewed when printed. Adobe Acrobat version 3.0 is required to download and
read the files. With version 4.0 each Chapter's actual page numbering is
retained in Acrobat's "Go To Page" facility and "Print
Range" selections.
The
Changing Faces of Virtual Education
CHAPTER
FILES TO VIEW OR DOWNLOAD IN PDF FORMAT
Preliminary
pages: title page, copyright page, contents (pg.
i-iv) 160kb
Foreword,
Prof. Gajaraj Dhanarajan and Acknowledgements (pg.
v-viii) 120kb
Chapter
1: Introduction, Dr. Glen M. Farrell
(pg. 1-10)
234kb
Chapter 2:
The Changing Venues for Learning, Mr. Vis Naidoo (pg.
11-28) 307kb
Chapter 3:
The Continuing Evolution of ICT Capacity: The Implications for Education,
Dr. Tony Bates (pg.
29-46) 335kb
Chapter 4:
Object Lessons for the Web: Implications for Instructional Development,
Mr. David Porter (pg.
47-70) 639kb
Chapter 5:
The Provision of Learner Support Services Online, Dr. Yoni Ryan
(pg.
71-94) 389kb
Chapter 6:
The Development of New Organisational Arrangements in Virtual Learning,
Dr. Peter J. Dirr (pg.
95-124) 448kb
Chapter 7:
Quality Assurance, Ms. Andrea Hope (pg.
125-140) 304kb
Chapter 8:
Issues and Choices, Dr. Glen Farrell (pg.
141-152) 247kb
Comment by Bob Jensen
All of the chapters of this book are informative and well written. I
especially liked Chapter 5 by Yoni Ryan. In Chapter 5, Dr. Ryan discusses
the pedagogical theory of learner-centeredness and the trend of "commodification"
in education that brought with it other services such as career counseling,
preparatory courses, and something akin to "customer service" as part
of an entire package of services to students. Some of the things mentioned
include the following:
- Technical and academic help desks
- Pre-admission counseling
- Academic advising
- Career advising
- Mentoring
- Financial aid
- Learning skills instruction
- Child care
- Library sources and online search help
- Phone support with prompt return of phone inquiries
- Professional development aids
- Post-enrollment services (content guides and updates, contact names,
tutors, continuing education, bulletin boards, listservs, etc.)
- Sensitivity to students with special needs
There is much more in Chapter 5 than can be summarized here. For
example, what did Open University do to help reduce the frequency of dropping
out of online courses? What are some of the things happening in India for
learner support?
Added on
July 12, 2001
Free Short Book
Distance Education and Its Challenges: An Overview, by D.G.
Oblinger, C.A. Barone, and B.L. Hawkins (ACE, American Council on Education
Center for Policy Analysis and Educause, 2001)
http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pdf/distributed-learning/distributed-learning-01.pdf
Abstract v
Distance or distributed education is one of
the most complex issues facing higher education institutions
today. This paper is designed to provide college and university
presidents with an overview of distance education, e-learning,or what
we prefer to call distributed learning. We prefer the term
distributed learning over distance education because “distance ”is
too restrictive a concept. Few institutions will be untouched by the
discussion and debate surrounding distributed education. As a
result, institutional leaders will need to understand its implications
for themselves and their institutions. This first paper in the
ACE/EDUCAUSE series, Distributed Education and Its
Challenges: An Overview, provides a general framework for
understanding the key questions that distributed education poses to
the higher education community. This overview paper identifies
significant issues associated with distributed education and suggests
a series of questions to help institutional leaders establish and
validate their options. We encourage institutions to use this
paper as a primer and hope that it will catalyze in-depth, strategic
discussions. In addition to framing the issues for various
stakeholders, the paper outlines topics that will be addressed
thoroughly in future monographs in the series, including issues of
quality control and leadership.
Foreword vii
Introduction 1
Challenging Assumptions 3
Student Learning 5
Strategic Goals 7
Intended Audiences 9
Market Size and Growth of Distance Education 11
Governance and Organization 13
Partnerships 17
Quality 19
Policies 21
Barriers 25
Leadership Challenges 27
Conclusion 29
The educational opportunities that
distributed learning affords are exciting, but institutions face
significant obstacles that need to be addressed before such prospects
can be made real. Among the challenges are the development of
•Viable organizational, governance, and
business strategies.
•Appropriate definitions of intellectual
property rules with faculty and other developers.
•Teaching modalities that recognize new
styles of learning.
•Suitable online student services and sup
port structures.
•Adequate faculty support structures.
•Meaningful assessment metrics.
•Articulation agreements defining what
and how many courses will be accepted and transferable for a degree.
•Policies regarding administration of
financial aid.
While there may be responses to each of these
challenges, not all answers are likely to be compatible within the
traditional cultures, structures, and processes of our colleges and
universities. How do higher education institutions develop a proactive
direction that harmonizes with the existing culture and values?
The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative ’s (NLII ’s)12
conditions for change found in Appendix 6 express the conviction that
the entire institutional “system ”must adapt for the venture to
succeed.
Although culture and technical readiness for
distributed education are not trivial issues, policy issues —and the
resulting legislation — may be as difficult. Policies designed
to remove the barriers to widespread adoption of distributed education
must come from all levels — federal and state governments, policy
agreements among the states, and state university systems —as well
as from the institutions them selves.
Distributed education can bring many benefits
to higher education, such as
•Enhanced learning experiences.
•Improved access to education.
•Greater learner flexibility.
•Expansion of education to new groups.
•Increased interaction and collaboration.
Distributed education will be part of higher
education’s future. With careful planning, judicious choices,
and resolute execution, that future will be a positive one for our
institutions, as well as for those we serve.
Appendix 1:
Comparison of Target Markets Among Selected Educational Providers 31
Appendix 2: Guidelines for Distance Education 33
Appendix 3: Council for Higher Education Accreditation
Competency Standards Project 35
Appendix 4: Measures of Quality in Internet-Based Distance
Learning 39
Council for Higher Education Accreditation Competency Standards
Project 35
Appendix 4: Measures of Quality in Internet-Based Distance Learning
39
Appendix 5: Resources for Distributed Learning 41
Appendix 6: Twelve Conditions for Change 43
Notes 45
About the Authors 47 |
The twelve conditions for change are as follows:
The following 12 conditions are indicative of the
institutional characteristics that are essential to effective action in the
knowledge-based economy in which higher education now operates:
- Choices —Identifying a strategic direction and
selecting a path to get there based on a clear sense of institutional
mission.
- Commitment — Allocating resources to enable the
institution to adjust its course and to follow the path selected.
- Courage — Energetic and focused leadership from
the very highest level of administration.
- Communication — Building a climate of trust by
including the entire campus community in the transformation process
through a carefully conceived and well-executed strategy for dissemination
of information about extant and emerging services, plans, decisions, etc.
- Cooperation — Collaborating across functions and
throughout levels and constituencies to achieve a consistent and
integrated set of support services for teaching and learning.
- Community — Complementing the community of
support nurtured through cross-functional collaboration with an equally
cohesive community of faculty across disciplines.
- Curriculum — Reconceptualizing the curriculum to
reflect its distributed, interdisciplinary, and outcomes-oriented nature.
- Consistency — Reflecting institutional
commitment to transformation through consistent action and recognizing the
importance of standards, within both the technology industry and the
institution.
- Capacity — Developing the teaching and learning
capacity of the institution (e.g., curriculum and faculty) to serve
student achievement and outcomes.
- Culture/Context — Understanding the culture,
values, and sensitivities of a given campus climate.
- Complexity/Confusion — Overcoming the confusion
associated with coping with transformation by adapting to the inherent
complexity of the decision-making process by adopting more agile and
responsive governance processes.
- Creativity — Developing strategies and tactics
that harmonize with the campus culture and context and recognizing that
this is a creative, not just a political,process.38
Added
on June 2, 2001
"The Work of Education in the Age of e-College," by Chris
Werry, First Monday, May 2001 --- http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_5/werry/
There has recently been a mad rush by
universities, venture capitalists and corporations to develop online courses,
virtual universities, education portals, and courseware. The drive to develop
a winning formula for commercial online education has fostered some unusual
partnerships. This paper provides a broad overview of some models of online
education that have been developed by commercial and academic institutions. It
examines some of the rhetorical strategies that have been used to talk about
online education by commercial groups, and discusses some of the hopes and
fears that have been associated with online instruction by academics,
administrators, and businesspeople. The paper outlines some of the main
players and positions involved in debates about online education, and suggests
some strategies that academic groups ought to explore. In particular, the
author argues that academics need something an open source movement for
academic resources, akin to the Free Software Foundation. This 'Free
Courseware Foundation' would give teachers greater control of their resources,
and better enable them to share materials with other teachers and with the
public.
There has recently been a mad rush by universities,
venture capitalists and corporations to develop online courses, virtual
universities, education portals, and courseware. The drive to develop a
winning formula for commercial online education has fostered some unusual
partnerships. This paper provides a broad overview of some models of online
education that have been developed by commercial and academic institutions. It
examines some of the rhetorical strategies that have been used to talk about
online education by commercial groups, and discusses some of the hopes and
fears that have been associated with online instruction by academics,
administrators, and businesspeople. The paper outlines some of the main
players and positions involved in debates about online education, and suggests
some strategies that academic groups ought to explore. In particular, the
author argues that academics need something an open source movement for
academic resources, akin to the Free Software Foundation. This 'Free
Courseware Foundation' would give teachers greater control of their resources,
and better enable them to share materials with other teachers and with the
public.
Contents
- Introduction
- Education Meets E-Commerce, or Michael Milken's
Plot to Eat Our Lunch
- Some Broad Trends within
- Online Education
- Four Positions Taken in Debates about Online
Education
- The Rhetoric of Online Education Solutions
Here
are some tidbits that I jotted down while reading Werry's paper:
-
Page
2
The number of online classes offered by universities
and colleges has grown rapidly. In 1999 one in three U.S. colleges offered some
sort of accredited degree online, and approximately one million students took
online classes (13 million take traditional classes only)
-
Page
3
Many universities have responded to the specter of
increased competition by launching online courses and virtual universities
of their own, by forming coalitions with other universities, or by forming
partnerships with corporations. For example, the University of California
at Berkeley has granted AOL the worldwide rights to market, license,
distribute and promote a number of its online courses.
-
Page
5
InstantKnowledge pays graduate students and
teaching assistants to take work they have done (summaries, papers, book
reviews, etc.) and make it available to students on the InstantKnowledge.com
site. An e-mail message sent to graduate students by the company in February
2000 states:
www.instantknowledge.com
- a place to connect, build community, exchange ideas, and earn a
professional wage.
IK knowledge
producers from around the world earn money - quickly - write about the
books they love, edit the best knowledge on the Web, and deliver the news.
Join a growing
movement of scholars benefiting from the power of the Internet to break
down walls that have separated the sources of knowledge - scholars - from
those who need it most - students.
And in July 2000
their Web site invited graduate students to "earn money doing what you
love - creating knowledge, building community, establishing career
credentials. Take control of your academic career - offer your knowledge
beyond the scope of the university, to the world, through the
Internet". The site organizes and hosts the materials produced by
graduate students and TAs, and makes money from sponsorships, advertising
and co-branding. InstantKnowledge is one of many commercial online education
companies that do not offer courses per se, but do provide a range of
services and resources to university students. Other companies provide
online tutoring services, test advice, and collect databases of course
evaluations (needless to say the criteria constructed are typically quite
different from the ones teachers use to evaluate classes). These services
function as an informal, largely invisible (to most academics, at least)
network of educational materials, advice, and knowledges that may, over
time, subtly recontextualize aspects of the educational work we carry out.
- Page 6
Some e-learning companies have organized free online courses as a way of
selling and promoting products. A group originally called "NotHarvard"
(they recently changed their name to "Powered",
after a legal battle with Harvard) is one of the pioneers of this business
strategy, which they describe as "Educommerce". Educommerce is
defined on their Web site as:
EduCommerce: 1. The
next big thing. 2. Using free online education as a powerful customer
acquisition tool - enhancing your customer value proposition. 3. Free online
education as a sales and marketing weapon to drive greater stickiness,
deeper customer intimacy and higher brand loyalty resulting in incremental
revenue. 4. Because sellers need to teach and buyers want to learn.
[12]
Classes are free,
and are typically organized around products (for example, NotHarvard
produces photography classes on behalf of vendors of photographic
equipment.) Often the classes recoup costs through urging students to buy an
accompanying book or software; through advertising and the collection of
demographic information; and, through marketing and promotion revenues.
Page 8
With the arrival of Jones
International University, higher education found its "first fully
accredited online university" [17]. Jones International University was
granted accreditation by the U.S. regional accreditation agency in March 1999,
and is the first online university to become fully certified by the Global
Alliance for Transnational Education. Courses at Jones International are
taught over the Internet by part-time, free-lance teachers located in
universities all over the U.S. The courses are highly modular and all involve
business subjects. There is no regular faculty or participatory governance
system, and no research is carried out. Critics of Jones International argue
that although it has the term "university" in its title, it ought
not be considered one. Altbach argues that Jones International is merely a
credentialing service, "a degree delivery machine, providing tailored
programs that appeal to specific markets" [18]. The American Association
of University Professors has fought to prevent accreditation of Jones
University, along with similar online programs.
Quotation
from Page 51 of The Business of Borderless Education, by S.C.
Cunningham, et al., (Australian Department of Education, Evaluations and
Investigations Programme of the Higher Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy
ISBN 0 642 44446 3 and Online Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 --- http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
It
(JIU) currently offers two degrees, Bachelors and Masters degrees in
Business Communications, and certificate programs, with each subject costed
at about $600 at Bachelor level, making a degree about $11 000, and $700 at
Masters level ($19 000 total). Student numbers
have been low to date, with only 1 0 students enrolled in the Bachelors
program at March 1999, and 64 in the Masters.
Officials do not anticipate making a profit until 2001, and expect to spend
‘millions’ in advertising (Pam Pease, The Denver Business Journ a l,
Marc h 12-18 1999, p. 29A). Curriculum development costs have been $US2.5
million to date (C H E, March 19, 1999, p. A27).
-
Page
9
Course Aggregators
Course aggregators are academic and
business organizations that specialize in taking online courses from a
variety of different institutions and assembling them into a single
electronic catalogue. The business model often invoked by course aggregators
is Amazon.com or Yahoo. Hungry
Minds is currently the best-known aggregator of online courses (it
was recently purchased by IDG Books, a publishing company whose line
includes the "Dummies" series, CliffsNotes and Frommer's). Their
Web site states that they offer "up to 17,000 courses from top
universities like UC-Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, as well as leading training
companies and subject experts" [19]. Hungry Minds
has signed cross-promotional deals with companies such as AOL and Yahoo in
order to get its online courses featured on these portals.
Online Consortia/Mega-Universities
This describes the strategy whereby
groups of related institutions integrate their online courses into a set of
programs that are then offered by a single virtual university. This takes
three main forms:
- Consortia of Research
Universities:
Ivy league schools and top research universities in the U.S. have been
quickest off the mark in exploring ways of developing commercial online
education. One of the boldest such projects is Unext. Unext is a company
that includes a group of top-tier universities (Columbia, Stanford,
University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, and the London School
of Economics and Political Science). Unext aims to be the "gold
standard" in online MBAs. The Unext Web site states:
-
"UNext.com was created
to deliver world-class education. We are building a scalable
education business that delivers the power of knowledge around the
world. To bring people the finest curricula, we collaborate and
co-brand with leading knowledge institutions. Ultimately, we plan
to form partnerships with leading establishments throughout the
world" [20].
-
One
such members of the UNext Advisory Faculty (Steve Orpurt who is now completing
his accounting Ph.D. at the University of Chicago) and Don Wortham (Executive
Director, For-Credit Programs at UNext.com) will be making presentations on
authoring and delivery systems at the August 11 CPE No. 1 session at the
American Accounting Association annual meetings in Atlanta --- http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/2001annual/cpe/cpe1.htm
-
Page
10
Universities within a region have begun integrating
their online materials and offering them via virtual universities. For
example the Western Governors University is a distance learning consortium
created by the governors of 11 western states, as well as Simon Fraser
University. Courses are held exclusively online. The Web site for the
college describes Western Governors University as:
A unique institution
that offers degrees and certificates based completely on competencies
-- your ability to demonstrate your skills and knowledge on a series of
assessments -- not on required courses. We make it possible for you to
accelerate your "time to degree" by providing recognition for your
expertise..
You can read more about WGU in
my threads on assessment at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#WGU
Forwarded by Aaron Konstam on February 25, 2003
WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY, a virtual institution,
was granted regional accreditation on Tuesday by a group of four accrediting
agencies. Officials at the university believe this will legitimize distance
education and competency-based education in the eyes of other institutions.
--> SEE http://chronicle.com/free/2003/02/2003022601t.htm
The WGU home page is at http://www.wgu.edu
WGU has had a long and hard struggle getting accreditation because it is so
non-traditional. The most important thing to note is that WGU is
competency based and non-traditional even though major colleges and universities
are providing the learning materials --- http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/academics/understanding.html
Unlike traditional universities that are typically
credit-based, WGU is a competency-based institution. Competencies are
nothing more than skills or knowledge identified by professionals in a
particular field as being essential for mastery of that field.
The benefit of this competency-based system is that
it makes it possible for you -- if you are already knowledgeable about a
particular subject -- to make progress toward completing a WGU degree even
if you lack college experience. WGU recognizes that you may have gained
skills and knowledge on the job, through years of life experience, or by
taking a course on a particular subject. This competency-based system does
not use credits in awarding degrees. Instead, students demonstrate their
knowledge or skills through assessments.
However, if you have completed college coursework
at another institution, you may have your transcripts evaluated and may be
able to have some associate-level domains cleared. Please use the links on
this page to learn more about WGU's competency-based education for
postsecondary degrees.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives are
at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
"Continued Growth for 2 Distance Ed Models,"
by Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, June 19, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/19/distance
Two unique models of providing distance education
to mainly nontraditional students are coming into their own, each showing a
healthy expansion of enrollments and growth in available course offerings.
One, the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges & Universities, has been
enlarging since its inception, while the other, Western Governors
University, faced years of skepticism from critics who said its ambitious
goals would never be met. Now, both are touting their success with fresh
numbers and statistics, suggesting that online education needn’t only come
from large for-profit companies or local community colleges.
In 2005, Regis University
announced a consortium of colleges that would work
together, rather than compete, to share each others’ online courses in a way
that would in effect vastly expand the offerings of each of the group’s
members. Since then, the 39 founding colleges of the
OCICU have
expanded to 68, with 1,784 course enrollments over the past year.
The model is unusual in that it allows colleges
that are interested in offering courses online, but don’t necessarily have
the resources to cover every conceivable topic, to supplement their catalog
with classes that already exist — in the consortium and on the Web, but not
on their campuses. So far, seven of the member colleges, including Regis,
act as “providers,” essentially allowing other colleges in the group to pick
and choose which courses to make available to their own students, with full
institutional credit assigned through the student’s college.
“We’ve just experienced remarkable growth and great
feedback from the schools participating,” said Thomas R. Kennedy, executive
director of new ventures at Regis. “Especially as member schools ... they
don’t have any online schools whatsoever, and overnight they have one.
That’s one of the beauties of it.”
That near-instant capability can serve students in
a number of ways. Do they need to fulfill a general elective requirement,
like sociology or political science? The providers offer plenty of
possibilities for students at colleges that don’t have the resources to fill
every gap in the curriculum. What about students interested in a niche
topic, like Irish studies? Some of the providers, as well as members that
are planning on offering up courses to the rest of the consortium in the
future, have such offerings as well.
Many, but not all, of the member colleges are
religiously affiliated, and most fit the profile of small- or medium-sized
institutions in the Council of Independent Colleges that may not have the
resources to get into the distance education business on their own. Members
pay a one-time fee of $3,500 to join the consortium plus an annual fee of
$1,000, Kennedy said, to cover administrative costs. Of the approximately
$1,350 in tuition for a three-credit course, he added, about $500 would go
to the provider school per student — essentially extra cash for a course
that was already being held, he pointed out — and $700 would remain at the
student’s home college, which would incur no additional cost.
“All these provider schools are doing is opening up
their classes ... to visiting students, in a way,” he said. The key
difference, however, is that students receive credit as if they took the
courses at their own institutions, rather than as transfer credits.
Kennedy said he’s been urging member colleges to
pocket that extra tuition money “and start investing in your own online
program.”
Some are doing just that. Keuka College, in upstate
New York, administers degree completion programs by partnering with
hospitals and community colleges across the state. To help students in its
various programs who need to take a specific course or two to complete their
degrees, the college can now send them to offerings available online through
the consortium.
“We found that by using courses offered through the
consortium, we could offer students more forms of access,” said Gary Smith,
associate vice president for professional studies and international programs
at Keuka, especially for the “general education or general elective pool
that’s outside our major program offerings.”
This year, Keuka will ramp up its own online
courses by playing to its strengths: If all goes according to plan, Smith
said, the college will add classes in Asian studies to the consortium’s
lineup.
A ‘Competency-Based’ University Takes Off
Another model that’s meeting or exceeding the
expectations of its leaders is breathing a sigh of relief. Western Governors
University, founded in 1997 by 19 state governors, started with ambitious
plans to grow its enrollment and become a regional economic engine. But the
initial plans faltered and the university found itself the object of
criticism and even scorn — although that wasn’t necessarily confined to
Western Governors.
“If you go back to the mid-’90s, when the idea for
WGU bubbled up from among the conversations from the governors of the
Western states, there was at that time no clear sense of whether or not
online education would work, period, or would work with any level of success
and any decent level of quality,” said Patrick Partridge, the university’s
vice president of marketing and enrollment. But, he acknowledged, there was
plenty of skepticism in academe as well. “I think that skepticism was both
of a financial type and sort of an awareness ... of the kind of political
hurdles in the higher-ed world.”
These days, the picture for both online education
in general, and WGU in particular, seems quite a bit brighter. The nonprofit
institution, which receives no state support and sustains itself primarily
through tuition and private donations,
announced this month
that it had reached an enrollment of 10,000 students — up from 500 in 2003.
That growth can be attributed to a number of factors, including regional
accreditation, but the university also emphasizes two features that
distinguish it from most of its peers: a “competency-based” approach to
assessing students’ work, and its nationally accredited Teachers College.
From the outset, courses and curriculums are
developed with input from senior faculty together with an “outside council”
including practitioners from a given field. Course material is then assessed
to a level that’s considered “highly competent,” Partridge said, by the
developers of the course, effectively creating a standardized set of
requirements in lieu of more independent assessments by individual
instructors. Upon completion, employers can theoretically be assured that
students are proficient in a specific set of skills and knowledge.
The university doesn’t give letter grades, and it
allows students to take as long as they want in their course of study —
which could be a mixed blessing, since they pay a flat fee (a bit under
$3,000) every six months. All in all, Partridge said, “we are as different
from the other online schools as they are from” traditional higher
education. It’s a model not suited to everyone, he acknowledged, but
especially tailored to students with a certain “impatience” or
“determination” to complete in a timely manner.
Another significant draw for WGU is the Teachers
College, which, unlike any other such online program, places graduates at
schools in virtually every state. Now, at least half of WGU’s students are
enrolled in the teaching program. “[W]e offer a path to initial teacher
licensure for individuals all around the country who want to become
teachers, often later in life where returning to a traditional school of
education ... is just not that convenient,” Partridge said.
The university projects further growth in the
coming years, with a predicted enrollment of up to 15,000 in the foreseeable
future. “We really see the future as one in which the people of the United
States and the adult audience need to have very good-quality and affordable
options to either get a first bachelor’s degree or continue to pursue [a]
master’s degree, in particular change careers and pursue dreams that will in
the long run strengthen our economy, the citizenry and make our country, our
states, etc., stronger,” said Partridge.
-
Pages
11-14
Four Positions Taken in Debates about Online
Education
-
The
Administrative Position
-
The
Corporate Position
-
The
'Faculty Resistance' Position
-
The
'Critical Engagement' Position
-
Pages
14-18
The Rhetoric of Online Education
I believe that rhetoricians, along with scholars in
many other disciplines, ought to initiate a careful analysis of the rhetoric
of online education. It is important that we examine how teachers, students,
knowledge, academic resources and community are represented; how key terms
are defined and struggled over by different groups, and how persuasive
language is used to convince various constituencies of the benefits of
particular visions of online education and of the university. In the section
that follows I identify several areas where a study of the rhetoric of
online education might focus.
-
How
Online Entrepreneurs Address Different Audiences
-
The
Use of 'Learner Centered', Constructivist Models of Education
-
E-commerce
and Online Education
-
Pages
18-22
Solutions
-
Give
Administrators Alternatives
-
Ensure
Control of Academic Resources & Construct Strategic Alliances
-
Examine
the Rhetoric of Online Education
-
Proceed
Cautiously
-
Train
Students to be "Community Architects"
The Werry article is too long and
complex to do justice to in a brief quote. Werry most certainly wants the
power and the open source rights in the hands of faculty rather than college
administrators and corporate executives. His concluding comments are as follows:
In the e-commerce
text Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities, Hagel and
Armstrong describe how to organize and exploit the resources produced by
online communities. They discuss how to train "community architects"
whose job it is to "acquire members, stimulate usage, and extract value
from the community" [38]. I would like to suggest that in our teaching
practices we could attempt to produce oppositional "community
architects". This would entail resituating courses that deal with online
information as part of an expanded project of critical practice in which
students are seen not just as technical problem solvers, but also as critics
who actively intervene in situations in which issues of value, power, and
social organization are negotiated. Such classes might promote the idea that
it is important that those who are engaged in the design and publication of
electronic texts, interfaces, databases, and tools for the formation of online
resources think about the cultural, political, and social implications of
their work. Training "community architects" could involve looking at
how competing discourses and competing information architectures represent the
possibilities for organizing online space, activity, access, assembly, public use, control and ownership.
Added May 27,
2001
Free Long Book:
The Business of Borderless Education, by S.C. Cunningham, et al.,
(Australian Department of Education, Evaluations and Investigations Programme of
the Higher Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy ISBN 0 642 44446 3 and
Online Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 --- http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
Acknowledgments viii
Research Team.ix
Abbreviations and acronyms.x
Executive summary xii
1 The brief and methodology 1
1.1 The brief 1
1.2 Methodology 2
1.2.1 Selection of interviewees 3
1.2.2 Interview protocols 7
1.2.3 Timeline 7
1.2.4 Dissemination 8
2 Corporate, for-profit and virtual
universities and the emergence of the corporatised universities 9
2.1 Introduction .9
2.2 The corporate university 12
2.3 The for-profit university 15
2.4 The virtual university 16
2.5 The traditional university 17
2.6 The emergence of corporate and virtual universities18
2.7 The corporatised university 23
3 New providers 27
3 New Products
3.1 Exemplar organisations 27
3.1.1 Corporate universities
McDonalds Hamburger University
27
Ford 28
AAPL 30
Microsoft 32
3.1.2 For-profit universities 32
University of Phoenix 32
DeVry Inc. and Keller Graduate School of Management 35
Sylvan Learning Systems Inc 36
3.1.3 Public/corporate
universities 38
USAF Air University 38
US Army 39
3.2 Contextual organisations 39
3.2.1 Corporatised arms of
traditional universities 40
New York Universityonline 40
University of Maryland University College 41
3.2.2 Regulatory and government
organisation 42
3.2.3 Virtual universities 45
Western Governors University 45
National Technology University 47
Christian University GlobalNet 49
Michigan Virtual/Michigan Virtual Automotive College.50
Jones International University 51
3.3 Labour organisation 52
The National Education
Association 52
3.4 Service companies 53
Corporate Universities Xchange
53
Gartner Group 53
3.5 Corporate universities 54
Sears Universities 54
Disney University 55
General Electric 56
Sun Microsystems Educational Services 58
Digital Education Systems 60
Motorola University 60
3.6 Other US developments in
corporate, for-profit and distance education .62
3.6.1 Auxilliary organisations 64
3.7 Australian organisations
investigated 69
Coles Institute 69
Melbourne University Private 71
4 Trends and issues in higher
education 75
4.1 Major trends 75
4.1.1 The business of education
75
4.1.2 The borderlessness of education 77
4.1.3 The rise of new providers 79
Corporate universities 79
Virtual universities 82
For-profit universities 83
4.2 Operations of the new providers
84
4.2.1 Mission and purpose 84
4.2.2 Governance and culture 87
4.2.3 Curriculum and content 90
4.2.4 Students and staffing 93
4.2.5 Technology 96
4.3 Issues 101
4.3.1 The business of education
101
4.3.2 Borderless education 103
4.3.3 International trade agreement and higher education 106
4.3.4 Mission and purpose 109
4.3.5 Governance and culture 109
4.3.6 Curriculum 110
4.3.7 Students and staffing 115
4.3.8 Technology 122
5 Implications for Australian higher
education 125
5.1 Introduction 125
5.2 Potential for development of corporate and virtual universities in
Australia 125
5.2.1 Technology and borderless
education 126
5.2.2 Corporate universities 129
5.2.3 Publicly-driven virtual universities 132
5.2.4 For-profit providers 133
5.3 Policy implications for
Australian postsecondary education 136
5.3.1 Recognition and regulation
138
5.3.2 Cross-sectoral issues 144
5.3.3 Equity and access issues 146
5.3.4 Institutional academic and staffing policies 148
Appendix A 155
Appendix B 165
References 313
Distance Education, by Marina
Stock McIsaac and Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena --- http://earthvision.asu.edu/~laurie/mcisaac/distance.htm
I don't know when this was written (I suspect in the mid-1990s), but some of
the material is very informative even if the study is somewhat dated.
Become familiar with the following documents:
Global-Cross Border Issues in the 21st Century --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads on Assessment of Education Technologies
--- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
The Power of the Internet
for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice
Report of the Web-Based Education Commission of the U.S. Congress, December 19,
2000 --- http://interact.hpcnet.org/webcommission/index.htm
"Practical Strategies for Teaching Computer-Mediated
Classes" by Brent Muirhead focuses on "strategies and principles that
will help online teachers to be creative and effective teachers." The paper
is available at http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/MAY01_Issue/article02.html
Other Publications
of Interest: --- http://www.detc.org/content/publica.html
Accredited Institutions of Postsecondary Education, American
Council on Education, Published for the Council for Higher Education
Accreditation; ISBN 1-57356-282-3, $59.95; The Oryx Press, 4041 North
Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85012-3397; (800-279-6799).
Bear’s
Guide to Earning Degrees Nontraditionally by John Bear, Ph.D.,
and Mariah Bear, M.A., Published by Ten Speed Press, P.O. Box 7123,
Berkeley, CA 94707; $29.95. ISBN 0-9629312-4-1; 1-800-841-BOOK or
510-559-1600.
Campus-Free
College Degrees by Marcie Kirsner Thorson; ISBN 0-916277-56-9,
9th Edition, $27.95 (plus $4 for shipping); Thorson Guides, P.O. Box
470886, Tulsa, OK 74147; 1-800-741-7771.
College
Degrees by Mail and Internet by John Bear, Ph.D., and Mariah
Bear, M.A., Published by Ten Speed Press, P.O. Box 7123, Berkeley, CA
94707; $12.95, ISBN 1-5008-109-6; 1-800-841-BOOK or 510-559-1600.
Distance
Learning Evaluation Guide (1996), Published by the American
Council on Education, ISBN 1-57356-106-1; $13.50; ACE Fulfillment
Service (Code W), Dept. 191, Washington, D.C, 20055-0191; phone:
301-604-9073.
Guiding
Principles for Distance Learning in a Learning Society, 1996,
Published by the American Council on Education, ISBN 1-57356-091-X,
$8.50; ACE Fulfillment Service (Code W), Department 191, Washington,
DC 20055-0191; phone: 301-604-9073.
Pocket
Guide to College Credit and Degrees: Valuable Information for Adult
Learners Seeking College Degrees by Jacqueline E. Johnson, Jo
Ann Robinson and Sally R. Welch; ISBN 0-8268-1465-1; $9.95 U.S./$12.95
Canada (includes shipping and handling); ACE Fulfillment Service,
Dept. 191, Washington, D.C, 20055-0191; phone: 301-604-9073.
The Best Distance Learning
Graduate Schools: Earning Your Degree Without Leaving Home by
Vicky Phillips and Cindy Yager, published by Random House/Princeton
Review Books, ISBN# 0-679-76930-7; $20; 1-800-733-3000 or local
bookstores.
|
An Innovative Online International
Accounting Course on Six Campuses Around the World http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm
A highlight for me at the November 6-7,
1998 AICPA Accounting Educators Conference was a presentation by Sharon
Lightner from San Diego State University and Linard
Nadig from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. This
presentation followed a ceremony presenting Professors Lightner and Nadig with
the $1,000 AICPA Collaboration
Award prize.
The course syllabus is located at http://www.aznet.net/course/doors/
The Collaboration Award was given for
an online course that is now offered to a class comprised of five students from
each of six universities in the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Hong
Kong, and the United States. I videotaped the presentation by Professors
Lightner and Nadig. The purpose of this document is to provide you with a
summary of the highlights of this innovative international accounting course.
The course has some highly innovative
features including the online participation of accounting standard setting
bodies in the various countries mentioned above. The course is also
innovative in that students in class and in team projects see and hear one
another over the Internet in a manner much like they would see and hear each
other if they were all in the same classroom.
MOOCs Are Free and Open
to Everybody in the World
Massive Open Online Course ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
By
definition there are no admission standards to take a MOOC and admission is
free, although fees may be charged for recognition (badges, completion
credentials, or college credits) that have added academic standards. In general,
MOOCs are video windows into advanced courses filmed live across the curriculum
at prestigious universities. Although some universities provide MOOCs for
introductory courses (undergraduate or graduate) MOOCs are not well suited to
introductory students who need more hand holding and personalized supervision
that are seldom, if ever, available in a MOOC taken by a "massive" number of
students. At the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania
introductory courses in the first-year MBA core can be taken for free as MOOCs.
Students who are planning to go into MBA programs around the world often take
these MOOCs in preparation when they will later be taking similar courses in
accounting, finance, management, marketing, etc. for credit.
IBM Certificate Badges Available
Free Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science Courses ---
https://bigdatauniversity.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on free distance education and training courses (most
from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Whereas the Wharton Business School offers core MBA courses as MOOCs, other
programs have distance education courses that are not
MOOCs because of fees and admission standards. For example, the Harvard
Business School has an extension program for pre-MBA courses that are relatively
expensive and capped regarding course size with competitive admission standards.
Bob Jensen's threads on these and other free-based distance education courses
are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Harvard Extension School: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Open
Learning Course ---
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/intensive-introduction-computer-science
Links to Free Computer and Coding Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
The cumulative number of MOOCs didn’t break 100 until
the end of 2012. But by the end of 2013 that number had grown to over 800. And
today the number of registered MOOC students added in 2015 is nearly equal to
the last three years combined.
"MOOCs Are Still Rising, at Least in Numbers," by Ellen Wexler,
Chronicle of Higher Education, October 19, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moocs-are-still-rising-at-least-in-numbers/57527?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elq=7bf78ed93ead47d3a4da220c40587cbd&elqCampaignId=1647&elqaid=6629&elqat=1&elqTrackId=f325471009eb4e959e66d27de2031216
When one of the first
massive open online courses appeared at Stanford University, 160,000
students enrolled. It was 2011, and fewer than 10 MOOCs existed worldwide.
It has been four years since
then, and according to a new report, the cumulative number of MOOCs has
reached nearly 4,000.
Compiled earlier this month
by Dhawal Shah, founder of the MOOC aggregator Class Central, the report
summarizes data on MOOCs from the past four years. And the data show that
even as the MOOC hype has started to die down, interest hasn’t tapered off.
The cumulative number of
MOOCs didn’t break 100 until the end of 2012. But by the end of 2013 that
number had grown to over 800. And today the number of registered MOOC
students added in 2015 is nearly equal to the last three years combined.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Note the graph showing that the cumulative number of MOOCs to date is nearly
4,000 course, most of which are courses from prestigious universities like
MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Rice, etc. Although MOOCs are free by
definition they cannot usually be taken for transcript credit unless a fee
is paid for competency-based testing. The two largest credit providers are
Coursera and EdX. One of the more noted MOOCs available is from Arizona
State University where the entire first year of courses can be taken for
credit.
Noncredit credentials (badges) for a fee are
also available for most MOOCs that demonstrate completion of a MOOC and
sometimes a level of competency that might be recognized by employers even
though they do not qualify for transcript college credit.
"Who Takes MOOCs?" by Steve Kolowich,
Inside Higher Ed, June 5, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/05/early-demographic-data-hints-what-type-student-takes-mooc
Massive open online courses,
or MOOCs, are popular. This much we know.
But as investors and higher
ed prognosticators squint into their crystal balls for hints of what this
popularity could portend for the rest of higher education, two crucial
questions remains largely unanswered: Who are these students, and what do
they want?
Some early inquiries into
this by two major MOOC providers offer a few hints.
Coursera, a company started
by two Stanford University professors, originated with a course called
Machine Learning, which co-founder Andrew Ng taught last fall to a virtual
classroom of 104,000 students. Coursera surveyed a sample of those students
to find out, among other things, their education and work backgrounds and
why they decided to take the course.
Among 14,045 students in the
Machine Learning course who responded to a demographic survey, half were
professionals who currently held jobs in the tech industry. The largest
chunk, 41 percent, said they were professionals currently working in the
software industry; another 9 percent said they were professionals working in
non-software areas of the computing and information technology industries.
Many were enrolled in some
kind of traditional postsecondary education. Nearly 20 percent were graduate
students, and another 11.6 percent were undergraduates. The remaining
registrants were either unemployed (3.5 percent), employed somewhere other
than the tech industry (2.5 percent), enrolled in a K-12 school (1 percent),
or “other” (11.5 percent).
A subset (11,686
registrants) also answered a question about why they chose to take the
course. The most common response, given by 39 percent of the respondents,
was that they were “just curious about the topic.” Another 30.5 percent said
they wanted to “sharpen the skills” they use in their current job. The
smallest proportion, 18 percent, said they wanted to “position [themselves]
for a better job.”
Udacity, another for-profit
MOOC provider founded by (erstwhile) Stanford professors, has also conducted
some initial probes into the make-up of its early registrants. While the
company did not share any data tables with Inside Higher Ed, chief executive
officer David Stavens said more than 75 percent of the students who took the
company’s first course, Artificial Intelligence, last fall were looking to
“improve their skills relevant for either current or future employment.”
That is a broad category,
encompassing both professionals and students, so it does not lend much
nuance to the questions of who the students are or what they want. And even
the more detailed breakdown of the students who registered for Ng’s Machine
Learning course cannot offer very much upon which to build a sweeping thesis
on how MOOCs might fit into the large and diverse landscape of higher
education.
Coursera has since completed
the first iterations of seven additional courses and opened registration for
32 more beyond that. Many of those courses — which cover poetry, world
music, finance, and behavioral neurology — are likely to attract different
sorts of people, with different goals, than Machine Learning did. “I'm
expecting that the demographics for some of our upcoming classes (Stats One,
Soc 101, Pharmacology, etc.) will be very different,” said Daphne Koller,
one of Coursera’s founders, in an e-mail.
Continued in article
"Coursera Tops 1 Million Students,"
Inside Higher Ed, August 10, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2012/08/10/coursera-tops-1-million-students
Coursera, the company
that provides support and Web hosting for massive open online courses at top
universities, announced Thursday that more than 1 million students have
registered for its courses. The company now serves as a MOOC platform for 16
universities and lists 116 courses, most of which have not started yet. The
students registering for the courses are increasingly from the United
States. Coursera told Inside Higher Ed earlier this summer that about 25
percent of its students hailed from the United States; that figure now
stands at 38.5 percent, or about 385,000 students. Brazil, India and China
follow, with between 40,000 to 60,000 registrants each. U.S. students cannot
easily get formal credit through Coursera or its partners institutions, but
some universities abroad reportedly have awarded credit to students who have
taken the free courses.
Educating the Masses: Coursera doubles the
number of university partners
"MOOC Host Expands," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, September 19,
2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/19/coursera-doubles-university-partnerships
"The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses (MOOCs) For
Professionals," by Maggie Zhang, Business Insider, July 8, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7
12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health's "Data
Analysis"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7#ixzz37LiJgQ57
"MOOCs
haven't lived up to the hopes and the hype, Stanford participants say," by
Dan Stober, Stanford Report, October 15, 2015 ---
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/october/moocs-no-panacea-101515.html
Thank you Glen Gray for the heads up.
October 17, 2015 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Glen,
Is the message that learning
from Stanford professors is not worth the price of $0?
Actually I think the message
is that for many folks who try MOOCs the work of learning is too intense and
time consuming given their lack of commitment to keeping up with the class.
Richard Campbell once
revealed to the AECM that when he tried to learn from a MOOC it was like
"trying to drink from a firehose." I dropped out of a C++ programming course
because my heart just was not in keeping up with the class. Ruth Bender
revealed to the AECM that completing a MOOC was one of the hardest things
she ever tried.
In my viewpoint MOOCs are
not a good model for introductory students where more hand holding is
generally needed. MOOCs are better suited to highly specialized advanced
courses for learners who are way above average in terms of aptitude and
prior learning.
Udemy ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udemy
Udemy.com is an online
learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults.[2] Unlike academic
MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a
platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to
the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.[3] Udemy provides
tools which enable users to create a course, promote it and earn money from
student tuition charges.
No Udemy courses are
currently credentialed for college credit; students take courses largely as
a means of improving job-related skills.[3] Some courses generate credit
toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract
corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their
company.[4] For example, PayPal has used the service to train its employees
to write Node.js code.[5]
You can enroll in over 55,000 online classes
for $10.99 each during Udemy's New Year's sale (sale ends on January 11, 2018) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/udemy-new-years-sale-2018
Udemy ---
https://www.udemy.com/
For example, in the "What do you want to learn" box type in accounting.
Don't confuse Udemy with Coursera that serves on a higher plane in MOOC-for-credit
education
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
Cross-Border Training
and Education Alternatives
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The Master List of Free
Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/
From Mark Kappel on March 4, 2016
MoneyGeek.com
has created a financial aid guide for online colleges. An interactive map
offers readers financial aid resources based on state, degree level, school
type and more. In addition, readers can explore federal student loans and
grants specific to online schools.
Review the guide here:
http://www.moneygeek.com/education/college/resources/financial-aid-for-online-colleges/
InformED: Listing of Sites for Free Courses and Learning Modules (unlike
certificates, transferable credits are never free) ---
http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/free-online-courses-50-sites-to-get-educated-for-free/
Guide to Online Community Colleges ---
http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/online-colleges/community-colleges/
School of Open (Creative Commons) ---
http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org
AACC: 21st Century Center (community college helpers, including practice
examinations) ---
http://www.aacc21stcenturycenter.org/
For example search on the term "accounting"
A report on people who attended for-profit colleges in Florida in the past
decade concluded that the education they received was superficial and not worth
the amount of debt they accumulated ---
Click Here
Mega Universities Partnering with Private and Public Sectors for Employee
Education and Traning
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Partnerships
OpenClassrooms Online Vocational Training ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenClassrooms
Among the prestigious firms using OpenClassrooms for retraining are
Amazon, Microsoft, and PwC ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-openclassrooms-is-helping-corporations-like-amazon-retrain-workers-2019-11
Video: A Scenario of Higher Education in 2020
(or thereabouts)---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
Can a Huge Online College Solve California’s
Work-Force Problems?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Huge-Online-College/244054?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=f80ba3e869f84decb4965e602626b579&elq=fe9f9bb29c1f407097558d58d6c15b2f&elqaid=19912&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=9243
Jerry Brown was taking a victory lap.
The call went out to reporters early on a recent Monday morning: The
governor would attend that day’s meeting of the California Community
Colleges Board of Governors. A few minutes after 11, tieless and relaxed,
Brown slid into a seat on the dais. He was just in time — and not
coincidentally — for a discussion of the state’s newest, and wholly online,
community college.
The virtual college, the 115th institution in California’s two-year system,
is Brown’s baby, its approval in June the capstone to his sunset year in
office. The college is meant to serve a population too often left behind by
higher education: under- or unemployed adults who need new skills to land a
job, secure a raise, nab a promotion, just to maintain a toehold in a
swiftly changing workplace. An online institution, its advocates say, will
allow so-called stranded workers — there are 2.5 million Californians
without a postsecondary degree or credential between the ages of 25 and 34
alone — to take short-term courses whenever, wherever.
Reaching those workers will be necessary for the world’s fifth-largest
economy to continue to grow and thrive. And if the online college enrolls
even a fraction of its target audience, it would become the largest provider
of distance education, public or private, in the nation. The scale — and the
potential for innovation — has people across the country looking West.
Given the floor at the Board of Governors meeting, Brown, a Democrat,
couldn’t help crowing. "This is a no-brainer, it is obvious, it is
inevitable, it is a juggernaut that cannot be stopped," he said. "California
is a leader, it will lead in this. And I say, hallelujah."
For all the governor’s certitude, it may be premature to declare the online
college a sure fix to the state’s yawning gaps in educational and economic
opportunity. The unknowns are many: Will job seekers or employers find value
in an institution that offers only certificates and credentials, as is the
plan for new college, not the degrees so frequently required for
middle-class work?
Digital learning promises convenience, but will harried parents and
overburdened breadwinners be any more likely to log onto a computer than set
foot in a classroom? If they do register for an online course, will they
flourish? After all, studies consistently show that students — low-income
and first-generation students most especially — do better in face-to-face or
hybrid courses.
Backers of the new college, like Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the
community-college system, pledge to consult with employers and unions to
make sure the competency-based credentials offered are prized in the
workplace. Research has identified interventions that can help online course
takers perform well; starting from scratch, such strategies can be baked in.
"We will do as much as possible," Oakley says, "to give them the best
opportunity for success."
Continued in article
"A
Future Full of Badges," by Kevin Carey,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Future-Full-of-Badges/131455/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Competency-Based Learning ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
EDUCAUSE: Competency-Based Education (CBE) ---
https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-learning/competency-based-educati
Western Governors University is a Leading Competency-Based Learning
University ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
Here’s How Western Governors U. Aims to Enroll a Million Students ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-How-Western-Governors/243492?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=0fe6b239932845ee9da44c2fa67cdf5f&elq=885d6ac654144af5aff9430a4640932d&elqaid=19192&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8710
Bob Jensen's Threads on Competency-Based Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
2U is a For-Profit Education
Technology Company ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2U_(company)
Abiyt 2U ---https://2u.com/about/
London School of Economics and its partner company (2U) will create its
first fully online data science (undergraduate) degree. Program, priced at
$20,000 for a three year degree---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/08/06/london-school-economics-start-2us-first-undergraduate-degree?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6cd3965160-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-6cd3965160-197565045&mc_cid=6cd3965160&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Purdue University purchased Kaplan University formerly owned by the Washington
Post.
Kaplan now has a new name called Purdue Global University
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/
NYT: The for-profit-college industry
continues to cheat students while the Trump administration and Republicans in
Congress do nothing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/predatory-colleges-students-devos.html?elqTrackId=5dc95869b80045dc96a6648f05c9c2bd&elq=8199fd0e47494950a55cdf9dbcbbfc9a&elqaid=19193&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8711
Question
What's the most important criteria for sustainable online programs?
Bob Jensen's Answer
In my mind the most important criteria are academic standard reputations and
sustainability if the Federal government stopped paying tuition for military
veterans. Sustainable online programs have reputation things and niches that
make them survivors. Most flagship universities (think Wisconsin and Illinois)
have online programs these days that are cash cows for the onsite programs and
would survive even without Federal money for military veterans. Such flagship
online programs are filling a variety of needs and are often taught by the same
faculty who teach on campus. Probably the most exciting new things these days
are the McDonalds new program for funding employee higher education (onsite or
online) and the Purdue takeover of Kaplan University's faltering online
programs.
Of course some online programs have non-traditional funding like Western
Governors University and programs funded by employers like Walmart, Starbucks,
etc.
The University of Phoenix’s online enrollment plummets while Western
Governors and Southern New Hampshire near 100,000 students as they vie to rule
the roost.---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/23/nonprofits-poised-unseat-u-phoenix-largest-online-university?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e057cf8bf5-DNU20180111&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e057cf8bf5-197565045&mc_cid=e057cf8bf5&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Liberty University ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University
Roughly Half the Students are Graduate Students
15.000 Students On Campus
Nearly 100,000 Students Online
3.1 Center for Law and Government
3.2 Rawlings School of Divinity
3.3 Technical Studies and Trades
3.4 Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center
3.5 College of Osteopathic Medicine
3.6 School of Business
3.7 School of Aeronautics
3.8 School of Engineering
3.9 School of Music
NYT; How Liberty University Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Online
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/magazine/how-liberty-university-built-a-billion-dollar-empire-online.html?elqTrackId=c3412b137c0b46c9999c5833ed3dca57&elq=c99a9c459f244693a05fd66569b048c0&elqaid=18667&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8407
Not to be forgotten in all of this is Arizona State University's 150
online programs, including employer-funded programs (think Starbucks) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_University
Arizona State University (commonly referred to as
ASU or Arizona State) is a public metropolitan research university on five
campuses across the Phoenix metropolitan area, and four regional learning
centers throughout Arizona, as well as 150 online programs. The 2018
university ratings by U.S. News & World Report rank ASU No. 1 among the Most
Innovative Schools in America for the third year in a row and has ranked ASU
No. 115 in National Universities with overall score of 47/100 with 83% of
student applications accepted.
ASU is one of the largest public universities by
enrollment in the U.S. It had approximately 72,000 students enrolled in fall
2017, including 59,198 undergraduate and 12,630 graduate students.] ASU's
charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the "New
American University" model created by ASU President Michael M. Crow. It
defines ASU as "a comprehensive public research university, measured not by
whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed;
advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental
responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the
communities it serves."
Liberty University, Purdue University, and ASU may well be the models of the
future for comprehensive universities.
Prestigious universities (think Stanford and MIT) have online specialty
programs (e.g., in engineering) as well as participation in online MOOC degree
and certificate programs via EdX, Coursera, etc. ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course#Notable_providers
IBM Certificate Badges Available
Free Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science Courses ---
https://bigdatauniversity.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on free distance education and training courses (most
from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Udemy ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udemy
Udemy.com is an online
learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults.[2] Unlike academic
MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a
platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to
the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.[3] Udemy provides
tools which enable users to create a course, promote it and earn money from
student tuition charges.
No Udemy courses are
currently credentialed for college credit; students take courses largely as
a means of improving job-related skills.[3] Some courses generate credit
toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract
corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their
company.[4] For example, PayPal has used the service to train its employees
to write Node.js code.[5]
You can enroll in over 55,000 online classes
for $10.99 each during Udemy's New Year's sale (sale ends on January 11, 2018) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/udemy-new-years-sale-2018
Udemy ---
https://www.udemy.com/
For example, in the "What do you want to learn" box type in accounting.
Don't confuse Udemy with Coursera that serves on a higher plane in MOOC-for-credit
education
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
The largest for-profit training school (with 130 campuses) thrown
under the bus?
ITT ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Technical_Institute
Now closed
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 26, 2016
This was it for ITT
The Obama administration
took steps
Thursday that could
effectively force the closure of one of the nation’s largest for-profit
college chains, banning ITT Technical Institute from enrolling new students
who receive federal aid. ITT, which has about 43,000 students nationwide, is
facing accusations from its accreditor of chronic mismanagement of its
finances and using questionable recruiting tactics. The company is also
under investigation by state and federal authorities. Parent
ITT Educational Services Inc.’s stock plunged.
IBM Certificate Badges Available
Free Analytics, Big Data, and Data Science Courses ---
https://bigdatauniversity.com/
Bob Jensen's threads on free distance education and training courses (most
from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Update on
Learning to Code
Learn How to Code for Free: A DIY Guide for Learning HTML, Python,
Javascript & More ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/learn-how-to-code-for-free-a-diy-guide-for-learning-html-python-javascript-more.html
CS For All: Introduction to Computer Science and Python Programming ---
https://www.edx.org/course/cs-all-introduction-computer-science-harveymuddx-cs005x
Code.org (computer sciencighties, Perl excels at
processing text, and developers like it because it's powerful and flexible.
It was once famously described as "the duct tape of the web," because it's
really great at holding websites together, but it's not the most elegant
language. Perl: Originally developed by a NASA engineer in the late
eighties, Perl excels at processing text, and developers like it because
it's powerful and flexible. It was once famously described as "the duct tape
of the web," because it's really great at holding websites together, but
it's not the most elegant language. Wikimedia Commons
. . .
C:
One of the oldest programming languages still in common use, C was created
in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language's legendary and still widely read
manual, the 800-page "The C Programming Language," saw print for the first
time. C: One of the oldest programming languages still in common use, C was
created in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language's legendary and still
widely read manual, the 800-page "The C Programming Language," saw print for
the first time. Flickr
. . .
Objective-C:
The original C programming language was so influential that it inspired a
lot of similarly named successors, all of which took their inspiration from
the original but added features from other languages. Objective-C has grown
in popularity as the standard language to build iPhone apps, though Apple's
been pushing its own Swift language, too. Objective-C: The original C
programming language was so influential that it inspired a lot of similarly
named successors, all of which took their inspiration from the original but
added features from other languages. Objective-C has grown in popularity as
the standard language to build iPhone apps, though Apple's been pushing its
own Swift language, too. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
. . .
JavaScript:
This is a super-popular programming language primarily used in web apps. But
it doesn't have much to do with Java besides the name. JavaScript runs a lot
of the modern web, but it also catches a lot of flak for slowing browsers
down and sometimes exposing users to security vulnerabilities. JavaScript:
This is a super-popular programming language primarily used in web apps. But
it doesn't have much to do with Java besides the name. JavaScript runs a lot
of the modern web, but it also catches a lot of flak for slowing browsers
down and sometimes exposing users to security vulnerabilities. Dmitry
Baranovskiy via Flickr
. . .
Visual Basic:
Microsoft's Visual Basic (and its successor, Visual Basic .NET) tries to
make programming easier with a graphical element that lets you change
portions of a program by dragging and dropping. It's old, and some think
it's lacking features next to other languages, but with Microsoft's backing,
it's still got its users out there. Visual Basic: Microsoft's Visual Basic
(and its successor, Visual Basic .NET) tries to make programming easier with
a graphical element that lets you change portions of a program by dragging
and dropping. It's old, and some think it's lacking features next to other
languages, but with Microsoft's backing, it's still got its users out there.
Wikimedia Commons
. . .
Ruby:
Like Python, developers like this 24-year-old language because it's easy
to read and write the code. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for
Ruby that makes it really easy to use it to build web apps. The language's
official motto is "A programmer's best friend." Ruby: Like Python,
developers like this 24-year-old language because it's easy to read and
write the code. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for Ruby that
makes it really easy to use it to build web apps. The language's official
motto is "A programmer's best friend." ©V&A images
Python:
This language traces back to 1989, and is loved by its fans for its highly
readable code. Many programmers suggest it's the easiest language to get
started with. Python: This language traces back to 1989, and is loved by its
fans for its highly readable code. Many programmers suggest it's the easiest
language to get started with. Flickr/nyuhuhuu CSS: Short for "Cascading
Style Sheets," CSS is a programming language to design the format and layout
of a website. A lot of website menus and mobile app menus are written with
CSS, in conjunction with JavaScript and garden-variety HTML.
CSS:
Short for "Cascading Style Sheets," CSS is a programming language to design
the format and layout of a website. A lot of website menus and mobile app
menus are written with CSS, in conjunction with JavaScript and
garden-variety HTML. Wikimedia Commons
. . .
R:
This is the programming language of choice for statisticians and anybody
doing data analysis. Google has gone on record as a big fan of R, for the
power it gives to its mathematicians.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/programming-languages-in-highest-demand-2015-6?op=1#ixzz3eIfsCJdR
Free Code Camp ---
http://www.freecodecamp.com/
DevArt: Art made with code ---
https://devart.withgoogle.com/
Bob Jensen's
bookmarks for multiple disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm
Bob Jensen's
links to free courses and tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Enrollment Woes Continue for U. of Phoenix," Inside Higher Ed,
March 26, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/03/26/enrollment-woes-continue-u-phoenix
Jensen Comment
An enormous problem for all online programs from for-profit university is the
rise in the popularity and quality of online degree programs from major
state-supported universities. Search for over 1,200 online programs at
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
This is my recommended search engine for online degree
programs.
Note the links to US News rankings of these online programs at the above site.
Don't trust those online search programs sponsored by for-profit universities
because they exclude the affordable and higher quality online programs from
major non-profit universities. Almost daily I get requests to link to one of
these misleading search programs. I think people get paid if they can get
Webmasters like me to link to these search programs (generally it is the same
misleading search program under a different name).
Lynda.com charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content
hosted on the platform ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Weinman#Lynda.com
"Lynda.com Announces $186 Million Investment," Inside Higher Ed,
January 15, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/01/15/lyndacom-announces-186-million-investment
The online learning platform Lynda.com
has set an early tone for the ed-tech venture capital
and equity market in 2015 with a $186 million investment. The private equity
company TPG Capital led the investment, while firms Accel Partners, Meritech Capital
Partners and Spectrum Equity -- as well as some of Lynda.com's earlier
investors -- also participated. Lynda.com
charges users between $250 to $375 a year to access content hosted on the
platform, and will use the investment for
acquisitions and growth, the company said in a
press release.
Lynda.com has became a huge learning site with over 500 instructors ---
http://www.lynda.com/
Jensen Comment
Because of the high price for each student (in addition to textbook prices) I
would look first to see if there are good free tutorials for what you need such
as in the tens of thousands of tutorials in hundreds of learning channels now on
YouTube, the thousands of free tutorials at the Khan Academy, and the hundreds
of thousands of free learning tutorials linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
Open Campus is a large provider of learning certificates. This site also has
a substantial amount of free learning resources ---
http://www.greycampus.com/opencampus
Also note how popular technology is becoming in the onsite classrooms
"Report: 83 Percent of High Schools Offer Online Courses," by Joshua
Bolkan, T.H.E. Journal, June 6, 2014 ---
http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/06/11/report-83-percent-of-high-schools-offer-online-courses.aspx
Only 17 percent of high schools do
not currently offer any online classes and more than 40 percent are
offering online courses in English language arts, history, math or
science, according to the latest report from
Project Tomorrow's
Speak Up report.
Based on online survey responses from more than
400,000 teachers, administrators, students and community members, the
latest report, "The
New Digital Learning Playbook: Advancing College and Career Skill
Development in K-12 Schools," examines
attitudes about technology's role in preparing K-12 students for higher
education and careers.
The reasons principals who
participated in the survey cited for offering online classes include
offering remediation, at a rate of 66 percent, Keeping students engaged,
at 63 percent and to provide credit recovery options, at 61 percent.
"Teachers who teach online classes,
in particular, see a strong correlation between the use of
technology and students' college and career ready skill
development," according to information released by Project Tomorrow.
"More than half of these teachers say technology use helps students
understand how to apply academic concepts to real world problems (58
percent), take ownership of their learning (57 percent) and develop
problem solving and critical thinking skills (57 percent)."
Other key findings regarding online
learning and digital resources include:
- 32 percent of elementary
school teachers surveyed told researchers they use games in
their classrooms. The most common reason cited was increasing
engagement, at 79 percent, followed by the ability to address
different learning styles at 72 percent;
- Science teachers are more
likely than other teachers to report using digital content in
the classroom, with 63 percent reporting that they use videos
they find online versus only 48 percent of other teachers.
Science teachers also reported using animations at a clip of 52
percent and only 22 percent of other teachers said the same. The
difference held across other types of digital content as well,
including virtual labs, real time data, online textbooks and
teacher-created videos;
- Teachers with online classes
were more likely than those in 1:1 environments and those using
digital content to report that technology helps students develop
creativity, take ownership of their learning, develop critical
thinking or problem solving skills or understand how concepts
relate to the real world;
- Online teachers were less
likely than teachers in 1:1 environments and teachers who use
digital content to tell researchers technology can increase
motiviation to learn or help students learn to work
collaboratively;
- While 41 percent of teachers
surveyed reported that they had taken at least one online course
for professional development, only 17 percent told researchers
they were interested in teaching an online class;
- More than half, 54 percent,
of administrators who participated in the survey told
researchers they believed " that the effective use of digital
content within the classroom can increase students'
career readiness by linking real world problems to academic
content. Administrators surveyed also said that providing enough
computers and bandwidth to realize those benefits was a
challenge, at rates of 55 and 38 percent, respectively; and
- Technology administrators who
took part in the survey said that sufficient bandwidth would
increase the use of streaming content in classes (74 percent),
increase the use of multimedia tools (68 percent) and the use of
online curricula (57 percent).
Read more at http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/06/11/report-83-percent-of-high-schools-offer-online-courses.aspx#ly5DUUCPUp93XCxL.99
MOOC for Credit Updates
EdX (edX) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EdX
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
Arizona State University (ASU) ---
http://www.asu.edu/
Global Freshman Academy at ASU ---
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/23/three-questions-for-the-asuedx-global-freshman-academy-online-program/#.mdnza8b:OlFh
Jensen Comment
Arizona State University is one of the most innovative, if not the most
innovative, large and respective universities in the USA. Innovation is so
rapid and so complex at ASU that it must be an administrative nightmare.
Academe was shocked when
Starbucks Corporation announced a free undergraduate degree distance
education fringe benefit to be administered by ASU. Originally, only employees
who had a prior two years of college were eligible, but now virtually all
full-time Starbucks employees are eligible to study online for four years from
ASU for an undergraduate degree. This Starbucks fringe benefit is part of ASU's
innovative online distance education program that is a fee-based program instead
of a free MOOC program. For Starbucks employees their employer pays the tuition.
The University also has an innovative MOOC
sports program that the NCAA repackages via Coursera for third parties ---
http://blogs.wpcarey.asu.edu/knowit/what-lurks-beneath-the-tip-of-the-mooc-iceberg/
ASU first joined the MOOC window into courses
with a
journalism course and then expanded MOOC windows into other courses. ASU
also commenced a MOOC program as well that is a free video window into its
freshman general education core. Anybody in the world may view freshman courses
through this window and study alongside ASU campus students taking these core
courses. Initially the MOOC viewers could not get academic credit.
Global Freshman Academy at ASU
Now ASU is experimenting with making academic credit available to MOOC viewers
through edX. MOOCs can be viewed for free but academic credit is fee-based.
Bob Jensen's threads on thousands of MOOCs
from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Harvard: The Death of Supply Chain Management ---
https://hbr.org/2018/06/the-death-of-supply-chain-management?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_campaign=weeklyhotlist_not_activesubs&referral=00202&deliveryName=DM7738
Jensen Comment
Darn --- just when Walmart commenced to pay for college majors in this
discipline
Walmart’s too-good-to-be-true “$1 a day” college tuition
plan, explained ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/1/17413326/walmart-college-tuition-worker-pay-unemployment
If headlines this week
like
“Walmart’s perk for workers: Go to college for $1 a
day” (CNN) or
“Walmart to offer employees a college education for
$1 a day” (Washington Post) sound too good to be true, that’s
because they largely are. The benefit is real, but it is much more
restrictive than those headlines suggest. It’s essentially a bulk purchasing
discount for a narrow range of online college courses.
It’s also a telling
benefit on a number of levels. The labor market is getting stronger, and
employers are needing to think harder about how to invest in recruiting and
retaining employees. But the old-fashioned strategy of paying more continues
to be something corporate America resists, in part out of habit and in part
because offering higher wages is a little more complicated than it looks.
Companies like Walmart are, in essence, trying to get creative with their
compensation packages in hopes of narrowly targeting the money they expend
on the core goal of recruiting and retaining desirable workers.
The question is whether
policymakers will keep unemployment low long enough to break through the
wall of resistance to across-the-board pay hikes and force big companies to
finally just raise pay.
Walmart’s actual tuition
plan, explained
The Walmart program is
limited to online degree programs offered by three schools — the
University of Florida,
Brandman University, and
Bellevue University — and specifically
focused on bachelor’s or associate degrees in either
business or supply chain management.
You won’t, in other
words, be able to do part-time shifts at Walmart to “pay your way through
college” in the traditional sense.
But
qualifying Walmart employees (including both full-time and part-time workers
who’ve been with the company for 90 days) will get discounted tuition,
books, and access to a coach who will help them decide on an appropriate
program and shepherd them through the application process
It’s a nice opportunity
for Walmart employees to gain a chance at upward mobility off the retail
floor, and that’s likely the point. Unlike higher cash wages (which of
course can be used for online college tuition as well as rent, gasoline,
movie tickets, medical expenses, etc.), the tuition benefit is likely to be
disproportionately appealing to people who are on the more ambitious end of
the distribution. It’s an effort, in other words, to make Walmart more
attractive specifically to the most appealing set of potential workers, a
strategy other companies have pursued in recent years.
Many large employers are
trying tuition benefits
Modest tuition programs
have long been a staple of large employer benefits packages largely because
of favorable tax treatment. The IRS allows employers to give employees
several thousand dollars’ worth of tuition benefits tax-free, which makes
establishing a program something of a no-brainer for most companies big
enough to be employing a large back-office staff anyway.
But four years ago,
Starbucks blazed the trail of offering a much more
ambitious reimbursement program that essentially offered taxable
tuition subsidies rather than taxable wage increases.
The reason: Academic
research shows that workers who are interested in tuition subsidies are
different from workers who are not. While everyone likes money,
Peter Cappelli’s 2002 research indicates that the
workers who like tuition subsidies are more productive than those
who don’t, and
Colleen Manchester’s 2012 research shows that
subsidy-using employees have longer time horizons and are less
likely to switch jobs.
In March of this year, a
consortium of
big US hotels launched a generous tuition discount
program, and later that month,
McDonald’s substantially enhanced its tuition
benefits. Kroger — another top five US employer —
rolled out a new tuition program in April,
and
Chick-fil-A expanded its program in May.
These initiatives differ
in detail, but the broad story is the same. The unemployment rate is now
low, so recruiting new staff is getting harder. Companies are looking to
enhance their compensation but would like to do so in targeted ways.
Continued in article
"Less Than 1%," by Carl Straumsheim,
Inside Higher Ed, December 21, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/21/323-learners-eligible-credit-moocs-arizona-state-u?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=162e714d50-DNU20151221&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-162e714d50-197565045
ASU has not shared how many
credit-seeking MOOC learners it hopes to enroll -- if such a goal exists.
Speaking to Inside Higher Ed in April, Philip Regier, university
dean for educational initiatives, said there were “a lot of uncertainties”
around that number. He added that he expected “maybe 25,000” to register for
some of the MOOCs. The astronomy MOOC, the largest of the first three,
attracted 13,423 registrants.
A spokesperson for the
university, in response to whether the results are satisfactory, said,
“ASU’s goal is reaching learners who want access to high-quality
college-level education. The Global Freshman Academy charts a new path in
access to higher education, and the results of the inaugural courses are a
positive first step for the GFA.”
Low completion rates are
nothing new to MOOCs. In fact, a completion rate in the low double digits --
even in the high teens -- can be seen as a success.
MOOC researchers, however,
have argued that completion rates don’t matter as much as they do in
traditional online and face-to-face courses. The open structure of MOOCs,
they say, allows learners to register for a course but only focus on a
handful of units. In other words, a low completion rate can mask the fact
that many learners got something out of the MOOC, even if they didn’t finish
it.
“In open online learning,
completion numbers provide only one small perspective on people's learning
experiences,” Justin Reich, executive director of MIT’s Teaching Systems
Lab, said in an email. “It would also be worth learning more about the
experiences of the 3,300 or the 34,000. Did they have good learning
experiences? Are they more familiar with ASU and its faculty? What public
interests or institutional interests were served by offering the course?”
Reich has
previously explored the demographics of the
learners who registered for MOOCs offered by Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- the two institutions behind edX.
His
recent research, which appeared earlier this month
in Science, found MOOCs “can exacerbate rather than reduce
disparities in educational outcomes related to socioeconomic status.” The
results build on earlier findings about MOOCs, which have suggested MOOCs
cater more to older learners with previously earned degrees instead of the
learners ASU is targeting -- high school students, international students
and students considering community college, among others.
“I'm not surprised that few
people took advantage of the credit option in the first run -- that's been
common across certificate experiments in MOOCs,” Reich wrote. “A trajectory
over time will be more useful than a snapshot. If these numbers stay very
low, it will be harder to justify continuing the program than if they grow
quickly and if the program gets more accepted and recognized.
Continued in article
"Nearly 4,000 Starbucks Employees Apply to
Arizona State (online)," Inside Higher Ed, September 3, 2014 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2014/09/03/nearly-4000-starbucks-employees-apply-arizona-state
Following Starbucks employee education benefits
with Arizona State University,
Anthem Blue Cross offers education benefits with the University of Southern New
Hampshire
"An Increasingly Popular Job Perk: Online
Education," by Mary Ellen McIntire, Chronicle of Higher Education,
June 2, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/an-increasingly-popular-job-perk-online-education/56771?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Wal-Mart subsidizes an entire undergraduate
degree.
"Fiat Chrysler Offers Degrees to Employee
Families (including families of dealer employees) ," Inside Higher Ed,
November 23, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/11/23/fiat-chrysler-offers-degrees-employee-families?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b3c3eb755f-DNU20151123&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b3c3eb755f-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based
distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free online
education (most of which still offers free learning without college credits) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance
education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses (MOOCs) For Professionals,"
by Maggie Zhang, Business Insider, July 8, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7
12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health's "Data
Analysis"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7#ixzz37LiJgQ57
Update
2015: The 10 most popular free online
courses for professionals ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-coursera-courses-of-2015-2015-12
Bob Jensen's links to free course materials,
videos, and entire courses from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
School of Open (Creative Commons) ---
http://schoolofopen.p2pu.org
Google Is Offering Free Coding Lessons To Women And Minorities ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-free-coding-lessons-to-women-2014-6#ixzz35qMerq6C
Jensen Comment
I think any women and minorities can apply, including college graduates, K-12
teachers, and professors.
Department of Education in March 2014: 17,374 online higher
education distance education and training programs altogether
Jensen Comment
Note that the hundreds of free MOOC courses from prestigious universities are
not the same as fee-based distance education degree and certificate programs
that are more like on-campus programs in terms in student-instructor
interactions, graded assignments, and examinations. Some campuses like the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee even treat online programs as cash cows
where the tuition is higher for online programs than identical on-campus
programs.
The (Department of Education Report in
March 2014) report says that American colleges now
offer 17,374 online programs altogether, 29 percent of which are master’s-degree
programs, with bachelor’s and certificate programs making up 23 percent each.
Business and management programs are the most popular, at 29 percent of the
total, followed by health and medicine programs (16 percent), education programs
(14 percent), and information technology and computers (10 percent) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/quickwire-there-may-be-fewer-online-programs-than-you-think/51163?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Wharton's Financial Accounting course is in the Top 12
Also note that those that argue you can't teach public speaking online are
apparently wrong, although I don't see why they are wrong.
The moving forces behind MOOCs have been MIT, Harvard, and Stanford.
MIT and Harvard have the most MOOC offerings, but none of them made the Top 12.
However, the rankings below are considered "professional" courses, and the
graduate business schools at MIT, Harvard, and Stanford are not, to my
knowledge, serving up MOOC courses. The Wharton School at Penn, however, is
serving up the core courses in the first year of Wharton's two-year MBA program.
Two of those courses are in the Top 12 below.
Reasons for taking MOOCs are many and varied. I think many students who
enroll for the free Wharton core business courses are preparing to do better in
their forthcoming MBA programs wherever those are to be taken around the globe.
Most students probably take free MOOCs in general out of curiosity of how
popular courses at prestigious universities are taught. Some professors take
MOOCs just to see how the content of courses is handled by a well-known teacher.
"The 12 Most Popular Free Online Courses (MOOCs) For Professionals,"
by Maggie Zhang, Business Insider, July 8, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7
12. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's
"Data
Analysis"
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-courses-for-professionals-2014-7#ixzz37LiJgQ57
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs and open sharing learning materials in
general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
There are for-credit distance education
courses available from most major universities these days. These, however, are
not free due, in part, to the costs of assigning grades for credit. Bob Jensen's
threads on fee-based distance education training and education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Laureate International Universities ---
http://www.laureate.net/
Question
What are the for-profit Laureate International Universities and where are their 800,000 paying students?
Why did key alumni of Thunderbird University resign from the Board because of
the sale of campus to Laureate?
"Going Global," by Elizabeth Redden and Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed,
October 10, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/10/laureates-growing-global-network-institutions
Laureate Education is big. Like 800,000 students
attending 78 institutions in 30 countries big. Yet the privately held
for-profit university system has largely remained out of the public eye.
That may be changing, however, as the company
appears ready for its coming out party after 14 years of quiet growth.
Laureate has spent heavily to solidify its head
start on other globally minded American education providers. In addition to
its rapid growth abroad, the company has courted publicity by investing in
the much-hyped Coursera, a massive open online course provider. And Laureate
recently
made news when the International Finance
Corporation, a World Bank subsidiary, invested $150 million in the company
-- its largest-ever investment in education.
The company has also kicked up controversy over its
affiliation with the struggling Thunderbird School of Global Management, a
freestanding, nonprofit business school based in Arizona.
The backlash among Thunderbird alumni, many of whom
aren’t keen on a takeover by a for-profit, has dragged the company into the
ongoing fight over the role of for-profits in American higher education,
which Laureate had largely managed to avoid until now.
In fact, Laureate likes to distinguish itself from
other for-profit education companies. It is a strange (and substantial)
beast to get one’s arms around.
Laureate is a U.S.-based entity whose primary
operations are outside the U.S. It is a private, for-profit company that
operates campuses even in countries, like Chile, where universities must be
not-for-profit by law.
It is unabashed in its pursuit of prestige:
Laureate boasts of partnerships with globally ranked public research
universities like Monash University and the University of Liverpool as
indicators of quality. It also aggressively promotes the connection to its
honorary chancellor, former U.S. President Bill Clinton. When Laureate
secured approval to build a new for-profit university in Australia (where
for-profits are called “private” institutions), the
headline in a national newspaper read: “First
private uni in 24 years led by Clinton.”
Laureate likes to use the tagline “here for good.”
The company has moved into parts of the world where there are insufficient
opportunities to pursue a higher education, investing heavily in developing
nations. It's based on this track record that the IFC invested in
the company with
the stated aim of helping Laureate expand access
to career-oriented education in "emerging markets": Latin America, the
Middle East and Africa.
The strategy of expanding student access in the
developing world has won Laureate many fans. And for a for-profit, it gets
unexpectedly little criticism.
Until recently, at least. With Thunderbird,
Laureate has done what it has done in many countries around the world --
purchasing or in this case partnering with a struggling institution with a
good brand, offering an infusion of capital, and promising to help develop
new programs and grow enrollments and revenues. This time around, however,
widespread skepticism about for-profit education has bedeviled the deal.
The Bird's-Eye View
Laureate’s footprint outside the United States tops
that of any American higher education institution. The company brought in
approximately $3.4 billion in total revenue during the 2012 fiscal year,
more than 80 percent of which came from overseas.
For comparison, the Apollo Group -- which owns the
University of Phoenix and is the largest publicly traded for-profit chain --
brought in about $4.3 billion in revenue last year. However, Apollo Global,
which is an internationally focused subsidiary, only accounted for $295
million of that.
Indeed, in the late 1990s, when most other
for-profit education companies were focused on the potential of the U.S.
market, Laureate looked abroad. The Baltimore-based company, at that point a
K-12 tutoring outfit known as Sylvan Learning Systems, purchased its first
campus, Spain’s Universidad Europea de Madrid, in 1999, and has since
affiliated with or acquired a total of 78 higher education institutions on
six continents, ranging from art and design institutes to hotel management
and culinary schools to technical and vocational colleges to full-fledged
universities with medical schools
Laureate operates the largest private university in
Mexico, the 37-campus Universidad del Valle de México, and owns or controls
22 higher education institutions in South America (including 11 in Brazil),
10 in Asia, and 19 in continental Europe. It manages online programs in
cooperation with the Universities of Liverpool and Roehampton, both in the
United Kingdom. It has a new partnership with Australia’s Monash University
to help manage its campus in South Africa and it runs seven vocational
institutions in Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the Saudi government.
In contrast, Laureate’s largest and most
recognizable brand in the U.S. is the online-only, predominantly
graduate-level Walden University, which enrolls 50,000 students. And even
Walden is global, with students in 145 countries.
Continued in article
One way for these so-called distance education search engines to become more
legitimate would be to add top not-for-profit distance education programs to
their search engine databases.
Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development (Multicultural
Online Education and Open Sharing) ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-801j-cross-cultural-investigations-technology-and-development-fall-2012/
"Southern
Illinois University to Offer Online Accounting Degree," by Gail Perry,
AccountingWeb, May 6, 2013 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/article/southern-illinois-university-offer-online-accounting-degree/221747?source=education
A new program
at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, IL allows off-campus
students to complete an accounting degree completely online. SIU is the only
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
International-accredited public institution in Illinois to offer the online
undergraduate accounting degree, according to College of Business officials.
Earning the top-tier AACSB accreditation places SIU's in the top one percent
of the nation's accounting programs.
Beginning in the fall of 2013, students can
complete the requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting
exclusively with online classes. The online program is open to off-campus
students who have completed the initial core coursework typically covered
during the first two years of college.
Jill Gebke, assistant dean for the College of
Business, explained the reasoning behind the new program. "We identified a
large transfer population, All of the community colleges are at least an
hour away. They told us there's a demand for the accounting program. This
was the most convenient way to serve the community college students."
"The program innovation happening right now in the
College of Business is very exciting. Our online accounting degree
completion option is just another example of that innovation and our
continuing growth. This degree allows students the flexibility to blend
their studies with work and family commitments and it is equal in quality,
value, and accreditation with our on-campus program," said Dennis Cradit,
dean of the College of Business.
"What we have learned from our online MBA and our
online undergraduate business administration degrees, we have used in
designing this online accounting degree. Our number one priority is to
provide an exceptional learning experience and this program is a clear
reflection of our commitment to that goal," Cradit added.
Typically, the new online accounting degree
completion program will take about 24 months to finish over a six-semester
time span. However, it is possible to complete the program in a minimum of
18 months.
The online accounting program incorporates
approximately 60 hours of coursework covering core areas of the business
curriculum. The program is divided into 10 "course pairings," with each
including two 3-credit-hour courses. Each course runs eight weeks, allowing
students to focus on two classes at a time while still completing four
courses each semester.
The same faculty members teach both the online and
on-campus classes. However, the online option allows students the
opportunity to complete their bachelor's degree through a nationally ranked,
accredited institution from anywhere in the world and at their convenience,
according to Jill Gebke, assistant dean for the College of Business. And
while the face-to-face classroom setting is ideal for learning, Gebke told
AccountingWEB that there are many students whose circumstances prevent them
from attending on-campus.
Continued in
article
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
University of Illinois Extension
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state
Those Deceptive For-Profit University Promotional Websites
Almost daily I get requests to link to commercial sites disguised to be
academic helper sites. Over half these requests are on behalf of for-profit
universities, although the sites themselves are getting more and more clever
about hiding the fact that they are promotional sites for for-profit
universities. At the same time, I'm getting smarter about detecting these sites
and no longer link to them on my Website or on the AECM.
I think that for-profit universities pay people to promote their sites on
some basis such as pay-per-click.
To get more eyeballs, these for-profit university promotion sites are adding
so called helpers that I've discovered in some cases have simply plagiarized
material from other sites such as the History of Pacioli. In some instances the
efforts to provide helpers are more legitimate. Nevertheless it galls me to link
to these deceptive for-profit university sites. By "deceptive" I mean such
thinks as providing links to distance education programs in selected fields like
accounting, nursing, pharmacy, etc. Even though there are better and nearly
always cheaper distance education degree programs from state-supported
universities, those universities are excluded from the for-profit distance
education promotional sites. For example, the only distance education degree
programs in accounting will those degree programs available from for-profit
universities.
Having said this there are some useful for-profit university promotion sites.
For example, the "40 Essential Links for CPA Exam Prep & Practice" is a
rather helpful site at AccountingDegree.com ---
http://www.accountingdegree.com/blog/2012/40-essential-links-for-cpa-exam-prep-practice/
At the same time, there is much misleading information at this
AccountingDegree.com site. For example, consider the various rankings of online
universities at
http://oedb.org/rankings
In most cases the various better and cheaper non-profit colleges and
universities are not even mentioned by AccountingDegree.com.
Hence I am torn about posting links to for-profit university Websites. It's
helpful to have the "40 Essential Links for CPA Exam Prep & Practice" is
a rather helpful site at AccountingDegree.com ---
http://www.accountingdegree.com/blog/2012/40-essential-links-for-cpa-exam-prep-practice/
But it's deceptive when those sites never mention that there are cheaper and
better distance education degree programs from nonprofit state universities.
Some of the better and cheaper non-profit distance education programs have been
highlighted by US News are listed below. You will never find these
programs mentioned by AccountingDebree.com or most any for-profit university
promotional Website.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"U. of Florida Online Bachelor’s Programs Win State Approval," by
Lawrence Biemiller, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 29, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/u-of-florida-online-bachelors-programs-win-state-approval/46883?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Competency-Based College Credit ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ECA
"Online Education Is Everywhere. What’s the Next Big Thing?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-education-is-everywhere-whats-the-next-big-thing/32898?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Western Governors University (a nonprofit, competency- based online
university) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
Also see http://www.wgu.edu/home2
New Charter University (a for-profit, self-paced, competency-based
online university) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Charter_University
"No Financial Aid, No Problem. For-Profit University Sets $199-a-Month
Tuition for Online Courses," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education,
March 29, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/No-Financial-Aid-No-Problem/131329/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
It's a higher-education puzzle: Students are
flocking to Western Governors University, driving growth of 30 to 40 percent
each year. You might expect that competitors would be clamoring to copy the
nonprofit online institution's model, which focuses on whether students can
show "competencies" rather than on counting how much time they've spent in
class.
So why haven't they?
Two reasons, says the education entrepreneur Gene
Wade. One, financial-aid regulatory problems that arise with self-paced
models that aren't based on seat time. And two, opposition to how Western
Governors changes the role of professor, chopping it into "course mentors"
who help students master material, and graders who evaluate homework but do
no teaching.
Mr. Wade hopes to clear those obstacles with a
start-up company, UniversityNow, that borrows ideas from Western Governors
while offering fresh twists on the model. One is cost. The for-profit's new
venture—New Charter University, led by Sal Monaco, a former Western
Governors provost—sidesteps the loan system by setting tuition so cheap that
most students shouldn't need to borrow. The price: $796 per semester, or
$199 a month, for as many classes as they can finish.
"This is not buying a house," says Mr. Wade,
co-founder and chief executive of UniversityNow. "This is like, do I want to
get cable?"
Another novelty: New Charter offers a
try-it-before-you-buy-it platform that mimics the "freemium" model of many
consumer Web services. Anyone can create an account and start working
through its self-paced online courses free of charge. Their progress gets
recorded. If they decide to pay up and enroll, they get access to an adviser
(who helps navigate the university) and course specialists (who can discuss
the material). They also get to take proctored online tests for course
credit.
The project is the latest in a series of
experiments that use technology to rethink the economics of higher
education, from the $99-a-month introductory courses of StraighterLine to
the huge free courses provided through Stanford and MIT.
For years, some analysts have argued that ready
access to Pell Grants and federal loans actually props up colleges prices,
notes Michael B. Horn, executive director for education at Innosight
Institute, a think tank focused on innovation. That's because institutions
have little incentive to charge anything beneath the floor set by available
financial aid.
"Gene and his team are basically saying, the heck
with that—we're going to go around it. We think people can afford it if we
offer it at this low a price," Mr. Horn says. "That could be revolutionary."
Yet the project faces tall hurdles: Will employers
value these degrees? Will students sign on? And, with a university that
lacks regional accreditation right now—New Charter is nationally accredited
by the Distance Education and Training Council, and is considering seeking
regional accreditation—will students be able to transfer its credits?
Mr. Wade banks on appealing to working adults who
crave easier access to education. When asked who he views as the
competition, his reply is "the line out the door at community college." In
California, where Mr. Wade is based, nearly 140,000 first-time students at
two-year institutions couldn't get into any courses at all during the
previous academic year, according to a recent Los Angeles Times editorial
about the impact of state budget cuts.
Mr. Wade himself benefited from a first-class
education, despite being raised without much money in a housing project in a
tough section of Boston. Growing up there, during an era when the city
underwent forced busing to integrate its schools, felt like watching a
"train wreck" but walking away unscathed. He attended high school at the
prestigious Boston Latin School. With assistance from Project REACH, a
program to help Boston minorities succeed in higher education, he went to
Morehouse College. From there his path included a J.D. from Harvard Law, an
M.B.A. from Wharton, and a career as an education entrepreneur.
The 42-year-old founded two earlier companies:
LearnNow, a charter-school-management outfit that was sold to Edison
Schools, and Platform Learning, a tutoring firm that served low-income
students. So far, he's raised about $8 million from investors for
UniversityNow, whose New Charter subsidiary is a rebranded, redesigned, and
relocated version of an online institution once called Andrew Jackson
University. Breaking a Traditional Mold
To build the software, Mr. Wade looked beyond the
traditional world of educational technology, recruiting developers from
companies like Google. Signing up for the university feels more like
creating an account with a Web platform like Facebook than the laborious
process of starting a traditional program—in fact, New Charter lets you join
with your Facebook ID. Students, whether paying or not, start each class by
taking an assessment to establish whether they're ready for the course and
what material within it they need to work on. Based on that, the system
creates a pathway to guide them through the content. They skip stuff that
they already know.
That was part of the appeal for Ruben Fragoso, who
signed up for New Charter's M.B.A. program three weeks ago after stumbling
on the university while Googling for information about online degrees. Mr.
Fragoso, 53, lives in Albuquerque and works full time as a logistics
coordinator for a solar power company. The Mexican-born father of two earned
a bachelor's degree 12 years ago from Excelsior College. With New Charter,
he mostly teaches himself, hunkering down in his home office after dinner to
read and take quizzes. By week three, he hadn't interacted with any other
students, and his instructor contact had been limited to a welcome e-mail.
That was fine by him.
He likes that he can adjust his schedule to
whatever fits—one course at a time if a subject is tough, or maybe three if
he prefers. His company's education benefits—up to $5,000 a year—cover the
whole thing. With years of business experience, he appreciates the option of
heading quickly to a final test on a subject that is familiar to him.
Continued in article
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Jensen Comment
I don't know why the largest for-profit universities that generally provide more
online degrees than the above universities combined are not included in the
final outcomes. For example, the University of Phoenix alone as has over 600,000
students, most of whom are taking some or all online courses.
My guess is that most for-profit universities are not forthcoming with the
data requested by US News analysts. Note that the US News
condition that the set of online programs to be considered be regionally
accredited does not exclude many for-profit universities. For example, enter in
such for-profit names as "University of Phoenix" or "Capella University" in the
"College Search" box at
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-phoenix-20988
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Unitek IT Training from Cisco ---
http://www.unitek.com/training/
Graduates Who Are Happy to Land Minimum Wage Careers
"Little-Known (usually unaccredited) Colleges Exploit Visa Loopholes to Make
Millions Off Foreign Students," by Tom Bartlett, Karin Fischer, and Josh
Keller, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Little-Known-Colleges-Make/126822/
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges working in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
"MIT Expands 'Open' Courses, Adds Completion Certificates," Inside
Higher Ed, December 19, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2011/12/19/mit-expands-open-courses-adds-completion-certificates
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- which
pioneered the idea of making course materials free online --
today announced a major expansion of the idea,
with the creation of MITx, which will provide for interaction among
students, assessment and the awarding of certificates of completion to
students who have no connection to MIT.
MIT is also starting a major initiative -- led by
Provost L. Rafael Reif -- to study online teaching and learning.
The first course through MITx is expected this
spring. While the institute will not charge for the courses, it will charge
what it calls "a modest fee" for the assessment that would lead to a
credential. The credential will be awarded by MITx and will not constitute
MIT credit. The university also plans to continue
MIT OpenCourseWare,
the program through which it makes course materials
available online.
An
FAQ from MIT offers
more details on the new program.
While MIT has been widely praised for
OpenCourseWare, much of the attention in the last year from the "open"
educational movement has shifted to programs like the
Khan Academy (through
which there is direct instruction provided, if not yet assessment) and
an initiative at Stanford University that makes
courses available -- courses for which some German universities are
providing academic credit. The new initiative would appear to provide some
of the features (instruction such as offered by Khan, and certification that
some are creating for the Stanford courses) that have been lacking in
OpenCourseWare.
Question
Is a free MIT online certificate worth more than most any comparable course
grade from a North American college or university?
"Will MITx Disrupt Higher Education?" by Robert Talbert, Chronicle
of Higher Education, December 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2011/12/20/will-mitx-disrupt-higher-education/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
MIT has been doing online access to education a lot
longer than most people, largely due to their invaluable
OpenCourseWare project. (Here’s an
interview MIT did with me last year on how OCW
strongly influenced my inverted-classroom MATLAB course.) Now they are
poised to go to the next level by
launching an online system called MITx in Spring 2012 that provides
credentialing as well as content:
Mr. Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of the
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said M.I.T.x would
start this spring — perhaps with just one course — but would expand to
include many more courses, as OpenCourseWare has done. [...]
The M.I.T.x classes, he said, will have online
discussions and forums where students can ask questions and, often, have
them answered by others in the class.
While access to the software will be free,
there will most likely be an “affordable” charge, not yet determined,
for a credential.
“I think for someone to feel they’re earning
something, they ought to pay something, but the point is to make it
extremely affordable,” Mr. Reif said. “The most important thing is that
it’ll be a certificate that will clearly state that a body sanctioned by
M.I.T. says you have gained mastery.”
The official FAQ reveals a couple of additional
points. First, the content of MITx courses will be free — which seems to
imply that MITx course content will be different than OCW course content,
and not just a certification layer on top of existing resources — and you’ll
only pay money for the certificate. Second, there will be no admissions
process. If you want a course, you just take it and then pay for the
credentialing if you feel like you’re up to it.
I think this last point about having no admissions
process may be the most significant piece of MITx. It seems to represent a
complete shift from the traditional way of providing access to higher
education. As far as I can tell, there will not even be a system of checking
prerequisites for MITx courses. If that’s so, then if you feel you can step
into, say, an Algorithms class and keep up with the material and demonstrate
your mastery, then nobody at MIT will care if you haven’t had the right
courses in basic programming, data structures, discrete math, or whatever.
MIT is basically saying, we won’t be picky about who we let take these
courses — if you can afford it and live up to our standards, we’re happy to
credential you.
Of course there are a lot of questions about MITx
that are yet to be answered. What is the “modest fee” they plan to charge,
and is it really affordable? How exactly will the credentialing process
work? (It’s interesting that the certification will be handled by a
non-profit organization to be formed within MIT. Is this a kind of
outsourcing of grading?) How will one “demonstrate mastery” and what will
MITx define as “mastery” in courses that are not strictly skills-based? Will
there eventually be a full enough slate of courses offered to make the whole
system compelling for learners? And perhaps most importantly, what will
employers, graduate schools, and even undergraduate institutions make of
applicants who come in with some of these MITx certifications? Without
external buy-in, MITx will likely be just another continuing education
program like hundreds of others.
We’ll hear a lot more about this in the future, but
for now this seems to have the potential to be genuinely disruptive in
higher education. What do you think?
Bob Jensen's threads on free online courses, lectures, videos, and course
materials from open-sharing prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Deloitte University ---
http://careers.deloitte.com/united-states/students/csc_general.aspx?CountryContentID=16027
Bob Jensen's threads for education technology in general are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Resources for Learning to Teach on line
Ideas for Teaching Online ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Ideas
Teaching online is no different in many respects with respect to
fundamental differences in pedagogy and student aptitudes and abilities.
Examples include the following:
Teaching online involves such a wide range of alternatives, that there is
no one set of resources that satisfies each pedagogy and style of
teaching/learning. Differences include such things as the following:
The Master List of Free
Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/
One important thing to do is to study how some existing online courses are
taught successfully. Some great places to search for those illustrations include
the following:
San Antonio on
August 13, 2002
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
Free audio and presentation
files of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
- Dennis Beresford,
University of Georgia
- Amy Dunbar, University
of Connecticut
- Nancy Keeshan, the
Global MBA and Cross-Continent MBA Programs of Duke University
- Susan Spencer, San
Antonio College
- Bob Jensen, Trinity
University
Atlanta on August
11, 2001
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
Free audio and presentation
files of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
- Don Carter, Chartered
Accountancy (CA) School of Business
(Perhaps the only complete
performance-based pedagogy program in the world)
- Michael T.
Kirschenheiter, while he was at Columbia University
- Robert Walsh,
Prentice-Hall and Marist College
- A team of faculty from
UNext
- Bob Jensen, Trinity
University
Philadelphia on August 12, 2000
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
Free audio and presentation
files of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
- Charles Hickman, AACSB
and Quisic (formerly University Access)
- Michael T.
Kirschenheiter, Columbia University
- Anthony H. Catanach,
Villanova University
- Dan N. Stone,
University of Illinois
- Bob Jensen, Trinity
University
International Teacher Training and Lesson Sharing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#Training
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Keep in mind that students often prefer online learning whereas teachers
often burn out or become frustrated with the tremendous amount of work involved
in the best online courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Workloads
Also note the Dark Side of Education Technology and Online Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's personal advice would be to see how much of this course you
can teach on video using Camtasia. Even if you don't use the Camtasia videos in
each online class, those videos can be invaluable for students to study
asynchronously ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Video
Ideas for Teaching Online ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Ideas
Where to look for online training and education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
October 10, 2008 message from Bruce Lubich
[BLubich@UMUC.EDU]
Hi Dexter,
I'd like to suggest another alternative. Here at
UMUC, we hire adjunct faculty to teach our online classes. Every new hire is
required to pass a 5 week online training class which focuses on the
pedagogy of online teaching. There is no charge for the class, and afterward
you are okay to teach for us online. In your case, you would have gotten the
education you are seeking, as well as being able to teach for us.
If you want more information, go to
http://umuc.edu/facultyrecruit/index.shtml
Bruce Lubich, PhD, CPA
Program Director,
Accounting Graduate School of Management and Technology
University of Maryland University College
Prison University Project ---
http://www.prisonuniversityproject.org
The Alternative Model: Partnerships Between Not-for-Profit and
For-Profit Education Distance Education Ventures
The model is not new but it may become much more common as for-profit
stand-alones become more stressed by regulations and drying up markets
"Outsourcing Plus," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 12,
2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/12/azstate
With budgets tight and the
commercial market flush with companies willing to take on various tasks that
come with running a university, it has become relatively common for
institutions to outsource parts of their operations to outside companies.
It is less common for a
public university to entrust an outsider with such a wide swath of duties
that it calls that private company an equal partner in online education. But
Arizona State University
announced on Monday that it is doing just that
with Pearson, the education and media company.
Under the agreement, the
Arizona State faculty will teach online courses through Pearson’s learning
management platform, LearningStudio, using the tools embedded in that
platform to collect and analyze data in hopes of improving student
performance and retention. Pearson will also help with enrollment management
and “prospect generation," while providing more "customer-friendly" support
services for students, the university says.
Arizona State, meanwhile,
says it will retain control over all things academic, including instruction
and curriculum development.
Universities often strike
deals with private companies to manage parts of their online operations,
particularly when they are trying to quickly
grow their online enrollments, which is Arizona
State’s stated goal in this case (now serving 3,000 online students, it
hopes to grow to somewhere between 17,000 and 30,000 within five years).
Companies such as Embanet, 2Tor, SunGard Higher Education, Bisk Education,
Colloquy, and Compass Knowledge Group have, to varying degrees, taken over
online program management at other name-brand universities in exchange for a
cut of the tuition revenue.
Jensen Comment
There is obviously a spectrum of partnerships that will probably emerge. At one
end the courses are totally managed by a not-for-profit university that only
uses the for-profit partner's media delivery services. Then there might be a
move up where selected for-profit's courses are selectively brought into the
curriculum. Then there might be entire specialized programs that are brought
into the curriculum such as executive programs (non-degree) or undergraduate
pharmacy or even accounting degree programs.
The next move up the ladder would be for-profit graduate degree programs
where assessment is controlled by the not-for-profit partner. For example,
Western Governor's University now has over 10,000 students in competency-based
programs. One might imagine partnering of WGU with a for-profit distance
education MBA program where the competency assessments and degrees are
administered by WGU.
Lastly, one might envision doctoral programs, although these might come last
because they are typically money losers if they have respectability in the
market such as AACSB respectability. For example, Capella now has an online
accounting doctoral program that I view as a fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
One might envision a partnering with some respected state university, such as
ASU, that greatly alters the curriculum and the assessment process and the
dissertation advising to bring Cpaella's accounting doctoral program more in
line with ASU's onsite accounting doctoral program. This off course is probably
way, way down the road.
"Where For-Profit and Nonprofit Meet," by David Moltz, Inside
Higher Ed, October 13, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/13/princeton
Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state of accounting doctoral programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
The whole world is invited to learn from BYU's many online courses (except
for high school athletes)
"Black Mark for BYU," by Doug Lederman , Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2010
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/09/byu
Brigham Young University's Independent Study
program appears to be wildly successful. At any given time, students are
taking more than 100,000 high school courses and 22,000 college classes, for
a variety of reasons: to get courses out of the way in the summer, finish
high school or college early, or improve their performance in classes in
which they struggled. Based on those numbers and
the
fees the program charges for its
nearly
600 online courses, the program generates millions
of dollars in revenue a year. (BYU officials won't say.)
A tiny fraction of its
enrollments -- about 500 a year -- are high school athletes seeking to use
the BYU program's courses to
meet
the National Collegiate Athletic Association's freshman eligibility
standards. Yet for the second time in several
years, dealings with the high-stakes world of big-time college athletics
appear to pose a potentially serious threat to the 90-year-old program's
status. Last month,
the NCAA decided to "de-certify" the BYU program
(and one other,
the American School) as a legitimate provider of
"nontraditional" courses. The decision came in
response to a change in NCAA rules this spring requiring "nontraditional"
courses to include regular interaction between students and professors, and
to set specific timeframes in which the courses must be completed.
Brigham Young officials
expressed dismay about the NCAA's decision, which they said had caught them
by surprise. "We do want to look at what we can do to be in compliance with
what the NCAA has put in place," said Carri Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the
university.
She noted that BYU
Independent Study had made a set of changes in its programs and policies the
last time
it drew NCAA
scrutiny -- when athletes at several colleges were
found to have earned credit from their institutions for
courses at BYU in which they did little or no work (or cheated to complete).
Among other changes, Jenkins noted, BYU Independent Study altered its
policies surrounding when and how tests are administered, and stopped
letting athletes enrolled in NCAA member colleges enroll in its classes.
But the courses remain a
commonly-trod path for high school athletes seeking to meet the NCAA's
academic eligibility standards for freshman athletes, which require students
to surpass a minimum grade-point average in 16 core high school courses to
compete in their first year in college. BYU and the American School, which
is based in Illinois, are among the most common programs from which high
school athletes seek eligibility through nontraditional courses, which the
association defines as "[t]hose taught via the Internet, distance learning,
independent study, individualized instruction, correspondence, and courses
taught by similar means, including software-based credit recovery courses."
Use of the courses has
burgeoned, and in March the association's Division I members approved a rule
aimed at toughening oversight of them, said Chuck Wynne, an NCAA spokesman.
"Members were obviously concerned that prospective student-athletes were
taking these courses and not being prepared for the rigors of college
academics," he said. The changes require that instructors and students have
"ongoing access to one another and regular interaction with one another for
purposes of teaching, evaluating and providing assistance to the student
throughout the duration of the course"; that the "student's work ... is
available for review and validation"; and that "[a] defined time for
completion of the course is identified by the high school or secondary
school program."
In the wake of the rules
changes, NCAA officials began reviewing providers of nontraditional courses,
and the association has "approved a bunch" as meeting the new standards,
Wynne said. So far, only BYU Independent Study and the American School were
found to fall short. (American School responded to the NCAA's findings,
which it is appealing,
here.)
Wynne declined to specify
exactly how and why BYU was deemed to fall short of the NCAA standards. But
he said that most of the scrutiny of the nontraditional programs focused on
the lack of regular, sustained interaction between students and instructors
-- ideally interaction initiated by the instructor, designed to ensure at
least some oversight of the students' work -- and on some programs' failure
to set a minimum timeframe for the completion of course work.
One NCAA review -- "not
necessarily at BYU," Wynne said -- found that one high school athlete had
completed "a semester of algebra in six minutes."
"We understand that these
are good quality educational tools when implemented and done right," Wynne
said, noting that the NCAA is not philosophically opposed to online
learning. "It's mostly about the administration of these programs. You can
have the best curriculum in the world, but if someone does algebra in six
minutes, you know there's something wrong."
Jenkins of BYU insisted
that the six-minute-algebra incident had most definitely not taken
place in one of the university's online offerings. She said that the
university plans to do whatever it needs to to reassure the NCAA that its
courses are of high quality, and that the independent study program had not
heard from past, current or prospective students who might be concerned
about a stigma from the NCAA's action.
Update on Deloitte University, January 2010, Page 21 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeloitteTransparency Report.pdf
I’m confident that our continued investment in
the development of our people, including our commitment to create a
‘Deloitte University,’ will help signal our intention to be a magnet for the
best talent to serve the best clients.
Barry Salzberg, CEO, Deloitte
LLP22
The learning programs incorporate a number of
pervasive themes across levels. These themes include audit documentation,
the use of specialists, consultation, detection of potential fraud, the
importance of professional skepticism and professional judgment, and others,
with a foundational theme of achieving audit quality. All client service
professionals of Deloitte & Touche LLP, whether or not they are CPAs, are
required to complete at least 20 hours of CPE in each calendar year and at
least 120 hours for each three-calendar-year period. Professionals who spend
more than 25% of their time on audit or other attest engagements or who have
partner, director, or manager responsibility for any such engagement must
have at least 40% of their required CPE hours in subjects broadly related to
accounting and auditing. An online system monitors each professional’s
individual CPE requirements (which for CPAs may vary depending on the states
in which each individual is licensed) and hours completed for each reporting
period; the system flags any deficiencies for follow-up. Deloitte University
To further enhance the quality and effectiveness of
the learning curriculum for all the Deloitte U.S. Entities, Deloitte LLP
recently acquired a 107-acre property near Dallas, Texas, and has begun
construction of a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to learning and
leadership. This decision represents a significant commitment to and in our
people and to enhancing quality and leadership development. The facility
will employ cutting edge, interactive technology and will offer a curriculum
that includes simulations, case studies, collaborative learning, and
discussion and debate. It is expected to open in 2011. Deloitte University
will provide a powerful catalyst for career-long learning and professional
growth for all our professionals.
Continued in article
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Distance Education.org or DistanceEducation.Org is a Great Helper Site
Ben Pheiffer in San Antonio forwarded this link to a terrific listing (with
pricing estimates) of online training and education degree programs and courses
from respectable universities ---
http://www.distance-education.org/Courses/
Both graduate and undergraduate degree programs are listed as well as training
courses (some free).
Free online tutorials in various disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm/#Tutorials
Bob Jensen's writing helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Bob Jensen's links to free online mathematics and statistics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
Bob Jensen's links to online science tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Science%20and%20Medicine
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing courses and videos (free) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Onsite and Online College Directory by State in the U.S. ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/index.html#collegestate
Always investigate the credibility of
any college you're interested in before assuming all college degrees are
accepted for employment and further study.
Also see
http://www.onlinelearning101.com
Scholarship sources ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/free_scholarship_searches.htm
Always look for gimmicks such as a scholarship to a questionable online college
or university.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds
and the gray zones ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
Princeton Review Buys Distance-Education Provider for $170-Million
The Princeton Review, the test-preparatory company,
announced today that it would pay $170-million in cash to purchase the Penn
Foster Education Group, a 118-year-old company that operates three
accredited distance-education institutions serving 223,000 secondary and
postsecondary students in more than 150 countries. In a
news release, the Princeton Review, which is not
connected with Princeton University, said the deal would increase the
company's "cash flow generating capabilities
Jensen Comment
What surprised me is the number of students served by the Penn Foster Education
Group ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/index.html?semkey=Q092344
One contributing factor to the large number of online students is the granting
of high school diplomas. Penn Foster also offers career training as opposed to
education ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/programs_diplomas.html
American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers Certification Exam
One of the training programs is a certificate bookkeeping program ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/bookkeeping/index.html
Bookkeeping
CAREER OUTLOOKYour New
Career
Thousands of new businesses open each year and every organization, large or
small, needs someone with the right training to maintain and update its
financial records. Bookkeepers hold vital positions within the companies
they work for. They verify and balance receipts, post debits and credits,
and record transactions.
Some Bookkeepers have offices in their own homes and make extra money in
addition to their regular salary. Newspaper ads regularly appear for payroll
clerks, accounts receivable and payable clerks, and Bookkeepers for large
and small businesses. Enjoy career independence in this exciting profession!
Whether you work for an established business or earn extra income at home,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects more than 263,000 new job
opportunities for Bookkeepers through 2016.*Your New Skills
Learn to prepare a balance sheet, create a profit and loss statement, and
produce a financial report for any business. You'll have the skills others
depend on in the business world, earning the respect of your employers, and
making you a vital asset to any corporation.
You'll learn all of the important skills you need in Bookkeeping.
- Get the necessary accounting skills. Learn to
prepare the balance sheet and income statement, as well as accounting
for cash and payroll accounting.
- Gain practical experience. Maintain the accounting
records and prepare financial statements for a model company.
- Learn valuable computer skills. Master the first
steps in using a computer and learn to create notes, documents, and
drawings using Microsoft® Windows® and Windows® accessories. (Software
not included in program.)
- Prepare for certification. Penn Foster encourages
students to take the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers
Certification Exam, provides special supplements to assist with your
studies, and even includes an $85 voucher to help defray the cost.
"Nation's Largest Labor Union Group Creates Online Degree Program," by
Jill Laster, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Nations-Largest-Labor-Union/20538/
A new distance-learning
program says it is the first accredited, degree-granting, online college open
only to union members.
The new program, called
the College for Working Families, is a joint venture between the A.F.L.-C.I.O.,
the National Labor College, and the Penn Foster Education Group (now owned by
the Princeton Review) ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/index.html?semkey=Q092344
The National Labor
College already offers in-person training and some online classes as the only
accredited higher-education institution specifically for unions. The new online
program would combine the college's on-the-ground resources with online tools to
offer programs in subjects including health care and business administration.
Leaders of the effort are
surveying union members on what courses they would find useful, and some classes
should begin in the fall, said William Scheuerman, president of the National
Labor College.
The online college would
charge about $200 a credit and offer bachelor's degrees, adding associate and
master's degrees later.
Mr. Scheuerman said the
online learning model would be especially helpful to union members, who may not
be able to attend classes in person because of their work schedules.
The new college would
also provide much-needed skills for union members, he said. "A key change in the
labor economy is the shift from muscle power to brain power, so working people
need the same advantages as middle class folk," he said.
The college is still
subject to negotiations between the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the National Labor College,
and the Princeton Review, which should be completed in the next few months.
Jensen Comment
Penn Foster now offers accounting associate degrees and business management
bachelors degrees ---
http://www.pennfostercollege.edu/accounting/index.html
I don't think students can get sufficient accounting courses to sit for the CPA
examination.
Accreditation is a bit controversial ---
http://www.pennfostercollege.edu/accreditation.html
Students might have trouble transferring some courses into major universities,
but this is only speculation on my part.
Given a choice, it may be safer to obtain course credits and degrees from
distance education from programs at major universities like the University of
Wisconsin, University of Maryland, and most state universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on accreditation are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#AccreditationIssues
Bob Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives are
at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
An Online Learning Experiment Overwhelms the University of Southern
California
"An Experiment Takes Off," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2009
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/07/uscmat#
When Karen Symms Gallagher
ran into fellow education deans last year, many of them were "politely
skeptical," the University of Southern California dean says (politely),
about
her institution's experiment to take its master's
program in teaching online.
Many of them seemed to
appreciate Gallagher's argument that the traditional model of teacher
education programs had largely failed to produce the many more top-notch
teachers that California (and so many other states) desperately needed. But
could a high-quality MAT program be delivered online? And through a
partnership with a for-profit entity (2Tor),
no less? Really?
Early results about
the program known as MAT@USC
have greatly pleased Gallagher and USC. One hundred
forty-four students enrolled in the Rossier School of Education program's
first full cohort in May, 50 percent more than anticipated and significantly
larger than the 100 students who started at that time in the traditional
master's in teaching program on the university's Los Angeles campus.
And this month, a new group
of 302 students started in the second of three planned "starts" per year,
meaning that USC has already quadrupled the number of would-be teachers it
is educating this year and, depending on how many students enroll in
January, is on track to increase it a few times more than that.
It will be a while --
years, probably, until outcomes on teacher certification exams are in and
the program's graduates have been successful (or not) in the classroom --
before questions about the program's quality and performance are fully
answered (though officials there point out that the technology platform,
like much online learning software, provides steady insight into how
successfully students are staying on track). But USC officials say that
short of quantitative measures such as those, they believe the online
program is attracting equally qualified students and is providing an
education that is fully equivalent to Rossier's on-ground master's program
-- goals that the institution viewed as essential so as not to "dilute the
brand" of USC's well-regarded program.
"So far, we've beaten the
odds," says Gallagher. "We're growing in scale while continuing to ensure
that we have a really good program."
"Scale" is a big buzzword
in higher education right now, as report after report and new undertaking
after new undertaking -- including the Obama administration's American
Graduation Initiative -- underscore the perceived need for more Americans
with postsecondary credentials. Many institutions -- especially community
colleges and for-profit colleges -- are taking it to heart, expanding their
capacity and enrolling more students. The push is less evident at other
types of colleges and universities, and almost a foreign concept at highly
selective institutions.
That's what is atypical,
if not downright exceptional, about the experiment at USC, which Inside
Higher Ed
explored in concept last fall. At that time, some
experts on distance learning and teacher education -- not unlike some of
Gallagher's dean peers -- wondered whether students would be willing to pay
the tuition of an expensive private university for an online program, among
other things.
Officials at the
university and 2Tor -- the company formed by the Princeton Review founder
John Katzman, which has provided the technology and administrative
infrastructure for the USC program -- were confident that they would be able
to tap into the market of Ivy League and other selective college graduates
who flock to programs like Teach for America in ever-growing numbers each
year but are also interested in getting a formal teaching credential right
away.
While those students
certainly have other options -- major public universities such as the
University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Virginia, and
private institutions like Columbia University's Teachers College and
Vanderbilt University, among others -- all of them require students to take
up residence in way that doesn't work for everyone.
Haley Hiatt,
a 2005 graduate of Brigham Young University, actually
does reside in Los Angeles -- but she's also a relatively new mother who
"didn't want to have to put [her nearly 2-year-old daughter] in day care all
the time," she says. So after first contemplating master's programs in
history at institutions like Vanderbilt and George Washington University,
and then weighing a series of graduate programs at institutions in and
around Los Angeles, Hiatt entered the first cohort of the MAT@USC program.
She now joins her fellow students in "face to face" meetings (on the
Internet, using video chat technology) twice a week, but otherwise does most
of her other course work on her own time. "I find it takes more discipline
than I needed when I was in the classroom" every day at BYU, she says.
Of the initial cohort of
144 students, about 5 percent got their bachelor's degrees from Ivy League
institutions, and about 10 percent came from the crosstown rival University
of California at Los Angeles, says Gallagher. About 10 percent hail from
historically black colleges and universities -- the proportion of students
in the online program who are black (about 11 percent) is about double the
proportion in the on-ground program, though the campus program has slightly
higher minority numbers overall. Students in the online program are somewhat
older (average age 28 vs. 25 for the face-to-face program) and the average
college grade point average is identical for both iterations of the program:
3.0, USC officials say.
Other numbers please
Gallagher even more. A greater proportion of students in the online program
are in science-related fields than is true in the campus-based program, a
heartening sign given
the pressure on American teacher education programs
to ratchet up the number of science teachers they
produce.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The key to this kind of explosion in online enrollments is mostly triggered by
reputation of the university in general.
Many universities are finding online programs so popular that they are now
treating them like cash cows where students pay more for online tuition than for
onsite tuition. One university that openly admits this is the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UMW).
Bob Jensen's threads on why so many students prefer online education to
onsite education (even apart from cost savings) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineVersusOnsite
Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers
Brigham Young University (BYU) launched its Open CourseWare (OCW) pilot
with
six Creative Commons licensed courses
Before reading this module you may want to read about the Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
From Canada's Creative Commons ---
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15108
It appears that David Wiley’s move to Brigham Young
University has already resulted in progress towards opening the university’s
content. Long-time pioneer and academic of open education, Wiley
reports that
BYU’s Independent Study has launched its Open
CourseWare (OCW) pilot with six Creative Commons licensed courses under
CC BY NC-SA.
“The pilot includes three university-level
courses and three high school-level courses (BYU IS offers 250
university-level courses online for credit and another 250 high
school-level courses online for credit). The courses in BYU IS OCW are
content-complete - that is, they are the full courses as delivered
online without the need of additional textbooks or other materials (only
graded assessments have been removed).”
The most interesting thing about this pilot is that
it “is part of a dissertation study to measure the impact of OCW courses on
paying enrollments.” So far, “the results are very positive - 85 of the 3500
people who visited the OCW site last month registered for for-credit
courses… if this pattern remains stable, then BYU IS OCW will be financially
self-sustainable with the ability to add and update a number of new courses
to the collection each year, indefinitely, should they so choose.” Echoing
Wiley, that is an exciting prospect. We look forward to seeing these results
develop, in addition to other inquiries into the sustainability of general
OER initiatives in the future…
BYU Independent Study ---
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/ocw/
Also see
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/aboutus/index.cfm
University Courses
High School Courses
You may view, use, and reuse all materials in the Open CourseWare
courses. Please note that Open CourseWare courses do not provide the
opportunity to submit assessments for credit, interact with faculty, or
receive credit or a certificate upon completion. BYU Independent Study
provides these courses as a community service under a Creative Commons
license. The course materials are freely available for you to use, download,
modify and share as long as you do not sell the products you derive from
them. If you alter, transform, or build upon the courses, you may distribute
your work only using licensing terms the same as or similar to the
Creative Commons Atribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0.
University Courses (includes art, accounting, chemistry, etc.)
High School Courses
Middle School Courses
Personal Enrichment Courses
Free Courses (includes such things as dating and romance)
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing (learning materials, videos,
lectures, and entire courses) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
Question
Where can students substitute their college instructors for an online ($399)
McGraw-Hill tutor for possible college credit?
An accounting tutor (not for advanced courses) is listed at
http://straighterline.com/courses/descriptions/#accounting1
Other course tutors, including college algebra and English composition,
are listed at http://straighterline.com/
An unusual new commercial service offers low-cost
online courses and connects students to accredited colleges who will accept
the courses for credit. The only thing missing: professors.
The service, called
StraighterLine,
is run by SmartThinking, a company that operates an
online tutoring service used by about 300 colleges and universities. The
online courses offered by StraighterLine are self-guided, and if students
run into trouble they can summon a tutor from SmartThiking and talk with
them via instant messaging. Students turn in their assignments or papers to
tutors for grading as well.
“We’re using our tutoring service as the
instructional component,” says Burck Smith, CEO of
SmartThinking. “Students move through the course, and when they have a
problem they click a button and they’re talking with a tutor.”
The courses cost $399 each, which includes 10 hours
of time with a tutor. If students need more one-on-one help, they can pay
extra for more tutoring.
The courses themselves were developed by
McGraw-Hill, and StraighterLine uses Blackboard’s course-management service.
So this virtual college is essentially cobbled together from various
off-the-shelf learning services.
So far three colleges have agreed to grant credit
for the StraighterLine courses — Fort Hays State University, Jones
International University, and Potomac College.
The colleges see the partnership as a way to
attract new students. “One of the things we hope to do is convert those
students to Jones students,” says D. Terry Rawls, a vice chancellor at Jones
International. “My expectation is that in reality students will take one
maybe two courses with StraighterLine and then the students will take the
rest of their courses with us.”
Richard Garrett, a senior analyst for Eduventures,
sees the service as part of a broader trend of colleges granting credit for
unconventional college experience, provided that the students can pass a
test or otherwise demonstrate competency. And that raises the question, he
says, “what is the core business of the academy versus what can be
outsourced?
Jensen Comment
It may well be that colleges and universities may soon have to accept transfer
credit for these tutors from such places as Fort Hays State University ---
http://www.fhsu.edu/
In addition to its onsite programs in Hays, Kansas, Fort Hays State
University has its own online degree programs at
http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and
education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free online video courses and
course materials from leading universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Free online tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Free textbooks and tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Continuing
Education for Accountants
"Distance learning: The world of online training for
accountants," AccountingWeb, December 2007 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=103948
Also see the bookmarks at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#010304OnlineAccountingCPEandTraining
From Smart Stops on the Web,
Journal of Accountancy, November 2007 ---
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/nov2007/smart_stops.htm
CONTINUING EDUCATION |
|
THE CPA
TOOLBOX
www.cpemarket.com
This Smart Stop is part of the National Association of State Boards
of Accountancy’s
www.nasbatools.com, which offers “tools for accountancy
compliance.” CPAs can search CPE course providers, the National
Registry of CPE Sponsor courses and quality assurance service
courses, plus click on “Pilot Test CPE Courses” to try out courses
for free. There’s also access to instructor resumes and in-house
course providers. Click on the state you’re licensed in to find
updated information on mandated continuing education requirements
and links to your state’s board of accountancy.
CREDITS ON THE GO
www.cchpodcast.com/partners/cchPodcast
Check this site for free CPE podcasts, available as streaming audio
or downloadable to your computer or audio player. Click on “Course
Catalog” to download available podcasts and their supplementary PDFs,
including a study guide and final exam questions. When you’re ready
to take the exam, enroll and purchase the credits—your exam grading
and certification is available immediately. Be sure to check if your
state’s board of accountancy accepts these CCH self-study courses by
clicking the “CPE Accreditation” link.
ASSESS YOURSELF
www.cpa2biz.com/CPE
Just starting your continuing education requirements? Test your
skills and training needs with the site’s “Competency
Self-Assessment Tool,” free for AICPA members, then search CPE
courses by topic, level, job area or format, including CD-ROM and
DVD. Check back often to see the month’s top sellers and new
releases or to download catalogs for the “CPE Direct” program and
“Staff Training Series.”
THE ROAD TO CPE COMPLIANCE
www.cpetracking.com
Can’t keep up with your CPE hours? Launched in 2006, this site keeps
accounting professionals and firms up-to-date on CPE hours and
compliance. Registered users can record CPE credits, which are then
compared to the requirements from each state’s board of accountancy
and regulatory agencies. The service also provides status reports by
jurisdiction and reporting period, as well as access to all of your
CPE records in one location.
|
Most accountancy associations,
firms, and many colleges also offer CPE courses.
Learnthat.com: Free web training for computer courses ---
http://www.learnthat.com/courses/computer/default.asp
Introduction to
Electronics, Signals, and Measurement ---
Click Here
eLearning Africa ---
http://www.elearning-africa.com/
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on March 9,
2007
Toyota University Opens Admissions to Outsiders
by Mike
Spector and Gina Chon
Mar 05, 2007
Page: B1
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Accounting, International
Accounting, Inventory Systems, Just-In-Time Inventory
Management, Kaizen costing, Managerial Accounting, Operational
Control Systems, Productivity, Quality Costs
SUMMARY: Toyota Motor Corp.
operates a training center in Gardena, CA, that it began in 1998
to "train the company's own employees in it distinctive business
philosophy and 'lean-thinking' approach to producing cars....The
school occupies the Toyota Plaza building...' and is run by Mike
Morrison, who is referred to as "the dean," and Will Decker,
"assistant dean." Toyota is not offering training sessions to
outsiders now because of demand for its services by the
companies' own workers, but has done so in the past. The article
describes Toyota's lean-thinking management and production
philosophies and describes several cases of outsiders using its
services. One story covered in the article describes how the LA
Police Department participated in the training seminar to
improve the process for booking inmates. A result of the LAPD
participation also was the benefit received when staff police
realized their suggestions were taken to heart by management.
QUESTIONS:
1.) Why has Toyota established its "Toyota University"? Would
you call it a university or a training center? What is the
difference between these two?
2.) Why has Toyota offered its management and process training
to outsiders? Why is it not doing so now? What are the strategic
advantages and disadvantages to offering corporate training to
outsiders?
3.) What production innovations has Toyota developed that form
the central philosophy for the training discussed in the
article? List the terms for the innovations and define them.
4.) What hands on learning strategy is used to emphasize the
problems with defects that can arise in traditional production
planning systems? Why do you think this technique might be more
effective than, say, having an instructor merely list the pros
and cons of particular production systems?
5.) Why is it possible for good production process techniques in
one industry to benefit very different industries, even
government services such as the police force? How does listening
and learning about very different circumstances from one's own
industry, produce part of this benefit?
6.) What evidence in the article speaks to the benefits of
management listening to staff suggestions?
|
Auto and Truck Repair and Advice ---
http://www.econofix.com/
(includes a module on how to listen for problems)
Helpers for Managing a Restaurant
Restaurant Doctor ---
http://www.restaurantdoctor.com/index.html
The National Centers for Career and Technical Education ---
http://www.nccte.org/
Truck Driver Test Questions & Answers
CDL Online Practice Questions ---
http://www.testprepreview.com/cdl_practice.htm
Spatial News (GIS history and use) ---
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/
Note the Education section
Question
How can you find an accredited only college or set of online courses within an
accredited college?
Answer
One approach is to go to "Accredited-Online-Colleges,com" ---
http://www.accredited-online-colleges.com/Online-Degrees/index.asp
Online Degrees Accounting & Finance | Business | Business Administration
& Management | Communication & Journalism | Education | Engineering | Family
& Consumer Sciences | Human Resources | Information Technology & Computers |
Legal Professions | Liberal Arts & General Studies | Medical & Health Care |
Multimedia & Design | Psychology | Public Administration & Social Services |
Sales & Marketing | Security & Protective Services | Visual & Performing
Arts |
Jensen Comment
My recommendation here is "Buyer Beware." This site has a truly mixed bag of
colleges to a point where I would take the phrase "Accredited Colleges" with a
giant grain of salt. Having said this, I also find that this AOC site can be
helpful in finding online alternatives.
Beware of any college that gives credit for "life experience." Every older
adult has life experience. Often colleges that resort to this marketing gimmick
are not providing quality degrees.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
Distance Learning Today will be a quarterly supplement to USA
Today newspaper
Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of The United States Distance
Learning Association, today announced his organization's sponsorship of
"Distance Learning Today," a quarterly supplement in USA TODAY. "Distance
learning is transforming the American educational landscape, through on-line
technology, video conferencing systems, satellite delivery and other media,"
Flores said. "We expect this supplement to be an invaluable guide for millions
of present and potential distance learners as well as a means for our member
institutions and corporate sponsors to reach them." The first supplement will
appear in September and is expected to exceed twenty pages. Editorial will
include features on the distance learning revolution, financing a distance
education, increasing acceptance of distance learning degrees among employers,
technology requirements and, importantly, how to evaluate the quality of a
distance learning offering. "Today, there are thousands of institutions offering
degrees and certifications for distance learners," Flores said. "It's timely to
provide the public with a reliable information resource concerning this dynamic
educational alternative." Formed in 1987, the United States Distance Learning
Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of the
distance learning community by promoting the development and application of
distance learning for education and training and by providing advocacy,
information, networking and distance learning opportunities.
PRWeb, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb396750.htm
Jensen Comment
PRWeb is a tremendous (overwhelming?) source of news in a huge set of categories
---
http://www.prweb.com/newsbycategory/index.htm
European Training Foundation --
http://www.etf.eu.int/
"Deloitte to Build $300 Million Campus," SmartPros, July 1,
2008 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x62352.xml
Accounting firm Deloitte LLP announced that it will
invest approximately $300 million in the creation of a 107-acre learning and
leadership development center in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in Westlake,
Texas.
Construction will begin in 2009 and the center is
expected to open in 2011.
The 750,000-square-foot campus will serve as a
central destination for all of Deloitte's talent, including everyone from
new hires to senior leadership to partners, principals and directors.
"We expect this facility to become the heart of our
organization -- the place where we meet, learn and develop our next
generation of leaders," said Barry Salzberg, chief executive officer,
Deloitte LLP.
The campus will have 800 guest rooms, conference
spaces, and classrooms. The facility will also feature dining venues, a
ballroom, a business center, recreational facilities and a fitness center.
The campus will be constructed according to Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) standards established by the U.S. Green Building
Council.
In addition to the direct benefit for Deloitte and
its people, the facility is expected to provide economic benefits to
Westlake and the Dallas/Fort Worth region.
Jensen Comment
I'm certain that the location decision was influenced heavily by the same reason
that AT&T is moving its top executive headquarter from San Antonio to the Dallas
region. That reason --- the DFW Airport. Over and over again, a major hub
airport proves its value in economic development. Companies generally want
convenient airports, and airports with the most direct flights, including direct
flights to Asia and Europe, are the most sought after. AT&T moved the executive
headquarters not too long ago from St. Louis to San Antonio and later discovered
that San Antonio did not have enough convenient direct flights.
Having said this, however, the age of modern communications has cut into the
airport advantage somewhat. One company some years back moved its executive
headquarters to Camden (where the movie Carrousel was filmed) on the
coast of main which is inconvenient to freeways and airports and, to be honest,
civilization. But Camden has broadband and a great sailboat harbor.
Jane Froman's rendition (a tear jerker) of Carrousel's most favorite song is
at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_AgXdkgegs
ShortCourses.com: A Complete Guide to Digital Cameras and Photography
---
http://www.shortcourses.com/
February 7, 2012 message from Fabiola Esposito (Madrid University)
My name is Fabiola Esposito
and I am writing to you on behalf of the Spanish School of the University of
Madrid .
I
have found your website (http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm)
while looking for web pages for the promotion of
languages and culture and have seen your reviews on different topics which
I found very interesting, specially the one that speaks about the
combination of synchronous and asynchronous methods when teaching and how
close one can get to the students online.
Anyhow, the aim of this
email is that on the University of Madrid Spanish School we have recently
finished developing our new website for offering our Spanish courses to
everyone who want to come to Madrid to study the Spanish language and
immerse into the Spanish culture. We also offer classes focused on Spanish
literature and culture; and we offer specialized courses in Spanish on
different academic areas such as arts, history, business and politics too.
I have reviewed with much
interest your section about cross-border training and educational
alternatives and would like to know if you are interested in offering our
website to your visitors in case they may be interested in spending a period
learning or improving their Spanish skills abroad. It may be interesting
either for the student community as for the educators' community, given that
we also offer courses for proficient users who want to improve or review
their knowledge on Hispanic studies and everything related to them;
language, culture, sociology, literature, etc.
Our Madrid University
Spanish School website is
www.madrid-university.es, if you think this might
be a useful resource for your users you can contact me or feel free to place
it between your resources.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration, and if you have any
comments or questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
November 2, 2006 message from Elena Gozalo
We will like to ask you to please add a link to the
Barcelona University UAB Spanish course website
www.barcelona-university.es .
We offer students the opportunity to book Spanish
language courses and accommodation at the University of Barcelona UAB in
Spain.
I am looking forward to hearing from you soon,
Elena Gozalo
www.barcelona-university.es
Education
Fraud and Gray Zone Warnings About Questionable Online Program --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
"Help Site for the Poor," Wired News, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71116-0.html?tw=wn_index_17
The site would provide information about such
basics as public safety, emergency services, education, health care and
jobs. U.S. Senators John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Barack Obama, an
Illinois Democrat, serve as honorary co-chairmen of the group.
Continued in article
The One Economy homepage is at
http://www.one-economy.com/
"Boston University Launches Online CMA Prep," SmartPros, February
13, 2006 ---
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x51781.xml
September 1, 2004 message from danirob@optusnet.com.au
Dear Bob
I would like to submit for your consideration an
English language learning web site which I believe would be of interest to
users of your bookmarks web page. (Category: 'Education Resources').
The English Maze www.englishmaze.com
is a web-based learning system for individuals and schools worldwide. It
combines leading language learning theories with cutting edge technology to
bring users a unique approach to learning English. With the English Maze,
students can improve their pronunciation, speaking, reading, listening and
writing skills. The site contains hundreds of hours of material, much of
which is free.
Thanks in advance for your time in considering this
link. We hope you find it useful and will be able to share it with your
readers.
Daniel Robinson
English Maze www.englishmaze.com
The University of Scranton is a Jesuit
university with quite a few online programs ---
http://elearning.scranton.edu/
University of Scranton Online MBA Program ---
http://elearning.scranton.edu/
Education Index --- http://www.educationindex.com/
Welcome
to the Education Index®, an annotated guide to the best
education-related sites on the Web. They're sorted by subject
and lifestage, so
you can find what you're looking for quickly and easily. There's also a
place to find out more about
us, and about all that the Education Index has to offer.
The Web
WeaselSM is here to guide you through the site; you'll find
"The Weas" (as we affectionately know it) mixing it up in the chemistry
lab, providing health
care, and running
for office.
This section is a topic-by-topic breakdown of the best sites on the
World Wide Web. We're continually reviewing new sites and adding
resources, and appreciate
your comments and suggestions.
Learning Tree International (Global Information Technology Training)
This company is featured in a full page article in Barrons, January
20, 2003, Page 27.
Learning Tree International is a world leader in
hands-on training for IT Professionals. Over 1.3 million course participants
from 18,000+ companies have enhanced their IT skills through intensive hands-on
exercises led by expert instructors with real-world experience. Courses are
presented at Learning Tree Education Centers and other locations throughout the
world, as well as on-site at client facilities. Choose from over 150
courses in today's hottest technologies, including Windows
XP, 2000, .NET, Java, XML, Oracle9i and 8i, UNIX and IT Management,
along with 42 Professional Certification Programs.
American InterContinental University (AIU) Online--- http://www.aiuniv.edu/
American InterContinental University is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ:
CECO). CEC operates 78 campuses in the U.S., Canada, France, the United
Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates and had approximately 83,200 students as of
January 31, 2004. AIU Online is the Web-based virtual campus of American
InterContinental University, an international university with onsite campuses
located in Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX;
London, England; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. American InterContinental
University has been educating students for more than 30 years and is regionally
accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Lycos, March 5, 2004 --- http://snipurl.com/LycosGore
"DeVry University to Offer Accounting Technology (Asspcoates) Degree,"
AccountingWeb, April 10, 2006 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=102017
From Syllabus News on February
10, 2004
Menlo Named "Best New Corporate
University"
Menlo University, a training center for 12,000
employees who work for transportation, supply chain management and logistics
companies that operate under the Menlo Worldwide brand, was awarded a
"Best New Corporate University" award at an annual conference for
commercial training organizations. The Corporate University Best in Class
(CUBIC) recognize corporate universities that are best practices.
Menlo University offers Menlo employees e-based
distance learning and computer-based training programs worldwide. It
maintains four main campuses in the U.S. and Europe, including Dayton, Ohio;
Portland, Ore., Scranton, Penn., and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Expansion
plans for the near future call for additional campuses in Asia and Latin
America.
Menlo University's home page is at http://www.menloworldwide.com/
Menlo Worldwide helps companies attain operational
excellence across the global supply chain. We combine the most inventive
logistics minds and advanced technology with the best in global
transportation services. MWW has a proven track record of developing new
creative global solutions and finding innovative ways to improve bottom line
results for our customers.
Teachers Without Borders ---
http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org/
Free Training Course on the Mortgage Industry --- http://mortgage-education.com/
From T.H.E. Newsletter on April 14, 2004
Mortgage-Education.com
is a Web site dedicated to providing postsecondary education about mortgage
loans. The goal of the site is to take novices in the finance industry and turn
them into well-trained loan officers within 60 days. The site features the
Complete Mortgage Industry Certification (CMIC) program that trains students
about conventional, nonconventional and FHA loans. The CMIC enables students to
properly process a loan in a timely manner. All of the lessons on the site are
taught online in video, audio and text, and are now approved by the American
Council of Education for nine semester hours of college credit toward an
associate's or bachelor's degree. Furthermore, upon completion of the CMIC, the
student's name will be entered into a database allowing all 50 major lending
corporations to view the individual's résumé for a potential job offer.
Wal-Mart University Tuition Discounts
Update on Wal-Mart University
Does this pass the Academy’s smell test?
"Wal-Mart Employees Get New College Program—Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wal-Mart-Employees-Get-New/24504/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The American Public
University System
has been described as a higher-education version
of Wal-Mart: a publicly traded corporation that mass-markets moderately priced
degrees in many fields.
Now it's more than an
analogy. Under a deal
announced today, the for-profit online university
will offer Wal-Mart workers discounted tuition and credit for job experience.
Such alliances are
nothing new; see these materials from
Strayer and
Capella for other examples. But Wal-Mart is the
country's largest retailer. And the company is pledging to spend $50-million
over three years to help employees cover the cost of tuition and books beyond
the discounted rate, according to the
Associated Press.
"What's most significant
about this is that, given that APU is very small, this is a deal that has the
potential to drive enrollments that are above what investors are already
expecting from them," Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group,
told Wired Campus. "Which is why the stock is up."
Wal-Mart workers will be
able to receive credit—without having to pay for it—for job training in subjects
like ethics and retail inventory management, according to the AP.
Wal-Mart employs 1.4
million people in the U.S. Roughly half of them have a high-school diploma but
no college degree, according to
The New York Times. A department-level
manager would end up paying about $7,900 for an associate degree, factoring in
the work credits and tuition discount, the newspaper reported.
“If 10 to 15 percent of
employees take advantage of this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State
Universities,” Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who
is now on Wal-Mart’s external advisory council, told the Times.
"News Analysis: Is 'Wal-Mart U.' a Good Bargain for Students?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 13, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Wal-Mart-U-a-Good/65933/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
There might have been a
Wal-Mart University.
As the world's largest
retailer weighed its options for making a big splash in education, executives
told one potential academic partner that Wal-Mart Stores was considering buying
a university or starting its own.
"Wal-Mart U." never
happened. Instead, the retailer chose a third option: a landmark alliance that
will make a little-known for-profit institution, American Public University, the
favored online-education provider to Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers in the
United States.
A closer look at the deal
announced this month shows how American Public slashed its prices and adapted
its curriculum to snare a corporate client that could transform its business. It
also raises one basic question: Is this a good bargain for students?
Adult-learning leaders
praise Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, for investing in
education. But some of those same experts wonder how low-paid workers will be
able to afford the cost of a degree from the private Web-based university the
company selected as a partner, and why Wal-Mart chose American Public when
community-college options might be cheaper. They also question how easily
workers will be able to transfer APU credits to other colleges, given that the
university plans to count significant amounts of Wal-Mart job training and
experience as academic credit toward its degrees.
For example, cashiers
with one year's experience could get six credits for an American Public class
called "Customer Relations," provided they received an "on target" or "above
target" on their last performance evaluation, said Deisha Galberth, a Wal-Mart
spokeswoman. A department manager's training and experience could be worth 24
credit hours toward courses like retail ethics, organizational fundamentals, or
human-resource fundamentals, she said.
Altogether, employees
could earn up to 45 percent of the credit for an associate or bachelor's degree
at APU "based on what they have learned in their career at Wal-Mart," according
to the retailer's Web site.
Janet K. Poley, president
of the American Distance Education Consortium, points out that this arrangement
could saddle Wal-Mart employees with a "nontransferable coupon," as one blogger
has described it.
"I now see where the
'trick' is—if a person gets credit for Wal-Mart courses and Wal-Mart work, they
aren't likely to be able to transfer those to much of anyplace else," Ms. Poley
wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. Transferability could be important, given
the high turnover rate in the retail industry.
Inside the Deal Wal-Mart
screened 81 colleges before signing its deal with American Public University.
One that talked extensively with the retailer was University of Maryland
University College, a 94,000-student state institution that is a national leader
in online education. According to University College's president, Susan C.
Aldridge, it was during early discussions that Wal-Mart executives told her the
company was considering whether it should buy a college or create its own
college.
When asked to confirm
that, Ms. Galberth said only that Wal-Mart "brainstormed every possible option
for providing our associates with a convenient and affordable way to attend
college while working at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club," which is also owned by
Wal-Mart Stores. "We chose to partner with APU to reach this goal. We have no
plans to purchase a brick-and-mortar university or enter the online education
business," she said.
The Wal-Mart deal was
something of a coming-out party for American Public University. The institution
is part of a 70,000-student system that also includes American Military
University and that largely enrolls active-duty military personnel. As American
Public turned its attention to luring the retail behemoth, it was apparently
able to be more flexible than other colleges and willing to "go the extra mile"
to accommodate Wal-Mart, said Jeffrey M. Silber, a stock analyst and managing
director of BMO Capital Markets. That flexibility included customizing programs.
APU has a management degree with courses in retail, and its deans worked with
Wal-Mart to add more courses to build a retail concentration, said Wallace E.
Boston, the system's president and chief executive.
It also enticed Wal-Mart
with a stable technology platform; tuition prices that don't vary across state
lines, as they do for public colleges; and online degrees in fields that would
be attractive to workers, like transportation logistics.
Unlike American Public,
Maryland's University College would not put a deep discount on the table.
Credit for Wal-Mart work
was also an issue, Ms. Aldridge said.
"We feel very strongly
that any university academic credit that's given for training needs to be
training or experience at the university level," Ms. Aldridge said. "And we have
some very set standards in that regard. And I'm not certain that we would have
been able to offer a significant amount of university credit for some of the
on-the-job training that was provided there."
Awarding credit for
college-level learning gained outside the classroom is a long-standing practice,
one embraced by about 60 percent of higher-education institutions, according to
the most recent survey by the Council for Adult And Experiential Learning. A
student might translate any number of experiences into credit: job training,
military service, hobbies, volunteer service, travel, civic activities.
Pamela J. Tate, president
and chief executive of the council, said what's important isn't the percentage
of credits students get from prior learning—a number that can vary widely.
What's important, she said, is that students can demonstrate knowledge. Workers
might know how they keep the books at a company, she explained. But that doesn't
automatically mean they've learned the material of a college accounting course.
Karan Powell, senior vice
president and academic dean at American Public University system, said credit
evaluation at her institution "is a serious, rigorous, and conservative
process." But will the credits transfer? "Every college or university
establishes its own transfer-credit policies as they apply to experiential
learning as well as credit from other institutions," she said in an e-mail.
"Therefore, it would depend on the school to which a Wal-Mart employee wanted to
transfer."
Affordable on $12 an
Hour? Then there's the question of whether low-wage workers will be able to
afford the degrees. One of the key features of this deal is the discount that
Wal-Mart negotiated with American Public.
"Wal-Mart is bringing the
same procurement policies to education that it brings to toothpaste," said John
F. Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, a distance-learning institution
based in New York.
American Public
University's tuition was already cheap by for-profit standards and competitive
with other nonprofit college options. It agreed to go even cheaper for Wal-Mart,
offering grants equal to 15 percent of tuition for the company's workers. Those
employees will pay about $11,700 for an associate degree and $24,000 for a
bachelor's degree.
But several experts
pointed out that public colleges might provide a more affordable option.
The Western Association
of Food Chains, for example, has a partnership with 135 community colleges in
the western United States to offer an associate degree in retail management
completely online, Ms. Tate said. Many of the colleges also grant credit for
prior learning. Though the tuition varies by state, the average tuition cost to
earn the degree is about $4,500, she said. By contrast, she said, the American
Public degree is "really expensive" for a front-line worker who might make $12
an hour.
"What I couldn't figure
out is how they would be able to afford it unless Wal-Mart was going to pay a
substantial part of the tuition," she said. "If not, then what you've got is
this program that looks really good, but the actual cost to the person is a
whole lot more than if they were going to go to community college and get their
prior learning credits assessed there."
How the retailer might
subsidize its employees' education is an open question. In announcing the
program, Wal-Mart pledged to spend up to $50-million over the next three years
"to provide tuition assistance and other tools to help associates prepare for
college-level work and complete their degrees."
Alicia Ledlie, the senior
director at Wal-Mart who has been shepherding this effort, told The Chronicle in
an e-mail that the company is "right now working through the design of those
programs and how they will benefit associates," with more details to be released
later this summer.
One thing is clear: The
deal has a big financial impact on American Public. Wal-Mart estimates that
about 700,000 of its 1.4 million American employees lack a college degree.
Sara Martinez Tucker, a
former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart's external advisory
council, suggests 10 or 15 percent of Wal-Mart associates could sign up.
"That's 140,000 college
degrees," she told The Chronicle. "Imagine three Ohio State Universities' worth
of graduates, which is huge in American higher education."
Jensen Comment
This Wal-Mart Fringe Benefit Should Be Carefully Investigated by Employees
It does not sit well with me!
- If Wal-Mart
would pay the same amount of benefit for online state university degrees
(e.g., the University of Wisconsin has over 100,000 online students) as the
for-profit American Public University that charges higher tuition even at a
Wal-Mart discount, why would a student choose the less prestigious and
relatively unknown American Public University? Possibly American Public wins
out because it's easier to get A & B grades with less academic ability and
less work.
"Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College: A 50-year rise in
grade-point averages is being fueled by private institutions, a recent study
finds," by Catherine Rampell. The New York Times, April 19, 2010 ---
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109339/want-a-higher-gpa-go-to-a-private-college?mod=edu-collegeprep
- I certainly hope
that the Wal-Mart contributions toward tuition can be extended to
state-supported colleges and universities having more respected credits. For
example, online degrees from the University of Wisconsin or the University
of Maryland are are likely much more respected for job mobility and for
acceptance into graduate schools.
- Giving credit
for "job experience" is an absolute turn off for me. Most adults have some
form of "job experience." This is just not equivalent to course credit
experience in college where students face examinations and academic
projects. Weaker colleges generally use credit for "job experience" ploy as
a come on to attract applicants. But the credits awarded for job experience
are not likely to be transferrable to traditional colleges and universities.
- The "discounted
tuition" in this for-profit online program is likely to be higher than the
in-state tuition from state-supported colleges and universities.
- I'm dubious
about the standards for admission in for-profit colleges as well as the
rigor of the courses. Watch the Frontline video served up by PBS.
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called
College, Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online
colleges and universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online
---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
- The American
Public University System is accredited by the North Central Association
accrediting agency that is now under investigation for weakened standards
for college credits.
"Inspector General Keeps the Pressure on a Regional
Accreditor," by Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27,
2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The inspector general of
the U.S. Department of Education has reaffirmed a recommendation that the
department should consider sanctions for the Higher Learning Commission of the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major
regional accrediting organizations. In a
report this week, the Office of Inspector General
issued its final recommendations stemming from a
2009 examination of the commission's standards
for measuring credit hours and program length, and affirmed its earlier critique
that the commission had been too lax in its standards for determining the amount
of credit a student receives for course work.
The Higher Learning
Commission accredits more than 1,000 institutions in 19 states. The Office of
Inspector General completed similar reports for two other regional accreditors
late last year but did not suggest any sanctions for those organizations.
Possible sanctions
against an accreditor include limiting, suspending, or terminating its
recognition by the secretary of education as a reliable authority for
determining the quality of education at the institutions it accredits. Colleges
need accreditation from a federally recognized agency in order to be eligible to
participate in the federal student-aid programs.
In its examination of
the Higher Learning Commission, the office looked at the commission's
reaccreditation of six member institutions: Baker College, DePaul University,
Kaplan University, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin
Cities, and the University of Phoenix. The office chose those institutions—two
public, two private, and two proprietary institutions—as those that received the
highest amounts of federal funds under Title IV, the section of the Higher
Education Act that governs the federal student-aid programs.
It also reviewed the
accreditation status of American InterContinental University and the Art
Institute of Colorado, two institutions that had sought initial accreditation
from the commission during the period the office studied.
The review found that
the Higher Learning Commission "does not have an established definition of a
credit hour or minimum requirements for program length and the assignment of
credit hours," the report says. "The lack of a credit-hour definition and
minimum requirements could result in inflated credit hours, the improper
designation of full-time student status, and the over-awarding of Title IV
funds," the office concluded in its letter to the commission's president, Sylvia
Manning.
More important, the
office reported that the commission had allowed American InterContinental
University to become accredited in 2009 despite having an "egregious" credit
policy.
In a letter responding
to the commission, Ms. Manning wrote that the inspector general had ignored the
limitations the accreditor had placed on American InterContinental to ensure
that the institution improved its standards, an effort that had achieved the
intended results, she said. "These restrictions were intended to force change at
the institution and force it quickly."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The most successful for-profit universities advertise heavily about credibility
due to being "regionally accredited." In some cases this accreditation was
initially bought rather than achieved such as by buying up a small, albeit still
accredited, bankrupt not-for-profit private college that's washed up on the
beach. This begs the question about how some for-profit universities maintain
the spirit of accreditation acquired in this manner.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
"Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College: A 50-year rise in
grade-point averages is being fueled by private institutions, a recent study
finds," by Catherine Rampell. The New York Times, April 19, 2010 ---
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109339/want-a-higher-gpa-go-to-a-private-college?mod=edu-collegeprep
Over the last 50 years,
college grade-point averages have risen about 0.1 points per decade, with
private schools fueling the most grade inflation, a recent study finds.
The study, by Stuart
Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, uses historical data from 80 four-year
colleges and universities. It finds that G.P.A.'s have risen from a national
average of 2.52 in the 1950s to about 3.11 by the middle of the last decade.
For the first half of the
20th century, grading at private schools and public schools rose more or less in
tandem. But starting in the 1950s, grading at public and private schools began
to diverge. Students at private schools started receiving significantly higher
grades than those received by their equally-qualified peers -- based on SAT
scores and other measures -- at public schools.
In other words, both
categories of schools inflated their grades, but private schools inflated their
grades more.
Based on contemporary
grading data the authors collected from 160 schools, the average G.P.A. at
private colleges and universities today is 3.3. At public schools, it is 3.0.
The authors suggest that
these laxer grading standards may help explain why private school students are
over-represented in top medical, business and law schools and certain Ph.D.
programs: Admissions officers are fooled by private school students' especially
inflated grades.
Additionally, the study
found, science departments today grade on average 0.4 points lower than
humanities departments, and 0.2 points lower than social science departments.
Such harsher grading for the sciences appears to have existed for at least 40
years, and perhaps much longer.
Relatively lower grades
in the sciences discourage American students from studying such disciplines, the
authors argue.
"Partly because of our
current ad hoc grading system, it is not surprising that the U.S. has to rely
heavily upon foreign-born graduate students for technical fields of research and
upon foreign-born employees in its technology firms," they write.
These overall trends, if
not the specific numbers, are no surprise to anyone who has followed the debates
about grade inflation. But so long as schools believe that granting higher
grades advantages their alumni, there will be little or no incentive to impose
stricter grading standards unilaterally.
Buying grades is also common in some foreign universities ---
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=vincent_johnson
Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation
And
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#RateMyProfessor
Government Aid Will Still Flow to For-Profit College Programs of Dubious
Quality
"Education Dept. Will Release Stricter Rules for For-Profits but Delays One
on 'Gainful Employment'," by Kelly Fields and Jennifer Gonzalez,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 15, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Will-Release/65958/
After an intense lobbying effort by for-profit
colleges, the Education Department announced Tuesday that it will postpone
the release of a rule that proprietary institutions said would shutter
thousands of their programs.
The rule, which would cut off federal student aid
to programs whose graduates carry high student-loan debt relative to their
incomes, is one of 14 that the department and college stakeholders have been
negotiating over the past eight months. The other regulations, including one
that would tighten a ban on incentive compensation for college recruiters,
will be made public Friday.
In a call with reporters Tuesday, an Education
Department official said the agency still plans to hold for-profits
accountable for preparing their graduates for "gainful employment," but
needs more time to develop an appropriate measure of that outcome. The
official said the proposal will be released later this summer, and will most
likely be included in a package of final rules due out in November.
"We have many areas of agreement where we can move
forward," Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, said in a statement.
"But some key issues around gainful employment are complicated, and we want
to get it right, so we will be coming back with that shortly."
The delay gives for-profit
colleges more time to fight the department's proposal to bar aid for
programs in which a majority of students' loan payments would exceed 8
percent of the lowest quarter of graduates' expected earnings, based on a
10-year repayment plan. The colleges have already spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars
pushing an alternative that would require programs
to provide prospective students with more information about their graduates'
debt levels and salaries.
Their lobbying and public-relations blitz has met
with mixed success. While the department has not yet abandoned plans to
measure graduates' debt-to-income ratios, the rules that will be released
Friday would require programs to disclose their graduation and job-placement
rates and median debt levels—the approach favored by for-profits.
A Welcome Delay Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with
Signal Hill Capital Group, said the delay in releasing the rest of the rule
suggested that "the department has heard the message from industry and
Congress, and that there was some overreaching."
"Clearly, trying to gather more data before
proceeding is being responsible," he added.
For-profit colleges have complained that the
department has refused to release the data it used to justify drafting the
rule, and have questioned whether they even exist.
The fight over gainful employment comes amid
increased federal scrutiny of the for-profit sector, which educates a
growing share of students and is highly dependent on federal student aid. On
Thursday, the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will
hold a hearing to examine whether accrediting agencies are doing enough to
ensure that students studying online are getting an adequate amount of
instruction for the degrees they earn. The hearing will focus on a recent
report by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General that
questioned the decision of the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major
regional accrediting organizations, to approve accreditation of American
InterContinental University, a for-profit college owned by the Career
Education Corporation. The Senate education committee follows with a hearing
next week focused on the growth of the for-profit sector and the risks that
may pose to taxpayers.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the chairman of the
Senate committee praised the proposed rules. "The federal government must
ensure that the more than $20-billion in student aid that these schools
receive is being well spent and students are being well informed and well
served," said Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. "For-profit colleges must
work for students and taxpayers, not just shareholders."
Meanwhile, a top Republican on the panel, Sen.
Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, called the disclosures that would be required
by the rules that will be released on Friday "much better than the first
approach on gainful employment." Mr. Alexander, a former secretary of
education, had threatened to offer an amendment to withhold the funds needed
to put the rule into effect if the department followed through with its
original proposal.
"Secretary Duncan is focusing on a real problem,"
he said. "Some students are borrowing too much and not getting enough value
for what they are paying."
Tougher Stance on Recruitment But if the department
is showing signs that it may soften its stance on gainful employment, it has
dug in its heels on another controversial issue: recruiter compensation.
During negotiations over the rules, the department proposed striking a dozen
"safe harbors" from a ban on compensating recruiters based on student
enrollment. It followed through with that proposal in the rules due out
Friday, while promising to provide guidance on what is—and isn't—allowed
under the ban.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges operating in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
You can read the following at http://www.capella.edu/GATEWAY.ASPX
Capella University Overview In Brief Capella
University is an accredited online university that offers courses,
certificates and degree programs, including MBA, doctorate, graduate and
undergraduate degrees in business, technology, education, human services and
psychology. Founded in 1993, Capella is the world's fastest-growing
e-learning institution.
A pioneer in online learning, Capella University is
a results-oriented educational institution geared specifically to the goals
and lifestyles of adult learners. Capella redefines the higher education
experience for non-traditional learners, thereby offering an accessible and
flexible education program that allows technology to remove the barriers of
time and place.
Accreditation Capella University is accredited by
The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Schools (NCA), the same body that accredits Big Ten universities. The
NCA has recognized Capella for "its pioneering role in translating an
adult learning model into action." Capella is the first and only online
academic institution to participate in the NCA of Colleges and Schools
Academic Quality Improvement Project.
Enrollment Capella University's student body
currently comprises students from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
The majority of Capella's learners are working adults who often are
balancing family, work and educational achievement.
More than 600 corporations provide tuition
reimbursement to employees enrolled at Capella University. Check the Capella
Learner Organizations list for your employer's name.
Additionally, some Organizations have signed
Corporate Alliance Partnership Agreements with Capella University. Employees
of our Corporate Partners receive several additional benefits such as
tuition discounts, streamlined enrollment process and cohort learning
opportunities. Our programs are designed to have an immediate impact on the
individual learner and the organization, positioning both for greater
success.
Capella is also a leading provider of courses in all branches of the U.S.
Military --- http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/military_index.aspx
Corporate partnerships and alliances are listed at http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/corp/index.aspx
An Enduring Story for a Pioneering For-Profit Distance Learning
Institution
60,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees through its distance
learning program
Administrators say that one of the state’s top
universities — either the University of Michigan or Michigan State — will soon
partner with Central on a distance-based business program, thanks to its strong
and solid history. Likewise, leading giants in the distance education field,
including Phoenix, have turned to the relatively small Midwestern campus for
advice.
"Distance Ed Pioneer Reassesses Itself," by Rob Capriccioso, Inside Higher Ed,
May 3, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/05/03/central
“People are very devoted to our campus,” says Terry
Rawls, interim vice president and executive director of professional
education at Central Michigan University, “but I’m embarrassed to say that
most have never been to a Chippewa football game.”
That’s because — long before for-profit colleges
like the University of Phoenix, Strayer University and Capella University
made Internet-based education a widespread phenomenon — the institution has
been churning out a variety of long distance degrees for individuals who
live nowhere near Michigan. The university, located in Mt. Pleasant, smack
dab in the middle of the state, has awarded about 60,000 undergraduate,
graduate and doctoral degrees through its distance learning program since
1971, and about 7,000 students now enroll in distance learning courses
during any given term, according to the university. Central has 60 satellite
campuses total, with a majority of sites in Michigan, Georgia, Virginia and
Ontario.
About 10 percent of regular fulltime instructors
from the Central Michigan campus teach both online and satellite courses. A
total of over 200 faculty and staff members administer the distance
education programs. New instructors must pass a strict review by faculty
members from the main campus in order to be hired. Of all institutions in
the country, Central is the second largest granter of master’s of business
degrees to African Americans.
Administrators say that one of the state’s top
universities — either the University of Michigan or Michigan State — will
soon partner with Central on a distance-based business program, thanks to
its strong and solid history. Likewise, leading giants in the distance
education field, including Phoenix, have turned to the relatively small
Midwestern campus for advice.
But as more institutions — publics, privates and
for-profits — get into the arena that Central first started researching in
the early 1970s, administrators at the university are trying to cope with
the competition. Like many other pioneering distance education institutions,
including the University of Maryland University College, the institution is
trying to figure out how to position itself for growth, while remaining
focused on offering high quality education.
Phoenix, in particular, has recently opened several
campuses in Michigan, where Central currently has 14 satellites. There has
been concern among administrators at Central Michigan that enrollment growth
would wane, which hasn’t happened yet.
“It’s difficult for a school like CMU to say that
they’re a leader in this field in the Midwest when you’ve got all kinds of
Phoenixes popping up,” says Charles Baker-Clark, a director with the
American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, who notes that one
Phoenix campus has recently opened in his hometown of Grand Rapids. “As a
business, these kinds of shops can be much more adaptable than a traditional
university.”
For-profits aren’t the only competition. Rawls says
that many smaller public universities have created programs similar to
Central’s in various regions of the country. “It’s the state schools that
are trying to do what we’ve been doing for 35 years now. Everybody is having
problems with state appropriations,” he says. “So more people are saying,
‘Let’s reach out to adult learners to make some money.’ ”
Alan Knox, an education policy expert with the
University of Wisconsin at Madison, cautions that institutions that think of
distance learning as a money-making venture would be wise to explore
failures like Columbia University, which spent millions of dollars on a
widely heralded distance education program that failed to take off. “When
you look at the cost-benefit ratio, some assume that distance learning will
be profitable,” says Knox. “But in actuality, it is not hugely different if
you ignore the costs of building and operating bricks and mortar campuses.”
Rawls also says that Central Michigan is trying to
be proactive on the recruitment and retention front. Not an easy task,
considering the fact that the off-campus division of the university is
limited in its budget abilities to spend money on marketing. Some
for-profits spend up to 25 percent of their revenue on glossy marketing
campaigns that have nationwide appeal. “There’s no way that we can afford to
play that game,” says Rawls, even though his division is self-supporting and
provided about $5 million in profits back to the Mt. Pleasant campus over
the past year.
The off-campus programs, to date, have largely
depended on word-of-mouth advertising, but administrators are currently
upping their e-marketing efforts and working with Web-based companies on how
to optimize keyword searches.
Administrators, too, have reached out to
Eduventures, a consulting firm that focuses on the education industry, to
help the institution communicate its strengths and learn from its
weaknesses. That firm has suggested that Central focus on efforts that help
them stand out from other institutions.
“Why are we successful?” asks Rawls. “Because we
have been doing it longer than most and we are as good as or better than
anyone in the country.”
In Rawls’s book, being “good” means implementing
programs that work for adult learners, who make up the majority of consumer
of Central’s distance learning programs. The university offers a variety of
courses to meet the divergent needs of individuals, including Web-based
programs as well as traditional distance learning programs where a student
can take evening courses at a Central campus — in, for instance, Hawaii. In
Atlanta alone, Central has 12 learning centers, which makes it easier for
commuters to not have to deal with as much traffic, says Rawls.
“Our goal is to deliver the same academic
experience in terms of educational quality in both on- and off- campus
efforts,” says Cheri DeClercq, associate director of enrollment management
for Central’s off-campus programs.
DeClercq also says that Central is competitive in
terms of pricing. For most distance learning programs offered by the
institution, the cost is $345 per credit hour, whether the classes are
offered online or at satellite campuses. Many for-profit institutions charge
substantially more for online courses than they do for in-person courses
because they tend to be more attractive to students who need flexible
scheduling.
Rawls also hopes to expand the number of online
offerings vastly in the short term. About 15 percent of the classes
currently offered in the off-campus programs are online, and he wants to be
more competitive with other institutions on this front. “Central and many
other institutions around the country are trying to respond to the
for-profit market by embracing technology in ways that help students,” says
Knox.
Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s
School of Education and an expert on distance education, says that Central
should be careful what programs can and should be offered online and what
needs to be done in person. Rawls says he realizes that one of the strongest
aspects of the program to date has been the one-on-one interaction that
Central has been able to offer thousands of students at satellite campuses.
Central Michigan’s Board of Trustees has kept a
watchful eye over the growth and development of the off-campus programs. In
the early part of this decade, they explored a plan to largely expand the
off-campus program to try to create more funds. They determined that
accreditation and other concerns put the idea out of reach at that time.
“We are such a different and unique beast,” says
Rawls. He sees Central going one of two routes over the next 35 years. “We
could have a damned good extended learning program in Michigan because of
our infrastructure here already and really focus on that,” he says. “Or we
could have a worldwide online operation, leveraging on our face-to-face
presences already.”
He seems to favor a combination of the two.
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side of distance learning and education
technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"CPEs Can Lead to MBA," AccountingWeb,
August 19, 2005 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=101218
The Ohio Society of
Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA) has
partnered with Franklin University in
Columbus, Ohio, to allow CPAs to apply CPE
credit toward the
Franklin MBA.
The Applied Leadership Focus allows CPAs to
apply qualifying CPEs towards as many as
eight credit hours in the Franklin MBA
Program. CPAs applying CPEs toward their MBA
can obtain their degree in as little as 14
months, reducing the usual 17-month duration
by up to three months. Four credit hours are
the equivalent of 120 CPEs.
“CPAs are committed
to lifelong learning and fulfill a stringent
continuing education commitment requiring
120 hours every three years,” explains J.
Clarke Price, CAE, President and CEO of the
Ohio Society of CPAs in announcing the
partnership. “Through this unique
partnership with Franklin University, Ohio
Society members can apply their CPE credits
toward an MBA. It’s part of our ongoing
commitment to create value-added benefits fo
rour members.”
CEO Leaderboard
reports that the Franklin MBA is the largest
MBA Program in central Ohio. The Franklin
MBA is unique in the choices and flexibility
it offers. Students can select from two
academic formats: the new Life Cycle format
and the traditional Discipline-Based format.
Further tailoring is available through seven
Focus Areas, including the
accounting-focused Financial Leadership
Focus. Students can also choose to complete
their MBA online or on-site. Finally,
Franklin’s rolling admission and flexible
start dates all students to begin the MBA
Program at multiple pints during the year.
Continued in article
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Banks and Credit Derivatives
From Jim Mahar's blog on August 17, 2005
Minton, Stulz,
and Williamson have an
Oracle Business Suite http://www.netledger.com/portal/products_1.jsp?product=osbs&promocode=O_Google_IMP
Resources
to prevent and discover fraud from the Association of Fraud Examiners --- http://www.cfenet.com/resources/resources.asp
Self-study
training for a career in fraud examination --- http://marketplace.cfenet.com/products/products.asp
New in 2003 from The Pennsylvania State
System of Higher Education --- the Keystone University Network --- http://www.keystoneu.net/
HARRISBURG (April 4,
2003) - More than 1,900 workforce-training and professional-development courses,
adult basic education, and specialized training areas for healthcare,
maintenance technology and government employees are among the first offerings of
the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's online university, Keystone
University Network.
Affordable, high-quality education is the hallmark of
the 14 universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
Keystone University Network brings the educational offerings of those great
universities to you - anywhere - anytime. For organizations seeking to enhance
employees' skills, we offer a robust portfolio of online job training and
professional development. We also are growing to be your lifelong learning
partner - from preparing you for a GED to earning a master's degree. Bookmark
our site - many new programs will be coming online for you!
The University of Texas
has an extensive online training and education center --- http://www.utexas.edu/conted/
Those Longhorns also
have some short informal courses --- http://www.utexas.edu/student/txunion/ae/iclass/
Not to be outdone, Texas
A&M University (TAMU) also has an extensive training and education center
--- http://www.tamu.edu/ode/disted/
TAMU even offers a doctoral (Ed.D.) degree in Agricultural Education.
But the number of degree
programs online is larger from Wisconsin --- http://www1.uwex.edu/topics/Degree_programs.cfm
The UW Distance Education homepage is at http://learn.wisconsin.edu/
Boston Learning --- http://www.bostonlearninginc.com/cc.php
Our Online classrooms provide a more conventional
group learning environment, while still offering the benefits of direct, live
instructor led education. Multiple students join simultaneous web and
telephone conferences with a live instructor who takes them through a class.
Students can follow along in the web conference as the instructor demonstrates
the lessons, and ask questions of the instructor via a live chat application.
Accompanying sample files and courseware allow students to review the lessons
and try out sample problems on their own time, at their own pace.
The Online Classroom can be delivered in one of two
ways: Via Boston Learning's standard interface or through a branded
"Corporate Classroom." In either case, students can view upcoming
class schedules and sign up through an automated interface. Students who have
signed up for a class will be sent web and phone conference information, as
well as the accompanying courseware and sample files ahead of the class.
Academy of Art University
http://www.academyart.edu
http://online.academyart.edu/about.html
Some Parts of the Corporate Online Distance Learning Business Model Are
Thriving
From Syllabus News on February 28, 2003:
Online Provider Grows Curriculum to 1,700
Courses
RedVector.com Inc. said its library surpassed 1,700
online courses, double the number of courses it offered 12 months ago. The
company works with international subject matter experts to develop online
courses for continuing education, certification, and licensing exam
preparation. The company specializes in online education for professionals
in the engineering, architectural, construction, land surveying, interior
design, building inspection, and landscape architecture industries. Its
library includes courses on a wide range of subjects from toxic mold to
wetlands to project management. The company recently expanded to include
areas devoted to online certification courses and online licensing exam prep
courses.
One of the fastest growing online training and education sites is
RedVector.com --- http://www.redvector.com/default.asp
RedVector.com (www.RedVector.com)
is the global leader in online education for professionals in the
engineering, architectural, interior design, construction, land surveying,
building inspection and landscape architecture industries. The web site course
library includes over 1,700 online courses including continuing
education courses, certification courses and licensing exam prep courses,
authored by more than 200 exclusive subject matter experts. Courses are
designed to meet state board and professional organization requirements.
RedVector.com attracts over 500,000 unique visitors from 50 states
and 20 countries. The company has been featured on CNN,
WallStreetReporter.com and in hundreds of trade magazines, newspapers and
industry journals. RedVector.com’s top-rated client services department
employs a bilingual staff of full time Account Managers dedicated to
helping customers seven (7) days a week.
RedVector.com’s distinct clientele includes
individual licensees, as well as Corporations. A few of RedVector.com’s most
recent corporate partners include; PBS&J University, URS Corp, The
Shaw Group Inc., Earth Tech, TECO Energy, O’Neal, Inc., EDG Inc., Fluor
Corporation, The Ren Group, TBE Group, CH2MHill and SSOE, Inc. RedVector handles
the full implementation of these programs including setup, tracking reports and
scheduled invoicing.
RedVector.com's strong relationships with numerous
international professional organizations and universities are also a big
draw. Its list of partnerships and affiliations include Indiana State
University, Clemson University, Valencia Community College,
the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Engineers of
Ireland (IEI), the American Institute of Architects (AIA),
the Architectural Institute of British Columbia (AIBC), the
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), the International
Interior Design Association (IIDA), the American Institute of
Constructors (AIC), the National Drilling Association (NDA),
the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) and Professional
Surveyor Magazine. RedVector.com also has an agreement with the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
RedVector.com offers numerous FREE client services designed to benefit
our customers and add to their learning experience:
- "Live" personal assistance and
bilingual support (English and Spanish) for students, 7 days a week, 15
hours a day. Our full time Account Managers are dedicated to ensuring
that the student's online experience is a good one.
- All RedVector.com courses come with the ability
to contact the course author/ subject matter expert with questions and
comments, or for any other content related support.
- RedVector.com will track, manage and submit
fulfilled CE hours to State licensing boards, professional organizations
and all other licensing boards that require it, on behalf of the
student.
- RedVector.com's News and Articles section keeps
readers up to date on changing rules and requirements internationally.
- All RedVector.com customers receive an
electronic digitized certificate of completion immediately following
successful completion of an online course. Customers can print out the
certificate instantly and save it for their records. An electronic copy
of the certificate is also stored in their RedVector.com User Profile
for future reference.
- RedVector.com's Online Journal provides a place
for students to document their completed hours, or fulfilled CE hours,
in one location. Many of our corporate partners have turned to this
service as opposed to having their Human Resources department bogged
down with this process.
- RedVector.com's Resource Directory allows
visitors to search professionals and services internationally. Visitors
may also add their own company or product to the directory.
RedVector.com's Mission is to provide our
customers with the ability to manage their own time by offering quality
online education, backed by a commitment to superior customer service.
RedVector.com's Vision is to become the leading Internet resource
internationally for online education, information and communication, the
essential tools our clients need to be successful in the business world.
Contact:
Brent A. Craven
President and Chief Operating Officer
Two Urban Centre
4890 West Kennedy Boulevard
Suite 530
Tampa, FL 33609
TOLL FREE 1-866-546-1212
Fax: 813-286-7992
International Phone: 001-813-207-0012
International Fax: 001-813-286-7992
Contact Mr. Craven
The LRN Center's business model is to provide legal and ethics training
courses online to corporations, law firms, and other organizations who
generally pay for employees to take courses in law and ethics. For
example, Dow Chemical contracted with LRN to train 50,000 employees. LRN has similar contracts with many other
corporations around the world. I
learned about the LRN Center from W. Michael Hoffman, the Director of the
Bentley College Center for Ethics. Dr. Hoffman writes course modules for
LRN in the field of ethics. After the recent corporate scandals, LRN's
prospects for the future are very bright indeed.
LRN Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC)™ --- http://www.lrn.com/
LRN Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC)™ is
the Web-based system that sets the standard for workplace ethics, legal and
compliance education. With innovative technology, a powerful learning
management system and a curriculum of more than 140 courses, LCEC offers
your enterprise a complete workforce education solution.
Backed by a global network of 1,700 legal experts,
LRN®, The Legal Knowledge Company™ offers an integrated legal knowledge
management system that encompasses Expert Legal Research and Analysis, LRN
KnowledgeBank®, proactive law services and much more. See how LRN is
redefining the practice of law with innovation, efficiency and unparalleled
expertise.
LRN® , The Legal Knowledge Company
TM has been the country's leading purveyor of
expert legal knowledge since 1994, with products that include sophisticated
legal research and analysis for lawyers, databases of legal memoranda and
other materials for corporate law departments and law firms, Web-based
ethics and legal compliance education for corporate employees, ethics and
compliance consulting, and proactive law services.
The LRN mission is to bring expertise and
innovation to the creation, management and dissemination of knowledge that
helps make a critical difference to businesses, lawyers and their clients.
To accomplish this, LRN has built itself on a firm foundation of expertise.
We feature a network of more than 1,700 of the world's finest legal minds,
organized into more than 3,000 substantive areas of the law and expertly
managed by our own team of highly experienced lawyers. Together, our
research network and management team bring expertise to every step in the
creation, capture and distribution of legal knowledge products. Our services
include:
- LRN
KnowledgeEnvironment — an integrated platform for sharing and
disseminating knowledge on an enterprise-wide basis. Fully customizable
for our clients, this resource facilitates communications within the
legal department and helps provide the entire enterprise with the legal
and ethics knowledge it needs.
- LRN
Legal Compliance and Ethics Center (LCEC) — the first entirely
Web-based platform designed to deliver customized legal education and
training in workplace ethics and legal compliance to employees' desktops
- LRN
Ethics and Consulting Services — by combining LRN
expertise with a network of ethics professionals, we help our customers
develop, refine and maximize the value in their ethics and compliance
programs.
- LRN
Expert Legal Research and Analysis — focused, fixed-price
research and analysis performed by seasoned legal professionals
- LRN
Knowledge Platform — the solution for bringing the entire
legal team, including outside counsel, together on one platform for
sharing critical legal knowledge. Every team member can access research,
contracts and every other document from any computer with Internet
access.
- LRN
KnowledgeBank — the legal knowledge management system that
combines LRN's expert legal research and analysis, the resources of
in-house attorneys and the work product of outside counsel into a
single, integrated and searchable database
Successful companies all over the world have
grasped the power of LRN's expert-driven approach and used it to their
advantage. Contact us to learn about how we can put our resources to work to
meet your company's business challenges.
UNext also seems to be adopting the online business training model in a big
way. One of the first major contracts obtained by UNext was a contract
to educate and train over 90,000 employees of General Motors Corporation.
You can read more about what is happening at UNext at http://www.unext.com/
Thomson Enterprise Learning Takes Cardean
University to Large Businesses Worldwide
Exclusive
Agreement with Thomson Brings Cardean University's Award-Winning Online
Courses and M.B.A. to Large Businesses
American Marketing Association Partners with
Cardean University
Special
Offer Provides Professional Business Education Online to 38,000 Members
I had two speakers from UNext in my Atlanta workshop last year. You
can listen to their presentation and view their PowerPoint show at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education can be found at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Online Continuing Education from the Institute of Internal Auditors --- http://www.theiia.org/
http://education.smartpros.com/main/welcome.asp?qs=iia
Issues and Answers - From Experts
Accounting/Auditing
- DEMO
Skills Training
Accounting/Auditing
Ethics
Financial Planning
Information Systems and Computer
Applications
Management
Taxation
Issues & Answers - From Experts
See Most Recent Updates
Auditing
E-commerce
Economics
Finance
Financial Reporting
Information Systems
Management
Managerial Accounting
Security & Control
Tax
The AT&T Learning Network
Community Guide http://www.att.com/communityguide/index.html
Welcome to the AT&T Learning Network Community
Guide. AT&T developed this Guide as part of its ongoing effort to help
communities take advantage of the many benefits of information technology.
As part of that effort, AT&T funded a variety of organizations to
develop public community access centers for community members who do not
have other means to connect to the Internet. This Guide is intended to be a
companion document for those centers and other technology access centers
around the country. Whether you’re involved in running a community access
center or you’re a community member interested in learning the uses and
benefits of the Internet, this Guide will help get you started. If you’re
a community member looking for ways to begin planning your own access
center, you’ll find tips on how to “kickstart” that effort.
Community access centers take many forms and take
place in many sites within the community where people gather to communicate
with and learn from one another. You may find Internet access points in a
library, a church or a senior citizen-center. Perhaps your children attend a
summer camp that has an area where they can learn about and use these
technology resources. Many organizations, like the NAACP and the National
Urban League, provide many types of services for community members and are
now branching out to bring the reach of the Internet to their centers as
well. The point is that there are many organizations, many types of centers
and many opportunities to “get connected”— often from places that may
have seemed unlikely in the past.
April 22, 2004 message from Rob [rob@coursejunction.com]
Bob,
We’ve created a free site that allows anyone to
search for a course or list a course for free. The name of the site is http://www.coursejunction.com
. We offer a number of high quality courses and would appreciate a link from
your continuing education contact page.
Our link instructions are here: http://www.coursejunction.com/link2us.cfm
. Please feel free to email me with any questions.
Thank you,
Rob
CourseJunction.com is an online community that
brings course providers and course participants together. Any one can list
their courses on CourseJunction.com and anyone can search for a course on
CourseJunction for free. http://www.coursejunction.com
From Syllabus News on November 11, 2003
Georgia Tech to Offer eCommerce Professional
Certification
Georgia Tech's Electronic Commerce Resource Center
will offer an eCommerce Professional Certificate Program, designed to give
participants the opportunity to learn from industry and educational
professionals the framework for eCommerce integration. Instructors include
an eCommerce attorney, a spokesman on Internet security, large portal
planner and developer, and university financial and marketing professionals.
The program includes the role of eCommerce in the business organization,
eCommerce as a sales tool, the latest search engine techniques, and
financial eCommerce security.
Bloomberg University --- http://www.bloomberguniversity.com/index.jsp?cookieProbe=true
Bloomberg University exists to provide you with the
best financial and investing information possible through its expanding list
of online courses.
From picking funds for a 401(k) program to saving
up for a first home, the choices facing the public can be daunting. Our goal
at Bloomberg University is to provide you with a solid foundation of
knowledge and empower you to make the right decisions in your financial
life.
Bloomberg University is a natural extension of
Bloomberg.com. After taking the courses on our site, we hope you will
continue to turn to Bloomberg.com as you implement your investment
strategies, whether it's to research a new stock or to find the best funds
for your retirement portfolio.
College Credit on the Phone? This makes me suspicious!
"Community-College System Offers Distance Education by Cellphone," by Sara
Lipka, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3458&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Universities in
Japan and
Canada unveiled courses by cellphone last year,
and now, in the midst of
National Distance Learning
Week, the United States has too.
The Louisiana Community and Technical College
System
yesterday announced the creation of
LCTCSOnline, a new program built in collaboration
with AT&T and Pearson Custom Solutions, a branch of the publishing and
education company.
Beginning in January, students can register on a
single Web site
for online courses offered — at $63 per credit hour — by any community
college in Louisiana. And they’ll be able to complete their coursework on
desktops, laptops, or mobile phones.
“The top barriers for students in obtaining their
degrees are geographic access, cost of higher education, and scheduling
conflicts,” said Joe D. May, the college system’s president, in a written
statement. “We’re excited to be able to bring a greater level of access to
potential students.”
Louisiana ranks last among the 50 states in the
percentage of adults with associate’s degrees, according to the college
system, which hopes to solve workforce shortages by enrolling nearly three
times as many students as it does now.
“This initiative embodies the type of thinking we
need,” Sally Clausen, Louisiana’s commissioner of higher education, said in
a written statement.
A $500,000 grant from the Louisiana Board of
Regents financed the program, which the college system developed in nine
months with AT&T and Pearson,
The Town Talk, a local newspaper, reported
Bob Jensen's Threads on Tricks and Tools of the Trade are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Online and Other
Nontraditional Doctoral Degrees
2U Education Technology (for-profit education courses) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2U_%28company%29
"U. of Southern California and 2U Offer Online Doctoral Degree,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 23, 2014 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/quickwire-u-of-southern-california-and-2u-offer-online-doctoral-degree/51981?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
There are still some accreditation and USC final approval issues pending. But if
this program becomes operational this could be the start of traditional
university partnerships with for-profit companies. The first 2U venture of
offering prestigious faculty online courses that were accepted by some top
universities recently faltered.
2U Distance Education Course Provider ---
http://www.study2u.com/
2U (The Anti-MOOC Provider) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology
"3 Universities (Baylor,
Southern Methodist, and Temple Universities)
Will Grant Credit for 2U’s Online Courses," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle
of Higher Education, July 30, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/3-universities-will-grant-credit-for-2us-online-courses/45143?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
That was July 30, 2013. It's unclear what role the new 2U will play in terms of
providing transfer credit accepted by Baylor, SUM, Temple, and other
universities after May 2014.
"2U Ends Semester Online," by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed,
April 3, 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/03/online-education-provider-2u-disband-semester-online-consortium
The online education provider 2U will
this summer eliminate its online course pool initiative in favor of
developing fully online undergraduate degree programs, ending a high-profile
effort to offer scalable, credit-granting online courses at residential
colleges.
The consortium, known as
Semester Online,
was initially marketed as a platform for top-tier
universities to offer online courses to paying students at participating
universities. During the 2012 media storm surrounding massive open online
courses, it emerged with a distinctive message, promising small course sizes
and live, interactive videoconferencing sessions.
But before the launch of last fall’s
pilot, Duke and Vanderbilt Universities and the University of Rochester had
backed out, and Wake
Forest University
remained on the fence. At the colleges that
dropped out and at Wake Forest, the decisions came after intense faculty
debate; Duke, for example,
rejected joining the
consortium in a 16-14 vote by the Arts & Sciences Council. Although Wake
Forest eventually joined the consortium, which this spring expanded with new
courses and international partners, the universities and 2U reached a mutual
decision to end the initiative.
“Semester Online was always an
experiment,” Chance Patterson, 2U’s senior vice president of communications,
said in an email. “The pilot program experienced significant challenges
related to the complexities of a consortium structure.”
In addition to losing some of its
founding members, Semester Online’s fall pilot also struggled with low
enrollment. Some participating universities were unable to sign up students
until mid-June -- several months after fall registration -- meaning some
courses were left with single-digit enrollments.
Patterson described Semester Online as an
“informative” experience that has “helped 2U develop its instructional model
for the undergraduate population.” And along with Wednesday’s announcement
that it would disband the consortium, 2U also unveiled its first
undergraduate degree program, an RN to BSN program developed in partnership
with Simmons College.
In an email, Claire E. Sterk, provost of
Emory University, described her institution's participation in Semester
Online as a learning experience, and thanked the faculty "for being open to
academic innovation."
"From my perspective, it was a great
experiment led by our dean of arts and sciences and the faculty," Sterk wrote.
"We also learned important lessons about the ways in which universities
teach and are able to compare traditional versus more innovative modes of
teaching."
Ed Macias, provost emeritus at Washington
University in St. Louis, said via email that he was "proud to have been part
of this experiment in online education," and that courses had been "top
quality."
2U, fresh off a successful initial public offering
last week, is better-known for developing fully online master’s degree
programs for institutions such as Georgetown University, the University of
California at Berkeley and the University of North Carolina, among others.
Those programs have generally been well-received
among graduate school faculty. Writing about his experiences with
the University of North Carolina's online M.B.A. program, Scott Cohen, a
professor with more than three decades of teaching in graduate-level
business courses,
described the online
experience as "more intimate than 90 percent of the seminars I’ve taught in
or taken."
Jensen Comment
Some universities claim that they do not accept distance education transfer
credit. However, in some instances it's impossible on a transcript to know
whether a student took one or more courses from a highly regarded university
online or onsite. Universities like the University of Wisconsin and Indiana
University have multiple sections of courses where some sections can be taken on
campus and other sections can be taken online. The transcripts may not
differentiate between those sections when students from those universities are
seeking to transfer to other universities.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education courses and degree
programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Accounting Doctoral Programs
May 3, 2011 message to Barry Rice from Bob Jensen
Hi Barry,
Faculty without doctoral degrees who meet the AACSB PQ standards are
still pretty much second class citizens and will find the tenure track
hurdles to eventual full professorship very difficult except in colleges
that pay poorly at all levels.
There are a number of alternatives for a CPA/CMA looking into AACSB AQ
alternatives in in accounting in North American universities:
The best alternative is to enter into a traditional accounting doctoral
program at an AACSB university. Virtually all of these in North America are
accountics doctoral programs requiring 4-6 years of full time onsite study
and research beyond the masters degree. The good news is that these programs
generally have free tuition, room, and board allowances. The bad news is
that students who have little interest in becoming mathematicians and
statisticians and social scientists need not apply ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
As a second alternative Central Florida University has an onsite doctoral
program that is stronger in the accounting and lighter in the accountics.
Kennesaw State University has a three-year executive DBA program that has
quant-lite alternatives, but this is only available in accounting to older
executives who enter with PQ-accounting qualifications. It also costs nearly
$100,000 plus room and board even for Georgia residents. The DBA is also not
likely to get the graduate into a R1 research university tenure track.
As a third alternative there are now some online accounting doctoral
programs that are quant-lite and only take three years, but these diplomas
aren't worth the paper they're written on ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
Cappella University is a very good online university, but its online
accounting doctoral program is nothing more than a glorified online MBA
degree that has, to my knowledge, no known accounting researchers teaching
in the program. Capella will not reveal its doctoral program faculty to
prospective students. I don't think the North American academic job market
yet recognizes Capella-type and Nova-type doctorates except in universities
that would probably accept the graduates as PQ faculty without a doctorate.
As a fourth alternative there are some of the executive accounting
doctoral programs in Europe, especially England, that really don't count for
much in the North American job market.
As a fifth alternative, a student can get a three-year non-accounting PhD
degree from a quality doctoral program such as an economics or computer
science PhD from any of the 100+ top flagship state/provincial universities
in North America. Then if the student also has PQ credentials to teach in an
accounting program, the PhD graduate can enroll in an accounting part-time
"Bridge Program" anointed by the AACSB ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/conferences_seminars/seminars/bp.asp
As a sixth alternative, a student can get a three-year law degree in
addition to getting PQ credentials in some areas where lawyers often get
into accounting program tenure tracks. The most common specialty for lawyers
is tax accounting. Some accounting departments also teach business law and
ethics using lawyers.
Hope this helps.
Bob Jensen
PS
Case Western has a very respected accounting history track in its PhD
program, but I'm not certain how many of the accountics hurdles are relaxed
except at the dissertation stage.
Advice and Bibliography for Accounting Ph.D. Students and New Faculty by
James Martin ---
http://maaw.info/AdviceforAccountingPhDstudentsMain.htm
"So you want to get a Ph.D.?" by David Wood, BYU ---
http://www.byuaccounting.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=So_you_want_to_get_a_Ph.D.%3F
Why accountancy doctoral programs are drying up and why accountancy is no
longer
required for admission or graduation in an accountancy doctoral program ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
Bob Jensen's threads on what went wrong with "accountics research" can be
found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
Controversies surrounding nontraditional and online doctoral programs are
discussed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#NontraditionalDoctorates
Online Doctoral Programs ---
http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/doctorate-degrees-online.html
There are several types of doctoral degrees online:
- Diploma mills where you can simply buy a PhD and have a diploma within a
matter of days. Warnings about Type 1 programs can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
- Diploma frauds that give a lot of credit for life experience and perhaps
have some minimal course or paper writing assignments that in reality are a
sham. Warnings about Type 2 programs can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
- Diligent-effort programs that may require several years to complete but
admit virtually anybody and have dubious academic standards even though a
few teachers may try ever so hard to make it work. Warnings about Type
3 programs can be found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
- Diligent-effort programs have some admission standards and varied
faculty participants that try to make the program respectable. Many of these
faculty participants are moonlighting in online doctoral programs but are
also full-time faculty in respected colleges and universities. A listing of
Type 4 doctoral programs is provided at
http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/doctorate-degrees-online.html
- Major universities that have extended their onsite doctoral programs to
online or partly online programs.
Type 5 programs are highly limited in number, especially programs that do not
require at least one or two years of onsite residency. But there are a few
programs such as the University of Colorado's online doctoral program in
pharmacy. I do not know of any major universities that offer a similar doctorate
in accounting and business.
Type 1, 2, and 3 programs are virtually frauds and are wasting the student's
money and perhaps her/his time.
Type 4 programs are problematic. They offer genuine learning opportunities
to students who, due to life's circumstances, are not able to enroll in onsite
programs. But Type 4 programs do not yet have the status of degrees comparable
with doctoral degrees of onsite programs of major universities.
A phony argument against Type 4 programs is that students enrolled in the
same program cannot learn from each other like students in onsite programs learn
from each other. About the only thing that students in Type 4 programs cannot do
is have beer together and otherwise socialize face-to-face. Communications
technology today makes it possible to get inside the head of a professor or a
student better than face-to-face in many instances.
In fact a student may graduate from a Type 4 program and become a better
teacher and/or researcher as a result of germination in a Type 4 program. But it
is misleading to say that starting opportunities are equivalent to a Type 5
Program doctoral degree. They are not equivalent, and it will be quite some time
before they have a chance of becoming equivalents.
The term "accreditation" is highly misleading. An online university that has
a regionally accredited undergraduate program does not make its doctoral program
accredited. In fact the same is true of onsite universities. For example, the
AACSB is the premiere accrediting body for colleges of business within major
colleges and universities. But the AACSB limits accreditation to undergraduate
and masters of business or accounting programs. The AACSB has never had an
accreditation program for doctoral programs within AACSB accredited colleges.
When it comes to doctoral programs, everything rides on the general
reputation and prestige of the entire university is the most important factor.
The reputation of the college or department offering the doctoral degree is the
second most important factor. What goes into that college's reputation is the
research reputation of the faculty involved in the doctoral program. Admissions
standards are also very, very important. Any doctoral program that is easy to
get into becomes suspect. This was especially the case of some major
universities that during some years admitted most military retirees who applied
as long as the applicant had 20 or more years of service with the military.
These programs generated some fine teachers for regional colleges, but the
market generally recognized that these graduates had little prospects of
establishing research reputations. I think most universities no longer give such
ease of admission to veterans.
Doctoral programs should probably be judged more on the quality of the
dissertations. Fortunately or unfortunately, many dissertations are pretty
well ignored unless papers published from them are accepted by major research
journals. A dissertation may be important for landing that first faculty job in
a prestigious college or university. This depends heavily on level of
competition. In fields like accounting and finance there is such a shortage of
doctoral graduates from major universities that applicants can usually get great
job offers before the quality of the dissertation can really be judged. Job
offers are frequently made in the very early stages of a mere dissertation
proposal subject to huge changes later on before the degree is granted. Sadly,
many great dissertation proposals are never carried to fruition.
In any case, you might be interested in the new online Type 4 doctoral
degree alternatives listed at
http://www.distance-learning-college-guide.com/doctorate-degrees-online.html
"The Growth of For-Profits," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed,
January 18, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/carnegie_releases_revised_classifications_of_colleges_and_universities
Jensen Comment
The Devil is in the details. Especially note the tables in this article.
The article does not really deliver on one of the things I worry a lot about
--- the growth in cheap shot graduate degrees awarded by for-profit
universities, especially at the doctoral level. These universities are very
secretive about their admission standards such as GRE and GMAT expectations.
Credit for life experience is an instant turn off for me, because all God's
children had life experiences.
These universities are generally quite secretive about their faculty who
deliver those degrees. It's difficult to evaluate the research credentials of
those faculty. Secondly, most of these doctoral degrees can be earned with fewer
years of full-time study and interactions with teaching and research faculty.
For example, the average onsite accounting doctoral program takes over five
years, most of which is spent on campus interacting with faculty and other
doctoral students. Capella offers an accounting doctoral program that can be
completed in less than three years and has a curriculum more like a masters
program. There is a doctoral thesis at Capella but who signs off on each
accounting doctoral thesis? Do graduates of this program publish later on in our
accounting research journals? Are these graduates making names for themselves in
tenure track positions at major universities?
I'm a long time advocate of distance education, but I'm suspicious of
for-profit university academic standards. If a major research university having
AACSB accreditation commences a distance education that the research faculty at
that institution deems equivalent to the onsite degree program, them I'm all for
expanding degree opportunities for business higher education. But I'm a snob
when others adopt such programs, especially at the masters and doctoral levels.
For Profit Universities in the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Accounting Degree Guide ---
http://myaccountingdegree.org/
Warning some of the for-profit degrees alternatives aren't worth the time
and money, especially the doctoral degrees. The job market pretty well does not
recognize accounting PhD degrees unless the university has AACSB accreditation.
For-profit universities in general should be viewed skeptically ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
New Online PhD Program in Nursing
Jensen Comment
I have a friend who has a PhD in nursing. She's also a trauma nurse in a major
medical center and a Colonel in the Army Reserves. She got her nursing PhD in a
traditional manner from the University of Texas. From her I learned that
doctoral degrees in nursing are infrequent relative to most other academic
disciplines. Getting a nursing doctorate is less of a requirement for tenure in
most nursing programs in part because they've not been required for tenure. I
also suspect that defining a research niche for nursing is a bit difficult since
there are so many overlapping medical research disciplines in medical and
biological science.
Respectable online PhD programs in most any discipline are infrequent,
although I mention a few of them at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
I know of no respectable doctoral program in accountancy.
Hence it surprised me somewhat that there would be an online PhD
program for nursing ---
http://www.convergemag.com/story.php?catid=422&storyid=107594
Capella University,
an accredited, online university based in Minneapolis,
announced a new PhD in education specialization in nursing education that
aligns with the
National
League for Nursing (NLN) competencies.
Capella's new specialization was developed to help
address the growing shortage of nursing faculty. According to the
American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN), U.S. nursing schools
turned away more than 40,000 qualified applicants in 2007. Nearly
three-fourths of the nursing schools surveyed cited faculty shortages as one
of the reasons they could not accept all qualified applicants.
"Capella has launched this new nursing education specialization to help meet
this important need," said Kimberly Spoor, Ph.D., who is faculty chair of
Postsecondary and Adult Education for Capella's School of Education and will
lead the university's nursing education faculty. "The lack of nursing
faculty is an issue that is affecting our country's ability to educate
enough registered nurses to meet the needs of our health care system. The
AACN projects a shortfall of 340,000 nurses by the year 2020. The U.S.
Department of Education has also identified nursing as an 'area of national
need.'"
Applicants to the School of Education's Ph.D. nursing education
specialization must have a current license as a registered nurse and a
master's degree in nursing.
Click here for more of the latest
news in education technology.
If a new new online PhD program is introduced for accountancy, it may well be
that Capella University will be the first to offer such a degree that has a
chance of being recognized (for hiring purposes) by AACSB-accredited colleges
and universities. Note that the AACSB does not even accredit onsite
doctoral programs and has not yet accredited any online undergraduate or
masters online business programs that do not also have AACSB accreditation for
their onsite programs. For example, quite a few major colleges like the
University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland have onsite AACSB-accredited
business programs that by extrapolation apply to their own online
business undergraduate and masters programs. But I do not know of any online
business education program that has AACSB accreditation without first having
such accreditation for an onsite program. I don't think there is even a process
getting separate accreditation for the online portions of business education
programs at such places as the University of Wisconsin and the University of
Maryland.
Questions
Do schools like the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland have
separate designations on the transcript whether a course like Principles of
Accounting was taken onsite or online?
If a student earns an online accounting degree or MBA degree from the
University of Wisconsin or the University of Maryland, do these universities
even designate that the degree was earned online? Personally I doubt it,
especially since some students my combine onsite courses with online courses
such that it's almost impossible to designate a degree as being online versus
onsite.
Grenoble Ecole de
Management's MBA program in France has AACSB accreditation. Once again I remind
readers that the AACSB has never accredited doctoral programs in the U.S. or
elsewhere.
The DBA program
(administered jointly with Newcastle University in the U.K) is apparently a
management technology doctoral program without tracks in functional fields like
accounting. I do not think there are any accounting DBA tracks such as you will
find in the Harvard Business School’s DBA program. I still do not know of any
respectable online doctoral programs in accounting. Of course some
Grenoble/Newcastle DBA students may have prior degrees and work experience in
accounting. Admission requires an MBA degree plus three years of qualified
business experience.
Purportedly there
are nearly 100 DBA candidates which would make this program larger than most
U.S. business doctoral programs. No PhD students are reported to date ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/04/full_time_profiles/escgrenoble.htm
This is a joint DBA program in partnership with Newcastle University in the U.K.
---
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nubs/postgrad/dba/
It is not clear
how many faculty are available to work closely with so many DBA students,
especially at the thesis stage where it is very difficult for a faculty member
to supervise more than two or three doctoral theses at any one time
You can read the following at
http://www.grenoble-em.com/460-dba-with-university-of-newcastle-upon-tyne-business-school-2.aspx
Begin Quote
***************************
Delivery enables a work and study balance
·
a research portal based on a proven virtual learning platform,
·
a wide range of e-journals and other on-line information and data
sources,
·
an e-portfolio system for managing reflective learning.
During the first part of the programme four workshops are shared between
Grenoble and Newcastle. This helps to maximise the sharing of ideas between
students and faculty and provides cross cultural and global insights.
Research Benefits for Organisations
Each candidate conducts a doctoral thesis on a management of technology,
innovation or change issue which can be taken directly from their work
experience. Organisations sponsoring candidates can therefore benefit directly
from the research and study undertaken by their staff. Candidates are able to
draw upon the research expertise of senior academics from both institutions. As
research topics are usually based on organisations current and anticipated
needs, the research outcomes of the thesis can provide real insight for the
sponsoring organisation.
The DBA programme is structured to facilitate part-time study. Research training
is provided in four one week blocks and research supervision is provided
throughout the period. This innovative approach makes it easier for students to
combine demanding careers with their doctoral research. The programme also
provides a range of web-based resources including:
************************
End Quote
April 5, 2007 reply from Mitchell A Franklin
[mifrankl@syr.edu]
Dear Bob,
One of my colleagues on your ACEM listserv
forwarded me the below E-mail, and I wanted to add to some of your
responses. This past month, I completed my PhD in accounting from Walden
University, one of the schools that you classify into category 4 of online
programs. A few things I’d like to add based on personal experience:
Though called an ‘online’ program, the program is
more than just online independent study via the internet. As part of the
degree requirements, students are required at various points in the program
to attend mandatory face to face residencies in which they attend intensive
format classes/seminars and take part in research based colloquia with other
students in the same program. Students are in close interaction with each
other on an academic and social level, including your reference of ‘having a
beer together’ which some type 4 programs may lack. A vast majority of the
faculty I worked with all have PhD’s from schools that are considered ‘top
tier’ business schools. Not only did they hold their degrees from ‘top tier’
schools, but they also hold full-time senior faculty appointments at other
top tier major business schools. These faculty members have their own
reputations to uphold, and wouldn’t be involved in this type of program
signing off on dissertations if they didn’t believe in the quality of the
work and quality/merit of this type of program. I would also agree that at
present, many people may not recognize this type of education as comparable
and put someone starting out at a disadvantage if looking at major schools
for tenure-track placement, but the number of people who DO recognize it as
comparable is growing at a good clip. Over the long-run I do feel that at
some point it will be equally recognized. As anything different, it will
just take time and a concentration of alumni to show that their
teaching/research skills are comparable, if not better, as you state in your
post.
As someone who has been through this program, I
would wholeheartedly recommend it for someone who needs/desires a PhD but
can’t enroll into an onsite program because of whatever the personal reason
may be.
Regards,
Mitch Franklin
April
6, 2007 reply from Steve Doster
[sdoster@SHAWNEE.EDU]
I graduated from Argosy’s DBA program (management
major—the accounting major was added a few years later) in about 2002 and
was very pleased with the program. My experience was that the 1 to 2 week
on-site course format that involved a considerable amount of pre and post
study was much more useful, less work, and more satisfying than the
exclusively on-line courses. Two of my colleagues have since enrolled
Argosy’s DBA—Accounting program and are satisfied with program.
Steve Doster, DBA, CPA, CMA
Professor, Accounting & Management
Shawnee State University
Portsmouth, OH 45662
Nontraditional Doctoral Degree Programs: Some With No Courses
"New Ideas for Ph.D. Education," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed,
August 18, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/18/grad
For educators and state officials who want to
reform doctoral education, “it’s easy if you just want to make it easier,”
said E. Garrison Walters, interim chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.
The challenge, he said, is to undertake reforms
that don’t sacrifice quality. “It’s difficult to keep the core values of a
Ph.D. and keep it flexible,” he said. Walters spoke this week at a
conference in Chicago of the State Higher Education Executive Officers — the
officials who approve new Ph.D. programs in their states and periodically
review such programs, sometimes with an eye toward saving money by
eliminating them.
At a session on new approaches to doctoral
education, state officials were briefed on two new approaches — both of
which were warmly received. One involves non-residential Ph.D. programs for
students who are older than most who earn doctorates. The other involves
doctoral programs that are run by more than one university — and that
sometimes cross state lines and public/private distinctions. Officials at
the meeting said they believed there was strong demand for both kinds of
programs, and wanted to find ways for their agencies to encourage such
innovations.
Laurien Alexandre, director of Antioch University’s
Ph.D. program in
leadership and change, said it was easy to see
that there is interest in the kind of non-traditional doctorate her
institution has created. The students are already far along in their careers
and lives — 85 percent are over 40, with many in their 50s and 60s — and
they don’t need the doctorate as a credential. “No one is coming at 55
because they need it for their job,” she said. “So why are people paying
$80,000 for a doctorate?”
Her answer is that Antioch’s doctoral students are
on an “evolved path” in which they are seeking to take their understandings
of organizations to a higher level, and want to conduct the kind of in-depth
research associated with doctoral programs. The program attracts students
from all over the country, who periodically meet in person at Antioch’s
campuses around the country, but conduct much of their work in close
collaboration with faculty members, who are also spread out around the
country and communicate with students via phone and videoconferencing.
The program is “courseless,” Alexandre said, and
students must demonstrate their competencies in knowledge and research
skills after completing “multiyear learning paths” that are supervised by
faculty members. Only then, Alexandre said, can they write their
dissertations. And while Alexandre clearly relishes the way Antioch is
“pushing the envelope” on most aspects of the program, she said that the
dissertation process is traditional: committees, chapters, defense, and so
forth. “The dissertation is the gold standard,” she said.
The concept underlying this approach, she said, is
“rigor without rigidity,” and that approach may be what it takes to
encourage doctoral education from older students. She noted that Antioch
just graduated its first students in the program and that retention rates
are well above the typically low rates for many Ph.D. programs.
If the Antioch model demonstrates flexibility
within a graduate program, two new biomedical engineering programs may
represent the ability of universities to be flexible in how they put
together a graduate program in a hot science field — and one that can be
expensive to support. One program joins forces of the
University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University,
and the other combines offerings at
Virginia Tech with Wake
Forest University. Both programs have one
institution with a medical school (Chapel Hill and Wake Forest) and one
institution with an engineering school (N.C. State and Virginia Tech).
Stephen Knisley, director of the North Carolina
program, said that it grew out of a stand-alone program at Chapel Hill that
officials there felt would be strengthened with more ties to engineering. To
make the program effective, Knisley said, real partnerships are needed. That
means admissions decisions, curricular requirements and the like are all
decided jointly. And to really have students be able to move back and forth
to the two campuses, officials have also had to make sure they can get dual
ID cards, parking spaces, and access to all facilities. There are currently
103 graduate students in the program, and North Carolina hopes to double
that number in the next few years.
In a similar approach, Wake Forest and Virginia
Tech decide matters together — and have managed to do so even though the
former is private and the latter is a public university in another state.
Brian J. Love, a professor at Virginia Tech, noted that the two universities
don’t observe the same holidays or have the same class schedules, so
everything must be negotiated. “This program now has its own calendar,” he
said.
But he said that’s a small price to pay to have
combined resources that neither institution could otherwise create. “This
can really be a win-win situation.”
One difficulty such collaborations sometimes face
is with accreditation. Gail Morrison, interim executive director of the
South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, said that the Medical
University of South Carolina and the University of South Carolina recently
merged their pharmacy schools. While both entities had been accredited, they
needed an entirely new review, even though it seemed to Morrison that the
new school was clearly stronger than the two separate ones of the past.
Her story brought knowing nods from the audience of
state officials, several of whom said later that specialized accreditation
was a barrier to the kinds of collaboration being encouraged at the session.
Of course some collaborations don’t require any
accreditors’ approval. Morrison said that generally breaking down
institutional boundaries was a great way to encourage more efficiency and
that formal units aren’t always needed. For example, the state’s three
doctoral institutions are opening a building in Charleston that will bring
professors together. No outside approval needed.
Jensen Comment
The problem with the some of these is that, when students are allowed to
customize a curriculum, they often take the easiest way out. Success of these
nontraditional doctoral programs rests heavily upon admission standards for
getting into the programs and a successful track record of graduates from the
programs. If low GRE (or GMAT) students are accepted, the schools will have a
difficult time overcoming image flaws. Older adults seeking nontraditional
doctoral programs often do not have strong admission test scores.
A Bridge Too Far
I discovered that Capella University is now offering an online Accounting PhD
Program ---
http://www.capella.edu/schools_programs/business_technology/phd/accounting.aspx
- Students with no business studies background (other than a basic
accounting course) can complete the program in 2.5 years part time or
slightly less than 2 years full-time.
- The the Capella accounting PhD curriculum is more like an MBA curriculum
and is totally unlike any other accounting PhD program in North America.
There are relatively few accounting courses and much less focus on research
skills.
- There are no comprehensive or oral examinations. The only requirements
120 quarter credits, including credits to be paid for a dissertation
- I'm still trying to learn whether there is access to any kind of
research library or the expensive financial databases that are required for
other North American accounting doctoral programs..
Although I have been recommending that accountancy doctoral programs break
out of the accountics mold, I don't think that the Capella's curriculum meets my
expectation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of
higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the
fastest-growing -- and most controversial -- sectors of the industry:
for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students,
often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully
capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.
In College, Inc., correspondent
Martin Smith investigates the promise and
explosive growth of the for-profit higher education industry. Through
interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions
counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the
tension between the industry --which says it's helping an underserved
student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills --
and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees
that leave students with a mountain of debt.
At the center of it all stands a vulnerable
population of potential students, often working adults eager for a
university degree to move up the career ladder. FRONTLINE talks to a former
staffer at a California-based for-profit university who says she was under
pressure to sign up growing numbers of new students. "I didn't realize just
how many students we were expected to recruit," says the former enrollment
counselor. "They used to tell us, you know, 'Dig deep. Get to their pain.
Get to what's bothering them. So, that way, you can convince them that a
college degree is going to solve all their problems.'"
Graduates of another for-profit school -- a college
nursing program in California -- tell FRONTLINE that they received their
diplomas without ever setting foot in a hospital. Graduates at other
for-profit schools report being unable to find a job, or make their student
loan payments, because their degree was perceived to be of little worth by
prospective employers. One woman who enrolled in a for-profit doctorate
program in Dallas later learned that the school never acquired the proper
accreditation she would need to get the job she trained for. She is now
sinking in over $200,000 in student debt.
The biggest player in the for-profit sector is the
University of Phoenix -- now the largest college in the US with total
enrollment approaching half a million students. Its revenues of almost $4
billion last year, up 25 percent from 2008, have made it a darling of Wall
Street. Former top executive of the University of Phoenix
Mark DeFusco told FRONTLINE how the company's
business-approach to higher education has paid off: "If you think about any
business in America, what business would give up two months of business --
just essentially close down?" he asks. "[At the University of Phoenix],
people go to school all year round. We start classes every five weeks. We
built campuses by a freeway because we figured that's where the people
were."
"The education system that was created hundreds of
years ago needs to change," says
Michael Clifford, a major education entrepreneur
who speaks with FRONTLINE. Clifford, a former musician who never attended
college, purchases struggling traditional colleges and turns them into
for-profit companies. "The big opportunity," he says, "is the inefficiencies
of some of the state systems, and the ability to transform schools and
academic programs to better meet the needs of the people that need jobs."
"From a business perspective, it's a great story,"
says
Jeffrey Silber, a senior analyst at BMO Capital
Markets, the investment banking arm of the Bank of Montreal. "You're serving
a market that's been traditionally underserved. ... And it's a very
profitable business -- it generates a lot of free cash flow."
And the cash cow of the for-profit education
industry is the federal government. Though they enroll 10 percent of all
post-secondary students, for-profit schools receive almost a quarter of
federal financial aid. But Department of Education figures for 2009 show
that 44 percent of the students who defaulted within three years of
graduation were from for-profit schools, leading to serious questions about
one of the key pillars of the profit degree college movement: that their
degrees help students boost their earning power. This is a subject of
increasing concern to the Obama administration, which, last month, remade
the federal student loan program, and is now proposing changes that may make
it harder for the for-profit colleges to qualify.
"One of the ideas the Department of Education has
put out there is that in order for a college to be eligible to receive money
from student loans, it actually has to show that the education it's
providing has enough value in the job market so that students can pay their
loans back," says Kevin Carey of the Washington think tank Education Sector.
"Now, the for-profit colleges, I think this makes them very nervous," Carey
says. "They're worried because they know that many of their members are
charging a lot of money; that many of their members have students who are
defaulting en masse after they graduate. They're afraid that this rule will
cut them out of the program. But in many ways, that's the point."
FRONTLINE also finds that the regulators that
oversee university accreditation are looking closer at the for-profits and,
in some cases, threatening to withdraw the required accreditation that keeps
them eligible for federal student loans. "We've elevated the scrutiny
tremendously," says Dr. Sylvia Manning, president of the Higher Learning
Commission, which accredits many post-secondary institutions. "It is really
inappropriate for accreditation to be purchased the way a taxi license can
be purchased. ...When we see any problematic institution being acquired and
being changed we put it on a short leash."
Also note the comments that follow the above text.
But first I highly recommend that you watch the video at
---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
May 5, 2010 reply from Paul Bjorklund
[paulbjorklund@AOL.COM]
Interesting program. I saw the first half of it and
was not surprised by anything, other than the volume of students. For
example, enrollment at University of Phoenix is 500,000. Compare that to
Arizona State's four campuses with maybe 60,000 to 70,000. The huge computer
rooms dedicated to online learning were fascinating too. We've come a long
way from the Oxford don sitting in his wood paneled office, quoting
Aristotle, and dispensing wisdom to students one at a time. The evolution:
From the pursuit of truth to technical training to cash on the barrelhead.
One question about the traditional university though -- When they eliminate
the cash flow from big time football, will they then be able to criticize
the dash for cash by the educational entrepreneurs?
Paul Bjorklund, CPA
Bjorklund Consulting, Ltd.
Flagstaff, Arizona
I wonder if the Secretary of Education watched the College Inc Frontline
PBS show? I doubt it!
"Duncan Says For-Profit Colleges Are Important to Obama's 2020 Goal," By
Andrea Fuller," by Andrea Fuller, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2010
---
http://chronicle.com/article/Duncan-Says-For-Profit/65477/
Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, expressed
support on Tuesday for the role that for-profit colleges play in higher
education at a policy forum here held by DeVry University.
For-profit institutions have come under fire
recently for their low graduation rates and high levels of student debt. A
Frontline documentary last week focused on the for-profit sector, and a
speech by Robert Shireman, a top Education Department official, was
initially reported as highly critical of for-profit colleges, even though a
transcript of Mr. Shireman's remarks showed that he actually spoke more
temperately.
Mr. Duncan said on Tuesday in a luncheon speech at
the forum that there are a "few bad apples" among actors in the for-profit
college sector, but he emphasized the "vital role" for-profit institutions
play in job training.
Those colleges, he said, are critical to helping
the nation achieve President Obama's goal of making the United States the
nation with the highest portion of college graduates by 2020. Mr. Duncan
also praised a partnership between DeVry and Chicago high schools that
allows students to receive both high-school and college credit while still
in high school.
Mr. Duncan's comments come at a time when
for-profit college officials are anxiously awaiting the release of new
proposed federal rules aimed at them. A proposal that would tie college
borrowing to future earnings has the sector especially concerned.
The rule is not yet final, but the Education
Department is considering putting a cap on loan payments at 8 percent of
graduates' expected earnings based on a 10-year repayment plan and earnings
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Supporters of for-profit colleges say the rule
would basically force them to shut down educational programs and as a
consequence leave hundreds of thousands of students without classes.
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
"High-Profile Trader's Harsh Critique of For-Profit Colleges,"
Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/27/qt#228602
Steven Eisman, the Wall Street trader who was
mythologized in Michael Lewis's
The Big Short as that rare person who saw the
subprime mortgage crisis coming and made a killing as a result, thinks he
has seen the next big explosive and exploitative financial industry --
for-profit higher education -- and he's making sure as many people as
possible know it. In
a speech Wednesday at the Ira Sohn Investment
Research Conference, an
exclusive
gathering at which financial analysts who rarely
share their insights publicly are encouraged to dish their "best investment
ideas," Eisman started off with a broadside against Wall Street's college
companies.
"Until recently, I thought that there would never
again be an opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially
destructive and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry," said
Eisman, of FrontPoint Financial Services Fund. "I was wrong. The For-Profit
Education Industry has proven equal to the task." Eisman's speech lays out
his analysis of the sector's enormous profitability and its questionable
quality, then argues that the colleges' business model is about to be
radically transformed by the Obama administration's plan to hold the
institutions accountable for the student-debt-to-income ratio of their
graduates. "Under gainful employment, most of the companies still have high
operating margins relative to other industries," Eisman said. "They are just
less profitable and significantly overvalued. Downside risk could be as high
as 50 percent. And let me add that I hope that gainful employment is just
the beginning. Hopefully, the DOE will be looking into ways of improving
accreditation and of ways to tighten rules on defaults." Stocks of the
companies appeared to fall briefly in the last hour of trading Wednesday,
after
news of Eisman's speech
made the rounds.
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
Bob Jensen's threads on many of the for-profit universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Although there is a gray zone, for-profit colleges should not be confused
with diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
Brainstorm on What For-Profit Colleges are Doing Right as Well as Wrong
"'College, Inc.'," by Kevin Carey, Chronicle of Higher Education,
May 10, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/College-Inc/23850/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
PBS broadcast a
documentary on for-profit higher education last
week, titled College, Inc. It begins with the slightly ridiculous
figure of
Michael Clifford, a former cocaine abuser turned
born-again Christian who never went to college, yet makes a living padding
around the lawn of his oceanside home wearing sandals and loose-fitting
print shirts, buying up distressed non-profit colleges and turning them into
for-profit money machines.
Improbably, Clifford emerges from the documentary
looking OK. When asked what he brings to the deals he brokers, he cites
nothing educational. Instead, it's the "Three M's: Money, Management, and
Marketing." And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. A college may have
deep traditions and dedicated faculty, but if it's bankrupt, anonymous, and
incompetently run, it won't do students much good. "Nonprofit" colleges that
pay their leaders executive salaries and run
multi-billion dollar sports franchises have long
since ceded the moral high ground when it comes to chasing the bottom line.
The problem with for-profit higher education, as
the documentary ably shows, is that people like Clifford are applying
private sector principles to an industry with a number of distinct
characteristics. Four stand out. First, it's heavily subsidized. Corporate
giants like the University of Phoenix are now pulling in hundreds of
millions of dollars per year from the taxpayers, through federal grants and
student loans. Second, it's awkwardly regulated. Regional accreditors may
protest that their imprimatur isn't like a taxicab medallion to be bought
and sold on the open market. But as the documentary makes clear, that's
precisely the way it works now. (Clifford puts the value at $10-million.)
Third, it's hard for consumers to know what they're
getting at the point of purchase. College is an experiential good;
reputations and brochures can only tell you so much. Fourth—and I don't
think this is given proper weight when people think about the dynamics of
the higher-education market—college is generally something you only buy a
couple of times, early in your adult life.
All of which creates the potential—arguably, the
inevitability—for sad situations like the three nursing students in the
documentary who were comprehensively ripped off by a for-profit school that
sent them to a daycare center for their "pediatric rotation" and left them
with no job prospects and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The
government subsidies create huge incentives for for-profit colleges to
enroll anyone they can find. The awkward regulation offers little in the way
of effective oversight. The opaque nature of the higher-education experience
makes it hard for consumers to sniff out fraudsters up-front. And the fact
that people don't continually purchase higher education throughout their
lives limits the downside for bad actors. A restaurant or automobile
manufacturer that continually screws its customers will eventually go out of
business. For colleges, there's always another batch of high-school
graduates to enroll.
The Obama administration has made waves in recent
months by proposing to tackle some of these problems by implementing
"gainful
employment" rules that would essentially require
for-profits to show that students will be able to make enough money with
their degrees to pay back their loans. It's a good idea, but it also raises
an interesting question: Why apply this policy only to for-profits?
Corporate higher education may be the fastest growing segment of the market,
but it still educates a small minority of students and will for a long time
to come. There are plenty of traditional colleges out there that are mainly
in the business of preparing students for jobs, and that charge a lot of
money for degrees of questionable value. What would happen if the gainful
employment standard were applied to a mediocre private university that
happily allows undergraduates to take out six-figure loans in exchange for a
plain-vanilla business B.A.?
The gainful employment standard highlights some of
my biggest concerns about the Obama administration's approach to
higher-education policy. To its lasting credit, the administration has taken
on powerful moneyed interests and succeeded. Taking down the FFEL program
was a historic victory for low-income students and reining in the abuses of
for-profit higher education is a needed and important step.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The biggest question remains concerning the value of "education" at the micro
level (the student) and the macro level (society). It would seem that students
in training programs should have prospects of paying back the cost of the
training if "industry" is not willing to fully subsidize that particular type of
training.
Education is another question entirely, and we're still trying to resolve
issues of how education should be financed. I'm not in favor of "gainful
employment rules" for state universities, although I think such rules should be
imposed on for-profit colleges and universities.
What is currently happening is that training and education programs are in
most cases promising more than they can deliver in terms of gainful employment.
Naive students think a certificate or degree is "the" ticket to career success,
and many of them borrow tens of thousands of dollars to a point where they are
in debtor's prisons with their meager laboring wages garnished (take a debtor's
wages on legal orders) to pay for their business, science, and humanities
degrees that did not pay off in terms of career opportunities.
But that does not mean that their education did not pay off in terms of
life's fuller meaning. The question is who should pay for "life's fuller
meaning?" Among our 50 states, California had the best plan for universal
education. But fiscal mismanagement, especially very generous unfunded
state-worker unfunded pension plans, has now brought California to the brink of
bankruptcy. Increasing taxes in California is difficult because it already has
the highest state taxes in the nation.
Student borrowing to pay for pricey certificates and degrees is not a good
answer in my opinion, but if students borrow I think the best alternative is to
choose a lower-priced accredited state university. It will be a long, long time
before the United States will be able to fund "universal education" because of
existing unfunded entitlements for Social Security and other pension
obligations, Medicare, Medicaid, military retirements, etc.
I think it's time for our best state universities to reach out with more
distance education and training that prevent many of the rip-offs taking place
in the for-profit training and education sector. The training and education may
not be free, but state universities have the best chance of keeping costs down
and quality up.
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Commercial Distance Programs That
Include Online Doctoral Degrees
I want to warn you that the site below links to commercial
"universities" of varying quality and does not link to most major
colleges and universities that are now offering various online education and
training alternatives that are more extensive. 'There are also some
alternatives that you will find at the commercial "universities"
that you will not yet find at most major colleges and universities such as
doctorates online, including DBA doctoral degrees in business
administration. I really cannot speak to the quality of some of these
programs and was surprised to learn that the largest and most noteworthy
University of Phoenix now offers a DBA online --- http://www.universities.com/Distance_Learning/University_of_Phoenix_Doctor_of_Business_Administration.html
April 2, 2004 message from Support At Universities [support@universities.com]
Our new website lists colleges and universities
around the world, as well as the degrees they offer.
Here is our link:
http://www.universities.com/Distance_Learning
We would like to have more people visit us, so we
would appreciate your adding our link to your site.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Universities.com
My links to these and to the online training and education alternatives
at more main stream and traditional colleges and universities online are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Unaccredited Distance Education Programs
"AAUP Defends a
Professor's Web Site About Unaccredited Distance Programs," bu Andrea L.
Foster, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 28, 2003, Page A28
The
American Association of University Professors has come to the defense of a
physics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who was
pressured by administrators to take down his Web site on unaccredited
distance-learning institutions.
An
AAUP representative suggests that the professor's case was mishandled and is
asking the university provost to clarify the institutions' policies on
academic freedom and public service.
The
professor, George Gollin, said administrators ordered him to remove his
material from the university's server after Illinois was threatened with
lawsuits from proprietors of some of the online institutions cited on his
Web site. Mr. Gollin's material is now available on the State of
Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization Web site ( http://osac.state.or.us/od/oregon_north_dakota/index_or.html
).
Mr.
Gollin said that administrators justified their demand, however, by telling
him that his research into the controversial institutions did not meet the
"public service" obligation for faculty members.
A
Public Service?
Matthew
W. Finkin, a law professor at the university and the institution's AAUP
representative, sent a letter last month to Richard H. Herman, the provost,
asking him to make clear to faculty members that academic freedom applies to
the use of university computers and networks. Faculty members should
also be reminded that academic work, even work outside their discipline,
qualifies as public service, Mr. Finkin wrote.
Continued in the article
Those Deceptive For-Profit University Promotional Websites
Almost daily I get requests to link to commercial sites disguised to be
academic helper sites. Over half these requests are on behalf of for-profit
universities, although the sites themselves are getting more and more clever
about hiding the fact that they are promotional sites for for-profit
universities. At the same time, I'm getting smarter about detecting these sites
and no longer link to them on my Website or on the AECM.
I think that for-profit universities pay people to promote their sites on
some basis such as pay-per-click.
To get more eyeballs, these for-profit university promotion sites are adding
so called helpers that I've discovered in some cases have simply plagiarized
material from other sites such as the History of Pacioli. In some instances the
efforts to provide helpers are more legitimate. Nevertheless it galls me to link
to these deceptive for-profit university sites. By "deceptive" I mean such
thinks as providing links to distance education programs in selected fields like
accounting, nursing, pharmacy, etc. Even though there are better and nearly
always cheaper distance education degree programs from state-supported
universities, those universities are excluded from the for-profit distance
education promotional sites. For example, the only distance education degree
programs in accounting will those degree programs available from for-profit
universities.
Having said this there are some useful for-profit university promotion sites.
For example, the "40 Essential Links for CPA Exam Prep & Practice" is a
rather helpful site at AccountingDegree.com ---
http://www.accountingdegree.com/blog/2012/40-essential-links-for-cpa-exam-prep-practice/
At the same time, there is much misleading information at this
AccountingDegree.com site. For example, consider the various rankings of online
universities at
http://oedb.org/rankings
In most cases the various better and cheaper non-profit colleges and
universities are not even mentioned by AccountingDegree.com.
Hence I am torn about posting links to for-profit university Websites. It's
helpful to have the "40 Essential Links for CPA Exam Prep & Practice" is
a rather helpful site at AccountingDegree.com ---
http://www.accountingdegree.com/blog/2012/40-essential-links-for-cpa-exam-prep-practice/
But it's deceptive when those sites never mention that there are cheaper and
better distance education degree programs from nonprofit state universities.
Some of the better and cheaper non-profit distance education programs have been
highlighted by US News are listed below. You will never find these
programs mentioned by AccountingDebree.com or most any for-profit university
promotional Website.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Online Graduate Business (mostly MBA)
Programs (look first for AACSB accreditation)
There are many online MBA degree programs available from for-profit
universities. However, they are expensive and lack the quality reputation of
AACSB-accredited programs. There are no for-profit universities that have AACSB
accreditation. I highly recommend first looking for AACSB accreditation before
enrolling in any MBA Program in North America.
Only a few top AACSB MBA programs have introduced online options.
The University of North Carolina’s
MBA@UNC is
a newer online alternative ---
http://onlinemba.unc.edu/about/mba-at-unc/
Indiana University now has the
Kelley
Direct program ---
http://kd.iu.edu/programs/mba/overview.htm
QS Quacquarelli Symonds: The 25 Best Online
MBA Programs Worldwide ---
Click Here
01 (Best
Online) IE Business School (Spain)
02 Imperial College Business School (UK)
03 Warwick Business School (UK)
04 Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of New
South Wales Business School
05 Alliance Manchester Business School (UK)
06 Politecnico di Milano School of Management (Italy)
07 Indiana University (Kelley Direct Programs) (USA)
08 Marshall Business School at the University of Southern California (USA)
09 Vlerick Business School (Belgium)
10 Florida International University (USA)
11 Durham University Business School (UK)
12 Oxford Brookes Business School (UK)
13 Birmingham Business School (UK)
13 University of Otago Business School (NZ)
15 Warrington College of Business at University of Florida (USA)
16 Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas (USA)
17 CENTRUM PUCP Graduate Business School (PERU)
18 George Washington University (US)
19 Macquarie Business School (Australia)
20 EU Business School (Spain)
21 Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland (USA)
22 Kogod School of Business at American University (USA)
23 Colorado State University's College of Business (USA)
24 Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University (USA)
25 Whitman School of Management at Syracuse (USA)
Jensen Comment
The first thing that struck me in this ranking is that the purportedly top
online programs are mostly not
(with a few exceptions) among the top (elite) international MBA programs
ranked by
QS Quacquarelli Symonds ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/best-mba-programs-in-the-world-2020-9?op=1
Also see the US News ranking of
top (elite) MBA programs ---
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/international-business-rankings
One reason may be that the top
onsite programs target different applicants than the online programs. The onsite
programs target full-time and younger students that are not necessarily fresh
out of undergraduate studies but tend to be under 30 years of age.
The online applicants I suspect
are older and possibly are studying part-time rather than full time. Sometimes
online programs are viewed as cash cows for universities, and as such these
online programs have lower admission standards.
Scandinavia is often held out
as a top part of the world for education beginning a pre-school (think Finland).
It struck me as odd that Scandinavia did not fare very well among the world's
top onsite or online MBA programs. Keep in mind that all Scandinavian nations
are proudly capitalist such that we would expect them to rank higher among
prestigious business schools.
Aside from the UK (that is no
longer part of the EU) it struck me as odd that most EU nations did not rank as
high among onsite or online MBA programs as I would have expected. Part of the
reason here is that traditionally business programs either do not exist or are
relatively weak in outstanding and prestigious EU universities. In many cases
business courses are buried among economics courses in EU universities.
Another thing to note is how
poorly Asian universities are represented among top online and onsite MBA
programs. In many instances Asian universities don't have separate business
majors. Also Asian programs in general (think China) have poor reputations for
academic standards (think cheating). In some instances (think Japan) academic
rigor is excellent before college but not so great in college where a lot of
partying often takes place.
Another thing to note is that
there are some business study programs that are not adapted well to MBA
programs. MBA programs target admissions of non-business majors from
mathematics, engineering, science, and humanities. Some business study programs
require undergraduate as well as graduate studies, notably accountancy where
there are many more required courses for licensure (think CPA) than can possibly
be covered in a two-year MBA program.
CPA firms rarely recruit auditors and tax accountants among students who were
not undergraduate accounting majors.
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
"Disruption Ahead: What MOOCs Will Mean for MBA Programs,"
Knowledge@wharton Blog, July 16, 2014 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/moocs-mba-programs-opportunities-threats/
In a new research paper, Christian Terwiesch,
professor of operations and information management at Wharton, and Karl
Ulrich, vice dean of innovation at the school, examine the impact that
massive open online courses (MOOCs) will have on business schools and MBA
programs. In their study — titled, “Will Video Kill the Classroom Star? The
Threat and Opportunity of MOOCs for Full-time MBA Programs” — they identify
three possible scenarios that business schools face not just as a result of
MOOCs, but also because of the technology embedded in them. In an interview
with Knowledge@Wharton, Terwiesch and Ulrich discuss their findings.
An edited transcript of the interview appears
below.
Knowledge@Wharton: Christian, perhaps you could
start us off by describing the main findings or takeaways from your
research?
Terwiesch: Let me preface what we’re going to
discuss about business schools by saying that Karl and I have been in the
business school world for many, many years. We love this institution, and we
really want to make sure that we find a sustainable path forward for
business schools.
Continued in article
"What Georgia Tech’s Online Degree in Computer Science Means for Low-Cost
Programs," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, November
6, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Georgia-Tech-s-Online/149857/?cid=wc
Among all recent inventions that have to do with
MOOCs, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s online master’s program in
computer science may have the best chance of changing how much students pay
for a traditional degree.
The
program, which started last winter, pairs MOOC-like
course videos and assessments with a support system of course assistants who
work directly with students. The goal is to create a low-cost master’s
degree that is nonetheless "just as rigorous" as the on-campus
equivalent—producing graduates who are "just as good," to quote one of the
new program’s cheerleaders, President Obama. The price: less than $7,000 for
the three-year program, a small fraction of the cost of the traditional
program.
It’s too early yet for a graduating class. But
researchers at Georgia Tech and Harvard University have studied the students
who have enrolled in the program, in an effort to figure out "where the
demand is coming from and what it’s substituting for educationally," says
Joshua S. Goodman, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard.
By understanding what kinds of students are drawn
to the new program, Mr. Goodman and his fellow researchers think they can
begin to understand what competitors it might threaten.
Here is what they found out about those students:
How They Are Different
The enrollees are numerous. The
online program this year got as many applications as Georgia Tech’s
traditional program did during two recent semesters. But while the
traditional program accepted only about 15 percent of its applicants, the
online program accepted 50 percent, enrolling about 1,800 in its first year.
That might not qualify as large in light of the 50,000-students-per-course
figures often quoted in reference to MOOCs, but it does make the online
program three times as large as the largest traditional master’s programs in
computer science, according to the researchers.
They’re older (and they already have jobs).
The people enrolling in the online program are 35 years old, on average, and
are far more likely to report that they are working rather than studying
full time. (The average age of the students in Georgia Tech’s traditional
program is 24, with only half indicating that they are employed.) That
should not surprise anyone who has even a passing familiarity with online
education. Online programs have pitched themselves to adults who are
tethered to work and family, and who want to earn degrees without
rearranging their lives around a course schedule.
They’re from the United States.
Online education is supposed to make geographic borders matter less. But
this online master’s program has drawn 80 percent of its students from
within the country. By contrast, in the traditional program, 75 percent of
the students are foreign, mostly from India and China.
Most of them did not study computer science
in college. In the traditional graduate program, 62 percent of
students have completed an undergraduate major in computer science. That is
true of only 40 percent of the online students. The percentage of
undergraduate engineering majors, 27 percent, remained constant.
How They Are Similar
They’re good at school. Unlike San
Jose State University’s MOOC-related pilot program, which
tried and failed to help underperforming students,
Georgia Tech’s online program appeals to students with a proven academic
track record, specifically those who earned bachelor’s degrees with a
grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. (The university told The Chronicle
last year that its first group of applicants averaged a 3.58 GPA—about the
same as the students in the traditional program.) They seem to be doing well
so far: Courses held last spring and summer saw pass rates of about 88
percent, according to the university.
They’re mostly men. The online
program had a lower rate of female applicants than the traditional program
did, but there were precious few in either pool: 14 percent and 25 percent,
respectively. Among American applicants, the rates were similar: 13 percent
and 16 percent.
Over all, the first enrollees in Georgia Tech’s
MOOC-like master’s program fit the profile of students who are applying to
online graduate programs at institutions across the country.
Continued in article
Business Insider: The Best 2016 Online MBA Programs ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-online-mba-programs-2016-1
New From US News
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Online Fraud Management MBA at Utica College ---
http://programs.online.utica.edu/programs/mba-fraud-course.asp
"Harvard Business School Will Venture Into Online Teaching," by
Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10. 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/harvard-business-school-will-venture-into-online-teaching/47345?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Since the HBS is the poster child for case method teaching this either spells
two things for pedagogy at the HBS. It may be that if online courses are
relatively small, the distance education pedagogy can accommodate the case
method as effectively as in a classroom of roughly 90 students (common on campus
at the HBS). However, it could also mean that the the HBS online program will be
a departure for its beloved case method. It's probably a combination of both
changes across a variety of courses.
It should be noted that the HBS venture is intended to earn "profits" unlike
the MOOC programs at prestigious universities, including Harvard's MOOC courses.
To be a MOOC the course has to be free by definition. However, fees may be
charged to students who also want transcript credits.
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs (free), SMOCs (not free), and OKIs (free)
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on case method teaching and research ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Cases
"NYU (Law School) to Offer Online
Masters in Tax for Non-Lawyers," by Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, October
7, 2013 ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/10/nyu-to-offer-.html
Rank |
School |
Business School Name |
Based In |
1 |
Indiana University - Bloomington |
Kelly School of Business |
Bloomington, IN |
2 |
Thunderbird School of Global Management |
Thunderbird School of Global
Management |
Glendale, AZ |
3 |
University of Illinois - Springfield |
College of Business and
Management |
Springfield, IL |
4 |
University of Tennessee - Martin |
College of Business & Global
Affairs |
Martin, TN |
5 |
Rutgers, the State University of New
Jersey - New Brunswick and Newark |
Rutgers Business School |
Newark, NJ |
6 |
North Carolina State University |
Poole College of Management,
Jenkins Graduate School |
Raleigh, NC |
7 |
George Washington University |
George Washington University
School of Business |
Washington, DC |
8 |
University of Florida |
Hough Graduate School of
Business |
Gainesville, FL |
9 |
Pennsylvania State University |
Smeal College of Business |
University Park, PA |
10 |
Arizona State University |
W.P. Carey School of
Business |
Tempe, AZ |
Jensen Comment
For some reason the above ranking leaves out the University of North Carolina
---
http://onlinemba.unc.edu/about/mba-at-unc/
Richard Sansing later pointed out that UNC comes in at Rank 11.
New From US News
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Also see http://howtomba.com/
There are many online MBA degree programs available from for-profit
universities. However, they are expensive and lack the quality reputation of
AACSB-accredited programs. There are no for-profit universities that have AACSB
accreditation. I highly recommend first looking for AACSB accreditation before
enrolling in any MBA Program in North America.
Masters of Accounting and Taxation
Online Degree Programs
Discover Business
Fee-Based Online MBA Programs and Online
MBA Programs in Accounting ---
http://www.discoverbusiness.us/education/online-mba/accounting/
2017: Coursera Partners with Leading Universities to Offer Master’s
Degrees at a More Affordable Price
Includes University of Illinois masters degrees in entrepreneurship, MBA,
accountancy, and data science programs---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/10/coursera-partners-with-leading-universities-to-offer-masters-degrees-at-a-more-affordable-price.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
For
students looking for a broader education in business, the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
has launched an
entire MBA program through Coursera. Consisting of 18 online
courses and three capstone projects, the
iMBA program covers the subjects usually found in b-school
programs--leadership, strategy, economics, accounting, finance, etc. The
complete curriculum should take roughly 24 to 36 months to complete, and
costs less than $22,000--about 25%-33% of what an on-campus MBA program
typically runs.
(The iMBA is
actually one of three degree programs the University of Illinois has
launched on Coursera. The other two include a Masters
in Accounting (iMSA) and a Master
of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS).)
Now, in
case you're wondering, the diplomas and transcripts for these programs are
granted directly by the universities themselves (e.g., the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and HEC Paris). The paperwork doesn't carry
Coursera's name. Nor does it indicate that the student completed an "online
program." In short, online students get the same transcript as bricks and
mortar students.
Finally,
all of the degree programs mentioned above are "stackable"--meaning students
can (at no cost) take an individual course offered by any of these programs.
And then they can decide later whether they want to apply to the degree
program, and, if so, retroactively apply that course towards the actual
degree. Essentially, you can try things out before making a larger
commitment.
If you
want to learn more about these programs, or submit an application, check out
the following links. We've included the deadlines for submitting
applications.
Online Master's in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
from HEC Paris
Application deadline, December 7
Master of Business Administration (iMBA)
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Application deadline, November 17
Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Application deadline, December 4
Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(Application deadline, October 15
Top Accounting Education Programs (many have masters of accounting degree
programs and some have online degree programs)
Top Accounting Undergraduate Programs Ranked by US News (most now have
masters in accounting programs as well)---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-accounting
AACSB-accredited programs that also have specialized accounting
accreditations as well ---
http://www.aacsb.edu/en/accreditation/accounting/
Top Accounting MBA in Accounting Specialty Programs Ranked by US News
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/accounting-rankings
If we were to just rank the
accounting doctoral programs in terms of research performance the
rankings might be quite different from the rankings shown above for MBA
specialty and Master of Accounting Programs ---
http://www.byuaccounting.net/rankings/univrank/rankings.php
US News Best Undergraduate Business Programs ---
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-accounting
Many of these top programs are much more affordable than those chosen by The
Accounting Degree Review.
Guide to Online Community Colleges ---
http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/online-colleges/community-colleges/
Jensen Comment
Online community college courses are good for things like training certificates
and associate degrees. However, for students wanting four-year and graduate
online courses, there are usually better alternatives such as the ones listed
below.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Question
What accredited law schools offer online tax LL.M. degrees?
Answer (these degrees typically take three years to complete for full-time
students unless students already have law degrees)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/09/nine-law-schools.html
Selected Online Masters of Accounting and Masters of Taxation Programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#MastersOfAccounting
Time between enrollment and graduation depends a great deal on meeting
prerequisite requirements in accountancy, and business core (including economics
and ethics). I'm biased in recommending such degrees from only AACSB-accredited
business programs, although not necessarily AACSB-accredited accounting
programs. Some of the most prestigious AACSB-accredited universities do not have
the added accountancy specialized accreditation.
University of Maryland
University of Maryland University College offers 3
Accounting-oriented masters degrees--MS in Management, Accounting Track; MS
in Accounting and Financial Management; MS in Accounting and Information
Technology. All coursework can be done online. There is a centralized
website that has links to get more information at http://info.umuc.edu/acct-fin/center
. Or you can email me and I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Bruce H. Lubich, Ph.D.,
CPA Program Director,
Accounting Graduate Management Program
University of Maryland University College
The University of Connecticut has an online MSA program --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/msaccounting/
Some other online Masters of Accounting Programs are listed at http://www.online-masters-degrees-programs.org/masters-of-accounting.htm
Others are listed at http://www.masters-degrees-online-programs.com/
Programs for Masters of Accounting and Masters of Taxation are listed at http://www.itss.fau.edu/programs.htm
Masters of Science in Accounting and Taxation at Northeastern University ---
http://taxation.neu.edu/taxa-2010/
Forensic Accounting Degree Programs
There are some online forensic accounting degree
programs. For example, you can
choose and online or onsite program at
Florida
Atlantic
University
---
http://www.masters-in-forensic-accounting.com/
Find your online degree with the SUNY Learning Network ---
http://sln.suny.edu/
Online SUNY Graduate Programs
Online Master Degree Programs
MBA |
MS |
MA |
MLS |
M.Ed. * denotes
SLN Affiliated campus
Online Master of Business Degree Programs
Online Master of Science Degree Programs
Online Master of Arts Degree Programs
Online Master of Library Science
Online Master of Education
Online Doctoral Degree Programs
DNP *
DENOTES SLN AFFILIATED CAMPUS
Online Doctor of Nursing
Practice
The SUNY Learning Network program is administered
by the Office of the Provost.
"Open SUNY Unites Online Ed Offerings Across 64 Institutions," by Dian
Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, January 21, 2014 ---
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/01/21/open-suny-unites-online-ed-offerings-across-64-institutions.aspx?=CT21
The
State University of New York
(SUNY) has formally introduced a new online program
that allows students to access courses, degrees, professors and academic
resources from any of SUNY's 64 campuses. Open SUNY, as it's called, is a
mix-and-match service that offers access to 400 "online-enabled" degrees,
12,000 course sections and eight full degrees. The system's expectation is
that people from inside and outside the state will attend courses, including
international students.
Students can use the program to start a degree,
finish a degree or just take a single course. The
Open SUNY Navigator allows a potential
student to specify what type of program he or she wants in categories such
as entirely online or hybrid, synchronous or asynchronous, experiential,
accelerated and so on — and the navigation tool provides potential online
offerings to fit the criteria.
"Open SUNY will provide our students with the
nation's leading online learning experience, drawing on the power of SUNY to
expand access, improve completion, and prepare more students for success,"
said Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. "In addition to these new, fully-online
degree programs, Open SUNY will take every online course we offer at every
SUNY campus...and make them easy to find and accessible for every SUNY
student and prospective learners around the globe."
Along with providing a central application through
which to locate course offerings, SUNY is offering Open SUNY+, which adds
additional layers of support for online students and instructors. Specific
additions include a 24/7 help desk for technical support, a "concierge"
service to act as a single source for getting all program questions
answered, and extended hour tutoring services. Faculty will have access to
training programs and online forums where they can broaden their knowledge
about developing effective online courses or share best practices.
Eight Open SUNY+ degree programs debuting this
month were chosen based on a number of factors, including student interest,
accreditation, and their capacity to meet current and future workforce
demand throughout New York State.
Among the institutions involved are:
"We are proud of our collaboration and success in
serving a qualified student population that may not otherwise be able to
pursue a degree in electrical engineering," said Stony Brook President
Samuel Stanley Jr. "We are joining forces with our colleagues at
Binghamton University
and the University
at Buffalo to make a difference. We look forward
to implementation of Open SUNY. This is truly an exciting time to be
involved in higher education in New York State."
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
This Makes Me Really
Sad
Although the Fathom Website does not
seem to act like anything is wrong, it is reported on Page A30 of the January
17, 2003 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education that "After
Losing Millions, Columbia University Will Close Online-Learning
Venture." That learning venture was called Fathom --- http://www.fathom.com/
Fathom seemed to have most of the
crucial ingredients for an online training and education venture. The
positives included the following:
- Prestige
The providers of the online free and fee-based courses were some of the most
prestigious universities of the world, including Fathom partners Columbia
University, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, London
School of Economics, British Library, British Museum, Cambridge University
Press, and others.
- Capital and Some of the Best
Technology Money Can Buy
Columbia University and its partners in this venture put millions of dollars
into both founding and maintaining this venture.
- Marketing of an Enormous Variety
of Interesting Courses
Fathom developed a loss-leader approach to tease learners of all ages to
want to try Fathom on-line learning. Courses cut across many
humanities disciplines and were not simply courses for careers per se.
Fathom was geared for learning for learning's sake. By "for
learning's sake" I mean that the courses were taken only for learning
rather than for credit towards a degree or a certificate. Many courses
were free, and I frequently listed these courses in my editions of New
Bookmarks. The fee-based courses were modestly
prices.
- Adapting the Timing to Suit the
Schedules and Testing Fears of Busy Students
Many, although by no means all, of the courses allowed students to learn at
their own paces over as many weeks as they wanted to study. The
non-credit courses did not have intimidating examinations.
And now we must speculate where
Fathom's business model failed and why it continued to hemorrhage cash in spite
of doing so many great things in the design of its business model. Part of
the problem may have been timing combined with a world that seems more connected
online than is really the case when trying to match adult learners with online
opportunities. Fathom is not the only failed for-profit online education
ventures that have failed. Prominent failures include the ventures listed
at the following quotation from the Chronicle article cited above:
"I
think Fathom was a great experiment," said James L. Hilton, associate
provost for academic information and instructional technology affairs at
Michigan. "The problems that Fathom was trying to address--how to
connect with lifelong learners, how to provide authenticated information--are
an important challenge...I wish that the national economics could have
supported a longer experiment."
Ann G.
Kirschner, president and chief executive officer of Fathom, said the flagging
economy had put pressure on the venture. In May, the Columbia University
Senate recommended cutting back on the institution's investment in Fathom,
although the university reportedly had already cut back.
In 2001,
Columbia gave Fathom $14.9 million, while the venture earned $700,000 from
fees from other institutions and sales revenue.
"The
reality is, we're in tough economic times," Ms. Kirschner said.
"No institution, particularly the ones involved in the Fathom consortium,
wants to do anything without the highest academic quality."
She
added: "Fathom was an expensive vehicle for innovation. In tough
economic times, it's natural that our investor would look for ways to reduce
that investment."
"I
think we're going out on a high," Ms. Kirschner said. "We've
outlasted nearly everybody."
Indeed,
for-profit online-learning ventures already have closed at New York
University, Temple University, and the University of Maryland University
College.
It is important to note that the
failures of the online ventures mentioned above do not imply that many other
somewhat similar ventures have failed. Some ventures like UNext are still
in business because of large training and education contracts with
industry. Some like Army University and IRS University are thriving
because government has contracted to pay the course costs delivered from major
universities.
Who's
Succeeding in Online Education?
The most successful online programs at this point in time seem to be embedded in
large university systems that have huge onsite extension programs as well as
online alternatives. Two noteworthy systems in this regard are the
enormous University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas extension
programs. Under the leadership of Jack Wilson, UMass Online has thrived
with hundreds of online courses. I think Open University is the largest
public university in the world. Open University has online as well as onsite
programs. The University of Phoenix continues to be the largest private
university in the world in terms of student enrollments.
From the
University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a
comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance
education information from Wisconsin, national, and international sources.
New information and resources are being added to the Distance Education
Clearinghouse on a continual basis.
The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the
University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners and
other University of Wisconsin institutions.
Jensen Comment
This site has glossaries and many links to other distance education sites.
Bob Jensen's links to distance education sites are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Open2 portal to learning
BBC News and Open University combined forces to create the Open2 portal to
learning and news ---
http://www.open2.net/
There are also various forums.
UMassOnline Revenues, Enrollments Up, Up, Up
UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts's
Web-based learning division, announced that online education program revenues
and enrollments grew 40 percent and 33 percent, respectively, in 2003.
Revenues from the combined online programs at the university exceeded $11
million, up from $7.8 million in 2002, while enrollments reached 13,375, up
from 10,039 in 2002. More than 90 percent of the revenues are retained by the
UMass campuses to support education and research programs.
The school attributes its rapid growth to the
continued addition of new online programs that serve community needs, high
levels of online student satisfaction, and its recognition in the national
distance learning market due to factors such as winning several national
distance learning awards.
"Distance learning is critical to the future of
UMass and all of higher education," UMass interim President Jack M.
Wilson said. "Without it, we cannot adequately serve students who live
far from our campuses or whose work and family lives make traditional higher
education an unattainable goal. Also, at a time when we are expected to do
more with less state funding, UMassOnline is mobilizing our five campuses to
create entrepreneurial revenue-generating online programs, multi-campus
collaborations, innovative faculty training, increased national visibility and
significant cost savings for the university."
Read more: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=3725
Success of online courses in some way
is more noteworthy in terms of the hundreds of thousands of online students
enrolled in courses delivered by developing countries like India and Indonesia.
See the recent United Nations report at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001284/128463e.pdf
There seems to be a sufficient level of
success for some prestige universities like Harvard and MIT to make plans for
greatly expanding its online training and education programs. See http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6388
"U. of Wisconsin Will Develop
Online Advanced-Placement (AP) Courses for High-School Student," by Dan
Carnevale, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 2002 --- http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002111901t.htm
The University of
Wisconsin at Madison plans to develop online advanced-placement courses for
Wisconsin high-school students. The online format is meant to help rural and
inner-city students who go to high schools that do not provide
advanced-placement courses.
The courses should
be available next fall. Between now and then, the university will create the
online versions of the courses and train high-school teachers to administer
them.
Earlier this month,
the Center on Education and Work in the university's School of Education
began working with Wisconsin school districts to create an organization
called the Wisconsin
Advanced Placement Distance Learning Consortium. Next fall, the
organization plans to provide 50 online sections of 12 different
advanced-placement courses, enrolling a total of 500 to 700 high-school
students.
About a
quarter of the state's public high schools do not offer advanced-placement
courses, said Wendy L. Way, acting director of the Center on Education and
Work. Others only provide one or two of the 35 courses for which
advanced-placement tests are available through the College Board.
Continued at - http://chronicle.com/free/2002/11/2002111901t.htm
The UW Distance Education homepage
is at http://learn.wisconsin.edu/
From the University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a
comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance
education information from Wisconsin, national, and international sources.
New information and resources are being added to the Distance Education
Clearinghouse on a continual basis.
The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the
University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners and
other University of Wisconsin institutions.
Jensen Comment
This site has glossaries and many links to other distance education sites.
Bob Jensen's threads on online
learning can be found at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
You can listen to the MP3 audio of
Mike Kirschenheiter from Columbia University discussing Fathom at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
January 17, 2003 reply from Bruce Lubich
[blubich@UMUC.EDU]
(Note that Dr. Lubich is the Graduate Program Director in Accounting at
University of Maryland University College.)
I would add
University of Maryland University College to the list of successful, diverse,
and growing online education programs. Please feel free to check out the
website at www.umuc.edu
Bruce Lubich
January 17, 2003 reply from David R. Fordham
[fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
James Madison University is enjoying great success
with our on-line "InfoSec MBA" program. It is so successful (both
learning as well as monetarily) that we are expanding it to cover additional
cohorts. It is tiny compared to the programs being discussed (we limit a
cohort to 25 students, and we have three staggered cohorts running at any
given time, expanding to five or six next year). But it is a cash cow for the
College even though it is relatively expensive to run. Maybe inflatable rafts
do better than supertankers in these uncharted waters right now...
David R. Fordham
PBGH Faculty Fellow
James Madison University
January 17, 2003 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]
Bob,
I too am saddened. However, as you suggest, some
programs seem to be surviving (not sure if thriving). One of the earliest
online education programs that seems to have survived rather very well is the
SUNY Learning Network, which was initially funded by the Sloan Foundation. You
can find information about the outfit at
http://sln.suny.edu/sln/public/original.nsf
Many campuses in the SUNY system do use this. The
model seems to be working. It is my understanding that any course offered by
any campus in the SUNY system can also be offered through SLN. The department
offering a course through SLN is charged a fee (I am told, fairly modest).
This may be a viable model, where the network
provides the infrastructure that faculty can use to deliver online education.
I don't think they have an explicit "business model" or strategy.
The administration provides the infrastructure, and lets the faculty determine
how to deliver it. The SLN is slowly evolving, and I am getting more and more
confident that it will succeed in the long run.
I have not used SLN, but chat with colleagues who
have used it in the past is encouraging me to offer some of my graduate
courses online through them, of course, provided the administration in the
department and the school will let me (and I am confident they will).
You can not run an education enterprise like a
business. The fault of Fathom, like Unext and Cardean, I think is this
ridiculous notion that "business" aspects of education predominate.
It also confirms my suspicion (have known it for a long time when it comes to
IT) that marks of "high quality" and prestige can not substitute for
deep faculty involvement and initiative. A dean at my university, exasperated
at the independence of the faculty, is fond of saying that
"managing" faculty is like herding cats. I say, thank goodness we
have a hand at determining our own fate.
It is my feeling that online education will succeed
only when the administration provides a good infrastructure, provides
technical support, gets out of the way of the faculty, and lets the faculty
use it as they see fit.
I would be interesting in knowing if the other
systems that seem to have survived well also have similar attributes.
Jagdish
September 9, 2003 message from Abigail [ady@TELESTRAINING.COM]
A new and revised version of the Certificate In
Web-based Instruction (CWI) will be offered by Simon Fraser University ( www.sfu.ca/lidc/telestraining/
) this Fall. This version was redesigned based on feedback received from
previous participants in the program. CWI is an innovative online program
that teaches participants how to design, produce, and teach online courses.
The Certificate in Web-Based Instruction combines
the teaching of both conceptual and technical skills. The program uses
messaging, chat, videoconferencing, video mail and covers current eLearning
topics. A maximum of 20 participants are supported by two instructors and
create their own online courses during the program.
The Certificate in Web-Based Instruction is offered
entirely online beginning September 15, 2003. If you need more information
or have questions, please contact Jill Jodrey via email at jajodryey@sfu.ca
or by phone at 604-268-6728.
Abigail Dy
Communication Specialist Certificate In Web-based Instruction
Simon Fraser University
Fathom users will have the opportunity to interact and
collaborate with the leading experts in their field. Fathom's unique
architecture will provide a powerful "search and explore capability"
that will allow users to follow their interests, independently or with expert
guidance, across the widest possible range of subjects.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/00/04/fathom.html
Fathom: A must see for
looking into the crystal ball of knowledge portals: http://www.fathom.com/
Things keep happening at Fathom.
There are over 60,000 authenticated references to experts and this knowledge
portal is growing exponentially. Fathom deepens as academia's top
knowledge portal --- http://www.fathom.com/
Fathom's member
institutions present their immense wealth of knowledge across every area
of interest—from business to global affairs, from arts to technology.
Fathom brings
you:
Lectures,
interviews, articles, performances and exhibits by faculty, researchers
and curators from our member institutions. Reference content spanning all
disciplines and fields of study. Trails, a new visual way of organizing
knowledge thematically by topic. You can use Trails to intuitively
navigate content according to your own interests. A community of knowledge
seekers gathering in Fathom's Forums. Online courses from Fathom's course
partners, offering the best in online education from top research
institutions. Recommended books and products to deepen your knowledge.
Don't miss Fathom's Online Course
Demonstration and Learn About Knowledge Trails
Knowledge is
never neatly organized.
Founders and Partners of Fathom are
High in Prestige
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/00/04/fathom.html
Fathom, a for-profit spin-off, implements one
aspect of Columbia's three-part digital media strategy, which also includes
Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and Columbia Media
Enterprises.
Fathom will address the most serious weakness of
information on the Worldwide Web, the inability to authenticate the bulk of
its content. All Fathom original content will be authenticated, meaning that
the knowledge will be attributed to the appropriate educational or cultural
institution and its faculty or professional staff. Fathom's standards of
academic and editorial integrity will be monitored by the Fathom Academic
Council, a panel of selected senior faculty and curators from participating
institutions, which will be chaired by Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole.
Offering the best free content of universities,
libraries, and museums, Fathom will enable a worldwide audience of students,
working adults, and lifelong learners to explore subjects of professional or
personal interest. Much of Fathom's content has never been available outside
of the participating institutions.
Examples of Fathom content currently in development
include:
Selections from Columbia's Oral History Research
Project, and interactive tour of Amiens Cathedral led by Columbia
Professor Stephen Murray;
A talk on "The Weightless Economy,"
the shift from a world of manufacturing to a world of weightless
services, by Professor Danny Quah, London School of Economics and
Political Science;
An overview of the provocative new science of
astrobiology, which brings together molecular life sciences, space
exploration, planetary science and the search for extraterrestrials, by
astronomer and editor Dr. Simon Mitton from the Cambridge University
Press;
Multimedia presentations that bring to life
treasured objects, from the Magna Carta to the Lindisfarne Gospels from
the The British Library;
A survey of the endangered mammals of North
America, with a real-time mapping tool for graphically relating each
species to an almost limitless variety of map-based data, The
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History; and
A collection of over 54,000 photographic views
of New York City that mark the development of the city, its
architectural achievements, transportation system, and ethnic and
cultural diversity from The New York Public Library.
A "Main Street" for
knowledge and education, Fathom will include a comprehensive directory of
related online courses offered by universities and cultural institutions,
plus textbooks and other academic titles, specialized periodicals,
individual articles and other publications, CD-ROMs, academic travel, and
learning resources. Users will enroll in online courses through Fathom, with
tuition fees, accreditation, and admission policies set at the discretion of
the offering university or cultural institution.
Fathom users will have the opportunity to
interact and collaborate with the leading experts in their field. Fathom's
unique architecture will provide a powerful "search and explore
capability" that will allow users to follow their interests,
independently or with expert guidance, across the widest possible range of
subjects.
Yahoo! Internet Life Names Fathom
as 'Best Learning Portal'
Unique Interactive
Knowledge Site Selected as One of the 100 Best Web Sites for 2001 NEW YORK,
Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Yahoo! Internet Life has named Fathom ( http://www.fathom.com
) as the ``Best Learning Portal'' in its 5th Annual ``Top of the Net'' issue
(on sale December 19). As the leading consumer lifestyle magazine covering
the Internet, Yahoo! Internet Life praised Fathom's dynamic e-knowledge site
for its vast collection of intellectual resources, convenience, degree of
user interactivity, and prestigious member institutions. These institutions
include Columbia University, London School of Economics and Political
Science, Cambridge University Press, The British Library, The New York
Public Library, The University of Chicago, the University of Michigan,
American Film Institute (AFI), RAND, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum (UK), and The Natural History
Museum (UK).
Award-winning Web
sites appear in the ``100 Best Sites for 2001'' feature of Yahoo! Internet
Life's January 2001 issue. The sites were chosen not only for excellence in
past and present performance, but because the magazine's editors believe
they represent the best of the Internet as it will unfold in the upcoming
year.
As the ``Best
Learning Portal,'' Fathom offers visitors a wide array of online education
opportunities. Fathom provides visitors with access to free content,
including lectures, interviews and articles, from the world's leading
creators and sources of knowledge. Visitors can also register and enroll in
online courses, offered for a fee, that complement their specific interests,
as well as participate in provocative online forums with experts on favorite
subjects. All content on the site meets Fathom's exemplary quality standards
and is authenticated, meaning that the knowledge is attributable to the
appropriate academic or cultural institution and its faculty or research
staff.
``It is
unprecedented for us to bestow an accolade of this nature to a site that has
not even officially launched,'' said Yahoo! Internet Life Editor Cree McCree.
``We thought it would have been remiss not to include Fathom because we
truly believe Fathom is going to become the leader in its field.''
``We are honored to
be recognized by such an esteemed publication,'' said Ann Kirschner, Ph.D.,
Fathom's President and CEO. ``Our goal has always been to create a site that
gives users greater access to some of the world's rich intellectual
resources and offers a unique, quality educational experience. It is
extremely satisfying to know that Yahoo! Internet Life has selected Fathom
as one of the Web's top sites.''
About Fathom
Fathom Knowledge
Network Inc. is a unique interactive enterprise dedicated to the
dissemination of knowledge. The company's Web site ( http://www.fathom.com
) offers unprecedented opportunities for discovery through authenticated
free content, overseen by an advisory board selected from its members, as
well as related knowledge and education e-commerce opportunities. Composed
of the world's leading universities, museums, libraries, publishers and
research institutions, Fathom includes Columbia University, London School of
Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University Press, The British
Library, The New York Public Library, The University of Chicago, the
University of Michigan, American Film Institute (AFI), RAND, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum (UK),
and The Natural History Museum (UK).
About Yahoo!
Internet Life
Yahoo! Internet
Life ( http://www.yil.com ), the world's
largest consumer lifestyle magazine covering the Internet, is a monthly
publication of Ziff Davis Media. With its mission to entertain, engage,
educate and empower Internet enthusiasts, Yahoo! Internet Life serves the
New American Consumer(TM). Reaching one in nine of all daily Internet users
in America and read monthly by over 5.3 million people, Yahoo! Internet Life
chronicles the culture, content and community of the Internet. In January
2001, the four year-old magazine will surpass a circulation of 1.1 million
copies per month, solidifying its place as one of the fastest-growing
magazines in the history of publishing. Notable accolades include
recognition as one of Advertising Age's Best Magazines of 1998; a
Circulation Excellence Award from Circulation Management magazine; inclusion
as one of Folio magazine's Top 10 Launches for the 90s; as three consecutive
Top 10 Hottest Magazine citations from Adweek; and an award from Capell's
Circulation Report as Top 10 Best Performer of 1999.
SOURCE: Fathom
Knowledge Network Inc
BBC Learning --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/courses/
BBCi are launching
a new way of learning. As this is a new service we only have a small (but
perfectly formed) list of courses on offer. If you experience any problems
with them, or have any suggestions for future courses send us an email.
Our list of online
courses is always growing, so sign up for our Learning Update if you would
like us to tell you when new courses are launched.
What is an Online
Course?
Whether you want to
build your confidence, learn how to do your own historical research or
discover the Internet, you can develop your skills and increase your
understanding from the privacy of your own PC.
Whatever your
subject, learn online at your own pace and get a solid start in an area that
interests you.
Computers &
the Internet
Becoming Webwise Get to grips with the Internet and find out about getting
connected, e-mailing, searching, bookmarking, making your own address book
and the very basics of building your own web page. Learn at your own pace
and it could lead to a nationally recognised qualification.
Design &
Technology
Build-A-Bot Techlab Enter the Build-A-Bot Techlab. Discover the basic skills
needed for building robots and get started building a unique breed of robots
including roller-robots and walkers. Discover the technology behind sensors
and circuits with Sensor-Bot and Robo-Voyageur, your latest robot building
assignments.
Gardening
How to be a gardener This online resource, prepared in collaboration with
the Royal Horticultural Society, will bring life to your learning in the
garden in eight practical modules.
Health
First Aid Action Would you know how to react to a road accident, a case of
food poisoning or a diabetic emergency with a child? People's lives could
depend on your knowledge so take some First Aid Action today.
Get Confident An
online course with information, quizzes and tools to help you develop a
greater understanding of yourself and make better use of your strengths in
challenging situations.
History Top
History Trail
Follow one of the seven trails and see how postcards, cartoons, ancient
manuscripts and official documents all have a story to tell.
Archaeology Join
Julian Richards on a guided tour of archaeology that takes in its origins
and tracks its progress to the present day.
Conquest When was
England, England? Find out more about the crisis that sparked off the
catastrophic events of 1066.
Family history
Unravel your family tree and get an insight into some of the specialist
fields that will help you unlock the secrets of your ancestoral past.
How to do history
Follow in the footsteps of professional historians and find out how they
do history. Discover how documents, tapestries and people's memories of
the past are all valuable sources for the historian.
Local history On
this trail you can get first hand tips from enthusiasts and experts who
have already taken their first steps as local historians.
Victorian Britain
Find out how heroic cartoons and the novels of Charles Dickens can help
the historian piece together a picture of the past.
Wars &
Conflict Discover more about the personal experience of battle and how
life changed for those left behind on the Home Front. You can also chart
the emergence of a British standing army.
Languages
Top French French
Fix Motivational language learning which takes whatever knowledge of
French you have and challenges you to improve it on the spot. French Steps
Learn how to converse, order in a restaurant and ask for directions in
French with this online beginners course that's easy-to-use. Language
Gauge - French Find your level in French. This tool will let you find out
how much you know and what's best for you to take your it further. Talk
French A language course for absolute beginners, with video and audio
clips and activities to help you learn. The French Experience A series of
multimedia activities for beginners, building on the absolute basics of
Talk French, but can be used on its own to learn and practise the
language.
German Language
Gauge - German Find your level in German. This tool will let you find out
how much you know and what's best for you to take your it further. Deutsch
Plus A dynamic introduction to German taking you through the basics of the
language.
Italian Language
Gauge - Italian Find your level in Italian. This tool will let you find
out how much you know and what's best for you to take your it further.
Talk Italian The ideal introduction to Italian. Basic language covering
essential topics in manageable chunks. Italianissimo Multimedia activities
for beginners, using video and audio clips to teach the basics of Italian.
Spanish Language
Gauge - Spanish Find your level in Spanish. This tool will let you find
out how much you know and what's best for you to take your it further.
Spanish Steps Kick-start your Spanish with this short course for
beginners. With video clips, online activities and a personal progress
chart that keeps track of the activities you have completed. Talk Spanish
A language course for absolute beginners, with video and audio clips and
activities to help you learn. Suenos World Spanish A series of multimedia
activities for beginners, building on the absolute basics of Talk Spanish,
but can be used on its own to learn and practise the language.
Nature
Top Blue Planet Challenge Your chance to travel across open oceans and into
the deep abyss, with seven challenges that explore places you can only
imagine, and connect you with an amazing wild world that comes right to your
doorstep.
The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) launched the Lifelong Learning
Center, an online resource for accounting and financial continuing education ---
http://imalearningcenter.org/imacatalog/?usca%5fp=t
Kaplan Declares Online Financial
Planning Program a Success --- http://www.smartpros.com/x34754.xml
The company attributes the success
of the program to high retention rates (90 percent) and a unique
diagnostic and prescriptive approach.
"Kaplan College's outstanding
online student services make our program attractive to aspiring financial
planners who want the personal support of a traditional program as well as
the convenience of online learning," said Keith Fevurly, Executive
Director of Kaplan College's Financial Planning Program.
Students hail from 49 US states as
well as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and includes a number of military
professionals serving in the US and abroad as well as employees of top
insurance companies, securities firms, brokerage houses and banks. Its
student body is more than 40 percent female, surpassing the financial
planning industry average of 24 percent female.
The national trend toward individual
retirement accounts and innovations in estate planning have fueled a
growing demand for financial planners who can advise clients on
appropriate investment and savings strategies.
Kaplan College is part of the higher
education division of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The
Washington Post Company, and is accredited by the Higher Learning
Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA).
Increasingly popular among the
PC-literate crowd, Internet-based training is helping hundreds, if not
thousands, of accountants to balance their work schedules and their personal
lives. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/74824
Training programs that are taken on a
large scale multinational companies that offer courses to employees in multiple
countries. Examples include international public accounting firms,
MacDonalds, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola, Corporation, and most any multinational firm.
See http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
Increasingly, trade associations are getting more sophisticated in
combinations of onsite and online training and education. One such
association is the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) --- http://www.mbaa.org/
The
Campus MBA's Learning Center for Real Estate Finance has a simple and
effective web design.
|
Training programs that are taken from
international training specialists.
The
International Distance Learning Course Finder is the world's largest online
directory of e-learning courses from 127 countries. This universal distance
education resource has information on over 50,000 distance learning courses
and programs offered from a multitude of universities, colleges and
companies.
This directory has been developed jointly by the
Association of Business Schools and Biz/ed. It offers, in a user-friendly
format, a comprehensive and unique resource for anyone considering
studying Business and Management in the UK.
All Business and Management courses offered by
ABS members are included in a fully searchable database.
The recently
created DELTA programme (Distance Education and Learning Technology
Applications) aims to help in the modernization of training systems,
principally by studying, systematizing and disseminating the ways in which
information and communications technology (ICT) is used in multi-media,
flexible and distance learning.
Today, training
systems throughout the world are facing a major challenge, because their
current teaching approaches fail to meet the needs of the different sectors
of society. The ever-swifter changes in the technology of production and in
the organization of work are generating an exponential increase in the
production sector's training needs, for which training systems lack
qualitatively and quantitatively effective responses. The nature of this
challenge is such that it affects the labour market, the job competence of
workers and employers, the employment situation and hence society in
general.
- Hungry Minds --- http://www.hungryminds.com/
Over 17,000 training and education courses (Mostly from top universities)
- One of the largest campuses on
the Internet --- The University of Wisconsin http://www.wisc.edu/wiscinfo/outreach/
The UW Distance Education homepage is at http://learn.wisconsin.edu/
From the University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
The Distance Education Clearinghouse is a
comprehensive and widely recognized Web site bringing together distance
education information from Wisconsin, national, and international
sources. New information and resources are being added to the Distance
Education Clearinghouse on a continual basis.
The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by
the University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners
and other University of Wisconsin institutions.
Jensen Comment
This site has glossaries and many links to other distance education sites.
Bob Jensen's links to distance education sites are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
- New Jersey Institute of
Technology Distance Education --- http://cpe.njit.edu/
-
Penn
State Distance Education --- http://www.outreach.psu.edu/DE/
Penn State offers a fully
online MBA Program --- http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/imba/welcome/index.html
The iMBA is Penn
State's online MBA program, designed especially for you--a professional ready
for an MBA but wishing not to give up your job, move your family, or leave your
friends. Increase your marketability, gain a competitive edge, put your career
on the fast track, and put a Penn State MBA on your résumé by acquiring a
quality education at your convenience
-
The
University of Texas Distance Education Center --- http://www.utexas.edu/cee/dec/
The
Distance Education Center offers a world of knowledge for a lifetime
of learning. Whether you need academic credit, specialized training
or certification, or distance education services, we're here for
you!
|
We offer the finest in college
courses. You can earn credit, or study just for the pure joy of
learning!
Visit UT
High School for information about our high school courses. You
can even earn your Texas high school diploma through the UT
Austin High School Diploma Program.
Our award-winning Migrant
Student Program offers high school credit for migrant students
who are not able to stay in one location throughout the year.
We also offer career
and technology materials for institutions providing career
orientation and basic workforce skills.
|
The
University of Texas Distance Education: A Primer (Glossary) --- http://www.utexas.edu/cc/cit/de/deprimer/glossary.html
National Technological University fell
on hard times with poor timing to create a for-profit company for engineering
training courses. It has phased out its own for-profit company and has been
acquired by Sylvan Learning Systems. It will continue to offer engineering
courses for SLS --- http://www.kmutt.ac.th/organization/Research/national.htm
Sylvan is one of the leading
providers of training programs and also offers over 300 testing sites that can
be utilized for its own and other training and education programs. Its
homepage is at http://syl.hrdpt.com/
The
Dark Side of the 21st Century:
Concerns About Technologies in Education
The main
navigation page is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen
at Trinity University
Table of Contents
ALN is defined as Asynchronous Learning Network(s) or Networking
"A Virtual Revolution: Trends in
the Expansion of Distance Education"
The U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act Undermines Public Access and Sharing
(Included Copyright Information and Dead Link Archives)
Also see Bob Jensen's threads on cheating and plagiarism
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Shrinking Customer Base for
eLearning?
Millions of Web Documents are
Not Being Archived for Future Scholars
Are Universities Becoming EMOs (Educational
Maintenance Organizations)?
Concerns About Academic Standards, School
Ethics and Student Ethics
Barriers to Distance Education
How can colleges best mix on-campus and
online delivery of instruction?
Concerns About Faculty
Resistance to Change and Mutation
Teachers Must Adapt to Changed Mindsets of Incoming Students Who Grew Up With
Computers
Concerns About Faculty Workloads and
Burnout
Online Cheating and Reduced Social
Interaction
Legal Concerns
Email and Teaching Evaluations Place Heavy
Burdens on Teachers
Student Concerns
Is your distance site operating
within the law in terms of access by disabled students?
Schools must demonstrate progress toward compliance.
The Digital Divide is Real
Lots of
Hype and Not Much Profit
Institutions, Reward Structures, and
Traditions That Defy Changes in Higher Education
Websites Failing Disabled and
Handicapped Users
Concerns About the Explosion of Online
Education
Concerns About High Attrition Rates
in Distance Education
Concerns About Residency Living &
Learning on Campus
Concerns About Impersonality and
Becoming Irrevocably Orwellian
Concerns About Making ALN Learning Too
Easy
Concerns About Making ALN Learning Too
Hard
Concerns About Corporate Influences on
Traditional Missions
Concerns About Library Services
Concerns About Academic Standards,
School Ethics and Student Ethics
Concerns About Messaging Overload
Concerns About Faculty Efficiency and
Burnout
Concerns About Misleading and
Fraudulent Web Sites
Concerns About CyberPsychology
Concerns About Computer Services and
Network Reliability
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to
Change
Concerns About Effectiveness of
Learning Technologies in Large Classes
Other Concerns
Students’ Distress with a Web-based Distance
Education Course: An Ethnographic Study of Participants' Experiences
New Foes
A Message from Peter Kenyon on November 18, 1999
The Force and the Darkside
David Noble's Concerns for Students' Privacy
Rights
Update Messages on Trends in
Corporate Education
Daring Professors
Growing Up is More Anxiety-Provoking/Stressful
Generation Gaps, Collegial Apathy or Hostility, and
Loneliness ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DarkSide
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
The Downside of Electronic Commerce and Technology:
Psychological Implications ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Psychology
The
main navigation page is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Note from Bob Jensen: This article
delves rather deeply into the pedagogies of online programs such as programs at
the University of Phoenix and UNext's Cardian University.
"A Virtual Revolution: Trends in
the Expansion of Distance Education," by Thomas J. Kriger, USDLA Journal (a
refereed journal of the United States Distance Learning Association," November
2001 ---
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
This report
describes four major trends leading the growth of distance education. The
purpose is not to cover every provider but to draw a picture of the types of
organizational structures and educational activities that are on the rise.
These include:
- Existing
higher education institutions that have or are developing distance
education programs, such as e-Cornell, NYU Online, the University of
Illinois On-line; University of Maryland University College, Rio Salado
Community College, the SUNY Learning Network and Virtual Temple;
- Full virtual
universities, such as the University of Phoenix Online, Western
Governors University, Andrew Jackson University, Cappella University,
Jones International University, Kennedy-Warren University;
- Corporate
university or training institutions, such as the members of Corporate
University Xchange and Click2learn.
Corporate-university joint ventures. those that provide course management
systems such as Blackboard, Campus Pipeline, eCollege and Web CT, as well as
those who package and distribute courses or content from existing
institutions such as UNext.com, Cenquest, Fathom, Global Education Network,
Quisic and Universitas 21;
What do we learn
from these descriptions? First, we learn that the variety of new ways to
organize DE and reach new students is enormous, as is the talent that can be
brought to bear in making education attractive in the new medium. But we
also find that the way distance education is being organized and
conducted often poses serious questions.
Much of the
distance education under study here, whether non-profit or for-profit, is
built on corporate ideas about consumer focus, product standardization,
tight personnel control and cost effectiveness (maximizing course taking
while minimizing the "inputs" of faculty and development time). These
concepts are contrary to the traditional model of higher education
decision-making which emphasizes faculty independence in teaching and
research, academic control of the curriculum, academic freedom in the
classroom and collegial decision-making.
While traditional
practices are not sacrosanct, academic decision making processes have been
very successful in producing quality higher education the best in the world.
Our concern is that some of the new trends and practices described in this
report may inhibit rather than promote good education. A number of specific
concerns arose:
- Education
based primarily on the marketplace and the model of "student as
customer" is too narrow. Student and industry preferences certainly
matter in designing curricula, but if pleasing the customer is the
pre-eminent value, there is a real danger that the curriculum will
not be coherent, rigorous enough or broad enough to meet the student's
long-term interests.
- A central
characteristic of many DE providers is to "unbundle" the faculty role so
that different specialists develop the curriculum, teach the course,
evaluate student performance, etc. This allows for greater
standardization but it may not add up to better education.
-
Standardization of coursework also inhibits students from being exposed
to the diverse views of different faculty members with varying knowledge
and perspectives. This diversity is important in enabling students to
hone their own ideas and knowledge.
- Some programs
exhibited an inclination to increase class size as a means of increasing
the financial output of a course. The only proper consideration in
fixing class size is to maintain the best level to facilitate learning.
- Some programs
rely too heavily on testing for individual "outcomes" and "competencies"
while downgrading the importance of class time and social interaction in
developing deep knowledge about a subject. Along the same lines,
distance education providers too often dismiss the importance of
same-time same-place interaction rather than building it into their
programs whenever possible.
It is appropriate,
indeed essential, to present information for the DE marketplace in an
attractive, computer-friendly fashion. But over-attention to drawing
"customers" may result in technology driving the way teaching is
conducted-leading, for example, to models centered around bite-size, "point
and click" accumulations of facts rather than a more reflective, less easily
measured search for knowledge.
In the year 2000,
AFT published Distance Education: Guidelines for Good Practice. The
guidelines lay out 14 specific standards which, if observed, ensure high
quality distance education. (A synopsis of the guidelines appears in the
report's conclusion.) The guidelines advance AFT's belief that broad
academic content, high standards, personal interaction and professional
control are the key elements of educational quality. College faculty must
insist on sound practice based on a broad vision of education-one that
recognizes education is about more than facts, more than competencies, more
than career ambitions.
Education, among
other things, is about broadening intellectual horizons, relying on facts
and reason when confronting life issues and learning to listen to others and
defend ideas by the force of argument. That is why education is the
foundation of a working democracy. Because distance education is ubiquitous
and offers so much promise, faculty are obligated to carry the banner for
quality and good practice while recognizing that this will sometimes require
challenging current trends and practices
Continued at
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
Bob Jensen's documents on distance
education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Online Pedagogy at the University of Phoenix
Phoenix faculty work in a highly structured
environment. Course facilitators in traditional classes are forbidden to
lecture. Faculty are, instead, expected to closely follow Phoenix's
"teaching/ learning model," which begins with course syllabi and detailed
teaching modules developed by fulltime faculty on the main campus. In this
way, faculty responsibilities are broken down into a series of discrete
steps, such as when course development is detached from teaching. Phoenix
course modules "include guidelines for weekly assignments, group activities
and grading." Some course modules contain classroom time-management
guidelines broken down into 15-minute intervals.
Phoenix defends its practice of using these
restrictive guidelines in the name of standardization. The university's
online catalog declares: "The standardized curriculum for each degree
program provides students with specified levels of knowledge and skills
regardless of the delivery method or classroom location."
Critics argue, however, that Phoenix's course
modules violate academic freedom because they don't allow faculty members
sufficient discretion. Milton R. Blood, managing director of the American
Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business, has characterized Phoenix's
standardized curriculum as "McEducation." He explained, "It's a redefinition
of how we go about delivering higher education. The question is whether it's
really higher education when it's delivered in a franchised way."
Thomas J. Kriger, quoted from the article cited above.
Dark side questions about distance education from the Kriger
article cited above.
Evaluation of Distance Coursework Should Be Undertaken at all Levels:
Questions about DE trends and practices
1. The marketplace and the curriculum: Most of the
models outlined in this report emphasize meeting immediate market demands
for coursework as well as treating students primarily as "customers." It is
entirely appropriate to consider student and industry preferences in
designing curricula, particularly in the corporate training arena. However,
we believe that the pre-eminent perspective should be that of academic
professionals rather than the marketplace. One concern is that the pure
"student as consumer" model rests on the questionable assumption that
student-consumers know what they want when they begin an educational program
and can confidently decide what courses will lead to the desired educational
"product." Another concern is that broad-based liberal arts coursework, as
well as high academic standards, could take a back seat if market models
become dominant.
2. Technological capabilities and the curriculum:
In one of the stories cited earlier, a distance education advocate explained
that professors will have to curb their lectures in order to fit their ideas
into a 256-character dialogue box. This raises serious questions.
Technological capabilities and limitations should not be the primary factor
driving the curriculum and research required of distance education students,
rather than the rich interplay among research, curriculum and good pedagogy.
3. Faculty decision-making: To ensure that academic
decisions are made for academic reasons, a key characteristic of quality in
distance education is ensuring that faculty are in control of shaping and
approving courses and integrating them into a coherent curriculum. This is
the number one item in AFT's Guidelines for Good Practice. Another
basic precept is academic freedom; an individual faculty member should have
the authority to determine how the class will be taught.
We are concerned, however, that many of the
programs described above appear to keep authority to develop course content
confined to a very narrow circle. Some models directly challenge the idea of
academic freedom in the classroom. For example, at
the University of Phoenix, we saw that course
"facilitators" (they are not called teachers) not only are forbidden to
lecture, but also must follow detailed teaching modules.
4. Disaggregation: Many of the institutions
reviewed here are moving to a model of curriculum development and teaching
that "unbundles" the many roles of the faculty member. A process that has
traditionally been maintained from start to finish by the individual faculty
member is being parted into specializations-curriculum developers, content
deliverers, assessment specialists, etc. This can be seen most starkly in
movements such as "The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative" (NLII)
created in 1994 by Educom (now Educause), a coalition of technology
corporations, public and private colleges and universities and higher
education organizations.
Specifically, the NLII would increase student
access through the construction of a broadband network modeled on the
Internet. The program would be characterized by self-paced study instead of
academic calendars, fixed class meetings or a traditional curriculum.
Students would pursue their studies via new instructional software that
breaks down complex subjects into individual components or modules.
In 1996, Educom released a report on "The Virtual
University," which envisions the resulting new role for faculty and the
benefits for the institution.
[In the virtual university], the many roles
previously combined in a single faculty member are now disaggregated.
Faculty may specialize as developers of courses and courseware wherein they
move from being content experts to being a combination of content expert,
learning-process design expert, and process-implementation manager; as
presenters of that material; as expert assessors of learning and
competencies; as advisors; or as specialists in other evolving roles.[43]
In this view, one of the main advantages of the
NLII is that it would "reduce faculty intervention, thereby containing
costs."[44] As Massy and Zemsky explain:
Workstations don't get tenure, and delegations are
less likely to wait on the provost when particular equipment items are "laid
off." The "retraining" of IT equipment (for example, reprogramming), while
not inexpensive, is easier and more predictable than training a tenured
professor .[45]
As our report indicates, many providers in all four
categories have embraced this vision to differing extents, but the AFT
believes this is not the best route to quality. Quoting directly from the
AFT Guidelines. A number of studies have demonstrated the importance
to student learning of establishing a feedback loop between classroom
teaching, curriculum development and scholarly research. That loop becomes
inoperative when teaching faculty operate from workbooks based on a
prefabricated curriculum that the faculty member has little role in
developing, a curriculum that was not shaped directly by the practitioner's
experience in teaching these classes or conducting research on these
subjects. Students deserve teachers who know all the nuances of what they
are teaching and who can exercise professional judgment and academic freedom
in doing so.
5. Course standardization: Many of the providers
outlined above are attracted to the idea of creating consistent and
transferable courses by utilizing course management software and course
development specialists. The idea is that an institution or set of
institutions can make all of their courses have the same look and feel, and
that courses can and should be designed for longevity and transferability.
If course management software such as Web CT or Blackboard simply provide
faculty with greater technical support and facilitate the faculty member's
pedagogy, then they will be powerful teaching aids. But standardization in
programming and teaching is the wrong way to go; academic good practice
requires a faculty with differing points of view and presentation styles,
freewheeling discussion and academic freedom.
6. Class Size: AFT's distance education
practitioners report that good DE generally requires more teacher
preparation time than a traditional class as well as more time devoted to
interacting with students (through e-mail, chat rooms, etc.) Therefore, it
is important to maintain a workable class size. The concern, however, is
that commercially minded DE will expand class sizes too greatly in order to
maximize enrollments. The move on the part of some providers to concentrate
on offering high-enrollment introductory courses (such as introductory
psychology) is of particular concern because DE practitioners tell us the
students best suited to succeed in a distance education environment are not
the newcomers but those who are more mature, better prepared and able to
work independently.
Increasing class size is an integral part of the
Pew grants at Rio Salado College cited earlier. Introductory algebra, which
had the third highest enrollment of the top 25 courses in the district, was
selected for redesign. Course content was delivered via interactive
software. The restructuring increased the student/faculty ratio from 35 to
100 students per instructor, although each faculty member was assigned
teaching assistants to help with technology questions, and students had
access to a help desk.[46] AFT's Guidelines recommend that class size
be established through normal faculty channels, with a view to maintaining a
high level of interactivity. "Given the time commitment involved in teaching
through distance education," say the Guidelines, "smaller class size
should be considered, particularly at the inception of a new course."
7. "Outcomes" and Class Time: Some providers cited
in the previous chapter shift more of the educational assessment to
"outcomes." The Western Governors University emphasis on "proficiencies" is
the most extreme version of this shift. A greater emphasis on outcomes may
be warranted, but a critical question remains: Will an exclusive focus on
measurable outputs shortchange the importance of process and
interactivity in higher education?
Distance education advocates often deride what they
call "seat time"-the practice of requiring students to be together and work
together for periods of time before passing their courses. Under their
theory, if a student can demonstrate "competencies," it should not matter
how much time is spent achieving these competencies. The AFT, however,
believes that deep knowledge of a subject is not simply a matter of passing
a competency test. It does in fact require time-time in the same room or in
cyberspace-with teachers and other students chewing over ideas, hearing
contrary points of view and defending conclusions. There is reason for
concern if time on task comes to be viewed as a luxury rather than a
necessity in DE on the corporate model.
8. Same-time, same-place interaction: There is no
denying that rich interaction can take place in distance education classes,
but we believe it is equally untenable to argue that same-time, sameplace
interaction has no legitimate role in an undergraduate education. We believe
distance education should utilize every available opportunity to bring
students and faculty together at some time during an academic program. Our
concern is that providing such opportunities does not appear to be a
consideration for most of the providers we have stud-
led. It is particularly troubling to have no
sametime, same-place interchange through an entire undergraduate program.
AFT faculty who teach by distance education have reported to the union that
they believe same-time, same-place interaction should be part of any
undergraduate program. In fact, more than 70 percent say that no more than
half of a full undergraduate program should be delivered via distance
education.
In conclusion, it is proper, even necessary, for
higher education faculty to make distance education work, but that may often
mean contradicting current DE practice to affirm academic values. Faculty
must mobilize behind the principle that democratic governance rather than
top-down management produces better, more credible education. Faculty must
ensure that college degrees are awarded in the context of a coordinated
curriculum with broad-based content. Faculty must see to it that students
have the equipment, training and support to succeed in the distance
education environment and that they have appropriate academic counseling.
Faculty must make the case that time does matter-that education is
not simply a matter of passing a competency test but, whether in the same
room or far apart, being with other teachers and students chewing over
ideas, hearing contrary points of view and defending conclusions. Faculty
must assert and find ways to implement the notion that same-time, same-place
interchange is an important part of a college education. Faculty must always
affirm the importance of free exchange of ideas.
In short, faculty must insist on sound practice
based on a broad vision of education-one that recognizes education is about
more than facts, more than competencies, more than career ambitions the
things that can be easily "sold." Education is about broadening one's
intellectual horizons, learning to rely on facts and reason rather than on
prejudices when confronting life issues. It is about learning to listen to
others and defend ideas by the force of argument. It is about learning
respect and acquiring open mindedness, and as such, education is the
foundation of a working democracy.
Distance education can make an important
contribution toward achieving these goals if it is organized around
practices such as those in AFT's Distance Education: Guidelines for Good
Practice. However, no one should imagine that implementing these
guidelines will be easy in a world where the promise of big dollars and big
enrollments constantly beckons. AFT and its members, other organizations
representing the faculty and, of course, individual faculty members
themselves, will have to be prepared to take up
The U.S Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Undermines Public Access and Sharing
DMCA Link:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf
Also see Bob Jensen's threads on cheating and plagiarism
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Harvard Study: Copyright restrictions limit the spread of digital
learning tools
Copyright restrictions limit the spread of digital
learning tools in schools and colleges, according to
a new report from the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, at Harvard University.
Inside Higher Ed, July 19, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/19/qt
From the AAUP (with higher education in mind)
Campus Copyright Rights and Responsibilities: A Basic Guide to Policy
Considerations ---
http://www.aaupnet.org/aboutup/issues/Campus_Copyright.pdf
New Guidelines for Copyright Policies in Universities
Four associations have released a
guide for colleges to use in reviewing whether
their copyright policies reflect recent legal and technological developments.
The guide notes that colleges and their faculty members are major producers of
copyrighted material, and that professors and students also are big users of
such material — sometimes in ways that create legal difficulties. The groups
that prepared the guide are the Association of American Universities, the
Association of Research Libraries, the Association of American University
Presses, and the Association of American Publishers.
Inside Higher Ed, December 7, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/07/qt
A report released yesterday by a pair of
free-expression advocates at New York University Law School's Brennan Center for
Justice claims Web site owners and remix artists alike are finding
free-expression rights squelched because of ambiguities in copyright law. The
study argues that so-called "fair use" rights are under attack. It suggests six
major steps for change, including reducing penalties for infringement and making
a greater number of pro-bono lawyers available to defend alleged fair users.
BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 12/6/2005
Coverage at
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5983072.html">
Report at
http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/WillFairUseSurvive.pdf">a>
From the University of Illinois Scholarly Communication Blog on December 7, 2005
---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Patents can be obtained for most inventions and DNA discoveries,
but patenting tax plans borders on being rediculous
August 15, 2006 message from Scott Bonacker
[aecm@BONACKER.US]
"Widgets, soft-drink formulas, new drugs: They can
all be protected by patents. But did you ever think the clever tax-saving
strategy your financial adviser is offering up could be patented as well?
Don't dismiss the notion. Unauthorized use of a patented method might get
you into hot water.
John Rowe, executive chairman of health insurer
Aetna, knows that all too well. Within the past three years, at the
suggestion of his advisers, Rowe set up two trusts and funded them with
nonqualified stock options. An independent options valuation expert
estimated their value for BusinessWeek at $28.5 million. Rowe's so-called
grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) would pay him an annual income for a
specific time and reserve whatever is left for family members. Plus, he
could achieve dramatic gift-tax savings, says Carlyn McCaffrey, a lawyer
with Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York who is an expert on GRATs, though
not involved in the case.
But in January, Rowe was sued in U.S. District
Court in New Haven for patent infringement by Wealth Transfer Group, an
Altamonte Springs (Fla.) firm that obtained a patent on this strategy in
2003. Apparently, the plaintiff learned of Rowe's GRATs when, as a corporate
insider, he reported the transfer of the options.
Read the rest at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060727/bs_bw/id20060726214792
or when size matters:
http://tinyurl.com/qrnf8
My impression is that as a matter of public policy
patents on things like this shouldn't be granted, if indeed the underlying
tax laws are worthy of passage by our legislators.
Scott Bonacker, CPA
Springfield, MO
Question
Are you confused by the nuances of the "Fair Use" section of U.S. Copyright Law
under the DMCA?
From the Scholarly Communications Blog at the University of Illinois on June
19, 2006 ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
New Fair Use Site
The Brennan Center for
Justice at New York University School of Law has created a Web site on fair
use.
Called
The Fair Use Network,
the site says it attempts to alleviate the "mass
of confusion for artists, scholars, journalists, bloggers, and everyone else
who contributes to culture and political debate."
The site guides people on
what to do if they get a letter from a copyright owner demanding that they
cease and desist from making use of the owner's work. And the site also
explains how much people can borrow, quote or copy from another's work.
Jensen Comment
The Fair Use safe harbors are frequently violated by professors who really do
not want to know the limitations of these provisions in the law.
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Question
How popular are these open sharing sites and what are the issues of copyrights?
June 26, 2006 message from Jagdish S. Gangolly
[gangolly@INFOTOC.COM]
Bob,
I wanted to pitch for an article by my good friend
and colleague, Terry Maxwell:
"Universities, Information Ownership, and Knowledge
Communities"
The Journal of the Association of History and
Computing
http://www.mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCVII2/ARTICLES/maxwell/maxwell.html
Here is the teaser:
_________________________________________
The recent decision by MIT to post the information
from all its 2,000 courses free to the Web has generated tremendous
excitement online, with more than 42 million hits recorded in the first
month, according to MIT statistics 1.
The project, entitled OpenCourseWare, was initiated
by MIT professors and funded by $11 million in grants from two foundations.
As of March, 2004, 700 courses, encompassing all five schools and two-thirds
of the faculty on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, have been added to
the site (ocw.mit.edu).
The project did not start as an effort to populate
the information commons. On the contrary, in 1999, Robert Brown, MIT's
provost, asked a faculty committee to study the idea for an online
for-profit equivalent to the physical school.
However, after researching the issue, the faculty
committee concluded that a profit-making venture was not viable, suggesting
instead that the university and its faculty make its course material
available for free online 2.
As reported by Charles Vest 2, the university's
president, the OpenCourseWare initiative has had impacts both inside and
outside the university. Within MIT, professors have begun using one
another's materials to supplement their own teaching efforts, and are
discovering interdisciplinary connections that could lead to new innovations
inside the institution. Outside the university, MIT alumni, interested
individuals, and other educators from around the world are using the
courseware as a means to keep current in their fields and as models for new
courses and curriculum.
The effort has generated interest in other areas,
particularly among Intellectual Property legal commentators, who questioned
the relationship between faculty-generated course notes and university
property rights 3. Given the fact that the project is faculty-initiated and
voluntary, intellectual property issues in the curricular area between the
university and professors have not yet come to a head at MIT. However, the
project has had to navigate the murky waters of copyright in other respects,
particularly with regard to the negotiation for permissions with other
information providers 4.
Nevertheless, the project still leaves open the
question of the relative information rights of professors and universities.
In addition, it raises broader questions of the
roles both of professional disciplines and the institutional structures
developed to support them in a technological world in which traditional
boundaries between information transformation, production, and dissemination
are under strain. The following attempts to lay out some of the relevant
issues, focusing particularly on the role of the university in an online
world.
A Brief Look at the University in Society
Lying at the center of questions about university
and academic information ownership is a deeply contested vision of the role
of both scholarship and the institutions designed to support research. Do
scholars labor primarily as individual authors and inventors, or are they
members of what Enlightenment scholars termed a res publica, loosely defined
as a republic of ideas operating beyond institutional and political
boundaries? Are universities places of sanctuary for ideas, separated from
the marketplace, or information dissemination institutions situated squarely
in the market?
In her book "Who Owns Academic Work?," Corynne
McSherry 5 traces the history of modern American universities and makes a
strong case that these questions are largely unanswerable, because they
assume a stability in self-conception that is historically missing. She
argues that medieval universities and guilds were primarily envisioned as
mechanisms for monopoly control over ideas, with the former focusing on
professional control and the latter on control over invention. With the
coming of the Enlightenment, voluntary academic societies sought to break
down university monopolies on knowledge, constructing a meritocracy based on
open communication and communal enquiry, and existing in cooperation with
the growing commercial marketplace. At the institutional level,
nineteenth-century German conceptions of the university, based on Kant's
ideas in Conflict of the Faculties, envisioned the university as a place
apart from the marketplace, yet poised to provide knowledge based on reason
to political rulers. In the United States, German models of scholarly
independence blended with the British tradition of liberal arts and informed
citizenship, leading to a tension between disinterested scholarship and
community. This admixture was further complicated by the presence of private
schools funded through religious and other associations sitting
cheek-and-jowl to land-grant public universities, developed to provide
practical assistance in the development of new agricultural and mechanical
techniques.
By the twentieth century, the split between
theoretical and practical knowledge within universities was
institutionalized through a separation of faculties of arts and science from
engineering and professional school. At the same time, the continued
compartmentalization of knowledge into disciplines supported the rise of
self-contained academic communities with different standards of scholarship
and practice.
To support the engagement of the university in the
marketplace, during the 1920's several American universities, particularly
those with large engineering components, inaugurated small offices dedicated
to technology transfer, particularly the processing of patent applications
for professors. However, in a major shift, the end of the Second World War
saw a major increase in government grant programs for basic research,
insulating the academy from a necessity to rely on private funding sources
and enhancing the traditional notion of universities as the preferred site
for basic objective research separate from the commercial marketplace. At
the same time, a greater integration of the university into public life
occurred, with the provision of GI Bill grants to returning members of the
military. University enrollments doubled during the next 15 years, doubling
again within another 8 years.
By the 1990s, the position of universities within
society began to shift again. Federal funding for research slowed, along
with other public financing sources. Pressure developed to seek private
financing through partnerships with foundations and corporations.
Universities undertook attempts at more aggressive management of
intellectual assets, often bringing them into conflict with academic
communities. The rise of the Internet signaled the potential for developing
new resource streams through the development of online courses and degrees,
but no one was sure where the dividing line stood between individual and
institutional ownership of course materials.
Academic publishing, long a backwater in the
publishing industry, showed strong growth and consolidation as publishers
embraced electronic dissemination and new models of product bundling.
Here is another Terry Maxwell piece:
Toward a Model of Information Policy Analysis:
Speech as an Illustrative Example by Terrence A. Maxwell FM10 Openness
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/maxwell/
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly
email: gangolly@infotoc.com
Fax: 831-584-1896
skype: gangolly
URL:
www.infotoc.com
Blog:
http://www.bloglines.com/blog/gangolly
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing of course materials by prestigious
universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Your Photos, Your Rights, and the Law: Answers to questions about
copyright and your rights as a photographer," by Dave Johnson, PC World
via The Washington Post, May 31, 2006 ---
Click Here
Ironically, the answer to this simple question is
not so simple anymore. But for almost any digital photo you take today, you
can count on the copyright lasting for 70 years.
Creative Commons
is a nonprofit organization that has pioneered a new
way to share creative works. The group offers a number of licenses with
names like Attribution, NoDerivs, NonCommercial, and ShareAlike.
If you choose to share your photos with a Creative
Commons license, you're telling the world that you're offering to let other
people use your photos in ways that are traditionally not supported by
standard copyright law. Using an Attribution license, for example, is like
releasing your photo in the public domain, though it requires anyone using
your photo to give you credit. Attribution-NonCommercial is similar, but
specifically prohibits people from using your photo for commercial use.
While using a Creative Commons license is a nice
idea, and you'll find a lot of people using them on sites like Flickr.com,
keep in mind that Creative Commons has no legal teeth. Only copyright law
has that.
There are three ways to copyright a photo (or any
other creative work).
Here's the easy way: Any work you create is
automatically copyrighted. In other words, you don't need to do anything at
all to receive some protection under copyright law.
However, there are copyrights--and then there are
copyrights. While technically you never have to take action to copyright a
creative work, simply putting a copyright notice on your work strengthens
your copyright protection. To assert your claim to a digital photo, for
example, just place a copyright notice somewhere on the picture. Commonly,
photographers use the text tool in a photo editing program to do this in the
lower-right corner.
The most aggressive copyright action you can take
is to register your photo with the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington,
DC. There is a form to fill out and a $30 fee to pay, but this approach
provides you with the highest level of protection available. For more info
go to the U.S. Copyright Office's
Web
site.
Continued in article
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
From Duke University
Arts Project: Comics about video, academe, and the law ---
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/
“Will a spiky-haired, camera-toting
super-heroine... restore decency and common sense to the world of creative
endeavor?” -Paul Bonner, The Herald-Sun
“Bound By Law lays out a sparkling, witty, moving
and informative story about how the eroded public domain has made
documentary filmmaking into a minefield.” -Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net
“Bound by Law translates law into plain English and
abstract ideas into ‘visual metaphors.’ So the comic's heroine, Akiko,
brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean 'Rights Monster' - all
the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use
and copyright infringement.”
I learned about this from the Scholarly Communications blog at the University
of Illinois on March 16, 2006 ---
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/blog/scholcomm/
Bound by Law Duke Law School's Center for the Study
of the Public Domain has just released "BOUND BY LAW?" - a comic book on
copyright and creativity -- specifically, documentary film. It is being
published today under a Creative Commons License. The comic, by Keith Aoki,
James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins explores the benefits of copyright in a
digital age, but also the threats to cultural history posed by a
“permissions culture,” and the erosion of “fair use” and the public domain.
Berkman Blog 3/15/06
Free digital versions are available here.
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.html
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
‘The Access Principle’
The book reviews the various models to bring the
dissemination of knowledge online and to make it free, and along the way, the
book criticizes plenty of publishing practices, copyright interpretations and
scholarly traditions.
John
Willinsky, professor of language and literacy
education at the University of British Columbia, has devoted much of his
scholarship to the ideas behind the book. Among other things, he directs the
Public Knowledge Project,
which is financed by the Canadian government to promote
the free exchange of information. Willinsky responded to questions about the
themes of his book.
Scott Jaschik, "‘The Access Principle’," Inside Higher Ed, December 20,
2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/20/access
A computer scientist at Trinity University
told me that a great source for legal studies of copyright and patent law is
Eben Moglen at Columbia University ---
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/
He runs a blog called "Freedom Now" at
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog
Entries are relatively infrequent and date back to April 2000
There are also a few links to audio and video presentations.
Here's a March 7, 2005 entry at
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog
The United States Department of Justice
announced today that it would be making a radical purchasing
decision: stop dealing with the firm it considers an illegal
monopoly.
No more Microsoft Word at Main Justice.
So they will spend $13 million to acquire Word Perfect licenses from
Corel. Did they consider OpenOffice at $0? Why bother—Let’s just cut
Social Security benefits instead.
The February 16, 2005 entry contains the following quote
from "Freedom and the Robot Army"
The twenty-first century will be different. The United
States will lead the way.
The Pentagon is investing heavily
in the development of robot infantry.
Given the resources it will bring to bear, within two
decades we will see the introduction of machines that
remove all sense of consequences, personal and social,
from the business of killing. Robot infantry may or may
not prove valuable battlefield soldiers. In specialized
roles they will probably succeed in being more
cost-effective than human combatants. But at the violent
suppression of political unrest they will be
unparalleled. A brigade or two will be within the budget
of every autocrat faced with a green or orange or red
revolution. We won’t need them to be torturers, however.
For that, as we have learned, human volunteers are
always available.
|
|
From one of the leading law school advocates of open sharing
Many of Eben Moglen's papers on patents and copyrights can be downloaded from
http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/
My good friend John Howland, a professor of computer science, recommends
these particular papers for starters:
Bob Jensen's threads on OKI ,DSpace, and SAKAI: Free sharing of courseware
from MIT, Stanford, and other colleges and universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Duke Law & Technology Review ---
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/
Copyright Information and Dead Links
Copyright Information ---
http://ejw.i8.com/copy.htm
Journals Associations,
Councils and Organizations
Education
General Issues
Permission
Intellectual Property
Government Law
Publishing Concerns
Libraries and Copyright
Mega Sites Music
Dead Link Archive ---
http://ejw.i8.com/copy.htm#dead
DEAD LINK ARCHIVE
For Dead Links, use Internet Archive to find a
version of these sites. Highlight and copy the URL, then go to the Way
Back Machine at
http://www.archive.org/index.html and then paste the URL into
the web address box. Often icons are not available and the most recent
listed version may not bring up the page. Go to an earlier date on the
archive list for that site. Also, if you do not find it archived, try
the Google Search Engine at
http://www.google.com
and check their archive. Songwriter and Music Copyright Resources,
http://www.npsai.com/resources.htm
Bob Jensen's search helpers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm
This message is from the Director of
the Trinity University Library.
Bob Jensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 9:22 AM
To: Trinity Faculty
A number of you
have asked about the legal use of copyrighted material on your websites and
Blackboard courses. I just learned about this site, prepared at the CUNY
Baruch College, which will help. It’s an interactive guide in a flow chart
format that shows the steps you need to take to use copyrighted media in
teaching. It’s very easy to follow.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/copyright/
Both the library
and IMS are providing links to this guide from our sites, but you might find
it helpful to review it now and bookmark it for later use.
Diane
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library, Trinity University
One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212
February 2, 2005 reply from Dr. Jagdish Pathak
[jagdish@UWINDSOR.CA]
I liked the presentation. It opened in my lotus
notes browser without any problem. It is knowledge enhancing and equally
enjoyable stuff!
Jagdish Pathak, PhD
Guest Editor- Managerial Auditing Journal (Special Issue)
Accounting Systems & IT Auditing Faculty
Accounting & Audit Area
Odette School of Business
University of Windsor
401 Sunset Windsor, N9B 3P4, ON Canada
February 3, 2005 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
COPYRIGHT AND LEARNING
"Like evil trolls guarding the gates, the copyright
controllers are trying to hold sway over our actions and create walled
gardens around knowledge repositories so that they can maintain full control
over who uses applications or accesses content and when, where, and how they
use it."
In "Stealing the Goose: Copyright and Learning"
(IRRODL, November 2004) Rory McGreal calls for taking back education's "fair
use" and "fair dealing" rights that are in jeopardy as some intellectual
property owners seek to tighten control and maximize profits. The article is
available online at
http://www.irrodl.org/content/v5.3/mcgreal.html
International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning (IRRODL) [ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal
published by Athabasca University - Canada's Open University.
For more information, contact Paula Smith, IRRODL
Managing Editor; tel: 780-675-6810; fax: 780-675-672; email:
irrodl@athabascau.ca
; Web:
http://www.irrodl.org/
Money Can Buy You Anything You Want in the U.S.
Senate
You May Go to Jail for Taping and Skipping
No Fair Going to the Refrigerator During Commercials
As early as this week, the Senate may try to quickly pass a bill that would
radically change copyright law in favor of Hollywood and the music industry. One
provision: Skipping commercials would be illegal. Michael Grebb reports from
Washington.
Wired News, November 16, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65704,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
A number of influential lawyers, scholars and activists are increasingly
concerned that copyright law is curbing our freedoms and making it harder to
create anything new. This could be the first new social movement of the century.
"The Tyranny of Copyright?" by Robert S. Boynton, New York Times Magazine,
January 25, 2004 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25COPYRIGHT.html
Unfortunately for the students, their actions ran
afoul of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (D.M.C.A.), one of
several recent laws that regulate intellectual property and are quietly
reshaping the culture. Designed to protect copyrighted material on the Web,
the act makes it possible for an Internet service provider to be liable for
the material posted by its users -- an extraordinary burden that providers
of phone service, by contrast, do not share. Under the law, if an aggrieved
party (Diebold, say) threatens to sue an Internet service provider over the
content of a subscriber's Web site, the provider can avoid liability simply
by removing the offending material. Since the mere threat of a lawsuit is
usually enough to scare most providers into submission, the law effectively
gives private parties veto power over much of the information published
online -- as the Swarthmore students would soon learn.
Continued in the article
Dentists in Canada discover they have to pay fees to
Canadian music publishers for the right to play copyright music in their
offices. U.S. dentists may be surprised to find out that similar rules apply in
their country.
Katie Dean, Wired News, August 2, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64397,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
Bob Jensen's threads on the DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
November 29, 2004 message from Diane Graves
You may have already heard of the Creative Commons
licenses, but if not, take a look at this site:
http://creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons licenses allow the
author/creator to retain some rights, but don’t lock down the rights the way
the traditional copyright agreements do. Here is how the site describes the
options: “With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow
people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit -- and
only on the conditions you specify here. If you want to offer your work with
no conditions, choose the public domain.” You may want to look at the
EDUCATION section on the site:
http://creativecommons.org/education/
The Creative Commons has been enormously successful
since it debuted in 2001. It has the potential to be very helpful in the
higher education arena; it is already in use at MIT’s Open CourseWare and
DSpace projects and at Rice University’s Connexions Project.
I encourage you to browse through the Creative
Commons site and think about how you could use their licensing options with
your own work. It’s an exciting development with the potential to
revolutionize the way we share information in higher education.
Diane
P.S. Here are two short videos that describe the
philosophy behind the Creative Commons:
http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library,
Trinity
University
One Trinity Place
,
San Antonio
,
TX
78212
email: diane.graves@trinity.edu
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
Bob Jensen's threads on global online training and education alternatives
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Customer Base
The Shining Star in the Beleaguered World of For-Profit Educational
Corporations
"Will Apollo Hold On to Medals, by Jesse Eisinger, The Wall Street Journal,
September 1, 2004, Page C1 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,long_and_short,00.html
(Note that Among other schools, Apollo owns the University of Phoenix.)
Last week,
Apollo Group saved the for-profit education sector. At least for the
moment.
Other big companies in the group --
ITT Educational Services,
Career Education and
Corinthian Colleges -- have been battling lawsuits and dealing with
various investigations into their recruitment and placement practices,
sending their stocks plummeting.
Apollo Group, which has skirted such problems thus far, has nevertheless
skidded about 20% from a June high of $98.
But a week ago today, the company
shined. It said online-enrollment growth for the fiscal year ending August
2005 would top 40%, relieving investors who had been worried the toll of the
investigations and lawsuits were slowing growth across the sector.
The fight between the longs and the
shorts in education stocks has been one of the market's fiercest, with some
of the most influential and sophisticated investors taking opposing sides.
Apollo hasn't been targeted by shorts as much -- until recently. Its short
interest rose almost two million shares in the most recent month, but is
still relatively low compared with other education stocks.
Apollo, which declined to make
executives available to comment, has been a stunning success story. The
stock is up 9,800% since December 1994 and now has just under a $14 billion
market capitalization. It trades at a nosebleed 32.5 times next year's
earnings estimate of $2.40 a share.
Apollo sells education at
bricks-and-mortar campuses and online. To date, the company has mainly
focused on thirty-somethings, most of whom already are earning salaries of
around $55,000 to $60,000 a year. The compelling growth story is online, so
enrollment figures are watched closely.
In giving its upbeat outlook last
week, Apollo also completed the conversion of its online-division tracking
stock, University of Phoenix Online, into parent company shares. The move,
while welcome by good-governance types, could also obscure what the true
growth rate for the University of Phoenix Online will be.
Apollo will report that UOP online
had 118,000 students by the end of fiscal 2004, which ended yesterday,
analysts forecast. The company, which often underpromises and overdelivers,
said last week it expected "online degree enrollments to grow in excess of
40%" in fiscal 2005. At a 40% growth rate, the online enrollment would be
165,000 by the end of next August. However, that figure isn't only for UOP
online. The company has launched a pilot effort to go after 18- to
21-year-olds through its Western International University online unit.
WIU online growth is included in that
40% growth figure, according to Credit Suisse analyst Greg Cappelli. Apollo
declined to break out its expectations for WIU online enrollment.
Continued in the article
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
WHAT HAPPENED TO
E-LEARNING?
"Thwarted
Innovation: What Happened to E-learning and Why" presents the results of the
Weatherstation Project of The Learning Alliance at the University of
Pennsylvania. This study sought to answer the question "Why did the boom in
e-learning go bust?" Over an eighteen-month period authors Robert Zemsky, an
education professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and William F. Massy,
professor emeritus of education and business administration at Stanford
University, tracked faculty and staff attitudes towards e-learning at six
colleges and universities. Their findings challenged three prevalent
e-learning assumptions:
-- If we build it
they will come -- not so;
-- The kids will
take to e-learning like ducks to water -- not quite;
-- E-learning will
force a change in the way we teach -- not by a long shot.
The complete report
is available online, at no cost, in PDF format at
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf.
The Learning
Alliance is "a provider of educational research and leadership support
services to presidents of accredited, non-profit
two- and four-year
colleges and universities. The Learning Alliance serves the mission of
higher education institutions by providing its senior administrators with
timely access to expertise, current research, and market data." For more
information, contact: The Learning Alliance, 1398 Wilmington Pike, West
Chester, PA 19382 USA; tel: 610-399-6601; fax: 815-550-8892; Web:
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/index.php.
The Weatherstation
Project was conceived as "an antidote to those first descriptions of the
market for e-learning, which were often warped by missing data and overly
hopeful assumptions about how quickly new products would come to market and
how receptive learners and instructors were likely to be."
In my opinion, the Weatherstation Project is biased from the start by
skeptics who do not balance the successes against the failures to date ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For example, the report fails to even mention one of the world's most successful
e-Learning endeavors in his own institution, the Master's of Engineering (ADEPT)
distance learning program at Stanford University even though one of the two
authors is a long-time faculty member and top administrator at Stanford.
Here are some counter examples.
New and
Expanding Market Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://ww.stanford.edu/history/fulldesc.html
Stanford University shook up the stuffy Ivy League and other
prestigious schools such as Oxford and Cambridge when it demonstrated to
the world that its online training programs and its online Masters of
Engineering (ADEPT) asynchronous learning degree program became enormous
cash cows with nearly infinite growth potentials relative to relatively
fixed-size onsite programs. In a few short years, revenues from
online programs in engineering and computer science exploded to over
$100 million per year.
The combined present value of the Stanford University logo and the
logos of other highly prestigious universities are worth trillions.
Any prestigious university that ignores online growth opportunities is
probably wasting billions of dollars of potential cash flow from its
logo.
Virtually all universities of highest prestige and name recognition
are realizing this and now offer a vast array of online training and
education courses directly or in partnership with corporations and
government agencies seeking the mark of distinction on diplomas.
Example 2 --- University of Wisconsin ---
http://webct.wisc.edu/
Over 100,000 Registered Online Students in The University of Wisconsin
System of State-Supported Universities
Having a long history of extension programs largely aimed at
part-time adult learners, it made a lot of sense for the UW System to
try to train and educate adult learners and
other learners who were not likely to become onsite students.
The UW System is typical of many other large state-supported
universities that have an established adult learning infrastructure and
a long history of interactive television courses delivered to remote
sites within the state. Online Internet courses were a logical
extension and in many instances a cost-efficient extension relative to
televised delivery.
Example 3 --- Harvard University
In light of new online learning technologies, Harvard University
changed its long-standing residency requirement in anticipation of
expanding markets for "mid-career professionals" according to Harvard
University President Lawrence H. Summers, EDUCAUSE Review,
May/June 2002, Page 4. Harvard has various distance education
programs, including those in the Harvard Business School that currently
cost over $4 million per year to maintain.
Example 4
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA Program
Babson College said it will launch in Jan.
a "fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional onsite
classroom instruction with distance learning components. The program
will enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months, and is designed
for executives struggling to balance work and personal demands in an
economic recession. Intel Corp. sponsored the program as a
complement to its corporate education package, and has modeled it
with 33 employees. The blended MBA program calls for students to
attend monthly two and-a-half days of face-to-face sessions with
Babson's faculty on campus in Wellesley. During the rest of the
time, students will take part in Internet-based distance learning
sessions with their professors and access interactive multimedia
course content.
For more information, visit:
http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
Example 5 --- Texas A&M Online MBA Program in Mexico ---
http://olap.tamu.edu/mexico/tamumxctr.pdf
Some universities view online technologies as a tremendous
opportunity to expand training and education courses into foreign
countries. One such effort was undertaken by the College of
Business Administration at Texas A&M University in partnership with
Monterrey Tech in Mexico. For example, Professor
John Parnell at Texas A&M has been delivering a course for several
semesters in which students in Mexico City take the online course in
their homes. However, once each month the students meet
face-to-face on a weekend when Dr. Parnell travels to Mexico City to
hold live classes and administer examinations.
You probably won't have much difficulty making a guess as to what
many students say is the major reason they prefer online courses to
onsite courses in Mexico City?
Example 6 --- The University of Phoenix ---
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html
The University of Phoenix became the largest private university in
the world. Growth came largely from adult learning onsite programs
in urban centers across the U.S. and Canada.
The popular CBS television show called Sixty Minutes ran a
feature on the growth and future of the newer online training and
education programs at the University of Phoenix. You can download this
video from
http://online.uophx.edu/onl_nav_2.asp#
The University of Phoenix contends that online success in education
depends upon intense communications day-to-day between instructors and
students. This, in turn, means that online classes must be
relatively small and synchronized in terms of assignments and projects.
Example 7 --- Partnerships
Lucrative partnerships between universities and corporations seeking to
train and educate employees.
The highly successful Global Executive MBA Program at Duke University
(formerly called GEMBA) where corporations from around the world pay
nearly $100,000 for one or two employees to earn a prestigious online
MBA degree ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
UNext Corporation has an exclusive partnership with General Motors
Corporation that provides online executive training and education
programs to 88,000 GM managers. GM pays the fees. See
http://www.unext.com/
Army University Access Online
---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the consulting
division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Twenty-four colleges are
delivering training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's
e-learning portal. There are programs for varying levels of
accomplishment, including specialty certificates, associates degrees,
bachelor's degrees, and masters degrees. All courses are free to
soldiers. By 2003, there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online
students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University
attracted 12,000 students during its first year of operation. It
plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students in 2002.
It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers to take
non-credit and credit courses from selected major universities.
The consulting arm of the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers
manages the entire system.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has a program for online training
and education for all IRS employees. The IRS pays the fees for all
employees. The IRS online
accounting classes will be served up from Florida State University and
Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University
to provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays
the fees. See "Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's
Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo
Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
The University of Georgia partnered with the consulting division of
PwC to deliver a totally online MBA degree. The program is only
taken by PwC employees. PwC paid the development and delivery
fees. See
http://www.coe.uga.edu./coenews/2000/UGAusnews.htm |
Bob Jensen's threads on the bright and the dark side of education
technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
"Your Right to X-Rated Sites"
The ACLU and the government butt heads over privacy, free speech, and protecting
kids online--again
By Anush Yegyazarian, PC World, April 7, 2004 ---
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115531,00.asp
In
early March, the Supreme Court again heard
arguments concerning the 1998
Child Online Protection Act. That act was intended to protect children
from viewing online what the law calls "material that is harmful to minors."
There are qualifications about
how such material must also lack any redeeming scientific, artistic,
political or literary value for minors. In other words, this shouldn't
affect a teen's ability to see full-frontal pictures of Michelangelo's David
or the armless and topless Venus de Milo, or even to read explicit excerpts
from anatomy texts.
What COPA intends to target is
pornography. We all know that the Web is full of it, and that it's fairly
easy to access.
Aside from what's truly
obscene--which the law and the courts have sort of, kind of, defined--what's
classified as porn or material harmful to minors tends to differ depending
on whom you ask and the age of the minor in question. But no matter how you
define it, according to the
First Amendment, adults have the right to create and to view sexually
explicit material--even if that material may be deemed pornographic or
harmful to minors.
So the question before the
Supreme Court, lawmakers, and every parent is: How do we keep sexually
explicit material available to adults but away from children?
Burden on Creators or Consumers?
Let me get a couple of
disclaimers out of the way first: I'm not a parent; I'm also not a consumer
of so-called adult entertainment.
But I like the HBO show Sex
in the City, and discussing it is a lot of fun. There are chat rooms and
sites devoted to the show, some of which may at various times include
commentary that's naughty at best and harmful to minors at worst, offering
little or no redeeming value for those minors. Do such sites have to require
proof of age for access? You can argue that they do, according to COPA.
In large part, it's the
proof-of-age requirement that has prompted the
American Civil Liberties Union and other like-minded organizations to
oppose COPA before the Supreme Court. Under the act, sites that have
"prurient" (legalese for sexually explicit material that lacks redeeming
value) material harmful to minors must require some form of ID--such as a
credit card, an adult ID, a digital certificate, and so on--to prove that
the person who wants access to the content is over 17 years old.
So what's the problem? Well,
there are a couple issues.
First, requiring an ID removes
anonymity, which would deter at least some people from going to a site. They
may be concerned about the potential stigma because they don't trust the
site to protect their privacy, or they may want to limit the number of sites
that have personal information about them. COPA does include some privacy
provisions, but whether they're sufficient is debatable.
Second, the people running such
a site may decide to self-censor, avoiding a subject--even something they're
legally allowed to discuss--because they don't want to risk running afoul of
COPA or don't want to shoulder the additional cost of implementing an
age-verification method.
The ACLU and other groups have
persuaded lower federal courts (most recently the Third Circuit Court of
Appeals) that reasons such as these are enough to shelve COPA or send it
back to the congressional drawing board. And let's not forget that a
too-broad definition of indecency helped in
striking down the 1996 Computer Decency Act.
But most importantly, adult IDs
are not the only way to protect children online. Other methods could be just
as effective without triggering self-censorship or creating problems with
free speech or privacy rights.
Other Methods of Protection
COPA required the creation of a
commission to investigate and evaluate various child-protection methods, and
to assess any adverse impact on adults who want to access adult materials.
That commission
made its report in October 2000.
Guess what? According to the
report, no single protection method is best. And requiring IDs has a
negative impact on adult access, our First Amendment rights, and privacy,
among other things. However, user- and ISP-based filtering and "greenspaces"
(domains or sites that are specifically kid-friendly, such as the recently
approved .kid domains) scored better as protection mechanisms, while
avoiding many of the negatives of requiring adult IDs.
Continued in the article
We may have to wave goodbye to
streaming media.
"Colleges That Transmit Sound and Video Online
Reluctantly Discuss Strategy for Answering Patent Claim, by Scott Carlson,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 2004, Page A27.
Colleges, along with
pornography distributors and mainstream businesses, are struggling for ways
to refute claims by Acacia Research Corporation, which says it owns patents
on the streaming technology that allows Web users to transmit and play sound
and video. In letters to companies and to many colleges, Acacia is
seeking licensing deals that would pay it 2 percent of the gross revenue the
recipients derive from such online media.
Acacia has had some successes
recently. It was just granted another patent for streaming technology
in Europe. It signed up a hotel pay-per-view company and, in a coup, a
pornography company that had been part of a small group of
adult-entertainment sites fighting the patent claims in court.
Acacia has also started
sending letters to major corporations. General Dynamics, the
billion-dollar aerospace-and-defense contractor, signed a licensing deal in
late December.
Meanwhile, colleges are
reluctantly trying to decide whether to band together to challenge Acacia's
claims. Among higher-education providers, only 24/7 University, a
for-profit distance-learning company based in Dallas, is known to have
agreed to a deal.
Robert A Berman, senior vice
president for business development at Acacia, said colleges had "panicked"
and "assumed that we're asking for more than we're really asking for."
Acacia, he said, is seeking
royalties from colleges only on revenues from their distance-learning
courses. The company is willing to waive royalties on revenue from
other classes that use streaming technology. "We're talking about
licenses in the $5,000-to-$10,000-a-year range--at least for now," he said.
Acacia officials won't say
how many colleges, or which ones, they have written to. Institutions
of all sizes have received the letters, but it is unclear what criteria the
company used in choosing them.
'BUSINESS DECISION'
24/7 University struck an
agreement with Acacia early this month. Delwin Hinkle, chief executive
officer of the university, called the deal "simply a business decision."
"They tell you that they have
$55-million in the bank and that they are willing to spend that to enforce
their patents," he said. "We looked at it and said it's just another
tweak to our cost structure, and we don't have the money, the time, or the
inclination to mess with them."
Mr. Hinkle said he had tried
to contact major universities to discuss a collective defense but never got
a response. He did not consider joining in the pornography companies'
litigation. "You're known by the company you keep," he said. "No
disrespect to their business, but I'm a Baptist deacon, and I can't hang
with those boys."
E. Michael (Spike) Goldberg,
chief executive of HomegrownVideo.com, is leading the pornographers' fight
against Acacia. He has been frustrated by higher education's
unwillingness to work with him or join his case.
Continued in the article.
February 12, 2004 message from David R. Fordham
[fordhadr@JMU.EDU]
Bob,
In the IT circles, my experience has been that
Acacia has the same reputation as a shirtless, tattooed, multi-pierced
skinhead who walks up to your car at a stoplight, splashes Coke on your
windshield, wipes it off with a paper towel and demands $5 for cleaning your
car.
According to what I've heard at a lot of IT
conferences, Acacia is a firm of sleazebag lawyers whose only claim to
business legitimacy is the buying of semi-worthless patents which are vague
enough to be stretched and convoluted and contorted to cover some activity
that the general population is already engaged in (such as breathing,
eating, etc.) and then doing a lot of research to find a hapless victim who
is too clueless or too poor to afford a decent lawyer to find knowledgable
expert witnesses so the Acacia team can snow-job a clueless jury into
believing that the vague patent has been infringed. Then, Acacia uses their
"success" to scare (e.g., legal extortion?) a lot of other clueless
companies into settling for "licensing fees", which they then hold up in
other court cases as "legitimizing" their claim to the vague patent covering
the activity. They only take an interest in activities which have become
such an integral part of society as to cause great hardship if they cease,
since Acacia's goal is not to stop patent infringement as much as it is to
extort licensing fees from others who are doing all the work.
Acacia's streaming video claim is based on a patent
issued to an individual in 1992 for transmitting music electronically. But
MP3 (the Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Level 3) file format was
invented in 1989 and released to the public in 1991. The Acacia claim is
that any file which can be used to reconstruct any music or video image is
covered by their patent and cannot be transmitted electronically (e.g., like
a CD player playing in your living room while you are talking to your
grandma on the phone!) unless Acacia receives royalties. In other words, if
you sing a jingle on your digital answering machine, you are violating the
same Acacia patent which Acacia is using to sue college and universities.
From the scuttlebutt at IT conferences, Acacia's
only business is filing lawsuits. They do not invent anything, they don't
manufacture anything, they only file lawsuits and collect royalties and
fees.
I don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of
this, but I have heard many times of their questionable business practices
at conferences, and several of my student groups over the last few years
have done some research and reported on this phenomenon. One of them
described Acacia's relationship to the IT industry as the "Nigerian Treasure
Scam" is to the banking industry.
Although Acacia may have some institutions cowed,
I'm not sure based on what I've read, that it is much more than a paper
tiger that was able to snow-job some juries. (Having served on five juries,
I have positively no confidence in a jury to make a good decision on
something like this, and the judges of my experience are only marginally
better!) I know our legal people here have turned up their nose at Acacia's
"success", and aren't the least bit worried.
Check out:
http://www.streamingmedia.com/patent/
My reference to "Acacia's Flying Circus" was a
reference to Monte Python's antics, shenanigans, and sheer ludicrousness,
engaging in activities which are so bizarre as to be almost beyond belief.
(The dead parrot sketch, for example -- involving the Acacia pet store, and
their customer, the very first gullible jury they snowed.)
David R. Fordham
PBGH Faculty Fellow
James Madison University
July 2004 Update on the Fair Use Controversy in
Section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law
Unlike many other countries such as Canada, educators have the luxury of
"fair use" in copyright law, although some aspects of this safe harbor are in
question under the "new" DMCA copyright law ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Under fair use provisions in the DMCA, educators can keep one photocopy of a
journal article and large portions of a book even though they did not purchase
those items. What I think is less clear is how to interpret the
spontaneity test for sharings with other
colleagues and students. If three colleagues want to each have copy of an
article from your private library, they can do so under the fair use safe harbor
statutes provided there is not sufficient time to get the item from the
publisher. There is a spontaneity test
discussed below. Probably the most violated part of the fair use statute
arises when educators share their photocopied journal articles, magazine
articles, and multimedia files with other educators or place these items on
library reserve or in Blackboard/WebCT online files for students without regard
to the spontaneity test.
You can read more
about fair use and the spontaneity test at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
July14, 2004 Update
Colloquy Live from The Chronicle of Higher Education ---
http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2004/07/copyright/
"Fair Use and Academic Publishing Wednesday, July 14, at 1 p.m., U.S. Eastern
time
Indiana University Press's withdrawal of a
scholarly book is just the latest example of copyright claims trumping
scholarship. Just what use are "fair use" provisions in copyright law if
presses lack the wherewithal to challenge such claims? What steps can be
taken by scholars to protect fair use?
Richard Byrne (Moderator):
Good afternoon. Welcome to this week's Colloquy Live. My name is Richard
Byrne. I am the editor of the Chronicle's research and publication section.
Our chat today concerns Fair Use and Academic Publishing.
Copyright laws protect the rights of authors, but
at times they also have bedeviled scholars' research efforts. The "fair use"
provisions of copyright law should provide scope for scholars to do their
work and stay on the right side of the law, but changes to copyright law and
strong challenges to fair use have made both scholars and academic presses
skittish about asserting fair use.
Our guest today, Wendy Seltzer, is a staff attorney
at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a fellow at the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society at Harvard University. She will be answering questions
today about the uses that fair use can be put to in an academic setting, and
she will also discuss a few ideas that she has been kicking around about how
scholars and academic presses might assert fair use provisions of copyright
law in a more active fashion.
Thank you, Wendy, for agreeing to appear on our
chat today. Welcome.
Wendy Seltzer:
Thanks for inviting me to join you.
First let me give a few notes about fair use, an
important part of the public-private balance of copyright. It is now
codified at Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act as a limitation on the
exclusive rights of copyright holders. Fair uses are fair without the
permission of the copyright holder, even against that permission.
The law sets out a four-factor test:
1) the purpose and character of the use (non-commercial or commercial;
transformative or mere duplication)
2) the nature of the copyrighted work (fiction or nonfiction, published or
unpublished)
3) the amount used in proportion to the whole
4) the effect on the market for the work
(See
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html )
More factors in your favor makes a finding of fair
use more likely, but the law gives us no bright lines or percentages. That's
part of the reason why Lawrence Lessig has been saying that "fair use is
merely the right to hire a lawyer."
I should also note that the Electronic Frontier
Foundation and other public interest organizations do try to make it easier
to hire a pro bono lawyer in fair use cases. We think it's critically
important to preserve fair use as an actual, not merely hypothetical
defense.
Continued in the Transcript
Under the fair use safe harbor, campus libraries do not have to own
subscriptions to journal articles placed on reserve. U.S. educators can make
photocopies from their private collections and make copies of just about
anything for reserve reading purposes. They can also put their own books on
reserve whether they are hard-copy (paper) or electronic copies. Things
they can never place on reserve are original copies of items (such as books)
that are borrowed via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The ILL code dictates that
libraries may not lend or borrow for this purpose. There also is a timing
spontaneity test under fair use statutes
that is commonly violated by educators and libraries.
Fair Use statutes allow educators to share multimedia, such as video tapes of
television shows, for educational purposes. However, these items must also pass
the spontaneity test, which requires that
there wasn't a great deal of time to obtain copyright permissions. . For
example, I may make a home-recorded segment from last night's television
broadcast available to students, but fair use safe harbor does not allow me to
share with other students or educators after the network makes copies available
for sale.
For practical purposes, the Trinity University library interprets the
spontaneity test to mean that, the first semester a copy of an item
(journal article, chapter from a book, videotape, CD, etc.) is placed on
reserve, the library will not seek copyright permissions. Virtually all
materials used in subsequent semesters will need those permissions unless there
are blanket permissions by the publisher. For example, all publications of the
American Accounting Association can be used for non-commercial education
purposes at any point in time without getting express copyright permissions.
In a November 18, 2003 message, the Director of the library at Trinity
University (Diane Graves) wrote the following:
The other test we must apply deals with how much of
the material used. In the case of a book, for example, we can't copy in its
entirety a full book, or even ½ of one, if it is still in print. Even if the
book is out of print, we must be able to show that we did everything
possible to find an out-of-print dealer to sell it to us. If that fails, we
can make a full copy. In the case of copies made from journal articles, we
can most certainly make copies of articles from our originals, your
originals, or even copies we have obtained from other libraries. Any of
those can be placed on reserve.
Keep in mind that the law makes it pretty easy for active educators to go
outside the fences of "fair use." For example, suppose an educator ignores
the spontaneity test and shares materials
with other educators and students term after term. The copyright holder
must first file a complaint with that educator cease and desist. . In theory,
the educator cannot be sued for damages until receiving a warning from the
copyright holder. Also monetary damages for this educator's free
sharing are probably too small to warrant a lawsuit. If the educator or
the educator's employer profits from this sharing, however, then lawsuits may
come crashing down. It is unlikely, however, that The Wall Street
Journal will come crashing down on Professor X who puts a copy of a Wall
Street Journal article on reserve every semester. Her/his employer,
however, will object if this act violates the employer's policy of requiring
that permissions be received after the spontaneity period has passed.
Actually, most publishers of journals and magazines have made it quite easy
for educators to obtain permissions online. Also keep in mind that some
things do not require permissions. These include quotations of reasonable
length
(I
generally take liberties here) and up to thirty seconds of an audio or
video recording. These safe harbors apply to all persons and not just
educators. The purpose is to allow the works to be evaluated and
criticized in public. For example, if a publisher would not allow even a
short quotation to be published, this denial could deny critics to effectively
air their criticisms. For example, recall the furor over the CBS Reagan
Movie. Selected lines from that movie were published by critics (e.g., in
Time Magazine) before the movie became public. It is my
understanding that those critics need not obtain permission to quote small
portions of the dialog of the movie. Of course there are limits to most
anything in U.S. courts. Television news stations that aired 20 seconds of
the knock out scene from a Mike Tyson Pay-for-View prize fight a few minutes
after the loser hit the deck got into trouble.
November 23, 2003 message from Bob Woodward
[rsw@WUBIOS.WUSTL.EDU]
One of the issues relating to self publishing is
how to protect your intellectual property.
Based on his battles with record industry, Larry
Lessig has proposed Creative Commons, an alternative to Copyright.
http://creativecommons.org
While his computer seems to be off or disconnected
or something this Sun eve, Larry's blog is usually found at
http://www.lessig.org/blog/
Bob Woodward
Critics fear consumers may be
shortchanged by an agreement between the technology and recording industries
over the future of digital copyright policy.
"Downside to Digital Rights Pact," by Katie Dean, Wired News, Janaury 15,
2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57211,00.html
A new agreement
between the technology and recording industries -- touted as a boon for
consumers and businesses -- is not as rosy as it sounds, say some digital
rights groups.
On Tuesday, the
Business Software Alliance,
Computer Systems Policy Project and the
Recording Industry Association of America pledged to follow a set of
principles that address digital content issues like piracy and copy
protection while rejecting government technology mandates.
"It's sort of a
guidebook for how we all want to act in the public policy arena," said
Hilary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA.
The agreement calls
for technology and record companies to promote consumer awareness about
Internet usage and digital copying issues. It also pledges support for
technical measures that limit the illegal distribution of copyrighted
material and opposes government-imposed technical mandates.
The agreement
"minimizes the distracting public rhetoric and needless legislative
battles," she said. "Our industries need to work together for the consumer
to benefit and for our respective businesses to grow."
"There will be
continued investment in new products and new music delivery methods," she
said. "Consumers' interest in music is served if the investment in
creativity can be protected."
But some digital
rights groups said the agreement attempts leave the public without much
input on crucial issues about digital content rights.
"It is not good
news for the consumer," said Wendy Seltzer, staff attorney at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"They are trying to
take the legislative process out of the legislature and put it in the hands
of a few industry groups," Seltzer said. "There's a lot of public debate
that has to go on and we do need Congress to step in and undo the mess that
has been created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57211,00.html
Also see
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57205,00.html
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
"New Ways to Skirt DMCA … Legally!" by Katie Dean, Wired News, October
29, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60996,00.html
Busting open a digital lock to get hold of
copyright works normally is forbidden, but the Librarian of Congress ruled
Tuesday that there are exceptions.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA,
prohibits, among other things, bypassing any technology that controls access
to copyright material. This provision is criticized frequently by
digital-rights groups because they say it stifles many legitimate activities
in the process, including academic research, competition and innovation.
the controversial law also recognizes that there
are certain cases when circumvention should be permitted. Thus, it mandates
that every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office and the Librarian of
Congress review and grant exceptions to the anti-circumvention provision.
Those who are exempt from the rule are those who
are "adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to
make non-infringing uses of that particular class of works," according to
the DMCA.
Basically, those who have a non-infringing,
fair-use reason to circumvent copy protections should be allowed to do so.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Copyright Office released the
four "classes of works" exempted from the anti-circumvention rule. People
may bypass a digital lock to access lists of websites blocked by commercial
filtering companies, circumvent obsolete dongles to access computer
programs, access computer programs and video games in obsolete formats, and
access e-books where the text-to-speech function has been disabled.
One programmer who testified at the Copyright
Office rule-making proceedings in April was jubilant that the filtering
exemption was renewed.
"How sweet it is," said
Seth Finkelstein, a programmer and
anticensorship activist. "Without the exemption, the DMCA would make it a
violation to decrypt the blacklist to find out what (filtering companies)
are actually censoring. The actual contents of these blacklists are an
important censorship issue.
"The Copyright Office has recognized the importance
of fair use in this area affected by the DMCA," Finkelstein said. "It's not
a blanket declaration of being legal, but it's an ability to argue fair
use."
Filtering advocates had hoped the exemption would
be dropped.
"I'm disappointed because I thought we had made it
clear that the exemption is unnecessary to conduct meaningful evaluations of
filters," said David Burt, a spokesman for
Secure Computing,
which purchased N2H2, a filtering company.
He cited extensive studies from the Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation, Consumer Reports and the Department of
Justice, among others, in his testimony and said that "these methods are
adequate for evaluating filters."
Gwen Hinze, staff attorney at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the
group was pleased that the Librarian of Congress renewed and granted
important exemptions, but was disappointed that exemptions the EFF proposed
on behalf of consumers were not granted.
Continued in the article.
Question
What do garage door openers and copyright law have in common?
Answer
"Garage Doors Raise DMCA Questions," by Katie Dean, Wired News,
September 17, 2003 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60383,00.html
Manufacturers of a seemingly innocuous product -- a
garage door opener -- are embroiled in a battle that tests the limits of a
controversial copyright law.
Skylink Technologies
manufactures a universal garage door opener that can be used to open and
shut any type of garage door. Its competitor, the
Chamberlain Group,
claims that Skylink violates the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, by selling such a product.
Chamberlain alleges Skylink's handheld portable
transmitter can activate Chamberlain's garage door openers and, in doing so,
unlawfully bypasses a technology-protection measure built into the device's
software.
Skylink disagrees, and recently filed a motion in
the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for summary
judgment, whereby a judge decides the case instead of going to trial.
"When Chamberlain sells (its) garage door openers,
there is no restriction prohibiting the consumer from operating the garage
door with a third-party transmitter," said David Djavaherian, an attorney
for Skylink. "For a violation to occur under the DMCA, access to the
copyright work must be unauthorized."
Neither representatives of Chamberlain nor its
lawyers returned repeated calls for comment.
The case has been closely monitored by digital
rights groups like the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, which has argued that the DMCA is being abused by companies
that want to stifle their competitors. The DMCA, the groups contend, also
impedes innovation.
Continued in the article.
In using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as an excuse to sue third
parties that dare to make inexpensive consumables, tech equipment makers also
cheat consumers. It's reminiscent of the telcos' fight for dominance in the '50s
---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57268,00.html
January 15, 2003
The Supreme Court rules that the 20-year extension on copyrights included in a
1998 law is not unconstitutional. It's a big
win for media corporations ---
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57220,00.html
Also see
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,830856,00.asp
The result of the ruling is that works copyrighted
by creators are extended until 70 years after the death of the creator,
which protects heirs of the creators. Corporations who own copyrighted works
have most of their copyrights protected for 95 years. The ruling is already
being referred to as "the Eldred decision" because Eric Eldred, who owns a
public Web library, had challenged the decision by Congress to uphold
copyright extension.
December 17, 2002 message from Davidson, Dee (Dawn)
[dgd@MARSHALL.USC.EDU]
An article in yesterday's LA Times describes
another approach to the Copyright laws debate. A new company, comprised
mostly of academics, proposes there be several copyright laws that loosen
the rules for some uses of published material while strengthening the rules
for other uses. Board members of the company include Eric Elder, an Internet
publisher who was outraged by the 1998 copyright extension ruling, Lawrence
Lessig, who was at Harvard in 1998, Hal Abelson of MIT, James Boyle of Duke,
and Eric Saltzman, a former filmmaker.
Excerpts from the article, which is quite long, are
below. I have the web link at the bottom, but if anyone can't get to the
site and wants the article, I can copy and paste.
**************************
"Into this messy and acid-edged situation comes Creative Commons, a new
nonprofit organization that will launch its first projects today. Based at
Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, Creative Commons has
a high-profile board and an ambitious mission. The goal is to promote
creativity and collaboration by developing new forms of copyright while
reinvigorating the ever-shrinking sphere of copyright-free works: the public
domain.
"Using the copyright system, we will make a wider,
richer public domain for creators to build upon and individuals to share,"
said Stanford law professor and Creative Commons Chairman Lawrence Lessig.
"Walt Disney built an empire from the riches of the public domain. We'd like
to support a hundred thousand more Walt Disneys."
As a first step, Creative Commons has developed a
group of licenses that will allow copyright holders to surrender some rights
to works while keeping others.
One license, for instance, allows people to copy or
distribute a work as long as they give the owner credit. Another allows a
work to be copied, distributed or displayed as long as it is for a
noncommercial purpose. A third license permits copying but forbids using the
work to make another, derivative work. (The licenses are legal documents,
although that doesn't guarantee that people will honor them.) .......... The
notion of loosening the bounds of copyright isn't new. For more than a
decade, the Free Software Foundation has used for its own programs and
offered others a license that guarantees the freedom to share and change
software. O'Reilly & Associates, a leading computer manual publisher, uses
the Web to publish a number of books under open-publication licenses.
Still, the notion that creation confers ownership
and that ownership is practically eternal is embedded in the system.
Since 1978, copyright protection has been automatic
on any new work -- which has made it very hard to purposely free it.
In response, Creative Commons has developed what it
is calling the Founders' Copyright. A creator agrees to a contract with
Creative Commons to guarantee that a work will enter the public domain after
just 14 years, which was the span granted by the first copyright law in
1790. O'Reilly said it will be the first to publish under these terms.
........
Another license puts work into the public domain
immediately. One of the first works to have a public domain license will be
"The Cluetrain Manifesto," an influential book on Internet marketing that
was published three years ago. It was a natural evolution, considering that
the text of "Cluetrain" was posted on the Web awhile ago by the authors.
..........
Critics already are wondering why a creator would
donate anything to the public domain beyond, for example, an unpublished or
unpublishable novel. Are people so altruistic as to create things for free?
"The same thing was said about the whole Internet a few years ago," Eldred
observed. "The existence of the Web is the answer."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-copyright16dec16.story
http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2Dfi%2Dcopyright16dec16§ion=%2Fbusiness
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
December 2002
The U.S. Copyright Office asked for public comment on the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, and it got it. Critics worry about everything from losing great
art to restricting blind people's access to information ---
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56963,00.html
The responses are available at
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2003/comments/index.html
Also see
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-978497.html?tag=fd_lede1_hed
Bob Jensen's threads on the dreadful DMCA are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm#Copyright
Some Good News From CIT
Infobits on October 31, 2002
ONLINE TEACHING AND
COPYRIGHT
The provisions of
the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH), which are
likely to be passed this fall, would amend the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 to
give schools and higher education institutions new rights to use copyrighted
materials for distance education. The bill would give educators "fair use"
rights that are already in place for regular classroom use.
New rights covered
include:
-- "Expanding the
range of works that may be transmitted over electronic systems to nearly all
types of materials -- although only portions of some works could be
transmitted."
-- "Allowing the
content to be transmitted to students at any location, rather than just to
classrooms, as is legal under current law."
-- "Allowing
educators to store transmitted content and give students access to it, if
only for short periods."
-- "Allowing the
conversion to digital form of analog works, such as printed or videotaped
material, but only in cases where the material is not already available in
digital form, such as on DVD."
For more
information about TEACH, read Andrew Trotter's article, "Bill Would Ease
Copyright Limits For E-Learning" (EDUCATION WEEK, October 30, 2002),
available online at
http://edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=09copyright.h22
Really Bad News from the Electronic
Frontiers Foundation about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
"EFF Whitepaper: Unintended
Consequences Three Years under the DMCA ---
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.html
1. Executive
Summary
Since they were
enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in section 1201 of the Copyright
Act, have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to stop
copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to
copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose.1
In practice, the
anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of
legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy. As a result,
the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to three important public
policy priorities:
Section 1201 Chills
Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with
section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and
scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats
against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and
prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the
legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students,
programmers, and members of the public.
Section 1201
Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of
circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for
circumvention, section 1201 grants to copyright owners the power to
unilaterally eliminate the public’s fair use rights. Already, the music
industry has begun deploying “copy-protected CDs” that promise to curtail
consumers’ ability to make legitimate, personal copies of music they have
purchased.
Section 1201
Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing
on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the DMCA to hinder
their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked section 1201 to
protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as well as their
“regionalization” system limiting users in one country from playing games
legitimately purchased in another.
This document collects
a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the
DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers,
scientists, and legitimate competitors. It will be updated from time to
time as additional cases come to light. The latest version can always be
obtained at www.eff.org.
2. DMCA
Legislative Background
Congress enacted
section 1201 in response to two pressures. First, Congress was responding to
the perceived need to implement obligations imposed on the U.S. by the 1996
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty. Section
1201, however, went further than the WIPO treaty required.2
The details of section 1201, then, were a response not just to U.S. treaty
obligations, but also to the concerns of copyright owners that their works
would be widely pirated in the networked digital world.3
Section 1201 contains
two distinct prohibitions: a ban on acts of circumvention, as well as
a ban on the distribution of tools and technologies used for
circumvention.
The first prohibition,
set out in section 1201(a)(1), prohibits the act of
circumventing a technological measure used by copyright owners to control
access to their works (“access controls”). So, for example, this provision
makes it unlawful to defeat the encryption system used on DVD movies. This
ban on acts of circumvention applies even where the purpose for decrypting
the movie would otherwise be legitimate. As a result, if a Disney DVD
prevents you from fast-forwarding through the commercials that preface the
feature presentation, efforts to circumvent this restriction would be
unlawful.
Second, sections
1201(a)(2) and 1201(b) outlaw the manufacture, sale, distribution or
trafficking of tools and technologies that make circumvention
possible. These provisions ban not only technologies that defeat access
controls, but also technologies that defeat use restrictions imposed by
copyright owners, such as copy controls. These provisions prevent
technology vendors from taking steps to defeat the “copy-protection” now
appearing on many music CDs, for example.
Section 1201 also
includes a number of exceptions for certain limited classes of activities,
including security testing, reverse engineering of software, encryption
research, and law enforcement. These exceptions have been extensively
criticized as being too narrow to be of real use to the constituencies who
they were intended to assist.4
A violation of any of
the “act” or “tools” prohibitions is subject to significant civil and, in
some circumstances, criminal penalties.
3. Free
Expression and Scientific Research
Section 1201 is being
used by a number of copyright owners to stifle free speech and legitimate
scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats
against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and
prosecution of the Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have imposed a chill
on a variety of legitimate activities.
For example, online
service providers and bulletin board operators have begun to censor
discussions of copy-protection systems, programmers have removed computer
security programs from their websites, and students, scientists and security
experts have stopped publishing details of their research on existing
security protocols. Foreign scientists are also increasingly uneasy about
traveling to the United States out of fear of possible DMCA liability, and
certain technical conferences have begun to relocate overseas.
These developments
will ultimately result in weakened security for all computer users
(including, ironically, for copyright owners counting on technical measures
to protect their works), as security researchers shy away from research that
might run afoul of section 1201.5
Professor Felten’s
Research Team Threatened
In September 2000, a
multi-industry group known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)
issued a public challenge encouraging skilled technologists to try to defeat
certain watermarking technologies intended to protect digital music.
Princeton Professor Edward Felten and a team of researchers at Princeton,
Rice, and Xerox took up the challenge and succeeded in removing the
watermarks.
When the team tried to
present their results at an academic conference, however, SDMI
representatives threatened the researchers with liability under the DMCA.
The threat letter was also delivered to the researchers’ employers, as well
as the conference organizers. After extensive discussions with counsel, the
researchers grudgingly withdrew their paper from the conference. The threat
was ultimately withdrawn and a portion of the research published at a
subsequent conference, but only after the researchers filed a lawsuit in
federal court.
After enduring this
experience, at least one of the researchers involved has decided to forgo
further research efforts in this field.
Pamela Samuelson,
“Anticircumvention Rules: Threat to Science,” 293 Science 2028, Sept. 14,
2001.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/293/5537/2028
Letter from Matthew
Oppenheim, SDMI General Counsel, to Prof. Edward Felten, April 9, 2001.
http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.htm
Dmitry Sklyarov
Arrested
Beginning in July
2001, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was jailed for several weeks and
detained for five months in the United States after speaking at the DEFCON
conference in Las Vegas.
Prosecutors, prompted
by software goliath Adobe Systems Inc., alleged that Sklyarov had worked on
a software program known as the Advanced e-Book Processor, which was
distributed over the Internet by his Russian employer, ElcomSoft Co. Ltd.
The software allowed owners of Adobe electronic books (“e-books”) to convert
them from Adobe’s e-Book format into Adobe Portable Document Format (“pdf”)
files, thereby removing restrictions embedded into the files by e-Book
publishers.
Sklyarov was never
accused of infringing any copyrighted e-Book, nor of assisting anyone else
to infringe copyrights. His alleged crime was working on a software tool
with many legitimate uses, simply because third parties he has never met
might use the tool to copy an e-Book without the publisher’s permission.
In December 2001,
under an agreement with the Department of Justice, Sklyarov was allowed to
return home. The Department of Justice, however, is continuing to prosecute
his employer, ElcomSoft, under the criminal provisions of the DMCA.
Lawrence Lessig, “Jail
Time in the Digital Age,” N.Y. Times at A7, July 30, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/30/opinion/30LESS.html
Jennifer 8 Lee, “U.S.
Arrests Russian Cryptographer as Copyright Violator,” N.Y. Times at C8, July
18, 2001.
Scientists and
Programmers Withhold Research
Following the legal
threat against Professor Felten’s research team and the arrest of Dmitry
Sklyarov, a number of prominent computer security experts have curtailed
their legitimate research activities out of fear of potential DMCA
liability.
For example, prominent
Dutch cryptographer and security systems analyst Neils Ferguson discovered a
major security flaw in an Intel video encryption system known as High
Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). He declined to publish his
results and removed all references on his website relating to flaws in HDCP,
on the grounds that he travels frequently to the U.S. and is fearful of
“prosecution and/or liability under the U.S. DMCA law.”
Neils Ferguson,
“Censorship in Action: Why I Don’t Publish My HDCP Results,” Aug. 15, 2001.
http://www.macfergus.com/niels/dmca/cia.html
Neils Ferguson,
Declaration in Felten & Ors v R.I.A.A. case, Aug. 13, 2001.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/Felten_v_RIAA/20010813_ferguson_decl.html
Lisa M. Bowman,
“Researchers Weigh Publication, Prosecution,” CNET News, Aug. 15, 2001.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6886574.html
Following the arrest
of Dmitry Sklyarov, Fred Cohen, a professor of digital forensics and
respected security consultant, removed his “Forensix” evidence-gathering
software from his website, citing fear of potential DMCA liability.
Another respected
network security protection expert, Dug Song, also removed content from his
website for the same reason. Mr. Song is the author of several security
papers, including a paper describing a common vulnerability in many
firewalls.
Robert Lemos,
“Security Workers: Copyright Law Stifles,” CNET News, Sept. 6, 2001.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-272716.html
In mid-2001 an
anonymous programmer discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft’s proprietary
e-Book digital rights management code, but refused to publish the results,
citing DMCA liability concerns.
Wade Roush, “Breaking
Microsoft's e-Book Code,” Technology Review at 24, November 2001.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/innovation11101.asp
Foreign Scientists
Avoid U.S.
Foreign scientists
have expressed concerns about traveling to the U.S. following the arrest of
Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov. Some foreign scientists have advocated
boycotting conferences held in the U.S. and a number of conference bodies
have decided to move their conferences to non-U.S. locations. Russia has
issued a travel warning to Russian programmers traveling to the U.S.
Highly respected
British Linux programmer Alan Cox resigned from the USENIX committee of the
Advanced Computing Systems Association, the committee that organizes many of
the U.S. computing conferences, because of his concerns about traveling to
the U.S. Cox has urged USENIX to hold its annual conference offshore. The
International Information Hiding Workshop Conference, the conference at
which Professor Felten’s team intended to present its original paper, has
chosen to hold all of its future conferences outside of the U.S. following
the SDMI threat to Professor Felten and his team.
Will Knight, “Computer
Scientists boycott US over digital copyright law,” New Scientist, July 23,
2001.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns00001063
Alan Cox of Red Hat UK
Ltd, declaration in Felten v. RIAA, Aug. 13, 2001.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/Felten_v_RIAA/20010813_cox_decl.html
Jennifer 8 Lee,
“Travel Advisory for Russian Programmers,” N.Y. Times at C4, Sept.10, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/10/technology/10WARN.html?searchpv=past7days
IEEE Wrestles with
DMCA
The Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which publishes 30 per cent of
all computer science journals worldwide, recently was drawn into the
controversy surrounding science and the DMCA. Apparently concerned about
possible liability under Section 1201, the IEEE in November 2001 instituted
a policy requiring all authors to indemnify IEEE for any liabilities
incurred should a submission result in legal action under the DCMA.
After an outcry from
IEEE members, the organization ultimately revised its submission policies,
removing mention of the DMCA. According to Bill Hagen, manager of IEEE
Intellectual Property Rights, “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has
become a very sensitive subject among our authors. It’s intended to protect
digital content, but its application in some specific cases appears to have
alienated large segments of the research community.”
IEEE press release,
“IEEE to Revise New Copyright Form to Address Author Concerns,” April 22,
2002.
http://www.ieee.org/newsinfo/dmca.html
Will Knight,
“Controversial Copyright Clause Abandoned,” New Scientist, April 15, 2002.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992169
2600 Magazine Censored
The Universal City
Studios v. Reimerdes case6
illustrates the chilling effect that section 1201 has had on the
freedom of the press.
In that case, eight
major motion picture companies brought a DMCA suit against 2600
magazine seeking to block it from publishing the DeCSS software program,
which defeats the encryption used on DVD movies. 2600 had made the
program available on its web site in the course of ongoing coverage of the
controversy surrounding the DMCA. The magazine was not involved in the
development of software, nor was it accused of having used the software for
any copyright infringement.
Notwithstanding the
First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press, the district court permanently
barred 2600 from publishing, or even linking to, the DeCSS software
code. In November 2001, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower
court decision.
In essence, the movie
studios effectively obtained a “stop the presses” order banning the
publication of truthful information by a news publication concerning a
matter of public concern—an unprecedented curtailment of well-established
First Amendment principles.
Carl S. Kaplan,
“Questioning Continues in Copyright Suit,” N.Y. Times, May 4, 2001.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/04/technology/04CYBERLAW.html
Simson Garfinkel, “The
Net Effect: The DVD Rebellion,” Technology Review at 25, July/Aug. 2001.
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel0701.asp
Xenia P. Kobylarz,
“DVD Case Clash—Free Speech Advocates Say Copyright Owners Want to Lock Up
Ideas; Encryption Code is Key,” S.F. Daily Journal, May 1, 2001.
Continued at
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.html
Question
Murat Tanju (with respect to one-time fair use under U.S. copyright law) asked
the following question:
>>"Isn't first time fair use applicable to the reader (students) who change each
time a course is given rather than the faculty who put it on reserve every
time?">>
Answer
The answer is no. Diane Graves explains this below. Long-term use of full
articles in repeated courses without copyright holder permission is definitely
not allowed. I did, however, remind all of you that the American Accounting
Association and many other academic associations does not require written
permission for articles used in education courses. See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Of course, fair use still allows quotations and excerpts without permission,
and the gray zone centers upon what proportion is fair. The real issue concerns
whether revenues of the copyright holder are seriously impaired by unfair use.
For example, I often take liberties with large cited quotations, but some of my
citations probably generate more revenues for the copyright holders if users
adopt the original works in courses. For example, if I place a long quote from
Magazine X in my New Bookmarks or messages on the AECM, professors who would
never have otherwise have known about the article and/or would not purchase the
article for themselves are not depriving the copyright holder of revenue. If
they freely distribute the article or even my long quotation to an entire class
of students, however, they are depriving the copyright holder of revenue. Loss
of revenue is the real issue! The revenue market for many publishers is the
student market. Fair use was placed into copyright law for education speed and
convenience, but it was not put there for long-term damages to publishers.
For example, I serve up a short "teaser" clip from one of my favorite
segments of in the CBS show called Sixty Minutes. My teaser video clip is at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000overview/mp3/133summ.htm#Introduction
I also have my downloaded entire segment that I played in class soon after I
downloaded a live broadcast. However, for use in subsequent semesters, I used a
purchased segment exactly like the segment I already had on my shelves.
Bob Jensen
-----Original Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 4:07 PM
To: Jensen, Robert
Subject: RE: Re: Copyright Compliance Service
Bob,
Your understanding is correct. Our interpretation
of Fair Use (which is fairly common in the academic library world) is this:
the first time (first semester) a copy of an item is placed on Reserve, it
falls within the Fair Use category, so there is no need to seek permission
for its use. However, if the item is used for subsequent courses in other
semesters, we will require evidence that permission has been requested. So
if you have any items on reserve this fall semester that you intend to use
again in the spring, we'll call it fair use for the fall and seek copyright
permission for any use you'll have in subsequent semesters for those same
items. The Fair Use designation has to do with spontaneity--if you find
something you just HAVE to use in your class this term, you don't need to
ask permission to assign it. If you choose to use it again, it's
premeditated, in effect. You have time to plan to use it, and must request
permission to do so from the copyright holder. There is a good guide to
thinking through this process at IUPUI's website. You might want to look at
it:
http://www.iupui.edu/~copyinfo/fuchecklist.htm l Lately, the focus in
the courts has been on the economic impact of repeated, long term use of the
same item, and the availability of permissions. (See under Effect on the
IUPUI site). The fact that new students cycle through the course doesn't
seem to be a factor in the eyes of the courts. Does that answer your
question? Roger Horky is our new Manager of Copyright and Reserves. He can
answer any additional questions you have. He's at x8189;
rhorky@trinity.edu . Thanks for your
interest!
Diane J. Graves
Written Permission to Use Some Articles in Courses
is Not Required
I thought that the following message
from the Director of the Trinity University Library might be of more general
interest in this era of uncertainty over the DMCA mess.
She does not go into issues of material
placed by instructors under courses in the Blackboard server, but I assume the
same policies extend to the Blackboard server. I do remind you that many
academic associations have policies that allow distributions of their journal
articles to students. For example, all American Accounting Association journals
are subject to the following policy statement:
***************************************
Permission is
hereby granted to reproduce any of the contents of _[Name of the AAA
Journal] ___ for use in courses of instruction, as long as the source and
the American Accounting Association copyright are indicated in any such
reproductions.
Written application
must me made to the American Accounting Association, 5717 Bessie Drive,
Sarasota, FL 34233-2399, for permission to reproduce any of the contents for
use other than courses of instruction.
***************************************
I suspect that all we must do is notify
our library and/or our Blackboard master of the above policy that is printed in
the back of all AAA journals. Check with other academic associations for similar
policies.
But then again, who can trust an
accountant these days?
Bob Jensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Graves, Diane J.
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 2:30 PM
To: Trinity Faculty/Staff
Subject: Copyright Compliance Service
To all Trinity
faculty and departmental secretaries:
Trinity has
recently reviewed its compliance with current copyright guidelines,
particularly as they relate to the library’s course reserves service. In the
past, the library accepted any and all materials faculty members wished to
place on reserve without regard for copyright compliance issues, often in
violation of copyright. Beginning this year, we have resolved to meet our
obligations to intellectual property rights holders and the law more
diligently.
Trinity’s need to
abide by copyright laws will affect the teaching faculty in many ways, the
most significant of which will be that we are changing library procedures
for placing items on reserve.
Library staff have
composed a new and formal copyright compliance policy. Please take the time
to read it; at
http://lib.trinity.edu/servcols/circ/cpyrghtp.shtml . Some of its
more important elements are:
1. When an item is placed on reserve for
the first time (ever) copyright compliance will usually not be necessary.
First-time use of an item is generally considered to be “fair use” of that
item as permitted by the US Copyright Code.
However, the library will require copyright
permission for all items placed on reserve a second or later time.
2. Faculty
members are welcome to seek copyright permissions for their reserve
materials themselves. If you obtain permission on your own, you will
need to provide proof of that permission to the reserves manager before the
material can be placed on reserve. Be aware, however, that library
resources—time and money—are limited. Please plan ahead so you have time to
identify alternatives.
3. The library has set aside a small fund
for royalty payments. At the present time, this amounts to just $50 per
instructor. We suspect that this will not be sufficient; this is a new
experience for us and we may have grossly underestimated the budgetary
requirements of full copyright compliance.
Any royalty fees beyond this amount will be
charged to the appropriate department.
4. Because the
library’s resources are so limited, instructors should designate the maximum
royalty payment they are willing to incur on each reserve item. They should
also rank their reserve requests in order of importance to the class so that
the library staff charged with obtaining copyright permissions can
prioritize the processing of their requests.
5. Any item
submitted without proof of copyright permission will not be placed on
reserve for two weeks, to permit time to process copyright permission
requests. At the end of the two-week period, the item will be placed on
reserve with the understanding that it will be removed if permission to use
it is denied. Please take into account this two-week delay when
submitting reserves.
6. To expedite the
process of securing copyright permissions, we will need as much
bibliographic information about the item as is possible. We have designed a
new reserves submission form that asks for the pertinent information. The
more complete the citation, the more quickly we can process the reserve
item.
Please note that
the library now offers an electronic reserves capability, which will affect
how we process reserves materials. We will be sending you all a short
message describing some of the more significant changes.
If you have any
questions, please contact . . [Deleted]
Diane J. Graves,
Professor & University Librarian
Elizabeth M. Coates Library, Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive, San Antonio, TX 78212
"FAIR USE" IS GETTING UNFAIR TREATMENT
Two recent federal court rulings in Hollywood's favor could undermine consumers'
historical rights to use the content they buy
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020514_1528.htm?c=bwtechmay17&n=link13&t=email
To hear the
entertainment industry tell it, a wave of digital piracy threatens to
destroy the future of movies, records, and other media. While the danger of
piracy is real, the other side of the story is that Hollywood has been on a
remarkable legislative and legal winning streak in its campaign to win
increased protections (see BW Online, 4/18/02,
"High Tech vs. Hollywood on Capitol Hill"). Along the way, some
long-established consumer rights may disappear. And the message from the
courts so far seems to be "Get used to it."
The invention of digital media has made it possible for people without any
special skills or equipment to make copies that are essentially
indistinguishable from the originals. It has also given the creators of
media the technical means not only to prevent copies from being made but to
limit the ways consumers use products they have purchased, for example, by
blocking the playing of U.S. DVD movies in Europe or preventing certain
music CDs from being played in computers.
Copyright law has always tried to strike a delicate balance between the
rights of content creators to be compensated for their work and the rights
of consumers to use what they have paid for. But the development of digital
media and Big Media's attempt to completely control it have destroyed the
delicate equilibrium that is copyright law.
UNDER ASSAULT. Two legal doctrines, called
"first sale" and "fair use" are threatened by these technical changes. Under
first sale, the buyers of copyrighted works in the U.S. may dispose of their
purchases as they see fit (this isn't true in all countries). If you own a
book, record, or DVD, you can sell it, lend it, or give it away. Fair use is
a broader and vaguer concept, but it covers such things as quoting from a
book in a review, copying part of a work for classroom use, or, most
relevantly, making a copy of a music recording for personal use.
Both doctrines are now under assault. The most recent blow came in a May 8
ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte in San Jose, Calif., in which
he upheld the constitutionality of key provisions of the 1998 Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
This criminal case, U.S. v. Elcom Ltd., is a curious one. It began
last July when FBI agents, acting on a complaint from software maker Adobe
Systems, arrested Elcom employee Dmitry Skylarov at a hackers conference in
Las Vegas. He was charged with "trafficking" in software designed to
circumvent copy protections in Adobe's eBook Reader software, a criminal
violation of the DMCA. The case against Skylarov were eventually dropped,
and he returned to Russia, but the charges against Elcom are moving forward.
Continued at
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020514_1528.htm?c=bwtechmay17&n=link13&t=email
David
Takes on Goliath
"'Politics of Control'
Leads a Law Student to Challenge Digital-Copyright Act," by Andrea L. Foster,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2, 2002 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002080201t.htm
Benjamin G.
Edelman, a first-year student at Harvard University's law school, is the
latest academic researcher to challenge the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act.
The American Civil
Liberties Union, which is representing Mr. Edelman, last month filed a
lawsuit against N2H2 Inc., a Seattle-based Internet filtering company, in
U.S. District Court in Boston. The suit asks a judge to prevent N2H2 from
suing Mr. Edelman under the digital-copyright law should he decide to bypass
the company's encryption, which prevents him from discovering its complete
list of blocked Web sites. (See an article from The Chronicle, July 26.)
Q. How did you
become interested in Internet filtering?
A. I had been aware
of it generally for some years. It's hard to say when it all started. But
the ACLU contacted me two years ago as they were preparing to challenge a
variety of state laws requiring the use of filtering software in libraries.
Alaska, for example, had such a law, and there were some other states. ...
These laws were
unconstitutional and they were preparing to bring challenges to various
state courts. Then the Children's Internet Protection Act was passed,
mandating the use of such software nationally in all libraries and public
schools receiving federal funding. And that became the ACLU's priority and
mine.
Q. How did the
ACLU hear about you?
A. I had done some
expert work in at least one, maybe a few other cases prior to that time. I
had been working at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society here at
Harvard Law School, where I guess my name had gotten some exposure. Two
years ago, of course, I was a sophomore in college. But nonetheless, I guess
they called up and asked for me by name.
Q. Were you
already interested in computers before you came to Harvard?
A. I had been
interested in computers for about as long as I can remember. I had been
doing some computer-related work in junior high school and high school,
helping people choose computers, putting them together, designing databases
and networks. And so I came to Harvard with a particular interest in that
subject.
Q. When the
lawsuit was filed, you talked about how it concerned "technology and the
politics of control." What did you mean by that?
A. First, I should
credit the phrase to Professor [Jonathan] Zittrain of the law school, who
used it as a subtitle of his course, "Internet and Society: The Technologies
and Politics of Control." And I think he would say it's his research
interest, and it certainly is mine.
The core idea is
roughly as follows: The Internet has a certain appearance to it, when you
first connect to it, when people were first learning about it. And I suppose
in 1996, 1997, 1998, it seems like the Internet could be whatever you wanted
it to be, that no one could particularly change what it was, and no one
could stop you from doing what you wanted to do. If you wanted to put a
death threat on the Internet about your neighbor or your enemy, you could do
that, and no one could really get you. If you wanted to steal music using
the Internet, you could do that, and no one could get you. ...
The later idea --
my idea, and Zittrain's -- was that, in fact, there were a variety of forces
that for economic gain, for political gain, for other reasons, might seek to
restrict what people could and couldn't do on the Internet.
Continued at
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/08/2002080201t.htm
Take a quiz on your knowledge of the changes in fair
use and copyright laws?
"The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use," by Hall Davidson,
Tech-Learning, October 16, 2002 ---
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright.html
The summary chart is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
This is the way it happens: You're a teacher. You
find the perfect resource for a lesson you're building for your class. It's
a picture from the Internet, or a piece of a song, or a page or two from a
book in the library or from your own collection. There's no time to ask for
permission from who owns it. There isn't even time to figure who or what
exactly does own it. You use the resource anyway, and then you worry. Have
you violated copyright law? What kind of example are you setting for
students?
Or you're the principal. You visit a classroom and
see an outstanding lesson that involves a videotape, or an MP3 audio file
from the Web, or photocopies from a book you know your school doesn't own.
Do you make a comment?
The Original Intent Were the framers of the
Constitution or the barons of Old English law able to look over your
shoulder, they would be puzzled by your doubts because all of the above uses
are legal. Intellectual property was created to promote the public good. In
old England, if you wanted to copyright a book, you gave copies to the
universities. According to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, "The
primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors...but
encourage others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by
a work." In other words, copyright was created to benefit society at large,
not to protect commercial interests.
Nowhere is this statement truer than in the
educational arena. In fact, educators fall under a special category under
the law known as "fair use." The concept, which first formally appeared in
the 1976 Copyright Act, allows certain groups to use intellectual property
deemed to benefit society as a whole, e.g., in schools for instructional
use. However, it deliberately did not spell out the details. Over the years,
fair use guidelines have been created by a number of groups-usually a
combination of educators, intellectual property holders, and other
interested parties. These are not actual laws, but widely accepted "deals"
the educational community and companies have struck and expect each other to
follow.
What follows is a new version of "The Educators'
Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use," published in Technology & Learning
three years ago. As you take the quiz on page 28, you will learn that no
matter the technology-photocopying, downloads, file sharing, video
duplication-there are times when copying is not only acceptable, it is
encouraged for the purposes of teaching and learning. And you will learn
that the rights are strongest and longest at the place where educators need
them most: in the classroom. However, schools need to monitor and enforce
fair use. If they don't, as the Los Angeles Unified School District found
out in a six-figure settlement, they may find themselves on the losing end
of a copyright question.
Know Your Limitations-and Rights It has never been
a more important time to know the rules. As a result of laws written and
passed by Congress, companies are now creating technologies that block users
from fair use of intellectual property-for example, teachers can't pull DVD
files into video projects, and some computers now block users from inputting
VCRs and other devices. In addition to helping schools steer clear of legal
trouble, understanding the principles of fair use will allow educators to
aggressively pursue new areas where technology and learning are ahead of the
law, and to speak out when they feel their rights to copyright material have
been violated.
Now, take a
quiz that will assess your knowledge of what is allowable-and what
isn't-under fair use copyright principles and guidelines. There's also a
handy
chart that outlines teachers' fair use rights and responsibilities. Good
luck.
The quiz is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_quiz.html
The chart is at
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf
From Syllabus News on October 18, 2002
MIT, Elsevier, Wiley Sue Coursepack Producer
MIT Press, Elsevier Science Inc., and John Wiley &
Sons Inc., three major publishers of scientific, technical, and medical
materials, filed suit against Gainsville, Fla.-based Custom Copies Inc.,
charging the company with unauthorized mass photocopying of material from
the publishers' books and journals. The complaint alleges that Custom Copy
produces coursepacks for sale on the campus of the University of Florida at
Gainesville, without authorization from the copyright holders. "When a
coursepack producer engages in mass photocopying of rightsholders' materials
for its own profit, without clearing rights … [it] severely harms both the
creators and the publishers of those materials," said Mark Seeley, general
counsel of Elsevier Science. The suit is being coordinated by Copyright
Clearance Center Inc., a licenser of text reproduction rights.
For more information, visit:
http://www.copyright.com
Powerful commercial
interests and tort lawyers combined forces in engineering the DMCA legislation
in the U.S that throws education and information use into a turmoil of risk and
uncertainty. An article with frightening examples is provided by Georgia
Harper, "Copyright Endurance and Change," Educause Review,
November/December 2000, pp. 20-26. She states the following on Page 21"
Some
of these changes --- licenses, access controls, certain provisions in the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) --- have the potential to
drastically undermine the public right to access information, to comment on
events, and even to share information with others.
Section 107 on "fair use"
continues to, with increased ambiguity, provide safe harbors for use of small
amounts of material, material not yet available for purchase when needed for
students, and material that should be open to criticism and review without fear
of reprisals in copyright infringement lawsuits. Nevertheless, the DMCA
has provisions that erode Section 107. Georgia Harber states the following
on Page 24:
Even
though fair use is a key "stress point," there has been no change to Section
107. The stresses on fair use result from other things:
technological "fixes" that control dissemination of copyrighted works; legal
frameworks, established to control dissemination, that marginalize fair use;
and license terms that ignore fair use as well as other public rights
protected in the Copyright Act. Ultimately, I am concerned that the
basic goal of copyright --- to improve our society by fostering creativity,
encouraging the dissemination of information, and supporting the development
of knowledge --- is endangered by the erosion of fair use in the digital
environment.
Remember, fair use embodies a balance between the competing interests of
owners and users, between control and access, between control and the First
Amendment, and it bridges the gap between a willing seller and a willing
buyer of rights to use. A diminishing role for fair use may well mean
less public access and less ability to speak, to criticize, and to comment.
An ERIC Digest from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education
(ERIC-HE) addresses some complex copyright questions related to distance
education. "Copyright Concerns in the Age of Distance Education," by law
librarian James H. Walther, is available online at
http://www.eriche.org/digests/2000-9.pdf
Things are not a whole lot better on the international scene.
An international copyright treaty proposal is stirring up U.S. opposition from
open-source developers to ISPs ---
http://www.wirednews.com/news/politics/0,1283,43820,00.html
It appears disastrous for program developers,"
Stallman said. "Many countries have laws about what kinds of software can be
developed.... Everything relating to information should be taken out of this
convention."
The treaty in question is a heretofore obscure
proposal known as the Hague Convention, which European nations generally
support, but the U.S. State Department has criticized. If countries agree to
the convention, they'd be required to enforce judgments in certain type of
civil lawsuits brought in another jurisdiction.
That prospect lightens the hearts of entertainment
lobbyists, who fear increasingly widespread piracy and the possibility of
Napster clones arising in countries that don't have laws restricting online
file-sharing.
Currently the Hague Convention includes copyright
offenses in a section that Stallman, Internet providers, and consumer groups
are lobbying to remove. Stallman, for instance, claims countries that are
even more permissive about awarding software patents could sue U.S.
programmers for violating them -- and thereby wreak havoc on the free
software movement.
But Robert Raben, who spoke on Tuesday as a
representative of the recording industry, warned that excluding copyright
from the draft convention would be a mistake: "Its intentional exclusion at
this point would be a terrible message to send to the world."
This dispute eerily mirrors a similar spat between
the entertainment industry and open source and hacking groups that also
involves copyright law. At the behest of business lobbyists, Congress
enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which limits programmers'
ability to circumvent copy protection schemes and was the recent subject of
an appeals court hearing.
Other speakers cautioned that it's too late to
perform radical surgery on the Hague Convention, which has been under
discussion since 1992 and was tentatively adopted by the 49 member nations
of the Hague Convention in June 1999. A two-stage diplomatic summit is
scheduled to begin in June 2001 and resume in 2002.
"You can't take it out of the convention, you just
can't do it," said Marc Hankin, of Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, a law
firm that deals with intellectual property disputes.
Only recently, however, have American businesses
and nonprofit groups appeared to realize the sweeping scope of the treaty.
(A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office request for comments last year went
largely unheeded.)
Sarah Deutsch of Verizon said her employer opposed
the Hague Convention. "I do think the convention is an expansion of the
rights of copyright holders," she said. In an earlier letter, Verizon said
it had "significant concerns" with the measure.
Millions of Web Documents are Not Being
Archived for Future Scholars
I find this to be an enormous problem in scholarship and research. I
download and store almost any article that I deem important in my work and
teaching. For example, I have some really important FASB documents on FAS
133 that are no longer available at the FASB Website. It becomes
discouraging to quote and cite works that are not longer available to readers.
This is a real bummer modern scholarship.
"A crisis for Web preservation Fugitive documents published on the Web are
not being preserved." by Florence Olsen, FCW.com, June 21, 2004 ---
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0621/pol-crisis-06-21-04.asp
A crisis for Web preservation Fugitive documents
published on the Web are not being preserved — From FCW.com The Federal
Depository Library Program has fallen behind in cataloging and preserving
access to government documents published only on the Web. As a result,
public access to those publications is spotty at best.
"This is not a problem; this is a crisis," said
Daniel Greenstein, head of the California Digital Library, which serves the
10 universities in the University of California system. He said information
is disappearing from government Web sites at an alarming rate.
At the Government Printing Office, which runs the
depository library program, officials are struggling with the problem, known
as fugitive documents, said Judith Russell, superintendent of documents.
Fugitive documents are electronic publications that remain outside the
federal depository collections in 1,300 libraries nationwide.
To capture those publications automatically, GPO
officials may turn to Web-harvesting technologies. In May, agency officials
published a notice asking vendors to submit information about Web-crawler
and data-mining technologies that could assist in locating fugitive
government publications…
Continued in the article
Are Universities Becoming EMOs
(Educational Maintenance Organisations)?
Some of us may be interested in these two
fascinating sites that address questions such as:
Are universities becoming EMOs (educational
Maintenance Organisations)? Are faculty being reduced to hired help? Are
university administrators becoming vendor-agents and corporate managers
(rather than Scholar-administrators?) Are faculty losing control of the
product of their labour? ... ...
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/
http://www.coolclass.com/newsletter/vol01no02-clarke.html
While I did not get into teaching to get rich (in
fact I got out of the rich corporate world and into teaching, to escape
intellectual drudgery), and I am glad that I am not at the beginning of my
career, I do feel sad about the passing of an era.
The society has to clarify what our rights as
academics are just as it is grappling with the issues of intellectual
property rights in this electronic age. Nowadays I find that school
administrators smell money a lot faster than they do intellectually
stimulating ideas. What a pity the age of scholar-administrators is coming
to an end, supplanted by that of pencil-pushing career manager-bureaucratic
education merchants. Is this the intellectual equivalent of the supplanting
of the age of chivalry by that of book-keepers?
Respectfully submitted,
Jagdish
Jagdish S. Gangolly,
Associate Professor
(j.gangolly@albany.edu ) State University of New York at Albany, Albany,
NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4949 Fax: (707) 897-0601 URL:
http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly
An Editorial by Bob Jensen
HMOs and health clinics often deliver inferior medicine because there is no
competition or very little competition in a geographic market. EMOs (see
above) will not have such advantages of geographic monopoly. Education,
unlike heath care, is no longer bound by geography. EMOs face exploding
global competition to a point where only the best can thrive. To date this
is not the case with HMOs.
I tend to disagree with the EMO doom and gloom outlook for the future of
online education programs. In my opinion, such claims as "redundant
faculty" are not rooted in communications with faculty in experimenting in
quality distance education --- faculty that are nearly burned out by the
increased communications between themselves and students in respected online
programs. Online faculty in major universities are biting their knuckles
because of the increased intensity of communication in online courses and the
demands of being more creative and more of an expert to online students seeking
something akin to one-on-one tutorials with instructors. In a sense, the
distance education courses are reverting to the Oxford tutorial system.
Many of the online courses are highly Socratic.
Of course it is possible to put up an online course of the EMO variety that
has virtually no communication between instructors and students. But it is also
possible to put up a high quality, prestigious distance education course in
which the communications between faculty and students and the communications
between students and other students are much greater than in traditional
courses. This is what the SCALE experiments at the University of Illinois
try to study in much greater rigor than the off-the-wall doom and gloom
soothsayers seem to ever discover or comprehend. For links to the
SCALE experiments and an audio commentary by Dan Stone, go to MP3 audio
presentation at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm .
I predict that the problem of online education is that the eventual rewards
from great online teaching will draw the brightest and the best of our new
educators into more teaching and less research. In the past 50 years,
major universities have placed the highest rewards and honors on research and
publication performances. It is not surprising that teaching and learning
are not focused upon in doctoral programs that center 100% on research skills
and experience. It is not surprising that the American Accounting
Association Doctoral Consortium virtually ignores education technologies and the
changing times in online education. It is not surprising that researchers
strive to teach only researchers (i.e., doctoral students) and not have to face
the great unwashed (undergraduate students). It is not surprising that
researchers tend to avoid teaching undergraduates whenever possible. It is
not surprising that great teaching is not a priority for researchers who are
assigned (punished?) to teach undergraduate courses. It is not surprising
that researchers are often the least skilled in education technologies and the
least interested in taking on online courses that are very demanding in terms of
time and creativity and will draw them away from their research and publication
in top journals.
Times will be changing with respect to corporate education and online
delivery of courses. Corporations will soon be offering up compensation
packages and lifestyle packages that will attract the brightest and the best of
new talent, including newly minted doctoral students. At the moment, Sarah
Supercharged with her new Stanford University diploma in hand places highest
priority on going to a prestige university to conduct research and minimize
teaching. In was and still is a great honor for her to get her new
assistant professorship at Rochester and only have to teach one course a year.
But there will soon be a new employer on the block. Rather than endure
the strains of tenure uncertainty and stress of research and publication at the
University of Rochester, Sarah Supercharged will soon have an alternative of
making ten times as much in earnings (due to stock options and other
compensation incentives) to focus on online creativity, student communication,
and quality delivery of courses in executive education from some education
corporation (possible a corporation owned by a prestige university). And
she will be able to deliver the courses from her ocean front home in Big Sur
(California) or her horse ranch in Idaho or cattle farm in New Zealand rather
than have to endure a daily grind to her research lab in Rochester, NY.
Her students around the world will receive a wonderful ("Supercharged")
education, because she is so motivated and talented. She brings to each of
them her very best, partly because the value of her stock options depend upon
her online performance.
My worry is not that the "EMOs" will be worse than our present prestige
universities. My worry is that they will be much better, in part because
they will draw away the top talent and change priorities from research to
teaching. Research will suffer in the long run, because it will be much
more difficult to fund and to subsidize with large undergraduate lectures on
campus that in the 20th Century were the cash cows that fed research.
Education corporations will start milking those cash cows, and for-profit
corporations will be less inclined to fund basic research not tied to the bottom
line of profit.
I repeat what I said at the beginning of this editorial. HMOs and
health clinics often deliver inferior medicine because there is no competition
or very little competition in a geographic market. EMOs will not
have such advantages of geographic monopoly. Education, unlike heath care,
is no longer bound by geography. EMOs face exploding global competition to
a point where only the best can thrive. To date this is not the case with
HMOs.
Institutions, Reward
Structures, and Traditions
That Defy Changes in Higher Education
The military has a chain
of command and a tradition for carrying out orders promptly throughout the
system. A university is the antithesis of the military. There is
very little chain of command in a tenure system that allows faculty to ignore
many edicts from their "superiors" in the administrative chain of command.
Probably more at fault than tenure is the tradition of allowing faculty to make
independent decisions concerning what they put into "their" courses and what
topics they will pursue in "their" research.
Funds are rewarding
innovation and change are scarce in university budgets. Even more
constraining is the comfort a faculty member takes in student evaluations at
present and the risk and fear that hovers over innovation and risk taking.
Be assured that most
faculty members in universities are not lazy. It may appear to be a cushy
job with only nine or twelve contact hours in the classroom, but it is not at
all uncommon for faculty to put in sixty hour weeks staying abreast of the new
knowledge of their disciplines and contributing to this new knowledge with
research and writing. A huge effort is made to build and maintain a
reputation for scholarship and research. This means that there is precious
little time to carve out for learning new educational technologies.
Universities seeking to
offer online courses must often hire new faculty or attempt to make deals with
existing faculty by providing release time, summer grants, and other incentives
that often fail to have a lasting impact on genuine commitment to change and
genuine long-term contributions to innovation and online education.
University policies, resource constraints, and promotion and
tenure traditions stand in the way of competing with corporations such as UNext
that will treat instructors more like professional employees. The salaries
and benefits will be greater in the corporations, but there will not likely be
any tenure or job security. Indeed the reward packages may be so great as
to provide very real competition to universities seeking to hire the best new
faculty or retain the best tenured faculty.
Barriers to Distance Education
Students surf to class, but there's no online deluge
— From the Los Angeles Daily News
Once expected to revolutionize higher
education as the Internet transformed mass media, online education has
disappointed its early enthusiasts but has found a valuable niche serving
working adults, educators say.
"Once upon a time, in the go-go '90s,
the thought was that online education would eventually supplant (traditional
university education)," said David L. Kirp, professor of public policy at
the University of California at Berkeley.
"But it's hard to replicate some of
the things a real classroom can offer -- those face-to-face interchanges
that people often want."
Nearly a decade after the Internet became
a household fixture, the University of California system does not offer a
single online course for undergraduates during the regular school year…
For the
full story, visit:
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2266845,00.html
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
WHAT HAPPENED TO
E-LEARNING?
"Thwarted
Innovation: What Happened to E-learning and Why" presents the results of the
Weatherstation Project of The Learning Alliance at the University of
Pennsylvania. This study sought to answer the question "Why did the boom in
e-learning go bust?" Over an eighteen-month period authors Robert Zemsky, an
education professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and William F. Massy,
professor emeritus of education and business administration at Stanford
University, tracked faculty and staff attitudes towards e-learning at six
colleges and universities. Their findings challenged three prevalent
e-learning assumptions:
-- If we build it
they will come -- not so;
-- The kids will
take to e-learning like ducks to water -- not quite;
-- E-learning will
force a change in the way we teach -- not by a long shot.
The complete report
is available online, at no cost, in PDF format at
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/Docs/Jun2004/ThwartedInnovation.pdf.
The Learning
Alliance is "a provider of educational research and leadership support
services to presidents of accredited, non-profit
two- and four-year
colleges and universities. The Learning Alliance serves the mission of
higher education institutions by providing its senior administrators with
timely access to expertise, current research, and market data." For more
information, contact: The Learning Alliance, 1398 Wilmington Pike, West
Chester, PA 19382 USA; tel: 610-399-6601; fax: 815-550-8892; Web:
http://www.irhe.upenn.edu/index.php.
The Weatherstation
Project was conceived as "an antidote to those first descriptions of the
market for e-learning, which were often warped by missing data and overly
hopeful assumptions about how quickly new products would come to market and
how receptive learners and instructors were likely to be."
From Syllabus News on July 20, 2004
For-Profit Institution Popularity Slipping, Says
Online Consortium
Job candidates from traditional universities with
online programs are more likely to be hired and promoted by corporations
than candidates from for-profit providers of online education and degree
programs. That’s the conclusion of a study by the Online University
Consortium, a group of traditional universities which describes its mission
as providing “access to reputable universities that have online degree
programs you can trust.”
The OUC looked at data compiled over a recent
12-month period, gathered through surveys of corporate decision-makers
attending major trade events such as Society for Human Resource Management
and American Society for Training & Development. When compared to the
previous year's findings, OEC said it found the number of companies
preferring traditional universities is up 15 percent, with 65 percent
selecting traditional schools compared to 50 percent in 2003. OUC said it
also found that the number of companies choosing for-profit businesses
declined, with 14.3 percent now indicating they would select a for-profit
compared to 22 percent in 2003.
Deborah Besemer, president and CEO of recruitment
services provider BrassRing, said employers are avoiding schools that have
flooded the market with online degree programs and which have questionable
regard for quality. "We see this when they search for candidates and
specifically eliminate certain schools from their search. Reputation of the
educational institution is what matters the most," said Besemer. "Employers
want to hire students who have a full college experience whether online or
in the classroom. They are looking for well-educated individuals to join
their companies."
For more information on the OUC’s findings, visit
http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=8543
In my opinion, the Weatherstation Project is biased from the start by
skeptics who do not balance the successes against the failures to date ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For example, the report fails to even mention one of the world's most successful
e-Learning endeavors in his own institution, the Master's of Engineering (ADEPT)
distance learning program at Stanford University even though one of the two
authors is a long-time faculty member and top administrator at Stanford.
Here are some counter examples.
New and
Expanding Market Motivations
Example 1 --- Stanford University ---
http://ww.stanford.edu/history/fulldesc.html
Stanford University shook up the stuffy Ivy League and other
prestigious schools such as Oxford and Cambridge when it demonstrated to
the world that its online training programs and its online Masters of
Engineering (ADEPT) asynchronous learning degree program became enormous
cash cows with nearly infinite growth potentials relative to relatively
fixed-size onsite programs. In a few short years, revenues from
online programs in engineering and computer science exploded to over
$100 million per year.
The combined present value of the Stanford University logo and the
logos of other highly prestigious universities are worth trillions.
Any prestigious university that ignores online growth opportunities is
probably wasting billions of dollars of potential cash flow from its
logo.
Virtually all universities of highest prestige and name recognition
are realizing this and now offer a vast array of online training and
education courses directly or in partnership with corporations and
government agencies seeking the mark of distinction on diplomas.
Example 2 --- University of Wisconsin ---
http://webct.wisc.edu/
Over 100,000 Registered Online Students in The University of Wisconsin
System of State-Supported Universities
Having a long history of extension programs largely aimed at
part-time adult learners, it made a lot of sense for the UW System to
try to train and educate adult learners and
other learners who were not likely to become onsite students.
The UW System is typical of many other large state-supported
universities that have an established adult learning infrastructure and
a long history of interactive television courses delivered to remote
sites within the state. Online Internet courses were a logical
extension and in many instances a cost-efficient extension relative to
televised delivery.
Example 3 --- Harvard University
In light of new online learning technologies, Harvard University
changed its long-standing residency requirement in anticipation of
expanding markets for "mid-career professionals" according to Harvard
University President Lawrence H. Summers, EDUCAUSE Review,
May/June 2002, Page 4. Harvard has various distance education
programs, including those in the Harvard Business School that currently
cost over $4 million per year to maintain.
Example 4
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA Program
Babson College said it will launch in Jan.
a "fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional onsite
classroom instruction with distance learning components. The program
will enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months, and is designed
for executives struggling to balance work and personal demands in an
economic recession. Intel Corp. sponsored the program as a
complement to its corporate education package, and has modeled it
with 33 employees. The blended MBA program calls for students to
attend monthly two and-a-half days of face-to-face sessions with
Babson's faculty on campus in Wellesley. During the rest of the
time, students will take part in Internet-based distance learning
sessions with their professors and access interactive multimedia
course content.
For more information, visit:
http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
Example 5 --- Texas A&M Online MBA Program in Mexico ---
http://olap.tamu.edu/mexico/tamumxctr.pdf
Some universities view online technologies as a tremendous
opportunity to expand training and education courses into foreign
countries. One such effort was undertaken by the College of
Business Administration at Texas A&M University in partnership with
Monterrey Tech in Mexico. For example, Professor
John Parnell at Texas A&M has been delivering a course for several
semesters in which students in Mexico City take the online course in
their homes. However, once each month the students meet
face-to-face on a weekend when Dr. Parnell travels to Mexico City to
hold live classes and administer examinations.
You probably won't have much difficulty making a guess as to what
many students say is the major reason they prefer online courses to
onsite courses in Mexico City?
Example 6 --- The University of Phoenix ---
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html
The University of Phoenix became the largest private university in
the world. Growth came largely from adult learning onsite programs
in urban centers across the U.S. and Canada.
The popular CBS television show called Sixty Minutes ran a
feature on the growth and future of the newer online training and
education programs at the University of Phoenix. You can download this
video from
http://online.uophx.edu/onl_nav_2.asp#
The University of Phoenix contends that online success in education
depends upon intense communications day-to-day between instructors and
students. This, in turn, means that online classes must be
relatively small and synchronized in terms of assignments and projects.
Example 7 --- Partnerships
Lucrative partnerships between universities and corporations seeking to
train and educate employees.
The highly successful Global Executive MBA Program at Duke University
(formerly called GEMBA) where corporations from around the world pay
nearly $100,000 for one or two employees to earn a prestigious online
MBA degree ---
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
UNext Corporation has an exclusive partnership with General Motors
Corporation that provides online executive training and education
programs to 88,000 GM managers. GM pays the fees. See
http://www.unext.com/
Army University Access Online
---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the consulting
division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Twenty-four colleges are
delivering training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's
e-learning portal. There are programs for varying levels of
accomplishment, including specialty certificates, associates degrees,
bachelor's degrees, and masters degrees. All courses are free to
soldiers. By 2003, there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online
students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University
attracted 12,000 students during its first year of operation. It
plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students in 2002.
It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers to take
non-credit and credit courses from selected major universities.
The consulting arm of the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers
manages the entire system.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has a program for online training
and education for all IRS employees. The IRS pays the fees for all
employees. The IRS online
accounting classes will be served up from Florida State University and
Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University
to provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays
the fees. See "Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's
Kelley School of Business For Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo
Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
The University of Georgia partnered with the consulting division of
PwC to deliver a totally online MBA degree. The program is only
taken by PwC employees. PwC paid the development and delivery
fees. See
http://www.coe.uga.edu./coenews/2000/UGAusnews.htm |
Bob Jensen's threads on the bright and the dark side of education
technologies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Barriers to Distance Education ---
http://www.emoderators.com/barriers/index.shtml
Principal Investigator: Zane L. Berge
When people within
an organization plan for using distance training and education, there are
several barriers to their efforts that they are likely to encounter.
Consideration of barriers faced by other organizations may help leaders find
solutions to reduce or to minimize obstacles in their own organization.
Using a content analysis of thirty-two, in-depth case studies of leading
organizations, this study begins to explore solutions to the barriers faced
by organizations when they use distance education.
While distance
education is on a fast growth curve right now, there are many barriers that
must be overcome. The results reported here are from persons working in
higher education (n=1276). The perspective taken is that various
organizations are at different stages or levels of capabilities with regard
to distance education-from never using distance education to other
organizations in which distance education is how they do business.
The research
questions reported on in this article are:
- do educators
perceive different barriers depending upon the maturity of their
organization's capabilities in distance education, and
- as the
organization' distance education competency as a whole matures, will the
overall number or intensity of perceived barriers to distance education
be reduced? There are additional observations included.
While numerous studies have discussed barriers to the successful
implementation of distance education, many are based on the examination of
one instructor’s experience, one distance learning environment, or one type
of distance learning program. The findings provide useful information, but
it is difficult to piece these studies together to create a holistic picture
of the barriers to distance education.
Some quantitative studies have been conducted (Berge 1998; Cegles 1998;
Dickinson et al. 1999; Rockwell et al. 1999; Yap 1996), but they tap a small
or very focused population group. A larger-scale study was still needed to
consider simultaneously the many dimensions of barriers to distance
education as perceived by people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
The
survey study reported in the following presentations and articles sought to
represent the perceptions of people who differed on six demographic
variables: (1) workplace (e.g., community college, government, nonprofit
organization, K–12 education); (2) job function (e.g., support staff,
manager, researcher, student); (3) type of delivery system used (e.g.,
audiotape, computer conferencing, interactive television [ITV]); (4)
expertise regarding distance education; (5) the stage of the respondent’s
organization with regard to capabilities in delivering distance education
(from no distance education activity to distance education being the way the
organization does business); and (6) the area in which the respondent
primarily works (e.g., fine arts, engineering, education). These studies
represent the responses of over 2500 persons.
A survey was
conducted to help better understand and more systematically study barriers
to distance education. The survey addressed six demographic variables: 1)
work place (e.g., community college, government); 2) job function (e.g.,
support staff; manager, researcher, student); 3) type of delivery system
used (e.g., audio-tape, computer conferencing, ITV); 4) expertise of the
individual regarding distance education; 5) the stage of the respondents
organization with regard to capabilities in delivering distance education;
and 6) the area in which the respondent primarily works (e.g., fine arts,
engineering, education). The focus of this presentation is on barriers to
distance education as perceived by managers and administrators.
A review of the
literature regarding the barriers to the use of educational technology in
primary and secondary education was conducted. An emphasis was placed on the
diffusion of computers in the schools, since the focus of this study is to
determine what should be expected as computer-mediated communication (CMC)
is used in schools to teach in online environments. A categorical framework,
similar to one used by the first author for analysis of barriers to the use
of CMC in higher education, was used (Berge, 1998).
The nine categories
of barriers are: academic, fiscal, geographic, governance, labor-management,
legal, student support, technical, and cultural. The literature review of
barriers to the use of educational technology in K-12 using this framework
suggested the primary areas of concern are academic, cultural, and
technical. Secondary areas of concern are labor-management and fiscal
issues, with little or no mention of geographic, governance, student
support, or legal aspects of diffusion of technology.
To test whether the
use of CMC as one important area of educational technology entering K-12
teaching and learning, a recently published four volume series of books
titled, "Wired Together: Computer-Mediated Communication in K-12" was
analyzed. Taken together, the seventy-two (72) chapters in these four books,
mostly case studies, represent a considerable body of experience in online
teaching and learning in K-12, pre- and in-service teacher training.
This content
analysis was conducted:
- to determine
how many different barriers to online teaching were mentioned across all
the contributors, i.e., to indicate the range of the obstacles, and,
- to determine
how often each particular category of barriers was mentioned, i.e., to
indicate the perceived severity of these issues. The results are quite
consistent when compared to the more general review of literature
regarding educational technology.
Combined with
demographic trends, political forces, economic factors, the need for
lifelong learning, and the changing emphases in teaching and learning, there
is a resurgence of interest in distance education both at traditional
institutions of higher education and in organizations whose sole mission is
distance education. Can higher education at "traditional" universities
change to meet the new student demands and the intense competition among
education providers that distance education brings?
Just a couple of years ago, every major game company was developing a
massively multiplayer online game, based on the attractive business premise. But
after many disappointments in recent months, the industry is realizing these
games can become tar pits.
"Online Games a Massive Pain," by Daniel Terdiman, Wired News, July
16, 2004 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,64153,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
Electronic Arts' decision to shut down development
of Ultima X: Odyssey -- the sequel to its long-running online
game Ultima Online -- may force the game industry to re-examine
what it takes to be a successful developer of massively multiplayer online
games.
Electronic Arts joins a growing list of companies
-- Cyan Worlds, Games Workshop, There Inc. -- that invested millions of
dollars in online games, only to see disappointing sales or unfinished
projects. But what's surprising about EA's setback is that it is the world's
biggest video-game software company, with plenty of cash, talent, marketing
muscle and patience to develop a franchise. Despite that, it pulled the plug
on
UXO.
What's more, over the past few years EA has pulled
the plug, or announced plans to pull the plug, on a string of MMO games:
Ultima Online II, Motor City Online, an online
Harry Potter adventure game and Earth & Beyond. Most surprising
of all, The Sims Online -- an online version of the biggest
video-game franchise in history -- has been a disappointment for the
company, by most accounts.
MMO games are notoriously hard to develop, much
harder than traditional shrink-wrapped, single-player video games. Most MMOs
create huge online worlds where thousands of players, each sitting in their
homes, interact with each other -- exploring, trading and pillaging. The
business premise to game companies is enticing: Players have to buy a copy
of the game for about $50 at a retailer, then pay an additional monthly
charge of $10 to $15 to gain entrance to the virtual world. But the
companies have to pay a lot of attention to keep the online environments
compelling and the players interested. And things that single-player games
don't need as much -- like customer support and service -- are key to
keeping subscriptions active.
"Maybe what we're learning is that (a traditional
game company) is not going to be set up perfectly to run big online games,"
said Ed Castronova, an associate professor at Indiana University, and a
moderator of Terra
Nova, a blog that discusses virtual worlds.
In contrast to EA, Sony set up an independent
division, Sony Online Entertainment, to
focus exclusively on virtual worlds, Castronova pointed out. The result:
Sony Online has had huge success with its EverQuest franchise,
with at least half a million subscribers, and its Star Wars Galaxies
world has had more than 300,000 players.
Of course, EA is not the only company that has had
problems keeping MMOs afloat. For example, Games Workshop recently announced
plans to close down
Warhammer
Online, as did Cyan Worlds
with Uru Live. And There Inc. is on the verge of abandoning
its metaverse in favor of
becoming a platform builder, some speculate.
For its part, EA disputes the notion that it has
had problems developing MMOs. Instead, it said the UXO move was
a strategic realignment of resources.
Continued in the article
Bob Jensen's threads on edutainment and learning games are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
How can colleges best mix on-campus and online
delivery of instruction?
Question
How can colleges best mix on-campus and online delivery of instruction?
"Going Hybrid," by Kristin L. Greene, Inside Higher Ed, July 20, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/07/20/strategist
Too many college and university leaders think, “We
have an online program and we have a campus program, so we can probably just
combine the two to create a hybrid program.” This usually doesn’t work well
because online and on-campus programs often appeal to different people for
different reasons, and the delivery challenges for each are also quite
different.
We’ve seen some great successes, and a few
spectacular failures, in the hybrid market model (in which 20-80 percent of
content is delivered online). From these examples, we’ve learned that
planning up front and being clear about objectives are preconditions for
success. Institutions considering hybrid models for a program, or even
several courses, must first create a “business plan” and clearly state what
they want to achieve, which students they plan to serve, and how they plan
to compete. When building this plan for your institution, you should keep
the following in mind:
The Goal. Why are you considering a hybrid
model? What is the business rationale? Are you trying to reach different, or
more, students, or trying to solve space constraints? Are you doing it
because you see an unmet need in your marketplace or because your
competitors are going hybrid and you feel the need to keep up? Are you
looking for a local, regional, or national audience? The national market is
becoming quite competitive, and programs in this space are becoming more
commodity like, so a program focusing on the regional or local market may
position your program for success.
Philosophy. A program with 20 percent of
delivery online and 80 percent on-campus is quite different from a program
with 80 percent online and 20 percent on-campus, yet they both qualify as
hybrid. Will you use the online component only for communication purposes or
for content delivery as well? How will you use adjunct faculty members — to
create the content, deliver it, or both? The philosophy you choose should
provide a blueprint or roadmap for how you will achieve your goals. Too
often in our work, we have seen institutions miss this step — they did not
identify their philosophy before jumping into the hybrid model, and later
found that it significantly impeded success. Without a philosophy, it is
difficult to communicate the value proposition internally or externally, and
it becomes challenging to make some of the difficult trade-offs inherent in
any new venture.
Target Consumer. What type of consumer is
your hybrid offering designed to attract? Adult learners tend to be more
open to an online experience because it allows them to balance their
professional and personal lives with their educational pursuits. Traditional
students — those aged 18 to 24 – tend to want face-to-face, classroom-based
learning. Corporations may prefer a little of both, to allow employees to
work and study at the same time. Segmenting the market by consumer types and
needs — adult, traditional, current, new, credit, non-credit — and designing
programs that fit these segments and needs are important early steps.
Integration. Integrating between bricks and
clicks is probably the single biggest point of failure for institutions
pursuing a hybrid model. Where does campus-based learning begin and end
relative to the online component? How do student services coordinate with
these components? What do you need to change about your student information
system? The challenges range from technology and training, to content design
and delivery, to student services. Be sure to prepare by thinking through
the entire system and how it will affect the students, the faculty, and the
staff.
Programs. Some courses and programs have
done very well online and would be logical candidates for a hybrid model
(e.g., business, IT, education), but not every course or program is
well-suited to a hybrid approach. It’s best to begin with an audit of
existing programs, dissecting the curriculum to determine how a hybrid model
might be applied. At the same time, you should do an external evaluation of
market demand and supply to determine where the best opportunities are for
introducing new programs. Again, if you consider local versus national
distribution, you may find that, on a local level, a particular hybrid
program may provide a competitive advantage in attracting students.
Core Competencies. What is your institution
known for? What do you do better than most of your peer schools? Focus your
efforts on maximizing the benefit of these core competencies and consider
outsourcing those areas that are not strengths, such as marketing, lead
management, student services, or technology.
Faculty Buy-In. Faculty members have a large
stake in content delivery because most of the time they supply the
curriculum. Whether you plan to offer incentives for faculty to adapt
content to a hybrid model or to outsource this function, faculty should be
involved in the discussions.
Hybrid courses and programs represent more of an
evolution than a revolution in educational content delivery. Hybrid delivery
represents a natural progression for many campus-based institutions to
investigate and perhaps pursue, and often can serve as a competitive
advantage in reaching a wider student population. Rigorously thinking
through process design and delivery components and planning carefully for
implementation will make the difference between those programs that succeed
in the hybrid arena and those that invest a lot of resources with little to
show for it.
Online Cheating and Reduced Social Interaction
July 30, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
NEW BOOK OF ONLINE
EDUCATION CASE STUDIES
ELEMENTS OF QUALITY
ONLINE EDUCATION: INTO THE MAINSTREAM, edited by John Bourne and Janet C.
Moore, is the fifth and latest volume in the annual Sloan-C series of case
studies on quality education online. Essays cover topics in the following
areas: student satisfaction and student success, learning effectiveness,
blended environments, and assessment. To order a copy of the book go to
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/volume5.asp. You can
download a free 28-page summary of the book from
http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/vol5summary.pdf.
The Sloan
Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of institutions and organizations
committed "to help learning organizations continually improve quality,
scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own
distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide
variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/.
COMBATING CHEATING
IN ONLINE STUDENT ASSESSMENT
In "Cheating in
Online Student Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism" (ONLINE JOURNAL OF DISTANCE
LEARNING ADMINISTRATION, vol. VII, no. II, Summer
2004) Neil C. Rowe
identifies "three of the most serious problems involving cheating in online
assessment that have not been sufficiently considered previously" and
suggests countermeasures to combat them. The problems Rowe discusses are:
-- Getting
assessment answers in advance
It is hard to
ensure that all students will take an online test simultaneously, enabling
students to supply questions and answers to those who take the test later.
-- Unfair retaking
of assessments
While course
management system servers can be configured to prevent taking a test
multiple times, there can be ways to work around prevention measures.
-- Unauthorized
help during the assessment
It may not be
possible to confirm the identity of the person actually taking the online
test.
You can read the
entire article, including Rowe's suggestions to counteract the problems, at
http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html.
The Online Journal
of Distance Learning Administration is a free, peer-reviewed quarterly
published by the Distance and Distributed Education Center, The State
University of West Georgia, 1600 Maple Street, Carrollton, GA 30118 USA;
Web:
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html.
SOCIAL INTERACTION
IN ONLINE LEARNING
Among the reasons
Rowe cites (in the aforementioned paper) for cheating on online tests is
that "students often have less commitment to the integrity of
distance-learning programs than traditional programs." This lack of
commitment may be the result of the isolation inherent in distance
education. In "Online Learning: Social Interaction and the Creation of a
Sense of Community" (EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY, vol. 7, no. 3, July
2004, pp. 73-81), Joanne M. McInnerney and Tim S. Roberts, Central
Queensland University, argue that an online learner's feeling a sense of
isolation can affect the outcome of his or her learning experience. The
authors recommend three protocols to aid social interaction and alleviate
isolation among online learners:
1. The use of
synchronous communication
"Chat-rooms and
other such forums are an excellent way for students to socialize, to assist
each other with study, or to learn as part of collaborative teams."
2. The introduction
of a forming stage
"Discussion on
almost any topics (the latest movies, sporting results,
etc.) can be
utilized by the educator as a prelude to the building of trust and community
that is essential to any successful online experience."
3. The adherence to
effective communication guidelines "Foremost among these guidelines is the
need for unambiguous instructions and communications from the educator to
the students involved in the course. To this end instructions regarding both
course requirements and communication protocols should be placed on the
course web site."
The complete
article is online at
http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/7_3/8.html.
Educational
Technology & Society [ISSN 1436-4522] is a peer-reviewed quarterly online
journal published by the International Forum of Educational Technology &
Society and the IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF).
It is available in HTML and PDF formats at no cost at
http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/.
The International
Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS) is a subgroup of the IEEE
Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF). IFETS encourages discussions on the
issues affecting the educational system developer (including AI) and
education communities. For more information, link to
http://ifets.ieee.org/.
......................................................................
ONLINE COURSES:
COSTS AND CAPS
Two articles in the
July/August 2005 issue of SYLLABUS address the often-asked questions on
delivering online instruction: "How much will it cost?" and "How many
students can we have in a class?"
In "Online Course
Development: What Does It Cost?" (SYLLABUS, vol. 17, no. 12, July/August
2004, pp. 27-30) Judith V. Boettcher looks at where the costs of online
course development have shifted in the past ten years. While the costs of
course development are still significant, estimating them is not an exact
science. Boettcher, however, does provide some rules of thumb that program
planners can use to get more accurate estimates. The article is available
online at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9676.
In "Online Course
Caps: A Survey" (SYLLABUS, vol. 17, no. 12, July/August 2004, pp. 43-4)
Boris Vilic reports on a survey of 101 institutions to determine their
average course cap for online courses. The survey also tried to determine
what influences differences in setting caps: Does the delivery method used
make a difference? Are there differences if the course is taught by
full-time faculty or by adjuncts? Or if given by experienced versus
inexperienced providers? Or by the level (undergraduate or graduate) of the
course? The article is available online at
http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=9679.
Syllabus [ISSN
1089-5914] is published monthly by 101communications, LLC, 9121 Oakdale
Avenue, Suite 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311 USA; tel: 650-941-1765; fax:
650-941-1785; email: info@syllabus.com; Web:
http://www.syllabus.com/. Annual subscriptions are free to
individuals who work in colleges, universities, and high schools in the
U.S.; go to
http://subscribe.101com.com/syllabus/ for more information.
Bob Jensen's threads on cheating are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance
education in general are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Legal Concerns
July 1, 2005 email message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR)
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/
"The Duke Law & Technology Review (DLTR) is an
online legal publication that focuses on the evolving intersection of law
and technology. This area of study draws on a number of legal specialties:
intellectual property, business law, free speech and privacy,
telecommunications, and criminal law -- each of which is undergoing
doctrinal and practical changes as a result of new and emerging
technologies. DLTR strives to be a 'review' in the classic sense of the
word. We examine new developments, synthesize them around larger theoretical
issues, and critically examine the implications. We also review and
consolidate recent cases, proposed bills, and administrative policies."
"However, DLTR is unique among its sister journals
at Duke, and indeed among all law journals. Unlike traditional journals,
which focus primarily on lengthy scholarly articles, DLTR focuses on short,
direct, and accessible pieces, called issue briefs or 'iBriefs.' In fact,
the goal of an iBrief is to provide cutting edge legal insight both to
lawyers and to non-legal professionals. In addition, DLTR strives to be the
first legal publication to address breaking issues. To that end, we publish
on the first and fifteenth of every month during the school year (September
until April) and less frequently during the summer."
Duke Law & Technology Review is available free of
charge as an Open Access journal on the Internet.
Bob Jensen's threads on the future of education technology and distance
learning are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Email and Teaching
Evaluuations Place Heavy Burdens on Teachers
Fearing your student evaluations, how much time and trouble should you
devote to email questions from your students?
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail
has brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle
with how to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part
on student evaluations of their accessibility. The stakes are different for
professors today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick,
chairwoman of the sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts,
explaining that "students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of
individual faculty." Students also frequently post their own evaluations on
Web sites like
www.ratemyprofessors.com and describe
their impressions of their professors on blogs.
Jonathan D. Glater, "To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All
About Me,"
The New York Times, February 21, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html
Bob Jensen's threads on controversies over student evaluations are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation
"Email Etiquette an Oxymoron? Perhaps Not," by Sanford Pinsker,
The Irascible Professor, March 1, 2006 ---
http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-03-01-06.htm
It is no secret that technology has had its impact
on teaching, but it is also no secret that there are times when the "impact"
is unwelcome, if not downright unpleasant. I am referring to the habit, by
now well established, in which students email their professors at the click
of a mouse -- and then expect the professor to respond in a heartbeat. No
request is too outlandish, as a recent article in the New York Times
demonstrated: One first-year student emailed a calculus professor asking "If
I should buy a binder or a subject notebook?"; another explained that she
was late for Monday's class because she "was recovering from drinking too
much at a wild weekend party." The war stories rattled on and on as the
article explored the ways in which student e-mail have made professors not
only "approachable" but also "on call" 24/7.
Untenured professors have good reason to worry if
students perceive them as not responding swiftly enough -- no matter how
inappropriate or downright outlandish student requests might be. After all,
most students fill out evaluation forms at the end of the semester and woe
to the professor who is perceived as dragging his or her heels when replying
to student email. As a person who was once chided for not returning student
papers promptly -- this, long before email became a fact of academic life --
I was glad that there was room on the form for the student to explain that
he expected his paper returned at the end of the class in which he had
turned it in. That, for him, defined "promptly," and I didn't meet his
definition.
No doubt every professor who skimmed the New York
Times article had an example or two drawn from personal experience. I am
hardly an exception. I remember, for example, the first-year student who
email me -- this, before our first meeting -- that she was a member of the
field hockey team and that she would be leaving class early on a number of
occasions (they were listed) and missing class altogether for away games. No
doubt she thought this was thoughtful of her and only thought otherwise when
I informed her that, at the college she was now attending, academic work
took precedence over athletics, and that we ought to discuss the matter
further in my office. I am happy to report that my reply got her thinking
but unhappy to report that her "solution" to the problem was "make-up
classes," ones I'd teach her privately during moments when she wasn't
chasing a ball with a stick.
Ironically enough, the last email I received from a
student had to do with the grade he got on a term paper (B-) that was headed
“A Grave Injustice.” I resisted the opportunity to tell him that, if this
was the largest 'grave injustice ' the world handed him, he was a fortunate
young man indeed. Instead, I began with the formulaic, "I'm sorry you're
upset but. . ." and went on to explain that it is my job to assign grades
and that is what I'd done, to the best of my ability, in his case -- as my
typed, half-page comments made clear. My point in relaying this exasperating
tale is to remind professors not to get exasperated themselves. Volleying
emails back and back is, well, unseemly, something that immature students do
but that professional teachers don't.
My hunch is that the student email problem will
only get worse. That's why it will, I believe, become crucial to establish
an email policy -- call them guidelines, rules of etiquette, whatever you
will -- and add it to course syllabi. I was hardly alone in making it clear
on my syllabi that "Adults do not like to be called after 10 PM" (some
prefer 7), and if I were still teaching I would add email to the mix.
Further, I would discourage students from emailing
me drafts of papers not only the night before they are due, but also two or
three nights before they are due. My policy, one that usually worked well,
was to inform students that, under normal circumstances, I would be happy to
comment on a one-page summary that included a working title, abstract, and
up to three paragraphs -- if the single page document were turned in a week
before the paper itself was due. "Unusual cases" (papers with grades below a
C-) were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes I would require that
the paper be rewritten after an office conference, sometimes I would ask
that a draft of the next paper be submitted at a mutually agreeable time.
Moreover, I think my etiquette rules would vary
depending on the class. First-year students are often nervous Nellies; they
want to do well but they lack confidence, sometime for good reason. My
advice would be to cut them some slack, at the same time that you make it
clear, in class, that some behavior is cheesy rather than classy. Because
I'm something of a ham, I'd ham it up from time to time in my first-year
seminar with tales, some real, some just made up, about what I called
"students from hell." Everybody laughed but got the point about what not to
do. If I were still teaching, I'd probably borrow the example about the
student who emailed about what binder to buy.
Continued in article
Student Concerns
"Three Criticisms of the Online Classroom: An examination of a higher
education online course in computer-mediated communication,"
by Jennifer A. Minotti Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) Newton,
Massachusetts, USA ---
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2002/index.html#3
Learning Technology [ISSN 1438-0625] is published quarterly by the
IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force (LTTF). It is available at
no cost in HTML and PDF formats at
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/
Technological expertise, access to technology,
additional time associated with participation, and the changing role of the
instructor a just a few of the many issues the online classroom has changed
(and often times inhibited) the ways students learn (Baym, 1995, Berge &
Collins, 1996, Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, & Turoff, 1996). The three largest
issues found to affect the way students participated in a single graduate
level online course, are described below.
1. Large Time Commitment
Too much time was the biggest complaint heard by
students. Nearly every participant in the class commented about the large
time commitment the course required. Most all of the students also seemed
surprised at how much more time the online class took up over traditional
face-to-face courses. In addition, I observed that nearly every participant
was late in completing at least one assignment. In fact, many students were
late multiple assignments.
"Having taken previous online courses in addition
to this one, I definitely feel that online courses, though they provide
access otherwise not available, require much more of a time commitment than
face-to-face classes. Not only do we have weekly assignments, but the added
'checking in,' dialoguing through the week, and often troubleshooting our
technology is much more demanding than in a traditional classroom setting,
where the class meets once or twice per week."
"…We might think it would be more convenient to
participate in class wherever and whenever we wanted by means of the
Internet. However…we are not free of having a location in learing--in fact
we are more hinged to one spot (in front of the computer), because it is
there that we must do all of our work for the class (course exploration of
web sites, class projects, particpation in the newsgroup, reading of
submissions to newsgroup). It does also seem to take more time to accomplish
all that needs doing for an on-line course."
2. Dealing with Technical Problems
Technical and access issues remained the second
largest criticism and a major challenge to students, despite the best laid
plans for designing this course. In this class, students knowledge of and
access to technology varied greatly. This presented huge obstacles to
students, some of whom experienced trouble accessing the course right from
the beginning. Other students experienced problems at different points in
the class, which often made their learning experience frustrating.
"I'm a bit frustrated and caught by the technical
setup and requirements. Feedback on the process of the course to date: We
could have used the month of February to get this behind us. I have
allocated 10 hours a week to this course, using a formula of three times the
amount of face time, assuming a typical three hour per week class. My time
has been eaten up by the technical setup. I'm having a technical glitch with
my company firewall."
"Ugh…I feel like I have overcome some HUGE
obstacles just by getting into this newsgroup. The frustration and anger
levels have been high and I have recently caught myself yelling at my
computer."
3. Lack of Facilitation by the Instructor
Lastly, a lot has been written about the critical
role the instructor plays in ensuring online courses are successful (Baym,
1995, Harasim, Hiltz, Teles, & Turoff, 1996, Jones, 1995). In this class,
students really wanted, needed, and valued an active instructor, one who was
visible online providing feedback to their work, supporting and questioning
their statements, encouraging participation, and keeping the class on track.
When not online for several weeks at a time, several classmates become
disheartened. In response to the survey question, "What were you most
disappointed/surprised by?" two students wrote:
"The lack of interaction from the professor. We
really only got 'guidelines' twice this semester which was odd. Given the
topic of our class, computer-mediated communication with the professor
should have been examined. …I never knew if I was 'wrong' or totally
off-base."
"…It's lonely out here in VirtualLand. …I am
missing our teacher in this space. I understand his desire for a logos
however I'm not exactly sure that this group in in syn and heading toward
the same goal."
Conclusion
Indeed, we have a long way to go before the higher
education online classroom is as successful as our face-to-face classroom.
This will of course take time and perseverance. It will also take a critical
evaluation of what is working and not working in each course we design,
deliver, and participate in.
References
Baym, N. (1995). The emergence of community in
computer-mediated communication. In S. Jones, CyberSociety:
Computer-mediated communication and community. California: Sage.
Berge, Z.L., & Collins, M.P. (Eds.) (1996).
Computer mediated communiation and the online classroom, Volume III:
Distance learning. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S.R., Teles, L., Turoff, M.
1996). Learn/ing networks: A field guide to teaching and learning online.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Jones, S.G. (1995). CyberSociety: Computer-mediated
communication and community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Jennifer A. Minotti Education Development Center,
Inc. (EDC) Newton, Massachusetts, USA
jminotti@edc.org
Student Technology Assessment at the Global
Level
Executive Summary
The goal of the Computer Literacy Project is to
gain a better understanding of student perceptions on the nature of computer
literacy. The Computer Literacy Project Survey was developed over the last
three years as the foundation of research into advanced technology use in
education research. I have been particularly interested in the nature of
computer literacy at the university level and in differential notions of
computer literacy across disciplines. The survey has been electronically
distributed to universities in nine states in the U.S and five countries
outside the U.S., see Table 1. This is the first time in the history of
education research that such a systematic study on computer literacy has
been carried out using the Internet and web-based technology that has
reached international proportions. Reported here are preliminary results
from two Australian universities, one university in Hong Kong and one
university in the US.
Continued at
http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2002/index.html#3
"What's wrong with PowerPoint--and how to fix it," by David Coursey,
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk September 10, 2003 ---
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914637,00.html
(Thank you Ed Scibner for pointing to this link.)
Are PowerPoint slides making us stupid? Are all
problems really just a few bullet points away from their solutions? Or is
the medium having a bad effect on the message? I'm no Marshall McLuhan or
Edward Tufte (I will pause here to let you all shout, "Damn straight!"), but
I do know something about business presentations and how they're put
together. And I know that PowerPoint too often gets in the way of the
message, replacing clear thought with unnecessary animations, serious ideas
with 10-word bullet points, substance with tacky, confusing style.
I DON'T KNOW what
McLuhan would think about PowerPoint, him being dead and all. But Tufte is
very much alive and, in
an essay appearing in the September issue of Wired, minces no words:
"PowerPoint is evil," says the Yale professor whose books have set the
standard for graphic presentation in the computer age.
Tufte says that slideware programs like PowerPoint
(there aren't many others left) "may help speakers outline their talks, but
convenience for speakers can be punishing to both content and audience." The
standard PowerPoint deck, he says, "elevates format over content, betraying
an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch."
This is especially true given that many
presenters--who really shouldn't be presenting in the first place--use
PowerPoint as a crutch. PowerPoint becomes a tool to separate the presenter
from the audience and from the message.
But it doesn't have to be this way. It's possible
to use PowerPoint as a tool (just like
the projector you probably use to display your presentation), and as a
real complement to what you're saying, without dumbing down your ideas.
Today I'd like to offer some advice to help you do just that.
- Do the presentation first, then the slides.
Many people draft and write their presentation in PowerPoint itself.
It's far better to prepare the presentation in Word (or whatever other
tool you use to write)--including all the detail you want to
present--and then transfer the highlights to PowerPoint. The one problem
with using Word for this: It doesn't have a very good outlining tool.
- Artwork has killed more presentations than
it's saved. You're not a graphic artist, and neither am I.
PowerPoint makes it too easy to add confusing graphics to presentations.
Use restraint.
- Animation is for cartoons. Animation
tends to take over the presentation, which then becomes more about the
presenter trying to make all the builds and transitions work properly
than actually presenting the content.
- Present more than the slide. Don't you
hate it when presenters stand at the front of a room and read their
slides ? Slides are supposed to convey the major points of the
presentation, reinforcing the speaker's points. Use them as prompts to
talk about specific topics, as an outline, not as the substance of the
presentation itself.
- Use the notes pages. Many people are
unaware that PowerPoint lets you attach notes to slides, which can then
be printed and used to guide you or to give to the audience. Search for
"notes" in the Help file to find out more about this feature.
- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. No, you
don't have to stand in front of a mirror and do your entire
presentation. But a sit-down with some colleagues can answer the
questions, "Do these slides make sense?" and "Is this the information
people care about?"--before you find out the hard way.
My point here is that PowerPoint glitz alone does not
an effective presentation make. While your decks shouldn't be boring, they
aren't entertainment, either. A few staging and showbiz skills help, but
most presentations are won or lost in the actual content. Your job is to
control PowerPoint. If you don't, PowerPoint will control your presentation.
The
Digital Divide is Real
In the 15th Century when
the printing press was invented, the majority of the world's population was
illiterate and could not make use of the books that poured forth. Six
hundred years later, a large proportion of the world's population still can
neither read nor write. In the 21st Century when the printing press gives
way to digital storage and networked distribution, the hardcore illiterate will
not benefit by virtue of being illiterate. An even larger number who can
read and write will still not have access anywhere close to the privileged
populace having access to modern technologies.
One day, modern
technologies will be the main agent in eradicating illiteracy and ignorance.
But in the interim decades, or even centuries, these technologies will
exacerbate the divide between those who can benefit directly from technologies
and those who are denied access for one reason or another (poverty, isolation,
religious constraints, cultural constraints, etc.)
Websites Failing Disabled Users
"Websites 'failing' disabled users," by Geoff Adams-Spink, BBC News Online,
April 14, 2004 ---
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3623407.stm
An investigation by the Disability Rights
Commission shows that most websites are unusable by disabled people.
This means that many everyday activities carried
out on the internet - booking a holiday, managing a bank account, buying
theatre tickets or finding a cheaper credit card - are difficult or
impossible for many disabled people.
Bert Massie, DRC Chairman described the situation
as "unacceptable", and said the organisation was determined not to allow
disabled people to be left behind by technology
A thousand websites were tested for the survey
using automated software, and detailed user testing was carried out on 100
sites, including government, business, e-commerce, leisure and web services
such as search engines.
The results showed that the worst affected group
were those with visual impairments.
Blind people involved in testing websites were
unable to perform nearly all of the tasks required of them despite using
devices such as screen readers.
"The web has been around for 10 years, yet within
this short space of time it has managed to throw up the same hurdles to
access and participation by disabled people as the physical world," said Mr
Massie.
"It is an environment that could be made more
accommodating to disabled people at a relatively modest expense."
Mr Massie warned website owners to improve
accessibility or be prepared to face legal action.
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act requires
information providers to make their services accessible.
The problems most commonly encountered by the
disabled website testers were cluttered pages, confusing navigation, failure
to describe images and poor colour contrast between background and text.
Researchers at London's City University, who
carried out the study for the DRC, also found that many web developers were
unaware of what needed to be done to make sites accessible.
Continued in the article
Good Website Design Checklist
- Provide text equivalence for non-text elements
- Ensure good color contrast between foreground and background
- Pages must be usable when scripts and applets are turned off or not
supported
- Avoid movement in pages
- Avoid pop-ups and don't change window without telling user
- Divide large blocks of information into manageable chunks
- Clearly identify the target of each link
- Use the clearest and simplest language possible
Related Documents
Is your distance site operating within the law in
terms of access by disabled students?
Schools must demonstrate progress toward compliance.
Accessibility in Distance Education A Resource for Faculty in Online Teaching
--- http://www.umuc.edu/ade/
Common Questions |
What does the word "accessibility"
mean? (What
is Accessibility?) What disability laws should I know
about if I teach online? (Legal
Issues)
What do I need to consider if I have a student with a
disability in my online course? (Understanding
Disabilities)
How do I make my Web site accessible to everyone,
including students with disabilities? (How-To)
What does an accessible Web site look like? Does it have
to be text based? (Best
Practices) |
|
You can download the MP3 audio file of Susan Spencer's August 2002
presentation on this at one of my workshops ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm#2002
Lots of
Hype and Not Much Profit
From customer to analyst to investor, the consensus is that E-learning still
has a few things of its own to learn. Until last month, the online-training
sector wasn't as hard hit by the IT spending slump as most of the tech industry
because it lets companies with tight travel and training budgets train workers
inexpensively. But all that's changed.
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eHIP0BcUEY04e0Bcm70A1
"E-Learning Struggles To Make The
Grade," by Elisabeth Goodridge, Information, May 13, 2002 ---
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020509S0011
From customer to
analyst to investor, the consensus is that E-learning still has a few things
of its own to learn. It's a technology that's being re-evaluated across the
board. There are plenty of problems, as early adopters discovered. "Many
people have been burned," Meta Group analyst Jennifer Vollmer says. "And
they're advising others to hold off if it isn't necessary."
Some of the
stumbling blocks that trip up users of E-learning technologies are
integration and interoperability problems among elements of E-learning
systems; product limitations; inadequate support services; and vendors'
financial woes.
But until last
month, the online-training sector wasn't as hard-hit by the IT-spending
slump as most of the technology industry. What E-learning had going for it
was an ability to let companies with tight travel and training budgets train
workers inexpensively.
For about a year
and a half, many providers saw double-digit revenue growth, and several
quickly became leaders in a field of hundreds. Docent, Plateau Systems, and
Saba Software emerged as top developers of learning-management systems.
Centra Software and Interwise became known for live-collaboration software,
and NetG, SmartForce, and SkillSoft gained popularity as course-content
designers.
Now, weakening
demand is evident. Centra, SmartForce, and learning-management system makers
Click2learn and DigitalThink warned in April of revenue shortfalls. On Wall
Street, many suppliers' shares have lost more than 50% of their value since
January.
Still, E-learning
has a future; what it lacks is maturity. So, while there are businesses
seeking the E-learning advantage, many are taking their time doing so.
Before investing in these systems, they want to make sure they fully
understand their own training needs, what works and doesn't in an E-learning
format, and their product options. "People are slowing down on jumping into
E-learning with both feet," says Larry Carlile, E-learning manager at
consulting firm A.T. Kearney. "From cost savings to effectiveness, there's a
better analysis these days."
Companies know that
E-learning is no longer just about immediate cost savings but about
increasing worker productivity, driving operational efficiencies, and
streamlining corporate training. "With all of these benefits, E-learning is
going to work, but we haven't found the best way to go about it," says Giga
Information Group analyst Claire Schooley.
A number of deals
in recent weeks show that many companies still believe they can make
E-learning work. The American Red Cross and learning-management system
supplier Plateau Systems cut a seven-year deal worth more than $10 million;
Pathlore Software Corp. implemented a system for Delta Air Lines Inc.; and
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. said last month that its use of the Vuepoint
Learning System to consolidate training departments will save the automaker
more than $11.9 million in five years.
Continued at
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020509S0011
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change and
Mutation
Fearing your student evaluations, how much time and trouble should you
devote to email questions from your students?
For junior faculty members, the barrage of e-mail has
brought new tension into their work lives, some say, as they struggle with how
to respond. Their tenure prospects, they realize, may rest in part on student
evaluations of their accessibility. The stakes are different for professors
today than they were even a decade ago, said Patricia Ewick, chairwoman of the
sociology department at Clark University in Massachusetts, explaining that
"students are constantly asked to fill out evaluations of individual faculty."
Students also frequently post their own evaluations on Web sites like
www.ratemyprofessors.com and describe their
impressions of their professors on blogs.
Jonathan D. Glater, "To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About
Me," The New York Times, February 21, 2006 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/education/21professors.html
Bob Jensen's threads on controversies over student evaluations are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#GradeInflation
"Fulfilling Technology's Broken Promise: A Perspective on Educational
Technology,"
by Robert Bilyk, co-founder of lodeStar Learning Inc. and Cyber Village Academy,
T.H.E. Journal, February 2006 ---
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17933/
The Broken Promise of
Technology
The one inarguable difference between now and then has been
the promise that technology holds for the classroom teacher.
In the early 1980s, I worked with stand-alone machines that
could render stick figures on the screen and display text
and numbers. The state of the art in audio was a few timely
beeps. Nevertheless, I could envision the promise and began
creating things that I could use in the classroom to help
kids.
Over the course of time, more and
more educators have turned to technology to help kids—but
only to be disappointed time and again. Computers were
expensive, they broke or became obsolete, they didn’t talk
to one another, and they divided teachers’ allegiance
through the great schism of Macs vs. PCs. Then there was the
software that sat in shrink-wrapped packages unused.
Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) were also expensive and
inflexible. If a teacher didn’t like the pedagogy or content
of a particular lesson, she could do little to change, add,
or delete content. Teachers had to accept the bad with the
good: ILS perpetuated the existence of the stick figure;
computers threatened the existence of the teacher. At least,
that was a common apprehension.
And despite the greater use of technology, studies
such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
from the National Center for Education Statistics have shown that our
students still weren’t achieving well in math and science compared to their
European and Asian counterparts. Fortunately, today’s educators are on the
cusp of a tremendous realization: The promise that computers held for
increased student achievement are finally being realized.
The New Promise of Technology
A teacher today who dares to imagine the possibilities that current
technology affords won’t be disappointed: The total cost of ownership of a
computer continues to decrease. Software is cheap and oftentimes free.
Access to the Internet and all of the educational content that it holds is
practically ubiquitous in American schools. Standards permit dissimilar
computers to communicate with one another, and for educational content to be
searched and shared. Therefore, technology needs to be met halfway. Lead
teachers, mentor teachers, curriculum directors and administrators—teachers
in general—must dare to dream again. Schools must place networked computers
in classrooms, libraries, lobbies, and wherever else they can be safely
accessed. Accessibility to computers is essential. Teachers need to be
trained—not once but often. Professional development is also essential
because teachers need to support each another. Ideally, teachers from common
disciplines would network with one another. The use of instructional
technology by teachers to improve student achievement must become habitual.
And finally, all roads must lead to the teacher. That is, all student
performance data must flow effortlessly to the teacher.
To fulfill the promise, computer use by teachers
must become habitual, and computer use to improve student achievement must
become habitual. The advent of learning management systems like Microsoft
Class Server, Blackboard and Desire2Learn has enabled teachers to manage the
student online learning experience. Often, school districts direct this
usage to the exception—offering activities to children who are ill,
replacing snow days with online days, and providing a class to a
home-schooled child.
The snow day example was my favorite. The online
snow day was designed by well-intentioned educators, but it had its flaws.
In this example, the school trained its entire staff on an LMS so that one
day, when it snowed, students could access their courses online. On the day
it snowed, the untested system failed; staff were out of practice in
creating, assigning, and grading; and students could hardly remember how to
log on. This example might seem a little extraordinary, yet variations on
this same theme are commonplace. Rather than integrating online curriculum
into the example, schools flirt with technology at the edges, addressing the
“unusual situation” so that the business of integrating the class with
technology does not become “habitual” and second nature for teachers.
Continued in article
February 24, 2006 reply from Robert Holmes Glendale College
[rcholmes@GLENDALE.CC.CA.US]
I have spent time in these classes reflecting on
the role of the teacher. (I am mostly retired and teach one accounting class
online.) The most effective classes are those that invlove two way
communication with the students. Technology and lectures are poor
substitutes for this dialogue. The electricity that sparks in the classes as
the students offer ideas, the instructor says give me more, other students
say "I never thought about that" is something to behold. I feel sorry for
those (including my students) who have to try to get an education without
this kind of enriching excitement.
One damaging effect of the clash between the academic
and IT cultures is that teaching and scholarship have remained relatively
untouched by the new information technologies.
Edward L. Ayers (, "The Academic Culture and the IT Culture: Their Effect on
Teaching and Scholarship," EDUCAUSE Review, December 2004 ---
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm04/erm0462.asp
Edward L. Ayers is Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
and is Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
A year ago, my colleague Charles Grisham and I
wrote an EDUCAUSE Review article entitled "Why IT Has Not Paid Off As We
Hoped (Yet)." In short, we argued that information technology has not yet
transformed higher education because the areas of teaching and scholarship,
the "heart" of colleges and universities, have remained relatively untouched
by the new technologies. In this article, I’d like to continue the
discussion and also go further, exploring not only why these two areas
continue to be, for the most part, resistant to the changes but also how
technology can successfully address these core missions of higher
education.1
The Invisible Success of IT Those of us who have
been involved for a while in the long courtship between higher education and
information technology can recall many ups and downs in the last thirty
years or so.2 We remember when we first saw Mosaic, Netscape, and the World
Wide Web. At each step along the way, some of the more impressionable among
us thought that one innovation or another would push us over the top, that
we would have finally gained the critical mass that would channel the
undeniable power of information technology into higher education. We watched
as commerce was transformed, as entertainment was transformed, as personal
communication was transformed, and we kept waiting for the moment when
higher education would be transformed in the same way.
In particular, we waited for the time when the very
heart of education—the classroom and the scholarship taught in that
classroom—would be transformed. Yet despite the tremendous investment that
all institutions of higher education have made in information technology,
despite the number of classrooms wired and the number of laptops mandated,
the vast majority of classes proceed as they have for generations—isolated,
even insulated, from the powerful technologies we use in the rest of our
lives. Moreover, the form in which scholarship appears has barely changed.
Across almost every field, researchers, no matter how sophisticated the
technology they use in discovery, translate their discoveries into simple
word-processed documents. Sure, they sometimes add JPEG images and other
illustrations; and in the sciences, pre-prints rush around the world long
before print journals would be able to publish the articles. But producing
scholarly discourse in HTML and PDF formats has not changed scholarship in
any significant manner. The nature of argument has remained remarkably
resistant to innovation in rhetoric or form in every field of scholarly
endeavor.
Very real technological accomplishments have tended
to become invisible because they have been so successful. If you had told
people a decade ago that card catalogs would virtually disappear within ten
years and would be replaced by our current information-management systems,
they would not have believed you. Librarians have been the real heroes of
the digital revolution in higher education. They are the ones who have seen
the farthest, done the most, accepted the hardest challenges, and
demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the
process, they have turned their own field upside down and have
revolutionized their professional training. It is testimony to their success
that we take their achievement—and their information-management systems—for
granted.
Similarly, college and university IT professionals
have done more than anyone has asked them to do. The speed with which they
have built networks and infrastructure, trained people, and created new
student-registration and fiscal-management systems has been remarkable. And
again, their success is taken for granted, with IT becoming almost as
invisible as the electricity on which it runs. In a cruel irony, few faculty
think "Ah, I will now use technology" whenever they check to see whether a
book is in the library, or whether a student is enrolled, or whether their
paycheck has been posted. And yet many do think: "I don’t want to use
technology, or I can’t use technology, to teach in the classroom or to
disseminate my scholarship." Those faculty who have ignored all the
excitement up to this point have decided that they can withstand whatever
else is put before them until the end of their careers. They go to their
professional scholarly meetings and see only a few workshops and talks on
the new technologies; they read the job ads and see that the jobs require
exactly the same credentials as were required a quarter century ago.
The bottom line is that despite all the work and
successes of IT professionals, teaching and scholarship at leading
institutions of higher education remain relatively resistant to the
possibilities of information technology.
The Academic and IT Cultures From the viewpoint of
a dean who would love to see the transformation of higher education
accelerated, and from the viewpoint of a long-time laborer in the technology
vineyard who would love to see some of the fruit come to harvest, I’m struck
by many faculty members’ resistance to the obvious benefits of the maturing
technologies. From the viewpoint of a professor, however, I understand some
of the more obvious reasons for this resistance: shortages of time, money,
and energy. In addition, I see more systemic reasons, ones that we might
call "cultural": deeply patterned, deeply entrenched habits of thoughts and
behavior. The problem is that the academic culture and the IT culture simply
do not mix together well.
Nobody seems to like the word academic. "That’s
merely academic" is used as a dismissive description of something irrelevant
to real life, something as pointless as counting angels on the head of a pin
or writing an English composition paper on Beowulf. Any mention of the word
academic in a book review is a kiss of death. In a particularly cruel twist,
even when a nonacademic praises a book by a professor, the reviewer often
dismisses the academy in the process: "Not the boring, self-indulgent,
impenetrable, dithering book we always expect from an academic, this book is
almost as good as one written by someone who knows a lot less about the
subject."
When asked to identify ourselves, almost no
professors choose "academic" as their first choice. "College teacher" can
sometimes sound good, with its shades of the movie Dead Poets Society.
"Professor" can be OK on occasion, bringing to mind John Houseman in the
movie The Paper Chase. Saying that you work "at the college" or "over at the
university" can usually get you through a casual conversation without too
much loss of status at the tire store or supermarket.
But being more specific can often cause problems.
When I’m on an airplane and tell someone that I teach history, all too often
the response is: "Boy, I always hated history—all those names and dates." I
got some notion of this when I started to work on the subject of the Civil
War, and my mother-in-law, a very sweet woman, introduced me to one of her
friends as a "Civil War buff." I carefully tried to explain the difference
between a historian and a buff, with the main difference seeming to be that
I don’t have another job from which the Civil War is merely a hobby.
As problematic as disciplinary nomenclature can be,
adding "academic" makes it even more toxic. The title of "dean" sounds
imposing, if faintly scary (satisfyingly enough), since so few people,
including deans, know exactly what a dean does. But even I cringe when I
think about defining myself as what I actually am during most of my waking
hours: an "academic administrator." It’s hard to think of many job
descriptions (for legally paying work) that have more negative connotations
than that. The title conjures up all the mustiness of "academic" along with
all the bureaucratic, paper-pushing, rubber stamp–wielding, red
tape–entangling connotations of "administration."
On the other hand, as someone who has served on IT
committees dominated by IT staff, I know how IT people speak about
academics. I’ve seen the eye-rolling and heard the chuckling at some of the
more clueless of my academic colleagues who can’t figure out how to empty
the trashbin on their desktop computer. Still, my friends in information
technology have their own struggles. You know the stereotypes. You’ve heard
the whispers: "geek." As for me, I represent the worst of all worlds: I’m
both a lifelong academic and a longtime IT geek. But perhaps this does give
me the credentials to delve into the nomenclature of both the academic
culture and the IT culture.
For a definition of geek, I turn to a very
convenient authority, the dictionary function of Microsoft Word:
geek (n.):
1. somebody who is considered unattractive and socially awkward
(insult)
2. a carnival performer whose act consists of outrageous feats such as
biting the heads off live animals
3. somebody who enjoys or takes pride in using computers or other
technology, often to what others consider an excessive degree (informal
disapproving)
Leaving aside "biting the heads off live
animals"—an activity that, in my experience, is indulged in by only a few
academic administrators, and usually in private—I rest my case. When your
own computer program tells you that by using that very program to "an
excessive degree," you are becoming increasingly "unattractive and socially
awkward," you might suspect that you’re in trouble. If you brush that
warning aside to finish writing an article with that same program, you
really are a geek.
As is often the case with oppressed groups, the
disdain faced by those in the IT arena and those in the academic arena has
not always brought the two together in a shared bond. The two cultures have
so much to offer one another, so much to teach one another, if they would
only look past the tweed and elbow patches on the one hand and the pocket
protectors on the other. The IT industry and the academy share some obvious
and important characteristics. Both deal with intangibles, especially ideas.
Both are focused on networks and on the information those networks carry.
Both are dedicated to innovation and competition. Both are extensible
structures: build something once, and you can apply it everywhere.
But taking a clear-eyed view reveals that there’s
more to the story. As shown in Table 1, information technology and the
academy display competing characteristics.
Table 1.
Competing Characteristics
Information Technology |
The Academy |
|
- strongly
identified with a very specific location
|
|
- a
self-consciously ancient institution
|
|
- the most
stable institution across the world
|
- new
competitors continually emerge
|
-
impossible to break into top ranks
|
-
possibility of great profits
|
- no
possibility of profit at all
|
- work
performed by anonymous teams
|
- centered
on scholarly stars
|
|
- designed
to deny obsolescence
|
-
virtually instant results necessary
|
- patience
a central virtue
|
- designed
to be transparent
|
|
Since information technology has infiltrated every
nook and cranny of other parts of life, it seems to me that it must be the
academy that resists. That is because several basic paradoxes lie at the
heart of the modern American university—basic conflicts that make the
academy a fascinating place to live and a hard place to administer:
Continued in the
article
Teachers Must Adapt to Changed Mindsets of Incoming
Students Who Grew Up With Computers
"How do you communicate with students who have grown up with technology?
Schools are looking to technology for the answer," by Kevin Delaney, The Wall
Street Journal, January 17, 2005, Page R4 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110556110781524378,00.html?mod=todays_us_the_journal_report
Forget the computer lab. To hold the
attention of the tech-savvy PlayStation 2 generation, educators are working
digital technology into every corner of the curriculum.
Pioneering teachers are getting their
classes to post writing assignments online so other students can easily read
and critique them. They're letting kids practice foreign languages in
electronic forums instead of pen-and-paper journals. They're passing out
PDAs to use in scientific experiments and infrared gadgets that let students
answer questions in class with the touch of a button. And in the process,
the educators are beginning to interact with students, parents and each
other in ways they never have before.
The issue is, "how do we communicate
with students today who have grown up with technology from the beginning?"
says Tim Wilson, a technology-integration specialist at Hopkins High School
in Minnetonka, Minn. "The traditional linear approach...often seems too slow
and boring to students used to MTV, instant messaging and MP3s."
Permanent Record
Boosting this grass-roots tech effort
is a new wave of free and low-cost technologies and services. Online forums
and Web logs, or blogs, are simple to set up and free to use. So are "wikis"
-- Web pages that can be written on as well as read, making it easy for
teachers to make notes in the digital margins. Hardware, too, is getting
cheaper: Prices have fallen for everything from wireless-networking
equipment to hand-held gadgets to personal computers. And thanks to a
computerization drive of the past decade or so, 99% of public schools now
have Internet access, with an average of one computer for every five
students, according to the Department of Education.
The department recently concluded
that schools on the whole aren't doing enough with that infrastructure. But
in schools across the country, a corps of tech-savvy educators are showing
how to get the job done. Students in journalism classes at Hunterdon Central
Regional High School in Flemington, N.J., for example, never turn in
hard-copy assignments. They post them on blogs -- which allows their
teacher, Will Richardson, and their fellow students to read and post
comments about the articles.
Mr. Richardson says students like the
blogs especially as an organizing tool, letting them easily search through
past assignments. More broadly, he believes the blogs have "really profound
implications" for education: Students discuss each other's work in new ways,
such as linking to relevant information on the Web to support their
comments. In some cases, people outside the school can access the blogs,
providing students with a platform for disseminating their views. The blogs
also let parents keep up to date on their kids' assignments more easily than
ever before.
Lewis Elementary School in Portland,
Ore., also uses Web-based publishing technology to open up new possibilities
in communication. Fifth-graders send classwork, and essays and articles for
their monthly newspaper, to a wiki over the school's network. Teacher Kathy
Gould goes to the Web page and writes corrections and comments directly into
the text -- instead of posting a note in a separate "comments" section, as
with a blog. Students can then access the wiki to read and respond to her
comments.
Meanwhile, students in John
Unruh-Friesen's advanced-placement government class at Hopkins High School
conduct running debates on an online forum outside of the classroom. The
students, mostly 12th-graders, tackle issues including the presidential
election, the possibility of a military draft and the Middle East conflict.
"Some students are reluctant to
participate in class discussions," says Mr. Wilson, the
technology-integration specialist at Hopkins. "Some of those kids feel much
more comfortable interacting when they have time to craft a response."
Students in advanced foreign-language
classes at Hopkins use forums to keep online journals and interact with each
other. For example, the instructor of the fifth-year French course, Molly
Wieland, used to require students to keep paper journals in French. Since
moving those to an online forum, she says the students write more than they
did before.
The fact that they're writing for an
audience larger than just their teacher makes a difference, and what they're
saying tends to be more conversational and relevant to the students' lives.
A recent exchange between the students involved college choices and the
wisdom of rooming with your best friend in the dorm -- all in French.
Continued in the article
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Concerns About Faculty
Workloads and Burnout
Question
Why should teaching a course online take "twice as much time" as teaching it
onsite?
Answer
Introduction to Economics: Experiences of teaching this course online
versus onsite
With a growing number of courses offered online and
degrees offered through the Internet, there is a considerable interest in online
education, particularly as it relates to the quality of online instruction. The
major concerns are centering on the following questions: What will be the new
role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes
be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective
communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of
face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the
online learning environment? This paper will examine new challenges and barriers
for online instructors, highlight major themes prevalent in the literature
related to “quality control or assurance” in online education, and provide
practical strategies for instructors to design and deliver effective online
instruction. Recommendations will be made on how to prepare instructors for
quality online instruction.
Yi Yang and Linda F. Cornelious, "Preparing Instructors for Quality
Online Instruction, Working Paper ---
http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/ojdla/spring81/yang81.htm
Jensen Comment: The bottom line is that teaching the course online took
twice as much time because "largely from increased student contact and
individualized instruction and not from the use of technology per se."
Bob Jensen's threads on the positive side are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
September 2, 2004 message from Carolyn Kotlas
[kotlas@email.unc.edu]
SURVEY ON QUALITY AND EXTENT OF ONLINE EDUCATION
The Sloan Consortium's 2003 Survey of Online
Learning wanted to know would students, faculty, and institutions embrace
online education as a delivery method and would the quality of online
education match that of face-to-face instruction. The survey found strong
evidence that students are willing to sign up for online courses and that
institutions consider online courses part of a "critical long-term strategy
for their institution." It is less clear that faculty have embraced online
teaching with the same degree of enthusiasm. The survey's findings are
available in "Sizing the Opportunity: The Quality & Extent of Online
Education in the U.S., 2002 and 2003" by I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman,
Sloan Center for Online Education at Olin and Babson Colleges. The complete
report is online at
http://www.sloan-c.org/resources/sizing_opportunity.pdf
The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is a consortium of
institutions and organizations committed "to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs
according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a
part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at
any time, in a wide variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation. For more information, see
http://www.sloan-c.org/
July 1, 2004 message from Carolyn
Kotlas [kotlas@email.unc.edu]
STUDY OF ONLINE TEACHING WORKLOAD
In "Faculty Self-Study Research Project: Examining
the Online Workload" (JOURNAL OF ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING NETWORKS, vol. 8,
issue 3, June 2004), Melody M. Thompson, Director of the American Center for
the Study of Distance Education at Penn State, reports on a workload study
that was designed to go beyond anecdotal testimony. In the project six
faculty who were teaching online courses "strove to identify those tasks
that consumed a disproportionate amount of faculty time -- particularly time
taken away from actual teaching/learning interactions with students." The
study indicated that their workload "as measured by time on task, was
comparable to or somewhat less than that for face-to-face courses." The
article is available online at
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v8n3/v8n3_thompson.asp .
The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks
(JALN) [ISSN 1092-8235] is an electronic publication of The Sloan Consortium
(Sloan-C). Current and back issues are available at
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln .
Accounting professors who teach online discuss their workloads at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/cepSanAntonio.htm
"Teaching Courses Online: How Much Time Does It Take," by Belinda Davis
Lazarus, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, September 2003 ---
http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v7n3/v7n3_lazarus.asp
ABSTRACT
Studies show that temporal factors like workload and lack of release time
inhibit faculty participation in developing and teaching online courses;
however, few studies exist to gauge the time commitment. This longitudinal
case study, presented at the Seventh Annual Sloan-C International Conference
on ALN, examined the amount of time needed to teach three asynchronous
online courses at The University of Michigan-Dearborn from Winter 1999
through Winter 2000. Twenty-five students were enrolled in each course.
Self-monitoring was used to measure the amount of time required to complete
the following activities: 1) reading and responding to emails; 2) reading,
participating in, and grading 10 online discussions; and 3) grading 15
assignments. Using a stopwatch, the investigator timed and recorded the
number of minutes needed for each activity. Also, all messages and
assignments were archived and frequency counts were recorded. The weekly,
mean number of minutes and assignments was entered on line graphs for
analysis. The data showed that teaching each online course required 3 to 7
hours per week, with the greatest number of emails and amount of time
required during the first and last 2-weeks of the semesters. Participation
in and grading of the discussions took the greatest amount of time and
remained steady across the semester. However unlike many live courses, the
students participated more in the discussions than the instructor did. The
number of assignments that were submitted each week steadily increased over
each semester. This case study indicates that the time needed to teach
online courses falls within the range of reasonable expectations for
teaching either live or online courses and represents the beginning of this
area of inquiry. Consequently, additional studies are needed with a variety
of instructors across a variety of courses and disciplines to further
pinpoint faculty time commitment.
KEYWORDS Online Courses, Longitudinal Experiment,
Faculty Workload, Teaching Online Courses
Personal E-mails Can Overwhelm
"Please Learn From My Mistakes," by David G. Brown, Syllabus, August 2002 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6592
I have come to the sad realization that many of the
innovations designed to keep my course fresh have failed. My memories of
failures are so poignant that it may be constructive to share them here.
They can serve as warnings to others.
Unstructured chat room discussions don’t work.
Chats lack depth. Someone new is always interrupting the online conversation
with his or her own topic just when the discussion is getting interesting.
Ungraded assignments are usually ignored. I used to
ask two students to search the Web for two or three sites that provided
alternative ways to learn the “topic of the day.” They shared information on
these sites in annotated bibliographies. An end-of-the-course evaluation,
however, revealed that their classmates never went to these sites.
My current practice is to require each student to
e-mail me with an evaluative comment regarding the sites. They know that
their comments will factor into the participation portion of their course
grades. A recent end-of-the-course evaluation now shows that the students
regard the alternate Web sites as important and useful components of the
course.
Personal e-mails can overwhelm. One semester, I
asked all of my students to send me an e-mail answer to an assigned question
each time we reached the end of a textbook chapter. The responsibility for
reading and evaluating all those submissions just about ruined my family
life. Now I have Student A e-mail a proposed answer to Students B and C.
Students A, B, and C must settle on a single answer. They teach one another,
and I have only one-third as much grading to do.
Students need to know in advance what their
responsibilities are if the computer network goes down on the eve of an
important deadline. Networks do go down. Students will panic, unless there
are instructions in the syllabus that anticipate forgiveness or outline
their alternatives.
Another semester, several weeks before the final, I
accidentally deleted all my students’ grades from the electronic grade book.
Fortunately, the syllabus stressed that each student is expected to keep a
copy of every assignment submitted and also of every grade-related message
sent to him or her. With help from the class and substantial effort, I was
able to reconstruct the gradebook. Now I print out a backup copy of grades
about every two weeks.
I’ve come to realize that students accessing
materials from course Web sites using a dial-up modem from a shared
apartment off campus cannot, or will not, wait for long downloads. I had the
bright—and well-received—idea of personalizing the list of course
assignments. For each of our 34 assignment days I added thumbnail photos of
the students responsible for presenting their special reports. Although
student reaction to this personalization was quite positive, I noticed that
they were consulting the list of assignments less frequently. A focus group
session revealed that the list was now taking longer than a minute to open.
Consulting the list was an increased burden.
My students bring their laptops to class everyday.
Even so, I’ve learned that it’s wise to exchange e-mail messages before
class when anything out of the ordinary is to occur. If, for example, my
plan for the day requires that every student have their computer, I send the
class an e-mail message.
I suspect that others have made mistakes from which
we can all learn. If you have a brief story you’d like me to share in a
future column, please e-mail me. Let me know if it’s OK to mention your name
or if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
Online Faculty Workloads
The CIT Infobits May 2002 article "Online Teaching and the 24-Hour Professor"
(
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitmay02.html#1 ) described how the Internet
is changing professors' workdays and workloads. John Messing, Director of the
Research Centre for Innovation in Telelearning Environments at Charles Sturt
University, continues this topic in "Can Academics Afford to Use E-mail?" (E-JOURNAL
OF INSTRUCTIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 5, no. 2, August 2002).
Messing reports on a study that began as "an attempt to quantify what many
educators have suspected . . . that the workload associated with the use of
online tools is considerably higher than with conventional technologies. In the
process of trying to make sense of the data, it became clear that there are a
number of issues such as increased expectations on the part of students and the
disproportionate load that administrative use of e-mail places on academics that
are rarely, if ever, considered as part of the debate.
he study analyzed the author's administrative and
course-related email messages from 1991-2001. Some of his observations:
Regarding course-related email: "While the number
of students in [his Graduate Diploma of Applied Science] course has doubled,
the volume of communication has increased 11 fold. . . ."
Regarding administrative email: "It might take a
secretary 10 to 15 minutes to duplicate and distribute meeting papers to 20
people [via email]. If it takes each recipient just 5 minutes to read,
extract, print and collect the meeting papers, that represents a total of
100 minutes. The secretary saves 10 minutes but the recipients collectively
lose 100 minutes."
He concludes, "Just how much extra time an
individual is prepared to sacrifice in order to also receive the benefits of
the use of such tools is debatable. From a personal perspective, the limit
has been reached. With well over 3000 e-mails to contend with in one
semester, the system has become a scourge rather than a blessing."
The article is available online at
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol6No_1/messing_frame.html
(HTML format) and
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol6No_1/Messing%20-%20Final.pdf
(PDF format).
e-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology
(e-JIST) is published by the Distance Education Centre, University of
Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia; Web:
http://www.usq.edu.au/dec/ Current and back issues of e-JIST are
available at no cost at
http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/
Concerns About Faculty Efficiency and Burnout
Barbara Brown wrote the
following:
There are many myths and tacit assumptions
about computer-mediated learning that can be explored in the Fielding
context. Much has been written about technological efficiency and the
potential of the Internet as an educational medium to save time and money or
increase productivity. The author’s experience inspires a healthy skepticism
in this regard. Having taught students in conventional classrooms for two
decades, I experienced the computer-mediated mode of instruction as more
time-consuming, at least initially, both from the standpoint of up-front
course design and later, painstaking, labor intensive hours online -
designing messages for the classroom forum, reading and downloading from the
screen, posting new material, providing feedback, checking community
bulletin boards, e-mailing student comments and grade reports, etc. In fact,
there were many times when I felt torn between my real life and my virtual
life on-screen, in an identity challenging
[Turkle, Sherry (1995), Life on the Screen:
Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.]
sort of way, simply because there did not seem to exist enough hours in the
day to do justice to both. This was the case even in an "asynchronous"
environment where I had the flexibility to conduct electronic office hours
in my bathrobe over morning coffee or post feedback in the dead of night.
Moreover, absent face-to-face contact and ordinary non-verbal clues, even
very mature students on the Internet demand more frequent interaction and
reassurance in dialogue with their professors, an observation confirmed in
student course evaluations. Students demand more feedback; and the more
feedback they receive, the more interaction they want. There are at least
two possible interpretations of this phenomenon: One is that it reflects the
way students compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction. Or, it may
be that this medium disinhibits student communication, thereby stimulating
the message exchange process. As the intellectual excitement of these
conversations grows, so does the amount of interactivity in the virtual
community.[See Rafaeli, Sheizaf and Fay
Sudweeks (1998), "Interactivity in the Nets," in Network & Net Play:
Virtual Groups on the Internet,
Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press/The MIT Press]
I estimate this
mode of instruction requires roughly 40% to 50% more work on the teacher’s
part in comparison with conventional classroom delivery. For example, where
I might put approximately 36 hours of work per week routinely into a regular
course load with a total of 120 students in four traditional class sections
at a large public university, online instruction at Fielding required 50
hours or more per week - with only 24 students in just three sections of my
digital classes. It also takes longer for faculty members and administrators
to reach consensus in electronic group meetings.
B.M. Brown
"Digital Classrooms: Some Myths About Developing New Educational
Programs Using the Internet,"
T.H.E. Journal, December 98, p. 57
The online version is at
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/current/feat04.html
Also see
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change
Concerns About the Explosion of Online Education
Concerns About High Attrition Rates
in Distance Education
From Infobits on December 21, 2001
HOW TO KEEP E-LEARNERS FROM E-SCAPING
Institutions that offer e-learning courses are
reporting high levels of student attrition and a wide gap between student
enrollments and completions. The authors of "How to Keep E-Learners from
E-scaping" (by Jim Moshinskie and the eLITE Think Tank, JOURNAL OF
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT, vol. 14, no. 1, Summer 2001, pp. 8-11)
present some techniques for getting, motivating, and keeping online
students. Although the paper focuses primarily on online corporate trainers,
the ideas are transferable to any online learning environment.
Some of the techniques outlined in the paper are
common to all instruction delivery methods; some are specific to online
teaching and learning. Here are a few of the authors' strategies:
Before the Online Course "What's in it for me?"
Before the course begins, course providers must help learners see the
benefit of taking the course and taking it online. Instructors must know
their learners' goals, work environments, and connection capabilities. If
the course is for in-service professional development, the students'
employers need to get involved in providing peer coachers and by creating
opportunities for practice and feedback.
During the Online Course Online learning can be an
isolating experience for students. During the online course, instructors
need to pay attention to feedback and human interaction to make up for the
lack of in-person contact. Strategies include giving legitimate feedback
that focuses on an individual's progress and specifically addresses
individual performance. "Chat rooms, E-mail, electronic office hours, audio
streaming, and online mentoring" all can provide the "human touch" between
instructor and student and among fellow students.
After the Online Course Recognizing that learning
is a process, not an event, instructors can support the student who
completes the course by offering follow-up communication, virtual mentoring,
and help in applying the learning in the student's workplace.
Note: the article is not available on the Web.
Check with your college or university library to obtain copies.
Journal of Interactive Instruction Development
[ISSN 1040-0370] is published quarterly by the Learning Technology
Institute, 50 Culpeper Street, Warrenton, VA 20186 USA; tel: 540-347-0055;
fax: 540-439-3169; email: info@lti.org ;
Web:
http://www.lti.org/
Concerns About Residency Living & Learning on Campus
In 1997, I listened to an address by
Robert S. Sullivan, Directory of the IC2 Institute, University of
Texas at Austin. He was extremely positive about opportunities for ALN
networking and bridging of curriculum gaps with web courses that in many
instances will become much higher in quality than a single university will
normally be able to develop only for its own campus. At the end of his address,
in response to a question from the audience, he did raise two very serious
concerns (that I paraphrased below from my videotape of his remarks):
Problem
1: One day a "university" may only be left with onsite faculty
and programs that distributed education vendors are not willing to "pay
for." There is an important debate going on that focuses on the issue of
whether the "university concept" might be undermined.
Problem
2: Students, especially undergraduate students, cannot have a
complete learning experience without being physically present on a
campus. The interpersonal and social dynamics of a campus may be put at
risk with distributed learning.
Robert S.
Sullivan, August 20, 1997 Plenary Session
Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association
Concerns
About Impersonality and Becoming Irrevocably
Orwellian
One of my students,
Elizabeth Eudy, coined the phrase "irrevocably Orwellian." At
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/eeudy/aln.htm she writes the following:
Although it is too far fetched to say that we will turn into cold, heartless
robots as a result of ALN and that our society has become
irrevocably Orwellian, the lack of face-to-face
social interaction could potentially do more harm than good in our
education. Will graduates of ALN degree programs be left wondering how they
will cope in an actual job interview? Students need social interaction as
vital component of maturation and professional development. The most
successful use of ALN thus presents itself as a combination of online
courses and real classroom interaction. The classes do not necessarily have
to meet twice or three times a week as most do now, but rather as needed by
the demands of students or by the judgment of the professor. In any case, as
the market for ALN courses expands (as it is doing) traditional universities
will have to upgrade their curriculum to ALN in order to remain competitive.
At a later
point she writes the following:
ALN courses can be dehumanized to such an extent that students will no
longer feel as if they belong to a learning community. Community is a key
concept for the learning process, and enables students to gain support from
each other. This concept is taken to the limit in traditional universities
where students belong to a university community--they live in the dorms,
they eat together at the cafeteria, they join various student organizatons,
and most importantly, they learn together. The professors and students
ideally belong to the same community of learning; although in some
universities students feel that professors are too inaccessible. Many
proponents of ALN still agree that the human component of education and
university life is necessary. Degerhan Usleul, the chief operating officer
of Interactive Learning International Corporation (ILINC), is quoted as
saying: The importance of an instructor's physical presence, complete
with body language, as well as the rapport one builds with classmates, are
not easily replaced. Jo Ann Davy continues in the article, writing that
Usluel recommends holding a physical event to help relationships,
before connecting online.
Davy, Jo Ann. "Education and Training
Alternatives." Managing Office Technology: Cleveland. April 1998.
Another
student named Katie Lawrence lists drawbacks of ALN in a term paper as follows:
- There are more
dropouts than in actual on-campus courses
- Loss of
commuinty/campus atmosphere
- There are no
current standards for program assessment, so it is difficult for
students to know which courses will be worth the money they are spending
- Often, the
high fees charged for some ALN courses go to fund actual campus courses
rather than the virtual courses being offered.
- Due to the
large number of students taking ALN courses and their tendency to
contact professors frequently, more professors or teaching assistants
are required to adequately teach a cyber course.
- "Learning
ceases to be about analysis, discussion, and examination, and becomes a
product to be bought and sold, to be packaged, advertised, and
marketed." (taken from
Dangers of
Global Education)
- Students loose
out by not actually reading published books.
- Because the
courses are developed in the Western world, Western views are spread to
all parts of the globe, which may inhibit the cultural growth of other
societies, thus creating a unified, undiverse world. Computer access and
availability and modem speed are problems for ALN courses given on
college campuses - students are often times unable to log on due to slow
modems or busy network lines.
Barbara
Brown discusses the myth of asynchronous learning impersonality:
Another myth one
frequently encounters about computer-mediated instruction is that of
impersonality. People assume that in the absence of face-to-face
interaction, relations automatically become more distant and impersonal.
Traditional distance learning formats are said to be plagued with this
problem.[9] Not so, in my experience with the interactive digital classroom.
There is a type of intimacy achievable between teachers and students in this
medium that is quite extraordinary, reminiscent of what Sproull and Keisler
refer to as "second-level" social effects of the technology. I believe this
intimacy results from a sense of shared control and esponsibility,
commitment to collaboration and dialogue, and increased willingness to take
risks in communications with others online. The verbal and writing-intensive
nature of the text-based forum network also forces one to make one’s
thoughts very explicit whenever possible; there is little room for subtlety.
As one administrator put it: "In an online environment, words matter....
Words are everything."
Also, it takes
longer for groups to reach consensus in brain-storming and problem-solving
situations online.[10] People’s feelings can be hurt easily, so more time
and effort are put into explaining meanings and supplying detailed
contextual background to enhance mutual understanding. Thus, writers get to
know one another intimately over time while computer-mediated conversations
- both formal and informal - unfold. Neither e-mail nor chat, the forum
classroom environment at Fielding calls for and inspires thoughtful,
composed (after reading and reflection) asynchronous networked interactions,
without sacrificing human warmth.
At this stage in
the evolution of Internet educational technology, we are all learners. There
is also a sense that we are innovators and early adopters who "crossed over"
early in the technology transfer and diffusion process.[11] In the Fielding
culture, this pioneer experience has come to be known as riding the waves,
or embracing the "turbulence" of rough seas - a metaphor for global and
organizational unrest as well. The attention given to group process online
and the thoughtful nature of master’s-level conversations establish an
intimacy within the group, belying the myth of impersonality.
B.M. Brown
"Digital Classrooms: Some Myths About Developing New Educational
Programs Using the Internet,"
T.H.E. Journal, December 98, pp.
57-58
The online version is at
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/current/feat04.html
"The Myths Of Growing Up Online," by Henry Jenkins, MIT's Technology
Review, September 3, 2004 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/09/wo_jenkins090304.asp?trk=nl
Alarmist and polarized rhetoric is distorting important new findings about the
risks and benefits of children's use of the Internet.
For almost a decade now, the debate about youth and
new media technologies has been polarized around two conflicting myths—let's
call them the Myth of the Columbine Generation and the Myth of the Digital
Generation. The first is driven by fear, the other hope, but both distort
the reality kids and parents must negotiate in the online world, and both
exaggerate the centrality of digital media in children's lives.
Parents, educators, and policymakers can get
whiplash trying to respond to the competing pull of these two myths. One
pulls us toward wiring every classroom in the country so that kids may enjoy
the benefits of digital access, the other mandates filtering programs in
school and library computers since kids can't be trusted once they log on.
In a classic version of the Columbine Generation
argument, Eugene Provenzo Jr., a professor of education at the University of
Chicago, argues that recent school shootings are the "result" of a "social
experiment" in giving children unfettered access to pornography and
violence. By contrast, journalist Jon Katz, in his books Virtuous Reality
and Geeks, offers a vivid version of the Digital Generation perspective,
celebrating the ways that the online world has liberated children from the
constraints of their own neighborhoods and the limitations of their
narrow-minded parents.
Anyone who has read my column over the past few
years knows I fall much closer to Katz than Provenzo. But if we are being
honest, the truth lies somewhere in the huge space in between those two
overstatements. When I went into schools around the country following the
Columbine shootings, it was clear that teachers, parents, and students had
heard plenty about the dangers of going online and little about the
benefits. The case that growing up online was going to produce a more
socially connected, better informed, and more creative generation was a
perspective that was needed to counterbalance the hysteria being generated
by the most sensationalistic news stories. I remember one student
exclaiming, "Why haven't we be told this before?"
As time has passed, I have felt a greater need to
pull back from such either-or arguments, yet to do so seems like unilateral
disarmament as long as the culture warriors are ready to pounce on any
concession. I have become increasingly concerned by the ways that television
discussions, newspaper articles, and government hearings are structured
around the assumption that this debate can be reduced to two opposing sides,
usually pushed to their extremes—making it impossible for more moderate
perspectives to be heard.
A case in point: a conference held this summer at
the University of London brought together educators, activists, and scholars
from more than 40 different countries to examine the research on the impact
of new media on children's mental and social development, and on education,
family, and community life. David Buckingham, one of the event's organizers,
opened the sessions by challenging us to move beyond the easy answers and to
acknowledge the complexities and contradictions our research was
uncovering—good advice that was hard to follow.
A highlight of the conference was London School of
Economics professor Sonia Livingstone's announcement of the preliminary
findings of a major research initiative called UK Children Go Online. This
project involved both quantitative and qualitative studies on the place of
new media in the lives of some 1,500 British children (ages 9 to 19) and
their parents. The study's goal was to provide data that policymakers and
parents could draw on to make decisions about the benefits and risks of
expanding youth access to new media. Remember that phrase—benefitsandrisks.
According to the study, children were neither as
powerful nor as powerless as the two competing myths might suggest. As the
Myth of the Digital Generation suggests, children and youth were using the
Internet effectively as a resource for doing homework, connecting with
friends, and seeking out news and entertainment. At the same time, as the
Myth of the Columbine Generation might imply, the adults in these kids'
lives tended to underestimate the problems their children encountered
online, including the percentage who had unwanted access to pornography, had
received harassing messages, or had given out personal information.
Livingstone’s report arrives at a pivotal moment:
after decades of state-supported broadcasting, the British government is
deregulating media content and opening the airwaves to greater commercial
development. The number of media channels in British homes is expanding—and
parents are being asked to play gatekeepers determining what media entered
their home without being given the training or resources needed to do that
job properly.
Continued in the article
Concerns About
Making Education and Training Too Easy
It has been demonstrated
in various ways in cognitive and learning science that making a training
environment easier may be dysfunctional in the sense that it improves short term
memory at the expense of long-term memory and performance. Complex
information needs to be multiply encoded in semantic and/or situational
associations. Computer-aided training may either enhance or detract from
long-term performance.
For example, I am inclined
to make it easier for students to find answers or get leads in each course
topic. I view it as taking the Mickey Mouse drudgeries of finding things
that consume time. I hope to provide my students with more
time to study what they find and less time trying to find what they study.
To do so I provide as much literature as possible on CD-ROMs (many of which I
record myself), my LAN hard drive, and the University's web server.
However, it is possible that the Mickey Mouse activities contribute
significantly to long-term memory. To the extent that I am making
discovery less difficult and more predictable, I might in fact be improving
students' short term performance at the expense of long-term memory and
cognition.
Robert Bjork states:
It
has now been demonstrated in a variety of ways, and with a variety of
motor, verbal, and problem-solving tasks, that introducing variation
and/or unpredictability in the training environment causes difficulty
for the learner but enhances long-term performance --- particularly the
ability to transfer training to novel but related task environments.
Robert A. Bjork
"Memory and Metamemory considerations in the Training of Human Beings,"
Metacognition: Knowing about Knowing
Edited by Janet Metcalfe and Arthru P. Shimaura
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
ISBN: 0262132982, 1994, Page 189
Click Here
to View Working Paper 265 on Metacognition
Concerns in Designs and
Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training:
Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success?
Other references are
provided later on in this document under the section entitled "Fostering
Deeper Learning: Risks of Teaching More Than You Know."
.
Concerns
About Making Education and Training Too Hard
All courses at Trinity
University are three-credit courses. Virtually all of my students are
full-time students who are taking at least five courses each semester. On
the faculty evaluation forms one of the questions reads: "How would you
rate the workload of this course?" Another question reads:
"How difficult did you find this course?" As I added more ALN
modules in place of lectures, answers to these questions virtually all moved to
"Very Heavy" and "Very Difficult." The following quotation is
representative of class concerns:
The work load was very heavy and put a strain on my other classes.
I liked the material, but weekly quizzes and examinations plus 50-90
pages of reading per class along with other classes is too much.
Actually I usually do not
assign pages to read, but in the process of studying assigned topics, my
graduate students dig out a huge amount of material that they themselves feel
they must study. In research projects constituting over 50% of the course
grade, they must seek out, sift, digest, and nurture a vast amount of learning
material. Often students must spend a great deal of time building
foundations to even study the material. For example, projects entailing
both design and implementation of relational databases entail learning how to
make complicated software work. Projects entailing how to account for
financial instruments derivatives entail learning what those financing contracts
are and how they are used in hedging strategies.
The bottom line is that it
is not be reasonable for all five graduate courses each semester to take as much
time as my courses. Students would become frustrated, angered, and
seek to somehow short circuit their effort if there was not enough time each
week to cover five similar ALN courses. Their traditional lecture
courses are often neat and tidy with problems assigned from the back of the
textbook and sufficient material in the textbook or lectures to master the
assigned materials. Students all study the same materials and can help
each other in many lecture courses. In my asynchronous modules, students
must do a lot more digging on their own and generally come away frustrated by
the "loose ends" that they neither have the time nor skills to master nor the
skills to master. For example, in the process of studying risk
exposures of derivatives contracts they encounter mathematically complex
Value at Risk
time series models. A few of the mathematically inclined students
who elect to delve into such models learn more about Value at Risk than
students who go down other avenues on their projects. Hence, students are
not all studying the same materials, and it becomes more difficult to lean on
each other for help crossing troubled waters. In many instances their
instructor, me, is not sufficiently up on the particulars of each topic to bail
them out. For more on this, skip to the section entitled
Fostering Deeper Learning: Risks of Teaching More
Than You Know.
I like to force students
to struggle on their own, because I think this prepares them for life after
graduation. However, there is a fine line in ALN between making ALN
too easy versus making ALN too hard.
I have not yet achieved the correct balance.
One example where asynchronous learning appears to achieve a good balance is the
Business Activity Model (BAM) in Intermediate Accounting at the
McIntire School of Commerce at
the University of Virginia. A portion of one of my recent email messages
is quoted below:
The mere fact
that many ALN courses are shown to improve grades and/or the rate at which
learning takes place does not imply that long-term performance has been
enhanced. It is not clear whether better performance arises from a
confounding of added sweat with ALNs. What does intrigue me, however, is how
an entire year of Intermediate Accounting (typically very tough courses
requiring memorization of lots of accounting rules and procedures) is now
being taught at the University of Virginia totally without lectures by the
two professors (Croll
and
Catanach)
who, up until 1996, lectured (quite brilliantly) in virtually every class.
Their anecdotal claims for the "BAM" non-lecture approach are that students
are doing markedly better on in course examinations, the CPA examination,
and on the job (which they can monitor since all students have internships
with firms). I now feature a multimedia workshop module of the University of
Virginia BAM ALN program. The average SAT of students in these UVA classes
is over 1300. It is not clear that BAM will work so well on lesser mortals.
One way to judge good ALN
workload balance is to keep track of teaching evaluations. Students
generally voice complaints when workloads are unreasonable (they will not always
complain when a course is too easy). The BAM asynchronous courses at
the University of Virginia have heavy workloads, but Professors Croll and
Catanach manage to pull these courses off with some of the highest instructor
evaluations in the McIntire School of Commerce.
For more detailed
information on the BAM pedagogy, I recommend the following two links:
Concerns
About Corporate Influences on Traditional Missions
There are two types of
partnerings between business firms and universities. The first type is
where the university's faculty deliver a specialized degree program to employees
of a business firm. The program is often specialized calendar, courses,
and mode of delivery. For example, the PriceWaterhouse Coopers MBA program
at the University of Georgia has a customized calendar, customized courses, and
all courses are delivered asynchronously on the web.
Another type of partnering
is where the business firms deliver courses for the university degree programs.
An example of this type of partnering is the AT&T partnering with
Western Governors University that was
announced in two magazines that I track regularly. For example, see
"AT&T Learning Network
Hosts WGU Content," T.H.E. Journal,
February 1999, 14-16.
One of my undergraduate
students, Paul Meekey, notes the rise of partnerships between universities and
corporations where the universities participate in educating and training
employees of companies. Paul's paper can be found at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/pmeekey/frame2.htm wherein he states the
following:
Employers are always trying to find ways to cut costs and now with the
introduction of ALN,
they should be able to do so. Two companies that have enabled this
technology are helping to reduce costs in their post graduate business
training programs. CIGNA
Corporation, an
insurance company located in Philadelphia has formed a partnership with
Drexell University, also in
Philadelphia to create a master's program for information systems. They came
up with a three year program that would train their students online. The
only time they actually met offline was for a two day orientation at the
Drexell campus and after that it was totally online. After the success
of the program, Metlife, another
insurance company decided to form a similar partnership with Drexel
University. One advantage to this program that both company enjoyed was that
both companies didn't have to give up their employees to go back to a
university campus for the 2 yr. graduate program.
The employees could remain working for the company, continue working on
their projects and fulfill their educational requirements after work, before
work, on their days off, or on the weekends. Richard H. Lytle, dean of
Drexel's College of Information and
Technology, says that the he is really excited that both companies are
not only using his program but applying it to software application within
their own applications of everyday work. The program helps the companies to
eliminate some costs and uncertainties of trying to hire full-qualified
employees from major universities and also the time lost when employees have
to go to these classes during normal working hours. The companies are also
using what they have learned through
Drexel University to eventually have all training in the company done
through ALN, in all departments. New York
University's School of Continuing Education also participates in online
learning, and just recently formed a partnership with IBM to offer
information systems courses for their professionals, on a global scale. We
are sure to see a huge increase in ALN used in the business environment.
Companies can keep their employees working hard and earning the profits
while training them to make them more efficient at their job. Although still
young, ALN is helping companies such as
Citicorp, NYNEX
Corp., and Sandoz to become more cost efficient in training their employees.
The above trends are a
mixed blessing. Clearly, expansion into corporate education and
training expands the market alternatives for colleges facing a shrinking and
increasingly competitive environment for traditional students and traditional
continuing education students. The flip side of the coin is that the
universities may sacrifice some of their independence in setting curricula and
course contents since corporations paying for the education and training will
dictate such matters to a large degree.
For more discussion and
references about corporate universities and partnerships between corporations
and traditional universities, see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#CorporatePartnerships and
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#ErnstandYoung
.
Concerns
About Library Services
The Internet has become
the world's library. However, content pales in comparison with
scholarly works found in libraries that contain vast resources that either are
not or cannot be digitized. Making centuries of literature available on
networks is cost prohibitive to digitize for and deliver from web servers.
Copyright restrictions deliberately protect vast bodies of new and older
literature from being digitized.
When asynchronous courses
are delivered off campus, library access becomes a major problem that is
frequently ignored in the hype of ALN promotion. One of my students, Katie
Greene, addresses this problem at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/kgreene/distanceno.htm
In the above document,
Katie provides links and references to literature on looming issues and "new
roles for librarians." She states:
Librarians must change their role if they want
to keep up with the changes in education. They will need to change in three
different ways. The first way would be that "librarians will take on a more
proactive role in the classroom and will work more collaboratively with the
teaching faculty to develop assignments that are feasible in the off-campus/
distance environment." (Lebowitz) Secondly, distance education will bring
about "greater collaboration among institutions". (Lebowitz) Because their
are no constraints on location, libraries from all over can work together to
create collections of works and pool their resources. A good example of this
cooperation, is Western Governors University, which is a university made by
the governors of the western states. Along with this cooperation, though,
"the supplying of library services will become highly competitive, and
libraries may choose to outsource the provision of services to other
institutions" (Cavanagh). Thirdly, the librarian's role "will shift to one
of facilitator/instructor, rather than provider of information." (Slade)
Librarians will now be communicating with students in remote locations via
e-mail, video conferencing, chat lines, or audio conferencing. One example
of this is at
University of Maryland University College where students can
"chat" with librarians online and ask any questions they might have.
Librarians will have to be proactive and learn about the new technologies
and make the materials available to students all over the world.
Many have already used these devices and made the information available. Old
ways included loan programs and mailing books and other materials. Now
librarians use information technology to develop online, virtual libraries.
One criticism is that distant students do not have access to as much
information, but librarians are now able to put entire works, full texts of
books, journals, references, newspapers, as well as web searches and
internet access on the internet.
Some
Examples include:
VIVA the virtual library of
Virginia - electronic collections of books, journals,
newspapers , as well as internet searches.
Online Literature Library
Internet Public Library-
references, magazines, newspapers, online texts.
Carrie-Full-Text Electronic Library.
Katie Greene raises other concerns and discusses the challenges of giving
distance learners the same access to libraries as the access available to
resident students. One wonders how top programs such as the
Duke University Global Executive MBA program and the
Ohio University Online
MBA Without Boundaries program manage to provide library resources to
students.
Judy Luther provides a
paper entitled "Distance Learning and the Digital Library: What Happens
When the Virtual Student Needs to Use the Virtual Library in a Virtual
University," Educom Review, July/August 1998, 23-26. Although no
virtual library is going to contain the text of all books and journals in a
major academic library due to copyright and impracticalities of digitizing
trillions of pages of text and graphics, there are some collaborative efforts
being made by various universities to aid students taking virtual courses off
campus. Judy Luther's article is available at
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/edreview.html.
Concerns
About Academic Standards, School Ethics, and Student Ethics
The University of Phoenix, a network of colleges run by the Apollo Group, is
drawing attention from regulators as well as Wall Street investors.
"Can For-Profit Schools Pass an Ethics Test?" by Eryn Brown, The New York
Times, December 12, 2004 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/business/yourmoney/12school.html?oref=login
Over the last few years, the
Apollo Group has watched its profile rise - mostly for the right
reasons. It has expanded its University of Phoenix to 158 campuses,
providing professional and technical degrees to working adults from Salem,
Ore., to Guaynabo, P.R. Enrollment has doubled, to 255,600 students, in just
the last four years. The market capitalization of the company, which earns a
profit, has surged 374 percent over the same period.
But these days, the Apollo Group, based in
Phoenix, may be gaining notice of a less desirable kind. In September, it
agreed to pay the federal Department of Education $9.8 million to settle
charges that its recruiting practices violated Title IV of the Higher
Education Act, which regulates how almost $70 billion of federal grants,
loans and work-study programs are distributed to students at colleges and
universities each year.
A Department of Education report asserted that the
school based its recruiters' pay on the numbers of students they brought in,
and punished underperforming recruiters by isolating them in glass-walled
rooms and threatening to fire them if they failed to meet management goals.
Enrollment-based incentives and punishments are sometimes illegal under
federal law.
Terri Bishop, a spokeswoman for Apollo, denied any
wrongdoing by the company. "We were not required to change our compensation
practices, because we were not found guilty of the allegations," she said.
Recently, a number of for-profit colleges have
faced inquiries, lawsuits and other actions calling into question the way
they pursue federal funds.
In the last year, the
Career Education Corporation of Hoffman Estates, Ill., has faced
lawsuits, from shareholders and students, contending that, among other
things, its colleges have inflated enrollment numbers. The company, which
said it considered the suits groundless, acknowledged that it was under
investigation by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange
Commission. It declined to say what the federal officials were
investigating. The Justice Department and S.E.C. declined to discuss this or
any other active investigation.
In February, F.B.I. agents raided 10 campuses run
by
ITT Educational Services of Carmel, Ind., looking for similar problems;
the company has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
A routine government audit in December 2003 of
student aid programs at Bryman College in San Jose, Calif., part of
Corinthian Colleges, found that it was too slow to return federal aid to
the government after students withdrew from school, and it incorrectly
calculated how much it owed the government and did not keep proper records,
said a department spokeswoman, Jane Glickman.
After that, the Department of Education required
Corinthian, which is based in Santa Ana, Calif., to give its own money to
students and then seek reimbursement from the government. The requirement
was lifted on Sept. 22, but the Corinthian Web site says the S.E.C. opened
an investigation on Sept. 16 into its "projections, financial performance
and communications with securities analysts and investors during the fiscal
year ended June 30, 2004."
Such scrutiny may portend tough times for what has
been a high-flying, profitable industry. According to Department of
Education statistics, for-profit post-secondary schools, including those
that grant degrees and those that do not, enrolled 765,701 students in the
fall of 2001, the most recent year for which complete statistics are
available. That is almost 30 percent more than the 589,600 they enrolled in
1996.
The schools say they offer practical career
training in a time when job stability has vanished for many people. The
Career College Association, an industry trade group in Washington, reports
that 70 percent of the students at for-profit colleges are the first in
their families to go to college. David Longanecker, a Department of
Education official in the Clinton administration who is now the executive
director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a
research group in Boulder, Colo., said for-profit colleges like the
University of Phoenix "are emerging as an important part of the educational
system."
For-profit education companies also had the best
run of any group on Wall Street from 2000 to 2003, said Howard Block, an
analyst at Banc of America Securities in
San Francisco, which does not have a financial interest in Apollo, Career
Education, Corinthian Colleges, or ITT Educational Services, though the bank
has advised some of those companies. Over all, he noted, publicly traded
postsecondary-education stocks rose 460 percent over that period, compared
with a 24 percent loss for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.
One of my students, Sophia
Mena, at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/smena/learning.htm wrote the following:
The
first thing that came to mind when I first started researching the Virtual
Classroom is how professors monitor if students are doing their own work. In
the Traditional Classroom a professor can easily detect if a person is
cheating on their test, but how can they monitor that if someone is taking a
test by way of a computer? It seems very easy for someone to
cheat in an asynchronous learning environment. To find out more about
computer ethics you can visit:
Computer Ethics - Cyberethics:
http://www.siu.edu/departments/coba/mgmt/iswnet/isethics/index.htm
IEEE Code of Ethics:
http://www.ieee.org/committee/ethics
In the 1900s it was common
for students to take tests in the presence of the village vicar who then
certified that all conditions placed upon taking an examination were followed.
Some conditions are easily met with existing technologies such as timing the
examination and webcams and microphones that allow the examiners to view and
hear the student from most any distance around the world. Newer
technologies such as retinal scanners are emerging to verify that the student
taking the examination is truly the student who is authorized to take the
examination.
Nevertheless, there are
enormous problems with ethics and academic standards in ALN. For example,
monitoring students on chat lines becomes expensive and intrusive. Most
ALN courses assume that the email messages and chat line messages from a student
are genuine without monitoring those messages with the same scrutiny that is
given to course examinations.
In some ways investigating
suspected plagiarism is easier on the web. Unhappily, I have
discovered several instances where my students lifted parts of their work (in
two cases the entire paper) from sources that were not cited. Finding
these instances of plagiarism was much easier in their web documents due to the
ability to search for suspected phrases in web search engines.
Plagiarism has always been
and will always be a problem in education and research. The problem is
exacerbated by computing technologies due to the ease of selecting all or part
of a document and clicking on (Edit, Copy) and (Edit, Paste). Culprits do
not even have to type the text. If they cleverly use the technologies,
phrases can be easily modified so it becomes more difficult to discover that the
passage was first lifted and then modified so as to escape detection.
One problem with emerging
speech recognition technologies is that spoken words (e.g., in a
lecture or a session at a conference) can be recorded and digitized
automatically such that text that has never appeared in print is created by
speech recognition software. How easy it becomes to beat the speaker in
putting that speaker's presentation into printed text.
Faculty clinging to traditional lectures and classroom case discussions
may not even be aware that whatever went on in their classrooms is now available
at hidden sites on the web at either a public or a private web site.
Those infamous "fraternity files" have
never been so rich as they will become with speech recognition technologies.
Concerns
About Misleading and Fraudulent Web Sites
An emerging area of interest to me is
the rate at which marginal and fraudulent asynchronous courses and programs are
emerging. For example, I consider it a shame when someone other than a major
university uses a domain name of that university. One of my students, Elizabeth
Eudy, wrote the following at
http://www.resnet.trinity.edu/users/eeudy/aln.htm
I may be
mistaken in the specific case, but the person in Reykjavik, Iceland who
owns the domain name CarnegieMellon.com seems well positioned to offer
services in a way that just might be confused with services offered by a
well known U.S. university. Hundreds of examples exist of domain names
that seem purposely designed to be misleading...Two problems stem from
this: First, there is no way for the typical user to know whether the
actual location of an Internet site is in, say, Pittsburgh or Reykjavik.
Second, these sites are not under any single legal jurisdiction. The
FBI, for instance, probably has little clout in Reykjavik
Concerns
About CyberPsychology
The accelerating pace of
networking for education, entertainment, research, therapy, and commerce is
having profound psychological impacts on society.
IFOBITS in May 1998 made the following announcement about a new
CyberPsychology journal:
CYBERPSYCHOLOGY
& BEHAVIOR is a new, peer-reviewed journal for the mental health
community devoted to the "impact of the Internet, multimedia and virtual
reality on behavior and society." Articles in its inaugural issue
include "The Gender Gap in Internet Use," "Internet Addiction on
Campus," "The Relationship Between Depression and Internet Addiction,"
and "A Review of Virtual Reality as a Psychotherapeutic Tool."
Cyberpsychology
& Behavior [ISSN: 1094-9313] is published quarterly by Mary Ann Liebert,
Inc., 2 Madison Avenue, Larchmont, NY 10538; tel:
914-834-3100;
fax: 914-834-3582; email:
info@liebertpub.com; Web:
http://www.liebertpub.com/
Click Here
to View Working Paper 265 on Metacognition
Concerns in Designs and
Evaluations of Computer Aided Education and Training:
Are We Misleading Ourselves About Measures of Success?
Concerns
About Computer Services and Network Reliability
This morning I went to one
of our student labs to check to see if one of my new ToolBooks was being
transported properly on the Internet. I discovered that someone had wiped
out both the Internet Explorer and the Netscape Communicator web browsers on the
first three lab computers that I logged into. It is terribly frustrating
for faculty and students to repeatedly encounter hardware and software failures.
Student frustrations center around not having enough lab computers, wasting time
on lab computers that fail, having their own computers crash during the
semester, and encountering network crashes or delays due to clogged bandwidth.
An enormous problem for
universities who engage more and more in ALN courses that rely daily upon
networking systems is to keep those systems efficient and reliable for students.
Faculty members occasionally miss class due to illness or scheduling conflicts,
but faculty miss class much less often than computers crash on most campuses.
In addition, there are disruptions due to necessary maintenance and updating of
computer systems. Few, if any, campuses have budgets to provide backup
systems for disruptions of service.
There are increasing risks
of security failures on campus computers. Geeks hack or crack their
way into systems on every college campus. In most instances they do so
without intent to cause great harm. However, they may also be intent upon
bringing down the system or parts thereof. Equipping divisions (e.g., a
College of Business within the university) with their own servers, labs, and
computing maintenance centers reduces the risks of university-wide computer
system failure, but the cost becomes enormous in terms of hardware and personnel
costs. However, this may also spread technician talent so thin across the
campus that the risk of poor performance in some divisions may be increased.
There are no easy
solutions to the problem that ALN learning is absolutely dependent on
reliability of computers and networking systems.
Concerns
About Effectiveness of Learning Technologies in Large
Classes
Email messages from Roger Debreceny and
Andrew Priest
I do not doubt for a minute that small
group, f2f teaching can be highly effective. I sure hope so, because like
many of the people on this list, I have devoted many hours of my life to the
pursuit of better f2f small group teaching! <g>.
As regards large group f2f teaching, I
am much less sanguine. I lecture to a group of 750 students (!!) in one large
(ok, it’s enormous!) lecture theatre. There are clearly some benefits to
such large group teaching (mostly sociological) but not many. In most cases,
large group lectures are poorly presented, inadequately planned and almost
completely lacking in challenges to the students. Large group lectures lead, in
my view, to the "I attend, therefore I learn" syndrome. We all know that all the
evidence points to the inability of humans to concentrate in such environments
for more than a few minutes at a time. Yet we consistently ignore such evidence.
There are many problems, however, with
both small group and large group f2f teaching and learning processes. Key
amongst them is the idea that we engender in our students, that they can go to a
sage and receive knowledge in some structured fashion. Contrast that with our
research processes. OK, we do have research tutorials (e.g. at the AAA Annual
Meeting), but they are relatively rare. Research is undertaken by search for,
and integration of, knowledge. Research is much, much more like the real work
world that our graduates will experience than the f2f classroom.
Where networked technology can assist
us is to change the teaching and learning model from sage/pupil towards research
leader/co-researcher.
We should listen more to the ideas of
thinkers such as Schank (see, for example, a short article by Schank in the July
issue of Communications of the ACM).
Now, just as an example of a colleague
who has made some interesting advances in using networked technologies to move
from pedagogy more towards androgogy here is a write-up on Mark Freeman at
University of Technology, Sydney that was recently posted to ATeach-L by Andrew
Priest. We can get a flavour of a new learning environment.
Roger Debreceny
=============================
Hi Folks
Thought this article from the Business
Review Weekly http://www.brw.com.au may be
of interest.
Regards Andrew Priest
Mass lectures,
often repeated, are the usual way that university business courses cope with
cost pressures and student loads. Students are bored to tears by them. Mark
Freeman, a senior lecturer in finance at the University of Technology,
Sydney (UTS), and a specialist in teaching methods, thinks he has found a
better way: using the Internet. "The groundswell of student interest in
Web-based learning is like no other phenomenon I have seen in educational
innovation," he says, after tests involving more than 2000 students.
At 4 am students
can have lively interchanges on the site.
Business students
make up 30% of the enrolment at UTS but their courses get only 15% of total
UTS funding. Freeman felt an obligation to make learning better for students
who are struggling to hold down a job or cope with English, pay fees, mind
children and resist fatigue at night. They may travel to university and find
there are 30-40 students in a tutorial. Or part-timers might visit reserved
sections of the library, only to find that desperate students have torn out
the pages of a book or stolen it altogether.
Freeman began
Internet-based teaching in 1996 with 800 students on a basic Internet
system. Last year UTS brought in experimentally a special on-line
teacher-student pack called TopClass for messages and conferences, involving
1000 students. This year 10,500 students, nearly half the UTS student
population of 23,000, are using it. In one class of 100 last month, Freeman
found that every student had private Internet access.
Some academics
misuse the medium by merely posting their lectures on the Web, he says. This
is no better than telling students that information is in the library and
"go get it".
One of Freeman’s
examples of "new learning" is an on-line role-playing exercise this year for
post-graduate students of securities markets law. They take the identity of
people such as John Howard, Allan Fels, or securities regulators, with their
real identities staying secret until the program ends. The program was based
on a method used at Macquarie University in a simulation of Middle-Eastern
politics.
In the first week
the students describe their roles; then crises are provided, such as a
currency slump, bank failure or misleading prospectus for a privatisation.
Students must research how their character would react, and type responses
to the central on-line site. The "prime minister" can even negotiate
privately with the "stock exchange chairman", as occurs in the real world.
Freeman is the only observer able to read the messages. Since each student
researches a unique situation, cheating is difficult. In normal work,
cheating is a serious problem, now that vast amounts of material can be cut
and pasted into assignments or lifted from "cheat sites" on the Web.
In team debates,
groups take positions on issues such as corporate law reform, and hone their
responses in private conferences before posting them on the Internet. Many
students in their professional lives are already feeling the effect of
corporate law reform, and have strong opinions. Even at 4am there can be
lively interchanges among six students using the site.
Freeman says:
"Students get completely immersed in the role playing. In addition they do
not have the hang-ups often suffered by people in face-to-face arguments,
such as deferring to those of the opposite sex or those perceived to be
higher in status. Shy people are not argued down, rhetorical flourishes
can’t be used, and non-English students cope better with the language."
Later there is a
coming-out session at the university where the students show their real
identities, often to surprise and applause. The debate is also a permanent
and expandable record useful for future students. "The best part is that the
students are not learning just what I tell them, but learning to think and
make choices based on good information." An individual assignment is to
investigate and give an assessment of a domestic and international
securities regulator’s Web site, and present the results to a discussion
forum.
Freeman admits to
having the usual failures of a pioneer. "Technology in teaching can operate
like an unguided missile unless the goals are well specified, such as
changing student understanding," he says.
There is less staff
administrative work because the Web is used for announcements, such as where
to lodge assignments, errors in a text, changes to deadlines, and guides to
marking. Staff have to discourage students from calling by phone and private
e-mail, instead of logging on to the site.
But there is still
a huge workload in the Internet-posted queries. Some students at other
universities became irate when Freeman failed to respond to their queries.
Students expect staff to respond seven days a week, and mark faster. Now,
without the Internet, the requests would be totally unmanageable. "I used to
get 40 calls on my voice-mail before I even started work. This morning I had
none," Freeman says. He predicts that in the coming decade, some
universities will fail, especially those that have chased short-term
economies at the expense of quality. Students are already exercising their
consumer rights and demanding "just-in-time" learning, rather than
conforming to university teaching schedules. University teachers failing to
get average grades of "highly satisfactory" would be sacked, since students
would no longer tolerate mediocrity and would take their "business"
elsewhere.
Freeman predicted
six months ago that many universities would become user-pays systems where
for $1000, for example, students could use a bare minimum of the facilities,
and pay $100 each for a menu of add-ons such as on-line self-study material,
videos and discussion groups. Replies within 24 hours would be guaranteed
seven days a week, with a ceiling of ten sessions per subject and $100 per
chat thereafter. There could be a $500 premium service involving time with
experts face-to-face, on-line or in video-conference. "In the US, user-pays
universities have already arrived," Freeman says. "It’s no longer a
prediction."—
Andrew Priest, School of Accounting,
Edith Cowan University
Mailto:a.priest@cowan.edu.au
Mailto:apriest@imstressed.com
http://www.bs.ac.cowan.edu.au/acctinfoplus/
"Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"- SteveWright
Concerns
About Faculty Resistance to Change
Probably the major
stumbling block to education change is faculty unwillingness to venture into
technology and new learning experiments. Instead of leading the way,
faculty in traditional schools and colleges are behind corporate and
military/government trainers in adapting to technologies and learning
experimentation.
A funny thing
happened to a campus event designed to bring our faculty together to
exchange information and demonstrations of technology in the classroom.
In the three years since the conference was launched, we have had
steadily fewer faculty attending.
We surveyed our
faculty to find out why attendance had declined at our on-campus
technology conference (scheduled during a day when classes were not in
session). Results indicated that while some faculty and staff did have a
disinterest in technology, more often the problem was their frustration
with it. Among reasons for why they were not using technology in their
work, they cited lack of the following: training, support, space,
equipment, and knowledge of what was available and how items could be
obtained.
"Where Are They?": Why
Technology Education for Teachers Can Be So Difficult"
by Claudia Rebaza
http://www.microsoft.com/education/hed/vision.htm
Although the barriers
mentioned above by Dr. Rebaza are serious, in my viewpoint they tend to be
excuses rather than reasons in many instances. Far more serious are the
lack of credit given to technology innovations in promotion, pay-raise,
publication, and tenure decisions. In fact, I maintain
messages of selected "daring professor" who are willing to take chances in
adverse environments. The web address is
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm
Some email correspondence
from a faculty member at Trinity University is provided below:
- From: [Name Deleted]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 1998 12:40 PM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Web projectsDear
Bob,
Thanks for sending along your web
assignment and its rationale. I’m interested in doing a book-length project
that has web links to my own set of materials and exercises. Or even doing
the whole book in this way.
Question is, does one receive
academic credit for producing work on the internet? Have you ever discussed
this with the Administration?
Thanks,
[Name of the Trinity University
Faculty Member Deleted]
========================================================================
Reply from Bob Jensen
Hi ______
One problem with web publishing is
that if you submit your stuff to a top journal, the editor wants you to hide
your research from the world until the journal gets around to publishing
your work (which in a recent case took five years "in press" for an accepted
Jensen and Sandlin article to finally get published). I recently had another
paper accepted for publication. Then I had a long ‘fight" with the editor
over whether I can keep a "live" and ever-changing version of the essence of
that paper at my web site.
I have discussed web publishing
with administrators is many universities. They have not and cannot take much
of an official position without action by the faculty. Matters of promotion
and tenure are pretty well decided all along the way (departmental faculty,
Chair, Dean, and P&T faculty) with rare administrative reversals of
recommendations. Faculty bring individual biases into peer evaluation, and
at the moment web publishing is a new thing to most of them. Until the peer
evaluation culture is changed, web publishing will not count heavily toward
promotion, tenure, or take home pay.
The main issue is that web
publishing is not refereed with the same rigor (as refereeing in leading
journals) or, in most cases, is not refereed at all. This is a concern since
it is pretty easy to disguise garbage as treasure at a web site. Leading
journals will one day offer refereeing services for web publishing and may,
in fact, do away with their hard copy editions. Until then what do we do?
Most certainly we do not put up a web counter and brag about the number of
hits --- Playboy probably gets more hits per day than all professors
combined.
Somewhat of a substitute for hard
core refereeing is a record of correspondence that is received from scholars
and students who use your web documents. This lacks the anonymity of the
refereeing process. Also there are opportunities to cheat (I’ll lavishly
praise your work if you will adore mine in a succession of email messages),
but most scholars have more integrity than to organize that sort of
conspiracy. If you have a file of correspondence from people that your peers
know and respect, chances are that your peers will take notice. Include
copies of this correspondence in your performance reports. But this process
is more anecdotal than the genuine blind refereeing process.
Until a rigorous web refereeing
process is established, those who must evaluate a web publisher must do more
work. They must study your web materials and make their own judgments
regarding quality and relevance. It is much easier to simply tick off the
refereed hits (For when the binary scorer comes to write against your name,
he writes only ones or zeros, to him the unread articles are all the same).
It is easy to become too cynical about the refereeing process. We have all
had frustrations with bad referees, including acceptances of our weaker
output and rejections of our best work. At my web site, I have section for
my "big ones that got away." See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/#BigOnes Refereeing is a little like
democracy --- it ain’t perfect, but until a better system comes along it
beats the alternatives over the long haul.
My trouble, and I suspect that Mike
Kearl has the same problem, is that web publishing is addictive. The
responses that you get from around the world set "your tail wagging." I have
published many papers and several books (a sign of my advanced age), but I
have never had the "action" following hard copy publication that I get from
web publication. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that
more people than you can imagine stumble on your web documents while using a
search engine on the web. Not all of them send you nice messages, but a
message recently received by me last week from a total stranger is
reproduced be low:
==================================================================
- Dr. Jensen,
- Wanted to say thanks for
maintaining your Technological Glossary page. I
- am currently studying for my
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer exams. Your page has been a
god-send.
Pacificare,Network Associate II
Al Janetsky
Microsoft Certified Professional
Messages like the above message
"keep my tail wagging." I even like the messages that signal items to be
corrected --- at least those users found my stuff worth correcting. If you
have audio on your computer, you can listen to Mike Kearl discuss what makes
his "tail wag." Mike also discusses the issue that you raised in your
message to me. The web address for Mike’s audio on this is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm . That particular article is
entitled "Daring Professors" and contains audio and email messages from
other faculty members who were willing to take some chances with their
careers.
I can offer you a wagging tail and
small pay raises if you rely entirely on web publishing as evidence of
scholarship. Old hounds like me can opt for more tail wagging, but young
pups need more nourishment shoved into the other end. (Actually I still
publish hard copy to maintain respectability, but I personally am far more
proud of my "living" web research documents than my annual refereed "dead"
hits over the past few years).
Until the evaluation culture is
changed in peers who hold you on leash, try to do web publishing alongside
your refereed journal publishing. But don’t let the tail wag the dog or you
will wind up in the dog house. If your book or journal editor objects to
having your working documents published at your web site, remember who your
master is at all times. His title is Editor in Chief!
An interesting paper by William H. Geoghegan at IBM Academic Consulting is
entitled "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY?" discusses some of
the issues as to why the faculty are not yet adapting to education
technologies. Estimates run as high as 95% of higher education faculty are
not using these technologies. Geoghegan analyses social and diffusion
barriers in particular. The paper is at
http://w3.scale.uiuc.edu/scale/links/library/geoghegan/wpi.html
Bob Jensen
Professor Robert E. Jensen (Bob)
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of
Business Administration
Trinity.University, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Voice: 210-736-7347 Fax: 210-736-8134
- Also see
Concerns About Faculty Resistance to Change
Other Concerns
Forwarded on
November 23, 2004 by Jagdish Gangolly
[JGangolly@UAMAIL.ALBANY.EDU]
REPORT RAISES QUESTIONS OVER EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT OF
COMPUTERS
A recent study of the effects of computer use on
teenage students suggests that increased computer use may result in lower
academic performance. The authors of the study, Thomas Fuchs and Ludger
Woessmann of the CESifo economic research organization in Munich, looked at
data on many thousands of students in 31 countries. Initial results
indicated a positive relationship between computers and academic
achievement, specifically in math and reading. When the results were
adjusted, however, to compensate for the higher levels of wealth and
education in homes where computers are more likely to be present, the data
showed that the more computers there are in the home, the lower the
student's performance. In addition, despite showing higher test scores for
increased time spent using computers at home, the study showed that the more
time students spent using computers at school, the lower their test scores.
According to the report, "the initial positive pattern on computer
availability at school simply reflects that schools with better computer
availability also feature other positive school characteristics." BBC, 22
November 2004 <
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4032737.stm>
"Contrarian finding: Computers are a drag on learning," by Jeffrey MacDonald,
The Christian Science Monitor, December 6, 2004 ---
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1206/p11s01-legn.html
For all the schools and parents who have together
invested billions to give children a learning edge through the latest
computer technology, a mammoth new study by German researchers brings some
sobering news: Too much exposure to computers might spell trouble for the
developing mind.
From a sample of 175,000 15-year-old students in 31
countries, researchers at the University of Munich announced in November
that performance in math and reading had suffered significantly among
students who have more than one computer at home. And while students seemed
to benefit from limited use of computers at school, those who used them
several times per week at school saw their academic performance decline
significantly as well.
"It seems if you overuse computers and trade them
for other [types of] teaching, it actually harms the student," says lead
researcher Ludger Woessmann in a telephone interview from Munich. "At least
we should be cautious in stating that increasing [access to] computers in
the home and school will improve students' math and reading performance."
With the rise of computers in classrooms, has come
a glut of conflicting conclusions about the actual value computers bring to
timeless tasks of teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. For some in
education, these results indicate how thoroughly this field of research has
come to resemble that of the conventional wisdom about weight loss, which
seems to shift with the tide. Yet others see hopeful signs of a maturing
debate, where blind faith in the educational benefits of technology is
giving way to greater appreciation for an understanding when computers are
useful and when they're not.
"You could argue that's the big issue here: People
need guidance in how to use [computers in education]," says Dr. Marcia Linn,
professor of education and director of the Technology Enhanced Learning in
Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
In surveying the gamut of research for his 2003
book "The Flickering Mind" (Random House), journalist Todd Oppenheimer
[Editor's note: The original version misstated Oppenheimer's first name.]
found most studies have overstated either the benefits or the drawbacks
computers pose in education. The most thorough studies have found computers
to have little effect either way, he said, although some guiding principles
are beginning to emerge.
Computer technology "is used too much and very
unwisely in the younger years, and not wisely enough in the older years,"
says Oppenheimer. For 15-year-olds, he says, "you'd be foolish not to use
the [World Wide] Web" for a research project, but only alongside
conventional information-gathering techniques. The big picture goal: help
students use high-quality sources.
Against this backdrop, the German study stands out
on account of two features: its unusually broad, international sample and
its bid to isolate computers as a performance-shaping factor.
Mindful that computers are more common among
affluent families, whose children often outperform more disadvantaged ones,
the University of Munich researchers controlled for such variables as
parents' education and working status.
When those were removed from the equation, having
more than one computer at home was no longer associated with top academic
performance. In fact, the study says, "The mere availability of computers at
home seems to distract students from learning." Computers seem to serve
mainly as devices for playing games.
Still, there were a few exceptions: Academic
performance rose among those who routinely engaged in writing e-mail or
running educational software.
To hear new questions raised about the educational
value of technology is music to the ears at the Waldorf schools, an
association of 350 schools where students don't touch computers until the
11th grade. There the priority lies with training students to think, says
Patrice Maynard, leader for outreach and development, because
problem-solving acumen and creativity lead to success and a joyful life.
Yet for educators in Maine, computers represent
something far more promising. There they seem to hold the key to the type of
skills employers want to see as the state says goodbye to textiles and other
antiquated industries. Maine taxpayers are investing $37 million over four
years to put laptop computers into the hands of every seventh- and
eighth-grader, as well as their 3,000 teachers.
As the debate continues, consensus holds that more
research is needed to know exactly where computers make the most difference
in an educational process. "There's this sort of bizarre belief that
computers cast a spell over students and teachers and schools," says
Christopher Dede, professor of learning technologies at the Harvard School
of Education. "Can you imagine what would happen if you had the same in
business, asking if computers were interfering with performance? It would be
a big joke."
Full semester credit courses have not tended to sell very well, and they are
very costly to produce. It may well be that short, non-credit courses have
a better market opportunity.
Something Your
(Our) College President Should be Thinking About
Tuition Revenue from Quality Non-Credit, Short, and Inexpensive Online Courses
Prestigious=University of Michigan, Inexpensive=$45.
The
material for this course takes approximately 5-10 hours which you can
complete at your convenience, a few minutes a day or all at once. A
discussion board, moderated by a course instructor, offers learners the
opportunity to express ideas, exchange opinions and post voluntary weekly
assignments. Students may enroll in this course up to four weeks after the
start date, until May 21. All students will have password-protected access
to this seminar until June 25.
Source: See the message below from Fathom
The expensive cost drivers in any
credit course arise from maintaining academic standards needed to maintain
reputation when granting course credits. Admission standards, intense
student-instructor communications, and performance standards must all be
implemented. Quality education for academic credit is very, very
expensive.
But in lifelong learning, it is not
always necessary to take the expensive route.
Delivering a non-credit course such as
the one below is in many ways more pure and a heck of a lot more fun. It's
learning for learning's sake and the instructor can focus on what he or she
probably likes best --- quality of delivery and preparation of content!.
It's the free market at its best.
Students choose to pay for the content and delivery rather than the grade.
Bad courses don't sell because they offer easier A grades. Bad courses
don't sell because they're required in the curriculum plan. Bad courses
don't sell period if they are not required and/or do not offer any grades.
What is frustrating for most of us that
are teaching credit courses is that most students are more concerned with the
grade than with the content. This cannot be the case in the course
described below. Students are only paying for learning in its purest
sense. Students in the course are not driven by the quest for a grade on a
transcript or a curriculum plan that requires three courses out of ten on the
menu in each of seven required categories.
This is also a way for administrators
and faculty to think out of the box, to imagine new ways of generating huge
amounts of lower cost tuition revenue. In managerial accounting we call
this Cost-Profit-Volume (CPV) analysis where lower cost drives up volume which
in turn drives up profits. I anticipate that prestigious colleges and
universities will one day see the CPV light and begin to offer more and more
courses like the one described below. The advantage of prestige in this
market will be the expectations by customers that prestigious schools are more
apt to have better quality controls and better faculty to draw upon for these
innovative short courses.
May 1, 2002 message from Fathom
(Note that the faculty involved are purportedly some of the best specialists in
the world: Sharon Herbert , David S. Potter , Terry Wilfong , Susan E.
Alcock)
We're excited to
tell you about a new e-course from the University of Michigan, "Daily Life
in the Eastern Roman Empire (100 BCE-100 CE): Trade, Travel, and
Transformation." To celebrate the launch of this course, we're offering a
special 20% discount if you enroll before May 15. Just enter the coupon code
ROMEMP at checkout to claim your discount.
Students in this
nine-week course will learn how great changes in the Roman empire, such as
the stirrings of early Christianity, affected the daily lives of subjects in
the Eastern Mediterranean region. Taught by a team of four University of
Michigan professors of classics, archaeology, and egyptology, the course
offers a fascinating look at various characters and occupations during this
turbulent era. To learn more or to enroll, go to:
http://www.fathom.com/course/35702802/romemp
If you are a college educator, think
about CVP analysis if you are unhappy with your present salary level and wish
that your college could generate more revenue for faculty salaries.
May 3 reply from Gary Schneider
The interesting state of affairs
that leads Fathom.com to offer low-priced on-line courses taught by stellar
faculty is explored in a New York Times article titled "Lessons Learned at
Dot-Com U.":
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
--Gary
Gary P. Schneider, Ph.D, CPA
Associate Professor of Accounting and Information Systems
University of San Diego School of Business Administration 5998
Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110-2492
I provide an introductory excerpt from
that article:
"Lessons Learned at
Dot-Com U., by Katie Hafner, The New York Times, May 2, 2002 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
Go to Fathom.com
and you will encounter a veritable trove of online courses about
Shakespeare. You can enroll in "Modern Film Adaptations of Shakespeare,"
offered by the American Film Institute, or "Shakespeare and Management,"
taught by a member of the Columbia Business School faculty.
The site is by no
means confined to courses on Shakespeare. You can also treat yourself to a
seminar called "Bioacoustics: Cetaceans and Seeing Sounds," taught by a
scientist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Or if yours is a
more public-policy-minded intellect, you can sign up for "Capital Punishment
in the United States," a seminar with experts from Cambridge University
Press, Columbia University and the University of Chicago.
What's more, all
are free.
That part was not
always the plan. Fathom, a start-up financed by Columbia, was founded two
years ago with the goal of making a profit by offering online courses over
the Internet.
But after spending more than $25 million on the venture, Columbia has
found decidedly little interest among prospective students in paying for the
semester-length courses.
Now Fathom is
taking a new approach, one that its chief executive likens to giving away
free samples to entice customers.
Call it the Morning
After phenomenon. In the last few years, prestigious universities rushed to
start profit-seeking spinoffs, independent divisions that were going to
develop online courses. The idea, fueled by the belief that students need
not be physically present to receive a high-quality education, went beyond
the mere introduction of online tools into traditional classes.
The notion was that
there were prospective students out there, far beyond the university's
walls, for whom distance education was the answer. Whether they were
18-year-olds seeking college degrees or 50-year-olds longing to sound smart
at cocktail parties, students would flock to the Web by the tens of
thousands, paying tuitions comparable to those charged in the
bricks-and-mortarboard world — or so the thinking went.
Continued at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/technology/circuits/02DIST.html
Virtual public schools have graduated
from only a handful a few years ago to more than 30. While most have done well,
a few bad apples have prompted states to ask for greater oversight authority.
"Online Schools Under Scrutiny," by
John Gartner, Wired News, May 3, 2002 ---
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52207,00.html
More than 30
publicly funded virtual charter schools have launched during the past five
years, and parents have largely been pleased with the results.
But the alleged
mismanagement of two academies run by for-profit companies is prompting
Educators say the
Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT)
in Ohio and Einstein
Academy in Pennsylvania, both of which are run by private companies,
have ignored numerous academic guidelines while operating with questionable
accounting practices.
The
Ohio Federation of Teachers joined
with nine other teaching associations to sue the state's Board of Education,
alleging that state officials have violated state law by allowing for-profit
companies to control and operate charter schools.
Federation
president Tom Mooney said ECOT is "really being run by Bozo and Clarabell,"
claiming that management company Altair Learning Management had no
background in education or technology. However, Mooney said they were
"shrewd enough to smell a really good opportunity."
A state audit (PDF)
of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow's freshman year of 2000-2001 alleged
that Altair Learning could use a few math lessons.
The audit, which
was released in April, showed that the company overcharged the state by
$1.65 million for teaching hours it could not substantiate, and that
$500,000 worth of computer equipment given to students who left the program
were not recovered.
The auditor's
office said ECOT's net loss of $3.8 million during the school year "causes
substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."
ECOT recently
agreed to pay back $1.6 million to Ohio's department of education over the
next three years. ECOT superintendent Jeffrey P. Forster, who saw 30 percent
of his students leave the program during its first year, said that because
of cost cutting, the academy is on solid financial footing.
Forster, who was a
high school principal for 35 years, said the online school helps students
who would otherwise have difficulty in public schools. "We're not getting
the captain of the football team or the prom queen here," he said.
The federation also
cites a recent charter granted directly to Akron "industrialist" David
Brennan's White Hat Management
company instead of to a nonprofit as required by state law.
Mooney said that
when legislators passed the charter school law, they never envisioned cyber
schools and "did not set up appropriate guidelines for oversight."
Motions for summary
judgments in the case, which ask the judge to rule on the validity of the
complaint, are due on May 15.
In neighboring
Pennsylvania, several
pending
lawsuits claim that online charter schools violate the state's
constitution.
Continued at
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52207,00.html
A Worst-Case MOO
"Students’ Distress with a Web-based Distance Education Course: An Ethnographic
Study of Participants' Experiences"
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/CSI/wp00-01.html
Noriko Hara SILS Manning Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
haran@ils.unc.edu
Rob Kling The Center for Social
Informatics SLIS Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405
kling@indiana.edu
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/kling
(812) 855-9763
Many advocates of
computer-mediated distance education emphasize its positive aspects and
understate the kinds of communicative and technical capabilities and work
required by students and faculty. There are few systematic analytical
studies of students who have experienced new technologies in higher
education. This article presents a qualitative case study of a web-based
distance education course at a major U.S. university. The case data reveal a
topic that is glossed over in much of the distance education literature
written for administrators, instructors and prospective students: students'
periodic distressing experiences (such as frustration, anxiety and
confusion) in a small graduate-level course due to communication breakdowns
and technical difficulties. Our intent is that this study will enhance
understanding of the instructional design issues, instructor and student
preparation, and communication practices that are needed to improve
web-based distance education courses.
Bob Jensen's Comments
Th Hara and King study mentioned above focuses upon student messages, student
evaluations, and instructor evaluations of a single course. The
interactive communications took place using MOO software that is sometimes used
for virtual classroom settings, although the original intent of both MOO and MUD
software was to create a virtual space in text in which students or game users
create their own virtual worlds. You can read more about MUD and MOO
virtual environments at
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245glosf.htm#M-Terms. In some
universities, MOO software has been used to create virtual classrooms. In
most instances, however, these have given way to multimedia virtual classrooms
rather than entirely text-based virtual classrooms.
MOO classrooms have been used very
successfully. For example, at Texas Tech University, Robert Ricketts has
successfully taught an advanced tax course in a MOO virtual classroom when
students are scattered across the U.S. in internship programs. His course
is not an internship course. It is a tax course that students take while
away from campus on internships. Professor Ricketts is a veteran tax
instructor and taught the MOO course under somewhat ideal conditions. The
students were all familiar with electronic messaging and they all know each
other very well from previous onsite courses that they took together on the
Texas Tech Campus in previous semesters. They also had taken previous
courses from Professor Ricketts in traditional classroom settings.
In contrast to Professor Ricketts'
MOO virtual classroom, the Hara and King study reported above is almost a
worst-case scenario in a MOO virtual classroom. The instructor was a
doctoral student who had never taught the class before, nor had she ever taught
any class in a MOO virtual classroom. Half the class "had only minimal
experience with computers" and had never taken a previous distance education
course. The students had never taken a previous course of any type from
the instructor and did not know each other well. The course materials were
poorly designed and had never been field tested. Students were hopelessly
confused and did not deal well with text messaging (graphics, audio, and video
were apparently never used in the course). This seems utterly strange in
an age where text, graphics, audio, and even video files can be attached to
email messages. It also seems strange that the students apparently did not
pick up the telephone when they were so confused by the networked text
messaging.
One of the most important things to be
learned from the Hara and King study is the tendency for hopelessly confused
students to often give up rather than keep pestering the instructor or each
other until they see the light. Instructors cannot assume that students
are willing to air their confusions. A major reason is a fear of airing
their ignorance. Another reason is impatience with the slowness of text
messaging where everything must be written/read instead of having conversations
with audio or full teleconferencing.
In summary, the Hara and King study is
not so much a criticism of distance education as it is a study of student
behavior in settings where the distance education is poorly designed and
delivered. A similar outcome is reported in "Student Performance In The
Virtual Versus Traditional Classroom," by Neil Terry, James Owens and Anne Macy,
Journal of the Academy of Business Education, Volume 2, Spring 2001 ---
http://www.abe.villanova.edu/tocs01.html. An earlier report on this
topic appears in entitled "Student and Faculty Assessment of the Virtual MBA:
A Case Study," by Neil Terry, James Owens, and Anne Macy, Journal of
Business Education, Volume 1, Fall 2000, 33-38 ---
http://www.abe.villanova.edu/tocf00.html.
One of my students, Joshua
Miller, lists the following concerns:
-
may require
students to have "technological literacy" (I think this a
good thing but some of the sites I visited said otherwise)
-
content may become
subservient to the technology
-
poses new
difficulties for program evaluation and accreditation
-
could alienate
academics
-
may encounter
language barriers/translation problems
-
can be obstructed
by time zones
-
requires forms of
institutional support to be projected to distant
students
-
is complex in
relation to copyright issues
-
often requires
establishment of regional centers
-
can be costly for
students to obtain equipment
"Push for Computers in Classrooms Gathers New Foes," by
Pamela Mendels, The New York Times, December 15, 1999 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/cyber/education/15education.html
Now, a new group of educators, doctors,
psychologists and others is challenging that notion. In a draft statement on
technology literacy, a committee of the group, called the
Alliance for Childhood, says that the American approach to technology in
homes and schools has been flawed, emphasizing ephemeral vocational skills
and the razzle-dazzle of educational software, rather than helping children
think critically about technology and its appropriate use.
Among other things, the committee is urging that
computers have a restricted role, if any role at all, in elementary school
classrooms and in later years be introduced in a way that assures children
understand how computers work, can examine the appropriate place of
technology in their lives and be instilled with the idea of ethical behavior
online.
The hope, said Joan Almon, coordinator of the
group, is to influence policy makers, parents and teachers at a time when
"there is still a window," when computers have not yet become as entrenched
in life as, say, television.
The alliance, which was formed last February, plans
to incorporate as a formal nonprofit organization. Its founding members
include Almon, a long-time teacher and consultant; Jane M. Healey, an
educational psychologist and author of "Failure to Connect," a critique of
computer use in education; Stephen L. Talbott, the editor of a well-regarded
electronic newsletter examining the social implications of technology; and
Bettye Caldwell, a professor of pediatrics and former president of National
Association for the Education of Young People.
The purpose of the group is to fight what its
members see as a "toxic cultural environment" where they say children are
buffeted by stress that is leading to a decline in their well-being and an
increase in health problems like hyperactive disorders and depression. They
say that stress includes academic pressures, lack of interaction with caring
adults, and mass exposure to violence, sex and crass commercialism in
electronic media.
Related Articles
Project Trains Teachers to Use Technology
(September 15, 1999)
Survey Finds Teachers Unprepared for Computer Use
(September 8, 1999)
Focus Shifts to Effectiveness of Education Technology
(July 14, 1999)
Non-Traditional Teachers More Likely to Use the Net
(May 26, 1999
A Message from Peter
Kenyon on November 18, 1999
My own experience
is with a three-semester experiment of a non-majors "survey" course. We met
as a class once at the beginning of the semester and once again at the final
exam. Without presuming that my experience can be generalized to others,
I've made the following observations.
It was MUCH more
work to prepare and execute the course than I ever expected. I covered a
little less material than in the traditional course. Assessment was very
difficult. Student reaction was strong and about equally divided between
those who loved it and those who hated it. DL seems better suited to mature
learners with well-developed learning skills.
In the end, I
concluded their was little for me to like about this mode of instruction. It
takes away the part of my job I like best (classroom interaction) and
substituted mass quantities of gizmo tweaking (GT). Improved tools will
reduce the need for GT, but I don't see how we maintain interesting human
interaction. I use gizmos to support traditional instruction, but I have no
desire to give up the classroom.
As Barry Rice says,
the traditional classroom MAY be a dinosaur in need of extinction. But when
it does, I'll find other work to do because there's little joy for me as a
cyber-prof.
Peter Kenyon
[pbk1@AXE.HUMBOLDT.EDU ]
The most frequent refrain that I hear
from my wife is: "Did you hear what I just said?" I am sorry to say that I often
must ask Erika to repeat both that question and her comments preceding the
question. In fact, my penchant for listening without hearing has become somewhat
of a joke between us. She has threatened to learn about computers just to
communicate with me. Her problem is that she is just too busy to learn about
computers. When she does find the time, however, I'm in for big trouble.
Seriously, however, when I am in the midst of concentrating on one thing, I have
a bit of the same problem with student communications on other issues.
I agree with Peter and Ron to a
point. However, the Sloan Foundation Experiments suggest that faculty/student
and student/student communications increase with asynchronous courses. Students
who rarely take the trouble to visit faculty during office hours will send email
and chat room communications. Students have a penchant for catching us in our
offices at a bad time, and they become embarrassed that it is a bad time. The
trouble is that, being so busy, there is rarely a really good time for us to
really communicate face-to-face. Sometimes students have to wait outside our
offices, and being human, they conclude that they have better things to do with
their time --- such as seeking out a teaching assistant or another student in
the class. I sometimes think my "former" students know be better, via email,
after graduation than while they were my students. Perhaps it is because they
learn to appreciate my work more after they have graduated. But I am certain
there is more to it than that.
I taught in five universities over the
years and encountered a few, surprisingly few, professors who have great
face-to-face encounters with students outside the classroom. There are many
(like me) who seem to do better with electronic communications. Years ago, I
encountered an assistant professor from a prestigious university who reported
that the only way for faculty or students to really make contact (before email
was invented) with one of the superstars on the faculty was through written
memos even though that superstar was located two doors down the hall.
For more on the relation between
communications and pedagogy, see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/slide01.htm. For
more on student evaluations, see the course evaluations at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois. What seems to be more of a
problem with asynchronous courses seems to be faculty burn out that, in large
measure, is caused by increased communications with students. Asynchronous
courses are also more demanding on materials development. Much of what we
expound in lectures comes from long-term memory that is triggered by something
(patterns of association) in the midst of class. Beforehand, the same thoughts
may not have surfaced in our offices that surface in the middle of a class. This
makes it almost impossible to write down complete lectures for asynchronous
courses having no lectures.
Electronic communications, of course,
are not as satisfactory in many respects as face-to-face encounters. However, I
would argue that electronic communications are sometimes "closer." For example,
there are times when I feel a bit intimidated myself in the presence of some
people that I communicate freely with by email. There are people that I hate to
interrupt with a telephone call, but I am rarely embarrassed to send them email
messages. After a face-to-face or telephone visit, there are almost always
things that I belatedly think that I should have said or not said. This seems to
be less of a problem with email, and when it happens I just send out
correction/addendum messages.
My point here is to avoid associating
"closeness" with "face-to-face." We can be virtual strangers face-to-face and
close friends over a network. We may repeat daily greetings with colleagues in
the hallways who we rarely communicate with in depth. I am less close with
colleagues that I "see" in our hallways than with many of you with whom I
correspond regularly. There have been some studies (one was reported in Playboy)
showing that husbands and wives that see each other every day have a
surprisingly small amount of genuine communication except at certain peak
moments such as when they are in a car together on a long trip or awaiting a
meal by candlelight in a slow-service restaurant. Would some us learn more about
our spouses and kids if we communicated anonymously or openly with them via
email and chat rooms? Will our kids open up more to anonymous strangers on the
web than they will face-to-face with us?
But then maybe I am just "listening" to
Peter and Ron without "hearing."
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones
Distinguished Professor of Business Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212
Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
-----Original
Message-----
From: Ron [mailto:rrtidd@MTU.EDU]
ent: Friday, November 19, 1999 6:55 AM
To: AECM@VAX.LOYOLA.EDU
ubject: Re: Distance Learning with traditional undergraduate students
Peter made one
comment that I suspect reflects the sentiments of many 20th century
educators- any technology that detracts from our ability to physically
connect with our students is going to diminish our career satisfaction.
While I share this sentiment whole heartedly, I believe that we confront two
inescapable realities in 21st century education.
First, distributed
education (whether distance or proximity) is going to become a more
prominent feature of the academic landscape. Second, students are going to
become increasingly comfortable with online social interaction and
communities.
Given those two
"assumptions," most (if not all) educators must learn how to develop an
appropriate classroom community in cyberspace. To me, that means having a
community that fulfills all participants' needs to connect, while achieving
academic objectives. A difficult challenge when the participants come from
two generations that define connecting and community in such different ways.
I have not had a
chance to read it, yet, but some might find "Building Learning Communities
in Cyberspace," (Palloff and Pratt) to be informative.
Ron Tidd
The
Future and Darker Sides of Distance Education
Alternative Futures for Distance Learning: The Force and the Darkside
Murray Turoff
Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science Department of
Computer and Information Science
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark NJ, 07102, USA email:
murray@vc.njit.edu
homepage: http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff/ Copyright Murray Turoff 1997
Abstract
There are forces at work that are going to reshape the practice of distance
learning and higher education in the United States. Technology only enters
as an opportunity to channel these forces in very different directions. The
channeling process is really that of administrative and management practices
and policies that govern the utilization of educational technology and
methods. While there are desirable futures possible it is becoming evident
that many current practices and related economic forces can result in a
future that is quite analogous to the "darkside" of the force.
The views expressed in this paper are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of any
organization with whom the author may have an affiliation.
Table of Contents
Introduction The Force Commercialization
The Erosion of Tenure
Faculty and Adjunct Compensation and Considerations
Performance Throughput Rates
Budget Paradoxes
Future Alternatives
Accreditation of Distance Learning
Program Support
Evaluation The Nature of Learning
Related Administrative Practices
Warped Views on Distance Education
Faculty Developed Materials
The Organization of Distance Learning
Final Conclusion and Observations
References
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/turoff11.html
http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff
http://eies.njit.edu/~hiltz
The
Sanford Report in the Stanford Report
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for the message below.
My concern with John Sanford's report is that critics of distance education
often have never tried it. Or even if they have tried it, they have never
tried it with the instant message intensity of an Amy Dunbar ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q3.htm#Dunbar
I just do not think the armchair
critics really appreciate how the Dunbar-type instant messaging pedagogy can get
inside the heads of students online.
But I think it is safe to day that the
Sanford-type critics will never have the motivation and enthusiasm to carry off
the Dunbar-type instant messaging pedagogy. For them and many of us
(actually I'm almost certain that I could not pull off what Dr. Dunbar
accomplishes), it is perhaps more "suicidal" for students.
I also think that success of distance
education depends heavily upon subject matter as well as instructor enthusiasm.
But I think there is only a small subset of courses that cannot be carried off
well online by a professor as motivated as Dr. Dunbar.
I am truly grateful that I was able to
persuade Professor Dunbar and distance education expert from Duke
University to present an all-day workshop in the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel on
August 13, 2002. If our workshop proposal is accepted by the AAA, this is
an open invitation to attend. Details will soon be available under "CPE"
at
http://accounting.rutgers.edu/raw/aaa/2002annual/meetinginfo.htm
Thanks for helping me stay informed!
Other views on the dark side are summarized at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen
Bob,
Since I know you track information technology WRT education, I thought you
might be interested in this. The original source is the "Stanford Report"
cited below: TP is a listserv that redistributed it.
Kevin
Folks:
The article
below presents an interesting take on the limitations of technology,
teaching, and learning. It is from the Stanford Report, February 11,
2002
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/report/ . Reprinted with
permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu UP NEXT:
Book Proposal Guidelines
HIGH-TECH
TEACHING COULD BE "SUICIDAL"
BY JOHN SANFORD
University
educators largely extol the wonders of teaching through technology. But
skeptics question whether something is lost when professors and lecturers
rely too heavily on electronic media, or when interaction with students
takes place remotely -- in cyberspace rather than the real space of the
classroom.
Hans Ulrich
Gumbrecht, the Albert Guerard Professor of Literature, is one such skeptic.
"I think this enthusiastic and sometimes naïve and sometimes blind pushing
toward the more technology the better, the more websites the better teacher
and so forth, is very dangerous -- [that it] is, indeed, suicidal,"
Gumbrecht said, speaking at the Jan. 31 installment of the Center for
Teaching and Learning's "Award-WinningTeachers on Teaching" series.
But Gumbrecht
cautioned that there are few, if any, studies either supporting or rejecting
the hypothesis that traditional pedagogy is superior to teaching via the
Internet or with a host of high-tech classroom aids. "If [such studies]
exist, I think we need more of them," he said.
He added that he
could point only to his "intuition that real classroom presence should be
maintained and is very, very important," and emphasized the need for
educators to critically examine where technology serves a useful pedagogical
function and where it doesn't.
However, Gumbrecht
allowed that, for courses in which knowledge transmission is the sole
purpose, electronic media probably can do the job well enough. Indeed, given
the 20th century's knowledge explosion and the increasing costs of higher
education, using technology as opposed to real-life teachers for the
transmission of information is probably inevitable, he said.
In any case,
knowledge transmission should not be the core function of the university, he
added, noting that the Prussian statesman and university founder Wilhelm von
Humboldt, sociologist Max Weber and Cardinal John Henry Newman all held that
universities should be places where people confront "open questions."
"Humboldt even goes
so far to say -- and I full-heartedly agree with him -- they should ideally
be questions without a possible answer," Gumbrecht said. He asserted the
university should be a place for "intellectual complexification" and
"riskful thinking."
"We are not about
finding or transmitting solutions; we are not about recipes; we are not
about making intellectual life easy," he continued. "Confrontation with
complexity is what expands your mind. It is something like intellectual
gymnastics. And this is what makes you a viable member of the society."
Paradoxically,
"virtual" teacher-student interaction that draws out this kind of thinking
probably would be much costlier for the university than real-time, in-class
teaching, Gumbrecht said. The reason for this, he suggested, is that
responding to e-mail from students and monitoring their discussion online
would require more time -- time for which the university would have to pay
the teacher -- than simply meeting with the students as a group once or
twice a week.
In addition,
Gumbrecht asserted that discussions in the physical presence of others can
lead to intellectual innovation. He recalled a Heidegger conference he
attended at Stanford about a year ago, where he said he participated in some
of the best academic discussions of his career. Heidegger himself "tries to
de-emphasize thinking as something we, as subjects, perform," Gumbrecht
said. "He says thinking is having the composure of letting thought fall into
place." Gumbrecht suggested something similar happens during live, in-person
discussions.
"There's a
qualitative change, and you don't quite know how it happens," he said.
"Discussions in the physical presence have the capacity of being the
catalyst for such intellectual breakthroughs. The possibility of
in-classroom teaching -- of letting something happen which cannot happen if
you teach by the transmission of information -- is a strength."
Gumbrecht argued
that the way in which students react to the physical presence of one another
in the classroom, as well as to the physical presence of their professor,
can invigorate in-class discussions. "I know this is problematic territory,
but I think both the positive and negative feelings can set free additional
energy," he said. "I'm not saying the physical presence makes you
intellectually better, but it produces certain energy which is good for
intellectual production."
Asked to comment on
some of the ideas Gumbrecht discussed in his lecture, Decker Walker, a
professor of education who studies technology in teaching and learning,
agreed that pedagogy via electronic media may work best in cases where
information transmission is the goal -- for example, in a calculus course.
In areas such as the humanities and arts, it may be a less valuable tool, he
said.
In any case, the
physical presence of teachers can serve to motivate students, Walker said.
"I think young people are inspired more often by seeing other people who are
older -- or even the same age -- who do remarkable things," he said. "It
would be hard to replace this with a computer."
On the other hand,
Walker maintained that computer technology can be a useful educational aid.
One such benefit is access to scholars who are far away. "Technology can
enable a conversation, albeit an attenuated online one, with distant experts
who bring unique educational benefits, such as an expert on current research
on a fast-moving scientific topic," Walker said. "This may greatly enrich a
live class discussion with a local professor."
Walker maintained
that the university environment is not in danger of being supplanted by
technology. On the contrary, he noted, large businesses have adopted aspects
of the university environment for their employees' professional education.
For example, General Motors started GM University, whose main campus is at
the company's new global headquarters in Detroit's Renaissance Center.
Museums also
function in some ways like universities, he noted. For example, the
Smithsonian Institution has numerous research, museum and zoo education
departments
And for all the
emphasis high-tech companies put on developing devices and software for
remote communication, many have had large campuses constructed where workers
are centralized -- a nod, perhaps, to the importance of person-to-person
interaction.
Rick Reis,
executive director of Stanford's Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing and
associate director of the Learning Lab's Global Learning Partnerships, noted
that the subject of technology in education covers a lot of territory. Few
people, for example, are likely to argue that making students trudge over to
the library's reserve desk to get a piece of reading material for a course,
or making hundreds of hard copies, is preferable to posting it on the web,
Reis said. But he added that whether the kind of teaching generally reserved
for a seminar could be as effective online is an open question.
Distance Education on
the Web David Noble's Articles on Digital Diploma Mills
David Nobles' Concerns for
Students' Privacy
A Long-Standing
Critic of Distance Education, David Noble, Blasts it Once Again
"New Book by Critic of Distance
Education Describes Privacy Threats," by Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle of
Higher Education, January 18, 2002 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002011801u.htm
Distance education
threatens the privacy of students and professors because online class
discussions can be monitored in ways that are impossible in traditional
classrooms, argues David Noble, a history professor at York University, in
Toronto, and a well known critic of technology.
Mr. Noble's latest
critiques of distance education, along with revised versions of earlier
salvos that first circulated online, are collected in a new book, Digital
Diploma Mills (Monthly Review Press).
Mr. Noble says the
privacy of students and professors online is a particularly important issue
in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, because "governments have
vastly enlarged their powers of surveillance, and surveillance of electronic
communication in particular."
Some software
packages for delivering online courses can automatically capture and store
the texts of all online class discussions, or collect detailed information
about what students look at online. That worries Mr. Noble, who says that if
the material is stored and archived, it could be possible for
law-enforcement officials to demand transcripts of class discussions.
"Certainly
administrators and political authorities will be in a position to monitor
any and all such activities as never before, remotely and discreetly,
without permission or acknowledgment," writes Mr. Noble. "And they will have
ready access to extensive electronic records of course content and
communications."
Much of the new
material in Mr. Noble's book focuses on the influence of the U.S. government
-- and particularly the military -- on the continuing evolution of online
distance education. He worries that the program could lead the military to
bring greater standardization to distance education.
In particular, Mr.
Noble focuses on the U.S. military's eArmyU, a $453-million program that
will allow enlisted soldiers to take courses and earn degrees online through
partner colleges.
The project was
announced in 2000, just as some commercial distance-education efforts by
colleges and companies were beginning to falter, says Mr. Noble. He argues
that the demand for online education was not as great as colleges had
anticipated, and he sees the government's project as an effort to bolster
the use of technology in education.
Continued at
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/01/2002011801u.htm
Zuleyma Tang-Martinez apparently sides with David Noble
"Higher Education and the Corporate Paradigm: the Students are the Losers,"
by Zuleyma Tang-Martinez ---
http://www.louisville.edu/journal/workplace/tang-martinez.html
0.1. As institutions of higher education throughout
the US and abroad have adopted the corporate model, "efficiency" and profit
have been emphasized, while students have been redefined as "customers",
"consumers," and "clients." In reality, what we are currently witnessing, as
the result of this corporate paradigm, is the destruction of American higher
education. University presidents and administrators take on the roles of
Chief Executive Officers, and business managers have not supported greater
diversity or inclusiveness in academia, whether in terms of faculty or
students. The bottom line has become making money rather than educating
students or fostering an environment conducive to free intellectual inquiry
and development.
0.2. Although faculty often object to the corporate
paradigm, because of what it does to our profession and to us as
individuals, it is important to keep in mind that ultimately it is the
students and their education who suffer the most and have the most to lose.
There are three trends, dictated by the corporate approach, that profoundly
affect the quality of the education our students receive.
For the positive side, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
For a summary of assessment issues, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Update Messages on Trends in
Corporate Education
I thank Dan Gode for calling my attention to the following article.
"Two years ago, learning portals popped up across the Internet’s landscape.
Today, many are buried in the dot-com rubble. What happened?" by Kim Kiser,
Online Learning ---
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/new/sept01/cover.htm
By the spring of 2001, learning portals had started
to implode like so many of the dot-coms that came before them. Among the
casualties were Headlight.com, which initially provided learning to small
and medium-sized businesses; Acadio, which targeted professionals;
EduPoint.com, which started out serving consumers, then switched to
corporate clients; TrainSeek.com, which also targeted corporations; and
consumer sites HungryMinds.com (bought by IDG Books, which adopted the name)
and FreeEdu.com, to name a few.
What went wrong? For one thing, consumers weren’t
as starved for knowledge as the founders of these companies had hoped. “The
idea of ‘If you build it, they will come’ hasn’t quite been the case,” says
Dave Egan, one of the founders of Billerica, Mass.-based TrainingNet, now
Thinq. “As individuals, we’re not likely to go to Thinq.com or
HungryMinds.com on a Saturday morning and find learning — especially if we
know full well that we could go back to work on Monday and have that course
paid for by the corporation.” Egan adds that less than one percent of his
company’s revenues came from consumers.
Corporations were wary of the portal model, too.
Michael Lodato, vice president of market development for DigitalThink in San
Francisco, which provided content to several portal companies, remembers
going on sales calls with TrainingNet in the early days. “We would walk in,
and the client would say, ‘TrainingNet, why do you have to be in the
picture? What value do you bring to the table?’ All I could see in the first
iteration of portals were massive libraries with very little advice on what
you should do with them,” he recalls.
And because many portal companies failed to help
buyers make intelligent choices about which courses best met their needs,
they failed to create demand for the content — and brought little revenue to
the organizations supplying it. “If you [as the content vendor] have 300
courses inside a portal with 60,000 choices, how often are you going to
generate revenue in that environment?” Lodato asks.
Companies like DigitalThink also found it took more
work than they expected to offer courses through a portal. “It costs money
to get your stuff over to these people. Then you have to have alliance
managers working with them and accounting people watching over it,” Lodato
says. DigitalThink, which initially signed on with about 50 portal
companies, got “nothing of any significance” from most of the relationships,
he says.
Tom Brown, vice president of sales for the Americas
for NETg, a Naperville, Ill., company that sells IT-related courses, saw
similar results. NETg currently has courses listed on several portals,
including Thinq’s, KnowledgePlanet’s and Click2learn’s. “The revenues we got
out of the portals in 2000 was minimal,” Brown says. “Out of all the portals
combined, it was in the low six figures.”
Investors also soured on the idea, as they watched
Internet companies of all kinds failing to live up to their expectations. By
the spring of 2000, TrainSeek.com and Headlight.com were among the portal
companies looking for additional funding to carry them forward until they
became profitable. “In the summer of 2000, you couldn’t do second-round
financing for a dot-com, even if it was in the training and education
space,” says Lloyd Singer, CEO of LearnCom, a suburban Chicago firm that has
been buying up training video and other content companies. At press time,
LearnCom was trying to purchase TrainSeek’s Web site and customer base.
Not all companies that boasted about their portals
two years ago have fallen on hard times. Some have lived through the
shakeout — and now downplay the fact that they were ever associated with the
portal model.
For the most part, those that survived — and, in
some cases, thrived — did so by changing their business models or
distinguishing themselves early on. TrainingNet (now Thinq) emerged as an
early leader after aggressively pursuing relationships with content
providers and assembling what may be the largest online listing of courses,
books, audio tapes and videotapes. (Today, their catalog, which isn’t easy
for the casual Web site visitor to find, has upward of 500,000 products,
including more than 4,000 online courses.)
In addition to selling courses to individuals and
building learning portals for other corporations, Thinq acquired a learning
management system and businesses that specialized in marketing, technology
and consulting in the United States and United Kingdom. “The whole idea of
marrying content, management structure, technology and services seems to be
the magic elixir corporate clients are looking for,” says Egan.
Investors seem to agree. This spring, Thinq
received $20 million in fourth-round financing from CIBC Capital Partners
and Mellon Ventures, bringing the two-year-old company’s total financing to
$66 million.
Click2learn, which dropped the dot-com from its
name and no longer has a link to its course catalog on its Web site, also
differentiated itself in several ways. Before launching its portal, the
company was well-known for its course authoring software. It also had a
learning management system — a feature few portal companies could offer in
1999. Says consultant Hall: “They were one of the first to have a portal,
but their other businesses were able to sustain that model.”
Kevin Oakes, president and CEO of the Bellevue,
Wash., company, admits that corporate customers haven’t bought large volumes
of off-the-shelf courses from the portal the way he originally hoped.
However, he explains, one reason Click2learn, which works with some 50
content companies and has nearly 10,000 offerings in its catalog, has had
some success with its portal business was because they could create both
hosted and behind-the-firewall learning sites for corporations.
“The difference between our model vs. Headlight or
TrainSeek is that our whole business wasn’t built on the ASP (application
service provider) content aggregation model,” he explains.
Learn2.com is another company that’s hanging on
after changing its name and business model several times. Originally known
as 7th Level, the company first targeted consumers, then corporations,
government agencies and small businesses with everything from courses on
Access 2000 to free tutorials on how to hang wallpaper. They also sell
courses on CD-ROM and video through retailers such as CompUSA.
Learn2.com, whose stock was dropped from the NASDAQ
in early August because of its low price, recently signed a merger agreement
with E-Stamp Corp., a dot-com that has foundered in its attempts to sell
postage online and later supply chain management software. If approved by
shareholders later this year, the merger will give Learn2.com an infusion of
cash to repay its debt and, its owners hope, stimulate growth. But analysts
aren’t optimistic about the company’s future. “The cash will take them
through a few more quarters,” says Weggen. “But they have too many lines of
business and are in too many markets.”
Weggen and others believe the tectonic movements
that caused the shake-up in the portal market haven’t ended, and that the
lessons from last century’s learning portals will become the bedrock for
learning systems of the future.
“Bringing together courses from multiple publishers
is only part of the game in terms of what it takes to serve the corporate
market,” says Scott Mellen, co-founder of the defunct Headlight.com. “That’s
only part of the challenge training managers deal with when confronted with
trying to provide skills for their employees. They want the whole suite of
functionality that’s important to business. And I think a lot of things that
happened with learning portals are helping build this ultimate thing.”
For the rest of the article, go to
http://www.onlinelearningmag.com/new/sept01/cover.htm
I have an old and sadly neglected Web page (that in some ways
has become history of the early pioneers in bringing technology into accounting
education) that contains messages from various professors, some who burned out
and/or became overwhelmed by early efforts to bring technology into education
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ideasmes.htm
Growing Up is More
Anxiety-Provoking/Stressful
What is happening to the quality of
our students?
A recent
meta-analysis of multiple studies which revealed that schoolchildren in the
1980s (i.e. our recent and current students) reported more anxiety than
child psychiatric patients did in the 1950s. Thus, our students may find
life to be far more anxiety-provoking/stressful than we did as
undergraduates.
Adding to this
finding is the one described below that indicates stress impairs the ability
to remember and learn. Taken together, these studies suggest that
significantly higher levels of anxiety/stress among the current generation
of college students may help to account for the “decline” in the quality of
academic performance that we lament. Perhaps most of our students are doing
the best they can given their life experience just as we did the best we
could given our life experience.
Richard Reams,
Ph.D.
Staff Psychologist Counseling & Career Services
Trinity University 715 Stadium Drive #78 San Antonio, TX 78212-7200
Education Technology Links ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's Homepage is at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/
Global Cross-Border Networked Education in the
21st Century
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
Homepage:
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
This Page: Click on "Education Technology Updates"
Links to
Bob Jensen's Workshop Documents on Education and Learning
Bob Jensen's Education and
Learning Bookmarks
|
Bookmarks |
The Shocking
Future of Education
(Including Open-Share Course Materials From Prestigious
Universities) |
First File
Second File |
E-Learning and Distance
Education's Top
(Award-Winning) Illustrations
|
Detail File |
Bob Jensen's Threads on
Cross-Border (Transnational) Training and Education
(Includes helpers for finding online training and education courses,
certificate programs, and degree Programs) |
Detail File |
Alternatives
and Tricks/Tools of the Trade
(Including
Edutainment and Learning Games)
(Includes aids for the handicapped, disabled, and
learning challenged) |
First File
Second File |
The Dark Side of the 21st
Century: Concerns About Technologies in Education |
Detail
File |
Assessment Issues, Case
Studies, and Research |
Detail File |
History and Future of Course
Authoring Technologies |
Detail File |
Knowledge Portals and Vortals |
Detail File |
Bob Jensen's Advice to New Faculty (and Resources) |
Detail File |
Bob Jensen's Threads on Electronic Books |
Detail File |
Threads of Online Program
Costs and Faculty Compensation |
Detail File |
Bob Jensen's Helper Videos and Tutorials |
Detail File |
Jensen and Sandlin Book entitled Electronic Teaching and
Learning: Trends in Adapting to Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Networks
in Higher Education
(both the 1994 and 1997 Updated Versions) |
Old Book |
Some Earlier Papers
|
|
Additional Links and Threads |
Threads |
Click here to search this Website if you
have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron"
enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and
other universities is at
http://www.searchedu.com/.
The term "electroThenic portfolio," or "ePortfolio," is on everyone's
lips. What does this mean?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ElectronicPortfolio
When you want to search for an education phrase, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#education
Bob Jensen's Blogs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud
Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations
Create your own Web applications with ease using this free Zoho Creater
software
August 7, 2006 message from Richard Campbell
[campbell@RIO.EDU]
"This free Web-based software
handled the job -- but without the bells and whistles of Access that had baffled
Mr Hughes. And since the program stored his data on the Web, his colleagues
could tap into it easily with a browser. "To me it was like a godsend" says Mr.
Hughes, operations manager at SoluChem. "
Robert A. Guth, The Wall Street Journal Online ---
http://www.zohocreator.com/
Exclusive benefits of Zoho Creator
---
http://www.zohocreator.com/
|
Create Apps from scratch
Create your web application in minutes,
not days. It's just a few clicks away.
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Create Apps from spreadsheet
Import your spreadsheet to create web application automatically. |
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Browse,
Copy & Customize
Browse public applications. See something you like? Copy and customize
to your needs.
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No coding required
Create web application without coding. You don't need to have HTML or
PHP skills . |
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Embed Forms/Views in website
Embed Forms and Views easily into your
website and blog.
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Share your App
Share your app with other users or keep
it private among your friends, colleagues and clients. |
Zoho Creator helps you to easily create personal
and business web applications on your own by structuring and presenting your
data in a lot of interesting and useful ways. You can view the data as a
table, calendar or just as a summary. In addition to just viewing your data
in many ways, you might also want to perform one or more of the following:
-
Perform an action when a row
is added successfully or detect when someone adds a row to a form. For
example, you might want to receive email notifications as and when a row
is added.
Learn more
-
Perform an action when a row
is updated. For example, in the case of a bug tracker, you might want to
receive email notifications whenever the status of the issue gets
modified.
Learn more
-
Validate the form data before
persisting it.
-
Add a row only if it
satisfies a certain criteria and reject the other entries. For example,
in a recruitment application, accept only those applicants who have more
than two years of experience.
Learn more
-
Define formulas for
calculations. For example, assume a student database has marks obtained
by students in all the subjects and you want to display the total and
average marks also.
Learn more
-
Create complex filters in
views.
Learn more
With Zoho Creator, you don't have to write code
to build a simple data collection and viewing application like a Contacts
list. But, scripting will be indispensable for building a full fledged
application with complex logic, for example, Library Manager.
Jensen Comment
Although this is not course management software, it can be used for authoring
presentation lessons by instructors.
Bob Jensen's summaries of course authoring and course management software
are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
Free
Audio and Presentation Files of Three Days of Workshops on Education
Technologies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/CPEshows/CPEmenu.htm
Bob Jensen's Recent
CPE/CEP Technology Workshops at the American Accounting Association Annual
Meetings
During the past decade, I
have organized at least one all-day technology in education workshop at each of
the American Accounting Association annual meetings. In the early years,
these were not videotaped. The past three workshops were videotaped.
Both the presentation materials and the MP3 audio files of the various speakers
can be downloaded from the following links:
San Antonio on August 13,
2002
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
Free audio and presentation files
of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/002cpe/02start.htm
- Dennis Beresford, University
of Georgia
- Amy Dunbar, University of
Connecticut
- Nancy Keeshan, the Global MBA
and Cross-Continent MBA Programs of Duke University
- Susan Spencer, San Antonio
College
- Bob Jensen, Trinity University
Atlanta on August 11, 2001
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
Free audio and presentation files
of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
- Don Carter, Chartered
Accountancy (CA) School of Business
- Michael T. Kirschenheiter,
Columbia University
- Robert Walsh, Prentice-Hall
and Marist College
- A team of faculty from UNext
- Bob Jensen, Trinity University
Philadelphia on August 12, 2000
CPE/CEP Workshop Number 1 ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
Free audio and presentation files
of the following speakers:
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
- Charles Hickman, AACSB and
Quisic (formerly University Access)
- Michael T. Kirschenheiter,
Columbia University
- Anthony H. Catanach, Villanova
University
- Dan N. Stone, University of
Illinois
- Bob Jensen, Trinity University
Definitions:
Distributed Education = Distance Education
Chris Dede, Diana Oblinger, Carole Barone, Brian
Hawkins and others make a distinction between distance education (that can
be synchronous and delivered much like traditional classroom education) from
distributed education (which is usually asynchronous and delivered over the
Internet). I don't find such a distinction useful in the dawn of high
definitional television (HDTV) that will be interactive and further blur the
distinction between distance and distributed education. Furthermore,
the terms are often used as synonyms in the literature. See
"High-Definition Television Could Change Telecourses and Online Learning,"
by Florence, Olsen, The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 5, 2001 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2001/07/2001070501u.htm
More important distinctions lie in the type
of interactive communications of a course
-
Students
-
Instructors
-
Mentors
-
Consultants
-
Librarians,
-
Learning Communities
Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN)
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Synchronous Learning Networks (SLN)
-
Virtual Classrooms
-
Instant Replays
"Changing
the Interface of Education with Revolutionary Learning Technologies,"
by Nishikant Sonwalkar, Syllabus, November 2001, pp. 10-13 ---
http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5663
The paradigm shift in the pedagogical design of online education will
require much more in-depth study and analysis of existing methods and
evolving technologies. Clearly, education delivery is not simply information
transfer. There is much to learn, but we already know much about the
potential of the technology for multimodal delivery of learning material to
a variety of online learners.
The Five
Fundamental Learning Styles for Online Asynchronous Instruction |
Apprenticeship
A “building block” approach for presenting concepts in a
step-by-step procedural learning style. |
Incidental
Based on “events” that trigger the learning experience. Learners
begin with an event that introduces a concept and provokes
questions. |
Inductive
Learners are first introduced to a concept or a target principle
using specific examples that pertain to a broader topic area. |
Deductive
Based on stimulating the discernment of trends through the
presentation of simulations, graphs, charts, or other data. |
Discovery
An inquiry method of learning in which students learn by doing,
testing the boundaries of their own knowledge. |
Bob Jensen's comments on how traditional classroom materials must be
modified for online use are given at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
From Infobits on September 30, 2002
RECOMMENDED READING
"Recommended
Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits
readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books,
articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your
recommendations to carolyn_kotlas@unc.edu for possible inclusion in this
column.
Two free,
electronic newsletters devoted to distance learning issues came to my
attention recently:
DESIEN [Distance
Education Systemwide Interactive Electronic
Newsletter]
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/
Infobits subscriber
Rosemary Lehman <email: lehman@ics.uwex.edu> edits DESIEN. The newsletter is
published monthly by the University of Wisconsin-Extension <http://www1.uwex.edu/>.
Each issue offers original articles which emphasize distance education
themes. News, updates, conference information, and contributions by
subscribers are also regularly included. Subscription information is
included on the DESIEN homepage.
[Note: the August
2002 issue includes the article, "Electronic Content Accessible for Distance
Learners with Disabilities," by the CIT Infobits editor. The article is
available at
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/2002/0208/focus.htm]
---
SIDEBARS
http://online.bcit.ca/sidebars/index.htm
Infobits subscriber
Glenn Millar <email: Glenn_Millar@bcit.ca> co-edits SideBars. The newsletter
is published by the Learning Resources Unit of the British Columbia
Institute of Technology to provide "useful information and news items for
instructors, course developers, educational technologists and anyone else
who has an interest in distributed learning in its various manifestations."
Subscription
information:
http://online.bcit.ca/sidebars/subcribe.html
Driving Factors for
Corporate Distance Education
The factors driving the growth
of the alternative education market in the US, and which are likely
to be relevant to Australia, are as follows:
• the
globalised economy, with a growing
demand for standardised products, services and technical
infrastructure, and sophisticated communication systems;
• the emergence of a
post-industrial information age and
the explosive growth and distributed nature of new knowledge;
• demands for greater
access to tertiary education
fuelled by rapid changes in the economy, the need to maintain
and upgrade skills for employment, and industry’s need for
‘work-ready’ graduates;
• growing
reluctance on the part of governments to
fund increasing demand for higher education.
Cunningham, et al. (2000)
The Business of Borderless Education (Australian Department
of Education, Evaluations and Investigations Programme of the Higher
Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy ISBN 0 642 44446 3 and Online
Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 ---
http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
(pp. xii-xiii)
To this Bob Jensen adds the following:
•
fear among school administrators, faculty, government officials,
and librarians that if they fall behind in education
technologies they will fall behind in the learning curve,
generate a luddite reputation, lose revenues to other
institutions, have outmoded curricula, and give themselves,
their institutions, and even their nations a declining
reputation.
•
fear among school administrators, faculty, government officials,
and librarians that, if they fall behind in education
technologies, they will cling to expensive labor-intensive
systems that will not be cost-effective in times of increasing
faculty shortages and indirect costs (such as the inability of
instructors to afford housing in high cost living areas such as
Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Hawaii, Hong Kong, London, Paris, etc.)
• awareness that
there are some enormous advantages to
online learning over onsite learning, including the
online ability to customize learning to individual aptitudes and
motivations (especially for young learners) and time constraints
(especially for adult learners). Online learning also has
a greater capacity to deal with language and cultural barriers.
Enormous
Advantages of Online Learning
Ease of
communicating with instructors, fellow students,
mentors, experts, and libraries. |
Email and
email attachments
Instant Messaging
Bulletin Boards
Chat Rooms
Teleconferencing
Webcams
Web documents |
Potential
intimacy and closer bonding when online |
Reduces
intimidation face-to-face encounters, physical
presence embarrassments, and group bullying.
Kentucky Virtual U. Adds
Online Tutoring
Kentucky Virtual University
opened registration for Spring 2002 with new online
services, including free online tutoring, Sunday
call center hours and an online writing center.
Acting chief executive officer Daniel Rabuzzi said
the services "are designed to create a high- touch
environment for students plugged into class over the
Internet. Live tutors are now just a click away, and
in some subjects, are available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week." Students can schedule tutoring
sessions in subjects ranging from basic math to
Calculus II, accounting, chemistry, economics,
Spanish and statistics. The tutoring will remain
free through mid- May 2002 and is available through
an arrangement with the University of Kentucky.
For more information,
visit:
http://www.kyvu.org |
Messaging can
be more well thought out and carefully crafted than
face-to-face or telephone conversations. |
Reminds me of
the repeated drafts that I sometimes craft before
finally sending out an intended letter or article. |
Students can
access electronic libraries and knowledge portals
containing text, graphics, audio, video, and
animations. |
For example, listen to the experts' audio files on
FAS 133.
See the U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia Database
---
http://oyez.nwu.edu/
Sometimes
these knowledge portals have interactive audio where
users can speak their requests into a telephone and
receive audio or text replies from an interactive
database.
Audio Demos at BeVocal. |
Students can
access realistic and highly educational networked
simulations and networked games. |
For example,
see the interactive networked business strategy
simulation at
http://www.netmike.com/ |
Students can
take courses simultaneously with students from other
nations and cultures |
For example,
read about Sharon Lightner's international
accounting course at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm |
Students can
learn asynchronously using hypertext and hypermedia
navigations. |
See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm |
Virtual
settings for learning are increasingly more
realistic in terms of images and databases |
|
Providers of
training and education have reduced geographic or
other monopoly powers. They must face up to
increasingly stiff international online sources of
training and education. |
See
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm |
Web courses are more efficient for
students. |
Texas A&M, in partnership with Monterrey Tech,
deliver an ALN Web MBA Program in Mexico City.
According to John
Parnell, what did Mexico City students claim was the
main advantage of the online MBA from Texas A&M? |
Students have
greater access to training and education at the time
and place where they need it at the moment and
across their entire lives. |
JITT = Just in Time Training
Dial-Up Knowledge
Knowledge Portals & Vortals |
|
|
|
A summary of the many disadvantages as
well as advantages of education technologies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/~rjensen/245ch02.htm
For a summary of the Dark Side, see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Lifelong Learning and
Training Choices of the Future
- shorter, often
expensive, courses offered by new providers versus the more
established reputation of traditional institutions;
- credit versus
non-credit professional development education and training; and
- ‘just-in-case’
education versus ‘just-in-time’ training.
Cunningham, et al. (2000)
The Business of Borderless Education (Australian Department
of Education, Evaluations and Investigations Programme of the Higher
Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy ISBN 0 642 44446 3 and Online
Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 ---
http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
(p. xiii) |
Wow Article of the
Week in the December 3, 2001 Edition of
New
Bookmarks
Note from Bob Jensen: This
demonstrates the growth of distance education and then questions some of the
pedagogy.
"A Virtual Revolution: Trends in
the Expansion of Distance Education," by Thomas J. Kriger, USDLA Journal
(a refereed journal of the United States Distance Learning Association,"
November 2001 ---
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
This report
describes four major trends leading the growth of distance education. The
purpose is not to cover every provider but to draw a picture of the types of
organizational structures and educational activities that are on the rise.
These include:
- Existing
higher education institutions that have or are developing distance
education programs, such as e-Cornell, NYU Online, the University of
Illinois On-line; University of Maryland University College, Rio Salado
Community College, the SUNY Learning Network and Virtual Temple;
- Full virtual
universities, such as the University of Phoenix Online, Western
Governors University, Andrew Jackson University, Cappella University,
Jones International University, Kennedy-Warren University;
- Corporate
university or training institutions, such as the members of Corporate
University Xchange and Click2learn.
Corporate-university joint ventures. those that provide course management
systems such as Blackboard, Campus Pipeline, eCollege and Web CT, as well as
those who package and distribute courses or content from existing
institutions such as UNext.com, Cenquest, Fathom, Global Education Network,
Quisic and Universitas 21;
What do we learn
from these descriptions? First, we learn that the variety of new ways to
organize DE and reach new students is enormous, as is the talent that can be
brought to bear in making education attractive in the new medium. But we
also find that the way distance education is being organized and
conducted often poses serious questions.
Much of the
distance education under study here, whether non-profit or for-profit, is
built on corporate ideas about consumer focus, product standardization,
tight personnel control and cost effectiveness (maximizing course taking
while minimizing the "inputs" of faculty and development time). These
concepts are contrary to the traditional model of higher education
decision-making which emphasizes faculty independence in teaching and
research, academic control of the curriculum, academic freedom in the
classroom and collegial decision-making.
While traditional
practices are not sacrosanct, academic decision making processes have been
very successful in producing quality higher education the best in the world.
Our concern is that some of the new trends and practices described in this
report may inhibit rather than promote good education. A number of specific
concerns arose:
- Education
based primarily on the marketplace and the model of "student as
customer" is too narrow. Student and industry preferences certainly
matter in designing curricula, but if pleasing the customer is the
pre-eminent value, there is a real danger that the curriculum will
not be coherent, rigorous enough or broad enough to meet the student's
long-term interests.
- A central
characteristic of many DE providers is to "unbundle" the faculty role so
that different specialists develop the curriculum, teach the course,
evaluate student performance, etc. This allows for greater
standardization but it may not add up to better education.
-
Standardization of coursework also inhibits students from being exposed
to the diverse views of different faculty members with varying knowledge
and perspectives. This diversity is important in enabling students to
hone their own ideas and knowledge.
- Some programs
exhibited an inclination to increase class size as a means of increasing
the financial output of a course. The only proper consideration in
fixing class size is to maintain the best level to facilitate learning.
- Some programs
rely too heavily on testing for individual "outcomes" and "competencies"
while downgrading the importance of class time and social interaction in
developing deep knowledge about a subject. Along the same lines,
distance education providers too often dismiss the importance of
same-time same-place interaction rather than building it into their
programs whenever possible.
It is appropriate,
indeed essential, to present information for the DE marketplace in an
attractive, computer-friendly fashion. But over-attention to drawing
"customers" may result in technology driving the way teaching is
conducted-leading, for example, to models centered around bite-size, "point
and click" accumulations of facts rather than a more reflective, less easily
measured search for knowledge.
In the year 2000,
AFT published Distance Education: Guidelines for Good Practice. The
guidelines lay out 14 specific standards which, if observed, ensure high
quality distance education. (A synopsis of the guidelines appears in the
report's conclusion.) The guidelines advance AFT's belief that broad
academic content, high standards, personal interaction and professional
control are the key elements of educational quality. College faculty must
insist on sound practice based on a broad vision of education-one that
recognizes education is about more than facts, more than competencies, more
than career ambitions.
Education, among
other things, is about broadening intellectual horizons, relying on facts
and reason when confronting life issues and learning to listen to others and
defend ideas by the force of argument. That is why education is the
foundation of a working democracy. Because distance education is ubiquitous
and offers so much promise, faculty are obligated to carry the banner for
quality and good practice while recognizing that this will sometimes require
challenging current trends and practices
Continued at
http://www.usdla.org/ED_magazine/illuminactive/NOV01_Issue/article02.html
Bob Jensen's documents on distance
education are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
In particular, a related article on
"The Dark Side" of distance education is provided at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Online Pedagogy at the University of
Phoenix
Phoenix faculty
work in a highly structured environment. Course facilitators in traditional
classes are forbidden to lecture. Faculty are, instead, expected to closely
follow Phoenix's "teaching/ learning model," which begins with course
syllabi and detailed teaching modules developed by fulltime faculty on the
main campus. In this way, faculty responsibilities are broken down into a
series of discrete steps, such as when course development is detached from
teaching. Phoenix course modules "include guidelines for weekly assignments,
group activities and grading." Some course modules contain classroom
time-management guidelines broken down into 15-minute intervals.
Phoenix defends its
practice of using these restrictive guidelines in the name of
standardization. The university's online catalog declares: "The standardized
curriculum for each degree program provides students with specified levels
of knowledge and skills regardless of the delivery method or classroom
location."
Critics argue,
however, that Phoenix's course modules violate academic freedom because they
don't allow faculty members sufficient discretion. Milton R. Blood, managing
director of the American Assembly of the Collegiate Schools of Business, has
characterized Phoenix's standardized curriculum as "McEducation." He
explained, "It's a redefinition of how we go about delivering higher
education. The question is whether it's really higher education when it's
delivered in a franchised way."
Thomas J. Kriger, quoted from the
Wow Article of the Week cited above.
More from Kriger's article cited
above:
Table 1
A Sampling of
Colleges and Universities that Offer
Online/Distance Education Programs |
Institution
|
Characteristics
|
Number and
Type of DE Programs |
DE Enrollment
|
Accreditation
|
e-Cornell |
For-profit
spin off; no courses offered yet |
Will offer
certificates, not degree programs |
NA |
Not accredited
as a separate entity |
NYU Online |
For Profit
spin off primarily for corporate market |
Two graduate;
many corporate programs |
166 (in
graduate programs) |
Not accredited
as a separate entity |
University of
Illinois Online |
Umbrella
Organization for different U. of Illinois campuses |
One
professional degree; 10 master's, bachelor's completion program |
6,000 courses
taken online |
North Central |
University of
Maryland University College |
Claims online
program is world's largest online university |
12 bachelor;
10 graduate |
7,955; UMUC
now claims enrollment of 40,000 |
Middle States |
Rio Saldo
Community College |
One of the
first and largest online community college programs |
Six associate
degrees; 12 certificate |
200 onpine
courses, 8,000 students per semester |
North Central |
SUNY Learning
Network |
One of the
three largest DE programs in the country (with Phoenix and UMUC) |
1,500 courses
from Accounting to Web design |
Approximately
10,000 course enrollments per semester |
Middle States |
Virtual Temple |
For profit
spin off; no courses offered yet |
NA |
NA |
Not accredited
as a separate entity |
* Figures for
1999-2000, US Department of Education, Report to Congress on the
Distance Education Demonstration Programs, January 2001. Other
statistics reported directly by institutions. |
Rio Salado
Community College (Table 1) offers one of the largest distance education
programs at the community college level. One of 10 separate institutions in
the huge (9,000-plus square miles) Maricopa Community College District in
the greater Phoenix area, Rio Salado was founded in 1978 as a center for
adult education. With no central campus, this self-described "college
without boundaries" originally offered courses in high schools, libraries
and community centers in the Phoenix area. In 1996, Rio Salado began to add
online programs to its extensive menu of distance learning courses and
training programs. Today, Rio Salado delivers 80 percent of its general
education courses via the Internet or other DE technologies. New course
selections at Rio begin every two weeks and students can study at their own
pace, which offers flexibility for working adults.[9] Rio Salado employs 18
full-time faculty and 600 part-timers, and every faculty member is required
to teach at least one online course.
The faculty role at
Rio Salado is "unbundled," or broken down into a series of discrete tasks.
Design teams-which include a technical trainer, an editor, a proofreader,
and Web and content specialists create a curriculum and standardized courses
that are taught primarily by adjunct faculty.
Rio Salado College
is one of a handful of U.S. institutions that participate in the Pew
Learning and Technology Program's Grant Program in Course Redesign. This
program was based upon ideas found in the National Learning Infrastructure
Initiative, in which modular, online exercises, tutorials and quizzes would
replace more expensive direct contact with actual faculty in high enrollment
introductory courses.
Links to these and many other online
programs can be found at the following sites:
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
More from Kriger's article cited above:
Table 3
Corporate-University Joint Ventures:
Hybrid Course or Content Providers |
Institution
|
Characteristics
|
Number and
Type of DE Programs |
Affiliations
|
Accreditation
|
Cardean
University / Unext.com |
Create courses
in collaboration with prestigious business schools; problem-solving
based curriculum |
MBA Programs
and 80 courses offered |
Columbia,
Chicago, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the London School of
Economics |
DETC |
Cenquest |
Offers
graduate business degrees and training |
1 certificate
2 Master's program |
Partnered with
Babson, U. of Texas, Oregon Institute, Adelaide University, Monterey
Institute of Technology |
No |
Fathom |
Columbia's
for-profit spin-off; niche is to provide high-quality content,
courses to include arts and humanities |
600 courses
listed; 75,000 registered users; several hundred students enrolled
in online courses |
13 member
institutions including U. of Chicago, American Film Institute,
London School of Economics, NY Public Library |
No |
Global
Education Network |
Brainchild of
Weilliams professor Mark Taylor and investment banker Herbert Allen;
trying to attract faculty with star power; will offer core
curriculum including arts and humanities |
3 or 4 courses
currently in development;
no degree programs available |
Corses by
individual faculty from Williams, Wellesley, Brown, Amherst, Yale |
Seeking
accreditation |
Quisic
(formerly University Access) |
Offers
undergraduate, graduate business courses, training; original focus
undergraduate DE |
Clients
incoluding Cisco, United, Citigroup, Lexus, IBM |
200 corporate
clients; university partners indlude Dartmouth, London School of
Economics, North Carolina, USC |
No |
Universitas 21 |
Global network
of 18 institutions; joint venture with Thompson Learning |
In planning
stages |
Seeking U.S.
institutional participants |
No |
Beginning with
specialized business courses in the summer of 1999, today Cardean offers a
complete online MBA and a total menu of almost 100 courses. Masters courses,
which require 25 to 30 hours, cost $500 each. Shorter quantum courses, each
requiring two to three hours, are priced at five for $380. Teaching at
Cardean is unbundled, with "senior" faculty planning the curriculum,
"advisory" faculty counseling students and supervising adjuncts, and
"adjunct" faculty members working with students by grading assignments,
answering e-mail and directing online discussions.
Another ambitious
online joint venture is Global Education Network (GEN) (Table 3), the
product of an alliance between Williams College humanities professor Mark
Taylor and investment banker Herbert Alan Jr. As with Fathom, GEN is one of
the few for-profit DE providers committed
to bringing the
"soft" subjects of the humanities online. GEN, in fact, plans to offer a
full undergraduate core curriculum in a few years, with faculty drawn from
small, prestigious liberal arts colleges, which are not usually associated
with distance education. Not surprisingly, GEN markets itself as a
high-quality DE access point; currently on the Web site are courses from
individual faculty at Williams, Wellesley and Brown. The privately owned GEN
reportedly has institutional relationships with Wellesley, Brown and Duke,
although many other institutions-including Williams (Taylor's home campus)
have chosen not to affiliate with GEN. The main objection at Williams was
that associating with a DE provider would hurt its quality reputation.[21]
Other distance
education joint ventures-some with significant outside funding-are
attempting to capture the estimated $4 billion that corporations spend each
year on DE training for their employees.[22] Founded in 1997, Cenquest
(Table 3) offers business courses and graduate degree programs in
partnership with a number of university MBA programs. Cenquest's original
affiliates were the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology and
the University of Texas at Austin.
Working with these
institutions, Cenquest adapts their courses for the DE market by dividing
them into shorter units, which are then offered on a rolling schedule either
for individual applications or degree and certificate programs such as
accounting, which are more readily standardized and modularized. In December
2000, Cenquest affiliated with the prestigious Babson College to provide an
MBA program to Intel employees. Cenquest has been successful in attracting
venture capital. It began offering DE courses, which now number over 100, in
1998.
Update from Bob Jensen:
I think Quisic abandoned all or most of its college courses. You can read
more about Cardian and listen to some of its faculty discuss course development
and delivery from my August 2001 workshop in Atlanta ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/001cpe/01start.htm
Table 4 (from
the Wow Article of the Week above)
Virtual Universities |
Institution
|
Characteristics
|
Number and Type of DE Programs |
DE
Enrollment |
Accreditation
|
Andrew Jackson University |
Correspondence school offering
textbook study |
3 bachelor's
3 graduate |
400-450 |
DETC |
Capella University |
Offers traditional courses and
corporate training; partners include Honeywell, Lawson Software |
36 certificate
1 bachelor's
11 graduate |
1.049* |
North Central |
Jones International University |
First fully accredited online
university |
21 certificate
1 bachelor's
2 graduate |
1,500 |
North Central |
Kennedy-Western University |
Markets to "mid-career
professionals" |
13 bachelor's
12 graduate12 Ph.D. |
23,000 |
Not regionally accredited;
licensed by Wyoming State Dept of Ed |
University of Phoenix Online |
Fastest growing for-profit
university; now 25% online |
8 bachelor's
10 master's
1 Ph.D.; certificate programs under development |
18,500 |
|
Western Governor's University |
Private university offering menu
of courses from other institutions and corporations |
3 certificate;
4 bachelor's
1 graduate |
208* |
|
* Figures for 1999-2000, U.S.
Department of Education, Report to Congress on the Distance Education
Demonstration Programs, January 2001. Other statistics reported
directly by institutions. |
A typical
undergraduate course at Phoenix lasts five weeks; graduate courses are six
weeks. Students attend one four-hour "workshop" per week or meet for longer
sessions on alternate weekends. Students also take classes sequentially-one
at a time-so they can better focus on the subject matter while working
full-time. An additional requirement is that students work in teams. As
Phoenix's online catalog explains,
The university
organizes each class into problem-solving teams of the type employed
successfully in business and industry. Thus, in addition to the development
of intellectual and technical knowledge, the student is able to grow
emotionally so that the potential for practical application of knowledge and
skill is optimized.[26]
An estimated 90
percent of Phoenix faculty (both online and classroom) teach part-time. At
its Northern California brick-and-mortar campus, Phoenix employs 20
full-time faculty and 550 part-timers. These part-time "facilitators," as
they are called, must possess a graduate degree from a regionally accredited
institution and must work full-time in a field related to the courses they
teach.
Links to these and many other online
programs can be found at the following sites:
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Quotations on the Dark Side from Kriger's article can be
found at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Internet Companies
Directory (A Partial Listing)
COMPANY |
DESCRIPTION |
URL |
e-Retail
(consumer products and services) |
1-800 Contacts |
Contact lenses |
http://www.1800contacts.com/ |
Alloy Online |
Goods for teens |
http://www.alloy.com/ |
Amazon.com |
Books, music, electronics |
http://www.amazon.com |
Autobytel.com |
New, used car guide |
http://www.autobytel.com/ |
Barnesandnoble.com |
Books, music |
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ |
Drugstore.com |
Medical products |
http://www.drugstore.com/ |
eBay |
Auctions |
http://www.ebay.com/ |
Egghead.com |
Computer products |
http://www.egghead.com/ |
Expedia |
Travel planning |
http://www.expedia.com/ |
Hotel Reservations Network |
Discounted hotel rooms |
http://www.180096hotel.com/ |
Priceline.com |
Travel reservations |
http://www.priceline.com/ |
Stamps.com |
Postage |
http://www.stamps.com/ |
Ticketmaster |
Guides, tickets |
http://www.ticketmaster.com/ |
Travelocity.com |
Travel reservations |
http://www.travelocity.com/ |
e-Finance (banks, brokerages
and credit companies) |
Ameritrade |
Securities broker |
http://www.ameritrade.com/ |
Charles Schwab |
Securities broker |
http://www.schwab.com/ |
CSFBdirect |
Securities broker |
http://www.csfbdirect.com/ |
E-Trade |
Securities broker |
http://www.etrade.com |
IndyMac Bancorp |
Mortgage lender |
http://www.indymacbank.com/ |
Intuit |
Personal finance info |
http://www.intuit.com/ |
NetBank |
Consumer banking |
http://www.gefn-compubank.com/ |
NextCard |
Consumer credit |
http://www.nextcard.com |
TD Warehouse |
Securities broker |
http://www.tdwaterhouse.com/ |
Wit SoundView |
Securities broker |
http://www.witsoundview.com/ |
e-New Media
(advertising/subscription-supported media) |
AOL Time Warner |
Consumer content |
http://www.aoltimewarner.com/ |
Ask Jeeves |
Search engine |
http://www.ask.com/ |
Cnet Networks |
Technology content |
http://www.cnet.com/ |
HomeStore.com |
Real estate content |
http://www.homestore.com/ |
HotJobs.com |
Career content |
http://www.hotjobs.com/ |
InfoSpace |
Wireless content |
http://infospace.com/ |
MarketWatch.com |
Financial content |
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/ |
McAfee.com |
Computer protection |
http://mcafee.com/ |
MP3.com |
Music content |
http://www.mp3.com/ |
Multex.com |
Financial content |
http://www.multexusa.com/ |
NBC Internet |
Consumer content |
http://www.nbci.com/ |
SportsLine.com |
Sports content |
http://sportsline.com/ |
Terra Lycos |
Consumer content |
http://www.terralycos.com/ |
TheStreet.com |
Financial content |
http://www.thestreet.com/ |
Apollo Group U of Phoenix Online |
Education content |
http://www.ipopros.com/histdeal_pla.asp?deal=2285 |
Yahoo |
Web guide |
http://www.yahoo.com/ |
e-Access providers (connections
to the Internet) |
Aether Systems |
Wireless Internet access |
http://www.aethersystems.com/ |
Excite At Home |
Internet access |
http://www.excite.com/ |
EarthLink |
Internet access |
http://www.earthlink.net/ |
Juno Online Services |
Internet access |
http://www.juno.com |
Metricom |
Wireless Internet access |
http://www.metricom.com/
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Please be advised that Metricom has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection. |
NetZero |
Internet access |
http://www.netzero.net/ |
Prodigy Communications |
Internet access |
http://www.prodigy.com/ |
RCN |
Internet access |
http://www.rcn.com/ |
Research in Motion |
Wireless Internet access |
http://www.rim.net/ |
WorldGate Communications |
Internet access |
http://www.wgate.com |
Dr Jensen,
In your internet access directory you have listed e-Access
providers - none of these providers offer managed services...i.e. a
place to safely house your servers and storage with both physical
and internet security provided in addition to system administration
services and storage and backup services. If you ever add these to
your listing please consider including us, S4R (
www.s4r.com
) - we provide these services at the best prices around and give the
best service!
Thank you.
Jennie Enholm | S4R (760)804-8004 x113
|
e-Learning providers
(corporate) For more details go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm |
Caliber |
Training and executive dev. |
http://www.caliber.com/ |
Pensare |
Executive development with plans for degree programs in partnership with
prestige universities |
http://www.pensare.com/ |
UNext |
Executive development and for-credit programs through UNext's
Cardean University and in partnership with prestige universities |
http://www.unext.com/ |
Smart Force |
Executive development |
http://www.smartforce.com/ |
Quisic |
Content development, executive development, and for-credit courses |
http://www.quisic.com/
(Formerly called University Access) |
Headlight (From CyberU) |
Recreational learners and an online small business training center |
http://www.cyberu.com/training/headlight/index.asp |
OnlineLearning.net |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses |
http://www.onlinelearning.net/ |
University of Maryland University College |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses |
http://www.umuc.edu/ |
Fathom (headed by Columbia University in conjunction with many
prestigious partners) |
A huge knowledge portal that offers over 600 courses |
http://www.fathom.com/index.jhtml |
New York University Online |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses |
http://i5.nyu.edu/~jmm282/nyupage.html |
University of Phoenix |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses (The largest
accredited private university in the world.) |
http://www.phoenix.edu/index_open.html |
The Kaplan Colleges |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses (including the
online Concord School of Law) |
http://www.kaplancollege.com/ |
Sylvan Learning Systems |
Training and executive development and for-credit courses (and testing
centers) |
http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/ |
Intellnex from Ernst & Young (the first Big 5 accounting firm
university) |
Training and executive development |
http://www.intellinex.com/flash/index.htm |
(Note that most prestige universities have already or are forming
private corporations for online delivery of training, executive
development, and for-credit courses) |
For links to Internet Libraries, go to
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm#Librarian'sIndex |
Many other corporate providers
are discussed in a book that can be downloaded free:
The Business of Borderless Education, by S.C. Cunningham, et al.,
(Australian Department of Education, Evaluations and Investigations
Programme of the Higher Education Division, 2000). Hard Copy ISBN
0 642 44446 3 and Online Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 ---
http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf |
Bob Jensen's documents on e-Learning are available free at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's other bookmarks are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
You can download (for free) nearly six
hours of MP3 audio and the PowerPoint presentation slides of one of the best
education technology workshops that I ever organized. This was the
pre-convention workshop that I organized for the American Accounting
Association, August 12, 2000 in Philadelphia. The speakers, topics, and
download instructions are given at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/000cpe/00start.htm
Workshop Title
Innovative Learning
Programs for Accounting and Business: the Ivy League Goes Online, the
Sloan Foundation Experiments in Asynchronous Learning, and Experiments in
Self-Learning at Major Universities Using the BAM Pedagogy
Sylvan Online Tutoring ---
http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/
A Web Training Course From the U.K.
Becoming WebWise http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/learn/index.shtml
Welcome
to BBC Becoming WebWise!
This new online course is the easy way to get to grips with the
Internet. It lets you learn at your own pace and can lead to a
nationally recognised qualification. Enrol at your local college for
one of the accredited qualifications. |
- The eight key sections, or
trips, will take you through the Internet basics in a simple and
easy to follow format. Remember, you can return to any of the
sections as often as you like. It will probably take you about ten
hours to complete the course.
- Becoming WebWise will
help you find out about getting connected, e-mailing, searching,
bookmarking, making your own address book and the very basics of
building your own web page. You will also learn about
technological developments like Digital TV and WAP phones, your
legal rights online, the history of the net, and the other ways in
which you might get online.
- As you progress through
the course, you will be able to see your scores by visiting your
scorecard. This will tell you which trip and landmarks you have
visited and also your scores in our tasks and quizzes. It is
important to log out at the end of your visit so that your scores
and progress will be saved.
- Remember: in order
to obtain the accredited qualification you must enrol at a local
college. Use our national
coursefinder section to find one.
- Use the Register
or Log
In link to get a scorecard. If you would like to enter
Becoming WebWise without registering or logging in then use this
link: Enter
Becoming WebWise
|
From The Scout Report on January 18, 2002
A+ Country Reports http://www.countryreports.org/
A fantastic resource for students, teachers,
tourists, and anyone else interested in the globe, A+ Country Reports offers
a wealth of information on all of the countries of the world. Like the CIA's
World Factbook (last mentioned in the September 28, 2001 _Scout Report_ ),
A+ Country Reports presents up-to-date information on population, geography,
economy, history, and politics. Aside from that, however, the site presents
a lively array of extras that don't figure in the CIA's matter of fact
dossiers, things such as audio clips of national anthems and links to
current weather reports. As the site itself boasts, through a list of quotes
from current reviews, A+ Country Reports is particularly appealing to
teachers and younger students, and it's obvious why it's appealing, given
its attention to the kinds of details kids demand -- bright graphics, large
fonts, and Flash-automated features among them. For those interested in
sharing what they have learned or already know, there is also a discussion
area and links to sites for further study.
FindTutorials http://www.findtutorials.com/
FindTutorials offers hundreds of tutorials and
professional online IT and Softskills training courses that are available
for a variety of disciplines and skill levels. In addition, it offers an
online e-mail system, an IT job database with thousands of daily updated
positions, and a host of additional resources on internet training skills.
With simple to use navigational tools and a "sophisticated in-house
developed site search", finding information to meet your requirements
merely takes the click of a button.
Western Governors University
Meeting Access Goals
The Western Governors
University released its annual report, which said the private, non-profit
university, founded by 19 western governors, is achieving its goals to expand
access to higher education, especially for working adults. WGU President Bob
Mendenhall said, "the constraints on time due to work and family
commitments are access issues ... so the flexibility provided by WGU's online,
competency-based model is very appealing to a broad spectrum of
students." WGU currently has about 2,500 students enrolled, up from 500
students one year ago. The average WGU student is 40 years old, and over 90
percent work full-time.
For more
information, visit: http://www.wgu.edu
Forwarded by Aaron Konstam on February 25, 2003
WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY, a virtual institution,
was granted regional accreditation on Tuesday by a group of four accrediting
agencies. Officials at the university believe this will legitimize distance
education and competency-based education in the eyes of other institutions.
--> SEE http://chronicle.com/free/2003/02/2003022601t.htm
The WGU home page is at http://www.wgu.edu
WGU has had a long and hard struggle getting accreditation because it is so
non-traditional. The most important thing to note is that WGU is
competency based and non-traditional even though major colleges and universities
are providing the learning materials --- http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/academics/understanding.html
Unlike traditional universities that are typically
credit-based, WGU is a competency-based institution. Competencies are
nothing more than skills or knowledge identified by professionals in a
particular field as being essential for mastery of that field.
The benefit of this competency-based system is that
it makes it possible for you -- if you are already knowledgeable about a
particular subject -- to make progress toward completing a WGU degree even
if you lack college experience. WGU recognizes that you may have gained
skills and knowledge on the job, through years of life experience, or by
taking a course on a particular subject. This competency-based system does
not use credits in awarding degrees. Instead, students demonstrate their
knowledge or skills through assessments.
However, if you have completed college coursework
at another institution, you may have your transcripts evaluated and may be
able to have some associate-level domains cleared. Please use the links on
this page to learn more about WGU's competency-based education for
postsecondary degrees.
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
From
the Syllabus News on December 24, 2001
Commerce Bancorp,
Inc., which calls itself "America's Most Convenient Bank," said
training courses provided through its Commerce University have received
expanded credit recommendations from the American Council on Education
(ACE). The bank, whose employees can receive college credit through the
program, has received credit recommendations for two customer service
training programs. Employees may apply the credit recommendations to college
degree programs in which they are participating. Commerce University offers
nearly 1,700 courses to employees each year via seven schools related to its
areas of operation, including its School of Retail Banking, School of
Lending, and School of Insurance.
For more
information, visit: http://commerceonline.com
"Training
System Delivers Accredited Courses." T.H.E. Journal, September
2001, Page 26 --- http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3620.cfm
The
Dynamic Online Training System (DOTS) developed by Australian-based WebRaven
has made its way into the U.S. market. The system delivers online,
self-paced accredited courses to students, providing them with a
cost-effective method and the opportunity to complete their high school
certificates via the Internet. DOTS is a fully manageable enrollment,
student management, course administration and tuition delivery system for
educational institutions. It is an innovative software solution that manages
all members of an institution, from content managers, content creators,
instructors and students. The system also effectively manages the delivery
of training to all members of your institution, and even has the facilities
to be e-commerce enabled. In addition, DOTS offers complete flexibility to
build your own online courseware using multimedia components such as videos,
sound clips, images, PDF files and animated GIFs. Advantages of
incorporating DOTS into any institution include the cost savings, easy
delivery method via the Internet and less reliability on physical resources.
WebRaven, Brisbane, Australia, www.webraven.com
.
From Syllabus News on January 15, 2002
SMU, BU Join To Offer Project Management Training
TrainingTrack, Boston University's training
network, said it would join forces with Southern Methodist University's
Advanced Computer Education Centers to offer project management training in
the Houston, Texas area. The TrainingTrack network, which is composed of
regional training companies and schools that distribute and market Boston
University's IT and management training programs, will provide area
professionals with daytime and evening project management training beginning
this month. Tom Bonesteel, director of SMU's training centers, said
affiliating with BU's program will give the SMU subsidiary a turnkey project
management offering that's flexible enough for area professionals.
For more information, visit: http://www.engr.smu.edu/soe_acec.html
.
Online Enrollment Nearly Triples for Commercial
College
Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a for-profit,
post-secondary education company, said registrations for its online courses
for the quarter ending in December, 2001, rose 171 percent compared to the
same quarter last year. Course registrations for the fall term increased to
3,456, setting a company record. The company also said it added 14 new
online courses in accounting and criminal justice for the January term in
response to rising demand. In addition, two new campuses started offering
online courses during the January term, bringing the total number of
locations to 19. Currently, the company offers 80 courses online.
Corinthian's chairman David Moore said the growth "reflects the
increasing popularity of this flexible learning alternative as well as the
quality of our curricula and dedication of our faculty."
The Corinthian College homepage is at http://www.cci.edu/
Blackboard to Acquire Prometheus from GW University
Blackboard Inc. said it would take over the
Prometheus course management system from its developer, George Washington
University. The agreement provides Prometheus, which had grown into a
free-standing software development business at GWU, expanded resources to
service partner universities and staff. The partners noted that about 30
percent of Prometheus' 65 university licensees run one of the three systems
in Blackboard's e- Education suite -- Blackboard 5: Learning System;
Blackboard 5: Community Portal System; and Blackboard: Transaction System.
Blackboard was founded in 1997 at Cornell University and has become the
largest e- education enterprise software company in the market.
Bob Jensen's threads on Blackboard are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/blackboard.htm
Prometheus is the software engine used by many of the largest distance education
providers such as Fathom.
See http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/290wp/290wp.htm
March 8, 2002 Message from the Risk Waters Group
[RiskWaters@lb.bcentral.com]
ONLINE TRADING
TRAINING NOW AVAILABLE (Investments, Finance, Derivatives) …
‘Introduction to Trading Room Technology’ from Waters Training. A low-cost,
Web-based training solution for financial professionals. Go at your own pace,
travel nowhere, and learn about the core trading processes and key technology
issues from your own desktop. For more information, go to
http://www.riskwaters.com/
to find out more. Lastly, if you have any colleagues, training managers or
business associates who would be interested in this new product, please forward
them this message.
Thank you.
From Syllabus News on January
29, 2002
e-Learning
Firm Readies Section 508
Compliance
e-Learning software
developer SmartForce said 5,000 hours of its e-learning content conforms
with the accessibility standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act. Section 508 requires government agencies to ensure its employees and
other people with disabilities have equal access to IT services. The company
has worked with Octavia Corp. since last June to make its content and
"learning paths" accessible using screen readers and other
assistive technologies. The partnership will yield other accessibility
approaches, including accessibility reviews, consulting, training, and
legacy content conversion and remediation, the companies said.
the SmartForce homepage is at http://www.smartforce.com/
Firm Adapts
University Content for Corporations
E-learning company
Cenquest signed deals with IBM and Microsoft to develop online
university-based education programs for their employees. In each case,
Cenquest is working with an established university to augment a degree
program's curriculum with company-specific content. IBM staff can earn a
master's degree in technology commercialization from the University of Texas
at Austin; Microsoft employees are participating in accredited technology
management courses from Oregon Health & Science University. Cenquest
said the programs will allow corporations to gain unprecedented control over
their investment dollars currently spent in tuition-reimbursed education
programs.
For more information, visit: http://www.ic2.org/msdegree
An Internationalization Experiment With 800 Online
Courses at East Carolina Univ.
Linking Students With Counterparts in Other Nations
Especially note the 800+ online courses at East Carolina University
Tune in Live at Noon on May 7
"Innovators in Internationalization," Chronicle of Higher Education,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i35/livechat.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Many colleges want their students to have an
international-education experience, but they struggle to get undergraduates
overseas. East Carolina University found a way to use inexpensive and
relatively unsophisticated technology to link its students with classrooms
around the world. The university's Global Understanding program uses a
low-bandwidth video link and e-mail chat software to connect East Carolina
students with counterparts at 23 institutions in 17 countries on five
continents. Want to know more? Join Rosina Chia and Elmer Poe, who started
the program, for the latest in a series of talks on how colleges have
tackled some of the basic challenges of internationalizing their campuses.
The Guests:
Rosina Chia is assistant vice chancellor for global
academic initiatives at East Carolina University, where she is responsible
for the internationalization of curricula on the campus. A professor of
psychology and a native of China, Ms. Chia focuses her research on the areas
of cross-cultural attitudinal comparison and locus of control.
Elmer Poe is associate vice chancellor for academic
outreach at East Carolina. In this role he has helped the university become
a leader in distance learning, with 800
courses completely online and more than 7,000 students who do not attend
classes on the campus.
Jensen Comment on a Bit of Education Technology History Where an
Accounting Professor Led the Way
I'm reminded of one of the early pioneers, Sharon Lightner, in
internationalization of a course on world accounting standards. She managed to
do this early on when technology was not in its infancy, and she managed to
achieve face-to-face video on the cheap with almost no budget.
Present in for each class was Sharon in the U.S., an international standard
setter from each of six nations (including a FASB staff member who stayed up
late for each class), and a professor from each of the six nations who was
physically present in a classroom. Note that in those days IASC international
standards were pretty much a dream and not a reality. International standards
across borders were literally fluff at that point, and the internal standards
that mattered were the unique standards of each nation.
I should acknowledge that Sharon was a former doctoral student of Gerhardt
Mueller when he was at the University of Washington. Gerhardt was originally
from Germany and a world leader in internationalization of accounting. He was on
the FASB when Sharon sought help in making the contacts in all the participating
nations. Gerhardt’s cooperation was crucial to the success of Sharon’s
endeavor.
At San Diego State University (SDU), the course was given as ACCT 596
Experiential International Accounting course with focus on international
accounting standards and standard setting. The course is
simultaneously (synchronously) given on six campuses in Switzerland,
Japan, Spain (two campuses), and Hong Kong. Each school provides five students.
Hong Kong was added in the second year of providing this course online. A
professor from each of the campuses is assigned to jointly teach the course (in
English).
The course met once each week at the
same time. This means that SDU students assembled in a computer lab at 11:00
p.m. at the same time students from other parts of the world assembled in their
computer labs. Other starting times were at 8:00 a.m. in Switzerland and Spain,
12:00 p.m. in Japan, and 4:00 p.m. in Hong Kong. In addition, student teams must
assemble at times when all team members can participate online. Grading is based
primarily upon class participation and team project performance. The course
professor from each campus also is online for each class. In addition, one or
more staff members from the standard setting body of each nation is online for
some of the classes.You can read about the history of her efforts and
accomplishments of doing this with interactive audio and video at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255light.htm
Life Experience CLEP
From Syllabus News on September 26, 2003
Online Service Launched for Crediting
Professional Experience
A training services firm has launched an online
method for preparing business professionals to take and pass College Level
Examination Program (CLEP) method for assessing academic credit for students
wishing to "place out" of college courses. The InstantCert Academy
said the service could potentially lower the requirements and costs for
working people seeking advanced degrees and certifications. The service is
being offered on a monthly subscription basis for $19.95. One caveat is that
not all universities accept CLEP results as a measure for their own credit
equivalents.
For more information visit: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=2921
InstantCert Academy specializes in helping adults
from all walks of life achieve college-level proficiency. With our help,
hundreds of students have saved time and money through course waivers,
slashed tuition, and early employment.
Beware of any college that gives credit for "life experience."
Every older adult has life experience. Often colleges that resort to this
marketing gimmick are not providing quality degrees.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
Cross-Border Education
Alternatives
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The Master List of Free
Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/From Mark Kappel on March
4, 2016
MoneyGeek.com
has created a financial aid guide for online colleges. An interactive map
offers readers financial aid resources based on state, degree level, school
type and more. In addition, readers can explore federal student loans and
grants specific to online schools.
Review the guide here:
http://www.moneygeek.com/education/college/resources/financial-aid-for-online-colleges/
Mega Universities Partnering with Private and
Public Sectors for Employee Education and Traning
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#Partnerships
More Lower-Cost Engineering Degrees, From Purdue, Kaplan and edX ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/10/02/support-kaplan-purdue-launches-low-cost-edx-degrees?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=57f4119096-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-57f4119096-197565045&mc_cid=57f4119096&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
Following the lead of first Stanford and later Georgia Tech there are now newer
experiments taking place with engineering masters degree programs. Stanford's
ADEPT program (now defunct) was essentially a video-lecture degree program with
extremely high admission standards that, by themselves, gave this degree program
academic respect.
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer
an online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT.
That has since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional
development that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in
selected programs, especially engineering. The program was highly
restrictive in that employers must be members of Stanford's Corporate
Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree
the requirements are as follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
The newer engineering masters programs mentioned in the Chronicle's
link above are more open to students and probably will not have quite the
admission standards of the former ADEPT program. They also use distance
education technologies that were not invented in the days of the ADEPT masters
program. For one thing they will do more hand holding. In the ADEPT program
students were virtually on their own learning from very technical videos.
Georgia Tech launched the first "massive online open
degree" (MOOC) in computer science by partnering with Udacity and AT&T; a
complete degree through that program costs students $7,000. It eventually
expanded this program with its online masters in analytics in January 2017, as
well as providing the option for advanced credits with a MicroMasters in
collaboration with edX ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Tech
Color-Coded Map of the USA: Winners and Losers in Terms of Distance
Education (heavily adult education) ---
https://www.chronicle.com/img/photos/biz/Screen Shot 2019-06-10 at 11.20.52
AM.png?cid=wc
Bob Jensen's links to distance education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Onside Education and Training in "Microcampus" Retail Stores ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20150503-campusspaces-03-microcampus?cid=wc
Not every college campus
features a full-fledged library, a student union, or residence halls. But
when a campus has no classrooms, is it really a campus?
For some, the
answer is yes.
As education
moves online and colleges seek new ways of interacting with students,
alumni, local communities, and other constituencies, institutions as diverse
as the University of Phoenix, the University of Washington, and the Georgia
Institute of Technology are responding with experimental, storefront-sized “microcampuses.”
They’re also looking at unexpected models — such as Amazon’s
bricks-and-mortar stores — for ideas to improve students’ experience.
The spaces,
some located on the ground floors of apartment buildings or commercial
high-rises, give the institutions public visibility while providing stylish
drop-in spaces for students. They can also be focal points for colleges’
educational and outreach activities with local employers and community
groups.
Microcampuses
are typically under 2,500 square feet, with interiors designed for maximum
flexibility to accommodate one-on-one tutoring sessions, casual student
meetups, employer presentations, and the occasional formal lecture. What
they usually don’t have is a set spot designated as a full-time classroom.
The
University of Washington’s Othello Commons, which opened in southeast
Seattle in January, is a prime example. The 2,300-square-foot space is on
the ground floor of a new eight-story apartment building and currently plays
host to a “Foundations of Databases” course that meets one night a week to
help local residents develop basic IT skills.
Continued in article
Kaplan University (a former
Video: A Scenario of Higher Education in 2020
(or thereabouts)---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
A report on people who attended for-profit colleges in Florida in the past
decade concluded that the education they received was superficial and not worth
the amount of debt they accumulated ---
Click Here
Skype a Scientist ---
www.skypeascientist.com
Free Book: Learning to Learn Online ---:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/learningtolearnonline/
National Center on Accessible Educational Materials ---
http://aem.cast.org/
The Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis,
is launching a fully online MBA degree — the first in the 10-campus university
---
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-graduate-school-management-offer-online-mba/
Can a Huge Online College Solve California’s
Work-Force Problems?
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Can-a-Huge-Online-College/244054?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=f80ba3e869f84decb4965e602626b579&elq=fe9f9bb29c1f407097558d58d6c15b2f&elqaid=19912&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=9243
Jerry Brown was taking a victory lap.
The call went out to reporters early on a recent Monday morning: The
governor would attend that day’s meeting of the California Community
Colleges Board of Governors. A few minutes after 11, tieless and relaxed,
Brown slid into a seat on the dais. He was just in time — and not
coincidentally — for a discussion of the state’s newest, and wholly online,
community college.
The virtual college, the 115th institution in California’s two-year system,
is Brown’s baby, its approval in June the capstone to his sunset year in
office. The college is meant to serve a population too often left behind by
higher education: under- or unemployed adults who need new skills to land a
job, secure a raise, nab a promotion, just to maintain a toehold in a
swiftly changing workplace. An online institution, its advocates say, will
allow so-called stranded workers — there are 2.5 million Californians
without a postsecondary degree or credential between the ages of 25 and 34
alone — to take short-term courses whenever, wherever.
Reaching those workers will be necessary for the world’s fifth-largest
economy to continue to grow and thrive. And if the online college enrolls
even a fraction of its target audience, it would become the largest provider
of distance education, public or private, in the nation. The scale — and the
potential for innovation — has people across the country looking West.
Given the floor at the Board of Governors meeting, Brown, a Democrat,
couldn’t help crowing. "This is a no-brainer, it is obvious, it is
inevitable, it is a juggernaut that cannot be stopped," he said. "California
is a leader, it will lead in this. And I say, hallelujah."
For all the governor’s certitude, it may be premature to declare the online
college a sure fix to the state’s yawning gaps in educational and economic
opportunity. The unknowns are many: Will job seekers or employers find value
in an institution that offers only certificates and credentials, as is the
plan for new college, not the degrees so frequently required for
middle-class work?
Digital learning promises convenience, but will harried parents and
overburdened breadwinners be any more likely to log onto a computer than set
foot in a classroom? If they do register for an online course, will they
flourish? After all, studies consistently show that students — low-income
and first-generation students most especially — do better in face-to-face or
hybrid courses.
Backers of the new college, like Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the
community-college system, pledge to consult with employers and unions to
make sure the competency-based credentials offered are prized in the
workplace. Research has identified interventions that can help online course
takers perform well; starting from scratch, such strategies can be baked in.
"We will do as much as possible," Oakley says, "to give them the best
opportunity for success."
Continued in article
"A
Future Full of Badges," by Kevin Carey,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Future-Full-of-Badges/131455/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's Threads on Competency-Based Learning
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Papa John's has offered to pay the tuition of around 20,000 employees
enrolled in Purdue University Global's online undergraduate and graduate-degree
programs ---
https://www.wilx.com/content/news/Papa-Johns-offers-free-college-tuition-for-employees-505991211.html?elqTrackId=3a885d0d515c461796111feb02f56c76&elq=c27b13832aab47b98b52843cdca2b5dc&elqaid=22298&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10978
Jensen Comment
This follows a succession of fast-food company announcements of free college
benefits to employees, including those of Starbucks, McDonalds, and Taco Bell.
Most are online degree programs, but I think McDonalds will also pay local
onsite tuition. Walmart is among the earliest major companies to cover tuition
for college degrees. Large accounting firms for years have had much smaller and
more-focused degree programs for employees that entail more extensive leaves
from jobs to enroll in on-line campus courses. Also in
this competitive market for top recruits it's increasingly common to offer new
employees student-loan repayment assistance.
Mega-Universities (unexpectedly) on the
Rise ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=818d19efc4804478bc59234df45cb112&elq=e45302a1d7524e09bb00395f674bd07c&elqaid=22287&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10969
Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, Grand Canyon,
Western Governors, and a few other universities have found a new way to play
the game that many colleges are losing. Could they one day lay claim to a
significant share of the nation’s new college students?
. . .
At a time when many colleges are struggling with
shrinking enrollment and tighter budgets, Southern New Hampshire is thriving
on a grand scale, and it’s not alone. Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Western
Governors Universities, along with a few other nonprofit institutions, have
built huge online enrollments and national brands in recent years by
subverting many of traditional higher education’s hallmarks. Western
Governors has 88,585 undergraduates, according to U.S. Education Department
data, more than the top 14 universities in the annual U.S. News & World
Report rankings combined.
Jensen Comment
Especially note the graph of enrollment trends at Arizona
State, Grand Canyon, Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, and Western Governors.
The most important key to success, in my viewpoint, is the attraction of top
students coupled with tougher admission standards that are key to academic
reputations. If admission standards are not tough reputation depends upon
academic standards for flunking out low performers. If you graduate low
performers you can soon develop a reputation for being a diploma mill ---
which is the fate of most of the for-profit universities
that have closed or will soon close.
Of course the attraction of reputable faculty is important, especially in
research (R1) universities, but often the top research faculty are not even
teaching undergraduates. What the Mega-Universities have to concentrate is on
hiring and nurturing of great teachers who are experts in their disciplines.
This will increasingly change accreditation standards and enforcement.
Arizona State University is somewhat unique in that it seems to want to be
both a reputable R1 research university (with distinguished researchers) along
with a diversity of missions such as providing Starbucks' funded degrees to any
Starbucks employee (including part-time employees) who want to do the academic
work for free.
Note that religion is no key to success in and of itself. Many religious
colleges are on the verge of bankruptcy while Liberty University enrollments
soar.
For me the greatest surprise is how competency testing seems to not be the
kiss of death that I predicted in this era where students are constantly brown
nosing teachers for grades and seeking leniency based upon race and age. Both
WGU and Southern New Hampshire are noted for grading based upon competency
testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Ivy League Degree for the Nontraditional Student ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/07/25/penn-announces-online-masters-degree-coursera-platform?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=dbda386f31-DNU_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-dbda386f31-197565045&mc_cid=dbda386f31&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Purdue University purchased Kaplan University formerly owned by the Washington
Post.
Kaplan now has a new name called Purdue Global University
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/
NYT: The for-profit-college industry
continues to cheat students while the Trump administration and Republicans in
Congress do nothing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/predatory-colleges-students-devos.html?elqTrackId=5dc95869b80045dc96a6648f05c9c2bd&elq=8199fd0e47494950a55cdf9dbcbbfc9a&elqaid=19193&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8711
Question
What's the most important criteria for sustainable online programs?
Bob Jensen's Answer
In my mind the most important criteria are academic standard reputations and
sustainability if the Federal government stopped paying tuition for military
veterans. Sustainable online programs have reputation things and niches that
make them survivors. Most flagship universities (think Wisconsin and Illinois)
have online programs these days that are cash cows for the onsite programs and
would survive even without Federal money for military veterans. Such flagship
online programs are filling a variety of needs and are often taught by the same
faculty who teach on campus. Probably the most exciting new things these days
are the McDonalds new program for funding employee higher education (onsite or
online) and the Purdue takeover of Kaplan University's faltering online
programs.
Of course some online programs have non-traditional funding like Western
Governors University and programs funded by employers like Walmart, Starbucks,
etc.
The University of Phoenix’s online enrollment plummets while Western
Governors and Southern New Hampshire near 100,000 students as they vie to rule
the roost.---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/23/nonprofits-poised-unseat-u-phoenix-largest-online-university?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e057cf8bf5-DNU20180111&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e057cf8bf5-197565045&mc_cid=e057cf8bf5&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Liberty University ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University
Roughly Half the Students are Graduate Students
15.000 Students On Campus
Nearly 100,000 Students Online
3.1 Center for Law and Government
3.2 Rawlings School of Divinity
3.3 Technical Studies and Trades
3.4 Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center
3.5 College of Osteopathic Medicine
3.6 School of Business
3.7 School of Aeronautics
3.8 School of Engineering
3.9 School of Music
Harvard: The Death of Supply Chain Management ---
https://hbr.org/2018/06/the-death-of-supply-chain-management?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_campaign=weeklyhotlist_not_activesubs&referral=00202&deliveryName=DM7738
Jensen Comment
Darn --- just when Walmart commenced to pay for college majors in this
discipline
Walmart’s too-good-to-be-true “$1 a day” college tuition
plan, explained ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/1/17413326/walmart-college-tuition-worker-pay-unemployment
If headlines this week
like
“Walmart’s perk for workers: Go to college for $1 a
day” (CNN) or
“Walmart to offer employees a college education for
$1 a day” (Washington Post) sound too good to be true, that’s
because they largely are. The benefit is real, but it is much more
restrictive than those headlines suggest. It’s essentially a bulk purchasing
discount for a narrow range of online college courses.
It’s also a telling
benefit on a number of levels. The labor market is getting stronger, and
employers are needing to think harder about how to invest in recruiting and
retaining employees. But the old-fashioned strategy of paying more continues
to be something corporate America resists, in part out of habit and in part
because offering higher wages is a little more complicated than it looks.
Companies like Walmart are, in essence, trying to get creative with their
compensation packages in hopes of narrowly targeting the money they expend
on the core goal of recruiting and retaining desirable workers.
The question is whether
policymakers will keep unemployment low long enough to break through the
wall of resistance to across-the-board pay hikes and force big companies to
finally just raise pay.
Walmart’s actual tuition
plan, explained
The Walmart program is
limited to online degree programs offered by three schools — the
University of Florida,
Brandman University, and
Bellevue University — and specifically
focused on bachelor’s or associate degrees in either
business or supply chain management.
You won’t, in other
words, be able to do part-time shifts at Walmart to “pay your way through
college” in the traditional sense.
But
qualifying Walmart employees (including both full-time and part-time workers
who’ve been with the company for 90 days) will get discounted tuition,
books, and access to a coach who will help them decide on an appropriate
program and shepherd them through the application process
It’s a nice opportunity
for Walmart employees to gain a chance at upward mobility off the retail
floor, and that’s likely the point. Unlike higher cash wages (which of
course can be used for online college tuition as well as rent, gasoline,
movie tickets, medical expenses, etc.), the tuition benefit is likely to be
disproportionately appealing to people who are on the more ambitious end of
the distribution. It’s an effort, in other words, to make Walmart more
attractive specifically to the most appealing set of potential workers, a
strategy other companies have pursued in recent years.
Many large employers are
trying tuition benefits
Modest tuition programs
have long been a staple of large employer benefits packages largely because
of favorable tax treatment. The IRS allows employers to give employees
several thousand dollars’ worth of tuition benefits tax-free, which makes
establishing a program something of a no-brainer for most companies big
enough to be employing a large back-office staff anyway.
But four years ago,
Starbucks blazed the trail of offering a much more
ambitious reimbursement program that essentially offered taxable
tuition subsidies rather than taxable wage increases.
The reason: Academic
research shows that workers who are interested in tuition subsidies are
different from workers who are not. While everyone likes money,
Peter Cappelli’s 2002 research indicates that the
workers who like tuition subsidies are more productive than those
who don’t, and
Colleen Manchester’s 2012 research shows that
subsidy-using employees have longer time horizons and are less
likely to switch jobs.
In March of this year, a
consortium of
big US hotels launched a generous tuition discount
program, and later that month,
McDonald’s substantially enhanced its tuition
benefits. Kroger — another top five US employer —
rolled out a new tuition program in April,
and
Chick-fil-A expanded its program in May.
These initiatives differ
in detail, but the broad story is the same. The unemployment rate is now
low, so recruiting new staff is getting harder. Companies are looking to
enhance their compensation but would like to do so in targeted ways.
Continued in article
NYT; How Liberty University Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Online
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/magazine/how-liberty-university-built-a-billion-dollar-empire-online.html?elqTrackId=c3412b137c0b46c9999c5833ed3dca57&elq=c99a9c459f244693a05fd66569b048c0&elqaid=18667&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8407
Not to be forgotten in all of this is Arizona State University's 150
online programs, including employer-funded programs (think Starbucks) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_State_University
Arizona State University (commonly referred to as
ASU or Arizona State) is a public metropolitan research university on five
campuses across the Phoenix metropolitan area, and four regional learning
centers throughout Arizona, as well as 150 online programs. The 2018
university ratings by U.S. News & World Report rank ASU No. 1 among the Most
Innovative Schools in America for the third year in a row and has ranked ASU
No. 115 in National Universities with overall score of 47/100 with 83% of
student applications accepted.
ASU is one of the largest public universities by
enrollment in the U.S. It had approximately 72,000 students enrolled in fall
2017, including 59,198 undergraduate and 12,630 graduate students.] ASU's
charter, approved by the board of regents in 2014, is based on the "New
American University" model created by ASU President Michael M. Crow. It
defines ASU as "a comprehensive public research university, measured not by
whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed;
advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental
responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the
communities it serves."
Liberty University, Purdue University, and ASU may well be the models of the
future for comprehensive universities.
Prestigious universities (think Stanford and MIT) have online specialty
programs (e.g., in engineering) as well as participation in online MOOC degree
and certificate programs via EdX, Coursera, etc. ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course#Notable_providers
Open University in the
United Kingdom ---
http://www.open.ac.uk/
Open Courses, Tutorials, Videos, and Course Materials from Prestigious
Universities in the USA ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Fee-Based Distance Education Alternatives Around the World ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
InformED: Listing of Sites for Free Courses and Learning Modules (unlike certificates,
transferable credits are never free) ---
http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/free-online-courses-50-sites-to-get-educated-for-free/
Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence ---
https://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/
National Endowment for the Arts: Podcasts, Webcasts & Webinars ---
http://www.nea.gov/podweb/podCMS/podlist.php
"Maryland’s Distance-Education Giant Will Stay Public and Part of
University System," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education,
November 18, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Maryland-s/150109/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Excel University (fee-based CPE credits for accountants) ---
http://www.excel-university.com/
AACC: 21st Century Center (community college helpers, including practice
examinations) ---
http://www.aacc21stcenturycenter.org/
For example search on the term "accounting"
Harvard Extension School: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Open
Learning Course ---
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative/intensive-introduction-computer-science
Links to Free Computer and Coding Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#---ComputerNetworking-IncludingInternet
A Master List of 1,200
Free Courses From Top
Universities: 40,000 Hours of Audio/Video Lectures ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/a-master-list-of-1200-free-courses-from-top-universities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses from top universities (transcript credits
are not free and entail taking competency tests from credit providers)
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Udemy ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udemy
Udemy.com is an online
learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults.[2] Unlike academic
MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a
platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to
the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.[3] Udemy provides
tools which enable users to create a course, promote it and earn money from
student tuition charges.
No Udemy courses are
currently credentialed for college credit; students take courses largely as
a means of improving job-related skills.[3] Some courses generate credit
toward technical certification. Udemy has made a special effort to attract
corporate trainers seeking to create coursework for employees of their
company.[4] For example, PayPal has used the service to train its employees
to write Node.js code.[5]
You can enroll in over 55,000 online classes
for $10.99 each during Udemy's New Year's sale (sale ends on January 11, 2018) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/udemy-new-years-sale-2018
Udemy ---
https://www.udemy.com/
For example, in the "What do you want to learn" box type in accounting.
Don't confuse Udemy with Coursera that serves on a higher plane in MOOC-for-credit
education
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
Distance Education: University of Maryland University College
reports record 2017 U.S. enrollments, despite a challenging climate for online
providers ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/08/has-umuc-turned-enrollment-woes-around?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=3bcc4f9c28-DNU20180108&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-3bcc4f9c28-197565045&mc_cid=3bcc4f9c28&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free MOOC distance education (certificates and
transcript credits cost extra) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Coursera ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
August 25, 2016 Message from Glen Gray
Collaborating with
Coursera
Empowering people
through learning
At PwC, our purpose is
to build trust in society and solve important problems. We think there's an
opportunity to do this by sharing our experience and expertise with anyone
who wants to learn. We’re joining forces with Coursera to create a series of
courses designed around topics that address big global issues, drawing on
the real-world knowledge and experience of PwC experts from around the globe
from multiple disciplines. Our first course is focused on data and
analytics, one of the biggest areas of opportunity to help solve problems in
an increasingly complex world.
All course materials can
be accessed at no charge.
(Those who want to take
the assessments and get a certification will pay a small charge). As
instructors, you may identify portions of the courses which you wish to
incorporate into your classes as assignments to help demonstrate concepts
you are teaching. We hope you will agree that this will be a valuable
resource. To learn more about and access Coursera, click here.
Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA
Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems
David Nazarian College of Business & Economics
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff ST Northridge, CA 91330-8372
http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f
2017: Coursera Partners with Leading Universities to Offer Master’s
Degrees at a More Affordable Price
Includes University of Illinois masters degrees in entrepreneurship, MBA,
accountancy, and data science programs---
http://www.openculture.com/2017/10/coursera-partners-with-leading-universities-to-offer-masters-degrees-at-a-more-affordable-price.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
For
students looking for a broader education in business, the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
has launched an
entire MBA program through Coursera. Consisting of 18 online
courses and three capstone projects, the
iMBA program covers the subjects usually found in b-school
programs--leadership, strategy, economics, accounting, finance, etc. The
complete curriculum should take roughly 24 to 36 months to complete, and
costs less than $22,000--about 25%-33% of what an on-campus MBA program
typically runs.
(The iMBA is
actually one of three degree programs the University of Illinois has
launched on Coursera. The other two include a Masters
in Accounting (iMSA) and a Master
of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS).)
Now, in
case you're wondering, the diplomas and transcripts for these programs are
granted directly by the universities themselves (e.g., the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and HEC Paris). The paperwork doesn't carry
Coursera's name. Nor does it indicate that the student completed an "online
program." In short, online students get the same transcript as bricks and
mortar students.
Finally,
all of the degree programs mentioned above are "stackable"--meaning students
can (at no cost) take an individual course offered by any of these programs.
And then they can decide later whether they want to apply to the degree
program, and, if so, retroactively apply that course towards the actual
degree. Essentially, you can try things out before making a larger
commitment.
If you
want to learn more about these programs, or submit an application, check out
the following links. We've included the deadlines for submitting
applications.
Online Master's in Innovation and Entrepreneurship
from HEC Paris
Application deadline, December 7
Master of Business Administration (iMBA)
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Application deadline, November 17
Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Application deadline, December 4
Master of Computer Science in Data Science (MCS-DS) from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(Application deadline, October 1
Online Colleges in the Georgia System ---
http://www.schools.com/online-colleges/georgia
The University System of Georgia (USG) is one of
the largest in the country, with a total full-time enrollment of more than
320,000 students at 29 campus locations. What's more, the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES) counts 39 additional public and private
non-profit schools where students can earn a campus-based or online
bachelor's degree in Georgia.
Figuring out which traditional and online colleges
in Georgia might be right for you can be a daunting task. What are the
differences between the main campus of a large university and its satellite
locations? Are you looking for a school that makes it easy for students to
transfer class credits earned in a community college program? Which schools
have the state's top programs for your major? Information like this can be
hard to find, especially if you don't have time to hunt up all the facts you
need.
We gathered data on from the NCES and other U.S.
Department of Education sources on 50+ schools in Georgia and analyzed it
with our 13-point methodology. Schools that stood out in multiple categories
earned the right to be called the best campus-based and online colleges in
Georgia.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on distance higher education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"How a BYU Campus Is Reshaping Online Education — and the Mormon Faith,"
by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 13, 2017 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-a-BYU-Campus-Is-Reshaping/240649?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=2123037a343c428f8209b582597d619e&elq=a246d4fdfd274984b5e2ea434f5675cd&elqaid=14715&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=6221
On a summer
Thursday night, more than a dozen students, ages 22 to 71, are settling in
to two classrooms here in a small brick building on the outskirts of the
University of Maryland’s main campus. They’re here for their weekly
in-person class.
Around the world, at
436 other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints congregational and
educational facilities, nearly 11,000 other online students are doing the
same thing.
The students here
— stay-at-home moms pondering their next step and young adults recently
returned from missionary service, among others — are in their final month of
PathwayConnect, a yearlong, 15-credit program created by Brigham Young
University-Idaho. It’s an ambitious endeavor with a simple goal: to prepare
them to go, or return, to college.
PathwayConnect began
in 2009 and has quickly developed into one of online education’s striking
success stories. It has graduated nearly 24,000 students, more than 14,000
of whom have continued on for an online certificate or degree from BYU-Idaho.
(BYU-Idaho’s online degree programs have been growing so fast — enrollment
has increased tenfold, to more than 13,000, over the past five years — that
the church recently established the online operation as a separate entity
called BYU Pathway Worldwide.)
As with the rest of
BYU, a Mormon character is inseparably woven into PathwayConnect. Required
religious offerings, like a two-course sequence on the Book of Mormon, mix
with secular courses in writing, mathematics, and life skills, in which
students learn about goal-setting and "provident living." Students can use
the program as an entry point to college, says Clark G. Gilbert, president
of BYU Pathway Worldwide, "and a path back to the faith."
But at a time when
colleges of all stripes are expanding online to meet the needs of a
diversifying student population, PathwayConnect is a model worth paying
attention to. Several features of the program could make it relevant — and,
in some form, adaptable — to other institutions, religious or not.
‘No Credit Left
Behind’
Most obvious of these
is the price. Students in the United states pay $68 per credit — and even
less if they’re overseas. If they later enroll in BYU-Idaho online, they can
continue to take the rest of their courses at the same price they paid for
PathwayConnect. In the United States, that adds up to just over $8,100 for
the 120 credits needed for a bachelor’s degree, half the price of
traditional BYU-Idaho. That’s a striking bargain in a world where many
political figures still openly dream of creating a
$10,000 degree.
Continued in article
Kaplan University (a
for-profit university) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaplan_University
"Purdue’s Purchase of
Kaplan Is a Big Bet — and a Sign of the Times," by Goldie Blumenstyk,
Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2017 ---
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Purdue-s-Purchase-of-Kaplan/239931?cid=db&elqTrackId=b7653e228b3341a6acebce86c52ed21a&elq=c91e61b14a254328a0af37dde807914b&elqaid=13706&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5700
With
a surprise deal to acquire the for-profit Kaplan University,
announced on Thursday,
Purdue University has
leapfrogged into the thick of the competitive online-education market.
Purdue plans to oversee the institution as a new piece of its
public-university system — a free-standing arm that will cater to working
adults and other nontraditional students.
The
purchase, conceived and executed in just five and a half months, puts Purdue
in position to become a major force in an online landscape increasingly
dominated by nonprofit institutions. Until now, said Purdue’s president,
Mitch Daniels, the university "has basically been a spectator to this
growth" in distance education, with just a few online graduate programs. Mr.
Daniels, a former Republican governor of Indiana, described the acquisition
as adding a "third dimension" to Purdue, along with its research-rich
flagship in West Lafayette, Ind., and its regional campuses.
For
Kaplan and its parent company, Graham Holdings, the deal offers a
potentially profitable exit strategy for an operation that has seen its
bottom line battered for several years by falling enrollments. (Kaplan now
has 32,000 students.)
The
contrast between the typical Purdue student and the military veterans,
lower-income students, and members of minority groups who make up much of
the enrollment at the open-access Kaplan is "stark," said Mr. Daniels. But
he said the university has a responsibility to serve such students. Millions
of Americans have some or no college credits, and Purdue can’t fulfill its
land-grant mission "while ignoring a need so plainly in sight," he noted
while unveiling the deal at a Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday.
The
potential financial upsides were also clearly a factor. In an interview with
The Chronicle, Mr. Daniels said it was "too soon" to talk about
revenue projections. "We have hope and reason for hope" that Purdue’s new
acquisition will do well, he said, alluding to the fast pace of online
growth at other nonprofit institutions, like Western Governors and Southern
New Hampshire Universities. "If the new entity gets an even modest version
of that growth path, we’ll do very well financially."
Paul
LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire, said the online-education
market was big enough for a number of new entrants, and he expects Purdue
will be a formidable competitor. He also noted some potential pitfalls in
absorbing a new entity. "Purdue enjoys a far better brand than Kaplan," said
Mr. LeBlanc, and the Kaplan legacy might be a dealbreaker for some students.
Still, he acknowledged that most students searching on the web for an online
degree program may not know or care about a university’s origins. If a
search turns up Purdue as an option, he said, "you might get pretty excited
pretty quick."
Merging university cultures also could be challenging. Value systems, reward
structures, and budgeting priorities are not easily changed on a dime just
because ownership changes, Mr. LeBlanc said. (Kaplan’s current president,
Betty Vandenbosch, who worked previously at Case Western Reserve University,
will remain as president when Purdue receives the necessary approvals and
takes control.)
Still, Mr. LeBlanc sees the Purdue deal as a sign of the times:
"not-for-profit higher ed coming to re-own the space that they ceded" to
for-profit colleges.
An Intricate Deal
The
new institution has no name as yet, but it will no doubt carry the Purdue
name in some form for its brand value. It will receive no state funds,
relying solely on tuition and donations for its operations.
Continued in article
"Distance Ed’s Second Act," by Phil Hill,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 24, 2016
---
http://chronicle.com/article/Distance-Ed-s-Second-Act/236571?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=db09c79a6b904181b6f4f6c62c2f7186&elq=a09c5c90756240e6bff2f53f58cf0f04&elqaid=9185&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3192
The Babson Survey Research Group, which has
tracked
online college enrollment for the past 12 years, reports growth from 9
percent of U.S. students taking at least one course online in the fall of
2002 to more than 28 percent in the fall of 2014. The overall growth has
slowed recently, but the drastic decrease in for-profit enrollment masks two
very interesting numbers:
Sixty-seven percent of students taking online courses do so at public
institutions.
The number of students at public and private nonprofit colleges who took at
least one online course rose by 26 percent in just two years (2012-2014).
Online education is no longer the province of a small subset of colleges and
professors. We are well above the 16-to-20-percent level in Everett Rogers’s
technology-adoption curve that indicates a shift into the mainstream. As I
described in a
previous article,
the characteristics of people trying out a new approach (primarily
professors in this discussion) change significantly after the technology
moves beyond the innovators and early adopters. You start getting people who
are more cautious and even skeptical about the outcomes and who need more
holistic support to make the jump. We are seeing signs that more and more
professors accept that online education is inevitable, even in traditional
institutions, and is appropriate for a growing number of nontraditional
students and a growing number of disciplines
Continued in
article
Bob Jensen's threads on
free distance education alternatives (some of the best courses in the
world from prestigious universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on
fee-based education alternatives (some of the best online degree programs
from top universities) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
MOOC ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All time ---
http://www.openculture.com/2016/05/learning-how-to-learn-enroll-in-the-latest-edition-of-the-most-popular-mooc.html
"What You Need to Know About MOOC's," Chronicle of Higher Education,
August 20, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/
. . .
Who are the major players?
Several start-up companies are working with
universities and professors to offer MOOC's. Meanwhile, some colleges are
starting their own efforts, and some individual professors are offering
their courses to the world. Right now four names are the ones to know:
edX
A nonprofit effort run jointly by
MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley.
Leaders of the group say they intend to slowly add
other university partners over time. edX plans to freely give away the
software platform it is building to offer the free courses, so that anyone
can use it to run MOOC’s.
Coursera
A for-profit company founded by two computer-science
professors from Stanford.
The company’s model is to sign contracts with colleges that agree to use
the platform to offer free courses and to get a percentage of any revenue.
More than a dozen high-profile institutions, including Princeton and the U.
of Virginia, have joined.
Udacity
Another for-profit company founded
by a Stanford computer-science professor.
The company, which works with individual professors
rather than institutions, has attracted a range of well-known scholars.
Unlike other providers of MOOC’s, it has said it will focus all of its
courses on computer science and related fields.
Udemy
A for-profit platform that lets
anyone set up a course.
The company encourages its instructors to charge a
small fee, with the revenue split between instructor and company. Authors
themselves, more than a few of them with no academic affiliation, teach many
of the courses.
Bob Jensen's threads about MOOCs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Starbucks Free Online Courses to Employees Becomes More Like Walmart's
Employee Benefits for College Credits
Starbucks and Arizona State University announced on
Monday that they will expand the full benefits of their tuition-discounting
partnership to include
Starbucks employees who have not yet accrued 60 college credits.
http://chronicle.com/article/StarbucksArizona-State-U/229127/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads for online training and education degree programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"How ‘Elite’ Universities Are Using Online Education," by Steve
Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Elite-Universities/229233/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
After years of skepticism, higher education’s upper
class has finally decided that online learning is going to play an important
role in its future. But what will that role be?
Recently, conversations about "elite" online
education has revolved around the free online courses, aka
MOOCs, which Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and dozens of
other top universities started offering several years ago. But it soon
became clear that high marks in those courses would not translate to
academic credit at the institutions offering them (or
anywhere else).
So how exactly does online education figure into
the future of elite higher education? Judging by what we’ve seen so far, the
answer can be divided into three parts.
1. Free online courses for everyone.
MOOCs are the McMansions of online higher education
— capacious, impressive-looking, and easy to supply to the masses once
professors have drawn up the blueprints.
Families who want to work with the architects
directly are not opting for a sequence of free online courses instead of an
exclusive residential program that ends with a degree. Even if the MOOCs
lose money, wealthier universities can afford to take a hit — especially if
it means increasing their visibility in valuable overseas markets.
Despite their
flagging hype, MOOCs remain
very popular. Top institutions will probably
continue to build them.
2. Paid online courses for professional
graduate programs.
Yale University recently
unveiled a new master’s program for aspiring
physician’s assistants, offered through its medical school. The program will
also involve a lot of fieldwork, but much of the academic coursework will be
delivered online. It is the second program Yale has created along these
lines; the other is a partially online doctoral degree in nursing, which the
university announced in 2011.
Degrees in fields like health care and teaching are
in high demand, and many lesser-known players have grabbed big chunks of
that market online by assuring prospective students that they can go back to
school without upending their lives. Yale is not alone in its effort to
claim its slice of the pie; graduate schools at the Johns Hopkins
University, Georgetown University, the University of California at Berkeley,
and others have also started offering online versions of their professional
master’s programs.
Online does not fundamentally threaten the appeal
of professional programs, where the "student experience" is not as
sacrosanct as it is at undergraduate colleges. Most people who enroll are
working adults who already went through dorm life and student organizations
and late-night philosophical chats with future members of their wedding
parties. They are now mainly interested in learning a trade.
3. Online components in face-to-face
undergraduate courses.
In November 2012, a consortium of 10 prestigious
colleges
announced that they would collaborate with 2U, an
online "enabler" company, to build fully online
courses that undergraduates could take for credit. The stigma on virtual
learning had faded enough that administrators at those colleges — Duke
University, Emory University, Washington University in St. Louis, and others
— were willing to give it a shot.
A year and a half later, the consortium was
kaput. The faculty at Duke
nixed the partnership with 2U. Other colleges went
ahead with the experiment, but quickly came to a verdict: Thanks, but no
thanks.
That does not mean online education has no role to
play in undergraduate courses. This spring, Bowdoin College is offering a
partially online course in financial accounting, taught remotely by a
professor at Dartmouth College’s business school. (The Maine college is
supplementing those online sessions with weekly meetings on campus, led by a
member its own faculty.)
Selective outsourcing could become a trend at top
colleges that want to add (or license) specialized courses without hiring
new professors.
Continued in article
"Yale Announces ‘Blended’ Online Master’s Degree," by Steve Kolowich,
Chronicle of Higher Education, March 10, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/yale-announces-blended-online-masters-degree/56003?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
There may be a difference between the most prestigious highly endowed
universities and other universities to the extent that distance education
courses are used as cash cows. For example, at the University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee students pay more for an online section of a course than they do for
an onsite section of that same course possibly taught by the same instructor. If
the online course is taught by a low-paid adjunct instructor the online course
may even cost less to deliver.
Thus online courses that are priced higher become cash cows as well as
serving a wider set of prospective students. Pricing of goods and services
generally takes demand functions and price elasticity into account. Often there
is more demand from part-time students for online courses, and universities may
fill online sections with higher prices (hence low elasticity).
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based distance education and training ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Bob Jensen threads on free MOOCs from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Enrollment Woes Continue for U. of Phoenix," Inside Higher Ed,
March 26, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/03/26/enrollment-woes-continue-u-phoenix
Jensen Comment
An enormous problem for all online programs from for-profit university is the
rise in the popularity and quality of online degree programs from major
state-supported universities. Search for over 1,200 online programs at
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
This is my recommended search engine for online degree
programs.
Note the links to US News rankings of these online programs at the above site.
Don't trust those online search programs sponsored by for-profit universities
because they exclude the affordable and higher quality online programs from
major non-profit universities. Almost daily I get requests to link to one of
these misleading search programs. I think people get paid if they can get
Webmasters like me to link to these search programs (generally it is the same
misleading search program under a different name).
Bob Jensen's threads for online education and training programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Largest versus Best Online Degree Programs
(there are surprises in both rankings)
Federal data show the colleges and universities with the
most students enrolled online in 2018---
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/12/17/colleges-and-universities-most-online-students-2018?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=7a6385859f-DNU_2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-7a6385859f-197565045&mc_cid=7a6385859f&mc_eid=1e78f7c952
Jensen Comment
The mega universities stand out at the top. Reasons why these universities are
so huge vary. For the University of Southern New Hampshire its largely marketing
success. For Liberty University there's a religious connection to students.
Western Governors University and Arizona State have taxpayer funding subsidies.
Online universities vary with respect to also having onsite campuses.
For me there were some surprises regarding the sizes of the online degree
programs at the University of Iowa, University of South Florida, San Diego
State University, George Mason University, Johns Hopkins University, University
of Texas at Arlington, and others. I was not aware they had so many online
students.
Western Governors University commenced and still is a model of
competency-based testing where instructors have little or no subjective impact
on grading. Other leading online universities have some but not all subjectivity
in grading ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
For me the test of quality is having admission standards. The questionable
online universities are the for-profit universities that have virtually no
admission standards and questionable academic standards.
USNews provides quality rankings of online programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm#Comparisons
Especially note
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
U.S. News College Compass Details of 1,800 Colleges and
Universities ($29.95 Annual Database Subscription Fee) ---
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/college_compass.htm
Jensen Comment
Much of this data is available for free at each Website, but it's harder to find
and match with a student's profile that is this U.S. News consolidated
database. The database appears to be of limited use for comparing academic
disciplines, although U.S. News has other sites (most of them free) for such
purposes. For example if you want comparisons (rankings) on selected disciplines
go to
http://www.usnews.com/educatio
US News: 2020 Best Online Bachelor's Programs
---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
#1 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--Worldwide Daytona Beach, FL
#2 Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
#3 Ohio State University--Columbus (tie) Columbus, OH
#3 Oregon State University (tie) Corvallis, OR
#5 Pennsylvania State University--World Campus (tie) University Park, PA
#5 University of Florida (tie) Gainesville, FL
#5 University of Illinois--Chicago (tie) Chicago, IL
#8 Colorado State University--Global Campus (tie) Greenwood Village, CO
#8 University at Buffalo--SUNY (tie) Buffalo, NY
#8 University of North Carolina--Wilmington (tie) Wilmington, NC
#8 University of Oklahoma (tie) Norman, OK
Popular Degree Profiles Accounting, Business Administration and
Management, Computer Science, Health Care Administration and
Management, Marketing,
Best 2020 Best Online Graduate Education
Programs ---
https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education (including a somewhat
neglected ranking of program quality) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
U.S. News College Compass Details of 1,800 Colleges and
Universities ($29.95 Annual Database Subscription Fee) ---
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/store/college_compass.htm
Jensen Comment
Much of this data is available for free at each Website, but it's harder to find
and match with a student's profile that is this U.S. News consolidated
database. The database appears to be of limited use for comparing academic
discipline, although U.S. News has other sites (most of them free) for such
purposes. For example if you want comparisons (rankings) on selected disciplines
go to
http://www.usnews.com/education
Question
Why is Arizona State University forming a for-profit spinoff?
Answer
For the same reason Lyft and Uber are planning to raise billions in IPOs. The
purpose is to raise capital that, in turn, can be used to by the assets,
technology, and workforce necessary to successfully serve the public.
Question
Why Arizona State University?
Answer
Reputation for academic standards and quality of graduates.
Arizona State Will Create a For-Profit Spinoff to Court Students in the
Work Force ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arizona-State-Will-Create-a/245929?&cid=db
Arizona State University is creating a for-profit venture to promote its
online programs to big employers. The venture will be majority-owned by the
TPG Rise Fund, a $2.1-billion private-equity fund that until recently was
headed by one of the financiers arrested last week by the Department of
Justice in its wide-ranging
admissions-bribery dragnet.
Although the financier,
Bill McGlashan, is no longer head of the fund — he said he resigned last
week; TPG said he was fired “for cause” — he may still stand to profit from
the new ASU venture, if it takes off.
McGlashan, a self-styled
voice of ethical investing in Silicon Valley, was accused of paying $50,000
to a fixer to help gain admission to the University of Southern California
for his son by falsifying his test scores, and an additional $250,000 to
create the false impression that he was a potential recruit for the football
team, complete with a faked picture showing him as a kicker.
Arizona State’s new
venture, which the university calls a “learning-services company,” will
focus on developing partnerships with employers to attract more students to
the ASU’s online programs, in the vein of its
partnerships with Starbucks and Uber.
The university is also looking for other research universities to join the
venture.
ASU has not formally announced the creation of the
as-yet-unnamed company. But after a
Chronicle
reporter learned of the deal, the university’s president, Michael M. Crow,
described elements of it in an interview on Tuesday. The university had been
planning an elaborate rollout of the venture in early April in San Diego at
the ASU+GSV Summit, a glitzy gathering of thousands of investors,
education-company officials, policy makers, and education leaders.
In creating the venture,
ASU seeks an even bigger slice of the market for students whose tuition is
paid in whole or in part by their employers, and better connections to that
pool of students.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
While Purdue reeled in the for-profit Kaplan University (and turned it into a
non-profit Purdue Global) ASU is casting out some of its non-profit programs
into for-profit programs (presumably to raise capital for expanded ventures).
The most important things in all of these dealings are the
logos (Purdue University and Arizona State University) that stand for
quality control and academic standards. If these outreach programs do not
maintain the same academic standards as the on-campus programs the entire
universities will become tainted like the University of Phoenix and other
for-profit universities are tainted by such things as low or zero admission
standards and low or zero grading standards.
The ultimate test is academic quality control. Most prestigious universities
(think Harvard and MIT) now have extensive distance education programs. Their
names signify academic standards that the for-profit programs until now mostly
lack. Amidst all this are the recent thrusts of non-profit universities like the
University of Massachusetts seeking to join the Mega Universities like Liberty
University and the University of Southern New Hampshire having 100,000+ students
enrolled in both respected graduate as well as undergraduate programs.
UMass System Aims to Join the Mega-University Club ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/UMass-System-Aims-to-Join-the/245825?cid=db&elqTrackId=3f32894a5a664ed788887261c8f04c24&elq=79e5bf77abf94b569aa996ee93cc5b1f&elqaid=22428&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11058
Will it also serve corporate America with special programs like Arizona State
(Starbucks) and Purdue Global (Popa Johns)?
Mega-Universities (unexpectedly) on the Rise ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=818d19efc4804478bc59234df45cb112&elq=e45302a1d7524e09bb00395f674bd07c&elqaid=22287&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10969
Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, Grand Canyon,
Western Governors, and a few other universities have found a new way to play
the game that many colleges are losing. Could they one day lay claim to a
significant share of the nation’s new college students?
. . .
At a time when many colleges are struggling with
shrinking enrollment and tighter budgets, Southern New Hampshire is thriving
on a grand scale, and it’s not alone. Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Western
Governors Universities, along with a few other nonprofit institutions, have
built huge online enrollments and national brands in recent years by
subverting many of traditional higher education’s hallmarks. Western
Governors has 88,585 undergraduates, according to U.S. Education Department
data, more than the top 14 universities in the annual U.S. News & World
Report rankings combined.
Jensen Comment
Especially note the graph in the above article of enrollment trends at Arizona
State, Grand Canyon, Purdue Global, Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, and Western
Governors.
The most important key to success, in my viewpoint, is the attraction of top
students coupled with tougher admission standards that are key to academic
reputations. If admission standards are not tough reputation depends upon
academic standards for flunking out low performers. If you graduate low
performers you can soon develop a reputation for being a diploma mill ---
which is the fate of most of the for-profit universities
that have closed or will soon close.
Of course the attraction of reputable faculty is important, especially in
research (R1) universities, but often the top research faculty are not even
teaching undergraduates. What the Mega-Universities have to concentrate is on
hiring and nurturing of great teachers who are experts in their disciplines.
This will increasingly change accreditation standards and enforcement.
Arizona State University is somewhat unique in that it seems to want to be
both a reputable R1 research university (with distinguished researchers) along
with a diversity of missions such as providing Starbucks' funded degrees to any
Starbucks employee (including part-time employees) who want to do the academic
work for free. Now ASU wants to become a Mega Univesity with a for-profit
venture into adult education ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arizona-State-Will-Create-a/245929?&cid=db
Note that the religious appeal of Mega Liberty University is no key to success in and of itself. Many religious
colleges are on the verge of bankruptcy while Liberty University enrollments
soar. Success for Liberty University entails building
and maintaining a reputation for academic quality control.
For me the greatest surprise is how competency testing seems to
not be the
kiss of death that I predicted in this era where students are constantly brown
nosing teachers for grades and seeking leniency based upon race and age. Both WGU and Southern New Hampshire are noted for grading based upon competency
testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Some Universities maintain academic reputations with admissions standards (think
Harvard) when in fact there is enormous grade inflation for students who
are admitted (again think Harvard where the median grade
point average at graduation is an A-).
Universities without Harvard-like admission standards must build and maintain
their reputations of academic toughness (think Western Governors University and
Liberty University and Southern New Hampshire). The
same applies to Purdue Global and the new for-profit venture of ASU who cannot
afford to let their guards down on academic standards.
Although most students for a time will go to these mega
universities for traditional undergraduate and graduate degrees, the future of
mega universities is not in degree programs. The Future will be in
Badges of Competency-Based Learning Performance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm#Badges
Video: A Scenario of Higher Education in 2020
(or perhaps a decade longer)---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
How Business Higher Education and Training are Changing
Scenarios of Higher Education for Year 2020 ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
The above great video, among other things, discusses how "badges" of academic
education and training accomplishment may become more important in the job
market than tradition transcript credits awarded by colleges. Universities may
teach the courses (such as free MOOCs) whereas private sector companies may
award the "badges" or "credits" or "certificates." The new term for such awards
is a "microcredential."
Competency-Based Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Free Book: Learning to Learn Online ---:
https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/learningtolearnonline/
"Coming to a Business School Near You: Disruption (Part 2)," by Margaret
Andrews, Inside Higher Ed, April 13, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/coming-business-school-near-you-disruption-part-2
. . .
New Entrants With New Offerings
A wide array of players are entering the executive
education and corporate training market and here are some recent
developments:
- McKinsey, one of the top strategy
consultancies in the world, recently launched
McKinsey
Academy. This new platform uses McKinsey
consultants to teach and give feedback, social learning and group-based
projects, and adaptive learning and game mechanics to help companies
develop their internal talent. Courses include Business Strategy,
Mastering Challenging Conversations, and McKinsey’s Approach to Problem
Solving, among others.
- Udemy for
Business offers companies a way to “train your
employees better, faster, and more efficiently than ever before” by
offering courses in programming, web design, digital marketing and
business skills, among others. Client companies include many of the
multinationals that business school executive education units covet.
-
LinkedIn recently acquired Lynda.com, an
online learning company known for content focusing on creative skills –
and now moving into business topics – as part of LinkedIn's strategy to
become a professional development network.
- Skillshare
is “a learning community for creators” and offers a series of online
courses to students who pay $10/month for unlimited access to courses
taught by practitioners. Skillshare, launched late last year, now has
over 750,000 students and courses range from Email Marketing,
Entrepreneurship, and Photography to Visual Storytelling and Getting
Started in Hand Lettering. Companies can purchase an enterprise license
and many of Silicon Valley’s rising stars are clients.
- Coursera offers
Wharton’s Business Foundation series of four
courses (Marketing, Financial Accounting, Operations Management, and
Corporate Finance). Through Coursera’s Signature Track, students can
earn a specialization certificate for $595 and completing all four
courses plus a capstone project.
University and Business Schools are
Innovating, too
That’s not to say that universities and business
schools are not innovating, too. For example:
- Georgia Tech announced
an online Master of Science in Computer Science, offered in
collaboration with Udacity and AT&T. The program is delivered entirely
through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and costs under $7,000.
Could a business degree be next?
-
IMD is getting closer to business through a
new partnership with Cisco valued at $10 million US, to “develop thought
leadership and address business challenges in digital transformation.”
The idea behind the partnership is for IMD “to become the world leading
destination for research, innovation and leadership to drive digital
transformation to all aspects of enterprises, in every industry.”
- Harvard Business School launched
HBX,
a suite of three business fundamental courses – business analytics,
economics for managers, and financial accounting. They also offer
individual courses (the first one launched was disruptive strategy, with
Clay Christensen). Coming soon is HBX Live!, which allows participants
worldwide to interact with faculty and each other in real-time.
Low-Cost MBA Alternatives
From Kigali, Rwanda, one woman is
piecing together the equivalent of an MBA by
taking a series of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from different
providers. For less than $1000 US she’s taken courses from some of the top
business schools in the world and her
No-Pay MBA website offers
information to help others do the same.
Students can now take a variety of courses from
various providers in a “cafeteria style” like the example above. While this
buffet of courses doesn’t (yet) add up to a degree, at some point some
organization is going to figure out how to assign/award credit for these
disparate classes – and accredit the program of study. Then students will
be able to bundle together their own degrees and certificates, choosing the
best courses from the best schools and building their own All-Star MBA (or
some other degree or certification) program.
In a recent Financial Times article, Rich
Lyons, dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, reiterated his
belief that
50% of business schools could be out of business within the next ten years,
stating:
“There are over
10,000 business schools in the world so when you start thinking about that
group from 1,000 to 10,000, I think curated MOOC content and better ways of
credentialing students is going to be a heck of a threat to a lot of those
players.”
Jensen Comment
I think there's increasing accountability required in both the education and
training markets. In particular, for-profit-universities of questionable quality
are hurting badly or shutting down entirely. Innovative programs more closely
tied to respected traditional universities (think Coursera) or top private
sector companies like McKinsey and Cisco are rising up.
We are in a transition period where degrees and diplomas still matter, but
badges and certificates of competency are on the rise ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#Badges
Scenarios of Higher Education for Year 2020 ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
The above great video, among other things, discusses how "badges" of academic
education and training accomplishment may become more important in the job
market than tradition transcript credits awarded by colleges. Universities may
teach the courses (such as free MOOCs) whereas private sector companies may
award the "badges" or "credits" or "certificates." The new term for such awards
is a "microcredential."
Competency-Based Learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
"If B.A.’s Can’t Lead Graduates to Jobs, Can Badges Do the Trick?" by
Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/If-BA-s-Can-t-Lead/228073/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Employers say they are sick of encountering new
college graduates who lack job skills. And colleges are sick of hearing that
their young alumni aren’t employable.
Could a new experiment to design employer-approved
"badges" leave everyone a little less frustrated?
Employers and a diverse set of more than a
half-dozen universities in the Washington area are about to find out,
through a project that they hope will become a national model for
workplace badges.
The effort builds on the burgeoning national
movement for badges and other forms of "microcredentials." It also pricks
at much broader questions about the purpose and value of a college degree in
an era when nearly nine out of 10 students say their top reason for going to
college is to get a good job.
The "21st Century Skills Badging Challenge" kicks
off with a meeting on Thursday. For the next nine months, teams from the
universities, along with employers and outside experts, will try to pinpoint
the elements that underlie skills like leadership, effective storytelling,
and the entrepreneurial mind-set. They’ll then try to find ways to assess
students’ proficiency in those elements and identify outside organizations
to validate those skills with badges that carry weight with employers.
The badges are meant to incorporate the traits most
sought by employers, often referred to as "the four C’s": critical thinking,
communication, creativity, and collaboration.
"We want this to become currency on the job
market," says Kathleen deLaski, founder of the
Education Design Lab,
a nonprofit consulting organization that is coordinating the project.
No organizations have yet been selected or agreed
to provide validations. But design-challenge participants say there’s a
clear vision: Perhaps an organization like
TED issues a badge in storytelling. Or a company
like
Pixar, or
IDEO, the design and consulting firm, offers a
badge in creativity.
If those badges gain national acceptance, Ms.
deLaski says, they could bring more employment opportunities to students at
non-elite colleges, which rarely attract the same attention from recruiters
as the Ivies, other selective private colleges, or public flagships. "I’m
most excited about it as an access tool," she says.
‘Celebrating’ and ‘Translating’
The very idea of badges may suggest that the
college degree itself isn’t so valuable—at least not to employers.
Badge backers prefer a different perspective. They
say there’s room for both badges and degrees. And if anything, the changing
job market demands both.
Through their diplomas and transcripts, "students
try to signal, and they have the means to signal, their academic
accomplishments," says Angel Cabrera, president of George Mason University,
which is involved in the project. "They just don’t have the same alternative
for the other skills that employers say they want."
Nor is the badging effort a step toward
vocationalizing the college degree, participants say. As Ms. deLaski puts
it: "It’s celebrating what you learn in the academic setting and translating
it for the work force."
Yet as she and others acknowledge, badges by
themselves won’t necessarily satisfy employers who now think graduates don’t
cut it.
That’s clear from how employer organizations that
may work on the project regard badges. "We’re presuming that there is an
additional skill set that needs to be taught," says Michael Caplin,
president of the Tysons Partnership, a Northern Virginia
economic-development organization. "It’s not just a packaging issue."
In other words, while a move toward badges could
require colleges to rethink what they teach, it would certainly cause them
to re-examine how they teach it. At least some university partners in the
badging venture say they’re on board with that.
"Some of what we should be doing is reimagining
some disciplinary content," says Randall Bass, vice provost for education at
Georgetown University, another participant in the project.
Mr. Bass, who also oversees the
"Designing the Future(s) of the University"
project at Georgetown, says many smart curricular changes that are worth
pursuing, no matter what, could also lend themselves to the goals of the
badging effort. (At the master’s-degree level, for example, Georgetown has
already begun offering a one-credit courses in grant writing.)
"We should make academic work more like work," with
team-based approaches, peer learning, and iterative exercises, he says.
"People would be ready for the work force as well as getting an engagement
with intellectual ideas."
Employers’ gripes about recent college graduates
are often hard to pin down. "It depends on who’s doing the whining," Mr.
Bass quips. (The critique he does eventually summarize—that employers feel
"they’re not getting students who are used to working"—is a common one.)
Where Graduates Fall Short
So one of the first challenges for the badging
exercise is to better understand exactly what employers want and whether
colleges are able to provide it—or whether they’re already doing so.
After all, notes Mr. Bass, many believe that
colleges should produce job-ready graduates simply by teaching students to
be agile thinkers who can adapt if their existing careers disappear. "That’s
why I think ‘employers complain, dot dot dot,’ needs to be parsed," he says.
Mr. Caplin says his organization plans to poll its
members to better understand where they see college graduates as falling
short.
Continued in article
MOOCs ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOCs
Coursera ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coursera
Coursera /kɔərsˈɛrə/ is a for-profit educational
technology company founded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and
Daphne Koller from Stanford University that offers massive open online
courses (MOOCs). Coursera works with universities to make some of their
courses available online, and offers courses in physics, engineering,
humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business,
computer science, and other subjects. Coursera has an official mobile app
for iOS and Android. As of October 2014,
Coursera has 10 million users in 839 courses from 114 institutions.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Note that by definition MOOCs are free
courses generally served up by prestigious or other highly respected
universities that usually serve up videos of live courses on campus to the world
in general. MOOC leaders in this regard have been MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Penn,
and other prestigious universities with tens of billions of dollars invested in
endowments that give these wealthy universities financial flexibility in
developing new ways to serve the public.
When students seek some type of transcript "credits" for MOOCs the "credits"
are usually not free since these entail some types of competency hurdles such as
examinations or, at a minimum, proof of participation. The "credits" are not
usually granted by the universities like Stanford providing the MOOCs.
Instead credits, certificates, badges or whatever are provided by private sector
companies like Coursera, Udacity, etc.
Sometimes Coursera contracts with a college wanting to give its students
credits for taking another university's MOOC such as the now infamous instance
when more than half of San Jose State University students in a particular MOOC
course did not pass a Coursera-administered final examination.
"What Are MOOCs Good For? Online courses
may not be changing colleges as their boosters claimed they would, but they can
prove valuable in surprising ways," by Justin Pope, MIT's Technology
Review, December 15, 2014 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/review/533406/what-are-moocs-good-for/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141215
The following describes how a company, Coursera, long involved with the
history of MOOCs, is moving toward non-traditional "credits" or
"microcredentials" in a business model that it now envisions for itself as a
for-profit company. Also note that MOOCs are still free for participants not
seeking any type of microcredential.
And the business model described below probably won't apply to thousands of
MOOCs in art, literature, history, etc. It may apply to subsets of business and
technology MOOCs, but that alone does not mean the MOOCs are no longer free for
students who are not seeking microcredentials. They involve payments for the "microcredentials"
awarded for demonstrated competencies. However these will be defined in the
future --- not necessarily traditional college transcript credits. A better term
might be "badges of competency." But these will probably be called
microcredentials.
Whether or not these newer types of microcredentials are successful
depends a great deal on the job market.
If employers begin to rely upon them, in addition to an applicant's traditional
college transcript, then Coursera's new business model may take off. This makes
it essential that Coursera carefully control the academic standards for their
newer types of "credits" or "badges."
"Specializations, Specialized," by Carl
Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, February 12, 2015 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/12/coursera-adds-corporate-partners-massive-open-online-course-sequences
Massive open online course providers such
as Coursera have long pointed to the benefits of the data collected by the
platforms, saying it will help colleges and universities understand how
students learn online. Now Coursera’s data is telling the company that
learners are particularly interested in business administration and
technology courses to boost their career prospects -- and that they want to
take MOOCs at their own pace.
As a result, Coursera will this year
offer more course sequences, more on-demand content and more partnerships
with the private sector.
Asked if Coursera is closer to
identifying a business model, CEO Rick Levin said, “I think we have one. I
think this is it.”
Since its founding in 2012, Coursera has
raised millions of dollars in venture capital
while searching for a business model. Many questioned if the
company's original premise -- open access to the world's top professors --
could lead to profits, but with the introduction of a verified certificate
option, Coursera
began to make money
in 2013. By that October, the company had earned its first million.
In the latest evolutionary step for its
MOOCs, Coursera on Wednesday
announced a series of capstone projects developed
by its university partners in cooperation with companies such as Instagram,
Google and Shazam. The projects will serve as the final challenge for
learners enrolled in certain Specializations -- sequences of related courses
in topics such as cybersecurity, data mining and entrepreneurship that
Coursera
introduced last year. (The company initially
considered working with Academic Partnerships before both companies created
their version of Specializations.)
The announcement is another investment
by Coursera in the belief that adult learners, years removed from formal
education, are increasingly seeking microcredentials -- bits of knowledge to
update or refresh old skills. Based on the results from the past year, Levin
said, interest in such credentials is "palpable." He described bundling
courses together into Specializations and charging for a certificate as “the
most successful of our product introductions." Compared to when the
sequences were offered as individual courses, he said, enrollment has “more
than doubled” and the share of learners who pay for the certificate has
increased “by a factor of two to four.”
“I think people see the value of the
credential as even more significant if you take a coherent sequence,” Levin
said. “The other measure of effectiveness is manifest in what you’re seeing
here: company interest in these longer sequences.”
Specializations generally cost a few
hundred dollars to complete, with each individual course in the sequence
costing $29 to $49, but Coursera is still searching for the optimal course
length. This week, for example, learners in the Fundamentals of Computing
Specialization were surprised to find its three courses had been split into
six courses, raising the cost of the entire sequence from $196 to $343.
Levin called it a glitch, saying learners will pay the price they initially
agreed to.
The partnerships are producing some
interesting pairings. In the Specialization created by faculty members at
the University of California at San Diego, learners will “design new social
experiences” in their capstone project, and the best proposals will receive
feedback from Michel "Mike" Krieger, cofounder of Instagram. In the
Entrepreneurship Specialization out of the University of Maryland at College
Park, select learners will receive an opportunity to interview with the
accelerator program 500 Startups.
As those examples suggest, the benefits
of the companies’ involvement mostly apply to top performers, and some are
more hypothetical than others. For example, in a capstone project created by
Maryland and Vanderbilt University faculty, learners will develop mobile
cloud computing applications for a chance to win tablets provided by Google.
“The best apps may be considered to be featured in the Google Play Store,”
according to a Coursera press release.
Anne M. Trumbore, director of online
learning initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School,
said the capstone projects are an “experiment.” The business school, which
will offer a Specialization sequence in business foundations, has partnered
with the online marketplace Snapdeal and the music identification app
Shazam, two companies either founded or run by Wharton alumni.
“There’s not a sense of certainty about
what the students are going to produce or how the companies are going to use
it,” Trumbore said. “Snapdeal and Shazam will look at the top projects
graded highest by peers and trained staff. What the companies do after that
is really up to them. We have no idea. We’re casting this pebble into the
pond.”
Regardless of the companies' plans,
Trumbore said, the business school will waive the application fee for the
top 15 learners in the Specialization and provide scholarship money to those
that matriculate by going through that pipeline.
“The data’s great, but the larger
incentive for Wharton is to discover who’s out there,” Trumbore said.
Levin suggested the partnering companies
may also be able to use the Specializations as a recruitment tool. “From a
company point of view, they like the idea of being involved with educators
in their fields,” he said. “More specifically, I think some of the companies
are actually hoping that by acknowledging high-performing students in a
couple of these capstone projects they can spot potential talent in
different areas of the world.”
While Coursera rolled out its first
Specializations last year, Levin said, it also rewrote the code powering the
platform to be able to offer more self-paced, on-demand courses. Its MOOCs
had until last fall followed a cohort model, which Levin said could be
“frustrating” to learners when they came across an interesting MOOC but were
unable to enroll. After Coursera piloted an on-demand delivery method last
fall, the total number of such courses has now reached 47. Later this year,
there will be “several hundred,” he said.
“Having the courses self-paced means
learners have a much higher likelihood of finishing,” Levin said. “The idea
is to advantage learners by giving them more flexibility.”
Some MOOC instructors would rather have
rigidity than flexibility, however. Levin said some faculty members have
expressed skepticism about offering on-demand courses, preferring the
tighter schedule of a cohort-based model.
Whether it comes to paid Specializations
versus free individual courses or on-demand versus cohort-based course
delivery, Levin said, Coursera can support both. “Will we develop more
Specializations? Yes. Will we depreciate single courses? No,” he said. “We
don’t want to discourage the wider adoption of MOOCs.”
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on MOOCs are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Arizona State's Freshman Year MOOCs Open to All With Final Examinations for
Inexpensive Credits
"Arizona State and edX Will Offer an Online Freshman Year, Open to All,"
by Charles Huckabee, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/arizona-state-and-edx-will-offer-an-online-freshman-year-open-to-all/97685?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Arizona State University is joining with the MOOC
provider edX in a project that it says “reimagines the freshman year” and
opens a new low-cost, low-risk path to a college degree for students
anywhere in the world.
The project, called the
Global Freshman Academy, will offer a set of eight
courses designed to fulfill the general-education requirements of a freshman
year at Arizona State at a fraction of the cost students typically pay, and
students can begin taking courses without going through the traditional
application process, the university said in a news release on Wednesday.
Because the classes are offered as
massive open online courses, or
MOOCs, there is no limit on how many students can
enroll.
. . .
The courses to be offered through the Global
Freshman Academy are being designed and will be taught by leading scholars
at Arizona State. “These courses are developed to their rigorous standards,”
Adrian Sannier, chief academic officer for
EdPlus at ASU, said
in the release. “Course faculty are committed to ensuring their students
understand college-level material so that they can be prepared to
successfully complete college.”
Students who pass a final examination in a course
will have the option of paying a fee of no more than $200 per credit hour to
get college credit for it.
Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Crow are scheduled to formally
announce the project at a conference in Washington on Thursday.
Jensen Comments and Questions
The real test is how well these credits are accepted by other universities for
transfer credit. It probably will not be an issue for graduate school admission
since there are three more years of more traditional onsite or online credits.
But it could be a huge issue for example when a student takes the first year of
ASU MOOC credits and then tries to have these credits accepted by other
universities (such as TCU) that still resist accepting any online courses for
transfer credit.
Question
What are the main differences between MOOC online credits and traditional online
credits such as those documented at the following site?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
For example, at many universities these days there are multiple sections of a
course where some sections are onsite and some are online. Often they are taught
by the same instructor. The online sections are usually as small or even smaller
than the onsite sections because online instructors often have more student
interactions such as in instant messaging not available to onsite students ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging
Answer
These are the following obvious differences between MOOC online credits and
traditional online credits.
- The huge difference between the ASU MOOC year of courses and the
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School MOOC year of courses is that the
Wharton School MOOC courses are not
available for credit (and therefore are free). The ASU MOOC courses are
available for credits that will not be totally free, although they will be
available at greatly discounted prices.
- MOOC courses are open to everybody in the world and have no admission
standards.
- These are not intended to be equivalent to advanced placement (AP)
credits where students eventually fill in course requirements with
other more advanced courses. The ASU MOOC courses have no requirements to
earn substitute credits. Universities do vary with respect to substitution
requirements for AP credit, and many do not require taking added replacement
courses ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement
I suspect that at some universities the ASU MOOCs will be similar to AP
credits except that the competency-examination process is different.
- MOOC courses generally have no limits to class size.
- MOOC courses do not have prerequisites such as a MOOC calculus course or
linear algebra that has no prerequisites.
- MOOC courses are generally very large such that student interactions
online with instructors and/or other students are virtually non-existent.
- MOOC courses generally do not have graded writing assignments such as
term papers.
- MOOC courses do not have graded homework.
- MOOC courses do not have graded team projects, whereas team projects are
common in smaller traditional online courses.
- MOOC courses generally do not have class attendance requirements or
class participation requirements even though they generally do have
classes. The first MOOC course ever offered was an artificial intelligence
course at Stanford University where students enrolled in the course on
campus has the option of not attending class. Some faculty feel like some
course courses should have required course attendance and course
participation.
The bottom line is that it appears that the ASU freshman year MOOC course
credits will be little more than competency-based
credits. This will be controversial since many faculty in higher
education feel like credits in general education core courses should
entail class participation, including first-year core courses. For example, at
Trinity University there is a first-year seminar that all new students take in
very small classes that require a lot of class participation in discussions of
assigned readings and the writing of term papers. I think some sections of this
seminar don't even have examinations. I did not have examinations when I taught
a section of this seminar for two years.
In traditional large lectures courses on campus students typically are broken
out into accompanying recitation sections intended for class participation and
interactions with a recitation instructor.
Jensen Note
I never anticipated competency-based credits in the first-year of college. I
think these will be wildly popular in advance-level training courses such as a
CPA examination review course in the final (fifth) year of an accounting
program. Using competency-based courses for first-year general education courses
is more controversial.
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based credits ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
"Yale Announces ‘Blended’ Online Master’s Degree," by Steve Kolowich,
Chronicle of Higher Education, March 10, 2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/yale-announces-blended-online-masters-degree/56003?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Yale University is creating a master’s program that
will hold many courses online, continuing the Ivy League institution’s foray
into “blended” learning.
The online program, to be offered by the Yale
School of Medicine, would aim to replicate its residential program for
training physicians’ assistants. Students would meet in virtual classrooms
where they would discuss course material using videoconferencing technology.
They would also have to complete field training — accounting for roughly
half of the coursework — in person, at Yale-approved clinics near where they
live.
It is the second professional school at Yale to try
the “blended” model for a graduate program, following the Yale School of
Nursing, which
opened a partially
online doctoral degree in 2011.
Yale has taken an active but measured interest in
online education in the past decade. In 2007 it became one of the first
elite institutions to post lecture videos online at no charge. In 2011 it
began offering online summer courses to small groups of undergraduates for
credit. In 2013 it
joined with Coursera and started building MOOCs.
But a degree program that includes fully online
courses is a step toward a different vision of how Yale and other highly
selective traditional universities are likely to incorporate online
education. Free online courses might make headlines, but tuition-based
professional degrees in high-demand fields such as health care are where
online courses, and the companies that help build them, are gaining a
foothold.
Other top-tier universities have created online
versions of their professional-degree programs, which is something Yale
noticed when
taking stock of its online presence in 2012. The
Johns Hopkins University, for example, offers an online master’s program in
public health that delivers about
80 percent of its coursework on the web.
2U, the online “enabler” company that is helping
Yale develop the new program, previously built nursing programs at
Georgetown University and Simmons College, as well as programs in public
health and health administration at George Washington University.
Institutions typically
sign contracts with companies like 2U when they
want to create new online programs as fast as possible without spending a
lot of cash upfront. That is an especially attractive option for
universities that are trying to grab a larger chunk of the market for
high-demand professional degrees in fields such as health, nursing, data
science, and business. It is there that 2U and others have found their sweet
spot. The companies provide the technology platform and marketing expertise,
and take a large share of the tuition revenues.
Yale would hire new instructors to teach courses in
the program, which is still awaiting accreditation approval. The tuition and
faculty-to-student ratio would be roughly equivalent to the residential
program.
James Van Rhee, director of the program, said he
did not know if the online version would be more profitable, but he did
expect it would expand the medical school’s reach — especially in rural
areas. The institution hopes to increase enrollments from 40, the size of
the current program, to around 300.
“I don’t know if it will be cost-efficient for us,”
said Robert J. Alpern, dean of the medical school, but “hopefully it will be
cost-efficient for the students, because they’ll be able to do it from
home.”
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an
online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has
since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development
that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected
programs, especially engineering. The program is highly restrictive in that
students must work for employers Must be members of Stanford's Corporate
Education Graduate Program. For example, to earn a masters of science degree the
requirements are as follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
Most other top universities in the USA now have selected online certificate
and degree programs offered in their extension programs. Go to a university of
interest and search for "extension." It's still rare to find an online doctoral
program at a top university. For-profit universities offer more online doctoral
programs, but these tend not to be accepted very well for employment in the
Academy. In fact it may be better to not mention such doctoral degrees when
seeking employment in the Academy.
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Question
Why is Arizona State University forming a for-profit spinoff?
Answer
For the same reason Lyft and Uber are planning to raise billions in IPOs. The
purpose is to raise capital that, in turn, can be used to by the assets,
technology, and workforce necessary to successfully serve the public.
Question
Why Arizona State University?
Answer
Reputation for academic standards and quality of graduates.
Arizona State Will Create a For-Profit Spinoff to Court Students in the
Work Force ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arizona-State-Will-Create-a/245929?&cid=db
Arizona State University is creating a for-profit venture to promote its
online programs to big employers. The venture will be majority-owned by the
TPG Rise Fund, a $2.1-billion private-equity fund that until recently was
headed by one of the financiers arrested last week by the Department of
Justice in its wide-ranging
admissions-bribery dragnet.
Although the financier,
Bill McGlashan, is no longer head of the fund — he said he resigned last
week; TPG said he was fired “for cause” — he may still stand to profit from
the new ASU venture, if it takes off.
McGlashan, a self-styled
voice of ethical investing in Silicon Valley, was accused of paying $50,000
to a fixer to help gain admission to the University of Southern California
for his son by falsifying his test scores, and an additional $250,000 to
create the false impression that he was a potential recruit for the football
team, complete with a faked picture showing him as a kicker.
Arizona State’s new
venture, which the university calls a “learning-services company,” will
focus on developing partnerships with employers to attract more students to
the ASU’s online programs, in the vein of its
partnerships with Starbucks and Uber.
The university is also looking for other research universities to join the
venture.
ASU has not formally announced the creation of the
as-yet-unnamed company. But after a
Chronicle
reporter learned of the deal, the university’s president, Michael M. Crow,
described elements of it in an interview on Tuesday. The university had been
planning an elaborate rollout of the venture in early April in San Diego at
the ASU+GSV Summit, a glitzy gathering of thousands of investors,
education-company officials, policy makers, and education leaders.
In creating the venture,
ASU seeks an even bigger slice of the market for students whose tuition is
paid in whole or in part by their employers, and better connections to that
pool of students.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
While Purdue reeled in the for-profit Kaplan University (and turned it into a
non-profit Purdue Global) ASU is casting out some of its non-profit programs
into for-profit programs (presumably to raise capital for expanded ventures).
The most important things in all of these dealings are the
logos (Purdue University and Arizona State University) that stand for
quality control and academic standards. If these outreach programs do not
maintain the same academic standards as the on-campus programs the entire
universities will become tainted like the University of Phoenix and other
for-profit universities are tainted by such things as low or zero admission
standards and low or zero grading standards.
The ultimate test is academic quality control. Most prestigious universities
(think Harvard and MIT) now have extensive distance education programs. Their
names signify academic standards that the for-profit programs until now mostly
lack. Amidst all this are the recent thrusts of non-profit universities like the
University of Massachusetts seeking to join the Mega Universities like Liberty
University and the University of Southern New Hampshire having 100,000+ students
enrolled in both respected graduate as well as undergraduate programs.
UMass System Aims to Join the Mega-University Club ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/UMass-System-Aims-to-Join-the/245825?cid=db&elqTrackId=3f32894a5a664ed788887261c8f04c24&elq=79e5bf77abf94b569aa996ee93cc5b1f&elqaid=22428&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=11058
Will it also serve corporate America with special programs like Arizona State
(Starbucks) and Purdue Global (Popa Johns)?
Mega-Universities (unexpectedly) on the Rise ---
https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/Trend19-MegaU-Main?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=818d19efc4804478bc59234df45cb112&elq=e45302a1d7524e09bb00395f674bd07c&elqaid=22287&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=10969
Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, Grand Canyon,
Western Governors, and a few other universities have found a new way to play
the game that many colleges are losing. Could they one day lay claim to a
significant share of the nation’s new college students?
. . .
At a time when many colleges are struggling with
shrinking enrollment and tighter budgets, Southern New Hampshire is thriving
on a grand scale, and it’s not alone. Liberty, Grand Canyon, and Western
Governors Universities, along with a few other nonprofit institutions, have
built huge online enrollments and national brands in recent years by
subverting many of traditional higher education’s hallmarks. Western
Governors has 88,585 undergraduates, according to U.S. Education Department
data, more than the top 14 universities in the annual U.S. News & World
Report rankings combined.
Jensen Comment
Especially note the graph in the above article of enrollment trends at Arizona
State, Grand Canyon, Purdue Global, Liberty, Southern New Hampshire, and Western
Governors.
The most important key to success, in my viewpoint, is the attraction of top
students coupled with tougher admission standards that are key to academic
reputations. If admission standards are not tough reputation depends upon
academic standards for flunking out low performers. If you graduate low
performers you can soon develop a reputation for being a diploma mill ---
which is the fate of most of the for-profit universities
that have closed or will soon close.
Of course the attraction of reputable faculty is important, especially in
research (R1) universities, but often the top research faculty are not even
teaching undergraduates. What the Mega-Universities have to concentrate is on
hiring and nurturing of great teachers who are experts in their disciplines.
This will increasingly change accreditation standards and enforcement.
Arizona State University is somewhat unique in that it seems to want to be
both a reputable R1 research university (with distinguished researchers) along
with a diversity of missions such as providing Starbucks' funded degrees to any
Starbucks employee (including part-time employees) who want to do the academic
work for free. Now ASU wants to become a Mega Univesity with a for-profit
venture into adult education ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Arizona-State-Will-Create-a/245929?&cid=db
Note that the religious appeal of Mega Liberty University is no key to success in and of itself. Many religious
colleges are on the verge of bankruptcy while Liberty University enrollments
soar. Success for Liberty University entails building
and maintaining a reputation for academic quality control.
For me the greatest surprise is how competency testing seems to
not be the
kiss of death that I predicted in this era where students are constantly brown
nosing teachers for grades and seeking leniency based upon race and age. Both WGU and Southern New Hampshire are noted for grading based upon competency
testing ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
Some Universities maintain academic reputations with admissions standards (think
Harvard) when in fact there is enormous grade inflation for students who
are admitted (again think Harvard where the median grade
point average at graduation is an A-).
Universities without Harvard-like admission standards must build and maintain
their reputations of academic toughness (think Western Governors University and
Liberty University and Southern New Hampshire). The
same applies to Purdue Global and the new for-profit venture of ASU who cannot
afford to let their guards down on academic standards.
Although most students for a time will go to these mega
universities for traditional undergraduate and graduate degrees, the future of
mega universities is not in degree programs. The Future will be in
Badges of Competency-Based Learning Performance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm#Badges
Video: A Scenario of Higher Education in 2020
(or perhaps a decade longer)---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gU3FjxY2uQ
Department of Education in March 2014: 17,374 online higher
education distance education and training programs altogether
Jensen Comment
Note that the hundreds of free MOOC courses from prestigious universities are
not the same as fee-based distance education degree and certificate programs
that are more like on-campus programs in terms in student-instructor
interactions, graded assignments, and examinations. Some campuses like the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee even treat online programs as cash cows
where the tuition is higher for online programs than identical on-campus
programs.
The (Department of Education Report in
March 2014) report says that American colleges now
offer 17,374 online programs altogether, 29 percent of which are master’s-degree
programs, with bachelor’s and certificate programs making up 23 percent each.
Business and management programs are the most popular, at 29 percent of the
total, followed by health and medicine programs (16 percent), education programs
(14 percent), and information technology and computers (10 percent) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/quickwire-there-may-be-fewer-online-programs-than-you-think/51163?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Guide to Online Community Colleges ---
http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/online-colleges/community-colleges/
Jensen Comment
Online community college courses are good for things like training certificates
and associate degrees. However, for students wanting four-year and graduate
online courses, there are usually better alternatives such as the ones listed
below.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Question
What accredited law schools offer online tax LL.M. degrees?
Answer (these degrees typically take three years to complete for full-time
students unless students already have law degrees)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/09/nine-law-schools.html
Selected Online Masters of Accounting and Masters of Taxation Programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#MastersOfAccounting
Time between enrollment and graduation depends a great deal on meeting
prerequisite requirements in accountancy, and business core (including economics
and ethics). I'm biased in recommending such degrees from only AACSB-accredited
business programs, although not necessarily AACSB-accredited accounting
programs. Some of the most prestigious AACSB-accredited universities do not have
the added accountancy specialized accreditation.
Distance Education: Stanford Center for Professional Development
Stanford University was probably the first prestigious university to offer an
online masters degree in engineering in a video program called ADEPT. That has
since been replaced by an expanded online program in professional development
that offers certificates or full masters of science degrees in selected
programs, especially engineering. The program is highly restrictive in that
employers must be members of Stanford's Corporate Education Graduate Program.
For example, to earn a masters of science degree the requirements are as
follows:
For details go to
http://scpd.stanford.edu/home
Most other top universities in the USA now have selected online certificate
and degree programs offered in their extension programs. Go to a university of
interest and search for "extension." It's still rare to find an online doctoral
program at a top university. For-profit universities offer more online doctoral
programs, but these tend not to be accepted very well for employment in the
Academy. In fact it may be better to not mention such doctoral degrees when
seeking employment in the Academy.
Bob Jensen's threads on fee-based education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"Stanford (Graduate School of Business) Bets Big on Virtual (online)
Education," by Natalie Kitroeff and Akane Otani, Bloomberg Businessweek,
November 6, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-05/stanford-gsb-offers-executive-certificate-program-completely-online
Stanford’s
Graduate School of Business took its relationship
with online education to the next level on Wednesday, when it announced that
a new program for company executives will be delivered entirely by way of
the Internet.
“I don’t know of anything else like this,” says
Audrey Witters, managing director of online executive education at Stanford
GSB. “We’ve put together something for a very targeted audience, people who
are trying to be corporate innovators, with courses where they all work
together. That’s a lot different from taking a MOOC [massive open online
course].”
Stanford said it will admit up to 100 people to the
LEAD Certificate program, which will begin in May
2015 and deliver the “intimate and academically rigorous on-campus Stanford
experience” to students from the comfort of their computer screens. In an
effort to make students “really feel connected to each other, to Stanford,
and to the faculty,” the eight-course program will encourage students to
interact through message boards, online chats, Google Hangouts, and phone
calls over the course of its yearlong duration, Witters says.
“We really want to create the high-engagement,
community aspect that everyone who comes to Stanford’s campus feels,” she
says.
The classes will be offered on a platform supplied
by Novoed, a virtual education company started by former Stanford professor
Amin Saberi and Stanford Ph.D. student Farnaz Ronaghi. The B-school has
invested a significant chunk of its resources in launching the program:
About 10 to 15 faculty members are slated to teach the courses. In addition
to building a studio where it will film course videos, the school has hired
a growing pool of educational technology experts and motion graphic
designers to work on the courses, according to Witters.
“This is by far the most serious and most
significant initiative by GSB in the online realm,” Saberi says.
People go to business school for more than just
lectures, Saberi says, and online programs should be as good at teaching the
numbers of business as the art of it. “What we are planning to do is to
create a very similar environment online where they can acquire softer
skills and build a network of peers.”
The program’s $16,000 price tag dwarfs the online
offerings of Stanford’s competitors, including
Harvard Business School’s $1,500
nine-week online program and the
Wharton School’s entirely free
first-year MBA classes, which it put on the virtual platform Coursera
last fall.
The program may seem less pricey, though, to the
company executives it’s intended for. Business schools have traditionally
sold certificates to working professionals for tens, if not hundreds, of
thousands of dollars. Stanford’s own six-week, on-campus
program costs
executives $62,500.
To Novoed, which also provides technology to
Wharton, the
Haas School of Business, and the
Darden School of Business, the Internet is an
obvious place for business schools to expand their lucrative executive
education programs.
Saberi says companies are interested in elite
training programs that don’t require employees to leave their desks. “We
expect that programs like this are going to grow.”
"Disruption Ahead: What MOOCs Will Mean for MBA Programs,"
Knowledge@wharton Blog, July 16, 2014 ---
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/moocs-mba-programs-opportunities-threats/
In a new research paper, Christian Terwiesch,
professor of operations and information management at Wharton, and Karl
Ulrich, vice dean of innovation at the school, examine the impact that
massive open online courses (MOOCs) will have on business schools and MBA
programs. In their study — titled, “Will Video Kill the Classroom Star? The
Threat and Opportunity of MOOCs for Full-time MBA Programs” — they identify
three possible scenarios that business schools face not just as a result of
MOOCs, but also because of the technology embedded in them. In an interview
with Knowledge@Wharton, Terwiesch and Ulrich discuss their findings.
An edited transcript of the interview appears
below.
Knowledge@Wharton: Christian, perhaps you could
start us off by describing the main findings or takeaways from your
research?
Terwiesch: Let me preface what we’re going to
discuss about business schools by saying that Karl and I have been in the
business school world for many, many years. We love this institution, and we
really want to make sure that we find a sustainable path forward for
business schools.
Continued in article
"What Georgia Tech’s Online Degree in Computer Science Means for Low-Cost
Programs," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, November
6, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/What-Georgia-Tech-s-Online/149857/?cid=wc
Among all recent inventions that have to do with
MOOCs, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s online master’s program in
computer science may have the best chance of changing how much students pay
for a traditional degree.
The
program, which started last winter, pairs MOOC-like
course videos and assessments with a support system of course assistants who
work directly with students. The goal is to create a low-cost master’s
degree that is nonetheless "just as rigorous" as the on-campus
equivalent—producing graduates who are "just as good," to quote one of the
new program’s cheerleaders, President Obama. The price: less than $7,000 for
the three-year program, a small fraction of the cost of the traditional
program.
It’s too early yet for a graduating class. But
researchers at Georgia Tech and Harvard University have studied the students
who have enrolled in the program, in an effort to figure out "where the
demand is coming from and what it’s substituting for educationally," says
Joshua S. Goodman, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard.
By understanding what kinds of students are drawn
to the new program, Mr. Goodman and his fellow researchers think they can
begin to understand what competitors it might threaten.
Here is what they found out about those students:
How They Are Different
The enrollees are numerous. The
online program this year got as many applications as Georgia Tech’s
traditional program did during two recent semesters. But while the
traditional program accepted only about 15 percent of its applicants, the
online program accepted 50 percent, enrolling about 1,800 in its first year.
That might not qualify as large in light of the 50,000-students-per-course
figures often quoted in reference to MOOCs, but it does make the online
program three times as large as the largest traditional master’s programs in
computer science, according to the researchers.
They’re older (and they already have jobs).
The people enrolling in the online program are 35 years old, on average, and
are far more likely to report that they are working rather than studying
full time. (The average age of the students in Georgia Tech’s traditional
program is 24, with only half indicating that they are employed.) That
should not surprise anyone who has even a passing familiarity with online
education. Online programs have pitched themselves to adults who are
tethered to work and family, and who want to earn degrees without
rearranging their lives around a course schedule.
They’re from the United States.
Online education is supposed to make geographic borders matter less. But
this online master’s program has drawn 80 percent of its students from
within the country. By contrast, in the traditional program, 75 percent of
the students are foreign, mostly from India and China.
Most of them did not study computer science
in college. In the traditional graduate program, 62 percent of
students have completed an undergraduate major in computer science. That is
true of only 40 percent of the online students. The percentage of
undergraduate engineering majors, 27 percent, remained constant.
How They Are Similar
They’re good at school. Unlike San
Jose State University’s MOOC-related pilot program, which
tried and failed to help underperforming students,
Georgia Tech’s online program appeals to students with a proven academic
track record, specifically those who earned bachelor’s degrees with a
grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. (The university told The Chronicle
last year that its first group of applicants averaged a 3.58 GPA—about the
same as the students in the traditional program.) They seem to be doing well
so far: Courses held last spring and summer saw pass rates of about 88
percent, according to the university.
They’re mostly men. The online
program had a lower rate of female applicants than the traditional program
did, but there were precious few in either pool: 14 percent and 25 percent,
respectively. Among American applicants, the rates were similar: 13 percent
and 16 percent.
Over all, the first enrollees in Georgia Tech’s
MOOC-like master’s program fit the profile of students who are applying to
online graduate programs at institutions across the country.
Continued in article
"The 25 Best Universities In The World For Computer Science," by Melia
Robinson, Business Insider, October 30, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-universities-for-computer-science-2014-10
Ranking Criteria ---
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings-articles/world-university-rankings/qs-world-university-rankings-methodology
Jensen Comment
The ranking is heavily influenced by the overall prestige ranking of the
university apart from computer science.
I would be inclined to put more emphasis on the quality of the students. For
example, it may well be that a Russian university that graduates the hackers
that upset world businesses and national intelligence agencies is really a
better computer science university in terms of having some of the most gifted
students in the world\. However, Russian Universities in general do not have
stellar academic standards and tolerate a lot of cheating on the part of
students and faculty.
The problem is that in the case of computer science and some other
disciplines like art and music, "student quality" is very difficult to measure.
The elusive component is creativity.
At a conference years ago an associate dean from MIT mentioned that MIT
graduates on average will do wonderfully if the university does not get in their
way.
Bob Jensen's threads on college ranking controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies2.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
Find your online degree with the SUNY Learning Network ---
http://sln.suny.edu/
Online SUNY Graduate Programs
Online Master Degree Programs
MBA |
MS |
MA |
MLS |
M.Ed. * denotes
SLN Affiliated campus
Online Master of Business Degree Programs
Online Master of Science Degree Programs
Online Master of Arts Degree Programs
Online Master of Library Science
Online Master of Education
Online Doctoral Degree Programs
DNP *
DENOTES SLN AFFILIATED CAMPUS
Online Doctor of Nursing
Practice
The SUNY Learning Network program is administered
by the Office of the Provost.
"Open SUNY Unites Online Ed Offerings Across 64 Institutions," by Dian
Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, January 21, 2014 ---
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/01/21/open-suny-unites-online-ed-offerings-across-64-institutions.aspx?=CT21
The
State University of New York
(SUNY) has formally introduced a new online program
that allows students to access courses, degrees, professors and academic
resources from any of SUNY's 64 campuses. Open SUNY, as it's called, is a
mix-and-match service that offers access to 400 "online-enabled" degrees,
12,000 course sections and eight full degrees. The system's expectation is
that people from inside and outside the state will attend courses, including
international students.
Students can use the program to start a degree,
finish a degree or just take a single course. The
Open SUNY Navigator allows a potential
student to specify what type of program he or she wants in categories such
as entirely online or hybrid, synchronous or asynchronous, experiential,
accelerated and so on — and the navigation tool provides potential online
offerings to fit the criteria.
"Open SUNY will provide our students with the
nation's leading online learning experience, drawing on the power of SUNY to
expand access, improve completion, and prepare more students for success,"
said Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. "In addition to these new, fully-online
degree programs, Open SUNY will take every online course we offer at every
SUNY campus...and make them easy to find and accessible for every SUNY
student and prospective learners around the globe."
Along with providing a central application through
which to locate course offerings, SUNY is offering Open SUNY+, which adds
additional layers of support for online students and instructors. Specific
additions include a 24/7 help desk for technical support, a "concierge"
service to act as a single source for getting all program questions
answered, and extended hour tutoring services. Faculty will have access to
training programs and online forums where they can broaden their knowledge
about developing effective online courses or share best practices.
Eight Open SUNY+ degree programs debuting this
month were chosen based on a number of factors, including student interest,
accreditation, and their capacity to meet current and future workforce
demand throughout New York State.
Among the institutions involved are:
"We are proud of our collaboration and success in
serving a qualified student population that may not otherwise be able to
pursue a degree in electrical engineering," said Stony Brook President
Samuel Stanley Jr. "We are joining forces with our colleagues at
Binghamton University
and the University
at Buffalo to make a difference. We look forward
to implementation of Open SUNY. This is truly an exciting time to be
involved in higher education in New York State."
The top flagship state universities in the USA are under increasing pressures
from their legislators to offer more an more business degrees online, including
undergraduate business degrees, masters of accounting degrees, and MBA degrees.
The question is whether the most prestigious private universities like Stanford
and Harvard will join in the competition.
The Top MBA Programs in the World according to the Financial Times ---
http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2014
The Top MBA Programs in the USA according to US News
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools
"Half of U.S. Business Schools Might Be Gone by 2020," by Patrick
Clark, Bloomberg Businessweek, March 14, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-14/online-programs-could-erase-half-of-u-dot-s-dot-business-schools-by-2020
Richard Lyons, the dean of University of
California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, has a dire forecast for
business education: “Half of the business schools in this country could be
out of business in 10 years—or five,” he says.
The threat, says Lyons, is that more top MBA
programs will start to offer degrees online. That will imperil the
industry’s business model. For most business schools, students pursuing
part-time and executive MBAs generate crucial revenue. Those programs,
geared toward working professionals, will soon have to compete with elite
online alternatives for the same population.
. . .
Online MBA programs aren’t siphoning choice
students from campuses yet, says Ash Soni, executive associate dean at
Indiana University’s
Kelley School of Business. Kelley ranks 15th on
Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of full-time programs and was an
early player in online MBAs. The school draws students from across the
country, but it is more likely to compete with online MBA programs offered
by the University of North Carolina’s
Kenan-Flagler Business School and Arizona State’s
Carey School of Business. Says Soni: “If you’re a
dean from a regional school and you’re asking, ‘Are these online guys
tapping into my space?’ The answer is: maybe in the future, but not yet.”
Michael Desiderio, the executive director of the
Executive MBA Council, says change is coming, but his group isn’t panicking.
“We’re not saying it’s a threat or this is the end of the EMBA space,” he
says. “It’s stimulating a discussion: How do we adapt to continue to serve a
population that has changing needs?”
Online education is sure to shift the ways schools
compete for students. For-profit MBA programs such as DeVry’s
Keller School of Management have been the early
losers as more traditional universities go online, says Robert Lytle, a
partner in the education practice at consultancy Parthenon Group. That trend
could extend to lower-ranked schools as the big-name brands follow.
When Lytle talks to directors at schools who are
debating the merits of online learning, he tells them to stop dallying and
start building programs. “Once you get out of the top tier of schools,
you’re either already online, on your way there, or dead in the water,” he
says. It isn’t clear which online models will be most successful, but many
schools are feeling pressure to get on board. When Villanova School of
Business announced a new
online MBA program earlier this year, Dean Patrick
Maggitti said there has never been a more uncertain time in higher
education. “I think it’s smart strategy to be looking at options in this
market.”
Jensen Comment --- Where I Disagree
Firstly, this is not so much a threat to undergraduate business schools, because
most of the prestigious and highly ranked universities with MBA programs do not
even offer undergraduate business degrees. It's not likely that Harvard and
Stanford and the London Business School will commence to offer undergraduate
business degrees online.
Secondly, this is not so much a threat to masters of accounting programs,
because most of the prestigious and highly ranked universities with MBA programs
do not even offer masters of accounting degrees and do not have enough
accounting courses to meet the minimal requirements to take the CPA examination
in most states. . It's not likely that Harvard and Stanford and the London
Business School will commence to offer masters of accounting degrees online.
Thirdly, this is not so much of a threat even at the MBA level to
universities who admit graduate students with lower admissions credentials. The
US News Top MBA programs currently pick off the cream of the crop in
terms of GMAT and gpa credentials. The top flagship state universities like the
the Haas School at UC Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and the University
of Illinois pick off the top students who cannot afford prestigious private
universities. By the time all these universities skim the cream of the crop the
second-tier public and private universities struggle with more marginal students
applying for MBA programs.
It would be both dangerous and sad if the very top MBA programs introduced
lower admissions standards for online programs vis-a-vis on-campus
programs. In order to maintain the highest standards the most prestigious
universities will have to cater to the highest quality foreign students and
herein lies a huge problem. Some nations like China are notorious for fraud and
cheating on admissions credentials like the GMAT. In Russia such credentials are
for sale to the highest bidders.
The name of the game in business education is placement of graduates.
Prestigious university MBA programs are at the top of the heap in terms of
placement largely because of their successful alumni and strong alumni networks
that actively seek MBA graduates from their alma maters. This will not work as
well for online programs, especially since many of the online graduates of
prestigious university online programs will live outside the USA.
However, top flagship state universities are under increasing pressures from
their legislators to offer more an more business degrees online, including
undergraduate business degrees, masters of accounting degrees, and MBA degrees.
This is already happening as is reflected in the following rankings of online
programs by US News:
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
I don't anticipate that the highest-prestige MBA programs will have online
degree programs anytime soon. They may have more and more free MOOCs, but that
is an entirely different ballgame if no credit is given for the MOOCs. The
highly prestigious Wharton is now offering its
first-year MBA courses as free MOOCs ---
http://www.topmba.com/blog/wharton-steps-experimentation-moocs-mba-news
Also see
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-13/wharton-puts-first-year-mba-courses-online-for-free
Who are these students taking free first-year MOOC courses from Wharton?
Some are college professors who adding what they learn in MOOCs to the courses
they themselves teach. Most MOOCs, by the way, are advanced courses on highly
specialized topics like the literature of both famous and obscure writers.
Others are basic courses that contribute to career advancement.
- For example, the business school at Penn, Wharton, now offers its core
MBA courses as free MOOCs. Some students who intently take these courses are
seeking to get into Wharton and other prestigious MBA programs.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to raise GMAT
scores to get into prestigious MBA programs and to do better in those
programs once admitted so that they too can tap those six-figure starting
salaries of graduates from prestigious MBA Programs.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to raise GMAT
scores to obtain better financial aid packages for further graduate study.
- Sometimes the purposes of taking free Wharton MOOCs are to perform
better on the job and thereby get better performance evaluations and raises.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"During an ‘Uncertain Time’ for Higher
Ed, Villanova Takes Its MBAs Online," by Patrick Clark, Bloomberg
Businessweek, January 30, 2014 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/villanova-school-of-business-announces-online-mba-program
"Texas Rolls Out an ‘Affordable Baccalaureate’ Degree," Chronicle
of Higher Education, February 5, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/texas-rolls-out-an-affordable-baccalaureate-degree/50119?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Two years after Gov. Rick Perry of Texas called on
the state’s colleges to
offer bachelor’s degrees that would cost students
no more than $10,000 each, two institutions rolled
out a joint bachelor-of-applied-science program last month that they say can
be completed in three years for not much more than the governor’s target
amount.
The initiative, called the Texas
Affordable Baccalaureate Program, is being offered jointly by South Texas
College and Texas A&M University at Commerce, and was assembled under the
auspices of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The effort is
supported by the College for All Texans Foundation and by a two-year,
$1-million grant from the education-technology organization Educause and the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Students can earn the first 90 credit hours
required for the degree through online modules, the coordinating board said,
with the last 30 credit hours “offered in both a face-to-face and online
format.” The degree emphasizes organizational leadership, the board said,
adding that the program “will culminate with a digital-capstone experience
where students will apply their knowledge and skills to real-world business
problems.”
Students who begin with no college credits should
be able to complete the program in three years for $13,000 to $15,000, the
board said, while those who have already earned some college credits will
pay less.
The coordinating board said that the new offering
was “a faculty-driven initiative, developed by community-college and
university faculty,” but “we also listened to what national and regional
employers are saying they really want: graduates with critical-thinking
skills who are quantitatively literate, can evaluate knowledge sources,
understand diversity, and benefit from a strong liberal-arts and sciences
background.”
Shirley A. Reed, South Texas College’s president,
said in a statement that the new degree “is a transition from colleges
measuring student competencies based on time in a seat to now allowing
students to demonstrate competencies they have acquired in previous
employment, life experiences, or personal talents.”
“It is an opportunity for students to earn an
affordable bachelor’s degree with the cost as low as $750 per term,” she
said, “and allows students to complete as many competencies and courses as
possible in that term.”
"A Second State, Oregon, Considers Making Community College Free,"
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 5, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/jp/a-second-state-oregon-considers-making-community-college-free?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
A day after Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam,
proposed making two years of community college free for graduating
high-school seniors in that state, a similar proposal has advanced in the
Oregon legislature. The education committee of the State Senate on Tuesday
approved a bill that would require the state’s higher-education coordinating
board to study the idea and report back to the legislature this year. That
could set up a potential up or down vote on the proposal in the 2015
legislative session,
The Oregonian reported.
Gov. John Kitzhaber supports the bill, but with
some caveats. He suggested creating incentives–such as good grades–for
students to qualify, and other safeguards to ensure the money is spent
wisely.
Jensen Comment
One drawback of linking free college to grades is the pressure it will place
upon increasing grade inflation that is already on a trend for median grades to
be above 3.0.
Another problem of low-cost degree programs is that they increase pressure
for use of low-cost and part-time adjuncts that can lead to higher variance in
the quality of courses.
Bob Jensen's threads on online education and training alternatives (nearly
all of which are not free) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Jensen Caution
Don't treat distance education courses and MOOC courses as synonyms. President
Obama is suggesting priority for distance education courses and online degree
programs that are neither free nor "massive" in size. Smaller distance education
courses can have intense communications between students and an instructor plus
intense communications between students in a course (including team projects).
Grading in these distance education courses is very similar to onsite course
grading.
MOOCs present an entire new dimension to student communications and grading.
I don't think President Obama was thinking in terms of MOOCs in his latest
proposal. However, MOOCs are on the horizon, especially for very specialized
courses that colleges cannot afford to teach on campus. Credit in such courses
may be given on the basis of competency testing.
"Obama Proposals for Colleges Highlight Online Courses," by
Megan O'Neil, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 22, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/obama-proposals-for-colleges-highlight-online-courses/45595?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Developing online classes and other nontraditional
teaching approaches could earn colleges money under new federal financing
priorities
proposed on Thursday by President Obama.
More colleges should be encouraged “to embrace
innovative new ways to prepare our students for a 21st-century economy and
maintain a high level of quality without breaking the bank,” the president
said in a
speech at the University at Buffalo, part of the
State University of New York.
The financial rewards for such innovation would be
part of a larger retooling of financing priorities, Mr. Obama said.
Under his proposal, the Department of Education
would have two years to create a college-rating system to help students and
their parents determine the value of an institution. Criteria would include
graduation rates, graduates’ competitiveness in the work force, and their
debt load upon graduation, among others.
As one example of innovation in online learning
that meets students’ needs, Mr. Obama cited an
online master’s program in computer science at the
Georgia Institute of Technology. The program will make its debut in January
and cost a fraction of a traditional on-campus degree.
Continued in article
A Ranking of Online MBA Programs from AACSB-accredited universities
(there are no such online accounting doctoral programs) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#MBA
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"Obama Vows Action on College Costs, but Will It Work?" by Kelly
Field, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 21, 2013 --- |
http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Vows-Action-on-College/141203/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In a speech at Knox College last month, President
Obama said he would "shake up higher education" with an "aggressive
strategy" aimed at making college more affordable.
On Thursday, the president embarks on a two-state,
three-campus tour where he'll lay out what he has in mind. In a
letter sent to his supporters this week, he
promises "real reforms that would bring lasting change."
"Just tinkering around the edges won't be enough,"
he says in the letter. "To create a better bargain for the middle class, we
have to fundamentally rethink about how higher education is paid for in this
country."
The plan, he continues, "won't be popular with
everyone—including some who've made higher education their business—but it's
past time that more of our colleges work better for the students they exist
to serve."
But it's hard to see how the president will tackle
two of the root causes of tuition growth: labor costs and state budget cuts.
Despite productivity gains, and a move toward self-guided,
"competency-based" learning, higher-education remains an industry that's
highly dependent on skilled labor. At the same time, many states have
slashed their spending on higher-education, forcing public colleges to raise
tuition to cover costs.
Taking Colleges
to Task
Over the past year-and-a-half, Mr. Obama has become
a frequent critic of colleges, taking them to task over rising tuition and
warning that the government won't continue to pour money into an
"undisciplined system." He has threatened to withhold some federal aid from
colleges that fail to hold down tuition growth, and has proposed grants for
states and colleges that adopt cost-saving measures.
So far, those ideas have fallen flat, largely
because of federal budget constraints. The president has had better luck
increasing aid to students and making debt more manageable, through expanded
income-based repayment options and lower interest rates on student loans.
His administration has also made information about
college costs and student debt more transparent, through the use of an
online College Scorecard and a standardized financial-aid award letter, or
"shopping sheet."
This week's college tour is the latest in a string
of campaign-style events the White House is using to promote its economic
policies in the run-up to debates in Congress over the federal budget and
the debt ceiling. It includes stops on Thursday and Friday at two State
University of New York campuses—the University at Buffalo and Binghamton
University—and at Lackawanna College, in Scranton, Pa.
Details of the president's proposals aren't yet
available, but some observers expect Mr. Obama to recycle a plan that would
tie some money from the campus-based aid programs to efforts to rein in
tuition growth, and to repeat his call for a "Race to the Top"-style grant
program for colleges and states that take steps to control costs.
He might also propose an expansion of his signature
Pay-as-You-Earn student-loan repayment plan, or declare use of the
financial-aid shopping sheet mandatory for all colleges.
To address state budget cuts, he might propose
requiring states to sustain their spending on higher education to receive
certain federal funds. But past maintenance-of-effort provisions haven't
proven particularly effective, and some members of Congress oppose their
expansion. Tackling labor costs would be even trickier.
"When it comes down to it, there's not all that
much the president can do, besides using the bully pulpit" to exhort states
and colleges to do more, said Daniel T. Madzelan, a longtime Education
Department official who retired last year. "It just comes down to the price
of labor."
From Benefactor
to Critic
During his first years in office, President Obama
focused on expanding student aid, pushing for increases in the maximum Pell
Grant and the creation of a more generous tuition tax credit. Those changes
helped make college more affordable for current students, but they didn't do
anything to slow tuition growth, and skeptics say they may have even fueled
it.
In 2010, the administration turned its attention to
for-profit colleges, proposing to cut off federal student aid to
institutions where borrowers struggle to repay their debt. The resulting
"gainful employment" regulation was overturned by the courts, and the
Education Department is opening negotiations to rewrite the rule this fall.
But it was not until 2012, in his State of the
Union address, that the president began to apply pressure to all of higher
education, putting colleges "on notice" that his administration would not
continue to subsidize
"skyrocketing tuition."
"If you can't stop tuition from going up, the
funding you get from taxpayers will go down," he said.
Three days later, in a speech
at the University of Michigan, he issued a
"blueprint for keeping college affordable,"
repeating proposals to shift more money from the campus-based student-aid
programs to colleges that "do their fair share to keep tuition affordable,"
and create new incentive programs for colleges and states. The plan also
included a call for the
College Scorecard that would provide families with
"essential information" for choosing a college, including data on
institutions' costs, graduation rates, and the potential earnings of
graduates.
He returned to those themes in his 2013 State of
the Union address, calling on colleges to
"do their part to keep costs down," and urging
Congress to consider "affordability and value" when awarding federal aid. In
a
policy plan that accompanied the speech, he
suggested incorporating measures of value and affordability into the
existing accreditation system or establishing a new, alternative system of
accreditation "based on performance and results."
Sidestepping
Congress
Getting Congress to agree to any of those ideas
will be difficult, given budget realities and competing priorities—not to
mention the partisan gridlock currently gripping Washington. Recognizing
this, Mr. Obama has vowed to use the powers of his office to get things
done.
Continued in article
It's troubling enough to study one university's
financial reports. It's a nightmare to compare universities.
"So You Want to Examine Your University's Financial Reports?" by Charles
Schwartz, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/So-You-Want-to-Examine-Your/130672/
Issues in Computing a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and "Worth" of
Professors ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CostAccounting
"Treating Higher Ed's 'Cost Disease' With
Supersize Online Courses," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education,
February 26, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Treating-Higher-Eds-Cost/130934/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
"A Policy Wonk Brings Data on College Costs
to the Table," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education,
February 5, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Cost-Policy-Wonk/130662/
The University of Texas System released data
Thursday designed to help the system's regents gauge the productivity of
faculty members, The Texas Tribune
reported -- one part of
an accountability push that has concerned many
professors and troubled some lawmakers. The massive spreadsheet -- which
system officials insisted was raw and unverified, and should be treated as a
draft -- contained numerous data points about all individual professors,
including their total compensation, tenure status, total course enrollments,
and information about research awards. A similar effort this spring at Texas
A&M University -- also undertaken in response to pressure from Gov. Rick
Perry --
created a stir there.
"Release of Faculty-Productivity Data Roils U. of Texas," by Audrey Williams
June, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Release-of/127439/
Issues in Computing a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and "Worth" of
Professors (including discussions of the Texas A&M cost allocation study) ---
See below
"Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Spinoff Team Up on Remedial Math," by
Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 24, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Carnegie-Foundation-and/141839/?cid=wc
A Stanford University spinoff and the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching plan to announce a partnership on
Tuesday to expand the distribution of online remedial-mathematics courses
that so far have tripled students' success rates in half the time.
NovoEd, an
online-learning start-up company that encourages
students to work in small groups and to learn from one another, teamed up
with the foundation to tackle what is widely considered a
nationwide crisis in remedial math.
More than 60 percent of students entering community
college require at least one remedial-math course before they can progress
to credit-bearing courses. Fewer than a third of those students complete it,
according to the foundation.
Over the past two years, the Carnegie Foundation
has been trying to improve those numbers through a remedial-math program
involving more than 40 community colleges and universities in at least 10
states.
Statway and Quantway, which together make up
Carnegie's Pathways Program, have allowed students to complete in one year
remedial-math sequences that used to take two years.
A Carnegie spokeswoman said that 17 percent of
remedial-math students in the colleges that make up the Statway network
historically have achieved math credit within three years, but 49 percent of
those in the Statway program did so within a single year. Results were
similar with the Quantway program.
The program's director and a senior managing
partner at Carnegie, Bernadine Chuck Fong, said in an e-mail on Monday that
NovoEd's focus on "student-centered, collaborative learning and pedagogy"
meshed with the foundation's collaborative strategies.
A Focus on
Collaborative Learning
Amin Saberi, co-founder and chief executive officer
of NovoEd, agreed. "By combining forces, we can scale up the curriculum and
address this national challenge head-on," he said, also in an interview on
Monday. He is on leave from Stanford, where he is an associate professor of
management science and engineering.
NovoEd started in January 2013 as an in-house
program at Stanford called Venture Lab. Its massive open online courses have
reached about 500,000 people in more than 150 countries, Mr. Saberi said.
NovoEd differs from Coursera and Udacity, two MOOC
spinoffs that were also started by Stanford professors, in its focus on
collaborative learning, Mr. Saberi said.
In NovoEd courses, students are typically assigned
to groups of four to seven, based on their experiences and locations, to
work on problems and projects together. They're also encouraged to discuss
roadblocks they've faced in their own learning and how they've overcome the
obstacles.
In the courses, students rate one another as team
members, which gives them incentives to be active participants.
Mr. Saberi said the approach the partnership will
take, which includes studying in contexts that are relevant to students, is
particularly effective with first-generation and underprepared students who
often struggle in online courses. Remedial-math students might, for
instance, study how a 20-percent interest rate on a credit card adds up over
time.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
Also don't forget the wonderful free remedial and advanced math videos at the
Khan Academy ---
https://www.khanacademy.org/
2U Distance Education Course Provider ---
http://www.study2u.com/
2U (The Anti-MOOC Provider) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology
"3 Universities (Baylor,
Southern Methodist, and Temple Universities)
Will Grant Credit for 2U’s Online Courses," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle
of Higher Education, July 30, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/3-universities-will-grant-credit-for-2us-online-courses/45143?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
That was July 30, 2013. It's unclear what role the new 2U will play in terms of
providing transfer credit accepted by Baylor, SUM, Temple, and other
universities after May 2014.
"2U Ends Semester Online," by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed,
April 3, 2014 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/03/online-education-provider-2u-disband-semester-online-consortium
The online education provider 2U will
this summer eliminate its online course pool initiative in favor of
developing fully online undergraduate degree programs, ending a high-profile
effort to offer scalable, credit-granting online courses at residential
colleges.
The consortium, known as
Semester Online,
was initially marketed as a platform for top-tier
universities to offer online courses to paying students at participating
universities. During the 2012 media storm surrounding massive open online
courses, it emerged with a distinctive message, promising small course sizes
and live, interactive videoconferencing sessions.
But before the launch of last fall’s
pilot, Duke and Vanderbilt Universities and the University of Rochester had
backed out, and Wake
Forest University
remained on the fence. At the colleges that
dropped out and at Wake Forest, the decisions came after intense faculty
debate; Duke, for example,
rejected joining the
consortium in a 16-14 vote by the Arts & Sciences Council. Although Wake
Forest eventually joined the consortium, which this spring expanded with new
courses and international partners, the universities and 2U reached a mutual
decision to end the initiative.
“Semester Online was always an
experiment,” Chance Patterson, 2U’s senior vice president of communications,
said in an email. “The pilot program experienced significant challenges
related to the complexities of a consortium structure.”
In addition to losing some of its
founding members, Semester Online’s fall pilot also struggled with low
enrollment. Some participating universities were unable to sign up students
until mid-June -- several months after fall registration -- meaning some
courses were left with single-digit enrollments.
Patterson described Semester Online as an
“informative” experience that has “helped 2U develop its instructional model
for the undergraduate population.” And along with Wednesday’s announcement
that it would disband the consortium, 2U also unveiled its first
undergraduate degree program, an RN to BSN program developed in partnership
with Simmons College.
In an email, Claire E. Sterk, provost of
Emory University, described her institution's participation in Semester
Online as a learning experience, and thanked the faculty "for being open to
academic innovation."
"From my perspective, it was a great
experiment led by our dean of arts and sciences and the faculty," Sterk wrote.
"We also learned important lessons about the ways in which universities
teach and are able to compare traditional versus more innovative modes of
teaching."
Ed Macias, provost emeritus at Washington
University in St. Louis, said via email that he was "proud to have been part
of this experiment in online education," and that courses had been "top
quality."
2U, fresh off a successful initial public offering
last week, is better-known for developing fully online master’s degree
programs for institutions such as Georgetown University, the University of
California at Berkeley and the University of North Carolina, among others.
Those programs have generally been well-received
among graduate school faculty. Writing about his experiences with
the University of North Carolina's online M.B.A. program, Scott Cohen, a
professor with more than three decades of teaching in graduate-level
business courses,
described the online
experience as "more intimate than 90 percent of the seminars I’ve taught in
or taken."
Jensen Comment
Some universities claim that they do not accept distance education transfer
credit. However, in some instances it's impossible on a transcript to know
whether a student took one or more courses from a highly regarded university
online or onsite. Universities like the University of Wisconsin and Indiana
University have multiple sections of courses where some sections can be taken on
campus and other sections can be taken online. The transcripts may not
differentiate between those sections when students from those universities are
seeking to transfer to other universities.
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology
Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education courses and degree
programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads on Pricey Online
Courses and Degrees --- See Below
These do not help global low income students other than by allowing
students to learn at home and accumulate transcript credits toward
degrees. Sometimes the credits are accepted only by the college or university
providing distance education courses. Some universities like the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee that offer both onsite and online sections of the same
course will charge higher fees for the online sections. Distance education for
come colleges and universities are cash cows.
Bob Jensen's Threads on Free
Online Courses, Videos, Tutorials, and Course Materials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
These help low income students by providing totally free courses and
learning materials, often from the best professors in the world at prestigious
universities. However, if students want transcript credit there will be fees to
take competency-based examinations. And those credits are not always accepted by
other colleges and universities. The free alternatives are mainly for students
who just want to learn.
Competency-Based Learning ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
"Capella Gets Federal Approval for Competency-Based Degrees,"
Inside Higher Ed, August 13, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/08/13/capella-gets-federal-approval-competency-based-degrees
The University of Northern Arizona Offers a Dual Transcript Option, One of
Which is Competency-Based
"Competency-Based Transcripts," by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed,
August 9, 2013 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/09/northern-arizona-universitys-new-competency-based-degrees-and-transcripts
Jensen Comment
This program at Northern Arizona differs from the competency-based programs at the University of
Wisconsin, the University of Akron, Capella University, and Southern New Hampshire University in
that students at Northern Arizona must sign up for online courses at Northern Arizona before
becoming eligible for the competency-based transcript. It differs from Western
Governors University in that there are two transcripts rather than just a
competency-based transcript for online courses.
Capella may have a more difficult time getting employers and graduate schools
to accept Capella's competency-based transcript credit in general relative
to the University of Wisconsin, the University of Akron, and Southern New
Hampshire University. Time will tell. Much depends upon other criteria such as
SAT scores, GRE scores, GMAT scores, LSAT scores, MCAT scores, and professional
licensing examination scores.
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
"Professors Are About to Get an Online Education: Georgia Tech's new
Internet master's degree in computer science is the future." by Andy
Kessler, The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2013 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578504761168566272.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
Anyone who cares about America's shortage of
computer-science experts should cheer the recent news out of Georgia Tech.
The Atlanta university is making major waves in business and higher
education with its May 14 announcement that the college will offer the first
online master's degree in computer science—and that the degree can be had
for a quarter of the cost of a typical on-campus degree. Many other
universities are experimenting with open online courses, or MOOCs, but
Georgia Tech's move raises the bar significantly by offering full credit in
a graduate program.
It comes just in time. A shortfall of
computer-science graduates is a constant refrain in Silicon Valley, and by
2020 some one million high-tech job openings will remain unfilled, according
to the Commerce Department.
That's why Georgia Tech's online degree, powered by
Udacity, is such a game-changer. For the same $7,000 a year that New York
City spends per student on school buses, you can now get a master's from one
of the most well-respected programs in the country. Moore's Law says these
fees should drop to $1,000 by 2020—a boon for students and for the economy.
Sadly, MOOCs are not without controversy. Consider
what happened at San Jose State after the university last fall ran a test
course in electrical engineering paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. Students who worked with online content passed at a higher rate
than classroom-only students, 91% to 60%. The course was so successful that
the school's president decided to expand online courses, including
humanities, which will also be rolled out to other California State
universities.
You'd think professors would welcome these positive
changes for students. Some teachers across the country are, however
cautiously, embracing the MOOC model. But plenty of professors smell a
threat to their livelihood. In an April 29 open letter to the university,
San Jose State philosophy professors wrote: "Let's not kid ourselves;
administrators at the CSU are beginning a process of replacing faculty with
cheap online education."
In April, an Amherst faculty committee decided
against online courses, since they apparently run afoul of the school's
mission of "learning through close colloquy." As it happens, Amherst
professors rank seventh in salary of top liberal arts colleges, pulling in
$137,700. And at Duke, where my son is a student, a faculty council at the
school's arts and sciences college voted 16 to 14 against granting
graduation credits for taking a Duke MOOC. By the way, Duke professors'
average salary is $180,200.
I have nothing against teachers—or even high
salaries, if the teachers are worth it. But half of recent college graduates
don't have jobs or don't use their degree in the jobs they find. Since 1990,
the cost of college has increased at four times the rate of inflation.
Student loans are clocking in at $1 trillion.
Something's got to give. Education is going to
change, the question is how and when. Think about it: Today's job
market—whether you're designing new drugs, fracking for oil, writing mobile
apps or marketing Pop Chips—requires graduates who can think strategically
in real time, have strong cognitive skills, see patterns, work in groups and
know their way around highly visual virtual environments. This is the same
generation that grew up playing online games like Call of Duty and World of
Warcraft, but who are almost never asked to use their online skills in any
classroom.
MOOCs will inevitably come to K-12 education too.
Everyone knows great public school teachers. But we also all know the
tenured type who has been mailing it in for years. Parents spend sleepless
nights trying to rearrange schedules to get out of Mr. Bleh's fourth-period
math class. Online education is about taking the "best in class" teachers
and scaling them to thousands or millions of students rather than 25-30 at a
time.
The union-dominated teaching corps can be expected
to be just as hostile as college professors to moving K-12 to MOOCs. But a
certain financial incentive will exist nonetheless. I noted this in a talk
recently at an education conference where the audience was filled with
people who create education software and services.
I began by pointing out that in 2011 only 7.9% of
11th graders in Chicago public schools tested "college ready." That's
failure, and it's worse when you realize how much money is wasted on these
abysmal results. Chicago's 23,290 teachers—who make an average salary of
$74,839, triple U.S. per capita income and 50% more than median U.S.
household income—cost Chicago taxpayers $1.75 billion out of the city's
$5.11 billion budget.
Why not forget the teachers and issue all 404,151
students an iPad or Android tablet? At a cost of $161 million, that's less
than 10% of the expense of paying teachers' salaries. Add online software,
tutors and a $2,000 graduation bonus, and you still don't come close to the
cost of teachers. You can't possibly do worse than a 7.9% college readiness
level.
Continued in article
Masters of
Accounting and Taxation Online Degree Programs
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#MastersOfAccounting
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
Question
What is the difference between traditional competency-based course credits and
"decoupled" competency-based course credits?
Answer
In traditional competency-based systems an instructor either does not assign
course grades or does so based solely on examinations that cannot be linked to
particular students in a way where knowing a student can affect the final grade.
Course grades are generally not influenced by class discussions (onsite or in
online chat rooms), homework, term papers, course projects, team performance,
etc. In many instances the instructors do not even prepare the examinations that
determine competency-based grades.
Western Governors University ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
WGU was one of the universities in modern times (since 1997) to offer fully
accredited online courses using a competency-based grading system. However,
students must participate in WGU courses and do class assignments for courses before
they can take the competency-based examinations.
Southern New Hampshire University (a private onsite university that is not
funded by the State of New Hampshire) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_New_Hampshire_University
In "decoupled" course credit systems, a university that usually offers
competency-based courses where class attendance or online course participation
is not required. Students can learn the material from any sources, including
free online learning modules, before signing up to take the competency-based
examinations. Sometimes more than one "progress" competency-based examination
may be required. But no particular course is required before taking any
competency-based examination.
Decoupled systems become a lot like the Uniform CPA Examination where there
are multiple parts of the examination that may be passed in stages or passed in
one computer-based sitting.
Southern New Hampshire University (a private onsite university that is not
funded by the State of New Hampshire) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_New_Hampshire_University
SNHU claims to be the first university to decouple courses from
competency-based examinations. However, I'm not certain that his claim is true
since the University of Wisconsin System may have been the first to offer some
decoupled competency-based degree programs..The University of Akron now has some
similar alternatives.
Wisconsin System's Competency-Based Degrees as of November 28, 2012
---
http://www.wisconsin.edu/news/2012/r121128.htm
"College Degree, No Class Time Required University of Wisconsin to Offer a
Bachelor's to Students Who Take Online Competency Tests About What They Know,"
by Caroline Porter, The Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2013 --- "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323301104578255992379228564.html
It is expected that students seeking decoupled competency-based credits will
sign up for learning modules from various free learning systems.
Listing of Sites for Free Courses and Learning Modules (unlike certificates,
transferrable credits are never free) ---
http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/free-online-courses-50-sites-to-get-educated-for-free/
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
"Competency-Based Education Advances With U.S. Approval of Program,"
by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 18, 2013 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/u-s-education-department-gives-a-boost-to-competency-based-education/43439?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Last month the U.S. Education Department sent a
message to colleges: Financial aid may be awarded
based on students’ mastery of “competencies” rather than their accumulation
of credits. That has major ramifications for institutions hoping to create
new education models that don’t revolve around the amount of time that
students spend in class.
Now one of those models has cleared a major hurdle.
The Education Department has approved the eligibility of Southern New
Hampshire University to receive federal financial aid for students enrolled
in a new, self-paced online program called College
for America, the private, nonprofit
university has announced.
Southern New Hampshire bills its College for
America program as “the first degree program to completely decouple from the
credit hour.” Unlike the typical experience in which students advance by
completing semester-long, multicredit courses, students in College for
America have no courses or traditional professors. These working-adult
students make progress toward an associate degree by demonstrating mastery
of 120 competencies. Competencies are phrased as “can do” statements, such
as “can use logic, reasoning, and analysis to address a business problem” or
“can analyze works of art in terms of their historical and cultural
contexts.”
Students show mastery of skills by completing
tasks. In one task, for example, students are asked to study potential works
of art for a museum exhibit about the changing portrayal of human bodies
throughout history. To guide the students, Southern New Hampshire points
them to a series of free online resources, such as
“Smarthistory” videos presented by Khan Academy.
Students must summarize what they’ve found by creating a PowerPoint
presentation that could be delivered to a museum director.
Completed tasks are shipped out for evaluation to a
pool of part-time adjunct professors, who quickly assess the work and help
students understand what they need to do to improve. Southern New Hampshire
also assigns “coaches” to students to help them establish their goals and
pace. In addition, the university asks students to pick someone they know as
an “accountability partner” who checks in with them and nudges them along.
Students gain access to the program through their
employers. Several companies have set up partnerships with Southern New
Hampshire to date, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and ConAgra
Foods.
The Education Department is grappling with how to
promote innovation while preventing financial-aid abuses. Southern New
Hampshire, whose $2,500-a-year program was established last year with
support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has served as a guinea pig
in that process. But other institutions are lining up behind it, hoping to
obtain financial aid for programs that don’t hinge on credit hours.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
In many ways this USNH program reduces the costs of student admission and of
offering remedial programs to get students up to speed to enroll in USNH courses
on campus.
But there are enormous drawbacks
In some courses the most important learning comes from student interactions,
team projects, and most importantly case discussions. In the Harvard Business
School, master case teachers often cannot predict the serendipitous way each
class will proceed since the way it proceeds often depends upon comments made in
class by students. In some courses the most important learning takes place in
research projects. How do you have a competency-based speech course?
Time and time again, CPA firms have learned that the best employees are not
always medal winners on the CPA examination. For example, years and years ago a
medal winner on occasion only took correspondence courses. And in some of those
instances the medal winner did not perform well on the job in part because the
interactive and team skills were lacking that in most instances are part of
onsite and online education.
Note that distance education courses that are well done require student
interactions and often team projects. It is not necessary to acquire such skills
face-to-face. It is necessary, however, to require such interactions in a great
distance education course.
A USNH College for America accounting graduate may not be allowed to sit for
the CPA examination in some states, especially Texas. Texas requires a least 15
credits be taken onsite face-to-face in traditional courses on campus. Actually
I cannot find where an accounting degree is even available from the USNH College
for America degree programs.
"Georgia Tech to Offer a MOOC-Like Online Master's Degree, at Low Cost,"
by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 14, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Ga-Tech-to-Offer-a-MOOC-Like/139245/
"Southern
Illinois University to Offer Online Accounting Degree," by Gail Perry,
AccountingWeb, May 6, 2013 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/article/southern-illinois-university-offer-online-accounting-degree/221747?source=education
Cross-Cultural
Investigations: Technology and Development (Multicultural Online Education and
Open Sharing) ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-801j-cross-cultural-investigations-technology-and-development-fall-2012/
One way for these so-called
distance education search engines to become more legitimate would be to add top
not-for-profit distance education programs to their search engine databases.
New From US News
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Jensen Comment
I don't know why the largest for-profit universities that generally provide more
online degrees than the above universities combined are not included in the
final outcomes. For example, the University of Phoenix alone as has over 600,000
students, most of whom are taking some or all online courses.
New From US News
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
For-profit universities may have shot themselves in the foot by not providing
the evaluation data to US News for online degree program evaluation. But
there may b e reasons for this. For example, one of the big failings of most
for-profit online degree programs is in undergraduate "Admissions Selectivity."
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
University of Illinois Extension
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state
"U. of South Carolina Crafts an Online Degree That Students Can Afford,"
by Alina Mogilyanskaya, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 23, 2012
---
http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-South-Carolina-Crafts-an/134566/
Mark E. Pittman is in many ways the quintessential
student for the University of South Carolina's new Palmetto College. At 47,
he is a former Navy man, a husband, a father of three, and the principal
breadwinner in his family. More than a decade after leaving behind his
studies at South Carolina, he has re-enrolled—and if all goes well, he will
soon become the first person in his family to earn a bachelor's degree.
Mr. Pittman recently began studying in the
university's new Back to Carolina program, an online degree-completion
option for adults who are 25 or older and previously earned at least 60
academic credits at the university. Back to Carolina is a pilot program for
Palmetto College, the first offering in a much broader distance-learning
effort set to begin in the fall of 2013.
With Palmetto, the first program of its kind in the
state, the university sees itself as filling a gap in the availability of
affordable bachelor's degrees for South Carolinians, as well as contributing
to the state's educational-attainment and work-force goals.
More than that, the university is positioning
itself to compete with for-profit institutions.
Palmetto College will offer online
bachelor's-completion programs in a variety of vocational fields, including
business, criminal justice, education, and nursing, which students can
pursue on their own time. It will enroll students who already hold at least
60 credits from one of the system's largely two-year "regional" colleges, a
South Carolina technical college, or an out-of-state institution, and who,
for whatever reason, are unable to relocate to a four-year, or "senior,"
campus to complete a baccalaureate degree.
The South Carolina system has four regional
colleges, and about 500 students per year transfer to one of the four senior
campuses to continue toward bachelor's degrees. "How many are not able to
relocate, that's a different story," says Michael D. Amiridis, the
university's provost. "That's what we will be testing with the Palmetto
College."
"We always think of the dropout as someone who
couldn't make it, but by far the predominant reason is that someone had
economic challenges or married or needed to take a job. And so we want these
people to come back to the university and to complete their bachelor's
degrees," says Harris Pastides, president of the university.
Mr. Pittman, for example, lives in Kershaw, S.C., a
town of about 1,800 people. The majority of Kershaw's workers commute out of
town to their jobs, and the only site of higher education there is an
off-campus center of York Technical College.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Pittman was majoring in
biology at the university, first taking courses at the Lancaster campus,
about a half-hour's drive from his home, and then at the main campus, in
Columbia, an hour away. After two and a half years, the pressures of
studying, along with those of providing for and being able to spend time
with his wife and young children, became too much, and Mr. Pittman left the
university for the work force.
For the past four years he has been working at
home, in order to cut out the time he spent commuting to his job at Bank of
America, in Charlotte, N.C.—63 miles each way—and to spend more time with
his family. Now he is also studying at home, evenings and weekends, to earn
a B.A. in liberal studies, the degree that Back to Carolina is piloting this
year.
"It's certainly added to my plateful," Mr. Pittman
says. "But I'm not complaining. It's a great opportunity, and I'm going to
leverage it and take advantage of it as much as I can."
Competitive
Pricing
One of the "guiding principles" of Palmetto College
is that its programs are "positioned to compete with for-profit
institutions," says a February progress report compiled by Huron Consulting
Group, which worked with the university to develop the Palmetto College
concept. By offering competitively priced online degrees backed by the
resources of a large public institution and the university's brand,
officials hope to attract the demographic that for-profits often claim as
their main market.
While for-profit colleges have been criticized for
their low online-degree-completion rates, Mr. Amiridis anticipates that
there won't be a "huge discrepancy" between the graduation rates of South
Carolina's traditional campuses and those of Palmetto College. Attributing
his expectation of student success to the hybrid nature of the program—the
first 60 credits of study will be completed at a traditional campus and the
last 60 online—he emphasizes that students will already have an academic
history before enrolling in online courses.
That history will not only prepare them to perform
academically but also aid in the admissions process. "We are selective, and
we're careful in the way that we select people to make sure that they have a
reasonable chance of success," Mr. Amiridis says. "I view this as an ethical
responsibility, quite frankly."
Apart from distinguishing itself through this
admissions standard, Palmetto College will focus on a more specific
population than that of the for-profits, he says.
"The populations that we're trying to serve, they
know us. They know the University of South Carolina. In many cases they
aspire to receive a degree from the University of South Carolina," Mr.
Amiridis says. "We're not competing with for-profit institutions. We're not
trying to take this and go nationally."
The provost's comments parallel the marketing
principle put forward by the Huron report, which states that "techniques
should be used to differentiate USC from the for-profit institutions that
are heavily marketed."
The consultants' report is also explicit about
Palmetto College's role, concluding that at a price of $367 per credit hour,
the college will become "a significant competitor to the for-profit
institutions that have recently become major players in the South Carolina
higher-education marketplace."
A study done in conjunction with Huron two years
ago showed that at that sample price, Palmetto College courses for students
with 60 credits would cost less than 40 percent of a comparable course
offered by a for-profit in the state, Mr. Amiridis says. Ultimately,
administrators decided that Palmetto tuition would be comparable to that for
the system's two- and four-year campuses.
Despite its focus on former University of South
Carolina students, the new college may end up competing with for-profits
more directly.
"One of the things that's going to happen is that
at some point in time, Palmetto will exhaust that population," says Bruce N.
Chaloux, chief executive of the Sloan Consortium, which promotes online
learning in higher education.
While the consortium recommends that institutions
engage in adult degree-completion programs those previously enrolled
students who had left without degrees, Mr. Chaloux says that transplants to
the state or holders of credits from other universities would also be
interested.
'Catching Fire'
The creation of Palmetto College is also a move to
leverage South Carolina's regional campuses while streamlining the
university system. The four regional colleges will be consolidated under the
administrative umbrella of Palmetto College, which will be led by a new
chancellor. Some of the colleges' operations, like financial aid, human
resources, and budget and finance will be centralized, and additional
advisers will be hired to serve Palmetto students.
No staffing cuts have been announced, although Mr.
Amiridis says the move may lead to "an optimization of the staffing needs."
Ann C. Carmichael, dean of the regional campus at
Salkehatchie, says the centralization of resources and personnel will
empower the university's regional colleges by allowing for "collective
decision making" and leading to "more efficient use of scarce dollars."
Palmetto College is an expansion of Palmetto
Programs, an option that has allowed students at regional colleges to
complete baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts or organizational leadership
"synchronously," or by attending live broadcasts of lectures held on other
campuses.
"It's almost like a natural evolution of what's
been happening," says Sandra J. Kelly, chair of the university's Faculty
Senate. Faculty in both the senior and regional colleges have been
converting courses into a synchronous online format for Palmetto Programs;
those who are interested are now crafting "asynchronous classes," or ones
that students can take on their own time, for Palmetto College.
Continued in article
At the University of Wisconsin
"Online Degree Program Lets Students Test Out of What They Already Know,"
by Angela Chen, June 20, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-degree-program-lets-students-test-out-of-what-they-already-know/37097?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
The University of Wisconsin plans to start a
“flexible degree” program online focused on allowing undergraduates to test
out of material they have mastered.
The new program, geared toward working adults with
some college education, operates under a “competency based” model, said
Raymond Cross, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and
University of Wisconsin-Extension. This model is similar to the Advanced
Placement program, in which high-school students take AP tests to pass out
of college-level courses.
In the university’s new program, college courses
will be broken down into units. For example, a higher-level mathematics
class could include units such as linear algebra and trigonometry. Students
can then test out of certain units (instead of full courses) and spend time
learning only material that is new to them. Eventually, the units will build
into courses, and then a degree. The flexible-degree program and
traditional-degree program will have identical course requirements, and
since each flexible degree will be associated with a specific campus, the
student will receive a diploma from the originating campus and not from the
system.
“We’re trying to find ways to reduce the cost of
education,” Mr. Cross said. “Implicit in the model is the idea that you can
take lectures online from free sources—like Khan Academy and MITx—and
prepare yourself for the competency test. Then take the remaining courses
online at UW.”
The biggest challenge, he says, is determining how
to best test competency. Some units will require tests, while others may
require written papers or laboratory work. The difficulty of measuring
“competency’” for any unit will affect the program’s pricing structure,
which has not yet been determined.
The idea of competency-based credentials is common
in technical and health fields, Mr. Cross said, but it is rare at
traditional universities. The program is part of a push to encourage
Wisconsin’s 700,000 college dropouts to go back to a university.
“With higher ed now, people often have a piece or
two missing in their education, so we are responding to the changes in our
culture and helping them pull all these pieces together,” Mr. Cross said.
“Students already interface with a lot of different institutions and
different classes and professors, and this will help that process. I don’t
think this diminishes traditional higher ed at all. I think it’ll enhance
it.”
The first courses in the flexible-degree program
will be available starting in fall 2013. The university is still developing
exact degree specifications, Mr. Cross said. Likely degrees include business
management and information technology.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment (including distance education
assessment issues and competency-based testing) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
A Master List of 500 Free Courses From Great Universities ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/a_master_list_of_500_free_courses_from_great_universities.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Bob Jensen's threads on free courses, tutorials, videos, and course materials
from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on general education tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#EducationResearch
Socrates Mouses Around in the 21st Century
A Fully Online Philosophy Degree from the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
"Virtual Philosophy," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, May 17, 2012 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/17/unc-greensboro-may-offer-its-first-fully-online-degree-philosophy
Some assume that online education is not a suitable
medium for courses that rely on the Socratic Method. But the philosophy
professors at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro are skeptical.
The Greensboro philosophy department, which already
offers online versions of eight of its courses, has adapted two additional
ones, including a “capstone” seminar, for the Web. Pending the approval of
the university system’s general administration, the new courses would make
it possible to earn an undergraduate philosophy degree from Greensboro
without setting foot on its campus.
That would make philosophy the first department at
Greensboro’s undergraduate college to offer a fully online degree.
That might strike some observers as odd, given
philosophy’s reputation as a discipline that relies on classroom exchanges
and whose pedagogical model has hardly changed since ancient Greece. But
philosophy and technology are more closely linked than some might assume,
says Gary Rosenkrantz, the chair of the department.
“It’s not as ironic as it seems if you reflect on
the fact that computers -- both hardware and software -- derive from
logicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” says Rosenkrantz.
Threads of inquiry that use the “if-then” protocol of formal logic are the
“foundation of both the computer chip and basic computer software
functions,” he says.
In fact, the structured reasoning of philosophy
makes it perhaps more amenable to adaptation than some other humanities
disciplines. To help teach the online versions, Wade Maki, a lecturer at
Greensboro, developed a computer program based on the
choose-your-own-adventure books of his youth. Called
“Virtual Philosopher,”
the program poses ethical dilemmas and presents multiple-choice questions.
Once a student answers, the program -- which features text as well as video
of Maki -- interrogates her answer before offering her the opportunity to
either change or reaffirm it.
By asking leading questions and restricting student
answers, Virtual Philosopher seeks to give students some autonomy without
letting them wander off-topic, says Maki. For a preformatted program, the
similarity to a typical classroom exchange is remarkable, he says.
“It’s this classic tennis back and forth,
intellectually,” says Maki, who has co-authored
a paper on using
Virtual Philosopher to replicate the Socratic Method online. “And if you’ve
been teaching for a while … it becomes quite natural to find that they can
be easily structured to give a student a good replica of what happens in the
classroom.”
The online philosophy courses at Greensboro do not
rely entirely on Maki’s Virtual Philosopher. The instructors also hold live
video chats via Blackboard, where students can inquire about various ideas
without having to color inside the lines, says Rosenkrantz.
But with the proposed fully online philosophy track
comes a new challenge: holding an upper-level seminar online. Whereas the
lower- and mid-level courses had only to match the level of interaction that
students could reasonably expect from a traditional class of 40 or 50
students, Rosenkrantz will now have to try to replicate a much smaller,
discussion-intensive course when it puts one of the department’s capstone
courses, “Philosophy 494: Substance and Attribute,” on to the Web. “That
needs to have a significant element of synchronous interaction between a
professor and students,” he says.
Rosenkrantz, who is slated to teach the course if
the online major gets approved, says he is planning to use Google+ Hangouts
to hold live discussions. Instructors have for years resisted holding
seminar discussions online because multiperson video chat platforms were
viewed as unreliable. But, like some other institutions that are moving
discussion-intensive pieces of their curriculums to the Web, the Greensboro
oracles are seeing technological capabilities gaining on ambition in online
education. “Certainly the technology is there to attempt it now,” says
Rosenkrantz.
Continued in article
From Amherst College
Ask a Philosopher (a live philosopher will answer your questions) ---
http://www.askphilosophers.org/
Sample Question on April 19, 2012
Is it ethical to kill someone in self-defense? My
instinct was yes at first, but upon further reflection, in a situation where
it's "you or them", I can't seem to think of a reason to kill someone in
self-defense, other than the fact that you simply want to live. After all,
you're still taking a human life. (Also if you could explain why it is or
isn't ethical would help me out a lot thanks!)
View the replies of several "philosophers" (who apparently never were
faced with a life or death decision in real life)
I think one of the answers is either tongue-in-cheek or just plain dumb!
Gateway to Philosophy ---
http://www.bu.edu/paideia/index.html
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
Video course covers Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
and Tocqueville.
Introduction to Political Philosophy: A Free Yale Course"---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/introduction_to_political_philosophy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see the BBC's "Big Thinker" Lecture Series ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/bertrand_russell_bbc_lecture_series_.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Teach Philosopy 101 ---
http://www.teachphilosophy101.org/
This site presents strategies and resources for
faculty members and
graduate assistants who are teaching Introduction
to Philosophy courses; it also includes material of interest to college faculty
generally. The
mission of TΦ101 is to provide free, user-friendly
resources to the academic community. All of the materials are provided on an
open
source license. You may also
print as many copies as you wish (please print in
landscape). TΦ101 carries no advertising. I am deeply indebted to
Villanova
University for all of the support that has made this
project possible.
John Immerwahr, Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University
Methodologies of Comparative Philosophy: The Pragmatist and Process
Traditions by Robert W. Smid (State University of New York Press; 2009,
288 pages; $80). Evaluates the methodologies of William Ernest Hocking, F.S.C.
Northrop, Robert Cummings Neville, and David L. Hall in collaboration with Roger
T. Ames.
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
Video course covers Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
and Tocqueville.
Introduction to Political Philosophy: A Free Yale Course"---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/introduction_to_political_philosophy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Also see the BBC's "Big Thinker" Lecture Series ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/bertrand_russell_bbc_lecture_series_.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
Rhapsody of Philosophy: Dialogues With Plato in Contemporary Thought
by Max Statkiewicz (Penn State University Press; 2009. 216 pages; $60).
Describes a "rhapsodic mode" in Plato's dialogues that is echoed by such
thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Irigaray, Derrida, and Nancy.
Who Was Jacques Derrida? An Intellectual Biography by David
Mikics (Yale University Press; 2009, 273 pages; $30). Topics include the French
thinker's vision of philosophy as a realm that resists psychology.
Ask Philosophers ---
http://www.amherst.edu/askphilosophers/
This site puts the talents and knowledge of
philosophers at the service of the general public. Send in a question that
you think might be related to philosophy and we will do our best to respond
to it. To date, there have been 1375 questions posted and 1834 responses.
Philosophy Talk (Audio) ---
http://www.philosophytalk.org/
Philosophy Now: A Magazine of Ideas
http://www.philosophynow.org/
The Secret Lives Of Philosophers
"Are Philosophers Really Lovers Of Wisdom?" Simoleon Sense,
February 2, 2009 ---
http://www.simoleonsense.com/are-philosophers-really-lovers-of-wisdom/
I’ve
always been interested in becoming an academic
philosopher. My interest is so profound that I even
majored as one during undergrad, only to quickly switch
to Psychology & Neuroscience. Here’s an article brought
to my attention by a friend and philosopher.
Click
Here To Read About The Secret Lives Of Philosphers
Article Introduction (Via Philosopher’s Net)
Although
academics will hardly raise an eyebrow about this “open
secret”, it comes as a surprise to many others to learn
that many philosophers, in fact an increasing number by
my lights, are little devoted to the love of wisdom. In
only a merely “academic” way do they aspire to
intellectual virtue. Even less often do they exhibit
qualities of moral excellence. On the contrary, many
philosophers, or what pass as philosophers, are, sadly,
better described as petty social climbers, meretricious
snobs, and acquisitive consumerists.
I blush
a bit now to confess that part of what drove me into
philosophy in the first place was the naive conviction
that among those who call themselves lovers of wisdom I
would find something different in kind from the
repugnant and shallow brutalism of the worlds of
finance, business, and the law to which I had suffered
some exposure in Ronald Reagan’s America.
Article Excerpts (Via Philsopher’s Net)
“Instead, I’ve found that the secret lives of
philosophers are more often than not pre-occupied with
status and acquisition.”
“Like
debutantes at the ball, philosophers now often spend
much of their time dropping names, gossiping, promoting
their connections, hawking their publications, passing
out business cards and polishing their self-promotional
web sites.”
“Attitudes toward material consumption are not, I’m
afraid much better. Philosophers seem to pepper their
conversations more and more with remarks about the perks
or bonuses they receive – how much money they have
available for travel, what sort of computer allowances,
how big their research grants are.”
“All of
this suggests a philosophical culture that imitates the
business world not only in its emphasis on product
(publication) but also in its adopting the criteria and
trappings of professional success characteristic of
commercial life.
Conclusions (Via Philosopher’s Net)
“One
implication of this little secret is that professional
philosophers have become less and less egalitarian in
their view of education.”
“Finding
philosophers devoted principally to the love of wisdom
and to sharing it broadly has become, as Spinoza said of
all excellent things, as difficult as it is rare.”
Competency-Based College Credit ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ECA
"Online Education Is Everywhere. What’s the Next Big Thing?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 31, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-education-is-everywhere-whats-the-next-big-thing/32898?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Western Governors University (a nonprofit, competency- based online
university) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
Also see http://www.wgu.edu/home2
New Charter University (a for-profit, self-paced, competency-based
online university) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Charter_University
"No Financial Aid, No Problem. For-Profit University Sets $199-a-Month
Tuition for Online Courses," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education,
March 29, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/No-Financial-Aid-No-Problem/131329/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
It's a higher-education puzzle: Students are
flocking to Western Governors University, driving growth of 30 to 40 percent
each year. You might expect that competitors would be clamoring to copy the
nonprofit online institution's model, which focuses on whether students can
show "competencies" rather than on counting how much time they've spent in
class.
So why haven't they?
Two reasons, says the education entrepreneur Gene
Wade. One, financial-aid regulatory problems that arise with self-paced
models that aren't based on seat time. And two, opposition to how Western
Governors changes the role of professor, chopping it into "course mentors"
who help students master material, and graders who evaluate homework but do
no teaching.
Mr. Wade hopes to clear those obstacles with a
start-up company, UniversityNow, that borrows ideas from Western Governors
while offering fresh twists on the model. One is cost. The for-profit's new
venture—New Charter University, led by Sal Monaco, a former Western
Governors provost—sidesteps the loan system by setting tuition so cheap that
most students shouldn't need to borrow. The price: $796 per semester, or
$199 a month, for as many classes as they can finish.
"This is not buying a house," says Mr. Wade,
co-founder and chief executive of UniversityNow. "This is like, do I want to
get cable?"
Another novelty: New Charter offers a
try-it-before-you-buy-it platform that mimics the "freemium" model of many
consumer Web services. Anyone can create an account and start working
through its self-paced online courses free of charge. Their progress gets
recorded. If they decide to pay up and enroll, they get access to an adviser
(who helps navigate the university) and course specialists (who can discuss
the material). They also get to take proctored online tests for course
credit.
The project is the latest in a series of
experiments that use technology to rethink the economics of higher
education, from the $99-a-month introductory courses of StraighterLine to
the huge free courses provided through Stanford and MIT.
For years, some analysts have argued that ready
access to Pell Grants and federal loans actually props up colleges prices,
notes Michael B. Horn, executive director for education at Innosight
Institute, a think tank focused on innovation. That's because institutions
have little incentive to charge anything beneath the floor set by available
financial aid.
"Gene and his team are basically saying, the heck
with that—we're going to go around it. We think people can afford it if we
offer it at this low a price," Mr. Horn says. "That could be revolutionary."
Yet the project faces tall hurdles: Will employers
value these degrees? Will students sign on? And, with a university that
lacks regional accreditation right now—New Charter is nationally accredited
by the Distance Education and Training Council, and is considering seeking
regional accreditation—will students be able to transfer its credits?
Mr. Wade banks on appealing to working adults who
crave easier access to education. When asked who he views as the
competition, his reply is "the line out the door at community college." In
California, where Mr. Wade is based, nearly 140,000 first-time students at
two-year institutions couldn't get into any courses at all during the
previous academic year, according to a recent Los Angeles Times editorial
about the impact of state budget cuts.
Mr. Wade himself benefited from a first-class
education, despite being raised without much money in a housing project in a
tough section of Boston. Growing up there, during an era when the city
underwent forced busing to integrate its schools, felt like watching a
"train wreck" but walking away unscathed. He attended high school at the
prestigious Boston Latin School. With assistance from Project REACH, a
program to help Boston minorities succeed in higher education, he went to
Morehouse College. From there his path included a J.D. from Harvard Law, an
M.B.A. from Wharton, and a career as an education entrepreneur.
The 42-year-old founded two earlier companies:
LearnNow, a charter-school-management outfit that was sold to Edison
Schools, and Platform Learning, a tutoring firm that served low-income
students. So far, he's raised about $8 million from investors for
UniversityNow, whose New Charter subsidiary is a rebranded, redesigned, and
relocated version of an online institution once called Andrew Jackson
University. Breaking a Traditional Mold
To build the software, Mr. Wade looked beyond the
traditional world of educational technology, recruiting developers from
companies like Google. Signing up for the university feels more like
creating an account with a Web platform like Facebook than the laborious
process of starting a traditional program—in fact, New Charter lets you join
with your Facebook ID. Students, whether paying or not, start each class by
taking an assessment to establish whether they're ready for the course and
what material within it they need to work on. Based on that, the system
creates a pathway to guide them through the content. They skip stuff that
they already know.
That was part of the appeal for Ruben Fragoso, who
signed up for New Charter's M.B.A. program three weeks ago after stumbling
on the university while Googling for information about online degrees. Mr.
Fragoso, 53, lives in Albuquerque and works full time as a logistics
coordinator for a solar power company. The Mexican-born father of two earned
a bachelor's degree 12 years ago from Excelsior College. With New Charter,
he mostly teaches himself, hunkering down in his home office after dinner to
read and take quizzes. By week three, he hadn't interacted with any other
students, and his instructor contact had been limited to a welcome e-mail.
That was fine by him.
He likes that he can adjust his schedule to
whatever fits—one course at a time if a subject is tough, or maybe three if
he prefers. His company's education benefits—up to $5,000 a year—cover the
whole thing. With years of business experience, he appreciates the option of
heading quickly to a final test on a subject that is familiar to him.
Continued in article
Competency-Based Learning (where teachers
don't selectively assign grades) ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency-based_learning
Western Governors University (with an entire
history of competency-based learning) ----
http://www.wgu.edu/
Especially note the Business
Administration (including Accounting) degree programs
From a Chronicle of Higher
Education Newsletter on November 3, 2016
Over the past 20 years, Western Governors University has grown into a
formidable competency-based online education provider. It’s on just its
second president, Scott D. Pulsipher, a
former Silicon Valley executive, who stopped by our offices yesterday.
WGU has graduated more
than 70,000 students, from all 50 states. But a key part of the
institution’s growth strategy is local, using its affiliations with
participating states (not that all the partnerships
start
smoothly, mind
you). There are six of them, and more growth is on the way; Mr. Pulsipher
says WGU is in serious discussions to expand into as many as five more
states — he declines to name them — at a pace of one or two per year.
The university's main focus remains students, he says. One example is an
effort to minimize student loans. Through better advising, students are
borrowing, on average, about 20 percent less than they did three years ago,
amounting to savings of about $3,200. “Humans make better decisions,” Mr.
Pulsipher says, “when they have more information.” —Dan
Berrett
2016 Bibliography on Competency-Based
Education and Assessment ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/01/26/rise-competency-based-education?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=0f02e8085b-DNU20160126&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-0f02e8085b-197565045
Bob Jensen's threads on competency-based
learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#ConceptKnowledge
New From US News
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Jensen Comment
I don't know why the largest for-profit universities that generally provide more
online degrees than the above universities combined are not included in the
final outcomes. For example, the University of Phoenix alone as has over 600,000
students, most of whom are taking some or all online courses.
My guess is that most for-profit universities are not forthcoming with the
data requested by US News analysts. Note that the US News
condition that the set of online programs to be considered be regionally
accredited does not exclude many for-profit universities. For example, enter in
such for-profit names as "University of Phoenix" or "Capella University" in the
"College Search" box at
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-phoenix-20988
These universities are included in the set of eligible regionally accredited
online degree programs to be evaluated. They just did not do well in the above
"Honor Roll" of outcomes for online degree programs.
For-profit universities may have shot themselves
in the foot by not providing the evaluation data to US News for online
degree program evaluation. But there may b e reasons for this. For example, one
of the big failings of most for-profit online degree programs is in
undergraduate "Admissions Selectivity."
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on ranking controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#BusinessSchoolRankings
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray
Zone of Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
"Purdue Kicks Off Global Online-Education Project," by Nick DeSantis,
Chronicle of Higher Education, May 11, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/purdue-kicks-off-global-online-education-project/36339
Purdue University today joined the group of
universities that have recently announced plans to experiment with online
courses aimed at a global audience.
The new effort, called PurdueHUB-U, will serve up
modular online courses with video lectures, interactive visualizations, and
tools for students to interact with their peers and the professor. The
project’s leaders hope it will improve face-to-face classes and bring in
revenue by attracting students around the world.
PurdueHUB-U grew out of a course taught this year
on Purdue’s nanoHUB, a collaborative platform for nanotechnology research.
The course, on the fundamentals of nanoelectronics, was broken into two
parts that lasted a few weeks each. It attracted 900 students from 27
countries, most of whom paid $30 for the class and a certificate of
completion. Students also had the option to turn their certificates into
continuing-education credits for an additional $195.
Timothy D. Sands, Purdue’s provost, called that
pricing model a “low outer paywall” that was much cheaper than traditional
credit-hour charges, but not quite free. He added that the project will
first focus on developing online course materials to transform the
university’s face-to-face classes. Mr. Sands said the course modules could
also be offered to Purdue alumni, allowing them to continue their education
after they graduate.
Continued in article
Educating the Masses: From MITx to EDX
Harvard and MIT Create EDX to Offer Free Online Courses Worldwide ---
Click Here
http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/harvard_and_mit_create_edx_to_offer_free_online_courses_worldwide.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+OpenCulture+%28Open+Culture%29
The MOOC Model Revisited
"Massive Open Online Courses: How: 'The Social” Alters the Relationship
Between Learners and Facilitators'," by Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed,
April 30, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/massive-open-online-courses-how-%E2%80%9C-social%E2%80%9D-alters-relationship-between
Bob Jensen's threads on MITx and other free courses, lectures, videos and
course materials from prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
"Professor Hopes to Support Free Course With Kickstarter, the ‘Crowd
Funding’ Site," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education,
March 29, 2012 ---
Click Here
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professor-hopes-to-support-free-course-with-kickstarter-the-crowd-funding-site/35864?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Free online courses for the masses are all the
rage—and many are being run by start-ups hoping to profit by selling related
materials and services. Jim Groom thinks that’s too commercial, so he’s
raising money for the online course he co-teaches at the University of Mary
Washington using Kickstarter, the popular “crowd funding” service.
In a campaign
released today, the professor makes his plea in an
irreverent video that mixes in clips from a 90s true-crime show, and video
interviews with students and professors shot from unusual angles. He
explains that last year he ran the course, which is on digital storytelling
and is called DS106, using his own equipment. But the class has grown so
large that he needs a new server to keep it going, and he estimates that
will cost him $2,900.
He’s asking for contributions ranging from $1 to
$3,000, and those who give will get what he describes as “DS106 schwag”—a
T-shirt, a bumper sticker, or a desk calendar with a different creative
assignment for each day. Some of the rewards reflect the quirky nature of
the course itself: For $100 you can have one of the course assignments named
after you.
The campaign will run for a couple of weeks. If he
hasn’t met his goal of $4,200 (a price that figures in the server cost and
the price of the schwag), then the project gets nothing and all of those who
pledged keep their money. If the target is met, the deal is on. If the goal
is exceeded, he says he will use the extra money to add other enhancements
to the course.
In an interview this week, Mr. Groom stressed that
the course is “not about him,” and he criticized the way some massive online
courses rely on what amounts to a celebrity professor to attract students.
He used the word “community” frequently to describe the group of professors
and students involved in the course.
The idea for the campaign came from Tim Owens,
another instructional technologist at Mary Washington. “I’ve wanted to do a
Kickstarter for so long, but I’ve never been able to think of what could we
do,” he said. When he heard Mr. Groom wondering where they could come up
with $2,900, he suggested the crowd-funding site.
Mr. Groom argues that crowd funding could be a
model for other free online-education projects. Even some of the largest,
such as MIT’s OpenCourseWare effort, have mostly relied on grants for
support and
have struggled to find a long-term way to stay afloat.
“It’s like a PBS model” of pledge drives, Mr. Groom
said.
The Chronicle asked the folks at
Kickstarter whether other educational efforts have used the site to raise
money. A representative from the company pointed us to these five campaigns,
all of which succeeded:
—SmartHistory:
Raised $11,513 for a Web site created by two art historians.
—Punk
Mathematics: Raised 28,701 for a book of mathematical stories.
—Open
Educational Resources for Typography: Raised $13,088 to develop
teaching materials for courses on typography.
—Trade
School: Raised $9,133 to run a program that turns storefronts into
temporary trade schools.
—Brooklyn
Brainery: Raised $9,629 to set up a collaborative school whose
courses would cost $25 for four weeks.
Bob Jensen's threads on Tools and Tricks of the Trade ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the growth of distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
"Udacity Update: A firsthand look at
what it’s been like to take “Computer Science 101″ through the Internet higher-ed
start-up," by Robert Talbert, Chronicle of Higher Education,
March 21, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/03/21/udacity-update/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
It’s been a couple of weeks since my first post
about the
Udacity CS101 course, so here’s an update. Before
that, let me mention
this nice article in Wired about Udacity and its
origins. That article sheds a little light on the questions I had earlier
about Udacity’s business model.
So, Units 3 and 4 are now done with the CS101
course. The focus of Unit 3 was mostly on the concept of the list in Python,
along with FOR loops and an emphasis on computer memory. Unit 4 was a bit of
a left turn into a discussion of computer networks, with an emphasis on the
basics of the Internet and the concepts of latency and bandwidth. So, just
from this description, you can see one of the things I particularly like
about CS101: It’s not just about Python. This is a class that is actually
about computer science in general with Python as a tool for understanding
it. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I find it easy to stick with CS101 when
I’ve always ended up dropping previous attempts to learn Python. Context is
a really good motivator. (The current Unit 5 is continuing this holistic
trend by delving into algorithm analysis, which happens to be the same thing
I’m teaching in my Discrete Structures class now.)
Unit 3 was rough. There were over 40 videos to
watch, and two of the homework assignments that had to do with refining the
fledgling web crawler program we are writing were just completely over my
head. I also realized that I fall into the same trap as my students do: I
procrastinate rather than budget my time. What I should have done was sit
down for the first two evenings after the unit was released and plow through
20 videos at a time, then spend the remaining 5 days working on 1-2 homework
problems a night. What I did was wait until 3 days before the homework was
due to start on the videos. The good news is that I got 100% on all the
homework I submitted. The bad news is that I only attempts 3/4 of the
problems. So it was rough primarily because it reminds me that I’m just like
any other student in terms of my tendency not to use time wisely. I’m hoping
that can be converted into something positive.
Unit 4 was better. It was shorter, for one thing,
and the material was new and interesting for me. “Learn more about computer
networks” has been on my Someday/Maybe list for I don’t know how long, and I
have finally actually learned more about them. The discussion of data
structures was useful too, because I’m learning Python partially to write
some software to help study columnar transposition ciphers, and the question
of what’s the right data structure in Python to represent permutations of
finite sets has come up with me before. As I mentioned before, having a
specific project in mind when you learn something is a powerful way to stay
engaged when learning it.
I’m slowly starting not to suck as a programmer, I
think. I’m still a newbie, and my Discrete Structures students would
probably crack up laughing at my attempts at coding. But when we had to
write a program in Unit 3 to check the validity of a Sudoku problem — a
“three gold star” problem, meaning extra-high difficulty level — and I
managed to put together a procedure that works and does so in a nice, clean,
organized way, I began to feel that this whole Udacity idea is actually
working.
Continued in article
Graduates Who Are Happy to Land Minimum Wage Careers
"Little-Known (usually unaccredited) Colleges Exploit Visa Loopholes to Make
Millions Off Foreign Students," by Tom Bartlett, Karin Fischer, and Josh
Keller, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Little-Known-Colleges-Make/126822/
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit colleges working in the gray zone of
fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
From US News in 2014
Best Online Degree Programs (ranked) ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education
Best Online Undergraduate Bachelors Degrees ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors/rankings
Central Michigan is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Business MBA Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/rankings
Indiana University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Education Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/education/rankings
Northern Illinois is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs
---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/engineering/rankings
Columbia University is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/computer-information-technology/rankings
The University of Southern California is the big winner
Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/nursing/rankings
St. Xavier University is the big winner
US News Degree Finder ---
http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/features/multistep-oe?s_cid=54089
This beats those self-serving for-profit university biased Degree Finders
US News has tried for years to rank for-profit universities, but they
don't seem to want to provide the data.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"Online Search Ads Hijack Prospective Students, Former Employee Says,"
by Josh Keller, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 7, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-search-ads-hijack-prospective-students-former-employee-says/33047?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Last year, James Soloway called hundreds of
prospective students per day on behalf of a company that placed
advertisements on Google and Bing. The ads promised to help students contact
the admissions offices of public colleges if they filled out an online form
and included their phone number.
He told the students who responded that they would
hear from their preferred public college, even though they almost never did.
In the meantime, he said, they should consider attending a for-profit
college—such as Kaplan University, Grand Canyon University, or the
University of Phoenix.
Most of the prospective students were confused.
Some hung up. But sometimes, the pitch worked, he says. Some people,
especially high-school students, believed he was an educational counselor
and gave weight to his recommendations, he says.
The entire process was designed to redirect
students who wanted information on a public college to a for-profit college,
Mr. Soloway says. “The expectation was that we were not to allow a call to
end with a student until we had created three private-school leads.”
The account offers new details about the practices
of lead-generation companies that place misleading search ads to lure
prospective students. (Click
here to download Mr. Soloway’s full description of
the call center’s activities.) In July,
The Chronicle found dozens of ads on
Google and Bing that falsely implied relationships with public colleges in
order to get students to give away information that can be sold to
for-profits.
Mr. Soloway made calls on behalf of one of those
lead-generation companies,
Vantage Media, from March to December 2010. The
company contracted with a call center run by Mr. Soloway’s employer,
Inspyre Solutions.
Representatives of Vantage, Kaplan, and Westwood
College did not respond to requests for comment. Vantage officials have
previously said that they provide a free service to both colleges and
students, and that the company does not mislead anybody.
Mr. Soloway said he is speaking publicly about his
former work because he feels bad that he helped to deceive students. He
estimates that Vantage’s online marketing efforts brought in at least 2,000
prospects per week to the Winnipeg, Manitoba, call center where he worked.
After learning that students never heard back from
the public colleges they were trying to reach—and realizing that he might
soon be fired for poor performance—he quit his job and filed a complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission in February about Vantage’s practices.
“I feel bad that I was part of something that took
advantage of people, a lot of them kids still in high school,” he says.
Mr. Soloway said he was given a single day of
training before starting to work on behalf of Vantage, which made it
difficult to advise students on their educational options. For instance, he
says he started without knowing the differences between various nursing
degrees.
Continued in article
"Colleges Fight Google Ads That Reroute Prospective Students," by Josh
Keller, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 31, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Fight-Google-Ads-That/128414/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Misleading Promotional Sites for For-Profit Universities
For-profit universities provide some free Website services in an effort
to lure people into signing up for for-profit programs without ever
mentioning that in most instances the students would be better off in more
prestigious non-profit universities such as state-supported universities
with great online programs and extension services.
I'm bombarded with messages like the following one from ---
http://www.paralegal.net/
Then go to the orange box at
http://www.paralegal.net/more/
If you feed in the data that you're interested in a bachelor's degree in
business with an accounting concentration, the only choices given are
for-profit universities. No mention is made of better programs at the
Universities of Wisconsin, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, etc.
I've stopped linking to the many for-profit university sites like this.
My threads on distance education alternatives are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
The for-profit universities are getting much more subtle in their online
marketing programs. When you go to the site mentioned in the email message
below, it looks like a great site with the homepage listing of major
universities by state.
However, when you do a database search the bias of the site begins to show
through. For example consider the Wisconsin zip code 53039 to
search for an online undergraduate degree in accounting, all that appears is a
listing of for-profit universities. What about the much cheaper and much more
respectable online undergraduate accounting degree from the University of
Wisconsin system of state universities?
Next consider the Maryland zip code 20742 to search for an online undergraduate
degree in accounting, all that appears is a listing of for-profit universities.
What about the much cheaper and much more respectable online undergraduate
accounting degree from the University of Maryland system of state universities?
As a matter of fact you get the same subset of for-profit universities whether
you search for Wisconsin or Maryland.
It begins to look like this subset of for-profit universities is paying for this
site and giving very biased outcomes in searches for online degrees.
Next I ran a test searching for on-campus undergraduate accounting degrees for
both Wisconsin and Maryland. No listing is given for the cheaper and more
prestigious accounting degrees from the state-supported universities in those
states. Instead a listing of for-profit alternatives is presented.
Thus, these university search engines appear at first blush to be legitimate.
However, when you dig deeper you discover that the recommendations are only for
costly and less prestigious for-profit universities. I've no objection to them
marketing their degree programs. However, if they pretend to be full service in
the best interests of students, they should be including less costly and more
prestigious alternatives from state-supported universities. They should also be
listing alternatives from private non-profit universities in their search
engines.
Message received by Bob Jensen on November 1, 2011
Hi Bob,
I run an economics degree site called
http://www.economicsdegree.net.
Having been a college professor 11 years, I decided to
make a website to
help future economics students pick the right school for them. I spent
some time earlier today looking through the resource links listed on your
site, and I thought you would like to know I found a broken link on this
page:
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm
This is the broken link I came across:
http://www.accountingobserver.com/blog/
When you get a chance to fix this broken link, if you find an open
spot for a link to my site,
http://www.economicsdegree.net, I would
certainly appreciate it. I believe my site is one of the largest actively
maintained resources that lists every accredited school offering an
economics
degree.
Thank you :)
XXXXX
Bob Jensen's threads on for-profit universities operating in the gray zone
of fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Question
Is a free MIT online certificate worth more than most any comparable course
grade from a North American college or university?
"Will MITx Disrupt Higher Education?" by Robert Talbert, Chronicle
of Higher Education, December 20, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2011/12/20/will-mitx-disrupt-higher-education/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
MIT has been doing online access to education a lot
longer than most people, largely due to their invaluable
OpenCourseWare project. (Here’s an
interview MIT did with me last year on how OCW
strongly influenced my inverted-classroom MATLAB course.) Now they are
poised to go to the next level by
launching an online system called MITx in Spring 2012 that provides
credentialing as well as content:
Mr. Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of the
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said M.I.T.x would
start this spring — perhaps with just one course — but would expand to
include many more courses, as OpenCourseWare has done. [...]
The M.I.T.x classes, he said, will have online
discussions and forums where students can ask questions and, often, have
them answered by others in the class.
While access to the software will be free,
there will most likely be an “affordable” charge, not yet determined,
for a credential.
“I think for someone to feel they’re earning
something, they ought to pay something, but the point is to make it
extremely affordable,” Mr. Reif said. “The most important thing is that
it’ll be a certificate that will clearly state that a body sanctioned by
M.I.T. says you have gained mastery.”
The official FAQ reveals a couple of additional
points. First, the content of MITx courses will be free — which seems to
imply that MITx course content will be different than OCW course content,
and not just a certification layer on top of existing resources — and you’ll
only pay money for the certificate. Second, there will be no admissions
process. If you want a course, you just take it and then pay for the
credentialing if you feel like you’re up to it.
I think this last point about having no admissions
process may be the most significant piece of MITx. It seems to represent a
complete shift from the traditional way of providing access to higher
education. As far as I can tell, there will not even be a system of checking
prerequisites for MITx courses. If that’s so, then if you feel you can step
into, say, an Algorithms class and keep up with the material and demonstrate
your mastery, then nobody at MIT will care if you haven’t had the right
courses in basic programming, data structures, discrete math, or whatever.
MIT is basically saying, we won’t be picky about who we let take these
courses — if you can afford it and live up to our standards, we’re happy to
credential you.
Of course there are a lot of questions about MITx
that are yet to be answered. What is the “modest fee” they plan to charge,
and is it really affordable? How exactly will the credentialing process
work? (It’s interesting that the certification will be handled by a
non-profit organization to be formed within MIT. Is this a kind of
outsourcing of grading?) How will one “demonstrate mastery” and what will
MITx define as “mastery” in courses that are not strictly skills-based? Will
there eventually be a full enough slate of courses offered to make the whole
system compelling for learners? And perhaps most importantly, what will
employers, graduate schools, and even undergraduate institutions make of
applicants who come in with some of these MITx certifications? Without
external buy-in, MITx will likely be just another continuing education
program like hundreds of others.
We’ll hear a lot more about this in the future, but
for now this seems to have the potential to be genuinely disruptive in
higher education. What do you think?
"MIT Expands 'Open' Courses, Adds Completion Certificates," Inside
Higher Ed, December 19, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2011/12/19/mit-expands-open-courses-adds-completion-certificates
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- which
pioneered the idea of making course materials free online --
today announced a major expansion of the idea,
with the creation of MITx, which will provide for interaction among
students, assessment and the awarding of certificates of completion to
students who have no connection to MIT.
MIT is also starting a major initiative -- led by
Provost L. Rafael Reif -- to study online teaching and learning.
The first course through MITx is expected this
spring. While the institute will not charge for the courses, it will charge
what it calls "a modest fee" for the assessment that would lead to a
credential. The credential will be awarded by MITx and will not constitute
MIT credit. The university also plans to continue
MIT OpenCourseWare,
the program through which it makes course materials
available online.
An
FAQ from MIT offers
more details on the new program.
While MIT has been widely praised for
OpenCourseWare, much of the attention in the last year from the "open"
educational movement has shifted to programs like the
Khan Academy (through
which there is direct instruction provided, if not yet assessment) and
an initiative at Stanford University that makes
courses available -- courses for which some German universities are
providing academic credit. The new initiative would appear to provide some
of the features (instruction such as offered by Khan, and certification that
some are creating for the Stanford courses) that have been lacking in
OpenCourseWare.
Bob Jensen's threads on open source video and course materials from
prestigious universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology in general ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
THE COLLEGE OF 2020: STUDENTS ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?CO=CQ&ID=76319&PK=N1S1009
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Distance Education.org or DistanceEducation.Org is a Great Helper Site
Ben Pheiffer in San Antonio forwarded this link to a terrific listing (with
pricing estimates) of online training and education degree programs and courses
from respectable universities ---
http://www.distance-education.org/Courses/
Both graduate and undergraduate degree programs are listed as well as training
courses (some free).
Free online tutorials in various disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm/#Tutorials
Education & Learning: Asia Society ---
http://www.asiasociety.org/education-learning
Latino Distance Education
American RadioWorks: Rising by Degrees [iTunes]
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/latino_college/index.html
The Master List of Free
Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/
"The Growth of For-Profits," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed,
January 18, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/carnegie_releases_revised_classifications_of_colleges_and_universities
Jensen Comment
The Devil is in the details. Especially note the tables in this article.
The article does not really deliver on one of the things I worry a lot about
--- the growth in cheap shot graduate degrees awarded by for-profit
universities, especially at the doctoral level. These universities are very
secretive about their admission standards such as GRE and GMAT expectations.
Credit for life experience is an instant turn off for me, because all God's
children had life experiences.
These universities are generally quite secretive about their faculty who
deliver those degrees. It's difficult to evaluate the research credentials of
those faculty. Secondly, most of these doctoral degrees can be earned with fewer
years of full-time study and interactions with teaching and research faculty.
For example, the average onsite accounting doctoral program takes over five
years, most of which is spent on campus interacting with faculty and other
doctoral students. Capella offers an accounting doctoral program that can be
completed in less than three years and has a curriculum more like a masters
program. There is a doctoral thesis at Capella but who signs off on each
accounting doctoral thesis? Do graduates of this program publish later on in our
accounting research journals? Are these graduates making names for themselves in
tenure track positions at major universities?
I'm a long time advocate of distance education, but I'm suspicious of
for-profit university academic standards. If a major research university having
AACSB accreditation commences a distance education that the research faculty at
that institution deems equivalent to the onsite degree program, them I'm all for
expanding degree opportunities for business higher education. But I'm a snob
when others adopt such programs, especially at the masters and doctoral levels.
For Profit Universities in the Gray Zone of Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Prestigious U.K. MBA Program Offers Courses on Facebook
"British Business School Offers M.B.A. Courses on Facebook." by Travis Kaya,
Chronicle of Higher Education, November 30, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/british-university-offers-m-b-a-courses-on-facebook/28463?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Facebook has changed the way students, faculty members, and
administrators communicate outside the classroom. Now, with the
introduction of the London School of Business & Finance’s Global MBA
Facebook app, Facebook is becoming the classroom.
The Global MBA app—introduced in October—lets users sample typical
business-school courses like corporate finance and organizational
behavior through the social-networking site. The free course material
includes interactive message boards, a note-taking tool, and video
lectures and discussions with insiders from industry giants like
Accenture Management Consulting and Deloitte. This may be a good way to
market a school, notes an observer from a business-school accrediting
organization, but it may not be the best way to deliver courses.
Unlike most online business courses, the Global MBA program will not
require students to pay an enrollment fee up front. Instead, students
can access basic course material free of charge and pay the school only
when they are ready to prepare for their exams. School administrators
hope that letting students “test drive” the online courses before
actually shelling out the tuition money will boost graduation rates.
While the school offers a large collection of study material on
Facebook—including 80 hours of Web video—students seeking formal
accreditation must qualify for entrance into the M.B.A. program. Once
enrolled in the paid course, students are given access to additional
content on the business school’s InterActive course management system,
and are required to sit for examinations—like they would if they were
enrolled in more traditional distance-learning or brick-and-mortar
programs. The Facebook MBA program is accredited by the University of
Wales and costs a total of £14,500—about $22,000.
Steve Parscale, director of accreditation for the Kansas-based
Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs, said sample
classes offered through social-networking sites could provide great
advertising opportunities for online colleges. “The younger generation
is all on social media,” Mr. Parscale said. “If you can get them on
Facebook to test-drive a class, then you can get them to actually
enroll.”
Continued in article
Elite Research University Online Degrees?
"Somebody is going to figure out how to deliver online education for credit and
for degrees in the quality sector—i.e., in the elite sector," said Christopher
Edley Jr., dean at Berkeley's law school and the plan's most prominent advocate.
"I think it ought to be us—not MIT, not Columbia, not Caltech, certainly not
Stanford."
Jensen Comment
Actually Stanford introduced one of the highest quality Master of Engineering
online programs in history, the ADEPT Program ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Search for the word ADEPT at the above site. The ADEPT video approach,
however is only suited to highly talented and highly motivated students. I doubt
that the ADEPT program is suited for online students in general.
"U. of California (Berkeley) Considers Online Classes, or Even
Degrees: Proposal for virtual courses challenges beliefs about what an
elite university is—and isn't," by Josh Keller and Marc Parry, Chronicle
of Higher Education, May 9, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/In-Crisis-U-of-California/65445/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Online education is booming, but not at elite
universities—at least not when it comes to courses for credit.
Leaders at the University of California want to
break that mold. This fall they hope to put $5-million to $6-million into a
pilot project that could clear the way for the system to offer online
undergraduate degrees and push distance learning further into the
mainstream.
The vision is UC's most ambitious—and
controversial—effort to reshape itself after cuts in public financial
support have left the esteemed system in crisis.
Supporters of the plan believe online degrees will
make money, expand the number of California students who can enroll, and
re-establish the system's reputation as an innovator.
"Somebody is going to figure out how to deliver
online education for credit and for degrees in the quality sector—i.e., in
the elite sector," said Christopher Edley Jr., dean at Berkeley's law school
and the plan's most prominent advocate. "I think it ought to be us—not MIT,
not Columbia, not Caltech, certainly not Stanford."
But UC's ambitions face a series of obstacles. The
system has been slow to adopt online instruction despite its deep
connections to Silicon Valley. Professors hold unusually tight control over
the curriculum, and many consider online education a poor substitute for
direct classroom contact. As a result, courses could take years to gain
approval.
The University of California's decision to begin
its effort with a pilot research project has also raised eyebrows. The goal
is to determine whether online courses can be delivered at
selective-research-university standards.
Yet plenty of universities have offered online
options for years, and more than 4.6 million students were taking at least
one online course during the fall-2008 term, notes A. Frank Mayadas, a
senior adviser at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who is considered one of
the fathers of online learning.
"It's like doing experiments to see if the car is
really better than the horse in 1925, when everyone else is out there
driving cars," he said.
If the project stumbles, it could dilute UC's brand
and worsen already testy relations between professors and the system's
president, Mark G. Yudof.
As the system studies whether it can offer quality
classes online, the bigger question might be this: Is California's flagship
university system innovative enough to pull online off?
Going Big The proposal comes at a key moment for
the University of California system, which is in the midst of a wrenching
internal discussion about how best to adapt to reduced state support over
the long term. Measures to weather its immediate financial crisis, such as
reduced enrollment, furloughs for staff and faculty members, and sharply
rising tuition, are seen as either temporary or unsustainable.
Administrators hope the online plan will ultimately
expand revenue and access for students at the same time. But the plan starts
with a relatively modest experiment that aims to create online versions of
roughly 25 high-demand lower-level "gateway courses." A preliminary list
includes such staples as Calculus 1 and Freshman Composition.
UC hopes to put out a request for proposals in the
fall, says Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning, programs,
and coordination. Professors will compete for grants to build the classes,
deliver them to students, and participate in evaluating them. Courses might
be taught as soon as 2011. So, for a current undergraduate, that could mean
the option to choose between online and face-to-face versions of, say,
Psychology 1.
The university plans to spend about $250,000 on
each course. It hopes to raise the money from external sources like
foundations or major donors. Nobody will be required to participate—"that's
death," Mr. Greenstein said—and faculty committees at each campus will need
to approve each course.
Building a collection of online classes could help
alleviate bottlenecks and speed up students' paths to graduation. But
supporters hope to use the pilot program to persuade faculty members to back
a far-reaching expansion of online instruction that would offer associate
degrees entirely online, and, ultimately, a bachelor's degree.
Mr. Edley believes demand for degrees would be
"basically unlimited." In a wide-ranging speech at Berkeley last month, Mr.
Edley, who is also a top adviser to Mr. Yudof, described how thousands of
new students would bring new money to the system and support the hiring of
faculty members. In the long term, he said, online degrees could accomplish
something bigger: the democratization of access to elite education.
"In a way it's kind of radical—it's kind of
destabilizing the mechanisms by which we produce the elite in our society,"
he told a packed room of staff and faculty members. "If suddenly you're
letting a lot of people get access to elite credentials, it's going to be
interesting."
'Pie in the Sky' But even as Mr. Edley spoke,
several audience members whispered their disapproval. His eagerness to
reshape the university is seen by many faculty members as either naïve or
dangerous.
Mr. Edley acknowledges that he gets under people's
skin: "I'm not good at doing the faculty politics thing. ... So much of what
I'm trying to do they get in the way of."
Suzanne Guerlac, a professor of French at Berkeley,
found Mr. Edley's talk "infuriating." Offering full online degrees would
undermine the quality of undergraduate instruction, she said, by reducing
the opportunity for students to learn directly from research faculty
members.
"It's access to what?" asked Ms. Guerlac. "It's not
access to UC, and that's got to be made clear."
Kristie A. Boering, an associate professor of
chemistry who chairs Berkeley's course-approval committee, said she
supported the pilot project. But she rejected arguments from Mr. Edley and
others that faculty members are moving too slowly. Claims that online
courses could reap profits or match the quality of existing lecture courses
must be carefully weighed, she said.
"Anybody who has at least a college degree is going
to say, Let's look at the facts. Let's be a little skeptical here," she
said. "Because that's a little pie-in-the-sky."
Existing research into the strength of online
programs cannot simply be applied to UC, she added, objecting to an
oft-cited 2009 U.S. Education Department analysis that reported that "on
average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those
receiving face-to-face instruction."
"I'm sorry: I've read that report. It's
statistically fuzzy, and there's only something like four courses from a
research university," she said. "I don't think that's relevant for us."
But there's also strong enthusiasm among some
professors in the system, including those who have taught its existing
online classes. One potential benefit is that having online classes could
enable the system to use its resources more effectively, freeing up time for
faculty research, said Keith R. Williams, a senior lecturer in exercise
biology at the Davis campus and chair of the UC Academic Senate's committee
on educational policy, who stressed that he was speaking as a faculty
member, not on behalf of the Senate. "We're supportive, from the faculty
perspective, of looking into this in a more detailed way," he said.
A National Context While the University of
California plans and looks, other public universities have already acted. At
the University of Central Florida, for example, more than half of the 53,500
students already take at least one online course each year. Pennsylvania
State University, the University of Texas, and the University of
Massachusetts all enroll large numbers of online students.
UC itself enrolls tens of thousands of students
online each year, but its campuses have mostly limited those courses to
graduate and extension programs that fully enrolled undergraduates do not
typically take for credit. "Pretty pathetic," is how Mr. Mayadas described
California's online efforts. "The UC system has been a zilch."
But the system's proposed focus on for-credit
courses for undergraduates actually stands out when compared with other
leading institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale
University. Both have attracted attention for making their course materials
available free online, but neither institution offers credit to people who
study those materials.
Mr. Mayadas praised UC's online move as a positive
step that will "put some heat on the other top universities to re-evaluate
what they have or have not done."
Over all, the "quality sector" in higher education
has failed "to take its responsibility seriously to expand itself to meet
the national need," Mr. Greenstein said, dismissing elites' online offerings
as "eye candy."
Jensen Comments
The above article suggests that online programs make more money than onsite
programs. This is not universally true, but it can be true. The University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee charges more for online courses than equivalent onsite
courses because online courses have become a cash cow for UWM. The reasons,
however, are sometimes dubious. Online courses are often taught with relatively
cheap adjunct specialists whereas onsite courses might be taught with more
expensive full-time faculty.
Also the above article ignores the fact that prestigious universities like
the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, and University of Maryland
have already been offering accredited and highly respected undergraduate and
masters degrees in online programs for years. They purportedly impose the same
academic standards on online programs vis-a-vis onsite programs. Adjunct
instructors with proper supervision need not necessarily be easy graders. In
fact they may be more responsive to grading instructions than full-time faculty
quavering in fear of teaching evaluations in their bid for tenure and
promotions.
Who's
Succeeding in Online Education?
The most respected online programs at this point in time seem to be embedded in
large university systems that have huge onsite extension programs as well as
online alternatives. Two noteworthy systems in this regard are the enormous
University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas extension programs. Under
the initial leadership of Jack Wilson, UMass Online thrives with hundreds
of online courses. I think Open University in the U.K. is the largest public
university in the world. Open University has online as well as onsite programs.
The University of Phoenix continues to be the largest private university in the
world in terms of student enrollments. I still do not put it and Open University
in the same class as the University of Wisconsin, however, because I'm dubious
of any university that relies mostly on part-time faculty.
From the University of Wisconsin
Distance Education Clearinghouse ---
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
I wonder if the day will come when we see
contrasting advertisements:
"A UC Berkeley Accounting PhD online in 5-6 Years Full Time"
"A Capella Accounting PhD online in 2 Years Full Time and no comprehensive
examinations"
Capella University is one of the better for-profit online universities in the
world. ---
http://www.capella.edu/
A Bridge Too Far
I discovered that Capella University is now offering an online Accounting PhD
Program ---
http://www.capella.edu/schools_programs/business_technology/phd/accounting.aspx
- Students with no business studies background (other than a basic
accounting course) can complete the program in 2.5 years part time or
slightly less than 2 years full-time.
- The the Capella accounting PhD curriculum is more like an MBA curriculum
and is totally unlike any other accounting PhD program in North America.
There are relatively few accounting courses and much less focus on research
skills.
- There are no comprehensive or oral examinations. The only requirements
120 quarter credits, including credits to be paid for a dissertation
- I'm still trying to learn whether there is access to any kind of
research library or the expensive financial databases that are required for
other North American accounting doctoral programs..
Although I have been recommending that accountancy doctoral programs break
out of the accountics mold, I don't think that the Capella's curriculum meets my
expectation ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of
higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the
fastest-growing -- and most controversial -- sectors of the industry:
for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students,
often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully
capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.
In College, Inc., correspondent
Martin Smith investigates the promise and
explosive growth of the for-profit higher education industry. Through
interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions
counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the
tension between the industry --which says it's helping an underserved
student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills --
and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees
that leave students with a mountain of debt.
At the center of it all stands a vulnerable
population of potential students, often working adults eager for a
university degree to move up the career ladder. FRONTLINE talks to a former
staffer at a California-based for-profit university who says she was under
pressure to sign up growing numbers of new students. "I didn't realize just
how many students we were expected to recruit," says the former enrollment
counselor. "They used to tell us, you know, 'Dig deep. Get to their pain.
Get to what's bothering them. So, that way, you can convince them that a
college degree is going to solve all their problems.'"
Graduates of another for-profit school -- a college
nursing program in California -- tell FRONTLINE that they received their
diplomas without ever setting foot in a hospital. Graduates at other
for-profit schools report being unable to find a job, or make their student
loan payments, because their degree was perceived to be of little worth by
prospective employers. One woman who enrolled in a for-profit doctorate
program in Dallas later learned that the school never acquired the proper
accreditation she would need to get the job she trained for. She is now
sinking in over $200,000 in student debt.
The biggest player in the for-profit sector is the
University of Phoenix -- now the largest college in the US with total
enrollment approaching half a million students. Its revenues of almost $4
billion last year, up 25 percent from 2008, have made it a darling of Wall
Street. Former top executive of the University of Phoenix
Mark DeFusco told FRONTLINE how the company's
business-approach to higher education has paid off: "If you think about any
business in America, what business would give up two months of business --
just essentially close down?" he asks. "[At the University of Phoenix],
people go to school all year round. We start classes every five weeks. We
built campuses by a freeway because we figured that's where the people
were."
"The education system that was created hundreds of
years ago needs to change," says
Michael Clifford, a major education entrepreneur
who speaks with FRONTLINE. Clifford, a former musician who never attended
college, purchases struggling traditional colleges and turns them into
for-profit companies. "The big opportunity," he says, "is the inefficiencies
of some of the state systems, and the ability to transform schools and
academic programs to better meet the needs of the people that need jobs."
"From a business perspective, it's a great story,"
says
Jeffrey Silber, a senior analyst at BMO Capital
Markets, the investment banking arm of the Bank of Montreal. "You're serving
a market that's been traditionally underserved. ... And it's a very
profitable business -- it generates a lot of free cash flow."
And the cash cow of the for-profit education
industry is the federal government. Though they enroll 10 percent of all
post-secondary students, for-profit schools receive almost a quarter of
federal financial aid. But Department of Education figures for 2009 show
that 44 percent of the students who defaulted within three years of
graduation were from for-profit schools, leading to serious questions about
one of the key pillars of the profit degree college movement: that their
degrees help students boost their earning power. This is a subject of
increasing concern to the Obama administration, which, last month, remade
the federal student loan program, and is now proposing changes that may make
it harder for the for-profit colleges to qualify.
"One of the ideas the Department of Education has
put out there is that in order for a college to be eligible to receive money
from student loans, it actually has to show that the education it's
providing has enough value in the job market so that students can pay their
loans back," says Kevin Carey of the Washington think tank Education Sector.
"Now, the for-profit colleges, I think this makes them very nervous," Carey
says. "They're worried because they know that many of their members are
charging a lot of money; that many of their members have students who are
defaulting en masse after they graduate. They're afraid that this rule will
cut them out of the program. But in many ways, that's the point."
FRONTLINE also finds that the regulators that
oversee university accreditation are looking closer at the for-profits and,
in some cases, threatening to withdraw the required accreditation that keeps
them eligible for federal student loans. "We've elevated the scrutiny
tremendously," says Dr. Sylvia Manning, president of the Higher Learning
Commission, which accredits many post-secondary institutions. "It is really
inappropriate for accreditation to be purchased the way a taxi license can
be purchased. ...When we see any problematic institution being acquired and
being changed we put it on a short leash."
Also note the comments that follow the above text.
But first I highly recommend that you watch the video at
---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
May 5, 2010 reply from Paul Bjorklund
[paulbjorklund@AOL.COM]
Interesting program. I saw the first half of it and
was not surprised by anything, other than the volume of students. For
example, enrollment at University of Phoenix is 500,000. Compare that to
Arizona State's four campuses with maybe 60,000 to 70,000. The huge computer
rooms dedicated to online learning were fascinating too. We've come a long
way from the Oxford don sitting in his wood paneled office, quoting
Aristotle, and dispensing wisdom to students one at a time. The evolution:
From the pursuit of truth to technical training to cash on the barrelhead.
One question about the traditional university though -- When they eliminate
the cash flow from big time football, will they then be able to criticize
the dash for cash by the educational entrepreneurs?
Paul Bjorklund, CPA
Bjorklund Consulting, Ltd.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Prison University Project ---
http://www.prisonuniversityproject.org
"Enrollments Plunge at Many For-Profit Colleges," by Rachel Wiseman,
Chronicle of Higher Education, August 16, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Enrollments-Plunge-at-Many/128711/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
. . .
Bucking the
Trend
While some of the biggest for-profit colleges saw
declines, a few showed enrollment increases. Total enrollment in the
American Public University System, which charges $250 per undergraduate
credit—less than many of its proprietary peers do—grew 28 percent in the
quarter ending June 30. The system is operated by American Public Education
Inc.
With a similarly low price point, Bridgepoint
Education saw a slight uptick in new-student enrollment. But whether
enrollment will continue to climb is open to question, given the company's
revelation in May that New York's attorney general
is investigating its business practices.
How for-profit enrollments will trend in the future
is "difficult to call," said Robert L. Craig, a managing director of the
investment bank Stifel Nicolaus. He says external factors such as the
economy and federal student aid will affect how well those institutions
fare. He expects the for-profit sector will continue to grow in the long
term, as emphasis is placed on expanding higher education to a greater
portion of Americans and as traditional options for acquiring a degree reach
capacity in some states.
But some analysts are concerned that if
institutions do not lower their prices, they risk losing applicants and
profits. "A lot of these institutions have a cost system that is going to be
untenable for the consumer," said Mr. Safalow, as more traditional
universities enter into online education and the number of available
applicants plateaus. "This is an industry that is closer to saturation than
I think most people realize."
Jensen Comment
The big exception is American Public Education (University) Inc. that was
bolstered when Wal-Mart elected to heavily subsidize employees who elect to
further their educations from APE.
Does this pass the Academy’s smell test?
"Wal-Mart Employees Get New College Program—Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wal-Mart-Employees-Get-New/24504/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The American Public
University System
has been described as a higher-education version
of Wal-Mart: a publicly traded corporation that mass-markets moderately priced
degrees in many fields.
Now it's more than an
analogy. Under a deal
announced today, the for-profit online university
will offer Wal-Mart workers discounted tuition and credit for job experience.
Such alliances are
nothing new; see these materials from
Strayer and
Capella for other examples. But Wal-Mart is the
country's largest retailer. And the company is pledging to spend $50-million
over three years to help employees cover the cost of tuition and books beyond
the discounted rate, according to the
Associated Press.
"What's most significant
about this is that, given that APU is very small, this is a deal that has the
potential to drive enrollments that are above what investors are already
expecting from them," Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group,
told Wired Campus. "Which is why the stock is up."
Wal-Mart workers will be
able to receive credit—without having to pay for it—for job training in subjects
like ethics and retail inventory management, according to the AP.
Wal-Mart employs 1.4
million people in the U.S. Roughly half of them have a high-school diploma but
no college degree, according to
The New York Times. A department-level
manager would end up paying about $7,900 for an associate degree, factoring in
the work credits and tuition discount, the newspaper reported.
“If 10 to 15 percent of
employees take advantage of this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State
Universities,” Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who
is now on Wal-Mart’s external advisory council, told the Times.
"News Analysis: Is 'Wal-Mart U.' a Good Bargain for Students?" by Marc
Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 13, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Is-Wal-Mart-U-a-Good/65933/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
There might have been a
Wal-Mart University.
As the world's largest
retailer weighed its options for making a big splash in education, executives
told one potential academic partner that Wal-Mart Stores was considering buying
a university or starting its own.
"Wal-Mart U." never
happened. Instead, the retailer chose a third option: a landmark alliance that
will make a little-known for-profit institution, American Public University, the
favored online-education provider to Wal-Mart's 1.4 million workers in the
United States.
A closer look at the deal
announced this month shows how American Public slashed its prices and adapted
its curriculum to snare a corporate client that could transform its business. It
also raises one basic question: Is this a good bargain for students?
Adult-learning leaders
praise Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, for investing in
education. But some of those same experts wonder how low-paid workers will be
able to afford the cost of a degree from the private Web-based university the
company selected as a partner, and why Wal-Mart chose American Public when
community-college options might be cheaper. They also question how easily
workers will be able to transfer APU credits to other colleges, given that the
university plans to count significant amounts of Wal-Mart job training and
experience as academic credit toward its degrees.
For example, cashiers
with one year's experience could get six credits for an American Public class
called "Customer Relations," provided they received an "on target" or "above
target" on their last performance evaluation, said Deisha Galberth, a Wal-Mart
spokeswoman. A department manager's training and experience could be worth 24
credit hours toward courses like retail ethics, organizational fundamentals, or
human-resource fundamentals, she said.
Altogether, employees
could earn up to 45 percent of the credit for an associate or bachelor's degree
at APU "based on what they have learned in their career at Wal-Mart," according
to the retailer's Web site.
Janet K. Poley, president
of the American Distance Education Consortium, points out that this arrangement
could saddle Wal-Mart employees with a "nontransferable coupon," as one blogger
has described it.
"I now see where the
'trick' is—if a person gets credit for Wal-Mart courses and Wal-Mart work, they
aren't likely to be able to transfer those to much of anyplace else," Ms. Poley
wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. Transferability could be important, given
the high turnover rate in the retail industry.
Inside the Deal Wal-Mart
screened 81 colleges before signing its deal with American Public University.
One that talked extensively with the retailer was University of Maryland
University College, a 94,000-student state institution that is a national leader
in online education. According to University College's president, Susan C.
Aldridge, it was during early discussions that Wal-Mart executives told her the
company was considering whether it should buy a college or create its own
college.
When asked to confirm
that, Ms. Galberth said only that Wal-Mart "brainstormed every possible option
for providing our associates with a convenient and affordable way to attend
college while working at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club," which is also owned by
Wal-Mart Stores. "We chose to partner with APU to reach this goal. We have no
plans to purchase a brick-and-mortar university or enter the online education
business," she said.
The Wal-Mart deal was
something of a coming-out party for American Public University. The institution
is part of a 70,000-student system that also includes American Military
University and that largely enrolls active-duty military personnel. As American
Public turned its attention to luring the retail behemoth, it was apparently
able to be more flexible than other colleges and willing to "go the extra mile"
to accommodate Wal-Mart, said Jeffrey M. Silber, a stock analyst and managing
director of BMO Capital Markets. That flexibility included customizing programs.
APU has a management degree with courses in retail, and its deans worked with
Wal-Mart to add more courses to build a retail concentration, said Wallace E.
Boston, the system's president and chief executive.
It also enticed Wal-Mart
with a stable technology platform; tuition prices that don't vary across state
lines, as they do for public colleges; and online degrees in fields that would
be attractive to workers, like transportation logistics.
Unlike American Public,
Maryland's University College would not put a deep discount on the table.
Credit for Wal-Mart work
was also an issue, Ms. Aldridge said.
"We feel very strongly
that any university academic credit that's given for training needs to be
training or experience at the university level," Ms. Aldridge said. "And we have
some very set standards in that regard. And I'm not certain that we would have
been able to offer a significant amount of university credit for some of the
on-the-job training that was provided there."
Awarding credit for
college-level learning gained outside the classroom is a long-standing practice,
one embraced by about 60 percent of higher-education institutions, according to
the most recent survey by the Council for Adult And Experiential Learning. A
student might translate any number of experiences into credit: job training,
military service, hobbies, volunteer service, travel, civic activities.
Pamela J. Tate, president
and chief executive of the council, said what's important isn't the percentage
of credits students get from prior learning—a number that can vary widely.
What's important, she said, is that students can demonstrate knowledge. Workers
might know how they keep the books at a company, she explained. But that doesn't
automatically mean they've learned the material of a college accounting course.
Karan Powell, senior vice
president and academic dean at American Public University system, said credit
evaluation at her institution "is a serious, rigorous, and conservative
process." But will the credits transfer? "Every college or university
establishes its own transfer-credit policies as they apply to experiential
learning as well as credit from other institutions," she said in an e-mail.
"Therefore, it would depend on the school to which a Wal-Mart employee wanted to
transfer."
Affordable on $12 an
Hour? Then there's the question of whether low-wage workers will be able to
afford the degrees. One of the key features of this deal is the discount that
Wal-Mart negotiated with American Public.
"Wal-Mart is bringing the
same procurement policies to education that it brings to toothpaste," said John
F. Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, a distance-learning institution
based in New York.
American Public
University's tuition was already cheap by for-profit standards and competitive
with other nonprofit college options. It agreed to go even cheaper for Wal-Mart,
offering grants equal to 15 percent of tuition for the company's workers. Those
employees will pay about $11,700 for an associate degree and $24,000 for a
bachelor's degree.
But several experts
pointed out that public colleges might provide a more affordable option.
The Western Association
of Food Chains, for example, has a partnership with 135 community colleges in
the western United States to offer an associate degree in retail management
completely online, Ms. Tate said. Many of the colleges also grant credit for
prior learning. Though the tuition varies by state, the average tuition cost to
earn the degree is about $4,500, she said. By contrast, she said, the American
Public degree is "really expensive" for a front-line worker who might make $12
an hour.
"What I couldn't figure
out is how they would be able to afford it unless Wal-Mart was going to pay a
substantial part of the tuition," she said. "If not, then what you've got is
this program that looks really good, but the actual cost to the person is a
whole lot more than if they were going to go to community college and get their
prior learning credits assessed there."
How the retailer might
subsidize its employees' education is an open question. In announcing the
program, Wal-Mart pledged to spend up to $50-million over the next three years
"to provide tuition assistance and other tools to help associates prepare for
college-level work and complete their degrees."
Alicia Ledlie, the senior
director at Wal-Mart who has been shepherding this effort, told The Chronicle in
an e-mail that the company is "right now working through the design of those
programs and how they will benefit associates," with more details to be released
later this summer.
One thing is clear: The
deal has a big financial impact on American Public. Wal-Mart estimates that
about 700,000 of its 1.4 million American employees lack a college degree.
Sara Martinez Tucker, a
former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart's external advisory
council, suggests 10 or 15 percent of Wal-Mart associates could sign up.
"That's 140,000 college
degrees," she told The Chronicle. "Imagine three Ohio State Universities' worth
of graduates, which is huge in American higher education."
Jensen Comment
This Wal-Mart Fringe Benefit Should Be Carefully Investigated by Employees
It does not sit well with me!
- If Wal-Mart
would pay the same amount of benefit for online state university degrees
(e.g., the University of Wisconsin has over 100,000 online students) as the
for-profit American Public University that charges higher tuition even at a
Wal-Mart discount, why would a student choose the less prestigious and
relatively unknown American Public University? Possibly American Public wins
out because it's easier to get A & B grades with less academic ability and
less work.
"Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College: A 50-year rise in
grade-point averages is being fueled by private institutions, a recent study
finds," by Catherine Rampell. The New York Times, April 19, 2010 ---
http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109339/want-a-higher-gpa-go-to-a-private-college?mod=edu-collegeprep
- I certainly hope
that the Wal-Mart contributions toward tuition can be extended to
state-supported colleges and universities having more respected credits. For
example, online degrees from the University of Wisconsin or the University
of Maryland are are likely much more respected for job mobility and for
acceptance into graduate schools.
- Giving credit
for "job experience" is an absolute turn off for me. Most adults have some
form of "job experience." This is just not equivalent to course credit
experience in college where students face examinations and academic
projects. Weaker colleges generally use credit for "job experience" ploy as
a come on to attract applicants. But the credits awarded for job experience
are not likely to be transferrable to traditional colleges and universities.
- The "discounted
tuition" in this for-profit online program is likely to be higher than the
in-state tuition from state-supported colleges and universities.
- I'm dubious
about the standards for admission in for-profit colleges as well as the
rigor of the courses. Watch the Frontline video served up by PBS.
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called
College, Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online
colleges and universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online
---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
- The American
Public University System is accredited by the North Central Association
accrediting agency that is now under investigation for weakened standards
for college credits.
"Inspector General Keeps the Pressure on a Regional
Accreditor," by Eric Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27,
2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The inspector general of
the U.S. Department of Education has reaffirmed a recommendation that the
department should consider sanctions for the Higher Learning Commission of the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major
regional accrediting organizations. In a
report this week, the Office of Inspector General
issued its final recommendations stemming from a
2009 examination of the commission's standards
for measuring credit hours and program length, and affirmed its earlier critique
that the commission had been too lax in its standards for determining the amount
of credit a student receives for course work.
The Higher Learning
Commission accredits more than 1,000 institutions in 19 states. The Office of
Inspector General completed similar reports for two other regional accreditors
late last year but did not suggest any sanctions for those organizations.
Possible sanctions
against an accreditor include limiting, suspending, or terminating its
recognition by the secretary of education as a reliable authority for
determining the quality of education at the institutions it accredits. Colleges
need accreditation from a federally recognized agency in order to be eligible to
participate in the federal student-aid programs.
In its examination of
the Higher Learning Commission, the office looked at the commission's
reaccreditation of six member institutions: Baker College, DePaul University,
Kaplan University, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin
Cities, and the University of Phoenix. The office chose those institutions—two
public, two private, and two proprietary institutions—as those that received the
highest amounts of federal funds under Title IV, the section of the Higher
Education Act that governs the federal student-aid programs.
It also reviewed the
accreditation status of American InterContinental University and the Art
Institute of Colorado, two institutions that had sought initial accreditation
from the commission during the period the office studied.
The review found that
the Higher Learning Commission "does not have an established definition of a
credit hour or minimum requirements for program length and the assignment of
credit hours," the report says. "The lack of a credit-hour definition and
minimum requirements could result in inflated credit hours, the improper
designation of full-time student status, and the over-awarding of Title IV
funds," the office concluded in its letter to the commission's president, Sylvia
Manning.
More important, the
office reported that the commission had allowed American InterContinental
University to become accredited in 2009 despite having an "egregious" credit
policy.
In a letter responding
to the commission, Ms. Manning wrote that the inspector general had ignored the
limitations the accreditor had placed on American InterContinental to ensure
that the institution improved its standards, an effort that had achieved the
intended results, she said. "These restrictions were intended to force change at
the institution and force it quickly."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The most successful for-profit universities advertise heavily about credibility
due to being "regionally accredited." In some cases this accreditation was
initially bought rather than achieved such as by buying up a small, albeit still
accredited, bankrupt not-for-profit private college that's washed up on the
beach. This begs the question about how some for-profit universities maintain
the spirit of accreditation acquired in this manner.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on For-Profit Universities Operating in the Gray Zone
of Fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education alternatives (some for-profit
universities have onsite as well as online programs) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Some years back the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA) declared
war on distance education by requiring a minimum of five semester courses (15
credits) of accounting onsite instead of online ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/TexasBigBrother.htm
Large universities in Texas such as the University of Texas and Texas A&M
have extensive online degree programs in such areas in science and engineering,
but not in accountancy where very large and highly-rated onsite accounting
degree programs have shown virtually no interest in reaching out to students who
are unable to attend classes on campus. In fact, I've suspected for a long time
that these major universities have pressured the TSBPA to discourage distance
education.
Western Governors University ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Governors_University
WGU is a competency-based online university where course instructors do not
assign grades. Instead the grading is competency based much like professional
certification examinations such as the CPA Examination and medical board
examinations ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#ComputerBasedAssessment
"WGU Lassoes Texas," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed,
August 4, 2011 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/04/governor_perry_partners_with_western_governors_university
Western Governors
University continued to live up to its name on
Wednesday, as Texas Governor Rick Perry
announced a partnership with the fast-growing
online institution — and was promptly showered with praise from nearly
everyone.
Western Governors, a regionally accredited,
nonprofit university founded in 1997 by 18 politicians who held that office
at that time, represents an
alternative model of higher education that has garnered both praise and
skepticism.
Aimed at working adults (the average student is
36), Western Governors confers bachelors and master’s degrees based on a
student’s ability to demonstrate skills. There are no classrooms and no
professors. Students learn online and mostly on their own, with light
guidance from their advisers. They take proctored tests at local testing
centers whenever they feel they are ready. Students pay tuition — between
$2,890 and $4,250, depending on the program — every six months until they
graduate, which 40 percent of them do within four years. (First-time,
full-time students are considerably less successful, graduating at a 22
percent rate.)
The partnership with Texas will create a
state-branded version of Western Governors called WGU-Texas. Texas is the
third state to create a local version of Western Governors, which is based
in Salt Lake City, Utah; Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels
created WGU-Indiana last summer, and the
Washington State legislature
voted WGU-Washington
into existence earlier this year.
Like Indiana and Washington, Texas will not
allocate any money out of its state budget to Western Governors, which
supports itself based on tuition. However, a Western Governors spokeswoman
says the university is currently working with Texas officials to allow Texas
residents to spend in-state financial aid grants on the Utah-based
institution.
Amid deep cuts to public higher education budgets,
Governor Perry earlier this year
challenged state institutions to come up with some
way to offer a four-year degree program for the total price of $10,000.
Alas, WGU-Texas is not the answer to that challenge, said Catherine Frazier,
a Perry spokeswoman. The average Western Governors graduate earns a degree
in 30 months, or five pay periods; including fees, that means $14,735 for
the least expensive degrees (information technology and business), and
$21,890 for the most expensive (nursing pre-licensure).
“But, certainly, having this affordable option does
prove that a degree can be offered by an institution at an affordable
price,” Frazier said.
In its effort to expand into various states,
Western Governors has faced criticism from some educators, particularly in
Washington state. “[B]rain research demonstrates that real learning requires
students to struggle with difficult material under the consistent guidance
of good teachers,” wrote Johann Neem, an associate professor of history at
Western Washington University, in an April
op-ed for The Seattle Times. “WGU denies
students these opportunities. In fact, its advertisements pander to
prospective students by offering them credit for what they already know
rather than promising to teach them something new.”
But advocates say the Western Governors model has
its place in the constellation of state higher education systems. For adult
students who possess the knowledge and skills to bypass a chunk of the
curriculum — either because they have some prior college or because they
have picked it up in their working lives — the competency-based model is a
good way to avoid the tedium and expense of sitting through redundant
classes, the Center for Adult and Experiential Learning has said.
“The idea is that these adult learners will bring
certain skills and knowledge to the table and that they [will] be able to
use them to accelerate progress toward an academic degree and advance in the
workforce,” said Dominic Chavez, a spokesman for the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board, in an e-mail. “While students will typically be able to
gain course credit for having specific knowledge in certain areas, students
reach a point at which they acquire new knowledge and skills beyond their
existing levels,” Chavez said. “These are the skills that take them to the
next level and that offer increased workforce opportunities.”
The WGU-Texas announcement met with glowing praise
elsewhere. The partnership “will help address our state's key workforce
needs while offering affordable career and continuing education
opportunities to Texans over 30," said State Senator Judith Zaffirini, a
Democrat who chairs the state senate’s higher education committee, in a
statement.
“This low-cost alternative will expand access to
more Texans, engaging our diverse student population and upholding our
statewide commitment to help more students reach their academic and lifelong
goals,” wrote the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, a
group of former administrative heavyweights from the Texas higher ed system
who have challenged much of Governor Perry's higher education agenda.
Rey Garcia, president of the Texas Association of
Community Colleges, said his organization was planning a statewide
articulation agreement with WGU-Texas that would make it easy for students
to finish their bachelor’s degrees at Western Governors after two years at
community college. “The traditional universities don’t make it terribly easy
for students with an applied science degree [at a community college] to
transfer into a baccalaureate,” Garcia said in an interview. “WGU is a lot
more flexible in that regard.”
Garcia added that he is not worried students will
skip the community colleges altogether and opt for all four years at WGU-Texas
because “they’re considerably more expensive than we are.”
But Mary Aldridge Dean, executive director of the
Texas Faculty Association, said prospective students — especially younger
ones — should consider more than just the price tag when considering
enrolling at WGU-Texas.
Continued in article
Question
Why can't the highest scoring CPA Exam taker in the nation probably can't become
a licensed CPA in Texas?
Answer
Because in Texas, unlike the other 49 states, nobody can become a CPA without
having taken at least five accounting courses onsite. Distance education
graduates need not apply for a CPA certificate if they have distance education
degrees and/or did not take about half of the required accounting, auditing, and
tax courses onsite instead of online.
In effect this means that Texas does not allow full distance education
accounting degrees such that even flagship universities like Texas and Texas A&M
like flagship universities in Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Maryland have distance
education accounting degrees.
March 31, 2011 message from Barbara Scofield
In the state of Texas educators are struggling with
ever more onerous rules for candidacy. The AICPA, however, seems to be
ignoring issues that loom large for the TSBPA. One of their newly featured
"new CPAs" at the link below is an award winner from Colorado (not a 150
hour state) who took her accounting courses online (Texas requires 15 credit
hours face to face of upper division accounting courses) from DeVry.
http://www.thiswaytocpa.com/exam-licensure/exam-diary/leslie-rezgui/
Could this person work as a CPA in Texas?
Barbara W. Scofield, PhD, CPA
Chair of Graduate Business Studies
Professor of Accounting
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin
4901 E. University Dr. Odessa, TX 79762
432-552-2183 (Office)
November
5,. 2010 reply from Bruce Lubich <BLubich@umuc.edu>
Note that Bruce is the Director of an online accounting distance education
program in the University of Maryland System
Hi Bob,
When TX first went to the 15 credit requirement, we
had a couple of University of Maryland University College students apply
for the exam there, and be rejected. Our transcript doesn't show which
courses were taken online. Apparently it's on the TX paperwork. Lying on
that is not something to be encouraged for future CPAs. So, unless a
student has no desire to sit for the CPA exam or they just need to fill in
a few holes to qualify, the TX market has dried up for all online programs.
Evidently, the TX board takes this requirement
very seriously, so my guess is that your Deloitte hire would be denied the
ability to sit. Seems to me Deloitte would need to send the student to a
different office until they pass the exam. As for reciprocity, I haven't
heard of any problems. That doesn't mean they're not out there, but I
haven't heard of them. Bottom line is TX has protected their investment in
their brick & mortar schools. At one time LA and New Mexico had similar,
though weaker rules like this. I believe both have woken up and done away
with those rules.
Bruce Lubich
University of Maryland University College
November 6, 2010 reply from Bob Jensen
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for this.
What you are saying is that the Texas Board may be cooperating with Texas
Universities to reserve all entry-level accounting jobs in Texas for only
graduates of Texas universities. Graduates from your program in the
University of Maryland system can, thereby, not compete for jobs in Texas
CPA firms. .
Out-of-state graduates need not apply. Seems like a great idea for the
other 49 states so that graduates of a given state have a monopoly on jobs
within the state. Of course the national and international CPA firms might
object to complications this creates in hiring. And students who want to
leave a state might object to not having jobs available anywhere other than
the state where they graduated.
Why didn't the European Union think of this as a clever way of
restricting labor flows between borders?
Bob Jensen
My threads (rough draft notes) on this antiquated and absurd ruling by the
TSBPA (read that Big Brother) can be found at
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/TexasBigBrother.htm
Historically Black Colleges and Universities ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/historically_black_colleges_universities.htm
Online Degree Alternatives (does not include some of the newer black college
alternatives and strangely excludes some of the bigger alternatives such as the
University of Wisconsin System, the University of Maryland System, and ) ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/ssac.htm
"Black Colleges Are Slowly Adding Online Degrees," by Eric Kelderman,
Chronicle of Higher Education, November 23, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/black-colleges-slowly-adding-online-degrees/28385?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Jensen Comment
Currently 19 out of 105 historically black colleges and universities have
selected online degree programs.
In my search of a sampling of the historically black college and university
distance education degree alternatives, I could not find any accounting degree
programs available online.
Bob Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
The Alternative Model: Partnerships Between Not-for-Profit and
For-Profit Education Distance Education Ventures
The model is not new but it may become much more common as for-profit
stand-alones become more stressed by regulations and drying up markets
"Outsourcing Plus," by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 12,
2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/12/azstate
With budgets tight and the
commercial market flush with companies willing to take on various tasks that
come with running a university, it has become relatively common for
institutions to outsource parts of their operations to outside companies.
It is less common for a
public university to entrust an outsider with such a wide swath of duties
that it calls that private company an equal partner in online education. But
Arizona State University
announced on Monday that it is doing just that
with Pearson, the education and media company.
Under the agreement, the
Arizona State faculty will teach online courses through Pearson’s learning
management platform, LearningStudio, using the tools embedded in that
platform to collect and analyze data in hopes of improving student
performance and retention. Pearson will also help with enrollment management
and “prospect generation," while providing more "customer-friendly" support
services for students, the university says.
Arizona State, meanwhile,
says it will retain control over all things academic, including instruction
and curriculum development.
Universities often strike
deals with private companies to manage parts of their online operations,
particularly when they are trying to quickly
grow their online enrollments, which is Arizona
State’s stated goal in this case (now serving 3,000 online students, it
hopes to grow to somewhere between 17,000 and 30,000 within five years).
Companies such as Embanet, 2Tor, SunGard Higher Education, Bisk Education,
Colloquy, and Compass Knowledge Group have, to varying degrees, taken over
online program management at other name-brand universities in exchange for a
cut of the tuition revenue.
Jensen Comment
There is obviously a spectrum of partnerships that will probably emerge. At one
end the courses are totally managed by a not-for-profit university that only
uses the for-profit partner's media delivery services. Then there might be a
move up where selected for-profit's courses are selectively brought into the
curriculum. Then there might be entire specialized programs that are brought
into the curriculum such as executive programs (non-degree) or undergraduate
pharmacy or even accounting degree programs.
The next move up the ladder would be for-profit graduate degree programs
where assessment is controlled by the not-for-profit partner. For example,
Western Governor's University now has over 10,000 students in competency-based
programs. One might imagine partnering of WGU with a for-profit distance
education MBA program where the competency assessments and degrees are
administered by WGU.
Lastly, one might envision doctoral programs, although these might come last
because they are typically money losers if they have respectability in the
market such as AACSB respectability. For example, Capella now has an online
accounting doctoral program that I view as a fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms
One might envision a partnering with some respected state university, such as
ASU, that greatly alters the curriculum and the assessment process and the
dissertation advising to bring Cpaella's accounting doctoral program more in
line with ASU's onsite accounting doctoral program. This off course is probably
way, way down the road.
"Where For-Profit and Nonprofit Meet," by David Moltz, Inside
Higher Ed, October 13, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/13/princeton
Bob Jensen's threads on the sad state of accounting doctoral programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
The whole world is invited to learn from BYU's 600 online courses (except
for high school athletes)
"Black Mark for BYU," by Doug Lederman , Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2010
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/09/byu
Brigham Young University's Independent Study
program appears to be wildly successful. At any given time, students are
taking more than 100,000 high school courses and 22,000 college classes, for
a variety of reasons: to get courses out of the way in the summer, finish
high school or college early, or improve their performance in classes in
which they struggled. Based on those numbers and
the
fees the program charges for its
nearly
600 online courses, the program generates millions
of dollars in revenue a year. (BYU officials won't say.)
A tiny fraction of its
enrollments -- about 500 a year -- are high school athletes seeking to use
the BYU program's courses to
meet
the National Collegiate Athletic Association's freshman eligibility
standards. Yet for the second time in several
years, dealings with the high-stakes world of big-time college athletics
appear to pose a potentially serious threat to the 90-year-old program's
status. Last month,
the NCAA decided to "de-certify" the BYU program
(and one other,
the American School) as a legitimate provider of
"nontraditional" courses. The decision came in
response to a change in NCAA rules this spring requiring "nontraditional"
courses to include regular interaction between students and professors, and
to set specific timeframes in which the courses must be completed.
Brigham Young officials
expressed dismay about the NCAA's decision, which they said had caught them
by surprise. "We do want to look at what we can do to be in compliance with
what the NCAA has put in place," said Carri Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the
university.
She noted that BYU
Independent Study had made a set of changes in its programs and policies the
last time
it drew NCAA
scrutiny -- when athletes at several colleges were
found to have earned credit from their institutions for
courses at BYU in which they did little or no work (or cheated to complete).
Among other changes, Jenkins noted, BYU Independent Study altered its
policies surrounding when and how tests are administered, and stopped
letting athletes enrolled in NCAA member colleges enroll in its classes.
But the courses remain a
commonly-trod path for high school athletes seeking to meet the NCAA's
academic eligibility standards for freshman athletes, which require students
to surpass a minimum grade-point average in 16 core high school courses to
compete in their first year in college. BYU and the American School, which
is based in Illinois, are among the most common programs from which high
school athletes seek eligibility through nontraditional courses, which the
association defines as "[t]hose taught via the Internet, distance learning,
independent study, individualized instruction, correspondence, and courses
taught by similar means, including software-based credit recovery courses."
Use of the courses has
burgeoned, and in March the association's Division I members approved a rule
aimed at toughening oversight of them, said Chuck Wynne, an NCAA spokesman.
"Members were obviously concerned that prospective student-athletes were
taking these courses and not being prepared for the rigors of college
academics," he said. The changes require that instructors and students have
"ongoing access to one another and regular interaction with one another for
purposes of teaching, evaluating and providing assistance to the student
throughout the duration of the course"; that the "student's work ... is
available for review and validation"; and that "[a] defined time for
completion of the course is identified by the high school or secondary
school program."
In the wake of the rules
changes, NCAA officials began reviewing providers of nontraditional courses,
and the association has "approved a bunch" as meeting the new standards,
Wynne said. So far, only BYU Independent Study and the American School were
found to fall short. (American School responded to the NCAA's findings,
which it is appealing,
here.)
Wynne declined to specify
exactly how and why BYU was deemed to fall short of the NCAA standards. But
he said that most of the scrutiny of the nontraditional programs focused on
the lack of regular, sustained interaction between students and instructors
-- ideally interaction initiated by the instructor, designed to ensure at
least some oversight of the students' work -- and on some programs' failure
to set a minimum timeframe for the completion of course work.
One NCAA review -- "not
necessarily at BYU," Wynne said -- found that one high school athlete had
completed "a semester of algebra in six minutes."
"We understand that these
are good quality educational tools when implemented and done right," Wynne
said, noting that the NCAA is not philosophically opposed to online
learning. "It's mostly about the administration of these programs. You can
have the best curriculum in the world, but if someone does algebra in six
minutes, you know there's something wrong."
Jenkins of BYU insisted
that the six-minute-algebra incident had most definitely not taken
place in one of the university's online offerings. She said that the
university plans to do whatever it needs to to reassure the NCAA that its
courses are of high quality, and that the independent study program had not
heard from past, current or prospective students who might be concerned
about a stigma from the NCAA's action.
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
"High-Profile Trader's Harsh Critique of For-Profit Colleges,"
Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/27/qt#228602
Steven Eisman, the Wall Street trader who was
mythologized in Michael Lewis's
The Big Short as that rare person who saw the
subprime mortgage crisis coming and made a killing as a result, thinks he
has seen the next big explosive and exploitative financial industry --
for-profit higher education -- and he's making sure as many people as
possible know it. In
a speech Wednesday at the Ira Sohn Investment
Research Conference, an
exclusive
gathering at which financial analysts who rarely
share their insights publicly are encouraged to dish their "best investment
ideas," Eisman started off with a broadside against Wall Street's college
companies.
"Until recently, I thought that there would never
again be an opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially
destructive and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry," said
Eisman, of FrontPoint Financial Services Fund. "I was wrong. The For-Profit
Education Industry has proven equal to the task." Eisman's speech lays out
his analysis of the sector's enormous profitability and its questionable
quality, then argues that the colleges' business model is about to be
radically transformed by the Obama administration's plan to hold the
institutions accountable for the student-debt-to-income ratio of their
graduates. "Under gainful employment, most of the companies still have high
operating margins relative to other industries," Eisman said. "They are just
less profitable and significantly overvalued. Downside risk could be as high
as 50 percent. And let me add that I hope that gainful employment is just
the beginning. Hopefully, the DOE will be looking into ways of improving
accreditation and of ways to tighten rules on defaults." Stocks of the
companies appeared to fall briefly in the last hour of trading Wednesday,
after
news of Eisman's speech
made the rounds.
"Subprime goes to college: The new mortgage crisis — how students at
for-profit universities could default on $275 billion in taxpayer-backed student
loans," by Steven Eusnan, The New York Post, June 6, 2010 ---
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/subprime_goes_to_college_FeiheNJfGYtoSwmtl5etJP
Until recently, I thought that there would never again be an
opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially destructive
and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was wrong.
The for-profit education industry has proven equal to the task.
The for-profit industry has grown at an extreme and unusual rate,
driven by easy access to government sponsored debt in the form of
Title IV student loans, where the credit is guaranteed by the
government. Thus, the government, the students and the taxpayer bear
all the risk, and the for-profit industry reaps all the rewards.
This is similar to the subprime mortgage sector in that the subprime
originators bore far less risk than the investors in their mortgage
paper.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/subprime_goes_to_college_FeiheNJfGYtoSwmtl5etJP#ixzz0q6iq9jsm
Until recently, I thought that there would never again be an
opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially destructive
and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was wrong.
The for-profit education industry has proven equal to the task.
The for-profit industry has grown at an extreme and unusual rate,
driven by easy access to government sponsored debt in the form of
Title IV student loans, where the credit is guaranteed by the
government. Thus, the government, the students and the taxpayer bear
all the risk, and the for-profit industry reaps all the rewards.
This is similar to the subprime mortgage sector in that the subprime
originators bore far less risk than the investors in their mortgage
paper.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/subprime_goes_to_college_FeiheNJfGYtoSwmtl5etJP#ixzz0q6iq9jsm
Until recently, I thought that there would
never again be an opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially
destructive and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was
wrong. The for-profit education industry has proven equal to the task.
The for-profit industry has grown at an
extreme and unusual rate, driven by easy access to government sponsored debt
in the form of Title IV student loans, where the credit is guaranteed by the
government. Thus, the government, the students and the taxpayer bear all the
risk, and the for-profit industry reaps all the rewards. This is similar to
the subprime mortgage sector in that the subprime originators bore far less
risk than the investors in their mortgage paper.
A student prepares for an online quiz at home
for the Universtity of Phoenix. In the past 10 years, the for-profit
education industry has grown 5-10 times the historical rate of traditional
post secondary education. As of 2009, the industry had almost 10% of
enrolled students but claimed nearly 25% of the $89 billion of federal Title
IV student loans and grant disbursements. At the current pace of growth,
for-profit schools will draw 40% of all Title IV aid in 10 years.
How has this been allowed to happen?
The simple answer is that they’ve hired every
lobbyist in Washington, DC. There has been a revolving door between the
people who work for this industry and the halls of government. One example
is Sally Stroup. In 2001-2002, she was the head lobbyist for the Apollo
Group — the company behind the University of Phoenix and the largest
for-profit educator. But from 2002-2006 she became assistant secretary of
post-secondary education for the Department of Education under President
Bush. In other words, she was directly in charge of regulating the industry
she had previously lobbied for.
From 1987 through 2000, the amount of total
Title IV dollars received by students of for-profit schools fluctuated
between $2 billion and $4 billion per annum. But when the Bush
administration took over, the DOE gutted many of the rules that governed the
conduct of this industry. Once the floodgates were opened, the industry
embarked on 10 years of unrestricted massive growth. Federal dollars flowing
to the industry exploded to over $21 billion, a 450% increase.
At many major-for profit institutions, federal
Title IV loan and grant dollars now comprise close to 90% of total revenues.
And this growth has resulted in spectacular profits and executive salaries.
For example, ITT Educational Services, or ESI, has a roughly 40% operating
margin vs. the 7%-12% margins of other companies that receive major
government contracts. ESI is more profitable on a margin basis than even
Apple.
This growth is purely a function of government
largesse, as Title IV has accounted for more than 100% of revenue growth.
Here is one of the more upsetting statistics.
In fiscal 2009, Apollo increased total revenues by $833 million. Of that
amount, $1.1 billion came from Title IV federally funded student loans and
grants. More than 100% of the revenue growth came from the federal
government. But of this incremental $1.1 billion in federal loan and grant
dollars, the company only spent an incremental $99 million on faculty
compensation and instructional costs — that’s 9 cents on every dollar
received from the government going toward actual education. The rest went to
marketing and paying executives.
Leaving politics aside for a moment, the other
major reason why the industry has taken an ever increasing share of
government dollars is that it has turned the typical education model on its
head. And here is where the subprime analogy becomes very clear.
There is a traditional relationship between
matching means and cost in education. Typically, families of lesser
financial means seek lower cost colleges in order to maximize the available
Title IV loans and grants — thereby getting the most out of every dollar and
minimizing debt burdens.
The for-profit model seeks to recruit those
with the greatest financial need and put them in high cost institutions.
This formula maximizes the amount of Title IV loans and grants that these
students receive.
With billboards lining the poorest
neighborhoods in America and recruiters trolling casinos and homeless
shelters (and I mean that literally), the for-profits have become
increasingly adept at pitching the dream of a better life and higher
earnings to the most vulnerable of society.
If the industry in fact educated its students
and got them good jobs that enabled them to receive higher incomes and to
pay off their student loans, everything I’ve just said would be irrelevant.
So the key question to ask is — what do these
students get for their education? In many cases, NOT much, not much at all.
At one Corinthian Colleges-owned Everest
College campus in California, students paid $16,000 for an eight-month
course in medical assisting. Upon nearing completion, the students learned
that not only would their credits not transfer to any community or four-year
college, but also that their degree is not recognized by the American
Association for Medical Assistants. Hospitals refuse to even interview
graduates.
And look at drop-out rates. Companies don’t
fully disclose graduation rates, but using both DOE data and
company-provided information, I calculate drop out rates of most schools are
50%-plus per year.
Default rates on student loans are already
starting to skyrocket. It’s just like subprime — which grew at any cost and
kept weakening its underwriting standards to grow.
The bottom line is that as long as the
government continues to flood the for-profit education industry with loan
dollars and the risk for these loans is borne solely by the students and the
government, then the industry has every incentive to grow at all costs,
compensate employees based on enrollment, influence key regulatory bodies
and manipulate reported statistics — all to maintain access to the
government’s money.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/subprime_goes_to_college_FeiheNJfGYtoSwmtl5etJP#ixzz0q6hwLIst
June 6, 2010 reply from
dgsearfoss@comcast.net
Hi Bob,
Equally as bad, if not worse, are the companies
that provide on-line courses to the military. They price their tuition at
exactly the amount that will be covered by the military, set horribly low
levels of expectation as reflected by the “testing” and “grading”, and
virtually none of the “credits” are transferrable to an accredited higher
education institution.
It is a scandal that should be dealt with harshly
by Congress.
Jerry
"Higher education's bubble is about to
burst," by: University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds,
Washington Examiner, June 6, 2010 ---
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections/Higher-education_s-bubble-is-about-to-burst-95639354.html
It's a story of an industry that may sound
familiar.
The buyers think what they're buying will
appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more
and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset
by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.
Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds
of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides,
for a generation, the value of what they're buying has gone up steadily.
What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it
doesn't.
Yes, this sounds like the housing bubble, but I'm
afraid it's also sounding a lot like a still-inflating higher education
bubble. And despite (or because of) the fact that my day job involves higher
education, I think it's better for us to face up to what's going on before
the bubble bursts messily.
College has gotten a lot more expensive. A recent
Money magazine report notes: "After adjusting for financial aid, the amount
families pay for college has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982. ... Normal
supply and demand can't begin to explain cost increases of this magnitude."
Consumers would balk, except for two things.
First -- as with the housing bubble -- cheap and
readily available credit has let people borrow to finance education. They're
willing to do so because of (1) consumer ignorance, as students (and, often,
their parents) don't fully grasp just how harsh the impact of student loan
payments will be after graduation; and (2) a belief that, whatever the cost,
a college education is a necessary ticket to future prosperity.
Bubbles burst when there are no longer enough
excessively optimistic and ignorant folks to fuel them. And there are signs
that this is beginning to happen already.
A New York Times profile last week described
Courtney Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University with nearly
$100,000 in student loan debt -- debt that her degree in Religious and
Women's Studies did not equip her to repay. Payments on the debt are about
$700 per month, equivalent to a respectable house payment, and a major bite
on her monthly income of $2,300 as a photographer's assistant earning an
hourly wage.
And, unlike a bad mortgage on an underwater house,
Munna can't simply walk away from her student loans, which cannot be
expunged in a bankruptcy. She's stuck in a financial trap.
Some might say that she deserves it -- who borrows
$100,000 to finance a degree in women's and religious studies that won't
make you any money? She should have wised up, and others should learn from
her mistake, instead of learning too late, as she did: "I don't want to
spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for
four years and would happily give back."
But bubbles burst when people catch on, and there's
some evidence that people are beginning to catch on. Student loan demand,
according to a recent report in the Washington Post, is going soft, and
students are expressing a willingness to go to a cheaper school rather than
run up debt. Things haven't collapsed yet, but they're looking shakier --
kind of like the housing market looked in 2007.
So what happens if the bubble collapses? Will it be
a tragedy, with millions of Americans losing their path to higher-paying
jobs?
Maybe not. College is often described as a path to
prosperity, but is it? A college education can help people make more money
in three different ways.
First, it may actually make them more economically
productive by teaching them skills valued in the workplace: Computer
programming, nursing or engineering, say. (Religious and women's studies,
not so much.)
Second, it may provide a credential that employers
want, not because it represents actual skills, but because it's a weeding
tool that doesn't produce civil-rights suits as, say, IQ tests might. A
four-year college degree, even if its holder acquired no actual skills, at
least indicates some ability to show up on time and perform as instructed.
And, third, a college degree -- at least an elite
one -- may hook its holder up with a useful social network that can provide
jobs and opportunities in the future. (This is more true if it's a degree
from Yale than if it's one from Eastern Kentucky, but it's true everywhere
to some degree).
While an individual might rationally pursue all
three of these, only the first one -- actual added skills -- produces a net
benefit for society. The other two are just distributional -- about who gets
the goodies, not about making more of them.
Yet today's college education system seems to be in
the business of selling parts two and three to a much greater degree than
part one, along with selling the even-harder-to-quantify "college
experience," which as often as not boils down to four (or more) years of
partying.
Post-bubble, perhaps students -- and employers, not
to mention parents and lenders -- will focus instead on education that
fosters economic value. And that is likely to press colleges to focus more
on providing useful majors. (That doesn't necessarily rule out traditional
liberal-arts majors, so long as they are rigorous and require a real general
education, rather than trendy and easy subjects, but the key word here is
"rigorous.")
My question is whether traditional academic
institutions will be able to keep up with the times, or whether -- as Anya
Kamenetz suggests in her new book, "DIY U" -- the real pioneering will be in
online education and the work of "edupunks" who are more interested in
finding new ways of teaching and learning than in protecting existing
interests.
I'm betting on the latter. Industries seldom reform
themselves, and real competition usually comes from the outside. Keep your
eyes open -- and, if you're planning on applying to college, watch out for
those student loans.
Examiner contributor Glenn Harlan Reynolds hosts "InstaVision" on
PJTV.com and blogs at Instapundit.com.
He is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee.
Bob Jensen's threads on how for-profit universities operate in the gray
zone of fraud ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#ForProfitFraud
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
Bob Jensen's threads on many of the for-profit universities are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Although there is a gray zone, for-profit colleges should not be confused
with diploma mills ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
"'College, Inc.'," by Kevin Carey, Chronicle of Higher Education,
May 10, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/College-Inc/23850/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
PBS broadcast a
documentary on for-profit higher education last
week, titled College, Inc. It begins with the slightly ridiculous
figure of
Michael Clifford, a former cocaine abuser turned
born-again Christian who never went to college, yet makes a living padding
around the lawn of his oceanside home wearing sandals and loose-fitting
print shirts, buying up distressed non-profit colleges and turning them into
for-profit money machines.
Improbably, Clifford emerges from the documentary
looking OK. When asked what he brings to the deals he brokers, he cites
nothing educational. Instead, it's the "Three M's: Money, Management, and
Marketing." And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. A college may have
deep traditions and dedicated faculty, but if it's bankrupt, anonymous, and
incompetently run, it won't do students much good. "Nonprofit" colleges that
pay their leaders executive salaries and run
multi-billion dollar sports franchises have long
since ceded the moral high ground when it comes to chasing the bottom line.
The problem with for-profit higher education, as
the documentary ably shows, is that people like Clifford are applying
private sector principles to an industry with a number of distinct
characteristics. Four stand out. First, it's heavily subsidized. Corporate
giants like the University of Phoenix are now pulling in hundreds of
millions of dollars per year from the taxpayers, through federal grants and
student loans. Second, it's awkwardly regulated. Regional accreditors may
protest that their imprimatur isn't like a taxicab medallion to be bought
and sold on the open market. But as the documentary makes clear, that's
precisely the way it works now. (Clifford puts the value at $10-million.)
Third, it's hard for consumers to know what they're
getting at the point of purchase. College is an experiential good;
reputations and brochures can only tell you so much. Fourth—and I don't
think this is given proper weight when people think about the dynamics of
the higher-education market—college is generally something you only buy a
couple of times, early in your adult life.
All of which creates the potential—arguably, the
inevitability—for sad situations like the three nursing students in the
documentary who were comprehensively ripped off by a for-profit school that
sent them to a daycare center for their "pediatric rotation" and left them
with no job prospects and tens of thousands of dollars in debt. The
government subsidies create huge incentives for for-profit colleges to
enroll anyone they can find. The awkward regulation offers little in the way
of effective oversight. The opaque nature of the higher-education experience
makes it hard for consumers to sniff out fraudsters up-front. And the fact
that people don't continually purchase higher education throughout their
lives limits the downside for bad actors. A restaurant or automobile
manufacturer that continually screws its customers will eventually go out of
business. For colleges, there's always another batch of high-school
graduates to enroll.
The Obama administration has made waves in recent
months by proposing to tackle some of these problems by implementing
"gainful
employment" rules that would essentially require
for-profits to show that students will be able to make enough money with
their degrees to pay back their loans. It's a good idea, but it also raises
an interesting question: Why apply this policy only to for-profits?
Corporate higher education may be the fastest growing segment of the market,
but it still educates a small minority of students and will for a long time
to come. There are plenty of traditional colleges out there that are mainly
in the business of preparing students for jobs, and that charge a lot of
money for degrees of questionable value. What would happen if the gainful
employment standard were applied to a mediocre private university that
happily allows undergraduates to take out six-figure loans in exchange for a
plain-vanilla business B.A.?
The gainful employment standard highlights some of
my biggest concerns about the Obama administration's approach to
higher-education policy. To its lasting credit, the administration has taken
on powerful moneyed interests and succeeded. Taking down the FFEL program
was a historic victory for low-income students and reining in the abuses of
for-profit higher education is a needed and important step.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The biggest question remains concerning the value of "education" at the micro
level (the student) and the macro level (society). It would seem that students
in training programs should have prospects of paying back the cost of the
training if "industry" is not willing to fully subsidize that particular type of
training.
Education is another question entirely, and we're still trying to resolve
issues of how education should be financed. I'm not in favor of "gainful
employment rules" for state universities, although I think such rules should be
imposed on for-profit colleges and universities.
What is currently happening is that training and education programs are in
most cases promising more than they can deliver in terms of gainful employment.
Naive students think a certificate or degree is "the" ticket to career success,
and many of them borrow tens of thousands of dollars to a point where they are
in debtor's prisons with their meager laboring wages garnished (take a debtor's
wages on legal orders) to pay for their business, science, and humanities
degrees that did not pay off in terms of career opportunities.
But that does not mean that their education did not pay off in terms of
life's fuller meaning. The question is who should pay for "life's fuller
meaning?" Among our 50 states, California had the best plan for universal
education. But fiscal mismanagement, especially very generous unfunded
state-worker unfunded pension plans, has now brought California to the brink of
bankruptcy. Increasing taxes in California is difficult because it already has
the highest state taxes in the nation.
Student borrowing to pay for pricey certificates and degrees is not a good
answer in my opinion, but if students borrow I think the best alternative is to
choose a lower-priced accredited state university. It will be a long, long time
before the United States will be able to fund "universal education" because of
existing unfunded entitlements for Social Security and other pension
obligations, Medicare, Medicaid, military retirements, etc.
I think it's time for our best state universities to reach out with more
distance education and training that prevent many of the rip-offs taking place
in the for-profit training and education sector. The training and education may
not be free, but state universities have the best chance of keeping costs down
and quality up.
"Wal-Mart Employees Get New College Program—Online," by Marc Parry,
Chronicle of Higher Education, June 3, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Wal-Mart-Employees-Get-New/24504/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The American Public University System
has been described as a higher-education version
of Wal-Mart: a publicly traded corporation that mass-markets moderately
priced degrees in many fields.
Now it's more than an analogy. Under a deal
announced today, the for-profit online university
will offer Wal-Mart workers discounted tuition and credit for job
experience.
Such alliances are nothing new; see these materials
from
Strayer
and
Capella for other examples. But Wal-Mart is the
country's largest retailer. And the company is pledging to spend $50-million
over three years to help employees cover the cost of tuition and books
beyond the discounted rate, according to the
Associated Press.
"What's most significant about this is that, given
that APU is very small, this is a deal that has the potential to drive
enrollments that are above what investors are already expecting from them,"
Trace A. Urdan, an analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group, told Wired
Campus. "Which is why the stock is up."
Wal-Mart workers will be able to receive
credit—without having to pay for it—for job training in subjects like ethics
and retail inventory management, according to the AP.
Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million people in the U.S.
Roughly half of them have a high-school diploma but no college degree,
according to
The New York Times. A department-level
manager would end up paying about $7,900 for an associate degree, factoring
in the work credits and tuition discount, the newspaper reported.
“If 10 to 15 percent of employees take advantage of
this, that’s like graduating three Ohio State Universities,” Sara Martinez
Tucker, a former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart’s
external advisory council, told the Times.
Jensen Comment
This Wal-Mart Fringe Benefit Should Be Carefully Investigated by Employees
It does not sit well with me!
- I certainly hope that the Wal-Mart contributions toward tuition can
be extended to state-supported colleges and universities having more
respected credits. For example, online degrees from the University of
Wisconsin or the University of Maryland are are likely much more
respected for job mobility and for acceptance into graduate schools.
- Giving credit for "job experience" is an absolute turn off for me.
Most adults have some form of "job experience." This is just not
equivalent to course credit experience in college where students face
examinations and academic projects. Weaker colleges generally use credit
for "job experience" ploy as a come on to attract applicants. But the
credits awarded for job experience are not likely to be transferrable to
traditional colleges and universities.
- The "discounted tuition" in this for-profit online program is likely
to be higher than the in-state tuition from state-supported colleges and
universities.
- I'm dubious about the standards for admission in for-profit colleges
as well as the rigor of the courses. Watch the Frontline video served up
by PBS.
On May 4, 2010, PBS Frontline broadcast an hour-long video called College
Inc. --- a sobering analysis of for-profit onsite and online colleges and
universities.
For a time you can watch the video free online ---
Click Here
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=toparea&utm_source=toparea
- The American Public University System is accredited by the North
Central Association accrediting agency that is now under investigation
for weakened standards for college credits.
"Inspector General Keeps the Pressure on a Regional Accreditor," by Eric
Kelderman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 27, 2010 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Inspector-General-Keeps-the/65691/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
The inspector general of the U.S. Department of
Education has reaffirmed a recommendation that the department should
consider sanctions for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the nation's major regional
accrediting organizations. In a
report this week, the Office of Inspector General
issued its final recommendations stemming from a
2009 examination of the commission's standards for
measuring credit hours and program length, and affirmed its earlier critique
that the commission had been too lax in its standards for determining the
amount of credit a student receives for course work.
The Higher Learning Commission accredits more than
1,000 institutions in 19 states. The Office of Inspector General completed
similar reports for two other regional accreditors late last year but did
not suggest any sanctions for those organizations.
Possible sanctions against an accreditor include
limiting, suspending, or terminating its recognition by the secretary of
education as a reliable authority for determining the quality of education
at the institutions it accredits. Colleges need accreditation from a
federally recognized agency in order to be eligible to participate in the
federal student-aid programs.
In its examination of the Higher Learning
Commission, the office looked at the commission's reaccreditation of six
member institutions: Baker College, DePaul University, Kaplan University,
Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the
University of Phoenix. The office chose those institutions—two public, two
private, and two proprietary institutions—as those that received the highest
amounts of federal funds under Title IV, the section of the Higher Education
Act that governs the federal student-aid programs.
It also reviewed the accreditation status of
American InterContinental University and the Art Institute of Colorado, two
institutions that had sought initial accreditation from the commission
during the period the office studied.
The review found that the Higher Learning
Commission "does not have an established definition of a credit hour or
minimum requirements for program length and the assignment of credit hours,"
the report says. "The lack of a credit-hour definition and minimum
requirements could result in inflated credit hours, the improper designation
of full-time student status, and the over-awarding of Title IV funds," the
office concluded in its letter to the commission's president, Sylvia
Manning.
More important, the office reported that the
commission had allowed American InterContinental University to become
accredited in 2009 despite having an "egregious" credit policy.
In a letter responding to the commission, Ms.
Manning wrote that the inspector general had ignored the limitations the
accreditor had placed on American InterContinental to ensure that the
institution improved its standards, an effort that had achieved the intended
results, she said. "These restrictions were intended to force change at the
institution and force it quickly."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The most successful for-profit universities advertise heavily about credibility
due to being "regionally accredited." In some cases this accreditation was
initially bought rather than achieved such as by buying up a small, albeit still
accredited, bankrupt not-for-profit private college that's washed up on the
beach. This begs the question about how some for-profit universities maintain
the spirit of accreditation acquired in this manner.
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Question
How can you find an accredited only college or set of online courses within an
accredited college?
Answer
One approach is to go to "Accredited-Online-Colleges,com" ---
http://www.accredited-online-colleges.com/Online-Degrees/index.asp
Online Degrees Accounting & Finance | Business | Business Administration
& Management | Communication & Journalism | Education | Engineering | Family
& Consumer Sciences | Human Resources | Information Technology & Computers |
Legal Professions | Liberal Arts & General Studies | Medical & Health Care |
Multimedia & Design | Psychology | Public Administration & Social Services |
Sales & Marketing | Security & Protective Services | Visual & Performing
Arts |
Jensen Comment
My recommendation here is "Buyer Beware." This site has a truly mixed bag of
colleges to a point where I would take the phrase "Accredited Colleges" with a
giant grain of salt. Having said this, I also find that this AOC site can be
helpful in finding online alternatives.
Beware of any college that gives credit for "life experience." Every older
adult has life experience. Often colleges that resort to this marketing gimmick
are not providing quality degrees.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
Five years after Donald
Trump
opened an online university --
called Trump University,
of course -- New York State's Education
Department is taking a dim view of the tycoon's
venture into higher education,
The Daily News
reported today. The university, which promises
to teach would-be plutocrats how to make
themselves rich if they will only make Mr. Trump
a bit richer first, is not a university at all,
say state officials. In a letter obtained by the
News, one official demanded that Mr.
Trump drop "University" from the unaccredited,
non-degree-granting institution's name. "Use of
the word 'university' by your corporation is
misleading and violates New York Education Law
and the Rules of the Board of Regents," the
letter says. Michael Sexton, president of Trump
U., told the News that, if necessary,
"we will change our name to Trump Education."
Interestingly, the word
“accounting” does not appear in the course catalog --- not even the traditional
first course in accounting ---
http://www.trumpuniversity.com/learn/index.cfm
The “courses” appear to be
mostly sales pitch seminars like con men/women put on in hotel conference rooms.
Bob Jensen's threads on more legitimate
distance education training and education alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
"LecturesOnline and BritannicaU," by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed,
February 28, 2010 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/lecturesonline_and_britannicau
In
1999, while teaching at West Virginia University, I created a site called
LecturesOnline.org. You can find the original home page for LecturesOnline at
the Internet Archive
site. LecturesOnline.org was created out
of my desire to easily locate materials for teaching, and to share the materials
that I was creating for my classes with other faculty.
The
home page contains the following text:
"LecturesOnline.org
is the one-stop site to preview, examine, and download academically focussed
digital work-product, such as PowerPoint lectures, demonstrations, figures,
charts, graphs, and HTML pages. [The site]… tries to fill a gap in the academic
world; the absence of a web site that allows academics to easily find,
distribute, disseminate and trade educational materials that they produce for
teaching."
In
1999, while still teaching at WVU, I started consulting for the Britannica - and
in 2000 I sold LecturesOnline to the company. That same year I left my job at
WVU to join Britannica's new San Francisco based educational start-up. The
original idea was to leverage Britannica's expertise, resources, and brand to
expand the reach and content of LecturesOnline. A site called "BritannicaU"
would develop out of LecturesOnline, one that would fold in Britannica's
multimedia and text content with user-submitted teaching materials and perhaps
content from other sources. The site would be organized around disciplines, the
way a college/university is organized, allowing faculty looking for lecture
material to easily locate high quality content.
This
vision never came to fruition. Looking back, I still think that BritannicaU (or
an expanded LecturesOnline) was a pretty good idea. A site such as BritannicaU
would have (and perhaps still would) fill a need for quality discipline (or
course) specific teaching materials. Faculty still produce tons of PowerPoint
lectures for their own courses, and these lectures are never shared (as they are
locked up in learning management systems or on individual hard drives). At least
a certain percentage of faculty members would be willing to share their teaching
materials, particularly if they got attribution and their material was not
re-purposed for commercial use (this was before Creative Commons). Sharing would
be encouraged if an easy exchange method for borrowing was part of the deal. For
Britannica, mixing their existing content with user submitted materials would
have increased the relevancy and visibility of their brand. I've long thought
that Encyclopædia Britannica content is useful for teaching, and a site like
BritannicaU would have demonstrated this idea.
Why
did BritannicaU never get off the ground? The idea died before we were able to
produce any workable site, it never even made it to the stage of being released
(although a good deal of money was spent on outsourced Web design, consulting
and prototyping).
Some reasons for the failure of BritannicaU:
1)
Business Model: BritannicaU, sort of an
expanded LecturesOnline with Britannica content and a more advanced platform,
may have been a good idea but it would have never been a huge revenue generator.
The whole point of the original site was a nonprofit exchange. Why would faculty
upload their teaching materials if someone else was making money off them? This
tension existed from the day I sold LecturesOnline to Britannica. How would
BritannicaU monetize? Advertising seemed like the only possibility, but again
this would violate the original spirit and rationale of the site. Britannica
could have made the site a dot-org, foregone advertising and decided to live
with the site as channel to market their content as relevant to higher ed
faculty, but that would have cannibalized its paid (subscription) properties. A
"LecturesOnline" brought to you by Britannica probably would have been the best
bet, but Britannica was never interested in moving too far beyond their core
content (or other expensively produced original content), or supporting a
property that did not make money.
2)
Leadership and Experience: The Britannica
Educational Division, initially based in a couple of live/work lofts South of
Market (SOMA) and finally at the Presidio before closing in 2001, recruited some
very smart people. Most of these folks never worked on BritannicaU, as the
inherent lack of a business model quickly doomed the higher ed. site, with the
focus quickly moving to a product called BritannicaSchool for the K-12 market.
As for me, I had really no idea what I was doing and did not have the skills or
influence to make BritannicaU a reality. Someone should write the story of
Britannica's foray in the San Francisco start-up world to launch an education
division, putting this effort into the larger context of Britannica's historical
transformation from print to digital. My role at Britannica was too marginal,
too peripheral and too short-term to write this story, but I hope someone takes
it up. (Note: I'd like to connect with the old San Francisco Britannica.com
Education people).
3)
Technology: Back in 2000 during the
dot-com bubble some crucial technologies and business models were not in place.
User generated content and the read/write Web were not really mainstreams
concepts. Building any kind of website, much less one that would incorporate the
technologies necessary to allow anyone to upload, tag, search, and discover
teaching materials, was an incredibly expensive proposition. Today a site like
this could be built on Drupal, with storage come from Amazon S3, for very little
money. Bandwidth and storage are now cheap, 10 years ago these were expensive
and scarce commodities.
Today, if you go to LecturesOnline.org you will find some Web squatter.
Britannica was never really interested in the idea of user generated and shared
content, and after buying the site from me they never did anything with it. The
dot-com bubble collapsed, Britannica's management and business model changed
(and changed again), and I left the company in late 2001. I'll be forever
grateful for the opportunity that Britannica gave me to participate in a
start-up culture and transition my career from a traditional faculty track to
educational technology. While I never moved full-time to San Francisco (tele-commuting
from West Virginia, where my wife was in medical school), I cherish the time I
spent with all the amazing people who at one time worked at Britannica.com
Education and who still work for the company in Chicago.
If I
could have a "do-over", I think that it would have been smarter to have not sold
LecturesOnline.org to Britannica, and to have maintained the site as an
independent nonprofit. Perhaps I could have figured out a way to have a company
"sponsor" the site, some way to bring the expertise and resources necessary to
scale the idea. Certainly my lack of programming skills, lack of money, the fact
I had a full-time teaching gig, and the state of the technology when I began
LecturesOnline would have made this difficult. I still think that Britannica's
Encyclopædia content is much more useful for teaching than most faculty realize,
and there should be a way to get this material into the hands of people putting
together lectures. Mostly, I'm happy that I had the opportunity to start
something new, try to grow it, and to fail. No doubt that failure is the best
teacher, and I hope to have many more failures in the course of my career.
Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The Zero-Tuition Online University of the People (now working on gaining
accreditation) ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_People
"Tuition-Free University Gains a Following: A year since its formation, the
online University of the People has attracted several hundred students, a team
of top academic advisers, and growing support worldwide," by Alison Damast,
Business Week, January 21, 2010 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jan2010/bs20100121_194827.htm?link_position=link1
One of the higher
education world's boldest experiments began in September when 180 students from
nearly 50 countries around the world logged on to their computers for their
first day of school at the University of the People. At first glance, the school
has many of the trappings of a modern university: a provost, department heads,
even an admissions committee. Yet there are glaring differences—namely, a the
lack of a campus or physical classroom and just a handful of paid staff—that set
it apart from its bricks-and-mortar counterparts.
Those are shortcomings
the students, most of them from developing countries and without the means to
pay for college, are willing to overlook, says Shai Reshef, an Israeli
entrepreneur and founder of the school, the world's first global tuition-free
online university.
"Education has become so
expensive that not that many people can afford it, and in some parts of the
world it just doesn't exist or there isn't a big enough supply," says Reshef,
who has more than two decades' experience with Internet-based educational
ventures and is chairman of Cramster.com, an online study community. "This is
exactly why the Internet was invented. I thought: What can be done better with
the Internet than helping people get an online education for free?"
Backed by the U.N. It was
just about a year ago that Reshef made headlines in the distance learning
community with his announcement that he intended to start an online college
program using open-source software that would be free to students all over the
world, one of just a handful of tuition-free universities. The nonprofit
venture, which he named University of the People, attracted attention not only
because of its tuition-free mission but also because it had the backing of the
U.N., a leadership team made up of academics from top educational institutions
like Columbia University and New York University, and an innovative approach to
distance education, with an emphasis on peer-to-peer learning.
Today, the online
university is fully operational, with 300 students, a growing array of course
offerings, and even a recently announced research partnership with Yale
University. The school is tapping into a growing market: Nonprofit institutions
account for 68% of the more the more than 2 million students enrolled in online
education, according to the latest estimates from Eduventures, a higher
education consulting firm.
There are still many
trials ahead for the fledgling university, which is struggling to make inroads
in the competitive online global education market. To stay afloat, the school
will need to raise several million dollars in startup costs this year and
introduce new admission and application testing fees, which could pose
difficulties for students from developing countries. But perhaps its greatest
challenge—and the one its success will hinge on—will be gaining accreditation, a
step toward the school's goal of conferring bachelor's degrees to students. This
would also allow the school to carve out a niche as a major player in a space
that has so far been primarily dominated by schools like the for-profit Apollo
Group's (APOL) University of Phoenix and Washington Post Co.'s (WPO) Kaplan
University, both of which have broad online degree offerings, says Roger C.
Schonfeld, the manager of research at ITHAKA S+R, a higher education strategy
and research organization.
Business and Computer
Science "What the University of the People is offering to do is make education
time- and space-neutral. They have a lot of ingredients there to be successful,
and they certainly have quite a few superstars on their advisory board,"
Schonfeld says. Among them: a former dean at INSEAD and the current U.S.
Ambassador to Bangladesh. "I think that their success from a business
perspective may turn on their ability to become accredited," Schonfeld notes.
"With accreditation, they have a good chance of an innovative model that might
see some success."
For now, the school's
academic offerings are limited. Students can pursue an associate's-degree or
bachelor's-degree track in business or a bachelor's track in computer science.
Those subject areas were chosen because they are professions that "are in high
demand and areas where students will most likely be able to find a job," Reshef
says. (A notice on the school's Web site reads: "These programs may in the
future lead towards undergraduate degrees. However, no degrees will be granted
until the university obtains proper authorization from relevant authorities.")
Obtaining accreditation
is a top priority for the school, says Reshef, noting that the school is
incorporated in Pasadena, Calif., making it easier for the school to work with
American accreditation agencies. "We intend to apply for accreditation as soon
as we can," Reshef says, though he declined to specify which accreditation body
the school planned to work with.
The school's unaccredited
status does not appear to be a stumbling block for students like Deema Sultan,
27, who lives in Syria and was among the first cohort of students to matriculate
at the University of the People this fall. She came across the school through a
news story run on a Syrian Web site last summer and immediately became
intrigued. "I thought, "Oh, this is a great idea, but I doubt it is true,"" says
Sultan.
Her doubts were assuaged
when she found the school's Web site and saw that she met the eligibility
requirements. Now in her second semester, she is pursuing a business
administration track. When not in school, she helps run her family's textile
business. She hopes her education will help the business grow and help her
become a more astute entrepreneur.
"This is a great
opportunity for me because, even though I'm working, I could not afford to study
in Syria or the U.S.," says Sultan, who takes classes from a computer in her
parent's home or at Internet cafés, when the family's connection is down. "I'm
very impressed by it so far and the level of education they are offering. I've
been telling my friends all about it."
The University of the
People has not launched an official marketing campaign, but word appears to be
spreading quickly. In its first two semesters, the school received 3,000
applications from all over the world, the school says. Students enrolled in the
current class range in age from 18 to 63; the vast majority have opted for the
business program. To gain admission, students have to submit a high school
diploma, have Internet access, be proficient in English, and be able to pass two
mandatory courses in English and computer skills. The school has so far
attracted students from 70 countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand, Sudan,
Saudi Arabia, and Zambia, and expects to enroll several hundred more students
when its third semester begins in February, Reshef says.
Peer-to-Peer Learning
Admitted students are placed in a class of 15 to 20 of their peers and given
access to free online materials and social networking tools. There are five
semesters throughout the school year, each lasting 10 weeks. The school is using
Moodle, an open sourceware e-learning software platform, to deliver lectures,
reading material, homework assignments, and tests to students, who work together
in groups.
Every class is overseen
by an instructor, but the school's educational model is based on peer-to-peer
learning, meaning that students are expected to learn by interacting with their
peers, posting and responding to questions on lessons and reading in their
online classrooms. If students can't find the answer to a question through their
classmates, they can reach out for help to an online volunteer community of
university professors, graduate students, retired academics, and computer
specialists.
The model appears to be
working, the school says. A survey of students conducted in November by the
school indicated that 90% of the class was satisfied with the classroom
experience and would definitely or likely recommend the school to peers and
family.
Continued in article
University of the People ---
http://www.uopeople.org/
Course Catalogs ---
http://www.uopeople.org/ACADEMICS/CourseCatalog/tabid/197/Default.aspx
-
Business Administration Course Catalog
-
Principles of Business Management
-
Basic Accounting
-
Microeconomics
-
Macroeconomics
-
Principles of Marketing
-
E-Commerce for Business Administration
-
Principles of Finance 1
-
Personal Finance
-
Financial Accounting
-
Consumer Behavior
-
Entrepreneurship 1
-
Managerial Accounting
-
Business Law 1
-
Business & Society
-
Multinational Management
-
Entrepreneurship 2
-
Organizational Behavior
-
Business Policy & Strategy
-
Computer Science Course Catalog
-
General Studies Course Catalog
Onsite and Online College Directory by State in the U.S. ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/index.html#collegestate
Always investigate the credibility of
any college you're interested in before assuming all college degrees are
accepted for employment and further study.
Also see
http://www.onlinelearning101.com
Scholarship sources ---
http://www.college-scholarships.com/free_scholarship_searches.htm
Always look for gimmicks such as a scholarship to a questionable online college
or university.
Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mill frauds
and the gray zones ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill
An Online Learning Experiment Overwhelms the University of Southern
California
"An Experiment Takes Off," by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2009
---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/07/uscmat#
When Karen Symms Gallagher
ran into fellow education deans last year, many of them were "politely
skeptical," the University of Southern California dean says (politely),
about
her institution's experiment to take its master's
program in teaching online.
Many of them seemed to
appreciate Gallagher's argument that the traditional model of teacher
education programs had largely failed to produce the many more top-notch
teachers that California (and so many other states) desperately needed. But
could a high-quality MAT program be delivered online? And through a
partnership with a for-profit entity (2Tor),
no less? Really?
Early results about
the program known as MAT@USC
have greatly pleased Gallagher and USC. One hundred
forty-four students enrolled in the Rossier School of Education program's
first full cohort in May, 50 percent more than anticipated and significantly
larger than the 100 students who started at that time in the traditional
master's in teaching program on the university's Los Angeles campus.
And this month, a new group
of 302 students started in the second of three planned "starts" per year,
meaning that USC has already quadrupled the number of would-be teachers it
is educating this year and, depending on how many students enroll in
January, is on track to increase it a few times more than that.
It will be a while --
years, probably, until outcomes on teacher certification exams are in and
the program's graduates have been successful (or not) in the classroom --
before questions about the program's quality and performance are fully
answered (though officials there point out that the technology platform,
like much online learning software, provides steady insight into how
successfully students are staying on track). But USC officials say that
short of quantitative measures such as those, they believe the online
program is attracting equally qualified students and is providing an
education that is fully equivalent to Rossier's on-ground master's program
-- goals that the institution viewed as essential so as not to "dilute the
brand" of USC's well-regarded program.
"So far, we've beaten the
odds," says Gallagher. "We're growing in scale while continuing to ensure
that we have a really good program."
"Scale" is a big buzzword
in higher education right now, as report after report and new undertaking
after new undertaking -- including the Obama administration's American
Graduation Initiative -- underscore the perceived need for more Americans
with postsecondary credentials. Many institutions -- especially community
colleges and for-profit colleges -- are taking it to heart, expanding their
capacity and enrolling more students. The push is less evident at other
types of colleges and universities, and almost a foreign concept at highly
selective institutions.
That's what is atypical,
if not downright exceptional, about the experiment at USC, which Inside
Higher Ed
explored in concept last fall. At that time, some
experts on distance learning and teacher education -- not unlike some of
Gallagher's dean peers -- wondered whether students would be willing to pay
the tuition of an expensive private university for an online program, among
other things.
Officials at the
university and 2Tor -- the company formed by the Princeton Review founder
John Katzman, which has provided the technology and administrative
infrastructure for the USC program -- were confident that they would be able
to tap into the market of Ivy League and other selective college graduates
who flock to programs like Teach for America in ever-growing numbers each
year but are also interested in getting a formal teaching credential right
away.
While those students
certainly have other options -- major public universities such as the
University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Virginia, and
private institutions like Columbia University's Teachers College and
Vanderbilt University, among others -- all of them require students to take
up residence in way that doesn't work for everyone.
Haley Hiatt,
a 2005 graduate of Brigham Young University, actually
does reside in Los Angeles -- but she's also a relatively new mother who
"didn't want to have to put [her nearly 2-year-old daughter] in day care all
the time," she says. So after first contemplating master's programs in
history at institutions like Vanderbilt and George Washington University,
and then weighing a series of graduate programs at institutions in and
around Los Angeles, Hiatt entered the first cohort of the MAT@USC program.
She now joins her fellow students in "face to face" meetings (on the
Internet, using video chat technology) twice a week, but otherwise does most
of her other course work on her own time. "I find it takes more discipline
than I needed when I was in the classroom" every day at BYU, she says.
Of the initial cohort of
144 students, about 5 percent got their bachelor's degrees from Ivy League
institutions, and about 10 percent came from the crosstown rival University
of California at Los Angeles, says Gallagher. About 10 percent hail from
historically black colleges and universities -- the proportion of students
in the online program who are black (about 11 percent) is about double the
proportion in the on-ground program, though the campus program has slightly
higher minority numbers overall. Students in the online program are somewhat
older (average age 28 vs. 25 for the face-to-face program) and the average
college grade point average is identical for both iterations of the program:
3.0, USC officials say.
Other numbers please
Gallagher even more. A greater proportion of students in the online program
are in science-related fields than is true in the campus-based program, a
heartening sign given
the pressure on American teacher education programs
to ratchet up the number of science teachers they
produce.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The key to this kind of explosion in online enrollments is mostly triggered by
reputation of the university in general.
Many universities are finding online programs so popular that they are now
treating them like cash cows where students pay more for online tuition than for
onsite tuition. One university that openly admits this is the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UMW).
Bob Jensen's threads on why so many students prefer online education to
onsite education (even apart from cost savings) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
Also see
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineVersusOnsite
Bob Jensen's threads on careers are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers
Brigham Young University (BYU) launched its Open CourseWare (OCW) pilot
with
six Creative Commons licensed courses
Before reading this module you may want to read about the Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
From Canada's Creative Commons ---
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15108
It appears that David Wiley’s move to Brigham Young
University has already resulted in progress towards opening the university’s
content. Long-time pioneer and academic of open education, Wiley
reports that
BYU’s Independent Study has launched its Open
CourseWare (OCW) pilot with six Creative Commons licensed courses under
CC BY NC-SA.
“The pilot includes three university-level
courses and three high school-level courses (BYU IS offers 250
university-level courses online for credit and another 250 high
school-level courses online for credit). The courses in BYU IS OCW are
content-complete - that is, they are the full courses as delivered
online without the need of additional textbooks or other materials (only
graded assessments have been removed).”
The most interesting thing about this pilot is that
it “is part of a dissertation study to measure the impact of OCW courses on
paying enrollments.” So far, “the results are very positive - 85 of the 3500
people who visited the OCW site last month registered for for-credit
courses… if this pattern remains stable, then BYU IS OCW will be financially
self-sustainable with the ability to add and update a number of new courses
to the collection each year, indefinitely, should they so choose.” Echoing
Wiley, that is an exciting prospect. We look forward to seeing these results
develop, in addition to other inquiries into the sustainability of general
OER initiatives in the future…
BYU Independent Study ---
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/ocw/
Also see
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/aboutus/index.cfm
University Courses
High School Courses
You may view, use, and reuse all materials in the Open CourseWare
courses. Please note that Open CourseWare courses do not provide the
opportunity to submit assessments for credit, interact with faculty, or
receive credit or a certificate upon completion. BYU Independent Study
provides these courses as a community service under a Creative Commons
license. The course materials are freely available for you to use, download,
modify and share as long as you do not sell the products you derive from
them. If you alter, transform, or build upon the courses, you may distribute
your work only using licensing terms the same as or similar to the
Creative Commons Atribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0.
University Courses (includes art, accounting, chemistry, etc.)
High School Courses
Middle School Courses
Personal Enrichment Courses
Free Courses (includes such things as dating and romance)
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing (learning materials, videos,
lectures, and entire courses) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
Creative Commons Directory of Resources ---
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators
The New University of Illinois Online Global Campus
Online-education venture at the U. of Illinois tries to distinguish itself
from other distance-learning programs
"The Global Campus Meets a World of Competition," by Dan Turner, The
Chronicle of Higher Education's Chronicle Review, April 3, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i30/30a01001.htm
The University of Illinois Global Campus, a
multimillion-dollar distance-learning project, is up and running. For its
March-April 2009 term, it has enrolled 366 students.
Getting to this point, though, has looked a little
like the dot-com start-up bubble of the late 1990s. Hundreds of
Internet-related companies were launched with overly ambitious goals, only
to later face cutbacks and other struggles to stay alive. Most crashed
anyway. Some observers now say the Global Campus must try to avoid the same
fate of churning through a large initial investment while attracting too few
customers.
The project, planned about four years ago, was
designed to complement existing online programs offered by individual
Illinois-system campuses at Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, and Chicago.
Those programs primarily serve current students as an addition to their
on-campus course work. The Global Campus, in contrast, seeks to reach the
adult learner off campus, who is often seeking a more focused,
career-related certification or degree, such as completing a B.S. in
nursing.
Online education has proved popular with
institutions, students, and employers across the United States, with
opportunities and enrollment growing. According to the Sloan Consortium, a
nonprofit organization focused on online learning, the fall 2007 term saw
3.9 million students enroll in at least one online course, many at
for-profit institutions like DeVry University and the University of Phoenix.
That growing popularity, says David J. Gray, chief
executive of UMassOnline, the online-learning arm of the University of
Massachusetts system, is part of the Global Campus's problem. The Illinois
program, he says, is "fighting uphill in a market that's a lot more uphill."
The slope didn't seem as steep in the fall of 2005,
when Chester S. Gardner, then the university's vice president for academic
affairs, led a committee to investigate ideas for the future of online
education at Illinois. That resulted in a proposal and business plan
presented to the Board of Trustees the next year. The system's "existing
online programs were not structured for adult learners," says Mr. Gardner,
who is now leading the Global Campus.
The program was formally established in March 2007.
The university initially financed it with $1.5-million of general revenue.
The program started teaching its first 12 students in 2008.
Now, Mr. Gardner says, the Global Campus has a
budget of approximately $9.4-million for the 2008-9 fiscal year.
Approximately $1-million of that comes from the state, he says, and the
remaining money comes from various grants, tuition, and loans from the Board
of Trustees.
The trustees' investment has produced heavy
involvement, Mr. Gardner says. "They're acting like venture capitalists," he
notes, adding that "they're certainly doing their job of holding my feet to
the fire."
This year the 366 Global Campus students are
enrolled in five different degree and four different certificate programs;
Mr. Gardner expects the number of students to rise to around 500 by May.
Those numbers put the program on a much slower
track than earlier, sunnier estimates of 9,000 students enrolled by 2012.
Mr. Gardner says the 9,000 figure came from his 2007 budget request to the
trustees and was not precise. "We had no direct experience upon which to
base our projections," he says.
Now, Mr. Gardner says, he has more realistic
figures. Once 1,650 students are enrolled, the monthly income from tuition
will equal monthly expenses, on average. His current projections show the
Global Campus reaching that point of stability by the 2011 fiscal year.
Continued in article
Distance Education is Rapidly Gaining Acceptance in the 21st Century
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DistanceEducation
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology and distance education ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
I don't usually post advertisements to my Web page unless I think they fit into
the context of recent discussion
A unique online program—and
the
nation’s only advanced degree program in governmental accounting—the
Masters in Governmental Accounting at
Rutgers Business School prepares graduates to take advantage of career
opportunities in one of today’s fastest growing specialized fields— governmental
accounting, auditing, and finance. The 10-course program is designed for
prospective CPAs, practicing CPAs, MBAs, MPAs, and accounting students who want
to specialize and advance their careers in government financial management.
Through its online
offerings, students can earn the
Masters in Governmental Accounting degree
without ever setting foot in a
classroom, allowing them to continue in
their careers as they build their knowledge and expertise.
A September 2, 2008 email message from AccountingWEB.com
[emailbulletin@mail.accountingweb.com]
MIT's Great Leap Into Open Knowledge Sharing in Multiple Languages
March 12, 2007 message from abuali twaijry
[aat1420@YAHOO.COM]
Anybody knows about any training course(s) on accounting technology or
internet accounting (or similar subject) provided during the summer of
2007. Please advise.
Atwaijry
March 13, 2007 reply from Bob Jensen
MIT now has most of its entire curriculum of course materials in all
disciplines available free to the world as open courseware. This includes
the Sloan School of Business Courses ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
Especially note the FAQs ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/OCWHelp/help.htm
By the end of the year all MIT's course materials will be available,
which is probably the most extensive freely open knowledge initiative (OKI)
in the entire world.
MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) has formally
partnered with three organizations that are translating MIT OCW course
materials into Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional
Chinese ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/Translations.htm
Question
What is the most popular download course at MIT?
Answer: According to ABC News last week it's the Introduction to Electrical
Engineering Course.
Other major universities now have huge portions of their curriculum
materials available ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
If you want to try something quite different, you might consider some
online business and accounting courses from the University of Toyota ---
http://www2.itt-tech.edu/st/onlineprograms/ (These are not free).
Other online training and education programs are listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen
eLearning Africa ---
http://www.elearning-africa.com/
Minnesota State Colleges Plan to Offer One-Fourth of Credits Online by
2015 ---
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3476&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
A Distance Learning Course on Introductory Accounting from the Harvard
Business School ---
Click Here
This course dates back to 2005 and I'm not certain how often it is updated.
It appears that students cannot get credit from Harvard for taking this course,
although other colleges could give credit for taking the course.
It features narrated animations. Fees for this course can be found by phoning
A Preview is available at
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/viewFileNavBean.jhtml?_requestid=21163
Financial
Accounting: An Introductory Online Course |
|
|
To preview (Authorized Faculty) or purchase this
online course, call (800) 545-7685 (outside the U.S. and Canada, 617-783-7600).
A Teaching Note is available for Authorized Faculty. Online course product
#105708
Question
Where can students substitute their college instructors for an online ($399)
McGraw-Hill tutor for possible college credit?
An accounting tutor (not for advanced courses) is listed at
http://straighterline.com/courses/descriptions/#accounting1
Other course tutors, including college algebra and English composition,
are listed at http://straighterline.com/
An unusual new commercial service offers low-cost
online courses and connects students to accredited colleges who will accept
the courses for credit. The only thing missing: professors.
The service, called
StraighterLine,
is run by SmartThinking, a company that operates an
online tutoring service used by about 300 colleges and universities. The
online courses offered by StraighterLine are self-guided, and if students
run into trouble they can summon a tutor from SmartThiking and talk with
them via instant messaging. Students turn in their assignments or papers to
tutors for grading as well.
“We’re using our tutoring service as the
instructional component,” says Burck Smith, CEO of
SmartThinking. “Students move through the course, and when they have a
problem they click a button and they’re talking with a tutor.”
The courses cost $399 each, which includes 10 hours
of time with a tutor. If students need more one-on-one help, they can pay
extra for more tutoring.
The courses themselves were developed by
McGraw-Hill, and StraighterLine uses Blackboard’s course-management service.
So this virtual college is essentially cobbled together from various
off-the-shelf learning services.
So far three colleges have agreed to grant credit
for the StraighterLine courses — Fort Hays State University, Jones
International University, and Potomac College.
The colleges see the partnership as a way to
attract new students. “One of the things we hope to do is convert those
students to Jones students,” says D. Terry Rawls, a vice chancellor at Jones
International. “My expectation is that in reality students will take one
maybe two courses with StraighterLine and then the students will take the
rest of their courses with us.”
Richard Garrett, a senior analyst for Eduventures,
sees the service as part of a broader trend of colleges granting credit for
unconventional college experience, provided that the students can pass a
test or otherwise demonstrate competency. And that raises the question, he
says, “what is the core business of the academy versus what can be
outsourced?
Jensen Comment
It may well be that colleges and universities may soon have to accept transfer
credit for these tutors from such places as Fort Hays State University ---
http://www.fhsu.edu/
In addition to its onsite programs in Hays, Kansas, Fort Hays State
University has its own online degree programs at
http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and
education alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free online video courses and
course materials from leading universities ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on the dark side ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/theworry.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on education technology ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Free online tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Free textbooks and tutorials ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Good Luck Jack (and Suzi): You're Going to Need All the Luck You Can
Get
"Jack Welch Launches Online MBA: The legendary former GE CEO says he
knows a thing or two about management, and for $20,000 you can, too," by Geoff
Gloeckler, Business Week, June 22, 2009 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090622_962094.htm?link_position=link1
A corporate icon is diving into the MBA world, and
he's bringing his well-documented management and leadership principles with
him. Jack Welch, former CEO at General Electric (GE) (and Business Week
columnist), has announced plans to start an MBA program based on the
business principles he made famous teaching managers and executives in GE's
Crotonville classroom.
The Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI) will officially
launch this week, with the first classes starting in the fall. The MBA will
be offered almost entirely online. Compared to the $100,000-plus price tag
for most brick-and-mortar MBA programs, the $600 per credit hour tuition
means students can get an MBA for just over $20,000. "We think it will make
the MBA more accessible to those who are hungry to play," Welch says. "And
they can keep their job while doing it."
To make the Jack Welch Management Institute a
reality, a group led by educational entrepreneur Michael Clifford purchased
financially troubled Myers University in Cleveland in 2008, Welch says.
Welch got involved with Clifford and his group of investors and made the
agreement to launch the Welch Management Institute.
Popularized Six Sigma For Welch, the new
educational endeavor is the latest chapter in a long and storied career. As
GE's longtime chief, he developed a management philosophy based on
relentless efficiency, productivity, and talent development. He popularized
Six Sigma, wasn't shy about firing his worst-performing managers, and
advocated exiting any business where GE wasn't the No. 1 or No. 2 player.
Under Welch, GE became a factory for producing managerial talent, spawning
CEOs that included James McNerney at Boeing (BA), Robert Nardelli at
Chrysler, and Jeff Immelt, his successor at GE.
Welch's decision to jump into online education
shows impeccable timing. Business schools in general are experiencing a rise
in applications as mid-level managers look to expand their business acumen
while waiting out the current job slump. The new program's flexible
schedule—paired with the low tuition cost—could be doubly attractive to
those looking to move up the corporate ladder as the market begins to
rebound.
Ted Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago's
Booth School of Business, agrees. "I think it's a good time for someone to
launch a high-profile online degree," Snyder says. "If you make the
investment in contentthat allows for a lot of interaction between faculty
and students and also among students, you can get good quality at a much
more reasonable tuition level."
Welch's Secret Weapon That being said, there are
challenges that an online MBA program like Welch's will have a difficult
time overcoming, even if the technology and faculty are there. "The
integrity and quality of engagement between faculty and students is the most
precious thing we have," Snyder says. "Assuming it's there, it dominates.
These things are hard to replicate online."
But Welch does have one thing that differentiates
his MBA from others: himself. "We'll have all of the things the other
schools have, only we'll have what Jack Welch believes are things that work
in business, in a real-time way," he says. "Every week I will have an online
streaming video of business today. For example, if I was teaching this week,
I would be putting up the health-care plan. I'd be putting up the financial
restructuring plan, talking about it, laying out the literature, what others
are saying, and I'd be talking about it. I'll be doing that every week."
Welch and his wife Suzy are also heavily involved
in curriculum design, leaning heavily on the principles he used training
managers at GE.
Continued in Article
Jensen Comment
There are enormous obstacles standing in the way of the
super-confident Jack Welch on this one. I should mention that I've never been a
Jack Welch fan and am especially disturbed that he is the world's leader in
platinum retirement perks that, in my opinion, go way beyond his value in the
past and future to GE. But I will try to not let my prejudices bias my remarks
below.
- This raises the question of why students choose one MBA program over
another after being admitted to several. For example, suppose a student has
not yet made a decision about accepting MBA program offers at Harvard,
Wharton, Stanford, Claremont, or the Jack (and Suzi) Welch Management
Institute. Assume location and climate are of no concern in this choice.
Some years back the relatively new Claremont MBA program assumed that the
worldwide reputations of faculty were the most important draw for new
students. So they hired at least one big name in each of the business
disciplines, the most notable of which was the famous Peter Drucker.
I won't go into details here and Claremont has a very respected MBA program,
but it has had huge problems attracting enough top students. The reason
quite simply, in my viewpoint, is that students choose MBA programs for
reasons other than reputations of faculty. Of course they assume that a top
MBA program has hired top faculty, but reputations of individual faculty are
not why they choose Stanford over Harvard or Wharton over Claremont. The
choose MBA programs for many of the reasons that led to top MBA programs in
U.S. News or the WSJ. They want high paying opportunities for
fast track wealth, and they assume the last five decades of established
success in that regard makes an MBA program the best for them. They also
want to be among the best students and alumni in the world, because they
feel that networking with current students and active alumni is a leading,
if not the leading, factor for career advancement opportunity.
Having a few big names on the faculty just does not cut it relative to the
more important factors when top students seek out an MBA program. The same
can be said to a somewhat lesser extent when choosing a doctoral studies
program. In the latter case, an applicant is often heavily influenced by a
current or former Professor X who recommends the doctoral program at
University Y because Professor Z happens to be a leading research advisor at
University Y. This is not the case for MBA students in most instances.
- If you're starting up an MBA program, an online MBA program is probably
a good idea. This will attract some high GMAT applicants who, for whatever
reason, just cannot leave town to become a full-time student in another
locale. But at the same time, an online MBA program is a turn off to other
top prospects. Some of the reasons were mentioned above. In addition, online
degree programs still have a stigma that online degrees are inferior (even
though many studies, such as the SCALE Experiment at Illinois, suggest that
online learning may be better if online instruction is excellent. Equally
important is that potential employers generally recruit more aggressively in
reputable onsite MBA programs. Jack Welch will have more success if he can
get inside tracks for his graduates to roll into the top jobs. Somehow I
doubt that he can do this for more than a handful of graduates vis-a-vis the
competition from the top 50 MBA programs ranked by U.S. News and the
WSJ.
- The timing could not be worse for starting a MBA Program. Top programs
at Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, etc. are having trouble placing their
students, including their top students after Wall Street virtually imploded
and we're in probably the worst job market since the 1930s. This June, 80%
of the nation's undergraduates seeking employment could not find jobs for
which a college education is required. I suspect the situation is even worse
for the nation's MBA programs in terms of graduates who did not already have
satisfactory jobs before entering an MBA program. Some enter such programs
with jobs such as when a career military officer decides to go for an MBA on
the side.
- It is hard to compete without accreditation with MBA programs that are
accredited. Hundreds of MBA programs around the world have struggled
desperately to get AACSB accreditation. I doubt that the Jack Welch name
trumps accreditation.
In any case it will be interesting to track the progress of the Jack Welch
Management Institute. I would applaud if it becomes one of the best online
degree programs in the world, because I highly support the development of more
and better online training and education programs in the world ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
The Official Website of the Jack (and Suzi) Welch Management Institute is at
http://www.welchway.com/
The competition is listed at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
More on the greatest swindles of the world
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the
biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks. At
the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial
giants getting help from the government. The company did not initially qualify
for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by
guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the
eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.
As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars
by raising money for...
Jeff Gerth and Brady Dennis,
"How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue Industrial Giant Becomes Top
Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program," The Washington Post, June 29, 2009
---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955.html?hpid=topnews
Jensen Comment
GE thus becomes the biggest winner under both the TARP and the Cap-and-Trade
give away legislation. It is a major producer of wind turbines and other
machinery for generating electricity under alternative forms of energy. The
government will pay GE billions for this equipment. GE Capital is also "Top
Recipient in Debt-Guarantee Program." Sort of makes you wonder why GE's NBC
network never criticizes liberal spending in Congress.
Jensen's threads on the bank rescue swindle are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm z
Bob Jensen's fraud updates are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Question
How would you advise Jack and Suzi to modify the program for greater assurance
as to success?
Answer
My advice would be to make this a GE Executive MBA Program. The business model
would be to gear it to GE professionals, especially newly hired engineers that
are strong on technical ability and weak on managerial skills, financial
management, marketing, and accounting.
The key to success would be to have GE pay the tuition as a fringe benefit to
the winning employees selected to get an MBA from Jack and Suzi. This may not be
too difficult since there are shrines throughout the world in GE facilities
where Jack Welch is worshipped as a God.
Some of the advantages of this business model are as follows:
- A major advantage of this MBA program is that students do not expect the
program to help find them careers in leading corporations. The students
would already have promising careers in GE or other corporations who partner
with GE in sending employees to the JWMI. The JWMI, therefore, would not
have to invest in a heaving marketing program to attract students. Students
would be more or less handed to the degree program on a silver platter. The
program would also not have to invest heavily in a graduate placement
program. Graduates are already employed.
- The JWMI would be assured of cream-of-the-crop student talent. Firstly,
the students obtained their jobs in a highly selective GE or other corporate
hiring process that only extends job offers competitively to the best
undergraduates in the world. Secondly, the students would have to meet added
filters of being worthy of obtaining a "free" MBA degree.
- The JWMI can hire all its new faculty from the start on the basis of
their extensive corporate experience and teaching skills. The program would
not be burdened with research faculty that are under severe pressures to
conduct research and publish papers in academic journals. Other MBA programs
in the world often have non-tenured faculty who have little choice but to
give primary time and attention to research. Teaching classes must become a
secondary priority until reaching tenure. And then the pressure to continue
research and publication does not end.
- Assuming tht JWMI will not be granting tenure to faculty, every faculty
member in the JWMI (full-time or part-time) will have contract renewal based
upon teaching performance. Lower performers can be shown the door at any
time.
There are successful business models of this nature already in existence,
although in most instances the corporation or other organization selected an
AACSB-accredited institution to devise a special curriculum for employees
seeking degrees in that institution. A few examples are summarized below.
- For many years the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia
has been running a special-curriculum online MBA program for employees of
the accounting firm PwC. The PwC employees in this program mostly have
degrees in computer science, engineering, or other technical specialties
outside business disciplines. Although PwC is generally known as a global
accounting firm and auditing firm, employees selected for the Terry School
MBA program are mostly on career tracks in the consulting division of PwC.
The objective of this program was not to qualify graduates to sit for the CPA
examination. The objective is to give these students career advancement
skills in management, marketing, finance, and accounting.
- Ernst & Young partnered with Notre Dame and the University of Virginia
to offer a special-curriculum online (will some full time intervals) program
leading to a masters degree in assurance services ---
Click Here
http://snipurl.com/eymasters
-
The Facts
-
During the first summer, you
will attend classes for 5 to 10
weeks at one of the
participating universities. You
will be eligible for E&Y
benefits and will be paid a
$1,000/month starter stipend.
-
After the first semester, you
will begin full-time client
service as an Assurance and
Advisory Business Services
professional, while taking one
class fall semester via distance
learning.
-
You will return for a second
summer of classes at the
university to complete your
master's degree.
-
All costs associated with
tuition, books, room and board,
and transportation are covered
by E&Y. A portion or all costs
associated with the program may
be taxable to you as the
participant.
- The University of Texas offers a special MBA program for Dallas-based
executives of Texas Instruments. Babson College has a masters degree program
for Lucent employees.
- Deere & Company has an exclusive partnership with Indiana University to
provide an online MBA program for Deere employees. Deere pays the fees. See
"Deere & Company Turns to Indiana University's Kelley School of Business For
Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 ---
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
- US Military --- Over 4,000 training and education courses from a variety
of sources, including US Air University ---
http://www.au.af.mil/au/ "All
levels of Airmen, enlisted and officers, and civilians are educated through
in-residence or distance-learning courses to meet emerging geo-political
challenges faced by the United States. Developing adaptive and innovative
students who will produce and disseminate new ideas is crucial to the
security of our nation."
- Army Online University attracted 12,000 students during its first year
of operation and doubled in ensuing years.
Twenty-four colleges are delivering
training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's e-learning
portal. There are programs for varying levels of accomplishment, including
specialty certificates, associates degrees, bachelor's degrees, and masters
degrees. All courses are free to soldiers. By 2003, there was a capacity
for 80,000 online students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell ---
http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
- The U.S. IRS offers Internet education opportunities. IRS employees who
want to get ahead in the organization are heading back to the classroom -
21st century style. College level courses in accounting, finance, tax law,
and other business subjects will be available on the Internet to IRS
employees.
http://www.accountingweb.com/item/46816/101
The IRS pays the fees for all employees. The IRS online accounting classes
will be served up from Florida State University and Florida Community
College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
- For example, the IRS online accounting classes will be served up from
Florida State University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
Bob Jensen's threads on available online training and education programs
are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
The Bright Future of Grand Canyon University online
The Apollo Group is the king of for-profit higher
education, parent of the University of Phoenix. By comparison, Grand Canyon
University, another for-profit college in Phoenix, is David to Apollo’s Goliath.
But that’s obviously not quite how Brian Mueller sees it. Mueller,
the
president of the Apollo Group and the driving force
behind the University of Phoenix’s highly successful online division, is betting
that Grand Canyon’s future is brighter — or perhaps more profitable — than
Apollo’s. The
two companies announced this morning that Mueller is
giving up his position at Apollo to help lead Grand
Canyon into its
recently announced initial public offering, which
was initially valued at $230 million. Compared to Apollo, which educates
hundreds of thousands of students and is 35 years old, Grand Canyon is
comparatively a toddler. Since 2004, when it was purchased by a team of
investors, it has been transformed from a struggling nonprofit Christian college
with fewer than 1,000 into a thriving institution that has about 20,000
students, most of them online. A full report on these striking developments will
be available on our Web site Thursday morning.
Inside Higher Ed, June 25, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/25/qt
"Continued Growth for 2 Distance Ed Models,"
by Andy Guess, Inside Higher Ed, June 19, 2008 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/06/19/distance
Two unique models of providing distance education
to mainly nontraditional students are coming into their own, each showing a
healthy expansion of enrollments and growth in available course offerings.
One, the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges & Universities, has been
enlarging since its inception, while the other, Western Governors
University, faced years of skepticism from critics who said its ambitious
goals would never be met. Now, both are touting their success with fresh
numbers and statistics, suggesting that online education needn’t only come
from large for-profit companies or local community colleges.
In 2005, Regis University
announced a consortium of colleges that would work
together, rather than compete, to share each others’ online courses in a way
that would in effect vastly expand the offerings of each of the group’s
members. Since then, the 39 founding colleges of the
OCICU have
expanded to 68, with 1,784 course enrollments over the past year.
The model is unusual in that it allows colleges
that are interested in offering courses online, but don’t necessarily have
the resources to cover every conceivable topic, to supplement their catalog
with classes that already exist — in the consortium and on the Web, but not
on their campuses. So far, seven of the member colleges, including Regis,
act as “providers,” essentially allowing other colleges in the group to pick
and choose which courses to make available to their own students, with full
institutional credit assigned through the student’s college.
“We’ve just experienced remarkable growth and great
feedback from the schools participating,” said Thomas R. Kennedy, executive
director of new ventures at Regis. “Especially as member schools ... they
don’t have any online schools whatsoever, and overnight they have one.
That’s one of the beauties of it.”
That near-instant capability can serve students in
a number of ways. Do they need to fulfill a general elective requirement,
like sociology or political science? The providers offer plenty of
possibilities for students at colleges that don’t have the resources to fill
every gap in the curriculum. What about students interested in a niche
topic, like Irish studies? Some of the providers, as well as members that
are planning on offering up courses to the rest of the consortium in the
future, have such offerings as well.
Many, but not all, of the member colleges are
religiously affiliated, and most fit the profile of small- or medium-sized
institutions in the Council of Independent Colleges that may not have the
resources to get into the distance education business on their own. Members
pay a one-time fee of $3,500 to join the consortium plus an annual fee of
$1,000, Kennedy said, to cover administrative costs. Of the approximately
$1,350 in tuition for a three-credit course, he added, about $500 would go
to the provider school per student — essentially extra cash for a course
that was already being held, he pointed out — and $700 would remain at the
student’s home college, which would incur no additional cost.
“All these provider schools are doing is opening up
their classes ... to visiting students, in a way,” he said. The key
difference, however, is that students receive credit as if they took the
courses at their own institutions, rather than as transfer credits.
Kennedy said he’s been urging member colleges to
pocket that extra tuition money “and start investing in your own online
program.”
Some are doing just that. Keuka College, in upstate
New York, administers degree completion programs by partnering with
hospitals and community colleges across the state. To help students in its
various programs who need to take a specific course or two to complete their
degrees, the college can now send them to offerings available online through
the consortium.
“We found that by using courses offered through the
consortium, we could offer students more forms of access,” said Gary Smith,
associate vice president for professional studies and international programs
at Keuka, especially for the “general education or general elective pool
that’s outside our major program offerings.”
This year, Keuka will ramp up its own online
courses by playing to its strengths: If all goes according to plan, Smith
said, the college will add classes in Asian studies to the consortium’s
lineup.
A ‘Competency-Based’ University Takes Off
Another model that’s meeting or exceeding the
expectations of its leaders is breathing a sigh of relief. Western Governors
University, founded in 1997 by 19 state governors, started with ambitious
plans to grow its enrollment and become a regional economic engine. But the
initial plans faltered and the university found itself the object of
criticism and even scorn — although that wasn’t necessarily confined to
Western Governors.
“If you go back to the mid-’90s, when the idea for
WGU bubbled up from among the conversations from the governors of the
Western states, there was at that time no clear sense of whether or not
online education would work, period, or would work with any level of success
and any decent level of quality,” said Patrick Partridge, the university’s
vice president of marketing and enrollment. But, he acknowledged, there was
plenty of skepticism in academe as well. “I think that skepticism was both
of a financial type and sort of an awareness ... of the kind of political
hurdles in the higher-ed world.”
These days, the picture for both online education
in general, and WGU in particular, seems quite a bit brighter. The nonprofit
institution, which receives no state support and sustains itself primarily
through tuition and private donations,
announced this month
that it had reached an enrollment of 10,000 students — up from 500 in 2003.
That growth can be attributed to a number of factors, including regional
accreditation, but the university also emphasizes two features that
distinguish it from most of its peers: a “competency-based” approach to
assessing students’ work, and its nationally accredited Teachers College.
From the outset, courses and curriculums are
developed with input from senior faculty together with an “outside council”
including practitioners from a given field. Course material is then assessed
to a level that’s considered “highly competent,” Partridge said, by the
developers of the course, effectively creating a standardized set of
requirements in lieu of more independent assessments by individual
instructors. Upon completion, employers can theoretically be assured that
students are proficient in a specific set of skills and knowledge.
The university doesn’t give letter grades, and it
allows students to take as long as they want in their course of study —
which could be a mixed blessing, since they pay a flat fee (a bit under
$3,000) every six months. All in all, Partridge said, “we are as different
from the other online schools as they are from” traditional higher
education. It’s a model not suited to everyone, he acknowledged, but
especially tailored to students with a certain “impatience” or
“determination” to complete in a timely manner.
Another significant draw for WGU is the Teachers
College, which, unlike any other such online program, places graduates at
schools in virtually every state. Now, at least half of WGU’s students are
enrolled in the teaching program. “[W]e offer a path to initial teacher
licensure for individuals all around the country who want to become
teachers, often later in life where returning to a traditional school of
education ... is just not that convenient,” Partridge said.
The university projects further growth in the
coming years, with a predicted enrollment of up to 15,000 in the foreseeable
future. “We really see the future as one in which the people of the United
States and the adult audience need to have very good-quality and affordable
options to either get a first bachelor’s degree or continue to pursue [a]
master’s degree, in particular change careers and pursue dreams that will in
the long run strengthen our economy, the citizenry and make our country, our
states, etc., stronger,” said Partridge.
From the Scout Report on February 23, 2006
LearningSpace ---
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/
Looking back to the late nineteenth century, one
can find traces of the earliest distance education learning programs at the
university level at places like the University of Chicago and Columbia
University. It would take six decades before an entire university was
created specifically as a distance teaching institution, and it would happen
on the other side of the Atlantic. This school is Open University in
Britain, and they have continued this mission for over four decades.
Recently, they created the LearningSpace website which contains dozens of
different online courses, categorized into disciplines such as education,
modern languages, and history. While visitors don’t have to register to use
the materials, they may find it useful.
Registering will allow visitors to discuss the
materials in a forum, write journal entries, and complete different quizzes.
More historically black colleges — especially in the public sector — are
offering distance education.
A
new survey released by the Digital Learning Lab of
Howard University reports that 40 of 103 historically black colleges and
universities are offering distance courses this year, up from 29 a year ago.
While the percentages of colleges offering distance education vary by sector,
they tend to be well over half, according to
data from the Sloan Consortium. Nonetheless, the
Howard survey suggests significant progress for black colleges in entering the
distance ed arena.
Scott Jaschik, "Black Colleges Expand Distance Learning," Inside Higher Ed,
March 1, 2007 ---
http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/01/hbcu
Distance Learning Today will be a quarterly supplement to USA
Today newspaper
Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of The United States Distance
Learning Association, today announced his organization's sponsorship of
"Distance Learning Today," a quarterly supplement in USA TODAY. "Distance
learning is transforming the American educational landscape, through on-line
technology, video conferencing systems, satellite delivery and other media,"
Flores said. "We expect this supplement to be an invaluable guide for millions
of present and potential distance learners as well as a means for our member
institutions and corporate sponsors to reach them." The first supplement will
appear in September and is expected to exceed twenty pages. Editorial will
include features on the distance learning revolution, financing a distance
education, increasing acceptance of distance learning degrees among employers,
technology requirements and, importantly, how to evaluate the quality of a
distance learning offering. "Today, there are thousands of institutions offering
degrees and certifications for distance learners," Flores said. "It's timely to
provide the public with a reliable information resource concerning this dynamic
educational alternative." Formed in 1987, the United States Distance Learning
Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of the
distance learning community by promoting the development and application of
distance learning for education and training and by providing advocacy,
information, networking and distance learning opportunities.
PRWeb, June 9, 2006 ---
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/6/prweb396750.htm
Jensen Comment
PRWeb is a tremendous (overwhelming?) source of news in a huge set of categories
---
http://www.prweb.com/newsbycategory/index.htm
Distance Education (Online) Cheating
Woman pleads guilty to charges that
she paid someone to take online courses for her son, and to transfer the credits
to Georgetown University, where he was a student.---
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/california-woman-charged-and-agrees-plead-guilty-college-admissions-case
BOSTON – A
California woman will plead guilty to charges filed today alleging that she
paid $9,000 to have an individual take online classes for her son, in order
to earn credits to facilitate his graduation from Georgetown University.
Karen Littlefair,
57, of Newport Beach, Calif., will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy
to commit wire fraud. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled by the
Court. According to the terms of the plea agreement, the government will
recommend a sentence of four months in prison, one year of supervised
release, a fine of $9,500 and restitution.
According to the
charging documents, Littlefair agreed with William “Rick” Singer and others
to pay approximately $9,000 to have an employee of Singer’s for-profit
college counseling business, The Edge College & Career Network (“The Key”),
take online classes in place of Littlefair’s son and submit those
fraudulently earned credits to Georgetown to facilitate his graduation. The
Key employee allegedly completed four classes for Littlefair’s son at
Georgetown and elsewhere, and in exchange, Littlefair paid Singer’s company
approximately $9,000. Littlefair’s son graduated from Georgetown, using the
credits earned by the Key employee, in May 2018.
Singer previously
pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government’s investigation.
Case
information, including the status of each defendant, charging documents and
plea agreements are available here:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme.
The charge of
conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a sentence of up to 20 years in
prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to
$250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon
the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States
Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Kristina
O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s
Criminal Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant
U.S. Attorneys Eric S. Rosen, Justin D. O’Connell, Leslie A. Wright and
Kristen A. Kearney of Lelling’s Securities and Financial Fraud Unit are
prosecuting the cases.
The details
contained in the court documents are allegations and the remaining
defendants are presumed not guilty unless and until proven guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
It's not clear what what the punishments will be for those who took the classes
for money. This problem is not unique to distance education. When my daughter
was at the University of Texas she learned that some students with fake IDs were
taking large lecture courses on campus for money. The problem with distance
education is that it becomes easier to hire out course taking. For example,
there's a case where the wife of a football player took her husband's online
courses so he could concentrate more on preparation for a NFL career. It may
well be that he was too dumb to take the courses as well.
Ohio State Accuses 85 Students
of Cheating on Online Tests ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/ohio-state-u-accuses-85-students-of-cheating-on-online-tests/112000?elqTrackId=592e2bcfef3742f0a01015fb1aa9fc87&elq=657ef66861154a85908c76c54666a981&elqaid=9366&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3288
Claims of Cheating in Online Courses at Iowa
---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/05/23/claims-cheating-online-courses-iowa?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=3bae57df2e-DNU20160523&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-3bae57df2e-197565045
Respondus and other online tools for
monitoring and exam cheating monitoring ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm#OnlineOffCampus
Bob Jensen's threads on online cheating ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#OnlineCheating
This is a program that could affect virtually every college and
university.
"Obama's Great Course Giveaway: Clues to a grand online-education plan
emerge from the college and the experts that may have inspired it," by Marc
Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3, 2009 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Obamas-Great-Course-Giveaway/47530/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Logan Stark's classmates scramble for courses with
professors who top instructor-rating Web sites. But when the California
Polytechnic State University student enrolled in a biochemistry class on the
San Luis Obispo campus, he didn't need to sweat getting the best.
It was practically guaranteed.
That's because much of the class was built by
national specialists, not one Cal Poly professor. It's a hybrid of online
and in-person instruction. When Mr. Stark logs in to the course Web site at
midnight, a bowl of cereal beside his laptop, he clicks through animated
cells and virtual tutors, a digital domain designed by faculty experts and
software engineers.
By the time Mr. Stark steps into the actual lecture
hall, the Web site has alerted his professor to what parts of the latest
lesson gave students trouble. That lets her focus class time on where they
need the most help.
Mr. Stark's class is one of about 300 around the
world to use online course material—both the content and the software that
delivers it—developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning
Initiative. If the Obama administration pulls off a $500-million-dollar
online-education plan, proposed in July as one piece of a sweeping
community-college aid package, this type of course could become part of a
free library available to colleges nationwide.
The administration has released only vague
statements about the plan. But Chronicle interviews with a senior Education
Department official and others whose ideas have informed the emerging policy
suggest how colleges might use these courses—and how Carnegie Mellon,
repeatedly cited by officials, might offer a model for the effort.
The government would pay to develop these "open"
classes, taking up the mantle of a movement that has unlocked lecture halls
at universities nationwide in recent years—a great course giveaway
popularized by the OpenCourseWare project's free publication of 1,900
courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Millions worldwide
have used these online materials. But the publication cost—at MIT, about
$10,000 a course—has impeded progress at the community-college level, says
Stephen E. Carson, external-relations director for MIT OpenCourseWare.
The result is a "huge population of students," he
says, "that aren't being served."
Experts see huge potential in serving those
students with open courses: To help them explore careers. To give them
confidence before returning to school. To improve retention once they get
there. To lower the cost of a degree. To spur alternative ways of awarding
credit. And to guarantee standards "whether you are in a more impoverished,
underserved, or remote area of the country," says Curtis J. Bonk, a
professor in the department of instructional- systems technology at Indiana
University and author of the new book The World is Open.
The plan coincides with Mr. Obama's goal for the
United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the
world by 2020. But Marshall S. (Mike) Smith, senior counselor to Secretary
of Education Arne Duncan, feels that won't happen simply by moving middle-
and high-school students further through the system. Higher education also
needs to rope in older students who never went beyond high school, or who
abandoned college before finishing a degree, he says.
"The opportunity to attract those people would be
greatly enhanced by having a bunch of really good courses that they could
work on in the evenings," Mr. Smith says, so they could "try out the idea of
getting course credit for them—and get hooked."
Mr. Smith, a veteran of the Clinton- and Carter-era
Education Departments, is an open-education evangelist who recently returned
to government after serving as education-program director for the William
and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The California foundation has funneled more
than $80-million into making digital resources like textbooks and lecture
videos freely available on the Web.
Mr. Smith has bigger ambitions still. In January he
published an article in the journal Science laying out the dream of "a
21st-century library" composed of Web-based open courses for high-school and
college students. The courses would be laced with multimedia features and
personalized with feedback from computer programs that track student
performance. The language coming out of the White House and Education
Department today echoes some of the concepts in Mr. Smith's article.
But his article also stacked up the challenges and
mixed incentives that the controversial free-knowledge movement must
surmount.
Working against open access are "financial
concerns, authors' fears of exposing mediocre content, the weight of
traditional practice, and legitimate reasons for protecting intellectual
property," he wrote. "Some publishers and professional academic
organizations believe they have a lot to lose" as open educational resources
grow more popular.
In an hourlong interview with The Chronicle, Mr.
Smith focused on many of the details facing the administration as it tries
to create an open-course clearinghouse and navigates delicate,
still-unanswered questions about what role the government would play in
financing and disseminating its contents.
One big question: Who would get the money?
A possible answer, which is not specified in a
House of Representatives bill that includes the online proposal, could be an
outside laboratory-and-research organization that would receive a block of
government money and parcel it out into competitive grants for course
development, and then make sure the courses were updated. A community
college could house the project, Mr. Smith says. So could a consortium of
community colleges, a university, or a nongovernmental group.
The courses created would reach students through
multiple devices, such as computers, handheld devices, and e-book readers
like Kindles. They would be modular, and therefore easily updated. Both
nonprofit and for-profit entities could compete for the money to build them.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on free course materials, videos, and entire courses
are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
Jensen Caution
Don't treat distance education courses and MOOC courses as synonyms. President
Obama is suggesting priority for distance education courses and online degree
programs that are neither free nor "massive" in size. Smaller distance education
courses can have intense communications between students and an instructor plus
intense communications between students in a course (including team projects).
Grading in these distance education courses is very similar to onsite course
grading.
MOOCs present an entire new dimension to student communications and grading.
I don't think President Obama was thinking in terms of MOOCs in his latest
proposal. However, MOOCs are on the horizon, especially for very specialized
courses that colleges cannot afford to teach on campus. Credit in such courses
may be given on the basis of competency testing.
"Obama Proposals for Colleges Highlight Online Courses," by
Megan O'Neil, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 22, 2013 ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/obama-proposals-for-colleges-highlight-online-courses/45595?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Developing online classes and other nontraditional
teaching approaches could earn colleges money under new federal financing
priorities
proposed on Thursday by President Obama.
More colleges should be encouraged “to embrace
innovative new ways to prepare our students for a 21st-century economy and
maintain a high level of quality without breaking the bank,” the president
said in a
speech at the University at Buffalo, part of the
State University of New York.
The financial rewards for such innovation would be
part of a larger retooling of financing priorities, Mr. Obama said.
Under his proposal, the Department of Education
would have two years to create a college-rating system to help students and
their parents determine the value of an institution. Criteria would include
graduation rates, graduates’ competitiveness in the work force, and their
debt load upon graduation, among others.
As one example of innovation in online learning
that meets students’ needs, Mr. Obama cited an
online master’s program in computer science at the
Georgia Institute of Technology. The program will make its debut in January
and cost a fraction of a traditional on-campus degree.
Continued in article
A Ranking of Online MBA Programs from AACSB-accredited universities
(there are no such online accounting doctoral programs) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm#MBA
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/CrossBorder.htm
"Obama Vows Action on College Costs, but Will It Work?" by Kelly
Field, Chronicle of Higher Education, August 21, 2013 --- |
http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Vows-Action-on-College/141203/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In a speech at Knox College last month, President
Obama said he would "shake up higher education" with an "aggressive
strategy" aimed at making college more affordable.
On Thursday, the president embarks on a two-state,
three-campus tour where he'll lay out what he has in mind. In a
letter sent to his supporters this week, he
promises "real reforms that would bring lasting change."
"Just tinkering around the edges won't be enough,"
he says in the letter. "To create a better bargain for the middle class, we
have to fundamentally rethink about how higher education is paid for in this
country."
The plan, he continues, "won't be popular with
everyone—including some who've made higher education their business—but it's
past time that more of our colleges work better for the students they exist
to serve."
But it's hard to see how the president will tackle
two of the root causes of tuition growth: labor costs and state budget cuts.
Despite productivity gains, and a move toward self-guided,
"competency-based" learning, higher-education remains an industry that's
highly dependent on skilled labor. At the same time, many states have
slashed their spending on higher-education, forcing public colleges to raise
tuition to cover costs.
Taking Colleges
to Task
Over the past year-and-a-half, Mr. Obama has become
a frequent critic of colleges, taking them to task over rising tuition and
warning that the government won't continue to pour money into an
"undisciplined system." He has threatened to withhold some federal aid from
colleges that fail to hold down tuition growth, and has proposed grants for
states and colleges that adopt cost-saving measures.
So far, those ideas have fallen flat, largely
because of federal budget constraints. The president has had better luck
increasing aid to students and making debt more manageable, through expanded
income-based repayment options and lower interest rates on student loans.
His administration has also made information about
college costs and student debt more transparent, through the use of an
online College Scorecard and a standardized financial-aid award letter, or
"shopping sheet."
This week's college tour is the latest in a string
of campaign-style events the White House is using to promote its economic
policies in the run-up to debates in Congress over the federal budget and
the debt ceiling. It includes stops on Thursday and Friday at two State
University of New York campuses—the University at Buffalo and Binghamton
University—and at Lackawanna College, in Scranton, Pa.
Details of the president's proposals aren't yet
available, but some observers expect Mr. Obama to recycle a plan that would
tie some money from the campus-based aid programs to efforts to rein in
tuition growth, and to repeat his call for a "Race to the Top"-style grant
program for colleges and states that take steps to control costs.
He might also propose an expansion of his signature
Pay-as-You-Earn student-loan repayment plan, or declare use of the
financial-aid shopping sheet mandatory for all colleges.
To address state budget cuts, he might propose
requiring states to sustain their spending on higher education to receive
certain federal funds. But past maintenance-of-effort provisions haven't
proven particularly effective, and some members of Congress oppose their
expansion. Tackling labor costs would be even trickier.
"When it comes down to it, there's not all that
much the president can do, besides using the bully pulpit" to exhort states
and colleges to do more, said Daniel T. Madzelan, a longtime Education
Department official who retired last year. "It just comes down to the price
of labor."
From Benefactor
to Critic
During his first years in office, President Obama
focused on expanding student aid, pushing for increases in the maximum Pell
Grant and the creation of a more generous tuition tax credit. Those changes
helped make college more affordable for current students, but they didn't do
anything to slow tuition growth, and skeptics say they may have even fueled
it.
In 2010, the administration turned its attention to
for-profit colleges, proposing to cut off federal student aid to
institutions where borrowers struggle to repay their debt. The resulting
"gainful employment" regulation was overturned by the courts, and the
Education Department is opening negotiations to rewrite the rule this fall.
But it was not until 2012, in his State of the
Union address, that the president began to apply pressure to all of higher
education, putting colleges "on notice" that his administration would not
continue to subsidize
"skyrocketing tuition."
"If you can't stop tuition from going up, the
funding you get from taxpayers will go down," he said.
Three days later, in a speech
at the University of Michigan, he issued a
"blueprint for keeping college affordable,"
repeating proposals to shift more money from the campus-based student-aid
programs to colleges that "do their fair share to keep tuition affordable,"
and create new incentive programs for colleges and states. The plan also
included a call for the
College Scorecard that would provide families with
"essential information" for choosing a college, including data on
institutions' costs, graduation rates, and the potential earnings of
graduates.
He returned to those themes in his 2013 State of
the Union address, calling on colleges to
"do their part to keep costs down," and urging
Congress to consider "affordability and value" when awarding federal aid. In
a
policy plan that accompanied the speech, he
suggested incorporating measures of value and affordability into the
existing accreditation system or establishing a new, alternative system of
accreditation "based on performance and results."
Sidestepping
Congress
Getting Congress to agree to any of those ideas
will be difficult, given budget realities and competing priorities—not to
mention the partisan gridlock currently gripping Washington. Recognizing
this, Mr. Obama has vowed to use the powers of his office to get things
done.
Continued in article
It's troubling enough to study one university's
financial reports. It's a nightmare to compare universities.
"So You Want to Examine Your University's Financial Reports?" by Charles
Schwartz, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/So-You-Want-to-Examine-Your/130672/
Issues in Computing a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and "Worth" of
Professors ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#CostAccounting
"Treating Higher Ed's 'Cost Disease' With
Supersize Online Courses," by Marc Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education,
February 26, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Treating-Higher-Eds-Cost/130934/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
"A Policy Wonk Brings Data on College Costs
to the Table," by Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education,
February 5, 2012 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/A-College-Cost-Policy-Wonk/130662/
The University of Texas System released data
Thursday designed to help the system's regents gauge the productivity of
faculty members, The Texas Tribune
reported -- one part of
an accountability push that has concerned many
professors and troubled some lawmakers. The massive spreadsheet -- which
system officials insisted was raw and unverified, and should be treated as a
draft -- contained numerous data points about all individual professors,
including their total compensation, tenure status, total course enrollments,
and information about research awards. A similar effort this spring at Texas
A&M University -- also undertaken in response to pressure from Gov. Rick
Perry --
created a stir there.
"Release of Faculty-Productivity Data Roils U. of Texas," by Audrey Williams
June, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2011 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Release-of/127439/
Issues in Computing a College's Cost of Degrees Awarded and "Worth" of
Professors (including discussions of the Texas A&M cost allocation study) ---
See below
Update on Online K-12 Schools
Brigham Young University (BYU)
launched its Open CourseWare (OCW) pilot with
six Creative Commons licensed courses
Before reading this module you may want to read about the Creative Commons
---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons
Creative Commons Home Page ---
http://creativecommons.org/
From Canada's Creative Commons ---
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/15108
It appears that David Wiley’s move to Brigham Young
University has already resulted in progress towards opening the university’s
content. Long-time pioneer and academic of open education, Wiley
reports that
BYU’s Independent Study has launched its Open
CourseWare (OCW) pilot with six Creative Commons licensed courses under
CC BY NC-SA.
“The pilot includes three university-level
courses and three high school-level courses (BYU IS offers 250
university-level courses online for credit and another 250 high
school-level courses online for credit). The courses in BYU IS OCW are
content-complete - that is, they are the full courses as delivered
online without the need of additional textbooks or other materials (only
graded assessments have been removed).”
The most interesting thing about this pilot is that
it “is part of a dissertation study to measure the impact of OCW courses on
paying enrollments.” So far, “the results are very positive - 85 of the 3500
people who visited the OCW site last month registered for for-credit
courses… if this pattern remains stable, then BYU IS OCW will be financially
self-sustainable with the ability to add and update a number of new courses
to the collection each year, indefinitely, should they so choose.” Echoing
Wiley, that is an exciting prospect. We look forward to seeing these results
develop, in addition to other inquiries into the sustainability of general
OER initiatives in the future…
BYU Independent Study ---
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/ocw/
Also see
http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/aboutus/index.cfm
University Courses
High School Courses
You may view, use, and reuse all materials in the Open CourseWare
courses. Please note that Open CourseWare courses do not provide the
opportunity to submit assessments for credit, interact with faculty, or
receive credit or a certificate upon completion. BYU Independent Study
provides these courses as a community service under a Creative Commons
license. The course materials are freely available for you to use, download,
modify and share as long as you do not sell the products you derive from
them. If you alter, transform, or build upon the courses, you may distribute
your work only using licensing terms the same as or similar to the
Creative Commons Atribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0.
University Courses (includes art, accounting, chemistry, etc.)
High School Courses
Middle
School Courses
Personal Enrichment Courses
Free Courses (includes such things as dating and romance)
Bob Jensen's threads on open sharing (learning materials, videos,
lectures, and entire courses) are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
Bob Jensen's threads on distance education training and education
alternatives are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm
June 22, 2006 module from the
newsletter of T.H.E. Journal
Pennsylvania
Unveils Latest Statewide Public Cyber School
Families
across Pennsylvania were given a new option in public education with
the announcement of the Agora Cyber Charter School. This public
cyber school, which will serve students in grades K-10, is currently
accepting enrollments from new students and hiring certified
teachers from across the state. The
Agora Cyber Charter School is the
only public cyber school in Pennsylvania using both the curriculum
and school management services by K12 Inc. As a K12 certified
school, Agora Cyber Charter School's teachers, students, and parents
will have access to not only the complete K12 learning program, but
also to K12's team of education, curriculum, and school management
experts. Agora Cyber Charter School teachers will have the benefit
of receiving K12's specialized teacher training designed to equip
them to meet every challenge and become excellent cyber school
educators. Additionally, students who enroll in Agora receive a
computer system on loan from the school, access to the K12 Online
School, lessons, assessments, books, materials, planning and
progress tools, Internet reimbursement, access to the school
community, and much more. |
Jensen Comment
Some online alternatives in other states are summarized at
http://www.evanscraig.com/resources/general.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on free math tutorials are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics
Learnthat.com: Free web training for computer courses ---
http://www.learnthat.com/courses/computer/default.asp
Bob Jensen's threads on free textbooks and other learning
materials in various fields, including literature, economics, history,
statistics, and accounting ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm
Bob Jensen's writing helpers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries
Stanford University's Online High School for Gifted Students
Stanford's Education Program for Gifted Youth will
launch a three-year, fully accredited, diploma-granting high school for gifted
students, thanks to a $3.3 million gift from the Malone Family Foundation. The
program will begin accepting student applications this spring and is scheduled
to begin classes in the fall.
"Stanford to offer first online high school for gifted students," Stanford
Report, April 14, 2006 ---
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/april19/ohs-041906.html
Stanford's Online High School for Gifted Students
Stanford University is opening an online high school
for gifted students this fall,
The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The high
school will eventually enroll 300 students and Stanford officials hope to
provide an educational alternative and to have a lead on recruiting some of the
brightest students for college.
Inside Higher Ed, August 15, 2006 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/15/qt
Jensen Comment
Stanford also manages an onsite high school in East Palo Alto.
I had the following Tidbit in April 2006:
A Remedial High School Alternative
PLATO Learning Inc. (
http://www.plato.com ) has announced the release of PLATO Courses, which are
semester-long online courses that provide schools and districts a way to deliver
rigorous credit-recovery solutions, alternatives for students not succeeding in
the traditional environment, credit-granting distance learning programs, and
home school curricula. The PLATO Courses cover math, science, and social
studies, and are aligned to national standards in each subject area. Each course
provides a comprehensive course curriculum, including exemptive assessments,
instructional content, cumulative final exams, and state standards coverage
reports. To promote the successful use of PLATO Courses, PLATO Education
Consultants provide both on-site and electronic professional development
sessions. Each PLATO Course also includes teacher support materials in the form
of a Teacher's Guide and an Implementation Guide. Pricing varies.
Education Atlas ---
http://www.educationatlas.com/
A fee-based window to 75,000
providers of over 700,000 scholarships --- http://www.scholarshipexperts.com/
Revised Student Loan Site from the
U.S. Department of Education Gets a Lot of Hits (50% increase in the first
month of operation) --- http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/
Bob Jensen's College Finder --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#EducationInGeneral
Online Distance Education Training and Education Courses and Programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Google Links to Colleges and Universities --- http://www.google.com/options/universities.html
Search engine for education sites --- http://www.searchedu.com/
US
News and World Reports offers some pretty good startup advice at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/stepbystep/brief/step1_brief.php
Sets of rankings are given at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
A school comparison service is offered at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/tools/brief/coworks_brief.php
Free From the University of Utah
Learn Genetics Online (for teachers and students) ---
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/
The Genetic Science Learning Center is an outreach
education program located in the midst of bioscience research at the
University of Utah. Our mission is to help people understand how genetics
affects their lives and society.
To achieve this mission, we present education
offerings for various audiences, including:
- This website,
which delivers interactive and print-based resources, free of charge, to
Internet users worldwide. The website has two main components:
- Information and activities:
These address standards for science education, and are accessible to
all users from the homepage.
-
Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans: These
are accessible from the top right of any page. They include
PDF-based Print-and-Go™ classroom activities and teacher guides for
all materials.
- Professional
development programs that update K-12 teachers' expertise in
bioscience topics. See our list of upcoming courses and workshops,
accessible through the
Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans section of
this site.
- Public
education programs that highlight topics of current interest and
research underway at the University of Utah.
Our educational resources provide accurate and
unbiased information about topics in genetics and bioscience. Designed for
non-research audiences, our materials are interactive and jargon-free,
target multiple learning styles, and often convey concepts through visual
elements. Our newest materials are being developed with our Exploragraphic™
design methodology.
Some topics in genetics and bioscience research are
controversial. The Learning Center does not take sides in politically or
ethically charged topics. Rather, our goal is to provide comprehensive
information that promotes a lively discussion of these topics, so that
individuals can arrive at their own informed decisions.
Open2 portal to learning
I think Open University in the U.K. is the largest university in the world. It
has extensive onsite and online courses. BBC News and Open University
combined forces to create the Open2 portal to learning and news ---
http://www.open2.net/
There are also various forums.
Long-standing international studies
programs and international student exchange programs that typically involve
onsite study on a foreign campus. Most all colleges and universities have
some type of international studies program.
College education distance education
courses for credit, including online programs that cater to international
students. Many examples can be found at the following sites.
Question
Will Wikipedia evolve into a successful open sharing Wikiversity?Answer
See
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity
There are many distance education courses in the U.K.
The Guardian has a really interesting education search
page for U.K. students. It first lets you choose from hundreds of distance
education course topics. Then you choose what type of credential/degree
your are seeking and what college you want to pick ---
http://www.ecctisclearing.co.uk/
When I searched for "accounting" and "degree" courses on August
27, 2005, I found links to 820 courses in many colleges and universities.
Canada's Open University
Athabasca University, in Edmonton, Alberta,
said Monday (August 15, 2005) that it had become
the first Canadian university to become accredited by a regional agency in the
United States. The distance education institution, which bills itself as
“Canada’s Open University,” said it had been granted accreditation by the Middle
States Commission on Higher Education.
Inside Higher Ed, August 16, 2005 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/08/16/qt
Welcome to virtual classrooms in India
(forwarded by Jagdish Gangolli)
Education in colleges and schools across India's
villages and urban areas will not be the same from July 28 onwards after the
launch of a revolutionary education service by President A P J Abdul Kalam on
Thursday. Install a one-and-a-half feet long, small dish antennae in your home,
school, neighbourhood community hall, college or university and you can attend
world-class classroom lectures, whether you are a primary student or a college
graduate. Such lectures delivered at any remote learning centre or the Indian
Institutes of Technology are disseminated to your home. Nearly a year after the
Indian Space Research Organisation launched the world's first dedicated
education satellite, Edusat, virtual classrooms have become a reality in the
country. President Kalam opened the country's first phase of Edusat's operations
on Thursday by connecting 15 teacher training centres and 50 government schools
through satellite in Kerala.
"A revolution in India education," redoff.com, July 28, 2005 ---
http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/28gi.htm
Teachers Without Borders ---
http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org/
From Syllabus News on April 27, 2004
Online University Consortium Flaks Traditional Degree
Programs
A consortium of traditional universities has produced
a report that – not surprisingly – indicates traditional universities are
the preferred choice for online education and degree programs over for-profit
providers. The Online University Consortium, whose members include Penn State,
the University of Oregon, Ohio University, and the University of Southern
California, said a survey it conducted showed companies prefer candidates with
degrees from traditional universities two-to-one over for-profit providers.
OIC also pointed to market research by Eduventures, a for-profit educational
research firm, that concluded that, “as the market matures, brand strength
will increasingly favor non-profit institutions.”
According to the report, traditional universities
command significant brand equity, and will threaten market share of for-profit
businesses, because students identify them as a familiar provider from which
they will choose an online program for traditional reasons. “For-profit
providers enjoyed an initial surge in popularity partly because of
convenience," notes Greg Eisenbarth, the Consortium's Executive Director.
"However, the market has shifted dramatically with the country's most
respected universities now offering quality online degree programs for greater
choice and flexibility."
The studies can be found at: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=6743
Bob Jensen's threads on online training and education alternatives are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
June 28, 2005
Peru State College, in Nebraska, is
now
offering six of its bachelor’s degree programs and one master’s degree
online ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/28/new
"University of Illinois at Springfield Wants to 'Mirror' All Classroom
Programs Online," by Dan Carnevale, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
April 16, 2004, Page A32.
Officials of the University of Illinois at
Springfield say they are working toward creating an online "mirror
campus" that will offer all 39 of the degree programs that are available
in the university's classrooms. The plan is one of the most ambitious online
projects undertaken by a mainstream institution.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gave the university a
$1.21-million grant last month to pay for converting courses into online
formats and for hiring more faculty members to teach them. The university is
also spending at least $400,000 on the current phase of the project.
By fall the Springfield campus will have eight degree
programs online, made up of about 175 online courses. The grant money will pay
for eight more online degrees, to be available in three years. Officials hope
to have all 39 degrees available online in about 10 years.
EXPANDING ACCESS
The Springfield campus is not, however, becoming a
virtual institution. All on-campus courses and degrees will remain available.
The mirror campus is meant to give students the option of taking any course
either by going to a classroom or by lounging on a futon with a laptop.
"The key word here is access," says Burks
Oakley II, the university's associate vice president for academic affairs.
"One of the key things about this grant is keeping online in the
mainstream."
While there are many virtual institutions in the
United States, there appear to be no mainstream institutions that have tried
to put all of their degree programs online. The Massachusetts Institute of
Technology has promised to put teaching materials from all its courses online
but not the courses themselves, meaning that outsiders may see the materials
but not take the courses for credit.
The University of Illinois at Springfield is a
midsize institution, with about 4,500 students. It has 20 undergraduate degree
programs, 18 master's programs, and a doctoral program. Comparatively few
freshmen and sophomores attend the institution, as most students enroll for
upper-division and graduate courses.
Education
Fraud and Gray Zone Warnings About Questionable Online Program --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm#DiplomaMill
Important Distance
Education Site
The Sloan Consortium --- http://www.aln.org/
The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations
continually improve quality, scale, and breadth according to their own
distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety
of disciplines.
From The Wall Street Journal Accounting Weekly Review on March 9,
2007
Toyota University Opens Admissions to Outsiders
by Mike
Spector and Gina Chon
Mar 05, 2007
Page: B1
Click here to view the full article on WSJ.com
TOPICS: Accounting, International
Accounting, Inventory Systems, Just-In-Time Inventory
Management, Kaizen costing, Managerial Accounting, Operational
Control Systems, Productivity, Quality Costs
SUMMARY: Toyota Motor Corp.
operates a training center in Gardena, CA, that it began in 1998
to "train the company's own employees in it distinctive business
philosophy and 'lean-thinking' approach to producing cars....The
school occupies the Toyota Plaza building...' and is run by Mike
Morrison, who is referred to as "the dean," and Will Decker,
"assistant dean." Toyota is not offering training sessions to
outsiders now because of demand for its services by the
companies' own workers, but has done so in the past. The article
describes Toyota's lean-thinking management and production
philosophies and describes several cases of outsiders using its
services. One story covered in the article describes how the LA
Police Department participated in the training seminar to
improve the process for booking inmates. A result of the LAPD
participation also was the benefit received when staff police
realized their suggestions were taken to heart by management.
QUESTIONS:
1.) Why has Toyota established its "Toyota University"? Would
you call it a university or a training center? What is the
difference between these two?
2.) Why has Toyota offered its management and process training
to outsiders? Why is it not doing so now? What are the strategic
advantages and disadvantages to offering corporate training to
outsiders?
3.) What production innovations has Toyota developed that form
the central philosophy for the training discussed in the
article? List the terms for the innovations and define them.
4.) What hands on learning strategy is used to emphasize the
problems with defects that can arise in traditional production
planning systems? Why do you think this technique might be more
effective than, say, having an instructor merely list the pros
and cons of particular production systems?
5.) Why is it possible for good production process techniques in
one industry to benefit very different industries, even
government services such as the police force? How does listening
and learning about very different circumstances from one's own
industry, produce part of this benefit?
6.) What evidence in the article speaks to the benefits of
management listening to staff suggestions?
|
Northeastern University's Online MBA Program ---
http://www.onlinemba.neu.edu/bwem/
Bob Jensen's reply (November 16,
2007) to a CPA from Pennsylvania who inquired about online MBA programs
Many online MBA programs are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#Education
Obviously, some are more prestigious/reputable than others.
Your alma mater (Penn State) has very
reputable business and accounting studies, including a fully-online MBA
program ---
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA.shtml?cid=0406_GOOJS437_0606
This program is designed for applicants with business experience, but it
appears you should qualify on this criterion since you are a CPA and are
professionally employed in the real world.
Penn State’s online MBA program consists of
20 courses plus a two-week residency requirement. Given the scheduling
constraints, it will probably take two years of part-time (but intensive)
study. The online curriculum is at
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/iMBA_curriculum.shtml
Online masters of accounting and taxation
programs are linked at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#MastersOfAccounting
However, I can’t see the cost benefit of these programs given that you are
already a CPA. An exception might be made if you had a problem with
reciprocity when relocating into a 150-credit licensing state.
You might also consider getting a doctorial
degree in accounting or finance. However, I don’t think there are any
respectable doctoral programs in these areas that do not require 2-3 years
of full-time residency. However, these programs are generally free plus they
provide added living allowances. Most require the equivalency of four-years
of full-time study, part of which might be online and part of which includes
the thesis year that probably does not require residency. There are other
factors to consider ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
The good news is that there is a dire
shortage of accounting and finance doctoral students. Most graduates
currently expect to earn over $150,000 starting salaries (including
summers).
Bob Jensen
"CPEs Can Lead to MBA," AccountingWeb,
August 19, 2005 ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=101218
The Ohio Society of
Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA) has
partnered with Franklin University in
Columbus, Ohio, to allow CPAs to apply CPE
credit toward the
Franklin MBA.
The Applied Leadership Focus allows CPAs to
apply qualifying CPEs towards as many as
eight credit hours in the Franklin MBA
Program. CPAs applying CPEs toward their MBA
can obtain their degree in as little as 14
months, reducing the usual 17-month duration
by up to three months. Four credit hours are
the equivalent of 120 CPEs.
“CPAs are committed
to lifelong learning and fulfill a stringent
continuing education commitment requiring
120 hours every three years,” explains J.
Clarke Price, CAE, President and CEO of the
Ohio Society of CPAs in announcing the
partnership. “Through this unique
partnership with Franklin University, Ohio
Society members can apply their CPE credits
toward an MBA. It’s part of our ongoing
commitment to create value-added benefits fo
rour members.”
CEO Leaderboard
reports that the Franklin MBA is the largest
MBA Program in central Ohio. The Franklin
MBA is unique in the choices and flexibility
it offers. Students can select from two
academic formats: the new Life Cycle format
and the traditional Discipline-Based format.
Further tailoring is available through seven
Focus Areas, including the
accounting-focused Financial Leadership
Focus. Students can also choose to complete
their MBA online or on-site. Finally,
Franklin’s rolling admission and flexible
start dates all students to begin the MBA
Program at multiple pints during the year.
Continued in article
|
|
|
|
Banks and Credit Derivatives
From Jim Mahar's blog on August 17, 2005
Minton, Stulz,
and Williamson have an
Health Care (Healtcare) Education Online
YourLearning.com --- http://www.yourlearning.com/churchillreport.html
The report may be
beneficial for individuals who are involved in online learning developments in
healthcare education in the USA and other countries. The institutions visited
during the fellowship may find it useful to read own and others case studies,
to compare and reflect on the developments and implications on teaching and
learning in healthcare. The report may be useful for other institutions in the
USA, to add to the picture of diversity in online learning developments within
USA. .
American InterContinental University (AIU) Online--- http://www.aiuniv.edu/
"Al Gore Keynotes AIU Online Graduation Ceremony," Lycos,
March 5, 2004 --- http://snipurl.com/LycosGore
Millions of future students will owe a debt of
gratitude to those who today are blazing a new trail in online education, said
former United States Vice President Al Gore during the online commencement
ceremony of American InterContinental University (AIU) Online, one of the
nation's fastest-growing universities.
"Even those of us who have promoted and believe
in this new technology stand in awe of what you have done," Mr. Gore told
the AIU Online graduates and their families and friends during the Web-based
event held Saturday, February 28. "You are the ones who have supplied the
hard work, the stamina, the dedication, the endurance and the will to succeed
that we recognize today."
In addition to Mr. Gore's remarks, a highlight of the
online graduation ceremony was the reading of the names of recipients of
bachelor's degrees and master's degrees in the curricular programs of
Information Technology, Business Administration, Visual Communication and
Education. Also announced were the names of students who had earned Honors
designations.
Mr. Gore said that with the information revolution
replacing the industrial revolution, education is far more important today
than at any other point in human history. "America's gross domestic
product has tripled in value over the last half-century while the gross
tonnage of everything we make and sell actually has declined slightly. That's
because materials like steel and wood and rubber and plastic are being
replaced by ingenuity, knowledge and the ability to use information in more
creative ways.
"The degree you receive today certifies that you
have obtained the knowledge and skills to deal with information more
effectively than those who lack this credential and who have not gone through
the experience that you have just successfully navigated," Mr. Gore said.
"But the value of your online education extends beyond opening up new
career opportunities for you. It also will enrich life for you and your
families."
American InterContinental University is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ:
CECO). CEC operates 78 campuses in the U.S., Canada, France, the United
Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates and had approximately 83,200 students as
of January 31, 2004. AIU Online is the Web-based virtual campus of American
InterContinental University, an international university with onsite campuses
located in Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles, CA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX;
London, England; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. American InterContinental
University has been educating students for more than 30 years and is
regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Wal-Mart University Tuition Discounts
From Syllabus News on January 13, 2004
Wal-Mart Signs Capella U. as ‘Preferred’ Online
Ed Provider
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has signed
a deal for Capella University to become the online education provider for its
new My Education Connection program. Under the offering, Walmart customers can
receive tuition discounts for online degree programs from Capella, which has
9,000 students and offers degrees and certificates to working adults in
business, technology, education, human services, and psychology.
You can read the following at http://www.capella.edu/GATEWAY.ASPX
Capella University Overview In Brief Capella
University is an accredited online university that offers courses,
certificates and degree programs, including MBA, doctorate, graduate and
undergraduate degrees in business, technology, education, human services and
psychology. Founded in 1993, Capella is the world's fastest-growing e-learning
institution.
A pioneer in online learning, Capella University is a
results-oriented educational institution geared specifically to the goals and
lifestyles of adult learners. Capella redefines the higher education
experience for non-traditional learners, thereby offering an accessible and
flexible education program that allows technology to remove the barriers of
time and place.
Accreditation Capella University is accredited by The
Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and
Schools (NCA), the same body that accredits Big Ten universities. The NCA has
recognized Capella for "its pioneering role in translating an adult
learning model into action." Capella is the first and only online
academic institution to participate in the NCA of Colleges and Schools
Academic Quality Improvement Project.
Enrollment Capella University's student body
currently comprises students from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
The majority of Capella's learners are working adults who often are balancing
family, work and educational achievement.
More than 600 corporations provide tuition
reimbursement to employees enrolled at Capella University. Check the Capella
Learner Organizations list for your employer's name.
Additionally, some Organizations have signed
Corporate Alliance Partnership Agreements with Capella University. Employees
of our Corporate Partners receive several additional benefits such as tuition
discounts, streamlined enrollment process and cohort learning opportunities.
Our programs are designed to have an immediate impact on the individual
learner and the organization, positioning both for greater success.
Capella is also a leading provider of courses in all branches of the U.S.
Military --- http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/military_index.aspx
Corporate partnerships and alliances are listed at http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/corp/index.aspx
Some Winners and
Losers to Date in Online MBA Programs
"Universities Exporting M.B.A.
Programs via the Internet," by Otto Pohl, The New York Times, March
26, 2003 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/26/nyregion/26MBA.html
LONDON — If Jeremy
Hallett had his way, he would be sitting on a leafy university campus in the
United States with plenty of time to contemplate the theories of business.
Instead, he spends
hectic lunch hours and long evenings in his office cubicle here, earning his
M.B.A.
"It's not a
perfect world," he says with a shrug.
Driven by the mantra
of globalization and enabled by Internet-based technologies, M.B.A. programs
in the United States are expanding rapidly into new markets overseas. The
schools are looking for full-time, on-campus students seeking an international
M.B.A. degree as well as part-timers like Mr. Hallett, who want to learn from
afar while they continue working.
Some of the
universities are virtual, offering American degrees via the Internet. Mr.
Hallett, a London-based senior vice president at Thomson Financial, is earning
his M.B.A. from Cardean University, a newly created entity that exists only in
cyberspace and markets a course package created by other institutions,
including Stanford, Columbia and the University of Chicago.
For Mr. Hallett, it
was the availability of these prestigious schools on his computer screen that
persuaded him to enroll. "These schools are recognized around the
world," he said. "This degree will be truly international."
The M.B.A. is an
American creation. More than 100,000 students are enrolled in M.B.A. programs
in the United States, and now tens of thousands more are enrolled overseas.
Even the threat of global recession has not diminished its popularity, as
unemployed workers sharpen their job skills.
The biggest growth
opportunity today for American online universities is inside the United
States, but the schools are also looking to carry the prestige of American
education overseas.
"We're serving a
global market," said Andrew Rosenfield, the founder and chairman of
Cardean University. A third of Cardean's students are outside the United
States, and he expects the proportion to grow significantly over time.
"The United
States certainly has no monopoly on running successful businesses," he
says, adding that business students have to get their training somewhere.
Traditional
campus-based programs are looking to train them as well. Columbia formed a
partnership with the London Business School, and the Stern School of Business
at New York University recently inaugurated the Trium M.B.A. degree with the
London School of Economics and H.E.C. Paris. Thunderbird, an M.B.A. program in
Arizona that bills itself as the oldest international M.B.A. program in the
world, established its own satellite campus in France last fall.
These programs are
designed to appeal to executives who want globally recognized names on their résumés.
Lawrence Naested, an
American Express
executive in London, is enrolled in the Trium program, studying in places like
Hong Kong, Paris, Brazil, and New York. "This is far and away superior to
a traditional M.B.A. program," he says. "Mixing with different
backgrounds and nationalities far outweighs spending a year in a book."
Even schools that are
very careful about diluting their brand names are looking for new growth
opportunities. The Harvard Business School is keeping its campus-based
education sacrosanct while offering noncredit Harvard-branded education to
managers who can tap into a database for answers to specific questions.
Instead of teaching what may be needed one day, they offer continuous
assistance to managers confronted with real-life situations.
"We're moving
from just-in-case education to just-in-time education," says Jonathon D.
Levy, vice-president of online learning solutions at Harvard Business School
Publishing, a subsidiary of the Harvard Business School.
This wealth of new
business models centered on education has caught the eye of investors.
"Very solid returns, solid profits, and good cash flow," says
Richard Close, a vice president of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, summing up why
he feels for-profit post-secondary education is a great investment
opportunity. "Online, you can leverage that success even more."
Most of the online
universities are hoping to emulate the success of the University of Phoenix,
whose growth is one of the most remarkable stories in for-profit academia. The
university, with 140,000 students, has become the largest university in the
country in terms of enrollment. About 60,000 of those students attend classes
online and 4,000 are overseas. The stock of Apollo Group, which owns the
university, has kept pace, rising 500 percent since January 2000.
There have also been
plenty of failures. Many online programs founded during the Internet boom did
little but hemorrhage money. Pensare, an online M.B.A. company using Duke
courses, has been scrapped. Quisic, an online program developed with the Tuck
School of Business at Dartmouth, was closed.last year, and SUNY Buffalo had an
online M.B.A. program that lasted only 18 months.
Administrators of
campus-based programs believe the failure of many online programs highlights
the importance of extensive classroom time and personal interaction. And while
few of those involved with online degrees dispute the superiority of
full-time, face-to-face learning, they point to the much larger market of
those who would like an education but cannot quit their jobs or travel to a
campus.
Unlike elite
campus-based programs, which offer exclusivity along with the degree, the
online programs accept anyone with a good credit history and a reasonable
likelihood of finishing the program. The online programs are expensive —
Cardean's M.B.A. costs $24,000 — but that is still much less than a program
like Trium, which costs $92,000.
The success of the
American M.B.A. overseas already has some foreign schools marketing themselves
as alternatives. "We reflect an Anglo-American way of doing
business," says Mark Fenton-O'Creevy, the director of the British Open
University Business School master's program.
Continued in the article.
Online MBA program from the W.P. Carey
School of Business at Arizona State University at Tempe --- http://wpcarey.asu.edu/mba/
From Syllabus News on October 14, 2003
Online University Consortium Releases Learner
Assessment Tool
A network of universities founded to help companies
and employees secure a quality online education, announced a Web-based
assessment tool for prospective students considering online degree programs.
The Online Learner Assessment, unveiled by the Online University Consortium,
helps students determine their aptitude for online education in order to
choose the best source for their individual learning style. The tool helps
Online UC to match learners with qualified degree programs.
"The tool helps learners avoid costly mistakes
by making the best education choice for their individual needs," said
Greg Eisenbarth, Online UC's executive director. "This allows targeted
development and enhances ROI for corporations funding employee training."
Read more: http://info.101com.com/default.asp?id=3157
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Education Index --- http://www.educationindex.com/
Welcome
to the Education Index®, an annotated guide to the best
education-related sites on the Web. They're sorted by subject
and lifestage, so
you can find what you're looking for quickly and easily. There's also a
place to find out more about
us, and about all that the Education Index has to offer.
The Web
WeaselSM is here to guide you through the site; you'll find
"The Weas" (as we affectionately know it) mixing it up in the chemistry
lab, providing health
care, and running
for office.
This section is a topic-by-topic breakdown of the best sites on the
World Wide Web. We're continually reviewing new sites and adding
resources, and appreciate
your comments and suggestions.
Note the NYU Virtual College online training and education courses --- http://www.scps.nyu.edu/landing/index.jsp?wfId=142
NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS)
where you'll find a wealth of programs to meet your career needs.
As the leader in adult education, SCPS offers:
- World-class education at a prestigious research
university
- Specialized instruction by a faculty of renowned
leaders
- An opportunity to study in New York City, home
to some of the fastest-growing global industries
- Courses and degree programs that accommodate
your busy schedule, including our online offerings from
The Virtual College
College for Financial Planning --- http://www.fp.edu/
There are now three distance learning masters degree programs.
The College for Financial Planning, the oldest and most
widely respected provider of financial planning education in the United States,
offers an accredited online master’s degree program as well as several
industry education and certification programs. In 1972, we created the country's
first financial planning education program—the CFP® Certification
Professional Education Program—still our most popular, with over 55,000
graduates. In addition, the College also offers continuing education and
professional development courses for financial services professionals.
Portal to Asian Internet Resources --- http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/PAIR/index.html
A Title VI-funded project, the Portal to Asian
Internet Resources (PAIR) offers scholars, students and the interested public
more than six thousand professionally selected, cataloged and annotated online
resources.
Committed to directing users to Asian area content in
the humanities and social sciences, the PAIR Project is supported by an
impressive complement of area studies scholars, bibliographers and subject
selectors based at the libraries of the University of Wisconsin, the
University of Minnesota and the Ohio State University.
With a primary mission of providing direct access to
online Asian information in native languages and scripts, the PAIR Project
team also hopes to broaden access by offering users a suite of instructional
resources on the use of Asian character sets and search engines.
From Syllabus News, Resources, and Trends on July 2, 2002
Babson Blends Online, Onsite MBA Program
Babson College said it will launch in Jan. a
"fast track" MBA program that integrates traditional onsite
classroom instruction with distance learning components. The program will
enable students to obtain an MBA in 27 months, and is designed for
executives struggling to balance work and personal demands in an economic
recession. Intel Corp. sponsored the program as a complement to its
corporate education package, and has modeled it with 33 employees. The
blended MBA program calls for students to attend monthly two and-a-half days
of face-to-face sessions with Babson's faculty on campus in Wellesley.
During the rest of the time, students will take part in Internet-based
distance learning sessions with their professors and access interactive
multimedia course content.
For more information, visit: http://www.babson.edu/mba/fasttrac
From Syllabus News on March 4, 2003
Online School Awards Dual Canadian-U.S.
eMBAs
Canada’s Lansbridge University, one of
the first completely online commercial universities, is launching an
executive Master of Business Administration program that will award
graduates dual eMBA degrees from Landsbridge and the Nashville,
Tenn.-based American Graduate School of Management (AGSM). The eMBA
program is designed for managers with at least five years of
full-time work experience, including at least two years at a
management level. The degree program requires about 18 to 20 hours
of study per week, and typically takes two-and-a-half years to
complete. AGSM was co-founded in 2000 by Lamar Alexander, a U.S.
Senator, former U.S. secretary of education, and former president of
the University of Tennessee.
|
Legal Education at a Distance
The online only
Concord School of
Law — which has managed to grow without ABA
recognition — announced a merger with Kaplan University. In terms of corporate
ownership, this isn’t much of a change — both Concord and Kaplan are divisions
of Kaplan Inc., a major player in for-profit higher education. But because
Kaplan University is regionally accredited (which Concord is not), the merger
will make Concord students eligible for federal student loans and to defer
repaying their past student loans when enrolled. These are seen as advances for
Concord — whose officials say that they believe law school’s efforts will
eventually change attitudes about distance legal education.
Scott Jaschik, "Legal Education at a Distance," Inside Higher Ed, October
31, 2007 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/31/concord
From SyllabusNews on August 20, 2002
Online Only Law School Graduates First
Class
With the graduation of its inaugural class,
the first wholly Internet law school said it has already hit several
milestones for growth. In less than four years, the Concord
University School of Law has grown from 33 students to more than
1,000 today enrolled in the school's Juris Doctor, Executive Juris
Doctor, and Master of Health Law programs. The school's faculty has
also grown, from six at the school's launch in 1998 to more than 60
currently. Concord said more than 42 percent of its current students
already have one or more advanced degrees, including 67 MDs, 33
Ph.D.s and 23 CPAs. Moreover, its students recorded a 50 percent
pass rate on California's rigorous First Year Law Student's Exam,
compared to the statewide first-time takers' rate of 30 percent.
For more information, visit: http://www.concordlawschool.com
A pioneering -- and
maligned -- Internet-only law school debuts its first graduating class. Despite
the school's lack of bar association accreditation, its grads look forward to
practicing law.
"Law Grads Online, Bar None,"
by Julia Scheeres, Wired News, November 21, 2002 --- http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56512,00.html
Despite the
traditionalists who pooh-poohed its very existence, the country's pioneering
Internet law school will debut its first class of Juris Doctorates on Thursday
at a graduation ceremony in Los Angeles, where the virtual institution has a
physical office.
The event marks the
third time the students and faculty of Concord
Law School have met face-to-face in four years. Ten of the 14 graduates
are expected to attend the ceremony, which will feature media mogul Barry
Diller as the keynote speaker and will be webcast on Concord's website.
Both the American Bar
Association and the California Bar Association have refused to accredit the
school, charging
that law students can't get a proper education online. This lack of
recognition means that Concord students can only ply their trade in the
handful of states that don't require attorneys to graduate from ABA-accredited
schools.
But that impediment
didn't phase Roberto Lee, a 62-year-old general surgeon from Wytheville,
Virginia, who studied law at night after long days stooped over operating
tables, often subsisting on three hours of sleep.
Like many Concord
students, Lee plans to use his legal knowledge to complement an existing
career, counseling patients on handling tight-fisted insurance companies.
"This is a dream
come true," said Lee, who will attend the graduation with his wife and
four kids, two of whom are lawyers themselves. "Hopefully this will allow
me to help my patients get the care they need."
Concord students
convened in California to take the First Year Students' Law Exam (aka the
"baby bar") and to attend a career forum. In February, they'll meet
a final time to take the state's grueling three-day General Bar Exam.
(California is unusual in that the state doesn't require law students to
attend an accredited school to take the exam.)
Continued at - http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56512,00.html
Legal Education at a Distance
The online only
Concord School of
Law — which has managed to grow without ABA
recognition — announced a merger with Kaplan University. In terms of corporate
ownership, this isn’t much of a change — both Concord and Kaplan are divisions
of Kaplan Inc., a major player in for-profit higher education. But because
Kaplan University is regionally accredited (which Concord is not), the merger
will make Concord students eligible for federal student loans and to defer
repaying their past student loans when enrolled. These are seen as advances for
Concord — whose officials say that they believe law school’s efforts will
eventually change attitudes about distance legal education.
Scott Jaschik, "Legal Education at a Distance," Inside Higher Ed, October
31, 2007 ---
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/31/concord
See also
|
UMassOnlne, the virtual university for the University of Massachusetts
--- http://www.umassonline.net/
|
With UMassOnline, time and distance are no longer
barriers to the courses, degree programs, certificates, and
professional and corporate education opportunities that you need,
both to earn a living and to live.
Register
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online summer courses from UMass Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and
Lowell!
Is an
online program right for you?
If you are considering online education, here
are some of the questions you’ll want to ask!
Confessions
of an Online Professor
Dr. David Patterson, Professor of Music at UMass Boston for nearly
30 years, writes
about teaching his first online class.
UMass is
Featured in US News & World Report
Programs offered by the UMass campuses through UMassOnline are
featured in US News & World Report's October 15, 2001,
''Best of the Online Grad Programs'' issue
|
Summer 2002
In addition to the course views shown below, you can also now customize
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View Courses by Campus
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From the June 21, 2002
edition of Syllabus News
UMass Online
Enrollments, Revenue, Soar
UMassOnline, the
University of Massachusetts' web-based learning division, said online
program enrollments reached 7,824 in fiscal year 2002, a 58 percent increase
over the preceding year. Combined revenues for online programs increased 82
percent to $6.2 million. The school attributes the growth to overall student
satisfaction, the regular addition of new online programs serving community
needs, and the growing acceptance of using the Internet for personal
services. "The online program has been an enormous benefit for me as it
has allowed me to increase my course load, and ... to learn at a more
relaxed pace," said Valerie Cox, an online student at UMass Lowell.
"Students who opt to continue their education online are benefiting
from highly-regarded academic programs without having to sacrifice a
full-time job or more time with their families," added UMassOnline
chief executive officer Jack Wilson.
For more
information, visit: http://www.umassonline.net
Jack Wilson is one of the early
pioneers in education technologies and learning. He is now CEO and
founder of UMass Online (see above). You can read the following at
Dr. Wilson,
also known as an entrepreneur, was the Founder (along with Degerhan Usluel
and Mark Bernstein), first President, and only Chairman of LearnLinc
Corporation (now Mentergy),
a supplier of software systems for corporate training to Fortune 1000
Corporations. In early 2000. LearnLinc merged
with Gilat Communications, (GICOF)
which also acquired Allen Communication
from the Times Mirror group. The Gilat-Allen-LearnLinc combination
forms a powerful "one stop shopping" resource for E*Learning that
is now the Mentergy unit of Gilat Communications. (The LearnLinc
Story).
Dr Wilson
was the J. Erik Jonsson '22 Distinguished Professor of Physics, Engineering
Science, Information Technology, and Management and the Co-director of the
Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer.
After coming to Rensselaer in 1990, he served as the
-
Dean of
Undergraduate Education,
-
Dean of
Professional and Continuing Education,
-
Interim
Provost,
-
Interim
Dean of Faculty, and as the
-
Founding
Director of the Anderson Center for Innovation in Undergraduate
Education.
In these roles, Wilson led a campus wide process of
interactive learning and restructuring of the educational program, known for
the design of the Studio Classrooms, the growth of the Distributed Learning
Program, the creation of the Faculty of Information Technology, and the
initiation of the student mobile computing (universal networked laptop)
initiative
The Studio Classrooms at Rensselaer
replaced large sized core courses taught by traditional lecture pedagogy with
student pairs responsible largely for teaching themselves using computer-aided
and interactive course materials --- http://www.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/WNCTW/ad7.html
Welcome To Interactive Learning
Roll up your sleeves and take a seat in the Rensselaer studio classroom.
Classes of about 60 students are engaged at wired workstations - utilizing
cutting edge tools like Web-based technologies, full-motion video, computer
simulation, and other laboratory resources. An instructor and teaching
assistant move from workstation to workstation observing and coaching. Notes
are taken with a simple mouse click, as students download files and class
materials onto their required laptops. It's an innovative blend of
discussion and skill-building, high-tech inquiry and problem-solving -
preparing scholars to succeed in the new business world. It's all part of
Interactive Learning at Rensselaer.
More Studios Than Hollywood
Interactive Learning is more than just a concept at Rensselaer; it's a
working reality. The approach has been infused throughout all of our
undergraduate disciplines in more than 25 studio classrooms with more being
built all the time. In the LITEC studio classroom, students build
remote-controlled cars in a project-based, team environment. In the Circuits
Studio, students develop and test their own circuits. The Collaborative
Classroom, funded by the National Science Foundation, serves as a
testbed for using computer technology to collaborate on design projects. At
Rensselaer, knowledge and application are seamlessly intertwined.
Teaching How We Teach
Rensselaer's revolutionary model for education has been talked about,
honored, and emulated. We earned the first Pew Charitable Trust Award for
the Renewal of Undergraduate Education and the first Boeing Outstanding
Educator Award, among others. Last year, we were named to administer an $8.8
million Pew-funded program to bring educational innovation to other
universities in this country: The Center
for Academic Transformation. Literally hundreds of institutions have
visited Rensselaer to learn how we teach.
No Stopping Now
Of course, the very thinking that enabled Rensselaer to initiate Interactive
Learning is the same mindset that keeps us pressing forward. Rensselaer's Anderson
Center for Innovation in Undergraduate Education was founded 11 years
ago with the continuing mission of making Rensselaer a leader in innovative
pedagogy. More recently, the Rensselaer Academy
of Electronic Media has become the spawning ground for highly creative
visualization software that enables students to learn scientific and
engineering principles in ways never before possible. We continue to look
for new and better methods to evolve education - meeting the present and
future needs of our students, professors, and global businesses. Because
solving real-world challenges is our mission and our passion.
Why
not change the world?
Important Article
of the Week --- by Jack Wilson
"More than Digital Content: Long
Live Your Course," by Jack M Wilson, Syllabus, May 2002, pp. 12-14
--- http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6331
It all used to be so easy. As far as a university
administrator was concerned, content came in two forms: written materials
and patents. Over the centuries, a very simple way of dealing with these was
developed: Faculty were left the ownership of the text materials, and the
university got custody of the patents. The university benefited from
publication of the texts because the fame of the professor accrued to the
institution, which was always recognized on the article or textbook. The
faculty benefited from the patent because it could be included in the
promotion and tenure process, and they would also share in the profits
through a pre-negotiated percentage of the royalties.
Then the world changed. As the bumper sticker says: "IT happened."
Information Technology, that is. Being digital. What was clear became
obscure. What was known became perplexing. Content now became digital, and
it could be copied, altered, stolen, distributed, and sold at rates never
before imagined. When greed and paranoia are added to sudden change, it is a
recipe for trouble, and that is exactly what we have.
Trouble in the Kingdom
Perhaps greed struck first. The media decreed that "Content is
King," and corporations moved to lock up as much content as they could
and then worked to develop the digital distribution systems to capitalize on
that content. Universities, seeing dollars in digital content, began to
promulgate policies to assert their intellectual property rights. Faculty
were not much wiser. They began to think that their content was so valuable
that they were going to be able to make big money by digitizing and selling
it. Very few did. Content providers, the companies formerly known as
"publishers," moved to take advantage of their ownership of the
content.
Every publisher had a strategy
to capitalize on its content in the digital world. For example:
Harcourt Higher Education was launched as a college in 2000 and confidently
predicted "50,000 to 100,000 enrollments within five years."
Unfortunately, by late 2001, the Harcourt effort was gone after enrolling a
total of 32 students.
I am not suggesting that faculty and universities do not have the right to
be compensated for their intellectual property. I believe they do. I am
suggesting that a foolishly inflated sense of the value of their property
(read: greed) leads to foolish and counterproductive policies and actions.
So much for the greed. What about the paranoia? While serving as provost and
dean at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, I had to adjudicate many disputes
between faculty and the university legal counsel over the ownership of
digital materials. At one point, the counsel asserted that "anything on
the university servers becomes the property of the university." That
got the faculty excited. It also created havoc in our education programs as
faculty threatened to remove materials from our Web sites. With a lot of
work and reference to tradition and legal precedent, we were able to craft a
policy that was acceptable but far from perfect.
As part of several national projects, I have had the opportunity to work
with faculty and administrators from all over the country. Many faculty
seriously fear that their work will be digitized, their lectures put in
digital video, and then there will be no more need for them. I was once on a
panel where another panelist suggested that we were moving toward a day when
Paul Samuelson would teach all the introductory economics courses and Jack
Wilson would teach all the introductory physics courses. I stood up and
said, "I object!" This is a serious misconception that seems to
equate the role of the professor with the presentation of content. I have
often said that any faculty member that could be replaced by a videotape,
CD, or Web site should be replaced—as soon as possible. I don’t expect
many to be replaced. Teaching is not presenting. Watching is not learning.
What’s Wrong with This Question?
It has become popular, in the past few years, to ask the question:
"Who owns courses?" I think that is a question that comes from
confusion between courses and course materials. I also think it is a
profoundly dangerous question. Merely asking the question presumes that
someone actually "owns" courses. That contravenes centuries of
traditions of freedom of speech and academic freedom. In some sense,
academic disciplinary communities take ownership of courses though defining
a general community understanding of a course’s content. Usually this
definition is arrived at informally and over a period of time. It is always
under discussion and revision.
At times, a community makes a more formal effort to define a course. This
definition of ownership is acceptable because it is community-generated,
permissive, non-restrictive, and non-coercive. For this reason, the syllabi
of particular courses (in mathematics, history, economics, art, and so
forth) look pretty much the same wherever they are taught. Not identical,
but very similar. One can own course materials, but one cannot own courses,
syllabi, pedagogies, or ideas. Those are in the collective custody of
various communities who are charged with their stewardship, but without the
prerogatives of ownership. We do not want to allow the necessary dialogue
over ownership of "materials" to in any way alter this essential
freedom.
The Least Valuable
What have we learned over the past few years? Teaching is not about
content. That does not mean that content is not important. I have taught
physics (and other subjects) for 33 years. The content is very important. It
is just that it is a commodity in most cases. The introductory courses that
I have taught use pretty much the same content as those taught by nearly
every other professor in the world. In fact, the content found in the
introductory physics courses of the 1980s was substantially the same as that
found in the courses of the 1940s.
When MIT announced that it was providing free access to the materials from
all of its courses, I was immediately called by several reporters all asking
variations of the question: "If MIT is giving away their courses for
free, why would anyone pay for courses from UMassOnline?" I would ask
the reporter if MIT was giving away access to their classes, their academic
credit, their faculty, their students, their campus, their library, or any
other aspect of their educational environment. The answer was always no. MIT
is planning to give away free access to some or maybe even most of their
content. That is all. Of the entire value chain of higher education, content
is the least valuable part.
It All Adds Up
Another way to look at this is to point out that more than 170
students paid more than $3,000 each to be in my "live-on-line"
graduate class last academic year at RPI. All of the content of that class
was available for free on the Web or available for roughly $50 in a text. If
so, why were students so eager to pay the $3,000 tuition that I had to raise
the course enrollment limit four times? These students were certainly
interested in the content, but they were far more interested in the holistic
educational experience, which included "live-on-line," or live
interaction with a faculty member, stimulating interactions with other
bright and experienced students, team-generated case studies, academic
credit from a well-respected university, and the experience of being part of
an academic community.
Looking at it from another angle: UNext, through its Cardean University
offspring, planned to acquire content from five leading universities in the
United States and Europe and then use that to offer degrees from Cardean.
They spent amounts up to $700,000 per course to massage that content into
very well-produced online courses. Unfortunately, the expected market has
yet to materialize. Students want access to Chicago, Columbia, Carnegie
Mellon, and Stanford degrees; to faculty, fellow students, and classes; and
not to their content.
Harcourt officials stumbled over the content issue in a different way. As a
leading content provider, they assumed that they had a leg up on the
competition with their extensive library of content. To their credit, they
quickly realized the need for the rest of the value chain and set about
building it from scratch. Still, it is hard to build the kind of reputation
in a few months that took universities more than a century to acquire.
Publishers make a business by aggregating this content value over a large
number of providers. It may be true that the content is worth only $50 out
of a course that costs $3,000 per student to deliver, but this 1.7 percent
adds up when spread over hundreds of thousands of students in thousands of
universities. Content is worth more to the publisher than it is to the
university. For a few faculty members—the authors—the content is worth
more to them than it is to the university.
Continued at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6331
The conclusion of the article reads
as follows:
New Definitions from Old Principles
We know that the laws and customs for the new world of digital content will
be hammered out in court cases, union negotiations, and faculty senate
deliberations over the coming years. If we want to find a safe way through
this it would be helpful to remember a few principles:
• The value of a university learning
experience, online or traditional, is far more than the value of the
content.
• Content-based intellectual property is more valuable to the faculty
than it is to the university.
• Development of digital materials will require some sharing of
ownership between faculty and the university with minimal restrictions on
reuse by either and proportional compensation to each for their
contributions.
• No one can or should own courses, syllabi, pedagogies, or ideas.
Defining intellectual property rights and sorting
out digital content management issues will undoubtedly be a long and tedious
process, but attention to the underlying principles may help us through.
From Syllabus News on September 19, 2003
Beijing Students Enroll in Stevens Hybrid Telecom
Masters
WebCampus, the online unit of Hoboken, N.J.-based
Stevens Institute of Technology, will deliver a "hybrid" master's
degree to 32 graduate students enrolled in a Stevens' degree program in
China. The masters in telecommunications management is being offered to
Chinese students--partly online and partly in conventional classrooms--at
the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), one of China's top engineering
universities. The first students start classes in November. Instruction will
be delivered a third online by Stevens faculty, a third by Chinese
instructors in Beijing, and a third by Stevens faculty in intensive courses
in China. The Stevens-BIT program, approved by the Chinese Ministry of
Education and other government bodies, is the first such "hybrid"
degree from a US university in China.
For more information, visit: http://www.webcampus.stevens.edu
Northeastern University's MBA Program ---
http://www.onlinemba.neu.edu/bwem/
Babson College's
experiments with "Tailor-Made Degrees"
"Tailor-Made Degrees: Customized
Corporate Education," by Tom Moore, Syllabus, March 2002, pp.
30-33 --- http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=6135
The popular notion
of a new graduate entering "the real world" points to the fact
that we commonly view academia and the corporate environment as two
disparate, almost polarized communities. The perception may be that
universities focus on theory while businesses concentrate on practice. And
to combine the two—to influence academic curriculum on behalf of corporate
needs—has traditionally been frowned upon as a corruption of pure academic
purpose.
This is not to say
that higher education has ignored the corporate community. Colleges and
universities have long offered corporate training programs and customized
courses. However, corporate offerings and traditional degree programs have
fallen into two distinct categories, usually considered to be very separate:
the graduate degree program, typically thought of as the more rigorous
education experience designed exclusively by academics, and the executive
education program, a shorter-term, not-for-credit alternative intended to
serve the corporation’s needs.
Now, due in large
part to the maturing nature and growing acceptance of distance learning, the
wall that once stood between business and academia is beginning to crumble.
Over the past few years, we’ve begun to see a blending of executive
education and graduate degree programs. The result is a new model for
professional education: the corporate-customized graduate degree program.
The Babson
College Experience
In 2000, Babson
College opened the doors of Babson Interactive, a school dedicated to
applying e-learning to innovative management education programs. The goal
was to create an e-learning/faceto- face hybrid that is both responsive to
the needs of businesses and culminates in a degree from an established
brick-andmortar university.
When I was first
hired by Babson College, I held the titles of dean of the Babson School of
Executive Education and dean of its Graduate School of Business. My
responsibilities included overseeing Babson’s MBA programs and executive
education courses at the same time. As I stepped into the position of CEO of
Babson Interactive, I relinquished my role as dean of the Graduate School
but retained my title and responsibilities as dean of Executive Education.
It was clear from the start that e-learning offered high potential for an
entirely new type of executive education, and that Babson Interactive was
the place where we would explore the possibilities.
Babson had been
watching the development of e-learning from the sidelines for quite some
time before opening Babson Interactive. At first we were, frankly, not very
interested. For the most part, the technologies appeared underdeveloped and
unproven. We had great concern that the initial technology was not robust
enough to provide the kind of insight and judgment building that we felt a
good graduate program should offer.
In the past few
years, however, we’ve seen the technology improve and have observed other
institutions implement very successful e-learning programs. I now believe
that a blended degree program—one that incorporates both elearning and
face-to-face instruction— offers an education experience that can, in
fact, be superior to the traditional classroom experience. The key is in the
proper balancing of these two learning modes.
A number of
corporations have come to Babson Interactive. In one example, Babson, along
with Cenquest, an e-learning company with expertise in creating online
courses, developed a oneof- a-kind company-customized MBA degree program for
Intel Corp. By combining the foundational and theoretical knowledge included
in a Babson graduate degree with the strategic intent of the company, the
program provided Intel with a completely new employee education option.
The customization
of the curriculum took several forms. The Intel team offered input into the
class electives. They also provided real work projects to be used as
examples and incorporated into the coursework. Through e-learning
technology, Intel executives, partners, and even customers could be included
as guest lecturers.
ROI and Student
Benefits
Corporations have
long viewed companyreimbursed education as a standard employee benefit
alongside health care and bonus programs. U.S. businesses spend $58 billion
annually on employee education. And in a market where there is always fierce
competition for top employees, offering quality education programs is seen
as essential to hiring and retaining the best and brightest.
Unfortunately, the
return-on-investment for company-reimbursed degree programs has been less
than easy to quantify. Corporations have had little influence over the
schools being attended, much less the programs being offered and the
curriculum being taught. Aside from reimbursement contingencies based on
keeping a certain grade point average, businesses have had limited input
into the nature of their employee’s for-credit education experience. The
programs are typically funded more upon faith and hope then on real data
showing that employees will learn skills that will increase their overall
value to the company.
Perhaps a larger
irony to these programs is that while they are seen as a necessary tool for
hiring and retaining employees, they often have an opposite effect. It is
not unusual for a company to pay for an employee’s graduate education only
to have that employee leave once the degree is obtained. In such cases, the
reimbursement program often becomes a company-sponsored training ground for
its competition.
Since the programs
at Babson Interactive are designed to increase an employee’s value to the
company, chances are far better that graduates will continue their careers
at the company once their degree is completed. And since employees work and
study with other employees from various corporate locations, managers see
the learning experience as providing a rare opportunity to build valuable
employee relationships across company campuses.
Lessons Learned
In the final
analysis, there is a real learning curve involved in maximizing both the
instructional and business models for this type of program. Still, it is
clear that corporate education is heading in a new direction. Companies like
Intel are looking to this new corporate education model to provide higher
quality assurances and overall increased value. By combining a traditional
graduate degree curriculum with content tailored to the needs of a company,
customized degree programs offer unprecedented benefits to both the employee
and employer and stand to ultimately redefine the relationship between
academia and the "real world."
November 14, 2002 message from robert Port [portb71@hotmail.com]
Very informative website I find surfing for DL
info. One question. The link to the University of Maryland's Marketing
department is www.rhsmith.umd.edu
. But according to them, they do no have online bachelor's or master's
degrees.
Dorrian
The link you have points to University of Maryland
University College which is a different school in the University System of
Maryland www.usmd.edu .
The degrees from there are different than from UMD even though the two
schools are right next to each other (One in College Park [umd] one in
Adelphi [umuc]). Also I think UMUC is not AACSB.
Just thought you should know because the website
might create confusion. It would be a great thing if the main campus UMD
offered Marketing degrees online...I hope they do. Anyway Great website!
On March 17, 2002 while returning
home from the San Antonio Airport, I learned that our taxi driver was
currently taking two distance education computer engineering courses via the
Internet from SMU. He said he really enjoyed this online education
opportunity that was helping him walk in his father's footsteps (his father is
a computer engineer). SMU's Master of Science distance education program
in engineering and computer science is at http://www.seas.smu.edu/disted/
"Online MBA programs grow in popularity," by Jerry LaMartina, Kansas
City Star Online, July 15, 2001 --- http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/moneywise.pat,business/37749b46.714,.html
Also see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/book01q3.htm#KansasCityStar
"THE HOTTEST CAMPUS ON THE INTERNET Duke's pricey online B-school
program is winning raves from students and rivals," Business Week,
October 27, 1997 --- http://www.businessweek.com/1997/42/b3549015.htm
Update: The Duke MBA --- Global
Executive MBA Program (formerly called GEMBA) --- http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/index.html
As of Fall Semester 2001, there have been over 600 graduates from over 38
nations. In terms of enthusiasm and alumni giving, this program is a
real winner for Duke University.
The Duke MBA - Global
Executive is every bit as academically demanding as Duke's other two MBA
programs. Global Executive uses the same faculty base, the same rigorous
grading standards, and provides the same Duke degree. However, the content has
been adjusted to include more global issues and strategies to serve a
participant population that has far more global management experience.
- Like most other
Executive MBA programs, the Global Executive program is a lock-step
curriculum, meaning that all students take all courses. The courses are
targeted at general managers who have or will soon assume global
responsibilities. The program is designed for those who want to enhance
their career path within their existing company.
- International
Residencies: International residencies are an important ingredient in a
global MBA program as they add to the value and richness of the classroom
component by providing various lenses (social, economic, cultural, etc.)
through which to view various economies and systems. Instead of simply
studying about an economy, Fuqua provides an experiential component which
adds value to the learning experience ...
- Global Student
body: Unlike traditional Executive MBA programs which usually have a
regional draw, the flexibility of Global Executive accommodates a student
body from around the globe. Not only are the students diverse
geographically, but they are also diverse in the types of global
management experiences that they bring to the classroom.
For the class entering in May 2001, tuition is $95,000.
Tuition includes all educational expenses, a state-of-the-art laptop computer,
portable printer, academic books and other class materials, and lodging and
meals during the five residential sessions. The tuition does not include travel
to and from the residential sites.
You can learn a great deal about the extend of distance education in this
program by looking at the academic calendar at http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/gemba/global_cal2001.htm
Pensare ceased operations in 2001
Duke University has also signed a
partnership agreement with Pensare Corporation for the global delivery of
a MBA Program --- http://www.pensare.com/newsroom/991011duke.asp
Pensare, Inc., the leading provider of Business
Learning Communities for the Internet, today announced a strategic alliance
with Duke University's Fuqua School of Business to co-produce and deliver a
new accredited Duke MBA program. The alliance
also gives Pensare exclusive distribution rights to the jointly developed
curriculum for resale among its corporate customers and other business schools
seeking to develop their own degree-granting programs.
As part of this agreement, Pensare will provide the Internet-based technology
platform, produce the courses in an online format, and provide ongoing support
for the program.
Update: Duke's Online
Cross-Continent MBA --- http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/admin/cc/cc_home.html
In Fall Semester 2001, there were 220 students tied into two distance
education centers (in Durham, N.C. and in Frankfurt) for the Cross-Continent
MBA program.
While in Germany in the Summer of 2001, I had dinner with Tom Keller, former
Dean of Duke's Fuqua School of Business and Dean of Duke's Cross-Continent MBA
Program. Tom spent two years in the Frankfort headquarters of Duke's
Cross-Continent MBA Program. This program is quite different from the
online Global Executive MBA Program, although both are asynchronous online
programs and used some overlapping course materials.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program allows
high-potential managers to earn an internationally-focused MBA degree from
Duke University in less than two years, utilizing a format that minimizes
the disruption of careers and family life. It is designed for individuals
with three to nine years professional work experience.
The Duke MBA - Cross Continent program will contain
course work with a global emphasis in the subject areas of Management,
Marketing, Operations, Economics, Finance, Accounting, Strategy and Decision
Sciences.
Students will complete 11 core courses, four
elective courses and one integrative capstone course to earn their MBA
degree. Two courses will be completed during each of the eight terms of the
program. Depending upon their choice of electives, students may choose to
complete the one-week residency requirements for their sixth and seventh
terms at either Fuqua School of Business location in North America or
Europe.
The two classes - one on each continent - will be
brought even closer together through a transfer requirement built into the
program. During the third term, half of the class from Europe will attend
the North American residential session and vice versa. In the fourth term,
the other half of each class trades locations for one week of residential
learning. After the transfer residencies, the students resume their
coursework using the same Internet mediated learning methods as before, but
with global virtual teams that have now met in a face-to-face setting
World-Class Resources
When you're linked to Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, you're
connected to a world of resources residing on a network with robust
bandwidth capabilities. Duke MBA students have secure access to the Duke and
Fuqua business library databases as well as a network of Duke faculty and
outside experts.
World-Wide Content Delivery
The virtual classroom can take on many different forms. Here, a faculty
member prepares a macroeconomics lecture for distribution via CD ROM and/or
the Internet. Students will download this lecture in a given week of study
and follow up with discussion and team projects.
Bulletin Board Discussion
Rich threads of conversation occur during this asynchronous mode of
communication. Professors and guest lecturers can moderate the discussion to
keep learning focused.
Real-Time Chat Session
Occurs between students and classmates as well as faculty. Here, a student
in Europe discusses an assignment with a professor in the United States.
The
ADEPT Program in the School of Engineering at Stanford University made the world
take notice that all prestigious universities were not going to take the high
road in favor of onsite education with a haughty air of arrogance that their
missions were not to deliver distance education courses. Other prestigious
universities such as Columbia University, Duke University, and the London
School of Economics certainly took notice following the overwhelming success of
Stanford's ADEPT Program for delivering a prestigious diplomas online --- http://stanford-online.stanford.edu/
Stanford, through
Stanford Online, is the first university to incorporate video with audio,
text, and graphics in its distance learning offerings. Stanford Online also
allows students to ask questions or otherwise interact with the instructor,
teaching assistant, and/or other students asynchronously from their desktop
computer. Stanford Online is credited by many sources as a significant
contributor to the growth of Silicon Valley, and to the competitive technical
advantage of companies that participate in continuing education through
distance learning.
Learn More about Stanford Online
Message sent to Stanford, Yale, and
Oxford alumni:
Renew your academic
passion! This spring, Stanford, Yale and the University of Oxford are
offering online courses to alumni and friends through the Alliance for
Lifelong Learning, a joint venture among the three institutions – http://www.allLearn.org/stanford.
Courses cover a
range of contemporary subjects and are produced by distinguished faculty
members of the three partner universities. Designed for your busy schedule,
you can participate at times that are convenient for you. Spring 2002
offerings include:
Islam and the West
World War II The Stock Market Emotional Intelligence Shakespeare The
American Civil War Roman History
Click here to
examine the complete online course catalog and register for classes: http://www.allLearn.org/stanford
.
Spring courses
start on April 15. Enrollments are limited and will be filled on a
first-come, first-served basis, so please act now.
All Stanford
alumni, family and friends are welcome to enroll. Please feel free to share
this e-mail with others you know who may be interested in taking online
courses offered by the Alliance.
Sincerely yours,
Howard Wolf
President,
Stanford Alumni Association
From
the Syllabus News on December 24, 2001
Commerce Bancorp,
Inc., which calls itself "America's Most Convenient Bank," said
training courses provided through its Commerce University have received
expanded credit recommendations from the American Council on Education
(ACE). The bank, whose employees can receive college credit through the
program, has received credit recommendations for two customer service
training programs. Employees may apply the credit recommendations to college
degree programs in which they are participating. Commerce University offers
nearly 1,700 courses to employees each year via seven schools related to its
areas of operation, including its School of Retail Banking, School of
Lending, and School of Insurance.
For more
information, visit: http://commerceonline.com
From Syllabus News on July 23, 2002
Online U. Graduates Largest Ever Online Class
Minneapolis-based Capella University, a fully
online school serving adult learners and employers, said it would confer the
largest graduating class in its history at a commencement ceremony on July
27, 2002. About 400 students from around the globe will be honored at the
event, more than doubling the size of last year's graduating class. Based on
existing growth, Capella projects distance learning will increase by 900
percent in the United States to include 750,000 students fully online by
2005. The school's fifth commencement will draw more than 100 graduates who
will travel to Minneapolis to attend the graduation, some from as far away
as the United Kingdom, South Korea and Singapore. For students that cannot
travel to Minnesota, the ceremony will also be broadcast live on the Capella
University Web site.
For more information, visit: http://www.capellauniversity.edu
From Syllabus News on November
13, 2001
Online U. Offers
Continuing Ed Web Services
Online Capella
University has launched a web-based assessment tool for adults considering
continuing their education. The "2-Minute Advisor" is an
interactive tool designed to provide people individual course and program
recommendations based on their interests and specific needs. The Advisor
online questionnaire provides recommendations on courses or programs that
best match a person's interests and goals; an assessment of their learning
style; reference and research material to help with their decision; and
information on financial aid. "Everybody has questions about continuing
their education, but few people take the time to meet with an advisor, said
Steve Shank, chancellor of the school. The advisor gives people "quick
access to the information they need to make an informed decision."
For more
information, visit: http://www.capellauniversity.edu
Kentucky Virtual U. Adds Online Tutoring
Kentucky Virtual University opened registration for
Spring 2002 with new online services, including free online tutoring, Sunday
call center hours and an online writing center. Acting chief executive
officer Daniel Rabuzzi said the services "are designed to create a high-
touch environment for students plugged into class over the Internet. Live
tutors are now just a click away, and in some subjects, are available 24
hours a day, seven days a week." Students can schedule tutoring
sessions in subjects ranging from basic math to Calculus II, accounting,
chemistry, economics, Spanish and statistics. The tutoring will remain free
through mid- May 2002 and is available through an arrangement with the
University of Kentucky.
For more information, visit: http://www.kyvu.org
From Syllabus News on December 18, 2001
AOL Launches 'Online Campus' Service
America Online Inc. said last week it would launch
the AOL Online Campus, enabling its members to register for offline courses,
access career resources, pursue a hobby or complete undergraduate and
graduate degrees online. Coursework ranging from GED degrees to
college-level business administration, technology and nursing studies would
be offered by various education and content providers, including the online
University of Phoenix, the University of California Berkley Extension, the
Western Governors University, the Public Broadcasting Service, and
bookseller Barnes & Noble. AOL developed the Online Campus based on
extensive member feedback, including a recent member survey showing 63
percent said they had a high interest in taking a course online.
Updates from Syllabus News on August 26,
2003
For-Profit Offers AT&T Employees Online College
Degree Program
Capella University, a 10 year-old Minnesota-based
for-profit university specializing in education for working adults has
struck a deal with A&T to offer the company’s employees and their
family members an opportunity to earn college degrees online and in a time
frame that suits their work schedules. The first employees to take advantage
of AT&T’s tuition assistance plan at Capella started this summer. The
school said it focuses on making it easier for students to focus on learning
instead of red tape.
For more information visit http://www.capellauniversity.edu
The Chronicle of Education articles on Distance Education --- http://chronicle.com/indepth/distance/players.htm
Subscription required to view the full articles.
Learning through distance
education --- http://www.britishcouncil.org/eis/disted.htm
The Education Virtual Campus: Virtual Education
What is distance education?
What is open learning?
Higher education by distance education
- The Open University
- University of London External
Programme
- External courses offered by other
higher education institutions
Further, vocational and continuing
education through open and flexible learning
- MA and diploma in Distance Education
- MSc and diploma in Agricultural Development
- MSc and diploma in Agricultural Economics
- MSc and diploma in Environmental Management
- MSc and diploma in Food industry Management and Marketing
- MSc and diploma in Financial Economics
- MSc in Financial Management
- Diploma in Financial Policy
- Diploma in Economic Principles
- MSc and diploma in Organizational Behaviour
- MSc in Occupational Psychology
- Master of Laws (LLM)
- MSc in Dental Radiology*
- MSc in Community Dental Practice*
- MA in Geography
- Diploma in English Commercial Law
- MPhil and PhD available in all faculties to appropriately qualified
students who are already graduates of the University of London
February 2003 Update About Open University
Open University is centered in the U.K.
and is one of the largest, if not the largest, universities in the world --- http://www.open.ac.uk/
It has many onsite and online programs.
It attempted some years ago to break
into the North American market with several partnerships with colleges in the
U.S. and Canada. That venture known as U.S. Open University
failed. However, Open University is now betting on some new partnership
with New School University --- http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/news-releases/index.asp#896
The Open University
(OU) has announced a strategic alliance with New School University, New
York, to collaborate on distance and online learning education programmes.
The first course Managing Finance and Information is being planned for March
this year, based on a module from the Open University Business School’s
Professional Certificate in Management.
The New School University homepage is
at http://www.newschool.edu/
Don Carter's July
2001 Update on the
new Chartered Accountancy School of Business in Canada
Don Carter also signed up to be in the
audience. I received the following message from Don Carter in Canada (as a
result of this message, Don will have a few minutes in the August 11 program to
outline the CASB program and answer questions about it):
Hi Bob,
Thank you very much
for your prompt response to my phone message. We are very excited about what
we have accomplished in our new CA School of Business program. The CA School
of Business (CASB) was incorporated last summer as a partnership of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
Yukon and Northwest Territories. Once we phase in all existing students across
western Canada, we will have approximately 2,500 students taking the program.
CASB will be responsible for delivering the graduate level professional
qualification program to become a Chartered Accountant in western Canada.
Students enter the program with a four year undergraduate degree. Perhaps the
easiest way to describe what we are doing is that we delivery the equivalent
of your fifth year programs in the U.S. but through the profession itself
rather than universities.
Our program is based
on the new Canadian CA Competency Map and one of its unique features is that
it is fully integrated across the six major competency areas of Organizational
Effectiveness, Control and Risk Management, Finance, Performance Measurement,
Tax, Information Technology and Assurance. The program will consist of six
core modules and two focus modules and follows what we refer to as a
"life-cycle of a business" approach. Module 1 begins with a small
business start-up as a proprietorship, in Module 2 it incorporates, in Module
3 it acquires other businesses and becomes involved in international
operations, in Module 4 we introduce NPOs and Controllership issues and
finally in Module 5 we address strategic management issues and take the
company public. As mentioned earlier, each module is fully integrated across
the six competency areas. The following Excel File may help to see how we have
developed the curriculum for the first five modules.
<<CASB
Curriculum Framework.xls>>
Module six will
consist entirely of evaluation including our new national Uniform Evaluation
but also including evaluation of a number of the pervasive competencies that
cannot be assessed on a written evaluation.
Finally, Modules 7
and 8 will enable the students to "drill down" in one of the major
competency areas of their choice and hopefully serve as a platform for
"life-long learning" and perhaps specialization. Our plan is to also
make these two modules available to existing CAs to help them
"retool" and acquire the broader skill set advocated by the 1996
CICA Vision Report.
In addition to being
competency-based, the program is also "learner-centered" with
primary emphasis on facilitated learning rather than teaching. Each model
consists of ten weeks of on-line facilitated learning followed by a three-day
interactive face-to-face session where the students will be involved in group
work, presentations etc. to facilitate development and evaluation of the
pervasive competencies set out in the grey column on the Curriculum Framework.
The entire program,
which will take 24 months to complete, (our experience requirement is 36
months) is one giant case simulation. A student entering the CASB program
becomes a student of a simulated CA firm named Parkhurst & Loewen
(P&L). That firm has a series of clients and those clients involve a
series of engagements on which the student will be involved module by module.
One of our primary objectives with this new program is to improve the
connection between our education program and the student's work experience.
Quite literally, what a student learns this week in a module they can apply on
the job the next day.
We are using WebCT as
our overall platform for e-mails, bulletin boards and chat-rooms but have
designed our content using Flash to provide basic multi-media presentation. We
are trying to keep this simple in order to minimize the hardware and software
requirements on the student end.
Each student is
assigned to a cohort of 30 students. They communicate with their facilitator
by e-mail (24 hour turn-around). The facilitators hold "office
hours" with scheduled chat-room sessions.
The model is one of
"continuous learning" and "continuous evaluation".
Students complete a number of tasks for each unit (usually a week) and submit
them as an e-mail attachment to a reviewer (48 hour turnaround). The review is
competency-based and if competency is not achieved on the original submission,
the reviewer will identify the deficiencies and provide guidance on how to
achieve the required competency. Students must re-submit all tasks until
competency is achieved. Our experience to date is that the re-submission rate
at the start of the first module is around 50% but tails off as students
become more comfortable with the competency-based approach.
We are trying to
dramatically change the culture by taking the emphasis away from
"memorization" to pass an exam and onto a "research" focus
where the student learns where to find the information needed to address an
issue, how to evaluate and analyze that information and how to convert it into
a recommendation to a client or an internal management decision. By changing
our pedagogy in this fashion we no longer have to "cap the syllabus"
to meet reasonable expectations of students. The students will now be exposed
to, and hopefully feel comfortable working with, a much broader content domain
and the "finished product" will be much stronger than one who
memorized GAAP, GAAS and the Tax Act.
We have built this
program in an unbelievably short period of time. We have developed the first
three modules to date. We have approximately 700 students taking Modules 1 or
2 this summer and are currently piloting Module 3.
The entire program is
electronic. Students are required to have word-processing and spreadsheet
capability. We provide Tax software and Caseware for working paper production
as well as the CICA Virtual Professional Library which is a very powerful
research tool on CD ROM.
Since they say a
picture is worth a thousand words, I am going to provide CONFIDENTIAL access
to our student web site which is password protected and only accessible to
students registered in a module.
Http://XXXXX
User Name: XXXXX
Password: XXXXX
Let me suggest that
you begin with my introduction to the unique features of the program, then go
into Weeks 1 and 2 of Module 1, then go into the P&L website (some fun
stuff but main item is the resource library).
I would be happy to
answer any questions as I am sure that I have missed many elements of our
model in my attempt to describe it above. My direct line is (604) 488-2635 and
you have my e-mail: carter@casb.com .
Regards,
Don Carter [carter@casb.com]
Message 2 from Don
Carter
Hi Bob.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I have one request and that is before
you reproduce my message in New Bookmarks that you delete the link to the
actual module web site which is proprietary. There is a demo version of the
first module in our public website, http://www.casb.com
which will provide any reader with an idea of our module format. Other than
that I am very pleased to have you post to your New Bookmarks. I also
appreciate very much the invitation to dinner and to possibly share with the
participants on Saturday.
Regards,
Don.
Oxford
University to Open Internet Institute --- http://wired.com/news/school/0,1383,43616,00.html
Oxford University will open the world's first
"Internet Institute," a multidisciplinary department that will
research the Net and its impact on policy and society.
The Oxford Internet Institute will be within the
division of social sciences located at Oxford's Balliol College.
The institute has already received 10 million pounds
(14.4 million dollars) from the Shirley Foundation, in addition to 5 million
pounds (7.2 million dollars) from the Higher Education Funding Council for
England to fund the initiative.
The school has not announced when the OII will open,
but school officials plan to hire a director for the institute this summer.
"I congratulate Oxford University on
establishing this innovative institute," said David Blunkett, the
secretary of state for education, in a statement. "Britain needs a center
for top-class research on the difficult issues the Internet poses in
cryptography, intellectual property rights, security and so on."
"In bringing together research across the
country, I hope the institute will become a world leader," he added.
Possible topics for investigation at the OII include
global law enforcement, privacy and security, healthcare, defense, the digital
divide, community and education.
Oxford will appoint permanent staff to the institute,
as well as offer senior visiting appointments.
This is not the school's first foray into Internet
initiatives.
The school already offers a number of research
programs related to the Internet, including "Virtual Society," which
explores the behavior patterns and interactivity between people as a result of
new technologies; a program in Comparative Media Law and Policy; and work on
Internet-enabled health care at the Institute of Health Sciences.
Oxford has also formed a distance-learning
partnership with Stanford, Princeton and Yale, which will provide online
courses to alumni, called the University Alliance for Lifelong Learning.
Lifelong Learning at Oxford University --- http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/
DACE aims to widen access to University provision to
the community at large. It achieves this through provision by its own academic
staff and by enlisting or co-operating with members of other University
departments and other qualified persons outside the University. Teaching
services are provided in as wide a range of subjects to as many groups as
resources allow. The Department is committed to the maintenance of University
quality and traditions of excellence in all educational programmes which it
offers, or with which it is associated. Its staff ensure quality through their
own research and scholarship and have special experience and/or training in
initiating, designing, promoting and teaching courses for adults.
The Department also acts as a direct link between the
University and a wide variety of external agencies, organisations and
institutions involved in post-compulsory education and training.
Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, Yale Invest $12 million in Distance Learning
Venture --- http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/00/alliance104.html
The Alliance will offer non-credit courses to the
alumni, taking advantage of emerging technologies to give the graduates
convenient access to their schools' extraordinary resources.
The four universities recognize the potential
appeal of the Alliance's educational opportunities to other audiences
seeking ongoing personal enrichment, and they plan in the future to make
their offerings available to a wider public.
The Alliance will provide on-line courses and
interactive seminars; multi-media programs; topical Web sites that include
links to research information; live and taped coverage of campus speakers,
exhibitions, and other events; lectures on tape; and other offerings.
The member universities and their faculties will
control the content of the courses and other educational products offered,
ensuring that they meet the highest standards.
"The Alliance among four of the world's
greatest universities has an inspiring mission," Allison said. "It
will provide the schools' alumni around the world with ongoing access to the
best in higher education, enriching their lives and helping them make the
fullest contribution to their communities. I am honored to be leading this
exciting and promising venture."
Today's announcement comes at a time when the
accelerating advance of knowledge is increasing the need for people all over
the world to have access to life-long learning. The spread of democracy and
of market-based economies is expanding the number of people who want and
would benefit from access to the finest teaching and information resources.
September 28, 2000
Cambridge University partners with MIT in a Bridge of Minds to both foster
student exchanges, spin-offs from research, and to possibly become an online
university --- http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1999/nov10/cambridge.html
The integrated research program will focus on how
technology improves productivity, how technology-based enterprises grow out
of academia, and how technology enterprises develop into world-class
organizations. The new Institute will also link research programs in fields
that are likely to have great impact on the evolution of future technology.
November 10, 1999
Western Governors University
Meeting Access Goals
The Western Governors
University released its annual report, which said the private, non-profit
university, founded by 19 western governors, is achieving its goals to expand
access to higher education, especially for working adults. WGU President Bob
Mendenhall said, "the constraints on time due to work and family
commitments are access issues ... so the flexibility provided by WGU's online,
competency-based model is very appealing to a broad spectrum of
students." WGU currently has about 2,500 students enrolled, up from 500
students one year ago. The average WGU student is 40 years old, and over 90
percent work full-time.
For more
information, visit: http://www.wgu.edu
Since 1996, the University of British Columbia, in partnership with Monterrey
Tech in Mexico, has been delivering online graduate programs --- http://itesm.cstudies.ubc.ca/
Harvard University's Online Distance Education Program --- http://distanceed.dce.harvard.edu/
This year we offer twenty-six distance
education courses using Internet streaming video and multimedia technology.
When an Extension School course is offered by distance education, it means
that registered students can attend lectures when they are given (in a lecture
hall at Harvard) or they can view the lectures later via the Internet anywhere
in the world. In addition to viewing the lectures, students participate in
other aspects of the course in the same fashion as local students.
I think Harvard Extension
has a long way to go if it is serious about distance education. To my
knowledge, there are only a few courses and no degree programs available.
More importantly, the online courses seem to be mostly video replays without
substantive interactive course materials and without the faculty immersion into
interactive learning.
Harvard University is such
a large system, that there are distance education initiatives apart from the
above Extension Program. One such initiative is at the Harvard Law School
--- http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/online/
One of the Berkman Center's top
priorities is to explore new possibilities for education in a networked
environment. As part of this exploration, we offer a program of interactive
online lecture and discussion series. For the 2001 program, we have expanded
the offerings available for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit.
PENSARE AND HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING TO DEVELOP INTRANET-BASED
"PERFORMANCE COURSES" --- http://www.pensare.com/newsroom/980921hbsp.asp
(Note that an intranet is not the Internet.)
Pensare Inc. and Harvard Business School Publishing
announce a multi-year agreement to co-develop online business courses for the
corporate workplace. Under terms of the agreement, Harvard Business School
Publishing (HBSP) will be responsible for providing content (based in large
part on the research of Harvard Business School professors), while Pensare
will provide the intranet platform, instructional design and software design.
The long-term relationship underscores Pensare's commitment to work with the
top business schools and innovative providers of business education. The
agreement will produce a full suite of intranet-based performance courses and
will enable HBSP to provide a new form of customized educational products and
performance solutions to corporate clients.
The first performance course by Pensare and HBSP is
based on the service management research of Harvard Business School Professors
James Heskett and Jeffrey Rayport and is scheduled for release in the first
quarter of 1999. Additional general management courses will be developed for
release later in 1999. The suite of customizable business performance courses
will be distributed through Harvard Business School Publishing and Pensare's
direct sales forces, as well as a network of Pensare selling partners.
Pensare and Harvard Business School Publishing are
creating customizable multiuser dimensional (MUD) simulations that will enable
corporate users to role-play aspects of the performance courses, improving
practice and mastery in a risk-free, interactive environment. One value of
Pensare solutions is the unique ability to capture a company's
"collective wisdom," and share that knowledge widely and easily
throughout an organization. Pensare also enables companies to
"profile" employees' key areas of expertise and connect them with
others as mentors and coaches on a particular subject.
"Harvard University now spends $US8 million per year to
maintain the online delivery of programs in its Business School alone (MacColl
1999)". As quoted from Page 78 of Cross-Border Business
Combinations and Strategic Alliances, by S.C.
Cunningham, et al., (Australian Department of Education, Evaluations and
Investigations Programme of the Higher Education Division, 2000). Hard
Copy ISBN 0 642 44446 3 and Online Copy ISBN 0 642 44447 1 --- http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip00_3/bbe.pdf
More recently, Harvard
University entered into a for-profit corporate venture in partnership with
Stanford University to deliver executive training and education courses onsite
and online. It is uncertain when this will be operational. Very
few corporate programs are making serious profits to date, but some are or will
be making enormous profits, especially corporations affiliated with prestige
universities. Examples include the corporate executive distance education
companies like Duke Education Corporation and corporations formed by Cornell,
Wharton, and Maryland. The Godzilla in the land of monkeys will soon be the new
Stanford-Harvard corporation for executive training and education. I'd buy stock
in that corporation in a Silicon Valley nanosecond. See "When Harvard Met
Stanford," Business Week Online, April 18, 2001 --- http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2001/nf20010418_841.htm
Note
the sheer size of this operation --- "more than 1.5 million people
already use its 15 e- learning modules in three topic areas of leadership,
strategy and general management."
From
Syllabus News on October 2, 2001
Harvard B-School Expands Business Courses Via the
Web
Harvard Business School Publishing said last week
it would use the Internet to make available its electronic learning programs
in best management and business practices to corporate groups and
enterprises. HBSP said more than 1.5 million people already use its 15 e-
learning modules in three topic areas of leadership, strategy and general
management. HBSP will now offer support for companies that wanted to make
the modules available to company groups via the Internet.
For more information, contact Nancy O'Leary at
Harvard Business School Publishing http://noleary@hbsp.harvard.edu
Not all distance education programs become thriving
successes just because they are new, innovative, and from a prestigious
university. There are many failed
distance education programs, including some programs from top universities. At one time, the McGill
distance education program for teachers had nearly 50
online courses.
McGill University Courses for Teachers through distance education --- http://www.education.mcgill.ca/distance/default.html
The current Distance Education offerings are being
phased out. Students already enrolled in programs will be able to continue until
completion within prescribed time limits. No new admissions to programs will
take place. If you are already enrolled in a program, we can fax a registration
form to wherever you wish.
Revenue and Accreditation Hurdles
Facing Corporate Universities
One thing that just does not seem to
work is a university commenced by a major publishing house. McGraw-Hill
World University was virtually stillborn at the date of birth as a
degree-granting institution. It evolved into McGraw-Hill Online Learning (
http://www.mhonlinelearning.com/
) that does offer some interactive training materials, but the original concept
of an online university ( having distance education courses for college credit) is dead and buried. Powerful companies like
Microsoft Corporation started up and then abandoned going it alone in
establishing new online universities.
The last venturesome publishing company to
start a university and fight to get it accredited is now giving up on the idea
of having its own virtual university --- http://www.harcourthighered.com/index.html
Harcourt Higher
Education University was purchased by a huge publishing conglomerate called Thompson Learning See http://www.thomsonlearning.com/harcourt/ .
Thomson had high hopes, but soon faced the reality that it is probably
impossible to compete with established universities in training and education
markets.
The Thomson Corporation
has announced that it will not continue to operate Harcourt Higher Education: An
Online College as an independent degree-granting institution. Harcourt Higher
Education will close on August 27, 2001. The closing is the result of a change
of ownership, which occurred on July 13, 2001, when the Thomson Corporation
purchased the online college from Harcourt General, Inc.
From Syllabus e-News on August
7, 2001
Online College to Close Doors
Harcourt Higher Education, which
launched an online for-profit college in Massachusetts last year, is closing
the school's virtual doors Sept. 28. Remaining students will have their
credentials reviewed by the U.S. Open University, the American affiliate of
the Open University in England.
We can only speculate as to the complex
reasons why publishing companies start up degree-granting virtual universities
and subsequently abandon efforts provide credit courses and degrees
online.
Enormous Revenue Shortfall (Forecast of 20,000 students in the first
year; Reality turned up 20 students)
"E-COLLEGES FLUNK OUT," By:
Elisabeth Goodridge, Information Week, August 6, 2001, Page 10
College
students appear to prefer classroom instruction over online offerings.
Print
and online media company Thomson Corp. said last week it plans to close its
recently acquired, for-profit online university, Harcourt Higher Education.
Harcourt opened with much fanfare a year ago, projecting 20,000 enrollees
within five years, but only 20 to 30 students have been attending.
Facing
problems from accreditation to funding, online universities have been
struggling mightily--in stark contrast to the success of the overall
E-learning market. A possible solution? E-learning expert Elliott
Masie predicts "more and more creative partnerships between traditional
universities and online ones."
Roosters Guarding the Hen House
Publishing houses failed to gain accreditations. I suspect that major reason is that the AACSB and other
accrediting bodies have made it virtually impossible for corporations to obtain
accreditation for startup learning corporations that are not partnered with
established colleges and universities. In the U.S., a handful of
corporations have received regional accreditation (e.g., The University of
Phoenix and Jones International Corporation), but these were established and had
a history of granting degrees prior to seeking accreditation. In business
higher education, business corporations face a nearly impossible hurdle of
achieving business school accreditation ( see http://businessmajors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050499.htm
) since respected accrediting bodies are totally controlled by the present
educational institutions (usually established business school deans who behave
like roosters guarding the hen house).
Special accrediting bodies for online programs have sprung up, but these have
not achieved sufficient prestige vis-à-vis established accrediting
bodies.
Note the links to accreditation
issues at http://www.degree.net/guides/accreditation.html
)
Where GAAP means Generally Accepted Accreditation Principles)
All
About Accreditation: A brief overview of what you really
need to know about accreditation, including GAAP (Generally Accepted
Accrediting Practices). Yes, there really are fake accrediting agencies, and
yes some disreputable schools do lie. This simple set of rules tells how to
sort out truth from fiction. (The acronym is, of course, borrowed from the
field of accounting. GAAP standards are the highest to which accountants can
be held, and we feel that accreditation should be viewed as equally serious.)
GAAP-Approved
Accrediting Agencies: A listing of all recognized
accrediting agencies, national, regional, and professional, with links that
will allow you to check out schools.
Agencies
Not Recognized Under GAAP: A list of agencies that have
been claimed as accreditors by a number of schools, some totally phony, some
well-intentioned but not recognized.
FAQs:
Some simple questions and answers about accreditation and, especially,
unaccredited schools.
For more details on accreditation and assessment, see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Question:
Is lack of accreditation the main reason why corporate universities such as
McGraw-Hill World University, Harcourt Higher Education University, Microsoft
University, and other corporations have failed in their attempts to compete with
established universities?
Bob Jensen's Answer:
Although the minimum accreditation (necessary for transferring of credits to
other colleges) is a very important cause of failure in the first few years of attempting to attract online
students, it is not the main cause of failure. Many (most) of the courses
available online were training courses for which college credit transfer is not
an issue.
- Why did the University of Wisconsin (U of W) swell with over 100,000
registered online students while Harcourt Higher Education University (HHWU)
struggled to get 20 registered?
Let me begin to answer my own question with two questions. If you want
to take an online training or education course from your house in
Wisconsin's town of Appleton, would you prefer to pay more much more for the
course from HHWU than a low-priced tuition for Wisconsin residents at the U of
W. If you were a resident of Algona, Iowa and the price was the same
for the course whether you registered at HHWU or U of W, would you choose U
of W? My guess is that in both cases, students would choose U of W,
because the University of Wisconsin has a long-term tradition for quality
and is likely to be more easily recognized for quality on the students'
transcripts.
The UW Distance Education homepage is
at http://learn.wisconsin.edu/
- Why can the University of Wisconsin offer a much larger curriculum than
corporate universities?
The University of Wisconsin had a huge infrastructure for distance education
long before the age of the Internet. Televised distance education
across the state has been in place for over 30 years. Extension
courses have been given around the entire State of Wisconsin for many
decades. The University of Wisconsin's information technology system
is already in place at a cost of millions upon millions of dollars.
There are tremendous economies of scale for the University of Wisconsin to
offer a huge online curriculum for training and education vis-à-vis a
startup corporate university starting from virtually scratch.
- What target market feels more closely attached to the University of
Wisconsin than some startup corporate university?
The answer is obvious. It's the enormous market comprised of alumni and
families of alumni from every college and university in the University of
Wisconsin system of state-supported schools.
- What if a famous business firm such as Microsoft Corporation or
Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) elected to offer a prestigious
combination of executive training and education to only upper-level
management in major international corporations? What are the problems
in targeting to business executives?
This target market is already carved out by alumni of elite schools such as
Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, London School of
Economics, Duke, University of Michigan, University of Texas, and the other
universities repeatedly ranked among the top 50 business schools in the
nation. Business executives are more often than not snobs when it
comes to universities in the peer set of "their" alma
maters. Logos of top universities are worth billions in the rising
executive onsite and online training and education market. UNext
Corporation recognized this, and this is the reason why the its first major
step in developing an online executive education program was to partner with
five of the leading business schools in the world.
- Why does one corporate university, The
University of Phoenix, prosper when others fail or limp along with costs
exceeding revenues?
The University of Phoenix is the world's largest private university. The reason for its success is largely due to a
tradition of quality since 1976. This does not mean that quality has
always been high for every course over decades of operation, but each year
this school seems to grow and offer better and better courses. Since
most of its revenues still come from onsite courses, it is not clear that
the school would prosper if it became solely an online university. The
school is probably further along on the learning curve than most other
schools in terms of adult learners. It offers a large number of very
dedicated and experienced full-time and part-time faculty. It
understands the importance of small classes and close communications between
students and other students and instructors. It seems to fill a niche
that traditional colleges and universities have overlooked.
You can read more about these happenings at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Especially note the prestigious universities going online at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Prework Materials for MBA
Applicants
Dear Accounting
Professor:
If you are looking
for prework materials for MBAs or are trying to develop on-line accounting
courses, you may wish to review Ivy Software's Financial Accounting: A
Management Perspective (FAAMP).
Financial
Accounting: A Management Perspective (FAAMP) takes on a users' perspective
rather than a preparers' perspective, and teaches the financial accounting
cycle using the retained earnings approach, which has proven to be very
successful with executives and executives-to-be. The purpose of this product
is to supply managers with knowledge of the objectives of accounting and to
provide the tools necessary to interpret accounting information.
FAAMP was designed
to teach individuals with no background in accounting or finance some of the
basic elements of the subject. It may be used as a pre-work to a course or
as part of an existing course. Our largest customers use it as a pre-work to
their executive programs ranging in length from one to six weeks, or as
pre-work to their MBA programs. It is also used extensively in Executive MBA
programs and individual company programs.
Available on CD-ROM
or on-line, the cost of the package is $50.00 net. Ivy also has on-line
testing so you may ensure that your students have completed the package on
time and to your level of satisfaction. FAAMP may also be combined with
other titles in our Business Education Library to create an Essential Skills
package customized for your MBA program.
To review a portion
of FAAMP online, go to http://www.ivysoftware.com
. From the site, click on Products then Financial Accounting: A Management
Perspective and select product demo. The Authorware Web Player plug-in as
required to view the demo and can be acquired on the site. If you would like
to receive a complimentary desk copy of FAAMP, or any other products, please
feel free to contact us via the following information or simply reply to
this email.
e-mail: mailto:ivysales@ivysoftware.com
phone: (800) 342-5489 fax: (804) 779-7767
Distance Education Clearinghouse --- http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
This is a tremendous resource site that includes links to online courses and
programs.
Hungry Minds --- http://www.hungryminds.com/
Over 17,000 training and education courses (Mostly from top universities)
Our online campus, hungrymindsuniversity.com, offers
up to 17,000 courses from top universities like UC-Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, as
well as leading training companies and subject experts.
Our famous brands including For Dummies, CliffsNotes,
and Frommerís are all more than books. When you want to know, or know-how,
you can get immediate answers by visiting cliffsnotes.com, dummies.com, and
frommers.com. You can even subscribe to free e-newsletters filled with tips
delivered direct to your desktop. Our 42 Dummies Daily newsletters make over
14.5 million deliveries per month.
And for all our books -- including the award-winning
series that have made us the best-selling computer books publisher -- check
out our online bookstore.
Hungry Minds is here to feed your appetite for
knowledge with a full range of trusted, timely content. Whether it's to find a
restaurant on a wireless Palm, to study Shakespeare at 2 a.m. with a
downloaded Cliffs Note, to solve a computing problem with Dummies Answer
Network, to fulfill an ambition via the UC Berkeley certificate program --
with Hungry Minds it's all possible!
Enrollment in
higher-education distance-learning programs in the state of Illinois has risen
44 percent from spring of 2000, reports the Illinois Virtual Campus (IVC), a
joint project of the University of Illinois and the Illinois Board of Higher
Education.
EDUCAUSE, August 2001, Page 6.
The IVC homepage is at http://www.ivc.illinois.edu/
Did you know that many
colleges and universities in Illinois are offering academic courses and even
entire degree programs over the Internet? The IVC is your gateway to this
exciting new world in higher education.
The
IVC is a directory of distance courses, certificate, and degree programs
offered by Illinois colleges and universities. Connect to thousands of
online and other distance learning courses
and programs.
Get
started as an online student in the Student
Center. Find online resources that can help you be a successful student,
or access a map
of our 40 Illinois Student Support Centers.
The
IVC recognizes that business and industry have unique needs for their
employees, and we know that Illinois colleges and universities can help them
meet those needs. Find contact
information for becoming an IVC business and industry partner.
Find resources
needed by Illinois colleges and universities to participate as a provider of
content.
Student
Support Center staff are active partners with the IVC and need access to administrative
resources. This page links to internal IVC documents, reports, and
procedures.
Academy of Art University
http://www.academyart.edu
http://online.academyart.edu/about.html
From Syllabus e-News, Resources, and Trends August 14, 2001
Skidmore to Expand Internet Class Offerings
Skidmore College received a grant of $460,000 from
the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop three new baccalaureate
distance-learning programs through its University Without Walls. The new
interdisciplinary programs in American history and culture, human nature and
behavior, and communication and the arts, will be designed so they can be
completed entirely over the Internet, said Skidmore President Jamienne
Studley. The three-year grant will support new staff, provide funds for
faculty to develop 30 new Internet courses and pay for assistance with Web
site development, technical support, marketing, travel and other costs
related to developing the new online programs.
The Skidmore College homepage is at http://www.skidmore.edu
Bob Jensen's documents on distance education are linked at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
One of the largest campuses on the
Internet --- The University of Wisconsin http://learn.wisconsin.edu/
Over 100,000 registered online students.
They Blazed the Trail for Distance
Education (History) by James Gooch --- http://www.uwex.edu/disted/gooch.htm
In this paper on
trends in continuing education the author, who was formerly program
information director for outreach services at the University of Wisconsin in
Madison, reviews delivery systems that have made distance education possible
and practical. The review begins with the introduction of correspondence
study classes for off-campus students in 1891 and extends to today's
computerized and satellite-delivered systems that make extension classes
available to adult students worldwide.
University of Wisconsin's Distance Education Clearinghouse --- http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
The University of Washington Offers Free Online Short Courses --- http://www.outreach.washington.edu/about/releases/20010521freecourse.asp
University of Washington Distance Learning Resources (Including Links to
Programs) --- http://www.washington.edu/students/distance/
Forbes Best on the Web Directory --- http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/main.jhtml
Finding a college on the Web --- http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/technology/28COLL.html
"The College Search Game, Spam Included," The New
York Times, September 28, 2001
Related Articles
Online
Application Forms Add to College Admission Frenzy
(December 23, 1999)
Students
See Risk in Online College Applications
(July 6, 2000)
For students who are starting their college searches, several Web
sites offer one-stop shops that include searchable databases of
college information, test preparation aids, virtual tours and online
applications. Here are some of the leading sites and some of the
additional features they contain:
THE COLLEGE BOARD: www.collegeboard.com Features
online registration for the SAT and help with essay preparation. Plans
to offer soon a search feature called LikeFinder, which will enable
students to find colleges similar to the ones they are reading about,
and a feature that will generate side-by-side comparisons of selected
colleges.
COLLEGELINK: www.collegelink.com Offers
a month-by-month planner and articles about financial aid.
COLLEGENET: www.collegenet.com The
CollegeBot search engine looks at college-related Web sites.
PETERSON'S COLLEGEQUEST: www.collegequest.com Includes
a personal organizer, practice tests for the SAT and ACT and
discussion groups.
EMBARK: www.embark.com Offers
online "lockers" where students can store applications in
progress and results of searches.
XAP: www.xap.com Gives students
a head start on the admissions process, starting in eighth grade, by
leading them through questions about high school courses and the types
of colleges they would like to attend.
•
Some Web sites, like the ones below, focus on specific aspects of the
college search:
CPNET AND U-WIRE: www.cpnet.com, www.uwire.com News
from college newspapers around the country.
FAFSA ON THE WEB: www.fafsa.ed.gov An
online version of the federal financial aid form.
FASTWEB: www.fastweb.com A
database of scholarships and grants.
FINAID: www.finaid.org Calculators
and resources to help demystify the financial-aid process.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS/IPEDS COLLEGE OPPORTUNITIES
ON-LINE: www.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool A
database of 9,000 colleges. Students can search for colleges based on
a profile of the types of schools they are interested in.
USNEWS.COM: www.usnews.com/usnews/edu Annual
rankings of colleges according to U.S. News & World Report, and a
database that can be searched for specific criteria. |
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Graduate Distance Learning Programs --- http://www.gradschools.com/listings/distance/econ_develop_distance.html
This document contains a long listing of university distance education
programs.
Educators say
students should be wary of unscrupulous
institutions that market themselves on the
World-Wide Web as legitimate providers of distance education
International Council for Open
and Distance Education (ICDE) --- http://www.icde.org/
(Affiliated with the United Nations and UNESCO)
Walden University introduced an online doctoral program in public
policy --- http://www.waldenu.edu/
Walden also has other online graduate programs, including an online MBA
program.
Walden University is designed for working
professionals who desire an advanced degree while maintaining career and
personal commitments. Walden's flexible, student-centered education allows
you to earn a master's or doctorate from the convenience of your home or
workplace.
The International Distance
Education Course Finder --- http://www.dlcoursefinder.com/
The
International Distance Learning Course Finder is the world's largest online
directory of e-learning courses from 127 countries. This universal distance
education resource has information on over 50,000 distance learning courses
and programs offered from a multitude of universities, colleges and
companies.
National Institute for Distance Education, Map of Europe --- http://www.icde.org/OpenDoor/Net/europe.htm
Worldwide Virtual Library of
Distance Education --- http://www.cisnet.com/~cattales/Deducation.html
Distance Education Offerings
Distance Education Journals,
Newsletters, and Newsgroups
Distance Education
Organizations
|
Asia's Blossoming Universities
From the Land of the Rising Sun to Down Under, AsiaWeek's Guide to Asia's
Best Universities charts the progress of the region's universities as
they adapt to the new education economy --- http://internationaled.about.com/education/internationaled/library/weekly/aa050901a.htm
Openhere.com --- http://www.openhere.com/edu/distance-learning/international-resources/
|
Related
OpenHere Categories: |
|
- Education,
Distance Learning, Governmental Resources
- Education,
Distance Learning, Higher Ed Resources
- Education,
Distance Learning, K 12 Resources
- Education,
Distance Learning, Learner Resources
- Education
Home, Distance Learning, On-line
Teaching and Learning, Teacher Resources
- More
related categories!
|
|
|
LANIC's Distance Education in
Latin America --- http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/distance/
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Mexico
Peru
Puerto Rico
Venezuela
Uruguay
Online Courses, Seminars,
& Training Programs
International Resources
Journals & Writings
|
From Syllabus e-News on October 9, 2001
eCollege Tops Colorado List for Fastest Growth
The fastest growing company in Colorado in the past
year was edcuational courseware developer eCollege, according to the
consulting firm Deloitte & Touche, which ranked state companies in its
annual Colorado Technology Fast 50 listing. Denver-based eCollege, an
application service provider that develops online campuses and courseware,
had revenue growth of 10,996 percent in the last year. Qwest Communications
was number two on the list. Five year-old eCollege has worked on online
educational programs for Seton Hall University, the University of Colorado,
the DeVry Institutes, the Kentucky Virtual High School, and Microsoft
Faculty Center.
For more information, visit: http://www.ecollege.com
CISAER: Courses on the Internet:
Survey, Analysis, Evaluation, Recommendation --- http://home.nettskolen.nki.no/~morten/cisaer/
The University Alliance of
"accredited" distance education courses ---
http://info.bisk.com/index.asp?Source=51s23
Distance-Educator.com --- http://www.distance-educator.com/
About.com International News and
Resources --- http://internationaled.about.com/education/internationaled/mbody.htm
This is a great news site that
contains regional classifications.
The Distance Learning link is at http://internationaled.about.com/education/internationaled/cs/distancelearning/index.htm
Links to
distance learning and online courses with a special emphasis on
international relations, and international business and management
courses.
Brainpower.com
Offers a number of different degree programs online including an MBA
with a specialization in International Business.
Capella
University
Offers a number of different degree programs online including an MBA
with a specialization in International Business.
Distance
Learning
A one-stop shop for all the information and resources you'll need to
succeed in your distance learning endeavors.
HungryMinds.com
Choose from over 17,000 online courses.
Jones
International University
Offers three fully accredited degree programs - both BA and MA in
Business Communication and an MBA program.
Kaplan
College
They offer a self-study course in International Business Skills.
LifeLongLearning.com
An online database of 9,500 distance learning courses.
OnLine
Education
Offering a variety of MBA and business degrees as well as some
health science degrees in association with UK universities.
NewPromise.com
Founded by professors from Harvard and MIT, this online directory
has a search function available to members only. Free membership.
Universities
and Colleges Offering Distance Learning
A comprehensive database of universities and colleges that provide
quality distance education from Canada, Australia, Britain and the
United States.
|
degree.net --- http://www.degree.net/
(note the links to accreditation issues at http://www.degree.net/guides/accreditation.html
)
Most of the calls
and e-mail messages we get concern accreditation: What is it, how important
is it, how can you tell if a school's really accredited, and so forth. While
accreditation is a complex and sometimes baffling field, it's really quite
simple to get the basics. This on-line guide offers you:
All
About Accreditation: A brief overview of what you really
need to know about accreditation, including GAAP (Generally Accepted
Accrediting Practices). Yes, there really are fake accrediting agencies, and
yes some disreputable schools do lie. This simple set of rules tells how to
sort out truth from fiction. (The acronym is, of course, borrowed from the
field of accounting. GAAP standards are the highest to which accountants can
be held, and we feel that accreditation should be viewed as equally
serious.)
GAAP-Approved
Accrediting Agencies: A listing of all recognized
accrediting agencies, national, regional, and professional, with links that
will allow you to check out schools.
Agencies
Not Recognized Under GAAP: A list of agencies that have
been claimed as accreditors by a number of schools, some totally phony, some
well-intentioned but not recognized.
FAQs:
Some simple questions and answers about accreditation and, especially,
unaccredited schools
AboutEducation at http://www.about.com/education/
WorldwideLearn --- http://www.worldwidelearn.com/
At this site you'll
find hundreds of online courses and learning resources in 46 subject areas
offered by educational institutions, companies and individuals from all over
the world.
Online Training
Long Distance Learning Distance Education eLearning Web-based Training
Whatever you call it - learning online is about you and how you can pursue
learning and education at your convenience. Its learning when you want and
where you want.
What do you want to
learn? Do you want to:
get a degree online
train for a new career learn web design find corporate training resources
take professional development courses learn new software continue your
education learn a new skill or hobby
Whatever your goals
are, World Wide Learn is here to help you find the online courses, learning
and education that you want.
Use this site as
your first step towards continuing your education online.
Bob Jensen's threads on quality and assessment are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
American Distance Education
Consortium (ADEC) --- http://www.adec.edu/international.html
The American Distance Education Consortium ---
http://www.adec.edu/admin/adec-background.html
What is ADEC?
ADEC is a non-profit distance education consortium composed of approximately
65 state universities and land-grant colleges. The consortium was conceived
and developed to promote the creation and provision of high quality,
economical distance education programs and services to diverse audiences, by
the land grant community of colleges and universities, through the most
appropriate information technologies available.
ADEC Mission and Guiding Principles The driving
vision behind the organization is the extension of educational content and
opportunity beyond the traditional boundaries of the university walls, to
serving not simply on-campus students but lifelong learners, broader
domestic and international communities, under-served populations and even
K-12 schools and the corporate/business community.
Through ADEC, members engage in a teaching and
learning model that epitomizes a university without walls that is open,
accessible, and flexible. The model seeks to provide instructional delivery
and/or access anywhere, anytime, and to virtually anyone who seeks it.
Primary emphasis is placed on educational and
informational programs and services that fall within the traditional areas
of competitive advantage for land-grant institutions. Specifically, this
includes programs related to food and agriculture; nutrition and health;
environment and natural resources; community and economic development; and
children, youth, and families.
Guiding Principles
The consortium draws upon the best and most effective subject matter
specialists and information resources to share knowledge and content with
learners. ADEC programming is offered locally, regionally, nationally, and
internationally and is characterized by the following guiding principles:
Design for active and effective learning.
Principle: Distance learning designs consider
context, needs, content, strategies, outcomes and environment.
Support the needs of learners.
Principle: Distance learning opportunities are
effectively and flexibly supported.
Develop and maintain the technological and human
infrastructure.
Principle: The provider of distance learning
opportunities has both a technology plan and a human infrastructure.
Sustain administrative and organizational
commitment.
Principle: Distance education initiatives are
sustained by an administrative commitment to quality distance education.
ADEC members seek to meet local, state, national
and international demands through provision of distance education
opportunities and place equal emphasis on each of the traditional land grant
imperatives of teaching, research and service.
ADEC is designed to serve diverse audiences using
appropriate combinations of technologies including: Internet2, commodity
Internet, satellite uplinks, downlinks, VSATs, digital television and audio
conferencing. These communications tools help ADEC member institutions
interact with learners domestically and internationally. Typical methods of
distance learning include: one-way video/two-way audio satellite, two-way
video and audio conferencing, multiple user audio-only conferencing,
Internet based access to educational programs.
International
Cooperation
- Council
International Faculty Development Seminars
Complete listing of countries and seminars:
http://www.ciee.org/ifds/Seminars/index.htm
- Global Alliance
for Transnational Education (GATE):
- Nations of the
World:
- Other Resources:
- Papers/Articles:
- World Bank
|
International Distance Education
Directory --- http://aie.msk.su/english/dist.html
ASSOCIATIONS
AND INSTITUTIONS
DISTANCE EDUCATION CENTRES
I N S T I T U T E S, U N I V E R S I
T I E S A N D
A C A D E M I E S
Distance
Education World Wide
We would like to offer
you several web-links, which we consider worth looking up. We hope this
will help you to find more information on the subject.
Distance
Education Web Sites list and link to 12 distance education sites
world-wide.
New
Promise Inc server with a search system presents online courses.
There are such very useful
search engines as Lycos,
Yahoo!, EuroSeek,
“Excite”,
“Infoseek”
and AltaVista. They
offer many interesting things for both children and adults.
ASSOCIATIONS
AND INSTITUTIONS
The site of International
Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), which is a global
membership organization of educational institutions, national and
regional associations, corporations, educational authorities and
agencies and consists of 7000 members from 130 countries of the world.
I NSTITUTES, UNIVERSITIES
AND ACADEMIES
Australia
Canada
- Open
University of British Columbia, Canada Course outline &
description of OU course on Internet
- University
of Guelph, Ontario Extensive list of links to distance
education, on-line journals, newsgroups and educational technology
- Simon
Fraser University Center for Distance Education, Canada Course
info and examples from Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada
- Arcadia
University, Canada Arcadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Description & examples of distance courses using multimedia
including teleconferencing
- TeleEducation
in New Brunswick, Canada Details of courses run by
teleconferencing & other media
- Genesis
(Canada) - University of British Columbia, Outlines etc of
interactive online courses
Spain
The Netherlands
The UK
The USA
- National
Technology University (USA)
- Pennsylvania
State University (USA)
- National
Distance Learning Center (NDLC), University of Kentucky
Centralized information source on distance learning programs &
resources
- World
Lecture Hall (University of Texas) Links to many sites with www
distance courses &/or materials. The site of the
World Lecture Hall (WLH) is linked with a number of educational
organizations that offer descriptions of learning courses accessible
by Internet.
- Athena
Virtual Online University Courses, materials etc from Athena,
Columbia MO, USA
- Indiana
University Language Arts education courses through
correspondence and the World Wide Web
- Nova
University, Florida Items for teachers working in distance
education programs
- Minneapolis
College of Art and Design, USA Descriptions of Internet Art
& Design courses
- Dept
of Distance Education, Western Michigan University, USA Course
outlines & details of self-instructional courses
- The
Virtual Classroom at New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Articles & links on distance learning
- Shenandoah
University, Virginia USA Course description etc of distance
teacher training via Internet & video for math's teachers
- Los
Angeles Schools distance learning projects Home page with links
to projects & support services from the Los Angeles County
Education Offices
- Entire thematic site Distance
Learning on the Net by Glen Hoyle. Glenn Hoyle's selective
bibliography links to many other distance learning resources on the
net.
- California
College for Health Sciences, USA Course outlines etc for Health
Sciences distance learning programs
- University
of Idaho has placed on its web page a selection of related
reference materials items.
- University
of Hawaii Distance Education Course outlines etc.
|
Johns Hopkins University's Center
for Talented Youth Center for Distance Education --- http://www.jhu.edu/gifted/cde/
Get the instruction
you need when and where you need it! If you are self disciplined and
highly motivated, the Center for Distance Education's math and writing
courses will suit your learning style.
Join our unique on-line
community. You'll share a learning experience with others who have a
zest for math or a passion for writing. Math and Writing Tutorials
courses are offered throughout the year so you can continue to enrich
your education and develop your skills.
Our on-line community now
includes these partners:
|
Global Education Network --- http://www.gen.com/
The Open University is Enormous
--- http://www.open.ac.uk/frames.html
The United States Open University ceased operations at the end of the Spring
2002 semester. This was a branch of the huge Open University of Great
Britain. The U.S. branch tried to make a go of it with a partnership
strategy, especially partnerships with community colleges. Partnerships
also included the Indiana State University and University of
Maryland---Baltimore County. One factor attributed to its closing is the
failure to obtain accreditation for most of its distance education courses.
The USOU homepage is at http://www.open.edu/site_map.asp
University of Wollengong's CLEU
International Distance Education: Hong Kong, Japan, and Dubai
--- http://imm-web.uow.edu.au/Education/CLEUW/distedInt.html
India: International Centre
for Distance Education and Open Learning (ICDEOL) --- http://hpuniv.nic.in/icdeol.htm
In India, it
was the first to start Master of Arts in different disciplines and Master of
Education and Master of Commerce. Over the years, its Directorate of
Correspondence Courses gradually absorbed the emerging philosophy of
distance education and adopted multi-media approach for imparting
instruction. In view of this, the Directorate of Correspondence Course has
been rechristened as the International Centre for Distance Education and
Open Learning (ICDEOL). It is located on the Campus of the University at
Summer Hill. It has its own independent complex consisting of two four-five
storied buildings.
Centers and Associations for
Southeast Asian Studies --- http://www.niu.edu/acad/cseas/centers.html
Universitat Koblitz-Landau's
Distance Education Course on European Environmental Law --- http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~eelaw/nn.html
Excite Canada Links --- http://www.excite.ca/education/online_and_distance/distance_learning/
Jesuit Distance Education Network
--- http://www.universitybusiness.com/0104/update_jesuit.html
JESUIT
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES HAVE BANDED together to form an e-learning
network. The Jesuit Distance Education Network—JesuitNET for short—gathers
onto one Web site resources from 25 of the nation's 28 Jesuit institutions.
Phase one launched
in March, offering public access to existing courses from six Jesuit
schools: Regis University, Loyola University Chicago, Saint Louis
University, Creighton University, Loyola University New Orleans, and
Wheeling Jesuit University. After a three-year development project,
JesuitNET's main feature will be up and running: 20 online courses created
through collaborations among Jesuit schools.
The schools, all
members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), vary
widely in their current involvement with distance education. Colorado's
Regis, one of the most technologically advanced in the group, currently
offers five online master's degrees, several online certificates, and an
e-baccalaureate completion program. Georgetown University, though it is
perhaps the best-known of the country's Jesuit schools, has next to no
online courses.
That disparity
seems to be one of the points of the project. "There's no question that
Regis benefits from being part of JesuitNET," says the university's
director of information technology Ellen Waterman. "If JNET has done
nothing else, it has alerted us to what resources we each bring to bear and
how we can benefit each other with those resources."
Mike Neuman,
Georgetown's divisional director of university information services, agrees.
He says that Georgetown will benefit from JesuitNET, especially because of
the opportunity to have faculty collaborating through the network with
faculty at the other Jesuit institutions.
Distance
Education Clearinghouse --- http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
Extensive and well maintained site from the University of Wisconsin that is
a particularly good starting point for those new to distance education.
Includes glossary of terms, explanations of technologies and other useful
information.
Globewide Network
Academy --- http://www.gnacademy.org/
Nice distance education resource for teachers and students. Include
searchable database for locating online courses.
Peterson's
--- http://www.petersons.com/dlearn/dlsector.html
Offers large searchable database for locating schools offering marketing and
marketing-related courses.
The Wellspring --- http://wellspring.isinj.com/home.html
Identifies itself as "an online community for distance educators",
this site contains articles, academic papers , FAQs on distance education
and a page providing links to distance education resources and materials
"Deere
& Company Turns to Indiana University's Kelley School of Business For
Online MBA Degrees in Finance," Yahoo Press Release, October 8, 2001 --- http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011008/cgm034_1.html
MOLINE, Ill., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Deere &
Company, the world's leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment, has
entered into a Web-based academic partnership with Indiana University's
Kelley School of Business to provide a Master of Business Administration
degree program for Deere's finance professionals, beginning in August 2002.
The customized online program is designed as a
three-year course of study to be completed in parallel with the
participants' full-time job responsibilities. Course content is centered
around the business knowledge, technical skills, and behavioral competencies
for Deere's future leaders to use in responding to challenges facing the
company. Kelley's senior faculty designed the program specifically for John
Deere, with input from the Deere finance division's senior management team.
``This is a rigorous program drawing from the
strengths of both the Kelley School and the Deere management team. It is
designed to create value for our enterprise and allow us to attract and
retain high-quality employees,'' said Nate Jones, chief financial officer at
Deere & Company. ``Graduates of this program will learn skills that help
them better meet the challenges of improving business performance and
delivering value to shareholders.''
``The Kelley School of Business takes pride in its
ability to build curricula,'' said Dan Dalton, dean of the Kelley School.
``Our faculty's talent in educational innovation enables us to create close
relationships with the corporate community and construct programs according
to their specific criteria. We are delighted to extend this ability to
include a corporation with the integrity and strong international reputation
of John Deere.''
The MBA program curriculum will consist of twenty
courses structured to meld individual student goals with the organizational
needs of Deere & Company. Each academic year will consist of three
twelve-week sessions. The program will be launched each year with a one- to
two- week residential module on Indiana University's Bloomington campus.
Teaching tools will include discussion and debate
forums, on-line testing, audio streaming and video streaming, simulations,
and time-revealed scenarios for case-based learning. Course materials may be
accessed directly from the Worldwide Web. The program will use only
full-time tenure-track faculty recognized for their quality of teaching in
other Kelley School programs.
The John Deere MBA program is a customized
adaptation of the Kelley Direct Online MBA program, which is the first fully
online MBA offered among nationally ranked top-20 business schools. It has
been available since 1999 to qualified working professionals who continue
their employment while earning their degrees. It was created in
collaboration with the Kelley School's corporate executive education
clients, who voiced a need for MBA skills throughout their work forces.
About 150 students are enrolled in the Kelley Direct Online MBA program
today.
Bob
Jensen's threads on universities that have similar contracts with other
universities are given at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
From Syllabus News on January
29, 2002
e-Learning
Firm Readies Section 508
Compliance
e-Learning software
developer SmartForce said 5,000 hours of its e-learning content conforms
with the accessibility standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act. Section 508 requires government agencies to ensure its employees and
other people with disabilities have equal access to IT services. The company
has worked with Octavia Corp. since last June to make its content and
"learning paths" accessible using screen readers and other
assistive technologies. The partnership will yield other accessibility
approaches, including accessibility reviews, consulting, training, and
legacy content conversion and remediation, the companies said.
Gratz College
Announces Online Courses
Gratz College, the
oldest independent college of Jewish studies in the western hemisphere, has
announced registration for five online course for the spring 2002 academic
term. Interested students can take the courses for credit toward a Gratz
College credential, undergraduate or graduate transfer credit, or for
general study. Each course will be taught by a Gratz College professor and
will meet in real-time, weekly, in the evening. Students must be available
at class times and have access to a computer with speakers.
For more information, visit: http://www.gratzcollege.edu
Government
and Military Online Training and Education
Army University Access Online --- http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
This five-year $453 million initiative was completed by the consulting
division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Twenty-four colleges are
delivering training and education courses online through the U.S. Army's
e-learning portal. There are programs for varying levels of
accomplishment, including specialty certificates, associates degrees,
bachelor's degrees, and masters degrees. All courses are free to
soldiers. By 2003, there is planned capacity is for 80,000 online
students. The PwC Program Director is Jill Kidwell --- http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/kidwell.html
Army Online University attracted 12,000 students during its first year of
operation. It plans to double its capacity and add 10,000 more students
in 2002. It is funded by the U.S. Army for all full time soldiers to
take non-credit and credit courses from selected major universities. The
consulting arm of the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers manages the
entire system.
February 2003 Update
Army University is an online
university that was originally organized around 20 respected colleges and
universities under an original $500 million grant to the consulting division
of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). That division has now be come IBM
Business Consulting Services, Inc. and 12 new colleges have been added --- http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/IBMExpandseArmyU1.html
All U.S. soldiers are eligible for free training and education certification
and degree programs.
The
number of colleges and universities participating in eArmyU will increase to
32, in 19 states, during 2003. The academic institutions will offer
more than 3,000 courses and more than 150 academic degree programs, tripling
the degree programs since eArmyU’s inception. eArmyU has delivered
educational opportunities online to more than 30,500 enlisted soldiers since
the program began in January 2001 and will enroll approximately 80,000
soldiers by 2005 at military installations around the world. The program is
accessed at www.earmyu.com .
“eArmyU
is helping our enlisted force to pursue higher education online while they
serve their country,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Jimenez, eArmyU Program
Director for the Army. “With this expansion of academic offerings, we are
taking the program to a new level.”
IBM
Business Consulting Services identified colleges and universities to provide
online degree programs for enlisted soldiers through a competitive process.
In concert with U.S. Army needs, the company recommended schools based on
their ability to address the higher education goals and interests of
soldier-students, meet the program’s technological and administrative
requirements, and optimize value to the Army.
“The
demand for education through eArmyU is astounding, and we built the online
program so that it can meet not only a growing enrollment, but also demands
for different kinds of courses,” said Jill Kidwell, IBM Business
Consulting Services partner. “We are helping the Army supply higher
education quickly and efficiently using the e-learning techniques pioneered
in this program.”
Twelve
new undergraduate and graduate schools and at least 68 additional degree
programs will be phased into eArmyU over the next six to nine months. All
eArmyU schools must adhere to requirements and be approved for membership in
Servicemembers Opportunity
Colleges for credit transferability among eArmyU schools.
IBM
Business Consulting Services anticipates adding more targeted degree
programs and schools over time to meet the Army’s goals.
The
newest eArmyU schools include:
Atlantic Cape Community College, Mays Landing, N.J.
Coastline Community College, Fountain Valley, Calif.
Grambling State University, Grambling, La.
Hampton
University, Hampton, Va.
Indiana
University, Bloomington, Ind.
Jefferson Community College, Watertown, N.Y.
Pierce College, Lakewood, Wash.
Southern Christian University, Montgomery, Ala.
Southwestern College, Wichita, Kans.
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
University of California Los Angeles Extension, Los Angeles, Calif.
University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, Md.
The
new additions to the program join 20 colleges and universities already
participating which also competed for continuation in eArmyU:
Anne
Arundel Community College, Arnold, Md.
Baker
College, Flint, Mich.
Central
Texas College, Killeen, Texas
Cochise
College, Sierra Vista, Ariz.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Excelsior College, Albany, N.Y.
Fayetteville Technical Community College, Fayetteville, N.C.
Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio
Lansing
Community College, Lansing, Mich.
Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, N.C.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus, University Park, Pa.
Rio
Salado Community College, Tempe, Ariz.
Saint Joseph's College of Maine, Standish, Maine
Saint Leo College, Tampa, Fla.
State University of New York, Empire State College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Thomas Edison State College, Trenton, N.J.
Troy State University, Columbus, Ga.
University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas
University
of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas
About
IBM Business Consulting Services
With
more than 60,000 consultant and professional staff in more than 160
countries globally, IBM Business Consulting Services is the world’s
largest consulting services organization. IBM Business Consulting
Services provides clients with business process and industry expertise, a
deep understanding of technology solutions that address specific industry
issues, and the ability to design, build and run those solutions in a way
that delivers bottom-line business value.
The
Army University Access Online homepage is at http://www.adec.edu/earmyu/index.html
Bob
Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm
Wal-Mart University Tuition Discounts
From Syllabus News on January 13, 2004
Wal-Mart Signs Capella U. as ‘Preferred’ Online
Ed Provider
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has
signed a deal for Capella University to become the online education provider
for its new My Education Connection program. Under the offering, Walmart
customers can receive tuition discounts for online degree programs from
Capella, which has 9,000 students and offers degrees and certificates to
working adults in business, technology, education, human services, and
psychology.
You can read the following at http://www.capella.edu/GATEWAY.ASPX
Capella University Overview In Brief Capella
University is an accredited online university that offers courses,
certificates and degree programs, including MBA, doctorate, graduate and
undergraduate degrees in business, technology, education, human services and
psychology. Founded in 1993, Capella is the world's fastest-growing
e-learning institution.
A pioneer in online learning, Capella University is
a results-oriented educational institution geared specifically to the goals
and lifestyles of adult learners. Capella redefines the higher education
experience for non-traditional learners, thereby offering an accessible and
flexible education program that allows technology to remove the barriers of
time and place.
Accreditation Capella University is accredited by
The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges
and Schools (NCA), the same body that accredits Big Ten universities. The
NCA has recognized Capella for "its pioneering role in translating an
adult learning model into action." Capella is the first and only online
academic institution to participate in the NCA of Colleges and Schools
Academic Quality Improvement Project.
Enrollment Capella University's student body
currently comprises students from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
The majority of Capella's learners are working adults who often are
balancing family, work and educational achievement.
More than 600 corporations provide tuition
reimbursement to employees enrolled at Capella University. Check the Capella
Learner Organizations list for your employer's name.
Additionally, some Organizations have signed
Corporate Alliance Partnership Agreements with Capella University. Employees
of our Corporate Partners receive several additional benefits such as
tuition discounts, streamlined enrollment process and cohort learning
opportunities. Our programs are designed to have an immediate impact on the
individual learner and the organization, positioning both for greater
success.
Capella is also a leading provider of courses in all branches of the U.S.
Military --- http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/military_index.aspx
Corporate partnerships and alliances are listed at http://www.capella.edu/reborn/html/solutions/corp/index.aspx
The U.S. IRS offers Internet education opportunities. IRS employees who
want to get ahead in the organization are heading back to the classroom - 21st
century style. College level courses in accounting, finance, tax law, and
other business subjects will be available on the Internet to IRS employees. http://www.accountingweb.com/item/46816/101
For example, the IRS online accounting classes will be served up from
Florida State University and Florida Community College at Jacksonville --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60881-2001May7.html
From Syllabus News on February 26, 2002
Online Masters Degree in Health Law Enters
Second Year
Nova Southeastern University said a second class of
students had begun its online master's degree program in health law. The
graduate program is designed to educate non-lawyer health care professionals
about health- related legal issues. The masters is a two-year program taught
almost entirely over the Internet. Short residential sessions each year
supplement the program, which is designed for working professionals,
full-time practitioners, administrators, military personnel, nurses, and
leaders in the health care industry.
For more information, visit: http://www.mhl.nsulaw.nova.edu
.
From Syllabus News on February 26, 2002
Columbia Dental School Takes to the Web
(Medicine)
The Columbia University School of Dental and Oral
Surgery said it would develop online continuing education courses for
dentists in collaboration with ArcMesa Educators, a multi-profession
provider of continuing education. The school will select and develop the
content for the courses, which ArcMesa will develop for both Internet and
traditional home study. According to the American Dental Association, 47
states mandate continuing dental education for practicing dentists, totaling
over 200,000 dentists. "We are a forward-looking institution that
believes in providing education beyond the traditional walls of a dental
school," said Dr. Ira Lamster, dean of the school. "Offering CME
courses online will benefit our practicing faculty and alumni, as well as
dentists across the country. In addition, foreign institutions seeking an
affiliation with us will now have an opportunity to do so via the
Internet."
For more information, visit: http://www.arcmesa.com
From SyllabusNews on July 30, 2002
Small Colleges Collaborate on Online Degrees
Michigan-based Jackson Community College (JCC) and
Walsh College signed an agreement to provide JCC students an opportunity to
finish their bachelor's degrees via the Internet. JCC students will be able
to obtain a bachelor of business administration degree online by
transferring a maximum of 82 credit hours in business and general education
courses from JCC and then completing 45 credit hours online with Walsh
College. Majors in the new program would include general business,
management, or marketing. Through the partnership, Walsh College, an upper
division school offering only junior and senior level course work, said it
would increase its strength in business education in the Jackson area while
enhancing the quality of JCC's business program.
Places to Learn from Krislyn
--- http://www.placestolearn.com/
- LearnKey
- More than 950
self-paced multimedia-based training courses taught by
experts on interactive CD. Educational areas include
business applications (like Microsoft Word and Excel),
software development, IT certification, and networking.
- Rosetta
Stone
- Language Learning
Software on CD-ROM and online. Selected by the Peace Corps,
the U.S. State Department, and NASA.
- eLearners.com
- Your key to online
learning. They can help you find the best courses, programs
& schools for your needs, as well as all the resources
you will need to succeed as an e-learner.
- LearnITSoftware.com
- Self-paced IT
Training in everything from Desktop Basics to Linux RHCP.
- Kaplan
Test Prep
- Get higher scores on
those important tests by taking Kaplan courses for AP, SAT,
PSAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, PCAT, OAT, DAT, NBDE, NCLEX,
CGFNS, USMLE, CSE, COMLEX, CME, and others.
- Delmar/Thomson
Learning
- They've got products
to help you learn agriscience, allied health, business &
economics, CAD and graphics, computers & technology,
cosmetology, driver education & transportation,
education, engineering, legal studies, math &
statistics, personal health, science, behavioral sciences,
and trades & technology.
- Linguaphone
- A complete range of
Language courses to suit your needs.
- IStudySmart.com
- provides interactive
online study materials for over fifty CLEP, RCE, DANTES, and
GRE exams.
- BrainBench
- Register now for a
FREE online Brainbench Certification Exam in hundreds of
categories.
- Ddigital
Media Training
- A video-based
training series which brings viewers cutting-edge strategies
and techniques, straight from the industry leaders. For
anyone who works with film, video, advertising or marketing.
- University
of Phoenix
- One of the first
accredited universities to provide complete online degree
programs almost a decade ago. They offer an Associate in
Arts, Bachelor of Science in Business (with
specializations), Bachelor of Science in Information
Technology, and a number of Masters and Doctorate programs.
- Computer
Training Online
- Over 370 premium
courses you can take online. Courses are sold as sets. Each
set may include from 35 to 117 courses. When you sign up for
one set of courses, you may take any or all of the courses,
in that set, as many times as you wish, for one full year.
They currently offer 6 different sets of courses including
discounts if you buy more than one set. The cost to take one
set of courses begins at $48 per year.
- Tutor.com
- The National
Registry of Instructors. Founded in partnership with the The
Princeton Review, it is a primary destination for those
searching for an experienced and trusted tutor in any
subject, online or face-to-face.
- Chadwick
University
- M.B.A. programs
through self-paced distance education, including: Business
Administration, Criminal Justice and Psychology. Increase
your marketability and earning power with this program.
Approved by more than 375 companies and approved for Sallie
Mae long-term,low-interest financing. Request your free
catalog.
- Graduate
School Programs
- Comprehensive online
source of graduate school information.
- Distance.Gradschools.com
- Distance.Gradschools.com
is a comprehensive online database of distance graduate
programs.
- University
of Phoenix
- Get a free
informative course brochure from the University of Phoenix
Online.
- Motivator
Pro
- A software-based
goal-setting system, designed on a motivational theme, to
effectively guide you through the process of defining,
tracking, maintaining, and ultimately achieving your
business and personal goals. Free trial download.
- Caliber
Learning Network
- Partners include
Georgetown, Columbia, USC, Johns Hopkins, Wharton, Syracuse,
Babson.
- Cardean
University
- Online business
courses from their academic consortium members who include
Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia Business School, London
School of Economics and Political Science, Stanford
University, and the University of Chicago Graduate School of
Business.
- Cognitive
Arts
- Forms partnerships
with leading Fortune 500 companies to create courseware with
a "learn by doing" approach which gives employees
an opportunity to develop and practice real-world skills by
placing them in compelling, interactive simulations of their
actual work environment.
- Digital
Think
- A leader in
designing, developing and deploying e-learning solutions to
Fortune 1000 companies. They specialize in courseware for
attracting and retaining customers, improving sales channel
performance,and ensuring employees have the skills to
execute on business strategy.
- DeVry
Inc
- Includes the DeVry
Institutes (which provide career-oriented, technology-based
education to high school graduates and working adults), and
the Keller Graduate School of Management (which provides
high-quality, practitioner-oriented graduate management
degree programs to working adults).
- EduPoint
- Provides Fortune
1000 Corporations with centralized access to over 1.5
million learning opportunities through more than 4,000
learning providers.
- ExecuTrain
- Provides certified
technical instruction from leaders like Microsoft, Lotus and
Novell -— including skills-based certifications like A+,
Network+ and Internet Webmaster certifications.
- Global
Knowledge Network
- Provides technology
training in a classroom environment or online, with
certifications.
- Knowledge
Anywhere
- A leader in
Web-based e-learning. Uses proven processes and technology
to deliver turnkey, customized online training solutions in
less than eight weeks.
- Learning
Network
- Their initial focus
is on K-12 students, parents, and teachers, with plans for
Higher Education, Professional Development, and Lifelong
Learning.
- Learning
Tree
- Over 140 hands-on IT
courses.
- LearnStream
- A custom courseware
design firm, delivering CBT and WBT solutions.
- McGraw
Hill Online Learning
- Self-paced,
interactive business and management courses.
- MindLeaders
- Web-based training
providing enterprise-quality courses in desktop computing,
home and small business, and business skills development.
- National
Technology University
- They offer a variety
of degrees in business and management, computer science, and
engineering via Satellite, the Internet, or CD-ROM. They
have a working alliance of more than 50 universities.
- NETg
- Technology, IT, and
management and professional development training.
- OptimalThinking.com
- Multi award-winning
global community website for personal and professional
optimization. Seminars, speeches, products, consultations,
and writing services to optimize -- not merely improve --
your life.
- Pensare
Knowledge Community
- Offers validated
content from the world’s top business schools. Content is
licensed from authorities and institutions with expertise in
General Management (Sales, Negotiation, Service Management,
Leadership, Management, Teamwork, Marketing and other
related topics) and e-Business (subjects that include
e-Commerce, e-Business Strategies, Customer Relations,
e-Marketing, and others).
- Provant
- Programs include
leadership, HR, project management, managing change, and
many others.
- Quisic
- Combines a free
online resource for the most current business thinking on
the web with business education solutions for corporations
and academic institutions. They've won numerous awards for
their courseware. Academic partners include the Tuck School
of Business at Dartmouth College, London Business School,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler
Business School, University of Southern California Marshall
School of Business, and professors from Duke University, the
University of Chicago, and the University of California at
Los Angeles.
- SkillSoft
- A provider of total
e-Learning solutions for Global 2000 companies with over 325
courses in the areas of professional expertise and business
expertise.
- SmartForce
- Formerly CBT
Systems. Courses in the areas of IT, business, professional
skills.
-
See Also ...
-
- Open Directory
Project Sites
- The Open
Directory Project provides an additional extensive list of
sites in the following topic areas:
|
|
International Journals, Resources, and Newsletters for Distance Education
Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Overview
of Education Technologies --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's Threads on Assessment of Education Technologies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/assess.htm
Bob Jensen's education bookmarks are
at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
Web Portals and Higher Education: Technologies to Make IT Personal
ID No. PUB5006
Category Publications From the EDUCAUSE Office
Author Richard N. Katz
Organization EDUCAUSE Year 2002
Subject Terms Enterprise Portals
Price $18.00
"Seton Hall has developed free software that
helps instructors turn their lectures into multimedia presentations for course
Web sites. The software, called SyncStream ( http://tltc.shu.edu/initiatives/streaming/syncstream.htm
), makes it easy to mix video of a lecture with a PowerPoint presentation or
other slide show. To use the program instructors must first record their
lectures in the streaming-video format developed by RealNetworks."
Tracey Sutherland [tracey@AAAHQ.ORG]
Distance Education Magazines and Journals http://www.wisc.edu/depd/html/mags.htm
INSEAD Knowledge http://knowledge.insead.edu/index.cfm
Welcome
to INSEAD Knowledge,
your portal to today’s most prominent business research.
Knowledge
presents:
- Easy-to-read
abstracts of working papers and cases
- Longer,
in-depth explanations of research
- Professors’
personal insights
- Features
(click the “New” link on the home page) with Professor
interviews, news-related items, INSEAD conferences and more
- INSEAD's
recently published books (click the “Books” link on the home
page)
Navigating
Knowledge is simple.
- Click
on the headline of any abstract to read more
- Click
on a primary theme of research (in the green menu on left-hand
side). You will arrive on a theme page with several topical
abstracts. Then, click on a headline to read more and download the
full text of the case or working paper.
- Find
links to INSEAD’s research centres under “Related Research” on
relevant theme pages (right-hand side).
You
may customise Knowledge by
setting your preferences on My
Knowledge. The site
will automatically provide you with abstracts on the topics that
interest you the most.
- Click
on My Knowledge (always
in the top menu) to set it up
- Each
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|
Knowledge
Knows No Boundaries --- http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42660,00.html
Developing
interesting math and science lessons for local school districts can be a
daunting and time-consuming task, but what about a curriculum for three
countries?
Brazil, Venezuela,
and Colombia are attempting to do just that in a new transnational software
program.
The International
Virtual Education Network (IVEN) combines the brainpower of educators in
South America in the development of math and science software over the Net.
"This is really
a watershed," said Pedro Paulo Poppovic, the secretary of distance
education for Brazil. "As far as I know this has never been done
before."
Teams of educators
will develop software that emphasizes learn-by-doing and simulation that
covers the entire math and science curriculum at the secondary level,
including math, biology, chemistry and physics.
Because costs for
implementing technology into Third World classrooms can be prohibitively high,
the partnership enables the three countries to reap greater benefits at a
lower price.
Each country will
have teams made up of a master teacher, a graphic artist, a content
specialist, an instructional designer and a software developer. As a team
works on a particular curricular unit, called a module, they post the design
online for the other teams to comment on and critique.
The lessons will be
distributed on a browser-based network but they will not be
Internet-dependent. For those schools with no connection to the Net, a version
of a browser will be copied onto a proxy server, and the lessons will be
downloaded from CD-ROMs.
"Teachers in all
three countries will be able to communicate and exchange ideas," said
Wadi Haddad, the president of Knowledge Enterprise, who is chief coordinating
advisor for IVEN in the United States. "These pilot schools will be well
supported technically and educationally."
Teachers may, for
example, use animations
Students
paying for college can get financial help from a new website, if they agree to
pay investors a fixed percentage of their future income --- http://www.wirednews.com/news/school/0,1383,43977,00.html
MyRichUncle
claims to offer students an alternative method of paying for college. The site
boasts a network of investors who will help finance a student's undergraduate or
graduate education, and upon graduation, the student must pay the company a
percentage of their income for up to 15 years.
The MRU Education
Investment supplements other grants, scholarships or subsidized loans that
students receive to pay for school.
Rate payments are
determined by the type of program the student is in, the school they attend,
the year of enrollment, work experience and other factors.
The company also
plans to offer mentorship opportunities for students with MyRichUncle's
network of investors.
The
MyRichUncle site is at http://www.myrichuncle.com/
Related
to this is "Dear Student: We Pay If You Stay" at http://www.wirednews.com/news/culture/0,1284,38080,00.html
Multinational
companies with offices in Central Europe and Asia are quietly trying to plug the
brain drain that's siphoning technical talent to the United States by offering
to pay for the education of their best and brightest applicants
The catch: Students
have to attend local schools and then work in their home countries for a
specified period of time after graduation.
The United States is
still the most popular destination for foreign students, drawing about 578,000
in the 1998-99 academic year, according to the Department
of States International Information Programs.
But the number of
foreign students attending college in the United States has been dwindling,
according to SIIP. Five years ago, about 40 percent of all international
students studied in the United States. Today, it's 32 percent.
The decline is
attributed to aggressive recruiting problems in students' own countries and in
others, especially in the computer science fields. The high cost of tuition at
American colleges and universities is also to blame.
U.S. schools are
battling back.
President Clinton
recently suggested
that "educational institutions, state and local governments,
non-governmental organizations, and the business community" should
"review the effect of U.S. government actions on the international flow
of students and scholars as well as on citizen and professional exchanges, and
take steps to address unnecessary obstacles, including those involving visa
and tax regulations, procedures, and policies."
In response,
the Immigration and
Naturalization Service has eased work rules for foreign students. And some
colleges are considering adjusting the amount of funds made available for
grants to foreign students in order to fill in the gaps caused by weak
exchange rates.
See
also:
Internet2
Crosses the Border
S.
Africa Broadband Plan on Hold
In
Mexico, Net Not a Priority
Math
and Science Seek Fed Funds
New
Toys for Cheaters
MIT
Cheered From a Distance
Bob
Jensen's education bookmarks are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
Professor Darling's site on
Resources for Distance Education is outstanding --- http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/distance.htm
Until I found this site, I was not
aware there were so many journals and other resources for distance education.
From Infobits on June 1, 2001
TUTORIALS ON USING THE WEB FOR SCHOLARLY STUDY
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) launched the
Virtual Training Suite, a collaboration between 30 universities providing 40
tutorials to help people learn more about using the Internet as a source of
scholarly information. Tutorial topics cover the categories of engineering and
mathematics, humanities, social sciences, business and law, health and life
sciences, and physical sciences. The tutorials offer self-directed learning
with the help of an expert "tour guide" commissioned from
universities, libraries, museums, and research institutes across the United
Kingdom. The Virtual Training Suite is on the Web at http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/
The RDN is a national Internet service for academics
and professionals funded by the Higher and Further Education Funding Bodies
via the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and by Research Councils
such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It is coordinated by
the Resource Discovery Network Centre (RDNC), a center run jointly by staff
from UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking at the University
of Bath) and King's College London. For more information about the RDN,
contact: RDNC, Kings College London, 3rd Floor, Strand Bridge House, 138-142
The Strand, London WC2R 1HH UK; email: info@rdn.ac.uk; Web: http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
OPPORTUNITIES FOR NONTRADITIONAL LEARNERS
The Lumina Foundation for Education, a private,
independent foundation, addresses issues surrounding financial access,
educational attainment, and opportunities for nontraditional learners. The
foundation recently published "Funding the 'Infostructure': A Guide to
Financing Technology Infrastructure in Higher Education" by Ronald A.
Phipps and Jane V. Wellman. The report "makes recommendations that can
help campus officials and state and federal policymakers develop regular
funding policies for information technology . . . identifies a range of
options for funding information technology, examining the advantages and
drawbacks of each... [and] urges state and federal policy-makers to address
the disparities in institutions' ability to pay for technology." The
report is available online at http://www.luminafoundation.org/Publications/New%20Agenda%20Series/infostructofc+title.htm
For more information about the foundation and its
other publications, contact: Lumina Foundation for Education, 30 South
Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204-3503 USA; tel: 317-951-5704; fax:
317-951-5063; Web: http://www.luminafoundation.org/index.htm
About.com: A Great Site for
News About International and Distance Education --- http://internationaled.about.com/education/internationaled/cs/distancelearning/index.htm
Grants and Other Funding
Alternatives
AskEric Database --- http://ericir.syr.edu/
(Includes options to communicate live with experts)
From Infobits on June 2, 2001
ERICNEWS CHANGES FORMAT
ERICNEWS, the U.S. Department of Education ERIC system's bimonthly
electronic newsletter, will no longer be published in email format. Starting
with the June 2001 issue, each month ERICNews will be published and archived
on the ERIC website. Weekly ERIC announcements will continue to be published
in the "New From ERIC" section at http://www.accesseric.org/
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is a national information
system designed to provide ready access to an extensive body of
education-related literature. Established in 1966, ERIC is supported by the
U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement
and is administered by the National Library of Education. The ERIC system is
made up of sixteen subject-specific clearinghouses, associated adjunct
clearinghouses, and support components which provide a variety of services and
products on a broad range of education-related issues. ERIC also maintains a
database of more than one million abstracts of documents and journal articles
on education research and practice. For more information, contact ACCESS ERIC,
2277 Research Blvd., MS 4M, Rockville, MD 20850 USA; tel: 800-538-3742; email:
accesseric@accesseric.org ;
Web: http://www.eric.ed.gov/
Distance Education Clearinghouse --- http://www.uwex.edu/disted/home.html
This is a tremendous resource site that includes links to online courses and
programs.
Telematics Distance Education Resources, Links and Contacts --- http://www.fae.plym.ac.uk/tele/resources.html
Distance Learning Webring
Distance Learning Web Resources --- http://www.kimsoft.com/dista.htm
A Collection of distance education resources, Lund University
Electronic Library --- http://www.lub.lu.se/lub/services/distansundervisning.html
There is a lot of information here.
BUBL LINK Catalogue of Internet Resources --- http://bubl.ac.uk/link/d/distanceeducation.htm
Annenberg/CPB's Top Ten Distance
Education Sites --- http://www.learner.org/edtech/distlearn/topten.html
1) The
American Center for the Study of Distance Education (ACSDE)
ACSDE was established in 1988 with the aim of becoming a network of
scholars who have a common interest in studying, teaching, and doing
research in the field of distance education. Dr. Michael G. Moore
founded the ACSDE under the College of Education, and continues as its
Director. Today, the ACSDE has become a hub for the dissemination of
distance education information through both a printed and electronic
journal and other publications.
2) Distance
Education Resources
A vast index of distance education resources, this site is an
excellent starting point to the riches of international distance
education on the Internet. Open universities are among the useful
resources, in particular the British Open University, The Dutch Open
University, and Flanders' EuroStudy Centre for Distance Education.
3) Distance
Education Clearinghouse
This site provides a wide range of information about distance
education and related resources. This comprehensive and widely
recognized site brings together distance education information from
Wisconsin, national, and international sources. New information and
resources are being added to the Distance Education Clearinghouse on a
continuing basis. The Clearinghouse is managed and maintained by the
University of Wisconsin-Extension, in cooperation with its partners
and other UW institutions.
4) Educational
Technology Leadership Program--The George Washington University
This index links to sites that offer information about the process of
distance education as well as distance education institutions offering
courses and degrees via distance education.
This site also includes very
interesting full-text articles
regarding distance education.
5) Going
the Distance (GTD)
Going the Distance is an educational initiative of the PBS Adult
Learning Service and public television stations. Developed in response
to the growing population of adults who want to earn a college degree
at a distance, this initiative makes it possible for students to earn
a two-year college degree through distance learning.
6) Educause
Educause is a consortium of higher education institutions dedicated to
increasing the effectiveness of education using the latest
developments in information technology. Their World Wide Web and
gopher servers offer access to resources designed to support this
goal, such as information on educational conferences, publications
detailing the latest developments in information technology and
educational advancements, material on lobbying activities and related
legislation, and more. Users will also find information on becoming a
member of the consortium and the benefits that being a member
provides.
7) Distance
Education and Related Links
This site links to a wide variety of distance education institutions
and resources.
8) U.S.
Department of Education--Star Schools
This Web page looks at the Star School Program, administered by the
U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of the program is to
encourage improved instruction in mathematics, science, and foreign
languages as well as other areas, such as literacy skills and
vocational education. Using telecommunications, the program reaches
underserved populations, including the disadvantaged, illiterate,
limited-English proficient, and individuals with disabilities. The
program is a good model for K-12 institutions looking into distance
education.
9) The
World Lecture Hall
The World Lecture Hall page contains links to pages created by faculty
worldwide who are using the Web to deliver class materials. Some of
the materials provided include course syllabi, assignments, lecture
notes, exams, class calendars, multimedia textbooks.
10) Maricopa's
Here you will find over 470 (and counting!) examples of how the Web is
being used as a medium for learning including everything from sites
that relate directly to a Maricopa class to courses delivered entirely
via the Web to activities related to class assignments or course
materials.
|
Athabasca University's RIDE --- http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca/html/ccism/deresrce/de.htm
Guidelines for Distance Education
(including library guidelines) from The Higher Education Learning Commission ---
http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.or
Review our General
Institutional Requirements (GIR) and Criteria
for Accreditation in section I.A of our on-line Policy
Manual...
International Centre for Distance
Learning --- http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/journals.htm
This list of
Distance Education journals and newsletters was put together by The
International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL) and is used
here with the Centre's permission and with the understanding that such
lists, from time to time, go out of date. Please advise the maintainer
of this site, Charles Darling,
of suggested changes, deletions, or additional journal & newsletter
titles in Distance Education.
The
International publication ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION, first
published in 1974 by the International Extension College, which
contained a high proportion of items relating to less developed
countries, was incorporated in NEWS ABOUT IEC, published twice per year
(first issue 1988). NEWS ABOUT IEC has been replaced by IEC NEWS,
the first issue of which appeared in September 1991. IEC's address is
95 Tenison Road
Cambridge, CB1 2DL
UK
Tel: +44 1223 353321
Fax: +44 1223 464734
email: info@iec.ac.uk
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (ISSN 0892-3647. Three
issues per year. Subscription enquiries to AJDE, Rackley Building,
University Park, Pennsylvania State University, PA 16802, USA. First
published 1987.) 'Created to disseminate information and act as a forum
for criticism and debate about research and practice of distance
education in the Americas.'
Editor: Michael Grahame Moore,
American Centre for the Study of Distance Education
College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University,
403 South Allen Street, Suite 206, University Park,
PA 16801-5202, USA
DISTANCE EDUCATION (ISSN 0158-7919). Two issues per year, in May
and October. First published 1980. A refereed journal published for the
Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (formerly the
Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association (ASPESA). Aim
is to 'disseminate information about theory, research and practice in
distance education including correspondence study, external studies,
individualised learning, open learning, educational technology,
educational radio and television and other educational media'.
International in coverage.
Distance Education Centre
University of Southern Queensland
PO Darling Heights
Toowoomba
Queensland 4350
AUSTRALIA
THE
DISTANCE EDUCATOR A quarterly newsletter. Subscription information
and even a subscription form is available online at http://www.distance-educator.com/
EPISTOLODIDAKTIKA: THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION.
(Subscription enquiries to The Rapid Results College, Tuition House,
London, SW19 4DS, United Kingdom. Two issues per year. First published
1963.) The journal of the Association of European Correspondence
Schools, not always restricted to European coverage nor to the specific
concerns of correspondence schools.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF OPEN LEARNING (ISSN 0971-2690). First published
1992. Two issues per year, in January and July. Set up to: 'i)
disseminate information about theory, practice and research in the field
of open and distance education, including correspondence and multi-media
education,educational technology and communication, independent and
experiential learning and other innovative forms of education, and ii)
provide a forum for debate about these areas of concern, particularly
for India, allowing reasonable space to contributions from outside the
country.'
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Maidan Garhi
New Delhi 110 068
INDIA
ISTRUZIONE A DISTANZA(IAD) First published in 1989. Quarterly. The
language of the journal in Italian, but coverage is international.
Istruzione a Distanza
Piazza San Carlo III, 42
I-80137 Napoli
ITALY
JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION(ISSN 0830-0445. First published 1986.
Published twice yearly, in November and May). 'An international
publication of the Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE).
Its aim is to promote and encourage scholarly work of an empirical and
theoretical nature that relates to distance education in Canada.
CADE Secretariat'
205-1 Stewart Street
Ottawa
Ontario
CANADA, K1N 6H7
THE JOURNAL OF DISTANCE LEARNING First published in1994. A refereed
journal from the Distance Education Association of New Zealand
Dr. Terry Hearn
7 Tui Street, St Leonards
Dunedin, NZ
Fax +64-3-4677522
e-mail: TJHEARN@rivendell.otago.ac.nz
Book reviews editor: Dr. Ken Stevens
Department of Education, Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600, Wellington, NZ
Fax +64-4-471-5349
e-mail: Ken.Stevens@vuw.ac.nz
OPEN FORUM: DISTANCE EDUCATION AND OPEN LEARNING First published
1991. Gratis. The journal 'provides a vehicle for the communicaiton of
current theory, research and practice related to teaching and learning
through distance education and open learning systems.'
Distance Education Centre
University of Southern Queensland
Post Office Darling Heights
Toowoomba QLD 4350, AUSTRALIA
OPEN LEARNING (ISSN 0268-0513. Published three times per year, in
February, June and November. First published 1986 as successor to
TEACHING AT A DISTANCE, 26 issues of which were published by the Open
University between 1974 and 1985.) The journal comprises two sections,
the first including longer articles with references, the second
including issues for debate, grass roots observations, research notes,
conference reports and reviews. 'The primary audience of the journal is
those involved in post-school education and trainers in the public and
private sectors in the UK; a substantial secondary audience is in
distance education throughout the world'.
Longman Group UK Ltd
Subscriptions (Journals) Department
Fourth Avenue
Harlow, Essex
CM19 6AA
UK
OPEN PRAXIS (ISSN 0264-0210). Two issues per year, in April/May and
September/October. First published 1993 as successor to ICDE Bulletin.
Welcomes 'articles, news items, letters, cartoons and copies of
publications for review from institutional and individual members of
ICDE'.
The Permanent Secretariat
ICDE
Gjerdrums vei 12
N-0486 Oslo 4
NORWAY
REVISTA DE EDUCACION A DISTANCIA (ISSN 1131-8783 First published
1991. Three issues per year. The journal is in Spanish, but overseas
contributions are included. Issues include sections headed Informe,
Estudios, Experiencias, Nuevas Tecnologias, Informacion and
Documentation).
RED
CIDEAD
C/Argumosa
No 43
Pabellon 6
28012 Madrid
SPAIN
REVISTA IBEROAMERICANA DE EDUCACION SUPERIOR A DISTANCIA (ISSN
0214-3992. Three issues per year, in October, February and June. First
published 1988 to replace AIESAD's BOLETIN INFORMATIVO, which first
appeared in 1983.) The journal of the Asociacion Iberoamericana de
Educacion Superior a Distancia, carrying articles, information and
reviews from member institutions.
Secretaria Permanente de AIESAD UNED
Apartado de Correos 50.487
28080 Madrid
SPAIN
The following regional and
national publications, some of which are journals and some newsletters,
are invaluable sources of current information on distance teaching
activities and on topics of special interest to the countries or regions
in which they are produced:
CIFFAD
(Consortium International Francophone de Formation a Distance) BULLETIN
D'INFORMATION (First issue published March 1991. Secretariat du CIFFAD,
Direction General de l'Education et de la Formation, Agence de
Cooperation Culturelle et Technique, 13 Quai Andre Citroen, 75015 Paris,
France. Gratis.)
COMLEARN: news publication of the Commonwealth of Learning (First
issue published 1990. Published by the Commonwealth of Learning, P.O.
Box 10428, Pacific Centre, 1700-777 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, B.C.
CANADA, V7Y 1K4. Gratis.)
COMMUNIQUE (Six issues per year. Enquiries to Canadian Associaton
for Distance Education, 151 Slater, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 5N1.
The CADE newsletter, providing members with news and information from
within Canada and outside.)
DEANZ Bulletin. (A Distance Education Association of New Zealand
publication carrying papers which did not get into the published DEANZ
Conference Proceedings. Contact the DEANZ Secretary Alison Rowland,
Centre for University Extra Mural Studies, Massey University, Private
Bag, Palmerston North, NEW ZEALAND
DEH (Distance Education in Health) NEWS. Bi-annual newsletter
published by the Distance Education Unit of AMREF, the African Medical
and Research Foundation. Gratis. Subtitled 'A forum for the exchange of
news and views among health workers in distance education'. The Editor,
DEH News, AMREF, Distance Education Unit, PO Box 30125, Nairobi, KENYA
DEOSNEWS (An online journal published by the Distance Education
Online Symposium, The Pennsylvania State University, College of
Education, 403 South Allen Street, Suite 206, University Park, PA
16801-5202, USA. Publishes papers on a range of distance education
topies, from the USA and other countries. To subscribe, post the
following command to LISTSERV@PSUVM or LISTSERV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU by typing
SUBSCRIBE DEOSNEWS, skip one space, and type your First and Last names.)
DERUN
(Distance Education Research Update Newsletter) was first published
in January 1997 by the Division for Distance and Continuing
Education(DDCE) at Central Queensland University in Australia. It is
published twice a year (January and July) and is typically ten pages
long. DERUN provides summaries of the research and development work of
DDCE staff, brief reviews of selected journal articles, commentaries,
short conference reports, and researcher profiles. This publication is
now available in an online format that will increasingly take advantage
of the power of the Web. The URL for this version is http://www.online.ddce.cqu.edu.au/derun/start.html
The print version will continue to be produced. To be put on the mailing
list for a free copy of the print version contact the editor Dr Colin
Macpherson at c.macpherson@cqu.edu.au
DISTANCE EDUCATION AND TRAINING NETWORK NEWSLETTER (Four issues per
year for members of the Distance Education and Training Network of the
National Society for Performance and Instruction (NSPI). Enquiries to
Bob Spencer, DETN Vice President - Finance, Athabasca University, Box
10,000, Athabasca, Alberta, CANADA, T0G 2R0. First published 1987.)
DISTANCE EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER Covers issues and
events in distance education and educational technology from the United
States and around the world! Details from Joan E Connick, Distance
Education Publications, RFD No.2, Box 7290, No.3, Winthrop, ME 04364,
USA.)
DISTANCE EDUCATION NEWS AND VIEWS (ISSN 0794-540X. Irregularly
published -- last issue received by ICDL is vol.III, no.1 &2,
December, 1986. Subscription enquiries to B.C. Marumo, Dept of
Non-Formal Education, Ministry of Education, P.M.B. 0043, Gaborone,
BOTSWANA. First published 1983.)
DLA Newsletter (A name change is presumably forthcoming since the
March 1993 issue announces that the Distance Learning Association (DLA)
of Southern Africa is to become the Distance Education Association of
Southern Africa (DEASA)). The Editor, DLA Newsletter, DLA of Southern
Africa, c/o PO Box 11350, Johannesburg 2000, SOUTH AFRICA
EADTU news: newsletter of the European Association of Distance
Teaching Universities (Irregularly published. Available from the EADTU
Secretariat, P.O. Box 2960, 6401 DL Heerlen, NETHERLANDS. First
published 1989.)
EDEN Newsletter (Gratis. The newsletter of the European Distance
Education Network. Kerry Mann, Executive Secretary, EDEN, PO Box 92,
Milton Keynes, MK7 6DX, UK.)
EUROSTEP COURIER (Monthly. EUROSTEP Courier subscription, EUROSTEP,
PO Box 11112, 2301, EC Leiden, THE NETHERLANDS.)
INDIAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (One per year, two per year
planned. First published 1988. Subscription enquiries to Professor S.
Bhatnagar, Director, Correspondence Courses, Panjab University,
Chandigarh, INDIA. Latest issue received in ICDL at the time of writing
is vol.III, in May 1990.)
KAKATIYA JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (published twice yearly.
Subscription enquiries to Director, School of Distance Learning and
Continuing Education, Kakatiya University, Warangal, 506 009,
INDIA.First published January 1992.)
Editor: Professor K. Murali Manohar
Director, School of Distance Learning and Continuing Education,
Kakatiya University, Warangal, 506 009, INDIA
MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (Published
quarterly. Subscription deatils from Dr (Mrs) Kailash Khanna, Lady Irwin
College, Sikandra Road, New Delhi 110 001, INDIA)
Chief Editor: Professor M. Mukhopadhyay
Media and Technology for Human Resource Development, NIEPA, New Delhi
110 016, INDIA
NEVER TOO FAR (Irregularly published. Issued by Sukhothai
Thammathirat Open University in cooperation with the Unesco Regional
Office for Edcuation in Asia and the Pacific. Available from Never Too
Far, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Pakkred, Nonthaburi 11120,
THAILAND. First published 1983. Gratis.)
ODLAA Times (ISSN 1320-7954. Succeeded ASPESA NEWS in 1993 when the
Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association became the
Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia. ODLAA also
publishes the international journal DISTANCE EDUCATION).
Open Learning Unit
Queensland University of Technology
Kelvin Grove Campus
Locked Bag No.2
Red Hill
Queensland 4059
AUSTRALIA
ONLINE
CHRONICLE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (Published online
twice per year. Co-edited and published from Nova Southeastern
University, USA. 'Seeks to share information related to distance
education and communication and to help create a "living
network" of resource people on distance education. To subscribe,
send the following command to LISTPROC@PULSAR.ACAST.NOVA.EDU
SUB DISTED your_full_name).
For help, contact chron@fcae.nova.edu
ON PIRADE (First published in 1994 as the newsletter of the Pacific
Islands Regional Association for Distance Education. The PIRADE
Treasurer is Christiana Garo (in care of) DEC, Solomon Islands College
of Higher Education, PO Box G23, Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS
OLS (OPEN LEARNING SYSTEMS) NEWS (Quarterly, with issues in June,
September, December and March. Subscription details from NCET, OLS News,
Sir William Lyons Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7EZ, UK.)
OPEN LEARNING TODAY: the newsletter of the British Association for
Open Learning (Quarterly. Standard House, 15 High Street, Baldock, Herts,
SG7 6AZ, UK. First published 1989.)
PAKISTAN JOURNAL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION (Two issues per year. Latest
issue received in ICDL at the time of writing is vol.III, no.1, 1986.
Subscription details from Dr Ahmed Noor Khan, Research and Statistical
Centre, Allama Iqbal Open University, Sector H-8, Islamabad, PAKISTAN.)
RADIO Y EDUCACION DE ADULTOS (Gratis. Subtitled 'Boletin
Cuatrimestral ECCA', but contains information from round the world,
particularly from Spanish speaking countries). Radio ECCA, Apartado 994,
35080 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, SPAIN
SATURNOVA (Quarterly. SATURN Head Office Keizergracht 756, 1017 EZ
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS. First published 1987. Gratis). 'The
newsletter and journal of the SATURN Community: Europe's Open Learning
Network (a European partnership between industry and distance teaching
and training institutions)'
USING TELEMATICS IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING (Published ten times per
year. Subtitled 'The European Newsletter', contains current information
on technology based education. pjb Associates, 10 Green Acres, Stevenage,
Herts, SG2 8ND, UK.)
Document created by
Charles Darling
cdarling@commnet.edu
Most recent modification: 12 September 2000 |
U.S. Copyright Office
Promotion of Distance Education Through Digital Technologies,
Federal Register Notice - 63 FR 71167 Docket No. 98-12A
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/disted/comments.html
This site provides a long list of
resource documents.
Example: Testimony of Dr. Lynne
Schrum On Behalf of the International Society for Technology in Education Before
the United States Copyright Office, January 27, 1999 --- http://www.loc.gov/copyright/disted/comments/init058.pdf
NB TeleEducation (New Brunswick) --- http://teleeducation.nb.ca/
Useful resources and
references to assist you in the development and delivery of your distance
education courses. Choose from Faculty & Developers, K-12 Teacher or
Workplace Trainer and you're on your way
Website access to distance
education International --- http://www.spc.org.nc/phs/Distance%20Education/Other%20location.htm
This directory has been developed jointly by the
Association of Business Schools and Biz/ed. It offers, in a user-friendly
format, a comprehensive and unique resource for anyone considering
studying Business and Management in the UK.
All Business and Management courses offered by
ABS members are included in a fully searchable database.
Distance-Educator.com --- http://www.distance-educator.com/
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"THE ROLE OF THE ESCs IN EUROPEAN DISTANCE EDUCATION"
André le Roux
University of South Africa
http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/buo/progressio/21(2)1999/main2.html
This article reports findings and conclusions
resulting from research undertaken in Western Europe during a recent study
tour. The topic was: The role of the EuroStudyCentres (ESCs) in European
distance education. Several interviews were conducted with academics at
various institutions in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and
Switzerland. The project was undertaken with a travel grant awarded by the
Research and Bursaries Committee of Unisa.
The EuroStudyCentres
offer the following products/services:
The courses provided by the
EuroStudyCentres have been developed by members of the European Association of
Distance Teaching Universities. Each member has full legal status to develop
and deliver courses and nationally recognised qualifications. For the ESC
Network a model of peer evaluation was developed. This includes visitation of
the nominated ESC as well as the production of a self study report.
As part of a research project
about the role of the ESCs in European distance education interviews were
conducted with academics at the following institutions:
- ZENTRUM FÜR FERNSTUDIEN WIEN (AUSTRIA)
- EURO STUDIE CENTRUM OPEN UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
(BELGIUM)
- ESC DE PARIS ILE DE FRANCE SORBONNE (FRANCE)
- OPEN UNIVERSITEIT EURO STUDIE CENTRUM DEN HAAG
(NETHERLANDS)
- ZENTRUM FÜR UNIVERSITÄRE FERNSTUDIEN BRIG
(SWITZERLAND)
Maple Square
(Canada's Internet Directory) --- http://www.maplesquare.com/directory/education/distance_education/
- Adult
Distance Education Internet Surf Shack
- User friendly starting point for adult distance education courses
and resources on the 'net.
- Cable
in the Classroom - Provides copyright cleared, commercial free,
educationally relevant television programming for Canadian schools.
- Digital
Education Network - The Digital Education Network offers a whole
new way to learn. Visit us for online course materials in math,
current events, languages, and graphic design.
- DirectED
- The New Way To Learn - Learn in the comfort of your own home
at hours convienient to your lifestyle by taking courses at the
DirectED virtual campus. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, DirectED
gives you the tools you need when and where you need them.
- Northern
British Columbia Distance Education School - Located in Fort St.
John, British Columbia.
- Open
Learning Agency of British Columbia - Uniquely publicly funded
education leader providing wide range of learning opportunities for
learners around the world.
- PDIT
Hotel School Information - Is a private hotel school registered
with the BC education commission, our Programs are offered in
academic partnership with AHMA Educational Institute.
- Psychiatric
Nursing - Advanced Diploma - This post basic, distance education
program, now also offered online, is available to both Registered
Psychiatric Nurses and Registered Nurses. A further option allows
you to continue studies through the Open Learning Agency of B.C.
- Search
the Internet - Distance Education Courses - Web-based distance
education courses to master using the Net for research: web search
strategies, current awareness, and business research.
- SFU
Centre for Distance Education - Simon Fraser University's Centre
for Distance Education web site, including course outlines,
international projects, and the LohnLab for Online Learning
- South
Island Distance Education School - Located in Victoria, British
Columbia.
- Technology
and Distance Education Branch for B.C. - BC Ministry of
Education, Skill and Training site devoted to Distance Education and
Community Learning.
- The
Commonwealth of Learning - Aims to promote distance education so
that any learner, anywhere in the Commonwealth, shall be able to
study any distance teaching program.
- Thot
: Nouvelles de la formation à distance en francophonie - Tout
ce qui se fait en formation à distance dans la francophonie:
nouveautés, cours, techniques, recherches et méthodes en FAD.
Collaborateurs de plusieurs pays.
- UCFV
OnLine - Earn credit for college courses, diplomas and degrees
from home using your computer
- University
of Alberta - Distance Education -
- World
Universities - Online courses and home pages of the world's
universities, colleges, schools, and private training companies.
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Cal Berkeley's Labor Research
Portal --- http://iir.berkeley.edu/~iir/library/webguides.html
Note especially the Labor Education guide at http://iir.berkeley.edu/~iir/library/laboredgd.html
"Web Resources," by Sylvia
Charp, T.H.E. Journal, August 2001. Page 10 --- http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3553.cfm
- A great many
federal sites, which include organizations like NASA, the Department of
Energy and the Department of the Interior, list publications on a wide
range of topics, including adult literacy, drug-free schools, and
education statistics and analyses.
- MIT recently
received $11 million from the Andrew M. Mellon Foundation and the William
and Flora Hewlitt Foundation to fund the first phase of the MIT Open
Courseware project, which makes its course material available for free on
the Web.
- Classroom Connect
provides a list of links to U.S. K-12 schools' Web sites, organized by
state and school level (elementary, middle or secondary) at http://connectedteacher.classroom.com/library/states.asp.
- Many publisher
sites contain general lesson plans, student activities, professional
development information, links to other sites, etc. Some of these include:
Holt, Reinhart and Winston (www.eduplace.com),
Scholastic, Inc. (www.scholastic.com)
and Glencoe/McGraw Hill (www.glencoe.com).
- The Lesson Plans
Page is a collection of more than 1,100 lesson plans, primarily for the
elementary grades, developed at the University of Missouri (www.lessonplanspage.com).
- Articles and
topics on how to narrow the list of vendors for e-learning, and topics
such as "What's Learning Like," "How to Choose and Take an
Online Course" and others can be found at www.iguide.com.
- EduHound, a
service of T.H.E. Journal, LLC operated by Judith Rajala, suggests many
interesting Web sites and methods of presentation on topics studied in
elementary school (www.eduhound.com).
- The International
Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), through its program,
"Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology" (PT3) helps
teachers become better informed by providing access to activities,
accomplishments, findings and other relevant information. Also, at the
National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) held in Chicago in June
2001, a new Web-based project was introduced that helps educators with
technology evaluation and research. The Center for Applied Research in
Educational Technology (CARET) selects and reviews research studies that
address topics that can be helpful in making school planning decisions (www.iste.org).
At present, a great
deal of information is free on the Web. But how long it remains free is in
question. For example, a bill is now pending before the U.S. House of
Representatives that could force the U.S. Department of Energy to end Pub
Sciences, its Web database that allows scientists to search abstracts and
citations from more than 1,000 scientific journals. Universities are now
charging for the use of their resources. The Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania is selling a program it developed to provide the
school's faculty and senior students with Web-based access to financial data
from such providers as Dow Jones and Co., Standard and Poor's and Thomson
Financial Services. They claim 55 clients, including 21 of the top 25 ranked
business schools.
Yahoo Distance Learning
Resources (K-12) --- http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Distance_Learning/K_12/
Government Agencies for Education http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Government_Agencies/
Philosophy Around the Web, by Peter J. King --- http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337/phil_index.html
The main purpose of this site is to act
as a guide and a gateway to philosophy resources on the Internet. If you're
interested only in the other things on offer (which have now expanded to take
up more than half the space), you should skip to Everything
Else.
There's also a simplified
index of the main sections.
The heart of the site is a set of links
organised into fourteen main categories. It's not always
easy to categorise Web sites; I've cross-referenced where I can, but if you
don't find what you're looking for straight away, try browsing through the
other pages.
International Teacher
Training and Lesson Sharing
"The Chronicle's special report on Online Learning explores how calls for
quality control and assessment are reshaping online learning," (Not Free),
Chronicle of Higher Education, November 2011 ---
https://www.chronicle-store.com/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?CO=CQ&ID=78602&cid=ol_nlb_wc
The Chronicle's special report on Online Learning explores how calls for
quality control and assessment are reshaping online learning.
As online learning spreads throughout higher
education, so have calls for quality control and assessment. Accrediting
groups are scrambling to keep up, and Congress and government officials
continue to scrutinize the high student-loan default rates and aggressive
recruiting tactics of some for-profit, mostly online colleges. But the push
for accountability isn't coming just from outside. More colleges are looking
inward, conducting their own self-examinations into what works and what
doesn't.
Also in this year's report:
- Strategies for teaching and doing research
online
- Members of the U.S. military are taking online
courses while serving in Afghanistan
- Community colleges are using online technology
to keep an eye on at-risk students and help them understand their own
learning style
- The push to determine what students learn
online, not just how much time they spend in class
- Presidents' views on e-learning
Bob Jensen's threads on assessment ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on asynchronous learning ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm
Update on free sharing of courseware
from MIT, Stanford, and other colleges and universities.
"CourseWork: An Online Problem Set and Quizzing Tool," by Charles
Kerns, Scott Stocker, and Evonne Schaeffer, Syllabus, June 2001, 27-29. I
don't think the article is available online, although archived table of contents
for the June edition is at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/magazine.asp?month=6&year=2001
A Web-based learning
support tool that helps faculty assess student understanding will soon be a
component of the Open Knowledge infrastructure under the development at
Stanford, MIT, and other universities.
THE OPEN
KNOWLEDGE INITIATIVE (OKI)
MIT, along with its
principal partner Stanford University, has launched The Open Knowledge
Initiative (OKI), an ambitious project to develop a modular,
easy-to-use, Web-based teaching environment for assembling,
delivering, and accessing educational resources and activities.
The initiative emerged from the realization that our institutions were
repeatedly building specialized Web applications that shared common
requirements for enterprise data and services. Existing
commercial products still require extensive customization to integrate
into student information, authentication, and authorization systems,
and related data stores. Faculty using these tools frequently
complain that while sometimes helpful, they require extra effort,
forcing them to impose their style of teaching upon the rigidly
structured course system format. And changing the color of the
screen or shape of the buttons isn't the level of customization that
really supports different pedagogical approaches.
What is OKI?
OKI is about tools, a
system, and a community. It is not a new browser, document
editor, or pre-packaged content. OKI tools are the
elements that enable basic teaching on the Web and that support
specialized discipline-specific needs, pedagogical methods, or group
logistics.
OKI is being developed
with careful attention to IMS, SCORM, AICC,
Dublin Core, and related standards efforts. In keeping with
another recently announced MIT project, the OpenCourseWare
Initiative (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/ocw-facts.html)
which will make content from MIT courses available on the Web
for free, OKI is based on an open source licensing model (there
are no proprietary components). It allows the tools, no
matter who creates them, to:
- Save information about
learners, subjects, and teaching methods in the same format
- Share information
- Access other systems like
the library, the registrar, and authentication and authorization
systems
- Extend the system; anyone
can add new features and new tools.
OKI is being built by
institutions that have dealt with large open systems in academic
settings. Besides MIT and Stanford, core initial
collaborating institutions include the Dartmouth College, North
Carolina State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the
University of Wisconsin.
Recalling the vitality and
success of another open source effort, the development of the Linux
operating system, OKI hopes to build a community of developers,
teachers, educational technologists, librarians, and researchers who
will collaborate to continually improve and extend the OKI
learning management system. OKI is committed to working
with its partners and early adopters to establish a dynamic open
source framework for continued development, support, and training.
Getting Involved
Information about the
progress of OKI can be found on the OKI Web site:
http://web.mit.edu/oki . For updates subscribe to the list oki-announce@mit.edu
using the form on the OKI Web site. If you'd like to
contribute more directly to this effort, e-mail oki-suggest@mit.edu.
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Princeton Review Buys Distance-Education Provider for $170-Million
The Princeton Review, the test-preparatory company,
announced today that it would pay $170-million in cash to purchase the Penn
Foster Education Group, a 118-year-old company that operates three
accredited distance-education institutions serving 223,000 secondary and
postsecondary students in more than 150 countries. In a
news release, the Princeton Review, which is not
connected with Princeton University, said the deal would increase the
company's "cash flow generating capabilities
Jensen Comment
What surprised me is the number of students served by the Penn Foster Education
Group ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/index.html?semkey=Q092344
One contributing factor to the large number of online students is the granting
of high school diplomas. Penn Foster also offers career training as opposed to
education ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/programs_diplomas.html
American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers Certification Exam
One of the training programs is a certificate bookkeeping program ---
http://www.pennfoster.edu/bookkeeping/index.html
Bookkeeping
CAREER OUTLOOKYour New
Career
Thousands of new businesses open each year and every organization, large or
small, needs someone with the right training to maintain and update its
financial records. Bookkeepers hold vital positions within the companies
they work for. They verify and balance receipts, post debits and credits,
and record transactions.
Some Bookkeepers have offices in their own homes and make extra money in
addition to their regular salary. Newspaper ads regularly appear for payroll
clerks, accounts receivable and payable clerks, and Bookkeepers for large
and small businesses. Enjoy career independence in this exciting profession!
Whether you work for an established business or earn extra income at home,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects more than 263,000 new job
opportunities for Bookkeepers through 2016.*Your New Skills
Learn to prepare a balance sheet, create a profit and loss statement, and
produce a financial report for any business. You'll have the skills others
depend on in the business world, earning the respect of your employers, and
making you a vital asset to any corporation.
You'll learn all of the important skills you need in Bookkeeping.
- Get the necessary accounting skills. Learn to
prepare the balance sheet and income statement, as well as accounting
for cash and payroll accounting.
- Gain practical experience. Maintain the accounting
records and prepare financial statements for a model company.
- Learn valuable computer skills. Master the first
steps in using a computer and learn to create notes, documents, and
drawings using Microsoft® Windows® and Windows® accessories. (Software
not included in program.)
- Prepare for certification. Penn Foster encourages
students to take the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers
Certification Exam, provides special supplements to assist with your
studies, and even includes an $85 voucher to help defray the cost.
EDUCAUSE Effective Practices and Solutions --- http://www.educause.edu/ep/
EDUCAUSE has developed this Effective Practices and
Solutions (EPS) service to
- offer you a way to easily share the practices
and solutions you have implemented on your campus that you have found to
be effective in managing and using information technology;
- provide an information service to help you learn
"who is doing what" among your colleagues to solve common
challenges; and
- bring your practice or solution to the attention
of the planners of EDUCAUSE professional development activities, who are
always looking for interesting new content and contributors for
publications and conferences.
This service is entirely member-driven; its success
depends on your willingness to share your successes with your colleagues to
help them save time and resources. The more practices contributed to the
service, the more valuable it will become. Please note that practices in the
EPS database have been identified as effective and replicable by their
contributors; their value has not been judged by EDUCAUSE.
"Program Trains Teachers in Cross-Border Sharing of Knowledge,"
by Pamela Mendels, The New York Times, March 15, 2000 --- http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/education/15education.html
Sometime soon, a high school student studying
chemistry in Florida could be using supplemental course material developed for
the Web by a high school teacher in Rio de Janeiro.
That kind of international exchange is the goal of
Partnership in Global Learning, a new project that will use the Internet and
other communications technology to offer high school and college-level course
materials for classrooms around the globe. In the initial phase of the pilot
project, universities in the United States and two Latin American countries
will train high school teachers to develop course materials that can be used
in their own countries and across borders.
An International Survey of Teacher
Training and Distance Education: From Smoke Signals to Satellite II --- http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~cornell/fsu3.htm
Current trends in
education include collaborative learning and learner-centered instruction, as
many practitioners move away from more traditional forms of education. The
more interactive distance delivery forms are conducive to teaching and
learning collaboratively in learner-centered environments. A number of authors
in this report articulate the problems and solutions that result from making
dramatic paradigm shifts.
Anita Pincas, in the
U.K., in comparing the ways that students learn by asynchronous computer
conferences, reports that the way a course is designed makes a vast difference
in the quality and quantity of learner participation, particularly later in
the course. Patricia Kirby, from Maryland, offers an "Alice Through the
Looking Glass" view of the collaboration that develops among learners at
remote site in courses offered by interactive video conference. Thea de Kock,
from South Africa, describes the challenges in re-educating the total teacher
workforce, including teacher education, using learner-centered instruction via
one-way video and two-way audio conference.
Judi Repman and
Robert Price, in Texas, posit the factors related to the institution's
snail-like pace of adoption and use of interactive video conference for
teacher training. James Shaeffer & Charlotte Farr, from Wyoming, describe
the challenges of preparing university faculty to teach courses via distance
education. Carla Payne, from Vermont, describes a learner-centered teacher
education program offered at a distance and culminating in a Teacher Licensure
Portfolio for each graduate. Patricia Winkler and Stephen Harmon, from Texas,
use the metaphor of pioneers to describe the opposite poles of frustration and
enthusiasm associated with the training, technical difficulties, and time
issues involved in a partnership linking the university and school districts
by interactive video conference.
Also writing from
Texas, Lauren Cifuentes et al. describe the collaboration that occurs within
computer conferences among pre-service teachers and graduate students of
distance education.
Cultural
Challenges
Culture, defined
broadly, incorporates not only the traditional geographic delineations of
cross-cultural issues, but also includes aspects of "virtual" or
simulated cultures that develop in computer-mediated environments (Bonham,
Cifuentes, & Murphy, 1995). The cultural entanglements and
misunderstandings that can arise from teaching foreign languages or crossing
cultural boundaries are endless, as several authors attest.
Maureen Hogan,
writing about Israel, describes the vagaries of planning and implementing an
Internet-based global curriculum project in Jerusalem, using a constructivist
teaching model. Colin MacKerras, from Australia, describes the challenges in
developing and implementing the supplementary video programs on Chinese
language, "Dragon's Tongue," for non-Chinese speaking students in
Australia. Writing about a program for teachers of Mexican Indian languages,
Harold Ormsby proposes that bilingual or multilingual faculty use a variety of
distance delivery forms to teach trainees in their own language in Mexico.
Malcolm Beazley, from
Australia, describes his experience in providing students with "a
multi-cultural society in their own classroom regardless of its location in
the world" as they develop teleliteracy skills through Computer Pals
Across the World. Guy Bensusan, from Arizona, presents his insights into using
interactive video conference to teach Native Americans pre-service teachers in
a constructivist manner. Diane Thompson, from Australia, illustrates the
differences in concepts of silence in audio conferencing in comparison with
face-to-face silence.
Martin Rich, from the
U.K., describes the virtual culture that arises among British and French MBA
students when
they use a case study exercise that has been adapted to the Web. Ruth Vilmi,
from Finland, reports on the initial nightmare involved in organizing,
maintaining, and evaluating e-mail projects that require university students
to form small groups across cultures to develop a technology product.
From Infobits on July 27, 2001
NEW JOURNAL ON INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCES TEACHING AND LEARNING
INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCES
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL (ITALICS) is a new a peer-reviewed online journal
published by the Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre for
Information and Computer Sciences (LTSN-ICS). ITALICS Electronic Journal
will contain papers on current information and computer sciences teaching,
including: developments in computer-based learning and assessment; open
learning, distance learning, collaborative learning, and independent
learning approaches; staff development; and the impact of subject centers on
learning and teaching.
The journal is available, at no cost, at http://www.ics.ltsn.ac.uk/pub/italics/index.html
The Partnership in Global Learning (PGL) aims
to establish a program of collaboration of Bell Labs with highly ranked
universities in the Americas --- http://grove.ufl.edu/~pgl/
The project will start with the
creation of a Distance Learning Network (DLN) connecting some of the most
prestigious educational institutions in the Americas, including the:
» University of Florida
(UF/USA),
» Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP/Brazil),
» Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ/Brazil),
» Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV/Brazil)
» Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de
Monterrey (ITESM
"Distance Education: Access
Guidelines for Students with Disabilities," August 1999, Chancellor’s
Office California Community Colleges --- http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/dlguidelines/final%20dl%20guidelines.htm
This
is a very informative discussion regarding access law in the U.S. and
alternatives for dealing with this law.
If you
know any accounting educators with helpful materials on the web, please ask them
to link their materials in the American Accounting Association's
Accounting Coursepage Exchange (ACE) web site at
http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/ace/index.htm
Please send these professors email messages today and urge them to share as much
as they can with the academy by easily registering their course pages with ACE.
International Teacher Education
Program at Simon Fraser University --- http://www.educ.sfu.ca/InternationalEd/default.html
WorLD Links for Development --- http://www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/english/index.html
The World Links for Development
(WorLD) program
provides Internet connectivity and training for teachers, teacher trainers and
students in developing countries in the use of technology in education. WorLD
then links students and teachers in secondary schools in developing countries
with schools in industrialized countries for collaborative learning via the
Internet.
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Countries
WorLD is currently active in developing countries on four
continents -- Botswana,
Brazil,
Cape
Verde, Chile,
Colombia,
Ghana,
Mauritania,
Mozambique,
Paraguay,
Peru,
Senegal,
South
Africa, Turkey,
Uganda,
West
Bank / Gaza and Zimbabwe.
Please note: In addition to these countries,
WorLD has formed partnerships with many regional schoolnets
and other partner
organizations (like I*EARN) to help
link teachers and students around the world.
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Note: Information on WorLD
pilot schools and partner
schools in industrialized countrie
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The EURYDICE Unit
at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is the National
Unit for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The NFER is Britain's leading
independent educational research body. A separate Unit exists in Scotland.
EURYDICE is
the information network on education in Europe. Its main role is the exchange
of information on education systems and on national policies in the field of
education.
Mission of
EURYDICE at NFER
Our mission is to
contribute to the quality of education policy making and improve the
transparency and understanding of European and International education by
collecting, managing and disseminating information on education policies and
on the organisation and structure of education systems. We primarily aim to
serve policy makers at European, national and local government level but also
seek to make relevant information available to the wider education community,
and in particular, to support activities under SOCRATES and other European
programmes.
The key objectives
of EURYDICE at NFER are to:
- Collect and
disseminate general information on education systems.
- Provide policy
makers with detailed information on specific areas of policy through a
targeted enquiry service.
- Inform policy
makers, and other users, of new developments in education in the UK and
overseas through current awareness services.
- Improve
understanding of education systems through the compilation of European
comparative studies.
.
- Facilitate the
comparison of education systems through the development of education
indicators.
- Improve access to
information on education systems and policies through the development and
management of databases and websites.
EURYBASE
is a database on education systems in Europe. It provides a wealth of
information on each phase of education from pre-school to higher education,
including:
- general organisation and administration of education
- evaluation and quality mechanisms at all levels
- curriculum and assessment arrangements
- provision for special educational needs
- teacher training and conditions of service.
For further information on EURYDICE
at NFER please consult our Annual
Report (pdf file for downloading).
GATE: The Global Alliance for
Transnational Education (GATE) is an international organization concerned with
issues relating to quality in Transnational Education (TNE) --- http://www.edugate.org/
GATE has devised a standard of best
practices (The Principles for Transnational Education) to which institutions
should adhere when offering TNE; it also outlines a process of certification for
these institutions that adhere to these Principles
GATE is a board-governed organization.
GATE operations are headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, USA.
GATE Mission --- "Achieving
Worldwide Access to Quality Education and Training"
The global
marketplace, new technology and new economy are contributing to the rapid
globalization of higher education. Today's business environment draws its
professional work force from all corners of the globe. Human resource
development divisions of multi-national corporations face the increasing
challenge of evaluating courses and degrees from other countries when
selecting personnel. Further, higher education and teaching are no longer
provided solely confined within national borders. With the use of online
tools, provided both by the higher education and corporate sectors,
transnational education can be found in multiple forms, provided both
electronically, and through traditional instruction and training programs.
Issues of quality, purpose and responsibility abound in this new borderless
educational arena and the time is ripe for an international alliance of
business, higher education and government dedicated to principled advocacy for
transnational educational programs. This alliance is GATE - the Global
Alliance for Transnational Education.
A Strategic Partnership
The multi-national
corporate community, national associations and governmental agencies, and
institutions of higher education must partner to maximize information and
assure quality in a rapidly globalizing education and human resource market.
Each of these communities of interest is represented on the GATE Board of
Directors and the Academic Advisory Committee. GATE's programs are designed to
meet the needs of each constituency while maximizing cross-fertilization
through:
Analyzing trends in
international employment and trade; Exploring current issues universities face
in international admissions; Networking across national borders with
corporations and educational associations and institutions; Accessing global
information about educational systems, institutions and transnational
educational offerings; and Developing principles of good practice and
recognition for quality international education and training.
GATE Publications
Demand for
Transnational Education in the Asia Pacific. Published 2000 US $25.00
The Changing Face of
Transnational Education: Moving Education -- Not Learners (1998 GATE
Conference Proceedings). Higher Education in Europe. Volume XXIV Number 2 -
1999 US $15.00
Transnational
Educational Provisions: Enabling Access or Generating Exclusion Higher
Education in Europe Volume XXV Number 3 - 2000 (Access or Exclusion? Trade in
Transnational Education Services - 1999 GATE Conference Proceedings) US $25.00
Trade in
Transnational Education Services: A Report by the Global Alliance for
Transnational Education November 2000 US $30.00
"Program Trains Teachers in Cross-Border Sharing of Knowledge," by
Pamela Mendels, The New York Times, March 15, 2000 --- http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/03/cyber/education/15education.html
Sometime soon, a high school student studying chemistry in Florida could be
using supplemental course material developed for the Web by a high school
teacher in Rio de Janeiro. That kind of international exchange is the goal of Partnership
in Global Learning, a new project that will use the Internet and other
communications technology to offer high school and college-level course
materials for classrooms around the globe. In the initial phase of the pilot
project, universities in the United States and two Latin American countries
will train high school teachers to develop course materials that can be used
in their own countries and across borders.
...
The universities will adopt selected high schools
in their areas and train teachers there in the development of Web-based
curriculum materials for business and science subjects, including biology,
chemistry and physics. Lowe said the program
is concentrating on these fields because they are considered important areas
of knowledge for students who want to work in an increasingly technological
global economy. It is also hoped that some students who use the materials
might become interested enough in the subjects to pursue university degrees in
them.
Lowe said the course material might include tutorials
that would let students proceed at their own
pace, or even sites using videogame
techniques to drive home lessons.
The Euroregional Center for
Democracy (CED) is a non-governmental and non-profit
organization, that promotes democracy and stability in Central and South -
Eastern Europe http://www.regionalnet.org/english/about/about.html
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CED is located in Timisoara, a city in the Western part of Romania.
Timisoara represents an ideal learning location for a laboratory seeking
to devise programs of great importance for the future of democracy and
regional stability. This multi-ethnic and multi-cultural space encourages
the dialogue between individuals and institutions that promote democratic
values.
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"Reaching
Across Boundaries: The Bryant College-Belarus
Connection," by G.A. Langlois, J.B. Litoff, and J.A. Ilacqua, Syllabus,
October 2001, pp. 12-14 --- http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5088
Using the Internet’s sphere of influence, one
small college is making an impact on the education of students in Belarus, a
country that has achieved only limited structural reform since its
independence from the former Soviet Union. Despite the country’s economic
isolation from the West, Belarusian institutions are reaching across
traditional boundaries to forge new collaborative relationships.
Emerging national consciousness in the Newly
Independent States (NIS) of Europe has produced dramatic alterations in
business, politics, economics, technology, and culture, requiring innovative
educational methodologies that better match the needs of these countries in
transition. In 1996, in response to these challenges, Bryant College
spearheaded the Collaborative Learning at a Distance (CLD) program between
Bryant and Belarus. This comprehensive joint venture is an excellent model
for using Internet technologies to advance collaborative learning,
communication competencies, and policy making.
In implementing the CLD Program, we encountered
many philosophical, logistical, and technical challenges. Two distinctly
different Belarusian institutions, the Information Technologies Center (ITC)
of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the European Humanities
University (EHU), bridged political boundaries to create a close working
relationship between a state (government-owned) and non-state (private)
institution. The shared enthusiasm of the ITC and EHU for the CLD Program
enabled them to overcome their political differences.
A Non-Hierarchical Approach
The program uses a non-hierarchical model,
emphasizing reciprocal, interactive learning across national and academic
boundaries (see figure). It is based on our belief that learning is a
collaborative process and that we learn better when we teach each other and
learn in multiple ways. Our Internet-based CLD Program focuses on a
small-scale, personalized interactive learning experience, which directly
involves the teacher/mentor, student/learner, and all other stakeholders in
the process.
This non-heirarchical pedagogical approach is
relatively unfamiliar to university educators in the NIS. A history of
centralized education and strong governmental control over curricula has
resulted in a teaching environment that does not encourage the interactive
exchange of ideas between faculty and students. At a time when funding for
educational innovation in the NIS has been curtailed, cost-effective,
collaborative distance learning projects can help address the problem of
dwindling educational resources and compensate for the legacy of 70 years of
communism.
Fostering Collaboration
Collaborative projects—including seminars for
scientists and engineers who worked for the Soviet defense industry,
distance learning courses, and the development of environmental policy
initiatives with the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus—have been led
by scholars representing diverse academic disciplines. These projects have
utilized a wide array of information technologies, including International
Virtual Roundtable Discussions via e-mail, seminars on Web site
construction, Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing between the U.S. and
Belarus, software training and development, and the use of the Internet to
promote collaborative learning across diverse cultural and political
boundaries. (The entire CLD Program is available at http://web.bryant.edu/~history/new/course.htm).
Using these technologies, faculty, students, and
entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Belarus have formed strong ties. Faculty
exchanges have permitted collaborators to teach at participating
universities, conduct research, present training programs, lead trade
missions, and deliver papers at international conferences. On-site visits,
ranging in length from six days to six months, have played a critical role
in our ability to develop trusting relationships and set the CLD Program in
motion. We have learned that even sophisticated distance learning
technologies cannot replace the power and intensity of human interactions.
Student-centered, collaborative group projects,
standard on American campuses, are virtually unheard of in Belarus. The
introduction of divergent points of view on controversial topics into
classroom discussions is also largely absent. In fact, the educational
system of Belarus, including all curricula issues, continues to be tightly
controlled by the state. Still, the CLD Program’s use of Internet
technologies has had a powerfully democratizing influence on Belarusian
learners who have participated in this project.
Technology-enabled interactions between students
from different cultures and with different expertise and skill sets have
presented challenges. For instance, American students display an almost
casual approach to e-mail correspondence, often failing to use proper
punctuation or sentence structure. By contrast, Belarusians take particular
care in constructing well-written messages, exacerbating the time
constraints caused by limited computer laboratory access. Mentors in both
countries encouraged collaborative techniques for negotiating these barriers
to communication.
History professor David Lux noted that crucial
pedagogical issues arose during the initial offering of his course, “The
History of American Technology.” Viewing the course as an experiment to
field-test technological and pedagogical issues associated with distance
learning, Lux observed that cultural differences significantly affected how
students approached the course. Belarusian students “proved voracious in
their willingness to digest readings and engage in very sophisticated
dialogue about the meaning and content of what they were reading.” Yet,
Lux concluded that “the collaborative learning, student-project features
of the course,” so popular with Bryant students, did not initially “translate
meaningfully” into the educational culture of Belarus. With guidance and
examples from Bryant faculty and students, however, Belarusian students
gradually came to appreciate the value of collaborative projects.
In the course, “Cultures and Economies in
Transition in the Post Soviet Era,” Professors Judy Barrett Litoff and
Joseph Ilacqua described a high level of energy by students representing
diverse countries. Heated debates often ensued as students tackled the
difficult challenge of understanding societies in transition. However, their
shared experiences as students helped them to negotiate their diverse
perspectives. For example, during the Kosovo crisis in the spring of 1999,
spirited e-mail exchanges of conflicting student perspectives took place.
These discussions demonstrated the value of exploring cross-cultural and
comparative political differences in order to better understand complex
global problems.
Belarusian students enrolled in “Environmental
Policy: Technology, Business & Government,” a course offered by
Professor Gaytha Langlois, lacked a basic understanding of the governmental
infrastructure necessary to implement well-designed environmental policy
initiatives. Even Bryant students were poorly informed about how policies
are actualized in the U.S., but in Belarus, the differences in governmental
structure and practices further complicated this problem. The process of
acquainting Belarusian students with the roles that government and
non-governmental organizations play in crafting environmental and business
policy has proved to be more cumbersome than expected. Through the use of
structured International Virtual Roundtable Discussions, the ability of
government and non-governmental organizations to formulate environmental
policies became clearer.
Technical Considerations
Time differences, Internet delays, and the
technological realities of Belarus presented challenges that limited the use
of complex distance learning technologies. Consequently, we designed a
relatively inexpensive and modest program. Since access to the Web in
Belarus is often slow and unpredictable, we have provided CD-ROM versions of
the CLD Web site to Belarusian students. CD-ROMs that are run on computers
connected to the Web provide students with full entry to the CLD courses,
including the ability to access hyperlinks. In addition, through the
cooperation of information technology specialists at Bryant and EHU, a
mirror Web site has been established to enhance connectivity.
Because of the seven-hour time difference between
the east coast of the United States and Belarus, and because Belarusian
students have limited access to e-mail and depend primarily on
under-equipped (by U.S. standards) university computer laboratories for
electronic communication, synchronous and asynchronous e-mail communication
between the United States and Belarus has proved to be more difficult than
we had originally anticipated. U.S. students are routinely assigned personal
university e-mail addresses, but as a rule Belarusian students are rarely
provided one. Even when students are assigned e-mail addresses, however,
they often discover that access to university computer laboratories is
limited to 2-3 hours a week. To encourage synchronous e-mail communication
with students, Bryant faculty have adopted e-mail office hours between 11:00
a.m. until 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. in Belarus). By choosing
these e-mail office hours, we are able to avoid the busy use of the Internet
in Belarus during the mid- and late afternoon.
The most useful and successful distance learning
technique that we have introduced is the International Virtual Roundtable
Discussion (IVRD) via e-mail. This tool, utilizing the Internet to promote
cross-cultural and comparative perspectives, has been incorporated into all
CLD courses and has been enthusiastically embraced by learners. The IVRD
features structured discussions that avoid the pitfalls of unmoderated chat
rooms, yet it encourages learners to share informed opinions about specified
topics that often result in lively exchanges of viewpoints.
On occasion, we utilize Microsoft’s NetMeeting
program to provide live, two-way, global “see and talk” communication
over the Internet. The Microsoft NetMeeting program, standard on new
computers, uses simple computer accessories, including microphone, speakers,
headset, and small video camera, that cost about $100. This inexpensive
technology, although dependent upon a relatively new computer (about
$1,000), replaces the high costs of long-distance telephone charges and
video conferencing. Although two-way video and audio communications are
exciting and hold great promise, they frequently require users to have great
patience and perseverance in order to make them work properly.
The
rest of the article is at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5088
There are thousands of distance education courses in
the U.K.
The Guardian has a really interesting education
search page for U.K. students. It first lets you choose from hundreds
of distance education course topics. Then you choose what type of
credential/degree your are seeking and what college you want to pick ---
http://www.ecctisclearing.co.uk/
When I searched for "accounting" and "degree" courses on
August 27, 2005, I found links to 820 courses in many colleges and
universities.
educators,
including me, have misinterpreted the concept of OpenCourseWare (OCW) as
envisioned by MIT and some other major universities.
"OpenCourseWare: Simple
Idea, Profound Implications," by Phillip D. Long, Syllabus Magazine,
January 2002, pp. 12-16 --- http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5913
On April 4, 2001,
Charles Vest, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
announced the beginning of the OpenCourseWare project (OCW) in a press
conference that was simultaneously Web cast. “As president of MIT, I have
come to expect top-level innovative and intellectually entrepreneurial ideas
from the MIT community.... I have to tell you that we went into this
expecting that something creative, cutting-edge, and challenging would
emerge. And, frankly, we also expected that it would be something based on a
revenue-producing model—a project or program that took into account the
power of the Internet and its potential for new applications in education.
OpenCourseWare is not exactly what I had expected.” Frankly, neither did
anyone else.
What is OCW?
Since its
inception, OCW has been misunderstood. The academic world has seen one or
another online degree program or commercial venture stake a claim to its
part of cyberspace. OCW is not about online degree programs. It isn’t even
about online courses for which students can audit or enroll. That’s what
it isn’t. What, then, is it?
OCW is a
process—not a set of classes. This process is intended to make the MIT
course materials that are used in the teaching of almost all undergraduate
and graduate subjects available free online to any user in the world.
The goal of OCW is
to provide the content that supports an MIT education. Ultimately, the OCW
Web resource will host the materials for more than 2,000 classes taught at
MIT, presented with a coherent interface that will include sophisticated
search algorithms to explore additional concepts, pedagogies, and related
attributes across the site as well as within a course.
The OCW
announcement elicited varied reactions. Many wondered how this effort
differs from any number of instances where universities have made their
course Web sites available to the public, all or in part. The more cynical
expressed admiration for the public relations success. The announcement made
the front page of the New York Times, but skeptics asserted that OCW would
be nothing more than a traditional Web site dressed up with a new acronym.
But the elegance is in its simplicity. The closer one looks, the more one
sees.
Still, an important
and often overlooked implication of OCW is another aspect of what it is
not—it is emphatically not an MIT education. This has been emphasized by
Vest and other spokespeople for the initiative, but it bears repeating. It
is the firm tenant of OCW that the core of an MIT education is the
interaction between students and faculty in an environment that invites and
supports inquiry and questioning. OCW makes no claim or effort to
encapsulate this on the Web.
Competing
Demands
Even given the
support generally garnered on the MIT campus, some obstacles must be
overcome if OCW is to be successfully implemented and maintained.
• Time. The
prospect of putting up the content of some 2,000 courses in the next 10
years is daunting for anyone, even on a campus like MIT. This is all the
more challenging given the one thing faculty members have least
available—time. The enthusiasm and commitment toward the project is
tempered by the uncertainty surrounding the level of effort faculty will be
required to invest to make content suitable for OCW.
Teaching and
research remain prime concerns for faculty throughout institutions of higher
education nationwide and abroad. A project like this must not add
significantly to the workload of already challenged faculty members, nor can
it detract from their current commitments. A research question for such an
effort is therefore: How can we assemble and distribute content with minimal
faculty involvement?
• Reusable
learning objects. A corollary to the time-constrained faculty member is the
requirement that learning objects created for a course must be found
suitable for other purposes, such as OCW. Faculty members cannot be expected
to create content twice, once for teaching and again for presentation to the
broader academic public. Thus, a second objective for the project is
understanding the requirements for transformation of learning objects from
their in-class instructional use to their representation as meaningful
content for those interacting out of the context of the
faculty/student/course/setting intersection.
• Production
process. Putting together a Web site for a course is, despite current
technologies to assist site designers, a significant effort. Currently,
trade-offs are made in order to achieve some degree of scalability in the
various systems used to aggregate content for teaching. For example,
learning management systems may provide a limited suite of templates with
form-based content uploading, designed to distribute the labor required to
ingest and position the content within the site’s framework. The trade-off
is often restricted pedagogical flexibility and relatively basic, cosmetic
design choices for the reduction in the effort needed to auto-generate large
numbers of course “shells.” A project such as that undertaken by OCW
must incorporate new opportunities to achieve scalability for content
development while not entirely sacrificing individuality in site design.
Courseware as
Product
The higher
education community has become subject to a new force in recent years. The
trend has been referred to as “education as a good” (Schlais, 2001),
describing the increasing trend toward the privatization of knowledge.
Colleges and universities, in his view, are becoming more and more like
vendors to students, who perceive themselves as customers of college
education services. During the bloom of online distance
education—curtailed only recently by the general economic
recession—competition for students among universities led to increasing
costs. Revenues were sought to replace declining public subsidies and to
support competitive consumerism. Not-for-profit subsidiaries of traditional
colleges, for-profit private universities, and corporations emerged, seeking
to gain a larger share in what seemed an infinitely expanding demand for
anywhere, anytime learning.
The privatization
of knowledge has many manifestations. One is the frightening rise in the
cost of scholarly journals. The pattern is familiar to anyone working in the
academy. Schlais describes the conundrum like this: “A faculty member
spends years of her life learning, researching, thinking, organizing,
teaching, and writing. Her university invests substantially during this
process. She publishes the fruits of her labor in a highly respected
journal. And finally her library buys a subscription to the journal,
sometimes costing in the tens of thousands of dollars per year.” Something
is amiss, and our library colleagues have been painfully aware of it for
years.
Copyright and legal
interpretations deepen the concern. According to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the General Agreement on Trade in Services,
education is an international commodity. In the United States, compliance
with the WTO agreements was accomplished in part by the enactment of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998. Jessica Litman described the
relevance of these changes in her book, Digital Copyright: Protecting
Intellectual Property on the Internet (2001):
“1. The use of
digital works, including viewing, reading, listening, transporting, etc.,
requires a reproduction of the original of the work in a computer’s
memory. 2. Copyright statutes give clear and exclusive control over
reproduction (as defined above) to the copyright holder. 3. For each use of
the copyrighted material, that is, each viewing, listening, transfer, the
user needs to have the statutory privilege of the copyright holder.”
Faculty members at
MIT, as well as other universities, are concerned that their intellectual
property may be locked away from their peers, as well as potential students,
behind proprietary barriers. Participating in OCW is a proactive statement
that “reflects the idea that, as scholars and teachers, we wish to share
freely the knowledge we generate through our research and teaching”
(Miyagawa, 2001). As Vest noted, “OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in
a market-driven world.” Indeed.
A New Model of
Scholarly Sharing?
OCW is often
thought of as the educational content equivalent to the open source software
movement. The analogy is appealing and reflective of many, but not all, of
its goals. Taking a closer look at what constitutes open source software
might help.
Continued at http://www.syllabus.com/syllabusmagazine/article.asp?id=5913
Education Technology Links --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/0000start.htm
Bob Jensen's Homepage is at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/