European Immigration issues and other stories…

Just thought I would bring to your attention some recent journalism I've had appear out there in the wider world. First is a piece for the Boston Review on immigration issues in Europe I'd been working on since 2002 when I freelanced from Brussels. It is only a brief glimpse of a very complicated and emotional issue.

Also, here is an interview I did with Chinese novelist Yu Hua back in late August of 2003, published by the center for Modern Chinese Language and Culture at The Ohio State University.

This interview with Gabor Szanto, a Jewish-Hungarian writer, also occured last fall while he participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. This is an excerpt of a longer interview where he mainly discusses Jewish idenity in Hungary as well as anti-Semitism in Europe.

And lastly, some fiction at Nthposition.com — War Probability Power Differential Maximum Impact. It's a mouthful and intended as a satire. Is there really an American version of Pyongyang? Is the statue really real? (thanks to Roadside America for this)…

Stick em up, pardner…

E-Learn International World Summit 2004

There was recently an e-learning conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. A Journey to the Future of E-Leaning. You can find out more about it here. I haven't had time to look through everything yet, but hopefully will soon enough.

Here is an article about it, in German at ZDF Online, from a journo friend of mine Katharina Strobel.

Problems with E-learning in the UK

There are some definite issues the UK needs to work out with its UK e-Universities Worldwide (UKeU). Here is a BBC article about talks for restructuring UKeU, mainly due to the fact that traditional universities have started offering their own online distance education courses and that the overseas students the program meant to target would actually rather study in the UK.

What jumped out at me was the huge cost of the program at GBP62m of funding coming from the UK Governmentand GBP5.6m from Sun Microsystems. That's a huge, huge, huge cost compared to the actual number of students that benefit from the program .. some 900 in 38 countries according to this article. If those figures are right, that comes out to something like GBP70,000 per student. Hell, they may as well bring four students TO the UK for that amount of money.

The bad thing is that other private online university institutions around the world have to compete with UKeU in the market to attract students. I have no idea what the WTO rulings are in educational trade, if there even are any, but competing against this governement largese definitely puts other programs at a disadvantage. I guess the only consolation they can take is that this venture seems to have failed. Now they want to 'restructure' and turn this state funded company into a 'broker' for UK universities to offer online courses.

Here is a quote from the article …

Four years ago, the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett, in a speech on higher education in the 21st century, said: "The arrival of the knowledge economy has intensified the competitive pressures on higher education institutions.

"Learning has become big business. So a new national initiative is needed to maximise Britain's chances of success in this global environment."

If anyone out there knows the numbers on any US government funding for online universities, I'd sure like to have this information.

Globalization and Online Education

I' ve been thinking more and more lately about the unprecedented possibilities students around the world may have soon with new advances in e-learing and global university education. Right now there are around half-a-million foreign university students studying in the United States. But imagine the millions out there who would like to study in the U.S. but do not have the financial or educational means to do so, especially in places like China and India.

However, there are also questions that must be raised before a global university education system would go into effect. Are these people only to be trained in technical areas, or degrees that are functional purely for employment means. What about the benefits of a classic liberal education, as well as the social and interpersonal skills that go along with traditional education at a real university? Is the future of online education mainly to produce students who can put something together, design products, etc.? Isn't this just a hig-tech vocational school? Today I heard a talk by the CEO of Pella Corporation, the window maker, and he mentioned that around 75% of people fail in their related fields because of lack of interpersonal and social skills. This isn't anything that can be taught normally, but just by interacting on a personal level at a traditional university some of these skills do rub off. I often wonder about this in relation to online university education.

Secondly, if one were to educate students in India and China or elsewhere through online liberal education, the propagation of the use of English would surely continue. There are likely to be cultural gaps between what modes of governance are to be taught, the relation to the individual in society, as well as foundations of history. India and China both have thousands of years of history and culture behind them, history and culture they are proud of. China, for one, also has a form of governance which is almost directly opposed to the U.S. model, and moves into free-market orientation only mask that below the surface is a crumbling communist system on its way toward looking more like the Russian system of Anarcho-Capitalism. This is a thin verneer of democracy shrouded in a system of corrupt political, military and business interests. Not that the U.S. picture is so rosy as to point it out as the shining city on the hill, mainly because there is a vast political apathy in this country. When only fifty percent of the people vote, they do get what they deserve.

But all this points to a need for more classic liberal education, not only around the world, but in the U.S. as well. A basis of course work that teaches the rights of citizens, their responsibilities, as well as their place in society and the need for an informed electorate. The preponderance of specialized education in the last twenty-years only seems to move people in the opposite direction … away from participatory democracy and into an apathetic state of childlike existence.

Well, I've begun to ramble. What I'd meant to write on was globalization and online education, so here is an interesting piece from the New Haven Register. In it, the president of the University of New Haven Lawrence J. DeNardis talks about the changes globalization has brought to the higher education industry, mainly in the U.S.

Here are a couple excerpts….

Moving people is the first layer of the internationalization of higher education. The next is the movement of institutions. Rapid growth of higher education export is well under way – an unstoppable phenomenon with the establishment of branch campuses, satellite programs, franchising and other arrangements of "transnational" higher education.In 2000, U.S. education and training services totaled more than $14 billion and ranked among the country's top five service exports, placing the United States among the top three higher education exporters worldwide. International students and their dependents contributed nearly $12 billion to the United States as an importer during the 2001-02 academic year.

As transnational higher education increases in scope and reach, especially with the expansion of Internet services, educators and national policy-makers will face new problems. For example, while most countries have established their own quality Assurance systems, there is no international consensus on accreditation or any other quality assurance method.

Online marketing courses

Here are a few online marketing programs I'd like to highlight. Check some of these out when you are searching for a course of study and compare them to the listings in the top school listings I've also addressed, or will address in the future.

Colorado Technical University has programs in Marketing here and here.

Baker College Online has a Master's Program in Marketing.

Baker College Online has an AA degree in Marketing.

Baker College Online also has a Bachelor program in Marketing.

University of Phoenix Online has a Master's Program in Business Administration with specializations in accounting, E-Business, Global Management, Health Care Management, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Technology Management.

Study in the U.S. without leaving China

Here is a story about a new education plan targeting youths in rural China from the People's Daily with a vast distance education network that is supposed to reach up to 200,000 students. It's an ambitious, yet flawed project as it mainly targets 'one student, one village' with little thought to providing access to a large number of students through a market oriented system. I wonder if any distance educators in the U.S. could part the Red Curtain and provide low-cost, high quality education to great numbers of Chinese students through distance education portals. But then I wonder how receptive the Chinese government would be to this. Write to me and leave your comments here if you have any ideas about this.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

China's Central Radio and Television University will play a main role in implementing the plan, officials said, with the university, together with similar universities at all levels, constituting a distance education network across the vast most-populated nation on the planet.

The need for well-educated human talent is more and more urgent in China's villages, especially in villages in the western regions, said Vice-Minister of Education Wu Qidi.

Chinese students interested in studying in the United States have many traditional university options, but for those students in rural areas like this new program is supposed to address, it will still be hard to come up with the money to come to the U.S. to study. Why not set up education portals in rural China that link to distance education courses?

Anyway, here is one link from the University of Phoenix Online with information for international students. I'll try to dig up more in the coming days.

Online management courses

Previously I'd listed many MBA and Business programs, but I also wanted to highlight a few links to various managment programs you can study for online. Browse through some of these and see what would work best for you. There are AAs, BAs, Master's Degrees single courses and certificate programs in a variety of areas — from general business managment to more specific management areas like health care.

Thomson Education Direct has a course in Business Management.

Colorado Technical University has programs in Human Resources Management, Management, Business Management, IT Management and Project Management.

University of Phoenix Online offers single courses in Health Care Management.

Thomson Education Direct has a Hospitality Management program.

American Graduate School of Management @ Lansbridge University has a variety of course options.

The DeVry University Keller Graduate School of Management is also a good option.

Westwood College Online has a degree in E-Business Management.

Aspen University offers certificates in Project Management and Information Systems.

University of Phoenix Online has Certificate Programs in Human Resources Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Project Management, Global Management and Technology Management.

St. Leo University has AA and BA programs in Management and Health Care Management.

University of Phoenix Online offers Bachelors in Business Management, Human Services Management, and general Management.

Baker College Online has Master's Programs in Health Care Management, Human Resources Management and Industrial Management.

Colorado Technical University offers programs in Human Resources Management, Management, Business Management and Project Management.

Baker College Online has Bachelor programs in Human Resources Management and general Management.

Baker College Online offers AA degrees in Human Resources Management and general Management.

University of Phoenix Online has Master's Programs in International Management, Organizational Management, and Business Administration (accounting, E-Business, Global Management, Health Care Management, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Technology Management).

Online Education: Connecting the World

A story from AgNews.com highlights how an ecology class at Texas A&M University meets around the world. One student, a Navy officer aboard the USS Harry Truman, doesn't have to be in the classroom back in Texas to participate in the course. This is just one of the advantages of online education and its worldwide reach.

Here is an exceprt from the article…

Dean Castillo's watch over 4.5 acres of flatness keeps him ever mindful of ecology and the role all play in the environment.

"I had never been to College Station until last Christmas when I flew there to pick up my books," said Castillo, a Naval academy graduate who now is pursuing a master's degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences from Texas A&M. "I had looked online for a way to pursue a graduate degree from an aircraft carrier, and I found Texas A&M to be a leader in both distance education and agriculture."

For members of the miltary, here are a few links to programs which offer special discounts as well as specially tailored programs for those in the armed services. Like Castillo, you can do your duty to your country at the same time you look out for your own education and get a head start on your post-service courses.

General links to online programs

I've been linking a lot of specific programs lately, so I thought I would make a general page for those who may not know what they would like to study. You can browse through these and order information on general programs from any of these links below.

Westwood College Online

A couple general links to the University of Phoenix — Here and HereNorwich University general information – MBA, MA Diplomacy, MA in Justice Administration, MA in Information Assurance.

Kennedy-Western University – Business, Health and Engineering programs for mid-career professionals.

Keiser College E-Campus – programs in Medical Assisting, Technology, Paralegal, Business, and Criminal Justice.

Jones International University

Ellis College

DeVry University

Aspen University (MBAs, Masters in IT and Information Management, Certificate Programs).

Various other programs in Business, Culinary, Design, Education, Healthcare, Technology.

Kaplan University courses in Business, IT, Criminal Justice and Paralegal.

Online course enrollment continues to grow

From the Oregon Daily Emerald …

Online education is becoming increasingly popular for both students and professors as the Internet creates new learning possibilities outside the traditional classroom.

"I think that people are becoming more and more comfortable learning this way," Gladney said.