If you are in an online university program or know someone who is, I'd like to collect testimonials from students at a wide range of online universities about their perceptions of these courses.
Please contact me at michael@creative-weblogging.com
From the New York Times, via Distance Educator.
There was a time when researching a high school or college term paper was a far simpler thing.
A student writing about, say, count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, might have checked out a book on the history of aviation from the local library or tucked into the family's dog-eared Britannica. An ambitious college freshman might have augmented the research by looking up some old newspaper clips on microfilm or picking up a monograph in the stacks.
From e-MediaWire, a look at a new program from one of our sponsored universities.
As part of American Graduate School of Management's continuing expansion, effective immediately, the institution will offer a premium online Executive MBA program. This program targets mid-career professionals, with significant work experience, who seek to enhance their careers by learning with motivated student peers and completing a demanding program.
The program focuses on developing the leadership, decision making, and communication skills necessary to thrive in today's digital, global economy. The program consists of twelve courses, each seven weeks in length, and can be completed in less than two years.
Jeff Willis, a current AGSM student, said, " So far, the journey with AGSM has far exceeded my expectations. As a busy professional, I cannot attend traditional university classes to further my education. With AGSM, I can study on my own time, and at my own pace. In addition, the curriculum is challenging, the level of professionalism and expertise of faculty and students alike has been refreshing, and I have learned advanced skills that have already proven to be valuable in my profession.&lrquo;
From THE Journal, RepeatAfterUs.com is a Web site that aims to help English as a Second Language (ESL) learners gain better speaking and pronunciation skills. Created by a 17-year-old high school student from California, the site contains audio versions of famous copyright-free texts. The thousands of speeches, poems and literary works available on the site have been narrated so that ESL learners can gain a better understanding of proper pronunciation. The site's recorded works include the writings of William Shakespeare and aristotle, as well as speeches by John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill. Visitors can browse titles by genre, author's last name or by subject to help them find the right audio clip and accompanying text.
From THE Journal.
In project-based learning, instruction and learning both occur within the context of a challenging project. Just as workers would encounter complicated tasks in the workplace, in a project-based learning environment, student teams are presented with complex problems that focus and act as catalysts for what they need to learn (Thomas 2000). The project, which could entail multiple problems, stimulates the learning process and gives it context. Typically, projects extend over time to act as interactive vehicles to help students acquire new, necessary knowledge and skill sets (Thomas 2000). Rather than working on a small project for a week, projects build upon each other and can carry over from semester to semester as they facilitate the learning process.
An article from Fast Company about mini-MBAs which could equally be applied to short-term online MBA programs.
Well, slow down there. A more complete business perspective may be the way to create your own opportunity. Tuck's Gateway to Business Management is a sort of mini-MBA with Ivy League credentials — without the two-year detour and $125,000-plus price tag.
From Pew Charitable Trust, a study by techology leaders, scholars, analysts and industry officials about what the future holds in store for the Internet and its users. Via Distance Educator.
Some 66 percent of the experts responding to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Elon University agreed with the following prediction: At least one devastating attack will occur in the next 10 years on the networked information infrastructure or the country's power grid.
Lots of news here on the U.S. Department of Education's National Education Technology Plan (if they can get away from buying hack time, their money may be going to a good cause) here. The full report is available here from their home site.
According to the report, the technology that has so dramatically changed the world outside our schools is now changing the learning and teaching environment within them. This change is driven by an increasingly competitive global economy and the students themselves, who are "born and comfortable in the age of the Internet."
In many states, the explosive growth of online instruction and virtual schools is already complementing traditional instruction with high quality courses tailored to the needs of individual students, the report said. At least 15 states provide some form of virtual schooling to supplement regular classes or provide for special needs, and about 25 percent of all K-12 public schools now offer some form of e-learning or virtual school instruction.
The report includes numerous details of successful initiatives and partnerships developed at the state level by school districts and by individual schools. It concludes with a series of recommendations for enhancing the use and benefits of new technologies, and places them within the context of long-term, systemic transformation, covering such issues as leadership, management, teacher training and funding.Also, CNN weighs in with a piece about how schools are trying to catch up to technology (investment would help). The International Society for Technology in Education aims to play a lead role in this plan.
From The Day, via Distance Educator, large increases in the numbers of students learing online.
The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004,&lrquo; by the Sloan Center for Online Education, more than 1.9 million students were studying online in the fall of 2003, a 19.8 percent increase over fall 2002. The study was based on a survey of 1,100 U.S. colleges and universities. The Sloan study predicts a 25 percent increase – or 2.6 million – for fall 2004.
From the Conference Board via Distance Educator, a story that finds 95% of parents monitor their children's online activity.
Concerned about child predators and vast amounts of questionable content on the Internet, more than 95 percent of America's parents say they monitor their children's online activities, The Conference Board reports today.
The Conference Board's latest Consumer Internet Barometer, a quarterly measure of who's doing what on the Internet, finds that three out of four parents say they are in the room when their children go online.
