For-profit schools could get portion of federal funding

From the Daily Tar Heel.

Congress is considering a measure that would relax restrictions on for-profit colleges, making them eligible for a greater portion of federal funding.

The aim of the proposal is to even the playing field for students at for-profit institutions, said Alexa Marrero, press secretary for Rep. Boehner's office.

Booming of Distance Education

From the Daily Tar Heel, more good news on distance education programs. I'm not sure about the numbers here though, they seem quite low considering there are about 300 million people in the U.S.

Recent increases in the number of people using distance education highlights the overwhelming desire of working people to obtain higher education.

According to the Online Directory of Schools Distance Learning Programs Web site, an estimated 2.3 million people will have taken advantage of distance learning by the year 2010.

Chat Event on Distance Education, Financial Aid

From Business Wire, this item of note that could be of use to those contemplating distance education or any students wanting to find out more about financial aid issues.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that more than two million students enroll in at least one distance education course each year. Although the convenience of earning a degree online can be appealing to many students, distance education may not be a smart choice for everyone.

To help students understand more about on-line college degrees and/or distance education programs, Mapping Your Future (http://mapping-your-future.org), a public-service Web site co-sponsored by TG and other student loan guarantors, will offer an "On-Line and Distance Education chat" on March 8, 2005. The live event, scheduled for 2-3 p.m. (CST), provides an opportunity for families and students to receive guidance on distance education and financial aid from financial aid and career experts.

Distance education growing in popularity

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer …

The popularity of distance education has spread from colleges to earlier grades, as students in more than one-third of U.S. school districts take courses over the Internet or through video conferences, according to the first federal study of the issue.

The main reason is that districts want to offer courses that students can't get at their own schools, according to the Education Department study released Wednesday.

Notre Dame and Bisk Education to Offer New Online Business Negotiation

From Distance Educator and PR Newswire. Looks like a great course.

Bisk Education's University Alliance Online division ( http://www.universityalliance.com ), America's largest provider of Internet-based degree and certificate programs from the nation's leading universities, announced today that it has signed an agreement with the University of Notre Dame as the exclusive online provider of a Master Certificate in Business Negotiation.

The University of Notre Dame's Business Negotiation Master Certificate is the first to deliver a mastery of business negotiation disciplines from one of the top business schools in the country. The Business Negotiation Master Certificate track is comprised of three 8-week courses in business negotiation, each containing up to 16 hours of streaming video presentation, independent exercises, and exams. These 8-week courses can also be taken individually if desired. Students are awarded certificates honoring the fulfillment of each course. Completion of all three courses will earn the student a Master Certificate in Business Negotiation from the renowned University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, ranked in the top 30 business schools by both U.S. News & World Report and BusinessWeek in 2004.

Capella University Honors More Than 900 Graduates

At BusinessWire, a story on a Capella graduation ceremony.

Capella University, an accredited online university headquartered in Minneapolis, will confer more than 900 graduate and undergraduate degrees at a commencement ceremony in atlanta, Georgia. The event will be held on Saturday, March 5, at 4:00 p.m., at Atlanta Symphony Hall and features respected researcher and national columnist Dr. Lisa Williams, who will serve as the keynote speaker.

"For Capella University, this year's commencement is significant in two key regards," said Michael J. Offerman, president, Capella University. "First, it's the first time that we'll be holding commencement in Atlanta. Secondly, it's also the first year that our student base has grown large enough that we'll need to hold not just one but two commencement ceremonies. To accommodate graduates from our base of more than 12,000 learners worldwide, we'll recognize the accomplishments of our graduates this month in Atlanta, and again in a summer ceremony to be held in July at The Majestic Theater in Dallas, Texas."

Distance education success

From the Alliance for Higher Education Competiveness.

"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:

"Where do institutions get stuck? What are the key challenges?"

From e-learning to e-knowledge

Found this paper (in pdf) by Jon Mason at education.au limited via Stephen Downes site, which is also highly recommended for distance education news and trends.

Stories that describe the evolution of e-learning could commence at any number of times and places; and they do. The story that is told here is one that ties together technical innovation, transformational practice, and the emergence of an ' interoperability standards agenda'. It is a story that can be told with a background context consisting of only a decade or so, and a story of the emergence of a new industry. The central argument that follows is that much of the infrastructure development that supports e-learning can be seen to be convergent with systems developed to support knowledge management. The more obvious examples include content management and workflow management. However, observing convergent trends is only the beginning. From a service perspective there are compelling grounds for facilitating this Convergence.

Educause Edublog

We're sure to be checking in here often. Educause has launched a blog according to this note from their bulletin.

EDUCAUSE has launched the EDUCAUSE Community Blog Service, a pilot project to create a new, vibrant medium for professional information sharing in the higher education IT community. The blogs represent a growing number of voices in this community, and postings span a wide range of topics, including cybersecurity, teaching and learning, and open source software. Postings are categorized by taxonomy term and by blogger and can be browsed on the EDUCAUSE Web site or received through an RSS syndicated feed.

Student nurses finding study support easier

An interesting story at The State about how student nurses are in such high demand that employers are paying upfront for schooling.

They're all lavishing attention on student nurses.

" If you're going to be a nurse today, you can find someone to send you to school,&lrquo; said Caroline Seigler, chief nursing officer for Palmetto Health.