‘University’ Category Archives
Mar
Reports, plans, educational technology, broadband, millenials an interesting mix
by Cathy in Distance Education, Education, Education Technology, Future, Higher Education, Uncategorized, University, online learning
Several reports or plans related to higher education, education technology, and online learning have been released in the last several months that indicate changes in how students learn, how they access their learning materials, and how that content is delivered. In addition to this I will also give an overview of Millenials from the Pew Research Center.
In January 2010 the Sloan Consortium released their report on online education. This report indicates that online experienced a growth of 17% in the last year. Students in online classes comprise 25% of all students enrolled in higher education today, or 4.6 million students. This 29 pages report found on the Sloan Consortium website presented the following information:
- This report serves to strengthen the theory behind the economy and enrollments in education in general and now provides a direct link between online education and enrollments.
- Despite the growth in online education this platform continues to struggle to be seen as a strategic part of the long term planning for baccalaureate granting institution and public institutions. In addition to this faculty acceptance of online/distance education is stagnant.
- Overwhelming the student in online courses and programs are undergraduate who make up 82% of the students enrolled.
The issue of retention in online is also addressed in this report. The question “Is retention in online harder than in traditional face to face courses?” This was administered via a survey of Chief Academic Officers which indicated that most were neutral on the question. However those who agree outnumber of those who disagree. Specifics on why this perception exists were not asked or provided.
Another report which was released by the US Department of Education is the: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. I previously blogged on this report however what this report indicates is that online learning, can, under certain conditions, provide better learning experiences to students.
Another study with trends to watch in distance education is theK-12 Online Learning reportfrom the Sloan Consortium. this 37 page report, based upon a survey administered to over 10,000 school districts, with a5/4% return of valid surveys, published in January 2009 indicates that:
Most significant in regards to this report is the growth in online education which is illustrated by:
estimated at 1,030,000. This represents a 47% increase since 2005-2006.
Most districts indicated that they anticipate growth in online: A majority of the respondents anticipated growth (66.3% of districts expect growth in their fully online course enrollments and 61.2% expect growth in their blended enrollments). Districts predict that on average the number of students taking online courses will grow by 22.8 percent over the next two years.
Respondents indicate that the following are the major reasons why online education has grown and will continue to grow:
These results indicate that the perceived importance of online learning related mostly to student needs as follows:
2. Offering courses not otherwise available at the school
3. Offering Advanced Placement or college-level courses
4. Permitting students who failed a course to take it again
5. Reducing scheduling conflicts for students
The respondents also indicated the following concerns regarding online courses:
2. Course development and/or purchasing costs
3. Concerns about receiving funding based on student attendance for online and/or blended/hybrid education courses
4. The need for teacher training
The Keeping Pace 2009 report:
- Provides a national “snapshot” of the state of online learning as of fall 2009.
- Discusses original data categorized by key issues such as funding, teaching, and accountability, including analysis and recommendations.
- Presents program profiles from a cross-section of program types, including state-led and district-led, supplemental and full-time, charter schools, and both synchronous and asynchronous programs.
- Provides state profiles of K-12 online learning for most states, divided into southeastern, northeastern, central, and western regions.
- Identifies key issues in online learning, building on the data gathered through the development of the program and state profiles.
- Features a Notes from the Field section with in-depth examination of important new issues in online learning from national experts.
Keeping Pace estimates the number of full-time online students at about 175,000. States with the largest numbers of full-time online students include Arizona, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, California, and Pennsylvania.
The Keeping Pace report provided an overview of several types of online learning programs but which was of specific interest to me was the following note regarding university led online K12 programs:
overlooked but are another component of the online learning
landscape. Online programs that have emerged from previous
independent study programs of post-secondary institutions
tend to have relatively low levels of teacher involvement.
This reports indicates a continued upward trend in Internet access by schools with 63% of teachers indicating that they had high speed Internet access in their classrooms. No gaps were noted between student access to computers in these schools however some gaps were noted between student access to laptops in these institutions.
Covering 8 key themes regarding the Mobile Internet which are:
Early Innings of Mobile Internet Cycle, the 5th Cycle of Last Half Century.
Most Think – 5 Trends Converging (3G + Social Networking + Video + VoIP +
Impressive Mobile Devices).
desktop) by 2012E.
Ecosystems + User Experience + Pricing Will Likely Determine Long-Term
Winners.
Mobile) Emerging Very Rapidly.
unprecedented and transformative ways.
models provide significant runways for monetizing the mobile Internet through online commerce, paid services, and advertising; data access likely will continue to lose relative revenue share in the mobile Internet ecosystem.
Regulators Can Help Advance / Slow Mobile Internet Evolution.
The Pew Research Center provides a wealth of information which may assist educators to determine where the use of technology is trending by users. A significant report on the “Millennial Generation”was recently released by them. The report defines the millenial generation as that age group which born after 1980 – the first generation to come of age in the new millennium
75% of the respondents, aged 18 – 29 years of age in late 2009 when the survey was conducted indicated that they have a profile on a Social Networking site. Another significant factor that impacts education decisions of this age group is the large unemployment rate..nearly 37% of this age group indicate that they are currently unemployed. (pp 10)
When it comes to education the survey found;
.. a majority of them are likely to use their cell phones for texting.
The following is also noted:
The next plan to watch is the National Broadband Plan. This plan is broken into seven market segments which includes Education, Public Safety, Government Performance, Civic Engagement, Health Care, Energy and Environment. According to the website the plan achieves the following:
The National Broadband Plan lays out a bold roadmap to America’s future. These initiatives will stimulate economic growth, spur job creation, and boost our capabilities in education, healthcare, homeland security and more.
The plan was created by the Federal Communications Commission as a result of a series of workshops, seminars and a public forums.
Specifically attributed to education is the following:
- Education. Broadband can enable improvements in public education through e-learning and online content, which can provide more personalized learning opportunities for students. Broadband can also facilitate the flow of information, helping teachers, parents, schools and other organizations to make better decisions tied to each student’s needs and abilities. To those ends, the plan includes recommendations to:
- Improve the connectivity to schools and libraries by upgrading the FCC’s E-Rate program to increase flexibility, improve program efficiency and foster innovation by promoting the most promising solutions and funding wireless connectivity to learning devices that go home with students.
- Accelerate online learning by enabling the creation of digital content and learning systems, removing regulatory barriers and promoting digital literacy.
- Personalize learning and improve decision–making by fostering adoption of electronic educational records and improving financial data transparency in education.
- Improve the connectivity to schools and libraries by upgrading the FCC’s E-Rate program to increase flexibility, improve program efficiency and foster innovation by promoting the most promising solutions and funding wireless connectivity to learning devices that go home with students.
There are several recommendations under each category listed above however those specific to education can be found here on this website. the focus of the report seems to be implementing expanded broadband services will support an infrastructure which will increase student access to online education. Part of this initiative will include teacher and student training to better use the technology that they have available. This plan will put into place minimum standards which schools and libraries will have to measure their progress in achieving adequate services to their students and patrons. I can’t even begin to address the scope of this report but if you relate to any of those categories at the very least that on it ‘s own warrants a review of the initiatives detailed in this report.
In January of 2010 the New Media Consortium presented it’s annual Horizons report on emerging initiatives in technology in education. This report gives an overview of technologies to watch in the short to long term. These include; mobile technology, opencourseware/open content, electronic books, simple augmented reality, gesture based computing, visual data analysis.
As I have illustrated with the above reports it may seem that technology, virtual learning environments, and new technologies are driving how we learn. However our access to those learning materials, as well economy and generational factors also play a significant role as indicated by the data and information it seems that may very well be the case.
Mar
Retention in online education
by Cathy in Distance Education, Education, Higher Education, University, online learning
I suppose a definition of retention would be fundamental as a starting point. It is important to undertand that distance education via the web and using mobile technology is still a relatively new initiative in education. The schools I have worked at or attended as a student did not start implementing online classes until the late 1990′s early 2000′s, given that it is still in the early stages of development.
Back in those early days of web based course you would hear about or experience courses that were not developed, faculty who failed to communicate with students and experience a confusion on how to access support services. Much has changed today as educators and institutions understand that only fully developed courses should be put on line, that distance education students need access to support services, and that integration of media can enhance the content of an online course.
However in spite of that there are several trends which have contributed to the phenomenal growth of distance education via the Internet. This includes an increased demand for courses and program by those students who would not otherwise have access to educational opportunities via other means.
Retention can mean one thing to students, another to faculty, another to administrators and quite another to those who are responsible for funding programs and providing student financial aid. What this means is that the solutions, research, and even those we survey regarding the issue of retention may have different outcomes all coming from different perspectives.
Without any substantive research to back this I would propose that retention means, to students, successful educational goal completion. Now what this means to student could be entirely different than what we assume it to mean. This could mean the he/she accessed some components of a course for informational purposes, career purposes, or personal reasons and did not even feel it necessary to complete the course. It could mean course completion but no reason to continue enrolling in courses, or taking more than one course but not advancing to a degree, and finally degree completion. For faculty this could mean successful completion of a course, successful advancement to the next level of the course, and/or successful degree completion. For administration and funders this means successful completion of a course or degree advancement. In addition to this funders want to see and loans paid back ie) a low default rate on financial aid. All have in mind that this course, courses or program will provide the student with personal fulfillment and/or the tools necessary to be a contributing member of society, having meaning work, and make a living wage.
With all of these differing perspectives on retention how does one measure it and determine what strategies should be in place to achieve the aim of improving retention of students distance education programs and courses.
There are several strategies that have been identified in the research. The study conducted by Finnegan, Lee and Morris (2008) indicates that those students who successfully completed their courses spent more time on task (as indicated by the US DOE meta-analysis of distance education) more time interacting with others, and participated in online discussions more frequently, (Lawler, 2007Sutton, Nora, 2008; Tello, 2008). While this time on task is critical it is also important to note that students would also withdraw or drop if they felt the work required of them in an online course exceeded that of the face to face course or required more reading. (Lawlor,2008) These findings indicate the delicate balance that needs to take place in evaluating content for an online course, not enough does not engage the student or contributes towards achieving the outcomes, too much and the student feels that he/she is in a correspondence course and “reading” too much. (Lawler,2008)
The faculty can access Web 2.0 tools at little or no cost to supplant the text based content of a course. He/she can use voice threads, Youtube, or some of these video related tools from Web2Go20 . I will provide a brief overview of these sites, however I cannot vouch for their reliability or safety of use this is for informational purposes only. I suggest you review the Terms of Service before using and give a few trial runs to ensure that they will meet your needs.
If, for whatever reason you choose to not use your Learning Management System to warehouse your videos I am providing the following here:
Flixtime: turns your photos and videos into stunning and unique videos in just minutes! Sign-up for a free account, and upload your images, videos and music. Then, sit back and watch your masterpiece come together!
For sharing videos with a distributed group you may want to check outSynchTube.
synchtube allows you to create rooms to share synchronzied YouTube videos.
This means everyone in the room is viewing the same video at the same time! The built in chat allows you to even discuss the best parts, or share other videos.
Watch videos with friends, or even DJ music with the social playlists — it is up to you
Masher looks like another great site to provide a “mash up” of your videos, photos, music or audio recordings.
These tools and many others like them can make your course development easier, allow you to move away from text based content to video and audio, and finally break that umbilical chord to the publisher’s power points.
These tools can also provide for greater student to student interaction, student to faculty interaction, and student to content interaction. (Tello, Louis, 2008; Lawlor, D., 2008;Disalvio, P. 2008) These interactions have also been demonstrated to be essential to student retention in the review of the literature and are also standards reviewed using the Quality Matters Rubric®.
Faculty who are intent upon doing an outstanding job will recognize that he/she almost needs to log into the course daily, to be consistently present in the course. The course will be designed from start to finish and will allow for little variance from that structure throughout the semester. However the course will be designed with few deadlines for the student so that it will meet his/her needs for flexibility which is probably one of the primary reasons why he/she enrolled in the course in the first place.
The research demonstrates that student to faculty communication is a key factor in student retention. This means that the faculty has set office hours, defines timeliness when he or she will respond to emails (sometimes 24 hours which means logging in to the course and checking email on the weekend), and timely feedback on assignment within 3 days, (quite a challenge if the course has 100 students or more)(Drouin, 2008; Tello, 2008; Lawlor, D, 2007; Finnegan, Morris, Lee 2008).
The research also reveals those student related factors that institutions may or may not be able to address. These include work related demands, time management, and technical issues. (Lawlor, D 2007; Finnegan, Morris, Lee, 2007; Disalvio, P., 2008; Lorenzetti, P 2005)
This is the first in a series of reviews of research and literature I intend to do in order to aggregate the recent findings, compile best practices and design strategies that can be implemented to improve student success.
Jul
Overview of the Edgeless University
by Cathy in University, learner centered
earner centered/ The Edgeless University “perfect storm”
The authors of The Edgeless University assert that universities are facing times like no other, the define this as the “perfect storm” a time in which universities “are to offer more varied provision to a growing number of students in an era when they can no longer depend on ever-increasing allocation of funds.” (retrieved from http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Edgeless_University_-_web.pdf?1245715615 page 15). Colleges and universities will not remain unscathed by the changes and challenges they face in the current economy. Like any other entity they will have to innovate and change, some of these changes will be more drastic than for others.
Further challenges beyond funding and increased student demand may also include unprecedented numbers of retirements by faculty and staff further changes will be driven by innovations in technology.
In order to provide online delivery of educational content to students as economically as possible universities may move to accessing free Web 2.0 tools and integrating them into their learning management system or in place of a learning management system. As it is noted in The Edgeless University ..
“Open repositories of online content, social media networks like Facebook and the use of virtual learning can all help universities provide more flexibility and new ways for people to access scholarly and research material. Open repositories of online content, social media networks like Facebook and the use of virtual learning can all help universities provide more flexibility and new ways for people to access scholarly and research material.”
Further initiatives include designing the learner centered/student centered university. These terms maybe defined as:
Learner centered: to refer to environments that pay careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting. (retrieved from http://cndls.georgetown.edu/crossroads/vkp/resources/glossary/learnercentered.htm, July 23, 2009)
Learner-centered education places the student at the center of education. It begins with understanding the educational contexts from which a student comes. (retrieved from http://www.abor.asu.edu/4_special_programs/lce/afc-defined_lce.htm, July 23, 2009)
Examples of learner-centered educational practices from the University of Arizona include, but are not limited to:
• Collaborative group learning, both inside and outside the classroom;
• Individual student research and discovery;
• Research and discovery by students and faculty together;
• Problem-based inquiry learning;
• Student-faculty studio and performance activities;
• Asynchronous distance learning;
• Synchronous interactive distance learning;
• Service learning activities;
• Hands-on, experiential learning activities;
• On-site field experiences;
• Self-paced tutorials. (retrieved from http://www.abor.asu.edu/4_special_programs/lce/afc-defined_lce.htm, July 23, 2009)
From Maricopa Community College:
The learning college is based on six key principles:
• The learning college creates substantive change in individual learners.
• The learning college engages learners as full partners in the learning process, with learners assuming primary responsibility for their own choices.
• The learning college creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.
• The learning college assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.
• The learning college defines the roles of learning facilitators by the needs of the learners.
• The learning college and its learning facilitators succeed only when improved and expanded learning can be documented for its learners. (retrieved from http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~mdesoto/weblearn/index.htm; July 23, 2009)
• Instruction changes from being teacher-centered and content-driven, and becomes more learner-centered and learning process-driven.
• The student’s role changes from that of being a passive recipient or empty receptacle into which the instructor “deposits” knowledge—the “banking theory” of education (Freire, 1970)—to that of an engaged learner and active agent in the learning process.
• The instructor’s role expands from that of a knowledge-laden professor who professes truths and disseminates factual information, to that of being a learning mediator or facilitator who assumes the following roles. (retrieved from http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Miscellaneous018.htm, July 23, 2009)
Weimer outlines the key premises of learner-centered teaching as:
• Assume that students are capable learners who will blossom as power shifts to a more egalitarian classroom.
• Use content not as a collection of isolated facts, but as a way for students to critically think about the big questions in the field.
• Change the role of teacher from sole authoritarian to fellow traveler in search of knowledge.
• Return the responsibility for learning to the students, so that they can understand their learning strengths and weaknesses and feel self-directed in their knowledge quest.
• Utilize assessment measures not just to assign grades, but as our most effective tools to promote learning. (retrieved from http://www.insightjournal.net/Volume3/StudentPerceptionsLearnerCenteredTeaching.pdf, July 23, 2009)
Woven through these observations and definitions is the use of technology to strengthen the relationship between student and institution, student with other students, student and faculty. Technology, which engages learners, can be used to build relationships.