Distance Learning
USDLA Conference
USDLA
Collaboration, Momentum and Pragmatism
May 9, 2007
Patrick Sutton
This week I attended the USDLA conference. I was apprehensive before attending: as a representative of a performance-driven firm, I wasn’t sure if I would get enough value out of the conference to justify the time and money that we were going to spend on the trip.
The break-out sessions and the plenary panel did address topics that I found to be of value, such as:
- Strategic Academic Planning for New Distance Education Programs that was presented by Richard Hezel and Dawn Anderson
- On-Line vs. On-Campus Adult Students: Impact of Academics on Family and Work, presented by Ken Hartman
From an educational standpoint, I found the conference to be quite valuable; innumerable pedagogical topics were discussed that ranged from how to keep online students engaged, to how to avoid cheating in distance learning classes.
Distance Learning in K-12 classrooms
Distance Learning in the K-12 Classroom
Patrick Sutton
March 12, 2007
Last week, the results came in on a study that the Sloan Consortium conducted: the study found that 63% of k-12 schools have one or more students enrolled in either a fully online course, or a hybrid course that combines classroom learning with distance learning.
In addition to announcing the increased percentage of distance learners, the Sloan Consortium also reported that, out of the districts surveyed, they expect that the K-12 enrollments in online schools will increase by approximately 23% over the next 2 years.
How to Rank the Quality of Online Colleges and Universites
Online Education Database Releases Online College Rankings
Patrick Sutton
March 1, 2007
| Yesterday, an internet portal released a document that ranks online colleges. The colleges and universities were rated according to eight metrics: Acceptance Rate, Financial Aid, Graduation Rate, Peer Web Citations, Retention Rate, Scholarly Citations, Student-Faculty Ratio, and Years Accredited. |
| Online learning has experienced a tremendous amount of growth in the past 3 years, and numerous estimates state that 1 in 10 undergraduate students will be an “e-learner” by 2008. The sudden and dramatic success of online learning has only intensified the debate regarding the "quality" of an online education. In order to provide some sort of logical means for measuring the “quality” of an online degree, the new portal has taken measures to rate the quality of online colleges and universities. Interestingly enough, until now, the “quality” of an education has been somewhat of a philosophical debate. In 1977 Howard Bowen attempted to create a comprehensive means for measuring the value of an education in his publication “Investment and Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education." In terms of measuring the academic value of an online learning program, we’ve seen in previous postings that more public university systems are adopting a “performance based funding” model that allocates money based on the success of programs or initiatives. For this reason, as different states seek to increase economic competitiveness by producing a better-educated population, it is important for state university systems to measure the quality the education that an individual will receive; because the question will be raised—“Should I dedicate money to the online institution, or the brick and mortar institution?” In terms of measuring the economic benefits for the college or university, it is quite clear that the virtual classroom offers a better Return On Investment. In any case, it will be very interesting to see how online learning evolves and changes as it gains more and more momentum. Want to learn more about Enrollment Management? Click here to sign up for the Innovation Ads Enrollment Management Whitepaper. Sources- BOWEN, HOWARD. 1977. Investment in Learning: The Individual and Social Value of American Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. http://odb.org/rankings |
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