Trend Toward Self-Paced Online Classes

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently featured the article "Will Technology Kill the Academic Calendar?" which discusses the trend of some community colleges to offer classes that allow students to start and complete the course at any time and that consists of assignments without deadlines. The discussion includes whether this module is primarily financially driven and whether students' needs can really be met without a cohort and the structure of a traditional semester.

Captivate vs. Camtasia

I've used both Captivate and Camtasia for creating online library tutorials. I like them both I generally favor Captivate because it has a few more features. Michael Steeleworthy of the blog the zeds : library science did a recent post comparing the two tutorial creation softwares. His job is to make recommendation to other librarians concerning which software to use and, in this post, he makes a case for why he generally prefers Captivate.

Great content coming down the pipe...

Sure. Everyone is throwing their hat into the ring of online learning. Why not Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bootsy Collins? Bootsy Collins' Funk University offers online bass instruction. To be honest, as a wannabe bass player, I am considering trying a class on for size. Maybe I can learn to slap like Marcus, or do whatever it is that Victor does.

The point: Even pipe dreams can be sustained with the promise of online learning.

Growth of Distance Learning at Community Colleges

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that according to an Instructional Technology Council study published in March 2010, enrollment in distance learning at community colleges has increased from 11% in the 07-08 academic year to 22% in 08-09. The article suggests enthusiasm of community colleges for distance learning, the economic downturn, and enrollment efforts as possible reasons for the growth.

Learn a new language for free!

Here is an interesting little language site I ran into recently it's called LiveMocha it allows you to learn languages at your own pace with the addition of a social network. You can speak with other members from other countries in their native language. I've used Rossetta Stone in the past which is a great product but the ability to converse with others online in their native language to practice what you've learned...genius!

Here is a little more on LiveMocha:

What we need from e-books

Gizmodo did a nice comparison between the Kindle.app and iBooks on the iPad. In addition, they talked about what we need, to really flesh out the potential of e-books.

What no one is doing is trying to figure out how all this stuff can be combined to help create better learning environments around digital text; though, some of what Gizmodo says is directly or indirectly related. The idea of integrating social networking into a text is great. But note-taking is missing. What students need are tools to help them learn:

• A way to create a glossary of terms on the fly with words and definitions and examples coming straight from the text;
• A way to ask a question of a teacher or classmates, straight from the text (quoting the part they don't understand);
• Analysis that will help students see over arching themes between notes taken between differing books...I just threw this one in...not sure how it will hold up after thinking about it more.

Anyway, good review. Check it out.

New Service for Video/Screencast distribution

Tubemongul OneLoad is a free one-step service that allows you to upload a video or screencast and have it distributed efficiently to number of different video and social networking sites including Google, Yahoo! YouTube, vimeo, viddler, and myspace. It may come in handy if you use a number of different sites to distribute content to your students. The service also includes analytics in case you would like to track viewership and engagement.

Challenging Perceptions About Distance Education

In a recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale University Librarian and San Jose State University and Wayne State University distance learning instructor Todd Gilman discusses the reactions he has received from colleagues who have never taught online classes and debunks some of the myths about distance learning that still seem to perpetuate.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a free cross-platform folder synchronization service that allows users to save files to a secure folder shared among any Mac, Linux, Windows machine or even mobile device. The contents of the folder are also automatically updated and stored securely on the web. This means, rather than using a flash drive to tranport files between different machines (and risk losing it), you can quickly and automatically update information between serval different computers and even access it from the web if need be. There's a lot of potential for this in education and distance learning. It can possibly provide a way to share resources with students or allow students to collaborate in the creation of group projects.

Obama's Push for Online Education

In this article I ran into from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marc Perry reports on a plan that's emerging from the Obama administration to provide colleges with access to "open" online classes for which the government would potentially fund the development. Colleges (and there seems to be a special indication of community colleges in particular) could repackage and add value to these classes by providing the actual online interaction and instruction to the students while still keeping costs affordable. There's also the suggestion that a community college or consortia of community colleges could house the project's development. Also included in the article is a broader discussion of the need for change from the current model of higher education and how online education can prove a better use of an instructor's time and a way to better tailor to the learning needs of students.

Teaching Online Classes from a War Zone

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article about Cheryl J. Wachenheim, a North Dakota State University instructor of agribusiness and applied economics, who chose to continue teaching an online economics class while on active duty as a captain in the Minnesota Army National Guard stationed in Balad, Iraq. She comments on the challenges and benefits of teaching and interacting with her students from a war zone. We often think about the benefits that online teaching and technology extend in terms of flexibility to students, but it's also interesting to think about the possibilities online learning can present to educators and the challenging circumstances in which online learning can still prevail.

A Peak into the Future...

Part of the fun of browsing through technology blogs is finding those little gems that look like they might actually apply to teaching and learning. Gizmodo did a story on possible new technology coming from Microsoft that could have very exciting potential for the integration of textbooks, interactive learning environments, collaboration, and well...just straight-out student success. As you can see from the picture, it looks like a souped-up e-reader. But take a look at the video after the jump and really see the potential.

Of course...this is just a rumor, and it might be nothing, but wouldn't it be cool?

Update 04/29/10:
Gizmodo posted another update that the Courier has been killed.

Update 11/03/09:
Gizmodo posted another video that shows the user interface in greater detail.

Where Does Distance Learning Fit?

Most faculty love the flexibility distance classes offer students, but how are administrators looking at distance learning? Do they give these faculty members enough support in teaching online? Read more about this survey at Inside Higher Ed.

Lessons Learned from the Global Campus

Inside Higher Education has an interesting article about the demise of the University of Illinois Global Campus online education, degree-granting, for-profit project. It sounds like the model they embraced - to take course content crafted by experienced on campus faculty and have less experienced, less expensive faculty teach that content - was at the heart of the problem. One of the commenters in the article, Nicholas C. Burbules, a Urbana-Champaign educational policy professor, spoke about how online education is not just a different mode of delivery of on-campus course content. It sounds like the university is now moving in the direction of examining current successful online programs and building those programs into something bigger. This is something to consider when building distance and online classes - instead of just thinking about taking curriculum that works in the in-class environment and delivering it virtually, perhaps this points in the direction of considering what instruction has proved very sucessful (maybe even more sucessful than in the physical classroom) and how can we build up the strength of and expand online learning from those examples.

Fraud In A Distance Learning Office!

See what happens in a distance learning office located at the University of Texas-Brownsvillle when too many people have administrative rights to CMS.

Some news...

Some interesting things have come up in the context of data and the control of the data now that more and more data is stored "in the cloud."

• Student sues Amazon.com (seeking class-action status) for the removal of a purchased book from his Kindle, rendering his class notes useless;
• Thoughts on Amazon.com and it's "control" over purchased data, and implications;
• FCC looks at Apple's App Store and practices on approving and removing apps;
• Podcast of Talk of the Nation segment: "Who Really Owns Your Data?" (mp3, transcript)

All have relate to things we need to keep in mind as we start using more and more of the Web in our learning environments.

Finding Educational Videos Online Made Easy

WatchKnow.org, a website that catalogs videos online that are available for educational purposes. I found a video about the stifling of creativity by copyright laws that could be used in an appropriate learning space. Sure, I could have found it anyway, but WatchKnow made it easy to browse. There are many videos already there, and I would expect that over time, as more and more educators get involved in the WatchKnow community, I would expect this will evolve into a key resource to keep in our pocket.

Students Say Using Tech to Cheat Isn't Cheating

“A new poll conducted by the nonprofit organization Common Sense Media suggests that students are using cell phones and the internet to cheat on school exams. What's surprising, however, is not just the alarming number of students who say they cheat, but also the number of students who think it's OK to do so.