Online Education Space

Like it or not, the education landscape is changing. There are more types of learner than ever before – part-time, full-time, distance and online. This highlights that people want to learn in different ways which support their preferred learning styles- so it’s important that we ‘meet demand’ and give learners what they want, when they want it. 

Here at AAT, we have adopted and implemented e-learning materials to support students through their studies and training providers in their delivery of AAT qualifications. With a large part of our qualifications already computer based – particularly assessments – it made sense to develop e-learning at the same time.

While it may sound obvious it’s important when developing e-learning material that it be relevant to audiences that need the support. We did research with a large pool of our students which gave us insight into their areas of need and the type of materials that would provide solutions to their problems.

The benefit of developing e-learning tools ourselves is that we are in a strong position to deliver course content quickly, make amends in-house rather than relying on suppliers and, most importantly, react quickly to the changing needs of our students, training providers and members.

There are copious benefits of e-learning. Firstly you can view and monitor the interaction of your e-lear…………… continues on The Information Daily

Technology has transformed the way we work, play and live our lives. Take a moment to think about what technology has done for transport. A hundred years ago we travelled by horse and cart – now we can be anywhere in the world within a day. The world is changing at such an incredible pace, and the shift is not only confined to travel.

The impact of technology on learning is equally amazing – impacting the cost, delivery and range of training available and transforming traditional learning and development methods into the proverbial horse and cart. This is especially true for workplace and ‘on the job’ training, which has progressed in leaps and bounds since the introduction of web-based learning.

Long gone are the days when training had to be confined to an all-day classroom event. Many of today’s learners grew up using a PC and have become accustomed to technology-based learning resources. This technology-savvy workforce now demands a more self-directed, technology-based approach to learning, which means that the training method of choice for many organisations is increasingly elearning.

The rise of elearning

Elearning has been a viable replacement for traditional instructor-led training since the late nineties for many corporations and educational institutions. Fast forward to 2013 and as new generations continue to filte…………… continues on The Information Daily

Online education startup Quad Learning said Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is among the investors that participated in its $ 11 million Series A funding round last week.

In addition to the MSO’s Comcast Ventures subsidiary, the Bethesda, Md.-based company said it received investments from New Atlantic Ventures, SWaN and Legend Fund and New Enterprise Associates.

Quad Learning said it is focused on helping students at community colleges transfer to four-year programs at colleges and universities. The company said it has developed a “virtual classroom” in which each student has his or her own live video tile on their computer screen.

For more:
- Washington Business Journal has this story

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by Alex Friedrich, Minnesota Public Radio

February 19, 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A state senator has proposed allowing colleges to offer large not-for-credit online classes in Minnesota if they remain free of charge.

The Massive Open Online Courses, known as MOOCs, enable one professor to teach tens of thousands of students online at the same time. But Minnesota requires private and out-of-state colleges offering online courses to register with the state and pay a fee, regardless of whether the classes are free or offer no credit.

It was meant to protect consumers from low-quality schools. But online-education supporters say it has impeded providers of the courses. Online-education company Coursera has said the process is burdensome. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Jeremy Miller of Winona, says it’s time for the law to go.

“It’s ridiculous that Minnesota is trying to regulate a free online educational course,” Miller said. “That’s why we’re working to eliminate this barrier, and make sure that these free courses can be offered in our state.”

Miller acknowledges his bill could change to account for growing college acceptance of the courses.

“This legislati…………… continues on Minnesota Public Radio

LITTLE RED …KITCHEN TABLE? Allison Ruiz is a full-time teacher at Croswell-Lexington High School, but she often works from her Ft. Gratiot home, while her 2-year-old son Johnathan, does a little work of his own. Ruiz teaches online classes only at Croswell, part of a growing trend in Michigan and elsewhere. (Bridge photo/Lon Horwedel)

 Allison Ruiz was attending the Thanksgiving parade in downtown Detroit two months ago when she got a call from a student with a homework question.

Nothing unusual for a teacher whose classes are 100 percent online — and whose students hit the keyboards whenever and wherever the mood strikes.

“I was a little leery about not seeing them in class every day,” said Ruiz, a social studies teacher at Croswell-Lexington High School in the Thumb. “But I think it’s been really successful and the kids are really enjoying it.”

 Most Michigan school districts offer some kind of virtual learning…………… continues on MLive.com

Irvine-based Brandman University has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 list of Best Online Education Programs for its undergraduate degree programs. The local school placed at No. 8 on the list, which evaluates a number of factors, including faculty, services, and enrollment to determine rankings.

Gary Brahm, Brandman University’s chancellor, said the acknowledgement from U.S. News is something for faculty, staff and students to celebrate. “We are focused on delivering an innovative online curriculum to meet the needs of busy working adult students, providing valuable degrees when they graduate. U.S. News is making important strides for consumers by evaluating online programs in their annual rankings and we are thrilled to have landed among the top ten schools in the country for online bachelor’s programs.”

A part of the Chapman University system, Brandman has 21 campuses throughout…………… continues on OC Metro

How to Teach Online Without Selling Your Soul: Build Your Own e-Learning Business, Create Unique Content And Work From Anywhere
“The best book on How to build an online teaching business that I did not write.” – Kirsten Winkler, education consultantThe most …

Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning)
How can faculty create a strong e presence for their online classes? This volume highlights the need for creating a presence in th…

It’s easy to get lost in the Silicon Valley and Bay Area tech bubbles, where it seems that everyone carries five phones, owns three laptops and just had lunch with a sentient robot. But, the reality is outside of the bubble is a little different. Digital literacy is a privilege, and more the exception than the rule. Not everyone owns a computer or is employed at a startup that just raised $ 10 million. In fact, California’s unemployment rate for December 2012 was 9.8 percent, significantly higher than the U.S. average at 7.8 percent.

Christina Gagnier, Stephanie Margossian and Carter Fort co-founded JobScout last year to help address this problem — to help combat unemployment through digital literacy. With funding from the California State Library and the California Technology Agency, JobScout set out to create an online learning platform to help teach Californians (and everyone else for that matter) the basic skills required to help find a job in an increasingly digital world.

JobScout is part of the state’s larger digital literacy effort,

Combat the epidemic of misinformation that plagues the corporate media! Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Truthout and keep independent journalism strong.

(Image: Apple on computer via Shutterstock)Thomas Friedman’s latest column touting online education “is another exercise in (1) finding a potential positive dimension of capital’s latest profit-driven move, (2) hyping it and (3) ignoring its contradictions, especially those that are negative.”

Every technological change, from small to large, has had its hyper promoters. Those are the people who celebrate that technical change with wild exaggerations of its historic importance. Of course, part of their motivation is self-serving. How brilliant of them to have understood that particular technical change and its enormity. How generous, too, that their promotion overcomes our skepticism or ignorance.

A recent example…………… continues on Truth-Out

Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning)
How can faculty create a strong e presence for their online classes? This volume highlights the need for creating a presence in th…

Assessing the Online Learner: Resources and Strategies for Faculty (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning)
Written by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt, experts in the field of online teaching and learning, this hands-on resource helps hig…

eSSential Learning Management System makes big strides in 2012.

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) January 15, 2013

Each year, eLearning 24/7, an industry leading e-learning analyst, reviews the top performing Learning Management System (“LMS”) providers in the industry and reports on the Top 25. eLogic Learning (http://www.elogiclearning.com), a leading provider of learning and development solutions is pleased to announce that they have been selected as one of the 2012 Top 10 Learning Management Systems by eLearning 24/7 in their annual listing of the Top 25 Learning Management Systems. eLogic advanced to the top ten based on several factors including enhanced, feature rich functionality, a friendly user and administrator UI, easy advanced reporting, support excellence and overall ease of use.

“What I like most about the eLogic system is its harmonious approach. A perfect balance of features, design and service,” say…………… continues on San Francisco Chronicle

An ebook launched by a Plymouth school teacher has been downloaded more than 5,000 times since its release via YouTube on January 1st.

Head of English at Lipson Community College Andrew Bruff created the free revision guide, which serves as an online learning aid for students studying GCSEs in English, English Literature and English Language, the Plymouth Herald reports.

Mr Bruff has also set up his own YouTube channel with colleague Ollie Hayne and the pair’s series of uploaded videos have received almost half a million views across more than 170 countries worldwide.

The guide – which first went live on New Year’s Day and features no advertising – offers advice on how to answer exam questions, provides examples of past high-scoring work and includes analysis of major themes and texts.

Speaking to the news provider, Mr Bruff stated: “I am delighted with the success of the ebook, which proves there is huge demand for such a text. I am sure it will make a difference to the students who have downloaded it.”

The educators’ YouTube channel has so far attracted the attention of 1,550 subscribers and received more than 410,000 views, while a host of education leaders, authors, schools and teachers have praised the ebook.

Lipson Community College is cu…………… continues on Virtual College

A headline in The New York Times just a few days ago — “Students Rush to Web Classes” — highlights a major trend that has been growing at warp speed. Universities large and small, public, private and for-profit are increasing their online offerings via digital technologies that did not even exist a few years ago.

The Springfield campus of the University of Illinois, with our Center for Online Learning, Research and Service, is a national leader in online learning.

In addition to high-quality, on-campus academic programs, UIS offers 26 undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates entirely online, providing access to a university education to many who might not otherwise be able to attend college.

In the Fall 2012 semester, 61 percent of our students were enrolled in at least one online course, part of a worldwide trend that has now, according to a recent Sloan Consortium study, surpassed 6.7 million students online last year.

Building on the expertise of exceptional faculty, many of whom have received national recognition for their success in online learning, UIS is currently partn…………… continues on The State Journal-Register

If U.S. colleges and universities are ever going to bring down their costs, it means that one day they’re going to have to buck up and embrace online learning as regular tool for teaching undergrads. And in order for that to happen, it means their faculty members will have to get on board with the idea. 

Unfortunately, we’re still pretty far off from that point. Babson Survey Research Group has released its latest poll tracking attitudes about online education within academia, and as in past years, it’s evidence of a big split between administrators, a large portion of whom see the web as key to the future, and professors, who are mostly suspicious. 

Babson surveyed the chief academic officers at 2,800 institutions, including everything from for-profit schools to community colleges to full research universities. On the whole, 69 percent of the academic leaders who were interviewed agreed that online learning would be “critical” the long-term plans of the school, up from around half a decade ago.  

Ohio State has taken its latest step in offering online education options to students and staff to the tune of almost $ 14 million.

The university has combined distance education and learning technology initiatives into the Office of Distance Education and eLearning, which will be known as Ohio State Online.

The changes will cost $ 13.8 million and will be funded by existing eLearning and Extended Education resources, with additional resources appropriated by the Office of Academic Affairs. Ohio State Online will work with the University Senate Fiscal Committee, OAA and the Office of Business and Finance to create a long-term fiscal plan, according to OAA.

The office was established on Dec. 1.

Wayne Carlson, vice provost for undergraduate studies and dean of undergraduate education, said Ohio State Online will mean more web aspects in university classes.

Carlson said that while professors have been implementing technology on their own, Ohio State Online will help ensure better practices.

“A lot of times we found a server under a faculty member’s desk to provide access to those resources. What we’re trying to do is be a lot more deliberate about it,” Carlson said.

Ohio State Online is the latest in a series of university efforts…………… continues on OSU – The Lantern

The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Designing and Teaching Online Courses (0)
”A rare book in education: one that is not only highly useful but also intellectually coherent and based on robust, transferable …

Assessing the Online Learner: Resources and Strategies for Faculty (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning)
Written by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt, experts in the field of online teaching and learning, this hands-on resource helps hig…

This year, the Web was dominated by online education, shifting social networks, and the continued march toward mobile.

• By Rachel Metz on December 28, 2012

For all the attention lavished on the Web’s growth on mobile devices this year, one of the most interesting Internet trends is still best experienced on a desktop computer: online education.

The rising cost of higher education (the average bachelor’s degree now costs more than $ 100,000), combined with increasing access to high-speed Internet service and a desire for more efficient and flexible learning methods, brought new prominence to websites offering free o…………… continues on MIT Technology Review

Online Education an Option in Indiana

By Amber Stearns – amber@wibc.com | @WIBC_AStearns

12/28/2012

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Online courses in higher education have been around for decades. Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester has been offering online courses since 1996.

Now the university is piloting a new online model — one that dispenses with courses, grades and credit hours. College for America is a low-cost, nontraditional approach that’s getting a lot of attention. And it may be the first of its kind to get federal approval by the Department of Education.

Cynthia Doyon is 53 year-old single mom is an administrator at Anthem Blue Cross in Manchester, where she’s worked for the last twelve years.

Doyon is about to go back to college, something she hasn’t considered for a long time.

I got married at 20 and was short of getting my degree. Getting married at such a young age and then having children and then working for the fami…………… continues on New Hampshire Public Radio

Online Education, can I bet my career on it? Video

Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games Free

KRESA Superintendent Ron Fuller MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette file photo  

KALAMAZOO, MI — Ron Fuller, superintendent of the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, joined the MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette staff for a live chat on Dec. 20.

Fuller, who is retiring in June, has been an outspoken champion for K-12 public school systems as the Michigan Legislature has enacted a series of changes in state education policy in recent years. Below are some of his answers from the live chat. All questions were asked by education reporter Julie Mack

Mack: The first question. Ron, how you sum up the year in Lansing in terms of education.

Fuller: Actually, this year has been explosive. There have been some very good things for school districts that have passed through the legislature that are helping districts balance their budgets. And for that I thank our local legislators. But overall, we are seeing a trend towards privatizing public education that is very disturbing to me.

Q: What do you think is the high point? The low point?

<…………… continues on Mlive Kalamazoo