Archive for the 'Distance Learning' Category
April 11th, 2008 by Jorge Goncalves
Online Colleges, part of the huge College Scholarships, Colleges, and Online Degrees portal, main goal is helping students to choose suitable online colleges, degrees and courses.
The all site is designed like a notebook page making use of a user-friendly right navigational toolbar where we can find several links to other site’s pages.
My main purpose visiting this site was to check the Undergraduate and Graduate Online Degrees section. Here we can find a very detailed directory of institutions offering accredited online degrees and courses complemented by a Quick Degree Finder search engine. We can search choosing several options: degree level, category and subject. The results link to pages located on external sites. The same happens when you try to obtain more information using the directory links. For each institution a brief description is presented but when we click the links we go to external pages, most of them located at elearners.com, where we have to submit a form to obtain more information about the online course we have chosen. I didn’t like this. I would prefer a direct link to the institution instead of going to another site to fill a form.
Nevertheless, I recommend this site for those who are starting to look for an online degree. The many choices presented in almost every field of knowledge are a strong point in favor of Online Colleges. For beginners, I also recommend the reading of the Ten Rules for Choosing Online Colleges and Universities and the 10 Tips for College-Bound Students.
December 22nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Saint Joseph is a well established University. Founded in Philadelphia by the Society of Jesus in 1851, Saint Joseph’s University is home to 4150 full-time undergraduates and 3450 graduate, executive and non-traditional students.
Saint Joseph’s University now offers an opportunity for those interested in obtaining an online teacher certification. The Online Accelerated Teacher Certification program (OATCERT) is designed to aid working professionals, who currently hold a Bachelor’s degree within a field certifiable for secondary education, earn their initial secondary (grades 7-12) teaching certificate. The certificate program can be completed in 24 credit hours.
Saint Joseph’s University Online is Regionally Accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is the unit of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools that accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the Middle States region.
More information about Saint Joseph’s University Online or about the online programs can be obtained in the excellent and clear Frequently Asked Questions section.
October 28th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Distance Learning Courses, Robert T. Kitahara and Frederick Westfall, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2007. Abstract: In committing to provide a quality education using online Distance Learning (DL) as the delivery mechanism, a university must face new challenges to ensuring academic integrity in the behavior of its students. In addition to the predictable challenges associated with the online format of DL courses there are additional challenges stimulated by the attitudes of the current student population and the increasing permissiveness of our society. This paper introduces issues relevant to promoting academic integrity with an example of a university’s published Standards of Conduct, exemplifies the nature of the problem with recent cases of academic dishonesty, reviews the current literature highlighting the extent of the problem, and assesses a technology-based approach to its solution.
September 13th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP). ‘The Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP), a new program under the auspices of Stanford’s International Initiative, supports the extension and adaptation of Stanford educational content and teaching programs for collaborative partnerships with tertiary institutions in developing countries.
Innovative teaching and learning approaches, multidisciplinary curriculums, appropriate uses of Information and Communication Technologies, in conjunction with building teaching capacity among partners provide the framework for directing IOP’s program activities.’
Stanford Report: Stanford expands distance learning across the globe. ‘Researchers at Stanford and at universities in Africa and Latin America are pushing the boundaries of distance learning to develop new collaborative models that will prepare students to work in an increasingly borderless world.
Under the recently launched International Outreach Program (IOP), headed by Reinhold Steinbeck, Stanford faculty are helping to redefine the way students learn whether they are in high-tech classrooms on campus, in remote wildlife parks in Tanzania, in teacher-training colleges in Chile, or at a university in Cali, Colombia.
“What’s really exciting about this is that it opens a whole new chapter in engaging students in these countries in globally distributed courses,” Steinbeck said of these and other pilot projects supported by IOP, which is based at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) under the auspices of the International Initiative. “We are very determined to make this a collaborative process”.’
September 3rd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Notre Dame Opencourseware (OCW). ‘Notre Dame OCW is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world. Notre Dame OCW does not grant credits or degrees, and does not provide access to faculty. What Notre Dame OCW does give you is open access to the materials used in a variety of courses.
An “opencourseware” is a free and open digital publication of course materials. By offering free, high-quality course materials to the world, OCW strives to overcome the barriers geography, economics, age and language present to the spread of knowledge. OCW is neither a distance-education or degree-granting initiative but rather an open dissemination of educational materials, philosophy, and modes of thought.
Notre Dame Opencourseware (OCW) Pilot Project seeks to publish 30 courses focused on the human condition. This site launched with the first eight courses on September 20, 2006 and continues to grow. In creating an opencourseware, Notre Dame joins the OCW Consortium, a collaboration of more than more than 100 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world, creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. The Consortium’s stated mission is “to advance education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware”.’
September 2nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
OECD Policy Brief: Lifelong Learning and Human Capital (PDF). Introduction: The world of work has seen enormous change over the past couple of decades. Manufacturing jobs account for an ever smaller percentage of the workforce in most developed economies. Indeed, salaries in manufacturing have generally fallen behind those of other sectors. Today, “knowledge workers” – a category covering everything from call-centre workers to architects, teachers and financial employees – are increasingly pivotal to economic success in developed countries.
The potential for individuals and countries to benefit from this emerging knowledge economy depends largely on their education, skills, talents and abilities, that is, their human capital. As a result, governments are increasingly concerned with raising levels of human capital, chiefly through education and training, which today are seen as ever more critical to fuelling economic growth.
However, formal education, which usually runs from about the age of 4 or 5 to the late teens or early 20s, is only one part of forming human capital. In many ways it is more useful to think of human capital formation as a life-long learning process rather than as education.
From an economic and employment perspective, this human potential for lifelong learning is assuming ever greater importance. Old jobs are migrating to places where labour is cheaper. Meanwhile, fast-changing technologies are creating new jobs unheard of only recently or radically altering what workers need to know to perform their existing jobs. Consequently, people now need to continue developing their skills and abilities throughout their working lives.
This Policy Brief looks at the concept of human capital, its increasing importance to economic growth, and how governments and societies can work to develop it during early childhood, the years of formal education and adulthood.
Thoughts Aside: Certain training and testing systems have been aimed at life long learning and the development of human capital (000-077). A major attribute of these courses is the ease of use and flexibility with respect to learning (000-078) and pricing options. Employers can subscribe to an employee education and training program (000-190) by simply signing up and paying per session (000-222) as and when needed.
August 14th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
CDLP Nuts & Bolts - Distance Learning in Adult Education. ‘Animated tutorial covers distance learning basics, distance learners, popular approaches and how to start a program.’
CDLP - California Distance Learning Project. ‘The California Distance Learning Project goal is to help expand learner access to adult basic education services in California. This goal has four major tasks: 1) Build and Promote a Distance Learning Knowledge Base; 2) Provide Technical Assistance in Implementing Distance Learning; 3) Test New Instructional Delivery Methods / Materials and 4) Help Create a Statewide Distance Learning Infrastructure.’
July 17th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Guide to Healthcare Schools. Guide to Healthcare Schools is a directory of online and campus-based schools that offer health-related degrees and training. This directory, aimed at adult students and working professionals, offers more than 1000 healthcare degrees and training programs.
Particularly for online schools, this site lists 28 colleges and universities offering healthcare degrees. For each one of these institutions a page is presented with the different degrees offered. The student can also fill a form to get more information.
I have tested the site looking for some degrees. For example, for Nursing I obtained 6 schools offering online degrees and several others offering traditional learning, ordered by State. Looking for Ultrasound Tech/Sonographer, no online schools offer this degree, only campus-based institutions. For some more technical specialties it could be difficult to find suitable online degrees.
The site is very well organized, with all the data available through a few clicks. On the left sidebar we find links to the different programs available and to some partner sites. On the main body, we find links to popular searches and to the most searched schools, degrees by type (online, associate, bachelor, master or PhD) and educational resources. A search engine is also available.
In the Educational Resources section we can find helpful information on important topics like how to search for healthcare schools, choosing an online degree and the importance of accreditation. The information is concise but very relevant.
The site works well but looks too much packed. I would prefer a lighter version with less information on the front page. The visitor could be puzzled with so many options. I would suggest a three column layout with some graphical elements. The first impression is almost always the most important.
Overall impression: Guide To Healthcare Schools is a valuable tool for a prospective student looking for healthcare-related degrees. With minor improvements it can become a reference in this area.
[This a sponsored post]
July 17th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
E-Learning Community 2.0 (Beta). ‘E-Learning Community 2.0 is a social site for knowledge seekers to enrich their knowledge through online learning, sharing and socializing to make new friends without boundaries.
E-Learning Community 2.0 is also an internet marketplace for infopreneurs (especially knowledge providers and internet marketers) to create, host, promote and manage their information business effectively in one single and easy-to-use environment.’
E-Learning Community 2.0 Blog
July 5th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
ALISON: Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online. ALISON is a free learning resource of interactive certification-based learning. ALISON stands for Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online. The learning is provided free of charge to individual learners. The mission of ALISON is to enable anyone, anywhere, to educate themselves for free. Through ALISON, the cost-barrier to learning can be removed.
Through the ALISON Learning platform we can assist people around the world in educating themselves, thereby creating a more equitable and sustainable global society.’
July 2nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning: the moving finger writes and having writ, John Traxler, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, No 2 (2007). Abstract excerpt: Since the start of the current millennium, experience and expertise in the development and delivery of mobile learning have blossomed and a community of practice has evolved that is distinct from the established communities of ‘tethered’ e-Learning. This community is currently visible mainly through dedicated international conference series, of which MLEARN is the most prestigious, rather than through any dedicated journals. So far, these forms of development and delivery have focussed on short-term small-scale pilots and trials in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim, and there is a taxonomy emerging from these pilots and trials that suggests tacit and pragmatic conceptualisations of mobile learning.
What has, however, developed less confidently within this community is any theoretical conceptualisation of mobile learning and with it any evaluation methodologies specifically aligned to the unique attributes of mobile learning.
Some advocates of mobile learning attempt to define and conceptualise it in terms of devices and technologies; other advocates define and conceptualise it in terms of the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning, and in terms of the learners’ experience of learning with mobile devices.
The paper explores and articulates these issues and the connections between them specifically in the context of the wider and sustained development of mobile learning.
More papers on this subject: the June edition of International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is fully dedicated to Mobile Learning.
July 1st, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
CALIBRATE (Calibrating eLearning in Schools) Project: Learning Resources for Schools. ‘CALIBRATE (Calibrating eLearning in Schools) is a 30-month project (October 2005 - March 2008) co-ordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN) and supported by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies Programme (IST).
The key aim of the project is to support the collaborative use and exchange of learning resources in schools by allowing teachers to access resources in a federation of learning repositories supported by six Ministries of Education (Austria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia). CALIBRATE is also strategically important as it will help provide the framework for a New European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE).
Teachers participating in the project will be able to search for learning resources in this network of linked repositories via. a CALIBRATE portal. Also included in the portal will be a new learning toolbox for teachers (The Learning Toolbox environment was merged into the open LeMill environment). This collaborative learning environment will allow teachers and pupils to develop community-driven learning content repositories and also to carry out collaborative learning activities using both content developed by the schools themselves and resources found using the CALIBRATE system.
Information, support and advice will also be provided, culminating in the development of a manual for teachers that will include international examples of good practice on how schools taking part in the project have used the portal for collaborative learning.’
