Learning Online Info » Distance Learning

Canergie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:58:41 +0000

What a wonderful initiative! Canergie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative: Using intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and frequent opportunities for assessment and feedback, the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) builds courses that are intended to enact instruction – or, more precisely, to enact the kind of dynamic, flexible, and responsive instruction that fosters learning.

The open and free courses available at this moment are: Engineering Statics, Statistics, Causal and Statistical Reasoning, Modern Biology, Chemistry, Economics, French, Logic & Proofs, Physics, Empirical Research Methods, Computational Discrete Mathematics and Visual Communication Design.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Canergie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative

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Common Online Learning Mistakes… And How to Avoid Them

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:05:54 +0000

This is a guest post by Elizabeth O’Neill, who writes about online colleges for EarnMyDegree.com.

Enrolling at the Wrong School

Diploma mills are less prevalent than they used to be, but some students still waste time and money at schools that don’t adhere to industry standards. Find a program that is regionally or nationally accredited by an accrediting agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and/or CHEA. Search the Department of Education’s database here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation.

Enrolling in the Wrong Program

Investigate whether or not the degree in question can lead to licensure (if licensure is required in your field.) Some teaching programs will not lead to state teacher certification – even if the school itself is accredited. Some programs are terminal, meaning you can’t build on them if you eventually need an advanced degree. You won’t know unless you ask. Request information from 3 or 4 enrollment counselors at the schools you’re considering, and check out online resources which offer career articles that can point you in the right direction.

Not “Owning” Your Degree

Online classes are a convenient option for millions of students, but convenient doesn’t mean carefree. Don’t expect that you’ll be handed a degree without having to earn it. Yes, you can study from home. And yes, you can set your own pace. Still, if you’re serious about broadening your career options and boosting your earning potential, you have to be dedicated to all of your assignments. You have to do the work, and genuinely care about the results.

Keeping the “Distance” in Distance Education

Online learning is not the isolating experience that some critics might allege. In fact, online students usually develop stronger connections with their classmates and instructors, because scheduled communication is a part of the course design. Most online classes require students to post comments or participate in live chat sessions. Make sure you take advantage of the interplay that’s encouraged. You’ll learn more, and you’ll develop a strong network of supporters, who can guide you throughout your career.

Wasting School Resources

As online education attracts more students, online colleges and universities are expanding their resources. In fact, many online schools provide all the support services that you would find at a campus-based school – including online libraries, career counseling, writing tutors, study support, and more. Don’t forget to access these free resources! You’ll save valuable time and energy, plus improve your learning experience.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Common Online Learning Mistakes… And How to Avoid Them

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University of the People (UoPeople): The First Tuition-Free Online University

Jorge Goncalves — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:49:09 +0000

University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first tuition-free, online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education. The high-quality, low-cost and global pedagogical model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring collegiate level studies to even the poorest and most remote places on earth. With the support of respected academics, humanitarians and other visionaries, the UoPeople student body represents a new wave in global education.

How it works: The student community will be divided into sub-groups of 15-20 students, all participating in the same online course. Students will be expected to review the assigned study materials, mark down questions or issues which weren’t clear and note any difficult exercises. Each student will be assigned a “study buddy” with whom to confer and clarify issues which seemed unclear.
Each student will maintain an online portfolio containing a photograph, a short biography, and all the exercises, papers, projects, and quizzes given as assignments for the course. Students will be expected to devote at least eight hours per week to studying, reading lectures, writing exercises and assignments and posting to their online open forums.

University of the People Programs: Presently only Business Administration and Computer Science.

Other Frequently Asked Questions about University of the People: FAQ.

In the news:
Haaretz: Israeli founds world’s first tuition-free online university.

UPI: U.N. announces first free e-university.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

University of the People (UoPeople): The First Tuition-Free Online University

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New Version of Microsoft LCDS

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:08:27 +0000

Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS): The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia.

The latest version of LCDS is available to download (free registration needed). This new release has been updated to be compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Silverlight 2.0. You will find new features such as spell check, the ability to output courses to a Microsoft Office Word document, indexing to enable search functionality, and new templates.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

New Version of Microsoft LCDS

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DEOL 2009: The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:27:12 +0000

DEOL 2009. ‘The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning (DEOL 2009) will be held in Singapore during October 9-11, 2009. The aim objective of DEOL 2009 is to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, academicians as well as industrial professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development activities in Distance Education and Open Learning. This conference provides opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration.’

DEOL 2009 proceeding will be published by World Academic Press, and all papers in the proceeding will be indexed by Thomson ISI (ISTP), IACSIT Database, British Library and Nielsen. Submission Deadline: 25 May 2009.

IACSIT: International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology. ‘IACSIT is a registered international scientific association of distinguished scholars engaged in Computer Science and Information Technology. IACSIT plays an influential role and promotes developments in Computer Science and Information Technology in a wide range of ways. The mission of IACSIT is to foster and conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research in state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies within its areas of expertise.
IACSIT organizes conferences, workshop, and provides sponsor or technical support to conferences and workshops, it also publish high quality academic international journals in Computer Science and Information Technology.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

DEOL 2009: The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning

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Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:48:36 +0000

Academic Earth: Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars. ‘Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.

As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, we ask ourselves, what are the real barriers to achieving a world class education? Academic Earth is working to identify these barriers and find innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning.

Academic Earth is building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars.’

Update: More great video lectures at YouTube EDU.

From YouTube blog: Higher Education for All. ‘Earlier this week, we announced the launch of YouTube EDU (youtube.com/edu), a hub for videos from over 100 of our leading university and college partners. Think campus tours, news about cutting-edge research, and lectures by professors and world-renowned thought leaders. There are also 200 full (and free!) courses, in a range of subjects, from some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including IIT/IISc, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Yale. There are over 20,000 videos on YouTube EDU and growing.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars

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Online Colleges Degrees Review

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:54:54 +0000

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.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Online Colleges Degrees Review

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Online Accelerated Teacher’s Certification from Saint Joseph’s University Online

Jorge Goncalves — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:50:05 +0000

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.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Online Accelerated Teacher’s Certification from Saint Joseph’s University Online

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Article: Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Distance Learning Courses

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:59:48 +0000

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.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Article: Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Distance Learning Courses

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Distance Learning Across the Globe: Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP)

Jorge Goncalves — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:05:55 +0000

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”.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Distance Learning Across the Globe: Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP)

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Notre Dame Opencourseware (OCW)

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:33:44 +0000

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”.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Notre Dame Opencourseware (OCW)

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OECD: Lifelong Learning and Human Capital

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:33:47 +0000

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.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

OECD: Lifelong Learning and Human Capital

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Nuts & Bolts: Distance Learning Tutorial

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:11:50 +0000

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.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Nuts & Bolts: Distance Learning Tutorial

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Guide to Healthcare Schools Review

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:37:23 +0000

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]

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Guide to Healthcare Schools Review

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E-Learning Community 2.0: A Social Site for Knowledge Seekers

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:14:27 +0000

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

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

E-Learning Community 2.0: A Social Site for Knowledge Seekers