online education

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What’s the Rush?

Byuclafaculty

Today’s Inside Higher Ed reports that Carnegie Mellon is in no rush to jump into the online course business until some some viable financial model is developed: While other universities move quickly to offer courses online for free, Carnegie Mellon University is instead starting for-profit efforts designed to capture segments of the education market. Provost Mark Kamlet said the university is looking for a “financially sustainable” way to expand its reach. So far, that means a handful of spinoffs with a variety of products aimed at workforce development and online education…  At the same time, Carnegie Mellon is shying away from…

Online Ed: Sorry About That

Byuclafaculty

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Low-cost online courses could allow a more-diverse group of students to try college, but a new study suggests that such courses could also widen achievement gaps among students in different demographic groups.  The study, which is described in a working paper titled “Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas,” was conducted by Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. The researchers examined 500,000 courses taken by more than 40,000 community- and technical-college students in Washington State. They found that students in demographic groups whose members typically struggle in traditional…

Rethinking Professor Snodgrass

Byuclafaculty

A recent posting on this blog replayed President Yudof’s comment that online courses have to be more than putting a camera in the back of the room and letting Professor Snodgrass drone on. You can replay his comments below for your listening pleasure.  But maybe the Snodgrass approach has merit at this time. Note that UC-Berkeley, among other universities, has put courses that essentially are video recordings of courses on YouTube for free. Anyone can view them.  It’s a relatively costless production method. You can find one such course at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMV45tHCYNI&list=EC4BBB74C7D2A1049C At a modest cost, those now “taking” such courses could…

Blame It on Professor Snodgrass

Byuclafaculty

New York Times editorial:…Online classes are already common in colleges, and, on the whole, the record is not encouraging. According to Columbia University’s Community College Research Center, for example, about seven million students — about a third of all those enrolled in college — are enrolled in what the center describes as traditional online courses. These typically have about 25 students and are run by professors who often have little interaction with students. Over all, the center has produced nine studies covering hundreds of thousands of classes in two states, Washington and Virginia. The picture the studies offer of the…

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Quick! Somebody Tell the Governor!

Byuclafaculty

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: Professor Leaves a MOOC in Mid-Course in Dispute Over Teaching Students regularly drop out of massive open online courses before they come to term. For a professor to drop out is less common. But that is what happened on Saturday in “Microeconomics for Managers,” a MOOC offered by the University of California at Irvine through Coursera. Richard A. McKenzie, an emeritus professor of enterprise and society at the university’s business school, sent a note to his students announcing that he would no longer be teaching the course, which was about to enter its fifth week. “Because…

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Why the Lt. Governor Favors Online Higher Ed at the Regents (Maybe)

Byuclafaculty

Lt. Governor Newsom appeared on The Colbert Report on Feb. 14 to promote a book that seems to have something to do with online government participation: C The Colbert Report Update from Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert blog: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was describing his new book, “Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government,” on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” on Thursday when the host, Stephen Colbert, asked him, ‘What the (bleep) does any of that mean?” Newsom had been talking about the “broadcast model of governing” and about how “big is getting small and small is…

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LAO Critique of Governor’s Higher Ed Budget Proposals

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analysts’ Office (LAO) has a new report out critiquing the governor’s higher ed budget proposals.  It comments on his online higher ed proposals but relative to all the attention paid to that topic at the most recent Regents meeting, it appears that the LAO doesn’t see them as the solution to budget problems for higher ed)  Much of the report involves recommendations that the legislature base future funding increments on meeting performance targets.  Because most of the report deals with all three segments of higher ed, the target discussion largely is focused on concerns involving CSU and community…

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More on the new idea of distance (now online) learning

Byuclafaculty

In the light of the gubernatorial and regental excitement about online education, this blog earlier noted distance learning by TV as early as the 1950s.  But it appears that in the 1920s, there were college credit courses on radio: …In 1915, what would become AMRAD (The American Radio and Research Corporation) opened for business from Medford Hillside, about four miles from Boston… In 1917, AMRAD received a license for station 1XE and experimental broadcasts began on a fairly regular basis that same year…  It was in 1918 that Eunice Randall was hired by AMRAD, as their first woman draftsman; later,…

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Reality Check on Online Higher Education

Byuclafaculty

Arizona State University (ASU) offers online undergrad and grad degree programs.  It is actively recruiting Californians. Click on http://asuonline.asu.edu/?utm_source=ca-asu-edu&utm_medium=ca-asu-edu&utm_campaign=california-visit If you visit this link, you will be given information in written and video format.  A sample course format is at: http://asuonline.asu.edu/how-it-works/learning-online-at-asu So what is the cost?    The ASU website offers a course calculator: https://students.asu.edu/costs  I used the calculator and entered that I was an Arizona resident, that I was seeking an online undergraduate degree, and that I would be enrolling as a freshman.  The cost per academic year was reported to be $10,792.  Of course, there are no living expenses payable…

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Someone Else, Not Me

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed today carries a story about various institutions that are offering MOOCs (massive open online courses).  Some of these courses have been approved for college credit by the American Council on Education.  But the institutions offering the courses say they are for other universities; they won’t give credit for the courses to their own students.  Among these institutions is UC-Irvine. All the courses are in technical fields such as math.  …No students at Irvine… will be able to take any of these courses for credit, though. Gary Matkin, UC-Irvine’s dean of continuing education, distance learning and summer session…said…