January+25,+2011+-+Online+Learning+and+Resources,+New+Publication,+WCET+News+and+More



=**Worthy of Note: January 25, 2011**=

New Study and Publication
You probably have already read about //Academically Adrift; Limited Learning on College Campuses// because it appears, in my opinion, to have been covered by more reporters than any topic I think I’ve seen in a very long time. That includes popular journalism and academic reflections as well. Kevin Carey, policy director from Education Sector clains it is The Most Important Higher Education Study in Years. This may give more credance to those all-important critical thinking skills, not only in K-12 but higher education, and diminish the hue and cry to abolish liberal arts programs. The students in the liberal arts scored the highest in the survey.

Academically Adrift; Limited Learning on College Campuses // Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, University of Chicago Press, 2010 // This new study provides disturbing answers to questions about how much students actually learn in college – for many, not much – and has inflamed a debate about the value of an American higher education. The research of more than 2,300 undergraduates in 24 colleges and universities (not identfied without purchasing the publication) found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years. According to findings, one problem is that students just aren't asked to do much. Half of students did not take a single course requiring 20 pages of writing during their prior semester, and one-third did not take a single course requiring even 40 pages of reading per week.

Where is the data behind //Adrift//? Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC) published the report, Improving Undergraduate Learning: Findings and Policy Recommendations from the SSRC-CLA Longitudinal Project (Richard Arum, Josipa Roksa and Esterh Cho, SSRC) which was the basis for the widely reported publication, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses//.// This unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn’t learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education. Read what Sarah Rimer of the Hechinger Report has to say//.//

Here is an excerpt from the study from Inside Higher Ed**:** The students took the Collegiate Learning Assessment (which is designed to measure gains in critical thinking, analytic reasoning and other "higher level" skills taught at college) at various points before and during their college educations, and the results are not encouraging:
 * 45 percent of students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" during the first two years of college
 * 36 percent of students "did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning" over four years of college
 * Those students who do show improvements tend to show only modest improvements. Students improved on average only 0.18 standard deviations over the first two years of college and 0.47 over four years. What this means is that a student who entered college in the 50th percentile of students in his or her cohort would move up to the 68th percentile four years later - but that's the 68th percentile of a new group of freshmen who haven't experienced any college learning.

Reaction by Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA): Our nation has 47 million high school dropouts, equaling one-sixth of the U.S. population. Forty percent of students entering college do not read, write or perform math at a college-ready level. Only 57% of enrolled students graduate within six years. All of these statistics reflect enormous challenges that face postsecondary education. Rising costs, now combined with declining revenues, make it much more difficult to reverse this troubling situation.

**Resources**
Schools That Work (Edutopia) Discover successful schools and strategies across the country -- and use their best teaching practices, training materials, and rubrics with your students. Schools That Work is a part of Edutopia, which is funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation and aims to give students a 21st-century education. Schools That Work is described as a "movement for change," and their website is designed to help "principals and teachers, parents and students, and schools and districts collaborate to change the futures of their young people." On the site, visitors can find lesson plans and teacher training tools to help implement the changes needed for a "school that works." One of the high school programs featured is "Merging Career Tech and College Prep," which was tried in three schools in California. Visitors can get the details on the program on the homepage, in addition to other features that include “The Online Learning Revolution,” and “College Bound Culture.” Clicking on any feature on the homepage will take visitors to a more detailed examination. The "How YOU Do It" menu, found on the right side of the feature page, takes visitors through the steps needed to implement the program. Some of the topics covered are "Ten Tips to Get Going," Creating Industry Partnerships," and "Funding the Start-Up."

TED; Ideas Worth Spreading Great resource: “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world.” The speeches are searchable, and I must admit that I really got interested in a couple on education issues. I think they can be quite useful in instruction.

**WCET**
WCET Managing Online Educaton Survey The Campus Computing Project and WCET again will partner to survey colleges and universities throughout the United States about how they are managing and administering online programs. The Executive Summary from the 2010 survey is now available. Watch for the full report to be released soon.

(An update to the work of WCET, SREB and Univ. of Wyoming on e-Learning Policy) In response to the new federal regulations, WCET, SREB, ADEC, and the University of Wyoming are working on the list of state approval agencies, which they plan to release by the end of January.
 * WCET e-Learning Policy**

2010 Federal Regulations on State Approval of Out-of-State Providers. On October 29, 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) released new regulations. In a recent webcast on the state approval issue, Fred Sellers of the USDOE said that: “Under the Higher Education Act, for an institution in any State to be eligible to participate in Federal programs, it must be legally authorized by the State to provide postsecondary education.” Note that, in this case, the term “Federal programs” applies to any federal funding, including federal financial aid programs. Read more….

Meanwhile, there have been several questions about what institutions could be doing on this issue. The following new blog post (State Approval: Eight Things You Can Be Doing Now) includes advice on actions you could be taking. Notice //Recent Posts// on the right.

**Online Learning**
Global Self-paced eLearning Market Research // Ambient Insight // These are costly reports but summaries of three International Self-paced eLearning Market Forecasts are found here. David Nagel in THE Journal (January 20, 2011) makes this observation based on the first of these reports: “Driven in part by rapid growth in online education, by 2015, preK-12 academic institutions in the United States will spend $4.9 billion on "self-paced" electronic learning products and service.. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 16.8 percent from 2010 spending levels, outpacing every other segment, including higher education and healthcare.” Read more of his analyis in Pre-K Dominates Growth in eLearning

Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online //Marc Parry, The Chronicle, December 12, 2010// Colleges that wouldn't dare put up a new building without wheelchair access now routinely roll out digital services that, for blind people, are the Internet equivalent of impassable stairs. Roughly 75,000 students at colleges and trade schools are visually impaired, according to Education Department figures. Barriers to access could deny them equal learning opportunities. And colleges are finding that the problems are lawsuit bait, generating litigation and complaints.

Predictions for eLearning in 2011 //ELearn Staff and Contributors, January 6, 2011// There are numerous topics here ― just short paragraphs; among them are //The Rise of Curation, Change One Teacher at a Time, Working and Learning Merge!, Learners as Designers, Learning Apps & Video Galore!// (Elliott Masie), and //Learning Management System App Stores// (Rovy Brannon). Check them out; see if you agree. Predictions for eLearning in previous years are featured at the end of the listing.

An Education in Open Source //Bridget Mcrae, THE Journal, January 13, 2011// At Maryland's Chelsea School, free and open source software is helping deliver services to the school's elementary students inside the classroom and out--from audio editing software to learning apps for special needs students to course management. In fact, open source so permeates Chelsea that some students are even working to contribute code back to the open source development community.

State of Washington to Offer Online Materials as Texts //Martha Ann Overland, The Chronicle, January 9, 2010// How community colleges in Washington State are addressing the expensive textbook issuse.

Virtually Worthless //McNelly Torres**,** Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, December 22, 2010// (The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit, digital and bilingual investigative journalism organization working to expose corruption, waste and miscarriages of justice. FCIR believes this type of reporting is essential to democracy, and will use the latest technologies and storytelling techniques to connect with diverse audiences throughout the state.)

To the unsuspecting end-user (end-finder) looking for an online school to complete a high school diploma often there is disappointment and maybe even fraud. Read about such for-profit schools and the plight of their students. And keep in mind this is a national problem.

Florida Virtual School
In Florida, Virtual Classrooms With No Teachers // Laura Herrera, New York Times, January 17, 2011 // This personalized article about virtual computer lab experiences in Miami-Dade County appeared in the NYTimes last week. FLVS provides online classes for home-schooled and traditional students who want to take extra courses. The 54 participating schools in the Miami-Dade County system’s e-learning lab program integrate the online classes differently. A representative from the district said in an e-mail that the system “provided lab facilitators, training for those facilitators and coordination” between the district schools and the virtual school.

According to Julie Young (President and CEO of FLVS, the author–intern, a former FLVS student, “wrote a balanced story including wonderful quotes from happy parents, students, principals and district staff, all of which were eliminated from the story prior to publishing.”

Julie shared further information with us. “We have established a creative, new relationship with Miami-Dade, installing over 60 Virtual Learning labs in 60 middle and high schools. We have over 6000 students and 10,000 enrollments. The project was a brain child of the superintendent to deal with class size. Out of the 60 schools, we have 10 that are challenging and we have people on the ground every week, face to face working with the schools and the kids. In all cases, as per usual, it is all about leadership. The schools which allowed students to self select and held parent meetings and orientations are doing extremely well – great actually; they love it. The schools which informed students upon their return from summer vacation on the first day of school that they were taking courses online without it being their choice are failing. Miami Beach Senior High School did not provide the preliminary planning.“ It’s all about leadership.

Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinel, being a major advocate for virtual learning, contacted FLVS immediately following the NYTimes article to request clarification and wrote an amazing blog response that afternoon. Read his comments: New York Times Hatchet Job on Florida Virtual School = =

**Other Topics**
21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020 //The Daily Riff, January 14, 2011// From desks to paper and lots in between including High School Algebra I.

Campus Technology’s Bookmarks I happened upon this quite accidentally and found it interesting (especially since I’m an avid Delicious user). Search by topics and you can even make it an RSS feed on your home page.

Center on Education Policy (CEP) The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. Their newest document is //States’ Progress and Challenges in Implementing Common Core State Standards// ( Nancy Kober, Diane Stark Rentner, January 6, 2011).

Verizon Challenges FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Net Neutrality passes but not everyone is happy. A divided Federal Communications Commission adopted the "network neutrality" rules last month. Verizon Communications Inc. filed the challenge Thursday in federal appeals court in the District of Columbia that prohibits broadband providers from interfering with Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

The 2011 IT Agenda in Higher Ed: 3 Perspectives //Bridget Mcrae, Campus Technology, January 13, 2011// Leaders in higher education IT departments shared their technology plans for 2011 with Campus Technology. Despite predictions of flat IT budgets, their organizations are taking on ambitious projects and actually continuing to beef up services for faculty and students, moving into app development, shoring up wireless infrastructure, virtualizing servers and desktops, and experimenting with newer mobile platforms.

Year-End Stats from MIT Point to Increasing Popularity of Open Educational Resources // Audrey Watters, ReadWriteWeb, January 4, 2011 // Like many sites and services, MIT OpenCourseWare has released some of its user statistics from 2010. An initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) provides open access to the core academic content - syllabi, lecture notes, problem sets and solutions, exams, reading lists, and video lectures - from over 2300 MIT courses, almost the entire curriculum of the school. The figures show strong growth for what is one of the world's premier open educational resources, with an increase in visits and visitors between 2009 and 2010.

Do YOU care about 4G? //Ellen Wagner's eLearning Roadtrip (WCET)// A recent survey showed that many people don't care about 4G. This site offers a crash course on 4G and why you should care.

The Invisible Computer Lab //Inside Higher Ed, January 25, 2011// Colleges experimenting with 'virtual computing labs' say the cloud-based hubs are cheaper, more flexible and poised to take over.

Thoreau's Cell Phone Experiment //William Major, The Chronicle, January 16, 2011// In class discussing "Walden," professor asks students to leave their cellphones with him for five days. For the students who took the challenge, what did they learn? How would you fare?