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Thanks for your interest in our newsletters! You can read the most recent issue below, or choose a specific topic over on the right side of the page. Enjoy!
Using Audio Files to Improve Classroom Communication
0From Inside Higher Education, Academic Minute.
April 18, 2011
In today’s Academic Minute, Empire State College’s John Beckem discusses how audio files are being used to improve communication between faculty members and students learning at a distance. Beckem is an assistant professor of finance and management studies at Empire State’s Center for Distance Learning.
Colleges Aren’t Keeping Up With Student Demand for Hybrid Programs, Survey Suggests
0Today’s Chronicle article also links to a June, 2009 posting on “global” vs “local” marketing of online and hybrid programs.
From, The Chronicle of Higher Education
April 14, 2011
By Marc Parry
Gates Goes Open – New Grants from Next Generation Learning Challenges
0April 7, 2011
Proprietary in his beta phase, Bill Gates 2.0 is all about sharing the wealth. And he is asking his latest crop of higher ed benefactors to do likewise.
Next Generation Learning Challenges, or NGLC — a grant program run by Educause and fueled mostly by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — gave the bulk of its first round of “challenge grants” to university-led projects aimed at either increasing access to college degree programs or supplying free, top-flight online learning materials to colleges that could not otherwise afford them.
The article notes the emphasis on open courseware projects that can be adopted by many colleges.
Comparing Online Programs
0March 24, 2011
Much of the debate about online higher education turns on comparing online courses to face-to-face ones. But with colleges of every type increasingly venturing into the fray of online teaching regardless, some have turned toward the practical question of comparing online programs with other online programs.
Please click here for full text of the article.
From Inside Higher Education
March, 24, 2011
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/24/consortium_creates_tool_to_compare_quality_of_online_college_programs
Should You Teach Online?
0Step one: Are you cut out to be an online teacher? Good article on the basics.
February 24, 2011
By Chloe Yelena Miller
Tampa Bay Online Hillsborough schools test social networking
0Here is a great example of the FirstClass Social Workplace tools in action. This feature set is included at no extra charge for hosted Consortium clients.
Enjoy the show!
Next Generation Learning Announces Wave I Finalists
0NGLC, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and led by Educause, has announced the 50 finalists for Wave I. The Wave I challenges are: Deployment of open core courseware, Scaling of blended learning programs, encouragement of deeper learner engagement and Mobilization of learning analytics.
Click here to visit the NGLC website.
Fast-Growing U. of Phoenix Calculates a More Careful Course
From the Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/8/2010
By Goldie Blumenstyk
Phoenix
In the fall of 2009, after closing the books on yet another banner year of enrollment growth, and with its parent company’s stock climbing toward a five-year high of $90 per share, the University of Phoenix began to question fundamental pieces of the very formula that had fueled its years of success.
The States of Online Regulation
0
Online colleges looking to expand their national footprints might have to gird themselves for a regulatory beating from the Sun Belt. And they might get chilly receptions in certain parts of the Upper Midwest, too. Click here for full story.
From Inside Higher Ed, January 21, 2011
Student Views on Technology and Teaching
0
From Insider Higher Education
By Joshua Kim January 18, 2011 9:45 pm EST
Today was one of those days that us educators live for. A recent graduate, Lucretia Witte (who is now teaching 6th graders in Bridgeport CT for Teach for America), came back to campus to lead a session entitled “Student Views on Technology and Teaching” at our Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL).
