When the University of California dangled a $30,000 incentive to thousands of professors in 2010 inviting them to create UC-worthy online courses, just 70 responded, and only a few classes materialized.

Faculty members at California State University were similarly skeptical and warned of "Walmartization" last year as trustees charged each campus $50,000 to help fund "CSU Online."

It turns out that California professors' wariness of online education is shared by faculty across the country, according to a survey released Thursday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication widely read by academics.

Of 4,564 faculty members surveyed across all types of colleges and universities, 66 percent expressed concern about the quality of online education, saying they believe what students learn is "inferior or somewhat inferior" to what they learn in a classroom. Just 6 percent thought online courses were better.

Another 58 percent felt "more fear than excitement" about cyber-learning.

Yet despite the professors' negative assessments, 60 percent said they had recommended an online course to a student - a reality that lends the new study its name: "Conflicted."

"The challenge is: 'How do we meet the obvious demand for online education but do it in a way that addresses faculty concerns about quality?' " said Jeff Seaman, a researcher with Babson Survey Research Group that conducted the survey for Inside Higher Ed.

Online education is exploding in popularity. About two-thirds of schools nationwide now offer courses, including virtually all community colleges, said Seaman, whose earlier study found that 6.1 million students across the country had taken at least one online course in 2010, up from 1.6 million students in 2002.

Skeptical faculty members say they are not blind to the pervasiveness of online instruction or its inevitable rise. But they caution that courses taken by computer are best suited to certain subjects - lower level math, say - that require the absorption of facts rather than intense interaction among people sharing ideas.

"I'm not against online learning. I'm against the idea that you can substitute what happens in a high-quality liberal arts classroom with an online program," said Wendy Brown, a UC Berkeley political science professor.

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Online education has teachers conflicted

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20-06-2012 15:21 For more information, visit: Learn how AIU's MUSE (My Unique Student Experience) content delivery system works. Using MUSE, students earning an online degree can take control of how they learn material. Whether students learn best by reading, watching video, practicing, problem solving or other methods, MUSE allows them to study content and pursue their online education in a way that can suit them best.

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MUSE - Online Education Content Delivery System - AIU - Video

Newswise College and university faculty members are more pessimistic than optimistic about online education and remain far more skeptical about learning outcomes in online programs than are academic technology administrators on their campuses. But faculty members with a greater exposure to online education take a more optimistic view than their peers.

Those are among the key findings of a new study by the Babson Survey Research Group and Inside Higher Ed on faculty views on online learning. The study is based on two national surveys, one of more than 4,500 teaching faculty and a second of academic technology administrators. Inside Higher Eds article on the study (and links to the report) can be found at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/conflicted-faculty-and-online-education-2012.

Among the findings:

58 percent of the professors surveyed describe themselves as having more fear than excitement about the growth of online learning; more than 80 percent of academic technology administrators, on the other hand, say they feel more excitement than fear. Nearly two-thirds of faculty members say they believe that the learning outcomes for an online course are inferior or somewhat inferior to those for a comparable face-to-face course. Even among those with a strong vested interest in online education faculty members who are currently teaching online courses considerable concern remains about the quality of the learning outcomes. A third of instructors think that their institutions are pushing too much instruction online, compared to fewer than 10 percent of administrators. For all the faculty skepticism, the study provides evidence that professors gain more confidence in online learning as they become more involved with it. And on the most basic question asked of faculty at institutions with online offerings have you recommended an online course to a student or advisee? 60 percent of faculty reported that they had. The figure grows to 87 percent for those who teach online.

"We conducted this survey in the hope of bringing all voices to the debate over online education, and in particular the views of faculty members, who frequently argue that they are ignored on these matters," says Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed. "What's striking is that many of the questions suggest both faculty skepticism and faculty engagement with online education. We hope these results may be conversation starters at many campuses as they consider ways to enhance online programs."

For more information about the study, please contact Editors Doug Lederman (doug.lederman@ insidehighered.com) or Scott Jaschik (scott.jaschik@insidehighered.com).

Financial support for this project was provided by CourseSmart, Deltak, Pearson and Sonic Foundry.

***

The Babson Survey Research Group in the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College conducts regional, national, and international research projects, including survey design, sampling methodology, data integrity, statistical analyses, and reporting. Visit Babson Survey Research Group online at http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com.

Inside Higher Ed (http://insidehighered.com) is a national online publication and jobs service for all of higher education. The site's 1 million unique monthly visitors and 93,000 daily e-mail subscribers count on Inside Higher Ed for authoritative news coverage, insightful commentary, helpful career advice, and a vibrant jobs service with roughly 7,000 positions advertised.

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Conflicted: Faculty and Online Learning, 2012

HERNDON, Va., June 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --K12 Inc., the nation's leading provider of proprietary curricula and online education programs for students in kindergarten through high school, today introduced PEAK12, a new way for schools and districts to implement, personalize and manage their online learning programs, all in one place.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110113/PH29436LOGO )

As online learning continues to proliferate in many different models and as more technology resources and options become available, schools and districts are seeking a higher level of integration across their various programs. At the same time that administrators and teachers juggle multiple systems and vendors, they also face the challenge of growing their online learning programs to meet the needs of more students.

PEAK12, which stands for Personalize, Engage, and Achieve with K12, is an intelligent management center for online learning that enables schools and districts to manage and personalize their online learning program solutions including K12 and third-party solutions, open education resources, and district-authored or -generated content from one place. PEAK12 eliminates the hassle of managing multiple accounts and roles and provides a consistent online environment for students, teachers and administrators, whether they are managing or participating in full-time online schooling, credit recovery, world language classes or in blending online learning with traditional classroom programs.

Beginning next month, schools and districts using K12 curricula, services, and support can take advantage of the intelligent management center. Free to current and new customers for a limited time as part of promotional launch offer, PEAK12 also features robust personalization and program management capabilities.

Teachers can individualize content and instruction in just a few clicks by personalizing courses managed by PEAK12 using a variety of K12 curricula and content, as well as district-generated content, to better meet student needs. For example, teachers can easily tailor Aventa Learning by K12 courses using content from over 5,500 lessons and assessments in the PEAK12 library. Soon, content from other popular third-party providers and open education resources, as well as PEAK12 compatibility with a growing number of learning management system platforms, will further augment the options for course personalization.

Also available through PEAK12 are new, powerful program management, enrollment, tracking and intelligent reporting capabilities. Teachers and administrators can quickly and easily create and publish course sections, set up enrollments, communicate with students, monitor progress and analyze results across a full range of online programs that can span multiple schools. Featuring new dashboard functionality available only through PEAK12, a multi-dimensional student engagement and performance summary categorizes each student's status in red, yellow, or green so teachers and administrators can know immediately which students require intervention.

"We have eight different campuses involved in our secondary blended learning programs. We currently use two different online learning products. With PEAK12, I will be able to look at all students, all campuses and all products," said Jan Streich, Director of Instructional Technology for Spotsylvania County Schools in Virginia. "From a school division management perspective, PEAK12 will provide me with a 'one stop shop' for monitoring student progress, improving seat allocation, and producing timely, more accurate data reports on our current programs."

"The teachers at my school will love the student engagement summary in PEAK12," said David Knoche, Principal for Falcon Virtual Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. "Being able to quickly and easily see a complete view of each student's progress, no matter how many courses they are taking, will help our teachers focus their time and attention on providing more challenging lessons for those students who are progressing well, or additional help for students who may not be on track. Teacher efficiency will increase as students receive further individualized instruction."

"As online learning proliferates, schools and districts are demanding a higher level of integration and a single point for managing the many facets of their programs," said John Olsen, Executive Vice President of Operations for K12. "We believe that by providing robust content and management tools, and by enabling a centralized yet open system to support all of their online learning programs, K12 will empower its clients to deliver highly individualized educational experiences for more of their students, at a dramatically reduced cost."

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K12 Inc. Changes How Schools and Districts Manage and Personalize Online Learning

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7hQC8-jEc

19-06-2012 09:32 Streamed live from the 21st edACCESS annual conference Learn more about this participant-driven conference at Online Learning is Good for Independent Schools Presenter: Brad Rathgeber Online learning has grown rapidly at independent schools over the last few years. More than 3 million high school students and more than 5 million college students took online courses this year, with the vast majority of them (~90%) taking them to supplement face-to-face course opportunities. And yet, even with this growth, few independent schools have thought much about online learning or started to develop a plan for using this evolving learning platform. You can expect this keynote session to acclimate you to the possibilities and pitfalls of online learning, address the options that independent schools have for moving into this field, and offer an example approach that some independent schools have taken. More importantly, you will also have the chance to explore an independent school approach to online learning through exploration of an online classroom. Brad Rathgeber is the Director of the Online School for Girls, a non-profit consortium of independent schools, which he helped found in 2009. Brad has worked to create an independent school model for online education, one that favors dynamic relationships between teachers and students, a collaborative approach to learning, and student-centered approaches. Instead of relying on curriculum already created, the Online ...

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edACCESS 2012 Brad Rathgeber Keynote - Video

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19-06-2012 20:22 Secretary of Education Arne Duncan briefs reporters and editors of sites that reach parents, students, and educators across the country at the first ever White House Online Summit on Education.

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Secretary Arne Duncan Speaks at the White House Online Summit on Education - Video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El__BCHR4bU

20-06-2012 15:08 See how easy online Hebrew can be. Learn how you can add up to five levels of digital Hebrew to your curriculum—from letter recognition through prayer literacy —and boost decoding skills and retention. Learn about the benefits of switching from CD-based Hebrew exercises to ones that live 'in the cloud.' This webinar will teach you the nuts and bolts of using Hebrew in the Online Learning Center, including where to find it, how to purchase it for your school, how to add it to your classes, how to use it in class and assign it as homework to extend class time, and how to assess your students online. This coming fall, the Jewish holiday calendar could mean a big gap in instruction time for your school. Find out how Hebrew in the Online Learning Center can help you bridge that gap. (Hosted by Terry Kaye on June 14th, 2012)

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Webinar: Teaching Hebrew with the Online Learning Center - Video

A new leaf: Online MBA spins a web Online programmes are increasingly being preferred, as there is flexibility in timings and people from diverse backgrounds can join M Saraswathy & Kalpana Pathak / Mumbai Jun 21, 2012, 00:02 IST

Online management programmes have gained momentum among companies. While more and more companies want their executives to take up an online MBA because of the time factor, many institutes such as Glion Institute of Higher Education, Switzerland; Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C); UNC Kenan Flagler Business School and U21 Global, have found this market attractive.

Take the Taj Hotels for example. A few months ago, they joined hands with Swiss hospitality institute Glion Institute of Higher Education for online education of their managerial employees. Twenty-five middle and senior level managers were part of the online MBA programme in hospitality management. The cost of $34,000 (Rs 19 lakh approximately) per student for the course was fully sponsored by Taj.

Anouk Tenten, Glion Online partnership manager, explained that companies prefer online courses to traditional classroom-based courses because the institutes 100 per cent online programme combines core management theory with applied industry knowledge, to deliver everything one would expect from a challenging on-campus programme in a flexible, yet interactive, online format.

The diverse student body enrolled in Glion online programmes boasts of representatives from over 60 countries. This provides students a fantastic opportunity to develop a global perspective in an interactive learning environment, which allows peer-to-peer, as well as instructor-led education, she said.

There are also several individuals from Indian service sector firms pursuing the online MBA programme with Glion. However, this was Glions first corporate partnership with an Indian firm.

IIM-C offers satellite-based, long duration certificate programmes through the Hughes and NIIT Imperia platforms. Ashok Banerjee, dean of new initiatives and external relations at IIM-C, said, This mode of executive education has attracted a large number of participants, mainly due to the flexibility that it offers. Over the years, there has been a steady increase in the number of these programmes and in the number of participants. Our revenue from these long duration programmes has been to the tune of 20 per cent of the total revenue.

Most of these long-duration satellite-based programmes at IIM-C are open programmes where participants from various companies can join. Organisations either nominate participants for the open programmes or request IIM-C for customised programmes specific to the needs of their organisations. The programme duration ranges from six months to one year. Participants login for the classes from various locations (Hughes and NIIT Imperia centers) across the country. Hughes has some international centres, too.

Tenten informs that online education has increased within the last couple of years, and one can see many campus-based institutions providing online programmes at an accredited level. Most important is that these online courses are now at the same standards of a campus-based programme, and, therefore, have become increasingly popular with individuals who are unable to study full time on a campus, she added. She said their most popular online programme was the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc (NEASC) accredited MBA in international hospitality and services industries Management. Glion in the last year has expanded the online portfolio to not only include the MBA qualification but also provide certificate and diploma programmes.

Glion grew from a student body of 178 to 300 on a year-on-year basis. As we are also currently developing programmes to meet the needs of the market, we do expect growth in our business-to-business efforts, said Tenten.

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A new leaf: Online MBA spins a web

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The University of Pennsylvanias Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and the Milken Family Foundation have announced the winners of the 2012 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) with five winners earning a total of $120,000 in prize funding.

Now in its third year, the EBPC is designed to stimulate cutting-edge ideas that serve the worlds educational needs, from Pre-K to adult learning. Of over 200 submissions, ten worldwide finalists were selected to gather in Philadelphia to compete in a live competition judged by a panel of industry leaders. Sponsored by the Networking Education Entrepreneurs for Social Transformation (NEST), the EBPC, and the NEST Summit that follows it, were developed to create a forum for education entrepreneurs, whether focused locally or globally, public or private, to catalyze innovation in education.

The EBPC grew substantially in 2012 with the launch of a series of new prizes, including The American Public University System Prize for Innovation in Online Education, The Educational Services of America Prize for Innovation in the fields of Special Education and At-Risk Students, The Erudient Education Prize for Innovation in Borderless Education and The Startl Prize for Open Educational Resources. The 5 winning plans, showcasing the best and most promising new ventures, range from an effort to leverage mobile technology to educate in Africa (and beyond) to a powerful text-to-audio application that is revolutionary for the visually impaired and illiterate around the world.

Launched in 2010 as a partnership between Penn GSE and the Milken Family Foundation, the EBPC culminates with a live competition, judged by a panel of industry experts; this year, it was held on the Penn campus June 19, 2012. More information can be found at: http://nestcentral.org. The $120,000 in total funding was awarded through the following six prizes (Citelighter received two prizes):

Judges included Jeanne Allen of The Center for Education Reform; Dr. Wallace E. Boston president & CEO of the American Public University System, and a Penn GSE graduate; Mark Claypool of Educational Services of America; Gregory Milken of AltEgo and the Milken Family Foundation; Elizabeth Neal of School Leaders Network; Madan Padaki of Erudient and MeritTrac; Laurie Racine of Startl; Alan Todd of Corporate University eXchange; and Victor Vuchac of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The event was emceed by David S. Pottruck of Red Eagle Ventures, Inc.

Today, June 20, the NEST Summit has gathered industry leaders to provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity to gauge the pulse of entrepreneurship in education, and to explore new ways of fostering a culture of continuous innovation in the field.

The NEST Summit

A worldwide leader in education practice, policy, and philosophy, Penn GSE is consistently at the forefront of education innovation. As part of the schools expanding entrepreneurial effort, each summer Penn GSE invites the best, brightest, and most influential professional educators, education entrepreneurs, business leaders, and venture capitalists to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for the annual NEST Summit. The Summit is a unique way to generate new ideas, debate policy, forge new collaborations, discover investment opportunities, and conduct social networking and research.

The Milken Family Foundation

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University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and the Milken Family Foundation Select 2012 Education ...

Weekly News Digest June 21, 2012 In addition to this week's NewsBreak(s), the editors have compiled the Weekly News Digest, featuring stories from the week just past that you should know about. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.

CLICK HERE to view all of this week's Weekly News Digest items.

Gale Brings Online Education Program to Public Libraries

The ed2go for public libraries program, developed as a result of Cengage Learnings unique position within the library, classroom, and adult learning markets, will offer patrons access to hundreds of instructor-led online courses covering everything from health and wellness to digital photography, computer programming, GED test preparation, and much more. ed2go courses are developed by expert instructors, many currently working at universities around the country, and use Cengage Learnings proven pedagogy to ensure classes are engaging and informative. Each individual course is offered online for 6 weeks and features 12 lessons with online discussions, homework, quizzes, and a final exam. Though these are not college equivalent courses, certificate programs are available for careers in the medical field, project management, and computer networking.

ed2go for public libraries features a subscription model designed specifically for librarieslibrarians purchase access to a catalog of ed2go courses which are then offered free to patrons, who can select specific courses to enroll in. Libraries in turn get robust product administration and usage reporting capabilities enabling the easy tracking of successful patron outcomes.

The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System recently piloted the ed2go program as part of its eCampus initiative to address lifelong learning in its community and deliver workforce development resources, programs, and services. The results have been highly successful.

Source: Gale

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Gale Brings Online Education Program to Public Libraries