Educause Continued


 

 

This article uses a model that implies that online learning companies both providers and schools are the dilemma that is the cause for disruption, and will serve as the problem and solution, which is the center of “disruptive theory.”

  • The U.S. Department of Education has compiled studies comparing online and face-to-face education and found that students performed better in online courses than in face-to-face courses, while courses that blended online and face-to-face instruction yielded the largest gains (matching an early finding of my own), due in part to:
    • Spending more time-on-task
    • Giving students more control over their learning
    • Providing greater opportunities for reflection
    • This research, and the widespread attention paid to it, might encourage more faculty to explore online learning. We already know that the simple act of teaching online improves faculty opinions of online learning.
  • Student Engagement:
    http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/StudentEngagement/213723

This is a very strong topic and shifting model that should be included in our thinking.

  • Blended Learning Class Guides
    http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/EnhancingStudentLearningandRet/219137
    Excellent reference for building hybrid courses. Includes vocabulary and thinking through course design that is quite thoughtful and sets out “class guide” model that is a clearly stated starting point for everything that an online learning materials group should consider: 

    • These inventive class guides introduced course content prior to student arrival in the classroom and incorporated various interactive learning materials to increase student engagement with course content. The guides directed students’ learning and facilitated their use of the course textbook, assignments, and resources. The online guides also allowed students to spend more time on task outside the classroom. They played a vital role in dramatically altering the traditional lecture format course, leading to increased student success and course retention.
  • Future of Education
    http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/FutureofHigherEducation/213721 

    • About 85 institutions in the Western world established by 1500 still exist in recognizable forms, with similar functions and unbroken histories, including the Catholic church, the Parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland, and of Great Britain, several Swiss cantons, and 70 universities. Kings that rule, feudal lords with vassals, and guilds with monopolies are all gone. These seventy universities, however, are still in the same locations with some of the same buildings, with professors and students doing much the same things, and with governance carried on in much the same ways.  — Clark Kerr1
  • Academic Technology Use
    http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/AComparisonofStudentandFaculty/213682
    Strong lengthy research piece about how faculty are actually using tech complete with numbers and graphs. The conclusion below is telling:

Not only do students and faculty use some technologies in different frequencies, students and faculty in different disciplines use different technologies in different frequencies. Hence a “one-size-fits-all” approach to providing and supporting academic technologies will not suffice. Moreover, students and faculty have different expectations and use technologies in different contexts, which may create tension and misunderstandings between these two groups.

 

next: eLearn Magazine