The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Public Universities Look To Online Education To Deal With Shrinking Resources

Budget cutbacks to state universities appear to be speeding ongoing efforts to increase online education as resources shrink and timely access to prerequisite classes becomes more difficult. Educators are increasingly looking to online courses as a way to handle more students with less funding.The development of hybrid online courses, in collaboration with faculty in recent years, has helped more students move past "bottleneck courses" - classes in which there aren't enough faculty to handle large numbers of students. Read more:
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_20714014/public-universities-expand-web-education-offerings#ixzz1wGeQNZGp

 

Online Learning Is Transforming Higher Education

In the coming decade, emerging technologies will thoroughly transform higher education. Although distance learning and computer-assisted education have been around since the 1960s, financial pressures are forcing institutions to develop aggressive online programs.When education goes online, how professors teach, what students learn and how institutions are structured will change significantly. In the past couple of years, traditional colleges and universities have designed their own programs in an effort to increase tuition income without expanding the physical plant. It remains to be seen whether this financial bet will pay off. Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-21/college-crackup-and-the-online-future.html#disqus_thread

Law Schools Are Slow To Take Their Programs Online

Legal education has been slow to move to online classes, and the new master’s program is perhaps the earliest partnership between a top-tier law school and a commercial enterprise. The law school of Washington University announced Tuesday that it would offer, entirely online, a master’s degree in United States law intended for lawyers practicing overseas, in partnership with 2tor, an education technology company. The bar association does not approve master’s programs, beyond certifying that a new one at an approved law school will not detract from the J.D. program. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/education/law-school-plans-to-offer-web-courses-for-masters.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120509

Room For Debate: Online Learning

Last week, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a new nonprofit partnership to offer free online courses. Those who complete the course will get a certificate of mastery and a grade, but no official credit. Should Harvard and M.I.T. offer credit for these courses and even allow students to obtain their degrees online? Indeed, doesn’t it make more sense for elite colleges and universities to do this? Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/05/06/got-a-computer-get-a-degree?partner=rss&emc=rss 

 

The Revolution In Online Learning Is Just Getting Started

Over the past few months, something has changed. The elite, pace-setting universities have embraced the Internet. Not long ago, online courses were interesting experiments. Now online activity is at the core of how these schools envision their futures. What happened to the newspaper and magazine business is about to happen to higher education: a rescrambling around the Web. Many of us view the coming change with trepidation. In an online world, colleges have to think hard about how they are going to take communication, which comes over the Web, and turn it into learning, which is a complex social and emotional process. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/opinion/brooks-the-campus-tsunami.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general 

 

Top IHEs Expand Their Intellectual Reach Through The Internet

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are teaming up in a $60 million venture to provide classes online for free. The move is the latest by top universities to expand their intellectual reach through the Internet — a trend that is changing higher education. He says interest in online courses has exploded because it's become much cheaper and easier to put a class online. "That has combined with using technologies in new ways to make these online classes better." Read more at:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/05/02/151876426/explosion-in-free-online-classes-may-change-course-of-higher-education

Udemy Introduces The Faculty Project That Offers Free Online Couses

On Thursday, Udemy introduced the Faculty Project, which consists of free online courses taught by university professors. The flagship group of academics includes Irwin Weil, a professor emeritus in Northwestern's department of Slavic languages and literatures. He will be teaching a Udemy course called "Select Classics in Russian Literature."  The professors, who hail from institutions such as Yale Law School and Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, will upload a series of 10- to 30-minute video lectures over the next four months. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-northwestern-profs-featured-in-udemy-initiative-20120125,0,6395487.story

Adult Learners Are Piling Up Student Loan Debt Faster Than Ever

Educational borrowing is up for every age group over the past three years, but it has grown far more quickly among those between 35 and 49, according to the analysis of more than 3 million credit reports. The average student loan debt for those aged 38 to 41 was the biggest of that group -- about $12,000, up from just under $9,000 in 2009. There are some alternatives to piling up student debt for those who do want to take the chance and go back to school.  Read more at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-studentdebt-middleage-idUSTRE7BQ0T620111227

Western Governors University Is Catching On With Adult Learners

There are an estimated 37 million Americanswho have some college credit but no degree — and Western Governors University is trying to change that. The nonprofit online school is challenging many traditional concepts about higher education with a new approach aimed to help adult students finish college. And after 15 years in existence, the school is catching on. Western Governors has stripped the higher education machine down to its parts. The school doesn't develop its own curriculum, so the material Shackleford studies to become a high school biology teacher comes from outside providers. Those kinds of innovations help keep tuition low, at around $6,000. Read more at:
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/03/144439890/online-school-helps-grown-ups-finish-college

Going The High Tech Route To Provide Higher Education Solutions

It seems everyone is squawking about higher education these days. Tuition costs are spiraling  and on top of that, student loan default rates are soaring. What’s more, experts say students are taking too long to earn a degree. The need to pursue bold and innovative solutions to help more Americans attain a higher education at an affordable price has become more prevalent, prompting many entrepreneurs to launch online tools and even schools to help combat the problem. Read more at:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/12/19/is-tech-way-to-get-higher-education-back-on-track/#ixzz1h19Vpg8y

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