Achieving success in online education demands a certain level of commitment, discipline, and motivation. So what better way to inculcate these values in children than to get them to enroll in online courses at the school level?
The Upper Canada District School Board is catching them young – it is encouraging its students to earn a summer school credit through the Internet.
As many as 14 courses are being offered as online options to earn “reach ahead” credits. Students of grades 10-12 in all schools under the Board are eligible for these courses, a welcome change from the past when reach-ahead credits were offered only for English for grade 12 students of the Cornwall summer campus.
Each course comprises 20 lessons, one of which can be completed each day. Five teachers supervise and monitor the online classes, besides facilitating an Internet forum where students can communicate with their peers and discuss lessons.
The online summer courses concluded on July 28, following which the students had to sit for an exam.
If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, then Mohammad will go to the mountain, to paraphrase a popular adage. That seems to be the policy being followed by the Utah Valley State College, Certiport, an organization that offers training in computers and their applications, and the Navajo Nation, as they strive to take education into the Navajo reservations across desolate stretches of southeastern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico.
Statistics show that less than 40 percent of Navajo students graduate from high school; the number who graduate from college is a smaller percentile. The proposal currently under consideration hopes to educate the youth of the Navajo and enable them to become computer-literate so that they can earn high school diplomas without stepping out of their reservations.
A high school diploma under their belts is just the impetus they need to take the next step up the ladder of education – a college degree. The Utah Valley State College offers distance learning courses for just this purpose.
The success of the proposal depends on the availability of the requisite funds. The project’s proponents are seeking financial assistance from both private and state sources. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation features among the prominent private financiers; money from the trust will go to setting up interactive Internet technology in 550 computers in Navajo community centers in Utah and Arizona.
This virtual school has run into stormy weather even before it could take off. Aimed at providing access to traditional education in an online format for home-schooled children in the Campbell County School District, the school faces uncertainty because of funding problems.
The Wyoming Department of Education claims it does not have the power to authorize the school, let alone recommend it for state funding. Mary Kay Hill, director of the administration unit at the department, says that there are currently no rules and regulations that govern the establishment of virtual schools. It is hard to reach a consensus as to what exactly constitutes an online school, she adds.
While Assistant Superintendent of the school district, Ed Weber, is hopeful that the virtual school will become a reality in September or early October, Hill is not too confident that it will happen anytime in the near future. The school’s future depends on the outcome of a legal, financial and instructional investigation by a task force, and approval from the Legislature, according to Hill.
K-6 students who have been taught at home would have benefited from the virtual school, if it had been up and running by now. The district had planned to offer seven online courses, each of which could be learned with the help of parents and certified teachers.
There are a few online education "directories" out there (such as WorldWideLearn and eLearners), but most are just shady "fronts" for affiliate programs. Degree Tutor bucks the trend and provides a hell of a nice user interface for finding whatever kind of program you’re interested in. You can search by degree level, school, or program subject. They also have a nice library of articles for anyone who wants to learn more about online education. Bookmarkworthy.
If you are an engineer and wish to hone your financial and risk management skills, the Executive Development distance and online learning modules offered by the Institute of International Research (IIR) may be just the opportunity you need. The institute is offering two courses – one in financial management that includes communication and negotiation management, and the other in risk management. Each course comprises 10 modules, demand between 5 to 10 learning hours, and are disbursed to participants over a period of two to four months. Ferret reports:
Tutorial support is available throughout the program. Participants also have the opportunity to attend a face-to-face seminar to discuss elements of the program in more depth. In addition, and concurrently, the course will be offered via IIR’s e-learning program, providing participants with an opportunity for further online interaction with the course writers and fellow participants.
It’s been more than three years since I commenced earning an online MBA degree, and I’m not proud to say I’ve still a long way to go before I complete it. I can come up with a million reasons as to why I’m dragging my feet, but I cannot find one plausible enough to expunge the feeling of shame I felt when I read about men in the army earning their degrees from online institutions.
They’re in the middle of battle zones, and they still have time to devote to their lessons. The latest in this list is Marine Corporal Wesam Mahmoud, an Arabic translator and Purple Heart award winner, who is earning his MBA online from Capella University.
An interview with the corporal is being featured as the latest podcast in the series “Inside Online Education”, a string of first-hand experiences in online education from both students and staff.
Visit the Capella website to follow the podcasts.
Looking to continue your business management education online? Well, your search stops at the Get Educated website which offers a comprehensive list of the nation’s 25 best business colleges that offer online degrees. As many as 78 colleges have been ranked based on a nationwide survey of the costs you will incur by stepping into the virtual portals of each institution.
The East Carolina University tops the list as the school offering the most affordable online bachelor’s business degree for students in North Carolina. On the other end of the scale is the New York University which gives you the most pricey undergraduate business degree at $105,720.
Follow this link to check out where other schools stand in the ratings.
The winners of the WebCT Exemplary Course Project (ECP) were announced recently. The project, which is sponsored by Blackboard Inc., provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry, recognizes significant contributions to and achievements in the world of online education.
The ECP, which honors courses that follow best practices in designing courses, interaction, collaboration, assessment and evaluation methods, using technological implements and offering support for learners, has singled out the following courses for excellence in online learning.
- Women, Culture and Economic Development from the Florida International University
- Digital Literacy and Research Skills from the Georgia Perimeter College
- Introduction to Online Learning from the Governors State University
- Learning About Learning Online: A Faculty Institute from the Simmons College
- Project Management for IT Professionals from the Capella University
- Introduction to Research in Education from the University of Ottawa
Blackboard, which recently joined forces with WebCT, Inc., has decided to expand the 2007 Exemplary Course Program to all the 3,650 institutions in the Blackboard and WebCT community.
Australia is working to standardize its e-learning resources according to national and international yardsticks. The standards, which aim to set criteria for the technical design of electronic learning resources, have been:
- Proposed by the Flexible Learning Advisory Group which looks after the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLE).
- Researched and put together by the AFLE’s E-standards for Training Project.
- Reviewed and corrected by the E-standards Expert Group which comprises technical managers who support e-learning, from each state and territory in the country.
- Endorsed and supported by the National Senior Officials Committee, a group of vocational and technical education heads in Australia.
- Based on eight important aspects such as content formats, content packaging, metadata and vocabularies, digital repository interoperability, intellectual property web services, accessibility and client platforms.
- Developed to improve the quality of vocational and technical education in Australia.
- Designed to meet international standards and enhance the overseas appeal of Australia’s e-learning programs and resources.
- Structured to allow e-learning resources to be applied across disparate electronic platforms.
Scotland has launched CPD Online, which provides e-training services for members of the bar. The program aims to further the professional development of lawyers in the country by providing them with a combination of legal updates and training in management and soft skills.
The Law Society of Scotland has used the new rules relating to the continuous professional development (CPD) training for members of the legal profession to offer them five hours of CPD through distance learning modules.
A pilot program launched to test the waters generated a more than average response with over 200 lawyers expressing their interest in participating. Out of these, 30 were selected across the breadth and depth of the legal profession.
A few statistics from the pilot:
- Over 90 percent of those who took the test said the website was easy to access and navigate.
- Around 63 percent said the course content was easy to follow.
- The level of the content got a thumbs-up from 68 percent who termed it useful and beneficial.
- A whopping 95 percent said they would like more modules to be introduced.
The delivery method works well for the largely mountainous country as most solicitors cannot afford to spend time traveling across the country to attend classes and seminars. But keeping up to date with developments in the industry is as must, as is the need for good management skills.
CPD Online is sponsored by The Ridley Partnership, a training group based in Yorkshire. The company has started out with modules on training in client care, accounts rules, conflicts of interest and confidentiality, stress management, financial management, anti-money laundering and diffusing conflict through communication, before moving on to more specialized offerings in the near future.
