Distance-Educator.com e-Newsletter - 7/30/12

From yesterday’s inbox…

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

RESEARCH-BASED ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Online Education in Public Affairs Abstract This exploratory study provides an overview of the current landscape of online education in the fields of Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy (MPA/MPP) utilizing a dataset compiled from content analysis of MPA/MPP programs’ websites and survey of 96 National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) affiliated institutions. Areas studied include the rationales for offering or not offering online education, concerns with technology, modes of online instruction, student services, faculty and staff demands and enrollment patterns. The primary goal stated for offering courses and degrees online is to reach more students. We found substantial diversity in teaching methods which suggests students and instructors alike are attracted to online education due to its flexibility. Surprisingly, we did not find any significant problems with technological concerns. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration An e-learning approach to informed problem solving Abstract When taking into account individualized learning processes not only content and interaction facilities need to be re-considered, but also the design of learning processes per se. Besides explicitness of learning objectives, interactive means of education need to enable intertwining content and communication elements as basic elements of active learning in a flexible way while preserving a certain structure of the learning process. Intelligibility Catchers are a theoretically grounded framework to enable such individualized processes. It allows learners and teachers agreeing and determining a desired learning outcome in written form. This type of e-learning contract enables students to individually explore content and participate in social interactions, while being guided by a transparent learning process structure. The developed implementation empowers learners in terms of creative problem-solving capabilities, and requires adaptation of classroom situations. The framework and its supporting semantic e-learning environment not only enables diverse learning and problem solving processes, but also supports the collaborative construction of e-learning contracts. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal How do People with Disability Use and Experience Virtual Worlds and ICT: A Literature Review Abstract There is wide agreement that information and communication technology (ICT) is a valuable tool for people with disability. Several research disciplines have focused on how people with disability can take advantage of the technology available for social, educational and personal purposes. Virtual worlds represent the latest addition to the technologies available, yet there is little research on how people with disability use and experience virtual worlds. A review of research conducted in different disciplines on the affordances and challenges of virtual worlds and ICT for people with disability is presented here. The main objective was to highlight areas that lack sufficient research in the field of virtual worlds for people with disability. Understanding how use of ICT influences people with disability is important to identify the possibilities and challenges virtual worlds offer to this group. Findings from this study indicate that there is little empirical research exploring the social aspects, work opportunities and personal value virtual worlds may offer people with disability. The research reviewed points to the importance of bringing research disciplines together to accelerate knowledge about the potential and promises of virtual worlds for people with disability. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research IN THE NEWS Best Practices in Lecture Capture UC San Francisco’s lecture capture system is playing a pivotal role in taking healthcare education in new directions Campus Technology The Online Student Survey shows that totally online programs are attracting primarily women, white people and fully employed workers with good salaries — many of whom want degrees in business. Inside Higher Ed Google Fiber Transforms Kansas City Into One Giant Beta Test The new gigabit Google Fiber Internet and TV service ties together much of what Google’s been working on for the past two years and charts a course for its content-creating, cable-cutting future. Fast Company New Policy Lets Anyone Post Materials on iTunesU Everyone can now use the iTunesU platform to deliver course material, Apple announced on Wednesday. Before, only professors at a university working with iTunesU—which collects free lectures from partner universities—could post audio and video clips, syllabi, and documents via the platform. Wired Campus Berkeley Joins ‘EdX’ Effort to Offer Free Open Courses Since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University unveiled their plan to create a platform for free online courses called edX, more than 120 other colleges and universities around the world have expressed interested in joining in. Today leaders of the effort announced that they’ve added the University of California at Berkeley as a partner, and that more institutions will eventually be admitted to the exclusive group. Wired Campus WGU—Number One U.S. Provider of Master’s Degrees for Math Teachers SALT LAKE CITY — Western Governors University (WGU), www.wgu.edu, is leading the way in producing K-12 math and science educators, according to a recent study conducted by education research and consulting group Eduventures. The study, which used data collected by the U.S. Department of Education, found that in 2011, WGU was the nation’s largest provider of master’s degree programs in math education. In addition, WGU was the third largest provider of master’s degrees in science education and fourth largest provider of bachelor’s degrees in math education. The nonprofit, online university is also a top provider of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science education, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, General Science, and Earth Sciences. Western Governors University Adventures in Mobility Key Takeaways Mobility is just the latest transformative technology to grab the attention of higher education IT, challenging us to map out strategies to use it effectively. Teaming up with a leading mobile news app developer helped Ole Miss produce a killer university news app targeting the entire campus community. Moving quickly to provide this mobile news app gave the university more time to develop a comprehensive mobile strategy for future efforts. EDUCAUSE Farhad (Fred) Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor Distance-Educator.com

Forward email
Distance-Educator.com | 6977 Navajo Road #167 | San Diego | CA | 92119