Where's the Power Point?

First a note about presentations. I am using a "presentation blog" instead of Power Point! This is a great example of the transformations we are going to discuss:

PowerPoint

• Paper-Centric (where did I put that?)
• Static and singular (difficult to update and distribute after-the-fact)
• Non-Interactive (Where are the responses, additions, and suggestions?)

Blogs

• Web-Native (everyplace, anytime & active hyperlinks to resources)
• Active Updating (simple, push-button updating online)
• Interactive (open to input from selected group or worldwide readers)
• Syndicated worldwide instantly via RSS (see the syndications in right column)

US Dept Ed Statistics First Look at Distance Education - December 2008

At the end of December, 2008, the US Dept of Education released the results of their first look at distance learning in higher education. They found that 2/3 of colleges and universities are offering online, hybrid/blended, or other distance learning.

Areas covered in the report:

• Whether institutions offered various types of distance education courses, and enrollment in those courses, including online, hybrid/blended online, and other distance education courses;
• Number and types of degree or certificate programs designed to be completed totally through distance education;
• Technologies used for the instructional delivery of distance education courses;
• Factors affecting institutions’ decisions about distance education;
• Distance education offerings for elementary or secondary students; and
• Ways in which institutions acquired or developed their distance education courses.

Findings include:


The most common factors cited as affecting distance education decisions to a major extent were meeting student demand for flexible schedules (68 percent), providing access to college for students who would otherwise not have access (67 percent), making more courses available (46 percent), and seeking to increase student enrollment (45 percent) (table 12). These same factors were rated as affecting distance education decisions to a moderate or major extent in 82 percent to 92 percent of the 2-year and 4-year institutions that offered college-level credit-granting distance education courses (table 13). The proportion of institutions that rated various other factors as affecting distance education to a moderate or major extent ranged from 6 percent for “other factors” to 63 percent for maximizing the use of existing college facilities.

Sloan Consortium Annual Survey

Staying The CourseOnline Education in the United States, 2008

The 2008 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that enrollment rose by more than twelve percent from a year earlier. The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities nationwide finds approximately 3.94 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2007. The sixth annual survey, a collaborative effort between the Babson Survey Research Group, the College Board and the Sloan Consortium, is the leading barometer of online learning in the United States. The complete survey report, “Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008” is available by cllicking the header.

National Survey of Student Engagement - 2008

In 2008, the highly-regarded NSSE study conducted by Indiana University added a focus on online learning. Comparing first year and senior students in online and on ground classes, they found statistically significant differences between the two. The complete report is linked the header (results on online learners are on pages 15 and 16).

The summary press release notes the results:
http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2008_Results/docs/withhold/PressRelease2008.pdf

Other key findings from the 2008 survey are: Students taking most of their classes online report more deep approaches to learning in their classes, relative to classroom based learners. Furthermore, a larger share of online learners reported very often participating in intellectually challenging course activities.... When courses provided extensive, intellectually challenging writing activities, students engaged in more deep learning activities such as analysis, synthesis, and integration of ideas from various sources, and they grappled more with course ideas both in and out of the classroom. These students also reported greater personal, social, practical, and academic learning and development. McCormick says the findings for online learners are intriguing. “Critics of distance education assume that face to face classes have inherent advantages as learning environments. But these results indicate that those who teach classes online may be making special efforts to engage their students. It may also be the case that online classes appeal to students who are more academically motivated and self-directed.”

Course Completion Online

One often hears that course completion, retention and progress to degree completion is significantly reduced in online compared to on-campus enrollments. While there is a slightly lower course completion rate at UIS (see info at site linked to header), it is only in the three percent range. In face, undergraduate retention is higher in the online programs for the same degrees (with the exception of one program) at UIS.

One of the important factors may be that the average age of the undergraduate online major is 34 years. Also, admissions requirements for online programs are at least as high - and in many cases higher - than the on-campus counterpart.

A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

George Siemens in December, 2004 a professor at Red River College (now with the University of Manitoba), took much of the valuable aspects of Constructivism, cognitivism and behaviorism; mixed them with the potential of the Internet. His description:

Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.

Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical.

Principles of connectivism:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Contacting Ray

Ray Schroeder
Professor Emeritus and Director

Center for Online Learning, Research and Service
Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning
University of Illinois at Springfield
Springfield, IL 62703

217.206.7531

schroeder.ray@uis.edu

http://rayschroeder.googlepages.com/