July 1, 2007

Distance Education Report - July 1, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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Online Mentoring Builds Retention
Research has shown that personal contact is one of the keys to retention in distance education. Relationships with other students are helpful, and relationships with instructors are even better. But having one person dedicated to the students’ success and on hand to help them at each turn is better yet.

Nine Truths about Recruitment and Retention
Recruiting and retaining distance students is as much an art as a science. Gloria Pickar founded the Compass Knowledge Group to help schools, both public and private, build distance education programs and recruit and retain students. From Northwestern and Boston University to tiny Mailhurst University in Portland, Oregon, Compass Knowledge provides recruitment and retention services for 20 distance learning programs. In the process they have derived principles for attracting and keeping those notoriously difficult-to-hold-on-to distance students. Here is some of the fruit of Gloria Pickar’s experience.

Some Problems of the Digital Library
Stewardship of information and the electronic systems used to manage it in its different forms is getting harder as what used to be called the “information explosion” becomes one of the sharpest challenges for institutions of higher education.

Resources/News
Managing an E-Mentoring Community to Support Students with Disabilities: A Case Study By Sheryl Burgstahler, Lyla Crawford Visible Past: Learning and Discovering in Real and Virtual Space and Time by Sorin Adam Matei, et al