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Newsletters:
In This Issue Current Issue Archives
May 1, 2004
| Distance Education Report, May 1, 2004 Full issue PDF format |
| Creating “Comfort Zones” for Best Practices By Judy Dahl Calhoun Community College in Alabama has used a best practices approach to build its successful distance education program. The approach, according to DE program coordinator Carmen Blalock, is built on a model developed by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), and reflects the work of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and other organizations. But Blalock acknowledges that, while the SREB Principles of Good Practices define criteria for all aspects of developing a DE program, Calhoun has experienced challenges in implementing the model within the “comfort zone” of program participants. In response, Blalock, along with colleagues Chris Deep and Sue Mitchell, offers strategies for acknowledging and broadening participants’ comfort zones, and for understanding and synthesizing different definitions of success. |
| In the News Senate Committee Holds Hearings on Diploma Mills; Survey: Administrators Say Faculty and Management Support is Biggest Challenge to Distance Learning |
| Repurposeable Means More Affordable Learning Objects By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti The online classroom interposes the online interface between the instructor and the student. If the text and images used to present the course material are dull and lifeless, students will not engage as fully in the learning process. An online distance education course depends upon its interface to engage the student, introduce him or her to the content, and assess the student’s mastery of the material. One way to do these things is with the use of interactive multimedia elements, also known as “learning objects.” These learning objects allow students to have immediate feedback on their learning in a way designed by their particular course instructor. There is one problem, however. Creating these learning objects can be “hideously expensive,” in the words of Jeremy Dunning, professor of geophysics at Indiana University in Bloomington. |
| Electronic Campus Best Practices The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), which seeks to improve education in its 16 member states, operates the Electronic Campus, an “electronic marketplace” for courses, programs, and services. All courses and programs are offered by accredited colleges and universities in the SREB states, including Calhoun Community College. Member programs must meet the Principles of Good Practice developed by the Electronic Campus. |
| Distance Learning Student Services: An Interview With CTDLC Executive Director Ed Klonoski The Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC) supports 46 two- and four-year accredited public and private higher education institutions in that state by providing technical support, faculty development, student services, and funding for course and program development. Distance Education Report recently interviewed CTDLC executive director Ed Klonoski, about the consortium, particularly about student services. |
| U.S. Partnership Makes U. Liverpool UK’s Leading Online Provider Despite a string of failed online initiatives in the United States and the U.K.(culminating in the recent demise of the U.K.’s highly promoted e-university), the University of Liverpool — a leading U.K. research institution — has announce a 10-year international deal to deliver online degrees in partnership with Sylvan Learning Systems of Baltimore. The university claims the arrangement will make it the foremost provider of online degree programs in the U.K., delivering the U.K. and Europe’s “largest suite of e-learning degree programs.” |
| Building Better Online Adjuncts By Mary Lou Santovec Adjunct faculty can frequently seem invisible. They come without the trappings of full-time faculty status, a private office, a secretary, or even a regular group of lunch colleagues. But if adjuncts in face-to-face courses are nearly invisible, what about those who are adjuncts online? What methods work best in recruiting and developing them so they give their students the best experience possible? |
