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RESOURCES
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Newsletters:
In This Issue Current Issue Archives
January 1, 2005
| Full January 1, 2005 issue of Distance Education Report in PDF format … |
| TEACH Act Update Two years ago, distance education administrators breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act was signed into law. TEACH is an amendment to the U.S. Copyright Act that allows distance educators more freedom to transmit copyrighted materials on-line. Previous copyright legislation assumed that distance education was limited to TV viewers who, for example, watched 6 a.m. public television classes on everyday mathematics. The new law was written for the digital age. Gone is the archaic requirement that a classroom has to have four walls, a ceiling, and a floor in order to use copyrighted materials. Gone are many of the copyright infringement penalties for faculty, staff, and students. In many cases, improvements in the law mean that distance ed classes can include the same resources that face-to-face classes use. |
| Is Distance Learning a Democracy? Think Twice By By Susan Gaide Before the advent of distance learning, the staff of “bricks and mortar” institutions had clearly defined roles. Administrators developed program and course curricula with the input of faculty. Subsequently, course syllabi and materials were typed on a typewriter and were then proofread and edited by someone with editorial experience. These editors shaped the course content, ensuring its literary, journalistic and instructional quality. |
| Course Quality and Instructor Workload: Pt. 1 Course quality and workload are two big issues that often stand in the way of faculty members’ willingness to participate in developing and delivering online courses. On the surface it would appear that course quality is directly proportionate to the amount of work the faculty member is willing to put in. However, this is not always the case, as Michael Scheuermann, distance learning and faculty development consultant at Drexel University, explained in a recent interview with Distance Education Report. |
| Distance Education Leaders and Mental Models By By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti How do distance education leaders decide what trends and concerns are most important to them? Are their ideas more similar to another professional in the same university or to a professional in a parallel position in a different university? And what does the literature have to tell us about this? |
| In the News Analyzing Ocean Color Online with NASA; Saudi Arabia’s $30 million e-learning market set to expand 33 percent annually; Blackboard Adds Over 1,000 New Course Cartridges This Year |
| Resources The Distance Education Balance Sheet Rick L. Shearer Atwood Publishing $35.00 |
