Online University Lowdown

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Sure we all know that moms are great, but did you know that they are in great demand at Fortune 500 companies? If you’ve seen them balance the pressures of running a household, taking care of bratty kids, battling irate husbands, and yet coming out of this chaos with their sanity intact, you’ll know why. 

Katherine Ellison effectively explains this demand in her book, “The Mommy Brain” – moms have a higher level of emotional intelligence that equips them with the necessary people skills that are deemed a necessity in any organization today to perform a variety of tasks under pressure, provide effective leadership, be dependable at all times, and work with care. This theory is supported by a study conducted at the Wellesley University that found that most women felt that they were effective leaders in their fields of work because they were mothers first.

The only thing that hampers their climb up the corporate ladder is the lack of a degree or formal higher education. With the advent of online education, that hurdle has been easily crossed. The Bureau of Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor reports that the next ten years will see a rise in the number of women working in the IT and health sectors, and online education is a surefire strategy that will help them shine in their chosen spheres.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

A follow up on what’s been happening at Online Educa Berlin, the conference that is dedicated to discussing the advances in technology-supported learning and training – this year’s meet saw a record 2048 participants from a global spectrum of 92 countries. eLearning, its potential and place in the community were discussed at length by speakers from Canada and France. And as proof that technology can bring about a promising future in developing continents like Africa, the Director of the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology expressed hope that mobile phones, which are more widely used than computers, could soon be used to educate the masses; the subject will be the focus of discussion at the second eLearning conference to be held in May.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

What’s standing between you and an online course? If the only hurdle is the cost, consider it removed effectively. The Internet is a vast store of knowledge, if you know just where to look. Learn language skills, pick up cooking tips, join bible classes even if you’re just mildly interested in the ecclesiastic, become computer-savvy, brush up on those journalistic tendencies, take advantage of the opencourseware that’s free to all – in general, learn what you’re interested in. All at the cost of a computer and a broadband connection only. Interested? Just follow this link for more details.

–By Sagar Satapathy

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the first edition of the "Carnival of Online Education". I received a large number of entries out of which 12 posts managed to make the cut. I hope that this carnival helps the students who want tips on online education. Let me take you through the posts that are featured in this carnival.

Royce Wells presents Stanford?s EPGY Online High School posted at Wells On Education. Royce gives useful information about Stanford’s EPGY Online High School.

Alvaro presents What do successful Traders and Students have in common posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution. The answer: "portable skills" or executive functions. What are these? Well, keep reading…online education will be a very important vehicle for their development.

Jimmy Atkinson presents 10 Advantages to Taking Online Classes posted at OEDb: Online Education Database. Jimmy argues why taking classes online is becoming popular and what are its real advantages. Some great tips you cannot afford to miss.

Allan Wallace presents An Online College Degree At BFU posted at BFU – self directed learning for visionaries. If you want to earn an online college degree, learn more about Bastiat Free University.

Phil presents Why Public Schools are Failures to the Best Students « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity. Phil admits that the public school system has a plethora of success stories. However he strongly believes that there are at least an equal number of contradicting stories on how the schools failed individuals, especially gifted and honor students.

Michael Nelson presents Online Construction Courses – Iowa State University « C-School – Construction Management Education posted at C-School – Construction Management Education. Learn more about the online courses available from the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department at Iowa State University.

Michael Blachford presents Online Courses posted at University in the Eyes of a Student. Michael tells us about the benefits of online education.

Phil presents What does Zero Times Infinity Equal? « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity. At first, you may think that zero times infinity equals zero. After all, zero times any number is equal to zero, however infinity is not a number.

Travis Wright presents The Next Millionaires posted at Cultivate Greatness. Get educated, so you can be one of the Next Millionaires… 10 million new millionaires will be created from 2006-2016, you want to be one?

Vahid Chaychi presents Online Education Works for Most People posted at Online Degrees and Universities. There is no doubt that online education works for most people. Vahid has come up with some strong arguments in favor of his statement.

Marian Heddesheimer presents Rent a Tutor Blog – Category: Podcasting posted at Rent a Tutor Blog. This blog is a collection of tutorials (most are screencasts) about Internet stuff. In this category, you will find tutorials about podcasting and how you can use it for education.

Vahid Chaychi presents Thanks to Internet For HomeSchooling posted at Online Degrees and Universities. Is it really possible to receive diplomas like high school diploma over the Internet? The answer is yes but before that you need to participate in high school courses online.

With this, the first edition of the Carnival of Online Education is concluded. I expect to see more interesting, informative posts on online education in the future editions of this carnival. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers!

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

This ATM has nothing to do with the banking system, but there sure are a host of kids who are banking on it to get themselves an invaluable education. The Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is an interactive video classroom network that is being leveraged by the Maine Distance Learning Project to provide children living in rural areas access to quality courses and classes.

Having tasted success in the four years since its inception, the educational endeavor which operates through a network of 91 sites across the state is a lifeline for K-12 students. Teachers in participant schools are able to simultaneously teach those in the classroom and those miles away at another location through video cameras that follow movement with their electronic eyes, screening devices that allow any document to be scanned and viewed at all locations, and big-screen televisions that facilitate socialization between students at different schools.

Besides solving the problem of a dearth of teachers for certain subjects, the venture allows children to choose from a large pool of available courses instead of restricting them to those taught at their own schools. No wonder then that the project, which is funded by the Department of Education, has been described on its website as “an unprecedented instructional and communications system.” 

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Here’s one situation where a relative unknown has come out on top of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Villanova University has grabbed the top spot on the list of “Most Wired Colleges” in the United States. The list, compiled by PC Magazine and The Princeton Review, was based on the extent technology is used in educational institutes for online learning, faculty computer training, and other programs.

Villanova emerged a winner because of its policies that allot freshers laptops that are replaced in their second year, provide PDAs for nursing students and tablet PCs for engineering classes. Classes, lectures and exams are available online, and technical support questions are answered within 24 hours.

MIT came in a close second, thanks to its own operating system and its open courseware, while the Indiana University took third place for a podium finish by virtue of owning the fastest university-based supercomputer and the largest disk-based storage facility. Others in the top ten as reported by E School News include:

Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Creighton University in Nebraska, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Michigan Technological University, the University of Southern California, Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and the University of Oklahoma.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Come the spring term of 2008, and a few students of the University System of Maryland will find themselves walking into virtual classrooms rather than brick-and-mortar lecture halls. The university is in the process of revamping at least three of its courses in order to comply with space and cost constraints. Accordingly, Social Psychology, Introduction to African-American Literature, and Approaches to Cultural Materials in the Hispanic World will incorporate more online assignments and support study materials. Social Psychology may even go completely online, according to Donna Hamilton, dean of undergraduate studies.

With this pilot program, the institution is hoping to free up large lecture halls that are fully occupied when a course is popular and the number of enrollments large. It also seeks to address the issue of students not getting enough out of the course because of the sheer number of enrollees, and dropping out as a result. 

As many as 11 schools of the 13 public universities that belong to the University system will take part in this first-of-its-kind attempt in the United States, said officials. The courses are being redesigned with help from the National Center for Academic Transformation, which has been retained under a three-year, $100,000 per year, contract.

Student and faculty response will be used to gauge the relative success or failure of this endeavor; the first six months should offer a reasonably clear picture of the way the land lies, according to Donald Spicer, system spokesman.

New online career training courses are on the anvil from Kilgore College. The courses will be in the areas of healthcare, business, construction/automotive technology Internet, design and technical and networking and Comp TIA certification. Kilgore College has partnered with Gatlin Education Services for bringing out these courses. The courses being planned are as an answer to the growing demand for online education the world over.

These courses are so designed so as to enable individuals to enhance their education and area specific knowledge at any time of their careers. Even the first time career seekers can easily benefit from the programs on offer. All that one has to do is have some time and a PC and a lot of enthusiasm. News Wire Today reports:

Web-based instruction is growing in popularity. Gatlin’s enrollments with their partner institutions have increased by 100 percent in the last year. The company has strategic partnerships with more than 480 institutions of higher learning worldwide.

Company Secretary (CS) aspirants have some good news coming their way. In 2007 the course would be available online. The current mode of doing the course is through formal class room teaching and or via post. However with the convenience of having the course online, the students will now be able to attend lectures via their desk tops. This any where and any time learning will help more and more people to have access to the program.

Mr N K Jain, secretary and chief executive officer, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) says that the course had already moved on to e-learning as the curriculum was being offered on CDs. This obviously is a step forward. The online course will commence in 2007 and the first program to be launched is the ‘Foundation Course’. Once the program is successful the online program will move on to the ‘Intermediate Course’ and finally in phase three the third and final part of the program will be launched. The Times Of India reports:

“Those students who have registe-red or are registering for the intermediate course on or after May 2006, will be required to undertake the 70-hour computer training course. It’s compulsory for them. Only those students who successfully complete the computer course, will be eligible for the CS exams in 2007," he added.

Plans of going online of the University of Illinois faced a block when its faculty-student senate decided against the endorsing it. They claim that they are not stating that there should be no online education program from the university. On the contrary they are happy that such an initiative is being planned. They also feel that having an online program would mean that the students with lover affordability could have access to higher education through this program. The senate just feels that the current planning/model for the program is inadequate. 

The senate reiterated that they want the plan to succeed. For this they have made several recommendations and have outlined several issues with the plan that UI has proposed. It was stated that over the years they have observed that the state funding in recent years has declined, stayed flat of perhaps sometimes seen a marginal increase. This situation leaves the university to fend for itself. If the program is not self sustaining, it might face the same fate as the unfortunate universities whose online program failed. News Gazette reports:

"I would never assert that it is not a risky venture," White said. But one thing is certain, he said. The UI’s financial future "is not very pretty and we need a major new revenue source and Global Campus is the best prospect we have so far," White said.