A paper released recently by the Community College Research Center reminds the champions of MOOCs and other online initiatives of one very important detail: Not all students prefer an online education; many higher education students still want in-person discussions and on-the-spot feedback.
But that’s not to say it will stay that way.
The CCRC paper is based on a small survey of cContinue Reading »
Officials at eCore, the University System of Georgia’s online curriculum, collect heaps of student data every year: individual course completion rates, withdrawal rates, and even the number of those identified as at-risk each semester.
Every day, Melanie Clay, dean of eCore, says she looks at the dropout rate and compares it to the rate at the same time last year. “If it’s not going in tContinue Reading »
Online learning has become a permanent fixture of our system of higher education. Yet, public colleges and universities, which educate the vast majority of college students, have been visibly slow to embrace it. Many of these institutions were founded with a mission to serve their citizens, including those unable to attend in residence. Yet even as the technological means to achieve this goal Continue Reading »
Summer melt might sound like something that happens to an ice cream cone in July. But in the world of college access, the term refers to a more troubling phenomenon: the significant number of high school graduates (some 10 to 20 percent nationally) who have been accepted to college and plan to attend but never show up in the fall.
The problem is even more acute among low-income, first-geContinue Reading »
It’s no surprise that a reader asked us to look into online education given all the attention it has been getting lately. The Department of Education asks colleges if they offer “Distance learning opportunities,” defined as “An option for earning course credit at off-campus locations via cable television, internet, satellite classes, videotapes, correspondence courses, or other means.”
So maybe you thought the big news in higher education this past week was Mike Bloomberg’s gazillion-dollar gift to Johns Hopkins. Or perhaps the latest iteration of MOOCs as credit-bearing loss-leaders for a range of state university degree programs. Or the new report calling for reforming financial aid to boost college completion.
Not so. I just discovered a new tumblr called Accepted! Continue Reading »
When I see a story or blog nowadays on MOOCs, I am inclined not to read it. I mean, how much more could be said about Udacity, EdX, or Coursera that has not already been written? But if you’re like me, resist that temptation and go back and read one of the many articles that appeared earlier this week about San Jose State partnering with Udacity to develop online, entry-level courses. It’s worContinue Reading »
Online education doesn’t lack innovation—clearly—but what is innovation without long-term impact? A 2013 survey of chief academic officers shows that despite a decade of exponential growth in enrollments in online education, many still have concerns about the “value and legitimacy” of this form of learning. Almost 90 percent of academic leaders say that students need more discipline to succeed Continue Reading »
This is the time of year when bloggers and reporters (some of whom, in the interest of full disclosure, are planning to take some time off for the holidays) produce a series of Year in Review stories. We asked our staff and our K20 Task Force members to share their thoughts on the biggest education news story of 2012. We also asked them for the most over-hyped education story of the year.
<Continue Reading »As any casual reader of the Quick and the Ed knows, 2012 was the year of the MOOC. Whether it’s individual professors offering free online courses through Udacity, elite colleges signing up with Coursera or EdX to expand their online footprint, or the many efforts underway to determine how to attach formal academic credit to these innovations, 2012 will be remembered as the year that the traditContinue Reading »
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