More Online Learning News

For your reading pleasure, below you will find a few recent Online Learning-related news links. (Our last installment of such links was published last October.) As always, we welcome your comments or additions in the CCCOnline Community . . . and best wishes as you embark upon Spring Semester 2012!


“What works—and what doesn't—in online learning” by William Wade (1/13/12)
Commentary from Community College Times:
http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/Pages/Opinions/What-works-and-what-doesnt-in-online-learning.aspx

“Listing Toward Order” by Steve Kolowich (1/10/12)
From Inside Higher Ed:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/10/us-news-world-report-releases-first-ever-online-college-program-rankings

“'U.S. News' Sizes Up Online-Degree Programs, Without Specifying Which Is No. 1” by Nick DeSantis (1/10/12)
From The Chronicle:
http://chronicle.com/article/US-News-Sizes-Up/130274/

“MIT Will Offer Certificates to Outside Students in Online Courses” by Marc Parry (1/1/12)
From The Chronicle:
http://chronicle.com/article/MIT-Will-Offer-Certificates-to/130173/

“The risks and rewards of online learning” by Chris Bustamante (11/16/11)
Commentary from Community College Times:
http://www.communitycollegetimes.com/Pages/Technology/The-risks-and-rewards-of-online-learning.aspx

“Online-Course Enrollments Grow, but at a Slower Pace. Is a Plateau Approaching?” by Marc Parry (11/9/11)
From The Chronicle’s “Wired Campus” blog:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-course-enrollments-grow-but-at-a-slower-pace-is-a-plateau-approaching/34150

“Online Grows, Doubts Persist” by Steve Kolowich (11/9/11)
From Inside Higher Ed:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/11/09/survey-shows-online-enrollments-have-boomed-doubts-about-online-quality-persist

Links from The Chronicle’s Special Report “Online Learning 2011”:
http://chronicle.com/section/Online-Learning/491/?inl
“From Homeric Writings to Cellphone Forensics, Some Favorite Online Resources” (11/6/11)
http://chronicle.com/article/Forum-Online-Resources/129614/
“How Technology Can Improve Online Learning—and Learning in General” by Robert W. Mendenhall (11/6/11)
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Technology-Can-Improve/129616/?sid=cr

The Sloan Consortium published their ninth annual survey; this one is titled “Going the Distance - Online Education in the United States, 2011.”
http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/index.asp

*Related reading on Cultivating Excellence: “Community College Headlines” (12/14/11)
http://cccoexcellence.blogspot.com/2011/12/community-college-headlines.html

CCCS Participating in Landmark Analytics Project

This week, we’re excited to share that the Colorado Community College System is one of six academic institutions participating in the groundbreaking PAR (Predictive Analytics Reporting) project. Led by WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) and funded by the Gates Foundation, the project aims to help institutions improve students' progression and completion through a better understanding of student success factors.

Jonathan Sherrill, CCCOnline Data Analyst Professional, is a project participant. He says the group is bringing the idea of “big data” to the study of student success; and indeed, the scale of the project is big: “We’ve already brought together 640,000 anonymized student records and three million course records from these six institutions – we can go very fine looking at this because there’s so much data,” reports Jonathan. This multi-institution collaboration is also exciting, he explains, because analyzing such a great number of records from multiple sources invites broadly meaningful conclusions.

The other PAR project participants are Rio Salado College, the University of Illinois at Springfield, the University of Hawaii system, the American Public University system, and the University of Phoenix. As the project continues, additional institutions will join, allowing for even broader analysis. Preliminary results from the proof of concept already are being released, and the next phase likely will conclude in late 2014.

"I believe the hope of the Gates Foundation is for it to ultimately become self-sustaining,” Jonathan concludes, “a valuable service provided to educational institutions long after their direct involvement ends."

Valuable Library Information Coming Your Way!

This week, we’d like to remind everyone we have a wonderful resource to help us cultivate e-classroom excellence: our CCCOnline Librarian!

Check out Mary Cash’s The Librarian’s Labyrinth blog this week for news you can use:

*how your students may access article databases,
*where students may find helpful resources,
*an invitation to communicate with the librarian, and
*the latest on upcoming library webinars!

Quality Assurance Webinar Next Week

Happy New Year!

CCCOnline’s first webinar in 2012, “Quality Assurance Overview,” is scheduled for next Thursday, Jan. 12, at 3:00 p.m. We’ll be discussing our Quality Assurance program and processes; topics include first-day checks, full quality assurance reviews, and best practices in online discussion.

Registration closes Wednesday, Jan. 11; more information is at the link below.
Hope to e-see some of you there!

http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Professional_Development_-_Upcoming_Webinars#Quality_Assurance_Overview