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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Online Education Database: Take Any College Class for Free: 236 Open Courseware Collections, Podcasts, and Videos




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Avoiding The future of libraries and research being decided by Google

Avoiding The future of libraries and research being decided by Google

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Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) Accreditation and Accountability: Looking Back and Looking Ahead



For the past decade, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has focused on a small but vital set of higher education accreditation issues. Accreditation and Accountability: Looking Back and Looking Ahead is an electronic compilation of ideas, recommendations and suggestions that CHEA has offered for these issues:


Public Accountability
Student Achievement
Information to the Public
Relationship with Federal and State Government
Distance Education
International Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Degree Mills and Accreditation Mills
Transfer of Credit
Financing Accreditation and Conflict of Interest


This online publication provides summaries of key observations and suggestions for each issue, followed by links to the CHEA documents cited. It is a compendium of in-depth information on issues at the heart of accreditation.


Accreditation and Accountability is an important new resource designed both to inform readers and stimulate future discussions of the challenges and opportunities facing higher education accreditation.


A national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation, CHEA is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities and recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. For more information, visit CHEA's Website at www.chea.org

Council for Higher

Education Accreditation
One Dupont Circle NW
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20036
(tel) 202-955-6126
(fax) 202-955-6129

chea@chea.org

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Share Your Views: Another Way to Participate in the Sloan-C Community



Below are blog posts of interest collected from http://sloanconsortium.org/SloancMemberBlogs


Orienting Students to Collaborative Learning
Both students and teachers struggle with successful online collaborative learning activities. MacGregor (1990) identifies seven role transitions students need to make to be effective when collaborating. These transitions are detailed below. The key takeaway for faculty lies in recognizing these new roles and providing opportunities for students to achieve mastery in these new roles.


Engaging Students in Online/Hybrid Courses with MERLOT
Back in 1998, I was involved in helping to put together an online web MBA program that was to be offered by five regional Georgia institutions collaboratively. Once we decided which courses needed to be taught, I was then asked to develop the International Business class for that program.


We received some training, first on how to work with WebCT, and then worked in a short online class about teaching online so we could see what the students experienced. Then it was time to put the class together.


We were given one of the early books by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt. I can’t remember the title, but even after all this time, I remember something they pointed out. They suggested that in online teaching one must provide the following interactions with the student...


Leadership in Online Education
As online education continues to grow there will certainly be many opportunities for individuals to get involved in leadership positions. These leadership positions might become available at the institutional level and could include serving on a curriculum committee, on a faculty senate committee, being a department chair or unit dean, or even leading efforts for a new academic or strategic plan, in which online education is an important component.


What is "Impact Assessment" Anyway?
Impact assessment can be hard to grasp at first because it is subtle. So when we describe impact assessment as "a form of learning-centered assessment which engages learners by supporting their capacity to value, reflect on, and make meaning from their learning," there are some of the subtle distinctions in play.

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University Business: Smartphones Have Influenced Higher Education


According to a May 2011 survey by the Nielson Company, about 37% of mobile consumers have a smartphone, with a majority of these individuals using either an Android or an Apple model. As these tools continue to grow in popularity, their influence is extending onto college campuses, where they are used for a variety of purposes.



U.S. News & World Report


According to a May 2011 survey by the Nielson Company, about 37% of mobile consumers have a smartphone, with a majority of these individuals using either an Android or an Apple model. As these tools continue to grow in popularity, their influence is extending onto college campuses, where they are used for a variety of purposes.


Some schools now post Quick Response, or QR, codes around their campuses to create more interactive tours, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. At Ohio's Wittenberg University, students can use their QR applications, or apps, to scan the black and white designs with their smartphone cameras in order to be directed to a website that features a brief history of that area on campus.


"The campus comes to life through the QR codes," Karen L. Gerboth, director of university communications, told the Chronicle.


Sarah L. Zauner, a research analyst at the Education Advisory Board, told the Chronicle that because QR codes are inexpensive to produce and easy to use, schools across the country are adding them to everything from admissions handbooks to alumni magazines.


Full Story
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TLT Group Symposium 2011 (4th Annual) Session #3




You are not alone! Queries and Strategies for Collaborative Change

Students + Faculty + ... in Small Mixed Groups, and Mixed Inquiry Collaboration

Guest Presenters from Elon University:
Taylor Binnix, Katie King, Ben McFadyen
Thursday, August 11, 2011, 1:00 pm (ET)






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Diverse Issues in Higher Education: UNO's Graduation Rate Nearly Doubles to 38 Percent


August 5, 2011

NEW ORLEANS ­- The University of New Orleans reports a 38 percent six-year graduation rate for the freshman class that enrolled in the fall semester of 2005. That's a 90 percent improvement over the previous class, which had a six-year graduation rate of 20 percent.

The six-year graduation rate is the one most used by the U.S. Department of Education for its annual survey. Official graduation rates are based on an entering fall semester and composed of first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen.

Students who take longer than six years to graduate and students are not working for a degree when they enter and freshmen who first enroll in the spring semester are not included in the official six-year graduation rate.

Meanwhile, the latest commission set up to study the governance and management of Louisiana's public colleges will hold its first meeting Aug. 19, now that its members have been chosen.

State lawmakers agreed to create the 18-member study commission in the most recent legislative session. Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his five board members on Tuesday, and the Board of Regents announced the full slate of appointees on Wednesday.

The study group includes lawmakers, higher education officials, business leaders and others. It is scheduled to meet monthly and required to submit recommendations about college governance two months before the 2012 legislative session begins in March.

A similar study commission made up of national and regional higher education experts was convened last year. The Legislature adopted some, but not all, of that commission's recommendations.
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