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Archive for the ‘Daily News’ Category

Michigan Has Required Online Classes for K-12 Students for Over a Decade. Is it Working?

In 2006, the state of Michigan passed a controversial piece of education legislation known as the Michigan Merit Curriculum. The revamp required students to complete upper level STEM subjects and, among other things, take at least one online class. Known as the online learning requirement, it was intended to onboard students for a future of […]

Network Neutrality: The End of the Beginning (Again)

With federal policy debates currently dominated by tax-and-spending issues along with immigration, one might easily lose sight of the relatively recent, dramatic shift in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy on network neutrality. In part, this is because the 2017 FCC order changing the rules on network neutrality has yet to take full effect. On February […]

How congressional politics drive the net neutrality debate

The ongoing national debate over the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules started a new chapter this week. Senate Democrats, led by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), filed a petition that will force a vote on overturning the Commission’s 2017 decision to undo rules from the Obama administration. In doing so, Markey and his colleagues will […]

Internationalisation of HE through distance learning

Over recent decades, the international dimension of higher education has become an essential part of the agenda of higher education institutions and governments all over the world. While countries compete with each other to host international students, supranational organisations, such as the OECD and UNESCO, compare the numbers of international students in several countries in […]

WCC enrollment growth connected to distance learning

A minimum of 6 million students are enrolled in at least one distance learning course according to the 2017 Distance Education Enrollment Report. Student preference for online courses has grown at a rapid rate over the last decade and for many people the convenience has allowed them to pursue their educational goals. The Washtenaw Voice

Digital technology’s role in enabling skills development for a connected world

This Perspective explores the ways in which the growth of digital technology is impacting education and skills. The authors state that technology is not only more prevalent in people’s lives, but its growing use will affect schools’ curriculum, new digital skills in jobs, and the changing use of services. However, they point out that education […]

Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers

This article shows how a group of language teachers use Twitter as a tool for continuous professional development through the #MFLtwitterati hashtag. Based on data collected through a survey (n = 116) and interviews (n = 11), it describes how this collective of teachers use the hashtag and evaluates the impact of their Twitter network […]

Exploring Students’ Use of the Social Networking Site WhatsApp to foster connectedness in the online learning experience

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the use of social networking tools in higher education teaching and learning.  Drawing on data from a larger study focusing on student engagement in the online virtual classroom, this paper is based on research conducted with three separate cohorts of students from the Masters in Special […]

Using learning analytics to improve online formative quiz engagement

This paper describes the findings of a small research study, conducted in a third-level online college, using learning analytics to examine the implementation of formative quizzes in a blended-learning post-primary teaching programme. Using historic data captured in a virtual learning environment (VLE) for a single cohort (n=126), patterns of use of formative Knowledge Check quizzes […]

Informing learning design through analytics: Applying network graph analysis

 Learning design has traditionally been thought of as an activity occurring prior to the presentation of a learning experience or a description of that activity. With the advent of near real-time data and new opportunities of representing the decisions and actions of learners in digital learning environments, learning designers can now apply dynamic learning analytics […]