Higher Education | Distance-Educator.com

Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

Exploring the Acceptability of Online Learning for Continuous Professional Development at Kenya Medical Training Colleges

This study explores the acceptance of online learning (OL) for continuous professional development among lecturers at Kenya Medical Training College in 2009. The large and multi-campus College faces logistical and cost challenges in ensuring that its 700 lecturing staff have access to continuous professional development. Online learning potentially provides an effective and efficient solution to […]

e-Learning conference calls for sustainable innovation

The 8th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training – aka e-Learning Africa – ended in the Namibian capital Windhoek with delegates calling for homegrown, sustainable innovation in e-learning to spur development across Africa. University World News Full Article

Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Managing the Model Building Process

Farhad Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the previous weeks, I […]

Featured University: University of South Africa

Unisa is the largest open distance learning institution in Africa and the longest standing dedicated distance education university in the world. We enrol nearly one-third of all South African students. Founded in 1873 as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, the institution became the first public university in the world to teach exclusively […]

Supporting the General Education Program for Distance and Adult Students

How do you blend General Education competencies (i.e. communication, ethical/logical/mathematical reasoning) across an institution and curriculum? Kaplan University’s General Education program integrates and assesses student proficiency in General Education disciplines across all undergraduate programs. The data is used to inform curricular improvements in a continuous process for maximizing student learning. Online Journal of Distance Learning […]

Examining Christian College Students’ Summer School Choices

Faculty and administrators use anecdotal evidence to assume the reasons full-time traditional students at private Christian colleges choose to take online summer courses at community colleges instead of their own online offerings. The purpose of this research was to provide empirical evidence necessary to make informed decisions regarding strategic planning for enrollment efforts at private […]

A Longitudinal Study of Online Learners: Shoppers, Swirlers, Stoppers, and Succeeders as a Function of Demographic Characteristics

“Look at your past. Your past has determined where you are at this moment. What you do today will determine here you are tomorrow. Are you moving forward or standing still?” Tom Hopkins Abstract During the past decade, the convenience of online learning has afforded postsecondary students of all ages the opportunity to attend and […]

Experience of developing Twitter-based communities of practice in higher education

This article presents the results of a case study of the use of a microblogging tool by a university academic to increase their knowledge and experience of social media for educational purposes. The academic had the role of digital steward in a university and attempted to use microblogging (Twitter) to increase professional contacts within the […]

AAUP Sees MOOCs as Spawning New Threats to Professors’ Intellectual Property

Colleges broadly threaten faculty members’ copyrights and academic freedom in claiming ownership of the massive open online courses their instructors have developed, Cary Nelson, a former president of the American Association of University Professors, argued here on Wednesday at the group’s annual conference. The Chronicle of Higher Education Full Article

Unlocking Open Educational Resources (OERs) Interaction Data

Each time a teacher or a learner interacts with an Open Educational Resource (OER), these interactions produce data. This “interaction data” includes “artifact data” routinely captured during any online interaction by Web server logs (e.g., users’ browsers, users’ IP addresses) and “social data” created during Web 2.0-style interactions with resources (e.g., tags, comments, ratings, favorites). […]