Distance-Learning Program Described As 'State Of The Art'

Linda Erwin, director of school partnerships for the Niswonger Foundation, said the distance-learning partnership with the Bristol school system "is really state of the art."

With help from the foundation, Bristol has been sharing courses with other schools in Carter, Johnson, Sullivan and Hawkins counties for two years now, she said.

"Bristol oversees it," she said.

Ervin differentiated distance learning from e-learning, explaining that distance learning involves "real time, live" audio and video interaction between students in one location and a teacher at another location.

Each classroom has two large video screens that can be split to show a teacher and something else, perhaps a graph, or an illustration. Ervin said e-learning usually refers to courses offered online, with interaction between the student and teacher typically occuring via e-mail.
Ervin said the Niswonger Foundation learned from the Rhea and Scott County schools that grants for distance learning were available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, most school systems could not afford the required 50 percent match to get the grants.

In a number of cases, "The Niswonger Foundation supplied the match," and provided additional help, including hardware, Ervin said.

By putting up $300,000 of its own money, she said, the Niswonger Foundation helped several schools get a total of $1.2 million in grants. She said Cocke and Carter counties are currently applying for USDA grants.

If those grants come through, she said, a total of 18 high schools will be participating in what is now called the East Tennessee Distance Learning Consortium.

Members of the consortium offer "their strong courses" to other member schools that need them. For example, she said, "Greene County needed another language" to offer students, "and Hawkins County had an excellent French teacher."

Hawkins County students take advanced calculus via distance learning from a teacher in the Greene County system, she said.

She said Unicoi County "has an amazing German language teacher," and several systems are considering offering that class next year."

It is programs such as these that former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, head of the SCORE Initiative, said he would like to publicize statewide as "promising" practices.

Ervin said the difference between the East Tennessee consortium and others that might offer classes taught, for example, in Florida, is that local systems can be assured that locally-taught courses all meet Tennessee requirements.

She said e-learning courses work better when a student is home-bound, or needs another class to graduate, or is in a "zero-tolerance" situation and cannot attend school, she said.

E-learning also works well for "credit recovery," Ervin said. That is, making up a course, or for advanced students who can handle another course in their spare time, broadening their education and in the process perhaps improving their grade point average.

She said several students take government and economics courses via e-learning in their after-school hours, so that they can have time during the school day to take band or chorus.

Alpha Omega Academy Offers Distance Learning Students New Online Curriculum

 Alpha Omega Academy® (AOA), an accredited distance learning school for students in grades K-12, is pleased to announce the addition of Switched-On Online(tm) starting July 1, 2009. This modern, technology-based online curriculum reflects today's educational needs and provides AOA's students in grades 3-12 with an improved learning experience in Bible, history and geography, math, science, language arts, and a variety of electives.

Delivering the same award-winning, academic Christian content found in AOA's Switched-On Schoolhouse®, Switched-On Online provides lessons and activities with a more convenient, web-based learning environment. Alpha Omega Academy's faculty and staff encourage distance learning students and their families to take advantage of Switched-On Online's new and improved method for course delivery that includes these great advantages:

• No CDs or shipping fees

• Immediate startup without a cumbersome installation process

• Windows®, Macintosh®, or Linux-based operating system applications

• Internet accessibility to complete schoolwork anytime, anywhere

• Web-style navigation intuitive for today's students and parents

• Immediate curriculum updates without any downloads

• Pass threshold on lessons, so students master the information before advancing to the next assignment

• Project submission in various media formats like student-created videos or slide shows

Because the two curriculum formats are different, Alpha Omega Academy will refer to new Internet-based courses as Switched-On Online (SOO) and will reserve the term Switched-On Schoolhouse (SOS) for CD-ROM courses only. For more information on Switched-On Online and AOA's accredited distance learning academy, call 800-682-7396 or visit Alpha Omega Publications' website for students and families of AOA at www.aoacademy.com.

TULSA COMMUNITY COLLEGE REDEFINES NURSING EDUCATION WITH ECHO360 LECTURE CAPTURE

Echo360, higher education's first choice for reliving the classroom experience on demand, today announced that Tulsa Community College has increased access to nursing education in Oklahoma by recording thousands of lectures with EchoSystem campus-wide lecture capture platform.

The U.S. is projected to have a nursing shortage of more than one million registered nurses by 2020. But in 2007, over 30,000 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools due to faculty shortages. This predicament led Tulsa Community College to adopt an innovative solution for expanding online course delivery and blended learning programs for nurses.

Loren Farr, manager of media and interactive television courses at TCC, explains, "There is an increasing demand for rich media, and Echo360 makes it easy for us to create it. It's cost effective for us. We don't have to reinvent the wheel."

Before Echo360 appeared on Tulsa Community College's campus three years ago, the nursing department manually recorded, downloaded and streamed each individual classroom video. With the process requiring several days to complete, this outdated method was no longer sufficient.

Today, the lecture capture trend has spread beyond the nursing program to all five campuses at Tulsa Community College, and the school currently supports a distance learning enrollment of more than 10,000 students each semester.

"Lecture capture is not limited to distance learning; it's much more than that. It has become mainstream. It's not a tool for distance learning, it is learning," continues Farr. "It helps us adapt pedagogy to accommodate the learning styles of today's students."

Faculty from other departments access Echo360 in the college's shared "innovation room" to record course modules. These "easily digestible" captures are supplements to traditional lectures, distance learning courses and noncredit workshops. Some faculty members distribute learning modules across disciplines, while others mix and match the modules to reuse in future semesters.

"Lecture capture technology makes it possible for professors and students to do more with less," said Mark Jones, president of Echo360. "Echo360's scalable lecture capture solutions enable colleges to develop distance learning programs that keep pace with students' needs for flexible course delivery."

About Echo360

Echo360 envisions an opportunity for every student to be freed from traditional barriers to learning with an on-demand education experience. Full-time, part-time, distance, continuing, and online all describe today's student living in a 24/7 world. On-demand media and education converge at Echo360, helping colleges and universities engage students on the students' terms with full and unbounded access to classroom-based content via multiplatform replay. Developed in partnership with the University of Western Australia, Echo360 means scalable and affordable lecture capture solutions that can provide institutions of all sizes with universal availability of lecture content.

Distance learning cos forced into online space

With technology companies increasingly encroaching upon the distance learning space, traditional distance learning companies are being forced to shift online.

Sikkim Manipal University, the country's second-largest distance learning provider with around 3.2 lakh students, is the latest to enter the web-assisted distance learning market, which is seeing frenetic action from the likes of NIIT Technologies, Everonn Systems and Hughes Network Systems.

"We felt the need to go beyond offering just print material, counselling sessions and satellite lectures," says Anand Sudarshan, CEO of Manipal Education, one of the biggest education players in the country.

Though not a novel move, the company's decision to deliver lessons through the internet will certainly help grow the 'hybrid' distance education market manifold.

As of now, there are around 1.1 crore higher education (beyond 12th standard) students in the country, about 15-20 lakh of whom are enrolled with different distance education programmes.

In terms of numbers, the market is dominated by the non-profit Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), which accounts for around 30% of the pie, and Sikkim Manipal University, with around 20%.

In comparison, the largest tech-enabled distance learning player, Hughes Network, has only around 3,500 students per year, followed by NIIT Technologies, with around 1,500 students. The total market is estimated at 8,000-10,000 students per year.

Unlike the traditional distance learning model, the 'hybrid' model uses a quasi-classroom approach, merging both the traditional student-teacher model and the internet-based model through technology.

While IGNOU and Sikkim Manipal propagated the traditional model, supplemented with weekly counselling or 'contact' classes, the new tech-savvy players used the internet and telecom networks to create the illusion of a live classroom through networking. Most of the courses are conducted by faculty from reputed institutes such as the IIMs.

"What we found was that when you rely purely on a web-based model, with people sitting at home and doing things on their own, it did not work," says Udai Singh, executive vice-president at NIIT Tech. "Anytime, anywhere learning soon became no-time, nowhere learning. It turned out that peer pressure and certain encouragement and interaction with an instructor is also required to keep students motivated."

With about 80% of the students enrolled for management and IT related subjects, Sikkim Manipal is hoping students will take to its combination of live satellite lectures and archived video and other learning material on its online platform, EduNxt.

"We are starting off on a small scale, but our goal is to soon reach a level where we can give a pre-loaded, connected netbook that will enable every new student to be part of a live, interactive learning experience," Sudarshan said, adding, the company is talks with computer makers for supply of cheap 'netbooks'.

Distance learning program at Arkansas State University wrapping up first year

Arkansas State University is wrapping up its first year of a distance learning program through which students can take classes via the Internet. Officials say the program so far has been a success.

The distance learning effort is being conducted with the company Higher Ed Holdings. The program includes 300 students seeking master's degrees with ASU's College of Education.

ASU Vice Chancellor Dan Howard says ASU needs to move into distance learning because of competition from out-of-state schools.

Howard says the convenience of distance learning makes it popular with students who work. The program includes master's level coaches, who act in the role of graduate or teaching assistants, so there is added support for students.

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WSU will close local and statewide distance learning centers

he NCW Learning Center serves about 70 online students in Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties. Students can still carry on with their programs, but without the center’s on-site help.

"They will continue to be served and pursue their de-grees," said NCW Learning Center Coordinator Randy de Mars, Jr. "The online degrees are not going away, just the presence we have in the counties."

All WSU nine learning centers statewide will close June 30 to make up a $54 million deficit in the university’s budget for the next two years.

"It’s a sad thing for Wenat-chee," said Wenatchee Valley College President Jim Richardson. "From my understanding, it was one of the busiest learning centers they had. I always get the question, ‘When are you going to become a four-year university?’ and I tell them you can get all those degrees right here through Heritage, WSU and Central."

The NCW Learning Center, housed in WVC’s Wells Hall, offers advising, exam proctoring, computers for about 10 online bachelor’s degrees, three master’s degrees and five professional certifications through WSU. The center was established in 1996.

The center also hosts the summer Spanish Immersion program, which will still be offered this summer at both Moses Lake and Wenatchee. De Mars said he did not know if the program would run next year.

The university is trying to find other places for online students to take exams, Debbie O’Donnell, spokeswoman for WSU’s Center for Distance and Professional Education in Pullman.

Three people work in the NCW Learning Center. WSU sent a preliminary layoff notice to De Mars on May 1. Another full-time staff member is employed by the local WSU extension office and will keep her job.

Another staff member will be laid off from her half-time job with the learning center. She will continue working half-time with WSU Extension.

"The biggest thing they’ll (students) miss is being able to talk to someone right there face to face about what’s the next step after graduating from Wenatchee Valley College," Richardson said. "Even those going straight to WSU could find good advice there."

Central Washington University and Heritage University still offer online four-year degrees through WVC.

CWU’s Wenatchee branch will remain open next year and is looking at adding classes, said site director Diana Haglund.

Heritage University also confirmed they will maintain their Wenatchee satellite campus.

It's time for distance learning

I have a unique insight into the suggestion of America's first national online campus of virtual schools.I am Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Wright College and in that capacity I was a classroom teacher. I am also founding general manager of WYCC-TV/PBS Channel 20, an educational television station that was created in 1983 and cited during its first decade by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as the most successful distance learning station in this country in terms of the variety and number of telecourse offerings and student enrollment through the City Colleges of Chicago, which owns Channel 20. The City Colleges has a legacy of creating courses by television and radio. Courses by media and distance learning were my domain as an administrator for the City Colleges.As both a classroom Professor and General Manager of a TV station whose original mission was distance learning opportunities for students, my perspective leads me to strongly support a national online campus.
Choice and opportunity are key in making education possible for the students of our nation. Some belong in classrooms. Others will be successful through distance learning as their only lifestyle option. And still others will become concurrent students combining both classroom and online courses as their choice of study.As President Obama has stated, "Dropping out is not an option." It is time for America to create learning opportunities and availability by funding its academic institutions, supporting teacher training programs and developing online campuses.

The internet has revolutionised distance learning – even lab experiments are online

Last December a group of Open University students got together to write and stage their own version of the pantomime Cinderella. Nothing remarkable about that – except that none of the students actually met face-to-face. The whole enterprise was carried out in cyberspace, at The Open University's "island" in the 3D virtual world known as Second Life.
This year's Open University Science students are learning how to use laboratory equipment to measure the angles of light emitted from a lightbulb – without the use of a laboratory, or a lightbulb. They do it all at home on their computers, using a technique called ISE (Interactive Screen Experiment) which allows real, as opposed to computer-modelled, experiments to be carried out online.
The Open University has always been at the forefront of using new technology for teaching. In 1969 it was television. Today there are interactive DVDs, podcasts and the internet, which can be tapped into anywhere, thanks to personal communication devices such as the iPhone and Blackberry. All these developments are revolutionising the experience of learning at a distance, in your own time, which is what Open University students do.
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The televised revolution
Small screen heroes
A beacon of hope in the developing world
Reaching out around the globe
Ever-increasing circles of knowledge
Research: the final frontier
"Hats off to the OU"
The expanding curriculum: 570 courses and counting
My new life: students' stories
What the OU has done for us
The university launched its first fully online course, You, your computer and the net, as far back as 1999. But in 2009 it still retains printed material and personal tutors, alongside the new technology. What it has learned is to beware of is "technology for technology's sake". Instead it focuses on using the most appropriate medium to achieve the desired result, a successful learner.
Good teaching starts from the human perspective, understanding the aims and aspirations of the student, says Dr Anne Adams, who works in the university's Centre of Open Learning for Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology. "We are emotive creatures and our learning, which is going to empower us and change our identities, connects up with an emotive side of us."
"Rather than just throwing e-learning devices and applications out there, you have to understand who your students are, and why they need that learning."
A key aim is to make students feel part of a community of learners – they may be studying at home, at work, in a submarine, but they are not alone. Instead of switching on their TVs, today's students log on to a virtual learning environment where they can talk to other students and tutors, take part in virtual tutorials and collaborative projects online, and monitor their progress with online tests which give instant feedback.
It's not only its own students the university is reaching out to. Anyone can now go out and find Open University material, for free, through a variety of channels, anywhere in the world.
OPEN TECHNOLOGY: DID YOU KNOW?
* OpenLearn is an award-winning web portal which makes large quantities of OU materials under a Creative Commons licence. Since its launch over 4.5 million learners worldwide have accessed the 5,800-plus hours of free learning materials.
* Open University course material is available on Apples iTunes U service, to download to your iPod, iPhone or laptop.
* The university has its own YouTube channel, OUView.
* Platform is the new Open University 'virtual campus' open to anyone with an interest in learning and teaching.
* FlashMeeting is an easy-to-use, online video meeting system developed by The Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. It allows up to 50 users anywhere in the world to conduct a virtual meeting using live video and audio text chat and shared whiteboards, and records everything.
* A virtual field trip is enabling Open University students with disabilities to participate in field trips to collect geological samples in the mountains of Scotland. The ERA (Enabling Remote Activity) system makes use of a portable wireless network to relay information to the student's laptop.

School Board Briefs: Distance Learning System Approved

The Thompson District school board approved the purchase and installation of a distance learning system at the April 22 meeting. The system will allow elementary school students to receive instruction in Spanish and will also be available to other students and adults on Channel 14 and the Internet. The Accordant system totaling $77,000 is being purchased as part of distance learning technology included in the 2006 school bond.Charter School Contract RenewedA five-year contract for New Vision Charter School was approved by the school board members. According to the terms of the contract, the school administrators will hire their own special education staff under the guidance of the district director.Enrollment at New Vision is open to any child in the school district and also to those living outside the district. The school’s educational program is nonreligious and nonsectarian and is consistent with school district policy. No tuition is charged for attending the school for students residing in the district. Head Start Assessment PositiveDuring her self-assessment report to the school board, Early Childhood Education Principal Theresa Clements said the Head Start program offered to pre-school youngsters continues to be a high quality program with well-trained staff.Clements said the program serves 139 children and there are many others on the waiting list. Through anticipated stimulus funds, there is a possibility for expansion, she added.Vice President Marcia Venzke asked Clements if long-term research had been done to determine the effectiveness of Head Start for students. Clements said that although there was not a control group for a study, she did believe that Head Start is making a positive difference for students as they progress in their education.