Volume 10, Issue 3 - July 2006

Increasing Access in Online Higher Education

John Bourne, The Sloan Consortium
Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
John Sener, The Sloan Consortium
Frank Mayadas, The Sloan Foundation
Linda F. Ettinger, The University of Oregon

This paper investigates how access to higher education in the United States can be increased through further integration of online education. The search for opportunities to increase access to online education examined multiple prospective higher education contexts. A series of papers produced by participants in the 2005 Sloan-C summer workshop...

Online K–12 Education: Opportunities for Collaboration with Higher Education

Melody M. Thompson, Penn State University

It is common practice for researchers and developers of innovative programs, as well as for the foundations and agencies that provide support for such research and programming, to target their efforts on specific segments of the educational system: K–12 or higher education, for example. However, the growing acceptance of the...

Reaching Asynchronous Learners Within the Silver Tsunami

Linda F. Ettinger, Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program, University of Oregon

This paper provides a profile of the population niche known as baby boomers, seniors and retired, collectively called the silver tsunami, relative to the potential for growth of the number of asynchronous online learners. General contextual information concerning population statistics, computer use and access trends, prefaces a listing...

Insuring the Nation's Destiny: Reducing the Digital Divide

William Booth, Hampton University

"Closing the digital divide is a national challenge among historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)," writes White examining the state of information technology readiness of five four-year HBCUs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The inequalities created by the digital divide have the potential of undermining the effort of HBCUs in...

Getting Better: ALN and Student Success

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
John Sener, The Sloan Consortium
Marie Fetzner, Montgomery College

In the U.S., only 38 of every 100 ninth graders enroll in college; of these 38, only 18 complete bachelors' degrees within six years. Asynchronous learning networks (ALN)—asynchronous, highly interactive, instructor-led, resource-rich, cohort-based learning—can yield high success rates. Growing demand for online education and the expectation among higher education leaders...

Community Colleges and Distance Learning

Kathleen Susan Ives, The Sloan Consortium

The goal of community colleges is to serve local needs. Community colleges' low tuition helps keep higher education affordable for a diverse population. Distance learning holds the promise of providing yet another mechanism by which community colleges can bring education to a non-traditional student body. This paper explores the role...

Blended Learning: Implications for Growth and Access

Anthony G. Picciano School of Education, Hunter College, Doctoral Programs in Urban Education, and Interactive Pedagogy and Technology, City University of New York Graduate Center

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning environments. Increasingly decision makers throughout higher education are considering blended learning as an important component of their academic programs. It is hoped that this paper will help to provide insight for these decision...