Volume 14, Issue 4 - December 2010

Why Online Education Will Attain Full Scale

John Sener, Sener Knowledge LLC and The Sloan Consortium

Online higher education has attained scale and is poised to take the next step in its growth. Although significant obstacles to a full scale adoption of online education remain, we will see full scale adoption of online higher education within the next five to ten years. Practically all higher education students will experience online education in some form during their collegiate career, and college students will be able to take online or blended degree programs and certificates in almost any subject. Full scale online education will occur as the result of compounded growth, increased familiarity and acceptance, various models of scalability, and possible wildcards which may accelerate growth. Online education will also attain full scale by becoming fully integrated into mainstream education. This transformation is necessary for online learning to reach its potential to improve the quality of education.
Educational Transformation through Online Learning: To Be or Not to Be

Anthony G. Picciano, Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Jeff Seaman, Babson Survey Research Group
I. Elaine Allen, Babson Survey Research Group

The purpose of this article is to examine online learning at the macro level in terms of its impact on American K-12 and higher education.   The authors draw on six years of data that they have collected through national studies of online learning in American education as well as related...

A Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Education Programs: A Delphi Study

Kaye Shelton, Dallas Baptist University

As the demands for public accountability increase for the higher education, institutions are seeking methods for continuous improvement in order to demonstrate quality within programs and processes, including those provided through online education. A six round Delphi study was undertaken with 43 seasoned administrators of online education programs who agreed...

Mentoring for Innovation: Key Factors Affecting Participant Satisfaction in the Process of Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Teacher Training

Helga Dorner, Central European University
Andrea Kárpáti, Eötvös Loránd University

This paper presents data about the successful use of the Mentored Innovation Model for professional development for a group of Hungarian teachers (n=23, n=20 in two iterations), which was employed in the CALIBRATE project in order to enhance their ICT skills and pedagogical competences needed for participation in a multicultural,...

Faculty Actions that Result in Student Satisfaction in Online Courses

Lana C. Jackson, Amarillo College
Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University, College of Education
Roy C. Rodriguez, Texas Tech University, College of Education

This study identified faculty actions which positively influenced student satisfaction in the online classroom at the community college level. The escalating demand for Internet-based, distance education courses has been met by an increased inventory of them. However, while online education has been in existence for over a decade, standardized practices in...

Automating Expertise in Collaborative Learning Environments

Noelle LaVoie, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Lynn Streeter, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Karen Lochbaum, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
David Wroblewski, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Lisa Boyce, U.S. Air Force Academy
Charles Krupnick, U.S. Army War College
Joseph Psotka, U.S. Army Research Institute

We have developed a set of tools for improving online collaborative learning including an automated expert that monitors and moderates discussions, and additional tools to evaluate contributions, semantically search all posted comments, access a library of hundreds of digital books and provide reports to instructors. The technology behind these tools is...