Washington State University's Use of ePortfolios
Washington State University (Pullman, Washington) has a Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. The Web page referenced above reviews their use of ePortfolios. The Center promotes use of student portfolios, teaching portfolios, and program portfolios. As an administrator in Online Learning and also still an online teacher, I find the program portfolio to be most interesting. The main thrust is not in collecting forms and "evidence" for the portfolio, but to "highlight the alignment of learning outcomes on multiple scales." That's deep!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Striving for Excellence - Innovations in Distance Learning
Delmar College's Distance Learning Program
Delmar College in Corpus Christi, Texas is a community college much like West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, Ky (my school). It has been used as a comparison in years gone by. In browsing their Web site, Delmar uses WebCT as their CMS. They also provide free Sloan-C workshops to the faculty (there is a listing of dates/topic of asynchronous sessions on the site). In addition, I found mention of Quality Matters as a standard of measuring quality.
Delmar College in Corpus Christi, Texas is a community college much like West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, Ky (my school). It has been used as a comparison in years gone by. In browsing their Web site, Delmar uses WebCT as their CMS. They also provide free Sloan-C workshops to the faculty (there is a listing of dates/topic of asynchronous sessions on the site). In addition, I found mention of Quality Matters as a standard of measuring quality.
Striving for Excellence - Innovations in Distance Learning
Traditional On-Ground Universities with Over-the-Top Online Offerings
Sit back and look at the Web sites of some of our greatest universities. Here are the links to two such schools, Harvard University and Vanderbilt University:
vucast Vanderbilt University's News Network
http://http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/video/?xtags=latest-video
Both of these schools share a fantastic array of open courseware with the public. These can be found on itunes U or You TubeU.
Sit back and look at the Web sites of some of our greatest universities. Here are the links to two such schools, Harvard University and Vanderbilt University:
Harvard University (School of Medicine)
http://www.mycourses.med.harvard.edu/public/
vucast Vanderbilt University's News Network
http://http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/video/?xtags=latest-video
Both of these schools share a fantastic array of open courseware with the public. These can be found on itunes U or You TubeU.
Striving for Excellence - Innovations in Distance Learning
Guide to Online Programs
This link provides the viewer with a list of colleges/schools that offer associate, bachelor, and/or master's degrees in the United States. These are the private schools that generally have high tuition. It is difficult to ascertain which is best unless the potential student is looking for a particular subject area. Then the student can check for accreditation of the chosen curriculum. Let me rephrase. As a 28-year educator, I know to do that. Does the student?
This link provides the viewer with a list of colleges/schools that offer associate, bachelor, and/or master's degrees in the United States. These are the private schools that generally have high tuition. It is difficult to ascertain which is best unless the potential student is looking for a particular subject area. Then the student can check for accreditation of the chosen curriculum. Let me rephrase. As a 28-year educator, I know to do that. Does the student?
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Module 2 Distance Education Communities
I would like to explore the higher education distance learning community in the state of Kentucky, specifically the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). KCTCS is comprised of 16 colleges with 68 campuses across the state and a total of 100,348 students. Our local college, West Kentucky Community and Technical College, is part of this system. Distance learning has become an integral component in student access and success due to the rural nature of our state. The primary delivery mode is worldwide web courses. KCTCS is a model in offering traditional Learn by Term classes as well as the relatively new modular Learn on Demand classes. These are open entry/open exit courses which are built into degree frameworks. The student can earn an entire degree online. To view information on the KCTCS Online Learn on Demand, go to:
target=blank>http://www.kctcs.edu/KCTCS_Online.aspx
Major issues in working with this system include the following: obtaining qualified faculty, measuring quality in course development, and continuing faculty development with interactive online learning and technological advances. There is a central database for faculty applications at the state level. We also have a local database. It is difficult to assess quality faculty when a face-to-face interview and teaching demonstration is not done. This could be accomplished with Wimba live classroom or some other mechanism; it is the time element that is the problem. On measuring quality of courses, we are using a rubric to evaluate each course for certain standard elements. As you can imagine, not all faculty that the Distance Learning Department is entering online classrooms for evaluation. Thoughts, anyone?Faculty development is being accomplished for local faculty through our Teaching/Learning Center. We also have a small library budget to purchase texts on interactive online teaching/learning. I ordered the Jossey-Bass series for our college:
target=blank>http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-306212.html
I am concerned about the teaching/learning needs of the many adjunct faculty that we have. How do we provide for their training needs? Does anyone have recommendations for this?
Other issues confronting us are the use of publisher-made content versus instructor-made content in the course shells, and the use of interactive/open e-textbooks. The June 2010 issue of Campus Technology included a news article on interactive e-textbooks being used at Florida State University (Jacksonville) with the following link:
target=blank>http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/04/27/florida-state-college-publishes-digital-textbooks.aspx
target=blank>http://www.kctcs.edu/KCTCS_Online.aspx
Major issues in working with this system include the following: obtaining qualified faculty, measuring quality in course development, and continuing faculty development with interactive online learning and technological advances. There is a central database for faculty applications at the state level. We also have a local database. It is difficult to assess quality faculty when a face-to-face interview and teaching demonstration is not done. This could be accomplished with Wimba live classroom or some other mechanism; it is the time element that is the problem. On measuring quality of courses, we are using a rubric to evaluate each course for certain standard elements. As you can imagine, not all faculty that the Distance Learning Department is entering online classrooms for evaluation. Thoughts, anyone?Faculty development is being accomplished for local faculty through our Teaching/Learning Center. We also have a small library budget to purchase texts on interactive online teaching/learning. I ordered the Jossey-Bass series for our college:
target=blank>http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-306212.html
I am concerned about the teaching/learning needs of the many adjunct faculty that we have. How do we provide for their training needs? Does anyone have recommendations for this?
Other issues confronting us are the use of publisher-made content versus instructor-made content in the course shells, and the use of interactive/open e-textbooks. The June 2010 issue of Campus Technology included a news article on interactive e-textbooks being used at Florida State University (Jacksonville) with the following link:
target=blank>http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/04/27/florida-state-college-publishes-digital-textbooks.aspx
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