School Leaders Lead Collaboratively

There are huge advantages for school leaders to lead collaboratively, today. It is the only way to empower followers to not only be part of the process of moving forward, but it offers a possibility of hearing thoughts and ideas that might not necessarily arise from a gathering of a few—of the suggestions of one. The key is to get many interested and vested in the process. In that way, more will feel what they say and think is important and that they can positively help by sharing what they know. Continue reading “School Leaders Lead Collaboratively”

Changing Learning Environment Perceptions

There has to be a change of perception, as to what a learning environment needs to look like, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that the physical appearance of the classroom needs to change. This is more about modifying the traditional classroom mindset into something that more closely works for educators, students, with the many, varied tools of today—and future.

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What Is A Modern Classroom?

I could simply start out and end with the statement that no one really knows what a modern classroom is because we haven’t really seen one, yet. But that would be a bit over the top, and possibly a bit negative as well. It might also be a disappointment for those, who think they know. It is true, though most classrooms, today, are still structured as they were in the last century. Continue reading “What Is A Modern Classroom?”

Succeed in Online Learning with Simple Guidelines

You can succeed in learning online, but you need to start by following these guidelines

Globalization has made an enormous difference to the way we live and work, and I don’t just mean the impact of petrol prices on our driving habits. Communicating with someone on the other side of the world is just as easy as communicating with someone next door. People change jobs more often than before, and jobs change just as frequently. And all these changes underscore the importance of education in this globalized, competitive, technology-driven, knowledge-based economy where skilled jobs in plumbing, manufacturing, and electrical- are short-staffed. Continue reading “Succeed in Online Learning with Simple Guidelines”

Is Distance Learning Right For You?

Because I have the experience of being a Dean of an online Texas university, I’m accustomed to dealing with the spectrum of issues related to online students, online professors, online courses, and their various interactions. For online students, this website provides help for students who are unsure about their online school choice or the important questions they need to answer before they can make that decision.  There are between 1,200 and 1,600 online universities that provide online degree programs.  Online students must be able to distinguish between “diploma mills” and institutions that provide accredited, quality online degree programs.  In addition to helping students find the right online university, I will also share some personal observations and best practice information about how to maximize your online learning experience.

Online learning is growing rapidly for three basic reasons.  First, it costs much less to obtain your degree from an online university than a traditional “brick and mortar” university.  The online schools do not have to pay for all those classrooms and other buildings, in addition to tenured professors who are often more interested in publishing research than teaching students. Continue reading “Is Distance Learning Right For You?”

Academic Qualifications for an Online Professor?

We are going to continuously add additional ideas about what we believe are the keys to online teaching effectiveness, but we will begin with just five categories and will go from there.  As the Dean of an online university, these are the five most important “keys to online teaching success” I can offer based on the many hundreds of course evaluation surveys I’ve read and conversations I have had with online students.  Please feel free to suggest additional teaching effectiveness tips that we should add to this resource. Continue reading “Academic Qualifications for an Online Professor?”

Re-Focusing Corporate Training

These days there are tremendous pressures to reduce costs.  Training budgets are one of the first to get slashed.  After all, the training is very expensive.  Often times the cost of trainers are just the tip of the iceberg compared with the travel costs and productivity lost due to time off from work to attend training sessions.

In addition to the cost issue, there is concern about the quality of corporate learning.  Accenture, one of the world’s largest and most respected consulting firms, has been researching the characteristics and business practices that contribute to and detract from high performance.  Accenture’s research indicates most senior executives now view people and workforce-related issues as a critical competitive differentiator in defining high-performance companies.  Unfortunately, Accenture’s 2006 survey found “…a very small percentage of executives, including those leading the HR and learning functions, said they were very satisfied with the support those functions provided to not only the organization at large but to what executives described as their company’s most critical workforces.”  Accenture recommends corporate HR and learning functions enable and facilitate people’s development as well as understand where the learning gaps and shortfalls really are. Continue reading “Re-Focusing Corporate Training”

Community College: A Wonderful Way to Begin College

A community college is a two-year college operated by a city, county, or state which offers diplomas, certificates, and/or associate-level degrees. Community colleges often offer in excess of 50 different degree programs, some designed to facilitate transfer to four-year programs and others leading to careers immediately after completion. Continue reading “Community College: A Wonderful Way to Begin College”

Who is Studying Online?

Yoni Ryan, Director of the Learning and Teaching Centre at the Australian Catholic University who reports having conducted extensive research into online learning, says she knows many IT undergraduates who have a preference for online study. She believes it is because they were a bit “geekish” in high school and failed to develop the social skills that most of these students are pursuing degree programs online rather than are a traditional classroom setting.

I have not conducted any specific research that could refute Yoni’s claims, but these are certainly not consistent with my experience. While teaching online, I have hosted many virtual meetings with online students and have not found them lacking in communication skills or unwilling to form relationships. Continue reading “Who is Studying Online?”

Online Colleges: Technology Meets Education

You see advertisements for them every day: “Get your online bachelor’s degree at your convenience and get a better job.” And in fact, if done right, an online university can provide you just the education you need, without having to significantly alter your life to make room for a class schedule. This is because you can take classes online at your convenience, at night, or whenever you can schedule some free time. This makes it much easier to hold down a full-time job, take care of your children, or any other number of things you would have to juggle if you were to go back to school full time on a traditional campus. Continue reading “Online Colleges: Technology Meets Education”

Plagiarism-Detection Software & Online Classes

In their efforts to deter plagiarism, many universities are using plagiarism-detection software. To be more precise, however, the most popular software products like Turnitin and SafeAssignment compare students’ submissions to databases composed of journal articles, news reports, and student research papers to identify “matches.” These matches indicate reasons for additional investigation by professors, but do not prove that acts of plagiarism have occurred. Continue reading “Plagiarism-Detection Software & Online Classes”

Online Cheating: a Big Problem?

Before searching for cost-effective ways to comply with the new law, the question must be asked, “Do we really have a problem so serious a new law was required?” Is cheating associated with online exams currently such a serious problem? One person who thinks the new law is not needed is the Executive Director of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), Michael Lambert: “There are lawmakers who do not believe that you can really learn from online classes…The law presumes people cheat and that people aren’t honest. It’s always been a question raised by people who do not understand how we teach.” The new law does seem to question the integrity of online education and implies cheating is a more serious problem at online versus traditional schools. Continue reading “Online Cheating: a Big Problem?”

Taxing Online Education

It is not yet law, but the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance issued an opinion earlier this year distance education courses are subject to state sales tax. Some states already impose a sales tax on educational software. The New York opinion discounted the value of the faculty interaction aspect of the educational service provided by a certain distance education provider by the name of SkillSoft. Even though students can only access the learning resources provided by SkillSoft online this opinion in New York states, “constitutes a transfer of possession of the software because the customer gains constructive possession of the software and gains the right to use, or control or direct the use of the software.” So just by having access to educational software, even though such access is part of an educational service that includes mentoring/teaching by an educator, the State of New York believes students should pay sales tax for this distance learning experience. Continue reading “Taxing Online Education”

Top Online Colleges Allow You To Advance Your Career

Online universities and colleges have revolutionized distance learning, providing greater convenience, and opening new doors for a lot of people who want to increase their career potential. If you are interested in getting a degree online, there are a number of things you should consider.

The first thing you have to make sure of is if online education is right for you. Enrolling in an online university or college is ideal for working people or stay-at-home parents. If your other priorities leave you no opportunity to make it to scheduled classes, taking courses online is the best way to go, provided you have a good amount of self-discipline when it comes to time management. Online education is really for people who do very well with minimum supervision. It can also provide that second chance at further education for older adults who may not feel too comfortable attending classes with people who are a lot younger. Continue reading “Top Online Colleges Allow You To Advance Your Career”