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"Online education is often held out as a way to increase access to higher education, especially for those -- adult students, the academically underprepared, members of some minority groups -- who have historically been underrepresented in college. But that access is meaningful only if it leads somewhere, and if the education students get helps them reach their goals. New data from a long-term study by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College suggest that some of the students most often targeted in online learning's access mission are less likely than their peers to benefit from -- and may in fact be hurt by -- digital as opposed to face-to-face instruction. The study did not, however, account for the quality of the online courses studied, making it difficult to draw from its findings overly sweeping generalizations about the efficacy of online learning."

Interesting article on online learning - completion rates, completers . . .

"Mobile Technologies in the Eyes of Students and Alumni In June 2010, Ball State University released a study showing that of college students owning phones, 49% owned smartphones. An ECAR report released a few weeks ago documented that this number has since risen to 62% -- showing a rapid rise in adoption. A study by the Pearson Foundation found that a quarter of college students owned a tablet as of January 2012, a population that has been growing at 400% yearly."

"This is the 6th annual conference on blended learning sponsored by COHERE (Collaboration for Online Higher Education & Research) and CSSHE (Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education). It will feature Dr. Tony Bates, the well known scholar and commentator on the use of technology in higher education. His latest book is Managing Technology in Higher Education: Strategies for Transforming Teaching and Learning (Jossey-Bass, 2011). In addition to taking an active part in the entire conference and doing the conference wrap-up, Tony will deliver the following keynotes: Meeting the challenge of technology: are we failing as managers? Designing university teaching to meet the needs of 21st century students The conference will also feature a number of concurrent sessions, for which we invite proposals related to one of the following streams: 1. Taking stock of blended learning in higher education: Management, policy, and research issues 2. Case studies of teaching and learning issues related to blended learning"

"A study by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project confirms the idea that young adults-particularly undergraduate and graduate students-are more likely to use the Internet and own tech devices than is the rest of the general population. But nonstudents ages 18 to 24 were more active on social networks than were college students, sending more updates to Facebook and Twitter."

"But a new study urges caution to those who believe that online education is a panacea for educating more community college students. The study finds that students who enrolled in online courses -- controlling for various factors that tend to predict success -- were more likely to fail or drop out of the courses than were those who took the same courses in person. Notably, there was not a gap in completion between those enrolled in hybrid and in-person courses. "

"Millennials, the generation of young Americans born after 1982, may not be the caring, socially conscious environmentalists some have portrayed them to be, according to a study described in the new issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology."

Analytics in Higher Education: Benefits, Barriers, Progress, and Recommendations The objectives of this research were to assess the current state of analytics in higher education, outline the challenges and barriers to using analytics, and develop a maturity index to provide a common means of assessing progress in analytics.

VALUE Rubric Reliability Study

assessment resources

"Open-Access Courses: How They Compare For millions of students worldwide, free, open courseware provides a window, if not a front-row seat, to top university classes. The formats are as varied as the people who tune in. Some consist mainly of lectures recorded on iTunes, while other courses seek to replicate a classroom experience by offering study groups, computer-graded tests, and weekly assignments. And while you might get a badge or certificate showing you mastered the material, you generally won't get direct interaction with the professor, who may have recorded the lectures a few years ago. Here is a look at five introductory economics classes: four through open courseware and one in a traditional classroom. "

"The result? "We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same-that students in the hybrid format pay no 'price' for this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy," the report concluded."

Some studies reveal deep doubts among students and faculty that distance learning ever can have the degree of interaction in a non-distance environment. Horn (1994) and Hirumi and Bermudez (1996) are among those who find that, with proper instructional design, distance courses actually can be more interactive than traditional ones, providing more personal and timely feedback to meet students' needs than is possible in large, face-to-face courses.

"Author Nancy Foasberg, looks into the use of E-Readers on a college campus. This article was published in the September 2011 issue of Information Technology and Libraries. To learn whether e-book readers have become widely popular among college students, this study surveys students at one large, urban, four-year public college. The survey asked whether the students owned e-book readers and if so, how often they used them and for what purposes. Thus far, uptake is slow; a very small proportion of students use e-readers. These students use them primarily for leisure reading and continue to rely on print for much of their reading. Students reported that price is the greatest barrier to e-reader adoption and had little interest in borrowing e-reader compatible e-books from the library. "

Quizlet looks like a very powerful study aid for students, especially those needing to "hear" the words, as there's a voice option.

"Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses."