By Joshua Kim of the blog BlogU, part of Inside Higher Ed, March 29, 2010. Kim reflects on the more successful online learning experiences that he's taken part in, and points to three attributes that made these experiences successful. The comments section also provides some interesting links.
By Ryan Brown in the Community Colleges section of The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18 2011. The article reports on a recent CCRC study of 51,000 community college students in Washington State between 2004 and 2009. In 2010, CCRC released a similar study looking at online learning in the Virginia community college system. Reasons for this gap are surmised to be "technical difficulties, a lack of structure, and isolation."
By Alison Byerly in Inside Higher Ed, October 29 2012. Essay compares MOOCs to traditional education exchanges, looking at the role of "teachers" and "students" in each; also considering the difference in how "course "is defined in a MOOC vs. a traditional class. Byerly's point is that traditional experiences provide an agreement between teacher and student that the teacher's reach goes beyond the classroom (or screen) and that teachers model pedagogic behaviors, as well as providing academic advice, writing references, providing access to support, etc. This holds true whether a f2f lecture or online. The MOOC model is more like a broadcast, where such supports *can* be included but, as a rule, are not.
The UK newspaper The Guardian hosts this online teacher network, which includes articles (top page) as well as a resource database accessed through this page. You can filter by subject, grade level and even creator type (e.g. Guardian, teachers or partners). While there is a decidedly UK slant, there might be some neat teaching ideas here.
Scientists have discovered proof that the evolution of intelligence and larger brain sizes can be driven by cooperation and teamwork, shedding new light on the origins of what it means to be human. The study appears online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and was led by scientists at Trinity College Dublin: PhD student, Luke McNally and Assistant Professor Dr Andrew Jackson at the School of Natural Sciences in collaboration with Dr Sam Brown of the University of Edinburgh.
Part of the University of Georgia's College of Education Initiative on Innovation in Teaching and Technology (ITT), this page links to presentations in the Innovation 20/20 series. Each topic is a 20 minute presentation on a specific innovation, followed by a 20 minute discussion period. Topics range from more reflective teaching (e.g. Using Metaphor to Explore Teaching and Learning) to using specific tools or strategies (Designing and Implementing an Undergraduate Blogging Community in EDIT 2000 or Motivating Students with Google Tools and More). Navigation on this page also points users to Innovation Resources, Innovation News, and the Discovery Series (another set of online videos).
Part of UD's Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, this program offers workshops at the K-12 or post-secondary level for how instructors can integrate problem-based learning into their own classrooms. The PBL Clearinghouse, a "peer-reviewed online resource" collects PBL problems and articles. Additionally, the site offers resources including sample syllabi and projects.
From the blog Connectivism by George Siemens, December 14 2011. Siemens argues the importance of artifacts to help students make sense of their experiences in MOOCs and other online learning experiences.
From this librarian's perspective, GSCC has proven the richness of an e-community's artifact collection. We are thinking about how to integrate the artifacts even further into the experience in GSCC 2.0.
From the website Research and Documentation Online, 5th Edition published by Bedford/St. Martin's. Outlines the various rules for formatting the paper and preparing the list of works cited.
By Benjamin Wardhaugh in Loci: Convergence, the online publication of the Mathematical Sciences Digital Library, Aug 2012. This article (with photographs) looks at two geometry "copybooks" created in the 1700s. The author provides detailed analysis of the math that each student is doing, as well as some biographical information about the students.
Posted to the White House website (whitehouse.gov), unsigned and undated. On October 5 2010, Dr. Jill Biden will chair a White House Summit on Community Colleges, highlighting "the critical role that community colleges play in developing America's workforce and reaching our educational goals." There is both an online forum (see tag whitehouse_cc) and an opportunity to submit videos. The event will be webcast, as well.