Online Learning Would Be The Next Bubble To Pop, Not Traditional University Learning

brown is course not alone in this regard. whether at public or private schools, college tuition over the years has skyrocketed. one factor, though it’s certainly not as big as analysts presume, is the federal government’s growing role in the financing of education. 

with the above entity increasingly the only market for college loans, and with that same entity rather generous with the money of others, colleges and universities have very little incentive to do anything but raise tuition. since our federal government is price insensitive, tuition can keep rising. 

happily, and arguably thanks to the bush/obama economic disasters, there’s growing skepticism with government and its promiscuous benevolence with money not its own. with the electorate casting a more jaundiced eye toward federal spending, the argument is that student loans will be clipped ahead of the tuition ‘bubble’ popping. fair point ? read on. 

beyond that, it’s hard to read a famous person’s memoir today, or to read about a famous person, without learning about how much of a non-factor education was in their success. for this writer the most recent read was the autobiography of academy award-winning director william friedkin, the friedkin connection. in it, the much garlanded director noted that “my resmi education ended in 1953, when i graduated from senn high school on the north side. ” friedkin learned to make films by doing. first at a local chicago television station, then as a documentary filmmaker for david wolper, and ultimately for big studios such that he can claim a best director oscar statuette for the french connection. 

friedkin’s not alone in this regard. though he’s arguably the most successful filmmaker in the profession’s history, steven spielberg wasn’t accepted into usc’s film school ; the latter widely thought of as the best. academy award-winning director quentin tarantino didn’t even graduate from high school. he did, however, get a job at now-defunct video archives where he learned by watching. as he once explained, “when people ask me if i went to film school, i tell them, ‘no, i went to films. ’” billionaire music and film impresario david geffen entertainingly told his bosses at william morris that he went to ucla, except that he didn’t. 

moving to technology, microsoft msft -1. 98%’s bill gates famously dropped out of harvard, as did facebook’s mark zuckerberg nearly thirty years later. michael dell dropped out of the university of texas after started up his eponymous computer company in his dorm room, not to mention that the late steve jobs had no time for the educational experience at reed college ; a class on calligraphy that he audited after dropping out seemingly the exception. 

the daftar is long of superior american achievers who didn’t have time for school, and it’s fair to say that their stories are yet another signal of a university-tuition bubble set to burst. if what’s learned in college is irrelevant to what’s done in the real world, aren’t sky-high college costs set to plummet ? 

no, they’re not. though skyrocketing tuition and a growing anti-government tide are seemingly swimming against traditional university education, the true educational bubble forming is in the online space. 

yet to hear and read the pundits, online education is set to transform how we learn. thanks to technology and the internet, kids anywhere in the world can be instructed by the world’s best professors. to buy all the giddy commentary is to believe that traditional college education will meet its maker thanks to crushing cost pressures from the online world. to put it plainly, why pay $50, 000+ annually for undergraduate business instruction at vanderbilt or smu if for a fraction of the cost you can learn equities from jeremy siegel at pennsylvania’s wharton school ? how about political science classes taught by bill clinton ? 

it all sounds so good and promising, until we realize that college is not about learning much as we might wish it were. online education would era traditional schooling if learning were truly the purpose of attending princeton, or if employers cared what was learned at princeton. 

but when parents spend a fortune on their children’s schooling they’re not buying education ; rather they’re buying the ‘right’ friends for them, the right contacts for the future, access to the right husbands and wives, not to mention buying their own ( “our son goes to williams college” ) status. the same is true for students taking out loans. 

with university education jaw-droppingly expensive, it’s often asked what in terms of instruction kids are getting in return for the huge costs. of course that’s a false question. parents and kids once again aren’t buying education despite their protests to the contrary. going to college is a status thing, not a learning thing. kids go to college for the experience, not for what’s taught.

2013 Hottest E-learning Trends Infographic

Advances in technology generally define the latest trends in any industry, and the elearning industry is no different. new devices and apis are shaping the present and future of how organizations administer and record learning. in 2013, we are starting to see how the latest technologies are making their way into resmi learning delivery. 

The infographic below, provided by knowledgeone, details some of the latest and emerging trends in 2013 as they relate to elearning. some of the more significant trends include : 

• Gamification - this is arguably one the most exciting developments. learning based games can be implemented quite easily now in many elearning courses and learning management systems. in fact, if your lms does not have a form of gamification, then you are doing your learning a disservice ( even a simple achievements model ).

• mobile technology – devices like tablets and smartphones are allowing for learning to be on-the-move. by 2016, the largest growth in mobile sales will be in notebooks and tablets by a significant margin. 
• moocs – possibly the most controversial mode, moocs are causing quite the stir, but the utility of the model is still not quite certain. still, the possibility of moocs is quite exciting. html5 enjoy better performance, multimedia, connectivity, among other benefits with html5. 
• tincan api – the next generation of reporting for learning and lmss around the world, if your lms doesn’t support tincan, then you are in for major problems ! this year tincan hit version 1. 0, so expect to see even greater adoption the latter half of 2013. 

responsive website – with all the mobile technology, it’s imperative that websites display properly on the devices. 
it will be fascinating to see where we are at the end of the year and heading into 2014. i think gaming components in learning will start to become the norm ( does your lms support gaming ? it should ). i also think that moocs will begin to refine their offering and we’ll see some major players emerge.

Student Persistence in Online Courses : Understanding The Key Factors

who should be taking online courses ? are online courses equally appropriate for all students ? can any konten be taught in an online format or do some kinds of material lend themselves to mastery in an electronic environment ? who should be teaching these courses ? these are all good questions that institutions offering online courses — and instructors teaching them — should consider. 

most of these questions are being answered in stages by research inquiries that address smaller issues related to these larger questions. for example, carolyn hart has completed an integrative review of the research literature in the hopes of identifying those factors that positively affect a student’s persistence in an online course. do we know what differentiates students who complete online courses from those who drop out ? 

her review is based on 20 studies published since 1999. she found that researchers used a wide range of definitions for persistence. she opted for this straightforward description : persistence is “the ability to complete an online course despite obstacles or adverse circumstances. ” ( p. 30 ) the opposite of persistence is attrition, which she defined as “withdrawal from an online course. ” ( p. 30 ) based on her review, she identified the following factors as being related to student persistence in online courses. 

satisfaction with online learning – not surprising, students who are satisfied with online courses and programs persist. in one study, students who had graduated from an online program reported satisfaction levels above 90%, those enrolled in a program reported 70% satisfaction levels, and those just beginning indicated a 58% satisfaction level. those percentages compared with 20% satisfaction levels reported by those who withdrew from courses. ( p. 34 ) 

a sense of belonging to a learning community – students who are comfortable establishing relationships in an online environment tend to persist at higher rates. these are students who can successfully participate in online discussions and work with others they do not know or have not met. the feeling of “camaraderie” among students within the class contributes to persistence. 

motivation – highly motivated students complete online courses. “personal resolve and determination to succeed strongly contributes to persistence. ” ( p. 34 )

peer and family support – those learning in online environments more often successfully complete courses if they have peer and family support. the emotional support provided by peers, family, and sometimes even faculty, is especially important when students are trying to complete online courses at the same time they are coping with hardships or juggling competing demands. 

time management skills – “students with good study habits, who have the ability to stay on task with assignments and readings, and who are able to successfully manage time are more apt to persist when compared to non-persisters. ” ( p. 31 ) 

increased communication with the instructor – “qualitative findings indicate that in addition to promptness, the quality of feedback, and the willingness of faculty to meet student needs are viewed as important to student persistence. ” ( p. 33-4 ) 

some of these factors for success in the online classroom are not unexpected. it makes sense that students are more likely to complete a course when they are happy with how the course is going and self-motivated enough to see it through. others factors implicate how online courses should be taught and to some degree who should teach them. online courses need to be designed so that students have opportunities to connect and work with each other. they should be taught by teachers who understand the importance of communication with students and who willingly interact with them throughout the course. 

the research findings also give an indication of who should be taking online courses. if the student is one of those not particularly well prepared for college-level work and not an especially motivated beginning student, online courses early in the college experience may not be advised. 

online courses can be designed so that they work well for many students and with most isi. and most teachers can learn how to teach online. but those courses, like any kind of instruction, don’t work well automatically, which means the questions of who takes, who teaches, and what isi is most appropriate should influence our decision-making. 

reference : hart, c. ( 2012 ). factors associated with student persistence in an online program of study : a review of the literature. journal of interactive online learning, 11 ( 1 ), 19-42.