Distance Learning
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STUDENT LOANS ARE NOT FORGIVEN IF YOU CLAIM BANKRUPTSY. YOU WILL STILL OWE ON THAT LOAN WHICH WILL ONLY INCREASE YOUR DEBT THE LONGER YOU DON'T PAY IT OFF, AND THEY CAN AND WILL COME AFTER YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE TO GET THE MONEY INCLUDING GOING AFTER YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK!
DIGITAL DIPLOMA MILLS: THE AUTOMATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION
The Military, Industrial, Educational Complex and the New CEO
Net Could Change Education
BOSTON--Without ever taking a seat in a classroom, millions of students around the world will soon be
able
to earn a diploma by taking courses over the Internet, computer industry leaders said.
Virtual University - California state program fosters 'virtual' universities
The concept of distance learning actually has a long history. The business model was pioneered in 1858 by Britain's London University, which established an "External System" through which students around the world could obtain degrees through correspondence courses. London boasts five Nobel laureates among its external graduates, and in 2008 its updated system had 41,000 students around the world. In 1969, the British government ushered in another distance-learning innovation when it chartered a television-based university — the Open University — aimed primarily at employed people who had never acquired a degree. Since then, 1.6 million people have studied at the university, with 250,000 students currently enrolled in the United Kingdom and around the world. In fact, the Open University is the largest producer of law graduates in the U.K., and is among the top three universities for student satisfaction, tied with Oxford.
These creative ventures did not lead to fundamental changes in the general higher-education landscape. But the rise of online learning — now also utilized by London and the Open University, among many other institutions — is likely to be the technological advance that triggers a broad transformation.
The main reason is that online education is growing rapidly in both scale and scope. For the past seven years, online enrollments in the United States have increased much faster than overall university enrollments. According to a survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities by the Babson Survey Research Group, the proportion of students taking at least one online course grew from 10% in 2003 to 25% in 2008. And that figure continues to rise: In the fall semester of 2009, the share of students taking at least one online course was up 21.1% from the previous year and represented 29.3% of total enrollment — an enormous figure when compared to the increase in total post-secondary enrollment, which grew at just 1.2%.
The appeal of online education, and the nature of its threat to traditional universities, are not hard
to
fathom. Online education allows students, such as those working while studying, to learn from their own
homes at times of their choosing. It permits far greater flexibility, so that students do not have to
follow the traditional semester structure and can learn at their own paces. For an increasing number of
today's students, whose K-12 educations and social lives have been built around technology,
computer-based learning is more natural than the traditional "sage on a stage" model. And the
quality of online education improves all the time: Babson reports that two-thirds of college and
university administrators at public institutions now view online instruction as equal to or better than
face-to-face instruction.
nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-coming-higher-ed-revolution
RESOURCES
GLOSSARY OF DISTANCE EDUCATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TERMS
PERIODICAL LITERATURE CITATIONS: ELECTRONIC LEARNING
Mailing List Resources
- Distance Education Mailing Lists discussion list
- International Centre for Distance Learning (ICDL) England
9/2010 The Department announced the Fiscal Year 2008 national student cohort default rate increased
to 7%, up from the FY 2007 rate of 6.7%. This default rate is a snapshot in time, representing
the
cohort of borrowers whose loan repayments came due between October 1, 2007, and September 30, 2008, and who
defaulted before September 30, 2009. Some 3.4 million borrowers entered repayment during this time,
and 238,000 borrowers went into default. They attended 5,860 participating institutions.
(Borrowers
who default after their first two years of repayment are not measured as defaulters in this data.) As a
historical comparison, in FY 1990, nearly one in four borrowers defaulted on their federal loans when rates
set an all-time high of 22.4%. The rate dropped to a record low of 4.5% in FY 2003. Schools with excessive
default rates (of at least 40% in a single year or 25% or greater for three consecutive years) may lose
eligibility from one or more federal student aid programs. This year, five sites are subject to sanctions.
http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/defaultmanagement/cdr.html
(Note: The public can search for individual school default rates at
http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/COHORT/search_cohort.cfm
Steve Eisman blasted the for-profit education industry, likening these companies to the
seamy mortgage brokers who peddled explosive subprime loans over the past two decades. "Until recently,
I
thought that there would never again be an opportunity to be involved with an industry as socially
destructive
and morally bankrupt as the subprime mortgage industry. I was wrong," Eisman said. "The for-profit
education industry has proven equal to the task." (All of Eisman's remarks here come from a copy of
his prepared remarks obtained by Mother Jones.) Much of the
growth,
Eisman explained, was the sector's easy access to federally guaranteed debt through Title IV
student loans. In 2009, he said, for-profit educators raked in almost one-quarter of the $89 billion in
available Title IV loans and grants, despite having only 10 percent of the nation's postsecondary
students. Both push low-income Americans into something they can't afford—in the schools' case,
pricey programs that leave the students heavily in debt; what's more, the degrees they get mean
little
in the real world.
How does this kind of industry even stay in business? That, Eisman asserted, has
much to do with accreditation. There are two main tiers of college accreditation: national
and
regional—the latter being the more valuable. (Big schools like Yale and the University of Michigan are
regionally accredited.) "Subprime Goes to College" Despite being less than 10% of total enrollments,
for-profits now claim nearly 25% of the $89 BILLION of Federal Title IV
student
loans and grant disbursements.
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#k12 online school, #k12 virtual school #College Rankings #Computer Science #Graduate
Schools Education
#Evaluate Distance Learning
More than 100 million college students worldwide, new campuses are being built, and existing campuses are expanding. Universities are competing internationally for resources, faculty, the best students, and education funding.
5/10/14 Exams damage learning, legal advice for colleges and MOOCs. A professor argues that exams stop students thinking critically. He writes: "The pressures on students to obtain the best possible grades have become so intense that they feel forced to resort to ingesting large amounts of information and then, in government-induced bouts of vomiting, otherwise known as national tests, they spew it out. "Groups of students can be found in colleges discussing topics about which they don't have sufficient knowledge to form opinions and so their learning remains shallow. We offer young people so-called 'transferable' skills and then discover they need to be in command of a body of knowledge before they can be either critical or creative."
- Distance Learning thought Not as good as traditional classroom learning
- What do students miss with a virtual education?
[... but then I realized that everyone studies in their rooms now with their own computers and the internet. Considering how hooked I am on electronics and technology, I'm sure I'd be just the same given half a chance. But still, I felt a bit sad for them-facetime at the library was such a big part of college life in those days…]
[ more important than the loss of some of college's more important social components was our potential loss of humanity and ethical fortitude as online education and technically-oriented schools made it easy for students to simply acquire skills. Those skills, though utterly necessary to be competitive in the job market, don't necessarily address the critical thinking, moral fiber, or truly human portions of an education that shapes good citizens as well as top-notch engineers (or mathematicians, or doctors, or whatever).] - Find and evaluate Bad Online Distance Learning Schools - Warnings - Experiences
- Stop Linking To “Top 100 Blogs” Lists whenever you link to a "Top 100 Teacher Blog" list, you are one of the predators. helping these online schools make money. Here's how it works:This is where the predators get paid off. They have passed the prey up the food chain to a larger predator and they get an awesome conversion fee for their trouble. Those fees add up to a pile of money and you helped them do it.
- For Profit PROFESSORS SELL THEIR CONTENT
- Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education history of how this got started & the connections
- Military Industrial Educational Complex - the automation of Higher Education Wrestling the Military-Academic Complex
- HOW TO GET INTO COLLEGE WHO'S YOUR
DADDY?
How to Apply to College and find Scholarship Money - THE EDUCRATS | FINANCIAL LITERACY |
2010 The U.S. Department of Education is also getting into the act with a $650 million fund to boost education innovation. University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation's only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs.
Distance Learning - Online Education - For Profit Higher Ed
IS COLLEGE JUST ANOTHER BUBBLE?
2010 Researchers at Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce predict that 63% of jobs nationally will require more than high school education. Nationally, employers are expected to need 22 million new workers with at least some education beyond high school by 2018, but Georgetown says the country is likely to fall short by 3 million. "If we don't address this need now, millions of jobs could go offshore," Anthony Carnevale, who heads the Center on Education and the Workforce.
Centuries-Old Tradition Lies Behind Diplomas of Today's High School Graduates
Royal
Engraving, a printing company in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The company opened its doors in 1924 as a small
wholesale engraver on Fulton Street in Manhattan, then the city's printing district. Called Tripi
Engraving, it was run by Italian immigrants, who bought the current one-story brick shop on Meserole Avenue
in
Greenpoint in the 1980s. It later changed its name to Royal Engraving, and merged with a former competitor,
Palographia, about seven years ago, said Larry Paladino, who now co-owns the firm. Across the
11,000-square-foot printing floor, past 17 ink-stained engraving presses dating as far back as the 1880s, is
a
modern five-color offset printer, a far cheaper, easier way to print. But offset printers are a “dime a
dozen,” Mr. Paladino said, and they do not print from engravings. Still, engraving diplomas the traditional
way is an expensive job; the Department of Education's contract pays him just under $80,000 a year.
“I'd hate to lose it, to be honest, but there probably is some other way it could be done,” he said.
Using
methods similar to those first developed in the 1400s, the design on the city's diplomas is etched with
acid on a copper plate — the shop sends out for that — which then forms the basis for the pressing. Because
engraving allows for perfect replicas of signatures and precise details, it lends the documents a layer of
security.
Best Online Graduate Degrees and Best Graduate Schools
Video: College Inc (PBS
Frontline) Are for profit schools the
answer? AND MORE!!!
The cash cow of the for-profit education industry is the federal government. Though they enroll 10 percent
of
all post-secondary students, for-profit schools receive almost a quarter of federal financial aid. But
Department of Education figures for 2009 show that 44 percent of the students who defaulted within three
years
of graduation were from for-profit schools, leading to serious questions about one of the key pillars of the
profit degree college movement: that their degrees help students boost their earning power. This is a
subject
of increasing concern to the Obama administration, which, last month, remade the federal student loan
program,
and is now proposing changes that may make it harder for the for-profit colleges to qualify.
Higher Ed Trends
Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti - business development, marketing, and operations brings Apollo and Stanford together for business. Apollo Group, Inc. OWNS University of Phoenix, Apollo Global, Institute for Professional Development, College for Financial Planning and Meritus University. The Company's programs and services are provided in 40 states and the District of Columbia; Puerto Rico; Canada; Latin America; and Europe, as well as online throughout the world (data as of May 31, 2010). In partnership with Stanford University to conduct research as part of the Media X program, which studies the impact of information and technology on society. http://www.cnbc.com/id/39168527
Incoming students, faculty support, job alliances, and data management, Evergreen students, Globalization, Technical and information literacy, Enrollment, retention, and branding, Mobility, Safety and security, Pedagogical centers and innovative campus commons, Evolution of teaching and learning, Collaboration, Strategic plans and technology, Edutainment, Green. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/wp/21st_Century_Top_Trends_POV_0811.pdf
Phoenix U
John Sperling invented Phoenix University and everything about higher ed that could be done online.
Business sells to customer. He is a billionaire 1994 Apollo Group went public. How much do they make? Sky is the limit. 3 - 6 times more expensive than community
college.
Michael
Clifford explains how he was an x pot head, finds jesus, and buys a college, from a guy who never went
to one.
"Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of higher education is booming," PBS Frontline
reports. "Nowhere is this more true than in one of the fastest-growing -- and most controversial --
sectors of the industry: for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students, often
confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully capture billions of federal financial aid
dollars. In College, Inc., correspondent Martin Smith investigates the promise and explosive growth
of the for-profit higher education industry. Through interviews with school executives, government
officials,
admissions counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the tension between the
industry --which says it's helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and
marketable job skills -- and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that
leave
students with a mountain of debt."
Capella University
Capella Education Company a provider of exclusively online post-secondary education through its wholly owned
subsidiary Capella University. The collaboration designs a cohort model specifically for
SAIC's employees enrolled in the online university's master's degree program
focusing on Information Assurance and Security.
Standing Up to 'Accreditation Shopping' July 1, 2010
Critics of for-profit higher education see as a pattern of "accreditation shopping" in which
for-profit entities purchase financially struggling nonprofit colleges, and then hold on to the regional
accreditation that the nonprofit colleges had for years, even as the new owners expand or radically change
the
institutions' missions. One accreditor is saying "not so fast." The Higher Learning Commission
of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools has recently rejected two "change of
control" requests to have accreditation continue with the purchases of nonprofit colleges (Dana
College,
in Nebraska, and Rochester College, in Michigan) by for-profit entities. Further, the accreditor insisted on
a
series of stipulations to approve the continued accreditation of Iowa's Waldorf College -- stipulations
that will effectively keep the near-term focus of the college on its residential, liberal arts mission.
June 16, 2009 For-profit college investors applauded the U.S. Department of Education's announcement
Wednesday of a number of proposed reforms covering higher education, though analysts warn stocks could see
pressure down the line as one issue remains unresolved. The government-proposed reforms cover 13 major
shortcomings in higher education, but the department said it will hold its recommendations on the 14th--a
measure that would penalize schools for graduating students with high debt loads--until later this summer.
Investors were excited to see the government take a more studied approach after industry lobbyists warned
the
proposal could "crush" the for-profit school sector.
The nation's colleges are attracting record numbers of new students as more Hispanics finish high school
and young adults opt to pursue a higher education rather than languish in a weak job market. Newly released
government figures show that freshman enrollment surged 6 percent in 2008 to a record 2.6 million, mostly
due
to rising minority enrollment. That is the highest increase since 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War,
when young adults who attended college could avoid the military draft. The enrollment increases were
clustered
mostly at community colleges, trade schools, and large public universities, which tend to have more open
admissions policies and charge less tuition. Still, the gains in minorities were seen at almost all levels
of
higher education, with white enrollment dipping to 53 percent at community colleges and 62 percent at
four-year colleges. [1]
Graduation Rates and Loans: 7/26/2010 The Education Department issued on June 15 a series of other rules that required the schools to give prospective students their graduation and job placement rates. The schools are often aimed at lower-income or minority students. But the department left the toughest rule for last -- the monitoring of federal loan default rates -- which could lead to a crippling loss of federal funds, and therefore profits. Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted that five percent of programs would lose those funds. "90% of revenues in many for-profit schools come from student loan programs," Duncan told reporters on a conference call, adding that default rates approached 25% .
Inquiry Is Sought Into Practices of For-Profit Colleges 6/22/2010
For-profit colleges have less than 10% of the nation's college students, but get about 25% of all
federal
student-aid disbursements. With for-profit colleges taking in $26.5 billion in federal money last year, up
from $4.6 billion in 2000, government scrutiny is becoming intense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/education/22education.html
The Department of Education on June 16 proposed that for-profit colleges must disclose graduation rates and job-placement rates.
In addition, rules that prohibit recruiter pay being linked to student enrollments would be tightened. Yet
the
most important reform - an effort to lower student debt defaults - has been deferred for now. For-profit
colleges, and the companies that run them, including ITT Educational Services ESI.N , Apollo Group APOL.O
and
Corinthian Colleges COCO.O , now account for almost a quarter of U.S. Title IV loans for higher education.
Their share has more than doubled over the past decade, as total loans extended to institutions increased to
more than $70 billion. Moreover, federal aid makes up three-quarters of revenue, or more, at many
for-profits.
The Obama administration is weighing cutting off loans to programs that leave graduates with debt service
costs greater than 8 percent of expected starting salary. Institutions that may fall afoul of this so-called
"gainful employment" rule could increase quality, lower tuition, accept fewer students who take
out
large amounts of debt, or cut programs. Either way, the impact would sock margins, growth or both.
Apollo's “repayment rate of 44% was higher than most of its for-profit peers, supporting our view that
the
risk to earnings from 'gainful employment' may be lower than expected,” the New York-based analysts
wrote. http://xrl.in/6ccz
Evaluate find the pro's and con's of distance learning school programs, the Digital Diploma, Accreditation and evaluate K-12 and Higher Ed online schools.
A coalition of foundations has put up to half a billion dollars to match federal grants meant to encourage education reform, taking the pressure off schools scrambling to find the matching dollars they need to get the money. They are investing $506 million, a portion of which is for a matching fund for the $650 million federal grant program, called Investing in Innovation.