Category Archives: Hybrid Learning

Increasing Student Success with Large Course Redesign Strategies: an Overview and Recommendations for NC State

Reviewing the National Center for Academic Transformation’s Pew Program in Course Redesign, the author extracts information and data to support the notion that by redesigning large enrollment courses four key institutional issues can be impacted:

  • Retention Rates
  • Graduation Rates
  • Increased access and student success
  • Reduced costs

Link and File: Partial Credit – The 2015 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/edtechknowledge/files/2015/10/Faculty-Attitudes-on-Technology-2015-1x2qcqt.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”] The most recent survey of faculty attitudes on technology produced for Inside Higher Ed details the 2015 responses to multiple aspects of educational technology use, online learning, and social media effects on academia. The responses come from 2,175 faculty members and 105 academic technology administrators.

Colleges and universities have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on technology they believe will improve student outcomes and simplify administrative tasks. Educational technology companies continue to demolish investment records on a quarterly basis. With all this money raised and spent under the guise of improving postsecondary education, the 2015 Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology suggests that many instructors believe the gains in student learning justify the costs — even if the results are perhaps less significant than desired.

Link: Future Students, Future Revenues [EAB restricted content]

“This brief, based on conversations with over 150 higher education leaders across North America, analyzes the fundamental forces that will shape higher education over the next decade and highlights the strategies and competencies that colleges and universities will need to be successful.”

“Over the past decade, universities were able to grow revenue primarily by growing enrollment and increasing net tuition per student. But demographic and economic changes will make it increasingly difficult for all but a handful of institutions to grow tuition revenue at historic rates. Despite rising access rates, demographic projections suggest that the number of high school graduates will decline over the coming decade, leading to a dramatic drop-off in the overall rate of enrollment growth.”

Key Takeaways:

  •  Nontraditional students will drive enrollment and revenue growth, not traditional student population (18-22 year olds).
  • Need to invest in serving nontraditional students.
  • Online and hybrid education can assist, but strategy should be driven by student needs, not external forces.

“Future Students, Future Revenues — Thriving in a Decade of Demographic Decline.” EAB report. April 13, 2014.

Link: Managing Post-Secondary Online Programs

In this special feature ‘hub’ of articles on the management of post-secondary online programs, you’ll find over 20 categories of topics that cover a wide range of issues and implications for developing online programs in higher education.

Special Feature: “Managing Post-Secondary Online Programs”, EvoLLLution, August 3, 2015.

Link: In Sign of the Times for Teaching, More Colleges Set Up Video-Recording Studios

Meg Bernhard, “In Sign of the Times for Teaching, More Colleges Set Up Video-Recording Studios,” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 31, 2015.

Gardner Campbell, vice provost for learning innovation and student success at Virginia Commonwealth University, says he’s seen an increase in the last five years in what he calls “self-service production facilities” — on-campus studios that require minimal setup and are easy for any faculty member to use. Indeed, those facilities seem to be appearing more and more frequently; Ohio State University’s studio opened just last fall, and one at Dartmouth College, called the “Innovation Studio,” opened in May.

The article examines the increasing efforts on college campuses to provide video production support for online and hybrid course instruction.

File: Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership

University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership, April 2015 and updated in June 2015.

This report is part of a process to identify the range of what will constitute successful online leadership on America’s campuses—not merely what many might be doing now, but those standards, aspirations, and principles essential far into future. The intent is to provide information to help establish the full array of professional skills and services necessary to successfully support online learning, and to guide university leaders, faculty, students, and the public at large to embrace online education as integral to academe.

The Hallmarks of Excellence identify seven areas of concentration in online course and program leadership and development: Advocacy and Leadership Within the University; Entrepreneurial Initiatives; Faculty Support; Student Support; Digital Technology; External Advocacy and Leadership Beyond the University; and Professionalism. Each of these facets includes useful definitions and justifications, providing suggestions for specific implementation strategies, structures, and plans.

UPCEA’s Hallmarks of Excellence have been endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), Quality Matters (QM), and EDUCAUSE.

 

Link: “Flipped classrooms” provide better approach for instruction of students

David Lockett,  “’Flipped classrooms’ provide better approach for instruction of students,” Daily News Journal, April 18, 2015.

Given the flexibility afforded by digital technology, we have a significant opportunity to modify the way we present material to students, such that presentation is strategically designed to increase the efficiency of learning.

This brief article considers the role of MOOCs as “a way to enhance the educational experience itself ” by incorporation into traditional class offerings. The use of MOOC materials, innovative video lectures, and other digital tools to present information allows in-class activity to focus on the promotion of active learning by engaged students.