Altilab2005 - Distance Education Blog

ENROLLING

How do I enroll in a SLCC Online Class?

You enroll for these classes the same as you would any other class at SLCC – in person, or over the internet. All information you provide for class registration is the same for a online course – call number (CRN), course name, credit hours, etc.

Do I have to be admitted to SLCC to take Online Classes?

Yes. You do need to be admitted to SLCC before you are able to register for a Virtual Campus class.

COST

What is the cost of an Online Class?

The tuition cost for online classes is the same as any other class at SLCC. Out-of-state students registering for classes are required to pay out-of-state tuition. A course fee may also apply.

IN-PERSON MEETINGS

Do I have to attend in-person?

Yes and no. Some instructors schedule class meeting; other instructors do not. Attendance at these meetings is valuable in getting questions answered, keeping you focused and on task, and meeting other students where you can form study-groups. Many class meetings are offered via an Internet chat or conference call. For more information, contact the SLCC Online Support Center at 801-957-4406.

TRANFERS

Do online classes transfer?

Yes! There are no designations on your college transcriptions that identify a class as “online”. Our full-time faculty develops these courses and they are just as rigorous as “traditional” on campus courses.

EXAMS

Where and when do I take exams?

Most online courses offer exams online, from the convenience of your home. Review your course syllabus for more information. Some courses and exams may require you to take the exam in-person at the Testing Center. You will have several days in which to take the exam. You will need to present a College One Card ID (801-957-4022) in order to take the exam.
If you live an exceptional distance from a SLCC campus, you can request a proctor for your exams. Proctor testing information is available on our website. The proctor form identifies several professional areas from which you may select a person to proctor your exams. When you identify the individual, you must submit the completed proctor form during the first two weeks of the semester.

DEADLINES

Is there a deadline to complete the course?

Yes! All online courses follow the same schedule as regular on-campus classes. You are expected to complete the course within the semester/term in which you enrolled.

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR CLASS

What materials do I need for my class?

All online classes are internet based. However some classes require additional materials, like books, DVDs, workbook packets or software. To find out if your specific class requires anything additionally, check out the syllabus after you log into the class website. Books, DVDs, workbook packets and software can be purchased from the College Bookstore bookstore.slcc.edu.

TYPES OF CLASSES

What is an EDNET/Lecture Class?

An EDNET/Lecture class is a site to site broadcast over an educational network. It is scheduled each week at a specific time at various locations throughout the state of Utah. Register for the location nearest to you.

What is an Internet/Lecture Class?

This is a class with all coursework on the Internet.

What is an Internet/DVD Class?

This is a class with coursework on the Internet supplemented with watching lectures on DVDs. DVDs are purchased from the college bookstore.

What is an Internet/TEL Class?

The class has coursework on the Internet and is supplemented with watching weekly lectures on a public broadcast television channel, typically Channel 9, UEN-TV.

What is a Class & Internet Class?

This is a class that is held in the classroom with some coursework on the Internet.

Click here for the Distance Education site.

Lilli out on a motorcycle ride

I was admitted to the program on May 5, 2006.  Of the twelve required courses for the ALM in IT degree I took five on campus and seven on-line.

In my experience taking courses on-line was immensely convenient yet very challenging to remain self-motivated.  No one is checking up on you to make sure you are watching the lectures every week.  It would be easy to convince yourself that you can catch-up on the weekend.  The risk you run is in missing a key piece of information to help with your current project you are working on.  It sure is nice when the weather kicks up a snow storm and I can watch my lecture in my pajamas instead of driving the 113 mile round trip to class from New Hampshire.

I will say that the class room experience in the courses I have completed at the Harvard University Extension School were richly rewarding.  The professors are brilliant and attentive. The classrooms have every new gizmo to enrich the experience.  And I’ll admit I just love sitting in the front row.  Although the long drive coupled with night classes is exhausting when you have a full-time job.

Using Linked In for Learning

 I joined Linked In about four years ago and have found it a helpful way of developing my social network in the business world. I have also found it a really valuable learning tool and I am often surprised how under used it is by the managers I work with as a way of increasing their knowledge and skills.

The most obvious learning from Linked In is how it can work as a social networking tool. It is not as “in your face” personal as Facebook and the connections that you generate will be work orientated connections and you are unlikely to be updating with information about professional contacts’ drinking habits!  For people who are nervous about on line communities I think it is a good entry point application.

I have blogged previously about using group forums for questions http://bellthompson.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/the-power-of-learning-in-on-line-communities/.

The Linked In Questions element is worth emphasising. The great thing about Linked In is that you can ask a question to any of the groups you are a member of, you can ask a question just to your own network or you can broadcast a question to the whole of the Linked In membership. It is this variety of options which I think makes Linked In such a valuable tool for learning. If you want to get replies which are more personal in nature then sending a question to your own network will often generate some really insightful comments. You can choose whether you want to send it to all of your connections or just choose the connections you think may be able to contribute some useful information.

The benefits of asking a question to everyone on Linked In will be the range of responses you will get . I find these responses help me to think about the question in a wider manner and can help prevent “silo thinking” that can so easily happen when we get locked into our own little world of reference points. The insights which others may share can challenge the thinking you originally had on the topic. This happened to me when I was asking some questions about customer service with non native speaking customers.

Joining groups in Linked In can also be a good way about learning about current themes within your professional and interest groups. There are thousand of groups and one way of finding relevant groups is to explore the groups that your connections are already members of; this may also help you to find areas in common.

The other areas where Linked In can help individual learning is through the recommended book link. You can sign up for this free application and it means that you can recommend books you are reading to others and can get the insight of others on books you are interested in reading.

I would be interested in hearing from others about how you use Linked In to help  your own learning?

The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.

Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.

“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.

Go to Article

A New Blog Designed to Assist College Students

Two brothers with more than 50 combined years of experience in higher education and counseling have just launched a new blog called College Success Tips.  Given the experience of the authors, we are confident that the blog will be worth frequent visits.

Two New Websites for Counselors and Educators and Parents

During our many years in education, we have been asked countless different questions about college admission.  The most often asked question, by far, has been which colleges an individual student might be admitted by.  In second place are questions about getting into individual colleges, such as “What will I need to do to get into Harvard?”.

Now there is a brand new website…so new that it is not fully completed…to help students, families, and counselors find answers to these questions.

On the College Admission  Profiles site, students can find profiles of incoming freshmen classes at hundreds of colleges and universities and see where they might fit.

Please note that the site is not yet complete so it only has a few hundred college profiles thus far, but many more are coming soon.

Another new site, Free College Info Search, offers students a chance to match themselves to online and traditional schools and colleges.

Tokbox interface

Distance learning can be isolating. At least this is what I hear from students who choose to take on the challenge of an online class.  As an instructor, you can use a variety of tools to connect with your students online and some tools allow features to be a little more personable than others and some are definitely more flexible than others and more accessible. I believe it is a matter of preference.

To connect with students and encourage students to connect with each other, a distance instructor can use TokBox. This is a free service that allows you to embed a video “chatbox” anywhere and send personable messages.  Office hours for an online instructor don’t have to be just plain old text chat or even launching a web conference tool and sit there by yourself for a period of time waiting for someone to “enter the room”.  If you are connected to your personal online messenger, chances are that TokBox can detect that you are online and you can make yourself available for a video chat. Paired with SlideShare, TokBox can serve as a fast way to view a slideshare presentation or document and collaborate without having to install a chat client and using your preferred messaging client: AIM, GTalk, Yahoo or MSN messenger.  For instructors utilizing online photo repositories such as flickr and Picasa, TokBox allows sharing these applications right inside of your personal video web conference call.

Personal TokBox Conference Call

For the technically inclined, TokBox also offers an API (Application Programming Interface) with specific calls and routine references to apply the TokBox video chat into any custom web application.  Certainly the use of TokBox is geared to get quick response and collaboration with video chat and messaging and nothing more. With a limit of 20 users per personal conference call and its document sharing limitations, it is not a web conferencing tool robust enough or comparable to enterprise tools such as Adobe Connect or Elluminate Live.   TokBox catches my attention for instruction and I can see some convenient use of it, can you see the possibilities?

Education

WORLD CONFERENCE ON EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

February 04-08, 2010, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul – Turkey

**Abstract Submissions Due: September 15, 2009 **

The abstracts should be mailed to wces.abstracts@gmail.com

http://www.wces2010.org

TOPICS

The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to; the following major topics as they relate to the Educational Sciences: Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Technology, Educational Administration, Guiding and Counseling, Educational Planning, Measurement and Evaluation in Education, Learning Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Instructional Design, Learning and Teaching, Special Education, Distance Education, Life Long Learning, Mathematic Education, Social Sciences Teaching, Science Education, Language Learning and Teaching, Human Resources in Education, Teacher Training, Pre-school Education, Primary School Education, Secondary School Education, Vocational Education, College and Higher Education, Learner Needs in 21 Century, The Role of Education in the Globalizing World, Human Rights Education, Democracy Education, Innovation and Changing in Education, New Learning Environments, Environmental Education, Professional Development, Nursery Education, Healthy Education, Sport and Physical Education, Multi-cultural Education, Mobile Learning, Technology-Based Learning and etc.

INVITED SPEAKERS

Steven M. Rose, Editor, Educational Technology Research & Development    

Marilyn Campbell, Editor, Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling

Jean Underwood, Editor, Computers & Education

Nick Rusby, Editor, British Journal of Educational Technology              

Jongho Shin, Editor, Asia Pacific Education Review             

Ali E. Sahin, Editor, Eurasian Journal of Educational Research      

Aytekin Isman, Editor, Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology

SUPPORTING JOURNALS

Authors of selected articles are welcomed to submit extended version for publication in regular issues of the following reputed journals, in addition to publication in the conference proceedings. The journals that have been confirmed so far (further replies are expected in following days):

Australian Journal of Guidance and Counseling (Indexed in SSCI)

British Journal of Educational Technology (Indexed in SSCI)

Asia Pacific Education Review (Indexed in SSCI)

Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (Indexed in SSCI)

Computers & Education (Indexed in SSCI)

Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology (Indexed in SSCI)

Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences

Journal of Turkish Science Education

World Journal on Educational Technology

WORKSHOPS

There will be workshops held by the editors of the Supporting Journals. In these workshops information regarding to the vision, scopes, review process, new trends, expectations from authors, etc. will be given of their Journals.

Participators will get the chance to express their opinions and ask questions to the editors. This process is expected to inevitably help building long-lasting relationships between participators and editors.

There will be simultaneous translation from English to Turkish in the workshop sessions. Number of chairs in the workshops is limited therefore it is suggested to sign up on early date.

Workshop programme and application form will be announced in the conference web page in the following days.

VIRTUAL PARTICIPATION

Researchers who are unable to resolve the funding issue concerning the conference expenses will be provided with an alternative approach for participation, namely, Virtual Online Presentation. Those who would like to make their presentations online from their home countries will also be awarded with a certificate and their papers will be considered for publications similar to other participants as if they were present physically. Those who would like to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility will be requested to send their virtual posters or other soft copy materials such as power point presentations to the secretariat. In addition, these participants who would prefer to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility may also contribute to the conference through video conferencing.

DEADLINES & IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Submissions*: September 15, 2009

Authors Notified: September 20, 2009

Full Paper Submissions: November 20, 2009

Authors Notified: December 09, 2009

Early Registration: December 12, 2009

Camera-ready for Elsevier: January 09, 2010

Late Registration: January 09, 2010

Conference Dates: February 03-07, 2010

* After the submission date, the authors of abstracts will be notified in four days.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Due to the large number of papers expected for this conference, the committee only allows an author to present two papers.  The abstracts can be one-page long (200-400 words). The abstract include Problem Statement, Purpose of Study, Methods, Findings and Results, and Conclusions and Recommendations (These elements may need some adaptation in the case of discussion papers: Background, Purpose of Study, Sources of Evidence, Main Argument, and Conclusions). Please note that some elements are optional in abstracts. The abstracts should be mailed to wces.abstracts@gmail.com

PUBLICATION OF THE PAPERS

All proceedings of the conference will be published with D.O.I. number in Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal (ISSN: 1877-0428) by Elsevier Publications. All papers published in Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal are also indexed by Scopus and ScienceDirect.  In addition, Elsevier Publication will be submitted to ERIC and Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index.

All proposals will be subjected to peer-reviews. Selected papers from the conference will be considered for extended version publication in the supporting journals. The selection rate for publication in supporting journals is 22.46% at

WCES2010: For more information please visit the conference official web site: http://www.wces2010.org    

If you would like to more information about WCES2009, please visit WCES 2009 official web site: http://www.wces2009.org

Contact

WCES-2010, Academic World Education & Research Center, Near East University Post Office, P.K. 947, Nicosia, Cyprus, Tel: +9 03922236464 – 393, 110, GSM: +905428566055, Fax: +9 03926802023

E-mail: wces.istanbul@gmail.com

Web:   http://www.wces2010.org

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Kegiatan di bulan Juli dan Agustus 2009, terkhusus program DBE2 Sulawesi Selatan menyambut Hari Ulang Tahun Kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia yang ke-64 patut untuk diabadikan. Betapa tidak, mulai lokakarya keberhasilan dan diseminanasi good practices sampai rencana besar menyelenggarakan video conferens (vicon) menggandeng Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM) dalam rangka Dies Natalis yang ke-48 dapat terwujud atas kerja bareng tim DBE 2 dan UNM.

Video Conferens yang digagas UNM sebagai perguruan tinggi mitra bersama DBE 2 merupakan ajang unjuk gigi dan pertaruhan harga diri program DBE 2 dalam mengaplikasikan Information and Comucation Technology (ICT). Gayungpun bersambut, rencana besar ini dimulai sejak awal bulan Juli dengan melibatkan tim ICT DBE 2 Jakarta dan Makassar bersama tim ICT UNM. Mulai pertemuan awal dan konsultasi rencana aksi dan komunikasi di kedua lembaga tersebut diintensifkan.

Rencana kegiatan atau hari “H” ditetapkan tanggal 1 Agustus 2009 bertepatan peringatan Dies Natalis UNM yang akan melakukan vicon dengan Pusat Sumber Belajar Guru (PSBG) yang dibina oleh DBE 2  Sulawesi Selatan. PSBG yang memenuhi syarat adalah yang memiliki koneksi dengan jaringan internet dan memiliki komitmen akan terselenggaranya pendidikan jarak jauh. Dari 18 PSBG yang ada, ditetapkan 3 PSBG yang memenuhi syarat,yaitu:

PSBG Karya Mandiri Guru, Mamajang Kota Makassar, PSBG Pelita Ilmu, Ma’rang Kabupaten Pangkep, dan PSBG Harapan Baru, Binamu Kabupaten Jeneponto terpilih dan ditetapkan sebagai lokasi vicon bersama UNM. Ketiga PSBG tersebut dianggap dapat menyelenggarakan vicon atas dukungan stakeholders lokal,antara lain: guru,kepala sekolah, pengurus PSBG,pengawas TK/SD dan Kepala UPTD/KCD Pendidikan setempat.

Tim DBE 2 Jakarta yang dikawal oleh W.Gora melakukan road show ke PSBG terpilih didampingi tim ICT DBE 2 Sulawesi Selatan, dibawah komando Mustamin Tewa terus menggeliat dan bekerja ekstra untuk menyiapkan segala infrastruktur yang dibutuhkan untuk menyelenggarakan vicon. Tidak ketinggalan ketua tim ICT UNM, M.Rusli tak henti-hentinya membangun komunikasi dengan tim DBE 2. Kerja bareng pun terlaksana disela-sela kesibukan sebagian tim DBE 2 menyelenggarakan lokakarya keberhasilan dan good practices. Prinsip sekali mendayung, dua atau tiga pulau terlampaui tidak dapat dipungkiri, ternyata terbukti.

Lokakarya DBE yang berlangsung tanggal 27 sampai 28 Juli yang dihadiri tim DBE 2 Jakarta tidak disia-siakan untuk pertemuan dengan tim UNM disela-sela acara. Seluruh persiapan baik software maupun hardware vicon telah diidentifikasi, diujicoba dan selanjutkan dilakukan gladi sepanjang tanggal 27 sampai 31 Juli 2009 (H-1).

Semangat kerja dan pantang menyerah menjadi modal utama tim ditengah-tengah pasang surutnya ujicoba vicon yang terkadang gagal atau ada kendala teknis yang sesegera mungkin harus diatasi, di dalam kondisi sarana  PSBG yang terbatas.
Penulis disaat tim sibuk memprsiapkan diri untuk vicon, tanggal 28 Juli 2009 (H-4) harus meninggalkan Makassar menuju kabupaten Pinrang untuk menyelesaikan tugas akhir sebagai anggota Module Implementation Team (MIT) melakukan Bantuan Profesional Sekolah (BPS) atau Pendampingan Tahap II Paket Matematika yang  juga harus dituntaskan di bulan Juli. Bagaikan buah simalakama, disatu sisi harus stand by di PSBG berkordinasi dengan tim ICT DBE 2, disisi lain harus menyelesaikan Paket Matematika. Sebagai pekerja, penulis dengan tenang tanpa keraguan menuju kabupaten Pinrang, dan mengamanahkan tugas ini dengan tim PSBG Karya Mandiri Guru untuk terus berkordinasi dengan penulis, tim ICT dan UNM via handpone atau email.

Tanggal 31 Juli 2009 (H-1) ketegangan menghantui tim ICT DBE 2 maupun UNM akan keberhasilan penyelenggaraan vicon yang akan dilaksanakan di Auditorium Ammana Gappa, Kampus UNM Gunung Sari. Acara ini akan dihadiri oleh Gubernur Sulawesi Selatan dan selanjutnya berkomunikasi dengan 3 PSBG, Kampus UNM Parepare, dan Kampus UNM Watangpone.

Ujicoba yang dilakukan sempat terganggu dengan conection, sound maupun visualisasi, akan tetapi kerja profesional yang ditunjukkan tim DBE 2 dan UNM dapat mengatasi segala rintangan yang  dihadapi dan kemungkinan terburuk yang akan terjadi dapat diantisipasi.

Penulis yang sementara perjalanan pulang ke Makassar dari kabupaten Pinrang (H-1) seakan ingin  agar cepat sampai di Makassar. Dengan penuh kesabaran dan pengalaman bekerja selama ini, membuat penulis tetap tenang untuk menghadapi hari “H”. Persiapan bahan dialog di vicon telah penulis susun, demikian pula dengan pembicara yang akan mewakili PSBG telah siap. Dalam hati dan pikiran penulis berucap bahwa secercah kepercayaan DBE 2 berikan kepadaku akan kubalas dengan bakti dan bukti walaupun dalam kondisi yang tidak bersahabat saat itu menghantui tim akan kegagalan vicon khususnya di PSBG Karya Mandiri Guru-Mamajang. ”Kupertaruhkan harga diri dan nama baik sebagai MTT, saya tak gentar dengan bayangan kegagalan, Ya Allah kuatkan hati dan pikiran hamba-Mu ini,Amin!”, ujar penulis setulus hati.

Alhamdulillah, akhirnya di hari ”H”, 1 Agustus 2009, PSBG Karya Mandiri Guru bersama 2 PSBG saudaranya dapat unjuk gigi melakukan vicon dan bertegur sapa jarak jauh dengan Rektor UNM (Prof.Dr.H. Arismunanadar,M.Pd) serta Gubernur Sulawesi Selatan (H.Syahrul Yasin Limpo,SH,M.Si,MH) yang tentunya disaksikan ribuan pasang mata civitas akademika UNM, tak ketinggalan PC DBE 2 Sulawesi Selatan (David Ehrmann) yang hadir secara langsung di UNM. Suatu kerja bareng yang tak akan pernah dilupakan, dan kado ulang tahun UNM yang ke-48, tempat penulis menimba ilmu selama kurang lebih 7 tahun. Prestasi spektakuler yang belum pernah dilakukan selama ini. Bravo tim DBE 2 dan UNM. Mantap Mentong!. Mari kita sambut kemerdekaan bangsa ini dengan terus berkarya.

Visualisasi video conferens di PSBG Karya Mandiri Guru-Mamajang Kota Makassar

Susana Pertemuan antara tim DBE 2 dan UNM membahas persiapan Video Conferens

Forecasting the future has come in for a fair bit of disbelief recently, hasn’t it? (Hollow laughter greets the future for the weather in the UK, the safety of New Orleans, global economics…)
I’m on holiday but reading about the future. I’m hoping I’ll be more creative with one eye on a sunny sky merging to a hazy Mediterranean horizon.

But I need to force myself into challenges in such a setting! How about this: “anyone who attempts to write about the future should take warning from all the failures of the past” (the great ‘forecaster’, Sir Arthur C. Clarke).

Almost everyone agrees that we are in the midst of one of the fastest and most profound technological revolutions in the history of the recorded world. On the whole I think technology could be one arena where forecasting could be possible. The difficulty is that not everything that can be produced by humans for a purpose IS actually created and if it is, it may not be adopted, at least not within living memory (space elevators?). Conversely, failures of imagination become very comic after later wholesale acceptance (Telephones & “The world has a need for maybe 5 computers…”).

Those of us who are educators in this technological world, tack across the waters picking up the wind where we may, pulling on board those people and things that might contribute to an amazing future for 21st Century learning. My little boat is full of geo-mobile devices as I contemplate my next research journey. What’s in yours?

Gilly Salmon

A new report from the US Department of Education is touting the effectiveness of on-line courses as compared to face-to-face classes.  Note that there’s a significant flaw in the meta-analysis, which appears in the Dept of Ed report (page xvii in the Executive Summary), but not in the “Inside Higher Ed” article: The meta-analysis did not consider failure/retention rates, because too few of the studies controlled for failure rates.  Another meta-analysis that appeared in “Review of Educational Research” a couple years ago found that on-line courses have double the failure rates of face-to-face classes.  If you flunk out twice as many students, yes, you do raise the average performance since you have fewer students left and they’re the ones who scored higher.  Face-to-face classes have the advantage of being a regular constant pressure to stay engaged, to keep showing up.

The grand challenge of on-line learning is how to motivate the students to complete the course without raising costs (e.g., through the teacher spending more time on-line, through production of higher-quality materials, etc.)