Why Online Education Is Gaining Momentum?

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Are you wondering if you should go for online education? Not sure about how an online programme would help you? Let’s have a look....

In recent years, online education has gained tremendous momentum and its demand continues to grow in a rapid pace. It is rapidly transforming the way we learn and teach our students around the globe. With the constant advancement of technology, digital tools have made learning easier and accessible for you and me. Although there are several challenges, but online study is taking the right steps to reach its full potential.

Making Education More Effective 

Online education has undoubtedly proved to be more engaging, accessible, affordable and dynamic than we could have imagined. Although, it was initially considered as a threat for traditional higher education, online modes of learning are actually helping to create inquisitive, knowledgeable and skilled individuals who are becoming an asset for the workforce. Moreover, with blended learning approaches, online learning is also modifying traditional classroom education by making it more interesting and engaging. 

Let’s Look at Some Facts 

The number of learners going for online programmes has increased dramatically since 2000, especially in the past few years. With more than 55,271 students pursuing some kind of online course in the academic year 2012-2013, the number has risen by almost 52 per cent in the last 3 years. Moreover, according to a study by the Sloan Consortium, enrolment for online programmes increased by 21 per cent in 2010, as compared to only 2 per cent rise in college enrolment overall. Based on the results of the study, it is expected that around 30 per cent of all higher education students worldwide are now pursuing at least one online programme from a recognised online school.

Another survey conducted by the Educause Center for Applied Research shows that around 60 per cent of undergraduate students learnt better in classes that incorporated online elements. Moreover, 9 per cent of undergraduates claimed that had the best learning experience through classes which were entirely online.

But Why is Online Learning so Popular? 

The truth is there are a number of reasons for this drastic increase in popularity of online education. Read on....

Rising Costs of Higher Education 

For higher education students, one of the most important reasons is the rising cost of college. As tuition fees are increasing in most colleges and universities around the world, more students are opting for online programmes to earn a recognised degree. Earning an online university degree requires much less time and these programmes are much cheaper than traditional degrees.

Offers More Flexibility 

As professionals and elder students cannot invest the time required for traditional courses, many learners are going online to earn a qualification. Online programmes offer you the opportunity to earn a degree while you continue you to work on your full time job without hampering your productivity.

As students can study whenever and however they want, online and hybrid learning methods are getting accepted widely across the world. You can study at your own pace and access the material repeatedly.

Convenience 

Another significant reason for the growing popularity of online courses is that many students refuse to travel too much in order to attend their school or college regularly. As online learning offers you the opportunity to learn from home, the need for travelling is eliminated. Moreover you can save a lot of cash which would be needed for your daily commute.

Using Latest Technology 

Computers, laptops, iPads, tablets, smartphones and reliable internet connections have become cheaper, faster and more effective. Now we can easily access material online and connect and communicate with anyone from around the world. By taking advantage of these technological tools, online school study has made education more accessible and cheap.

Moreover, as most youngsters nowadays spend massive amounts of time online, it only makes sense to make study materials available to them in way they can access and approach it the way they want. You can now easily check your coursework on your tablet or smartphone. The enhanced mobility and accessibility offered by eLearning has significantly contributed to its growing demand.

Due to shifting trends in education, further advancements of technology and the numerous benefits it offers, online learning will keep on growing and making education more accessible and affordable to everyone.

How the Online Education Revolution Is Affecting K-12?

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Flex, Enriched-virtual, Self-blended, Rotational, contrary to your assumptions are not terms used to describe apps or cars or types of virtual gaming. These terms are descriptions of an incipient learning form referred to as hybrid learning or blended learning. In its report published in 2011 the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, abbreviated as iNACOL, indicates the use of blended learning pedagogy is increasing and is being used in some countries more than online learning. Simply put it is growing. 

Contrary to common perception, blended learning and online learning are vastly different as opined by iNACOL. According to it, blended learning happens to be a mode of learning that has room for in class activities of students in a physical classroom while online learning is totally independent of the classroom and requires to physical presence of the student at all. 

To elucidate the position of blended learning, we can think of a curve where there is traditional schools on one extreme and fully online courses on the other. Blended learning falls anywhere in between depending on the particular fusion of online learning and campus based learning being implemented.. You can form a better idea about blended learning and its use in K12 classrooms from the facts and figures below:

As stated by the non-profit think tank Innosight institute more and more K-12 students take part in online learning in one form or the other. The numbers are 45,000 in 2000 to an overwhelming number in excess of four million in 2010. Also the U.S. has witnessed an average annual growth of 30% in K-12 online education from 2001-2011. As things stood in 2012 16 states in the US offered full time online schools to all K-12 students. All states except Tennessee and Delaware offered supplemental online learning to students at one, some or all K-12 grade levels.

This growth of blended learning is not driven by the US alone. Developed countries and urban areas provide the most opportunities for accessing blended and online learning. The regions offering the most access currently are Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Western Europe.

The difference between blended and online learning as measured in terms of methods, location and primary users are:

The methods used in blended learning are some campus instruction and some online instruction while online learning involves online instruction only.. The location is the school or at a school or remote site while that of online learning is at a school or remote site. The primary users of blended learning are students in traditional classrooms and those of online learning are students outside the classroom. 

Coming back to terms like stated before like flex, rotation etc, we will now take a closer look at what they are. In the rotation model the teacher leverages online resources in labs, learning centers, or for homework assignments. It occurs at school and the homework is done at school or off-site. Flex entails learning which primarily occurs online with teacher providing additional instruction or face to face support. It occurs at school and the teacher is on site. In the self-blend model we find students take one or more classes online to enrich learning. It occurs at school or off-site. The enriched-virtual mode is an online whole-school experience that is supplemented by on-site or other instruction and occurs primarily off-site. 

The issue of whether teachers teaching via the blended learning mode require training is one subject to debate. 11% of countries require a special license or credential. 72% of countries with blended and online teachers participate in professional development. 25% of countries require specific training. In the US digital learning is going from strength to strength with 700 plus bills in 2012 were considered in state houses across the country which were related to digital learning and one hundred and fifty two were signed into law. In states like Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Virginia online learning is a criterion for high school graduation.

The 2012 Digital Learning report card issued by digital learning now, measures the effectiveness of online learning programs with the following criteria; student eligibility and access, personalized learning and advancement, content, instruction and choices of quality, assessment and accountability, funding and deliver. The top ranking states were, Utah(92%),Florida(87%), Georgia(83%),Minnesota(83%) and Kansas(81%) and Virginia(81%).

Learning and education is undergoing a major transformational shift and online learning and blended learning are just some of the modes in which learning of the future will be carried out. These developments affect all levels and K-12 is no exception. K-12 learning is as affected and holds as much promise with the incorporation of these elements in its overall form.

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Free 3 Best EdTech Tools for Gamification of Learning

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The hype and buzz surrounding gamification in the field of education is not without justification. It appears to be just what the doctored ordered as far as the dynamics between knowledge and the learners are concerned. Also It is exciting and empowering, so much that many teachers swear by it already.

In the recent past there has been a surge in the number of EdTech tools present. They can be either web based or may come in the form of apps. However a relatively new teacher might wonder which might be the best ones. In this article we cover three of the best tools to achieve specific goals and the best part is that all of them are free. Each of the platforms discussed has its areas of strength and can be combined in order to maximize impact.

1. Socrative 

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The first and potentially the one with most popularity is the game-based classroom platform happens to be Socrative. It is an acclaimed representative of the “audience response systems” breed. It is robust and potent tool offering multitude of options to teachers. Also the most varied and adaptive of all platforms, it has three different highly customizable modes viz. a question based game mode, “space race” or a mode that seeks to combine speed and accuracy and another one called “Exit Ticket” which is best used to take the pulse of a classroom at the end of lessons.

Socrative has support for multiple choice, open response and true/false terms. Importing images to question items, immediate feedback, live results and data analysis without any effort are made possible by it. Its usability remains the same in both web based and mobile app forms. One of the most customizable, user-friendly, and comprehensive free EdTech Tools available, it rivals abilities and functions of expensive EdTech platforms.

2. Kahoot 

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Kahoot is not as multidimensional as Socrative but has an excellent gamification element with music effects and an interface full of color. It is best suited for activities and problems that do not require multiple steps or long calculations like geographical locations, multiplication tables. One can even use youtube videos and images in question items. It also uses a clever point system.

3. FlipQuiz 

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FlipQuiz is the modern version of the traditional game-show style review quizzes. Designed to successfully achieve a limited number of goal, FlipQuiz makes a mark due to the fact that it is excellent at what it does. One can even add mathematical formulas with the use of the LaTex language. All in all FlipQuiz is an excellent platform and tool of necessity for teachers wanting to review materials in their classrooms.

People love games as they are both entertaining and rewarding. Gamification thus becomes a perfect means a teacher can use to exploit his students’ inborn curiosity and motivation while making learning fun, the Holy Grail for educators. The platforms mentioned in the above paras excel when it comes to achieve that goal. Teachers can also use all the platforms interchangeably and keep the flame of their student’ interest burning all the time.

Experiential Learning - The Need of The Hour

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Have you heard of the old Chinese saying “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand”? 

With the increasing rates of the Federal Stafford loan for graduate students and increasing global competition in the job market, pursuing higher education like Postgraduate Diploma in Business has become both more challenging and important. The fact is having a college degree is the basic requirement even for getting the lowest-level jobs. Online education programmes like MOOCs, online postgraduate diploma and other programmes are striving to put back the deteriorating system together. Moreover, various reputed and established organisations like Experience Institute, Enstitute and Watson University are looking forward to develop an all new learning system with personal development and experiential learning.

Need for More Experience 

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, more experience in the current education system is required. Furthermore a post in The Atlantic reports that almost one third of college graduates in Education, Liberal Arts or Social Science regret their choice. But the most popular reason was not the choice of their majors. More than 50 per cent of the students declared that getting more relevant work experience would have been more beneficial for them. Thus it shows the need and demand for incorporating experiential learning or learning from experience into the educational programmes.

What is Experiential Learning?

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Learning from direct experiences beyond the conventional classrooms and developing skills and values forms the basis of experiential learning. It is an academic attitude which involves the process of informing different methods through which teachers decisively engage with students in direct experience with the content in an enhanced learning environment. It also involves focused reflection which results in developing necessary skills, gaining relevant knowledge, clarifying values and improving one’s ability to add value to the community. Experiential learning includes a number of activities such as study abroad, undergraduate research, service learning, internships and other types of work experiences.

It is obvious that not all students can learn effectively in a traditional classroom setting. The students at Experience Institute (Ei) are encouraged to accept 3 apprenticeships/projects while they complete the 5 modules in the curriculum that have been particularly developed for this programme. The one year course provides an affordable graduate experience to its students.

Experiential Learning in Business Education 

In an effort to build better business leaders and managers, business schools and universities are adapting new learning methodologies in order to meet the expectations of the employers and students. Hence, most Fast Track MBA, Accounting and Business Management programmes have effectively included experiential learning into the curriculum due to its increasing importance.

One of the main aspects of business education is applying what you have learnt in real business environments. By teaching in real corporate world context, current MBA, Postgraduate Diploma in Management and other business degree programmes aim to equip the learners with the skills and abilities that will enable them to face the daily challenges and become a successful business leader. Thus, it has been observed that this has lead to enormous enrolment in online postgraduate diploma courses that facilitate them to stay abreast in this highly competitive corporate world.

Scope of Experiential Learning 

Experiential learning aims to make a long term effect on the students by putting them outside the comfort zone and making them to get engaged and reflect on a specific topic or subject matter.

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According to Victor Saad, author of The Leap Year Project: Learning to Risk & Risking to Learn, “Young people need to continue building their confidence and agency. They must learn how to work towards solutions on problems that are not yet clearly defined. This entails learning how to listen, how to empathize with others, and how to use empathy to solve problems in any context from a creative and holistic standpoint.”

He believes that “Society will place a similar value on experiential education as they do now on the traditional degree." Although federal loans presently do not recognise experiential education programmes, but soon things will start changing as different educational institutes are including this approach in their teaching process.

Tools to Prevent You From Having to Throw Your Computer Across Classrooms

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A digital classroom changes the educand and educators life quite significantly. Apart from less stacks of paper, in turn saving a lot of greenery, it also makes keeping track of student work that much easier. Also gone are the days of the physical paper related excuses of not turning up with one’s homework. The taking of notes by students have acquired new forms and lastly but not in any way the least the need emerges of a way to share work between people that doesn’t involve physical paper transfer.

Classrooms with Less Paper

Classrooms with less paper means that you require quick and efficient means to share work other than by physical transportation of the computer or by throwing them around. Students need to hand in their work, teachers need to offer feedback on said work, students need to share their collaborative work, and teachers need to share classroom information and tools of all variety. Luckily, there are tons of different tools out there that can enable you to share nearly any type of file (from .doc/.docx and .ppt to .mov, .mp3/4 , .zip and more!). There’s a lot of info out there on different cloud storage services – which are a great way to share files – but many of these are business focused and not as classroom friendly. We’ve put together a short list of some of our favorite methods of file sharing so that you, your colleagues, and your students can spend more time on the good stuff and less time trying to figure out how to get the information to one another.

Tools to Share Files

Dropbox

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Dropbox is a must have on everyones file sharing toolbox. Its ease of use and simplicity has made it a must have. Offering 2GB of free storage, easy offline access, sending files to dropbox via email and simple sharing. If you are hard pressed for storage or individual file size you will have to pay an amount for a premium account. Or if you are net social you can get your friends to sign up, give them shout outs on social media, give feedback, etc and help you stay free while availing premium features.

Google Drive

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Apart from the fact that it comes from the google stable which gives it a backbone of quality the best part of Google drive is that it is free for up to a whooping 15GB with paid options beyond. It integrates well with other Google products but its drawback is that if you need to share with folks who don’t have Google Drive/Gmail, you’ll run into an issue there.

OneDrive

Basically Microsoft’s answer to Google Drive, with OneDrive you get 7GB of space for free, and it integrates exceptionally well if you’re an MS Office user. If you’re not, it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Apple iCloud

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The cloud storage service offered by Apple iCould gives you 5GB free, and paid options beyond it. It is asy to set up and use even on PC. If your classroom is all Apple-based, this one is a must have.

Box

Box offers 10GB free storage with paid options beyond that, easy sharing of documents and folders, and easy to use regardless of platform or device.

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The 5 Elements of Digital literacy to Focus On

What is Digital Literacy?

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According to Cornell University digital literacy happens to be the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet, while Henry Jenkins as quoted on Wikipedia defines it as the Digital literacy is the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate and create information using a range of digital technologies. It requires one "to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms.”

The New Literacy

Many teachers now recognize digital literacy to be the number four on the list of literacies their students should have or be striving towards acquiring, as is the case. Reading, writing, and math are now followed by digital literacy.

In his dissertation on the topic Doug Belshaw identifies some of the key elements of digital literacy. Following Belshaw, it must be recognized that these elements are contextual, that is, they depend on the personal, social and cultural context within which they develop. While all graduate students will be expected to have core skills, attributes and identities, discipline-specific literacies will build upon these core elements. They provide a foundation on which more subject/discipline-specific and contextual literacies can flourish.

5 Key Elements of Digital Literacy

Doug Belshaw, in his thesis identifies eight key elements of digital literacy five of which we will elaborate here further.

• CULTURAL



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Developing the cultural component of digital literacy means that the student is able to move easily between different digital environments and use learning technologies in a variety of different contexts. For example he knows how to distinguish between using Facebook for my personal and social connections, and using it for my academic course. He or she is am also aware of the norms, values and codes that are specific to the subject at hand and how these might impact on his use of learning technologies.


• COGNITIVE
This is the need to master the ‘how-to’s of specific tools and technologies that are important for my development as a graduate, including those which are subject-specific as well as more general tools that will make the individual involved a more digitally literate person.

CREATIVE

To develop the student’s creative element he has to use digital technologies to create new things which have value to himself and others. Be prepared to take risks and to value randomness and discovery when engaging with digital technologies. Develop an understanding of the processes, procedures and systems that lie behind digital technologies rather than the specific elements of software/hardware involved.

CRITICAL

You need to be a critical user of digital technologies by becoming aware of the power structures and assumptions behind different digital tools and practices. Like, think about your audience and how they might interpret your digital texts in different ways. You also need to develop an understanding of online security, identity and data management in your own literacy practices.

CONSTRUCTIVE

Learn how to take resources and content that already exists and rearrange and recreate it in order to create something new and that adds to and benefits my learning. 

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Is Distance Learning Programme A Panancea for Stressed Working Students?

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According to a Guardian survey, academics with mental health problems hold responsible university work for their illness. 

Heavy workloads, isolation, and lack of support are the main factors causing mental illness, say respondents, who range from PhD students to vice-chancellors. 

Exclusively targeting academic suffering mental illness, the Guardian survey revealed that about two-thirds of above 2,500 respondents think that university task pressure is the direct cause of their illness.Senior lecturers and others between the age group of 55 and 64 think strongly about this linkage.

More than half of academic from the UK and overseas feel a heavy workload has affected their mental health. Among other factors, a lack of support has affected 44% of respondents from the 25-64 years of age group.

Around half of respondents raise concerns about the isolation they feel while undertaking the course, whereas others blame bullying culture, long working hours and job insecurity for their mental problems.

The Guardian survey hoists fresh concerns on the mental conditions of university staff, and their work culture.

According to National Figures in 2012, about one in 500 faculty members (0.2%) disclosed their mental illness to their university. It also discovered a split between different ages and types of UK institution.

 

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Unreasonable demands by management

Feeling of isolation is generally high among PhD student, around 64%, and those between the 18 to 34 years. On the other hand, senior lecturers and those above 45 years blame unreasonable demands from management for their state of mental health.

Rosie Miles, senior lecturer in English at the University of Wolverhampton, says,

"As 21st century academics, the expectations on us are, in effect, impossible. It is simply not possible at any one time to research effectively, teach well, deal with endless administrative demands, put in major grant bids, be permanently available to students, mark (often lots of) work and have some kind of sensible, balanced work-life ratio. Something has to give, and sometimes what can give is an academic's sense of her or his own worth and value."

Distance Learning Diploma Program is a panacea for stressed working students

 

Mental health problems are also quite common among the working students. A number of working professionals, who are enrolled in management programmes, report mental health problems to the universities or at their workplace.

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Online distance learning could prove to be of greater help to such students in fighting off intricate mental illness. They can pursue online management programmes from some of the well-known online business schools.

The best thing about online postgraduate or undergraduate management diploma programmes is that future or current employers consider them equivalent to the regular or traditional degrees and do not differentiate between the degree holders.

So, if you want to stay free from the mental health problems, consider enrolling in online courses for a lucrative career ahead. There are several postgraduate as well as undergraduate diploma programmes being offered by eminent universities, you can choose to enrol in one.

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