May. 06, 2010

An Environment of Innovation and Experimentation

Excerpt from Assessing Student Learning in the Knowledge Age: The Jones International University Assessment Model by Joyce A. Scott and Robert W. Fulton:

“Jones International University came into being at a propitious time and organized itself around learning, as the best way to serve its intended student population. JIU established a climate where innovation and experimentation were encouraged, where cutting-edge technologies were turned to the service of instruction, where technical expertise was readily available, where adequate financial resources were invested...

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May. 05, 2010

What’s So Great about Virtual Classrooms?

Earning a living in a post-industrial, knowledge-age society requires lifelong learning, training, and retraining at every level. For the vast majority of workers, interrupting work to go study in a traditional university setting is out of the question.

The virtual university, or cyberschool, is education dispensed from an electronic platform instead of a lecture hall podium. A cyberschool delivers education to people, instead of people to education.

Virtual classroom design innovator Starr Roxanne Hiltz, the Distinguished Professor, Emerita, at the New Jersey Institute of...

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May. 03, 2010

Virtual Campuses Can Bring Education to All

As Americans recognize the importance of a college education to their careers, their quality of life, their economy, and their children’s futures, they are increasingly concerned about universal access to higher education.

In a competitive world economy, the U.S. cannot let people with potential drop out of the educational system. If, indeed, they do, they also drop out of the economic system at ever-more unpalatable costs to society.

The need for universal higher education was made by Thomas L. Friedman in his award-winning book The World is Flat: “Everyone should...

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Apr. 30, 2010

The Rising Cost of a College Degree

Perhaps the most pressing concern regarding higher education is the increasing cost of attending college. Average annual tuition and fees for attending a four-year private university hovered around $19,000 in 1987-1988. In 2007-2008, the tab was over $32,000 annually.

Some institutions with stronger endowments can offer substantial scholarships and financial aid, yet many cannot. Education is one of the few industries in the U.S. that has become less rather than more productive. This is not a minor issue; higher education is the engine for continued creativity, entrepreneurship...

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Apr. 29, 2010

Education by Satellite

The lack of Internet access is a large impediment to much of the developing world’s ability to engage in e-learning.

UNESCO issues an annual report on “Education for All” (EFA) which addresses the aim of universal education globally. In 2008, it noted that, even though over one billion people now have access to the Web, “the Internet remains inaccessible to most children, youth and adults in the countries that are struggling the most to achieve EFA.”

India shows how distance education can help fill the gap that traditional schools can’t fill in developing countries. In 2004,...

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