A personal view of e-learning at the University of British Columbia

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (home of OLT)

It’s now seven years since I resigned as Director of Distance Education and Technology at UBC, and my motto has always been ‘Never look back.’ However, two things came together to bring me back to UBC last week with a ‘formal’ invitation for [...]

The business of higher education

Lederman, D. (2009) The business of higher education Inside Higher Education, December 2

An interview with the authors of a new book:

Knapp, J. and Siegel, D. (2009) The Business of Higher Education Santa Barbara CA: Praeger

The book appears to raise some important issues about cost-effectiveness and what lessons may (or may not) be learned from business. [...]

Research on the the impact of an LMS on students' learning

Lopes, V. (2008) Course Management Systems and Campus-Based Learning North York ON: Seneca College

One of the rare research reports that looks at the use of a learning management system for campus-based teaching, and its impact on students’ learning.

The main finding was that faculty used the LMS mainly for providing course information, and very little for [...]

e-portfolios and skills (competences) assessment

Krämer, J. and Seeler, G. (2009) E-portfolios as tools to assess generic competences in distance learning study courses Elearningpapers, September

This paper by faculty from a German graduate business school. It discusses the need to evaluate students’ performance in online distance education courses. It focuses on the so-called “generic” or “key” competences, which are increasingly in [...]