Student clubs for distance learners

Kolowich, S. (2010) Student clubs, virtually Inside Higher Education, March 10

An article about student clubs for distance learners at Penn State’s World Campus and the University of Maryland’s University College.

This will come as no surprise to open universities: the UK Open University has had a student association since its inception in 1971, and the Open [...]

One year update on the University of the People

Kolowich, S. (2010) Tuition-free, online education? Try University of the People USA Today February 22

This provides a good update on the progress of the global, tuition free University of the People. So far it has just over 300 students, and is likely to have major problems getting accreditation in the USA (which might say more [...]

More studies on the Kindle as a learning tool

Kolowich, S. (2010) Highlighting e-Readers Inside Higher Education, February 23

Reports are now in from three universities with student feedback on the use of the Kindle for teaching and learning. No real surprises here – the Kindle doesn’t have features that many students need, but these will come, if not from Kindle then from competitors.

And don’t [...]

Growth of online courses in nursing forecast for USA

Kolowich, S. (2010) Online Cure for the Nursing Crisis Inside Higher Education February 2

A report released last month from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching asserted that all working nurses should be required to hold a bachelor’s degree in the field. As a result, a large spike in online degree programs for nurses [...]

Organizational silos and IT inefficiencies

Kolowich, S. (2010) Blasting academic silos Inside Higher Education, January 18

An article criticising ’strong’, independent faculties or departments, in terms of both research and IT efficiencies. The growing importance of shared databases for research comes out clearly in this article.

However, don’t hold your breath – in large research universities, the decentralized model of faculty or [...]