Online education expands in the Republic of the Philippines.

This article is from the Iloilo Sun Star. The Department of Education (DepEd) will introduce an online teaching wherein students will listen or download lectures and reading materials for particular subjects as well as take examinations as part of the curriculum next year. DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus said the program and the computers will be set up by the Xing Hua University, which is the best in distance learning program worldwide.

"Our children cannot afford to wait any longer. We need to provide immediate solutions that can be felt not only by a few but by all Filipino children" Lapus stressed, noting that “this can only be done with the use of technology.” The online education project aims to address the need for the Philippine education system to catch up with the demands of the times to compete globally and respond to the challenge of basic education. Under the program, students will listen or download lectures and reading materials for particular subjects as well as take examinations as part of the curriculum. To read the rest of this article click here.

Dutchess Community College announces new partnership with Gatlin Education.

This post comes from Newswire Today. Dutchess Community College has partnered with Gatlin Education Services to provide online career training courses. Online career training courses are in heavy demand. Staying on the cutting edge of this popular educational methodology, Dutchess Community College recently partnered with Gatlin Education Services to provide online career training courses in the fields of healthcare, business, construction technology, Internet, design and technical, networking and CompTIA certification and video game design and development.

Accessible at http://www.gatlineducation.com/dcc, the non-credit courses can help individuals at any stage of their career. Whether the student is interested in switching career paths, obtaining advanced training and certificates, or a first-time job seeker in need of specialized training, DCC and Gatlin provide the necessary resources for workforce, corporate, vocational rehabilitation or individual career training, all from the convenience of your own home or office.Gatlin programs blend various types of instruction in a unique format that provides a logical, comprehensive and effective education. The typical course combines online instructional content, traditional textbook material and instructor-facilitated lessons. Though the courses are self-paced, personal instructors are available to guide every student. This blended learning differentiates DCC and Gatlin courses from ordinary online courses. Each course is open enrollment and takes an average of 90 days to complete.

Web-based instruction is growing in popularity. Gatlin’s enrollments with their partner institutions have increased by 100 percent in the last year. The company has strategic partnerships with more than 600 institutions of higher learning worldwide.“Between juggling a job, a home, a family and a social life, there isn’t always a lot of time left to attend an on-campus class,” said Stephen Gatlin, founder of Fort Worth-based Gatlin Education Services. “Online training offers the convenience of working from your personal computer and at your own pace.

It’s a viable tool right now as evidenced by the growing number of people utilizing it, and is the way of the future.”Established in 1989 by Stephen Gatlin, Gatlin Education Services is the largest provider of Web-based, instructor-supported training to community colleges and universities. Gatlin’s online career training courses are open enrollment, allowing interested students to start their desired training immediately. Gatlin’s courses are designed to provide the skills necessary to acquire professional caliber positions for many in-demand occupations.

For program and course descriptions, go to gatlineducation.com/dcc. For enrollment information, contact Lynette Patrice at (845) 431-8913 or patrice[.]sunydutchess.edu.

Gates Foundation Gives WebJunction $12.6 Million.

This post comes from the American Libriaries Association. On June 21 as the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., was opening, Ohio-based library cooperative group OCLC announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Library Initiative would give $12.6 million to its online community portal WebJunction. The five-year grant “will help us to sustain the programs that many library professionals are really beginning to depend on,” Bob Murphy of OCLC told American Libraries.

One of the grant’s goals is to ensure WebJunction’s self-sustainability within OCLC by strengthening its revenue-generating activities and creating additional services to assist all types of libraries. “The self-sustaining aspect is important,” Murphy emphasized, “because we want WebJunction to continue on and on, and to be a place that library professionals can count on for their continuing education needs.”

The Gates Foundation will also fund software upgrades that will include new content- and learning-management systems—improvements that WebJunction Executive Director Marilyn Gell Mason said in a prepared statement are part of “the functionality and flexibility that partners and users tell us they need.” Click here to read the rest of this article.

Cameras to watch online test-takers.

This post is from eSchoolNews. New technology to be used by Troy University's eCampus program starting this fall will place cameras inside students' homes to ensure that those taking exams online don't cheat.

The number of students taking courses online is surging, creating a dilemma for educators who want to prevent cheating.

Do you trust students to take an exam on their own computer from home or work, even though it might be easy to sneak a peek at the textbook? Or, do you force them to trek to a proctored test center, detracting from the convenience that drew them to online classes in the first place?

The quandary is one reason many online programs do little testing at all. But new technology that places a camera inside students' homes might be the way of the future--as long as students (not to mention educators and parents) don't find it too creepy.

This fall, Troy University in Alabama is scheduled to begin rolling out the new camera technology for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world. To read the rest of this article click here.

Where and how to find work that matters in the second half of life.

This article comes from Dow Jones Market Watch. Many Americans long to work in the job of their dreams after they retire from their first career. But what do these "encore" jobs look like and how does one find one?

Those are the questions that millions upon millions of preretirees must answer if they ever hope to find work that matters in the second half of their life. Or at least so says Marc Freedman in his new book "Encore."

According to Freedman, the founder of Civic Ventures, all is not yet rosy for those who want to keep working after they retire. Age discrimination still exists, there are not enough flexible jobs in the nonprofit or public sectors, and continuing education and retraining is neither commonplace nor affordable.

That said, the best way to find an "encore" job is to ask some basic questions. Those include:

How would you like to spend the next five or 10 or 20 years?

What community or national or global problems motivate you to act?

How much income do you need to earn?

Do you want to stay in the same field or explore something new?

Do you want to start your own organization or work for an existing one?

Are you willing and able to go back to school or get other training?

Freedman says preretirees must consider whether they want to be a career recycler, career changer or career maker. In addition, he says preretirees should think long and hard about their own motivations and what makes them happy. To read the rest of this article click here.

Californian online education bill zips through state senate.

This post comes from the Santa Maria Times. After unanimous approval by the California Senate, Senate Bill 155 is on its way to the Assembly for a vote that would create an online classroom pilot program for high school students.

No more than 50 schools would be eligible to participate in the program, with courses limited to teachers who are concurrently teaching the same course in a traditional classroom.

“This would allow for a leveling of the playing field,” said state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria. “This allows more opportunities and access to learning for students in rural schools particularly.”

“This bill would help all students, particularly those with special needs,” said Nancy Meddings, Hancock College director of learning resources. “There are students who need to learn at their own pace. This is a good option to the traditional classroom setting." To read the rest of this article click here.

Eduserv to fund research into eLearning in new Virtual Worlds.

Eduserv in the U.K. a not-for-profit IT services group, has announced that its Foundation has awarded grants totalling £333,000 to fund four research projects, each of which involve investigations into the use of virtual worlds in learning and education. The Foundation’s grant programme is designed to drive the effective application of IT in education.

The projects, conducted by Oxford University, Kings College London, London Knowledge Lab and University of Paisley, will investigate how educators can develop effective means of incorporating 3-D virtual worlds into teaching and learning.

Diane Carr, post doctoral research fellow in media and education at the London Knowledge Lab, will use the grant to analyse the effectiveness and appropriateness of learning in online worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. Courses will be taught in Second Life and the outcomes assessed.

Daniel Livingstone, lecturer at the University of Paisley’s school of computing, will research and develop pedagogical theories relevant to multi-user 3-D virtual worlds and develop Sloodle (an open source project integrating Second Life and Moodle) to provide the tools required for the support and management of student’s learning.

At Kings College London, Prof. Richard Beacham will also explore learning in Second Life by developing replica models of 19 European theatres from different historical periods and investigating how they can be used in practical teaching situations.

Dr. Kenneth Michael Kahn, senior researcher at Oxford University’s Learning Technologies Group, will focus his research - ‘Modelling4All’ - on developing ways in which creating computer models for use in learning and research no longer has to be limited to those with extensive programming skills.

Andy Powell, head of development at Eduserv Foundation, comments: “It is clear from the recent Eduserv Foundation Symposium, "Virtual worlds, real learning?", that there is a significant amount of interest within the education community in the use of virtual worlds. By funding this research, we are helping to evaluate the potential of online learning and deliver a better understanding of how we can use such developments for education."

Established in July 2003, the Eduserv Foundation develops and supports programmes that drive the effective application of ICT in education. These schemes include research grants, assistive technology licences, tutor guides for vocational education and information literacy initiatives.

The Foundation delivers its mission with a mix of external grants and internal projects through:

*A programme of groundbreaking research> Promotion of best-practices within the community.

*Development of UK and international interoperability standards.

*Development of demonstrator and prototype services and open source software toolkits.

Setting Learning Free.

This article comes from Tech News World. In the late 1990s, when everybody wanted to take advantage of the moneymaking opportunities offered by the Internet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided that it too wanted a slice of the action. MIT was, and still is, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Couldn't it use some of the intellectual property it was creating on its campus to generate some additional revenue?

A committee of faculty members looked at the issue but decided, after careful consideration, that the Internet didn't offer much of an opportunity to make money, after all. Why not, the committee suggested, focus instead on the university's core mission: "to advance education and serve the world"?

That refocus led MIT to a radical new proposition. In the words of Anne Margulies, now executive director of MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), "They decided that the best way the Internet could be used to fulfill that mission would be to give the materials away." To read the rest of this article click here.

Report sees online schools as models for reform.

This article is from eSchool News.The growing popularity and success of online learning is an important but "largely unnoticed" trend that reform-minded educators and policy makers could use to much greater advantage as they seek to improve public education in general, says a new report from Education Sector, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

Titled "Laboratories of Reform: Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education," the report urges reformers to recognize that long-sought improvements in teaching and learning already are being applied successfully in online education. To read the rest of this article click here.

A Library Makes Its Debut, in Second Life.

This article comes from the Chronicle's Wired Campus Blog. Santa Clara University's new library building won't be completed until the autumn of 2008. But people on the campus can experience what it might be like inside the building, and offer advice to its designers, by exploring a three-dimensional model of the library in the online virtual world Second Life.

A model of the library was created by the New Media Consortium, a higher-education-technology group. "Santa Clara decided to let people use the virtual interior before the inside was actually built," said Larry Johnson, the consortium's chief executive, to a gathering of college-technology leaders today at the group's annual conference, in Indianapolis.
About 400 people are attending the four-day event, which ends Saturday. Mr. Johnson also showed slides of the virtual library.

Online communities transform teacher development.

This post is from eSchoolNews. Professional development is central to the effective use of technology, but it often conjures up images of inconvenient and time-consuming meetings and workshops. Now, a new crop of online, "anytime, anywhere" resources is changing the way schools approach staff development--and changing how educators view the concept, too.

These new online professional "learning communities" allow teachers to network, ask questions, and share ideas with colleagues on their own time--something teachers have precious little opportunity to do while at school. They also give educators on-demand access to videos, tutorials, and other how-to advice as needed, resulting in the kind of ongoing, "just-in-time" training that research shows to be most effective.

One such resource is Discovery Education's Discovery Educator Network (DEN), an initiative that seeks to establish a global community where innovative teachers can trade best practices and work together to improve the quality of learning in their classrooms, wherever those might be. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Eduventures Launches New Learning Collaborative for Student Affairs Professionals.

Eduventures, a leading collaborative research and consulting firm for higher education, has announced the launch of its member-based Student Affairs Learning Collaborative.

The Student Affairs Learning Collaborative provides members with insights and direction to identify best management practices, benchmark performance and improve core processes through research, analysis and networking opportunities. The initial focus of the research will be on common challenges faced by student affairs professionals such as diversity programming, health and mental health care, organizational and staff development and learning outcomes measurement. To read the rest of this press release click here.

Professors add life to courses through Second Life.

This post comes from the Demoines Register. He's a stud with a ponytail, his name is Gut, and he's your professor.

At least that's who he is online. In real life, he's a bald white guy named Brian Mennecke whose wife won't let him grow a ponytail.

This summer, he will hold discussion sessions for Iowa State University students studying e-commerce led by his beefier online self (Gut), a cartoon character who can fly. The classes will be held in Second Life.

Second Life is a 3-D, online world that is increasingly attracting the attention of professors nationally and in Iowa who are using the virtual landscape to hold classes, create simulations of what they are studying, and hold online experiments. Professors at ISU, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa are all exploring ways to incorporate the game into classes this summer and in the fall semester. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Big Ten joins Google’s book project.

This post comes from Yahoo News. Twelve major universities will digitize select collections in each of their libraries — up to 10 million volumes — as part of Google Inc.'s book-scanning project. The goal: a shared digital repository that faculty, students and the public can access quickly.

University of Chicago and the 11 universities in the Big Ten athletic conference (yes, there are 11): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.

"We have a collective ambition to share resources and work together to preserve the world's printed treasures," said Northwestern Provost Lawrence Dumas.

The committee said Google will scan and index materials "in a manner consistent with copyright law." Google generally makes available the full text of books in the public domain and limited portions of copyrighted books. Click here to read the rest of this article.

PodCasts are gaining popularity in the classroom.

The Chronicle has put together an excellent Podcast discussing how more schools are turning audio from classes into Podcasts. Click here to watch this informative presentation.

To maximize classroom learning, quiz early and often.

This article comes from The Chronicle. In the late 1930s, an ambitious graduate student named Herbert F. Spitzer asked thousands of Iowa sixth graders to read a short article about bamboo — an article he later described as "highly factual, authentic, of the proper difficulty, and similar in type to the material that children read in their regular school work."

He divided the students into 10 groups and gave them long multiple-choice quizzes ("What usually happens to a bamboo plant after the flowering period?") at varying intervals. One group, for example, was quizzed immediately after reading the article, then again the next day, and then a final time three weeks later. Another group was quizzed only once, three weeks after reading the article. The students did not know when they would be quizzed, and they did not keep the article, so they had no chance to study on their own.

The results were striking: On tests three or nine weeks later, students performed far better if they had previously been quizzed within 24 hours after first reading the article. When Mr. Spitzer wrote up his work in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1939, he made a recommendation that might have made millions of students — and their teachers — groan: "Immediate recall in the form of a test is an effective method of aiding the retention of learning and should, therefore, be employed more frequently in the elementary school." To read the rest of this article click here.

Mobile Learning in China.

This post comes from The Wired Campus Blog. Students of all ages in China will soon be able to use Nokia cellphones to tap into English lessons, test-prep training, and other courses from New Oriental Education & Technology Group, a leading Chinese educational company, the companies announced this week. "The idea of mobile learning is that it will allow students of all ages to access course materials through a mobile phone, maximizing time by providing learning on the go," said Michael Yu, New Oriental's chief executive.

Would-be mobile learners can buy one of the newer Nokia models with educational programs already installed, and they can also download courses from Mobiledu and New Oriental's online-learning site, Koolearn.com. The project is not the first time that courses have been offered via cellphone, but it's part of what is sure to be a growing trend.

An inside look at Google's algorithm and their "search quality" department.

We are going to switch tracks a little today. Google seldom offers insights into how their search algorithm works. We came across the fascinating article that provides great insight into how their "search quality" team continues to enhance and improve the results that Google delivers to web surfers. Click here to read this fascinating article.

Feds solicit ed-tech feedback.

This post comes from eSchoolNews. The U.S. Department of Education is asking school stakeholders to comment on the use of technology in schools. While advocates of educational technology say they welcome this latest request for comments, some question whether the department will act on any of the advice it receives, given how little importance it placed on the last National Educational Technology Plan.

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is asking school officials and education stakeholders to submit comments on the use of technology in schools. This latest outreach initiative comes as U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is holding a series of roundtable discussions in several cities on technology in education, with educators, business leaders, information technology professionals, and others invited. (The sessions are closed to members of the press.) The goal, according to ED, is to explore specific actions to improve education outcomes through targeted applications of technology and to find a renewed perspective on the role of technology in education reform. The first of these roundtables took place in late March. Click here to read the rest of this article.

CHINA: Internet pornography clean up reaches college campuses.

This post comes from Asia Media staff writer Melissa Wang. "Last Sunday, China's Education Ministry condemned several school websites for using porn to make money. The ministry described the profits from these Internet sites as "unlawful" and said that the pornographic materials will influence and pervert students.

As part of its crack down on illegal online activities, the Education Ministry's website will allow the public to report on schools with pornographic materials. The ministry is also drafting a guideline for campus web services, according to state media Xinhua. Vice-minister of education Li Weihong called on college professors to become Internet experts in order to monitor their students' online activities as well.

In April, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) along with nine other governmental departments launched a six-month campaign to end the distribution of pornographic materials and organization of cyber strip shows, among other illegal online practices.

According to MPS, as of mid-May, the Chinese police had cracked 244 cases and detained 270 suspects involved in online pornography. Approximately 1000,000 college students have also made online pledges to say no to pornographic websites."

Will education make the grade by 2017?

This article is from MSNBC. Economists, technology experts and health care leaders predict that the pace of change in our everyday lives, already too fast for many, will only accelerate. Within a decade, they say, educators will face a major challenge preparing the people responsible for keeping it all running.

If it’s not already a cyberworld, it’s getting closer. By 2017, the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies projects, advances in miniaturization and wireless communication mean technology will be almost invisible, but it will be pervasive, threaded throughout bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms and workplaces.

Schools are searching for novel ways to keep up. Quite likely, shifting demographics will mean many children won’t be going to school at all. They’ll be learning at home, instead, at a cyberschool. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Pearson buys eCollege in $538M deal.

This post comes from eSchool News. In a move that could strengthen competition in the market for online course management systems, educational publishing giant Pearson PLC said its Pearson Education unit is buying eCollege.com, which sells eLearning systems to K-12 and higher-education institutions, in a deal worth approximately $538 million.

Under terms of the transaction, eCollege shareholders will receive $22.45 in cash for each share they own--a 28-percent premium over the company's average closing share price during the previous 90 trading days. In addition, eCollege's Datamark enrollment marketing division will be sold for $41 million to an investor group led by Oakleigh Thorne, eCollege's chairman and chief executive. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to eCollege shareholder approval.

eCollege, founded in 1996, works with schools to design, build, and support online degree, certificate, diploma, and professional development programs. It provides a full range of on-demand software services, including course management, virtual campuses, and assessment, reporting, and retention monitoring tools. The company also provides a suite of support services, including hosting, help desk, course development, technical consulting, instructional design, and faculty training. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Fabulous 150 Sought for Tuition Free Online Education.

This post is from PR Leap. DiUlus Institute & University is recruiting 150 distance learner scholars from member nations of the UN. The University offers the scholars a tuition free e-education. It is being made available to scholars who otherwise might never have the opportunity to attend college due to distance, work commitments, and/or financial circumstance.

University builder Global Academy Online, Inc. created and designed the University to be a 21st century online e-education powerhouse with cutting edge virtual environments. It included in the development a patent pending self-accreditation system that rivals the strictest interpretations of rigor in academia and flaunts a world-class faculty who are among the leaders and experts in e-education today. To read the rest of this article click here.

NACOL issues online learning primer.

This post comes from eSchoolnews.com. The North American Council for Online Learning has published a guidebook intended to help policy makers and educators implement online learning programs in their schools--and to help parents understand how online learning works.

Educators and education stakeholders interested in online learning have a brand-new resource at their disposal. The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) has released a free, comprehensive guide to online learning intended to help school leaders implement virtual education programs of their own and help parents understand how online instruction works. "A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning" gives answers to common questions and provides facts about online learning.

The report answers questions such as what an online course looks like, how students will interact with their teacher, and whether online instruction really works. (The short answer: Yes, if done correctly.) It also addresses issues for educators and policy makers who are considering developing their own online learning initiatives, such as what courses can be taught online effectively, what qualifications and training teachers will need, and what policies states or school districts should have in place before starting an online learning program. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Case Western Reserve U. Builds Virtual Campus to Woo Prospective Students.

This post comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education. College students who give campus tours usually have to learn a few tricks, like how to walk backward while talking. When Mir Bear-Johnson, a freshman at Case Western Reserve University, was asked to give tours to prospective students in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world, she had to adjust to a whole new set of norms.
I
n the virtual world, she was initially a lot clumsier than in the real world. The good news: "You will not wake up with any bruises from running into walls in Second Life, thankfully."

Administrators at Case Western recently built a virtual version of the campus in Second Life, complete with several campus buildings, some athletics facilities, and a favorite diner. They decided to give campus tours there for those who could not get to a regular campus tour.

Ms. Bear-Johnson says she had long been curious about Second Life — in which users appear as cartoonlike characters in a virtual landscape where they can explore and chat with others — but had never used it before being asked by the university to greet prospective students there.

At first Ms. Bear-Johnson selected a character, or avatar, that looked much like she does in real life. Later, though, she tried purple and then green hair.

"We had one person come in who was a frog," she says. "He had the head, he had the feet, he hopped, everything. Which was pretty cool, if a little surprising." Click here to read the rest of this interesting article.

In rural Uruguay, education goes high-tech for a low cost.

This post is from the Star-Telegram. VILLA CARDAL, Uruguay -- Big smiles spread across the faces of the 160 pupils at a public elementary school in this rural South American hamlet: Each sat gawking at a brightly blinking laptop given to them days earlier.

"This is like an early visit from Santa Claus," beamed 11-year old Eduardo de los Santos, clutching his computer with its shiny white case and bright green trim.

The machines are the first in South America from the much-publicized "One Laptop Per Child" project, which hopes to put low-cost portable PCs in the hands of children in developing countries. Still in a pilot phase, the group has also placed machines at one school in Nigeria and another in Thailand.
At the only public elementary school in this community of 1,300 people, children who never used computers are now being exposed to the digital age.

"Thanks to this, I'm going to be able to study tons of science," said Joel Nicoletti, 8, who wants to be a scientist. The nonprofit project was launched in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte, then director of the media lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Study finds 25 countries censor websites.

This post is from the Associated Press. At least 25 countries around the world block websites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, said a U.S.-British-Canadian study out Friday.

The actual number may be higher but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign the Internet has matured to the point governments are taking notice.

“This is very much the revenge of geography,” said Rafal Rohozinski, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge in England.

China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and homosexual sites.

In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighbouring rival, North Korea.

Yet researchers found no filtering at all in Russia, Israel or the Palestinian territories, despite political conflicts.

Governments generally had no mechanism for citizens to complain about any erroneous blocking, with Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates being among the exceptions.

The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, has previously published reports detailing censorship in specific countries. The latest study was its attempt to compare filtering worldwide.

The study did not attempt to chronicle the effectiveness of the efforts. Some technical approaches are better than others in blocking sites but all can be bypassed with enough technical know-how to use “proxy” techniques or special software.

The organization said the regions chosen for review should not be considered comprehensive. It didn't include any countries in North America or Western Europe on grounds filtering practices there have been better known than elsewhere. It also excluded North Korea and Cuba for fear of risks to collaborators it would need in those countries.

The group supplied software to volunteers in each of the countries tested. Websites checked include those for gambling, pornography and human-rights abuses.

Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford, said filtering appeared to occur most widely in countries where Internet penetration is higher.

Ivy League Crunch Brings New Cachet to Next Tier Schools.

This post comes from the New York Times. TLehigh University has never been as sought after as Stanford, Yale or Harvard. But this year, awash in applications, it churned out rejection letters and may break more hearts when it comes to its waiting list.

Call them second-tier colleges (a phrase some administrators despise) or call them the new Ivies (this, they can live with). Twenty-five to 40 universities like Lehigh, traditionally perceived as being a notch below the most elite, have seen their cachet climb because of the astonishing competitive crush at the top.

“It’s harder to get into Bowdoin now than it was to get into Princeton when I worked there,” said William M. Shain, who worked at Princeton in the 1970s and is now dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me. Bowdoin is one of those benefiting from the spillover as the country’s most prestigious colleges turn away nearly 9 out of 10 applicants. To read the rest of this article click here.

Google launches new Universal Search services.

Some of you might have noticed some visual changes to Google's landing page in the past few days. If you go to Google.com and look at the upper left hand portion of your monitor you will find these additional search choices:

Images Video News Maps Gmail more ▼ Blog

Google is calling this new feature Universal Search. This makes a lot of sense with all of the new media arriving on the web. Google also has to continue to expand their services in efforts to stay ahead of competitors like Yahoo. Search experts and web site owners are raising the question, "how will these changes impact my SERPs (search engine ranking positions)?"

Google's search algorithm is an incredibly complex and evolving machine. However the fundamental nature of determining search relevancy (through link popularity) and providing text based results is incredibly successful. In my opinion this formula won't be tinkered with dramatically even as you are given more search options. Here are some great observations by Gord Hochkiss about this new twist in Google search. This post is called, "Universal Search and Other Surprises from Google’s Searchology."

Posted by Daryl Clark, Director of Online Marketing, Gatlin Education Services.

Residents of the virtual world Second Life rise up in protest!

This post comes from Technology Review. The overseers of Second Life, a complex and booming virtual world hailed by many as the first step toward an immersive 3-D Internet, attempted yesterday to calm angry cyber-citizens who have petitioned for fixes to technical bugs recently plaguing the world.

The main problem, in members' eyes: Second Life is growing so fast that it's straining Linden Lab's resources to the limit, including its developers' ability to fix old bugs and roll out new software versions that don't introduce new problems. In a town-hall meeting yesterday inside Second Life, the company appealed for patience. To read the rest of this article click here.

UCEA April 2007 Infocus Newsletter.

One of our favorite traditional newsletters is "Infocus" by the University Continuing Education Association. The April 2007 edition of Infocus has some great articles. We hope you enjoy it!

Read up and head out for the best get-together in town.

Today's post is from the Star Telegram online. Have you ever gone to a party attended by English majors? If not, why not? Maybe it's time you permitted yourself an unforgettable experience.

What you'll notice at these incomparable gatherings is sophisticated wit, rapid-fire banter and hilarious repartee. It takes only one person to get it started with a comment such as "Once plastered, you are ready to paint your walls," which invariably is followed by a moment of repressed mirth, then another offering such as "When well oiled, I find my door easier to open," then "Once loaded, you are ready to launch your program," then "When well stewed, you add the tomatoes to the pot" and "When pickled, I think herring tastes like caviar."

A favorite game among English majors is called Gotcha, which usually begins when someone makes an error in grammar or word choice, sometimes intentionally, something like "You know, I hate how these political polls skewer public opinion," at which point everyone hollers, "Skew!" and from then on you better be careful about what you say. To read the rest of this fun article click here.

Iraq's Universities Near Collapse!

Today's article is from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Hundreds of professors and students have been killed or kidnapped, hundreds more have fled, and those who remain face daily threats of violence

Saad Jawad does not like to take chances. The University of Baghdad political-science professor goes to the campus only once or twice a week, varying the days to throw off any would-be assassins. His courses are less than one-third full, and he often has to wait hours until students show up.

When a class does finally convene, he assigns enough work to keep students busy for as long as possible because he does not know when they may meet next.

"I used to attend the college five days a week, stay there, and mix with my students," Mr. Jawad says, by telephone. "Not anymore." He does most of his work and research at home over the Internet, and most of his private meetings with students are by phone. "Other than my short trips to the campus, I'm at home almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he says.

The enormous challenges Mr. Jawad faces every week are just one example of how fragile Iraq's higher-education system has become. Thousands of academics have fled the country, classes are frequently canceled, students often stay away for fear of attack, and research is at a standstill. To read the rest of this interesting article click here.

Gatlin launches new Entrepreneurship online training program.

We are pleased to announce the release of our new Entrepreneurship: Start-Up and Business Owner Management online training program. This brand new course teaches students the skills needed to start their own business. The Entrepreneurship: Start-Up and Business Owner Management program provides an excellent foundation for not just the start-up business owner, but also the business owner or manager who wants to gain a deeper understanding of some of the essential principles associated with owning and operating a start-up or on-going business.

The program includes modules focusing on business plan development, financing, legal issues in operations, and buying and selling businesses. Students will broaden their understanding of financial and accounting terms, gain confidence and improve their communication skills, and explore some of the topics of running a business in accord with legal requirements. It’s never been easier to get your own business up and running!

Rule change poses new challenges for online education.

Today's post comes from the Great Falls Tribune Online Edition. The Montana Board of Public Education is prepared to vote on a rule change on Friday that could impact online courses for students and the instructors who teach and supervise some classes.

Under current rules, the Board of Public Education allows high school students to take distance-learning courses and be supervised by the instructor, usually from a college, as they complete the class. Click here to read the rest of this article.

Scientists compile massive biology web site.

Today's interesting post comes from Science Daily. Realizing a dream articulated in 2003 by renowned biologist E.O. Wilson, Harvard and four partner institutions have launched an ambitious effort to create an Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), an unprecedented project to document online every one of Earth's 1.8 million known species. For the first time in history, the EOL would grant scientists, students, and others multimedia access to all known living species, even those just discovered.

The effort, announced May 9, will be supported by a new $10 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and $2.5 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
With a Wikipedia-style Web page detailing each organism's genome, geographic distribution, phylogenetic position, habitat, and ecological relationships, organizers hope the EOL will ultimately serve as a global beacon for biodiversity and conservation.

Harvard joins the Field Museum in Chicago, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., the Smithsonian Institution, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. An international advisory board of distinguished individuals will help guide the EOL.

Harvard's EOL participation will be led by James Hanken, director of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Harvard scientists will partner with colleagues at the Smithsonian to spearhead the education and outreach facets of the project.

"EOL is an audacious project, but one that is doable with existing technology," Hanken says. "It has the potential to transform how people learn and communicate about biology." To read the rest of this article click here.

Results from The Survey of College Marketing Programs.

Today's interesting article comes from The Primary Research Group. "More than 47% of American colleges use web advertising of some type to market the college including more than 59% of private colleges, according to a new study from Primary Research Group, The Survey of College Marketing Programs. The 170 page study presents more than 650 tables of data relating to college marketing efforts, exploring television, radio, newspaper and magazine advertising, direct mail, college viewbook and magazine publishing, and use of web ads, blogs, search engine placement enhancement, and other internet related marketing. The study also presents data on the percentage of distance learning programs that are managed and marketed by the central administration of the college and the percentage that are managed by separate administrative entities." To read the rest of this article click here.

State of Indiana yanks the plug on two virtual schools.

Today's article comes from eSchoolNews.com. Two virtual charter schools were set to open this fall in Indiana, but the state Legislature did not provide funding for them in the final state budget. The move has left parents scrambling to find other options for their children.

Pamela Bless thought she had found an exciting alternative to traditional instruction when she enrolled her three children in a new online charter school slated to open this fall. Instead, she's wondering where her 13-year-old triplets will end up after the Indiana General Assembly decided not to fund the schools.

"My kids were as or more disappointed than I was," said Bless, of Greenwood, Ind. "They feel that it's a statement that children are not important to officials in state government." Ball State University had proposed opening two virtual charter schools--the Indiana Virtual Charter School and Indiana Connections Academy--this fall, with a total of about 2,200 students.

The budget proposed by the GOP-led Senate would have allowed the two schools to open. Democrats who control the House, however, objected to having any state money fund such programs, and the final budget approved April 29--the last day of the legislative session--explicitly stated that virtual charter schools cannot receive funding from the state or any distribution of property taxes. To read the rest of this article click here.

Gatlin launches new mediation and dispute resolution online education program.

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of our new Mediation and Dispute Resolution online certificate program offered in partnership with the Institute for Advanced Dispute Resolution™ and our network of more than 600 college and universities.

Gatlin launches new Purchasing Management online training.

We are please to announce the immediate availability of our new Purchasing Management Online Training. This program is particularly well suited to anyone working in or interested in working in purchasing, supply chain management, procurement specialists, and buyers. In this program students will be introduced to the various aspect of the supply chain environment, including enterprise resource planning systems and requirement systems.

Music education moves online.

Today's post comes from eSchool News. "Thanks to advancements in so-called Web 2.0 technologies, music education is extending beyond the classroom with the help of software that allows for virtual, real-time music lessons and collaboration online. These technologies can supplement and reinforce the traditional teaching that occurs during private music lessons or school classes, their proponents say.

Software from new companies such as eJamming, WorkshopLive, and In the Chair can connect students and teachers in online groups or in solo sessions to record and edit music online. The growing number of homes with access to broadband internet service has helped fuel this emerging trend." Click here to read the rest of this story.

Learning Chinese the Skype way.

Today's interesting post comes from the Taipei Times. "Skype is rapidly turning into the classroom of the 21st century. Aside from videophone, it also checks spelling on the digital whiteboard.

London-based stand-up comedian Tommy Campbell's iPod is packed with recordings made by a mother-of-one who lives in China's southernmost province of Hainan.

The two have never met, but every week they spend three hours in each other's company, as Tommy struggles to form the distinctive tones and sounds of Mandarin Chinese.

Lily Huang is Tommy's Mandarin teacher. Rather than pay exorbitant prices for a UK-based face-to-face tutor or hide in the back of the class at night school, Tommy can take Lily's lessons in the comfort and privacy of his own home via the Internet, direct from China.

Lily teaches students across the globe via Skype, the Internet telephony system that allows people to communicate for free across the world, often using Web cams.

The videophone service was set up in 2003 by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs and sold to Ebay in September 2005 for US$4.1 billion. It is now available in 27 languages. Asia reportedly represents 30 percent of its 171 million subscribers and has become its fastest growing market. To read the rest of this article click here.

Distance Education Goes Public.

Today's article is from The Chronicle and written by Andrea Foster and Dan Carnevale.

A few years ago, universities were dumping their online spinoffs like rotten fish. Temple University and New York University shut theirs in 2001. Two years later, Columbia University closed down Fathom, its once-vaunted online venture. The spinoffs were never able to attract enough students to justify the millions of dollars invested in them. The flagging post-9/11 economy didn't help.

Now the virtual campus is re-emerging. But the new speculators are public universities, and instead of creating commercial, online branches like their predecessors, they are embracing a not-for-profit model.

A. Frank Mayadas, president of the Sloan Consortium, a group of colleges that offer instruction online, says public institutions are beginning to realize that, with their name recognition and their lower tuition rates, they have an advantage over for-profit competitors like the University of Phoenix, which, with 130,000 students, is the largest of the online institutions. Public universities are "better known," he says, "and they're a better deal."

Inspired by the growth of Phoenix and other online colleges, two big public research institutions, the University of North Carolina and the University of Illinois, are quickly moving to establish their own distance-education spinoffs.

Making money is a key motivation, since state funds for public colleges are drying up. But campus officials also want to reach more working students, who are unable or unwilling to learn in a traditional classroom.

By all accounts, demand for online education is expanding. About 3.2 million students took at least one online course during the fall of 2005. That's 39 percent more than the 2.3 million the previous year, according to the Sloan Consortium, which promotes standards for online learning.
For-profit institutions, like Phoenix, have a large share of that enrollment. Although they enrolled only 5.1 percent of students at degree-granting institutions in 2004, they attracted 37 percent of all online students, according to Eduventures, an education-consulting company. That proportion is expected to fall to 32 percent in 2008, in part because of competition from traditional colleges.

"The consumer, we know from our research, is typically more comfortable with the notion of a traditional school offering nontraditional online" courses, says Richard Garrett, a senior analyst at Eduventures, which is advising Illinois on its online enterprise.

Still, commercial online institutions like Phoenix have more capital and are savvier marketers than public universities, he says, and are unlikely to crumble when faced with competition.
Instead of trying to create national programs like Phoenix's, says Mr. Mayadas, public institutions should create online programs that dominate their regions. Then, collectively, they will be able to compete in the online market instead of letting for-profit universities run the show.

"In their own regions, where they operate, they are generally better known than any for-profit entity," he says. "If every nonprofit did that in their own area, that makes the competition much more interesting."

NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO ENROLL ONLY ONLINE

2000 -194,580

2001-315,219

2002-483,113

2003-701,295

2004-936,727

2005-1,214,000

2006-1,518,750

NOTE: Estimated figures cover student enrolled at American degree-granting institutions that provided financial aid under Title IV. SOURCE: Eduventures

University life in a war zone - University of Baghdad.

The post for today and this weekend is from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Learn how students are still working towards degrees while living in a war zone. Click here to view this amazing story.

Campus massacre: Turning to technology.

Today's post comes from eSchool News. Almost immediately after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University on April 16, Virginia Tech students created an "I'm OK" page on Facebook to let one another and their loved ones know that they survived. Other students posted photos and cell phone videos on their own sites, or shared them just hours after the shootings with news organizations.

Thanks to the portability and speed of today's technology, the students' shots are likely to become some of the "defining images" of the tragedy, says Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which monitors high-tech culture.

And nowhere, she says, has the impact of the internet been seen more than on social networking sites, most often frequented by young people.

"What better place to mourn someone than a place that they themselves build to express who they are, and a place where the deceased and his or her friends may have spent a great deal of time interacting?" Lenhart asks.

Since April 16, there has been a nonstop flood of postings on the popular Facebook student site, on MySpace and LiveJournal, and on personal blogs--expressing everything from grief to anger to confusion. To read the rest of this article click here.

What is online education all about?

Today's post comes from The Journal. "Unless you are directly involved with teaching online, have students taking courses online, or have taken an online course yourself, chances are that you find the concept of online education quite nebulous. You might not have any interest in it. Terms like distance education, fully online, blended courses, virtual courses, e-learning, hybrid courses, mixed-mode, asynchronous learning, distributed learning, Web-facilitated, and Web-enhanced learning add to the confusion (Picciano & Seaman, 2007, pp. 1-2). However, online learning is on the rise in K-12 education, and you should know some of the basics and issues surrounding it. It is adding flexibility to the traditional school experience, meeting the needs of specific groups of students, and increasing course offerings. If it has not already done so, it probably will affect your teaching scenario before too long. So, what's online education all about? Well ... it's all in who you ask or what resources you consult." To read the rest of this article click here.

Why Community Colleges Struggle to Increase College Completion Rates.

Today's post comes from The College Puzzle Blog.

"America’s 1,200 community colleges enroll nearly half of credit-earning undergraduates, and first time students. However, scholarly attention to this growing postsecondary sector is dwarfed by research and publications concerning 4-year institutions. Furthermore, community colleges serve a disproportionate share of low income students including 79% of California’s Latino students. And, public four-year institutions grew by 3.5% from 1990 to 2000, but public two-year enrollments grew by 14%.

Defending the Community College Equity Agenda (Thomas Bailey and Vanessa Smith Morest (eds.) Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 2006) addresses several key threats to the community college equity agenda. The co-authors have long and deep backgrounds through their leadership roles in the Community College Research Center at Teachers College." To read the rest of this interesting article click here.

Community colleges enroll almost anyone who wants to come regardless of academic preparation. Community college budgets are fiscally constrained, and their resources often lag enrollment growth. Moreover, need based student financial aid has not kept up with the changing student bodies. Many students, however, do succeed in community colleges despite long odds.

Louisiana among states leading nation in online learners

Today's post comes from the Shreveport Times. Students in Rachel Basco's respiratory therapy class are all over the map. Some students are actually in the Bossier Parish Community College classroom with her and other students Basco teaches are at the Rapides Learning Center Alexandria.

The students who take the class off-site and through compressed video on the Internet are among the thousands of students in Louisiana who take advantage of electronic education.In fact, Southern states lead the nation in growth of the number of college students taking online classes, according to a report published by the Sloan Consortium in partnership with the Southern Regional Education Board.

"The No. 1 reason people take online classes is because of the flexibility it offers," said Kathleen Gay, director of education technology at BPCC. "We see an increase in our students who are trying to juggle work and/or family. This seems to be a mode that suits their lifestyle better."More than 1.1 million students were enrolled in online classes at two- and four-year colleges in Southern states, a 68 percent increase from 2005 and nearly twice as much as the 35 percent national increase in students taking online courses across the nation, the report said. To read the rest of this article click here.

Preparing Instructors For Quality Online Instruction.

Today's post comes from Distance Educator News. "With a growing number of courses offered online and degrees offered through the Internet, there is a considerable interest in online education, particularly as it relates to the quality of online instruction. The major concerns are centering on the following questions: What will be the new role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the online learning environment? This paper will examine new challenges and barriers for online instructors, highlight major themes prevalent in the literature related to “quality control or assurance” in online education, and provide practical strategies for instructors to design and deliver effective online instruction. Recommendations will be made on how to prepare instructors for quality online instruction." Click here to read this entire article.

Mitigating Conflict in Online Student Teams.

Today's post comes from eLearn Magazine and was written by By Richard Dool, D.Mgt., Assistant Professor, Seton Hall University. "My cell phone rings at 10:37 p.m. I reluctantly answer, anticipating the reason for the call. Team assignments are due tonight, and a call this late is seldom made to tell me everything is wonderful. Sure enough, there is trouble in "team-land" and panic is setting in: A teammate has gone AWOL and his part is not done. Professors using team assignments in online courses often get calls or e-mails like this.

I have had the privilege—and at times, the agony—of overseeing more than 200 graded online team assignments, and I have learned how to mitigate much of the inevitable conflict that arises. What follows below are basic guidelines for handling these conflicts. These guidelines can help ensure that learning objectives are met and that students have a positive experience.

I conducted an informal poll of students at the four universities where I have taught online courses, and results indicate that more than 60 percent "dislike" team assignments. The primary reasons students offer are difficulty in getting everyone on the "same page," unclear instructions and expectations, and the fact that their grade depends on others.

Given the potential conflicts in team assignments and the general disdain by students, why do professors persist in using team assignments? In discussions with many of my peers, the answers range from a belief in the value of learning how to be a positive team member to reducing the grading load. Bu there is little question about the value of learning to perform on teams." To read the rest of this article click here.

Surge in Distance Ed at Community Colleges.

Today's post comes from Inside Higher Ed. "Community college enrollment growth is increasingly coming from online students, leading many institutions to create extensive online student service operations. Many of those institutions are also considering a shift in their course management systems — just as Blackboard’s purchase of WebCT would seem to have solidified its dominant position in that market.

Those are some of the key findings from a new study on e-learning in community colleges, released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges. The study was conducted by the Instructional Technology Council, a group of nearly 500 colleges — almost all of them two-year institutions — with a strong interest in online education. The council has been doing similar surveys of its members for several years, but shifted gears this year to conduct its survey from the full membership of AACC, hoping to get a more accurate picture of distance education at community colleges." Click here to read the rest of this article.

Making Online Learning Mandatory.

Today's post comes from Inside Higher Ed. "Starting this fall, all students at Northwest State Community College, in Archbold, Ohio, will be required to take at least one online course to graduate. More than 60 percent of last year’s graduates already took one or more online courses, but administrators and college trustees want all students to be well versed in independent research and discovery — skills that employers demand, they say — and feel that online education is one way to accomplish that." To read the rest of this article click here.

Web-Based Learning Environment: A Theory-Based Design Process for Development and Evaluation.

This interesting paper is written by Chang S. Nam and Tonya L. Smith-Jackson. "Web-based courses and programs have increasingly been developed by many academic institutions, organizations, and companies worldwide due to their benefits for both learners and educators. However, many of the developmental approaches lack two important considerations needed for implementing Web-based learning applications: (1) integration of the user interface design with instructional design and (2) development of the evaluation framework to improve the overall quality of Web-based learning support environments. This study addressed these two weaknesses while developing a user-centered, Web-based learning support environment for Global Positioning System (GPS) education: Web-based distance and distributed learning (WD2L) environment. The research goals of the study focused on the improvement of the design process and usability of the WD2L environment based on a theory-based Integrated Design Process (IDP) proposed in the study. Results indicated that the proposed IDP was effective in that the study showed (1) the WD2L environment’s equivalence to traditional supplemental learning, especially as a Web-based supplemental learning program and (2) users’ positive perceptions of WD2L environment resources. The study also confirmed that for an e-learning environment to be successful, various aspects of the learning environment should be considered such as application domain knowledge, conceptual learning theory, instructional design, user interface design, and evaluation about the overall quality of the learning environment." To download this entire document click here.

Changing Faces of Open and Distance Learning in Asia.

Today's post comes from IRRODL. "It is no incident that IRRODL begins the year of 2007 with this regional focus edition on “Changing Faces of Open and Distance Learning in Asia.” Over the recent years, there has been tremendous growth and diversity in open and distance learning (ODL) in Asia. With over 56 percent of the global population, Asia has over 70 universities that are dedicated to open access to education, including seven out of 11 of the world's mega universities (universities with over 100,000 active students in degree-level courses) serving six million active students all together (Daniel, 1996).

Quite a few distance teaching universities or programs such as the Bangladeshi Open University, the Hanoi Open University, the Open University Malaysia, and the Open and Distance Learning Program in Singapore, have been established since the 1990s and now provide tertiary level education to those seeking continuing education opportunities. Virtual universities are growing fast and, with 17 virtual universities in Korea alone! Many conventional, campus-based universities have started to offer e-Learning programs as well. For example, 67 e-Colleges have been established within conventional research universities in China." To read the rest of this article click here.

Education and English Proficiency Preclude Wider Hispanic Internet Use.

Today's post comes from the Center For Media Research. A report released in March, 2007, entitled Latinos Online by PEW Research, finds that 56% of Latinos in the U.S. (comprising 14% of the U.S. adult population) use the internet. By comparison, 71% of non-Hispanic whites and 60% of non- Hispanic blacks use the internet. Lower levels of education and limited English ability largely explain the gap in internet use between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, concludes the report. To read the rest of this article and access the report click here.

Single standard for open-content licenses and related issues.

Today's post comes from eSchool News. "The use of open, sharable course materials is transforming education worldwide: Educators across the globe are taking open digital content items and repurposing them for their own classrooms; universities in Vietnam have begun translating materials available through MIT's OpenCourseWare program; and in Japan, leading universities have come together and agreed to make much of their courseware open as well. (See "Web fuels 'democratization' of knowledge.")

But this movement toward open course materials for education has created something of a problem. Although a vast number of repositories have been set up to allow users to download sharable content, many of these sites contain materials that use different licensing agreements. This poses a challenge for educators looking to combine material from different repositories into a single presentation or piece of work."

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Tech's 'greatest potential': Personalizing instruction.

Today's post comes from eSchool News. "Calling technology's "greatest potential" for education its ability to personalize instruction, Katie Lovett, chair of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), kicked off the group's 12th annual K-12 School Networking Conference in San Francisco March 28.

The conference brought together school district chief information officers and other educational technology leaders from around the world to discuss key ed-tech challenges and solutions. One of these challenges, Lovett noted in setting the stage for the meeting's opening general session, is the need to break out of the mold of the one-size-fits-all approach to instruction." To read the rest of this article click here.

Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) wins eLearning Guild Awards.

Last year we were evalutating which Learning Management System we should use for the next generation of our online career training programs. After conducting extensive research we settled on Moodle. We have migrated a number of our programs into Moodle already and plan to be completed by the end of this year. We felt it was important not to create a proprietary system but to use one of the industry standand Learning Management Systems.

The eLearning Guild recently announced the publication of a new Guild Research 360 Degree Report on Learning Management Systems (LMS). Moodle won the, "Platinum Members Choice Award for Satisfaction," in Education and Government Learning Management Systems beating Blackboard for the top award! To read their list of awards and to learn about their report 360 Degree report click here.

M.I.T. Education in China, Minus the Degree.

Today's post comes from the New York Times. "Lucifer Chu, a 31-year-old from Taipei, Taiwan, is as good an example as any of the shrinking distances between East and West. Mr. Chu has become a millionaire by creating Chinese translations of fantasy novels. Using much of the $1 million in royalties from his versions of “The Lord of the Rings,” Mr. Chu says he devotes himself to distributing free translations of material from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site." To read the rest of this article click here.

Gallup plans foray in education and training.

Today's post comes from Business Standard. "The Gallup Organization of the US is planning to bring some of its management education and training activities to India, Gallup India’s managing partner Prashant Srivastava told Business Standard. In the US, Gallup has set up the Gallup University, which provides management education-both degree programmes and continuing education-to individuals and organizations. Among its programmes are the MBA in Executive Leadership and a Master’s in Business with an emphasis on Global Leadership." To read the rest of this article click here.

Blackboard Learning Management System and potential conflicts with Microsoft's new Vista operating system.

Today's post comes from PCMagazine. "On college campuses, Microsoft's Vista operating system may be in danger of failing courses that use Blackboard, a key software program for communication between teachers and students.

Some campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere using Blackboard are discovering that the software and some of its functionality is being hindered as students and teachers begin to update their systems with Microsoft Vista." To read the rest of this article click here.

Online education and understanding your learning style survey.

Online learning is not right for everyone. It is important to understand your learning style. To see if your style is compatible with online learning take this, "Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire" created by North Carolina State University.

Gatlin Education Services congratulates Rich Novak incoming UCEA President!

We would like to congratulate Rich Novak as incoming President of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA). Rich is the Associate Vice President for Continuous Education and Distance Learning at Rutgers University. He was UCEA Membership Chair and is a member of the Board of Directors. He was awarded the Walton S. Bittner Service Citation for "Imaginative Leadership in the Advancement of Continuing Education and Distinguished Service to the Association" in 2004.

With the support of Rich and his team, Rutgers University continues to be the Gatlin Education Services partner with the largest amount of students year after year. Rich has outlined his initiatives for his term as UCEA President. You can read those initiatives by clicking here. Please join us by congratulating Rich! We look forward to seeing Rich and other attendees on April 12 -14 at the 92nd UCEA National Conference being held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Is online education truly borderless?

According to a new press release from Eduventures Inc., "Geography Matters in Online Higher Education." Online education heralded the promise of borderless educational opportunity, yet nearly two out of every three online students live within the geographical region of their awarding institution, according to a recent study by Eduventures, the leading research and consulting firm for the education industry. Even more surprising is that more than one-third live within a 50-mile radius of their online education provider. To read the remainder of this press release click here.