Community College Week: 5/8/2008
Special Report: Distance Education

Downloading the Portable College: The rise of iTunes U and popularity of tiny media devices are making podcasting and important part of the college experience. Also, review the latest Sloan-C survey statistics that reveal more than 50% of online students in higher ed are enrolled at 2-year institutions.






OnliOnlinene Nation
The most recent Sloan-C survey that examines critical trends in online learning in higher education across the United States. Dated October 2007.


Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh My! What is a Faculty Member Supposed to Do?
by Patricia McGee and Veronica Diaz
This is a good, resourceful article that provides concrete information about new emerging technologies in education.

Think Small! A Beginner's Guide to using Technology to Promote Learning
by Beverly R. King
A great resource for taking the first steps towards using technology in your teaching. Great practical advice to get you started today!

Carnegie Mellon - Teaching with Technology White Papers
Excellent, research-based articles about using technology to support student learning. Topics include Student Respond Systems (i.e. "Clickers"), podcasting, and lecture webcasting.

Duke University iPod First Year Experience
Duke's University Center for Instructional Technology coordinated an evaluation of the academic use of iPod, drawing on course-level feedback; student and faculty focus groups; a broad survey of first-year students and faculty; and discussions and feedback among staff, administrators and important campus stakeholder groups. This evaluation focused on the feasibility and effectiveness of the iPod as a tool for faculty and student academic use. This report summarizes the main findings of this collaborative assessment effort.

Using Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students' Sense of Community
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, July 2007
This paper reports the findings of a case study in which audio feedback replaced text-based feedback in asynchronous courses. Previous research has demonstrated that participants in online courses can build effective learning communities through text based communication alone. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that instructors for online courses can adequately project immediacy behaviors using text-based communication. However, we believed that the inclusion of an auditory element might strengthen both the sense of community and the instructor’s ability to affect more personalized communication with students.

101 Uses for Second Life in Education by Dr. Megan S. Conklin
Dr. Megan Conklin has written this paper discussing 101 ways that SL can be used in education. She also addresses many of the challenges and considerations that must be taken when implementing SL in the classroom.

Putting a Second Life “METAVERSE” Skin on Learning Management Systems
This paper outlines the advantages and weaknesses of Multi-User Virtual Environments for teaching and explores the possible benefits of integrating them
closely with traditional Learning Management Systems.

Is "As Good As Face-to-Face" As Good As it Gets? Note: Clicking on this link will directly download a PDF of the article.
This articles puts a new, fresh spin on defining quality online learning.