Sunday, July 18, 2010

“On UC's Risky Venture Into Online Education / Mortarboards without the bricks” plus 2 more

“On UC's Risky Venture Into Online Education / Mortarboards without the bricks” plus 2 more

On UC's Risky Venture Into Online Education / Mortarboards without the bricks

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 06:17 AM PDT

A handful of administrators at the University of California are spearheading an effort to create an ambitious online educational program for undergraduates. The idea is that UC could become the first top-tier American university to offer a bachelor's degree over the Internet. It's a thought-provoking, fascinating and innovative concept. It's also a highly risky experiment.

Online education has a place - even in the university system. For students, it's impossible to beat the convenience and the accessibility of online learning. For workers, it can be a great way to expand their knowledge base without having to leave their jobs. Corporations, small businesses, even traffic schools - all of these institutions have shown that there's a positive place for online education in our society.

But that doesn't mean that the UC should jump into the fray.

As it stands now, online education is a hodgepodge effort by private, for-profit companies that are making gobs of money - but not providing much in the way of quality to students. UC Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, who is leading the online charge, said he first noticed this while serving on a university task force about community college transfer students. He noticed that large numbers of UC-eligible students - particularly African American and Latino students - were enrolling at for-profit online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, after graduating from community college. For whatever reason, he said, many students find online education more attractive than the experience they'd get at a bricks-and-mortar institution.

"Our inability to move quickly is creating a gap in the marketplace that these other institutions are running to fill," Edley said in a recent meeting with the editorial board.

Edley envisions a high-quality, high-interaction method of online instruction - one that would provide lots of support for both teachers and students. "The excellence issue is what we have to resolve," he said.

That's for sure. All the PowerPoint slides and chat rooms in the world can't replicate the power of an in-person learning experience, and it's hard to see how a cyber UC degree would have the same status as a regular one. UC faculty members are skeptical now, but in the future, employers and graduate schools will be. Complaints about how a cyber college would dilute the university's status and dumb down learning helped bring down a similar project at the University of Illinois after two years.

Apart from concerns about status - which are real, even if they're not pretty - there's an increasing amount of research that shows online learning is qualitatively different from regular learning - and not for the better.

Last month, the National Bureau of Economic Research began circulating a report from two Duke professors that examined computer use among a half-million middle school students. Their research found that the spread of home computers and Internet access corresponded with significant declines in math and reading scores. The study follows up on others that show that increased access to online computers isn't good for student achievement. There's also a growing pile of research showing that the way we learn online is different - that we learn things less comprehensively and more distractedly. Clearly, more research needs to be done, but does the UC want to jump into something that may be degrading learning, not increasing it?

There are also questions about money. The idea is that students would pay the same to take online courses as they do to take brick-and-mortar ones. It remains to be seen if they would be willing to do so. In addition, to teach the kind of online course that Edley is talking about, the UC is going to have to invest some money. Vice Provost Daniel Greenstein estimates that each online course would cost $16,000 to $50,000 to develop and deliver. (They could not answer how much it costs to develop and deliver a regular course.) There's also ongoing technical support for both teachers and students, not to mention money for extra professors and graduate students as the university scales up to meet the demands of a larger audience.

Edley says many of these concerns will be addressed in a privately funded pilot project that will launch with 25 to 40 courses.

Given these realities - and the fact that the largest expense for any university is people - there is the possibility that this endeavor could be profitable. There is also the possibility that it could be a disaster - or that the UC would have to include so many students that it would compromise quality for the faculty, the online students and the students who have made the commitment to attend the UC in person.

This article appeared on page E - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Online learning matches UC's mission

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 06:17 AM PDT

The University of California is launching an online learning pilot program. If successful, I hope the university will embrace large-scale online instruction - not to replace the on-campus experience, but to enrich it.

More urgently, online learning would enable us to serve the growing number of qualified students for whom there will be no room on campus or for whom a residential full-time program won't work.

Online education could become central to the University of California. Technological evolution, especially social networking, is making innovations in teaching possible; even in huge courses, instruction doesn't have to be limited to the sage-on-the-stage.

Also, the bricks-and-mortar model for UC's past and present greatness faces serious budget threats. Demography and globalization mean UC should be a bigger, stronger engine of opportunity and knowledge this decade, but instead we'll be sputtering for lack of resources. (See graphic.)

Assume we can eliminate the budget gap through a combination of hard choices, donations and state funding. Even then, we face an enrollment gap, rejecting more and more eligible Californians. And a UC education likely will be decreasingly affordable, especially for the middle class.

Then we will have privatized in the worst way: Excellence + Exclusivity = an elitism noxious to a public institution.

Our purpose is to advance knowledge while democratizing excellence. To do that, we must innovate.

UC extension schools already offer 1,250 online courses. Six percent are automatically credited toward a UC degree, and about 85 percent carry transferable credits, which are usually accepted. Their quality varies and we can do better.

So, we are raising private funds to create an online learning pilot program. Before we go large scale, we must be confident the faculty can create online courses as excellent as on-campus courses.

This is no reckless revolution, but there are passionate objections to it. And responses. Among them:

The quality can't be as good. Probably wrong, but the pilot project of 25 to 40 courses will test that. A ton of research demonstrates equal or better content mastery by students taking quality online courses.

It cannot provide interaction among students and teachers. Wrong, given today's technologies. Like on-campus courses, large online classes will have discussion sections with graduate student instructors supervised by the professor. Today's desktop video conferencing allows live-video chats with 20 or more students. Instructors can hold virtual office hours and offer e-mail consultations. Social networking can create a vital online community focused on academics, although there's software to help neighbors coordinate a "real life" meet-up or a beer bash.

Students will slack off, and cheat. No. First, unlike large lecture classes, everyone gets a front-row seat. Frequent quizzes and self-assessments are a snap. Instructors can have data on levels of participation and will contact a floundering or absent student. Security strategies, like proctored regional exam sites, sophisticated software to check for plagiarism, address cheating.

It eliminates the campus experience. Wrong, sort of. The on-campus program stays. If the faculty senate and the UC regents decide to scale up the online program, it would be with new, tuition-paying, UC-eligible students we otherwise wouldn't have the room or resources to serve. And any net revenue would be plowed back into supporting the on-campus program.

It dilutes the value of a UC degree. Hmmm. No degree program is on the table now, only a pilot. I personally hope we eventually can offer at least a transfer associate degree, with the same UC admissions standards. If the concern is, "I have my fancy credential, and I don't want tons of others getting it," then I'm just no very sympathetic. We have a public mission.

Fully online undergraduate programs in selective institutions will happen. The question is when, and led by whom.

The leadership should come from the world's premier public university - which belongs to California.

Take a look: Here's how UC promotes online learning. Go to sfg.ly/cXLyKW

What kind of online instruction does UC envision?

-- It offers UC credit - It has the same academic standards, the same UC faculty, as on-campus courses.

-- It offers students instruction anywhere, any time, through Web-based multimedia learning.

-- It is "high touch," that is, teaching assistants will lead online chats and monitor discussion boards, conduct desktop webinars and video conferences. Instructors will hold office hours.

-- It tracks student progress through tests, papers, video productions, tutorials and graded-discussion groups.

-- It protects against cheating, using proctored exam sites.

-- Its courses are developed by a UC professor with the assistance of technology experts, thus ensuring the same high-quality instruction as on-campus classes.

Online Learning Pilot Project

Christopher Edley Jr. is dean of the UC Berkeley Law School.

This article appeared on page E - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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NYC hoops legend calls recent college degree his greatest feat

Posted: 18 Jul 2010 04:39 PM PDT

Kenny Anderson was the top high-school prospect in the country. He helped lead Georgia Tech to the Final Four and was an all-star in the NBA with the New Jersey Nets.

But to the Queens native, none of those things can compare to getting his college degree. Earlier this year, Anderson completed online courses at St. Thomas University to earn a bachelor's in organizational leadership.

"That topped it all, because it's the hardest thing I did," the New York City hoops legend said. "Basketball and all that other stuff is easy. That's just going to the gym and putting in the work. I think focusing on education and going back to school after 20 years takes a lot of commitment, discipline and concentration. It's very difficult."

On Sunday, Anderson was at Hoops in the Sun at Orchard Beach in The Bronx to be a part of the Bash at the Beach festivities, which featured a 16-and-under all-star game and 3-point shooting contest, a clinic run by the Nets and the league's annual all-star game, pitting the best from HITS against the top players from Baltimore.

"It meant everything to me," Hoops in the Sun CEO Joe Cruz said. "He's my childhood hero, the one I looked up to when I was playing basketball. I got his jersey, his first card. It's like surreal for me. Somebody you idolize and you have a chance to meet him at my house? It's definitely an honor."

Anderson, 39, isn't in the Big Apple much these days. He lives in Boca Raton, Fla., where he has a few things on the horizon. The Kenny Anderson Basketball Academy, co-run by 24 Hour Fitness, has two locations in the Sunshine State and sets out to train teenage players.

"I just love training kids, I love being in the gym," Anderson said. "I love the smell of the gym. That's just something I love to do."

It also goes hand in hand with the other thing he wants to do: coaching. Anderson said he has had preliminary discussions with Florida Atlantic coach Mike Jarvis about being a part of his staff. The former Archbishop Molloy superstar previously coached the Atlanta Krunk of the CBA before the league was sold and underwent a reorganization.

"I played for a lot of great coaches and that's a great thing for me," Anderson said. "I'll take a little bit from everybody, but I think I will be a pretty good coach, because I know the game. And now it's how you get guys motivated, how you make that transition to teaching them."

One of those great coaches, of course, is Molloy's Jack Curran, who is the winningest head man in New York City high school basketball history. Anderson still says he calls Curran at least once or twice a month.

"That's my favorite coach," Anderson said. "I love him. He taught me how to lead a team, be a true point guard. I had the talent, but he taught me the inner [workings] of how to be a leader."

The former Nets star hopes to be leading from the sidelines one day soon. The word meant so much to him that he got a college degree in it. Anderson calls that his biggest accomplishment.

"After leaving the game and after 20 year of not having my degree going back and getting it, it was awesome," he said. "There were times where I wanted to quit, but I kept pushing myself."

mraimondi@nypost.com

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