“American Public Education's stock tumbles 28%” plus 3 more |
- American Public Education's stock tumbles 28%
- Online Trade Schools: Can Experience Be Earned Online?
- Why Online Education Needs to Get Social
- 6 Ways Colleges Are Trying to Lower the Cost of a Higher Education
| American Public Education's stock tumbles 28% Posted: 06 Aug 2010 07:58 AM PDT SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- American Public Education /quotes/comstock/15*!apei/quotes/nls/apei (APEI 28.96, -13.71, -32.13%) shares fell 28%, or $12, to $30.63 Friday after the provider of online higher-education degree programs said it's recently observed "adverse changes" in the pattern of growth of net course registrations from active-duty military students at its American Military University. It revised its forecasts for the third quarter of 2010 and said previous forward-looking expectations "should no longer be relied on." Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Online Trade Schools: Can Experience Be Earned Online? Posted: 05 Aug 2010 08:45 AM PDT Online Trade Schools are becoming more common. In the process though, many employers are wondering just how practical online experience can be. While online courses can often assist education that is still routed in real world classrooms and curriculum, a degree from a completely online trade school seems unlikely. Yesterday, we posted the following news as it relates to trade based education - and it's certainly worth a second read... Trade schools educational plans are always being debated, based on what seemingly works here and there. When the dust settles though, the primary issue is ensuring that trade school students receive adequate hands on training. Provided that this happens, students attending trade schools are more successful. When it comes to making drastic changes to school culture, it's easier to do in a small school system such as Whitfield County Schools than in a large one. That's according to Larry Rosenstock, founding principal of the internationally-recognized High Tech High campus in San Diego. Rosenstock spoke to about 150 educators and community leaders Monday night at the Whitfield Career Academy. The Whitfield school district of about 13,500 students for several years has studied High Tech High, paid to send educators to visit the campus, and designed lessons and teaching philosophies that model the same approaches as the California school. High Tech High spends $5,800 per student and boasts a 100 percent graduation rate while Whitfield spends about $8,000 per student and an 82.8 percent graduation rate. High Tech High began in 2000 as a single charter high school launched by a coalition of San Diego business leaders and educators. High Tech High now includes nine schools (five high schools, three middle schools and one elementary school), about 3,500 students and approximately 350 employees. The key to success at High Tech High is creating an educational culture entirely outside the norm of the traditional public education, Rosenstock said. There are no bells. Students just change classes when it's time. Honors students and traditional students enroll in the same classes, but those with more advanced skills do more advanced work. Adults show respect to students and receive it in return, Rosenstock said. There aren't bathrooms only for students and bathrooms only for adults -- there are just bathrooms. In fact, teachers there think having fun is one of the most important elements of school. Take "fun" a step further to include a determination to succeed even when the going gets tough, and you have what educators call the highest pinnacle of motivation: engagement. "Engagement means not just 'fun' but that you care, that you want to do it," Rosenstock said. Westside Middle School Principal Stanley Stewart is convinced that project-based learning is key to engagement for many students. All of the sixth-graders in Whitfield County Schools last year had heavy doses of project-based learning, and educators plan to incorporate the same approaches in the seventh grade this year. At Westside, sixth-graders studied World War II through traditional lectures and reading but took it a step further by building their own era-style trenches, researching the kinds of artillery that were used, then presenting their projects at an open house. "I think that 10 years from now, my kids will still remember that," Stewart said. Does it work? Not everyone is convinced project-based learning is key to success. Board of Education candidates Rodney Lock, Jessica Swinford and Tony Stanley have campaigned on platforms that include some concerns with project-based learning, the amount of money spent to train teachers in using it, or both. Some parents critical of the style of learning complain their children aren't given enough homework and don't use textbooks in class. Not all educators support the changes in teaching methods, saying that some concepts are better communicated by traditional methods. Even Rosenstock said not every lesson at High Tech High does or should include a project. He also acknowledged the school needs to work harder on strengthening students' reading and writing skills in preparation for college. Based only on test scores, the local results of project-based learning and High Tech High-like methods have been mixed. For example, students met standards in math, reading and language arts on the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests at Westside Middle this spring. So did sixth-graders at New Hope Middle. Based on preliminary results that will be updated in the fall to include summer retests, sixth-graders at Valley Point and Eastbrook fell short in math, reading and English while sixth-graders at North Whitfield fell short in math. Also, Cedar Ridge Elementary -- a first-year school that prides itself on project-based learning and creating a fun and engaging environment -- fell considerably short on CRCT math. Only 52 percent of students met or exceeded math standards, causing the school to miss making Adequate Yearly Progress, a federally-mandated set of performance standards. At the Career Academy, every freshman was enrolled in the 21st Century Learning Academy where many of the High Tech High concepts were implemented, including a heavy emphasis on project-based learning. The school missed making AYP after falling half a percentage point short of the required 80 percent graduation rate, but officials have said they expect summer graduations and retests will bring the school up to standards. The school met standards, however, in academics. High school students do not take the CRCT, but a county-wide writing test administered this spring shows 86 percent of 21st Century Learning Students passed the tests while 66 percent of students system-wide did so. The 21st Century Learning Academy expands to the 10th grade this year. 'We can do anything we want to do' Phillip Brown was principal of the Career Academy since it opened in 2005 but is serving this year as the district's career and technical coordinator. Key to making change, he said, is getting out of the mindset that schools are tied to state and federal regulations in everything they do. "From 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock, we can do anything we want to do ... If we realize we can do anything we want to do, what is it we want school to be for our students?" Brown said. "What attracted me to what's happening at High Tech High right now, is that's probably the purest integration of academics and career tech I've ever seen." Rosenstock said there's a heavy focus on learning through internships, a concept that hearkens back to the days when students learning a trade -- like candle-making or printing or pharmacology -- would learn it by working with someone already in practice. Students also publish research books each year in fields such as geology, and local scientists visit the school to critique their projects. A High Tech High-like school can be created anywhere, Rosenstock said, but community buy-in is essential. In San Diego, High Tech High emerged amid larger schools that were not performing as well as the public wanted and as the economic landscape began to shift toward industries that demand a high-tech workforce. "The question is whether you really feel that the way things are right now are good enough," Rosenstock said. "... It's a question of wanting to do it." June Montgomery, who taught at Northwest Whitfield High School for six years, is entering her first year as a ninth-grade science teacher at the Career Academy and said she was inspired by Rosenstock's talk. Montgomery said she's received little training in project-based learning and nontraditional teaching methods besides a crash course from other Career Academy educators the last three days of post-planning last spring. "That's going to take some getting used to," she said, "but it sounds exciting." Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Why Online Education Needs to Get Social Posted: 06 Aug 2010 02:16 AM PDT
Marshall McLuhan's classic expression " the medium is the message" hasn't lost its luster yet, as entrepreneurs and designers re-invent products and services for the web, unleashing thousands of new applications and sites every single day. The news industry is also in the throes of adjusting to the digital age, with countless print publications failing and folding after many years in the business while online news outlets and other platforms for news sharing, proliferate. Education is the second largest industry in America behind health care, and it too is experiencing a similar shift as it struggles to adapt traditional design and delivery models to the demands of modern audiences who are accustomed to digital interactivity. The challenge to transition successfully is especially pressing for online higher education. The Sloan Consortium reports that two-thirds of post-secondary educational institutions are seeing an increase in online courses and programs, so it's a market that education providers simply cannot afford to ignore. It's About Course Quality, not QuantityAll too frequently, providers meet the challenge of satisfying the rising demand for online education by simply throwing courses up on the web and seeing what sticks, without catering to student needs. This amounts to a loser's gamble since it risks pushing away students looking for schools that boast high online student retention rates. After all, why would you want to spend valuable tuition dollars on a school that isn't likely to hold your interest long enough to earn a degree? What's required are innovative approaches to course design that set aside old models of instruction where theory often trumps actuality. Online course providers must embrace the web's potential to match students with the kinds of timely knowledge and skills that address current issues head-on, and enable them to thrive in the global marketplace. It's not enough for a course to be accessible online, it must also be designed in a way that keys into the digital pulse of current events, trending topics and insider knowledge endemic to the web. The three-quarters of 18 to 29 year-olds who have profiles on social networks are likely wondering why online course offerings aren't nearly as enticing as the content that they find on their favorite social websites. To attract and retain the typical college-age demographic, as well as the larger population of adult learners in search of relevant and engaging educational content, the next generation of online education must be characterized by courses that build in the social, real-time information capturing components that have made the web such a dynamic medium for sharing information and knowledge. Learning From Events in Real-TimeConsider what's happened recently in the Gulf of Mexico. BP's major oil spill is perhaps even "the" news story of the year. By now facts, opinions, and graphic images of the damage and underwater video of the spewing oil have been circulated on countless websites, informing our shock and outrage. The wonders of the digital age have successfully kept us current on the disaster in real-time, but how can they help us repair the mess and learn about our mistakes? How can we enlist the social media zeitgeist in order to build a better online learning paradigm? Unfortunately, higher education providers are not racing to develop online courses that can seize on important events events like these, as they happen. Beyond the immediate victims, there are millions of people around the world who would certainly be inclined to learn about the incident so that they can apply the lessons to their own lives and communities. In mid July, another major oil spill occurred in the Yellow Sea, after the explosion of an oil terminal in the port city of Dalian, China. And recently, in Michigan, nearly a million gallons of oil leaked out of a forty year-old pipeline and into the Kalamazoo River. Innovation PaysThe web, as a real-time medium, is begging us to build innovative courses that can be used for the rapid delivery of education designed in a way that integrates current news, information, insights and research about topics like the oil spill and thousands of other current issues. After exploring some of the leading interactive educational sites that have been created by public institutions and non-profit entities, including Webby nominee Your Life, Your Money and Webby winner The Ocean Portal, it's hard not to come away wondering why online courses rarely rise to the same level of quality and relevance. The most obvious explanation for this is the relatively high cost of producing an online course with similar design and functionality, plus, the added back-end resources involved in administering such a course. But is the cost really so prohibitive? One can't help but wonder what would happen if an education provider came along that offered, for starters, 20 or 30 online courses that were of "Webby" caliber. Even if the courses cost more to initially produce than your standard offering, the high market demand for online education might show that innovation pays when you begin creating online courses that look, teach and engage like they were purposed for the online medium. For the time being it's up to innovators like the folks over at TED to remind us how to use the web for exchanging knowledge in the search for solutions to global problems like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Online education providers everywhere could learn a thing or two from this approach and take a chance by creating real-time courses. More Education Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| 6 Ways Colleges Are Trying to Lower the Cost of a Higher Education Posted: 06 Aug 2010 04:21 PM PDT ');  Higher education institutions are hitting the books -- their financial books, that is. With many facing lower enrollment and revenue, and more students needing aid, colleges and universities desperately need to improve their bottom lines. The institutions, their students and their parents, and employers all stand to gain if the cost of getting a college education and earning a sheepskin becomes more affordable. To shape up, schools are trying to lower the cost and time of conferring a degree. But shaking up schools' stock and trade -- academics -- is challenging. "Change is difficult in higher education," says William "Brit" Kirwan, the chancellor for the University System of Maryland. "Despite their reputation as liberal, educational institutions are among the most conservative organizations." Among the productivity boosters they're trying: •Expanded student counseling, to help undergraduates choose classes and majors more carefully and avoid taking time-consuming detours. The hope is that students will graduate sooner and spend less of their money, as well as use fewer university resources. •A cap on how many credits academic departments can require for graduation in their major. In recent years, credit creep has pushed requirements for some majors to more than a full-time student would typically earn in four years of college. The University System of Maryland, for example, has decreed that no major can require more than 120 credits. •Increased faculty time commitments, boosting the number of classes professors teach and the number of office hours they're available to provide students with guidance. The Maryland system has mandated a 10% increase in teacher availability. That means the system can hire fewer adjunct, or temporary, teachers. •Partnerships with community colleges, to make it easier for students to start off at less-costly two-year schools, then transfer for a four-year degree. •Classes shared with other schools via audio and videoconferencing. Schools can hire fewer faculty members but still educate the same number of students by distributing teaching responsibilities across campuses. Pennsylvania's higher-education system is among those experimenting with technology to allow faculty to interact live with students in multiple locations. The collaboration is a big change, says John Cavanaugh, the chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education. "It gets into some long-held traditions that each institution is unique and does its own thing," he says. But advances in high-end conferencing are making the transition easier. Technological advances will also spur the adoption of more online classes at all schools. •And different class sizes and structures. Schools are experimenting to find the most efficient way to teach, with the hope of producing better results at a lower cost. One study showed that having slightly larger classes that met less frequently worked better, thanks to more interactive learning and less lecturing -- and the practice was lower cost, to boot. It's not all slash and burn: Schools are tracking down new revenue streams, too. Raising tuition can only get schools so far. For example, the College of New Jersey is renting out empty housing and other space during the summer. The school is also partnering with outside developers to expand its bookstore, add student housing and build a gym -- a project that would have cost the college $90 million on its own. The college will collect land lease revenues for 30 years and still improve offerings for its students. And, of course, educational institutions are taking the same cost-cutting steps as other businesses -- including shifting more health care costs to employees, paring administrative staff and so on. Energy savings across sprawling campuses are a major priority. Some of the approaches are straightforward: The College of New Jersey last year adopted a conservation program that shuts down administrative offices and most academic departments on Fridays during the summer. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania school administrators are taking advantage of the natural resources surrounding their campuses statewide. Some academic buildings and all of the new residence halls at West Chester University, for example, use geothermal energy. Public and private institutions alike are feeling the budgetary pain. State budget cuts are slashing funding for public schools across the nation: Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Florida and California, for example, have cut their overall budgets by 15%-20%. And the future looks grim, with 46 states dealing with budget shortfalls for fiscal 2011 and 39 forecasting gaps for 2012. Not to mention that billions of dollars in stimulus funds to higher education are set to run out in mid-2011. At private schools, fall enrollments are down, reducing tuition revenues. More students are requiring financial aid. Benefactors are donating less. In particular, they're giving fewer of the long-term endowment gifts that schools can plan on using a few decades from now, according to Kent John Chabotar, the president of Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. Moreover, this downturn seems to be more than temporary. Public schools, especially, see a continuing decline in state budgets and know they must make permanent changes. In previous economic recessions, "a chunk of money would drop out and there'd be a zigzag in revenues," says Jane Wellman, the executive director of the Delta Project, which studies postsecondary education costs and spending. Schools would muddle through by slashing budgets and raising tuition. "Now we've got a triple whammy," she says: Revenues and spending at unsustainable levels and a president who wants to increase the number of postsecondary degrees attained each year. To meet Obama's goal for the population aged 24 to 35 alone would require 15 million degrees above what's likely at the current pace. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
Marco Masoni is a lawyer turned educator who co-founded 
| You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo! News Search Results for online education degree To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment