Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Obama: Community colleges central to economic recovery

Obama spoke to more than 100 community college officials at the White House.
Obama spoke to more than 100 community college officials at the White House. (Courtesy White House photographer Pete Souza)

During an Oct. 5 White House summit, Obama administration officials and community college leaders discussed ways to position two-year colleges as training hubs that could be instrumental in the country’s economic recovery. And technology, they said, would be a centerpiece to enrolling more students and boosting completion rates.

The gathering of more than 100 community college decision makers from across the country was the White House’s first-ever Summit on Community Colleges, where top federal officials lauded two-year colleges as a bridge to jobs and four-year universities, and a way to lead the world in college graduates by 2020.

The Community College Summit was held a day after President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board announced its Skills for America’s Future program, which aims to connect businesses with community colleges to help better match workers with jobs during the economic recovery and beyond.…Read More

Do students need more online privacy education?

One privacy expert says colleges should stress internet-use policies in the aftermath of the Rutgers suicide.
One privacy expert says colleges should stress internet-use policies in the aftermath of the Rutgers suicide.

Privacy advocates say the rules regarding internet privacy and appropriate online behavior should be stressed at colleges and universities, especially among incoming freshmen, in the wake of a Rutgers University student’s suicide after a video of him having sex was posted on the web without his consent.

A lawyer for Tyler Clementi, who was a freshman at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., confirmed that Clementi had jumped off the George Washington Bridge last month. Clementi’s suicide came days after the student’s private sex acts were made available in an online broadcast set up by two students—Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both 18—who were later charged with invasion of privacy, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan.

The investigation began “after Rutgers police learned that the camera had been placed in the 18-year-old student’s dorm room without permission,” according to a Sept. 28 release from Kaplan’s office. Kaplan said Wei was released after surrendering to Rutgers University Police Sept. 27. Ravi was released on $25,000 bail.…Read More

New site helps students compare private loans

The student loan application process can hurt a student's credit score.
The student loan application process can hurt a student's credit score.

Students at private, nonprofit colleges and universities in 12 states can use a new online service to find a school loan, avoiding complex web searches that discourage students from finding the best deal.

The Marketplace, a web site launched in August, offers private loan options that show student applicants how much they will be charged before submitting their loan application.

Without the one-stop-shopping site for private school loans, students are left to manage a circuitous route through various sites that make it impossible to compare loans and interest rates.…Read More

For-profit schools hit back as ED finalizes regulations

Duncan has received a series of letters from members of Congress opposing a for-profit crackdown.
Duncan has received a series of letters from members of Congress who oppose a for-profit crackdown.

The U.S. Education Department (ED) will take longer than expected to formulate new regulations for for-profit colleges, and private-sector school officials expect about 1,000 students to speak out against the government’s measures at a rally planned for Sept. 29 in Washington, D.C.

For-profit colleges have campaigned hard against the “gainful employment” rule, which would cut off federal aid to college vocational programs with high student debt levels and poor loan repayment rates. They’ve lobbied Congress, purchased newspaper ads, and helped students and others register complaints with ED.

The government was to publish its final rules by Nov. 1, but ED officials announced a new timeline on Sept. 24, saying sections of the plan would be ready by Nov. 1 and the remaining portions will be published in early 2011.…Read More

University libraries not hurrying to the mobile web

UC San Diego's mobile library site is among the relatively few in higher education.
UC San Diego's mobile library site is among the relatively few in higher education.

The University of California, San Diego, has joined a small list of schools with library web sites accessible through any smart phone as campus technology leaders try to meet student demand for anytime, anywhere access to library databases.

UC San Diego officials announced the new web site—designed for iPhones, Droids, and other popular smart phones—Sept. 23, highlighting the “Ask a Librarian” feature that lets students chat, text message, or call library staff using the mobile site.

Students also will have easy access to library hours, directions to the building, and a library catalog where they can look for books and other resources and request items to pick up.…Read More

Facebook Places: Marketing tool or educational asset?

UK's Facebook Places ad campaign guides students to an educational web site.
UK's Facebook Places ad campaign guides students to an educational web site.

The University of Kentucky, if all goes according to the campus’s marketing plan, could pop up in 1.3 million Facebook news feeds during the fall semester—and students might just learn something about maintaining online privacy in the process.

The Lexington, Ky., university placed six-foot wooden Facebook Places logos in six campus locations with the heaviest foot traffic to encourage students to “check in” using Facebook’s geo-tagging application, which lets users show friends where they are—the campus library, for instance.

Places, which is similar to geo-tagging services Yelp, Gowalla, Booyah, and Foursquare, launched in August and drew skeptical reviews from many in higher education. Facebook users must opt into Places before the application displays the person’s location.…Read More

Students: Social media blackout eye-opening, ‘annoying’

Harrisburg students admit to finding ways around the school's social media ban.
Harrisburg students admit to finding ways around the school's social media ban.

Students at Harrisburg University, where technology officials recently deprived students of social media access for one week, said the restriction was a minor inconvenience for many on campus, and showed some students just how tethered to popular social sites they had become.

IT decision makers at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania–a campus of about 600 students established in 2001–banned access to Facebook, Twitter, AOL Instant Messenger, and MySpace through the school’s network during the week of Sept. 13 as a way of showing students how ingrained the technology has become in their everyday lives.

Harrisburg also hosted a panel of social media experts during the experimental week who discussed privacy and security issues in social media, how the technology is used to communicate with mass audiences, and how the professional world has adapted to the exponential popularity of sites like Facebook.…Read More

Viewpoint: Ed tech helps with tough-to-teach courses

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Web-based tools helped one instructor teach one of the toughest psychology classes at his university.

As a former computer science undergraduate major who has done graduate work in cognitive science, I have been following the development of new internet-based, interactive, and adaptive higher-education platforms currently on the market.

These programs incorporate the most recent developments in cognitive science and artificial intelligence to customize the learning process while providing instructors with new course preparation and administrative tools.

The reason I decided to switch to internet-based education tools was mainly because of Introduction to Psychology, which is known as one of the most difficult courses in the psychology curriculum to teach. Classes tend to be very large, and students come to the course with a wide range of prior knowledge, expectations, and preconceptions.…Read More

Free online school coming to some in Haiti

Most of Haiti's campuses were destroyed in January's earthquake.
Most of Haiti's campuses were destroyed in January's earthquake.

The founder of the tuition-free online University of the People said providing an education for Haitians after a massive earthquake destroyed most of their country’s colleges could demonstrate the value of a web-based university infrastructure targeting those in developing nations.

The university, launched last year by founder and president Shai Reshef, announced Sept. 20 that it would join the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in the organization’s efforts to help Haiti recover from a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people, according to government estimates.

University of the People committed to enrolling 250 college students from Haiti into its free online programs, including computer science or business administration, over the next three years. The 600-student university is not yet accredited, but officials have pledged to achieve accreditation in the coming years.…Read More

Students give video lectures high marks

More than half of students said streaming lectures improved their grades.
More than half of students said streaming video lectures have improved their grades.

College students gave video lectures high marks in a recent survey, although many students supported the technology because it freed up more time for napping and hanging out with friends.

And three in 10 said their parents would be “very upset” if they knew just how often their child missed class and relied on their course web site.

A majority of students who responded to the survey, conducted by audio, internet, and video conferencing provider InterCall, said they would only attend a live lecture if an exam were scheduled for that day, or to borrow notes from a classmate. The survey didn’t indicate the percentage of students who took this position.…Read More