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.

Educational innovation gets boost under new programs

The Investing in Innovation fund must be doled out by Sept. 30.
The Investing in Innovation fund must be doled out by Sept. 30.

A movement is under way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the lucrative and sometimes-tricky education market and introduce new technologies and products into classrooms.

An educator at the University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation’s only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is also getting into the act with a $650 million fund to boost education innovation.

“Here’s this [market] that is huge, that is really important, that needs innovation, and there’s just nothing out there to sort of foster it,” said Doug Lynch, vice dean of Penn’s Graduate School of Education. “Let’s create a Silicon Valley around education.”…Read More

Event calls for university transformation

Online learning is increasingly becoming more mainstream, contributing to a reinvisioning of American higher education.
Online learning is increasingly becoming more mainstream, contributing to a re-envisioning of American higher education.

While online learning is often seen as a way for adult learners to prepare for a change of career or advance skills in their current field, it is increasingly becoming the learning method of choice for younger, more traditional students as well, education experts said during a recent forum—and colleges and universities would be wise to prepare for this shift.

In the fall of 2008, 1.8 million students were enrolled in fully-online degree programs, compared with only a few thousand in 1995, said Peter Stokes, executive vice president and chief research officer for Eduventures, a higher-education research and consulting firm. It’s estimated that 4.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2008, he said.

Of the 15 institutions with the largest numbers of fully-online students, 11 are for-profit institutions.…Read More