More and more universities are looking for a better solution for their online courses. Colleges such as the University of Oregon are searching for better online systems that would improve their existing online platforms for students. Diane Dietz, a reporter for The Register-Guard, reports that, “Both the UO and OSU are in the process of seeking better systems.” Dietz explains that colleges are looking for platforms that “would, ideally, be easy for students to navigate, robust enough to hold and run course content such as videos or even learning games, and within the universities’ means.” The problem, universities report, is the question of whether online courses meet quality standards. The University of Oregon and OSU are both looking for ways to get and maintain quality. Along with 17 other public institutions, they came together for from a Personalized Learning Consortium. Within this group, they attempt to create specific standards and outcomes from courses such as English, economics, pre-calculus, biology and psychology. On another note, OSU has found a separate way to measure quality standards. Dietz claims, “Quality Matters, a Maryland –based nonprofit group, offers a means to evaluate and certify the design of online courses. Five OSU online courses are […]
The experimental method–known to many scientists as the best scientific method out there. The experimental method is widely applauded for its ability to create the most accurate results in studies. But the method isn’t just for testing medicine anymore, researchers are now starting to take the experimental to the world of education. Why? Researchers found that simply using “hunches”, “guesses”, or whatever feels like the right way to teach, doesn’t always work. In order to improve our students’ performance, we need to support our teaching methods with data and hard evidence. The Institution of Education Sciences has taken up the opportunity to test out the experimental method in the classroom. In fact, the institution has performed over 175 studies. These studies, based on the principles of the experimental method, use randomization to guarantee reliable outcomes. With the use of randomization, researchers are able to divide a group of volunteers into an “experimental therapy” group or the “standard therapy” group. By randomly assigning volunteers into groups, it eliminates the chance of there being a placebo effect. Thanks to the incorporation of science into the education field, scientists have been able to make some interesting discoveries. For example, a new study found […]
The discussion of class material is a necessary learning tool that is often overlooked by most online learning management systems. Students frequently are unable to discuss what’s being taught in classes with other students and can’t ask beneficial questions concerning certain classes. Online students have a need to share ideas about specific classes with specific audiences, and they seldom can have these needs met. IQ, however, has a solution. Groups are a great way to reach a more targeted audience. Create groups that are public or private and manage the invites and attendees. Group admins can choose who can invite other members to the group and whether others on the network can join the private group without an invitation. Students and teachers have the ability to post rich media to the group activity streams. Members can: • Create private groups (by invitation only) • Create public open groups • Create secret groups (not listed in directory) • Full post and comment functions within groups • View recent activity posts • View recent discussions posts (activity) • Use optional group directory listing • Archive or remove groups • Share group activity within stream (only those in groups see posts) • Distribute […]
iQ is able to solve the issues that comes along with distance learning. With most online courses, collaborating with other students is limited. With iQ, you can easily message other students, join study groups for specific courses, and participate in video group studies with peers. Students can not only interact with fellow students from the same course, but can interact with students from any course. These are just some of the ways iQ can provide optimal collaboration between students and teachers: iQ Technologies provides a series of functions and services that are aimed at surfacing public conversations that occur in a iQ social environment. These services include hashtags, shared posts, trending topics, RSS, likes and comments. The iQ platform is built to evolve the experience of discovering and participating in conversations that are happening in real-time, therefore, enabling users quick access and filtering of posts by topic, media type, audience and periodicity. The community Blogs, Events, and Groups features allow users to share content to external channels publicly or privately. More than discovering content, the iQ platform enables users to share content seamlessly to Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Conversely, users can migrate content from their consumer social accounts directly into […]
As everyone knows, college tuition is rising so quickly you might miss it if you blink. But could it be that the rate of tuition has actually exceeded the rate of inflation? According to Dr. Richard Vedder, it has. Jasmine Evans, a writer for “Diverse” magazine, uncovers, “According to a report by the Delta Cost Project, tuition for a public four-year institution in 1970 was $358 per semester. If tuition had grown in pace with inflation, the average tuition at public colleges would have been $2,052 in 2010. Instead, the average per semester tuition at public colleges and universities was $6,695 in 2010.” How could this be? According to Dr. Richard Vedder, a Professor at Ohio University, it’s simple. Colleges see no reason to lower their tuition costs, as the competition to get into colleges is too high. Professor Thomas Epenshade, has another theory. When colleges are entirely focused on granting degrees, hiring more staff is essential. With the increase in staff, comes with higher costs, leading to higher tuition. This dramatic increase in tuition brings many implications. Students who must take out student loans feel pressured to pursue a career that can pay off that debt, but not necessarily […]
In a recent BBC video, the latest innovative technology made specifically to advance education in classrooms. BETT, British Educational Training and Technology, hosted an international fair in the UK. Teachers and students from all around the world came to see the many new technological advances offered in education. Companies such as Google, Lego Education, ITS learning, Panasonic, and other technology companies were present and displayed all that was to offer in the technology world. Promethean, an education technology company displayed their newest tablets and interactive boards to students and teachers. Promethean’s tablets provide students with hands on learning and a mobile learning system. Elmo, a company that produces sophisticated and high-tech document cameras, revealed their latest product. The newest Elmo camera displays documents to an entire class and has an option to mark the document from the computer. These are just some of the amazing technology innovations trending world-wide. Stephen Heppel, a professor at Bournemouth University, stated, “technology has opened the door to a world of learning…we’ve gone from a world where we chose the technology and gave it to the students to a world where they bring the technology to the door.” Incorporating technology into the world of education […]
Part of an interesting article from Forbes. “While I’d argue that investing time and resources into a social media strategy is most definitely a necessity in 2013, I believe the tipping point in public sentiment from ‘should have’ to ‘must have’ will occur in 2014. Businesses are already coming to terms with the need to integrate their social media efforts with their content strategy, and are seeing the impact of social media in terms of lead generation, referral traffic, and revenue. As businesses see these very real and measurable benefits, I believe we’ll see a move away from assigning social media tasks to existing employees, and see even more companies hiring social media strategists or full-time social media managers. The benefits of social media are many, but they include: Improved social signals (which are a factor in the search ranking algorithm). Company branding Improved brand awareness Word-of-mouth advertising Increased customer loyalty and trust Improved audience reach and influence” Social media is the future to generate traffic and revenue for various companies and organizations.
Some of the cons of getting an online education can be erased through making the online experience social. What are some of the cons? · Limited professor interaction: You don’t get an instant answer to a question or get to meet up with the professor during office hours. · Limited social interaction: Which, let’s face it, is often the one of the main reasons we go to school. The degree is often the perk for the whole campus experience. · You have to be self-disciplined: You don’t have your classmates or professor nagging you to study and complete homework on time. What is the magic eraser to this dilemma? Turning the online campus experience social. The majority of up and coming students are regular social networking users. In a recent study it was discovered that as social media sites continue to grow in popularity that technology is a vital part of today’s student success equation. In a study group pertaining to social media use and college students: 31% have full time jobs, 30% part-time jobs, and 39% do not have a job. The results of the survey questionnaire indicate that 45% of the sample admitted that they spent 6-8 hours […]
Juggling school, work, and social time can be a very challenging task, and a challenge many college students are familiar with. Students find themselves having to work a full-time job, keep up in school work, and struggle trying to keep up a social life. Often students who are so bombarded with activities and work skip out on the necessary sleep they need. So how do students manage to juggle it all? Many would say it is impossible to do without making sleep a sacrifice, but we are here to tell you it is not. “6 Simple Ways to Balance School with Work and Family”, a helpful posting written by Alex Bach, has some pretty useful tips to help you manage your busy agenda. He believes that these tips would be applicable for the many students who are enrolled in an online school program. Here are a few of our favorites: Create “to-do” lists: Bach described that writing out what needs to be completed helps you thoroughly organize your thoughts and boil down a big day into little tasks. Know where you study best: Bach expressed that people who need quiet to study must put themselves in a less-distracting environment. He […]
E-mail: Its been around since 1971 and used to be quite the popular tool, but is it now considered “old fashioned”? Teachers are using it to contact students with important schedule changes or reminders of upcoming homework due dates. Teachers are finding, however, that students don’t check their email for these announcements and some don’t even know that they have a school e-mail. Why are students, especially college aged, so disinterested in e-mail? According to The New York Times, students are much more interested in social media than they are a 40-year-old electronic messaging system. However, teacher’s find themselves in hesitation to add students as friends on Facebook, as they don’t want to be informed of their social lives. Along with social media, students find text-messaging much more stimulating. E-mail is just “too slow compared to texting”, wrote a teacher to The New York Times. So, if student’s keep up with the newest technology, shouldn’t teachers? Here at IQ technologies, we think so. That’s why we’ve integrated technology into world of education. Read more about this topic and visit the article here.