Friday, March 25, 2005

Navy Commissions Open Source R&D [Slashdot:] 7:42:52 PM      Google It!.

Contrasting LMS Marketing Approaches - Brian Carriere, Carl Challborn, James Moore and Theodorus Nibourg, IRRODL. The first section of this report examines the CourseCompass learning management system (LMS), made available to educators by the Pearson publishing group as a vehicle for the company’s extensive content library. The product’s features are discussed, and t [Online Learning Update] 7:18:11 PM      Google It!.

Course Management System Utilization and Implications for Practice - Charles F. Harrington, Scott A. Gordon, Timothy J. Schibik, OJDLA. Over time, higher education has seen a number of innovations, some revolutionary, others having minimal to no impact (Katz, 2003). Over the last decade, the development of computer software and hardware directed toward education and the teaching and learning process has had tremendous impact on course delivery (Glahn and Gen, 2002; Katz, 2003). During this period, higher education has been witness to fundamental changes from courses delivered in the traditional face-to-face method to those delivered via video cassette and television, to a proliferation of courses and course content delivered via computer technologies. In recent years, the use of Internet resources (i.e. web pages) in course and curriculum development has made a significant impact on teaching and learning. The use of the Internet has evolved from the display of static, dull, and lifeless information to a rich multimedia environment that is both engaging, dynamic, and user friendly (Powel and Gill, 2003) [Online Learning Update] 10:31:55 AM      Google It!.

Paying for Better Teaching. Here's a radical idea--pay big dollars to get better teaching! This article from Inside Higher Ed (March 23, 2005) reports on grant activities at the Hughes Institute: "The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (with an endowment in excess of $12 billion) ... in 2002 it decided to turn 20 professors at research universities into 'million dollar professors,' giving them each $1 million to push for real change in the way students are taught at top universities. In terms of grants for curricular or teaching change, where many professors are thrilled to get $50,000 from a foundation or relief from teaching one course, $1 million is huge." This initiative departs from the usual approach in higher education (and US education K thru X), which is to pay less than auto assembly line wages, and expect to get the workers/teachers to come up with new car designs that their students can drive away in four years. "Three years into the program, evidence is emerging that the Hughes grants are indeed changing many courses. While the efforts of the various professors differ, there is a strong emphasis on making introductory courses more exciting, looking for ways to enhance professor-student interaction even in large lecture courses, and trying new approaches to testing what students learn." These efforts to improve teaching could be multiplied many times if the Hughes grants were also tied into an MIT-style opencourseware commitment. ____JH [EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online] 10:08:53 AM      Google It!.