Quality Matters Launches Certificate Program

Quality Matters (QM), which offers quality assurance programs for online courses, is this fall expanding into online teaching certification. QM offers seven one- to two-week workshops that, when completed, award participants a Teaching Online Certificate attesting to their skills as effective online instructors. The Wednesday-to-Wednesday workshops, which cover topics such as assessment, course design and technology skills, are hosted every month, priced at $100 a week for members.

A guide to virtual education data

“The National Forum on Education Statistics has created a guide to elementary and secondary virtual education data. The term “virtual education” may include, but is not limited to, digital learning, distributed learning, open learning, online learning, computer-based learning, distance learning, blended learning, and other similar terms.In the document, a Virtual Education Working Group provides recommendations for collecting accurate, comparable, and useful data about virtual education. The guide also provides real-world examples and common practices implemented by state departments, local districts, and schools to modify their data systems and add elements that better reflect the needs unique to virtual education.

The guide was developed to assist state and local education agencies and other education stakeholders, such as policymakers and researchers, as they 1) consider the impact of virtual education on established data elements and methods of data collection, and 2) address the scope of changes, the rapid pace of new technology development, and the proliferation of resources in virtual education.”

Online Ed Skepticism and Self-Sufficiency: Survey of Faculty Views on Technology

The  highlights of new report  from Gallup is out (they surveyed 2,799 faculty members and 288 academic technology administrators in August and September 2014). The full report is available online, but you will need to provide your name and email address. Are you optimistic or somewhat skeptical? I am always amazed how people who never taught are eager to provide their opinion on how inferior online learning is…

 

Do you have concerns about online learning?

Some are pretty typical: easier than the f2f one,  too expensive (and all that technology costs $$$), might replace instructors… Read this blog post and decide for yourself. I am a proponent of distance learning and truly believe that if done right, it could provide great learning opportunities to students, transform education, and make it more professionally rewarding for faculty!