‘New York Times’ Enters Distance Learning Market

The New York Times on Thursday announced a major push into higher education — with new efforts to provide distance education, course content and social networking. A number of colleges are already either committed to using the new technologies or are in negotiations to start doing so, evidence of the strong power of the Times brand in academe.

If successful, the enterprises could help some colleges start or expand distance education and might provide professors and students with information that might replace the need for some textbooks or course materials, college officials say.

In distance education, the Times will be providing technology and marketing for non-credit courses taught by college and university professors. Funds from tuition revenue will be split (with the precise formula varying) between the colleges and the Times. Among the institutions that are already part of the effort are Mount Holyoke College

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The New Economy, Technology, and Learning Outcomes Assessment

Answering calls for change entails meaningful assessments of technology-enabled learning. By Anne H. Moore
According to Claudia Goldin, the "new economy" at the beginning of the 20th century was driven by such phenomena as greater use of science by industry; the proliferation of academic disciplines; the diffusion of a series of critical inventions (including small electric motors, the internal combustion engine, the airplane, and chemical processes); the rise of big business; and the growth of retailing.1 Progress for industrial nations depended on educating more people at secondary and postsecondary levels. The United States established an education system that produced more educated citizens and workers, enabled geographic and economic mobility, resulted in large decreases in inequality of economic outcomes, and may have increased technological change and productivity (though that is harder to prove, she wrote). It was largely a decentralized, forgiving education system that—in the context of the day—was highly successful. Today, however, more than one hundred years later, economic and social drivers are quite different, calling into question some of the assumptions that underlie our institutions of higher education.

The "new economy" of the 21st century is driven in large measure by unprecedented advances in transportation and in computing, information, and communications technologies. To be competitive, industrialized and developing nations alike are driven by needs such as greater use of science and new technologies by average citizens; more interdisciplinary work; greater understanding of highly complex, interacting systems; new and renewed efforts at building community and solving local challenges in the face of globalization and massification; and a substantial rethinking of retailing, services, and business in general as a result of changing tools, physical possibilities, and financial opportunities.

In The Singularity Is Near, Ray Kurzweil proposed that the exponential rates of technological change in modern times offer possibilities for gestalt shifts in the way we approach many challenges.2 For such shifts to occur in today's new economy, time-honored content and emerging ideas will be joined in innovative ways with old and new technologies to benefit modern society's needs. In fresh approaches to teaching and learning, deciding what students need to know and should be able to do—in the context of a changing panoply of computing, information, and communications technologies—is a critical first step.

Next come rigorous assessments that demonstrate the manner and degree to which learning takes place. More important, these assessments must evaluate information literacies, technology fluencies, and content competencies together, not as separate remnants of last century's economic and social imperatives.

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More complaints lead to Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent

Patent Office Orders Re-Examination of Blackboard Patent

NEW YORK, January 25, 2007 -- In response to a formal request filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today ordered re-examination of the e-learning patent owned by Blackboard Inc.

SFLC, provider of pro-bono legal services to protect and advance Free and Open Source Software, had filed the request in November on behalf of Sakai, Moodle, and ATutor, three open source educational software projects. The Patent Office found that prior art cited in SFLC's request raises "a substantial new question of patentability" regarding all 44 claims of Blackboard's patent.

The patent in question, "Internet-based education support system and methods" (U.S. 6988138), grants Blackboard a monopoly on most educational software that differentiates between the roles of teacher and student until the year 2022. In July, Blackboard filed a lawsuit against Desire2Learn, a competing educational software maker, alleging infringement of its e-learning patent.

Although Desire2Learn's software is not open source, the open source and educational software communities responded with concern to the possibility of an additional lawsuit that targets them.

"We filed this re-examination request to help free software developers create and distribute their original software without having to fear being sued over this patent, a patent that should never have been awarded in the first place," said Richard Fontana, the SFLC attorney who filed the re-examination request. "We are now a step closer to keeping everyone safe from this patent."

A re-examination of this type usually takes one or two years to complete. Roughly 70% of re-examinations are successful in having a patent narrowed or completely revoked.

Shortly after SFLC filed its request for re-examination, Desire2Learn filed its own separate re-examination request. The USPTO has not yet acted on that request.

Distance / E-learning and Podcast Teaching

The use of audio files, specifically podcasts, has become more visible and accessible to students in higher education. Despite a lack of pedagogical research on the benefits of podcasting, several universities have adopted the technology of using audio for instruction outside of class and sharing of information. Although institutions and instructors have embraced the technology, have the students? A professor in an introductory geoscience course for nonscience majors recorded the audio from classroom lectures and made these audio files available through the university’s online course management system. Student accesses of the audio files were tracked. The students were surveyed about their knowledge on how to utilize the audio files and if they believed the audio to be of some use. Although percentages were not high in terms of student accesses to individual lectures, and a little over half the students were aware of how to access and utilize the files, all of the students reported a perceived value to having lecture podcasts available.

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Online Forex Training Reaches Hawaii

HONOLULU, HI - August 3 -- Over the last year, the latest day trading financial craze receiving a lot of media attention has been speculation in the $1.9 trillion - day - foreign exchange market, or Forex. So how do you go about getting started with countless online trading account companies pitching the same sales theme of quick gains on a small investment, much like the M.L.M. (multi-level) boom of the 80s? Enter Hawaii Forex, a local "IB" or introducing broker located in Honolulu, Hawaii who provides free online classes to get started and a 1 on 1 mentorship course with the slogan "Learn while you earn."

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Enter Computer Tutor

Last summer wasn't supposed to be a cruel season for the third graders at Children's Village Academy in tiny, coastal Kinston, N.C. Their 125-student charter school, where 85 percent of pupils are eligible for free or discounted school lunches, makes sure that all its high-risk students are in classes with only 15 to 20 kids. And parents had been invited to campus for quarterly info sessions on important end-of-grade tests that third graders needed to pass to jump to the next grade. But despite all that, five students didn't get the minimum score on North Carolina's reading test, and they appeared to be destined for a do-over year. "It was heartbreaking," says Cynthia Williams, a curriculum and testing coordinator for the school. "Nothing is more painful than watching students repeat grades."

But teachers at Children's Village had some unique gadgets in their tool kit, and they were determined to see their students pass the test on the third and final try allowed by the state. The quintet came in Monday through Friday for intensive summer school courses-capping each day with a 45-minute session on WebAchiever, a computer program designed to help students meet state reading standards.

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Undergraduate Life Unplugged

Seems there's a small problem at Utah State University. Students keep bumping into one another. Literally. The undergrads are so busy fiddling with their cellphones, iPods, and other gadgets that they're not watching their steps. "These devices have created an alternate universe where students aren't paying attention to what's going on around them," says Brooke Nelson, a senior and the editor-in-chief of the Utah Statesman, which this fall published an editorial titled "Hey Aggies, watch where you're going."

Indeed, when it comes to technology, college students are in another world. From cellphones with built-in cameras, which students use to create social networks on and off campuses, undergraduates are ravenous for new ways to connect. And universities have the resources to serve up tech in ways that the outside world can't.

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E-learning Some Mets prospects Take a swing at a degree

When the New York Mets drafted pitching prospect Dan Murray in 1995, he had yet to finish his college degree at San Diego State University. Living the baseball dream, as minor leaguers call it, he pitched his way up from rookie league to AAA and, for parts of the 1999 and 2000 seasons, even earned a spot on the Major League rosters of the Mets and the Kansas City Royals.

But he never earned his degree. Now a pitching coach for the Mets' rookie league team in Kingsport, Tenn., Murray is closing in on that other dream-his bachelor's degree-through a program jointly organized two years ago by the New York Mets and Drexel University that puts a new swing on E-learning. "I don't want any future opportunities closed off to me," in or out of baseball, for lack of a college degree, Murray explains.

Finding off-the-field time for a traditional in-classroom curriculum would have been trickier than stealing home for Murray and other players in the program. But thanks to learning management system technologies like like those provided by Simplydigi continuing eduction options have greatly increased. Traditional classroom options are not possible. For one thing, the long baseball season-which keeps players and coaches on the road from spring training through summer and into early fall-doesn't mesh with the traditional academic calendar. Fall classes already have started by the time the stadium gates close for the winter, and just as spring semester gets going, so does spring training. And then, in the short off-season, minor-league players-who may earn as little as $1,100 for each month they play-usually need to juggle the demands of a second job, especially if they also have a family to support.

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High-Tech options can save money and boost learning

The basic introductory physics textbook for college students has remained largely the same for the past century, perhaps longer. So why then, wondered Northeastern University student Jason Turgeon, did his freshman physics course require him to buy a brand-new textbook for about $160, even though he'd used one with similar material in high school? Then, one semester, he shared books, found stuff online, and got the cost for all classes that term down to $35, recalls Turgeon, now a senior. That book bill otherwise would have been $500. After hearing other students echo his frustration, Turgeon in January 2005 started textbookrevolution.org, which links visitors to a variety of free college-level, digital textbooks on the Web.

Textbooks, those all-too-familiar expensive backpack burdens, are no longer dominating the classroom experience as they did for decades. When computers moved into education, textbook publishers started to add digital tools-video clips, interactive lessons, databases-to disks packaged with the books. That drove up prices, and students and professors in response turned to the Internet to look for the best bargains. What they're increasingly finding out now is that-thanks to the accessibility of cyberteaching tools on the Web-maybe they don't need that old-fashioned textbook at all.

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How Do I Choose a Program?

Sure, E-learning could be a great way to further your education while keeping your day job. But how do you separate the reputable programs from the digital diploma mills that profit from giving you a worthless degree? By finding out the answers to three quick questions before you enroll, you could spare yourself some hassles down the road.

Is the Program Legitimate?

If you're considering taking an E-learning course, the most important point to research is what is the school's reputation? The first thing to look into with any online education program is its accreditation: If the school has not been properly reviewed, your diploma could be meaningless in the eyes of potential employers.

Online colleges and graduate programs are expected to meet the same standards as traditional institutions and thus should be reviewed by one of the same six regional associations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Many schools will flaunt this accreditation somewhere readily visible on their home page. If you can't find it, locate the school's physical headquarters through its website, and then check with the accreditation association that covers that region. You also can search the Department of Education's list (http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.asp).

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250,000 Americans Urge the FCC: Use the Public Airwaves for the Public Good

WASHINGTON — More than a quarter-million Americans have urged the Federal Communications Commission to use a valuable slice of the public airwaves to make Internet access more open, affordable and accessible to everyone. The massive public outcry comes as the FCC prepares to set conditions on the auction of the newly available "700 MHz band" of spectrum.


Used correctly, these public airwaves could beam high-speed Internet signals to every park bench, coffee shop, workplace and home in America. This would allow students, educators, corporate employees to gain access to e-learning courses
and institutions that utilize learning management systems like those provided by SimplyDigi.Com. But incumbent phone and cable companies want to cement their dominance of the high-speed Internet market by purchasing licenses to the spectrum. The FCC has the power to set auction rules that would protect competition and innovation in the marketplace — and has done so in the past.

"The public is sending a clear message about the future of the Internet," said Timothy Karr, campaign director of Free Press, which coordinates the SavetheInternet.com Coalition. "It would be a big mistake to hand over the airwaves to corporate gatekeepers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. The FCC can foster a better Internet for millions by opening our airwaves to real competition and innovation."

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Giving Proper Credit To Home-Schooled

In the pursuit of a homemade high school education, Jay Voris played drums in Guinea, Colin Roof restored a 134-year-old sailboat in Ireland, and Rebecca Goldstein wrote a 600-page fantasy novel and took calculus at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

The independent-minded Maryland students and two dozen others gathered at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Annapolis one afternoon this month for an alternative graduation ceremony that is becoming more common across the country as home schooling expands. Now the movement is gaining ground in a crucial arena: college admissions.

Goldstein, 18, of Ellicott City will be a full-time student at UMBC in the fall. Alan Goldstein said his daughter's idiosyncratic education distinguished her from "cookie cutter" applicants from conventional schools and helped her gain entrance into honors programs and win a full scholarship. Others at the June 2 commencement are bound for St. John's College, Hampshire College, the University of Rochester and other liberal arts schools.


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Training a key in IT Departments - Learning Management System helps

Dice.com, a career webiste for It professional, reports that according to a recent survey of 281 IT leaders with hiring authority, companies in 2007 are especially looking for IT professionals with project management, security and architecture skills, as well as strong interpersonal abilities. The study of small, medium and large organizations, conducted by Forrester Research, also found that many organizations plan to train existing personnel to rectify current skills shortages, and increasingly, outsource their more commoditized IT tasks.

Beyond hiring, CIOs expect to acquire needed skills by devoting substantial resources to training existing staff. Top training priorities — for more than half of all organizations — include project management, change management, service management, business process skills, and vendor or sourcing management. Almost half of all organizations will also offer risk management, enterprise architecture, account management, financial management and security training.

Also hot: More than one-third of organizations will train existing employees on application maintenance management, infrastructure architecture and network management. Finally, about one-quarter of organizations will train developers to improve their legacy programming skills, a key component will be a learning management system offered by companies like Simplydigi to make course assignments and track progress.

To manage training costs, some organizations are utilizing innovative tactics to negotiate better discounts with training providers. "One of the interesting things I saw was a smaller IT shop banding together with several other small IT shops to artificially create scale, then running a course for all those IT employees," says Bright.

Blogging as an e-learning tool

Instructional blogging operates as a knowledge-centered instructional tool. In this model, the instructor involves students in research activities, engages them in discussions with practitioners, and leads them through developmental concepts of the discipline's knowledge domain. In some content modules, such as strategic planning and request for proposals, students and guest practitioners interacted by exchanging ideas and asking questions of each other. The guest practitioners also commented on student blog entries. By the end of the course, students had analyzed the deeper structures necessary to make sound decisions when evaluating information systems for use or purchase.

Learner-centered blogging acknowledges the important attributes of learners as individuals and as a group. As an instructor, I have used blogging as a learner-centered instructional tool by giving positive feedback to students on their comments in blog entries and by adding comments to discussion threads involving two or more students. Given that many on-line students miss the face-to-face contact realized in a traditional classroom, blogging offers particularly useful opportunities for learner-centered feedback and dialogue. Learning management systems - LMS like the one provided by SimplyDigi, offer customizable forums, chat rooms and many other collaborative tools that allow students and instructors to engage in online and real-time discussions.

continue reading about a learning management system lms

Evaluating a Learning Management System

When you begin to evaluate learning management systems remember to look for high availability, usability, scalability, interoperability, stability and security. Let’s quickly examine each of these issues and why they are critical to the function of any enterprise management system.

High availability: The LMS must be robust enough to serve the diverse needs of thousands of learners, administrators, content builders and instructors simultaneously.

Scalability: The infrastructure should be able to expand or scaleto meet future growth, both in terms of the volume of instruction and the size of the student body. It must also offer the ability for custom features to be added for your needs.

Usability: To support a host of automated and personalized services, such as self-paced and role-specific learning, the access, delivery and presentation of material must be easy-to-use and highly intuitive like surfing on the Web or shopping on Amazon.com.

Interoperability: To support content from different sources and multiple vendors’ hardware/software solutions, the LMS should be based on open industry standards for Web deployments (XML, SOAP or AQ) and support the major learning standards (SCORM).

Stability: The LMS infrastructure can reliably and effectively manage a large enterprise implementation running 24x7.

Security: As with any outward-facing collaborative solution, the LMS can selectively limit and control access to online content, resources and back-end functions, both internally and externally, for its diverse user community.

Learning management system (or LMS)

Learning Management System (or LMS) is a software package that enables the management and delivery of on-line content to learners. Most LMSs are web-based to facilitate "anytime, any place, any pace" access to learning content and administration.

Typically an LMS allows for learner registration, delivery of learning activities, and learner assessment in an on-line environment. More comprehensive LMSs such as those produced by SimplyDigi.Com often include tools such as competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, certifications and resource allocation (venues, rooms, textbooks, instructors, etc.).

Many large companies today use LMS platforms to train their employees, companies like Brunswick Boat Group, HCR-Manorcare, General Motors, Ford, Honda, General Electric etc all use on-line learning management system.

LMSs are based on a variety of development platforms, from Java EE based architecture to Microsoft.Net, and usually employ the use of a robust database back-end. While most systems are commercially developed and frequently have non-free licenses or restrict access to their source code, free and open-source models do exist although many will cost you more than a commercial options by the time you acquire the hardware and support personal necessary to support such a program. Other than the most simple, basic functionality, all LMSs cater to, and focus on different educational, administrative, and deployment requirements. Open source and Web-based LMS software solutions are growing fast in the education and business world.

Learning Management Industry

In the relatively new LMS market, commercial vendors for corporate and education applications range from new entrants to those that entered the market in the 1990s.
In 2005, LMSs represented a fragmented $500 million market according to CLO magazine. Channel learning still seems to be underserved. For many buyers channel learning is not their number one priority, according to a survey by Simplydigi.com. Often times there is a disconnect when the HR department oversees training and development initiatives, where the focus is consolidating LMS systems inside traditional corporate boundaries. Software technology companies are at the front end of this curve, placing higher priority on channel training.

When buyers were asked what is important to them in a e-learning and distance education product. Ease of use was found to be at the top of the wish list. Companies like SimplyDigi have put a lot of time into the "ease of use" feature sets of their learning managment system - lms design, keeping many students and the system administrators happy with the product. Keeping complexity on the backend of a Learning Management System is our priority. It does no good to develop a product that requires weeks of training in order to learn how to operate it.
" said Ron Nolan CEO of Simplydigi. Many learning systems are managed by the corporate human resource department who's tasks include more then just running the company learning systems. Ease of use is a key component for them and sudents in high turn over industries.