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Beat the Clock: Online Higher Education, Speed and Convenience
By: Louis Conrad on May 17, 2012DegreesOnline.net thinks it high time you considered pursuing an online degree.
Tech'ed Off: Disruption, the Web and the Future of Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on May 10, 2012As the Buddha observed, the only thing constant is change.
Blend with the Trend: Online Degrees Can Mean Big Opportunity
By: Sylvia Smith on May 8, 2012Digital distance higher learning brings fat earnings nearer to hand.
Rise of the Cyber-Ivies?: Venture Capitalists Seek Creation of Elite Online University
By: Louis Conrad on May 1, 2012The tremendous prestige enjoyed by top universities may soon experience something of a disruption.
Thicken, Throb and Squirt: Watch Your Potential Swell with an Online Degree Program
By: Louis Conrad on April 26, 2012There's obscene growth everywhere from nature to the economy - so get in on it!
Spring Ahead: An Online University Degree Program Lets Your Mind and Career Flower
By: Sylvia Smith on April 24, 2012Springtime is primetime for getting some higher learning under your belt.
Coming Attractions: Make Your Summer a Blockbuster with an Online College Degree Program
By: Louis Conrad on April 19, 2012Online higeher-ed courses in summer helps you to beat the heat and to get ahead in the rat race.
Building the History: Online Universities Gaining in Esteem Among Employers
By: Sylvia Smith on April 19, 2012Digital distance higher learning has stepped out from under a cloud of suspicion into the full light of respectability.
Made in the Shade: No Summer's a Bummer with Online Higher Education
By: Louis Conrad on April 13, 2012DegreesOnline.net explains why the dog days of summer are the perfect time to turn yourself into the cat's meow in terms of your professional development.
No Easy A's: Do "Gut" Courses Spell Career Doom?
By: Sylvia Smith on April 10, 2012DegreesOnline.net explains why the easiest courses aren't always the best ones to take.
Open Season: Spring Free Your Career Prospects with an Online Degree
By: Sylvia Smith on April 5, 2012DegreesOnline.net explains why springtime is the right time for higher learning.
Gettin' Real: Online Degrees and Digital Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on April 3, 2012DegreesOnline.net explains why you should make the virtual a necessity.
Second-Hand Lion: An Online Degree a New Lease on Your Work Life?
By: Louis Conrad on March 30, 2012DegreesOnline.net helps you spring clean your career prospects.
Student ID: Returning to Learning: How to Know Whether to Go Back to College
By: Sylvia Smith on March 27, 2012Career changes go hand-in-hand with higher learning. DegreesOnline.net helps you chart a course forward.
Student ID: The Profile of the Typical Online U. Distance Learner
By: Sylvia Smith on March 23, 2012DegreesOnline.net spies with its little eye ... you earning an online degree!
Career in Gears: An Associate's Degree Fast-Tracks Your Career Ambitions
By: Sylvia Smith on March 20, 2012An attractive alternative to a four-year bachelor's degree, a two-year associate's degree will associate you with attractive earnings in no time flat.
An Online Degree: The Cure For What Ails Ya?
By: Louis Conrad on March 16, 2012In the spirit of American transcendentalism, DegreesOnline.net helps you to simplify your academic options.
Show Them Your Junk: Spring Cleaning and Online Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on March 14, 2012De-clutter your career with an online degree.
To Live More Deliberately: Higher Education, Sociology, and Thoreau's 'Walden'
By: Sylvia Smith on March 6, 2012In the spirit of American transcendentalism, DegreesOnline.net helps you to simplify your academic options.
Data Driven: An Online Degree in Health Informatics Adds up to High Earnings
By: Louis Conrad on March 2, 2012DegreesOnline.net gives you the 411 on a growing career field.
Personal Best: High Hopes, Higher Earning Potential, and Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on February 29, 2012What made that ant think he could move that rubber-tree plant is the same thing that can make you think of moving to the next stage of your career.
Learning to Earning: Bryant & Stratton College's Tradition of Excellence
By: Sylvia Smith on February 27, 2012John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford attended Bryant & Stratton College. Shouldn't you?
Giving Books the Fewest Looks: Some Thoughts on How to Study More Efficiently
By: Louis Conrad on February 24, 2012DegreesOnline.net helps you minimize that most miserable part of university life: studying for exams.
Down to Worth: Eight Questions to Ask Yourself When Thinking About Attending an Online U.
By: Louis Conrad on February 22, 2012DegreesOnline.net helps you get you head straight before you head back to school
Cracking Wise: Why an Online Degree Is a Smart Choice
By: Sylvia Smith on February 15, 2012You have brains enough to know that a better life awaits you. DegreesOnline.net wants you to keep that in mind.
Inside U.: Online Higher Education Is a State of Mind
By: Sylvia Smith on February 13, 2012Where's your head at?
Strayer-Way to Heaven: Top Online U. Offers Students Top Educational Value
By: Louis Conrad on February 12, 2012Strayer University layers on the excellence.
Group Texts: the Ethics of Computer-Enhanced Collective Study
By: Sylvia Smith on February 9, 2012Is it cheating if everyone is doing it?
Where the Learnin's Always Burnin': 10 Perennially Hot College Majors
By: Louis Conrad on February 7, 2012DegreesOnline.net runs them down.
Degree of Freedom: The Attractions of Studying Homeland Security
By: Sylvia Smith on February 3, 2012DegreesOnline.net gives you the intel on a lucrative and patriotic field that's rapidly adding jobs.
Stooping to Conquer: The Benefits of Earning Credentials in Customer Service
By: Louis Conrad on February 1, 2012DegreesOnline.net gives you the low-down on a lucrative but often overlooked career option.
Close Books: 5 Strategies for Keeping Costs Down While Attending an Online U.
By: Sylvia Smith on January 31, 2012DegreesOnline.net fills you in on the secrets of debt-free degree seeking.
Beneficial Terms: The Attractions of a Contract Management Degree
By: Sylvia Smith on January 27, 2012DegreesOnline.net drops science on sure-fire writing strategies.
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: How to Put Together an Online Study Group
By: Sylvia Smith on January 26, 2012DegreesOnline.net offers you tips on how to get good grades by getting social.
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: The Anatomy of a Successful Science Paper
By: Sylvia Smith on January 23, 2012DegreesOnline.net drops science on sure-fire writing strategies.
All Systems Go: The Skinny on Management Information Systems Degrees
By: Louis Conrad on January 18, 2012Ready to earn some serious coin? Well, take a look at this field to see if you have what it takes to become a management information systems specialist
Ed. in the Red: Onerous Student-Loan Debt Threatens to Swamp an Entire Generation
By: Sylvia Smith on January 18, 2012When exactly did higher education go from being a safe to a sucker's bet?
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: 7 Habits of Highly Efficient Students
By: Sylvia Smith on January 18, 2012Looking for the skinny on how to study efficient? Then read on!
Thursday Linkpile: A Portmanteau of Postsecondary Patter
By: Sylvia Smith on January 12, 2012Thursday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Rates of Decline: Ballooning Tuition and Mounting Debt the Trend for 2012
By: Louis Conrad on January 9, 2012So long, higher ed. We hardly knew ya!
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: 3 Tips on How to Become Your Own Good Grade Guru
By: Sylvia Smith on January 6, 2012Some straight talk on what it takes to realize academic success.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Hopper of Higher-Ed Happenings
By: Sylvia Smith on January 4, 2012Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Font of Financial Aid Facts
By: Louis Conrad on December 28, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
All on U.: Online Higher Education and Personal Responsibility
By: Sylvia Smith on December 24, 2011Have we as a nation of higher-ed aspirants gone soft?
Wednesday Linkpile: A Stockingful of Student
By: Sylvia Smith on December 21, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Wired for Sound Learning: Online Universities Carry on the Tradition of Distance Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on December 19, 2011Education for all is an ideal 150 years in the making. That ideal has never been closer to becoming a reality that it has today.
Fast and Furious: The Explosive Growtn of Online Higher Education
By: Louis Conrad on December 16, 2011Digital Distance Higher Learning goes from wallflower to belle of the ball as it gains in legitimacy and popularity.
Thursday Linkpile: A Cartload of Collegiate Concerns
By: Sylvia Smith on December 15, 2011Thursday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Bring out Your Best: Bright Prospects for Online Higher Learning
By: Sylvia Smith on December 12, 2011Once the kinks in the system are worked out and best practiced distilled, digital distance higher learning will stand poised for exciting developments in 2012 and beyond.
Thursday Linkpile: A Panoply of Postsecondary Preoccupations
By: Louis Conrad on December 8, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: Tips for Online Study Success
By: Sylvia Smith on December 5, 2011Tanya Jenkins learned the hard way that distance higher learning is a different ball game than is study at traditional brick-and-mortar colleges. You can learn from her mistakes and avoid making them yourself.
University of Phoenix: Its Business Is Business
By: Gabe Meierotto on December 2, 2011A historical survey of the online higher education industry leader reveals an astonishing and inspiring tradition of success.
Wednesday Linkpile: An Overwhelming Omnibus of Online Education
By: Sylvia Smith on November 30, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
A Web of Complexity: The Rich, Full Lives of Online Learners
By: Sylvia Smith on November 28, 2011Benefits abound for those brave enough to take the plunge into the unfamilar waters of digital higher education.
Wednesday Linkpile: Prizes, Rises, Sizes, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on November 23, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
The Numbers Don't Lie: Online Higher Education Surges in Popularity
By: Louis Conrad on November 21, 2011Area reserved for a short description of the blog post. This will be displayed next to the blog image on the blog listing page. This description should be free of any html formatting.
Friday News Roundup: Distance Learning Booms as Student Debt Default Looms
By: Sylvia Smith on November 18, 2011The logic that it takes money appears to have broken down when it comes to college graduates, their debt, and their career prospects.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Laundry List of Loan-Related Lucubrations
By: Louis Conrad on November 16, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Making History: An Online Higher-Education Success Story
By: Sylvia Smith on November 15, 2011The story of single mom Sasha goes to show that with online higher education anything is possible.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Capful of Collegiate Concerns
By: Louis Conrad on November 9, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
The U. Comes to You: Digital Distance Learning in The Golden State
By: Sylvia Smith on November 7, 2011Online degree programs offer universities a terrific way of maximizing profits: They can charge out-of-state tuition without having to provide physical facilities. Many state schools in California have therefore gotten online degree programs off the ground.
Friday News Roundup: Missing Rankings, Employment Tankings, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on November 4, 2011The publication delay of U.S. News and World Report's online college rankings represent one more bump the road to legimitacy for Web-based higher learning.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Fistful of Financial-Aid Fillips
By: Gabe Meierotto on November 2, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Shady Business: The Online MBA's Image Problem
By: Sylvia Smith on November 1, 2011Plaguing online MBA programs is the same problem besetting all distance learning prgrams: namely, an entrenched bias for traditional modes of instruction delivery and against those which emplpy new media.
Friday News Roundup: Student Loan Woes and Possible Relief on the Horizon
By: Louis Conrad on October 28, 2011President Obama's student loan reforms, which he unveiled earlier this week, offered some hope for changed. Yet with the size of the aggregrate debt burden borne topping $1 trillion, is his plan simply another case of "too little, too late?"
Wednesday Linkpile: Tuition Rates, Bush and the Future of Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on October 26, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational
Hitting Re-Set: Higher Education and Disruptive Technology
By: Louis Conrad on October 24, 2011Will the exploding popularity of distance learning lead to a two-track higher education system consisting of traditional classroom on one hand, and online instruction on the other?
Friday New Roundup: The Fear and the Promise of Online Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on October 21, 2011The shock of the new continues to characterize the debate surrounding online higher education, which seems these days to involve as many champions as it does critics.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Chorus of Collegiate Concerns
By: Louis Conrad on October 19, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Winning the Future: Online Education and the Fate of the University
By: Louis Conrad on October 17, 2011Is online education the cure for what ails higher education, or is it simply the next stage of a terminal condition?
Friday News Roundup: A Public--Private Showdown over Online Education
By: Sylvia Smith on October 14, 2011Like gold or beauty, quality education is where you find it -- and as technology progresses, the place where you'll increasingly come to find it is online.
Wednesday Linkpile: A Docket of Distance-Learning Discussions
By: Louis Conrad on October 12, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.
Trending Toward Blending: The Place of Distance Learning in Traditional Higher Education
By: Louis Conrad on October 10, 2011Could residential four-year higher education go the way of the dodo? It appears that it just might. Distance learning, primarily in the form of online education, has come on strong in recent years.An October 10, 2011 U.S. News and World Report article ...
Friday News Roundup: Student-Loan Woes and a Soon-to-Burst Higher-Ed Bubble
By: Louis Conrad on October 7, 2011As the another week in for-profit higher education enters the annals of history, we pause to consider what we've witnessed.Mounting student-loan debt commanded headlines this week, owing perhaps to the Occupy Wall Street protests occurring in New York ...
The Measure of Success: Higher Education Online and Student Attrition
By: Louis Conrad on October 6, 2011Much debate on the merits and demerits of online education has followed in the wake of a recent study published by Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, which, as a July 19 post on KaySteiger.com reports, "looked ...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Panoply of Postsecondary Patter
By: Louis Conrad on October 5, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Is the technological revolution in higher education all that it is cracked up to be? "Online educati...
Modem Operandi: Online Education Will Shape the Future of Learning
By: Louis Conrad on October 4, 2011In a recent radio interview Doug Covey, an executive with Phoenix, Arizona–based Blueprint Education, presented some interesting facts about the direction distance learning will take in the years to come.Specifically, Covey observed that:There are evol...
The Dolor of Money: Easing Student-Loan Debt Woes
By: Sylvia Smith on October 3, 2011The story is by now familiar. A starry-eyed postcollegiate pounds the pavement in search of her first salaried job, only to discover there are none to be had. As days become weeks become months without income, she's made desperate by the lack of reques...
Wednesday Linkpile: An Omnibus of Online-Educational Opining
By: Sylvia Smith on September 28, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.It appears that veterans' benefits are beginning to reflect changes to the higher-education landscap...
Disrupting Class: Online Education and the March of Progress
By: Louis Conrad on September 28, 2011One of the best things about this modern age is its general spirit of technological optimism. Many folks believe that building a better mousetrap (either real or metaphorical) means a better life for all.More than just utopian dreaming, this optimism h...
Future Perfect: Online Education Will Save the Day
By: Louis Conrad on September 26, 2011Concerned parties throughout the United States for some time now have been knitting their brows over the condition their country's higher education finds itself in. Most would agree that it's heading down the wrong path and that it needs urgently to be...
Friday News Roundup: Big Money and Big Changes in For-Profit Higher-Ed
By: Sylvia Smith on September 23, 2011As another week of news in the for-profit higher education industry drops below the horizon, we pause to consider events in the waning light.The latest scuttlebutt in the biz concerns the relationship of private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs)...
Best Behavior: More on For-Profit Colleges' Code of Conduct
By: Louis Conrad on September 22, 2011The true test of any industry is whether it lives up to the initial impression it has made on the public, or lives it down. This applies especially to the private for-profit higher education industry, which came on like gangbusters with the tech boom b...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Heapin' Helpin' of Higher-Ed Hoopla
By: Louis Conrad on September 21, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Budgetary woes reach well beyond The Beltway. "Debt Debate Hits Students," a September 20, 2011 Stan...
Techs and the City: Online Education Sweeps Manhattan
By: Sylvia Smith on September 20, 2011The student body at New York University is swelling in numbers, but you'd never know it by glancing around campus. "With online programs available at all NYU undergraduate and graduate schools, distance learning has become a convenient alternative for ...
Money Pit: The Tough Consequences of Student Loan Default
By: Sylvia Smith on September 19, 2011Student loan default rates are reaching epic proportions. This means a huge number of young people will feel the sting that comes with this unfortunate eventuality.The economic doldrums in which the United States certainly isn't helping matters; indeed...
Friday News Roundup: For-Profit Colleges Staging a Comeback with New Code of Conduct
By: Sylvia Smith on September 16, 2011As another week of for-profit education news recedes into memory, we pause to reflect on the impressions with which it has left us.Opinion-maker Joe Nocera argues in his recent New York Times piece that private sector colleges and universities are vita...
Sealed with a List: PSCUs Adopt a Voluntary Code of Conduct
By: Louis Conrad on September 15, 2011In a bid to reduce the pummelling they've been taking in the press on account of their business practices, private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) have concocted a new PR push that they hope will serve to restore them in the public's eyes. "A ...
Thursday Linkpile: A Portmanteau of Postsecondary Pronouncements
By: Louis Conrad on September 15, 2011Thursday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Looks like not everyone is bullish on instructional technology. "What the iPad (and other technology)...
Take This Job and Love It: Bryant & Stratton College Sponsors Career Advice Webinar
By: Sylvia Smith on September 14, 2011If you find that your career is in a funk, you need to do something to shake things up. This, you might rejoin, is easier said than done. Career changes are dicey propositions. They require time and effort, and you have no guarantee that any pay-off aw...
Infinite Progress: Resituating the Online-Education Debate
By: Louis Conrad on September 12, 2011Technology speeds apace, sweeping everything and everyone it touches in its train. Such a rush inspires fear in some of those affected, hope in others. This holds particularly in the field of postsecondary education, in which various innovations are di...
Friday News Roundup: August's Auguries Become September's Circumstances
By: Sylvia Smith on September 12, 2011As another week of for-profit higher education news sets sail for the island of the day before, we pause to consider the general tide of recent events.One career college believes that it have discovered a way to satisfy one major stipulation of the rec...
Aggressive Rebounders: For-Profit Colleges Can Expect Growing Enrollments and Profits
By: Sylvia Smith on September 8, 2011Happy news greets private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) this week. A recent Bloomberg Businessweek article reports that "[f]or-profit universities may soon see an end to their yearlong slide in new enrollments."This rebound comes after month...
Wednesday Linkpile: An Omnibus of Online-Education Observations
By: Sylvia Smith on September 7, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Student testing is soon to face a test of its own. "In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores," reads ...
Let the Right One In: 12 Arresting Facts About American Higher Education
By: Louis Conrad on September 6, 2011The conventional perception of the college admission process is steeped in high drama. Folks usually consider it a white-knuckle affair. Ambitious high schoolers grinding through standardized exams, running themselves ragged with extracurricular activi...
Friday News Roundup: Disruption Abounds in Higher Education
By: Louis Conrad on September 2, 2011As we stand poised to bid adieu to another week of for-profit higher education news, we pause to take stock of events.An image problem continues to plague private sector colleges and universities -- particularly as concerns their forte, distance learni...
How Smart Learners Learn Smarter: Some Sure-Fire Tips for Online Course Success
By: Sylvia Smith on September 1, 2011A common impression exists concerning higher education. It seems to polarize things dramatically. Many students struggle to get a C in a course, while others skate to an A.Though in online courses (otherwise known as distance listening) you seldom see ...
The U. You Know: Recognizing the Types of Higher-Ed Institutions
By: Louis Conrad on August 31, 2011With so much recruiting and marketing happening in the postsecondary-education domain, it's hard to tell your Walden from your William & Mary, or your Cornell from your Kaplan.Higher education has long been a point of pride for the United States. Of al...
Smart Learners Learn Smarter: How to Study for a History Exam
By: Sylvia Smith on August 30, 2011If an exam in any subject tests anything, it's your ability to make the subject matter stick in your head long enough to complete the exam.History exams are true memory busters. Success in them thus depends on strengthening your powers of recall. The b...
Smart Learners Learn Smarter - How to Pass a Calculus Course
By: Sylvia Smith on August 29, 2011Regardless of whether they're studying engineering or soicology, college students will most likely respond with horror if asked about their freshman calculus experience. They'll no doubt conjure for you images of bug-eyed, caffeine-addled students pull...
Friday News Roundup: For-Profit Sector Setbacks Call Long-Term Prospect into Question
By: Louis Conrad on August 26, 2011Though the week's headlines have been dominated by the approach of Hurricane Irene to the U.S. eastern seaboard, it appears that private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) face a storm of their own, which comes in the form declining enrollment an...
Salad Days Tossed: Sagging Enrollment Has For-Profit Colleges Bracing for the Future
By: Sylvia Smith on August 25, 2011It seems the days of blockbuster new enrollments are drawing to a close for private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs). A rebounding economy has created enough new job opportunities that many would-be career-college matriculants are having second...
Wednesday Linkpile: An Assortment of Associated Educational Matters
By: Louis Conrad on August 24, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Believe it or not, sexual orientation remains an issue when it comes to securing federal education l...
Carry the Zero: Student Loan Debt Defaults to Burst the Higher-Ed Bubble
By: Louis Conrad on August 23, 2011You'd have to be living on the moon not to know that the United States finds itself in tremendous financial turmoil. In recent years, the home-mortgage debacle led to a long recession that only just began to reverse its course when the debate over the ...
Maverick Pedagogy: For-Profit Colleges Training Tomorrow Workers Today
By: Sylvia Smith on August 22, 2011When Jack McCartan peers into his crystal ball, he sees private sector colleges and universities playing a vital role in the United States' economic future.McCartan, the former president of Pittsburgh Technical Institute (PTI), penned an opinion piece ...
Weekly News Roundup: Big Debt and Stiff Regs Make for Uncertain Higher-Ed Outlook
By: Sylvia Smith on August 19, 2011Another week in higher-education news fades to black, leaving onlookers to interpret the scene.An August 18, 2011 piece at The Atlantic presents a stark infographic illustrating the massive credit expansion going on in student loans. "Student loan debt...
The Debt Bet: Runaway Tuition Hikes Cast Wisdom of Student Loans in Doubt
By: Louis Conrad on August 18, 2011"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble," went the incantation of the three witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth."It seems that the infernal magic of bubbles isn't limited to weird sisters of the Elizabethan stage. The entire deve...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Pocketful of Postsecondary Preoccupations
By: Louis Conrad on August 17, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Kids with high GPAs can now learn college acceptance fate PDQ. "High-achieving seniors tapping Commo...
Private Profits, Public Benefits: A Defense of Career Colleges
By: Sylvia Smith on August 16, 2011An enormous amount of bad press has dogged private-sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) of late. In the din of criticism, voices speaking in defense of this industry tend to get drowned out.One high-profile individual rallying to PSCUs' defense is ...
Higher Ed 101: The ABCs and 123s of Financial Aid
By: Sylvia Smith on August 15, 2011Like a home or a stock portfolio, a college education is a significant investment, one that typically takes years if not decades to pay off. Financial savvy is therefore as essential a skill as the ability to solve for two variables or to write a term ...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profits under Fire and in the Dock
By: Louis Conrad on August 12, 2011We bid adieu to another week in the volatile world of proprietary education.For one for-profit behemoth it has been a topsy-turvy past few weeks. On August 11, 2011 The Wall Street Journal reported that "DeVry Inc.'s (DV) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings...
App-ing the Future: Smartphones Altering the Higher-Ed Terrain
By: Louis Conrad on August 11, 2011It was only a matter of time before smartphones began to insinuate themselves into the daily affairs of campus life. "As these tools continue to grow in popularity," reports an August 10, 2011 U.S. News and World Report article, "their influence is ext...
Wednesday Linkpile: Bucks, Ducks, Schmucks, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on August 10, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Career colleges under fire yet again. "For-Profit College Group Sued as U.S. Lays Out Wide Fraud," r...
Overwhelming Interest: Students Buried Under Unprecedented Amounts of Debt
By: Louis Conrad on August 9, 2011One of the most disturbing of recurring historical realities is slavery. Slavery comes in many forms. One can be a bond slave, a physical captive of a master for whom he must toil. Or he can be a wage slave, an earner who never realizes enough of an ec...
Squeeze from the Bottom: Tuition Hikes and Plateauing Graduation Rates
By: Sylvia Smith on August 8, 2011Dark clouds have gathered and threaten to cast a pall over the dreams of many American higher-ed aspirants. "A new report finds that it's taking increasingly more student debt to produce a degree in this country, " an August 8, 2011 California Watch ar...
Friday News Roundup: Scrutiny Falls on For-Profit Colleges
By: Sylvia Smith on August 5, 2011Another week in the world of for-profit education draws to a close, and it looks as if it will end on a few sour and a few triumphant notes.A scandal concerning fluffed numbers haunted the for-profit higher education sector. "Career Education Corp.'s r...
Social Engineering: Bryant & Stratton College Teaches Proper Social Media Behavior
By: Sylvia Smith on August 4, 2011This week saw the launch of a webinar series offered by Bryant & Stratton College. Created for "current Bryant & Stratton College students, prospective students and anyone else interested in understanding how to use social media appropriately and effec...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Casserole of Collegiate Concerns
By: Louis Conrad on August 3, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.China plans to invest heavily in distance learning. "Universities to meet public demand by providing...
Class Act: Kaplan University an Industry Leader in Educational Values
By: Sylvia Smith on August 2, 2011It appears that the folks of one Iowa city are proud to number among their esteemed corporate citizens a leader in the private-sector higher education industry. "With a nearly 70-year history in Davenport, Kaplan University has a long tradition of serv...
Practical Magic: A University of Phoenix Instructor's Triumphant Tale
By: Louis Conrad on August 1, 2011"A teacher once told Trinidadian Patrick Patrong he would never amount to anything," reads the dek to a August 1, 2011 Trinidad & Tobago Newsday article. "That moment marked the beginning of his long-running dissatisfaction with traditional academia."Y...
Weekly News Roundup: Tussles, Bustle, and Muscle in the World of For-Profit Higher Ed
By: Sylvia Smith on July 29, 2011The sun sets on another week, leaving the for-profit higher education sector with darkening prospects in The Bluegrass State. "Ky. takes legal action against for-profit college," reads the hed to a July 28, 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek article. "Kentuck...
Worthy of Respect: Survey Finds Online Education Gaining Legitimacy
By: Louis Conrad on July 28, 2011Students of online colleges can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their credentials are winning respect in the 21-century job market. "Online education programs from post-secondary institutions are gaining credibility in the labour market, accordin...
Wednesday Linkpile: Bills, Skills, Chills, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on July 27, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational. A July 27, 2011 Inside Higher Ed article brings word of "Anxiety and Uncertainty" attending the nat...
Healthy Prognosis: Nursing Degree Holders in High Demand
By: Louis Conrad on July 26, 2011Rhode Island residents interested pursuing a career have reason to celebrate; officials in the Ocean State have made easy-term loans available to them. All they need do is plan to enter the healthcare industry. "Rhode Island will offer nursing students...
Epic Fail: Study Finds Attrition Rates Highest Among Online College Students
By: Sylvia Smith on July 25, 2011The hed to a July 25, 2011 KPLU.org story states the matter rather unambiguously: "College students more likely to fail online." A recent study produced findings that strongly suggest "that students have a greater chance of not only bombing classes if ...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Schools Flex Muscle in Gainful Employment Tussle
By: Sylvia Smith on July 22, 2011Another week in the rambunctious realm of private sector colleges and universities ends on a few dubious notes.It looks like the latest round of gainful employment–related hi-jinks is going to hit citizens in the pocketbook. A July 22, 2011 post at Cam...
Wired for Success: Digital Natives at Home with Online Education
By: Sylvia Smith on July 21, 2011Digital natives have cause to feel optimistic about the future of higher education. "According to the 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning, about 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online education class during the fall 2009 semester," ...
Wednesday Linkpile: Heaps of Higher-Ed Hurly Burly
By: Sylvia Smith on July 20, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.A July 19, 2011 post on The Chronicle of Higher Education's blog The Ticker announces that "Federal ...
Keeping Their Distance: Online Higher Ed Conquers the Keystone State
By: Louis Conrad on July 19, 2011In times of otherwise discouraging economic developments, one sector has reason for optimism. Distance learning higher education is doing boffo enrollment these days."A 2009 study by Eduventures shows that about 2.14 million students were earning their...
Flying Blind: Report Finds Confused Borrowers Often Choose Worst Student Loans
By: Sylvia Smith on July 18, 2011"A new report has found that millions of students every year miss out on federal student loans and sign up for much riskier private loans instead -- an option that usually brings higher interest rates and fewer safeguards for borrowers," reports a July...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profits Rebound Robustly from Recently Enacted Regs
By: Louis Conrad on July 15, 2011Another tumultuous week in the world of for-profit higher education draws to a close.The hue and cry raised against recently passed "gainful employment" legislation continues undiminished. A July 12, 2011 National Review Online article adds its two cen...
Loan Ranger: Do-Gooder Org Seeks to Dispel Confusion Concerning Student Aid
By: Sylvia Smith on July 14, 2011Anyone paying attention to developments in higher education can tell you that it is fast becoming a numbers game. Swelling tuition and mandatory fee amounts, shrinking funds for subsidized student loans, and disappearing dollars and other sorts of free...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Passel of Postsecondary Pronouncements
By: Louis Conrad on July 13, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Helping our brave warriors. "Campus-Based and Online Education Strive to Meet Veterans’ Needs," repo...
Grants' Tomb: For Underprivileged Students Aid Money No Predictor of Higher-Ed Success
By: Sylvia Smith on July 12, 2011Loans. They're about as fundamental to advanced market economies as is the law of supply and demand. The logic is simple: Anything with a high upfront cost is worth borrowing money to attain if it returns even greater value than it itself.One such item...
Rules of Engagement: Pols Push Back Against "Gainful Employment" Regs
By: Louis Conrad on July 11, 2011The "gainful employment" rule is still too strict for many Republicans, InsideHigherEd.com reports.The "gainful employment" rule requires colleges to demonstrate that their students are able to pay back their loans upon graduation, provided, of course ...
Friday News Roundup: Marquee Degree Programs Establish Online-Education Presence
By: Louis Conrad on July 8, 2011It's been a busy week for online education. WFAE.com reports that University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School is "putting its reputation on the line by going online. It's the first top-20 business school to offer a full-time online MBA...
Low-Cost Higher Ed: A Ranking of the Best College Buys
By: Sylvia Smith on July 8, 2011Thanks to a recent survey by the U.S. Department of Education, we now know the names of the most expensive universities.But what are the cheapest universities? That's the question a Christian Post article asks this week.According to the article, the co...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Cartload of Collegiate Concerns
By: Louis Conrad on July 6, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Debunk stops here. On July 5, 2011 The Free Press Release Center ticked off "Four Stupid Myths of On...
Regs to Riches: "Gainful Employment" Rule Takes Hold in For-Profit Higher Education Sector
By: Sylvia Smith on July 5, 2011The final federal regulations requiring career colleges to better prepare students for jobs kicked in July 1, an article from SWTimes.com reports . The regulations will ramp up over four years, allowing ample time for reform.The regulations are intende...
Weekly News Roundup: Bullish Outlook on PSCU Stock Values
By: Louis Conrad on July 2, 2011The world of higher education made investment news this week. Barrons.com reports that stock for Apollo Group, Inc. soared this morning as the company felt more confident about its future prospects. Though the company saw a drop in new student enrollme...
Numbers Game: New Site Helps College Aspirants Compare Costs
By: Sylvia Smith on June 30, 2011Whether you want to study to become a medical billing and coding specialist or a paralegal, you want to know which colleges are the most expensive. Right?Well, if you are indeed burning to know, the Education Department has posted a list online.Accordi...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Handful of Hebdomadal Higher-Ed Highlights
By: Louis Conrad on June 29, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational."The Gray Lady" turns schoolmarm. "USC [University of Southern California] Teams With New York Times...
The Art of Success: 5 Reasons Why Graphic Design Is the Hip Choice for an Online Degree
By: Sylvia Smith on June 28, 2011Looking to earn a degree with real promise? Then consider going back to school for a degree in graphic design. Employment of graphic designers is expected to grow 13 percent within the next seven years.Indeed, graphic design is one of the hottest major...
Blame It on Rio: Brazil Set to Become a For-Profit Education Paradise
By: Sylvia Smith on June 27, 2011As stock values of for-profit colleges climb northward, the schools themselves are reaching southward to hemispheric neighbors.The Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of Brazilians are willing to pay to get an education, and career colleg...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Regulation War Claims Casualties
By: Louis Conrad on June 24, 2011Career colleges endured another tumultuous week, which began with the resignation of Harris Miller, the chief executive of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU). InsideHigherEd.com reports that "Miller characterized his de...
How Smart Learners Learn Smarter: 5 Time Management Tips for Online Course Success
By: Sylvia Smith on June 23, 2011Are you struggling to meet your online course’s assignment deadlines? Having trouble shouldering with the workload? Though online courses do offer greater convenience than courses at traditional brick and mortar institutions, they also make great deman...
Wednesday Linkpile: Feds, Reds, Regs, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on June 22, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.On June 21, 2011 the KUOW 94.9 FM show "The Conversation" featured a discussion of distance learning...
Austerity Measures: Career Colleges Seek to Weather Regulation Aftermath
By: Sylvia Smith on June 21, 2011"That which does not kill us makes us stronger," the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote. For-profit colleges are hoping that Nietzsche's claim indeed reflects the truth.The Chicago Tribune reports that the Career Education Corporation wa...
Work of Nations: Surprising Hot Job-Growth Spots for College Grads
By: Sylvia Smith on June 20, 2011What are the best cities in which to find a job these days? According to SmartMoney.com, they're all across the country.From San Francisco to Boston, the market is fast recovering in perennially popular urban centers. But one need not stick to the coas...
Weekly News Roundup: Slack Regs and Smart Eggs Dominate Higher-Ed Headlines
By: Louis Conrad on June 17, 2011It's been another busy week for higher education. Forbes.com reportsthat no one is happy with the new higher education regulations that the Department of Education released a couple of weeks ago. Career colleges didn't want them, the article reports, a...
Just What the Doctor Ordered: 4 Reasons Why a Career in Health Informatics Is Right for You
By: Sylvia Smith on June 17, 2011Health informatics is one sizzling hot degree. Health informatics degree holders get jobs -- and they get them fast.A June 15, 2011 Hartford Courant article reports that recent graduates of Connecticut's Capital Community College are already finding wo...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Multitude of Matriculation Matters
By: Louis Conrad on June 16, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Type-A students give podcasted lectures an F. "Lecture capture less popular among competitive studen...
Long Arm of the Law: Criminal Justice Degree Program a Boon to Georgia
By: Sylvia Smith on June 14, 2011AccessNorthGa.com reports that North Georgia College and State University has started a new, online-only graduate degree program in criminal justice. The program is aimed at those students interested in working in the law enforcement field.The head of ...
Quality Is Job One: "Gainful Employment" Rule's Impact (or Lack Thereof)
By: Louis Conrad on June 13, 2011A recent Inside Higher Ed article from ponders the true significance of gainful employment.Recent legislation has prompted colleges and universities to consider what it means to be gainfully employed. But they need not worry too much; the recent legisl...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profits Find Their Way Forward
By: Sylvia Smith on June 10, 2011Though private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) enjoyed a substantial victory last week when the federal government watered down its "gainful employment" rules, the battle is not yet won. The Wall Street Journal reports that regulations and pub...
Oregon Boom!: Healthcare Degree Programs Go Viral in the Beaver State
By: Louis Conrad on June 9, 2011Oregon community colleges are developing distance education programs for some of the hottest degrees. Campustechnology.com reports that the Oregon Community Colleges Healthcare Education Alliance is seeking to expand its healthcare-related degrees -- a...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Cornucopia of Collegiate Concerns
By: Sylvia Smith on June 8, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.In a June 7, 2011 SFGate.com blog post, Erica Sandberg asks a question certain to be weighing on man...
School Britannia: Startup U.K. For-Profit College to Feature All-Star Faculty
By: Louis Conrad on June 7, 2011EducationInvestor.co.uk reports that a group of academics is about to launch a new for-profit college. Christened The New College of the Humanities, the school will offer students degrees under the auspices of the University of London. Students will be...
Slammer Glamour: Women Locking in Careers in Criminal Justice
By: Sylvia Smith on June 6, 2011Criminal justice degrees have grown in popularity with American women. The Hi-Desert Star reports that since Copper Mountain College revamped its criminal justice program enrollment has doubled.Most of Copper Mountain College's criminal justice student...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Colleges Victorious
By: Sylvia Smith on June 5, 2011It's been an exciting -- and triumphant! -- week for career colleges. Bloomberg.com reports that private sector colleges and universities (PSCUs) have won a battle with the federal government. They will now receive more time to comply with "gainful emp...
Triumph of the Bill: PSCU Stocks Soar in Response to Hobbled "Gainful Employment" Regs
By: Sylvia Smith on June 2, 2011For-profit education stocks are soaring today as news spread that a watered-down version of the "gainful employment" rule passed into legislation, Reuters.com reports.The stage is now set for renewed earnings growth and potential industry consolidation...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Higher-Ed Horn O' Plenty
By: Louis Conrad on June 1, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.A May 31, 2011 Iowa State Daily article offers "Paying for College 101." "Cost is a huge factor for ...
Carry That Load: For-Profit Colleges Balance Popularity with Responsibility
By: Louis Conrad on June 1, 2011There's no denying that career colleges are a popular choice among higher-education consumers. SayCampusLife.com reportsthat for-profit institutions are seeing explosive growth. Enrollment at them has increased four-fold since 2000, according to the Na...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Schools Come Screaming Back
By: Sylvia Smith on May 30, 2011Another busy week for career colleges has come and gone. For-profit colleges are fighting back, Fox News reports. "President Obama and his education secretary are facing a bipartisan revolt from almost 300 lawmakers, an inspector general's investigatio...
The Color of Money: Questioning Career Colleges' Investment in Students
By: Sylvia Smith on May 27, 2011Are career colleges spending enough on their students? That's the question the Huffington Post asks in a recent article.The article reports that for-profit colleges devote less than a third of the amount that public universities spend on educating stud...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Hodge-Podge of Higher-Ed Happenings
By: Sylvia Smith on May 25, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.For-profit college stocks rebound. Via Bloomberg Businessweek comes a May 24, 2011 Associated Press ...
Seattle Cattle Call: Jet City Set to Hire More College Grads
By: Louis Conrad on May 24, 2011Things are looking sunny in the rainy city of Seattle. The Seattle Times reports that Washington state's job outlook appears brighter for college graduates.This brighter outlook is due to an improvement in the economy. The unemployment rate decreased i...
Quakes Along Defaults: Reforming Student Aid for Higher Education
By: Sylvia Smith on May 23, 2011Trouble lies ahead for student loans. InsideHigherEd reports that student loan default rates spiked in 2009, with the rate highest among students who attended for-profit institutions.The Federal Student Aid office said that 8.9 percent of federal stude...
Weekly News Roundup: New York's AG Trumps "The Donald's" For-Profit U.
By: Louis Conrad on May 20, 2011New York State's probe of Donald Trump's Corinthian College has dominated the headlines this week. Reuters.com reports that the Empire State's Attorney General is investigating colleges run by the real estate magnate's for-profit education company.Brid...
Badgered in the Bay State: Massachusetts Officials Put the Screws to Career Colleges
By: Sylvia Smith on May 19, 2011The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts state officials are now investigating the business practices of the University of Phoenix.The private-sector university's parent company, Apollo Group, Inc., has received a demand for information about its re...
Wednesday Linkpile: Learning Apps, Lending Taps, Borrowing Traps, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on May 18, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Lessening the load. A May 17, 2011 U.S. News & World Report article offers "7 Tips for Repaying Your...
Re-Orienting Online Ed: Distance Learning All the Rage in Asia
By: Sylvia Smith on May 17, 2011Distance learning degrees are hot stuff in Asia. The Times of India brings word that distance learning programs allow students in remote regions of Asia to pursue higher degrees.Asian students report that the available distance learning programs are su...
Killer Apps: Distance Learning Students Dial in to Higher Education on Smartphones and Other Devices
By: Louis Conrad on May 16, 2011Distance learning universities are using the latest technology to supplement their curricula. Newsfactor.com reports that more and more online institutions have opted to create mobile apps to enrich their online course offerings. These apps allow stude...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Higher Education Offers Sound Value, Two Studies Reveal
By: Louis Conrad on May 13, 2011It's been yet another busy week in the world of for-profit higher education. Smallplanet.com reports that "for-profit and selective colleges provide better return on value." These findings are based on a new study released by the American Institutes fo...
Lockstep Formation: U.S. Military Biased Against Nontraditional Students
By: Sylvia Smith on May 12, 2011A May 10, 2011 opinion piece in The Battle Creek Inquirer reports that the military is limiting recruits from online colleges. The piece goes on to argue that this is a mistake, for with "technology playing a major -- and growing -- role in national de...
Wednesday Linkpile: A Miscellany of Matriculation Matters
By: Louis Conrad on May 11, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Keep your eyes on your own work! A May 10, 2011 Chronicle of Higher Education piece carries the head...
Winds of Change: Tornado Brings Alabama Distance Learners Together
By: Sylvia Smith on May 10, 2011Even a tornado can't topple the dedication of some distant learners.AL.com reports that distance learning classmates came to aid of Alabama's Cordova High School after it had been struck by a twister during the recent spate of extreme weather affecting...
High Plains Pains: Nebraska Buffaloed by For-Profit College Regs
By: Sylvia Smith on May 9, 2011The Omaha World Herald brings word that the latest proposed rules for distance learning serve Nebraska colleges and universities but poorly.Nebraska senator Ben Nelson has criticized the latest distance learning rules set to take effect July 1, 2011, s...
Friday News Roundup: More Federal Scrutiny for For-Profit Schools
By: Sylvia Smith on May 6, 2011It's been yet another busy week in the world of career colleges. Here are some highlights from the past week's for-profit education news.A May 5, 2011 article on Heraldnet.com reports that for-profit colleges are facing more state scrutiny -- something...
Match Point: Feds Hurl Charges of Fraud at For-Profit Colleges
By: Louis Conrad on May 6, 2011An article in the May 3, 2011 edition of The New York Times reports that "the Justice Department plans to intervene in a lawsuit charging that one of the nation's largest for-profit college companies, the Education Management Corporation, defrauded the...
Wednesday Linkpile: Inmates, Graduation Dates, Savings Rates, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on May 4, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Show me the money! A May 4, 2011 Reuters article reports, "College students still denied federal fun...
The Road Less Traveled: Forgoing Higher Education for Entrepreneurial Endeavors
By: Sylvia Smith on May 3, 2011The idea of higher education many consider so reasonable that they hardly find occasion to doubt it. Ever since American troops marched home from World War Two and onto college campuses across the U.S. (coaxed thither by the Montgomery G.I. Bill) Ameri...
Borrow, Borrow, Tomorrow Sorrow: Surge in Student Loans Precipitates University Enrollment Decline
By: Louis Conrad on May 2, 2011Two recent articles -- one appearing in the May 2, 2011 edition of the The DePaulia (student newspaper of DePaul University) and one in the May 2, 2011 edition of The Red and Black (student newspaper of The University of Georgia) -- present some unsett...
Friday News Roundup: For-Profit College Regs Leak Prompts Insider Trading Allegations
By: Louis Conrad on April 29, 2011News concerning for-profit higher education dominated headlines again this week. An April 28, 2011 article on Bloomberg.com reports rules intended to regulate for-profit schools were allegedly leaked to the press. A probe by the U.S. Education Departme...
Steppin' up Their Game: For-Profit Education Providers Recruit D.C. Insiders
By: Sylvia Smith on April 28, 2011An April 25, 2011 Huffington Post article reports that career colleges plan to mount an attack on recent legislation that submits them to greater regulatory scrutiny. The colleges and the lobbyists representing them embarked on a campaign "finance blit...
Wednesday Linkpile: Schools, Rules, Tools, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on April 27, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.An article in the April 27, 2011 edition of The Iowa Independent brings word of troubled minds in th...
War on Error: Education Department Discloses Default-Rate Calculation Mistake
By: Louis Conrad on April 27, 2011The U.S. Department of Education admits it made a mistake in the way it calculated rates of student loan default. The mistake resulted in an amplification of student default rates by including too many borrowers in the calculation, Californiawatch.org ...
Scheme Police: Career Colleges Pledge to Observe Stricter Standards
By: Louis Conrad on April 25, 2011The Associated Press reports that career colleges have elected to adopt a conduct code designed to prevent the abuses that have sullied the for-profit education industry's reputation and brought scads of bad press.The code won't be complete until this ...
Friday News Roundup: Career Colleges Regroup after Passage of Federal Regs
By: Sylvia Smith on April 23, 2011CNN.com reports that career colleges refuse to give up the ghost following the recent passage in Congress of "gainful employment" regulations, which impose severe conditions on these schools with respect to receiving federal student aid revenue.Lambast...
Country Thunder: Online Learning Rumbles Through Rural Areas
By: Louis Conrad on April 21, 2011When asked to imagine the typical early adopter of the latest technological wizardry, we tend to think of those people that economist and lifestyle guru Richard Florida has dubbed "the creative class." Young, educated, urban, cosmopolitan, and successf...
Wednesday Linkpile: Student Debt Bets, Frets, Assets, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on April 20, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.An April 18, 2011 eCampus News article reports that career colleges have lost the battle against "ga...
Personal Interest: Experts Deem Student Loans a Sound Investment
By: Louis Conrad on April 19, 2011That "it takes money to make money" remains a truism of an American society that continues to exalt capitalism as the economic system to beat all economic systems.Those without adequate ready cash generally have recourse to borrowing the money necessar...
Closing the Gap: Grand Canyon University Gives Arizona State Schools a Run for Their Money
By: Sylvia Smith on April 18, 2011An April 17, 2011 Arizona Republic brings news of a tuition rate freeze enacted at Grand Canyon University (GCU), a private Christian career college. Administrators enacted this freeze in order to attract Arizona high school students who in light of re...
Weekly News Roundup: Points of View on Imperiled Pell Grant
By: Sylvia Smith on April 16, 2011News of Pell Grant cuts commanded headlines this week. Bloomberg.com reports that career colleges, "led by Apollo Group Inc. (APOL)'s University of Phoenix, will be disproportionately hurt by cuts in the $30 billion Pell Grant program for low-income st...
Limited Real Estate: Community College Grads Fail to Find Spots at State Universities
By: Louis Conrad on April 14, 2011The Seattle Times reports that community college students are having a hard time transferring to four-year colleges and universities and are instead choosing to earn their bachelor's degrees at for-profit colleges.The article reports that "the trend hi...
Wednesday Linkpile: Loans, Groans, Moans, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on April 13, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational."Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...." An April 12, 2011 Huffington Post articles reports, "Student ...
The Donkey Kicks: Democrats Parry Republicans Move to Block "Gainful Employment" Legislation
By: Louis Conrad on April 12, 2011InsideHigherEd.com reports that the "Obama administration and Senate Democrats have rebuffed an effort by Congressional Republicans to use pending budget legislation to hamper the Education Department's ability to implement regulations requiring for-pr...
Winning the Next Round: Career Colleges Fight Back
By: Sylvia Smith on April 11, 2011In a famous scene from the 1975 movie Jaws Police Chief Brody (played by Roy Scheider) sees for the first time the shark that has been terrorizing his town's beaches. Aghast at the creature's immense size, Brody tells his boat mates, marine biologist H...
Weekly News Roundup: Op-Eds Go to Bat for Career Colleges
By: Sylvia Smith on April 8, 2011It's been another exciting week for career colleges. In a Seattle Times editorial Jim McFarland, a former chairman of the board of trustees of the Art Institute of Seattle, defends career colleges as being "vital to maintaining a strong work force in S...
De-Funding the Castle: State Legislators Block Student Aid to Career Colleges
By: Louis Conrad on April 7, 2011Several states have pulled funding from career colleges. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that "[f]or-profit colleges, criticized by the U.S. for their recruitment practices, are facing increased state regulations as the government weighs measures to tig...
Wednesday Linkpile: Student Aid Perils, Federal Aid Pork Barrels, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on April 6, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Student loan awards have become the new prize for crooks. An April 5, 2011 BBC piece reports, "Fraud...
Academic Chart-Toppers: The 5 Most Popular College Degree Programs
By: Sylvia Smith on April 4, 2011In most things in life popularity rules. To the most popular gal and guy in high school fell the lion's share of attention. The more popular political candidate wins more votes than her opponent, and thus ascends to the office she seeks. The most popul...
Tomorrow Never Knows: Student Loan Default and Its Consequences
By: Louis Conrad on April 4, 2011An April 3, 2011 Metro.us article doesn't mince words when it comes to apprising borrowers of the grave consequences of going rogue on their student loans. "Defaulting on your student loans can have serious consequences," the article warns. "The govern...
Weekly News Roundup: Career Colleges Expected to Bounce Back After Rough Quarter
By: Sylvia Smith on April 2, 2011It sure has been a hectic week for investors in career colleges.Bloomberg Businessweek reports that "[f]ortunes for the for-profit education sector will get worse before they get better, but Apollo Group Inc. should get the worst of it before most of i...
Lock, Stock, and Barrel: U.S. Department of Education Levels Sights at Career Colleges
By: Sylvia Smith on March 31, 2011The American Spectator's Mark Hyman believes that the government is selling career colleges short -- literally. In a recent article he writes that "there is no end to what once started as a relatively straight-forward story. The U.S. Department of Educ...
Wednesday Linkpile: Career College Booms, Student Loan Busts, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on March 30, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Rooting for for-profits. On March 24, 2011 the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a study ent...
Interest in the Future: Questioning the Wisdom of Student Loans
By: Sylvia Smith on March 29, 2011Conventional economic wisdom concerning student loans follows a fairly straightforward logic. If you stand to make over the course of your professional career more than you'll pay for the education that gets you the career, then it makes sense to go ah...
Bet Your Bottom Dollar: For-Profit Colleges, Debt Defaults, and Adequate Employment
By: Sylvia Smith on March 28, 2011No doubt voicing the concerns of many parents of college-aged children, someone wrote recently to Los Angeles Times business advice columnist Liz Weston about a particular higher-education financing challenge. "Dear Liz," the letter reads. My son will ...
Weekly News Roundup: Push for Tighter Regs Has For-Profits Pushing Back
By: Louis Conrad on March 25, 2011For-profit colleges continue to do battle with federal legislators. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports that Congress needs to study the tactics used by for-profit colleges to recruit students. "Ever see those television commercials for colleges promi...
Law and Order: Accreditation and the Fate of Online J.D. Programs
By: Sylvia Smith on March 24, 2011Though most people would express ambivalence at the idea of more lawyers hanging out their shingles, several for-profit colleges aim to bring precisely this about by developing online law schools. The fact that present economic conditions disfavor the ...
Wednesday Linkpile: Bubbles, Troubles, Bizarre Transactions, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on March 23, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.What goes up must come down. At the Moral Liberal blog a recent headline asks, "Will Higher Ed Be th...
Commitment to Excellence: WGU An Online Education Game Changer
By: Sylvia Smith on March 22, 2011While the thrust-and-parry between the federal government and for-profit colleges grows more furious, the state of Maryland has decided to leave nothing to chance by tabling its own version of the "gainful employment" rule currently being debated in Wa...
Wizard of Oz: Aussie Prof Boosts Student Performance with Cutting-Edge EdTech
By: Sylvia Smith on March 21, 2011Education technology has been met with wonder "down under." An article in the March 20, 2011 edition of University World News reports that the innovative devices employed by one professor at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia "is helping resh...
School Rules: Education Department Dispatch Clarifies Gainful Employment Regs for For-Profits
By: Sylvia Smith on March 19, 2011The U.S. Education Department has released new information that clarifies rules governing the activities of for-profit colleges. These rules are set to go into effect July, 2011. Youth Today reports that "[t]he rules, under the department's Program Int...
M.B.A. Your Way: The Rise of Online Business Programs
By: Louis Conrad on March 17, 2011Online Master’s in Business Administration (M.B.A.) programs have caught on like wildfire in the realm of distance education.Once the exclusive domain of such for-profit schools as University of Phoenix and Kaplan University, online M.B.A. programs hav...
Wednesday Linkpile: Future Learning, Debt, Dow Dips, and More!
By: Sylvia Smith on March 17, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Forbes blogger Jamie Farrell rallies to the for-profits' cause. "For-Profits Are Not The Problem, St...
Growing Pains: Ashford University's Recruitment Practices Come Under Fire
By: Louis Conrad on March 15, 2011The Huffington Post reports that "a Senate panel set its sights on the tremendous growth of a tiny Iowa college that had become one of the nation's largest for-profit universities in just six years."That college, Ashford University, once a "near-bankru...
Facing the Future: For-Profit Colleges, Online Learning, and the Public Good
By: Sylvia Smith on March 14, 2011Whatever education comes to look like in the years and decades to come, it's a safe bet it won't look like it did in years and decades past. Such, anyway, is the expectation of David Hunter Tow, Director of the Future Planet Research Centre located in ...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Colleges Fight Regulatory Squeeze
By: Sylvia Smith on March 11, 2011For-profit colleges have really taken it on the chin this week. One of the biggest names in the for-profit education business has come under scrutiny for questionable business practices. Today's weekly new roundup features a survey of the latest news o...
Conquering Space and Time: Distance Learning, EdTech, and Community
By: Louis Conrad on March 10, 2011Tesol master's students in merry ol' England have stepped boldly into the twenty-first century -- and have relished the experience. An article appearing the March 8, 2011 edition of The Guardian reports that "research carried out recently among a group...
Linkpile Wednesday: Budget Cuts, Budget Shopping, Tuition Woes, EdTech Trends, and More!
By: Louis Conrad on March 9, 2011Wednesday Linkpile compiles, for your information and delight, links to noteworthy news articles pertaining to all things online and higher-educational.Taking the groans out of student loans. MoneyExpert.com offers advice on "How to become a financiall...
Lemons and Lemonade: Federal Student Aid Cuts and Distance Learning
By: Sylvia Smith on March 8, 2011”Neither a borrower nor a lender be" are the words of wisdom Polonius imparts to his son Laertes just before the latter's voyage to France in Shakespeare's Hamlet.If we in the 21st century were only as wise – or as fortunate -- as medieval Danes, life ...
Fate of Nations: Federal Budgets, Financial Aid, and Online Learning
By: Sylvia Smith on March 6, 2011Rutgers University president Richard L. McCormick isn't one to mince words. In a guest column appearing in the March 6, 2011 edition of The Newark Star-Ledger, McCormick gets straight to the point. "Memo to Capitol Hill: As you address a mounting natio...
Weekly News Roundup: For-Profit Education Battle Rages Undiminished
By: Louis Conrad on March 4, 2011There's still much ado about the practices of for-profit universities grabbing higher-ed news headlines.Congress.org reports that a "group of Republican senators introduced a bill to block the Obama administration from tightening rules on federal loans...
The Shape of Things to Come: Distance Learning, Mobile Devices, and "Big History"
By: Louis Conrad on March 3, 2011The admonition, "You never know who's listening," which we typically associate with characters in spy thrillers, also applies to university professors, especially if they're the sort who like to record podcasts of their lectures. History professor Davi...
You Better Work: American Labor Force Hustles to Re-Skill
By: Sylvia Smith on March 3, 2011Workers have taken greater responsibility for honing their professional skills. The Miami Herald reports that "three years after companies cut training to the bone, they are beginning to invest in workers again. But if there's one thing employees have ...
Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Fostering Community Among University Distance Learners
By: Sylvia Smith on March 1, 2011North Lake College's News Register recently inquired into the issue of whether the home represents as effective a learning environment as does the classroom. "Even though the traditional face-to-face lecture classes are a major part of attending colleg...
Michi-Can!: The Wolverine State Sinks Its Claws into Online Learning
By: Louis Conrad on February 28, 2011Michigan may have suffered particularly grievous economic blows with the recent recession, but it appears that the state's community college system is not only recovering but flourishing, thanks in large part to the successful implementation of online ...
Mongol Conquest: Distance Learning Rises in the East
By: Sylvia Smith on February 25, 2011Distance learning is making interactions once thought impossible ... possible. Indiana University's IU News Room reports that the "Mongolian prime minister Sukhbaatar Batbold took part in an introductory Mongolian class taught by Indiana University Blo...
Calling a Truce: Feds and For-Profits Come to Terms Regarding Veterans' Benefits
By: Sylvia Smith on February 24, 2011The harrowing year for-profit universities have heretofore had now begins to show a silver lining. Bloomberg.com reports that for-profit universities, "whose recruitment practices have been probed by Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs, got...
Bucking the Pass: For-Profits Gain Early Victory Over Proposed "Gainful Employment" Legislation
By: Louis Conrad on February 22, 2011It looks like for-profit colleges will live to see another day. HispanicBusiness.com reports that the "Obama administration['s] efforts to regulate for-profit colleges suffered a blow Friday, with an overwhelming vote in the House of Representatives to...
Digital Dixie: Alabamans Cotton to Distance Learning
By: Sylvia Smith on February 22, 2011Secondary students from different school districts can now connect with one another courtesy of distance learning technology. Al.com reports that educators in Alabama have launched the "biggest advance in leveling the playing field in Alabama education...
Higher Edu-Topia: A Bold Vision of Postsecondary Education's Future
By: Louis Conrad on February 19, 2011In response to debates currently raging about the future of education, The Washington Post recently featured an editorial that presents possible solutions to the quandary in which higher education currently finds itself.Entitled "How to Fix Higher Educ...
Loan Interest: For-Profit Universities Seek to Block Stricter Federal Aid Legislation
By: Sylvia Smith on February 16, 2011The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that lawmakers are seeking to block enforcement of the controversial "gainful employment" rule recently proposed by legislators:Congressional critics of the Education Department's proposed "gainful employment" ...
Improving with Age: Older and Nontraditional Students Entering University in Record Numbers
By: Louis Conrad on February 14, 2011An article in the February 14, 2011 edition of USA Today reports that more older and nontraditional students are appearing in university classrooms and lecture halls:The economic downturn has generated even more interest in higher education among non-t...
What Free Time? Distance Learning an Attractive Alternative to Full-Time Study
By: Sylvia Smith on February 13, 2011Arkansas State University's fightin' Red Wolves howl for distance learning. The Herald (the Arkansas State student newspaper) reports thatrenovations are underway at the former Jazzman's Hardwired Cafe near Parking Services off Johnson Avenue. The reno...
Two-Year 2.0: U.S. Community Colleges Expand Online Course Offerings
By: Louis Conrad on February 9, 2011Times have certainly changed since the days of pens, notebooks, and slide rules. To the time-honored three "r's" of education -- reading, writing, and 'rithmetic -- can be added a third: reception (as in wi-fi).The Washington Post reports that communit...
Partisan Struggle: Republicans, Democrats, and the Future of For-Profit Higher Ed.
By: Louis Conrad on February 8, 2011The battle has been joined. Republicans and Democrats are duking it out over for-profit education. US News and World Report reports that whenRepublicans seized control of the United States House of Representatives in last November's elections, there wa...
Scot Free: Distance Learning Comes to Rural U.K. and U.S.
By: Sylvia Smith on February 4, 2011Famous for the distinctive criss-cross pattern of tartan plaid, Scotland has recently been criss-crossed with the wires and cables vital to communication over vast expanses.Yes, the Highlands have gone high-tech; distance learning is coming to some of ...
Money Jungle: Dodging Phony Student Aid Lenders
By: Louis Conrad on February 2, 2011Present and prospective students of the University of California (UC) system received happy news that financial aid taps, after a period of slowing to almost a trickle, are once again flowing. "Students across the UC system could potentially receive mo...
Uni(Diver)sity: Colleges, Tech Schools, and the Modern American Job Market
By: Sylvia Smith on January 31, 2011Diversity -- no other term appears as frequently on university promotional material as this one.In all its permutations "diversity" has emerged as the buzzword nonpareil for the higher-educational industry. But like any other word, "diversity," when em...
Regulatory Wrangle: For-Profit Colleges and U.S. Government Clash over Student Loan Debt
By: Sylvia Smith on January 28, 2011For-profit colleges are feeling the heat these days. The Huffington Post reports that a "wide array of civil rights, student advocacy and consumer groups wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday urging him to immediately move forward with ...
Across the Fruited Plain: Distance Learning Comes to Rural U.S. Areas
By: Louis Conrad on January 26, 2011Distance learning is coming to rural Colorado. On January 24, 2011 Thegovmonitor.com reported that "two areas have been selected to receive grants to help finance Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program educational projects in rural areas of C...
Debt Dash ... Don't Crash: Borrowing Basics for the College Bound
By: Sylvia Smith on January 24, 2011An article in the January 12, 2011 edition of The Observer, the student newspaper of Case Western Reserve University, offers some handy advice on how to manage student loan debt. This advice couldn't be timelier, as debt burdens assumed by college stud...
Cardinal Virtue: Stanford U. Soars into Distance Learning with Aviation Program
By: Louis Conrad on January 20, 2011Via the January 20, 2011 edition of The Vancouver Sun comes a BusinessWire press release announcing that "[t]he Stanford Center for Professional Development and the International Air Transport Association today signed an agreement to develop and delive...
eClass Struggle: Florida Parents Grumble as State's Schools Launch Virtual Education
By: Louis Conrad on January 18, 2011Florida students are in for a surprise this semester. Over 7,000 pupils in Miami-Dade County Public School will be enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using only a computer. The January 18, 2011 edition of The New York Times reports ...
The Middle Way: Certificate Programs the New Path to Prosperity
By: Sylvia Smith on January 17, 2011Just how rough is the economy these days?Well, consider this January 16, 2011 story from Iowa's KCRG News. "A man who participated with others in a scheme to fraudulently obtain federal student loans pled guilty Friday in federal court in Cedar Rapids,...
Distance Learning in Dixie: Louisiana Universities Woo Nontraditional Students
By: Louis Conrad on January 13, 2011Technology drives change so relentlessly that one day we feel like our feet are planted on terra firma, and the next we feel as if we're treading deep, eddying waters. Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan didn't title his memoirs of his...
Phoenix Rising: Apollo Group Resurgent Despite Declining Enrollment
By: Louis Conrad on January 12, 2011The Apollo Group Inc. has shown investors that a decline in enrollment in its for-profit schools, University of Phoenix and Axia College, wasn't going to depress its stock prices. Bloomberg.com reports that "the company said it managed to shave costs d...
Going the Distance: Two Universities Blazing Bold New Edtech Trails
By: Sylvia Smith on January 10, 2011Going the Distance: Two Universities Blazing Bold New Edtech TrailsIowa has become a leader in the field of distance learning. The Iowa City Press-Citizen brings word of The University of Iowa's implementation of cutting-edge distance learning technolo...
Access Denied: Pell Grant Cuts Mean Financial Hardship for Nation's Disadvantaged
By: Louis Conrad on January 6, 2011It's a commonplace in American public discourse to equate education with social mobility.In the popular imagination, the preeminent virtue of education rests on a certain work-coefficient perceived to be attached to it: The more effort you put into you...
Risk Management: Advice to Make Higher Education Less of a Gamble
By: Sylvia Smith on January 5, 2011Nevada: the state that the gaming industry made. For decades people have traveled to The Silver State to woo Lady Luck in order to reap easy fortunes. But when the dice turns up snake-eyes, the roulette ball lands on red, or the house keeps showing ace...
Class Action: Distance Learning's Surging Popularity Continues Undiminished
By: Louis Conrad on January 4, 2011On January 11, 2000 then Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush in his inimitable style put a question to the voting public: "Is our children learning?"Nearly eleven years later, Americans may well want to pause to ask themselves (grammatical...
Middle of Nowhere: Online Learning and The Great Disintermediation
By: Sylvia Smith on December 29, 2010Imagine there are no brick and mortar universities. It's easy if you try. In their place stand ... well ... nothing at all -- because universities, like everything else that's solid, have melted into air, having gone virtual by virtue of the increased ...
Lessons Learned: Social Media and Academic Performance
By: Louis Conrad on December 27, 2010Via the blog Learning Ecosystems comes notice of ten learning technology trends to watch this coming year. These trends, identified and listed by The E-learning Coach, are as follows:Growth of Social LearningTo LMS or NotPocket Video TechnologyMobileiP...
Old School: Tech Education Gap Widens Between U.S. and Peer Nations
By: Louis Conrad on December 24, 2010Despite the vital role it plays in business affairs, technology does not figure as much as it ought in American classrooms. Students in the United States are falling behind their first-world peers in terms of technology skills and education. Recent pan...
Time to Split: State U. Incentivizes Online Course Creation with Revenue Sharing
By: Sylvia Smith on December 23, 2010One of the great oddities of the human species is how frequently it forgets, and therefore must relearn, certain fundamental truths. University administrators, for instance, are waking up to the fact that it's easier to draw flies with honey than with ...
Fake It Till You Make It: "Default Management" the Watchword When It Comes to Student Aid
By: Sylvia Smith on December 22, 2010Student aid -- such a seemingly innocuous idea. Young Americans wishing to improve their minds and earning potential ask Uncle Sam for a loan to cover university tuition. The student gains entrance to a university, earns a degree, and commands a higher...
Stock Response: For-Profits Share Price Dips in Light of New Regs
By: Louis Conrad on December 20, 2010There’s an old saying that the trouble with being the lead dog is that all the other dogs bite your behind. Apollo Group Inc., which owns for-profit higher-education industry leader University of Phoenix, has found itself chewed a bit this past year. C...
Believe the Skype: VoIP the Latest Trend in Distance Learning
By: Louis Conrad on December 16, 2010Believe the Skype: VoIP the Latest Trend in Distance LearningDistance learning is going international. The Community College Times reports that Skype is the latest technology to link American students to teachers abroad. “Each Wednesday, a few minutes ...
Software Update: Three Distance Learning Technologies to Watch in 2011
By: Louis Conrad on December 15, 2010Distance learning innovators are finding ever more clever ways to use technology to enhance online education. From mobile phones to Skype, these sometimes familiar technologies are finding new uses in the classroom. Here are three distance learning tec...
Quality Matters: For-Profit Universities Ratchet up Standards
By: Sylvia Smith on December 15, 2010Finding a job these days is hard. But it’s even harder when you’re saddled with student loan debt incurred in pursuit of a degree that hasn’t given you a competitive advantage on the job market. This very problem had prompted many online universities t...
Done Unto U.: For-Profit School Earns High Marks in Ethics
By: Sylvia Smith on December 14, 2010It pays to operate an ethical business. Though some for-profit universities have suffered reduced stock prices as a result of the Department of Education’s proposed “gainful employment” legislation, which would require online universities to prove that...
When Johnny Comes Marching Home: Veterans' Benefits Fall to For-Profit Schools
By: Louis Conrad on December 12, 2010Via The Gouverneur Times comes a December 9, 2010 Associated Press (AP) article presenting findings of a recent poll conducted to gauge public perception college graduation rates. These rates in the U.S. continue to be dismayingly low, and the public, ...
High Loan-some Blue: Online U. Brings Relief to Nontraditional Students
By: Sylvia Smith on December 11, 2010It used to be that final exams gave college students sleepless nights. Any university graduate can, I'm sure, regale you with tales of Starbuck's-fueled cram sessions in anticipation of some physics or history final. And she would also confess to great...
'Net Profits: The Advantages of "Just in Time Learning"
By: Sylvia Smith on December 10, 2010Nothing inspires flights of utopian fancy quite like the Internet. Mike Davies, guest-blogger at Helge Scherlund's E-Learning News, enthuses over the transformative power of computer technology. "Everything’s going the 'e' way today --from the way we c...
Space Race: Universities' Resource Strain Is Online Programs' Gain
By: Sylvia Smith on December 9, 2010"Imagine waking up two mornings a week and, instead of walking to Cohen Auditorium for your Biology 13 class, opening your laptop and watching the lecture from the comfort of your room," begins an article in the December 7, 2010 edition of The Tufts Da...
Virtual Necessity: Working Students Find Real Value in Online Learning
By: Louis Conrad on December 8, 2010In years past, nothing struck fear in the entering college freshman's like the possibility of anonymity. Perceptions of the university as an imposing, impersonal institution hardened into stereotypes. Veteran students would regale new ones with stories...
HBCUs & CPUs: FAMU & Fellow Schools Jump in the E-Learning Biz
By: Louis Conrad on December 7, 2010The prospects for e-learning just got brighter in The Sunshine State. Rattler Nation, the blog of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) reports in a December 3, 2010 post that "FAMU administrators received the green light to launch the ...
Prairie Stampede: Distance Learning Sweeps Nebraska
By: Louis Conrad on December 6, 2010Along with steaks, corn, insurance, and Warren Buffet, Nebraska can now count online education as one of its economic drivers. A December 2, 2010 1011Now.com story reports that The University of Nebraska has seen its online course enrollment jump by 30...
Cheeseheads for Mortarboards: Wisconsin Logs in to Online Learning
By: Sylvia Smith on December 4, 2010Earning a degree online just got easier for University of Wisconsin students. Wisconsin Radio Network reports that the Badger State’s higher-ed system recently introduced eCampus, an online learning platform. University president Kevin Reilly hopes tha...
Everywhere U: Online Learning Sweeps the Globe
By: Louis Conrad on December 2, 2010Online learning -- the world is beginning to recognize its many benefits. And its rapid growth continues unabated. The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning found that online enrollment rose by almost one million students. That's the largest year-to-yea...
Shaken, Then Stirred: Free Online Education the Hope of Haiti Post-Earthquake
By: Louis Conrad on November 20, 2010When disasters strike, the immediate consequences -- death, destruction, displacement, suffering -- naturally grab headlines. Once the present emergency passes and the situation more or less stabilizes, public attention moves on to new events, leaving ...
Future Trade: Online Degree Programs and the Tech-Heavy Workplace
By: Louis Conrad on November 20, 2010The irrepressible Coty Schwabe, who blogs under the name "MrAwesome," calls his readers' attention to a phenomenon sure to become only all the more obvious as time wears on. The title of his September 26, 2010 blog post says it all: "College Degrees On...
For-Profit Universities: Lemons or Peaches?
By: Sylvia Smith on November 19, 2010Forbes blogger Steven Salzberg levels his sites at for-profit universities (FPUs) in a post dated September, 27 2010. Dubbing them "The Yugos of Higher Education," Salzberg lambasts for-profit universities for a number of vices. The items of his indict...
Daring Dairyland: Online Program Enrollment Surges in Wisconsin
By: Louis Conrad on September 27, 2010Popularly known as America's Dairyland, the state of Wisconsin is currently bidding to become the cream of the crop of states dedicated to developing an educated citizenry. An article in the September 23, 2010 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...
Online Education: All The Rage In The Digital Age
By: Sylvia Smith on September 26, 2010Online education's boom should help to dispel any lingering economic gloom.A September 26, 2010 article appearing in the University World News brings word of the robust financial health of for-profit universities. "The profits are high, indeed, with 14...
Degrees Online: New Site Offers Top-Flight Higher-Ed Guidance
By: Sylvia Smith on September 1, 2010When it comes to finding an online college degree program, confusion reigns. There's an enormous number of institutions offering even more enormous numbers of degree and certificate curricula -- far more than you can satisfactorily research, at any rat...
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