21.235 new on WWW: TL Infobits; 3DVisA Bulletin from Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty <willard.mcc on 2007-08-31 (Humanist Archives Vol. 21 )

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:30:58 +0100

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 235.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

[1] From: "Carolyn Kotlas" <kotlas_at_email.unc.edu> (174)
Subject: TL Infobits -- August 2007

[2] From: "Anna Bentkowska" <anna.bentkowska_at_KCL.AC.UK> (29)
Subject: 3DVisA Bulletin, September 2007

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:26:09 +0100
         From: "Carolyn Kotlas" <kotlas_at_email.unc.edu>
         Subject: TL Infobits -- August 2007

TL INFOBITS August 2007 No. 14 ISSN: 1931-3144

About INFOBITS

INFOBITS is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning division. Each month the
ITS-TL's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a
number of information and instructional technology sources that come to
her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to
educators.

NOTE: You can read the Web version of this issue at
http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/bitaug07.php.

You can read all back issues of Infobits at
http://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/.

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Web 2.0 Technologies for Use in Higher Education
Strategies for Online Training of Online Faculty
Reducing Attrition in Online Classes
Community College students' IT Experiences
New Google Research University Services
Recommended Reading

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WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES FOR USE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

As part of the June Sloan-C workshop, "Learning Online 2.0: Engaging,
Interacting and Syndicating Applications"
(http://www.sloan-c.org/workshop/learningonline_june07.asp), presenters
Burks Oakley and Ray Schroeder provided a list of their top 20 Web 2.0
technologies. These technologies are linked to from
http://www.sloan-c-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Burks_Oakley_and_Ray_Schroeder:_Top_20_Technologies.

You can join workshop participants in evaluating these technologies in
the SloanCWiki at http://www.sloan-c.pbwiki.com.

Sloan-C is a consortium of institutions and organizations committed "to
help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and
breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive
missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide
variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. For more information go to http://www.aln.org/.

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STRATEGIES FOR ONLINE TRAINING OF ONLINE FACULTY

In "Online Training for Online Faculty" (CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY, August 8,
2007) Ron Thomas, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, offers a
checklist of ten "best strategies for designing and delivering online
courses to train online faculty." Some of the suggestions include:

"Be their instructor, not their colleague."

"Train faculty on the same platform their students will use."

"Provide multiple safety nets for faculty during and after their
training."

"Respect the faculty members' previous teaching experience."

The article is available at
http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=49570.

Campus Technology [ISSN: 1089-5914] is a print and electronic
publication that focuses exclusively on the use of technology across
all areas of higher education. For more information, contact: Campus
Technology, 101communications LLC, 9121 Oakdale Ave., Suite 101,
Chatsworth, CA 91311 USA; tel: 818-734-1520; fax: 818-734-1522; Web:
http://www.campus-technology.com/.

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REDUCING ATTRITION IN ONLINE CLASSES

"Attrition rates for classes taught through distance education are 10-
20% higher than classes taught in a face-to-face setting. . . . Finding
ways to decrease attrition in distance education classes and programs
is critical both from an economical and quality viewpoint. High
attrition rates have a negative economic impact on universities."

In "Strategies to Engage Online Students and Reduce Attrition Rates"
(THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATORS ONLINE, vol. 4, no. 2, July 2007), the
authors provide a review of the literature to determine methods for
"engaging students with the goals of enhancing the learning process and
reducing attrition rates." Their research identified four major
strategies:

-- student integration and engagement

Includes "faculty-initiated contact via phone calls, pre-course
orientations, informal online chats, and online student
services."

-- learner-centered approach

Faculty "need to get to know their students and assess each student's
pre-existing knowledge, cultural perspectives, and comfort
level with technology."

-- learning communities

"[S]trong feelings of community may not only increase persistence in
      courses, but may also increase the flow of information among
      all learners, availability of support, commitment to group
      goals, cooperation among members and satisfaction with group
      efforts."

-- accessibility to online student services.

Services might include "assessments, educational counseling,
      administrative process such as registration, technical support,
      study skills assistance, career counseling, library services,
      students' rights and responsibilities, and governance."

The paper, written by Lorraine M. Angelino, Frankie Keels Williams, and
Deborah Natvig, is available at
http://www.thejeo.com/Volume4Number2/Angelino%20Final.pdf.

The Journal of Educators Online (JEO) [ISSN 1547-500X ]is an online,
double-blind, refereed journal by and for instructors, administrators,
policy-makers, staff, students, and those interested in the
development, delivery, and management of online courses in the Arts,
Business, Education, Engineering, Medicine, and Sciences. For more
information, contact JEO, 500 University Drive, Dothan, Alabama 36303
USA; tel: 334-983-6556, ext. 1-356; fax: 334-983-6322; Web:
http://www.thejeo.com/.

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COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS' IT EXPERIENCES

A new EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) research bulletin,
"Impressions of Community College Students' IT Experiences,"
"highlights some of the similarities and differences between students
attending four-year institutions and those attending community
colleges, focusing on those areas where there are challenges and
opportunities for using IT to improve students' academic experiences."

Since 2004, ECAR has studied undergraduate students and the impact of
information technology on their academic experiences. Now in its third
year, the study surveyed 96 institutions, including eight community
colleges. Compared to students at four-year institutions, community
college students reported:

-- "less use per week for most course-related activities, similar use
for some social activities, and less use of social networking
and instant messaging "

-- "fewer basic and fewer advanced skills with presentation software,
spreadsheets, library resources, and CMSs"

-- "higher levels of ownership of PDAs, smart phones, gaming devices,
digital cameras, and wireless hubs"

-- a high desire for computer labs, student IT training, and free
access to software required for their courses

The research bulletin is available online at
http://connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/ImpressionsofCommuni/44739
for all faculty, staff, and students from institutions that have
subscribed to ECAR.

ECAR "provides timely research and analysis to help higher education
leaders make better decisions about information technology. ECAR
assembles leading scholars, practitioners, researchers, and analysts to
focus on issues of critical importance to higher education, many of
which carry increasingly complicated and consequential implications."
For more information go to
http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=4.

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NEW GOOGLE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY SERVICES

Google,Inc. recently announced two new services as part of its Google
Research University program.

Google Search "is designed to give university faculty and their
research teams high-volume programmatic access to Google Search, whose
huge repository of data constitutes a valuable resource for
understanding the structure and contents of the web." For more
information and to register for the service, go to
http://research.google.com/university/search/.

Google Translate "offers tools to help researchers in the field of
automatic machine translation compare and contrast with, and build on
top of, Google's statistical machine translation system." For more
information and to register for the service, go to
http://research.google.com/university/translate/.

For an overview of all Google Research activities visit
http://research.google.com/.

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