Education Weblog

© ComputerMonger

The Discovery Centre for Balanced Learning in the resort mountain village of Sun Peaks, Canada is not your typical school. It is a combination of a conventional school and distance learning, formed by a group of parents in the community who banded together with a common educational goal for their K-5 grade students. There is a teacher on-site, like at a conventional school to supervise students with a regular curriculum.

But there is also videoconferencing and online lessons from @KOOL, which is the school district's distance learning program as part of the daily routine. Students use Skype and Google on a regular basis at the school, where 18 kids aged 5 to 10 are divided into three age groups (K-1, grades 2-3, and grades 4-5) for instruction. Students learn to set goals each week an d achieve them, which is teaching them responsibility and leadership skills that will be useful later in their lives.

© jurvetson

Education officials have urged lawmakers to delay the implementation of Education Department requirements to expand state authorization requirements and establish a federal definition of "credit hour". These new regulations could be particularly burdensome to institutions that offer distance education courses and online degrees. The president of Excelsior College testified before congress on the matter, calling the new regulation unnecessary and burdensome to online institutions like his.

Because these institutions often have students in many states and territories, they would be required to document that they are authorized to operate in 54 separate jurisdictions. If an institution is found not to have the requisite state approvals, it could lose eligibility to participate in the Title 1V financial aid programs. This would create a roadblock for online education, at a time when it is needed more than ever.

Thebestcolleges.org has rated the best online college education providers, the top online colleges and Universities of 2011. The Penn State University World Campus received the number one position as the place for an online college education. Penn State has long been a leader in distance education and offers the exact same degree and transcript as it awards its traditional on-campus students. Boston University online is not far behind Penn State in terms of student, satisfaction, and completion rate. This distance education university was awarded the 2010 Sloan-C Award for Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education and a 2010 Silver Best Practices Award for Distance Learning Programming from the United States Distance Learning Association. Full Sail University is ranked third and has been called one of the top 5 film schools in the States by UNleashed magazine.

© jmd41280