More students learning online
Stephanie Takach
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
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Almost 3.5 million American students took at least one online course during the fall 2006 term, about a 10 percent increase over the number reported in 2005, according to the Sloan Consortium.
For the fall term at Drexel, almost 4,000 courses have capability of Blackboard Vista, the Drexel online learning service.
"I think that we're safe to say that we're more than just getting our feet wet; [we're] well established to experience online education at Drexel," Associate Vice President of IRT Jan Biros said.
Online education has become increasingly popular on college campuses, and Drexel is taking advantage of these developments in technology. According to Michael Scheuermann, the director of Online Learning, nearly 70 percent of all Drexel students are in at least one section this fall where the professor is actively using Blackboard Vista in their teaching and learning.
According to Scheuermann, IRT finds, evaluates and purchases applications that either integrate with or directly support professors' and departments' use of technology in teaching and learning. The technology sometimes features the Learning Management System, with programs like Wimba, which is a Live Classroom, TurnItIn, which checks for plagiarism, and Folio, an ePortfolio application that showcases a student's work in a portfolio format.
Skeptics of online learning hold that the quality of learning is not the same as a classroom curriculum. However, according to Biros, online learning improves the quality of learning.
"A lot of times when people teach face to face, they may not be revising their course material that often, but instead, pick up their folder and teach," Biros said. "When you're online, you're more inclined to go back, revise, add things and use new tools."
Online education is accessible 24 hours a day and seven days a week so that, "When life is more complicated, having materials online helps," Biros said.
"The challenges for quality, control and enhancement are the same challenges face to face," Scheuermann said. "Students tell us that they are more engaged in classes that use Bb Vista."
For the fall term at Drexel, almost 4,000 courses have capability of Blackboard Vista, the Drexel online learning service.
"I think that we're safe to say that we're more than just getting our feet wet; [we're] well established to experience online education at Drexel," Associate Vice President of IRT Jan Biros said.
Online education has become increasingly popular on college campuses, and Drexel is taking advantage of these developments in technology. According to Michael Scheuermann, the director of Online Learning, nearly 70 percent of all Drexel students are in at least one section this fall where the professor is actively using Blackboard Vista in their teaching and learning.
According to Scheuermann, IRT finds, evaluates and purchases applications that either integrate with or directly support professors' and departments' use of technology in teaching and learning. The technology sometimes features the Learning Management System, with programs like Wimba, which is a Live Classroom, TurnItIn, which checks for plagiarism, and Folio, an ePortfolio application that showcases a student's work in a portfolio format.
Skeptics of online learning hold that the quality of learning is not the same as a classroom curriculum. However, according to Biros, online learning improves the quality of learning.
"A lot of times when people teach face to face, they may not be revising their course material that often, but instead, pick up their folder and teach," Biros said. "When you're online, you're more inclined to go back, revise, add things and use new tools."
Online education is accessible 24 hours a day and seven days a week so that, "When life is more complicated, having materials online helps," Biros said.
"The challenges for quality, control and enhancement are the same challenges face to face," Scheuermann said. "Students tell us that they are more engaged in classes that use Bb Vista."
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