… or is the solution to go entirely online?

“As higher education budgets are hit more and more seriously, one US state (Washington) is considering a partnership with the entirely online university …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzysnki, University Blog, 21 March]

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Experimental Estimates of the Effects of Online Instruction on Student Learning

“… The importance of face-to-face lectures for students’ academic achievement has been demonstrated in previous economics studies  … Therefore, it should be an immediate priority to establish how online lectures compare …” (more)

[Martin Ryan, Geary Behavioural Economics Blog, 14 March]

Is lecture capture the worst educational technology?

“Many institutions seem to be completely obsessed with lecture capture technology as a method of generating flexibly accessible learning content. For me though the large scale implementation of lecture capture is probably one of the costliest and strategically misguided educational technologies that an institution can adopt …” (more)

[Mark Smithers, 11 March]

iPads Could Hinder Teaching, Professors Say

“Rival tablet PC’s foster more interactivity, studies suggest. But students’ craving for the Apple devices could matter more …” (more)

[Ben Wieder, Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 March]

Actually Going to Class, for a Specific Course? How 20th-Century

“The first question many undergraduates ask professors on the first day of class is whether they really have to show up. The way they phrase it is a bit more subtle …” (more)

[Jeffrey R Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 February]

eLearning at Universities: A Quality Assurance Free Zone?

“Over the last couple of months I have been asked to help a university (that will remain nameless) in its transition to a newer version of its Learning Management System (LMS). As part of this I have had to access many LMS course spaces to check that content has migrated successfully and that things are working as they should. It has been a profoundly depressing experience …” (more)

[Mark Smithers, 19 February]

Time for show and tell as teachers embrace classroom technology

“The technology world has been a whirlwind of change over the past few years, with cloud computing becoming standard, smartphones dominating and tablet devices coming into their own …” (more)

[Marie Boran, Irish Times, 11 February]

Chinese students tune in via webcam for harp lessons

“An Irish harpist is reaching out across the timezones and cultural divides to teach Chinese students via the internet. From the comfort of her music school in Lanesboro, Co Longford, musician Edel Loftus is using a webcam to help students in Ireland and further afield …” (more)

[Louise Hogan, Independent, 7 February]

Teaching and technology

“What about teaching how to use tech rather than just throwing it at them & expecting improvements? RT @9th_level_irl http://wp.me/pjiT3-6en” (tweet)

[Michael Seery, Twitter, 6 February]

Technology not necessarily best tool for teaching

“The use of technology in the classroom is not an ideal way to educate our children and may, in fact, be having a detrimental effect on students …” (more)

[Eoin Whelan, Sunday Business Post, 6 February]

The(se) Kids are All Right: Interview with SmartlyEdu Founders

“I’ve presented papers at conferences over the years in which I’ve argued that design (definition: the marriage of aesthetics and functionality) is integral to high quality digital education; that ‘look and feel’ matters. To put it mildly, the response to this argument has been muted …” (more)

[Keith C Hampson, Higher Education Management Group, 30 January]

Absent Students Want to Attend Traditional Classes via Webcam

“It was just 30 minutes before class when Thomas Nelson Laird, an assistant professor of higher education at Indiana University at Bloomington, got the e-mail from a student: ‘I can’t make it to class. Can you beam me in by Webcam?’ …” (more)

[Jeffrey R Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 January]

Textbooks? So Last Century. Rent a Netbook Instead

“For many students, heading to class without a laptop is a bit like leaving the house without wearing pants. And whether it’s registering for classes, meeting with professors, or doing homework, chances are those aspects of college now involve a computer and the Internet …” (more)

[Martha Ann Overland, Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 January]

What students want – chapters, not books

“It has become an axiom that today’s students don’t want to read whole books. Their attention span has declined in the digital age, where surfing and scanning are the norm. They often want reading lists from professors that consist of short articles and specific chapters rather than whole books …” (more)

[Yojana Sharma, University World News, 12 December]

Why more and more smart students are staying home from college

“Irish third-level colleges have been slow to let their students study over the Internet and off campus, but that may now be changing. The number of institute of technology students who are aren’t physically there increased by 31% last year …” (more)

[Independent, 24 November]

As Textbooks Go Digital, Campus Bookstores May Go Bookless

“As students cut costs by buying books from cheaper online retailers or by downloading e-textbooks, campus bookstores sell fewer and fewer textbooks. That’s triggering an identity crisis for one of the oldest institutions on campus and leading some college officials to ask: If textbooks go digital, does the campus even need a bookstore? …” (more)

[Jeffrey R Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 November]

IT Sligo to ‘Simplify’ e-learning

“Developed by Claire Burge, a graduate of CÉIM, the IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT Enterprise Development Programme, Simplify Learning uses social network concepts in academic environments to help students to learn differently, through sharing knowledge and personal experience …” (more)

[TechCentral.ie, 15 November]

For Exposure, Universities Put Courses on the Web

“Until recently, if you wanted to take Professor Rebecca Henderson’s course in advanced strategy to understand the long-term roots of why some companies are unusually successful, you needed to be a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Ms. Henderson taught at the Sloan School of Management …” (more)

[DD Guttenplan, New York Times, 1 November]

Bedding down in The Library

“Earlier this week I took part in a debate at the British Library – ‘Is the Physical Library a Redundant Resource for 21st century academics’ organised by THE. To put it another way, should we all stay at home/in our studies and call up all the resources we need on our lap tops …” (more)

[A don’s life, 30 October]

What if undergraduate students designed their own web learning environment?

“Abstract: Following the increasing calls for a more skeptical analysis of web 2.0 and the empowerment of learners’ voices in formulating upcoming technologies, this paper elaborates on the participatory design of a web learning environment …” (more)

[Palaigeorgiou and others, J of Computer Assisted Learning, 28 October]