SmarterServices has released the 2011 Student Readiness Report.

Distance learning continues to grow at an incredible rate. As more students begin to learn online, it becomes obvious that distance learning is a better fit for some students than others. Individuals considering distance learning desire to know if studying online will be a good choice for them. Schools which invest heavily in attracting new online students want to retain the students across their degree program. Both schools and students benefit when a student’s level of readiness for learning online is measured.

The 2011 Student Readiness Report (SRR) uses data from 240,386 unique students from 258 colleges and universities during the time frame of July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Data from each of these students was analyzed in aggregate, and the findings are now being reported in the SRR. Among these students, 71% were female, only 30% were of traditional age (18-22 years old), 22% had “social” as their dominant learning style, 37% exhibited between 70%-79% of mastery in technical knowledge, and 53% scored 100% on technical competency skills. Statistically significant differences were found among the demographic factors of gender, ethnicity, age, institution type, and the number of prior online courses taken. For example, females were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of individual attributes, typing accuracy, and life factors. Males were found to have statistically significant higher means on the constructs of reading rate and technical knowledge.

According to Sloan-C, over 5.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2009 term – a 21% increase over the number reported the previous year. This 21% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth of the overall higher education student population. When asked about how the SRR data could help with the growth of the online student population, Dr. Mac Adkins, President of SmarterServices said, “The Student Readiness Report is of substantial interest to distance learning leaders as they plan to continue to scale and improve their programs. For example, the aggregate data included in the report is useful to instructional designers as they craft their courses to be intuitive for learners of various learning styles and technical abilities, while the information about learners’ life factors and their abilities is useful to student services personnel”.

To download a free copy of the report, go to http://www.smartermeasure.com/documents/2011_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf.

The student data came from the SmarterMeasure learning readiness indicator. SmarterMeasure is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures students’ strengths and opportunities for improvement in six areas related to online learning and technology rich courses. Those include life factors, learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall.

2011 Student Readiness Report is Now Available!

Did you know that we are about to reach an incredible milestone?  Our realtime counter located on our SmarterMeasure home page shows we will soon reach 1,000,000 students who have benefitted from taking SmarterMeasure!  Now that's exciting!!  Seems like there should be some sort of prize for the 1 MILLIONTH student, wouldn't you think?  Stay tuned...we'll be watching...will you?

(image shows realtime counter on 7/20/11 at 3:10 pm central)

Get Ready, Get Set, 1 MILLION Here We Come!

The recent 2010 Distance Education Survey Results released by Instructional Technology Council (ITC) lists the top 10 greatest challenges for elearning program administrators.  SmarterServices' tools lined up perfectly with the first three. 

1. Support staff needed for training and technical assistance - SmarterFaculty
2. Adequate assessment of distance education classes - SmarterSurveys
3. Adequate student services for distance education students - SmarterMeasure

It is very exciting as a company to be positioned on the edge of distance learning needs!  Our goal is to provide robust, yet cost effective solutions, to distance learning challenges.  We want to help you understand your data and make it useable.  So far we are right on track!

SmarterServices Matches Trends in Distance Learning

Using Student Readiness Data to Improve Retention

FREE Webinar - Pearson LearningStudio and Argosy University

Last week, we had a new follower on Twitter called Efront Learning.  After looking around on their website, which I frequently do when we get new followers, I came across a good elearning blog called The eLearning Coach.  They put a list together eleven ways to learn in 2011. I thought it was interesting and had to pass them along.  The full details can be found in the blog post.  It has some great resources listed. You've got to check out the full post!  It really does make you want to try something new.

1. Learn to Focus.
2. Master the How-to Universe.
3. Explore the World's Museums (online).
4. Hack Your Life.
5. Become a Storyteller (my favorite).
6. Soothe Your Inner Geek.
7. Learn on the Go
8. Produce Videos/Start a Channel.
9. Create Music.
10. Report the News.
11. Interact with History.

11 New Ways You Can Learn