College classes offered until 2:30 am?  What?  Who ever heard of such a thing?  According to officials at some community colleges across the country, it is necessary to meet the demand of the new college student.  With enrollments up this fall of over 30%, they say getting creative with scheduling is one way to meet the challenge. 

A recent article published by Newsday.com highlights several reasons why enrollments are jumping in record numbers.  Driven by a poor economy, traditional students are staying closer to home and opting for the more affordable community college tuition versus state and private universities, which in some cases can cost 5-6 times more.  Single income families are looking for ways to increase earning power by completing degrees or learning new skills.  Some individuals simply have more time on their hands from a recent layoff and are looking for ways to actively affect their future in a positive way.

Larger enrollments generally mean higher revenue but in this case it is causing a strain on many schools.  Coordinating course offerings, hiring teachers, and advising students is a process that requires careful planning and human capital.  It is difficult to pull this process off on the fly with little preparation.  Estimating number of enrollments with this unprecedented growth is difficult to do.  To make matters worse, traditionally some students at community colleges tend to wait until the last minute to register causing even more unpredictability about handling the load.

The fact that some schools may have to turn students away for the first time ever is a sobering thought.  One that is creating a controlled chaos to try and rise to the occasion.  As schools begin to expand their online offerings out of shear necessity businesses like eLearningToolBox who specialize in providing tools that make elearning better will be waiting in the wings to assist these schools in proper planning.  Now is the time for schools to embrace non traditional learning environments and aide students to personal path learning.  A path that includes access to education to all regardless of age, demographic, or financial status.

Weak Economy = Record Number Enrollments for Community Colleges

eLearningToolBox Newsletter Summer 2009
The Latest in Distance Learning READI Announces Integration with the eCollege Learning Management System eLearningToolBox.com, the provider of READI, is pleased to announce that it has completed a project through which READI can be integrated into the eCollege learning management system.  Students of schools which are using eCollege can now access READI from within their eCollege course without having to re-authenticate into the READI system.  This single sign on capability reduces the number of user names and passwords that schools and students have to keep track of.  A student can also submit their READI report internally through the communication features of eCollege to their instructor for review.  If students and/or their instructors need to access the student’s report at a later date, they may do so through eCollege. eLearningToolBox.com has several client schools which use eCollege and requested this integration.  The next learning management system which is slated for integration with READI is Blackboard.  If your school is interested in learning more about the integration of READI into your learning management system please contact your Account Manager or support@readi.info.  What's New in the ToolBox? Personalized Online Student Readiness Report Are you interested in knowing how your students compare to the national averages of online student readiness? Recently we launched the 2009 Online Student Readiness Report. It included data collected from over 150,000 students at 272 institutions. We are now offering a personalized report that contains data from your students. For a small fee, you can have access to statistical information to help you understand your students' strengths and weaknesses. This data can provide guidance for future course design and insight about remedial tools that you may want to consider in your planning of the online program. To view a sample of this school specific report or for a price quote, contact your Account Manager. The Most Efficient Way to Find Out What Students Really Think It is coming! PostCourse 2.0 will be available next month! It will feature easy data upload with an integrated wizard, intuitive real-time reporting, tiered role-based administrative access, unlimited surveys and much more! Account Managers are setting up demos in August and Setptember to highlight the new features. Postcourse is a web-based tool that will allow administrators to totally manage all data through an administrative control panel. If you would like to find out about how much you save over your current process, contact an Account Manager today at sales@eLearningToolBox.com. Change is Good New Feature Added to READI READI Administrator, do you have a student test taker login group that needs to be inactivated but not deleted? Often times, schools create new login groups and although they want to keep the data in the old group, they do not want students to accidentally login using the old information. We've added a new feature to READI that allows administrators to choose "inactive" for login groups. This allows administrators to continue to view the data in the group but prevents a student from using the old user/pass combo. To access this feature follow the instructions below. 1. Login to http://admin.readi.info 2. Click on "Manage Account" 3. Click on "Admin & Test Taker Groups" 4. Click on specific test taker group 5. Use drop down box to select "active or inactive" 6. Save and close (Notice the login group is now designated with a red button instead of green) Neat to Know How to export READI data Go to admin.readi.info and login to your account Click on "Test Search and Export" Designate preferred filters Once you reach "Data At a Glance" click "Export Data" For more READI tips, visit our tutorials link at readi.info/tutorials Water Cooler Tips to Increase Website Participation for Students 1. Require it; Making assignments optional will generally result in little if any participation. Even those who are motivated to succeed will generally use extra time on tasks they see as most important which are generally "required activities". Requiring participation, helps motivated students to prioritize and unmotivated students to keep up. 2. Play hide and seek. Hide extra credit activites, special notes for the test, create scavenger hunt clues, make it fun, and reward those who follow through. 3. Make it fun by adding new content weekly like a personal top 10 list, music, or a funny slideshow. Do you Tweet? If you want to learn about what's going on with eLearningToolBox first, follow us on twitter. Blog What do we have to say about things? Check out our blog at eLearningToolBox.com/Blog for weekly updates of our two cents.	In this edition: The Latest in Distance Learning What's New in the ToolBox? Change is Good Neat to Know WaterCooler Free Stuff Coming Soon There is Still Time to Cash in on Our FREE Summer Webinar Series! Are you looking for a way to squeeze in some training this summer before school gets started? You've come to the right place! There is still time to take advantage of our FREE Summer Webinar Series. Don't have time or money to travel to a classroom session? No worries, you are invited to our virtual classroom. To register, just click on the session below. All attendees will be entered into a drawing for $50 cash! Thursday, July 30th, 2:00 pm central Academic Integrity in Online Education Featuring - Lori McNabb, University of Texas System TeleCampus Thursday, August 6th 2:00 pm central Tools for Enhancing eLearning Featuring - Dr. Mac Adkins, CEO eLearningToolBox.com Coming Soon! Fall Webinar Planned in late September forREADI Administrators We have READI data but... "What Do We Do With It Now?" This webinar is designed to help you understand the READI data and how to use it. We will also explore ways to use READI data to assist you in your planning process. Key points of discussion will be: What can I learn about my students from the READI data? How can I use it in developing courses for the future? What resources should we be providing based on our READI scores? Who should be looking at the data? How do my students compare to those at other colleges and universities? FREE READI Training Webinars Do you need some additional training on the administrative features READI has to offer? Check out readi.info/webinars to find the complete schedule and register for the sessions that fit your schedule. Looking for someone to teach your online classes? Are you tired of sorting through the stack of paper resumes? Facultyfinder.com can help. Go to www.FacultyFinder.com for unlimited free searches! Search our database of over 10,000 profiles to find the right person for the job. EXTENDED OFFER! PLACE A JOB AD ON FACULTYFINDER.COM FOR JUST $50! NO DISCOUNT CODE NEEDED

eLearningToolBox Newsletter Summer 2009

Just released from PRWeb

The 2009 Online Student Readiness Report (OSRR) has been released and is now available! The report was officially released at the recent DLA conference in St. Simons Island, Georgia.  Presented by eLearningToolBox.com, OSRR makes observations from data taken from 150,065 unique students from 272 higher education institutions who took the READI assessment from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009.

Highlights in the report include the following statistically significant differences between the means of the variables of gender, ethnicity, institution type, age range and number of prior online courses taken as they relate to student readiness for online learning:

Gender – Females scored higher on the constructs of individual attributes, learning styles, typing speed, typing accuracy, and reading recall.  Males scored higher on technical competency and technical knowledge.

Ethnicity – Caucasian/White reported higher means for learning styles, technical competency, and reading recall.  African American scored the highest on individual attributes.  Asian or Pacific Islander had the highest means for technical knowledge, typing speed and typing accuracy.

Age Range – For constructs related to personal maturity, older students had the highest means.  For constructs related to technical matters younger students had the highest means.

Institution Type - Doctorate GrantingUniversities reporting the highest means for learning styles, technical competency, technical knowledge,and typing speed. Special Focus Institutions (schools preparing students for specific careers) reportedthe highest means for typing accuracy and reading recall. Baccalaureate Colleges reported the highestmeans for individual attributes.

Number of Prior Online Courses – The results strongly demonstrated that with online learning experience matters.  The greatest difference in means from students with no prior online course experience and those who had taken five or more courses was in the area of technical knowledge. This indicates that with experience students can learn to use the technology required for online courses.

A full copy of the report is available at http://www.readi.info/documents/2009_Online_Student_Readiness_Report.pdf

READI – Readiness for Education At a Distance Indicator is a web-based, diagnostic tool that measures student’s strengths and opportunities for improvement in five areas related to distance learning.  Those include learning styles, individual attributes (such as procrastination, motivation, etc), technical competency & knowledge, typing speed & accuracy, and on-screen reading rate & recall.  Serving over 300 institutions, READI is the premier readiness tool delivered in a custom user interface, complete with an administrative panel that includes access to student data, data export, communication tools, and custom features.

eLearningToolBox is owned and operated by the parent company DECADE Consulting (http://decadeconsulting.com).  eLearningToolBox.com provides tools that make eLearning better.

2009 Online Student Readiness Report

Recently I've been doing some reading about the evolution of online learning.  I stumbled upon a study conducted by U.S. Department of Education called Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning.  It immediately sparked my interest as it seemed to be just the verification I've been looking for to confirm a set of facts that many educators have believed to be true for over a decade. The report is full of concrete findings despite some critics reaching for arbitrary arguments based on limited samplings, which is completely unfounded.  The report stands on it's own and includes some unique findings.  In particular students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.  Noting in addition that learners who took blended courses performed the best.

In reading the report, one of the most interesting points I found was online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.  Learning in 2009, is about creating one's own environment to explore and glean from.  Providing students with access to options and collaborative activities sets the stage for personal path learning.  Personal path learning bring to light an unrestricted environment where one can expand their mind to include unlimited information and knowledge.  Further proof that traditional text book teaching without integrated technology and veteran instructional design techniques is less about learning and more about regurgitating facts in a restricted milieu. 

Sitting in an old fashioned desk does not prevent a student from 21st century learning however.  It is crucial that face-to-face traditional learning include team assignments to foster independent thinking and an appreciation for diversity.  While online learning work through the challenge of creating a personal experience that involves human interaction and accountability.

No doubt having the report released from the US Department of Education provides credibility and reinforcements to those that have worked hard to create a strong reputation of alternative learning styles and environments.  Nevertheless, the sigh of relief will be short lived as online proponents continue to press forward delighting in innovative technology and discovering new ways to engage learners.

U.S. Department of Education Does Their Homework