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Students, find articles, ideas, and resources of interest on this webpage.
Focus on Adult Learning . . . Innovation through Inquiry 
LearningCounts.org: College Credit for What You Already Know
From the website:
There are powerful ways to prove that the knowledge you have acquired throughout your life is worth college credit. Use LearningCounts.org to accelerate your degree completion, saving you time and money.
Prior Learning Assessment is a term used by educators to describe learning gained outside a traditional academic environment. Put another way, it’s learning and knowledge acquired while living your life. Learning acquired through work, employer training programs, military service, independent study, non-credit courses, volunteer or community service, and open source courseware study are all examples of where learning and knowledge may be acquired. PLA is the evaluation and assessment of an individual’s life learning for college credit, certification, or advanced standing toward further education or training.
http://www.learningcounts.org
Core4Women.org: Collaborative Online Resource Environment for Women
From the website:
Traditional websites are a one-way flow of information from a computer to an end-user. CORE4Women is a live, interactive discussion among women about online learning. There are volunteers who have life experiences that have been significantly influenced by online learning. These volunteers want to mentor and share their experiences with other women. There are also scholarships available to members enrolled in fully online programs!
CORE4Women provides a way for mentors to dialogue directly with women who are looking for answers about online learning. These mentors can explain how to locate degree programs, how to seek funding, how to register, how to engage with others in the online environment, and how to balance many responsibilities while completing course work.
http://www.core4women.org
Universities Turn to Outsourced Instructors By Didi Tang
This fall, when students of Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., take an introductory journalism class, they’ll have some of the most qualified teachers in the field. But the teachers won’t be on the university payroll.
They work for St. Petersburg-based Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism training group, which has agreed to supply the university with instructors for the class via the Internet.
“We are leveraging our e-learning platform to help journalism educators to have more time with their students,” said Howard Finberg, interactive learning director for Poynter. “We can do some of the teaching for them.” Virtually unheard of a decade ago, instructional outsourcing is sprouting on university campuses around the country.
“Given the significant reduction in state support for public education, compounded by the fact institutions need to maintain quality programs, we are going to see additional innovative attempts at partnerships that will address both issues of being able to provide cost-efficient programs that are high quality,” says Daniel Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Continued at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2011-06-28-instruction-outsourcing_n.htm
Naughty and Nice on College Price By Libby A. Nelson
The “Hall of Shame” of college pricing has been released: federally compiled lists of the country’s most expensive institutions and those that have raised tuition the most in recent years. Mandated by the 2008 renewal of the Higher Education Act, the Education Department lists are intended to embarrass colleges into reining in both their internal costs and the prices they charge to students.
The lists on the department’s College Affordability and Transparency Center, 54 in all, are detailed, attempting to group institutions with their peers in nine categories (public four-year colleges, private four-year colleges, public two-year colleges and so on). In each category, the department created six lists: the most expensive and least expensive colleges, measured by the sticker price of tuition and fees; the highest and lowest net price (what students actually pay); and the percentage increases in sticker price and net price.
Continued at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/06/30/education_department_
releases_lists_on_college_prices
Visit the College Affordability & Transparency Center: http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/Default.aspx
The Student’s Complete Guide to Understanding College Rankings By Julia Murphy
Ever since there have been schools of higher education, there have been systems to rank them. And students in the 2.0 generation are no exception. Finding the right online school for you can be one of the most important decisions you ever make in your life, so it is as important to research them as much as possible. One of the most common and longest running ways of choosing schools involves utilizing the various college and university ranking systems. And with the internet providing instant access to them, the overload of information can be both a blessing and a curse.
Before you view any ranking system, it is important to determine the factors in an online school that are important to you. For example, some students prefer smaller class sizes to decreased tuition, while others are seeking a lower student to teacher ratio or a school that specializes in the major of their choice. Students who are transferring credits into the online college or university or who plan to transfer credits out should also review the school’s policy on transfer credits before deciding on one. Helping determine what is important to you will greatly help when taking in data from various entities that rank colleges and universities.
Continued at: http://onlineuniversityrankings.org/2011/the-students-complete-guide-to-understanding-college-and-university-rankings/
4 Benefits of Online Learning in the Work World by David Handlos
Given the exponential growth of online learning over the last decade, I’m surprised to find people who still believe that online education must be less effective than “traditional” classroom methods.
As an online student, I have to say nothing could be further from the truth.
Online learning can be just as challenging – maybe even more so – than conventional classroom learning. There are also several benefits of online learning that will help you acquire valuable career skills that you won’t get from any textbook.
These 4 beneficial skills are essential to succeed in the workforce; they’re also skills that traditional classroom students often won’t develop until long after they’ve graduated – if ever.
Visit: http://www.geteducated.com/elearning-education-blog/benefits-of-online-learning/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Blog&utm_campaign=Weekly%2BNewsletter