Monthly Archives: July 2012
Found 2 posts.
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PASSING THROUGH FESTIVAL SUCCESS
July 26, 2012
PASSING THROUGH has been accepted to two great festivals! The film will have its London premiere as part of the Raindance Festival and will screen on the west coast as part of the Surplus/Lack exhibition. Stay tuned for dates and times. If you haven’t had a chance to catch the film at one of the five festivals it has played at already, and you won’t be in London in late September, send me a note and I’ll send you the vimeo password.
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New Online Study — A Few Oversights
July 12, 2012
A recent report from Ithaka S+R – Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence from Randomized Trials is being hailed for its finding that students seem to learn about as much and about as well in blended online courses as they do in traditional classes.
What the columns in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside HigherED didn’t report is that students liked the hybrid format less. The report, “found that students gave the hybrid format a modestly lower overall rating than the one give by students taking the course in traditional format (the rating was about 11 percent lower)”. The report goes on to say, “By similar margins, hybrid students reported feeling that they learned less and that they found the course material more difficult.”
With the push toward “student centered” institutions, why adopt an approach that students like less if learning outcomes are the same? And do we want our students coming out of introductory classes feeling disempowered or confident that they can master challenging new material?
The answer might be that cost is going to trump student satisfaction – online courses might cost less, and in these times, the mission at many colleges is simply to keep the doors open and the lights on.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/study-shows-promise-and-challenges-of-hybrid-courses/36350