Avoid Marginal Online Colleges

According to the 2012 edition of The Best-Worst Online Degree Program Providers over 100 accredited online college providers are marginal at best. They provide little academic rigor and virtually no chance of transfer to a top tier university for an advanced degree.

Each of these marginal online providers of degrees are rated a 1 on a 1 to 5 rating scale. Top rated schools can achieve the highest rating of 5. Almost a third of the over 400 schools currently rated and ranked are found in the poorest category.

The list of marginal online colleges is expanding rapidly. The worst list has grown exponentially as more and more traditional schools have climbed on the bandwagon over the years. Marginal online programs of universities attract many non-traditional students returning to school and in a hurry for a degree. Prospective students throw caution to the wind and will opt to take what they think is the easy road to achieve satisfaction so long as the word accredited is found to accompany the rated university's name.

Most 1 schools are really academically poor. In addition to their rating, they have one other thing in common and that is marginal faculty. Online faculty, according to top online schools, should be every bit as good as traditional faculty and carry equal or better credentials. It appears the current group of online marginal colleges is just throwing together faculty and degree programs left and right. The motive it seems is to keep up and get in on what the new entrants to the field perceive is a cash bonanza bandwagon.

One of the sad commentaries about the marginal schools is that many potential learners are in a hurry for a degree. They throw caution to the wind. These degree at any cost students will opt to take what they think is the least difficult road to achieve their education goal.

On the other hand, many marginal unknown colleges, who are not so well known, are lying in wait for unsuspecting students that cannot easily tell because the school is accredited whether it is or is not a quality online provider. Often, by the time an unsuspecting learner figures out the marginal school is an accredited diploma factory, its too late.

The Best-Worst Online Degree Program Providers eBook has been published continuously since 2002 and is a free download from several online sources. The ratings weigh heavily on the quality of education and experience of the faculty.

Dr. Fred DiUlus is a noted pioneer and expert in online higher education. He is the author of How to Home School a College Degree and the Best Worst Online Degree Program Providers (the annual free rating and rankings of online degree providers worldwide). He is the Director of the Center for Ethics in Free Enterprise (est.1996), and the developers of the international online university builder, Global Academy Online, Inc.

Steps to Make Live Virtual Training Programs Highly Interactive

There are people who say virtual training programs can be less communicative compared to traditional face-to-face sessions. However, this is not actually true. You can make your offsite training via cyberspace highly interactive and engaging by constantly keeping interesting and the participants occupied with virtual activities.

Let's discuss some of the ways by which you can enhance the attendee participation level.

Encourage Attendees to Be Participative

Encourage trainees to be communicative. Tell them to ask questions and seek clarifications, if any. When you allow them to be active, they will understand the program and their roles in your organization with more clarity and depth.

Incorporate Slide Shows

Try to design slide shows and presentations to use them in your training sessions. Slide shows act as a great learning medium since they can visually explain points rather than just through texts or verbal discussions. You can insert attractive images and texts in these presentations to make the training program more appealing and engaging.

Introduce Text Chat Feature

Connect with the attendees via text chatting. Through messaging, people can discuss and share their thoughts and ideas with you. They can also converse about various after-training activity opportunities with the trainer or amongst the participants.

Take Polls

Conducting polls can be a great way to keep the attendees occupied before or during a class. However, you need to be prepared with polling questions before taking the program online. Through such pre or post-event polls, you will get to know about people's expectations from your events and whether you have succeeded in fulfilling them or not. You can even ask people the reason behind an answer or suggestion. In this way, you can involve the participants by incorporating their feedback thereby making them an important component in the planning of your next training program.

Create Online Community/Forums

It is a great idea to set up online communities or forums to allow a group of people or participants to chat, discuss, and share relevant learning materials and training documents with each other. A major advantage of having these online forums is that they can keep the attendees engaged, 24x7 and foster a feeling of team work and business development.

Include Interactive Games

You can always incorporate some interactive games in between hectic training schedules for the purpose of relaxation. You can search for such virtual games on Google and use them as a part of your business strategy. One example can be arranging a memory game to test the IQ of your trainees. It will add loads of fun elements into your training program.

Jonathan is a professional trainer. He employs latest technology for online class registration and online training registration that results in more attendance and ROI.

A Shifting Higher Education Market

New trends, learning platforms and enrollment numbers trigger boom in online education

Higher education is in the midst of a revolution. Students have direct control of their education as online learning rapidly replaces the traditional classroom learning environment. From enhanced educational access to flexible course schedules, adult learners flock to this new learning platform to earn a college education on their own terms. The statistics illustrate a growing trend away from the classroom and toward online education.

Breaking Down Online Education by the Numbers

In the early stages of distance learning, traditional colleges and universities often avoided this emerging learning platform. However, once enrollment numbers proved online education's lasting presence and profitability, traditional colleges and universities soon began to migrate many of their degree programs to this remote platform.

The numbers in distance learning show growth throughout the higher education market. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an organization designed to collect and analyze data related to education, has measured the growth of online education over the past decade. According to an NCES study, the number of students enrolled in at least one online college course increased from 1.1 million to 12.2 million between 2002 and 2006.The Ambient Institute, a research firm, projects the number of students enrolled in at least one online course will grow to 22 million in the next five years. The Ambient Institute predicts a large increase in students who choose to earn their college degree completely online, estimating that 3.55 million students will soon take all of their college courses online.

The most jarring data, however, compares online growth rates to the decline of traditional on-campus enrollment. Data collected by the Ambient Institute predicts the number of students who take all of their courses on campus will drop to 5.14 million by 2014. The Sloan Consortium suggests the growth of online education far exceeds the growth of higher education overall. Perhaps this explains why 65.5 percent of all chief academic officers surveyed in a Sloan Consortium poll reported "online education is critical to the long-term strategy" of higher education institutions. Online education has the power to reach students outside of the traditional college demographic, which opens up career opportunities to a new group of professionals.

A New Age in Higher Education

Enrollment in online degree programs at colleges and universities across the country has exploded, necessitating more resources for this remote learning platform. However, while higher education administrators value enrollment numbers because they equate to revenue, online students place more concern on the quality of education offered online. Most online courses, like those at King College, mirror their on-campus counterparts and are facilitated by experienced professionals who believe in the power of online learning. This acceptance of online learning continues to grow among academics. The Sloan Consortium reported that 67 percent of academic leaders rated online education as the same or superior to face-to-face learning - a 10 percent increase since the first report published in 2003.

New technology and resources continue to broaden and advance the scope of online learning. From enhanced communication forums to the use of blended programs to utilize both online and on-campus resources, colleges and universities increasingly integrate online learning into their course offerings to provide students with a full range of higher education choices.

Mobile Learning - A Better Way of Learning

In today's competitive world, it is important for the organizations to train and groom their employees as per the changing market scenario. A well-informed organization develops at a fast pace as its employees are at par with the developments in the market. In order to keep the employees abreast of the changes and developments all the organizations organize periodic training sessions. The mode of training is different some of the organizations still employ traditional training methods and others have switched on to online training methods. Unlike off-the-job training, the online training process is more interactive and fulfilled. Many of the organizations are not able to bear the costs incurred for online training modules; these organizations can outsource their e-learning development requirement to the off shoring companies.

The companies which are engaged in developing e-learning training modules, before developing the content, visit the organization of the client can try to understand their needs. The needs of every organization is different therefore, the training module must be industry specific. This need of industry specific content gave rise to custom-learning. Organizations like banking and finance, life sciences, retail and software and IT are effectively utilizing the online training programs. The online service providers of the training module concentrate on the loopholes of the organization and develop the content accordingly. Thus, the training module helps in proper growth and development of the employees.

Mobile learning has further revolutionized the training process by enabling the training content accessible by these handy devices. There is no time restriction and support of trainers is also not required. Individuals can access the training material as and when required, which makes the process more relaxing. Moreover, with the use of graphics and games in learning, the learning process has become more interesting and fulfilled. The companies engaged in providing content for the online learning develop it on various formats, which are accessible via Android, iOS, Rim or Windows. These applications are more interactive and are able to engage the user for a longer period of time.

Social media learning and game based learning are a part of mobile based learning, which are gaining popularity worldwide. The reach of social media is wide therefore more and more organizations are opting for it. Users can access the training material from their favorite social networking site, which is an added advantage. Moreover, they can also choose from the different training modules given in the social site. If the users like content they can also rate and recommend the content.

Gireesh Sharma is an author writing on Human Resource Management. His expertise includes mobile learning, e-learning development and other Learning & Development matters.