This is VERY neat . . .
Wednesday, 20 April, 2011
Tuesday, 19 April, 2011
PSE spending in Newfoundland & Labrador budget
The Conservative government in Newfoundland and Labrador released its eight consecutive provincial budget today. Proposed spending on post-secondary education and training initiatives in the election year budget includes the following:
- $6.4 million to keep tuition frozen at post-secondary institutions in the coming academic year;
- $15.4 million (over 3 years) to provide incentives for employers to hire apprentices, particularly those from under-represented groups. Details of the Apprenticeship Employment Rebate to be announced later;
- $19.8 million (over 3 years) in infrastructure funding for Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as $7.7 million (over 2 years) for laboratory upgrades;
- $3.2 million (over 3 years) in infrastructure funding for College of the North Atlantic, as well as close to $7 million (over 3 years) for laboratory and shop upgrades; and
- $656,000 (over 3 years) for Memorial University’s Native Liaison Office.
Benefits of attending U.S. community colleges
A recent article in the Community College Review details labor market, economic, and other advantages of community college attendance. Here is the abstract of the article, titled The Benefits of Attending Community College: A Review of the Evidence:
This article reviews the existing literature on the economic and other benefits of attending community college. First, the article reports on the earnings gains across all students and reviews the evidence for subgroups by gender, minority status, and credits accumulated. The article then reviews the methodological challenges associated with calculating earnings gains from attending a community college. Despite these challenges, the evidence for the significant earnings gains from community college attendance appears to be compelling. The second part of the article reviews the literature on a broader spectrum of gains, such as health, crime, and welfare reliance. This literature is very limited and potentially offers an important area for further research to establish the full returns from community college attendance.Reference: Belfield, C. R., & Bailey, T. (2011). The benefits of attending community college: A Review of the Evidence. Community College Review, 39(1), 46–68.
Saturday, 16 April, 2011
Weekend music blogging: Rock Nacional
One advantage of traveling the world with my work is that I get a chance to take in the local rock and punk music scenes in the places I have an opportunity to visit. Here in Argentina Rock Nacional is king. In Buenous Aires, it seems that the band Sumo is nothing short of legendary. If you enjoy Joy Division or The Clash the way I do, you will like Sumo.
After Sumo's frontman, Luca Prodan, died an early death in 1987, members of Sumo went on to other projects. Divididos, formed after the dissolution of Sumo by some of the band's members, is one of the more popular Rock Nacional acts in Argentina today. Their friendly rivals are Las Pelotas, which is also has former Sumo band members. For your listening pleasure, see below.
Sumo: White Trash
Divididos: 38
Las Pelotas: Que podes dar
Thursday, 14 April, 2011
Canadian universities must increase enrollment: AUCC report
From The Vancouver Sun:
Canadian university enrolment must increase by 1.3 per cent a year to produce enough skilled workers to meet demand and fill hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be left vacant this decade by retiring baby boomers, says a report released today.
"If this growth in new graduates is not reached, there will likely be labour shortages in knowledge-intensive occupations," the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada said in a statement while releasing its Enrolment Trends 2011. "In other words, there could be jobs available without qualified workers to fill them."
Sunday, 10 April, 2011
Traveling from St. John's to Buenos Aires for ICDE International Conference
Today (and well into tomorrow), I am traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I am taking in the International Conference of the International Council for Open and Distance Education.
Prior to the conference, I'm attending the third International Forum on Higher Education in Virtual Environments organized by Universidad Virtual de Quilmes. The theme is "University and Digital Technologies: Pedagogical and Social Transformations". On Friday, I'll be presenting on some of the research we have carried out in recent years through the Killick Centre for E-Learning Research at Memorial University.
If anyone has any Buenos Aires travel advice, drop me a line via email or on the blog's comment page.
Friday, 8 April, 2011
Ten best practices for teaching online
This list of best practices for online teaching, provided by Tomorrow's Professor, is taken from Chapter 3 of The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips by Boettcher and Conrad (2010):
- Be present at the course site.
- Create a supportive online course community.
- Develop a set of explicit expectations for your learners and yourself as to how you will communicate and how much time students should be working on the course each week.
- Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences.
- Use synchronous and asynchronous activities.
- Ask for informal feedback early in the term.
- Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections.
- Search out and use content resources that are available in digital format if possible.
- Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.
- Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.
Thursday, 7 April, 2011
Exploring the "boy crisis" in education
The Canadian Council on Learning has released a new report which focuses on the issue of the growing gap between boys and girls in education. The report, The New Gender Gap: Exploring the ‘Boy Crisis’ in Education, addresses the following questions:
- What is the situation regarding education and training participation and results for boys and men throughout the OECD, including post-secondary education and trades?
- Are there policies and practices in place to attenuate unfavourable trends?
- What are Canadian jurisdictions doing?
- What do we know about the success and failure of various models OECD-wide with a focus on Germany, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom?
Wednesday, 6 April, 2011
Our boy in 3D!!!
This June, Leigh and I will be welcoming a hotly anticipated addition to our family. Last night we had a 3D ultrasound, and here he is:
There are more images here on Facebook.
Tuesday, 5 April, 2011
Nova Scotia budget's student financial aid measures
The government of Nova Scotia has released its provincial budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The province suggests it is focused on "fixing Canada’s weakest student assistance system" with the following measures:
- Keep Nova Scotians’ tuition below the national average by investing $30 million in student bursaries to replace the expired Nova Scotia University Student Bursary Trust. This new, provincially funded commitment will provide a tuition reduction of $1,283 for Nova Scotia students studying in the province.
- Create the first “debt cap” in the province’s history, providing Nova Scotia students with a reduction of up to 36 per cent in total debt under the new $28,560 maximum debt cap. For students and parents, that means a drop of up to $16,320 in the maximum amount of debt a student may carry.
- Offer up to $612 per year in additional grants, through an increase in the loan-to-grant ratio from 20 to 30 per cent.
- Double the in-study earnings exemption on student loans—from $50 per week to $100 per week.
- Increase the amount allowed for the purchase of books by 50 per cent, from $1,000 to $1,500.
- Protect students by capping tuition increases at 3 per cent.
- Continue the successful Graduate Retention Rebate, which provides a tax credit of up to $15,000 to university graduates, and $7,500 for community college graduates, over six years.
Sustainable development in African universities
In this interview from the Global University Network for Innovation, Heila Lotz-Sisistka of Rhodes University (South Africa) discusses different ways of understanding sustainable development in African universities.
Monday, 4 April, 2011
Does online learning help low-income and under-prepared students?
New paper from the Community College Research Center:
Advocates of online learning are optimistic about its potential to promote greater access to college by reducing the cost and time of commuting and, in the case of asynchronous approaches, by allowing students to study on a schedule that is optimal for them. This goal of improved access has been one of the top motivators for postsecondary institutions to expand their distance education offerings, which has in turn helped drive a strong increase in online course enrollments over the last decade. A series of technology based classroom initiatives has also attracted strong attention from postsecondary educators. The enthusiasm surrounding these and other innovative, technology-based programs has led educators to ask whether the continuing expansion of online learning could be leveraged to increase the academic access, progression, and success of low income and underprepared college students.Download the full paper here in .pdf format.
This paper examines the literature for evidence regarding the impact of online learning on these populations. First, a research review strongly suggests that online coursework—at least as it is currently and typically implemented—may hinder progression for low-income and underprepared students. Second, the paper explores why students might struggle in these courses, discusses current access barriers to online education, and offers suggestions on how public policy and institutional practice could be changed to allow online learning to better meet its potential for these students.
Australia is no place for People and Place
Another noteworthy example of the impact of marketization on public post-secondary institutions:
The final edition of one of Australia's most oft-quoted academic journals has just been published. The controversial founder of People and Place, Dr Bob Birrell, used his final editorial to savage the federal government's Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, which he believes has led to the journal's demise and is affecting academics in the humanities and social sciences.Read on here and here at University World News.
Birrell founded People and Place at Monash University with co-editor Dr Katherine Betts from Swinburne University in 1993, two years after he had established the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash. He and his team have produced the journal four times a year for the past 18 years and it has generated more heated discussions about a wide range of topical issues than any other such venture in the country.
Although as enthusiastic as he ever was regarding the work he does, Birrell is pessimistic about the future of free academic inquiry, especially in public policy areas.
He says this is because of the impact of the federal government's Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, which is overseen by the Australian Research Council and was created to analyse the research strengths of the nation's universities and reward those at the top.
Friday, 1 April, 2011
Post-secondary bits and bites at week's end
Although this has been an eventful week in Canadian post-secondary education, end-of-semester crunch time makes it difficult for me to adhere to the Cardinal Rule of blogging: "update your blog regularly". Here's a round-up of some of the more noteworthy happenings in Canadian post-secondary education this week:
On Tuesday, federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff pledged to make $1 billion in funding available to high school students who plan to pursue post-secondary education. The so-called "Learning Passport", which would utilize Registered Education Savings Plans, has received a mix of positive and negative reviews.
Also on Tuesday, the Ontario government released its 2011 budget which included over $300 million over 5 years to increase the number of student spaces at colleges and universities by 60,000. The budget also includes changes to the provincial student loan program and additional funds for adult literacy and basic skills programs. The budget has, typically, received mixed reviews.
Tuesday evening I attended the 2011 Aldrich Interdisciplinary Lecture at Memorial University, which was delivered by Academica Group’s Ken Steele. Steele's take on "The Road Ahead for Higher Education" was both insightful and encouraging.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations launched an on-line campaign to highlight issues of importance to Canadian youth during the federal election and to encourage young Canadians to vote. The campaign website features video commentary by comedian, CBC host, and Newfoundland's pride, Rick Mercer.
On Thursday, several thousand college and university students demonstrated against Quebec's proposed increase in tuition fees. In Montreal, riot police used pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse tuition protesters.
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