e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Author: Jim Farmer

  • Distributed Learning is Here: Ask Any College Student

    This is a guest post by Jim Farmer for a special issue on distributed learning environments for On the Horizon. Jim is Coordinator, Scholarly Systems Group at Georgetown University and editor at the eReSS project, University of Hull.

    This fall more than 17 million students will be using publisher-provided online services. More than 5 million students will be enrolled in distance learning courses. More than 15 million will be using the Internet. 6.7 million will use Wikipedia. More than 11 million students will use the public library propelled by the increased use of libraries by today’s youth—often to use online materials.

    image0021.gifAlmost 15 million students work full or part-time; 8.3 million use computers at work. An estimated 4.4 million student employees will receive online training from their employers.

    These estimates do not include the several learning and library systems that may be available on the campus. Nor the online tutorial services and learning resources marketed directly to students.

    Today’s college students are already in an environment of distributed learning and increasingly they, not their professors, are making decisions about which resources and services they use.

    This rich distributed learning environment benefits graduate students who are motivated, demonstrated their ability to learn, and have faculty advisors guiding their learning. The current distributed learning environment may not be best for beginning undergraduate students who are less well prepared, have instructors with large class sizes, and who have less financial resources to purchase access to learning services.

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  • The Cost of Instruction: A Different Conversation?

    This is a guest post by Jim Farmer.

    image002.gifVance Fried may change the conversation about the costs of higher education. Critics of higher education have repeatedly pointed out the costs of higher education—often referring to tuition and fees—have increased faster than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Higher education has claimed education is “labor intensive” and students and their parents pay only a portion of the cost of instruction. All are true.

    Fried, Professor of Management at Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University, developed a “pro forma” business plan for a residential undergraduate college. The results yield an annual full cost of instruction of $7,376—60% less than current baccalaureate and 50% less than masters institutions.

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  • Blackboard v. Desire2Learn: The First Final Judgment

    This is a guest post by Jim Farmer.

    Delayed several days by a database failure at the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Friday, May 2nd, the Final Judgment and associated orders for Blackboard v. Desire2Learn are now publicly available.

    This text is based upon publicly available records. Because much of the record is “sealed” and not available to the public, and the transcript is available only upon payment to the court reporter, the complete record, as available to counsel, may provide a different perspective.

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  • Real-time College and University Transcripts Coming

    This is a guest post by Jim Farmer.

    “Today the four firms providing electronic transcript services [to U.S. colleges and universities and school districts] have agreed to form a network so transcripts will be delivered to any user of their service regardless of where the transcript originated.” Speaking from hastily-written text, Larry Furth, Executive Director of the School Interoperability Framework Association (SAIFA) announced the agreement at the 5th Annual Conference on Technology & Standards in Washington, DC. The panel discussion on Emerging Standardization was delayed fifteen minutes as the four panelists reached agreement. The agreement is expected to be announced formally later this week. Mark Johnson, President of the National Transcript Center, John O’Connell, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Docufide, Craig Powell, President of ConnectEdu Inc., and J. Michael Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of XAP Corporation were speaking on Emerging Standardization Efforts and Trends.

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  • Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: “Grey” Monday March 10, 2008

    Yesterday, Desire2Learn submitted its response to Blackboard’s request for injunction (which was apparently submitted under seal) and accompanying letters from various school and university officials arguing that preventing D2L from selling their product in the United States would be against the public interest. Barry Dahl has done a terrific job of summing up the case that D2L makes in the filing. I definitely recommend reading his post. You’ll also want to read Jim Farmer’s post, below, which summarizes the current state of play with regard to the ruling on these filings that the judge will issue next Monday, based on what we know from the public court record. After reading both Barry and Jim, then I recommend that you read the two court documents themselves. They’re well written and pretty accessible–even more so after you’ve had tutorials from these two guys.

    – Michael

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  • Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn Inc.: Lunch with Fred Hofstetter

    In another post in his series of eye-witness accounts of the trial, Jim Farmer provides us with an interview of a fact witness who also happens to be one of the early pioneers in online learning.

    – Michael

    fred.gifFred Hofstetter was a fact witness in the recent Blackboard Inc. v. Desire2Learn trial. In a break, we had two-hour lunch at the local Red Lobster. Immediately I asked Fred about his development and implementation of learning systems.

    Professor Fred Hofstetter is known for his development of the GUIDO and Serf learning systems. As Professor of Education, Fred coordinates the master’s and doctoral programs in educational technology at the University of Delaware. His courses include: Internet Literacy, Multimedia Literacy, Internet Technologies, Educational Technology Foundations, Advanced Multimedia Web Design, Web-based Learning Environments, and Data Driven Web Design. Fred received his PhD in Music Theory from Ohio State University.

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  • An Eye-Witness Account of the Trial

    With all the coverage of the Blackboard v. Desire2Learn case, most of us (including me) have very little insight into the actual trial process. And with emotions running high about the case, it’s easy for people to jump to extreme conclusions about the process and everyone involved in it. That’s why I’ve asked Jim Farmer to write a first-hand account of the portion of the trial that he attended. In addition to being a knowledgeable observer of the legal system as a former expert witness in the U.S. Tax Court on behalf of the California State University in Los Angelese and in District Court in Denver on financial aid software, Jim is also a gentleman’s gentleman. I knew that he would give an account that is fair-minded and charitable to all parties involved. And that’s what he did.

    In the interest of full disclosure, Jim asks me to remind you all that Georgetown University, where he coordinates the Scholarly Systems Group, is a long-term satisfied Blackboard Learning Systems user. The views expressed in this blog post are solely his own.

    – Michael

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