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About Nancy Salvato
Nancy Salvato is the President and Director of
Education and the Constitutional Literacy Program for
Basics Project,
a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3) research and educational
project whose mission is to re-introduce the American public to
the basic elements of our constitutional heritage while
providing non-partisan, fact-based information on relevant
socio-political issues important to our country, specifically
the threats of aggressive Islamofascism and the American Fifth
Column. She serves as a Senior Editor for The New Media Journal.
She is also a staff writer, for the New Media Alliance, Inc., a
non-profit 501(c)(3) coalition of writers and grass-roots media
outlets. She received her BA in history from Loyola University
and her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from National-Louis
University. She is certified to teach in grades K-9 and 6-12 and
as a teacher has worked with students in preschool, 1st, 5th,
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th grades. She has also worked as
an adjunct instructor at the graduate school level. She
continues to augment her education and areas of expertise in the
style of Abraham Lincoln. |
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Recent Articles
Setting New
Standards with Online Education
Necessity
is the Mother of Invention
Circumnavigating the Rule of Law
In Just 100 Days
Defining Article 2,
Section 1 in Context
A Constitutionally Illiterate Congressional Leadership
Natural Born Citizens
Impoverishment, Elitism & Apathy
An
Alternative to Impending Doom
Effective "Tools" in Education
Houston, We Have a Problem
Letting the Evidence Speak for Itself
The Right to Defend Sovereignty
Undermining Our Sovereignty from Without & Within
Risking Our
Nation’s Sovereignty
True
Patriots Put Country First
The Oath of a Citizen
The
Constitution, Two Candidates & An Election
Article II,
Section 1: Just Words |
Nancy Salvato, Senior Editor
Setting New Standards with Online
Education
July 2, 2009
"The full-time residential model of
higher education is getting too expensive for a larger share of the
American population.” (The
College of 2020: Students)
Is it any wonder "more and more students are looking for lower-cost
alternatives to attending college?”
What does the future hold for higher education?
▪ White students will likely be outnumbered by minority students on
college campuses.
▪ People will need to rely on more and more formalized education to
advance their careers or change to new ones.
▪ It is estimated that ten years from now, the
average cost for a 4 year public college in-state resident will be
$31,949.28 per year. (Massachusetts
Educational Financing Authority)
▪ Almost one third of the 121 institutions that
responded to a survey believed that by 2020, students will take over
half their courses entirely online. (The
College of 2020: Students)
Although "anytime, anywhere learning” has contributed
to online learning’s popularity because this medium of instruction
provides convenient access to learning for those "who cannot or choose
not to attend the traditional face-to-face offerings,” (A
Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies)
online education offers an even greater advantage because it can be
delivered more cost efficiently and savings are passed onto the student.
This is, in part, because instructors can handle larger numbers of
students without sacrificing quality. Most important, a recent
meta-analysis (combined result of multiple experiments) and review of
empirical online learning research prepared for the U.S. Department of
Education found that the learning outcomes are usually equivalent or
better than "comparable face-to-face instruction.”
The more recent findings comparing Web-based and classroom-based
learning (Sitzmann et al. 2006) found online learning to be superior to
classroom-based instruction in terms of declarative knowledge [know the
answer to] outcomes, and equivalent in terms of procedural learning
[know how to] outcomes.
On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than
those receiving face-to-face instruction. However, these differences
were not necessarily rooted in the media used. In general, advantages
for online learning reflected differences in content, pedagogy and
learning time. The majority of the studies that directly compared purely
online and blended learning conditions found no significant differences
in student learning. Efficacy, or effectiveness, of blended and purely
online learning approaches depends on the instructional elements of the
two conditions. Often, blended delivery instruction (face-to-face and
online) provided more opportunity for collaborative activities not
received by students in control conditions. Online learners who spent
more time on task than students in face-to-face condition found a
greater benefit for online learning. It’s important to note that, as a
group, these studies do not provide a basis for choosing online versus
blended instructional conditions.
"The medium is simply a carrier of content and is unlikely to affect
learning per se (Clark 1983, 1994).” As a matter of fact, "SAT scores
and gender were stronger predictors of student performance on the
posttest with conceptual and procedural items than was the type of
online unit to which students were exposed.”
What Practices appear to have a positive effect in online learning?
Interestingly enough, video or online quizzes have little influence on
the amount students learn in online classes.
Best Practices:
▪ Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their
interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.
▪ Prompts urging students to reflect on their learning improved
outcomes.
▪ Providing students instruction in how to self regulate learning
yielded stronger learning results.
▪ A course instructor moderating discussion groups can be useful when
students are given a scenario to which they must respond.
▪ "Social scripts” structuring how students interact with each other
"have been found to influence the way students engage with each other.”
What does this mean for 21st century higher education? This is exactly
what President Obama is talking about when he discusses expanding access
to higher education. The evidence indicates that for those who want to
learn and be able to demonstrate and apply their knowledge, online
education is a viable, affordable way to alternative to more traditional
means of obtaining postsecondary education. It will allow people from
all economic classes to take advantage of opportunities that might
otherwise be unavailable to them. Best of all, no longer will students
be required to take on excessive, unmanageable debt to get ahead.
Everyone has been given the ultimate gift: equal opportunity to pursue
life, liberty and happiness.
Notes:
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online
Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies
http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority
http://www.mefa.org/calculatorsandtools/costestimatorstep1.aspx
The College of 2020: Students (Executive Summary)
http://research.chronicle.com/reports.html |
