Desire2Blog

To go along with our other TV and Internet advertisements, we put together a little riff on the green aspects of e-Learning. Very well done. My thanks to Gary K and Dave K. The other videos? Lake Superior Connect - Why Us? and also Lake Superior Connect - Talking e-Campus

Since I first started teaching online (back in the day), it has always struck me how many of the students are in a different place in their lives than most of the students that I taught in the traditional classroom. I realize that's not a news flash, but the whole aspect of providing access to higher education to some of those who otherwise wouldn't have it is still the number one reason why I get out of bed in the morning and make my way to the office. A few years ago I started a scholarship fund just for students completing one of our online programs at Lake Superior College. The scholarship fund balance has grown to more than $10,000 and we typically give 2 or 3 awards to deserving students each year. The scholarships for FY09 were handed out at the end of the spring term and sometime after that I received the following thank you note: "Dear Virtual Campus Contributors, I have been yearning to return to college for several years and the generosity of this scholarship is...

Okay, I'm back. Nine days of being disconnected was an interesting experiment - but I'm really glad to be back online again. As I previously reported ( also here ), those of us who are in the distance education business will not be required to start treating our students as criminals. We now have the final clarifying language (actually called the Statement of the Managers ) regarding the Higher Ed Act especially as it relates to distance education. Contrary to some of the original fears (including my own), this Congressional act will NOT have the effect of making us put ankle bracelets on all online students - nor will we have to install webcams throughout their houses to watch their every move. Instead, we have to make sure that they authenticate (with username and password) each and every time that they login to our online courses - something that most of us are already doing. A great deal of work was done to get this clarifying language into place. Leading the charge was Fr...