2 annotated sources

HUNT, J. (2009). Attitude is everything. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 26(3), 19-20. Surveys and interviews were conducted by the Sloan-C company, which is an “association that promotes online learning” (Hunt, 1) to better understand the issues that lie within the topic of online education. They found that teachers’ attitudes were hindering the progress of online classes because many teachers are not in favor of teaching classes online. The growth of online learning is in no way slowing down or stopping in the near future; teachers are being taught how to understand online programs. Some teachers with a better attitude towards online learning are finding that teaching classes online is more convenient and it helps them reach out to particular students, but many are finding it tough to understand the programs and interact with the class. The future of online classes will continue to grow once necessary changes are made.
Park, J., & Hee, J. C. (2009). Factors influencing adult learners' decision to drop out or persist in online learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12(4), 207-217. A high percentage of students enrolled in online classes are between the ages of 25 and 50. Although the high numbers of students enrolled in online classes may seem to say that online classes are an important area in education, research shows that nearly 70% of students enrolled in online classes drop out. Although the type of student enrolled in these classes usually has other priorities (which leads them to taking more convenient online classes), it’s hard to say whether or not the dropouts are from poor classes or the external environment. Online students are put into their own classification, nontraditional students. Then factors such are external and internal factors, the learner’s characteristics, age, educational background, gender, family support, and satisfaction with the course are taken into consideration to figure out who is dropping out and why.

Blog #6

After looking more closely at my topic, I found there were more questions I had about it that I initially thought. In regards to age, who actually benefits from online classes, and what percentage of online students make up this age-group?
Also, I want to explore the actual issues with online classes and pin-point ways to fix these issues.
Ultimately, I want to figure out the downsides of online classes, but I realized that with the technological advances our society is experiencing, online classes are going to end up gaining more popularity once more revisions are made to the system.
So in order to tie in all these aspects, my question could be: To whom are online classes benefiting, and how can we improve the online course system?

Blog #5

HUNT, JAZELLE. "Attitude Is Everything." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 26.3 (2009): 19-20. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.
This resource show the Pros of online classes... I'm beginning to think that I'm going to find more sources that are pro-online classes. I'll have to narrow my search

Bell, Paul D. "PREDICTORS OF COLLEGE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN UNDERGRADUATE ASYNCHRONOUS WEB-BASED COURSES." Education 127.4 (2007): 523-533. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.
This source shows the predictions of what the future of online courses could be. This is closer to what I'm looking for!

El Mansour, Bassou, and Davison M. Mupinga. "STUDENTS' POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES IN HYBRID AND ONLINE CLASSES." College Student Journal 41.1 (2007): 242-248. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.

Park, Ji-Hye, and Choi Hee Jun. "Factors Influencing Adult Learners' Decision to Drop Out or Persist in Online Learning." Journal of Educational Technology & Society 12.4 (2009): 207-217. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.

Blackmore, Chris, Digby Tantam, and Emmy van Deurzen. "Evaluation of e-learning outcomes: experience from an online psychotherapy education programme." Open Learning 23.3 (2008): 185-201. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Feb. 2010.

Changing my topic! Online Classes and their disandvantages...

So when I'm in the middle of relaxing after a long day of classes, my television keeps advising me to enroll in online classes at online universities. These commercials tell me, "I'm not going to bed, I'm going to class! I can stay in my pajamas and learn at the same time! Yippee!!!" I can definitely see the reasons why someone would prefer to take classes online than go to class physically; its convenient, less expensive, and gives the student the power to work at his or her own pace. Truthfully, these factors are many of the reasons why college students HATE going to class! In this sense, online classes could definitely seem like the "grass is greener on the other side"...
To me, these benefits of online classes lead up to the exact reason why they're inferior to real colleges. Since these classes are so lax, it gives the student every opportunity to fall behind, give up, and drop out. Without the social interaction of student to teacher, students aren't as on top of their game. Classes take the backseat to other events, and because online classes are cheaper than standard college classes, dropping out is a more comfortable action to take.
Aside from the laziness that comes from taking online courses, I want to explore how online classes are inferior to standard classes based on the education that student is getting, test scores, and curriculum. I believe this could make a counter argument because although I don't know what the actual information states, there is every possibility that online classes and standard classes yield the same result. I haven't thought of a thesis yet, but I feel that after I look up some research, it will be easier to understand my topic enough to formulate an idea for a paper.

Tutorial

I really enjoyed the Rutgers RIOT tutorial... It was very helpful, but most of the information was a repeat of what I learned in the library last week. The part that helped me the most was learning how to limit a topic and thus limiting the qualities of the research accordingly. I never really thought about limiting resources because of how long ago the source was published, but it does make sense to do so. If I had any suggestions on how to update it, I suppose it could be more interactive regarding specific research topics for whomever is taking the tutorial. If I could have actually made progress on my paper while doing that tutorial, I would probably feel less stressed about diving in to all the research regarding my research topic. Other than that, I really liked the tutorial and it helped me out a lot.

Questions for the Librarian

How long of a period to we have to keep out books?
Are online books the same as hard copy books?
Can we access information through other universities?

state funding for community college

Well, I guess I did leave my last post in a state of confusion.I didn't really state which direction I was going to go in a direction of whether or not parents should pay for their children's education, but I decided that that topic was sort of lame and purposeless. I'm really interested in economics and ethics, so I think my paper is going to go in a similar direction of the analytical essay. Rather than arguing whether or not the state should pay for state universities, I think the state should pay for community colleges. Community colleges have gotten a negative reputation because not only do they rarely offer 4-year degrees, but many people think it's like an extension of high school. I think, though, that rather than having confused students with little knowledge of what they want to do attend state universities and waste money, they can attend community college for two years and figure it all out with a general associates in liberal arts. On top of saving money, this will hopefully keep those students that come to state schools and party all the time from going away to school and going crazy. Since community colleges don't have dorms, there's also a small chance of massive amounts of underage drinking and partying. This topic means a lot to me because in high school, I just missed the cutoff for the NJ Starz program. This would have promised me a virtually free education, but I would have had to attend Mercer County Community College for my first two years. I think this program would have not only given me time to figure out which direction I wanted to go in, but it would have saved me thousands of dollars. I think this program should be open to all state students because in order to stay in the program, you have to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above. This is a small price to pay for a paid education for the first two years. This program just seems like a perfect answer to many problems that have come about regarding state funding for education and decreasing the amount of partying in college, atleast in he first two years.

When I googled this topic, a book called State Funding for Community Colleges: a 50-State Survey.
I can access a little of the book on the internet and it seems like the entire country is trying to figure out how the state should pay for community college. This really works with my topic, but I'd have to research how this would affect partying and the general work ethic of college students with a contingency.

http://www.legis.state.ia.us/lsadocs/Fiscal_Topics/2009/FTRKM005.PDF
this website shows how the tuition of community colleges has become more and more responsible for funding the schools as the years pass.

This topic seems like a lot to take on, but I feel strongly about it so I have a lot more research to do. I am happy that I found a topic though!