Straight Talk: November 23, 2011

Straight Talk: The StraighterLine e-Newsletter Issue #24, November 23, 2011

Edited by Jeffrey Lee Simons

In this issue…

• 8 New Courses Now Live
• StraighterLine Reports: Top 10 Bachelor and Associate Degrees and Majors
• Best of The StraighterLine Blog
• Online Education in The News
• Burck’s Blast: Announcing CEO Corner

8 New Courses Now Live

The wait is over! Earlier this month we launched 8 new courses, each of which have been reviewed and recommended for credit by the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Credit Recommendation Service.

The new courses are:

• Introduction to Business
• Introduction to Criminal Justice
• Introduction to Nutrition
• Introduction to Sociology
• Western Civilization I
• Personal Finance
• Pharmacology 1
• Pharmacology 2

Don’t wait to get started… enroll today by clicking on the course names above.

College Trends: Top 10 Bachelor and Associate Degrees and Majors

By Beth Dumbauld

Whether you’re finally getting around to going back to finish college, planning on switching careers or even still in college and wondering what you should major in, you’ll be well-served to read this StraighterLine Report by Beth Dumbauld. Beth looks at the most popular Bachelor Degrees and Associate Degrees, where they lead, and which one is best for you. Read Full Report

Best of The StraighterLine Blog

Occupy Campus Website is a One-Stop Spot to Monitor Campus Protests
As the Occupy movement spreads to college campuses, with its focus on student debt, college tuition, and other educational matters, demonstrations are being planned on an almost daily basis. Barry Lenson found a website and a Facebook page where you can keep up on the latest news from the frontlines of the education revolution. Read Full Post

Busted Myth of the Week: You’re Too Old to Go to College
In a recent post on the StraighterLine Blog, Barry Lenson makes a compelling case that you’re never to old to go back to college. From Dr. Albert Schweitzer to a classical pianist still giving recitals from memory at 99 years old, Barry shows that intelligence remains strong as we age, and it’s never too late for an old dog to learn a new trick. Read Full Post

Why It Pays to Think Like an Ant When Getting Into College
What can we learn about getting into college from an ant? Quite a lot, it turns out. But to find out yourself, you’ll have to read one of Barry Lenson’s most unusual posts, inspired by a story told to him by Dr. Arthur Caliandro. Read Full Post

Online Education in The News

A Much-Needed Challenge to Low-Quality Universities
The New Republic, Kevin Carey, 11/17/11

Even though the Annual Sloan Consortium report shows that online higher education continues to grow, the story is being ignored by the elite media and out-of-touch top government policy makers, according to this article in The New Republic. And the victims of this ignorance are the country’s least fortunate students. The article takes a look at how traditional education is failing minority students, lower income students, and immigrants: “…the reality of higher education is that most students today don’t have access to such an idyllic (and expensive) college experience, never have, and never will. Instead, many get stuck in big, low-cost lecture courses of indifferent quality provided by institutions that treat students like anonymous tenants. Those are the places that are going to be transformed by technology.” The New Republic looks at the entire landscape of the rapidly evolving revolution in education, including StraighterLine Partner Schools University of Phoenix and Kaplan University. Finally, it concludes that “The IT revolution has upended established power structures in politics and industry, injecting new vitality into staid businesses and democratizing access to knowledge and influence. College students, especially the least well-off among them, will be better off when the same forces are realized in higher education.” Read Full Article

Study: Online Education Continues Growth
US News & World Report, Ryan Lytle, 11/11/11

The number of college students taking at least one online college course has increased for the ninth straight year, by 10.1% to over 6.1 millions students during Fall semester 2010. However, the report, “Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011” by the Babson Survey Research Group, indicates that the rate of increase is slowing, and in fact was the smallest increase since 2006. Last year, the rate of growth was 21.1%, according to the report, formerly known as the Sloan Survey of Online Learning. The fastest growing enrollment is in the health professions discipline, with steady enrollment in both business and computer and information sciences. Even better: the reputation of the quality of online courses continues to increase, with 67% of academic professionals rating online courses as the same or superior to face-to-face instruction, up from 57% in 2003. Read Full Article

UNC System Shifts Focus to Online
The Daily Tar Heel, Daniel Wiser, 11/18/11

According to this article in the University of North Carolina’s paper, the Daily Tar Heel, the UNC university system is in the early stages of a push to consolidate and streamline the universities’ online education programs. And one of the biggest reasons is the desire to accommodate international students and generate increased revenue. Phil Dixon, a board member, said 70 million Chinese students have expressed an interest in taking an online course before joining their international exchange program. And while online courses can save money by avoiding new school construction costs, “We’re beyond the point now where we can continue to build brick and mortar”, Dixon went on to say that what is really important to consider is how online technology can be a benefit to the school’s mission. Read Full Article

Burck’s Blast: Announcing CEO Corner

If you’ve been reading Burck’s Blasts, you know that StraighterLine CEO Burck Smith is one of the leading voices in the education reform movement. He has earned the respect of leading educators, educational “disrupters” and major news organizations. And so today we are proud to announce an upcoming addition to our website, CEO Corner.

It’s where you’ll be able to read the best of Burck’s writings, written for or published by leaders in the educational space including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, the American Enterprise Institute, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and more.

CEO Corner isn’t live as of the publication of this issue of Straight Talk, but keep your eyes out for it in the next few days.