Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

Does you’re eLearning Stack Up?

Friday, July 16th, 2010

eLearning is fast becoming a popular classroom alternative for college students and for companies in need of flexible training options. To meet this growing demand for alternative learning options, colleges are finding that to satisfy this need in their markets, they need to be offering the in-demand courses these students need.

With more than 67% of the worlds colleges now offering distance learning, having a catalog of in-demand online offerings is essential to capturing these students. With online education partners, like Gatlin International, you can easily add all sorts of in-demand courses that fit nicely into your current distance learning programming. A partnership with Gatlin International means that you have access to Degree, Professional Certificate and Short Courses. At no cost to the partner, Gatlin International offers a turnkey solution so that you won’t have the burden of expensive development costs associated with creating and delivering online courses.

Today, companies are searching to provide their geographically distributed organization improved capabilities via training and education. As a result, companies are looking to their local colleges for flexible training options that will satisfy the training needs across their organization. Companies are looking to compete in this market and global economies are in need of fast, affordable and relevant training. On-line learning is increasingly perceived as a source of competitive advantage for these companies, especially for organizations that are in multiple companies and have multilingual staff. Employees cans access information as needed and the new skills they learn can be applied immediately, thus reducing delays and lost productivity. Gatlin International offers courses in multiple languages such as Spanish and French.

With an online education partner like Gatlin International, colleges can benefit from our catalog of over 300 courses that appeal not only your community of students but to the business you serve in your area.

New Report Gives Reasons for College drop-outs

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Statistics may build case for taking shorter, online certificate programmes

“With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College”, a Public Agenda report, has recently been released. Underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study looks at all the reasons behind two important statistics. According to the U.S. Department of Education: 1.) only 20 percent of young adults who begin their higher education at two-year institutions graduate within three years, and 2.) in the case of four-year institutions, only four out of 10 students receive a degree within six years. (more…)

How Online Digital Books are Forever Changing Education

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Remember when classes required you to purchase a hardcopy textbook? Those days are coming to an end. Today, the Internet world is changing the way we purchase books, and it is progressing similarly to the way we now purchase music and buy episodes of our favorite TV programme. It’s all moving online. Electronic readers like Amazon.com’s Kindle are becoming more popular for consumers, and traditional booksellers are acting accordingly by selling online digital copies of their material.

As the scope of Internet is growing in mainstream usage, traditional booksellers are taking full advantage of it. Reported by Reuters, an estimate of 3 million eReaders will be sold in the U.S. alone this year, and that number will double next year. Bookstores are even jumping on the profitable online vending bandwagon. In July 2009, Barnes & Noble launched the world’s largest online bookstore and is set to unveil its own e-reading technology next year. Its reader will feature a color touch screen, something not available on other readers at this time.

In addition, book publishers are looking to make deals with leading global search engine, Google. Google offers to scan books that are currently out of print and make them freely available online through Google Books. This YouTube video shows how the online product works and explains the recent settlement agreement between the search engine giant and publishers.

What does all this mean for education? A 2008 survey of 6,452 students worldwide found 51 percent of students say that when they have a choice, they opt to use an electronic version over a print version of a book “often” or “very often.” That percentage is on the rise even today. To find the motivation behind choosing digital books over hard copies, let’s consider the issue from the viewpoint of a student in today’s deflated economic times.

A hardcopy textbook might run a student anywhere from $40 to $250. In one class, a student might even be required to purchase two or three books to complement different subjects the professor will be covering throughout the semester.  The Kindle, available globally, reads text for every class and any subject and is priced at $259 (an affordable option when you consider hard cover prices). Students can then purchase e-books which are read through Kindle for as little as $1.99 for classic titles and $9.99 for new releases, far cheaper than the physical versions in most cases.

Another advantage for the use of digital books is that it fits in with the technology students are already using. Anything from lessons, lectures to classroom discussions can be videoed as a podcast and available for students to download onto devices like Apple’s iPhone or iPod. Consider the practicality of textbooks available in the same way. Students can avoid long lines at bookstores, skirt the waiting time for out-of-stock books and save hundreds of dollars per class.

In support of the digital books movement, Gatlin International’s certificate classes provide online digital books and downloadable material to supplement lessons. Discover the convenience and affordability of online digital books in popular courses like business marketing design and Six Sigma.