Making the Connection: Broadband Access and Online Course Enrollment at Public Open Admissions Institutions

Postsecondary students increasingly enroll in online courses, which have the potential to further democratize higher education by expanding access for historically underserved populations. While a number of studies have investigated student outcomes in online courses, past data limitations have hindered robust examination of a potential mechanism underlying the decision to enroll in an online course: access to high speed broadband. With data from the National Broadband Map and IPEDS, I fit a number of Bayesian regression models to investigate the relationship between various measures of broadband access—download speed, upload speed, and the number of providers—and the number of students who take online courses at public colleges and universities with open admissions policies. Results show that increases in broadband speed at the lower end of the speed spectrum are positively associated with the number of students who take some of their courses online, but that the marginal gain diminishes as speeds increase. This finding suggests that there may be a minimum threshold of necessary broadband access, beyond which increases in speed become a less important factor in the take up of online coursework. Open admissions colleges seeking to improve access for local students through increased online course offerings should consider broadband access in the area, particularly if the targeted populations live in communities with low average broadband speeds.

     

Balancing Open Access with Academic Standards: Implications for Community College Faculty

Community colleges act as the gateway for students to higher education. Many of these colleges realize this mission through open-door policies where students lacking in basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills can enroll. But, this open-access policy often creates challenges when meeting academic standards. Based on data collected from selected community colleges in the United States, this article examines the balancing of open access with academic standards. The article reviews open-door admission policies, describes methods used to maintain academic standards, and it balances this with open admission and implications for community college faculty.     

自主招生新趋势——“高校联考”的问题探析

高考是教育界乃至全社会极为关注的问题。我国高考制度一直处于不断改革和完善过程中,如保送生制度、特长生制度以及自主招生制度。近期,三大＂高校联盟＂的建立和扩大,使得自主招生问题再次成为人们关注的焦点。近几年平均每年至少有10多万人报考的自主招生考试已经并将继续影响越来越多的中国考生及家庭。从某种角度上讲,这场＂抱团大战＂隐喻着中国高考改革未来的方向。     

OA期刊对图书馆馆藏建设的影响研究

OA期刊可以提高图书馆馆藏质量,优化馆藏结构,在一定程度上缓解由于外文资源的涨价而带来的经费压力,图书馆必须根据学科特点调整馆藏建设政策,加大人力和物力的投入,搜集、加工、整合OA期刊资源,使图书馆为教学和科研提供方便、快捷的信息服务.     

Factors of Professional Learning Community Implementation and Effect on Student Achievement

ABSTRACT

Professional learning communities (PLCs) promote collaboration among school personnel in an effort to stimulate student learning. Using data obtained from a larger statewide initiative in Missouri, the current study examined data from 181 schools (102 elementary schools, 32 middle schools, 41 high schools, and 6 other schools, average of 428.76 students) to determine (a) the factors that can be used to assess the effects of PLCs, (b) how well PLCs relate to student achievement, and (c) the extent to which teams differentially implement the factors. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in two broader constructs that represented PLC attributes, collaborative leadership process and data-driven systems for learning, both of which correlated with student achievement and together provided unique variance in mathematics beyond school variables and achievement scores from before the PLC began. Directions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.     

江苏开放教育招生形势与招生策略分析

江苏开放大学是以终身教育理念为先导、以服务学习型社会建设为宗旨、以现代信息技术为支撑、整合共享各类优质教育资源、实施远程开放教育的新型高等学校.作为一所新型大学,开放教育招生面临着诸多的挑战.通过构建现代职业教育体系,探索与行业企业合作办学新模式,建设“学分银行”等有效措施,江苏开放大学招生和教育处在健康平稳发展的轨道上.     

开放存取环境下高职高专图书馆的馆藏建设

开放存取是网络环境下发展起来的一种新的学术交流模式,它的出现为读者利用信息资源提供了一个全新途径,同时也为高职图书馆的发展提供了机遇与挑战.高职图书馆应充分利用开放存取资源来充实、拓展自己的馆藏资源,以补充馆藏资源的不足,更好地为读者服务.     

电子学档在高校自主招生中的应用与实施

在分析电子学档和高校自主招生相关研究应用的基础上,详细阐述了电子学档在高校自主招生中应用的可行性与必要性。为促进电子学档在高校自主招生中的应用,进一步论述了其实施的基本过程及需要注意的问题,以期对我国时下开展的高校自主招生政策合理化发展有所裨益。     

为什么美国开放大学会失败

随着《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要（2010-2020年）》颂布实施,创建开放大学模式成为国家级教改试点项目,1＋5所开放大学已经或即将挂牌。如何办好开放大学成为电大整个系统关注的话题,它事关我国远程教育事业的发展,高等教育的公平、高等教育格局的完善,特别是关系到终身教育体系和学习型社会的构建。中国开放大学模式的探索对于所有电大人而言既是机遇又是挑战,这一名称的更改本身就意味着国力日益增强的中国正以开放的胸怀和国际接轨,和世界远程教育同步。在创建开放大学时,要学习和借鉴外国成功经验,但不能生搬硬套,否则不利于中国开放大学的建设。十多年前,英国开放大学（OUUK）在美国开办了一所美国开放大学（USOU）,但出人意料的是不到四年光景,美国开放大学就倒闭了。美国开放大学建设中引起了富有远程教育管理经验的、一流的管理者;引进了世界上优秀的远程教育教学资源,一切是那样的水到渠成,不料,事与愿违,开放大学建设在美国却遇到了挫折,其中的原因是耐人寻味的。中国开放大学的规划者和实施者应该从中汲取教训。在开放大学模式探索的过程中,向英国开放大学等西方著名开放大学学习什么是值得我们思考的。     

An Open University for the midlands: Why and for whom?

Characteristics of potential students for a multi-media off-campus approach to college education were determined. Key questions focused on unique student characteristics and needs which would influence course development. Responses from 4,000 adults and high school students were screened to develop a pool of likely clientele. This group proved to be significantly different from an uninterested group, but quite heterogeneous in age, education, and interests. Results indicate that planners of a program modeled after England's Open University must attend to individual differences much greater than those encountered in typical on-campus settings.Paper read at the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, February 26, 1973. This study was funded by the Office of Education under OEG-072-0457 for the purpose of determining the feasibility of an open learning system for Nebraska and the Midwest.     

The Effect of a Community College Promise Scholarship on Access and Success

Based on a mixed methods case study design, the current study reports on a Promise Scholarship program offered by a community college and its affiliated foundation to graduating students at a nearby high school located in a low-income neighborhood of a large city and with a high proportion of African American and other students of color. Using a mix of government and private funding, all graduating students, regardless of financial need or academic achievement, were offered free tuition at the community college for one year. The promise of a scholarship plus an intensive outreach effort resulted in the majority of graduating seniors submitting scholarship applications and a four-fold increase in the proportion of graduates from the high school who subsequently matriculated at the community college. Once at college, the student recipients demonstrated a high rate of quarter-to-quarter retention. However, few placed into college-level courses in English and math, and their academic progress at the end of the first year was modest.     

Contextual Effects on Student Achievement: School Leadership and Professional Community

This paper contains empirical evidence of a positiverelationship between faculty relations and studentachievement in mathematics in U.S. high schools. Thefindings are based on composite measures ofprofessional community and transformational leadershipwhich were defined and constructed through comparisonsof theoretical models from studies of the socialorganization of schools. I find that the effects oftransformational leadership and professional communityare interdependent. However, these two processes arenot equally dependent on each other. Professionalcommunity only has a positive effect on studentachievement in mathematics in schools whose teachersexperience above average transformational leadership. I also find that these effects are strongest in lowersocioeconomic status (SES) schools. Thus, I confirmfindings from in-depth studies and studies ofpurposeful samples that the social organization ofteachers and administrators within schools can affectstudent achievement.     

对高等学校招生体制改革的思考

高等学校招生制度改革不仅是一个关系到国计民生的实践性课题,同时也是一个涉及到高等教育大众化、高考制度改革趋向、教育机会公平与平等、基础教育与高等教育衔接等理论层次的问题.在此,我们尝试作一些初步的探讨.     

Community College Faculty Development Program and Student Achievement

Community college administrators look for strategies to help students. GRASP (Gaining Retention and Achievement for Students Program) is a semester-long faculty development program that coaches community college instructors about simple, effective teaching strategies that promote student academic achievement. GRASP is founded on the belief that academic achievement is based on good teaching, which begins with faculty development. The major assumption for GRASP is that faculty are the single most important factor for student success. GRASP was offered at Doña Ana Community College (DACC). Located in Las Cruces, New Mexico, just 40 miles from the border of Mexico, DACC has a student population that is 70% minority. Results for GRASP indicate that overall student success improved by 7.9%, and that overall student retention improved by 4.0% for students participating in GRASP.     

美国社区学院推进国际化的举措与启示——基于对19所社区学院的分析

美国社区学院在推进人才培养、办学模式、师资队伍国际化等方面取得了卓越性成就,提升了美国教育和劳动人口的全球竞争力。通过分析2009—2020年获得安德鲁·海斯克尔国际教育创新奖的19所社区学院的教育国际化实践,可以概括出社区学院推进国际化策略的突出特征,即具有较强的国际化理念;提高教师队伍国际化素养;积极促进学生国际流动;全方位、全要素推进全面国际化。这一系列举措对于提高我国高等职业教育国际化发展水平具有重要的参考意义。     

Transfer Between Community Colleges and 4-Year Colleges: The All-American Game

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors introduce a novel way, using the metaphor of a baseball game, to evaluate and measure community college student progress for those whose stated goal is to transfer to a 4-year institution and, ultimately, earn a bachelor's degree. The proposed framework of “the Transfer Game” is an outgrowth of the Transfer and Retention of Urban Community College Students (TRUCCS) project, which is a longitudinal study of 5,000 community college students from the 9-campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District. The goal of the project is to explain how the “all-American game” provides a method to measure, comprehend, and visualize student progression, and identify the factors that predict both success and barriers. The framework provides a scholarly comparison of the all-American game of baseball to the All-American invention of the community college.     

Who Takes Community Service Courses and Why

Abstract

The demographic characteristics of community service students and the reasons for their enrolling in community services courses were studied in ten community colleges. A total of 4,631 community service students responded to an instrument developed from a previously constructed taxonomy of community service objectives.

The results showed that most students felt that their reasons for taking the course were being met. However, it was evident that improvement was needed in communicating course objectives prior to registration for many courses.

It was also concluded that community services should make greater efforts to serve all types of citizens of the community.     

扩大开放远程学习的规模并提高保持率——马来西亚开放大学的策略(英文)

作为马来西亚第一所开放远程学习机构,马来西亚开放大学的创建旨在通过向不同背景的人士提供高等教育机会,从而帮助政府实现教育民主化的倡议。然而,这里存在两个明显不相容的议题,一是无所不包,另一个就是卓越。为了应对这一挑战,马来西亚开放大学设计并实施了一些策略,以确保获得学习机会的学习者能有成功的机会,这些策略涉及到开放远程学习的很多方面,例如入学要求、提供相关专业和课程、适当的评估和监控。本文还介绍了规模和保持方面的问题,以及未来一些新的确保教育公平、灵活的方法。