Online Education: Tastes Great or Less Filling?

Whether to provide a more vibrant and relevant educational experience or to save money on text books, it looks like online education is making some headway. 

Connecticut District Tosses Algebra Textbooks and Goes Online, that's what I read last week in the New York Times .  Connecticut teachers were frustrated by rushing students "through their Algebra I textbooks only to spend the first few months of Algebra II relearning everything they forgot or failed to grasp the first time."

They rewrote the curriculum to focus on fewer topics at greater depth in Algebra I, thus better preparing students for the more advanced concepts and eliminating much of the review time in Algebra II (which could now be spent learning concepts that were cut from Algebra I).

The results?

"...school officials say their less-is-more approach has already resulted in less review in math classes, higher standardized test scores and more students taking advanced math classes."

The costs?

...they spent about $70,000 to develop the new math curriculum...[and] the district will soon save at least $25,000 a year on textbooks.

That's interesting.

Not only did they seem to come up with a more effective approach to learning, but they're going to save money.

Two days ago, BBC News published the article, Online Push in California Schools.

"From the beginning of the next school year in August, math and science students in California's high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review."

Questioning the true motivation for the change, the BBC News article noted that "Last year California spent $350m on textbooks and can no longer afford it."

Today David Worlock, Chief Research Fellow at Outsell, published The Online Cost of Education is "Cheaper" (Insights subscription required).

As David observes, "School infrastructure in the developed world has now reached the point where the implementation of a fully digital curriculum is very possible...even if the real underlying reasons have more to do with budget cuts than education." 

Could technological advances, changing learning habits, the growing irrelevance of current curriculum, and financial woes finally add up to a wholesale movement of education toward more online learning options?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Schwarzenegger's book ban hits Pearson (telegraph.co.uk)

Comments

[Karin H.]

Oops ;-)

And so are the guys of ScreenSteps - so no worries there then. Might even work better on a Mac!

Karin H

[ann michael]

Uh - oh I'm a Mac!

[Karin H.]

Blush ;-)

(Only those who have excellent products and services ;-))

But honestly, you won't regret adding this program to your pc

Karin H

[ann michael]

Karin - Every company on the planet would love to have customer spokespeople like you. I will definitely check it out!

[Karin H.]

Hi Ann

The guys over at Blue Mango Learning systems have finally decided to increase the price of the program with $ 20.00 (IMHO $59.95 was way too low for a program like this, but then I'm a sucker for value for money). You've got till this Wednesday 17 June to buy the Desktop Pro for the old price

(Still, the new price of $ 79.95 is worth every dime ;-))

Karin H

[annvmichael]

Wow, Karen!

You are a big fan of ScreenSteps - your post was great. I'll have to check that out - could be useful for product demos too.

Ann

[Karin H.]

Hi Ann

Online training (E-training I call it, like E-book instead of book) is definitely on the up: accessible from everywhere is just one of the benefits.

I've dipping my toes in online training too and have found this extraordianry absolutely fool-proof software for it (both off-line program as the online addition). ScreenSteps from the Blue mango Learning Systems.

Been using it since end of last year (the additional online ScreenSteps Live since two months) and it is such an effective and efficient tool not just for schools but for small businesses (and bloggers!) too. I'm sure you;ve guessed I'm a raving fan of the product and company, see my recent blog post about it:
http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk/2009/05/mmp-machine.html