Replay from the September 28th 2012 eduKan TV Fall Series hosted by Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan, with a conversation around student literacy with Kevin Brungardt who is developing a program to identify and help students who lack the reading skills to be successful in college. Myk Garn, formerly of the Southern Regional Education Board, will also be talking about Talent Drain from higher education institutions to “the dark side.”

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eduKan provides access to quality higher education including ESL courses via college degrees, certificates, & individual courses with affordable online classes.

Dr. Mark Sarver of eduKan delivered the afternoon session on opening day at NUTN 2012 entitled “Innovating Assessment while Assessing Innovation” where eduKan was also honored with the 2012 NUTN Institutional Achievement Award.

eduKan, a consortium of colleges in Kansas, was honored with the 2012 NUTN Institution Achievement award at the 2012 National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN) 30^th Anniversary Conference in Kansas City, MO, where eduKan’s CEO, Dr. Mark Sarver, was also invited to speak on Innovation opening day. The National University Technology Network is a networking and professional development organization for innovative leaders in the advancement of distance education headquartered at the Dallas County Community College.

Dr. Mark Sarver Receives NUTN 2012 Institutional Achievement Award for eduKan

The NUTN Institution Achievement award recognizes an institutional member of the National University Technology Network (NUTN) for effective use of technology in teaching and learning and/or organizational administration (or administrative operations) that is exemplary, demonstrates leadership and commitment, and advances the field as an institutional model.

This year, eduKan was the honored recipient of the 2012 NUTN Institution Achievement Award with Honorable Mention going to Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI and Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA. Past winners include Dallas County Community College District, Dallas, TX, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and Washington State University.

Award criteria for receiving this prestigious award includes (1) Organizational Commitment, where the institution uses technology in teaching on and off campus, involving administrative leadership, faculty, and support staff and utilizing goal setting processes; (2) Quality of Offerings of technology improves learning, access, faculty, student satisfaction, and organizational operations; (3) Effectiveness where the institution’s technology-assisted offerings enable faculty to teach large numbers of high-quality, online, blended or technology assisted courses with a high degree of student satisfaction and academic success; and (4) Advancing the field with programs or processes that have been exemplary, emulated and have substantially contributed to the advancement of teaching and learning through the effective use of technology.

“We are honored to be recognized for our technology advances at eduKan,” said Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO, eduKan. “The rigorous criteria and competition from other members up for this award was staggering, and winning this award means so much to our staff of six in Great Bend and to the six colleges that are the heart of eduKan.”

Dr. Sarver, eduKan’s CEO, was also present during the three day conference and gave an energizing presentation entitled “Innovating Assessment while Assessing Innovation” where he discussed how eduKan changed the way they were doing course assessment using data and analytics. Last Fall, eduKan started offering courses with digitally embedded content in partnership with Pearson where they not only found this was the best way to engage students but they were also able to track and measure how the students and the faculty were engaged. The data collected allows eduKan to proactively assess each course and locate any weakness so it can be redesigned to ensure successful student outcomes. Dr. Sarver also shared how eduKan is using analytics from the data collected on not only course assessment but student/faculty interaction and how this makes a dramatic change for the future success of online education.

About eduKan

eduKan provides access to quality higher education, including ESL courses, via college degrees, certificates, and individual courses, with affordable online classes. eduKan was founded in 1998 as a cooperative effort between member colleges to offer courses via the Internet. eduKan’s consortium schools are all accredited Kansas learning institutions with excellent reputations and long histories of providing degrees in traditional settings, as well as through online courses. eduKan Consortium member institutions are: Barton Community College, in Great Bend; Colby Community College, in Colby; Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City; Garden City Community College, in Garden City; Pratt Community College, in Pratt; and Seward County Community College/Area Technical School, in Liberal. For more information, please visit http://www.edukan.org.

About the NUTN Network

Headquartered at the Dallas County Community College District’s R. Jan LeCroy Center, the National University Technology Network (NUTN) is a consortium of higher education institutions and provides a networking and professional development arena for the advancement of teaching and learning in the distance education field. NUTN members represent a widely diverse group of innovative leaders in the advancement of teaching and learning. For more information go to: http://www.nutn.org.

Reblogged from an article written by Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO, eduKan for the WCET blog

Figure 1

Do you ever look at something and know it doesn’t look right, but you just cannot figure out why?  Perhaps more troubling than not knowing what is wrong, is not knowing how to make it right.  Over the last ten years, I have poured over tons of assessment data from several different institutions and have yet to be inspired.  The most recent reports I read contained an inordinate amount of information- standard deviations, n values, means and modes- a veritable testament to the art and beauty of technical writing. As an academic administrator, however, I need assessment data that proves unequivocally, that we are providing academic excellence. Sure, there was an executive summary that highlighted a handful of revelations, but I also knew that I would have to delve into the hundreds of pages of statistical analysis and data to get the whole picture.  If only those compiling assessment reports could remember a picture is worth a 1,000 words…..or numbers!

Read the rest of this blog post on WCET by clicking here.

Sloan Effective Practice Award Nomination

eduKan manages the online courses for a consortium* of 6 colleges in Kansas and wanted to reduce proctoring costs and deter online cheating while meeting verification regulations for distance education as required by the Department of Education and their regional accrediting agency. Dr. Sarver worked with the team at Biometric Signature ID (BSI) and Pearson to pilot test BioSig-ID(TM) as part of the LearningStudio authentication process since BSI’s technology matched eduKan’s needs versus other webcam-based, hardware intensive technologies. The pilot ran from March-April, 2011 with 174 students from multiple classes using BioSig-ID(TM) to authenticate their identity 6 times before their final exam. There were 6,300 verifications and only 9 help desk calls during the trial period. eduKan conducted a survey after the pilot ended and found that 97% of the students preferred BioSig-ID(TM) to finding a proctor or driving to a facility for physical proctoring while 94% of them had a positive experience with the verification process.

The final results of the pilot including the survey and cost analysis proved that the BSI technology would more than meet their goals. The faculty and administration were also very positive about their user experience making it a “win-win.” The outcome has been impressive and has allowed eduKan to achieve their goals of reduced costs, increased compliance, dramatically lower student fees to help gain a competitive advantage, and ensure academic integrity. eduKan now meets and exceeds the requirements for verification of online student identities and can be confident that the same student who submits assignments, takes exams, and earns a final grade is the same one who enrolled in that course and has received financial aid. *Pratt Community College, Barton Community College, Garden City Community College, Seward County Community College, Dodge City Community College and Colby Community College.

Read more here.

Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan and Jeff Maynard, CEO of Biometric Signature ID will be presenting their case study during a session in the Digital Learning Environments and Communities track at the Sloan-C 5th Annual International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Learning.

eduKan – Innovating Education

Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan, a consortium of colleges in Kansas, and Jeff Maynard, CEO of Biometric Signature ID, (BSI), are scheduled to co-present at the upcoming Sloan-C Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Learning. The presentation will highlight the dramatic cost savings and long-term benefits from eduKan’s use of BSI’s patented BioSig-ID™ biometric technology for student identity proofing. The case study report released earlier this year shows an 80% reduction in proctoring fees, among other benefits. BSI is the only company with a patented software-only biometric technology that exceeds NIST accuracy requirements in the $12.6B Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication market.

Sarver and Maynard will be sharing the results of a pilot study conducted from May-December 2011 with eduKan students who were using BSI’s technology to authenticate their identity. eduKan’s CEO was seeking a solution that would reduce operational costs, increase student identity compliance, keep student fees low to help gain a competitive advantage, and ensure the highest levels of academic integrity for their growing enrollment.

“eduKan was concerned with costs, ease of use, privacy, accuracy and accountability,” said Jeff Maynard, CEO, Biometric Signature ID. “BSI was excited to work with Dr. Sarver and knew our innovative technology would allow him to accomplish his goals, track the success of the project with documented milestones and show quantifiable results.”

From the beginning of the pilot to the rollout for institution-wide usage, eduKan is now benefiting by:

1. Lowering operational costs for physical proctoring by 80% including faculty / staff time and physical management expense (8,000 + hours on average / per year saved)
2. Reducing and/eliminating proctoring costs for students – which can average $38 per proctored exam / $380 per year and helps reduce their overall cost of education
3. Using a fixed fee structure for *unlimited* student ID authentications – under $15 per student per year which increases the number of validations now available to eduKan for the school term, not at final event time
4. Ensuring student privacy by using the only biometric that can be revoked and reissued
5. Offering easy to use technology with 94% positive user experience
6. Decreasing student support needs while increasing ease of deployment for eduKan’s growing student enrollments as BSI can be used on any system, tablet, smart phone, Android, Mac or PC, Flash or HTML5 without installing any additional software or hardware
7. Utilizing the most accurate biometric validation system on the market with 3rd party test results indicating 99.97% accuracy rate for keeping impostors out

“We believe in being proactive and using technology that helps us leverage our current staff while expanding our capabilities,” says Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan. “The risk-reward in adopting new technologies comes down to ‘the plan,’ and we had a very methodical plan with clear goals and objectives that we were able to achieve and are excited to share at Sloan this year.”

Attendees of the Sloan-C 5th Annual International Symposium on Emerging Technologies for Online Learning can see this presentation on July 25, 2012 at 1:30 PM in Casanova 603 at the Venetian | Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas. Sarver and Maynard were also nominated for a Sloan Effective Practice Award and have published their submission here: http://sloanconsortium.org/effective_practices/student-identity-proofing-biometrics-meet-regulations-lower-operational-costs-re.

About eduKan
eduKan provides access to quality higher education, including ESL courses, via college degrees, certificates, and individual courses, with affordable online classes. eduKan was founded in 1998 as a cooperative effort between member colleges to offer courses via the Internet. eduKan’s consortium schools are all accredited Kansas learning institutions with excellent reputations and long histories of providing degrees in traditional settings, as well as through online courses. eduKan Consortium member institutions are: : Barton Community College, in Great Bend; Colby Community College, in Colby; Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City; Garden City Community College, in Garden City; Pratt Community College, in Pratt; and Seward County Community College/Area Technical School, in Liberal. For more information, please visit http://www.edukan.org.

About Biometric Signature ID
A Dallas-based software company, Biometric Signature ID, Inc. (BSI), provides solutions to reduce identity fraud through its’ patented BioSig-ID Online™ biometric handwriting and gesture technologies. BSI has been recognized by Frost & Sullivan for developing the Product Innovation of the Year in 2010, have been vetted by the State of Texas Emerging Technology Fund advisory committee and granted a commercialization award for their break-through technology. BSI has also received a 99.97% rating of accuracy (false positive rate) proof-of-performance validation from the Tolly Group’s independent testing lab, which exceeds NIST recommendations by a factor of three. Their identity proofing products have worldwide applications including student ID authentication, secure online banking, mobile banking, or to create a secure password authentication before allowing access to any online portal or site like healthcare or gaming, for Internet-based transactions. To learn more about how BSI solutions can help with your Identity proofing needs visit our website at http://www.biosig-id.com or call us at (800) 871-2817.

U.S Department of Education in Washington DC

Dr. Mark Sarver of eduKan will be testifying at the Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education hearing on the Federal Student Aid Programs and the methods needed to stop fraudulent activities related to distance education and financial aid.

The CEO of eduKan, a consortium of colleges in Kansas, to testify at the Negotiated Rulemaking for Higher Education hearing on the Federal Student Aid Programs authorized by the Higher Education Act of 1965. The purpose for the testimony will be to reinforce the need for ensuring the security of the Title IV programs delivered through distance education and protection of academic integrity and funding for the program.

There is a growing trend in fraudulent use of Title IV HEA Distance Education funding programs and this has created a need to open up this subject for public input. The May 31^st meeting at the U.S Department of Education in Washington DC will be to explore the formation of a negotiated rulemaking committee to examine regulations to prevent future fraudulent use of Title IV and the disbursement of funds to recipients.

With changing legislation and budget cut proposals, more than 1 million students could be effected over the next 10 years as Pell grants help more than 9 million students afford college today. Add to this the growing fraudulent activities being uncovered, the students who really need financial aid to get a secondary education could be left at the wayside.

“We believe that there is a better way to stop fraudulent activities with distance education and help secure funding for our children’s future education,” says Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan. “Adopting new technologies that ensure the identity of the student applying for and getting grants while enrolling in college is vital and is available today. Unfortunately, it is not something that is at the top of the list of every higher education institution in the U.S.”

eduKan has taken steps to ensuring that the student who enrolls and receives financial aide is the student who is attending and getting the credits for their education. They are concerned that thousands if not millions of students will be penalized by slow-moving institutions who are not taking action to put these remedies in place to protect financial aid programs today and in the future.

About eduKan

eduKan provides access to quality higher education, including ESL courses, via college degrees, certificates, and individual courses, with affordable online classes. eduKan was founded in 1998 as a cooperative effort between member colleges to offer courses via the Internet. eduKan’s consortium schools are all accredited Kansas learning institutions with excellent reputations and long histories of providing degrees in traditional settings, as well as through online courses. eduKan Consortium member institutions are:  : Barton Community College, in Great Bend; Colby Community College, in Colby; Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City; Garden City Community College, in Garden City; Pratt Community College, in Pratt; and Seward County Community College/Area Technical School, in Liberal. For more information, please visit http://www.edukan.org.

Administrators at eduKan, a consortium of colleges in Kansas, have taken measures to increase the academic integrity of their Distance Education program using technology. eduKan will be able to review data collected from their newly implemented biometric student identity proofing technology, BioSig-ID, to proactively follow-up on any one suspected of cheating in their online courses.

Recent polls show almost 70% of college students have cheated at some point. As online enrollments continue to grow, so do concerns over academic integrity. eduKan has been delivering online education since 1998 and has seen their online enrollment increase by an average of 25% over the past few years with students from the U.S. and abroad. Determined to find a proactive approach to control unpredictable proctoring costs while also enhancing global student identity security protocols, eduKan selected BioSig-ID, a software-only biometric solution. eduKan is the first institution in the country to have a student identity proofing process integrated into their learning management system.

“We felt it was necessary to use technology to proactively deter cheating,” says Dr. Mark Sarver, CEO of eduKan. “We wanted to make sure that this built-in security measure would not be cumbersome or intrusive and be cost-effective while not burdening our staff to manage it.”

“eduKan was concerned with costs, ease of use, privacy, accuracy and accountability,” said Jeffrey Maynard, CEO, Biometric Signature ID. “BioSig-ID does not require additional hardware or software to be installed and any PC or mobile device can be used to accept the unique movements made with the mouse, stylus or touchpad to provide a positive student identification. Once they’ve created their BioSig-ID password, it is used to validate the student within a 99.97% accuracy rating. This validation plus the detailed BioSig-ID audit trail reporting can help identify anomalies that can lead to confirming any fraudulent activity.”

Using BioSig-ID’s reporting tool, eduKan can proactively compare the IP address, date, time, and activity of each student, and to confirm the students were in the same physical location, taking the same test, at the same time. This information will allow administrators and faculty members to monitor activities of any group of students whose actions are flagged as irregular and take the necessary action needed.

Although a biometric solution started out as a way to eliminate the cost and aggravation of proctoring tests for students, faculty, and staff, BioSig-ID now plays a greater role in proving that the student taking the course and the test is indeed the actual student who registered for the course. Unlike other institutions that are front-loading courses with mandatory faculty-student engagement activities, eduKan has found a technologically advanced solution that controls costs and meets accreditation mandates for student identity proofing.

About eduKan

eduKan provides access to quality higher education, including ESL courses, via college degrees, certificates, and individual courses, with affordable online classes. eduKan was founded in 1998 as a cooperative effort between member colleges to offer courses via the Internet. eduKan’s consortium schools are all accredited Kansas learning institutions with excellent reputations and long histories of providing degrees in traditional settings, as well as through online courses. eduKan Consortium member institutions are: : Barton Community College, in Great Bend; Colby Community College, in Colby; Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City; Garden City Community College, in Garden City; Pratt Community College, in Pratt; and Seward County Community College/Area Technical School, in Liberal. For more information, please visit http://www.edukan.org.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Here’s 15 news stories from the last month about flipping the classroom.

There are news stories and web articles about reverse instruction, or ‘flipping the classroom’, published just about every day lately. Here’s 15 news stories from the last 4 weeks focused on this instructional technology phenomenon. Many of these articles mention ‘the flip’ in their title (and for every one of these, there have been one or two additional articles that discuss the concept).

In addition to listing these articles here, I’ve also created and shared a videoand a Slideshare deck to help to bring attention to this powerful idea and spread the word about it to educators everywhere. If you want to spread the word too, please pass this article or one of these other presentations on to your colleagues.

1. ‘Flipped Classroom’ Makes Most of Hands-On Time,Education Week, April 25, 2012
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/25/inflippedclassrooms_ap.html

2. The Flipped Classroom,  my.hsj.org, Heart Beat , Barat Academy, Chesterfield, MO April 27, 2012
http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/articleid/521751/newspaperid/2577/The_Flipped_Classroom.aspx

3. Framingham High teachers try ‘flipped classroom’ format, The MetroWest Daily News, April 24, 2012
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/education/x101303297/Framingham-High-teachers-try-flipped-classroom-format

4. ‘Flipped Classroom’ Getting A Tryout At Suburban High Schools, CBS Chicago, April 23, 2012
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/04/23/flipped-learning-getting-a-tryout-at-suburban-high-schools/

5. A New Homework Strategy: Flipped Classrooms, Hartford Courant, April 25, 2012
http://articles.courant.com/2012-04-25/features/hc-no-homework-teresa-pelham-20120425_1_math-spanish-teacher-teaching-grammar

6. Flipping the Classroom Requires More Than Video, Geek Dad on Wired.com, April 13, 2012
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/04/flipping-the-classroom/

7. With A New Education Platform, TED Gives Teachers The Keys To A Flipped Classroom, TechCrunch, April 24, 2012
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/24/ted-launches-new-ed-platform/

8. Inside The Flipped Classroom, The Journal, April 11, 2012
http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/04/11/the-flipped-classroom.aspx

9. The flip: Classwork at home, homework in class, The Washington Post, April 15, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-flip-classwork-at-home-homework-in-class/2012/04/15/gIQA1AajJT_story.html

10. St. Gabriel’s Launches 1:1 iPad Initiative To Flip Classrooms, The Journal, April 3, 2012
http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/04/03/texas-school-launches-11-ipad-initiative-to-flip-classrooms.aspx

11. ‘Flipped classroom’ model leaps to Long Island, Libn.com (Long Island Business News), April 4, 2012
http://libn.com/2012/04/04/flipped-classroom-model-leaps-to-long-island/

11. Conference to explore best practices in flipped learning,eSchoolNews, April5, 2012
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/04/05/conference-to-explore-best-practices-in-flipped-learning/

13. Is Reverse Instruction Education Technology’s Perfect Storm?, EmergingEdTech, April 8, 2012
http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/04/is-reverse-instruction-education-technologys-perfect-storm/

14. Arizona schools flipping homework, lectures, AZCentral, 12 News March 31, 2012
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2012/03/31/20120331arizona-school-online-flipping.html

15. Mishicot Middle School tried new model for math class,htrnews.com, April 13, 2012
http://www.htrnews.com/article/20120413/MAN0101/204130594/Mishicot-Middle-School-tries-new-model-math-class

Here are a list of online resources our faculty members have found helpful. Most are free. Feel free to add your favorites by posting a reply with the name and web address.

• screen cast-o-matic for lecture capture.
• Khan Academy is a great resource for free videos.
• Live scribe pens are a great inexpensive tool.
• Soft chalk for enhanced interaction.
• Wordle – http://www.wordle.net
• Xtranormal – www.xtranormal.com
• Periodic Table of Videos: http://www.periodicvideos.com
• Google – http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/
• Jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
• Screenr http://www.screenr.com/
• Livemocha –language www.livemocha.com

Help

• Piazza www.piazza.com
• Open Study – openstudy.com
• Free technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
• Discovery education – http://web2010.discoveryeducation.com/web20tools.cfm
• Edudemic.com – http://edudemic.com/2010/07/the-35-best-web-2-0-classroom-tools-chosen-by-you/

Open educational resources (OER) are “digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research.”

OER include different kinds of digital assets. Learning content includes courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals. Tools include software that supports the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content, searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities. Implementation resources include intellectual property licenses that govern open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content. They also include materials on best practices such as stories, publication, techniques, methods, processes, incentives, and distribution.

Open Educational Resources websites:

• http://florida.theorangegrove.org
• http://oerconsortium.org/
• http://www.archive.org/details/education
• http://openeducation.zunia.org/
• http://opencourselibrary.org
• http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/index.php/Main_Page
• http://www.aascu.org/programs/redballoon/
• https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/24836860/What-are-Open-Educational-Resources

MERLOT- Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching at www.merlot.org

http://www.advantageedu.com/blog/2008/100-open-courseware-resources-for-teachers/

National Repository for Online Courses content and in house materials — http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/

The California State University system has been implementing a “Affordable Learning Solutions” initiative for about a year.   They have organized many open learning resources into a “one-stop shop” that is open to everyone – see http://als.csuprojects.org

CSU have built some simple applications where a faculty or student can type in the ISBN of their textbook and “OER Finder” will provide a list of open learning resources associated with the topic of the textbook see http://als.csuprojects.org/course_content or if you only want to find open textbooks (vs. course modules, online courses, etc), use the OER Finder at http://als.csuprojects.org/free-textbooks . The Affordable Learning Solutions and the OER Finder is built on the long term success of MERLOT (www.merlot.org) – an open online library of over 27,000 open learning resources, many of which have been peer reviewed by academic editorial boards.

CSU has started having faculty share their course syllabi that illustrates how they are substitute open learning resources for textbooks (see http://als.csuprojects.org/sharing-practices for some initial samples.

The CSU also has tested the strategy of licensing digital textbooks (“Renting Digital”) at a significantly lower cost (35% of new textbook price for the pilot studies).   You can read about the CSU’s Digital Marketplace project at www.dmproject.org and the “licensed content” project at: http://www.dmproject.org/solutions/licensed_content.html and the Digital Marketplace 2010 year-end report http://www.dmproject.org/docs/2010-YearEndReport.pdf

http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/Catalog/pages/catalog.aspx?catalogId=68c4ce9f-c919-45ea-b18b-0f5aa7501fbd presentation on the open future and the speaker is Dr. David Wiley. While not totally open there is a large FIPSE Grant that was given to Florida State College in Jacksonville. They have a project called SIRIUS Academics which provides low cost course contents and books on several courses with more in the works. Person to contact if you are interested is Rick Granger: lgranger@fscj.edu phone: 904-632-3307. Also you may contact Leslie Balsiger for materials that she has on this topic lbalsiger@lccc.wy.edu

Going hybrid

For those faculty in our member colleges who are thinking about creating hybrid courses, here are some great resources. Most are from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

• Tips on developing your class
• Ten questions to ask when redesigning your course
• Faculty Insights
• Advantages and Challenges
• Web Resources