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