Excellent article from Danah Boyd explaining why you need to find a good adviser in Grad School.

So how does this relate to choosing a grad school? First things first, do NOT choose a program based solely on it being “the best.” What’s best in rankings may not be best for you and the last thing you want is to come out of grad school depressed, miserable, and cranky (although many scholars do). You need to find a place that will allow you to explore the questions you’re interested in in a way that works best for you. Success is about taking the available resources and finding the way to make a meaningful intervention while staying sane. Success is about finding the right advisor to help get you through.

Many instructors teaching online today are not “Web heads” Today’s online faculty don’t teach online because they spend their lives blogging, reading feeds, and Twittering, and one day think, “hey, I could also teach online!” Most were drafted, either because they felt their market value would slip if they didn’t teach online, or because their department or dean told them they must. Their adoption of technology is based on top–down directives rather than interest or aptitude . They do not possess the “information literacy” skills now required of many undergraduates , despite an assumption that professors are all computer–savvy.

When faced with a different interface or online environment, novices are inclined to utilize only the aspects they understand from a non–Web context. Posting a Word document online makes sense, but not creating an HTML page, because a word–processed document is a familiar unit of presentation but a Web page is not. Similarly, e–mail is the current incarnation of the familiar process of writing a memo, but there are fewer guideposts for instant messaging or video conferencing. The addition of hardware peripherals, such as a webcam or microphone, further increases the distance between the professor and familiar modes of teaching.
Source: Lisa M. Lane, First Monday

I used Typealyzer to find my Return to College blog personality.
I analyzed all the content of this blog. It shows that my personality is:

ISTJ – The Duty Fulfiller

The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it.

You can read more About Typealyzer and Psychographics

I found Typeanalyzer via Suifaijohnmak’s Weblog

What do you think? My personality matches what you expect from this blog

I posted before, Your Participation in Online Course Discussions is Mandatory

I have found an example of a Rubric for Online Discussion Board Participation. This rubric shows why online courses are not so easy and require higher levels of thinking and discussion from students.

The P2PU – Peer 2 Peer University

helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work

In practice, this means that the syllabus will each week consist of links to a number of readings or resources that are freely available online, as well as some guiding questions for discussions. After studying the material, the students will write answers to the reflection questions, and comment and engage with each others answers. Different subjects might lend themselves to different approaches, and different course organizers might experiment with different communication methods such as instant messaging, twitter, or voice chat. Regardless of the communication medium, much of the collaboration is captured for posterity to enter into student’s personal portfolio and accessible for future students who’d like to review what previous cohorts discussed.

The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education is a seminal and influential paper and a popular framework for evaluating teaching in Higher Education. Students should know what is considered as good practice from their professors in undergraduate education.

Janet Clarey created a pro/con list to help her decide whether to return to college for another graduate degree or not . A similar list, with the information targeted to each user, should be useful to all adults thinking about returning to college

Onlinesapiens provides information about College and Professional Accreditation, including the list of the Regional Accrediting Associations, Databases to find the accreditation of colleges and universities, Professional Accrediting Organizations and a discussion about National Accreditation vs Regional Accreditation.

Read all this information to be sure to select a college education that will be accepted by both employers and other colleges (if you want later to transfer credits to another higher education institution)

Higher education can benefit from understanding how employers perceptions affect students’ employment opportunities and, in turn, affect the institutions granting the online degree. In addition, research in this area potentially contributes to the field of knowledge by helping prospective students, as consumers of higher education, make informed choices about their degree attainment paths.
Read more: Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration

In online courses, contribution to online classroom discussions is mandatory, recorded and marked. This is a significant shift for students accustomed to in-class discussions.

There is a tendency for students in onsite classes to not say anything at all, and let the more verbal students dominate the discussion. My impression is these people did not read the assignment, and simply were unable to contribute to the discussion. This doesn’t happen in online discussions, as there is a requirement for all to contribute to discussions; as well as a record of the participation.
Source: AchieveYourCareer Blog

As an example:

To get students to appreciate the significance of the discussion forum, Heflin has a Web page in her courses that explains the grading rubric for discussion and her expectations. An important part of her rubric is having two deadlines for each weeklong discussion. The first deadline, which occurs in the middle of the week, is for students to post their initial responses to the discussion prompt. Then the students have until the second deadline to respond to at least two classmates’ initial responses.
Source: Asynchronous Discussion: The Heart of the Online Course

Online discussions provide opportunities for richer discourse through written discussion that allows students to spend time crafting their responses.

Student interaction mostly occurs through an online threaded discussion that allows students and instructors to interact in asynchronous time. This is a significant shift for students accustomed to in-class discussions. It may provide opportunities for richer discourse through written discussion that allows students to spend time crafting their responses. When asked how they made the most of their online interaction with other students, these students mentioned some interesting techniques. One student commented, “Interacting with the other students was the fun part of my (online) classes. As much as possible, I would post a response, question, or comment to another student’s posting. This built up an online relationship.” Another student suggested, “Respond to several student postings, but make sure you have something meaningful to add, don’t just say ‘good post.’ Also, don’t always interact with the same few classmates. Look for something to say with various students.”
Source: EDUCAUSE Quarterly.

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