By Aaron Tavena
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
|
Now, new technologies look to transform the typical online class into a viable option that would render the "analog" classroom obsolete.
"I think the place where this really starts to make an interesting story is if you look at probably 35 percent of the US population that gets to go to college," says Mark Jones, VP of Echo360. "If you expand that closer to 50 percent by simply making it easier and more cost effective to get to the education process, that's just got to be a net win for the country."
Echo360 offers "the first comprehensive platform for lecture capture in higher education," says Jones. With this software, named the Echo System, colleges across the country including can create a fully interactive educational experience with audio, video and other rich media components.
"We have a number of customers who use it exclusively for delivering online courses and they actually can provide stats that say students who do an online version of the course with rich media do as well if not better than students who do traditional in class education," says Jones.
Echo360 represents advances in online education; however, further developments have removed the need for even the most basic components of education - the book.
"The average student spends around $1,000 per year on textbooks. To me it just seemed like [there was] some way to deliver in an electronic form and thereby reducing the cost of the publisher and reducing the overall costs to the students," says Bryce Johnson, CEO of Café Scribe, the first source for digitally downloaded textbooks. Students can save the books on their PCs and form online study groups via Café Scribe's student networks. The ease and comfort of not having to lug around a mountain of textbooks is further helped by the fact that Café Scribe offers their books for half the price.
Cost is a big factor for most college students, and the latest advancement in technology tackles the first step of applying to school - the college fair.
"What our fair does is it allows students to connect with colleges in an online environment," says Michael Lewis, VP of Marketing for College Week Live.
From March 25 through March 26, aspiring students visit these "virtual booths" from the comfort of their computers to learn more information about their college of choice through streaming video sessions on www.collegeweeklive.com.
"It's really enabling for the first time, a kind of massive level of video chat to take place around a common theme which is how do you choose, how do you get into and how do you pay for college," says Patrick Rafter, publicity rep for College Week Live
With this model, a student could apply to a school at the latest online college fair, "pick up" their downloadable textbooks on their way to their online course - making that "school's out forever" song just a little more relevant.
Want more News? Click Here
Be the first to comment on this story