The moves include Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s national-model DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ program and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Global, which among other responsibilities, manages international student recruitment, English language programs for students and the community, and international partnerships in education, research and business.

Other aspects of the realignment involve units that impact online student services, faculty training and development, and continuing education for working professionals.

“At Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, we strive for constant improvement,â€� Johnson says. “These changes allow us to continue our focus on student success and the student experience.â€�

The reorganization by the Division of Academic Affairs will unfold throughout September with the following units and offices:

• DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Connect Centers move to the Division of Student Learning and Academic Success, reporting to Theodorea Regina Berry, vice provost of Student Learning and Academic Success and dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies;
• Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Global moves to the Office of the Provost, reporting to Tim Letzring, senior associate provost for Academic Affairs;
• Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Online Connect Center and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Continuing Education move to the Division of Digital Learning, reporting to Tom Cavanagh, vice provost for Digital Learning;
• Office of Instructional Resources Classroom Support, Engineering, Programming and Project Management teams move to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Information Technology, reporting to Michael Sink, interim vice president and CIO.

The transitions for DirectConnect to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Connect Centers and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Global coincide with the Oct. 1 retirement of Jeff Jones, vice provost for Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Connect and Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Global. Johnson praised Jones for his impactful work during his seven years at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and for his suggestions and insights regarding the overall realignment.

“The possibilities for this reimagining are exciting,� Johnson said. “As we move forward, success relies on the creativity and collaboration of our staff, faculty and partners.�

In the publication’s 2016 listing, the university’s online bachelor’s programs were ranked No. 20, a jump from No. 50 last year. The university’s online graduate criminal justice program, which was unranked last year, came in at No. 21, and the online nursing program was listed at No. 42.

More than 1,200 programs nationwide were evaluated for the rankings in eight categories.

“Among the reasons that we are successful are Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s particular emphasis in faculty preparation and comprehensive research and evaluation,â€� said Tom Cavanagh, associate vice president of Distributed Learning, which oversees online courses. “As the nation’s second-largest university, the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has experienced significant growth within the past several years. A key component of that growth has been the strategic implementation of high-quality online learning options for students.â€�

Now in its 20th year of offering online learning, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is a recognized a leader having won almost every major award from every national organization in the field. The university offers 77 fully online degrees and certificates at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has delivered 29,629 unique online and blended-course sections.

Anthropology major Lisa Benge said she appreciates the convenience of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s online classes.

“They are well organized…and really help you stay on top of work and readings,â€� she said. “Being a stay-at-home mom it’s certainly a viable option for someone pursuing a degree. I’ve taken both on-campus and online classes and really have enjoyed the online option.â€�

Jennifer Hamilton, director of clinical support at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, said that having classes online was critical to achieving her master’s degree in executive health services administration in 2014.

“As a hospital administrator, I work long hours, am sometimes on call, and needed the flexibility to manage my time allotted to school,â€� she said. “Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ was one of only a few programs nationwide that offered the course work and modality that met my needs.ÌýIt is definitely a different way of learning, but I find the online modality truly a rewarding and unique experience for learning and collaboration.â€�

During the 2014-15 academic year, nearly 38 percent of all Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ student credit hours were generated by online modalities. Of the university’s more than 63,000 students, 55,530 of them, about 78 percent, took one or more online courses.

This past summer, nearly 12,000 students took exclusively online courses.

“Through distance-learning technology, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has been able to provide access to far more students than the physical infrastructure alone can support,â€� Cavanagh said. “We have also been a national leader in piloting adaptive learning, which helps to personalize the learning experience based upon individual student performance.â€�

The Center for Distributed Learning also is the home of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, which has been studying the efficacy and impact of online learning since the mid-1990s.

The university is considering a new initiative that would reduce the cost of online programs for distance students by eliminating campus-based fees. The initiative would also include student-success coaching for exclusively online students.

All of the national rankings are available here.

I enjoy social media. Like most people, thanks to online technology, I am able to reconnect and stay in touch with friends and family all across the world. Birthdays, weddings, graduations, joys, triumphs and even tragedies are shared as part of a genuine sense of community.

However, I dread social media during election seasons. I have friends who sit all across the spectrum of political ideology. The constant barrage of vitriolic online postings from both sides of the aisle is like being trapped inside a bass drum in a marching band. Pretty soon, all I want is to escape to a small quiet room and cover my head. My ears hurt.

At the conclusion of the 2012 presidential election, I felt compelled to post the following Facebook status: “Dear Facebook: Now that the election is over, I look forward to an end to the nasty, divisive political posts. No matter which ‘side’ you are on, it’s now time to be ‘Americans.’ I welcome a return to posts about your kids’ soccer games, check-ins at TGI Fridays, and, yes, even FarmVille status updates. Really. I do.â€� I even missed videos of cats.

Unfortunately (for me), the barrage is no longer confined to elections. Every time there is a news story, a Supreme Court decision, religious event, or any occasion where there might be two or more opinions, the drumbeat starts again, louder than ever. Sometimes the messages are even outright mean. But more often, the messages are simply posted with the implicit assumption that everyone surely agrees with the poster’s opinion. There is a kind of unintended arrogance in these messages and Facebook “shares.� I don’t think I have ever seen any quasi-political tweet, status update, or comment that actually invited genuine debate.

This phenomenon is known as the “echo chamber,â€� where people only say things so that their opinions can be validated by like-minded individuals. “So what?â€� you may ask. According to freelance writer Alan Martin in Wired magazine, “If you surround yourself with voices that echo similar opinions to those you’re feeding out, they will be reinforced in your mind as mainstream, to the point that it can distort your perception of what is the general consensus.â€�

I definitely see this happening online: My opinion is the proper one—see how all my friends agree?—and if anyone disagrees, they are stupid, bigoted, naïve, or any number of other knee-jerk reactions.

There is no longer any room for candid conversation, for the possibility of changing your mind based on new information. Martin continues: “Highlighting a dissenting voice as ‘trolling’ is another possible example of the echo chamber…it’s assumed that this voice is so outrageous that it can’t be genuine, and the orthodoxy of the community continues unchallenged.â€�

While it is pervasive online, the echo chamber isn’t confined to the Internet. There has been a spate of recent news articles about college and university commencement speakers withdrawing because of loud protests by the campus community. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice withdrew from a speech at Rutgers University and International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde withdrew from a scheduled appearance at Smith College after protests and petitions at the respective institutions. Former New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly was shouted down by students during a speech at Brown University and the event had to be canceled.

Colleges and universities are supposed to be stalwart bastions of open discourse and the free exchange of competing ideas. Higher education cherishes the institution of tenure, which was designed to protect faculty as they explored controversial and potentially unpopular lines of inquiry. How is it that institutions that hold such high ideals have become so intolerant of the expression of multiple opinions?

Agree with her politics or not, Rice is a highly accomplished African-American woman whose success might serve as an inspiration for many. She has served as provost of Stanford University, national security advisor and secretary of state. She is an expert concert pianist. I would think that even if a majority of the graduating Rutgers University audience disagreed with her politics or policies while she served in the Bush Administration, surely they could have gleaned something of value from her commencement remarks. But the echo chamber was too loud.

In her biography of Voltaire, writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall summed up the philosopher’s beliefs with the statement, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.� This sentiment seems to be fading away in the era of social media.

I certainly have my own opinions about a wide range of topics. However, I have resolved to never post these opinions online. Doing so will either simply contribute to the echo chamber of like-minded online friends or alienate those friends who subscribe to a different point of view. I value my friendships with those who may disagree with me, more than I need the shallow ego boost of counting “likes� or supportive comments from those who agree.

It’s not that I espouse only sharing inane drivel online (“Look what I’m having for breakfast!�), it’s just that unfortunately I find myself being driven further away from social media as a result of these echo chambers. As I said, they hurt my ears.

And, really, in our heart of hearts, who doesn’t love a really good cat video?

Tom Cavanagh is the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s associate vice president of distributed learning. He can be reached at cavanagh@ucf.edu.

The new offering, “,� is a free massive online open course (MOOC) that will focus on the merits and methods of blended learning, the strategic combination of face-to-face and online learning experiences. The system is growing in popularity in K-12 and higher education.

The new five-week course was designed by faculty at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ to provide key issues related to blended learning and a practical step-by-step guidance in producing materials for a blended-learning course. Educators and instructional designers will be taught best practices for developing design documents, content pages and peer-review feedback tools.

The course was developed and will be taught by two staff members from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Center for Distributed Learning: associate director Kelvin Thompson and department head Linda Futch.

“As blended learning continues to grow across higher education, we are very pleased to partner with EDUCAUSE to deliver BlendKit 2014,â€� said Tom Cavanagh, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s associate vice president of distributed learning. “With Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s extensive experience in blended learning and EDUCAUSE’s national IT leadership, we hope that the content and available credential will be of value to the higher-education community. By offering this course to educators and administrators across the country, we will be able to share the valuable tools, information, and methods that we, along with other participants in the course, have developed over the years.” The university has been a pioneer in online education more than two decades.

The new course amplifies EDUCAUSE’s role in micro-credentialing and online digital badging, said Julie Little, vice president over teaching, learning, and professional development. “EDUCAUSE continues its tradition of collaboration and excellence in delivering creative and convenient career-development opportunities as we build the profession within higher-education IT,” she said.

Participants in the course will have the option of paying for an official certificate and badge from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and EDUCAUSE.

Melissa Loble, senior director of Canvas Network, said: “This is a great opportunity for the education space to investigate new ways to most effectively reach students, and how to best organize learning experiences beyond the confines of a classroom. Education practices continue to evolve, and Instructure is proud to be providing a means of improving accessibility and outcomes for learners across the globe.”

Registration for BlendKit 2014 is open on Canvas Network for the class that begins April 21. Details can be found at and on Twitter at #BlendKit2014.

Seriously, what’s wrong with kids’ music these days?

I cringe writing those words. I still sometimes struggle reconciling the self of my youth with the guy who now has a mortgage and an SUV. But the minute I became a parent, my worldview shifted slightly on its axis and I began to view everything through new parental lenses.

With a 13-year-old son being continually bombarded by media, I can’t help but notice how standards have evolved since I was 13. Look, I get that every generation feels that the next generation has lost its moral standards. The flappers of the 1920s scandalized their parents. Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips had to be cropped out of the television screen for the safety of Ed Sullivan’s delicate home viewing audience. It has always been thus, going back in history. So I understand that what I am complaining about has a long tradition. I was once a part of it on the other side.Ìý

However, I suppose that my issue isn’t really with today’s youth. Of course they are drawn to what is edgy and placed in opposition to their parents. I don’t blame them for being attracted to that, especially when it is produced by artists with real talent and packaged and promoted by the most sophisticated marketing machines in the history of the world.

My real problem is with those in the entertainment industry who aggressively market content clearly intended for an older audience to a much younger audience. There is a real disconnect when singers such as Katy Perry and Pitbull are featured on the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. If you have ever listened to their music – and I have – there is a significant amount of profanity and sexual innuendo in many of their songs.

I have no objection to these artists making these choices in their lyrics. That is their artistic right and I am wholly opposed to censorship. However, I do object to such songs being overtly promoted to children under 10 years old. There is already enough pressure on today’s children to grow up quickly. They don’t need the additional pressure of the allure of adult music to make them cool.

And it isn’t just music. When both “Transformers� movies were released, they were relentlessly marketed to elementary school-age children through toys, video games and McDonald’s Happy Meals. Yet, those movies were rated PG-13 for a reason. Between language, overt sensuality, and mind-numbing violence, they really weren’t made for 7-year-olds. But if you never actually saw the films and based the targeted age of the audience on nothing but the peripheral marketing, you would conclude that it was a film for elementary and middle school-aged kids. I could cite many other examples.

Again, I have no issue with the fact that these films were made. I kind of enjoyed the first “Transformers� (although I couldn’t bring myself to watch the sequel). I appreciate the artistic talent of performers such as Perry and Pitbull and Lil’ Kim. It’s just that an entire entertainment complex has been amassed to tell little kids that this sort of behavior is cool before they can discern for themselves the consequences of bad language and sexual choices.

It also positions parents as the enemies in the culture wars of our times. Parents who don’t want their children to be prematurely exposed to adult language and themes must remain constantly vigilant. Because the entertainment and marketing machine refuses to draw what I believe are reasonable age lines for content, parents are now forced to take sides against Nickelodeon and McDonald’s and iTunes and DreamWorks and Paramount. That’s a hard battle to win. I’m just a guy with an SUV going mano a mano with Optimus Prime and Megatron.

I don’t recall the music of my youth being filled with profanity. My recollection is that movies intended for a grown-up audience used to be marketed to grown-ups. These were not major concerns for my parents.

I recognize that to some reading this I probably seem a little prudish. Too conservative.

Lighten up, Tom, times have changed.

Fair enough. But I suspect that most of the parents reading this will agree with me.

We want our children to become better versions of themselves than we are of ourselves. We want them to achieve based on the highest possible standards. That will be hard to do as long as the standards keep getting lower.

I try to monitor the media that my family consumes. I talk with my son about what we feel is appropriate language and behavior, whether he encounters it in a movie or on the schoolyard. I will do my best to set the standards I feel will allow him to become the best version of himself.

And if that means that I have become that guy, I can live with that.

Tom Cavanagh is the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s associate vice president of distributed learning. He can be reached at cavanagh@ucf.edu.

Ìý

Checking into class online from a dorm room or an off-campus home, coffee shop or even poolside could help ease the traffic tie-ups and classroom crowding fueled by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s record enrollment growth, officials say.

Surveys show students like the quality of their instruction in addition to the flexibility that going online adds to their schedules, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ officials say.

Spreading out into the virtually limitless expanse of cyberspace bodes well for a school reaching its physical limits. There’s little hope the cash-strapped state can come up with the money needed to build classrooms to keep pace with anticipated growth, university officials say.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s total enrollment surpassed 53,500 students last fall, overtaking the University of Florida to become top dog in enrollment in Florida and third-largest in the nation.

The Orlando university’s head count is expected to go even higher this fall once final figures are tabulated next month.

Meanwhile, registrations for classes that involve going online for all or part of the time has shot up from about 29,000 in academic year 2002-03 to about 111,000 in 2009-10.

At Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, online courses fall under the umbrella of the Center for Distributed Learning. Besides online classes, distributed learning includes courses delivered through interactive or prerecorded video.

But the most pronounced growth has been in courses delivered entirely online or in “hybrid” or “blended” formats that combine online instruction with seat time in a classroom.

Blended courses that reduce overall seat time in a specific classroom at a specific time have made possible the wider sharing of precious classroom space, officials say.

Online pioneer

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has been at the national forefront in the development of online classes for more than a decade. College systems such as the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois have studied Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s methods. In 2003, the Sloan Consortium, a 400-member association of institutions that advance online learning in higher education, gave Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ a top award for its accomplishments.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ online-learning experts have been called upon to speak at conferences and share expertise with other colleges and universities across the country, said Joel Hartman, vice provost for information technologies and resources.

Through the years, Hartman has guided the expansion of a comprehensive course-development system that includes intensive training for instructors and constant research into new technology. The goal is to make the online class experience as engaging and rigorous as any face-to-face class, Hartman said.

Distributed learning — with roots in mail-order correspondence courses produced entirely in print format — started as a way to reach students who lived in remote areas or otherwise couldn’t get to college in the traditional manner.

Later, online courses were seen as a way to reach nontraditional students who could not attend regular daytime college courses because of work or family obligations.

But steady online-enrollment growth also is predicted among traditional students, experts say.

Most new students nowadays arrive at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ well-versed in computer technology, Hartman said, so online courses don’t intimidate them. Courses are updated to take advantage of technological advances and trends. For instance, incorporating social media such as Twitter to alert students to class-related developments is relatively easy, he said.

Growth continues

As of last fall, about half of all enrolled students took at least one course online, said Thomas Cavanagh, assistant vice president of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s Center for Distributed Learning.

Online-course development has progressed so rapidly that it’s difficult for many to conceive what it takes for a student to succeed in them, officials say. Far from being a passive, electronic version of a standard class, students must actively participate in online discussions and complete the required coursework within a specific time frame to keep up and receive a passing grade.

Taking courses online requires students “to stay focused and manage your time well,” student Kyle Hickman said.

To help students, the university library now has an online-learning center.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, in his annual letter to the public through his charitable foundation, expressed hope that online education will become more interactive and easier to access.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has been working hard in both areas for years, Hartman said.

The university is part of a statewide consortium figuring out ways for institutions such as the state universities, state colleges and community colleges to share course content and development practices, officials said.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, meanwhile, has been doing its thing for 15 years “and been growing like crazy ever since,” Hartman said.

Source: OrlandoSentinel.com, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ online classes: Many students hardly need to set foot on campus, by Luis Zaragoza, Orlando Sentinel 10:36 PM EDT, August 26, 2010. Luis Zaragoza can be reached at lzaragoza@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5718.