For the first time, U.S. News & World Report has ranked the top online bachelor’s programs, based on three major criteria: faculty credentials and training, student services and technology, and student engagement and assessment.

The data is based on survey responses from the 184 schools that have been offering online bachelor’s degree programs for more than one year.

The top 5 based on faculty:

1. Westfield State University, Massachusetts
2. United States Sports Academy, Alabama
3. St. Mary’s College of California
4. Pace University, New York
5. Sam Houston State University, Texas

The top 5 based on technology:

1. Arizona State University
2. Sam Houston State University
3. Florida International University
4. University of North Dakota
5. Troy University

The top 5 based on student engagement:

1. Bellevue University, Nebraska
2. Newberry College, South Carolina
3. Troy University, Alabama
4. University of the Incarnate Word, Texas
5. University of Phoenix, Arizona

Finally, U.S. News gave Honor Roll mention to the schools that ranked in the top 1/3 of all three criteria:

1. Florida Institute of Technology
2. Pace University
3. University of Florida
4. Westfield State University

You can view the entire ranked list here. Then let us know what you think in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

When asked by folks at Follett Higher Education Group to identify where they study, more than 9 out of 10 students said they’ve studied on the way to class, just minutes before the test.

OK, maybe that’s not strange or even surprising. But check out the progressively odd places on the rest of the list:

• as a passenger in a car (87.6%)
• while waiting in a line (63.4%)
• at work (60.9%)
• while working out (46.1%)
• in the restroom (44.1%)
• at a party (27.5%)
• at a late night restaurant/bar (25.8%), and
• on a date (9.8%).

More than 61% of students said they begin studying just a few days before a big test. Roughly 20% wait until the night before, while only about 13% said they get going with studying a few weeks before the test date.

Surprised? Please leave your comment below.

Most of the time, Facebook use has practically no effect on student GPAs, according to a study from Lockhaven University of Pennsylvania. Out of the 1,800+ students surveyed, 92% admitted to using Facebook and spending an average 106 minutes on the network daily – about six times per day for 24 minutes at a time.

The study found “no strong link” between Facebook use and a drop in GPA. However, for every additional hour and a half spent on the site (over the 106-minute average), GPAs dropped an average of 0.12 points. That doesn’t prove one causes the other, though.

“Students with lower grades could simply use Facebook more, or there could be a third factor that affects both but isn’t studied here,” the study’s authors note.

The way students use Facebook may also affect how they do in the classroom. Students who shared links or checked the site to see what their friends were doing often did better in class. But students posting vague, “Eating ramen again, LOL”-style updates did worse.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Venetia Orcutt, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Physicians Assistant Studies resigned from George Washington University last month. Now the university is investigating allegations that she bailed on actually teaching some of her classes.

Orcutt was supposed to teach a series of physician assistant courses over three semesters in 2010 – one in-person class and two that were online-based.

Multiple students wrote to the university’s provost this fall, saying they all received “A” grades in the online classes but never received instruction.

This isn’t the first time GWU’s medical curriculum has run into trouble. The School of Medicine & Health Services medical school was on academic probation from fall 2008 until early 2010 for not complying with multiple standards, including not properly documenting how students interacted with patients.

The Department of Physician Assistant Studies where Orcutt taught is part of the School of Medicine &Health Sciences, but not the medical school.

GWU is appointing a review committee comprised of faculty members from outside the School of Medicine & Health Sciences to review the case and make recommendations.

On the bright side, the students’ GPAs won’t be affected by the classes Orcutt neglected – they will be allowed to keep their class credits, while their money will be refunded.

How can schools ensure this type of neglect doesn’t happen? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Enrollment rates have been steadily climbing for decades, but the percentage of students actually graduating remains stagnant, according to a report by the nonprofit Complete College America.

The report illustrates how many students completed their degrees. The results are broken down into categories including whether enrollment is full- or part-time, or at a two- or four-year school.

The numbers aren’t encouraging. For example, in Texas, out of every 100 students who enrolled in a public college:

• 79 started at a community college
• 2 of them earned a two-year degree on time
• Only 7 graduated after four years
• Of the 21 who enrolled at a four-year college, 5 graduated on time, and
• After 8 years, only 13 completed a degree.

The report shines a light on part-time students who Complete College America says are under-represented in federal statistics, even though 4 out of every 10 public college students attend part-time. Out of those, no more than a quarter ever graduate.

One possible reason: time. Factors may include the increasing practice of amassing more credits than are required for a degree, and the large numbers of students required to take noncredit remedial courses.

The study’s primary recommendation is for states to adopt financing incentives in an effort to get schools to focus more on completion rates.

There are some bright spots, however. At Tennessee’s 27 Technology Centers, the completion rate is 75%. The report cites the required Foundations class where students learn skills needed for a program, rather than noncredit remedial classes, and the 3 p.m. end time for all classes, allowing students to hold down an evening job or care for their children after school.

Also praised: CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, which use block scheduling and other support to help students complete degrees more quickly.

How does your school help part-time students? Share your strategies below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

West Virginia University has begun offering a series of online courses to teach students how social media can be used in by businesses. Though a non-credit program, students who complete it will receive a certificate of completion.

The three-part “Social Media for Business” series first teaches students about the foundations of social networks, including how to develop goals, measure and apply them. Subsequent lessons tackle marketing with social media and integrating it within a business’s organization.

While the ins and outs of Facebook are part of the lessons, the program is primarily to teach students about how to successfully engage customers with relevant content, at a time when web use has dramatically changed business and marketing.

Does your school offer a similar course? Tell us more in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Students who can be considered “heavy multitaskers” tend to pare down their tech use to only one or two devices when exam time rolls around, says a new study from the University of Washington.

Based on 560 interviews at 11 college libraries, the findings suggest students are capable of dialing down technology use when the situation calls for it. Students interviewed in the libraries said it was the best place they could concentrate and feel more studious.

Others said they left their laptops at home to avoid temptation, relying only on library equipment to write papers or study. And of those who were working online, 61% had only one or two websites open at a time.

Others used the web as an incentive, treating Facebook as a reward after 15, 30 or 60 minutes of study, or at the end of a chapter reading.

This is one more study showing that today’s students aren’t the tech-junkies they’re sometimes painted as, and that tech use can have academic benefits, as well.

What devices are your students most dependent on? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

There’s a positive correlation between college grade point average and Facebook use – when students use it for information gathering and sharing. That’s according to a study of 1,839 students conducted by Lock Haven University’s Dr. Reynol Junco.

Data examined the frequency of Facebook use, student GPAs, participation in site activities and class prep time.

Site use that mimicked educational behaviors, such as sharing links or gathering information, related positively with GPA. There was a weaker correlation to the time the student spent preparing for class.

Naturally, excessive online chatting and status updating had the same negative impact on students’ grades that offline socializing has. Students who invested an extra 279 minutes on Facebook per day over the average also earned .37 GPA points below average.

The researcher hopes educators use the data to get some positive use out of Facebook themselves. His suggestion: communicating with students via course-related Facebook groups.

How does your faculty utilize social networks? Tell us in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

This one is big.

A recent graduate of a tony Long Island high school has been slapped with a number of criminal charges based on allegations that he charged six students at his alma mater up to $2,500 to take the SAT exam for them.

According to the local district attorney, six students at Great Neck North High School paid 2010 grad Samuel Eshaghoff between $1,500 and $2,500 to take the test for them. Eshaghoff, who enrolled at Emory University in Atlanta after high school, has been charged with a scheme to defraud, falsifying business records and criminal impersonation. He could be jailed for up to four years.

According to a published report, he registered a score of at least 2100 on all six bogus tests.

The scam unraveled after officials compared the top-notch scores to the students’ grade point averages and discovered similar handwriting on all the suspect exams.

The six students who allegedly hired Eshaghoff face misdemeanor charges.

If convicted, should the test-taker serve jail time? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Campus police at the University of Wisconsin – Stout removed a poster of the beloved sci-fi/western series Firefly that hung on theater professor James Miller’s door. The reason: They thought it could be interpreted as a threat.

The poster features the show’s tough-talking hero Malcolm Reynolds and a quote from the pilot: “You don’t know me, son, so let me tell you this once:  If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake. You’ll be facing me. And you’ll be armed.”

In an email, the school police chief claimed her actions were defensible, saying, “The wording on the poster can be interpreted as a threat by others and/or could cause those that view it to believe that you are willing/able to carry out actions similar to what is listed.”

This caused the professor to fire back, “Postings that “refer” to violence constitute a threat? As in a poster from Hamlet? Or a news clipping about Hockey players that commit violent murder?”

He also attached a clip of the scene in question to provide the police chief with context – in the scene, Reynolds is explaining to a new crew member that he would never kill an unarmed man in cold blood.

Actor Nathan Fillion, who portrayed the character, weighed in on his Twitter feed, joking: “FIREFLY GETS PANTIES IN KNOT, THREATENS WHOMEVER WATCHES WITH DEATH. … Another example of, ‘Just relax.’”

Was the professor just showing off a favorite TV show? Was the campus police within its rights? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

At the University of Dublin, Trinity College’s faculty listing – however briefly – featured a bold new associate professor: Dr. Conan T. Barbarian, B.A. (Cimmeria), Ph.D (UCD). The hulking warrior was all set to teach Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying at the Irish university – until his syllabus was sadly revealed to be a hoax.

“Dr. Conan T. Barbarian was ripped from his mother’s womb on the corpse-strewn battlefields of his war-torn homeland, Cimmeria, and has been preparing for academic life ever since,” begins Professor Conan’s academic profile.

Naturally, his Ph.D. thesis is titled, “To Hear the Lamentation of Their Women: Constructions of Masculinity in Contemporary Zamoran Literature.”

The college removed the parody site, posted by an as-yet unknown prankster. But not before fans archived the page and passed it along.

That said, what student wouldn’t want to take courses in “Vengeance for Beginners”? Though Professor Conan’s classroom policy on cheating (and showing weakness) does seem a bit…strict.

Could your English department use a few more barbarians? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

There were no changes at the top of the 2012 National Liberal Arts College rankings, with Williams College edging out Amherst College for the top rank once again. The biggest mover: Bryn Mawr college, which moved up five spots to tie for 25^th.

On the other hand, Smith College fell five spots, tying for 19^th.

The top 10 schools, and their annual tuition and fees, are:

1. Williams College, Williamstown, MA ($43,190)
2. Amherst College, MA ($42,898)
3. Swarthmore College, PA ($41,150)
4. Pomona College, Claremont, CA ($39,883)
5. Middlebury College, VT ($53,800)
6. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME ($42,816)
7. Carleton College, Northfield, MN ($42,942)
8. Wellesley College, MA ($40,660)
9. Claremont McKenna College, CA ($42,240)
10. Haverford College, PA ($42,208)

Check out the complete list here, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Linn State Technical College in central Missouri has instituted an unprecedented drug testing policy, requiring all first-year students to pay be screened for illicit substances by two weeks into the fall semester.

The tests screen for 11 drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. Students must cover the $50 testing fee themselves.

The school says the tests are necessary to ensure safety around heavy equipment and machinery in the tech students’ classes. However, even students pursuing general education degrees while studying accounting, communications, math and social sciences must comply with the testing. And that’s where the ACLU comes in.

After hearing from six students – none of whom are enrolled in technical classes – the ACLU has filed suit to stop the drug testing, saying it’s a violation of students’ Fourth Amendment rights protecting against unlawful searches and seizures.

Linn State Tech’s attorney claims the school is on firm legal footing, noting that more narrowly focused drug tests for students who work with heavy machinery are not uncommon.

We’ll keep you posted with further developments.

What do you think of the school’s policy? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Students and teachers alike can benefit from using social media as an extension of the classroom. But it’s important to maintain professional boundaries while making effective use out of the networks.

Here are three tips from Dan Klam, Marketing & Communications Coordinator at Syracuse University:

1. Survey students. Ask students which platforms they’d be most interested in integrating into class. If they’re not comfortable, they won’t buy in, dooming the experience from the start.
2. Set up communities. Whether it’s a private class group or page on Facebook or a class hashtag students can find on Twitter, encouraging group discussion is key. Whatever you use, make it clear that it’s for class interactions only, to distinguish it from private student and instructor accounts.
3. Establish boundaries. Some teachers readily accept friend requests from students, while others insist on privacy. Teachers must set down clear ground rules about the ways students can and can’t communicate with them online.

What else would you add? Offer your advice in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

57 percent of Americans say the higher education system fails to provide students with a good value for the money they spend, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. And an even larger majority – 75% say college is too expensive for most Americans to afford.

The study collected opinions from two separate groups: 2,142 adults ages 18 and over, and 1,055 presidents of two-year and four-year colleges and universities.

While the general public has some complaints about the costs of college, higher education reps aren’t that happy with the general public, either – a 58% majority of presidents say public high school students arrive at college less prepared than their counterparts did a decade ago, and 52% say students study less.

As for the prohibitive costs of college, a majority of presidents (63%) answered that students and their families should pay the largest share of college education costs (only 48% of the public agrees with this).

Other findings:

• Only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system of higher education is the best in the world right now, and only 7% think it will be the best in 10 years. However, 51% rank the U.S. system as one of the best in the world.
• The general public is split on the purpose of a college education: Just under half (47%) say it’s to teach work-related skills and knowledge, while 39% say it’s to help a student grow personally and intellectually, and
• While students and their families question whether or not college is a good investment, it’s hard to argue with the results: Those who graduated from a four-year college believe that they’re earning, on average, $20,000 more a year because of their degree. On the flip side, adults who didn’t attend college believe they’re earning $20,000 a year less as a result. (They’re very close: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median earnings gab between a high school and college grad is $19,550.)

What do you think of these survey results? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Engineering majors can count on a high paycheck after college – but that’s less likely for psychology and social work students, according to a new study by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

The study examined U.S. Census data to compare the median incomes of 171 majors, and found the difference in potential earnings between majors can be as much as $91,000.

Engineering reigns supreme, with a median $75,000 annual salary. At the bottom of the list is Psychology and Social Work, with a median $42,000.

More specifically, the highest earning major is Petroleum Engineering, with an average annual income of $120,000, while Counseling Psychology degrees resulted in the lowest income, earning an average $29,000.

While the disparity in earnings is noteworthy, the overall value of a college degree is still unquestioned. All bachelor’s degrees pay for themselves over time, and college grads make 84% more in their lifetime than their high-school-educated counterparts.

Other study findings:

• The most popular major group is Business (25% of students), while the least popular are Industrial Arts & Consumer Services and Agriculture & Natural Resources (1.5%)
• Gender inequality continues to be an issue, with pay differences rampant across practically every major. Example: Even in the high-earning Chemical Engineering field, women still make $20,000 less per year than men
• There are racial and ethnic earnings gaps to consider as well: African-Americans who graduate with a Finance major earn less than Hispanics and Asians, and much less than Whites, and
• Graduate degrees boost earnings across the board, though those  increases vary by degree (Math majors can see a 33% boost, while Liberal Arts major can improve earnings by 42%).

What do you think of these findings? Share your thoughts below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

University of South Carolina professor Lara Lomicka Anderson will be knighted by the French government this fall, thanks to her ability to integrate social media into her students’ lessons.

The professor has been pairing students taking her year-long French course with English-language students at L’Ecole Des Ponts Paris Tech. The students Skype once a week, chat by email and Twitter and hold Facebook group discussions, helping each other improve their foreign language skills.

At the end of course, the students spend 10 days in Paris, where they meet their partners.

The French consul will knight Anderson as a member of an academic order founded by Napoleon to honor contributions to French language and culture.

One catch, though: Because referencing Twitter and Facebook on radio and TV essentially amounts to unlawful advertising, the words have been banned. So if the ceremony is broadcast, the newly-knighted professor will have to choose her words very carefully!

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section, and n’oubliez pas de nous suivre sur Twitter.

Two of the four main parts of the ACT – science and reading – are of “little to no” help for colleges choosing applicants, says a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The study, “Improving College Performance and Retention the Easy Way: Unpacking the ACT Exam,” tracked ACT scores for students who went from high school to a four-year Ohio public college in 1999.

The conclusion: The inaccuracy of the composite test score can result in students heading to schools that could be too demanding – or too easy – for their actual academic skill levels.

That’s not to say the entire test is useless – in fact, the English and math portions are actually “highly predictive” of college success. But many schools rely on the composite score, obscuring students’ actual abilities.

The researchers compared students who earned the same composite scores, but with different sub-scores in the individual sections of the test. The result: Similar composite scores don’t result in similar changes of collegiate success.

This isn’t news to ACT officials, though: In 2010, it reported that while 66% of students met the English benchmark and 43% met the math benchmark. Yet just under one in four students who took the college entrance exam met all four college readiness benchmarks.

How does your school weigh entrance exams like the ACT and SAT? Share your input in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

As part of its three-year mobile learning initiative, Abilene Christian University provided its students with iPads – and, no surprise, the students got pretty attached to them by the end of the school year.

After using the devices, 75% of ACU freshman said they’d buy their own tablets if at least half their textbooks were available digitally.

But the popularity of the e-readers hasn’t yet translated to textbook sales. In 2010, digital books accounted for only 3% of textbook sales, according the National Association of College Stores.

One reason: poor-quality materials. Students couldn’t highlight or take notes on these pseudo e-books, which more closely resembled PDF files, and so no one bought them.

Recently, though, more educators are making the shift to digital e-books so students will more eagerly participate in assignments and improve their overall learning.

Major publishers like Inkling are focusing on the switch to digital text books to meet the increasing demand.

Here’s just how popular e-books are becoming:

• 20% of college students will possess iPads and other tablets by 2012, and
• Digital book sale growth will double to $1.5 billion by 2015, accounting for 25% of market share.

Has your school made the switch to digital e-books? Let us know, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Since the program’s start in 2006, 200 students with mental illnesses have led more functional lives and refined their education after participating in POWER TAY.

The 14-week course teaches students with mental illnesses (such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) about the library, college services, college clubs, financial aid and the registration process. Additional tutoring is also available.

The program welcomes students ages 17-28, and provides a peer mentor coordinator that has also graduated from the POWER Program.

After completing the POWER course, students continue with the POWER Plus class, a weekly support group that improves students’ problem-solving skills. It gives students a place to share their academic successes, and talk about their progress in adjusting to college life.

Does your school offer anything like the POWER Program? Tell us about it in our comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

A rising number of parents, legislators and administrators are pushing for more hands-on job training education, even at the expense of music, arts and other Humanities programming. But Kwame Anthony Appiah, chair of the board of the American Council of Learned Sciences and philosophy professor at Princeton University, contends that we need the Humanities now more than ever.

Appiah believes the Humanities help us to:

• contemplate our purpose
• understand where we should focus our attention, often difficult in the mountain of information offered in this digital age
• develop an understanding of what it means to be free, and
• learn from our past, so we don’t repeat mistakes in the present.

Although the Humanities are best studied in a formal education setting, Appiah says the subjects benefit everyone, and avoiding them is a mistake. As growing adults, students should engage in the arts of their time – read a novel, watch a movie, anything. By participating in the culture, students can understand where they fit into human heritage.

In other words, people who study the humanities prepare to live their lives, not their work.

Should schools keep the humanities in the curriculum? Tell us what you think, and don’t forget to follow us Twitter!

A new report by the Sloan Survey of Online Education ranks the top colleges and universities offering online schooling. The top five:

1. Penn State World University Campus
2. Boston University Online
3. Full Sail University Online
4. St. Joseph’s University Online
5. Northeastern University Online

Schools were ranked based on factors such as graduation and retention rates, student-to-teacher ratio and tuition costs per credit hour.

Other findings of the report:

• The growth rate for online education is 21%, compared to 2% in higher education overall
• Nearly three quarters of schools report increased demand for online services as a result of the economic downturn, and
• Almost two thirds of schools say online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy.

How is your school tackling increased demands for online services? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

The final year of high school is coming under increasing scrutiny. Sometimes students who have already completed their core courses and have been accepted into college get lazy in their final year. These students often fall into the “senioritis” slump.

But many universities take senioritis seriously. For instance, the University of Colorado rescinds about 30 to 50 acceptance offers each year from students they’ve found slacking off during their senior years. Ouch!

Educators in Colorado and Indiana suggest several – sometimes conflicting – solutions.

• Option 1: Juniors who take AP course and earn enough college credits should be allowed to bypass senior year. The state can save money that can go to scholarships. (The Indiana state legislature did this, and places the extra money in a scholarship fund that can net students $6,000 to $8,000!)
• Option 2: High schools must improve senior curriculum to prepare students for their college careers, by teaching time management, organizational skills and other vital collegiate skills.
• Option 3: High schools can work with community colleges so seniors can enroll concurrently, using the extra time in senior year to graduate high school with an associate’s degree.

Which option would you choose? Post your responses in our comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Students should never sleep through class – but a quick siesta before or after can definitely help. That’s the view of the University of California at Davis, which has been running a campaign encouraging napping to boost academic performance.

Sleep research consistently shows that 20-30 minute naps – especially between 10 to 11 in the morning or 2 to 4 in the afternoon – result in include increased productivity and concentration. For students, that translates into better academic performance.

Key to the campaign is the “nap map,” an online directory of prime napping spots on campus. Health educators have several other strategies to encourage micro-sleep among the student body, including:

• Advertising with fliers and plugs in the student newspaper
• Promoting napping during National Sleep Awareness Week, and
• Handing out “nap kits” that come with earplugs, an eye mask and a tip card with additional web resources.

How do you encourage rest among the student body? Share your ideas in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

This fall, Pitzer College will open a new department of secular studies. The small liberal arts school in southern California plans to teach courses such as “The Bible as Literature,” “Anxiety in the Age of Reason” and “God, Darwin and Design in America.”

The new department is made up of professors from other sectors, including history, religion, science and philosophy. Rather than an “anti-religion degree,” the curriculum is designed to discuss the concept of secular nonbelief in society and culture.

“It’s not about arguing ‘Is there a God or not?’ There are hundreds of millions of people who are nonreligious. I want to know who they are, what they believe, why they are nonreligious,” says Phil Zuckerman, the sociologist of religion who proposed the department.

According to the Institute for the Study of Secularism, Pitzer will be the first college to offer such a major.

The timing seems right, too: The percentage of American adults who say they have no religion has doubled in 20 years to 15%, says the most recent American Religious Identification Survey.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

University officials were asked to participate in a peer-assessment section of the survey, to find the schools that are making progress toward their ultimate goal — to be an esteemed institution of higher learning.

Here are the rankings, according to the competition:

1. University of Maryland — Baltimore County
2. Tied: Arizona State University, Drexel University (PA), Northeastern University (MA)
3. Tied: George Mason University (VA), Indiana University — Purdue University (IN)
4. University of Central Florida
5. University of Delaware

The full list of 68 schools that received a nod from their peers is here.

Have you heard your faculty talking about these up-and-coming schools? Share your thoughts in the comments box below. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Following a nearly 30% cut of its state funding, the State University of New York (SUNY) system is releasing a public report card detailing its performance. It’s the first of what will be an annual indicator from the largest public higher education system in the United States.

The annual guide for students and their families grades academic performance, job creation, partnerships with communities and achievements in research.

Among the report card’s results:

• Average time for a student to earn a bachelor’s degree is 4.5 years
• Total cost for an average student (including room and board) is $15,940 before financial aid, and
• 5,360 jobs are the direct result of SUNY research.

How does your school communicate its performance? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Just because we live in an era of instantaneous data doesn’t mean we know everything. Here are five common misconceptions of the so-called Age of Information, according to Harvard University professor and librarian Robert Darnton.

Myth #1: The Information Age is a new thing – Technically, every age is an information age; it’s just the media that makes info available that changes over time. Gutenberg’s printing press was a pretty big game-changer back in the day.

Myth #2: Books are going away – Speaking of publishing, every few years someone declares “Print is dead!” But the fact is, more books are produced in print each year than the previous year. And the latest figures don’t even account for “nontraditional” books like the 764,448 self-published and print-on-demand offerings.

Myth #3: Libraries are relics of the past – Libraries were always about more than books, and the booming numbers of patrons reflects that. Libraries help small businesses access information, help students with afterschool studies, give employment information to job seekers, and much more than just checking out books. And just because e-readers are supplanting print editions, libraries aren’t left behind there either – the Kindle has become the latest e-reader to allow libraries to lend out e-editions.

Myth #4: You can find everything online – Only a tiny fraction of archival material has ever been digitized. On the other hand, most judicial decisions and state and federal legislation has never appeared on the Internet. And of the 129.9 million books in existence, Google claims to have digitized only about 12%. That’s just material that was printed first. If it was written on the Internet, the news is worse – the average life of a URL is calculated at about 44 days.

Myth #5: The future is digital – While the data environment will indeed be primarily digital, printed materials won’t disappear. Research shows new modes of communication don’t really displace old ones, but rather grow alongside each other, creating a richer, more complex information pool. (To use the Gutenberg example again, manuscript publishing actually expanded after the printing press and continued to thrive for three centuries afterward.)

Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Pepperdine University’s iPad Research Initiative has just completed the first third of its three-term study to examine how students actually use the iPad in class.

The school’s big question – will students even use it? – received a resounding “Yes” from the campus. In surveys, students said they found value in using the iPad, citing:

• Ease of use – students noted the touch-screen and the lack of boot-up lag time
• Mobility – the iPad could be passed around among a group of students during collaborations and group studies, and
• Variety of apps – the graphic calculator app and other programs received praise from students in the math course pilot.

The school’s other major concern: getting faculty to adopt the emerging technology. Not only do they need to understand what the device can be used for, they must also identify specific apps and activities relevant to their courses.

The study’s findings suggests providing a faculty developer who can:

• Work with faculty to clarify learning outcomes
• Get to know the instructor’s teaching style and help them choose apps to support the existing lesson structure, and
• Construct a sample lesson plan.

How are students and staff adapting to the iPad on your campus? Share your experiences in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Approximately 5.6 million students participated in at least one web-based course in the fall of 2009, according to the Sloan Survey of Online Learning. That’s a 1 million increase from the previous year. Nearly 30% of students take at least one course online.

Schools nationwide are reporting record enrollment in online programs – likely due to both the expansion of online degree programs and improved recruiting and retention practices.

But this growth could slow. The survey sites potential negative impacts such as budget woes at public schools and more federal rules placed on private for-profit colleges.

Other findings:

• Nearly 2/3 of for-profit schools say online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy
• Almost half of schools report the economic downturn has increased demand for face-to-face courses and programs, and
• ¾ of schools report the economic downturn has increased demand for online courses and programs.

Will your school be increasing its online programming? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

The most common major among players in the NCAAA basketball tournament: business. 140 players take Business, Marketing, Finance and other related academic majors, according to research collected by Slate.

Here are the most popular majors:

1. Business
2. Humanities
3. Communications
4. Sports Management
5. Sociology/Social Work
6. Science
7. Criminal Justice/Criminology, and
8. Education.

How does that compare with the general population? Here are the most popular bachelor’s degrees, according to the National Center for Education Statistics:

1. Business
2. Social Sciences/History
3. Health Professions/related sciences
4. Education
5. Psychology
6. Visual/Performing Arts
7. Engineering/Engineering Technologies, and
8. Communications, Journalism and Communications Technologies.

What majors are most popular among your student-athletes? Comment below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Women who post lots of photos of themselves on Facebook are more likely to base self-worth on appearance and use social networking to compete for attention, says a new study from the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

The study, conducted among 311 men and women with an average age of 23, analyzed the amount of time subjects spent managing profiles, the number of shared photos, the size of their networks and how generous they were with friending.

The subjects then answered a questionnaire about their Facebook usage. Those who based their self worth on concepts like academic competence, family love and support or personal virtuousness were notably less interested in seeking attention via social networks.

On the other hand, those whose self-esteem was based in “public-based contingencies – such as others’ approval, physical appearance and beating others in competition – were far more involved in photo sharing “as a form of advertisement,” says University of Buffalo assistant professor Michael Stefanone, the study’s author.

The numbers were especially high among young women, and raise questions about the cultural focus on female image and appearance in relation to self-worth.

Does heavy Facebook use always equal a need for attention? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

All 23 of the women’s teams in the NCAA tournament have reported 100% graduation rates, compared to only seven of the men’s teams. That’s according to an annual report by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity & Ethics.

The NCAA’s Academic Progress rate was created in 2004 to improve graduation rates. Teams that score below acceptable standards can lose up to 10% of scholarships, with harsher penalties for continued poor performance.

The institute reviewed six-year graduation rates from each school’s freshman class, then calculated a four-year class average. Only three women’s teams (5%) received scores below 925 (a 50% graduation rate), while 10 men’s teams (15%) scored below 925.

Women’s basketball teams as having an increasingly long tradition of balancing academic and athletic performance, according to the study. Coaches and faculty advisors are known for pushing positive academic success.

If men’s teams want to close the gap, academic balance will have to receive more attention from both students and faculty.

How do your school’s athletes measure up? Let us know in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

There’s one industry that’s desperately looking to hire grads — but businesses are finding these new hires aren’t prepared. Of the new college graduates hired to work in the information technology industry, only 8% are “ready to go,” says a recent survey from SHARE called “Closing the IT Skills Gap.”

That means more than 90% either aren’t prepared or have “notable gaps” in their skills.

About half of the 376 employers say they make new IT hires “straight out of school.”

Here’s what they’re looking for colleges and universities to provide:

• 82% of employers look for database skills
• 80% for problem-solving and technical skills
• 77% for programming skills
• 76% for analysis and architectural skills

The biggest demand is in the area of specific skills. Yet most employers are up-front about wanting their staff to be well-rounded and have business-savvy.

“People need to understand the ‘big picture’ of how computers work, from the deep level programming to how that affects — and interconnects with — applications, servers, and other things in the data center,” said one IT exec.

According to the survey, the greatest demand is for skilled programmers and developers.

• 59% of companies are looking to hire programmers and developers who have a wide range of skills
• 43% are hiring systems programmers and systems analysts
• 50% — database professionals
• 35% — analysts and archietects
• 27% — application management talent.

The demand is out there and these majors are flourishing at our colleges. So why are grads so poorly prepared for the workforce?

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Light, dreamless slumber can recharge the brain’s ability to learn, says a new study from the University of California Berkeley. Researchers conducted tests on 44 young adults and found that a nap can have a major impact on their ability to memorize new data.

The test subjects were all given a demanding memorization task, and all of them did equally well. Then the group was divided, with one half taking an hour and a half nap while the other half staying awake.

When the whole group was given another round of memorizing tasks, those who had stayed awake had more trouble memorizing the new information. The nappers not only performed better, they actually seemed to have an improved capability for learning.

The reason: During non-REM sleep, fast pulses of brain waves – called “sleep spindles” – help transfer fact-based memories from the brain’s hippocampus to the prefrontal cortex. This allows the hippocampus to take in fresh data.

Spindle-driven networking usually occurs during stage 2 of non-REM sleep, usually during the second half of a night’s sleep. That’s one more reason for students to get a good night’s rest: Less sleep means fewer spindles, which means they might not be able to learn as much in class the next day.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.