Abstracts
of Some Recent Studies Conducted by the Digital Learning Lab
(DLL)
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| 1. Report:
Distance Learning -- Build or Buy (Distance Learning Report
#1, December 2005) |
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Distance learning is hard: it's hard for faculty
to implement; its current formats are not suitable for all students;
and it's hard for administrators to fund. Nevertheless, HBCUs have
achieved much to be proud of in their implementation of distance
learning programs.
However this report finds that
progress has been achieved in spite of the fact that most HBCUs
tend to ask their faculties build too many components themselves.
This strategy has not proven to be cost-effective. Less than
one third of all HBCUs are currently offering any courses that
are 100 percent online; and none of these HBCUs offer more than
5 percent of their courses online. Therefore the report encourages
HBCUs to require their faculty to build fewer components and
encourages the HBCUs to acquire more components from vendors
and/or from other colleges and universities.
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| 2. Report:
Strategic Partnerships (Distance Learning Report
#2, April 2006) |
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This report finds that for-profit post-secondary
institutions of higher learning are now providing African-Americans
with highly accessible alternative paths to higher education. The
much publicized MBA degree that superstar basketball player Shaquille
O'Neal received from the University of Phoenix in 2005 is just
the glittering tip of a very broad iceberg. Some of these for-profit
institutions expressed strong interest in establishing partnerships
with HBCUs for distance learning.
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| 3. Report:
Distance Learning 2007 (Distance
Learning Report #3, February 2007) |
This report is the DLL's second attempt to analyze the distance learning
initiatives launched by HBCUs. The first was produced in two parts: Distance
Learning -- Build or Buy (Distance Learning Report
#1, December 2005) and Strategic
Partnerships (Distance Learning Report #2, April 2006)
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| 1. Note:
A Patent View of HBCUs (Digital
Divide Note #1, February 2006) |
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This note looks at the Digital Divide in terms of the disparity
between the number of patents obtained by HBCUs and the number obtained
by some of the nation's most prestigious majority colleges and universities.
While no one will be surprised to learn that the very best majority
schools have earned more patents than HBCUs, the size of the difference
turns out to be far more than might be expected.
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| 2. Note:
PageRank View of HBCUs (Digital Divide Note #2,
March 2006) |
Google measures the importance
of a Web page by its "PageRank",
a unique index developed by its founders (Larry
Page and Sergey
Brin) while they were Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University. This
note presents the PageRanks for the Home Pages of each of the 104 officially
designated Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and compares them to the PageRanks
of the Home Pages of selected groups of majority institutions of higher
learning. To obtain a broader perspective, the PageRanks of three
other information-intensive sectors are also examined.
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| 3. Note:
PageRank View of HBCUs (Digital Divide Note #3,
October 2006) |
This note is an updated and expanded version of the PageRanks
note that the DLL posted in March 2006.
It finds that HBCUs earned modest increases
in PageRanks between March and October 2006. The overall average for all
HBCUs increased from 5.8 to 6.6. Although no HBCU received a PageRank equal
9 or 10 during either observation, the number receiving PageRank = 8 increased
from three in March to five in October (FAMU, Hampton, Howard, Jackson,
and Xavier.)
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| 4. Note:
ReferenceRank View of HBCUs (Digital Divide Note
#4, November 2006) |
This exploratory study
identified "Core" Websites
within the HBCU network that facilitate the access of outsiders to information
generated within the HBCU community; and moving in the reverse direction,
the Core Websites facilitate the access of the faculty, staff, and students
within the HBCU community to information generated outside.
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| 5. Note:
Blatantly Racist Remarks on Yahoo! (Digital Divide
Note #5, December 2006) |
On December 10th the
Gateway's Editor noted that Yahoo! had posted the following question
to its visitors at the bottom of the first page returned in the results
of a search for the term "HBCUS":
"Why do hbcus (historically black college and universities)
never get the recognition and respect they deserve?"
The Editor was stunned to find that Yahoo! had posted a
blatantly racist response to this question.
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