Glenn Hoyle

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

This publication presents some preliminary understandings from a number of Center research projects and experiences to inform the various stakeholder groups of the emerging trends, outcomes, challenges, and promising practices in this developing field of practice. Special education was founded on, and continues to operate as, a collaboration among students with disabilities, families, professionals, and policymakers. In addition, the digital education industry’s growing, major influence in this realm of education makes collaboration with this sector critical. The overall goal of  this publication is to spark discussion, reflection, and debate, with a focus on enhancing understanding within all participant groups, leading to the design of more responsive systems, practices, and policy to support enhanced outcomes for all learners—especially students with disabilities.

Researchers at the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities have issued “Equity Matters: Digital and Online Learning for Students with Disabilities.” The expansive report analyzes the online education policies of all 50 states and five U.S. territories and combines those findings with other research projects in the center to support recommendations for how to improve online and blended learning for all students.

“In my opinion, the best deterrent for paper assignments is to write specific, complex assignments that require originality. Also, the more specific criteria you can build into the assignment…the less likely a student is going to be able to find a pre-made assignment that fits. If a student has struggled to string a sentence together all semester and then suddenly submits a paper that looks like a PhD dissertation, you have a problem.”

The report found many institutions do not have specific rules to handle faculty who teach online courses. Seventy-four percent have written policies for how often they are expected to interact with students, and 42 percent have policies detailing when instructors must respond to student inquiries.

There is a buzz, even a frenzy, about competency-based education (CBE). Brought together by the Lumina Foundation-sponsored organization C-BEN (the Competency-Based Education Network), 30 institutions and 4 university systems have developed or are developing competency-based programs. About another 600 schools have claimed to be developing CBE programs, though there is no accurate data to substantiate that number. Why and why now?

The growth in courses available on the web has led to a growth in paid services that will impersonate students and do their work for them.