Learning shouldn’t stop for summer — and with the abundance of summer courses available online, it doesn’t have to. Check out some of the latest online learning offerings for summer school at the college level.

Duke University is now in its second year of offering online summer school, with three courses available: “Writing for Public Policy,” “Reform in American Classrooms,” and “Writing the Experience: Civic Engagement and Creative Nonfiction.” The education course is a hybrid class, where students and the professor have synchronous and asynchronous contact. Duke students can take these courses from anywhere in the world — in the 2010 education course, for instance, only one of the nine students enrolled took the course from the school’s hometown of Durham.

James Madison University (JMU) has been steadily increasing its online summer course offerings since 2002, when the school offered its first two English composition courses online. Now, more than 100 online courses are available to current JMU students as well as summer-only students (high school students; students who attend another college or university; international students; teachers and school administrators; and non-degree students pursuing personal enrichment). Online business, math, and communication courses are on the school’s “Every Summer Course List.”

Through the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky, students can learn about everything from Japanese culture and Greek and Roman mythology to astronomy and oceanography – all online. For Summer 2011, the college is offering more than 30 fully online courses, including general education as well major-specific courses. These online summer courses are predominantly asynchronous, though a few do require synchronous virtual meetings with the instructor.

At American University (AU), most summer online courses are taught asynchronously, with no specific meeting times or days, though professors may add synchronous Wimba sessions — live, virtual classroom sessions. Online summer courses are taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and students can register for a maximum of two online courses at a time. For summer only, the cost of online courses at AU is reduced.

More than 20 online courses are on the docket this summer at William Jewell College, including courses in accounting, business, communication, education, English, history, philosophy, political science, and psychology. This year marks the Liberty, MO, school’s first foray into online summer courses, designed to attract Jewell students as well as students from other colleges and even high school students.

Ithaca College offers a variety of fully online courses during the summer sessions, including courses dealing with everything from the Holocaust to stress to “Battlestar Galactica.” The college charges 90 percent of per-credit tuition during the academic year for online courses in the summer, and is exploring the possibility of offering financial aid for summer sessions.

Summer school online courses are available at Harvard University, but take note: the main feature of these courses is videotaped lectures. Taped lectures are available for online viewing about 48 hours after the lectures take place on campus. Some of the courses have online exams, but others require on-campus or proctored exams.

Students at the College of Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Pennsylvania can choose from about a dozen online summer courses, including “History of Sexuality,” “World Musics and Cultures,” and “New Media and Community Life.” Courses are taught on the Penn LPS Commons, a two-year-old social learning platform that fosters student communities in online courses at the school.

Religious schools offer online summer courses, too. Tabor College, a Christian college in Hillsboro, KS, offers more than a dozen summer courses online, including statistics, earth science, and pathophysiology. Gratz College, a transdenominational Jewish college in Melrose Park, PA, is offering six online courses this summer, including “Holidays Through Horticulture” and “Synagogue Management.”

And UMass Boston offers more than 100 summer courses online, including undergraduate courses in African-American history, music, and Latin, and graduate courses in biomedical ethics, gerontology, and pharmacology.

Take advantage of summer school online, and earn credits wherever your travels take you.

–Robyn Tellefsen

As an adviser to Leeds Equity Partners, an investment firm whose holdings include stakes in several for-profit colleges, it seems that Gen. Colin Powell has pitched his tent in the career education sector. In an industry that has taken more than its share of knocks, who wouldn’t feel good about the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff standing in their corner?

Last week, Powell delivered the keynote address at the annual convention of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities in Texas, offering words of encouragement to career school leaders.

It was more than a handful of niceties, though. Powell believes in the mission of the for-profits, but he puts the burden of proof squarely on their shoulders. He encourages career schools to stay on the straight and narrow, saying they should “self-police” and operate with the best ethical standards. In an industry that has been plagued with aggressive recruiting tactics and high loan default rates, the for-profits do have a lot to prove.

While Powell acknowledges the bad press, he urges for-profit schools to stand up for themselves. “Don’t dismiss the criticism that you’re receiving,” he said. “Fight back and make the case for what you’re doing.”

Proactivity has to be the name of the game for the for-profits, especially when it comes to Capitol Hill. With the pending “gainful-employment” rule, which threatens to cut the federal financial aid of for-profit schools that graduate students with a high loan debt and low repayment rates, career schools simply can’t afford to face another restriction on funding.

“Don’t wait for a new regulation to come down the road,” said Powell. “Make the positive case.”

And with some veterans groups and members of the Senate questioning the way for-profit schools are recruiting and enrolling members of the military, veterans, and their families – and receiving large amounts of federal student aid money in return – there’s no time to lose in the fight.

When it comes to making a case for the value of their institutions, Powell said for-profit schools need to “do a better job,” and make the case that their purpose “is not only shareholder value.”

Whether or not it strikes you as fair that the for-profits bear such a heavy burden of proof when it comes to the value of the education they provide, it is their reality. Powell doesn’t excuse the rotten recruiting tactics we’ve heard so much about, but he seems determined that the industry not let a few bad apples ruin the bunch.

–Robyn Tellefsen

Are For-Profit Schools Being Unfairly Singled Out?

When it comes to the impending “gainful employment” rule (read a good summary of it from The Boston Globe), the question that keeps coming up over and over is whether or not it’s fair to single out for-profit colleges and career schools. The rule states that “the Department of Education will cut off federal financial aid for any for-profit program if its graduates have a lot of student loan debt and low repayment rates,” as summed up by the New York Times.

In an effort to correct some wrongdoings in the world of sometimes shady recruitment tactics, has the government gone overboard in punishing this one segment of the education industry?

That very debate is being discussed in higher education circles, and yesterday, was the “Room for Debate” topic in The New York Times. It’s definitely worth a read through to consider all sides of the issue. Among the most interesting and though-provoking points I read include:

• “Not all for-profit schools are bad, but too many abuse the public trust by showing greater interest in profiting from student loan money than educating students.”
  -Jack Conway, attorney general of Kentucky
• “Rather than worrying about the pay-back rate of loans, our national and state governments should be decreasing costs to attend nonprofit public or private colleges, especially for low-income students and for adults with jobs and family responsibilities.”
  -Gaye Tuchman, a sociology professor at the University of Connecticut
• “Maybe it’s time to stop using public dollars to prop up the for-profit education sector. Public money currently allocated to these institutions would be better spent improving American public education and expanding access to nonprofit post-secondary institutions instead.”
  -Osamudia R. James, associate professor of law at the University of Miami
• “The gainful employment regulation is probably illegal. It is the result of a biased rule-making process essentially aimed at only one sector of post-secondary institutions, with senior officials stacking the deck against for-profit career colleges in favor of not-for-profit private colleges and public institutions in the negotiating committee (only two out of 32 members and alternatives were representatives from career colleges)…”
  -Harry C. Alford, president and chief executive of the National Black Chamber of Commerce and Lanny J. Davis, a lawyer for the organization
• “While data suggest that default rates are higher among for-profit schools than other sectors, defaults at public community colleges are comparable even though they charge much lower tuition (taxpayer subsidies cover the remaining costs). Both of these sectors serve a challenging student population (low-income and minority), and yet proprietary schools are singled out by the “gainful employment” regulations.”
  -Daniel L. Bennett, research fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity

There is so much emotion behind these thoughts, and on any given day, it’s easy to sway toward one side or the other. My feeling is this: the higher education system in the country — as a whole! — needs improvement. I know an awful lot of traditional college and university graduates who are still paying off tens of thousands in debt years after they tossed their graduate caps into the air. Many struggle every month to be able to afford that payment; others have deferred, consolidated, or just missed payments. My question is what makes the debt of these students less heinous than that of for-profit graduates?

In my humble opinion, the gainful employment rule isn’t the answer for fixing shady recruitment tactics. Better outreach programs, more quality programs that are affordable, and more transparency is. But if “gainful employment” is destined to take hold, than it needs to be the standard for all institutions of higher education.

What’s your take?

-Dawn Papandrea

It used to be that the biggest consequences for people who shot silly movies with their camcorder would be to discover those home videos years later and suffer personal embarrassment, perhaps prior to pending nuptials. Now, thanks to the Internet and viral video, nothing is sacred.

This became clear recently when a video clip of Harris Miller, CEO and president of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (formerly Career College Association), hit the Web. An edited version of the video was to be used as a kitschy invitation to a barbecue taking place during the association’s annual meeting, but Miller says the not-yet-final version was leaked.

The clip features Miller dressed up as cowboy Woody from the “Toy Story” movies to a backdrop of twangy music and many quips that involve the word “y’all. The whole thing might have gone unnoticed, were it not for two comments that raised the hackles of a whole lot of people in academia.

First, after being on the receiving end of a botched makeup job, Miller mutters, “The makeup girl probably went to a community college; she doesn’t even know what she’s doing.” Ouch.

Then, he takes a potshot at the for-profits to which he is affiliated with his appeal, “Ain’t you got no ambition in life? Go to the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School, and we’ll get you your life ambition.”

Miller claims the video was “meant to be silly and stupid.” I think it hits the mark on both accounts. So I have to admit I’m fascinated by the uproar raised in academia as a result of such an admittedly ridiculous representation.

“It is deeply troubling that the president of a higher-education association would see it as appropriate to publicly insult community-college students as Harris Miller does in this video,” said Craig P. Smith, deputy director for higher education at the American Federation of Teachers. “Whether this was an official video or outtakes, it is still an inexcusable statement.”

Perhaps Miller should have known better. After all, he is already something of a controversial public figure. Maybe he should know that some jokes just aren’t funny.

But why aren’t they? Do the quips hit too close to home, or is it just considered poor form to mock a sector that already endures relentless abuse?

What do you think – are the jokes in poor taste, or should everyone just take a chill pill?

-Robyn Tellefsen