However, summer is ending and school is starting back up for the fall. Every hour spent on a social media website is one more hour spent not doing homework, which can be few and far between in the first place. Here are some guidelines for how to balance potentially addicting websites alongside homework and other academic obligations:

1. Keep your “friend” count low.

The more friends you have updating you on the minutia of their lives, the more time you are going to spend reading about minor details that most likely have no impact on your day. Think about how many of your online friends you actually want or need to keep in touch with, and you may find that a certain few old friends are taking up time you could spend doing other, more important activities. Furthermore, “de-friending” someone doesn’t mean permanently cutting off ties; you can always search for them later on if you want to reconnect.

2. Disable the chat feature when you have more important things to do.

Arguably, the chat feature is the most addicting aspect of social media sites, and the most dangerous when you have an important homework assignment to finish. Since chatting can become an activity that never ends, it is safer to simply disable the feature in the first place. Better yet, use it as an incentive: finish your assignment first, then re-enable the chat later.

3. Steer clear of extra games and applications that might pull you even further into the site.

Social media sites are addicting enough as it is; the last thing you need to add to your page is another distracting game! Not to mention, many Facebook applications are notorious for gathering and using your information in a way that you might feel violates your privacy. Use the site to keep in touch with people, but don’t let it become a video game too!

4. Try doing your homework in a place where you won’t be tempted to check social media sites.

Experiment with studying the old fashioned way: grab your books, your notes, some pens, and your music player if you must, and head to the library. Or if you’d rather have a change of scenery, head to a local cafe or a study lounge where it’s quiet. If you think you’ll be tempted to look at your Facebook page, disable your internet. You’ll be amazed at how much more quickly you’ll work without the temptation!

-Lily Faden, Examville Blog Contributor

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The 2009 Sloan Survey is based on responses from over 2,500 colleges and universities. Online learning is defined as instances where 80%+ of the course content is provided online.

Here are some interesting stats on online learning as of Fall 2009:

Number of Students Learning Online

* Over 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term; a 17 percent increase over the number reported the previous year.

* The 17 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.

* More than one in four college and university students now take at least one course online.

Economic Recession and Online Education

* Over one-half (54 percent) of institutions report that the economic downturn has increased demand for existing face-to-face courses.

* The economic impact has been greatest on demand for online courses, with 66 percent of institutions reporting increased demand for new courses and programs and 73 percent seeing increased demand for existing online courses and programs.

* The economic impact on institutional budgets has been mixed; 50 percent have seen their budgets decrease as a result, but 25 percent have experienced an increase.

Online Learning as Long-Term Strategy by Public Institutions v. Private Institutions

*  Public institutions (74 percent) are more likely to believe that online is critical for their long-term strategy than either private for-profit (51 percent) or private nonprofit (50 percent) institutions.

Faculty Training for Teaching Online

* Only 19 percent of institutions with online offerings report that they have no training or mentoring programs for their teaching faculty.

*  The most common training approaches for online faculty are internally run training courses (65 percent) and informal mentoring (59 percent).

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Here are a few pointers for narrowing down the application list:

1. Do specific research on the school to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Hearing a lot about a particular college doesn’t make it the right one for you. Do some research on the way the school presents its curriculum, the degrees it offers, the quality of student housing and food, and the types of activities in which typical students get involved. Learn a little bit about the surrounding city because you’ll be there for several years. You may find that you and the school aren’t a great match after all.

2. Compare your stats and accomplishments with the averages posted on the school’s website.

Most schools’ websites will post the average stats of admitted students and other expectations for incoming freshmen. Additionally, other sites and college directories that are accessible for free on the Internet have up-to-date information about admissions. Though it may be painstaking, it’s a smart idea to take a close look at these stats and realistically evaluate whether yours lie in the same range. Furthermore, you won’t want to attend a school with students whose academic drive greatly differs from yours. Sometimes it’s easier to be honest with yourself than waste the time and energy applying to a school that won’t be a good fit.

3. Consider your social life!

College is supposed to be the most fun time in your life, so think about how you want to spend your experience! Current and former students at any college will be happy to tell you all about the social scene at their school. Remember that every school has a different social “vibe.” Think about whether you want to be surrounded by new people all the time at a huge school or whether you prefer a more close-knit community feeling when you walk across campus. And lastly, think about the importance of academics – a heavy partying atmosphere can jeopardize your grades, while extremely challenging schools might leave you with no time to have fun.

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The five categories evaluated to compile the 2010 top colleges and universities list include:

• Student Satisfaction
Student evaluations of courses and professors, as posted on RateMyProfessors.com and MyPlan.com.

• Student Success After Graduation
Post-secondary success measured by data on graduates’ salaries, as recorded by Payscale.com, number of alumi listed in Who’s Who of America, and industry leaders who are the CEOs and Board of Directors of prominent companies.

• Student Debt
Analysis of four-year debt incurred by student borrowers and loan default rate.

• Student Retention and Graduation Rates
Each higher education institution’s first-year to sophomore year retention rate and actual number of students who graduate.

• Student-Won Awards
Tally of prestigious national awards won by students such as Fulbright scholarship, Rhodes Scholarship, and the Nobel Prize.
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August 13, 2010 — New York, NY, Examville.com (www.examville.com), the premier online education platform, expanded its Premium Publishers channel by adding thousands of digital titles for elementary school, middle school, high school, and college students and teachers published by leading publishers such as Scholastic, Nolo, Evan-Moor, Carson-Dellosa, Milliken and many others.

Premium Publishers’ downloadable digital content at Examville includes, among other things, study guides, test prep materials, skill-building and assessment documents, literature and math study aids, grammar and style exercises, puzzles, teacher’s guides and worksheets, teacher’s lesson plans, and much more, for a wide variety of users.

Examville’s Premium Publishers channel features “high-quality educational content to help students of all ages learn, improve and remain engaged, as well as ready-made documents for teachers to use in classrooms, all of which are available with just a click,” notes Shina Smith, a Communications Associate at Examville.

She adds, “the benefits of having thousands of digital documents available at your finger tips are numerous:”

• You can shop from anywhere, at anytime, with the click of a mouse.

• No need to pay additional shipping costs or wait for delivery in the mailbox. With a simple click, you can get instant delivery.

• You can store a great deal of material directly on your computer.

• You can access digital content from home, office, school or any other location with Internet connection.

• You can easily conduct searches on your digital content using electronic search options.

• You can be “green;” be environmentally conscious by printing only the materials you need once you have purchased content in electronic format.

• You can always get the documents you want because digital content is never out-of-stock.

“Premium Publishers feature allows publishers to increase their customer base by adding a new content distribution channel and leverage our platform to establish their brand globally,” said Nilanjan Sen, the Founder and CEO of Examville.

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Examville is an online education platform where users can connect and interact with others from around the world. Our innovative platform creates an open, virtual meeting place that allows for learning without borders. Examville facilitates online user-to-user collaborative learning at an affordable cost. Examville’s reach goes beyond students and teachers. We also offer features for publishers, test prep/tutoring companies, corporations and other organizations to upgrade their services, products, and programs by using Examville’s cutting-edge technology. Be a part of Examville’s global learning community - learn, teach, share and connect.

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Rank & Name

1 Williams College

2 Princeton University

3 Amherst College

4 United States Military Academy

5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

6 Stanford University

7 Swarthmore College

8 Harvard University

9 Claremont McKenna College

10 Yale University

11 United States Air Force Academy

12 Wellesley College

13 Columbia University

14 Haverford College

15 Wesleyan University

16 Whitman College

17 Pomona College

18 Northwestern University

19 California Institute of Technology

20 University of Chicago

21 Carleton College

22 Harvey Mudd College

23 Vassar College

24 Centre College

25 Rice University

- Examville.com Blog Team

Gates foresees that technology and the increasing move towards online learning activities will make brick-and-mortar learning five times less important for college and university level students.

While Gates does not predict a radical shift in the traditional K-12 place-based educational framework, he emphasized that technology could be innovative in allowing students in the same classroom to learn different things.

Are technology and online collaborative tools the key to reducing the soaring costs of higher education? How can technology change the way we learn? What are the pros? What are the cons? What do you think?
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