Expert’s Guide to Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Barbara Macaulay | Leave a Comment

UMassOnline Barbara MacaulayAccording to this article I found in The Sacramento Bee, it was authored by an independent college adviser based in Charlotte, N.C. named Lee Bierer. While we can’t and don’t vouch for the services of individuals or any third-party entities or organizations, the substance of this article, entitled “Countdown to college: Terms you need to know to apply for financial aid,” seems quite reasonable and accurate:

Each year around this time I focus on financial aid issues because the FAFSA becomes available on Jan. 1. The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Everyone, repeat, everyone should complete this form. It’s simple and you don’t need to hire anyone to fill it out for you.

Following that, the ‘How-To’ piece features some explanations of key terms but you can get many of these and more from the same source that’s used by Lee Bierer and cited in the article: “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Financial Aid for College“.

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Attaining Mobility-Oriented Features: The Way Forward

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Ken Udas | 1 Comment

UMassOnline CEO Dr Ken Udas[Editor’s Note: The UMassOnline blog has evolved into a community of discussion both offline and online through the public blog. Recently we received an ‘offline’ question that we thought would be helpful to answer through a public blog post in hopes we would open this discussion up and gather more feedback from others in our growing learning community.

The question posed: When is UMASS going to upgrade to a newer version of Blackboard that has mobility oriented features such as RSS feeds and mobile clients for smart phones? In answer to this inquiry, UMassOnline CEO Dr. Ken Udas has written the following post.]

You ask an appropriate and timely question. The short answer to your question is, we’re getting there and we will have a solution soon. Optimally, when the campuses make it clear they want a specific functionality, it is our job to deliver it as best we can.  That is, whenever possible, the use of functionality within in the learning environments should be dictated by the faculty and students using the technology and not the inherent limitations of the technology.  More accurately stated, it is our job to make decisions about technology that liberate opportunity rather than constrain it.  But the longer answer deserves a more significant explanation about why this isn’t an automatic thing and how the very sort of question you are asking points to why we need to re-think how and why technology solutions are reviewed and selected by UMassOnline in partnership with the campuses and students we serve. Read more…

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Good News on the College Financial Aid Front

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Som Seng | Leave a Comment

UMassOnline Som SengU.S. News & World Report asked financial aid experts to characterize the opportunities for student loans and scholarships in 2010. Writer Kim Clark compiled the findings and in a recent piece details 11 trends for the year. Most of them sound like very good news for students and/or parents trying to finance an education. In overview, the experts are saying, among other things, that there are more funds available, loans are easier to get, there are new tax incentives being offered, and repayment terms are getting easier. You can see the full article here.

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U.S. Dept. of Education Blog Asks College Students Why They Want a Teaching Career

Posted on February 8, 2010 by Barbara Macaulay | 3 Comments

UMassOnline Barbara MacaulayFirst of all, how interesting is it that the U.S. Department of Education has a blog. Not only that, but it is comment enabled. I found it during a recent internet surfing expedition looking for elearning news and views. But here’s what caught my eye… this blog post and video entry entitled, “University Students Talk About Why They Want to Be Teachers.”  Obviously while this sampling of student views isn’t representative of an exacting poll, the few men and women interviewed for this video likely reflect many of the attitudes and aspirations of would-be teachers of this generation. But secondly, as the daughter, sister, and aunt of public school teachers (3 generations), it is pretty nice to see the very high esteem in which teachers are held by those choosing to enter the profession.  No doubt, these aspiring teachers had wonderful role models along their educational paths.

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