Flash drives

Hendry, Erica. At Distance - Learning College, Flash Drive Replaces course - Management System. Chronicle of Higher Education. August 21, 2009.

This article talks about using flash drives instead of online to complete the course work. At the Thomas Edison State College (aTrenton-based distance - education institution) they have an option of using 2GB flash drive instead of a course-management system to prepare for and complete their classes.
The flash drives are part of the college's Mobile Learning Initiative, developed after it discovered many of its students who were stationed with the military or frequently traveling couldn't access a course-management system on a regular basis.
The college piloted the flash drives this spring in 15 "FlashTrack" courses, which include the "Science of Nutrition," "Social Gerontology," and "Principles of Finance." Each flash drive contained Open Office versions of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs; media players; and folders containing course material. At the end of the class, students took a high-stakes test as they would in any other online course to complete the course.
The college has combined both of those technologies to offer the flash drives they will distribute to all students this fall.
In this generation of flash drives, the college hopes to install technology that will allow the flash drive to automatically connect to a folder hosted by the college, so students can submit assignments whenever the flash drive detects an Internet connection.

Non traditional students

I work in a community college library for the past eight years and come across students from different walks of life. As I am the Health Informatics Science librarian, I sometimes help them find books according to their needs. Our college has an average of 8,000 students enrolled each semester. College students are not what they used to be during these days. I can see the population of nontraditional students is growing every semester. Nontraditional students can be: a person who is of an ethnic minority group, who is low-income, who is a senior citizen, who speaks English as a second language, who is a recent immigrant, who is an international student, or in some way contextually disadvantaged. They are different from other traditional students in learning styles, familiarity with technology, and expectations of and experience with libraries and research. Most of these students work full time and want to go back to school to get better jobs. So they usually take online classes so that they can study whenever they find time. When they come to the library they expect us to do everything from homework to writing paper for them.First thing they say is that they do not know anything about computer. Even so, at the same time I can see that they have abundant real world experience with them, and they are very much goal oriented and very eager to improve their career opportunities. Some of the students are not fully computer literate and so they come to the library to get help with their homework. So, when they come to our library, I try to help them in any way I can. Sometimes they come every day asking the same questions. So, I create PPT tutorials with lots of screenshots and details and give it to them so that they can refer to it at home. I try to be patient and spend more time with them to explain everything in detail. Because I myself am a nontraditional student and I know how they feel!Taking online courses is very difficult for them but still they are very eager to take the classes. We also have a online librarian to help them find articles and books for their research. She communicates with them through email or phone. Our technicians help them with their research paper formatting and work cite through email or phone.