Making Their Presence Felt
CURRENTS Article Andrew Morrison at the University of Liverpool writes about how the U.K. institution has been able to engage—and in some cases raise gifts from—alumni of the university’s online program. He discusses findings from the university’s survey of online alumni and covers the ways that engagement of online graduates is different from and similar to engaging traditional graduates.

Talking Points: A MOOC Point
CURRENTS Article Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, burst onto the higher education scene last year. Yet while MOOCs offer several tangible benefits for colleges and universities, the technology also has drawbacks that institutions must consider.

Talking Points: Opening Up Education
CURRENTS Article In the 10 years since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to publish online the core academic content of all of its courses, there's been a wealth of activity in the creation and sharing of open educational resources that has created unprecedented opportunities for learners.

A Greater Academic Mission
CURRENTS Article A distance learning program created by Jesuit Commons educates refugee populations in Syria, Kenya, and Malawi. Refugees take classes online and earn a Diploma of Liberal Studies, conferred by Regis University.

Odds and Ends: Talking Tech
CURRENTS Article As someone who lives and breathes technology, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is ideally suited to predict how it will intersect with education.

Talking Points: Studying in Cyberspace
CURRENTS Article Will the growing numbers of online students become committed alumni?

Advance Work: Empowering Online Education
CURRENTS Article The Bismarck State College Foundation in North Dakota has been instrumental in gaining funding to make the college a leader in energy education.

Now You See Them, Now You Don't
CURRENTS Article More and more institutions are offering online degrees. If advancement professionals fail to engage and cultivate these alumni, then a philanthropic windfall could be frittered away.

Closing Remarks: Why We Are Still Waiting
CURRENTS Article E-learning promised to transform teaching and learning. In truth, its impact on higher education has been disappointing, asserts the author Robert Zemsky. Having examined what happened to e-learning and why, Zemsky and his colleague Bill Massy found that too much emphasis in the early stages was on what the technology could do rather than what problems it could solve. This piece delves deeper into what e-learning should and could accomplish but hasn't so far.

Sending Signals
CURRENTS Article The popular distance learning approach of Britain’s campus-less Open University has generated a global presence and an international alumni base, as well as an atypical advancement operation. The fledgling alumni office seeks to involve alumni volunteers in multiple ways suited to OU’s character, such as student recruitment and mentoring. The development operation maintains a strong emphasis on business development while building programs in annual giving and planned giving.

What's Holding Us Back?
CURRENTS Article Although online alumni education offers certain advantages over traditional programs--such as broader reach, easy specialization, and flexible scheduling--institutions have been slow to institute online courses. Shaindlin identifies some specific obstacles alumni officers face in developing online education programs and describes innovative examples from both ends of the cost spectrum.