Techno-News Blog

October 31, 2014

UC Irvine Extension Adds 12 New Distance Courses for Recent Grads

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By Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology

The University of California, Irvine Extension has launched 12 new career readiness courses to be offered as four Coursera Specializations. A Coursera Specialization is “a targeted sequence of courses with an applied final project,” according to information on the Coursera blog. “These courses are designed to provide learners with further skills and abilities to succeed in today’s workplace,” according to a news release. “The UC Irvine Extension courses consist of online training and a sequence of development sessions, intended for new graduates and other professionals who want to learn practical skills that will improve their marketability as employees.”

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/10/16/uc-irvine-extension-adds-12-new-distance-courses-for-recent-grads.aspx

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Flipping the Traditional Lecture Hall

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By Michael Hart, Campus Technology

There’s no question that the flipped classroom model has become all the rage at colleges and universities across the country. In fact, in the most recent Horizon Report, the New Media Consortium (NMC) called the flipped classroom one of the most important emerging trends in educational technology for higher education, noting, “The model is becoming increasingly popular in higher education institutions because of how it rearranges face-to-face instruction for professors and students, creating a more efficient and enriching use of class time.” Yet with all the flipped classroom’s potential for active, collaborative learning and increased interaction between professors and students, there’s still one bastion of higher education that has resisted the trend: the large lecture course. Columbia University is experimenting with the flipped classroom model in large lecture courses.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/10/22/flipping-the-lecture-hall.aspx

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Cheating, plagiarism persist as current academic concerns

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by Michael Papich, Elon Pendulum

Cheating and plagiarism sit at the top of honor code concerns at Elon University and at most schools. But as the technology around teaching and the professional world change, the need to reassess the climate of unethical behavior arises. “It’s one of the things that’s so basic, we forget to talk about it,” said George Padgett, associate professor of communications. One of the main changes to classrooms in the past few years has been the popularization of online courses. In an environment where a professor and a student cannot see one another, professors have different takes on whether this makes cheating more or less likely.

http://www.elonpendulum.com/2014/10/cheating-plagiarism-persist-current-academic-concerns/

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October 30, 2014

Adaptive Math Learning Platform KnowRe Raises $6.8M

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by Catherine Shu, Tech Crunch

KnowRe, an online math learning site for secondary students, has raised a new round of $6.8 million. The funding was led by returning investor SoftBank Ventures Korea, with participation from KTB Network Partners Fund, Partners Investment, and SparkLabs Global Ventures. In a statement, KnowRe co-founder and co-CEO David Joo said the company’s Series A “allows us to scale our distribution in the U.S. on the heels of strong demand from schools and districts at our launch and further our product development and offerings for the U.S., Korea, and broader Asian markets.” KnowRe was first profiled by TechCrunch in January 2013, when it raised $1.4 million from SoftBank Ventures Korea for its adaptive learning platform. The site’s technology personalizes lessons for each student depending on their progress. The platform is intended to be used by teachers as part of homework assignments or with tutors and educators during classes.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/22/knowre-seriesa/

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Fitch: Online Learning Here to Stay for Higher Education

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by Fitch Ratings

Online learning as a means of educational delivery continues to expand throughout higher education. ‘While much of the media intensity surrounding the earlier days of MOOCs appears to have subsided, online learning in general remains an increasing component of educational delivery and at the forefront of the higher education dialogue nationally,’ said Colin Walsh, Director at Fitch. Fitch expects the growth of online courses to continue as more and more students, parents, faculty, and administrators embrace online learning as a means to supplement the traditional face-to-face learning environment. Institutions view online programs as a potential revenue generator by augmenting existing enrollment levels or offsetting enrollment declines in certain degree programs.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20141022006307/en/Fitch-Online-Learning-Stay-Higher-Education#.VEkcuPl4r2s

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Homestead students give flex days good grade

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By Kevin Kilbane, The News-Sentinel

Several Homestead High School students were nearly unanimous in describing one big benefit of the school’s e-learning flex days — they get to sleep in. But students interviewed said they feel they learn as much as during a regular school day, just in a more time-efficient manner. “It’s actually very, very relaxing,” senior Ethan Snead, 17, said Tuesday morning during break from the online classwork he was doing during Homestead’s second e-learning flex day. Southwest Allen County Schools was one of 12 school districts in Indiana granted state approval to hold e-learning flex days this school year. The district chose to implement the program at Homestead, which has 2,300 students.

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20141022/NEWS/141029900

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October 29, 2014

Use of Synchronous Virtual Classrooms: Why, Who, and How?

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by Florence Martin & Michele A. Parker, JOLT

Virtual classrooms allow students and instructors to communicate synchronously using features such as audio, video, text chat, interactive whiteboard, and application sharing. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to identify why instructors adopt synchronous virtual classrooms and how they use them after their adoption. An electronic survey was administered asking instructors from various institutions to describe their experience adopting a synchronous virtual classroom in either a blended or online course. In describing their reasons for adopting the technology, respondents most frequently cited institutional resource availability, increasing social presence, enhancing student learning, and the availability of technology. Along with audio chat, the features that most influenced the adoption of virtual classrooms and were used most frequently by respondents were the ability to archive conference sessions, see participants through webcams, and use text-based chat interfaces.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol10no2/martin_0614.pdf

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EdX To Offer Free Advanced Placement Courses For High Schoolers

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by Lisa Winter, IFL Science

EdX is a non-profit website that offers over 300 massive online open courses (MOOCs), providing access to a world-class education to anyone with an internet connection at little or no cost. Initially started as a joint venture between MIT and Harvard, edX has expanded to include partnerships with top universities around the globe including Caltech, Dartmouth, Columbia, University of Queensland, and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. EdX is now embarking on courses for teenagers by offering high school-level options, including Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/edx-offer-free-advanced-placement-courses-high-schoolers

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More Mooc Developers Disrupt Business Education With Paid-For Courses

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by Seb Murray, Business Because

Coursera became the latest learning technology company to expand further into the fee-paying market with a series of programs similar to Moocs – massive online open courses – that are disrupting the business education market. Coursera launched 18 new Specializations last week – a sequence of online courses that students study through distance learning, an addition to the first batch announced in January. Significantly, the tech company will allow students to complete a real-life project and purchase a certificate to show to prospective employers. This move into vocational learning further encroaches into the territory of business schools, which already have to compete with Moocs in business-related subjects. Coursera rival edX announced plans to launch a series of short paid-for executive courses earlier this month that have been developed by leading universities.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2864/more-moocs-disrupt-business-education-with-paid-for-courses

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October 28, 2014

Ultimate Guide to the Paperless Classroom

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By Edudemic

Many top educators and administrators view the idea of a paperless classroom as an inevitability in education. In today’s digital age, these educators believe that a paperless classroom promotes a more efficient and organized classroom while preparing students for the practical world outside classroom walls. In other words, if every facet of life is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, then why not equip students accordingly? “We need technology in every classroom and in every student’s and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time,” said author and educator David Warlick. “It is the lens through which we experience much of our world.”

http://www.edudemic.com/ultimate-guide-paperless-classroom/

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Poll Shows Students Choosing Online School to Escape Bullying

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by Barchart.com

As part of their initiative to support National Bullying Prevention Month, K12 Inc. engaged Edge Research to repeat a 2013 survey that focused on suitability of online schools as an alternative for students experiencing bullying. Over 2000 parents with children currently enrolled in online schools using the K12 program completed the survey. 21% of all responding parents and 31% of parents with high school students who responded cited bullying as one of the reasons they chose online learning. 97% of the parents who enrolled children for this reason would recommend a K12-powered program to a family with a student who is being bullied.

http://www.barchart.com/headlines/story/3022081/2014-k12-inc-poll-shows-students-choosing-online-school-to-escape-bullying

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Technology’s impact on higher education

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by Raechelle Clemmons, Green Bay Press Gazette

For anyone who has children in school — regardless of whether they are in elementary school or in college — it seems abundantly clear that technology is changing the way teachers teach and students learn. In some cases, technology has simply offered a new way to complete a traditional assignment, like typing a report on a computer instead of writing it by hand. But in other cases, technology has created opportunities for new methods of teaching and learning, as is the case with mobile devices in the classroom.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/money/2014/10/21/technologys-impact-higher-education/17693719/

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October 27, 2014

Publishers Win Reversal of Court Ruling That Favored ‘E-Reserves’ at Georgia State U.

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By Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

How much copyrighted material can professors make available to students in online course reserves before they exceed the boundaries of educational fair use? That’s the essential question at the heart of a long-running copyright-infringement lawsuit that has pitted three academic publishers against Georgia State University. The answer matters not just to the parties to the case, Cambridge University Press et al. v. Carl V. Patton et al., but publishers, librarians, and professors at many other institutions. It’s already been more than six years since Cambridge, Oxford University Press, and SAGE Publications sued Georgia State for copyright infringement. And the latest round of legal action guarantees that the case will drag on a while longer before it produces a reliably precedent-setting answer, if it does.

http://chronicle.com/article/Publishers-Win-Reversal-of/149523/

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Marking (Grading) Essays

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by Brian Martin, Tomorrow’s Professor

In making marking more enjoyable, I also hope to make learning more enjoyable for students. By getting students to do more work on their own and tackle unorthodox assignments, I hope to encourage student creativity and initiative. I remind myself that for the teacher to work hard often is not all that relevant to student learning. Students learn more when they work hard, and they are more likely to work hard on an interesting assignment. When the assignment is interesting to both students and the teacher, it is a win-win solution.

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1360

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‘Flipped class’ concept empowers students

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By Sarah Hofius Hall, The Times-Tribune

Class time is flipped at Carbondale Area Junior/Senior High School. In the Advanced Placement calculus class on Wednesday, students questioned their teacher about what they learned the night before. The “flipped classroom” in Carbondale, one of the first in the region, inverts the traditional classroom, empowers students and leads to more independent learning. Nationwide, flipped classrooms are becoming more popular as student success grows. In Carbondale, Principal Joseph Farrell first had the idea when he went to an integrated learning conference. Administrators spent the spring thinking of how it could work, and over the summer, Lewis did more research and preparation.

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20141018/NEWS/141019431/101108/NEWS

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October 26, 2014

Why Wearables Are the New Gateways to Human Knowledge

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By Toni Fuhrman, Campus Technology

The use of Google Glass and other wearable devices in higher education is still experimental, but the technology is opening up exciting new possibilities for teaching and learning. Ray Kurzweil, American author, scientist, inventor, futurist — and now director of engineering at Google — said, famously: “Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge.” It turns out that gateway is widening, especially on campus, where wearable technology is becoming the latest portal into human knowledge — and the future.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/10/16/why-wearables-are-the-new-gateways-to-human-knowledge.aspx

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October 25, 2014

Colleges say student-faculty online engagement and assessment tools contribute to success

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By Rachel Weick, Grand Rapids Business Journal

West Michigan colleges and universities are finding that online advanced degree programs are especially popular among nontraditional and professional students whose schedules do not allow for consistent classroom time. The online platform for education is a tool academic institutions can use to meet the needs and expectations of their students in an increasingly data-driven world. Jill Langen, chief academic officer at Baker College Online and Center for Graduate Studies, said the college focuses on small classes of between nine and 12 students. “We really focus a lot with our faculty on a high level of student engagement. There is a lot of interaction that happens on the discussion board. We provide a lot of training and professional development for that,” said Langen. “It really only works if you have a lot of individual attention and classes are really small. It is a real core belief we have.”

http://www.grbj.com/articles/80829-online-strategy-is-essential-element-of-education

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SUNY Expands Online Course Offerings

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by Fox 28

The State University of New York is adding 56 degree and certificate programs from 17 campuses to a year-old online initiative as part of SUNY’s goal of increasing enrollment by 100,000 students. The expansion of Open SUNY+ announced Thursday is expected to attract 6,000 students next semester, more than triple the number that have enrolled since the program was launched with eight degree programs in January. Regardless of where they are, enrollees will be able to earn an associate degree in computer security and forensics from Broome Community College, for example, or a bachelor’s degree in public affairs from Empire State College.

http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/SUNY-Expands-Online-Course-Offerings-279426942.html

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The Real Revolution in Online Education Isn’t MOOCs

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by Michelle Weise, Harvard Business Review

Something is clearly wrong when only 11% of business leaders — compared to 96% of chief academic officers — believe that graduates have the requisite skills for the workforce. It’s therefore unlikely that business leaders are following closely what’s going on in higher education. Even the latest hoopla around massive open online courses (MOOCs) amounts to more of the same: academics designing courses that correspond with their own interests rather than the needs of the workforce, but now doing it online. But there is a new wave of online competency-based learning providers that has absolutely nothing to do with offering free, massive, or open courses. In fact, they’re not even building courses per se, but creating a whole new architecture of learning that has serious implications for businesses and organizations around the world. It’s called online competency-based education, and it’s going to revolutionize the workforce.

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/10/the-real-revolution-in-online-education-isnt-moocs/

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October 24, 2014

Tips for succeeding in online classes

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by Erin Malloy, Iowa State Daily

Five tips to succeed in an online class:

1. Stay organized

2: Don’t procrastinate

3: Be self-motivated

4: Set individual goals

5: Connect with instructors

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/dct/article_3dd92b1c-54da-11e4-a346-97046ff66fdd.html

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Minerva’s Virtual College Scores Backing to Grow

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by Bernadette Tansey, Xconomy

The Minerva Project, a San Francisco-based for-profit that aims to provide an Ivy League-caliber college degree for $10,000 a year, says it has closed on the bulk of a $70 million Series B round that will allow it to scale up its freshman class next year. Meanwhile, competitor Udacity, through some of its new online “nanodegree” programs, is focusing on the knowledge needed by its partner companies–which include Google and AT&T—in students they hire, such as wizardry in specific technical and computer programming skills. Udacity is trying to bypass the entrenched university credentialing system by developing employer-backed academic credentials. Whatever edtech models pull ahead, traditional universities would be wise to keep watching.

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2014/10/16/minervas-virtual-college-scores-backing-to-grow/

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