by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed
The experiment will begin this summer, with eight Apple Watches the university purchased for the project. Penn State plans to expand the research to more students in the fall. We caught up with Kyle Bowen, director of education-technology services at Penn State, to hear more about the project, and his thoughts on the possible role of wearables in teaching and learning. Linked below is an edited version of the conversation.
Share on FacebookBy Nichole Dobo, Hechinger Report
Older students who don’t want the full on-campus experience — and the costs associated with it — might be served effectively through high-quality online college degree programs, according to a new report. And that might reduce the carbon footprint, too, saving money for both college and student. The typical student pursuing an online degree through Arizona State University is a 31-year-old woman with a job who started college elsewhere and is seeking a place to complete it, according to a report the university released this week at the annual ASU+GSV Summit, a conference for people interested in education innovation. “The boundaries between online and face-to-face are crumbling,” Dan O’Neill, general manager for the Walton Sustainability Solutions Services at Arizona State University, said in an interview Tuesday.
Share on Facebookby Daphne Koller of Coursera, Wall Street Journal
Online education, by reducing cost and removing physical barriers, can open doors of opportunity to millions of people who otherwise might not have access to postsecondary education. The “sage on the stage” at a university will no longer be a common mode of delivery. In the classroom—whether physical or virtual—we will see more attention given to group projects, conversations and applied learning, with lecture content going the way of textbooks as something experienced in preparing for class. At the same time, universities will devote considerably more effort to activities that occur outside the classroom, be it research, individual mentoring by faculty or senior students, team activities, volunteering, internships, study abroad, and many more types of work and experience. Universities will largely distinguish themselves not by the content they deliver, but by the activities that support and enhance core learning activities.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-future-of-college-its-online-1430105057
Share on Facebookby Casey Fabris, Chronicle of Higher Ed
For students taking courses online, the endless distractions of the Internet can be a hindrance to success. But using software to limit those diversions can make a big difference. That’s the takeaway from a new study, which found that limiting distractions can help students perform better and also improve course completion. A paper describing the study, “Can Behavioral Tools Improve Online Student Outcomes? Experimental Evidence From a Massive Open Online Course,” was published by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute this month.
Share on Facebookby Samantha Cowan, TakePart
Although India boasts the fastest-growing economy in the world, recent headlines have shed light on a darker side of the country: its sexual assault epidemic. High-profile cases—including that of a woman allegedly attacked by her Uber driver, and the government’s decision to ban the film India’s Daughter, centering on the 2012 fatal attack of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi—have made women’s safety an urgent issue. While the government has developed harsher punishments to discourage assailants and protect women, a group of young engineers is working to create a new, online solution that can help prevent assault from occurring in the first place. Known as “We Are Women,” five female students from India’s Amrita University—Anjana S, Athira S, Durga S, Pooja Prakash and Sreedevi Pillai—have developed a virtual self-defense game to teach women and girls how to respond when they feel threatened.
https://www.takepart.com/article/2015/04/25/india-sexual-assault-prevention-game
Share on Facebookby Stefanie Botelho, University Business
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) community of the California State University are pleased to announce that they will combine efforts to expand scholarly research in the field of online education, with the merger of the journal Online Learning (formerly JALN) and the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). Currently OLC and MERLOT jointly sponsor the annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium (ET4Online). The planned merger of the two journals will broaden the cooperative efforts between the two organizations. “We are delighted to be able to continue to grow our collaboration with MERLOT through this merger,” said Kathleen Ives, chief executive officer, OLC. “The merger of these two highly respected journals will draw upon the synergy of our missions and enable us to fulfill the needs and expectations of our readers with an enhanced depth, diligence and efficiency.”
http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/olc-and-merlot-merge-scholarly-journals
Share on Facebookby BLAYNE SLABBERT, Stuff NZ
Online learning is a booming business, and now one of the top tech companies has hooked into the industry. LinkedIn is buying the online education company, Lynda.com for about US$1.5 billion (NZ$1.96b), the first big aqusition of this scale. Lynda.com specialises in video courses in technology, creative and business skills which makes it a good fit for LinkedIn’s 347 million users, especially those looking to upskill for career advancement. This is backed by a report from Deloitte which shows the No 1 aspiration of members is to learn more about a subject area, not to complete a prescribed subject curriculum. It’s a canny move by LinkedIn as the workplace gets more competitive and more technology focused. It also gets it a foothold into the online learning market which is worth about US$30b.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/business/67950607/LinkedIns-big-bet-may-pay-off
Share on Facebookby Ron Bethke, eCampus News
Innovation in online credentialing can help students better display learning outcomes and the value of their education to employers on social sites. According to a new whitepaper revealed by ed-tech company Parchment at Baltimore’s AACRAO conference on April 13th, a majority of students believe it would be useful to display official credentials on a social site. However, the report suggests their is a lot of room for innovation on the part of institutions. The ideas generated in Parchment’s whitepaper, titled “Extending the Credential; Empowering the Learner,” stem from the results of two surveys which polled over 500 recent college graduates and 100 registrars.
http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/students-digital-credentials-422/
Share on FacebookBy David Raths, Campus Technology
What skills and training will the next generation of CIOs require as technology becomes an essential part of teaching and learning? Where will those CIOs come from? Are they already working in university IT departments? Those are some of the questions that Wayne Brown, vice president and CIO at Excelsior College (NY), has sought to answer as founder of the Center for Higher Education Chief Information Officer Studies (CHECS). Since 2009, the nonprofit CHECS has been surveying CIOs and the technology leaders who work under them, as well as institutional leaders who hire CIOs, to provide insight into the career path of individuals in or aspiring to technology leadership positions in higher education.
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/23/what-will-keep-the-cio-pipeline-flowing.aspx
Share on Facebookby Emily DeRuy, Fusion
Arizona State University plans to offer a freshman year of college to anyone in the world with an internet connection – no application required. Even better? You only pay if you pass. In its latest effort to distinguish itself in a crowded higher education field, ASU announced Thursday it will partner with edX, a popular online course provider founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, to create the Global Freshman Academy. The program will offer 12 online courses and students will only owe tuition – $200 per credit – if they get a passing grade. Students will be able to complete courses on their own time, so everyone from people with day jobs to high school students looking to get an early start on their degrees could enroll.
http://fusion.net/story/125256/at-this-college-you-only-pay-if-you-pass/
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