Techno-News Blog

by Voice of America

University of the People is a university that has no tuition costs. The university’s classes and teaching materials are all free online. Also, all of the teachers are volunteers. Federal laws in the U.S. do not prevent undocumented immigrants from going to college. But laws do ban undocumented immigrants from receiving government financial aid. The Pew Research Center is an organization that studies social issues around the world. The organization recently reported there were 11.3 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. in 2014. Of those, 49 percent were from Mexico. Many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. with little money to pay for things like higher education. Currently, the University of the People only offers degrees in computer science and business administration. Though tuition is free, the university does require students to pay a $50 application fee. Also, the university requires students to pay a $100 test fee when they complete a class.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/online-university-offers-poor-a-chance/3088042.html

By John Pflueger, Dell

The “handprint” is the positive counterpart to the footprint – the good that arises from our actions and work. The term was coined by Greg Norris of the Harvard School of Public Health who realized that we were only looking at the negative part of the equation and ignoring beneficial by-products. In this sense, he was looking at the bigger picture. As Dr. Norris said, “we can have a net positive impact on the planet if the good that we do, the positive changes we purposefully bring about in our lives, are greater than our footprints.” This net positive handprint is especially evident in what cloud computing can enable. Consider the cloud in all its manifestations: public, private, and hybrid. It connects us to sources of empowering knowledge and enables us to innovate, collaborate, and advance in entirely new ways.

https://powermore.dell.com/business/handprints-in-the-cloud-exceeding-environmental-footprints/

by Anya Kamenetz, NPR

What’s not clear is exactly how these innovations are expected to spread or influence practices in public schools that don’t have dedicated resources for that purpose. “The technology is important, but it’s not really the hard or expensive part,” Feldstein says. “These challenges are particularly hard for poorer schools, where there is less money and less support for teachers.” In other words, scaling the benefits of personalized learning requires more than just software. Because of their resources and very public platform, any education idea supported by billionaire philanthropists is likely to receive more than its share of attention. Zuckerberg has been criticized for his previous foray into educational philanthropy in Newark, and he seems to be advocating a different approach here that partners more closely with educators and communities.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/12/05/437536957/mark-zuckerberg-is-betting-tech-can-address-educational-equity-is-it-that-simple

By Boris Korsunsky, Weston Town Crier

In total, five Weston High School teachers received grant support to develop their own “on-ramp” mini-MOOCs for some of the AP courses offered at Weston – Mary Liu for biology, Natalie Griswold and John Monz for calculus, Sophie Kulas for French language and culture, and Boris Korsunsky for physics. In addition, Korsunsky, as a member of the group led by Professor David Pritchard of MIT, participated in developing an online version of a full AP physics course.

http://weston.wickedlocal.com/article/20151204/NEWS/151208990

by Andie Burjek, Chief Learning Officer

More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they would be more likely to participate in training if it were interactive and engaging. Incorporating multimedia tools such as videos, Q&A sessions or quizzes into training could promote engagement. Forty-five percent of survey respondents said being able to interact with other learners is valuable. Customization and flexibility are other important factors that could improve the effect of corporate training. When asked what qualities are important in a training program, nearly half of the respondents (47 percent) said freedom to go at their own pace. Some 48 percent said customizing training to their job function was important. “The best practice for our customers with the most effective training programs is when they deviated from the one-size-fits-all model and adopted the one-size-fits-department or one-size-fits job function model,” Ramirez said.

http://www.clomedia.com/articles/6598-how-do-you-deliver-learning

By SINDYA N. BHANOO, NY TimiesFree online educational courses may not be democratizing education as much as proponents believe, a new study reports. John D. Hansen, a doctoral student at Harvard University’s School of Education, and his colleagues looked at registration and completion patterns in 68 massive open online courses, or MOOCs, offered by Harvard and M.I.T. The data covered 164,198 participants aged 13 to 69. In a study published in the journal Science, Mr. Hansen and his colleagues reported that people living in more affluent neighborhoods were more likely to register and complete MOOCs. Each increase of $20,000 in neighborhood median income raised the odds of participation in a MOOC by 27 percent, the researchers found. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/science/online-classes-appeal-more-to-the-affluent.html

by Melanie Pinola, LifeHacker

CourseBuffet not only highlights free courses from top universities, it groups some of them into degree paths, so you can get a college BA-equivalent education from these free online courses. Currently two degree paths are available: Computer science and management, with finance coming soon. When you choose one of these paths, you’ll be presented with groups of courses organized similarly to traditional degrees, with core, advanced, and elective courses. And, just like a traditional degree, to complete the “program” you’re expected to achieve all the credits. The Core Computer Science courses include everything from intro to computer science to computer architecture, algorithms, programming languages, and databases. Within each topic, you can select from a variety of online courses to add to your path.

http://lifehacker.com/coursebuffet-organizes-online-courses-into-a-diy-degree-1745973758

by Beth Stone, Brookings

The virtue of such electronic information is the greater control students have over their curriculum, allowing them to proceed at their own pace and in their own style. The digital revolution enables real-time assessment of student performance. Finally, mobile technology can transform learning and act as a catalyst for creating impactful change in the current system. West concludes by saying that connected learning through the use of technology is crucial to student development in the areas of critical-thinking and collaborative learning. Those are the skills that young people need in order to secure their place in the globally competitive economy.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2015/12/01-connected-learning-mobile-technology-education-stone

by Mike Krings, University of Kansas

Researchers at the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities have issued “Equity Matters: Digital and Online Learning for Students with Disabilities.” The expansive report analyzes the online education policies of all 50 states and five U.S. territories and combines those findings with other research projects in the center to support recommendations for how to improve online and blended learning for all students. The report takes a wide view at online and blended learning for students with disabilities. In its five chapters it explains transformative change, provides a scan of policy for all 50 states and five territories regarding online learning for students with disabilities, details special education in online environments, explores the changing structure and roles within education and finally, examines access to online education, issues of data and privacy and graduation. It is available online.

http://news.ku.edu/2015/11/17/ku-researchers-co-author-extensive-examination-online-learning-students-disabilities

By C. RAMSEY FAHS, Harvard Crimson

The Harvard Extension School will offer a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program next year, a first for the school. The program’s inaugural cohort of students will begin online coursework in June and earn a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in global studies and a Master of Liberal Arts in management. The entire program, according to the Extension School’s website, will cost roughly $45,000, a price point that Ray Schroeder, the associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois Springfield, called “tremendous.” The program asks that applicants have at least two years of undergraduate coursework and roughly seven to 10 years of “professional experience” under their belts. Applicants should not, however, have taken any previous courses at the Extension School or Harvard Summer School.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/12/2/extension-school-accelerated-degree/

By Steven Johnson, ECT

Education is a key to fending off population loss and poverty in rural America, data from a USDA report show. That’s one assessment in a U.S. Department of Agriculture report that says that higher education represents a way to offset increasing poverty and population declines in rural America. “Among all rural residents, unemployment rates are much lower for those with more educational attainment, partly as a result of increasing demand for more highly skilled labor,” the department said Nov. 30 in Rural America at a Glance 2015. To be sure, the situation in rural America is anything but sunny, according to the annual study. “Rural areas continue to experience population loss, higher poverty rates, and lower educational attainment than urban areas,” it said. In fact, the rural count of 46 million Americans has fallen by 30,000 people in each of the last two years.

http://www.ect.coop/industry/trends-reports-analyses/education-for-rural-america-at-a-glance/87143

by Karli Grant, eCampus News

Institutions with a focus on mentoring, apprentice-based and vocational learning have embraced the CBE model since its inception, but many schools with a variety of academic programs are now exploring the possibility of offering competency-based courses. For the many colleges and universities currently testing the waters, the question is “where do we start?” Early-adopters like Rasmussen College are partnering with regional accreditors and the U.S. Department of Education as best practices begin to emerge, but in the meantime there are steps every institution can take to create a basic framework for CBE.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/competency-based-education-728/

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/campus-computing-project-takes-pulse-higher-ed-it

by Jane LeClair and Robin Berenson, Evolllution

Competency based education (CBE) is, in many ways, an outgrowth of the earlier concept of outcomes based education (OBE) but they vary in that OBE has an initial goal or stated outcome that is sought by the education, whereas CBE is concerned with a narrow skill set that must be demonstrated to have been mastered by the learner. CBE is not a new concept in higher education, but change is being driven based on the quality of the education as well as access and cost. The challenge to learning institutions is to innovate with a purpose rather than with an eye to being the “next big thing.”

http://evolllution.com/revenue-streams/market_opportunities/designing-a-competency-based-education-cbe-program-context-challenges-and-pivots/

by Richenda Gould, Rutgers

Now in its seventh year, RUOnlineCon has expanded from a statewide event to include attendees throughout the mid-Atlantic region, from New York to West Virginia. It is meant for faculty and others from higher education institutions who are active in online and hybrid learning environments, including instructional designers, educational technology specialists, department and program chairs, curriculum managers and online program administrators. Early registration is available at http://ruonlinecon.rutgers.edu. “Higher education is now interwoven with education technology tools and instructional design approaches,” explained Richard J. Novak, vice president of continuing studies and distance learning at Rutgers. Speakers include Jeff Selingo (College unBound); Deb Adair, Quality Matters; Ray Schroeder, UPCEA and UIS ; Joan Bouillon, Pearson; and Kenneth Ronkowitz, New Jersey Institute of Technology

http://cenewscenter.rutgers.edu/articles/2015/11/online-education-hybrid-learning-focus-rutgers-conference-educators

BY KENT MCDILL, Millionaire Corner

It has also become easily possible for a “college student’’ to have someone else take some or all of their college courses, so that they can instead play Frisbee golf or earn a paycheck at the same time. There are services, multiplying as you read this, that offer the services of a human being who will “attend’’ any online college course you want a surrogate for, with a promise of getting a passing grade, or even a high grade if you are willing to pay for that add-on. These cheating services advertise openly on websites frequented by college students, on sites like Craigslist, which advertise to students within the specific areas the colleges are “located” in. So even if you are part of a “blended’’ program, which combines online classes with on-campus classes, the cheating services can help you get through that class you don’t have to show up for.

http://millionairecorner.com/Content_Free/online-cheating-for-college.aspx

by GeekTime

Here are five online classes that every startup professional should take to make sure their business is going to be successful. How does the effectiveness of online learning compare with that of face-to-face instruction? A recent report by the U.S. Department of Education found that “classes with online learning on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than do classes with solely face-to-face instruction.” With this spirit in mind, particularly for folks who just have time for continuing education on their commute or at home, here are five online classes that every startup professional should take to make sure their business is going to be successful.

http://www.geektime.com/2015/12/01/the-top-5-online-courses-for-startup-professionals/

BY NOEL K. GALLAGHER, Press Herald

John Broida, a longtime University of Southern Maine psychology professor, died of pancreatic cancer last year. After the startling diagnosis last summer, Broida rushed to complete an online Psych 101 course he was developing. Two months later – just days after the course began – he died. Broida was a farsighted adopter of online teaching, broadcasting his lectures live to remote locations as early as 1988. “It was really important to him. He loved teaching,” said his widow, AnneMarie Catanzano. The students never expected to meet Broida in person. The three-unit course is completely “asynchronous,” meaning there are no “live” sessions where a professor meets online with students through Skype or chat rooms. With his pending death, Broida knew he needed someone to curate “a course in a box,” someone to send email reminders, check in on students, answer questions and keep track of how students were doing. For that, he turned to friend and fellow USM psychology professor Michael Stevenson.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/30/maine-professor-ensures-course-is-taught-even-after-he-dies/

By Amar Toor, the Verge

Udemy, an online learning service, has come under criticism for selling pirated courses. The controversy began this week, when security specialist Troy Hunt discovered that one of his courses on ethical hacking was available on Udemy under another author’s name. As The Next Web reports, the video had been edited to remove Hunt’s introduction at the beginning, but was otherwise unchanged from the version available on Pluralsight, the video’s copyright holder. On Udemy, the pirated course was available for £37 ($56). Udemy removed the video after Hunt flagged it on Twitter, though it remained available for at least 12 hours after the company replied to him.  Critics say online learning service doesn’t do enough to police copyright violations

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/29/9813780/udemy-pirated-course-copyright-troy-hunt

By Andrew Barbour, eCampus News

“We’re starting to hear a real desire for online learning to turn the corner and be focused on a mode of instruction that is inherently better than what we have today in traditional education,” said Chris Walsh, CEO of Zaption, a video learning company based in San Francisco. “People are starting to look at new tools and new opportunities to create an instructional experience that is different but hopefully better as well.” The idea that online learning could actually be better than face-to-face instruction has gained credence in recent years as new technology solutions promise to make the educational experience more personalized and engaging. Has that time finally arrived? Here, eCampus News looks at seven trends that have the potential to remake the world of online learning.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/trends-online-learning-453/