Techno-News Blog

May 17, 2016

Developing Institutional Cloud Strategies

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by Mara Hancock,et al: EDUCAUSE Review

Chief information officers expect a shift within the next five years, from primarily managing infrastructure and technical resources toward managing outside relationships. Increasing acceptance of increasingly available cloud technologies and services allow redefining higher education’s approach to enterprise IT. Four institutions explain their cloud strategies as developed in response to enterprise challenges and share their lessons learned.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/5/developing-institutional-cloud-strategies

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Thinking about the Future of Work to Make Better Decisions about Learning Today

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by Marina Gorbis, EDUCAUSE Review

Fundamental transformations are making distinctions between work, learning, and living ever more artificial. The Institute for the Future (IFTF), in partnership with ACT Foundation, recently published Learning Is Earning in the National Learning Economy—a visual synthesis of future forces that are shaping this transformation. The work shows how the proliferation of online learning resources (free and for pay), the rise of alternative learning and making spaces (from TechShop to General Assembly and makerspaces), and the diffusion of mobile technologies and peer-to-peer communities allow every moment of the day to become a learning moment. At the same time, the way we have come to think about work—that is, 9-to-5 predictable jobs in formal organizations—is less and less a reality for the growing number of working-age adults. So in thinking about the future… we need to think about the forces and signals of transformation and what they mean for higher education today and tomorrow.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/5/thinking-about-the-future-of-work-to-make-better-decisions-about-learning-today

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6 Strategies to Develop Research Skills as an Online Student

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by Bradley Fuster, US News

Because online learners must literally engage course material on the Internet rather than in the physical classroom, it becomes all too easy to copy and paste an unsubstantiated factoid into a discussion forum or homework assignment without giving it rigorous scholarly consideration. The (mis)information superhighway, social media and unverified opinions published on the Web are just one click away from the online classroom. The following six strategies can help online students produce stronger research.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2016-05-06/6-strategies-to-develop-research-skills-as-an-online-student

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May 16, 2016

Ensuring Student Success in Online Courses

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By: Poonam Kumar and Marilyn Skrocki, Faculty Focus

Students like online classes due to their flexibility and convenience. But not all students do well in these courses; the statistics indicate that online classes have a much higher dropout rate compared to traditional face-to-face classes. The attrition rates in online courses tend to be 10 to 20 percent higher than in face-to-face classes. While there are some personal factors that could influence a student’s decision to drop out, many of the factors are related to institutional and course level support—and these barriers can be addressed with thoughtful planning and implementation. Institutional level factors like technical support, academic support, advising, and availability of resources can support student success in online courses. At the course level, there are many simple strategies and techniques that instructors can use to support students’ success in their online classes.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/ensuring-student-success-online-courses/

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New tech partnership targets competency-based learning and admissions

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Learning Machine, an ed tech company that offers data-driven software to help admissions officers shape their incoming classes, has partnered with Credly, which created a platform to give, receive and display digital badges and credentials. Campus Technology reports the partnership will give admissions officers the opportunity to consider competency-based learning experiences from prospective students. Dan Hughes, president and COO of Learning Machine says he expects digital credentials to become a standard part of the admissions process and “the common currency of a global job market.”

http://www.educationdive.com/news/new-tech-partnership-targets-competency-based-learning-and-admissions/418606/

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Study: Higher ed falling behind fast in digital transformation

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

A study of college and university digital content management practices found schools are doing little more than publishing content, missing opportunities to deliver experiences and better engage students. Campus Technology reports the study, commissioned by five companies interested in higher ed digital business opportunities, found many schools overwhelmed by basic demands of maintaining the institution’s web presence with little bandwidth to shift from content publishing to digital storytelling. Report authors expect many colleges and universities will not be motivated to improve their digital content until they see negative consequences in student enrollment, but researchers say that will leave them playing catch up.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/study-higher-ed-falling-behind-fast-in-digital-transformation/418435/

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May 15, 2016

How Can Education Fully Embrace the Digital Age to Help Students Professionally?

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By Christopher Jan Benitez, Business.com

The Internet being able to provide more convenient and reliable channels can help students professionally. Students are now able to make good use of online resources to help shape their skills and advance their careers at their pace. Online Courses Make It Easier for People to Acquire Skills and Accreditation! Educational institutions and students have seen massive success from online courses and open universities. Students have been able to take career-focused online training to further their professional lives. The main advantage of online courses is that the information is better structured and organized than those found freely on the Internet. The organization allows students to go through study materials systematically and this improves comprehension in a big way.

http://www.business.com/education/how-can-education-fully-embrace-the-digital-age-to-help-students-professionally/

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Ted Mitchell: Access without excellence is not equity

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

If the United States wants to reclaim its place as the country with the greatest portion of adults with postsecondary degrees, greater attention must be paid to issues around equity. A dozen other countries now have a more educated populace than the United States, not because the U.S. is graduating fewer people, but because other countries are increasing their pace, pushing more of their population through postsecondary programs. At the Education Writers Association meeting in Boston this week, U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell emphasized the need for quality of education coupled with consideration of equity and access. “To talk about quality without talking about equity and access is simply foolish if what we’re looking for is a higher education system that can continually propel the American society and American economy forward,” Mitchell said.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/ted-mitchell-access-without-excellence-is-not-equity/418623/

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Employers placing lower value on grades, extracurriculars

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

The fifth annual study of global employability found that, in 2015, employers cared less about grades and extracurriculars and focused more on skills like innovation, leadership, and networking. Pathik Pathak, founding director of the Social Impact Lab at the University of Southampton writes for World Economic Forum students are also better choosing extracurricular activities that will help them gain these soft skills. One avenue is through student societies connected to top corporate employers. Pathak urges universities to focus on employability, incorporating soft skills development and network building into the curriculum and making it a central responsibility rather than an afterthought.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/employers-placing-lower-value-on-grades-extracurriculars/418779/

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May 14, 2016

Anyone can build a MOOC

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by Brian Mulligan, Institute of Technology Sligo Ireland

How can Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) be financially sustainable when they are so expensive to build? Well one group of educators in Europe disagree on the grounds that it does not have to cost that much to build one. If you think you can teach, then you can teach online. This group from Germany, Holland, Ireland and Spain have got together to show how it can be done. On the 17th of May, 2016, they will be launching their own MOOC; “Making MOOCs on a Budget” to show people how they can build their own open online courses with very little money and even with limited time.

https://moocs4all.eu/2016/05/05/press-release-thursday-552016/

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Are Start-Up Schools Like Minerva and Udacity Changing the Higher Education Model?

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By DONNA FUSCALDO, Good Call

Colleges and universities may be steeped in tradition but when it comes to modern living they are failing to give businesses what they need: qualified graduates. Frustrated with the slow rate of change when it comes to a higher education, a handful of college professors and entrepreneurs are leaving their jobs to try to change the way college students learn. Some are creating courses with the companies that need the talent while others are getting rid of traditional lectures. But either way, they are showcasing what could be future models of higher education learning. “We have constricted goods with huge demand and it’s costing an enormous amount of money and providing questionable value,” says Ben Nelson, founder of Minerva Schools at KGI. “The combination of those things winds up generating a lot of interest in creating alternatives.”

https://www.goodcall.com/news/start-schools-like-minerva-udacity-changing-higher-education-model-06455

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Study: Higher ed falling behind fast in digital transformation

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

A study of college and university digital content management practices found schools are doing little more than publishing content, missing opportunities to deliver experiences and better engage students. Campus Technology reports the study, commissioned by five companies interested in higher ed digital business opportunities, found many schools overwhelmed by basic demands of maintaining the institution’s web presence with little bandwidth to shift from content publishing to digital storytelling. Report authors expect many colleges and universities will not be motivated to improve their digital content until they see negative consequences in student enrollment, but researchers say that will leave them playing catch up.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/study-higher-ed-falling-behind-fast-in-digital-transformation/418435/

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May 13, 2016

MOOCs and higher education: evolution or revolution?

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by John Daniel, Oxford University Press Blog

Four years after the MOOCs craze began, where are we today? MOOCs provide a good example of our tendency to overestimate the significance of innovations in the short term whilst underestimating their long-term impact. The early predictions of a revolution in higher education proved false, and the idea that MOOCs could be the answer to the capacity problems of universities in the developing world was especially silly. Nevertheless, MOOCs are a significant phenomenon. Over 4,000 MOOCs are available worldwide and register 35 million learners at any given time. As they have multiplied they have diversified, so that, as this cartoon implies, the meaning of every word in the acronym MOOC is now negotiable. So MOOCs themselves are not a revolution in higher education but they are having multiple knock-on effects in the way that it is offered. They have sparked a steady increase in the offering of all types of academic programmes online, stimulated trends towards shorter courses, and an expanded range of credentials.

http://blog.oup.com/2016/04/moocs-higher-education/

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Students say digital presence is key to enrollment decisions

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BY RONALD BETHKE, eCampus News

Digital presence via campus websites and social media can all majorly impact college decisions this year, say students. According to a new report, student survey data reinforces that higher education institutions must place greater emphasis on their digital presence, engaging students with digital communications that are most in line with their preferences in order to boost enrollment. The report, titled “The Digital Search for Education,” was commissioned by G/O Digital and is based on the results of a 2016 survey of over 1,520 U.S. adults enrolled in either full or part-time classes. The research study was conducted to understand how learners interact with colleges and career schools prior to enrolling, and how those interactions influence their decision to communicate with, and enroll in, a particular institution.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/digital-presence-enrollment/

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Tablet Market Slides Worldwide, Though Detachables See Continued Growth

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By Richard Chang, Campus Technology

Worldwide tablet shipments slumped 14.7 percent during the first quarter of 2016, according to preliminary data released today by the International Data Corp. (IDC), a market research firm. First-quarter seasonality, along with an overall unenthused customer base, were factors that caused the decline, IDC reported. Shipments of Apple tablets, including iPad and iPad Pro, dropped 18.8 percent in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the first quarter of 2015. Apple’s tablet market share also slipped from 27.2 percent in Q1 2015 to 25.9 percent in Q1 2016. Meanwhile, detachable tablets — devices that include removable keyboards — saw triple-digit year-over-year growth on shipments of more than 4.9 million units, an all-time high for the first quarter of a calendar year.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/28/tablet-market-slides-worldwide.aspx

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May 12, 2016

The Keys to Designing Successful Open Course Experiences

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By David Raths, Campus Technology

As more universities develop open courses, instructional designers and faculty members are experimenting with how to design environments that are compelling and valuable to participants. Curt Bonk, Ph.D., who teaches psychology and technology courses at Indiana University, has done a lot of thinking about the student experience in open courses. The author of The World Is Open, Bonk is conducting research in the field of self-directed open learning environments and online motivation. “The MOOC [massive open online course] is just one idea of many that are causing us to reflect on changes in higher education today,” he said. “There are a lot of derivatives of MOOCs, and there will continue to be more. Community-building, sharing and peer support are three key aspects of success in building new types of course experiences.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/29/the-keys-to-designing-successful-open-course-experiences.aspx

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Coding: 16-year-old Fremont student writes AP test-prep book, creates online course

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By Sharon Noguchi, Mercury News

Moksh Jawa, 16, captures the essence of Silicon Valley startup thinking and energy. “Why not?” might be his motto. As a seventh-grader, he studied up on the Internet and taught himself coding. As a freshman, after studying on his own, he passed the AP Computer Science A exam with a 5, the highest score possible. As a sophomore, because his Fremont high school didn’t teach coding, he developed his own online course and shepherded classmates through it. As a junior, he distilled those lessons into a 450-page test-prep book, now sold on Amazon.

http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_29834312/coding-16-year-old-writes-ap-test-prep

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8 ways wearables are influencing higher ed’s data use

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BY LAURA DEVANEY, eCampus News

As data collection becomes more common, how can higher education institutions leverage the availability of real-time data to improve learning?During the ASU+GSV Summit, in a session titled “Wearables on Campus: What Higher Education Can Learn from Fitbit,” a panel of higher-ed leaders, moderated by Bridget Burns, executive director of the University Innovation Alliance, discussed how what we know about data use and information can shift our behaviors.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/curriculum/data-use-wearables/

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May 11, 2016

Austrade sets target of 110 million MOOC students for Australia by 2025

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by Tim Dodd, AFR

International Education Minister Richard Colbeck will launch on Saturday a radical plan for Australia to use online technology to grab 10 per cent of the world market in education by 2025, amounting to an astonishing 110 million students. Senator Colbeck said the strategy, developed by Austrade, was achievable. “Why not aim high? We sit in a rapidly developing area of the globe and they all recognise the quality of our [education] framework,” he said. International education is already Australia’s third largest export industry, worth nearly $19 billion a year.

http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/austrade-sets-target-of-110-million-mooc-students-for-australia-by-2025-20160429-goiksz

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A Digital Approach To Education

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by Nancy Crotti, Twin Cities Business

Online higher education aims to make courses more engaging and interactive for students of all ages. Adult learners in particular have found that online courses fit better with their work and home schedules than showing up on campus two or three nights a week. They still have quizzes, exams and projects, and they must participate in online discussions or their grades will suffer. U of M Crookston offers 14 fully online majors to students like Thurston, many of whom began college years before but did not graduate, for financial, personal or work relocation reasons. Now quite a few are seeking a “lane change” in their careers, according to Crookston campus chancellor Fred Wood. Most take nine credits per semester while working full time. He considers online education an extension of the land-grant idea that the University of Minnesota was founded on: to educate and train the state’s workforce.

http://tcbmag.com/Industries/Education-and-Training/A-Digital-Approach-To-Education

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Despite some professors’ discomfort, online ed here to stay

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By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Henry Lucas, a faculty chair at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and author of Technology and the Disruption of Higher Education: Saving the American University, argues faculty must come around to online education to keep their universities alive. For the Washington Post, Lucas writes schools that do not embrace technology-enhanced education, and do so with strong faculty at the helm, will go out of business as students flock to more convenient and affordable programs. Lucas sees faculty as the ones who most have to change in favor of online education and the ones most resistant to it, urging administrators to go around them, if necessary.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/despite-some-professors-discomfort-online-ed-here-to-stay/418289/

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