Techno-News Blog

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Beginning May 9, UConnect students in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco will have access to physical learning centers where they can network, interact and collaborate with others. UConnect students will meet once a week with a mentor and receive “face-to-face guidance with goal setting and hitting key milestones,” according to a news release. In a pilot program, Nanodegree students who combined their online education with in-person study sessions through UConnect saw a 30 percent increase in project submissions and were more likely to complete their Nanodegree program than the students learning only online.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/25/udacity-connect-offers-face-to-face-sessions.aspx

By Betsy Corcoran, EdSurge

Sebastian Thrun: That first Stanford class was a pivotal moment. We all realized that there were great people out there, all around the world, who deserved a chance at places like Stanford. Ever since, our mission at Udacity has been to democratize education…. When we decided to partner not with a university but with a company [namely, AT&T and later others including Google] we made this clear that we were really thinking about not just getting people into college but getting them into jobs. One of the key outcomes of education is to give them leverage to find work, and to personally benefit, to earn income. College was being criticized for being really, really expensive. And then, after you paid all that money, it still took you more than a year to find a job. So we created a program that gives people back their tuition if they don’t find a job in six months. I think that’s something everyone should do.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-04-25-what-sebastian-thrun-has-learned-at-udacity

by Anjuli Bhargava, Business Standard

I see the world becoming more unbundled, more micro – in everything. Learning is life long. As things stand, do you know that only 25 per cent of students in the US actually follow this model of going to college at 18 and finishing in four years ? Most of them take up a job after high school, some come back later, some join college and drop out. We have launched on edX a micro master’s. Why should you get a full master’s ? You can get micro credentials. Say you are doing a BA in Math. But you want to work as a computer programmer. You can take a micro master’s in programming from edX. By the time you have your BA in math, you can have your masters too and get a job in programming if you like. These new micro credentials are just-in-time learning in the right field. We think that is the future. We think in the future the concept of a degree will be questioned too. Why do we need a four year degree ? Why does India need a three year degree – 95 per cent who earn the degree can’t be employed in any case.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/micro-master-s-is-future-of-online-learning-anant-agarwal-116042000050_1.html

By Jay Panandiker, the Lantern

How many people can take a calculus class? The limit does not exist. Calculus is a class that people take as a prerequisite for dozens of majors around campus and at colleges across the country. One course, titled Calculus One or Mooculus, functions as an introduction to calculus both for those who are new to the subject and those who just want to review concepts. So far, hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in the course on Coursera, an online-education website that partners with universities around the country, and more than 250,000 have participated through the OSU website, said Jim Fowler, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics. The YouTube channel also just recently surpassed 1 million views.

http://thelantern.com/2016/04/online-calculus-class-attracts-big-numbers/

By Sarah Kuta, Daily Camera

The University of Colorado is starting to see some revenue from the free, massive open online courses it offers to the world through the website Coursera. Though course content is still free, students are beginning to pay for certificates showing they’ve completed a CU course or a multi-course unit in the same subject. Since September, these online course certificates have generated roughly $110,000 across the CU system, a number that is likely to go up this spring with the launch of new multi-course units, said Deborah Keyek-Franssen, associate vice president for digital education and engagement for the CU system. That’s been somewhat of a welcome surprise, as CU did not necessarily expect to make money when it began offering the courses three years ago, Keyek-Franssen said.

http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_29802803/cu-system-reaping-benefits-massive-open-online-courses

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Colleges and universities are spending more money on recruitment to attract students in an increasingly competitive field, and Noodle Partners CEO John Katzman calls it an arms race in need of regulation. For Inside Higher Ed, Katzman writes that people are paying attention to the spending spree on campus amenities but not the runaway costs of student recruitment, which ultimately increases the cost of higher education without improving services for students. Katzman suggests a bill that would limit subsidized student loans to the actual cost of education or a new U.S. Department of Education regulation that would limit tuition sharing deals at schools whose marketing budgets get too high.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/marketing-could-become-the-most-expensive-part-of-higher-ed/417777/

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Higher education marketing is more competitive now than it has ever been before, and it’s only getting worse. Some 70% of chief academic officers say online education is going to be a key pillar of their institution’s strategy moving forward, and demand for online education programs is growing at a slower rate than at any point in the last 20 years. In a conversation about the growth potential of online higher education and the marketing challenges presented by modern competition, Cornell University’s Ashley Budd highlighted the concerns of enrollment professionals who have been trying to get around the shrinking population of traditional college-goers for years. But online education is a dangerous place to look for salvation, given the trendline of demand. “That’s really a scary reality,” Helix’s Seth Odell said. “If you’re turning to online education to solve an enrollment problem, it’s going to be a really difficult problem to solve.” There are now 450 online MBA programs competing for students.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/supply-is-up-in-online-ed-but-demand-is-down-now-what/417722/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

“Open” has gone mainstream. The world now celebrates Open Education Week. The U.S. Department of Education announced an “Open Education” or #GoOpen initiative and ran its first “@GoOpen Exchange” to get schools and educators committed to the use of open educational resources (OER). Students at Ithaca College, The College of William & Mary and Santa Barbara City College are all pushing their schools to adopt OER. Multiple colleges and universities are trying out no/low-cost OER degree programs. Amazon looks to be getting into the OER business with “Inspire.” And a bipartisan group of Congressional staffers recently held a briefing to learn from experts why they should care about OER. The demand for free learning content may be loud and clear now, but, back in 2013 when Campus Technology first surveyed the top sources for free digital textbooks, the OER world seemed a quieter, less tweeted place. What hasn’t changed, though, is that faculty and students still want to know where to go to find the goods.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/20/the-price-is-still-right-15-sites-for-free-digital-textbooks.aspx