Entrepreneur
As far as New Year’s resolutions go, “learning a new skill” is less popular than getting in shape, with only 27 percent of respondents saying they’ve made that self-promise. That statistic is a bit surprising, considering how easy (and affordable) it is to learn a new skill through these 20 online courses.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325503
Share on FacebookPrateek Singh, Entrepreneur
Online education also has the benefit of delivering high-quality lectures by the brightest minds of our world, imagine being able to learn from the best educators, online from the comfort of your home or workplace. Two things will shape upskilling in the 21st century.
A young population and faster adoption of new technology mean employees need to upskill quickly. Jobs which are the highest paying today didn’t even exist 7-10 years ago. The speed at which industry is changing means employees who do not upskill quickly will see stagnation in their careers. This is the biggest threat to the new generation.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325465
Share on FacebookBy Ashleigh Webber, Personnel Today
According to e-learning provider GoodHabitz’s 2018 Learning & Development Trend Report, workers not only want opportunities for ongoing development, but they also want their employer to pay for their learning and give them time off during working hours to complete training. A survey of 826 people who work or are available for work found 81% think it is important or very important for their employer to invest in their development. This increases to 86% among workers who have a degree. IT training is the most desired learning opportunity, with 27% indicating that they need to develop in this area the most. This is followed by management skills (24%), positive psychology skills such as mindfulness (16%), personal effectiveness (11%) and communication skills (10%).
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/employees-rate-learning-and-development-over-salary/
Share on FacebookAnant Agarwal, Forbes
In 2018 we discussed the increasing value of soft skills; how the skills transformation is affecting the way we work; and the rise of the non-linear career path. These topics merely scratched the surface of the changes we’re seeing in education and in the workplace, which we’ll continue to debate in 2019. These are some key trends to keep an eye on this year:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anantagarwal/2019/01/02/three-education-trends-that-will-revolutionize-the-workplace-in-2019/
Share on FacebookBY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
The demand for “uniquely human” soft skills is increasing even though tech and automation are replacing some jobs. Employers are still asking for workers with strong soft skills, despite increasing technological advancements that allow many jobs to instead be automated. Strong “uniquely human” skills, as some call them, are some of the most important when it comes to what employers seek in job applicants–but they’re having trouble finding applicants with these skills, according to a new survey from Cengage. The survey of more than 650 employers and more than 1,500 current and former college students reveals soft skills are most in demand by employers (by at least 65 percent), while quantitative skills and computer and technical skills were less so (47 percent and 50 percent, respectively).
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/01/24/dont-worry-grads-robots-arent-taking-your-jobs-yet/
Share on FacebookInformation Age
In this piece, Nigel Smith of The Open University-owned FutureLearn, reflects on the digital transformation in education over the past six years since MOOCs (massive open online courses) first burst onto the scene Digital transformation in education: The FutureLearn view image. There is no choice but to innovate in scaling the supply of education. Otherwise, people desperate to learn are excluded. Digital transformation has had a huge impact on the education sector. Six years ago ‘MOOCs’ (Massive Open Online Courses) became a buzzword with the New York Times going so far as to say 2012 was “the year of the MOOC.” Since then others have asked if this early enthusiasm was justified. Has there been a sense of unfulfilled promise? In some ways it’s unsurprising. The claims were overhyped; MOOCs were just one manifestation of digital impact on education. However, the number of Universities using MOOCs has continued to grow — as has the number of people taking them. More significantly still is the evolution of how universities are using MOOCs: in student recruitment, blended learning, research, targeting professionals, and humanitarian causes.
https://www.information-age.com/digital-transformation-in-education-123477810/
Share on FacebookInside Big Data
A recent report from IBM states that there will be over 300,000 new job openings for data driven professionals by 2020. As it stands now, there is a shortage of the necessary technical skills for these roles. Specifically, professionals should focus on how to turn data into decisions. We’ve learned to build the infrastructure that can store and process massive amounts of data, but we still lack the critical ability to convert that data into meaningful information. Some universities are adapting to this data revolution by providing more on-campus data science courses, however, these are relatively new offerings that were not available to most while they were in school. Many professionals need rigorous training in these skills now, and want them without having to leave their day job. They need the practicality and flexibility that online learning provides, so the operative question becomes: can MOOCS deliver these skills without compromising quality?
Share on Facebookby Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate
You may be extremely comfortable using technology, but that does not mean your students or fellow teachers are as tech-savvy as you. As digital technology becomes part of our everyday lives and embeds itself into the classroom (and the curriculum), it is imperative that our school community has digital readiness and competence. Digital readiness is simply the ability to use digital tools with ease. In other words, digital readiness refers to how “ready” or how comfortable an individual is with digital technology. Along the same lines, digital competence refers to “the confident and critical usage of the full range of digital technologies for information, communication and basic problem-solving in all aspects of life.”
Share on FacebookKirill Bigai, Forbes
In the 21st century, learning and even formal education are no longer just for kids and college-age students. As Hunt Lambert, Dean of Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education, observes, learning may be something we begin to pursue in earnest during our teen years, but it is increasingly something we continue throughout our working years and even into retirement. Lambert describes this cycle as the 60-year curriculum , but whatever you call it, one thing is clear: Lifelong learning is becoming the norm. Thirty years ago, most CEOs likely wouldn’t be boasting about their ongoing program of continuing education, but we live in a new world — one where the demand and ability to keep learning throughout one’s career is something we all need to embrace.
Share on FacebookBy Jo Best, ZD Net
SpiNNaker’s spiking neural network mimics the human brain, and could fuel breakthroughs in robotics and health. The one-million core SpiNNaker — short for Spiking Neural Network Architecture — is the culmination of decades of work and millions of pounds of investment. The result: a massively parallel supercomputer designed to mimic the workings of the human brain, which it’s hoped will give neuroscientists a new understanding of how the mind works and open up new avenues of medical research.
Written by Dhawal Shah, Class-Central
Now in its seventh year, the modern MOOC movement crossed 100 million learners to a total of 101 million. At the same time, we are seeing a decrease in the number of new learners signing up. In 2018, 20 million new learners signed up for at least one MOOC, down from 23 million the year before. Despite the slowdown, the number of paying users may have increased. MOOC providers’ constant tweaking of the model seems to be paying off, as providers such as Coursera are hitting record revenues ($140 million in 2018 for Coursera).
Here is a list of top five MOOC providers by registered users:
https://www.class-central.com/report/mooc-stats-2018/
Share on Facebookby Mattew Lynch, Tech Edvocate
On the one hand, children need to learn how to have traditional, face-to-face conversations unmediated by technology. On the other hand, they also need to learn how to communicate appropriately using technology. Both of these kinds of communication will be vital to their success as adults. Traditional communication requires extensive screen-free time in order to develop the ability to communicate well. Children need to be taught, for example, the importance of eye contact. They should also understand that there is some cultural variation on the appropriateness of eye contact in different contexts, and they should be prepared for that reality. They will also need time to develop an understanding of non-verbal aspects of communication—something that is foreign to most kinds of digital communication.
https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-teach-kids-to-communicate-in-this-digital-age/
Share on FacebookBy Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge
Marty Ringle has been working in educational technology for more than 40 years, and he’s seen it all—the birth of the PC and and their early use at colleges, the building out of the internet, which started at colleges, and the arrival of smartphones. In fact, he was personal friends with Steve Jobs, and he heard one of the early pitches for what would become the first iPod.
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By Ann Claire Carnahan, US News
The job market has fundamentally shifted in the United States and it is changing how and why Americans work. Through the rise of technology and globalization, competition among workers has become fiercer. Education requirements for employees have risen even though jobs are steadily becoming deskilled. And the mounting anxiety over jobs in an increasingly fluid job market has political, social and personal consequences, according to Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of “The Job: Work and its Future in a Time of Radical Change.” In an effort to keep up, Americans are seeking additional education and are learning new skills. “But it will not inoculate them against the changes that are already occurring or that are coming,” Shell says. For example, the vast majority of future jobs will not require a college education. Already, roughly one in three college graduates are underemployed.
Share on FacebookBy IBL News
Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX, decided to channel the funding received with Yidan Prize of $1.8 million to “reimagine undergraduate online education” and foster stackable credentials in this area. That amount corresponds to 50% of the prize, which was granted at an award ceremony in Hong Kong, last December 10. Half of the $3.9M was in the form of a cash prize to the laureate (Mr. Agarwal), while the other was a project fund.
https://iblnews.org/2018/12/31/edx-will-invest-another-1-8m-in-fostering-digital-bachelors-degrees/
Share on FacebookClint Boulton, CIO
Now that your enterprise has experimented in AI it’s time to consider how to expand the efforts. Here’s how, according AI visionary Andrew Ng, as well as experts from PwC and Deloitte. Pilot projects of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies proliferated in 2018, as many enterprises tested machine learning (ML) algorithms and an array of automation tools to cement relationships with customers, improve network operations or augment their cybersecurity postures.
https://www.cio.com/article/3329920/artificial-intelligence/7-tips-for-scaling-your-ai-strategy.html
Share on FacebookBernard Marr, Forbes
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the hot topic of the moment in technology, and the driving force behind most of the big technological breakthroughs of recent years. In fact, with all of the breathless hype we hear about it today, it’s easy to forget that AI isn’t anything all that new. Throughout the last century, it has moved out of the domain of science fiction and into the real world. The theory and the fundamental computer science which makes it possible has been around for decades.
Share on FacebookLaura Portalupi, Coursera Blog
The community is a forum space for our global community of learners to ask questions and help each other out. Anyone can access and read the discussions. To reply or start a new topic, you’ll need a Coursera account. If you’ve participated in course discussion forums before, you know that they’re designed for discussions about that specific course. The new community is geared towards more general discussion about subjects and careers, and anything else you’re passionate about. Since the new forums aren’t connected to a specific course, people aren’t continually finishing and moving on, which means you can really get to know the community members and build strong connections and friendships. You can focus on your learning when you need to and participate in the community when you have the time––think of the community as an additional resource.
https://blog.coursera.org/join-courseras-new-community/
Share on Facebookby BRIDGET BURNS and PETER J. TAYLOR, Hechinger Report
Up to 40 percent of students at four-year institutions do not complete their degrees in six years. That’s why the University Innovation Alliance, a group of 11 public research universities serving 400,000 undergraduate students, decided to collaborate instead of compete with one another. Related: Some colleges extend scholarships and other help to rural high school grads. It’s a concept with potential for higher education, but it may require a shift among leaders conditioned toward competition. Institutions may share a common mission, but they often toil in isolation.
Share on FacebookT E Narasimhan & Gireesh Babu, Business Standard
Online education companies are seeing an increasing interest from recruiters for placements at their job fairs and boot camps, especially in the digital, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning sectors. Some of the online service providers state that there is more growth in terms of both salary levels and students getting recruited. With the placement season going on, engineering students who are adept in digital skills such as AI, data analytics and machine learning are receiving better salaries than those who are only equipped with traditional skills, says Great Learning, an online learning company.
Share on FacebookKarishma Jain, India Today
What learning experience would you prefer: a chapter in a book telling you about Ancient Rome or a completely immersive virtual tour of an ancient Roman town? Most likely, you’d go for a Virtual Reality (VR) tour and so will millions of students all over the world VR can be used to teach lots of things, from history to human anatomy Now imagine that you want to teach biology to children; needless to say, getting them interested in the learning process can be difficult.
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