Educational Technology

by Errol Craig Sull, Magna Publications

Anyone who teaches online has run into problems within their courses. Some of these problems can be complicated and if not correctly resolved can do major damage to the online instructor’s reputation and opportunity for teaching future courses. This month’s column tackles the worst of these. Culled from hundreds of emails I have received over the years from online instructors, as well as from my 18 years of online teaching experience, the 10 major obstacles and their solutions that follow have come up more than any others.

http://www.magnapubs.com/blog/teaching-and-learning/overcoming-the-10-most-serious-and-challenging-obstacles-of-teaching-online/

By Marcella Bombardieri, Boston Globe

David E. Pritchard has dedicated his life to physics, conducting pioneering work in atom optics and mentoring But now Pritchard, whose aviator glasses and flyaway gray hair give him the look of the quintessential MIT professor, has dropped his physics research “cold turkey,” as he puts it. A new frontier of human knowledge has captivated him and others in academia: studying how people learn and finding ways to teach more effectively. Fueling their enthusiasm is the explosion of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, the new species of free classes prestigious universities are offering to students around the world. As educators debate what the classes mean for the future of traditional universities, one thing is clear — they provide a vast laboratory to study learning, using a trail of electronic data to examine what resources or study habits best help students, whether they take courses online or in traditional classrooms.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/06/08/professors-take-lessons-from-online-teaching/K5XTNA8N1cVGLQ8JJW5PCL/story.html

By Anthony Dent, National Review

Earlier this week, Andy Kessler gave three cheers to the new partnership between Georgia Tech and Udacity achievement in the WSJ — but I’m not sure that he was right to hoist the MOOCification of the field of computer science as the standard for the rest of academia to follow. Kessler quickly turned from praising Georgia Tech to castigating a few schools that chose not to jump aboard the MOOC bandwagon: Duke University, Amherst College, and San Jose State University. As a Tar Heel, my beef is definitely not with his criticism of Duke. As much as it pains me to admit, however, I think Kessler is off the mark — the Duke faculty may actually be right. For one thing, he omitted a crucial detail: The online MS, or MOOMS, is still very much distinct from the on-campus MS degree. Georgia Tech does not consider the MOOMS degree to be anything other than vocational.

http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/350442/one-cheer-moocs-anthony-dent

By ezinemark.com

Give your students timely, detailed feedback nearly in real time with straight-forward assessment tools. Create an online test with your own question. Then publish and share tests with your students for regular formative assessment, controlling who takes them, tracking how many times students attempt a given test, and getting reports or giving immediate feedback. And now, with new polling features, in-class dipsticking just got a lot easier. Quality courses require planning, preparation and dedication.

http://www.spyghana.com/the-online-classroom-program-thrives-on-communication/

by Jessica Sun, LaVoz Weekly

De Anza President Brian Murphy said, “The skepticism from SJSU and that you would hear from our faculty is whether or not the prepackaged online massive courses replicate the lecture system that partially we tried to get away from by having smaller classes.” Along with the pedagogical qualms about MOOCs, some are concerned they will enable policy makers to defund public education and to divert the conversation away from course reductions. “I think it’s critical that those who are pushing them (MOOCs) to teach us more about what the substantive learning outcomes are, because right now the conversation is almost entirely about cost and how you can lower cost by eliminating courses, and we believe that’s the wrong place to start,” Murphy said. Karen Chow, president of De Anza’s academic senate, said that faculty are not readily embracing this idea because they could not revise contents to more adequately serve the student population of an individual campus.

http://www.lavozdeanza.com/news/2013/06/07/moocs-raise-questions/

by Lee Konstantinou, the Los Angeles Review of Books

The Los Angeles Review of Books invited four distinguished professors, some of whom have experience teaching online, to reflect on the risks and opportunities MOOCs present for the humanities. Our goal is not to offer any sort of final word on the phenomenon, but rather to inspire further debate and reflection. Our discussion comes in two parts. Today, we publish four initial position papers by our contributors. Tomorrow, we will publish further discussion of these initial essays. We encourage our readers to continue the discussion in the comments section as well.

http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?type=&id=1757&fulltext=1&media=#article-text-cutpoint

by Clyde Smith, Hypebot

Berklee College of Music’s online division is taking a somewhat bold move and releasing a free BitTorrent Bundle of music lesson videos and ebooks. Given a still controversial BitTorrent brand, Berklee Online’s choice to take advantage of BitTorrent tech may surprise some but seems in keeping with the online division’s embrace of current options to share educational materials while marketing their online classes. The Berklee Online Musician’s Guide was released yesterday as a BitTorrent Bundle. Such bundles have previously contained multimedia content by musicians and other artists and this seems to be the first example of such related content being distributed as a BitTorrent Bundle by an educational institution or other business.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/06/berklee-online-releases-bittorrent-bundle-of-music-lesson-videos-and-ebooks.html

by the Collinsville News

Oklahoma State University-Tulsa is offering undergraduate and graduate students a financial incentive for taking classes on campus this fall. The “Get Here” tuition waiver offers students a $250 discount for taking classes on campus at OSU-Tulsa instead of online for the Fall 2013 semester. Undergraduate students with a 2.00 GPA must be taking at least 15 hours on site and not have any other tuition waivers. Graduate students with a 3.00 GPA must take at least nine hours on site, but may have other tuition waivers up to the cost of their tuition.

http://thecollinsvillenews.com/multimedia/get-here-tuition-waiver-offers-incentive-for-taking-onsite-classes/article_ed4d07fc-cedb-11e2-b7f7-0019bb2963f4.html

by Michael Horn, Forbes

We education transformers—those who do not want to just reform education but to transform it into a student-centric design—don’t have all the answers for how to do this well. We should admit that. But Cuban and others could help. Rather than simply act as naysayers who say why everything is doomed to fail, they could be part of “the solution.” Asking how we might make this unique opportunity different—or pointing out where we are erring in shaping it in a constructive fashion—would go a long way. The past is instructive, but it should help guide us forward, not hold us back.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2013/06/06/avoid-the-hype-online-learnings-transformational-potential/

by the University of Chicago

The University of Chicago will begin offering free, not-for-credit, online courses later this year in partnership with education company Coursera. On the recommendation of two provost-appointed faculty committees, chaired by Prof. Roy E. Weiss, Deputy Provost for Research, and Michael Schill, dean of the Law School, and charged to deliberate on the University’s posture towards online course offerings for credit and not-for-credit, University leaders have decided to proceed on a path that will allow faculty to experiment, on a voluntary basis, with different online venues that might provide additional reach for their teaching and research. “The committees’ very University of Chicago recommendations—emphasizing experimentation, rigorous evaluation and faculty oversight—should permit us to address student, faculty and alumni needs while preserving flexibility in rapidly developing terrain,” said Provost Thomas F. Rosenbaum.

http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/06/04/uchicago-signs-coursera-begins-online-education-experiment

by the Roanoke Times

Larry Sabato doesn’t need to teach a free online course to become a celebrity professor. The director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics is one of the most visible and quoted academics in the country, analyzing topics as broad as presidential elections and as close to home as your local House of Delegates race. But this fall, Sabato will enter the brave, new world of “massive open online courses,” or MOOCs. Sabato will lead a free online course examining the administration of President John F. Kennedy and his legacy in the half-century since his assassination. But, for academia, the possibilities come with perils. Sabato said universities must come up with a business model that ensures they don’t give away their intellectual product, which costs money to develop and sustain. Some have raised concerns that branded online courses offered by elite universities could diminish traditional programs at smaller colleges that thrive on face-to-face interaction between faculty and students.

http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/editorial/1982341-12/higher-educationfor-the-masses.html

by MIT

EdX, the not-for-profit online learning enterprise composed of the leading global institutions of the xConsortium, released its learning platform via open source license on June 1 and today released details of the first educational institutions and organizations that are contributing code to the platform. In addition to the early and continuing contributions of edX founding partners, MIT and Harvard, xConsortium members such as Berkeley and University of Queensland are collaborating on the edX platform. Stanford University and technology providers 10gen and the Concord Consortium are also contributing to the platform. EdX is working closely with these organizations to provide source code, development resources and a collaborative environment to facilitate ongoing enhancements and features.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/edx-builds-community-of-developers-for-its-platform.html

By Michael B. Horn, Education Next

The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) has stood out as one group trying to fill the data gap about what’s happening in California’s schools—and it’s done its work in a nuanced way that gives a reasonably meaningful picture, not just high-level aggregate numbers. The results from its latest survey of California districts and charters, released May 20, shows that although 46 percent of respondents report having students participate in online or blended learning, just 19 percent of elementary districts and charters engage in online learning whereas a whopping 73 percent of unified and high school districts and charters do. Furthermore, of those districts or charters that say they have students learning online, 78 percent indicated that high-school students participate in online learning; 49 percent said middle-school students do; and 28 percent said elementary-school students are engaged in online learning. Not only that, but how schools are blending online learning differs starkly between elementary schools and secondary schools as well.

http://educationnext.org/data-support-disruption-theory-as-online-blended-learning-grow/

by the Yakima Herald

A building near Toppenish Middle School offers a physical presence along with 60 computers for use by online students. Four Toppenish district teachers work with the students, who are required to spend at least one day a week on site. The accountability lies in having students meet the same state requirements as their classroom counterparts, including passing state assessment tests. In that sense, they are like all other students. Even in this brave new world, some old-school standards still apply. Students must be able to work independently and live in a home environment that fosters concentration on schoolwork. Instructors still need to stay on top of what the student is doing.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/yhr/wednesday/1201244-8/online-school-helps-educate-hard-to-reach-student-body

by the Associated Press

The Senate has tentatively approved legislation allowing teen-agers to take more courses through South Carolina’s virtual education program. The 44-0 vote Tuesday allows for the measure to become law this year. The bill requires another vote in the Senate. The House passed it in April. The bill removes state law’s limits of three online credit hours per year and 12 toward a high school diploma. Students would still be barred from earning a diploma through the free program that’s available to all seventh- through 12-graders, depending on availability.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/education/article/Bill-could-allow-teens-to-take-more-online-classes-4576455.php

by PERSEPHONE NICHOLAS, AFR

Rowan Kunz is the founder of myEd Online, a provider of interactive digital courses delivered to learners via a gamified, e-learning platform, and Art of Smart Education, an award-winning provider of academic coaching and mentoring for high school students. “Everyone has unique potential and capacity; education helps unlock that. It’s so important for Australia that all our young people have access to educational resources that can help them realise that potential.” Kunz says technology is a great enabler and allows educational content to be delivered in a highly motivating way. But he believes the drive to equip schools with more computers can be somewhat misguided: “The federal government is trying to find ways to make learning more engaging by putting laptops and iPads in schools. But although technology in many ways has the potential to be a great equaliser, especially for educational outcomes, it’s just a tool and can be used well or poorly. Learning needs to be fun and personalised to give students the best chance of success.”

http://www.afr.com/p/engaging_kids_through_interactive_MAPQGcR93XS6GukJYKGInJ

by Phil Hill, e-Literate

The MOOC providers set out to revolutionize higher education, but as Daphne Koller indicated the usage of standalone MOOC courses to date is not sufficient, despite the huge numbers of enrolled students. The data points to the need for targeting degree-seeking students in a more aggressive manner than the current “it’s open for all” approach while also finding more immediate methods for allowing MOOC students to earn academic credit. To allow for academic credit for MOOCs, the actual course designs and assessment have satisfy accrediting bodies, and the credits have to be accepted by degree-granting institutions. To have a real impact on helping students get their degrees, there seems to be two choices: Option 1) Replace colleges and universities as providers of for-credit courses or even degree programs.  Option 2) Work with colleges and universities to embed MOOC courses or courseware into for-credit courses or degree programs. The biggest news in the MOOC world in 2013 is the development of Option 2), which is the only viable way in the short term for MOOCs to directly impact degree-seeking higher education students.

http://mfeldstein.com/moocs-beyond-professional-development-courseras-big-announcement-in-context/

by Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

Education startup Instructure has raised $30 million in a Series D round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and including Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, EPIC Ventures and OpenView Partners. Instructure, an education startup set on knocking learning management system (LMS) Blackboard off its throne, has raised $30 million in a Series D financing round meant to help the company move closer to an eventual public offering. The startup, which has previously raised about $20 million in venture financing, said the round included existing investors EPIC Ventures, OpenView Partners and TomorrowVentures, but was led by Bessemer Venture Partners – a firm chosen for its cachet, as well as its IPO expertise. “That’s where we’re headed,” said CEO Josh Coates. “We are here to be a permanent, standalone company

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/05/with-30m-led-by-bessemer-education-startup-instructure-eyes-ipo/

by Michael Gorman, 21 Century Ed

Welcome to a series that is must read for any PBL or STEM educator. It will include information to reflect and build upon as you consider both PBL and STEM. Best of all, it will finish with over 50 amazing resources you will want to investigate. First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.

http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/part-5-14-amazing-project-sites-a-stem-pbl-common-core-series-a-goldmine-of-resources/

By David Raths, THE Journal

With the help of browser-based software, students in BYOD districts can be on the same page even if they have different devices. When school district leaders talk about the potential benefits of “bring your own device” programs, they often mention budget savings and promoting personalized, mobile learning. They note that BYOD can expand the boundaries of learning beyond the classroom. But not many of these leaders mention enhanced student collaboration as an obvious benefit of BYOD. This is partly because, when students come to class bearing a plethora of devices on multiple platforms, sharing resources can get complicated.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/05/30/schools-share-tips-and-tools-for-collaborating-in-the-byod-classroom.aspx

by Joanna Lyn Grama, EDUCAUSE Review

Interviewed members of the IT Issues Panel believe that higher education IT organizations are going through a period of great change and may even be in the throes of an identity crisis. Are higher education IT departments utilities, or are they service organizations that provide leadership? Taking a proactive stance and remaining adaptable are two ways to deal with ongoing transformations.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/transformative-period-higher-education-it-having-identity-crisis