Educational Technology

by W.W., the Economist

California legislators are considering a new law that would require state universities to offer college credit for approved online courses. However, the threat is rather more general. John Hechinger and Michael McDonald of Bloomberg report: Faculty are rightly concerned because the Internet is likely to reduce the number of professors and colleges over time, said Michael Horn, executive director of education for the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a San Mateo, California-based nonprofit research organization.Christensen, a Harvard business school professor, has predicted that in 15 years, half of all universities will be out of business because higher education, with its skyrocketing costs, is ripe for technological upheaval.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/05/online-college-courses

by Katya Soldak, Forbes

Coursera, one of the most popular providers for MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has recently partnered with eight countries to translate its lectures for students around the world. The company will translate selected courses into many popular languages such as Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Ukrainian, Kazakh, and Arabic. Each Coursera Global Translation Partner will begin by translating 3-5 select courses, with the majority of translated courses being available by September 2013. This month, Coursera announced its Global Partnership with Victor Pinchuk Foundation for translation of its courses. A pilot translation collaboration of Coursera and Digital October took off in Russia earlier this spring.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2013/05/28/online-education-no-longer-lost-in-translation/

By WALTER C. JONES, Online Athens

A two-year study by the University System of Georgia shows classrooms are empty during most of the week. Of the 440 classrooms at the University of Georgia, the average is used just 18.5 hours per 40-hour work week, and when used, just two-thirds of the seats are full, according to the study. That is a 31 percent utilization rate. It was at a 2011 meeting that Chancellor Hank Huckaby told the board his reasons for launching the analysis as a way to cope with economic realities. Renovation, better scheduling or changing the purpose of existing buildings will be options to new construction. Another factor is the increasing use of online courses, which will change the demands for classrooms in the future, officials say.

http://onlineathens.com/uga/2013-05-25/uga-other-universities-show-low-classroom-utilization-rate

By Rachel Williams, Central Florida Future

UCF provides 3,576 online courses and students can even obtain one of more than a dozen undergraduate and graduate degrees through a fully online degree program provided by online.ucf.edu. To accommodate the millennial generation, universities are offering more online classes than ever before. But as students continue to add these courses to their schedules, they may not be aware that online courses require an extra $18 per credit hour fee. “All fees are spiked and it’s unbelievable,” Khadija Hussein, a senior pre-clinical health major, said. Associate Vice President of Distributed Learning at UCF Thomas Cavanagh said during the 2012-2013 academic year, 3,576 online courses were offered out of a total 17,517 courses at UCF. Approximately 74 percent of UCF students took at least one of those classes during that time. “Online courses continue to grow at a steady pace every year,” Cavanagh said. The distance learning course fee supports the extra costs associated with the design, development, delivery and support of the courses. Money collected from the fee can only be used to reimburse the costs associated with online learning, Cavanagh said.

http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/news/students-cough-up-extra-cash-for-online-courses-1.2828504#.UaKn4tI3uxI

By Andrew C. Oliver, InfoWorld

I’ve been taking free business courses online at Coursera, despite some annoying limitations. I love it, especially since I don’t have a few years and a few hundred thousand bucks to blow attending our local business school — which I’m sure is very good, but hey, I have a business to run. But there’s more to Coursera. I was recently interviewed by a reporter from the BBC aboutmy post questioning the value of the modern computer science degree. At the time, Coursera didn’t have a great background in theory. This has now changed. Coursera offers what could be considered a basic grounding in computer science theory from some of the most prestigious universities.

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-05-2013/130516-free-online-classes-for-software-developers.html

by Tom Abrahams, ABC 13

It seems higher education gets more expensive every year. Some professors at Rice University have come up with a new way to bring down the cost, while changing the way students are taught. Textbooks are a large part of college students’ education costs, but professors at Rice University are trying to change that. Christian Seberino is on the cutting edge of education. “The light bulb went on that I could use them for my home-school classes,” he said. A PhD who teaches math and physics, he offers his private students and those at Lone Star College the option of digital textbooks. “For every single class, I was eventually able to find a free textbook,” Seberino said. It’s online learning for free, and it’s saving his students hundreds of dollars. When he can find the right book…

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/education&id=9115390