Educational Technology

June 30, 2021

How higher ed is becoming more resilient

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:39 am

Nicole Engelbert, eCampus News

Prioritizing certain steps, such as preparing for an innovative future, will help higher ed survive the curveball from COVID-19. The past year has put the higher education industry to the test. The onset and continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic has required a massive operational shift that many institutions were not prepared for, and schools have had to pivot quickly to make sure that systems and staff alike are as well-prepared as possible to exist in a now predominantly virtual environment. Perhaps the biggest lesson we’ve learned so far is that higher education institutions must increase their resiliency and agility in order to meet evolving staff and student needs.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/06/18/how-higher-ed-is-becoming-more-resilient/

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Continuing blended learning in the fall? Keep these 9 steps in mind for success.

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Thomas Arnett, Christensen Institute

Effective blended learning breaks the constraints of conventional instruction pervasive in many schools today to unlock customized; competency-based; anytime, anywhere learning for a student population with increasingly diverse needs. When implemented with time to plan, blended learning is much more than a last-resort modality for teachers and students. Building a blended learning program is a process, not an event. The first step in that process is to bring a diverse group together and consider what assumptions you are making when going blended.

https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/continuing-blended-learning-in-the-fall-keep-these-9-steps-in-mind-for-success/

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Why Improving Diversity in Cybersecurity Is Important to Everyone

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

Danny Palmer, ZD Net

Improving diversity in the cybersecurity industry by doing more to hire people from different backgrounds can help improve online defences for everyone because it will enable information security teams to think about – and defend against – concepts and attack techniques they may not have considered before. Figures from an NCSC report on diversity detail how over 85% of professionals working in cybersecurity are white, compared to under 15% from black, Asian or mixed ethic groups. Two-thirds of the industry identifies as male, compared to 31% identifying as female, while over 84% of those surveyed identify as straight, compared with 10% who identified as LGBT. But diversity is – gradually – increasing.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-improving-diversity-in-cybersecurity-is-vital-for-everyone/

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June 29, 2021

MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 2:50 pm

MIT and Harvard University have announced a major transition for edX, the nonprofit organization they launched in 2012 to provide an open online platform for university courses: edX’s assets are to be acquired by the publicly-traded education technology company 2U, and reorganized as a public benefit company under the 2U umbrella. The transaction is structured to ensure that edX continues in its founding mission, and features a wide array of protections for edX learners, partners, and faculty who contribute courses.

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How can I become an anti-racist leader? 7 questions campus leadership should ask themselves |

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

Meacie Fairfax, EAB

College leaders want to do the right thing and combat inequities and discrimination, yet these conversations are hard. So hard that they rarely happen in a meaningful way. It is no longer enough just to commission strategic plans or documents rife with diversity, equity, and inclusion language and hope for the change to happen. Leaders need to dig in, ask tough questions, and talk about the state of race and equity on their campuses.

https://eab.com/insights/blogs/student-success/anti-racist-campus-leadership/
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What do law students think of remote learning during the pandemic? A new survey sheds light

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:36 am

STEPHANIE FRANCIS WARD, ABA Journal

First-year law students are more satisfied with online learning than those who started law school before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey released Wednesday by the AccessLex Institute and Gallup. Titled Law School in a Pandemic: Student Perspectives on Distance Learning and Lessons for the Future, the survey was conducted between February and March 2021, with a sample of 1,739 currently enrolled law students. For the spring 2021 and fall 2020 semesters, about 90% of law students took at least half their courses online, according to the survey.

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/what-do-law-students-think-of-remote-learning-during-the-pandemic

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Remote Learning Remains Popular at Modesto Junior College

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

Government Tech

Having lost a fifth of its enrollment from fall 2019 to 2020, MJC is preparing for a fall semester with fewer course offerings, sparsely populated classes and nearly half its students now favoring remote instruction. MJC, like other community colleges in California, suffered quite a toll from the public health crisis, including a 20-percent enrollment drop from 18,066 in fall 2019 to 14,489 in fall 2020. Aside from the effects of remote learning on students, college and career paths were interrupted, and sports and performing arts programs were affected.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/remote-learning-remains-popular-at-modesto-junior-college

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June 28, 2021

Global E-learning Market Report 2021-2026: Paradigm Shift from Content Delivery to Interactive Learning Platforms

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Research and Markets

The e-learning market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 13% during 2020-2026. The online learning market is likely to witness an absolute growth of about 110% by 2026. The online education market and content delivery is seeing a paradigm shift from content delivery to interactive learning platforms, language training, functional skill development, proficiency testing, and higher education pedagogy, video streaming of classes to corporate training, talent management, and e-governance.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/06/16/2247918/0/en/Global-E-learning-Market-Report-2021-2026-Paradigm-Shift-from-Content-Delivery-to-Interactive-Learning-Platforms.html

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Quantifying COVID Impacts

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed

A National Center on Education Statistics report documents the impact of the pandemic on student enrollment and financial stability across demographic categories and institution types. About 40 percent of undergraduates experienced a financial disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 8.2 percent either withdrew (4.4 percent) or took a leave of absence (3.8 percent) from their institution, according to a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics on the ways the pandemic affected undergraduate student finances, housing and enrollment. Over all, 87.5 percent of students reported experiencing a disruption or change in their enrollment due to COVID-19, with 84.1 percent saying that some or all of their classes moved to online-only formats.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/17/nces-report-examines-impacts-pandemic-undergraduate-enrollment-finances-and-housing

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How Open Education Enables Culturally Responsive Teaching

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

Ruanda Garth McCullough and Richard Sebastian, Faculty Focus

If students can see themselves and their communities in what they’re learning, then they learn differently—and better. This is the idea behind culturally responsive teaching (CRT). With CRT, students’ cultural knowledge is seen as an asset in the classroom, not something that should be checked at the door. Cultural responsiveness is not new, but in this year of reckoning with racial inequity, there is renewed interest among higher education instructors. Bringing cultural responsiveness into teaching isn’t just about checking a box or making an instructor feel good about doing “the equitable thing.” CRT yields tangible benefits for students, facilitating brain processing and cultivating critical thinking skills. Research has shown that students are most satisfied with instructors who respect and are inclusive of cultural differences.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/equality-inclusion-and-diversity/how-open-education-enables-culturally-responsive-teaching/

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June 27, 2021

The 7 Best Online Learning Platforms of 2021

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

Ernest Hamilton, Science Times

Online learning has rapidly evolved in recent years especially since the pandemic has struck the world. Online learning is convenient, effective, cheaper and takes much less time as compared to the traditional learning methods. Whether you want to learn a new marketable skill or just want to learn something new online learning is the way to go. In this piece, we are going to discuss the top 7 e-learning independent platforms in 2021.

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/31703/20210614/the-7-best-online-learning-platforms-of-2021.htm

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UK-Based FutureLearn is an online learning platform with over 1,000 courses from top schools and organizations

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Julia Pugachevsky, Business Insider

Like e-learning platforms edX and Coursera, FutureLearn, a UK-based e-learning platform, offers over 1,000 online courses from schools like Cambridge, UCL, and The University of Kent — making it a particularly good option for e-learning content from global universities. Below, we rounded up some of the most popular ones, in topics from fiction writing and career development to forensic science and nutrition.

https://www.businessinsider.com/futurelearn-best-free-online-courses

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Combining Online Courses With In-Person Supports, ‘Hybrid Colleges’ Unite

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:31 am

Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

Calling themselves “hybrid colleges,” these mini campus centers have set big goals for themselves, such as bringing college within reach for people historically left out of higher education. Now, more than a dozen of these nonprofits are strengthening their bonds and committing to shared goals by creating the Hybrid College Network. “The network is incredibly collaborative. They’re proud of the model because it is serving students really well,” says Lauren Trent, CEO of AdvanceEDU in Colorado, which launched in 2020. “There is mutual interest in learning from each other, when the models are different, what is driving student success?”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-06-14-combining-online-courses-with-in-person-supports-hybrid-colleges-unite

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June 26, 2021

6 charts showing the state of college enrollment in spring 2021

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

Hallie Busta, HigherEd Dive

The higher education sector didn’t get a reprieve from the enrollment losses that defined the fall term, new data shows. Instead, the numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found a few enduring trends. In all, colleges reporting to the Clearinghouse brought in roughly 600,000 fewer students this spring compared to a year ago, a figure that includes graduates and undergraduates. That’s more than the 460,000-student decrease between the falls of 2019 and 2020. The pandemic is exacerbating a trend in recent years of fewer men enrolling in postsecondary education. Shorter-term credentials could be one option for this group, the publication noted, though the latest Clearinghouse data shows the steepest declines at community colleges, which offer more such programs.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/6-charts-showing-the-state-of-college-enrollment-in-spring-2021/601781/

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What We Can Do About Biased AI

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Jody Glidden, Information Week

In 2014, Amazon wanted to automate its recruiting process. Their solution was to create an AI program that would review job applicants’ resumes and feed the recruiters a score. While this did whittle down the list, by the following year, Amazon had realized there was an issue, as the system was not rating women candidates equally to men. Since the workforce was 60% males, the system incorrectly assumed that the company preferred men. Once the problem was discovered, the company quickly reverted back to the method of reading the resumes.While this illustrates how biases can creep into the systems, how do we go about laying the groundwork of establishing ethical AI systems?

https://beta.informationweek.com/ai-or-machine-learning/what-we-can-do-about-biased-ai

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Coursera: The ‘Amazon’ Of Online Education May Grow By Magnitudes

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

Harrison Schwartz, Seeking Alpha
Increasing student dissatisfaction and declining enrollment suggest that many people are rethinking traditional methods of higher education. The historical value of universities is becoming defunct as the internet allows a more efficient, less expensive, and more accessible vector of transmitting knowledge. Innovative platforms like Coursera offer students a huge “marketplace” of high-quality courses far less expensive than those in traditional universities. Given Coursera’s minimal barriers to growth and its massive total addressable market, I would not be surprised to see its annual revenue rise by 10X or more within years.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4434604-coursera-the-amazon-of-online-education-may-grow-by-magnitudes

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June 25, 2021

The Biden Administration Launches the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

the White House

As directed by Congress in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, the Task Force will serve as a Federal advisory committee to help create and implement a blueprint for the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) — a shared research infrastructure providing AI researchers and students across all scientific disciplines with access to computational resources, high-quality data, educational tools, and user support. A Federal Register notice will call for nominations of experts who will bring a broad range of perspectives in developing recommendations on these issues, including perspectives from labor, education, research, startup businesses and more.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2021/06/10/the-biden-administration-launches-the-national-artificial-intelligence-research-resource-task-force/

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E-Learning Market to Reach $1 Trillion Within 6 Years

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

David Nagel, Campus Technology
The prevalence of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is helping to drive staggering growth in the worldwide e-learning market. As of 2020, the e-learning market was at $250 billion, according to market research firm Global Market Insights. That is expected to surge at a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent through 2027, to hit $1 trillion. That includes academic, corporate and government use of e-learning.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/06/09/elearning-market-to-reach-1-trillion-within-6-years.aspx

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3 things that could make hybrid learning permanent

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:25 am

Laura Ascione, eCampus News
The COVID-induced move to hybrid learning could lead many institutions to evolve and innovate in myriad beneficial directions. Institutions turning to a hybrid learning approach during COVID-19 could be on their way to becoming more student-centered, according to a recent report. Research from Deloitte’s Center for Higher Education Excellence and Strada Education Network explores changes in three critical areas–academic affairs, student success, and the campus workforce–that may contribute to a more permanent hybrid model at universities. COVID-19 forced an abrupt shift to online learning on campuses across the globe, and with that shift came an increased focus on longstanding issues such as tech infrastructure and financial sustainability.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/06/14/3-things-that-could-make-hybrid-learning-permanent/

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June 24, 2021

Research Raiders: How to Protect Collaborative Data

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:39 am

Steve Scholz, EDUCAUSE Review

Colleges and universities of all sizes conduct research across a number of fields and disciplines.  But while many institutions may hold rivalries on the football field, when it comes to collaborating on and sharing research, they have many reasons to put aside the big foam fingers and work together. This collegiate spirit of reciprocity regarding data collection and analysis not only produces more balanced and meaningful knowledge but also cuts down on duplication of efforts, establishes accountability and transparency, and enables more rapid validation of findings.Footnote1 Yet this interinstitutional cooperation also introduces a challenge: how to protect the digital transfer of valuable (and possibly classified) material from cyberattacks.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/6/research-raiders-how-to-protect-collaborative-data

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Pandemic Lessons: What are the realities of being a pandemic graduate?

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Tim O’Shei, Buffalo News

Today’s graduates – and their slightly older and younger classmates – have been challenged and tested, their resolve galvanized by not only a long race through the pandemic, but by a lifetime of seismic issues. Today’s graduates have grown up in a post-9/11 world defined by multiple wars, mass shootings, climate change, the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, racial reckonings, the advancement of LGBTQ-plus rights and the intense political clashes of recent years. “My generation is tough as hell,” Evenden said. “My generation is special. We approach things with words and thoughts. We care about mental health. My generation is going to fix a lot of the problems in this country and this world.”

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/pandemic-lessons-what-are-the-realities-of-being-a-pandemic-graduate/article_1c4eddb4-cbd6-11eb-9506-eb684145e3d3.html

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