Online Learning Update

by Stephen Somerville, FE News UK
FutureLearn, the online social learning platform owned by The Open University, has today published new research revealing that employees’ chances of promotion and securing a new role are enhanced by taking an online course. Nearly three quarters (73%) of employers said they thought online courses were either very valuable (33%) or valuable (40%) when considering the promotion of an existing employee.  Professional development through online learning also carried favour among employers when hiring. Online learning was a ‘differentiating factor’ when assessing candidates with similar qualifications or experience for a new role. This was especially true for those in mid-management (73%) and junior/entry level roles (71%). It was less decisive in more senior roles, but still more than half of employers (61%) said it could be a differentiating factor at director level.

https://www.fenews.co.uk/fevoices/20289-online-learning-bolsters-chances-of-promotion

by Seb Murray, Business Because

While many early online platforms were merely a place to repurpose recorded lectures, Harvard’s HBX has become a fully-fledged part of the historic business school. It has grown rapidly, offering 11 courses, from negotiation mastery to entrepreneurship essentials, enrolling more than 30,000 students in three years. There are plans to launch another strategy course and one on alternative investments such as hedge funds and real estate, according to Patrick.

https://www.businessbecause.com/news/hear-from-business-schools/5535/harvard-business-schools-hbx-is-transforming-online-learning

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Cheating has always been a cultural phenomenon, but today’s digital age makes it easier than ever. It can be tempting to find creative solutions to raise your grades without putting in the work. Papers can be written in minutes and the answers to the final exam are easily found online. Teachers and parents have to be aware of the methods students are using to improve their grades and raise their test scores. High-tech cheating has become more difficult to stop than ever before, but our schools must find a way to put an end to it. What steps can schools take to start preventing high-tech cheating before it even happens? Here are a few guidelines you may want to set in place for your classroom.

How to Prevent High-Tech Cheating

By Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

In recent months, some colleges have made arrangements with the MOOC platforms they work with to let students and staff get free access to online certificates and microcredentials created by the universities. This year the University of Michigan launched Michigan Online, a portal that lists the dozens of MOOCs the university has developed, and offers links where current students, faculty members and alumni can get full access to the certificates for free. “We want students around campus to take those courses,” says James DeVaney, associate vice provost for academic innovation at the University of Michigan.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-09-27-moocs-find-a-new-audience-with-on-campus-students

by Philipp Stauffer, Knowledge at Wharton

The open application ecosystems of the internet are dominated by a handful of tech giants today, but crypto technologies could level the foundations of the modern web to establish free and open access to information, connection and exchange, according to this opinion piece by Philipp Stauffer, co-founder and general partner of FYRFLY Venture Partners.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/web-3-0-welcome-new-sober-internet/

George A. Pruitt, Evolllution

Higher education has been evolving into an adult-focused industry since the Second World War—yet the assumptions and motivations that underpin current policies and practices remain rooted in obsolete notions of what works for “traditional” students. With technological advancements, shifting demographics and a constantly evolving regulatory environment, higher education is an industry in flux—and nowhere more so than non-traditional education. As the former president of one of the longest-standing adult-focused universities, George Pruitt understands this environment better than most. In this interview, he offers his insights on the complexities and challenges of adult-serving higher education, and explains why innovation plays such a vital role in shaping both the past and future of this market segment.

How Adult-Serving Institutions Can Continue To Thrive As Interest In Serving Adults Grows

Cameron Bishop, Forbes

Learning and technology walk hand in hand. As high-tech innovations accelerate, so does the opportunity to create better corporate training programs and delivery methods. As the president and CEO of one of the largest learning and development providers in the United States, I have learned that organizations need personalized training that incorporates cutting-edge technology, supports professional development and encourages employee engagement. More than ever, training is effectively providing skills that match the way we learn in a high-tech world. Here are seven of the top training trends you should pay attention to in 2019.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2018/09/24/seven-learning-and-development-trends-to-adopt-in-2019/#5abf3017104b

By Riia O’Donnell, Education Dive
It’s estimated that by 2020 almost 80% of jobs will require some degree of technical skills. The lack of confidence on the part of teachers and the estimated need may be dire news for employers. In a separate PwC survey, 79% of CEOs in the U.S. are concerned the shortage of people with key skills could impact their companies’ growth. At the college level, it’s estimated that 50% of subject knowledge acquired in the first year of a four-year tech degree will be outdated by graduation.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-higher-ed-industry-can-prep-students-for-the-workforce-of-the-future/533200/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
Most Americans support a racially and ethnically diverse student body on college campuses, but they overwhelmingly do not support using race as a factor in college admissions, according to a WGBH News national poll on perceptions of higher education. Overall, more than 77 percent of those surveyed say they believe colleges and universities have a positive impact on society, and 81 percent believe colleges and universities have a positive impact on the local community. While 76 percent have a favorable opinion of public higher education, only 59 percent shared that opinion when asked about private colleges and universities.

5 public opinions about the state of higher education

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) recently announced grants to eight public universities that are forging community partnerships to improve students’ access to and overall success in college. Supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Collaborative Opportunity Grants provide each institution with $50,000 to “collaborate, accelerate and improve implementation efforts,” as well as additional support and resources from APLU and USU. Four of the grantees — University of Cincinnati, George Mason University, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Wayne State University — are receiving funding for the first, time, while the other four — California State University, Fresno, Cleveland State University, the University of Memphis and the University of South Alabama — were awarded Collaborative Opportunity Grants in 2017 and are receiving additional funding to expand their projects.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/09/17/8-universities-leveraging-community-partnerships-to-boost-student-outcomes.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampusNews
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is set to have a broad impact on future jobs, and the effects will trickle down to higher ed.  While artificial intelligence (AI) hasn’t yet had a wide-reaching impact on the workforce, AI skills are predicted to remain in increasingly high demand. With so many industries seeing the potential for AI applications come to fruition, the economy will need highly-trained workers to fill what is likely to be a rising demand for such skills.

7 ways AI will shape the future of education and work

by Kimberly Collins, ClickZ

Enterprises today amass a huge amount of data—but end up using only a small sliver of it for actual analysis. Companies use just 1-3% of hundreds of billions of data points per customer to unlock insights. Naturally, the question arises, what’s happening with the other 97-99% of that data? What risks and opportunities are we missing? Adobe Analytics may be able to help us find out. Adobe announced the next generation of “Virtual Analyst” in Adobe Analytics. It’s an AI assistant tool that will analyze vast amounts of data to provide recommendations on what to examine further. They say it’s “designed for the non-quant, to help them perform tasks of a data scientist.”

Adobe Analytics unveils Virtual Analyst to find insights in unused data

BY SANDRA FYFE, eCampus News

Colleges need to have a savvy social-media presence to attract and hold Generation Z’s attention as well as to address their academic, personal, and career needs. To reach students, colleges must develop effective digital tactics both inside and outside the classroom. And to reach Gen Z where they live, you need to use their favorite platforms—Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, says Nicole Kraft, who teaches journalism at Ohio State University, which ranks sixth in BestColleges.com’s Stars of Social Media Colleges 2018. According to Kraft, professors need to teach students how to use platforms properly before giving assignments.

How to use social media to engage Gen Z in class and beyond

by Paige Francis, P.B. Garrett, Cindy Mitchell, Sharon Pitt and Theresa Rowe, EDUCAUSE Review

IT professionals are engaged in more than could even have been imagined two decades ago. Yet the issues discussed then continue to resonate today and offer insight into the future of the profession. Nearly twenty years ago, a panel of technology leaders selected by EDUCAUSE Review answered questions about the future of the higher education IT field.1 Much has changed since. IT professionals are engaged in more than could even have been imagined two decades ago. Yet the issues discussed then continue to resonate today and offer insight into the future of the profession. Below we offer our thoughts on, and answers to, these same questions.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/8/perspectives-on-the-future-of-the-profession-looking-forward-then-and-now

By Malini Goyal, ET

When I started my college, I had two choices: rant about India’s education system or do something about it. I chose the latter,” says Sanyam Bhutani, 21, a BTech student at SRM College, Chennai.  He chose Udacity — a massive open online course (MOOC) platform that allows users to study courses offered by some prestigious global universities, sitting in their bedrooms — to get ahead of the rest. Bhutani, who is in his final year of college, was soon able to equip himself with adequate skills to float a startup called neuroascent.ml, which pitches for global projects in machine learning and computer vision.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/massive-open-online-courses-have-got-a-second-wind/articleshow/65914966.cms

by WXYZ

Sept. 15 marked National Online Learning Day and Dr. Jill Langen of Baker College Online stopped by to debunk a few myths about cyber learning in higher education. Here are the top 5 myths about online learning, according to Baker College Online:

https://www.wxyz.com/news/these-are-the-top-5-myths-about-online-learning

By David Ramel, Campus Technology
Organizations are hard put to keep pace with new developments in the networking industry, according to a new report. “Between multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and software-defined networking (SDN), there were about 15 years where the networking world was pretty static,” said Avi Freedman, co-founder and CEO of network analytics firm Kentik, which conducted the survey. “Right now we’re in a world moving as fast as the ISP world did back in the 90s. Every few weeks there’s something new.” The firm polled 531 networking pros during the recent Cisco Live 2018 conference to determine current networking trends and how organizations are addressing industry challenges.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/09/12/organizations-hard-put-to-keep-pace-with-sdn.aspx

by Meg Loyd, Campus Technology

In several Augmented Archives programs, students use augmented reality (AR) to create museum exhibits of the college’s most precious and historic archival materials — utilizing the technology to encourage high levels of patron interaction with primary source materials that otherwise require restricted physical access. The AR exhibits are created for the public and the many types of users who may be interested in interacting with these materials digitally. Archivists and instructional technologists work with students in different contexts, and at different points in the progress through their academic careers at Washington College, to move the overall initiative forward.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/09/18/bringing-primary-source-materials-to-life-with-ar.aspx

Dante Mills, IUS Horizon

The learning experience in traditional classes and online classes tends to differ due to various educational approaches used.. But how drastic is this difference? Naturally, with anything, there are pros and cons. We asked IUS students their opinions about taking classes online or on campus. “During summer, I would prefer online classes, because I get to spend my summer not trapped in classrooms, but I would prefer on-campus classes during fall and spring semesters,” Kiko Dixon, junior, said. IUS alumnus Brodie Hillegas had a different opinion.  “I would prefer to take classes on campus,” Hillegas said. “When you take classes online it takes more willpower.”

The evolution of learning environments

By Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Ed
The U. of Pennsylvania’s new bachelor’s-degree program, aimed at nontraditional students, illustrates the growing credibility and popularity of online education. Starting next fall, the University of Pennsylvania will offer what it says is the first online bachelor’s degree at an Ivy League college, an illustration of the growing credibility and popularity of online education. Designed for adult learners, the program will confer a bachelor of applied arts and sciences, and will enroll students through the School of Arts and Sciences’ College of Liberal and Professional Studies, which serves working adults and other nontraditional students.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/U-of-Pennsylvania-Says-It/244558

by B S Balaji, Deccan Herald

As Malcolm Knowles, the American adult educator, had pointed out motivation is key to adult learning or andragogy. In fact, the fundamental assumptions of andragogy form an important basis for MOOC. In traditional schooling, most of the students little or no freedom and flexibility to learn outside the curriculum prescribed by the respective boards. Although many parents insist that their wards learn more than what is taught in the classroom, it is not the norm.

https://www.deccanherald.com/supplements/dh-education/licence-learn-online-courses-693461.html