Online Learning Update

by Hallie Busta, Education Dive
Land grant and other large research universities are taking on the mantle of workforce development and fostering entrepreneurship — long the domain of community colleges and vocational programs — and that federal government partnerships are essential to doing so, the Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities explained in a policy position paper released Wednesday. The paper discusses five areas that universities and federal policymakers must address to ensure higher education institutions are meeting workforce needs. Those include supporting rural communities, establishing American leadership in advanced manufacturing, and bolstering innovation and entrepreneurship within institutions. The high-level recommendations are intended as a reference point for progress achieved by partnerships to date as well as a jumping-off point for future collaborations.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/workforce-development-entrepreneurship-are-growing-priorities-for-public-r/531685/

By Catalin Cimpanu, ZDnet
After celebrating Chrome’s ten-year anniversary on Sunday, Google released today version 69 of the Chrome browser, one of the most feature-rich versions in recent years. With today’s release, Chrome now joins Mozilla and Microsoft as browser makers who completely redesigned their browsers. Firefox went through two major UI updates with the Aurora and Quantum releases, Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with the lighter Edge, and, today, Google gave Chrome its first major facelift since its release in 2008. This new user interface is easy to spot because it uses a predominantly white color tone along with rounded tabs, a big shift from Chrome’s regular grayish UI with angled tabs.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/chrome-69-released-with-new-ui-and-random-password-generator/

by Business Standard
Teachers play a vital role in the process of learning as they impart education and encourage students towards reaching their ambition. The disruption in the education sector and living in an age where digital learning has impacted almost everyone around us. Virtual Tutors have gained popularity due to its effective teaching methods where a student is not bound to time or location. These methods have been very fruitful for this digitally influenced generation as it creates a platform where a student can interact, learn and grow along with the learners from different parts of the world.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/platforms-that-support-as-virtual-tutors-in-new-age-education-system-118090300598_1.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Imagine the process of going into a restaurant and ordering food. Simultaneously, you could be glancing through the menu while also listening to and speaking with the waiter or your companions. When you’re in a place where people are speaking a different language, the complexity of those activities increases multifold. A project taking place at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) hopes to understand how the use of an immersive environment and artificial intelligence can help students practice foreign language skills and increase their confidence when speaking. The researchers are using simulated experiences to test out their ideas. The Cognitive Immersive Room, or “situation room,” allows students to feel as though they’re in restaurant in China, a garden or a Tai Chi class. While immersed in the environment, they practice speaking Mandarin with an AI chat agent powered by IBM Watson. The immersive classroom was developed by the Cognitive and Immersive Systems Lab, a research collaboration between IBM Research and RPI. The space taps several technologies: speech-to-text, natural language understanding and computer vision.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/08/29/students-get-immersive-ai-boost-to-learn-mandarin.aspx

by Tom Vander Ark, Forbes
Juha Mikkola, co-founder of Wyncode Academy, a coding school, said some developers are being paid double the going rate for their blockchain experience. “It’s not just tech companies that need this talent, it’s real-estate, non-profits, and banks,” Mikkola said. Leading university computer science programs have been quick to respond. According to new research, 42 percent of the top 50 universities in the world offer at least one course on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. MIT offers a six-week online blockchain certificate program (in partnership with 2U). Oxford offers a similar six-week certificate program (also powered by 2U).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2018/09/01/learning-blockchain/#1e107701b04f

by Anant Agarwal, Forbes

Today, there’s a new shift happening in our digital and service-focused economy: rapid skills transformation. The job market is changing so rapidly that the skills needed to perform these jobs transform every few years, intensifying pressure on workers to learn continually and, in some cases, transition entirely into new and emerging fields. EdX recently conducted a survey of 1,000 consumers aged 25-44 and found that 29% of respondents had completely changed fields since starting their first job post-college. Strikingly, only about 20% of those surveyed said that the education from their college major still applied to their current field. The career fluidity illustrated by this survey is a far cry from factory workers who’d spend decades at the same station.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anantagarwal/2018/08/29/how-is-the-skills-transformation-impacting-modern-work/#75273d6c25ff

Daniel Pianko, Carol D’Amico, Tech Crunch

In the years to come, who will hospitality hiring managers trust to credential students: Cornell University or the Four Seasons? Will it be Google or Penn State that sets the standards that determine who qualifies as a good computer programmer? Could GE define competency in aeronautic engineering rather than Vaughn College? Should employers place more value in a fashion credential backed by the editors of Vogue or the Pratt Institute? The formula is simple: Well-structured, branded programs will be superior to an unbranded degree. They will give elite institutions a run for their money. It’s only a matter of time before the U.S. News & World Report rankings are riddled with global brands.

Will big brands disrupt higher education?

by James Paterson, Education Dive

Enrollment experts caution: Don’t make assumptions. Adult learners typically bring a wider variety of concerns and struggles — as well as strengths and skills — than do traditional prospects. Thomas Gibbons, dean of the School of Continuing Studies at Northwestern University, said colleges must develop deliberate efforts to better understand adult learners and their concerns. Wayne Smutz, dean of the Extension program at the University of California, Los Angeles, said colleges need to show these students — perhaps even more so than traditional students — how they can pay for their education and how their investment will pay off.  “Time is a critical resource for adult learners,” he said. “Having to stand in line, being put on hold on the telephone for extended periods of time, and other delays or confusing messages are critical problems for adults. Universities need to find ways to have expedited services.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-administrators-can-better-serve-adult-learners-heres-how/530932/

by Tripti Rai, LifeHack

Being a perfect communicator comes with time and experience after being in a series of difficult situations. Everyone of us, no matter which geographical area we belong to, more often than not, face similar issues in our career that tend to shape us as either a good communicator or a bad one. Lack of communication skills is one of the most misunderstood terms. It is rarely about the language proficiency or how much you fumble when you talk. It is more about how we voice out and react to an unfavorable situation that stands in front of us. Knowing how to react in a situation helps gives us the confidence that ultimately shapes us as good communicators and even leaders. In this article, we will be looking at the different situations that we come across everyday, which helps define us as good communicators or bad ones. Along with every situation, we have mentioned a link to the course/website you can visit to better the situation at hand and come out as an expert communicator.

https://www.lifehack.org/785450/online-learning-sites

By Trudy Doleman, APUS

Just as you hit your stride finding the right balance between study times, work, family and personal time — something happens. It could be a 24-hour illness, an increase in your workload, a death in the family or even an unexpected deployment to a part of the world with spotty Internet connectivity at best. Any number of factors have the potential to cause you to miss at least one of your weekly class deadlines. Before you know it, one missed assignment grows into several missed assignments and you have fallen way behind in your class. What are your options? Is it possible to recover and complete the class? Yes, it is possible to recover and there are several options available to you.

How to Get Back on Track in Your Class after Falling Behind

by Kevin Carey, Washington Monthly

A few universities are using predictive analytics to boost student success. Are they outliers—or the wave of the future? USF and a small but growing number of colleges and universities are at the forefront of using information technology and advanced statistical analysis to see students in whole new ways. By sifting through vast stores of information that have accumulated in various administrative and educational data systems, they are discovering patterns about students that they never knew about before—why some succeed while others fail, and what can be done to help them. As a result, they’re starting to crack the stubborn, widespread problem of high college dropout rates, and point toward a future where besieged public institutions can continue to thrive.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september-october-2018/why-more-colleges-should-treat-students-like-numbers/

By Nicol Turner-Lee, Brookings

Digital exclusion comes with costs. Rural residents are at risk of being marginalized in an information-rich economy where digital transactions and commercial sharing services are becoming more relevant. Already facing diminished life chances, people with lower incomes, people of color, the elderly, and foreign-born migrants in rural areas run the risk of being on the wrong side of the digital divide that further exacerbates their economic, social, and political marginalization.

https://www.brookings.edu/longform/closing-the-digital-and-economic-divides-in-rural-america/

by Zack Friedman, Forbes

Which states have the most student loan debt? Here’s what you need to know – and see whether your state has the most student loan debt.

According to personal finance website Make Lemonade, student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category – second only to mortgages and higher than credit card debt. According to Make Lemonade, there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. The average student in the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in student loan debt. The average student in the Class of 2017 has almost $40,000 in student loan debt.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/08/29/student-loans-by-state/#7b64bec6d7d5

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

If there is one institution in America that is resistant to change, it just might be higher education.  It’s surely a challenge to reimagine and transform higher education, but there are several emerging trends in edtech that might positively impact what happens on America’s college campuses—and beyond. First, the maker movement is poised to impact higher education in a big way…. Second, with online classes increasing at a rapid rate, it’s time to rethink learning management systems…. Third, LMS (Learning Management Systems) aren’t the only issues with online classes that need to be addressed.

Reimagining and Transforming Educational Learning Environments in Higher Education

by Bill Bergman, eCampus News
For educators who find today’s classrooms eerily quiet with students hiding behind their laptops, I recommend taking a break next summer from international travel or the usual research activities. Consider teaching a course online and joining students in their digital world. There is no better way to understand how college students communicate and relate to one another than to spend a summer session with them online.

The best way to get close to students? Teach a course online

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

An increased focus on measuring learning, along with putting more thought into redesigning learning spaces, are two trends with great significance for higher ed in the next one to two years, according to the just-released Horizon Report. The report measures the impact of innovative practices and technologies, along with unique challenges and developments, for higher-ed institutions across the globe. The research behind the report is a product of EDUCAUSE and the New Media Consortium, which EDUCAUSE acquired in early 2018.

The

6 trends shaping the near and far future of higher ed

by LaMont Jones, Diverse Education

Low-income undergraduates who work are less likely than their higher-income counterparts to obtain a bachelor’s degree, and they are disproportionately women, Latino, Black and first-generation college students. And while many students work out of necessity – about 70 percent of college students hold a job – the more hours students work while in college, the more likely their grades are to be lower. Those are some of the major findings in the research report “Balancing Work and Learning: Implications for Low-Income Students” based on a study by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

http://diverseeducation.com/article/124413/

by Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed
Faculty members often worry that making digital courses accessible to all students will be too time-consuming or expensive — but some of their colleagues want to convince them otherwise. Faculty champions can be inspired as much by individual experiences with students as by their engagement with the broad topic of inclusion. Dustin De Felice, assistant professor and director of the master’s program in foreign language teaching at Michigan State, felt wounded after a student complained late in the semester that she couldn’t take online quizzes because she suffered from extreme vertigo when staring at screens for more than a few minutes. The student ended up failing the class and struggling the next semester as well, De Felice said. Now De Felice encourages colleagues to invite him to discuss pathways to accessibility. He gets fewer takers than he’d like, but he always eagerly agrees when asked. He brings two different copies of the same syllabus — one that’s been run through an electronic disability checker, and another that hasn’t. He lets a screen reader interpret both to show attendees the difference.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/08/29/faculty-champions-accessibility-shed-doubts-about-investing-time

By Greg Toppo, Inside Higher Ed

The details are laid out in documents obtained via a records request to the U.S. Department of Education by the Century Foundation, which said the requirements make Purdue University Global “perhaps the first and only public institution to strip students of their legal rights.” The Century Foundation is well-known for challenging for-profit colleges’ policies. In a statement, Tim Doty, a Purdue spokesperson, said Purdue Global “does have an arbitration agreement that it inherited from Kaplan. Whether it continues to employ this policy is ultimately up to the Purdue Board of Trustees which has complete control over Purdue Global, and has the final say as to which policies it retains, and which it alters.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/08/29/purdue-global-demands-students-waive-right-sue

by Nikos Andriotis, eLearning Learning
Interactive whiteboards were big news when they arrived on the training scene because they replaced the old chalk and duster as a key tool for teaching and learning. In the 21st century, the importance of online learning tools might just be making traditional classroom training a thing of the past. Today, the benefits of eLearning in the workplace are taking the world by storm. It’s no wonder, then, that this industry reached over $56 billion in 2015 and is expected to hit $200 billion by 2024. Keen to know more? Well, you’re in luck! Because we’ve put together an all-inclusive list of the benefits of online learning that apply to all organizations and their employees.

http://www.elearninglearning.com/edition/weekly-microlearning-developing-elearning-2018-08-18?open-article-id=8775738&article-title=the-obvious–and-not-so-obvious–benefits-of-online-employee-training-and-development

By Study International
Recently, US-based edtech company Cengage announced a new subscription service for college students to access more than 20,000 digital course materials. This includes eBooks, online homework and study guides, at just US$119.99 a semester or US$179.99 a year. Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage, the US-based education and technology company providing the subscription, said: “For too long, our industry has contributed to the lack of affordable access to higher learning. Despite years of student and faculty complaints, the industry continued to push an outdated, traditional business model that didn’t put students first.” Hansen describes the college textbook business model as “outdated” and he’s not the only one.

It’s 2018. Why do we still have textbooks?