Online Learning Update

by Jon Felske, The Muskegon Chronicle

Online learning for students is one of the fastest growing trends in the educational use of technology today in the United States. A recent national survey estimated that more than a million students took online courses during the past school year. Online learning is the current form of a long line of former educational uses to achieve high school credit including correspondence courses, education television, video conferencing and distance learning. Online learning is now a Michigan Merit Curriculum Graduation Requirement for students in Michigan to receive their local district high school diploma. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) defines online learning as a “structured learning activity that utilizes technology with Internet-based tools and resources as the delivery method for instruction, research, assessment and communication.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/01/superintendent_online_learning.html

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Lou Pugliese, the president of Moodlerooms and a former executive at Blackboard, says that despite the new entrants, he is not concerned about losing customers. Notwithstanding new platforms that might imitate some of the functions of the institutionally prescribed LMS for students and faculty, he said demand for fully integrated campus-wide platforms remains high. Pugliese also cautions against ascribing too much credence to platforms that purport to harness social networks to improve learning. “Integrating the personal and academic worlds is still an early science that has not reached replicable scale in ways that have directly impacted student achievement,” he says. “…These tools end up requiring a lot of efforts on the users’ ends and there’s no larger authority. These all show great promise, but it will not be the immediate catalyst for change in and unto itself, the industry may be seeking.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/11/what-does-lms-future-look

by iParadigms

iParadigms, creators of Turnitin and the leader in originality checking and online grading, today announced the release of automated translation technology that enables Turnitin to identify potentially plagiarized content that has been translated. The new technology secures Turnitin as the forerunner in the growing international education market where educators are encountering an increase in translated plagiarism from Internet-savvy students who are proficient in English. Translated plagiarism occurs when students take existing source material in English, translate it into the language used at their institution and misrepresent it as their own work. With the introduction of multilingual translation technology, Turnitin is able to take assignments written in a variety of non-English languages, translate them into English, compare them to Turnitin’s massive content databases, and highlight any matches found in the assignment.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/turnitin-introduces-translated-matching-for-multilingual-plagiarism-detection-137088203.html

by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Traditional colleges and universities are considering badges and other alternative credentials as well. In December the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that it will create MITx, a self-service learning system in which students can take online tests and earn certificates after watching the free lecture materials the university has long posted as part of its OpenCourseWare project. MIT also has an arrangement with a company called OpenStudy, which runs online study groups, to give online badges to students who give consistently useful answers in discussion forums set up around the university’s free course materials. But the biggest push for badges is coming from industry and education reformers, rather than from traditional educational institutions. Mozilla, the group that develops the popular Firefox Web browser, is designing a framework to let anyone with a Web page—colleges, companies, or even individuals—issue education badges designed to prevent forgeries and give potential employers details about the distinctions at the click of a mouse.

http://chronicle.com/article/Badges-Earned-Online-Pose/130241/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

by Tom Vander Ark, Huffington Post

Digital learning will benefit all students –particularly students from low-income families where education leaders are proactive. In light of the ‘OER exacerbates the gap’ flap this week, I thought it would be worth expanding on the ways in which EdTech, blended learning, and open education resources (OER) will benefit low-income kids. Following is a list of 10 ways that digital learning will benefit low-income students.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-vander-ark/digital-learning_b_1172137.html

by the UK Virtual College

Smartphone applications are set to be the future of online learning, according to one expert. Monica Martinez, director of professional development for the Texas Computer Education Association, which promotes the use of technology in Texas classrooms, said that a lot of people use apps in everyday life and so there is good reason to believe that they can be successfully integrated into education to give learners of all ages a chance to connect their technological knowledge with educational resources. She told the Killeen Daily Herald: “A lot of people use apps in their everyday life. Educators and districts are now realising that they can use these as a tool to transform education.” Commenting on the possibilities associated with implementing technology into learning via smartphone apps, Ms Martinez added: “It would change the face of education. You would be looking at digital learning in nearly every single classroom.”

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/New-elearning-app-developed-to-aid-growth-of-virtual-classroom-newsitems-801259027.aspx

by Eddie J. Ary and Christopher W. Brune, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

Numerous studies have compared student outcomes in online classes and traditional classes, but with mixed results. This paper adds to the existing body of evidence through an examination of students in Personal Finance courses. Primary results indicate that the delivery method made little difference in student performance. Secondary results identify pre-course GPAs, and to a lesser extent ACT scores, as predictors of student success in Personal Finance.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/brune_1211.htm

by Ann M. Solan and Nikolaos Linardopoulos, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

This paper discusses the development, implementation, and evaluation of a grading rubric for online discussions. Despite the growing popularity of grading rubrics and the parallel growth of online learning, there is a lack of research on the topic of grading online discussions. Grading discussions (sometimes called class participation) in an online learning environment can be particularly challenging. In this paper, the authors share their experience of creating and implementing a comprehensive grading rubric for online discussions that evaluates the following criteria: quantity, quality, timeliness, and writing proficiency. Student perceptions regarding the use of the discussion rubric are also analyzed and areas of future research are suggested.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/linardopoulos_1211.htm

by Garry Falloon, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/falloon_1211.htm

by Bruce Steinberg, Associate Degrees Online

Many students are used to only communicating in the traditional classroom by face to face interaction and more recently outside the classroom by cell phone and E-mail. With online classes becoming more and more popular, there are so many other ways you can communicate with your fellow students and even instructor. Here are the 5 best ways you can communicate in an online class.

http://www.associatedegreeonline.com/2012/01/5-best-ways-to-communication-in-an-online-class/

By Rebecca Catalanello and Marlene Sokol, Tampa Times

The fastest growing public school district in Florida doesn’t have football, school lunches or busing. It doesn’t get a grade from the state, and it operates free of the rules and scrutiny that dog most public schools. Students in this district conduct frog dissections without ever stepping in a science lab, take PE without ever going into a gym and learn how to drive without ever getting in a car. They do all of it online. In less than 15 years, Florida Virtual School has become the largest state-funded online K-12 school in the nation, an enterprise with a $166.3 million budget and close to 1,500 employees and 130,000 students. It offers more than 110 courses, from core subjects like algebra to electives such as Chinese and guitar.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article1209497.ece

By Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Historians have to broaden their sense of their discipline and how, where, and why they practice it. That message was broadcast clearly at the American Historical Association’s annual conference, which ended here on Sunday. About 4,700 scholars attended the meeting. Anxiety about job prospects percolated at panels and in hallway conversations. But the meeting drew energy and optimism from two dozen digital-humanities panels, which complemented more traditional fare, and from the association’s recent push to expand what counts as respectable employment for historians.

http://chronicle.com/article/Historians-Reflect-on-Forces/130262/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

by Zhang Xiang, Xinhua Net

Higher education is regarded as the most realistic way for rural Chinese to change their fates. For Shao Hongmei, this passport to a better life arrived last year, when he was one of the first people admitted to an innovative new “distance learning” scheme that, crucially, is provided at little or no cost to students. His chance came in May 2011 when Guangdong province launched a pilot program to provide migrant workers with free online learning provided by Beijing’s prestigious Peking University. Shao was one of 100 migrant workers admitted to the program, and in February will start his third semester of studying online for a bachelor’s degree by viewing lectures, accessing reading material and having contact with lecturers.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-01/06/c_131346933.htm

by Carl Franzen, TPM

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been increasingly vocal about his love for all things tech over the past few years, but now he’s taking it a whole new level. On Thursday, Bloomberg (the real one) tweeted that his new year’s resolution was to learn how to write code using the handy, free, game-like online courses offered by New York’s own Codecademy. “My New Year’s resolution is to learn to code with Codecademy in 2012! Join me. http://codeyear.com/ #codeyear,” Bloomberg tweeted, instantly moving the hashtag #Codeyear into the top trending terms on Twitter in the New York City area.

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mayor-bloomberg-will-learn-how-to-write-code-in-2012.php

by UK Virtual College

Academic staff and organisation leaders need support and careful guidance to help them implement e-learning technologies into their day-to-day teaching practises. This is according to an expert who suggested that despite the potential benefits of the virtual classroom, not enough is currently being done to successfully include systems in existing methods. Grainne Conole, director of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leicester, which brings together teachers and researchers interested in the field of innovation in teaching, said that funding from the government and the input of online learning specialists could encourage teachers to re-think ways of educating pupils and also help them to understand issues surrounding the modern learning technology.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Teachers-need-help-to-implement-elearning-methods-newsitems-801253656.aspx

by Maxwell Cooter, Cloud Pro

Cloud computing offers an opportunity to change things. Students will no longer need be bound by proximity to education establishment. Students no longer need to rely on text books – which can be prohibitively expensive – but could have course material delivere online. Students will no longer be tied to a particular lecturer – or even university. As the MITx example shows, students at university could complement their notes by referring to the MIT material. There are opportunities for companies too. Instead of griping about skills shortages, here’s a chance to do something about it. The MITx initiative has shown the way (and there are sure to be other universities who will follow suit). There are hundreds of courses that are going to be available within the MITx initiative, companies who complain about skills shortages should be working with MIT to ascertain which parts of the MITx courses will be useful, complementing those courses with some more vendor-specific material – it should be possible to create customised courses without a student having to leave the workplace.

http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/2565/education-education-education-why-cloud-will-have-impact

By Michael W. Massey, Minding the Campus

At a time when higher education is essential for succeeding in a global economy, America finds itself at a crossroad. We have a vast university system that can’t accommodate the demand because the cost is prohibitive. The bricks and mortar campus simply doesn’t scale. The alternative is a disruptive game – changer that requires low investment and self- directed learning. It’s online learning, and it’s growing at warp speed. With a growing amount of the world’s knowledge openly available on the Web and increasing daily, people can access much of it–free. Admissions exams and inconvenient commutes are out-of-date.

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2011/12/can_online_learning_meet_21st_.html

By Associated Press

A new report finds that even in a tough economy, companies that are contracted to manage charter schools and other public schools are expanding. The report out Friday is by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. It says that much of the growth is in the area of online learning, known as “virtual schools.” The operators are known as education management organizations. The sector emerged in the 1990s as part of an effort to use the market to force changes in public education. The report notes that there are almost 300 such companies today and that nearly 780,000 students attend schools operated by them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-education-management-sector-expanding-particularly-in-area-of-online-learning/2012/01/06/gIQAiLR3dP_story.html

by AnkammaRao, Free Video Lectures

Open courseware offered by top universities allow self-learners to access high quality educational materials for no cost. Whether expanding your knowledge on a variety of topics or sampling the programs offered at universities, free courses can benefit you. The following notable (mostly century-old brick and mortar – from Arizona State to Yale) universities offer free online courses to anyone wishing to complete them. University credit is not offered for any of the free courses provided at these universities.

http://freevideolectures.com/blog/2012/01/universities-colleges-offering-free-courses-online/

By Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence

Stanford University is offering a course on Natural Language Processing free and online to students worldwide, January 23 to March 18. Students will have access to screencast lecture videos, quiz questions, assignments and exams; receive regular feedback on progress; and can participate in a discussion forum, with a certificate of successful completion. Taught by Professors Jurafsky and Manning, the curriculum draws from Stanford’s courses in Natural Language Processing.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/stanford-online-course-on-natural-language-processing

by UK Virtual College

The advancement of e-learning will soon be in line with the development of smartphones and tablets, according to one expert. A representative from the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leicester, suggested that mobile technologies will be an important driving force behind the future of the online learning industry. Grainne Conole, director of the alliance at the university, said: “I was always dubious about mobile learning until I saw things like the iPhone – which is transformative – and some of the things like tablets for example.” She added that mobile devices are listed as the most likely technology to have the largest amount of influence in the learning sector.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Elearning-will-be-advanced-by-mobile-technologies-newsitems-801255388.aspx