Online Learning Update

April 24, 2012

Disruptive innovation — in education

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Larry Hardesty, MIT News

MITx is not just a tool for democratizing education; it’s also a tool for education research. “I want to disrupt how education is done,” MIT’s Anat Agarwal says — not just online but on campus as well. For instance, he says, if lectures and grading could be automated, professors and TAs would have more time for working directly with students, perhaps on open-ended research projects that mimic — much better than problem sets do — the way in which science and engineering are done in the real world. Similarly, web tools developed through MITx could enable students to learn in a more interactive fashion, at their own pace — and on their own schedule. “There’s no way I would get up for an 8 a.m. class,” Agarwal says. “But I do a lot of work at night.” Ultimately, Agarwal says, part of the appeal of working on MITx is that “no one knows how it’s going to evolve. But it has the potential to change the world.”

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/mitx-anant-agarwal-profile-0420.html

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Princeton University to Offer Free Online Learning Classes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

by Planet Princeton

The History of the World since 1300, Computer Architecture, and and Statistics One are just some of the Princeton University courses you can take without ever applying to Princeton, paying tuition or even stepping on to the campus, thanks to a new partnership between the school and a new online education organization founded by two Stanford University professors. As part of efforts to use technology to enhance the Princeton academic experience and enable faculty to extend their teaching beyond the physical borders of the campus, the University is exploring the development of online class materials through the new education platform Coursera. Princeton will join Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania in developing web-based course materials covering a variety of academic fields.

http://planetprinceton.com/2012/princeton-university-to-offer-free-online-classes/

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April 23, 2012

Online Learning Startups And No One To Acquire Them

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Alyson Shontell, San Francisco Chronicle

One of the hottest startup sectors right now is education. 2Tor, for example, has raised $90 million in venture capital to make credible online degrees for universities. Knewton has raised $54 million to make customized content for students. Even Coursekit, a startup founded by three UPenn students to disrupt Blackboard, has raised $6 million. We’re just scratching the surface here. There’s also Skillshare, Khan Academy, Codecademy, Schoology, TutorSpree, ShowMe, Coursera, Chegg, Udemy, and plenty more. But there’s no Google or Facebook in the education space. So who is going to acquire these startups for hundreds of millions of dollars? “It’s a great question heretofore unanswered,” says Hashable founder and angel investor Mike Yavonditte. “[Education startups need to] go public or get profitable.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/18/businessinsidereducation-startups-a.DTL

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U-Michigan, Princeton, Stanford, UPenn offering free online learning courses

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

By Kim Kozlowski, The Detroit News

In a move that expands higher education to a global audience, the University of Michigan has begun to offer online courses to anyone for free. U-M’s offerings will include a handful of courses on topic such as finance, electronic voting, computer vision, and fantasy and science fiction. It joins top educational institutions Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania in courses offered through a partnership with Coursera, a company founded by two Stanford professors. “Our faculty members are eager to share their knowledge globally and our students are equally excited about experimenting with this new approach to learning,” University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120418/SCHOOLS/204180384/1026/

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Online Learning Start-Up Teams With Top-Ranked Universities to Offer Free Courses

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Nick DeSantis, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Last fall, two Stanford computer-science professors helped create an online course-hosting platform that opened some of the university’s classes to the entire world. Hundreds of thousands of students enrolled free of charge. Their start-up company, which grew out of that effort, now seeks to give millions a taste of top-quality education by expanding its platform to other elite universities. Coursera, the online-education outfit founded by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, will grow its course platform through official partnerships with three more top-tier institutions, the company announced today. Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Stanford will use Coursera’s technology to offer a mix of classes including computer science, business, and literature. The young company already serves seven courses, and about 30 more will be rolled out later this week and through the summer.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-education-start-up-teams-with-top-ranked-universities-to-offer-free-courses/36048

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April 22, 2012

Professor’s book provides ways to make online learning affordable

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Victoria Advocate

In his latest book, a longtime University of Houston-Victoria professor delves into how a computer operating system can help people overcome difficulties with mobile learning. “The book takes readers through the research and how it relates to education,” Chao said. “It attempts to find ways to use open-source technologies to support teaching.” Chao said he collected information about how to implement the technology to make online classes less costly and more effective for the students. “Europe and Third World countries are facing problems because of technology spending cuts,” Chao said, adding that it’s also the case in some places in the U.S. “Utilizing less expensive technology is important to keeping online classes going.”

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=5184871474086069774

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Ivy League Online Learning? The Minerva Project Sets Out To Make Elite Education Accessible to the Middle Class

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Lauren Landry, BostInno

The last Ivy League school to be established was Cornell in 1865. Now, nearly 150 years later, Ben Nelson, former CEO of Snapfish, is introducing a new university similar to the Elite Eight. Called The Minerva Project, the online school has raised $25 million, the largest seed round in Benchmark Capital’s history. Nelson noticed a number of things missing in today’s Ivy League institutes, the biggest being capacity. “Over the last 25 years, the elite schools in America have largely frozen their class size,” Nelson says. This year, Harvard’s acceptance rate was at a record low, 5.9 percent, and Yale wasn’t too far behind at 6.8 percent. Interest continues to grow, however, as Nelson remarks, “the demand for elite higher education in the United States has gone through the roof.”

http://bostinno.com/2012/04/14/the-ivy-league-online-the-minerva-project-sets-out-to-make-elite-education-accessible-to-the-middle-class/

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University of Kentucky expanding online course offerings

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Linda B. Blackford, Herald-Leader

In 2010, the University of Kentucky tried an experiment: professors in the College of Arts and Sciences took 20 summer school classes out of the lecture hall and into cyberspace, trying out the school’s first large-scale attempt at online education. This summer, there will be 70 classes with more than 3,000 students already signed up. For Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Kornbluh, online summer school classes are less about entering some brave new world of online education and more about getting more students to graduate in four years. “The main reason to do this is to help students make progress toward degrees,” he said. “The whole nation has challenges with continuing in school and graduating on time. This way they can go home, live with families, do a job and take key courses that will help them move along.

http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/14/2151086/uk-expanding-online-course-offerings.html

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April 21, 2012

Desire2Learn partners with IBM on online learning platform

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Guelph Mercury

Desire2learn is partnering with American computer giant IBM to offer a new education platform for schools, colleges and universities. The platform combines Desire2Learn’s education software with IBM’s “predictive analytics” to improve outcomes in education, the two companies said in a news release Friday. To be called the Smarter Education Solution, the combined program offers early-warning systems for at-risk students, instructional intervention plans, insights on teaching effectiveness and other features, the release said. John Baker, founder and chief executive officer of Kitchener-based Desire2Learn, said the two companies have crossed paths in the education field for a number of years. The combined program grew out of a “casual conversation” between the two firms “about how we could improve the teaching and learning experience around the world,” he said in an interview. Desire2Learn, which specializes in online learning programs, also offers analytics technology, but not the kind of “predictive models,” insights and data systems provided by IBM, he said.

http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/business/article/705107–desire2learn-partners-with-ibm-on-e-learning

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NU students took 10 percent more online learning classes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By KEVIN ABOUREZK, Lincoln Journal Star

University of Nebraska students took 10 percent more online credit hours last academic year, university leaders learned Friday. About 17,800 students took nearly 109,000 online credit hours in 2010-11, said Mary Niemiec, associate vice president for distance education and director of Online Worldwide at NU. She told the Nebraska Board of Regents Friday the number of resident students who took online classes last year increased by 5.2 percent.

http://journalstar.com/news/local/education/nu-students-took-percent-more-online-classes/article_17aad4d2-c676-528a-a7ff-6b4335f4af14.html

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Online learning ‘has corporate benefits’

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Virtual College (UK)

The benefits of e-learning are not limited to educational facilities and can extend to the corporate world. This is according to 1midea chief executive officer Ch Subba Raju, who told India-based news source PostNoon.com that any company can utilise online learning tools to create academic content, which could then be shared throughout the organisation. He claimed virtual learning environments can also be more cost-effective than more traditional models. For example, updating an e-learning course is simple as it can be quickly edited, the expert pointed out. Furthermore, the content is of a consistent quality and the costs of scaling or sharing the programme can be negligible.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Online-learning-has-corporate-benefits-newsitems-801339435.aspx

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April 20, 2012

Online Learning Advocates See Virtual Schooling as Integral to Education Reform

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

by ALEX HARRIS, TN Report

Students in Tennessee could click their way through more courses, if a Capitol Hill push to embrace online classes for K-12 education gains traction. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would bring requirements such as teacher-student ratios, which public schools that have traditional buildings and classrooms already adhere to, to bear for their online counterparts. That bill has not yet made it to either chamber of the Legislature for a floor vote. Advocates recently laid out their position that while virtual schooling is edgy and perhaps intimidating to some, it is a potent tool for keeping students engaged and in school.

http://tnreport.com/blog/2012/04/02/online-learning-advocates-see-virtual-schooling-as-an-integral-component-to-education-reform/

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The Value of Small Discussion Groups in an Online Learning Environment

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By MARIE MIKA, Digital Union

My online Sociology courses are capped at 60 students. To make the discussion board forums a bit more manageable, I subdivide classes into three or four separate forums of 15-20 students each. I have found that this has two main effects: it encourages a greater sense of community among students, and helps to discourage plagiarism. Smaller groups encourage students to get to know each other well; students often say that they look forward to reading other students’ posts whom they have come to know.

http://digitalunion.osu.edu/2012/04/13/the-value-of-small-discussion-groups-in-an-online-environment/

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My Adventure in Online Learning Continues!

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Doug, Doug’s Deep Thoughts

Yesterday marked the beginning of my second term at University of the People, an online school that bills itself as the “world’s first tuition-free online university”. My first term, in which I took the two mandatory introductory courses, was a great experience and I’m excited to continue this adventure. Just for some background, I’ll explain my journey up to this point. My higher learning experience has been a long and arduous one – I was accepted into Brigham Young University after graduating high school and only attended one semester in Provo before returning home to start a family. Several years went by before I enrolled in Penn State World Campus, a similar online learning program.

http://dougsdeepthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/my-adventure-in-online-learning-continues/

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April 19, 2012

Educational Technologies and the Changing Role of Universities

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Jim Barber, Australian Broadcasting Ockham’s Razor

When I first began talking about online learning around 10 years ago now, my views were not particularly controversial, a few polite questions, some half-hearted clapping, that was about it. Maybe that’s because the only people who showed up to such forums in those days were like-minded individuals and IT geeks dressed in Metallica T-shirts. But things have certainly changed in the last few years. Nowadays, whenever I speak or write about online learning there’s always someone in the audience who takes offence because they interpret my views as an attack on their professionalism or competence. I take this as evidence that online learning has now achieved the status of a disruptive technology. The term disruptive technology was first coined by Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen some 15 years ago in a paper entitled Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/educational-technologies-and-the-changing-role-of-universities/3948822

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Yes, University of Phoenix is Disruptive; No, That Doesn’t Make It the End-All

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Michael Horn, Forbes

I’m using the University of Phoenix as shorthand. What they mean are many of the distinctly online universities that have emerged over the last couple of decades—everyone from Kaplan University to DeVry to Bridgepoint.They are wrong. These online universities are disruptive innovations relative to traditional universities. They are now on their own sustaining innovation track, which every disruptive innovation moves to as it grows, expands, improves, and marches up market. It’s also true that not all of them will succeed in these endeavors. The fact that I’m saying they are disruptive innovations in the face of many saying they aren’t strikes me as ironic, given that I often find my job is to correct people who want to declare nearly everything disruptive and misapply the term. I also readily admit that online learning isn’t inherently disruptive; when it’s used in a hybrid format to complement or extend traditional brick-and-mortar learning, chances are it’s being used as a sustaining innovation.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2012/04/12/yes-university-of-phoenix-is-disruptive-no-that-doesnt-make-it-the-end-all/

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Virtual Schools Expected to Replace Classrooms

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Jeffrey Marshall, Literacy News

In the past few years online schooling has grown significantly. Many high schools are also using this technology as an alternative to on campus learning. With the internet more readily available in most homes and rural areas, students are finding the comfort and value of taking online classes more appealing. The future of education is currently in transition from physical attendance to distance learning. However, online education is also in transition, to virtual classrooms.

http://www.literacynews.com/2012/04/virtual-schools-expected-to-replace-classrooms/

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April 18, 2012

Online Learning: 2nd Annual Accessible eLearning Leadership Awards

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by CourseAvenue

CourseAvenue announced the winners of the 2nd Annual Accessible eLearning Leadership Awards. These awards recognize those organizations that are producing true accessible e-Learning courses – courses that serve both learners who use assistive technologies and those who do not, without the need to create multiple versions of each course. Awards were given in Government, Commercial and Not-for-Profit categories. These industry leaders have demonstrated how the intelligent use of instructional design and technology can produce e-Learning titles in the true spirit of complying with both the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/2nd-annual-accessible-elearning-leadership-awards-2012-03-16

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Online learning inspires refugees

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by IRIN UN Humanitarian News and Analysis

An education strategy released by UNHCR in February recognized the “huge unmet demand for higher education among refugees” and made improving access one of its goals over the next five years. Although part of this approach involves doubling the current 2,000 scholarships a year available to refugees through the German-government-funded DAFI programme, a key element of the strategy is to make use of internet technologies and partnerships with academic institutions to reach much larger numbers of refugees through distance learning. International Catholic NGO Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) is pioneering this approach through a pilot project at three refugee camps, including Dzaleka, which offers small groups of refugees the opportunity to study towards a diploma in liberal studies from Regis University in Denver, Colorado at no cost. For refugees who do not meet the academic requirements, but are keen to further their education, JRS has developed several vocational courses in areas such as community health and entrepreneurship.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95259/EDUCATION-Online-learning-inspires-refugees

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Powhow: An Online Marketplace For Live, Webcam Online Learning Classes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Techcrunch

As VoIP, chat, and web-based videoconferencing solutions expand their reach, we’ve seen a corresponding growth in both the remote workforce and telecommuting. Not only that, but these technologies are beginning to disrupt education, as startups like Khan Academy, 2tor, ShowMe, Udemy, Lynda.com, and the Minerva Project are all showing how video and advanced web platforms can turn distance learning into an elegant and truly valuable supplement (if not alternative) to learning. However, while these startups (and more) offer distance learning options in the traditional academic sense, many people are interested in pursuing other hobbies or activities. That’s why a New York-based startup called Powhow is launching its public beta today, which aims to allow anyone and everyone (with a webcam) to find and take classes.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/10/powhow-beta-launch/

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April 17, 2012

The 25 Best Places To Take Free Online Learning Computer Science Classes

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Edudemic

These days, computers dominate our lives, providing the platform by which we work, play, and communicate with others around the world. As such, knowing how to work with and engineer these often quite complicated systems is a pretty solid skill to have in the modern workforce. While a college degree is the most direct route to a career in computer science, students can start building their skills for free with some of the great resources offered on the web. We’ve listed just a few of the best sites for free computer education here, offering lessons in everything from programming to theory for students to take in whenever and wherever they like.

http://edudemic.com/2012/04/the-25-best-places-to-take-free-online-computer-science-classes/

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