Online Learning Update

by Sharon Otts, Tampa Bay Times

A vast wealth of online learning tools is available to anyone — and it’s free. Educating yourself online may not give you that expensive sheepskin, but it will give you knowledge and won’t hurt your pocketbook. You might begin your online search with the Khan Academy, which has a particularly interesting story. Khan’s long-term goal is to create “the world’s first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything.” The nonprofit Khan Academy has received grants from Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as donations from supporters of the program.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article1228724.ece

by Shannon Barry, Milpitas Post

Sal Khan is the voice behind Khan Academy, a free online tutoring site with a library of more than 3,200 video tutorials, interactive challenges and assessments available to anyone with a Gmail address from any computer with access to the web. Topics are virtually limitless; covering kindergarten- through 12th-grade math, science topics such as biology, chemistry and physics, finance and history and the catalogue is growing on a daily basis. Amy Lukic and Alison Elizondo’s fourth- and fifth-grade students fire up personal computer Chromebooks each school day at Burnett, joining millions around the world in using the self-paced learning tool for mathematics lessons. “All of the kids started on the same skill and now every child is practicing and receiving support exactly where they need it,” Elizondo said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_20638430/khan-academy-allows-teachers-tap-into-needs-immediately

by Ksssann,  All Voices

In the recently released survey of 2011 M.B.A. graduates from the Graduate Management Council, 86% were employed, of which 93% found the job they were looking for. Those are pretty impressive numbers. More schools are taking a full-spectrum approach, offering different types of programs for M.B.A. candidates with specific needs. Following the long-accepted European model, some schools are offering a compressed, intensive one-year program. The Executive Master of Business Administration is a relatively new idea that is geared to mid-career professionals, and then there is the real game changer, the online M.B.A. degree program.

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12192893-online-mba-programs-gain-traction-offering-quality-affordability-and-flexibility

by Virtual College UK

An e-learning champion has been selected as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). L Rafael Reif, will assume his leadership role on July 2nd. The 61-year-old has been chief academic officer of the US university since 2005 and in this capacity he had an important part to play in the development of the institute’s MITx online learning initiative. Commenting on his appointment as MIT president, Mr Reif said: “Educating students is central to our mission, so I believe MIT should focus, institute-wide, on innovations in teaching and learning, to further enrich the powerful MIT formula of ‘Mind and Hand’.  Let me conclude with the obvious recognition that there is a great deal to do and that the sooner we start doing, the more we can get done,” he added.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Online-learning-champion-appointed-as-MIT-president-newsitems-801366539.aspx

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The University of Kentucky is offering more online classes for students this summer. A school official told the Lexington Herald Leader (http://bit.ly/IBOnsY) that more than 3,000 students are already signed up for the 70 classes that will be offered. Arts and Sciences Dean Mark Kornbluh said the main reason for the classes are to help students graduate in four years. The move is a follow up to a successful experiment in 2010, when UK tried its first large-scale attempt at online education. Professors in the College of Arts and Sciences offered 20 online summer school classes that year.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/edb2e051d31c4ca693e46bb72519b501/KY–UK-Online-Classes/

By Nancy Van Valkenburg, Standard-Examiner

Larry Walther believes textbooks of the future won’t break students’ backs or their budgets. Walther, a Utah State University professor and chairman of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business’ School of Accountancy, offers his accounting “textbooks” free on his website to his students. And now, many of his texts also are available to students worldwide, through a London-based company, Bookboon, that offers free downloads that are paid for by the inclusion of advertisements every few pages. Kenneth Kuttler, a Brigham Young University math teacher, also recently provided online texts available through www.bookboon.com. “You don’t read a math book like you read a novel,” Kuttler said. “If you’re interrupted by an ad, it’s probably just a pleasant diversion.”

http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/05/19/online-textbooks-downloads-gaining-popularity

by Doug Blackburn, the Democrat

Florida State is not inclined to follow in the footsteps of a handful of the nation’s premier universities, which are making some of their online courses free and open to the public. Harvard recently announced that it was joining the ranks of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, among others, by issuing certificates to tens of thousands of non-students who are taking their free, online classes. FSU President Eric Barron said six straight years of budget cuts have forced the university to focus its energy on retaining faculty and making sure enough classes are available for students. “I don’t know where we would find the resources to do this for free right now,” Barron said.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20120518/TOP25WOMEN/205180332/Barron-says-FSU-no-position-offer-free-online-classes?nclick_check=1

By Peter G. Klein, Christian Science Monitor

Mainline universities loudly proclaim their love of online learning — and pedagogical innovation more generally — while doing everything possible to slow it. If there is fundamental reform, it will surely come from outside the guild system, not within it. It’s great that Harvard and MIT and other elite universities are offering some classes online. But look instead to bolder experiments like the Mises Academy — not a duplicate of the standard degree program, but a modular, flexible, focused approach to teaching Austrian economics and related subjects. Call it guerrilla teaching. Let’s see where this new movement can go!

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Circle-Bastiat/2012/0517/Are-universities-scared-of-the-online-learning-movement

by Sowmya Nandakumar, Indo American News

Salman Khan gave a powerful commencement address in Rice University on May 12. Drawing from his experience with Ann Doerr, (whose financial backing and support validated for him, the worth of his own idea), he spoke of validating other people’s efforts – empowering others by showing them that we believe in their work, by recognizing, rewarding and complimenting efforts to make the world a more positive place, increasing the net positivity and happiness in the world no matter which field one chooses to work in. He emphasized on always rising from failure, seeing it as life’s second opportunity and not an end in itself. Khan told the audience to travel fifty years ahead in time, when they all would have certain regrets about the past. A genie emerges and gives them a chance to go back to commencement day in May 2012 and correct all those regrets. He asked students to take the present moment as that second pass in life – the chance they get to make right all those potential regrets. He is also scheduled to be the commencement speaker for MIT’s commencement on June 8.

http://www.indoamerican-news.com/?p=7046

By Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

Miguel Hernandez, the founder of a company specializing in explanatory videos for startups, said he spent about three hours a day for three weeks making an online video course explaining his craft. But, last year, that one video series earned him nearly six figures on the online course platform Udemy. This year, now that he’s created a second course for students (on “How to Create an Awesome Online Course,” of course), he said that if momentum keeps up, “I’ll be making more money selling online courses than through the studio.” And he’s not the only one finding a new stream of income from Udemy. This morning, the San Fransciso-based startup released the salaries of the top 10 instructors on the 2-year-old platform. In total, the group earned $1.65 million in the last year

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/17/a-new-way-to-make-six-figures-on-the-web-teaching/

By KEN DOCTOR, Nieman Lab

Journalism and education are both about knowledge. Could their post-disruption business models start to blur?What’s the difference between being informed and being educated? What’s the line between learning something new and being taught something new? Are news media and universities just two ways to do the same thing: gain knowledge? As Coursera, Udacity, edX, and several other offerings begin to unravel everything we thought we knew about post-secondary education, we can’t help but make links to the world of news. You gotta love the geeky name that applies to this new hybrid for-profit/nonprofit industry: MOOCs, or massively open online courses.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/05/the-newsonomics-of-news-u/

UK Virtual College

The Alzheimer’s Society and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Group’s medical education division BMJ Learning have set up a virtual learning environment for general practitioners (GPs), following a survey revealing only 37 per cent of these professionals believe they have been given sufficient basic training on dementia. The poll of 382 GPs, which was financed by the Alzheimer’s Society’s partner Lilly, found 71 per cent would like to be able to use online learning to understand more about the condition.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Elearning-tool-should-help-GPs-understand-dementia-newsitems-801364549.aspx

by Mitch Smith, Inside Higher Ed

The debate in Texas frames a larger discussion about how professors’ roles have changed as online learning courses and advising tools have grown commonplace. At Ohio State University, an online blog for faculty members encourages them to schedule online office hours. And at San Antonio College and elsewhere, faculty say they frequently check e-mail messages throughout the week and weekend. Gary Rhoades, a professor of higher education at the University of Arizona, said most instructors already engage students online and that colleges should adopt policies that recognize that work.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/17/san-antonio-college-officials-debate-online-office-hours

by Jessica Rinaldi, Reuters

L. Rafael Reif, an electrical engineer who has been the provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the last seven years, has been chosen as the institution’s next president. Mr. Reif, 61, will assume the presidency on July 2, succeeding Susan Hockfield, who in February announced her plans to resign. As provost, Mr. Reif led the development of MITx and edX, the institute’s new online initiatives, expanded the institute’s global reach with projects in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Russia, and helped foster the emergence of an innovation cluster adjacent to M.I.T. in Kendall Square. During the financial downturn that began in 2008, Mr. Reif led a process that eliminated a $50 million structural deficit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/education/mit-chooses-its-provost-for-president.html?_r=1

by Khan Academy

As of today, you can now share your Khan Academy badges on Facebook using the new Open Graph protocol. In normal speak, it means that you’ll get richer, more interesting displays of your badges on Facebook if you choose to share them.

http://www.khanacademy.org/about/blog/post/23071271279/facebook-opengraph

By Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

Public colleges without deep pockets can face challenges as they seek to ramp up online course offerings. For one thing, it’s not easy to quickly recruit the teaching assistants or “coaches” needed to help faculty members manage larger classes and keep students on track.

Enter Instructional Connections, a relatively new venture attempting to tap into this market. Launched in 2010, the nonprofit firm grew out of a for-profit company that offers online services to public universities. It has brought in a pool of academic coaches to offer support to fast-growing online degree programs at public institutions, with a focus on education and health care.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/16/public-colleges-outsource-online-teaching-coaches-new-service

by Thomas Friedman, the Economic Times

Welcome to the college education revolution. Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary. The costs of getting a college degree have been rising faster than those of health care, so the need to provide low-cost, quality higher education is more acute than ever. At the same time, in a knowledge economy, getting a higher-education degree is more vital than ever. And thanks to the spread of high-speed wireless technology, high-speed Internet, smartphones, Facebook, the cloud and tablet computers, the world has gone from connected to hyperconnected in just seven years. Finally, a generation that has grown up on these technologies is increasingly comfortable learning and interacting with professors through online platforms.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/thomas-l-friedman-online-courses-by-mit-harvard-is-a-revolution/articleshow/13161799.cms

by the Julliard Conservatory

Starting in the 2012-2013 school year, The Juilliard School is launching JUILLIARD eLEARNING, for K-12 students and educators everywhere. Juilliard eLearning is the world-famous conservatory’s first-ever group of online courses, presenting an exciting new option for teaching music and related courses, with distribution and implementation by leading provider of online learning solutions, Connections Education, part of the global education company, Pearson.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-juilliard-school-and-connections-education-launch-juilliard-elearning-the-conservatorys-first-ever-online-courses-2012-05-16

by David J. Hill, Singularit Hub

Online education is witnessing its own Avengers-like uniting of superhero forces as Harvard University and MIT recently announced “edX”, a combined $60 million joint initiative to offer their college-level courses online for free. Launching in the fall of 2012, edX is a not-for-profit organization formed by the two universities to bring each institution’s free online course offerings to a broader global audience. Courses will be delivered through the open source MITx platform in development to host courses that were previously part of the OpenCourseWare program.

http://singularityhub.com/2012/05/14/harvard-and-mit-join-forces-to-become-juggernaut-of-free-online-education/

Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

As librarians and lawyers continue to pore over the 350 pages of a long-awaited federal court decision involving copyright claims levied against Georgia State University’s library by academic publishers, one thing everybody seems to agree on is that, all things considered, the university “won.” But what victory looks like at this stage remains to be seen and may not become clear for some time, experts say.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/15/court-ruling-landmark-e-reserve-leaves-unanswered-questions

By PAMELA LEWIS DOLAN, Amed News

There is a demand among physicians for continuing medical education training that can be accessed on the go. A survey by ON24 and MedData Group found that 84% of physicians would prefer attending CME events online. Among the benefits physicians expect from Web-based CME is the ability to view the content “on demand” while avoiding the hassles and costs of traveling. ON24, a virtual communication technology vendor with headquarters in San Francisco, and MedData Group, an interactive content and database marketing services company based in Topsfield, MA., surveyed 971 physicians across a variety of specialties about their digital behaviors. The survey found that physicians are “more mobile than ever before,” and that is impacting the way they want to access educational materials.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/05/14/bisc0514.htm