Online Learning Update

by Virtual College (UK)

The future of e-learning will be seen in mobile platforms, a specialist has predicted. Writing for CampusTechnology.com, education consultant and Daymar Colleges Group executive director of executive programmes and faculty Ruth Reynard pointed out online learning courses have been around for long enough for teachers to know the challenges and benefits this innovation provides. However, she pointed out web-connected technology is becoming ubiquitous, with the experiences of young people’s exploration, interaction and communication now “increasingly mobile”. Many schools and colleges, especially those providing higher education, are facing challenges as a result of the heightened level of flexibility today’s students require, as well as rising expectations in the institutions they work for, Ms Reynard had previously noted.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Online-learning-could-be-supported-by-mobile-tools-newsitems-801380619.aspx

By Tanya Barrientos, Penn Current

Call them the daring dozen. As part of Penn’s new partnership with the start-up online education platform called Coursera, 12 professors have agreed to be the first to venture into the unchartered waters of large-scale cyber teaching. Coursera, designed by two Stanford computer scientists, is a web portal meant to make interactive online courses from top universities available for free to millions of people across the globe. Penn is partnering with Coursera, along with Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan, in the new company’s effort to distribute not only math, engineering, and science courses to users, but also a selection of courses in the humanities and social sciences, taught to thousands of students at once.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2012-06-07/features/penn-reaches-thousands-online-coursera

by EPIC 2020

EPIC 2020, a ten-minute free movie, was released to the public today on the epic2020.org web site. EPIC 2020 presents a prophetic dramatization of the death of the traditional higher education system by the end of the decade. EPIC 2020 a creative commons property follows in the footsteps of EPIC 2014 that was released in 2004 and predicted the demise of the print newspaper industry. EPIC 2020 describes the technological forces that are intersecting with major industry forces to provide online courses by the best professors in the world supported by the best academic technology scaled to where a single professor can educate every student in the world in a given subject. EPIC 2020 identifies new business models that turn the current academic business model of tuition on its head as well as new concepts in defining and documenting skills that render degrees obsolete.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/06/06/prweb9571253.DTL

by TODD FINKELMEYER, The Capital Times

These massive online open classrooms — known as MOOCs — enable thousands of people at once to take a course from a professor at one of these highly regarded universities, but students who complete the classes don’t earn university credit toward a degree. Instead they receive a certificate of completion, sometimes referred to as a badge. For now, a diploma remains the common currency that allows college grads to compete for jobs. But if credits were to someday be awarded for these courses — or if significant numbers of employers were to start accepting these badges as a means into the workforce — higher education could be quickly and significantly altered. “If employers see value in badges, then this has the potential to break open the liberal education degree model,” says Brower. “If a software company values a mobile apps badge, why get a computer science degree? For some fields, this has the potential to break apart what the four-year degree is all about.”

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/education/campus_connection/some-top-colleges-offer-free-online-classes-what-does-that/article_f2824bfe-b00c-11e1-9657-0019bb2963f4.html

By Robert “Bob” Bilyk, LodeStar Learning Web Journal

In support of online learning, we often write about climbing Bloom’s taxonomy with the help of learning objects created from templates. Bloom’s taxonomy refers to the work of Dr. Benjamin Bloom who wrote his Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in 1956. Since then the taxonomy has been widely used in curriculum and instructional design to classify the types of educational activities that require students to think. Those activities engage students in remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.

http://lodestarlearning.com/news/index.php?blog=2&title=climbing_bloom_s_taxonomy_in_online_lear&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

by David White, the Guardian

What are the implications for learning and teaching when we move from perceiving the web as a collection of tools to thinking of it as a series of overlapping spaces? This was the focus of a recent Higher Education Academy event on flexible learning and online residency. The term residencycomes from the Visitors and Residents continuum (V&R) which I proposed as an alternative to Marc Prensky’s digital natives and immigrants idea. V&R is a simple metaphor for online engagement: some people visit the web while others live out a portion of their lives online and are, in effect, resident in online spaces.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jun/08/web-learning-teaching-digital-literacy

by George Anders, Forbes

There’s a startup boom in online higher education, but nearly all of the players hope to advance by working within the system. EdX is a joint venture of Harvard and MIT. Coursera has backing from Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. 2Tor, which has raised $90 million in venture capital, runs online graduate programs in business and nursing for the likes of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgetown. Such startups see benefits in teaming up with universities to ­decide what should be taught online, how to teach it and how to handle delicate issues such as grading, course credits, diplomas and anticheating safeguards. Such careful collegiality is not the Sebastian Thrun way. “It’s pretty obvious that degrees will go away,” Thrun says. “The idea of a degree is that you spend a fixed time right after high school to educate yourself for the rest of your career. But ­careers change so much over a lifetime now that this model isn’t valid anymore.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2012/06/05/udacity-sebastian-thrun-disrupting-higher-education/

by Muhammad H. Zaman, Huffington Post

Higher education around the world is changing, and its changing fast. The digital era, with online courses, electronic resources and real-time interaction with faculty thousands of miles away is going to drastically change the way we teach, interact, engage and ultimately learn. With programs such as MITx and similar initiatives started globally, knowledge will no longer be confined to the ivory towers but will reach those who have not had the opportunity or the means to access it. With increasing mobile phone access globally, “m-education” and innovative ways to access resources through cellular phones will continue to change the landscape of higher education.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-h-zaman/higher-ed-online-curricul_b_1577714.html

by RAY CLANCY, Expatforum

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History have launched a new online learning tool for immigrants preparing for naturalisation. It features videos and multimedia activities that showcase artefacts from the Smithsonian Institution’s collections and exhibitions. ‘This is an invaluable addition to the citizenship preparation materials we offer to aspiring citizens. Using the Smithsonian Institution’s extensive collection, this online tool will help individuals learn about the founding principles of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a meaningful way,’ said USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas.

http://www.expatforum.com/america/us-launches-interactive-online-citizenship-learning-tool.html

By The Detroit News

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise participated in several discussions in Lansing on Wednesday about the importance of online learning and how schools can better serve students through technology. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy hosted the events as part of a running series about virtual learning. Wise was joined by Gov. Rick Snyder for a lunchtime talk on the subject; in the evening, Michigan Superintendent Mike Flanagan and William Skilling, superintendent of Oxford Public Schools, spoke along with Wise about the impact digital learning is already having in this state and around the country. Wise, a Democrat, has combined forces with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, to form the Digital Learning Council. Wise thinks online learning can help reach more students who would otherwise drop out, plus it better engages students who have grown up with technology. Michigan is a leader in online initiatives, and it should continue to expand opportunities for children.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120526/OPINION01/205260313

Study Commissioned by Tutor.com

60% of students entering community college require at least one remedial course. Only 36% of these students finish these courses and associated college-level coursework in two years time. While the number of students enrolling in undergraduate degree programs has increased 34 percent from 2000 to 2009, the number of those students who are unprepared for college has increased proportionately and is staggeringly high. Fully 60% of students entering community college require at least one remedial course. Remediation is expensive—students taking these courses pay full tuition, yet may receive no college credit. Worse yet, according to Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere published by Complete College America only 36% of students in remedial courses finish those courses and associated college-level coursework in two years time. Ms. Mazer’s report highlights research studies specifically focusing on the efficacy of online tutoring in higher education settings. The studies cited determined that students studied achieved improved content knowledge, had better attitudes about seeking help, higher retention rates, and also preferred virtual tutoring over face-to-face interactions.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/6/prweb9574384.htm

by GrandRapidsMN.com

Online learning is not new. But every year it is becoming more and more common place. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 2002-03 school year, 36 percent of school districts in the U.S. offered online courses to their students. Two years later, the number only rose to 37 percent. But in 2009-10, 55 percent of school districts had online classes, a number that has been rising exponentially. For contemporary students, this isn’t anything new. But for their parents? This very well could be uncharted territory in the educational landscape of the current generation.

http://www.grandrapidsmn.com/news/article_9aa060b4-afdb-11e1-a6b0-0019bb2963f4.html

by Virtual College (UK)

High schools ought to become involved with online learning, an expert has said. In an article for Newsday, former superintendent of Valley Stream Central and Bellmore-Merrick Central high school districts Marc Bernstein highlighted the virtual learning environments recently unveiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. As these two prestigious educational centres have begun to provide free online learning courses for college students, this is considered a “stamp of approval for this use of technology”, he declared. The two facilities have joined other institutions in determining that e-learning projects can be an “effective way to advance education”, the specialist stated.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Elearning-should-impact-high-schools-newsitems-801378591.aspx

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are popular. This much we know. But as investors and higher ed prognosticators squint into their crystal balls for hints of what this popularity could portend for the rest of higher education, two crucial questions remains largely unanswered: Who are these students, and what do they want? Some early inquiries into this by two major MOOC providers offer a few hints. Coursera, a company started by two Stanford University professors, originated with a course called Machine Learning, which co-founder Andrew Ng taught last fall to a virtual classroom of 104,000 students. Coursera surveyed a sample of those students to find out, among other things, their education and work backgrounds and why they decided to take the course.

Inside Higher Ed http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/05/early-demographic-data-hints-what-type-student-takes-mooc

By Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

What is it like to teach a free online course to tens of thousands of students? Dozens of professors are doing just that, experimenting with a format known as Massive Open Online Courses. And there are more providers than ever, some working with elite universities, and others that allow any professor to join in. The Chronicle asked four professors, teaching on different platforms, to share their thoughts on the experience so far. The responses are based on e-mail interviews, which have been condensed and edited for publication.

http://chronicle.com/article/4-Professors-Discuss-Teaching/132125/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

by the Wall Street Journal

Is there anything to be done about the rising price of higher education? That was the question posed to John Hennessy, president of Stanford University, and Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit online-learning organization. They sat down with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg to discuss how technology might be part of the solution.

Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303640104577440513369994278.html

by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association

Is your provost or president looking to you for leadership in managing the shift to online learning programs designed for the adult market? This new Seminar will focus on the key strategic issues in this rapidly evolving sector of higher education: new and emerging markets, online degree and certificate programs that expand access and meet workforce needs, the use of data analytics, assessing student online learning outcomes, and building for scale.

Who should attend this timely Seminar?

• Deans and directors of professional and continuing education

• Leaders of online learning units

• Online program chairs or managers

• Marketing and student service managers

[note:  Ray Schroeder, editor of this blog, is program chair of this conference]  See URL below for Call for Proposals!

http://www.upcea.edu/content.asp?admin=Y&pl=21&sl=21&contentid=217

by Online Learning Insights

What do students really think about online learning – do they love it? Hate it? There are numerous research reports, studies and articles about online learning, many of which provide data and statistics on enrollment rates, perceived learning and more, but its the unedited, raw comments of actual students, as I wrote about in my last post that is invaluable to course instructors, designers and online educators. I’ll share in this post not only actual student comments, but conclude with observations for what we as educators can do to support online learning and its students. Below is a collection of [select] student feedback from anonymous feedback reports from online surveys given at the end of 100% online college courses for credit – its unedited, and telling of how students really feel.

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/what-students-really-think-about-online-learning/

By Ami Bruce, La Voz

I have taken a great deal of online classes over the last two years. I can say the majority of the 77 units I have completed have been online. I am drawn to online courses because they are convenient for me in a lot of ways; as a mom who owns a small business, I have a very busy schedule and online education allows me to take courses on my time. Many people may assume that online classes are easier than classes on campus, but in many instances, this is not the case. It depends on a number of factors including who your instructor is, what system they use (Catalyst or other) and what types of classes you tend to be best at. In my case, I am a writer, so I have made every effort to complete all my writing classes online when at all possible.

http://www.lavozdeanza.com/opinion/online-education-allows-busy-students-to-continue-education-1.2875779#.T8zS3dW40pg

by Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow

More than 2000 Ohio graduates received diplomas from ECOT (Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow), the nation’s largest K-12 online charter school, in a ceremony Sunday, June 3 at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The growth of the online school has been dramatic. In ECOT’s first graduation ceremony in 2001, only 14 students graduated. The school now has over 15,000 enrolled students and is the largest charter school in the nation. ECOT students, who work online from their homes all over Ohio, have the flexibility to learn in non-traditional ways and often take advantage of their flexible schedules to pursue hands-on learning adventures with their families.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/04/4536135/ohio-online-school-graduates-largest.html

by Online Learning Insights

I look forward to the end of each course session when I get to analyze student comments and criticisms – which I do with great zeal. No doubt like anyone else, I enjoy reading the positive responses which can be uplifting and encouraging. But, it’s the constructive feedback I dissect to determine how we can improve our courses. I’ve learned that a key factor in gathering ‘good’ feedback is to develop a ‘good’ feedback form – one that is customized to the online experience. And, the questionnaire needs to be modified on a consistent basis as courses evolve and change – online courses are not static, nor should the questionnaire be.

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/how-unfavorable-student-feedback-improves-online-courses/