Online Learning Update

by Frederick News Post

In the coming years, students and faculty may be facing some evolutionary changes in the way colleges and universities routinely conduct courses. While this would surely be a slow and deliberate process, it’s already getting started in Maryland. The nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R has chosen the University System of Maryland to participate in a pilot program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A recent Baltimore Sun story reported that, according to Ithaka’s Deanna Marcum, her group chose to study USM “because state education leaders had already been working on redesigning courses to incorporate more online material and showed ‘a general receptivity to trying new things.'”

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_editorial.htm?StoryID=145158#.UOSSs2_AdwI

by Kate Willson, Midnight Writers

Are you interested in becoming a better writer, but you don’t want to pay the high price for college writing and literature courses? You’re lucky day has arrived, because there’s a new option available to interested students all over the world. Thanks to this new online education method, you don’t have to worry about paying a dime to become a student at some of the top universities in the world. All you have to do is sign up and log on.vKnown as massive open online courses (or MOOCs), these classes don’t require their students to apply or be accepted by any university. They are completely free, and they are designed to be taught at the same level of their on-campus equivalent. There are currently three major organizations offering quality massive open online courses; Coursera.org, EdX.org and Udacity.com.

http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2012/12/online-writing-courses-are-they-for-you.html

by Jeanne C. Meister, Harvard Business Review

Deloitte has seen use of its Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) training program increase. Participants, who are spending increased amounts of time on the site and completing programs in increasing numbers, show almost addictive behavior. Since the integration of gamification in to Deloitte Leadership Academy, there has been a 37 percent increase in the number of users returning to the site each week. Gamification takes the essence of games — attributes such as fun, play, transparency, design and competition — and applies these to a range of real-world processes inside an organization, including learning & development. Deloitte is well on its way to staying ahead of the trend. DLA is an online program for training its own employees as well as its clients. DLA found that by embedding missions, badges, and leaderboards into a user-friendly platform alongside video lectures, in-depth courses, tests and quizzes, users have become engaged and more likely to complete the online training programs. The Academy has had over 20,000 executive users since its inception in 2008.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/how_deloitte_made_learning_a_g.html

by David Jesse, Detroit Free Press

Many universities host large online courses that feature a professor lecturing and guiding students through courses they regularly teach in person. However, University of Michigan professor Andrew Maynard’s online education approach is geared toward people interested in a little bit of information on a certain topic, not an entire university course. “Something that has intrigued me is the rise of YouTube as an educational platform,” he said. About six months ago, Maynard started experimenting by posting a simple video on a topic he knows a lot about — risk science. “What does intrigue me here is that not only is there a lot of cool science behind how we understand and address things that potentially affect our health, but that understanding and reducing risks to ourselves is something that everyone has a stake in,” Maynard said. “And in many ways, it’s odd that there isn’t more information widely available on how to make smart decisions on risk that are based on science rather than guesswork.”

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/01/michigan-professor-youtube-course/1803171/

By Annie Murphy Paul, the Creativity Post

More than ever before, 2013 will bring a recognition that learning can happen anytime, anywhere—not just in a classroom and not just during the school day. This coming year, we’ll see a greater focus on the “informal education” that happens in places like science museums and nature centers. We’ll continue to explore, for ourselves and with our children, the wealth of information and ideas available on the web (while finding ways to avoid its abundant falsehoods and nonsense). And if you thought you heard a lot about MOOCs in 2012, just you wait. “MOOC” stands for “massively open online course,” and I predict that more and more universities across the country will join Stanford, Harvard, MIT and other leading institutions of higher learning in offering such courses to anyone with an Internet connection. More and more individuals will enroll, sampling classes on subjects from artificial intelligence to contemporary poetry, and collectively as a society we’ll have to continue to grapple with the radical democratization of education that these developments entail.

http://www.creativitypost.com/education/how_well_learn_in_2013

by the Newcastle Herald

The Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) is allowing students to study units within the master of business administration (MBA) without leaving home. The school says the move is in response to the changing nature of its student population. ”What we’re seeing is the market for people in their late 20s and early 30s changing,” the interim dean of MGSM, Guy Ford, says. ”They are mobile, they don’t go to the same office and sit there from 9am to 5pm every day, they are really tech-savvy, and they’re finding it increasingly difficult to come to the same location for four hours each week.” The university is striving to preserve the core components of the degree while allowing new students more flexible study options. ”It’s the same learning goals, the same faculty, the same assessment and the same exam,” Ford says. “For a school like ours, it’s important we move with the careers of our students rather than students having to stop their careers to complete their studies.”

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1212004/the-tyranny-of-distance/?cs=2373

by Jonathan Wai, in Finding the Next Einstein, Psychology Today

Our vision for the future is that everyone will be able to learn at their own pace and it should be competency based. Once you feel like you know something you can prove it, and the world respects that, and maybe you have to maintain that knowledge state, it’s not that you just have to prove it once and not have to worry about it. In a world like that I think that you are going to expand the number of people who are these precocious self-learners, and we can engage far more people because they are going to have a chance to take ownership of their learning and they’re going to have a chance to not be bored or lost. But, yeah, I can imagine a world where there are students who want to go deep and go fast and they’re getting it at a deep level and they’re getting it quickly, who knows what might happen. One dimension is that you can empower that student, hopefully where one day Khan Academy will be taken very seriously where someone will say “Wow, so you did that on Khan Academy? You’re ready for the next level now.”

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201212/how-khan-academy-will-help-find-the-next-einstein

by the Sloan Consortium

The 2012 Survey of Online Learning reveals that the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6.7 million. Higher education adoption of Massive Open Online Courses remains low, with most institutions still on the sidelines. “The rate of growth in online enrollments remains extremely robust,” said study co-author Jeff Seaman, Co-Director of the Babson Survey Research Group. “This is somewhat surprising given that overall higher education enrollments actually declined during this period.” “Institutional opinions on MOOCs are mixed, with positive views of their ability to learn about online pedagogy and to attract new students, but concerns about whether they represent a sustainable method for offering courses,” stated his co-author I. Elaine Allen.

Key report findings include:

Over 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2011 term, an increase of 570,000 students over the previous year. Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.

http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/changing_course_2012

By Diana Martinez, Ahwatukee Foothills News

A group of students from Arizona State University are getting their feet wet with a new, online learning tool for those looking to self-teach and find resources.  Development for the site, Onvard, began in January and was publicly launched in April after CEO and co-founder Keith Ryu wanted to help those looking to learn an array of subjects. “I’m scratching my own itch,” Ryu said of the inspiration behind the site. Ryu, a junior computer information systems and finance major at ASU, said he wanted to help beginning learners with something as simple as a starting point.

http://www.ahwatukee.com/community_focus/article_799b18cc-52ac-11e2-ae5f-001a4bcf887a.html

By Dr. Michael Stephens, San Jose State University

I’ve been teaching online and hybrid courses for a few years, but joining SJSU’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) last summer led to full time, fully online teaching. Some dismiss online classes as ineffective, text-based “correspondence” style endeavors. I believe it all depends on the caliber of the online experience. Are the classes just ported over from face-to-face syllabi and entirely text-based? Or do they transform learning and inspire students? I was drawn to online instruction because of the potential for using interactive technologies and social tools to extend my “classroom” beyond four walls and immerse my students in the environments they’ll encounter in future jobs. I teach courses that explore new service models in libraries, as well as transformative learning, where I encourage my students to design instructional programs using emerging technologies.

http://blogs.sjsu.edu/today/2012/transforming-online-learning/

by Alex Wukman, Online Courses

As massive open online courses (MOOCS) have exploded in popularity educators are coming under increasing pressure to make an effective use of the new technology. To help instructors realize the potential of the new content delivery platforms Georgia Tech is unveiling a MOOC about creating a MOOC. The six-week course, entitled “Fundamentals of Online Education”, will debut on Jan. 28 and will be hosted through Coursera. Topics that will be covered include: online learning pedagogy, online course design, privacy and copyright issues, developing online assessments, and using web tools and learning management systems.

http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/12/31/georgia-tech-offers-mooc-on-making-moocs/

by Nik Laufer-Edel, Learndot

Starting with proven research and learning best practices we designed Learndot to help make engaging and effective learning experiences. But we believe everyone should be able to make great online courses. Here are three principles we built into our learning platform which you can use to take your online course from good to great:

Engage learners first

Deliver content in chunks

Set clear learning objectives

http://www.learndot.com/findings/3-principles-for-great-online-courses/

by UW Lacrosse Latern

A pilot program, FastTrack, in summer 2012 proved successful when 37 of the 38 student participants tested into higher level math. This January hundreds of people all over the world will confront their deepest, darkest math fears as they light up their computer screens. They will begin UW-La Crosse’s first massive open online course — or MOOC — with content focusing on basic math needed for college readiness, typically found on college placement exams such as the ACT, SAT and parts of the GRE. The course is entirely online, free and open to anyone. So far more than 430 people have enrolled, ages 13 to 83, from eight countries and 30 states. UW-L received a $50,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in fall 2012 to develop the course.

http://lantern.uwlax.edu/uw-ls-free-online-course-in-math-gains-worldwide-appeal/

By Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun

When some University of Maryland, College Park students return to class for the spring semester, they could be attending lectures, taking quizzes and completing group projects without leaving their dorm rooms. The university is participating in a pilot program that combines massive open online courses with traditional classroom instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R to study how the state’s university system could incorporate the increasingly popular online courses. “There are two things we’re seeking: new strategies that will improve learning outcomes and lower costs,” said University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan. “We can’t have one without the other.”

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-usm-online-learning-20121229,0,1157901.story

by ZDNet

UNESCO supports the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) and Intercultural Dialogue University Network in the launch of an online course in MIL and intercultural dialogue. The course is designed for teachers, policy makers and professionals. It is led by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia and will be offered over 13 weeks, from 25 February to 31 May 2013. The course will be offered through QUT’s online learning system, Blackboard, and via Blackboard Collaborate. Most sessions will be self-directed, with ongoing interaction with the course presenters in the online space. There will be four ‘live’ sessions presented globally by international guest lecturers.

http://www.brzezinski.zdnet.pl/michal-brzezinski/opportunities/unesco-launches-online-course-in-media-and-information-literacy-and-intercultural-dialogue

by Eze Vidra, The Next Web

If you’re a startup, you are by definition competing with the smartest people in the world – either large companies with more resources than yours or fellow entrepreneurs who are hoping to disrupt large companies. Your knowledge can make the difference between failure and success. Learning a new skill can also increase the chance of serendipity, the “magic” moment when seemingly unrelated concepts form an orignal thought in your head. Considering picking up new skills? I’ve gathered a comprehensive list of resources for startup learning. Let’s get started!

http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2012/12/30/learning-should-be-your-top-2013-new-years-resolution/1/

by eLearning Infographic

One of the main concepts that leads to successful e-Learning course design is information chunking. But what is chunking? Why is it embedded in the world of instructional design? And what kind of chunking strategies can an instructional designer use to enhance learning? Chunking refers to the strategy of making a more efficient use of our short-term memory by organizing and grouping various pieces of information together. When information is chunked into groups, the brain can process them easier and faster, because our working memory can hold a limited amount of data at the same time. As an Instructional Designer, you must understand the importance of chunking the content, in designing a customized eLearning course. The How to Chunk Content for eLearning infographic gives a good idea of what is content chunking and why it is useful. The described steps of content chunking will give you a good start, if you are new to designing and delivering eLearning courses.

http://elearninginfographics.com/how-to-chunk-content-for-elearning-infographic/

by the Sun-Sentinel Editorial

The digital revolution that’s shaken so many businesses has not bypassed the hallowed halls of higher education, so it is good to see a new focus emerging on how to improve the range and quality of online classes offered by Florida’s universities. To make it happen, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford this year proposed an audacious idea: create a separate university — Florida’s 13th — dedicated solely to online learning. For sometimes it takes a powerful idea — even a problem-plagued idea — to get people’s attention. Weatherford’s goals are noble. He wants to replicate the success of Florida Virtual School, where more than 122,000 students in grades K-12 “are currently receiving a high-quality education at a fraction of the cost.”

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorials/fl-editorials-florida-universities-online-weatherf-20121230,0,4818775.story

By Robert Griffiths, Digital Union

Instructional models exist for instructors to understand how to match activities with course objectives and to help students get the most out of courses. With technology, there are many media to deliver content in ways to maximize the potential of each model. For instance, distance (or totally online courses) and blended (or Hybrid) approaches have made great gains as more instructors understand best practices. A relatively new approach, named HyFlex, has emerged to provide opportunities to meet learning outcomes in a more flexible approach, for instructors and students. The term HyFlex (Hybrid-Flexible) refers to courses that “provide participation options for students, allowing them to choose between online and classroom-based learning on a weekly (or regular) basis. Essentially, students create their own blend of participation that fits their needs and desires” (Beatty, 2012).

http://digitalunion.osu.edu/topic/hyflex-instructional-model/

 Editorial by Anne Heinz, dean of Continuing Education, and Steven Leigh, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

Not long ago, a female undergraduate engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder remarked that she enjoyed her online Shakespeare course because she had the time to thoughtfully compose an answer to a professor’s question before posting her response. We can understand what she meant. Many of us have been in a classroom where fellow students eagerly vie for the teacher’s attention in order to answer a question. But we sit silently as the moment passes. Today’s online courses provide opportunities and challenges to university students and faculty. The opportunity lies in the advances in technology that can be used to enhance teaching and learning. But, as one CU-Boulder faculty member noted in an evaluation of our summer online courses, “Technology is no panacea for hard work, either on the part of the students or the instructors. Good teaching, like successful learning, takes practice and effort.”

http://conted.colorado.edu/2012/12/17/university-of-colorado-judicious-about-online-classes/

By Stephanie Mlot, PC Magazine

College campuses have been an American institution for millennia, but not all higher learning is being done in a traditional classroom anymore. Almost one-third of college students are now taking at least one online course, up from only 10 percent in 2003, according to an Online Colleges infographic based on a collaborative study by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board. More than 6.14 million postsecondary students are enrolled in at least one online course, a majority of them women.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413420,00.asp