February 21, 2013
by Dr. Matthew Lynch, Diverse
The potential for further diversity and equality in education through MOCCs is certainly on the horizon. This form of online learning means that students do not have to commit to an entire course of study to obtain credits or even commit to a particular institution upfront. MOOCs will further eliminate the socio-economic barriers that keep promising students from seeking out college credits. Students are given more flexibility in scheduling at an affordable price. Though the MOOC trend has its dissenters, I believe it will win over even the most skeptical and increase accessibility for all people that seek higher education. After all, at one time the mention of online courses raised a few eyebrows in the educational community and look how far the concept has come. Further development of online initiatives, specifically in the area of MOOCs, represents the next big step for enriching the diversity of the college student population in America.
http://diverseeducation.com/article/51353/
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by John C. Mitchell, San Francisco Chronicle
It’s hard to scan the news on a given day without running across several stories about online learning. But it’s often a narrow range of questions being asked: Can online learning reduce college costs? Will it destroy universities as we know them? Stanford faculty are aggressively exploring the emerging opportunities in educational technology. Perhaps the most important lesson thus far is that “online education” cannot be thought of in rigid, monolithic terms – as if all online education looks the same, or requires giving up all aspects of the classroom experience. People learn in different ways and have widely differing educational needs throughout their lives. One size does not fit all.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Online-learning-isn-t-one-size-fits-all-4280451.php
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By DOUGLAS BELKIN, Wall Street Journal
Traditional colleges and a new breed of online-education providers, trying to figure out how to profit from the rising popularity of massive open online courses, are pouring resources into efforts to solve a problem that has bedeviled teachers for centuries: How can students be stopped from cheating? Coursera, a Silicon Valley-based MOOC, recently launched a keystroke system to recognize individual students’ typing patterns. EdX, its East Coast rival, is employing palm-vein scans. Other strategies include honor codes, remote web-camera proctors and test-taking centers. “The concern [about online cheating] has been around for a while, but MOOCs’ scale is so large it really magnifies the issue,” said Cathy Sandeen, a vice president at the American Council on Education, which last week recommended that five Coursera classes should be eligible for academic credit, in part because they have standards in place to prevent cheating.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324906004578292361415395332.html
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February 20, 2013
by Cromwell Schubarth, Silicon Vally Business Journal
Christensen wrote his first opinions on why Harvard Business School and other higher-ed institutions were in line to be disrupted back in 1999. “But now online learning brings to higher education this technological core, and people who are very complacent are in deep trouble…. There is a different business model that is disrupting in addition to online learning. It’s on-the-job education. This model of learning is you come in for a week and we’ll teach you about strategy and you go off and develop a strategy. Come back later for two weeks on product development. You learn it and you use it. These are very different business models and that’s what’s killing us.”
Fifteen years from now more than half of the universities will be in bankruptcy, including the state schools. In the end, I am excited to see that happen.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/02/07/disruption-guru-christensen-why.html?page=all
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by Rebecca Ratcliffe, the Guardian
The number of students studying for UK degrees in overseas countries increased 13% last year, as universities focused their energies on international recruitment. International offshoots of UK universities, partnerships with foreign institutions and online study mean there are now more students on UK university courses abroad than there are international and EU students coming to the UK to study. Some 571,000 students studied abroad in 2011-12, a third more than in 2009-10, with universities enrolling most students in Malaysia, Singapore and Pakistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/feb/15/surge-in-students-studying-for-uk-degrees-abroad
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by Margaret Andrews, Inside Higher Ed
I had the opportunity to attend a HarvardX Town Hall meeting, run by HarvardX faculty director Rob Lue, for Harvard faculty members and instructors to learn more about HarvardX. We’ve all heard how online education has the ability to fundamentally change how higher education is perceived and delivered, as well as how it will change the world through expanding access, decreasing costs, and creating a host of new materials that can be experienced in new ways. And I’ve even taken a MOOC. But seeing clips of ongoing and upcoming HarvardX courses and modules, hearing from the faculty that have launched these courses and modules, and talking to the faculty and staff involved in the production and execution gave me a much deeper sense of the potential for this type of education. The future looks very bright indeed.
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/moocs-moccs-and-harvardx
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February 19, 2013
by Harvard Magazine
The evolution of technologically enabled teaching and learning—through the Harvard-MIT edX partnership, and for-profit ventures including Coursera and Udacity—accelerated nationwide in late 2012 and in the new year. As public attention focused on free, advanced-level massive open online courses (MOOCs), other discussions emerged in academia about applications to and implications for much more tailored and entry-level instruction.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/03/online-evolution-accelerates
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by WESLEY ROBINSON, Eastern Kentucky University Progress
Overall enrollment may be down slightly at Eastern this year, but there has been one bright spot: students are turning to online courses in record numbers. As of the spring semester, 22,275 hours or about 12.5 percent of the total hours taken by Eastern students were taken online, school officials said. “The success that we are having with the current students is really beginning to resonate with the prospective students,” said Tim Matthews, director of E-Campus Learning. “People are seeing that these degrees provide a pathway for advancement or a new career.” The department of E-Campus Learning, which Matthews directs, is responsible for 12,287 of the hours students take online or about 7 percent of the overall enrollment total. This number has nearly doubled each of the past three years since the spring of 2011, when online classes accounted for 4,335 credit hours or about 2 percent of the total credit hours earned by students that year.
http://easternprogress.com/2013/02/13/online-enrollment-grows-despite-overall-decrease/
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By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a makeshift production studio at the University of Pittsburgh, adjunct professor Larry Foulke is speaking passionately into a camera, preparing his online course, “A Look at Nuclear Science and Technology,” for the masses. So animated is his delivery in front of a video crew recording his lecture, it’s as if he is speaking face-to-face to his class. But chances are nil that he will ever meet most of his students, and even if he did, there would not be enough time to greet them all. That’s because nearly 12,000 people in the United States and abroad already have signed up via the Internet for a course that does not start until June, both because of the topic and the professor, a well-known nuclear industry retiree who is interim director of Pitt’s nuclear engineering program and past president of the American Nuclear Society.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/major-universities-seeing-surge-of-interest-in-free-online-classes-675257/
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February 18, 2013
BY R. F. MACKAY, Stanford
Just as the online learning revolution is taking off, hurtling into the infinite cloud, the world of higher education is struggling to better measure learning. That struggle is all the more urgent as college costs soar and ambitious new providers promise digital delivery that may upend traditional college education. How should college credentialing take place in this new world of online learning? That was the question addressed at a recent forum sponsored by Education’s Digital Future (EDF), an initiative of the Graduate School of Education (GSE).
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/february/higher-ed-accreditation-021313.html
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by Indiana University
A one-year study by an Indiana University School of Education assistant professor will help provide insight into how systems for recognizing skills and knowledge work well or need revision for use in online social communities. The HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Competition has awarded Sean Duncan, faculty member in the Learning Sciences program, a nearly $100,000 award to examine “digital badges” in spaces such as Twitter and Reddit. His study “Connecting Badges and Expertise in Interest-Driven Affinity Spaces” starts in May as part of the School of Education’s Center for Research on Learning and Technology.
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/23811.html
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by Mitchelle De Leon, Bakersfield College Rip
Like many Bakersfield College students, Cynthia Allen, communications major, balances work and school. Instead of taking classes on campus, she opted to take online classes to accommodate an internship in Pasadena, CA along with a part-time job for this semester. Online resources have changed the education landscape. They have given students like Allen more options while advancing their careers through education. Without having to go on campus and meeting at specific times, online education promises economic incentives by being able to reduce transportation costs and being able to work anytime. But it has its own set of challenges.
http://www.therip.com/news/2013/02/13/online-classes-offer-students-new-options/
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February 17, 2013
BY ANDREW LEONARD, Salon
As cheap online educational options spread like wildfire, critics are sounding the alarm. They’re too late. I barged into my son’s room on Wednesday afternoon to ask him when he wanted dinner, and discovered him watching a Khan Academy video to help with his chemistry homework. And I thought: that story I’ve been working on about the backlash against MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses)? Why am I even bothering? The war is already over. Debating the value of online education at the current moment in history makes about as much sense as questioning the tactics of the losing Roman generals in the great third century B.C. battle of Cannae. Perhaps of some interest to academics, but moot. Hannibal kicked ass. End of story. I am not arguing that we shouldn’t be looking long and hard at exactly how online courses are “disrupting” education, with special attention devoted to who plans to profit from new delivery models and how taxpayers will inevitably get screwed.
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/the_internet_will_not_ruin_college/
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by Heidi Kim, UCSD Guardian
UCSD has created a task force to oversee online education. The UCSD Division of the Academic Senate Representative Assembly is in charge of the task force called the Senate-Administration Task Force on Online and Technology Enhanced Education. The Senate-Administration Task Force was created in December to discuss how to progress online education at UCSD in coming years. Executive Vice Chancellor Suresh Subramani announced the initiative, which is led by Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Barbara Sawrey and Dean of Graduate Studies Kim Barrett, at the end of November. Its purpose is to overlook education at UCSD, specifically with the use of technology in the classroom. “UC San Diego doesn’t currently offer any undergraduate classes that are completely online, though there are many ‘hybrid’ courses that include technology enhancements and online components,” Sawrey said.
http://www.ucsdguardian.org/news-and-features/campus/item/26373-uc-online-education-set-to-expand#.URr3lx3Yc44
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by Jonathan Biles, PCC Courier
On Feb. 4, PCC announced that twenty new eight-week, short term, fully online courses were being offered, beginning March 11, but all were filled in 36 hours. No on-campus meetings are required. The classes include English 1A, English 900, Sociology 1, Political Science 1, Health Education 44, and Nutrition 11. Leslie Tirapelle, interim director of distance education, said that PCCs online presence and providing greater access to students is paramount to the school’s development. The demand for these classes was so substantial that the marketing campaign has been pulled and the Distance Education Committee is planning to lobby for the funding of similar online classes.
http://www.pcccourier.com/2013/02/11/online-courses-filled-in-36-hours/
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February 16, 2013
by LSBFLondon, Edudemic
“Even though the education market has changed and distance learning has become increasingly popular, most institutions find themselves unprepared to face this worldwide phenomenon and lack the expertise to create a platform that makes online courses effective”, says Vitaly Klopot, Managing Director of the award-winning e-learning provider, InterActive , which partners with institutions such as the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) and Finance Business Training (FBT) to offer a wide range of programs. Aside from providing innovative, industry-focused programs delivered by highly qualified professionals and academics, there are five main areas to consider when creating an online course.
http://edudemic.com/2013/02/teaching-an-online-course/
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By heidishanklin, Boise State Arbeiter
There is a need for Boise State to think outside the current education norm by delving into the possibility of allowing international and U.S. students to graduate without setting foot on its Idaho campus. Sadly, many professors simply are not up to the task, having nestled into their tenured, dogged pace. They will be left far behind as their students realize their college education should be more of a consumer-driven commodity, rather than submitting to the dull emphasis of curricula forced upon them by staff who tarry behind in meeting the needs of current and upcoming Internet generations. With the advent of a new venture by Khan Online University, sponsored by the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson foundation for Idaho K-12 students, the program will herald new technological advancements for upcoming collegiate students. According the aforementioned foundation, Sol Khan, Ph.D., presents his ideology as an investment in the student, rather than just the instructor.
http://arbiteronline.com/2013/02/11/catching-the-education-future-train/
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By Claire Cardona, Dallas News
The University of Texas at Austin is rolling out nine online not-for-credit courses in the 2013-14 school year to test out the new MOOC program. Despite the funny acronym, MOOCs, or massive open online courses, are a growing trend in higher education and have the potential to provide students with online accessibility to courses that might fill up quickly. The courses are also available to non-students regardless of location, and they’re free. “We love the idea that people who have never been to college will get to see what a college course looks like,” said Steven Mintz, executive director of the UT System’s Institute for Transformational Learning. “Hopefully, it will persuade them to pursue higher education.”
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/02/ut-austin-will-offer-nine-not-for-credit-online-courses-starting-in-august.html/
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February 15, 2013
by GREGORY FERENSTEIN, Tech Crunch
Educators knew the online revolution would eventually envelop the physical classroom, but a torrent of near-revolutionary developments in the past month are proving that change is coming quicker than anyone imagined. In just 30 days, the largest school system in the U.S. began offering credit for online courses, a major university began awarding degrees without any class time required, and scores of public universities are moving their courses online. The point at which online higher education becomes mainstream is no longer in some fuzzy hypothetical future; the next president’s Secretary of Education will need an entire department dedicated to the massive transition.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/a-huge-month-online-education-is-replacing-physical-colleges-at-a-crazy-fast-pace/
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By Andy Neely, Financial Times
The challenge for individual schools then is how to approach this issue of big data. Do they form partnerships with third-party providers and run the risk of creating a new and more powerful breed of educational competitor? Alternatively do schools deliberately seek to create their own big data by engaging in the world of Moocs and then build the necessary internal capabilities to harvest and analyse this information? Do representative bodies for business schools or some of the accreditation agencies intervene and seek to build capability across the business school sector? One thing is certain – as learning materials digitise and the popularity of Moocs grows, we will see a very different model of education unfold. This model will draw on data and insight, as much as faculty knowledge and experience, to ensure that education materials and learning processes are as effective as possible. Business schools cannot afford to ignore this potentially seismic shift in the world of education. Those schools that do are likely to find themselves falling by the wayside as others exploit the power and potential of analytics in education.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6b69c074-6ef3-11e2-9ded-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2Kd0aDsud
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by CBC News
Athabasca University offers all of its courses online. George Siemens, a teacher, says online education can be more effective than classroom education. “In fact, there’s been study after study that’s validated the benefit of learning online in contrast to existing campus settings. There was a report that was released by the U.S. Department of Education last year that actually argued that learning online or specifically ‘blended’ — you know where you do part of your learning online, part in a classroom, that that type of learning actually has higher education success results than the only in classroom learning,” Siemens explained. “So, once you get past the personal beliefs and views and you start looking at the research, it’s very clear that it is comparable to existing learning in a university setting.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/02/11/calgary-online-courses.html
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