Online Learning Update

Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed

If you wonder why your university hasn’t linked up with Coursera, the massively popular provider of  free online classes, it may help to know the company is contractually obliged to turn away the vast majority of American universities. The Silicon Valley-based company said to be revolutionizing higher education says in a contract obtained by Inside Higher Ed that it will “only” offer classes from elite institutions – the members of the Association of American Universities or “top five” universities in countries outside of North America – unless Coursera’s advisory board agrees to waive the requirement.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/22/coursera-commits-admitting-only-elite-universities

Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed

Faculty union officials in California worry professors who agree to teach free online learning classes could undermine faculty intellectual property rights and collective bargaining agreements. The union for faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz said earlier this month it could seek a new round of collective bargaining after several professors agreed to teach classes on Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based provider of popular massive open online classes, or MOOCs.

The Santa Cruz Faculty Association’s concern highlights an emerging tension as professors begin to teach MOOCs and, in turn, become academic stars to tens of thousands of students who sign up for the free classes. Santa Cruz is the only UC campus to have a unionized tenure-track faculty, so the exchange there is perhaps unique, but the issues there are not.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/19/u-california-faculty-union-says-moocs-undermine-professors-intellectual-property

By Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The State University of New York’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday endorsed an ambitious vision for how SUNY might use prior-learning assessment, competency-based programs, and massive open online courses to help students finish their degrees in less time, for less money. The plan calls for “new and expanded online programs” that “include options for time-shortened degree completion.” In particular, the board proposed a huge expansion the prior-learning assessment programs offered by SUNY’s Empire State College. The system will also push its top faculty members to build MOOCs designed so that certain students who do well in the courses might be eligible for SUNY credit.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/suny-signals-major-push-toward-moocs-and-other-new-educational-models/43079

by Cliff Peale, Cincinnati.com

Imagine a college education, cobbled together on your laptop at home. Here, an economics course from Stanford University, taught online with 100,000 other students. There, a math class at your local state university. Take statistics from a professor at MIT and basic computing from a community college hundreds of miles away. Package them all into a degree. “What you’re seeing now with online learning is the potential to unbundle the degree,” said Burck Smith, president of StraighterLine, which offers about 60 courses online for $99 a month. “The question for colleges is, is college more than the sum of its parts?”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130317/NEWS0102/303180041?nclick_check=1

by M. Mitchell Waldrop, Nature

Massive open online courses are transforming higher education — and providing fodder for scientific research. There is reason to hope that this is a positive development, says Roy Pea, who heads a Stanford centre that studies how people use technology. MOOCs, which have incorporated decades of research on how students learn best, could free faculty members from the drudgery of repetitive introductory lectures. What’s more, they can record online students’ every mouse click, an ability that promises to transform education research by generating data that could improve teaching in the future. “We can have microanalytics on every paper, every test, right down to what media each student prefers,” says Pea.

http://www.nature.com/news/online-learning-campus-2-0-1.12590

By Karen Kucher, UT San Diego

Faculty leaders at California public colleges and universities are expressing concern about maintaining quality control over curriculum under a proposal that would allow private companies to offer basic courses online for credit. Union leaders representing community college instructors said they were “deeply concerned” over the plan, finding fundamental problems with outsourcing gateway courses and mandating that colleges bypass normal curriculum-approval processes. Similar concerns about state Senate Bill 520 were stated by faculty association representatives at the California State University and University of California systems. “The clear, self-interest of for-profit corporations in promoting the privatization of public higher education through this legislation is dismaying,” Robert Powell, chair of the UC Assembly of the Academic Senate, wrote in a letter to senate members.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/16/faculty-raise-concerns-over-online-education-plan/

by Chris Parr, Times Higher Education

Students should be able to access government loans in order to study massive open online courses, a former education adviser to Tony Blair has said. Sir Michael Barber, now chief education adviser at publishing and education company Pearson, pointed to the emergence of a new breed of “pick-and-mix students” who assemble their learning from a range of sources rather than taking traditional campus-based degrees. Such students were entitled to funding, he argued. “If you’re a student or a potential student, it is no longer a question of choosing a degree course you want to do at a university,” he said. “It’s a question of thinking…‘How will I keep learning through my life, how do I combine a range of educational experiences not just from one university but also from a range of universities – potentially around the world?’”

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/fund-pick-and-mix-mooc-generation-ex-wonk-advises/2002535.article

by MEGAN O’NEIL, Glendale New-Press

It’s a remarkable world in which an 18-year-old in Mongolia can flash his intellectual prowess in an engineering class taught by a Stanford University professor. It would seem that for the highly-motivated Internet-connected individual, there is no limit. Still, as exciting as it is to watch the digital education race play out among the MITs and the Berkeleys of higher education, online learning has real-world limitations. That kid in Mongolia might outperform his peers in Palo Alto, but he won’t receive any credit for his efforts. He could ace every course in Stanford’s online catalog without a prayer for a diploma. (That will cost him tens of thousands of dollars and one hell of an admissions essay.)

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/opinion/tn-gnp-0315-on-education-online-education-and-the-real-world,0,4143777.story

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

In a crossing of swords between academics and politicians, the University of California’s top two faculty leaders on Friday strongly criticized legislation that would allow students bumped from overcrowded core courses at state schools to instead take online courses from other colleges or private companies. The bill, authored by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), “raises grave concerns,” Robert L. Powell and Bill Jacob, the chairman and vice chairman of the UC system’s faculty Senate, wrote in a letter to colleagues. Among other things, “the clear self-interest of for-profit corporations in promoting the privatization of public higher education through this legislation is dismaying,” they said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-online-classes-20130316,0,6168458.story

by Katrina Voss, Penn State

In a free new online course, “Epidemics: the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases,” offered by the Eberly College of Science at Penn State, students and members of the public will learn about how infectious diseases spread by playing a real-time epidemic game — a “virtual apocalypse,” which instructors will run in parallel with the more traditional lessons. The course, which begins Oct. 15 and continues for eight consecutive weeks, is part of the leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform Coursera, which makes it possible for the University to provide courses on a vast scale, opening higher education to hundreds of thousands more students than was previously possible. “Our course is unique. It differs from all the other massive open online courses out there because we offer our students the opportunity to participate in a virtual pandemic,” said Marcel Salathé, an assistant professor of biology and leader of a team of eight faculty members teaching the course. “I can’t think of a more engaging way to learn about how epidemics unfold and how they can be controlled than to be in the middle of it, even if only virtually.

http://news.psu.edu/story/268568/2013/03/14/academics/penn-state-open-online-course-infects-learners-causing-virtual

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Christian Science Monitor

In an effort to improve students’ access to high-demand courses, a California state senator is proposing the creation of up to 50 online courses, perhaps spurring a dialogue on college education. The leader of the California Senate unveiled legislation Wednesday that would pave the way for up to 50 online courses, in subjects that are traditionally oversubscribed, to be offered statewide for credit. Such a partnership between California’s public university systems and various online providers would “break the bottleneck that prevents students from completing courses,” he said in a web-streamed announcement. As the first such legislative proposal, “it certainly is going to spark a national dialogue … [and may mark] a turning point in instructional program delivery in this country,” says Dan Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2013/0314/California-bill-aims-to-be-turning-point-for-college-courses-online

by David F. Carr, Information Week

Already a MOOC sensation, edX offers courses from leading universities for free, with many of the supporting textbooks and other materials published as open educational resources. Now, edX is opening up access to the software used to create interactive learning tools like the circuit simulator in its popular Circuits and Electronics course and the molecular manipulator in Introduction to Biology – The Secret of Life.

http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/edx-mooc-software-goes-open-source/240150815

by Scott Manning, Online Learning Tips

It seems like an obvious statement, but an online course will require your time. Yet, a common misconception among perspective students is online learning requires less time than a brick and mortar class. The reality is you will save time in some areas, but spend more time in others. Yes, there are time savers. The beauty of an online course is you can do it on your time with deadlines throughout the week. You also do not have to travel to be at a desk. However, you will spend time in other areas you did not expect. First, you will spend time writing. Instead of speaking with your fellow students, you must write. Virtually all online courses require message board interaction.

http://onlinelearningtips.com/2013/03/15/an-online-course-requires-your-time/

by Onlinecollege.org

Tracking the changes in online learning over the past decade. From growth in the numbers of online students to faculty and administrator acceptance, this infographic creates a visual display of the rise of online learning.

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2013/03/14/10-years-online-education/

by Sandra Müller, The Diamondback

While about 97 percent of all courses on this campus are still taught face-to-face, a new university commission is exploring ways to incorporate greater use of technology in classrooms. The 25-member Provost’s Commission on Blended and Online Education will make recommendations on how online and blended learning — a teaching approach that combines computer-based activities with in-person lessons — can fit into the university’s mission as a research university, said Gary White, public services associate dean and a member of the commission. “Our primary focus is to ensure high-quality teaching and learning experiences,” White said. To that end, the commission — chaired by public health college Dean Jane Clark — has considered factors such as accessibility, physical infrastructure and finances, White said.

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/campus/article_1e841e6e-8c5b-11e2-b773-0019bb30f31a.html

by Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

A new bill proposed by a state senator in California would create a new system that would allow public universities across the state to accept college credit for online courses.Online courses are racking up the cred.  In the last few months, providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) have won partnerships and pilot programs with universities, as well as credit equivalency approval from the American Council on Education. But a new state bill in California could give online courses even more gravitas.

http://gigaom.com/2013/03/13/online-education-could-get-big-boost-from-calif-bill-backing-web-classes-for-credit/

by ELIZABETH OLSON, NY Times

As employers demand skills and more skills, many people are turning to online certificate programs to acquire a specific expertise that can lead them to a job or a promotion — or, sometimes, simply to ensure that they hang on to their current position. Although less well known than “massive open online courses,” known as MOOCs, online certificates are “part of the unbundling of education that is happening now,” said Joel Shapiro, associate dean of academics at Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies…. “The student adds a skill and gets a stamp of academic approval for the effort,” said Ray Schroeder, director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois, Springfield…. Many people apply their certificate course work to a master’s degree, said Jim Fong, director of the Center for Research and Consulting, part of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, a grouping of 350 colleges and universities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/education/online-certificate-programs-at-colleges-and-universities-gain-popularity.html?pagewanted=all

by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed

What is it like to teach 10,000 or more students at once, and does it really work? The largest-ever survey of professors who have taught MOOCs, or massive open online courses, shows that the process is time-consuming, but, according to the instructors, often successful. Nearly half of the professors felt their online courses were as rigorous academically as the versions they taught in the classroom…. Professors who responded to The Chronicle survey reported a variety of motivations for diving into MOOCs. The most frequently cited reason was altruism—a desire to increase access to higher education worldwide. But there were often professional motivations at play as well.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/

by LYDIA LIM, Daily Princetonian

Coursera is currently experimenting with selling certificates as a way to generate revenue, as well as seeking approval from the American Council on Education in order to offer courses for credit. Five courses have been approved so far. Deputy Dean of the College Clayton Marsh, who has been involved with the negotiations about Coursera, said that the University’s open online courses have attracted over 500,000 students from across the globe. “The world’s hunger, curiosity and appreciation for what we’ve served up on the platform was palpable and illuminating,” Marsh said.

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2013/03/12/33066/

by Bruce Guile and David Teece, Forbes

A revolution is coming to U.S. higher education, one that will sweep away an archaic business model, erase the value of many venerable brands, and enhance the brands of new entrants and nimble incumbents. It will be a tough time for many U.S. colleges and universities but great news for the rest of the world. Over the next decade, institutions in the U.S. and in other countries with mature higher education sectors will be struggling to justify the cost and value of a residential degree program when students get much of the same content and a good portion of the classroom experience from an online instructor in another city or across an ocean. They will be asking, what is the value added by our campus when demand can be aggregated either by bringing students to campus or, much less expensively, by reaching and teaching students online virtually anywhere in the world?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/03/12/the-real-winners-of-the-coming-revolution-in-higher-education/

By MICHIGAN RADIO

Jamie Fitzpatrick is President of MVU and says “we’ve served a lot of kids with health issues, gifted athletes that compete internationally, and a lot of kids who may have failed a course in their local school who need to make up credit.” But he says their audience is expanding. “We’re starting to see young people tell us that ‘I don’t have a health issue that’s preventing me from going to school,’” he adds. “’I’m not a world class athlete. I don’t have a learning disability. I’m just an average teen age kid and I want to take an online class because I think it might be an interesting way to learn.’” He’s says the next phase of the process will be challenging, but exciting. “We’ve got to figure out how do we think about this vision, that really is anchored around really good teachers making use of these incredible tools to help kids achieve at rates we haven’t achieved before.”

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/study-online-learning-needs-be-more-personalized