Online Learning Update

August 24, 2013

Howard University to Expand Online Course Offerings for 2014-15

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Zenitha Prince, AFRO

Howard University this month announced a new comprehensive initiative to expand the institution’s array of online/blended courses and programs. “Howard University Online” (HU-Online) is being created in partnership with Pearson, one of the world’s leading providers of online services to higher education. Beginning in the fall 2014-2015 academic year, Howard will offer select online degree programs with the goal of creating up to 25 online programs over the next few years.

http://www.afro.com/sections/news/Washington/story.htm?storyid=79463

Share on Facebook

Degreed wants to make online courses count

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By Iris Mansour, CNN Money

Launched in January 2013, Degreed is trying to address this problem by giving a score to university degrees and online courses alike. If you graduate from Harvard with an economics degree, for example, you’ll earn 3,787 points. If you complete a programming course at Codecademy, that gives you 13 points. Points are tallied and stored on user profiles on Degreed. Users can get their transcript, identity, and degree verified for $12 each. “We normalize the data to help make the disparate world of education something that’s easily understood by employers and others,” says Blake, 29, who built Degreed with $900,000 in angel funding from five angels including Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Degreed is also currently part of the Kaplan EdTech accelerator program.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/15/degreed-online-courses/

Share on Facebook

Online Learning Must be Faculty-Driven, Innovative, UT Austin President Says

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by the University of Texas Austin

University of Texas at Austin president Bill Powers has developed five guiding principles for using online technology in higher education that can help students learn more effectively and serve as a national model as universities navigate a rapidly changing landscape.The guiding principles are:

Faculty and academic units will control the online curriculum to ensure that it mirrors the quality of the traditional curriculum and features UT Austin’s world-class faculty.

The university will support and provide incentives to faculty members to innovate, develop and adapt online courses, certificates and degree programs.

The model must be financially sustainable for the university, realizing the potential to generate revenue, improve productivity and increase the number of students who learn from UT Austin faculty members.

The university will develop online content that can be deployed across multiple educational settings and on various platforms.

The university will never stop innovating and will work closely with students to define new educational and business models for the 21st century.

http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/08/14/online-learning-must-be-faculty-driven-innovative-ut-austin-president-says/

Share on Facebook

August 23, 2013

Cloud re-routeing

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by David Roberts and Blaine Greteman, London Times Higher Education

More than 2,000 years ago in The Clouds, Aristophanes complained that universities, or “Thinkeries”, left students heavily indebted and without practical skills. Digital platforms certainly make possible higher education that will re-engage students and teach them critical thinking – but only if we move away from the unidirectional model that persists even in well-run lecture classrooms and Moocs, and abandon traditional notions of classes, evaluation, even graduation. We could do this in a way that avoids the pitfalls of the Thinkery. Let’s call it “Cloud U”. No doubt Cloud U has drawbacks we haven’t foreseen – as Aristophanes knew, this is the problem with Thinkeries old and new. But reorienting higher education so that many students pay a little to acquire skills, rather than a chosen few paying a lot for uncertain results, might help to bring educational costs down to earth while making university a little more universal.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/complete-the-digital-learning-revolution-take-to-the-cloud-say-david-roberts-and-blainegreteman/2006498.article

Share on Facebook

Udacity Expands Offices in Palo Alto

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

by SB Wire

T3 Advisors, a national real estate consulting firm, is pleased to announce that its client, Udacity, has moved to its new location at 2465 Latham Street in Palo Alto. Due to explosive growth, Udacity, a cutting-edge online education company, outgrew its 3,000 square foot space and has selected a top-floor location with 15,000 square feet to meet its expanded needs. With a strong desire to change the face of higher education and series B funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and Steve Blank, Udacity has grown faster than expected. “It’s very exciting to see the enormous growth of our client, Udacity,” said David Bergeron, Managing Director for T3 Advisors on the West Coast. “We are thrilled to assist them in locating and creating a space that will empower them to continue their important work in the education space.”

http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/udacity-selects-t3-advisors-to-expand-in-palo-alto-305043.htm

Share on Facebook

MOOC Startup NovoEd Offers Startup Courses

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

by Betsy Corcoran, EdSurge

In contrast to the early big three MOOCS (Coursera, Udacity and EdX) NovoEd aims to support collaboration among students. Co-founder and CEO Amin Saberi says that it doesn’t matter how many people are part of the lecture aspects of classes but the sweet size for collaborative groups is between 4 and 10 people. Completion rates on NovoEd have been relatively speaking high: 17% of the students who sign up complete a class (and half of those who finish the first assignment also finish the class.) Since it debuted earlier this year, NovoEd reports that 458,600 students (in 152 countries) have taken its classes. More interesting: NovoEd says that 56,190 project teams have been formed and that they’ve created about 1,500 businesses (or at least a marketing page and pitch deck) via NovoEd.

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013-08-15-entrepreneurial-education-goes-online

Share on Facebook

August 22, 2013

Feminists Launch Model for Online Learning

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

By Hajer Naili, Women’s Enews

A year after The New York Times ran an article about Silicon Valley, which opened with “Men invented the Internet,” FemTechNet is about to launch an online curricula highlighting the significant contributions of feminists to technology. FemTechNet, which describes itself as “a global network of feminist, students and artists who work on, with and at the borders of technology, science and feminism in a variety of fields,” is calling the curriculum a DOOC, or Distributed Open Collaborative Course. “Dialogues in Feminism and Technology,” its first DOOC course–running from Sept. 16 through December in 15 universities across the United States and Canada–is something of a pilot, which starts in North America and aims to expand across the globe in the coming year.

http://womensenews.org/story/education/130814/feminists-launch-model-online-learning#.Ugy_S9LYcig

Share on Facebook

Meaningful Collaboration: Revitalizing Small Colleges with MOOC Hybrids

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

by Kevin R. Burke and Jessica Mahoney, Hybrid Pedagogy

When MOOCs went viral in 2012, traditional small colleges reached an identity crossroads, a midlife crisis where idealism and wisdom collide. Along with the rapid adoption at large, elite institutions and flagship state schools is the growing myth that MOOCs will threaten traditional liberal arts colleges and smaller institutions. Despite the massive amount of capital invested in Coursera, edX, and Udacity and the hype about global branding, according to Inside Higher Education the original MOOC platform included engaged learning activities found at most small liberal arts colleges. MOOCs, it appears, were not created to run the old guard out of town; rather, they can bring the best traditional liberal arts instruction in direct dialogue with fresh ideas from students across the globe. Recently Wellesley College announced its first course offerings with edX, making it the first liberal arts college to offer MOOCs.

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Collaboration_Small_Colleges_MOOC_Hybrids.html#unique-entry-id-153

Share on Facebook

Zuckerberg Unveils Plan To Expand Global Internet Access (expanding potential for online learning)

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Kristin Burnham, InformationWeek.com
More than 1.15 billion people use Facebook today and about 2.7 billion people have access to the Internet. But that’s not enough for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg — he wants that number to grow. Tuesday he announced plans on his Facebook page to bring Internet access to the billions of people who lack it through an initiative called Internet.org. Tech giants Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung are partners in Internet.org, which aims to drastically cut the costs of delivering basic Internet services on mobile phones, particularly in developing countries where Facebook and other tech companies are seeking new users.

http://www.informationweek.com/social-business/social_networking_consumer/zuckerberg-unveils-plan-to-expand-global/240160257

Share on Facebook

August 21, 2013

Learning Equity between Online and On-Site Mathematics Courses

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Sherry J. Jones & Vena M. Long, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

This paper reports on a research study that focused on equity in learning as reflected in the final grades of online and on-site students from the same post-secondary mathematics course taught repeatedly over 10 semesters from Fall 2005 through Spring 2011. On-site students attended regular class sessions, while online students only attended an orientation session and a final exam. Mean final course grades for all online and on-site students were compared statistically to see if there was a significant difference in learning. The findings revealed significant differences in online and on-site students’ final grades, in favor of on-site student achievement. Statistical tests were also conducted on a number of subsets drawn from all students’ final grades in order to search for any underlying nuances that might exist. When the first three semesters of data were removed from the dataset, no significant difference was found between the mean scores for on-site and online students for the seven most recent semesters. It is reasonable to conclude that it is possible for students in both on-site and online sections of a course to achieve equity in mathematics learning as measured by final course grades.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no1/jones_0313.pdf

Share on Facebook

How to Make Online Courses Massively Personal

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By Peter Norvig, Scientific American

Educators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one tutoring and mastery learning—working on a subject until it is mastered, not just until a test is scheduled. Success also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents, mentors or peers. Will the rise of massive open online courses (MOOCs) quash these success factors? Not at all. In fact, digital tools offer our best path to cost-effective, personalized learning.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-make-online-courses-massively-personal-peter-norvig

Share on Facebook

Earning Online College Credit by Competency-based Exams Gains Appeal

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

by Education News

Online programs can be a great option for adults who have already learned course material through previous jobs or military experience, according to Devon Haynie of USnews.com, as the appeal of competency-based learning grows nationwide. Pam Tate, president and CEO of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, said that adult learners are expediting their educations by taking advantage of programs that award credit for prior learning. “Earning a degree does not always have to be a huge time or financial investment.” For online learners, earn credit by exam can also be a particularly attractive option.

http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/earning-college-credit-by-competency-based-exams-gains-appeal/

Share on Facebook

August 20, 2013

Vickie S. Cook, Ph.D., named director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 11:06 am

by the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service UIS

Dr. Vickie Cook has been selected to be the new director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service . Most recently, she has served as the Associate Vice President for Innovation and Technology at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. She will begin effective September 16, 2013, pending University of Illinois Board of Trustees approval. Vickie Cook succeeds the founding director of the Center, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning Ray Schroeder who says, “We are delighted that Vickie Cook accepted our invitation; she is an outstanding leader in the field of technology-enhanced learning. Vickie has the abilities and expertise that make her an ideal person to lead the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service. I know that the Center will continue to lead in innovation and quality in online learning under her leadership.

http://www.uis.edu/colrs/about/cook-named-director/

Share on Facebook

Developing Asynchronous Online Courses: Key Instructional Strategies in a Social Metacognitive Constructivist Learning Trajectory

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Margaret Niess and Henry Gillow-Wiles, Journal of Distance Education

This qualitative, design-based research study resulted in a proposal for a comprehensive set of best instructional practices immersed in a learning trajectory, outlining the tools, processes and the content development for online asynchronous, text-based learning in graduate level professional development courses. The outcome provides a rich description of essential instructional strategies for merging the tools, processes and the content development in a social metacognitive constructivist instructional framework. The learning trajectory presents an explanatory framework that interweaves social, teaching, and cognitive presences towards the engagement of a virtual community of learners to expand their individual and shared knowledge through learning tasks and tools.

http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/831/1473

Share on Facebook

Tips for Success in an Online Learning Environment

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

By Ashford University

Online higher education is surging in popularity. According to the 2012 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group, the number of students taking at least one online course has surpassed 6.7 million, an increase of 570,000 students over the previous year. Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least one course online. Succeeding in an online course requires many of the same healthy habits as a traditional course. However, there are some differences in an online environment that can surprise many students. Dr. Mindy Sloan, vice provost of Research & Innovation at Ashford University, offers the following tips to achieve online academic success.

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/13/5646553/tips-for-success-in-an-online.html

Share on Facebook

Online Learning Gets Massive, Open

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Garry Kranz, Workforce

Recruiting company Aquent is using a new twist on online learning to help its clients hire next-generation Web developers. Faced with job requests from companies that it could not fill, the Boston-based specialized recruiter for ad agencies in 2012 launched a massive open online course, or MOOC, on skills related to HTML5, the latest version of the markup language that defines how Internet content gets structured. Ad agencies need Web developers well-versed in mobile technologies such as HTML5, yet many code writers seem to lack the necessary skills to compete for available jobs, said Alison Farmer, Aquent’s vice president of learning and development. “Even though unemployment was high, companies were telling us that most candidates weren’t qualified,” Farmer said. “We wondered: ‘How do we take candidates that may have been competitive a year ago and help them acquire emerging skills?’”

http://www.workforce.com/articles/9295-online-learning-gets-massive-open

Share on Facebook

August 19, 2013

Twitter invades online learning with new engineering training tool

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Lauren Hepler, Biz Journals

Twitter announced on Tuesday that it is launching Twitter University, an engineering education platform, after acquiring open source training company Marakana. A Twitter blog post by Senior Vice President of Engineering Chris Fry announced that the social media company has acquired open-source training company Marakana to launch a technical training tool called Twitter University. “To help our engineers grow, it’s important for them to have access to world-class technical training, along with opportunities to teach the skills they’ve mastered,” Fry wrote. The new program will be for Twitter employees, but Fry said the company wants to release some of the Twitter University content online for anyone to use.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/08/13/twitter-university-launches-coding.html

Share on Facebook

Imagining an Age of MOOCs

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Roland Greene, Berfroi

The MOOC era has dawned with a rush of utopian and dystopian bombast, much of which is bound to be wrong. A platform for enabling high-quality instruction over the internet will probably be a boon for higher education at large, even if it drastically changes the working conditions of many people in the profession. At the same time, MOOCs have demonstrated their value only in a handful of fields that deal in limited kinds of knowledge and assessment (and in those venues, as far as I can tell, they are not especially controversial).

Much of the concern for MOOCs as a sign of the future comes out of the interpretive humanities and social sciences, where online instruction on a large scale is likely not germinal to the future. In these settings, what problem do MOOCs address: access? cost? quality? interactivity? pedagogical experimentation? Each of these assumptions describes a different rationale for the MOOC.

http://www.berfrois.com/2013/08/a-mooc-point/

Share on Facebook

Enhanced earning capacity can impact online learners

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

By Robert C. Baron, Daily Record

You’ve heard the myths: Online degrees are not accredited so you are not getting a ‘real’ degree; employers won’t take your online degree seriously; no respectable college or university would ever dare offer an online degree. The facts, however, tell a much different story. In today’s high-tech world, the importance of keeping up with the latest in technological trends and advancements is paramount in the workplace, and the colleges and universities that provide the education to the corporate workforce are no different. Major universities, such as Auburn University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Florida, are among the leaders in offering online graduate business programs, according to U.S. News and World Report. In a December 2012 report, the SUNY Chancellor’s Online Education Advisory Team said the SUNY system delivered over 200 complete online degree and certificate programs, with over 100,000 enrollments annually.

http://nydailyrecord.com/blog/2013/08/12/commentary-enhanced-earning-capacity-can-impact-online-learners/

Share on Facebook

August 18, 2013

Time Saving Tips for Teaching Online

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Geoff Cain blog

We often hear that online learning takes a lot of time for instructors. I have found that it can, but when a course is set up in advance to take advantage of a learning management system’s features, a lot of time can be saved. A little work and planning in advance can save teachers a lot of time when it will really count. Many of these techniques make for a more engaging experience for the students and make teaching online less stressful for instructors.

http://cain.blogspot.com/2013/08/time-saving-tips-for-teaching-online.html

Share on Facebook

How MOOCs Will Revolutionize Corporate Learning And Development

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:07 am

by Jeanne Meister, Forbes

McAfee turned to a concept sweeping the education scene: Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. By using a tenet of MOOCs called “flipping the classroom,” which means that the majority of learning happens not with a professor lecturing the students but by giving students access to course materials and having them probe, discuss, and debate issues with fellow learners as well as the professor. With that change, McAfee turned its training around in a way that both saved both time and produced more lucrative sales: its sales associates now attribute an average of $500,000 per year in sales to the skills they learned through the new training model.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2013/08/13/how-moocs-will-revolutionize-corporate-learning-development/

Share on Facebook
« Newer PostsOlder Posts »

Powered by WordPress