Online Learning Update

By Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed

Whether massive open online courses will help traditional college students significantly cut costs remains to be seen, but a smattering of institutional trials may soon help tell. More than a half-dozen institutions have made clear they will grant transfer credits to students who successfully complete certain MOOCs from low-cost online providers, mainly Coursera and Udacity. An untold number of other colleges may be quietly wrestling with the issue of transfer credits for MOOCs, perhaps at the request of students themselves. What is not yet clear is how many students have or will take advantage of these offers and whether those students will fare as well in college as traditional students. But now, for the first time, the idea of saving money through a MOOC isn’t theoretical, as some colleges have started to announce policies on awarding credit and charging tuition.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/08/researchers-wait-see-if-students-want-transfer-credits-moocs

by Katie Lepi, Edudemic

We’re more than halfway through the year now, and we all know that everyone makes predictions about what will happen each year in the realms of technology, education, and education technology. And since many of you are on summer break, relaxing and recharging before having to go back and think too much about any of the aforementioned topics, we thought it would be a good time to reflect a bit on what the trends have been so far this year. The handy infographic at the URL below takes a look at some of 2013′s biggest “e-learning”, which really just means how education and technology are intersecting these days. Keep reading to learn more.

http://www.edudemic.com/2013/08/the-biggest-online-learning-trends-of-the-year/

by AISHWARIYA S., the Hindu

Futurelearn offers us the opportunity to explore a new online delivery channel, focussing on a different way to structure learning materials and learner support from that offered by Coursera. Additionally, we are able to work collaboratively with many of our peer universities in the U.K. who are not Coursera partners. We wish to reach young learners in U.K. schools, especially those who are educationally disadvantaged, and Futurelearn will be a good platform for that sort of educational outreach. We will offer more courses at high school/ entry to university level, although there will be some courses at more advanced levels. The subject range will be wide and include biology, physics, bio-medical engineering, modern art, literature and history.

http://www.thehindu.com/features/education/future-is-online/article4985402.ece

by: Brian Gabriel, Business Administration Information

The massive open online course (MOOC) platform edX announced on its blog that it is releasing its entire learning platform as open source, enabling universities and independent developers to contribute to its online platform.  The venture began May 2, 2012 as a partnership between Harvard and MIT, and in March 2013 reached its 1 millionth student enrollment. The edX platform is implemented in Python, Ruby and NodeJS. Developers can access edX’s source code at http://code.edx.org/.

http://www.businessadministrationinformation.com/news/edx-opens-its-mooc-platform-to-developers-for-further-expansion

by Rob Kelly, Magna Teaching & Learning

Taking an online course can be an isolating experience, but it doesn’t have to be. There are several key techniques you can employ to humanize your online courses and thus improve the learning experience as well as success and retention rates. Humanizing an online course means making connections so that students feel a relationship to the course, fellow students, and the instructor. Jim Marteney, distance education trainer at Los Angeles Valley College, likens this idea to the concept of the third place—a place other than home and work where people come together to interact and build community, an idea popularized by Ray Oldenberg in his book Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the “Great Good Places” at the Heart of Our Communities.

http://www.magnapubs.com/blog/teaching-and-learning/tips-for-humanizing-your-online-course/

by Ananya Banerjee, TNN

Digital education has taken over the traditional chalk and blackboard method in a big way. Educational institutions are now utilizing technology to make teaching more interactive, with virtual classrooms, web conferencing and online courses becoming part of the curriculum. BITS Pilani recently developed the BITSConnect2.0 which enables them to have live lectures with students and professors from their campuses in Hyderabad and Goa. The pilot launch is now looking at an expansion.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Hyderabadis-go-the-e-learning-way/articleshow/21409484.cms

by Prashant K. Nanda, Live Mint

For us the most important thing is: have the students learnt. I think the quality of a pure online course can be better than the quality of an on-campus course. The pure lecture form of education is not working these days. In the online format, it could be more engaging. What we do is replace the lecture with learning sequences, inter-linked videos and interactive exercises. We introduced a games lab, allowed social forums for discussions, virtual labs and we promote use of simulation. The quality of our courses is good, but I believe we can improve further. We can teach through blended learning—a mix of both classroom and online—for a better result. Last August, we did an experiment in a university to offer blended courses—the results were stunning. Traditionally, the courses have a 59% pass rate, in the blended class it touched 91%. I think online education with a little bit of campus is a better model than 100% campus. I think 90% of virtual lab and 10% of physical lab is better. On the virtual lab, the number of experiments one can do is immense and it does not have limitations.

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/TFqJqM6l4K39Q2gq8JNg5O/Learn-anytime-anywhere-and-largely-for-free-Anant-Agarwal.html

by Online Degrees

The key behind the success of online learning is flexibility. Gone are the days of commuting long distances to sit in a classroom just to learn. Computers have eliminated the need for fixed schedules and made formal education available for busy professionals and parents. Now, mobile technologies like smartphones, tablets, and wireless internet are taking us even further. You are no longer restricted to where and when you do your studying. For many, the breakneck technological developments that make online education possible are dizzying. In this article we’ll try to sort it all out for you, so you can realize the true benefits of a flexible online education.

http://www.onlinedegrees.org/technology/

by Ry Rivard, Inside Higher Ed
A controversial California bill to pass off untold thousands of state college students to nontraditional providers of instruction, some of them for-profit or unaccredited, is dead for now. The bill, unveiled in March by a powerful California lawmaker, initially would have required the state’s 145 public colleges and universities to grant credit for low-cost online courses offered by outside groups, including for-profits companies, among them the providers of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. The legislation was the subject of massive media coverage, with many citing it as evidence that traditional higher ed models were doomed. The plan’s chief backer, Democratic State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, is no longer trying to advance the measure and will not do so until at least August 2014.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/01/controversial-california-bill-outsource-student-learning-dead-until-2014-or-later

By Stephanie Simon and Madeline Will, Reuters

A booming market in recent years for selling and renting used college textbooks has saved students across the United States a ton of cash. But it has put textbook publishers in a bind. They don’t make a cent unless students buy their books new. So increasingly, publishers like Pearson Plc and McGraw-Hill Education are turning to a new model: Creating online versions of their texts, often loaded with interactive features, and selling students access codes that expire at semester’s end. Publishers save on printing, shipping and process returns. The e-books are good for learning and good for their bottom line. There’s just one catch: Persuading students to go digital isn’t easy. Online products accounted for 27 percent of the $12.4 billion spent on textbooks for secondary schools and colleges in the United States last year, according to research firm Outsell Inc.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/us-usa-education-textbook-idUSBRE96M04520130723

BY:SEAN GALLAGHER AND GEOFFREY GARRETT, the Australian

Perhaps the best way to understand this massive open online course revolution is to think of MOOC platforms as the iTunes of higher education. Apple’s iTunes didn’t change the way music was made; it leveraged iPod technology and revolutionised how people consumed music. MP3 files are lower quality than high-fidelity stereo, but they are so much more convenient. And live music continues to thrive. Just ask the Rolling Stones. Similarly, we do not expect MOOCs to make the campus experience any less desirable. In fact, MOOCs may even encourage students to experience campus life and to pay more for the privilege

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/opinion/moocs-the-itunes-of-academe/story-e6frgcko-1226688285382

by Instructure

Instructure, an education technology provider, and Qualtrics, an insight technology provider, report the results of a new research study on the motivations of massive open online course (MOOC) participants. The primary motivators for people to both enroll in and complete MOOCs are the course topic and quality of the learning experience, according to a Qualtrics survey of 1,834 students in Instructure’s Canvas Network MOOC index. The study found that course topic is the main motivator for enrollment among 35 percent of MOOC participants, followed by personal or professional development (24 percent) and the fact that MOOCs are free (16 percent). Among those who didn’t complete, 29 percent said the main reason was the learning experience didn’t match their expectations, and the same number said they were too busy to finish.

http://www.instructure.com/press-releases/qualtrics-and-instructure-reveal-mooc-students-top-motivations

by David F. Carr, Information Week

The project-based approach taken by many Udacity courses is driven by interesting problems for students to solve, Evans said, something that’s often lacking in a traditional academic setting where you have more of a captive audience. He and the course designers from Udacity started with the understanding that they would need to work hard to keep students engaged, and they rarely present more than five minutes of video lecture before offering a quiz or programming exercise. Online video sites like YouTube indulge our short attention spans with limitless choices, until “anything more than a minute starts to seem like forever,” Evans said. Online courses exist in that same environment. “It’s a very different medium from sitting in a traditional lecture hall.”

http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/udacity-creating-a-more-engaging-mooc/240159056

By Denise Amrich, ZDNet Health

Google Hangouts are getting more and more interesting. The ability to easily start a live video conference with colleagues all over the world, share screens, and see each other — all in real time — is opening many doors for innovation. Sure, live video conferencing has been around for years, and it’s been quite good for some time. But it hasn’t been as easily and freely available as Hangouts on the ubiquitous Google infrastructure. Now, anyone with a Google account can start a live video conference. A good example of this is the Hangout produced by Yuri Shevchouk and involving RN Rob Fraser, clinical development nurse Ian Miller, and travel nurse Gary Cox. Talk about worldwide, Fraser was in Toronto Canada while Miller was in Australia’s Canberra region.

http://www.zdnet.com/nurses-use-google-hangouts-to-collaborate-on-technology-7000018634/

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The University of Nebraska continues to significantly expand its online education options. Mary Niemiec, who leads NU’s distance education program, says the number of credit hours generated by students only in the distance program grew 12 percent to 57,000 last school year. About two-thirds of those credit hours are generated by Nebraskans. Niemiec says many students attending one of the university’s ca uses also take an online course at some point to take advantage of the flexibility. NU’s online high school program is also expanding to include more students and offer more courses.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/5a1bc88607614fbb991f287958cbad6c/NE–NU-Online

by the Merced Sun-Star

An experiment using online classes to help struggling students in math got off to a rough start. But it’s wise to learn from the pilot project, not to prematurely declare it a failure. “San Jose State’s big experiment with massive online courses fails massively,” one headline read. Others had a similar theme. This rush to judgment was based on basic misunderstanding about the design of the experiment. This project still deserves a chance. As Gov. Jerry Brown said in announcing this experiment in January, California has three major challenges to confront:

1. Only 16 percent of California State University students graduate in four years.

2. Millions of young people with college aptitude aren’t going to college.

3. Even if they get to college, they have to take remedial English or math or repeat courses.

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/07/29/3134301/online-class-pilot-project-educational.html

By Katy Murphy, Times-Herald

This fall, for the first time, students in the nation’s largest public university system will be able to take courses offered online at any of the system’s campuses — regardless of where they attend. A program announced Wednesday by the 23-campus California State University includes more than 30 courses approved for systemwide consumption, from Elementary Astronomy to the History of Rock and Roll. This means a student from San Francisco State can sign up for a microeconomics course taught at CSU Northridge, while students from that Southern California campus can learn all about American politics from a professor who teaches in San Francisco. “It’s radical for our system,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for CSU.

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_23773853/california-state-university-unveils-radical-new-plan-online

by Cathy Davidson, HASTAC

This is why I do not participate in the schadenfreude over the Udacity-SJSU reset following upon the high failure rate of their students in three introductory or remedial classes: First, I am impressed that, at six months, they are willing to study, experiment, redesign, and try something else. I like that spirit of experimentation and won’t be surprised if they come up with something better next time…. Second, my fear is that, being pleased that the SJSU-Udacity commercial partnership failed, too many educators will now think the matter is closed and done with.  It is not.  The problems listed above all remain and remain at the same time.   All educators need to be addressing these.  It should not just be for-profit companies and it should not just be the President of the United States. 

http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2013/07/28/schadenfreude-mooc-not-joy-higher-ed-status-quo

by e-Learning Provocateur

Hot on the heels of my 5 benefits of open badges for corporates, I now present my 7 big opportunities that MOOCs offer corporates. Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m quite the MOOC fan. While I realise massive open online courses are not a panacea, I believe they have much to offer learners and learning professionals alike. More specifically, I recognise the following opportunities to leverage them in the workplace.

http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/7-big-opportunities-that-moocs-offer-corporates/

By Megan McArdle, Bloomberg

MOOCs are in very early days yet; they’re still learning what’s effective. Most first-generation products have significant drawbacks that get worked out through iterative improvement — just look at early automobiles or the first Kindles. They may even have drawbacks that don’t get worked out: 100-odd years in, my car still can’t drive me home while I nap, something that many a good horse could do in 1880. But the other advantages of cars, like speed and comfort, outweighed that one disadvantage. So maybe Jonathan Rees is right to panic, because he’s absolutely correct that disruptive innovation tends to be very bad for the folks whose industries get disrupted. But the rest of us should be excited. Even if our grandkids miss out on the experience of ivy-colored classrooms, they may end up with a whole world of opportunity we never had.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-25/are-online-courses-failing-america-.html

by Tony Bates, Online Learning and Distance Education Resources

It can be seen that there are methodological challenges in trying to assess the impact of online learning on productivity. Nevertheless we don’t have to have perfect answers – we need to know where the balance of evidence is leading. However, at the moment, we don’t have even this – or rather the evidence is scattered across a large range of sources and is not collected together with a view to looking at the issue of productivity. Indeed, institutions are sitting on much of the data needed to answer many of the questions posed in this post. What is needed is more analysis and communication of the findings that would flow from this analysis…. I believe we can provide reasonably good answers on the impact of online learning on access, at least, and this could show that it has increased the productivity of the system by bringing in students who would otherwise have been excluded.

http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/07/27/is-there-a-link-between-flexible-access-and-productivity-in-higher-education/