Online Learning Update

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board

With the first semester of an experiment in online education over in mid-May and the second semester’s courses in progress until Aug. 9, headlines across the country already pronounced the experiment a failure. This rush to judgment was based on basic misunderstanding about the design of the pilot project and was deeply misguided. This project still deserves a chance. Brown said in January that “Failure is the precursor for success … because you learn,” the point of a pilot project. The problem, Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, told the Chronicle of Higher Education is “all the hype.” The early data should “bring us down to earth.” Reaching low-income, first-generation college-goers through online courses has promise. But it will not be an overnight miracle to long-standing education challenges.

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/28/5600142/editorial-online-classesshow-promise.html

by the National Center for Policy Analysis

Digital technologies have the potential to dramatically transform Indian higher education. A new model built around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with those provided by top universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a quality not possible before, says Pawan Agarwal, an adviser for higher education for the Indian government’s Planning Commission. University enrollment in India is huge and growing. It surpassed the United States’ enrollment in 2010 and became second only to China that year. Every day in India 5,000 students enroll at a university and 10 new institutions open their doors. At more than 3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), India’s spending on higher education is one of the highest in the world. Yet per-student spending is among the lowest. While recent expansion has widened access to universities, it has further reduced per-student spending and aggravated already acute faculty shortages. As a result, quality has declined.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=23420

by Jacquie Posey, University of Pennsylvania

For more than a quarter of a century, University of Pennsylvania professor Kenneth Shropshire has taught students at Penn’s Wharton School about the global business of sports. His love of sports and interest in the business side of games goes back even further. An executive in the organizing committee for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Shropshire oversaw projects regarding Philadelphia bids for the Olympics. He also chaired Philadelphia’s stadium site selection committee. The business professor and attorney will bring these experiences and more into a new online course called “The Global Business of Sports.” The seven-week offering begins Aug. 5 as one of the free courses Penn offers via Coursera. Registration is underway.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/life-long-interest-leads-penn-prof-kenneth-shropshire-teach-sports-business-e-course

by Michelle Rhee-Weise, Clayton Christensen Institute

It’s unfortunate that SJSU’s daring experiment was cast in the media as such an epic failure because critics of online education will be all too eager to use this as proof that online courses cannot compare to what occurs within the classroom. The sad fact is that institutions of higher education have never done an exceptional job of dealing with students underprepared for college. Remember: the Udacity trial was concurrent with edX’s pilot partnership with SJSU in which MIT course materials were being used to flip the classroom in an introductory SJSU Circuits course. Students watched the online edX materials (lectures, quizzes, virtual labs) at home and then met with SJSU lecturer Khosrow Ghadiri in the classroom to go through problem sets together. That course experienced a remarkable improvement in its pass rate, shooting upward from 55 percent to 91 percent. The blended learning environment created in the SJSU-edX pilot program was a testament to the need for personal guidance and support when it comes to working with MOOC materials.

http://www.christenseninstitute.org/try-try-again-udacity/

by the Associated Press

The University of Maryland University College announced it will be the first in the state’s university system to create a path for students to earn academic credit for learning through “massive open online courses.” The university is one of the nation’s largest public providers of online higher education with an enrollment of about 93,000 students. It has decided to award credit for demonstrated learning from six massive online courses offered by Coursera and Udacity. The classes cover math and science, such as introduction to physics, pre-calculus, calculus and introduction to computer science. Students will have to demonstrate their competency of material through standardized exams taken in a test center. “To us, a MOOC is just one more way that a student might learn something at the college level that we should help them get credit for if they can demonstrate that they have that knowledge,” said Marie Cini, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs for UMUC.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/07/31/umuc-will-be-first-college-in-md-university-system-with-moocs/

By Angelica Mari, ZD Net

US online language learning giant Rosetta Stone has announced two deals in a matter of days that will significantly boost its Brazil footprint. The first, a partnership with Rio de Janeiro-based university Estácio, the third largest in the country by number of students, will see a range of courses offered as part of postgraduate degrees. From this month, those enrolled postgraduate distance education courses will be able to opt from a range of 30 language Rosetta Stone modules for two semesters.

http://www.zdnet.com/rosetta-stone-pushes-language-e-learning-growth-in-brazil-7000018394/

By The LA Times editorial board

The disappointing results from San Jose State’s experiment with online courses shouldn’t be interpreted to mean that such courses can’t help students. But the classes the university offered in collaboration with online provider Udacity were practically a model of how to do online education badly: rushed into existence and sloppily overseen. No one was even aware that some students who had signed up for the classes lacked reliable access to computers. The one thing the college did well was monitor the results of the three pilot courses and call a timeout when failure rates proved unacceptably high. Even pilot programs must be carried out with more care. Online courses should be developed thoughtfully, from within the colleges, not as a result of top-down directives from the governor. The subjects that are offered should be based on student demand and faculty analysis of which would work best online.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-udacity-online-education-20130723,0,3407868.story

By Gabriel Kahn, Slate

Georgia Institute of Technology is about to take a step that could set off a broad disruption in higher education: It’s offering a new master’s degree in computer science, delivered through a series of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, for $6,600. The school’s traditional on-campus computer science master’s degree costs about $45,000 in tuition alone for out-of-state students (the majority) and $21,000 for Georgia residents. But in a few years, Georgia Tech believes that thousands of students from all over the world will enroll in the new program. The $6,600 master’s degree marks an attempt to realize the tantalizing promise of the MOOC movement: a great education, scaled up to the point where it can be delivered for a rock-bottom price.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/georgia_tech_s_computer_science_mooc_the_super_cheap_master_s_degree_that.html

By Steven Mintz, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The most important challenge involves a shift in the way students consume higher education. Instead of attending a single institution, students receive credit in multiple ways, including from early-college/dual-degree programs, community colleges, online providers, and multiple universities. Students are voting with their feet, embracing online courses and undermining core curricula, which served as a cash cow, by turning to alternate providers, and pursuing fewer majors that require study of a foreign language. As a result, colleges must become more nimble, entrepreneurial, student-focused, and accountable for what students learn. I am a historian and far better at interpreting the past than forecasting the future. Nevertheless, I will go out on a limb and predict 15 innovations that will alter the face of higher education over the next 36 months.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Future-Is-Now-15/140479/

By James Wang, Jessica Crawford, University of Houston Cougar

“Universities are learning and evolving, and new technologies are constantly being developed and explored,” said Jeff Morgan, interim associate provost for Education and Technology Innovation. “Online courses have taken shape over the past 15 years, and the internet, learning management systems, streaming videos and online textbooks are now widely used in many forms of course delivery.” Though many MOOCs are currently free, Provost Paula Short said in a press release that they could eventually become an additional source of revenue for UH as administrators continue to evaluate how the courses fit with the University’s Tier One goals. The online courses not only have the possibility of improving UH’s financial status, but they can also offer students previously unheard-of learning opportunities. These opportunities come in the form of working at one’s own pace, enjoying the benefits of open enrollment and saving time and money.

http://thedailycougar.com/2013/07/22/to-mooc-or-not-to-mooc/