Online Learning Update

by Emani Oakley, Daily Nexus

The UC Office of the President recently launched a program allowing students at the UC system to take online classes offered by any of the main nine UC campuses. Students will not be charged an extra fee and will receive the same number of credits for each course as they would for going to a class on campus. In addition, the program is a part of dual-campus enrollment and is expected to simplify the Dual Enrollment process. According to Nicole Freeling , a UC Office of the President Communications Coordinator for Academic Affairs, the program is meant to help students enroll in courses that would otherwise be difficult to get into.

http://dailynexus.com/2013-12-05/online-class-access-delayed-for-ucsb/

By Greg Thompson, THE Journal

Almost every teacher knows how it feels to slog through mandatory professional development. All too often, irrelevant workshops are an inevitable fact of life in the one-size-fits-all world of teacher training. As a former fourth-grade teacher, Julia Stiglitz has suffered through dull courses. And while she can’t cure the boredom of teachers who must endure subpar PD, she hopes to transform the voluntary side of PD through so-called massive open online courses (MOOCs). “Sitting through PD that is not related to something you need to work on can be very frustrating,” says Stiglitz, director of business development and strategic partnerships for Coursera. “One of the best aspects of online PD is the ability for teachers to get information that is relevant to them–and from really strong organizations that know their content and how to deliver it.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/11/18/these-moocs-will-make-you-reconsider-everything-about-pd.aspx

by Media Sources

“It’s worked for Northwestern State University, and LSU-Shreveport officials hope online programs can do the same to help their campus. The urban university for more than 30 years has struggled to increase its enrollment through traditional classroom offerings. And while its headcount continues to bounce around 4,200 students, LSUS interim Chancellor Paul Sisson sees online programs as the key to raising enrollment to more than 7,000 students. In fact, LSUS saw total enrollment decrease by more than 400 this academic year as standards required for students to enter were raised. However, a bright spot came in a 7 percent increase in graduate student enrollment – with the majority choosing to take online courses.

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/louisiana-news/shreveport-news/item/560855-lsu-shreveport-makes-online-push

By Scott Rothschild, Lawrence J-W

Kansas higher education officials on Tuesday expressed support for a national plan that they said would make it easier to enroll online students from other states. Currently, institutions must navigate different requirements in each state to get authorization to offer distance education. These efforts are often costly and time consuming. But institutions in states that join the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement, or SARA, would be able to operate in any of the states that are part of the plan. The institutions would be charged an annual fee based on their size.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/dec/03/regents-express-support-agreement-between-states-o/

by Inside Higher Ed

The Obama administration is moving ahead with plans to waive certain federal student aid rules for a limited number of colleges that want to experiment with competency-based education and other innovative forms of higher education.

Officials are soliciting suggestions on what those experiments should look like, according to a notice set to be published in the Federal Register this week. The Education Department said it is “particularly interested in experiments that are designed to improve student persistence and academic success, result in shorter time to degree, including by allowing students to advance through educational courses and programs at their own pace by demonstrating academic achievement, and reduce reliance on student loans.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/12/05/us-seeks-experiments-new-models-higher-ed

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press

One university in the farming state of Missouri has expertise in cotton and another in dairy. Forget it, though, if an agriculture student at one school wanted to learn about the other school’s specialty. But that’s about to change through an experiment, touted as a first of its kind, in which five of the state’s public universities are working together to share some of the agriculture courses that make them unique. Starting in fall 2014, some of these specialty classes will be offered through a combination of online instruction and two-way video feeds that allow instructors to communicate in real time with students at different campuses. Students might even make the occasional weekend trip to the campus teaching the course for some hands-on instruction, said Mike Aide, chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/bdaaaa615c9442e98e2c0aa7e9556be0/MO–Agriculture-Coursework-Partnership

The MOOC Marketplace Takes Off – Josh Bersin, Forbes
Unlike traditional corporate training, MOOCs leverage world-class instructors and are taking advantage of video, collaboration, machine learning, and simulation from the start. Their platforms are focused on delivering a learning experience, not just a course catalog. Today only 30% of employers believe a MOOC course represents a valid completion – but that’s a major achievement in itself. While this is still a young market, the demand is there and we expect it to grow exponentially in the coming years.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/11/30/the-mooc-marketplace-takes-off/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Staying on top of the trends in the ever-evolving edtech world can turn into a full time job. One can easily get lost in the sea of acronyms, terminology, digi-speak, and new concepts. While we know that many of our fabulous Edudemic readers are the few staying ahead of the curve (or at least with it!), we also know that there are lots of readers who find us because they’re making their first steps into the edtech world. The handy infographic below takes a stroll through the alphabet to familiarize you with the A-Z of edtech terminology and online learning trends. Pick one that you’re not familiar with and do some research on it to keep yourself learning, or share it with your less tech-obsessed colleagues!

http://www.edudemic.com/top-online-learning-trends/

By DEVON HAYNIE, US News

Students who take advantage of online tutoring report higher academic gains, a better attitude about seeking help and improved class retention rates, according to a white paper commissioned by Tutor.com, a web-based tutoring service. In some cases, schools will have their own employees work with students, while in others, schools partner with companies such as Tutor.com or Smarthinking to provide tutoring services. YouTube can be a helpful, free resource for students. I searched the video-sharing site for “mortgage rate calculators,” for example, and came up with a variety of brief videos that cleared up some of my confusion. Khan Academy is another great place to turn for free video tutorials on a variety of subjects, says Shari McCurdy Smith, a senior consultant for the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting online learning.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/Making-the-Online-Grade/2013/11/29/reaching-out-to-a-tutor-in-an-online-class

by Jeff Barrett, Technorati

The physical classroom is quickly becoming replaced by online training. A recent eLearning study reports:

• Corporations save 50-70 percent when they replace instructor-based training with e-Learning.
• 72 percent of companies surveyed report that e-Learning keeps them on top of their industry changes.
• 85 cents of every dollar is tied up in the mere delivery of information (instructor time, travel, etc.).

http://technorati.com/technology/article/it-university-online-reports-success-in/

by ASU Magazine

Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow is among more than a dozen leaders from a diverse group of colleges and universities examining the disruptive potential of new educational technologies, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), to boost the number of Americans earning a college degree. The launch of the Presidential Innovation Lab was announced by the American Council on Education, the nation’s largest higher education organization. “I look forward to helping lead a national dialogue about how newer educational innovations could be used by particularly older, post-traditional students, low-income young adults and other underserved students toward degree completion,” Crow said. “This opportunity aligns directly with our ASU vision as the model for a New American University – measured not by who we exclude, but rather by who we include and how they succeed.”

http://magazine.asu.edu/december-2013/articles/university-news/learning-online

by Frank Gray, The Journal Gazette

For an increasing number of students, their first foray into higher education doesn’t mean familiarizing themselves with a college campus or moving into a dorm room, but comfortably logging onto a website to take a class online. While leaving home and going to college requires a certain amount of adjustment, moving from an anything-goes world of Facebook and YouTube posts into the realm of academia can also take some adjustment. Just last week, an AP-NORC Center/MTV poll announced that 52 percent of people 14 to 24 years old say that it is never OK to use slurs, offensive language or be mean-spirited in online posts. That was a marked improvement from three years ago, the poll said, when only 44 percent said such behavior was inappropriate.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20131129/LOCAL/311299956

By Sarah Johnson, Missourian

For some juniors and seniors at Union High School, their choice of electives will soon be seemingly endless. The R-XI school board unanimously approved a program that will allow these students to take Massive Open Online Courses, or “MOOCs” for a half a credit next semester.

The class will be pass/fail and will not count toward the student’s overall grade point average. MOOCs are offered by universities worldwide, including some of the most highly accredited U.S. institutions such as Harvard, Yale or MIT. Dr. Justin Tarte, director of curriculum and support services, said about 40 students are already in the required application process to take these courses next semester.

http://www.emissourian.com/local_news/union/article_076d24c0-13b4-506d-b46c-8a54a70d8c04.html

by Melanie Moran, Vanderbilt University

The new Vanderbilt Institute of Digital Learning is digging into its work to research, innovate and support digital learning with a new website, a new program to fund faculty exploration of digital learning, graduate fellows, a faculty advisory committee and more. “We’ve hit the ground running,” Douglas Fisher, VIDL director, said. “We’ve just had two massive, open, online courses finish up; we are currently overseeing the production of others; and we are doing a slew of other things, like strengthening faculty research proposals with letters of support for education and other broader impact plans.”

http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/11/vidl-nov-update/

by Information Week

It’s not your father’s corporate training. EdX wants to help companies offer their own massive open online courses to keep employees’ skills updated. For corporations, massive open online courses, or MOOCs, matter because they might become a major source of technical talent and training. No matter if 140,000 out of 150,000 students in an online programming class drop out — there are still 10,000 people being trained, a substantial potential resource in a world desperate for technical talent. More to the point, companies can run their own MOOCs, tailored to their own needs. That’s one goal for EdX, which released its code as open-source back in June and has also released its hosting scripts.

http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/team-building-and-staffing/rise-of-the-corporate-mooc/d/d-id/1112784

by Manuel C. F. Pontes and Nancy M. H. Pontes, OJDLA

This research investigates the relationship between students’ field of study and their preference for distance education. For this research, data were used from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: Undergraduate, which uses a complex survey design to collect data from a nationally representative sample of undergraduate postsecondary students in the US. Results show that a student’s field of study is significantly related to enrollment in distance education classes, enrollment in a distance education program, and satisfaction with distance education. Full-time employment, presence of dependents, and a mobility-limiting disability are also significantly associated with distance education preference. Enrollment trends show significant growth in distance education enrollment over 2000 to 2008 among students in all fields of study.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter164/pontes_pontes164.html

by Eric J. Hagan, OJDLA

This qualitative case study investigated how adult graduates of online Bachelor’s degree programs describe the online aspect of their degree. Online education is promoted as a method for adult students to access the benefits of a college degree. Therefore, it is important for prospective online students, higher education institutions and policy makers to understand how online degrees are valued in society and by online graduates. The primary method of data collection was interviews of 24 graduates. The setting of this study, a well-regarded research university primarily known for its traditional campus-based programs, helped to isolate perceptions of the online delivery modality. All participants in the study held a high opinion of their online degree and of the university. However, the participants also recognized that some people have a negative opinion of online degrees. The participants described two strategies for dealing with encounters with people with negative perceptions of online degrees. Slightly more than half of the participants were forthcoming and open about earning a degree online. However, a large minority of participants were concerned about negative perceptions of online degrees. These participants often did not volunteer information about the online aspect of their degree to other people unless specifically questioned. Additional research is recommended to further explain the extent to which perceptions of online degrees are associated with the online delivery mode rather than other factors and to investigate the effect of delivery mode and institution type on the economic impact of an earning a Bachelor’s degree later in life.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter164/hagan164.html

by Britten Ekstrand, OJDLA

In the last two decades, distance education has grown worldwide and is now established as a reliable educational method. Accompanying this development, questions about low rates of student persistence have come to interest governments, institutions, and university management. This article is based on an original local study at a university in Sweden investigating what it takes to get students to continue their enrolment in courses or programs. Teachers’ views were captured in interviews and focus groups. These views were analyzed in the context of research in the field catalogued under the keywords “retention” and “persistence” in “distance education” and “distance learning.” The results indicate that the teachers would like to see a shift in focus from students to the organization and its technical and administrative teacher and learner support. Staff attitudes, institutional structure, and the management views towards distance education seem to be critical factors.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter164/ekstrand164.html

By Jonathan Beasley, Harvard Divinity School

In an age when even the pope tweets, it is only natural that Harvard Divinity School (HDS) has created its first online, interactive learning experience, with help from HarvardX, the University-wide initiative to support faculty use of innovative technologies for teaching. The HarvardX course module, “Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul,” HDS1554.1x, taught by Laura Nasrallah, explores the context of the Pauline correspondence in the Roman Empire and the impact of these powerful texts today.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/11/the-divine-online/

By Nicole Freeling, University of California

Students at seven UC campuses now can enroll in online courses offered at campuses other than their own through a pilot project launched this week. Enrollment is open through January for winter quarter and spring semester on a new website that — for the first time — enables students at UC Merced, for example, to take an online statistics course from UC Berkeley and UCLA students to enroll in a psych course offered at UC Irvine. The goal is to give students more enrollment options for high-demand courses that fill quickly and can be subject to long waitlists. Available courses include introductory classes in subjects such as statistics and pre-calculus, along with a few more specialized offerings, including American cyber cultures and global climate change. All are taught by UC faculty and earn the same UC credit as face-to-face classes and are part of students’ regular tuition.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/30393