Online Learning Update

by George Anders, Forbes

Coursera will start awarding Specializations for students who have mastered a series of closely connected online courses — and are willing to pay $250 to $500 for validation of their work. Coursera’s latest initiative is further blurring what used to be a very sharp distinction between full-fledged universities and the anything-goes ethos of massively open online courses (or MOOCs.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/01/21/coursera-flirts-with-diplomas-online-specialization-is-250/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Technology has brought many changes to our classrooms, including the change that transforms any place with a computer and internet connection into a classroom. While this locational flexibility obviously tops the list of advantages that distance learning offers, many dissenters will tell you that it is the only advantage.The handy infographic linked below would like to differ. It offers 7 different advantages that e-learning offers, including the flexibility of location. There are a number of advantages associated with implementing eLearning and organizations (both schools and businesses) use eLearning for a variety of reasons.

http://www.edudemic.com/advantages-of-elearning/

By Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech launched its massive online degree program last Wednesday with a first session cohort of 375 students. The Master of Science in Computer Science program is the first degree program from an accredited university offered solely in a massive online course format, university officials said. Most online students will pay less than $7,000 for the graduate degree, compared to $45,000 for on-campus students.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/first-massive-online-degree-program-begins-wednesd/ncnyF/

By Sarah Elzas, RFI

France’s higher education system is going online with an extra eight million euros being invested in Massive Open Online Courses (Moocs). France’s Minister for Higher Education, Geneviève Fioraso announced the new funding on Tuesday in addition to 12 million euros already planned to develop these online courses. The first eight French Moocs start Thursday, via the French platform called France Université Numérique (Fun).

http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20140114-french-universities-go-online-moocs

By University of South Florida Oracle

The number of students receiving their education behind the fluorescent glow of laptops, earning entire degrees in the comfort of one’s pajamas, is rapidly increasing — but so is the risk of cheating and losing the value of a degree a university awards. While a new policy under review at USF aims to implement methods by which students must verify their identity in distance learning and online education courses will likely not be 100 percent effective in preventing those looking to cheat the system from doing so, if it were to be adopted, it would be a step in the right direction. A study from the American Psychological Association in 2009 — prior to the rapid peak in online enrollment in universities — found that more than two-thirds of college students admitted to cheating on homework assignments, tests or quizzes.

http://www.usforacle.com/increased-verification-needed-for-online-courses-1.2851583

by Lauren Everitt, Fortune

If everything goes according to plan, Laurie Pickard will earn her MBA in three years for less than $1,000. She’ll take classes from Harvard, Wharton, and Yale, among other top-tier schools. And she’ll tackle it all while keeping her full-time job as a rural enterprise development and entrepreneurship specialist at USAID. She’ll accomplish all of this from Kigali, Rwanda. It sounds too good to be true. But Pickard, 32, is determined to pull it off. If successful, she’ll arguably be the first person in the world to cobble together an MBA program from massive open online courses (MOOCs), free or low-cost classes accessible to anyone with Internet access.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2014/01/14/an-mba-for-less-than-1000/

By Ari Levy, Bloomberg

Harvey Mudd College, a highly-rated engineering, math and science school in Claremont, California, to join the party. Mudd secured a grant from an anonymous donor last year to start a massive online program and hired a recent graduate, Elly Schofield, to run it. But this one won’t be so massive. Mudd’s courses — one for middle school computer science and another for high school calculus-based physics — are being developed to help teachers help their students rather than targeting students directly. A middle school computer science teacher, for example, could use video lectures from a Mudd professor along with recommended discussion topics to supplement classes. The courses will be available in the second half of the year. “I discovered as soon as I joined up on the project that this was not going to be a traditional MOOC,” said Schofield, 22, who graduated from Mudd last year with a degree in math. “It’s designed to be a tool for teachers who want to use it within a classroom.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-14/massive-online-education-gets-less-massive.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

The ruling this week by a federal court on the Open Internet (Net Neutrality) Order may turn out to be, as one commenter called it, “a terrible idea,” or, as another observer put it, a source of “a lot of overheated rhetoric.” Education, for its part, could well see major changes to how it’s able to deliver learning content to students online while at the same time positioning itself to become a major alternative supplier of broadband in this country. Net neutrality is the idea that all data on the Internet should be treated equally, no matter who’s providing it, where it’s coming from, what it consists of, what devices it touches, or who it’s going to. A YouTube video from Khan Academy, for example, should receive the same treatment by an Internet service provider (ISP) as a movie from Netflix or a commercial from Procter & Gamble.

http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2014/01/16/Will-Net-Neutrality-Ruling-Doom-Education-to-Second-Class-Status.aspx

By Denny Carter, eCampus News

The 2014 U.S. News college rankings drive home a point trumpeted by many in higher education last year: Public universities are well ahead of their private counterparts in online education. Two in 10 fully online college students attend private universities. A perusal of the U.S. News rankings, released Jan. 8, shows that public campuses dominate the top of nearly every category. One would have to look well down the list of top online bachelor degree programs to find a private school in the ranks. The same goes with graduate business programs, where Indiana University at Bloomington led the way, and graduate education programs, a category led by Northern Illinois University.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/online-learning/private-online-universities-833/

by Melanie Shaw,et al; OJDLA

To facilitate student learning and ensure financial stability, leaders in higher education institutions offering online degrees and programs are adopting flexible course schedules with shorter terms. The literature does not include many evaluations demonstrating how shorter duration terms and courses might affect student achievement. In this quantitative study, data were gathered from six online courses. While the courses were identical in content and number of assignments, half were taught in a 16-week format while the others were taught in an 8-week format. Results show there was no statistical difference in student achievement or engagement between either course duration. These results are potentially encouraging for institutions looking to offer shorter duration courses to meet student enrollment needs and student preferences. Accelerating the number of courses a student can complete by shortening the duration of the term also benefits the institution by facilitating financial stability. Recommendations for further study include examining graduate and doctoral courses as well as face-to-face courses to ensure that results are generalizable to those contexts.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter164/shaw_chametzky_burrus_walters164.html

by TONY BATES, Online Learning and Distance Education Resources

In 2020, people won’t be talking about online learning as such. It will be so integrated with teaching and learning that it will be like talking today about whether we should use classrooms. In fact, we may be talking much more about classrooms or the campus experience in 2020, because of online learning, and how it is changing the whole way that students are learning. There is likely to be heated discussions about the role and purpose of campuses and school buildings, the design of classrooms, and who needs to be there (teachers and students) and more importantly what for, when students can do so much of their learning online – and generally prefer to, because of the flexibility, and of their control over their own learning. The big changes then are likely to be on-campus, rather than on-line.

http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/01/12/2020-vision-outlook-for-online-learning-in-2014-and-way-beyond/

BY CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press

New York state’s 64-campus university system is undertaking a major virtual expansion, adding new online degree programs and enhancing academic and technical support for students taking classes via computer. In what it’s calling “Open SUNY,” the State University of New York goes live Tuesday with eight new online degree programs at six campuses and plans to add more in September. SUNY currently offers more than 12,000 courses and 150 degree programs online. Students will be able to complete degrees online or through a combination of virtual and brick-and-mortar classes. Chancellor Nancy Zimpher announced plans for the expansion a year ago. The goal is to enroll 100,000 new online students over the next five years.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/01/13/2970275/state-university-of-ny-expands.html

by the Chronicle of Higher Ed

A collection of articles in this week’s issue of The Chronicle explores how the digital humanities play in the undergraduate classroom, whether they pay off in tenure and promotion, and what it takes to create a work of digital scholarship that will last. As part of that collection, we asked readers to tell us how they integrate digital platforms into their humanities teaching and scholarship.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/4-digital-humanities-projects-from-chronicle-readers/49273

by Rahul Choudaha, University World News

Going forward in 2014, there will be increasing pressure on higher education to redefine its value to students. Simply put, for the majority of students, the value of higher education is a function of its immediate employment prospects as opposed to long-term developmental and intangible benefits. This quest for value is especially prevalent in developed economies, where slow economic growth and scarcity of employment prospects fuel scepticism. Here are three trends setting the future direction of higher education.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140108165233225

by Frank Britt, Penn Foster

In the age of virtual classrooms, unlimited by space or time, education is becoming more and more accessible — and affordable. Online and hybrid learning models are making it possible for students to complete their education at a pace that suits them, preparing them with the skills, training and credentials they need to enter the workforce and excel in their careers. Whether they are high school students who struggled in the traditional classroom, or working adults balancing a family and career, online education views them all as equals, and the doors of its virtual classroom are open to all. As the structure of our nation’s education system continues to change, our students are changing along with it.

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/01/10/boston-companies-penn-foster-ceo-on-the-face-of-the-online-learner/

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

School isn’t just about learning and books, as teachers are already well aware. For students, going to school also teaches them about a slew of life lessons – and interacting with others is at the top of that list. We all know (having been young ourselves) that kids can sometimes be really mean. Bullying is serious business, and as bullys move online, there are a lot of resources popping up to help out parents, teachers, and students to understand bullying and what to do about it. The handy infographic below looks at some statistics regarding cyber bullying, demographics, and the effects it can have on a student.

http://www.edudemic.com/cyberbullying/

by: Rob Kelly, Magna Publications

Because successful communication is essential to learning in an online course, instructors and instructional designers need to foster a respectful, welcoming environment and to prepare for potential problems that can arise, such as cyber harassment, trolling, and flaming. In an email interview with Online Classroom, Steven T. Varela, senior instructional designer/lecturer with Instructional Support Services at the University of Texas–El Paso, offered advice on managing online communication to create and maintain an ethical learning environment.

http://www.magnapubs.com/blog/teaching-and-learning/creating-an-ethical-online-environment/

by the Press-Enterprise

California’s system of higher education needs to be sustainable as well as academically rigorous. The University of California’s new systemwide online course offerings are a promising step toward that goal, but progress should not stop there. The state’s higher education systems need to pursue other such reforms that can help provide a strong education without draining public coffers or private pocketbooks. The University of California system is set to unveil its Cross-Campus Enrollment system this academic year, offering students access to an assortment of online courses from across the 10-campus UC system. Many UC campuses already have online courses available to their own students, but the new program would make such classes available to students at other UC schools.

http://www.pe.com/opinion/editorials-headlines/20140105-editorial-online-classes-offer-a-start-on-better-efficiency-at-uc.ece

by Michael Patrick Rutter, Harvard Gazette

In addition to covering disciplines from economics to genomics to history, the lineup represents a continuing move by Harvard faculty to reinvent the MOOC, or massive open online course, and use the Web to enhance rather than directly replicate what happens in the classroom. “We are expanding our approach to not focus exclusively on semester-based, linear courses but to now include entirely new and more flexible ways of teaching. Our faculty’s creativity demands it,” said Robert Lue, professor of the practice of molecular and cellular biology, faculty director of HarvardX, and Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/01/new-horizons-for-harvardx/