Online Learning Update

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The faculty leaders behind the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education continued their barrage against massive open online courses on Tuesday, challenging the providers to come clean on “overblown, misleading or simply false” rhetoric. In letters blasted off last week to the founders of Coursera, edX and Udacity, the organization expresses its concern that the MOOC providers are motivated not by the “needs of our students, but the needs of [their] investors.” The organization stresses in the letters that it is opposed neither to technology in education nor to companies making a profit, only to the rhetoric some of those companies use about their products.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/05/14/faculty-group-continues-anti-mooc-offensive#sthash.8aQXFlH9.dpbs

by Stuart Winthrope, Sydney Morning Herald

The University of Melbourne’s online courses have opened access to courses in zoology, economics and climate change to anyone with a computer and internet connection through the Coursera platform. But these courses also provide data for research which benefits on-campus teaching. “Among the many reasons that we got into MOOCS was the research potential of harvesting and mining data that comes out of the Coursera platform,” University of Melbourne Director of eLearning Professor Gregor Kennedy says. Professor Kennedy leads the University’s Learning Analytics Research Group, which draws upon staff expertise in psychology, education, and computer science to help understand students’ online learning processes and outcomes.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/voice/online-lessons-return-to-the-classroom-20140506-37u02.html

By Jake New, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Pennsylvania State University has 16,000 students enrolled in its online World Campus. In the next decade, the university wants that number to rise to 45,000. Penn State’s new associate vice provost for online programs, Renata S. Engel, is expected to play a large role in moving toward that goal. Ms. Engel, who is 54 and a professor of engineering science and mechanics and engineering design, says she has a few ideas about where to begin. She wants to engage with more professional organizations, provide a stronger base of introductory courses, and add new majors.

http://chronicle.com/article/An-Engineers-Next-Task-at/146469/

by Indiana University

In an affirmation of the Center on Congress’ reputation as a leader in providing engaging content on civics and government, two online educational resources of the center won high recognition in the 12th annual Horizon Interactive Awards competition. The Congressional Moments iPad app was a Gold winner in the Mobile Apps-Education category, and the Teaching With Primary Sources website was a Silver winner in the Websites-Training/E-Learning category. Both winners are products of a partnership of the Center on Congress at Indiana University with d’Vinci Interactive, which creates websites, Web and mobile applications, and e-learning experiences for educational and training purposes.

http://news.indiana.edu/releases/iu/2014/05/center-on-congress-horizon-awards.shtml

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

When the Heartbleed security vulnerability made major headlines, higher ed leaders across the nation were reminded that security must be continuously managed as a program. Until recently no framework existed specifically for assessing higher ed security maturity. That void was filled last year when the Higher Education Information Security Council launched its freely available HEISC Information Security Program Assessment Tool. This free spreadsheet tool from Educause can help identify gaps in a college or university security profile and kick-start a security conversation on campus.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/05/08/a-security-framework-tailor-made-for-higher-ed.aspx

by Lancashire Evening Post

Lancashire food producers and farmers have been working with Lancaster University to help tackle the problems of world hunger. Distinguished Professor Bill Davies has been exploring the challenges likely to be posed by global population growth for the UK’s first free online course in food security. Professor Bill Davies said: “Food security is one of the grand challenges facing the world, there is going to be a crisis but we are not going to just solve it by producing more food.

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/education/new-course-online-to-help-ease-the-plight-of-the-hungry-1-6609680

by IVN

The State Department is launching Part II of Shaping the Way We Teach English, a massive open online course (MOOC) for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educators, on May 12, 2014. By strengthening the quality of English teaching around the world, the Department of State hopes to open economic opportunities in science, business, technology, and higher education for more of our international partners and offer skills for a better future. Part I of the Shaping the Way We Teach English MOOC, completed in April 2014, successfully enrolled over 18,000 participants worldwide. Designed both for professionals already working in the area of EFL and for those pursuing the field as a career, both MOOC sessions assist EFL educators worldwide in updating and augmenting their teaching methods. When educators employ the teaching methods and technologies learned throughout the course, they improve leaning outcomes for their students and build leadership among their peers.

http://www.imperialvalleynews.com/index.php/news/latest-news/8631-u-s-department-of-state-to-offer-second-massive-online-course-for-english-language.html

by Frederic Lardinois, Tech Crunch

SuperSummit, a London-based startup, today launched its platform for online live video interviews with experts out of beta after testing the service for a few months in Italy. During the beta, the company built a community of about 50,000 members and created over 300 hours of video interviews in English and Italian with the likes of Brad Fed, Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin. All of this content can currently be accessed for free. The company says its ultimate goal is to add disruption to the education market, but it also wants to offer an alternative to what it calls the “coldness and insularity of webinars” and the lack of interactivity associated with pre-recorded video courses.” The team is mostly going after the lifelong learning sector market. The company believes it has found a gap in the market between basic online videos and massive open online courses (MOOCs). While SuperSummit doesn’t offer courses or degrees, it does give its users instant access to information from experts in a live conference format.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/08/supersummit-launches-its-network-for-live-events-and-online-courses/

Accreditor for Upstarts – Paul Fain, Inside Higher EdSome details are emerging on two bids for new accrediting bodies for non-college providers of higher education, such as online course creators or issuers of digital badges. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is an association that represents colleges and recognizes accrediting organizations. The nonprofit group is mulling whether it could provide “quality review” for entities that fall outside of those that are currently accredited. One likely example would be StraighterLine, an unaccredited, online education company that offers low-cost courses but not credentials.  David Bergeron, a former official at the U.S. Department of Education who is vice president of postsecondary education policy at the Center for American Progress, is playing a leadership role in the Modern States concept, He has teamed up on the project with Steven Klinsky, a financier and philanthropist who heads New Mountain Capital, an investment fund that is worth more than $12 billion.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/05/09/ideas-take-shape-new-accreditors-aimed-emerging-online-provider

By Ainsley O’Connell, Fast Company

“They’re living longer, staying healthier, and they don’t want to retire,” says Sophie Vlessing, senior vice president of strategy and innovation for Kaplan. “They’re interested in encore careers, they’re interested in new possibilities. To me, that’s such an opportunity to think about how learning could help them.” Kaplan, which offers online degrees and certificates in everything from nursing to real estate, today launched Learning Advisor in collaboration with the AARP. The site is designed as an entry point to online learning for aging Baby Boomer and Gen X students, who already comprise a significant portion of Kaplan’s enrollment–though apart from the testimonials and stock photos, that targeting isn’t immediately obvious.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3030413/most-innovative-companies/kaplan-and-aarp-team-up-to-help-baby-boomers-graduate-to-encore-ca

by Paige Alfonzo, Edutopia

Social media now has functions that make sharing, reading, and collecting information one-click simple. Perhaps the most famous platform for real-time sharing, Twitter is a perfect tool for instant assessment. Two features are important to consider: hashtags and Twitter clients. Facebook and Google Plus allow you to create private groups. This could also be done using the social learning platform Edmodo. These platforms, unlike Twitter, allow students to write lengthier posts. For example, you can have students, in real time, write one-minute papers in the “comment” section of the prompt. Each of these platforms also has free polling tools. With such features, there are few formative assessment strategies that cannot be handled more efficiently using social media. One caveat: check with your institution’s social media policy before using these tools.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/frictionless-formative-assessment-social-media-paige-alfonzo

By Di Xu, Evolllution

Incorporating instruction of self-directed learning skills into online classes could help to bridge the performance gap between different groups of students. In a recent article on semester-length online coursework, I wrote about some recent research findings that many community college students perform more poorly in online than face-to-face courses. Some readers wondered what makes the particular groups mentioned (males, ethnic minorities and those with lower GPAs) less likely to succeed in online courses. This follow-up article discusses what challenges these specific groups face in the online context, and how those challenges might be addressed with specific strategies in online programming.

http://www.evolllution.com/distance_online_learning/students-struggle-online/

by Jessica Socheski, College News

Summer is here! And for many college students, that means hunkering down in front of their laptops to get a few credits out of the way online. Summer is a popular time to enroll in online classes because their flexibility allows you to still have some life while making up much needed units that will help you graduate. But the typically compressed time frame of a summer course combined with the self-motivation that the online environment requires can prove overwhelming to some students. So before you start struggling with classes, here are some smart tips for students who don’t just want to survive their online courses but want to succeed.

http://www.collegenews.com/article/how_smart_students_survive_online_classes2

By Eric Robinette, Dayton Daily News

Miami University plans to ramp up its e-learning offerings so that by the year 2020, 10 percent of its course offerings will be online only. That’s a far cry from some 10 years ago, when only about two percent of students nationally engaged in some kind of e-learning course, according to Beth Rubin, Miami’s assistant provost for e-learning. Last year, more than a third took some kind of online course. “What that means to me is that American students expect online learning and they use it,” Rubin said. “We projected that Miami would have 2,348 students in Oxford enrolled in online learning. What we have already, without the summer enrollments, is almost 3,500 students who’ve enrolled in online learning,” she said.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/miami-ramping-up-e-learning-offerings/nfrnC/

by Marilla Svinicki, Tomorrow’s Professor

There has been a lot of buzz in higher education lately about the flipped classroom model for teaching and learning. I am a strong believer in the underlying theories that support the structure as a good one for learning. I thought a little rumination on the process might help before instructors adopt it completely. It’s not as easy as it appears, and it’s not as new as others would have us believe.

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1330

By John Addyman Messenger Post

The new Open SUNY online college courses initiative is about to bring students from across the state — and the world — to Finger Lakes Community College. One of the stars of the initiative is FLCC’s two-year associate of applied sciences degree in tourism management. Open SUNY is promoting the course, along with seven others from other colleges, and will provide 24/7 student help desk services and a one-stop concierge at FLCC to answer questions and provide direction. Jeanne Fagan, professor of business administration at FLCC, is the primary faculty member for the tourism curriculum and knows first-hand how difficult it is for many adult students to complete coursework and get a degree.

http://www.victorpost.com/article/20140507/NEWS/140509754/1997/NEWS

By DOUGLAS BELKIN, Wall Street Journal

A generation of young Americans is bearing the brunt of decades of runaway college costs. Graduates are entering the workforce with staggering student loans that are inhibiting their ability to buy homes, cars and start families. With the growing pressure to lower the cost of higher education, we asked three experts to weigh in on the role MOOCs could play in the future of higher education, and how MOOCs might change the way we think about college. Joining our roundtable discussion, by email, are Clay Shirky, a New York University professor who researches the social and economic effects of technology; Darryl Tippens, provost of Pepperdine University; and Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor of online learning at the University of Illinois Springfield.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303825604579515521328500810

By Matt Erickson, Drexel

Just how important is online education to Drexel’s future?

For Drexel to grow in the future, we really need to expand online opportunities. There are many people who would love to attend the University but can’t leave their job or their family in order to come to campus and take courses in a traditional way.  Also, the length of time that knowledge stays current in many fields is getting shorter all the time. So companies need to send their professional employees back to school to upgrade their skillsets and their knowledge. Given the corporate relationships Drexel has built through its co-op program, we could be a resource for those companies. I see a very bright future for Drexel to be the university of choice for people who want to go back to school. Drexel has this rich history of being innovative and technologically advanced, so the continued growth of online learning and technology-mediated education is a natural evolution.

Why is it important that online learning no longer be assigned to a separate subsidiary of the University?

Online learning and technology-enhanced learning are vital components of the future growth strategy for Drexel, so it’s important that we be seen as a part of the University, not as a separate entity. And in our new role, we’re partners with the deans and faculty and staff, supporting them and the students to make sure that we have all the support systems they need to be successful.

http://drexel.edu/now/features/archive/2014/May/Susan-Aldridge-Q-and-A/

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michelle R. Weise, Boston Globe

In our research, we see over and over again that it is nearly impossible for established leaders to disrupt themselves. So what does that mean in practical terms for more traditional colleges? Some will have to accept they can’t be everything to everyone and scale back their course offerings. Academic leaders, no longer able to count on state or federal subsidies, will have to bear down on the inefficiencies built into how they now operate. Not every campus will be able to be a research institution. Tenure will be called into question. Over time, colleges and universities will have to compete with providers who offer low-cost, direct paths to employment that do not necessarily end in degrees or certificates. Campuses will have to be clear about the value of a college degree. Students and families will demand a more precise understanding of what they can expect from their college degree. And that will benefit all learners.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/05/09/moocs-disruption-only-beginning/S2VlsXpK6rzRx4DMrS4ADM/story.html

by Jamie Oberdick, Penn State

There’s no denying that online learning is sweeping across higher education. To keep Penn State up to date with the latest technologies, the Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL) is leveraging the University’s extensive research efforts with publications, grants, events and research and development initiatives. The growing community has been working hard to push online learning into exciting new frontiers at Penn State.

http://news.psu.edu/story/314981/2014/05/07/research/coil-works-tlt-and-other-ed-tech-groups-advance-online-learning

by David Guymon, Edutopia

I still have every single project I ever completed in preschool. My dad collected them and kept each one in a grocery bag that he tucked away in the back of his closet. This is the effect of good portfolios. They craft a narrative of learning, growth and achievement over time. Though mine was created by my perceptive father, often the best portfolios are those put together by students themselves. And as our focus in the classroom continues to move toward performance-based assessment, the following four web tools will help you and your students to compose narratives as memorable of their learning as my paper bag portfolio did of mine.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/web-tools-for-student-portfolios-dave-guymon