Online Learning Update

by Yojana Sharma, University World News

In the age of highly developed information technologies and global networking, you cannot be simply local or global. You are local and global at the same time. We still believe in the academic disciplines that help us become good citizens but we believe now is a very good time to work together with more interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, international, global perspectives to explore a future vision. We believe this Yokohama IAUP triennial conference will be a turning point for all of us to create the big first step towards the future of higher education.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20140613063133824

by Games and Learning

A new study sponsored by the educational technology firm Amplify highlights the growing presence of mobile technology in the nation’s classrooms and a growing desire by many districts to supply every student with a tablet. “Many districts look to mobile technology to increase student achievement and make learning more engaging and personalized,” the research firm IESD wrote in the full report. “However, many districts also report challenges in implementing mobile technology related to teacher lack of knowledge or experience, need for professional development and implementation support, and mobile device management issues.”

http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2014/06/04/schools-desire-for-mobile-technology-outpaces-funds/

by Holly Young, the Guardian

Can e-learning really deliver an education revolution across the globe? A panel of ten experts share their thoughts on how to e-learning can change societies around the world.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/jun/10/technology-elearning-education-revolution-best-bits

by Rahim Kanani, Forbes

“We hope to democratize and reimagine education so that anyone, anywhere, regardless of his or her social status or income, can access education,” explained Anant Agarwal, president of edX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses online. In a wide-ranging interview with Agarwal, we discussed the founding of the organization, key challenges to success, the role of data in measuring student learning, the future of online education and much more.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2014/06/21/edx-ceo-anant-agarwal-on-the-future-of-online-learning/

by Chronicle of Higher Ed

“Although educational outcomes for online education are closely scrutinized,” Moody’s says, “advancements in technology, online curriculum, and quality controls have made online education a more accepted and marketable tool for educational delivery. The entry of elite universities into distance learning, albeit primarily through non-credit-granting courses, will help legitimize this form of delivery and reduce the stigma that has historically been associated with distance education.” Bottom Line: With one in four college students enrolled in some type of online learning, American higher education has shown that it can adapt to changing technology and student preferences.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/colleges-embrace-of-online-learning-is-a-credit-positive/79845

By Devon Haynie, US News

In many college programs, students have to wait days or weeks for their instructors to critique their written work. But it doesn’t have to be that way, experts say. Swap that human instructor with a computer, and students will have a grade within seconds. As massive open online courses, or MOOCs, continue to generate interest, more online students are being exposed to computer-assisted essay grading. EdX, the nonprofit MOOC provider founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, launched automated grading software last year and has made it available for free on the Internet. Georgia Tech, which is offering its own MOOCs for credit to students in its online master’s program in computer science, is planning on using similar technology as it expands its program.

http://news.yahoo.com/online-students-know-automated-grading-133000917.html

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

One of the country’s largest engineering programs has implemented virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) so its students can access industry standard engineering software tools from any computer, anywhere they are connected to the Internet.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/06/12/georgia-tech-engineering-students-use-virtual-desktops-to-access-specialized-tools-anywhere-anytime.aspx

by Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame announced that it has joined the edX Consortium as a charter member. A not-for-profit partnership of leading global universities, edX is committed to innovations in online and blended learning, improving access to education, and researching effective learning for use on and beyond college campuses. Currently, edX members offer more than 200 open online courses to learners worldwide in a range of academic areas, including engineering, the humanities, natural sciences, computer science and public health. Notre Dame will use edX courses – along with educational media, innovative tools and strategies and the data they yield – in the service of effective teaching and learning.

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=65597

By Ian Barker, Beta News

Cloud usage is changing more and more areas of our lives. You might expect the education sector to be at the forefront of this and a new infographic linked below released by digital marketing specialists Pulp-PR shows how it’s being affected. A key finding is that four out of five students are expected to take some or all of their classes online by the end of this year.

http://betanews.com/2014/06/12/how-the-cloud-is-changing-higher-education/

by Devon Haynie, US News

About 5.4 million students, or one in four, took at least one distance education course during the fall of 2012, according to data released earlier this month ​by the National Center for Education Statistics. The government data was released in June​ as a series of Web tables looking at online learners by state, region, institution and a number of other factors. The National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education, collected data from institutions eligible for Title IV financial aid. “This gives us complete data for the first time in over a decade,” says Russell Poulin, interim co-executive director for WCET. “There’s a significant difference as you look around the country,” says Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois—Springfield. “The real strength is across the Plains and I’m not too surprised just because of how dispersed the population is.”

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2014/06/12/new-government-data-sheds-light-on-online-learners

By Syed Raza, Cloud Tweaks

Undoubtedly, the usage and adoption of online courses is growing at a fast rate due to vast benefits such as flexibility, ease of use, availability and scheduling, and reduction in travel costs. A well-managed University is like a ‘grinder’ machine sequentially churning our students into professionals while polishing their inner strengths and competencies giving them practical skills required to compete in the real world. These institutions also provide skilled and experienced human resource providing students the best of both worlds. Online education must also be utilized in aid to such learning environment to ensure amalgamation of additional skills and expertise that students need to better prepare students for the real world. Universities, nevertheless, provide an unmatchable environment as well as complete experience which online education may not be able to replace.

http://cloudtweaks.com/2014/06/future-universities-rising-demand-online-courses/

By Emmett Dulaney, Tim States, Campus Technology

Popular culture tells us that we make snap judgments and decisions all the time based on first impressions and those aren’t always favorable. Now imagine that the classroom is an LMS and the feedback that a good instructor would be able to respond to when standing in front of a group of students is removed from the situation. The potential for a student to have a bad first impression, and for it to skew the semester, is now amplified. To head this off, consider adding a video introduction to the course as the very first thing a student must see when enrolling and make it as compelling as you can.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/06/11/how-to-make-the-most-of-a-video-introduction-for-an-online-course.aspx

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

Clemson University in South Carolina has developed a Social Media Listening Center (SMLC) for real-time monitoring of online blog posts, tweets, status updates and other public social media communications. Students in the university’s Creative Inquiry class use the SMLC for research projects, as do students in management, communications and other classes. Clemson also uses it to monitor online conversations about the university itself, and researchers use it for partnership projects with industry.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/06/11/students-at-clemson-u-monitor-social-media-for-collaborative-research.aspx

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal

Only 17 percent of high schools do not currently offer any online classes and more than 40 percent are offering online courses in English language arts, history, math or science, according to the latest report from Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up report. Based on online survey responses from more than 400,000 teachers, administrators, students and community members, the latest report, “The New Digital Learning Playbook: Advancing College and Career Skill Development in K-12 Schools,” examines attitudes about technology’s role in preparing K-12 students for higher education and careers.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/06/11/report-83-percent-of-high-schools-offer-online-courses.aspx

by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The online-education boom has made technology vendors powerful. So powerful, in fact, that some university officials say it’s getting harder and harder to update their technology without placing themselves under the sway of outside companies. Now four major research universities are trying to promote strength in numbers. They are creating a consortium, called Unizin, that they hope will help member institutions innovate on their own terms. The four institutions are Colorado State University, Indiana University, the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan. Unizin will negotiate contracts with technology vendors for products and services that many universities already buy individually. But instead of implementing the technologies locally, member institutions will get a set of “sewn-together services” from Unizin in exchange for dues, says Bradley C. Wheeler, vice president for information technology at Indiana.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/4-universities-band-together-to-share-and-protect-digital-resources/53269

by Steve Marcus and Anant Agarwal, Huffington Post

If education used to be considered Spam — something people stocked up on that was designed to artificially last forever — then today it’s organic, non-GMO, locally raised kale — a more-fulfilling, more sustainable product that should be consumed fresh and restocked frequently. The only viable model to produce successful, happy, productive people is through true lifelong learning, defined as a continuous, self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for both professional and personal improvement. There are no “educated” individuals — only individuals whose education is ongoing. The good news is that new learning opportunities are more plentiful, accessible and affordable than ever, and more options are being released daily for example, free massive open online courses (MOOCs). While nearly half of you will likely be employed in jobs that do not require a college degree, your path to continuous education is at your beck and call, and all you have to do is take the initiative.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-marcus/learning-the-real-meaning_b_5475461.html

by Clifton Parker, Tomorrow’s Professor

Online education is changing the way we learn, where we learn and how we think of higher education. Stanford Online is pioneering advances in teaching and learning at Stanford – and beyond – as its new report, “2013 in Review,” describes. The 32-page document reveals the explosive growth at Stanford Online – 1.9 million people from almost every country in the world have registered for one or more courses, and learners have spent more than 4 million hours engaging with Stanford Online courses since the fall of 2012.

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1339

by Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Duquesne University today said it is closing its School of Leadership and Professional Advancement in August 2015 but will continue to offer degree and other programs currently housed there by shifting them to other parts of campus. In a move the university said was separate but related, Duquesne plans to establish a campus-wide e-learning initiative intended to strengthen existing programs, broaden online offerings and create a more accessible online platform for undergraduates and graduates — both traditional and non-traditional. A national search will be conducted for a senior administrator to lead the effort, deemed a priority given the increased role of online education nationally, Duquesne Provost Tim Austin said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/06/04/Duquesne-says-it-will-close-a-campus-school-launch-e-learning-initiative/stories/201406040208

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

I tend to see competency-based courses/alternative credentialing like solar energy: They both sprang from urgent need; they are practical, yet challenge the status quo; and both were technically around long before now. Like solar energy that was developed earlier than you might have thought, competency-based learning was essentially the apprenticeship of the late middle ages. In apprenticeship, a new generation of practitioners are trained in competencies through a set of skills towards a career. As today’s students and higher education institutions realize that the need for competency-based learning is becoming critical—thanks to student loan debts and lack of trained professionals in scientific and skill-based careers—mainstream education, just like the energy industry, is fundamentally changing.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/competency-changing-education-358/

by Ioanna Opidee, University Business

Close to 90 percent of private universities cited lecture capture as an important part of their campus plans in a 2013 survey by The Campus Computing Project, up from about 72 percent in 2010. And yet, many colleges and universities using the technology have still not formulated clear guidelines and policies for handling privacy issues. With so much at stake, and with the capabilities and ubiquity of the technology expanding rapidly, it’s more important than ever for institutional leaders to take a serious look at the issue.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/lecture-capture-privacy-please