Online Learning Update

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

UF Online, the University of Florida’s online education arm, won’t offer a political science degree after the department, concerned about quality and the state’s shifting leadership, voted against the idea. Unlike many online education initiatives, which target adult learners and other groups of students not normally served by course offerings on campus, UF Online is meant to educate first-time-in-college students — high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 22. When a department at UF declines to participate, it creates a hole in UF Online’s lineup. The decision wasn’t based on passionate opposition to online education, said Ido Oren, associate professor and chair of the political science department.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/10/u-florida-political-science-department-declines-build-fully-online-degree

BY ISSIE LAPOWSKY, Wired

Codecademy already makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to learn how to program a computer. Now, the New York City-based startup wants to make it just as simple for this new generation of coders to find jobs, as well. On Friday, the company announced the launch of a new workforce development initiative called ReskillUSA, which will help connect people in cities from Los Angeles to Detroit to Miami with employers in need of tech talent. Codecademy is partnering with some of its fellow skills education startups, including Flatiron School, DevBootcamp, Sabio.la, Grand Circus, Wyncode, and Thinkful. Together, they’ve created an online platform where people can find coding classes and bootcamps across the country. The partners are also actively urging employers to tap ReskillUSA’s graduate pipeline for potential employees. The goal, says Codecademy CEO Zach Sims, is to streamline what has become a fragmented industry of coding classes and camps.

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/reskillusa/

by Vanita Srivastava, Hindustan Times

India has a huge market for online education and this should be tapped to meet the demand and supply gap for employment, says Rick Levin, the Chief Executive Officer of Coursera, a leading online learning platform worldwide. “ India is one of the fastest growing markets. In fact, after the US, the maximum number of Coursera learners come from India and China. In just two years we have around 8 lakh Indian learners and this will grow in the coming years,” Dr Levin, who was the President of Yale University for almost 20 years before joining Coursera, told HT. Most of the Indian learners prefer courses on business management and technology, he said, adding: “Another unique feature is that more than 50% of the Indian learners are under 30.” Coursera signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) on Monday, to develop content and design courses for Coursera’s 10-million-plus learners.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-is-great-potential-market-for-online-education/article1-1284217.aspx

by eCampus News

A+E Network®’s HISTORY® Channel will partner with the University of Oklahoma (OU) to offer the first TV Network-branded online course for transcripted college credit or for the lifelong learner. HISTORY® Channel’s “United States, 1865 to the Present” course enrollment will launch on October 28 at History.com/courses and will be taught by teacher, OU professor, and historian Steve Gillon. “United States 1865 to the Present” will provide an interactive way for college students to earn three transcripted credits, and life learners the opportunity to learn U.S. History from one of the country’s “leading institutions of higher education,” said the University.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/online-courses-tv-919/

by Seb Murray, Business Because

The vice chancellor of the Open University and founder of FutureLearn, the massive open online course, or Mooc, platform, said that the internet has opened “Pandora’s box” on education, as the learning technology revolution begins to take hold of the business education world. “Disruptive innovation is forcing so many of us to reconsider the very foundations of our learning and teachings,” said Marin, speaking to a crowd of education heads from across the UK. “There isn’t a higher education institution in the world that shouldn’t be thinking about the role of technology and innovation…. This is something that’s going to be a massive shift,” he said.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/2898/distance-learning-internet-opened-pandoras-box-on-education

by Yojana Sharma, University World News

A new type of MOOC – dubbed MOOC 2.0 – could even disrupt the way courses are devised, altering the top-down university designed curriculum and the professor-to-student course structure that is still part of the MOOC model. MOOC 2.0 is currently in alpha form to test its functionality – “we had a group travelling in the Congo who tested it from there, and we have also tested it in South Asia”, said Yoonil Auh, a professor of instructional technology at Kyung Hee Cyber University. The platform will move into beta version with a course on global citizenship education for teachers in Korea, developed collaboratively with community groups and NGOs. The two-way platform is expected to launch early next year with not just institutions but also community groups, including civil society organisations, providing input for learning. “MOOC 2.0 will act as an academic mediator,” Auh said. “The MOOC 2.0 technology is such that students can actually learn from each other and the MOOC is the facilitator.”

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20141105144147849

By: Priscilla Alvarez, USA Today

“We want to engage our faculty in efforts like this to want to continue to offer four each year,” says Joseph Burns, dean of the University Faculty at Cornell University. Cornell University offered their first four MOOCs last spring, serving more than 55,000 people worldwide, according to a university news release. While the courses are still available for viewing, the university is adding courses to go live in the spring. The response from faculty encouraged the addition of courses. Professor Marianne Krasny is preparing for her first MOOC at the university in the spring. Krasny is teaching Civic Ecology: Reclaiming Broken Places, which will cover human interaction with ecological systems as well as provide service learning opportunities.

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/11/05/cornell-to-add-massive-open-online-courses-in-2015/

by Anthony Domanico, CNet

A new MOOC, short for massive open online course, from a Syracuse University professor will take “Doctor Who” fans on an epic journey. The course, titled “Doctor Who in the Digital Age,” will be taught by Professor Anthony Rotolo, director of the online masters in communications program at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It will run from January through April and will explore the history, evolution and cultural impact of the long-running BBC series, Rotolo tells the Daily Orange. The free course will be offered both in-person to Syracuse students as an independent study class and online for Whovians across the universe.

http://www.cnet.com/news/a-new-mooc-dives-into-the-timey-wimey-world-of-doctor-who/

By Irene Gashurov, Curtis Kendrick, Campus Technology

MOOCs are experiencing an existential crisis. They have demonstrated their capacity to spread learning beyond traditional populations and to make learning both less expensive and more efficient. On the other hand, MOOCs can suppress student engagement, compromise the educational mission with the profit motive, and raise hosts of unanswered questions about the integrity of data in the unpoliced realm of the Internet. At their essence, MOOCs are about the flow of information in digital form, not only confidential data about students but also the intellectual property that is the university’s stock in trade. And it is in this management of information flows that libraries can make their greatest contribution to the debate about the future of MOOCs, both in encouraging student engagement and managing the dissemination of knowledge.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/06/can-libraries-save-the-mooc.aspx

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

According to a new report, there are six main reasons why institutions are offering MOOCs, but only two of them are actually working. The report, conducted by Columbia University and Brown University, interviewed over 80 online learning and MOOC-knowledgeable administration and faculty from a wide range of colleges and universities to determine why institutions are offering MOOCs. What the researchers found was that many of the reasons institutions list as the motivators behind MOOC offerings aren’t accomplishing intended goals, and there are often logistical considerations as to why these goals are going unmet.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/why-offer-moocs-828/

by Sam Bonacci, Worcester Business Journal

The influence of declining freshman-age students in New England, increased use of technology and the importance of a continued commitment to the community were highlighted Wednesday morning during a discussion of the future of higher education as part of the Worcester Business Journal Power Breakfast Series. Worcester State University (WSU) President Barry Maloney says “Technology comes in and plays a key role for us moving forward … online learning and other forms of expanded course offerings will allow us to go into other parts of Massachusetts and other parts of New England in a way that we couldn’t afford to do otherwise.” Online courses, and the ability they have to reach different students, were highlighted throughout the discussion. In the case of edX, certificate courses are available in a multitude of areas and bring free education anywhere there is a computer. Johnson highlighted the value of Becker’s blended courses, where online and in-person teaching meld, saying that it can create a better benefit for the students than if there was only one of the components.

http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20141105/NEWS01/141109981/1002

BY EMMA PLATOFF AND RACHEL SIEGEL, Yale Daily News

During his two decades as University President, Richard Levin focused much of his attention on China. Now, only eight months after taking over as the CEO of the online education platform Coursera, Levin is looking to expand the company’s user base in the country, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The effort continues Levin’s work at Yale, where he built a stronger relationship between the University and China, which he calls the world’s fastest growing educational market. Despite Levin’s vision for China as an academic frontier, Chinese education experts differ in their predictions for the success of Coursera’s planned expansion. “China is our fastest growing market, and our team is building initiatives and travels there all the time,” Levin told the China Daily in October.

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/11/06/levin-grows-courseras-presence-in-china/

By ALEXANDER H. PATEL, Harvard Crimson

The Business School’s HBX digital learning initiative is expanding to both international and corporate clients, following the success of its inaugural online business-oriented courses that saw an 85 percent completion rate, school leaders said. HBX, which was formally announced in March, is a virtual education platform derivative of the case-study teaching method used in classrooms at the Business School. Among other features, the platform emphasizes peer collaboration and social interactivity alongside videos and other learning materials to adapt the discussion-oriented pedagogy employed in the school’s physical classrooms to an online environment.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/4/hbx-expansion-completion-rate/

By Jordan Friedman, US News

Results from one survey suggest online instructors are more likely than on-campus instructors to use social media for both personal and professional reasons. In his University of Hawaii online course, Introduction to e-Learning, associate professor Michael Menchaca requires his students to introduce themselves to each other by creating 15-second videos on Instagram. Later in the semester, students “meet” to discuss their group projects using Google Hangouts. Twitter is popular in his classes, too, enabling students to share resources and engage in discussions, Menchaca says. These are just two examples of the social media tools Menchaca uses to foster communication among his students. “We’ve had online learning for quite a long time – since the 1990s, when it started to become popular – but the inclusion of social media is something that’s relatively new,” Menchaca says. “A lot of us are starting to use it more. I guess we’re still tinkering around and trying things.”

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2014/11/05/social-media-gains-momentum-in-online-education

by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

Much of the new course content will be “mobile-first” — meaning online and designed to be delivered on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, system officials said. The online content will be adaptive, and respond to individual students. There will also be hybrid courses, which will feature classroom instruction.  The goal is to customize the learning experience for students while also creating a path that is “cross-institutional,” said Steve Mintz, executive director of the Institute for Transformational Learning, which is leading the work.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/06/competency-based-health-profession-credentials-university-texas-system

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

Faculty across institutions aren’t using OER—and the few who are often don’t know it, says a new industry report; leading to concerns about definition and copyright understanding. This data comes from a new Babson Survey Research report that aimed to determine whether or not faculty (who chief academic officers, and faculty themselves, say are the main adopters of classroom materials) are using OER. After surveying a national sample of over 2,000 faculty members, the report highlights that 75 percent of faculty are unaware of OER.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/faculty-oer-report-494/

By Jim Farmer, Campus Technology

The newly released Gainful Employment regulations affect both public and private colleges and universities, in addition to for-profit vocational training institutions. It’s estimated that implementation will cost institutions an average of $51.55 per student per year and will place a substantial burden on campus IT departments. Barmack Nassirian, American Association of State Universities and Colleges, from his experience at the AACRAO (American Association of Colleges Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) knew the magnitude of the tasks to implement the GE rules. Detailed data from the Federal Register confirmed his fears. Though no totals were published, the individual cost components were included in the text. Aggregated, the department’s cost estimate was $205 million per year; $51.55 per student (computed from data on pages 64993-65005). Nassirian also expressed the fears of many of the negotiators: With minor changes the rules could be applied to all sectors and all programs.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/11/04/federal-rulemaking-the-challenges-of-gainful-employment.aspx

By eduglasses, Edudemic

Adam Winkle, who earned the Golden Apple Award for teaching excellence and science educator, is a pioneer user of Google Glass, which enables users to access infinite amounts of information with voice commands and touches via a head mounted display (HUD). He believes the future of augmented reality (AR) is extremely bright and explains how Google Glass can lead the way for a whole new type of learning experiences in the classroom.

http://www.edudemic.com/google-glass-augmented-reality/

By MEG P. BERNHARD and MICHAEL V. ROTHBERG, Harvard Crimson

Yale faculty will vote on a proposal to adopt a version of Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I” for the fall of 2015, potentially bringing to New Haven the intellectual content of Harvard’s most popular undergraduate course. But the arrangement, if approved, could also lay the foundation for a new model of inter-university curricular partnerships in an era of institutional experimentation with online education, faculty and experts in the field say. Ray Schroeder, the associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield and an expert in online education, said the development may lead to emulation by other universities. “I expect that we are going see quite a bit more of this at all levels of education,” Schroeder said. “Now, one would hope that there would be reciprocity and that there would be a Yale course or two that would have interest at Harvard, and it would be great to see several courses going in each direction in this kind of agreement.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/4/yale-cs50-analysis-partnership/

by the University of Texas System

The University of Texas System will be the first in the nation to launch a personalized, competency-based education program system-wide aimed at learners from high school through post-graduate studies. What sets the UT System approach apart from other competency-based programs is a focus on offering personalized and adaptive degrees and certificates that are industry-aligned and – via technology developed by the UT System – can systematically improve success, access and completion rates in areas of high employment demand. “Competency-based programs allow students to advance through courses, certifications and degrees based on their ability to master knowledge and skills rather than time spent in a classroom,” said Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “All students are held to clearly defined and rigorous expectations, but each follows a customized path to success that responds and adapts based on individual learning strengths, challenges and goals. And students can earn credit for prior learning and move at their own speed.”

http://www.utsystem.edu/news/2014/11/03/university-texas-system-makes-bold-move-competency-based-education

by J. Baulkman, University Herald

The University of Oklahoma is collaborating with A&E Network’s History Channel to offer the first television network-branded online course for credit. The “United States, 1865 to the Present” course will involve professionally produced video lectures, discussion groups and social interactions, as well as integrated assets from the History Channel, Variety.com reported. The 16-week class will be taught by University of Oklahoma professor and historian Steve Gillon. “This course, combining the best in education and entertainment, brings together the resources and talents of a flagship state university and a national television network to present new ways of learning about the past,” Gillon told Variety. “With this course, we hope to spark the imagination of a new generation of students, ignite their interest in the study of history, and inspire them to learn more about how the past shapes the world we live in today.”

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/12603/20141101/history-channel-university-of-oklahoma-team-up-to-launch-online-course.htm