BY SEAN MCCABE, Accounting Today

In the digital era of today, businesses with roots in traditional methods are being challenged by game-changing startups, and the will to adapt is no longer optional, but essential. So where does change begin for those willing to adapt? The answer lies in education, and not just for current undergrads and students — CPE is also a vital step. The American Institute of CPAs understood this when it launched its Task Force on the Future of Learning last June to re-assess the nature of professional education in today’s digital world, stating that, “To fuel the passion for learning in the CPA profession, we must fundamentally change how regulation, professional development and CPE are structured, delivered and measured.” But permanent change might have already arrived last year. In a move reflective of a more contemporary sense of learning, the state boards of accountancy in Maryland and Ohio approved plans to accept CPE in 10-mintue increments, a far cry from the traditional model of sit-in classes covering a myriad of topics.

http://www.accountingtoday.com/ato_issues/29_2/learning-to-love-new-ways-of-learning-73503-1.html

By Chandralekha Mukerji, Economic Times India

In a corporate jungle, only the best survive. If you do not upskill, you might not last very long. While attending classes and taking up a full-time course may not be suitable if you are already employed, an online course can help you. These courses are also a good option for those who could not get admission to regular courses. They also offer an alternative to those who find the high fee of a regular programme unaffordable.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/how-online-certificates-can-upskill-you/articleshow/46076190.cms

by Training.Au

Many rural communities around Australia have suffered from a brain drain during recent decades. However, in a strange twist of fate, students who live at great distances from tertiary institutions are often the ones who can benefit the most. Twenty percent of regional Australians are choosing to upgrade qualifications, or commence a career, by staying in their local area while studying. Enrolment in online study has grown by over 40 percent during recent years, with uptake in the Northern Territory and NSW leading the change. In a surprise finding, many regional students aren’t choosing farming and horticultural studies – the fastest growing student choice is presently the Bachelor of Criminology. Paul Wappett, the CEO of Open Universities Australia, believes the figures bode well for communities Australia-wide.

http://www.training.com.au/ed/rural-students-online-learning-regional-solution/

By Mary Grush with Alex Ambrose, Campus Technology

Learning scientists at the University of Notre Dame have found a sweet spot in the pairing of digital badges and eportfolios: the perfect opportunity for students to showcase learning achievements not normally featured in traditional transcripts and student records. G. Alex Ambrose, Professor of Practice and Associate Director of ePortfolio Assessment at Notre Dame’s Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning explains how a new digital badge pilot initiative was the key that opened up these new possibilities for the university’s highly successful eportfolio program.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/01/27/showcasing-the-co-curricular-with-eportfolios-and-digital-badges.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

At a school where the average age of students is 38, delivering online education requires a unique combination of tactics. The average student at private, nonprofit Excelsior College has about 20 years of life experience over the typical undergraduate. Many students come with a hefty background in the military or other professions where they’ve picked up skills that deserve credit. Recently, Excelsior president John Ebersole shared four lessons his online-only college has learned for helping adult learners succeed in earning their degrees.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/01/28/4-lessons-for-serving-adult-learners-online.aspx

by Devon Haynie, US News

There has been little national research comparing completion rates for online and on-campus college and graduate programs, says Peter Shea, associate provost for online learning and an education professor at University of Albany—SUNY. Much of the research focuses on community colleges, and even there, the research is divided. Shea’s research has found that community college students across the country tend to have a higher chance of finishing their online courses. But a paper by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College that looked at two state systems found otherwise. The data that does exist on a wider scope suggests that completion rates for online students may be lower, but not much lower, says Russell Poulin, deputy director of research and analysis for WCET, an organization that advocates for effective technology use in higher education.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/01/30/experts-debate-graduation-rates-for-online-students

By: NerdScholar, USA Today

A typical day for college freshman Yoel Ferdman might include a class held at a local coffee shop, an afternoon trip to the opera and an ethnic dinner cooked with fellow students. Ferdman, 17, is a member of the founding class at Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute. It’s a four-year, accredited undergraduate degree program aimed at teaching students critical thinking, creativity and communication skills. Since last September, Ferdman and 27-other students from the United States, Israel, Malaysia and eleven other countries have been testing the innovative curriculum. Minerva Schools has no campus — cities are its classrooms. Its office is in San Francisco’s Civic Center neighborhood, just down the street from Twitter headquarters. Students spend the first year in San Francisco, then move to a new city every semester: Buenos Aires, Berlin, Hong Kong, Mumbai, London and New York. “Being put into the city really makes me reflect on the way I interact with the city and the people around me,” says Minerva student Lucy Chen, 19, from China.

http://college.usatoday.com/2015/01/29/students-test-concept-of-elite-lower-cost-no-campus-college/

by Eric Mack, Forbes

Aside from founding Microsoft, Bill Gates is known as an all-around smart guy who has put his money where his mouth is when it comes to saving the world. It would seem that this makes his opinions worth considering when he tells us that he, like fellow brainiac Stephen Hawking and Tesla Motors founder / Iron Man inspiration Elon Musk, fears that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to humanity. “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well,” Gates wrote. “A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2015/01/28/bill-gates-also-worries-artificial-intelligence-is-a-threat/

By Jeff Odom, USF Oracle

Soon, a classroom with a professor who gestures and speaks to students may become a scene for the history films. With no end in sight, students are increasingly opting to take classes from behind a computer screen while in the comfort of their own homes. USF is among the nation’s leaders in online education, with graduate engineering, business and education programs ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s list of the nation’s top 30 universities for online learning. Last year, 135 new online courses were added to the USF system, bringing the total to 3,064 among USF’s Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota/Manatee campuses. All of USF’s general education requirements can be completed online, as well as 17 percent of all degrees, according to Harff.

http://www.usforacle.com/news/view.php/859176/Online-courses-gain-popularity-on-campus

By Laura Devaney, eCampus News

More than 24 universities, colleges have launched a network to improve outcomes in science courses with traditionally high failure rates. The Inspark Science Network is a product of Arizona State University’s (ASU) Center for Education Through Exploration (ETX), an initiative designed to promote active learning, teaching science as a method of exploration and discovery, and technology firm Smart Sparrow. It launched on Jan. 16, 2015, and members will work to create and disseminate courses to help students complete general science education. Smart Sparrow, which works on adaptive learning authoring platforms, received a $4.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help support the network’s goals.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/science-education-network-398/

By Dan Gordon interviewing Rob Schwartz, THE Journal

I took a couple of online courses myself, and one thing I learned is not to just write things up and have the kids read; I’ll record a video. I trained in Adobe software (I’m an Adobe Education Leader) and I’ve created a lot of my own tutorials, because with the online classes I’ve taken, I can see when the professor is really excited about it, and that’s a lot more engaging for me. Nobody wants to engage with content; people want to engage with other people about content. When we learn, it’s a human experience. If we try to remove the humanity too much from it and turn it into just technology, we’re missing out on a really critical part of that experience of learning. My situation is different from a lot of online courses because the kids are there together in the classroom. So I’ll ask them to work with a partner, and have them bounce ideas off somebody and go through that whole problem-solving process — which to me is learning.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/01/27/how-blended-learning-and-gamification-increase-student-engagement.aspx

By Laura Devaney, eCampus News

Students at both the K-12 and university levels should learn how to handle and interpret big data, but to do this, educators at both levels must be comfortable using and teaching about big data. Big data is quickly becoming one of the most important fields, and workers who are able to handle, analyze, and interpret data will be in high demand in the workforce. And this need is critical in education, from students who must know how to use data as part of learning, to educators who should be able to interpret student data.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/big-data-education-093/

By Mary Axelson, eSchool News

It has been nearly three years since the FCC and Education Secretary Arne Duncan rolled out the Digital Textbook Playbook and challenged schools to go digital within five years. It’s safe to say schools are not there yet. While going digital looks certain, arrival in two years looks doubtful. The addition of video, audio and interactivity allows for multi-modal, personalized, accessible and interactive learning; it’s lightweight for backpacks; and there are cost savings down the road from not printing.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/01/28/digital-textbooks-673/

By Jeremy Allen, MLive

The University of Michigan recently took another step forward in its push for innovating teaching as the school launched its first U-M-only massive open online course — a health-related class open to all levels of students across all three U-M campuses. The course is titled “Understanding and Improving U.S. Healthcare: Special U-M Student Edition,” and is taught by Dr. Matthew Davis, a professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases and of internal medicine, and other courses. Approximately 800 students are enrolled in the course, which doesn’t surprise Matthews, who expected the course to be a popular choice among students interested in the MOOC model.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/01/u-m_offers_first_student-only.html

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/27/working-paper-suggests-online-education-can-lower-tuition-costs

By Rony Zarom, eCampus News

Flex class options are seeing spikes in enrollment among Gen C students; here’s how to get started. A new generation of students already familiar with an online learning format are eagerly signing up in droves for an online education model that optimizes one characteristic above all others: flexibility. “Flex-classes,” a preferred learning style among Gen Cs that offers “flex-attendance“ options to join classes “in-person” or “online” throughout the duration of a course, allowing students to more efficiently, and affordably, learn anytime, anywhere. In fact, if the current enrollment growth rate continues, nearly half of all college students will be enrolled in a flexible online learning course by 2020. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/flex-online-class-338/

By HANNAH SMATI, Harvard Crimson

HarvardX for Alumni, a program that offers online course content specifically to University alumni, drew 25,000 registrants in its first iteration last March, thousands more than initially expected, but received mixed responses from those who enrolled. The initiative is a partnership between the Harvard Alumni Association and HarvardX, the University’s branch of the online learning platform edX. Philip W. Lovejoy, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, said that he anticipated only a few thousand to enroll when the program began last spring. Despite the high number of registrations, alumni responses to the quality of the program were mixed.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/1/27/harvardx-alumni-registration-review/

by the American Enterprise Institute

Competency-based education (CBE), in which credit is provided on the basis of student learning rather than credit or clock hours, is starting to gain traction with educators and policymakers. CBE programs are often touted as a far more affordable route to college credit and a degree, but these claims often fail to account for assessment fees, differences in financial aid eligibility, and opportunity costs of time. Many questions about CBE remain to be answered before its wide adoption, including which students and degree programs are best suited for CBE, overall cost of CBE compared to more traditional programs, and how to lower out-of-pocket costs for students.

https://www.aei.org/publication/landscape-competency-based-education-enrollments-demographics-affordability/

By Evan Thomas, Newsy

A “snow day” doesn’t always mean a day off from school. Sometimes, students are still expected in class. “Schools are still closing, mostly, when the weather is frightful. But now more and more districts are setting up what they call virtual classrooms; requiring students to work from home on laptops and tablets.”  Lucky for schoolkids, the technology isn’t everywhere. For one, online learning requires students be able to get online, and that’s not always possible. The New York Times says New York public schools don’t offer Web classrooms because students might not have reliable Internet access at home.

By Lovleen Bhatia, Financial Express

Although executive MBA is being offered by many B-schools, the complete online model is becoming popular with the working executives who have limited time to travel and attend campus classes. Having realised that course curriculum and delivery methodology are equally important, some organisations have started to capitalise on teaching models that suits best this category of skill seekers. Live instructor-led courses, 24×7 support, senior and seasoned technology practitioners as course designers and instructors and lifetime content support are options that will help tech professionals to start, continue and complete the courses. Online courses act as ‘career-change mechanisms’ which help mid-career professionals to make transitions that otherwise would have been long shots, and give recruiters a reason to look at them in a new light.

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/jobs/why-mid-career-professionals-need-online-education-support/34931/

By Susan Kryczka, Evolllution

As anyone who has worked in the online unit at a college or university will tell you, building a successful online initiative is a very difficult business. Competition is stiff and marketing costs are high. But success is about many things—alignment with the institutional mission, financial and administrative support, students and faculty support, and staying the course. Though there are many factors critical to institutional success online, there are some particular things that, if done correctly, can ensure that you at least have a fighting chance to build an online program that can compete in the marketplace., These five can give you a great start.

http://www.evolllution.com/program_planning/issues-starting-online-program/