Online Learning Update

April 9, 2015

Starbucks and Arizona State U. Will Expand Tuition-Discount Partnership

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:08 am
By Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Ed
Starbucks and Arizona State University announced on Monday that they will expand the full benefits of their tuition-discounting partnership to include Starbucks employees who have not yet accrued 60 college credits. ASU’s president, Michael M. Crow, said they were doing so because of continuing demand and the success of the initial program — since the summer, about 3,400 Starbucks employees submitted completed applications, 3,000 were accepted, and nearly 2,000 enrolled. Under the arrangement, the university provides a guaranteed scholarship — effectively a tuition discount — to all Starbucks students who attend ASU Online. The students are also eligible for federal Pell Grants and need-based financial aid from the university. Starbucks reimburses employees for the remaining amounts not covered by the discounts and federal financial aid. (Initially it did so every time students finished 21 credits. It now will provide the reimbursements after each semester.)

http://chronicle.com/article/StarbucksArizona-State-U/229127/

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3 Ways You Can Use Nontraditional Education to Win the War for talent

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:06 am
by  Barry Salzberg,  Fast Company
Approximately 70% of those currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in the U.S. are not doing so in what is thought of as the “traditional” college experience, according to the U.S. Education Department. Rather than studying full-time while living on a college campus and earning a degree after four years, they are studying part-time, withdrawing from college to work, and then returning later in life. Because of these changes, businesses need to expand how they approach finding future employees, hiring them, retaining them, and developing them. Here are some approaches they should consider:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3044622/3-ways-you-can-use-nontraditional-education-to-win-the-war-for-talent

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PAR Framework Partners with American Institutes for Research

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am
By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology
The Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework has partnered with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in an effort to develop new metrics and measurements to help guide national policies related to higher education outcomes. The PAR Framework is an independent, non-profit provider of learner analytics as a service, and AIR is a behavioral and social science research and evaluation organization. According to the PAR Framework, the metrics currently used to compare higher education institutions in the United States are based on traditional models of education and don’t reflect the current reality of non-traditional students and changing instructional models and business practices. Through this partnership, the PAR Framework and AIR plan to develop new benchmarks for measuring the performance of for-profit and alternative delivery models of education, such as online learning, and to identify ways to improve “federal data collections, statutory disclosure and reporting requirements, especially with regards to transfer students and adult learners,” according to information from PAR.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/01/par-framework-partners-with-american-institutes-for-research.aspx

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April 8, 2015

5 Ways to Ace Discussion Board Assignments in an Online Class

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am
by Devon Haynie, US News
If online students want to have a real conversation about class material, they have one place to do it: the discussion board, a major component of most online courses.
“They are the best part of the classes,” says Paulina Erices, who is earning her online bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pennsylvania State University—World Campus. “The interaction on the discussion boards allows me to hear other people’s opinions. They have life experiences related to what we are studying and it is really interesting because it goes beyond what we are studying to what is happening in the field.” When online discussion boards come together well, students can actually learn more from them than from other parts of class, instructors say. But getting the most out of a discussion board – and earning the high marks to show for it – isn’t easy. Below, experts share tips for how to ace the discussion board component of online class.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/04/03/5-ways-to-ace-discussion-board-assignments-in-an-online-class

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First accredited online school, Jones University, to shutter in 2016

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

By Tamara Chuang, The Denver Post

Jones International University, the first online-only university, is winding down and will close next year because of declining enrollment and competition, the school said Thursday. The Centennial-based school notified students and faculty this week and said it won’t close until it has helped every student graduate or transfer to a new school. “We examined a number of operational strategies and determined that none would be sufficient to turn around the market dynamics,” chief operating officer Bryan Wallace said. Jones faced competition not only from startup schools but traditional universities moving courses online. There was also the economy.

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_27839174/first-accredited-online-school-jones-university-shutter-2016

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Comcast leapfrogs Google Fiber with new 2Gbps internet service

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

By Vlad Savov, the Verge

Rollout begins in Atlanta next month and will reach 18 million American homes by the end of the year. The US cable giant, Comcast, is today announcing a new 2Gbps broadband service, which it will start rolling out in Atlanta from next month. There’s no price yet, but Comcast says it will be symmetrical — meaning you’ll upload just as quickly as you can download — and it won’t be limited “just to certain neighborhoods.” Doug Guthrie, Senior VP of Comcast Cable’s South Region, explains that the company’s “approach is to offer the most comprehensive rollout of multi-gigabit service to the most homes as quickly as possible.” That’s in stark contrast to what Comcast was saying just a couple of years ago, when it dismissed Google’s Fiber efforts as being excessive for most people’s needs.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/2/8330267/comcast-2gbps-gigabit-pro-broadband

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April 7, 2015

MIT Professional Education Offers Two New Sessions of Online Big Data Course for Professionals

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am
by Business Wire
In response to continuing and growing demand for expert insight on big data, MIT Professional Education will offer two new sessions of its popular online professional course, Tackling the Challenges of Big Data. The new sessions will be available again to a global audience, and are scheduled to begin May 5, 2015 and July 7, 2015 respectively. MIT Professional Education’s big data courses have drawn approximately 7,000 professionals from over 100 countries, and over 3,000 organizations worldwide in the past year. Participants, most of whom would otherwise not be able to access world-renowned educational resources of MIT, have benefitted from this comprehensive online course addressing a priority learning area for working professionals.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150331005182/en/MIT-Professional-Education-Offers-Sessions-Online-Big#.VR3e4vzF-Rs

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A Flexible Future for Higher Education

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

by Carl Straumsheim, Tomorrow’s Professor

Some of the country’s most rigorous research universities have a new obsession: flexibility. As the institutions contemplate a more modular future, experiments with blended learning may provide an early glimpse at their plans. Through strategic visions and partnerships, institutions such as Duke and Harvard Universities and the Georgia and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology are laying the groundwork for curriculums that will be delivered through a combination of face-to-face instruction, blended courses and distance education. A common goal is to offer students “flexibility” — a word several administrators used to summarize their institutions’ aspirations. The word has many definitions. For one institution, flexibility means giving students the freedom to race through core concepts on their own schedule, freeing up face-to-face time for more in-depth work; for another, it means giving students the opportunity to continue their studies whether they are on campus or not — and beyond graduation.

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/enewsletter.php?msgno=1400

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Texas Tech online learning continues to grow

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am
By Kaitlin Bain, Daily Toreador
Many institutions have seen the growth in their online programs plateau, but with more than 50 online degrees, certifications and certification preparation programs, Texas Tech’s online enrollment is growing at a rapid pace. Justin Louder, assistant vice provost for Tech eLearning, said within online learning there are generally two main types, which are synchronous and asynchronous.
http://www.dailytoreador.com/news/tech-online-learning-continues-to-grow/article_e192b86a-d8e5-11e4-b7a1-df7170553076.html
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April 6, 2015

Who’s Taking MOOCs? Teachers

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am
by Casey Fabris, Chronicle of Higher Ed
In free online courses offered by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teachers are increasingly the students. A study by the two universities has found that teachers are enrolling in their MOOCs in high numbers. The study examines data from some one million MOOC students who enrolled in courses at edX, the nonprofit learning platform started by Harvard and MIT. Some one-fifth of participants answered a survey about their background in teaching, and 39 percent of them said they were current or former teachers.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/whos-taking-moocs-teachers/56305
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Mind the Gap: Connecting K–12 and Higher Education Educators to Improve the Student Experience

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am
by Matthew W. Stoltzfus, Ben Scragg, and Cory Tressler, EDUCAUSE Review
Each fall, over 7,000 recent high school graduates enroll in courses at The Ohio State University. With each incoming class comes a group of students with increasingly higher composite ACT/SAT scores and, unsurprisingly, increasingly higher expectations for an engaging, world-class education. As students transition from a high school to a college/university setting, the role of the teacher in their educational experience changes as well. In some cases, particularly at Ohio State, students step into a classroom comprising more students than were in their entire graduating high school class. Many students go from high school teacher to college professor with little preparation for this shift.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/mind-gap-connecting-k12-and-higher-education-educators-improve-student-experience

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Much More about MOOCs

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am
by John S. Rosenberg, Harvard Magazine
A newly published, two-year assessment of the massive open online courses (MOOCs) created by HarvardX and MITx through their edX online-learning partnership describes in depth the evolving features of 68 courses offered by the two institutions. The analysis, conducted by the HarvardX Research Committee and MIT’s Office of Digital Learning, delivers three distinct, valuable kinds of insights into the field:
a fuller, enriched characterization of MOOCs, whose users have evolved significantly as more courses have become available; hints of emerging advanced research that may provide insights into the effectiveness of different teaching approaches and the actual learning achieved by MOOC users; and the applications of these inquiries and their insights to on-campus, classroom courses.
http://harvardmagazine.com/2015/04/harvard-mooc-online-learning-lessons-from-edx
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April 5, 2015

Online learning holds great promise — but mostly for the well-off

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:08 am
By Marc Sollinger, Public Radio International
It’s easy to be hopeful about online learning; a world where anyone — regardless of income, race, or gender — is able to access the same high-quality instruction. Some have imagined that it could truly democratize education. Perhaps even reduce inequality, break down barriers, and give kids from poorer neighborhoods a shot at on-demand lessons. That’s all a wonderful dream, but according to Mimi Ito, a cultural anthropologist at the University of California Irvine, it’s just that: a dream.
“Often, when we think of the open Internet and resources being freely available, we assume it has a democratizing function. That anybody can access this stuff, it’s free and open, so therefore it must be more equitable. The sad fact is that we know historically, that when you provide fancier technology, it actually increases inequity.”  Still, even with all this inequality, Ito says there is a ray of hope about the future of online learning. “The sector around around educational technology is very progressive and quite aware of these issues, and is grappling with them in a serious way.”

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-28/online-learning-holds-great-promise-mostly-well

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Internet2: Building a Community for Innovation

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am
By Mary Grush, Campus Technology
With 280 higher education institutional memberships, 80 corporate members, 42 regional and state networks, 70 affiliates and government agencies, and 65 international research and education networks that it connects to, Internet2’s reach is expanding, and its work is as cutting-edge as ever.  This past week, Florence Hudson assumed her new role as Internet2’s senior VP and chief innovation officer. Hudson will leverage her extensive experience fostering innovative work — she created IBM’s Smarter Buildings strategy, developed that company’s work with the Internet of Things, and through her work with organizations like NASA JPL, participated in many research collaborations with national laboratories. CT talked with Hudson about her new post at Internet2.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/03/24/internet2-building-a-community-for-innovation.aspx

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Drop User Names To Improve Security, Says Dartmouth Research

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am
By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
According to a new paper put out by the collaboration, “How To Count to Two: What ‘Two Factor Authentication’ Misses,” the problem with schemes that rely on the use of user names and passwords for authentication is that they’re only as strong as the weakest user in the network. Figuring out somebody’s user name can lead cyber criminals to additional information about that individual online, which can help in figuring out what that user’s password is too. Once the personal information of one user in a system is breached, the hacker can make a “lateral move” to explore more of the target network and uncover additional accounts that can be compromised. Use of this ever-growing “footprint” in the network may allow the hacker to uncover private information about “higher value targets,” whose access to network resources can lead to the kind of data breaches that make the effort worthwhile for the criminal.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/03/25/dump-user-names-says-dartmouth-research.aspx

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April 4, 2015

Improving online accessibility for students a major issue for schools

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

By Bridget McCrea, eSchool News

As schools make recorded lessons available to students online, they may not be making them accessible.  In February, advocates for the deaf filed federal lawsuits against Harvard and M.I.T., stating that both universities violated antidiscrimination laws by failing to provide closed captioning in their online lectures, courses, podcasts, and other educational materials. In Harvard and M.I.T. Are Sued Over Lack of Closed Captions, the New York Times highlighted portions of the complaint and zeroed in on the fact that, “Much of Harvard’s online content is either not captioned or is inaccurately or unintelligibly captioned, making it inaccessible for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.”

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/03/27/online-accessibility-520/

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New app template targets interactive lesson creation

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by eCampus News

Instructors could create interactive, self-guided lessons for their students using a software startup’s cross-platform app template based on Purdue University intellectual property. Kevin Hannon, founder of Active Lesson LLC, created the app template to strengthen his students’ understanding of canine anatomy. Hannon is associate professor of basic medical sciences and teaches canine anatomy in Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/app-template-creation-034/

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Report: Faculty weigh in on digital courseware

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

By Ron Bethke, eCampus News

Though the majority of respondents agreed that digital courseware has the potential to improve learning for non-traditional students as well as broaden educational access, many also agreed that uncertainty looms when it comes to widespread adoption. “I feel pressured to use online instruction in some way at our institution, but I believe it mostly requires an increase in labor for instructors,” stated a full-time tenured faculty survey respondent. “I am not sure of the benefit it actually provides over traditional delivery in my area of teaching.” Specifically, the survey results uncovered three major barriers to faculty adoption of digital courseware: The first major barrier, as identified by 40 percent of respondents, is the “additional time required for faculty” to find existing digital courseware that effectively fits course goals, as well as the professional development needed to properly implement the courseware. This was the top obstacle reported by instructors from both public and private four-year institutions.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/faculty-digital-courseware-918/

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April 3, 2015

Study: This is why mobile is king on campus

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by eCampus News

Mobile use among college students is on the rise, and has jumped 40 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to new research released by McGraw-Hill Education. The second annual report, “The Impact of Technology on College Student Study Habits,” conducted by McGraw-Hill Education and Hanover Research, found that 81 percent of students included in the study use mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) to study, the second most popular device category behind laptops and up 40 percent year over year. Of the different types of learning technologies available, surveyed students found that adaptive learning technologies were the most effective, with 85 percent indicating a moderate or major improvement in grades.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/mobile-campus-study-893/

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Lawrence, 5 other colleges to develop courses including online instruction

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am
By FOX 11 News
Lawrence University is one of six colleges to receive grant money to develop course involving online instruction. University leaders say they will work with Albion College, DePauw University, Grinnell College, Hope College and Wabash College to develop what they call hybrid courses. Teams of faculty from several disciplines are tasked with developing the courses during the rest of this year, with the first courses begin offered in spring of 2016. “This project will allow faculty to explore new instructional methods such as the flipped classroom to deliver content online and enrich the face-to-face experience with new forms of team-based learning,” David Berk, director of instructional technology at Lawrence, said in a news release.

http://fox11online.com/2015/03/27/lawrence-5-other-colleges-to-develop-courses-including-online-instruction/

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New legislation increases access to online classes at Cal State

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

by California State University Orion

Students attending any California State University will now have the opportunity to enroll in online classes at other campuses in the system. Assembly Bill 386 requires that every fully online course offered by the CSU system be made available to all eligible students at no extra cost beginning in the fall. The new bill relies on students to self-certify themselves and choose the right online class that is offered at any CSU.

http://theorion.com/blog/2015/03/26/new-legislation-increases-access-to-online-classes/

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