Online Learning Update

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

A primary reason that we are dipping our toes into open online learning at my institution is to create opportunities for experimentation. There is something that is liberating about free. What we earn from providing zero cost educational opportunities for lifelong learners is the right to try new things, to take some educational risks, and to learn as we go. An example of experimentation and learning that I’ve been watching at my institution is the use of Google Hangouts On Air for open online office hours.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/experimenting-open-online-office-hours

By Ben Scott, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Members of the UC Santa Cruz faculty are working with experts in the field of online teaching to create well-designed courses that can prove to be more accessible, educational, and involving than a traditional lecture course. These online classes work very well as an alternative to the large courses that many students are required to take, such as calculus. UCSC’s Frank Bäuerle and Anthony Tromba created the first online calculus course to satisfy prerequisites of all UC students through the cross-campus enrollment system.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20150710/uc-santa-cruz-faculty-members-develop-inventive-online-courses

By Andrew Barbour, eCampus News

The University of North Carolina has developed a customizable dashboard to identify problems in how the state trains teachers for its public school system. Faced with an alarming decline in both the number and quality of teachers in the North Carolina public school system, the University of North Carolina has developed a data-driven dashboard to provide immediate visibility into what’s working—and what’s not—in the state’s teacher-preparation programs. Developed in partnership with SAS, the North Carolina-based software giant, the dashboard was a key recommendation of the UNC Board of Governors Subcommittee on Teacher and School Leader Quality.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/dashboard-quality-teachers-981/

By Peter West, eSchool News

Many millions of dollars have been wasted over the years by the well-intentioned, but ad hoc, introduction of technology into education. Eager tech savvy teachers or administrators may jump in feet first, but a significant portion of their colleagues are left struggling along or resisting the change. The results of well-planned, long-term implementations, however, can produce momentum. When even reluctant adopters are given support, training, and time, positive changes can occur. Teachers are similar to other groups in society. They follow the “Diffusion of innovation” graph as proposed by Everett Rogers.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/07/14/embrace-change-792/

by Alexis Hosticka, Arkansas Business

Arkansas Tech University in Russellville has named Hanna Norton dean of its new College of eTech, which aims to expand the university’s degree programs online. ATU established the new college on July 1. Norton is assistant vice president for academic affairs and a professor of journalism; she’s been with ATU since 2001. “It is important that we offer educational opportunities to people regardless of their station in life,” Norton said in a news release. “We exist to help students meet their educational and professional goals.”

http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/106027/arkansas-tech-offers-expanded-online-learning-opportunities

By Sarah Pan, Hyde Park Herald

This week, the University of Chicago (U. of C.) is releasing a free online law course. Anyone can go online and take Randal C. Picker’s seven-week course, self-paced and with no definite start and end date. Learn more about the important relationship between law and technology with the course: “Internet Giants: the Law and Economics of Media Platforms.” Topics include antitrust, copyright and network industries. Although there are no dates for the actual course, Picker and his staff offer a private community for U. of C. alumni; they can be in a separate session of the class, with discussions on the material and exclusive information.

http://hpherald.com/2015/07/15/u-of-c-offers-free-online-courses/

by Fred O’Connor, PCAdvisor

Google and seven other ISPs have joined a new U.S. government pilot program to connect 275,000 low-income households to the Internet for free or at reduced rates. U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss the initiative, called ConnectHome, Wednesday in Durant, Oklahoma. Durant serves as the capital of the Choctaw Tribal Nation, one of the communities taking part in the program. In Durant, like in many parts of rural Oklahoma, the library is a town’s only location with a high-speed Web connection, the state’s director of libraries said in a statement. ConnectHome will prioritize households with children and connect approximately 200,000 students to the Internet.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/internet/google-isps-offering-free-broadband-to-low-income-families-3619801/

By Gabrielle Russon, Orlando Sentinel

Belhaven University, a private Christian liberal arts school by Orlando’s Mall at Millenia, announced it will shift to online-only courses this fall. But university president Roger Parrott said the change it would give students more “robust” degrees online that couldn’t have been offered before because of low enrollment. The Orlando students can access online courses offered to the students enrolled in Belhaven campuses predominately across the Southeast. “We’re not quitting in Orlando,” Parrott said. “We’re refocusing in Orlando.” The changes come as enrollment lagged as the university faced growing competition among other schools and marketing costs are high in a tourist city, Parrott said. Another factor was it became difficult to attract students from a large radius because of Orlando’s heavy traffic, he said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-online-belhaven-university-20150715-story.html

by Prolific North

BBC Learning has been working with The Open University and UCL to produce an online personality test, to work out people’s attitude towards money. The interactive iWonder test has been launched as BBC One airs Right on the Money: Live – a new consumer show based at MediaCityUK. “Our BBC iWonder content seeks to explore different perspectives on questions sparked by everyday life, through BBC programmes and current events, and money attitude is something that truly affects everyone. We hope this interactive test alongside Right On The Money: Live will start important conversations and provide practical ideas and advice for people to feel better able to take control of their money,” explained Sinead Rocks, head of BBC Learning.

http://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2015/07/bbc-learning-creates-online-financial-personality-test/

by JULIANNE STANFORD, University of Arizona

Public university latest to join technology trend that continues to grow. Starting this fall, students can earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona – without leaving their house. The University of Arizona is set to launch an online undergraduate degree program – joining hundreds of campuses nationwide that already offer the same. More than 200 colleges and universities offer online bachelor’s degrees, according to a ranking by U.S. News and World Report, a trend that shows technology is changing the way in which higher education is facilitated. In fact, University of Arizona is one of the last in-state universities in Arizona to offer undergraduate degrees online.

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/23313/

Cutting tenure protections is appealing to some college and university chiefs because it gives them more control over cutting programs when academic demands shift. Supporters of such protections say tenure is about protecting academic freedom and attracting high-quality faculty. Walker has said the changes to tenure are needed to give the state university system more flexibility and financial leverage. Specifically, the changes allow the University of Wisconsin system Board of Regents — 16 of whose 18 members are appointed by the governor — to set tenure policies instead of having tenure protections spelled out in state law.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/scott-walker-college-professor-tenure-120009.html

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

What is so great about How Music Got Free is that Witt takes us into the minds of the people running the record company’s. (And very deeply into the mind of Doug Morris, the guy who ran Universal Music Group). Perhaps no group of executives have ever been less prepared for the digital economy than the record executives. (Although newspaper people – and maybe even higher ed folks – may argue with that assertion). Even if the music industry honchos had understood the new digital world, it is not clear to Witt that they could have done much differently…. Today’s successful musician will make most of their money from touring, not music sales. How Music Got Free offers an insiders guide to the demise, and possible reinvention, of an industry. When will someone like Stephen Witt turn their attention to higher education? What should us higher ed incumbents learn from the story of the record industry?

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/%E2%80%9Chow-music-got-free%E2%80%9D

by University Business

Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee were approved by the Southern Regional Education Board this week to join the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA). These three bring the number of participating states to 27. SARA is a initiative of states nationwide to make distance education courses more accessible to students across state lines and make it easier for states to regulate and institutions to participate in interstate distance education. The effort is funded by a $3 million grant from Lumina Foundation, $200,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and fees paid by institutions.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/arkansas-oklahoma-and-tennessee-join-sara-distance-ed-agreement

by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

“The outcomes of a college experience are more than a degree,” said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. The Lumina Foundation has kicked in $1.27 million for NASPA to partner with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) to explore how to collect, document and distribute information about student learning and “competencies,” including what is gleaned outside of the traditional academic classroom.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/07/13/project-create-models-broader-form-student-transcript

by Devon Haynie, US News

“Online College Students,” a July report by Aslanian Market Research and the Learning House, surveyed about​ 1,500 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled, recently enrolled or about to be enrolled in online programs in spring 2015. Among the most surprising findings in the report, authors say, is the shifting age of online students. While distance education students are often assumed to be older, the report found the popularity of online undergraduate programs is growing among those under 25. Thirty-four percent of undergraduate online students were under the age of 25 this spring,​ up from 25 percent in 2012, according to the report.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2015/07/17/younger-students-increasingly-drawn-to-online-learning-study-finds

by Association of MBA’s

I think MOOCs allow universities to take their great content and project it onto a larger audience than they ever did before.  Twitter Perhaps not surprisingly, this allows universities to reach a much larger, much more diverse audience than has ever been possible. I think this knowledge is so radical in everyday society and most people on the planet will never have access to an on campus walk-in class. I kicked off a Coursera founders’ conference by telling the story of one of the students, a baker in Bangladesh. She took Coursera courses — including a microeconomics class from the University of Pennsylvania and model thinking from the University of Michigan — and learned how to run a business. I showed her statements of accomplishments using her verified certificates on the big screen at the Coursera founders’ conference. Here was a woman who could never attend classes in her city, but today she credits part of her success to Coursera courses.

http://community.mbaworld.com/blog/news/b/weblog/archive/2015/07/09/coursera-s-andrew-ng-how-moocs-are-taking-local-knowledge-global

by Dan Butin, Huffington Post

This is exciting in many ways. For we actually know a lot about how teaching and learning works and, in an ideal world, can begin talking about how to move from the “flipped classroom” model of education to a “flipped university” model. But the scary part is that technological advancements keep coming and budget pressures never cease. There is thus no simple way to press the “pause” button and resolve the deep and difficult questions of how do we do it right. This is why I believe we are in the midst of the next education revolution. Change is coming whether we like it or not and the only real question in front of us is what we are going to do about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-w-butin/the-next-education-revolu_b_7770952.html

by Cathryn Domrose, Nurse.com

Enrollment in degree programs has been increasing at all levels as nurses and employers develop higher expectations of advanced education for the profession, according to healthcare researchers. Online learning is increasingly becoming the method of choice for many. About 7.1 million students took at least one online course in 2013, reflecting an annual growth rate of 6.1%, according to the Babson Survey Research Group. To create an atmosphere of academic collegiality and community, students and instructors use a variety of tools to duplicate interactions they would normally have in person. Class discussions on case studies or situational problems are often held on message boards, with students contributing their portions whenever they sign on. They might write group papers or contribute to group projects on “wikis,” Web pages that allow collective contributions and edits. Real-time class meetings and discussions are held on Web conferencing sites. Instructors post videos of guest lectures and interviews and record student presentations for the entire class to see.

https://news.nurse.com/2015/07/10/cyber-education-more-pros-than-cons/

By Sarah Kuta, Daily Camera

The University of Colorado is moving ahead on its new online education initiative, with a name and a website set to launch next month. With the initiative, for now called University of Colorado On Demand, the university hopes to be able to compete with other, well-established online programs such as those run by Colorado State University and Arizona State University. Plans for a new website and the initiative’s budget were unveiled Thursday during the Board of Regents mid-year retreat at President Bruce Benson’s ranch north of Silverthorne. So far, Benson has allocated $9 million to the program from his special initiatives fund, but officials say each CU campus is contributing additional funds to make the initiative a success. That early number includes $1.5 million for marketing and $2 million for technology costs.

http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_28462044/cu-moving-ahead-demand-online-education-initiative

by Nicole Gorman, Education World

Though blended learning is a key buzzword in the current world of education, experts are torn on its benefits as a learning model. Yesterday, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released a report detailing the evolution and the success of blended learning from 2008-2015 and predicted its future in education. The paper, titled Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015, seeks to define blended learning, its models, and successful case studies using it over the years.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/future-blended-learning-be-continuum-personalized-learning-report-says-2021893402

by Kia Kokalitcheva, Fortune

In early April, professional social network LinkedIn shelled out $1.5 billion to acquire Lynda.com, one of the largest and oldest online learning marketplaces, with the goal of becoming the professional enrichment destination of choice. But Pluralsight, a Farmington, Utah-based online learning company that provides education in technical topics, is not worried. Instead, the company announced on Thursday that it has recently acquired, at undisclosed terms, San Francisco startup HackHands to bolster its own service. HackHands is a startup whose on-demand service lets people connect to subject matter experts specializing in web and software development via a video-chat, screen-sharing, and so on.

http://fortune.com/2015/07/09/education-company-pluralsight-acquires-hackhands/