Online Learning Update

By Pam Buffington, eCampus News

What will university learners require in 10 years? Who will these learners be? How will they learn and what will they demand? Universities must innovate and evolve now to be prepared for the future. But how will they position themselves to be the best fit for students whose learning habits have changed with greater access to technology? The traditional lecture class has existed for thousands of years and universities take great pride in classrooms that are steeped in history and tradition, where students can attend classes in the same room where their father, grandfather, or great grandfather physically sat before them to take lessons. Yet, during this time, the world has flown by and progressed in leaps and bounds—will this traditional experience be as satisfying for the learners of this coming generation?

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/target-learner-university-271/

by APP.com

The use of online education, or distance learning, once mostly associated with for-profit instititions, has increased dramatically over the past several years, although the increase in students enrolled in online courses in 2014 was the lowest in more than a decade. Nonetheless, more than 25 percent of all college and university students are enrolled in at least one distance education course, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and 11 percent are enrolled exclusively in online courses. More than 70 percent of chief academic officers, once highly skeptical of online learning, now say distance education is critical to their long-term strategy. And most say outcomes from distance education courses are equal to or better than those of traditional, on the ground, courses.

http://www.app.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/09/02/issue-online-learning-making-grade/71574536/

By C. RAMSEY FAHS, Harvard Crimson

Roughly 1 percent of certificates granted by Harvard’s and MIT’s school-specific edX platforms were earned by users engaging in a form of cheating never before possible in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms, according to a working paper released by researchers from the two schools. The paper—authored by MIT Ph.D. candidate Curtis G. Northcutt, MIT professor Isaac L. Chuang, and HarvardX research committee co-chair Andrew D. Ho—studied a previously unexamined form of cheating known as “copying answers using multiple existences online,” or CAMEO. Users engaging in CAMEO register for a given course with multiple accounts, one of which is designated the “master” account. They then use non-master “harvester” accounts to click through assessments as quickly as possible until the grading tool provides correct answers.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/3/cameo-cheating-method-mooc/

by Market Watch

Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face interaction with WBL. This mode of learning is prevalent in the K-12 segment. To meet with the evolving needs of students and academicians, regulators in the education industry worldwide are emphasizing on this education methodology than traditional learning methods. Blended learning has made knowledge delivery more productive and efficient as instructors share their resources and instructions online, enabling students to access these resources at their convenience. Many investors, globally, are also thus investing in the fields of education and technology. Technavio forecasts the global blended e-learning market to grow at a CAGR of 11.091% during 2014-2019.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-blended-e-learning-market-2015-2019-2015-09-01

by Alison Burdo, Philadelphia Business Journal

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is offering online courses on how to use big data to make strategic business decisions – the first time it’s tackling the topic through its Coursera offerings – and the series of four classes is capped off by real-world business challenge created by Yahoo! “[Yahoo] works with us as a thought leader to provide a project prompt,” said Anne Trumbore, the director of Wharton online.

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/09/01/penn-wharton-coursera-mooc-yahoo-data-mba.html

by College Choice

This infographic highlights data related to the growth of online learning. Online learning has already disrupted higher education, as more and more colleges react to student demand by offering classes online. And as our technological capacity expands and classes get better and better, there’s no reason to see the online college revolution as a temporary one.

http://www.collegechoice.net/online-college-revolution/

by Joseph Erbentraut, The Huffington Post

Imagine this scenario: Instead of a judge sentencing an offender to hundreds of hours of community service while behind bars, they are sentenced to hundreds of hours of educational courses — and those courses are offered for free. Such is the vision of Mike Feerick, the founder of Alison, a Galway, Ireland-based provider of online coursework. Earlier this year, the company debuted a new set of courses called the Advanced Diploma in Workforce Re-entry Skills which is specifically designed for formerly incarcerated Americans. The goal, Feerick explained to BBC in July, is to boost ex-inmates’ job skills and academic credentials while simultaneously reducing their risk of reoffending.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/online-course-prison-education-recidivism_55e4cf3ae4b0aec9f3544bd5

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

To help make alternative credentials a more viable option for adult learners, Eduventures recommends that institutions create a strategic framework by focusing on three areas: Define your alternative credentialing options, whether they are certificates, badges, formal statements of accomplishment, or endorsements of some kind. Determine the aim of these credentials. Are they to validate mastery of a particular skill? Do they really only serve as a more structured pathway to degree attainment? Or are they simply to demonstrate commitment to lifelong learning? Articulate ways which alternative credentials can augment traditional degrees or create a viable substitute to degree attainment.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/08/27/report-identifies-barriers-to-adopting-alternative-credentials.aspx

By Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology

McGill University is partnering with edX to launch what they institutions are calling a “GROOC,” or a massive open online course (MOOC) for groups. The new course, “Social Learning for Social Impact,” launches next month and “aims to inspire social change through global collaboration of like-minded people working to create positive, sustainable impact,” according to a news release. Features of the GROOC include:

A curriculum geared toward group, rather than individual, learning;

Ongoing feedback from trained facilitators;

Groups formed through a matchmaking process that will pair students according to interests in particular problems or themes; and

Social changes themes determined by the students.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/08/31/mcgill-u-edx-partner-on-mooc-for-groups.aspx

by Arizona State University

The Global Freshman Academy is unique in many ways — allowing students to take classes before deciding whether to pay for the credit, charging only $200 per class credit and accepting students without requiring SATs or a transcript. The new program has another innovation as well: It uses a technology that’s so personalized every student learns the class material a different way. The method comes through a partnership with a Silicon Valley company that provided software that “learns” each student’s knowledge level and presents new lessons and review material at the exact time that the brain is most receptive to them.

https://asunews.asu.edu/20150831-diverse-platforms-online-success

By CAROLINE SIMON, Daily Pennsylvanian

It can be difficult to reach people from all corners of the globe, but Penn professor Brian Bushee’s financial accounting course, offered through the massive online open course provider Coursera, has found its way to students in every single country, excluding the Vatican City, Cuba and North Korea. According to Coursera statistics, nearly 400,000 students have signed up for Bushee’s course since he began offering it in 2013, with nearly 25,000 earning certificates of completion. In some parts of the world, Bushee’s students lack formal education, traveling to internet cafes twice a week in search of financial knowledge that will help them break into the business world. Although accounting is a subject more objective than some, Bushee said he has had to adjust the curriculum so that it would mesh with the financial systems of countries outside the United States.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/09/online-learning-global-engagement

By Laura Helmuth, Slate

We at Slate have a lot of opinions about the most worthwhile classes you can take in high school, college, and adult education, and like anybody, we like to give unsolicited advice, so welcome to our week of guidance counseling! We’re rolling out 17 class recommendations, starting with five today. These are the classes that taught us the most important lessons—even if we didn’t realize it at the time. Take a look at this week’s schedule, below. What’d we miss? On the final day of this series, we’ll collect readers’ best advice. Please let us know what was the most important class you ever took—or the one you wish you’d taken. Email us at classes@slate.com with up to 200 words advocating for your class. And please add your recommendations to the comments section or share them on Twitter using the hashtag #TakeThisClass.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/classes/2015/08/what_classes_should_i_take_geology_coding_geography_math_poetry_acting_anatomy.html

By Amy Lane, Crain’s Detroit Business

“The challenge is keeping up with the pace of advances, and technology, and try not to follow the fads, and just stick to what is good for our students, and their success ultimately,” said Ahmad Ezzeddine, associate vice president for educational outreach and international programs at Wayne State University. One approach to improved online learning is to present course information in smaller segments, Ezzeddine said. “When someone is online, the attention span is a lot shorter. You need to maintain the interest of students, so having them watch a three-hour lecture is not going to be effective,” he said. Students want “more action-oriented learning, in smaller doses,” and clear relevance, said Ed Borbely, director of the University of Michigan’s Integrative Systems and Design graduate degree-granting division housed in the College of Engineering. “There’s less tolerance for ‘Just sit back, someday you might use this.’ ”

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150830/NEWS/308309995/colleges-embrace-the-question-how-can-we-do-that-online

by Kirk Pinho, Crain’s Detroit

Depending on whom you ask, universities benefit in a few different ways. For some, the upside is that the courses may sow seeds for the MOOC students to eventually enroll at the university, generating revenue. For others, there are educational benefits in that they give professors a sort of educational sandbox in which they can experiment with new and emerging methods of delivering content and course themes. And some argue that the benefit is largely social in nature by offering high-level educational opportunities to a group of students that may otherwise be unable to afford them. “They provide the general populace with an opportunity to have lifelong learning experiences and exposure to new content,” said Geralyn Stephens, associate professor, clinical, in teacher education in Wayne State University’s College of Education.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150830/NEWS/308309998/massive-online-courses-grow-whats-in-it-for-the-universities

by Anne Fisher, Fortune

Studying on the fly will present some challenges, but it can be done. Lara Martini, who is Microsoft’s director of commercial markets strategy for Latin America, finished her MBA last fall despite traveling more than half the time. (In fact, when I spoke to her, she was at the airport in Miami, headed for Bogota.) “Travel is really the main reason most of my fellow students and I were enrolled in online programs,” she says. “People have become accustomed to working remotely, so this is really an extension of that.”

http://fortune.com/2015/08/28/mba-business-school-online/

by Peta Lee, University World News

Although the traditional lecture hall is unlikely to ever disappear completely, it is increasingly being supplemented – and in some cases replaced – by technology. And while a combination of both online and onsite learning as a teaching means is proving successful, more work is needed for this combination to truly internationalise the global learning experience. The digital revolution has turned conventional teaching and studying on its head, affecting students, academics and campuses worldwide. The role of digital learning is analysed in Internationalisation of Higher Education, a study focusing on 10 countries from within Europe and seven from without, commissioned by the European Parliament committee on culture and education.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2015082715255084

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

A new qualitative study asks traditional college students what they think about massive open online courses, finding a number of concerns that mirror those of administrators. According to eCampus News, the students found reason for concern when it comes to the accuracy of course content and instructor quality, responding that it is nice that people with information can share it in a MOOC platform but also a drawback to the system because their teaching materials are not necessarily peer-reviewed. Almost a quarter of interviewees said outcomes were a major concern, pointing to course credit for MOOCs as a way to legitimize them for students.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/new-qualitative-research-explores-students-mooc-concerns/404459/

By Hilary Appelman, Penn State

Graduate students traditionally teach the way they were taught. But more and more they are finding themselves teaching in online classrooms, where the old rules don’t necessarily apply. A new Graduate Student Online Teaching Certificate program is being offered to Penn State graduate students for the first time this fall with the goal of improving the quality of instruction online. Larry Boggess, director of online faculty development for Penn State World Campus, had hoped to attract 30 students to the course. So far, more than 350 have enrolled from across Penn State’s colleges and campuses.

http://news.psu.edu/story/367847/2015/09/02/academics/penn-state-launches-new-program-teach-grad-students-teach-online

by Mary Ellen McIntire, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Education-technology companies are hot these days. So are online programs by universities. Pennsylvania State University hopes to tap into both trends with a new effort to turn its campus into an innovation hub for ed-tech companies. The effort is called the EdTech Network, and officials hope it will spark entrepreneurship around the campus geared toward improving services for online students, said Craig D. Weidemann, the university’s vice provost for online education. That could help Penn State reach its 10-year goal of increasing enrollments in its online World Campus to 45,000 students.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/penn-state-starts-network-for-entrepreneurs-with-focus-on-online-learning/57321