Online Learning Update

by Liam Jackson, Penn State

A general education course at Penn State has been revamped to include interactive videos designed to teach students about conservation and sustainability. The course, Global Parks and Sustainability (GEOG 001), will be taught online in spring 2016 by Erica Smithwick, associate professor of geography in Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The course is designed to teach students about global trends and patterns in conservation management in different park environments, including national parks, provincial or state parks, and privately managed conservation areas. By traveling virtually to these park landscapes, students will have the chance to learn about key social and environmental processes affecting sustainability, including climate change, biodiversity and environmental policies, and how these factors pose challenges to local communities and the environment.

http://news.psu.edu/story/372878/2015/10/05/academics/interactive-videos-used-explore-complexities-conservation-online

by Ellen Wexler, Chronicle of Higher Ed

When refugees want to enter higher education, they often lack the paperwork. But in the past few months, some online universities have been reaching out to those students, telling refugees that they don’t have to provide comprehensive records to enroll and offering free tuition. The University of the People, an online degree program based in the United States, is one of those institutions. Founded in 2009, the university charges students a $100 examination fee for each course as well as a one-time application fee. Last month the university announced that it would admit 500 Syrian refugees, including those without official transcripts and documentation. The refugees will be able to study either business administration or computer science, and those who cannot afford the examination and application fees may apply for scholarships.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/can-online-education-help-refugees-earn-degrees/57456

by University of Michigan

The University of Michigan announced a partnership today with global nonprofit online learning destination edX, further expanding the university’s experimentation with digital learning and learning analytics. Under the name MichiganX, the university will launch at least 20 new courses on edX over the next two years that leaders from the Office of Digital Education and Innovation say will draw upon the breadth of U-M’s 101 academic programs ranked in the top 10 and align with strategic institutional priorities such as interdisciplinary collaborations, diversity and inclusion, access and affordability, and internationalization. Three of the first courses will focus on finance, learning analytics and data science ethics.

http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/23184-u-m-joins-edx-as-charter-member

BY KEVIN MANEY, Newsweek

A company called Udacity, partnering with Google, shows us that we’ve been focused on the wrong disruption. The big change won’t be the digitization of college—it will be the unbundling of the college degree into discrete, focused chunks, which Udacity calls nanodegrees. In other words, technology will assault the college degree, not the experience of college, and that will make all the difference. Technology tends to unbundle stuff. Look how it’s unbundling television, or how it unbundled the music album. The college degree is a bundle that doesn’t work for everybody and creates unnatural market conditions, which is why college costs consistently rise faster than inflation. The next generation will be able to pull apart the college bundle the way people today are pulling the plug on cable.

http://www.newsweek.com/college-nanodegrees-379542

by Anastasia Salter, Chronicle of Higher Ed

I’ve been chronicling my experiences this semester adapting my approach to teaching from my previous experience with small courses to a new challenge of large-scale classes, and particularly to the needs of a large online course. The most overwhelming aspect for me so far has been the challenge of grading and providing meaningful feedback. This is unsurprising, given grading has been one of our most debated subjects here at ProfHacker. Taking grading to new scales has definitely required me to rethink my teaching and methods.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/5-tips-for-handling-grading-in-large-online-classes/61131

By C. RAMSEY FAHS, Harvard Crimson

With the addition of Princeton to its list of partners, edX, the non-profit MOOC provider that Harvard and MIT founded in 2012, now has more Ivy League partners than its largest for-profit competitor, Coursera. Princeton’s decision, announced on Sept. 24, comes just three months after the University of Pennsylvania joined edX with the intention of publishing three courses on the virtual education platform. Both schools were among Coursera’s first four partner universities and will continue to publish courses on Coursera’s platform as well. With the creation of PrincetonX and PennX, edX now has six Ivy League partner’s to Coursera’s five. Princeton, Penn, and Columbia publish courses to both platforms. Today, Coursera lists over 133 total partner organizations on its website, while edX lists 82.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/10/2/edx-ivy-league-coursera/

by Eric Convey, Boston Business Journal

Facing significant enrollment challenges in two graduate programs, Curry College moved some MBA offerings to the Internet beginning this academic year and recently began to insist that masters of education students take part in what’s called a “cohort” system designed to encourage faster graduation. A spokeswoman for the Milton college said the changes are a response to shifts in student demand. She said the move also helps explain drops in traditional on-campus enrollment, as fewer students take occasional courses without clear plans for competing their programs.

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2015/09/30/curry-college-embraces-online-mba-amid-enrollment.html

by Aakash Chaudrhy, Business World

The introduction of digital education in rural India came with its own set of infrastructural issues. The erratic electricity supply and lack of access to educational facilities made the penetration of technology-based education tough. The incursion of cable television eventually changed the prevalent indolent way of thinking. The rural population is now welcoming the idea of using mobile devices and is equally comfortable in handling technology devices. Online learning or Live Virtual Classrooms (LVC) has paved the way for modern education in rural India. Moreover, the integration of technologies such as Cloud, Data Centers & Virtualization into the education industry is making information available to the students from far-flung areas in just one click.

http://www.businessworld.in/education-institutions/digital-learning-fosters-gen-y-rural-india

by Arizona State University

Arizona State University and Coursera announced Tuesday that they will offer open online professional-development courses targeted towards Hispanic audiences in Latin America and the U.S. that will help students succeed in the global economy. Through this partnership with Coursera, ASU becomes the first university in the United States to offer online courses tailored to the needs of Latin America and the Hispanic community. The announcement underscores why U.S News and World Report named ASU the most innovative school in the nation. “ASU continues to develop new ways to provide students a path to learning that fits their life balance,” said Mark Searle, interim provost at ASU. “Yesterday’s announcement also reflects our efforts to prepare students for an increasingly interconnected global economy.”

https://asunews.asu.edu/20150930-asu-coursera-spanish-courses

by Ryan Craig, Forbes

Two high-profile companies are pursuing a badge-based future: Coursera and Udacity. Both began their lives as providers of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). While some figured out quickly that there was no business model to support credential-less online learning, it took the companies a bit longer. Udacity pivoted first in 2013, announcing “Nanodegrees” developed in partnership with leading technology companies (“built by industry”). The thinking being that Google’s involvement in the Android Developer Nanodegree improves the curriculum; the Google brand doesn’t hurt either. Udacity has done the same with iOS (Apple), Tech Entrepreneur (Google) and its other programs (by a committee of leading technology lights). For its part, Coursera is betting on content and brands from top universities. Coursera launched its “Specializations” in 2014 and now offers 75 different programs, the vast majority from a single university.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancraig/2015/09/30/coursera-udacity-and-the-future-of-credentials/

by Matt ZalaznickUniversity Business

More institutions now offer digital badges as a form of micro-credential or “subdegree” to students who pass individual courses or certifications, and want to show potential employers what they’ve learned. Badges, which can be posted to LinkedIn profiles and in digital portfolios, link to detailed information about the course taken, skills taught and assessments passed. Today’s professionals are more likely than were previous generations to return to higher education—perhaps more than once, says David Schejbal, dean of continuing education at University of Wisconsin-Extension. “The vision is to create a structure of alternative credentials that students could acquire relatively quickly and inexpensively that will also be immediately useful from an employment perspective.”

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/digital-badges-hit-big-time-higher-ed

By Anna Burleson, Jamestown Sun

Distance learning and part-time enrollment continue to grow at the University of North Dakota, according to new figures from the university. Official enrollment data released this week showed 78 percent of students were attending classes on campus. Over the last five years, the percentage of all enrolled students who are taking courses solely on campus has decreased by 9 percent to 9,691 this year. The percentage of the student body enrolled solely in distance or online courses has increased from 16 percent in 2010 to 22 percent this year.

http://www.jamestownsun.com/news/state/3848725-distant-learning-grows-und

by Jed Lipinski, The Times-Picayune

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, most colleges in New Orleans provided few if any online courses. But the widespread displacement that followed the storm forced many local schools to find ways of allowing students to continue their education remotely. In the 10 years since the storm, online learning in higher education has gone from a fringe concept to one many New Orleans colleges and universities see as an integral part of their institution’s future.

http://www.nola.com/futureofneworleans/2015/09/new_orleans_universities_gradu.html

by Brian Rashid, Forbes

Fifteen million people have made a choice. They chose to learn and grow and expand and advance. They sat in their apartments in New York City or their flats in London or their huts in Colombia. They came to learn from the four corners of the world. They opened their computer screens or turned on their mobile devices. These 15 million people had two things in common. They used Coursera. Their lives improved. As of today, Coursera launched more than 100 new courses in Spanish from the some of the best Universities across Latin America. That is 10 times the amount of courses previously on the platform. They also have 60 courses that have been subtitled or fully translated in Spanish. A majority of these offerings are career-focused courses like business english, IOS development, data analytics, green marketing, and entrepreneurship. Oh, and the mobile app is now also available in Spanish, making it easier for its users to navigate.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2015/09/29/coursera-expands-to-latin-america-in-big-ways/

by Brooke Lennington, KSNT

In the small town of Clay Center, Kansas is a grandma, who is battling cancer and homework all at the same time. She does it all just to fulfill a promise before she dies. It started out as a bad cough five years ago. The x-rays revealed a spot: Stage 4 lung cancer. “They did a biopsy immediately and, by that Thursday, they took my right lung,” said Judy Renton, cancer survivor. Realizing her cancer diagnosis could leave her with little time, she went online and found her guardian angels, The Insight School of Kansas Adult School Learner program. “Everything is done online,” Leatha Hall, Judy’s school counselor said. “Classes are live so they open their computer, they login, they see a live class session.” She started taking her online classes, while at the same time getting chemotherapy at the Topeka Cancer Center. “I could spend those 6 hours in chemo to do my homework and even go to class,” Renton said.

http://wric.com/2015/09/26/kansas-grandma-cancer-survivor-goes-back-to-school-to-fulfill-promise-2/

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

The number of video game design programs has increased dramatically in recent years, responding to demand from students more than demand from employers. Many of these programs are at the community college level, giving students associate degrees to take into the job market. The problem is, there were only 6,000 jobs posted in video game design last year, according to Matt Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies. Out of those 6,000 jobs, 89% required a bachelor’s degree or higher, and fewer than 5% were open to candidates with no prior experience. Sometimes the jobs students are being prepared for in college degree programs don’t match the need in the economy.

by Kurt Eisele-Dyrli University Business

Fulfilling a connection need: Troy University’s Trojan Cafe (left) has had more than 19,000 users in the past year, and Northern Virginia Community College’s virtual student union (right), still in expansion mode, has had about 500 users so far. For all the advantages of online learning—flexibility, personalization and affordability among them—there can be downsides for some students. Traditional, on-campus students can take advantage of a wide variety of social and extracurricular opportunities, but online students may feel isolated and disconnected from their peers and from their college or university—and risk losing the engagement so crucial to student success. Linked below are reports from three higher ed institutions in various stages of addressing these issues via a virtual student union.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/keeping-remote-college-students-connected

By LORI GABLE, Rochester Business Journal

Rochester Institute of Technology is launching an online bachelor of science degree program, the university said Friday. The degree in applied technical leadership program is aimed at working professionals who have associate degrees in fields such as technology, public service, military and health. As part of RIT Online, all courses are taught online. The curriculum is multidisciplinary and draws on several RIT programs and colleges, officials said. The required upper-level core courses include applied leadership, human resource development, crisis intervention, environmental health and safety law, and service quality from the College of Applied Science and Technology; project management from the School of Individualized Studies; financial accounting from the Saunders College of Business; and public policy and technical communication from the College of Liberal Arts.

http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=219248

by MIT

Shigeru Miyagawa, professor of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT, has earned a reputation as a leading voice for the use of technology and digital innovation in education. Since the earliest days of the Web, he has worked to realize its potential as a tool for teaching and learning, and he was a member of the faculty committee that recommended the creation of MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) in 2001. He has continued to advocate for the open sharing of educational materials, for which he was honored with the 2012 President’s Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence. Most recently, “Visualizing Japan” — a massive open online course (MOOC) inspired by “Visualizing Cultures,” co-taught by Miyagawa, Dower, Harvard University historian Andrew Gordon, and Duke University art historian Gennifer Weisenfeld — has been nominated for the Japan Prize in Education Media. This is a prestigious international prize awarded to educational broadcast and digital media programs selected from around the world.

http://news.mit.edu/2015/visualizing-japan-mooc-nominated-for-japan-prize-0925

by Audrey Mullen, EdSurge

We asked San Jose high school sophomore Audrey Mullen to share how she and her peers actually use various edtech tools and how they really feel about their teachers’ blended learning approaches. The result is a straight-from-the-source playbook that no blend ed teacher–or entrepreneur–will want to skip. And don’t miss Audrey’s list of four “tools that save my life,” below.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-09-25-a-cat-is-not-a-dog-and-other-advice-for-blended-learning-teachers