Online Learning Update

April 30, 2016

Marketing could become the most expensive part of higher ed

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:06 am

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Colleges and universities are spending more money on recruitment to attract students in an increasingly competitive field, and Noodle Partners CEO John Katzman calls it an arms race in need of regulation. For Inside Higher Ed, Katzman writes that people are paying attention to the spending spree on campus amenities but not the runaway costs of student recruitment, which ultimately increases the cost of higher education without improving services for students. Katzman suggests a bill that would limit subsidized student loans to the actual cost of education or a new U.S. Department of Education regulation that would limit tuition sharing deals at schools whose marketing budgets get too high.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/marketing-could-become-the-most-expensive-part-of-higher-ed/417777/

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Supply is up in online ed but demand is down — now what?

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

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

Higher education marketing is more competitive now than it has ever been before, and it’s only getting worse. Some 70% of chief academic officers say online education is going to be a key pillar of their institution’s strategy moving forward, and demand for online education programs is growing at a slower rate than at any point in the last 20 years. In a conversation about the growth potential of online higher education and the marketing challenges presented by modern competition, Cornell University’s Ashley Budd highlighted the concerns of enrollment professionals who have been trying to get around the shrinking population of traditional college-goers for years. But online education is a dangerous place to look for salvation, given the trendline of demand. “That’s really a scary reality,” Helix’s Seth Odell said. “If you’re turning to online education to solve an enrollment problem, it’s going to be a really difficult problem to solve.” There are now 450 online MBA programs competing for students.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/supply-is-up-in-online-ed-but-demand-is-down-now-what/417722/

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EdTech: Business Mooc Maker Udacity Is Embracing Blended Campus/Online Learning

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

by Seb Murray, Business Because

Udacity’s announcement marks the latest innovation among Mooc makers, which are increasingly moving beyond free courses with high drop-out rates and into paid-for, professional education. Udacity’s “Nanodegrees” are monetized. Coursera, a rival, runs “Specializations”, and charges users for certificates, and enrolment, to some courses. Online students are uploading certificates of competition to job sites like LinkedIn. And employers, such as Google, Amazon, and Adobe, are hiring them. “As more online degree recipients enter the workplace, and employers learn that many can perform as well as those with traditional degrees, the momentum to be more accepting of such programs grows,” said Patrick Mullane, executive director of HBX, Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Educational leaders believe online learning is one way to close critical skills gaps, in areas such as data science and web development.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/3926/udacity-embraces-blended-campus-online-learning

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April 29, 2016

The Price Is Still Right: 15 Sites for Free Digital Textbooks

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

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

“Open” has gone mainstream. The world now celebrates Open Education Week. The U.S. Department of Education announced an “Open Education” or #GoOpen initiative and ran its first “@GoOpen Exchange” to get schools and educators committed to the use of open educational resources (OER). Students at Ithaca College, The College of William & Mary and Santa Barbara City College are all pushing their schools to adopt OER. Multiple colleges and universities are trying out no/low-cost OER degree programs. Amazon looks to be getting into the OER business with “Inspire.” And a bipartisan group of Congressional staffers recently held a briefing to learn from experts why they should care about OER. The demand for free learning content may be loud and clear now, but, back in 2013 when Campus Technology first surveyed the top sources for free digital textbooks, the OER world seemed a quieter, less tweeted place. What hasn’t changed, though, is that faculty and students still want to know where to go to find the goods.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/20/the-price-is-still-right-15-sites-for-free-digital-textbooks.aspx

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OER in Higher Ed: ‘Huge Awareness-Raising Effort Needed’

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

By David Raths, Campus Technology

When it comes to open educational resources (OER) adoption, is the glass half empty or half full? On the one hand, more than 1 billion works have been licensed using Creative Commons since the organization was founded 15 years ago, and in 2015 alone Creative Commons-licensed works were viewed online 136 billion times. Yet awareness of OER in higher education remains low. Approximately 75 percent of faculty respondents to a 2014 Babson Survey Research Group study didn’t know about or couldn’t accurately define OER or why it is important. Changing that situation is the mission of Cable Green, director of open education at Creative Commons and a leading advocate for open policies that ensure publicly funded education materials are freely and openly available to the public. “We still have a huge awareness-raising effort that needs to be done,” said Green. “We all need to teach other people about what this is and why it is important.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/21/oer-in-higher-ed-huge-awareness-raising-effort-needed.aspx

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Employers, insurers see promise in self-directed online therapy

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

By Christopher Snowbeck, Star Tribune

Employers and a large health insurer are considering a new way of reaching people with social anxiety and depression. Many who suffer from social anxiety, depression and other mental health problems won’t seek help from a therapist. However, they may find a sense of community in online discussion groups and “anxiety blogs,” said Dale Cook, the chief executive and co-founder of Learn to Live, a Minneapolis-based start-up. The company sells access to online courses for people struggling with mental health issues, and touts its strategies for engaging with sufferers. “They’re looking for online resources because they don’t want to tell anyone, or they don’t have time to go” for face-to-face therapy, Cook said in an interview. “We’re able to identify places where sufferers go to commiserate and suffer together and say: Have you found anything that works?”

http://www.startribune.com/employers-insurers-see-promise-in-self-directed-online-therapy/376658941/

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April 28, 2016

Don’t Dismiss Georgia Tech’s $6,600 Online Master’s Degree

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

BY WILLIAM FENTON, PC Magazine

I’m not about to let my ideological reservations foreclose my curiosity, especially given that so many Online Master of Science Computer Science students praise the program. A $6,600 master’s degree in computer science with a 55 percent acceptance rate and no GRE entrance exam? It’s a seductive proposition for an undergraduate, to be sure. Since the Georgia Institute of Technology announced its Online Master of Science Computer Science degree—OMS CS, for short—in May 2013, the program has elicited wonder, enthusiasm, and trepidation. When you consider the age of students, the OMS CS program is older (33-34 years old) and more educated (more than 700 applicants have advanced degrees and more than 120 hold Ph.D. or terminal degrees). In this sense, the Georgia Tech online master’s program is more in line with ventures such as General Assembly, which enable professionals to advance skills and training.

http://in.pcmag.com/coursera/102725/opinion/dont-dismiss-georgia-techs-6600-online-masters-deg

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ASU’s Global Freshman Academy Taps Adaptive Software for Math Students

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

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

Arizona State University’s online Global Freshman Academy (GFA) is rolling out adaptive software to help tens of thousands of students work through its College Algebra & Problem Solving course. The GFA program, delivered via massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX, will be the first to utilize McGraw-Hill Education’s ALEKS adaptive learning product in a MOOC format. “To date, more than 17,800 students from 186 countries have registered for the College Algebra & Problem Solving course using the ALEKS program, which will provide students with individualized learning and instruct them on the topics they are most ready to learn,” according to a press release from McGraw-Hill Education.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/18/asus-global-freshman-academy-taps-adaptive-software-for-math-students.aspx

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University of Colorado contemplates 3-year, fully online degree programs

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

BY SARAH KUTA, DAILY CAMERA

The University of Colorado is asking its faculty and staff to get creative and develop new, fully online degree programs to launch in the fall of 2018. The CU system is calling for online degree program proposals until July 15, with grants being awarded by Sept. 30. CU hopes to select three winning grant proposals and award each team $200,000 for course development. Faculty selected for the grant will receive a $15,000 stipend, with staff members receiving a $5,000 stipend to support the logistics of course development. Students must be able to complete the degree completely online and in three calendar years, though they won’t be required to work within that time frame.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/university-3-online/

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April 27, 2016

Udacity Debuts In China, Launches In-Person Group Tutoring

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

by Kathleen Chaykowski ,FORBES

After launching in India last year, Udacity has made its way to China. The Mountain View, Calif-based online education company, cofounded about four years ago by Google GOOGL -5.53% X founder and Stanford University research professor Sebastian Thrun, is opening offices in China and making more than 100 of its free online courses available to anyone in China under the domain name youdaxue.com, the company said this week. On Wednesday, the company also announced it is launching its first in-person, instructor-led study sessions for students in its “Nanodegree” programs, which cover topics from iOS and Android development to machine learning and require students to complete a series of projects.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2016/04/21/udacity-debuts-in-china-launches-in-person-group-tutoring/#586d9c9d4bd0

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More UK adults taking online courses

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

By Anthony Spadafora, Beta News

Adults in the UK are turning to online learning platforms in order to stay competitive in their fields and to learn new skills, despite their increasingly busy schedules. Coursera, which offers online courses from some of the top universities worldwide, has noticed that the number of new users registering for its educational platform has increased by 50 percent over the course of the past 12 months. In the UK, the company has over half a million users that are registered for a variety of courses. Coursera has noted that of those currently studying, 30 percent are using their smartphones to access their courses, which illustrates the flexibility of studying online.

http://betanews.com/2016/04/21/uk-online-courses

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Higher Ed in 2023

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am
by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed
Higher ed nerds throughout the land rejoiced last week at the release of The National Center’s for Education Statistics report Projections of Education Statistics to 2023. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2015073 Some stats from Josh’s summary:
Postsecondary Enrollment Growth Is Slowing:   Traditional Age Student Enrollment Is Slowing:   The Number of Older Students (25+) Is Growing:  By 2023, over 10.3 million students will be over 25. Part-Time Students Are Growing Faster Than Full-Time:  Between 2012 and 2023 the number of part-time students will increase by 18 percent, compared to only 14 percent for full-time. Graduate Enrollments Increasing Faster Than Undergraduate:  The number of students enrolled in graduate programs will increase by 25 percent between 2012 and 2023, compared to an increase of 14 percent for undergraduates.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/higher-ed-2023

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April 26, 2016

Berkeley chancellor, Stanford president kick off online-learning summit

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

By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley

Online courses may not have overwhelmed undergraduate education in a disruptive “tsunami,” as once predicted. But teaching and learning technology is “going to change the landscape of everything we do,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks told an audience at Stanford University on Friday. Dirks made that prediction in conversation with Stanford president John Hennessy, kicking off the fourth annual “learning summit,” held this year on the Stanford campus. “We’ve seen that online resources can be very important,” Dirks said. “But at the same time they don’t substitute for being there” – for personal contact with faculty or the sense of community that residential undergraduate institutions provide. So far, he added, MOOCs have been “most spectacularly successful for students who have graduated.” Hennessy concurred, observing that massive open online courses (MOOCs) have gotten their greatest traction among professionals already working in their field.

https://news.berkeley.edu/2016/04/18/berkeley-chancellor-stanford-president-kick-off-online-learning-summit/

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Is demand high enough for CBE expansion?

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

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

University Ventures Managing Director Ryan Craig and eLumen CEO Joel Hernandez write for TechCrunch that the rise of CBE programs, which have thus far inspired minimal demand from students, may be like smartphones that needed apps to take off after the iOS and Android operating systems were already created. CBE programs’ “clickable credentials” will create unprecedented access for employers and graduate school admissions officers to see the actual skills of graduates, the programs will prove the value-added element of college that is now somewhat obscure, and career services departments may be able to develop ways to market their students to prospective employers by specific, proven skillsets. Craig and Hernandez add CBE programs will greatly help the problem of remediation, with tailored curricula designed to teach students chosen competencies as well as supporting skills through remedial content.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/is-demand-high-enough-for-cbe-expansion/417685/

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Investigating IPEDS Distance Education Data Reporting: Progress Has Been Made

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

by WCET

WCET conducted analysis on the Department of Education’s IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) data since the initial release of distance education data for the Fall, 2012. Most recently, we produced a comprehensive report, WCET Distance Education Enrollment Report 2016, that analyzes trends in the distance education data reported between 2012 and 2014. With three years of IPEDS data now available for distance education, it seemed like a good time to revisit the challenges of early distance education data reporting. We wanted to see if the challenges of accurately reporting distance education enrollments for the colleges we investigated in 2014 persisted. Observing institutions’ IPEDS data reporting since 2012 suggests that they are gaining the experience and improving their systems and reporting processes to ensure that the data is an accurate reflection of distance education at their institutions.

https://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/investigating-ipeds-distance-education-data-reporting-progress-has-been-made/

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April 25, 2016

Sebastian Thrun Steps Down As Udacity’s CEO

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

by Leena Rao, Fortune

Udacity’s founder Sebastian Thrun is stepping down as chief executive officer, the company announced on Friday. Vishal Makhijani, the company’s chief operating officer, will be Udacity’s new CEO. Thrun, who will remain as president and chairman of Udacity, said that he will continue to work full-time at Udacity, but he will take on a role focused on what he is passionate about—innovation. Thrun added that he has taken inspiration from his former employer when restructuring his role at Udacity. “While at Google, I was impressed with the way Larry and Sergey organized Google. Eric [Schmidt] was the CEO, but Larry and Sergey enjoyed the freedom of focusing on innovating within the company,” he said.

http://fortune.com/2016/04/22/sebastian-thrun-udacity/

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Higher Ed Needs Major Disruption

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:06 am

By Froma Harrop, Real Clear Politics

Happily, there exists an alternative to four bankrupting years on campus. There’s almost no learning, be it liberal arts or STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), that can’t be had free — or close to it — online. MOOCs (massive open online courses) are perfectly suited to disrupt the campus model. As suggested above, expense isn’t the only thing powering this revolution. It’s the sense that the people running the universities have lost their minds. Either that or they’ll say almost anything to get protesting students off their backs. (In doing so, they’re also softly egging the students on to say absurd things that could haunt them when prospective employers Google their names.)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/04/19/higher_ed_needs_major_disruption_130318.html

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Udacity Brings Its Nanodegree Programs to China

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

by Leena Rao, Fortune

Similar to the Indian expansion, Udacity has localized many of its most popular nanodegree certifications to China, including courses in iOS, Android, and machine learning development. Udacity has a local team in China that is providing in-person reviews and coaching in Mandarin. Udacity said it is working with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, and ride-sharing company Didi Kuadi to build customized courses for students. Udacity previously partnered with Google to create coursework targeted at Indian students.

http://fortune.com/2016/04/18/udacity-expands-to-china/

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April 24, 2016

IBM, Coursera Team Up on IoT Developer Course

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

By Darryl K. Taft. eWeek

IBM and Coursera next month will begin teaching a new online course for developers to learn how to create applications for the Internet of things. Starting next month, Coursera, the education platform that forms partnerships with top universities and organizations worldwide to offer courses online, is teaming up with IBM to develop an online course to teach programming for the Internet of things (IoT). The new course, “A developer’s guide to the Internet of Things (IoT),” is aimed at providing instruction on how to build IoT applications and will cost $79. Although it is an entry-level course, the assignments use both the Python and JavaScript programming languages, so basic skills in these languages are required.

http://www.eweek.com/developer/ibm-coursera-team-up-on-iot-developer-course.html

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Online degrees could make universities redundant, historian warns

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

by Richard Adams, the Guardian

Oxford, along with all other universities, faces an “uncomfortable future” unless it embraces online degrees and draws up plans for raising billions of pounds to go private, according to the university’s new official history. The book, to be launched by Oxford University Press this week, says new technology has the potential to make universities such as Oxford “redundant” and that it is “only a matter of time” before virtual learning transforms higher education. Laurence Brockliss, the historian and author, argues that Oxford itself should offer undergraduate degrees via online learning, and in doing so could solve the controversies it faces over student access. “I would like Oxford to pilot something, and say we are going to offer 1,000 18-year-olds online courses in different subjects, to experiment and see how it works and how it can be improved,” Brockliss said.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/apr/17/oxford-university-online-degree-historian-laurence-brockliss

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UNL should make course syllabi public

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

The opinion of Kayla Simon, Daily Nebraskan

When you’re standing in the ocean and a wave begins to descend upon you, you have two choices. You can churn the water trying to get away or you can ride it back to shore. The advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has started a trend — one that spells disaster for some universities. If students can access information, videos and even accreditation without paying for it, they very well may. To compete, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln needs to adapt. Instead of fighting the riptide of the information age, UNL should expand its horizons and appreciate the broader education these measures can offer. UNL can prove its worth compared to MOOCs by making all course syllabi public information.

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/simon-unl-should-make-course-syllabi-public/article_a68b0ef0-050f-11e6-9548-afe697c502c4.html

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