Online Learning Update

by the Setonian

For students with busy schedules and internships, online classes offered at Seton Hall for the fall 2016 semester are a convenient option. More than 700 undergraduate students are enrolled in online classes this semester, according to Mary Ellen Farrell from the University Registrar. The wide range of online classes that Seton Hall offers are an “advantage for self-motivating students,” according to Monica Rice, a professor in the department of catholic studies. Rice said that online classes are a, “good setting” for “mature and motivated students.”

http://www.thesetonian.com/2016/04/06/discipline-makes-the-difference-in-online-class-preference/

BY WILLIAM FENTON, PC Magazine

While I will focus my attention on the report’s four main recommendations, I recommend the background section to those interested in educational theory and the state of online education. The authors provide some of the sharpest synopses I have encountered, anchoring buzzwords such as “flipped classrooms,” “active learning,” and “student-centric education” to educational history and theory. Those interested in that research would do well to peruse the notes, which includes direct links to scholarship.

http://www.pcmag.com/commentary/343501/mit-just-released-an-online-learning-report-worth-reading

by Trefis Team, Forbes

LinkedIn now appears to be working on several initiatives to accelerate the revenue generation from this platform. The company recently announced that Linda.com is introducing ‘Learning Paths’ for its subscribers to help them stay ahead in their current jobs or acquire the necessary knowledge and skills if they are looking to make a career pivot. The step by step structured courses in ‘Learning Paths’ include several skills such as Web Development, Digital Marketing and 50 other such programs. We believe this initiative, which is currently targeted towards individual professionals, can also be expanded at an enterprise level, thus boosting LinkedIn’s revenues from this segment.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/04/05/can-learning-paths-boost-linkedins-education-revenues/#409dd97173cd

by AACSB

This is a vision for a future where business schools are drivers of change. Where business schools change the narrative about the role of business education, and of business, in society. Where business schools respond to the world’s demands to be more inventive. More daring. More connected. More agile. And even more impactful. This is a vision that challenges business schools to examine their relationship to society, to the business community, and to the higher education landscape. It will mean thinking, organizing, and acting in ways that have thus far been unusual or underdeveloped. It will mean incorporating new models and strategies and devoting renewed attention to economic, environmental, and personal well-being for all populations around the world.

http://www.aacsb.edu/~/media/ManagementEducation/docs/collective-vision-for-business-education.ashx

by Marguerite Ward, CNBC

If you ever wanted an Ivy League education on your resume without the Ivy League sticker price, there are a few ways to do it. But are these classes really worth the effort? The answer is yes … with some caveats. In recent years, free and open online classes from colleges like Harvard and Yale have taken off as Ivy League schools seek to make some of their courses more accessible. Experts say these courses are starting to gain traction in the job market. Completing a massive open online course (MOOC) or certificate shows an employer that a job candidate is motivated and curious — and that could potentially set them apart from other applicants, career experts said. But it won’t necessarily land you a new job.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/05/how-to-get-a-free-ivy-educationand-boost-your-career.html

by Wake Tech Community College

Wake Tech students, faculty, and staff now have a new way to communicate – in fact, they have more than 220 new ways! The college, in collaboration with its Campus Police department and English as a Second Language (ESL) program, has launched a language translation phone line to serve all those for whom English is not a native language. The phone line, dubbed “Translating to Success,” will provide rapid access to interpreters in more than 220 languages, to help communicate official business to the college community. Wake Tech is the only community college or university in North Carolina to have the translation phone line system. [is there potential for this to be done online?]

http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/wake-tech-launches-language-translation-phone-line

by SHANNON WILLIAMS, IT Brief

ALISON founder Mike Feerick says global inequality and the skills gap is one of the biggest challenges facing governments, and free online education is one of the most powerful modern tools available to address it. However, he says governments and advisors are looking in the wrong places for answers, and asking the wrong people for solutions. “We have been stopping people from educating themselves, and stopping those who can teach from having a wider impact,” Feerick explains. Speaking at SXSW in Texas, Feerick says there are three policies that governments could implement to radically propel online learning for all societies. “Firstly, governments could mandate that free online informal learning becomes an integral part of any hiring decisions across public and semi-state recruitment,” he says. “It would comprehensively deliver the message that free online lifelong learning is important, relevant and valued.”

https://itbrief.co.nz/story/govt-needs-look-online-learning-skills-shortage-says-expert/

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reforms The Final Report from MIT’s Open Education Policy Initiative. “…learning-science-based online education (including the blended model) is disrupting the existing higher education teaching paradigm.” Recommendation 4: Foster Institutional and Organizational Change in Higher Education to Implement These Reforms What do you make of this recommendation? The MIT report argues that like other legacy sectors, higher education is due for disruption. This higher ed disruption will come from a combination of learning science, new (scalable) online learning technologies, and an altered set of economic and political arrangements (such as competency based learning and government / employer supported alternative credentialing). Disrupting the power / position of legacy higher education institutions, according to the MIT report, will not be easy.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/online-education-catalyst-organizational-change

BY TANYA ROSCORLA, Center for Digital Education

Higher education leaders are pondering how to make bite-sized, low-cost learning opportunities available to students in different ways. Working adults who change jobs and careers frequently often don’t need to go through an entire degree program to learn different skills. However, they do need a flexible way to earn credentials that are recognized by employers and that demonstrate their ability to apply the skills they learn, said David Schejbal, dean of continuing education, outreach and e-learning at University of Wisconsin-Extension. University micro-credentials can help fill that role. Six universities have been working with employers to find out what skills they need their employees to have, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California Davis Extension, University of California Irvine Extension, University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Washington and University of California, Los Angeles.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/higher-ed/Micro-Credentials-Offer-Universities-an-Opportunity-to-Bridge-Skill-Gaps.html

By JEFF DEGRAFF, Michigan Public Radio

Instead of being the vehicle to join the middle class that it once was, higher education is now an obstacle that actually prevents access to knowledge and reinforces existing privilege. This was the powerful message of a compelling Economist cover story last year titled America’s New Aristocracy. The essay argues that college in the U.S. needs to change. Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), including TED, Coursera, and edX, reproduce tired models of teaching by featuring talking heads delivering lectures. Methods like those used by the Khan Academy represent a radical change in the way we imagine the classroom. In this model, students receive the primary course material to read through and learn before coming to class. This way, during actual class time, the instructor can work with the students in applying the shared concepts to real situations. This flipped-classroom approach is essentially applied liberal arts: the high-mindedness of trivium and quadrivium meets the practicality of John Dewey.

http://michiganradio.org/post/its-time-rethink-liberal-arts-education-michigan#stream/0

by Christy K. Turner, Edutopia

YouTube videos are a popular way for audiences to quickly search then learn how to use a product or information about a topic. It is a perfect place to store your clips for a flipped classroom. More than a billion internet users access YouTube on a daily basis (Luscombe, 2015). For anyone wanting a cheap effective way to get video information to a targeted audience, YouTube is simplest most cost effective mode of delivery. With flipped classrooms becoming more popular, teachers are wanting to create their own videos as well. The costliest part of videos is the equipment to film and edit them. However, by knowing a few tricks and where to get low cost tools, creative videos can be made on a miniscule budget.

http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/low-budget-high-quality-videos-flipped-classroom

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Rift has arrived. Oculus announced in a blog that it had begun shipping its virtual reality (VR) headset first to those who invested in its idea through Kickstarter. Next, pre-ordered Rifts will ship out, starting “mid-week.” Everybody else will have to hold on until July. That’s when the $599 units are expected to be available through the Oculus shop online. Or customers can choose a bundle that includes the headset and a gaming-caliber PC (most sans monitor) from Microsoft and Best Buy. A few hustlers have also listed their Rifts for sale through Amazon for prices ranging from $1,200 up.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/03/28/oculus-rift-begins-shipping.aspx

by George Otte, Matthew Goldstein… Ray Schroeder, Vickie Cook, et al.

President of APLU, Peter McPherson, writes: “This book about change and reform is written by people who have spent their lives in higher education. Their concerns and proposals come from their deep commitment to our purposes and should be taken seriously by other serious people.” With chapters by the editors and Schroeder/Cook; Cathy Davidson; Candace Thille; James Hilton; Jonathan Cole; and Michael Zavelle, this book looks closely at the forces at play in higher education and the points to paths of positive change.  William Kirwan, Chancellor Emeritus of the University System of Maryland writes “In eight insightful essays and with uncommon wisdom, this anthology addresses major issues confounding American higher education leaders today. From university governance in a time of dramatic change to the challenges and uncertainties of technology-based “disruptions,” the authors provide a thoughtful and hopeful roadmap to the future. It is a ‘must read’ for all who care about the well being of our nation’s colleges and universities.”  [disclosure note: as indicated, I am a co-author].

http://www.amazon.com/Change-We-Must-Deciding-Education/dp/0795348045/

By Jennifer Kimrey, Chron

Students with difficult schedules or other circumstances have the option to pursue education online. Online classes and degrees provide the same quality instruction as in-person programs. “Online classes benefit students who work full time and cannot go to a campus during work hours, parents with small children at home or those who are a caregiver for another family member, have problems getting to a campus, just don’t want to go to a campus, like the flexibility of setting their own hours or may be shy in a physical classroom and wish to have their voice ‘heard’ online,” said Lorah Gough, director of Houston Community College Online. Those enrolled in online courses and degree programs often will find that goals and outcomes, class format and semester schedules are nearly identical to physical classes.

http://www.chron.com/jobs/article/Online-learning-options-meet-students-needs-7225585.php

BY MERIS STANSBURY, eCampus News

It’s a debate that’s spreading across the country: should colleges and universities have standardized assessments to measure student performance metrics? The Obama administration says yes, while most campus faculty and students say no. What should be done? According to Fredrik deBoer, a scholar and lecturer at Purdue University, it’s only a matter of time before institutions are forced to assess student performance in a standardized way, so they might as well get ahead of the curve in order to retain control of those assessments. “Every conversation that’s taking place about higher education today ultimately ends up around assessments,” said Kevin Carey, New America’s education policy program director. “Whenever there’s talk about price, value, outcomes, accreditation, innovation implementation, et cetera, it always comes down to proving student learning somehow. And weirdly enough, there’s very little solid research on student learning at the individual student- and department-level.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/colleges-standardized-assessments/

by SCMP

“Worldwide, OERs and MOOCs are being offered free of charge, as a philanthropic and altruistic movement, and as a testing ground for offering effective learning online,” says Dr Yuen Kin-sun, director of the Educational Technology and Publishing Unit at The Open University of Hong Kong. “We’re still at an early, rather anarchic stage, where many courses carry no or only a nominal cost, and are frequently delivered by leaders in their field.” According to MOOC aggregator Class Central, there are now about 4,200 MOOCs offered by more than 500 universities around the world, with the number of students who signed up for at least one course hitting more than 35 million in 2015, roughly twice as many as in 2014.

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1932278/massive-open-online-courses-are-getting-bigger-hong-kong-universities

by AMIT KARP,Venture Beat

Artificial intelligence* is developing much faster than we thought. Just last month, Google’s DeepMind AI beat Lee Sedol, a legendary Go player, at his own game in a defining moment for the industry. What enabled this win is a relatively new AI technique called deep learning, which is transforming AI. Until deep learning was introduced, even the best AI systems were always highly tuned for specific problems and required many rules to operate successfully. But deep learning has changed that, causing many researchers to abandon classical AI approaches. Deep learning relies on simulating large, multilayered webs of virtual neurons, which enable a computer to learn to recognize abstract patterns (somewhat similar to the way a human brain operates). It can be used to solve any general-purpose pattern-recognition problem, which means that any activity that has access to large amounts of data can find it useful.

http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/02/deep-learning-will-be-huge-and-heres-who-will-dominate-it/

BY OSCAR LOPEZ, Mashable

Modeled on the Oxbridge tutorial system, SyriaScholar gives small groups of students direct one-on-one interaction with tutors. The brothers used available, open-source software to build the website, which includes a platform for video-conferencing, allowing them to run the two-way tutorials online as well as upload powerpoint presentations that the students can follow during the tutorials. The lessons are also recorded. Currently, they are working with students from Al-Andalus University for Medical Sciences in the city of Qadmus, as well as Tishreen University in Latakia, and they’re hoping to expand the program to Damascus University. The tutorial sessions, given in English, provide students like Ahmad with a level of practical, personalised teaching that their own universities simply could not provide right now. “The information from lectures we have had from SyriaScholar, like how to read an [electrocardiogram] or chest X-rays, gave us knowledge that was missed out by our lecturers here,” he said.

http://mashable.com/2016/04/03/syria-scholar-doctors-website/#p4P0LHCIZ8qt

by the Kresge Foundation

Earning a college degree or credential, now more than ever, is essential to achieving a stable, middle-class life and upward mobility. But just 1 in 10 students from low-income families will earn a bachelor’s degree by age 25, compared with more than 7 in 10 people from higher income families. With so many low-income students attending postsecondary institutions in urban areas, the Education Program at The Kresge Foundation has focused on a solution – improving the urban higher education ecosystem. This ecosystem includes colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, employers, K-12 school districts and government agencies, as well as systems such as housing, transportation, food, financial aid, and childcare.

http://kresge.org/news/infographic-urban-higher-education-ecosystem-solution

By Bradley Fuster, US News

Everyone remembers the students in grade school who sat in the front, raised their hands to give every answer, endlessly complimented the teacher, grabbed attention at every opportunity and frustrated the entire class. Socially intelligent students eventually learn how to be a star pupil without resorting to such disruptive behavior. The ideal balance of admiration for the teacher and need to impress is tricky to establish in a live learning environment. In an online class, without the ability to process nonverbal cues and a lag time in most dialogue, establishing healthy patterns of communication with professors is even more complex. Below are four common do’s and don’t’s for online learners to establish and maintain a healthy interpersonal relationship with their professors.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2016-04-01/explore-the-dos-donts-of-interacting-with-online-course-instructors

by Casey Bennett, Libertarian Republic

Of course, when women talk about targeted online harassment, we aren’t denying it happens to men. No, when women talk about this type of harassment, we’re talking about the 26% of young women aged 18-24 who have been stalked online, compared to 7% of young men in the same age group. We’re talking about the 25% of women who have experienced sexual harassment, compared to 13% of men, and, while it’s close, the 18% who have experienced sustained harassment, compared to 16% of men. We’re talking about gender-specific harassment, to which women are subjected more often. Several solutions have been floated as a means of combating targeted online harassment, of course, from the creation of women-only social media websites and additional reporting measures to banning IP addresses as a means of preventing specific users from registering new accounts, but these “solutions” are merely band-aids. They do nothing to address the underlying problem that some men feel it’s their duty to put a woman in her place.

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/putting-her-in-her-place-how-men-engage-in-targeted-harassment-online/