Online Learning Update

by William J. Lowe, Chicago Tribune

Earlier this year, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education released an alarming figure. More than 750,000 Indiana residents, or about 22 percent of the state’s working-age adults, have attended some college, but, due to various circumstances, quit before completing their degrees. The value of a degree has never been greater or more attainable, thanks to advances in technology. There is no better time than now to support your family, and your dreams, by investing in a college degree. One way to do so is through online learning, which provides all students the convenience that fits their busy, highly complex lives.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-lowe-oped-st-0403-20160401-story.html

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

A new book by Jon McGee, vice president for planning and public affairs at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota, says higher education leaders need to step back from the demands of the present to plan for the future. University Business reports “Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education” lays out three areas of change — demographic, economic and cultural — that will fundamentally shift the way colleges and universities have to operate to remain competitive. The demographic changes can be obvious years in advance by tracking the younger generation, and while the timing of a recession is hard to predict, the economy is cyclical, giving higher ed leaders clues that can help institutions prepare.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/is-higher-ed-too-preoccupied-with-the-present-to-plan-for-the-future/416531/

BY LAURA DEVANEY, eCampus News

With more and more students opting not to purchase textbooks for class, Illinois College had to find a solution In the face of mounting textbook costs that forced many students to attend classes without critical course reading material, one college adopted a new model to ensure students were getting the maximum benefit out of their classes. Illinois College officials knew that too many students came to class without purchasing the required course textbooks. Sometimes, as many as 50 percent of students did not have a textbook for class. The college rolled textbook costs into tuition the same way costs associated with athletic fields, libraries, and classroom equipment are rolled into tuition. “We had quite a bit of student pushback when we first announced this, but when we rolled it out last fall, all complaints went away,” she said. In fact, college leadership was quick to hold town hall meetings to address students’ concerns and questions about the new model.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/campus-administration/school-textbook-dilemma/

by eCampus News

UMassOnline, the University of Massachusetts’ online consortium, has announced the first non-credit badge program, in Project Risk Management, offered through the College of Advancing and Professional Studies (CAPS) at UMass Boston. University representatives say this is one of the first programs of its kind offered by a public higher education institution in Massachusetts. The Project Risk Management badge is a self-paced online sequence of modules that covers the six steps of project risk management as prescribed by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). These six steps consist of risk management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, risk response planning, and risk control.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/online-learning/digital-badges-online-learning/umassonline-badge-program/

by Jessica Fujimori, MIT News

New report draws on diverse fields to reflect on digital learning. Titled “Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reform,” the report presents four overarching recommendations, stressing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, integration between online and traditional learning, a skilled workforce specializing in digital learning design, and high-level institutional and organizational change. “We hope that this work will help to give our point of view on how university professors, policy makers, and government officials can think about technology and online education in the context of education at large,” says Sarma, who is the Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. The analysis covers — among other forms of digital learning — Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) such as those on edX, which provide free courses to millions of people around the world.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/mit-releases-online-education-policy-initiative-report-0401

By: Katelyn Hilsenbeck, UI Argonaut

Taking online classes requires a different type of dedication. Often syllabi are received on the first day and little to no reminders for assignments are sent after. In order to be successful, writing down deadlines and working ahead of time is a must. Online classes come in a wide variety of shapes and forms. A common format is busy work quizzes and discussion posts. Most students can probably agree that commenting on multiple classmates’ posts provides little benefit to the learning experience. However, with proper formatting, online classes can be worthwhile. I took a series of literature classes online at my previous school where I felt I digested the material well. It consisted of a discussion post and an essay each week.

https://www.uiargonaut.com/2016/03/31/benefits-of-the-digital-age-online-classes-are-worthwhile-if-formatted-well/

By Jordan Friedman, US News

While the meaning of the term can vary​, “big data” usually refers to data sets that are too large and complex to be processed by traditional types of software. As technology advances and more and more data ​are collected and used each day to drive business decisions and strategies, there’s an increasing demand for employees who are educated in this area, says Daphne Koller, president and co-founder of Coursera, a major provider of massive open online courses, or MOOCs. “What you do with all of that data, how you make use of it, is an opportunity that everyone is excited about,” says Koller, “but yet there’s not nearly enough qualified people to actually live up to that promise right now.” With this growing demand for talent, the U.S. alone by 2018 could see a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 workers with “deep analytical skills,” according to a 2011 report by the McKinsey Global Institute.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2016-04-01/study-big-data-through-online-learning

by ASU Now

An online series of classes offered by Arizona State University has the highest combined learner rating and course completion rate for any class available on the Coursera platform. The “Teach English Now!” specialization, produced by ASU’s Global Launch, received Coursera’s inaugural Learners First award in recognition of the accomplishment. The “Teach English Now!” specialization boasts a completion rate of 20 percent, higher than the 9 percent average reported by Cousera for other massive online open courses on its platform. The specialization boasts 32,000 active learners amongst 67,000 enrolled in the course.

https://asunow.asu.edu/20160330-asu-recognized-creating-most-engaging-online-content-coursera

By MARELLA A. GAYLA, Harvard Crimson

EdX, a virtual education platform co-founded by Harvard and MIT, recently launched a financial aid program, allowing financially disadvantaged students to receive a 90-percent discount on verified course certificates. While it is free to enroll in courses, users are required to pay fees that range from $50 to $100 in order to earn a verified certificate from an institution upon completing a course. Until last December, edX students had the option of earning a free “honor code certificate” for courses they audited, but the company discontinued that option.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/3/31/edx-inaugurates-financial-aid/

By Tara García Mathewson, Education Dive

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will soon offer a master’s degree in data science through Coursera, opening its curriculum to students who are interested in the full master’s as well as individual or groups of courses. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports the “stackable” nature of the degree, in which students can take a few courses, get a certificate, and later apply those courses toward a full master’s program, is expected to become increasingly popular among institutions looking to create more flexible and affordable programs for students. MIT is piloting its own stackable credential in supply chain management by offering the first half of the master’s program through edX, and edX CEO Anant Agarwal says more institutions are planning to debut similar program models through the MOOC platform in the coming year.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/stackable-degrees-gaining-prominence-as-entry-points-to-grad-school/416612/

by Ellen Murphy, Huffington Post

Despite the growing number of virtual students, many academics still believe outcomes for online education are inferior to those of face-to-face instruction, according to Babson Survey Research Group’s most recent annual report, Online Report Card – Tracking Online Education in the United States. In my experience, the opposite is true. Many who doubt the effectiveness of virtual classrooms have not been exposed to thoughtfully designed, rigorous courses that use technology purposefully to engage students and achieve better learning outcomes. Following are some of the most common misconceptions about online learning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-murphy/dispelling-myths-about-on_b_9577850.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

In spite of seemingly unlimited sources of reusable multimedia content available online, digital literacy is still a struggle in higher education. A recent survey found that while 45 percent of students consider themselves as “highly digitally literate,” only 14 percent of faculty would agree. Conversely, 49 percent of faculty say they’re quite digitally literate, but only 23 percent of their students agree. Maybe both groups need more practice with multimedia. Nearly a third (31 percent) of faculty have assigned three or fewer projects to students that required them to create or include multimedia.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/23/faculty-students-disagree-on-digital-content-usage-savvy.aspx

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

University of California, Irvine is launching a new e-sports initiative this fall, which it’s describing as “the first of its kind at a public research university.” As part of the initiative, UCI is constructing a 3,500-square-foot gaming arena with 80 high-end gaming PCs from iBuyPower “loaded with popular gaming titles” and a webcasting studio that will live stream gaming events, such as multiplayer competitions. UCI will also be offering up to 10 academic scholarships to students who make UCI’s eSports team, supported in part by iBuyPower. “UCI eSports will be built on four pillars: competition, academics, entertainment and community,” said Thomas Parham, vice chancellor for student affairs, in a prepared statement.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/03/30/uc-irvine-offering-scholarships-for-gamers-building-gaming-arena-and-webcasting-studio.aspx

By Marguerite McNeal, EdSurge

Good listener. People person. Lifelong learner. Sound like you? No, we’re not trying to arrange a first date. These are some common traits of people with successful careers in a booming job market: instructional design. Colleges, K-12 schools and companies increasingly turn to instructional designers to help them improve the quality of teaching in in-person, online or blended-learning environments. Once-lonely techies who helped faculty figure out Blackboard and dwelled in university IT departments, IDs now are growing in number and gaining celebrity status at their institutions. Arizona State University employs roughly 40 of them, and the role ranks among The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top Trends of 2016.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-03-29-so-you-want-to-be-an-instructional-designer

by Diane Ting, Parent Herald

Distance education is becoming increasingly popular in many campuses across the country as an unconventional means of education. As students live more mobile and unpredictable lives, deciding to spend a semester on campus has become challenging. To define distance education according to California Distance Learning Project, it is an alternative means of high-quality education and training for students who cannot take conventional educational programs on a campus. Distance learning is an instruction delivery system that connects learners with education resources and access not enrolled in educational institutions, as defined by the. Not to be confused with open learning, flexible learning and online learning, distance learning is less a philosophy and more of a method of education. Students study on their own times at their preferred place without the need for face-to-face contact with a teacher, Fay Observer said.

by Inside Higher Ed

Americans with higher levels of education and income are more likely to take advantage of lifelong learning opportunities such as reading a magazine, attending a conference or enrolling in an online course, a new Pew Research Center study found. The findings highlight the challenges ahead for online education initiatives that target disadvantaged students. Despite all the hype about massive open online courses, for example, only 18 percent of the survey respondents said they were very or somewhat familiar with Coursera, edX and other MOOC providers. About two-thirds of respondents said they were unfamiliar with MOOCs, online learning provider Khan Academy or digital badges, while nearly half (49 percent) were not familiar with distance learning in general.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/03/30/study-education-income-and-lifelong-learning

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

At my school, these folks go by the title of instructional designer. At some places they are called learning designers.

According to the MIT report, a learning engineer:

“…. is a creative professional who helps build bridges between fields of education and develops additional infrastructure to help teachers teach and students learn”.

“….must integrate their knowledge of a discipline with broad understanding of advanced principles from across the fields of education”.

“…must be familiar with state-of-the-art educational technologies, from commercial software to open-source tools, and skilled in the effective use of new online tools.”

“…must be able to work with educators, both to create new learning experiences from scratch and to integrate new technologies and approaches into existing experiences, whether online or in-person or both.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/should-instructional-designers-be-called-%E2%80%98learning-engineers%E2%80%99

by Women’s Agenda

Distance learning and online education will play a big part in breaking the male breadwinner model in regional areas. “It’s almost like a vicious cycle – you need to get those skillsets up in order to command higher wages, afford childcare and return to the workforce. If you don’t have good public transport to take you between TAFEs and universities it’s not possible,” she says. “Therefore in regional areas distance education facilitates a lot of women to be able to get their skills up to date and return to work.” Charles Sturt University is also placing a big focus on regional entrepreneurship to help women develop better entrepreneurial skills, encouraging women to apply what they are learning through workplace learning experiences or assessment tasks that relate directly to their industry. “This is another way in which a lot of regional women can overcome these barriers to the labour market – by setting up their own business,” says Dr Bamberry.

http://www.womensagenda.com.au/partner-content/item/6890-online-learning-key-to-breaking-male-breadwinner-model

By Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

The toughest nut to crack for competency-based education appears to be bachelor’s degrees aimed at traditional-age students. But that’s what Purdue University is doing with a newly approved bachelor’s in transdisciplinary studies in technology. And the customizable, competency-based degree from the new Purdue Polytechnic Institute combines technical disciplines with the humanities. Purdue’s personalized, interdisciplinary approach is a promising one, said Charla Long, executive director of the Competency-Based Education Network, a relatively new group of colleges and universities. “Competencies can be developed outside your discipline,” she said, “and be as relevant to your discipline.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/03/30/purdue-u-gets-competency-based-education-new-bachelors-degree

By DAN GALLAGHER, Wall Street Journal

Augmented-reality devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens are still a work in progress, but they may bear more fruit for investors. Augmented-reality technology mixes the real world with objects that aren’t really there. Investors contemplating the “next big thing” in tech should appreciate the irony in this. At the moment, virtual, not augmented, reality has the spotlight. VR made a splash this year thanks to the technology’s early focus on videogames. Augmented reality, on the other hand, will have to wait. While some companies sell specialized, expensive smartglasses for businesses, major efforts remain shrouded. Microsoft, which holds a developers conference this week, plans to get its HoloLens device to developers later this year. A market launch is a way off. Google’s on-again, off-again smartglasses project is apparently back on again, though details aren’t known.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/virtual-reality-is-cool-this-may-be-bigger-1459099968

by Richard Culatta, EDUCAUSE Review

When we translate between one language and another, a lack of precision is obvious and often comical. But our lack of precision around the language we use to describe innovation in education is less obvious, and even more problematic. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to personalized learning and its related concepts. I believe one of the reasons that implementing personalized learning models has been so challenging is that everyone’s definition seems to be slightly different.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/what-are-you-talking-about-the-need-for-common-language-around-personalized-learning