Online Learning Update

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics co-author, explains why using data to predict future trends is trickier than you may think. When higher ed leaders discuss big data these days, as well as its potential to help predict future trends and, therefore, courses of action, stories about turkey breasts, hand washing and monkey sex don’t also make the rounds; but according to the Freakonomics author, they should. “What people say they feel or say they do versus what they actually do are often two completely different things,” explained Stephen J. Dubner, journalist, author and this year’s Infocomm 2016 Las Vegas keynoter. “And this is what makes the use of data tricky whenever industry looks to it for answers in behavior.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/freakonomics-data-tricking/

By MARK SCHNEIDER, CHERYL OLDHAM AND BRANDON BUSTEED, Tribune News Service

Recent graduates often wonder whether all the money and time they spent pursuing a degree was worthwhile. Meanwhile, employers across the nation are having difficulty filling millions of jobs because of a mismatch in the skills students have and the skills employers need. As a result, we have people without jobs and jobs without people. Discussions about the value of college need to focus on enabling students to make informed choices that lead to well-paying careers and meaningful lives. This means choosing the right college and the right major. While students have every right to pursue their passions, they should also have information to see what their future might look like if they do.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/mcclatchy/degrees-jobs-earnings/

By Richard Chang, THE Journal

Lifeliqe, a platform for interactive, educational 3D, virtual reality and augmented reality, today launched Lifeliqe Creator, a program that gives teachers the power to create and publish interactive presentations and e-books that integrate 3D models, rather than 2D images. Lifeliqe users can explore objects — such as dinosaurs or the inside of a shark — with interactive 3D views. They can zoom deep into the structure of objects, experience augmented reality, view supplementary text on a subject and change the language for a bilingual view in English or Spanish. With the Lifeliqe Creator feature, any of the 1,000 interactive 3D models can be dragged and dropped right into a presentation, e-book or lesson plan, so teachers can provide students with interactive 3D experiences.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/06/21/lifeliqe-creator-allows-educators-to-create-their-own-3d-content.aspx

by Daily bits, Huffington Post

Online learning service with a passion for personal development and daily learning. Many people are betting on bots becoming the new apps. My co-founder and I are two of those people. Before I tell you more about why that is, let’s take a paragraph to explain what bots are. The bots I’m referring to are the so-called chat-bots. They’re “smart” programs that you can have a conversation with, and get help from, via the messaging app of your choice. This could be a bot that sends out a survey to your team and then sends you a recap (check out the bot How.dy for Slack). Or it could be a bot serving you with the best personalized news via Facebook Messenger (check out CNN’s bot for Facebook).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daily-bits-of/what-the-bot-revolution-c_b_10564554.html

By David Raths, Campus Technology

The chief information officer position continues to evolve as technology becomes more central to the mission of the university. How has that affected what the CIO does day to day? Campus Technology asked several longtime IT leaders, including Suess, to reflect on how they have seen the job change during their tenures.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/06/23/the-ever-changing-cio-job-description.aspx

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Several higher education systems in the northeast have launched campus-based publishing imprints and initiatives designed to expand open-source and digital textbook production and usage. The State University of New York and University of New Hampshire systems are encouraging faculty to make broader use of open source publishing for research, teaching titles and learning opportunities to become more familiar with the technology. Programs that have moved from pilot to campus- or system-wide initiatives have begun to yield student savings — about $148,000 at the University of New Hampshire last year.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-systems-expanding-access-to-open-source-materials/421430/

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit schools. These students tend to be older, minority students from low-income families with low levels of educational attainment. Typically divided into three categories, for-profit schools enrolled more than 11% of students in enterprises colleges, super systems or internet institutions at the height of their success, but have fallen to just over 9% in recent years. A field study of students at Millennium College revealed executive transparency was a major challenge, but in-person instruction and the fostered accountability and maturity among students was viewed as an asset of the blended online and in-person school structure.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/study-examines-why-students-choose-for-profit-education/421361/

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

More than 50 million Americans owe student loan debt, a number that exceeds the amount of people receiving benefits for Social Security and Medicaid. Demographics suggest the U.S. population is increasingly older and earns a lower median income than it did 10 years ago — a reality that clashes directly with increasing college costs across the country. Not only that, but the population is also shifting from the traditionally white, affluent male student population many schools are used to recruiting and educating to a broader cross-section of the country’s actual population. Competency-based instruction, predictive analytics and online education delivery are the keys to reducing costs and improving student outcomes in the 21st century.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/report-higher-ed-requires-drastic-changes-to-remain-competitive-for-studen/421338/

By ELIZABETH OLSON, NY Times

Law schools, in the face of marked declines in enrollment, revenue and jobs for graduates, are beginning to adopt innovative new ways of delivering legal education. Some law schools are moving away from relying solely on classic settings and instead are blending classroom learning with online instruction, said Michael B. Horn, a founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, a research institution in San Mateo, Calif., that explores disruptive innovation in education. “Legal education is confronting the most imminent threat in higher education,” Mr. Horn said. “Law schools are increasingly out of step with shifts in the legal services market.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/education/law-schools-are-going-online-to-reach-new-students.html?_r=0

by Erin O’Neill, London School of Business and Finance

More Brits are turning to online learning sites to develop new skills, according to research from Hitwise. Figures released by the company showed that over 4 million people in Britain searched “how to” queries in the first quarter of 2016, whilst 1.3 million Brits visited a learning site over the same period. The research looked at the different age groups when it came to what Brits are searching for online and found that those aged 18 to 34 are over three times more likely to search for “how to code.” Those aged over 34 were found to be more likely to search for topics relating to entrepreneurship. Brits in this age group are 135 per cent more likely to search for advice on how to become self-employed and 109 per cent more likely to search for how to create a business plan. The figures also showed that the younger generation make the most visits to online learning sites, accounting for 50 per cent of all visits.

http://www.lsbf.org.uk/blog/news/education-careers/more-brits-turning-to-online-learning-sites-figures-show/100206

by Todd Spangler, Yahoo!

For $90, Aaron Sorkin will share his tricks of the screenwriting trade. Sorkin, scribe of such films such as “A Few Good Men,” “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Network” and TV shows including “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom,” will provide more than 25 video lessons through online-education startup MasterClass later this summer. The course — the first for the award-winning screenwriter — will also include a 30-page workbook and interactive assignments. “There’s a great tradition of writers from one generation giving a hand to the next group coming up — a tradition I got a lot of benefit from,” Sorkin said in a statement. “I think new screenwriters will come away from the MasterClass with a new sense of confidence.”

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/aaron-sorkin-teach-online-course-screenwriting-203350164.html

by Justin Beck, eCampus News

With nearly 1 in 5 Americans classified as having a disability, according to the 2010 census, and 13 percent of all public school students receiving special education services, accessibility is more important to educational institutions than ever before. While procedures for handling traditional materials have been well established for some time, higher ed educators’ increased reliance on video for lecture capture, supplemental materials, distance and online learning, and more is bringing the issue of video accessibility standards to the forefront. The key to accessible videos is captioning: 99 percent accurate captions, using a 508-compliant video player optimized for accessibility, make it possible for people with hearing, visual, and motor impairments to use video materials. But adding captions to an entire library of video materials can be daunting. How necessary is it?

http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/video-accessibility-online/

BY JULIA GLUM, International Business Times

Refugees trying to start their lives over in new places are about to have a whole host of new learning opportunities. The U.S. State Department announced Monday a collaboration with the free education site Coursera aimed at helping recent transplants access more than 1,000 massive open online courses, nicknamed MOOCs, according to a news release. The program appeared to be live Monday morning at refugees.coursera.org. Timed to launch on World Refugee Day, the initiative is intended to give refugees a chance to gain “important skills that will help them in the global economy,” Evan Ryan, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, told reporters on a press call last week, Quartz reported. Nonprofits around the world can apply to Coursera to get fee waivers that will fund refugees’ participation in MOOCs, which are run by institutions like Stanford University.

http://www.ibtimes.com/world-refugee-day-2016-coursera-state-department-launch-online-classes-asylum-seekers-2384332

By: Jen Mulson, Gazette

There are definite perks to attending a yoga class, including hands-on adjustments from the teacher and the energy of a group of yogis sharing the same practice. But there are times when you simply can’t make it to class. Maybe the weather is bad or your schedule is hectic or you can’t afford studio prices. Fortunately, yoga has expanded in dramatic ways, which include a giant well of excellent online classes. And fees are more than reasonable – often you can get a month of unlimited classes for the same price as a single class at a studio. Many sites also offer a free trial period.

http://gazette.com/live-well-do-online-yoga-classes-when-time-funds-are-short/article/1578656

BY ERIC JOHNSON, Recode

But artificial intelligence is coming to colleges in some form, Coursera president Daphne Koller says. Artificial intelligence is going to change everything in every industry. Right? Not so fast, says Coursera president and co-founder Daphne Koller. Her education company markets itself as being ahead of technological disruption, but even it isn’t so sure AI can do everything that a human college professor can do. “Instructors are valuable, first of all, in creating the content. That’s really important,” Koller said in an interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher on the latest episode of Recode Decode. “But I also think it’s important to have someone there to answer the really challenging questions if you really get stuck. And also, people will tell you that one of the most inspirational experiences they’ve had, that have often shaped their life, is someone who’s been a really inspirational teacher.”

http://www.recode.net/2016/6/22/11985726/robot-teachers-artificial-intelligence-coursera-daphne-koller

A new guide from OnlineSchoolsCenter ranks the top 10 disability-friendly schools and offers guidance to students with disabilities. OnlineSchoolsCenter.com, a virtual publication that evaluates online higher education, issued an informational guide on online education opportunities for students with disabilities. “Navigating an Online Education for Students with Disabilities,” written by author and higher education researcher Kenneth Williams, includes a ranking of the top 10 disability-friendly schools in the country. Schools were evaluated and selected based on accessibility and willingness to accommodate to students with disabilities.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/06/14/10-best-online-schools-and-resources-for-students-with-disabilities.aspx

by EdSurge

Coursera has announced the launch of Coursera for Refugees in partnership with the U.S. Department of State. The initiative lets refugees and nonprofits supporting them apply for financial aid to access Coursera’s library of online courses. Coursera is not the first to offer a MOOC-for-refugees program—edX stepped into this space in February—but it is the first to partner with the State Department, which will provide in-person facilitation at embassies and consulates and help identify partner organizations currently supporting refugee communities. In 2013, the State Department announced its MOOC Camp initiative, hosted at U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, partnering with Coursera as a Global Learning Hub. Coursera for Refugees continues this partnership, potentially enabling refugees to build career skills to find employment as now any nonprofit (501(c)(3) or international equivalent can apply for at least one year of comprehensive group financial aid.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-06-20-the-u-s-state-department-and-coursera-offer-free-online-courses-to-refugees

by Education Dive

As an educational model, differentiated instruction has been around since the time of Socrates. As a method of providing a classroom of students, often with differing abilities, instruction based on individual aptitudes for learning, it has been an effective alternative to repetitive rote memorization that is still widely practiced in many countries around the world. Today, with the widespread availability of new learning software and platforms, differentiated instruction can take on a revolutionary role under the guise of adaptive learning, and it could alter our thinking about education and the way students learn. Supporters of adaptive learning say it could be the answer to what has become now known as the ‘iron triangle’ of education’s biggest challenges: cost, access, and quality.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/adaptive-learning-holds-promise-for-the-future-of-higher-education/421228/

by Francine Fluetsch, Uloop

Congrats to the class of 2016! We’ve slaved long and hard to earn those bachelor’s degrees, and now we need to decide where we will go next. Some people start to feel at a loss if they aren’t taking classes anymore, so who says it has to stop? You now have a fancy schmancy degree, but that doesn’t mean your learning capacity is over. Online classes are a great way to keep your mind active and there are tons of classes you can take. This can be a great way to ease into grad school, or just a way to further your knowledge while you transition into the real world and get a real job. Here are some ideas of online classes that should make it into your shopping cart.

http://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/204841/Online-Classes-To-Take-As-A-Graduate-

By ERIC JOHNSON, Recode

A college degree, per the old conventional wisdom, was your ticket to a career of better work and higher pay. That may still be true, but the digital economy demands ever more, Coursera president and co-founder Daphne Koller said on the newest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. Coursera’s pitch to students is that education should last a lifetime and that it’s too big a risk for them to stop learning new skills in their 20s. “The things you learned in college 15 years ago are no longer the skills that you need for your next job,” Koller said. “Millennials today are expected to change jobs something like every three years. The job that they need next is going to have a completely different skillset than the job that they previously had.”

http://www.recode.net/2016/6/20/11974092/daphne-koller-coursera-online-college-education-podcast

By Lauren Camera, US News

The online course provider is launching an ambitious effort to help refugees gain the skills they need to transition to new lives. At the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, the online course powerhouse will provide English-language instruction to refugees. Along with Libraries Without Borders, it will work with refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in partnership with the Institute of International Education, with refugees in Jordan. With Samaschool in Jordan and Kenya, Coursera will help refugees focus on technology skills. Any nonprofit working with refugees also can apply to Coursera for one year of financial aid to pay for courses for refugees. The nonprofits will be able to access an individual online portal allowing them to track the progress of refugees taking the courses, and also to interface with other nonprofits to share best practices.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-20/coursera-on-a-mission-to-help-refugees