Online Learning Update

by Chelsea Barabas and J. Phillip Smith

Higher education serves as a critical vehicle for upward mobility and equal opportunity in the U.S. labor market. First, it provides opportunities for workers to develop critical skills and competencies, and more generally pursue goals for self-improvement throughout their lives. Second, higher education provides a process for obtaining credentials, which play a critical role in differentiating workers in the labor market by providing signals that represent their skills, competencies, and accomplishments. In an ideal world, credentials would be tightly coupled with the skills and competencies that a student obtains from an educational experience. In reality, traditional academic credentials function more like roughly hewn proxies for ability, whose signaling power must be supplemented by other information. This tends to entrench social stratification rather than transform it. This shortcoming of traditional credentials is evidenced by the disparities in employment along race and class lines that continue to persist even after the massive expansion in higher education opportunities in the United States in the decades after World War II.

http://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/The-Promises-and-Challenges-of-Digital-Credentialing.pdf

By Richard Chang, THE Journal

The worldwide self-paced e-learning market is declining at a precipitous rate, according to a recent report released by Ambient Insight Research, a Washington state-based market research firm. According to the study, the global compound annual growth rate for self-paced e-learning products is clearly negative at -6.4 percent over the next five years. Revenues are expected to drop dramatically to $33.4 billion by 2021, a decline of $13.5 billion over the forecast period. Revenues for self-paced e-learning in 2016 are heavily concentrated in two countries — the United States and China. The growth rate in the U.S. is at -5.3 percent, representing a $4.9 billion drop in revenues by 2021, while in China, the rate is at -8.8 percent, representing a $1.9 billion drop by 2021. The e-learning market in China has deteriorated rapidly in just the last 18 months, the report said. Revenues for self-paced e-learning will drop $6.8 billion over the next five years in the U.S. and China combined, according to the report.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/09/01/global-elearning-market-in-steep-decline.aspx

By Fahad Malik, Inter Press Service

THE rapid evolution of the internet has revealed avenues of learning that are challenging the traditional norms of education. Instructional content, previously restricted to the classroom, is now being broadcast at lightning speeds to anywhere from bustling metropolises to rural suburbs. Information that was inaccessible is suddenly present, organised and ready for consumption by anyone who is yearning to learn. In our neck of the woods, where public universities are rife with enormous student teacher ratios and private education comes at the expense of debt-inducing tuition, the online learning phenomenon can prove to be a game changer. In fact, Pakistan was among the pioneering nations to develop and successfully implement distant learning in the form of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU). Courses were offered and degrees conferred in several disciplines in humanities and sciences to those who couldn’t access higher education due to distance, financial woes or simply luck.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/09/online-learning/

by Kevin C. Desouza and Kendra L. Smith, EDUCAUSE Review

With predictive analytics, colleges and universities are able to “nudge” individuals toward making better decisions and exercising rational behavior to enhance their probabilities of success. With predictive analytics, colleges and universities are able to “nudge” individuals toward making better decisions and exercising rational behavior to enhance their probabilities of success. Like most other enterprises, academia is on the quest to leverage data to improve outputs and outcomes. At their core, academic enterprises are focused on advancing knowledge in society and transforming society through their outputs (e.g., the students they produce, the research they generate, and the interactions they cultivate with communities both local and global). Data management and analytics can significantly increase the odds that a higher education institution will deliver on its goals in an optimal manner.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/8/predictive-analytics-nudging-shoving-and-smacking-behaviors-in-higher-education

by eSchool News

A new virtual reality program, designed in part for educators, is giving a whole new meaning to the virtual classroom. Compatible with VR platforms like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, the new program, called Engage, lets up to 30 simultaneous users join and interact in an immersive, virtual meeting — which could be set in a museum, historical site, or the surface of Mars. The platform is new (and available as a free preview) so full functionality hasn’t been released, or even dreamed up, but so far educators can use it to create a custom avatar and then host live sessions or record presentations for download. Students will also be able to showcase artwork and photography in a gallery-like setting.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/08/31/this-immersive-vr-platform-was-designed-with-education-in-mind/

BY LAURA DEVANEY, eSchool News

It’s fair to say that augmented reality has moved from a cool technology that might be neat for students to try to a credible teaching tool that fits just as easily in K-12 classrooms as it does in higher education. Advocates have long said augmented reality helps boost student engagement and also helps reach those with varying learning styles. Many educators see that augmented reality “takes what is real and enhances or overlays information to get more out of exploring our world,” said David Loveland and Jim Wasserman, teachers at The Parish Episcopal School in Dallas.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/09/01/5-apps-jump-start-augmented-reality-classroom/

by Della McGuire, Study.com

In this lesson, we will cover how to create online assignments and assessment strategies that adequately address and align with online course objectives. Aligning online course objectives with assignments is simply a matter of translating a variety of these categories into verbs. Those verbs can then be expanded into meaningful and authentic assignments to assess student mastery. This list of verbs associated with taxonomy provides a helpful primer to develop assignments that align with course objectives. For example, many assignments rely on skills in the knowledge or remembering category, including matching vocabulary to definitions or identifying parts of a cell. An assignment under the evaluate category might ask students to debate between two articles to determine which has more valid researched-based content. The quantity of these assignments can be distributed in relation to the proportions on the pyramid. For example, there will be more assignments that assess knowledge, the larger foundational base, than assignments that require students to create.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/aligning-online-course-objectives-with-assignments.html

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

The Department of Education recently debuted a pilot program to spur public and private partnerships benefiting workforce development, an unprecedented program which will pair colleges with for-profit companies to offer degrees and job training in select industries. We spoke with officials from three of those institutions, Tuskegee University President Brian Johnson, Purdue University Homeland Security Institute Director J. Eric Dietz and University of Wisconsin Extension Dean of Continuing Education, Outreach and E-Learning David Schejbal, who discussed the vision behind pairing academic programs with industrial partners, structuring programs to meet workforce demand, and the future of industrial development in their respective regions, and throughout the nation.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-leaders-discuss-vision-behind-workforce-development/425211/

by Sue Lister, University of Notre Dame

In a data-driven economy, industry leaders rely increasingly on skilled professionals who can see the significance in data and use it to solve business challenges, create new opportunities and shape change. With a growing need for skilled data scientists, the University of Notre Dame, in collaboration with AT&T, has announced its new online master of science degree with a specialization in data science. Offered by the Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, with the collaboration of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Mendoza College of Business and the Department of Psychology, this degree program will prepare graduates for careers as data scientists in a wide range of industry fields fields including management, marketing, information technology, government policy, health care, finance, education and scientific research.

http://news.nd.edu/news/69265-notre-dame-announces-collaboration-with-att-for-online-masters-degree-in-data-science/

By CHASEN SHAO, Daily Pennsylvanian

Penn is partnering with the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to offer a series of online courses geared towards English language learners. The courses are being offered through Online Learning at the School of Arts and Sciences as well as the College of Liberal and Professional Studies. The curriculum is designed for advanced beginner and intermediate learners, and in total, 33,000 students are enrolled across 161 countries. The collaboration focuses on five content areas: Business and Entrepreneurship, English for Journalism, Career Development, Media Literacy and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Using the predetermined content areas, LPS created five courses through the online learning platform Coursera with the same names.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2016/08/penn-english-journalism-course

By Paul Grondahl, Times-Union

Languishing for years as political prisoners in an Iranian jail on sham charges of attempting to overthrow the government, brothers Dr. Kamiar Alaei and Dr. Arash Alaei endured harsh treatment because they found hope in the act of learning and teaching. The imprisoned medical doctors, pioneers in the treatment of HIV and AIDS in repressive regimes, scrounged up old textbooks, organized classes and spread a feeling of optimism inside the notorious Evin prison in Tehran. Despite shackles and bars, their minds remained unfettered. Now, the Alaeis, who are the recipients of international humanitarian awards, are paying it forward. With the help of colleagues at UAlbany — where the brothers created the Global Institute for Health and Human Rights — they’ve developed an online program of science classes in Arabic for former medical students in war-torn Syria.

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Free-UAlbany-online-science-courses-for-refugee-9194192.php

by Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune

Online learning platform Coursera is launching an enterprise offering for companies. It’s not what everyone expected when MOOCs first came on the scene, but maybe it’s the right move. On Wednesday morning, the company launched Coursera for Business, an enterprise platform for companies. According to CEO Rick Levin, a large percent of the site’s users are seeking content that can advance their career. Many of them are signing in from corporate email addresses. “With that in mind, we felt we could expand the horizon and the number of people we were reaching by going directly to companies,” Levin told me during a phone interview earlier this week. Coursera’s early customers include BNY Mellon, Boston Consulting Group, L’Oreal, and Axis Bank. Some use Coursera for their onboarding and training process. Others simply see it as a retention tool—after all, who doesn’t want to learn Python?

http://fortune.com/2016/08/31/ed-tech-startup-coursera-launches-online-learning-for-companies/

BY JOHN KATZMAN, eCampusNews

Online undergraduate and graduate college programs are growing at 15 percent a year, but will soon be a thing of the past. As will campus-based programs. Both will give way to an agile approach in which the technology and design of a program are indifferent to modality. Courses will be online, on-campus, or a blend of the two; marketing and recruiting will be integrated, as will student support and placement. Agile programs will enjoy a substantial cost, convenience, and quality advantage over online and campus-based programs. And while academia isn’t quite there yet, a review of changes in online higher ed and commerce over the past 15 years presents the compelling case that this level of integration between and among traditional and online offerings is inevitable.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/college-programs-future/

By Richard Chang, THE Journal

Turnitin’s back-to-school program, “Rethink Feedback,” features new, free resources and tools this fall. The new elements are designed to help K–12 teachers and higher ed instructors teach proper methods of attribution, improve student writing skills and avoid plagiarism.“Teachers intuitively know — and research supports — that there are best practices to giving feedback to students in writing exercises,” said Jason Chu, education director at Turnitin, in a prepared statement. “Feedback that is appropriately constructive, specific, actionable and given at the right time drastically improves how much a student learns about good writing.” Earlier this year, Turnitin added Revision Assistant to its product lineup. The program, designed for grades 6-12 and developmental writing in higher education, extends teachers’ reach by giving students immediate feedback during the writing process.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/25/turnitin-releases-new-free-teaching-resources.aspx

by NANCY ACEMIAN, Montreal Gazette

It’s hardly surprising that today’s digital generation is embracing technology in the university environment as well. Digital technology has also widened access to learning beyond even traditional correspondence courses. Students are able to listen to lectures on their cellphone, tablet or computer whenever, wherever and as often as they want, submit assignments digitally (instead of mailing them) and even participate in a group discussions asynchronously via a wiki (a website allowing many people to collaborate in the creation of a document) or synchronously with the use of video conferencing (such as Skype), something that didn’t used to be feasible in correspondence courses. These types of digitally enhanced learning experiences have made a university education accessible to ever greater numbers of people but also resulted in a more engaging student experience.

http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-teaching-and-technology-partnering-for-excellence

by Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg

Google is entering what has quickly become a crowded marketplace, with products from Facebook Inc., Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. Whereas Sony’s Morpheus headset is tethered to its PlayStation video-game console, Google is focused on mobile-based VR, whereby consumers snap their phones into a visor or headset. With the headset on, Daydream presents users with an array of apps, from YouTube to HBO Now. “Google’s Daydream will help advance mobile virtual reality,” said Oren Rosenbaum, a digital media agent at United Talent Agency who spearheads its VR effort. “Mobile virtual reality is what’s going to get the most people to strap things on their head.”

By Allie Mitchell, Uloop

This article is meant to help you better prepare yourself for your upcoming online classes. Personally, I believe that online classes are slightly a bit more of a responsibility, only because you have to make sure that you go and look to see if anything is new or if anything is due, every single day. You don’t get to meet with a class every other day to ask questions face to face, unless you would like to make a trip down to your teacher’s office hours. You have to be willing to put in the work with whatever you chose to do; regardless, online classes are just a little bit of a different story, because the computer IS your classroom.

http://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/211052/How-To-Prepare-For-Your-Online-Classes

by Kate Irby, Sacramento Bee

A new study shows that not only are attractive teachers rated more favorably by their students, but students might actually learn more from them. University of Nevada researchers took 131 university students, 86 women and 45 men with an average age of 20, and had them listen to a 20-minute audio lecture for an introductory physics course. While students listened to the online lecture, each had a photo of their “instructor” displayed on the screen. For 62 students, the picture was of an unattractive person, while the remaining 69 had a highly attractive person. Attractive instructors were overall rated higher than unattractive ones, and the male attractive instructors were rated higher than the female ones. Further, students with attractive instructors scored better on the test than those with unattractive instructors.

http://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article98086112.html

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Technology is reshaping the way industries and corporations are training employees to increase productivity, according to EdSurge, and that new focus, designed to engage younger employees, could have impact on higher education academic delivery models. Organizations are substituting theory-based models in exchange for scenario-based, practical instruction to help learners be more attuned to instruction. Lessons are delivered through simulations that are light on lectures and heavy on opportunities for learners to engage with online content and cohort members to learn information. Adapting teaching modules presents the biggest challenge in workforce development; about 61% of corporate executives say moving employees towards self-directed education is a difficulty in developing an environment of continuous learning.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/how-workforce-learning-trends-may-shape-higher-ed/424868/

By Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

A new study from Indeed.com lists computer and information sciences, engineering, architecture, management, health professions and finance as the top areas which have high needs in hiring, and low areas where technology can replace human capital in the workforce. Each of these fields were among the most popular academic programs of 2014, according to data on degrees awarded published by the U.S. Department of Education. According to Indeed, the programs comprise 92% of jobs showing trending upward in earning potential and offering an average salary of over $57,700.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/how-to-align-academic-offerings-to-meet-workforce-development-needs/424934/

by Seb Murray, Business Because

The world’s elite business schools are pouring resources into virtual and augmented reality, as they place bets on the next big innovation in online learning. Technavio, the consultancy, forecasts that augmented reality, which layers an interactive image directly on top of physical reality (think Pokémon GO), will be one of the most disruptive forces in e-learning over the next four years. Souped-up smartphones have improved access to the latest AR apps, which are cheaper than ever before, notes Jhansi Mary, lead analyst at Technavio.

http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/4140/schools-bet-on-virtual-and-augmented-reality