Online Learning Update

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Students are completing midterms and planning campus parties, executives are gearing up for end of year fundraising campaigns and praying that those parties do not result in crimes and general mischief, and IT staff are counting down the days until everyone leaves the campus and system upgrades can be made in peace. But the fall also brings a time to assess emerging and established trends in higher education, and a chance to project where campuses, and the industry at large, will be in six months, a year and beyond. Here are five current higher ed trends which should frighten administrators heading into the scariest night of the year. Metropolitan State University of Denver President Stephen Jordan recently projected that in nine years, public funding will be at zero.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/7-frightening-trends-in-higher-education/429234/

http://news.mit.edu/2016/improving-educational-opportunities-for-refugee-youth-around-the-world-1026

by UPCEA

UNBOUND: Reinventing Higher Education is an online journal intended for all those who are interested in higher education issues, especially those that affect adult students. The name UNBOUND calls to mind the many innovations that are taking place in education across our country and our world, where technology is helping us break the bonds of space and time to make education accessible to a broad audience. As educators, we no longer have to think in terms of limits, whether those are drawn by campus boundaries, geographic location, or even conventional definitions of school and community. The possibilities for the future are boundless, and we hope to hear from those who are helping to lead the way. As the tagline Reinventing Higher Education suggests, we are positioning this journal at the forefront of educational change. We aim to engage a broad audience of readers and contributors who are interested in important trends and innovations in education. In addition to professionals in higher education, audiences and contributors may include leaders of corporations and industries, communities, advocacy groups, nonprofits or government bodies—anyone who cares deeply about the future of education.

https://unbound.upcea.edu/

by Robin White Goode, Black Enterprise

I recently received an e-mail from Coursera explaining the in-demand skills employers are looking for, and how Coursera could help me acquire them. Receiving the e-mail reminded me of the courses LinkedIn is now offering through LinkedIn Learning, its re-branded version of the Lynda.com courses. So, I Googled LinkedIn Learning and found a list of in-demand skills employers are looking for. You would think that it would be colleges providing a way for students to acquire such skills, but it’s organizations, like LinkedIn, Coursera, and others, are stepping in not only to identify the skill sets employers need in their new (and old) hires, but also to provide a cost-effective way for employees to learn those skills.

http://www.blackenterprise.com/education/online-courses-best-bet-learn-tech/

By Chasen Shao, Daily Pennsylvanian

More than five-and-a-half million students representing nearly 200 countries are enrolled in Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, offered by the Penn Online Learning Initiative. But according to Penn Online Learning Initiative Associate Director Lauren Owens, these numbers belie the degree to which students from around the world are really impacted by the courses. “The biggest advantage is access,” Owens said. “[MOOCs] are getting [Penn’s] brand out there to people who have never considered [Penn] before.” Students who live in disadvantaged regions of the world now have access to courses offered by Penn professors. Although the courses aren’t always immediately available to Penn students, certain professors have already used the content developed for MOOCs in their classes.

http://www.thedp.com:8080/article/2016/10/is-online-learning-the-future

by Leena Rao, Fortune

Udacity is partnering with IBM Watson, Didi Chuxing, and Amazon for a new “Nanodegree” program. Artificial intelligence, the machine learning technology that allows “smart” machines to take over human tasks like driving cars or ordering pizza, is quickly becoming the go-to technology for many industries to hire talent for, including health care, auto, and finance. Research firm Markets and Markets estimates the AI market will grow to more than $5 billion by 2020, given the rising adoption of AI across these industries. That’s why online education company Udacity is debuting a new way for workers to learn skills needed to be experts in developing artificial intelligence for the likes of IBM and others.

http://fortune.com/2016/10/25/udacity-ibm-amazon-ai/

By Ian Acosta, Uloop

Online courses are becoming extremely popular in college curricula these days. In a number of ways, online courses provide students more flexibility and convenience, and also allow professors to not have to spend hours per week on lecturing, allowing them to put more time toward personalized office hours or other research. With online courses, students are free to have more independence and utilize their time as they wish which allows them to put the appropriate amount of time toward the course as they see fit. It is an interesting dynamic for sure. If you are not used to self-studying, online courses may seem like a bit of a hurdle at first but, just like any other course, are not impossible to overcome. Here are some pitfalls to avoid so that you succeed outside of the traditional classroom.

http://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/218186/5-Bad-Habits-for-Online-Courses

By Meg Lloyd, CampusTechnology

One of the nagging issues with online course content is accessibility. There is clearly a universal need for making content accessible, but few course creators have the time, resources or expertise to make it happen. To bridge that gap, the University of Central Florida built an open source tool that helps faculty discover and repair accessibility issues in their online courses. The Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool, or UDOIT (pronounced “You do it”), scans course content within the institution’s Canvas learning management system and identifies potential problems. Items on the accessibility checklist include appropriate use of headings in page structure, alternative text for images, table headers, color contrast and video captions. Some errors or suggestions even come with a “UFIXIT” feature, which allows the instructor to correct the accessibility issue right there, on the spot, from within UDOIT.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/10/19/do-it-yourself-accessibility.aspx

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The Georgia Institute of Technology is expanding its model of low-cost online computer science education to undergraduates. The institute on Tuesday said it has partnered with massive open online course provider edX and McGraw-Hill Education to offer a fully online introductory coding course. Initially, the course will be available to anyone as a MOOC with an optional $99 identity-verified certificate. After piloting the course next spring among its own students, Georgia Tech intends to offer another incentive for completion: college credit. Unlike at the master’s degree level, Georgia Tech is not considering creating a fully online undergraduate degree in computer science, Galil said. Instead, the institute plans to use the pilot as the first careful move toward a future where students spend less time on campus — perhaps two to three years — completing introductory and senior-level courses while in high school or pursuing a career, respectively.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/02/georgia-institute-technology-award-credit-through-massive-open-online-course

by Ilona Hetsevich, Joomla

ELearning is a rapidly evolving and constantly changing field that is never at a stop. A few years ago eLearning was perceived as an innovative way of studying. This very day eLearning is taken for granted, whereas the changes happening inside the eLearning field itself are accepted as innovations. Haven’t you been curious of the changes that will transform the eLearning field next year or next decade? That is why we asked 14 top eLearning experts, teachers, educators, analysts, professors and founders of learning societies and blogs to express their opinions on the innovations that will transform the way we teach and learn in 2017. Click below to see the future!

https://www.joomlalms.com/blog/expert-interview/top-experts-predict-what-will-transform-elearning-in-2017.html

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

My higher ed learning technology friends and I have found ourselves in a weird place. We are passionately committed to institutional advancement around a learning agenda – yet our training and expertise lay outside of leading organizational change. Moreover, the work that we do do to direct institutional resources, attention, and priority towards learning innovation (and towards educators), is – well – messy. In reading Harford’s new book Messy – his best book since his 2007 The Undercover Economist – we learn that all the really important things in life will often feel disordered, untidy, and chaotic. This desire to find clear solutions and bright lines certainly applies to our efforts around organizational change. While a clear and well-defined map to guide our work would certainly be comforting – it is actually in the gray messy areas that we make real change.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/higher-ed-change-and-tim-harfords-messy

by New Kerala

At a time when jobs as business analysts are in demand, US-based educational institution Udacity on Monday launched their first nanodegree course on predictive analytics that will enable students to deliver data-driven business decisions. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, business analyst jobs are expected to grow by 19 per cent by 2022. In India, there is an over 32 per cent increase in demand for analytics jobs, said the Big Data Salary Report 2016 released recently. The new online programm, that can be completed part-time, is structured to give students the needed skills to apply predictive analytics methodologies to real-world business problems while advancing their careers.

http://www.newkerala.com/news/2016/fullnews-134611.html

by Mark G. Angolia, Leslie R. Pagliari; OJDLA

A metadata analysis presents new insights for university administrators and faculty to sustain and grow existing programs. Theories for technology adoption, acceptance, and use underpin the research and conclusions. The findings suggest that higher education has moved beyond Roger’s (1962) early adopter stage and is now faced with a need to establish a pathway for sustainability and growth in the face of increasing DE enrollment and technology change. Critical success factors were found to be university leadership with respect to infrastructure and faculty support systems. Additionally, faculty should continually challenge teaching paradigms and adapt pedagogy to newly adopted technology for continued success. Recommended strategies are provided along with suggested infrastructure and pedagogy components.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall193/angolia_pagliari193.html

by Melanie Shaw, Scott Burrus, Karen Ferguson; OJDLA

Research was conducted to explore predictors for online higher education student attrition. This research was conducted using results from the SmarterMeasure Learning Readiness Indicator to track students in their degree programs. In addition, student outreach was conducted with an experimental group of at-risk students to determine if additional academic support promoted retention. Results demonstrated that verbal and physical learning styles and personal attributes such as procrastination increase the likelihood for attrition, while clear reasons for pursuing a degree and typing skills decrease the likelihood for attrition. Outreach to identified at-risk students did promote greater levels of student success and persistence. Recommendations for future research include comparing results from online and traditional student groups to determine if similar at-risk factors influence the likelihood of student withdrawal, and examining the characteristics of students who withdrawal before completing their first course. Moreover, qualitative research should be conducted to more deeply understand the reasons associated with online program attrition.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall193/shaw_burrus_ferguson193.html

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

Most faculty members say data-driven assessments and accountability efforts aren’t helping them improve the quality of teaching and learning at their colleges and universities, according to the 2016 Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology. Instead, instructors and a large share of academic technology administrators say the efforts are mainly designed to satisfy accreditors and politicians — not to increase degree completion rates. It has been another tumultuous year in educational technology. The past 12 months have seen new ways to deliver education and course materials, new start-ups promising to revolutionize teaching and research, and new questions about the role of technology in and outside the classroom.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/doubts-about-data-2016-survey-faculty-attitudes-technology