Online Learning Update

by Carolyn Hitt, Wales Online

The “blended” bit refers to the style of course. As well as two hours in the classroom each week at Wales’ National Sports Centre, there is an online element as we log on to the course website – www.caerdydd.ybont.org – to complete both preparation modules before the class and revision activities afterwards. This is suiting me much better than just a weekly stint in the classroom. It feels more immersive. The temptation with a night-class is to forget about it all between gatherings but committing to individual online study ensures the learning continues beyond the lessons. And there’s no chance of digitally winging it either. Like linguistic Big Brother, our tutor is able to track our progress online. This isn’t as sinister as it sounds. It means help is on hand between lessons while getting an email with a “badge” to signal a completed online unit feels like a little reward.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/learning-welsh-getting-easier-course-12386894

By Olena Reid, US News

Military spouses who travel frequently can earn a degree through the flexibility of online education. If you are a military spouse, you probably know what it feels like to leave behind the family you love, friends you cherish and familiar places you used to call home. A military spouse’s role may be overlooked, but the military lifestyle doesn’t have to be an obstacle to some of the same opportunities civilians have access to, including higher education and professional growth. Online education can address the challenge of frequent relocation that military spouses face. I started my online MBA program when my husband was stationed in Virginia, and we didn’t know where we were headed next. A year into the program, we knew we had to travel cross-country to Washington state for his new role.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2016-12-30/3-benefits-of-online-learning-for-military-spouses

by India Today

According to Coursera, a provider of online courses from top universities, out of the 10 most popular courses, technology constituted 70 per cent, followed by English for career advancement. Online learning grew by 50 per cent in India this year, and technology and English were the most sought-after skills, says a report. According to Coursera, a provider of online courses from top universities, out of the 10 most popular courses, technology constituted 70 per cent, followed by English for career advancement.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/india-record-50-per-cent-rise-in-online-learning/1/843777.html

by Julio Cachila, University Herald Reporter

Online universities provide great learning opportunities that can be taken advantage of by adults who would want to study, but have commitments with family and their jobs. Although online courses are proven to be good career shapers, knowing the best online college to enroll is will ensure that a student’s needs will be met. To help you in choosing the right university, nonprofit online university Western Governors University has released a list of questions that will help narrow down your choices, and lead you to enrolling in the best institution that will meet your needs.

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/57785/20161229/online-universities-five-questions-ask-before-enrolling.htm

by Quora, Forbes

MOOCs get a lot of slack for having low completion rates. You don’t have to go all-in and commit to finishing a course before putting money down. It’s good to give people the opportunity to sample learning experiences. When it comes to coding in particular, many students come to coding bootcamps like Flatiron School from very different career paths, doing that initial exploration of free coding resources is hugely important in discovering if you feel passionate about code and want to invest more money/time/energy to learn it. In fact, before Flatiron School released our own free courses (like Intro to JavaScript and Bootcamp Prep), we used to send students to sites like Free Code Camp to make sure they started coding before applying. The question really should be: of students who are invested, how many complete them? And are they successful in their goals beyond the end of these programs?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/12/29/yes-free-code-camp-has-low-completion-rates-and-thats-actually-a-good-thing/#318f8aac1b1e

by Dhawal Shah, EdSurge

In 2016, 2,600 new courses were announced (up from 1,800 last year), taking the total number of MOOCs to 6,850 from over 700 universities. And it seems to be working. The “Big Three” MOOC providers—Coursera, Udacity, edX— combined have potentially made around $100 million in 2016. MOOCs are gradually being transformed from virtual classrooms to a Netflix-like experience. Many courses are no longer offered just once or twice a year, but rather are now available as a self-paced, sign up whenever you want experience Coursera courses are now offered regularly throughout the year, with new sessions starting automatically on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. This switch has led to a significant increase in the number of courses students can register for and start almost immediately. Previously, students were all piled into one giant session for courses that were only offered infrequently.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-12-27-monetization-over-massiveness-breaking-down-moocs-by-the-numbers-in-2016

http://hechingerreport.org/colleges-universities-handing-half-tuition-online-program-managers/

by University Herald

It is that time of the year once again where many individuals, professionals, families and even students are wondering how they are going to spend the next year. And it usually starts with making a list of 2017 New Year’s Resolutions. Here is a list of 2017 New Year’s Resolutions that those who are thinking of taking online classes can consider.

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/57548/20161228/2017-new-year-resolutions-online-class-students.htm

by Herald Scotland

Around one in six adults have done, or are intending to take, an online course as the programmes become more popular with the public and employers. Many are signing up for “moocs” – massive open online courses – in a bid to further their careers, while for others it is a way of pursuing a personal interest, according to research. The study, by Futurelearn, the Open University and Parthenon-EY, also reveals that employers are increasingly using the courses to differentiate between job applicants. And it shows that graduates would like to have studied for at least part of their degree through online modules.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14991310.Adults_go_online_for_courses_to_help_job_prospects/

by Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE Review

EDUCAUSE has defined an initial eight digital capabilities for higher education and developed corresponding maturity and technology deployment assessments. This article describes those capabilities and provides advice for attaining them. Technology’s value to organizations and individuals increasingly extends beyond productivity to the enhancement of learning, collaborating, and decision making. Organizations thus find it increasingly important to develop and apply digital capabilities in order to survive, let alone thrive. It no longer suffices to think of technology as merely an arms race, in which the winners keep getting faster and cheaper. The fast and cheap of automation and storage form the base of a pyramid rapidly gaining additional layers, with social and mobile new layers that have emerged in just the past decade. Cloud and analytics are newer still, and the Internet of Things layer is still being built.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/12/the-digitization-of-higher-education-charting-the-course

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, Tech Edvocate

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of gamification, be prepared to thank the Millennials for its inclusion in almost everything. Gamification involves bringing in traits traditionally associated with video games and using them to engage people in other activities. The principle has been used in everything from employee engagement efforts to healthcare objectives about customer wellness. And the educational system is not excluded from attempts to gamify previously uninspiring activities. But why is gamification popping up everywhere? It’s actually pretty simple; because it often works. In fact, it might be the ideal way to help struggling students get back on track.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/can-gamification-help-struggling-students/

by Chris Weller, Business Insider

Thirty years ago, it was a big deal when schools got their first computers. Today, it’s a big deal when students get their own laptops. According to futurist Thomas Frey, in 14 years it’ll be a big deal when students learn from robot teachers over the internet. It’s not just because the technology will be that sophisticated, Frey says, but because the company responsible for it will be the largest of its kind. “I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider. Frey’s prediction comes amid a boom in artificial intelligence research. Google is developing DeepMind, a complex piece of machine-learning software. IBM is developing Watson-powered robots. Amazon is developing drone delivery.

http://www.thisisinsider.com/futurist-predicts-online-school-largest-online-company-2016-12

by Hannah Devlin, the Guardian

As the technology evolves, the interventions could become more sophisticated and the software might play a more active role in teaching, raising questions about the extent to which intelligent software could replace human teachers. Rose Luckin, a professor of learner centred design at University College London, who is collaborating with Third Space Learning on the project, said: “What we are very interested in is the right blend of human and artificial intelligence in the classroom – identifying that sweet spot.” According to Luckin, AI provides a unique opportunity to assess which teaching strategies are working and to individualise teaching.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/26/could-online-tutors-and-artificial-intelligence-be-the-future-of-teaching

BY MARK PORCARO AND RICK MUMA, Wichita Eagle

More and more traditional-age students are taking online courses and enrolling in 100 percent online programs. The latest figures reported by U.S. colleges and universities show that 70 percent of students are doing so at public institutions. Many of today’s students may have already taken online courses in high school, or even pursued K-12 education completely online, and expect to continue to do so in college. Students wanting to attend college may not be able to afford to stop everything, move to campus and attend courses at times when schools want to offer them. They expect, like with many other things, that learning should be personalized and available on demand. Because of this, institutions that cater to this trend are seeing their enrollments grow.

http://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article122750519.html

BY IVO PASCUCCI, eCampus News

From LMS to Facebook, and from streaming in class to proliferating devices, universities are coming up with new ways to satisfy the Millennials’ digital age. The proliferation of connected devices (Gartner predicts that 20 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020) is coming with a generation of people who will leverage the internet in novel ways. Already, online courses and web-based resources are an everyday option on campuses all over the country thanks to Millennials’ web needs. To handle this new digital paradigm, universities are coming up with new ways to leverage students’ expanding use of technology and adapt their networks to meet new demands.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/it-newsletter/universities-millennials-web-needs/

by Lou Pugliese, EDUCAUSE Review

The effective implementation and use of adaptive learning systems requires a broad, more inclusive conversation among institutions, vendors, and other stakeholders to realize the benefits of next-generation personalized learning. Adaptive systems have the potential to shift education in the service of students by providing a student-centric design. The student-centered capabilities these systems aspire to provide are vastly unlike the current models for traditional classroom support—models deeply rooted in student administration. The underlying data systems and transaction timing (e.g., gradebook, end-of-course exams) are radically different from the real-time, learner-specific data that forms the foundation of student-centered learning.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/10/adaptive-learning-systems-surviving-the-storm

by Matthew Lynch, the Edvocate

Currently, there is a call for a more affordable college education, which makes sense. It comes on the heels of a recession that undercut the value of a college education. Even those with a college degree were not immune to the financial hit that the economy took and those still paying off their student loans were often left without the very job they had always assumed would pay off their educational debts. A study by the Urban Institute found that almost 300,000 Americans with master’s degrees were on public relief, along with 30,000 with doctorates. The average debt of a college graduate is $35,200 and that can take decades to pay off.

http://www.theedadvocate.org/the-cost-of-college-what-happens-when-college-costs-spin-out-of-control/

by Gordon Wishon and John Rome, EDUCAUSE Review

An advanced analytics platform helps prepare your institution for the volume, variety, and velocity of data coming your way. Tremendous opportunities exist from using nontraditional data sources to find new ways to advance student success and institutional performance. The ability to deliver analytic services in the public cloud will force the rethinking of current or future on-premises solutions because of the potential flexibility and innovation offered. While data scientist is the hot new job title, the rest of the institution’s analytics workforce must develop and strengthen their skills and technology tools to engage, evaluate, and leverage these new, impending, and inevitable analytics platforms.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/12/institutional-analytics-and-the-data-tsunami

By David Raths, Campus Technology

Rather than rely on a single LMS to manage all aspects of teaching and learning on its 17 campuses, the University of North Carolina system created an app store that gives faculty a chance to experiment with cutting-edge tech. Matthew Rascoff has a name for the enterprise learning management system: a “Swiss Army Knife of mediocrity.” As vice president of learning technology and innovation at the University of North Carolina General Administration, which oversees 17 university campuses with almost 225,000 students, Rascoff has observed that the most innovative faculty members at his institution use the LMS the least. Many professors working on experimental efforts hate the LMS and have sidestepped it, he noted.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/12/21/building-an-app-store-for-learning-tools.aspx

by Forbes

Many students want to know how to utilize MOOCs to improve their profile and this brings us to the question of how value is being defined. Are you looking for a breadth of knowledge, a deeper understanding of a particular subject, or perhaps your focus is career advancement? If you have barriers in your way to traditional courses (through accessibility, financial hurdles, lack of public schools in your country, or the need to recreate yourself) I think people will look at your certificates in a different light. One of my fellow MOOC instructors has shared with me stories of students who have left their countries behind and used online courses as a way to quickly provide proof of competency, as well as create a new network of potential colleagues.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/12/23/why-moocs-can-add-more-value-to-a-students-profile-than-you-think/#6b3ef89f445c

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

It starts by attending and passing five massive, open, online courses (MOOCs) presented through MIT’s edX platform, MITx. Those online classes may be audited for free, like any other MITx course. Or for students interested in pursuing the master’s degree, they may pay course fees and pass proctored exams to be eligible to apply for admittance into the DEDP program. Each online course fee is between $100 and $1000, varying depending on the student’s ability to pay. Those who pay for course access receive additional support from MIT teaching assistants and other features unavailable to people auditing the course. Students who have already passed any of the MIT MOOC classes that make up the online portion of the program don’t have to repeat them; they simply have to pay the course fee and pass the exam.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/12/22/mit-intros-mooc-program-in-development-economics-with-blended-path-to-masters.aspx