Online Learning Update

May 24, 2017

Trump budget seeks huge cuts to science and medical research, disease prevention

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

By Joel Achenbach and Lena H. Sun, Washington Post

President Trump’s 2018 budget request, delivered to Congress on Tuesday with the title “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” has roiled the medical and science community with a call for massive cuts in spending on scientific research, medical research, disease prevention programs and health insurance for children of the working poor. The National Cancer Institute would be hit with a $1 billion cut compared to its 2017 budget. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute would see a $575 million cut, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would see a reduction of $838 million. The administration would cut the overall National Institutes of Health budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion. The National Science Foundation, which dispenses grants to a variety of scientific research endeavors, would be trimmed $776 million, an 11 percent cut.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/05/22/trump-budget-seeks-huge-cuts-to-disease-prevention-and-medical-research-departments

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Justice by algorithm: AI predicts the results of Supreme Court trials better than a human

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

by Shivali Best, Daily Mail

The algorithm was developed by researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and South Texas College of Law.They used the US Supreme Court Database, which holds information on court cases dating back to 1791.Based on this data, the algorithm could correctly predict 70.2 per cent of the court’s 28,000 decisions, and 71.9 per cent of the justices’ 240,000 votes from 1816 to 2015. While 70 per cent accuracy may not sound that precise, it is higher than the 66 per cent accuracy with which human experts can predict Supreme Court outcomes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4476718/Machine-learning-algorithm-predicts-Supreme-Court-outcomes.html

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Chicago Public Library Recognized for Digital Leadership

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

by Maya Miller, Chicago Tonight

When it comes to innovation in digital learning, Chicago is getting noticed. A program developed by the Chicago Public Library and the nonprofit Peer 2 Peer University won a 2017 Digital Inclusion Leadership Award on Tuesday in the category of “most innovative.” Chicago was one of six cities to be recognized by Next Century Cities and Google Fiber. The program, called Learning Circles, brings together online students to take free courses and study the material in a group setting. Peer 2 Peer University says you can think of it as “a book group for learning.”

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/05/05/chicago-public-library-recognized-digital-leadership

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May 23, 2017

Lebanon Valley president argues liberal arts education still valuable in changing world

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Pat Donachie, Education dive

Some argue a traditional liberal arts education is outdated and “smaller bites” of learning are preferable, but it is a mistake to discount the benefits of a complete college education, Lebanon Valley College President Lewis E. Thayne writes for the Hechinger Report. Thayne argues that five and 10 years after graduation, Lebanon Valley alumni report that their college education prepared them well, and he said critics shouldn’t discount the benefits of co-curricular activities available in a campus setting. Thayne writes that colleges should incorporate online learning and small-bite education, but he said only a well-rounded college education could offer that as well as the totality of know

http://www.educationdive.com/news/lebanon-valley-president-argues-liberal-arts-education-still-valuable-in-ch/441976/

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Diane von Furstenberg to teach online course on how to build a fashion brand

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Andrew Nodell, LA Times

Diane von Furstenberg became the person she wanted to be and now she hopes to teach others how to do the same. With over four decades running her fashion label, the designer is replete with life lessons and business acumen that she will impart as the latest instructor being added to the roster for MasterClass. The online education company also includes video lectures from Kevin Spacey on acting, Christina Aguilera on singing and David Mamet on dramatic writing. “I spoke [on-camera] for three days,” the designer explained in a call from her New York City office. “As I now have Jonathan [Saunders] handling the rebranding, I’m focusing a lot of my time on mentoring and philanthropy. I hope this lesson is nice. I made the director cry, so I think it was good.”

http://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-wwd-dvf-online-courses-20170504-story.html

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UMKC Students Haggled into Online Learning

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

By Madison Noordhoek, UMKC

Are technological resources in the classroom a student’s best friend, or worst enemy? While universities like UMKC grant students the convenience of online classes, some students who enroll in physical lectures face the inconvenience of online resources that are required to complete the course. “I think online classes are a great way to earn course credit without having to go to class at a set time during the week,” recent KU graduate student David Sukenik said. “They save money and are generally easier than a normal course.” Being able to study a lecture and do homework from the comfort of your couch seems to give students more motivation to enroll in online classes. They also provide an opportunity to knock out required credits during the summer. Students are able to learn at their own convenience while still receiving an equal quality of teaching.

http://info.umkc.edu/unews/umkc-students-haggled-into-online-learning/

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May 22, 2017

Signs of a Ceiling in Online Ed Market?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 8:55 am

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

A new survey of online education administrators at 104 colleges and universities released today shows — as other studies have suggested — that public and private four-year institutions saw healthy enrollment growth in their fully online programs in spring 2016 compared to the year before, and that they are showing few signs of slowing their investments in the space. The situation is not the same at two-year colleges. Online programs at all institutions grew on average by 9 percent year over year, but at community colleges, growth typically registered 1 to 2 percent. And while only a handful of the public or private four-year institutions surveyed said their online enrollments shrank from 2015 to 2016, findings at community colleges were mixed: 33 percent saw growth, 27 percent decline and 40 percent stability.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/22/reports-finds-rising-competition-online-education-market

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Udacity re-launches its Intro to Programming Nanodegree

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by DQ India

Udacity has announced the relaunch of its Intro to Programming Nanodegree. The programme designed to provide effective and engaging content to students and professionals, aims at introducing them with basic foundation in programming. The course will give a fundamental understanding thereby helping students land the most in demand jobs in today’s time. The three months course will equip a person with the core skills that programmers use while programming mobile apps, webpages or analyze data. Successful completion of the nanodegree will enhance the skills, broaden opportunities and lay the groundwork for a future in technology. The programme comprises of interactive quizzes, videos and hand-on projects which are reviewed by industry experts.

http://www.dqindia.com/udacity-re-launches-its-intro-to-programming-nanodegree-to-help-bridge-the-skill-gap/

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What does voice search mean for your local SEO strategy?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Chris Camps, ClickZ

Voice search is a growing trend that has been pinging the radars of savvy search marketers for the last few years. In 2016, conversational AI company MindMeld surveyed smartphone users in the US, finding that 60% of users who used voice search had started using it in the last past year – indicating rising adoption rates. This is backed up by Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, which found that Google voice search queries in 2016 are up 35x over 2008, now making up 20% of searches made with the Google Android app. Whereas regular searches usually just include keywords. In fact, Google is currently working to better accommodate these so-called ‘natural language’ queries. At the Google I/O developer conference last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed Google Assistant’s ability to handle follow-up questions without the need to re-state the context.

https://www.clickz.com/what-does-voice-search-mean-for-your-local-seo-strategy/110541/

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University discovers how to bring expensive on-campus resources to online students

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

BY GREG SMITH, eCampus News

UMUC is the largest online public university in the United States, celebrating our 70th year of serving adult students in Maryland and around the world. How do we provide near-ubiquitous access when students are geographically dispersed, use different types of computer platforms, and don’t have access to campus computer labs? Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) seemed like the solution. DaaS can help universities overcome access challenges by delivering industry-grade software to remote students. It was the solution we were looking for, but after deploying, we learned the current crop of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) did not meet UMUC’s “Students First” philosophy.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/university-daas-online-students/

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May 21, 2017

Study: Online Course Enrollment Rising Rapidly at Private Nonprofits

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Jordan Friedman, US News

Even as fewer students overall pursue a higher education, online courses are rising in popularity – including at private nonprofits, which historically were slower to embrace them. More than 6 million students – a large majority of whom were undergraduates – enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2015, according to the first in a series of publications from a research partnership between the Babson Survey Research Group, the blog e-Literate and the education nonprofit WCET. This year’s report relied on federal data from more than 4,800 institutions.

https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-05-03/study-online-learning-enrollment-rising-fastest-at-private-nonprofit-schools

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College Connection: Many options for intellectually curious students

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Susan Alaimo, My Central NJ

High school students in New Jersey can sit at home on their computers and take courses such as Medical Neuroscience from Duke University, Introduction to Computer Science & Programming from M.I.T., Understanding Research Methods from the University of London, or ParticlePhysics from the University of Geneva. These are just a sample of the thousands of college courses that are offered through online services from many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the U.S. and 28 other countries. Students are typically able to explore lectures and nongraded material at no cost. However, there is often a charge if students submit assignments to be graded or if students want to receive a certificate upon completion of a course.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/education/college/2017/05/04/college-connection-many-options-intellectually-curious-students/101198264/

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How to Prepare for an Automated Future

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

by Claire Cain Miller, the Upshot

How do we educate people for an automated world? People still need to learn skills, the respondents said, but they will do that continuously over their careers. In school, the most important thing they can learn is how to learn. At universities, “people learn how to approach new things, ask questions and find answers, deal with new situations,” wrote Uta Russmann, a professor of communications at the FHWien University of Applied Sciences in Vienna. “All this is needed to adjust to ongoing changes in work life. Special skills for a particular job will be learned on the job.” Schools will also need to teach traits that machines can’t yet easily replicate, like creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, adaptability and collaboration. The problem, many respondents said, is that these are not necessarily easy to teach.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/upshot/how-to-prepare-for-an-automated-future.html

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May 20, 2017

Online classes, modern textbooks helping revitalize Cherokee language

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Cherokee.org

Recent research focusing on Native American languages and how they are taught is helping revitalize the Cherokee language, in part, through online courses and modern textbooks developed by the Cherokee Nation. Using these updated methods, the Cherokee Nation’s Cherokee Language Program continues to have a far-reaching impact, with up to 3,000 students taking online courses and around 400 taking community classes each year. Participating students are from all ages and all corners of the world. “There are so many people interested in preserving the language,” said Ed Fields, an online instructor with the Cherokee Language Program who has taught courses for more than a decade. Fields teaches a 10-week, online Cherokee language course in the spring and fall each year, with participants gathering online one hour per day, two days a week. His spring course started April 10 and fall class will start Sept. 11, with registration opening Aug. 28. Through a live camera, students see Fields as he uses his own curriculum and life experiences to teach Cherokee.

http://www.cherokee.org/News/Stories/20170504_Online-classes-modern-textbooks-helping-revitalize-Cherokee-language

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Digital Thinking and the Analog Campus

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

How is digital thinking changing the analog campus? The first thing to get straight is that digital thinking is not the same as educational technology or online learning. Digital thinking is not delivery method or a set of technologies. Rather, digital thinking is a way of understanding the world. 3 things happen when you bring a digital mindset to a traditional analog institution.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/digital-thinking-and-analog-campus

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Major shift in online learning sees pedagogy in driver’s seat

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

BY SCOTT MOORE, eCampus News

Unbundled online program model focuses on pedagogy as the driver for technology decisions rather than the other way around. There is a significant shift occurring in online learning—one that puts students and pedagogy into the driver’s seat, and colleges and universities seeking new ways to increase enrollment and revenue. One barrier for colleges to capture this revenue has been the business model of the companies whose business it is to help them create and deploy online programs—they take approximately 50 percent of the program’s revenue as payment for their services (they typically handle marketing, recruiting, enrollment management, curriculum development, course design, support and technology hosting). These online program management providers (OPMs) have the benefit of reducing up-front investment, but the cost is prohibitive for many, effectively slowing down the movement to online learning.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/online-learning-pedagogy/

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May 19, 2017

Students to colleges: Please use our data this way

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

BY MERIS STANSBURY, eCampus News

Younger students in colleges and universities say they’d like their personalized data to be leveraged toward a more beneficial, meaningful experience—right away. When institutions use student data, it’s usually internally and to overhaul or make adjustments to campus services year-to-year. Yet, thanks to a younger student body’s familiarity with customized communications based on personalized data, innovative institutions are trying to increase enrollment, boost retention and help place students on a career track with on-the-go data.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/big-data/students-colleges-use-data/

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4 out of 5 Companies Have Hired a Coding Bootcamp Graduate

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

With tech skills in high-demand, coding bootcamps are doing pretty well, with Course Report estimating 18,000 graduates by the end of this year. These accelerated programs use a disruptive education model to quickly equip students with computer science (CS) skills and land jobs in the tech industry. As it turns out, four out of five companies will hire coding bootcamp graduates, according to Indeed. Overall, perceptions of coding bootcamp graduates are mostly positive. About 51 percent of survey respondents think that coding bootcamps are a good way to bring diversity into the tech industry, while 50 percent say coding bootcamps efficiently retrain employees. Perhaps for these reasons, 42 percent of hiring managers and recruiters admitted they don’t have a preference as to whether a job candidate graduated from a traditional academic institution or a bootcamp.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/05/03/4-out-of-5-companies-have-hired-a-coding-bootcamp-graduate.aspx

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4 No Nonsense Suggestions to Make the Most of Online Learning

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

By Patrick Wraight, Academy Journal Blog

Online learning is tough. The instructor is somewhere, hopefully in a quiet office with a fast internet connection. That instructor needs to bring an energy that is really different from a classroom. The content needs to be compelling and the visuals that are used really need to be on point to keep the audience’s attention. Maybe we’ll talk about everything that a virtual instructor needs to bring to another day. Today, let’s talk a little about what you, the audience, need to do to help yourself to connect with the instructor and the content. Here are four no nonsense ways to get all that you can out of your online (webinar) learning.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/blogs/academy-journal/2017/05/03/449631.htm

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May 18, 2017

The Rising “Phigital” Student: Education must adapt now to accommodate Gen Z — but how?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 11:47 am

by Maris Stansbury, edCircuit

A major generational clash is underway, says a foremost expert, and it’s affecting all industries, including education. The clash is coming from so-called Gen Z, the first generation to be considered fully “phigital” — unwilling or unable to draw a distinction between the physical world and its digital equivalent. So what does that mean for educators? Well, buckle up and hold on.

http://www.edcircuit.com/rising-phigital-student/

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Higher ed leaders: It’s time to strengthen your social media strategy

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive

A new EAB study found underrepresented minorities rely more heavily on social media to help guide their college search and selection process than do other students. The survey found 27% of first-generation students, 25% of Hispanic students, 24% of African-American students, and 24% of students from households with $60K or lower income levels report they first discovered a college on social media, compared with significantly lower percentages of legacy, Caucasian and higher-income students. According to a survey of 5,580 college-bound students released Tuesday, underrepresented students are less likely to see their family and friends as resources, and they are less likely to have opportunities to visit prospective schools in person.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-leaders-its-time-to-strengthen-your-social-media-strategy/441858/

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