Online Learning Update

By Ida Torres, Android Community

Just last month, Google opened its Classroom service, allowing those who do not have G Suite for Education accounts to still join and even teach classes, manage assignments and collaborate with other teachers and students. Now they’re going one step further by allowing anyone with a Google account to create classes and invite people to be part of it. You can set up and manage either or both online and in-person classes and it can range from classes for adult education, hobbies, after school programs, and special interests.

https://androidcommunity.com/google-classroom-now-lets-you-create-your-own-classes-20170428/

by Amelia Harper, Education Dive

The University of Maryland University College, the largest online public university in the United States, has found a solution to the challenge of providing access to coursework and resources to students who use different types of computer platforms, and don’t have access to campus computer labs. The university is using resources designed for a workplace environment and now integrates Amazon Workspaces into the student learning environment to help create an academic online environment that is more reliable, scalable and student-friendly.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/umuc-integrates-workplace-solutions-to-create-better-academic-online-enviro/441421/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Educational data mining, learning analytics will prove invaluable in helping improve students’ course retention. Colorado State University (CSU) and the McGraw-Hill Education Learning Science Research Council will partner on a new academic research project designed to use learning analytics and educational data mining to improve student retention in STEM courses. This new research initiative, announced at SXSWedu, will investigate the use of advanced techniques in learning analytics and educational data mining to reduce the Drop-Fail-Withdraw (DFW) rates in STEM gateway courses. Unsuccessful course completion in these gateway courses is often associated with significantly lower retention and graduation rates. CSU researchers said they are hopeful the data to come from the partnership will inform other courses and faculty insight.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/big-data/learning-analytics-stem-retention/

by eMarketer

This year, 47% of world’s population will access the internet. eMarketer has raised its projections for worldwide internet users for 2016 to 2021, mainly because of increases in China and other countries in Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. According to eMarketer’s new report, “Worldwide Internet and Mobile Users: eMarketer’s Estimates for 2016-2021” (available only to eMarketer PRO subscribers), nearly 47% of the world’s population will use the internet at least once a month in 2017 (either via desktop/laptop or mobile device), a 6.1% increase vs. 2016. eMarketer estimates internet adoption will surpass the halfway mark in 2019, when 50.6% of the worldwide population will use the internet, equating to 3.82 billion people.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/eMarketer-Updates-Worldwide-Internet-Mobile-User-Figures/1015770

by Anisha Singh, NDTV

In a survey conducted by Coursera, it was revealed that Indian online learners benefit more career and education wise than their counterparts in US and UK. Among the working professionals and job seekers, almost 89% online learners from India said that they benefitted in their career compared to 84% people globally. The number of online learners who said they advanced in their career was 84% in the US and 86% in the UK. In India, 46% of career builders said that they became better t their job and 39% of those surveyed said that taking online courses improved their chances of getting a job. Coursera Chief Business Officer Nikhil Sinha told PTI, “Since Coursera launched five years ago, online learning has transformed from an experiment in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) to a widely accepted choice among Indians looking to acquire new skills.” Till now more than 2 million Indians are registered on Coursera. As per the survey, 98% of Indian learners said to have benefitted which is more than the global average of 93%.

http://www.ndtv.com/education/indians-benefit-more-from-online-courses-than-global-peers-1687164

By Rick Seltzer, Inside Higher Ed

Faculty members at Purdue University took a strong stance Thursday against last week’s unorthodox acquisition of Kaplan University, passing a University Senate resolution calling the deal a violation of common-sense educational practice and respect for Purdue faculty. The resolution calls on Purdue President Mitch Daniels and the university’s Board of Trustees to rescind any decisions possible about the online-heavy university Purdue is acquiring from Kaplan. It also calls on Purdue leaders to include faculty members in all decisions made going forward about the soon-to-be-acquired university. That wording could catch the attention of Purdue’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission. HLC has to sign off on the acquisition before it can close, as do state and federal regulators. Accreditors generally expect a prominent faculty role in academic-related decisions.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/05/purdue-faculty-votes-against-kaplan-process

by Ross Rubin, CIO

Lower cost, course variety, schedule flexibility and the optional endorsement of top universities are among the forces driving the wave of online technical education. However, spotty feedback from teachers and follow-through from students can compromise the experience. Online providers of technical education courses include Udemy, a marketplace in which virtually anyone can offer instruction, and sites such as Coursera, edX and Udacity that partner with universities. New York-based General Assembly, which focuses on technical skills development, offers online companion courses to physical class offerings that can span a weekend or go on for months in one of its immersive programs. It has served more than 350,000 students

http://www.cio.com/article/3192199/it-industry/online-courses-become-effective-for-building-technical-skills-earning-certifications.html

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive

According to a new report from Duo Labs Research, 70% of universities surveyed in a Freedom of Information inquiry have fallen victim to phishing scams in the last year. Several of the schools surveyed indicated multiple attacks, and 10% indicated 51 or more attacks in the last year. The report focused heavily on U.K. institutions, but Jordan Wright, Senior R&D Engineer at Duo Security, said via email, “[I]t’s safe to assume that U.S.-based universities are just as vulnerable to phishing attacks as those in the U.K.”

http://www.educationdive.com/news/70-of-uk-universities-are-phishing-victims-and-us-numbers-are-likely-sim/441348/

by Laura Pappano, the Hechinger Report

The bachelor’s degree may be the classic pass to join the world of work, but increasingly it’s no longer enough. We have entered a “prove it” economy in which codified skills are currency. It’s driving a revolution in how education is constructed, delivered, used — and credentialed. Even as degrees, from associates to doctorates, proliferate, they are joined — maybe trumped — by thousands of resume-worthy credentials from shorter, non-degree programs. Half of recent college graduates are not using skills they learned in college at work; 86 percent are learning new skills outside of college. The credentials come from many sources: traditional universities, online platforms like edX, trade organizations like the American Hotel and Lodging Institute and companies like Jiffy Lube and IBM. Content and costs vary. Some are earned in quick sessions; others take months.

http://hechingerreport.org/college-degree-outdated/

by eMarketer Daily

Twitter’s latest quarterly results indicate the social network has found its footing once again. While revenues declined for the first time ever, the company added 9 million more users. “We’re proud to report accelerating growth in daily active usage for the fourth consecutive quarter, up 14% year over year,” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a statement. This year, eMarketer estimates Twitter’s worldwide user base will grow 3.4% to 255.3 million monthly users.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Twitter-Gains-More-Followers/1015764

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX launched a new line of programs that are designed to build or advance critical skills for in-demand careers like software development and data science. Professional Certificate programs “provide learners with a more immediate path to reskill or upskill quickly in order to advance their career or position themselves for a new job,” according to the announcement. Each offers a series of courses created in collaboration with industry professionals and universities, focusing on job competencies and professional development in fields like computer science, data science and digital marketing. According to the edX announcement, “certificates are endorsed by corporations like HSBC, GitHub and The North Face, and recognized for real career relevancy.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/04/26/edx-certificate-programs-aim-to-deliver-immediate-pathways-to-careers.aspx

By St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial

A higher education business model targeted in the Obama administration for preying on military veterans, minorities and poor people is poised to get a second life under the new education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The businesses are for-profit college companies, including Trump University, which racked up enormous student debt that led to exploding default rates. They prey on students who lack the academic credentials to get into public higher education institutions. For-profit colleges account for about 8 percent of total higher education enrollment but 15 percent of subsidized student loans. You don’t have to be a math whiz to know that equation’s out of whack. Taxpayers are saddled with bills they shouldn’t have to pay to bail out former students defrauded or misled by the for-profit companies.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/04/25/profit-education-come-roaring-back-trump-administration/

By Ruth Reynard, Campus Technology

As with every new “technology” that has entered society since the advent of the quill and the printing press, there are immediate interests and innovations pursued by early adopters, innovators, scientists and end users. In most cases, the technology is used for a while and then educators begin to look at the potential benefits for learning and instruction. Usually that happens when we realize the technology is popular and the younger generations are enthralled with using it — and therefore it is “here to stay.” As educators, we then begin to look at how the technology is impacting the way students think and process information — and how we can integrate the technology in the teaching and learning process.That model is an apt description of the state of virtual reality (VR) technology in education. As VR increasingly goes mainstream, there are various points of view on its current effectiveness in teaching and learning — and its potential use moving forward.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/04/26/the-impact-of-virtual-reality-on-learning.aspx

By Dhawal Shah, EdSurge

As MOOC providers focussed on finding a business model, they started putting certain aspects of the experience behind a paywall, hoping to get more people to pay. MOOCs went from free to free to audit (nevermind that the concept of auditing a class is completely foreign in most parts of the world). Free certificates were the first items to be shifted from free to pay. Then the graded assignments were put behind paywall. Now all the major MOOC providers have (or will soon have) some courses that are completely paid (even the videos). This shift to a freemium model, with more and more chances to up-sell, seems to be working for the providers, with the top three players earning more than $100 million combined last year. Each provider has a different model, and that can be really confusing to students. So here’s a summary of what free means for the four biggest MOOC players.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-04-20-moocs-started-out-completely-free-where-are-they-now

By Rachel Gee, Marketing Week

Google has unveiled plans to use its Squared Online course to disrupt the education system, as it says it is “successfully” merging classroom and online learning styles, something it claims rival tech firms have failed to do. “Squared Online bridges the gap between the classic classroom experience, where you can’t get scale, and e-learning that can sometimes be a bit dry. It offers a more experiential learning experience,” says Shuvo Saha, director of the Google Digital Academy. The course focuses on digital marketing and is split into five modules which look at disruption, how tech is changing businesses, the rise of social and mobile, data analytics and insights.

https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/04/20/google-disrupting-education-system/

by Wylie Wong, EdTech

As technology drives new career paths, colleges pivot to help students get ready. At Indiana University avid gamers are enrolled in the university’s Bachelor of Science in Game Design program, established in 2015. To prepare them, IU invested in state-of-the-art classrooms and labs featuring high-end gaming PCs, virtual reality headsets and specialized software that let students design and build their own games. Anthony P. Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, says that advances in technology tend to shape higher education programs in two ways: first, through traditional degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Second, among a broader set of majors (e.g., healthcare, business and education), institutions are incorporating technology into curricula to ensure students have the necessary tech skills to meet employers’ needs.

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/04/colleges-pivot-prep-students-high-demand-tech-careers

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

Colleges and universities are increasingly investing in creating new degrees, as well as purchasing new hardware and software, in order to offer students more choices as they enter a workforce increasingly dependent on STEM knowledge, according to Ed Tech: Focus on Higher Ed. Institutions are finding that cybersecurity skills are increasingly in demand, with San Diego State University seeing Homeland Security master’s degree students double in the past year. College educators will also need to keep pace with the changes coming to classrooms, and Georgetown has responded by creating a masters of arts in Learning and Design that will prep instructors on careers in educational technology and learning analytics.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-and-universities-invest-in-tech-to-support-new-stem-degrees/441316/

By Cher Zevala, IoT Evolution World

One area that is seeing a great deal of change due to big data is online learning. As online learning has become an integral part of the overall educational system, administrators, curriculum designers, and instructors have all sought to make the experience as meaningful and engaging as possible. More than ever before, students are looking for programs that will meet their specific needs and allow them to have a more personalized experience, and data is an important part of making that happen. Students looking for the best online MBA program are likely to be more concerned with how the curriculum can be customized to their own needs than with other factors.

http://www.iotevolutionworld.com/iot/articles/431493-using-big-data-improve-online-learning-experience.htm

by Hays Daily News

Eight-week courses are gaining popularity at Fort Hays State and are available in a broad range of programs through the university’s Department of Advanced Education Programs, which offer core courses across several programs. Instead of enrolling in a traditional 16-week course in time for the fall and spring semester start dates, online students can now choose from several other dates to enroll in the same course that is completed in half the time. “These offerings are being developed to meet the needs of the adult students who are looking for both an expedited timeline to complete their degree and/or have decided to go to school after one of the three traditional start dates,” said Dennis King, assistant vice president for student affairs. “The idea is to offer something for the adult student who presses to move through their program at a little faster pace.”

http://www.hdnews.net/press_releases/option-of-shorter-online-courses-gaining-popularity-at-fort-hays/article_10df9398-492a-5831-94f2-0916bfc25a00.html

by the UConn Daily Campus Editorial Board

On April 13, the student activist group, UConnPIRG, held a panel in appreciation of open educational resources (OERs) and the UConn professors who utilize them. OERs are free learning materials. They are free either because they are in the public domain or due to intellectual property license. This panel, hosted by UConnPIRG, showcased 20 professors of various disciplines, ranging from Chemistry to English, who have implemented these resources into their classes. This panel and the professors it featured are taking important steps to improve the university for its students. These highlighted successes with OERs should encourage other professors to try incorporating these resources for some of their classes. The university must support this movement as well. It is important that the university continually strive to make higher education less expensive, while bettering the overall university experience. Open educational resources do both.

http://dailycampus.com/stories/2017/4/23/the-steps-towards-open-resource-materials