Online Learning Update

by Randal Mason, Huffington Post

In the two years since a devastating earthquake damaged or destroyed over 35,000 classrooms, Nepal struggles to get its education system back on track. But while the country has made impressive strides in improving enrollment rates for primary school students, learning outcomes at all levels remain weak. In such a challenging environment, educators like Baman Kumar Ghimire are turning to technology to innovate. A teacher at Motherland Higher Secondary School in Pokhara, Nepal, Ghimire travels to classrooms across the country to promote MOOCs (massive open online courses). In a country where over 25% of the population lives below the poverty line, such free online classes are an invaluable educational resource, once people know how to access them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/using-moocs-to-advance-education-in-nepal_us_58fde998e4b0f02c3870ec59

By John Huetter, RDN

Seeking to expand its body shop network ahead of the potentially blockbuster Model 3, Tesla informed its certified collision repairers last week that it would replace its in-house training and welding requirements for curriculum held online and administered by I-CAR, respectively. “Building on the past 5 years of experience, we have been able to evaluate and dramatically simplify training, and will no longer require instructor led, onsite training,” Tesla wrote in an email to its certified shops obtained by Repairer Driven News. “We have developed online training as a more time and cost effective way to train your technicians to be approved for Tesla repairs. Online training offers many benefits not possible solely with instructor led training, such as unlimited reviewing of procedures, more frequent class offerings and updates for the network, and less time to train our whole technician population vs cycling everyone through constrained class rooms.

http://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2017/04/24/tesla-moves-certified-auto-body-courses-online-outsources-welding-to-i-car/

By Steve Ranger, ZD Net

And now, after almost a decade of furious change, the smartphone is at the height of its powers. It is our constant digital companion, having absorbed the capabilities of the PC, camera, TV, sat-nav, and more along the way. But — to misquote — the screen that shines twice as bright, shines half as long. And the smartphone has shone so very, very brightly.For a while it looked like wearables would be the next big thing, but it is proving just too hard to fit enough processing power and battery life into something like a smartwatch to make it a viable alternative to a phone. And, even if those two problems can be overcome, the screen is never going to be big enough on any wearable for it to be our primary connection to the digital world. That leaves augmented and virtual reality as the prime candidate. However, as smartglasses or mind-reading technology make our relationship with technology even more intimate and difficult to navigate, we may look back on the complications of the smartphone era with something resembling nostalgia.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-death-of-the-smartphone-is-closer-than-you-think-heres-what-comes-next/

By Jordan Friedman, US News

Among the 298 National Universities ranked in U.S. News’ 2017 Best Colleges, 96 were also ranked in the 2017 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs.No National University ranked higher than No. 50 has a ranked online bachelor’s program. The map linked below shows which National Universities ranked by U.S. News also have a ranked online bachelor’s program. Schools that did not participate in both rankings and unranked programs were not considered for this report. Rank Not Published, or RNP, denotes an institution ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-04-21/map-national-universities-that-offer-online-bachelors-programs

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZD Net

Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows 10 Cloud next month, and leaked specs suggest that it is being positioned as a competitor to Google’s Chromebook platform. The performance comparisons suggest that Windows 10 Cloud systems would have battery performance figures identical to that of a generic Chromebook, and boot and login times in the same ballpark. The wording also makes it clear that these devices are aimed at the education market, and perhaps are designed to pave the way for more affordable versions of the Surface Book. On paper at least, the spec is impressive. Doubly so because we’re talking about Windows here, and not Google’s Chromebook platform, which was designed from the ground-up to be fast and lightweight.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/does-microsoft-have-what-it-takes-to-take-on-the-chomebook-and-the-ipad/

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

While overall college enrollment has declined since the U.S. emerged from the recession following the financial crisis, online enrollment continues to grow across all sectors of higher education, data show. In fact, about two-thirds of all colleges reported that their distance education enrollments grew from 2012 to 2015. The share is highest among private nonprofits (68 percent), but not that much higher than among for-profit (63.9 percent) and public institutions (63.7 percent). And the 3.9 percent year-over-year growth rate reported in fall 2015, the most up-to-date enrollment data available, is the highest observed during that four-year period. The findings come from Digital Learning Compass, a report analyzing federal higher education enrollment data, produced by the Babson Survey Research Group, e-Literate and the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/02/report-finds-growth-volatility-online-education-market

BY HEATHER NGOMA, eCampus News

In the digital age, educator discomfort in using some social media can have a direct effect on students’ digital literacy skills. Here are some solutions.Despite clear advantages to advancing digital literacy, institutions often experience considerable roadblocks to implementing digital literacy initiatives. Interestingly, accessibility often isn’t the biggest factor blocking this process—more often than not, it comes down to an educator’s own comfort with social media. Educators with little to no training on how to integrate digital literacy exercises into the classroom run the risk of compromising their students’ development of valuable soft skills that can produce educational and professional career advantages.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/twitter-problem-educators/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Virtual Reality (VR) is changing the way people see the future. As with video games emerging into the classroom in the early 2000s, this new technology will soon be making its way into classrooms as well. Many teachers are receptive to working with this technology, but some of them are not quite aware of the effect VR can have on a classroom environment. It can change the way students learn in the long run.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/virtual-reality-change-way-students-learn/

CBS Philly

Attending college should be the time of your life, right? But sometimes the social aspect of college can get in the way of the ultimate goal—graduating with a great education with little to no debt. Online classes also run in accelerated terms, and since you can do the work for the online course when it is convenient for you, you can take more classes each semester to fit into your busy schedule. Most schools also have hybrid classes which are classes that meet in the classroom with a teacher 50% of the time, but the other 50% of the work is done online.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/04/20/five-ways-to-graduate-college-early-with-less-debt/

By ERICA CIRINO, eCampus News

Digital learning opportunities are widely available and abundant today. From MOOCs to digital study aids to virtual tutoring, there are many ways for students to hone their academic skills while still maintaining flexibility in their schedules. An added bonus? They can often do this from the comfort and convenience of their own computer, smartphone, or other electronic device. What’s more, virtual experiences are not only becoming more prevalent in the academic realm, but in the professional sphere as well. This can be seen in the increase in remote workforces and online courses/graduate programs. Students can benefit from the availability of virtual learning experiences, not just in augmenting their current learning experiences, but in helping to prepare them for the real world. The key is in knowing how to use these resources to their advantage.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/students-virtual-learning/

By Chris Foley, US News

Choosing between online and on-campus education and then selecting a specific program can be tricky if you don’t first determine all of the costs. Many prospective students only consider tuition and fees, what are usually referred to as “direct costs,” or those that college will bill directly to you. But they usually overlook the hidden costs of getting an education – like having to give up a job or moving elsewhere. These are “opportunity costs,” and they can be a major factor when deciding between an online and traditional degree or certificate. Opportunity costs include whatever a student gives up to pursue a degree. If you enroll in an on-campus program, you may have to pass up a promotion or cut down your work hours. Thus, the opportunity costs of a full-time traditional program, especially one requiring you to relocate, can be quite significant – larger than just tuition and fees.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-04-21/calculate-the-true-cost-of-an-online-degree

by Hannah Nyren, Ed TechTimes

Picture a big, beautiful college campus: Dorms dotting the landscape, students rushing across the quad. Tools and technology that help enhance classroom instruction — not replace it. These are probably the main aspects of what you think of when you consider a traditional college experience. But it’s 2017. Although those ideas of what a college experience should be like are still alive and well in some schools in the United States, they are no longer the only options for those seeking higher education. With the rise of online schooling and other hybrid, unconventional forms of higher ed, the college experience has changed immensely. To capture a snapshot of this evolution, we had Jake Murray from Boston University’s School of Education sit down with Peter Stokes, the Managing Director of Huron, a consulting group that advises higher ed leaders, amongst others.

http://edtechtimes.com/2017/04/19/future-higher-ed-online-campus-interview-peter-stokes-managing-director-huron/