Online Learning Update

By STEVE LOHR, NY Times

This skills-based jobs approach matters at a time when there is a push to improve the circumstances of those left behind in the American economy, many of whom voted for President Trump. “We desperately need to revive a second route to the middle class for people without four-year college degrees, as manufacturing once was,” said Robert Reich, a labor secretary in the Clinton administration who is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “We have to move toward a system that works.” The skills-based concept is gaining momentum, with nonprofit organizations, schools, state governments and companies, typically in partnerships, beginning to roll out such efforts. On Wednesday, the approach received a strong corporate endorsement from Microsoft, which announced a grant of more than $25 million to help Skillful, a program to foster skills-oriented hiring, training and education.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/technology/tech-jobs-skills-college-degree.html

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

California and Pennsylvania are making efforts to boost enrollment in their community college systems, utilizing different approaches to target underrepresented student populations, according to Inside Higher Ed. A California proposal seeks to close gaps caused by declining enrollment over the last 10 years by creating an online-only college which targets unemployed or underemployed adults who may want additional schooling. Pennsylvania is looking to use an “interactive television” model to reach students in rural areas. The Rural Regional College of Northern Pennsylvania will target students living in nine counties in the northwestern part of the state where there are no public community colleges. The state’s Department of Education approved the new school last month, where students will interact on television with an instructor teaching students live.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/california-pennsylvania-disrupt-the-two-year-business-model/445989/

by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock, Teaching & Learning in Social Work

As the field of online education grows and new technologies develop, it’s important to us to make sure that we’re inclusive in administration, planning, and teaching.  Matthea Marquart and Beth Counselman-Carpenter of Columbia hosted a conversation on the topic, tod learn from the experiences of our peers at other institutions. You can access a copy of our handout, which includes details about the tools & strategies we’ve used to support online students who are deaf, here: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V12B58 From our perspective, there are three critical components to success: never assume, attention to a solid time line, and thorough preparation with a back-up plan for live course sessions.

http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/06/23/supporting-the-success-of-online-students-who-are-deaf-lessons-presented-at-swde2017/

BY MERIS STANSBURY, Campus Technology

Today’s colleges and universities know that online learning is a must for satisfying the learning demands of a rapidly changing student body. Now, recent market data exposes just how big the business of online learning really is, as well as how much it’s expected to grow in the near future, and which components of online learning are expected to bring in the most revenue. Recent findings detailed in “Digital Learning Compass: Distance Education Enrollment Report 2017,” find that thirty percent of all students in higher education are now taking at least one online course. Those online learners are split almost evenly between students who are exclusively online (14 percent) and those who take some courses in person (16 percent).

https://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/market-future-online-learning/

By Rhea Kelly, THE Journal

According to the latest forecast from International Data Corp., the worldwide wearables market will increase 20.4 percent this year compared to 2016, and nearly double by 2021 — reaching a total of 240.1 million units shipped that year. The majority of that growth will come from the watches product category, which IDC anticipates “will account for the majority of all wearable devices shipped during the forecast period.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/06/22/led-by-watches-wearables-market-expected-to-nearly-double-by-2021.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Today’s workforce, as nearly everyone knows, is increasingly global. And with that global nature comes fierce competition–students will need an arsenal of workforce skills in order to stand out from their peers. According to a recent McGraw-Hill Education survey, just 40 percent of college seniors said they felt their college experience was helpful in preparing for a career. Alarmingly, that percentage plummeted to 19 percent for women answering the same question. That same survey also found that students in STEM majors were the most likely out of any group to report that they are optimistic about their career prospects (73 percent). According to data from the nonprofit Institute for the Future, there are 6 drivers of change in today’s workforce:

https://www.ecampusnews.com/stem/top-workforce-skills-2020/

BY Hovhannes Avoyan, Forbes

Google released three months’ worth of online courses on deep learning, which also serves as an example of how tech giants are embracing the skills shortage challenge while at the same time educating the industry to work on its products. In my opinion, in order to satisfy the global demand for highly skilled professionals in the field, basecamps, universities and other educational organizations need to collaborate with big companies in order to teach a new generation of data scientists. They are the ones who will define our future and replace engineers, who, ironically, may be working hard to design robots that will one day take over their jobs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/06/26/machine-learning-is-creating-a-demand-for-new-skills/

By: Marie Norman, Faculty Focus

So how do you teach in this odd virtual space? How do you keep participants from descending into that peculiar passivity characteristic of conference calls? And how do you help students fight the constant temptation of momentarily clicking away from class? While virtual classes are not without challenges, there are, in fact, concrete steps you can take to run class sessions that are energetic, interactive, and productive. Here are a few suggestions.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/synchronous-online-classes-10-tips-engaging-students/

By Maya Beasley, Center for American Progress

As discussed in an earlier report, putting aside hiring failures and hostile environments at tech companies, there remains a widening gap between job requirements and the skills that universities provide their students, especially people of color.In recognition of this gap, Howard University and Google recently joined forces to create Howard West, a program for 25 to 30 rising junior and senior computer science students from the university at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The program, which begins in summer 2017, will take place over three months; senior Google engineers and Howard faculty will act as teachers, and the program appears to be largely instructional. Similarly, Georgia Tech and Udacity recently teamed up to provide a series of free online courses that are directly applicable to a range of careers in technology for individuals with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2017/06/23/434758/todays-students-prepared-enter-tech-industry/

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The University of California, Los Angeles, is planning a major expansion in the online certificate and graduate degree markets that it hopes will reach as many as 15,000 students by early next decade. Wayne Smutz, dean of continuing education and UCLA Extension, said in a statement that UCLA is in the planning stages to launch UCLA Global Online, which will offer for-credit courses and programs, as well as certificate programs from the university’s extension arm. Smutz will serve as UCLA Global Online’s founding dean. http://globalonline.ucla.edu/ “The programs and courses will focus on the needs of Los Angeles’s largest industries such as entertainment, aerospace, health care and advanced manufacturing in order to develop and attract talent to our community,” Smutz said. “The goal is to expand and improve ease of access to UCLA’s educational offerings, and we hope to reach upwards of 15,000 learners in the next five years.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/07/14/ucla-plans-online-ed-expansion

BY WILLIAM FENTON, PC Magazine

Contrary to popular perception, faculty are not reflexively opposed to online learning. In a recent survey of 3,500 postsecondary faculty and administrators, Tyton Partners found that a majority of faculty—63 percent—valued the potential impact of courseware. The trouble is, they lack the time and training to pursue it. The solution isn’t another learning management system (LMS). Educators need an easy onramp to blended learning that leverages the tools and repositories they already use. Google might have the answer. Google G Suite for Education is already a fixture in K-12 and higher education. According to Google, 70 million students and teachers rely upon the online suite—half of all primary and secondary students in the US and more than 800 colleges and universities, as of last spring.

https://www.pcmag.com/commentary/354491/google-classroom-could-bridge-a-gap-in-online-learning

By Michael Lev, Arizona Daily Star

For the first time, the UA is offering a class in sports analytics, a booming industry in the world of professional athletics. “MGMT 359 Sports Analytics,” part of the Eller Sports Management Program, provides students with an entry point to the data analysis that has become an essential ingredient in front offices across every major sport. Ricardo Valerdi, who created the curriculum and is teaching the class, is hopeful it can supply aspiring Billy Beanes with the tools they need to land jobs in sports analytics and similar fields. The class is taught online, so Valerdi, with the aid of Eller’s multimedia department, made short, lighthearted introductory videos for each “inning.”

http://tucson.com/sports/arizonawildcats/new-sports-analytics-class-proves-popular-at-university-of-arizona/article_d09f9d54-90d3-5d62-9133-30fc84032d05.html

By Sydney Johnson, EdSurge

The program, which kicked off in 2016, shared its first set of findings today about what faculty are learning it takes to create an OER degree. “OER can be an essential pillar of the community college student success agenda,” says Karen Stout, president and CEO of ATD. “It has the potential to trigger changes in teaching and learning and help students complete their courses and degrees.” There will be at least 53 degree pathways offered by the 38 schools. In this past spring semester, the ATD study shows students on average have saved about $134, or 5 to 22 percent of what they were paying, per course. The goal is to drastically bump those numbers up, Stout says, by the time full majors are slated to be complete in fall 2018.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-22-38-community-colleges-share-what-it-takes-to-launch-an-oer-degree-program

By Sean Gallagher, EdSurge

Given that success in all things online, it’s worth noting how much of Amazon’s recent bets involve establishing a brick-and-mortar presence. For years, Amazon has been strategically investing in physical presence, including fulfillment centers closer to its customers and recently piloting brick-and-mortar bookstores. The strategy is that the online and offline commerce worlds are converging in unprecedented ways, not just in selling groceries but in all kinds of areas. There’s a lesson for higher education, about the importance of offline channels in a digitally-driven economy—and a moment to reflect on the impactful trends that have materialized in the online education market.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-22-how-amazon-s-purchase-of-whole-foods-highlights-the-hybrid-omnichannel-future-of-higher-ed

by Nic Pillow, Training Zone

Online elearning has been hugely successful in allowing training to be delivered cost-effectively to very large audiences. However, training that’s purely online often results in a reduced experience and quality of learning compared to interactive classroom training. By contrast, we have found that a new online approach – Connected Learning – can provide even greater interaction, engagement, and training success than does the smallest of classes. Connected Learning was pioneered by Jonathan Worth in Phonar – an award-winning university photography course. From an inauspicious start with 9 students in the back-room of a cinema, within 3 years, it become the most heavily over-subscribed course in the university where it attracted 35,000 online participants

https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/deliver/training/connected-learning-the-new-socially-interactive-approach-to-online-training

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

Students at the University of Georgia can now highlight both academic skills and co-curricular work in a comprehensive e-portfolio. The university has partnered with Portfolium to roll out the company’s e-portfolio technology at the 36,000-student institution. With Portfolium, students can share their portfolios with peers and faculty and build a post-grad job network. The technology will “enhance the ability for University of Georgia students to stand out from the crowd in job searches by showcasing skills obtained through UGA co-curricular activities in addition to their academic accomplishments.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/06/22/eportfolio-tech-to-help-u-georgia-students-showcase-skills.aspx

by Nick Roll, Inside Higher Ed

Technology companies and instructor advocates are making the pitch — and slowly making headway — for the practical uses of virtual and augmented realities, especially in health care, art history and social work courses. “We don’t even know what we don’t know yet,” said Deb Adair, executive director of Quality Matters, a consortium of institutions and publishers that places quantitative measures on online learning methods and products. Still, she said, VR and AR are on QM’s radar, and the experience of going through the motions in the classroom would be helpful. Collecting data might be the key to getting skeptics to look at VR and AR beyond “cool,” said Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield and founding director council for online education for the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. “Higher education is moving beyond just the coolness factor to looking at outcomes,” he said. But, he added, “What are the outcomes?”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/07/12/vr-and-ar-more-just-cool

By Kim Murdock, the Times Record

Ed Fields, an online Cherokee language course instructor, uses a live video stream to reach thousands of students across the world each year. Keeping alive a language and culture that were on the verge of dying is critical, and making Cherokee language classes available online has successfully contributed to the effort, said B.J. Foreman, multi-media director for the Cherokee Nation. The online classes are available to the public free of charge, Foreman said; an internet connection and free online registration at www.cherokee.org is all that is needed to access the classes. The classes can be located by clicking “Language Classes” under “Quick Links” on the left side of the website.

http://www.swtimes.com/entertainmentlife/20170623/online-classes-new-text-help-keep-cherokee-language-alive

by GABRIELA VELASQUEZ, Missourian

Parents’ eyes lit up Wednesday when UM System President Mun Choi announced an initiative to move the system towards adopting open educational resources. Or, more simply, free books. Open educational resources are published with open access copyrights, are free for students and can be distributed and used for little to no cost. Instructors also can write and add chapters to tailor textbooks to specific courses. They are accessed online, usually as PDFs, and can be revised and updated fairly quickly, according to previous Missourian reporting.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/um-system-announces-plan-to-adopt-open-educational-resources/article_0ea53ee2-569b-11e7-9195-53257ada9554.html

by Ben Pipe, Virtual College

More than ever before, learners are turning to their colleagues, friends and online forums to aid them in their knowledge. Here we take a look at the evolution of social learning. Social learning is a buzzword in the learning and development world that is transforming the way we absorb knowledge. But what does this term actually mean? In short, social learning focuses on learning by interacting and discussing content with others. It plays a large role in the workplace and includes behaviours such as: collaborating with other employees on project deliverables, guided learning programs, and the use of social media for learning purposes.

https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/virtual-college/2017/06/the-evolution-of-social-learning

By Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

In dramatic shift, more than half of Republicans now say colleges have a negative impact on the U.S., with wealthier, older and more educated Republicans being least positive. An annual survey by the Pew Research Center on Americans’ views of national institutions, released this week, found a dramatic attitude shift on higher education among Republicans and people who lean Republican, with the change occurring across most demographic and ideological groups. The latest version of the survey, conducted last month among 2,504 adults, for the first time found a majority (58 percent) of Republicans saying colleges have a negative effect, compared to 36 percent saying they have a positive effect. 72 percent of Democrats viewed colleges positively (up from 65 percent in 2010) compared to a negative response from 19 percent this year. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/07/11/dramatic-shift-most-republicans-now-say-colleges-have-negative-impact