Online Learning Update

by Alex Cott, Michigan Daily

In March 2017, University President Mark Schlissel announced the University of Michigan’s development of Teach-Outs, an educational series covering a broad range of current topics that can be accessed for free through digital platforms, edX and Coursera. After the series’ first several months, the first five Teach-Outs have engaged participants from all over the world. The current series pays homage to the University’s Teach-In Series held in 1965 as a response to the Vietnam War. Professors held teach-ins to encourage students to form educated responses to the rapidly changing political climate. Fifty years later, the University has revamped the series to be a Teach-Out, where professors have discussions through online edX courses, or massive open online courses, in order for the program to reach a global audience.  “In the current Hurricanes Teach-Out, students in Professor Samson’s Extreme Weather course contributed questions for extreme weather experts, and they also helped research and respond to participants’ questions in the Teach-Out discussions themselves,” Hilton said.

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/academics/university-teach-out-series-engages-participants-over-130-countries

By Justin Draeger, Inside Higher Ed

The recommended penalties placed on Western Governors University will have a dampening effect on any institution that is pursuing new or modified learning models, argues Justin Draeger. What’s the fastest way to stifle innovation? Declare a higher education institution ineligible for federal financial aid, recommend it return hundreds of millions of dollars and watch other colleges and universities duck for cover.  Western Governors University, a well-known nonprofit, online education provider, is under pressure to return $713 million in federal financial aid after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General said in an audit report that the university is ineligible to participate in Title IV programs because of not meeting certain standards.

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/09/29/how-education-departments-approach-western-governors-university-could-impede-higher

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

We need to revise our thinking about MOOCs. The old story was that MOOCs are just another overhyped educational technology, one more example of interests outside of the academy (investors, technologists) seeking to “disrupt college” without any true understanding of how higher education actually works.
The new MOOC story may be about the professors. This is a narrative of energy and enthusiasm to create and teach open online courses that is coming from the professors themselves, as opposed to the institutions in which they work.
Professors, it turns out, love what they teach about and research.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/professors-have-taken-over-moocs

By Ben Henderson, eLearning Inside

Measuring CPD has always been tricky calculation.  A two hour session on ‘teamwork’ for example, could easily be less effective than a sub-10 minute YouTube video viewed on the train to the office. One of these activities will potentially be recorded as CPD, and the other barely mentioned.  As a professional, you have ownership of your development on an intrinsic level. You are the only one who knows if a given piece of training or advice has provided value and support to your career development, and that is something which is difficult to measure in an objective sense.  If you would like to track your own CPD, then take a look at Experience API which is a new specification for online learning that makes it easier to collect information about the wide range of professional development experiences an individual has both online and offline.

https://news.elearninginside.com/ad-hoc-informal-learning-opportunities-continuing-professional-development/

By Mike Malloy, World-Herald

Back in the era of dial-up Internet and floppy discs, Mary Hawkins helped guide Bellevue University into the then mostly uncharted world of online education. It was 1996. Hawkins, who was less than a year into her tenure as university president, established Bellevue’s first online offering – an undergraduate management class. Unsure where to cap enrollment, Hawkins set the class limit at 1,000. “We got eight,” she said. Not 8,000 students. Eight students. Professors also were slow to boot up. “We were literally telling people to unpack the box the computer came in,” Hawkins said. Today, Bellevue has 9,176 online students, who log in from 130 countries to pursue 80 different degrees.

http://www.omaha.com/special_sections/college-careers/online-courses-initially-slow-to-boot-now-dominate-some-curricula/article_88135ae8-b398-5d6c-9236-be0c62378d52.html

By Marian Stoltz-Loike, US News

Whether you have decided to pursue an online degree for a new job or to advance in your current role, paying for your education can be a major hurdle.  Financing your online education can seem daunting, but by looking into available grants and loans and how payment works, you can make educated choices and determine how to get the most value for your money. Linked below are five key financial questions to ask as you research different options.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-09-22/ask-5-financial-questions-when-picking-an-online-degree-program

by Pat Donachie, Education Dive

About 85% of new college or university students had not purchased college textbooks by the first day of class or decided not to buy the textbooks at all, according to a new survey of students conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of VitalSource Technologies LLC. This was a 5% jump from a similar survey the year before. About 91% of students who did not purchase the materials cited costs as the issue, and half of those students admitted that their grades went down because they did not have the necessary materials. Students also cited an interest in “inclusive access,” which involves incorporating the cost of digital classroom materials into the cost of tuition. 88% of students believed that incorporating inclusive access would help their grades improve, in lieu of using traditional print resources and textbooks. 78% of students whose schools did not have such an initiative underway expressed hope their school would investigate bringing inclusive access to their campus.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/students-are-opting-out-of-purchasing-textbooks-because-of-cost-how-oers/505242/

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal
Sales of wearable devices will post double-digit gains each year through 2021, according to a new forecast from International Data Corp. (IDC).  Vendors will sell 121.7 million devices this year, according to the forecast, up 16.6 percent over last year’s 104.4 million shipments. By 2021, the company predicts total sales to reach 229.5 million units on the strength of a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2 percent. Wrist-worn devices will drive the market, according to the company, while “lesser-known wearable products, such as clothing and ear-wear, will experience market-beating growth in the years to come.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/09/15/wearables-to-see-double-digit-growth-through-2021.aspx

By Nandini Yadav, BGR India

However, for anyone who would consider e-learning, the first question would be about the relevance and the acceptability of that degree. More often than not, a traditional degree would be preferred over a degree you received online. To be fair, such practices have been formed to avoid fraudulent degrees and trickery. But times are changing, and so is acceptability. Coursera’s Raghav Gupta says, given the current scenario, “employers are increasingly evaluating online courses more formally for hiring. The level of acceptance can also be calculated by fact that multiple number of companies now turning to online platforms to upskill their workforce as well.”

http://www.bgr.in/news/online-learning-is-democratizing-education-and-it-needs-to-be-encouraged-further/

By Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

We generally consider binging a bad thing, but a new study conducted by Wharton professors Eric Bradlow, J. Wesley Hutchinson, and doctoral candidate Tong Lu, suggests that binging content helps us learn better. Their study examined students taking a class on Coursera, one of the most widely used online education platforms. They received and analyzed data regarding how quickly students in multiple different classes consumed each learning module and compared it to their performance in the class.

https://news.elearninginside.com/binge-learning-online-education-can-learn-netflix/

by Todd Spangler, Variety

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese is launching an internet-based course in making movies — his first foray into e-learning. The Oscar-winning director will debut the class in early 2018 through online-education startup MasterClass. The class costs $90 for unlimited access to more than 20 video lessons; pre-enrollment is available starting Friday at masterclass.com/ms.  In the course, Scorsese will deconstruct his films and provide insights into how he approaches filmmaking, including lessons on storytelling, editing and working with actors. The MasterClass course will include a downloadable workbook with lesson recaps and supplemental material. In addition, students enrolled in the class will be able to upload video questions to Scorsese, who will provide select feedback.

http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/martin-scorsese-online-film-making-class-1202566329/