Online Learning Update

BY GENEVRA WALTERS, NICOLE DEVRIES, AND JAMIE HARBIN, eSchool News
Three educators explain how they include career readiness in their 21st-century learning initiatives. Many of you are familiar with the four C’s of the 21st-century learning framework: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. But step back for a second and remember why you teach students in the first place–so they can be successful adults who contribute to society and thrive while pursuing a fulfilling career. This is why we add to our list of 21st-century learning skills a fifth C: career readiness. Career readiness can be engrained into the teaching and learning landscape in many ways. Educators across the nation are latching on to project-based learning (PBL) as an effective teaching method for building 21st-century skills. Career-focused PBL gives students the freedom to explore a variety of careers from the comfort of their classroom.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/25/future-5th-c-career-readiness/

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive

When we put this in the context of the #MeToo movement which took off on social media in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations to show the number of women who have been impacted by sexual assault or sexual harassment, and we consider how few women are actually leaders (versus teachers) in the education space, these things all seem connected…. I have had female presidents tell me they’ve been catcalled on their own campuses, by male students who didn’t realize they were in charge. I’ve heard others say they wear men’s clothing and try to dress in ways that do not call attention to their figures when they attend board meetings, because they are often the only woman in the room. One female district leader wrote in to tell me the harassment she had received by male colleagues affected her confidence and the level of position for which she would consider applying — to go further up the ladder, she assumed, she’d face more of this type of behavior as she’d find herself more outnumbered.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/title-ix-is-often-framed-as-a-student-issue-but-female-administrators-face/508338/

by eMarketer Daily

A September 2017 survey of young adult internet users in select countries painted an interesting—and yet unsurprising—picture of their typical day-to-day interactions. The study from LivePerson, a provider of cloud-based mobile and online business messaging solutions, surveyed 4,013 internet users ages 18 to 34 in six countries: Australia, Germany, France, Japan, the UK and the US.  In the US and the UK, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were more likely to communicate digitally—whether via email, SMS or social media—rather than in person.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Spoiler-Alert-Millennials-Prefer-Digital-All-Communications/1016677

by Mark Hall, Forbes

For many young adults, the process of transitioning into the corporate workforce can be met with a number of difficult challenges. Gaining role-specific education is not easy, particularly if you are trying to avoid being part of the $1.3 trillion student debt crisis. Convincing a great company to hire you without having a track record of success is no simple task either. Landing a highly competitive job without having either a university degree or prior work experience used to be practically impossible, until now. Three Silicon Valley companies are improving how emerging professionals become job-ready by filling the practical skills gap felt by so many workforce newcomers. Coursera, Udacity and Udemy are three alternative education platforms, known as massive open online courses (MOOCs), on a mission to redefine workplace readiness and industry-specific education.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhall/2017/10/27/three-silicon-valley-companies-bridging-the-gap-between-education-and-workplace-readiness/

by Conor Griffith, Exponent Telegram

Students and professors at WVU’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources are researching new ways to enhance the online and learning experience of West Virginians. At the college’s Advanced Engineering Research Building, work is proceeding on new programs and web robots, or simply bots, which are software applications that run tasks (or scripts) over the internet. Bots perform simple and repetitive tasks at a faster rate than a human could do alone. The bots under development are intended to make online learning more collaborative. Ph.D. student Carlos Toxtli is working on the development of a new kind of automated bot, the Micro Assistance Through Tutorials or MATT bot. The MATT bot, he said, is meant to break down electronic learning into smaller, easily approachable tasks, which is different from the more conventional open online courses people sign up for.

https://www.theet.com/news/free/wvu-researching-new-ways-to-enhance-online-technology/article_88533787-b758-573c-9709-5e6fde432cb9.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
The Dallas County Community College District had grown its online learning programs organically for two decades when Terry Di Paolo, executive dean of online instructional services, decided it was time to take a “holistic view” of the programs to assess quality and create an improvement plan that aligned with its accreditation work. Attendance in 2015 at a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) workshop introduced him to the Online Learning Consortium’s Quality Scorecard. Other institutions at that event assured him that he could use the scorecard system across all seven colleges and various service centers that made up the district.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/25/distance-learning-programs-make-case-for-quality-assessment.aspx

by Affordable Colleges Online
Tulane Alumni Club of Las VegasSydnee LoganDigital Communication Fellow at FDA and Tulane University Alumna, Class of 2010It is not uncommon to think that the day you receive your diploma is the last day your college or university would help you in your career. This is far from the truth, however. Most colleges and universities across the nation have alumni associations that offer a range of benefits, perks, discounts, and most importantly, networking opportunities and events to help graduates make the most of their hard-earned degree after college. But alumni associations are a two-way street–in order to reap the benefits, graduates must also give back to their alma mater through gifts, membership fees, and volunteering. The following guide takes an in-depth look at alumni associations and their benefits and also helps students and graduates understand how to effectively leverage these networks and give back to future generations.

https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/how-to-work-with-your-alumni-association/