Online Learning Update

by Kristin Houser, Futurism

The day before the vote, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman released details of an analysis of the FCC’s public comment process that concluded that more than two million comments were made using stolen identities. The FCC refused Schneiderman’s request that the vote be delayed to allow for further investigation, and now, he’s suing to prevent what he calls the “illegal rollback of net neutrality.” Futurism got an exclusive interview with the attorney general in which he details why net neutrality matters, why the FCC’s repeal was illegal, and what he plans to do to stop the repeal from moving forward.

https://futurism.com/net-neutrality-ny-attorney-general/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

A new policy framework identifies a three-pronged plan to shift the focus of federal policy from higher education to higher learning by ensuring high-quality outcomes, focusing on today’s students and creating a more affordable and responsive system of education and training beyond high school. Most federal higher education policies were designed when the typical college student attended a four-year college directly after high school. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates that 75 percent of students today are now either working adults, part-time students, parents with dependent children or student with some other non-traditional characteristic. In the framework, Higher Learning Advocates argues federal policy should adapt to meet the needs of those students.

Report: Federal HED policy must undergo dramatic shift

BY RICK GAUMER, eCampus News

Investment in Wi-Fi -enabled technologies has university reaping significant results in recruitment, enrollment and retention. At Emory & Henry (E&H), technology is not only transforming our campus into one of the most digitally-connected environments, it is also laying the groundwork for education of the future—thanks to Wi-Fi. With our recent technology initiatives—including triple-digit speed Wi-Fi—we have built a strong foundation for our vision of the campus of the future; including the ability to realize our strategic vision where “blended learning” is a reality, where learning is accessible, personal and affordable to diverse groups of students. This is learning that our students can fully leverage for bigger success pre- and post-graduation.

How a seemingly basic technology is driving the university of the future

by Meg Lloyd, Campus Technology
Increasingly, instructors illustrate course content with visual images and rich media to engage students. But it can be cumbersome to try to show the relationships among disparate media elements, as well as challenging for faculty to work with available technologies to annotate and map them. Johns Hopkins University developed a web application to help learners explore and easily document relationships among visual materials. Users can annotate images with rich multimedia content and link to image, audio and video resources to put the materials in a visual context.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/12/13/making-connections-with-multimedia-content.aspx

By Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

Earlier this fall, Steve Wozniak announced the launch of Woz U, an online program intended to provide education in tech at a cost that wont mire students in debt.  Students were initially able to sign up for two different massive open online courses (MOOCs): one in software development and the other in computer support. These MOOCs might be better described as full on programs—they last 33 weeks. But besides a certificate of completion at the end of each program, that is the current extent of Woz U’s offerings. Three new courses—in Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Mobile Application—are coming in 2018.

Woz U Has Made Some Big Promises. Can It Deliver?

by Lucas Mearian, Computerworld

Over the next two years, enterprises are expected to ramp up their efforts to test blockchain technology as part of a new method of establishing trust in a digital economy. New research from consultancy Deloitte LLP shows a “trust economy” is now developing around person-to-person (P2P) transactions enabled by blockchain technology and not dependent on more traditional methods such as credit ratings or guaranteed cashier’s checks. “Rather, it relies on each transacting party’s reputation and digital identity – the elements of which may soon be stored and managed in a blockchain,” Deloitte analysts said in a report.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3240906/security/how-blockchain-will-underpin-the-new-trust-economy.html

by the Telegraph (UK)

In the decade leading up to 2016, children receiving extra help outside school rose by a third. There is no single reason why parents seek to prop their children’s education with private tutors, which can prove costly. Some children may be struggling in a particular subject; others might need an extra boost for entry into another school or university; large class sizes might mean your child isn’t getting as much attention as they could; perhaps, it’s just that another approach may be what your child needs. Whatever the reason, if your child needs help it’s certainly worth forking out on a tutor. But your next step is to decide between traditional face-to-face teaching and online tutoring.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/0/10-ways-online-maths-tutors-better-in-person-help/

By Tim Sandle, Digital Journal
Remote learning is a growing means of delivering education. A downside is with student engagement. This can be overcome, according to new research, when robotic assistants are used. The Michigan State University research has concluded that online students who elect to use the innovative robots can feel more engaged and connected to the instructor and students in the classroom. This, in turn, leads to better understanding on the part of the student and improved educational attainment. In trials the researchers used robots located in the classroom. Each robot was equipped with a mounted video screen. The screen can be controlled remotely by the student who is undertaken the lesson online. This facility allows the student to pan around the room, looking at the teacher or other students or anything else that’s happening.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/boosting-student-performance-with-robot-learning/article/510130

By Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive

Results from a recent Codeacademy participant survey sent to a subset of the company’s 45 million learners showed 55% of respondents had a university degree when they started the school’s coding courses. 40% said they wanted a software development job, and 30% said they were taking coding course for a potentially higher salary. Meanwhile, 25% said they started coding because they want to work remotely and desired workplace flexibility.  Of respondents who had taken a college-level coding course, 25% said they preferred learning online than in a traditional classroom setting. 10% said online learning made them feel happier, and 5%, particularly women, said learning outside a traditional classroom made them feel less anxious — results reflecting the growing popularity of alternative, flexible online credentialing options especially for nontraditional, adult learners.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/students-want-outside-classroom-learning-marketable-and-flexible-workforce/512686/

That was 2017 in online learning

by Jason York, University Business
Public universities are evolving their technology transfer activities but must take additional steps to address the demands of the innovation economy, according to a recent report from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The report, “Technology Transfer Evolution: Driving Economic Prosperity,” finds public research universities moving beyond a transactional, revenue-driven approach to selling intellectual property for commercialization purposes. It also calls for universities to accelerate the transition to a model that reflects broad engagement in economic development. Technology transfer offices should develop deeper relationships with industry and other community partners, the report says.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/evolving-tech-transfer-activity-colleges-success-beyond-revenue

by Barnes & Noble College

The recent decision to invest $8 million to provide open educational resources (OER) to students at New York’s SUNY and CUNY colleges, signals a shift in the acceptance of OER in higher education. New York is not alone. Similar programs at Cal State and Georgia’s Affordable Learning Georgia system demonstrate a growing movement, capitalizing on early pilot programs and early adopter tests to firmly establish OER into the academic mainstream. Indeed, research indicates that more than 7 in 10 instructors (71 percent) say they are very, or somewhat, likely to promote use of OER to colleagues, but the advantages OER can bring might also reflect the way the students themselves increasingly want to learn.

https://next.bncollege.com/faculty-perspective-oer/

by Meg Lloyd, Campus Technology
Johns Hopkins University developed a web application to help learners explore and easily document relationships among visual materials. Users can annotate images with rich multimedia content and link to image, audio and video resources to put the materials in a visual context. Increasingly, instructors illustrate course content with visual images and rich media to engage students. But it can be cumbersome to try to show the relationships among disparate media elements, as well as challenging for faculty to work with available technologies to annotate and map them. At Johns Hopkins University, multimedia developers in the Center for Educational Resources were determined to provide their faculty with an easy-to-use web application that would work in any subject area to orient students to rich media content resources and allow viewers to explore relationships among these media elements. They created the application in house and named it Reveal.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/12/13/making-connections-with-multimedia-content.aspx

By Tricia Brown, UIowa Now

A new online class being taught this fall at the University of Iowa Microfabrication Facility allows students from across the country to participate in laboratory experiments and exercises in real time via state-of-the-art instrumentation that takes them inside the lab despite their physical location. Online Microfabrication offers remote lab sessions in clean-room environments designed to provide a more interactive and immersive experience for students. Students in this course can visualize all the key components of the experiments via various interactive technologies, including a Zoom video conferencing session hosted by the lab instructor that provides them with a sense of their actual presence in the lab.

https://now.uiowa.edu/2017/12/ui-offers-online-nanotechnology-course-real-time-remote-labs

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
In a new paper released Thursday morning, the American Council on Education lays out the case for higher ed executives to “prioritize the creation of a campus-wide analytics culture focused on the use of data to promote equity and inclusion, improve student outcomes, develop more inclusive environments, and create more holistic resource strategies.”  Developed from a series of meetings with over 40 higher ed leaders who shared their challenges with leveraging data, the paper identifies the “structural, cultural and technical obstacles” inhibiting higher ed leaders from becoming “data-enabled executives” who prioritize a culture of data analysis that helps move the needle for students and the campus overall. A lack of technical and human infrastructure is usually the biggest hindrance to institutions’ ability to really leverage data in meaningful ways to affect campus culture. Governance, a lack of a business intelligence strategy, inconsistent metadata and data definitions, and poor data integration are also issues.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/data-is-key-to-improving-campus-outcomes-but-infrastructure-challenges-ar/513041/

By Tina Nazerian, EdSurge

Tracy Mitrano, an attorney who used to be the director information technology policy at Cornell University, holds an opinion on the issue that’s common among academics. She believes there’s a lot at stake for higher education if net neutrality is reversed, especially when it comes to distance learning and hybrid education. The internet is currently categorized as a utility, but the FCC wants to re-categorize it as an information service. Mitrano, who is running for congress, says a benefit of keeping the internet’s current categorization as a utility means the FCC is able to use methods like taxation and regulation to leverage for-profit companies to bring internet to rural areas.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-12-12-will-net-neutrality-reversal-hurt-digital-learning-as-vote-approaches-mixed-opinions

By Joshua Bolkan, THE Journal
Global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) will grow 14.6 percent in 2018, according to a new forecast from International Data Corp. (IDC), to hit $772.5 billion. The category will more or less maintain that upward trajectory throughout the prediction period, averaging a 14.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2021 and tipping the trillion-dollar mark in 2020. Hardware will lead the way among technology categories in IoT spending in 2018, accounting for $239 billion “going largely toward modules and sensors along with some spending on infrastructure and security,” according to a news release. Services will follow hardware for the year and spending on software and connectivity will come in third.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/12/12/report-internet-of-things-to-tip-1-trillion-by-2020.aspx

By Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed

A small institution in Vermont caters to students with disabilities by letting them choose the technology that suits their needs. Landmark College in Vermont might offer some guidance. The private institution with approximately 450 students exclusively serves students with diagnosed learning disabilities, attention disorders or autism. Like all institutions, it’s still grappling with how best to serve students in the digital age, whether in the classroom or at a distance. Kevin Keith, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, has been employing and refining since 2012 a flipped-classroom approach to his introductory computer science course. For instructors at other institutions looking to reach out to those types of students, Keith recommends a piece of advice he received early in his career: “Say everything you write, and write everything you say.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/12/13/landmark-college-offers-model-institutions-and-instructors

by Louis Columbus, Forbes

Machine Learning Engineers, Data Scientists, and Big Data Engineers rank among the top emerging jobs on LinkedIn. Data scientist roles have grown over 650% since 2012, but currently, 35,000 people in the US have data science skills, while hundreds of companies are hiring for those roles. There are currently 1,829 open Machine Learning Engineering positions on LinkedIn. Job growth in the next decade is expected to outstrip growth during the previous decade, creating 11.5M jobs by 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These and many other insights are from the recently released LinkedIn 2017 U.S. Emerging Jobs Report.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/12/11/linkedins-fastest-growing-jobs-today-are-in-data-science-machine-learning/#52c2302a51bd

by Costea Lestoc, the Good Men Project

Furthering your education is a great way to get a better job so you can provide with increased support your family in the future. The main goal that you should have as a dad is making a better life for your family. Does it feel like you have peaked in at your existing job and a change is needed? For some adults, going back to college is just what they need to refocus their efforts into creating a career. If you are contemplating going back to college, you need to take some time to do a bit of research before choosing a school. Ideally, you will want to choose a university that is able to work around your schedule. By taking online classes, you will not have to worry about your work schedule conflicting with your school work. Here are just some of the things you need to consider when trying to go back to college as an adult.

4 Tips For Dads Who Are Going Back to College

By Victoria Robertson, ULoop
Online courses can be misleadingly challenging, and often require an environment that’s conducive for such a course. For this reason, it’s essential that, as a college student, you are preparing for this challenge and creating a productive space for yourself in order to be successful. While this may all appear to be common sense on the surface, online courses are often misjudged as “easy” or “blow-offs” when in fact, they are just the opposite. So with that specific challenge in mind, here are six ways for you to create a productive space to take online courses.

https://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/254911/How-to-Create-a-Productive-Space-to-Take-an-Online-Course