Online Learning Update

by Meghan Bogardus Cortez, EdTech

Higher education institutions can leverage technologies and data to prepare learners for success. For colleges and universities to succeed today, treating nontraditional students as the norm is becoming quite important. With college enrollment declining over the past five years, looking to engage students who have often struggled in traditional academic settings might be a way for universities to increase their success. Here are four ways universities can make sure they are meeting the needs of these so-called nontraditional learners:

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2018/01/4-ways-universities-can-better-engage-nontraditional-students

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

A resounding majority of chief academic officers (CAOs) (86 percent) said they believe digital learning tools and resources make learning more efficient and effective for students, according to a recent survey. In the same survey, Provosts, Pedagogy, and Digital Learning Survey, 92 percent of those CAOs said adaptive learning technology has great potential to improve learning outcomes for students. Nearly 90 percent said they would like their faculty to use adaptive learning technologies more in entry-level and gateway courses. Despite this enthusiasm, less than one-third of surveyed CAOs said they believe their campus investment in data analysis and managerial analytics, as well as IT resources and support services, for students and faculty has been very effective.

CAOs tell all on their top 4 IT priorities

BY KAREN MCCAVITT, eCampus News

While the courses students take will expand their breadth of knowledge and grow their intellect, many of the post-graduation skills students need are what we call “soft skills.” Soft skills can enhance students’ learning and improve their assignments, and they also can improve students’ chances of employment upon graduation. Perhaps the biggest soft skill? Digital literacy. The New Media Consortium’s 2017 Digital Literacy Impact Study offers a detailed insight into what digital literacy means for today’s students, what employees are looking for, and how higher education institutions can improve digital literacy.

Higher ed’s 3 digital literacy resolutions for the new year

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Research released this past fall found that technology is not the silver bullet needed to help students in developmental education — without a few other elements in place as well. For example, according to a report by the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR), it’s a mistake to assume that “digital native” students can handle the education tech they’re expected to work with.  Developmental ed is described in “How and Why Higher Education Institutions Use Technology in Developmental Education Programming” as the instruction and academic support given to students who enter college without college-ready skills in reading, writing or math in order to develop the skills they need for doing college-level work.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/01/03/lack-of-tech-savvy-holding-back-developmental-ed-efforts.aspx

by Jeremy House, Education Dive
The Wall Street Journal reports that a growing number of post-secondary fellowships are geared toward advanced-career workers and retirees to study alongside traditional undergraduates.  Stanford and Harvard universities piloted the first advance-career education fellowship offerings, according to the WSJ. Other schools, including the University of Notre Dame and the University of Minnesota, now are following suit.
College representatives say these fellowships, which often cater to baby boomers seeking a second act, are a win for institutions’ bottom lines because they target white-collar workers paying sometimes hefty tuition fees.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/institutions-target-baby-boomers-with-hefty-tuition-fellowship-programs/

by MICHAEL BARRY, InBusiness

This article offers a perspective on leadership in an age of disruption and what’s at stake for those who don’t get it right.  Speed and agility will trump perfection as businesses are pressured to address these challenges with faster innovation, an enhanced end-to-end customer experience, cost reductions, etc. — calling on leadership to be more agile and efficient. Traditional command and control leadership approaches are slow, rigid, and stifle creativity and innovation; hence, they are becoming quickly outdated, and, in their place, more agile leadership models are emerging — comprised of high levels of collaboration, engagement, empowerment, and communication within a decentralized decision-making framework. Ten progressive leadership qualities best define an agile leadership model.

http://www.ibmadison.com/Blogger/Open-Mic/September-2017/Leadership-in-an-age-of-disruption/

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
In 2017, a focus on adult learners was named the Education Dive: Higher Education Obsession of the Year, and for good reason: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 8.1 million students enrolled in higher education — or more than 40% — in 2015 were 25+ years old. While 2017 saw a lot of attention placed on adult learners, the industry still has a long way to go on properly serving these students. But leaders may soon realize that many of the adjustments needed to better serve this population would also benefit other students. And it is likely that implementing these strategies may cut down on the overall cost of higher education and communicate additional value, as the physical campus experience is de-emphasized in the name of reaching more students where they already are.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-trends-poised-to-shake-up-higher-education-in-2018/

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Online learning should be part of the strategic plan of every college and university. Too often, university leaders make the mistake of thinking that online education is relevant only for institutions with large online programs. They see online education as marginal to the core missions of the institutions that they lead. This blind spot can be particularly large among those leading traditional, face-to-face schools. The reality is that small residential colleges should be prioritizing online learning. Here are 4 questions about online education that every president, provost, dean, and trustee should be asking in 2018.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/online-learning-and-residential-colleges

by Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

The term openwashing, as defined by Audrey Watters, is “having an appearance of open-source and open-licensing for marketing purposes, while continuing proprietary practices.” Others, however, believe that openwashing refers only to open-source code. A marketing campaign or technology vendor, therefore, might use the word ‘open’ to refer to any number of qualities. Administrators, educators, and students, might hear the word ‘open’ and believe to mean something besides what they have read or heard. This may very well be the reason why a majority of college professors do not trust vendors who seek to bring their courses online and make them ‘open.’ When contemplating an ‘open’ educational resource or technology, therefore, make the following distinctions:

https://news.elearninginside.com/open-openwashing-half-truths-openness/

By Rica Bhattacharyya, Varuni Khosla, Economic Times

“Machines are taking over repetitive tasks. Robotics, AI, big data and analytics will be competencies that will be in great demand,” said Shakun Khanna, senior director at Oracle for the Asia-Pacific region. Organisations are being pushed to become even more efficient as jobs turn predictable, said Rishabh Kaul, cofounder of recruitment startup Belong, which helps clients search for and hire AI professionals.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/its-going-to-be-a-happy-new-year-for-artificial-intelligence-robotics-experts/articleshow/62320776.cms

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

With the increased importance of technology in society, digital literacy is gaining recognition as the most valuable tool for lifelong learning. What does this mean? Essentially, as citizens of a global society, the influence of social media, technology, and online resources is massive. For children, the access to a home computer with internet increases their likelihood of college attendance exponentially. For adults, the ever evolving tech world can either help them succeed or hold them back. Society has changed over the last 15 years. It has become increasingly important to continue education after entering the workforce. The influence of technology on business is the main reason for this new mandate. In early learning through adulthood, digital literacy is showing the most promise for success. The edtech industry has long-focused on the value of digital competency for children. It’s time digital literacy was incorporated into adult education in the same way, but with a few adjustments.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/digital-literacy-important-lifelong-learning-tool/

by Adrian Ridner, Milwaukee Courier

Study.com CEO and Co-Founder Adrian Ridner says many students and parents should use a combination of tactics to reduce the cost of college. “Research has shown that it takes an average of 21 years for a student to repay their student loans,” comments Ridner. “Also, students and parents may not immediately realize the various hidden costs of completing a college education including books, housing and other fees.” The longer it takes to finish a degree, the higher those costs may be. Ridner points out that, “More than 80 percent of students at state universities do not graduate in four years, which means many students are underestimating their college costs by as much as 25 to 50 percent.

http://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2017/12/30/how-to-save-on-college-and-increase-the-likelihood-of-finishing-your-degree/

by  Richard W. Walker, EdScoop

John O’Brien, president and CEO of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association for higher ed IT leaders, thinks that 2018 may mark the beginning of real digital transformation in education. “I am convinced that this year we will see demonstrable developments at the intersection of higher education and technology,” he told EdScoop. “First, we’re convinced that 2018 will be marked by the shift from digitization to digital transformation. Whether we’re talking about enterprise technologies in general or teaching and learning in particular, we think the days of ad hoc innovations and one-off digital breakthroughs will — and should — be replaced by increasingly interrelated, interdependent and interoperable digital transformation experienced across campus divisions.”

https://yourstory.com/2017/12/udacity-preparing-young-developers-jobs-tomorrow-says-md-ishan-gupta/

By Tina Nazerian, EdSurge

Phil Hill, an edtech consultant and blogger at e-Literate, expects the “Big Five” tech companies—Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft—to continue their outreach to colleges and universities next year. Another higher education outreach forthcoming in 2018 may come from Google, which offered a peek at its virtual reality platform, Daydream, earlier this year at EDUCAUSE, a major higher-ed conference. Currently the company is soliciting interest from institutions interested in piloting the Daydream. According to the form, those who are selected will get a six-month loan that includes, among other things, a Google Jump camera and a Google Expeditions kit. According to a Google spokesperson, the higher ed pilot will launch sometime in 2018.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-12-27-how-tech-companies-woo-higher-ed-and-what-they-seek-in-return

Janakiram MSV, Forbes
2017 witnessed the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. From large platform vendors to early-stage startups, AI and ML have become the key focus areas. VCs poured billions of dollars in funding AI-related startups. Platform companies increased their R&D budget to accelerate research in AI & ML domains. The number of online courses offering self-paced learning has hit the roof. Finally, there is no single industry vertical that’s not impacted by AI. Though it has become a cliché, ‘democratizing machine learning’ has taken off in 2017. Amazon, Apple, IBM, Google, Facebook and Microsoft are competing with each other to make ML accessible to developers. The availability of tools and frameworks doubled in just one year. 2017 also saw the beginning of AI infusion in business applications.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2017/12/28/3-key-machine-learning-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2018/#2cd3e46d1280

By Mike Silagadze, EdSurge

For example, both the City and State University of New York systems are investing millions in OER. Ohio University is doing the same. Meanwhile, at least 70 OER-related bills were introduced in more than half the country’s state legislatures in 2017. And at the last ASU + GSV Summit in Salt Lake City there was a clear consensus across the entire industry, from traditional textbook publishers to online renters to cloud-based platform developers, that the pace of adoption in OER is only going to quicken in the months ahead. It won’t be long before we’ll have an iTunes-style central repository for all OER materials in higher education. Now that OER has the backing of college administrations and state legislatures, it’s about to face a new spate of challenges in 2018. As its users move beyond the early adopters and into the mainstream, OER will be competing much more directly with traditional textbook publishing.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-12-28-oer-had-its-breakthrough-in-2017-next-year-it-will-become-an-essential-teaching-tool

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

New federal data show continued growth in online course taking in 2016, even as overall college enrollments were flat or falling. Big gainers: Western Governors and Arizona State. Big losers: the big for-profits.  The overarching story is a familiar one: even as overall enrollment in postsecondary institutions stays flat (unlike recent numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse, the federal data show enrollments staying roughly constant, not declining), online enrollments climb. As a result, so, too, does the proportion of all students at institutions eligible to award federal financial aid who are taking at least one course at a distance, as seen in the table linked below.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/01/05/new-us-data-show-continued-growth-college-students-studying

by Elizabeth Woyke, MIT Technology Review

In 2017, people flocked to online classes about artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and data analytics. In 2018, expect more of the same, say leading online-education providers Codecademy, Coursera, edX, and Udacity. In response to a request from MIT Technology Review, they calculated their most popular courses of the past year and revealed which topics they think will lure the most students in the next.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609636/best-online-classes-for-job-skills/

BY SO-YOUNG KANG, Manila Times

There are three major trends that I believe should define Digital Learning 2.0.

1. The first is the rapid growth of the mobile workforce. According to IDC, there were over 1.3 billion mobile workers globally in 2015 and PWC are forecasting over 1 billion mobile workers in Asia alone by 2020. <br>

2. Smartphone penetration rates have now surpassed 30 percent globally and the Philippines is reported to be the third largest and fastest growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia with over 30 million smartphone users. This, coupled with 4G access means that >50 percent of the world is now connected to the Internet via a mobile phone. <br>

3. There is a broader trend within learning overall which is the shift towards more experiential, hands-on learning. This trend is based heavily on andragogy, the science of adult learning, and transformative learning theory which says that adults learn through reflection, peer dialogue and application.

http://www.manilatimes.net/digital-learning-2-0-entering-age-participatory-mobile-micro-learning/370925/

by Erin Brereton, EdTech

Weber State University offers insight into what has made its adult learning courses a success. EdTech recently spoke with Bruce Davis, dean of online and continuing education; Andrea Jensen, executive director, digital learning and design, and Kristie Nielsen, director of continuing education marketing, about how the Ogden, Utah school has leveraged technology to engage both traditional and nontraditional students — and what’s changed since it began offering courses 18 years ago.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/12/qa-inside-award-winning-approach-educating-nontraditional-students

by Heather Chakiris, Evolllution

The shift to a student-centric institutional culture shows many different forms, from changes in curriculum design to shifts in service availability to the improved leveraging of data. From the perspective of students, one major tell that an institution has transitioned to a greater level of student centricity is in the personalization of communications and outreach, and CRMs have a massive role to play here. But the implementation of a tool does not a culture create. In this interview, Heather Chakiris reflects on the benefits CRMs bring to the table when it comes to delivering a personalized experience to learners and shares her thoughts on how the implementation of a CRM system must be accompanied by a broader culture shift to be truly effective.

https://evolllution.com/technology/tech-tools-and-resources/where-technology-goes-so-too-must-culture/