Online Learning Update

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

Last week, New York City Councilor Rafael Espinal proposed a law that would make it illegal for employers to expect employees to log-on to their work email accounts outside official work hours. If Espinal’s The Right to Disconnect bill passes, New York City will become the first North American jurisdiction but not the first jurisdiction worldwide to put the kibosh on after-hours work-related communications. Notably, similar legislation has been in place in France since late 2016.

What “The Right to Disconnect” Could Mean for Online Training

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Demanding work schedules and inflexible routines make returning to college more difficult with every passing year. It should come as no surprise that online degree programs are surging in popularity. After all, they offer a high degree of customization and a flexible schedule that doesn’t interfere with your daily responsibilities. The online classroom is the new home for hard-working individuals who don’t want to take a four-year break from their career. The growing trend has many individuals wondering whether an online degree could be the right choice for them. After all, what does the average online college student really look like? Because these students are hidden behind their brightly-lit computer screens, it has been an elusive figure at best. Now, the statistics are starting to show us exactly who are enrolled in these online programs.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/average-online-college-student-look-like/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Distance and online learning are becoming major trends in higher education, as well as in the mandatory years of K12 schooling. When students are unable to make it into the physical classroom setting, they miss out on some of the most important aspects of academics, including making connections with other students through socialization. Connecting via social media or online message forums simply isn’t the same as having face-to-face interactions with like-minded peers. To solve this growing dilemma, developers started to create the basis for telepresence robots. The robots can take multiple forms depending on the model and manufacturer. Some allow for distance learners to show their face but are unable to maneuver themselves from place to place. More expensive models come standard with Segway wheels that can cart these “digital students” from one classroom to the next.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/telepresence-robots-give-online-students-better-way-connect/

by Science Daily
Schedules of night owls, morning larks and daytime finches may predict their educational outcomes. It may be time to tailor students’ class schedules to their natural biological rhythms. A study shows that students whose circadian rhythms were out of sync with their class schedules received lower grades due to ‘social jet lag,’ a condition in which peak alertness times are at odds with work, school or other demands.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180329190847.htm

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

At least some online schools are not only meeting but far exceeding the achievement levels of students in traditional on-premise schools. Davidson Academy is one of the online K-12 schools demonstrating the potential online schools have to offer an outstanding education to high-achieving students. This week eLearning Inside News talked to Stacy Hawthorne, Director of Online Learning at the Davidson Academy in Nevada, to learn how they have built a high-achieving online school for profoundly gifted students. This is the second part of a two-part series (we published the first part of this interview on March 29).

Research is the Key to Building a High-Achieving Online School

By Logan Garrett, UT Echo

For every online class at UTC, students are charged a $56 online support fee per credit hour, but it may surprise students and faculty alike with how this money is actually spent. Considering UTC offered 332 online courses in the Spring semester alone, this fee has generated a substantial amount of money for online courses; however, the university has amassed a surplus from this fund.

http://www.theutcecho.com/online-fee-sits-in-surplus-accounts/

by  Kyle Muzyka, CBC News

A course created one year ago by the University of Alberta was the most popular online course in Canada in 2017, and is already making inroads into how Canadians understand the history of Indigenous people. With almost 20,000 people enrolled, the free online 12-module course called Indigenous Canada teaches those from an Indigenous perspective. “A lot of Indigenous experiences in Canada have been silenced by a normative settler vision of Canada and the history of it,” said Paul Gareau, assistant professor with the U of A’s Native Studies program and the academic lead for the course.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/indigenous-canada-university-alberta-course-mooc-1.4598119

by DRG News

Active duty service members enrolled in distance courses offered by all six public universities in South Dakota will soon qualify for a reduced tuition rate. As approved this week by the South Dakota Board of Regents, the new rate is effective beginning in the summer 2018 term. The new tuition rate is $250 per credit hour, compared to a regular internet course rate of $335.

Active Duty Military Taking Distance Courses Qualify for Reduced Rate

By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley
The fastest-growing course in UC Berkeley’s history — Foundations of Data Science — is being offered free online this spring for the first time through the campus’s online education hub, edX. Data science is becoming important to more and more people because the world is increasingly data-driven — and not just science and tech but the humanities, business and government. “You’ll learn to program when studying data science — but not for the primary purpose of building apps or games,” says Berkeley computer science Professor John DeNero.

http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/03/29/berkeley-offers-its-fastest-growing-course-data-science-online-for-free/

by Mark Muro, Alan Berube, and Jacob Whiton, Brookings

Broadly speaking, blacks and Hispanics have made genuine progress in penetrating the nation’s tech sector. Blacks, for example, have increased their presence in several important tech occupations, such as computer programming and operations research. Likewise, Hispanics have increased their representation in the overall C&M occupational group, moving from 5.5 percent of workers in the sector in 2002 to 6.8 percent of workers in 2016.  Yet, with that said, the presence of blacks and Hispanics in computer and math jobs remains starkly inadequate at the national level. Blacks make up 11.9 percent of all workers but only 7.9 percent of C&M workers. The gap is even larger for Hispanics, who make up 16.7 percent of all workers but only 6.8 percent of C&M workers.

Black and Hispanic underrepresentation in tech: It’s time to change the equation

by Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

As it turns out, certain factors predict professors’ intrinsic and “identified” motivation for teaching (the latter form meaning doing something because it’s seen as important), in support of the authors’ conceptual model. And those kinds of “autonomous” motivations in turn predict greater use of proven, effective teaching methods — namely instructional clarity and higher-order, reflective and integrative, and collaborative learning. “Simply put, faculty who teach because they enjoy and value it tend to teach in the most effective ways,” said Robert H. Stupnisky, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of education and human development at the University of North Dakota.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/22/study-faculty-motivation-teaching-says-intrinsic-motivation-and-believing-teaching

By Lloyd Dunkelberger, The New Service of Florida
More women than men opt to take only online classes to earn bachelor’s degrees in Florida’s state university system, according to a new report from the system’s Board of Governors. Sixty-five percent of the undergraduates who took only distance-learning courses in the 2016-2017 academic year were women, who make up 56 percent of the overall undergraduate student body.

https://www.news4jax.com/education/more-women-look-to-online-classes-to-earn-degrees

by WFLI

According to Harrison Executive Vice president Michael Crowley, students currently enrolled will be able to continue working on their degree on campus and online until they graduate. Because online enrollment has increased in the past few years, the institution is planning on testing out their online classes for this upcoming quarter for incoming students. “Most of the post-secondary education now occurs in community colleges or for-profit colleges like ours for proprietary schools…a lot of it is online,” Crowley said.

http://www.wlfi.com/content/news/Lafayette-Harrison-College-offers-online-only-classes-for-new-students-478227033.html

Udacity also has a history of working with with colleges and universities—but company officials say this isn’t the direction the company will be heading in the future. For example, Udacity previously partnered with San Jose State University to offer MOOCs for credits, and the company offers an online Master’s degree in computer science with Georgia Tech. While other MOOC providers such as Coursera have recently added more of these kinds of degree programs to their platform, Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun said his company has no plans to expand its offerings in coordination with other universities. “Udacity focuses on industry,” Thrun said. Christian Plagemann, Udacity’s VP of learning, had a less-strict attitude at the event, saying the company is “open to anything” when it comes to potential future collaborations with universities. However, he echoed the sentiment that Udacity is more interested in working with industry partners.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-03-28-udacity-vp-of-learning-we-never-start-anything-out-of-academic-interest

by KHARI JOHNSON, VB

The new and existing AI offerings together is Udacity’s attempt to make a comprehensive set of choices for those who wish to become AI practitioners. To make the School of AI, the company launched new courses for computer vision, natural language processing, and AI programming with Python. A reinforcement learning nanodegree will launch later this year. The new nanodegrees join a series of other AI-related courses like those for self-driving cars, deep learning, or autonomous flight. To fuel its growth, Udacity VP Christian Plagemann told VentureBeat in an interview the School of AI will receive additional funding and staff resources. Making a School of AI sends a signal to the world and Udacity itself about the importance of AI, Plagemann said.

Udacity announces School of AI with 4 new nanodegrees and 3D simulator

BY MARK LOMBARDI, eCampus News
Disruption in higher education needs to happen everywhere, from admissions processes to business practices to the way we teach and assess.  If higher education is a ship, it has struck an iceberg. It’s taking on water rapidly, and while the situation is urgent, many people on board simply refuse to acknowledge what’s happening. The lifeboats in this metaphor? Disruption. That may sound a little dramatic, but it’s undeniable that many colleges and universities are stuck in 20th-century—or even 19th- century—models of higher education. In our 21st-century world, that’s no longer acceptable. Institutions are floundering, and if they don’t start to catch up, they are going to sink. Disruption in higher education needs to happen everywhere, from admissions processes to business practices and from the way we teach to the way we determine student outcomes.

How my university is disrupting higher education

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new piece of EU legislation that overhauls the UK’s laws on data protection and cyber security. It will come into force on 25th May 2018, and will apply to businesses and public-sector organisations of all sizes, enforcing new guidelines and regulations for data handling. It’s something every business needs to prepare for, as it impacts how you communicate with your customers and how you handle any information you store about them. Read our guide below to understand what GDPR will mean for businesses.

https://www.virtual-college.co.uk/resources/guides-and-reports-training/a-guide-to-gdpr

by Nick Richards, Training Journal

The GDPR is all about protecting the rights of individuals, with data use and responsibility at its core. The new legislation will replace the Data Protection Act 1998 and firmly puts the burden of proof on businesses, whilst empowering individuals to take control of their data. The price for failing to be GDPR-compliant is high – hefty fines await those who fail to meet the new standards. The maximum penalty for breaching GDPR is €20m or 4% of a business’s global revenue, whichever is greater. Add to this the associated reputational damage for your business following a data breach, and it becomes clear why becoming compliant for the GDPR rollout in May 2018 is absolutely essential.

https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/features/gdpr-what-you-need-know-about-new-data-protection-laws

by Webster University

Compliance Steps.
Do you collect, store or transmit any personal data in your role with Webster? Faculty, staff and students at all Webster University campuses should be aware of how GDPR affects business processes and the handling of personal data. The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will go in effect on May 25, 2018. The regulation is the most far-reaching change to data protection in a generation. Review these steps to compliance provided by the GDPR project team. You may find useful this one-page handout [PDF] containing all of the steps listed below. Discuss them with your colleagues and supervisors. Make sure you are prepared for the compliance deadline of May 25.

http://news.webster.edu/employee/2018/steps-gdpr-compliance-preparation.html

By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

A new survey of those who oversee online learning programs at their institutions reveals significant diversity in the online education landscape, from differences in colleges’ strategic goals in going online to how they structure and price their programs and how much they require/encourage faculty members to work with professional designers to craft their courses. The report, “The Changing Landscape of Online Education: A Deeper Dive,” is the second such report from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research, leading them to dub it CHLOE2.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/03/28/survey-chief-online-officers-shows-complexity-digital-learning

As an education blogger, its hard to keep up with the latest social media trends, especially when it comes to hashtags. I am sure that all educators who use social media can relate to this. I found this great infographic that contains the hashtags that all educators should be using in 2018.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/what-education-hashtags-should-you-be-using/