Online Learning Update

by Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Education: Digital Learning

MIT, once again, has taken a huge step toward further embedding technology into our lives. In this case, it is giving voice to thoughts, speech to the speechless and opening the door to telepathy. The technology, named “AlterEgo,” generates digital signals to unvoiced thoughts. One wears a tiny, spare, flexible frame that contains between 4 and 16 tiny electrodes to pick up non-vocalized speech – such as when one reads text or deliberately thinks articulated thoughts. It transforms these brain pulses into digital transmissions. What are the potential implications for teaching and learning? As with most technologies, there are both the good aspects and the challenging.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/05/23/how-might-new-technology-enabling-communication-between-human-and

By Greg Nichols, ZD Net

The new degree is touted as the first of its kind in the nation, and it takes dead aim at a high-salary computer science job market primed for growth. It’s also in line with a trend toward increasing specialization within American undergraduate computer science programs.  Numbered are the days when BS candidates choose among a small handful of computer science tracks and graduate as generalists. “Specialists in artificial intelligence have never been more important, in shorter supply or in greater demand by employers,” according to Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-future-proof-degree-artificial-intelligence-is-now-a-major-at-this-university/

by TU Delft, edX

There is no doubt that quantum computers and the quantum internet will have a great impact on our world. But we don’t yet know quite how. As with traditional computers – we will only see the effects in the decades to come. This course will provide you with a basic understanding of quantum computing and the quantum internet. Together, we’ll peek into the fascinating world of quantum phenomena, such as qubits, superposition, and entanglement. We’ll envision the potential impact of quantum computing and the quantum internet.

https://www.edx.org/course/the-quantum-internet-and-quantum-computers-how-will-they-change-the-world

by Nick Boykin, WTKR

With snowy weather causing hectic changes to the district’s schedule this school year, Virginia Beach City Public Schools is going virtual to help them prepare for natures worst during the 2018-19 school year. According to the school district, in advance of Virtual Learning Days, students will be provided assignments that are designed to replicate learning experiences that would happen if the students were in school. The work may be completed on the Virtual Learning Day or over a designated 10-day window of time in order to give flexibility for students and families.

Virginia Beach schools launch Virtual Learning Days for 2018-19 school year

BY KELSEA KIERSTEAD, eCampus News
Countless organizations are rethinking how students learn and earn skills in postsecondary education.  Employers are in desperate need of skilled workers to address current employee shortages and prepare for projected disruption in the workplace. For example, artificial intelligence will create 2.3 million jobs while eliminating 1.8 million by 2020, according to a 2017 Gartner report. To fill jobs now while preparing for the future, countless organizations are rethinking how students learn and earn skills in postsecondary education. Such a change requires new mindsets for institutions and businesses.

Unbundling the 4-year degree: How to design education for the future

by Joe Friedhoff, Lansing State Journal

Data from the past decade show that some online learning opportunities have been delayed while others have been realized. Michigan VirtualTM through its Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute® recently released its fifth annual report on K-12 virtual learning in Michigan using state-level data from the 2016-17 school year. The report found over 101,000 students took at least one online course. Students enrolled through over 1,100 different Michigan schools, used a multitude of providers, and generated over 517,000 virtual enrollments.

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/contributors/viewpoints/2018/05/13/viewpoint-promise-online-learning-paying-off-some/593767002/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

As if teachers didn’t already have enough on their plates, there is an entirely new realm of literacy that students need to master: digital literacy. Perhaps stakeholders have assumed that, since they are digital natives, students already know what they need to know in order to be considered digitally literate. But this is simply not true. According to a recent study by Stanford University, very few students were competent in the very basic aspects of digital literacy, such as distinguishing a paid advertisement from a website’s core content. Obviously, students are in no position to fairly assess the reliability of information that they find online if they are unable to distinguish paid from substantive content.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-to-teach-digital-literacy-in-any-subject/

by Foster Kamer, Futurism

As if the point needs belaboring, but sure: The future of technology, no matter how far down the line you trace it, will inevitably run into A.I. at some point. So it’s fitting — if not overdue — that an established, esteemed American university would offer up an undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence. And that school is Carnegie Mellon University, of course. Per the MIT Tech Review, the program will be run out of the college’s School of Computer Science. It’ll involve the social and ethical impacts of A.I. as much as it will computational learning, along with the technical knowhow to have a decent grasp on what the future of A.I. is going to be, and maybe practical work on some of it, too (as a precursor to joining CMU’s top-flight status as the graduate school for A.I.).

Robot U: The First American A.I. Undergrad Program is Here, and Already Incredibly Elite

by Marco De Novellis, Business Because

Online MBA programs have traditionally been seen as secondary to campus-based courses. But now more and more UK business schools are investing in online. Today’s business schools have woken up to the importance of flexible, affordable alternatives to classroom-based study. In the workplace, everything is online. So why shouldn’t business education be too? Still, every business school is different. Some schools offer 100%-online MBA programs; some offer online MBA programs with residential components; some schools don’t offer online MBA programs at all. BusinessBecause caught up with business school deans and MBA directors across the UK—one of the more developed markets for distance-learning—and asked them one simple question: what do you really think about the online MBA?

https://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/5280/business-school-deans-online-mba

by Adalberto Toledo, News Gazette
On Saturday, May 12th, the University of Illinois hosted a graduation ceremony for dozens of MBA students who may have never set foot on campus before. These aren’t your typical MBA students. They’re “iMBA” students, part of an online-only, UI-taught MBA program, and 73 percent of them don’t live in Illinois. Most of these mothers, veterans and first-generation college students have life constraints preventing them from doing traditional coursework on campus. The average student brings 12 years of professional experience and is between 22 and 61 years old.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2018-05-09/46-states-56-countries-represented-ui-imbas-first-graduating-class.html

by Marty Cook, Arkansas Business

LaTonya Cockrell is one of Michael Moore’s favorite success stories. The success, of course, is Cockrell’s, but Moore loves what her story illustrates about the power of online learning. Moore is chief academic and operating officer at eVersity, the University of Arkansas System’s online-only university, and loves to show how the availability of online education can change lives. Cockrell, 43, was working as a server at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain in Morrilton when she decided she wanted to go back to college and earn a degree. Her options were limited; she had two young children at home, limited resources and no desire to sit in a classroom for hours when she could be working or raising her son and daughter. Cockrell, who had attended college in the early 1990s, earned an associate’s degree and will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in information technology in December. She won’t be job hunting, though, because the institute hired her in February as an IT associate to help run its myriad conferences and symposiums.

http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/121896/online-programs-gain-users-in-arkansas

by Hollie Russon-Gilman, Brookings
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is scheduled to take effect on May 25. While companies who serve customers in the EU have to adhere, there are numerous applications for civil society, journalists, academia, philanthropy, and the private sector as well. The GDPR represents an important step forward for envisioning a civic life where citizens are empowered not only as data producers but also data owners. Any conversation of leveraging data, technology, or innovation to enhance civic life or governance should seriously consider how such a framework could more deeply empower citizens in the United States.

How the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation empowers digital civic engagement

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
The alternative credential market is growing and the pace will not slow down, higher education experts said during a Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board briefing last week about the Higher Education Act. One of the panelists, Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University, said that around “two-thirds of jobs are going to require some postsecondary credential, while only about 42% of adults currently have any postsecondary credential of any sort.”  Van Ton-Quinlivan, vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges, added to these sentiments during the briefing, noting that she has seen the demand for “booster shot” credentials in the workplace especially as new technologies continue to be introduce. “As we begin to see the economy shift in that direction,’ she said, “people will be building up portfolios and reputations that are beyond how we treat credentials in the current day.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/stackable-degrees-could-be-the-future-of-higher-education-experts-say/

by Creative Commons
The past few years have been transformative for Creative Commons. In 2015, we set out with an ambitious new strategy to nurture a vibrant, usable Commons powered by collaboration and gratitude. Our ambition is fueled by our technology projects and an energetic and productive global community. Each of CC’s initiatives works in support of this goal, unleashing the potential of the Commons through the work of our committed global communities. In 2017, we hosted our largest Global Summit yet, organized by our community and supported by new sponsors and donors. With your guidance, we redesigned the Creative Commons Global Network in a massive, collaborative, international process, and we built new online infrastructure to support this unprecedented expansion of the movement for sharing. Our new engineering team shipped the CC Search beta and established new partnerships to expand our reach. We launched an exciting certification program, meeting demand for the course from librarians and educators around the world. We fought against the TPP and for copyright reform in Europe, and helped national governments adopt open education policies.

https://stateof.creativecommons.org/

By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post
Open-source textbooks have emerged as a cost-effective solution for cash-strapped college students. They can download the material free or print copies for a nominal price.  The federal government’s first major investment in the free use of textbooks remains on track, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday in a letter examining a pilot program by the Education Department. Congress designated $5 million in the fiscal 2018 budget to support the creation or expansion of open-educational resources: peer-reviewed academic material released under an intellectual property license that permits free use. The money is an outgrowth of legislation Durbin introduced in the fall.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/05/08/education-dept-sets-course-for-open-textbook-pilot-program/

by WalletHub

Student-loan debts are more unsustainable in some places than others. WalletHub therefore compared the median student-loan balance against the median earnings of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in each of 2,515 U.S. cities to determine where Americans are most overleveraged on their college-related debts. Read on for our findings, expert advice from a panel of researchers and a full description of our methodology.

https://wallethub.com/student-loan-calculator/

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
A recent Gallup poll revealed that only about one in four adults believe that students who graduate from high school this year are prepared for college or a career, and Lone Star Community College Chancellor Stephen Head agrees. “I really don’t care what your background is, most students are not prepared for college — they’re just not,” Head said to a crowd assembled last month in Washington, D.C. for a Communities In Schools event. “Grades are one thing, but emotionally, they’re just not ready. They need the background of social help behind the scenes … They don’t even know what they don’t know.” “They need job skills,” he added. “We help them with that, but they need to know how to show up on time, how to handle conflict resolution, how to [succeed].”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/its-time-to-break-silos-look-at-education-as-a-continuum-leaders-say/522869/

BY MATT LOECKE, eCampus News

Working across higher-ed departments is not easy but it can strengthen the institution’s ability to get things done. Collaboration across departments has been identified as the fundamental differentiator in achieving strategic objectives in not only the business community but also in higher education. Today’s challenging higher-ed environment can benefit from more collaboration, particularly between IT, business, and finance leaders. The EDUCAUSE/NACUBO 2017 Enterprise IT Summit identified four main areas that can markedly enhance collaboration:

development of institutional relationships and partnerships
improvement of analytics and data governance initiatives
a forward -thinking leadership team to align unit goals with university goals
cultivation of a better understanding of IT costs and strategic value

3 proven ways to improve higher-ed collaboration

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive
University of Arizona Chief Information Security Officer Lanita Collette told EdTech Magazine that when it comes to securing the university campus, there is a “tension between our need to provide an open environment where people can collaborate easily and the need to protect private information.”  At Arizona, IT security officials make sure that servers remain updated, there are intense monitoring procedures in place, and the team continuously uses the latest patches to prohibit digital currency mining, which can overload the system — a similar approach that was taken by IT officials at Northwestern University when computer chip malfunctions could have potentially disrupted the institution’s entire network.  University of Wisconsin-Madison CISO Bob Turner told EdTech Magazine that ransomware is high on his monitoring and response list and suggests campuses adapt to better respond, explaining that “in order to deal with risk, you have to deal with the pace of technology, along with the pace of the threats that are coming at your organization,” he said.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/campus-network-security-officials-step-up-fight-against-cyberattacks/522922/

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive
A recent Gallup poll revealed that only about one in four adults believe that students who graduate from high school this year are prepared for college or a career, and Lone Star Community College Chancellor Stephen Head agrees. “I really don’t care what your background is, most students are not prepared for college — they’re just not,” Head said to a crowd assembled last month in Washington, D.C. for a Communities In Schools event. “Grades are one thing, but emotionally, they’re just not ready. They need the background of social help behind the scenes … They don’t even know what they don’t know.” “They need job skills,” he added. “We help them with that, but they need to know how to show up on time, how to handle conflict resolution, how to [succeed].”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/its-time-to-break-silos-look-at-education-as-a-continuum-leaders-say/522869/

by Cheddar.com

The online education platform offers its 31 million users thousands of courses from established universities for a fraction of the price of on-campus classes. Coursera wants to expand further and bring “the highest quality education” to even more people, says its new CEO Jeff Maggioncalda.

https://cheddar.com/videos/coursera-could-be-a-multi-billion-dollar-a-year-company-2