Online Learning Update

December 31, 2018

Personalized Learning: Artificial Intelligence and Education in the Future

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

John Loeffler, Interesting Engineering

It goes without saying that artificial intelligence is changing the nature of industries from transportation to finance, and education is no different with the prospect of personalized learning quickly becoming a reality. As more and more of a student’s education is experienced through a computer, data on their educational progress can be collected, leading to more personalized learning plans while assisting the teacher in identifying problem areas for students. While artificial intelligence in education might appear unnerving for some, the benefits are too great to ignore.

https://interestingengineering.com/personalized-learning-artificial-intelligence-and-education-in-the-future

Share on Facebook

Free online courses prompt students to learn better

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

by DB Post

As free online courses become more the norm of the day, students across city are enrolling for them in large numbers. With availability of over hundred certified courses free of cost in formats like video lectures, students are getting guidance from faculty of reputed universities around the world. By enrolling for online courses, students are able to complete entire degrees as per their flexibility, even in-between jobs or pursuing another regular course. The platform of e-learning is especially helping dropout students because in online course, they can simply enrol for multiple courses while staying at home. Some e-learning sites like Edx, Coursera, Howcast, Cosmolearning, Massive open online courses (MOOCs) and Academic Earth are providing more affordable options than traditional colleges.

https://dbpost.com/free-online-courses-prompt-students-to-learn-better/

Share on Facebook

Uganda E-Learning was emphasised in 2018

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

Uganda Monitor

Additionally, the Uganda National Association for the Deaf and the Swedish programme for ICT in developing regions developed a digital content platform for learning sign language this year.  This is expected to be piloted in schools for the deaf, including primary, secondary schools and higher institutions of learning and public places such as hospitals and police stations.  This will become a vital tool in alleviating communication with this minority group if and when fully implemented. In appreciation of e-learning, a number of universities this year rolled out e-learning courses and plans to include e-learning in the services they offer.

https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/Education/E-Learning-2018-Mathematics-Kaino-Tablet-Karamoja/688336-4908272-20jg1tz/index.html

Share on Facebook

December 30, 2018

Coursera, edX, Udacity Grew Their Businesses By Over 20% in 2018

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

By IBL News

Top MOOC platforms significantly increased their revenues in 2018, after adding new paid models and experiencing an increase in users. According to Forbes, Coursera’s revenuefor 2018 is $140, up from $100 million in 2017. Udacity’s revenue will grow by 25 % to $90 million, and edX will be at around $60 million — a smaller increase. In terms of users, Coursera leads with 37 million, followed by edX (18 million), XuetangX (14 million), Udacity (10 million) and FutureLearn (8.7 million).

https://iblnews.org/2018/12/23/coursera-edx-udacity-grew-their-businesses-by-over-20-in-2018/

Share on Facebook

Indians Are The Top Subscribers For Machine Learning Programmes On Coursera

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:06 am

Abhijeet Katte, Analytics India Magazine

Coursera recently shared an interesting insight: Indians constituted the highest number of subscribers, especially for courses related to artificial intelligence and machine learning. In fact, Coursera announced that India stands as the second largest and fastest growing market for Coursera, with over 3.7 million learners. This insight, along with the rising number of New Tech-related jobs in India underlines the learning hunger among Indians. The highest subscribers went to the courses around AI and Python.

https://www.analyticsindiamag.com/indians-are-the-top-subscribers-for-machine-learning-programmes-on-coursera/

Share on Facebook

Education must meet the needs of a flexible, versatile workforce

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

BY ANNE TRUMBORE, the Hill

College costs too much. In both time and money, a four-year residential degree has rapidly become unaffordable for the vast majority of students, just as the bachelor’s degree has become a requirement for entry-level jobs. The price of admission to the workforce is unacceptably high for the number of skilled workers our economy demands. In Washington, D.C., there is bipartisan understanding that the $1.5 trillion student loan debt is at dangerous levels as bipartisan support for providing alternative educational on-ramps to skilled jobs continues to rise.

https://thehill.com/opinion/education/422338-education-must-meet-the-needs-of-a-flexible-workforce

Share on Facebook

December 29, 2018

Commentary: Online students impact higher ed enrollment

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

Angie Besendorfer, St. Louis Business Journal

In today’s tech-driven society, it’s imperative to not overlook the importance of online universities and programs. Most traditional universities now offer fully online degrees, and fully online universities are also gaining traction with students. In Missouri, out of the nearly 450,000 enrolled college students, nearly 55,000 — or 12.2 percent — are exclusively enrolled in online courses, and that number continues to grow. Online programs are particularly beneficial for non-traditional students looking to advance or change their careers, while working full time and raising families. It can be challenging to fit school into a busy schedule, but online programs offer the flexibility — and often lower tuition cost — to make earning an undergraduate or advanced degree a reality. Students who do not have access to a traditional university — whether they live in rural areas, have limited mobility or face transportation issues — also can be served by online education.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2018/12/21/commentary-online-students-impact-higher-ed.html

Share on Facebook

Open education can address Indonesia’s educational inequalities

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Debora Irene Christine, Jakarta Post

With increased attention to lack of accessibility and cost of education at home, as well as unequal knowledge production, the concept of open education (OE) offers an approach to enable a more equitable access to education and knowledge. It promotes openly licensed educational resources (open educational resources/OER) that allow free use, revision and re-purposing. OE’s aims to ensure education belongs to the commons, leading us to reimagine what underlying values of the educational practices ought to be about; how it might disentangle from increasing pressures to merely increase and produce performance, learning outcomes, competences and other instrumental ideas; how it could support those without formal access to education and enable lifelong learning; and how it could be inclusive, accessible, and designed to incorporate diverse forms of knowledge and inquiries.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/12/22/open-education-can-address-indonesias-educational-inequalities.html

Share on Facebook

REPORT EXPLORES MOBILE LEARNING HABITS OF INDIA’S NEXT 500 MILLION USERS

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

By Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

In certain areas, however, investors and startups have their attention fixed on another market: new users. Gray Matters Capital (GMC), a VC fund and accelerator based in Atlanta that focuses on the Indian market, has a new report out this month focusing on the next half billion learners that are expected to come online in the next few years and their mobile learning habits. The costs of mobile data, internet connection, and devices around the world are dropping. Meanwhile, average earnings in many communities around the world are rising. Within a short period of time, many people and households that currently do not have access to or cannot afford the technology necessary to participate in online learning will be able to do so.

https://news.elearninginside.com/gmc-report-india-next-500-million-mobile-learning/

 

Share on Facebook

December 28, 2018

DeVos Outlines ‘Rethinking’ of Higher Education

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

Andrew Kreighbaum, Inside Higher Ed

Secretary and Education Department officials today outline plans for looming accreditation reform negotiation, describing focus on credit transfer and credential inflation. The department described its priorities in two white papers released Wednesday — on rethinking higher ed generally and on accreditation reform. Recommendations in the brief papers are broad and don’t come with specific policy proposals attached. Department officials said some of the identified issues could be addressed through regulations or changes to current law. Others are a matter of changing the department’s current practices, Diane Auer Jones, principal deputy under secretary of education, said in an interview this week.  “We want to put on the table what we think the challenge is,” she said. “But we are doing negotiated rule making. It isn’t up to us to solve every problem. We would love for people to come to the table with some of their own ideas on how to solve these problems.” Auer Jones said the department wants to give accreditors the ability to craft standards that match the institutions they accredit. It makes little sense, she said, to apply the same outcomes standards to Johns Hopkins University and a nearby community college.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/20/department-focus-credit-transfer-credential-inflation-rule-making-session

Share on Facebook

Machine Learning and Mobile Technology: Amalgamation for the Future

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

by Ashish Parmar, Analytics Insight

Machine learning is the technology of the future; it is just the beginning of its implementation in today’s world. It is a part of artificial intelligence that has grown substantially for its usage in diverse fields and is proving worthy every day with new utilizations in daily life. Machine learning is estimated to have a market share of $153 Billion, which is quite big a number for a something that is still an emerging technology. What makes machine learning such an important technology is the ease of its implementation in various fields like Health, Automobile, Smartphones, Food, etc. Almost anything you can think of can be supervised by machine learning. Furthermore, it is not dependent on any platform as it can be implemented for any device such as Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, and Smartphone and is executable on various Computer Languages such as Java, Python, big data etc. ML as of now has not established any boundaries or parameters for its usage in any particular field, it is very flexible to execute and is customizable for the desired results.

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/machine-learning-and-mobile-technology-amalgamation-for-the-future/

Share on Facebook

Distance Learning: Pros and Сons

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am
Econotimes

An increasing amount of young people nowadays make their choice in favor of learning from the comfort of their homes. They appreciate the chance of being able to gain knowledge without a need to move to other cities and bear boring classes. It is of a great importance to have a deeper insight into distance learning before one can decide on which way to go. Very often, people choose regular methods of studying simply because they are not aware of other alternatives. Even though e-learning proved to be as effective as conventional one, it doesn’t suit every student equally well. Therefore, realizing both its benefits and pitfalls can help many people to choose sides.

https://www.econotimes.com/Distance-Learning-Pros-and-ons-1474568

Share on Facebook

December 27, 2018

Nine charts that really bring home just how fast AI is growing

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

by Will Knight, MIT Technology Review

Artificial intelligence is booming in Europe, China, and the US, but it’s still a very male industry. With so much hype surrounding artificial intelligence today, it can be difficult to know where things actually stand. Fortunately, a report (.pdf) issued by a group of AI policy researchers today collates a range of data that helps capture the state of the AI boom. The amount of money being poured into AI startups is remarkable. The number of AI startups (top) is shown on the left, compared with total startups on the right. AI investment (below) is shown on the left, compared with total investments on the right. This speaks to huge opportunities to use machine learning in different industries, but also to a market that is hyped and overheated.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612582/data-that-illuminates-the-ai-boom/

Share on Facebook

14 Predictions About The Future Of AI And VR

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Forbes Technology Council

These days, staying up to date on cutting-edge technologies is critical to company relevancy. For example, recent advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality have made major waves in the way some businesses operate. The company that knows about new tech earlier has a better chance of staying ahead of the curve and its competitors. As groundbreaking advances are made in the realms of AI and VR, many are speculating on how these technologies will reshape both everyday living and the way businesses operate. We asked 14 members of Forbes Technology Council to highlight the ways they foresee AI and VR technologies changing the world.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/12/11/14-predictions-about-the-future-of-ai-and-vr/#647347936466

Share on Facebook

US intelligence community says quantum computing and AI pose an ’emerging threat’ to national security

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:02 am

Zack Whittaker, Tech Crunch

It’s not often you can put nuclear weapons, terrorism and climate change on the same list as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, but the U.S. government believes all pose an “emerging threat” to its national security. Several key agencies in the U.S. intelligence community were asked what they saw as long-term threats faced by the country in the next decade and beyond, and the future of “dual-use technologies” took center stage.  Agnostic technologies like encryption, autonomous and unmanned systems, AI and quantum computing rank at the top of the agencies’ “worry list” for fears that they could be used to cause harm, rather than advance society.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/13/us-intelligence-quantum-computing-artificial-intelligence-national-security-threat/

Share on Facebook

December 26, 2018

What Does a Future Ready College Student Look Like?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:08 am

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The effort to ensure that students are “future ready” has gained momentum in recent years as more and more stakeholders have recognized the importance of digital learning tools to ensuring the success of students. And while the effort has largely focused on elementary and secondary education, that does not mean that college students are off the hook. Rather, the same principles that benefit younger students will help college students make the most of their higher education experience. In fact, since one of the main aspects of the future ready movement is ensuring that students are prepared for college and work, the need for college students to have these skills developed is all the more acute. One principle from the future ready movement that can benefit college students is the idea of personalized learning. College students are old enough to take learning into their own hands and ensure that they are maximizing their opportunities.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/what-does-a-future-ready-college-student-look-like/

Share on Facebook

EdX’s Struggle for Long-Term Sustainability

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:06 am

Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

Writing in a blog post on Monday, edX CEO Agarwal announced that after toying with the idea of introducing support fees for previously free content, the company has decided on a way forward that will “strike a balance of moving edX towards financial sustainability while maintaining a robust level of free access.” The plan boils down to two changes: students will no longer be able to audit an individual course free for an unlimited period of time. That period will vary, but is usually around six weeks for most courses, said Adam Medros, president and COO of edX in an interview. Additionally, all graded assessments are now accessible only to students who pay. Students who audit courses at no charge will continue to be able to access ungraded assessments.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/12/18/quest-long-term-sustainability-edx-tries-monetize-moocs

Share on Facebook

More Than a Title: Lead from Where You Are

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

Shana Campbell, EDUCAUSE Review

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) identifies skills needed to lead from the middle. Influence, communication, and thinking and acting systematically are three of these qualities that can be cultivated by anyone within an organization, no matter their title or position within the hierarchy. Influence as outlined by CCL encompasses cooperation and collaboration to accomplish a shared goal. At the core of influence is the ability to connect with people—simply put, relationships. Building on the relational aspect is the ability to be reliable in addition to delivering results. These characteristics can best be summed up as “taking action.” So, foundationally, influence is the ability to connect with others, take action, and achieve shared outcomes. In his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, leadership expert John Maxell states, “The higher you want to climb, the more you need leadership. The great the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be.”

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2018/12/more-than-a-title-lead-from-where-you-are

Share on Facebook

December 25, 2018

Strategic IT: What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

John O’Brien, EDUCAUSE Review

When it comes to broad, demonstrable acceptance of information technology as a strategic asset, there are—as we say in higher education—”pockets of excellence,” especially colleges and universities that have taken on major digital transformation initiatives with vision from the top and buy-in throughout the organization. On the other hand, some evidence suggests that we may actually be moving in the opposite direction. For example, in the 2017 Campus Computing Survey, the percent of respondents who say that “senior academic leadership understands the strategic value of institutional investments in IT” declined by 10 percent from the previous year. Likewise, the 2017 Leadership Board for CIOs survey reports that board-level involvement in IT governance experienced a “significant drop,” from 26 percent to 17 percent—the lowest level of board engagement in four years.2

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/10/strategic-it-what-got-us-here-wont-get-us-there

Share on Facebook

OER Cost Assessment Strategies

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Nichole Karpel and Bruce Schneider, EDUCAUSE Review
Seemingly, OER are good for faculty, students, and college administrators; so why isn’t every college implementing OER as a priority project? The short answer is that OER cost is just the beginning. The planning, selection, management, and maintenance of OER can propel even the best of planning teams into a quandary of unknown variables and decisions that can consume considerable resources for a potentially favorable outcome. This article examines the decisions, challenges, and lessons learned surrounding the implementation of OER. Although users are permitted to revise OER, which brings other considerations, the amount of research in this area is limited, and we focus here on costs, selection, and maintenance of OER.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/12/oer-cost-assessment-strategies

Share on Facebook

Michio Kaku and Tracey Wilen on Jobs of the Future

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

YouTube

Dr. Michio Kaku — theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and co-founder of String Field Theory, joined Dr. Tracey Wilen, a researcher and speaker on the impact of technology on society, work, and careers for a recent edition of his YouTube series. A former visiting scholar at Stanford University Wilen has held leadership positions at Apple, HP, Cisco Systems and the Apollo Group. In this half-hour program, they address Jobs of the Future for college students.

https://youtu.be/YCwYAHIPAHs

Share on Facebook
Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress