Online Learning Update

By TOM HAYDON, TapInto

Ten years ago, 1,234 were taking online college courses at Rutgers University. Last year, in the fall semester of 2017, that number reached 23,042, according to university figures. Nationwide over 6.4 million people are sitting in front of computers to take college courses, about one-third of all the students taking high education classes, Richard Novak, Rutgers vice president for continuing education and distance education, told the university board of governors recently. “If we’re going to make Rutgers as accessible and affordable as we can, we’ve got embrace online portals,” university President Robert Barchi told the board.

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/newark/articles/rutgers-report-views-online-classes-as-the-future-2

Sarah Gonser, Hechinger Report

This year, after a two-year survey of 1,100 employers in the state, the Georgia Department of Labor concluded that 85 percent of the businesses surveyed were deeply concerned with workers’ poor soft skills and work ethic. Topmost among employer worries were attendance and punctuality, attitude and respect, discipline and character. Among the findings, 87 percent of employers expressed concerns about their workers’ abilities to engage in creative thinking and problem solving.

https://hechingerreport.org/businesses-say-students-arent-mastering-basic-workplace-skills-are-they-right/

Two women in Maine are launching online crash courses directed at young adults on “adulting.” From cooking, budgeting, to time management the courses are designed to teach millennials a few of the basics. Rachel Flehinger and Rachel Weinstein are the two behind the idea of Adulting School . They are dedicated to teach “adult” skills to fledgling adults and assist them in becoming successful grown-ups.”It’s going to be entertaining,” Flehinger said. The school offers private social media groups with live events at local bars and restaurants where attendees can learn skills like how to network as a pro or how to fold a fitted sheet.

https://www.ktnv.com/news/adulting-classes-for-millennials-expand-online

T74

Despite making up a critical share of the economy, middle-skills jobs — those that require more education or training than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree — are only now slowly beginning to gain the attention of those focused on the K-12 education pipeline meant to prepare American children to meet the country’s labor needs.

https://www.the74million.org/article/the-middle-skills-gap-half-of-americas-jobs-require-more-than-high-school-diplomas-but-less-than-4-year-degrees-so-why-are-they-under-so-many-students-radars/

by Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

It is not that much of stretch to think of the future of universities through the lens of the newspaper industry. All of us are wondering how traditional residential institutions will navigate the digitally enabled shift to online and low-residency learning. Are residential campuses analogous to print newspapers? Is online learning analogous to news websites and apps? What we learn in Breaking News is that the smart people working in the newspaper industry did not see the digital disruption coming, and even when they understood the implications of digital they were unable to find a new economic model to replace the old one.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/fantastic-breaking-news-filtered-through-higher-ed-anxieties

by Edwige Simon, EDUCAUSE Review

For many of today’s students and more than a few educators, effective participation in online discussions in postsecondary education may not be second nature. In particular, graduate-level discussions present challenges quite different from their undergraduate counterparts, as master’s degree candidates tend to be highly motivated. This may mean that they frequently exceed the minimum number of required posts and write longer entries. The recommendations below are based on my own experience teaching fully online graduate courses with fifteen to twenty students, although many of these points would benefit those teaching at the undergraduate level as well.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2018/11/10-tips-for-effective-online-discussions

Making Sen$e

The problem is many of those programs only train people for the jobs that exist today. With the rapid rate of change, the skills they teach could be obsolete within several years.While some universities are embracing the technical skills model, others see an opportunity to stand out as institutions that teach students “soft skills,” such as problem solving or the ability to work in a team, that are useful not only for the jobs of today, but for whatever the future might bring. And in a world where not only universities, but private companies, are getting into the education game, the pressure to keep up is stronger than ever.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/how-colleges-are-preparing-students-for-jobs-that-dont-exist-yet

By Alicia Geigel, ULoop
With the fall semester coming to an end and the spring semester approaching quickly, you probably are trying to decide what classes to take for the next semester. Usually around this time of year, students look through a course list and try to put together a class schedule that reflects both their interests and includes the necessary course fulfillments. Trying to blend all of these interests while also trying to figure out major obligations, especially on a deadline, can be a breeze for some and a nightmare for others. Piecing together a schedule of courses all while taking into consideration day of the week, time, location, etc. makes choosing courses even more of a hassle. However, one convenient option when choosing courses is opting for online courses, which not only eliminates the stress of putting together a schedule that doesn’t overlap, but it also gives you better control over how you spend your time.

https://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/270766/5-Myths-About-Online-Courses-Debunked

Purdue University

The Purdue University Board of Trustees voted Dec. 7 to establish Purdue Online, a new organizational unit that will systematically develop a coordinated, unified system-wide portfolio of online course and degree offerings for students of all types. “The launch of Purdue University Global provided a transformational opportunity to re-examine at a fundamental level how Purdue delivers online education to all of its students, both residential and non-residential,” said Gerry McCartney, executive vice president for Purdue Online. “The creation of Purdue Online is a tremendous giant leap forward for the university in fulfilling our land-grant mission in the modern era.”

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q4/trustees-ok-new-unit-for-system-wide-online-education.html

by Daniel Seaton, Inside Higher Ed

At a time when many institutions are re-evaluating their approach to open online learning, how would the perceived value of being an edX consortium member change if any instructor or student could readily use edX videos, problems and pages for residential teaching and learning? For example, within the edX consortium, more than 130 institutions have created over 2,200 open online courses, making up approximately 500,000 individual problems, videos and HTML pages. The growing body of content represents a budding collaboration economy — an economic system based on sharing underutilized assets or services directly among peers or organizations.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/12/05/how-mooc-collaboration-could-aid-campus-teaching-and-learning

Joe McKendrick, Forbes

Now, artificial intelligence (AI) may have an answer for that, bringing learning and feedback in a very personal way to students. That’s the approach adopted by Derek Haoyang Li, founder and CEO of Squirrel AI, who has assembled a smarter alternative to existing online learning environments such as MOOCs. Li has building an AI-driven online educational platform in partnership with a global network of educators and participating institutions, including the National University of Ireland, Stanford University, UCLA, UC Irvine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Remin University of China. The company employs an AI adaptive learning engine with advanced algorithms, providing students one-to-one educational programs. The goal is to take adaptive learning, which is the employment of personalized learning based on individual progress, into the AI era, says Li, a featured speaker at the AI Summit being held in New York on December 5th and 6th. (Forbes is a media partner to the event.) “If you do not use AI for the base model of adaptive learning, you will fail,” he warns.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2018/12/04/now-ai-makes-online-courses-even-smarter/

Hallie Busta, Education Dive
Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, is adding a think tank to explore blockchain and other technology research interests such as the Internet of Things, and virtual and augmented reality, according to Cleveland.com. The Cleveland Blockchain and Digital Futures Hub will bring the private research university together with local business, government, technology and academic groups. It is part of the “Blockland” initiative, which strives to make northeast Ohio a center for research and development for the digital ledger technology. A permanent location, funding and administrative team have not yet been identified for the Hub, and Cleveland.com reports the group has only met in person a handful of times.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/case-western-reserve-to-launch-blockchain-think-tank/543640/

ALEXANDRA VILLARREAL, the Ladders

Brace yourself: The future of workplace training is coming, and it looks like there will be many mobile apps, social media tools and games involved. For its 2018 EdTrends Report for Businesses, game-based learning platform Kahoot! surveyed nearly 400 of its business users to see how trainers are prepping for an influx of millions of Generation-Z workers, most of whom grew up in front of a screen and are used to the digital space. But the report also shows how technology-friendly the general workforce is becoming, with one in four workers wanting to be trained via virtual or augmented reality and another quarter hoping to get training remotely via apps.

https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/are-virtual-reality-and-mobile-apps-the-future-of-job-training

by Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed
An academic prompts debate after commenting on low-income students’ need for smartphones and how lack of access to the devices can hurt college performance. As social inequality on American college campuses continues to spark debate, the fast-growing use of smartphone technology is raising new questions about the divide between poor and affluent students: Should all students have smartphones, whether or not they can afford them? Have smartphones become as important to student success as food and housing? Would having smartphones help low-income students be more academically successful?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/05/college-profs-say-smartphones-can-help-low-income-students-have-academic-success

Shelley Osborne, HR Drive

The future workplace will involve a new relationship between people and machines. In fact, according to Accenture, intelligent automation thrives when paired with people to drive better outcomes. “Far from killing jobs and creating a dehumanized future, pioneering companies are using intelligent automation to drive a new—and much more productive—relationship between people and machines,” says Accenture.  Customer service firm 24/7.AI reinvented itself from a call center to an AI-driven customer support experience. But as its AI technology took over simple customer requests, the company trained its human workforce in critical emotional intelligence skills to handle more complex customer calls.

https://www.hrdive.com/news/the-top-learning-trends-for-2019-towards-a-digital-human-workforce/543298/

By Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

The Minerva Project’s big contribution to higher education might not be its vision of an elite, global university, but the groundbreaking curriculum it hopes to export to universities around the world. Much of the attention the Minerva Project received around its much-watched launch in 2012 focused on the start-up’s lofty goal of creating an elite “Ivy League 2.0” university, with top traditional-age students doing immersive stints at campus locations around the world while also taking online courses. But Minerva’s biggest success so far is its curriculum, which the university describes as a systematic rethinking of the liberal arts. The nonbuzzy approach hearkens back to higher education’s roots with a focus on practical, vocational knowledge, and is drawing attention from both traditional academics and would-be disrupters. “They’re focused on the learning outcomes that we feel are most critical,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/12/05/minerva-project-draws-notice-its-practical-rigorous-curriculum

TD Magazine

Spending on employee learning continued to be healthy in 2017, according to the Association for Talent Development’s 2018 State of the Industry report, which American Management Association International and LinkedIn Learning sponsored. About 400 organizations across a broad range of industries, sizes, and locations submitted data on their learning programs. Organizations spent $1,296 per employee on learning in 2017. This represents a 1.7 percent increase from 2016, when the average spend per employee was $1,273. The number of formal learning hours per employee was 34.1 (slightly more than four eight-hour workdays) in 2017, the same as 2016. Between 2012 and 2016, this number increased steadily. The traditional instructor-led live classroom accounted for slightly more than half of all formal learning hours used at the average organization (formal learning hours are those that are standalone and not embedded in work activities).

https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/corporate-learning-keeps-holding-strong

Patrick Atack, PIE News

FutureLearn, the online delivery subsidiary of The Open University, has expanded both its global reach and its partnership network by launching a course on the Google Digital Garage. The British distance learning institution said partnering with the global technology company was a “high-quality endorsement” to help promote the courses offered by the OU and delivered online, either via FutureLearn or Google. We are committed to ensuring that employees are equipped with soft skills” The first course is described as “bite-sized” by FutureLearn, and is an introduction to online learning for career professionals, called “Effective networking”. It is a soft-skills focused module, reflecting the Garage’s aims to connect those already in business with education that may help them grow. The ‘Garage’ is part of the ‘Grow with Google’ plan, which claims to have 7.5 million used in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2015. It’s now available in 64 nations.

https://thepienews.com/news/futurelearn-partner-with-google-on-delivery/

By IBL News

EdX has attracted 40,000 credit-elegible learners, according to the data disclosed yesterday at the 2018 Global Forum Event in Boston.  Overall, the number of learners has jumped to 18 million, while there are 2,400 courses included in the platform. Nine fully online Master’s degrees, 14 new MicroMasters, and 54 professional certificate programs have been launched in the last year. The numbers about the Open edX platform reflect that this open source, community-based initiative shows a wider reach than the edX.org project.

https://iblnews.org/2018/11/18/reach-of-the-edx-org-and-open-edx-platform-in-numbers/

By IBL News

This new reality goes against that dream. edX, like Coursera, Udacity, and FutureLearn, needs to be either financially sustainable or profitable. Therefore, revenue-generating solutions are required. A successfully emerged idea is MOOC-based degrees, developed in partnerships between universities and the aforementioned platforms. The problem is how to split the revenues. Coursera and edX require a 50 percent split, because of the technology and marketing costs. Not all of the institutions are ready to take this deal. They believe that their brands, along with low prices, are powerful enough to make their online degrees successful. Regarding the technology, there are several solutions, including Open edX, which is a community-based, open source software (edX.org uses this code, plus an additional 10% of proprietary software).

https://iblnews.org/2018/12/03/moocs-are-dead-welcome-mooc-based-degrees/

Jonnie Penn, the Economist

At RAND, Simon and two colleagues—Allan Newell, a young mathematician, and J. Clifford Shaw, a former insurance actuary—tried to model human problem-solving in terms that a computer could put into operation. To do so, Simon borrowed elements from the framework that he had developed in “Administrative Behaviour”. To make a computer “think” as a human, Simon made it think like a corporation. The product of the trio’s labour was a virtual machine called the Logic Theorist, heralded as the first working prototype of artificial intelligence. Printouts of the Theorist in operation turned heads at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, which gave the field its name and initial membership. In notes from the Dartmouth conference, one participant wrote that the Theorist helped to solve the dreaded “demo to sponsor” problem. This was essential, because the foundation funding AI was sceptical that the research area was worthwhile.

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/11/26/ai-thinks-like-a-corporation-and-thats-worrying