Online Learning Update

Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Press reports indicate that Knoxville College is attempting a rebirth. The school’s website indicates that it is open for enrollment. The college will start with online classes and is hoping to transition to a residential institution once again. In watching the videos and reading the stories that I could find on Knoxville College, I kept thinking that this is an institution that we should all be supporting. The stories contain many examples of alumni talking about how important the institution has been in providing a foundation for success.  Can we call on edtech companies to offer their platforms and expertise to Knoxville College?  Are there any higher ed consulting companies willing to partner with the College?

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/abandoned-campuses-and-online-learning

Christine Shakespeare and James Curry, Evolllution

What possibilities could we imagine if HEIs committed to putting data on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform? Can we imagine a distributed ledger across the HEI enterprise to include the registrar, bursar, provost, human resources, purchasing and continuing education divisions (just to name a few) who can all share in the stewardship of a student’s blockchain? Some intermediary progress toward leveraging DLT would enable registrar-like offices to be the stewards of that portion of the chain, with distribution of credentials in ways universities never could have imagined. It remains to be seen what type of Trusted Third Party (TTP) providers may become “owners” or clearinghouse providers so that access is permitted to construct and distribute in whole or segments, or even provide access to employers, graduate schools, professional certifying bodies, etc.

https://evolllution.com/technology/tech-tools-and-resources/the-catalyzing-impact-of-blockchain-technology-on-higher-education-student-centricity-at-every-level/

Rene Reints, Fortune

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a massive industry, with potential in every field from autonomous cars to human resources. According to PwC, A.I. could add up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.  The A.I. explosion invites plenty of employment as well, although a study by Element AI found there’s only about 90,000 people in the world with the right skill set.  China tops the list with just over 12,000 job listings, followed by the U.S. with 7,000. Other leaders include Japan, the UK, India, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, and Poland.

http://fortune.com/2018/11/29/ai-jobs-worldwide/

Isha Sood, eLearning Industry

Educators and trainers across the globe are dealing with constantly dropping learner attention spans. This article focuses on interactivity as one of the best approaches to address this challenge and lists down some of the most essential elements of interactive learning.

https://elearningindustry.com/interactive-learning-essential-elements

By Tony Wan, EdTech Business

Google acquired Workbench, a Baltimore-based company that provides an online library of lessons and projects, organized by subject and grade level, that educators can use in their classrooms. It also offers a programming interface where students can do coding exercises and even control bluetooth-connected devices that are integrated with the platform. The two companies are no strangers: Workbench has been integrated with Google Classroom, which allows educators to assign Workbench projects to students, and track, review and assess their progress. Claiming more than 30 million users, Google Classroom is currently one of the most widely used online educational tool, which lets teachers, students and parents manage class assignments, quizzes and discussions.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-11-30-google-makes-a-rare-education-technology-acquisition-workbench

PoliceOne

Nearly every profession requires continuing education and training to stay current with trends and certification requirements. In law enforcement, this ongoing education is critical to stay abreast of changes in the law, for risk management purposes and to keep officers’ skills sharp in the field. But training can take a big bite out of an agency’s resources. In addition to the financial burden of paying for trainers, facilities and even travel, in-person courses mean taking officers off the streets for hours at a time, reducing the numbers patrolling your community and creating budgeting and staffing challenges. Blended learning – combining traditional methods of face-to-face education with online learning – can be an effective option. Online, on-demand training provides flexibility by allowing officers to complete courses when and where it’s convenient for them.

https://www.policeone.com/police-products/training/online-training/articles/482232006-4-ways-online-police-training-saves-time-money/

by ATD

Certain e-learning authoring tools feature more adaptive assessment engines that allow corporate learners to identify mistakes and remedy knowledge gaps immediately. For example, the system automatically flags questions answered incorrectly so that corporate learners can reevaluate relevant sections of the online training course; then they come back to the online quiz and see how they’ve improved. This is in stark contrast to traditional testing methods, wherein corporate learners receive their results after the fact, when it’s often too late to improve behaviors or bridge gaps before completing the online training course. Your corporate learners get the chance to enjoy an adaptive e-learning experience where they receive feedback right away and make meaningful changes.

https://www.td.org/professional-partner-content/flexible-and-forward-thinking-how-to-create-adaptive-elearning-experiences-based-on-learner-behavior

By Space Coast Daily

One of the most common benefits of distance learning is the fact that you get to learn in an environment that suits your expectations. As a student, you get to decide when it is appropriate for you to learn, and how you wish. Unlike when you go to college, online education gives you the freedom to undertake your other responsibilities comfortably. It also allows you to pick the type of lessons you want to learn on a particular day and so on. Additionally, as a student going for an online program, you have the last say in whatever you want to be included in your education.

http://spacecoastdaily.com/2018/11/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-distance-learning-in-canada/

Ray Bendici, University Business
Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative increased the number of students enrolling in open education resources-based courses. Open education resources (OER) provide significant cost savings to low-income students and strengthen instruction and learning, according to a recent study from Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit that supports evidence-based institutional improvement. The study also examined, for the first time, OER-related costs and revenue for an institution. Developing an OER course averages $11,700 (including faculty salary and benefits), while developing a full OER degree program costs nearly $500,000 per institution, found the study.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/For-higher-ed-investing-oer-pays-eventual-dividends

By Ryann Ellis, ATD

Cindy Huggett, CPLP, is a pioneer in the field of virtual training. She’s been providing virtual training solutions since the early 2000s, and is a recognized industry expert in teaching training professionals how to design and deliver interactive online classes.  The biggest benefit of virtual learning is that participants don’t have to leave the workspace to participate in the learning event. On the flip side, that’s also the biggest challenge.  The number 2 skill goes hand-in-hand with first skill: be tech savvy and willing to learn the specific technology. Platforms are consistently evolving, and designers need to stay current on the technology that the L&D field is using to deliver virtual learning. Finally, the third must-have skill is to be digitally literate.

https://www.td.org/insights/be-intentionalin-your-learning-design-in-your-skills-in-your-career

by Oli Walker, Times Higher Education

I’ve found that learning to code at a higher education level isn’t a straightforward choice between practical courses versus a degree at a traditional redbrick university. Some of my peers had been to UK universities too, so they had some computer science theory under their belts, which helped. I’d say think about how to get into work and consider adding a bootcamp on to your degree. This was a more condensed type of learning with less theory; it was intensely practical. And after it’s over, you’ll love that feeling of an empty code editor and a world of possibilities. For the next few years I plan to hone my JavaScript skills, then maybe I’ll take off travelling once again.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/blogs/keeping-coding

Natalie Wexler, Forbes

A report in D.C. last year revealed that school-level administrators often ignored a district policy stating that students couldn’t take the online version of a course until after they’d failed the traditional one. Most of those enrolled in credit recovery—22% of all 2017 graduates—had never taken the original course. Students weren’t interested in showing up for class, teachers told investigators, because they knew they could easily get credit for it online. How many schools are offering these programs, and what kinds of students are most likely to be enrolled? Until recently, it was hard to say. But two recent reports—one released today—provide some answers. The vast majority of American schools—around 70%—have some kind of credit recovery program, with average participation rates under 10%. But a subset enroll far higher proportions of students in credit recovery, some as many as 60%.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2018/11/29/why-graduation-rates-are-rising-but-student-achievement-is-not/#7665f9766a7f

By Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

The growing use of voice search and virtual digital assistants will have an increasing impact on how we deliver, search for and market higher education.  Voice enabling is the funnel through which we will access increasingly smart technologies. As these technologies evolve and further intertwine into a conversant smart system, we must respond and anticipate the changes that are only months away. A good place to begin is implementing VEO for all of our programs. Universities must be responding to this new trend to capture new prospective students, and to make sure you are sending current students to the proper resources that will enrich their time on campus. (thanks to Jordan DiMaggio UPCEA Associate Director of Policy and Communications for his assistance with this article)

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/hey-google-alexa-siri-and-higher-ed

James Vincent , the Verge

In a new book published this week titled Architects of Intelligence, writer and futurist Martin Ford interviewed 23 of the most prominent men and women who are working in AI today, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Google AI Chief Jeff Dean, and Stanford AI director Fei-Fei Li. In an informal survey, Ford asked each of them to guess by which year there will be at least a 50 percent chance of AGI being built. Of the 23 people Ford interviewed, only 18 answered, and of those, only two went on the record. Interestingly, those two individuals provided the most extreme answers: Ray Kurzweil, a futurist and director of engineering at Google, suggested that by 2029, there would be a 50 percent chance of AGI being built, and Rodney Brooks, roboticist and co-founder of iRobot, went for 2200. The rest of the guesses were scattered between these two extremes, with the average estimate being 2099 — 81 years from now.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/27/18114362/ai-artificial-general-intelligence-when-achieved-martin-ford-book

Shiv Gaglani, Forbes
The short answer: Not yet, but it’s trending that way.  Indeed, there are more than 300 online nursing degree programs ranging from certificate and bachelors to masters and even doctorate level. For good reason, when the resultant career involves patient care these programs also require an in-person component (“blended learning”) through immersion into the clinical setting. However, one healthcare degree that is conspicuously not available online is that of Doctor of Medicine (MD). Given that I’m half-way through my own MD, from which I took a leave of absence to launch the health education platform Osmosis.org with the former Khan Academy Medicine team, I wanted to pose the thought experiment: Could you get your MD online? Or, at least part of it? If so, how may this impact global access to healthcare, student debt levels, and patient outcomes?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shivgaglani/2018/11/28/could-you-get-an-md-online/#6657ccdb201c

Mark Lieberman, Inside Higher Ed

Just like that, another year is almost over. If it’s been as much of a whirlwind for you as it has for us, you’re likely struggling to make sense of all that changed on the digital learning landscape this year. Our second annual year-end recap is here to help. We gathered some of the most thoughtful observers of the field to ask these three questions: What digital learning development from the past 12 months (either a specific piece of news or a trend) will we still be talking about five years from now? Why is this development likely to stick around as a topic of conversation and a driver of innovation? How will the conversation evolve in the coming years?   Read what leaders, including your humble blog editor Ray Schroeder, said.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/12/12/recapping-year-digital-learning

By Anant Agarwal, Quartz

The jobs of the future will require a hybrid set of skills from a variety of subject areas. But our current education model has us spending at least three years studying the same singular discipline. As the en vogue skills will change several times as our careers progress, higher education degrees are also adapting, focusing on flexible and customizable credential offerings In this future, imagine that instead of graduating with a single degree from one university, you will design your own personalized degree from many online or residential programs. Smaller, modular chunks of education will reign, and our learning experience will become incredibly flexible and customizable.

https://qz.com/1469291/future-proofing-higher-education-starts-with-reinventing-the-college-degree/

Fourth Source
In this day and age, the behavior of an average consumer who shops online is affected by their social media interactions more than anything else. They learn about new brands and change opinions about the ones they already know based on how they feel about these brands on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Thus, it’s no surprise that social media is increasing brand engagement and sales for those who are using it correctly. Now, when it comes to traditional marketing, there are plenty of well-established and comprehensive academic courses that any student can enroll in. However, there are few institutes that offer dedicated courses in digital. So, you want to master social media marketing, then self-teaching is your best bet. You can go about it by reading about social media management tips online on authority website and blogs. However, if you are interested in going deeper and have the time to spare, then you can also check out online courses

http://www.fourthsource.com/social-media/3-online-course-websites-to-learn-more-about-social-media-marketing-23393

David Leaser, Evolllution

IBM is creating an industry-leading approach to developing a credential program for New Collar jobs which are in demand and don’t require a college degree. These jobs range from customer engagement, cloud, cognitive and cyber security, to design and user experience. The New Collar Certificate Programs follow a unique four-step method to create a ready-to-work talent pool. It starts with a job fit assessment. This is a science-based, non-biased approach to assess somebody’s cognitive skills, abilities and personality traits to help match a student to a career they want to pursue. So many people start a job and then realize it’s a dead end or it isn’t the right fit. It’s a big expense, and it takes time out of people’s lives. We want to help people find a career they’re going to love.

 https://evolllution.com/programming/credentials/building-the-future-of-new-collar-jobs-with-digital-badging/

Weisheng Neo, People Matters

There are two things here that companies need to consider — Mindset and Method. For mindset, the company has to create a learning culture. This seems straightforward and obvious, but learning can take a backseat if the culture is not conducive to upskilling for employees. In high-performance-driven cultures, companies often overlook training for the next phase of growth, exposing inadequacies in the organization when the next phase hits. One great way to create a learning culture is to have leaders who lead by example as leaders are the most visible people in an organization and their actions inspire employees. Second is ‘method’ or the mode of learning which is a crucial element. If you are upgrading the skills of technicians to handle complex equipment, then you want to look at hands-on, in-person training. If you are looking at upskilling designers (who sit across geographies) to the newest software, you can think about online, synchronous learning. Technology has given us tools that overcome constraints in learning, but how and when we use them is critical.

https://www.peoplematters.in/article/training-development/online-learning-is-where-e-commerce-was-10-15-years-ago-upgrads-weisheng-19985

by Laura Berger, Forbes

Artificial intelligence’s takeover is not an impending possibility — it’s here. We use GPS without a thought, accept guidance from customer service bots, and our interests quickly turn into smartphone recommendations. From these experiences, I can’t help but connect the dots to the impact they will have on the passion I hold professionally dear: leadership. These observations are just a subset of the impact of automation on leadership, and thus, this article will likely be the first of several that I will occasionally publish to share my reflections.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/11/26/the-ai-survival-guide-for-leaders/#480fea313427