Online Learning Update

April 23, 2019

How voice-first technology can be used in online learning

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

By Chantelle, Voices

The elearning, or online learning industry is experiencing a boom and is projected to be a $200B industry by 2024. At the same time, the world is awakening to the power of voice-first technology. Voice assistants are proliferating in private homes and voice integration is occurring seemingly everywhere, from our phones to our fridges (even our cities are becoming ‘smart’). The convergence of a growing learning culture, along with rapid voice tech adoption means that digital learning providers will have to find ways to integrate technologies like AI and voice-first tech, in order to meet the demands of consumers and to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. This affects both private brands as well as public institutions, like universities and colleges.

https://www.voices.com/blog/technology-use-in-digital-learning/

Share on Facebook

Survey: Online Students Interact More with Course Materials than with Faculty

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

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
In a typical online course, students are more likely to interact with course materials — 52 percent of the time — than they are with faculty (23 percent), other students (22 percent) or staff (3 percent). According to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research, the research division of ACT/NRCCUA, time with materials is less prevalent in online classes at regional private colleges (46 percent) compared to four-year publics (53 percent) or community colleges (58 percent). The third annual “Changing Landscape of Online Education ” (CHLOE 3) report surveyed 280 chief online officers (COOs) (up from 182 last year) at U.S. colleges and universities about policies, practices and plans around online education.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/03/26/survey-online-students-interact-more-with-course-materials-than-faculty.aspx

Share on Facebook

Moody’s: Competition, consolidation shape online education market

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

By Hallie Busta, Education Dive
Competition is heating up for colleges online, and new market entrants are gaining share, according to a new analyst report from Moody’s Investors Service, which calls the expansion “a credit positive” for higher education. Online-only enrollment grew 38% from 2012 to 2017, and it will continue to increase as “a key enrollment strategy” for institutions, the authors write. However, not all colleges will take this route, and it is “unlikely to replace” on-campus education. Still, the growth online comes as overall higher ed enrollment has leveled off. Critical to colleges’ success online is differentiation, which can include price, delivery model, perceived value and faculty service levels. Public universities’ large online enrollment, low tuition and access-oriented mission will help them maintain market share.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/moodys-competition-consolidation-shape-online-education-market/552525/

Share on Facebook

April 22, 2019

Michael Crow at ASU GSV: Technologies and Policies We Need to Transform Education

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

By IBL News

Michael M. Crow, President at Arizona State University (ASU), talked today on a keynote during the ASU GSV Conference in San Diego about the importance of connecting the workforce with lifelong learning opportunities. He elaborated on ASU’s model and mentioned the “technologies we need” to achieve a maximum impact in education. He listed those technologies in the following six categories. Personalized learning at scale will be one of the requirements.

https://iblnews.org/2019/04/09/michael-crow-at-asu-gsv-technologies-we-need-to-transform-education/

Share on Facebook

Five Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist

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

by Marina Gorbis, EDUCAUSE Review

In these five decades we learned a lot, and we still believe—even more strongly than before—that systematic thinking about the future is absolutely essential for helping people make better choices today, whether you are an individual or a member of an educational institution or government organization. We view short-termism as the greatest threat not only to organizations but to society as a whole.

In my twenty years at the Institute, I’ve developed five core principles for futures thinking:

  • Forget about predictions.
  • Focus on signals.
  • Look back to see forward.
  • Uncover patterns.
  • Create a community.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/3/five-principles-for-thinking-like-a-futurist

Share on Facebook

7 things you should know about enrollment management

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

EDUCAUSE

New approaches to enrollment management also reflect a growing expectation that enrollment managers contribute more directly and significantly to institutional efforts to fulfill academic missions, meet financial goals, sustain a diverse and successful student body, and increase access to education.  How does it work? For students, emerging models of enrollment management aim to provide a seamless experience for individuals who engage with the institution as a prospect, applicant, enrolled student, advisee, selector of an academic pathway, orientation participant, and completer of the first-year experience. In addition, enrollment management provides and aligns support to ensure learners’ ongoing academic progress through completion of a
credential or other academic goal.

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/3/7-things-you-should-know-about-enrollment-management

Share on Facebook

April 21, 2019

Udacity restructures operations, lays off 20 percent of its workforce

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

Kirsten Korosec, Tech Crunch

Udacity, the $1 billion online education startup, has laid off about 20 percent of its workforce and is restructuring its operations as the company’s co-founder Sebastian Thrun seeks to bring costs in line with revenue without curbing growth, TechCrunch has learned. The objective is to do more than simply keep the company afloat, Thrun told TechCrunch in a phone interview. Instead, Thrun says these measures will allow Udacity to move from a money-losing operation to a “break-even or profitable company by next quarter and then moving forward.”

https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/09/udacity-restructures-operations-lays-off-20-percent-of-its-workforce/

Share on Facebook

Why Online Is an Ethical Practice

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

Robert Ubell, Inside Higher Ed

Recent research on the wisdom of students from underrepresented populations taking online courses is not easy to untangle, with contradictory results, depending on what investigators are looking at and which population slices are being studied. Some conclude that retention rates for low-income students are worse online than face-to-face. Others say that there is little or no difference between the two. Most agree that mixing and matching online with on-campus delivers the best results. Karen Swan, James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois, says that her research predicts a few essential features about the composition of online students — apart from being more likely to be female, they are also older and poorer than their face-to-face peers, and consequently, more likely to go online part-time. As expected, part-time students on campus, too, have a high dropout rate. But insightfully, her research concludes that “there is no difference between online and on-campus part-time students.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2019/04/10/colleges-need-go-online-must-recognize-how-different-students-are

Share on Facebook

Inverse Blended Learning: How to Deal with MOOCs More Successfully

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

Martin Ebner & Sandra Schön, Drexel Virtually Inspired

We have been taking the approach of Inverse Blended Learning for 4 years now, we can proudly report that we have reduced the dropout rate dramatically. Even more, we can state that learners who visit the face-to-face offerings on a regularly basis are more likely to complete the course with success. It is great to see, that the arrangement of those face-to-face elements differs arbitrarily; weekly meetings in a very informal setting (cafes, public places) as well as in formal settings (higher educational seminars) and even online (webinars). These settings enable learners to not only discuss content but to see to each other’s problems, needs, questions and to complete tasks.

https://virtuallyinspired.org/inverse-blended-learning/

Share on Facebook

April 20, 2019

OPMs Are Losing the Battle for Hearts and Minds

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

Edward J. Maloney and Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Rather than passing along the savings of online education to students — as Carey argues that online means “no buildings to maintain, no lawns to mow, no juice bars and [no] lazy rivers” — the tuition dollars are being instead converted to corporate profits for the OPMs.  The classic online program management business model is for the company to fund the costs of developing the online programs, recruiting the students and running the programs — and in exchange the OPM received a share of the tuition. This revenue share to the OPM is typically around 60 percent. The OPM market is growing, with Carey quoting Trace Urban from Tyton Partners saying that the market is likely to be worth $8 billion by 2020.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/technology-and-learning/opms-are-losing-battle-hearts-and-minds

Share on Facebook

Community Colleges And Tech Companies Are Co-Branding Credentials To Solve The Skills Gap

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

Allison Dulin Salisbury, Forbes

There’s an important lesson there for higher education and it’s not just anecdote. Employers increasingly use applicant tracking systems that often screen for very specific skills. A resume for a digital marketing job, no matter how stellar, that doesn’t mention experience with platforms like Facebook Ad Manager or Hubspot may not even make it through the first automated round of screening. Same goes for an application for a data analyst that doesn’t mention a facility with Tableau or Microsoft Excel, a game developer without Unity, or a sales rep without Salesforce. In that sense, it’s not broad digital skills that matter, but rather skills tailored to one specific platform that is state-of-the-art in an applicant’s chosen field.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/allisondulinsalisbury/2019/04/08/community-colleges-and-tech-companies-are-co-branding-credentials-to-solve-the-skills-gap/#1094cf6949b5

Share on Facebook

Will AI Save Journalism — or Kill It?

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

Meredith Broussard and Seth Lewis, Knowledge @ Wharton

In the past year, you have most likely read a story that was written by a bot. Whether it’s a sports article, an earnings report or a story about who won the last congressional race in your district, you may not have known it but an emotionless artificial intelligence perhaps moved you to cheers, jeers or tears. By 2025, a bot could be writing 90% of all news, according to Narrative Science, whose software Quill turns data into stories. Many of the largest and most reputable news outlets in the world are using or dabbling in AI — such as The Washington Post, The Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Times and Sunday Times (U.K.), Japan’s national public broadcaster, NHK, and Finland’s STT.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/ai-in-journalism/

Share on Facebook

April 19, 2019

The Need for a Corporate Training Culture in New Age Enterprises

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

Sanjay Bahl, Entrepreneur India
A decade ago, when India began it ascends to high GDP rates, companies realized that the workforce needs to step up and embrace the inevitable effects of change. Jargons like VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and growth mindset were not widespread and most training intervention was led by instructors using projector and PPTs! But today these jargons are the harsh reality that unicorns of India Inc. have accepted and inculcated in their strategy. The need is to align the corporate training with a mindset of delivering quality learning & development solutions, which have a direct and measurable impact on key business performance indicators. Today, employees are looking to upgrade their knowledge as well as skills required for their job roles and are keener to join organizations that provide opportunities to grow.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331829

Share on Facebook

Credential Clout: How Higher Education Can Prepare for an Evolving Job Market: a survey of US students and recruiters

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:07 am

Ellucian

This survey report outlines perceptions and prospects for careers among students and HR recruiters.  Among the results: GenZ students feel less prepared than prior generations and employers are seeking an array of soft skills led by communication, industry-specific skills, critical thinking and accountability.  Both students and employers agree that continuous learning is necessary.

https://www.ellucian.com/assets/en/white-paper/credential-clout-survey.pdf

Share on Facebook

4 myths about accessibility and online learning

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

BY REBECCA GRAETZ, eCampus News

Online education is supposed to be inclusive; here’s how to ensure that it is. Those who are in higher education are probably tired of hearing about accessibility. But accessibility awareness is the key point to making courses accessible. Bringing this awareness to faculty on how they design a course had been an ongoing charge for those in higher education that work with course design.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/03/18/4-myths-about-accessibility-online-learning/

Share on Facebook

April 18, 2019

VR, AR, AI Worldwide Perspectives – Ray Schroeder

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

by Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

There is much at stake in the development of AI. The “big nine” corporations are the linkages that ideally will bring cultures together and create a compass for development in this field. Action must be taken now to assure that the underlying assumptions are in the best interests of the learners. A first model for a governance framework for AI has been developed by the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore. The 27-page instrument is well worth reading to gain a better understanding of AI and its implications.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/vr-ar-ai-worldwide-perspectives

Share on Facebook

How to Access Lynda LinkedIn Learning for Free

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

TJ McCue, Forbes

Whether you are a business executive, a young computer coder, or a consumer who simply wants to keep learning, the Lynda.com website (acquired by LinkedIn a few years ago and now called LinkedIn Learning officially) is often available at a public library for free. If you wonder if those soft skills are really valuable, the third annual 2019 Workplace Learning Report found some of the country’s fastest growing roles—sales development, customer success, and customer experience jobs—are largely soft skills-based. The most in-demand skill is Creativity, followed by Persuasion, Analytical reasoning, Collaboration, and, Flexible approach (a.k.a. Adaptability). If you thought all those soft skills were not needed in the workplace, think again. The online learning platform has all of these courses.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/04/07/how-to-access-lynda-linkedin-learning-for-free/#746951861ee9

Share on Facebook

The pros of taking online courses outweigh their questionable cons.

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

Diya Jain, NYU News

While access is limited to those with internet, there is work being done to bring online education to every corner of the globe. Online courses are an important part of the changing nature of education and should not be dismissed. Universities such as the University of California, Berkeley and Ashton College in Canada provide a variety of online courses for students who want to study at their own pace or from a space in which they are comfortable. The internet facilitates easy access to a host of professors who can convey information through video and audio.

https://nyunews.com/opinion/2019/04/08/online-courses-education-reform/

Share on Facebook

April 17, 2019

Ray Schroeder Discusses The Plight of Small Colleges in the Age of Online Learning and the Promise of AI in Personalized Learning

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:09 am

Henry Kronk, IBL News

Professor Emeritus Ray Schroeder finds it difficult to stop working. As the Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield and the founding director of the National Council for Online Education at the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), he has a lot on his plate. IBL News recently got in touch with Professor Schroder to discuss his current work and a few trends in online learning. The interview occurred on the afternoon of March 12th, and the first topic of conversation had to be the admissions scandal that had come to light that morning.

Ray Schroeder: “Universities Have to Change To Meet Students’ Needs”

Share on Facebook

Researchers Put Machine Learning on Path to Quantum Advantage

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

Kristan Temme and JAY GAMBETTA, IBM Research Blog

There are high hopes that quantum computing’s tremendous processing power will someday unleash exponential advances in artificial intelligence. AI systems thrive when the machine learning algorithms used to train them are given massive amounts of data to ingest, classify and analyze. The more precisely that data can be classified according to specific characteristics, or features, the better the AI will perform. Quantum computers are expected to play a crucial role in machine learning, including the crucial aspect of accessing more computationally complex feature spaces – the fine-grain aspects of data that could lead to new insights.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/03/machine-learning-quantum-advantage/

Share on Facebook

Stepping Back from the Cliff: Facing New Realities of Changing Student Demographics

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

Jim Shaeffer, The EvoLLLution
Most universities that plan to stick to the status quo and serve exclusively traditional learners are facing a cliff. CE divisions can help their institutions avoid a potential drop, but only if they’re empowered. Demographics of students enrolling at colleges and universities are evolving. And students’ expectations are evolving as well. As the numbers of 18-22 year olds fresh out of high school drop, the recruitment of non-traditional students is becoming more important than ever. In this interview, James Shaeffer discusses the role continuing education (CE) departments can play as drivers of innovation and reflects on how CE leaders can help their main campus colleagues embrace transformational change.

https://evolllution.com/managing-institution/higher_ed_business/stepping-back-from-the-cliff-facing-new-realities-of-changing-student-demographics/

Share on Facebook
« Newer PostsOlder Posts »

Powered by WordPress