Online Learning Update

By Hallie Busta, Education Dive
Public-private partnerships (P3s), or the practice of sharing responsibility for providing a good or service with a for-profit company, are not new to higher education. Colleges have long outsourced elements such as food and laundry services, bookstores, custodial work and building construction. In recent years, however, those partnerships have expanded to include academics and other pieces of the student experience that traditionally have been closely held, including online education, recruitment and even immersive learning experiences.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-questions-colleges-should-ask-before-engaging-in-a-public-private-partner/554227/

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/rethinking-adaptive-learning-in-the-age-of-cognitive-computing/

Education Dive

The potential of LMS analytics is only as valuable as how capably an institution is using the system and analyzing results. In this first episode, we discuss the ways in which LMS data can be best used to improve outcomes for students, teachers and institutions, giving you an overview of where LMS usage stands and how they are perceived.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/podcast-higher-edvolution/549378/

Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive

Bringing clarity to credentials, reckoning with racist histories and reforming remediation can help attract and retain today’s students. For one, who is going to college is shifting. Student populations are more diverse than ever, and a growing number of working adults are enrolling in postsecondary education. As the market pushes back on rising tuition, colleges are feeling the pressure to respond to a wider range of student needs while still striving to improve their outcomes. The format of education is also undergoing a transformation. Automation of the workplace is requiring workers to upskill or reskill more quickly, ushering in a need for more efficient and accessible ways to earn credentials.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/3-changes-higher-ed-leaders-should-be-ready-to-make/554594/

Liam Tung, ZDNet
To lead Apple you could need a degree. But to sell apps on the App Store you certainly don’t, says Tim Cook. Computer-science graduates in the US can expect to pay over $100,000 to get an education and a piece of paper that says they’ve completed a bachelor’s degree. But can that paper say anything about their proficiency at coding? Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak didn’t have degrees when they launched what has become one of the most valuable companies in the world. And now Apple CEO Tim Cook is spreading the word that would-be programmers really don’t need the endorsement of a university to be able to create something of commercial value, such as an app for the Apple App Store.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-ceo-tim-cook-you-dont-need-a-degree-to-code-mobile-apps/

Mikel Amigot and Zoe Mackay, IBL

Online program management (OPM) companies are on the rise, but in Severance’s view, there are good OPMs and bad OPMs. “The best way to describe the difference between [them] is that good OPMs take less of your money than the bad OPMs. The bad OPMs like to take more than 50% of the revenue.” edX and Coursera are good OPMs, says Severance, “in that they bring a lot to the table, the market, they do things globally that no school will ever be able to do. The University of Michigan could never have the global reach, no matter how many people we hired, that we get by being part of edX and Coursera.”

https://iblnews.org/2019/05/13/the-good-and-the-bad-choosing-the-best-opm-according-to-dr-chuck-part-ii/

Tim Cooper, Raconteur

The amount of available data and technology that AI can process intelligently has snowballed as the internet has increasingly integrated with our lives through tablets, phones and wearables. The advent of the internet of things – the extension of internet connectivity into everyday objects – has taken this even further.  These advances have enabled a wide range of bodies, including companies, governments and non-governmental organisations, to start working together to use AI for social good and has already produced some groundbreaking results in vital areas. And some of the most powerful organisations in the world, such as the US government, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, have all deployed AI for positive social initiatives.

https://www.raconteur.net/technology/ai-social-good

By IBL News

“There are a lot of people who need to up-skill in order to stay current and competitive in the job market… I think there is a huge opportunity for continuing and professional education, and MicroMasters and stackable credentials in particular.” The SUNY system is a pioneer in open education resources (OER) production, such as their open textbook initiative, which she says leads to a “natural extension to then look at online education and opening up education in general.”

https://iblnews.org/2019/04/19/up-skilling-for-todays-workforce-a-perspective-from-lisa-stephens-suny/

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/business/lifelong-learning-for-professional-and-personal-skills/article_660772ae-4da1-5630-bcaa-9b1a14cbc985.html

Ovetta Sampson, IDEO

Today, data systems and algorithms can be deployed at unprecedented scale and speed—and unintended consequences will affect people with that same scale and speed. How can we always make sure we’re putting people first when designing large scale systems? Especially when those systems will change over time and evolve without direct human supervision?

https://www.ideo.com/blog/ai-needs-an-ethical-compass-this-tool-can-help

Kyle Kucharski, PC Magazine

More and more students are interested in studying blockchain technology, and universities are meeting the demand. It’s not just computer science majors, either: a study by Coinbase shows that students across various disciplines are interested in the technology.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/368277/top-schools-are-offering-more-blockchain-cryptocurrency-cou

By Kelly Palmer, Barron’s

The United States does not have the world’s most-skilled labor force; that distinction belongs to Finland, according to the World Economic Forum. The U.S. does not have the most advanced vocational training, either; that’s found in Switzerland, which is “also the most effective with active labor-market policies encouraging reskilling and retraining,” according to a nearly 700-page report from the Forum.

The economic implications of this skills shortfall are huge.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/closing-americas-skills-gap-51557528292

Sudheesh Nair, Forbes

In the next few decades, the technology industry will continue to make substantial advances in how AI can be applied, but the greater impact will come not from future nascent applications but by the widespread adoption of AI by other industries today we interact with on a daily basis. No industry will be safe from this change, but here are some of the industries that will change most significantly with the adoption of AI.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/10/what-are-the-most-significant-ai-advances-we-will-see-in-the-near-future/

Yahoo Finance

“When we built this course, one of my hopes was that it could be utilized to educate young people about the important role that business has in tackling some of the challenging issues of our time,” said Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson . “The students and faculty from the MCA campuses who participated in this pilot are pioneers, and I look forward to seeing how they will apply the learnings from our course in their own communities.” The participating colleges created a blended learning offering where students registered for a sustainable business course led by their own faculty and featuring the HBS Online course led by Professor Henderson. Students then applied their learnings through projects with businesses that were facing sustainability challenges, including Wolverine Worldwide and Merrill.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/private-colleges-team-harvard-business-130500430.html

James Vincent, the Verge

Google is always sponsoring weird and inventive projects with the help of artificial intelligence, and its latest is characteristically odd. Named PoemPortraits, the web app takes a word of your suggestion and combines it with a selfie to create the eponymous poem portrait. Basically, it’s an Instagram filter paired with a few lines of AI-generated poetry. It’s fun and strange and worth a few minutes of your time to mess around with. I created the image above using the word “malfeasance” and a picture of Keanu Reeves (because looking at his face is undoubtedly preferable to looking at mine).

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/2/18526783/google-ai-art-project-poem-portrait-es-devlin-ross-goodwin

Science Daily

A surgeon might never feel the need to ask an AI for advice, much less allow it to make a clinical decision for them, said John Zimmerman, the Tang Family Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction in CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). But an AI might guide decisions if it were embedded in the decision-making routines already used by the clinical team, providing AI-generated predictions and evaluations as part of the overall mix of information. Zimmerman and his colleagues call this approach “Unremarkable AI.” “The idea is that AI should be unremarkable in the sense that you don’t have to think about it and it doesn’t get in the way,” Zimmerman said. “Electricity is completely unremarkable until you don’t have it.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190508093723.htm

Jason Si, World Economic Forum
The possibility of man-made machines turning against their creators has become a trendy topic these days. Undoubtedly, Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are no longer fit for purpose. For the sake of the global public good, we need something serious and more specific to safeguard our limitless ambitions – and humanity itself.  If data is the new oil, then AI is the new drill – and to extend this analogy, malfunctioning algorithms are the new pollution.
It is important to note that malfunction does not equal malevolence. Likewise, good intentions do not guarantee a lack of legal, ethical and social troubles.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/these-rules-could-save-humanity-from-the-threat-of-rogue-ai/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Sixty-two percent of recruiters are very confident that job candidates have the skills to succeed, while 40 percent find communication skills lacking in job candidates. What’s more, when it comes to communication, 56 percent of students are actively seeking this skill. Thirty percent of recruiters find critical thinking skills lacking in job candidates, and 55 percent of students are working to develop critical thinking skills.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/05/07/gen-z-workforce-preparation/

By Sara Friedman, Campus Technology

With technology becoming a cornerstone of how many schools operate, the risks of getting hacked multiplies, and defending against cyber attacks becomes an important part of any strategic plan. A new report from the IBM X-Force finds attackers are drawn to the education sector owing to the sensitive nature of some emerging research projects and personally identifiable information on students, faculty and organizations associated with universities and schools. Despite all of these risks, the education sector comes in at ninth place among the most targeted industries, according to the 2019 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2019.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/04/25/how-education-tackles-cybersecurity.aspx

Danny Palmer, ZDNet

A successful family of ransomware which has been terrorising organisations around the world has been updated with a new trick to lure victims into installing file-locking malware: posing as anti-virus software. Dharma first emerged in 2016 and the ransomware has been responsible for a number of high-profile cyber incidents, including the takedown of a hospital network in Texas late last year. The group behind Dharma regularly look to update their campaigns in order to ensure the attacks remain effective and they have the best chance of extorting ransom payments in exchange of decrypting locked networks and files of Windows systems.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-ransomware-sneakily-infects-victims-by-disguising-itself-with-anti-virus-software/

by Future Learn
Amity University Online and FutureLearn join forces to allow Indian professionals access to great learning to enhance their careers. Amity University Online, India, today announced a deal with FutureLearn, Europe’s leading social learning platform, to enable the online university to amplify its existing pool of professional courses. Through this formal collaboration with FutureLearn, Amity will be able to offer FutureLearn’s vast portfolio of flexible online courses to professionals, institutes and corporates.

https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/29222-futurelearn-announces-collaboration-with-amity-asia-s-number-one-online-education-platform