Online Learning Update

By Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

“Most students who attend an online program still attend a program that’s within 50 to 100 miles of their home,” says Dave Jarrat, senior vice president of strategic engagement and growth at InsideTrack, an organization that provides coaching services at colleges. Recognizing this paradox, a few online course providers have opened physical campus centers designed to offer students a space to interact both with each other and employees who provide support services. They’re a mashup of a co-working space, an administrative center and a library—sans the books.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-08-with-hybrid-campuses-online-course-providers-offer-in-person-services

Anne C. Osterman, Penn State News

“OER (open educational resources) is about more than student savings — it is about student success and lifelong learning. It is about faculty empowerment and increased student engagement. It is about equity and diversity. … This is an opportunity for collaboration across the institution, from faculty to instructional designers to librarians to assessment professionals.”

https://news.psu.edu/story/583142/2019/08/09/impact/heard-campus-possibilities-presented-open-educational-resources

LendU

While the figures change each year, the narrative certainly does not; student loan debt continues to be a growing issue in the U.S. and at nearly all schools in the country as the cost of college continues to rise. Nationally, outstanding student loan debt sits at $1.52 trillion, making it the second largest form of consumer debt trailing only mortgages. On an individual scale, the average borrower from the Class of 2018 received their diploma and left campus with $28,565 in student loan debt, up from $28,288 that was owed by the average Class of 2017 borrower.

https://lendedu.com/student-loan-debt-by-school-by-state-2019/

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the internet, collecting and sharing data. Thanks to cheap processors and wireless networks, anything with a sensor can become part of the IoT. Educational platforms, students’ laptops, and smartphones are all part of the IoT. With IoT, everything is coming online, including homes, cars, people, medical devices, even farming equipment. And there are endless examples of IoT solutions being applied in school environments. Here we explore a few different use cases.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/the-internet-of-things-for-education-a-brief-guide/

by Fiona Hollands and Aasiya Kazi, EDUCAUSE Review

The most commonly identified benefit expected as a result of participating in the MOOC-based course series was improving current job performance (see Table 2). Small percentages of participants were asked to take the courses by their employers: 1.4% of MicroMasters participants and 2.8% of Specialization participants. Approximately one-fourth of learners expected benefits of participation to include helping them start their own businesses, improving their applications to different jobs, and networking with other professionals. Few respondents identified job promotions and pay raises as the expected benefits, perhaps suggesting a group of learners with high levels of intrinsic motivation. In general, MicroMasters learners had higher expectations than Specialization learners regarding the benefits of participating in the series of courses.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/6/mooc-based-alternative-credentials-whats-the-value-for-the-learner

By Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
Pressure is growing for colleges to improve student outcomes, but sliding enrollment and tighter budgets threaten their ability to do so. In response, they are deploying technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics that promise to help them do more with less. Some colleges are using those tools to improve how they recruit and retain students. Others are using them to bring more accessibility into the classroom or to create personalized learning plans. But effective implementation is key, as the wrong move could negatively impact the student experience and even push learners away. In the five stories below, we examine how colleges are putting such technologies to work and what higher education leaders need to know to implement them effectively.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/summer-reading-how-emerging-technology-is-reshaping-higher-ed/560053/

BRIAN BARRETT, Wired

Pearson’s digital-first initiative will dramatically bring down textbook costs on average, albeit by phasing out the concept of ownership. But increasingly, colleges are embracing textbooks that cost … nothing. Just as traditional software has a thriving open source community, textbooks have Open Educational Resources, complete textbooks that typically come free of charge digitally, or for a small fee—enough to cover the printing—in hard copy. And while it’s not an entirely new concept, OER has gained momentum in recent years, particularly as support has picked up at an institutional level, rather than on a course by course basis.

https://www.wired.com/story/digital-textbooks-radical-transformation/

Steven Johnson, Medium

We spend too much time making kids memorize facts instead of giving them the skill that will help them throughout their lives. But the most important argument for instating decision-making as a required course for high school students is this: No matter what you do in your life, no matter what career path you take, the ability to make the right choice when it really matters is a skill that will serve you well for the entirety of your adult life. No doubt there are a thousand electives out there — in high schools and college humanities programs, not to mention business schools — that dabble in some of these decision-making themes. It’s time we brought them into the core.

https://medium.com/s/story/farsighted-decision-making-should-be-a-required-course-in-every-high-school-6b5a836c1e1e

Alex Woodie, Datanami

AI is having a moment in the sun. There’s no doubt about that. But despite the trillions in value that AI is expected to bring over the coming years thanks to widespread automation of repetitive tasks through emergent tech like neural networks, there’s a major issue dogging AI: the rules of road for what’s ethical and what’s not are vague, and that’s a problem. Vic Katyal, who heads up risk and security at Deloitte Consulting, advises large companies on how to think about AI and deal with ethical issues that arise.

https://www.datanami.com/2019/08/02/ai-ethics-still-in-its-infancy/

Daniel Newman, Forbes

It’s that time of year again where we take a look at the top digital transformation trends in the coming year in several industries. First up: education. As we all know, the only thing constant in digital transformation is change. So, how have digital transformation trends in education changed as we move toward the coming decade? And what, if anything, has stayed the same? The following are my top picks for not just technology trends but overall shifts in how we’ll be learning and connecting through technology moving forward.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2019/08/01/top-5-digital-transformation-trends-in-education-for-2020/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News
A growing consensus recognizes educator micro-credentials as promising new professional learning resources.  Educator micro-credentials are gaining more mainstream acceptance, but it’s important to ensure the process surrounding micro-credentials is grounded in rigorous research, according to a new whitepaper from Digital Promise. The potential of these educator micro-credentials lies in their ability to help educators bolster their professional learning at scale, according to the report–they leverage an online tech platform that gives access to “competency-based, on-demand, personalized, and shareable opportunities to demonstrate and be recognized for their professional learning.”

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/03/08/research-educator-micro-credentials/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News
U.S. innovation depends on getting more girls in computer science classes and careers–here’s how to encourage more participation. The nation needs to engage more minorities and girls in computer science if it hopes to build a diverse and talented workforce–after all, great ideas and innovation don’t lie exclusively within white men’s brains. There has in recent years been a louder and more resounding call for girls to enter the coding world. This call is buoyed in large part by Computer Science Education Week, the Hour of Code, and extra-curricular coding groups for girls.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/08/01/6-strategies-to-engage-girls-in-computer-science/

Bernard Marr, Forbes

The attribution of human feelings and beliefs to inanimate things is called anthropomorphism. It is important to keep this principle in mind and make use of it when creating responses that resonate with people. Consumers will become frustrated with a bot similar to how they would with a human if their queries don’t produce a helpful response. They always want to receive the right response at the right time. Anything less than that will lead to frustration.   There’s more than the technology to consider when building out a chatbot. Be intentional about your bot’s personality so that it can produce the best results for your company.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/08/02/why-ai-and-chatbots-need-personality/

BY BRANDI THOMAS, eCampus News

While the use of OER (open educational resources) is often praised as a low-cost and more accessible alternative to physical textbooks, there’s still a lot of criticism surrounding OER courseware. Many educators are concerned about issues such as compatibility with existing learning management systems, quality of materials, course customization options, and more. But there is an often-overlooked middle ground between OER and traditional textbooks: enhanced OER courseware. This type of digital solution builds a course on a foundation of OER materials, then enhances it with ancillary materials such as analytics, assessments and videos.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/08/02/using-oer-courseware-to-improve-your-curriculum/

Eric Johnson, Recode

So instead of selling giant hardcover textbooks like Calculus: Early Transcendentals (list price for a new hardcover copy: $277.20), Pearson is going to start renting digital textbooks for $40 to $80, updating them over the air. Next month, it will launch the first of a new series of mobile apps called Aida — a portmanteau of AI and Ada Lovelace — that will let calculus students take a picture of their homework and, Fallon said, get step-by-step corrections.

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/2/20750863/john-fallon-pearson-education-textbook-digital-aida-teachers-kara-swisher-recode-decode-podcast

Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review

Experts agree AI will be important in 21st-century education—but how? While academics have puzzled over best practices, China hasn’t waited around. In the last few years, the country’s investment in AI-enabled teaching and learning has exploded. Tech giants, startups, and education incumbents have all jumped in. Tens of millions of students now use some form of AI to learn—whether through extracurricular tutoring programs like Squirrel AI, through digital learning platforms like 17ZuoYe, or even in their main classrooms. It’s the world’s biggest experiment on AI in education, and no one can predict the outcome.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614057/china-squirrel-has-started-a-grand-experiment-in-ai-education-it-could-reshape-how-the/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
When you’re converting a traditional face-to-face course to online, while a lot of the content may remain the same, the way it’s delivered and learned will, understandably, undergo change. A “mastery series” from the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), focused on instructional design, teaches the fundamentals of course design for effective online learning. Recently, longtime instructional designer Elisabeth Stucklen, one of the facilitators for the course, shared five areas to pay attention to as classes are being shifted to an online mode.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/07/10/5-quick-tips-for-improving-your-instructional-design.aspx

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

A new study that involved more than a million American high school students, found that adolescents who spent more time on screens (e.g., social media, the Internet, texting, gaming) and less time on non-screen activities, experienced lower psychological well-being. Adolescents who spend little time on electronic communication were the happiest. In short, technology makes teens unhappy, but why? What is it about technology that makes people unhappy? Psychologist, Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, puts forward five ways technology exacerbates anxiety in people.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/5-ways-technology-is-making-students-anxious/

By Hallie Busta, Education Dive
Online program manager 2U lowered its growth expectations — again. It will launch fewer new programs and expects smaller program sizes going forward in response to growing competition for online education, it told analysts in a call Tuesday evening about its second-quarter earnings. The shift caused the value of the company’s stock to drop by 65% as of the market close Wednesday afternoon. 2U also revised down its growth projections last quarter, attributing the decision to increased selectivity among its university partners. The change of tack comes as the online education market crowds, with more players providing a range of program types and price points. That trend is reflected in 2U’s moves to broaden its offerings through acquisition.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/2u-slows-growth-plans-citing-rise-in-competition-for-online-education/559961/

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has launched a new set of courses through Coursera that will help prepare non-technical people to tackle technical master’s degrees. The specialization is intended to act as a “performance pathway” for the institution’s online graduate degrees in computer science and data science. The three foundation courses will help students prepare for an entrance exam that could strengthen their application to the degree program.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/07/31/u-illinois-intros-online-foundation-courses-leading-to-tech-masters.aspx

Sameer Dhanrajani, Forbes

AI is undoubtedly going to become one of the sources of lasting competitive advantage for enterprises. According to research, 4 out of 5 C-level executives believe that their future business strategy will be informed through opportunities made available by AI technology. This requires a leadership mindset that is AI-first and can spot opportunities for artificial intelligence solutions to exploit. By democratizing AI solutions across the organization, enterprises can ensure that their future leadership continues to prioritize the deployment of this technology in use cases where they can deliver maximum impact.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/30/ai-for-cxos-redefining-the-future-of-leadership-in-the-ai-era/#2d287fcc2b46