Online Learning Update

Mark Purdy, John Zealley, Omaro Maseli; Harvard Business Review

Because of the subjective nature of emotions, emotional AI is especially prone to bias. For example, one study found that emotional analysis technology assigns more negative emotions to people of certain ethnicities than to others. Consider the ramifications in the workplace, where an algorithm consistently identifying an individual as exhibiting negative emotions might affect career progression.

https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-risks-of-using-ai-to-interpret-human-emotions

Press Trust of India

Motivation remains key in the quick adoption of upskilling and reskilling programs. As the survey reveals, 74 percent of companies said they already have a rewards and recognition program associated with the digital skilling program, 48 percent employ internal and external recognition, 41 percent link digital skilling programs to performance reviews, and 43 percent associate them with new job opportunities.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/study-says-65-percent-of-organizations-in-india-lacking-digital-skills-are-at-risk-of-redundancy-119111801234_1.html

Craig S. Smith, NY Times

Three women with extensive experience in A.I. spoke on the topic and how to confront it. Bias is an unavoidable feature of life, the result of the necessarily limited view of the world that any single person or group can achieve. But social bias can be reflected and amplified by artificial intelligence in dangerous ways, whether it be in deciding who gets a bank loan or who gets surveilled. The New York Times spoke with three prominent women in A.I. to hear how they approach bias in this powerful technology.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/technology/artificial-intelligence-bias.html

By Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
Students tend to see more value in their postsecondary education when it features coursework relevant to their jobs, according to a new survey of 340,000 people from Gallup and Strada Education Network.  Most (57%) graduates of nondegree vocational and technical programs strongly agreed their education was worth the price. That’s compared to 50% of respondents with graduate degrees, 48% with associate degrees and 40% with bachelor’s degrees who say the same.  Only about one-fourth of students who left college before completing a credential said it was worth the cost or strengthened their job candidacy.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/graduates-value-degrees-and-courses-relevant-to-their-jobs-survey-finds/567538/

Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed
A college advising company planned to release a list projecting when specific private colleges could run out of money and close, but pushback from the sector convinced the company to scuttle its plan. The final straw was the letter a lawyer for a private nonprofit college sent just before 5 p.m. last Wednesday. It said any statement about the college facing an imminent risk of closure would be false. The letter followed a flurry of similar calls and emails from colleges and their representatives about a list a college advising company planned to release the next day. The list featured projections of how many years 946 private colleges have until they could run out of money and close.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/private-colleges-convinced-company-scuttle-release-list-projected-college-closures

LAURA LYNCH, eLearning Learning

The idea of micro learning encompasses micro content, which involves breaking large courses down into smaller pieces. Micro learning is also concerned with the way larger courses are delivered. You can create a semester-long course which you deliver in fragments, or you can incorporate micro learning moments into your normal course material. Whichever way you approach this teaching method, using it is likely to show positive results in your course. Micro learning is an effective means of reducing cognitive load, which is the limit of information a learner can absorb at one time before their short-term memory becomes over-burdened. Because of this, educators should take measures early to offer their learners micro learning opportunities in their course.

https://www.elearninglearning.com/edition/weekly-digital-industry-2019-11-09?article-id=12054881&article-title=how-to-use-micro-learning-in-your-course

Business Matters

You know we’re at the cusp of change when online education beats traditional school education. Which is exactly what’s happening right now. According to various researches, students taking courses or classes online outperform the students getting a traditional education. Sure, right now, a certificate from a virtual university doesn’t hold much value as compared to the degree from a renowned institute but that is changing as well. Not only people in general but also employers are seeing online education in a new perspective, which is opening career opportunities for millions of students worldwide. Previously, online courses wasn’t thought of as “proper education” because the institute only exists in a virtual space. “It’s not real”, they’d say. But considering the advantages online education has over traditional schools, people are forced to recognize and acclaim it. Let’s take a look at some of these advantages.

https://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/opinion/6-reasons-why-online-courses-are-outperforming-traditional-learning/

Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Instructure, the education software company that makes learning management system Canvas, is exploring potential alternatives to being a publicly traded company that could include a sale. The news was first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday and confirmed in a company announcement Thursday. Instructure said it has received interest from “multiple third parties.” Investor pressure spurred the decision, according to Bloomberg, and potential outcomes include continuing as a public company, going private or being purchased.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/canvas-parent-instructure-mulls-potential-sale-partnership/567453/

By Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

The college is part of a new effort called the Learning Credential Network, announced Thursday, that plans to use the same technology popularized by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to store academic records in a way that is nearly impossible to counterfeit. Students can send their records without having to ask the college registrar to get involved. The system is up and running, sort of, but so far officials haven’t finished putting a public user interface on it or launching the public website, says Tobe Phelps, chief technology innovation officer at Central New Mexico Community College. About a dozen people have put their transcripts into the system to test it, and if all goes well the public rollout will happen next summer.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-11-14-new-blockchain-effort-will-let-employers-search-for-candidates-with-proven-skills

By Lilah Burke, Inside Higher Ed

How should physical art and design be evaluated in an online program? Can microcredentials market a master’s program? NYU’s new online degree attempts an answer. “We wanted to expand the reach and make it more accessible to people who are interested in developing their career, maybe are working full-time or have a family,” said Scott Fitzgerald, director of online programs at the Tandon school and co-director of the integrated digital media program. “We really want to expand this to as many people as we possibly can.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/11/15/nyu-launches-digital-media-online-masters-edx-ramp

Courier

The sands of higher education are shifting, prompting more schools to enter into partnerships and utilize distance learning to attract elusive “place-bound” students. The University of Northern Iowa took a step this month to increase its Des Moines footprint. UNI President Mark Nook and President Rob Denson of Des Moines Area Community College announced a new 2+2 partnership — earning an associate of arts degree on DMACC’s Urban Campus, then completing work through UNI for a bachelor of liberal studies degree. The UNI courses would be offered online initially with staff present to support students, beginning in fall 2020.

https://wcfcourier.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-uni-looks-forward-with-partnerships/article_738885f4-84a2-5562-97eb-4829fa389358.html

Alissa Widman Neese, Columbus Dispatch

Ohio has 984 teachers employed in what the state Department of Education calls e-schools, according to 2019 data. More than 24,000 students are enrolled in 14 schools, nine of which are dropout-and-recovery schools for struggling students. Training for online education is still in its early stages in Ohio.

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191117/online-teachers-face-real-challenges-in-virtual-classrooms

Wayne D’Orio, Education Dive

“Ten years ago, students were digital natives,” Ryan Tuohy, senior vice president of business development at Starship Technologies, told Education Dive in an interview. “The students in college today are on-demand natives.” The San Francisco-based company makes the delivery robots, and it is deploying them at George Mason in partnership with the university’s foodservice provider, Sodexo.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/to-feed-todays-on-demand-students-colleges-turn-to-robots-and-mobile-ap/566944/

ERICA HILTON, Higher Learning Advocates

Today’s students are more diverse across multiple areas than any previous generation of college students. Students represent various ages, income levels, and races. They’re more mobile and may not live on campus. Most participate in the workforce, either full-time or part-time. Work and family responsibilities beyond the classroom—whether that is on-campus or online—often compete with today’s students’ educational goals. Yet, today’s students see the promise and power of a higher education. Today’s students shared with Insights & Outlooks their inspiration for attending college.

https://higherlearningadvocates.org/2019/11/14/todays-students/

Joe Galanek, EDUCAUSE Review

When it comes to information security, well-informed paranoia is a good trait for everyone to cultivate.1 Security remains at the top of the EDUCAUSE list of “Top Ten IT Issues” year after year, reflecting the importance of cybersecurity and the need to foster an institutional culture of security. Even though it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, convenience is still an important consideration, right? Why would someone bother going through extra steps for a login when a quick social login with Facebook or Google is so much more convenient?2 Do you really need a password manager if you add a symbol, dollar sign, or ampersand to your dog’s birthday? (Yes!) But in an age of unprecedented convenience, don’t people deserve ease, utility, and simplicity?3 In fact, aren’t things like social logins and online shopping catering to the desire for convenience?

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2019/10/give-me-security-give-me-convenience-or-give-me-both

Kadja Yilla & David Wessel, Brookings

Americans owe about $1.5 trillion on their student loans–more than they owe on their credit cards. The increase in total student debt, stories of families struggling with six-figure loans, and the response of politicians to anxiety about student debt among young voters have turned student debt into a high-profile issue. To inform that conversation, here are five facts about student loans drawn from an event – Student loans: A look at the evidence – hosted by the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/11/12/five-facts-about-student-loans/

American Enterprise Institute

Will the rise of robots and artificial intelligence deliver a prosperous economy? And what policies should we adopt to ensure that all Americans are included in this prosperity? On this episode, Carl Benedikt Frey discusses the impacts of technological progress on the economy, past and present. Dr. Frey is the Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at Oxford University, where he teaches economics and economic history. In 2013, he co-authored a widely-shared paper with Michael Osborne titled “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?” in which he estimated that 47 percent of jobs were susceptible to automation.

https://www.aei.org/pethokoukis/carl-benedikt-frey-on-the-technology-trap/

By Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

New federal rules on distance education highlight long-standing tensions between consumer advocates seeking stronger state-level protections for students and higher education groups seeking shared national standards. Robyn Smith, a consumer advocate who served on the negotiated rule-making panel, said the final rules published by the department in late October are not consistent with what the panel agreed to in April. “I am outraged by the final regulations,” Smith wrote in a statement earlier this month. Smith, a lawyer who is counsel to the National Consumer Law Center and a senior attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said the department substantially changed the distance education regulation “without sufficient factual justification.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/11/12/disagreement-over-federal-regulations-distance-education

By Bernadette Hsiao, Sheffield University Forge

Undoubtedly, with the advance of science and technology, online learning has become an easily accessible alternative form of education with huge potential. It offers a level of convenience and flexibility which is crucial to learners living in this fast-paced society. Yet it is lacking in aspects that traditional learning can only offer, such as socialising and hands on teachers. Will online learning replace traditional on-campus education one day? Or will traditional on-campus education continue to thrive and complement with online learning? Only the future holds the answer.

http://forgetoday.com/2019/11/11/is-online-learning-the-future-of-education/

Jessica Hallman, Penn State
First as a Penn State World Campus student and now as an alumnus, Chase Kelly has fully immersed himself in the University community. As an undergraduate student, he traveled to State College multiple times a year, attended football games, served as president of the Blue & White Society, participated in the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and was one of the first members of the World Campus Tech Club. Perhaps one of the most unique ways that Kelly integrated himself into the campus community was through his virtual participation at HackPSU, an annual student-run 24-hour hackathon at Penn State.

https://news.psu.edu/story/597218/2019/11/10/academics/online-learner-attains-full-penn-state-student-experience

BBN News

In the digital era, modern technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality have transformed business practices, entertainment, and day-to-day lives. Likewise, immersive technologies have evolved education by enabling immersive learning experiences. However, education isn’t limited to academics. Learning new skills, traveling to exotic locations, and exploring interactive stories are non-conventional forms of education that are offered by immersive technologies. Hence, immersive technologies are being widely adopted across the globe.

https://www.bbntimes.com/en/technology/ar-and-vr-the-future-of-smart-education-is-here