Online Learning Update

by Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, M.A., Eleanor Eckerson, Barbara Gault, , Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Independent college students, once considered “nontraditional,” now constitute the majority of students in the United States. As of 2012, just over half of all U.S. college students were independent (51 percent)—meaning they had at least one defining characteristic outlined in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), including being at least 24 years old; married; a graduate or professional student; a veteran; an orphan, in foster care, or ward of the court; a member of the armed forces; an emancipated minor; someone who is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless; or having legal dependents other than a spouse (Federal Student Aid n.d.; IWPR 2016a).

https://iwpr.org/publications/independent-students-new-college-majority/

By Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

Numerous universities have taken steps to significantly expand their online offerings in the past year. Notably, Purdue acquired Kaplan last spring to adopt its online framework; the University of Massachusetts system laid plans to make their online degrees nationally available in December; and LSU Baton Rouge pledged to match its in-person enrollment with online students in January.  Significant growing pains always come along with expansion online. In January, the faculty at Eastern Michigan University concluded arbitration with their board of directors for hiring a third party to take care of their online expansion. Professors continue to worry that, in the hands of a private company, their curriculum, courses, and degree experience will be compromised. The case of UT’s ITL confirms the fact that online courses are no silver bullet. Expanded course offerings must strike a compromise with the bottom line.

What Institutions Expanding their Online Degree Offerings Can Learn from the Recent Closure at University of Texas

by Kaytie Zimmerman, Forbes

One way that millennials are finding success is by expanding their skill set via online learning. I don’t mean Youtube, though that can be a starting point to learn the basics of plenty of topics. By online learning, I mean formal learning platforms like Skillshare.  “Online learning has really taken off over the past few years,” said Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Founder and Executive Chairman of Skillshare, an online learning community. “One of the factors contributing to this growth is the changing work environment. The rapid pace of technological advancement requires workers to continually learn new skills to keep pace.” Online learning has really become a viable, convenient, and affordable way to expand skills necessary for their job or career.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaytiezimmerman/2018/02/18/3-reasons-millennials-might-choose-online-learning-over-a-traditional-degree/#1eb16974545b

by Anirban Ghosh, the Statesman

Open licences are the outcome of an effort to protect the authors’ rights in an environment where the content (particularly when digitised) can easily be copied and shared without permission. Open licences seek to ensure that copying and sharing should happen within a structured legal framework that is more flexible than the automatic all-rights-reserved status of copyright. They allow permission to be given accurately, while relaxing the restrictions of traditional copyright. They allow for more flexibility in the use, reuse and adaptation of materials for local context and learning environment, while allowing authors to have their work acknowledged. In this context, OER means teaching and learning materials for which copyright has expired or for which copyright has been explicitly withdrawn by the author. Open licence does not mean that everything is open. Quite simply it gives us the right to use and at the same time impose certain restrictions.

https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/open-educationi-1502587930.html

By Scott Mautz, Inc

News flash–adult life is filled with unhappiness traps and the search for keys to happiness (or even a good happiness hack to help us get by). It turns out young-adult life isn’t much different. An incredible one in four students at Yale–1,200 students–take Laurie Santos’s Psych 157, “Psychology and the Good Life.” It’s the single largest class in Yale’s history, a class that requires a whopping 24 teaching fellows to administer, that had to move to a symphony hall to accommodate the class size, and that tanks registration for any course in its time slot. (As a result, the class won’t be taught in that format again, instead moving to an online video course format.)

https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/yales-most-popular-class-ever-teaches-how-to-live-a-happier-life-heres-what-students-learn.html

by University of Denver College of Professional and Continuing Studies
More and more working adults are taking online classes to meet the needs of their busy lives. Online learning can often be intimidating for those who have never done it but can be beneficial when managed right. Here are 5 tips to consider when taking online classes.

http://www.duprofessionaled.com/2018/02/16/5-tips-for-success-in-online-classes/

by Penn State University

Penn State students who enroll in online courses will be eligible for the Pennsylvania State Grant Program next year after lawmakers made permanent a pilot need-based funding program that was set to expire. State lawmakers approved the pilot program for distance learners starting in 2013-14. The program expanded eligibility requirements for funding through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) to include online learners, who previously could not receive financial aid if they took more than half their credits online.

http://news.psu.edu/story/505854/2018/02/16/academics/state-grant-funding-available-penn-state-students-taking-online

By Bradley Fuster, US News

Many on-campus college students take at least one fully online class at some point during their education. That’s according to a 2018 report from the Babson Survey Research Group, which found that more than half of the more than 6 million online students in the U.S. – referring to those who enrolled in at least one online class – complete both online and traditional coursework concurrently. As the line between online and residential students increasingly blurs, additional challenges and opportunities have emerged for learners. It’s important that the traditional degree-seeking student who’s taking a mixture of online and on-campus classes be mindful of the complexities of doing so.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2018-02-16/consider-taking-online-courses-as-an-on-campus-student

By Sajeel Syed, TechJuice

Ivy league schools are now offering free online courses from various fields and subjects and all accessible to students from the comfort of their own home. The courses range from Computer Sciences, Arts to Engineering. These courses are constantly updated every other month and are easily accessible through Coursera. A website which connects you with all the courses on all IVY school’s websites and is also your next classroom. Sign into Coursera and pick your university and course you are interested and get a chance to study in these institutes.

https://www.techjuice.pk/ivy-league-universities-offering-free-online-courses/

By Henry Kronk, e-Learning Inside

MOOCs are beginning to really diversify in terms of form and subject matter. Chabad.org has an offering that teaches the nuances of Jewish prayer. The French political party En Marche put out a MOOC to foster political engagement at the community level. Dublin City University launched a MOOC to reconnect the descendants of the Irish Diaspora. Meanwhile, Udacity is becoming more of a for-profit vocational trainer than a MOOC provider. The number of price points are increasing at several other providers. And still, edX stays more or less true to MOOC form.

What Does ‘MOOC’ Mean Anymore? The Latest from Class Central

by Kenneth Rogoff, Boston Globe

Universities and colleges are pivotal to the future of our societies. But, given impressive and ongoing advances in technology and artificial intelligence, it is hard to see how they can continue playing this role without reinventing themselves over the next two decades. Education innovation will disrupt academic employment, but the benefits to jobs everywhere else could be enormous. If there were more disruption within the ivory tower, economies just might become more resilient to disruption outside it.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/02/09/when-will-technology-disrupt-higher-education/RDqq0tsJufA0dG2VEiRFgI/story.html

by Jodi Helmer, University Business

Most of the 2 million students participating in dual enrollment programs attend classes at their high schools or on higher ed campuses. Colleges in at least 35 states, however, offer students another option—online classes, according to research by the Education Commission of the States. Access is a main aim. Distance learning provides opportunities to students in areas with a lack of local colleges or high school teachers qualified to instruct college classes, notes a 2015 report by ACT, a testing company that also promotes college and career readiness. But it’s not as easy as simply moving content online.

https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/higher-ed-remote-reach

by Mariel Tishma, Chief Learning Officer

Darren Shimkus, general manager of online learning provider Udemy for Business, said that when millennial workers are given the choice between better learning opportunities and other incentives like vacation time or higher pay, “The millennial worker today overwhelmingly chooses the chance to build … skills.”  Udemy’s “2018 Learning Index Report,” which analyzed 18 million learners and polled 263 learning and development managers, discusses various key topics to pay attention to this year. According to the report, teams are learning skills across traditional boundaries. Soft skills like communication and public speaking have remained consistently important. “People seek out, at all levels: How do I become better at presenting my point of view?” Shimkus said. Technology teams are accessing content to brush up on soft skills, while those in soft skills positions are pursuing hard tech knowledge to better serve their clients.

http://www.clomedia.com/2018/02/15/trend-2018-learning-flexibility/

By Michelle R. Weise, EdSurge

Our postsecondary learning system will have to engage students differently than before. Many adults may have no interest in coming back to college. Out of the 37 million Americans with some college and no degree, many have already failed one or twice before and will be wholly uninterested in experiencing more educational trauma.We can’t just say, “Here’s a MOOC, or here’s an online degree, or a 6- to 12-week immersive bootcamp.” We have to do better. Let’s begin seeding the foundational elements of a learning ecosystem of the future—flexible enough for adults to move consistently in and out of learning and work. Enough talk about lifelong learning: Let’s build.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-02-22-michelle-weise-we-need-to-design-the-learning-ecosystem-of-the-future

by Elizabeth Kilpatrick, Daily Targum

While most Rutgers students take a bus to class and sit in a lecture hall, others enroll in classes that take place miles away from campus.  Online courses present students who cannot take traditional classes an opportunity to earn their degree. They benefit students with strong writing skills, said Ian Dunham, a doctoral student in the School of Arts and Sciences. “That’s 98 percent of the way I interact with students online,” he said. Considering that all assignments are written submissions in his class, this is a crucial area to do well in, Dunham said. There is also less emphasis on class-like participation, since there is no face-to-face contact.

http://www.dailytargum.com/article/2018/02/online-classes-help-alleviate-social-anxiety-among-other-perks-for-students

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

In addition to keeping track of student information, the LMS of the future will also be a tool for analysis. It will be able to collect and analyze imperative information helping educators see where students need more help. Through interconnected features, such as state standards, this analysis will prove helpful in planning.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/will-lms-future-look-like/

By Mary Grush, Campus Technology

Oklahoma State University’s first inaugural “Virtual + Augmented Reality Hackathon” hosted January 26-27 by the Mixed Reality Lab in the university’s College of Human Sciences gave students and the community a chance to tackle real-world problems using augmented and virtual reality tools, while offering researchers a glimpse into the ways teams work with digital media tools. Campus Technology asked Dr. Tilanka Chandrasekera, an assistant professor in the department of Design, Housing and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University about the hackathon and how it fits into the school’s broader goals.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/02/12/hacking-real-world-problems-with-virtual-and-augmented-reality.aspx

by Purdue University

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab provides students with a guide to help them successfully complete writing assignments not only in writing classes, but also in STEM coursework and multimedia presentations. “As more high school and college students participate in online courses, they are more likely to find OWL helpful,” says Tammy Conard-Salvo, associate director of the Writing Lab. “The same is also true as students are producing non-traditional writing projects.” OWL provides students of all ages with information on the basics of writing, grammar and mechanics, writer’s block, conducting research and more. It also provides students with many subject-specific resources. These resources include presentations on how to write an engineering report, how to write an experimental report in psychology and how to write as a professional nurse. One of the most popular features on the site is the style guides for how to write academic papers.

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2018/Q1/online-writing-resource-helps-students-in-all-areas-of-study.html

by Shalina Chatlani, Education Dive
Lou Pugliese, senior innovation fellow and managing director for the Technology Innovation Action Lab at Arizona State University, and Kate Smith, vice president of academic affairs at Rio Salado College revealed four conclusions of an extensive research project on the topic: take a strategic portfolio approach to digital learning; build capabilities and expertise to design for quality in the digital realm; provide the differential student support to succeed in fully online learning; and engage faculty as true partners, equipping them for success. Smith and Pugliese offered insight into the online learning models of their institutions to discuss some of the key aspects of the ASU report that focuses on three main components, including defining what return on investment in digital learning formats really means and developing common shared metrics for the industry to create benchmarks of comparison.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-to-effectively-scale-a-digital-learning-model/515936/

BY ANNE TRUMBORE, the Hill

by Adam Gordon, Forbes
The future shape of graduate and executive education is coming into focus with the surge of “MicroMasters” certificate programs on edX, to which 1.7 million students have registered in a year. The number of programs on offer has exploded from one to 46 during this time. This is the kind of extraordinary exponential growth that rips apart and rebuilds industries. MicroMasters certificates (MMs) are online, examined and graded, credit-eligible graduate-level courses that involve about a quarter of the coursework of a traditional Masters degree. At edX they cost about $1,000.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamgordon/2018/02/13/voice-of-employers-rings-out-as-moocs-go-from-education-to-qualification/#4caabd2c564b