Online Learning Update

by C. Edward Kelso, Bitcoin.com

Professor Dan Boneh of Stanford University Computer Security Lab discussed the attraction to his cryptography course, and how it is due to “the huge valuations in these currencies” such as bitcoin. Second only to machine learning, Computer Security and Cryptography is a wildly popular course. It’s also true bitcoin is “a wonderful way to teach cryptography” he told Mr. Levy of CNBC. The advent of cryptocurrencies means “there are a whole bunch of new applications for cryptography that didn’t exist before,” Professor Boneh added. Getting to cryptography through bitcoin has meant a renewed interest in the mathematical language. Professor Boneh “said that more than 1 million people have signed up for an online cryptography class he teaches through the website Coursera,” CNBC reports.

https://news.bitcoin.com/over-one-million-people-enroll-in-online-crypto-class/

By Cromwell Schubarth, Silicon Valley Business Journal
Some senior executives have reportedly left Coursera Inc. in a wave of departures from the online education startup just months after it raised $64 million in fresh funding and brought in a new CEO. Recode cited unnamed sources in a report that said those who have left the Mountain View company include Chief Operations Officer Lila Ibrahim; Chief Marketing Officer Kurt Apen; Chief Financial Officer John Madigan; General Counsel David Liu and Chief Product Officer Tom Willerer. Willerer joined the venture capital firm Venrock earlier this month. Ibrahim wrote on social media that she “decided it’s time for my next career adventure.” A total of as many as 40 employees have departed, Recode’s sources said.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/10/30/coursera-executives-leave-shakeup-funding-ceo.html

By Olena Reid, US News

Many times I’ve heard someone say that online degrees aren’t as legitimate or rigorous as on-campus programs. But that mostly comes from those who have never experienced an online course, whether in a structured program or a single class. I want to debunk this notion that online education is always easier than in-person studies. Generally, when we think of an “easier” degree program, we may think of one that takes less time and effort and doesn’t hold students to high standards. Consider these three facts about online degree programs to see how far that is from the truth.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-10-30/debunk-the-myth-that-online-degrees-are-always-easier

by NMC Horizon Project

Digital Literacy in Higher Education, Part II: An NMC Horizon Project Strategic Brief is a follow-up to the 2016 strategic brief, supported by Adobe, which explored an increasingly pressing challenge for United States higher education institutions: advancing digital literacy among students and faculty. This second edition aims to examine digital literacy through a global and discipline-specific lens to reveal new contexts that are shaping the way learners create, discover, and critically assess digital content. The NMC’s research examines the current landscape of digital literacy frameworks to illuminate its multiple dimensions — technical, psychological, and interpersonal — around which students’ ability to produce new content generates a sense of empowerment.

https://www.nmc.org/publication/digital-literacy-part-ii-an-nmc-horizon-project-strategic-brief/

by Seamus Conwell, CNBC

Financial professionals are taking online financial technology (fintech) courses to fend off competition and stay ahead of disruption. The boost in uptake is due in part to a feeling among those in the industry that financial technology has reached a turning point in its evolution. A report from Citigroup in 2016 caused widespread debate when it estimated that between 2 million and 6 million jobs would be lost in banking across the U.S. and Europe over the next 10 years. That was attributed to both automation and artificial intelligence (AI), innovation and the rise of more efficient and less cost-intensive challenger banks.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/30/financial-pros-flock-to-online-fintech-courses.html

By Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Ed

If students rarely set foot on campuses, says Peter Shea, they may feel less invested in their education. Is there a tipping point at which students who take a blend of online and in-person coursework are doing too much online? That question goes to the heart of something called the online paradox. The online paradox has inspired much debate, and it describes two seemingly contradictory things. The first is that community-college students who take an online course are more likely to fail than are those who take it face-to-face. The second is that community-college students who take some online classes are more likely to complete their degrees than are those who don’t take any.

http://www.chronicle.com/article/What-s-the-Ideal-Mix-of/241616

BY LILY O’NEILL, Missourian
Beginning next week, professors will have more incentive to offer free or low-cost textbooks. As part of a University of Missouri System initiative on educational resources that are free to access online, the four campuses will be launching an incentive grant program next week. This is intended to encourage faculty members to incorporate more of these resources in their courses. With the rising cost of college textbooks, UM System President Mun Choi announced the initiative last spring. Scott Curtis, who’s on the system’s Affordable & Open Educational Resources Taskforce, said he hopes the lower costs of textbooks will help students academically.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/um-system-encourages-faculty-to-use-more-open-educational-resources/article_b602a3dc-b9d3-11e7-adfb-2f83e6711418.html

by Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

A sprawling new project seeks to change that by creating a centralized database of information about postsecondary credentials — all 250,000 or so of them in the U.S., ranging from Ph.D. to badge, professional license to apprenticeship and certificate. The nonprofit Credential Engine, which is planning a formal launch in December, has tapped a broad range of advisers to develop a common language about credentials, with a focus on the “competencies” people should have after earning them. Credential Engine’s web-based registry allows colleges, professional associations, unions, other credential issuers and state governments to post public-facing information about credentialing programs. The site also plans to feature information about how credential earners fare in the job market, including wage data from state and federal sources.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/18/credential-engine-seeks-create-database-public-information-all-credentials

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News

majority of Americans would like to see technology companies take a more active role in improving U.S. education by creating apprenticeship programs and providing more technology resources, according to new data. The new poll from OZY and SurveyMonkey tracks how technology is impacting post-secondary education and the workforce in the U.S. It also gauges how survey participants feel about free public higher education, online learning, classroom teachers, and more.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/27/poll-technology-future-of-work/

by WRAL

Online college courses offer convenience and flexibility, but they also come with challenges. Wake Technical Community College looked at some of its most popular classes in 2015 and noticed students were not doing as well in the online classes as they were in the traditional “seated” classes. In 2015, 67 percent of students in traditional classes earned an “A”, “B” or “C” grade, while only 58 percent of students in online classes earned the same grades.  One of the things we found out is students, even young students, who had grown up as digital natives aren’t as well prepared for taking online classes as you may think,” said Wake Tech Senior Vice President of Effectiveness and Innovation Bryan Ryan.

http://www.wral.com/wake-tech-works-to-improve-success-gap-between-seated-online-classes/17058000/

BY GENEVRA WALTERS, NICOLE DEVRIES, AND JAMIE HARBIN, eSchool News
Three educators explain how they include career readiness in their 21st-century learning initiatives. Many of you are familiar with the four C’s of the 21st-century learning framework: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. But step back for a second and remember why you teach students in the first place–so they can be successful adults who contribute to society and thrive while pursuing a fulfilling career. This is why we add to our list of 21st-century learning skills a fifth C: career readiness. Career readiness can be engrained into the teaching and learning landscape in many ways. Educators across the nation are latching on to project-based learning (PBL) as an effective teaching method for building 21st-century skills. Career-focused PBL gives students the freedom to explore a variety of careers from the comfort of their classroom.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/25/future-5th-c-career-readiness/

by Autumn A. Arnett, Education Dive

When we put this in the context of the #MeToo movement which took off on social media in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations to show the number of women who have been impacted by sexual assault or sexual harassment, and we consider how few women are actually leaders (versus teachers) in the education space, these things all seem connected…. I have had female presidents tell me they’ve been catcalled on their own campuses, by male students who didn’t realize they were in charge. I’ve heard others say they wear men’s clothing and try to dress in ways that do not call attention to their figures when they attend board meetings, because they are often the only woman in the room. One female district leader wrote in to tell me the harassment she had received by male colleagues affected her confidence and the level of position for which she would consider applying — to go further up the ladder, she assumed, she’d face more of this type of behavior as she’d find herself more outnumbered.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/title-ix-is-often-framed-as-a-student-issue-but-female-administrators-face/508338/

by eMarketer Daily

A September 2017 survey of young adult internet users in select countries painted an interesting—and yet unsurprising—picture of their typical day-to-day interactions. The study from LivePerson, a provider of cloud-based mobile and online business messaging solutions, surveyed 4,013 internet users ages 18 to 34 in six countries: Australia, Germany, France, Japan, the UK and the US.  In the US and the UK, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were more likely to communicate digitally—whether via email, SMS or social media—rather than in person.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Spoiler-Alert-Millennials-Prefer-Digital-All-Communications/1016677

by Mark Hall, Forbes

For many young adults, the process of transitioning into the corporate workforce can be met with a number of difficult challenges. Gaining role-specific education is not easy, particularly if you are trying to avoid being part of the $1.3 trillion student debt crisis. Convincing a great company to hire you without having a track record of success is no simple task either. Landing a highly competitive job without having either a university degree or prior work experience used to be practically impossible, until now. Three Silicon Valley companies are improving how emerging professionals become job-ready by filling the practical skills gap felt by so many workforce newcomers. Coursera, Udacity and Udemy are three alternative education platforms, known as massive open online courses (MOOCs), on a mission to redefine workplace readiness and industry-specific education.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhall/2017/10/27/three-silicon-valley-companies-bridging-the-gap-between-education-and-workplace-readiness/

by Conor Griffith, Exponent Telegram

Students and professors at WVU’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources are researching new ways to enhance the online and learning experience of West Virginians. At the college’s Advanced Engineering Research Building, work is proceeding on new programs and web robots, or simply bots, which are software applications that run tasks (or scripts) over the internet. Bots perform simple and repetitive tasks at a faster rate than a human could do alone. The bots under development are intended to make online learning more collaborative. Ph.D. student Carlos Toxtli is working on the development of a new kind of automated bot, the Micro Assistance Through Tutorials or MATT bot. The MATT bot, he said, is meant to break down electronic learning into smaller, easily approachable tasks, which is different from the more conventional open online courses people sign up for.

https://www.theet.com/news/free/wvu-researching-new-ways-to-enhance-online-technology/article_88533787-b758-573c-9709-5e6fde432cb9.html

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
The Dallas County Community College District had grown its online learning programs organically for two decades when Terry Di Paolo, executive dean of online instructional services, decided it was time to take a “holistic view” of the programs to assess quality and create an improvement plan that aligned with its accreditation work. Attendance in 2015 at a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) workshop introduced him to the Online Learning Consortium’s Quality Scorecard. Other institutions at that event assured him that he could use the scorecard system across all seven colleges and various service centers that made up the district.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/25/distance-learning-programs-make-case-for-quality-assessment.aspx

by Affordable Colleges Online
Tulane Alumni Club of Las VegasSydnee LoganDigital Communication Fellow at FDA and Tulane University Alumna, Class of 2010It is not uncommon to think that the day you receive your diploma is the last day your college or university would help you in your career. This is far from the truth, however. Most colleges and universities across the nation have alumni associations that offer a range of benefits, perks, discounts, and most importantly, networking opportunities and events to help graduates make the most of their hard-earned degree after college. But alumni associations are a two-way street–in order to reap the benefits, graduates must also give back to their alma mater through gifts, membership fees, and volunteering. The following guide takes an in-depth look at alumni associations and their benefits and also helps students and graduates understand how to effectively leverage these networks and give back to future generations.

https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/how-to-work-with-your-alumni-association/

by JEREMY CUNNINGHAM, eCampus News

At times, I am simultaneously a learner and instructor within a course. This gives me some sensitivity to student discombobulation in the online classroom and allowed the article “5 Techniques To Help You Step Inside The Shoes Of Your Online Learners” by Nipun Sharma to ring true with me. The general theme of his work focuses on seeing students as unique individuals and tailoring your work in response. As institutions create one-size classroom models, instructors must conversely seek to personalize it to the student. Sharma recommends knowing your students on a personal level. By seeking to understand the motives, backstories, and opinions of the students in your course, instructors can intentionally break down the inherent walls of the online format. Things you would glean from meeting students face-to-face and interacting with them are important; the online instructor must make an effort to learn this information. After addressing instructors’ external actions, Sharma challenges individuals to some inward reflection. He discusses the idea that online instructors must acknowledge their assumptions and start each student with a clean slate.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/ed-tech-leadership/prof-biggest-prob-online-classroom/

By David Raths, Campus Technology

North Carolina State University created a free app that turns students’ smartphones into lab instruments, saving money in lab setup and maintenance and giving learners the tools to explore physics anywhere. “I thought there had to be some way to capitalize on students’ familiarity with personal technologies,” she said. “Then they could focus their attention on the concepts that mattered rather than on figuring out how to use the hardware and software.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/25/bring-your-own-device-transforms-physics-lab.aspx

By Deirdre Fernandes, Boston Globe

This is the life of a virtual adjunct professor: Teaching is done online, students and instructors are connected by e-mail, and a laptop with a camera is as essential as a textbook. “My office door is always open,” said Bloom, who is currently teaching for George Washington University and preparing to start a course for Ohio University in the coming weeks. In the past, she has also worked for Salem State University. “I’m only an e-mail away,” she said. The portion of online courses taught by adjunct faculty — part-time professors who don’t receive benefits and aren’t on the tenure track — is increasingly significant, said Andrew Magda, manager for market research at Learning House Inc., an education technology company.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/10/23/adjuncts-help-colleges-expand-their-online-programs/UyW2yEnAMIpV3S0DIaUbiN/story.html

by Doug Lederman and Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

Professors are slowly gaining confidence in the effectiveness of online learning as more of them teach online, Inside Higher Ed’s 2017 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology reveals. While faculty members remain slightly more likely to disagree than to agree that online courses can achieve student outcomes that are as good as those of in-person courses, the proportion agreeing rose sharply this year, and the proportion strongly disagreeing dropped precipitously.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/faculty-buy-builds-bit-bit-survey-faculty-attitudes-technology