Online Learning Update

By David Raths, Campus Technology

An increased focus on data at Clemson University is impacting decision-making in finance, operations, facilities and more. At Clemson University (SC), data architects and business teams are developing a multidimensional database about campus facilities. By merging in data from financial systems, Brett Dalton, vice president for finance and operations, can see the size of rooms and their condition and can ask questions about the university’s costs associated with them. “We are creating a robust picture of an asset, how it is managed and what it produces in terms of bottom-line productivity,” he said. “We can be more strategic in targeting preventative maintenance dollars and renovation dollars. Some things come to life when you look at them in an integrated fashion. We might decide we need to tear a building down.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/03/09/mining-data-across-the-campus.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Report indicates that of all sectors, education is the most at-risk when it comes to the ability to defend against cyber attacks of all kind. Twenty-six percent of education respondents in a new survey reported daily or weekly cyber attacks in 2016, and 98 percent of all responding organizations experienced cyber attacks in 2016. The 2016-2017 Global Application & Network Security Survey from cyber security company Radware reveals that while cyber ransom proves the easiest and most lucrative tool for cyber criminals, almost all ransom events have a different attack vector, technique or angle. Ransom attacks are the most prevalent, increasing from 25 percent of attacks in 2015 to 41 percent of attacks in 2016. The report attributes the increase to the lucrative nature of such a “business.”

http://www.ecampusnews.com/it-newsletter/higher-ed-unprepared-cyber-attacks/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Social fundraising is enabling many students to meet their tuition goals in order to attend college. In the face of rising college costs comes a somewhat surprising funding trend: students are increasingly turning to GoFundMe, a social fundraising platform that allows anyone to contribute to funding campaigns on the site. Since 2014, more than 130,000 GoFundMes have raised $60 million from over 850,000 donations for college tuition and related campaigns. Among the top states where students raise college funds on GoFundMe are California, with 15,338 campaigns raising $8.3 million; Texas, with 10,152 campaigns raising $4.6 million; and New York, with 6,844 campaigns raising $4.2 million.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/03/09/getting-blended-learning-right/

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Online learning platforms and devices are likely to follow a trend set by wearable technology, gaming and other digital industries, with a new report suggesting that instructional tech will grow by just over 7% in the next ten years. Report Linker makes its projections based upon the rise of technology use in instructional design, content created for web-based production and consumption, and the growth of virtual reality and artificial intelligence as academic support tools. Authors say that the report is based upon the revenue performance of several leading tech companies with impact in the educational industry, and trends in domestic and international institutional business models.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/projections-see-72-expansion-in-e-learning-by-2027/437819/

By Olena Reid, US News

Building relationships virtually is challenging, but not impossible for online students. Before deciding to pursue a two-year, rigorous online MBA program, I completed eight short free online classes. My go-to platforms were Coursera and FutureLearn, but there are many more options now that offer high-quality lectures and materials. These online courses combined with my online MBA program taught me a few lessons about learning virtually that might help a prospective or current online student answer their questions and know what to expect in an online program.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-03-10/3-lessons-learned-about-taking-online-courses

by Kathy Boccella, Philadelphia Inquirer

Next year, though, when Gumpert’s ninth graders reach into their backpacks, they will pull out slim laptops instead of overweight tomes and use mostly free online resources, including the latest current events from Africa, the Middle East, and anywhere else on Earth. Garnet Valley is one of a handful of Philadelphia-area districts, and three in northern New Jersey, that are in the vanguard of a nationwide movement to ditch traditional textbooks for open-source educational resources on the web. Along with budget savings, which can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in a district, proponents say it gives teachers more freedom to custom-tailor curricula and allows students to learn where they’re already most comfortable — on computers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/History-books-could-soon-be-history-as-schools-switch-to-free-online-learning.html

by Melissa Vito, Evolllution

Three years ago, we were in a tough spot. We had a set of ambitious retention goals to meet, we had a lot of data—albeit static, siloed, dusty data—but no “system” to collect or distribute it, much less act on it. An institutional reorganization that brought together our institutional research and business intelligence teams set the stage for consistent and better data. So our next step as a team was to get our hands on the data. When you begin running data analyses, you need to prepare for some surprises!

http://evolllution.com/managing-institution/operations_efficiency/rallying-behind-the-data-building-a-data-backed-culture/

By: Maryellen Weimer, Faculty Focus

“Online classes are often intimidating for first-time students,” writes David St Clair. “They wrestle with the gnawing fear that their class has no anchor in the physical world and that there will be no one there to address their fears and concerns.” (p. 129) His solution? A simple, online check-in quiz. Here’s how the activity unfolds. The first assignment in the online course, to be completed on the first day, is this required check-in quiz.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/reduce-online-course-anxiety-check-quiz/

by Gary Matkin, Evolllution

Continuing educators (CE) were the first to offer courses, certificate programs and degrees in digital analytics and in the related fields of predictive analytics, Big Data and the Internet of Things. Unfortunately, educators and administrators alike have been less aggressive in leveraging data analytics to enhance their own offerings and operations. However, there are emerging pathways for CE administrators to use these new technologies. An understanding of the concepts, domains of usage, and ways in which digital analytics can be used in CE are essential for all leaders.

http://evolllution.com/managing-institution/operations_efficiency/big-data-big-opportunity-big-challenge/

By Jager Robinson, Newsday

The next shift in higher education is coming online. Whether it be through full online programs or select courses offered as part of an on-campus degree, online learning is taking large steps toward becoming a mainstream approach to higher education. Contrary to common beliefs, early results provide no data to suggest that accredited online degrees, like Georgia Tech’s, teach less than their in-person counterparts: Several Harvard economists, who studied GA Tech’s program, concluded students “finish their courses with at least as much knowledge as their in-person counterpart.” With the introduction of prestige into the affordable online environment, online learning is taking a shift for the best. Whether it be fully online, or a hybrid degree, colleges and universities across the country are taking the necessary steps to provide for an increasingly online world.

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/commentary/unexpected-advantage-i-saw-during-online-classes-1.13227353

by Anant Agarwal, Huffington Post

The digital approach of online learning is a convenient way to develop hybrid skills. Traditional education and traditional corporate training is incredibly siloed. This approach leads to students and employees who may have an extremely in-depth understanding of one specific field, but will not be equipped to succeed in the hybrid jobs that today’s workplace is embracing and tomorrow’s workplace will be composed of. Here is where taking a digital approach is the game changer. The digital approach allows the learner to transcend time and space and reach outside their current silo to flexibly learn new things at their own pace. Specifically, you can learn new things digitally while continuing in your current major or chugging away on your current job as and when you can make the time.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-future-is-hybrid_us_58c081e6e4b0a797c1d398a4

By Danny Palmer, ZD Net

As ransomware continues to evolve, it’s therefore crucial for your employees to understand the threat it poses, and for organisations to do everything possible to avoid infection, because ransomware can be crippling. Cybercriminals didn’t use to be so obvious. If hackers infiltrated your corporate network, they would do everything possible to avoid detection. It was in their best interests not to alert a victim that they’d fallen victim to cybercrime. But now, if you are attacked with file-encrypting ransomware, criminals will brazenly announce they’re holding your corporate data hostage until you pay a ransom in order to get it back. It might sound too simple, but it’s working: cybercriminals pocketed over $1bn from ransomware attacks during 2016 alone. Everything you need to know about ransomware is at the link below: how it started, why it’s booming, how to protect against it, and what to do if your PC’s infected.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-an-executive-guide-to-one-of-the-biggest-menaces-on-the-web/

By Nick Heath, Tech Republic

The world needs more software programmers and MooCs and coding bootcamps promise to deliver the needed skills. But as an on-ramp to becoming a developer, they have debatable value. No one can fault the ambition of the companies that run Massive Open Online Courses. One of the pioneers of these online learning hubs, Udacity founder and chairman Sebastian Thrun, recently summed up their mission as nothing less than democratizing education.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-truth-about-moocs-and-bootcamps-their-biggest-benefit-isnt-creating-more-coders/

by edX

With 12 of our prestigious university partners, we are offering new MicroMasters programs across in-demand fields such as business analytics, digital product management, cybersecurity and data science. These programs build on the success of the MicroMasters product launch in September 2016. Columbia University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Curtin University continue their participation in the MicroMasters initiative, offering additional, new programs to learners worldwide. And, we are excited to welcome new partners to MicroMasters programs, including Boston University, University of Pennsylvania, The University of California, San Diego, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The RWTH Aachen University, University of British Columbia, University System of Maryland and others.

http://blog.edx.org/new-micromasters-programs-gain-demand-knowledge-advance-career?track=blog

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

More than 24 states are projecting a decrease in tax revenues for this fiscal year, a circumstance that will yield substantial cuts for public higher education across the country. Missouri has been among the nation’s most aggressive states in higher education divestment over the last two years, cutting more than 8% of total sector spending. Smaller schools like Harris-Stowe State University expect the cuts to force tuition increases and financial hardship for low-income students. The culture of budget trimming is counter to the ongoing construction explosion and competition between institutions for marketing to and enrolling students.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/revenue-declines-in-24-states-could-lead-to-massive-cuts-in-higher-ed/437509/

BY LAURA ASCIONE,eCampus News

The report notes that the number of non-traditional students is projected to increase more than twice as fast as traditional students from 2012 to 2022, according to the CLASP Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success. And because non-traditional students are among the fastest-growing student groups, this means schools face retention challenges. Only 37 percent of at-risk students said they feel confident they will accomplish their educational goals, and 33 percent of those at risk participate in extra-curricular activities, compared to 62 percent of non-traditional students who are not at risk of not graduating. The at-risk group spends less time on campus–10 hours per week compared to the 16 hours per week that non-traditional on-track students spend on campus.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/campus-administration/support-non-traditional-students/

BY MERIS STANSBURY, eCampus News

Since 2011, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) has surveyed the higher education teaching and learning community to identify its key issues. This year, the top three dominant issues within colleges and universities include those around faculty development, academic transformation and digital and information literacies. The community polled by the ELI is wide in scope: the initiative solicits input from all those participating in the support of the teaching and learning mission, including professionals from the IT organization, the center for teaching and learning, the library, and the dean’s and provost’s offices. According to college and university thought leaders, these are the 16 biggest teaching and learning issues in 2017

http://www.ecampusnews.com/campus-administration/biggest-teaching-learning-issues/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Online and blended learning programs from higher-ed institutions across the nation certainly inspire innovation, but higher-ed administrators must consider faculty point of view amidst these changes, according to Building Trust: How to Address Faculty Concerns about Online Education, a new whitepaper from Wiley Education Services. Nearly five years ago, 58 percent of professors in a Babson College survey described themselves as having “more fear than excitement” about the growth of online learning; more than 80 percent of academic technology administrators, on the other hand, said they felt more excitement than fear. The whitepaper aims to help administrators better understand faculty concerns about online learning, and it also offers recommendations to address those concerns.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/online-learning/facultys-online-learning-concerns/

By Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The recent decision by the University of California, Berkeley, to restrict public access to free online educational content has raised questions about whether other colleges and universities will do the same to avoid legal action. Disability rights groups have been open about continuing to take the legal route to ensure that institutions don’t discriminate against students with disabilities. Inside Higher Ed asked several universities that offer free online courses and other educational content if they are considering following in Berkeley’s footsteps. The institutions that did respond were unanimous in their responses: they will continue to offer publicly available content. It is unclear whether the Justice Department will take as active a role in accessibility lawsuits under President Trump.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/14/after-uc-berkeley-announcement-universities-say-they-will-continue-offer-free

by NJ Today

A few years ago, a lot of high school graduates would move out of New Jersey to pursue the degree of their choice. The same can be said for professionals wanting to pursue a master’s degree in their fields. Today, however, that same pattern is becoming less and less obvious. The main reason behind this is the increasing popularity of online programs. Online education has changed a lot over the years. Today, even undergraduate students prefer to take online programs instead of the equivalent offline course. There are a number of reasons behind this new rise of online education.

http://njtoday.net/2017/03/03/rise-online-education-nj-students-opting-online-courses/

by Holly Zanville, Evolllution

More and more of today’s students stand to benefit from a promising new trend: certification-embedded education programs. These are partnerships between education institutions and industry and professional associations that stack industry certifications within education programs. The practice lets learners simultaneously obtain marketable industry certification(s) and education credentials such as degrees, diplomas and certificates. The certifications are not typically awarded for completing an education program based on students’ seat time and grades; rather, they’re awarded through assessment and validation that the learner has indeed achieved specific learning outcomes or attained a defined level of knowledge or skill relative to a given industry standard.

http://evolllution.com/revenue-streams/professional_development/10-tips-on-embedding-industry-and-professional-certifications-in-education-programs/