Online Learning Update

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

For virtual reality to succeed in education, there’s more required than just cool experiences. Anybody who has watched the education segment for any length of time also knows that the initial “cool” factor isn’t enough to sustain the market. Last year’s NMC/CoSN Horizon Report on K-12 education gave VR two to three years to hit the tipping point. As a recent FutureSource report noted, a big question is whether this new technology can be integrated deeply enough into the curriculum and help achieve specific learning outcomes in order to drive mainstream adoption.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/02/27/immersive-education-vr-comes-of-age.aspx

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The University of California, Berkeley, will cut off public access to tens of thousands of video lectures and podcasts in response to a U.S. Justice Department order that it make the educational content accessible to people with disabilities. Today, the content is available to the public on YouTube, iTunes U and the university’s site. On March 15, the university will begin removing the more than 20,000 audio and video files from those platforms and require users sign in with University of California credentials to view or listen to them. Cathy Koshland, vice chancellor for undergraduate education, says “This move will also partially address recent findings by the Department of Justice, which suggests that the YouTube and iTunes U content meet higher accessibility standards as a condition of remaining publicly available.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-berkeley-delete-publicly-available-educational-content

by Penn State

A study by a Penn State Abington faculty member evaluated the use of a virtual-world technology to support student collaboration in two online computer courses. The abstract of the study by Robert Avanzato, associate professor of engineering, was accepted by the American Society of Engineering Education for its national conference in June. Although the academic performance was comparable to online offerings of the same course without the use of the technology, it expanded the scope of the course by improving engagement and facilitating student team collaboration.

http://news.psu.edu/story/452392/2017/02/24/academics/virtual-world-technology-supports-collaboration-online-abington

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Los Angeles Valley College and the University of Calgary share the dubious distinction of having paid hackers to free their systems and files from ransomware, malicious technology that is becoming more of a persistent problem in higher education for presidents and CIOs. Campus Technology analyzes the decision-making associated with paying ransoms for hacked systems, which frequently does not restore captured data and networks but allows officials to regain access to their own systems in order to begin restoration processes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that the total amount of payments made in the United States to hackers has increased by more than $180 million in the last two years, and on campuses, ransomware is prevalent due to the number of users and devices with the opportunity to click on suspicious emails and links.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/decision-to-pay-hackers-for-hijacked-systems-more-complex-than-meets-the-ey/436846/

by Heather Crockett, Art of Education

Investing in professional development is a big decision. There are many factors to consider and many options from which to choose. If you are considering online learning, you may be drawn to the easy access and lack of commute time (PD in your PJs!). While it’s true online learning makes it possible for you to access course information and materials 24/7, it’s important to understand exactly how much time you should plan to spend online, and whether or not you can balance the commitment with all the other parts that make up your busy life. Today I am going to dissect AOE’s online courses and give you a behind-the-scenes look at course design, structure, and workload requirements. I will also provide a Course Planning Tool download to help you find the time to take an online course.

https://www.theartofed.com/2017/02/24/finding-time-take-online-course/

By Chris Foley and Lisa Canada, US News

You don’t always need to commit to a full degree program to advance your career. Shorter and sometimes less costly, a graduate certificate might be a better option to get ahead. Think of a graduate certificate as a set of courses devoted to a specific topic, designed to build on top of a bachelor’s degree. The certificate may be meant to go deeper into topics already explored in the bachelor’s degree – like adding cybersecurity skills to a computer science degree – or to expand into a new area, like adding competency in human resources for someone in management with any bachelor’s degree. Some certificates might not require an undergraduate degree at all – for example, programs may consider work experience instead – and may take 18 or fewer hours of coursework and about a year to complete. Now, nearly one-fourth of the diplomas awarded by colleges and universities are certificates, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

https://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/articles/2017-02-24/3-signs-an-online-graduate-certificate-is-enough

by Sandra Larson, Bay State Banner

“Every time music gets played, someone gets paid,” John Kellogg is fond of saying. The musician, lawyer, book author and Berklee College of Music professor follows the statement with his signature advice for anyone involved in music performance and production: “You should get paid, not played.” Kellogg’s music business wisdom has accrued over a multi-faceted working life that spans songwriting and singing with the band Cameo in the 1970s, decades as an entertainment lawyer representing star R & B and rap acts, and educating students at University of Colorado and now at Berklee, where he also is assistant chair of the music business/management department. So far, nearly 70,000 people from around the world have accessed “Introduction to the Music Business,” a six-week course offered four times per year on the EdX platform, or the shorter “Music Business Foundations” offered every few weeks on Coursera.

http://baystatebanner.com/news/2017/feb/22/berklee-college-music-professors-online-courses-pr/

By Rick Levin, Forbes

President Trump has sounded a note that resonates with many Americans: good middle class jobs are disappearing. He’s right. Adjusted for inflation, the incomes of the bottom 60% of the income distribution are not much higher today than they were 30 years ago. President Trump blames globalization, and in particular the liberalization of trade which has allowed manufacturing jobs to migrate overseas. But the stagnation of incomes for most Americans is not primarily attributable to the loss of jobs in manufacturing. It is new technology — in particular the growing and now ubiquitous use of computers — that has widened the wage gap between higher and lower skilled jobs — not simply in manufacturing, but in the service sector as well. Some of the most in-demand jobs require training in cybersecurity, computer systems operations, web development, data analytics, data science, and digital marketing.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/schoolboard/2017/02/22/the-fall-of-manufacturing-and-rise-of-technology-makes-lifelong-education-more-important/#429c9d25700d

by Deepak Garg, Times of India

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) or its variants are there in the market for last 10 years now. Some also refer to it as online courses or video courses. It is prudent to have a look at the progress and contribution for the society. Due to the explosion in the number of smart phones and other digital devices it has become easy for the people to consume online content. The scale of the activity also helps the sustainability aspect of MOOCs. Initially there have been extreme voices in favour and against the utility of MOOCs. Some of them going to the extent that “whole education infrastructure including colleges and universities will become non-existent because everything can be done online”. But with the progress of time, it is becoming evident that MOOCs are becoming enabler in the evolution of a knowledge society and are not a threat to anyone.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/breaking-shackles/moocs-a-powerful-and-effective-tool-to-transform-learning-curve-and-accelerate-innovation/

by MIT

On Feb 1-2, over 200 students and faculty gathered in MIT’s Building 10 to discuss and share recent advances in education technology. This first-ever — and first of its kind — “Festival of Learning” was co-sponsored by the MIT Office of Digital Learning (ODL), the Teaching and Learning Lab, and the offices of the deans of undergraduate and graduate education. In her welcoming remarks, MIT Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart called the festival an important gathering of scholars and researchers working to reimagine the way we educate 21st century students — from digital content creation, to flipped or blended classrooms, to cracking the learning sciences code. “Clearly, the MIT community is energized about the transformations and experiments happening in this space,” Barnhart said.

http://news.mit.edu/2017/reimagining-education-mit-holds-first-festival-of-learning-0221

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Brittany Bir, the chief operating officer of the U.S. campus for French coding school 42, says that education should be like children learning to walk and to talk and is better suited in the art of practice and doing, rather than listening under a professor. Bir, a former student of the coding academy, says that a typical day in the school is students receiving an assignment, interfacing with each other and researching online, and setting out to self-teach the curriculum. The Silicon Valley-based campus, which currently enrolls 250 students, is part of 42’s global effort to credential 10,000 learners in five years.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/professor-less-coding-school-looks-to-reinvent-teaching-and-learning/436759/

By David Nagel, Campus Technology

Even as technology proliferates in education at unprecedented rates, new hurdles — including limitations of the human mind to keep up with technological advances — are throwing themselves in the way of effective implementation.Here’s a word you don’t hear much anymore: obsolescence. But it’s a word that’s making a comeback in 2017 in a new and distressing way. Popularly used in a business context (e.g. the planned obsolescence of consumer devices that are designed to fall apart in a few years, like cars and laptops), it’s now being used to describe the human mind. It’s no longer the technology that’s becoming obsolete too quickly; it’s the knowledge of technology that’s rapidly falling behind advances or changes in technologies. And that obsolescence, according to the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition, is just one of the six major challenges facing technology in higher ed in the coming years.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/02/15/6-major-barriers-to-technology-adoption-in-higher-ed.aspx

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

In 2015, more than 40% of college admissions officers said that they used the social media profiles of prospective students for recruitment research, a nearly 400% increase from similar efforts gathered in a 2008 survey and signs of an evolving trend in the world of competing for enrollment success. Many admission officers use the profiles as a verification method for academic achievement, criminal background, or to see patterns of potential behavior that may not fit with a specific campus environment. More than 30% of admissions officers reported that information found on the profiles, positive or negative, impacted their admission decisions on potential students.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/social-media-has-redefined-college-recruitment/436654/

by Knowledge @ Wharton

Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is expected to roll back hard-fought rules on network neutrality — specifically the decision to make broadband as heavily regulated as landline phone service — but it will most likely take an act of Congress to do so, according to Wharton experts. The new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, is a noted critic of regulations on net neutrality — the idea that all internet traffic should be treated equally — preferring to rely on competition to put curbs on the industry. Already, he has ended investigations into companies technically in violation of net neutrality because they let their customers stream digital content exempt from their data caps.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-net-neutrality-will-fare-under-trumps-fcc/

By Sarah Kuta, Colorado University Daily Camera

The University of Colorado is charging ahead on a plan to create a three-year, fully online degree and hopes to launch the new program in the fall of 2018, according to William Kuskin, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for strategic initiatives. Once the program is fully implemented, a student will be able to get a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies by taking online classes offered by all four CU campuses. If they stick to a rigorous course schedule, they can complete their degree in three years, without ever stepping foot inside a classroom, Kuskin said.

http://www.dailycamera.com/cu-news/ci_30808570/cu-aims-launch-3-year-fully-online-degree

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

Campuses should coordinate across departments — including legal, PR, risk management, finance and human resources — to identify the necessary steps to take in the event of a cyberattack on a campus network. A new infographic from Ed Tech: Focus on Higher Ed says that identifying the extent of the breach, the associated costs and the potential victims of an attack are key to developing the internal and external communications about the crisis, and in making sure that all legal elements are understood by the administration and key stakeholders. Containing and eradicating the source of the data breach is critical for IT personnel, and recovering lost data or determining new solutions for networking service the priority in the aftermath of a tech crisis.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/charting-institutional-response-to-a-cyberattack/436558/

by Bernadette Tansey, Xconomy

Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, sees bipartisan interest in education initiatives that help U.S. students and adults prepare for success in the 21st century labor market. Toward that end, Indianapolis-based Lumina has been supporting non-traditional education providers such as online learning programs, alternative credentials like badges and certificates, and other measures to re-invent post-secondary education. One of the big themes of the new Republican administration and the Republican-dominated Congress is paring back government regulations, Merisotis (pictured above) says. And that could advance Lumina’s mission. “Less regulation could encourage more innovation,” he says. Merisotis is mindful, however, that the Trump administration isn’t perfectly aligned with Lumina’s primary goal—to increase the percentage of Americans with post-high school education credits from 45 percent to 60 percent.

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2017/02/20/lumina-foundation-gives-odds-for-edtech-innovation-under-trump/#

By Sophie Edwards, Devex

The World Bank is launching a new free online course to teach participants about financing for development in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, after nearly 32,000 people registered to take part in its first one. The course will address the challenge of finding the additional $2.5 trillion each year that the United Nations estimates developing countries need to achieve the SDGs by 2030. With current political uncertainty surrounding foreign aid and trade flows from the U.S. and other countries, plugging that gap seems more challenging than ever. The course is designed to teach participants where funding for the SDGs is available and how it can be mobilized. It builds on a previous course offered by the World Bank in 2015, its first MOOC, or free massive open online course.

https://www.devex.com/news/world-bank-offers-new-financing-for-development-mooc-after-32-000-users-took-the-first-one-89652

By RYAN DELANEY, KBIA

Increasingly, college life is less about walking across the quad or stopping at the dining hall before sitting in a big lecture hall, and more about flipping open a laptop at home. Take Royal Witcher, a St. Louis native and Army veteran who lives in Belmont, Mississippi. He completed most of his bachelor’s degree through the University of Phoenix, a fully online institution, but often felt like just a number. When it was time for his MBA, the 45-year-old did his research — lots of it — and decided on Maryville University, which has a campus in suburban St. Louis. But he didn’t return to Missouri, instead taking advantage of an online degree. “The biggest changes that I saw were, I think, the drive to solidify, or prove, the online degree as just as good as a traditional,” he said of the difference in the programs.

http://kbia.org/post/attract-students-colleges-try-moving-brick-and-mortar-experience-online#stream/0

by Muscatine Journal

When long-time Muscatine Community College faculty member Kay Rooff-Steffen was asked, last fall, to offer an evening public speaking class this spring, she ventured outside the traditional box. “It is time to recognize how busy our students are,” Rooff-Steffen said, “and how responsible they can be for some of their own learning.” Rooff-Steffen has designed and taught face-to-face, as well as online classes at MCC for several years, so she knows what kind of assignments translate well into distance learning; she also knows how important the traditional face-to-face environment is for public speaking activities. The district course model requires students to speak for a minimum of 30 minutes during a semester. This, in Rooff-Steffen’s opinion, is vital to the relevant learning outcomes of the course.

http://muscatinejournal.com/muscatine/news/local/speech-class-mixes-online-learning-with-classroom-face-time/article_516d5747-3e14-50f4-8c62-7a12d02ed1b9.html