Online Learning Update

Ruth Reynard, Campus Technology

Those of us in education have heard about integrated instruction for some time. Also known as “interdisciplinary instruction,” the term is used to explain approaches to teaching and learning that support problem solving and critical thinking. Bringing various academic disciplines together can help students think more deeply and more holistically about a topic or a project solution. Therefore, rather than presenting content in a linear fashion with prescribed beginning and ending points, an integrated approach not only encourages, but expects intersection points where related content can be part of the learning process. Topics and subjects are not seen as completely separate entities in an educational journey; instead, they are integrated at points, to make more sense of the whole.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/05/29/why-integrated-instruction-is-a-must-for-todays-tech-enabled-learning.aspx

By Grant T. Harris, Inside Higher Ed
Just as many academic institutions now regret their slow start in China, so will they come to regret missing out on early opportunities in this increasingly important and fast-growing region Grant T. Harris warns. American universities are largely unprepared for a key global phenomenon: Africa’s growing importance. The continent’s prominent demographic, economic and political trends are impossible to overlook, and any institution aspiring to sustain a global brand and position its students to thrive in international settings will need a deliberate Africa strategy. There is no denying Africa’s growing presence in global markets and international affairs. The region’s current population of 1.2 billion is expected to double by 2050, at which point one in every four people will be African.

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/05/09/benefits-universities-intensifying-and-broadening-their-involvement-africa-opinion

Jennifer Lewington, MacLeans

Web-enhanced teaching, as illustrated by the Queen’s psychology class, is growing in popularity as a tool to enrich the undergraduate learning experience and create new degree options for working professionals. But some experts say higher education institutions need to quicken the pace of digital innovation. “There is momentum, but not fast enough for the needs of either the workforce or society in general,” warns Tony Bates, a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University and a widely recognized authority on technology-enhanced education.

https://www.macleans.ca/education/why-are-canadian-universities-so-slow-to-adopt-digital-learning/

By Ben Unglesbee, Education Dive

The new public benefit corporation, called InStride, went live earlier this month, timed with the beginning of the annual ASU GSV Summit, a celebration of education’s intersection with commerce and technology. The Chronicle of Higher Education, which first broke the news of the for-profit entity, reported that Arizona State owns a minority stake in the venture, with the $2.1 billion Rise Fund, a private equity fund managed by TPG, as the majority owner. In a press release announcing its launch, InStride described itself as a “learning services enterprise” that intends to “achieve significant social impact” by partnering with companies that want to help their employees get a college education. It also credited Arizona State’s existing partnerships, such as that with Starbucks, as being “the catalyst for the new company.”

https://www.educationdive.com/news/why-arizona-state-is-using-a-for-profit-to-help-expand-workforce-partnershi/552767/

by Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

When CT wrote about this topic last year in “What to Do About Contract Cheating,” one interviewee quipped, “Contract cheating companies are really insidious, evil, nasty beasts,” noting that these operators promote themselves as “legitimate, authorized writing help services.” Their marketing message, she explained, emphasizes that universities and professors aren’t helping students enough: “We know the university hasn’t got time to really help you. We know that you’re struggling with timelines. We’re here to help you with writing. We’re available 24/7, which your university professors are not.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/04/09/why-students-cheat.aspx

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB, Fortune
When users ask Alexa about their mysterious rash, or to turn off the lights, they might not expect someone else to be listening.  A.I. needs human input—and human reviewers—to become smarter. This week, a Bloomberg report pulled back the curtain on the team of people around the world who are tasked with listening to the Alexa queries of unsuspecting users. And the A.I. training team’s members number in the thousands. The employees listen to recordings of people asking for Alexa to turn off the lights or play Taylor Swift. They transcribe the queries and feed them back to the Alexa software, making it smarter and more adept at grasping the way humans speak.

http://fortune.com/2019/04/13/alexa-ai-amazon-privacy-artificial-intelligence-smart-home/

Robert Ubell, Inside Higher Ed

Recent research on the wisdom of students from underrepresented populations taking online courses is not easy to untangle, with contradictory results, depending on what investigators are looking at and which population slices are being studied. Some conclude that retention rates for low-income students are worse online than face-to-face. Others say that there is little or no difference between the two. Most agree that mixing and matching online with on-campus delivers the best results. Karen Swan, James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois, says that her research predicts a few essential features about the composition of online students — apart from being more likely to be female, they are also older and poorer than their face-to-face peers, and consequently, more likely to go online part-time. As expected, part-time students on campus, too, have a high dropout rate. But insightfully, her research concludes that “there is no difference between online and on-campus part-time students.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2019/04/10/colleges-need-go-online-must-recognize-how-different-students-are

Kim Nilsson, Forbes

How can we make data more human, if as a human race we cannot even agree on what it is to be human? How do we ensure algorithms work fairly when we cannot agree on what fairness looks like? Role models are vitally important in showing girls and women that they too can work in data science and that this career choice is an option for them. I, like many others, struggle to answer this but what I do know is that giving up is not an option and that we need to make a concerted effort as an industry to make our technology work as well as it can for as many people as possible. There is an urgent need to ensure that AI systems do not discriminate inappropriately against any individual or group. If only certain groups of people build the technology then it is highly likely that discrimination will happen, even if the discrimination is not intentional.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimnilsson/2019/03/08/why-ai-needs-more-women/#4f7ae2a7f907

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

When deploying new education technology for adult learners, is there such a thing as an ideal adoption pathway? Some “key actions,” such as administrators using research and data on adult ed tech to inform their purchase decisions, can make the difference, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education-funded LINCS system. “From Creation to Adoption: How to Develop and Deploy Successful Edtech,” written by consultancy Luminary Labs, is the third in a series to look at the state of the tech market specifically for adult learners. The first report examined the many problems that tech faces in serving the unique needs of this user. The second report made the case for further investment in tech to transform the segment. The third report explored why so many ed tech products generate “suboptimal outcomes” in terms of efficacy and use; it also proposed solutions.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/02/12/report-why-tech-for-adult-learning-so-often-misses-the-mark.aspx

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Ever-increasing numbers of universities and colleges are teaming up with bootcamps to deliver tech training. Does your campus need one too? When Doug Schmidt persuaded his institution to sign on with Trilogy Education Services to launch what has become known as the Vanderbilt University Coding Boot Camp, he considered it one more step forward in a 16-year effort to help improve the technology economy in Nashville, where the university is located. As this professor of computer science and co-director of the Vanderbilt Data Sciences Institute noted, everywhere else that he’s lived, worked and taught — Southern California, Northern California, Virginia, St. Louis, Maryland — has “had a really thriving tech ecosystem.” In Nashville, however, small companies, primarily in healthcare, have dominated the tech scene, making for limited opportunities for the school’s graduates who might want to stick around.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/01/23/why-build-a-boot-camp.aspx

By Leelian Kong, Study International
Online courses are often linked to the digitally-savvy – and by extension, the young. While schools and even nurseries are jumping on the IT-literacy bandwagon, companies and retirement communities have been slower on the uptake. Universities are increasingly taking their lecture rooms online, from lecture capture to offering fully-online degrees, but most target school-leavers. But this idea – that edtech is reserved for the young – ignores the untapped potential for educating and upskilling a larger pool of students: working professionals and senior citizens.

https://www.studyinternational.com/news/online-courses-working-adults-senior-retirees/

By Ann Claire Carnahan, US News

The job market has fundamentally shifted in the United States and it is changing how and why Americans work. Through the rise of technology and globalization, competition among workers has become fiercer. Education requirements for employees have risen even though jobs are steadily becoming deskilled. And the mounting anxiety over jobs in an increasingly fluid job market has political, social and personal consequences, according to Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of “The Job: Work and its Future in a Time of Radical Change.” In an effort to keep up, Americans are seeking additional education and are learning new skills. “But it will not inoculate them against the changes that are already occurring or that are coming,” Shell says. For example, the vast majority of future jobs will not require a college education. Already, roughly one in three college graduates are underemployed.

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-12-28/the-eroding-middle-work-in-the-us-heading-toward-high-and-low-skill

T74

Despite making up a critical share of the economy, middle-skills jobs — those that require more education or training than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree — are only now slowly beginning to gain the attention of those focused on the K-12 education pipeline meant to prepare American children to meet the country’s labor needs.

https://www.the74million.org/article/the-middle-skills-gap-half-of-americas-jobs-require-more-than-high-school-diplomas-but-less-than-4-year-degrees-so-why-are-they-under-so-many-students-radars/

Natalie Wexler, Forbes

A report in D.C. last year revealed that school-level administrators often ignored a district policy stating that students couldn’t take the online version of a course until after they’d failed the traditional one. Most of those enrolled in credit recovery—22% of all 2017 graduates—had never taken the original course. Students weren’t interested in showing up for class, teachers told investigators, because they knew they could easily get credit for it online. How many schools are offering these programs, and what kinds of students are most likely to be enrolled? Until recently, it was hard to say. But two recent reports—one released today—provide some answers. The vast majority of American schools—around 70%—have some kind of credit recovery program, with average participation rates under 10%. But a subset enroll far higher proportions of students in credit recovery, some as many as 60%.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2018/11/29/why-graduation-rates-are-rising-but-student-achievement-is-not/#7665f9766a7f

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

Among the key findings of the CBCSE survey was a confirmation that MOOCs continue to attract a generally educated demographic. As stated in the report, “In general, learners were quite well educated with 79% holding at least an undergraduate degree and 40% a graduate degree.” However, the study also found, “16% of participants across all programs had no degree at all, although half of these had completed some university or college courses.”

https://news.elearninginside.com/a-columbia-teachers-college-study-explores-who-is-taking-moocs-and-why/

Alex Adamopoulos, Forbes

Right now, we’re living on the precipice of a fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution brought us steam power and machinery. The second brought electrical power, and with the third came the internet. Which brings us to number four. But this new revolution, driven by artificial intelligence and automation, is taking a different tack from the previous ones. Those movements were all about introducing new technologies and new ways of working and then dropping them on top of how we did things already. This new revolution is about the fusion of people and technology, blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological in a way that is poised to dramatically reshape our day-to-day lives in ways we can’t even imagine yet.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbostoncouncil/2018/11/20/why-ai-creates-jobs-and-new-work-opportunities/#6ad76b4814bd

JENNIFER LEWINGTON, Globe and Mail

Experts say the flexibility of online learning is especially attractive to women juggling work, family and personal demands. “It is really about fitting the learning pattern to the lifestyle,” says David Porter, chief executive officer of eCampusOntario, a non-profit, government-funded agency that publishes a directory of 16,000 online courses and 700 programs at colleges and universities across the province. According to Statistics Canada (which does not track gender splits in online learning), women accounted for 56 per cent of students on campus at colleges and universities in 2013-14, but the ratio is higher in distance learning, as reported by individual institutions and agencies. For example, women account for two-thirds of participants in online offerings, according to the Ontario College Application Centre.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/education/article-why-women-dominate-the-online-learning-space/

By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed
Are we at the leading edge of a trend that will see demand for master’s programs from regional institutions eroded by the emergence of nondegree/non-credit-bearing online programs from elite institutions? A drop in the demand for master’s degrees would have significant consequences for many colleges and universities. Over the last 45 years, the number of master’s degrees conferred annually by colleges and universities in the U.S. has more than tripled, from 236,000 in 1970 to 759,000 in 2015. Many schools rely on revenues from master’s programs to offset the costs associated with undergraduate degrees, and in particular, the growth of undergraduate tuition discounting. Whereas over 80 percent of undergraduates receive some institutional financial aid, less than 40 percent of master’s candidates have their tuition discounted. The average annual tuition for a master’s program is around $15,000 per year and over $20,000 at private institutions. At many regional universities, the tuition for master’s programs runs much higher.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/technology-and-learning/why-higher-eds-global-brands-are-starting-nondegree

by Kayla Westra, EDUCAUSE Review

While many colleges and universities are offering online student services to support their online learners, the types and levels of support vary widely. Accrediting bodies have been concerned with student services for online students for some time, and a very simple tenet to follow is that whatever student services are offered for on-campus students should be offered in an equitable fashion for online students. While this tenet may seem simple, its implementation can be complex and involved.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/10/online-student-services-what-where-who-when-how-and-most-importantly-why

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Only a quarter of top higher education schools across the country have established Chief Innovation Officer roles, which may leave you wondering if colleges and universities need CIOs. his senior leadership position not only works closely with the university president but must also reach out to all the departments at the campus to foster collaboration, collegiality, and innovation. These outreach activities can include encouraging incubators, identifying funding opportunities for research and scholarship promoting discoveries, and improving the culture and rapport between departments. The Chief Innovation Officer is integral to overall university success by assisting with funding, building collaboration, and promoting innovation.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/why-higher-education-needs-more-chief-innovation-officers/

Anant Agarwal, Forbes

edX research found that 29% of Americans ages 25 to 44 have completely changed fields since starting their first job post-college. Zig-zagging is not a phenomenon restricted to new grads, however, and while another study from Deloitte found that 43% of millennials plan to quit their current job within two years, a report from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently cited by JP Morgan Chase & Co. found that job hopping, across all fields and titles, has become a widely accepted characteristic of the modern workforce.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anantagarwal/2018/10/31/why-todays-professionals-are-taking-the-career-road-less-traveled/#6f8bef41466b