Online Learning Update

by Stephanie Kovalchik, Significance

In seeming anticipation of the 2013 Year of Statistics, three of Coursera’s September offerings are new classes about reasoning with data. Andrew Conway, Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, gets things underway with Statistics One. Later in the month, Professor of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University Roger D. Peng will offer Computing for Data Analysis and Professor Brian Caffo, who is also in the Biostatistics Department at JHU, will run a Mathematical Biostatistics Boot Camp. Statistics One is a six-week gentle introduction to statistical reasoning with no prerequisites. Brian Caffo’s 7-week long ‘boot camp’ in biostatistics, as the name suggests, will be more technically rigorous, presenting material intended for first-year graduate students with some knowledge of calculus. Although all of the courses plan to include some programming with the statistical language R, learning and using R will be the focus of Roger Peng’s 4-week Computing for Data Analysis.

http://www.significancemagazine.org/details/webexclusive/2539381/Coursera-introduces-three-courses-in-statistics.html

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Ed

Announcements from major university systems this week could signal the start of a trend that brings sophisticated online learning programs into the traditional campus setting on a larger scale. Indiana University has for the past 15 years been a recognized leader in online teaching and experimentation programs. Now the state’s flagship university is bringing the 80 online programs offered across its campuses under a new umbrella called IU Online, announced Wednesday, Sept. 5. IU isn’t the only one that’s creating a systemwide online initiative. In spring 2013, the California State University system will start offering classes through Cal State Online, officials announced this week.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/2-University-Systems-Seek-to-Unify-Online-Efforts.html

by ALEXANDER GONZALEZ, Miami Hurricane

Part-time student Jennifer Leal can maintain her full-time job in Kendall because of the online program through UM’s Bachelor of General Studies degree. “If it wasn’t for this program and the flexibility of online classes, I don’t think I would be in school, especially one like UM,” she said. The Division of Continuing Studies and International Education (DCIE) administers 11 online courses that fulfill the university’s general requirements. Currently 90 students are enrolled in online classes through DCIE, according to Craig Wilson, the executive director for the Online College Program. UM began offering online courses two years ago, originally intended only for students in the BGS program. However, according to Wilson, the courses officially became open to the general student body last summer.

http://www.themiamihurricane.com/2012/09/12/online-courses-grow-in-popularity-provide-flexibility/

By Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

As the MOOC buzz continues to reverberate across higher education, the question of which subjects and populations these massive open online courses are best-suited to remains a mystery. The data released so far by the companies that run MOOC platforms have offered little insight beyond what countries students are logging in from and some information on who took a particular computer science course. But new data from edX, the nonprofit MOOC platform financed by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offers a limited peek into the basic demographics of a key population: students who not only registered for a particular MOOC, but who performed well.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/12/edx-explores-demographics-most-persistent-mooc-students

by the Sloan Consortium

The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks invites submission of papers for a special issue focusing on Online Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) for international development. The articles will focus on reaching rural or other hard-to-reach populations using education technologies that work for these populations. Some of the tools will include OER, online learning, blended learning, and mobile learning. OERs are learning resources made publically available and free to use, modify and redistribute. These include books, presentation materials, assessments and other types of resources. Online and blended learning is being used throughout the developing world in formal and informal learning in a variety of contexts from classrooms to mobile platforms. The issue will also focus on educational transformation where students will be engaged in the creation of resources and participatory research that helps communities develop.

http://sloanconsortium.org/CFP_Special_JALN_issue_Online_Learning_and_Open_Educational_Resources_for_International_Rural_and_Hard-to-Reach_Populations

By Joe McKendrick, SmartPlanet

Stanford also announced two new homegrown software platforms to host the courses. Each platform has its own distinct features and capabilities, among them video lectures, discussion forums, peer assessment, problem sets, quizzes and team projects. The courses are open to anyone with a computer, anywhere. A team-based course, Technology Entrepreneurship, taught by Chuck Eesley, assistant professor of management science and engineering, garnered 37,000 students when it first appeared last spring. It is hosted on another new platform, Venture Lab, developed by Stanford faculty member Amin Saberi specifically for classes in which students work in teams.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/stanford-expands-free-online-courses-entrepreneurship-tech-and-creativity/26205

by: Bianca Da Silva, Stanford

Stanford University has been in the process of developing new online courses to add to the ones that are already being offered by the institution, and it will all be made available during the fall of this year. The sixteen new online college courses that are being offered across two new platforms will not only allow students the chance to study a variety of new and exciting subjects; they are also available within a range of fields, including science, linguistics, mathematics, computer science, education and sociology. It doesn’t matter whether a student is interested in finance or computers; they will have their pick of subjects when they opt for one of Stanford’s free online courses.

http://www.collegeclasses.com/stanford-university-to-offer-16-free-online-courses-this-fall/

by Virtual College (UK)

India is emerging as an important centre for e-learning courses, a report has claimed. RNCOS study Indian Distance Learning Market Analysis predicted that the market for distance learning online within the country should have expanded by around 24 per cent by 2015 to 2016 when compared with levels from 2011 to 2012. Virtual learning environments will be accessible through mobile devices and several telecommunication providers have already started to implement m-learning services. These include general knowledge tutorials on vocabulary, question sets, the school syllabus, dial-in tutorials, test tips and results alerts, assistance for physically challenged learners and English lessons.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Report-claims-m-and-elearning-expanding-in-India-newsitems-801445845.aspx

By SUSAN PATRICK, Maine Sunday Telegram

Online and blended learning options provide millions of students with the opportunity to learn from the best teachers available regardless of geography, using engaging digital tools and resources that allow educators to teach — and kids to learn — along a customizable learning path. Online learning is not for every student — or teacher — but it is a powerful way to expand educational options for students who need flexibility and a more competency-based, student-centered learning environment. Education is perhaps the most important civil rights concern in the United States today. The academic equity and excellence we seek, however, will come only when we offer students a broad selection of learning environments and allow them to identify the proper solution for their individual learning styles and interests.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/online-learning-provides-students-with-valuable-skills_2012-09-08.html

by Vince Kellen, Cutter Blog

As we all know, Abraham Lincoln was largely self-taught in the midst of meager means and living on the frontier in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, far from centers of learning and culture east of the Appalachians. For him, the book represented the path, and he sought them with great effort. As president he sought books on military matters during the Civil War in order to educate himself. As a result of his own drive and intellect, Lincoln emerged as a very capable, if not supremely capable military strategist. It is illustrative to learn how far one person can advance themselves by reading. The bibliography of Lincoln’s reading is noteworthy since it reveals his penchant for poetry, Shakespeare, politics and history. Lincoln read and learned what he wanted and what he thought he needed.

If massive online classes like this were available in the 19th century, what would Abraham Lincoln have done?

http://blog.cutter.com/2012/09/08/educating-abraham-lincoln/

by the Star Press

This fall’s student body at Ball State University is more diverse than ever and more interested in online education than ever, President Jo Ann Gora reported to the board of trustees last week. Last fall, 928 on-campus students, or 5.1 percent, were also taking online courses. This fall 3,756 on-campus students, or 21 percent of the student body, have “blended” schedules of both on-campus and online courses. “We believe this will help enable our students to graduate in four years,” Vice President Tom Taylor told The Star Press.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120909/NEWS01/309090032

by Stanford University

The vision of Stanford Online is to continue Stanford’s leadership in providing high-quality educational experiences to its students and to people around the world by unleashing creativity and innovation in online learning. With that vision in mind, Stanford Online will undertake the following goals:

• Understand the fundamentals of teaching and learning in new contexts, both global and technological, in order to develop tools and practices to enhance the learning process.
• Study online learning through a series of creative and innovative experiments formulated by teaching faculty. These experiments may involve new uses of technology or new teaching models supported by technology.
• Develop new educational programs and new options within existing programs over time. For example, future offerings of online courses may allow Stanford undergraduates to take a wider range of courses while resident at overseas campus. Stanford may also develop hybrid or online certificate programs based on online courses.
• Explore ways to make new course material and learning experiences available to teaching programs at other colleges and universities.
• Provide public global access to selected learning experiences as a public service.

http://online.stanford.edu/about/

By Marc Parry

Students enrolled in a free open online course offered through edX will now have the option of getting their learning validated with a proctored final exam, under a new program announced today. The nonprofit online-learning venture, founded by MIT and Harvard, will let students take on-site exams administered by the Pearson VUE service, which has more than 450 testing centers in more than 110 countries. Students who pass the tests will receive certificates noting that they completed a proctored exam.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/edx-offers-proctored-exams-for-open-online-course/39656

by Pew Charitable Trust and Elon University

Imagine where we might be in 2020. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked digital stakeholders to weigh two scenarios for 2020. One posited substantial change and the other projected only modest change in higher education. Some 1,021 experts and stakeholders responded.Respondents were asked to select the one statement of the two scenarios above with which they mostly agreed; the question was framed this way in order to encourage survey participants to share spirited and deeply considered written elaborations about the potential future of higher education. While 60% agreed with the statement that education will be transformed between now and the end of the decade, a significant number of the survey participants said the true outcome will encompass portions of both scenarios. Just 1% of survey takers did not respond.

http://pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Future_of_Higher_Ed.pdf

by Google

Course Builder is our experimental first step in the world of online education. It packages the software and technology we used to build our Power Searching with Google online course. We hope you will use it to create your own online courses, whether they’re for 10 students or 100,000 students. You might want to create anything from an entire high school or university offering to a short how-to course on your favorite topic.  Course Builder contains software and instructions for presenting your course material, which can include lessons, student activities, and assessments. It also contains instructions for using other Google products to create a course community and to evaluate the effectiveness of your course. To use Course Builder, you should have some technical skills at the level of a web master. In particular, you should have some familiarity with HTML and JavaScript.

https://code.google.com/p/course-builder/

By: Danielle Hathcock, Faculty Focus

An online course is like walking into a foreign land with an entire map laid out, but having no sense of the land’s origin or how to navigate the terrain. How the instructor formats and interacts with the class will ultimately determine the student’s travel experience. The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of how the elements of an online course are integrated such that they form a cohesive whole that creates easy travel based upon instructor presence, appropriate feedback, and easy navigation for students.

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/mapping-success-essential-elements-of-an-effective-online-learning-experience/

By Kayli Gascoigne, Sonoma State Star

With the CalState Online learning program, students might not have to leave their homes in order to take university classes. Imagine a common website for students enrolled in California State Universities to take courses to earn their degree. That is exactly what Cal State Online is aiming to do. As online courses are familiar to many students, this new program would feature a collective site for additional programs as well as many online classes. The software company providing this program, Pearson, will work to expand the Cal State Online program and to make it a centralized base. “It’s another avenue for someone to earn their degree,” said Claudia Keith, California State’s spokeswoman, said to Mercury News.

http://www.sonomastatestar.com/news/calstate-online-creates-controversy-1.2891891#.UEiVorJmRl8

by Virtual College (UK)

Online learning has the potential to significantly alter education in a positive way, a specialist has said. In an interview with SmartPlanet, Anant Agarwal, president of edX – Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s e-learning initiative – suggested that online training could transform academia’s efficiency, scale and quality. Students who have taken part in virtual learning environments have become engaged, been able to study at a pace that suits them and have experienced an education they believe is of a higher quality than that received in a traditional classroom, he added. Distance learning online enables a small number of staff to teach a large number of people, allowing schools and universities to support vast amounts of learners, he stated.

http://www.virtual-college.co.uk/news/Elearning-revolution-will-improve-education-newsitems-801442045.aspx

by Eli Okun, Brown Daily Herald

The University takes its first step into the realm of online undergraduate education today with the announcement that Brown will join the online course platform Coursera and will also offer some introductory summer classes online for credit. The classes will begin next year. These pilot programs will be publicly announced to the Brown community today in an email from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who informed faculty members of the changes at last night’s faculty meeting. The decision stemmed from a June report by the Ad Hoc Committee on Online Education that included both programs in a list of six recommendations. Bergeron chaired the seven-member committee, which was convened by Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 in January to investigate a wide range of topics related to learning and instruction in the digital age. Schlissel made the final decision to move forward with the programs, Bergeron said in an interview.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/u-to-pilot-online-courses-this-summer-1.2756686

by Daniel Luzer, Washington Monthly

The most important question to consider might be “why?” Do colleges want to offer MOOCs for the public good, or do they want to do this because some fancy colleges are doing it too? Because offering MOOCs is not easy. The trouble is that students taking such courses will not be the same students who are actually enrolled in the regular college. Should MOOCs supplement or replicate existing courses, or are they an entirely different form of education. The demands of those taking such courses will be real. Does the college care about their needs? This is not a money making endeavor, after all.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/why_massive_online.php

by Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

The buzz surrounding massive open online courses, or MOOCs, has grown nearly as massive as the courses themselves. MOOCs are the new “thneeds,” the oddly-shaped items peddled by the Once-ler in The Lorax: Everybody seems to want one, even if nobody yet knows exactly what they are or what they mean. But amid all this MOOC mania, the University of Maine at Presque Isle is attempting a different kind of free online offering — one that would swap the scale of a MOOC for the high-touch experience of a conventional online course. Michael Sonntag, the provost, calls it a “LOOC”: a little open online course.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/06/u-maine-campus-experiments-small-scale-high-touch-open-courses