Online Learning Update

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Schools are rapidly changing course from traditional teaching methods to more technologically based options. Higher education isn’t immune to those changes, but there are some notable differences. For example, not all universities are interested in using the learning analytics. However, these numbers can provide a great deal of insight into how students are doing and areas where the university needs to improve. Looking at the numbers could provide a major benefit to students and faculty members, but everyone has to get on board with them first. Here are a handful of ways we can start getting higher education faculty to embrace the newly available data.

Getting Higher Education Faculty to Embrace Learning Analytics

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

In the past, when you arrived on campus for college orientation, you may have been handed a map if you were lucky. Much of what happened next depended on being in the right place at the right time or simply following the crowd. By contrast, freshman orientation 2018 is all about apps, virtual tours, and online seminars. While incoming college kids can still get into a lot of trouble in person, the important parts of orientation week are increasingly being delivered online and tracked to ensure that no one misses anything critical.

Apps, Virtual Tours, and Online Seminars: Welcome to Freshman Orientation 2018

by Halona Black, Education Dive
The American Bar Association (ABA) recently adopted a resolution stating that law schools can now grant students permission to take up to one-third of the credit hours needed to complete a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree via distance education. This equates to about 30 credit hours at most U.S. law schools, National Jurist reports. Previously, law students could take up to 15 credits online. The ABA defines a distance education course as “one in which students are separated from the faculty member or each other for more than one-third of the instruction” and uses technology to support interactions among students and instructors. Credit for a distance education course is only awarded if the academic content, course delivery method and student performance evaluation method pass the institution’s regular curriculum approval process. The new resolution is a plus for prospective students who do not live near institutions that offer in-person law degrees.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/can-law-schools-increase-enrollment-with-online-learning/530802/

By David Raths, Campus Technology

Kennesaw State University (GA) faced a challenge common to many universities: explosive growth in the number of online courses it offered and no easy and affordable way to scale up the closed captioning required to make all the course video and audio files fully accessible to all students.  With its previous captioning processes proving unsatisfactory, Kennesaw partnered with a vendor to develop a solution that provides speedy machine-generated captions and an embedded editor that allows faculty to do more of the captioning in a self-service mode. However, that level of faculty involvement came with another requirement: making the solution easier to use.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/08/15/working-together-for-quicker-easier-captioning.aspx

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
According to our 2018 Teaching with Technology Survey, while some faculty still see technology as a hindrance, most think it has had a positive impact on teaching and learning. In a recent survey of faculty members at colleges and universities across the country, nearly one in five respondents (19 percent) reported that technology has made their jobs “harder” or “much harder.” That’s up from 17 percent who said the same last year. Still, many more faculty members said that technology has made their jobs “easier” (44 percent) or “much easier” (29 percent). And a mere 8 percent of respondents said tech hasn’t had much of an impact either way.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/08/22/1-in-5-faculty-members-say-technology-makes-their-job-harder.aspx

By Rob Marvin, PC Week

Attorneys general from 22 states, led by New York AG Barbara Underwood, filed a new brief in an ongoing lawsuit to reverse the FCC’s net neutrality rollback.  Led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, the group includes AGs representing California, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and numerous other populous states comprising more than 165 million Americans. The brief states that the FCC’s order to roll back net neutrality rules is “arbitrary and capricious” because it puts consumers at risk of abusive practices, and that the order unlawfully preempts state and local regulations. The fight to bring back net neutrality is far from over, but in the meantime, you might want to invest in a VPN.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/363246/22-states-ask-court-to-restore-net-neutrality-regulations

by LESLIE RUBI, Fox 11

It’s hard to believe, but today’s first-graders will go on to be the Class of 2030. The class already has an iPad for each student, but the future could look a lot different. A study by educational policymakers looking at possibilities by the year 2030 said there is a 62 percent chance that students will be carrying around artificial intelligence devices. There is a 70 percent chance that face-to-face instruction will give way to online courses. Textbooks will be a thing of the past and teaching robots could be a real thing.

https://wvah.com/news/local/todays-first-graders-prepare-to-succeed-as-the-class-of-2030

by Chelsea Jones, University Affairs (Canada)

If we are serious about accessible online learning, we must talk openly about disability as if it is right here, right now – because it is. As online learning becomes the norm across Canada, faulty conversations about making online learning accessible are cropping up in higher education conferences. These conversations fall short when they fail to uphold standards of inclusivity that are at the heart of basic, proactive Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies – that is, when they do not include gestures of access such as transcripts, live captioning, or American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Or, when they present disabled people in stereotypical ways.

Accessibility must be more than an add-on to online pedagogy

by Kameron Schmid, the Sacramento State Hornet

If students are having trouble getting into courses they need to finish their degree, here’s a new option: taking online courses at other California State Universities through CSU Fully Online. CSU students currently enrolled full-time at their home university who have completed at least 12 units and have a GPA of at least 2.0 can sign up for one course each semester. More than 3,000 courses are available this semester, and all are entirely online courses offered by campuses in the university chain. The courses are being provided for no additional cost beyond regular tuition, as the CSU tuition model is based on part-time or full-time status during the fall and spring semesters, rather than a per-unit fee. Though campus tuition rates vary, no extra charges are added for signing up for a class through the program.

New program ‘CSU Fully Online’ lets students take classes from other universities

by Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

Second Life is many things, but among them is an attempt to build a virtual world that works more like the web (where anyone can add a site or a page) than a finished product that can only be modified by the corporation that manufactured it.  Higher ed institutes around the world built islands in Second Life for virtual instruction, and some of these are still online, seemingly paying $300/month to keep them alive. Splinter’s Patrick Hogan toured the remnants of the higher ed campuses in Second Life, finding them utterly abandoned and haunting — vaulted halls and manicured gardens, and whimsical classrooms in forests or on pirate ships, designed for throngs, empty save for the odd 2D cutout of a person.

Touring the haunting ruins of abandoned Second Life university campuses

by Business Standard, New Delhi

In a country with a relatively greater proportion of younger people who aspire to be an entrepreneur, companies are actively working to create ease in the jumbling lives of youth. The millenial generation is so hard at work that they always feed on platform that can add comfort and structure to their future planning’s. This year’s World Entrepreneur Day is the perfect occasion to draw attention to the wide variety of challenges that today’s entrepreneurs face in their daily lives. Here are few platforms that are important for today’s Entrepreneurs to be future ready.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/5-platforms-helping-entrepreneurs-to-be-future-ready-118082100773_1.html

With the slowdown in world economic growth, the Online Data Science Training Programs industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Online Data Science Training Programs market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 13.8% from 380 million $ in 2014 to 560 million $ in 2017, HTF analysts believe that in the next few years, Online Data Science Training Programs market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2022, The market size of the Online Data Science Training Programs will reach 920 million $.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3904882

by Doug Lederman and Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed
A Q&A with Ryan Craig, investor and author of a new book about the changing landscape for education and training credentials and the implications for traditional higher education. Six years later,  Craig’s doubts about higher education’s ability to step up to that challenge appear to have grown, to judge by his new book, A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College (BenBella Books). In it, he explores the emergent landscape of new credentials, providers and pathways aimed at helping people find jobs, which he describes as part of a “revolution that will transform — or make obsolete — many colleges and universities.” Language like that might lead some higher ed partisans to dismiss Craig as another latecomer to Clay Christensen’s “disruption” bandwagon, drawing lessons from other industries to write higher education off from the outside as doomed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/08/22/qa-ryan-craig-author-new-book-faster-cheaper-college

by Emily Alford, ClickZ

Here’s why knowing the difference could set your company apart.  Bots, chatbots, robots, and AI are some of the most buzzed words in the industry right now, but even insiders are sometimes unclear on their differences. We get to the bottom of some common myths around new technologies. So far, 2018 has been all about new technology, and that’s a really good thing. If predictions around the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) are correct, new technology is on track to revolutionize every industry from healthcare to finance. However, while other industries are still imagining future uses for machine learning, the martech industry is currently booming with automated solutions to common problems. As we rush to throw AI at all our pain points, myths and misconceptions abound. Here are some of the most common misconceptions, explained.

Bots, chatbots, robots, AI! Here’s why knowing the difference could set your company apart

by Glassdoor Team

With college tuition soaring nationwide, many Americans don’t have the time or money to earn a college degree. However, that doesn’t mean your job prospects are diminished. Increasingly, there are many companies offering well-paying jobs to those with non-traditional education or a high-school diploma. “When you look at people who don’t go to school and make their way in the world, those are exceptional human beings. And we should do everything we can to find those people,” said Google’s former SVP of People Operations Laszlo Bock. “Academic qualifications will still be taken into account and indeed remain an important consideration when assessing candidates as a whole, but will no longer act as a barrier to getting a foot in the door,” added Maggie Stilwell, Ernst and Young’s managing partner for talent. Google and EY are just two of the champion companies who realize that book smarts don’t necessarily equal strong work ethic, grit and talent.

https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/no-degree-required/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
A study undertaken jointly by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and education technology companies Blackboard and VitalSource found that early activity with digital tools is a “strong predictor” of passing a class — even more so than the grade point average a student enters the class with. The organizations used student activity data from the university generated through Blackboard’s learning management system and VitalSource’s digital course materials and combined with the use of the Caliper Analytics standard from IMS Global Learning Consortium. IMS Caliper Analytics enables a variety of learning tools to return data that can be analyzed in aggregate.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2018/08/09/combining-data-from-multiple-digital-learning-tools-produces-better-predictions.aspx

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

More than half of respondents (56 percent) participating in a recent survey say they believe today’s employers are not adequately preparing workers with future-forward tech skills. The survey, conducted by Researchscape for Coding Dojo, measures consumer attitudes about technology skills and offers insights into how employers can “upskill” the tech workforce and improve tech literacy. The results come at a time when many colleges and universities have to prove their return on investment for students who are increasingly more eager to learn about cultivating skills and post-graduation career prospects than athletics programs or campus social life.

Survey: Employers should prepare workers for lifelong learning

By Chip Williams, WMC
Employees of the FedEx Memphis World Hub can earn a tuition-free online degree through the University of Memphis, the university announced in a press release Saturday. The program–Learning inspired by FedEx, or LiFE–will allow the more than 11,000 hub employees to earn one of the 60-plus graduate and undergraduate online degree programs offered by Memphis.

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/38912873/university-of-memphis-to-offer-tuition-free-online-degrees-to-fedex-hub-employees

By James Paterson, Education Dive
Amazon is the latest big tech company to help graduate students with the skills that employers want, training some experts say private firms can most easily and effectively provide, according to the Los Angeles Times. Amazon Web Services is partnering with a group of community colleges in the Los Angeles region to offer a 15-credit certification in the broadening field of cloud computing program. Planners expect the program will be expanded to a two-year degree program soon. A pilot program was offered last year through a local high school and Santa Monica College, which helped write the curriculum. Amazon also has begun offering a cloud computing program at Northern Virginia Community College.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/amazon-to-train-community-college-students-in-cloud-computing/529995/

by Adi Gaskell, Forbes

Sadly, few organizations seem to be adopting MOOCs as a way to provide employees with an easy and affordable way to keep their skills up to date, but one who most definitely are is the tech startup C3 IoT.  The company, which was founded by technology heavyweight Tom Siebel, offers employees over $1,000 for each MOOC they take. The aim is to provide employees who have been recruited in large part because of their desire and their willingness to learn, with the tools they require to keep their knowledge up to date. “In order for us to stay ahead of this, when we interview people we tend to self select for people who are well educated and who are challenged by interesting problems,” Siebel told me recently. “People who have a book in their hand. We like to think of our people as self learners, and this is part of our core values to be inquisitive and always learning.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adigaskell/2018/08/17/the-tech-legend-that-pays-staff-to-upskill/#8e63f697fc34

By Roger Riddell, Education Dive
Data from Project Tomorrow’s recently released Speak Up Survey shows teacher preferences for face-to-face professional learning conferences declining from 47% in 2010 to 40% in 2017, according to eSchool News. Videos or TED Talks showed the highest preference rates, up to 46% from 40%, followed by participating in webinars or online conferences (34%), using social networks to learn from peers (33%), taking individual online courses (23%), and following education experts or peers on social media (23%). The survey also found that teachers aren’t comfortable with new practices like using digital tools for student collaboration, personalizing learning for each student, or creating project-based experiences. Plus, they also want more time to collaborate with peers, traditional PD opportunities, in-school coaching, virtual coaching, and help with classroom management strategies.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/survey-shows-trend-toward-more-self-directed-professional-learning/530201/