Outlook on Technology: Learning shifts, infrastructure lifts

by Kelly Walsh, University Business

Most campus leaders surveyed by UB expect tech spending to increase or stay the same. Today’s rapidly evolving technology has higher education on the move, literally and figuratively. Mobile devices are powering a shift to more learning on the go, driving increased video consumption and requiring IT to fund ongoing bandwidth and infrastructure expansion. Tech is enabling big changes in how colleges deliver academic programs and grant credentials. Increased automation allows differentiated instruction at a level never before possible. With professors and students taking advantage of these opportunities, technology budgets in support of academic initiatives should grow in 2016.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/outlook-technology-learning-shifts-infrastructure-lifts

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Government of India approved a scheme for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

by India Education Diary

The government of India has approved a scheme for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to provide best quality e-learning resources to students across country. An Indian platform called Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) is being developed for hosting of MOOCs. SWAYAM-MOOCs project is intended to address the needs of school level 9-12 to Under Graduate and Post Graduate students, covering all disciplines. About 2000 courses shall be launched, with a support from network/Cloud that can support 10 Lakh concurrent users and up to 3 Crores Learners.

http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Shownews.asp?newsid=36953

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As online courses evolve, could a “nudge” help people finish MOOCs?

by Karis Hustad, Chicago Inno

Northwestern Kellogg professor Gad Allon has been quietly experimenting with ways to not only get students to sign up for these courses, but actually finish them. In addition to teaching operations courses at Kellogg, he teaches “Scaling Operations: Linking Strategy and Execution,” a MOOC through Coursera. It is a free course, but students can pay to get a certificate of accomplishment. Recently he and two other Kellogg researchers, Jan Van Mieghem and Dennis J. Zhang, tested out their hypothesis that emailed “nudges” could push students to talk with classmates and check out a discussion board. That, in turn, could help students stay engaged, and therefore be more likely to complete a course. This course had about 24,000 students and about 4,200 of them submitted at least one of the weekly quizzes.

http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2015/12/21/as-online-courses-evolve-could-a-nudge-help-people-finish-moocs/

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The rich-poor divide on America’s college campuses is getting wider, fast

by JON MARCUS and HOLLY K. HACKER, Hechinger Report

There’s a campaign here to start a food bank for students who can’t afford food, even though many work full time. Many also are raising families. It’s a stark view of the reality of American higher education, in which rich kids go to elite private and flagship public campuses while poor kids — including those who score higher on standardized tests than their wealthier counterparts — end up at community colleges and regional public universities with much lower success rates, assuming they continue their educations at all. And new federal data analyzed by the Hechinger Report and the Huffington Post show the gap has been widening at a dramatically accelerating rate since the economic downturn began in 2008.

http://hechingerreport.org/the-socioeconomic-divide-on-americas-college-campuses-is-getting-wider-fast/

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Digital Badges Certify Competencies Gained through Student Clubs

by: Styliani Kounelaki, EDUCAUSE Review

This study investigated the potential for digital badges to certify and showcase the competencies students gain while participating in campus-based clubs. Thirty-one young professionals who were active in student clubs during college were asked about the value that digital badges might have had for their careers if the badges had been available when they were students. Most (58 percent) said that using digital badges to certify and highlight competencies gained through student club activities would have been useful as they entered the job market after college. Study participants’ views varied depending on their club experiences; those who focused on knowledge acquisition and leadership in their clubs were more favorable toward digital badges than those whose involvement emphasized professional networking.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/12/digital-badges-certify-competencies-gained-through-student-clubs

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PC and Tablet Growth Predicted

by Whatech

Report delivers insight into the education PC and tablet market in the US to grow at an impressive CAGR of approximately 21% to 2020. The introduction of stringent government initiatives that focuses on the deployment of educational hardware in K-12 schools is expected to spur the adoption of PCs and tablets in the education sector during the forecast period. The K-12 educational segment accounted for more than 69% of the overall market share during the forecast period. The high popularity of blended learning in the K-12 segment is an important factor that impels the prospects for growth in this segment during the predicted period.

https://www.whatech.com/market-research/it/116032-report-delivers-insight-into-the-education-pc-and-tablet-market-in-the-us-to-grow-at-an-impressive-cagr-of-approximately-21-to-2020

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How to Support New Teachers in Personalized Learning—and Minimize the ‘Disillusionment Phase’

By Jin-Soo Huh, EdSurge

As someone tasked with supporting those who implement personalized learning, I have been reflecting on how to support first-year teachers who are both new to the classroom and new to a next generation model of teaching. These points are not groundbreaking, but they are best practices that coaches and instructional leaders have implemented for years. However, the focus on the shininess of online platforms and executing new models perfectly often leads us as instructional leaders to place a lesser priority on these strategies. Here’s what I’ve discovered works well.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-12-13-how-to-support-new-teachers-in-personalized-learning-and-minimize-the-disillusionment-phase

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University of Maryland Uses Virtual Reality Lab for Research and Education

By Leila Meyer, Campus Technology

The University of Maryland hosted a demonstration of its new virtual and augmented reality laboratory recently, showing off the lab’s potential to support research, education and training in the sciences, engineering, medicine and industry. The lab, called the Augmentarium, is housed in a 1,000 square foot facility at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. It opened in December 2014 with the help of more than $1 million in funding, including a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The Augmentarium features both virtual and augmented reality technology.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/12/07/university-of-maryland-uses-virtual-reality-lab-for-research-and-education.aspx

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100 districts that are digital learning innovators

By Laura Devaney, eSchool News

One hundred school districts across the U.S. have been honored for their use of online and digital learning resources to personalize learning. Knovation’s 2015 Digital Learning Awards program honors districts across the U.S. that use netTrekker or icurio to find, organize and share hundreds of thousands of standards-aligned resources that are professionally evaluated, tagged and maintained, ensuring students truly benefit from their digital shift. The awards are presented to small, medium, and large districts based on how they used the Knovation Content Collection via netTrekker or icurio during the 2014-2015 school year.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/12/11/digital-learning-546/

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Researchers release report on how online education impacts students

by James Ryan Roberts, News6 Lawrence

Online learning, both in homeschooling and part of traditional classrooms, has become a significant part of the educational experience, but at what cost? Researchers at The Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities at KU recently released “Equity Matters: Digital and Online Learning for Students with Disabilities.” The report looks at how online learning impacts students, specifically those with intellectual disabilities. “What most people don’t realize is that online learning is growing immensely in K-12 environments. In fact, what our state policy scan found is that if you are a parent anywhere across the United States, and including five territories, you can actually enroll your student in an online education environment, which means a student can sit at home and actually attend school through the computer. This opens up immense implications for how we educate students,” said James Basham, Special Education professor at the University of Kansas.

http://6lawrence.com/news/local-news/16985-researchers-release-report-on-how-online-education-impacts-students

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The server uses powerful GPUs and will be released through the Open Compute Project

by James Niccolai, ComputerWorld

Facebook is releasing the hardware design for a server it uses to train artificial intelligence (A.I.) software, allowing other companies exploring A.I. to build similar systems. Code-named Big Sur, Facebook uses the server to run its machine learning programs, a type of A.I. software that “learns” and gets better at tasks over time. It’s contributing Big Sur to the Open Compute Project, which it set up to let companies share designs for new hardware. One common use for machine learning is image recognition, where a software program studies a photo or video to identify the objects in the frame. But it’s being applied to all kinds of large data sets, to spot things like email spam and credit card fraud.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3014363/computer-hardware/facebook-releases-design-for-its-souped-up-ai-server-big-sur.html

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Turning Course Materials Into a Digital Magazine

By David Raths, Campus Technology

When textbook material gets dated — particularly in current affairs or business topics — what is an instructor to do? Some have found a solution in the Flipboard news reader, which aggregates stories in a magazine-format mobile app. Users can create customized magazines from their social network feeds and news outlets, compiling up-to-date content in an engaging interface. Lyna Matesi, who teaches management, leadership, strategy, learning and development, and ethics for the School of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, started using Flipboard in 2013 and now uses it in every class she teaches.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/12/09/turning-course-materials-into-a-digital-magazine.aspx

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Leveraging Collaborative Learning Theory for Online Technical Training in Transportation

BY STEVE SHAFFER, Mass Transit

A significant, integral and most important part of the rebuilding as suggested will be the refreshing and retraining of transit’s incumbent workforce, together with the training of new recruits with the most efficient and effective training technologies available to the management of our transit agencies. Technology continues to transform education and training in ways unforeseen by its inventors. Learners tutored one-on-one score significantly higher on end-of-course achievement tests than learners taught in one-on-many classrooms. Travel costs and lost productivity (e.g., employee and instructor time away from their jobs) were cited as the two biggest and most expensive barriers to effective training (TRB, Report 84, 2003). By enabling employees to take training in their workspaces and to schedule it around other tasks, the return on investment of online computer-based training increases dramatically.

http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/12146290/leveraging-collaborative-learning-theory-for-online-technical-training-in-transportation

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Google Chromebook Now Owns Over 50 Percent Of Educational Tech Market Share In US

By Anu Passary, Tech Times

In a short span of three years, Google’s Chromebooks have leapfrogged its way from accounting for less than a percent to over 50 percent of the educational market share in the U.S., thwarting rivals Apple and Microsoft in the process. Google has inched past rivals Microsoft and Apple when it comes to the educational technology space thanks to its Chromebook. The Google Chromebook now accounts for over 50 percent of the lucrative educational tech space in the U.S. According to data from a Futuresource Consulting report cited by NBC, Chromebooks now encompass over half the devices that are deployed in classrooms across the U.S. This is a colossal increase for the device and speaks volumes of its progress as in 2012, Chromebooks only accounted for less than a percent of the gadgets used in education. The leapfrogging of Chromebooks has confounded even analysts.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/113650/20151207/google-chromebook-now-owns-over-50-percent-of-educational-tech-market-share-in-us.htm

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Kevin Spacey to give online acting master classes for $90

by PanARMENIAN.Net

Masterclass is an online education service with a twist: all of the teachers are household names in their chosen subject. The website launched with an acting track that included five hours of video coaching from Hollywood royalty, Dustin Hoffman. Now, however, the company has decided to add another two-time Oscar winner to its stable after signing a deal with Kevin Spacey, Engadget reports. He’ll be offering five hours of pre-recorded clips across 29 lessons as he takes a group of students through his process, plus guidance from Masterclass’ slightly less famous online

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/201740/

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Connected Learning: Mobile Technologies Enhance Personalization, Real-time Assessment

by Ma. Elena Garcia, iSchoolGuide

Lately, mobile technologies have played a decisive role in the education development and devices with connectivity have been found to enhance personalized learning and innovative practices. Mobile technologies have played a decisive role in the education development and devices with connectivity have been found to enhance personalized learning and innovative practices. Mobile technology mainly improves personalized learning. It provides a platform for tutors to customize content for individual students. Technology has become a thing for the young people. Using it during a class makes students engaged and create passion for education as well as seeking answers.

http://www.ischoolguide.com/articles/37086/20151203/connected-learning-mobile-technologies-enhances-personalization-and-real-time-assessment.htm

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University of Michigan to offer more massive open online courses

by Brian Kuang, Michigan Daily

Since the summer, the University has nearly doubled the number of massively open online courses, MOOCs, it offers on both the Coursera and edX online platforms. This includes 42 currently available courses on Coursera and two courses that will be available in the spring of 2016 on the edX platform, covering subjects ranging from programming and finance to classical music. James DeVaney, associate vice provost for Digital Education and Innovation, wrote in an e-mail interview that MOOCs not only help faculty members teach larger audiences, but also serve as a testing ground for new educational technologies and strategies.

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/news/number-moocs-university-doubles

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Higher ed institutions look to next gen student learning measurement

by Stefanie Botelho, University Business

Higher education institutions of all kinds — state, private and community — are increasingly being asked for more evidence of student learning. Many are looking for ways to demonstrate their students’ general education skill levels a use information derived from student learning outcomes (SLO) assessments to enhance the learning experience on their campuses. Earlier this year, a variety of institutions participated in a pilot program for the new HEIghten Outcomes Assessment Suite from Educational Testing Service (ETS). The suite consists of six modules measuring general education skills identified by educators as most important for students to have. The HEIghten suite is designed to enable colleges and universities to obtain valid data about their students’ skills, benchmark and track student performance, and identify areas for potential curriculum enhancement.

http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/higher-ed-institutions-look-next-gen-student-learning-measurement

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When Someone Else Takes Your Online College Class

BY KENT MCDILL, Millionaire Corner

It has also become easily possible for a “college student’’ to have someone else take some or all of their college courses, so that they can instead play Frisbee golf or earn a paycheck at the same time. There are services, multiplying as you read this, that offer the services of a human being who will “attend’’ any online college course you want a surrogate for, with a promise of getting a passing grade, or even a high grade if you are willing to pay for that add-on. These cheating services advertise openly on websites frequented by college students, on sites like Craigslist, which advertise to students within the specific areas the colleges are “located” in. So even if you are part of a “blended’’ program, which combines online classes with on-campus classes, the cheating services can help you get through that class you don’t have to show up for.

http://millionairecorner.com/Content_Free/online-cheating-for-college.aspx

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Of Course People Are Ripping Off Online Courses

by SARAH JEONG, Motherboard

The cardinal rule of the internet is that if it can be copied, it gets copied, whether it’s a song, a video, a picture, a computer program, a poem, or even a viral tweet. The internet has known a lot of piracy, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of an online course being pirated. Troy Hunt—a security researcher who also teaches “Ethical Hacking: Hacking Web Applications” on Udemy’s rival site Pluralsight—is not the only one. (His course was copied so extensively that the copycat instructor’s “name” on Udemy was “Roy Hunt”). Rob Conery, who teaches a Javascript course on Pluralsight, also reported being copied. Jeffrey Way also encountered infringement back in October.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/of-course-people-are-ripping-off-online-courses

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