Log On and Learn: The Promise of Access in Online Learning - Daphne Koller, Forbes

Much of the discussion and debate around bringing higher education online has touched upon the implications of putting course material online versus in-person teaching. There are many questions floating around, such as how will students benefit from online classes if course credit isn’t given? What does the future hold for traditional brick and mortar institutions? While these points are important and not to be dismissed, there is a key issue that education pundits are often overlooking: the issue of access. For millions of people around the world, the choice is not between attending traditional university and online courses, between seeing a lecture in person and watching one online. As Princeton professor Mitch Duneier said in a recent op-ed on The Chronicle of Higher Education, for many students, the choice is between online education and no education at all. http://www.forbes.com/sites/coursera/2012/09/19/log-on-and-learn-the-promise-of-access-in-online-education/

CSU hopes to provide new degree opportunities via online learning - Rogue Morales, Collegian CSU Fresno

The California State University system has chosen the company Pearson to launch Cal State Online, a completely online option for people looking to complete their bachelor’s degree. Cal State Online will be a fully online option for students who have dropped out of the CSU system and found it difficult to return to school. “One of the main focuses of the effort is to increase access to nontraditional working professionals who have previously been affiliated with CSU,” said Claudia Keith, assistant vice chancellor and public affairs for California State University. “It is also a way to meet California’s economic and workforce development needs.” http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2012/09/19/cal-state-online-hopes-to-provide-new-degree-opportunities/

What is Ubiquitous Learning? - EduTech Associates

Mark Weiser from the Xerox PARC Lab ‘fathered’ UL more the twenty years ago. He envisioned three computer waves: mainframes which were prevalent at the time, personal desktop computers which were just appearing, and ‘Ubiquitous’ computing (also known as ‘ubicomp’), as the future. This third step is often referred to as reaching a point where the user is not aware of the computer, whatever form it has taken, but focuses only on learning and the related materials. Weiser identified three types of computer devices: Wearable Handheld Interactive Boards And their main characteristics would be: Helpers/Servants Quite and Invisible User not necessarily aware of their presence, just the interaction Should not demand attention http://edutechassociates.net/2012/09/20/what-is-ubiquitous-learning/

Washington University looks into providing online learning video courses - Justine Chu, Student Life

As many top-tier universities begin to integrate their educational systems with the digital age, Washington University is undergoing research to design video courses that can closely reflect the classroom experience. rovost Ed Macias described the University’s possible venture into online courses as one of experimentation. While there have been lots of experiments and lots of progress over the last few years, this—the technology and the techniques—is all still evolving,” Macias said. “So we’ve been trying some things, we’ve been watching what’s happening and we’re trying to learn from these various activities. We’re trying to determine what would be the best practice.” http://www.studlife.com/news/academics/2012/09/20/university-looks-into-providing-video-courses-online-2/

In brave new world of online ed, Smarterer wants to track what you’re actually learning - Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOm

When Boston-based Smarterer launched in late 2010, it was conceived as a way for people to quickly show others what they know. But, two years later, the company says it’s stumbled on to an important lesson: especially with the emerging crop of education startups, life-long learners need a way to assess their progress for themselves. To that end, Smarterer (see disclosure), which uses crowdsourced tests to measure skill mastery, is shifting its attention away from being a site for public validation to being a platform to track personal learning. “We started with the vision of you’re doing this because you want to prove to the world what you know – it was more about reputation management [and] trying to get the job,” said co-founder Dave Balter, who is also the CEO of marketing firm BzzAgent. “The deeper we got, the closer we came to the realization that people were using the system for much more intrinsic purposes … to understand if they were growing or not.” http://gigaom.com/2012/09/20/in-brave-new-world-of-online-ed-smarterer-wants-to-track-what-youre-actually-learning/

Turn on, Tube in: a class of its own - Peter Lynch, Irish Times

The Khan Academy has about 3,200 tutorials on video, each about 10 minutes long. It attracts more than a million students a month. Initially, the content was mainly second-level maths. Maths is still the focus, but there is growing content on physics, chemistry and biology, as well as economics, humanities and fine art. The videos have been viewed more than 150 million times. In addition to videos, the academy resources include progress-tracking software, automated exercises with continuous assessment, and a range of aids for teachers. A dashboard tool allows teachers to see immediately how students are getting on, how many videos they have completed, how many questions they have answered and where they need help. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2012/0920/1224324195489.html

Is Udemy the future of online learning? - Susan Moore, MindLeaders

The site – which allows anyone to upload a “course”, sell it to other users, or give it away for free – was developed by two Turkish learning platform designers and launched in May 2010. Since then it has gained tens of thousands of courses, ranging in price from $0 to $250. Udemy is really a massive, open, social LMS. By some measures, it has become the single largest destination for formal learning on the internet. Courses contain multiple lessons which can include pdfs, word docs and slide presentations. But the bulk of the content consists of video learning. There are video tutorials on everything from how to use FourSquare for business to introducing Brazil as a country. Some people do use the network for marketing themselves by uploading free courses (such as the good people at SEOMoz) but the most of the content are lessons uploaded by “experts” and sold for a price. This means that, often costing $200 or more, we expect several hours of high quality learning from each course. http://blog.mindleaders.com/is-udemy-the-future-of-online-learning/

Publishers See Online Mega-Courses as Opportunity to Sell Textbooks - Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Colleges aren't the only enterprises interested in the possibilities of free, online courses. Publishers have begun to investigate whether so-called MOOC's, or massive open online courses, can help them reach new readers and sell more books. For the moment, providers of the classes encourage professors not to require students to buy texts, in order to keep access as open as possible. So publishers can't count on MOOC's to generate a course-adoption sales. It's the year of the mega-class—and The Chronicle is making sense of all the buzz. But online courses do have recommended-reading lists, and enrollments in the tens of thousands. If even a small percentage of those online students buy books, the sales could add up to a nice boost for a textbook. http://chronicle.com/article/Can-MOOCs-Help-Sell/134446/

Mizzou Online expands online classes - Alyssa Nielsen, the Maneater

Enrollment in MU online courses is up, with a 12 percent increase in the 2011-2012 enrollment from the year prior. Mizzou Online offered 696 courses last year, catering to 3,014 graduate and 6,141 undergraduate students. In the 2010-2011 academic year, MU offered 624 courses, 72 fewer than this year. The university is able to offer the wide array of classes due to the increased course offerings that are provided through this program. “Professors can convert classes into an online format and make it available to students online,” Interim Vice Provost for E-Learning Jim Spain said. “Programs that apply for funding can receive funding for up to $250,000 for a proposal (to add an online class).” http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2012/9/16/mizzou-online-expands-online-classes/

Don't forget the 'active learning' mission in online learning - Peyton R. Helm, philly.com

I've been thinking a lot recently about a Tibetan yak herder I read about last summer in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Apparently this guy has a laptop and an Internet connection and is taking an online course offered by my alma mater, Yale - "The Philosophy of Love in the Western World," to be precise. I think that's remarkable - and admirable. This man is what educators would call an "autodidact" - someone who is so motivated to learn that he can do it virtually on his own. OK, there are professors creating these online courses, but they are not personally invested in his education. They have put it out there for the taking, and he's taking it.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-18/news/33926905_1_online-courses-moocs-yak

Technology To Democratize Education - Mary Beth Marklein, CIO Today

Sebastian Thrun, a Google vice president and Stanford professor best known for his role in building Google's driverless car, aims to develop a catalog of free online courses taught by star professors from around the world. He feels that, just as film enabled people all over the world to access movies, the Internet will democratize education.

http://www.cio-today.com/news/Technology-To-Democratize-Learning/story.xhtml?story_id=10100CFSOTU7&full_skip=1

10 Reasons Why Online Learning Courses Beat Independent Research - DIANE HAMILTON, Online Schools

I recently had a guy tell me that he did not want to take online courses because he did not see the point. He believed he could just learn everything he needed to learn through researching information on the Internet. He apparently did not fully understand the advantages of receiving a formal online education. If he wanted to do the research on his own rather than taking formal online courses, he’d miss out on many things. With a formal online education from an accredited university he would receive the following benefits....

http://www.onlineschools.org/inside-online-schools/10-reasons-why-online-courses-beat-independent-research/

A new higher education online business model: Open and non-profit - Cate Long, Reuters

Online higher education 1.0 consisted of for-profit and non-profit colleges and universities providing virtual education that mirrored the classroom experience. It also included elite universities like Harvard and MIT providing free classes via YouTube and other platforms with no feedback loop or credentialing process. Online higher education 2.0 will likely see open classes combined with testing and credentialing processes resting on massive open source platforms. Imagine if this sparked a second renaissance for Western education.

http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2012/09/15/a-new-higher-education-online-business-model-open-and-non-profit/

Connected Learning Manifesto – Connected Educator

As part of Connected Educator Month, the Connected Educator group sponsored all sorts of events, activities, and free content to show the how and the why of being a connected educator. One of the projects was the new Connected Learning Manifesto.

This manifesto is a collaborative statement on connected learning.





http://plpnetwork.com/2012/07/23/connected-learning-manifesto/

Log On and Learn: The Promise of Access in Online Learning - Daphne Koller, Forbes

Much of the discussion and debate around bringing higher education online has touched upon the implications of putting course material online versus in-person teaching. There are many questions floating around, such as how will students benefit from online classes if course credit isn’t given? What does the future hold for traditional brick and mortar institutions? While these points are important and not to be dismissed, there is a key issue that education pundits are often overlooking: the issue of access. For millions of people around the world, the choice is not between attending traditional university and online courses, between seeing a lecture in person and watching one online. As Princeton professor Mitch Duneier said in a recent op-ed on The Chronicle of Higher Education, for many students, the choice is between online education and no education at all.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/coursera/2012/09/19/log-on-and-learn-the-promise-of-access-in-online-education/

Online Learning Is at a Historic Inflection Point

YouTube of Andrew Ng

Andrew Ng, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, discusses how America's finest universities have revolutionized online learning by increasing their digital presence.




http://youtu.be/8U92aUu_Akc

Mature Market for Online Education - Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

The market for online higher education aimed at adults may be reaching maturity, according to a new report from Eduventures. And without a better-defined product, the report's author said online learning faces a risk of petering out and being little more than a back-up alternative to on-campus education for students. Inside Higher Ed The study describes alternative approaches for the future, including a relatively radical scenario with an expanded focus on individual courses and skills, as opposed to degrees, as well as a bigger role for competency-based education. Massive open online courses (MOOCS) could be a player, too, according to the report.For now, however, Garrett said the prognosis for the degree remains good. And MOOCs, while intriguing, are not currently part of a radical challenge to higher education. He said that could only happen if, on a wide scale, the courses became valuable to employers as they try to evaluate job candidates. “The challenge for MOOCs and similar innovations,” according to the study, “if the goal is to supplant conventional schools and credentials, is consumer conservatism.”

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/19/adult-students-interest-online-education-flat-study-finds

Online class program draws mixed reactions - Eli Okun, Brown Daily Herald

Brown community members expressed a mixture of excitement and wariness in response to the University’s announcement that it will commence two online education pilot projects next year. Many lauded the decision, first announced Sept. 5 in an email from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, as an appropriate modernization and expansion of access to higher education, but some voiced concern that the courses could represent shoddy imitations of the classroom experience. Next summer, the University will offer a few for-credit courses online only for Brown summer session students. The University will also join the online course platform Coursera, which offers free, not-for-credit classes to hundreds of thousands of people around the globe.

http://www.browndailyherald.com/online-class-program-draws-mixed-reactions-1.2764210#.UFhwUbJmRl8

The Future of Predictive Analytics in Higher Ed - Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

At the course level, predictive analytics could help match students with appropriate programs, even down to the professors they should have. That's what the institutions in the Regents Online Campus Collaborative are piloting this year with a predictive analytics tool from Desire2Learn. Predictive analytics also might test universities' tolerance for risk-taking. Eventually, universities will have to ask themselves, "What are we willing to invest in being wrong about?" said John Fritz, assistant vice president of instructional technology and new media at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. "We're going to be getting to the stage sooner rather than later where it doesn't matter what you have access to or even what you think you're predicting," Fritz said. "What really matters is, 'What are you willing to act on?'" Having common infrastructure also will be important, Fritz said. Universities have been creating their own custom analytics tools, including the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which has now transitioned to Blackboard Analytics for Learn.


http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/The-Future-of-Predictive-Analytics-Higher-Ed.html

Higher Education Under Sequestration - ACE

Among the projected cuts:

• While the Pell Grant is protected from the cuts during fiscal year 2013, most other federal financial aid programs, including the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work-Study, would be cut by 7.6 percent across the board.
• Funding for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Endowment for the Humanities would sustain a 7.6 percent across-the-board cut to mandatory spending and 8.2 percent to discretionary spending.
• Federal college access programs, such as TRIO and GEAR UP, would also see an 8.2 percent cut.
• The 1 percent origination fee for unsubsidized Stafford student loans would be raised by 7.6 percent, to about 1.1 percent of a total loan.

http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=HENA&CONTENTID=46890&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm

Publishers See Online Mega-Courses as Opportunity to Sell Textbooks - Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Colleges aren't the only enterprises interested in the possibilities of free, online courses. Publishers have begun to investigate whether so-called MOOC's, or massive open online courses, can help them reach new readers and sell more books. For the moment, providers of the classes encourage professors not to require students to buy texts, in order to keep access as open as possible. So publishers can't count on MOOC's to generate a course-adoption sales. But online courses do have recommended-reading lists, and enrollments in the tens of thousands. If even a small percentage of those online students buy books, the sales could add up to a nice boost for a textbook.

http://chronicle.com/article/Can-MOOCs-Help-Sell/134446/

USC embraces online learning for graduate education - Merrill Balassone, USC

Nationwide, millions of students are trekking back to college classrooms this fall, but more students than ever are going back to school online. According to a report from The Sloan Consortium, the rate of growth in online enrollments is 10 times the rate of growth in all higher education. At USC, roughly 4,800 graduate students are enrolled in accredited online master’s degree programs that span nine USC schools. Altogether, USC’s online education programs reach 5,500 remote students through graduate-level degree programs and executive and continuing education programs. “USC faculty have embraced the potential of online graduate education and have eagerly explored and experimented with models that can engage learners and spark powerful ideas, fresh insights and new knowledge,” USC President C. L. Max Nikias wrote in a recent letter to the USC community. “As we continue to implement this online education model, we expect to double our enrollment and degree offerings within the next five years.

http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/41400/usc-embraces-online-graduate-education/

Another Way to Think about Learning - Nicholas Negroponte, Technology Review

I believe that we get into trouble when knowing becomes a surrogate for learning. We know that a vast recall of facts about something is in no way a measure of understanding them. At best, it is necessary but not sufficient. And yet we subject our kids to memorizing. We seem to believe that rote learning is akin to physical exercise, good for their minds. And, quite conveniently, we can test whether the facts stuck, like spaghetti to a wall. In some cases knowledge is so drilled in that you know and hate a subject at the same time. The closest I have ever come to thinking about thinking is writing computer programs. This involves teasing apart a process into constituent parts, step-by-step functions, and conditional statements. What is so important about computer programs is that they (almost) never work the first time. Since they do something (versus nothing), just not what you wanted, you can look at the (mis)behavior to debug and change your code. This iterative process, so common in computer programming, is similar to learning.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429206/emtech-preview-another-way-to-think-about/

“How do I know students aren’t cheating?” - Anna Luce, Instructional Design and Development Blog

It’s a question that comes up frequently when working with faculty to design and build their online courses. And it’s a valid one. Academic dishonesty is a longstanding issue in higher education, one colleges and universities take seriously with zero-tolerance policies and severe consequences for offenders. As more courses are offered online or in hybrid formats, instructors’ typical methods of deterring and detecting cheating might seem ineffective. When your students don’t take their exams in the classroom, how do you know they aren’t sharing answers? When you don’t interact with students face-to-face each week, how can you really get to know them, their ideas, and their unique perspective (which makes it easier to spot plagiarized content)? How do you know the textbook answer key isn’t open on their desk as they fly through quiz questions?

http://www.iddblog.org/?p=1194

IU Invests $8 Million To Increase Online Course Offerings - KYLE STOKES & ZHE HUANG, Indiana Public Media

Indiana University is investing $8 million over the next three years to increase the number of online courses on all campuses and bring them under one umbrella. The goals of the new initiative are to expand IU’s current online offerings, create new degree programs, and convert current programs to an online format. IU Instructional Systems Technology Professor Barbara Bichelmeyer, who will direct the new office of online education, says new technology allows students and professors to communicate more freely. “Web 2.0 technologies, social networking, opportunities for interaction are allowing students and instructors to be able to connect with each other, even through the Internet and online technologies in ways they haven’t been able to do so in the past,” she says. IU offers online courses in more than 80 academic disciplines.

http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/iu-invests-8-million-online-courses-35933/

The Federal Budget Cuts to Come - Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed

Lasts Friday’s report is the first look at how, exactly, those cuts would be distributed among domestic programs. And for many higher education programs, the outlook isn’t good: an 8.2 percent across-the-board program cut for domestic discretionary programs, which make up most of the higher education budget, and a 7.6 percent cut for mandatory spending programs. While the Pell Grant is protected from the cuts during fiscal year 2013, as is the College Access Challenge Grant, other federal financial aid programs would be cut by 7.6 percent across the board, including the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and federal work-study. Student loan origination fees would also increase. The federal programs whose grants sustain university research — the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities — would see the same across-the-board 7.6 percent cut to mandatory spending and 8.2 percent to discretionary spending.


http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/17/sequester-would-hit-higher-education-programs-hard

Michigan public universities eye out-of-state students for budget help - Ted Roelofs, Bridge Magazine

Faced with tight budgets and prospective dwindling in-state enrollment, public universities across Michigan are looking beyond the state line for answers.
One option, say advocates such as Domino's Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, is to boost recruitment of out-of-state students – students who pay much higher tuition rates than the Michigan natives sitting next to them in class.

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/09/public_universities_eye_out-of.html

Gina Bianchini’s Mightybell Evolves Into A Collaborative Online Space For Creative Projects - LEENA RAO, TechCrunch

When Ning co-founder and former CEO Gina Bianchini launched Mightybell a year ago, a startup aimed at helping you accomplish things in small, incremental steps and show others how to do the same, it essentially allowed you to create step-by-step private guides for anything. But the startup is shifting its focus slightly away from the private, step-by-step product into a more collaborative, open public platform for people to share their ideas in groups. Now Mightybell is focused on offering sleek, design-focused collaborative online spaces for creative projects. The step-by-step product is still available, but is located here under the product name “Steps.”


http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/16/gina-bianchinis-mightybell-evolves-into-a-collaborative-online-space-for-creative-projects/

Stanford's professional schools commit to online learning - STANFORD

Three of Stanford's schools – engineering, medicine and business – have announced appointments of associate deans to lead their respective online education initiatives. The appointments will complement the university's continuing commitment to online learning. The School of Engineering has long been a pioneer in the field of distance learning. In 1969, the school launched the Stanford Instructional Television Network (SITN) with 12 graduate engineering courses. In the 1990s, course delivery moved to video streaming over the Internet, and SITN became the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). SCPD is now one of the top professional development centers among U.S. institutions of higher education, with 420 member companies and 45 staff members.


http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/online-associate-deans-091412.html

Community college board prioritizes registering new, continuing students - Tami Abdollah, KPCC

In the academic years from 2008 to 2011, community college enrollment dropped by 500,000 students, said Paige Marlatt Dorr, a system spokeswoman. Last year, California's community colleges had to turn away 200,000 students who could't get into a single course, she said. But that may change. The California Community Colleges' Board of Governors has voted to adopt a major system-wide change to student enrollment. The new policy, approved by the governing board at a meeting in San Diego this week, gives enrollment priority to transfer students and students working toward a degree or certificate. The change is a departure from the "all-comers" open enrollment philosophy that welcomed avocational or hobbyist students to the world's largest higher education system. California community colleges serve about 2.4 million students at 112 campuses.

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2012/09/11/9919/community-college-board-prioritizes-registering-ne/

Coursera Now Hosts 200 Courses From 33 Schools & Reaches 1.3M Students - Rip Empson, TechCrunch

The Domino Effect really seems to be kicking in, and it’s remarkable when you consider how quickly this has happened and how things looked six, or even three, months ago. Coursera emerged somewhat in the shadow of Udacity and EdX, but it’s reach has exponentially compared to its predecessors. MOOCs in and of themselves are still very new and very much experiments, which makes watching them develop both fun — and terrifying. Either way, it’s growth like this that have led many to conclude that MOOCs are not only here to stay, but they represent the future of education. As much as I want to picture this country’s top-tier institutions lining up for Coursera just as the cars do in the final scene of Field Of Dreams, I’m not sure we’re quite there yet. But there’s no doubt that MOOCs do indeed represent a new educational model.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/19/your-online-ivy-coursera-now-hosts-200-courses-from-33-schools-and-reaches-1-3m-students/

After years of budget cuts, Colorado State University prepares for future without state funds - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Colorado State University President Tony Frank is warning of a future without state funding for higher education in seven to 10 years if Colorado doesn't change the way it manages its resources. Frank said Thursday in his annual fall address that CSU has begun planning for the possibility of no public funding. Public universities and colleges have been a target of cuts as state legislators dealt with tight budgets in recent years and laws that limit state taxing and spending. Frank says the university's long-term plan will focus on increasing enrollment of out-of-state students who pay more tuition than in-state students, ensuring CSU is a school of choice within Colorado, and pushing for excellence.


http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/26ff8e28bd0b472a9b527e96b6cefa33/CO--CSU-President-Funding

Florida Ponders Opening an Online Learning Only Public University - Angela Chen, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Florida is considering creating a new state university, just months after Gov. Rick Scott defied the university system's board by signing legislation to turn a satellite campus into the state's 12th public university. Under the new proposal, the board itself would oversee the planned 13th university, which would have neither a campus quad nor a football team. The potential campus would be entirely online. This past July, the system's Board of Governors hired a consulting firm to determine the feasibility of creating "OnlineU." An online university is not the only option being explored, says Frank T. Brogan, the system's chancellor. The consulting group, Parthenon, will also consider the possibility of building a systemwide "portal" for universities to offer existing online courses to students on other campuses in the system. Such offerings are now available only to students enrolled at the university where the course originates.

http://chronicle.com/article/Florida-Ponders-Opening-an/134482/

Coursera Announces Big Expansion, Adding 17 Universities - Jeffrey R. Young, Chronincle of Higher Ed

Following are the new college and university partners:

Berklee College of Music
Brown University
Columbia University
Emory University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Ohio State University
University of British Columbia
University of California at Irvine
University of Florida
University of London
University of Maryland at College Park
University of Melbourne
University of Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt University
Wesleyan University

Plenty of other colleges are in talks with Coursera. The University of Texas at Austin has indicated that it is considering participation, and Mr. Ng said he expected to double the number of partners again within a year.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/coursera-announces-expansion-adding-16-universities/39964

Many-to-One vs. One-to-Many: An Opinionated Guide to Educational Technology - Arnold Kling, American.com

A professor from 150 years ago could walk into a classroom today and go to work without missing a beat. Is this about to change? Many entrepreneurs and commentators believe so. Here, I offer my own assessment of the prospects for technologies to revolutionize education. This essay will explain why I label various technologies as winners, losers, and magic bullets in the table below. My opinions are not based on exhaustive research. They are based on my experience both as a high school teacher and as an entrepreneur. My evaluations are based on whether I view these technologies as supporting a model of education that is one-to-many or a model that is many-to-one. The latter is the model I prefer, as will become clear in the rest of this essay.

http://american.com/archive/2012/september/many-to-one-vs-one-to-many-an-opinionated-guide-to-educational-technology

Centralized Online Learning: A New Trend in Higher Ed? - 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

Gates, MOOCs and Remediation - Paul Fain, Inside Higher Ed

Early returns show that massive open online courses (MOOCs) work best for motivated and academically prepared students. But could high-quality MOOCs benefit a broader range of learners, like those who get tripped up by remedial classes? That’s the question the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to answer with a newly announced round of 10 grants for the creation of MOOCs for remedial coursework. “We’re trying to seed the conversation and seed the experimentation,” said Josh Jarrett, the foundation's deputy director for education and postsecondary education.


http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/14/gates-foundation-solicits-remedial-moocs

Online courses grow in popularity, provide flexibility - 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/

Brown U. to pilot online courses this summer - 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

The MOOC Survivors - 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

Competing with “Free,” Part Two - Dean Dad, Inside Higher Ed

If non-elite colleges and universities want to avoid the fate of travel agencies and film companies, what should they do in the age of free MOOCs? I’d suggest focusing more clearly on what they can offer that MOOCs can’t. That means having people around to help students get through the perplexing parts of courses; having advisors who can help students knit together disparate courses into coherent programs; organized tutoring; in-person collaboration and projects; ‘flipped’ classrooms; and specialized facilities. It absolutely does NOT mean large lecture halls. In fact, the flipped classroom – in which the lecture is delivered online, and class time is devoted to doing the work, with a professor available as a resource – could work beautifully with a MOOC. Freed from the burden of having to explicate the basics over and over again, on-site faculty could use class time to shore up weak points, pursue deeper understandings of the material, and even have students apply it.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/competing-%E2%80%9Cfree%E2%80%9D-part-two

MOOCs' Contradictions - David Touve, Inside Higher Ed

In recent months, many of the most prominent research universities announced forays into free online courses. As a greater number of these universities go online with such free education platforms, the nature of the market for — and even the meaning of — a college degree could change in both subtle and significant ways.
Behind the screens, beyond the more collaborative desire to educate the world, a rather complex sort of competition may be playing out. Aside from the question of competition, however, is the question of what the classification of these online programs signals in terms of our beliefs about the purpose and value of a college degree, as well as the qualifications for such a degree.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/09/11/essay-contradiction-facing-moocs-and-their-university-sponsors

Gates Foundation Offers Grants for MOOC’s in Introductory Classes - Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Hundreds of thousands of students worldwide are flocking to free online courses in topics like artificial intelligence and data analysis. But what about the student who’s struggling with basic algebra or English composition? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wants to find out whether the massive open online courses that have proved so popular in advanced and often highly technical fields offer the same promise for remedial and introductory courses. On Tuesday the foundation is circulating to colleges and universities a request for proposals for MOOC’s that focus on the gateway courses that often trip up low-income and underprepared students. The foundation will award as many as 10 grants of up to $50,000 each for MOOC’s in “high-enrollment, low-success introductory-level courses.”

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/gates-foundation-offers-grants-for-moocs-in-introductory-classes/39792

Using Analytics for Institutional Transformation - John J. Suess, Michael Dillon, and Yvette Mozie-Ross, EDUCAUSE Review

The decision we made in 2007 to use the data warehouse as our primary means of end-user reporting seems prescient. In the intervening five years we have built a true community of practice through the data warehouse. REX is used for official institutional reporting, reporting financial data, analysis of tuition revenue, classroom utilization, recruitment and admissions analysis, retention and student success, and analysis of campus support requests. REX has become essential to supporting the colleges and departments in accreditation and academic program reviews. REX has proved essential to performing a number of analytic studies, such as looking at the effect on graduation of scholar programs that build strong scholarly communities versus simply providing merit aid for recruitment and yield purposes. Today, senior administrators carry laptops to meetings and regularly go into REX to answer questions in real time. We have designed custom reports that include analytics and performance indicators that have helped us identify issues and make transformative changes that would not have been made without the data to understand why that change was important. We have indeed moved toward a data-driven culture of decision making using a campus-wide reporting solution.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/using-analytics-institutional-transformation

Competing with “Free,” Part One - Dean Dad, Inside Higher Ed

This is becoming a lot less hypothetical than it was even a few months ago. The MIT/Harvard MOOC provider edX has signed an agreement with Pearson to allow students who are taking the free online courses to have exams proctored. The next step, obviously, is credit. Already, the Saylor Foundation is allowing students who take free online courses to take exams for credit at Excelsior College. As the “credit for prior learning” movement gains traction, it will be progressively easier for students not only to learn in nontraditional ways, but to accumulate credits for what they’ve learned. Right now, the arrangements are still nascent, the MOOCs available relatively few, and the routes to transcripted credit scarce. But they exist, which is more than was true even a few months ago. And the momentum is clear. Coursera and edX -- not to mention iTunes -- offer prospective students access to well-presented content, and people are starting to develop methods to turn that knowledge into credits. Bundle enough credits in the right combination, and you have a degree.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/competing-%E2%80%9Cfree%E2%80%9D-part-one

Into the Future With MOOC's - Kevin Cary, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Indeed, the future is so clearly one of universal access to free, high-quality, impeccably branded online courses that their presence can be simply assumed. The interesting questions now revolve around financing, quality assurance, and—most important—credit. At the moment, colleges have a monopoly on the sale of college credits, the only units of learning that can be assembled into credentials with wide acceptance in the labor market. Monopolies are valuable things to control, and monopolists tend not to relinquish them voluntarily. But the MOOC explosion will accelerate the breakup of the college credit monopoly.

http://chronicle.com/article/Into-the-Future-With-MOOCs/134080/

8 Amazing Ways Google Glasses Will Change Education - Online Universities

Education is already seeing some major changes in light of new, cutting-edge technologies. Students can now access educational information from virtually anywhere at any time, and mobile devices are influencing some to flip their classrooms, changing the educational experience altogether. While current technologies are making waves, further changes linked to upcoming technologies may be on the horizon. One of the most hyped and anticipated devices over the past year has been Google’s soon-to-be-released glasses. These glasses will enable users to get real-time information about the places, people, and objects around them, right on the lens of the glasses. While it will be a long time before these glasses ever show up in the classroom (they currently cost $1,500 and are available only to developers), when they do, educators and students can expect to see some of these amazing changes to the educational experience.

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/09/8-amazing-ways-google-glasses-will-change-education/

Washington state must embrace a new vision for education - Seattle Times Editorial

The Seattle Times editorial board urges state leaders to embrace a "3-to-23" vision that not only improves the K-12 system, but also gets children ready for kindergarten and ensures a college education is affordable. In Washington state, it is time to retire the term "K-12." That shorthand for the kindergarten through 12th-grade system is so 20th century. The 21st-century ideal of the state's role in educating citizens should be to start earlier and stay with it longer. The state should see its duty as helping to educate young people from ages 3 to 23.

http://seattletimes.com/html/editorialsopinionpages/2019095920_washingtonstatemustembraceanewvisionforeducation.htm

The End of Voicemail? - David Zax, Technology Review

No phone calls, please. It’s the classic request of the non-committal potential employer, but increasingly, it’s the request of all of us. USA Today, equipped with data from the Internet phone company Vonage, reports that voicemail messages are in decline. For Vonage, the number of voicemail messages dipped 8%, comparing July 2012 figures to July 2011’s. And leaving voicemails was just the beginning of it. Even fewer people could be bothered to check such messages. In the same yearlong period, retrieved voicemail plummeted 14%.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429135/the-end-of-voicemail/

MOOC’s Could Hurt Smaller and For-Profit Colleges, Moody’s Report Says - Alisha Azevedo, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The report, released on Wednesday and available only to subscribers of the credit-rating agency, is called “Shifting Ground: Technology Begins to Alter Centuries-Old Business Model for Universities.” It says that offering free online courses will help well-known universities bring in new revenue, heighten brand recognition, and reduce operating costs. The report paints a much bleaker picture for smaller universities and for-profit colleges, however. Regional universities that chiefly attract students from surrounding areas could use MOOC’s to broaden their brand recognition and cut their costs, but they could lose market share to stronger universities over the long term, the report states. Using MOOC’s produced by other universities could also lead to faculty and staff cuts, said Karen Kedem, vice president and senior analyst at Moody’s and the report’s author.


http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moocs-could-hurt-smaller-and-for-profit-colleges-moodys-report-says/39864

Law school integrates digital learning in classes - Meredith Whelchel, Dayton Flyer News

Starting this fall, the University of Dayton School of Law will become a pioneer in digital lawyering, implementing more online components for courses and new technology training sessions, according to law professor Vernellia Randall. To align with advancing technology, the UDSL formed an online learning committee two years ago to consider employing online components with traditional coursework, Randall said. Former law students who have been working in the digital lawyering field approached the committee to consider digital technology training, she said. “Legal education is about 100 years behind in terms of distance learning, because it is very traditionally based,” she said. “We want to develop a quality approach and be on the forefront of a blended, online education.”

http://flyernews.com/2012/09/07/law-school-integrates-digital-learning-in-classes/

LSU finds a way to pit football program against school's financial distress - Jim Kleinpeter, The Times Picayune

\LSU may have found a unique and innovative way of pitting it's powerhouse football team against the state financial budget crunch that has hit the school in recent years. The LSU Board of Supervisors will considered a policy to tie the financial success of the athletic department to the school's academic mission, a process believed to be unique in major college sports. The LSU Athletics Fund Transfer Policy would formalize an annual transfer of $7.2 million from the Athletic Department to other components of LSU for use in supporting LSU's academic, research, public service and other missions. In addition, it would establish a revenue sharing component that could provide additional funds to the university's mission and ensure that all facets of LSU share in the success of the athletics program.

http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2012/09/lsu_finds_a_way_to_pit_footbal.html

The future impact of the Internet on higher education - 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

Mapping Success: Essential Elements of an Effective Online Learning Experience - 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/

Will MOOC’s Take Down Branch Campuses? We Don’t Think So - Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser, Chronicle of Higher Ed

In a recent blog on University World News, Rahul Choudaha argues that MOOC’s (massive open online courses) could lead to the decline of international branch campuses. There is some logic to this argument. Access to online learning is available just about anywhere, and economies of scale as represented by the MOOC’s can make education incredibly inexpensive. Branch campuses, on the other hand, double down on geography and are often more expensive than other local options. But does that make MOOC’s and branch campuses mutually exclusive options and interchangeable entities for the provision of higher education? We don’t think so. Choudaha relies heavily on the notion that international branch campuses are currently unstable. Yes, there have been grand collapses such as George Mason University in the U.A.E. and Australia’s RMIT University in Malaysia. But we have no evidence that failures are increasing, or that interest in branch campuses from host countries is waning


http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/will-moocs-take-down-branch-campuses-we-dont-think-so/30358

Google Releases Open Online Learning Platform - Course Builder - 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/

Penn names new head for online learning - SETH ZWEIFLER, the Daily Penn

Penn’s online future has a new leader. The University announced Tuesday that Law School professor Edward Rock has been appointed Penn’s director of open course initiatives. Through the position, Rock will serve as a senior adviser to President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vince Price. Rock’s main responsibility will be to oversee Penn’s ongoing partnership with Coursera, an online learning platform that offers free, non-credit classes. Penn first announced its partnership with Coursera in April, and has since increased its investment in the company.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/09/penn-names-new-head-for-online-learning

MOOCs' Little Brother - 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

Bulk-Purchasing E-Textbook Experiment Expands to More Colleges - Alisha Azevedo, Chronicle of Higher Ed

An experimental business model for delivering e-textbooks is expanding, with some adjustments, to 26 colleges and universities this fall. The institutions will participate in a pilot project in which they will buy digital course materials in bulk from publishers to reduce costs for students, and the project’s leaders say they are dealing with obstacles faced in an earlier test of the approach.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/bulk-purchasing-e-textbook-experiment-expands-to-more-colleges/39598

Before You Jump on the MOOC Bandwagon - Alison Byerly, Chronicle of Higher Ed

We are only starting to imagine the possible effects that massive open online courses and other innovative technologies will have on traditional higher education—but the immediate response has a disconcerting air of panic. The recent surge of interest in MOOC's suggests that some colleges hope that offering such courses is a kind of inoculation against the effects of technological disruption, and many institutions are feeling tremendous pressure to join the elite group of colleges that has staked a claim in this area. It is not clear, though, whether every college has weighed the costs and benefits of membership in what is now, at least, a particularly exclusive club.

http://chronicle.com/article/Before-You-Jump-on-the/134090/

U-M unveils new online catalog of lifelong learning options - Rick Fitzgerald, University of Michigan

A broad array of continuing education options now is available through U-M’s new Lifelong Learning Online Catalog at lifelonglearningcatalog.umich.edu. Hosted by the Alumni Association, this updated online resource offers a wide selection of U-M educational content ranging from lectures to guided tours. The online catalog replaces the continuing education portal, which was developed as an outgrowth of a provost’s task force charged in 2009 to develop ways to enhance the university’s non-credit-bearing continuing education efforts. The online catalog also contains links to other lifelong learning options, such as the courses offered through the Coursera educational consortium and the College of Engineering’s Connex program.


http://ur.umich.edu/1213/Sep04_12/3786-u-m-unveils-new?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheUniversityRecordOnline+%28The+University+Record+Online%29

Comparing Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, & edX missions, offerings - Bruno B. F. Faviero, MIT

With most new markets comes competition, as is the case with online education. Today, there are four major platforms that produce content specifically for online instruction: Coursera, Udacity, and edX, which provide university-level content, and Khan Academy, which largely targets K-12 education. While they all offer content designed specifically for web-based instruction, they differ slightly in missions, delivery, and focus.

http://tech.mit.edu/V132/N34/education.html

Online universities blossom in Asia - Julia Zappei, Phys Org

Online university education is expanding quickly in Asia, where growth in technology and Internet use is matched by a deep reverence for education. "I chose e-learning because it is so flexible," Ndongfack, 42, told AFP via Skype from his home in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde. Web-based courses dramatically boost opportunities for students and are often cheaper than those offered by traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions. But online learning has also caught the eye of some of the world's most prestigious universities, with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently teaming up to offer free courses over the Internet.

http://phys.org/news/2012-09-online-universities-blossom-asia.html

Student Mobile Services Should be More User-Friendly, Survey Says - Center for Digital Education

Mobile apps and optimized websites have been on the rise for a number of years. But the quality of student services in these formats could use some upgrading, university students and administrators said in a report. Oracle did online interviews in May with 1,003 U.S. college and university students and 181 U.S. higher education administrators to find out more about their experience with student services.* These services were found to have a direct impact on 66 percent of students' and 89 percent of administrators' overall satisfaction with a college or university.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/college-career/Student-Mobile-Services-User-Friendly.html

Lifelong Learning Credits Becoming More Common at Universities - Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Ed

For more than 40 years, colleges and universities focused on adult learners have been offering credit for learning that takes place outside traditional courses. But over the past two years, mainstream state higher education systems have changed their attitude about credits for lifelong learning, which is also known as prior or outside learning.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/policy/Lifelong-Learning-Credits-Becoming-More-Common-at-Universities.html

Textbook Pricing Gets More Complicated Than Ever (end to "used" textbooks?) - Jeffrey Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

In the good-old days when print was the only option, students had plenty of free or cheap ways to get required textbooks. Borrow one from a friend. Check out a copy from the library. Buy a used copy for a fraction of the price. Or rent a copy through one of several companies providing that service. But the latest textbook enhancements, which require individual access codes to get to bonus materials online, threaten to displace all of those alternatives. Most access codes are good only for a limited time, and once they are activated they can't be used by other students. "This is the next generation of tactics to undermine the used-book market," said Nicole Allen, textbooks-campaign director for the Student Public Interest Research Groups, when asked about Mr. Thomas's situation.

http://chronicle.com/article/What-Is-an-Access-Code-Worth-/134048/

Ohio State Online: Digital courses net rave reviews - Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch

A push by Ohio State University to enhance traditional classroom material with digital elements will benefit the general public as well.For example, OSU students — or anyone for that matter — soon will be able to watch short videos on climate change on an iPad and then use an app to manipulate 3-D molecules to see why some are greenhouse gases and others are not. OSU officials think that more than 90 percent of students own a laptop, smartphone or tablet — with many having all three. “They already have the tools, so why not use them to fully immerse the students in their studies in ways we’ve never done before?” said Michael Hofherr, OSU’s senior director for learning technology.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/09/03/digital-courses-net-rave-reviews.html

Learnist: a Pinterest for learning - Kathryn McConnachie, ITWeb

Learnist is in beta and users are only granted the ability to create learning boards after a careful review of their online footprints in order to ensure high quality content. A new online social learning platform, Learnist, is growing and expanding to mobile with the release of iOS applications for the iPhone and iPad. Learnist has been created by social learning company Grockit, and is based on a similar concept to that of Pinterest, but with an educational focus. Learnist allows users to create 'lessons' on specific academic or casual learning topics by curating information from around the Web or uploading original content onto learning boards. The service was first launched online in May, and has been in beta since – allowing new users to join via invitation only. In the first two months, the service is said to have gained “tens-of-thousands” of users.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58179:learnist-a-pinterest-for-learning&catid=284

Money Won’t Solve Online Education’s Downfalls, But Certification Will - Brian Hayden, Bostinno

My company, HeatSpring, has been doing non-accredited online professional training since 2008, and we’ve always gotten great student reviews.

• Our free courses weren’t any better, even without the hype in the press inflating the enrollment numbers. About seven percent of enrolled students finished our free classes.
• Money doesn’t solve the motivation problem. Ninety-two percent of people started the course they paid for versus only 41 percent for free classes, but only 21 percent of paid attendees finished their course. That’s way better than seven percent for free courses, but, still, the number is quite low.
• Certification Matters. Certification courses had a significantly higher completion rate (36 percent) than those with a certificate (18 percent) or no certificate (10 percent).

http://bostinno.com/2012/09/01/money-wont-solve-online-educations-downfalls-but-certification-will/

Calif. college students face rocky path to graduation - CHRISTINA HOAG/Associated Press

With state budget cuts forcing California's public universities to shrink their course offerings, earning a bachelor's degree in four years is becoming even more difficult for many students. "One winter quarter, there were so few classes, I could only get three out of five offered," said David Allison, a senior at California State University San Bernardino. "CSU is no longer a four-year institution. It's more like a five- or six-year institution." As the fall semester gets under way, students at the University of California, the California State University and California Community Colleges are feeling the pinch of $2.5 billion in cuts to the state's public higher education budget over the past three years. They're taking on more jobs and loans to pay higher tuition bills and signing up for unnecessary electives to retain financial aid because courses that count toward degree requirements are full. Meanwhile, many high school seniors and community college graduates are frozen out altogether because admissions have been limited.

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/entertainment/ci_21455288/calif-college-students-face-rocky-path-graduation

A First for Udacity: a U.S. University Will Accept Transfer Credit for One of Its Courses - Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The announcement, by Colorado State University's Global Campus, is a milestone for the Stanford University spinoff. This is the first time a university in the United States has offered academic credit for a Udacity course, although several universities in Austria and Germany already do. The course, "Introduction to Computer Science: Building a Search Engine," teaches basic computer-science skills by having students build a Web search engine similar to Google. Students enrolled in the free, online course also learn the basics of the programming language Python. In order to earn the three transfer credits toward their bachelor's degrees at Colorado State, students will need a "certificate of accomplishment" from Udacity showing they passed the course. Then they have to pass a proctored examination offered by Udacity through a secure testing center. The exam, administered by the Pearson VUE testing group, will cost $89.

http://chronicle.com/article/A-First-for-Udacity-Transfer/134162

Stanford appoints John Mitchell vice provost for online learning - Lisa Ward, San Jose Business Journal

Stanford University has appointed John Mitchell vice provost for online learning. Mitchell, a computer scientist who is the Mary and Gordon Crary Family Professor in the School of Engineering, is also the chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Technology in Higher Education, according to a release. "Stanford has been at the forefront of this game-changing, challenging initiative," Stanford President John Hennessy said in the release announcing Mitchell's appointment. "Our faculty have been working in online education for some time now, and their excitement is growing. This is a field that deserves increasing attention and investment, and the new Office of the Vice Provost is in keeping with Stanford's tradition of leadership in innovation and experimentation."

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/08/30/stanford-appoints-john-mitchell-vice.html

Online Learning: Pioneers in college education for all - Money CNN

Why he's a hero: A decade ago Yue pushed academia to take its most valuable asset—teaching—and give it away. As chair of an MIT committee exploring Internet strategy, the ocean engineering professor proposed a radical idea: Put lectures and other classroom materials online for free. Starting with 50 courses in 2002, MIT OpenCourseWare now offers 2,100 and has reached over 125 million people. The school's next step: free online interactive courses—for credit. His current passion: Enabling a billion people to study online over the next 10 years. Says Yue: "Content, learning, credentialing—making all three broadly available and affordable is the holy grail."

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/college/2012/08/31/college-education.moneymag/

Seminar on the Management of Online Programs - UPCEA

Your humble editor is chairing a seminar on the management of online programs November 6, 7 and 8 in New Orleans. We have a wonderful line-up of dozens of top-notch presenters from major online programs across the country who will address the important current and emerging issues and opportunities in online learning. Join us if you can.

http://conferences.upcea.edu/online/

University of Missouri to invest $2.5 million in online courses - Matthew Hibbard, St. Louis Business Journal

The University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., will invest $2.5 million to expand the university’s online degree offerings. More than 9,150 students enrolled in online undergraduate and graduate courses in the past academic year, generating enough revenue to pay for the new initiative. Currently, the university has five undergraduate degree programs and 61 graduate certificate and degree programs that are either offered in part or completely online. Jim Spain, vice provost for undergraduate students and interim provost for e-learning expects to add 10 to 15 undergraduate or graduate degree programs by 2014.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/BizNext/2012/08/mu-invests-25-million-in-online.html

Virtual Princeton: A guide to free online learning Ivy League classes - the Week

Elite universities are throwing open their classrooms' doors to anyone with an internet connection — for free. he company Coursera has teamed up with 16 universities (including Stanford, Duke, and Princeton) to offer more than 100 free online courses to anyone with internet access. They don't want to be left behind in the digital revolution that has already transformed the way we consume news, music, and books. Stanford, Duke, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins are among the 16 universities that have partnered with a newly launched company called Coursera to offer more than 100 free online courses this academic year; MIT, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley, are following suit through a nonprofit venture called edX. Now people anywhere in the world can take Stanford's "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking," learn the "Principles of Obesity Economics" at Johns Hopkins, or have Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely lead them through "A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior"—all without paying the $50,000 usually required to attend these world-class universities. More than 1 million people from scores of countries have already enrolled in the free classes, which some believe could transform the mission and model of higher education. Anant Agarwal, president of edX, calls it "the single biggest change in education since the printing press."

http://theweek.com/article/index/232522/virtual-princeton-a-guide-to-free-online-ivy-league-classes

Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework Project Eyes Online Learning Student Data Through a Multi-Institutional Lens - Mary Grush, Campus Technology

WCET, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies, has been awarded $2.56 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to validate and extend the PAR Framework Project, ongoing research into the use of predictive analytics on a large-scale federated database to support decision making that removes barriers to student success. For more than a year, WCET has directed the project, which pools the efforts and contributed anonymized (de-identified) student data and course records (now more that one million records) from currently 16 participating institutions in order to identify trends and patterns that can predict student success. The new funding will support the ongoing validation of the project's data definitions and the extension of data model development and other related research and analysis protocols into 2014.

http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2012/08/28/Looking-at-Student-Success-Through-a-Multi-Institutional-Lens.aspx

California State University, Online, coming soon - THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Jim Monaghan, vice president for academic technology and distributed learning at Cal State San Bernardino, is quoted in an article about the California State University launching a systemwide online university in 2013 that could eventually expand enrollment by 250,000 students. About 427,000 students are enrolled at the CSU’s 23 campuses. Some students already take courses online or partially online through individual universities. The new system would provide a common site for those courses as well as additional programs officials plan to offer. Participation by individual campuses will be voluntary. Cal State San Bernardino officials have not yet decided if they will tap into the new system.

http://news.csusb.edu/2012/08/california-state-university-online-coming-soon/

Udacity and Online Pedagogy: Players, Learners, Objects - Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel, Hybrid Pedagogy

Shortly after “Broadcast Education: A Response to Coursera” appeared on Hybrid Pedagogy, Sean received a message from Sebastian Thrun, the founder of Udacity. He wanted to know what we thought of Udacity’s courses, of their approach to online education. Sean had said that Coursera was silly, and Thrun wanted to know if we thought Udacity was likewise silly. But Udacity isn’t silly. Not just because of their sleek interface, their jaunty, easy-to-follow videos, or the exercises embedded directly within those videos; nor is it because of their flash mob-style on-ground gatherings (like the upcoming “Global Meetup Day”), the spontaneous way that learners form hybrid clusters with one another around a course, or the nationwide “Secondary School Challenge” they held this summer. Udacity isn’t silly precisely because they have a clear concern for pedagogy. The company has a vision, and they wear that vision on their sleeve. Udacity classes feel like a strange, unpredictable blend of one-on-one tutoring, auditorium-style learning, and small-group work. The classes work because there is space within them for learners to create learning.


http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Udacity_and_Online_Pedagogy.html#unique-entry-id-67

Learning Online from One Another - A Glimpse Inside a Humanities MOOC - Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed

=The course, which largely focuses on the history of cyber-infrastructure, is one of the first humanities courses run by Coursera, the largest MOOC provider. That means it is an early proving ground for Coursera’s peer-grading system -- the company’s answer to the challenge of running a course with tens of thousands of students and only one professor. For every essay they submit, students in the course have to read and evaluate four others written by their classmates. Daphne Koller, one of the co-founders of Coursera, says that the peer-grading experiment is still very much a work-in-progress. "We will undoubtedly learn a lot from the experiences of our instructors as they encounter this phenomenon, and then have a better sense of where exactly the tensions lie and how one might deal with them," she says. "We also have some ideas of our own that we'll throw in the mix and evaluate as we plan the next phase of this experiment."

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/30/first-humanities-mooc-professors-road-test-courseras-peer-grading-model

Learning Analytics: Leveraging Education Data [Infographic] - Open Colleges

There are some major advancements in earning analytics. It is increasingly becoming one of the most popular new developments in education at all levels.



http://newsroom.opencolleges.edu.au/learning-analytics-infographic/

MU invests $2.5 million to expand online learning coursework - KEITH REID-CLEVELAND, Columbia Missourian

MU will invest $2.5 million toward creating new online degree and certificate programs in the next year. In total, MU is expected to make an investment of nearly $5 million toward Mizzou Online over the next 24 to 36 months, said Jim Spain, MU vice provost for undergraduate studies and interim vice provost for e-learning. The $2.5 million comes from reserve funds that have accumulated during the past 20 years through MU Direct and the Center for Distance and Independent Study, two programs that have been merged to create Mizzou Online.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/08/28/mu-invests-25-million-online-coursework/

The Myths of Online Learning - John Ebersole, Forbes

More than one-third – six million – of all students in higher education took at least one online course in the fall of 2011. Yet despite its growing popularity, online learning continues to be seen in a negative light by politicians, regulators, and some members of the academic community, especially faculty. There are six commonly heard myths that are often used to denigrate this form of instruction.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnebersole/2012/08/24/the-myths-of-online-learning/

Online and On the Move - Emily Boles, Evolllution

The explosion in popularity of mobile devices raises a host of new possibilities for higher education providers, but there are a number of questions that still need to be answered. Mobile learning, devices and apps are hot topics in education. Though I tend to become very excited about the potential of new technologies and, to be honest, their “cool factor,” it is important to remember the purpose for implementing them. Does the technology assist students in achieving the objectives of the course? Does it improve outcomes? Increase learning? Improve access? As educators we should carefully consider the move toward mobile learning.

http://www.evolllution.com/media_resources/online-and-on-the-move/

The MOOC-Led Meritocracy - Kevin Carey, Chronicle of Higher Education

The difference comes down to risk and money. Society invests a lot of money in traditional institutions, and going to college is a high-stakes affair. Students who graduate enter a far more hospitable job market, while dropouts represent large amounts of wasted resources, public and private, along with, increasingly, unmanageable debt. MOOC’s, by contrast, aren’t publicly supported and risk nothing but their students’ time. A free, low-stakes, open-access system has far more license to operate as a pure meritocracy. That meritocracy will serve as a powerful mechanism for signaling quality to an uncertain labor market. Traditional colleges rely mostly on generalized institutional reputations and, in a minority of cases, admissions selectivity to demonstrate what graduates know and can do. The opacity of most collegiate learning processes (see again, lack of standards) and the eroding force of grade inflation have left little other useful information.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2012/08/23/the-mooc-led-meritocracy/

Program that teaches JavaScript a lot of fun - Bob and Joy Schwabach, the Telegram

Khan Academy’s free educational videos have been viewed 178 million times on YouTube. Now they’ve launched a “Computer Science” program that teaches kids and adults how to handle JavaScript; that’s the computer language that dominates the Web. If you think this is too technical, you’d be missing something that turns out to be a lot of fun. Early lessons teach you to manipulate a snowman, changing the color of the sky, the ground, his nose, his buttons, and even the color of the snow. After the snowman, you move on to controlling Pac-Man figures.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120826/COLUMN81/108269985/1002/business

Turning Back the Clock on Lifelong Learning: The Paradox of MOOCs - James Broomall, Evolllution

Massive Open Online Learning has certainly been making big waves in higher education this year, but the question is whether it’s turning back the clock on learner-centered learning. Photo by Tom McNemar. Within the higher education community 2012 may well be known as the “year of online learning.” Seemingly legitimized now by the embrace of elite institutions like Harvard and MIT through EdX and the Coursera partnership with Stanford, Princeton and others, online learning and the rise of the MOOC dominates the popular and professional literature.

http://www.evolllution.com/featured/turning-back-the-clock-on-lifelong-learning-the-paradox-of-moocs/

No Thanks, Bain - Kevin Kiley, Inside Higher Ed

It might not come as a surprise to a lot of people, but a group of University of North Texas at Dallas faculty and staff members and a group of Fortune 500 management consultants have different ideas about how a university should be structured and run. The consultants made recommendations to the university’s administration this spring. Those recommendations were not made public, but reports based on them state that the consultants called for a narrow set of career-oriented majors, large teaching loads for faculty members and more hybrid (mixed online and in-person instruction) courses, and for recruitment to focus on traditional-aged, “driven” undergraduate students (the university’s current student body is composed largely of transfer students). Bain also recommended low tuition and increased enrollment. In a report the university tried to keep confidential but was obtained and published by The Dallas Morning News Thursday, the faculty and staff group were critical of the Bain plans and proposed a significantly different model.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/24/report-reveals-divergent-views-where-take-u-north-texas-dallas

Proposition 30 a big factor in future budget, says Welty - Rogue Morales, the Collegian

Fresno State President John D. Welty had a strong message when he addressed faculty and staff on Friday August 17 during his state-of-the-campus address. The speech he gave addressed his concerns with the budget and the potential loss we as a college could be facing. “There is much uncertainty ahead,” Welty said at the meeting. “The only thing that I can assure you of is that if the November tax initiative fails, we will become a much smaller and leaner University.” Much of the budget as it stands now, Welty said, is only possible if California voters approve Proposition 30 in November.

http://collegian.csufresno.edu/2012/08/22/proposition-30-a-big-factor-in-future-budget-says-welty/

DIGITAL LAWYERING - University of Dayton

Heading to the law office for legal advice could become a thing of the past. Law students have taken classes online for years, but practicing law online once they become attorneys is gaining traction. A pioneer in online lawyering will offer one of the nation's first free digital lawyering programs for University of Dayton law students this fall. Stephanie Kimbro, who has won the American Bar Association's Keane Award for Excellence in eLawyering and wrote Virtual Law Practice: How to Deliver Legal Services Online, will conduct two, six-week sessions starting Sept. 4 and Oct. 23. The first session will give students the tools to work with a variety of technologies used to manage an online law practice. In the second session, students will focus on social media practices and how they may be used to grow a client base and professional network. Both sessions require students to develop technology and social media policy and procedure manuals for their future practices.

http://www.udayton.edu/news/articles/2012/08/digital_lawyering_stephanie_kimbro.php

Four Education Leaders Partner Up to Disrupt the Already Disruptive Free, Online Learning Course Market - Lauren Landry, BostInno

Although dozens of companies have been playing around in the massive open online course (MOOC) space, MIT OpenCourseWare sparked the movement. They’ve published over 2,000 courses, allowing people from around the globe to access syllabi, lecture notes, assignments and videos of virtually all MIT course content. And now, they’re ready to push the envelope even further, having announced a partnership with OpenStudy, Codecademy and Peer 2 Peer University to develop a “mechanical MOOC.”

http://bostinno.com/2012/08/23/mit-opencourseware-partners-with-codecademy-openstudy/

EdX Announces Free Online Courses for Fall Launch - Ryan Lytle, US News

Although more than 120 universities worldwide have expressed interest in collaborating with the service, edX will begin offering courses from three universities in fall 2012; the University of California—Berkeley being the third. "EdX will actively explore the addition of other institutions from around the world to the edX platform, and we look forward to adding more 'X Universities' as capacity increases," according to the edX FAQ page. The not-for-profit service has announced seven course offerings thus far for its fall launch, ranging from computer science to chemistry to public health.

http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2012/08/23/edx-announces-free-online-courses-for-fall-launch