Online Student Services: What, Where, Who, When, How, and Most Importantly, Why - Kayla Westra, EDUCAUSE Review

Why support online learners? This is the easiest of all the questions to answer. Student success is why we do what we do. Supporting students in ways that benefit their learning and help them achieve mastery is the lynchpin for any service; helping students navigate through the higher education landscape and complete their programs of study is the key for ancillary student services. Failing forward is key. Do not be afraid to try new approaches to online student services, and do not overanalyze situations to the point of paralysis. Identify needs, review costs, make a good investment, and adapt as needed.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/10/online-student-services-what-where-who-when-how-and-most-importantly-why

Efforts to “upskill” workers grow across industries - LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Employers are increasingly expected to upskill their workers and give them training to build additional high-demand skills. An ambitious new partnership between the nonprofit Education Design Lab and Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) aims to design employer-driven pathways that will “upskill” highly-qualified healthcare professionals to high-growth careers in the region. Backed by a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the partnership draws on VWCC’s reach as the state’s third-largest community college to meet growing demand from the region’s fast-growing medical centers.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2019/07/30/efforts-to-upskill-workers-grow-across-industries/

MOOC-Based Alternative Credentials: What’s the Value for the Learner? - Fiona Hollands and Aasiya Kazi, EDUCAUSE Review

The most commonly identified benefit expected as a result of participating in the MOOC-based course series was improving current job performance (see Table 2). Small percentages of participants were asked to take the courses by their employers: 1.4% of MicroMasters participants and 2.8% of Specialization participants. Approximately one-fourth of learners expected benefits of participation to include helping them start their own businesses, improving their applications to different jobs, and networking with other professionals. Few respondents identified job promotions and pay raises as the expected benefits, perhaps suggesting a group of learners with high levels of intrinsic motivation. In general, MicroMasters learners had higher expectations than Specialization learners regarding the benefits of participating in the series of courses.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/6/mooc-based-alternative-credentials-whats-the-value-for-the-learner

The Most Important Skills Recent Grads Need To Learn Today - Shelcy V. Joseph, Forbes

According to LinkedIn, technical skills related to data and artificial intelligence are currently some of the most in-demand skills and a large number of recent grads are learning them. This suggests a trend in hiring in favor of candidates with these skills. As a recent grad, you can gain a competitive edge by learning them. I spoke to Emily Poague, Vice President of Marketing, LinkedIn Learning, who shared crucial advice for recent grads entering today's workforce.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelcyvjoseph/2019/07/29/the-most-important-skills-recent-grads-need-to-learn-today/#1c01b6657f33

U.S. News removes UC Berkeley, 4 other schools from ranking - Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive

U.S. News & World Report unranked the University of California, Berkeley and four other schools in its 2019 edition of its popular Best Colleges list after they acknowledged to the publication they provided incorrect information. It moved UC Berkeley into the unranked category after the school notified U.S. News that it misreported data about its alumni donations, which account for 5% of its ranking.  The four other schools to lose their spots due to providing incorrect data are Mars Hill University, Johnson & Wales University, Scripps College and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/us-news-removes-uc-berkeley-4-other-schools-from-ranking/559745/

U.S. Says California Is in Compliance With State Authorization Rules - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

California's new process for giving online students enrolled at public and private nonprofit colleges outside the state a way to submit complaints about their institutions still falls short of new federal rules governing state authorization. But the U.S. Education Department now considers the state to be in compliance with the new rules, the federal agency said in a letter Friday.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/08/05/us-says-california-compliance-state-authorization-rules

What Amazon's decision to retrain a third of its employees means for the future of work - Scott F. Latham, the Conversation

The problem is, at present, higher education is designed for the last industrial revolution, not the current one. Universities and colleges deliver degrees at a glacial pace. The average completion time for a bachelor degree is five years. That’s too slow. Imagine a young computer science major entering a college this fall and graduating in 2024 – at which point researchers expect AI to be capable of coding in complex computer languages like Python. By the time she graduates, not only will she be competing against humans for jobs, but she’ll also be going up against a more efficient and cheaper AI bot.
https://www.myplainview.com/news/article/What-Amazon-s-decision-to-retrain-a-third-of-its-14107770.php

Moody's: Financial Exigency Can Be Credit Positive - Paul Fain, Inside HIgher Ed

Moody's said in a recent report that financial exigency, when done as part of a broad restructuring, can be credit positive and play a key role in preserving an institution's viability. "Since approximately two-thirds of higher education expenses are related to personnel, employee cuts are difficult to avoid in times of budgetary crisis. However, the tenure system, along with unionization of faculty and staff in some cases, inhibits significant rapid reductions in compensation," said Moody's.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/29/moodys-financial-exigency-can-be-credit-positive?mc_cid=9def1992a8&mc_eid=879d6835e3

With badges, colleges take a hard look at teaching soft skills - By Shailaja Neelakantan, Education Dive

Employer demand for new hires with skills like critical thinking and communication has pushed colleges to find ways to show that students have those abilities.  Microcredentials are a trend du jour in U.S. higher education, and while tech-related ones are still the most popular, those pertaining to so-called "soft" skills — such as initiative, oral communication, resilience, empathy and critical thinking — form a considerable share of the offerings. That's at least in part because multiple recent studies cite company executives lamenting the lack of such skills in the recent college graduates they hire. Many colleges around the country have begun to offer soft skills badges, either as new courses or by embedding them into existing curricula.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/with-badges-colleges-take-a-hard-look-at-teaching-soft-skills/559657/

Survey: More than Half of Faculty Believe Classroom Tech Increases Student Engagement - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

In a recent survey, 54 percent of faculty respondents said they believe adding more technology to their classroom would definitely increase student engagement. And another 35 percent felt adding more tech could possibly do so. The survey, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of learning management company D2L, polled 500 university professors across the United States on their use of technology, students' expectations, institutional support for tech and more. When asked about six specific uses of technology for teaching, women reported more technology use than men in nearly every category: communicating with students electronically; accessing and sharing course materials online; making or editing essays online; utilizing online forums; and automated plagiarism detection.
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/07/24/survey-more-than-half-of-faculty-believe-classroom-tech-increases-student-engagement.aspx

Transcript Revolution - By Greta Anderson, Inside Higher Ed

Hundreds of high schools across the country have expressed interest in ditching letter grades and grade point averages for the mastery transcript, an interactive display of students’ work that’s attractive to colleges looking for a well-rounded, nonnumerical evaluation of applicants. The Mastery Transcript Consortium began its movement in 2017, with a list of 100 private high schools across the country agreeing to pilot letter-grade-less transcripts. As of July 2019, 278 U.S.-based and international member schools -- 20 percent of them public -- have signed on, and more than 15 schools will begin testing a prototype of the mastery transcript with students this coming school year.
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/07/29/high-schools-prepare-present-holistic-picture-students

Deep learning is about to get easier — and more widespread - BEN DICKSON, Venture Beat

We’ve seen a big push in recent months to solve AI’s “big data problem.” And some interesting breakthroughs have begun to emerge that could make AI accessible to many more businesses and organizations. What is the big data problem? It’s the challenge of getting enough data to enable deep learning, a very popular and promising AI technique that allows machines to find relationships and patterns in data by themselves. (For example, after being fed many images of cats, a deep learning program could create its own definition of what constitutes ‘cat’ and use that to identify future images as either ‘cat’ or ‘not cat’. If you change ‘cat’ to ‘customer,’ you can see why many companies are eager to test-drive this technology.)
https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/28/deep-learning-is-about-to-get-easier-and-more-widespread/

Realizing Potential: The Growing Trend Of E-Learning Among Arab Youth - Safaa Nhairy, Entrepreneur Middle East

Studying and learning are no longer confined to the classroom- internet users can learn anytime and anywhere with just a tablet or a smartphone. In 2017, the estimated value of the online learning industry was US$176.12 billion. A forecast from Research and Markets predicts that e-learning revenues will triple to $325 billion by 2025. More and more US business schools are shutting down their MBA programs, because millennials are reluctant to incur substantial debt just to get a diploma. One alternative they have come up with is to turn toward short-term specialty degrees in subjects such as coaching, web programming, and entrepreneurship, which can help them land a job quickly or launch their own business.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337234

How Schools Can Fight Cheating with Artificial Intelligence - Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Cheating is a serious problem in American high schools and universities. According to the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), about 68 % of undergraduate students and about 43 % of graduate students admit to cheating on tests or in written assignments. Even top tertiary institutions like Harvard, Stanford University, and Duke University among others have not escaped cheating scandals. Several studies point to a similar problem in high schools. Schools have been looking into ways to prevent high-tech cheating before it happens, and now artificial intelligence can also be leveraged for this purpose. There is a number of new technologies that universities can leverage to prevent cheating and plagiarism.
https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-schools-can-fight-cheating-with-artificial-intelligence/

Global Tech Giants Remain Most Active Acquirers In AI Tech, Says GlobalData - Which 50

Deal making landscape in the artificial intelligence (AI) tech space during 2014–2018 was dominated by global tech giants, according to GlobalData. Of the top five acquirers, four were based out of the US, with Ireland-based Accenture being the only exception in the list. The four US-based companies–Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Splunk–collectively accounted for 30 acquisitions in the AI tech space during 2014–2018, whereas Accenture acquired six companies in this area during the period.
https://which-50.com/global-tech-giants-remain-most-active-acquirers-in-ai-tech-says-globaldata/

Are Today's Rising Leaders Willing To Learn What It Takes? - Alexandra Levit, Forbes

In two online research studies conducted in 2018 and 2019, we asked 500 North American hiring managers about their talent activation strategies. Critically, we learned that most leaders feel current employees aren’t doing enough to drive their own growth and rely too heavily on organizational direction. For example, only 24% of respondents cited their employees as “definitely” proactive in taking charge of their professional development. Similarly, less than half of hiring managers “strongly agreed” that their employees recognize the importance of learning agile.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2019/07/25/are-todays-rising-leaders-willing-to-learn-what-it-takes/

A committee wants to bring Maine Law Online, but 'Byzantine' regs from ABA stand in the way - Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

Two trends in education have been gaining steam in the past few years. First, as enrollment declines and many smaller colleges and universities experience budget squeezes, some have eyed online learning as a means to reach more students and/or bring down the cost of instruction. Second, law schools have been pushing their accreditor, the American Bar Association, for greater leniency when it comes to online and distance instruction. Both of these trends have converged in the state of Maine this summer with the release of a committee report advising the future strategy of the University of Maine Law School, known as Maine Law.
https://news.elearninginside.com/a-committee-wants-to-bring-maine-law-online-but-byzantine-regs-from-aba-stand-in-the-way/

What Kids Need to Learn to Succeed in 2050 - The art of reinvention will be the most critical skill of this century - Yuval Noah Harari, Forge Medium

In such a world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. They already have far too much of it. Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and, above all, to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.
https://forge.medium.com/yuval-noah-harari-21-lessons-21st-century-what-kids-need-to-learn-now-to-succeed-in-2050-1b72a3fb4bcf

The Playbook: 30 Solutions to Promote Faster Credentials - Kelsey Berkowitz, Third Way

In our current postsecondary system, credentials often don’t build on one another, or “stack.” This makes it difficult for people to pursue their education in smaller, more manageable pieces over time and then stack those pieces—that is, combine multiple short-term credentials into a larger credential (like an associate’s degree). When available, stacking is most commonly seen at the associate’s degree level, but stackable credentials can affect a wide range of credentials and institutional types. Students who participate in short-term programs should not be dissuaded from going on to earn degrees, since degree-holders tend to have higher earnings growth over their lifetimes. And for people who prefer to complete a longer-term credential all at once, the traditional path would remain available. Still, stackable credentials could provide an alternative path to a degree. Here are four ways to encourage broader access to them:
https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-playbook-30-solutions-to-promote-faster-credentials

Textbook Spending Stays Flat - Nick Hazelrigg, Inside Higher Ed

Survey finds the amount students spend on course materials each year has decreased, possibly indicating students are increasingly utilizing open-source material and other educational resources. According to the survey of more than 20,000 students across 41 institutions conducted by the National Association of College Stores, students on average spent $415 on course materials in the 2018-19 academic year, down from $484 last year. Student spending has declined almost every year in the last decade -- in 2008 students spent an average of $700 on course materials.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/25/spending-and-costs-textbooks-continue-decrease-according-surveys

Colleges fear losing international students over visa delays Shailaja Neelakantan, Education Dive

Dozens of institutions have urged the government to expedite the approval process in order to stem the loss of foreign students. Enrollment of new international students in U.S. colleges is already trending downward. For undergraduates, new enrollments fell 2.9% from their peak in 2015-16 to 2016-17 and again by 6.3% the year after that. Graduate new enrollments are following a similar trend, down 6.8% from their high point in 2015-16 to 2017-18, according to data from the Institute of International Education. Falling enrollments hit colleges' bottom lines and also affect their local communities. The more than 1 million international students currently in the U.S. pitch in $39 billion to the economy and support as many as 455,000 U.S. jobs despite accounting for just 5.5% of higher ed enrollment in the country, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-fear-losing-international-students-over-visa-delays/559153/