Of MOOCs and Mousetraps - Karen Head, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Karen Head, a guest blogger for Wired Campus, is an assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication, and director of the institute’s Communication Center. She reports periodically on her group’s efforts to develop and offer a massive open online course in freshman composition. Generally people approach new problems by beginning with what they already know, so early conversations are rooted in clichés about reinventing wheels or building better mousetraps. However, MOOCs aren’t like the existing structures we know—they are neither traditional lecture courses nor traditional distance-learning models. The “massive” component changes every aspect of what we are attempting to do and requires innovative approaches, especially for a course on freshman composition. With technologies evolving so rapidly, it is easy to overestimate the available tools, and we find that we may not be able to adapt our courses for massive audiences in all the ways we might like. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/of-moocs-and-mousetraps/42487

The Basics of Blended Learning - Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

With the growing embrace of technology into education, there emerges a whole bunch of new concepts and technical terminology in the teaching and learning literature to the point that it becomes cumbersome to keep track of the novelties in this field. Sometimes the lines are blurred and you can not even differentiate between one concept and the other as is the case between flipped classroom and blended learning. The list of such technical terminology is growing bigger and bigger and now we have : virtual classroom,, MOOCs, Asynchronous learning, virtual learning environment, Online Lab, to mention but some. http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/the-basics-of-blended-learning.html

Possible Probation for Phoenix - Paul Fain, Inside Higher Education

The University of Phoenix’s accreditation woes are more serious than the for-profit giant had been told to expect, with a site team from its regional accreditor recommending last week that the university be placed on probation because of concerns about a lack of autonomy from its holding company, the Apollo Group. The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools last year wrapped up its accreditation review of Phoenix. In January the accreditor informed Apollo that it had identified unspecified problems that would be disclosed in a forthcoming draft report. Company officials told investors that it would probably be placed “on notice,” a less severe penalty than probation. But the report, which Apollo received last week, surprised company officials and industry analysts alike. It described “alleged administrative and governance deficiencies” that led to the call for probationary status, according to a corporate filing Apollo released Monday. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/26/university-phoenix-faces-possible-probation-accreditor#ixzz2M0whp7QD

6 Ways Campuses Are Scaling Up E-Learning in 2013 - Bridget McCrea, Campus Technology

Three higher education CIOs discuss their e-learning agendas and wish lists for the year ahead. For administrators in higher education, each new year presents a clean slate that they can use to consider, test out, and implement new technology projects. In 2013, campus technology leaders are focusing more of their efforts on academic computing. Some initiatives are small in scale and limited to a handful of classrooms or departments while others permeate entire campuses. Regardless of size and scope, each of these projects comes together to contribute to the institution's educational mission. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/02/07/6-ways-campuses-are-scaling-up-elearning-in-2013.aspx?=CTEL

'The Rise of Women' - Allie Grasgreen, Inside Higher Ed

The facts of women being more likely than men to go to college, perform better academically, and major in fields other than science, technology, engineering and mathematics are mostly attributable to factors affecting students before – in some cases, long before – they enter the halls of academe. But that doesn’t mean colleges can’t do anything to mitigate the consequences. Those are the conclusions of the authors of a new book, The Rise of Women (Russell Sage Foundation), about how and why female students continue to outpace their male counterparts in education (yet still can’t seem to earn a comparable paycheck). “We’ve seen astonishing change over a very short historical period,” Thomas DiPrete, the book’s co-author and a sociology professor at Columbia University. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/21/new-book-explains-why-women-outpace-men-education

Cloud Adoption Increases as More Educators Use Cloud Services - Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Ed

Educators and government workers help drive cloud adoption in their organizations, a 2013 State of the Cloud Report shows. In a CDW-G survey of 1,242 IT professionals across six sectors, 73 percent say their employees' personal use of cloud apps has somewhat or significantly influenced their organizations' decisions to move toward cloud computing. On top of that, 68 percent of IT professionals said employee requests for cloud services have increased over the last two years. http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Educator-Cloud-Adoption.html

U.K. MOOCs Alliance, Futurelearn, Adds Five More Universities And The British Library — Now Backed By 18 Partners - NATASHA LOMAS, Tech Crunch

Futurelearn, the U.K.’s first large-scale alliance between traditional higher education institutions aimed at testing the waters of MOOCs (massively open online courses), has bolstered the number of partners signed up to offer free courses. Five more universities are joining the original 12 announced last December, along with the British Library — which has signed an agreement with Futurelearn to develop online courses using BL resources. The British Library’s addition to the roster is interesting, being as, although it runs some workshops and training courses, it’s not a traditional higher education institution — underlining how MOOCs’ campus-less, remotely delivered education model broadens the pool of potential education providers, as well as widening access for students. The five new university signs-up to Futurelearn are the universities of Bath, Leicester, Nottingham, Queen’s Belfast and Reading. The original 12 who formed Futurelearn are: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, King’s College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick, along with UK distance-learning organization The Open University (OU). http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/19/u-k-moocs-alliance-futurelearn-adds-five-more-universities-and-the-british-library-now-backed-by-18-partners/

Analytics, Online Learning Course Guides, and Quality Assurance - Raymond Uzwyshyn, Campus Technology

The American Public University System libraries' Online Library Course Guides project is an award-winning academic technology initiative to match every one of APUS's online courses with an online library course guide, a new approach to offset the high cost of traditional print text books. Now that the project has successfully completed guides for a little over half of the university's course offerings, further practical metrics may be applied to the initial statistical analytic framework to widen the project's focus from course guide completion rates to higher levels of quality assurance and sustainability. In the past year, the guides have produced massive savings in online textbook conversion costs for APUS. The project has also been recognized with several academic technology innovation awards, including a gold medal for the IMS Global Learning Consortium's 2012 Learning Impact competition. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/02/20/thinking-beyond-project-completion.aspx

Heisman Winner Johnny Manziel Takes Only Online Learning Classes - Sam Laird, Mashable

Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel seems to have embraced working from home. The Texas A&M football star told reporters on Monday that he's enrolled in exclusively online courses this semester — meaning he only has to set foot on campus about once a month. Manziel spoke before accepting the Davey O'Brien Award, which annually goes to the nation's top college quarterback. He threw for 26 touchdowns and ran for 21 more last season in leading Texas A&M to an 11-2 record. In December, the man known as "Johnny Football" became the first freshman to win the Heisman, catapulting him to nationwide fame. That newfound notoriety, Manziel said, is part of the reason for his online-only course load. http://mashable.com/2013/02/19/johnny-manziel-online-classes/

Senior Administrator Pay Up - Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed

The median base salary for senior administrators in higher education increased by 2.3 percent in 2012, according to data released today by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. That is an increase from 2.0 percent in 2011. Continuing a pattern of recent years, the increases were greater at private institutions than at publics (2.5 percent vs. 2.0 percent). Some examples:
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Dean of Continuing Ed Average $113,132
Dean of External Programs $91,485
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See the URL for a comprehensive table!


http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/25/survey-finds-pay-senior-administrators

Where Credit Is Due: Whose MOOC Is It? - Derek Bruff, Agile Learning

Amy Collier, who supports online learning initiatives at Stanford, pointed out to me during the MROE workshop that an awful lot of people, including me, refer to these MOOCs as “Coursera courses” and not, say, “Georgia Tech courses” or “Vanderbilt courses.” I’ve used “Coursera course” as a shorthand to refer to the open online courses that Vanderbilt on the Coursera platform, but, thanks to Amy, I’m coming to see that such language is perhaps misleading. I blogged earlier this month about the challenging design and production process required to launch one of these courses, a process undertaken largely by Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff. Sure, Coursera assists with the course preparation and provides an online platform for the courses, but the heavy lifting is done by Vanderbilt. It’s also Vanderbilt that is responsible for setting the bar when it comes to the academic quality and rigor of these courses. We decide the content, design the assessments, and determine what merits a “Statement of Accomplishment.” If I’m going to use shorthand for “Vanderbilt open online courses on the Coursera platform,” perhaps “Vanderbilt course” is more accurate.... If universities are going to have responsibility for their open online courses, that means universities will have to take the blame when they fail. http://derekbruff.org/?p=2509

California universities see future in online classes - Kelly Puente, Long Beach Press-Telegram

The Fullerton program started small with about 25 students per course, said program director Jenny Zhang, adding that the program will grow in the fall. Zhang said Fullerton received about 140 applications this year and more than 500 for fall 2013. "So far I think our students are very happy with the program," she said. "Almost all of our students are working full time, and it's hard for them to come to campus, so this is a good solution." But as the demand grows, online learning also faces challenges, including costs for program development and concerns over quality and academic rigor. "The vast majority of our faculty is not opposed to online education, but we want to make sure it's the quality education that you'd find in a regular classroom," said Teri Yamada, a professor of Asian Studies at Cal State Long Beach and member of the Cal State Online Taskforce, a group of faculty and other CSU officials who oversee the development of online programs. "The ideal online class would be small, under 35 students. Because to teach a quality online course, you have to establish a relationship with the student." http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_22610430/california-universities-see-future-online-classes

Who Benefits From Online Ed? - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

Online education is often held out as a way to increase access to higher education, especially for those -- adult students, the academically underprepared, members of some minority groups -- who have historically been underrepresented in college. But that access is meaningful only if it leads somewhere, and if the education students get helps them reach their goals. New data from a long-term study by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College suggest that some of the students most often targeted in online learning's access mission are less likely than their peers to benefit from -- and may in fact be hurt by -- digital as opposed to face-to-face instruction. The study did not, however, account for the quality of the online courses studied, making it difficult to draw from its findings overly sweeping generalizations about the quality of online learning. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/25/study-finds-some-groups-fare-worse-others-online-courses

Coursera Adds 29 Schools, 90 Courses And 3 New Languages To Its Online Learning Platform - Rip Empson, Tech Crunch

It’s almost as if there’s an arms race in online education. Which MOOC platform can expand the fastest? Place your bets now. On the heels of edX’s announcement that it will be expanding internationally with the addition of six new schools (bringing its total to 12), Coursera is doing some addition of its own. Today, the massive online course platform announced that 29 universities from around the globe have agreed to bring their courses online (for free) via Coursera. The new members will join the 33 institutions already on board, bringing Coursera’s grand total to 62. And, of course, just as edX was kicking back to celebrate its five new handpicked international members, Coursera announces that its updated roster just so happens to include 16 international institutions itself. http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/20/coursera-adds-29-schools-90-courses-and-4-new-languages-to-its-online-learning-platform/

Online Learning Platform, edX, Goes International With The Addition Of Six New Schools - Rip Empson, Tech Crunch

When it comes to online education and massive open online courses (a.k.a. “MOOCs”), Udacity and Coursera have stolen most of the attention. But they aren’t the only two choices for voracious distance learners out there; in fact, the number of options has grown considerably. Last May, Harvard and MIT teamed up to launch edX — their own, high-profile response to Coursera, Udacity and the MOOC-y wave sweeping higher education. Backed by $60 million, the non-profit partnership made courses from both schools available to the public for free via a learning experience designed specifically for interactive study on the Web. http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/20/online-learning-platform-edx-goes-international-with-the-addition-of-six-new-schools/

College: Degrees for $10,000? - Editorial: West Virginia Gazette

Florida has announced that 23 state-run colleges soon will offer $10,000 degrees, and some Texas schools already have complied. A Texas master plan is titled "Anatomy of a Revolution? The Rise of the $10,000 Bachelor's Degree." It notes that three-fourths of families now think college is out of reach. In California, Assemblyman Dan Logue has introduced an "Affordable College Act" to achieve the $10,000 level. Such cost-cutting strategies depend heavily on online learning courses in which a few teachers reach thousands of students -- rather like the famed computer courses of Khan Academy. It's controversial, and some critics sneer that it will bring "Wal-Marting of education," weakening the value of degrees. The Texas master plan says: "The ground has shifted beneath the feet of traditional public higher education." http://wvgazette.com/Opinion/Editorials/201302150198

Stanford Students question whether classes are using Coursera effectively - Lucy Svoboda, Stanford Daily

Even as Coursera, an online learning platform developed at Stanford, continues to assume an increasingly influential role in the field of online education, its usage at Stanford has prompted concerns among students that courses using the platform have not fully exploited its potential. Coursera was launched in April 2012 by Associate Professor of Computer Science Andrew Ng and Professor of Computer Science Daphne Koller Ph.D. ’94, and it has since partnered with 33 universities to offer free online courses to millions of students. Coursera’s focus on facilitating a “flipped classroom” model of education – in which students watch pre-recorded lectures on their own before interacting with professors during class time – has, however, been inconsistently applied in several Stanford courses that use Coursera, with professors instead combining the new format with traditional lectures. http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/02/15/students-question-whether-classes-are-using-coursera-effectively/

E-learning: A click away from success - Alice Mani, Deccan Herald

‘I am a student of Bangalore University pursuing an online correspondence course from California University.’ A few decades ago a phrase like this would have been quixotic in nature. The world was a bigger place to be in and it was beyond a common man’s reach to explore all parts of it in his lifetime. Today a person, be it a child or a full grown adult has full access and variety of choice regarding the kind of education he/she wants to pursue. Along with assistance to current education system, it has also provided the youth with fresh ideas and practices prevalent in other nations that it could take inspiration from. Another student says “With time, I realised its not just merely getting a certificate but this course has introduced me to a new kind of learning. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/312383/e-learning-click-away-success.html

CME Credits Now Available for UCSF's Online Courses - Kevin Eisenmann, UCFS News

UC San Francisco has started offering continuing medical education credits for select massively open online courses – known as MOOCs – making it among the first universities in the nation to do so. “We are thrilled to provide health care professionals from throughout the nation and world, with a new opportunity to access online UCSF courses that offer continuing medical education credit,” said Joseph I. Castro, PhD, vice chancellor for UCSF Student Academic Affairs. “This is the beginning of many exciting new online education initiatives planned by UCSF over the coming months and years.” In the US, health care professionals are required by the state in which they practice to earn a minimum number of continuing medical education credits each year. Such training helps clinicians maintain competency and learn about new and developing areas within their fields. California requires at least 50 hours of training every two years. UCSF has been identifying ways to provide such credit for its MOOC’s hosted by Coursera, a company that offers coursework online. http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2013/02/13538/cme-credits-now-available-ucsfs-online-courses

Penn’s Rebecca Stein Will Engage Online Economics Students in the ‘Active Sport’ of Learning - Penn News

Many professors who embark on teaching a massive open online class, or MOOC, may be apprehensive about conveying their subject material to thousands. But that’s nothing new to Rebecca Stein, a senior lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Economics, who may teach 1,000 Penn undergraduates in a given year. That’s not to say that she doesn’t anticipate surprises in the course that she is teaching through Coursera this spring, “Principles of Microeconomics.” Set to begin April 8, the offering has already enrolled 8,000 students. To Stein, however, much more important than scale will be the different kinds of interactions she’ll have with her students, who, instead of being in a large lecture hall, will be behind their own computers, scattered across the globe. http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-s-rebecca-stein-will-engage-online-economics-students-active-sport-learning

Paying To Cheat In Online Classes - Aundrea Cline-Thomas, News Channel 5

College tuition is expensive. Each class can cost hundreds of dollars, and the pressure is on to do well and graduate on time. One way some students have found to do that: paying for answers. Cheating is nothing new, students have been doing it forever, but thanks to the internet it's gone high-tech. We found a number of companies making a lot of money by promising online students they'd take their classes for them. Among them: www.wetake yourclass.com. It's a website that allows students to pay to cheat. The site offers experts to take your online classes, even write your papers. All you have to do is pay a fee. http://www.newschannel5.com/story/21221664/paying-to-cheat-in-online-classes