Essay: 2015 Workplace Trends

What’s in store for 2015 when it comes to technology advances in the workplace?

This next year will see these technologies broadly deployed, but with that deployment will come challenges and choices to make. This sets up 2015 to be a year of intense activity and important choices — how far forward to leap, and how to transition from a world we all know and are working in comfortably. In today’s context of the primacy of smartphone and tablet devices, robust cross-organization cloud services and the changing nature of productivity — all combined with the acute needs of enterprise security — lead to dramatic change in the definition of the enterprise computing platform, starting this year.

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https://www.linkedin.com

Taking an online proctored exam: What not to do

Taking any exam, let alone an online exam could be quite challenging for most students. Having a dress rehearsal of sorts in the form of a practice exam may help defuse some of the issues and obstacles that may arise.

Once all the technical and setup issues are resolved comes the online exam taking environment, behaviors and rules specifications. Avoiding the following common habits or mistakes while taking an online exam could be the difference between a smooth experience and a flag laden exam record.

• Avoid wandering eyes. Nothing screams exam cheating than constantly staring off screen.
• Avoid using reference material (books, notes, browsing your computer, calculator) unless allowed
• Avoid talking out loud. This includes reading the question out loud.
• Avoid using headphones
• Mute and avoid background noise (TV or radio)
• Dress appropriately
• Stay at your seat during the exam
• Stay off the phone

November 26, 2014

What Professors Are Thinking

Faculty members may not be flocking to all-online class formats, but they’re using technology and other pedagogies to make their classrooms more student-centered. Faculty members are divided, however, along racial, ethnic and gender lines about the state of diversity and climate at their institutions. And while non-tenure-track professors seem to be getting some advance notice for courses, they’re still denied basic resources with which to do their jobs.

By Colleen Flaherty

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https://www.insidehighered.com

Online Ed Skepticism and Self-Sufficiency: Survey of Faculty Views on Technology

The massive open online course craze may have subsided, but the debate about the role of online courses in higher education persists. Even as more faculty members experiment with online education, they continue to fear that the record-high number of students taking those classes are receiving an inferior experience to what can be delivered in the classroom, Inside Higher Ed’s new Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology suggests. 

By Carl Straumsheim

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https://www.insidehighered.com

From MOOCs to Learning Analytics: Scratching the surface of the 'visual'

The two most prominent trends in education technology, for the moment, appear to be MOOCs and data analytics. While MOOCs are frequently accompanied by references to "disruptive innovation" [1], so-called "big data" in education, or "learning analytics" as it is often termed [2], is also cited in lists of imminent educational trends [3]. Elsewhere, and rather optimistically, the two developments in tandem are claimed to be able to "reverse engineer the human brain" [4]. MOOCs and data analytics seem well suited to one another; more data about student behaviors and activities would appear to suggest greater accuracy in prediction and personalization, and the huge enrollment numbers in MOOCs (see [5]) might then hold such a promise [6].

By Jeremy Knox

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http://elearnmag.acm.org

Assessing Assessment

In higher education circles, there is something of a feeding frenzy surrounding the issue of assessment. The federal government, due to release a proposed rating system later this fall, wants assessments to create ways to allow one to compare colleges and universities that provide “value”; accrediting organizations want assessments of student learning outcomes; state agencies want assessments to prove that tax dollars are being spent efficiently; institutions want internal assessments that they can use to demonstrate success to their own constituencies.

By Christopher B. Nelson

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The Rise of the Online MBA Education Infographic

Online MBA Education Infographic

Ohio University’s MBA program offers this Online MBA Education Infographic about the rise of the online MBA degree. With over 6.7 million students enrolled in online education, a Master of Business Administration is the #1 most popular online graduate degree offered by 355 accredited programs.

Via: onlinemba.ohio.edu

A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM

A New Culture of Learning by Doug Thomas & John Seely Brown

A New Culture of Learning by Doug Thomas & John Seely Brown

A New Culture of Learning: 

Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change

by DOUGLAS THOMAS and JOHN SEELY BROWN

This is a great read.

Case for online education DIY (do-it-yourself) vs Outsourcing

With the emergence of online education, most institutions are grappling with the idea of DIY (do-it-yourself) vs Outsourcing in regards to course development. I’m interested in learning more about this topic. 

Please share your ideas, thoughts, and comments.

Prepping for online teaching

More often than not, instructors jump into online teaching without the tools and support necessary for success. This may have a negative effect on course development, quality of instruction, and student outcomes. In addition, this neglect on faculty development will adversely impact instructor attitudes towards online teaching and learning.

Success can be achieved through strategic planning. Learning by doing is always a great method of generating and maintaining interest. Instructors should be encouraged to become students in an online environment. They are plenty of free MOOCs that instructors and administrations could explore. Having a strong support network of online learning veterans and mentors to coach new online instructors has proven to benefit both the instructors and institution. Like everything else in life, setting clear expectations could make the difference.

By Charles Wachira
November 20, 2014

Online Exam Proctoring

An institution may have various reasons for proctoring online exams. Proctoring exams in the traditional classroom has been around for ages, so why not extend it to online learning. However, maintaining the exam and program integrity is one of the main and most cited reasons. In addition, online exam proctoring helps identify and prevent academic fraud.

In the past months I have researched different options that include on-site proctoring locations, online live proctoring, and online recorded proctoring. These different models have a range of outcomes depending on the institution’s needs. Out of this research, my greatest takeaway is the need to have an online exam policy. This online exam policy should be specific to online learning and outline all the expectations and requirements needed for successfully completing an online exam.

By Charles Wachira
November 18, 2014

Maryland’s Distance-Education Giant Will Stay Public and Part of University System

The president of the University of Maryland University College, rejecting a recommendation from an outside committee, has decided he won’t ask the state to let the university convert to a private nonprofit institution or break away from the University System of Maryland.

UMUC’s president, Javier Miyares, had been considering such changes as part of a broader effort to shift course on what some had characterized as the university’s flagging profile as a national player in distance education. Several faculty members and others at the institution had questioned whether such radical steps were necessary or even wise.

By Goldie Blumenstyk 
November 18, 2014

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The Changing Role of Faculty: From Traditional Ed to Competency-Based

Over the last century, the role of the instructor has become ever more complex as technology, pedagogy, and student expectations have advanced with the times. Today’s teacher is expected to not only be a Subject Matter Expert, but to serve as their own Instructional Designer, provide high-touch student Mentoring, and analyze learning data like a Psychometrician as well. These competing responsibilities have been heaped upon the modern teacher while the traditional model of “one teacher: 30 students” has held constant. Unsurprisingly, instructors meet some of these expectations more successfully than others, and many of these important aspects of instruction routinely fall through the cracks.

By Caroline Miller

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http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/blog/

At Liberal-Arts Colleges, Debate About Online Courses Is Really About Outsourcing

Lifetime residents of Maine tend to look askance at people who are “from away,” an epithet reserved for transplants, summer vacationers, and college students. Such people might mean well, the thinking goes, but ultimately they do not belong.

Bowdoin College, a 220-year-old institution in Brunswick, Me., takes a similarly protective view of its curriculum. At a time when online education has blurred campus borders—and institutions face growing pressure to train students for specific jobs—Bowdoin and many other liberal-arts colleges have held the line. When I matriculated there, a decade ago, Bowdoin didn’t even have online course registration. (The college finally added it last year.)

By Steve Kolowich

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/

Beyond the MOOC Model: Changing Educational Paradigms (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

If  2013 was the Year of the MOOC Backlash, is 2014 the Year of Capitulation? Those cheering for MOOCs to disappear from the higher education landscape certainly hope so. Emboldened by Sebastian Thrun's comment that "MOOCs are a lousy product,"¹ anti-MOOChypesters and the blogosphere's "I-told-you-sos" are reveling in a schadenfreude moment as they anticipate the blowback escalating into full-scale retreat followed by a raised white flag.


By James G. Mazoue


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Researchers Go Global: Preparing the Next Generation of Innovators (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

Researchers Go Global: Preparing the Next Generation of Innovators (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

U. of Texas System Spearheads ‘Mobile-First’ Competency-Based Courses

The University of Texas system announced on Monday it was creating a competency-based education program that will offer courses students can take on mobile devices, for fields that most need graduates statewide, such as medical sciences. The program, which will start in 2015, is the first of its kind in the nation, the system said in a news release.

By Andy Thomason

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/

Untethering in the Classroom

I hate being tethered to the podium computer in my classroom. Seriously. I have a strong preference for being able to move about the room, but I also frequently need to use the projector, which is connected to — you guessed it — the podium in the front of the room. There’s really no simple way around this.

In my ideal world, I’d be teaching in a classroom equipped with a wireless projector. But since I don’t anticipate having access to such a projector anytime soon, I’ve had to look for other solutions.

By Amy Cavender

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

Coursera Expands Its MOOC Certificate Program

Coursera, the online education company, announced on Wednesday that it was expanding a program that awards special certificates to students who pass multiple MOOCs.

The company unveiled the program, called Specializations, earlier this year. The idea was to create certificates that, while not supplanting traditional degrees, carry more weight than a certificate of completion from a single massive open online course.

By Steve Kolowich

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Optimism About MOOCs Fades in Campus IT Offices

MOOC fever is cooling, at least among campus information-technology administrators, according to the 2014 edition of the Campus Computing Survey, an annual report on technology in higher education.

While a little more than half of last year’s respondents thought MOOCs “offer a viable model for the effective delivery of online instruction,” just 38 percent of this year’s participants agreed with that statement. And only 19 percent of respondents in 2014 said MOOCs could generate new revenue for colleges, down from 29 percent last fall.

By Rebecca Koenig

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Phoning It In: My Year of Teaching Via Skype

My year-long experiment with synchronous teaching over a Skype connection is complete. The good news: It worked. Better and more seamlessly than I could ever have imagined. But whether that means telepedagogy has a place in traditional academe is not so easily answered. - See more at: 

By Nathan Faries

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https://chroniclevitae.com

Games in the Classroom Reading List

Last week on Twitter, I was asked for some recommendation for critical readings on games and learning. There are lots of enthusiasts for games in the classroom out there (myself included, of course) and tons of great places to start if you’re interested in learning more about bringing games into education. These are only the tip of the iceberg–there’s a particularly rich conversation in game studies surrounding serious and persuasive games, which is decidedly interwoven with educational games.

By Anastasia Salter

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

Shifting the Faculty-Tech Paradigm

Life as an early adopter of any innovation can be challenging and often quite lonely. Early adopters (Rogers, 1995) are able to imagine how innovative ideas could revolutionize the way things are done. Although new innovations are being introduced with increasing frequency within nursing education, few spread with the speed that would satisfy an early adopter because there are many issues that prevent and hinder the diffusion of innovation within nursing education. All successful innovative teaching methodologies have challenges – and in many cases continue to. 

By Gillian Seely 

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http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/blog

Apple Watch: Coming to a Classroom Near You?

Wearable technology has entered the mainstream. The Apple Watch, announced on Tuesday, ushers in the possibility that, one day soon, campuses across the country will contend with students who are literally attached to their gadgets.

“These wearable technologies will become like appendages,” said B.J. Fogg, a consulting professor at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab. “To remove those capabilities will be like tying one hand behind your back.”

By Rebecca Koenig

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

5 Big Ideas in U.S. Education with Dr. Jeff Borden

In this series, Pearson's Dr. Jeff Borden shares what he believes to be the five big ideas shaking up education today. What are your thoughts about the biggest trends in education today? Anything that didn't make Dr. Borden's top five?

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http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com

Your 3 Worst Classroom Distractions (and How to Deal With Them)

Last week we asked you to name your most-hated classroom distraction—the nuisance that mars your lecture or class discussion beyond recognition.

You did not disappoint.

The following list—taken from more than 100 comments on the article and on Facebook, and sorted by the frequency with which you mentioned each nuisance—is not scientific. But it might put your madhouse of a classroom in perspective and give you some new solutions for these recurring problems.

By Andy Thomason

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/

Google Classroom: First Impressions

The new learning management system (LMS) offered to Google Apps for Education users has recently become fully available: Google Classroom. In its current early incarnation, the option may be attractive for instructors who are not currently using an LMS and want to give one a try, but only if they are already using the Google Apps for Education or have a registered domain that they can configure for its use.

By Konrad M. Lawson

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/

Court Sides With U. of Missouri in Fight Over Teacher-Prep Syllabi

A state appeals court has ruled that the University of Missouri system does not have to release course syllabi, as they are the intellectual property of the faculty and therefore exempt from the state’s open-records law, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports.

By Andy Thomason 

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http://chronicle.com

Why I’m Asking You Not to Use Laptops

At a teaching workshop last week, a new faculty member asked me how I felt about students using laptops in the classroom. I replied, “I ask students not to use laptops in my classroom—unless a student tells me they need or strongly prefer a laptop to take notes (for any reason), in which case we make that work.” She looked relieved to have this endorsement of a learning zone with fewer electronic distractions.

By Anne Curzan

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http://chronicle.com

Free Digital Textbook Publisher to Produce 10 New Titles by 2017

Rice University’s OpenStax College, a project that publishes free digital textbooks, will use $9.5-million in grants to produce 10 new books by 2017, the university announced on Monday.

The aim of the project, started in 2012, is to provide low-cost textbooks to students who have trouble affording titles that can cost hundreds of dollars. OpenStax has published a handful of books—written and peer-reviewed in-house and accessible free online—for common courses that enroll the most students nationally.

The new textbooks, combined with four titles to be published next year, will bring the total to 21 titles by 2017. According to the university, OpenStax’s existing library has saved students upward of $13-million.

by Andy Thomason

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http://chronicle.com

How Students Learn From Games

In the second of a three-part series, a professor looks at the use of simulation games in the classroom

Kurt Squire first recognized the learning potential of games in 1987 in his history class in high school. When his teacher asked the students if they knew the differences between English and Spanish colonization strategies in the Caribbean, he was the only one who knew the answer (the Spanish sailed galleons and held forts across the Caribbean for transporting gold, while the English sought to establish permanent settlements). But Squire hadn’t been reading ahead in the textbook: He had inadvertently learned the history of Caribbean colonization from spending countless hours playing a video game called Sid Meier’s Pirates! on his Commodore 64 computer.

Today Squire is a professor of digital media in curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and director of the Games+Learning+Society Center at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. His research interest, sparked in that classic single-player video game released all the way back in 1987, focuses on the design of games for learning and their impact.

By James M. Lang 

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http://m.chronicle.com

Today's Lesson: Life in the Classroom Before Cellphones

Although I had taught for more than 20 years, I didn’t realize that I had forgotten what it was like to teach in a classroom without cellphones until I came up with a plan to relive those halcyon days. It was near the end of the semester, and I offered one point of extra credit per class period for my psychology students who turned off their cellphones before class and put them on the front desk.

I was sure that no students would part with their phones for such a meager offering. Wrong: Virtually all my students did. They even said they loved the idea, so the next semester I offered all my classes the same deal for the entire semester, and participation continued unabated. In fact, much to my surprise, after the first few days, when I walked into my classes all the cellphones were already on the table in the front of the room.

By Louise Katz

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http://m.chronicle.com

How Streaming Media Could Threaten the Mission of Libraries

Digital music has made it easier to buy and share recordings. But try telling that to librarians.

In March 2011, the University of Washington’s library tried to get a copy of a new recording of the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing a piece by Gustavo Dudamel, a popular composer, that the library could lend to students. But the recording was available only as a digital download, and Amazon and iTunes forbid renting out digital files.

So the librarians contacted the Philharmonic to see if there was some way they could get a copy of the Dudamel album that they could loan out like a compact disc. The orchestra referred them to a distributor, which referred them to the publisher, Universal Music Publishing Group. At first the corporation said it couldn’t license the Dudamel recording to the university, according to the librarians. Later it offered to license 25 percent of the album for two years in exchange for a licensing fee plus a $250 processing fee.

by Steve Kolowich

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Majority Of Digital Media Consumption Now Takes Place In Mobile Apps Posted yesterday by Sarah Perez

U.S. users are now spending the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications, according to a new study released by comScore this morning. That means mobile apps, including the number 1 most popular app Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surfing, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40%.

By Sarah Perez

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/majority-of-digital-media-consumption-now-takes-place-in-mobile-apps/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

http://techcrunch.com

Empowered Educators Inspire Students to be Life-long Learners

As many students head back to school over the next few weeks, they face ever-increasing pressure - to perform well on standardized tests (including Common Core in much of the U.S.), to meet parent and teacher expectations, and to prepare themselves for higher education and a fast-changing job market. Yet when students are inspired, those pressures can quickly take a back seat to deep, meaningful learning.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_in_education/archive/2014/08/20/empowered-educators-inspire-students-to-be-life-long-learners.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_in_education

Why Students Should Own Their Educational Data

Designing a textbook or lecture with the average student in mind may sound logical. But L. Todd Rose, who teaches educational neuroscience at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, argues that doing so means that the lesson is designed for nobody.

In a TEDx talk last summer, the professor explained that most learners have a “jagged profile” of traits when it comes to learning. One student might have an affinity for science but have below-average reading skills. Yet standard teaching practice assumes at least average skills across the board. “Because our science textbook assumes every kid is reading on grade level, we’re in trouble,” he said in the talk. “For her, science class is first and foremost a reading test, and it’s doubtful that we will ever see what she’s truly capable of.”

by Jeffrey R. Young

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Three Myths about Hybrid and Online College Courses

As many educators recognize, hybrid and online courses are increasing in higher learning institutions. Yet in spite of this, lack of encouragement among some professors and administrators for this type of instruction means the supply is not necessarily keeping up with the demand. Some colleges are reluctant to increase the number of online and hybrid courses because of misconceptions about their utility.

By Janet Michello

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http://www.evolllution.com

10 Types of Learners You Can Run Into When Imparting Online Training

The most challenging aspect of imparting effective online training is targeting the many learners taking the same program. Understanding the different types of learners, summed up in following categories, is beneficial to any designer looking to create personalized eLearning courses.

By Karla Gutierrez

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http://info.shiftelearning.com/

Simple Screencasting Tips

Does anyone visit Second Life anymore? Perhaps not, or at least not often. But video tutorials are still very helpful, which makes screencasting a useful skill to develop.

We’ve covered screencasting in this space before, beginning with this introductory guide. It’s still well worth a look, even nearly five years later, and the basic workflow for screencasting hasn’t changed much.

by Amy Cavender

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/

Gear Up for College With These Essential Virtual Tools

Students can find apps and online resources to help with everything from note-taking to citations.

As you gather your back-to-school essentials and prepare to start your freshman year of college, your virtual backpack is one item that should make your list.

In this increasingly digital age, there is a plethora of networks, platforms and tools aimed squarely at college students – one of the most information-hungry demographics. Not all tools are created equal, of course. Certain programs are easier to use, possess better integration across multiple platforms or offer more useful features with a premium subscription.

The following tips are your guide to a selection of the best applications and online tools for your virtual college backpack to help you study smarter from the moment you arrive on campus.

By Brian Witte

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http://www.usnews.com/education

Portfolio Assessments Help Online Students Earn Credit

Online students can get credit for work experience by documenting their knowledge.

In the decade before she decided to get her online bachelor’s degree in business administration from Golden Gate University, Bethany Meyer spent most of her days in California working as a human resources professional in the restaurant industry.

When it came time to enter her program, she realized she knew plenty of the material covered in her required courses. The problem: she had the work experience – not the academic credit – to prove it.

Meyer’s school adviser suggested she try something called portfolio assessment, a process that would allow her to gain credit for a specific course by documenting what she already knew. 

By Devon Haynie

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http://www.usnews.com/education

A virtual analysis - Pilot study put blended-format courses to the test

A new analysis of four blended-format courses taught last fall offers practical guidance for faculty members interested in fresh pedagogical approaches.

The pilot study led by the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and released today after months of checks and balances showed that students responded most to lesson structure and execution, placed a premium on person-to-person interaction, and found redundancies between in-class and online instruction.

By Michael Patrick Rutter

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http://news.harvard.edu

UPenn Professors Say MOOCs the Future of MBA Programs

According to a recent study by two professors from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, online learning could benefit students in ways separate from the benefits gained from traditional classroom learning.

The study, titled “Will Video Kill the Classroom Star? The Threat and Opportunity of MOOCs for Full-Time MBA Programs,” looked at the video technology used for massive open online courses (MOOCs), which the authors call “SuperText”, and discovered that it could make MBA courses 40% cheaper to produce.

By Kristin Decarr

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http://www.educationnews.org

Motivate and Engage Online Learners All Semester Long

These 10 strategies can help keep learners on track to successfully finish your online course.

Recently I remembered the summer when I took swimming lessons with my grandmother. One hot day in July, she asked me to jump off the side of the pool and swim to her. I knew she would be there to catch me, so I jumped all in. As I swam closer to her, she began to move backwards, encouraging me to continue swimming until I reached her. Just before I thought I would drown, she picked me up out of the water and said how proud she was of my accomplishment. I only then realized I swam the entire length of the pool. It was her encouragement that allowed me to achieve a goal I thought would be impossible.

For many learners, taking an online course can be like diving into the pool. They may feel they require a whole new skill set to stay afloat, and it's important that you help guide and motivate them from that first splash to the finish line. How will you encourage them to continue achieving the goals that they may think are too challenging? Here is a set of techniques and strategies that can be used all semester long to get your learners swimming with ease.

By Paul Beaudoin

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http://campustechnology.com

The Rise of the Helicopter Teacher

A week before the first paper was due, a young woman in my class raised her hand and asked where the rubric was.

Shamefaced and stuttering, I had to admit that I had no idea what a rubric was. She helpfully explained that this was a set of guidelines explaining what I expected them to write, how I expected them to write it, and how each aspect of the paper would be evaluated. A set of boxes that students could check off to guarantee that they had met my expectations. For all intents and purposes, in other words, an outline for the paper.

by Steven Conn

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http://chronicle.com/section/Blogs

Can Universities Use Data to Fix What Ails the Lecture?

John R. Barker paces the front of the lecture hall, gesturing at slides with a laser pointer and explaining to a room full of undergraduates how scientists use data to make predictions about global climate change.

At the moment Mr. Barker, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Michigan, is facing a climate crisis of his own: The atmosphere in this lecture hall is dead.

The students are supposed to be following along with the slides on their computers while taking notes using a program called LectureTools. It was designed to collect data on how students are reacting to lectures—in theory, giving professors a window into what is going on in the heads of their students.

By Steve Kolowich 

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http://m.chronicle.com

Are Courses Outdated? MIT Considers Offering ‘Modules’ Instead

People now buy songs, not albums. They read articles, not newspapers. So why not mix and match learning “modules” rather than lock into 12-week university courses?

That question is a major theme of a 213-page report released on Monday by a committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology exploring how the 153-year-old engineering powerhouse should innovate to adapt to new technologies and new student expectations.

By Jeffrey R. Young

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Why This Professor Is Encouraging Facebook Use in His Classroom

Facebook and academe aren’t exactly friends. Over the years, the social-media company has been the source of ethically questionable research, the purveyor of uncomfortable teacher-student interactions, and, of course, the consummate classroom distraction, scourge of lecture halls the world over.

At least on that last note, however, one researcher says higher education has unfairly maligned the social-media behemoth. Kevin D. Dougherty, an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University, has spent the last two and a half years measuring how the Facebook group he created for his introduction-to-sociology course affected student performance. He found that students who participated in the online group enjoyed the course more, felt a stronger sense of belonging, and got better grades than those who did not participate.

by Avi Wolfman-Arent

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Learning Revolution: Interest In Online And Distance MBAs Grows

Interest in online and distance learning programs has risen for the second consecutive year - adding weight to the online MBA revolution.

The online learning revolution continues to gather steam, as the number of MBA applicants seeking online and distance study has increased for the second consecutive year, while interest in full-time MBA programs has remained roughly flat.

Widening pools of MBA candidates are seeking more flexible study options, spurring business schools to roll out more online programs and distance learning options.

By Seb Murray

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http://www.businessbecause.com

Twitter Chat: How to Develop Good Online Learning Habits

During a U.S. News Twitter chat, experts discussed ways students can engage with online courses.

Online learning has increasingly become an option for students seeking to earn a degree without having to quit their jobs or relocate to campus. Successful online students must often balance school with work and family commitments, as well as interact with classmates and professors in a virtual environment. 

By Devon Haynie

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http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education

Open Badges for Higher Education

Higher Education institutions are being challenged as never before. Parents, students and legislators are questioning the return on investment for a college education because many degrees are only loosely linked to employability after graduation. Increasingly, the degree itself is not as critical as the skill set behind it. Employers are searching for specific skills to fit their business needs and often find the pool of recent college graduates lacking. At the same time, online education providers are flooding the market with convenient, accessible, less expensive or even free course offerings. While these classes may or may not be on a degree path, they offer students the opportunity to spend their time and money building the specific skills they need to compete in the marketplace. Some online education providers are traditional colleges trying to woo students more interested in a more convenient learning experience while upgrading their skills. Learning, skills and knowledge extend well beyond what is represented on the college transcript for many non-traditional students (who now comprise a majority of total college enrollments).

Read more.
http://www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com

Oculus Rift DK2 Gets Torn Apart, Revealing Its Samsung Innards

You may not be able to get your hands on the very-much-backordered second generation Oculus Rift, but you know who did? iFixit — the guys who tear apart pretty much every device they can get their hands on to get a better look at the hamster wheels inside.

So what’d they find?

It’s pretty much all good news — especially for people who like to repair things on their own.

While Oculus still hasn’t publicly announced when they plan to sell these things to consumers (instead of limiting sales to developers and people who are willing to say they’re developers), this second gen prototype already shows significant improvements on the engineering front.

By Greg Kumparak

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http://techcrunch.com

BlendKit 2014: Choose Your Own Teaching and Learning Adventure

If you’ve ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book, then you know how awesome it is to make choices in what’s usually a static environment that lead to dynamic, customized outcomes. And that’s just what it was like (minus the dinosaurs and the time travel) for participants in the third cohort of BlendKit 2014, an open online course recently hosted by Canvas Network.

By Melissa Loble 

Read more.
http://voice.instructure.com

The Digital Public Library of America: Collaboration, Content, and Technology at Scale (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

The Digital Public Library of America: Collaboration, Content, and Technology at Scale (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu

The vision of a national digital library has been circulating among U.S. librarians, scholars, educators, and technologists since the early 1990s. Efforts led by a range of organizations—such as the Internet Archive, HathiTrust, and others—have successfully built resources that provide books, images, historical records, and audiovisual materials to anyone with Internet access. Scores of institutions have digitized vast numbers of materials held in U.S. libraries, archives, and museums, making available a shared cultural heritage in ways unimaginable not so long ago.

Can New Technologies Increase Interaction in Online Education?

There are three types of interaction in online courses: learner-to-content, learner-to-instructor, and learner-to-learner. Each contributes to student retention and motivation. This article elaborates on these types of interaction and suggests which technologies can facilitate each type of interaction.

By Angie Parker, Ph.D., and Steve Parker

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http://www.magnapubs.com

Overhypoed Typos

To spell-check or not to spell-check? Many people would find this question absurd: Of course you run spell-check on anything longer than a text message. Take some pride in your work! But I wandered away from that moral high ground recently after fiddling around with software called Lingofy that lets you run style-guide checks on your writing using The Associated Press Stylebook (or a style book of your own making).

by Rose Jacobs

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http://chronicle.com

Belated: SysAdmin Day

SysAdmin Day 

July 25, 2014 

15th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day

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http://sysadminday.com/

Using Video Annotation Tools to Teach Film Analysis

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in teaching undergraduate film courses is developing students’ close reading skills. This can include not only teaching the formal aspects of film—lighting, cinematography, sound, editing, and other techniques—but also aspects of the film’s content, such as historical references and other details that students might overlook.

by Prof. Hacker

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

Annotate Video on the Fly: A Review of VidBolt

As a literature professor, I’m always looking for new ways to teach my students to pay close attention to what they are reading or watching. I’ve found that one of the best ways of doing this is through encouraging them to mark up their texts and have integrated shared annotations as an assignment in a few of my classes. But I’ve been limited to texts for these assignments so far. Because of this, I’m really excited by the pedagogical possibilities offered by Vidbolt, a new platform that allows users to easily annotate Youtube video and to share their comments either publicly or with a specific community.

by Adeline Koh

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

Virtual reality: The next frontier in gaming

In recent years, the gaming industry has seen a number of hyped trends come and go: games on social networks, 3-D gaming, systems that let you control in-game avatars by moving your body.

Now get ready for another one: Virtual reality.

This technology, which plunges headset wearers into three-dimensional virtual worlds that feel incredibly lifelike, is coming to consumers very soon, according to the two companies spearheading the charge.

By Larry Frum

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http://www.cnn.com

A Liaison for a Classroom Building? Curating a Learning ecosystem.

It is very common for librarians to serve as liaisons to academic departments. They teach classes, purchase materials, answer reference questions, assist with research endeavors, and generally get involved with the odds-and-ends of those units. Some librarians also liaise with defined user communities such as first-year students, international students, or students associated with particular residence halls.

This classic approach enables librarians to connect their expertise with different user segments that likely share similar needs, interests, or perspectives. In short, these librarians serve as the human interface of the library.

By Brian Mathews

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http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/theubiquitouslibrarian

Why The Future Of Education Involves Badges

Higher education institutions are abuzz with the concept of Open Badges. Defined as a symbol or indicator of an accomplishment, skill, quality or interest, Open Badges are not only a hot topic as of late, but are also debated by some critics as the latest threat to higher education.

A closer look at this emerging trend reveals benefits for traditional institutions and alternative learning programs alike. Some advocates have suggested that badges representing learning and skills acquired outside the classroom, or even in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), will soon supplant diplomas and course credits.

By LindsayH

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http://www.edudemic.com

Closing the Technology Skills Gap: Can E-Learning Save the Day?

A look at how the e-learning platform may help bridge the education gap for tech jobs in emerging fields.

Everyone from kindergarten teachers and university professors, to CEOs and government leaders seem worried about the "technology skills gap." It's become commonplace to decry that we're not equipping students with the STEM skills they need to succeed in a tech-centric economy. Companies complain they have thousands of open tech jobs, but can't find qualified candidates to fill them. From San Francisco and Austin, to Sydney and London, companies say they could grow faster and boost hiring across teams, if only they could fill their open IT positions.

By Kristi Essick

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http://newsroom.cisco.com

Disruptive Innovation And Education

Taking Clay Christensen’s class at the Harvard Business School altered my understanding of how the world works. Changes that had previously seemed counterintuitive—the struggles of certain organizations at certain times despite having great leaders and team members, for example—could be explained by understanding the theories of innovation that Clay and others were developing, including the theory of disruptive innovation.

By Michael Horn

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http://www.forbes.com

5 Powerful Videos That’ll Help You Understand Global Education

The Global Education Conference is a free, week-long event that connects teachers, students, administrators, and organizations from around the world. This particular conference is really awesome because it happens completely via webinar – so you can participate without having to travel to a conference location and go broke on hotel rooms, meals, and entrance fees to the conference.

Aside from the advantages the all-webinar format offers, it also allows for a huge breadth of presenters and topics. The 2013 conference was host to over 200 general sessions and 19 keynote speakers, which really means there’s something for everyone in there. We’ve put together a short list of our 5 favorite videos from the 2013 conference – check them out below!


By Katie Lepi

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http://www.edudemic.com/

7 key steps in creating an online learning program

Single district online programs are the largest and fastest-growing segment of online and blended learning. There were an estimated 1,816,400 enrollments in distance-education courses in K-12 school districts in 2009-2010, almost all of which were online courses (Economics & Statistics, 2011).

Fueling the growth of district online learning programs are technology initiatives. School districts across the country continue to create technology enable learning environments by providing students and teachers with computing devices, often called one-to-one programs.


By Vanessa Wrenn

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http://www.eschoolnews.com

Lehigh Valley liberal arts colleges warm up to online education

For years, liberal arts schools felt digital learning was at odds with their mission.

Small classes. Lots of face time with professors. Lively debates on the humanities.

These have long been the hallmark of liberal arts colleges. They're also the reason that such schools have resisted what has become a staple on many college campuses: online education.

But with a student body now populated by so-called digital natives, schools like Moravian, Muhlenberg and Lafayette colleges have begun dipping their toes into the digital learning waters.

By Meghan Moravcik Walbert

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http://articles.mcall.com

How to Overcome Challenges to Complete an Online Degree

Online students who discuss school plans with family have a better chance of finishing their degree, experts say.

It’s one thing to start your online degree, but it’s another to finish it.

Completion rates for online students are tough to track, since the U.S. Department of Education only began looking at the issue recently, but many instructors and school leaders say the numbers are low. A 2013 study by Babson Survey Research Group found that that 41 percent of chief academic officers reported "that retaining students was a greater problem for online courses than for face-to-face courses."

By Dawn Reiss

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http://www.usnews.com

How E-Reading Threatens Learning in the Humanities

The student was angry. Why hadn’t I mentioned there was a shorter version of the book I assigned for this week’s class? After brashly announcing she had unearthed an earlier article by the author ("Same thing, right?"), she instructed me that anything said in a book could be reduced to an article. The rest is just padding.

For some years, the amount of reading we assign university students has been shrinking. A book a week is now at best four or five for the semester; volumes give way to chapters or articles. Our motivation is often a last-ditch attempt to get students to actually read what’s on the syllabus. Other factors include the spiraling cost of textbooks and copyright limitations on how much we may post digitally.

By Naomi S. Baron

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http://m.chronicle.com

QuickWire: Desire2Learn Rebrands and Adds Partners

The education-technology company Desire2Learn said on Monday that it was renaming its learning-management system, which will now be called Brightspace, and adding assorted features, including game-based learning. The company also said it was teaming up with IBM to improve Desire2Learn’s predictive analytics and with Microsoft to add a Windows 8 mobile app for e-books to Desire2Learn’s offerings.

by Lawrence Biemiller

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Rethinking What a 'Traditional' College Education Entails: Five Misconceptions About the Online Learning Experience

Society's notions of "traditional students" have become antiquated as yesterday's nontraditional student has become today's traditional student.

The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Digest of Education Statistics data shows the median age of a college student is closer to 27 than 19. In fact, in the next 10 years the adult student undergraduate population (over 25 years old) is anticipated to grow faster than the "traditional" college student. The study's data shows that the majority of students -- whatever the age or reason -- are opting to pursue their education on a part-time basis. The same study showed that 32 percent of undergraduate students are pursuing their degree while working full-time. So, it may be just the time to start referring to part-time students as "traditional" and recognize that their needs are different and should not be ignored or trivialized.

By Tracy Lorenz 

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com

10 New Technologies You Should Know About

Every year has its standouts, right? 2007 had the original iPhone, and 2010 had the iPad. But what has 2014 offered us in terms of awesome technology thus far? There’s been some chatter about things like Google Glass, but I have yet to see any notable number of folks walking around donning their Google specs. There are lots of little things that come out that are better than the last version, but we’ve really been looking at a lot of incremental improvements on existing technology – iOS8 is not offering any major breakthroughs or improvements over iOS7, iOS6, etc.

By Katie Lepi 

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http://www.edudemic.com/

Students, Colleges are Embracing Online Learning

Today, the Internet has the ability to help many individuals achieve their dream of higher education. Whether it's helping people apply to college or fund their academic endeavors, the Internet is a priceless resource, and many modern students are even using it to complete the bulk of their education.

By Vanessa Denice

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http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com

Classroom Management and the Flipped Class

Lets face it. We teachers spend far too much time and energy trying to keep students quiet so that they can listen to us. We have taken countless courses and workshops on classroom management in our careers, and it seems that the underpinning goal of classroom management is for teachers to keep kids quiet so that they can learn. Is there a better way to think about classroom management?

What if the goal of class was for the students to actively engage in the content and participate in tangible ways in the learning process? Our experience before we flipped our class was that we spent the majority of class time at the front of the room. Students sat in nice neat rows as we taught them stuff. Our view of teaching had us in the front of the room "teaching."

By Jon Bergmann

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http://www.edutopia.org/

In a MOOC Mystery, a Course Suddenly Vanishes

A massive open online course on making sense of massive open online courses caused massive confusion when the course content was suddenly deleted and the professor started writing cryptic things on Twitter.

The MOOC, called “Teaching Goes Massive: New Skills Required,” was taught by Paul-Olivier Dehaye, a lecturer at the University of Zurich. Offered through Coursera, the course had been conceived of as a meta-MOOC designed to help disoriented educators find their feet in the online landscape. The course “grew out of the author’s experiences as an early adopter and advocate of newer technologies (such as Coursera) for online teaching,” according to a description on Coursera’s website.

by Steve Kolowich

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus