Google Will Finance Carnegie Mellon’s MOOC Research

Carnegie Mellon University’s receiving a grant to study MOOCs is no surprise. But the source’s identity is bound to raise eyebrows. 

Google announced on Tuesday that it would give Carnegie Mellon $300,000 in each of the next two years through the Google Focused Research Award program. Google can fund the research for a third year at the same price if it chooses. 

The university’s research will focus on “data driven” approaches to research on massive open online courses, including “techniques for automatically analyzing and providing feedback on student work,” according to a news release. The goal, it said, is to develop platforms intelligent enough to mimic the traditional classroom experience.

by Avi Wolfman-Arent

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Skype to break language barriers with translator tool

Skype users soon will be able to expand the list of people they can connect with, says Microsoft, owner of the popular Web-chat tool.

Still in its early stages of development, Skype Translator, as it's being called for now, will provide voice and text language translation for calls between people speaking different languages.

By Doug Gross

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http://www.cnn.com/TECH/

Think Twice Before Cheating in Online Courses

Instructors use webcam proctoring, among other methods, to cut down on cheating in online classes.

Instructors can rattle off a number of reasons why online students should think twice about cheating: they learn less, they cheapen their credential and in some cases, they even get caught.

Still, the message falls on deaf ears.

By Devon Haynie

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

Online Learning Glossary

Academia isn't known for its rapid embrace of change. Yet when it comes to online learning, the field is constantly evolving. Hardly a day goes by without a university announcing a new online program or a company revealing a new tool to help online learners. Massive open online courses are giving students all over the world access to courses taught by some of the best professors – for free. At some online schools, students can cobble together degrees using credit by exam, testing out of courses at their own pace. 

To help online students keep up with the latest trends, U.S. News has compiled a glossary of important terms specifically about online education. While this list is not exhaustive, it can help you make sense of new terminology and maybe even find the best online program for you.

By Devon Haynie

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

Big data can transform learning – as long as lecturers take control

Big data has been eagerly embraced by the business world. Now it's time to look at how it can be used in education. 

The term refers to the trails we leave behind every time we use a website. We're all familiar with sites such as Amazon suggesting that if we enjoyed one book, we might like another book on a similar topic. These recommendations are based on data collected from very large numbers of customers and as a rule work very well. It undoubtedly improves the shopping experience.

By Diana Laurillard

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http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog

Use Copy for Cloud Storage Backup and File Sharing

Recent announcements are showing a trend in cheaper storage solutions and cloud backups. Google recently updated its pricing for Drive storage and now offers 15 GB for free and incredibly cheap prices for 100 GB, 1 TB, and 10TB+. At WWDC, Apple announced changes to its iCloud service towards a more Dropbox-like experience and revealed a new pricing model that includes a baseline 20 GB for $0.99 per month. And just this week, Amazon revealed its plans for unlimited storage for photographs for those purchasing the new Fire Phone. Cloud storage, it seems, is everywhere and dirt cheap.

by Prof. Hacker

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker

And a Hologram in Every Lecture Hall: Marketing 3D Tech to Universities

First came the mouse, then touch-screen technology. And if Silicon-Valley-based zSpace has its way, the next leap in human-computer interaction will look like something out of your local IMAX Theater. 

The company calls it “immersive exploration.” In real terms, zSpace’s eponymous flagship product is a tablet-software combination that allows students to view and manipulate hologram-like three-dimensional images. Moviegoers will recognize the custom glasses users wear to summon forth images from a blurry, 2D existence. Less familiar is the stylus pen, with which clients can rotate, undress, label, and animate the figures floating before them.

by Avi Wolfman-Arent

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Study of MOOCs Suggests Dropping the Label ‘Dropout’

 Way back in 1978, Frenchy in Grease was unceremoniously dubbed a beauty-school dropout. But what if she took a MOOC today on midcentury follicular art? Might we call her a beauty-school “collector”? What about a beauty-school “bystander”? 

Maybe, thanks to a new quantitative study of MOOC engagement released on Wednesday by Cornell and Stanford Universities. After tracking the behavior patterns of more than 300,000 students enrolled in Stanford-based Coursera courses, the authors created a “taxonomy of engagement” to differentiate between different types of MOOC participants.

by Avi Wolfman-Arent

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus

Starbucks Will Send Thousands of Employees to Arizona State for Degrees

Starbucks is teaming up with Arizona State University on an exclusive program that could send thousands of its baristas, store managers, and other employees to ASU Online for their undergraduate degrees, with the coffee company picking up about three-quarters of the tuition tab. 

The unusual program, the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, will be available to more than 100,000 of its employees, as long as they enroll as full-time students. The partnership, which could cost Starbucks hundreds of millions of dollars a year, is likely to add luster to the company’s reputation for corporate social responsibility. It could also be a welcome enrollment jolt to ASU Online, which has about 10,000 distance-education students and aspires to enroll 10 times that many.

By Goldie Blumenstyk

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http://m.chronicle.com

Five Things Online Students Want from Faculty

Through regular student feedback, Jennifer Luzar, associate professor of language arts at Northwood University, has compiled the following things students want in their online courses and ways that she has adapted her instruction accordingly.

By: Rob Kelly

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http://www.facultyfocus.com

7 Things You Should Know About Badges

7 Things You Should Know About Badges

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http://www.educause.edu/

Digital Badges for Professional Development

Across the United States, higher education institutions and other organizations are experimenting with the use of digital badges to guide, motivate, document, and validate formal and informal learning. Badges are currently in use or in development at institutions such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California–Davis, Purdue University, Seton Hall, and Yale University. Organizations outside of higher education interested in supporting learning are issuing badges too, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. departments of Veterans Affairs and Education, the Young Adult Library Services Association, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Smithsonian, EDUCAUSE, and the movie studio Disney-Pixar.

Read more.
http://www.educause.edu

EDUCAUSE and ELI Badging Resources

EDUCAUSE Badging Initiative

ELI: 7 THINGS YOU SHOULD READ ABOUT

Leading Universities Team up to Transform Online Education

Students will be able to take online courses for credit at any of the consortium schools -

Northwestern University has joined a consortium of leading universities to launch an innovative education program that will transform the current model of online education, according to an announcement from the schools’ provosts.

Semester Online, the new program, will be the first of its kind to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take rigorous, small, online courses for credit from a consortium of universities. The program will be delivered through a virtual classroom environment and interactive platform developed by 2U.

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8 Things You Should Know About MOOCs

Before Harvard and MIT released data last month on their first 16 edX MOOCs, we already knew a few things: Millions of people register for massive open online courses, though far fewer receive certificates of completion. Most MOOC participants already have a college degree, even those outside the United States. But there was a lot we didn’t know, especially about who took different types of MOOCs and how much of the course content they viewed. This information may be valuable to those looking to design and lead successful MOOCs. Here’s what we’ve learned from this first data release covering more than half a million students.

By Jonah Newman and Soo Oh

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http://chronicle.com

06/11/2014: What did you learn today?

Metcalfe's law

Number of link = N(N-1)/2
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Reed's law
Possible subgroups:  2^N − N − 1
(the value of networks grow exponentially)
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The Case For Banning Laptop in the Classroom

A colleague of mine in the department of computer science at Dartmouth recently sent an e-mail to all of us on the faculty. The subject line read: “Ban computers in the classroom?” The note that followed was one sentence long: “I finally saw the light today and propose we ban the use of laptops in class.”

While the sentiment in my colleague’s e-mail was familiar, the source was surprising: it came from someone teaching a programming class, where computers are absolutely integral to learning and teaching. Surprise turned to something approaching shock when, in successive e-mails, I saw that his opinion was shared by many others in the department.

By Dan Rockmore

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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs

Technology Solutions

Technology Solutions

As an instructional technologist, I encounter a wide range of technologies. My interest and charge is to find ways to enhance teaching and learning with technology in an non-invasive, effective, and rewarding way. That is the challenge. That is the reward.

Read more to discover the list.

Four things I wish I’d known about the flipped classroom

Four things I wish I’d known about the flipped classroom

By Robert Talbert

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http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines

Will MOOCs Undermine Top Business Schools, or Help Them?

Massive open online courses are not currently cannibalizing tuition-based programs at top business schools, according to an enthusiastic report from the University of Pennsylvania. Rather, MOOCs could become a recruiting tool for tapping new pools of potential students. 

Business schools that offer MOOCs should also figure out how to charge the many students who sign up for the online courses without intending to complete them, write the authors of the report.

by Steve Kolowich

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

College Credentials by Condé Nast

Architectural Digest. Wired. Gourmet. Popular magazines and producers of high-quality content, of course -- but educational providers? 

In a way, yes, if their publisher, Condé Nast, and its partners and backers fulfill their vision in the months to come. 

Under the project, Condé Nast publications will team up with universities to create a set of accredited certificate programs and eventually master’s-degree programs (with the colleges and universities, not the magazines, as the "institution.") Condé Nast writers and editors will contribute subject matter expertise and the publisher will provide some financial backing to the partnerships. Read more: 

By Doug Lederman 

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Inside Higher Ed

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.

With that in mind, I was excited to learn about SocialBook’s new video annotation feature.

by Chuck Tryon

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http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker