This year's grads have more debt than ever - Tara García Mathewson, Education

Continuing the trend of the last several decades, this year’s graduates have more debt than their predecessors. The Wall Street Journal reports on a new study from college financial planning company Edvisors, which shows the average borrower in the Class of 2015 will be responsible for paying back $35,000 and 17% of these grads have parents who took out $30,687 on their behalf, on average. Student loan debt has increased by more than 10 times since 1994, according to the article, and if current trends continue, the Class of 2016 will soon take over as the most indebted class ever. http://www.educationdive.com/news/this-years-grads-have-more-debt-than-ever/396225/

Debt-Free College Catches On - Michael Stratford, Inside Higher Ed

After a concerted push over the past several months from liberals and progressive groups, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign appears to be on the cusp of embracing a debt-free college plan. The Democratic front-runner’s campaign manager promoted the idea last week during an interview on CNBC. "What voters are looking for is someone to be a champion for everyday people,” the campaign manager, Robby Mook, said. “For young people, that's debt-free college.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/11/push-liberals-debt-free-college-gains-traction-2016-democratic-campaign

Technology edging out humanities at Ohio colleges - Collin Binkley, The Columbus Dispatch

Fewer students are enrolling in humanities majors at Ohio colleges amid an upswing in the popularity of science and business programs, according to federal data. Traditionally the bedrock of a college education, humanities disciplines, including English, philosophy and history, have attracted fewer students nationally in recent years. Some scholars have lamented the fall of the humanities, while others say the downturn is overblown. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/05/09/technology-edging-out-humanities.html

Feds say Miami University failed to accommodate disabled students - Collin Binkley, The Columbus Dispatch

Miami University has failed to accommodate students with disabilities and provide them the technology they need to learn, the U.S. Department of Justice reports. The department joined an existing lawsuit filed against Miami by a blind student who said the school promised to accommodate her but failed to deliver. A statement from the department said education is “said to be the great equalizer of American society.” “However, students with disabilities continue to encounter an impenetrable glass ceiling of opportunity when schools fail to comply with the ADA,” Vanita Gupta principal deputy assistant attorney general of the department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the statement. The department’s legal complaint demands that Miami provide the right accommodations to students with disabilities, and to pay damages to those harmed by its practices. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/05/13/Feds_join_disability_lawsuit_against_Miami_University.html

Chief Digital Officers Continue Global Explosion: Number of CDOs worldwide will double this year to 2,000 - eMarketer Daily

CThe chief digital officer (CDO) role emerged alongside the digital transformation, and companies are rapidly making room for the position. In a report released in May 2015, The CDO Club estimated that the number of CDOs worldwide would double between 2014 and 2015, from 1,000 to 2,000. This was more than four times that of the 488 registered in 2013, and almost 800% more than 2012’s 225. As digital only gets bigger, companies around the world will rely on CDOs to guide them through the continuous transformation. Those that don’t risk falling behind. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Chief-Digital-Officers-Continue-Global-Explosion/1012489/1

How to Make Online Learning Accessible for Students with Learning Challenges - Brent Betit, EdSurge

We know that students with learning disabilities may learn best in a human-mediated environment that takes into account their highly specific individual learning profile. The very best special educators adapt to a student’s learning style on the fly–a capability that computers haven’t yet acquired. So it would seem logical to question whether online education is even appropriate for students with LD. Yet I believe that a well-designed learning platform that includes multiple learning modalities could very well be superior to in-person education for someone with an LD. Based on my 30 years of experience working with students who learn differently, here are six precepts for how one could build an online learning platform that works for students with LDs: https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-05-10-how-to-make-online-learning-accessible-for-students-with-learning-challenges

Balancing Online Teaching Activities: Strategies for Optimizing Efficiency and Effectiveness - Deana M. Raffo et al, OJDLA

Increased demands in professional expectations have required online faculty to learn how to balance multiple roles in an open-ended, changing, and relatively unstructured job. In this paper, we argue that being strategic about one’s balance of the various facets of online teaching will improve one’s teaching efficiency and effectiveness. We discuss the balancing issues associated with four key online teaching facets: course design/development, delivery of the course content, assessments/feedback, and professional development. We conclude with a template for a strategic professional development plan that addresses these key facets. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring181/raffo_brinthaupt_gardner_fisher181.html

An Investigation of Personality Traits in Relation to Job Performance of Online Instructors - Charles P. Holmes et al, OJDLA

This quantitative study examined the relationship between the Big 5 personality traits and how they relate to online teacher effectiveness. The primary method of data collection for this study was through the use of surveys primarily building upon the Personality Style Inventory (PSI) (Lounsbury & Gibson, 2010), a work-based personality measure, was the instrument used to assess personality measures. In addition an evaluation instrument was developed by the researchers to evaluate classroom performance across a 10-point scale. In total 115 instructors from a large predominantly online university were surveyed through Qualtrics for personality traits and then had their courses evaluated for effectiveness and quality utilizing measures based on the Quality Matters program. Using a Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, it was found that 9 personality traits were significantly correlated with online teaching performance. While the results of this study can only be seen at this point as preliminary, it does open the door to further studies to determine if online teacher training or professional development interventions should take a different approach. Ultimately, the findings of this study demonstrated that personality does play a significant role in the effectiveness of online teaching performance. http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring181/holmes_kirwan_bova_belcher181.html

Oregon Trail and the true value of immersive gaming in the classroom - Suzi Wilczynski, eSchool News

What is it about Oregon Trail that had such a profound impact on us that we clearly remember the experience years later? Part of the answer lies in the way in which social studies is often taught. Despite the best efforts of teachers, history classes cover so much material that often the only choice is to focus on major events, dates, and important people. Not surprisingly, many kids find that sort of rote memorization boring and never truly engage with the material. That affects both comprehension and retention. Long after the test, students might remember the date of the Battle of Hastings, but the context and significance is often lost. Oregon Trail stemmed from the realization that kids learn more when they are learning about real people doing real things. Deeper learning happens when teachers show life and culture. If history is taught in this way, students can learn to analyze, categorize, process and communicate, and evaluate the motivation behind an action. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/05/07/immersive-gaming-839/

5 Free (or Low-Cost) Tools for Flipped Learning - Dennis Pierce, Campus Technology

From screencasting to interactive presentations, here are some resources to get a flipped class off the ground. Flipping the classroom typically requires the use of certain technology tools, whether for recording lecture content or for orchestrating classroom discussion. Jon Bergmann, a pioneer of the flipped classroom and co-creator of FlippedClass.com, categorizes these tools into four different groups: video creation tools, like screencasting software; video hosting tools; interactive tools that help professors check for understanding and foster discussion among students; and learning management systems for tying all of this together. Some products and services perform more than one of these functions — and a few do all four. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/05/06/5-free-or-low-cost-tools-for-flipped-learning.aspx

Do Employers Value Online Degrees? - Heather Brown, CBS Minnesota

Do employers look at degrees from an online university differently? Good Question. “I think they’re still trying to figure out what online degrees mean,” Paul DeBettignies, principal of Minnesota Headhunter, LLC, said. A survey by Public Agenda, a non-profit that works on education issues, found 45 percent of employers think online classes require more discipline, but 56 percent still say they’d rather have an applicant who learned in the classroom. “It comes down to the company and the manager,” Perry Wedum, Regional Vice-President of Experis, said. Mary Massad, division president of recruiting services for Insperity, a recruiting firm, says about 75 percent of her clients embrace online degrees. “My sense is that the value of a degree is still more closely tied to the reputation of the school itself, rather than the delivery method used,” Carleen Kerttula, head of program innovation at University of St. Thomas’s Opus School of Business, said. http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/05/07/good-questions-do-employers-value-online-degrees/

Students’ class notes available online for a fee - Teresa Mackin, WISH TV

It was named one of the 12 companies “transforming education” to watch this year by Forbes. Flashnotes.com is a start-up company started several years ago that allows students to buy and sell their notes from classes online. It’s one of several note-sharing websites. As finals week wraps up at many Indiana colleges, company officials say when those exams are done, officials say students can actually make money off the work they did this semester. Some Indiana University-Bloomington and Purdue University students are among thousands of students participating across the country. In March, Barnes and Noble invested in the fast-growing company. Flashnotes.com officials say it’s another way to share original notes by students taken in class, essentially a “student to student” marketplace. Students set a price to sell their notes and earn 70 percent of those sales. http://wishtv.com/2015/05/07/students-class-notes-available-online-for-a-fee/

Online learning is here to stay - Ruth Watkins, VPAA University of Utah, Deseret News

Today, three in four undergrads are considered "nontraditional" students. They may work while taking classes. They may have started families or served in the military. Or, as is often the case at my institution, the University of Utah, they may have done missionary work for as long as two years after high school. The on-campus model doesn't work for this growing group of students. They can't raise families in dorms. And morning classes aren't compatible with full-time jobs. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865628125/Online-learning-is-here-to-stay.html

Berkeley to Stop Adding Lecture Videos to YouTube, Citing Budget Cuts - Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Since well before MOOCs emerged, the University of California at Berkeley has been giving away recordings of its lectures on YouTube and iTunesU. In fact, Berkeley has become one of the most-generous distributors of free lectures on the web, adding some 4,500 hours of video per year. But that web channel, webcast.berkeley.edu, will soon stop adding fresh content. Last month officials announced that, because of budget cuts, the university will no longer offer new lecture recordings to the public, although the videos will still be available to students on the campus. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/berkeley-to-stop-adding-lecture-videos-to-youtube-citing-budget-cuts/56587

Seven guidelines for ensuring a better online business programme - Paul Hunter, Training Journal

Undoubtedly MOOCs have their place for disciplined and curious individuals with an iron will, available time and a natural predisposition to persevere. However, for time-stretched executives, juggling high-pressure professional objectives and increasingly scarce personal time, MOOCs have not provided the hoped for panacea. Expecting executive learners to stay the (online) course based on a cobbled together jumble of videos, articles and chat rooms is farfetched. In such circumstances, expecting tangible results such as measurable business impact or observed behavioural change is delusional. For virtual learning to work, providers should follow—and executives should look for—these seven guidelines: https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/feature/seven-guidelines-ensuring-better-online-business-programme

What's The Secret To Effective Learning? - Nick Morgan, Forbes

What’s the secret to effective learning? A recent study by a group of neuroscientists from the University of California, the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University found that the less you work your brain when learning, perhaps, the better. The researchers studied subjects learning a simple game over a six-week period. Those who used the part of the brain least associated with conscious planning, the frontal cortex, did the best. It’s better, it turns out, just to practice and not over-think what you’re doing. You learn faster. The results were published in the journal Nature Neuroscience recently, and one of the researchers noted, “It’s the people who can turn off the communication to these parts of their brain (the frontal cortex) the quickest who have the steepest drop-off in their completion times. It seems like those other parts are getting in the way for the slower learners. It’s almost like they’re trying too hard.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2015/05/05/whats-the-secret-to-effective-learning/

Myth and Reality in the Crisis in College Affordability - Robert Hiltonsmith, Demos

In the past, state funding for education often rose and fell along with the economy: since higher education funding is viewed as “discretionary” spending, it is often a target for cuts when states are forced to close recessionary holes in their budgets. However, in the past decade, state funding for higher education has diverged from that trend. Six years after the great recession, state higher education funding per student remains 27 percent below its pre-recession level.32 Unfortunately, declining state support for higher education means that many students today have no choice but to take on significant debt to finance their educations, the negative effects of which are increasingly evident in young people’s lives.33 http://www.demos.org/publication/pulling-higher-ed-ladder-myth-and-reality-crisis-college-affordability

Learning online offers many educational, financial benefits - Jan Burns, Houston Chronicle

Students are finding out that online programs can be an affordable education path. Though not all online programs have less expensive tuition than traditional schools, the associated costs can be lower. "The financial benefits of enrolling in online programs at universities is that students do not have to pay commuting expenses, may not need additional child care, and most likely will be able to continue in their current employment while in school as they can manage their own schedule and do their coursework around their families and work obligations," said Vickie S. Cook, Ph.D., director, Center for Online Learning, research and service/research associate professor, University of Illinois at Springfield. http://www.chron.com/jobs/article/Learning-online-offers-many-educational-6264367.php

U.S. College Enrollment Has Dropped Nearly 2% Over Past Year - DOUGLAS BELKIN, Inside Higher Ed

The number of students at U.S. colleges and universities fell nearly 2% between May 2014 and this month, continuing a four-year slide, according to a report to be released Thursday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. As of this month, 18.6 million students were enrolled, down about 1 million students from the peak in 2011. Enrollment spiked during the recession when more adults went back to school to retrain. As the labor market has improved, many have returned to work. The drop was steepest at four-year for-profit colleges and two-year public colleges, which saw decreases of 4.9% and 3.9%, respectively. Both sectors skew toward older students. http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-college-enrollment-has-dropped-nearly-2-over-past-year-1431576063

New Arizona State-edX MOOC: Another blow to traditional college - Stuart M. Butler, Brookings

Called the Global Freshman Academy, this is another important step in the revolution that is engulfing higher education. Recently Google and MOOC pioneer Coursera announced “microdegrees”, a set of online courses and a hands-on project that will essentially be the core of a low-cost degree major that will be accepted by top employers. Now ASU and edX is aiming at the package of general course requirements, enabling students to assemble an accredited set of mainly first-year classes to use at ASU or to gain credits that they can transfer to another college or university. The Global Freshman Academy is a boon to students and an existential threat to traditional state and private universities. http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2015/05/4-asu-moocs-butler

Stanford: Cheating technology is growing, and here’s why - Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times

Cheating-friendly technology is becoming more common in competitive higher education settings, some say. Stanford University’s honor code dates to 1921, written by students to help guide them through the minefield of plagiarism, forbidden collaboration, copying and other chicaneries that have tempted undergraduates since they first arrived on college campuses. Exams aren’t proctored and students are expected to police themselves and speak up when they see others committing violations. But there appears to have been a massive breakdown during the recent winter quarter culminating in “an unusually high number of troubling allegations of academic dishonesty” reported to officials, according to a letter to faculty from Provost John Etchemendy. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/cheating-digital-age-652/

New Mexico, Vermont and Wyoming join SARA; National SARA board meets - NC-SARA

New Mexico and Wyoming have been approved by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) to become members of the WICHE State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (W-SARA). In addition, Vermont has been approved by the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) as the second state in the region to join the New England State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (N-SARA). These states join 20 others (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia) as members of SARA. SARA is a nationwide initiative of states that will make distance education courses more accessible to students across state lines and make it easier for states to regulate and institutions to participate in interstate distance education. The effort is funded by a $3 million grant from Lumina Foundation, $200,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and fees paid by institutions. http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=d33f013c3412cbcac1e8ae453&id=8d4f78e3da&e=7e8a4b699b

Effective Social Media Practices and Good Online Teaching - Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

I have this theory that if you are effective on social media then you stand a good chance of being effective in online teaching. How do these two activities go together? Two words: presence and community. The people who seem to get the most out of social media are those who dedicate themselves to being present on their platform of choice. The goal to invest in presence and achieve community are also the two hallmarks of effective online teaching. If you teach online you need be present. This does not mean answering every single discussion thread, or constantly putting up just-in-time videos to explain concepts. Rather, presence can take the form of active listening. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/effective-social-media-practices-and-good-online-teaching

Has the Flipped Classroom Already Become the Norm? - Panopto

Just eight years after the first example of a flipped classroom, the 2015 NMC Horizon Report has named the flipped classroom as one of the most important developments in educational technology for higher education, and lists the technology supporting the concept on a “one year or less” time to adoption horizon. Why so soon? Because, as the report notes, for most academic institutions, the flipped classroom is already here. The report cites the Center for Digital Education’s survey of higher education instructors, which found: 29% of faculty were using the flipped classroom, and Another 27% of faculty reported planned to utilize the flipped classroom within a year In other words, already nearly one in three educators are flipping their classes. And by this time next year, more than half of all teachers will have flipped a course. No other technology strategy meant to provide students with a personalized learning experience comes close. http://panopto.com/blog/has-the-flipped-classroom-already-become-the-norm/

How 3 prominent universities are becoming video trailblazers - Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

How three institutions are championing collaboration through interactive and streaming video across the academic world. Integrate with your LMS, go mobile-friendly and, above all, make sure it’s user-friendly. These were just three common must-haves when implementing a video platform across campus, cited by three massive universities during Internet2’s 2015 Global Summit on the topic “Collaboration through interactive and streaming video across the academic world.” Purdue University, Arizona State University, and University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill all utilize different video platforms, but their basic requirements are the same: integrate with the university LMS, allow for all device, have a user-friendly structure, and allow for collaboration on campus and off-campus. http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/university-video-internet2-281/

Families saving less for college, investing poorly - Kelli B. Grant, CNBC

A majority of Americans believe college is an investment in their child's future, but it's one they're not adequately preparing for. Only 48% of parents are saving for their child's education, down from 51% last year, according to Sallie Mae's new "How America Saves for College 2015" report, which surveyed 1,988 parents with children younger than age 18. Families' average college savings balance has decreased, too, dropping 25% from $13,408 in 2014 to $10,040 in 2015, the lowest level in three years. That, despite 89% of parents telling Sallie Mae they expect their child to attend and benefit from college and 84% saying they're willing to stretch financially to make that college dream a reality. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/05/02/cnbc-college-saviing/26635507/

Corinthian Colleges and regulatory neglect - Ben Miller, Press Democrat

For years, private for-profit colleges were Wall Street darlings. Robust margins and a business model that does best when the economy does worst enabled these companies to add hundreds of thousands of students, all funded by billions of dollars in federal subsidies. What skyrocketed upward is now coming down, and the landing is not pretty. Corinthian Colleges, which a year ago had more than 72,000 students under the Everest, Heald and WyoTech brands, slowly collapsed over the past 10 months before announcing last Sunday that it would close its final 28 campuses. The move leaves 16,000 students scrambling to sort out their educational futures. http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/3878328-181/corinthian-colleges-and-regulatory-neglect

Essay by 25-year veteran of college adjunct teaching: Treadmill to Oblivion - Anonymous, Inside HIgher Ed

2015 is my 25th year of adjunct teaching. In the fall I will teach my 500th three-credit college course. I have put in many 14- to 16-hour days, with many 70- to 80-hour weeks. My record is 27 courses in one year, although I could not do that now. I want to share my thoughts on adjunct teaching. I write anonymously to not jeopardize my precarious positions. How typical is my situation? Some adjuncts have full-time nonteaching jobs that provide economic security and health insurance. Other adjuncts have spouses or partners providing financial support and benefits. I have tried to survive just by teaching. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2015/05/11/essay-instructor-who-has-taught-adjunct-25-years

Politicians turn Florida into for-profit college paradise - MICHAEL VASQUEZ, Miami Herald

Students are a prized commodity at Florida’s for-profit colleges. Just two dozen can generate a million dollars in tuition by the time they are done. In their zeal to fill classrooms, some schools do whatever it takes. That can mean deploying strippers as recruiters — according to a federal government complaint against Miami-based FastTrain — lying about job placement rates and using high-pressure, boiler-room sales tactics, including a psychological technique called the “pain funnel,” that can reduce a recruit to tears. http://pubsys.miamiherald.com/static/media/projects/2015/higher-ed-hustle/students.html

Study provides foundation for the future of digital higher education - Phys.org

A new, comprehensive metastudy of the role technology plays in higher education urges universities of tomorrow to capitalize on technologies that effectively support student learning, to embrace blended learning environments, and to customize degree programs to serve the needs of students in a digital age. George Siemens, executive director of The University of Texas at Arlington's Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Lab, is the lead author of "Preparing for the Digital University: A Review of the History and Current State of Distance, Blended, and Online Learning." The international study offers strategies and important implications for higher education institutions preparing for the digital wave. It also emphasizes the importance of universities drawing from learning sciences research in preparing new models of teaching, learning, and student assessment. http://phys.org/news/2015-05-foundation-future-digital-higher.html

UW-Fond du Lac offers online non-credit courses - University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac

UW-Fond du Lac's Continuing Education Office is offering a selection of non-credit professional development and personal enrichment six-week courses starting May 13. A few of the courses starting on this date include Introduction to InDesign CS6; Introduction to Microsoft Outlook 2013; Certificate in Healthy Aging or Gerontology; Marriage and Relationships: Keys to Success; Mastering Your Digital SLR Camera; and Starting Your Own Small Business. http://www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/local/action-advertiser/2015/05/02/uw-fond-du-lac-continuing-education-offers-online-non-credit-courses/26641423/

The Next Generation Digital Learning Environment: A Report on Research - Malcolm Brown, et al, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EDUCAUSE explored the gaps between current learning management tools and a digital learning environment that could meet the changing needs of higher education. Consultations with more than 70 community thought leaders brought into relief the contours of a next generation digital learning environment (NGDLE). Its principal functional domains are interoperability; personalization; analytics, advising, and learning assessment; collaboration; and accessibility and universal design. Since no single application can deliver in all those domains, we recommend a “Lego” approach to realizing the NGDLE, where NGDLE-conforming components are built that allow individuals and institutions the opportunity to construct learning environments tailored to their requirements and goals. https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3035.pdf

Stanford Council considers role of technology in teaching and learning - KATE CHESLEY, Stanford

Interactive, online technology will play an increasingly important role in improving higher education. But first, credentialing challenges must be overcome; mastery of subject areas must be demonstrated and lower costs must be achieved without sacrificing quality. Those were among the assertions made by President John Hennessy during his annual address to the Academic Council on Thursday. In a talk titled "Technology in Teaching and Learning," Hennessy also expressed his skepticism about whether online educational experiences can ever replace traditional undergraduate degrees. Technology, he said, can be used specifically to increase access, especially in underserved areas; to reduce costs; and to improve learning and degree completion rates in a cost-effective manner. But the challenge for online education, he said, is that society places a high premium on college experiences offered at schools like Stanford that encompass a broad and coherent collection of courses and that emphasize life skills as well as intellectual achievement. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/may/academic-council-teaching-050115.html

Incoming Harvard Law Students Will Be Offered Harvard Business School's Online Courses On Business Fundamentals - Harvard Business School

HBX Credential of Readiness (CORe)—the online business fundamentals program launched by Harvard Business School (HBS) last year to provide a strong foundation in the language and tools of business—will now be offered to entering students at Harvard Law School (HLS). Starting in June, CORe will be available on a first-come, first-served basis to applicants admitted to Harvard Law School's Class of 2018 and to current students on a pilot basis. HLS will subsidize the $1,800 enrollment cost so that the program is available to its students for $250. CORe is designed to teach participants the key concepts of business, using Harvard Business School's signature case-based approach in a learning environment that requires active participation and social learning. This unique digital learning initiative consists of three courses: Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/incoming-harvard-law-students-will-be-offered-harvard-business-schools-online-courses-on-business-fundamentals-300075226.html

Tandem classroom-online course aims to create international network of 'builders' - B. Rose Huber, Princeton

This spring semester Jennifer Widner, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, introduced an online version of her course "Making Government Work in Hard Places." Offered alongside Widner's traditional graduate-level course with 19 enrolled students, the nine-week online course reached more than 2,000 learners from around the world. Widner made the online class available through NovoEd, a massive open online course (MOOC) platform, which is geared toward teambuilding and discussion. "A lively exchange among people who live in different countries enriches everyone's awareness of the challenges that arise when trying to improve government performance," Widner said. "In both classes, we were aiming to create a network of 'builders' — people who value serving citizens well. The MOOC is an especially good foundation for this kind of network." http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S42/98/12A55/index.xml

College-Bound High Schoolers Finding Favor with Online Choices - Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

College-bound high school students are showing more interest in the blended model of instruction and less interest in going for the all face-to-face approach. That finding surfaces in the latest edition of Eduventures' annual "College-Bound Market Update Report." Each year the higher education analyst firm surveys high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to gain an understanding about how they choose a college and what their intentions are. This year the survey questioned more than 20,000 students between December 2014 and January 2015. Of the respondents, nearly seven out of 10 were female; and about a third were first-generation college prospects. http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/04/30/college-bound-high-schoolers-finding-favor-with-online-options.aspx

Wisconsin Universities Aren't Waiting For A Budget Before Starting Layoffs - Natalie Jackson, Huffington Post

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) hasn't even gotten his proposed budget cuts passed into law yet, but that's not stopping the state's prestigious public university system from moving to lay off staff, prompting fears of a "massive brain drain." Within the next few weeks, the Wisconsin state legislature will begin considering the Joint Finance Committee’s recommended budget, which may or may not include $300 million in cuts to the University of Wisconsin system that Walker proposed in January. "I don't think [governors and legislators] have an appreciation for or respect for just how disruptive these draconian budget cut recommendations are, even if they aren’t fully realized," said Daniel Hurley, associate vice president for government relations and state policy at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. "It just puts the institutions and the system overall in a tremendously difficult bind." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/wisconsin-university-cuts_n_7072528.html

7 Reflections - Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE Review

As I retire from EDUCAUSE and look back on my time here, I would like to share seven reflections that illustrate beliefs and experiences shared by many of us in higher education information technology. Intertwined with my reflections are the stories of so many of you and how you shared a laugh or an aspiration, lent a hand, or provided encouragement. I hope you find these reflections relevant to your own experience and that you see EDUCAUSE values reflected here. Finally, I hope you see a future even richer than today. http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/7-reflections

CMU's Tepper Online Hybrid MBA: Equivalent to Onsite - Mary Grush, Campus Technology

Can an institution's new online offerings match the quality it has established over the years in its onsite programs? At CMU's Tepper School of Business, the Online Hybrid MBA is designed to be equivalent to its on-campus MBA programs. CT talked with Bob Monroe, Director of the Online Hybrid MBA, to find out how Tepper crafts its Online Hybrid MBA to offer the same education as its highly regarded onsite MBA programs. Monroe says "Identical" is a bit of a tricky word. There are things that really are identical: the core curriculum — the classes that you need to take are the same across any of the formats in which we offer our MBA; the professors teaching — typically the person that is teaching the online hybrid class will also be teaching an onsite version of the same class; the material covered and the mastery expected — the standards to pass or to get an 'A' are the same from one delivery format of the class to the other. But we like to think of the online hybrid format as "equivalent" to the onsite formats — or possibly "interchangeable" would be a better term. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/21/tepper-online-hybrid-mba-equivalent-to-onsite.aspx

Research: Short Online Interventions Can Improve Student Achievement- Leila Meyer, THE Journal

Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Texas, Austin studied the effect of short, online interventions on high school students at risk of dropping out and found that students' grade point averages increased after only two 45-minute sessions. The researchers used two types of online interventions, one involving the development of a "growth mindset" and the other involving the development of a "sense of purpose." The growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed rather than being fixed at birth, and that struggling through challenging tasks is an opportunity to improve intelligence. In the study, researchers asked the students to read an article about the brain's ability to grow intellectually through hard work and effective academic strategies. http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/04/29/research-brief-online-interventions-can-improve-student-achievement.aspx

What are IT leaders worried about? Assessment readiness and money - Keith Krueger, eSchool News

A CoSN survey reveals CTO concerns about privacy, budgets, and assessment readiness. For the past three years, CoSN—the Consortium for School Networking—has conducted the K-12 IT Leadership Survey seeking to identify major trends and challenges, and provide a picture of these leaders. What are the key technology trends in education according to leadership in our school systems? What do the data tell us? Assessment readiness is again the No. 1 priority for IT Leaders. The growing imperative about being assessment ready isn’t likely a surprise for those living in states adopting the Common Core. However, regardless of where you live, all states are increasingly moving their high-stakes assessments online. And, they are doing it quickly. Yet less than 30 percent report they are fully prepared for online assessments. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/04/28/it-leaders-survey-693/

Higher-ed leaders say this is the future of research universities - Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

University president says a new language is needed to secure funding and support. Inclusiveness, both of students and the community, is the key to obtaining the much-needed funding to secure the future of research universities, said Freeman Hrabowski, president of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). “I have a word I like to use, ‘Neoteny.’ It basically means a youngness of the mind and refusing to be cynical. It’s a ‘forever young’ way of thinking that doesn’t allow for the ‘been there, done that,’ or ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’ mentality,” said Hrabowski during this week’s Internet2 2015 Global Summit keynote in Washington D.C. “We need to rethink, and reform, our strategies around securing public and private support for our research institutions.” http://www.ecampusnews.com/funding/future-research-universities-728/

Is Learning Increasingly Self-Directed in the Digital Era? - Suren Ramasubbu, Huffington Post

It is vital that educators be trained to recognize and nurture self-directed learning using technology and be capable of creating learning environments that support it. A teacher who encourages freedom of learning and is open to it can accelerate the transition of learning from being teacher-centric to student centric. According to Roger Hiemstra, a scholar of adult learning and self-directed learning, a teacher plays six roles in self-directed learning - she is "content resource, resource locator, interest stimulator, positive attitude generator, creativity and critical thinking stimulator, and evaluation stimulator." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/is-learning-increasingly-_b_7154164.html

Coursera CEO: Colleges will survive the online education revolution - John A. Byrne, Fortune

His first year on the job has been a whirlwind, putting the 68-year-old educator at the forefront of a revolution in higher education. Just this week, Coursera announced the first MOOC-based MBA degree with the University of Illinois College of Business. In February, Coursera launched a series of “specializations” in which a school offers a sequence of courses along with a capstone project. True disruption to higher education, believes Levin, will take many years and largely affect commuter colleges not known for deep engagement between students and faculty. For universities that sit on the sidelines, there could be significant consequences. Levin predicts that global rankings of universities are likely to take into account the number of people in the world touched by a university’s professors. That would make a global university’s status and prestige partly dependent on a school’s reach, which can be expanded significantly through online learning. https://fortune.com/2015/05/07/coursera-ceo-colleges-will-survive-the-online-education-revolution/

Corinthian files for bankruptcy - Tara García, Education Dive

Corinthian files for bankruptcy - Tara García, Education Dive Corinthian Colleges Inc. moved into its final chapter this week, filing for bankruptcy. The for-profit college chain listed $19.2 million in assets and $143.1 million in debt on its bankruptcy filings, The Orange County Register reports. Corinthian received $1.4 billion in federal student aid in 2013, before it was forced to sell off most of its 107 campuses and close the rest, according to the article. http://www.educationdive.com/news/corinthian-files-for-bankruptcy/394133/

UI may extend winter-break classes for two years - Johnathan Hettinger, Champaign News Gazette

After receiving strong positive responses to online courses offered over winter break, the University of Illinois is considering extending the period for two more years. The educational policy committee of the academic senate passed a proposal at its meetings on Monday, calling the 2014-15 classes "a generally positive undertaking for the campus." The university offered eight four-week online classes as a part of a pilot program for the first-ever Winter Session. The classes were largely popular electives and had an enrollment of 764 students — 71 percent of the 1,070 capacity — which the proposal called "particularly remarkable." According to the proposal, the courses would be offered during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 winter break periods. There would be a formal review of the effectiveness of the classes after that. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-04-27/ui-may-extend-winter-break-classes-two-years.html

Digital Tech Helps Budding Entrepreneurs Prosper In Online Business Courses - Seb Murray, Business Because

The rise of distance learning has put courses onto the web that are designed for those who want to run their own companies, and has paved the way for business owners to gain a business education. Courses once received a lukewarm welcome from entrepreneurs but top business schools, from Stanford to Copenhagen and digital upstarts like edX and Udacity, are gaining favour with founders. Gerard Grech, chief executive officer at Tech City UK, the government-funded group promoting the sector, says: “Campus life and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive.” By putting content online, even traditional educational institutions are seeing growth. UCLA Anderson, MIT and Haas School of Business, which has a campus in Silicon Valley, all offer online programs which are designed for entrepreneurs. http://www.businessbecause.com/news/mba-distance-learning/3226/entrepreneurs-prosper-in-online-business-courses

China advocates online open courses - Shanghai Daily

China's Ministry of Education issued a document supporting further application of online open courses in college education on Tuesday. Colleges have been encouraged to adopt a teaching mode combining the increasingly popular Massive Open Online Course with traditional methods, the ministry said in the concise document. Chinese colleges should develop their own high-quality open courses and promote the courses abroad. Meanwhile, they should also introduce more excellent foreign open course projects, especially those on natural sciences, engineering and technology, according to the document. http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=279025

Incoming UMass president vows to increase online learning - WCVB

Incoming University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan is vowing to expand online learning at the five-campus system. Meehan, the current chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, said more than half of recent Lowell graduates took at least one online course. "It's important to expand our online opportunities for people across the commonwealth," Meehan said Tuesday following a meeting with Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. "We're looking at the process by which we can do more online at the Boston and the Dartmouth campus." Baker said he's a big believer in online courses, which he said allow students to better match their classwork to their schedules. He said he'd like UMass to look at the possibility of instituting three-year degree programs and to embrace co-op programs like those at Northeastern University that allow students to gain on-the-job experience in the areas they hope to work in when they graduate. http://www.wcvb.com/money/incoming-umass-president-vows-to-increase-online-learning/32829474

What If Students Could Fire Their Professors? - Anya Kamenetz, NPR

A bill circulating in the Iowa state Senate would rate professors' performance based on student evaluations. Just student evaluations. Low-rated professors would be automatically fired — no tenure, no appeals. The bill's author, state Sen. Mark Chelgren, a Republican, argues that too many students are taking on student loan debt but not getting their money's worth in the classroom. "Professors need to understand that their customers are those students," Chelgren told the Chronicle of Higher Education.Though the bill appears unlikely to pass, it has made national news because of the broader debate around student debt, the cost of college and what, exactly, students are getting for their money. http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/04/26/401953167/what-if-students-could-fire-their-professors

Turnitin Announces Availability of Turnitin Scoring Engine for Automated Writing Assessment - University Business

To begin using Turnitin Scoring Engine, institutions provide their existing rubrics, along with a seed set of de-identified student essays and reliable existing scores. These texts are analyzed to build a custom scoring model for each new writing context. Turnitin Scoring Engine learns to value the same aspects of writing as the instructors at an institution. Turnitin Scoring Engine also automatically tests itself for reliability by comparing the scores it generates to the instructors’ original scores. When this test is passed, the program is easily embedded into existing institutional assessment environments, ready to score any number of new essays or writing submissions. Each student can receive automated scoring for any number of submissions per assignment or writing task. http://www.universitybusiness.com/content/turnitin-announces-availability-turnitin-scoring-engine-automated-writing-assessment

Hybrid law school program allows far-away students to earn degrees - G.M. FILISKO, ABA Journal

"The ABA was already allowing schools to provide one-third of their program through online learning," explains Eric Janus, Mitchell's president and dean. "We asked for a variance to 50 percent. That little bit of extra leeway gave us the flexibility to arrange the instructional time in a radical way." The program is experimental, notes Barry Currier, the ABA's managing director of accreditation and legal education, and the association will track it closely. The school must report back on students' performance, their integration into the school and attrition. The ABA hopes to learn whether the program can maintain quality while complying with ABA standards, Currier says. It also seeks insight on changes to standards that would give schools more discretion in distance learning. Only time will tell the value employers will place on a degree from a hybrid program. Black says he doesn't plan to seek a law firm job. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/hybrid_law_school_program_allows_far_away_students_to_earn_degrees

University of Illinois Announces All-MOOC M.B.A. - Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

The program, known as iMBA, will deliver most of its course content through Specializations, Coursera’s term for course sequences. Students will be able to take those sequences in four different ways -- two that award credit and two that don’t. As with any MOOC, the content is available for free. Learners who wish to earn a credential but have no need for academic credit can pay a small fee, $79 a course, for an identity-verified certificate. Students can also apply to the College of Business and, if accepted, pursue the full M.B.A. degree. “That’s why we call it fractional learning,” said Rajagopal Echambadi, associate dean of outreach and engagement. The university plans to price the 18 courses at about $1,000 each. With the added cost of the identity verification fee, the total cost of the degree will be about $20,000. The university does not have an existing online M.B.A. program, but it charges in-state students in the part-time M.B.A. program about $9,000 a semester and full-time students about $22,000 a year for tuition. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/05/u-illinois-urbana-champaign-offer-online-mba-through-coursera

Tools That Limit Distraction May Raise Student Performance in Online Classes - Casey Fabris, Chronicle of Higher Ed

For students taking courses online, the endless distractions of the Internet can be a hindrance to success. But using software to limit those diversions can make a big difference. That’s the takeaway from a new study, which found that limiting distractions can help students perform better and also improve course completion. A paper describing the study, “Can Behavioral Tools Improve Online Student Outcomes? Experimental Evidence From a Massive Open Online Course,” was published by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute this month. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/tools-that-limit-distraction-may-raise-student-performance-in-online-classes/56413

5 Women Just Designed an Online Game That Can Prevent Sexual Assault - Samantha Cowan, TakePart

Although India boasts the fastest-growing economy in the world, recent headlines have shed light on a darker side of the country: its sexual assault epidemic. High-profile cases—including that of a woman allegedly attacked by her Uber driver, and the government’s decision to ban the film India’s Daughter, centering on the 2012 fatal attack of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi—have made women’s safety an urgent issue. While the government has developed harsher punishments to discourage assailants and protect women, a group of young engineers is working to create a new, online solution that can help prevent assault from occurring in the first place. Known as “We Are Women,” five female students from India’s Amrita University—Anjana S, Athira S, Durga S, Pooja Prakash and Sreedevi Pillai—have developed a virtual self-defense game to teach women and girls how to respond when they feel threatened. https://www.takepart.com/article/2015/04/25/india-sexual-assault-prevention-game

Wearable Teaching? College to Experiment With Apple Watch as Learning Tool - Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Ed

The experiment will begin this summer, with eight Apple Watches the university purchased for the project. Penn State plans to expand the research to more students in the fall. We caught up with Kyle Bowen, director of education-technology services at Penn State, to hear more about the project, and his thoughts on the possible role of wearables in teaching and learning. Linked below is an edited version of the conversation. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/wearable-teaching-college-to-experiment-with-apple-watch-as-learning-tool/56459

How E-Learning is Changing the Education Landscape in China - Thibaud Andre, Tech.co

E-learning has been one of the biggest recent online trends. China is currently the market showing the biggest growth. Among all the questions related to open educational resources and e-learning, the most important one remains how technology will affect learning processes and the way students are trained. There are Already 100 Million E-learners in China! For students around the world, and especially in China, the development of the Internet usage has been an opportunity to get access to a limitless amount of information. Nowadays, the training and development of students require learning processes beyond traditional academics. This has led to the rise of a multitude of platforms dedicated to a new e-learning market. The global E-learning market is expected to continue its rapid growth in the coming years. As shown in this Docebo report, the last five years have seen an inflow of $6 billion investment in the E-learning industry worldwide. The global market will generate revenues of more than $15 billion by 2016. http://tech.co/e-learning-changing-education-processes-china-2015-04

OLC and MERLOT merge scholarly journals - Stefanie Botelho, University Business

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) community of the California State University are pleased to announce that they will combine efforts to expand scholarly research in the field of online education, with the merger of the journal Online Learning (formerly JALN) and the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). Currently OLC and MERLOT jointly sponsor the annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium (ET4Online). The planned merger of the two journals will broaden the cooperative efforts between the two organizations. "We are delighted to be able to continue to grow our collaboration with MERLOT through this merger," said Kathleen Ives, chief executive officer, OLC. "The merger of these two highly respected journals will draw upon the synergy of our missions and enable us to fulfill the needs and expectations of our readers with an enhanced depth, diligence and efficiency." http://www.universitybusiness.com/news/olc-and-merlot-merge-scholarly-journals

U Wisconsin To Launch Online Master's of Data Science - Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology

The University of Wisconsin will launch an online master's degree in data science. Classes for the 12-course, 36-credit program will begin in September, pending approval from the Higher Learning Commission. The course is the result of a collaboration between the U Wisconsin Extension and six campuses and was designed with input from industry leaders to "offer a rigorous, multidisciplinary curriculum grounded in computer science, math and statistics, management and communication," according to a news release. David Schejbal, dean of UW-Extension's Division of Continuing Education, Outreach and E-Learning (CEOEL), in a prepared statement said "In Wisconsin and across the country, employers in most industries are in great need of skilled professionals with the ability to transform big data into actionable insights. We are excited to offer an online professional degree program aimed at creating tomorrow's data science leaders today." http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/29/u-wisconsin-to-launch-online-masters-of-data-science.aspx

LinkedIn's big bet may pay off - BLAYNE SLABBERT, Stuff NZ

Online learning is a booming business, and now one of the top tech companies has hooked into the industry. LinkedIn is buying the online education company, Lynda.com for about US$1.5 billion (NZ$1.96b), the first big aqusition of this scale. Lynda.com specialises in video courses in technology, creative and business skills which makes it a good fit for LinkedIn's 347 million users, especially those looking to upskill for career advancement. This is backed by a report from Deloitte which shows the No 1 aspiration of members is to learn more about a subject area, not to complete a prescribed subject curriculum. It's a canny move by LinkedIn as the workplace gets more competitive and more technology focused. It also gets it a foothold into the online learning market which is worth about US$30b. http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/business/67950607/LinkedIns-big-bet-may-pay-off

What Will Keep the CIO Pipeline Flowing? - David Raths, Campus Technology

What skills and training will the next generation of CIOs require as technology becomes an essential part of teaching and learning? Where will those CIOs come from? Are they already working in university IT departments? Those are some of the questions that Wayne Brown, vice president and CIO at Excelsior College (NY), has sought to answer as founder of the Center for Higher Education Chief Information Officer Studies (CHECS). Since 2009, the nonprofit CHECS has been surveying CIOs and the technology leaders who work under them, as well as institutional leaders who hire CIOs, to provide insight into the career path of individuals in or aspiring to technology leadership positions in higher education. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/23/what-will-keep-the-cio-pipeline-flowing.aspx

$2.4 million grant will help UCLA to make undergrad STEM courses more interactive, more effective - Stuart Wolpert, UCLA

A new four-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation will help UCLA redesign some undergraduate courses to make them more interactive and more interdisciplinary. The multipronged initiative, which is already underway and under the auspices of UCLA’s division of life sciences, could transform key courses for thousands of UCLA undergraduates. It is part of a campus-wide goal for all science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses to implement teaching methods that have been proven in peer-reviewed studies to help motivate and engage students. The projects should help students in the STEM fields achieve a deeper level of learning and a richer classroom experience, said Blaire Van Valkenburgh, UCLA’s associate dean of life sciences, who heads the initiative. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2-4-million-grant-will-help-ucla-to-make-undergrad-stem-courses-more-interactive-more-effective

DeVry University will close Wisconsin campus, offer online classes only - Karen Herzog, Journal Sentinel

DeVry University, a for-profit college that has had a presence in downtown Milwaukee since 1983, announced Thursday it will close its only Wisconsin campus Dec. 31 and move to offering only online courses. The closing will affect 247 graduate and undergraduate students, according to spokeswoman Melanie Wright. Half of the university's students assigned to the Milwaukee campus — a suite at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave. — take online courses, while 80% take a combination online and campus-based courses, Wright said. Students will be offered the options of completing their program through DeVry's online courses, transferring to another DeVry University campus outside of Wisconsin, or transferring to a local college or university with a comparable program, Wright said. http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/devry-university-will-close-campus-offer-online-classes-only-b99487482z1-301149851.html

At this college, you only pay if you pass (Arizona State Global Freshman Academy) - Emily DeRuy, Fusion

Arizona State University plans to offer a freshman year of college to anyone in the world with an internet connection – no application required. Even better? You only pay if you pass. In its latest effort to distinguish itself in a crowded higher education field, ASU announced Thursday it will partner with edX, a popular online course provider founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, to create the Global Freshman Academy. The program will offer 12 online courses and students will only owe tuition – $200 per credit – if they get a passing grade. Students will be able to complete courses on their own time, so everyone from people with day jobs to high school students looking to get an early start on their degrees could enroll. http://fusion.net/story/125256/at-this-college-you-only-pay-if-you-pass/

With online learning for feds, OPM sees narrowed skills gap - Jory Heckman, Federal News Radio

Federal employees and their families can now add online college to the list of benefits offered by the government. Following up on the success of its first continuing education program, the Office of Personnel Management on Monday announced its partnership with Champlain College, a 137-year-old private college based in Burlington, Vermont. Federal workers and their spouses will be able to enroll in degree or certificate programs before the start of the summer 2015 semester. The admission deadline is June 5. In a conference call to the press, Sydney Smith-Heimbrock, OPM's strategic workforce planning and chief learning officer said the program focuses on providing continuing education to mid-career federal workers at a discounted rate. http://www.federalnewsradio.com/520/3843186/With-online-learning-for-feds-OPM-sees-narrowed-skills-gap

HarvardX and MITx: Two Years of Open Online Courses Fall 2012-Summer 2014 - Harvard and MIT Researchers

What happens when well-known universities offer online courses, assessments, and certificates of completion for free? Early descriptions of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emphasized large enrollments, low certification rates, and highly educated registrants. We use data from two years and 68 open online courses offered by Harvard University (via HarvardX) and MIT (via MITx) to broaden the scope of answers to this question. We describe trends over this two-year span, depict participant intent using comprehensive survey instruments, and chart course participation pathways using network analysis. We find that overall participation in our MOOCs remains substantial and that the average growth has been steady. We explore how diverse audiences — including explorers, teachers-as-learners, and residential students — provide opportunities to advance the principles on which HarvardX and MITx were founded: access, research, and residential education. http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/04/harvardx-and-mitx-two-years-of-open-online-courses-fall-2012-summer-2014/

Does it really take longer to create an online course? - Meris Stansbury, eCampus News

165 instructors, who teach both online and face-to-face, from three diverse universities across the country, were surveyed. These instructors have been teaching at the university level for an average of 14 years, and developed their first online course in 2001. Each respondent has developed an average of 2.13 distinct online courses and has taught an average of 2 distinct online courses. The survey found that [of the respondents]: 81 percent agree that it is more time consuming to develop an online course than a face-to-face course. However, subsequent online course developments are less time consuming that prior online course development, said the majority. This is also true for perceptions of teaching an online course for the first time compared to subsequent courses [82 percent agree with this statement]. By the 3rd time teaching an online course, there seems to be no difference in time when compared to the 3rd time teaching a face-to-face course [41 percent agree with this statement]. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/time-online-course-281/

6 Tips for Creating a 'Mini' MOOC - Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

There are ways to allow your institution to experiment with online courses, even if they're not intended to be "massive." An online program manager shares advice. Not every school is ready to run a massive open online course through one of the larger platforms like edX or Coursera — and maybe that's not what's needed anyway. Sometimes instructors simply want to dabble in order to understand something better. Elizabeth Fomin, program manager for University of Michigan Dearborn's College of Arts, Sciences and Letters Online Program, teaches courses in visual communication and Web technology. For Fomin, the answer lay with an alternative MOOC platform, Canvas Network that produces her campus' chosen learning management system, Canvas. Canvas Network will host courses from two-year and four-year colleges, K-12 schools and districts, academic partnerships and consortia, non-profits with an education or public mission, government agencies with an education mission and even for-profit companies if they're teaming up with an educational organization. http://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/04/20/6-tips-for-creating-a-mini-mooc.aspx

UA to expand online presence - Kethia Kong, Daily Wildcat

The launch of UA Online comes at a timely period in higher education. For years, online learning has seen an unprecedented growth. In addition to the rising popularity of online learning, there is a growing demand for bachelor’s degrees from employers. There are not enough job seekers with bachelor’s degrees, and, as a result, there is a significant credential gap in employment. According to Burning Glass, a database that tracks millions of online job postings and the credentials employers ask for, the credential gap is above 20 percent in management, office and administrative services, business and financial operations, and computer and mathematical jobs. “Both the economy and society are demanding an increase in [bachelor’s degrees],” Del Casino said. “We have to meet certain expectations and demands so that we continue to have active, engaged students who can move the state forward.” http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2015/04/ua-to-expand-online-presence