Sunday, May 31, 2020

Secretive agency uses AI, human 'forecasters' to predict the future - PAUL RATNER, Big Think

A U.S. government intelligence agency develops cutting-edge tech to predict future events. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a research arm of the U.S. government intelligence community, is focused on predicting the future. The organization uses teams of human non-experts and AI machine learning to forecast future events. IARPA also conducts advanced research in numerous other fields, funding rotating programs.
https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/secretive-agency-uses-ai-human-forecasters-to-predict-future

Saturday, May 30, 2020

What every student needs to know about eLearning - CHRIS EDWARDS, eCampus News

In today’s landscape, online higher ed has widespread structure and support. Because the model of online learning was built around an assumption of distance between student and teacher, when done right, eLearning is the epitome of organization. Online learning supports the process of student-to-teacher communication with explicit instruction on information, assignments and expectations. In fact, a Shift Learning report recently found that eLearning increases retention rates to 25-60 percent compared to an 8-10 percent retention rate in face-to-face learning settings.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/05/15/every-student-elearning/?all

Friday, May 29, 2020

Universities Are Freezing Tenure Clocks. What Will That Mean for Junior Faculty of Color? - Sara Weissman, Diverse Education

More than 240 universities are offering junior faculty extensions on their tenure clocks to ease the pressure as the coronavirus upends their research and routines. Dr. Delia Fernandez says it’s “one of the most basic things universities can do to support their junior faculty … because the idea of research productivity, or any productivity at this time, is kind of absurd,” she said. But some faculty are concerned about whether extensions alone account for academia’s disparities.
https://diverseeducation.com/article/175846/

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Classroom of the Future: The Rise of Online Learning - Vivian Wagner, e-Commerce Times

Online education is evolving to become increasingly mobile, in order to satisfy the needs both of students and instructors. "Our learners increasingly want to access training on their own terms, at their own best times," said Neovation's Belhassen. "Mobile-first training allows you to take your daily training on your phone during your commute, before or after your shift, at any time convenient for you. Mobile devices can deliver all the rich media we have come to expect in traditional long-form training -- videos, audio-clips, etc.," he noted.
https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86666.html

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Six stories of six weeks of virtual learning - Melanie Lefkowitz, Cornell Chronicle

Spring 2020 was a semester like no other. Over the course of a few weeks, thousands of classes – lectures and seminars, laboratory and performance courses, capstone projects and veterinary clinics – transitioned entirely online. Instructors navigated technical and logistical difficulties, as well as the shifting realities of a global pandemic. But amid the challenges, students and faculty found opportunities for innovation, connection and intellectual growth. Here are snapshots of six courses that took creative approaches to their online formats.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/05/six-stories-six-weeks-virtual-learning

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The pandemic is emptying call centers. AI chatbots are swooping in - Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review

Covid-19 is accelerating job losses in an industry that was already automating work at a rapid pace. As the coronavirus crisis has dragged on, understaffed government agencies, grocery stores, and financial services have all scrambled to set up similar systems for handling a new influx of calls. IBM saw a 40% increase in traffic to Watson Assistant from February to April of this year. In April, Google also launched the Rapid Response Virtual Agent, a special version of its Contact Center AI, and lowered the price of its service in response to client demand.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/14/1001716/ai-chatbots-take-call-center-jobs-during-coronavirus-pandemic/

Monday, May 25, 2020

The shift to online learning and skills training shows promising trends and troubling signs - Jeannette Sanchez, International Labour Organization

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an abrupt transition to distance education, training and e-learning. The crisis has resulted in massive shifts to online platforms and tools for the continued delivery of learning and skills development, which have shown both promising trends and troubling signs. Among those signs, the evidence that, while much is being made of digital learning making access more equitable, access to online platforms doesn’t always result in equal quality learning. Women, for example, are being disproportionately cut off from distance learning due to lack of childcare or home help during the pandemic.
https://iloblog.org/2020/05/12/the-shift-to-online-learning-and-skills-training-shows-promising-trends-and-troubling-signs/

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Online Learning Minute: The Role of Microlearning - Brian Runo, MarketScale

Essentially, microlearning is “the small, incremental, or ‘micro’ part of an online learning experience,” said host Brian Runo. On this episode of MarketScale’s Online Learning Minute, Runo highlighted the role of microlearning in building, deploying and utilizing online education.
Microlearning, he said, is most useful for small skillsets, meaning digestible, small bits of information that are best transferred in quick-hit bites, not lengthy lessons.
https://marketscale.com/industries/education-technology/the-role-of-microlearning/

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Dance students adjust to curriculum changes, self-accountability of online learning - YASMIN MADJIDI, Daily Bruin

Online learning for dance students has not quite been en pointe. The switch to virtual classes has left dance students searching for ideal spaces to move, relying on self-accountability to stay motivated, said third-year dance student Justin Gamboa. Although professors have adapted their course materials to mold to the spaces each dancer has available to them through increased journaling and posting the dances online ahead of class, Gamboa said it has been difficult to get an individualized experience. He said he chose to stay enrolled this quarter because the close community within the dance program provides support during this stressful time of uncertainty.
https://dailybruin.com/2020/05/07/dance-students-adjust-to-curriculum-changes-self-accountability-of-online-learning/

Friday, May 22, 2020

Move to online learning has positives and negatives for students with disabilities - ITLIN BROWNE, Daily Bruin

Many students with disabilities have faced challenges related to online learning. The Center for Accessible Education, an office that provides accommodations to students with disabilities at UCLA, has received more accommodation requests than before the transition to online learning, said Norma Kehdi, the CAE associate director of counseling services, in an emailed statement. Students have reported difficulties handling distractions and procrastination, have struggled to adjust to the new learning system or have seen their conditions worsened by pandemic-related stressors, Kehdi said. However, some students enrolled in CAE have requested fewer of their usual accommodations this quarter.
https://dailybruin.com/2020/05/07/move-to-online-learning-has-positives-and-negatives-for-students-with-disabilities/

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Here’s the Syllabus for Your Summer Crash Course in Online Education - Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

Below, you’ll find a syllabus intended to help you advance from emergency remote instruction toward more substantive practices and philosophies. The recommended readings and key concepts were suggested by experts across higher ed. Main contributors are credited at the end.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Changing Market for Postsecondary Education - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

The COVID-19 pandemic has served to accelerate the changing market for postsecondary education.Employers are seeing expanding pressure to provide rapidly changing advanced technical services and products. Their needs are growing while the supply chain of qualified workers is tightening. As a result, we are seeing a growing demand for lifelong learning. We are already seeing students of all ages returning for continuing and professional education.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/changing-market-postsecondary-education

The Inexorable Logic of Distance Learning - James A. Bacon, Bacon's Rebellion

Distance learning was already on the rise at Virginia higher-ed institutions before the COVID-19 epidemic prompted college administrators to send students home and complete their classes online. Many faculty and administrators are hoping that they can revert to the status quo of good o’d fashioned face-to-face classes when the epidemic subsides. But will normalcy be restored? Or will the flirtation with online classes accelerate the spread of distance education?
https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/the-inexorable-logic-of-distance-learning/

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Higher Ed Needs a Long-Term Plan for Virtual Learning - James DeVaney, et al; Harvard Business Review

As the emergency subsides but normal fails to return, higher ed institutions need to do more. There’s a good likelihood that virtual learning — in some capacity — will need to be a part of education for the foreseeable future. Higher ed institutions need a response framework that looks beyond the immediate actions. They have to prepare for an intermediate period of transition and begin future-proofing their institutions for the long term.
https://hbr.org/2020/05/higher-ed-needs-a-long-term-plan-for-virtual-learning

Monday, May 18, 2020

Are you a vicitim of Zoom Fatigue? - by Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Zoom has become part of the lexicon of our lives. It is the way many of us meet and teach. In a similar way, we use Google Hangouts and other analogous synchronous meeting apps for live classes and the myriad of meetings that previously populated our workdays. If you are like me, you have three or four Zoom sessions a day. They are with the same colleagues as before, but they just don’t feel the same as in-person meetings. Those routine meetings can become anxiety-producing and exhausting. Research is being conducted in real time as we experience the impact of virtual conferencing on a daily basis.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

New Udemy Report Shows Surge in Global Online Education in Response to COVID-19

Udemy today released “Online Education Steps Up: What the World is Learning (from Home),” a special data report that provides a comprehensive look at online learning and teaching around the globe as the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter-in-place orders, and social distancing impact the world.  As remote working becomes the new normal, the findings reveal significantly increased demand globally across every segment:
425% increase in enrollments for consumers
55% increase in course creation by instructors
80% increase in usage from businesses and governments
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200430005243/en/

Saturday, May 16, 2020

The Rise Of Online Learning - Ilker Koksal, Forbes

Online learning has shown significant growth over the last decade, as the internet and education combine to provide people with the opportunity to gain new skills. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, online learning has become more centric in people's lives. The pandemic has forced schools, universities, and companies to remote working and this booms the usage of online learning. Even before the pandemic, Research and Markets forecasts the online education market as $350 Billion by 2025, so the numbers might be updated after analyzing the growth impacts of COVID-19 on the online learning market.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilkerkoksal/2020/05/02/the-rise-of-online-learning/#73a2b77572f3

Friday, May 15, 2020

UDL is essential in post-secondary pandemic learning - BY KIMBERLY COY, e-Campus News

Leveraging Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, will help ensure effectiveness and a level of normalcy in an unexpected new learning reality.  UDL comes from an educational framework first conceptualized in architecture with Universal Design – creating spaces that are accessible to all – and the challenges of special education, where learning and teaching based on the “average” student was not effective.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/04/30/udl-is-essential-in-post-secondary-pandemic-learning/

Thursday, May 14, 2020

COVID-19's Ultimate Impact on Online Learning: The Good and the Bad - Michael Horn, Campus Technology

Higher education's current move to [remote-teaching] online learning may be leaving a sour taste in the mouths of students and faculty across the country, but there is a silver lining. On the bad side, given that college and university faculty hastily moved courses online without much support, online learning is being done poorly in many quarters of the United States. It's consequently getting a bad reputation at many campuses.... Online learning will grow from where it was pre-COVID-19, when already over a third of postsecondary students took at least one online class and roughly 30 percent of graduate students studied exclusively online.
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/04/30/covid19s-ultimate-impact-on-online-learning-the-good-and-the-bad.aspx

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Building Online Learning Courses: University vs. Corporate - Brian Runo, MarketScale

Brian Runo shares a quick comparison of the differences in creating online learning courses for universities versus corporations in this episode of MarketScale’s Online Learning Minute. There are a few main differences that make online learning much simpler to execute for corporations.
https://marketscale.com/industries/education-technology/online-learning-courses/

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Student-Centered Remote Teaching: Lessons Learned from Online Education - Shannon Riggs, EDUCAUSE

While online and remote education may not be synonymous, today's new remote educators can benefit from the "lessons learned" by experienced online educators who are providing high-quality, engaging learning experiences for their students. The one "lesson learned" I see as the most significant for faculty as they begin to teach from a distance is to consider the new learning environment from a student-centered perspective.
https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/4/student-centered-remote-teaching-lessons-learned-from-online-education

Monday, May 11, 2020

Only Half of World's Learners Able to Take Part in Distance Learning - Voice of America

Upali Sedere writes about education and serves as an advisor to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education. He notes that online learning is available to children and adults in many areas, but not others. "One section of the population is enjoying online learning, with virtual classrooms, with all kinds of apps, whereas recently the UNESCO indicated a total of 826 million students are kept out of classrooms - and only 43 percent of this number has access to some form of [online] learning today.”
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/only-half-of-world-s-learners-able-to-take-part-in-distance-learning/5395163.html

Sunday, May 10, 2020

How Online Learning Can Strengthen Our Democracy - Eboo Patel, Inside Higher Ed

I am increasingly learning that online education has a certain set of advantages when it comes to teaching about diversity, too.  And now, because of COVID-19, almost every college student in the United States will be doing some of their higher education online. So if engaging diversity positively is part of the future of our democracy, and online learning is part of the future (and present) of higher education, where do the two meet? Through online learning experiences that engage diversity positively in ways that are organic and indigenous to the online environment.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/conversations-diversity/how-online-learning-can-strengthen-our-democracy

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Library of Congress Releases App with Mobile Access to Digital Collection - Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

"The Library of Congress collection can now fit in your pocket," said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, in a statement. "The Library started 220 years ago with 740 books and three maps. Today, that collection has grown to make us the largest library in the world and a storehouse of our national history. The LOC Collections app is a uniquely personal, easy new way to explore the nation's library."Users can currently find LOC Collections for iPhone and iPad at the Library's website or the iTunes store. An Android version of the app is planned for release later this year.
https://thejournal.com/articles/2020/04/22/library-of-congress-releases-app-with-mobile-access-to-digital-collection.aspx

Friday, May 8, 2020

Higher education is key for the post-COVID recovery - John Aubrey Douglass, University World News

The United States economy is in free fall. Businesses have closed and people have been laid off. Unemployment could reach 30%, and if it does there are predictions that an additional 15% of the population will fall into poverty. Inequality will grow mightily with significant impact on disadvantaged groups. And this comes at a time when the US economy was already in the midst of a transition period related to work. What will the near- and long-term post-coronavirus economy look like, including the transitional period to some form of new normal? One conclusion seems reasonable: Americans will generally need greater access to higher education and vocational training programmes, not less, even if it includes a more online, more socially distant experience.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200424084530242

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Will this semester forever alter college? No, but some virtual tools will stick around - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Online higher education “is a thin diet for the typical 18-year-old,” said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures. “But today’s 18-year-olds are tomorrow’s 28-year-olds with families and jobs, who then realize that online can be useful.” Already, more than half of American adults who expect to need more education or training after this pandemic say they would do it online, according to a survey of 1,000 people by the Strada Education Network, which advocates for connections between education and work.
https://hechingerreport.org/will-this-semester-forever-alter-college-no-but-some-virtual-tools-will-stick-around/

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Online education company Coursera offers unemployed workers thousands of free courses - Julia Boorstin, CNBC

The Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative is teaming up with state governments in the U.S. and the leadership of countries around the world to offer 3,800 courses at no cost from top universities and corporations, including Amazon and Google. The free courses, which usually cost $399 a year, are focused on skills and professional certifications that will help out-of-work individuals find new jobs in high-demand sectors. Coursera has added 10 million users in the past month as online education has surged, especially courses in data science, computer science, business and health care.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/coursera-offers-unemployed-workers-thousands-of-free-online-courses.html

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

College students see internships, job offers cancelled due to coronavirus - Ryan Golden, Education Dive

Three-quarters of college students in an April 10 to April 12 survey by College Reaction said internships or post-graduate jobs they secured had been canceled, moved remote or delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The poll, which captured the responses of 822 students, also found that about 90% were at least moderately concerned about the pandemic's impact on the U.S. job market and economy. Most (71%) were concerned about job and internship opportunities, while some 65% were concerned about their personal financial situation. Respondents also indicated that the pandemic has taken a toll on their mental health, with more than half citing mental health distress as a result of the pandemic. Sixty-seven percent said they were concerned about the effects of social isolation.
https://www.hrdive.com/news/college-students-internships-job-offers-cancelled-delayed-coronavirus/576449/

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Colleges must be flexible with credit acceptance, higher ed groups say - Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Six leading higher education organizations this week issued a set of principles to guide their members in accepting academic credit in light of the coronavirus's impact on instruction.  The eight principles include acknowledging that the situation is placing stress on students and intensifying historical inequities. Transparency about credit policies is critical, the groups said. The guidance comes as the coronavirus forces colleges to move courses online, which has led to more flexibility in assessments and grading.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-must-be-flexible-with-credit-acceptance-higher-ed-groups-say/576300/

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Learning Engineering Is Learning About Learning. We Need That Now More Than Ever. - Michael Feldstein, EdSurge

When our teaching practice is rooted in instinct, tradition and occasional trial-and-error experiments, we often bundle together different aspects of what we are doing without ever teasing out which teaching moves are the critical ones—and why. A radical switch to a new teaching environment, where many contextual factors change dramatically, causes many first-time online teachers to take a hard look at their assumptions. They may learn, for example, that the Q&A portion of their lecture class was actually the part where students learned the most, rather than from the meticulously crafted presentation from the lectern.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-16-learning-engineering-is-learning-about-learning-we-need-that-now-more-than-ever

Friday, May 1, 2020

Universities must help shape the post-COVID-19 world - Ira Harkavy, Sjur Bergan, Tony Gallagher and Hilligje van’t Land, University World News

We contend that higher education must play a major role in helping to shape the post-COVID-19 world and do so by reshaping higher education itself. The post-COVID-19 world must be based on the values we cherish: democracy, human rights and the rule of law as well as social justice, inclusion and equity. Higher education can add momentum by renewing our commitment to our core values of academic freedom, institutional autonomy and engagement by students, faculty and staff, and re-emphasising the role of higher education institutions as societal actors for the public good.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200413152542750