Online learning destination EdX today announced nine new master's degree programs, which offer a top-ranked, high-quality alternative to an on-campus degree at a fraction of the cost, according to the company. Three of the programs, in fact, are from top-10-ranked institutions and priced at under $10,000.
At a recent event, Gartner analysts told human resources attendees that just 30 percent of employees have the right skills for their current jobs, and only 20 percent have the right skills for both their current and future work. In research presented at the Gartner ReimagineHR conference in London, the company suggested that the skills gap is a result of the continuing digitalization being undertaken by organizations that want to remain competitive.
A new two-year online college opening in January 2019 promises to instill the "future-proofed" skills students will need for management jobs that are ubiquitous and growing. Intended for working adults in the United States, Foundry College will be granting free tuition for the entire two years for its first cohort.
Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana recently announced it will use BioBeyond as the standard course for all of its online introductory biology courses. The college, which has more than 40 campus locations serving nearly 71,000 students, piloted the digital biology course over the summer, and now plans to use it in 37 online sections.
A researcher recently undertook a study at a large community college system to see what impact the use of non-tenure-track faculty had on student outcomes. According to Di Xu, an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, an initial rise in grades in introductory courses taught by part-timers eventually reversed itself in subsequent courses. Xu's research results were recently published in the American Educational Research Journal.
Community colleges are the most likely among all kinds of post-secondary schools to view their work with external partners, such as employers and industry or even other institutions, as worthwhile. In a recently published survey, 57 percent of community colleges ranked partnerships "of all kinds" of the "highest importance," compared to just 21 percent of four-year private colleges and universities and 28 percent of four-year publics. The survey was conducted earlier this year by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association and Blackboard.
A national nonprofit focused on education innovation has pulled together a cohort of colleges, universities and companies to test the effectiveness of digital credentials. Education Design Lab said it has accepted seven institutions, each with at least one employer partner, into its first TeeUpTheSkills cohort. The Lab will work with the employer partners to identify the most in-demand 21st century skills for the entry-level jobs they need to fill, and then offer the Lab's 21st Century Skills digital badges to a pilot group of students at each institution.
GitHub has released Classroom Assistant, a tool intended to help streamline the grading process for teachers using Classroom on its open-source service that allows developers to share and collaborate on code.
A higher education advisory company has launched an application to help campus administrators identify candidates most likely to apply, accept and attend their schools. EAB's new Pipeline Analytics uses machine learning on data gleaned from 1.5 billion student interactions across the U.S.-based college-bound high school student population to support customers in tuning their student recruitment strategies.
The National Science Foundation is expanding its partnership with Indiana University's Trusted CI to translate cybersecurity research into practice.