A new Virginia law mandates creation of guidelines for open educational resources at colleges and universities. H.B. 454 requires the governing boards of public institutions to implement guidelines for the adoption and use of low-cost and no-cost O.E.R. in their courses offered at such institution. However, while the policies and procedures are required, no instructor would be forced to use O.E.R. The guidelines can also address the use of "low-cost commercially published materials."
One in five attacks on educational institution were motivated by espionage, often targeting sensitive research, and 11 percent of attacks are "just for fun," according to the report.
Recognizing that data science is becoming the lingua franca of the 21st century, Purdue University has kicked off a new initiative to embed it in courses, physical spaces and industry collaborations. According to campus officials, the new Integrative Data Science Initiative will make data science education a part of every student's learning experiences on campus, no matter what field he or she is studying.
This summer, five institutions within the University System of Maryland will begin piloting digital badges to help students validate and communicate their career-ready skills. The system is deploying Portfolium's BadgeLink digital badging and learning pathways platform as part of its Badging Essential Skills for Transitions initiative, which will award eight badges aligned with competencies developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers: collaboration, communication, critical thinking, globalism, inter-culturalism, leadership, problem solving and professionalism.
Adult learners face a diversity of circumstances, so educators face an uphill battle in being able to personalize learning experiences in ways that could help their students. But technology could play a role.
Crypto currency is funding development of ODEM, an "on-demand" education marketplace with aspirations of replacing or supplementing a college education. ODEM, which deals in digital tokens on several crypto-currency trading platforms, recently announced completion of its "crowdsale," selling more than 100 million ODEM tokens, equivalent to about $9.6 million at the current trading rate. The company said the proceeds will be used to fund on-going development of a blockchain-based service that brings students, instructors and other professionals together online to buy and sell education.
The University of Michigan has begun construction of a new robotics building that will house classrooms, offices, purpose-built labs and an open collaboration space. Dubbed the Ford Motor Company Robotics Building, the 140,000-square-foot, four-story facility is slated for completion in early 2020 and will also feature a three-story area for flying aerial robots and drones, garage space for self-driving cars, an outdoor obstacle course for walking robots, and space dedicated to rehabilitation and recovery robots such as prosthetics and exoskeletons.
Students from the Rochester Institute of Technology took the two top spots in the student developer category of the New York State Game Development Challenge. Sponsored by Empire State Development, the challenge asked students and independent game developers to submit ideas for games, prototypes, business plans, mentorship plans and development timelines. The competition was hosted by R.I.T.'s Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity, a facility focused on fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and regional economic growth (and winner of a 2017 Campus Technology Impact Award).
An open education resource vendor has committed to following the CARE Framework for the care and feeding of OER available through its site, while also announcing that 90 percent of the resources in its own OER repository will be freely available to students. Top Hat, which has a cloud-based teaching platform and other digital learning tools, announced its "open content initiative," eliminating platform or subscription fees for access to its course content Marketplace.
Universities that contract with an online program management company tend to outperform those that go it on their own, according to research by Eduventures. On average, schools working with O.P.M. providers have seen a five-year online enrollment increase significantly above that of peers.