Through a new partnership with online learning platform edX, Pepperdine University plans to launch its first MicroMasters master's degree program, available later this year. The new program will offer a flexible pathway to completing a master's degree through career-relevant, skill-based introductory courses.
These best practices from the Learning Design and Technology program at the University of San Diego will help practitioners create the best possible learning experience for students and develop a rewarding career in instructional design.
Global learning technology company D2L, maker of the Brightspace LMS, has updated and added new features to its product suite. The updates include tools to promote creativity, improve the user experience, and strengthen the learning ecosystem, the company said.
Through its partnership with edX, an online degree and digital course content company, the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) will launch a fully online Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI).
AVer USA, a provider of video collaboration and education technology solutions, has introduced a new all-in-one camera with AI audio built for education, called the A30, combining a document camera, web camera, microphone, and speaker.
Springboard, an online learning platform that emphasizes mentor-student relationships, today unveiled a new partnership with Gonzaga University to deliver two online “bootcamps” to learners aiming for careers in cybersecurity and software engineering.
How will technologies and practices like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, digital transformation, and change management impact colleges and universities this year? Here's what the experts told us.
CT asks D2L President Stephen Laster to comment on critical issues for education, on the technologies and practices that can help make a difference, and on the projects he's found most rewarding and productive.
Students who want to enroll in digital courses are finding that not enough information is provided ahead of time in order for them to be successful, a 2022 WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) partnership survey found.
The University of California, Davis, which offers massive open online courses on several other online learning platforms, has now also partnered with edX to launch a suite of free MOOCs, along with a professional certificate program in search engine optimization.
Instructure has acquired LearnPlatform, an ed tech company that provides real-time, evidence-based data on the effectiveness of digital ed programs chosen by universities and K–12 schools.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the American Council on Education (ACE) have transitioned the Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning (VE/COIL) Transformation Lab from ACE to AAC&U.
Interactive display maker Promethean has acquired the digital whiteboard platform Explain Everything, which allows users to create lessons, activities, and interactive presentations on any mobile device.
Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies has partnered with Coursera to offer a new pathway to degree completion for adult learners.
Texas Tech University is launching a one-year pilot program to help students in the state complete their diplomas or earn a GED. The program is in partnership with TTU K–12, a fully online school district operated by Texas Tech, and is being made possible by a $1.8 million grant from the United States Department of Education and the Texas Workforce Commission.
Learning technology company D2L has launched its Brightspace Creator+ package, allowing anyone to create digital courses without having to learn coding.
Online learning company 2U has moved its boot camp offerings to the edX brand with the introduction of edX Boot Camps, intensive technology training programs designed to meet the upskilling and reskilling needs of working adults.
Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management has partnered with ed tech company Instructure to provide its Canvas learning platform to the Francis and Dionne Najafi 100 Million Global Learners Initiative through 2030.
Google announced it is partnering with Columbia University, the University of Michigan, Arizona State University, and the University of Illinois' Gies College of Business to offer new industry specializations in growing fields to complement its Google Career Certificates.
As a predominately online institution geared toward serving adult students, University of Massachusetts Global is rethinking traditional models of education to embrace the flexibility and career relevance that working learners need. We spoke with Dr. David Andrews, chancellor of UMass Global, about developing a new credentialing ecosystem, listening to student and industry needs, and the data infrastructure that can really support student success.
A new report from Educause offers a concrete plan of action to move colleges and universities toward the future of hybrid learning.
According to a recent Educause survey, the number of students expressing preferences for courses that are mostly or completely online has increased 220% since the onset of the pandemic, from 9% in 2020 (before March 11) to 29% in 2022.
The United Negro College Fund and Deloitte Digital have embarked on an ambitious effort to reimagine online education for historically Black colleges and universities. Here's how they're leveraging technology to put community at the center of the online HBCU experience.
Howard University and the nonprofit National Education Equity Lab have announced they are expanding a program that allows high school students in historically underserved communities to take college Algebra in their high school classrooms and earn college credit at no cost.
According to a global survey from Coursera, employers and students alike see value in microcredentials that document job-relevant skills and experience.
Virtual and hybrid learning company ClassIn is entering the United States education market this fall, hoping to attract educators’ attention with its integrated content management and learning management systems. The platform is used by more than 60,000 K–12 and higher education institutions in 160 countries.
Students using the Moodle open source learning management platform can now listen to learning content in more than 50 languages, thanks to a new integration with digital voice and text-to-speech tool ReadSpeaker.
As flexible work policies become the norm, institutions must rethink their approach to employee engagement and workforce culture. Here's how Southern New Hampshire University is building a remote-first workplace centered on the employee experience.
Brigham Young University's BYU-Pathway Worldwide online education program has partnered with Anthology to roll out two of the company's six cloud-based ed tech platforms, creating a central hub for administrators, staff, mentors, and its 60,000 learners worldwide.
After a 10-month evaluation of LMS platforms that gathered extensive input from students, faculty and staff, Northern Arizona University is moving to Instructure's Canvas learning management system.
In a recent survey, nearly all higher education chief online officers expected online learning of some kind to be a part of the typical student experience within the next three years. While survey respondents did not necessarily agree on how much online would become the norm, it's clear that hybrid models are favored to dominate instruction by 2025.
CT asks D2L CEO John Baker how today's LMS is getting smarter, and about the opportunities AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, and related technologies are presenting in the LMS marketplace.
2U, parent company of online learning platform edX, has revamped its partnership model, moving from a one-size-fits-all offering to a variety of revenue-sharing options that enable universities to select stackable bundles of technology and services to meet their needs.
San Joaquin Valley College, a private for-profit institution focused on career training, has created a new resource for online students that gamifies co-curricular learning outcomes to help boost student success.
EdX has launched two Spark Augmented Reality courses from Meta, developed as part of the online learning platform's partnership with Meta Immersive Learning. The goal: to "build a learning ecosystem for the metaverse and give professionals broader access to the tools and education needed to build a career in augmented reality."
The University of Central Missouri is updating its classrooms with new AV technologies that use artificial intelligence and augmented reality to capture more engaging, flexible presentations and better serve the needs of hybrid learning.
What would a learning management system centered on culture and community look like? The United Negro College Fund hopes to answer that question with HBCUv, a new learning platform that aims to reshape the future of online education for historically Black colleges and universities. We spoke with Ed Smith-Lewis, VP of strategic partnerships and institutional programs at UNCF, and Nathan Young, head of strategy for Ethos at Deloitte Digital, about bringing the HBCU experience to an online environment, the defining characteristics of HBCUv and the equity-centered design process behind their work.
Turnitin has launched a new mobile app for its Gradescope assignment and grading platform that enables students to submit their assignments through any connected smartphone, the company announced this week, following a limited-access pilot in April.
Flexibility remains a key priority for students pursuing higher education, according to a new "College 2030" report from Barnes & Noble College Insights, the research arm of Barnes & Noble Education.
As classrooms evolve to accommodate the flexibility and innovation of new learning models, it's important to provide ample training and resources for all constituents. Here are three key areas to consider.
Southern New Hampshire University is well known for innovation in online learning, but prior to the pandemic, the institution had less than 100 employees working remotely, and had only just begun building out its remote work policies. In March 2020, the abrupt shift to fully remote work required a new approach to employee engagement. We spoke with Jennifer LaFountain, director of employee experience at SNHU, about how the institution is developing a culture that allows employees to feel connected no matter where they are located.
Display manufacturer Optoma has introduced a cloud-based version of its Optoma Management Suite that is powered by Microsoft Azure and offers streamlined, real-time monitoring, diagnosing and controlling of connected audiovisual displays via a single platform.
Class Technologies, maker of the learning platform that adds teaching and learning tools to Zoom, has announced a partnership with Open LMS, commercial provider of the open source Moodle learning management system.
Google has introduced a slate of new apps for Chromebooks — including a new free Screencast app and a free Figma design app — as well as new functions in Google Classroom and Google Meet, and the company announced integrations with popular ed tech apps that will launch later this year.
HIgher education technology company Jenzabar has introduced Campus Marketplace, a new platform that allows institutions to unbundle their courses from degree programs and make them available to both enrolled and unenrolled students through a branded online storefront.
Blending the best of face-to-face instruction with the flexibility of online learning can enhance the higher ed experience for all types of learners, lower the cost of a degree and better prepare students for the workforce.
Synchronous online learning platform Class Technologies recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Anthology's Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom tool.
Northampton Community College recently won an Instructional Technology Council award recognizing its Smart Apartment Learning Lab: a combination escape room and technology sandbox in which students can learn about the tech we take for granted in our everyday lives. We spoke with Beth Ritter-Guth, associate dean of online learning and educational technology at the college, to find out how the Learning Lab is engaging students, building digital literacy and providing valuable training in the job skills of the future.
A growing number of community college students want online courses going forward, according to a new report from Bay View Analytics.
An accounting professor shares how best practices from online pedagogy have helped her create a blended learning environment that supports student success.
Pima Community College in Arizona is stretching the capabilities of its D2L Brightspace learning platform, turning the technology into a conference management solution for its annual PimaOnline Educators' Conference.
Is the education technology in your online course equitable and inclusive of all learners? Here are key equity questions to ask when considering the pedagogical experience of an e-learning tool.
Online learning platform Coursera has introduced Career Academy, an offering that allows institutions to bundle self-paced online courses and career resources to help students gain in-demand skills for the workforce.
The State University of New York is partnering with D2L to make the company's Brightspace learning management system available to its full network of campuses.
Following through on a pledge made at the close of its acquisition by 2U, edX is awarding $1 million in grants to 10 institutions to develop free online courses in "Essential Human Skills for the Virtual Age."
The University of Michigan has partnered with Coursera to launch 10 new courses that will use extended reality to provide immersive experiences in critical job skills.
Pearson has announced the acquisition of language-learning platform Mondly, providing a path for Pearson to add self-study to its line of instructional and assessment solutions, according to a news release.
One of the takeaways from this year’s Educause Horizon Report is that there’s likely no such thing as a return to normal: Many of the changes that higher education has undergone over the past couple of years are here to stay. To delve into the details of what’s on the horizon for higher ed in 2022, we spoke with Kathe Pelletier, director of Educause’s Teaching and Learning Program and co-author of the report.
In this free, one-day event, education and IT leaders will offer ideas and best practices based on expertise and research in the field, to help inform your digital transformation strategy.
This fall, students at 10 colleges and universities across the United States will be able to take courses on a "metaversity" campus, an exact virtual replica of their institution's physical campus.
Instructure has announced the acquisition of Concentric Sky, maker of the Badgr digital credentialing platform.
Zoom has introduced several new features for education users of its Chat and Meetings functions, fulfilling the most popular requests from teachers and administrators on its platform, the company announced today.
Cypher Learning, maker of learning platforms for K-20 institutions, corporate training and online education entrepreneurs, has introduced new AI-infused features for improving skill development.
Vermont's Champlain College is expanding the use of InSpace, a video collaboration tool, in its online learning division.
Two professors of history at the University of Arizona have created a learning experience based on "Age of Empires IV," a real-time strategy video game about medieval warfare and civilization-building.
These days, we hear a lot about the "new normal" in higher education. Remote and hybrid learning is here to stay, offering students more flexibility in their learning journeys. But what if the new normal is not enough? We spoke to Mark Milliron, senior vice president of Western Governors University and executive dean of the Teachers College, and Kim Round, academic programs director and associate dean of the Teachers College, about their vision for reimagining education and why learning experience design is essential to student success.
While many colleges and universities turned to digital course materials to serve the needs of remote learners during the pandemic, faculty usage of e-textbooks and other digital content has decreased now that classes have resumed in-person instruction, according to the latest "Faculty Watch" survey from the National Association of College Stores.
The City University of New York is launching CUNY Online, a new online education initiative tasked with producing high-quality online courses and programs and building online degree capacity across the institution.
CT talks with Ellen Wagner to learn about approaches to defining, measuring, and mitigating learning loss.
Online learning platform Coursera and the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream (MCAAD), a think tank focused on advancing economic and social mobility for all, have partnered to launch The American Dream Academy, a new program that will provide free job skills training to up to 200,000 underserved learners in the United States.
Digital transformation is not just about implementing new technologies — it's also about people and the ability to embrace change. In fact, you might say that's the hardest part: Culture is often cited as one of the biggest barriers to digital transformation in higher ed. In February, our Campus Technology Leadership Summit tackled that very topic with a panel discussion on building innovation into the culture of a university. Here's that conversation.
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has announced plans to build a new online learning platform for historically Black colleges and universities, dubbed HBCUv.
Education technology company D2L has introduced a number of tools and enhancements for its Brightspace learning management system designed to boost collaboration and learning.
Dixie State University in Utah has partnered with technology workforce development company Pluralsight to help boost students’ technology-based skills.
Analytics software provider SAS has launched a new program offering analytics skills training for higher education students.
Virtual teaching and learning company Engageli has launched version 2.0 of its platform, introducing a browser-based interface for instructors (in addition to the existing native application for Windows and macOS) as well as a spate of new features for learning.
Education technology company D2L has announced an integration with Class Technologies, maker of online learning software built on the Zoom platform.
At Ohio State University, students developed a list of 10 ways that instructors can use the learning management system more effectively — common-sense guidelines that aim to make courses more consistent, predictable, easier to navigate and generally more student-friendly.
Cybersecurity training and certification provider SANS Institute has launched the SANS + HBCU Cyber Academy, a cybersecurity scholarship and education opportunity for students and alumni of historically Black colleges and universities across the country.
Canada's National Research and Education Network, an ultra-high-speed network connecting researchers and educators across the country's 13 provinces and territories, has selected videoconferencing solution BlueJeans by Verizon to support hybrid learning.
In a recent survey, a whopping 97% of education professionals agreed that video is essential to students' academic experience.
College instructors have changed their attitudes toward academic integrity in online courses, according to a new report from Wiley.
California's San Diego State University has launched the SDSU Cyber Tech Academy, a suite of online cybersecurity certificates designed for security professionals and those seeking to move into cybersecurity careers.
Texthelp, a provider of literacy and accessibility technology, has introduced a new web app called OrbitNote that adds accessibility features to PDFs, including the ability to type, highlight and leave voice memos on documents, the company said in a news announcement.
The pandemic has been a testament to the progress that has been made in the use of technology to support online learning, but it has also revealed how poorly traditional course design translates to a digital experience. And that’s an opportunity for institutions to become more sophisticated in leveraging digital learning environments to go beyond what’s possible in a brick-and-mortar classroom. That’s according to Luyen Chou, chief learning officer at 2U. Here, we talk about transforming online pedagogy, the potential of emerging technologies, the beauty of simple data, essential human skills and more.
A new report from Every Learner Everywhere, produced in collaboration with Tyton Partners and the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities, offers strategies for investing in digital learning infrastructure while bridging equity gaps to better serve under-represented students.
In this free, one-day event, education and IT leaders will offer practical insights and advice to help your institution navigate the many facets of digital transformation.
It's no surprise that enrollment has been a pain point for colleges and universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent D2L survey of 171 higher education leaders across North America, 30% of respondents confirmed that enrollment was an area where they've seen the greatest drop-off for students over the past two years.
A new survey from Cengage Group examined why workers quit, what opportunities they are exploring next and what they are doing to achieve those goals.
James Madison University has embedded a digital commons in its website, to better support students in continuing education programs. The institution has adopted software from InScribe, which sets up Q&A communities in online destinations where people already congregate, such as the learning management system.
Colorado State University System's online learning campus, CSU Global, has introduced a structure to woo hesitant returning students who don't want the hassle of designated term or semester start dates or having to submit transcripts before they're accepted.
A new book shares new students' reflections on college during COVID.
When asked about their preferences for a post-pandemic academic experience, most community college students in a recent survey said they want to take some courses in a fully online format, and many desired a combination of in-person and online instruction.
IT leaders, faculty and a student offer a variety of perspectives on the future for their campuses in the new year.
With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across the United States, colleges and universities face a familiar dilemma: Will COVID force a pivot to online when classes begin in the new year? A new project kicked off by futurist Bryan Alexander aims to crowdsource the answer to that question in a shared Google spreadsheet.
Anthology, a provider of higher education software to support the entire learner lifecycle, recently announced that Greenville Technical College has selected Anthology as the backbone of a campuswide systems overhaul and will implement the company's full suite of tools to better support student journeys and overall institutional effectiveness, according to a news release.
Audio conferencing company Nureva has launched a new classroom solution that integrates audio, video, device management and services.
The Online Learning Consortium has announced a multi-year partnership with Instructure to collaborate on research projects and work together through Instructure's Canvas learning management system to enrich teacher training resources and expand access to equitable digital learning.
Seventy-three percent of STEM faculty in a recent survey had to shift from face-to-face to remote learning in fall 2020, experiencing a multitude of barriers to teaching STEM courses online. Yet most survey respondents remain optimistic about the future of STEM postsecondary education, according to a new report from the Online Learning Consortium and Bay View Analytics.
Class, software that adds teaching and learning tools to the Zoom meeting platform, has introduced a number of new and updated features designed to improve the virtual and hybrid user experience.
The merger of 2U and edX announced in June is now complete. Combined, the companies now serve more than 230 partners and offer 3,500-plus online learning opportunities to more than 40 million learners, spanning free courses, executive education, boot camps, and undergraduate and graduate degree programs, according to a news announcement.
The University of Illinois Gies College of Business is partnering with Google to bundle certificate programs in job-ready skills and create microcredential pathways for adult learners.
The right combination of technology and training will ensure your learning spaces can adapt to ever-changing modes of instruction. Here are key considerations for future-proofing classrooms, supporting faculty and surviving the next pandemic.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas has introduced a number of hyflex classrooms, capable of accommodating students attending in person and online.
The maker of learning management system Canvas, Instructure, has entered into a deal to acquire Kimono, which produces software for cloud-based data integration and interoperability.
Georgia State University recently launched a Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Systems graduate certificate program.
Verizon Business has announced a number of new features for its BlueJeans Meetings product, designed to support hybrid and remote learning.
As the format of your meetings evolves, make sure you have engagement and flexibility, advises Joseph Allen, University of Utah professor and co-author of the books Suddenly Virtual and Suddenly Hybrid.
Zoom has introduced several new features specifically useful to educators.
Digital Promise has launched SEERNet, a five-year program that's intended to inspire research on digital learning at scale in both higher education and K-12.
In order to provide a more streamlined experience across their platforms, Ellucian and D2L have announced an expanded partnership focused on ease of integration.
The merger of Anthology and Blackboard announced last month is now complete, answering a few questions about how the combined companies will move forward.
Ed tech company Cengage has launched a new product that integrates digital course materials into an institution's learning management system.
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation and the adoption of new learning models at many colleges and universities — but higher ed culture has some catching up to do. While institutions traditionally measure change in decades, we're now in a time when flexibility, innovation and risk-taking are key to student access and opportunity as well as institutional survival. We spoke with Dr. Mark Lombardi, president of Maryville University, about why the business model of higher ed is broken, the importance of lifelong learning and technology's role in moving universities toward a better future.
Keysight Technologies has introduced PathWave Lab Operation for Remote Learning, a remote access solution designed for online learning that enables the remote setup of instrument labs.
During Instructure's latest user conference, the company introduced new functionality in Canvas, its learning management platform, and reminded the Canvas community that the year has brought many updates to its other products as well.
A new survey from Wiley Education Services has found that online learning "gained traction" in the pandemic.
In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share how they are planning for the unexpected, identifying efficiencies and utilizing technology to help their institutions excel in these challenging times.
Over a third of Americans changed their plans for education as a result of the pandemic, with Black and Latinx students more likely to do so than White students, according to newly released data from Strada and Heart+Mind Strategies.
UCLA Extension, the continuing education division of the University of California, Los Angeles, is introducing 11 fully online certificate programs that immerse students in the same resources and collaboration opportunities as the school's in-person classes.
Anthology and Blackboard have announced a merger, pairing the former's enterprise software for enrollment management, student engagement, alumni fundraising and institutional effectiveness with the latter's learning management software, communication tools and student success solutions.
Online program management company Academic Partnerships has acquired Coursetune, a maker of curriculum mapping software that provides visualization tools for curriculum and course design.
With fully online or hybrid course formats still very much in play at colleges and universities around the world, accessibility issues remain a key challenge, according to a recent study.
Over the past few years, online learning in higher education has gone through a period of disruptive change. Not only did the pandemic trigger a massive shift from in-person classes to online, but it also brought new models of hybrid learning to the forefront. And micro-credentials, programs certifying specific competencies that can stand alone or be applied toward a larger degree, have gained momentum as learners have needed to reskill and compete in an evolving workforce. To explore these trends and more, we spoke with Dr. Betty Vandenbosch, chief content officer at Coursera, about the state of online education, the future of the traditional four-year degree, and what universities should be doing to keep up with alternative credential pathways.
In a fall 2020 survey of institutions piloting adaptive courseware in gateway courses, 96 percent of faculty agreed that the technology helped them improve student learning, and allowed them to better monitor student progress and hold individual students accountable for engaging in class.
Online education company Noodle has introduced a new platform to help universities engage their students in lifelong learning programs.
InSpace, a new virtual education platform that allows students and instructors to interact online much like they would in physical spaces, has announced integration with Instructure's Canvas learning management system.
Now, while we are not yet free from the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions and technology market leaders are looking at the next big questions: What's in the future? Which of the changes we make during the pandemic should move with us into the future?
The Alabama Community College System (ACCS) has signed a three-year deal with Instructure extending its use of the Canvas learning management system for 12 of its colleges.
A team from Indiana University set out to expand the scope of pedagogical research by creating ManyClasses, a model for studying how students learn not just in a single classroom, but in a variety of different classes across multiple universities. We speak with researchers Emily Fyfe and Ben Motz about how ManyClasses works, the challenges of using a learning management system to conduct research, what they learned from the first ManyClasses experiment, and more.
In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights and best practices for making meaningful use of data now and building a data strategy for the future.
While hybrid learning environments show great potential in higher education, there are still pedagogical and technical challenges to overcome. Here are key guidelines for moving forward, based on research in the field.
Blackboard recently announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to integrate the company's Amazon Chime SDK service into Blackboard Collaborate.
Idaho's public colleges and universities can now share their online course offerings through the state's Online Idaho initiative, an effort to expand access to higher education via a statewide digital campus.
The Online Learning Consortium is calling for applications to participate in a new cohort that will work collaboratively to identify challenges and opportunities in online and blended learning.
Online education company 2U has announced it will acquire edX, the online learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT, for $800 million.
When a recent survey asked higher education leaders if the pivot to remote learning during the pandemic changed their institution's priorities, the majority of respondents (53 percent) said yes.
Class, an application built on Zoom that adds teaching and learning tools to the popular meeting platform, is now widely available across Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad and Android tablet devices.
In 2015, California State University launched Graduation Initiative 2025, an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps in degree completion across the system’s 23 campuses. Then halfway through that work, COVID hit — and all those student supports and services had to shift online. We find out how CSU kept students on track despite the challenges of the pandemic, the technologies and infrastructure that were needed to support students remotely, and what will remain in place going forward.
Online student support became a key issue for higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their top priority: providing academic support services such as tutoring or academic advising, according to the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report.
The prevalence of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is helping to drive staggering growth in the worldwide e-learning market.
A recent survey from Top Hat asked college students about their online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their expectations for instruction in the Fall 2021 academic term.
The League for Innovation in the Community College is working to expand online learning at community colleges with a new course sharing network that will allow colleges to offer more high-quality, credit-bearing online courses to their students.
Blackboard has partnered with Concentric Sky, maker of the Badgr digital credentialing platform, to integrate micro-credential and stackable learning pathway tools into the Blackboard Learn learning management system.
Every Learner Everywhere recently released an in-depth guide to blended learning, designed to help faculty, instructional designers, technological support staff and other stakeholders in their strategic planning for blended learning courses and programs.
UpGrad, which produces online workforce courses created by university faculty, has purchased Impartus Innovations, a company that specializes in video training technology, in a £14.5 million deal.
For many years, the Horizon Report has been tracking trends, technologies and key practices in teaching and learning. In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Kathe Pelletier, director of EDUCAUSE’s Teaching and Learning Program and co-author of the report, about key technology trends, their impact on IT departments, new education models and more.
Every Learner Everywhere, a network of organizations focused on education technologies, teaching practices and support services for blended and online learning environments, is offering a free virtual workshop on the topic of equity in digital learning.
ProctorU, the academic division of Meazure Learning, has announced it is discontinuing services that rely solely on artificial intelligence for exam proctoring. Instead, it will use human proctors for every test session.
In a recent Cengage survey, nearly three-quarters of students — 73 percent — said they would prefer to take some of their courses fully online post-pandemic. However, only half of faculty (53 percent) felt the same about teaching online.
The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding grants ranging from $50,000 to $1 million to institutions supporting distance learning and telemedicine in rural communities. The deadline for this competitive grant program is June 4.
Claremont Graduate University maintains a high-contact experience for students, based on exceptional access to faculty — even during pandemic times, when many academic and administrative functions must be suddenly transformed to remote processes.
Cybersecurity company StrikeForce Technologies is making its SafeVchat secure videoconferencing platform available for free to both K-12 and higher education institutions that are holding virtual or live-streamed graduation ceremonies this spring.
There's no doubt that the pandemic caused incredible upheaval in higher education — but the positive impacts of that disruption are significant. Here's how the shift to online learning will benefit both faculty and students moving forward.
To accommodate the hybrid model of remote and in-person teaching and learning, William & Mary's Raymond A. Mason School of Business has rolled out virtual classroom technology in three learning spaces on campus.
Nine colleges across the United States are piloting a technology-focused career training initiative that aims to prepare 500,000 learners for jobs of the future by 2030.
The landscape of higher education has been transformed by COVID-19, and that impact is a major factor in the 2021 Educause Horizon Report. Here are three key technology trends to watch as the lasting effects of the pandemic play out.
When you picture a university innovation center, what comes to mind is usually a lot of hands-on collaboration and networking. But what happens when that heavily in-person experience is forced to go virtual? For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Matt Segneri, executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, to find out about the past year’s challenges and successes converting in-person student activities into virtual experiences that still capture that entrepreneurial vibe.
Open source learning management system provider Moodle is acquiring three United States-based partner companies and combining them to form Moodle US, a new services company for Moodle customers in North America.
Virtual lab company Labster has expanded its portfolio of learning resources with a variety of new offerings designed to complement its core science simulations.
A new study out of MIT's Sloan School of Management explores the use of ideas and tools from the gaming community to improve online teaching and student learning outcomes.
Bentley University's CIS Sandbox is building on 10 years as a technology learning space.
Every college and university must redouble its focus on IT security in these unprecedented times. In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights, best practices and predictions for security and privacy in the post-pandemic era.
Almost three in five students (59 percent) in a recent Wiley survey complained that they are doing more assignments online than they ever did in their in-person classes, and nearly as many (55 percent) protested that much of it felt like "busy work."
To help job seekers gain the skills they need for employment in today's economy, Microsoft and LinkedIn are extending their global skills initiative through the end of 2021, providing free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses as well as low-cost certifications that align to in-demand jobs.
Coursera is testing a new program that lets learners develop short courses for delivery on the MOOC platform. The pilot program is currently taking contact information from people interested in creating "community guided projects."
Many students have struggled with reliable internet access during the pandemic, according to a new report from Educause.
There's a lot that faculty have done right teaching with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic — but there have also been times when technology use has been subpar.
Online learning platform Udacity has launched a School of Cybersecurity, a set of nanodegree programs aimed at training the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
In a recent survey, the majority of faculty (71 percent) reported that their teaching in Fall 2020 was "very different" or included a "number of changes" compared to pre-pandemic times. And almost half (47 percent) felt those changes would remain in place post-pandemic.
Audiovisual technology manufacturer Aver Information USA has launched a new camera for education that uses AI to “seamlessly track” instructors as they move around the classroom.
Two-thirds of people in education expect to see a continuation of remote work post-pandemic. Sixty-five percent of respondents in education agreed that due to the success of remote collaboration, facilitated by videoconferencing, their organizations are considering a flexible remote working model, according to a survey from Zoom.
Communications students studying online at Connecticut's Sacred Heart University will be doing at least some of their learning via virtual reality.
Learners who complete a MicroMasters program on edX can now apply up to nine credits toward a Master of Science in Professional Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
EDUCAUSE recently released its first Information Security Edition of the Horizon Report, profiling important trends, technologies and practices shaping the future of IT security and privacy in higher education. For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Brian Kelly, director of the cybersecurity program at EDUCAUSE, to discuss the new report, the technological trends on the horizon in IT security, how the pandemic is impacting privacy concerns, and more.
Atlanta's Morehouse College is launching an immersive virtual reality experience for students in two of its courses: Biology 105 and History 112.
The future of higher education means breaking down classroom walls, embracing digital tools and engaging students with creativity and innovation.
A new active learning classroom at University of Louisiana Monroe's College of Pharmacy is designed for one-on-one interaction in class as well as participation from remote students.
Financial pressures, political unrest, health concerns — here's how the pandemic and concurrent equity challenges have impacted both institutions and their students.
How can we move the remote learning experience farther away from a training model and closer to a collaborative learning model in which students participate together in the co-creation or discovery of knowledge? We asked Gardner Campbell for some perspectives from his research and from his own classroom.
Owl Labs has introduced a new suite of features for its Meeting Owl solution, designed to bring more immersive remote and hybrid capabilities to the flagship 360-degree camera, mic and speaker hardware product.
Open LMS has announced plans to release all of its Moodle modules and enhancements by the end of the year, as well as dedicate more resources toward developing features and code for the open source learning management system.
In a recent survey from Barnes & Noble Education, the vast majority of college students (94 percent) said they think schools should charge less for online courses. In contrast, less than half of administrators and faculty (43 percent and 41 percent, respectively) believe the same.
One unintended impact of the pandemic in higher education is the strain that remote work and learning has put on IT security. In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Stephen Heath, chief information security officer for Intrinium, an IT and security consulting and managed services company, to learn more about the security challenges institutions are facing — as well as evolving threats like ransomware.
When it comes to interactivity among classmates, nothing beats texting. Nearly a third of students (31 percent) in a recent survey chose that over any other interaction option in online learning, including interactive whiteboards (mentioned by 29 percent), breakout rooms (18 percent), live surveys and polls (14 percent) or gamification such as badges and contests (7 percent). That's according to a survey from customer experience company Sykes.
Instructure is selling the corporate side of its learning management system business for $50 million. The buyer will be Learning Technologies Group plc, a UK company with multiple businesses that produce services and technologies for digital learning and talent management.
What would students give up if they could head back to college in person? Seven in 10 would relinquish their AirPods for a month if it meant a month back on campus, according to a poll undertaken by Grand Canyon University.
Google announced a pallet full of changes to its education offerings, including a renaming of its education bundle of productivity applications and a limit to free storage for schools and colleges.
Instructure recently announced that it is making Immersive Reader from Microsoft freely available in its Canvas learning management system.
Southern New Hampshire University recently launched two credential programs with online learning platform edX.
As students adjust to the realities of college life during a pandemic, the majority (71 percent) are having trouble staying focused on their coursework, according to a fall 2020 survey.
To help academic administrators improve entry-level courses for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Every Learner Everywhere and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have created a free guide focused on best practices for equity and student success.
The longer the pandemic lasts, the more students question the value of a college education. A December survey by New America and Third Way found that nearly three in five college students (57 percent) agreed with the sentiment that higher education was no longer "worth the cost," a bump up from 49 percent in a previous survey in August.
Every Learner Everywhere has assembled a network of equity and digital learning experts to provide free professional coaching for higher education faculty, course coordinators, instructional designers and academic leaders across the United States.
The hybrid approach being taken by most colleges and universities to get through the pandemic could turn out to have the positive effect of making those schools more student-centered, not just in education but across the board. That's the takeaway in a new report by Deloitte.
In a recent survey focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in introductory-level courses this past fall, faculty reported increases in DFWI rates (the number of students who receive a D or F grade, withdraw or fail to complete a course) — particularly at two-year institutions or those serving Pell-eligible students.
The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on higher education. Here's how to weather the emerging "new normal" for the next semester and beyond.
Rhode Island's Brown University has announced its plan to hold commencement in person for graduates while members and guests will attend virtually.
How will higher education evolve as we head into — hopefully — post-pandemic times? Is it even possible to make predictions with circumstances still in flux? In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, we talk with Richard Garrett, chief research officer at higher education research firm Eduventures, about his predictions for 2021, the impact of the pandemic on online learning and ed tech, and the opportunities he sees for higher ed in the coming year.
Higher education's response to the pandemic has required agility, flexibility and perhaps most important, innovation. Join us Feb. 24 for this free one-day event, in which education and IT leaders will share how they are managing the challenges of remote work and learning, adapting to change and solving problems with outside-the-box ideas and practices.
Unity College in Maine, which frames itself as "America's Environmental College," has opened up debate about whether small institutions really need to have flagship campuses to survive.
The public mission of four-year colleges and universities needs to adapt to encompass adult learners, according to a new report. That's the population that may be most affected by the changes in education introduced during the pandemic — more so even than K-12 and college students, the report suggested.
American College of Education, an online institution specializing in education, leadership, business, healthcare and nursing programs, has partnered with Study.com to offer adult learners affordable pathways to a college degree.
A new initiative at California State University, Bakersfield offers prospective students dedicated enrollment coaches to help navigate the institution's online programs.
San Diego State University is outfitting nearly 200 classrooms across its main and Imperial Valley campuses with Sony's MAS-A100 beamforming ceiling microphone, to support the hybrid classroom model.
In higher education, we pay attention to who students are — to how they show up on our campuses and how they engage the university. But often that doesn't happen enough in online learning environments.
Math software company Maplesoft has launched a new online learning environment for high school and college-level mathematics instruction.
A new program out of Olivet Nazarene University's School of Graduate and Continuing Studies is using an online, asynchronous flipped model to provide adult students a pathway to earn a bachelor's degree.
The University of Arizona College of Engineering has signed a renewal agreement with online program management provider All Campus, extending the partnership that has been in place since 2015 to support the institution's engineering master's degree programs.
If you’re looking for software and services to augment online and blended instruction this year, start here.
According to a new report by Class Central, a company that tracks massive open online courses, of all learners who have registered for MOOCs throughout their history, a third did so last year.
When Boston University launched its hybrid learning initiative this fall, it also created a Classroom Moderator program: an army of student workers deployed in the classroom to help ensure that hybrid learning could run smoothly. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Ernie Perez, director of educational technology for BU Digital Learning and Innovation, and Jill Beckman, executive director of Client Services, talk about how they rolled out the classroom moderator service and made it a success.
The shift to online learning in response to COVID-19 has revealed pedagogical benefits that will carry on into the future.
The reopening of campuses post-pandemic won't necessarily spell the end to online learning, according to a recent survey from Top Hat.
A look back at the most-read stories of the year in higher education IT.
Georgia Career Institute, a vocational school with three campuses, has adopted 16 Google Jamboard interactive displays from BenQ to add interaction, engagement and better student comprehension to its remote instruction.
The pandemic has put higher ed institutions at an increased risk of liability and lawsuits. Here's how to navigate the legal considerations of reopening.
Learning Technologies Group, the parent company of Open LMS (formerly Moodlerooms), has acquired eThink Education. With the acquisition, eThink will be integrated into Open LMS.
Online program manager 2U has issued its first transparency report, which shares details of its agreements with 70 universities, all public or private nonprofit institutions that are supported to some extent by state and federal funding.
Pennsylvania's Manor College is rolling out the Echo360 video platform to support the student learning experience both in the classroom and online.
Purdue University Global, the institution's public online campus, is signing student transfer agreements with community colleges in states other than its own. In the last month, the Indiana-based university announced articulation agreements with Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona and Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland.
Overall learning management system downloads were 250 percent higher in August than February, according to a report from consultancy Sykes.
A company with a focus on "working learners" has launched a new marketplace for community colleges to sell their courses online. Unmudl from SocialTech.ai features courses from seven community colleges.
For colleges and universities that have pivoted to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evolution is not over. In order to better meet student needs both today and in the future, here are three key considerations.
Panopto and Webex users will now be able to transfer their video recordings to their media library. Panopto produces video management applications; Webex is a videoconferencing program.
The University of Wyoming has signed an online program management agreement with Wiley Education Services, to help faculty shift courses to online formats in time for the spring 2021 semester.
Education technology company Campuswire has introduced a platform that allows professors from around the world to deliver their live online classes to anybody on the internet.
Last fall, Oregon State University launched an Ecampus online program for its introductory physics courses, with an emphasis on collaborative, hands-on work. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Senior Physics Instructor KC Walsh and Associate Department Head David Craig talk about how they’ve used technology, open educational resources, take-home lab kits and more to engage students from a distance.
Even though first-year college students are more likely than students in later years to say they intended to return to school in the spring (73 percent versus 68 percent), they're less confident they'll see the value of the investment in higher education (45 percent compared to 51 percent), according to a recent survey done by education technology company Top Hat.
Unizin's 14 member institutions can now tap into Blackboard's Ally accessibility solution. The higher education consortium recently announced a partnership with Blackboard to help "create a more inclusive and data-informed learning environment" for its members, according to a news announcement.
Getting students actively engaged in their remote learning has a difference on the outcomes during a pandemic, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Two schools in Ohio have teamed up to help union members obtain bachelor’s degrees. In a new program called "CSU Career Plus+," Central State University is working with Eastern Gateway Community College to help graduates of the two-year college who are also members of the AFL-CIO finish their four-year degrees in online classes.
California State University has signed a site license with Labster, giving each of its 23 campuses the option of using the company's 159 virtual laboratory simulations.
Learning quiz program company Kahoot! has announced an integration with Zoom, allowing users to access, host and play Kahoot games directly in Zoom meetings.
As the pandemic continues, what's happening to all the data being collected by the various programs being used by colleges and universities to deliver remote learning? That's a question explored in a new report published by think tank New America.
Champlain College is piloting a new virtual education platform that allows students and instructors to interact online much like they would in physical spaces. Conceived by Narine Hall, a data science and machine learning professor at the college, and recently formed as a private company, InSpace is "designed to mirror the fluid, personal and interactive nature of a real classroom," according to a news announcement.
Pennsylvania's Duquesne University has installed audio conferencing systems in more than 40 classrooms to support its shift to the hybrid learning model, in which some students attend class on-campus while others participate remotely.
Since students have returned to school and remote learning this fall, there has been a dramatic increase in internet searches related to academic fraud — that’s according to data from Cisco Talos. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Jaeson Schultz, technical leader at Cisco Talos, about his research into academic fraud and the potentially hazardous websites and applications that go along with it.
Indiana's University of Evansville is developing its online education and learning efforts thanks to a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment. The university will use the funds to "implement major initiatives that will enhance the campus as well as the online learning environment," according to a news announcement.
Higher ed's response to the novel coronavirus has exposed issues of pedagogy, equity and more — but also offers opportunities to reshape the future.
On the horizon for 2021, 10G offers the promise of delivering 10 times the current most prevalent maximum speeds offered to consumers.
This week, during Instructure's virtual customer conference, CanvasCon Online, the learning management system company announced the Canvas Certified Educator program.
Coursera has announced that it is continuing its offer of free courses for students and whole campuses, along with some enhanced functionality.
When asked about the most pressing issue on their campuses, college and university presidents in a recent ACE survey deemed the mental health of students their top concern.
Even with the recent emphasis on remote instruction, now is the perfect time to consider strategies for physical classroom spaces.
In a recent survey, three-quarters of U.S.-based students, faculty and administrators reported that COVID-19 has negatively affected student engagement. Nearly as many (73 percent) said the pandemic has damaged their work and career readiness. And seven in 10 (70 percent) said they believed that more students are falling behind in their studies as a result of COVID-19.
A recent report from Every Learner Everywhere and Tyton Partners recommended five key actions institutions can take to ensure they are delivering high-quality digital learning experiences for all students.
Faculty feel ready to teach online this fall, either partially or fully. In a recent survey produced by Bay View Analytics in partnership with four online learning organizations and underwritten by Cengage, 49 percent "strongly" agreed that they're prepared, while 35 percent said they "somewhat" agreed.
As colleges and universities navigate the ever-shifting challenges of higher education's "new normal," they are also looking ahead: How can the lessons learned from the pandemic redefine teaching and learning moving forward? On Oct 20, the Campus Technology Distance Learning Summit will convene education and IT leaders to share their ideas, experiences and outlook for the future.
China’s Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University was one of the first to shift to remote learning when the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year. Now, it’s stepping things up for the fall by outfitting classrooms for the HyFlex model. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Roland Sherwood, manager of the university’s educational technologies team, to find out more.
A startup founded by ed tech veterans has announced a program intended to make Zoom more effective in replicating the classroom experience for instructors and students. Class for Zoom is currently seeking people to beta test the software.
While 40 percent of IT higher education IT leaders and instructional technologists said in June 2020 that their college or university was planning for "mostly in-person" classes for the fall, that share plummeted to less than 5 percent by August, according to a recent study by Educause.
The University of Kentucky has expanded the use of technology in classrooms to accommodate whatever format is appropriate for the course content and faculty and student preference. As the home page for the institution stated, "Work Anywhere. Learn Anywhere. Teach Anywhere."
The University of Massachusetts has launched the Inter-campus Course Exchange, an initiative to make courses from all UMass campuses available to students at any institution in the system.
New York's Colgate University has sought outside help to improve the quality of its hybrid learning experience. The university, which has reopened to students on campus, is also continuing its remote learning programs. Now, some faculty will have access to 2UOS Essential from 2U, a set of services for course production and development, technology and support.
To offer more than pre-recorded lab demonstrations or virtual laboratories to remote students, two chemistry instructors at Missouri S&T have refined their approach, which uses real-time live-streamed demonstrations of experiments.
Now that students are returning to campus at Missouri S&T, with a mix of online and in-person classes, an instructor in electrical engineering is perfecting his approach to lab activities.
Social networking giant Facebook is partnering with Coursera to launch a new Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate, designed to prepare learners of any background for jobs in the social media marketing field in just 20 weeks.
Nathan Mentzer, an associate professor in Purdue University's Polytechnic Institute and College of Education, got an early start with the HyFlex model just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to impact higher ed institutions across the country: He started blending both face-to-face and online instruction in his classrooms weeks before Purdue officially shifted to remote learning last spring.
Southern California's Pepperdine University has upgraded 166 classrooms on campus with hybrid learning technology for the Fall 2020 semester. While fall instruction will remain fully online, the institution wanted to ensure its learning spaces could accommodate any combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning, according to a news announcement.
Kyle Bowen tells CT how Arizona State University is continuing to offer students the experiences they expect from an ASU education during the current phase of remote learning and how, at the same time, the institution can leverage its work into plans for the future.
According to a recent study out of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, students need a sense of community and connection in order to thrive in remote learning experiences.
Emerson College has launched an online Data Analytics Boot Camp geared toward adult learners and working professionals.
The University of Louisiana System's Compete Louisiana college completion initiative is collaborating with StraighterLine to create a new re-entry academy designed to help adults who have stopped out of university return to earn their degree.
The University of Michigan's College of Engineering has dedicated $500,000 to help create high-quality learning experiences for students in hybrid and remote courses — particularly when it comes to hands-on projects.
Microsoft is expanding the features of the Education Insights app in its Teams collaboration platform.
The University of Cambridge is partnering with edX to launch a new MicroMasters program in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries — the university's first offering on the online learning platform.
Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is working with 2U to launch the Columbia Artificial Intelligence Program, an online executive education offering aimed at advancing the next generation of technology leaders.
According to a new survey from Visual Objects, 51 percent of high school and college students do not have consistent access to high-speed internet and WiFi.
Emory University, in partnership with Fullstack Academy, is launching online coding and cybersecurity training programs to help develop tech talent in the Atlanta area.
In a recent survey, just over half of faculty in higher education expressed doubt about the new academic year: Fifty-one percent said they were "uncertain" about the fall term. Yet 55 percent have said they're moderately or very satisfied with the plans their schools have publicly stated for the fall, and six in 10 said they'd rate the level of clarity their schools have provided regarding how students will be taught as either "excellent" or "good."
The fall semester is beginning, and we are finally starting to see reopening plans play out at colleges and universities across the country. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly explores the pandemic decision-making process with Dr. Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, and also the chair of UK’s Pandemic Response Team. He talks about how the team is structured, what types of data they monitor, what kinds of challenges they have been working through, and how they are approaching contingency planning.
Ryerson University is working with an augmented reality company to develop a series of labs for science courses. The project is based on InfernoAR from NexTech AR Solutions.
The University System of Maryland has partnered with Labster to provide its virtual laboratory simulations across all USM institutions.
Arcadia University is partnering with ed tech company 2U to launch an online Semester of Code program that will provide credit-bearing, market-relevant coding experiences for undergraduate students across the United States.
Healthcare has become a big topic of interest to college students. In a study by Quizlet, analysts found that while participation in healthcare (as measured by activity in the company's study tools) initially dropped to 86 percent of usual levels of interest as school closures took place, it rose to 113 percent as remote learning got underway.
In a recent survey of learners of all ages around the globe, 79 percent of respondents agreed that colleges and universities will fundamentally change because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stony Brook University in New York has introduced a virtual version of its "involvement fair," intended to help students on and off campus partake in club activities and meet other students, even if they can't do it in person.
Babson College, like so many schools, is priming for the start of fall classes, which begin in just a few days. Here's how the Boston-based institution has positioned itself to succeed.
A survey by online education solution provider 2U has found that nearly three-quarters of prospective students said the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more likely to consider online programs.
A survey of college students found that most were comfortable heading back to campus. The survey was done by OneClass, a company that sells study guides posted by students and faculty.
This fall, students at any of the seven participating Big Ten Academic Alliance universities will have access to free online courses at other Big Ten schools.
AVer has introduced a new distance learning camera that uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect and follow an instructor's movement in the classroom, with no need for a camera operator.
One outcome for the shift to online classes, according to the college and university instructors now teaching them, is that students will be more likely to cheat. In a recent survey, 93 percent of educators said they expected online learning to be more conducive to academic dishonesty.
The University of Southern California is investing close to $2 million in a project to deploy an AV network to cover 248 classroom spaces for hybrid learning.
In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College in Southern California, talks candidly about how his institution is making strategic decisions for the fall and what kinds of policies and infrastructure they are putting in place to move forward. The conversation comes from Campus Technology's recent Distance Learning Summit – a virtual event focused on the most critical considerations for managing higher ed's "new normal" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Active learning courseware platform Top Hat has introduced Slate, an integrated communication tool that enables course announcements, real-time discussions, project collaborations, peer connections, community building and more, all in one centralized hub.
The University of St. Augustine faces a problem unique to programs delivering healthcare training — how to help students prepare for clinical careers.
Learning platform edX recently convened the first (virtual) meeting of its MicroBachelors Program Skills Advisory Council, a group launched in early 2020 that brings together foundations, corporations and academic institutions to "solve shared challenges around reskilling and upskilling in order to address the demands of the future workplace." Discussions in the meeting centered on two key areas: credentials and content.
Zoom Video Communications has announced a new device specifically designed for home videoconferencing. But at least one analyst suspects the price may keep buyers at by. In mid-July Zoom announced it would be taking pre-orders for Zoom for Home, a dedicated appliance for allowing employees to meet and collaborate online. Currently, the device is available for pre-order.
Just a few weeks after announcing a phased reopening plan for the fall semester that would have included both in-person and online instruction, Spelman College has made the decision to switch to an entirely online model.
As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
When the University of Arizona's fall semester begins on Aug. 24, instruction will be a mix of in-person and remote learning — with more than half of all classes including an in-person component.
Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces for Indiana University, has been working hard to make classrooms safe for students and faculty this fall. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, she talks with Executive Editor Rhea Kelly about how the new reality of COVID-19 is impacting IU’s campuses, the challenges of preparing classrooms for the fall, and technology’s role in ensuring a successful teaching and learning experience.
Education technology company Cengage is running free math readiness boot camps for students, to help them prepare for college.
A single-question survey of more than 17,000 incoming college students across the United States and Canada has found that students believe online courses don't have the same value as the in-person experience.
A survey among college-bound students in California has found that four in five have had to change their college plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google has unveiled some of its plans for updates to Meet, the web conferencing tool that's part of the company's G Suite for Education. The basic thrust is to give instructors more control over their real-time sessions and help them make the classes more engaging.
Indiana University has released preliminary findings from a survey of undergraduates and instructors across its all of its campuses, examining their experiences of the transition to remote instruction this past spring.
San José State University is partnering with Fullstack Academy to create two new Tech Bootcamp programs focused on coding and cyber security.
Microsoft intends to provide free online job training through its company, LinkedIn, to 25 million people by the end of this year. The goal: to help those who have been hit by unemployment, furloughs and reduced paychecks to acquire new digital skills as part of accelerating the economic recovery.
Google has announced three new certificate programs on Coursera: Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience Design.
Vanderbilt University has announced a new Instructional Design Support Center focused on improving online teaching and course quality.
A new program at Rice University gives students outside the institution a chance to take select online courses for credit.
Packback, an online platform that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate class discussions, has introduced an Instant Feedback feature that provides students with a real-time assessment of their contributions and allows them to revise and improve their work before final submission.
The University of Oklahoma has pulled together its online graduate degree programs under one central umbrella: OU Online.
Spelman College in Georgia has announced a phased reopening plan that includes both in-person and online instruction, in a "low-density hybrid" model.
The University of West Georgia has announced plans for a "full return" to campus on Aug. 12, for in-person instruction. The school has also developed contingency plans, one for fully online classes and one that shifts from on-site to online at some point during the fall term.
Pre-pandemic, a slim majority of students considered affordability the most compelling driver for choosing their online school.
Arizona State University is hosting a free two-day online conference to help all higher education faculty prepare remote courses for the fall.
According to a recent survey by education technology company Cengage, nearly nine in 10 colleges and universities (86 percent) haven't yet announced plans for the fall semester.
In this first episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, "A Futurist's View of the Fall Semester," Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with futurist Bryan Alexander about higher education's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the fall semester might play out as colleges and universities reopen.
Instructors teaching remotely or in HyFlex learning environments can now access Zoom videoconferencing directly from HoverCam's Flex 11 document camera software.
Colorado State University's online campus, CSU Global, has joined the Higher Education Course Recovery Consortium, a network of institutions that are sharing high-quality online courses to help connect students with the courses they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vermont's Champlain College has introduced a Virtual Gap Program that allows high school graduates to spend a semester focused on intellectual, personal and professional growth before beginning their higher education experience.
Refer your college students to these services to help them keep up with school work.
Now that the initial fires of COVID-19 response have been put out, institutions are faced with a lot of unknowns for the fall semester. Campus Technology is convening campus leaders and ed tech experts to share their ideas and best practices in a second virtual event July 16.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the massive rush to move courses online this spring, it’s that a sudden change to fully online, even in the year 2020, isn’t easy. Here, Jared Stein proposes an important takeaway from the pandemic: Blended learning environments can help us prepare for the future.
New Jersey Institute of Technology started the process of planning its return to campus with a strength — the concept of converged learning — and began building from there.
Online learning provider Coursera has opened up its certificate programs to current undergraduate, graduate or recently graduated college and university students.
Arizona's Prescott College will reopen on-campus classes this fall with a new risk-management strategy: using a flexible block-class schedule to minimize contacts among faculty, staff and students.
In a statement today from President Michael McRobbie, Indiana University announced its plans for resuming fall instruction.
Education technology company Kahoot has added integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing users to play Kahoot games while collaborating remotely via Teams’ web conferencing and chat tools.
A "playbook" from a team of higher education organizations provides advice and tips for faculty on how to design their courses for online delivery, enhance their online instruction and pursue continuous improvement.
In a special arrangement with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a new course by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Health is training people to do COVID-19 contact tracing.
Rice University transitioned its annual Center for Transforming Data to Knowledge (the D2K Lab) showcase to a virtual showcase.
The Online Learning Consortium has received a grant to work with minority-serving institutions as they shift to online instruction. The $50,000 award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will fund delivery of affordable, short-term workshops to reach instructors in institutions that need professional development resources most.
A survey undertaken by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association and online learning producer MindEdge found that two-thirds of respondents in colleges and universities have seen growing interest in alternative credentials among students in recent years, and nearly half would call it "significant growth" in interest.
To cover all bases, Simmons University, a private women-focused institution in Boston, has announced its intention to develop an online undergraduate experience in time for the start of school in fall 2020. The new program, being built with the help of 2U, will give students the option of enrolling in hundreds of Simmons courses redesigned this summer for online delivery.
From determining a remote learning strategy to planning for the new normal and enabling standards-based practices, these five phases describe the progress institutions are making toward excellence in teaching and learning online.
Google has just made premium functionality in its online video meeting software freely available to anybody with a Google e-mail account.
This fall, California State University will be keeping most of its institutions' courses online, in response to the ongoing health and safety concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new set of guidelines from the American College Health Association has provided a run-down of key considerations for safely reopening institutions of higher education as the COVID-19 pandemic slows.
The University of Arizona plans to resume in-person classes this fall, after the state began statewide antibody testing with help of the university.
The University of Arizona has expedited plans to launch a global campus, involving other institutions of higher education on five continents, to reach international students whose plans have been disrupted by COVID-19-induced campus closures, international travel restrictions or visa moratoriums.
A new report has identified five areas where colleges and universities will have to develop strength in order to woo future generations of international students: social engineering, sustainability, mindfulness, savvy use of technology and the ability to deliver a "transnational" education.
Three universities have gone public with their use of remote laboratory equipment from National Instruments (NI) to give students hands-on practice with live data and instrumentation, even as they made the switch from in-person to remote classes.
Thunderbird School of Global Management, a school within Arizona State University, is planning for a robot-filled graduation. The institution will be using telepresence robots equipped with a tablet computer to provide video and audio of the graduating seniors.
MOOCs — massive open online courses — have become a major part of the online learning conversation with the advent of school closures due to coronavirus. Class Central, a site that tracks and catalogs the online learning platform segment, reported a "surge" of attention on MOOCs beginning on March 15, a date when "social distancing" became part of the common language.
Video lectures may have worked as a stop-gap measure in the emergency move to online learning, but they just don't cut it for the long term. Here are nine ways to bring distance education courses to the next level.
Nearly half of faculty in a recent survey said they lowered their expectations about the amount of work they could expect from their students after the switch to online learning in response to school closures caused by COVID-19.
In an April survey done by education technology vendor Top Hat, a quarter of college students said they're undecided about whether or not to continue their education in the fall.
This community college was one of the first to announce its plans for the fall semester. And no matter what students might prefer, they won't be returning to standard classroom settings anytime soon.
Berkeley College resumed its spring semester this week with online courses. To make sure students had access to computing devices, the private for-profit school, with locations in New York and New Jersey, handed out free laptops to all new incoming students.
Ed tech company ProctorU has created a "student bill of rights" that outlines seven areas of expectations students should be able to count on from their academic institutions.
An education study site ran an informal poll with students about whether they'd return to school in the fall if it were only delivered remotely; a third said they'd withdraw.
Higher education's current move to online learning may be leaving a sour taste in the mouths of students and faculty across the country, but there is a silver lining.
California State University, Fullerton has had to mop up the confusion generated when local news stations reported that the campus would be delivering its courses virtually on the first day of classes in fall. According to a statement issued by Provost Pamella Oliver a day later, the reporting was wrong.
Piazza, the company that produces a social learning application for colleges and universities, has added new functionality to its software. Piazza "Live Q&A" offers a dedicated place within courses where students can ask questions and upvote questions in real time as instructors are running their classes.
When Arizona State University shifted the whole student body to online learning during its COVID-19 campus closure, it had an advantage: Lessons learned by EdPlus and ASU Online. In this interview, EdPlus CEO Phil Regier shares the pain and the promise of digital education at distance.
Data analytics company HelioCampus has released the LMS Explorer Kit, a free tool that allows institutions to extract and organize data from their learning management system to better inform resource planning and decision-making.
With campus closures leading education institutions everywhere to scramble to move instruction to an online format, Campus Technology is convening ed tech experts and practitioners to share their ideas and best practices in a virtual event on May 5.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all higher education institutions (90 percent) in a recent survey used some form of emergency distance education to complete the Spring 2020 term. And 56 percent of faculty who moved courses online were using teaching methods they had never used before.
An education technology company has enhanced a program for experiential learning and assessment that can be used with K-12 and career and technology students.
The University of Michigan is adding new online programs for the fall, including a new master's degree in public health.
With nearly all campuses transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 outbreak, California's community colleges will let students continue their science lab-based education by giving them access to virtual laboratories.
Amazon Web Services Education has introduced a set of free resources intended to help teachers and faculty in K-20 with their transitions to remote teaching and learning.
At last count, 4,235 higher education institutions across the United States have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic — affecting an estimated 25,798,790 students, according to a visualization from Entangled Solutions.
Coursera has introduced a new tool that helps universities identify courses on the company's online learning platform that most closely match their on-campus offerings.
These practices will help engage students and improve outcomes throughout the online learning process.
Colleges and universities have been impelled, in recent weeks, to conduct nearly all academic and business processes online for our health and safety amid the hazards of COVID-19. Out of this, a persistent question has emerged: Are we really able to carry on the best values of higher education through our online presence? Gardner Campbell considers the question.
To take advantage of the momentum created by a quick switch from face-to-face courses to online version, one Texas university is ramping up plans for a major online summer session too. Rice University, which switched to distance learning in March in response to coronavirus, has decided to offer all of its summer courses online.
A new analysis by App Annie has found that mobile education applications have experienced a 90 percent increase in weekly downloads usage worldwide between the last three months of 2019 and the first three months of 2020.
A Nordic company has introduced a virtual reality collaboration platform. Glue Collaboration's software by the same name facilitates virtual environments where remote participants can come together to learn, share, plan and create as if they were in the same physical space.
Some students are hitting Minecraft during their "self-quarantines" to recreate their campuses. And at least one group is planning a national graduation ceremony to take place in their virtual world.
Colleges and universities everywhere are rushing to move courses online and keep teaching and learning going during the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how to cope with what may feel like an impossible task.
Enrollment for online education rose in 2019 at universities and colleges, but not as quickly as it had been doing in previous years, according to a new survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
While university instructors around the world scramble to implement delivery of their courses online — a medium with which they may have only limited experience — they can learn from the field notes of their counterparts at the largest international joint-venture university in China.
This year's report on The Changing Landscape of Online Education comes as nearly every college and university in the land is taking its courses online in response to COVID-19. In an 11th-hour addition to the report, CHLOE researchers suggested that the immediate goal for any institution right now should be to have faculty communicate with students on completing the tasks and assignments they need to satisfy course requirements.
The rushed transition to online instruction during the coronavirus pandemic can be wrought with anxiety, technical issues, concern for students and more. What's the best way to stay positive and support faculty?
With the coronavirus pandemic closing college and university campuses everywhere, faculty are tasked with a quick move to online instruction. Here, education experts offer advice on how to make the transition.
As coronavirus changes life as we knew it, these education experts offer advice on how to make the transition to online instruction.
2U just launched "No Back Row PRO," a free set of services to help faculty who are part of its university partners ramp up their online delivery of courses.
A tuition-free university, the University of the People, said it would make its online courses available to American universities, enabling their students to take courses for credit.
Foundry College, a two-year-old institution that provides "face-to-face" classes online, has spun off its active learning platform as a stand-alone service.
The University of California, Irvine School of Education has created a new research center that will aim to provide "evidence-based resources, materials and guidelines for teachers and students to improve academic achievement and equity in online learning."
As more and more colleges and universities are shutting down their campuses over the next several weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
Quality Matters, a nonprofit focused on standards for online learning, has created a set of checklists for rapidly moving classes online in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning management system company Blackboard has enabled a self-service portal where colleges and schools can immediately subscribe to its digital collaboration platform, Blackboard Collaborate.
Kahoot! has begun offering free access to the "premium" version of its game-based learning software. This move comes in response to the number of schools and colleges that are shifting to online education to minimize face-to-face contact during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country's largest community college system, Los Angeles Community College District, announced this week that it is moving as many courses as possible to online formats across its nine colleges, at least until April 13.
With universities all over the world looking to quickly move face-to-face classes online, massive open online course companies Coursera and edX have stepped in to offer access to their vast portfolios of course content.
In the face of coronavirus, institutions large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year are canceling classes for the foreseeable future to reduce the likelihood of face-to-face interactions as much as possible.
Blackboard has announced it will sell its Open LMS business to workplace digital learning and talent management company Learning Technologies Group.
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has launched a free online course to help instructors and institutions that need to make a quick move to remote learning.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued interim guidance for higher education administrators on how to respond to coronavirus.
To help institutions prepare for emergency situations such as a coronavirus outbreak, the Online Learning Consortium has put together a list of tools and advice for handling a quick shift to online courses.
While the physical campus at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has been closed due to coronavirus (now referred to as COVID-19 by health experts), faculty have quickly adopted an online teaching platform to reach their students through remote instruction.
As universities in China move courses online to serve students remotely in the face of COVID-19 lockdowns, instructors are rushing to modify their pedagogy and incorporate digital teaching tools. To help ease that transition, we've gathered our top stories on online teaching and instructional design, chock full of tips and best practices from the trenches.
Graduates at Purdue University Global recently had the option to participate in their commencement ceremonies virtually, thanks to a pilot program using virtual reality to provide an immersive remote experience of the event.
When New York University closed its NYU Shanghai campus in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in China, little did it realize how much students would appreciate the efforts the university went through to keep their learning on track. The spring 2020 semester kicked off with school officials determined to use digital tools to deliver learning online as an alternative.
A new study from the Online Learning Consortium and Every Learner Everywhere outlines seven primary trends in digital learning innovation as well as four secondary trends worth watching.
Want to improve your course videos? A video producer at Miami University shares her expert advice.
Instructure's CEO will be stepping down in a couple of weeks after the latest purchase agreement with Thoma Bravo is complete.
In a revised agreement announced today, venture capital company Thoma Bravo has increased its offer to acquire Instructure, from the prior $47.60 per share to a “best and final offer” of $49 per share in cash.
Instructure's pending acquisition by venture capital company Thoma Bravo appears to have bitten the dust.
An intensely researched study published on Class Central has dissected the economics of boot camps and found them to be poor venture capital investments — and possibly poor investments for their students too.
Boot camps generated nearly half a billion dollars in 2019 and graduated almost 34,000 students, yet the year-over-year growth rate slowed, according to a report from Career Karma.
A virtual version of the escape room concept is engaging students at Northampton Community College. Here's how the setup works.
A company that has made a name for itself in lecture capture and web streaming has acquired another company that provides similar services.
A new online science education platform offers free access to personalized learning content, virtual lab experiences and networking with the global scientific community.
The University of North Texas is giving non-traditional students a pathway to complete a bachelor's degree online. The Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program will launch on Coursera beginning in fall 2020.
More than half of faculty prefer using a blended environment with their students, which includes both blended and in-person elements, but nearly three-quarters would choose a completely or mostly face-to-face approach for most elements involving interaction with students, according to a survey from the Educause Center for Analysis and Research.
A two-year campaign is being undertaken by the Flipped Learning Global Initiative and Teachers Pay Teachers to develop high-quality flipped learning resources for the classroom.
Google has introduced a new Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate, a program designed to provide job-ready skills in Python, Git and IT automation in under six months.
Online exam security and identity management company ProctorU is merging with Yardstick Assessment Strategies, a provider of psychometrics and computer-based exam administration for professional testing organizations.
EdX has introduced a new MicroBachelors program designed to offer working learners job-ready skills in a credit-backed, stackable credential that can be applied toward a full bachelor's degree.
According to a team of researchers from Canadian University Dubai, Lancaster University and the University of Adelaide, a review of literature found that massive open online courses can provide flexible learning, address rapidly changing skills needs and deliver credentials.
The flipped learning model doesn't necessarily work in the long term, according to an experiment at West Point.
The company that staked its claim in the LMS market by taking its learning management system open source in 2011 has agreed in principle to be acquired by a venture capital firm. Instructure recently announced the transaction. Thoma Bravo has offered stockholders $47.60 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $1.79 billion.
Recent research uncovered just a handful of distinct elements that set great online teaching apart from the merely good. The findings came out of interviews with eight faculty members who have won awards for their online teaching from three professional associations: the Online Learning Consortium, the Association for Educational Communications & Technology and the United States Distance Learning Association.
A statewide study of 30 SUNY community colleges found that, overall, students who successfully completed online courses nearly doubled their chances of earning a degree or transferring to a four-year college.
China's government has gotten into the MOOC game, setting annual targets for how many high-quality massive open online courses should be produced each year.
The latest word on the use of "pre-class activities" — flipped learning — is that it improves student engagement in the class itself as well as students' assessment scores. A recent study by a team of researchers from Macmillan Learning and the University of Connecticut examined the use of flipped learning through Achieve, a new Macmillan digital learning tool, and found a "significant effect" with its use.
To prepare students for the job market of the future, online institutions must equip them with interpersonal skills such as leadership, communication and management. Here are four strategies for prioritizing the human connection.
A recent report from child care and education benefits company Bright Horizons found that four out of five working learners do some of their learning online, and more than half are enrolled in courses that are entirely online.
Pearson has announced the acquisition of Lumerit Education, an ed tech company that uses data analytics to match learners to academic programs and helps them earn the right credits for their desired degree path.
If schools were wondering whether student success tools are worth the investment, a survey among students by Educause has put the question to rest. Students rated degree audit tools that show the degree requirements completed as the most useful (ranked by 80 percent of respondents as "very" or "extremely" useful).
Kapi'olani Community College instituted comprehensive training to help faculty design, develop and assess online courses — including supportive incentives to make sure instructors can successfully complete the program.
A new software coding program at Bellevue College aims to build students' tech skills for technology jobs in the software development field. The institution's Continuing Education division partnered with coding education company Coding Dojo to create the new line of accelerated education courses, beginning with a 12-week program in Python development.
Temple University's College of Public Health is a diverse school experiencing significant growth online. Here's how the institution is supporting the development and maintenance of high-quality online faculty.
Coursera is expanding its portfolio as an online learning platform to work with colleges and universities on campus. Coursera for Campus provides universities with content that they can integrate into their curricula as credit eligible courses and supplemental learning.
According to a recently published research project, large classes — those with 40 or more students — are best for "foundational and factual knowledge acquisition," and smaller enrollments — 15 or fewer students — are better for courses intended "to develop higher order thinking, mastery of complex knowledge and student skill development."
California is taking on the skills gap directly by opening a community college dedicated to addressing the needs of working adults and hiring managers. Calbright College, which opened for course registration today, will use a combination of online classes, mobile apps and in-person apprenticeships to give its adult students the specific skills they need to get higher paying jobs.
Purdue University recently announced a major learning management system change: By the start of the fall 2020 semester, the entire university system will move from Blackboard Learn to D2L Brightspace.
For students to succeed in online learning, faculty must be encouraged to go back to class themselves.
A do-it-yourself mindset is changing the face of education worldwide, according to new survey results from Pearson and Harris Insights & Analytics. Learners are "patching together" their education from a "menu of options," including self-teaching, short courses and bootcamps, and they believe that self-service instruction will become even more prevalent for lifelong learning.
Instructional design firm iDesign has unveiled a new competency-based education program for learner experience professionals.
Even as the Century Foundation was doing its best to damn the practices of online program managers that work with colleges and universities to deliver online courses and programs, OPM pioneer 2U sought proactively to counter the report's punch by calling for greater visibility in online program management with a new "Framework for Transparency."
A damning report from the Century Foundation calls into question the continuing use of for-profit companies to deliver online courses in public institutions, referring to the companies as "wolves in sheep's clothing."
Students in the Los Angeles Community College District now have access to online tutoring to augment on-campus tutoring services.
Chegg is growing its learning platform with the acquisition of Thinkful, an online learning company specializing in bootcamp-style tech training.
Coursera has introduced Coursera Labs, a new offering that allows learners to work hands-on with almost any third-party software application, without any environment setup or software downloads.
Arizona State University is finding out what refugee farmers in Uganda and online course creators have to teach each other about making do with very little.
Masterclass co-founder Aaron Rasmussen is turning his attention to making introductory college courses more affordable for students. His new venture, dubbed Outlier.org, is launching online courses for Calculus I and Introduction to Psychology this fall.
Capella University has issued a report of findings based on five years of learning outcomes from its competency-based education or "direct assessment" program. According to the fully online institution, CBE students have a higher two-year persistence rate than peers following traditional programs; they're getting through their courses of study at a faster pace; and they pay less in tuition and also borrow less.
A new partnership between Southern New Hampshire University and Salesforce will give students the opportunity to earn college credits for completing Salesforce training badges.
The top five free online courses of all time follow no pattern whatsoever. One covers programming, two are about natural sciences and two others examine brain topics from very different perspectives, and they come from universities all over the world. But all five have one thing in common: They've been judged as the best-ranked by the people who have taken the classes and voted on them through Class Central.
Recently, GitHub announced integrations between GitHub Classroom and popular learning management systems Google Classroom, Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace and Moodle, enabling the automatic syncing of students from the LMS platform to GitHub Classroom.
Making videoconferencing available to students who can't attend class in person can improve attendance and student satisfaction, according to a two-year project that took place at Indiana University.
This year coding bootcamps are expected to graduate more than 23,000 developers, an overall growth rate of 705 percent since 2013, according to a recent report by Course Report, and an increase of 49 percent over 2018.
This week, Google introduced Assignments, a revamp of its Course Kit toolkit (in beta last year), designed to streamline the process of collecting and grading student work.
A new report has provided SWOT analyses of seven regions around the world related to digital and distance education. The bottom line: While online learning is on the rise everywhere, programs and courses show great unevenness because of a lack of standards.
The U.S. Department of Education is allowing California's new process for students receiving federal aid despite a change in ED regulations that would have impacted 80,000 online students.
2U is partnering with the London School of Economics and Political Science to offer the company's first online undergraduate degree program.
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has launched a new set of courses through Coursera that will help prepare non-technical people to tackle technical master's degrees.
Boston University's Questrom School of Business has partnered with edX to create a fully online Master of Business Administration with a total tuition cost of $24,000.
Education technology company Sonic Foundry recently announced integration between its video platform and learning management system Blackboard Learn Ultra.
Recent reporting by Class Central shed light on a new initiative in Europe among MOOC providers and the universities they work with to launch a program for creating portable credentials for learners. The European MOOC Consortium announced its Common Microcredential Framework in April.
Remote proctoring company Proctorio has added two plagiarism detection tools to its Learning Integrity Platform.
Blackboard has introduced the Blackboard Reporting Stack Developer Tier, the first release on the Blackboard Data platform, which gives colleges and universities direct access to data sets to analyze their learning ecosystem and support institutional goals.
Blackboard's Ally accessibility solution is now available for D2L's Brightspace learning management system.
Moving a course from brick-and-mortar to online requires rethinking how you deliver content, replicate in-class interactions and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Canvas and Proctorio are partnering to launch new solutions to help students and teachers identify plagiarism.
California's community college system has issued 70 grants totaling $27.5 million to help its colleges develop and strengthen career education programs that can be taken online.
South Carolina's Claflin University is working with ed tech startup Upswing to offer a variety of support resources for its online students.
A new collaboration between edX, Arizona State University and MIT has resulted in an online master's degree program in Supply Chain Management that stacks credits from both universities.
In an effort to expand access to online learning, the University of North Texas is partnering with Coursera to offer non-credit courses in the massive open online format.
Online institution Capella University is opening its first brick-and-mortar Campus Center.
Amazon Web Services is releasing three new badges focused on robotics, augmented reality and machine learning.
A new survey from learning platform edX has identified two major skill areas where respondents reported feeling a lack of proficiency in their jobs: data sciences, and business and soft skills.
The University of San Diego Division of Professional and Continuing Education is working with online coding school Thinkful to provide job training for high-demand tech careers in the greater San Diego area.
In spite of the notion that students could conceivably take online courses from an institution anywhere in the world, two-thirds stick close to home — choosing a college or university within 50 miles of where they live, according to an annual survey of online students done by Wiley company Learning House.
For the last five years, Gallup has surveyed a national sampling of 75,000 college graduates to understand their post-college "well-being and workplace engagement." Recently, the survey company did the same specifically for graduates of Western Governors University.
Does online learning spend more on technology and less on people? That's the latest question posed by Eduventures Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett, in an essay published on the Encoura website.
Today, Western Governors University is launching a new competency-based series of courses through an independent entity. According to the institution, the courses to be offered through WGU Academy, as it's called, are intended for students who need a little extra help before they're ready for college.
A new report from Strada Education Network offers key takeaways from last fall's Online Student Success Symposium, a two-day workshop focused on challenges, innovative practices and future opportunities in online learning.
Purdue University is expanding into the corporate learning realm with two new deals with Fortune 500 corporations Cisco Systems and Eli Lilly and Co. The institution worked with each company to create custom courses for their employees, with a focus on providing high-quality content in a flexible online format.
A Wisconsin university has signed on with an online bootcamp to provide crash courses in in-demand tech skills to address the state's job training needs. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Continuing Education is working with coding school Thinkful on the initiative.
Colorado State University's College of Business has set up a pilot for what it calls a first for a business school: a blended classroom that connects on-campus and remote students in real time. The approach uses technology from mashme.io for live connectivity and collaboration.
The Christensen Institute has weighed in on the potential for coding and computer science bootcamps to disrupt traditional higher education. In a new report, "Betting on Bootcamps," the organization, which focuses on "disruptive innovation," has offered five scenarios for the future of these short-term, workforce-aligned training programs that emphasize professional success.
Arizona State University is joining forces with The Rise Fund to launch InStride, a new partnership program with employers to provide opportunities for employees to obtain a university education.
Udacity is launching a new Nanodegree program on the foundations of C++, the programming language used to code self-driving cars, robotics and other complex autonomous and artificial intelligence software systems.
Computer-based testing center company Pearson VUE will be embedding new identity verification into its remote testing service.
Arizona State University intends to co-launch a for-profit company to expand the number of partnerships with corporations for its education programs.
Where faculty are compelled to work with instructional designers on development of their online courses, students have better outcomes, according to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research
Students who takes classes fully online perform about the same as their face-to-face counterparts, according to 54 percent of the people in charge of those online programs. Another 11 percent of "chief online officers" said the online students did better; and 35 percent said they did worse. Those results came from a recent survey done by Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Fully online courses are more likely to drive enrollment growth, according to a recent survey of institutions from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
In a typical online course, students are more likely to interact with course materials — 52 percent of the time — than they are with faculty, other students or staff, according to a recent survey from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research.
Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central, has been tracking the machinations of the MOOC business since before it was a business. Here, he provides perspective on the revenue side of open and online courses.
How long is a credit hour? That's the question at the heart of a discussion going on in a committee of distance learning influencers who are part of a negotiated rulemaking process that has met for the last three months to set out a proposal for federal regulation on accreditation for the U.S. Department of Education.
Purdue University will be working with Chegg, a company that produces online homework help among other lines of business, to amplify its Online Writing Lab services.
Could online learning help institutions provide a lower-cost education to more students? That's a question that Richard Garrett, Eduventures chief research officer, examined recently in a brief on the Encoura website. What's needed, Garrett concluded, is a "creative [blend] of in-person and online learning" within institutions to "produce the best mix of cost reduction and high quality."
A "data point" study by the National Center for Education Statistics reported that about a third of high school students in the 2009 to 2013 cohort took dual enrollment classes, mostly at their own schools.
A survey of chief academic officers at public colleges and universities found that while most online courses are taught by full-time faculty, their preparation for and oversight in doing so is highly inconsistent. The survey was undertaken by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities working in tandem with Learning House, a Wiley division that provides online program management services.
Blackboard has announced the execution of a definitive agreement to sell its Transact business unit to private equity firm Reverence Capital Partners.
University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan recently announced plans for the five-campus university to launch an online college intended for adult learners.
Digital academic program management provider 2U is collaborating with LinkedIn and the We Company to give students and faculty in its partner institutions access to new resources.
The University System of Maryland is experimenting with the use of massive open online courses to accelerate the path to an advanced degree — and the work has shed light on surprising new benefits of the MOOC format.
In a recent survey, community college students cited online learning as one of their top five challenges to success. Conducted by researchers from North Carolina State University, the Revealing Institutional Strengths and Challenges Survey polled 50,097 students at 10 community colleges across the United States on the challenges they face in five areas: academic support services; campus environment; finances and financial aid; succeeding in their courses; and work and personal issues.
Instructure, maker of the Canvas learning management system, announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire e-portfolio and student success company Portfolium.
Nonprofit Hypothesis is offering an app that allows for “open annotation” of web content. The organization is especially interested in wooing educational users (both K-12 and higher ed) to serve as test pilots.
Florida International University is testing out the use of a virtual learning assistant pegged as "artificial intelligence tutoring" in an online program. The university has begun a pilot with Cognii, an education technology company that uses natural language processing to interact with the student as he or she learns a particular topic, gets assessed on comprehension and receives coaching to master the concepts.
A publishing company that creates digital learning experiences has introduced a new course to help students navigate through difficult obstacles on their path to graduation. Perceivant launched reMIND, which is designed to improve the success of first-generation, low-income college students but is applicable to all undergraduates.
A look back at the topics that resonated most over the last year
From artificial intelligence to STEM education, these technologies and topics are worth paying attention to this year.
Ever-increasing numbers of universities and colleges are teaming up with boot camps to deliver tech training. Does your campus need one too?
A Washington, D.C. blizzard was bad enough to knock a day and a half off of the first three-day effort to dig into work on proposed regulations for federal student aid programs. The regulations, authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act, are being undertaken by a "negotiated rulemaking" committee that brings together various stakeholders to hammer out language that the U.S. Department of Education is expected to use for two regulatory areas: accreditation and innovation.
Coursera has partnered with 15 universities to develop a portfolio of health-related online courses to help address the global shortage of skilled workers in the healthcare industry.
In our latest Teaching with Technology Survey, the vast majority of faculty members said they teach in either a fully online or blended format.
EdX has gone public with its latest monetization plans. In an effort to develop a "sustainable long-term business model," the MOOC provider has made changes to both its free and paid options for courses.
Coursera today launched a three-course specialization that lays the groundwork for certification in SAS analytics skills. The SAS Programming Specialization "takes learners from the basics through what they need to become SAS certified," according to a news announcement.
Gen Zers aren't shy about saying money motivates them to learn. According to a survey conducted online for LinkedIn in October among 3,072 adults working full time, the top two reasons these individuals consider learning important is to improve at their jobs and to make more money.
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and College Consortium recently hammered out an online course-sharing initiative. The program is intended to help the private schools increase course access to students, with all kinds of benefits.
The share of college students taking online courses has grown, up by about 6 percent, even as the overall number of people enrolled in higher education institutions dropped by about half a percent. According to preliminary numbers issued by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, of the 20.1 million students enrolled in fall 2017, 6.7 million were taking at least one distance education class, representing 33 percent of the total — a boost from 31 percent in the previous year.
The University of Oxford's Saïd Business School is using cutting-edge videoconferencing technology to connect students and academic scholars in a truly global classroom.
Facebook is launching Learn with Facebook, a career development site offering training, tools and resources aimed at helping people access new job opportunities.
Microsoft has introduced a new series of open access courses on cybersecurity that can be taken for free or, for more formal recognition, as a certificate program for a fee. The Microsoft Professional Program Cybersecurity track includes 12 courses — 10 of which must be completed successfully to earn the certificate. The program is hosted on edX and includes labs, community interaction and quizzes. Content is delivered online through videos.
Education technology company Blackboard has introduced enhancements to the Ultra Experience version of Blackboard Learn, its learning management system, including integration with Ally, an accessibility checklist tool.
Online program manager 2U has signed a 15-year contract extension with one institutional client and announced a new suite of online "short courses" with two others.
Southern New Hampshire University, which in a few short years has transformed itself into an online learning powerhouse, is merging with LRNG, a nonprofit organization focused on workforce and education needs of urban communities.
South Carolina has introduced free coding education for all of its residents through an agreement between the state's Department of Commerce Office of Innovation and Build Carolina, a nonprofit that generates internships, apprenticeships and other education endeavors in innovative fields.
The University of North Dakota has teamed up with for-profit training company Woz U to provide short-term technology education programs. The institution is including the courses provided by Steve Wozniak's education company as part of its "personal & professional development" catalog.
A research project at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is exploring the use of flipped teaching in science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.
The University of Colorado Boulder has formally introduced a "remote presence" technology to enable students who can't be physically present in a course to attend remotely. Kubi is a robotic neck that holds a tablet and is controllable by the remote user to allow him or her to look around the room through a Zoom videoconference meeting.
Over the past five years, the higher ed LMS market for institution-wide adoptions in the United States and Canada has become increasingly dominated by "the Big Four": Instructure Canvas, Blackboard Learn, D2L Brightspace and Moodle, according to a 2018 analysis from e-Literate's Phil Hill.
The Khan Academy has launched a new series of videos focused on civics for students in K-12 and higher education — and anybody else interested in learning how government works in the United States.
YouTube, a Google company, has announced plans to invest $20 million in YouTube Learning, an initiative hinted at during the summer. The goal: "to support education-focused creators and expert organizations that create and curate high-quality learning content on the video site."
Drexel University created an open source website to showcase leading technologies, practices and research in virtual education.
Even as online enrollments continued growing (3 percent last year) while overall higher education enrollments fell, a new survey among deans and directors has uncovered a "mismatch" between the online programs they help deliver and student preferences. These kinds of disconnects, according to a report on the findings, result in "mass-market opportunities that are being lost" by the institutions. The project was undertaken by the Association for Continuing Higher Education and Learning House.
A new initiative at Trinity College is tasked with preparing students for the digital workplace of the future. The college has partnered with Infosys, a provider of consulting, technology and next-generation services, to establish the Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative.
Learners who complete a M.I.T.x. MicroMasters credential in Data, Economics, and Development Policy or Supply Chain Management can now apply their work toward a Master of Liberal Arts degree at Harvard Extension School.
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.
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.
Some of the University of Michigan's most innovative strategies for online learning are based on values held throughout its 200-plus year history. Here, U-M's associate vice provost for academic innovation explains why Michigan Online — a relatively recent initiative — brings communities of motivated learners together, both to learn together and to apply their knowledge to solving significant problems.
Houston Community College launched a new online college, HCC Online, with 31 fully online programs, including 15 associate degree-level and 16 certificate offerings in both academic and workforce areas.
For Puerto Rico's Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, the process of restoring campus systems after Hurricane Maria led to new opportunities for active learning and community engagement.
A new self-evaluation tool from the Online Learning Consortium measures the services and supports in place for online students.
In an effort to increase degree attainment for non-traditional students, Ohio's Central State University is rolling out Oracle's Student Management product for student recruiting, engagement and support.
Blackboard is rebranding its open source learning management system. The LMS formerly known as Moodlerooms will now be called Blackboard Open LMS. The company said it's also "accelerating investment and development of the product."
The University of Pennsylvania will become the first Ivy League college to offer an online bachelor's degree program in the fall of 2019.
This coming January, the University of Oregon is launching its first coding bootcamp: a 24-week, part-time web development program geared toward adult learners and working professionals.
Washington State University has made a deal with Examity to use its online proctoring platform exclusively for up to 18,000 exams per year. And that number is expected to grow by 20 percent over the next seven years, according to a news announcement.
When you can bring huge numbers of students together with lots of well-branded universities and global enterprises seeking a highly skilled workforce, could those linkages be strong enough to forge a new future for massive open online courses?
The latest version of ProctorU's Live+ online proctoring solution is using artificial intelligence to add a "second set of eyes" to live human proctoring.
In a recent survey from Champlain College Online, 41 percent of respondents said they would consider returning to college for a cybersecurity degree or certificate in order to prepare for a cybersecurity job. And 72 percent would be willing to do the same if their current employer would pay for their training.
Columbus State Community College created a multimedia e-book for English composition students that reduces textbook costs and reimagines the ways learners engage with course material.
When Arizona State University Online students hit the biology lab, they head to their locker, don a lab coat and gloves and start following through on the exercises they've been assigned, perhaps taking blood samples from basketball players to measure their blood glucose levels, using confocal microscopy to help a farmer save his crop from a mysterious plant disease or sequencing DNA. Except these students haven't left their own study spaces. They're tackling these activities through virtual reality, which means they can take as long as they want, repeat the activity multiple times and get feedback from the software when they get something right or wrong.
Education technology company ProctorU announced that it has integrated automated online proctoring into Pearson's MyLab product set.
A study undertaken jointly by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and education technology companies Blackboard and VitalSource found that early activity with digital tools is a "strong predictor" of passing a class — even more so than the grade point average a student enters the class with.
IBM is introducing two new Professional Certificate programs on the edX platform, focused on emerging tech in artificial intelligence: deep learning and chatbots.
In time for back-to-school season, Google has polished its education offerings. Changes include updates to Classroom, Google Docs, its virtual reality offerings and teacher training.
GitHub has released four new courses on its Learning Lab, an online learning hub intended for people "of all skill levels."
The Certified Lesson Planning Specialist is a set of online courses designed for educators who want to see what flipped classes look like and hear from peers about the reasons for their instructional choices.
In the wake of news of its split from Moodle, Blackboard has reaffirmed its commitment to its Moodle-based Software-as-a-Service product and the open source community.
