colleges

EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Artificial Intelligence Use in Higher Education [Brooks]

On 06/16/2021, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, higher education, innovation, instructional design, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Artificial Intelligence Use in Higher Education — from educause.edu by Christopher Brooks
Despite the visibility and energy surrounding artificial intelligence, higher education is taking measured steps toward incorporating this technology.

Excerpt:

We are on the verge of peak hype about how artificial intelligence (AI) can (and will) transform our lives. No fewer than seven emerging AI technologies were prominently featured on “The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020.” Several technologies on EDUCAUSE’s “The Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2020” explicitly incorporate or are reliant on AI. And while AI might seem to be a technology in search of a campus, some promising applications have been emerging in domains such as teaching and learning, student success, and accessibility. But how widespread is the use of AI in higher education today? In this QuickPoll, we operationalized Elana Zeide’s categories of AI applications in higher education to better understand how and how widely AI is being used for institutional tasks, student success and support tasks, and instructional tasks.

AI is not going to replace instructors anytime soon.

Caring for Students Playbook: Six Recommendations [Every Learner Everywhere & the OLC]

On 06/15/2021, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, colleges, communications, community colleges, faculty, higher education, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, relationships, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Caring for Students Playbook: Six Recommendations — from by Every Learner Everywhere in partnership with Online Learning Consortium (OLC) & Achieving the Dream

Table of C0ntents:

Also see:

Why Professors Should Ask Students For Feedback Long Before the Semester Is Over — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig
This article is part of the guide Better, Faster, Stronger: How Learning Engineering Aims to Transform Education.

Excerpt:

About a month into each semester, Gayle Golden sets aside a little time to ask her students about their learning.

The journalism instructor at the University of Minnesota keeps the process simple, with brief questions similar to these:

What should keep happening in this class?
What should we start doing in this class?
What should we stop doing in this class?

Golden collects the results, which students give anonymously, then studies the feedback and makes a list of all the information she’s received. During the next class period, she discusses the findings with her students. She tells them which suggestions she plans to put into practice, which recommendations she can’t act on, and why.

From DSC:
Speaking of feedback…

I think it would be good to have our students journal about their learning — integrating their notes, readings, experiments, lectures, etc. Students could check in on these 3 questions for example.

And in the (potentially) digital process, they could also submit a form to their faculty member to answer the question:

What do I want my professor to know about my learning experience today?

Such a question could be electronically delivered to the professor on any given day. This type of feedback loop would provide real-time, formative feedback to the professor as well as help the students develop their metacognitive skills.

I would think that such a process could also be used within the K-12 realm, including homeschoolers.

Also from edsurge.com, see:

How to Use Podcasts in Teaching — by Bonni Stachowiak
To Support Black Male Teachers, A Nonprofit is Paying Off Student Loans — by Jeffrey R. Young
Millions of Students Are Still Without WiFi and Tech—Why Haven’t Policymakers Stepped Up? — by Mary Jo Madda

A solid collaboration between Amazon and three systems within Georgia

On 06/10/2021, in Amazon, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, platforms, professional development, programming, training / L&D, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Gov. Kemp Announces Technical Skills Training Commitment to Prepare 5,500 Georgians for Cloud Computing Careers — from gov.georgia.gov

Excerpt:

Atlanta, GA — [On June 9th], Governor Brian P. Kemp announced a collaborative initiative between the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), the Georgia Department of Education (GADOE), the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide cloud computing training and education to 5,500 learners statewide by 2024. Through this initiative, high schools and technical colleges in Georgia will offer cloud computing courses and credentials that align with skills needed to pursue in-demand technical careers.

“The tech industry in Georgia is rapidly growing with exciting job opportunities for Georgians,” said Governor Kemp. “This collaboration with AWS will ensure our citizens have access to innovative training and education to help prepare them for tech jobs in Georgia.”

2021 CHLOE 6 Report
CHLOE 6: Online Learning Leaders Adapt for a Post-Pandemic World — from qualitymatters.org

Excerpt:

The 2021 report, authored by Quality Matters and Eduventures® Research, tracks how institutions are reassessing their priorities related to online learning and shifting focus to ed tech enhancements, faculty professional development and online quality. The report was compiled from responses from 422 chief online officers (COO) representing 2- and 4-year colleges and universities.

More than half of the survey respondents (57%) across all sectors of higher education, including predominantly in-person institutions, indicated that, going forward, the pandemic experience is leading to a positive reassessment of institutional priorities related to online learning. Key survey findings from the 69-page report include:

An elevated commitment to online learning quality assurance goals, including having courses meet quality standards, supported by a commitment to faculty professional development.
An average 10-15% increase across institutions in online professional development and student orientation to online study to serve formerly in-person faculty and students.
The largest yearly increases ever in ed tech investment in 2020 and 2021 across all sectors of higher ed.

The Short-term Credentials Landscape — from newamerica.org by Monique O. Ositelu, PhD, Clare McCann, and Amy Laitinen
What We See and What Remains Unseen

Abstract

Given the rapid growth in short-term programs, and policymakers’ fast-growing interest to invest federal higher education dollars into very-short-term credentials, we explore what the research does—and does not— show us about such credentials’ utility in the labor market. With concerns about equity, our review of the literature guides us towards caution, as a strong push for short-term certificates may run the risk of reifying socioeconomic stratification.

From DSC:
I wonder…will accreditation move towards the use of crowd-sourced methods? Similar to rating one’s driver or one’s experience with a product, will microcredentials get into more reviews and recommendations from the users of various learning/training-related sites and services?

Will users of a service comment on whether the credential helped them (with a salary increase, with practical knowledge, with an expanded scope of projects at work, etc.)?

6 Emerging Technology Trends in Higher Education [Pang]

On 06/07/2021, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, data related items, higher education, hybrid learning, online learning, open courseware and systems, quality, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

6 Emerging Technology Trends in Higher Education — from edtechmagazine.com by Amelia Pang
From artificial intelligence to microcredentials, here’s a look at the future.

Excerpts:

1. The Growth of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Ed
2. Actualizing the Potential of Data Analytics to Improve Education
3. A Permanent Place for Blended and Hybrid Course Models
4. The Expansion of Open Educational Resources
5. Microcredentials Provide Business Opportunities for Higher Ed
6. More Investments in Quality Online Learning

Planning for a blended future: A research-driven guide for educators — from everylearnereverywhere.org by Every Learner Everywhere in partnership with Online Learning Consortium (OLC) & National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA)

Excerpt:

The purpose of this guide
This resource is a collaboration among the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advances (DETA), the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), and the Every Learner Everywhere Network. It is designed to serve as a resource for educators — faculty, instructors, instructional staff, instructional improvement staff, instructional designers, learning experience designers and developers, technological support staff, and other stakeholders — to guide strategic planning for blended learning courses and programs.

Therefore, blended learning is instruction that blends technological, temporal, spatial, and pedagogical dimensions to create actualized learning. Students feel they are successful when they actually learn and that does not always equate to grade and course completion.

KEY IDEAS

Designing courses to meaningfully integrate the different environments and temporal cadence (online and onsite, live and overtime) while incorporating an active learning approach can improve student outcomes in blended and hybrid courses.
Faculty must become guides for students and their engagement by intentionally and strategically using a variety of modalities to scaffold learning.
By designing and scaffolding blended courses effectively, faculty can avoid the common pitfall of course and-a-half-syndrome, which occurs when the online portion of a course is tacked on, creating busywork for students.

Growth Mindset Leadership & The Pygmalion Effect — from by Trevor Ragan and the Learning Lab; featuring Robert Rosenthal, Christine Rubie-Davies, and Michael Merznich. With thanks to Chris Church, Tenured Professor and prior Associate Dean of Academic Programs at the WMU-Cooley Law School
Our mindsets impact others more than we realize. As leaders, we can use this to improve the learning environment.

Excerpt:

We know that our individual mindsets (growth mindset & fixed mindset) can impact our capacity to grow. But how do our mindsets impact others?

Renowned researcher, Robert Rosenthal outlines his work and shows how our expectations can have a huge impact on the performance and development of the people around us.

Christine Rubie-Davies from the University of Auckland shows us how teacher expectations play a role in student development.

From DSC:
I highly recommend that all professors, teachers and student teachers, trainers — and even those supervising others — check this piece out! Nice work Trevor & Company! Below are some snapshots from this presentation.

Wow! Some significant statements coming from this highly-regarded physics professor!

On 05/31/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, digital learning, education technology, elearning, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, mathematics, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pedagogy, physics, platforms, society, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, user experience (UX), web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Teaching: Why an Active-Learning Evangelist Is Sold on Online Teaching — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Excerpts:

Now, says Mazur, the results are in and he’s convinced: online teaching is better. Not in all circumstances, to be sure. But in his applied-physics courses, students showed larger learning gains and felt more supported than students had in in-person classes. In fact, they appear to have learned so much more effectively in this new format that he wonders if it’s “almost unethical,” to return to the classroom this fall.

“I have never been able to offer a course of the quality that I’m offering now,” he says. “I am convinced that there is no way I could do anything close to what I’m doing in person. Online teaching is better than in person.”

One benefit of this setup, says Mazur, is that students go at their own pace. He has thought a lot about how classroom-based work, even when it is student-led, is hostage to the clock and the instructor. Not every group works at the same pace, yet everyone has to wait until others are ready, or rush ahead when they fall behind. When groups set their own pace, it gives them the space to work through problems or get help as needed. The value of self-paced learning is also evident outside of class, says Mazur, who built more asynchronous work into his online course.

“I have never seen students work this hard for my course,” he says. “Never. And so consistently.”

Also see:

But he’s so convinced of how valuable this model is that he asked Harvard to allow him to keep teaching online this fall.

Also relevant/see:

Online Learning Increases College Access for Underserved Native American Students — from edtechmagazine.com by Adam Stone
The California Indian Nations College saw a 22 percent increase in enrollment last year. Here’s a look at how they did it.
A Simple Guide to Four Popular Online Learning Formats — from blog.commlabindia.com by Nameera Sallum
With the pandemic making in-person training a remote possibility, organizations relying on classroom training are now looking to online learning. This post discusses various aspects of four popular online learning formats – eLearning, microlearning, virtual classrooms, and social learning.

President Speaks: 5 higher education trends the pandemic is accelerating [Weinberg]

On 05/28/2021, in business side of he, change, changing business models, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, education technology, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, more voice more choice more control, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vocational / trades, by Daniel Christian

President Speaks: 5 higher education trends the pandemic is accelerating — from highereddive.com by Adam Weinberg
Technology, student choice and career prep will factor more heavily into colleges’ decision-making going forward, one president explains.

Excerpt:

Over the last several weeks, it has become clearer what the post-COVID-19 higher education landscape will look like. The trends that will shape the sector’s future are not new. But the pandemic has accelerated them.

Trends are like water. As they run faster, they cut deeper and in unexpected ways. Here are five that COVID-19 has given momentum to.

Student Experiences Learning with Technology in the Pandemic — from educause.edu

Excerpts:

However, as most institutions pivoted to remote learning as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020, we also pivoted to conduct a special fall 2020 study to gain insights on the student experience during what has been an exceptional time of disruption. In this report, we share results from the study related to student experiences with technology in the for-credit courses they were taking in fall 2020 in which they felt they were learning the most. Specifically, we asked students to think about their best course—the one in which they learned the most—and tell us about the learning environments and modalities of those courses, as well as instructors’ uses of technology in, the organizational and design features of, and the most and least effective uses of technology they experienced in those courses.1

Steps You Can Take
Institutional leaders should consider the following steps as they continue to respond to the most immediate needs of students and plan for a post-pandemic future.

Invest in the design, development, and implementation of hybrid course models and the people who support them.
Connect faculty with instructional designers and instructional technologists.
Put students at the center of your teaching.

The best student experiences were the ones that were focused on student learning experiences and did so from a position of empathy, care, and flexibility. If we learn one thing from higher education’s pandemic year it’s that higher education needs to invest in promoting caring, student-centered, and adaptive pedagogies.

A16z is betting $20 million on Maven, an ed tech and creator economy mashup — from protocol.com by Penelope Blackwell
Since launching in January 2021, instructors have sold over $1 million worth of courses on Maven.

Excerpt:

A little over a decade ago, Gagan Biyani founded Udemy, one of the main platforms that popularized massive open online courses. Now, he’s back with a new idea that jams together ed tech and the creator economy, and he thinks it can help more students stick out their online learning.

His new company, Maven, is focused on cohort-based learning. An expert tutor with a large online following leads an online course for a group of learners. The students join and move through content at the same pace, but much of the learning happens peer-to-peer as the students share their experiences over the web.

“There are thousands of experts, creators, and practitioners around the world who have valuable knowledge to share but aren’t traditional professors, and we think this is the best way for creators to monetize over the next decade,” said Biyani. “We’re creating the university of the future, built around these 21st-century professors.”

From DSC:
If adjunct faculty members want to go a different way in order to try their hand at making a lot more money, institutions of traditional higher education better look out! Especially if this new/alternative approach picks up steam! Such institutions have been paying extremely low rates for adjunct faculty members. And because these folks aren’t tenured faculty members, they rarely get much of a say in the strategies and directions that their institutions set and pursue.

With lifelong learning now a requirement, this type of alternative will be on an increasing number of peoples’ radars out there.

A picture of a radar

One wonders what this type of tech will do for online-based learning, &/or hybrid/blended learning, &/or hyflex-based learning in the future [Christian]

On 05/24/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, platforms, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, student-related, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
It will be interesting to see — post Covid19 — how vendors and their platforms continue to develop to allow for even greater degrees of web-based collaboration. I recently saw this item re: what Google is doing with their Project Starline. Very interesting indeed. Google is trying to make it so that the other person feels like they are in the same space with you.

.
Time will tell what occurs in this space...but one does wonder what this type of technology will do for online-based learning, and/or hybrid/blended learning, and/or hyflex-based learning in the future…?

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career [Heyward, McCann, & Gross]

On 05/21/2021, in 21st century, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, curriculum, education, education reform, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, legislatures / government / legal, United States, universities, vocational / trades, workplace, by Daniel Christian

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career — from crpe.org by Georgia Heyward, Sarah McCann, & Betheny Gross | May 2021

We offer four ways states can engage K–12:

Invest in virtual platforms that support college and career navigation.
Incentivize bold experimentation with hybrid learning to design new models that blend school and workplace learning or connect with postsecondary microcredentials.
Step in to encourage and regulate high-quality, postsecondary microcredentials that stack toward associate and bachelor degrees.
Combine policy with technical assistance to help districts credit out-of-school learning.

Learning Ecosystems

A solid collaboration between Amazon and three systems within Georgia

CHLOE 6: Online Learning Leaders Adapt for a Post-Pandemic World

The Short-term Credentials Landscape [Ositelu, McCann, & Laitinen]

Planning for a blended future: A research-driven guide for educators [Joosten & Weber]

President Speaks: 5 higher education trends the pandemic is accelerating [Weinberg]

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