online learning

Lawsuit Addressing Failures to Provide Course Materials to College Students with Disabilities May Head to Supreme Court [Wester]

On 01/10/2022, in accessibility / UDL, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, liberal arts, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Lawsuit Addressing Failures to Provide Course Materials to College Students with Disabilities May Head to Supreme Court — from accessibility.com by Daphne Wester

Excerpt:

Students with vision disabilities found themselves unable to participate in coursework in the Los Angeles Community College district when, as a rule of practice, necessary course materials like textbooks and syllabi were not provided in Braille or audio formats. Students, along with disability rights organizations, subsequently filed suit against one of the largest community college districts in the country in 2017, and in 2019 the case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs.

14 Predictions for Higher Education in 2022 [Schaffhauser]

On 01/10/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Blockchain, business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, leadership, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

14 Predictions for Higher Education in 2022 — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Ask people working in higher education what they expect will happen in the new year, and the outlook is filled with visions that build on what we’ve been experiencing on college and university campuses for the last two years: a major focus on learning formats; continued exploitation of new technology; and the use of new digital models that move users “beyond Zoom.” Here we present the collective predictions of 14 IT leaders, instructional folks and a student about what they anticipate seeing in 2022. As one put it, “Let’s go, 2022! We have work to do!”

From DSC:
I’d like to thank Dian Schaffhauser, Rhea Kelly, and Mary Grush for letting me contribute some thoughts to the various conversations that Campus Technology Magazine hosts and/or initiates. I inserted some reflections into the above article and I hope that you’ll take a moment to read my and others’ thoughts out there.

2022: Year Of The Great Convergence — Volume IV, #1 by Ryan Craig

Excerpts:

Three sets of would-be pathway providers are converging on this massive opportunity. It’s going to get crowded very fast. Here’s the current landscape and prospects for each at the outset of the Great Convergence:

Education-as-a-Benefit Providers
Education Platform Companies
Learning Experience Platforms

While one of these three sectors is likely to win the Great Convergence, there are two other possible outcomes.

5 Ways Teachers Can Help Students in Their Online Learning Journey — from edtechreview.in

Excerpt:

With the growing prominence of online education and its integration into the daily lives of students, teachers can play an active role in helping students in their online learning journey. Here’s how:

28 Website Accessibility Terms to Know in 2022 [Juviler]

On 12/29/2021, in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, business, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, Metaverse, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, online tutoring, society, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, web design and production, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

28 Website Accessibility Terms to Know in 2022 — from blog.hubspot.com by Jamie Juviler

Excerpt:

No matter the type of website you run or the industry that you’re in, prioritizing web accessibility is key to your success.
…
To ensure your website meets today’s standards for web accessibility, you’ll first need to understand the terminology. Accessibility is a big, dense area with a lot of jargon, acronyms, and codes — enough to steer a new website owner away from the topic altogether.

That’s why we’ve put together this glossary of 28 essential web accessibility terms any website owners should be aware of. By knowing the language, you’ll find it much easier to adopt accessibility principles on your own site and better serve visitors with disabilities.

Addendum on 12/31/21:

Accessibility awareness is on the rise, but is it turning into action? — from techcrunch.com by Joe Devon

Excerpts:

A Harris Poll reveals that more than half of American adults increased their online activities because of the pandemic. That number grows to 60% for people with disabilities.

The increase in online activities does not mean that everyone is able to achieve their goals. So, what kind of impact is the crisis having on accessibility? Are organizations finally getting the message on the importance of accessibility?
…

With that, here are the key results from the Alexa top 100 website testing:

- Out of the websites tested, 62% were accessible to screen readers, up from 40% in 2020.
- Every single page passed for having the valid document “lang” attribute.
- Only 11% of websites tested had errors in input field labels.
- The most common error was the use of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification)
- The second most common error was color contrast.

From DSC:
That last article linked to:

The 2021 State of Accessibility Report (SOAR) report

How can anyone claim that MOOCs have been a failure!!!? Are you serious!?!?! [Christian]

On 12/29/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Africa, Alternatives, Amazon, Australia, Canada, career development, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, Europe, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, India, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, Microsoft, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, platforms, teaching online, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, vocational / trades, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As the article below clearly relays, MOOCs did NOT fail! In the last decade, they have reached 220 million learners worldwide!

I don’t know the total number of graduates from the Ivy League — throughout all of the relevant institutions’ histories — but I would bet you that MOOCs have reached far more learners. And MOOCs did so in less than a decade.

And you’re going to tell me MOOCs have been a failure?!!!! Are you being serious!?!?! You can talk about completion rates all that you want to (and that misses the point, as some people sign up for MOOCs without ever intending to finish the entire course). As with other things, people get out of something what they put into that thing.

A Decade of MOOCs: A Review of Stats and Trends for Large-Scale Online Courses in 2021 — from edsurge.com by Dhawal Shah

Excerpts:

Now, a decade later, MOOCs have reached 220 million learners, excluding China where we don’t have as reliable data, . In 2021, providers launched over 3,100 courses and 500 microcredentials.
…
Originally, MOOC providers relied on universities to create courses. But that dependence is declining as more and more of the courses are created by companies every year. These corporate partners in course creation include tech giants Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.

…the majority of the new courses launched on Coursera in 2021 are not from universities anymore.
…
These mass online courses were born without a business model. Yet within a decade, MOOCs went from no revenue to bringing in well over a half a billion dollars annually.

There are many types of lessons out on Michigan’s Learning Channel

On 12/27/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, career development, computer science, digital learning, education, elearning, engagement / engaging students, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, internet, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, library / librarians, Michigan, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, skills, smart/connected TV, society, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, television, tools, United States, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

#education #TV #onlinelearning #homeschooling #K12

Several items re: NFTs and the pros and cons of using them in our society today. How can the legal realm assist here?

On 12/27/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Blockchain, business, career development, change, changing business models, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, game-changing environment, innovation, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Metaverse, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, pace of change, platforms, play, society, the downsides of how people use tech, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As with many emerging technologies, there appear to be some significant pros and cons re: the use of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).

The question I wonder about is: How can the legal realm help address the massive impacts of the exponential pace of technological change in our society these days? For examples:

How is — or should — the American Bar Association respond?
Law schools?
Lawyers?
Legislatures?
Judges?
Politicians and others?

Technicians, network engineers, data center specialists, computer scientists, and others also need to be asking themselves how they can help out in these areas as well.

Emphasis below is mine.

NFTs Are Hot. So Is Their Effect on the Earth’s Climate — from wired.com by Gregory Barber
The sale of a piece of crypto art consumed as much energy as the studio uses in two years. Now the artist is campaigning to reduce the medium’s carbon emissions.

Excerpt:

The works were placed for auction on a website called Nifty Gateway, where they sold out in 10 seconds for thousands of dollars. The sale also consumed 8.7 megawatt-hours of energy, as he later learned from a website called Cryptoart.WTF.

NFTs And Their Role In The “Metaverse” — from 101blockchains.com by Georgia Weston

Many people would perceive NFTs as mere images of digital artworks or collectibles which they can sell for massive prices. However, the frenzy surrounding digital art in present times has pointed out many new possibilities with NFTs. For example, the NFT metaverse connection undoubtedly presents a promising use case for NFTs. The road for the future of NFTs brings many new opportunities for investors, enterprises, and hobbyists, which can shape up NFT usage and adoption in the long term.

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are a new class of digital assets, which are unique, indivisible, and immutable. They help in representing the ownership of digital and physical assets on the blockchain. Starting from digital artwork to the gaming industry, NFTs are making a huge impact everywhere.

The decentralized nature of the blockchain offers the prospects for unlimited business opportunities and social interaction. Metaverse offers extremely versatile, scalable, and interoperable digital environments. Most important of all, the metaverse blends innovative technologies with models of interaction between participants from individual and enterprise perspectives.

From DSC:
How might the developments occurring with NFTs and the Metaverse impact a next-gen learning platform?

—–

Artist shuts down because people keep their work to make NFTs — from futurism.com by Victor Tangermann
NFT theft is a huge problem

Someone is selling NFTs of Olive Garden locations that they do not own — from futurism.com by
And you can mint a breadstick NFT — for free, of course

Appvent Calendar 2021 — from ICT Evangelist

On 12/21/2021, in animation, art, attention, Canada, communications, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, mathematics, media/film, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, music, online learning, online media, participation, pedagogy, platforms, play, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, remote teaching and learning, science, society, STEAM-related, story, storytelling, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt from this posting:

Welcome to day 21 of the 2021 Appvent Calendar. It’s been so much fun sharing all of these amazing tools each day across the month so far. With Google featuring twice already on the calendar, it’s great to share again the awe and wonder of human history in the arts and within our cultures with the sharing of this amazing free app. Thanks to Gustavo Calderón De Anda for suggesting it!

Also see:

14 measurement apps for teaching math & science — from teachthought and Glenda Stewart-Smith
Glenda Stewart-Smith of Surrey School District #36 in Canada, along with TeachThought staff, helped put together this collection of iPhone and iPad apps that offer all of these measuring abilities and more.

3 major trends affecting ed tech companies — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
We reviewed what executives said during their latest earnings calls to better understand patterns in the growing sector.

Excerpts:

Earlier on the call, he said Coursera’s entry-level certificates — which are developed by the likes of Facebook, Google, IBM, Intuit and Salesforce — attracted more than 2 million student enrollments since 2018.

“New entrants to the sector, such as corporations and online education companies, will offer genuine competition to traditional colleges, especially as pricing becomes more of a focus,” analysts wrote in the report.

Several ed tech companies are seeing returns from efforts to work with companies to train their employees.

Officials at Udemy, a major MOOC platform that went public in October, said during a call with analysts in early December that their work with companies now accounts for 39% of their revenue – up from 23% a year ago.

From DSC:
I’m not saying not to go there…but one has to be very careful when dealing with cryptocurrencies. As the items below show, you can mess up…big time.

A Man Accidentally Threw Out a Hard Drive Worth $357 Million in Bitcoin — from interestingengineering.com by Chris Young
And he’s been searching for it for a decade.
Crypto scammers stole almost $8 billion in 2021, up 81% from 2020 — from protocol.com by Benjamin Pimentel
More than a third of losses came from rug pulls, where developers rolled out crypto projects before vanishing with investor money
Frequently Asked Questions About Cryptocurrency — from 101blockchains.com by Georgia Weston
Coin Worth $0.00004893 Highlights Crypto’s Wild Decimal Frontier — from bloomberg.com by Michael Regan

From DSC:
And that bit about the decimal point is key! I tried to locate an article that I recently read that described how one person lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because he misplaced the decimal in his asking price for a cryptocurrency. It was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but he said that his big thumbs got in the way. He mistyped the asking price and hit the Enter key before he recognized his mistake. He sold the cryptocurrency for a fraction of its real value. In that case, one would hope that the buyer would extend some grace and readjust the price. But that didn’t happen in this case. Ouch!

From DSC:
Again, I’m not saying that this area may not represent an enormous new, impactful, prosperous wave to ride. But I need to do a whole lot more learning before I feel comfortable jumping into this ocean.

That said when I read the quote below…I wondered:

DC: I wonder if that sentence could also read:

“Crypto needed a use case, and it found it in a next generation learning platform.”#cryptocurrency #Cryptos #cryptocurrencies #lifelonglearning #onlinelearning #learning #CMS #LMS #platform

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) December 17, 2021

2021 Resource Recap from Quality Matters

On 12/17/2021, in accessibility / UDL, assessment, higher education, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, online learning, quality, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Quality Matters > Higher Education News > December 2021

Throughout the year, we — along with members of our amazing community — share resources to help all of us deliver on our online promise. Here are some of the most popular items from 2021 for you to use and share:

QM Bridge to Quality Course Design Guide — printable PDF version
Accessibility and Usability Resource Site
QM Self-Review Tool
Video: Redesigning Assessments for Interaction & Engagement
QM-Hosted Research Webinar Recordings
QM Success Stories (members only), including “Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes: The True Impact of Digital Accessibility“
Dr. Steven Crawford’s series on multimedia use in online learning — start with “Designing Multimedia Presentations for Your Course”

Digital Learning Talent In Demand & More 2022 Hiring Trends [teamedforlearning.com]

On 12/17/2021, in 21st century, career development, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, design, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, remote teaching and learning, skills, training / L&D, universities, using teams, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Digital Learning Talent In Demand & More 2022 Hiring Trends — from teamedforlearning.com
2022 Hiring Trends in digital learning put job seekers in the driver’s seat. Learn how to use these trends to your advantage in education or corporate L&D.

Excerpt:

Now is an amazing time to look for a job in digital learning. The events of the last few years have boosted the demand for digital learning experts in all areas. That includes corporate L&D, higher ed, K-12, edtech, and commercial e-learning. As more organizations embrace a digital learning model, the demand for talent will continue to grow. The 2022 Hiring Trends in Digital Learning are all headed in one direction: up.

Our work connecting talented digital learning professionals with the organizations that need their skills has given us a sneak peek at the 2022 hiring trends in digital learning. And we’re ready to share those insights with you. Here’s what you need to know if you’re a job seeker in the digital learning industry.

UNC’s $97 Million Plan to Reach Adult Online Learners [Smalley]

On 12/17/2021, in adult learning, content development, aggregation, repositories, higher education, lifelong learning, online learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

UNC’s $97 Million Plan to Reach Adult Online Learners — from insidehighered.com by Suzanne Smalley
University of North Carolina will create an internal unit to build and manage online programs from the system’s 17 campuses for learners largely ignored by many universities.

Excerpt:

The University of North Carolina system is leveraging $97 million in pandemic recovery funding to launch a nonprofit ed-tech start-up intended to bolster adult online education in a state with a looming need for more skilled workers.

Project Kitty Hawk is named after the North Carolina beach town the Wright brothers returned to repeatedly before achieving their dream of flight, an apt metaphor for an undertaking that UNC leaders herald as a transformative effort to reach the state’s estimated one million working adults who have some college education but no degree.

A Review of Online Learning in 2021 [Bates]

On 12/14/2021, in 21st century, Canada, distance education, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, pedagogy, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, vendors, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

A Review of Online Learning in 2021 — from tonybates.ca by Dr. Tony Bates

Excerpt:

In terms of online learning, there has been considerable progress. We learned a lot about online learning during Covid-19, and while not all these lessons were good, the landscape of teaching and learning has altered, in general for the best. It’s these developments that I want to discuss in my review of the year.

I will draw heavily on my summary of research reports on Covid-19 and emergency remote/online learning.

Learning Ecosystems

Lawsuit Addressing Failures to Provide Course Materials to College Students with Disabilities May Head to Supreme Court [Wester]

2022: Year Of The Great Convergence [Craig]

How can anyone claim that MOOCs have been a failure!!!? Are you serious!?!?! [Christian]

Several items re: NFTs and the pros and cons of using them in our society today. How can the legal realm assist here?

3 major trends affecting ed tech companies [Schwartz]

DC: Here are some things I’m learning about dealing with cryptocurrencies. Will a next-gen learning platform be a solid use case for cryptocurrencies?

2021 Resource Recap from Quality Matters

UNC’s $97 Million Plan to Reach Adult Online Learners [Smalley]

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