![Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States [Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ChangingCourse-Babson2012Report.jpg)
I. Elaine Allen, PhD | Jeff Seaman, PhD
Co-Directors, The Babson Survey Research Group
Babson College
Babson Park, MA 02457-9985
January 2013
On 01/09/2013,
in colleges, community colleges, higher education, online learning, trends, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
On 01/08/2013,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, second screen apps, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, TVs, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
In this series of periodic postings re: experimentation (see here and here), this week’s Consumers Electronics Show prompts me to think about different types of experiments, prompting such questions as:
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- When will we see more educationally-related second screen apps?
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- How might this type of setup dovetail with MOOCs provided by institutions of higher education? With MOOCs offered by the corporate world?
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- What sorts of technologies will weave their way into what could be offered here?
(The following possibilities come to my mind: Artificial Intelligence (AI), learning agents, recommendation engines, course or topic playlists, web-based learner profiles, data mining/analytics, videoconferencing, educational gaming, virtual tutoring, BYOD, and/or cloud-based computing. Other…?)
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- Will Internet-enabled marketplaces and exchanges — between learners and teachers — become commonplace?
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- Will technologies involved with endeavors like IBM’s Watson or with Knewton be deployed in this kind of convergent environment? If so, what sorts of doors/job opportunities/new skillsets would that open up or require?
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![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
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Some relevant items on this include:
Flingo reveals Samba, a first of its kind dual interactive TV and second screen platform — from pandodaily.com byasdf
Excerpt:
This week at CES in Las Vegas (the Consumer Electronics Show), San Francisco-based Flingo will release the latest version of its platform, dubbed Samba, aimed at changing this. Samba will make four-year-old Flingo one of the first to offer a combined Interactive TV and Second Screen experience.
“We saw a surge of Smart TV and tablet adoption in 2012, but realized that a seamless TV experience across all screens was missing,” says Flingo co-founder and CEO Ashwin Navin, formerly of BitTorrent. “Samba will blur the lines between linear television and the Web.”
Flingo is unique in that it uses video, not audio to identify what content is being viewed…
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Samba offers viewers the ability to actively engage with programming in real-time through their primary screen. This can take the form of polls, social conversations, recommendations, or consumption of related media. In the case of Second Screens, aka internet-connected laptops, tablets, and smartphones used simultaneously while watching TV, the company can offer an even wider array of complementary content and engagement, such as aggregated social feeds relating to live programming or an ability to watch past episodes of a live show. This can all be delivered across multiple screens, in concert.
Also see:
Also see:
- Panasonic, IBM, ABOX42 and others join LG and Toshiba’s Smart TV Alliance to solve fragmentation
- YouTube bringing Google TV AirPlay-like pairing feature to new devices in 2013 — from 9to5google.com by Jordan Kahn
- Audible Magic unveils cross-platform solution for interactive TV commercials — from cnbc.com
- CES: Samsung unveils 4K TVs; upgrades Smart TV service — from forbes.com by Eric Savitz
- Samsung rethinks Smart TV (and we’re impressed) — from nbcnews.com by Wilson Rothman
- Slick new Bravo app personalizes your Smart TV experience — from mashable.com by Brian Anthony Hernandez
- In the digital living room, there’s something in the air — from pro.gigaom.com by Paul Sweeting
- Usage of connected TVs rose 25% in 2012 — from therealtimereport.com [Addendum on 1/9/13]
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- Here’s your complete look at Samsung’s new Smart TV — from businessinsider.com by Kevin Smith [Addendum on 1/9/13]
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Kevin Smith/Business Insider
More tangentially, but still relevant:
- McGraw-Hill to debut adaptive e-book for students — from blogs.wsj.com by Shalini Ramachandran
Excerpt:
The SmartBook…works like this: All readers essentially see the same textbook as they read for the first five minutes. But as a reader answers review questions placed throughout the chapter, different passages become highlighted to point the reader to where he or she should focus attention.
On 01/07/2013,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Bring your own device (BYOD), Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, experimentation, future of higher education, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, platforms, publishing, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, strategy, tablets, television, TVs, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The other day, I mentioned how important it will be for institutions of higher education to increase the priority of experimentation. Clicking on the graphic below will give you an example of the kind of vision/experiment that I’m talking about.
(Though, more practically speaking, to operationalize this type of vision would actually require a series of much smaller experiments; I just wanted to present the overall vision of how these pieces might fit together).
NOTE:
This 11″x17″ image is a 10MB PDF file, so it may take some time to appear.
Feel free to right-click on the graphic in order to download/save/print the file as well.
Also relevant is this upcoming event from educause:
1/8/13 addendum resulting from a Tweet from a great colleague, Mr. Travis LaFleur (@travislafleur), UX Designer at BiggsGilmore
- Check out the work of Fraser Speirs (@fraserspeirs) — example blog posting: Refresh: The Platform
On 01/04/2013,
in Canada, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
Why predicting online learning developments is risky but necessary — from Tony Bates
Excerpt:
Before drawing up my outlook for 2013, I want to discuss the important topic of prediction in online learning, in particular how predictions are made, and what value they may have. Nate Silver’s excellent book (references are at the end of this article) looks at prediction in a number of fields: weather forecasting (excellent up to three days, useless after eight days), economic forecasting (hopeless by both media pundits and professional economists), baseball players’ performance (pretty good and improving), earthquakes (bad for major quakes, but promising for lesser quakes), poker and a number of other areas. He also has some interesting reflections on big data as well. Unfortunately though he doesn’t discuss prediction in online learning, so I’ll try and help out with this!
5 ways online education can keep its students honest — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner
As online learning platforms like Coursera, Udacity and edX raise the stakes for students with increased partnerships with traditional universities and credit-bearing classes, here are five technologies that can help them thwart cheating.
On 12/27/2012,
in 21st century, budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, elearning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, internet, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, United States, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From the January/February 2013 issue of The American Interest:
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Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
The most important part of the college bubble story—the one we will soon be hearing much more about—concerns the impending financial collapse of numerous private colleges and universities and the likely shrinkage of many public ones. And when that bubble bursts, it will end a system of higher education that, for all of its history, has been steeped in a culture of exclusivity*. Then we’ll see the birth of something entirely new as we accept one central and unavoidable fact: The college classroom is about to go virtual.
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Because recent history shows us that the internet is a great destroyer of any traditional business that relies on the sale of information. The internet destroyed the livelihoods of traditional stock brokers and bonds salesmen by throwing open to everyone access to the proprietary information they used to sell. The same technology enabled bankers and financiers to develop new products and methods, but, as it turned out, the experience necessary to manage it all did not keep up. Prior to the Wall Street meltdown, it seemed absurd to think that storied financial institutions like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers could disappear seemingly overnight. Until it happened, almost no one believed such a thing was possible. Well, get ready to see the same thing happen to a university near you, and not for entirely dissimilar reasons.
The higher-ed business is in for a lot of pain as a new era of creative destruction produces a merciless shakeout of those institutions that adapt and prosper from those that stall and die.
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But what happens when a limited supply of a sought-after commodity suddenly becomes unlimited? Prices fall. Yet here, on the cusp of a new era of online education, that is a financial reality that few American universities are prepared to face.
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Anyone who can access the internet—at a public library, for instance—no matter how poor or disadvantaged or isolated or uneducated he or she may be, can access the teachings of some of the greatest scholars of our time through open course portals. Technology is a great equalizer.
Big changes are coming, and old attitudes and business models are set to collapse as new ones rise. Few who will be affected by the changes ahead are aware of what’s coming. Severe financial contraction in the higher-ed industry is on the way, and for many this will spell hard times both financially and personally. But if our goal is educating as many students as possible, as well as possible, as affordably as possible, then the end of the university as we know it is nothing to fear. Indeed, it’s something to celebrate.
* The old way:
Colleges rise as they reject — from online.wsj.com
Schools invite more applications, then use denials to boost coveted rankings
Also relevant/see:
- A graph on earnings with a college degree — from educationstormfront by Andrew Barras
- Learning new lessons — from the Economist.com
Online courses are transforming higher education, creating new opportunities for the best and huge problems for the rest
On 12/17/2012,
in corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, design, digital learning, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, graphics, instructional design, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, online learning, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, quality, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX),
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt:
- Best in Show: Vesone Dean, What is SignUp?
- EDU category: Valerie Pennington, Anatomical Terms of Direction and Planes of Section
- Sales & Marketing category: Nino Paglia, Mantic – RealeFlow
- Tutorial & Training category: Ron Hogue, Top Five-ish Screencast Tips
- Wildcard category: Mel Aclaro, Best Screen Capture Software Series (Episode 3 – Camtasia Studio 7)
Description:
Enter up to three (3) screencast videos. Videos will be assigned a category based on the information you provide (so please be as detailed as possible!). Categories are: Education (videos with a focus on teaching and/or schools, at any level); Tutorial/Training (videos with a focus on training or tutorial content); Sales and Marketing (videos made to sell or persuade); and Wildcard (videos that don’t fit in the previous categories).
On 12/14/2012,
in online learning,
by Daniel Christian
Online education: Non-profits fight back? — infographic from onlinedegrees.org
Per Muhammad Saleem:
“For years, for-profit universities have dominated the online education space, however that’s changing.”
On 12/13/2012,
in adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, elearning, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, new business models, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Some reflections on New platform lets professors set prices for their online courses — from InsideHigherEd.com by Jeffrey R. Young
Excerpt:
Professors typically don’t worry about what price point a course will sell at, or what amenities might attract a student to pick one course over another. But a new online platform, Professor Direct, lets instructors determine not only how much to charge for such courses, but also how much time they want to devote to services like office hours, online tutorials, and responding to students’ e-mails.
The new service is run by StraighterLine, a company that offers online, self-paced introductory courses. Unlike massive open online courses, or MOOC’s, StraighterLine’s courses aren’t free. But tuition is lower than what traditional colleges typically charge—the company calls its pricing “ultra-affordable.” A handful of colleges accept StraighterLine courses for transfer credit.
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From DSC:
The power of online-based marketplaces. We’ve seen it in other industries. Are we now going to see more of this within higher education as the unbundling of higher education seems to be a possibility? Will there be an increased importance of professors’ individual brands? Could be.
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From DSC:
Congrats Burck & Co. on your continued innovative thinking and business models! Way to help keep a college education accessible to many!
On 12/13/2012,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, blogs / blogging / vlogging, career development, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, machine-to-machine communications, metacognition / metacognitive skills, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, real-world assignments, robotics, student-related, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
“Mom! Check out what I did at school today!”
If you’re a parent, don’t you love to hear the excitement in your son’s or daughter’s voice when they bring home something from school that really peaked their interest? Their passions?
I woke up last night with several ideas and thoughts on how technology could help students become — and stay — engaged, while passing over more control and choice to the students in order for them to pursue their own interests and passions. The idea would enable students to efficiently gain some exposure to a variety of things to see if those things were interesting to them — perhaps opening a way for a future internship or, eventually, a career.
The device I pictured in my mind was the sort of device that I saw a while back out at Double Robotics and/or at Suitable Technologies:
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The thoughts centered on implementing a growing network of such remote-controlled, mobile, videoconferencing-based sorts of devices, that were hooked up to voice translation engines. Students could control such devices to pursue things that they wanted to know more about, such as:
- Touring the Louvre in Paris
- Being backstage at a Broadway musical or checking out a live performance of Macbeth
- Watching a filming of a National Geographic Special in the Fiji Islands
- Attending an IEEE International Conference in Taiwan
- Attending an Educause Conference or a Sloan C event to get further knowledge about how to maximize your time studying online or within a hybrid environment
- Touring The Exploratorium in San Francisco
- Touring the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago
- Being a fly on the wall during a Senate hearing/debate
- Seeing how changes are made in the assembly lines at a Ford plant
- Or perhaps, when a student wheels their device to a particular area — such as the front row of a conference, the signal automatically switches to the main speaker/event (keynote speakers, panel, etc. via machine-to-machine communications)
- Inviting guest speakers into a class: pastors, authors, poets, composers, etc.
- Work with local/virtual teams on how to heighten public awareness re: a project that deals with sustainability
- Virtually head to another country to immerse themselves in another country’s language — and, vice versa, help them learn the students’ native languages
For accountability — as well as for setting aside intentional time to process the information — students would update their own blogs about what they experienced, heard, and saw. They would need to include at least one image, along with the text they write about their experience. Or perhaps a brief/edited piece of digital video or audio of some of the statements that they heard that really resonated with them, or that they had further questions on. The default setting on such postings would be to be kept private, but if the teacher and the student felt that a posting could/should be made public, a quick setting could be checked to publish it out there for others to see/experience.
Real world. Engaging. Passing over more choice and control to the students so that they can pursue what they are passionate about.
On 12/10/2012,
in 21st century, career development, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Citing IT skills shortage, IBM wants to expand presence at universities — from wiredacademic.com
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
“We want to be the scale up partner of choice for these universities,” said Jim Sporher, head of IBM’s university programs. “We want to make sure they have access to technology and understand our strategy.” He also sees massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a mega-trend and will be considering ways for IBM to be part of the MOOC trend in the future, particularly as many of the MOOC providers such as Udacity and Coursera offer classes in computer science.
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As a big blue-chip progenitor of the tech industry, IBM is worth listening to in many regards. For one, corporate computing trends often filter down into the education space. The corporate world often has the money to purchase and deploy game-changing technologies. IBM sees that it also works the other way too, where computing at the university level creates new businesses and ideas that move up into the corporate realm.
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From DSC:
I wonder…will the corporations develop their own MOOCs? Their own digital “playlists” and associated exams? (i.e. that someone needs to go through and pass in order to work for them…show me what you can do.) Hmmm…
Also see:
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Also see:
- This could be huge… — from timeshighereducation.co.uk by Zoë Corbyn
MOOCs are already big – in reach and in hype – and are predicted to explode. Zoë Corbyn checks in to learn if they are more than just a novelty and to find out what it’s like to teach a class of 38,000 - Georgetown to offer free online courses — from washingtonpost.com
- Free online courses could change Engineering education — from theinstitute.ieee.org by Kathy Pretz
On 12/10/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, changing business models, convergence, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, flipping -- inverted learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, marketplaces, online learning, second screen apps, social learning / networks, social media, TVs,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The educational “store” part of this graphic could take several forms:
- Online-based exchanges between buyers and sellers (teachers/professors and learners) — professors as their own brand
- Institutional offerings/brands
- Team-based content from newly-developed firms, organizations
- Each of us puts up our own learning materials for others to take (for free or for a price)
- Other
On 12/06/2012,
in blended learning, Canada, higher education, hybrid learning, online learning, professional development,
by Daniel Christian
On 12/05/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, Microsoft, mirroring and/or multiple devices, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, play, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, streams of content, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, webinars,
by Daniel Christian
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From DSC:
I’m beginning to wonder if many of us will be moving off of Moodle, Sakai, Bb Learn, Desire2Learn, etc. to platforms and ecosystems that are being created by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Rockstar professors on “primetime” — or anytime. If that happens, you can be sure there will be teams of specialists creating and delivering the content and learning experiences.