UniversityLearningStore-April2016

From DSC:

  • Will more institutions of higher education be joining/contributing courses to this type of University Learning Store? I’ve often wondered about the place of consortia in higher ed…perhaps this will be one of the ways that institutions pool their resources.  (i.e., creating and contributing content, tapping into content that’s been aggregated)
    .
  • How will corporate training / L&D groups view his sort of development? Will it be helpful to them?
    .
  • Will the University Learning Store, like Lynda.com, continually expand the list of topics that they are offering/addressing?
    .
  • Will these types of efforts morph into what I’ve been calling Learning from the Living [Class] Room? (i.e., learning on demand across a lifetime; employing web-based learner profiles, cognitive computing, social networking/learning while offering the ability to instantly form or join communities of practice) Another way of asking this question is this: “As technology-enabled collaborations increase what’s possible, what’s to keep courses from being ported to tvOS-based apps for on demand learning?”

For example, fast forward a few years from the technologies found in “The Video Call Center” and one could imagine some powerful means of collaborating from one’s living room:

VideoCallCenter-April2016

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

Also see:

Micro-credentials offer universities an opportunity to bridge skill gaps — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla
By working with employers, universities can help students of all ages learn skills that industry leaders need.

Excerpt:

Higher education leaders are pondering how to make bite-sized, low-cost learning opportunities available to students in different ways.

Working adults who change jobs and careers frequently often don’t need to go through an entire degree program to learn different skills. However, they do need a flexible way to earn credentials that are recognized by employers and that demonstrate their ability to apply the skills they learn, said David Schejbal, dean of continuing education, outreach and e-learning at University of Wisconsin-Extension. University micro-credentials can help fill that role.

Six universities have been working with employers to find out what skills they need their employees to have, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California Davis Extension, University of California Irvine Extension, University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Washington and University of California, Los Angeles.

As a result of collaborating with industry, these universities created short courses and certification programs for the University Learning Store that launched last week. These courses fall into three categories: power skills, technical skills and career advancement skills. Power skills used to be called “soft skills” and include communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

 

 

 

Start your journey: Lynda.com introduces Learning Paths to help you stay ahead — from linkedin.com

Excerpt:

We all know that the knowledge and skills required to be successful in our jobs today is accelerating. This rate of change challenges all of us to stay ahead in our roles and sets a high bar for those looking to start or change their careers. Today we are introducing more than 50 new learning paths to help you stay ahead in your current job or if you’re looking to make a career pivot.

 

LearningPathsLyndaDotCom-April2016

 

Learning paths are step-by-step structured courses, supported with quizzes, practice, and learning reminders to encourage you and support you as you make progress towards your goal. These new learning paths include how to become a Web Developer, a Manager, a Bookkeeper, a Project Manager, a Small Business Owner, a Digital Marketer, a Digital Illustrator. Check out the full list here.

Learning paths are also a great way to continue expanding on your existing skill set. If you’re embarking on a new career, you can take advantage of these learning paths to become more knowledgeable about the skills and experience needed to secure your dream job. If  you’re a marketing manager who needs to quickly get up to speed on how to leverage social media for your job, you could take the digital marketing learning path to continue grooming and adding new skills.

We know that making the commitment to learn is incredibly tough; sticking with it can be even harder. To ensure your hard work gets noticed,  you’ll receive a certification of completion at the end of a learning path that you can share with your professional network on LinkedIn. Whether you’re looking to transform your current career path, jump into a new career, or sharpen your skills in your current job, Lynda.com can be your guide.

These new learning paths will be available starting today in English around the world and we are working towards adding new paths for you to take. We look forward to hearing about your learning path stories.

 

 

Also see:

LinkedIn launches Lynda.com ‘Learning Paths’ in push to grow education business — from forbes.com by Kathleen Chaykowski

Excerpt:

On Thursday, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company launched more than 50 Lynda.com “Learning Paths,” a package of ordered courses intended to prepare users for a specific role or to update users’ skills for their current job. Some of the new “Learning Paths” include how to become a digital marketer, photographer, digital illustrator, small business owner, project manager, bookkeeper or web developer.

“Whether you’re looking to transform your current career path, jump into a new career, or sharpen your skills in your current job, Lynda.com can be your guide,” Arthur Nicholls, a senior product manager at LinkedIn said. ”We all know that the knowledge and skills required to be successful in our jobs today is accelerating. This rate of change challenges all of us to stay ahead in our roles and sets a high bar for those looking to start or change their careers.”

 

 

Fuller profiles on candidates’ skills and qualifications will also advance LinkedIn’s efforts in building an economic graph, a digital map of the skills, economic needs, jobs, companies and people around the world.

 

 

 

From DSC:
Reading the first item from today’s Learning TRENDS — from Elliott Masie — it appears that employees’ learning ecosystems are morphing…big time. More and more, employees are producing content and/or finding it outside the internal Learning & Development groups.

Having worked in Fortune 500 companies for 15 years, I experienced first hand the need to keep growing and learning — and that the employee ultimately needs to own their own learning.  It’s in the organizations’ and employees’ best interests to have employees tap into multiple streams of content in order to keep learning and growing. The L&D Groups are still very important, but given the pace of change — and disruption — one simply can’t afford to have someone else be in charge of one’s learning.


 

Excerpt from Learning TRENDS  #911 (emphasis DSC)

Learner as Content Producer? More of the learning consumed by learners has been created, compiled or produced by sources other than internal Learning & Development groups. We have been surveying a significant shift in the origin of content used by employees of our organizations. Increasingly, we are seeing these as the source of content:

  • Search Found Content.
  • Public Content Collections – TED Talks, YouTube, Others.
  • Peer Created Content or Collaborations.
  • Curated Content by Learners.
  • 3rd Party Content from External Providers.

The “meta” trend is that organization is building less and less of the content in a formal designer mode. In fact, the Learner is often becoming a “Learning Producer”, through their own assembly and selection of content from a wider and wider set of resources. It will be interesting to track how learners expand and hone their skills of being their own “Producers” – and how learning functions leverage this to help curate a more effective and efficient set of learning choices for the rest of the enterprise.

 

 

StreamsOfContent-DSC

 

 

 

 
 
 

From DSC:
Here are my notes from last week’s Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference.  This was just the second time this conference was offered, but the topics addressed therein are highly relevant to the future of learning spaces within higher education.  I hope they are helpful or interesting to some of you.

 

NGLS-2016

 

Implementing Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) is about moving things from being teacher-centric to student-centric. There’s far less lecture and more hands-on, collaborative experiences; there’s more project-based learning and active learning. More discussions, case studies, problem-solving, use of small groups. The Jigsaw method was nicely modeled at the conference.

 

PairShareMaturityLevel-Mar2016

 

 

Getting solid results boils down to designing and implementing effective pedagogies. A space can’t do it for you.  A professor needs to align his/her instructional activities with the desired instructional outcomes.

 

 

 

GeorgiaStateU-March2016

 

 

“35-40% of seats on a campus should be for informal learning.”

Per Gary McNay, Principal Perkins+Will
Libraries, cafes, student commons…

 

 

 

ToCreateAName-KyleBowen-March2016

 

 

 

What are the learning-related ramifications of technologies that provide virtual personal assistants? [Christian]

Everything Siri can do for you and your Apple TV — from imore.com by Lory Gill

Excerpt:

When you ask Siri what it can search for, it will respond, “I can search by title, people (actor, director, character name, guest star, producer, or writer), ratings (like PG or TV-G), reviews (such as best or worst), dates (like 2012 or the 80s), age (like kid-friendly or teen), seasons, episodes, and studio. And of course, I can search by genre.”

But, what else can Siri do?

Siri has a fairly robust search feature with multi-layer filtering.

While you are watching a movie or TV show, or listening to music, you can get a little extra help from Siri. It’s like having a buddy sitting next to you — but they don’t shush you when you ask a question.

You can search for content in the Music app on Apple TV by artist, album, or song title. With a little know-how, you can also turn Siri into your personal deejay.

While you may normally look to your smartphone for your weather predictions, Siri can be just as helpful about the conditions around the world as your local weatherman or app. All you have to do is ask.

 

From DSC:
Following this trajectory out a bit into the future — and in light of significant developments that continue to occur with artificial intelligence, the development and use of algorithms, the potential use of web-based learner profiles (think LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com, MOOCs, the use of nanodegrees), second screen-based apps, and the like — one has to wonder:

“What are the ramifications of this for learning-related applications?!”

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

 

From DSC:
Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances.  The convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer continues…and is now coming into your home. Trainers, faculty members, teachers, developers, and others will want to keep an eye on this space. The opportunities are enormous, especially as second screen-based apps and new forms of human computer interfaces (HCI) unfold.

The following items come to my mind:

Online-based communities of practice. Virtual reality, virtual tutoring. Intelligent systems. Artificial intelligence. Global learning. 24×7, lifelong learning. Career development. Flipping the classroom. Homeschooling.  Learning hubs. Online learning. Virtual schools. Webinars on steroids.

With the reach of these powerful technologies (that continue to develop), I would recommend trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of tvOS-based apps in the future. Towards that end, below are some items that might help.


 

techtalk-apple-feb2016

 

 

 

Apple releases Apple TV Tech Talks video series for building better tvOS apps — by AppleInsider Staff

Excerpt:

Apple on Wednesday released to developers a series of videos focusing on Apple TV and its tvOS operating system, offering a detailed look at the underlying SDK, resources and best practices associated with coding for the platform.

 

Also see:

 

TVTechTalk-fe3b2016

 

 

Addendum on 2/26/16:

  • Apple Adds Multiple New App Categories to tvOS App Store — from macrumors.com by Juli Clover
    Excerpt:
    [On 2/25/16] Apple updated the tvOS App Store to add several new app categories to make it easier for Apple TV 4 owners to find content on their devices. As outlined by AfterPad, a site that showcases Apple TV apps, the new categories are rolling out to Apple TV users and may not be available to everyone just yet. Some users may only see the new categories under Purchased Apps until the rollout is complete.

 

 

Finding our voice: Instructional Designers in higher education — from er.educause.edu by Sandra Miller and Gayle Stein

Key Takeaways

  • A New Jersey workshop on instructional design gave attendees the opportunity to learn about instructional designers’ roles at different institutions and brainstorm good ideas, tips and tricks, important contributions to the field, and how to overcome shared challenges.
  • Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process, helping faculty learn how to use instructional tools.
  • A major challenge for instructional designers is faculty resistance to new pedagogies and deliveries — not just to hybrid and online courses.
  • Institutional acknowledgement of skill acquisition in their professional development can lead faculty to place a higher value on technology integration in teaching and learning.

What Instructional Designers Do
Instructional designers take on a variety of roles. They can be course development focused or technology focused. They can be facilitators, mentors, trainers, collaborators, reviewers, and mediators, and more likely some combination of those. They often have different roles to fill in addition to instructional design: they may supervise computer labs, have responsibility for classroom technology, and/or oversee video production facilities.

The instructional designers who attended the NJEDge.Net Instructional Design Symposium are involved in:

  • Providing both pedagogical and technology training, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes separately
  • Moving courses between learning management systems
  • Creating new online courses or transitioning face-to-face courses to online formats
  • Producing video and other multimedia
  • Supporting a variety of software that faculty want to use to create their courses or
  • Training faculty to teach more effectively using technology
  • Supporting students using LMSs
  • Ensuring that courses meet federal requirements for accessibility
  • Lobbying for funding for faculty who are taking time to create online courses
  • Creating challenging assessments to minimize cheating

Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process. They help faculty learn how to use instructional tools such as lecture capture, synchronous meetings, asynchronous discussions, collaborative document writing, group work, clickers, learning management systems, video production, and video editing.

 

The instructional designers found that it made a difference in terms of trust and respect accorded them when they sat on the academic side of the house. (Nonetheless, the majority of instructional designers at the symposium report to the IT side and ultimately (usually) to the financial/administrative side, despite their preference for the academic side.)

 

 

A prediction from DSC:
Those institutions who develop and use internal teams of specialists will be the winners in the future.

Below are some of the forces that will reward those institutions who pursue such a strategy in order to design, create, and provide their offerings/services include:

  • The rise of personalized/adaptive learning (data mining, learning analytics are also included in this bullet point)
  • The increased use of artificial intelligence and the development of intelligent systems/assistants/tutoring
  • Higher ed’s need to scale and reduce the going rates/prices of obtaining degrees — yet maintaining quality
  • Rapid technological changes and an ever increasing amount to know as instructional technologists (this is also true with videographers, multimedia developers, copyright experts, and other members of the team)
  • New discoveries and advances w/in the various disciplines — which require faculty members’ focus to stay on top of their disciplines
  • The changing expectations of students, and how they prefer to learn
  • The rise of alternatives to institutions of traditional higher education who, from their very start, develop and use internal teams of specialists (all the more relevant if these alternative organizations obtain the financial backing of the Federal Government)

The trick is how such teams should actually operate so as not to become bottlenecks in keeping the curricula relevant and up-to-date. After all, it takes time and resources to effectively design, create, and deliver blended and/or online courses.

 

 

From resonics.co.uk with a shout out to Mr. Jeremy Luscombe for the resource:

 

Courtesy Of Resonics

 

Top 20 User Experience Blogs and Resources of 2015 — from usabilitygeek.com by Matt Ellis

Example resources from that posting:

 

ux-design-feb2016

 

 

ux-design2-feb2016

 

 

 

ux-design3-feb2016

BONUS: 15 Honorable Mentions

The following is a list of other excellent user experience blogs that did not make it in this list but are so good that they are still worth a mention. So please be sure to check them out as well!

 

From DSC:
Though I’m sure this list is missing many talented folks and firms, it’s a great place to start learning about user experience design, interface design, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing.

 

 

 

Top 10 skills in data science — from businessoverbroadway.com by Bob Hayes

Excerpt:

The practice of data science requires skills that fall into three general areas: business acumen, computer technology/programming and statistics/math. Depending on whom you ask, the specific set of top skills varies. Dave Holtz describes the data science skills you need to get a job as a data scientist (8 Skills You Need to Be a Data Scientist). Ferris Jumah, examining LinkedIn profiles with the title “Data Scientists,” identified 10 skills (The Data Science Skills Network). BurtchWorks offers their list of skills that are critical to success in data science (9 Must-Have Skills You Need to Become a Data Scientist). RJMetrics, using LinkedIn data, identified the top 20 data science skill (The State of Data Science). For these lists, top skills reflected the frequency with which data professionals list these skills on their social media profile or simply reflect what the author thinks is a good set of skills.

 

DataScienceSkills-Jan2016

 

 

Will Lynda.com/LinkedIn.com pursue this powerful vision with an organization like IBM? If so, look out!

From DSC:
Back in July of 2012, I put forth a vision that I called Learning from the Living [Class]Room

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

It’s a vision that involves a multitude of technologies — technologies and trends that we continue to see being developed and ones that could easily converge in the not-too-distant future to offer us some powerful opportunities for lifelong learning! 

Consider that in won’t be very long before a learner will be able to reinvent himself/herself throughout their lifetime, for a very affordable price — while taking ala carte courses from some of the best professors, trainers, leaders, and experts throughout the world, all from the comfort of their living room. (Not to mention tapping into streams of content that will be available on such platforms.)

So when I noticed that Lynda.com now has a Roku channel for the big screen, it got my attention.

 

lyndadotcom-roku-channel-dec2015

 

Lets add a few more pieces to the puzzle, given that some other relevant trends are developing quite nicely:

  • tvOS-based apps are now possible — and already there are over 2600 of them and it’s only been a month or so since Apple made this new platform available to the masses
  • Now, let’s add the ability to take courses online via a virtual reality interface — globally, at any time; VR is poised to have some big years in 2016 and 2017!
  • Lynda.com and LinkedIn.com’s fairly recent merger and their developing capabilities to offer micro-credentials, badges, and competency-based education (CBE) — while keeping track of the courses that a learner has taken
  • The need for lifelong learning is now a requirement, as we need to continually reinvent ourselves — especially given the increasing pace of change and as complete industries are impacted (broadsided), almost overnight
  • Big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to pick up steam; for example, consider the cognitive computing capabilities being developed in IBM’s Watson — which should be able to deliver personalized digital playlists and likely some level of intelligent tutoring as well
  • Courses could be offered at a fraction of the cost, as MOOC-sized classes could distribute the costs over a greater # of people and back end systems could help grade/assess the students’ work; plus the corporate world continues to use MOOCs to cost-effectively train their employees across the globe (MOOCs would thrive on such a tvOS-based platform, whereby students could watch lectures, demonstrations, and simulations on the big screen and then communicate with each other via their second screens*)
  • As the trends of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) pick up, relevant courses/modules will likely be instantly presented to people to learn about a particular topic or task.  For example, I purchased a crib and I want to know how to put it together. The chip in the crib communicates to my Smart TV or to my augmented reality glasses/headset, and then a system loads up some multimedia-based training/instructions on how to put it together.
  • Streams of content continue to be developed and offered — via blogs, via channels like Periscope and Meerkat, via social media-based channels, and via other channels — and these streams of multimedia-based content should prove to be highly useful to individual learners as well as for communities of practice

Anyway, these next few years will be packed with change — the pace of which will likely take us by surprise. We need to keep our eyes upward and outward — peering into the horizons rather than looking downwards — doing so should reduce the chance of us getting broadsided!

*It’s also possible that AR and VR will create
a future whereby we only need 1 “screen”

 

The pace has changed significantly and quickly

 

 

Addendum:
After I wrote/published the item above…it was interesting to then see the item below:

IBM opens Watson IoT Global Headquarters, extends power of cognitive computing to a connected world — from finance.yahoo.com
1000 Munich-based experts to drive IoT and industry 4.0 innovation
Launches eight new IoT client experience centers worldwide
Introduces Watson API Services for IoT on the IBM Cloud

Excerpt:

MUNICH, Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of its global headquarters for Watson Internet of Things (IoT), launching a series of new offerings, capabilities and ecosystem partners designed to extend the power of cognitive computing to the billions of connected devices, sensors and systems that comprise the IoT.  These new offerings will be available through the IBM Watson IoT Cloud, the company’s global platform for IoT business and developers.

 

 

6 ways work will change in 2016 — from fastcompany.com by Jared Lindzon
Workplace trends for 2016 will be set in large part by what’s happening in the freelance world right now.

Some of the areas covered include:

Remote-First Businesses
The Rise Of Independent Consultants
Less PowerPoint, More Video
Consumer-Grade Design As The New Normal

 

From DSC:
Are our students ready to successfully freelance when they graduate? Whether they are right away or not, chances are they will be a contingent worker at some point in their careers.

 

 

How to Publish an E-Book: Resources for Authors — by Jane Friedman

Excerpt:

About the only thing that remains constant in e-book publishing is that it changes—everything from the services to marketing strategies. Here, I’ve attempted to round-up all the good resources I know of related to (1) learning to publish an e-book, (2) finding the right e-publishing services, and (3) staying on top of changes in the industry.

Topics/areas that Jane provides resources for include:
Excellent Book-Length Guides
Getting Started & Principles
Producing a Solid Product
Sales, Marketing, and Promotion
Getting Reviews
Tools for Creating & Formatting E-Books
Tools for Creating Enhanced, Multimedia, or Full-Color E-Books
Major E-Book Retailers
Major E-Book Distributors & Services
To Find Freelance Help
Authors Who Blog About E-Book Publishing
News & Trends About E-Book Publishing

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian