Shows
The Fluent Mind ESL PodcastJack Walks 02: 5 Biggest Challenges ESL Students FaceIn this Jack Walk, Jack talks about the 5 biggest challenges facing ESL students.https://news.elearninginside.com/the-...Check out the Free Online English Lessons YouTube channel: @freeonlineenglis... Donate to the show: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472a...Robin and Jack started a new You Tube channel called English Word Master. You can check it out here: @englishwordmaster Become a member of Podchaser and leave a positive review!https://www.podchaser.com/podc...
2023-04-3018 min
EdTechnicallyMcGraw-Hill Cengage Merger Faces Headwinds in the US and UKOn March 30, the uphill battle education publishers McGraw-Hill and Cengage have been fighting to complete a merger got a little steeper. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled that the companies’ proposal to sell off a number of their current holdings was not sufficient to maintain competition. As a result, the CMA did not extend their blessing for the merger to move ahead.
Earlier in March, two members of the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee, Chairman David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Commerce Chair Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, wrote a letter to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Divisi...
2020-04-0107 minEdTechnicallyResearchers Link Working Memory to Online Learning Habits, a Step Forward in Personalized LearningAs edtech and eLearning technologies have gone from a novelty to commonplace in education systems around the world, their use has been plagued by a common question: do they work as effectively as traditional instruction? While the question is far too broad to be useful to anyone, a group of researchers recently took a mostly unexplored approach. They wanted to see how learners with different working memory capabilities learned in an online context. What’s more, they identified numerous functions of online modules—such as learning time, repetition of material, and quiz performance—to see if it correlated with working memory...
2020-03-2609 minEdTechnicallyInterpersonal Interaction Is Crucial for Instructional Continuity. But What Does that Mean?As coronavirus-related school closures continue to effect education systems around the world, an increasing amount of educators are doing their best to keep their courses going online. In this effort, teachers have coalesced on Twitter around the hashtag #instructionalcontinuity. Many often hear and repeat that, when it comes to online learning, fostering interpersonal interaction is one of the biggest challenges.
But what, exactly, does that term mean? And what’s the best way of going about boosting interpersonal interaction in an online class? Bloomsburg University Professor Scott Mehall tackles this issue in a recent scholarly article. “Purposeful Interpersonal Interaction in Onli...
2020-03-1908 minEdTechnicallyCoronavirus Has Arrived. Will an LMS Be Enough for Remote Learning?In the early months of 2020, coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, surged in China and surrounding countries, leading to large-scale school closings. The virus has since spread around the world and has arrived in the U.S.
On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic. No one knows how far, wide, and long coronavirus will spread. While young people—especially children—tend to handle the virus far more effectively than older patients, closing public institutions like schools where many people mingle on a daily basis has been seen by some as an effective way to combat the spread of t...
2020-03-1307 minEdTechnicallyWiley Strikes Open Access Publishing Deal with UK UniversitiesThe academic publisher and edtech provider Wiley announced an ambitious move in digital publishing on March 2. In collaboration with Jisc and U.K. universities, the company has agreed to a four-year deal that will allow researchers to publish their work online in Wiley journals with an open access license at no cost to themselves.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
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2020-03-0407 minEdTechnicallyCoronavirus: How Schools Are Using Technology to Learn on LockdownIn the early weeks of 2020, coronavirus has spread around the world. As the death toll from the respiratory virus has surpassed 2,500, numerous regions and cities have restricted travel, discouraged public gatherings, or put lockdowns in place. While many have been forced to cancel their plans as a result, a growing number of schools, businesses, and organizations have sought to conduct business and education as usual using technology and eLearning applications.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
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2020-02-2511 minEdTechnicallyInstructure Failed to Gain Shareholder Support for a Private Equity Buyout. What Comes Next?On February 13, Instructure shareholders were set to vote on the proposed private equity buyout deal with the firm Thoma Bravonews on February 13. But before the vote, news emerged that Instructure had failed to gather enough investor support to allow it to go through. The company postponed the shareholder vote to February 25.
Then, on February Instructure CEO Dan Goldsmith announced on February 18 that he plans to leave his role as chief executive of the company, along with his position on the board of directors. Goldsmith will remain in his post until March 6. In the meantime, senior Instructure leaders will form a...
2020-02-1909 minEdTechnicallyWhat Role Should Blended Learning Play During Crises? Insights from the #FeesMustFall MovementIn recent years, online and blended learning has been put to use frequently during periods when teaching face to face is impossible. eLearning has been used to maintain instruction during hurricanes, heavy snows, floods, and fires. Educators have even continued to teach with online and blended learning during violent conflicts when traveling to schools becomes no longer safe. Communities often rally behind these efforts and view it as a best-case-scenario with all things considered. But that is not always the case. In a recently published article, researchers interview professors from the University of Cape Town (UCT) who were abruptly forced...
2020-02-1010 minEdTechnicallyLiberty University Invested Big in Private Data and Admissions Leads to Grow their Online ProgramLiberty University is one of the biggest universities in the U.S., especially when it comes to private institutions and online enrollment. LU is an Evangelical Christian school, and sports Division I football and basketball teams. They also maintain confusing and even questionable statistics when it comes to important institution factors, like admissions, graduation rates, and post-graduate earnings. While the school struggled to maintain enrollment during the early and mid-2000s, it experienced massive enrollment growth beginning in 2007. Publicly available data indicates that this is due to both to a largely-expanded online program and aggressive investments in digital marketing and...
2020-02-0513 min
EdTechnicallyCollege Board Trends Report: Higher Education Still PaysFew higher education forecasts—for students or schools—have been sunny lately. On the one hand, tuition and fees have risen sharply in the past thirty years. Total student loan debt reached $1.5 trillion in the third quarter of 2019. Colleges and universities, meanwhile, are facing drops in enrollment that are expected to last through this decade, if not further. But a new report out from the College Board paints a different picture. For graduates, college still pays off financially, and is correlated with increased health benefits, civic engagement, and more.
Since 2004, College Board has prepared annual reports titled Education Pays: The Bene...
2020-01-2607 min
EdTechnicallyedX Announces Stackable Undergraduate Credit Offering: MicroBachelorsOn January 8, edX, the non-profit academic and professional training platform, announced a suite of courses that would allow online students to earn and accumulate transferable college credit. The new offering is known as MicroBachelors.
The organization says MicroBachelors are intended primarily for adults who have attended college, but did not graduate. With these online courses, students can make up credits to fill a whole degree.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
eLearningInside.com
Original story: https://news.elearninginside.com/edx-announces-stackable-undergraduate-credit-offering-microbachelors/
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2020-01-1706 min
EdTechnicallyRegulators Are Catching Up to Virtual Charter School Growth, But Fraud PersistsVirtual charter schools and blended programs have continued to grow in American secondary education. In the 2017-18 school year, just under 300,000 learners were enrolled in full-time remote programs, while 133,000 studied in a blended program. While the sector long enjoyed less oversight and public attention than brick-and-mortar counterparts, that has begun to change in the past few years. But despite this increased regulation, instances of fraud have increased in the sector.
In December, the Education Commission of the States (ECS) published a rundown of state legislation passed between 2017 and 2019 relating to virtual charter schools. (ECS is a non-partisan federally-mandated group that...
2020-01-1210 min
EdTechnicallyThe 2020s: Nascent Technologies that Show Promise in EducationAs the month, the year, and the decade come to a close, many have voice predictions about the year to come. The staff at eLearning Inside don’t pretend to own a crystal ball, let alone confidently make any predictions about the future. But over the course of our reporting, we have certainly encountered various technologies and their innovative uses that have yet to be used at large scales, but appear to demonstrate huge potential. We’ve described a few that show the most promise below. This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stit...
2020-01-0208 min
EdTechnicallyEducation and EdTech in the 2010s: A Lost Decade or a Period of Progress?In the final months of the current decade, U.S. students received two lackluster report cards. First in October, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card) delivered 4th and 8th grade test results in math and reading. While scores went up or down by a few points in all categories, the results were largely unchanged compared to 2017.
Then, in November, the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) released their results from 2018. American students scored average in reading and science and below average in math.
These results led many stakeholders to issue a familiar refrain. The Ne...
2019-12-2412 min
EdTechnicallyCoursera for Business Announces 100% YoY GrowthAnother MOOC provider has found the business training sector provides a more reliable customer base than academic students. On December 10, Coursera announced its enterprise training business has witnessed 100% year-over-year growth and now stands as the company’s largest customer share.
In 2019, Coursera signed or renewed deals with Adobe, Mastercard, Southwest Airlines, and the NYC Department of Small Business Services, among others. Over the company’s history, they have partnered with over 2,000 businesses to deliver employee training, 60 of which are among the Fortune 500.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also avai...
2019-12-1306 min
EdTechnicallyWhat Happens to Teachers When Online Students Miss a Class?Online tutoring—where instructors reach students via the internet, often using videoconferencing—has continued to grow in popularity. Some have begun to investigate how learners fare in this environment compared to traditional face-to-face classrooms. But fewer have looked into how teachers use and adapt to this environment. A recent academic article, however, looks into certain effects of the online environment. Specifically, the investigators wanted to see what effect student absenteeism had on online tutors. They discovered that, following a student no-show, online teachers smiled less and were, themselves, more than twice as likely to miss the next tutoring session.
“The Spillo...
2019-12-0608 min
EdTechnically27% of Edtech Licenses Go Unused: LearnPlatform ReportEducation technology is used widely in schools and districts across the U.S. Collectively, U.S. K-12 education spends more than $12 billion every year on edtech licenses. But on average, 27% of an edtech product’s licenses are never activated or used.
That’s according to analysis from LearnPlatform, an edtech effectiveness system that aims to measure and inform schools about their use of technology. On November 20, the company released their annual usage trends report.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
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2019-11-2006 min
EdTechnicallyHumanoid Robot Teachers Are HereAutomated, AI-powered software and applications already help learners around the world gain knowledge without the help of another human. In fewer cases, developers have deployed similar technology into hardware that can move, watch, listen, record, and interact. Humanoid robot teachers have been developed and deployed in classrooms on limited bases around the world. For some, this is cause for excitement. Others are more cautious, or even deeply concerned. Two researchers from Durham University, Professors Douglas Newton and Lynn Newton, recently published an article describing the current uses and concerns of humanoid robot teachers, along with a proposed code of practice.
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2019-11-1810 min
EdTechnicallyBeyond 2020: How eLeaP Redesigned Its LMS for the Future of Workforce DevelopmentWhile the large incumbent learning management systems serving higher education have the resources to frequently develop new features or even acquire other companies outright to add to their stack, everyone else has a series of tough decisions they need to make. eLeaP, an LMS developed by the Louisville-based Telania, has won long-time clients in compliance industries, life sciences, and elsewhere with its careful adherence to federal regulations and substantial eCommerce features. The LMS just completed its fifth redesign since launching in 2005.
Disclosure: Telania LLC. owns eLearning Inside.
“This time around, we really wanted to lay the foundation for what the sy...
2019-11-0814 min
EdTechnicallyEdTech Startups Are Gaining Users and VC Funding Via an Old Medium: PrintWhile many recent edtech startups have leveraged digital technology to change the education experience, a wave of new companies have focused on a tried and tested medium: print. Numerous companies have recently applied what one might consider tech business models to products and services that aim to improve literacy, expand book-lending options, and get more children and adults reading.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
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2019-11-0200 min
EdTechnicallyASU and Sprint Are Launching a Wide-Ranging IoT and 5G InitiativeArizona State University (ASU) and Sprint announced on October 22 that the two have laid plans to bring 5G mobile service and a corresponding IoT network to the Grand Canyon State. Working together, ASU and Sprint plan to lay the foundations for a digital infrastructure with the aim of fostering “economic, educational, technological, and social growth” throughout the state of Arizona.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
eLearningInside.com
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2019-10-2500 min
EdTechnicallyOU Researchers Identify 6 Promising Technology-Based Pedagogies that Have Been Shown to WorkAs technology and education research have continued to develop side by side, many stakeholders have begun to see huge potential in the future of education. But to connect the dots between the present and that future potential, there is still much work to be done. Since 2012, a coalition of education researchers involved with the Institute of Educational Technology (IET), The Open University (OU) and other edtech research initiatives have produced annual Innovating Pedagogy reports. These describe emerging pedagogies that combine new technologies with innovative educational practices, present research on their effectiveness, and discuss their uses. Innovating Pedagogy 2019 was published this...
2019-10-1600 min
EdTechnically2U Continues to Sign New Clients, Despite Summer Setbacks2U Inc. has had a busy fall semester. In the month of September alone, the revenue-sharing OPM announced a new online Master’s in Social Work with Syracuse University, a new online Master’s in Digital Marketing
(in partnership with Keypath Education) with Emerson College, and a hybrid PhD pharmaceutical program with St. John Fisher College. Earlier, in August, they unveiled their first undergraduate partnership with the London School of Economics. This week, on October 7, they made their latest announcement: an online Master of Architecture with the Rochester Institute of Technology, the OPM’s first venture into the academic field.
This l...
2019-10-1400 min
EdTechnicallyD2L CEO John Baker: "We're leveraging AI to make the educational experience more human."In 1999, a student at the University of Waterloo (based in Waterloo, Ontario) by the name of John Baker founded a company with the mission of improving the way that people learn. Two decades later, D2L, which offers its signature LMS Brightspace, has offices and institutional partners around the world. The company survived the dotcom crash and a three-year patent violation lawsuit brought by Blackboard in 2006. Now, in 2019, D2L has the third largest market share in the North American higher education market in terms of enrolled users, according to eLiterate. Since that analysis was published, D2L has signed...
2019-09-3000 min
EdTechnicallyDoes University Size Affect Online Rankings?University rankings from sites like U.S. News and World Report and others carry heavy influence with students deciding which college to attend. While they often claim to practice rigorous ranking methods, a growing body of researchers beg to differ. In a report published this week, researchers put forward new evidence showing that university size tends to correlate with its online rank.
“Does Size Matter? An Evaluation of Institutional Internet Ranking Metrics” by Professor Izzat Alsmadi (Texas A&M University) and PhD candidate Z. W. Taylor (University of Texas at Austin) was published in SSRN on August 27.
This episode is also...
2019-09-0400 min
EdTechnicallyOver 1 in 5 Cybersecurity Attacks Targeted Professional Education Between April and JuneBetween April and June of this year, more than 1 in 5 malware attacks tracked by the cybersecurity firm Mimecast targeted the professional education industry. The sector was far and away the highest-hit by spam campaigns, garnering 21.5% of the attacks. IT and SaaS came in second place at 8.87%.
Mimecast published these results in their Mimecast Threat Intelligence Report. During the period, the company tracked 160 billion emails, 67 billion of which were malicious.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
eLearningInside.com
Original article: https://news.elearninginside...
2019-08-1900 min
EdTechnicallyProf. Heidi Kloos Found Benefits of a Personalized Learning App. But Teachers Don't Want to Use It.As more and more adaptive personalized learning solutions enter the market, educators and schools are increasingly looking to use them to augment their instruction. The subject of reading is seen by many as an area that could benefit substantially from this technology. In recently published study, researchers from the University of Cincinnati and North Carolina State University, Raleigh looked into the MindPlay Virtual Reading Coach (referred to in the study as MVRC). They investigated its use in three separate Midwestern districts where students, like most American learners, were often one or more grade levels behind in literacy and reading skills...
2019-08-1200 min
EdTechnicallyPushback Against the Cengage McGraw-Hill Merger: What Is At Stake and What Comes Next?A group of nearly 100 different student representatives, organizations, and institutions have signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking that they block the proposed merger between education publishers Cengage and McGraw-Hill. The letter was released on U.S. Public Independent Research Group’s (PIRG’s) site on July 29.
Addressed to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, it asks the DoJ to block the deal on the grounds that it will violate antitrust law and limit competition. They write, “The merger threatens to consolidate more power in the grasp of a handful of publishers, who have used their enormous market...
2019-08-0500 min
EdTechnicallyInstructure Eyes Adaptive Personalized Learning: CEO Dan Goldsmith in ConversationOver the course of the three days at InstructureCon 2019, the makers of the Canvas learning management system (LMS) delivered a ‘state of the platform.’ Upper management discussed numerous new features, recent acquisitions, and described their outlook going forward. Many attendees, however, were interested to hear more about rumblings of the company’s expanded data analytics, AI capabilities, and predictive modeling, which have been developed in a working project known as DIG. The effort was announced at the last earnings call. eLearning Inside sat down with Instructure CEO Dan Goldsmith for comment.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes...
2019-07-1500 min
EdTechnicallyROYBI, an Edtech Robot Manufacturer, Raises $4.5 Million in Seed FundingOn July 1, the San Francisco-based edtech robot manufacturer ROYBI announced a $4.2 million seed funding round to ramp up manufacturing in advance of their product launch. ROYBI makes a small Furby-sized robot that can talk, listen, see with a built-in camera, display images on its stomach, and think on its feet via machine learning software. The device can even determine whether a child is happy or sad and curate content accordingly. It’s intended as an educational companion for children aged 3-7.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as...
2019-07-0800 min
EdTechnicallyProject Chimera Uses VR to Put Remote Students in the ClassroomWhile some hybrid degrees are gaining in popularity in fields such as nursing and law, these mostly demarcate courses between remote and in-person. But what if the same class—and not just the same class content—could be taught to both in-person and remote students at the same time? Jimmy Giliberti, general manager of Number 9, a VR development company, has been thinking about scenarios like these for some time. Number 9 operates as a subsidiary of the Glimpse Group, an umbrella company that brings together VR and AR expertise across numerous fields. Along with another company, Foretell, Giliberti has recently developed Proj...
2019-05-2800 min
EdTechnicallyCengage and McGraw-Hill Are Merging--How Will That Affect Teachers and Learners?On May 1st, McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage, two of the world’s largest educational publishers and learning sciences companies, announced plans to merge. The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement to enter into an all-stock merger on equal terms. The deal has been approved by the board of directors at both companies.
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
eLearningInside.com
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2019-05-1300 min
EdTechnicallyREGATTA VR CEO BILL WEST DISCUSSES CORPORATE TRAINING AND HIS 30-YEAR CAREER IN EDTECHBill West has been involved in edtech for over 30 years. After graduating with a computer science degree from Indiana University Bloomington in 1987, he went to work for Andersen Consulting on an initiative that was described at the time as CBT, or computer-based training. Since, West has worked for the dot-com-era UNext, Xerox, LEO Learning, and eLearning Brothers. He has also launched and sold his own custom corporate training design company, Option Six. Later, he founded the Learning Alliance, a team comprised of five corporate training design and development companies. Their collective C-suite includes numerous pioneers of education technology, from developers...
2019-04-2900 min
EdTechnicallyChronas Provides a Map of History with Over 50 Million Data PointsAround five years ago, full stack developer Dietmar Aumann was perusing the internet looking for a sort of historical Google Maps. A fan of history, he wanted a map that also had a time slider that could bring him back and show him the former borders of countries, sites of important events, and other information. After finding that such a map did not exist, he did what any developer might do: he built one himself. Chronas.org is the fruit of Aumann’s labors (and a successful Kickstarter campaign). Not only does it show the changing borders of political entities ov...
2019-04-1500 min
EdTechnicallyWho Is the Typical Online Student? What Do they Study?The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been collecting data on American learners for over 150 years. Using their information, this episode aims to offer a more clearly defined picture of a subset of learners who were formerly labeled ‘non-traditional’: online students. It will focus specifically on online students who are pursuing their entire degree online. What schools do they go to? What majors are they pursuing? What are their chances of graduating?
This episode is also available in podcast form on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher. It is also available as a video on YouTube.
eLearningInside.com
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2019-04-0100 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentIt Isn't Easy Handling Instructional Design for Digital LearningTeachers today have access to technology and instructional tools that were mostly absent from classrooms just a few years ago. While well-versed in pedagogy and learning modalities, many may not be so familiar with some media that has recently begun to revolutionize digital learning. Third party instructional designers have long helped to deliver lesson plans and assessments to teachers, and recently, some of the same companies have begun to connect the dots between older styles of teaching, rigorously tested pedagogy, and emerging technology.
2019-01-0808 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentTrilogy Education Continues to Expand With Two New AcquisitionsIn the competitive coding bootcamp market, Trilogy has emerged as one private academy that seems likely to persist over time, even as many competitors stumble. In May 2018, Trilogy announced that it had secured $50 million in a Series B funding round to fuel expansion of its platform and global impact. Buy-in came from Highland Capital Partners, Macquarie Capital, and Exceed Capital with participation from several other existing investors, including Rethink Impact, City Light Capital, and Triumph Capital LLC. Six months later, Trilogy, which now markets itself as a “
Workforce Accelerator,” is following through on its expansion promise with two new acquisitions.
2019-01-0806 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentJudge's Verdict Halts New Mexico Connections Academy ClosureDespite growing concerns about the performance of online charter schools, this week, a New Mexico state judge granted one troubled online school the green light to keep operating. The trouble started earlier this year when the New Mexico Public Education Department ordered New Mexico Connections Academy, a Santa Fe-based online charter school, to close. This week, Judicial District Judge Francis Mathew issued a ruling that concluded the school did not need to shut down. According to Judge Mathew, the Public Education Department’s actions had violated state law and on this basis, he ordered the department to renew the virtual sc...
2019-01-0804 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentPurdue AAUP Puts Heightened Pressure on Purdue GlobalOn October 4, Purdue University’s local chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which is the association that represents Purdue University’s faculty, issued a strongly stated resolution calling on Purdue Global to address multiple labor violations. So far, Purdue University has not officially responded to the AAUP resolution, but this is also not entirely surprising. Since Purdue University purchased Kaplan in 2017, the AAUP has been at odds with Purdue University’s senior administrators and all signs indicate that the fight over the new online university known as Purdue Global has just begun.
2019-01-0706 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentIt's Time to Change the Way Teachers Grade: StudyFor years, student grades have been formed exclusively through how learners perform on certain assignments and criteria. In some subjects, like math, a student’s abilities may be very apparent. They will either be able to answer a given problem correctly or they will not. But in other areas, it’s foggier and much more subjective. Inconsistencies across grades and classes are inevitable. In a best case scenario, these inconsistencies are informed by human error or individual connections. In a worst case scenario, societal biases creep in and reinforce existing stereotypes among younger generations. Two researchers from Utrecht University in the...
2019-01-0706 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentIs an Increase in State Funding the Solution to Lower Tuition in Higher Ed?Almost fortnightly, it seems, a report or article emerges about the increase in tuition at American institutions of higher education. Some describe what caused the hikes, and what policies can be adopted to reverse the trend. Many of these reports tend to land on the same conclusion: state disinvestment in higher education that began during the Great Recession has driven the hikes in tuition we see today. In the past month, discussion at The Century Foundation’s Higher Ed 2020 conference fell into this category, as did a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
2019-01-0709 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentSocial Hackers Academy Retrains Migrants in Greece for Work in the Tech IndustryLast year, eLearning Inside connected with Social Hackers Academy, an NGO based in Athens, Greece that provides a coding bootcamp for migrants, asylum-seekers, and out-of-work individuals to train for jobs in the tech industry. Since we last spoke, the group has trained 22 junior developers and has expanded classes to include instruction in WordPress along with basic digital skills. Having successfully placed graduates in longterm jobs, Social Hackers Academy has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the hopes of generating another 12 months of runway.
2019-01-0605 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentPortfolium Is Helping Princeton Students Connect Beyond the ClassroomAs a freshman, arriving on a large university campus is always intimidating. While a few U.S. high schools have over 4,000 students (for example, Brooklyn Tech in New York City), according to the National Center for Educational Statistics, most U.S. high schools have under 1,000 students. This is not the case at the postsecondary level. Once students move on to higher education, they generally find themselves on campuses with several thousands of students, and the transition can be difficult. This is a challenge that Princeton University is now attempting to address with an innovative adoption of Portfolium.
2019-01-0604 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentChinese Edtech Has No Reluctance with AIThroughout the past year, Chinese tech startups have received encouragement via policy and financial support from their government in the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) across sectors. Numerous Chinese edtech companies have recently announced successful development and further funding of their AI-powered education products. Meanwhile in the U.S. and elsewhere, AI education solutions have been determined ineffective by some tech leaders and remain highly unpopular with parents and other privacy advocates.
2019-01-0605 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentMeritize, Which Provides Merit-Based Education Loans, Raises $13.2 in Series ASecuring funding for further education can be exceptionally difficult for learners with poor credit. What loans are available will typically carry a high interest rate. That marks a catch-22 for individuals hoping to advance their socioeconomic status with further education. The company Meritize thinks it has a solution. Based on factors like work history and military service, they offer loans for professional programs on a partial merit basis. On Wednesday, the company closed a Series A funding round to the tune of $13.2 million to help advance their work.
2019-01-0505 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentASU's Weaponized Narrative Initiative Teams Up with Truepic to Fight Fake NewsDuring the past two presidential administrations, internet trolls have manipulated images of George Bush and Barack Obama talking on the phone to make it appear the device was upside-down. These would be some of the lighter instances of what a group at Arizona State University (ASU) calls weaponized narratives, or fake stories created to undermine an opponent. The ASU Weaponized Narrative Initiative focuses on these malicious initiatives of fake news, and on Tuesday, they announced a new partnership with Truepic, an image verifying app and platform, in the run up to the 2018 mid terms.
2019-01-0504 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentOhio Parents Continue to Choose Virtual Charters Despite Further Scandal and Poor PerformanceDespite recent scandals and school closings, Ohio parents continue to choose virtual charters for their kids. Over the weekend, the Dayton Daily News reported that Great River Connections Academy, the first virtual charter to open in the state in five years, began the current school year with an enrollment of 100 students in grades K-12. That figure has since ballooned to 430.
2019-01-0505 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentLinkedIn Publishes Most In-Demand Skills for 2019Many professionals take the New Year as an opportunity to resolve to learn something new. January marks the most popular month for numerous online learning sites and platforms. But what to learn? And how can you leverage that education in the marketplace? LinkedIn might be a good place to start. On January 1, LinkedIn provided some guidance with a rundown of the most in-demand professional skills. Their premium LinkedIn Learning courses will also be available for free throughout the month of January.
2019-01-0404 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentBridging the Digital Divide Among Schools Is Within Reach Despite FCC Red TapeOn Tuesday, the State of the States Report, which tracks school connectivity issues, along with EducationSuperHighway, released their annual report. The bad news is that the digital divide still separates 2.3 million American students from access to broadband internet. The good news is that 1.9 million of these learners live in just 62 districts across the country.
2019-01-0405 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentHarvard Extension School and MIT Launch New MicroMasters CollaborationOn October 1, the Harvard Extension School (HES) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced a collaboration that will offer learners a chance to pursue a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) degree at Harvard Extension School after completing a MITx MicroMasters credential. The new program will focus on students currently pursuing MicroMasters credentials in Management, Sustainability, or Development Practice.
2019-01-0405 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentOU and FutureLearn Seek Funding to Expand Online Course and MOOC OfferingsThe Open University, currently the U.K.’s largest institution of higher education, is making a play to capture a bigger slice of the online distance learning pie. As reported by the Financial Times, the public university has hired IBIS Capital with the goal of raising £40 million (with an additional £10 million committed by OU) to boost its MOOC platform, FutureLearn.
2019-01-0305 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentPersonalized Learning Is Now In Effect Throughout Vermont Secondary Education.In 2013, a group of educators from around the state of Vermont gathered for a series of workshops and meetings. The work at these gatherings was used to create new guiding legislation for schools in the Green Mountain State centered around personalized learning. Act 77 includes language that many wouldn’t have heard as frequently five years ago. It called for enhanced access to online and blended learning, dual enrollment in other programs, and early college courses. In addition, from grades 7 to 12, it stipulated that schools assess using proficiencies and that every learner establish a personalized learning pathway.
2019-01-0305 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentDistance Education Continues to Increase NationwideIn an age of online education, eLearning, mLearning, and virtual education, most people no longer used the term “distance education.” After all, when most people think about term, what comes to mind is a bulky stack of photocopied articles arriving in the mail. Nevertheless, the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), in collaboration with Pearson and Tyton Partners, continue to measure the prevalence of distance education nationwide, and their 2018 study reveals that, whatever you call it, distance education continues to grow.
2019-01-0205 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentIs Udacity in Trouble?On September 28, TechCrunch reported that Udacity has cut 5% of its staff globally since August. The startup, which was once best known for offering MOOCs but is now primarily known for offering its trademarked Nanodegrees, is worth an estimated $1 billion. What remains unclear is why Udacity is trimming staff at this time.
2019-01-0204 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentLAIX, Chinese Developer of the Liulishuo AI-Powered Online Tutor, Takes in $71.9 Million with IPOLAIX Inc, the company that developed the English learning app Liulishuo, is hoping to disrupt the English language teaching and tutoring market with AI software intended to replace human instructors. Traders and investors see a good deal of promise in that model. Last Thursday, the company raised $71.9 million with their IPO.
2018-12-3104 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentBadiri E-Academy Has a Mandate to Support Women's Professional AdvancementIn late September, the United Arab Emirates-based Sharjah’s NAMA Women Advancement Establishment launched a new series of MOOCs with a mandate to empower women and promote life-long learning. The MOOCs will be offered by Badiri E-Academy, NAMA’s education.
2018-12-3104 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentStudent Loan Default Rates Continue to Rise Among For-Profit GraduatesOn Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education put out a curious press release. The headline read “National Student Loan Cohort Default Rate Falls.” In other words, graduates who took out federal loans to pay for college are defaulting—as a group—at lower rates than previous years.
2018-12-3005 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentPoll Finds School Choice Is Popular, Public Districts Are Most Popular ChoiceWhile American families remain seriously divided over where they choose to to send their kids to school, their ability to make that choice is a popular issue. That’s the conclusion of a recent poll from the Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling and Analysis at Long Island University. The study details how thorny and complicated the topic of school choice can be.
2018-12-3005 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentCase Study Demonstrates Classroom Use of Empowered Brain, A Google Glass-Based ASD Intervention AidThe Empowered Brain, a suite of apps for Google Glass intended to aid and intervene in educating learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), continues to be tested in the classroom. Earlier this month, a team of researchers led by the Empowered Brain founder Ned Sahin published a case study of the technology in use at a public school in Massachusetts.
2018-12-3005 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentPenn Medicine Holds Virtual Classes for Transplant CandidatesThe University of Pennsylvania has already made it into headlines once this month with the announcement of an online Bachelor’s degree offering. Last week, however, a blog post described a very different eLearning initiative. Penn Medicine runs one of the preeminent medical programs in the U.S. their hospitals are routinely ranked among the top 135010 in the country. One reason might be that their transplant patients get a healthy dose of education before even getting on to a list.
2018-12-3004 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentExperts Suggest Federal State-Partnerships to Protect Against the Next RecessionOn Wednesday, The Century Foundation convened their event Higher Ed 2020: College Affordability Ideas for the Next Generation and Beyond at New York University. The opening panel brought together a series of experts who easily reached a general consensus on how to solve issues of sky-high college tuition: increase state funding and establish federal-state partnerships. The question of how was less one-sided.
2018-12-2805 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentEdTech in 2019: Experts and Founders Around the World Share Predictions (Part 2)Over the past year, eLearning Inside has interviewed dozens of founders, investors, and researchers in the edtech sector. As we look forward to 2019, we decided to reach out to some of the people we talked to in 2018 along with a few new voices to gather predictions on edtech for the coming year. In this two-part feature, we share five experts’ predictions for edtech in 2019. Today’s post includes perspectives from Ukraine and the United States.
2018-12-2004 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentAccording to Coursera’s CEO, These Are the Skills We Need to Succeed in 2019If you’re contemplating your New Year’s resolutions and don’t want to give something up in 2019, consider learning something new instead. If you’re wondering what new skills to acquire, a great place to start is with Jeff Maggioncalda recently published list of skills you’ll need in 2019. Not surprisingly, Maggioncalda, Coursera’s CEO, suggests learning more about artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, but he also highlights a few other key skills for 2019.
2018-12-2005 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent Development2018 in Review: New EdtechFor any new technology, an evolutionary process occurs. Like the tadpole that eventually takes to land as a frog, tech is invented, brought to market, and with any luck, scaled. The companies that build these technologies go through similar changes. To discuss new edtech in 2018, therefore, doesn’t involve a quick scan down the list of patents filed. Our rundown of new edtech this year spans technology that has been in development for decades to that which has not yet been widely adopted or even brought to market in a viable way. Many of these products and services have hundreds of...
2018-12-1810 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentThe EdTech Company That Is Putting the Brakes on Digital DistractionDigital distraction isn’t just a problem facing the young. Adults in business meetings and even elected officials also have a difficult time avoiding digital distraction. In schools, however, the problem is rampant. One 2017 study carried out at Michigan State University discovered that students in an introductory psychology course spent up to a third of their time surfing nonacademic sites, even though they were well aware of the fact that researchers were tracking their computer use during class time. Now, NetRef wants to provide educators with a solution to the growing problem of digital distraction.
2018-12-1405 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentHarvard Extension School Announces New Collaboration with Trilogy EducationTrilogy Education, the coding school that has made a name for itself by collaborating with universities, is going to Harvard. On December 4, Trilogy and the Harvard Extension School (HES) announced The Coding Boot Camp at Harvard Extension School. The goal is to offer an intensive web development program that will teach both front-end and back-end skills to Boston-area residents.
2018-12-1305 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentEncyclopaedia Britannica Turns 250 and Observes 25 Years OnlineDecember 10 marks a big milestone for one of the most widely used educational resources in the world. On this day in 1768, publication began in Edinburgh Scotland of the first version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. A full 225 years after, (25 years ago today), the encyclopedia first went digital, hopping on the eb.com universal resource location of the World Wide Web.
2018-12-1105 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentDuolingo Makes a Bid to Help Dying Languages Flourish in a Digital WorldSince Duolingo launched in 2011, it has been gaining fans as a fun and free way to learn languages such as English, French, Spanish, German, and Mandarin. More recently, however, the platform has started to add languages that are less widely spoken, including two native languages: the Navajo language, Diné, and the Hawaiian language, Ōlelo Hawaiʻi.
2018-12-1000 min
eLearning, EdTech, Talent DevelopmentQuizlet Debuts Premium Content for Standardized Test Prep, Language Learning, and MoreSince the online study platform Quizlet launched in 2007, the company attracted users by offering it for free. That open access drew millions to the platform. In October, the site announced they had cleared 50 million active monthly users. On Tuesday, the company debuted a new feature: Quizlet Premium Content.
2018-12-1000 min
Siraj RavalEthereum Games ExplainedCrypto-kitties! I'm going to cover the most important parts of the popular crypto-kitties game built on the Ethereum blockchain in this video. The game is over 2000 lines of Solidity code and it allows players to buy, sell, and breed these collectible cats. At one point, this game accounted for a third of transactions on the Ethereum network which is absolutely insane. This is a great example of a wildly popular use case for a decentralized application. There is a lot of potential here to make a game that people obsess over and makes both the creators and players a good...
2018-04-1309 min