by Matt ZalaznickUniversity Business More institutions now offer digital badges as a form of micro-credential or "subdegree" to students who pass individual courses or certifications, and want to show potential employers what they’ve learned. Badges, which can be posted to LinkedIn profiles and in digital portfolios, link to detailed information about the course taken, skills taught and assessments passed. Today’s professionals are more likely than were previous generations to return to higher education—perhaps more than once, says David Schejbal, dean of continuing education at University of Wisconsin-Extension. "The vision is to create a structure of alternative credentials that students could acquire relatively quickly and inexpensively that will also be immediately useful from an employment perspective." http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/digital-badges-hit-big-time-higher-ed Share on Facebook

by Ryan Craig, Forbes Two high-profile companies are pursuing a badge-based future: Coursera and Udacity. Both began their lives as providers of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). While some figured out quickly that there was no business model to support credential-less online learning, it took the companies a bit longer. Udacity pivoted first in 2013, announcing "Nanodegrees" developed in partnership with leading technology companies ("built by industry"). The thinking being that Google’s involvement in the Android Developer Nanodegree improves the curriculum; the Google brand doesn’t hurt either. Udacity has done the same with iOS (Apple), Tech Entrepreneur (Google) and its other programs (by a committee of leading technology lights). For its part, Coursera is betting on content and brands from top universities. Coursera launched its "Specializations" in 2014 and now offers 75 different programs, the vast majority from a single university. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryancraig/2015/09/30/coursera-udacity-and-the-future-of-credentials/ Share on Facebook

by Arizona State University Arizona State University and Coursera announced Tuesday that they will offer open online professional-development courses targeted towards Hispanic audiences in Latin America and the U.S. that will help students succeed in the global economy. Through this partnership with Coursera, ASU becomes the first university in the United States to offer online courses tailored to the needs of Latin America and the Hispanic community. The announcement underscores why U.S News and World Report named ASU the most innovative school in the nation. "ASU continues to develop new ways to provide students a path to learning that fits their life balance," said Mark Searle, interim provost at ASU. "Yesterday’s announcement also reflects our efforts to prepare students for an increasingly interconnected global economy." https://asunews.asu.edu/20150930-asu-coursera-spanish-courses Share on Facebook

by Aakash Chaudrhy, Business World The introduction of digital education in rural India came with its own set of infrastructural issues. The erratic electricity supply and lack of access to educational facilities made the penetration of technology-based education tough. The incursion of cable television eventually changed the prevalent indolent way of thinking. The rural population is now welcoming the idea of using mobile devices and is equally comfortable in handling technology devices. Online learning or Live Virtual Classrooms (LVC) has paved the way for modern education in rural India. Moreover, the integration of technologies such as Cloud, Data Centers & Virtualization into the education industry is making information available to the students from far-flung areas in just one click. http://www.businessworld.in/education-institutions/digital-learning-fosters-gen-y-rural-india Share on Facebook

by Eric Convey, Boston Business Journal Facing significant enrollment challenges in two graduate programs, Curry College moved some MBA offerings to the Internet beginning this academic year and recently began to insist that masters of education students take part in what’s called a "cohort" system designed to encourage faster graduation. A spokeswoman for the Milton college said the changes are a response to shifts in student demand. She said the move also helps explain drops in traditional on-campus enrollment, as fewer students take occasional courses without clear plans for competing their programs. http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2015/09/30/curry-college-embraces-online-mba-amid-enrollment.html Share on Facebook

by Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will next year launch the first of what could be several pilots to determine if pieces of what it has provided face-to-face can be delivered through massive open online courses.  The institute on Wednesday announced an alternative path for students to enroll in its supply chain management program and earn a master’s of engineering in logistics degree. Instead of students being required to move to Cambridge, Mass., for the duration of the 10-month program, MIT will offer half of the program through MOOCs, saving students tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. Learners who complete the MOOCs but can’t afford or simply aren’t interested in finishing the degree won’t walk away empty-handed. MIT will offer those learners a new microcredential, called a MicroMaster’s, and is working with other organizations that offer supply chain management programs to ensure they will accept the credential toward degree completion. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/08/massachusetts-institute-technology-launch-half-mooc-half-person-masters-degree Share on Facebook

By C. RAMSEY FAHS, Harvard Crimson With the addition of Princeton to its list of partners, edX, the non-profit MOOC provider that Harvard and MIT founded in 2012, now has more Ivy League partners than its largest for-profit competitor, Coursera. Princeton’s decision, announced on Sept. 24, comes just three months after the University of Pennsylvania joined edX with the intention of publishing three courses on the virtual education platform. Both schools were among Coursera’s first four partner universities and will continue to publish courses on Coursera’s platform as well. With the creation of PrincetonX and PennX, edX now has six Ivy League partner’s to Coursera’s five. Princeton, Penn, and Columbia publish courses to both platforms. Today, Coursera lists over 133 total partner organizations on its website, while edX lists 82. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/10/2/edx-ivy-league-coursera/ Share on Facebook

by Anastasia Salter, Chronicle of Higher Ed I’ve been chronicling my experiences this semester adapting my approach to teaching from my previous experience with small courses to a new challenge of large-scale classes, and particularly to the needs of a large online course. The most overwhelming aspect for me so far has been the challenge of grading and providing meaningful feedback. This is unsurprising, given grading has been one of our most debated subjects here at ProfHacker. Taking grading to new scales has definitely required me to rethink my teaching and methods. http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/5-tips-for-handling-grading-in-large-online-classes/61131 Share on Facebook

by WTXL FAMU’S Developmental Research School in Tallahassee will be part of a new research project, designed to pioneer online learning and technologies. The project aims to bring these methods to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). The school says by utilizing these blended learning strategies, they can better prepare students for college and help them graduate on time. http://www.wtxl.com/news/new-project-at-famudrs-hopes-to-pioneer-online-learning/article_92b59ef8-6ddf-11e5-8928-9747522e3ffa.html Share on Facebook

BY KEVIN MANEY, Newsweek A company called Udacity, partnering with Google, shows us that we’ve been focused on the wrong disruption. The big change won’t be the digitization of college—it will be the unbundling of the college degree into discrete, focused chunks, which Udacity calls nanodegrees. In other words, technology will assault the college degree, not the experience of college, and that will make all the difference. Technology tends to unbundle stuff. Look how it’s unbundling television, or how it unbundled the music album. The college degree is a bundle that doesn’t work for everybody and creates unnatural market conditions, which is why college costs consistently rise faster than inflation. The next generation will be able to pull apart the college bundle the way people today are pulling the plug on cable. http://www.newsweek.com/college-nanodegrees-379542 Share on Facebook