By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology An online digital repository for academic researchers is being updated. The newest version of Figshare from Digital Science puts an emphasis on controls for more granular management of data. This repository allows users to make their research available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner. People can upload any file format — figures, datasets, media, papers, posters, presentations and filesets — to be made viewable in a browser. According to the company, increasingly, researchers must develop a data management plan as a requirement of their funding or must address data sharing in interdisciplinary or cross-institutional projects. To address these changes and other areas of usage, the new release focuses on three areas: control, discoverability and usability. https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/11/05/online-research-repository-adds-finer-access-control.aspx Share on Facebook

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News EDUCAUSE panelists say a dynamic university website is becoming critical for recruitment and sustainable alumni support. University-website-designAdd together social media strategy and digital marketing tactics, sprinkle with interactive design flare, then let rise in the hotbed of a campus community and you’ve got a .edu site that not only improves students and staff recruitment, but keeps alumni engaged. Just ask the website wizards at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) that helped the University win the prestigious interactive media award. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/university-website-2016-765/ Share on Facebook

By Mike Cummings, Yale News Yale’s latest round of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will provide learners across the globe instruction on legal concepts, negotiation strategies, and the details of 2008 financial crisis. These courses are the first Yale has offered on Coursera’s new "on-demand," cohort-based platform. The platform responds to two requests Coursera received from global learners. Learners wanted course material to be much more accessible, but they also wanted their learning process to retain some structure. The cohort-based platform creates a new course session every three weeks, complete with automatically generated (soft) deadlines and fresh discussion forums. The hope is that this will allow cohort-based courses to maintain the robust student-to-student interaction of a session-based course, while drastically reducing the time a learner has to wait before accessing course material. http://news.yale.edu/2015/11/06/free-online-learning-yale-experts-now-offered-demand Share on Facebook

by Olivia Vanni - BostInno Taking courses online can be the true test of self-discipline. At any moment, you could feel weak and direct your focus to a world of websites rather than your work. So when you’re learning a skill that needs your full attention, like coding, opting to do an online program is risky business. Launch Academy, which has offered on-campus coding coursework for the past couple of years, is trying to mitigate any issues virtual learning has posed in the past with its upcoming online program. In December, Launch Academy will be starting its first online coding program. When I spoke with the company’s co-founders Dan Pickett and Evan Charles, they said they’re taking a new approach to virtual learning by making it more like the real deal. Looking at what’s helped on-campus students and translating that to the online realm, Launch Academy is hoping to enable a broader range of professionals be successful. http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/11/06/launch-academy-online-code-course-and-professional-program/ Share on Facebook

by Smart Data Collective The world of education has forever been changed by the development of big data e-learning. This technology provides a variety of effective online learning systems.In the e-learning industry, big data refers to the data obtained about individuals as they are involved in the learning process. Some companies provide their employees with training models designed to teach company policies. The learning progress of an employee, test results as well as assessments are able to be used to improve the training model. If a number of learners require too much time to complete a specific module, it could mean the module needs to be changed to make it more effective for those using it. The act of data mining for education is considered any amount of data obtained during the learning process. http://www.smartdatacollective.com/sarah-smith/356047/big-data-e-learning-improving-education Share on Facebook

by Stanford The medical school is debuting new online continuing medical education courses that show how information freed from words-only presentation can be an effective medical education tool. The Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education has debuted new online courses that show how information freed from words-only presentation can be an effective medical education tool.  It has debuted new online continuing medical education courses that show how information freed from words-only presentation can be an effective medical education tool. It’s show, not tell, with animation and video, and a minimum of talking heads. http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/11/stanford-medicine-debuts-new-formats-for-continuing-medical-education.html Share on Facebook

By Darwin Green, US News Nontraditional students with outside responsibilities can benefit from the flexibility online courses offer. ​After a long and difficult decision, I decided to return to college after a 12-year gap between my sophomore and junior years. Things had changed since I had been to college, both for me and in education. I now had a pregnant wife and bills to pay - something I never had to consider as a young man in my early 20s. And an undergraduate degree somehow became the new high school diploma. I needed a way to find financial security while maintaining my responsibilities as a father, a husband and as an adult. I decided to apply to an online program. As an adult, I found there are three advantages of online degrees: http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/2015/11/06/3-challenges-online-education-helps-adult-learners-overcome Share on Facebook

By: Maryellen Weimer, Faculty Focus "Based on the results in this study, students in online courses, with unmonitored testing, are no more likely to cheat on an examination than students in hybrid and F2F courses using monitored testing, nor are students with low GPAs more likely to enroll in online courses." (p. 72) Some had suggested that because students who had not taken an online course reported that they thought it would be easier to cheat in online courses, students with lower GPAs might be motivated to take online courses. There were only 19 students in the online course in this study, but across these three sections, GPA did not differ significantly. Using this interesting model to predict cheating, there was no evidence that it occurred to a greater degree in the unmonitored tests given in the online course. That’s the good news. The bad news: "There is ample opportunity for cheating across all types of course delivery modes, which has been demonstrated through decades of research." (p. 73) In other words, we still have a problem, it just isn’t more serious in online courses, based on these results. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/do-online-students-cheat-more-on-tests/ Share on Facebook

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology The National Science Foundation (NSF) is making sure that big data gets attention in every pocket of the country. This week the NSF unveiled the establishment of four regional hubs for data science innovation, each led by a team of university experts and extending out to almost 300 other organizations, including non-profits, cities and businesses. Each big data or BD hub will specialize in particular areas of study and will provide guidance for building out "spokes" to undertake specific projects. The "big data brain trust" assembled within each hub is expected to develop and support regional partnerships and activities to address regional challenges. https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/11/05/nsf-funds-big-data-brain-trust.aspx Share on Facebook

By Laura Devaney, eCampusNews Students’ desire for instant feedback, such as the kind they receive through social media, could be a significant asset when it comes to studying with the help of learning analytics technology, new research suggests. Eighty-seven percent of surveyed college students said having access to learning analytics on their academic performance can have positively impact their learning experience, according to "The Impact of Technology on College Student Study Habits," the third report in an annual series conducted by McGraw-Hill Education and fielded by Hanover Research. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/students-learning-analytics-547/ Share on Facebook