By Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed This week the edX community is being graciously hosted by Georgetown University to discuss our initiatives in open online learning. EdX is, at its heart, a non-profit consortium of educational providers. This is not what I think folks normally think of when they think of edX. Say "edX" and most people will talk about MOOCs and the technological platform, (in the case of edX an open source platform), that enables teaching and learning at scale. The evolution of open online education, and the technologies and methodologies that we use to teach open online courses at scale, are certainly part of the edX and MOOC story. I’d argue, however, that the true innovations of MOOCs are not those found inside the open online courses. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/better-residential-learning-true-innovation-moocs Share on Facebook

by Marco della Cava, USA TODAY Udacity has 11,000 students. It has some 1,000 graduates bearing its so-called "nanodegrees" who paid $200 a month per course. Most courses require a minimum of 10 hours of work a week, and last between three to six months. Makhijani says the company is profitable with its existing model, even when taking into account the fact that it refunds 50% of tuition to anyone successfully passing a course. "We found we could offer that enticement financially, and we wanted to do because the work isn’t easy," he says, adding that some 90% of Udacity students have full-time jobs. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/11/11/online-pioneer-udacity-lands-105-million-round-and-1-billion-valuation/75544526/ Share on Facebook

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News New report studies close to a thousand different institutions to provide a detailed snapshot of 2015’s dynamic college and university social media use. If you want to know how other colleges and universities are using social media today, know this: they’re using it like any other media-savvy millennial. From a spike in "giving days" and crowdfunding campaigns to a heavy focus on multimedia, higher education has become a social media heavy-hitter. But measuring success is another issue. The findings are part of a yearly report (currently in its sixth year) conducted by CASE, Huron Education, and mStoner, Inc.—written by Jennifer Mack, senior researcher at Huron Education and Michael Stoner, co-founder and president of mStoner—on higher education’s refinement, prioritization and expansion of their social media habits. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/trends-social-media-620/ Share on Facebook

by Leena Rao, Fortune Online education startup Udacity has raised a huge new round of funding that, according to a source close to the company, values the business at around $1 billion.With nanodegrees that come with feedback and mentoring, the completion rate is 90%, Thrun has said. Under the latest strategy, Thrun said that Udacity’s revenue is growing nearly 30% month over month and is profitable. He declined to disclose any more detailed financial information but one source pegged the company’s revenue annual revenue run rate at around $24 million. http://fortune.com/2015/11/11/udacity-funding/ Share on Facebook

by Amelia Teng, Straits Times The number of Singaporeans enrolling in Coursera courses has almost tripled in the last three years - from 52,000 in 2013 to 140,000 so far this year. They are among the 10 million people worldwide plugged into the online learning channel, which took off about three years ago. Coursera offers 1,400 courses with 134 university partners including Brown and Princeton. These mostly free courses consist of video lectures, interactive quizzes and peer-graded assignments. Coursera has also started about 80 specialisation programmes, which are a series of bundled modules. Users may pay up to US$500 (S$710) to earn certification for these programmes. http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/coursera-enrolment-in-singapore-soars Share on Facebook

by Becca Solberg, Michigan Daily Daphne Koller, president and co-founder of Coursera, gives a talk as a part of the Academic Innovation at Michigan series at the Michigan League on Thursday. Koller’s presentation, hosted by the Office of Digital Education and Innovation, discussed the impacts of Coursera, a platform for hosting the massive open online courses, or MOOCs, offered by a variety of universities. Koller, who is also a professor of computer science at Stanford University, began by describing the impacts of Coursera both on the universities that offer courses and the professors who teach them. In particular, she emphasized how online courses encourage professors to alter and improve their teaching techniques to best serve their students, who have the option of walking away from an online site at any moment compared to the more captive audience of a classroom. https://www.michigandaily.com/section/news/co-founder-coursera-speaks-league Share on Facebook

by Bradley Fuster, US News Make sure taking online courses at another institution doesn’t become an administrative mess. Start by getting permission from your academic department and checking enrollment policies. ​Students who fall behind or want to accelerate in school may opt to enroll in online classes at another institution during the academic year, or over the winter and summer breaks. As a department chair and adviser, I have unfortunately seen students become tangled in an administrative mess by doing this. Consider these following six tips before enrolling in an online class at another institution. http://www.usnews.com/education/online-learning-lessons/2015/11/13/6-things-to-consider-before-taking-online-classes-at-another-institution Share on Facebook

By Meris Stansbury, eCampus News "The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (2012) reported that 75.5 percent of faculty members at two- and four-year institutions were in ‘contingent positions’ off of the tenure track," write the report’s authors. "Of this large group, 70 percent were part-time or adjunct faculty members, making roughly half of all instructors in higher education in 2011 an adjunct or part-time faculty member." The authors cite research that predicts this population will only continue to grow in size and proportion. The survey similarly found that more than half of institutions reported that their adjunct population that teaches online has grown over the last year. It’s a one-size-fits all: Policies that were designed for on-campus adjuncts were frequently applied to those who are teaching online, notes the report. http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/online-adjunct-faculty-441/ Share on Facebook

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology The study involved 5,000 students using OER and more than 11,000 "control" students using standard textbooks in courses at 10 different institutions around the country enrolled in 15 different undergraduate courses. It focused on five measures of student success. In the area of course completion, the researchers found "almost no significant differences" between the two groups with a couple of exceptions. In Business 110 and Biology 111 students in the OER group showed higher rates of completion than students in the control. For example, in the business class, 21 percent of commercial textbook users withdrew; in the OER group only six percent withdrew. In the area of student achievement (passing with a C- or better grade), the outcome was mixed. In nine courses researchers saw no significant differences. In five courses, the OER users were more likely to pass the course than those in the control group. In one course, Business 110, students in the control group surpassed students using OER. https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/11/10/major-study-finds-oer-students-do-just-as-well-or-better.aspx Share on Facebook

Edited by Scott Hawksworth and Sarah Bass, Best Online Universities Educational technology, and more specifically e-Learning, offers tremendous value to both students and teachers. Both are constantly evolving, and as such, challenges are inevitable. To that end, we surveyed hundreds of e-Learning experts in search of useful tips for teaching and learning online. Our search generated 101 amazing tips, which are presented below. For the first timer to the seasoned e-Learner, you’re likely to find many valuable tips to help you succeed online. http://bestonlineuniversities.com/101-elearning-tips-from-the-experts/ Share on Facebook