Headed to BbWorld13? Be sure to install the free BbWorld app before you arrive to plan your scheduled, connect with other attendees, and easily access the latest conference news and updates. Watch this tour to learn more about the features in the app.

Versal, a platform for publishing online courses, announced that it ended its beta testing phase. Along with the announcement comes a partnership with Wolfram Research, with its founder, Stephen Wolfram, joining Versal’s board of directors. Versal offers individual teachers and institutions a platform to create interactive and customizable lessons and courses without the need to code by using a drag and drop interface and so called gadgets. The courses can then be embedded on a website, blog or LMS. Through the partnership, course creators have now access to Wolfram’s vast catalog of interactive math and science exercises with further integration of Wolfram Demonstrations, Wolfram|Alpha widgets and other Wolfram resources planned further down the line. Further Reading Versal Emerges From Beta with Design Update and New Gadgets; Announces Key Partnership With Wolfram Research and New Board Member | Press Release Links versal.com

If you are looking for an elegant way on your mobile device to follow BbWorld conversations on social media, consider creating a custom channel on Flipboard for BbWorld13. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do so. I have my Flipboard channels configured and will be following the tweets, photos, videos, and blog posts from #BbWorld13 via Flipboard on my iPad and iPhone. How about you? If you use some other social media aggregator, leave a comment and share what app or approach works best for you.

In this episode, David Blake from Degreed joins MEP to talk about unbundling the college degree, new models of credentialing, and what his company Degreed is doing to disrupt the education status quo. Don’t miss it! David Blake is the Founder and CEO of Degreed, a San Francisco based startup is on a mission to "jailbreak the degree" and give learners a new form of academic credentialing.  Degreed has gone through the Kaplan/TechStars ed tech accelerator and they’ve raised over $900k in funding thus far. Previously, David was part of the founding team of Zinch which was acquired by Chegg in 2011.  David also had stints at the Ed Tech Entrepreneurs Lab powered by Teach for America and New Schools Venture Fund.  He also consulted for UniversityNow as they launched and rebranded New Charter University without title four funding. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a "degree" in economics. Social Media & other Mentions: @davidblake Michael Horn and his work on disruptive innovation in education Clayton Christensen and his seminal work on the same subject For more episodes featuring thought leaders in education visit MeetEducationProject.com, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and follow Nick DiNardo on Twitter.

I’m fortunate to be able to attend BbWorld for the second straight year. In additional to presenting, I’ll be leading a pre-conference workshop. I’m also honored to be able to accept a Blackboard Catalyst Award on behalf the NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. Here’s a list of the presentations I’ll either be giving or be a part of at BbWorld… Scheduled Presentations Offering Online Professional Development for Faculty Using a Cross-Platform Strategy For the very first time, Northern Illinois University offered a fully-online teaching effectiveness institute utilizing a combination of Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, and Blackboard Mobile platforms. This cross-platform approach has proven to be very successful and provides a model for faculty to incorporate an integrated approach for implementing all three platforms in their teaching. In this session we will share NIU’s cross-platform strategy, practices, and lessons learned that can be applied to any online professional development initiative. Bring your own questions and experiences to join in the discussion! Date/Time/Location: Tue, 7/9/13, 2:00PM-2:55PM, Venetian IPresenter(s): Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations: Features and Considerations for Institutional Adoption With the release of Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 10, the new "Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations" tool adds a robust and flexible set of new capabilities tightly integrated within Blackboard for conducting surveys and course evaluations on a wide scale. This session will share Northern Illinois University’s recent experiences exploring the new features and developing a roadmap for institution-wide implementation. Date/Time/Location: Wed, 7/10/13, 2:00PM-2:55PM, Venetian IPresenter: Jason Rhode Lessons from Tacos and Pizza: The Importance of 24/7 Access for Students Forget the famous saying about Las Vegas; what happens inside your classroom should NOT stay inside your classroom. For students, the learning experience beyond lecture hour is just as important as what happens during class. Thanks to modern technology, it is now easier than ever to make academic resources available 24/7, and use them to enhance teaching practices and the learning experience. Date/Time/Location: Wed, 7/10/13, 3:10PM-4:05PM, Titian 2303Presenter(s): Jason Rhode, Stephanie Richter It will be a busy week, but one in which I am looking forward to! Let the presentation preparation begin. If you’ll be at BbWorld, look me up! I’ll be tweeting @jrhode and will share my presentation slides and other resources here on my blog. I will try to also blog my experiences at BbWorld. Looking for Presentations Slides/Handouts? I will be posting the slides and accompanying resources from my BbWorld presenters here on my blog along with any other BbWorld-related reflections. Enjoy!

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses offered through outfits like Coursera, Udacity, and EdX) have raised the profile of online education and sparked important conversations about educational access and the meaning of academic credentials. But MOOCs have also done a disservice to online teaching in several key respects. Among other things, they’ve raised the status of the rock star lecturer to the point where normal teaching looks shabby in comparison. And they’ve produced the impression that online courses have to look like TED-talks to pass muster. This is unfortunate. Working in faculty development for a decade, I’ve been struck by how difficult it is to typecast good teachers. At every university, there are dynamic, exciting lecturers: big personalities whose students cluster around them like groupies at the end of class. But there are also quiet teachers who are just as effective for other reasons: their love for the subject, the clarity of their explanations, their ability to render complex ideas in simple language, the time they’re willing to spend helping students outside of class. These are not the personalities or teaching styles that necessarily lend themselves to splashy, MOOC-style teaching, but many of them are truly excellent teachers, the kind students remember long after they graduate. It’s important to me that we not leave these teachers behind. We need to find ways to help all faculty who want to create online courses translate their teaching styles effectively into that environment. Then there’s MOOC production quality. Admittedly, not all MOOCs have documentary-style pizazz, but those that do create unrealistic expectations about what online courses should look like. Are teams of instructional designers, graphic designers, videographers, and editors really required to create an online course? Who has those kinds of resources? And is it even desirable to produce course materials that are so finished, so polished when teaching, by its very nature, needs to be iterative — especially in fast-changing technical fields? Wouldn’t it be better to keep production simpler and more nimble, so that it’s easier for faculty to make changes and create new courses with minimal dependence on outside resources? Just as we need to develop ways to translate a wider range of teaching styles into online courses, we need to do it in a way that is not reliant on big studio production teams. So here’s a plug for quieter, more modest, forms of teaching and simpler varieties of course production. Online education is here to stay, so let’s figure out ways to make it sustainable and within the grasp of all faculty — not just the rock stars. Picture License  Some rights reserved by Stephane Rossignol

For the very first time, Northern Illinois University offered a fully-online teaching effectiveness institute in January 2013 utilizing a combination of Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, and Blackboard Mobile platforms. This cross-platform approach has proven to be very successful and provides a model for faculty to incorporate an integrated approach for implementing all three platforms in their teaching. In this session offered at BbWorld 2013, Stephanie Richter and I shared NIU’s cross-platform strategy, practices, and lessons learned that can be applied to any online professional development initiative. Slides are available here. The online course developed for this initiative, initially only available for NIU faculty and teaching staff, is now available on CourseSites here for anyone to self-enroll and view. The course is also shared as an open educational resource and may be downloaded as a Blackboard Package or Common Cartridge 1.1 Package. Additional resources shared during the session include: 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPad [YouTube] Best Practices for Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Courses [PDF] 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPhone [YouTube] Designing a Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Course [YouTube] Offering Mobile-Friendly Online Lectures Using Blackboard Collaborate [YouTube]

My colleagues and I from Northern Illinois University Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center are honored to have been selected to receive two Blackboard Catalyst Awards this year, one for staff development and the other for teaching and learning. Both awards are in recognition of NIU’s first online teaching effectiveness institute that our center offered in 2013, the first of what we hope will be many such online professional development opportunities offered for NIU faculty and teaching staff in the future. The poster below was shared during the welcome reception poster session at BbWorld 2013. Click here to enlarge. The online course developed for this initiative, initially only available for NIU faculty and teaching staff, is now available on CourseSites here for anyone to self-enroll and view. The course is also shared as an open educational resource and may be downloaded as a Blackboard Package or Common Cartridge 1.1 Package. Additional related resources shared regarding mobile teaching using Blackboard include: 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPad [YouTube] Best Practices for Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Courses [PDF] 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute Tour on iPhone [YouTube] Designing a Mobile-Friendly Blackboard Course [YouTube] Offering Mobile-Friendly Online Lectures Using Blackboard Collaborate [YouTube]

According to an email obtained by MacRumors, Apple plans to overhaul its iPad in Education Program in order to ease the distribution process and classroom adoption of its tablets for schools and entire districts. Apple plans to reduce the number of steps needed to set up an iPad by tweaking the Apple ID for Students program and unifying deployment programs, among other modifications. The changes are planned to roll out next year. The streamlining of the iPad in Education program is surely driven by the huge success of Google’s Chromebooks in the education sector. In December, Chromebooks leapfrogged iPads in US classrooms for the first time. And thanks to its new inexpensive software licensing model allowing hardware companies to offer affordable PCs and laptops, Microsoft might also re-emerge as a power player in education this year. Further Reading Apple Overhauling iPad in Education Program to Simplify Sharing Devices and Apps | MacRumors Why Chromebooks are schooling iPads in education | PCWorld Chromebooks taking iPads to school in education market | ZDNet Chromebooks leapfrog iPads in US education market for first time, here's why | TechRepublic Affordable laptops will help Microsoft recapture education market | techradar.pro Links apple.com/education/ipad

With the release of Blackboard Learn 9.1 Service Pack 10, the "Enterprise Surveys and Course Evaluations" tool adds a robust and flexible set of new capabilities tightly integrated within Blackboard for conducting surveys and course evaluations on a wide scale. This session at BbWorld13 shared Northern Illinois University’s recent experiences exploring the new features and developing a roadmap for institution-wide implementation. Slides are available here.

Trainers, coaches and tutors across the globe are increasingly interested in expanding their local audience by creating and selling online courses. Marketplaces like Udemy offer the advantage of a global audience of potential customers, but can also be quite competitive and costly when it comes to commission. Bangalore-based Learnyst offers educators all the tools they need to set up a storefront to sell their online courses, assess and manage their students, host their content and receive payments. Introduce your startup and give a short description of what you are doing. Learnyst helps educators build their branded online school and sell courses. In short we are building the Shopify for educators. Our Goal is to make teaching online very simple, secured and cost effective. Ultimately, our vision is to see our educational resources in every student’s hand. Learnyst provides the following features to educators to build & maintain their online school : Do-It-Yourself website builder for creating a beautiful school front Easy to use Course Builder, Assessment Builder, Student Manager and Analytics Tools Integrated Payment gateway and content hosting solution Content encryption service to prevent piracy Who are the founders, how did you meet, what are your different roles in the startup. We are two founders Shankar Mahesh & Ranjan. Both of us are school & college mates. We have known each other for the past 20 years and loved developing new apps since our college days. Eventually our passion for developing new apps made us quit our corporate jobs and start our entrepreneurial journey in July, 2012. Shankar takes care of product development and Ranjan heads marketing and sales. How was the idea for your startup born? We started Learnyst in Jan 2014. We wanted to expand our previous start-up karaokegarage.com as a music learning app, and so we started exploring market opportunities. We surveyed around 50 music schools in Bangalore, and found that a lot of music institutes were interested in a video based learning solution rather than algorithmic based pitch analysis for learning music. Since a video based learning solution was considered beneficial to most educational institutes we extended our market research with other diversified test preparation and training institutes. From our survey with educators we found the following requirements and pain points: Content Security - To prevent piracy & loss of revenue Websites to showcase and sell course contents Mobile apps - Many students are mobile first Offline content accessibility - internet infrastructure is poor in India Marketing tool support We analysed the above requirements with existing products in the market but could not find any compelling solution that addressed this problem. We prepared some simple mock up screens and presented to potential customers. We got appreciation and commitment from some of the reputed test preparation institutes in India. From this point Learnyst has evolved through market requirements and feedback from teachers/students. What is the main problem in education that you aim to solve. There are millions of good teachers who teach exceptionally well and are willing to teach online. By teaching online, educators can reach more students which is otherwise difficult due to physical/geographical limitation. Similarly, there are tens of millions of students who want to learn from quality educators. Having an independent online school provides complete control to educators and helps establish their brand as digital edupreneurs. However, building a branded online school to teach is tough, expensive and time consuming. It requires knowledge such as hosting, video streaming, payment setup, analytics, etc. which deviates educators from focusing on teaching and content building. Who are your main competitors? What sets you apart from them? usefedora.com patience.io schoolkeep.com are our main competitors. Here are some unique features that sets us apart: Content security - With encrypted streaming the educator’s content is safe from piracy. This is a most desirable feature for educators as it ensures security against their course content. Adaptive video streaming technology which ensures continuous video streaming even at low internet connectivity Offline secure mobile apps where educators can distribute their encrypted course content on pen drive or SD Cards and students can access course content using Learnyst powered mobile apps. Helpful to reach students in remote places where internet connectivity is bad or unavailable. Pricing - We do not take any percentage cut on course fee or restrict on student enrollments. This is a great motivating factor for educators to scale their school as they get to keep 100% of course revenue. Ready to use assessment templates for standardized exams like GRE, GMAT, SAT and other competitive international and Indian exams. In which markets / regions are you active. What markets / regions are next. Currently, we have more than 200+ educators signed up on learnyst. About 50% of our customers are from India followed by the US, Europe and Africa. With our Do-It-Yourself (DIY) school builder we expect more global reach. However, our primary target, apart from India, will be the US & Europe as we can find more content ready educators. Who is your target audience. Primarily independent educators. They could be independent tutors, test prep institutes, vocational training institutes, or anyone who would like to teach online. How do you engage with your target audience. How do you convert them into users of your product. About 25% of our new customers come through referrals from existing clients. Apart from this we are reaching our target audience through social media, content marketing, SEO and PR. For effective conversion we offer a 30 day free trial to users upon sign-up. We also help educators with content loading and provide customization support. We have a dedicated sales person who engages with prospective leads and help them launch their online school. What is your business model. How much does your product / service cost. Learnyst is a SaaS product. Our pricing is purely based on bandwidth usage. We do not charge any transaction fee or take a percentage cut on course fees. Our initial plan starts with $39/- per month which includes 30 GB storage and 15 GB bandwidth. The biggest benefit for educators is that they get to keep 100% of course revenue and have complete control over student data. Learnyst has proved its value proposition for educators by providing them an opportunity to generate at least 30X revenue over investment. Our complete pricing plan can be found at - learnyst.com/pricing If you raised funding, how much did you raise. Who are your investors. If not, are you planning to raise funding. We have raised INR 10 Lakhs from Times Internet Limited (Delhi, India) for our previous product Karaokegarage.com However we have pivoted and currently focused on Learnyst. We are looking to raise $200K for taking Learnyst to the next level. Are there milestones you are especially proud of and would like to share. Learnyst has evolved through market requirements and feedback from teachers/students. Every feature developed on Learnyst has been derived through requirements from prospective customers. This has helped Learnyst find its niche and market fit in a very short time. Our features and product road map are inline with competing products which validates our findings. We have partnered with reputed test prep institutes like Career Launcher and 2IIM as technology partners. At present we have more than 200 signups with 10 paying customers. What are the next steps in growing your startup. We are targeting to achieve the following milestones within the next 12 months: Target to have 10,000 signups with 1000 paid customers Provide marketing tools for educators like emails, blogs, social integration, SMS, coupons, partnerships with marketplace vendors etc Focus on implementing a standardized marketing and sales process Develop features to automatically create mobile apps from web version Improve upon customization tools & plug-ins There are millions of educators who are not able to expand their business online due to the unavailability of affordable solutions and high maintenance cost. Learnyst helps educators unleash the power of online education and reach a wider global audience. Our mission is to empower educators with an affordable, high quality secure learning solution so that they can take their courses online and become online Edupreneurs without much investment. Ultimately our vision is to see our school solution in every student’s hand’. We achieve this by providing a robust technology platform that reduces setup cost to launch an online school by 90% and by providing powerful marketing tools to educators. How can people get in touch with you. You can reach me at Name: Ranjan Email: ranjan@learnyst.com Mob: +91 994-556-3021 Twitter - https://twitter.com/ShivaranjanVK Linkedin - in.linkedin.com/in/shivaranjankumar skype - shivaranjan.kumar

For students, the learning experience beyond lecture hour is just as important as what happens during class. Thanks to modern technology, it is now easier than ever to make academic resources available 24/7, and use them to enhance teaching practices and the learning experience. This presentation at BbWorld13 shared NIU’s current use of Blackboard Learn, Collaborate, and Mobile to provide 24/7 access to learning for students. Slides are available here.

According to a report from McGraw-Hill Education, the use of mobile devices for studying was on the rise in 2013 and 2014. 81% of the 1,700 college students surveyed used mobile devices like smartphones and tablets making them the second popular choice behind laptops. Overall adoption of mobile devices for studying has seen a 40% year-over-year growth. Students find that technology helps them to save time and to be better prepared for classes. Overall, 77% of students say that the use of technology has positively impacted their grades. Further Reading Report: New McGraw-Hill Education Research Finds More than 80 Percent of Students Use Mobile Technology to Study | PR Newswire Picture License  Some rights reserved by francisco_osorio

Accredible, an edtech startup that tracks learning behaviour and performance, announced a partnership with Udacity to power its new professional profiles and nanodegrees. Launched in October last year, nanodegrees are created to offer a compact and relevant education towards high demand tech jobs. Udacity raised a $35 million Series C in September to double down on its new certification program. Learners who start a nanodegree will now automatically create an evidence portfolio, which is then populated with learning related data. Learners can also upload extra examples and share their portfolios with recruiters or via LinkedIn. Accredible offers institutions different ways of integrating their certification process, from WordPress and Moodle plugins over spreadsheet uploads to an API. Students can also upload pdf versions of older certificates which are then added by Accredible to their profiles. Further Reading Introducing Udacity Professional Profiles Powered by Accredible | Press Release Accredible Partners With Udacity To Provide Context To Nanodegrees | TechCrunch Related Sebastian Thrun raises $35 million Series C for Udacity’s nanodegrees | EDUKWEST Links accredible.com

I was extremely honored and humbled to have been nominated and chosen as one of six inaugural recipients of Blackboard’s annual Key to the Community Award, which recognizes outstanding service to the Blackboard client community. I accepted the award at BbWorld13. The Blackboard client community truly is a collaborative and supportive network of colleagues and it’s my pleasure to continue to be a part.

Instructure Canvas and Pearson announced a bi-directional integration of the Instructure Canvas LMS with the Pearson PowerSchool SIS. According to Instructure’s Mitch Benson, this feature was the most requested by Canvas’ K-12 customers. PowerSchool is the most widely used student information system with more than 30% of U.S. school districts using the product, reaching over 130 million students. The integration takes effect immediately. Schools that don’t use Canvas LMS can also easily set up an account using the data stored in PowerSchool. Instructure raised a $40 million Series E last month in preparation of its IPO later this year, and launched a corporate learning and engagement platform called Bridge. Since its launch in 2011, Instructure’s Canvas LMS has been used by over 18 million students and teachers from more than 1,200 universities, colleges and K-12 school districts across the globe. Further Reading Instructure and Pearson Join Forces to Integrate Learning Management with Student Information System | Press Release Related Links EDBRIEF: Instructure raises $40 million Series E | EDUKWEST

Instructure and Pearson announced an interesting partnership at SXSWedu. The bi-directional integration of the Canvas LMS and the PowerSchool SIS is a strong statement by itself, but if we add the fact that Pearson is planning to sell its Student Information System business it gets really intriguing. In early February there were rumors that no other than Blackboard was in final talks with Pearson to purchase PowerSchool. EdSurge’s Tony Wang has been following the rumors and posted details about the process of splitting the SIS business into a standalone unit before the sale. Now, why would Instructure push for such a deep integration in such an uncertain phase of PowerSchool? Sure, having access to 30% of U.S. school districts that can now create Canvas accounts with a click of a button is surely one reason, but I guess there is more to it. As mentioned Instructure is planning its IPO for later this year. If Pearson put off its pursuit of a sale for a couple of months, Instructure might just have enough cash to make a power grab, throwing the literal hammer (or flamethrower) in the face of its arch enemy Blackboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCIP3x5mFmw Further Reading EDBRIEF: Instructure and Pearson announce Partnership | EDUKWEST Blackboard Flirts with Buying Pearson’s PowerSchool | EdSurge Why Pearson Wants to Sell PowerSchool | EdSurge

Few current educational technology innovations have received the attention of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, most of the discourse is philosophical and hypothetical. So how does designing and delivering a MOOC actually work? This fall, NIU offered its first MOOC titled "Perspectives on Disability." In this session at the 2013 SLATE Conference, my colleagues Stephanie Richter, Tracy Miller, and I shared the unique collaborative process we followed to design and develop the MOOC, including recommendations for other institutions beginning their MOOC journey. We will also discussed how we worked with Blackboard CourseSites to deliver the course. Slides are available here. Thinking of designing a MOOC? Find more tips for designing a massive open online course here.

On episode 012 of Meet Education Project, Tutti Dynamics co-founder Kristen McEntyre joins the program to talk about music/arts education, the importance of experiential learning, and the vibrant ed tech entrepreneurship scene in New Orleans.  Don’t miss it! Kristen McEntyre has twelve years experience in media and technology. Previously, Kristen managed content creation and online community building strategies at FiLife, a joint-venture between Dow Jones and IAC. She also spent a summer at Google News helping to develop their news commenting product and worked at PBS as Production Coordinator on an Emmy-winning music series. Kristen started her career in finance as a technology investment banker at Roberston Stephens and Senior Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates. She was awarded the Melville Jacoby Fellowship for graduate studies at Stanford University where she studied Digital Media & Entrepreneurship at the Journalism Program and Graduate School of Business. She is also a graduate of Williams College where she was Captain of the Women’s Lacrosse Team.  Kristen plays the piano. Shout outs: More information on Tutti Dynamics - @tuttidynamics *NOTE:  You’ll be able to see the Tutti Player in action right from the home page! Idea Village - @ideavillage - @robbievitrano 4.0 Schools - @4pt0schools - @mcandler Propeller - @gopropeller @DarrenHoffman - Co-Founder of Tutti Dynamics Ed Tech Meetup New Orleans If you could have dinner with one person you admire, who would it be and why? @CoryBooker For more episodes featuring thought leaders in education visit MeetEducationProject.com, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and follow Nick DiNardo on Twitter.

As I often require my students to include working hyperlinks as part of the discussion, blog, or other assignments in Blackboard, here are the simple steps that I have compiled and shared with my students for creating a working hyperlink to any discussion, blog, etc. using the "Create/Edit" link in the visual text box editor). Step 1: Highlight the text you want to make a working hyperlink Step 2: Click the "Insert/Edit Link" button Step 3: Copy/paste the URL for your link Step 4: Select "Open in New Window (_blank)" from the "Target" drop-down Step 5: Click the "Insert" button Step 6: Click the "Submit" button (if a discussion post) or Step 7: Test your hyperlink to make sure it works, clicking on the link you created to ensure that it opens as desired in a new window As a matter of best practice, it’s always a good idea to make hyperlinks you add to Blackboard to open in a new window, as it will be easier for your users to view the website shared on either their computer or mobile device.

For several assignments in my online course, I require my students to embed image(s) into their postings in Blackboard.  Below are the steps I’ve outlined for how to post a photo so it is embedded (ie: viewed in line with the text of your discussion post). Step 1: Compose your message as desired, then place your cursor in the body of your message where you want your image to appear. Step 2: Click the "Insert/Edit Image" button. Step 3: Click the "Browse My Computer" button and locate the image on your computer that you wish to embed. Step 4: Enter "Image Description" and "Title" Step 5: Click the "Insert" button Step 6: Click the "Submit" button (if discussion) or "Post Entry Button" (if journal or blog) The photo you selected should be displayed where you cursor was located in your post. Step 7: View your post to ensure that photo is embedded where desired Whenever you are asked to post a photo in Blackboard, it’s always preferred that you embed the photo as described above instead of attaching otherwise.

We know that radical innovation and massive disruption is under way in higher education. Everything in the sector seems extreme. Whether it is new products, regulation, the rates of closure by traditional and some proprietary schools, or the rates of growth at others like Liberty and Southern New Hampshire, each week seemingly brings a new trend and meaningful change. Nationally speaking, demand is flat while capacity is skyrocketing and with every turn we have more technology and increased costs. Everything is in flux like never before. Understanding the drivers of that flux, and the additional circumstances that will manifest in the near term, is critical to building a relevant road map for the future. The innovation required to compete will be radical and the finish line seems exciting. But we must first take a hard look at the realities facing us today and tomorrow so that we can effectively dream the big and bold dreams required for the future and beyond. What follows below is a brief outline of seven critical realities all of us in higher education will operate against as we move forward on an uncharted path. 1) There will be 25 million Virtual Reality Head Mounted Displays (HMD’s) in market by 2018 Seemingly coming from nowhere, 25 million low cost consumer headsets will appear in 3 years. They will be relatively cheap and mainstream and connect to a phone and gaming system. The clock is ticking for you and your organization to be able to realize this opportunity. But wait, there is more! Those 25 million could still be considered "early adopters" and will lead to a tidal wave of adoption through the early 2020’s. This is far from being a situation where technology would be shipped to students who would be unfamiliar with it and consider it foreign and awkward in a school setting. Rather, kids will be walking into classrooms over the next 5-7 years who already plug Oculus into an Xbox daily, and have done so for some time. Twenty five million HMD’s and a generation coming fast that will grow up gaming in VR thanks to Facebook, and others. 2) The current traditional model has put thousands of schools on an unsustainable path The 1 trillion dollars in collective student loan debt is a crushing burden and students will begin seeking alternative paths. Top tier research schools will continue to dominate one end of the market, but tuition (title IV) funded traditional liberal arts schools are increasingly becoming a quaint and old fashioned business model the country no longer has the luxury of affording, and students lack the interest they once did in attending. We overbuilt capacity, prices are starting fall, and demand is moving away. The number of students attending college has remained at around 20 million for several years in a row, yet schools are madly building new classrooms, both physical and digital. Whether or not you call it a bubble, when you have too much supply and artificially high prices, you have a market that will have to clear. The economics of the situation leave it no other choice. 3) Student Acquisition has not changed meaningfully in 20 years. There are about 7,200 post secondary institutions in the country today, and roughly 100 of them have little to no need to invest in marketing as their reputations do all the talking. So let's talk about the other 7,100. Most of the growth and development in higher education marketing has been of the digital variety. And rightly so, as potential students are not watching a lot of TV or reading a lot of magazines. But, are digital channels as effective as they once were? While I do not know who submitted the first internet lead form to a higher education institution, that person deserves at least a plaque to commemorate what was a watershed moment. It was the last time someone experienced something new in higher education marketing in the last 20 years. And while we are at it, let us not forget the internet lead form resembles nothing more than the old index card pre internet recruiters used when someone called a 1-800 number after hearing a radio ad. It is flat, transactional, and completely underwhelming considering this is the first contact a prospective student has with a life changing and transformative experience. Lead generation and higher education marketing will need to get experiential and engaging and fast. I believe the shelf life on the status quo internet lead form is two years from today. 4) Cost of delivery is racing to zero This seems obvious and it is, at least to students. Everyone uses the same online learning platforms, which offer the same content delivery options. Online platforms are fully commoditized and honestly represent nothing more than an organized replication of a traditional classroom. To date, digital and online have only enabled more access. Those that dominate in the next few years will be the ones that find out how to leverage that access by translating it to deeper and more meaningful experience and to improve learning. Charging what everyone else charges because you use the same platform and similar instructor base as everyone is fairly arrogant and shortsighted. It costs relatively nothing to deliver content. In the future, students will only give you permission to charge based on what you add to that equation. Consumers want tools that enable better learning, not just access to more of the same. 5) 51% of the K-12 population today is on free or reduced lunch Over the last few generations, high school graduation rates have improved, especially among our poorest students. Among the lowest economic quartile, high school graduation rates have improved 10% since 1970. In 1992, those students continued to college at a rate of 19%. Today, they continue to college at a rate of 39%. This population has listened when we told them a college education was the ticket to the middle class. In the last ten years, the total population of traditional college age students has grown by 2.7 million. However, a lesser known fact is that 2 million of these students were on free and reduced lunch. Most (all?) of the meaningful growth in demand from traditional college age students has come from those that are historically underrepresented. This is a seismic shift in the college going population and a largely unreported story. Yet, college services and environments look no different and no one has figured out the unique challenges or needs of this new student body. Instead, we look at summary averages regarding outcomes and bemoan a national retention and completion problem. The national post-secondary student body is fundamentally different than it was, yet an understanding of who our students are lags and student services and support look exactly the same as they did. Looking to the future, by 2020 the cohort size of those not on free and reduced lunch and going to college will have shrunk by 2 million (based on the numbers of students in secondary schools today). The number of those on free and reduced lunch looking to attend college, if we adhere to the continuation rates we have today, will increase by another 1.5 million. At what point does the market wake up to this tragically under served segment and realize it's really the only segment growing? 6) No one understands where waves of genuine organic demand originate Adult oriented higher education capitalized on historic levels of latent demand from 1990-2010, and suddenly students that lacked access to post secondary got it. These were adults in prime earning years. People saw education as an investment with immediate return, the baby boomers were entering prime earning years to enjoy that personal ROI, and schools began to understand the beneficial economics brought on by the expansion of Title IV, and later a lower cost structure offered by the ability to scale digitally. Adult students entering prime earning years funded by an employer or the government were a river that fed many corners of the higher education eco system. Where will the next wave come from? Why did some programs grow, which ones can keep growing, why do some markets outperform? Not that long ago, everything came easy and schools merely had to keep up. But no one figured out why it worked, or what demand looks like from here. 7) No one has scaled human powered engagement in an educational context Digital tools in higher education have helped to deliver efficiency to our operations. Our classrooms have gotten more organized, and our gradebooks are online. We can host chats and pipe videos through our LMS in ways that seek to mimic what we would do if we were all together physically. Higher education seems to be the rare sector where digital technology is often tasked with the responsibility of replicating the physical environment as opposed to blending with it and transforming it. The digital technology of the future will blend with human interaction to radically reinvent learning through practice, simulation, personalization, and old fashioned human connection. The technology is there to break all previously held concepts of scale in a way that adds depth and purpose to delivery. Most exciting, our youngest students could benefit the most. This is only a partial list as of course there are many, many more factors impacting higher education. The key is there has never been a more uncertain yet exciting time to think about what we can do in the sector to meet the nations needs and our students expectations. As long as we continue to search for the truth of our current situation and have the courage to deliver world changing solutions, we will realize a collective future far better than any one of us could have imagined alone. No less than our society and country as a whole is inviting you to lead and be a part of it. I trust you will answer that call. I am truly excited. I cannot wait to see what we can create. Picture License  Some rights reserved by svenstorm

Surveys of Chief Academic Officers at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) reveal how public and private institutions are navigating the world of online higher education. What is your school’s online education GPA? Download the "Online Learning at Public Universities: Building a New Path to a College Degree" report, conducted in conjunction with AASCU member institutions. Download the "Online Learning at Private Universities: A Survey of Chief Academic Officers" report, conducted in conjunction with CIC member institutions. To hear more about the results and for an opportunity to ask questions of the authors, a free, live webinar with authors Dr. David Clinefelter, Chief Academic Officer of Learning House, and Dr. Susan C. Aldridge, former Senior Fellow of AASCU, is being held on November 7 at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST. More webinar details >> The Learning House, Inc.

Non-profit Code for India launches a free, open source education portal with high-quality educational content in different areas, including business, technology and job skills training. The portal aims to provide India’s youth (people aged under 35) "with free access to high quality education through online and mobile courses essential to re-focus our workforce to meet the demands of a global economy", says Karl Mehta founder of Code for India and CEO of edtech company EdCast. According to the initiators free and high quality online education is an essential part of developing the skills needed in today’s economy and fostering entrepreneurial talent in India to transform the country into a digital and manufacturing power. The project is entirely volunteer-based and counts on professionals who dedicate their time to give back to their communities and the developing world. So far, all courses on the platform are in English. Further Reading "SKILL UP INDIA" FREE ONLINE EDUCATION PORTAL LAUNCHED BY CODE FOR INDIA ORGANIZATION | Press Release Links skillupindia.org