IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • McKinsey Academy In Direct Competition with Business Schools

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    Business schools are watching the rise of McKinsey Academy, an Open edX-based platform created by the consultancy giant and headquartered in lower Manhattan .

    “McKinsey has genuine potential to reshape the business education market”, says The Financial Times.

    “When people ask me where my competition is, McKinsey Academy is on the list,” says Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School in New York.

    • “A typical McKinsey Academy course might drill the user in the “10 timeless tests” that it applies when hatching corporate strategies (“Does your strategy rest on privileged insights?” asks test five, while number 10 inquires: “Have you translated your strategy into an action plan?”). Alternatively, the student might get sucked into a fictional case study involving a playground equipment manufacturer that has lost its way and needs to get sales growing again.”
    • “The content tends to be broken up into 3-5 minute snippets to reflect the fact that participants are unlikely to have much time to spare — there is even an option to watch videos at double speed. McKinsey consultants serve as “teaching assistants” and top students are rewarded with a place on a leaderboard. There is also a “group work” element where participants are broken up into small teams.”

    Beyond McKinsey, other consultancy making similar moves include Korn Ferry and PwC.

     

    [Disclosure: IBL has a partnership with McKinsey Academy to host the Open edX Meetups in New York]

     

  • Engaging MOOCs Must Be Modular, Audience-Sensitive and Shorter

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    MOOCS need to be more flexible, audience-sensitive, not focused on institutional learning, modular and shorter.

    Author and EdTech entrepreneur Donald Clark recently blogged about “7 ways to design sticky MOOCs”.

    Here is a summary of his revealing ideas:

    • “It is unfortunate that many MOOC designers treat learners as they were physically (and psychologically) at a university” (…) “MOOC designers have to get out of their institutional thinking and realize that their audience often has a different set of intentions and needs. The new MOOCs need to be sensitive to learner needs.”
    • “Having all the material available from day one allows learners to start later than others, proceed at their own rate and, importantly, catch up when they choose.”
    • “A more modular approach, where modules are self-contained and can be taken in any order, is one tactic. Adaptive MOOCs, using AI software that guides learners through content on the basis of their needs, is another.” (…) Data show that some learners complete the whole course in one day, others do a couple of modules per day, many do the modules in a different order, and some go through in a linear and measured fashion. Some even go backwards.
    • “MOOC learners don’t need the ten week semester structure. Some want much shorter and faster experiences, others want medium length, and some want longer courses. Higher education is based on an agricultural calendar, with set semesters that fit harvest and holiday patterns. The rest of the world does not work to this pre-industrial timetable.” (…)
      “We have to understand that learning for MOOC audiences is taken erratically and is not always in line with the campus model. We need to design for this.”
    • “There is a considerable thirst for doing things at your own pace and convenience, rather than at the pace mandated by synchronous, supported courses.”
    • “Take a dual approach that appeals to an entire range of learners with different needs and motivations.

    You can see that the learners who experienced the structured approach —which contained a live Monday announcement by the lead academic, a Friday wrap-up with a live webinar, and a help forum and email query service — was a sizeable group in any one week. Yet the other learners, those who learned without support, were also substantial in every week.”

    • “One of the great MOOC myths is that social participation is a necessary condition for learning and/or success.” (…) However, “many have little interest in social chat and being part of a consistent group of cohort”. “Social component is desirable but not essential“. “To rely on this as the essential pedagogic technique, is, in my opinion, a mistake, and is to impose an ideology on learners that they do not want.”
    • “MOOC learners have not chosen to come to your university: they’ve chosen to study a topic.” “I’m less interested in what your department is doing and far more interested in the important developments and findings at an international level in your field.”
    • “Partial rewards for partial completion with badges prove valuable. It moves us away from the idea that certificates of completion are the way we should judge MOOC participation.”
    • “Too many MOOCs are over-structured, too linear, and too like traditional university courses. They need to loosen up and deliver what these newer, more diverse audiences want.”

  • Udacity Promotes its Machine Learning Nanodegree with an Award of $100k Offered by the Uber of China

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    Udacity.com has partnered with Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing –Uber’s China rival that has secured a one billion dollar investment from Apple– for a Machine Learning Competition. As a result of it, Didi Chuxing will award a $100k prize and an interview for a role with the company to the winner who improves its supply-demand forecasting algorithm and capability to predict. The second and third place teams in the competition will be awarded prices of RMB 50K and RMB 20K, respectively.

     Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity and an expert of Machine Learning, will be one of the judges.

    The Machine Learning Engineering Nanodegree is one of the most successful programs at Udacity –a MOOC platform that competes to Coursera and edX.org. It is also a signature program that teaches how to become a machine learning engineer and apply predictive models to massive datasets in field like finance, healthcare and education.

     

     

  • Video: Are Universities Willing to Collaborate with Open Education Start-Ups?

     

    Are traditional institutions willing to put their brands on the line to collaborate with start-ups and launch new educational pathways?

    On the first anniversary of the Global Freshman Academy, three panelists and one moderator recently explored at the 2016 ASU GSV Summit the evolution of collaborations and ecosystems in open education.

    Panelists:
    Stephen Laster, Chief Digital Officer, McGraw-Hill Education
    Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX; Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
    Adrian Sannier, Chief Academic Technology Officer, Arizona State University

    Moderator:
    Richard DeMillo, Professor of Computing and Professor of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology; Author of Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable

  • Four New Credit-Eligible Courses at edX.org

    Arizona State University (ASU) and Global Freshman Academy are launching four new, credit-eligible courses this June. These courses will allow students to earn up to 15 credit hours –at a cost of $600 per earned credit– that will be applied toward an ASU degree or transferred to another institution that accepts this credit.

     

     

     

     

  • Unhappy with Your Course Discussion Forum? Facebook Seems to Be a Better Place for Student Engagement

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    By Michael Amigot / IBL 

    Want more effective student-to-student engagement? Facebook happens to be a better space for MOOC learners to engage than courses’ forums.

    Researchers at Pennsylvania State University and Pacific Northwest analyzed data on student discussions on three MOOCs from Coursera and found that learners favor using Facebook groups over MOOC forums.

    Surprised?

    Students –who use their real names on Facebook and see each other’s profiles– say that they have more positive interactions and feel a stronger sense of community there.

    In other words, when it comes to student engagement, Facebook’s groups are a more attractive place to stay, foster collaboration and make students feel closer to their instructors. In addition, Facebook posts are organized better. On MOOC forums, or at least on Coursera’s forums, “students feel they don’t get attention, don’t get replies”, said a lead researcher on EdSurge.

    “On the Coursera discussion forum, anyone can start a thread… The information overload is very severe, it is unorganized, and you can’t guarantee the quality.”

    –

    The Role of Social Media in MOOCs: How to Use Social Media to Enhance Student Retention (PDF Document)

     

     

     

  • An edX Course about the Psychology of Crime Attracts 40,000 Students and Wins an International Award

    By Michael Amigot / IBL 

    The CRIME101x online course, developed by the University of Queensland (UQx) on edX.org, has attracted almost 40,000 students from around the world and is now winning an international award, UQ News reported.

    This MOOC, which teaches the psychology of criminal justice, uses an innovative mix of drama and interactive learning to identify some of the myths of the system as well as ways to improve.

    CRIME101x has been selected for a MERLOT Classic award at the Innovate Conference in New Orleans. MERLOT’s Editorial Board described the course as “creative and contemporary”. “It offers a thoroughly modern and engaging way for students to learn about the psychology of criminal justice,” said.

    • “A series of eight professionally produced and presented crime drama videos are used, though any episode within the series can stand in its own right and be applied as an instructional supplement in a range of psychology courses.”
    • “Each episode is associated with specific psychology concepts (e.g., memory reliability, bias) and is tied together with supplemental instructional videos in which the faculty members explore the relevant psychological literature as well as implications for application.”

    UQx Director John Zornig accepted the award on behalf of Associate Professors McKimmie, Masser and Horswill.

    • “The award is a testament to the course team’s ability to produce effective, creative and engaging online learning material that genuinely impacts upon student learning” 
    • “Instead of merely presenting information or theories, they created a scripted crime drama along with instructional videos and learning activities.
    • “The award is also an acknowledgement of UQ’s decision to use a Creative Commons license, enabling educators to use Crime101x, and other UQx courses, as resources to enhance teaching worldwide.”

     

     

  • Micro-Masters Are the Future of Online Learning, Says edX's CEO

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    “The new micro-credentials are just-in-time learning in the right field. We think that is the future,” said Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX on an interview in Business Standard.

    Mr. Agarwal explained that universities that don’t innovate may disappear over a period of time. He highlighted that companies are changing the way they view the credentials their employees hold.

    • “We have launched on edX a micro master’s. Why should you get a full master’s? You can get micro credentials. Say you are doing a BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Math. But you want to work as a computer programmer. You can take a micro master’s in programming from edX. By the time you have your BA in math, you can have your Masters too and get a job in programming if you like.”
    • “As we talk to employers we find they are very excited about micro masters. Let’s say they hire a student after a bachelor’s degree and in India studies have shown that 95% of the bachelor graduates are unemployable. Imagine now they can all do micro masters and learn the skills to make them employable. And at a fraction of the time and cost. You are already working in a company. It’s not easy to go back and get a master’s. We think micro masters will solve this problem.”
    • “The courses are free. You pay for the certificate or the credential. You have to pay US $ 50-100 depending on the course. And companies are increasingly beginning to recognize these micro credentials and will place a value on them.”
    • “Why should a person go to college for four years? Why at the age of 18? Why a master’s following a undergraduate degree? I see the world becoming more unbundled, more micro – in everything. Learning is life long.”
    • “Today universities only give degrees. I think in the future they will give degrees and they will give micro credentials. Universities that refuse to innovate may suffer or die out. But the rest will thrive.”
    • “In 2011, my colleagues and I felt that technology had reached a point where one could teach people online in a way that has never been done before. People had done some online courses before but we felt we could use video gaming technology and apply it to learning. And create labs in various subjects – just like you play video games. One could create very engaging courses online.”

     

     

     

  • The University of Michigan Develops a Comprehensive MOOC Plan on edX.org

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    The University of Michigan (U-M) has announced three certificate programs, comprising 15 courses, on user experience research and human-computer interaction, user experience design and corporate financial analysis.

    These courses on edX.org (priced between $49 and $99 per unit) are launched under the XSeries group, and they come in addition to the existing four free MOOCs on edX (priced at $49 if you take a verified certificate).

    It is remarkable that U-M, through its Office of Digital Education & Innovation, plans to release 100 MOOCs by December and 100 more in 2017, according to Campus Technology.

    Michigan also uses Coursera to host its MOOCs. However, the school has noted that a major appeal of the edX platform is its open source nature.

     

     

  • Two-Thirds of MIT's Undergraduates Have Now Taken an Open edX Course

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    Two-thirds of MIT’s undergraduates have now taken a course that uses Open edX, according to Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning at MIT.

    Mr. Sarma is aiming to change the culture of teaching there by pushing the lecture model into the margins and using technology to rethink the professor’s role.

    • In some courses, professors use a “flipped classroom” approach, where students watch lecture videos and do online quizzes for homework so that classroom time can focus on discussion. In others, problem sets are delivered using the edX software, which can instantly grade complicated assignments such as coding exercises or drafts of circuit diagrams. That frees up time for professors and provides detailed data on student performance.

    Mr. Sarma has even pushed for breaking up semester-long courses into shorter modules, so that students can take only the parts they need, essentially remixing the curriculum into a personalized-learning playlist.

    “The founding principles of MIT were disruptive. From the beginning, MIT focused more on student research and “learning by doing” than other institutions did. MIT pioneered the online publishing of teaching materials when it started its OpenCourseWare project, more than 10 years ago.”