IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • Report: Nearly 260 Million Children Are Still Excluded from Education; Pandemic Exacerbates the Breach

    Report: Nearly 260 Million Children Are Still Excluded from Education; Pandemic Exacerbates the Breach

    Mikel Amigot, IBL News | New York

    Over 258 million children worldwide still have no access to education, mostly due to economic poverty and discrimination.

    A United Nations report released this Tuesday stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. During the outbreak, about 90% of the student population was affected by school closures.

    However, despite the Coronavirus pandemic, one-in-five children and youngsters were excluded from schooling before the outbreak.

    “Children from poorer communities as well as girls, the disabled, immigrants and ethnic minorities were at a distinct educational disadvantage in many countries,” said UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

    The mentioned quarter-million getting no education represent 17% of all school-aged children. Most of them belong to South and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan African countries. In 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, hardly any rural girls complete secondary school. [See graphic below].

    “Lessons from the past – such as with Ebola – have shown that health crises can leave many behind, in particular the poorest girls, many of whom may never return to school,” Audrey Azoulay, General Manager at UNESCO, wrote in a report.

    UNESCO urged countries to focus on disadvantaged children when schools reopen after coronavirus lockdowns.

    “To rise to the challenges of our time, a move towards more inclusive education is imperative,” Azoulay said. “Failure to act will hinder the progress of societies.” “It has never been more crucial to make education a universal right, and a reality for all”, he added.

    The core recommendation of the UN report is to understand that inclusive education means equal access for all learners, notwithstanding identity, background, or ability.

    “Inclusion is not just an economic but also a moral imperative,” notes UNESCO. 

     

  • Degreed Raises Another $32 Million with Its Platform for Upskilling Employees

    Degreed Raises Another $32 Million with Its Platform for Upskilling Employees

    IBL News | New York

    Degreed–a Pleasanton, California-based startup that helps employers to connect employees to learning resources to master new skills– announced this month it raised $32 million in a Series C.

    This round, led by Owl Ventures, brings the total raised in funding to $182 million.

    According to the company, most of the new capital from this investment will be used to support its “new Career Mobility product”.

    With over 220 corporate customers, the company’s platform offers employees educational content in the form of courses, videos and podcasts, along with credentials and certificates. Degreed makes money through a monthly fee for clients and is free for employees.

    “We keep people skilled and employable; nobody should become irrelevant in the future because they lack the right skills,” said CEO Chris McCarthy.

    Degreed stated that the past six months have included unprecedented engagement from customers. Nearly one in seven Degreed accounts has been activated between April and May of this year alone.

    Founded in 2002, Degreed claims that it had connected more than 4 million people at over 250 organizations, including NASA and Cisco.

     

  • Harvard University’s LabXChange Platform Wins the 2020 Open edX Prize

    Harvard University’s LabXChange Platform Wins the 2020 Open edX Prize

    IBL News | New York

    Harvard University’s LabXChange.org project won the 2020 Open edX Prize for the technical category, while a French training program called Les Copros Vertes was recognized as the most important project in instructional design.

    The announcement was made by the edX team organizing the prize through a blog post on its website.

    The edX organization –a nonprofit created by Harvard University and MIT– congratulated the following people at LabXChange: Robert Lue, Professor of the Practice of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and UNESCO Chair on Life Sciences and Social Innovation, Gaurav Vazirani, Managing Director of LabXchange, Braden MacDonald, CTO of OpenCraft, Usman Khalid, Product Designer and Developer at OpenCraft, and David Ormsbee, Staff Software Engineer at edX.

    As a platform that is powered by the Open edX software, LabXchange.org allows users to freely establish an online community for personalized learning, sharing, and collaboration.  LabXchange has contributed to Open edX with features such as Blockstore, XBlock Runtime, along with a new visual assessment editor.

    Regarding the learning design award, edX specifically congratulated Yvain Demollière, CEO of MOOCit, Maxime Granata, Video Producer, and Leslie Huin, Instructional Designer, of MOOCit. Les Copros Vertes created a training program for over 50 thousand French citizens, about house-building projects and eco-friendly renovation models.

    • New stories about LabXchange on IBL News

  • Research: Platforms At Scale Will Radically Transform Learning and Teaching

    Research: Platforms At Scale Will Radically Transform Learning and Teaching

    IBL News | New York

    Researchers from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Cornell have conducted an extensive study that shows the power and potential of at-scale educational platforms – edX, among others – to accelerate learning and radically transform the way we learn and teach around the world.

    The research investigated at ways to help learners to complete online courses. Helpful tools for completion include the following:

    • Plan-making, creating detailed approaches to how coursework will be completed and when it will happen
    • Social accountability, choosing a ‘buddy’ to hold you accountable for completion
    • Value-relevance, reflecting on the value you hold in completing the course

    “Our present study confirms a principle that is central to social psychology and the learning sciences: Context matters,” researchers say.

    As Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX, wrote in a blog post, the researches advocate for continued experimentation, especially regarding the role of AI and Machine Learning on completion at scale.

    All analysis code, output, and study materials are available on this website.

  • Apple Will Shut Down iTunes U at the End of 2021

    Apple Will Shut Down iTunes U at the End of 2021

    IBL News | New York

    Apple announced this month that it will shut down its iTunes U app at the end of 2021.

    This app, launched in 2007, it had worked well in terms of audience, with universities such as Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and MIT by sharing thousands of their videos, ebooks, and audio for free. For example, Stanford’s Programming course reached over one million downloads.

    However, Apple hasn’t updated the app over the last few years.

    To continue publishing content, the company suggests using Apple Podcast –bringing content through selected hosting partners– and Apple Books for Authors with Pages.

    Apple is now concentrating its efforts on other apps, such as Classroom, Apple School Manager, and Schoolwork.

  • edX MicroBachelors Will Include Consultants to Help Learners Complete Their Programs

    edX MicroBachelors Will Include Consultants to Help Learners Complete Their Programs

    IBL News | New York

    Learners enrolled in edX MicroBachelors Programs will receive professional coaching through InsideTrack, an educational non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon, specialized in the student-success segment. No further details regarding the pricing and functioning were provided by the two organizations.

    According to a blog post from edX, InsideTrack’s coaches will work with learners via email, text messaging, and other digital formats. In addition, these consultants will help students to develop time management and self-reflection skills, along with improving resumes and job site profiles.

    edX currently offers five MicroBachelors programs: Professional Writing from Arizona State University, Marketing Essentials from Doane University, Elements of Data Science from Rice University, IT Career Framework from Western Governors University (WGU), and Computer Science Fundamentals from New York University (NYU). All programs are approved, or pending approval, for credit by Thomas Edison State University (TESU). They are priced between $500 and $1,500 (roughly $166 per credit) and can be completed fully online.

    InsideTrack claims that it has directly coached more than two million students while supporting online programs in the Penn State World Campus, BYU-Pathway Worldwide, and the University of Washington Continuum College.

    “By working with InsideTrack, we can provide the robust support that adults need to advance their education during uncertain times and help them stay on track to earn a valuable MicroBachelors program credential,” said Anant Agarwal, CEO and founder of edX.

  • Open edX Juniper Platform: Changes on LMS Instructor Dashboard and Studio Tool

    Open edX Juniper Platform: Changes on LMS Instructor Dashboard and Studio Tool

    IBL News | New York

    After a week of the Open edX Juniper platform release, initial features have started to emerge.

    Technically speaking, the main change is the upgrade into Python 3, after Python 2.7 became unsupported and unmaintained on January 1, 2020.

    Other upgrades affect Django, MongoDB, and Ruby, as explained on the official Confluence forum of Open edX.

    Regarding features related to usability, the LMS’ Instructor Dashboard now includes Extensions and Open Responses data, as shown below.

    On Studio – Open edX’s authoring tool – the main visible change points to the possibility of adding a Unit through the new prominent toolbar on top.

    The 10th Open edX release Juniper –now on its version Juniper.1– was based on the code of the master software from May 27th, 2020.

    edX hasn’t yet announced the new platform, nor released notes.

    • IBL News (June 11): edX Releases Juniper, Its Tenth Version of the Open edX Platform

  • Canvas LMS Picks a New CEO From Outside the Educational Industry

    Canvas LMS Picks a New CEO From Outside the Educational Industry

    IBL News | New York

    The new owner of Instructure Inc–the private equity firm Thoma Bravo–named a local software manager as its new CEO. The announcement was done yesterday through a press release.

    Steve Daly –in the picture above– spent 25 years in software and technology, including 13 years as CEO of Landesk/Ivanti, an IT management and security software company headquartered in Salt Lake City. In 2010, he led the sale of Landesk to Thoma Bravo and then later to Clearlake Capital.

    The new CEO appointment–effective as of July 1st– followed the departure of Dan Goldsmith in March. The search was led by Charles Goodman, who has been interim CEO and will remain with the company as Chair of the Board of Managers, according to the company.

    Daly announced that it will refocus Instructure – which commercializes the Canvas LMS platform – “around its core mission of innovating in education technology.”

    • Reuters‘ View: Instructure Names Steve Daly as New CEO
    • More News About Instructure at IBL News

  • Coursera Users Complain About Cheating and Plagiarism on Peer Assignments

    Coursera Users Complain About Cheating and Plagiarism on Peer Assignments

    IBL News | New York

    Cheating and plagiarism on peer assignments prompted complaints among Coursera’s students, who blamed the learning company for not addressing the problem.

    “People either copy from their classmates or from the Internet. Submitting blanks give them the ability to see other assignments. Flagging has no effect,” said a user named “Moocer” at the Coursera Community forum.

    A learner called “Chee Yang Ng” wondered why Coursera is not taking any action. “ They know academic misconduct is the major obstacle to the credibility of their courses, but why aren’t they doing anything about it,” he said.

    The same frustration was shared by Luke Lau, who asked Coursera to handle “this case of academic dishonesty.”

    The discussion at Coursera started a week ago when a user opened a thread titled “How do we make certificate more creditable when there is a serious violation of intellectual property on Coursera?” claiming that his work was plagiarized. Chee Yang Ng said: “I cannot express how disappointed I am, not only on the violation of my intellectual property but also on the system failure of the platform that makes me question the quality of the education provided by the platform.”

    “Keep in mind that Coursera is a for-profit business, not an educational institution,” concluded Moocer.

    No one from Coursera answered, including the community manager of the forum.

    The discussion generated twelve replies.

    Plagiarism and cheating have been constant on MOOC platforms, although the problem has been kept inside doors.

  • An edX Survey Finds that a Majority Is Interested in Pursuing Additional Education

    An edX Survey Finds that a Majority Is Interested in Pursuing Additional Education

    IBL News | New York

    As a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 56% of Americans are interested in pursuing additional education but are unable to due to the cost (29%) or other factors such as limited time (23%). In contrast, just over a quarter (26%) of Americans are more likely to pursue additional education because they are in search of a recession-proof job.

    These are the main conclusions of a survey conducted by edX in determining the impact of the pandemic on education.

    “Education has always been linked to improved job and earning potential, and with the pandemic leading us into a likely economic downturn, the cost is clearly top of mind,” concluded Adam Medros, Co-CEO at edX.

    The survey shows that 45% are looking for a course that will help advance their career, while another 30% who are interested in taking a course to explore a new interest.

    edX.org offers stackable, modular credentials, such as MicroMasters Programs, Professional Certificate Programs, and MicroBachelors Programs.