Category: Top News

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:

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.

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.

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.

IBL News | New York

Udacity announced this week a new Machine Learning Scholarship Program for Microsoft Azure.

The scholarship begins with a two-month-long course, focused on completing prerequisites for the full Nanodegree program.

A distinctive feature of this course, titled Introduction to machine learning on Azure with a Low-code Experience, is Azure Labs, in which students work with live Azure environments directly within the Udacity classroom.

Learners aiming to earn one of up to 10,000 free spots are able to apply until June 30.

The 300 top performers who successfully complete the introductory course will be selected for a scholarship to earn a four-month Nanodegree credential.

The amount invested by Microsoft on this Udacity program to help train developers on its cloud infrastructure was not disclosed.

IBL News | New York

The edX organization quietly released yesterday its new Open edX version named Juniper.1. There have been no announcements nor release notes.

This release was based on the code of the master software from May 27th, 2020.

“Juniper” is the tenth Open edX version of the platform.

Its name follows the adopted practice of picking botanical tree words and classifying them alphabetically.

The next version will be named Koa. The past versions were: