IBL News

Category: Top News

  • Columbia University’s TAs Say They Will Not Teach as They Face Financial Precarity

    Columbia University’s TAs Say They Will Not Teach as They Face Financial Precarity

    IBL News | New York

    Hundreds of Columbia University’s TAs (Teaching Assistants) say that they won’t teach and grade until the institution offers them financial relief.

    They demand $6,000 for every grad worker this summer, cancel rent in university apartment housing, and extension of funding and time to degree, among other requests.

    In a letter to the university, the group called Columbia Graduate Workers on Strike, complains about their “extreme financial and housing precarity in a pandemic,” and reminds:

    “Columbia is a wealthy institution that has wrongly partitioned its budget. Even by the logic that the university simply cannot use its endowment directly to these ends, Columbia should take advantage of its endowment to use as collateral to borrow at nearly 0 percent interest rates in order to address the needs of its workers in this crisis.”

    Columbia’s graduate students‘ financial struggle is similar to other private campuses.

    Columbia has a graduate workers’ union affiliated with the United Auto Workers. The union called a strike in 2018 after the university refused to negotiate a first contract, arguing that graduate students are not laborers entitled to collective bargaining.

    The institution recently said that it would provide summer relief of up to $3,000 per graduate student that are on nine-month contracts.

    Columbia University has a $10 billion endowment and is one of New York City’s biggest landowners.

  • Harvard’s Credit-Bearing, Free Course on Mechanical Ventilators Has Attracted 170,000 Learners in Two Weeks

    Harvard’s Credit-Bearing, Free Course on Mechanical Ventilators Has Attracted 170,000 Learners in Two Weeks

    Mikel Amigot | IBL News, New York

    The “Mechanical Ventilation for COVID-19” explanatory course on edX.org has surpassed the 170,00 people enrolled, becoming a reference for licensed medical professionals worldwide.

    Developed by Harvard University in conjunction with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) and released on April 6th, this free course now can grant up to three CME (Continuing Medical Education) credit hours to those who complete the course (2 to 5 hours) and pass a brief quiz.

    Eligible learners can claim three AMA PRA Category 1 Credit (physicians), nursing CEU credits, or a certificate of attendance for allied health professionals and other learners.

    The authors of the course, Dr. Susan Wilcox and Thomas Piraino, are continuously updating the course, given that the subject of mechanical ventilation and the offering of manufacturers are evolving.

    In addition to high enrollment, participation in the discussion forum, with clinicians sharing knowledge and tools, has made the course a valuable tool to fight to the COVID-19 pandemic and treat patients developing pneumonia.

    “The medical system will need clinicians that can assist in operating mechanical ventilators,” wrote the authors. “We encourage all non-ICU clinicians to consider completing this course, readying themselves to best help their colleagues and patients on the front lines of this virus.”

    With 27 million learners, the edX.org learning platform –founded by MIT and Harvard University as a non-profit venture– hosts over 3,000 courses, from over 150 universities, corporations, and business organizations.

    • IBL News, April 7: An edX and Harvard Course to Train Clinicians on Mechanical Ventilators for Covid-19

  • Google Classroom, Class Dojo, and TikTok Rank Top Used Apps

    Google Classroom, Class Dojo, and TikTok Rank Top Used Apps

    IBL News | New York

    Google Classroom, along with Zoom, have benefited from a significant surge in their audience during this global pandemic.

    In March, the top three education apps in use were Google Classroom, Remind: Safe Classroom Communication and ClassDojo for sharing photos, videos, announcements, and private messages with families–according to an analysis by App Annie.

    Other apps that performed well were Zoom Cloud Meetings, TikTok, and Houseparty.

    The report by App Annie found that mobile education applications have experienced a 90 percent increase in weekly downloads and usage worldwide, between the last three months of 2019 and the first three months of 2020.

    For the United States, the overall growth rate in educational app downloads was 135 percent.

  • Coursera Offers Government Agencies Fighting Unemployment Free Access to Its 3,800 Courses

    Coursera Offers Government Agencies Fighting Unemployment Free Access to Its 3,800 Courses

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera announced yesterday its Workforce Recovery Initiative will provide governments free access to 3,800 online courses and 400 Specializations until the end of the year.

    This promotional offer is part of the Coursera for Government effort, launched in 2017.

    The U.S. states of Illinois, Arizona, and Oklahoma, as well as the governments of Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Malaysia, Panama, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, are the first to make the initiative available to their unemployed workers, according to Coursera.

    The U.S. states and countries around the world can sign up until September 30, 2020, and those enrolled by then can learn until the end of the year.

    The Workforce Recovery Initiative covers critical business, technology, and data science skills taught by leading universities, along with Professional Certificates from industry educators like the Google IT Support Professional Certificate.

  • The Linux Foundation Plans a Massive Virtual Open Source Summit

    The Linux Foundation Plans a Massive Virtual Open Source Summit

    IBL News | New York

    As COVID-19 safety concerns continue, the Linux Foundation announced yesterday that rather than holding a physical event in Austin, Texas, they will transition the Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America 2020 (OSSNA 2020) to a virtual event. The digital conference will take place from June 29th to July 2nd, 2020.

    “While it doesn’t quite take the place of meeting face to face, it comes darn close,” said the organizer.

    “Without the barriers of cost and travel, we expect the attendance to the online OSSNA 2020 to be significantly higher than an in-person event.”

    The attendance fee will be $50 and registration will open on May 5, 2020.

    The schedule, released yesterday, includes:

    • 230 conference sessions, tutorials, and keynotes across 14 tracks, with live speaker Q&As
    • Attendee networking via 1:1 chat and group networking lounges across a range of topics
    • An interactive sponsor & demo showcase to speak directly with representatives, sponsors, watch demos, download resources, and view job openings
    • The ability to earn schwag and prizes by accumulating sessions attended, sponsor booths visited, and trivia questions answered
    • Platform access for one year post the event.

    Topics covered will be Linux Systems, Embedded Linux, IoT, AI, Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud App Development, OS Dependability, OS Databases, Diversity and OS Leadership (Business, Community, OSPO).

    The mechanics of the conference is based on celebrating sessions at scheduled times just as they would at a face-to-face event. Speakers will be available for a live Q&A with conference sessions & tutorial attendees. And attendees will be able to build a personalized agenda of sessions they want to attend and receive notifications before sessions start.

    All sessions will be recorded and available to attendees on-demand after the event.

     

     

     

  • Develop.com, a New Subscription-Based Learning Platform for Tech Professionals

    Develop.com, a New Subscription-Based Learning Platform for Tech Professionals

    IBL News | New York

    [UPDATE May 7, 2020: Develop.com Partners with Global Knowledge]

    A team of U.S. industry professionals in education and business technology led by Kevin Pawsey, Global CIO at Global Knowledge and Chief Executive Officer at Develop, launched today Develop.com, a career-boosting, subscription-based learning platform.

    “Develop provides high-quality courses across emerging and business-critical technologies, including cybersecurity, AI, and machine learning, at prices accessible to more people than ever before,” explained Kevin Pawsey.

    The Boston-based platform offers two subscription levels: Foundation ($99.99 /year) and Academy ($399.99 /year). New subscribers will have a free 30-day Foundation-level trial access until May 22, 2020.

    The Foundation-level subscription offer includes 200+ courses, intended to gain basic knowledge and skills. Subjects covered are the following: Technology Basics, Software Development, DevOps, Cybersecurity, Project Management, Cloud Technology, Networking & Telecom, and Leadership & Management.

    The Academy-level subscription includes Academies dedicated to a specific topic technology area and intended to gain advanced expertise, knowledge, and hands-on skills practice. At launch, Develop is offering The Data Academy, which includes 73 courses, covering Data Extraction, Analysis & Visualization, Deep Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.

    The company plans to create additional Academies focused on Cybersecurity, Cloud technologies, and Software Development.

    Develop.com comes with three introductory courses for free: What is Agile?, Introduction to Cybersecurity, and Introduction to Python.

    https://youtu.be/neR5mbn7WRA

    • Press Release: Develop Launches an Online Learning Platform for Today’s Technology and Business Professionals

    • Blog Post at Develop.com: Hello World!

     

     

  • Coursera Offers Free Certificates on 50+ Courses, While It Announces New Programs and Tools

    Coursera Offers Free Certificates on 50+ Courses, While It Announces New Programs and Tools

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera.org announced yesterday at its virtual Partner’s Conference, that it is offering 50+ free courses, which include access to lectures and quizzes, along with earning certificates at no cost.  The offer will be available through May 31, 2020.

    The courses cover the following areas:

     

    Also, yesterday, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO at Coursera, announced the addition of two new degrees to its list of 19 programs, which are the Master of Science in Population and Health Sciences—from the University of Michigan—and Master of Data Analytics Intelligence from the Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes).

    In addition, Maggioncalda unveiled eight MasterTrack Certificates (in topics such as Blockchain Applications, Cybersecurity, AI and Machine Learning, Social Work, Sustainability and Development), along with 100 guided projects to gain job-relevant skills in less than two hours, such as TensorFlow, scikit-learn, and Plotly.

     

    Regarding technology tools, the educational company issued new product features. These are some of the most relevant:

    • Goal Setting. These goals will be seamlessly synced with Google Calendar and other calendar apps, integrating learning into a daily routine.
    • Smart-Review Material. A machine learning tool that serves targeted review material recommendations based on the specific questions learners miss, providing learners with a structured path to succeed on the next quiz attempt, according to Coursera.
    • Skill Tracking, This data-driven tool tracks learner skill development, sharing updated competency scores as learners takes more assessments. Through a centralized dashboard, learners can monitor their progress toward career-specific skills and see how their competency scores compare to other professionals on the Coursera platform.
    • Live2Coursera. This feature, “scheduled later in 2020”, will enable instructors to integrate Zoom live lectures into a course. Zoom recordings will be added automatically to an instructor’s course as they teach, so they can build a library of content to reuse in future private or open courses.
    • Personalized Homepage. When logged in, learners can resume a course in one click, see personalized recommendations on courses to pursue next, and view the certificates they’ve earned so far.
    • Machine-Assisted Peer Review. This tool enables grading at scale. Learners struggling to get an assignment peer-graded can have their work automatically assessed by a machine learning model trained on previously peer-graded submissions from the course.

     

  • A Student Guide to Remote Learning from GW’s Professor Lorena Barba

    A Student Guide to Remote Learning from GW’s Professor Lorena Barba

    IBL News | New York

    Engineering professor Dr. Lorena Barba, from The George Washington University (GW), published this month a Student’s Guide to Remote Learning, with tools and practical ideas to navigate this pandemic time.

    “Students are now back home—some in different time zones—and expected to continue learning, with their teachers quickly adopting new technologies and methods to keep courses going; it is a tremendous challenge for all of us,” said Professor Barba.

    – Take care of yourself and others
    – Manage your time
    – Master the tools
    – Deal with pitfalls
    – Stay connected

    In addition to recommending to work at least two additional hours for every hour of scheduled instruction, and time-block for all your courses, one of the suggested ideas is to use the Pomodoro technique.

    It works like this: set a timer for just 25 min to work without allowing yourself to be distracted, then take a 5-min break (for social media, exchanging texts with a friend, having a snack), and then repeat. After 4 cycles, take a longer break (~30min).

    Prof. Barbara Oakley, who teaches the successful MOOC “Learning How to Learn”, explained in the following video:

    https://youtu.be/bDz7bUor51c

    The guide includes tips to deal with web conferencing tools and learning platforms.
  • Pay Cuts Set at The University of Arizona as a Result of an Expected Loss of $250 Million

    Pay Cuts Set at The University of Arizona as a Result of an Expected Loss of $250 Million

    IBL News | New York

    The University of Arizona announced on Sunday pay cuts and furloughs for nearly all of its employees in order to finance an expected $250 million loss, according to Tucson.com. The institution has already registered $66 million in losses.

    This is the first research university to adopt significant cost-saving measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The plan will go into effect on May 11 and will last until June 2021. The cuts will require any employee making $150,000 to take at least a 17% decrease in pay, while those who are making less will have to take unpaid work-days resulting in at least a 5% salary reduction.

    The salary decreases are expected to save the university up to $95 million. In addition, the university has imposed a hiring freeze, delayed merit increases, and withheld $22 million in investment.

    However, no one will be fired.

    Losses are expected to come from decreases in tuition, which makes up 30% of their annual revenue. Domestic and international students make up about 60% of that, which could pose issues for international students who might have trouble getting to Tucson, Arizona, as a result of the world-wide travel restrictions.

    • Bloomberg: Coronavirus Pushes Higher Education to the Brink

  • Coursera and edX Release New Services to Support Universities

    Coursera and edX Release New Services to Support Universities

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera and edX decided to strengthen their support to universities around the world.

    With 2,600 colleges enrolled on its new Coronavirus Response Initiative, Coursera launched a machine learning solution called CourseMatch this week.

    This tool ingests a school’s on-campus catalog and matches each class to the most relevant course in Coursera’s library of 3,800 courses.

    “This enables universities in the US and internationally to quickly deliver relevant courses to their students,” Emily Glassberg Sands, and Marianne Sorba, Data Scientists at Coursera explained in a blog post.

    The solution has already matched more than 2.6 million on-campus courses across 1,800 schools to courses on Coursera, according to the company data.

    Regarding edX, its founding partners, Harvard and MIT, and other partner institutions such as UC Berkeley, Universitat Politècnica de València and IBM have expanded the Remote Access Program to all universities around the world by offering free access to a catalog of content.

    edX has created a webpage for any university around the world looking to participate.

    “As the spread of COVID-19 has suspended in-person interactions, I’m hopeful that we can harness the power of online learning to face these challenges head-on, and to find solutions to navigate this time, together,” said Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX.