Category: Top News

IBL News | New York

Prospective students are more likely to consider online graduate and undergraduate programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the main result from a survey conducted from June 30 through July 22, 2020, by 2U of over 1,754 prospective students.

Key survey findings include: 73% of respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic has made them much more likely to consider online programs, and 20% of respondents said that absent COVID-19, they would not have considered an online program.

“The results of this survey show a clear share shift toward online higher education among prospective degree students; as more and more of these students affirmatively choose online degrees, universities with experience delivering intentionally designed, high-quality online programs with great student outcomes will stand out to this growing universe of learners,” said 2U Co-Founder and CEO, Christopher “Chip” Paucek.

Prior to the coronavirus, only 16% of students across U.S. undergraduate and graduate programs were enrolled in exclusively distance-learning degrees, according to the latest federal data on distance education.

2U currently powers over 70 online graduate and undergraduate degree programs across 26 disciplines.

IBL News | New York

Georgia Tech’s OMSCS program–the reference degree in online education– will surpass an enrollment of 10,000 people in the Fall, Zvi Galil, creator of the program and former Dean told IBL News this week.

The Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS), a degree program at the College of Computing (CoC), Georgia Institute of Technology called from its creation in 2013 for “a fundamental, revolutionary shift from the prevailing paradigm of higher education, in which a brand is bolstered by exclusion and high tuition fees,” explained Zvi Galil in an article posted on Communications of the ACM, the magazine of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery).

With a tuition of $7,000 for the full degree, the degree was launched with 380 students in January 2014. By the Spring 2019 term, OMSCS offered a total of 30 courses in four specializations to 8,662 students.

Its growth has been remarkable, inspiring similar programs at other universities—more than 40 MOOC-based M.S. degree programs, being more affordable than their on-campus counterparts have been launched recently by more than 30 universities. Georgia Tech has launched two additional online master’s degrees as well.

In the Spring 2020 term, 9,597 students enrolled in OMSCS, almost 1,500 graduated in this academic year. Applications have surpassed 26,000 to date.

In December 2019 the conference “Reimagine Education” presented OMSCS with the Gold Award for the best distributed/online program for nurturing 21st-century skills.

• IBL News, November 2019: “Faculty Buy-In Is By Far the Reason Why Georgia Tech’s OMSCS Has Worked So Well”
• IBL News, March 2019: “Massive Online Courses Are Alive”, Says Pioneer of OMSCS Affordable Degree

IBL News | New York

Apple started this month to offer a free, redesigned online training program to educators who teach both app development languages Swift and Xcode.

The new Develop curriculum, geared toward high school and higher education students, includes four books, available in Apple Books: “Develop in Swift Explorations,” “Develop in Swift AP CS Principles,” “Develop in Swift Fundamentals,” and “Develop in Swift Data Collections.” The LMS used is Canvas from Instructure.

For learners grades 4 through 8, Apple’s “Everyone Can Code” curriculum uses puzzles and games to teach the building blocks of coding in Swift – the open-source programming language designed by Apple. The company added a set of remote learning resources including  “A Quick Start to Code” with 10 coding challenges on iPad or Mac.

Also, the Learning from Home website, launched this spring, offers resources such as on-demand videos and virtual conferences on remote learning, and options to schedule free one-on-one virtual coaching sessions, hosted by educators at Apple. New videos are being added as part of the Apple Education Learning Series.

Apple announced its intention is to supplement the need for computer science instructors in the U.S., due to a teacher shortage.

The Computer Science Teachers Association claims that fewer than 50% of all American high schools are able to get into the computer science courses.

In addition, the courses are also being offered to parents interested in becoming homeschool teachers.

“Apple has worked alongside educators for 40 years, and we’re especially proud to see how Develop in Swift and Everyone Can Code have been instrumental in helping teachers and students make an impact in their communities,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Markets, Apps and Services.

BIG NEWS: Educators and students can NOW learn Swift directly from @Apple experts through Canvas LMS: https://t.co/nP3xzWq7su @AppleEDU

— Canvas LMS (@CanvasLMS) July 13, 2020

IBL News | New York

Harvard University and the University of Southern California (USC) advised newly admitted international students who require F-1 visa sponsorship not to come to the U.S. mostly due to the “unpredictability” of the Trump administration.

Rakesh Khurana, Danoff Dean of Harvard College, wrote in a letter: “At present, any incoming student who received a Form I-20 to begin their studies this fall will be unable to enter the U.S. in F-1 status as course instruction is fully remote.”

As we reported, last week, the Trump Administration lifted the travel ban to European and UK students who already had study F-1 and M-1 visas. However, students awaiting interviews at U.S. Embassies and Consulates and researchers and teachers with J-1 visas were not included in the U.S. exemptions.

Harvard University disclosed that it is “working closely with members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to extend the online exemption to newly admitted students”, although “we don’t anticipate any change to the policy in time for the fall semester.”

The fact that classes could be delivered through a hybrid model that includes some in-person instruction as a way to obtain an F-1 visa doesn’t convince Harvard officials, “given the unpredictability of current government policies and the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis,” said Rakesh Khurana.

The institution advised students to take courses remotely from home, or, alternatively, defer the start of the classes on-campus.

USC recommended all undergraduates to take their courses online and reconsider living on or close to campus this semester. “We are building vibrant platforms, including a new student portal that will serve as a virtual quad and promote social engagement,” wrote Charles F. Zukoski, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at USC. “We also will be providing a host of experiences for our entering first-year and transfer students from across the world, so that they feel part of our community, and can seamlessly transition in person as soon as possible.”

Dealing with confusion about international students’ status, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a FAQ document, noting that “due to the fluid nature of this COVID-19 situation, the answers in this document may be subject to change.”