Category: Top News

Videos are central to the learning experience, therefore the type of production we do affects student engagement.

We are now in a huge production for Francisco de Vitoria University, in Spain, and we want to share our experience. (The picture above shows Professor Ángel Sánchez-Palencia during a recording of a MOOC about Antropology).

Some findings:

• Pre-production is key. We plan lesson content carefully before jumping to the ground.
• Post-production is equally important. We add lots of images, b-roll and graphic resources. We don’t want to merely display a talking head.
• We avoid studio recording. We like videos produced with a personal feel, filmed in informal settings.
• We encourage and train instructors to speak in a quick and enthusiastic manner. We want them to bring out their enthusiasm as educators.
• Shorter videos are much more engaging, since engagement drops after 5-6 minutes. (Regarding the engagement time, there is an interesting analysis from the University of Rochester).

OpenEd is a great content repository with 750,000 free, standard-aligned educational videos and games for the classroom – all curated by educators. Teachers and parents worldwide are using this catalog to enrich their students’ learning experience.

Now this website adds more than 300,000 learning assessments, tests and quizzes. These are all offered free of charge.

OpenEd helps teachers enhance their lesson plans, integrates multimedia content into instruction, and assists students with their work. Teachers can also create a “Playlist” of videos that can be shared with students or colleagues.

While OpenEd can be used with any learning management system, it also provides its own free LMS, allowing teachers to create courses while using a “recommendation engine” to find the best relevant material available.

This online-education platform, 2U Inc., will go public, trading on the Nasdaq and offering up to $100-million in common stock.

The money will be used to expand student enrollment and to fund technology and content development.

2U counts the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California among its clients. In the filing, this company, with 265-full time employees, reported a revenue of $83.1 million and a net loss of $28 million.

Educational institutions can capitalize on lead generation marketing to create sales leads and revenue.

In order to achieve that, they must place emphasis on proper SEO optimization, set call-to-action tactics via contact form, request information pages, implement webinars and forums, maximize social networking sites building communities, and offer email subscriptions…

This article contains a great analysis of must-do things.

In addition, this Mashable’s infographic explains how schools are enhancing recruitment efforts by offering virtual tours, posting student videos, promoting campus activities, reaching out to parents, and connecting with alumni through social networking.

Ever thought of a possible convergence of eLearning and ePublishing industries?

This is an interesting discussion happening in the LinkedIn’s Educause group.

Most of the leading book publishers now publish their books in electronic format. But that is not enough to stay ahead of the competition.

Increasingly, publishers will add interactivity, assessments, annotations, tracking, learning platforms as well as collaborations and integrations with third social platforms, etc.

Aren’t ebooks’ new features very close to the elearning content?

It seems that these two industries will converge soon; their ecosystems are very complementary to each other.

Harvard is taking a new approach to MOOCs.

Beginning in March of this Year, HarvardX –the University’s branch of the online learning platform edX.org– has offered course content restricted to alumni.

This new program, called “HarvardX for Alumni” draws from pre-existing HarvardX course such as “The Ancient Greek Here” and “Fundamentals of Neuroscience,” while adding new features, such as forums and live chats with faculty, and seeking a stronger, more explicit focus on networking, both among alumni and between alumni and the University.

In addition, HarvardX for Alumni serves as an experimentation with modular courseware with original material, such as interviews with faculty members.

Portable learning can provide students in developing countries with new opportunities.

The non-profit organization edX will work with Facebook-led Internet.org, Airtel, Nokia and the Government of Rwanda to provide free education to students in this African country on affordable smart phones. This project, called SocialEDU, was announced by Facebook at the Mobile World Congress last week in Barcelona, Spain.

The initiative builds on the success of MOOCs

EdX will adapt course materials for local students. Such students will access a mobile app that will be integrated with Facebook, while Airtel provides free education data for one year and Nokia sells affordable smartphones.

Google is launching its first MOOC.

The course, titled “Making Sense of Data”, will run from March 18 to April 4. It is related to Google’s Fusion Tables – a set of tools for displaying data – and is intended to be for “anybody who works with data on a daily basis, such as students, teachers, journalists, and small business owners, and who wants to learn more about how to apply that information to practical problems.”

Participants will engage with the course material through a combination of video and text lessons, activities, and projects. Google announces that in order to create a more engaging experience, participants will be able to access instant hangouts and live chats from the course for quick help or for direct feedback from the company experts. Students will have the opportunity to complete a final project and apply the skills they learn to earn a certificate.

The course will showcase the collaborative technology of Google and edX using cbX to run courses on Google App Engine.

Previously, Google offered an analytics course.

When it comes to promoting online courses and learning activities, there are many ways we use while working with our clients. Let us share some of them:

1. Blogs and social media sites. We update them 2 or 3 times a week with engaging, useful and informative content.
2. Short, free courses –and/or MOOCs– production. Giving things for free builds more engagement with existing and potential customers, and it allows to generate new leads and grow our community.
3. eBooks. We publish a new one every month. They contain 10 – 20 pages and they have very clear and useful information. Ebooks have become very useful lead generators. eBooks as well as courses can be created by opinion leaders; they can become our best advocates.
4. Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly informative newsletters. We share info about customers’ content, industry news and leaders, interviews.
5. Forums. We start discussions, come up with new ideas, and get feedback and ideas just by listening to people.
6. Testimonials and customer stories. We post positive examples of people who enjoyed our courses.

Academic institutions must leverage the best technological advancements in order to attract students and maximize learning.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) –that feature a series of short, video segments in which instructors describe a particular concept or skill, and then give exercises, quizzes and exams– is a radical learning and marketing tool, that requires little start up cost.

In our view, it offers universities with a unique chance to promote their services while engaging non-traditional students. Check out these series of MOOCs we filmed for the University of Navarre (UNAV), in Spain. Naturally, one can enroll in them for free.

Intensive coursework is a great way to educate the general population and get free advertising.

Users recognize and appreciate the efforts of MOOCs at universities, and promote them to friends and family through social media sites and emailing. This word of mouth promotion systems benefits all.