iNACOL published a comprehensive overview of OER and governmental initiatives in this area. More here. As NU is in the process of building its repository, there is something to look into to get best practices and approaches.
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Impressive! Machine learning during the last five years.
Just the latest:
“2016 – Google’s artificial intelligence algorithm beats a professional player at the Chinese board game Go, which is considered the world’s most complex board game and is many times harder than chess. The AlphaGo algorithm developed by Google DeepMind managed to win five games out of five in the Go competition.”
See more here.
10 must-haves to appease online students
While we do not have online students, I believe these 10 must-haves would be great for any student:
- Must help with students’ careers
- Must offer choices for personalization
- Must be flexible with policies and processes
- Must provide local sources of information
- Must have a great website
- Must be affordable
- Must include instructor communication
- Must offer fully online…but also blended
- Must have transparent data
- Must market to all ages
See more for details.
Necessity could be the mother of innovation in higher education
Very interesting publication from University World News, where some opportunities are identified as:
- Harness the technology
- Embrace the ‘for-profit’ providers
- Move to competency-based education development
- Reform accreditation
- Strengthen quality assurance
- Partner with the informal and commercial sectors
- Strengthen funding as a ‘steer’
Number of distance learners continues to grow
8 MOOCs for Better Technology-Enhanced Teaching
There are some great professional development opportunities to take this February, March, May.
All MOOCs are free and you can pick and choose…
You can find all details here: https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2016/02/10/8-MOOCs-for-Better-Technology-Enhanced-Teaching.aspx
Please share with your students, TAs, and colleagues.
The 25 Best Online Master in Educational Technology Degree Programs
Anybody is interested in exploring further educational opportunities? Check out this listing and find your new calling.
NMC Horizon Report 2016 Higher Education Edition Is out!
“This 13th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are placed directly in the context of their likely impact on the core missions of universities and colleges, and detailed in succinct, non-technical, and unbiased presentations.” More here.
Trends:
Long-Term Impact Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in higher education for five or more years
- Advancing Cultures of Innovation
- Rethinking How Institutions Work
Mid-Term Impact Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in higher education for three to five years
- Redesigning Learning Spaces
- Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches
Short-Term Impact Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in higher education for the next one to two years
- Growing Focus on Measuring Learning
- Increasing Use of Blended Learning Designs
The full report is available online.
Why Bite-Sized Learning is Better for Your Learners (Infographic)
We make videos, screencasts, multimedia presentations. The latest neuroscience research and deeper knowledge on how people learn emphasize bite-size leaning. This infographic presents highlights of why. More here. So, be mindful of the duration of your videos! 5-8 mins would be ideal.
7 Tools for Hosting Online Brainstorming Sessions
Great ideas here!
“Whether it is to solve a problem, plan a project, or develop new story ideas there are plenty of occasions in the course of a school year for students to brainstorm together… For those times when in-person brainstorming sessions are not possible, the tools featured above offer good ways to host brainstorming sessions online.”
More (and a list of tools with their brief description) is on the F4FT.