Chromebook Making Inroads in Education

The business in educational tablet computers has been booming for the last 12 months, particularly at Apple, which recently saw 35,000 iPads purchased by the Los Angeles School District. Even Windows 8 machines are being scooped up by schools, with 23,000 Android devices headed for schools in North Carolina.

The surprise entry in the field appears to be the Google Chromebook. Industry experts suggest the device, introduced in 2011, has its limitations, but with Chromebooks available for as low as $99, cost isn’t one of them.

Schools in Michigan, South Dakota, and Wisconsin that have purchased both iPads and Chromebooks have found that the iPad may be best suited for younger students. On the other hand, the Chromebook is a go-to device for high school students, particularly for subjects such as English.

“I think Chromebooks will represent an interesting position for some schools, given the different price points that you can reach,” Carolina Mianesi of Gartner, the technology research firm, told Mashable. “I would say that for schools to go Chromebook, though, might mean a wider commitment to Google from an app perspective or, at a minimum, a deeper commitment to developing apps. iPad might be a more off-the-shelf solution for some.”

Google Jumps into Textbook Business

Just in time for the upcoming fall semester, Google is jumping into the textbook business, offering students a “comprehensive selection of titles” from five major publishers, through the Google Play for Education app store.

The company is adding a new channel for digital textbooks, which will allow students to access the material on Android and iOS devices. Notes and bookmarks will be synced across all devices, whether a student is using the material online or on a mobile device.

Google did not provide information on pricing, but said it expects to rent and sell the titles at an 80% discount compared to “regular” retail prices, apparently meaning list prices, which are not true indicators of actual pricing. It also did not make clear how much interactivity there will be, according to an article in TechCrunch.

Microsoft Cuts Surface Tablet Prices

While Microsoft isn’t talking about how the Surface RT is selling, it is cutting its price on the tablet. The device was offered to schools and higher education institutions at a special discounted price at the TechEd conference in May and now that discount is open to everyone.

Microsoft is offering its least-expensive 32 GB Surface RT model without a keyboard cover for $349 on its web site, trimming $150 off the original price. The same machine with the keyboard cover has gone from $599 to $449 and a unit with double the memory and a keyboard cover is now $549 instead of $699.

Microsoft could be trying to move units ahead of updates to both Surface RT and Surface Pro. Rumors have also surfaced that Microsoft is planning a switch to a new processor that would allow it to increase the Internet connectivity of the devices.

However, industry-watchers also estimate Microsoft has sold just 1.5 million units since the Surface launched in October, leaving it far behind in a field dominated by the Apple iPad and the Amazon Fire.

Surprise! Students Think Textbooks Are Too Expensive

Students and faculty say traditional textbooks are too costly and they want an alternative, but also question whether the e-textbooks will ever offer significant savings, according to a new report from the Educause Center for Analysis and Research.

Understanding What Higher Education Needs from E-Textbooks: An Educause/Internet2 Pilot is the result of an e-text study conducted in the fall of 2012 at 23 colleges and universities. McGraw-Hill Education and e-textbook provider Courseload delivered e-texts to 5,000 students and faculty in nearly 400 undergraduate and graduate courses.

The study found that faculty and students want a choice of platforms for reading e-texts, the ability to access content offline, the freedom to opt out of e-textbooks, and still be able to choose paper textbooks. Respondents also said they need technical support to make use of new formats and that consumer experiences with electronic content drive their expectations of e-textbooks.

“This study demonstrates that institutions and the marketplace must first remove barriers that exist even in today’s paper textbook market, most notably cost,” said Susan Grajek, vice president for data, research, and analytics for Educause. “Challenges innate to electronic content must also be addressed, including availability of materials where and when students need them, compatibility with the devices students own and prefer to use, and the kind of functionality that comes from good interface design. The solutions will come from many sources, but through this study students and faculty have clarified their needs.”

More Studies on Digital Natives

It seems as if another study on college students and their use of digital devices is released every other day.

For instance, a new report from Wakefield Research found that 99% of current students own at least one digital device and 68% use it at least three times a day. In fact, 47% of responding students said they check their electronic device every 10 minutes, a 9% increase over 2011 survey results.

At 93%, laptops topped the list of devices owned by students, but smartphone and tablet ownership saw significant increases. Smartphone ownership rose from 47% in 2011 to 78% in the current survey, while tablets went from 7% to 35%.

The study also showed 90% of students sometimes fail to complete reading assignments, but 53% said they would be more likely to complete the reading if it were available on mobile devices. Also, 59% of responding students prefer bringing their laptop to class instead of a textbook; 88% have used a mobile device for last-minute studying; and 79% of respondents said they’ve used an e-textbook, compared to 63% in 2011.

Then there’s a study done at the City University of New York (CUNY) that found students still say they prefer reading academic texts in print. Student Reading Practices inPrint and Electronic Media tracked the reading habits of 17 students over the course of two weeks and reported that most used electronic devices for pleasure reading, but switched back to paper for academic content. 

Startup Offering Alternative to Textbooks

Since 2011, students and instructors at Purdue University have been using Jetpack, a hybrid technology developed on campus that allows instructors to create course materials students can access on their computers or smartphones. Now, Jetpack is going public.

The university licensed the technology and a commercial version, called Skyepack was recently launched as a “freemium” alternative to textbooks and e-readers.

“E-books today remind me of how early automobiles were called ‘horseless carriages’ and looked as if they worked best if you harnessed a couple of horses to the front,” said Gerry McCartney, chief information office at Purdue. “This publishing platform is a next step because it allows you to incorporate any type of media and view it on almost any device.”

The technology allows users to combine educational content into packs that are specific to a class lecture at no cost. Instructors can assemble multiple packs and students can access them on most smartphones and tablet devices or online on their desktop computer.

“These mobile apps and software tools are built because they improve student success at Purdue,” McCartney said. “We want to share our success, but we’re not in the business of selling educational technologies. Bu licensing our technologies to companies such as Skyepack, we can make these technologies available to companies and institutions that have a need for them.”

BISG Study Finds More Textbook Pirating

A new study from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) found that downloading course materials from unauthorized web sites is on the rise. Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education showed the percentage of students pirating course materials jumped from 20% in 2010 to 34% in the most recent survey.

The practice of students copying chapters of a required text owned by a peer is also on the upswing, rising from 21% to 31%. In addition, the survey found that 75% of faculty feel the overall coast of a college degree is too high (despite just 33% of the respondents saying the costs were too high at their own institution), and that they said both print and digital course materials were priced higher than their value to the class.

The information came as no surprise to blogger Nate Hoffelder of The Digital Reader.

“Students are pirating more textbooks because they can’t afford to buy them,” he wrote. “Do you think they would go through the hassle of photocopying a textbook if they had another choice?”

Hoffelder went on to claim that the rate of students pirating textbooks has been growing at least since the end of 2011. He provided statistics from March 2013 that showed the use of unauthorized text web sites had increased 40%, scanning course material was up 37%, illicit sharing between students was up 28%, and piracy was up 26%.

Study: Campuses Lack BYOD Policies

A new study found that while university chief information officers understand that the ability to bring your own device (BYOD) is becoming more important, most schools have no BYOD policies in place.

Education Dive, a survey of 50 CIOs from around the United States, reported that 76% of their institutions had no BYOD policies even though 74% admitted it’s becoming a bigger issue for campus administrators. The findings were similar to results from the Association of Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, which found that 60% of respondents are worried about their ability to meet the demand of more mobile devices on campus, but just 40% were planning to address the issue.

The Education Dive report also asked about the types of mobile devices coming to campus and found that 72% of the students were using Apple iPads in school, with 60% bringing iPhones and 38% carrying an Android phone.

However, another survey found that 84% of its student respondents use a computer to study and just one in five regularly study on a mobile device. The Future of Education also reported that just half of the students queried felt they needed to attend a traditional classroom to get an education, while  39% said education will become more virtual and 19% anticipate they will be able to use social media in the classroom.

Students Engaged on New Platform

BlikBook is a social engagement platform for higher education that is being used in courses at a third of the universities in England and Ireland. That helped the developer raise more than $1.5 million in funding and has the British firm looking at bringing it to the United States.

Students and instructors are able to connect online by posting a specific question on BlikBook and anyone logged into the course can provide the answer. The responses can be shared through social media and students receive a notification each time a new answer is posted.

The platform also allows instructors to monitor students and the progress they are making in the class outside of traditional means, such as homework or a quiz.

“With BlikBook, a professor can see which students are engaging and which are not,” Cheyne Tan, managing director of BlikBook, told eCampus News. “He can see which students are influential, which are not. Where there are issues and where there are not. It’s building a picture of what’s happening inside the classroom but also outside.” 

Blackboard Getting Into MOOC Business

After 16 years of developing classroom software, Blackboard is getting into the massive open online course (MOOC) business. The company plans to provide free hosting for MOOCs that are offered by existing customers and expects to generate revenue by providing additional services to the institutions.

Blackboard said it wanted to take its time to understand the phenomenon of MOOCs. Its results showed colleges use MOOCs to offer educational material to the widest possible audience, to experiment with new forms of online teaching, and to attract students by featuring their top instructors.

“Institutions need more flexible options for experimenting with MOOCs and running online courses that meet their individual needs,” said Katie Blot, president of education services. “As schools better define how they want to experiment with MOOCs, it’s becoming clear that the best platform is usually the one they already have.”

The Blackboard plan allows institutions to connect their learning management systems and MOOC platforms in areas such as content and social learning. A mobile application through the Blackboard Learn platform also provides students and instructors access to MOOC content through iOS and Android devices.

Classes Still Clicking But Move to Phones

Most faculty fervently wish students would put their cellphones away while they’re in class. New student-response system apps for phones might change professors’ minds.

Clicker devices have become common in many college and university classrooms for fast, easy polling and quizzing. Instructors use them to take attendance, engage students in the lecture, and size up whether they grasp concepts. But students usually are required to buy the exact brand of clicker—or it won’t work in class—and must remember to bring it along. Some devices malfunction.

The mobile apps released for fall 2013 by i>clicker get around those hassles by enabling students to use their own Android or iOS cellphones as clickers, as long as the phones are able to access the web. The i>clicker GO software, which replaces its not-so-reliable web>clicker app, can also be used with tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.

Instructors can view voting results in real time and also save them into Excel spreadsheets. For students who don’t have an appropriate phone, GO can be used in conjunction with regular clicker devices.

The one down side for students is net cost. They can license GO for four years at about the same price as a brand-new clicker device, but they lose the market for used clickers.

Carnegie Mellon Launches Acrobatiq

Carnegie Mellon University has been providing free open and online education since 2001 when it began the Open Learning Initiative (OLI). The institution has now created Acrobatiq, a subsidiary company focused on improving course quality and learning outcomes.

The new venture will offer customizable online courseware, consulting services, and learning analytics for educators. The company will continue to offer OLI courses and work to create new ones.

“Through Acrobatiq, we will be able to scale up capacity to serve more learners and institutions, accelerate innovation, and ensure financial sustainability from revenue versus a reliance on grant funding,” Eric Frank, the company’s CEO, said in a blog post.

Acrobatiq will begin offering its services in the fall and will not interrupt any agreements with OLI, according to Frank. It will maintain a catalog of free courses and continue the OLI approach of making its tools available to educational researchers at no cost.

Big Ten Turns Attention to MOOCs

There’s more to the Big Ten than athletics. The universities that make up the oldest Division I athletic conference also operate the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) with the University of Chicago, a consortium of research universities that produce 16% of the massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by Coursera.

Now, the CIC members are proposing a collaborative online network that would expand the CourseShare program. The collaboration would also put the schools in a position to develop of tools, courses, and applications instead of counting on technology and MOOC companies to create the innovations.

“To meet our objective of using online platforms to improve instruction quality, we need to harness campus creativity and expertise to rethink the underlying methods and aims of instruction,” provosts from the CIC member schools said in a joint statement. 

More Gadgets on Their Way Out

Remember when every college student carried an MP3 player and had a CD player back in their dorm room? Or when flip camcorders were all the rage on campus? In this video, CNET editor Donald Bell lists five more items that new technology will soon render obsolete.

First a Plan, Then the Tablets

Los Angeles public schools created a stir of sorts by announcing a contract to purchase $30 million worth of iPads for one-to-one student distribution. Many school districts have bought iPads or other tablets, but L.A. is by far the largest. But will the district get its money’s worth?

That may depend on how much preparation the district undertakes before handing the tablets over to the kids. “Simply purchasing slick devices like iPads for the classroom is hardly a recipe for educational success,” says Lee Badman, a network architect/administrator and adjunct faculty member at Syracuse University in New York, in a commentary for InformationWeek.

Badman poses a number of questions that schools need to think about before deploying tablets as a classroom tool, starting with determining a concrete purpose and plan for using the devices. If the intent is to simply give students hands-on experience with the new technology, that’s not much of a goal, in Badman’s view.

“Students are often more adept in using devices than faculty are,” he says.

Quality instruction should still form the foundation for student education, he adds. Underperforming teachers won’t be transformed by the presence of tablets, while effective teachers may find their instructional time sucked away by technical problems.

And the technical problems could be plenty, Badman says, if the district doesn’t set up a fully functioning wireless network with enough access points and sufficient ISP connectivity. Printing capabilities and streaming video should also be considered. Badman says this calls for a skilled network administrator, not a teacher or administrator trying to squeeze those extra tasks into a busy day.

Amazon Lands Patent for Enhanced E-Books

Amazon.com was recently granted a patent for enhancing electronic reading with personalized content. Amazon wants to be able to augment its Kindle e-books with supplemental material from publishers and other “trusted contributors,” including friends.

The process could be particularly interesting to teachers at all levels because it would allow them to add content to assignments, according to a report in Wired.

Readers of an enhanced Kindle e-book would have access to extra material, such as additional storylines, maps, or illustrations, based on their interests. The supplemental content could come from an Amazon author, from a relationship on social media, or even when the reader has expressed an interest in similar content.

That content would be managed through a multilevel framework to be created by Amazon. 

Pearson Making OER Easier

Pearson Higher Education is trying to make it easier for educators to locate open educational resources (OER) with the launch of OpenClass Exchange, a collection of nearly 700,000 digital resources with simple search processes and built-in social tools.

“It’s iTunes-easy,” Scott Chadwick, vice president and general manager of OpenClass, told eCampus News.

The Exchange provides an updated search function that allows teachers and students to quickly access material by topic from sources such as TED Ed, Kahn Academy, YouTube EDU, and the collection of OER college courses from Open Course Library. Instructors can preview material that matches their search and click on a button to add it to their course.

“Educators are saying, ‘We can’t dedicate our lives to content searches,’” Chadwick said. “We wanted to address that, so we brought together as many really great learning resources as we could. A lot of them are video-based, which is intentional, but there’s also great simulations, courses, and e-book content.”

The social feature to the Exchange includes a “follow” function that allows students and teachers to create a network of peers outside the classroom. There is also a notification feature that provides users with automatic updates of OpenClass activities.

“From here, it’s about finding even more of the best resources,” Chadwick said. “We’re continuing to partner with organizations and institutions and anybody who feels like they have the best educational content and want to make it more easily available.”

SIIA Reports on BYOD in Schools

When the Software & Information Association (SIIA) asked about “bring your own device” policies for the first time in its 2013 Results Vision K-20 Survey, it found that more K-12 and postsecondary educators encourage their students to bring electronic gadgets to class.

The report found that 46% of K-12 districts allow the practice. However, 80% of the K-12 classrooms that allow mobile devices in the classroom also restrict their use.

On higher ed campuses, 83% of two-year institutions and 95% of four-year schools encourage students to bring their own device, but institutions that allow BYOD with restrictions drop to 50% at two-year and 40% at four-year schools. Responses at the postsecondary level also suggested that restrictions will remain part of the policy for the foreseeable future.

“The survey indicates that educators in both K-12 and postsecondary have a desire to integrate technology at a much higher level that the present, but need support and assistance to make that happen,” wrote the authors of the report. “As technology evolves and technology solutions expand, there may be new opportunities to reach ideal goals with more cost-effective and less hardware-dependent solutions.”

Apple Fights for Its Way of Doing Business

Apple has had its day in court in the e-book price-fixing case. So, why didn’t the computer company just settle like the five publishers also named in the lawsuit?

Apple executives have been saying throughout the process that they went to court because they did nothing wrong. Even when Macmillan finally decided to settle last February, the publisher’s CEO, John Sargent, argued it only settled “because the potential penalties became too high to risk even the possibilities of an unfavorable outcome.”

In Apple’s case, the company was also defending the way it does business. Letting its partners set the price of their product is the same approach used in both its iTunes and App Stores, so Apple needs to be able to negotiate favorable terms to compete with rivals, according to technology reporter Jessica E. Lessin in The Wall Street Journal.

“A win would help Apple maintain negotiating clout with media companies, which are searching for new ways to make money in markets shifting online,” Lessin wrote. “A loss could hamper its ability to compete with rivals like Amazon.com Inc. to land increasingly important media deals on favorable terms.”

Losing the case could also mean Apple would have to submit to regular monitoring by the government, which is also pushing to prohibit Apple from using “most-favored-nation” clauses in its contracts. Such clauses allowed Apple to match any lower price a publisher offered to other e-book distributors and is something Apple uses in its iTunes deals.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told attendees at the All Things Digital conference: “We’re not going to sign something that says we did something we didn’t do and so we are going to fight it.” But as Lessin points out, an Apple lawyer added during the trial that a ruling against the company would have a chilling effect on how companies negotiate.

Happy Fourth of July

Here are two videos that should start your day with a smile. Have a safe and happy Fourth.

More Students Are Taking Online Classes

The percentage of college students taking at least one online course has nearly doubled, from 23% to 45% in the last five years, according to a new report from the market research firm re:fuel. The study, 2013 College Explorer, also found students are enrolled in an average of two online courses per semester, but that many struggle without a regular schedule or assignments and meetings.

“Students who need additional assistance to grasp course materials also struggle to find help when professors and fellow students are available only in the digital world,” said Tammy Nelson, vice president of marketing and research for re:fuel, in a prepared statement.

The number of electronic devices students bring to campus has risen since the company’s 2012 survey to 6.9 per student, with laptops (85%) and smartphones (69%) topping the list. The survey also found that 79% of the responding students most often used pen and paper for taking notes and 59% purchased printed textbooks instead of the digital version, but 47% also use their laptops for taking notes in class, 33% use their tablet, and 13% use their smartphone for note-taking.

Price Alone Doesn't Propel E-Textbook Use

When it comes to textbooks, research has shown higher education students feel print is easier to use, but they’ll buy digital materials if those are cheaper. That prompted three economics faculty members at the University of Idaho, Moscow, to dig deeper into what compels an undergraduate to choose electronic textbooks over traditional paper ones.

Their findings, published in the spring issue of The American Economist journal, revealed that students who purchase e-textbooks share a number of characteristics.

For one, they are more likely to be paying for their education through scholarships and loans, which indicates they may need to watch their budget. Students who had attended larger high schools, typically in more urban areas, also were more apt to buy e-textbooks in college, evidently because they had more exposure to this medium than students who went to smaller and presumably more resource-strapped schools.

Almost 93% of the student respondents in the Idaho survey owned a laptop computer, and not quite 40% of them owned a desktop computer, either in addition to the laptop or in place of it. However, a much higher percentage of the desktop owners had bought a digital textbook than the laptop-only owners, although it’s not clear exactly why. The reasons may have to do with screen size and Internet connectivity.

Not surprisingly, students indicated their professors’ attitude toward e-textbooks was a big factor. If the professor recommended or encouraged students to use the digital version of a book, they were more likely to do so.

In the College of Business and Economics, some 80% of the students had used an e-textbook—partly because, the research team discovered, more business/economics courses were adopting course materials available only in an electronic format. E-textbook purchases were also higher among students in science, engineering, and agriculture studies than other majors.

To a lesser extent, age and gender played roles as well, with younger and female students more likely to buy electronic textbooks.

However, there is one undermining facet to the Idaho study: It was conducted in November 2009, prior to the launch of the iPad and the ensuing flood of tablets on the market. The researchers acknowledge that tablets could have a major impact on digital textbooks. Also, since 2009, textbook publishers have greatly expanded their catalogs of digital course materials and ancillary services.

Microsoft Pushing Surface RT to Schools

Microsoft has been trying to ramp up sales of its Surface RT tablet by offering free covers and keyboards. Now, it’s offering the device for $199 to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.

The price jumps to $249 with cover and $289 with type cover and is only available to institutions.

“It’s important Microsoft does its part to help get devices into the hands of educators that help prepare today’s students with skills modern business demand,” a Microsoft spokesperson wrote to PC World in advance of the program’s official announcement at the International Society for Technology in Education conference.

While that sounds very good, cutting the price for schools helps the company gets more Windows devices in the classroom, borrowing a page from the Apple playbook in trying to create a new generation of Windows users. It also helps Microsoft move a device that simply has not been selling well at its retail list price of $399.

Young Americans are Reading More

It’s not particularly surprising for a study to find that young Americans use computers and rely on text-messaging as a form of communication. What may be unforeseen is that the texting generation also reads more and uses the library more than older Americans.

The study Younger Americans’ Library Habits and Expectations by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project showed 75% of Americans age 16-29 read a printed book in 2012, compared to 64% of Americans 30 and older. It also found young people were more likely than their older counterparts to have visited a library in the past year, used its technology, or accessed its web site and services remotely.

As might be expected, e-book readership is on the rise for both young and older Americans.

The study found that 25% of Americans age 16-29 read an e-book in 2012, compared to 19% the year before. The percentage of respondents who read an e-book rose in every age group and peaked in the 30-49 age group with a 16% increase to 41%.

Technology adoption by young people is also on the rise with 98% of young adults age 18-29 reporting they use the Internet and 80% saying they have broadband access at home. In addition, 97% own a cellphone (65% of those are smartphones), 34% own a tablet computer, and 28% own an e-reader.

Getting the Most from New Technology

A student survey from the Center for American Progress found that while students may have access to the latest technology, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are getting the most from the tools.

The survey showed that 34% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) math exam used computers only to drill on facts, while fewer than a quarter used the devices to work on spreadsheets or with geometric figures. The results were not much better in high school science classrooms, where 73% of seniors taking a national assessment exam said they regularly watched movies or videos in class.

“Schools frequently acquire digital devices without discrete learning goals and ultimately use these devices in ways that fail to adequately serve students, schools, or taxpayers,” wrote Ulrich Boser, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of the report.

On the other hand, there is evidence that technology does allow students to work independently and at their own pace, freeing teachers to work with smaller groups.

A study conducted by the RAND Corp. found that high school students who used an algebra software program created for the research nearly doubled their scores on standardized math tests compared to those using a traditional high school math curriculum. The technology allowed students to gain an understanding of the math concepts, rather than just drilling on the problems.

“We’re not just seeing whether they got the answer right or wrong, but why they got it right or wrong,” said Steve Ritter, chief scientist at Carnegie Learning, the math curriculum developer that created the software.

10 Reasons Why Students Don't Finish MOOCs

Statistics show that completion rates for massive open online courses (MOOCs) are around 7%. Open Culture, a web site that curates and provides free cultural and educational media, came up with some reasons why the totals are so low.

The site got responses from 50 of its readers and found the main reason for dropping a MOOC was that it took too much time.

Readers also felt MOOCs assumed students had more knowledge about the subject than they did, while at the same time tended to be too basic. Others listed a formal lecture format that was “obsolete and inefficient,” poor design, clunky communication tools, bad peer reviews, and hidden costs of course materials as reasons.

Finally, students dropped MOOCs because they were shopping around to find topics that interested them and because they didn’t take the course to earn a certificate anyway, just as a recent University of Edinburgh study suggests.

T-Word Won't Be in Students' Vocabulary

“Kids won’t even know what that word means,” Jeff Livingston, a McGraw-Hill Education vice president, is quoted as saying in an interview in U.S. News and World Report.

What word is he talking about? Typewriter? Mimeo? Icebox?

It’s textbooks. The students of the near future, according to Livingston, won’t recognize the word because all course materials will be online and provide an interactive experience. Heavy, print, linear tomes will be a thing of the past.

The U.S. News article mainly discusses what kind of computing devices students will need and how much parents should expect to budget for technology expenses, but Livingston’s comments about textbooks offer a glimpse of the direction where educational publishers are heading.

Students currently buy textbooks, regardless of format, from a store or e-commerce site, but Livingston says soon students will purchase all their online course materials through a fee folded into tuition or as a subscription. He estimates those fees/subscriptions will run about $300 to $400 per semester.

If parents were hoping to see some savings with all-digital materials, they may be disappointed. According to OnCampus Research’s 2013 Student Watch report, Retail Insight: Student Shopping Trends, the average student already pays approximately $662 per school year for course materials, mostly print—about the same as the annual estimate for digital. That figure doesn’t factor in any monies students might get for reselling their paper books later.

Developers Can Win Cash for LTI Apps

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standards provide ways to integrate learning applications with platforms such as learning management systems (LMS). Now, some LMS providers are offering monetary rewards to anyone who can create a better LTI app.

The LTI Bounty program will pay $250 to developers for apps that make it easier to use those learning management systems, which are considered somewhat “antisocial” when it comes to working within a social networking framework. Submitted entries will be judged by a panel of educational technology experts and the top picks are eligible to win a $1,000 prize.

“Cooperation in education is fundamental to learning, and I believe it’s fundamental to creating a technology ecosystem,” Brian Whitmer, co-founder of Instructure told eCampus News. “Unfortunately, old-style vendor lock-in has been a drag on the level of innovation and growth of a true ed-tech ecosystem. But with indicatives like the app bounty, we’re working to fix that.”

Draper U. Accepting Bitcoin Payments

Draper University, San Mateo, CA, bills itself as an “unconventional world-class boarding school,” so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that it would accept unconventional forms of payment.

The school, which already allows barter, equity, profit sharing, and advertising tradeout as forms of payment, is now accepting bitcoin for tuition fees. The school has already processed its first bitcoin payment for the summer session.

Bitcoin is cryptocurrency, peer-to-peer electronic cash created and transferred through a computer or smartphone without an intermediate financial institution. End users solve hash algorithms to generate the virtual coins, which in the case of bitcoins are valued at around $100 per coin, according to a report in Campus Technology.

“Some of the most forward-looking entrepreneurs are active bitcoin traders. At Draper University of Heroes, we accept bitcoin payment of tuition because it is a promising currency with appreciating value,” Tim Draper, founder of Draper University, said in a prepared statement. “For the time being, we still accept dollars, too.”

BYOD Spells SOS for Campus IT Issues

The combined student and employee population at Cedarville University, Cedarville, OH, is about 4,000. Yet, on any given day, more than 9,000 devices may be accessing the Internet through Cedarville’s system. That ratio illustrates why grappling with the rapid proliferation of web-enabled devices on campus is the new No. 1 concern on Educause’s recently released Top-Ten IT Issues report for2013.

“Now that faculty, staff, and students all have these portable devices, they expect to use them. Before, IT organizations had to address network coverage, but the pure density of devices on campus and their bandwidth requirements cause new challenges,” noted the report.

Issue No. 2 involves taking advantage of technology to help bolster students’ outcomes, an issue clearly influenced by recent pressure from legislators and others to focus on what students learn and ensure they’re getting value for their tuition dollars. A related issue calls for ascertaining a strategy to support online education.

Other issues new to Educause’s annual list include structuring IT staffing to meet new challenges and balancing the need to secure systems and information with the need for user access.

Five of the issues on the 2013 list are carryovers from 2012: creating strategies for institutional cloud computing, strategic funding for IT projects, supporting bring-your-own-device and other trends, using technology to take campus business initiatives to the next level, and tapping into data analytics to guide institutional outcomes.

Students Take MOOCs to 'Learn New Things'

Critics of massive open online courses (MOOCs) point to the number of individuals who fail to successfully complete the courses. Karen Symms Gallagher, dean of the University of the Southern California Rossier School of Education, took a MOOC presented by the University of Edinburgh, dropped out after losing interest, and wrote about her experience in an essay for Inside Higher Education.

On the heels of the essay, eCampus News ran a report on a new MOOC study from Edinburgh that showed the majority of students who take its six Coursera classes do so simply to learn, with little interest in earning the completion certificate at the end.

MOOCs@Edinburgh 2013 found that 95% of the responding students enrolled to “learn new things” and just 33% took the course for the certificate. The study also found that 83% said they completed the final assessment, while 77% said the course either met or exceeded their expectations. In addition, 70% of respondents said they had already completed a degree program, and 40% had earned a postgraduate degree.

“It is probably reasonable to view these MOOC learners as more akin to lifelong learning students in traditional universities than to students on degree programs, which is a common comparison being made,” the report said.

Soccer Moms Lead Tablet Buyers

As of May 2013, about 34% of all adults in the U.S. owned a tablet device, almost double the number from a year ago. The percentage comes from the spring phone survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which has been tracking tablet ownership since the release of the iPad.

It may be hard to believe that tablet ownership went from zero to more than a third of the total American adult population in just a few years. So who’s buying all those tablets? It turns out the typical purchaser is a female college graduate living in the surburbs, age 35-44, with a household income of at least $75,000.

But the telling characteristic of the average tablet owner is having a kid at home. In the last year, custodial parents of minor children became the fastest-growing tablet-owner demographic, jumping from 26% last spring to 50% in May.

The rise in tablet ownership is mirrored in the educational world as well. A Campus Technology article reported tablets represented 35% of all personal computing devices shipped to U.S. schools in 2012, almost twice as many as the preceding year. Obviously, both parents and school personnel see tablets as an important tool in youngsters’ learning.

However, the article noted, the boost in tablet purchases may be spurred mostly by manufacturers that have developed educational content for the devices and are willing to work directly with schools to fulfill their curriculum needs.

E-Text Revolution Is Coming, Slowly

The e-textbook revolution appears to be more of a skirmish, at least at the moment. A new study from Bowker Market Research found students and their professors are not adopting digital textbooks in great numbers and the percentage of students using them has remained flat for the last few semesters.

The study reported that just 3% of students used a digital textbook as their primary course material during the spring 2013 semester, down from 4% for the fall 2012 semester. In addition, about half of the 1,540 undergraduates participating in the Bowker survey said they “prefer the look and feel of print,” along with the ability to highlight and take notes, while a third said they choose print because they couldn’t resell a digital text.

“Students aren’t resisting digital. It’s extremely critical in their daily lives,” said Carl Kulo, U.S. market research director at Bowker, during a Digital Book World webcast. “But they are seeing more learning and monetary value in print textbooks.”

The research also found that just half of the professors surveyed make e-textbooks an option. When asked why they made the course material choices they did, faculty members cited experience with printed text, actual content inside the book, and cost to students as the top reasons.

It’s not all bad news for e-textbook adoption. The study noted that 31% of responding students said they had tried an e-textbooks and about a quarter of those students preferred the digital format.

“We believe that it’s the publishers and other educational technology companies that will drive the shift to digital,” Kulo said. “It will probably take about two to five years for the revolution to happen and it will probably happen when a critical mass of students have the device that makes the best use of the content.”

Higher Ed Is Not a Bubble Set to Burst

A recent MSN Money article lists the 10 colleges and universities with the highest out-of-pocket costs in the country. Pundits often point to this sort of list as proof that online education is the future of higher education.

College can certainly cost a fortune and tuition expenses continue to rise, but that doesn’t mean it’s creating an economic “bubble” that is ready to explode, according to a staff writer for Forbes magazine. In fact, John Tamny wrote that online education may be the entity that needs to be concerned.

After working through a list of high-profile individuals who succeeded without a college education, Tamny argued students don’t really attend college for the education. Students head to campus, and parents are willing to fork over small fortunes, because attending college opens doors in the real world.

That presents a problem for online learning. While it may be less expensive and even more efficient, Tamny said all employers really seem to care about is the imprimatur of a name school, rather than the actual knowledge a student gains.

“College tuition is the price paid by parents and ambitious teens to slot them for future employment,” he wrote. “Even without government subsidies, tuition for the name schools would still be high simply because parents and kids will pay enormous amounts for something scarce in the form of an elite degree that carries weight with employers. On the other hand, online education, precisely because it represents the opposite of scarce, means it brings with it very little job-attaining value.”

Follett Higher Ed Testing M-Commerce

By their very nature, campus stores attract a younger crowd that uses smartphones. That fact has Follett Higher Education Group actively testing its mobile marketing ability and plans.

Follett test have indicated more than 60% of recipients of special offers delivered by text message during a slow sales period viewed details of the offer, and 9% redeemed the coupon. In addition, fewer than 1% opted out of receiving the text, according to Leeann Fecho, manager of emerging media and loyalty marketing at Follett.

The company also developed a program that created a unique personal identification number that links a customer to a transaction when redeemed with a coupon and a program that allows shoppers to simply wave their mobile phones at an in-store kiosk to retrieve coupon offers.

“Mobile presents unique opportunities to connect and consolidate the customer experience,” Fecho told a session at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2013. “The value of mobile isn’t just about building offers or mobile commerce—it’s all of that, but while doing that and blending the in-store and online experience.”

Western Nevada Focuses on Flex Classrooms

When it came time for Western Nevada College to update the technology on its three campuses, administrators decided on a system to provide students with a better way to attend class, even if it meant not in the physical classroom.

The college built classrooms with smart podiums, microphones, and high-definition cameras to record lectures. It plans to combine the video-lecture classes with existing online courses, allowing students to be in the classroom, on the road using a mobile device, or in front of their home computer.

Western Nevada will begin offering 15 courses that are both face-to-face and online in the fall. The school wants to expand the program, but will limit it to first-year courses in the first year, according to Clarence Maise, distance education coordinator.

“Sometimes those earliest classes are the toughest,” Maise told eCampus News. “Maybe they haven’t figured out college yet or that balance. This wiggle room allows them to not drop class and work through it. Having that flex allows them to go to their job, take care of their kids, whatever they need to do.”

EdX Opens Source Code to Entice Developers

EdX released the source code of its XBlock software in March. Now, the massive open online course (MOOC) consortium has made its full source code available to developers in an effort to quicken the pace of advances to the platform.

“We want contributors,” said Rob Rubin, vice president of engineering, in an Information Week article. “We’d welcome any company’s contributions and any people’s use of the edX platform. We’re in the very early days in the development of the technology to support learning and research about learning. Let’s all contribute to the open-source effort to be able to rapidly evolve that for the benefits of the student.”

EdX had planned to release the code later this year or early next year, but moved it up because some of its members wanted to contribute code. For instance, Stanford University had code for real-time chat and bulk e-mail ready to go, while the University of California contributed forum and automated grading system software.

The move could also lead to MOOCs being scaled down into SPOCs (small private online courses), according to an eCampus News report.

“We want to encourage that,” Rubin said. “We are committed to improving accessibility and we think that’s a great application.”

The early release also helps edX keep pace with competitors such as Coursera, which just announced a partnership with 10 university systems to offer free courses on its platform.

GAO Releases Its Report on HEOA

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) has made it easier for students to find textbook pricing information, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). However, the report also found that costs continue to rise at an average of 6% per year.

The study was required by the HEOA to show what steps textbook publishers, campus bookstores, and faculty members were making to enhance students’ choice and knowledge about the books they were buying. It found that used, digital, and rental textbook provide lower-cost options, but also that the price of new printed textbooks often drives the cost of other items.

The GAO reported that all publishers in the study use their web sites to provide their pricing of textbooks for bookstores and direct to consumers, and faculty members are more conscious about pricing when assigning the material. The report also stated publishers are making their bundled materials available for individual sale, but components are not always the lowest-priced option and students may have limited choices when it comes to buying unbundled materials.

The agency found 81% of colleges and universities disclose lists of assigned textbooks for each course, including ISBNs and retail price, and nearly 93% of the schools made that information available in public areas that did not require a password.

“While we are pleased that publishers and schools are complying with federal transparency requirements, more needs to be done to provide more affordable textbook options,” wrote Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) in a joint statement. “As the GAO report suggests, transparency alone isn’t enough.”

Tablet Market Getting Crowded

The tablet market just got a bit more crowded with the introduction of a new series of tablets from Asus. The series should help the Taiwanese computer-manufacturer become a big-time player in the entry-level tablet space.

The MeMo Pad HD7 could make the biggest splash with its 7-in. LCD display with 1280 by 800 pixels, optional 5-megapixel main, and starting price of $129 for an 8GB version. The device comes in multiple colors and is available in a 16GB version for $20 more.

“The Nexus 7, sold by Google, was one of the best Android tablet deals for 2012,” wrote Eric Zeman in Information Week. “With such a low price point, the HD7 will surely be a hit with budget-minded shoppers.”

At the same time, rumors of a new iPad are beginning to ramp up. Reports suggest Apple will begin production of a larger iPad in July or August that will look like the less-expensive iPad mini. However, reports have the next generation of the mini coming out in November because its negative impact on the sales of larger iPads.

Hidden Cost of Online Education

Advocates believe online education opens the door for students who may not have the time or financial wherewithal needed to succeed in a traditional university or college classroom. While the potential remains, a small pilot offered by San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, showed there are also hidden costs.

The program, started last January, offered three remedial and entry-level math courses through online startup Udacity, available for $150 per student. The classes were open to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection, but each class was capped at 100 students.

The prep school Oakland Military Institute (OMI) had nearly 45 students participating in the program, but school officials had to devote computer lab space, time, and equipment to students who didn’t have the necessary Internet access at home. Laptops were provided, along with two staff members to answer questions and keep students on task.

“Without having a class period to do it, I wouldn’t have done as well,” said OMI student Ciara Lowry.