More Educational Apps Needed

A study of smartphone application usage found users spend 50% of the time on their devices accessing digital media, while the 18-to-24-year-olds are the heaviest users. Smartphone owners also spend about three times longer using apps vs. browsing websites, according to the study by comScore.

While many colleges and universities are launching smartphone apps, are they missing the potential of apps in the educational process?

“Apps are purpose-built, so it’s not a stretch to imagine one app for Economics 101 and another for Psychology 110,” Ryan Craig, founder of University Ventures, wrote in a VentureBeat post.  “Apps are ideal for simulation and gamified learning experiences. They’re also perfect for incorporating real-world inputs (such as location of the student) into learning.”

Most schools aren’t using apps for mobile learning, focusing instead on course selection and campus maps. Even the Blackboard Mobile Learn product doesn’t access course materials, according to Craig.

“So, although most online degree programs are now delivered via learning management systems that claim to be ‘mobile platforms,’ believing that the solutions to the mobile problem is simply allowing mobile access to a course with traditional online architecture is tantamount to believing your institution’s online strategy is effectively addressed by putting lectures on YouTube or iTunes,” he wrote.

Game Makes Creative Writing Fun

A new video game that teaches the fundamentals of composition and creative writing is attracting attention and awards. Students playing Elegy for a Dead World explore and write about past civilizations that are based on the works of British Romantic poets.

The mission of the game is for students to compose firsthand accounts of new worlds they explore. The game prompts the players to complete sentences on what they’ve seen and then fashion those into short stories.

Challenges become more advanced as students move through the game, sending them on different paths that force them to come up with different conclusions and still finish with logical endings. The game is meant to be fun and thought-provoking, but also provides fill-in-the-blank questions that help students learn proper grammar usage.

“What we’re trying to do is motivate people so they get into a mindset where they have something they want to put out and write,” Ziba Scott, game co-creator, told Eurogamer.net. “We found just dropping them in a blank slate is too much. It’s intimidating. The roles are about giving them something to play as to set the stage for their writing.”

Amazon Launches E-Textbook Creator

Amazon is targeting educators and textbook authors with its new Kindle Textbook Creator. Authors use the tool to create PDFs of educational content that works on multiple devices.

Once the content is finished, it’s uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing for use by students. The tool allows students to highlight in multiple colors, store notes in a single location, create flashcards, and find definitions and information for difficult terms, while providing authors with 70% royalties.

Blogger Nate Hoffelder sees even more benefits for Amazon.

“There may not be much money in digital textbooks, but there is value in getting teachers and students to use the Kindle apps,” he wrote in The Digital Reader. “This keeps them in reach of the Kindle Store where Amazon can sell them other e-books.”

Website Matches Students, Online Instructor

An online education company has developed a system that uses algorithms to help students determine the best instructor for them. MindLaunch redesigned its website to be an educational support platform for students of any age and in any subject.

The platform allows students to select the type of instruction they prefer and then schedule learning sessions with teachers. Only vetted, U.S.-licensed instructors are used for the online classes, which are equipped with two-way video and audio, interactive whiteboards, and real-time lessons.

Students use an online questionnaire about their learning style, preferences, and desired subjects. The algorithm developed by MindLaunch then matches them with teachers certified in the subject.

Once the student has registered and paid for the instruction, classes are automatically scheduled with a confirmation showing subject, teacher, dates, and login information. Classes for all grade levels are available, along with college entrance prep and corporate skills.

Students Need More from Instruction Software

Adaptive learning products are one of the hotter trends to hit the academic world lately, largely because of their potential to customize instruction to each student’s capabilities and comprehension. That’s easier said than done, according to a new Dutch study published in the Review of Educational Research and reported by the blog Education by the Numbers.

The adaptive function typically kicks in when a student gives a wrong answer in the assessment portion and tries to help the student understand the correct answer, sometimes simply by flagging an erroneous response and inviting the student to pick another. The idea, apparently, is that the student will immediately understand how they goofed.

“But just the opposite is true,” noted the blog’s post. “Simply marking wrong answers was the worst form of feedback.” Some students using this type of software even got lower scores than students without any sort of feedback at all.

Providing the right answer helped students more, the Dutch researchers found, but an even more effective method was offering an explanation or at least some kind of clue that might steer a student toward the correct answer. However, the study determined it was difficult to customize explanations or hints because students may be misunderstanding the material for different reasons.

The study also discovered that adaptive learning software sometimes jumped in with the correct answer or explanation a little too quickly, before the student had time to digest the lesson. When the topic was “something more complicated, students learned more when the feedback was delayed a bit, perhaps until after the student had answered all the questions,” the blog noted.

Community Colleges Bolster Online Enrollment

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported in December that nationwide enrollment at community colleges dropped 6% in 2014. However, online enrollment is on the rise, up more than 15% at some two-year colleges.

To accommodate online students, community colleges are trying to provide additional support for students and more professional training for instructors. The schools are also trying to create new online programs that meet the needs of local businesses.

Offering flexible scheduling, such as semesters divided into two eight-week blocks instead of the standard 16-week track, is one way community colleges are trying to make online programs more accessible. Some even offer tutoring, counseling, and additional resources to help students. Seminole State College, Seminole, OK, provides students with a team of advisors who can be reached by Skype, phone, or email, while online students at Odessa College, Odessa, TX, are assigned a success coach.

“The traditional approach is that teaching online courses is easy. Once you set it up, you can mail it in,” Don Wood, vice president of institutional effectiveness, Odessa College, said in a report in U.S. News & World Report. “It is actually much more challenging for faculty to teach online than face-to-face.”

Not Everyone Is High on OER

In North Dakota, the governor set aside $220,000 in the state budget to fund open education resources (OER), including the North Dakota University System sharing resources provided by the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library.

David Ernst, executive director of the open textbook initiative at the University of Minnesota, even gives seminars around North Dakota to educate faculty on using the library.

“Our focus has been on open textbooks,” said Ernst. “And it’s really meant to be an open resource for faculty to find textbooks to consider that are openly licensed and freely available for their students.”

Not everyone is impressed.

“What the stupidity of this is is pointed up by the fact that the state officials in North Dakota—and other states as well—see nothing wrong with the oil industry, the health-care industry, or any other industry making profits from the fruits of their labors, but when it comes to education, well … people should be willing to work for free or produce scholarly work for free,” Dana Eugene Creasy, assistant professor of communications, University of Jamestown, Jamestown, ND, wrote in the comments section of the Prairie Public Radio article. “I am in debt over $150,000 for a college-teaching career in North Dakota that pays less than a third of that on an annual basis—one reason why I’m leaving the state in May.”

Learning App Allows 'Real-Time' Access

Technology continues to up the ante when it comes to mobile learning.

The online learning company WizIQ developed a mobile app allowing teachers to schedule live classes that students can join from anywhere. In addition, students can use the app to access recorded classroom sessions, course videos, class documents, and presentations via their smartphones or tablet computers.

The platform makes it possible for teachers and students to communicate in real-time, allowing them to stay current on classes, tests, and assignment deadlines. The app is an enhancement to the cloud-based management system WizIQ launched in the fall and requires no dedicated IT support.

“After all, people are now accessing more content on mobile devices than anywhere else,” WizIQ CEO Harman Singh told CampusTechnology. “Why should education be any different?”

The app is available through the App Store for iPhones and will soon be launched in the Google Play store for Android devices.

Conference Ponders Cost of Textbooks

As college and university students head back to campus for another term, they may feel no one cares how much they pay for course materials—if the online complaints are any indication.

However, the stakeholders involved in the development, selection, and distribution of course materials are taking students’ concerns seriously. They will explore challenges and solutions at the inaugural Textbook Affordability Conference on Feb. 11-13 in San Diego, CA.

NACS is joining with the Independent College Bookstore Association (ICBA), Verba Inc., and the California State University System’s Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS) program to co-host the event, which is open to anyone interested in textbook affordability.

The conference will approach the question of affordability from various aspects—teaching and learning, content and platform development, libraries, campus administration, sales and distribution, governmental policies, and open resources—with a particular focus on the role of campus bookstores, where the majority of students still acquire the bulk of their course materials. Stores already work with instructors, publishers, and distributors to obtain materials for students and generally serve as students’ go-to helpdesk when they have questions.

TAC attendees are also invited to take part in the ALS conference on Feb. 13.

Text Comparison Plug-In Causes a Stir

A textbook price-comparison tool has been making a lot of news, particularly after reports surfaced the tech start-up that developed the Chrome plug-in was threatened with a lawsuit by a campus retailing company. Texts.com only had about 200 downloads for its add-on software before news of the lawsuit went viral, which swelled to 15,000 downloads within days of the report.

The Chrome plug-in is an opt-in feature students can install that will show prices from third-party vendors such as Amazon, Valore, and Chegg. It interacts with the end-user’s browser and works with bookstore websites maintained by Barnes & Noble College, Follett Higher Education Group, and Nebraska Book Co., according to The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ also confirmed that Follett sent an email to Texts.com expressing concern that the extension was changing “the presentation of information on the screen.” The start-up rebuilt the extension and rebranded it as #OccupyTheBookstore.

U.S News Ranks Top Online Programs

U.S. News & World Report has been ranking the best colleges in the United States for years. The publication now ranks online programs and released its most current list.

The Best Online Program Rankings lists more than 1,000 programs in eight categories. The survey now includes the Best Online Graduate Criminal Justice Program, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts an 11% increase in law-enforcement careers by 2016, and the Best Online MBA Program, because of the increased popularity of that degree.

The University of California-Irvine beat out Arizona State, Boston University, and Pace University for the top spot in the criminal justice program, while the program offered by the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, finished first in the MBA category.

The Penn State University-World Campus was ranked first among online baccalaureate programs and the University of Houston was named No. 1 in the graduate education program category. The University of Southern California had the top-ranked online graduate information technology program and Medical University of South Carolina was on top in the graduate nursing program ranking.

EdX, Microsoft Partner on Office Mix

Office Mix is an application to the Microsoft Office platform that makes it easier for users to create PowerPoint presentations. EdX, the massive open online course (MOOC) provider, collaborated with Microsoft on the project, which it’s betting will make online learning more interactive for student and easier to use for instructors.

The initiative allows developers to create new learning courseware for the online learning platform. Office Mix includes a software development kit using the XBlock platform that allows instructors to include editable audio and video, hyperlinks, white board-style writing, animation, and clip art into lectures.

Through the app, course creators can embed programs into their presentations, such as quizzes and polls, and applications in support of concepts being taught. An analytics feature provides instructors with insight on how the course keeps students’ attention, allowing for quick changes when necessary.

The focus is on keeping things simple for teachers, letting them create lessons one slide at a time while giving them the ability to update as needed. In addition, the courses can be shared on the Office Mix website and published on edX.

“The motivation and action for the Office Mix project was that we believe online and blended learning will be big, and we want to create tools that will be used to enable new scenarios for students,” said Anoop Gupta, a Microsoft scientist who worked on the project.

ACE Pilot to Help Nontraditional Students

The America Council on Education (ACE) launched a pilot providing nontraditional learners a more flexible pathway to a degree. To be part of the pilot, 25 colleges and universities institutions agreed to accept all or most transfer credit from a pool of about 100 low- or no-cost lower-division general education online courses.

The program, made possible by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is focused on the more than 31 million adults who finished some college-level coursework but not enough to earn a degree or credential. Each institution will provide ACE with data regarding the credits accepted, along with progress and success rates of the students in the project.

ACE is also working on ways to develop new guidelines for issuing college credit for digital micro-credentials, competency-based programs, and nondegree certificate programs.

“This project will yield multiple and long-lasting benefits to the participating institutions, the wider higher education community, and, potentially, millions of nontraditional learners,” said Deborah Seymour, ACE assistant vice president for education attainment and innovation. “It will help lead to great acceptance of alternative forms of credit in a way that ensures quality and encourages more people to complete their postsecondary education.”

Teaching Teachers Could Be Key to MOOCs

Massive hype surrounded massive open online courses (MOOCs). They were going to revolutionize higher education, offering college-level courses to anyone with a computer and Internet access as a no-cost alternative to heading to campus.

Of course, MOOCs are not all that, but they can be a valuable tool, according to Justin Pope, chief of staff at Longwood University, Farmville, VA.  Pope argued in a guest column for MIT Technology Review that colleges and universities just have to figure out the proper way to use MOOCs, pointing to the all-MOOC master’s program in computer science at Georgia Tech as a first step.

“It’s not clear how well such programs can be replicated in other fields, or whether the job market will reward graduates with this particular Georgia Tech degree,” he wrote. “But the program offers evidence that MOOCs can expand access and reduce costs in some corners of higher education.”

One area of promise is new ways of thinking when it comes to teaching. Pope reported that current or former teachers made up 28% of the students taking 11 MOOCs offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last spring.

“This is particularly promising because teachers pass what they learn on to their own students. When they make use of edX and other resources in their classrooms, they multiply the effect,” he said. “As Coursera moves explicitly into teacher training, its classes could have as much impact by reaching a few hundred teachers as they would with thousands of other students.”

Digital Dominates Campus of 2023

Eight years from now, today’s fourth-graders will be finishing up high school in preparation for their higher education experience. The campus classroom will be much different by then, in the view of several experts interviewed by eCampus News.

For starters, they think more students will arrive on campus with a number of college credits already under their belts, thanks to more Advanced Placement courses and partnerships with colleges near their high schools. That’s assuming students even need to show up on the physical campus.

“The average student, an admittedly fluid term that will be even harder to define a decade from now, will likely take some courses on a traditional campus, but also an equal mix of online courses, flipped or blended courses, and massive open online courses (MOOCs),” wrote Jake New.

Some—possibly many—traditional universities may go out of business. The Clayton Christensen Institute, founded by a notable Harvard business professor, puts the bankruptcy rate at 25% to 50% of universities by 2030. Those that survive will have to reimagine graduation requirements, breaking the normal 15-week courses into shorter, more focused learning segments that award certificates for successful completion to students who may never need degrees as long as they continue to update their knowledge and skills.

“Big data” systems and digital apps will also help colleges and universities track student progress, help those who are struggling with certain concepts, and steer others to the right courses.

Ed Tech Will Continue to Grow in 2015

Educational technology has become very big business, according to a market study from Futuresource Consulting. The firm reported that classroom tech spending reached $13 billion in the United States last year, up 11% since 2012, and predicted it will continue growing over the next three years.

“Despite a lull in some technology markets, education technology continues to perform, even with pressure being applied to education budgets across the world,” said Colin Messenger, senior market analyst for Futuresource. “Our annual strategic report also shows that there’s growth aplenty to come, with the total value expected to reach $19 billion by 2018.”

All that spending is an opportunity for ed-tech developers. Optimized distribution tools and video streaming for flipped classrooms, device-agnostic services, more mobile learning applications, and better personalized blended-learning experiences are just a few, according to Harman Singh, CEO of the education platform WizIQ, in a column for InformationWeek.

“Different approaches to learning, such as project-based learning, maker education, game-based learning, and more will continue to be explored as part of personalized blended-learning models,” Singh wrote. “Accordingly, such innovations will push ed-tech vendors to deliver more than technology or content, but will require them to demonstrate how their product or service improves learning outcomes.”

Apple tops Christmas Tech Gift List

College students told a Chegg survey they wanted electronic devices for Christmas and most said they preferred an Apple product. The mobile analytics firm Flurry found they most likely got what they wished for.

Flurry looked at activation statistics from Dec. 19-25 and found more people fired up an iPhone, iPad, or a new iPod than all other devices combined. Apple accounted for 51% of the new activations, with Samsung coming in a distant second with about 18% during the six-day stretch.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus probably helped spur the Apple dominance, according to Flurry, which reported a more than 300% increase in new activations of large-screen smartphones during Christmas week over the same period in 2013. The iPhone 6 topped the list of new devices activated and the iPhone 6 Plus was in the top five.

Flurry also found there were 2.5 times as many apps downloaded on Christmas day than in any December day leading up to the holiday. Apple iTunes and App Stores, along with the Google Play Store, were slow to respond during the Christmas-day rush because of the heavy volume.

“If Christmas is a bellwether for the year ahead, we should expect strong performance from iOS devices and a continued shift to the once-derided phablet form factor,” wrote Jarah Euston, vice president, analytics and marketing, at Flurry. “This was the year that time spent on mobile finally eclipsed TV and the data shows that we are spending this time in more apps than ever.”

App Provides OER Attribution Solution

One goal of open educational resources (OER) is to make it easier for teachers to find high-quality content at lower costs than textbooks and other classroom materials. Making sure that content is properly attributed has become a roadblock for many instructors in the state of Washington.

The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) developed a solution, providing users with a way to cite sources correctly through its OPEN Attribution Builder application. The app, part of the OPEN Washington site launched by the SBCTC in July, was designed to simplify the attribution process and advocates hope that will lead to an increase in OER adoption, according to a report.

Much of the OER content available is released through Creative Commons, which requires users to properly attribute the author and licensor. The app provides users with a form that automatically finds the correct attribution, along with a default attribution statement.

“We’ve found that confusion over attribution and licensing is a pain point for many in our system who otherwise want to take advantage of OER,” said Mark Jenkins, SBCTC director for e-learning and open education. “OPEN Attribution Builder solves problems for them by eliminating a barrier to using OER easily and correctly.”

Khan Teams with Xbox on Learning Apps

The popular Xbox gaming platform is expanding into education. The Khan Academy is making it possible, launching a free app that makes more than 5,000 of its learning videos available through the Xbox One Live app.

“We’ve heard from many students who want to watch Khan Academy videos in a lean-back experience on their big screen and are excited by the ease of use in Xbox One apps,” a Khan Academy spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Khan Academy already makes its videos available through Microsoft desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices. The Khan app also helps Microsoft in its multibillion-dollar battle with Sony’s PlayStation 4, which has no learning apps.

The app is available to Xbox One users in Australia, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Microsoft also reported that there are 48 million Xbox Live account holders.

Happy New Year

From all of NACS Inc. staff in Oberlin, Westlake, and Cincinnati, OH, as well as our staff in California and Washington, D.C., have a safe and successful new year.

Students Wanted Apple Gifts for Christmas

Most college students wanted cash or clothing for Christmas, but electronics were not far behind. Chegg, the online textbook rental company, polled more than 800 college students in the middle of December and found that 52% were asking for electronics, including 67% of the male respondents.

Apple topped the list of desired gadgets in most categories. More than half (51%) of the students said they wanted a new iPhone and nearly 40% wanted a Mac laptop. Beats, which was recently acquired by Apple, was the headphone of choice for 46% of the students.

Girls were more enamored with Apple than male respondents. Nearly 60% said they wanted to find an iPhone under the tree and 55% wanted Beats headphones compared to 44% of the males who wanted an iPhone and 33% for Beats. Nearly 30% of all respondents listed a Samsung smartphone and 30% of the male students preferred Bose headphones.

When it comes to tablet computers, 47% of the female students and 41% of the male wanted an iPad while Microsoft products came in second (22% of the females and 24% of the males).

Teens Drift from Facebook to Other Sites

Is Facebook still cool with teenagers? The answer is yes and no.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, a new report by Frank N. Magid Associates Inc. shows that 88% of 13- to 17-year-olds who are on social media have Facebook accounts. That’s a pretty healthy percentage.

However, the percentage was 94% in 2013 and 95% in 2012, indicating more teens in middle and high school are moving away from Facebook—partly out of concern for security reason, the Magid report said. If the slide continues, it’s unclear what impact that might have on Facebook.

The teens aren’t really flocking to any one social media platform in lieu of Facebook, though. Of course, Instagram (owned by Facebook) remains hugely popular and Snapchat’s on the rise, too. Twitter, which most teens ignored a few years ago, is now catching on a little with this age group; almost half now tweet.

Interest in Pinterest is growing rapidly, especially among teen girls. The Magid report noted teens indicated they felt safer using Pinterest than Facebook. “Pinterest also ranked higher in ‘fun,’ with 40% saying so compared with 18% for Facebook,” Bloomberg Businessweek said.

Study Finds Texting Helps Students Succeed

Researchers at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX, found that text messages can help student learning. The study focused on communication formats used by students as a way to get them to learn outside the classroom setting, according to a report in eClassroom News.

“A text from a friend saying ‘LOL’ isn’t on the same level as an email from a professor trying to impart some knowledge necessary for the future,” said Scott Hamm, director of online education at Hardin-Simmons. “It doesn’t matter how important the email is, they won’t pay as much attention to it as a text message.”

Initially, the researchers used texting to assign classwork and to engage with students in real time. Now, they use it to give quizzes, while students complete assignments and have questions answered by the instructor.

“It’s really a personal connection where if I need to get a hold of such-and-such student, this is how I can do it,” said Chuck Ruot, professor of fitness and sports sciences. “It sounds weird, but it builds a rapport with the students.”

Happy holidays

From all of NACS Inc. staff in Oberlin, Westlake, and Cincinnati, OH, as well as our staff in California and Washington, D.C., have a safe and healthy holiday season.  

There will be no post on The CITE on Dec. 26, but will resume on Dec. 29.

Get Ready for More Wearables

Wearable technology has not been a huge hit with consumers, but that may be about to change. The tide could turn when the Apple Watch hits the market, with Forrester Research predicting there will be 10 million users when the device is finally available, according to a report in InformationWeek.

The Forrester survey of 4,500 online adults from the Unites States showed interest in wrist-based wearables increased from 28% in 2013 to 42% in 2014. While not a guaranteed success, Apple has the high-end customer base to make it work.

Smartwatches were rated higher in the survey than all other wearable devices, but wearables in clothing ranked second to wrist-based devices and 19% of the respondents said they were interested in gadgets embedded in clothing.

Ralph Lauren already put built-in sensors in its Polo Tech shirts that tracked the heart rate and movement of the ball boys at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last summer. Tech enthusiasts were also buying smart shoes and jackets that provide walking directions for the user in 2014. The trend will speed up in 2015 with monitors for pets, inside the bedroom, and even a pill-shaped camera that will show a person’s gastrointestinal tract.

One-Size-Fits-All Email Gets Overlooked

Many higher education institutions still use campus email to communicate important information to students or promote upcoming events. All too often, students simply ignore those messages.

One reason may be that many people manage email through their phone and they simply don’t bother with messages that are too hard to read on the small screen, according to a report in Mobile Commerce Daily. The report said a survey by The Relevancy Group determined that 73% of consumers access email via mobile phone, with 31% employing the phone as their main means of checking email. The percentage goes even higher with younger consumers.

The problem doesn’t lie with short, text-only messages. The culprits are lengthy messages and especially email with graphics that aren’t formatted in a responsive design, which would serve up a readable version based on the user’s device. So recipients tend to just hit delete.

“Thirty-two percent of respondents complained that messaging for mobile was too small to read and interact with, so utilizing device-specific tecniques such as responsive design and device detection should be at the forefront of how marketers approach mobile email,” said Justin Foster, co-founder and vice president of market development at LiveClicker, sponsor of the survey.

Online Tech to Jolt Higher Ed in 2015

Virtual reality, holograms, and online learning are the three emerging technologies that may shake up higher education the most in 2015, according to the Education Dive blog.

Online learning might seem like an odd choice for this short list—after all, isn’t online learning “old” technology by now? Not in the view of writer Roger Riddell, who sees the current online academic offerings as just a start.

Riddell points to signs that postsecondary education is developing online platforms in order to be able to provide instruction more targeted to specific work skills and in shorter time frames. “It’s only a matter of time before students have the ability to learn anything they desire from anyone at any institution,” he said.

Holograms are among the tech tools that will enhance online learning, by projecting class lectures, demonstrations, performances, and even re-creations of historic events to remote locations such as students’ homes.

Virtual reality is another tool supporting online education. Already popular with students interested in gaming, virtual reality is being adapted for class instruction. Students already use it to practice dissections in medical biology classes, for instance. However, a number of colleges and universities are exploring virtual reality for recruitment purposes, to immerse prospective students in a tour of the campus without actually having to visit.

P-Commerce Lets Local Stores Back in Game

Smartphones may prove to be an Achilles’ heel for Amazon, in the view of a columnist for The New York Times. At the same time, smartphones might be a lifeline for local retailers, including those on or near college campuses.

“Like many of the local and big-box retailers it has displaced over the last decade and a half, Amazon could itself become increasingly vulnerable to the threat of technological upheaval,” wrote Farhad Manjoo.

The “upheaval” is the rapidly rising trend of shopping by phone. Obviously, consumers have been able to shop online from their computers for a couple decades now, but the ubiquity of smartphones means a lot of people have fast, private access to e-commerce all the time, no matter where they are.

The thing is, Manjoo noted, all those phone shoppers aren’t necessarily going to Amazon. Physical retail chains, as well as local mom-and-pop stores, have ramped up their website features, added more merchandise, and trimmed their prices.

They’ve also plugged into ordering and courier services such as Postmates and Instacart. Consumers can just as easily browse and purchase from local merchants, often with same-day delivery or pickup, as they can with Amazon.

“None of these technologies pose an existential threat to Amazon, but by giving physical stores some of the conveniences that Amazon has long had, they may limit its potential reach,” Manjoo said.

Tech Tools Pull Students into Learning

Newer technologies that can be adapted for educational purposes will enable higher education institutions to engage students more deeply in 2015 and help them get more out of their studies, in the view of Kyle Bowen, director of education technology services for Penn State University.

In an interview with Campus Technology, Bowen pointed to video production and networked 3-D printing as examples of the type of technologies schools should be exploring. “Some of the newer technologies, or even technologies that have been around for a while, are beginning to mainstream in ways that are helping us extend learning beyond the class,” he said. “We are starting to see a generation of tools, practices, and spaces to support this, and that’s where our opportunity is.”

Bowen said Penn State set up a One Button Studio, a self-service video production space where students can record anything they want onto a mobile drive—such as presentations, performances, creative film projects, or demonstrations—without worrying about technical aspects. Penn’s networked series of 3-D printers enables students to create and print projects much faster.

Among the advantages of using these technologies for academic work is that they allow faculty “to reclaim time in their classes—time they can recover from less efficient practices and reallocate it to teaching,” Bowen said.

Looking ahead to the new year, Bowen anticipated a rise in the use of digital badges and portfolios to recognize mastery of academic content. That will coincide with institutions offering shorter, more condensed courses, a trend that’s likely to affect course materials as well.

Faculty Need Incentives for Technology

You might wonder why higher education institutions don’t integrate new media and interactive technologies into instruction more extensively. It turns out, according to a new report by not-for-profit consultant Ithaka S+R, that college professors are like the rest of us: They’re busy with ongoing responsibilities (like teaching, research, and working on publications) and don’t have time to mess around with new tech without a darn good reason.

The report, Technology-Enhanced Education at Public Flagship Universities: Opportunities and Challenges, is based on interviews with 214 administrators and department chairs at 10 of the 17 large schools in the Public Flagships Network consortium.

“In an environment featuring more technology-enhanced education, faculty members are constantly trying to balance their responsibilities to undergraduate teaching with requirements from their institutions that they remain active in research,” said the report. “Time is the greatest barrier preventing faculty from experimenting more with technological enhancements to their teaching.”

However, the report also noted, dangling a carrot can work wonders in encouraging faculty to use technology tools in their instruction. For instance, at campuses where academic departments receive at least a portion of fees for online courses, instructors put more time and effort into developing such courses.

The report recommended that institutions “more clearly communicate to students and faculty the value of technology-enhanced education” and provide more tangible incentives to faculty to explore technology for classroom teaching. That includes collaborating with colleagues on their own campus as well as at other schools—something that faculty are typically reluctant to do, the report said.

Integrating Smartphones into the Classroom

Smartphones can be valuable tools in the classroom, if teachers find the right way to use them. Unfortunately, the devices can’t be controlled the way textbook content can be.

Solutions range from the total bans on cellphones in the classroom to allowing students to use their smartphones as they please. Some instructors use social media to engage their students, but blogger Dexter McMillan suggests the technology has turned teachers into advertisers competing for consumers’ attention.

“Teachers are selling a product, knowledge, to their students—much of which has no interest or practical use to the majority of students,” he wrote. “Teachers are advertisers selling the most undesirable product on Earth: History. Math. Grammar.”

Teachers used to be able to stand in front of a class and lecture, but technology has created a more collaborative style of instruction that isn’t solely measured by grades. McMillan wrote that teachers need to reclaim that content control with more and better tools.

“Without control of these devices, technology will not be able to move the classroom experience forward in a significant or profound way,” he said. “Grumpy cat, sports highlights, and pictures from the party on the weekend will continue to dominate classroom attention.”

Study Looks at MOOC Completion Rates

There’s been no shortage of reports on low completion rates for massive open online courses (MOOCs), but maybe the critics are looking at it the wrong way. Harvard researcher Justin Reich thinks so and conducted a study to understand why people take MOOCs in the first place.

Nearly 80,000 people taking one of nine MOOCs offered by Harvard responded to Reich’s survey about their goals. He sorted the respondents into categories—completers, auditors, browsers, and unsure—and found that 19.5% of the respondents who intended to complete the course did finish. Just 5.4% of the respondents who never intended to complete the MOOC in the first place actually made it to the end.

The study wasn’t conducted to convince the critics, but to find distinctions among people who take MOOCs.

“If researchers can discern how many students leave MOOCs because of life’s other commitments, it might help estimate a reasonable ceiling on retention rates in voluntary, free, and open online courses,” Reich wrote. “Further, uncovering how many students leave because they are dissatisfied with a course might better estimate the MOOC attrition levels that course developers could realistically address through better instructional design.”

List Ranks Affordable Online Degrees

It’s the end of the year and time for Top 10 lists. This one, from College Choice, ranks the most affordable online colleges for a bachelor’s degree.

Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, tops the list, which is based on the total cost to earn the online degree. The cost of tuition at BYU-Idaho is $125 for each credit earned, with Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS, second at $186.50 per tuition credit.

The schools were ranked by tuition per credit for the typical 120-credit requirement at most institutions. Information was gathered from school websites and other publicly available sources. The ranking also includes fees that were readily available on the websites.

“When considering where one can obtain an online bachelor’s degree that will work within a budget, this list will provide a definitive guide to figuring total costs,” Katie Amondson, editor of the ranking, told eCampus News.

No-Pay Way to an MBA

A master’s of business administration (MBA) can cost nearly $170,000 from a prestigious institution, such as the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Philadelphia schoolteacher has created a way around that.

No Pay MBA is a blog and website where users can find a collection of massive open online courses (MOOCs) focused on an MBA-track of study organized into three semesters. The courses are taught by some of the top business professors from around the world and are offered by the online-learning platforms edX, Coursera, Open2Study, and Udacity.

While the courses are free, there’s also no degree at the end of the road. Several of the MOOC platforms do offer certificates of completion for a small fee.

“There is a great potential for someone to create an alternative, especially for that segment of the market which is already working and doesn’t want to spend what business school costs, and doesn’t necessarily need the launchpad that business schools offer because they’re already midstream in their careers,” said Laurie Pickard, who created the website while working as a development and entrepreneurship specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Rwanda. 

Free 3-D Printing Curriculum Available

A U.S. manufacturer of 3-D printers has created a customizable 3-D printing curriculum for instructors teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. The 14-week course provides educators with supporting presentations, 3-D models, and grading tools that can be continuously refreshed.

Best of all, the courses from Stratasys Ltd. are free.

Materials for the semester-long college course are downloadable and designed to help instructors prepare their students for careers using 3-D printing technology. The first course, Introduction to 3-D Printing: From Design to Fabrication, familiarizes students with the history of 3-D printing and its applications, while providing hands-on experience in design. Two more courses are planned, covering material memory, multimaterial use, and 3-D printing for robotics.

“The introductory materials on 3-D printing that Stratasys offers, from the slide presentations to the videos, were impressive,” Chee Feng Ping, a lecturer at Temasek Polytechnics in Singapore, said in a report in eCampus News. “The students enjoy the hands-on activities, especially the design process with 3-D printing.”

CSUN E-Text Initiative Is Helping Students

California State University, Northridge, launched an e-text initiative last year, providing grants to faculty members to produce course materials for tablets and other mobile devices. Since its launch, 70 CSUN faculty members have provided content, as well as workshops and one-on-one support.

The content varies from textbooks (26%) to manuals (48%), companion pieces (22%), and supplemental reading (4%). Materials include interactive activities, images, and audio and video components.

The university estimates the project has saved students $50 per class since it was launched. CSUN statistics also showed that 14% of students will save more than $100 and 23% will save at least $50.

“The e-texts that professors are writing are an extension of what CSUN professors have always poured energy into,” said biology professor Paul Wilson in a report at AmericanTowns.com. “Twenty years ago, the books would have been photocopied. Now, they are released from the constraints of photocopying. They can be rich in multimedia and fun little activities.”

Students Value Online Learning Experience

A majority (68%) of college students think online classes are important to their educational experience and that social media will eventually be required in all classes. They’ve also taken at least one online course, with 42% saying they got better grades in the online class compared to in-person courses.

The study, conducted annually by Wakefield Research for VitalSource Technologies, found that 45% of the students said they didn’t go more than 10 minutes without accessing some form of technology during the school day. However, students may be learning how to regulate their usage as the average time they said they could possibly go without digital interaction increased from 59 minutes in the 2013 study to 64 minutes this year.

Most students (62%) said they have used interactive textbooks and 44% use mobile learning. The report also found that 77% said a professor had used or asked them to use at least one social media site for a class.

“The findings validate students’ dependence on technology to increase their productivity and job prospects in this competitive, globally connected world, while also providing insights into market trends that will affect the next generation of educational technology,” Cindy Clarke, vice president of marketing for VitalSource, said in a report in eCampus News.

States Working on OER Collaborative

Education agencies from 11 states have joined forces to create the K-12 OER Collaborative, a repository of open educational resources. The group is seeking “full-course OER” for English and language arts for all grade levels and mathematics for grades K-11 from developers, which are due by Jan. 9, 2015.

Content is expected to include comprehensive instructional material, activities that allow teachers to differentiate instruction, and assessment capabilities, according to reports. It must align with the Common Core standards and be available for free under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

“This is a great project for at least two reasons,” said Randy Dorn, superintendent of public instruction for the state of Washington. “First, it’s going to support local control by empowering districts to adapt the materials to their own community needs. Second, it’s a low-cost and high-quality way to help students meet our state’s learning standards.”

Representatives from Washington, Utah, and Idaho were on the first committee for the initiative. Education agencies from Arizona, California, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin are also involved with the project.

Applications for developers are available at http://goo.gl/forms/gohdUxE5Gw.

A Slower Year for Tablet Sales

This year is proving to be rather flat for tablet computers. A new International Data Corp. (IDC) report predicts growth in shipments of new tablets will fall to 7% in 2014, compared to 52.5% growth just a year ago.

The report said worldwide tablet shipments for 2014 will be 235.7 million units, with Android devices accounting for 67.7% of the total. The iPad comes in at 27.5% and 4.6% of the shipments will be Windows tablets.

“In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every two or three years,” said Ryan Rieth, program director of the mobile-device trackers at IDC. “What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than three years and, in some instances, more than four years.”

The pace at which consumers replace their tablets is just one part of the slowdown. The iPad, which has been the industry standard, has seen its sales slip 14% because of competition from dozens of inexpensive Android models. In addition, Apple has failed to make the kinds of upgrades to the device that get people back into a buying mode, according to a report from C/Net.

IDC also reported that PC shipments continue to fall, but at a far slower rate than expected. Total shipments in 2014 will likely be around 306 million units.

“In the best case for PCs, we’d see a significant wave of replacement as users who spent on phones and tablets in recent years decide they really need to update their PC,” said Loren Loverde, vice president of Worldwide PC Trackers. “As younger generations become more mobile and web-oriented, and emerging regions in particular prioritize converged devices (or economy in number of devices to purchase), the PC market will continue to face tough competition and be more focused on replacements, with limited potential for growth.”

Study Questions Effectiveness of Digital Learning

Many view digital learning as a way to make it easier for students to be more successful while cutting the costs of education at every level.  A new study from the National Education Policy Center, a research institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder, suggested that might not be the case.

The report found that despite all the hype and money spent on digital learning, it rarely improves student outcomes and costs more when it does. By comparing online-only learning with blended-learning methods where students used digital materials to prepare for class, researchers discovered the online-only course had no extra impact on learning. The flipped classroom, did improve learning, but cost more than traditional methods.

“On the whole, it is very difficult to have faith in the path we’re going down,” Noel Enyedy, a researcher from UCLA who helped conduct the study, said in an NPR report.

As one might expect, not everyone agrees with the findings.

“We have the best chance that we’ve ever had to dramatically improve achievement rates for students,” Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Getting Smart and author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World, told NPR. “That’s me looking through the front windshield. It’s entirely possible to look through the rear windshield as this group did and say, ‘That was dumb, and it didn’t work.’”

OER Guidelines under Development

Lumen Learning, which works to expand adoption of open educational resources (OER), is trying to bring a little clarity to the OER conversation. The company is planning to publish a set of guidelines and best practices available for free under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 that is scheduled for release in 2015.

5R Open Course Design Framework will offer training and certification for educators and institutions in building effective OER content. The publication will apply the five R’s—the ability to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute educational content—to designing courses and will provide third-party review of OER courses and programs.

“For any innovation, establishing common practices for consistency and quality is an essential step on the path to achieving widespread adoption,” Cable Green, director of global learning at Creative Commons, said in a report for eCampus News.

Team Seeks Next-Generation Textbook

First came the print textbook. Then digital course materials arrived. What’s next?

An interdisciplinary team at Arizona State University hopes to figure that out, with funding from the National Science Foundation’s Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program.

The team’s work is intended to lead to the development of the “postdigital textbook,” defined in an ASU press release as “a new type of educational technology that combines personalized learning with community-driven features that encourage collaboration and resource sharing, and emphasize learning as a social process.”

The first phase of the project will involve researching teaching and learning behaviors. Ultimately, working prototypes of postdigital textbooks will be tested in classrooms.

“This project is about determining how we need to design textbooks of the future so that they adjust to the strengths and limitations of individuals while also helping students build 21st-century skills like working collaboratively in groups and curating and presenting multimedia resources,” said team member Ed Finn, director of the Center for Science and the Imagination and an assistant professor at ASU.