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.”