State of Online Learning

Pearson's 13th annual report on the #StateOfOnline Learning is out. Good news for advocates of innovation and leveraging technology. Lovely use of infographics to tell the story. A worthy read. Some food for thought from the report:

• 28.4% of higher education students are enrolled in at least one online course
• Last year, the US saw 147,000 new online enrollments
• Nearly 2/3 of academic leaders call online education “critical to the long-term strategy of my institution”
• Larger growth is being seen in hybrid courses, with 35.6% of academic leaders now calling blended/hybrid outcomes “superior” & somewhat superior to classroom instruction alone.

Read more here: Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States

Meanwhile from the trenches of University of Washington:

• The Seattle faculty just voted that 99% online is not an online course. IF you meet with your students one time, THEN they can scurry around the military and international student blocks on online courses. It also gets around the bizarre UW "residency" rule for Senior year study demanding butt in seat with no more than 15/60 finishing credits done online. (Outcomes are NOT enough. You must listen in your Senior credits).
• Tacoma faculty are poised to follow suit on the 99% policy. Soon, the count of online courses at UW will most likely drop to zero, unless enrolled in an online degree.

It gets worse:

• Currently, pre-passage, only ~2% of UW Tacoma's courses are online. 
• In any quarter, less than 10% of our students are taking an online course. They WANT online courses, NEED online courses, FILL all the enrollment seats within hours of registration, 

Your friendly bloggers at TLT Corner would love to hear from you if you faced fear of change and contribute to the digital possibilities that allow 28.4% of higher education enrollments in online courses. 

Horizon Report 2016

Some of us wait eagerly for the annual Horizon Report to be released. It's like higher education's geeky birthday, anniversary, and Valentine present rolled into one. What did venerated colleagues from all over the world decide (over many months of nominating, caucusing, voting) were the trending academic technologies for the next 1, 3, 5 years? 

I don't always agree, finding consensus often leans to pie in the sky, Ivy league, virtual yada yada enthusiasms instead of the tools and practices that engage the post-traditional students now found in most classrooms: classrooms on the ground, online and hybrid. 

Well, the New Media Consortium must have been channeling and adapting to my yearly (grateful, but...) whinings, as their chosen trends are still important/visionary/informative/fascinating, but they've added sections on Key Trends and Challenges that address the realities facing higher education daily. A thoughtful look on how tools, trends and challenges create a stew of possibility for the role of technology in our practice. 

One loud hurrah from UW Tacoma. Here's a link to the report. Our collective tech present and future: read all about it.  

Horizon Report 2016