Investing in Quality Competency-Based Education Educause Review Online
Today's learners need ways to build skills and work toward credentials at any time, at any age, and apply them to an ever-changing landscape of personal goals. Competency-based education (CBE) programs enable students to earn credentials by demonstrating their "competencies".
CBE programs require substantial investments and often new and/or redefined business models. With hundreds of programs in development, now is a critical time to consider what constitutes quality in CBE and why quality is worth the investment.
Key indicators of quality for all stakeholders in CBE ecosystems are curricular architecture, valid and reliable assessments, and comprehensive student success resources.
What if a College Ditched Lecture Halls, Sports and Clubs? The Hechinger Report
An experiment in higher education uses computers to give every student a virtual front-row seat in the classroom. Classes at Minerva Schools, a four-year undergraduate program, are conducted entirely through a software program created specifically for the school.
During class, there is real-time interaction through the computer between professor and students. They can see each other through the screen. Each class has fewer than 20 students. Professors do not lecture.
Ben Nelson, the founder of the school, says he intends to compete with the nation’s most elite institutions — at a fraction of the cost to students. Tuition, housing and books are about $28,000 a year. The Hechinger Report caught up with Nelson. Here are excerpts from the conversation.
Here’s the New Way Colleges Are Predicting Student Grades Time
Data algorithms cover millions of grades from thousands of students. The Southern Methodist University, is one of a growing number of universities consulting the performance data of former students to predict the outcomes of current ones.
Many of the universities and colleges are applying the same kind of process tech behemoths like Amazon and Google employ to predict the buying behavior of consumers. And many of them have seen impressive declines in the number of students who drop out, and increases in the proportion who graduate.
The payoff for schools goes beyond graduation rates: tracking data in this way keeps tuition coming in from students who stay, and avoids the cost of recruiting new ones.
The Future for Higher Learning Could Be Powered by Big Data EdTech
The University of South Carolina, IBM and Fluor Corp are forming the Center for Applied Innovation, which will provide tailored IT curricula and advanced analytic techniques for personalized learning.
The center will harness Big Data and analytics technology from IBM Research’s work to create customized curriculum for students. The technology groups students based on their patterns of learning and can “predict performance and learning needs, and align specific content and successful teaching techniques,” according to IBM.
By using advanced technologies and data analytics the collaboration will help students, educators and others in higher education make intelligent decisions that improve the student experience and enhance student achievement.
Keywords: Big Data, Higher Education, personalized education, IBM
China Launches University 'Time Out' Scheme so Students Can Start Their Own Businesses South China Morning Post
China’s Ministry of education sent out a circular asking universities for greater flexibility, including allowing students to defer studies if they wanted to try out a business idea.
Entrepreneurial students at mainland universities can now defer their studies to start their own businesses in a move by authorities to deal with an increasing number of graduates.
Universities will also be required to offer courses with academic credits in entrepreneurship, and invite business owners, investors and academics to mentor promising students.
Two Words That Kill Innovation Harvard Business Review
Over the past 50 years, management practices have become ever more scientific and quantitative. Managing by the numbers, using business analytics and leveraging Big Data are all considered to be unalloyed goods.
Without question, data and analytics have their roles and their benefits. But they have a really important dark side too, and when managers don’t see that dark side, they accidentally kill innovation.
There are managers who believe that their job in life is to make sure that a decision should be made only when there is analytical proof that it is the right decision. But when an innovator comes to them with an idea, they say, “Prove it.” These are the two managerial words that are most deadly to innovation.
You’re in Charge of Revamping a University’s Research… University World News
Live simulations borrowed from the worlds of management are being used to train multinational, multidisciplinary groups of higher education and research leaders, who are facing major changes in the way research is organized in their institutions.
Such simulations have only recently been used in the context of higher education, said Jon File, development director at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente in the Netherlands.
He has developed a university management simulation for the Research, Higher Education, Development and Innovation – RHEDI – programme. “You can have a simulation that puts the two universities in competition with each other. Or you can have a simulation of what is going on in one university adapting to change," said File.
Is Technology Actually Making Higher Education Less efficient? Professors grow weary of idea that technology can salvage higher education The Hechinger Report
It’s been a high-stakes bet. Universities and colleges are marketing themselves to tech-savvy teenagers while promising higher productivity and financial savings.
They will pour $10.4 billion into education technology this year, according to the Center for Digital Education from computers to in-class gadgets such as digital projectors and wireless “clickers” that let students answer questions electronically.
But professors say they don’t have enough help to use this technology effectively and haven’t seen results from it. “We are fooling ourselves that we’re getting more efficient,” said Karen Arnold, teacher at Boston College.
US institutions annually confer about 1.8 million bachelor’s degrees, 750,000 master’s degrees, and 170,000 PhD’s degrees.
About 21 million students enrolled in US higher education. Of those, 15 million go to a public institution and 6 million are at private schools.
Over 5 million students are involved in distance (online) learning. This is over a quarter of all students. And over 2.5 million, or 13 percent, of students are exclusively learning at a distance.
The Invasion Of Wearables In The Workforce TechCrunch
From watches to glasses, headgear to belts, to all assortments of chips and sensors, this market doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, wearables are estimated to be more than a $70 billion market by 2024, according to IDTechEx.
Wearables present the opportunity to gather tremendous amounts of information surrounding an employee’s daily routine, making its benefits for today’s workforce largely centered on data and predictive analytics.
The information organizations will be able to gather with wearables can improve productivity, increase employee engagement and even potentially lower the number of sick days employees take.
Tecnológico de Monterrey's Observatory of Educational Innovation: We identify and analyze the educational innovation trends that are shaping the future of learning and education.
Tecnológico de Monterrey | Av Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, Monterrey, NL, México
