Blackboard Trend Report: 6/29/2018

Meet Two Leaders Trying to Reinvent College
EdSurge
…What would you do if you could start a college from scratch? For most people, this is merely a thought exercise—how to keep the good from the best of traditional methods, and take into account all the tech and the changing workforce and student needs of today. But two recent guests on EdSurge Live, a monthly video-based discussion series, have surprisingly concrete answers to this question. In fact, they both took the unusual step of actually going out and starting completely new colleges, with new models of curriculum and services.

Bipartisan Career and Technical Education Bill Approved by Key Senate Committee
Education Week
The Senate education committee agreed unanimously via voice vote Tuesday to favorably report a bill reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act to the full Senate. The Senate version, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, would revamp the Perkins law, which Congress last reauthorized in 2006, by allowing states to establish certain goals for CTE programs without getting them cleared by the secretary of education first.

What Happens When a Public University Buys a For-Profit Online One?
EdSurge
…This month Purdue University Global held its first graduation under the new banner. But what exactly is different now at the online institution, and how does this whole thing work? To try to get some answers, EdSurge talked with Betty Vandenbosch, the chancellor of Purdue University Global, who had been leading Kaplan University for the past few years.

Lessons Learned From a Consortium That Fizzled
Inside Higher Ed
Four liberal arts colleges teamed up to work together on MOOCs. Their paths diverged, but the experience was far from a waste of time and energy.

A Quarter of Private Colleges Ran Deficits in 2017
Inside Higher Ed
About 25 percent of private nonprofit colleges and universities spent more than they earned in the 2017 fiscal year, though net tuition revenue grew for the first time in three years, Moody’s Investors Service said in its annual look at median financial performance. The median revenue for private colleges was 2.4 percent, while the median expense growth was 3 percent.

A History Of The Department Of Education
NPR
President Trump wants to abolish the Education Department as a standalone agency. He’s the latest Republican to try. NPR’s Michel Martin looks back on the history with Alyson Klein of Education Week.

Senate Jump-Starts Process for New Career-Education Law
Inside Higher Ed
Senate lawmakers look to be on the verge of a bipartisan agreement to update the law governing $1 billion in annual federal spending on career and technical education in the U.S. — much of it at community and technical colleges. Members of the education committee plan to today mark up a bill to reauthorize the Perkins Career and Technical Education law just over a year after corresponding legislation sailed through the House.

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An Integrated and Responsive Approach to Personalized Learning

This post is co-authored by Chris Aldin, Product Marketing Manager for Blackboard Ally and Blackboard SafeAssign.

The LMS: From Monolith to Lego Block

20 years ago, the Learning Management System (LMS) was a black box that didn’t play well with other tools and applications, but developer standards like IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) and Caliper Analytics® have been helping change that paradigm. Now, the LMS has begun to resemble a “multi-sided Lego block”[1] with seamless integrations with 3^rdparty applications that allow for increased customizability and personalization. For instructors and students, this means learning environments that are responsive to rapidly changing needs and student preferences, including for those students with disclosed disabilities.

Sparking a Culture Shift

IMS standards are at the core of the Blackboard Ally accessibility solution. They play a central role in how we provide institutions around the world insight into the overall accessibility levels of digital content in the LMS as well offer instructors and students seamless engagement with Ally features from within the LMS. Blackboard Ally is honored to have recently received a 2018 IMS Global Learning Impact Award Platinum medal in the area of Educational Accessibility and Personalization. More than just a technology product, we believe Ally is helping spark a culture shift that not only raises awareness about the importance of accessible content to student success, but also provides institutions and instructors with the tools to effectively implement their accessibility initiatives and UDL strategies.

Accessibility is a Prerequisite of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

An accessible learning environment is a necessary first step toward a more inclusive experience for all students. By addressing accessibility issues up-front, instructors can also move toward implementing UDL principles in their courses. The UDL guidelines emphasize providing students with multiple means of representing learning content, multiple means of engaging with course content and each other, and multiple means for expressing their understandings. Accessible content is more flexible, usable content that can be quickly transformed into different formats like audio and HTML, supporting instructors represent learning content in diverse ways and allowing students to engage content using different modalities and devices.

These kinds of personal needs and preference settings are also a point of emphasis in the IMS Global accessibility standards. Interoperability, for example, can allow for preference settings to be applied across the LMS experience without interruption. With a robust analytics architecture, instructors can make informed recommendations to students about the kinds of content and activities that might work best for them, and offer students more options in exploring different learning pathways.

Standards support Accessibility Initiatives

An integrated system supports accessibility by allowing tools that aid inclusive design practices to impact the course-creation process so that accessibility isn’t an after-thought. While accessibility workshops and trainings can help, for instructors with limited experience about accessible content authoring, raising their awareness about accessibility issues within their existing workflows can be crucial to their success. This allows instructors to take a more proactive approach to improving the inclusiveness of their course experiences, and can help ensure students have equitable access to content regardless of need or ability.

As various kinds of tools and media flow into the LMS via LTI, universities face a growing challenge in managing a “wild-west” of applications and content. Standards will play a crucial role in being able to assess and monitor the accessibility levels of applications and content residing in the LMS. If we only replace a big black box with many smaller ones, instructors and institutions will be in a limiting position in designing and maintaining accessible digital learning experiences for all students.

Join us on the pathway to more inclusive learning experiences for all students by signing up for the Blackboard Ally User group to participation in the conversation.

[1]https://library.educause.edu/~/media/files/library/2015/4/eli3035-pdf.pdf

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10 Tips for Better Troubleshooting & Technical Support

Blackboard Trend Report: 6/22/2018

Looking to learn more about what’s trending in education? Here’s a recap of some of this week’s top education news. Let us know what you think about this week’s news in the comments below.

Trump Wants to Drastically Alter the Education Dept. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Chronicle of Higher Education
A U.S. Department of Education and the Workforce? That’s what the Trump administration envisions in its new 132-page framework for merging the Education and Labor Departments, as part of a broader overhaul of the federal government.

ISTE announces new edtech evaluation platform for educators
EdScoop
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) will soon offer educators a platform to rate and share their experiences with a slew of edtech products on the market. The community-driven review platform, dubbed the “EdTech Advisor” and announced on Wednesday, will enable educators to communicate their common experiences with over 5,000 different edtech products, according to a statement.

No Bottom Yet in 2-Year College Enrollments
Inside Higher Ed
Community colleges are used to declining enrollments when the economy is strong and unemployment is low. But some researchers are warning colleges that future declines are only expected to get worse amid cuts in state funding and more pressure on institutions to produce measurable outcomes.

Survey: Most Students Say Online Learning Is as Good or Better Than Face-to-Face
Campus Technology
In a survey of 1,500 students who are seriously considering, currently enrolled in or recently graduated from a fully online program, most (86 percent) considered the value of their degree equal to or greater than the cost they paid to take it.

Higher ed must get smarter about its relationship to workforce, report says
EdScoop
Colleges and universities need to better adapt to teach the skills needed for burgeoning careers — many of them in technology fields — in order for students to be prepared for the workplace, according to a new report from Pearson and JFF.

Gainful-Employment Disclosures Delayed Again
Inside Higher Ed
The federal government will not require colleges to publicly disclose data about their vocational programs’ graduate employment rates or debt levels — requirements under the Obama-era “gainful-employment” rule — until after U.S. Department of Education can rewrite the regulation.

Group Looks for New Ways to Peer Over the Edtech Horizon
EdSurge
A group of educators trying to get a handle on what’s coming next in technology are working to build a new type of organization to track edtech trends. The effort isn’t backed by any college, major philanthropy or membership organization. Rather it’s a loose group of volunteers with a website and a notion that a digital collaboration might fill a gap and offer new kinds of insights.

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How to Simplify E-Learning Templates

Blackboard Trend Report: 6/15/2018

Looking to learn more about what’s trending in education? Here’s a recap of some of this week’s top education news. Let us know what you think about this week’s news in the comments below.

States Struggle to Close Degree-Attainment Gaps
Inside Higher Ed
Most states have set goals for the proportion of their residents that should have a college degree or certificate in the next few years. But many of those states will not reach those goals if they don’t close gaps between black and white and Latino and white adult students, according to a set of reports released today by the Education Trust.

What Do Online Students Want? 3 Findings From a New Survey Offer Some Clues
Chronicle of Higher Education
What do online students want? According to a new survey, they want to conduct more of their course activities on their mobile phones or tablets, and they’d like better career-planning services. Their biggest regrets? They all relate to not having done enough research about the college and what it would cost before they enrolled.

Seeking Votes on PROSPER, GOP Appears to Come Up Short
Inside Higher Ed
House leaders were mum on plans for the PROSPER Act after reportedly taking the temperature on members’ support for the bill earlier this week. College groups, student organizations and veterans’ representatives meanwhile renewed pressure on lawmakers to withhold support for the GOP plan to overhaul the Higher Education Act.

Report: Colleges to survive through hybrid experience
Education Dive
…A new report about how higher education will look in 2040 predicts a blended experience for students where they take courses in the classroom and online for customized engagements in an environment that prioritizes flexibility — and perhaps even enlists them to “subscribe” to its offerings and its support throughout their lives.

Under DeVos, a Smaller Department of Education
Inside Higher Ed
…Between the start of the Trump administration and April of this year, the department has shed more than 550 workers and reduced its overall size by 13 percent, an Inside Higher Ed analysis of recent employee data found. Those staff losses have occurred as DeVos is in the midst of a spree of deregulation, which requires heavy staff hours to review and negotiate new rules. And the agency has made do with fewer civil rights workers even as it says it’s looking to reduce a large backlog of federal complaints.

Why do so many students drop out of college? And what can be done about it?
Washington Post
…With the pressure on colleges to retain more students and get them to graduation, campuses are spending an increasing share of their budgets on student-success efforts. They are installing technology that constantly tracks performance, hiring professional advising staffs to assist in course selection and designing opportunities on and off campus to better engage students in their undergraduate careers. Now, there is a greater sense of urgency to these activities.

Education Dept. Report Says No to a For-Profit Accreditor — But It Might Not Matter
Chronicle of Higher Education
For the second time in less than two years, officials at the U.S. Department of Education have recommended against approving a controversial accrediting agency that primarily oversees for-profit colleges. But their finding may have little effect on the accreditor’s future.

At One College, 23% of New Students Will Be International
Inside Higher Ed
…Franklin & Marshall College is on track to have 23 percent of its new students this fall hail from outside the United States. That’s up from 15 percent of those who enrolled in fall 2017, which is by itself a larger share than one would find at many other nearby liberal arts colleges — last fall’s freshman class at Lafayette College was 8 percent international, and at Bucknell University, the figure was 6 percent.

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BbWorld Analytics Preview: Thinking Holistically about Educational Data and Student Success

A holistic view of analytics in support of student success requires addressing three facets of higher education: teaching and learning, the student life-cycle, and institutional performance (i.e. ‘the business of teaching and learning’).  As with BbWorld last year, I am thrilled by the number of high quality analytics presentations at this year’s event. This serves as an important sign that institutional data practices have begun to mature, that we are overcoming the hype, and that we are starting to see real value.  But I am also delighted by how presentations at BbWorld are representative of each key student success area.

Taken together, the analytics track at BbWorld is an opportunity to dive deep into each specific student success area, or to garner a holistic picture of how analytics can be used to enhance teaching and learning, increase student success, and optimize institutional performance in ways that promote access and equity in higher education more generally.

Here’s a brief overview of what you can expect from the analytics track this year.  As you plan your trip to BbWorld in Orlando this year, I hope that you will add these sessions to your list, attend, engage, and leave a mark through active participation.

Learning Analytics

Learning analytics involve using data to understand and optimize the teaching and learning environment itself.  Are learners engaged? Are course design patterns facilitating the instructional process? How can we present information to instructors and students that foster self-reflection in a way that complements learner needs and thoughtful pedagogies? With insight into the teaching and learning process itself, institutions can better prepare students to succeed in their current courses, subsequent courses, and in life and career after graduation.  In the learning analytics sub-track, speakers will discuss how they are using data to ensure that students graduate, not just with degrees, but with credentials that are meaningful and of high quality.

Connecting Analytics with Learning and Teaching Lifecycles
July 18 | 11:30 am

How are colleges and universities using data to understand the teaching and learning process, promote teaching excellence, and nurture student engagement?  We often think about the kinds of data that are most important for people within the institution.  Charles Darwin University in Australia is going a step further by introducing the element of time into their learning analytics strategy.  In Connecting Analytics with Learning and Teaching Lifecycles, Bill Searle will discuss a framework for aligning data visualizations to specific moments in the school year, supported by examples of how that framework has been put into practice at CDU.

Using Analytics to Guide Innovative Practices to Maximize Student Success
July 18 | 1:30 pm

In Using Analytics to Guide Innovative Practices to Maximize Student Success, Kendall St. Hilaire will describe how an instructional design focused approach, complemented by putting data into the hands of faculty, has allowed Indian River State College to eliminate the achievement gap based on course modality and increase online baccalaureate success rates by more than 10%.

Do Students Notice Notifications
July 17 | 1:00 pm

At what point does a notification become a nudge? In Do Students Notice Notifications, Blackboard Data Scientists Daniel Nasiatka and John Whitmer will describe the impact of notifications in Blackboard Learn Ultra on student behavior, and how changes in student behavior likely translate into increased rates of student success.

Analytics Rocket Sessions
July 18 | 4:40 pm

In addition to the main sessions, these rocket sessions will present promising works in progress, including provisional results, and lessons learned as a result of applying learning analytics to unique teaching and learning challenges:

• Assessing Administrative Encouragement to use Blackboard (John Blackwell, Pace University)
• I Like Big Data and I Cannot Lie: How to Measure Your Data Like a Boss (Franklin Boykin, Columbia Southern Education Group)
• Do education technology tools help you (instructors) facilitate a Growth Mindset in your classrooms? (Rose Newton, Blackboard)
•  Using X-Ray Analytics to Inform Strategic Planning (Lisa Clark, University of Northwestern Ohio)
• Using Analytics for Research in Course Design (Torria Davis, California Baptist University)

Student Life-Cycle Analytics

We tend to talk about student success in two main ways in higher education.  We can talk about educational quality from the perspective of teaching and learning (the domain of learning analytics), but we can also talk about what happens outside of the classroom: retention, progression, and graduation.  In the student life-cycle analytics sub-track, speakers will talk about practices they have put in place to identify students showing signs of risk, to proactively intervene, and to keep them on track for graduation.

Advising the Advisors!
July 19 | 11:30 pm

Concordia University-Wisconsin is a mission-driven institution committed to providing students with a personal educational experience. Understanding the power of intensive advising, they have grappled with how to use data while also making sure to treat each student like more than just a number. In Advising the Advisors! Chris Brandt will describe a set of incredibly high impact and replicable practices using Blackboard Intelligence that have seen at 10% increase in student retention at CUW.

Using Blackboard Learn to Create Student Success Predictions
July 19 | 3:30 pm

Predictive modeling using LMS data not only provides campuses with earlier alerts, but it can also decrease our reliance on demographic features with the potential to introduce systematic bias. Using Blackboard Learn to Create Student Success Predictionswill bring together a panel of experts from University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Phoenix, and Blackboard to discuss the kinds of data that campuses have found most valuable in predicting student achievement.

Blackboard Predict in Practice
July 19 | 4:40 pm

This session is an update from the California State University system on the progress they have made in deploying Blackboard Predict and X-Ray Learning Analytics since several schools began piloting the tools in 2017. Blackboard Predict in Practicedescribes varying strategies for intervening with at-risk students before it’s too late.

Analytics for Institutional Performance

Decisions governing the ‘business of teaching and learning’ have a direct impact on the success of students. A more efficient institution that is responsive to changes in the higher education landscape is an institution that can provide more resources to students, more relevant programs, and an equitable environment in which students, faculty, and staff can flourish.  In this sub-track, speakers will discuss how their institutions are making use of Blackboard Intelligence to inform academic decision-making, increase campus collaboration, and make informed decisions about program offerings and teaching methods.

Using Analytics to Better Understand Cost of Instruction
July 19 | 8:30 am

Highlighting another Concordia University System success story, in Using Analytics to Better Understand Cost of InstructionCurt Sherman and Tammy Wissing will share how Concordia University Nebraska has partnered with Blackboard to develop an analytics tool that is allowing them to answer a fundamental question: “Who is teaching what to whom and at what cost?”

Bulldog Intelligence: Drake University’s Business Intelligence Journey
July 19 | 1:30 pm

In Bulldog Intelligence: Drake University’s Business Intelligence Journey, Chris Gill (CITO, Drake University) will provide a demonstration of the BI portal that Drake University has built using Blackboard Intelligence and describe the early measurable results they have seen for academic decision support and student success.

Organizing for Institutional Success with Analytics
July 19 | 3:30 pm

Pulling it all together is a panel featuring analytics leaders from Central Piedmont Community College, Concordia University Wisconsin, Drake University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and Concordia University Nebraska to discuss the conditions under which some institutions succeed with analytics while other flounder. In Organizing for Institutional Success with Analytics, panelists will share what it took to ensure institutional readiness for success with analytics at their institutions, as well as principles and strategies for cultural change, data governance, and business process management that attendees will be able to take away and begin applying at their institutions today.

Roadmap: The Future of Blackboard Analytics

Of course, no BbWorld would be complete without a discussion of product innovation. On Wednesday, July 18 at 11:20 am Analytics Product Director Rachel Scherer will share some exciting news that will delight all Blackboard clients, regardless of their current analytics investments.  Committed to building products that are responsive to the emerging needs of users, we are also pleased to offer an analytics product design workshop during which we look forward to hearing your thoughts on specific features that we are exploring as part of our next generation of analytics products. We have been running these design thinking workshops internationally, and the response has been phenomenal. We are thrilled to bring the same opportunity to Orlando for BbWorld18.

Thus, concludes our whirlwind tour of the Analytics Track at BbWorld.  Check out BbWorld.com for complete session details. Registration is open through July. See you in Orlando!

 

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Blackboard Bringing Contactless Student IDs to Apple Wallet

Since its inception, Blackboard Transact, now Campus Enablement, has been relentlessly focused on enabling our clients in the service of their students and community.  We have accomplished this by continuously introducing market-driving innovations, not just for the sake of innovation.  To that end, we believe that innovation must be thoughtful, meaningful and sustainable in order to materially transform the student experience and the way in which students engage throughout the campus.

Last week, Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that it will add support for NFC-enabled contactless mobile student IDs in Wallet on iPhone with iOS 12 and Apple Watch with watchOS 5, creating exciting new possibilities for an extraordinary transaction experience for the campus community. Blackboard has realized the long-term vision of enabling a secure and convenient mobile credential on campus that works across both security and financial transactions for iPhone and Apple Watch users. Blackboard is excited to help make this first-of-its-kind innovation available this fall after working closely with our educational institution clients and thought leaders.

Since 2010, Blackboard has delivered NFC-compatible devices to its clients to support transactions via the campus ID for dining, vending, copying, printing, access control and a wide array of third-party solutions. Students’ worlds revolve around convenient mobile solutions, and they’ve come to expect a simple, frictionless mobile experience in all aspects of their lives. Now, students will have the convenience of adding their student IDs to the devices they use every day, iPhone and Apple Watch.

We’ve taken the long view, and our approach to the mobile credential encapsulates this view while ensuring that we have created a frictionless student experience. This is truly a first-of-its-kind innovation. Now is the time to start thinking about the next steps to ensure your students and campus community can take full advantage of the Blackboard Mobile Credential, and its possibilities.

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Save Time & Money with Hybrid E-Learning Design

Years ago I developed a hierarchy for course design. I used it to help manage my team and allocate our limited resources.

Back then, most e-learning was custom-built in Flash. Those courses took more time, required special skills, and cost a lot more to produce. However, with Articulate Presenter and PowerPoint we could build about 80% of what we needed. It was fast and easy. So our default was Articulate Presenter unless we could justify why it didn’t meet our needs.

 

PowerPoint had its limits. But when we needed custom interactivity, we’d build just those pieces in Flash and insert them into our PowerPoint-based courses. That meant we got fast development and custom interactivity: a win-win.

There were courses where PowerPoint or a hybrid approach just didn’t work. As a final option we custom built our courses in Flash. Because this was the most expensive and time-consuming option, we tried to limit this and do most of our custom development using the hybrid approach.

We always started with rapid e-learning and only moved to more expensive development when we could justify doing so. It made no sense, to custom build Flash when we could do the same thing faster and less expensive with PowerPoint.

Today, we have a similar challenge so let’s revisit the hierarchy of course design for a new generation of rapid e-learning designers.

General E-Learning Content

A screen’s a screen whether it’s simple linear content or interactive. When you look at the screen, you’ll see text and some media such as images, illustrations, and video. If there’s an interactive element, at its core the interaction just changes what’s being exposed on the screen.

How screens are laid out is generally limited to left, right, up, and While we can be creative and do exotic things there are 20 or so common screen layouts.

The Updated E-Learning Course Design Hierarchy

Both Rise and Storyline are part of Articulate 360. Often, I’ll get questions about when to use Rise and when to use Storyline. To answer the question, I lean on the same strategic approach I used when managing my team and having to choose between rapid authoring with PowerPoint or custom development in Flash.

Operate at the Speed of Business

Most e-learning content exists because of regulatory and compliance requirements. Those courses are more explainer content and less interactive. Thus it makes sense to use the easiest tool and quickest production process possible.

And this tool is Rise. It’s super easy to use and getting courses, especially simple ones out the door is a breeze. On top of that, whatever you build can be saved as a template. And as far as interactive content, there are a number of interactive choices that come with Rise (and those get updated frequently). Rise is also fully responsive which is perfect for today’s mobile workforce.

 

The reality is that not all content is explainer content and often there needs to be more custom interactivity than what you get out of the box in Rise. That’s OK because when Rise doesn’t provide the content type you need, use Storyline by building single slide interactions and then insert them into your Rise courses with the Storyline block.

With this approach, you get easy authoring for the majority of the content in Rise and custom interactivity when you need it in Storyline. It’s a good balance between speed of production and providing the appropriate level of interactivity. That’s a win-win.

Manage Resources for Custom Interactivity

There are times when working directly in Storyline makes more sense than working in Rise. For example, if you need to build complex interactions, adaptive learning paths, variable-based navigation,  or interactive scenarios then it makes sense to build them in Storyline. Storyline gives you a lot more flexibility because you start with a blank screen and build from there.

This doesn’t mean working with Storyline is complicated. It’s still relatively easy to learn and grows with you. It just means that for simple content, especially, Rise is usually a better solution.

Want a tabs interaction? In Rise you select the tabs interaction block and add your content. You’re done. Building the same thing in Storyline requires time to think about what it will look like and how it will function; and then you add the objects, layers, and triggers. It’s easy enough to do, but just a bit more time-consuming to do it. And time is money.

So when people ask which tool to use, I suggest that all things should start with Rise. If you can’t build it with Rise, explain why. If you need custom interactions, build the core content in Rise (you have a lot of options with the various blocks) and add Storyline interactions where necessary. And if your course requirements are more complex and they can’t be met with Rise, then by all means, use Storyline.

The main thing is you’re managing your limited resources.  If you spend a week building something in Storyline when you could have built it in one day with Rise, you’re not being a good steward of your resources. And when you need more time for custom work, you won’t have it because you spent it on simple content.

That’s where the content creation hierarchy comes in handy. It’s all about managing resources and delivering a viable product on time and within budget.

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2018

• St Louis: July 17 & 18. Articulate Community Roadshow. Register here. ATD St. Louis members get a 25% discount. Contact ATD St. Louis for more information.
• Other events coming soon.

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Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for elearning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly elearning challenges to sharpen your skills
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Save Time & Money with Hybrid E-Learning Design original post at The Rapid E-Learning Blog

Blackboard Trend Report: 6/8/2018

Looking to learn more about what’s trending in education? Here’s a recap of some of this week’s top education news. Let us know what you think about this week’s news in the comments below.

Private Colleges Give Ground on Student Data
Inside Higher Ed
Proponents for better data on whether and how college pays off for students saw a victory, if a small one, Thursday as the primary lobbying group for private nonprofit colleges inched closer to backing a new federal system that would give important information to students and policy makers.

Technology may not stop a school shooting from happening, but it can still help
EdScoop
As districts grapple with how best to protect students and staff in an age of lockdowns, many are looking to advanced communications and facial recognition systems.

The Cost of Going Back to School as an Adult
New York Times
…In the United States, 16 million to 54 million workers may need to switch occupational group by 2030, and they will need to learn new skills or increase their level of education in order to find work, according to a recent McKinsey Global Institute Report.

Apple’s New Focus: Student ID Cards
Inside Higher Ed
Using Near-Field Communications technology, students will be able to access a multitude of services on campus just by waving their phone or watch near compatible readers.

An Update of the Federal Law Governing Higher Ed Appears Dead. Now There’s a Fight Over Who Killed It.
Chronicle of Higher Education
Could it be that the last chance for this Congress to draft a new Higher Education Act just died because two United States senators can’t resolve a middle-school-style disagreement over who owed whom a call back?

What’s the Biggest Challenge for Colleges and Universities?
New York Times
We asked participants at The New York Times Higher Ed Leaders Forum to tell us, in their own words.

Defining the Undefinable
Inside Higher Ed
The term “digital learning” seems to be taking hold as a catchall for innovative techniques influenced by digital tools. Will the term last or grow outdated?

For-Profit Free Fall Continues, U.S. Data Show
Inside Higher Ed
The number of career colleges and the number of credentials they award have dropped by roughly 20 percent in the last four years, new data from the U.S. Education Department show.

‘Non-traditional’ presidencies more common than data shows
Education Dive
A new analysis of presidential pathways conducted by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, reports that only 54% of college presidents from a sample of 215 career profiles came from tenure or tenure-track positions prior to their hiring.

 

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How to Save Time When Using Variables in Your E-learning

Here’s a time saving tip when working with variables in your e-learning courses. This is helpful when testing your course as you work on it.

Create Reference Variables

During your production process when working with variables it’s always a good idea to create a reference to those variables. This is a text box that shows the current value of the variable. Thus when testing your course and making adjustments that change the value of the variable, you can see it displayed.

If you don’t use a reference of the variable how else will you know the variable value changed? You have to assume that the course is working correctly, which may not be the case. Being able to see the variable helps in troubleshooting issues you may have when using them. For example, if the variable changes then you know something else is the issue.

Where to Put Reference Variables

The reference variables are only visible during the construction and testing of the course. Once it’s ready to go live, they need to be removed from the slide.

Everyone has their own production method. Here are a few options:

• Delete them when you’re ready to publish the course. This gets rid of them, but if you need to go back and edit the slide, you need to recreate the references.
• Move them off the slide. This works, but then you have to move them back on when you do edits. Seems like a lot of extra work.
• Keep them on the slide, but hide them on the timeline. This means they’re always there, and just require a simple click to make them visible.
• Put them on the master slide. I like this approach. I can turn them off on the master slide and they’re off on all the slides. And then if I need them available, I only need to turn them back on once rather than doing it slide by slide.

Additional Variable Resources

Here are a few quick tutorials and previous articles on working with variables:

Tutorials

• How to Create a Reference Variable
• Ways to Manage Reference Variables
• Introduction to Variables
• Understanding Variables

Articles

• The Case for Variables in E-Learning
• Simplifying Variables for Better E-Learning
• How to Name Variables for E-Learning

What tips do you have when working with variables in your e-learning courses?

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How to Save Time When Using Variables in Your E-learning original post at The Rapid E-Learning Blog

Blackboard Trend Report: 6/1/2018

Looking to learn more about what’s trending in education? Here’s a recap of some of this week’s top education news. Let us know what you think about this week’s news in the comments below.

Education Secretary Ready to Overhaul Higher Education Law Through Regulation
New York Times
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, frustrated by stalled efforts in Congress to rewrite the federal law governing higher education law, is moving ahead with a plan to overhaul the system through her regulatory powers.

What 6 Colleges Learned About Improving Their Online Courses
Chronicle of Higher Education
…“Making Digital Learning Work: Success Strategies From Six Leading Universities and Community Colleges” wades into those waters with a study of three community colleges and three public research universities, all of which have at least 20,000 students, and enroll significant percentages of Pell-eligible students and students who take online classes. The authors crunched a lot of data to determine how digital technologies affect access, student outcomes, and return on investment.

Moody’s: Declining Enrollment Is Squeezing Tuition Revenue
Inside Higher Ed
Recently released data on declining college enrollments in the U.S. and constraints on tuition pricing will continue to suppress tuition revenue growth this year, according to Moody’s, the credit-rating agency.

Skepticism is higher ed’s biggest challenge, two Harvard presidents say
Education Dive
The greatest challenge facing higher education in the U.S. is “skepticism about the value of higher education,” and its “product: facts, sciences, knowledge [and] an educated citizenry that is not just narrowly trained but broadly educated,” said outgoing Harvard University president Drew Faust in a taped conversation with incoming president Lawrence Bacow.

With a Siri-Like Assistant, this Australian U. Wants to Rethink the Student Experience
EdSurge
…Since Deakin University has plenty of in-person students these days as well, officials want to reinvent the campus experience as well, by trying to blend education into busy lives. That has meant developing their own personal assistant for students, a bit like Siri or Alexa, that can remind you to do your homework. While such a tool may make sense for students needing to fit in studies amid work, family and life, it also raises thorny privacy issues.

Georgia State U. Made Its Graduation Rate Jump. How?
Chronicle of Higher Education
As part of our research, we looked at how Georgia State University used big data and analytics as a springboard into rethinking undergraduate education, with remarkable results.

Colleges face increasing number of students seeking learning accommodations
Education Dive
The Wall Street Journal profiles the rise of college students declaring disabilities and requesting accommodations on campus, a figure which reaches as many as one in four on some elite campuses and is a growing factor in colleges’ efforts to provide extra time for examinations and physical space without distraction.

The post Blackboard Trend Report: 6/1/2018 appeared first on Blackboard Blog.

Blackboard Trend Report: 6/1/2018 original post at Blackboard Blog