Human Learning #23
Hi all
The major topic of this edition is the unbundling of the degree via: the rise of workforce training based degrees, legislation (such as California’s proposals) and the steady advance of microcredentials.
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State of the MOOCS
Pluralsight launch workforce skill assessment tool — Pluralsight have launched Pluralsight IQ a competency test for engineers consisting of 20 questions. The tool is pitched as a workforce diagnostic tool — managers will use it to test their teams and plug skill gaps through Pluralsight’s courses. Specialist platforms like Pluralsight are well suited to these assessments, as opposed to MOOCs, due to their fixed, in-depth course portfolios. Pluralsight may well wish to develop such tools further to deepen their service offering to enterprises. Pluralsight said the tool should not be used for hiring but one imagines they whispered ‘yet’. They have a trusted brand and their content experience ought to give them expertise to assess the skill of a hire and in their current consumers, the pool of people to hire from — here
Goldsmiths launch Virtual Reality Specialization on Coursera — The Specialization is on VR rather than in VR. Udacity already have a VR Nanodegree but overall there is little online provision for this game-changing technology — here
Bingeing for learning part 2 — Last issue covered a study showing binge learners had higher completion rates, that’s still true but with a caveat. Two professors, also at Wharton, found that among completers, steady learners scored higher than bingers — here
Juilliard, the world renowned performing arts school joins edX — here
The business of Edtech
Coding bootcamps expand to Mexico — Trilogy Education, a white label coding bootcamp that sets up within universities, has established a bootcamp with Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM). The course will be cheaper than their US offering ($10K). Mexico is an emerging tech hub, Oracle, IBM and Intel have expanded to Mexico’s industrial capital Guadalajara and US Venture capitalists have expanded their operations in kind. Due to low wages, US companies are often willing to upskill Mexican workers knowing it’ll still work out cheaper than hiring in the US — here
Ohio State University partner with Revature — Revature, another white label Coding Bootcamp will provide free training for Ohio state alumni and students that would otherwise cost 000s. It’s about graduate employability so in one sense it could be seen like a Lynda license but what does it say about the degree if you need a further bootcamp to train?- here
EquitySim, job recruitment platform for finance raises $3.1m in seed funding — The platform runs market simulations and games for Finance graduates and then ranks them. Firms can then hire off the results. Over 220 Universities in the US use EquitySim. Gamified hire is making steady inroads, Coding tournaments have been on the rise and in theory it’s a farier way to hire (CV blind etc) — here
The global Edtech market, much smaller than you think — Patrick Brothers, CEO of Navitas Ventures argues that reports around Edtech being the next fintech and valued at $50bn are very wide of the mark. In fact the true figure is closer to $1–3bn with ~15K companies — here
Masterclass, celebrity driven online classes, signs up Scorsese for filmmaking — The company recently raised $35m in a Series C round and charge ~$90 per course. Investor Eric Liaw said, in a comment that was neither an exaggeration nor driven by naked self-interest that Masterclass were “Building a modern day library of Alexandria” — here
Ed’s Tech
Ethical frameworks for distance learning — UNISA, South Africa’s Distance Learning University, which graduates ~40K students per year is looking to predictive analytics to help it spot where interventions are needed. Predictive analytics makes a lot of sense for distance learning, it scales in a way educators don’t and helps them manage their limited resources more efficiently.
A traditional predictive approach would take demographic factors such as income, prior education etc but such attempts have led to allegations of ‘racist’ algorithms, something UNISA is understandably keen to avoid. UNISA will decide where responsibility lies for each intervention, what type of intervention, how to collect the data to ensure it doesn’t discriminate and to ensure its geared to student success rather than student blame. US institutions are coping with the same issues and the hope ought to be that a consistent framework is constructed that all distance learning platforms — including MOOCs — can use — here
Codeacademy to run courses for Amazon Alexa’s skills — Alexa ‘skills’ the competencies for Alexa e.g. getting the weather forecast or querying wikipedia. Codeacademy will run courses on how to build them. Amazon will want the developer base to be as broad as possible — here
OPM (Online Programme Management)
Workforce training is unbundling the traditional degree by me
Are Microcredentials eating into postgraduate enrolments? — A new report by Council of Graduate Schools suggests this may be the case. Microcredentials (which include Nanodegrees, Specializations as well as more traditional certificates) have been growing in the US. If this is true, it’s a very significant step for MOOC platforms for whom an underlying assumption in their B2C model is that there is a monetisable market for their courses and in particular the programs of MOOCs e.g. Nanodegrees, Specializations and MicroMasters — here
Keypath sign deal with James Cook University Australia — The University with 22K students and a Singapore campus has signed a 10 year contract with the OPM provider (typical length). KeyPath will immediately repurpose the University’s online master’s in Nursing and Data Science with more to follow — here
Team Human vs Machine
Leapfrogging to a 21st century education system — Two scholars from the Brookings Institute, a liberal think tank, argue that on the present trajectory 1.6bn children of the current generation will lack basic literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills by adulthood. They argue that as poor countries skipped landlines in favour of mobiles, they’ll need a similar leap with education. The authors examine 3000 ‘education innovations’ from pilot schools to Duolingo. Their conclusion is that developing countries (in particular) need to move to more technology to cover staffing shortfalls, competency based systems, project work that focuses on creative problem solving and more teaching support roles such as mentoring and peer review in order to close the gap — here
Intelligent tutors can prepare children for a world of working with machines — The argument is that if a computer can teach it, a computer can do it. As a result intelligent tutors should be deployed to augment Teacher’s work e.g. adaptive learning that guides pupil’s through maths while the teacher focuses on the bigger picture of their learning. Intelligent tutors should also be used to get students used to working with machines, learning the division of labour will be a crucial skill — here
Global Higher Education
California looks to regional boards as the future of education — Kirst and Scott, both Professors Emeritus of Stanford University have concluded that the future of education policy in the Golden state will be at a regional level rather than in state-wide multi-year master plans. Problems include a lack of coordination between what’s being taught and what the workforce needs, insufficient supply of in-demand courses, ‘diploma mills’ i.e. that don’t properly educate, too much cost and too little innovation in credentials. In addition to linking supply and demand through the boards they also want more technical degrees (i.e. vocational courses that can add up to a degree) — here
OECD, a club of rich countries, finds HE participation is growing but problems remain over completion and subject choice — OECD’s HE review finds that while HE participation has increased, ¼ students have not graduated within 2 years of the program end date. The study also found although subjects like ICT, Engineering, construction and Manufacturing had the best employment rate, relatively few students were choosing to study them — here
Eduventures survey shows rising scepticism over the value of the degree — The survey of 1,700 found that with each decade roughly 10% more people thought a degree’s cost outweighed the benefits with 40% saying it did so this year. There were some variants, those employed in fields directly related to their degree were more likely to say it had benefits e.g. Engineering yet the overall picture if born out elsewhere paints a troubling picture for USHE — here
Tangents
Education — not the Silver bullet Toby? Economist Raj Chetty’s landmark study in the US identified 5 possible factors that determined social mobility: Segregation, Family Structure, Income Inequality, Social Capital and Education. The last has been a pillar of US government policy with both parties hailing its role as the engine of the meritocratic ideal. UC Berkeley economist Rothstein suggests this is overstated, in his study he finds that regardless of education quality, labour market factors such as: unions, minimum wages and presence of high paying jobs were far more important. Rothstein isn’t saying governments shouldn’t invest in better schools but that it cannot be assumed this will lead to better social mobility — here
World Bank report on State of Education globally — Highlights include: More education is associated with higher Income countries, Teacher absenteeism is one of the major and persistence problems in African countries and cognitive gaps between rich and poor kids grow with age. The good news is that Primary education is now nearly ubiquitous but Secondary education lags far behind with Sub-Saharan Africa having only 40% coverage — here
Saudi Arabia goes beyond gender to include Alien representation — In the month that has seen Women allowed to drive in the Kingdom, a school history book went even further by including Yoda next to King Faisal in the UN General assembly — here
