Amazon Partners with George Mason University to Launch a Cloud-Based Degree

George Mason University (GMU) and Northern Community College (NOVA) are partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer students a pathway to earn a Bachelor's of Applied Science degree and pursue a career in cloud computing. Both institutions worked with AWS Educate curriculum designers to create a degree program which will be mapped to in-demand technical skills required by Amazon and other employees in cloud services, cybersecurity, software development and DevOps. Students will first earn an Associate degree at NOVA and transfer to George Mason to complete a four-year Bachelor's degree. "This degree pathway marks the beginning of a ground-breaking initiative that will deliver innovative educational opportunities to students across the commonwealth. The collaboration with AWS helps give our students, and our region, a competitive edge," said Ángel Cabrera, president of George Mason University, at Campus Technology. "We are delighted to be working with George Mason University and NOVA to turn the growing demand for cloud skills into pathways in technology for students from all backgrounds," stated Teresa Carlson, vice president for worldwide public sector at AWS. Amazon, which is building its second corporate headquarters in Northern Virginia, expects to bring 25,000 jobs to the region by 2030. AWS Educate Free Courses On the other hand, AWS Educate released three new credentialed, 25-hour, free courses. Campus Technology reports. These courses are AWS RoboMaker, Amazon Sumerian and AWS DeepRacer.  

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Open edX | June 2019: Stanford, UBx, LTI 1.3, Coursera, Udacity…

  JUNE 2019 – NEWSLETTER #17 | More breaking news at IBL News   Open edX • Open edX Issues Ironwood.2, a New Release of Its Platform • UBx, University at Buffalo's Continuing Education Open edX-Based Platform, Expands with New Courses • A Fascinating Free Course About Beethoven's Music from Stanford University • The Open edX Software Ranks #36 on GitHub’s Top 100 Projects   edX • Chatbots Gain Traction Among Businesses – Now a Course About Them on edX • Afghanistan's Ministry of Higher Education Creates AfghanX and Joins the edX Consortium   COURSERA • Illinois Shuts Down its Traditional MBA and Focuses into Online’s iMBA • What’s Next for Coursera and FutureLearn? Insights Revealed at the EMOOCS Conference • Coursera Expands into Canada by Opening an Engineering Office   UDACITY • Georgia Tech Will Deploy this Summer an Improved Version of its AI-Based Teacher Assistant • Analysis: Sebastian Thrun, Creates the University of Silicon Valley and the Fourth Degree • Sebastian Thrun Told Harvey Mudd Graduates to "Stay Curious and Always Believe in Themselves" • Udacity Offers Two Programs to Train Cloud Engineers on AWS   INDUSTRY • The New Standard LTI 1.3, which Allows Interoperability of Grades and Assignments, Excites the Industry • The Good and the Bad: Choose the Best OPM, According to Dr. Chuck   2019 UPCOMING EVENTS • Education Calendar – JUNE | JULY | AUG – DEC 2019   This newsletter about Open edX is a monthly report compiled by the IBL News staff, in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company that builds AI analytics-driven, revenue-oriented learning ecosystems, and courses with Open edX and other educational software. Read the latest IBL Newsletter on Online Education at Scale | Archive of Open edX Newsletters

Learning At Scale | June 2019: SNHU, SUNY, USC, Emeritus, Walmart, Carnegie Mellon…

JUNE 2019 – NEWSLETTER #23 ON ONLINE EDUCATION AT SCALE   HIGHER ED • SNHU, with 135K students and an army of 6k adjuncts, wants to be the "Nordstrom's of higher education", says its president Paul LeBlanc. • NY University System will focus on increasing its online presence. • "Emerging markets are a large opportunity to boost online enrollment", says Emeritus CEO. • Higher education enrollments will continue its decline throughout the next decade. College closures will increase in 2019.   ACADEMIA • Canadian educator Heather Payne says that tenure should be abolished. • Ángel Cabrera, George Mason University's president, named the sole finalist for the Georgia Tech presidency. • Michigan State named Stony Brook president as the new leader. Samuel Stanley Jr. created 240 faculty positions. • A billionaire investor pledged to pay off the student debt of Morehouse College's 396 graduating young men during his commencement speech. • USC's partnership with 2U didn't work at all. The school is facing a budget crisis that may result in nearly half of the staff losing their jobs.   INDUSTRY • Walmart expanded the $1 a day degree program to more universities. • OpenSesame corporate learning marketplace, with 20,000 courses, raised $28 million to help it grow faster. • SAS software provider debuted in higher education with an advanced cloud-based analytical solution. Jenzabar improved its analytics suite.   RESEARCH • Carnegie Mellon University released its first wave of open-source learning tools. Interview with the leader behind the initiative. • Tecnológico de Monterrey released an elaborated report on alternative credentials (PDF).   VIEWS • Actionable data is the most disappointing late arrival in teaching and learning in higher ed. • Online education doesn't work for disadvantaged populations, those unprepared for college and first-time students. • Achieving 85% completion rates for online courses. • It's all about money? There is no difference between for-profit and public higher ed, said George Siemens. • Instructional designers forget what makes a course successful. • A model involving faculty for course design. • An Institution prepares students for jobs which won't be automatized. • Netflix-style service Cengage Unlimited reaches 1.5 million subscribers.   2019 UPCOMING EVENTS • Education Calendar – JUNE | JULY | AUG – DEC 2019   This newsletter about learning innovation is a monthly report compiled by IBL News and IBL Education. If you enjoy what you read please consider forwarding it to spread the word. Click here to subscribe. Archive: IBL Newsletter #22– May 2019 IBL Newsletter #21– April 2019 IBL Newsletter #20– March 2019 IBL Newsletter #19– January 2019

MITx Prepares 30 New MOOCs and Builds with Other Universities a Blockchain System for Credentials

Half of Employees That Need to Re-Skill Don't Ask for Help, an edX Survey Finds

A Billionaire Will Cover the Cost of Coursera's Illinois Data Science Master's Degree for His Employees

Open edX Issues Ironwood.2, a New Release of Its Platform

edX engineers have released an update on the new Ironwood version of the platform, implementing changes into the ironwood branch on GitHub. The new release is called ironwood.2, and it is located at open-release/ironwood.2. These changes since ironwood.1 include: Reverting and feature-flagging of "honor code not eligible for certificate" A handful of security fixes Small changes to bring the default installation into compliance with edX trademark policy Open edX Ironwood was issued March 21. This version is the ninth release of the Open edX platform and includes improvements over the former Hawthorn.2 version. One of the most notorious improvements involved the login process into Studio –by redirecting the user to the LMS to log in, and then redirecting back to Studio. Another remarkable feature was called “Public Course Content”, which allowed users to access materials and components without registration or enrollment.  

An Institution Prepares Students for Jobs which Won't Be Automatized

Job automation has already started. Stats indicate that 10% of American jobs will be automated in 2019. An upsetting forecast indicates that up to 73 million U.S. jobs will be automated by 2030. But there is hope. First: nearly 2 million new non-routine jobs which machines cannot easily perform are being created every year in the United States. Second: an increasing number of colleges and universities understand the challenge and are starting to prepare students who demand jobs which won't be automated. Foundry College is one of them. Its Founder, Dr. Stephen Kosslyn, addressed the issue yesterday during the Eduventures Summit in Boston with a physician example. "Diagnosis of illness will soon be accomplished well by machines. But sitting with the family to discuss treatment options will be difficult to automate." At least two skills are automation resistant: "Recognizing and responding to emotion when communicating and making decisions. And taking context into account when analyzing situations, creatively solving problems, and prioritizing goals," Stephen Kosslyn said. Foundry College, which is focused on what's difficult to automate, has listed five key underpinnings: Critical thinking Creative problem solving Clear communication Constructive personal interactions Good judgment To pair these essential skills, this institution has reimagined a future-proof, two-year curriculum. On the first year, Foundry teaches: Critical Analyses Practical Problem Solving Clear Communication Learning at Work Working with Others Managing Yourself at Work On the second year: Communicating and Conveying in Business Navigating Work Thinking with Software Customer Service and Sales Health Care Management System and Service Management   Stephen Kosslyn shares how https://t.co/9xGjOM5I3q is reimagining a two-year education that’s future-proofed and focused. It’s all about application of ideas to work situations but also lays a framework that goes beyond vocational training. #EVSummit19 pic.twitter.com/TtkSCdxlDr — Josh Herron (@joshherron) June 6, 2019 Top 10 skills in 2022: 1 analytical thinking and innovation 2 active learning 3 creativity 4 tech design 5 critical thinking 6 complex problem solving 7 leadership and social influence 8 emotional intelligence 9 reasoning 10 systems analysis#EVSummit19 https://t.co/jITnxOryPn pic.twitter.com/bSvvGrjg0w — Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) June 6, 2019

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Amazon Partners with George Mason University to Launch a Cloud-Based Degree

Capella Online University Opens a Brick-and-Mortar Center to Provide In-Person Support

Coursera's Google IT Support Certificate Program Gets a Good Response

Artificial Intelligence in Education is Here to Stay: Will it Augment or Replace?

Open edX | June 2019: Stanford, UBx, LTI 1.3, Coursera, Udacity…

Learning At Scale | June 2019: SNHU, SUNY, USC, Emeritus, Walmart, Carnegie Mellon…

MITx Prepares 30 New MOOCs and Builds with Other Universities a Blockchain System for Credentials

Half of Employees That Need to Re-Skill Don't Ask for Help, an edX Survey Finds

A Billionaire Will Cover the Cost of Coursera's Illinois Data Science Master's Degree for His Employees

Open edX Issues Ironwood.2, a New Release of Its Platform

An Institution Prepares Students for Jobs which Won't Be Automatized

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