Trends, Headlines and Hot Topics in eLearning
What are some of the trending topics and headlines in online and blended learning these days? It seems as if every week there is some new article about the rapid and widespread (though slowing) growth of online learning:
- http://www.geteducated.com/online-education-facts-and-statistics/latest-online-learning-news-and-research/461-online-education-study-increasing-enrollment
- http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2011/11/11/study-online-education-continues-growth
Next, there is the hype surrounding Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which build on connectivism and personal learning networks to enable free learning. (See short video or MOOCGuide1 or MoocGuide2). Some notable recent ones include eduMooc (2600+ enrolled), Stanford's Artificial Intelligence MOOC (160,000 students), and SUNY Empire State's Creativity and Multicultural Communication MOOC. Stanford has also recently announced a whole new slew of free online courses available for 2012 - and these aren't just open courseware - these include interaction with other participants and faculty.
Along those same lines, in the "open" realm, OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources are entering a new phase of acceptance as initiatives such as OERu, (which "aims to provide a route to formal accreditation through study of free open educational resources in the form of free courses and materials developed by accredited universities"), University of the People (somewhat similar to OERu), and Mozilla's "Open Badges" project begin to establish paths for gaining credit for learning that occurs outside the ivory tower.
(OERu Model via http://edtechfrontier.com/2011/02/22/open-educational-resource-university-oeru/)