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As new technologies allow digital lessons to be tailored to various learning styles, a growing number of programs are evolving to enable students with disabilities to take online courses created with their needs in mind.

As current and future student populations-made up of Millennials and Gen Zs, a generation collectively now referred to as Generation C-become even more digitally reliant, we'll see more students flock in record breaking numbers to flexible learning environments.

What's contributing to this growth? "Flex-classes," a preferred learning style among Gen Cs that offers "flex-attendance" options to join classes "in-person" or "online" throughout the duration of a course, allowing students to more efficiently, and affordably, learn anytime, anywhere.

In fact, if the current enrollment growth rate continues, nearly half of all college students will be enrolled in a flexible online learning course by 2020.

"So here's what I want to tell you about the online portion of Trump University: It probably puts your university's online courses to shame. It certainly makes a mockery of what Silicon Valley darlings Coursera and Udacity call courses."

"Both of these courses appear to be information centric. Learning objectives appear to be pre-defined, which implies that there isn't much variation to the students' work and learning experience. Based on their goals, I do not think students will be very engaged. Both courses seem to be educating about the past rather than teaching how to apply things in the future. " h/t David C

Interesting to note that for the "views" element to change you have to access the link through this page. It doesn't tie into the notification email links which I had thought it might.

I really enjoyed Karl Miller's talk and his course is well worth exploring.

"This report presents an overview of current video practice: the widespread use of video and its costs, the relevance of production value for learning, the pedagogical considerations of teaching online, and the challenges of standardizing production. Findings are based on a literature review, our observation of online courses, and the results of 12 semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field of educational video production. "

USA Today, "The place where the video game was invented more than 50 years ago now wants to teach teachers, entrepreneurs and students how to design games for learning - and it is hoping that the end result will be a new kind of tech tool for the classroom." The VCU ALT Lab now has an area for the exploration of games as a means of learning. The MIT online courses might be a good springboard for conversation and experiments in the ALTLab.

It's been two years since a New York Times article declared the "year of the MOOC" -short for "massive open online courses." Now, for the first time, researchers have carried out a detailed study that shows that these classes really can teach at least as effectively as traditional classroom courses - and they found that this is true regardless of how much preparation and knowledge students start out with.

"Traditional courses have long focused on tools and techniques for the presentation of content. Traditional concerns from faculty focused on covering the material, getting through the book and meeting expectations so that faculty in other courses won't muse and wonder,  "Didn't you learn these concepts from faculty X?"   And "Didn't you study the work and contributions of  ____ (Fill in your favorite who)"  A major drawback with designing for content as a priority is that it focuses attention on what the faculty member is doing, thinking and talking about and not on the interaction and engagement of students with the core concepts and skills of a course. The new focus on learners encourages a focus on learners as a priority. The new focus on the learner is to develop a habit of asking, what is going on inside the learner's head? How much of the content is being integrated into their knowledge base? How much of the content and the tools can he/she actually use? What are students thinking and how did they arrive at their respective positions? Additionally, we are seeing a shift to looking at the student no only as an individual, but as an individual within the learning community. Other questions that we are now considering include: How is the learner supporting the community of learners and contributing to the overall growth of the group? "

This is a collection of courses, students posts etc. (some VCU specific, some from other institutions) that might be useful.

How's this for a course site?

An interesting look at assessment in an Econ course. h/t Laura G.

"Criteria for Grades This course will revolve around exploring a question which is very current and for which there is no settled answer yet.  Therefore, we can't determine grades based on obtaining "the right answer" or even learning "the content."  There will be content to be learned, but learning content is not the point of the class, just a means to the end."

Great way to offer tech support to students in an online course, by the great Laura Gibbs at U. of Oklahoma

Project-based Coursera courses.

"How do I balance my desire to integrate student-centered learning practices with my almost pathological need to have every last bit of the course planned out and thought through? Most of my pedagogy research has suggested that we as faculty should be looking for ways to give students a real sense of ownership in the classroom. One of our goals should be to create an atmosphere that leaves space for students take an active role in their own learning. How, then, do we design a course before even meeting our students? Isn't there a danger in showing up to the first day of class with a syllabus that shows the whole course planned out? By doing so, aren't we clearly communicating to the students that the instructor is in charge, that if you know what's good for you, you'll follow these rules?"

"We can do better by our students. The number one thing would be to inculcate the idea of the university *as* a workplace, and all of us as professionals in it. And of course, many professors (me!) need a lot more training in the mechanics of the workplace than we ever get. The next, and much easier thing, would be to offer opportunities to acquire basic workplace technical skills: using software, running meetings, emailing like a grownup, navigating the org chart."