fbpx
Home Blog Page 1257

Q3 Coursera for Campus Features Release: Deliver job-based learning and build a cutting-edge curriculum

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Q3 Coursera for Campus Features Release: Deliver job-based learning and build a cutting-edge curriculum

By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management

We’re excited to share details with you about some exciting new Q3 launches. In this post, we’ll specifically be discussing SkillSets, which are job-based learning programs that can help you bridge skills gaps and boost student job outcomes as well as new curriculum integration features—including curriculum recommendations, for-credit tagging, limited availability schedules, and the online gradebook.

SkillSets

SkillSets are job-based learning programs that leverage world-class courses from leading universities and companies, hands-on learning, and skills insights derived from Coursera learners at over 2,300 employers. With dozens of SkillSets currently available, you can confidently prepare students with the in-demand skills necessary to secure today’s high-growth jobs. Within a given SkillSet, students will take courses and projects tailored to their existing proficiency levels that accelerate their skill mastery.

Example SkillSet

What are the benefits of SkillSets?

SkillSets will enable you to confidently deploy tailored, job-based learning programs at scale. SkillSets leverage Coursera’s comprehensive skills and role insights to identify the high-growth jobs that companies are hiring for, and the corresponding skills they require. This allows you to:

  • Choose from dozens of job-based learning programs that develop in-demand skills for entry-level roles.
  • Deliver job-based learning with confidence, knowing that you’re teaching exactly the in-demand skills necessary to drive stronger student employability outcomes.
  • Deliver tailored learning experiences with dynamic course and project recommendations that are optimized for the proficiency level of each student.
  • Drive mastery of in-demand tools and technologies using Guided Projects that leverage a side-by-side interface in a virtual cloud workspace. 

Additionally, with our Skills Development Dashboards, you can track student progress and monitor skill acquisition over time. Also, you can compare student skills against industry benchmarks. In addition to optimizing your learning programs, this information will allow you to share actionable insights with prospective employers and match candidates to the right opportunities based on their skills.

Learn more about SkillSets in our announcement here.

Curriculum Integration 

Successful curriculum integration begins with easy and effective navigation—the ability to quickly find the right courses to supplement your curriculum and fit your students’ needs. Then, you’ll want to seamlessly incorporate that content into your learning programs and workflows. And finally, you need to be able to deploy courses and monitor student progress. To achieve all these goals, we’re introducing some great new features. Let’s review each one:

Curriculum recommendations. Our curriculum recommendations feature will help you navigate the Coursera catalog to select the courses that supplement your curriculum and fit your students’ needs. This feature allows you to:

  • Browse courses by academic discipline making it easy for you to discover the courses in our catalog that correspond with the core subjects you are teaching in your curriculum.
  • View our recommendations of courses to offer for credit based on our extensive skills expertise and data to leverage the courses in our catalog that are most suitable for your core curriculum. 

For-Credit Tagging: In addition to the enhanced navigation functionality described above, this feature allows you to choose and tag which courses you would like to offer for credit. This makes it easier for your learners to see which courses are part of your core curriculum that they need to complete, right from within the Coursera platform.  

Limited Availability Schedules: You can use this feature to offer courses within timeframes that align with your academic term or other timelines that your institution observes. This simplifies program management, as you don’t have to worry about multiple, misaligned timelines. For your students, this will help to ensure they’re progressing as a cohort in order to comply with the timelines you have set. 

Online Gradebook: Our online gradebook provides you with course progress monitoring abilities, right from within the Coursera platform. Leveraging this functionality, you will be able to:

  • Track the progress of students taking a course across in order to ensure that your students are moving smoothly throughout the course. You can see this progress at a cohort level for the current academic term or for all students who have taken that course. 
  • Identify learners who are enrolled, at risk, inactive, or who have completed the course in order to take necessary corrective measures. 
  • Export data to load into your LMS in order to analyze this information along with the rest of your program information. 

The online gradebook also provides information at an individual level, allowing you to see how a student is progressing in a course, how they have performed in assignments and quizzes, and where their progress has stalled. Additionally, if you see anything that is a cause for concern (e.g. a student has failed a quiz or has been inactive), you can send them a message from within the online gradebook, providing that proactive nudge they might need. 

Online Gradebook

We’re excited for you to start taking advantage of these new features. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us or contact your customer success manager.

5

How the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks led to decades of war.

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
How the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks led to decades of war.

Two decades after invading Afghanistan, the United States is withdrawing, leaving chaos in its wake and the country much as it found it 20 years ago. “The Taliban don’t just control Kabul, but the whole country.” How did a war that began in response to the 9/11 attacks become the longest in American history? “If somebody had told me in 2001 that we were going to be there for another 20 years, I would not have believed them.” And what lessons can be learned for the future? “We were doing the same thing year after year after year, expecting a different result.” “Nearly 2,400 Americans have died in Afghanistan.” “More than 43,000 Afghan civilians lost their lives.” “You can’t remake a country on the American image. You can’t win if you’re fighting people who are fighting for their own villages and their own territory. Those were lessons we thought we learned in Vietnam. And yet, 30, 40 years later, we end up in Afghanistan, repeating the same mistakes.” On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., when he received word of an attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. “We’re looking at a live picture of the, of the building right now. And, uh, what would you say? That would be about the 90th floor or so?” The president joined his staff in an empty classroom, where his C.I.A. intelligence briefer, Michael Morell, had been watching the attack unfold. “There was a TV there and the second plane hit.” “Oh my goodness.” “Oh God.” “There’s another one.” “Oh.” “Oh my goodness, there’s another one.” “God.” “And when that happened, I knew that this was an act of terrorism.” At the Capitol in Washington, Representative Barbara Lee’s meeting was interrupted. “I heard a lot of noise saying, ‘Evacuate. Leave. Get out of here. Run fast.’ So, I ran up Independence Avenue. As I turned around, I was able to see a heck of a lot of smoke.” “Another aircraft, unbelievably, has crashed into the Pentagon.” “What you have to understand is this is the largest attack ever in the entire history of the country.” At 9:59 a.m., the second World Trade Center tower to be struck collapsed. Twenty-nine minutes later, the other tower followed. “The president, he asked to see me in his office on Air Force One. The president looked me in the eye and he said, ‘Michael, who did this?’ I told the president that I would bet my children’s future that Al Qaeda was responsible for this attack.” Within hours, evidence surfaced that Al Qaeda, a multinational terrorist organization headed by the Islamic fundamentalist Osama Bin Laden, had committed the attacks. The group was being given safe haven in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime. “The president’s inclination was to hit back and hit back hard.” “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people — ” “So the president decided to go to war.” “ — And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” “We had to go to Afghanistan. There’s no question in any of our minds, it’s a war of necessity. We had to go after Al Qaeda, we had to kill them, we had to get them out, and we had to pursue them to the ends of the earth.” “The word on the street was everyone’s got to be united with the president. You know, the country is in mourning.” Three days after the attacks, Lee was under pressure to vote yes on a resolution in Congress to authorize going to war against Al Qaeda and its allies when she heard a eulogy at a memorial service. “That as we act, we not become the evil we deplore.” “It was at that point I said, We need to think through our military response, our national security response and the possible impact on civilians.” “Mr. Speaker, members, I rise today really with a very heavy heart. One that is filled with sorrow for the families and the loved ones who were killed and injured this week. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.” “Got back to the office and all hell was breaking loose.” “The only dissenting voice was Democrat Barbara Lee of California, voting no.” “Phone calls, threats. People were calling me a traitor. She’s got to go. But I knew then it was going to set the stage for perpetual war.” Within weeks of 9/11, the U.S. struck back in Afghanistan. “The United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime.” Soon after, U.S. ground troops arrived in the country. “The invasion was a success very quickly.” “At the gates of Kabul, news of a Taliban collapse had already reached these thousands.” “The Taliban retreat has turned into a rout.” “By the end of the year, the Taliban had been driven from power. A large number of Al Qaeda operatives had either been killed or captured.” And although Osama Bin Laden had managed to escape, the U.S. had accomplished its main goal. “Al Qaeda could not operate out of Afghanistan anymore.” President Bush knew there was a history of failed military campaigns in Afghanistan. “We know this from not only intelligence but from the history of military conflict in Afghanistan. It’s been one of initial success followed by long years of floundering and ultimate failure. We’re not going to repeat that mistake.” [Applause] But after his initial success, Bush expanded the mission to nation-building. To prevent further Al Qaeda attacks, his administration said it wanted to transform the poor, war-torn country into a stable democracy, with a strong central government and U.S.-trained military. “The idea was it would be impossible for the Taliban to ever return to power and impossible for Afghanistan to ever be used as a safe haven again.” “There were girls starting to go to school, there were clinics and hospitals being set up, there were vaccinations, there were elections planned. Everything was kind of humming along and we all thought, OK, this is going to be fine.” But by the mid-2000s, after the Bush administration expanded the war on terror to Iraq, Richard Boucher realized that the U.S.-backed Afghan government was plagued by corruption and mismanagement. “I used to say to my guys on the Afghan desk, ‘If we’re winning, how come it don’t look like we’re winning?’” “The Taliban have staged a major comeback, seizing control of large swaths of the country.” “The people were not rejecting the Taliban. And that was, in the end, because the government couldn’t deliver much for the people. Everybody had this idea in their heads that government works the way it does in Washington. But Afghanistan hasn’t worked that way in the past. I think that was a moment we should’ve at least asked ourselves whether it wasn’t really time for us to leave and to say to the Afghans, ‘It’s your place, you run it as best you can.’” Instead, by 2011, President Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, had sent nearly 50,000 more troops to Afghanistan, hoping to reverse the Taliban’s gains. “I think one of the biggest mistakes we made strategically, after 9/11, was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq.” One of those troops was Marine Captain Timothy Kudo. Part of his job was to shore up support for the government by digging wells and building schools. He soon lost faith in that mission after, he says, his company killed two Afghan teenagers they mistakenly believed were firing on them. “And their family saw this happen. The mothers, the grandmothers, they came out. It was the first time I’d ever seen an Afghan woman without wearing a burqa. They were sobbing and crying uncontrollably. I mean, how can you kill two innocent people and expect anything that you say to matter at that point?” “People here have little faith in U.S. forces anymore. More Afghans now blame the violence here on the U.S. than on the Taliban.” Weeks after Kudo returned home from Afghanistan, there was a monumental development. “I started getting all these texts, like, ‘You’ve got to check out the TV.’ My roommate calls me from the other room. ‘Turn on CNN.’” “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.” “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” “In that moment, people are celebrating in front of the White House. They’re celebrating by Ground Zero.” “This is where it happened. We’re back. It’s justice!” “And to my mind, there’s no more reason to go through this madness. And, of course, we then did it for another decade.” “I think the military and the national security apparatus thought they could win. And I think that they also wanted to believe that because they had invested so much. People had died and they didn’t want them to die in vain.” “2011, Bin Laden is now dead. Why was it so hard to de-escalate?” Jeffrey Eggers was on President Obama’s National Security Council. He says that the goal since 9/11, to make sure Afghanistan would never again be a safe haven for terrorists, had become a recipe for endless war. “We will forever prevent the conditions that led to such an attack.” “Danger close!” [Gunfire] “And if you define it that way, when are you finished?” [Gunfire] “Go! Come on, come on, come on!” Though the surge failed to push back the Taliban, the U.S. drew down troop levels even as doubts were growing that Afghan forces would be able to defend the country. In 2021, President Biden, the fourth president to preside over the war, announced that he would withdraw U.S. troops, a plan set in motion by his predecessor, Donald Trump. “Nobody should have any doubts. We lost the war in Afghanistan.” “And we’re clear to cross?” “It wasn’t a peace agreement; it was a withdrawal agreement. The agreement was essentially, As we withdraw, don’t attack us.” As the U.S. leaves Afghanistan, the Taliban is taking over again, having quickly overrun the Afghan Army, which the U.S. spent more than $80 billion to train and equip. “The Taliban are out in full force. And their Islamist rule is already coming back.” “They can use this as a recruiting tool. They are now the champions of the jihadi movement because they pushed out the United States.” And U.S. officials are reflecting on the beginning of the war, 20 years after 9/11. “More people should have thought about endless war, not just in Congress but in the State Department, in the Defense Department, C.I.A. and elsewhere, in the White House. That the recipe of using military means to go after terrorism was just going to get us into one fight after another after another. One can only hope that Americans of the new generation will think about this.”

How much does a DevOps Engineer make?

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
How much does a DevOps Engineer make?
How much does a DevOps Engineer make?

Changing career paths isn’t easy. It takes time, money, patience, sacrifice, and a lot of hard work. Still, whether you’re looking to become a DevOps Engineer or just considering different Career Paths, starting a new career can lead to more job satisfaction and overall happiness.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the financial part. So, exactly how much does a DevOps Engineer make, and will all that time and effort pay off?

Like many other roles in tech, a DevOps Engineer in the US can expect a six-figure salary on average. But, there are many factors that influence how much you can expect to make as a DevOps Engineer. In this article, we’ll go over how much a DevOps Engineer makes on average and the various factors that influence their salary expectations.

How much does a DevOps Engineer make on average?

According to the latest DevOps Engineer salary data, DevOps Engineers in the US can expect to earn an average of about $119,750 per year — along with an average annual bonus of about $6,850. These are general numbers that don’t consider different work locations, skill levels, employers, or other relevant factors.

4 factors that affect how much a DevOps Engineer makes

Let’s explore four key factors that affect the average salary of a DevOps Engineer.

The job description

Though we won’t go into detail about what DevOps is and what a DevOps Engineer does, keep in mind that DevOps is more than just a job title. It’s a new organizational way of thinking that combines company culture, practices, and tools.

This means that every company has its own way of understanding and implementing DevOps, as well as its own idea of how a DevOps Engineer will fit into its model. And with different job expectations come different salary expectations, depending on whether you’re expected to devote your efforts to a specific project, an entire company, or something in between.

Where you live

As with all other jobs, your location affects your expected salary as a DevOps Engineer. Tech companies usually consider the cost of living in your area and adjust your salary accordingly.

Since so many tech companies have offices in cities with a high cost of living — Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, New York, Boston, and Washington, for example — DevOps Engineers in those areas tend to make well above the national average.

Below are the eight cities in the US with the highest average annual salary for DevOps Engineers:

Location 

Average DevOps Engineer salary

1

San Francisco, CA

$159,200

2

New York, NY

$133,300

3

Austin, TX

$132,650

4

Seattle, WA

$125,250

5

Boston, MA

$124,450

6

San Diego, CA

$120,475

7

Chicago, IL

$117,350

8

Portland, OR

$115,350

The company you work for

While location and cost of living play a big role in a DevOps Engineer’s annual salary, so does the specific company you work for. There are two reasons for this:

First, bigger cities are often home to many tech companies that compete for the same group of available talent, and there simply isn’t enough to satisfy the huge demand for DevOps Engineers. Some of these companies offer higher salaries to convince DevOps Engineers to work for them instead of the competition down the street.

Second, companies located outside the most desirable cities and areas have an even harder time recruiting talented DevOps Engineers. Offering a higher salary is often the only way to get people to move farther away from big cities. All of this is great news for a DevOps Engineer in training!

Below are the ten companies that pay the highest average salaries for DevOps Engineers:

Company

Headquarters

Average DevOps Engineer salary

Company

City

1

Stanford Health Care

Palo Alto, CA

$201,700

$162,975

2

Third Republic

New York, NY

$162,775

$133,300

3

Cisco

San Jose, CA

$155,500

$138,250

4

The College Board

New York, NY

$154,525

$133,300

5

ClearCapital.com

Reno, NV

$153,000

$79,450

6

Zachary Piper Solutions

McLean, VA

$152,400

$130,175

7

NortonLifeLock

Tempe, AZ

$144,400

$110,825

8

Capital One

McLean, VA

$144,100

$130,175

9

Automobile Club of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA

$144,025

$139,500

10

Selby Jennings

New York, NY (USA HQ)

$143,100

$133,300

Your DevOps skillset

The skills you bring to the table as a DevOps Engineer have a major impact on your salary. If you’re just starting out, make sure you have at least a basic grasp of all of the important DevOps skills and tools.

Some of the most in-demand DevOps skills include knowledge of:

  • System administration (managing servers, databases, cybersecurity systems, and network connectivity)
  • Configuration management tools (Chef, Ansible, Puppet)
  • Coding foundations and fundamentals of programming
  • Continuous integration tools (Bamboo, TeamCity)
  • Containerization tools (Docker, Vagrant)
  • Automation and deployment tools (Heroku, Jenkins, Octopus Deploy)
  • Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)

While your future role may only require a few of these skills, the more you learn now, the more versatile you’ll be as a DevOps Engineer. Plus, you’ll be able to negotiate a higher salary.

Even when you’ve already landed your dream job as a DevOps Engineer, staying on top of the latest skills, tools, and methods will be a big help when it’s time for your next bonus or raise.

Compensation is more than just your salary

There’s no question that you can expect a competitive salary in your new career as a DevOps Engineer. But, your total compensation package includes so much more than your take-home pay. As you apply to different companies and negotiate your compensation, keep in mind that a company that offers a lower salary may make up for it in other ways such as:

  • Performance-based annual bonuses
  • Vacation, flextime, and remote working policies
  • Stock purchase options and employee ownership of the company
  • 401(k) and retirement account contributions
  • Relocation reimbursement

It pays to become a DevOps Engineer

As you continue along your path toward becoming a DevOps Engineer, the journey might seem long and difficult at times. But you can rest assured knowing that it’ll all pay off emotionally, professionally, and financially. And if you ever need help figuring out your next steps, our community is always there to support you along the way.

Adobe invests in online training to extend AI and machine learning knowledge

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Adobe invests in online training to extend AI and machine learning knowledge
Adobe invests in online training to extend AI and machine learning knowledge

Adobe brings AI to creativity, data, and business

Adobe is a technology leader focused on changing the world through digital experiences. From transforming how digital documents are managed with Adobe Document Cloud to its industry-leading creative apps in Adobe Creative Cloud and groundbreaking customer experience management solutions for businesses in Adobe Experience Cloud, the company has changed how digital experiences are created, optimized, and delivered.

Adobe Sensei, the artificial intelligence and machine learning technology developed by Adobe, drives hundreds of innovative capabilities across its products to amplify (not replace) human creativity and intelligence by eliminating time-consuming and redundant tasks. Examples of AI-powered capabilities in Adobe tools include automatically cropping videos to match aspect ratios while keeping important subjects in frame, streamlining digital form-based processes, and enabling companies to deliver personalized content and recommendations to customers.

“Adobe has a world-class research team, and we use our AI research to deliver the cutting-edge capabilities our customers need to create and deliver digital experiences that stand out,” says Tim Converse, Senior Director of Applied Machine Learning at Adobe. “Given the importance of AI today, it’s vital that our engineers understand how to bring AI into applications and build capabilities that give our customers and us a competitive edge.”

With engineering talent in high demand throughout the technology sector, Adobe decided to focus on empowering its existing workforce with additional AI and ML training opportunities. 

Coursera helps Adobe expand AI and ML education to thousands

With thousands of engineers worldwide, Adobe wanted a scalable, online learning platform that provided the in-depth AI and ML knowledge that engineers need. After looking at numerous platforms, Adobe adopted Coursera.

“Coursera offers much deeper learning content compared to competing providers, while making learning accessible and affordable,” says Danielle Clark, Senior Director of Talent Development at Adobe. “We were also very impressed by the service and support we received from the Coursera team. When we approached Coursera about how we could adjust curriculum to better fit our needs, they worked with us to find the best courses.”

Adobe initially selected courses emphasizing the math and theory behind AI. After receiving feedback from learners, Adobe decided to shift to curriculum based on more practical coding and project-based learning. This approach better engaged the Adobe engineers, who wanted more hands-on learning and experimentation.

“Coursera’s flexible, responsive approach to curriculum is a huge benefit for us,” says Converse. “We now offer engineers six courses in four modules. We’ve seen strong interest from engineers participating in courses.”

RESULTS:

– High-quality AI and ML education with a focus on practical applications
– Flexible, online coursework that has empowered many engineers to grow their AI and ML knowledge
– Online learning platforms support a culture of learning and development that helps to attract and retain employees

Adobe engineers contribute to product design with AI and ML

Coursera courses are entirely optional for Adobe engineers, and as a result, participants must be highly self-motivated. According to feedback, many engineers were excited about the course content and the challenges it presented, which further motivated learning. On average, learners spent 131 hours completing Coursera courses since Adobe launched its program. 

Some Adobe engineers learning on Coursera have already had their AI ideas incorporated into product development—a clear demonstration that the focus on skill has a direct impact on Adobe applications. Additionally, 68% said the courses improved their knowledge and comfort with AI and ML, and half of the participants have used their understanding to bring new ideas to projects.

“With a greater understanding of what AI can do through Coursera coursework, engineers can think of new ways to incorporate Adobe’s AI and machine learning technology into applications and bring new features to customers faster,” says Converse.

Adobe cultivates a culture of learning

Adobe continues to look at ways to expand and reinforce learning through Coursera, particularly as online learning gains steam as an effective, scalable way to reach Adobe employees worldwide.

“Adobe places a strong focus on career development and learning for all employees,” explains Clark. “Managers will work with employees to rearrange their duties and help them carve out time to focus on education. Training like this allows us to attract, develop, and retain the top talent that helps Adobe maintain its reputation as a technology leader.”

IMPACT, according to Adobe:

– 68% of engineers who have completed Coursera coursework have significantly improved their knowledge of AI and machine learning (ML) 
– 50% have used their AI and ML learning to bring new ideas to projects
– Hundreds of engineers have applied their knowledge towards active product development

Read the full case study here.

 

How KL deemed to be University is helping students acquire in-demand skills and job-ready credentials

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
How KL deemed to be University is helping students acquire in-demand skills and job-ready credentials
KL deemed to be University leverages Coursera to help its students acquire in-demand skills and job-ready credentials

Helping students prepare for successful careers after graduation 

KL deemed to be University’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering wanted to give students more opportunities to prepare for successful careers. For students graduating with a Bachelor’s of technology degree in computer science and engineering (CSE), a specialization or a minor in a subject like business administration, artificial intelligence, or Internet of Things can set them apart in a crowded field of recent graduates. Earning an honors distinction can also help students land a good job. 

However, very few students were pursuing extra credits. Conducting additional classwork for the credits required for minor programs or honors was often challenging considering the logistics related to transportation and access of University resources, both physical and human resources, after hours. The options for elective courses were limited, and it was often difficult to fit the additional courses into their schedules. 

Offering flexible, online learning for credit

By partnering with Coursera, KL deemed to be University is enhancing its own curriculum to make it easier for CSE students to earn a minor or an honors distinction. Students now have access to Coursera’s large catalog of online courses, which gives them more elective courses to choose from and more flexibility for fitting those extra courses into their schedules. 

According to pre-COVID guidelines set by India’s Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) applicable to KL deemed to be University, up to 20% of credits applied to a degree could be earned online. That meant KL deemed to be University students could take up to 32 credits online, out of the 160 credits required for a degree. In response to the pandemic, the MHRD has raised the online limit to 40% of total credits.   

As part of the Coursera for Campus implementation, KL deemed to be University’s faculty mapped the Coursera catalog to their own curriculum. They identified all of the online courses that supported their CSE teaching goals and divided them into two categories:

  • Some Coursera courses were integrated into regular courses taught by faculty. This approach lets KL deemed to be University faculty members bring world-class content to their students. At the same time, faculty can use digital tools to improve the student experience through active learning methods, flipped learning pedagogy, innovative evaluation mechanisms, formative assessments, virtual labs, and online capstone projects.
  • Other Coursera courses were added to the curriculum as stand-alone, for-credit courses. CSE students can apply these fully online courses toward their major or minor requirements. And students who are on the cusp of graduating with honors can use Coursera to earn the extra credits they need to reach the threshold. 

Coursera also makes it easier for students to complete prerequisites before enrolling in advanced courses. For example, KL deemed to be University’s artificial intelligence and computer networks courses require a knowledge of the Python programming language, but the university doesn’t teach Python as a separate language as part of its academics structure. To bridge that gap, students interested in those courses must first complete the University of Michigan’s Python for Everybody specialization. 

Students who have fallen behind their peers in a particular subject area can take an online course to catch up. “Coursera is not just for the fast learners,” said Professor Hari Kiran Vege, Head of Computer Science and Engineering. “It’s also for students who are albeit slow in their learning. They can use Coursera to brush up their earlier courses and take the exam so that it’s easy for them. We are trying to touch upon all categories of students.” 

RESULTS

– More than 6,770 students enrolled in Coursera courses, completing more than 106,000 courses and 425,000 learning hours 
– Introduced for-credit online learning by offering standalone online courses for-credit and blending them with existing courses
– Equipped students with cutting-edge skills in fields including business administration, artificial intelligence, and data science

Increasing the number of students completing specializations, minors, and honors programs

KL deemed to be University’s Coursera for Campus partnership launched in January 2020. Since then, the number of CSE students choosing to do specializations, minors, and honors has increased dramatically. The number of students who took the honors program has increased by 100%. The number of students who took minor programs has increased to 36 in numbers compared to a zero earlier. The number of students who picked specializations that have courses from Coursera have increased in their intake by more than 50% compared to earlier batches. The most popular are business administration, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources, and data science. 

“Coursera has a huge set of business-related courses,” said Professor Vege. “Students now have the flexibility to pick what they like from what we offer and do the minor programs. It’s more flexible and there’s a lot of variety.” 

Boosting student confidence with professional certifications 

Since many of the online courses available through Coursera were developed by leading universities and technology firms, KL deemed to be University’s CSE students can feel confident they’re getting high-quality instructional content. In some fields, they can even earn credentials from industry leaders, like a professional certificate in data science from IBM or a specialization in machine learning with TensorFlow from Google.

“If I have to pick one thing that’s the main benefit for students, I think they enjoy getting those certificates from various universities and various companies,” said Professor Vege. “Students add a lot of these certificates to their LinkedIn profiles, and it boosts their confidence.”

Professor Vege emphasized the value of Coursera’s analytics features, which show students’ progress in acquiring specific skills. “It brings in a lot of assurance to us of the kind of skills that are being imparted to the students. That assurance was difficult and unmeasurable before, because we didn’t have this mechanism to calculate the skill level of the students.”

Making it easy for faculty to keep up with continuing education

Faculty upskilling is another key benefit. Collectively, KL deemed to be University’s CSE faculty has to complete more than 38,000 hours of continuing education collectively per year to maintain their academic status. Before the Coursera implementation, the college put a lot of effort into scheduling faculty development programs. But now, Coursera has made it easy for faculty members to refresh their skills through self-directed learning. “They are able to upskill whatever they learned earlier, and it’s happening in a very seamless way,” said Professor Vege.

IMPACT, according to KL deemed to be University

– 100% increase in students pursuing an honors distinction to improve job-readiness
– 81% of learners completed 4+ Coursera courses
– Attracted students into new minors programs specializing in cutting-edge career skills

Read the full case study here.

 

Launching SkillSets for Coursera for Campus: Preparing Students for High-Growth Entry-level Jobs

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Launching SkillSets for Coursera for Campus: Preparing Students for High-Growth Entry-level Jobs

By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management

University students are graduating into a new labor market, changed drastically by automation and the pandemic. The World Economic Forum estimates 85 million jobs will be displaced globally by 2025, with 40% of core skills changing for jobs that are set to remain.

The shifting skills landscape is also creating opportunities in the workforce, with 149 million new digital jobs expected by 2025. However, companies feel there is a mismatch between the skills students are graduating with and the skills required in the modern workplace. Recent research by Burning Glass Technologies found that hiring for entry-level college graduate positions has fallen 45%. 

Skills can connect academic curricula and the needs of employers. Today, we’re excited to announce that after a successful pilot, SkillSets are now available to any university using Coursera for Campus, an innovation that enables higher education institutions to prepare their students for high-demand jobs at scale. Students choose their target entry-level job, and SkillSets determine the exact skills they need to land those jobs and the content that will help prepare them. 

SkillSets are job-based learning programs that help universities: 

  • Drive target skill proficiencies needed for specific high-demand jobs for students at scale, with world-class content from leading university and industry educators like Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, Google, and IBM 
  • Accelerate skills acquisition through dynamic, personalized learning experiences for each student that curates content based on current skill level and target proficiency 
  • Integrate hands-on learning with Guided Projects to drive mastery of digital tools like Google Ads, WordPress, and Excel, and create portfolios of work 
  • Track skills development and proficiency at the student and cohort level, benchmarked against real employees in the industry 

Employers and students are increasingly looking to universities to prepare graduates for a competitive and fast-changing workforce. Universities are responding to the new paradigm, evolving their approach to deliver strong student outcomes by providing skills-first employability curricula.    

Within SkillSets, a given skill is assigned a target score between 0 (a true beginner) and 500 (the highest level of proficiency and mastery). 
Learners are then presented with a set of dynamic, data-driven course recommendations that tie to their skill goals. When a learner successfully completes a course assessment, the corresponding skill score increases.

With SkillSets, students can gain both the theoretical and applied knowledge they need to secure their chosen job upon graduation, and they can track their progress against their goals. Skills development analytics are important because universities need to know not only the skills required for specific jobs, but be able to communicate the level of skill proficiency their students can bring to that role. This creates the opportunity to connect skills-first learning with skills-first hiring. 

By developing the language of industry, universities can build relationships with recruiters and employers and match candidates to the right opportunities based on their skills. 

PROFICIENCY BY SKILL

PROFICIENCY BY SKILL INDUSTRY BENCHMARK

Measure the impact of SkillSets through the Skills Development Dashboard. 

With SkillSets, employers can hire with more confidence that university students are graduating with the same skills as current industry professionals. Collaboration between universities and employers will help prepare graduates for the new digital economy. To learn more about how you can use SkillSets to unlock employment opportunities for your students, visit coursera.org/campus.

 

Q3 Features Release: Deliver job-based learning and build a cutting-edge curriculum

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Q3 Features Release: Deliver job-based learning and build a cutting-edge curriculum

By Shwetabh Mittal, Senior Director, Product Management

We’re excited to share details with you about some exciting new Q3 launches. In this post, we’ll specifically be discussing SkillSets, which are job-based learning programs that can help you bridge skills gaps and boost student job outcomes as well as new curriculum integration features—including curriculum recommendations, for-credit tagging, limited availability schedules, and the online gradebook.

SkillSets

SkillSets are job-based learning programs that leverage world-class courses from leading universities and companies, hands-on learning, and skills insights derived from Coursera learners at over 2,300 employers. With dozens of SkillSets currently available, you can confidently prepare students with the in-demand skills necessary to secure today’s high-growth jobs. Within a given SkillSet, students will take courses and projects tailored to their existing proficiency levels that accelerate their skill mastery.

Example SkillSet

What are the benefits of SkillSets?

SkillSets will enable you to confidently deploy tailored, job-based learning programs at scale. SkillSets leverage Coursera’s comprehensive skills and role insights to identify the high-growth jobs that companies are hiring for, and the corresponding skills they require. This allows you to:

  • Choose from dozens of job-based learning programs that develop in-demand skills for entry-level roles.
  • Deliver job-based learning with confidence, knowing that you’re teaching exactly the in-demand skills necessary to drive stronger student employability outcomes.
  • Deliver tailored learning experiences with dynamic course and project recommendations that are optimized for the proficiency level of each student.
  • Drive mastery of in-demand tools and technologies using Guided Projects that leverage a side-by-side interface in a virtual cloud workspace. 

Additionally, with our Skills Development Dashboards, you can track student progress and monitor skill acquisition over time. Also, you can compare student skills against industry benchmarks. In addition to optimizing your learning programs, this information will allow you to share actionable insights with prospective employers and match candidates to the right opportunities based on their skills.

Learn more about SkillSets in our announcement here.

Curriculum Integration 

Successful curriculum integration begins with easy and effective navigation—the ability to quickly find the right courses to supplement your curriculum and fit your students’ needs. Then, you’ll want to seamlessly incorporate that content into your learning programs and workflows. And finally, you need to be able to deploy courses and monitor student progress. To achieve all these goals, we’re introducing some great new features. Let’s review each one:

Curriculum recommendations. Our curriculum recommendations feature will help you navigate the Coursera catalog to select the courses that supplement your curriculum and fit your students’ needs. This feature allows you to:

  • Browse courses by academic discipline making it easy for you to discover the courses in our catalog that correspond with the core subjects you are teaching in your curriculum.
  • View our recommendations of courses to offer for credit based on our extensive skills expertise and data to leverage the courses in our catalog that are most suitable for your core curriculum. 

For-Credit Tagging: In addition to the enhanced navigation functionality described above, this feature allows you to choose and tag which courses you would like to offer for credit. This makes it easier for your learners to see which courses are part of your core curriculum that they need to complete, right from within the Coursera platform.  

Limited Availability Schedules: You can use this feature to offer courses within timeframes that align with your academic term or other timelines that your institution observes. This simplifies program management, as you don’t have to worry about multiple, misaligned timelines. For your students, this will help to ensure they’re progressing as a cohort in order to comply with the timelines you have set. 

Online Gradebook: Our online gradebook provides you with course progress monitoring abilities, right from within the Coursera platform. Leveraging this functionality, you will be able to:

  • Track the progress of students taking a course across in order to ensure that your students are moving smoothly throughout the course. You can see this progress at a cohort level for the current academic term or for all students who have taken that course. 
  • Identify learners who are enrolled, at risk, inactive, or who have completed the course in order to take necessary corrective measures. 
  • Export data to load into your LMS in order to analyze this information along with the rest of your program information. 

The online gradebook also provides information at an individual level, allowing you to see how a student is progressing in a course, how they have performed in assignments and quizzes, and where their progress has stalled. Additionally, if you see anything that is a cause for concern (e.g. a student has failed a quiz or has been inactive), you can send them a message from within the online gradebook, providing that proactive nudge they might need. 

Online Gradebook

We’re excited for you to start taking advantage of these new features. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us or contact your customer success manager.

 

An Interview with Jacob Cass of JUST Creative

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
An Interview with Jacob Cass of JUST Creative

Jacob Cass is a brand designer and educator, as well as the founder of JUST Creative, an award-winning branding and design consultancy and blog. JUST Creative works with entrepreneurs and businesses who want to strategically build a brand that cuts through the noise and delivers a clear goal-focused message, with a consistent visual style.

A strong believer in the value and accessibility of online learning, Jacob has been a lifelong learner his entire career and encourages all budding designers to be the same. He currently teaches through both his blog and his coaching programme. Jacob spoke to the Alison blog about his industry experience, how to get ahead in design and his advice for learners.

 

Hi Jacob, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hey! Jacob Cass here! I love helping designers, entrepreneurs and experts make money doing what they love through branding, design, marketing and business smarts. As for me, I am a brand designer, strategist, educator, podcaster, business coach, community builder and the founder of JUST Creative, a design consultancy that doubles as an industry-leading blog (and passive-income machine!). I’m classically trained as a graphic designer but have been deeply involved in the design and branding industry since 2007.

Along with a Bachelor in Visual Communication from The University of Newcastle, Sydney, you also hold a Brand Master Certification from Brand Master Academy. How have you found your own experience of online learning?

Online learning has been part of my education since the very beginning and still is today. I learn from online course providers as well as blogs, podcasts and everything in between. Online learning has exploded in the past few years, which has been both good and bad. On one hand, we have more teachers and knowledge, however the quality varies dramatically because “everyone’s a teacher”. In some courses, I haven’t got past the first module and others have provided paradigm shifts that have totally changed the trajectory of my career.

Through your JUST Branding Podcast and your Inner Triangle Coaching Program you teach designers, entrepreneurs and creatives how to grow their brands. What inspired you to be not just a brand designer, but an educator in brand design?

Looking back on my career as a designer, it’s clear to see that I’ve always been an educator. Earlier in my career, I was educating through writing but more recently that has shifted to educating via audio, as well as live through one-on-one coaching and group coaching.

As an experienced educator, what advice do you give your students that would also help Alison Learners?

Never stop learning. Life is a continuous journey of education. If you have a subject that you love, go all in and educate yourself from multiple sources. Take courses from different teachers as they will have their own unique knowledge to share, and amplify your learnings by reading books and actually putting what you learn into ACTION. Action is everything.

You included Alison’s Visual and Graphic Design course on your list of the 10 Best Free Graphic Design Courses Online. How did Alison come up on your radar and what prompted you to include it in your list?

I came across Alison when researching free graphic design courses on Google and I was impressed with the knowledge that was being given away for free so I just had to share your course on our list. The modules covered the basics of design and it wasn’t overwhelming for those just getting started.

 

What are the most important skills to learn to become a successful graphic designer?

At minimum, a successful designer must know the principles of effective visual communication aka what makes “good design”, as well as the process of how to effectively achieve this. Particular areas that I believe designers should master are the core design principles, typography and color theory.

Soft skills are crucial as well. This comes with practice but often way too late in one’s career. By soft skills I refer mainly to people skills – learning how to get to the root cause of people’s problems, how to sell your services, how to negotiate and so much more.

You’ve previously worked for some huge global brands, such as Nike and Disney, and are now focusing on working with smaller businesses to grow their brands. What prompted this change, and how rewarding do you find working with entrepreneurs?

For five years, I worked in advertising agencies in New York who had Fortune 500 companies as clients, and that’s where I cut my teeth in the industry. This taught me a lot about branding, design, advertising and how to apply my skills in the real world. The shift to small businesses happened when I left New York to travel the world. I explored over 60 countries over 3 years and during this time I started running my design agency and the JUST Creative blog which focused on smaller businesses.

You’ve said that you believe design to be “a lifelong journey of continuously honing your craft” and that you encourage other designers and entrepreneurs to continue to always learn. How do you always make sure that you continue to learn and upskill professionally?

What you put in is what you get out. If you consume garbage, your output is going to be garbage. Learn from the masters, from people who’ve been there and have the results to prove it. Don’t just consume either. Put what you learn into action as that’s how you will continue to learn and upskill professionally.

Follow industry-leader Jacob’s advice and start your design journey with Alison’s Visual and Graphic Design course now!

 

The Best Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets You Need to Know

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
The Best Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets You Need to Know

The Best Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheets You Need to Know

Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours to accomplish everything you need to get done each day? Using keyboard shortcuts is a surefire way to increase your productivity and accomplish more work each day. Here at Designer Blogs, we use keyboard shortcuts like mad women to help us dramatically speed up our design work and processes and it is why we share with you the best keyboard shortcut cheat sheet we know.

The first cheat sheet we want to share with you includes all the basics. We have created it especially for you in perfect Pinterest format, so you can pin it and use it whenever you will need it. This sheet includes the most popular shortcuts for both Windows and Mac. I use them every day at work and I can’t stress enough how much time they save me!

The Most Popular Shortcuts for Windows and Mac

Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet For Adobe

If you are using Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign you need to check this website. You will find here a shortcut cheat sheet visualizer that will speed up your work.  You can print them out and pin them up by your computer or download them as desktop wallpaper for quick reference when you need help remembering a shortcut.

Keyboard Shortcut Cheat Sheet For Adobe
by FastPrint

We think these are pretty great and hope you will too!

Did you know any of those shortcuts already? What are your favorite ones? Make sure to share them with us in the comments.

Prepare for Career Success in the New Global Economy

By
onlinefreecourse
-
0
Prepare for Career Success in the New Global Economy

by Ekaterina Zinkovskaya, eLearning Office, HSE University 

Earn a master’s degree from HSE University in key career fields like data science, business analytics, computer vision, and more.

As the employment landscape continues to rapidly evolve in response to unprecedented technological, economic, and environmental disruptions across the globe, universities are playing a critical role in adapting their programs to help ensure that students are learning the most in-demand skills and are well prepared to succeed in their careers.

HSE University’s master’s programs on Coursera offer students the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in today’s new labor market. The World Economic Forum, in their Future of Jobs Report, has identified key professional areas to focus on: data analysis and artificial intelligence, engineering and cloud technology, product development, sales, marketing, and content management, as well as the care economy, green economy and culture. Together, these spheres are predicted to provide 6.1 million jobs in the next few years.  

Our programs are tailored to meet the needs of learners pursuing career advancement in these growing fields, and we emphasize real-world skills mastered through on-the-job learning cases. As a result, HSE University graduates enter the labor market with high levels of career confidence. According to the HSE University Centre for Institutional Research, 83% of graduates feel competitive in the labor market. That same percentage of respondents also report employment in their specialty, and the employment rate of those surveyed at the time of graduation is 96%. 

Below we explore master’s programs in data science, computer vision, finance, business analytics, and data and network analytics. We discuss topics covered in the programs, as well as career paths and salary expectations for each of these fields.

The Master of Data Science program, the first of its kind to be offered by a Russian university on Coursera, is designed for students pursuing successful careers in data analysis, machine learning development, and research. With learners coming from more than 30 countries, including Russia, India, the United States, China, Germany, the UK, and more, the program is truly global. In addition to being qualified for postgraduate research in data science, graduates are also prepared for data scientist and machine learning engineer positions. In Russia, applicants with one year of experience earn a monthly income of 115 thousand roubles, while experts with six years of experience start at 300 thousand roubles a month. In the US, the income of a novice data scientist is $68,000 a year. 

The Master of Computer Vision program provides students with the opportunity to gain the knowledge and tools necessary for careers in computer vision software engineering, perception engineering, 3D perception/computer vision algorithm engineering, computer vision test engineering, and computer vision science. The program is developed by experts from the Faculty of Informatics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, as well as experts from industry leaders such as Huawei, Itseez3D, Intel, Harman, and Xperience.ai. Qualified practitioners are in high demand accordingly and typically command high salaries. In London, computer vision specialists earn over £76,000 a year on average. In New York, that figure is over $160,000, and in San Francisco, it’s over $170,000 a year. The Master of Computer Vision program is ideal for practicing engineers, programmers, IT specialists, developers, and AI experts who are ready to grow their careers, as well as mid-career professionals looking to change their career tracks and young professionals with IT and math backgrounds who are eager to launch their careers in this emerging field.

The Master of Finance master’s program was established at the HSE Banking Institute based on the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Institute syllabus. The program is tailored to benefit recent graduates and aspiring professionals who want to take up leading positions in finance: practicing consultants and financiers; specialists in financial reporting and analysis; economists, managers, and lawyers working in related fields; strategic managers who evaluate investment decisions; owners and founders of start-ups, and more. Program graduates are prepared for careers at Russian and international banks, investment funds, rating agencies, consulting groups, auditing companies, and government financial institutions. In Russia, financial analysts currently earn a monthly salary starting at RUB 150,000, while a director of finance and investments can earn at least RUB 200,000 a month. In the US, the average yearly salary of a financial analyst starts at $61,000 per year.  

Students in the Master of Business Analytics program of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at HSE University build knowledge and skills to succeed in finance, accounting, and compliance careers. The program curriculum covers current processes in corporate finance and business decision-making; valuation and management of company value with regard to the contribution of non-financial capitals; value-oriented compliance methods; business risk management methodology based on the integration of non-financial capitals; and new standards of strategic reporting by companies, based on very new initiatives of value reporting by regulatory bodies. The program is ideal for those just beginning their careers as well as mid-career professionals looking to move into a new career track. Within the Russian labor market, a senior business analyst at an IT company receives a monthly salary starting at 170,000 roubles. An analyst in an investment bank and a compliance consultant will typically begin at 200,000 roubles. On the international market, a senior business analyst at an IT company can earn a salary starting at $8,000 per month, and a chief compliance officer can generally expect to start at around $16,500 per month.

The Master of Data and Network Analytics program was developed by experts from the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research at HSE University. In response to the prevailing shortage of qualified data analysis experts across the globe, the program is specifically geared towards helping students master the essential skills necessary to fill these in-demand roles. The curriculum includes comprehensive training in the latest state-of-the-art analytics. Graduates of the program will be prepared to succeed in fields such as economics and finance, management, public administration, IT, medicine, and research. Data analysts with the kinds of diverse skills learned in this program are highly valued across industries and generally earn high salaries. For example, a data analyst in Moscow with 3 to 6 years of experience can earn between 200,000 and 350,000 roubles a month. The average salary for a Data Analyst in the US is $73,000 a year, while Lead Network Engineers earn around $120,000 a year. 

As the modern global economy continues to evolve, HSE offers a wide range of opportunities for you to build valuable career skills that are in high demand across growing industries. Whether your focus is on established areas such as finance or emerging fields like computer vision, you’ll learn from leading scholars and top industry experts as you gain the skills and knowledge to succeed in your chosen career field.

 

1...1,2561,2571,258...1,684Page 1,257 of 1,684

Recent Posts