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March’s industry round-ups

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March’s industry round-ups

New research: Most institutions expect to be worse off, but edtech can lessen impact – survey
The PIE, 23 March
According to a flash survey from HolonIQ, the majority of education institutions expect to be worse off in the long and short term as a result of coronavirus. However, by enhancing edtech provisions they expect to lessen the impact of a drop in face-to-face enrolments. Respondents of the survey included over 700+ ministers, presidents, vice-chancellors, CEOs, senior executives and investors from 50 countries. A quarter of all respondents said they identify new technologies as their primary growth strategy, an increase of 10% since September 2019, with little doubt that COVID-19 is a key driver of this change. However, the feeling that “the time for online has come” is evident in respondents’ feedback. 

Opinion: School performance tables are cancelled – should university league tables be cancelled too?
HEPI, 25 March
This opinion piece argues that university league tables, like school performances tables, should be cancelled for 2021 and 2022. This is because the National Student Survey runs between January and the end of April, meaning the results will be a mix of those who completed before the pandemic and those completing now, reflecting two very different types of student experience. It is also likely to suffer from lower response rates, given how much of the promotion of the survey is done on campuses, and many students have now left their campuses. In terms of the graduate prospects data, for 2022 this will rely on the surveying of graduates who are entering the labour market this summer. Given the economic implications of Britain responding to COVID-19, the data is also unlikely to be comparable to previous years. 

Opinion: Universities will be changed forever by the Coronavirus crisis – and its aftermath
HEPI, 23 March
This opinion piece claims that the coronavirus pandemic has caused a greater sense of unity and collective mission among UK universities than at any point in recent years. It also argues that The Office for Students (OfS) has become notably more emollient and will be more flexible and empathetic after the crisis. It suggests five proposals for the university sector over the next year: first, universities need to lay competition aside and support each other through the crisis; secondly, there needs to be a unified strong voice in the sector to protect public reputation; thirdly educational vision needs to be widened; fourth, build on the opportunities that the virus has exposed, and lastly vice-chancellors’ overpay needs to be scrutinised.

Opinion: Will the coronavirus make online education go viral?
THE, 12 March
When THE surveyed leaders of prominent global universities in 2018, the 200 respondents – from 45 countries across six continents – were emphatic on one point: online higher education would never match the real thing. However, this article argues that as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, online higher education will become the new normal, a development that has come far sooner than expected and not without its problems. 

Editorial reporting: Australian universities begin moving classes online to tackle COVID-19 outbreak
ZDNet, 18 March
Universities across Australia have begun transitioning towards online classes in a bid to minimise the spread of COVID-19. Queensland University of Technology will provide all lectures online, along with the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and Melbourne University. While universities have made efforts to minimise the spread of COVID-19 through online classes, Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said on Wednesday morning that schools and universities will continue to remain open as all arrangements, likely to be in place for at least six months, need to be “scalable and sustainable”.

Editorial reporting: shift to online education spreads in US, covering entire states
THE, 11 March
Coronavirus cancellations are rapidly becoming the norm across US higher education, with dozens of institutions and even entire states ending in-person classes. Universities that have moved their teaching online or are making plans to do so now include most of the Ivy League, with heavy concentrations of campuses in New York, Massachusetts, Washington and California – the four US states with the largest numbers of coronavirus cases. However, there are some concerns for the shift to online learning, such as foreign students who may lack local housing options and the technological options to resume their studies online.

Editorial reporting: With 290 million kids out of school, coronavirus is putting online learning to the test
Quartz, 5 March
According to the United Nations, school closures in 13 countries to contain the spread of Covid-19 are disrupting the education of 290 million students globally. This has led millions of teachers and students to turn to online learning, much of which is unfamiliar and untested at such scale. Rose Luckin, a professor of learning-centered design at University College London, says that there are several reasons to worry about the prospect of scaled remote learning across the UK as not all schools have the tech or support to make this happen. However, Ellen Mahoney, founder of Sea Change Mentoring argues that “there will be interesting lessons from this. One is how to use technology and I hope it helps schools to be more adaptable and flexible.”

 

Category Research insights

Introducing FutureLearn Campus

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Introducing FutureLearn Campus

We’re living in unprecedented times. Coronavirus continues to affect lives all over the world and its impact on the education sector has been keenly felt, with university campuses and schools worldwide having to shut their doors to staff and students alike.

At FutureLearn, our purpose is to transform access to education. Never has the need been so great to support HEI’s in transforming that access, as many students who would usually be sat in their classrooms find themselves dispersed, in different timezones, and possibly with little access to quality hardware or the internet. As just one of our responses to the ongoing pandemic, FutureLearn Campus – an initiative planned to launch in late 2020 – was rapidly released in early March to all of our existing university partners at no additional fee.

 

What is FutureLearn Campus?

FutureLearn Campus is able to support universities in a number of ways. Firstly, it enables HEI’s to open up any short courses that they have already created on the FutureLearn platform, for free, to their current students and staff – on any device and wherever in the world they are. FutureLearn, as a social learning platform, can support students with a connected social experience and is extremely effective at encouraging interactions between peers, educators and support staff. 

These short courses can be delivered as open, enabling students to join a global community. What’s more, accessibility barriers are lowered as students and staff can sign in easily using their university account to join the short courses with free access to premium features.

Secondly, courses can be run to private cohorts, meaning universities can run courses through FutureLearn that only their students and staff can access, asynchronously and accessibly. The university partner can  create new or adapt existing high-quality courses to be tailored to their own students’ needs. 

 

Supporting universities moving to distance learning

We know one problem many universities are facing right now is integration. It’s important to note this offering is also compatible with universities’ own synchronous tools such as Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate, or Adobe Connect.

FutureLearn Campus also complements existing Virtual Learning Environments and Learning Management Systems, and enables the delivery of structured distance learning to students on any device wherever they are in the world. 

 

Putting FutureLearn Campus to the test

The first partner to sign up to FutureLearn Campus was the University of Michigan, ranked 21st in the world and with 42,982 FTE students. The University of Leeds has also made a version of Campus available to their 40,000+ students and, through the private platform, launched their “Preparing to Learn Online at University” course via Campus. There is also a public version of the course available on the open FutureLearn platform. Several other partner universities in the UK, Europe, APAC, and the US are currently looking into how they can also give millions of their students and staff access to FutureLearn Campus.

 

What next? FutureLearn Campus 2.0

We are currently rapidly working on the launch of the next version of FutureLearn Campus. This will be a full FutureLearn.com discovery experience and include free access to every short course on the platform to all of our partner’s students and staff. This will mean that each partner’s courses are available to other universities within the partnership. 

FutureLearn Campus is not just a short term solution for current challenges, but a valuable resource over the longer term that will allow universities worldwide to open up their virtual doors to today’s globalised, digitally-driven student base, while delivering lifelong learning opportunities to staff.

Category Research insights

Coursera’s Commitment to Learning: How We Support Skill Development

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Coursera’s Commitment to Learning: How We Support Skill Development

By Kara Behnke and Alexandra Urban, Teaching & Learning Team

We at Coursera care deeply about helping learners everywhere gain the skills needed to reach their goals. Whether an open course, a guided project, or an entire Bachelor’s or Master’s degree program, content on Coursera includes tight alignment from the learning objectives to the assessment activities and finally to the instructional materials. Our pedagogy principles are based on Coursera’s experience with millions of learners around the world, both their success stories and their challenges. Insights from internal data, combined with research findings on the science of learning, are at the core of how we support meaningful learning. 

Starting with learning objectives

To start, clear learning objectives are defined to outline the desired skills that learners will gain. These are actionable, specific, and include a criteria for success so learners know why these skills are important and how to reach them. We use action verbs, such as “explain,” “apply,” and “evaluate,” to help frame how each skill can be used inside and outside of the course as well as specific examples to contextualize the purpose of these goals.

Building meaningful assessments

The learning objectives are then achieved by completing assignments, which include quizzes, programming assignments, and hands-on projects. Assessments are a crucial part of learning because they evaluate and measure learners’ progress as they work towards mastery. These questions and projects are how we help learners validate that they’re gaining the skills they’re looking for. These assessments can be just for practice or act as a final demonstration of mastery. They can also be quick questions or multi-step projects. Either way, assessments are an opportunity for learners to test what they’ve learned thus far, receive tailored feedback on their understanding, identify any gaps in their knowledge, and be directed back to relevant content they should review. For example, a pre-recorded lecture can include a brief in-video question to test a concept you’ve just introduced, and a degree program may require a student to complete a more involved team project before graduating. In more technical content, in-browser coding such as Coursera Labs and javascript plug-ins are often used to help learners refine their coding skills.

Validating learning through backwards design

With clear learning objectives and meaningful assessments already designed, we can turn our attention to how to build up a learners’ knowledge. These instructional materials scaffold the learning path step-by-step as learners work towards mastering new skills. To streamline teaching, we encourage the use of Backwards Design, which starts at the end learning objectives and proceeds backwards towards how those will be assessed through authentic projects and finally how those concepts should be taught directly to learners online. This process helps ensure the teaching materials directly prepare learners for assessments so that they can achieve a course’s overarching learning objectives. Plus, designing the assessments before the instruction helps ensure all concepts are appropriately introduced and minimizes the chance for any content gaps in a course. For these teaching materials, instructors on Coursera use videos, text, interactive plug-ins, labs, simulations, discussion prompts and more.

Measuring outcomes

This conscious alignment of learning objectives, assessments, and instructional materials creates a strong basis for learning and fuels the impact of learning programs on Coursera. This is reflected by the 4.6 out of 5 average star rating across the more than 4,000 courses on our platform. We are proud of this high level of learner satisfaction and are continuously leveraging learner feedback to improve our learning experience. Plus, for learners seeking career impact, more than 85% report career benefits from the content they complete on Coursera. These benefits include getting a new job or receiving a raise in their current role. We remain committed to connecting the world to high-quality learning programs by partnering with top institutions around the world, implementing research-backed teaching best practices, and responding to the ever-changing needs of the more than 53 million learners who come to Coursera to learn something new. We are grateful for continuing to learn from our community, and we encourage you to share your feedback with us in the Coursera Community.

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Learn From Home Club: Stay Home, Stay Connected, Keep Learning

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Learn From Home Club: Stay Home, Stay Connected, Keep Learning

Last month we launched a scholarship initiative, committing to giving away 10,000 CodeAcademy Pro scholarships to students affected by COVID-19. The response has been overwhelming.

It’s clear that there’s a great need for resources and aid for students and teachers adapting to learning from home.

We believe learning must not stop and would like to do what we can to help—and we’re not alone in this. Like us, many of our peers have been sharing free and steeply discounted services and resources to help students. That’s why we decided to team up and create the Learn From Home Club.

The Learn From Home Club is a hub featuring offers and resources from Codecademy, as well as our friends as Skillshare, Duolingo, Quizlet, and Brainly. We couldn’t be more excited to join forces with these great companies to offer support for learning all sorts of new skills from home, from coding to language, arts and humanities, science, match, and everything in between.

To learn more, visit our Learn From Home Club page to receive more information. Find ideas, tips, and resources for learning from home. Plus, sign up to get even more helpful content in the future to keep you on track, motivated, and making the most of this time.

Help us build a community of at-home learners by sharing these resources with friends and family members that are learning from home. And tell us what you’re learning from home on social media by using the hashtag #LearnFromHome.

Word + Quiz: chthonic

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Word + Quiz: chthonic

: dwelling beneath the surface of the earth

_________

The word chthonic has appeared in two articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 3 in “Best Theater of 2019” by Elisabeth Vincentelli:

“The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” is not a great show, or even a very good one, but it does harbor a hilarious gem — or rather many, all courtesy of Ryan Knowles. Perched on long, angular legs, Knowles handles several parts in grand Looney Tunes style. What’s most striking is his vocal versatility: He can go down to chthonic depths when playing a centaur, for instance, yet for Hades, he models his grandiosely arch line readings after Paul Lynde’s.

_________

What Students Are Saying About Public Preschool, Staying Healthy and Being Trapped Inside

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What Students Are Saying About Public Preschool, Staying Healthy and Being Trapped Inside

Physical activity is one of the only things that is keeping me mentally sane at this worldwide, stressful time. In the past year, I have taken up long distance running which has acted as a physical and emotional escape from whatever has been going on in my life. I pop in my earbuds blasting a medley of alternative and 80s music and troubles melt away. This refuge has grounded me through weekly tests in AP classes, deadlines in journalism, difficulties in relationships, and now apparently the coronavirus.

— Cara McClure, Branham High School, CA

I am an athlete, and I run track. It’s quite difficult practicing without my team/friends along the way, but I can still do drills in my basement and go on my treadmill once in a while to stay in shape. I’m also making time to do 45 min-1 hour workouts everyday. It’s very simple to find short workouts on YouTube, and I just compile a playlist of all the workouts I want to complete. Although it saddens me that I’m not able to see my track companions daily I am able to connect with most of them on FaceTime and we usually have deep conversations on life and other problems we’re facing.

— Ethan Davila, New York

Everyday I go to my basement after completing some of my virtual work for school. I bench, do pull ups, squat, and more. After I am done lifting I run a mile on the treadmill. After I play games in my freetime, I do at home workouts that my football coach gives us so that we can stay in shape. These exercises are usually push ups, sit ups, planks, lunges, and many more.

— Adam, Pennsylvania

Losing my high school track season was devastating for me. Not only was my schedule completely changed without a main part of my day, not only was my workout routine permanently thrown off, but my chance at breaking records this season were ruined. All of the track and field athletes found out that the season would be postponed at the beginning of the first meet, and at the time I was still recovering from a bad head cold. I had no chance of breaking records that day. And now I might never have the chance to be in the Hoggard record books.

Still, I’ve stayed physical active almost every day despite spending most of my time camped in front of my computer in my room. I still run every other day and lift weights on the off days. I’m probably working out more, just with less cardio with the loss off track. Running was my way to interact with my friends, my coaches, and still get a great workout in, and I’m not sure if that void will ever be filled.

— Mason Evans, Hoggard High School Wilmington, NC

Nobody should take this lock down as an excuse to stop exercising. Exercise is very important for the human body, and it keeps us healthy. It is very important to keep active. Obviously, if the area you’re in is on a lock down, then doing exercises at home would be the better choice. You can still stay fit even without going outside, since there are lots of exercises you can do at home. Another thing is to watch what you’re eating. It could be hard to attain healthy food such as fruits and vegetables, but it’s important to remember not to eat too much junk food and to balance what you eat as well.

— Harpreet – SW, YC – CLIP

Even while practicing social distancing, there are many ways to be physically active. Many of the sports can actually be done if you have your parents or someone to do it with. For example, you can kick a soccer ball to each other, throw any sort of ball at each other and play catch or even dodgeball, tennis or badminton as people are separated, or even try your hands at some creative, cool trick shots that you make by yourself. You can also go on walks or go running outside if you are allowed to go outside. Otherwise, you can stay in your house and go on youtube and search up “10 minute exercises” to exercise by yourself or with your family while listening to the music for a great way to have fun while staying physically active.

— Yuji Sakaguchi, Branham High School, San Jose, CA.

Teenagers in The Times: March 2020

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Teenagers in The Times: March 2020

Here is the March edition of Teenagers in The Times, a roundup of the news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com. We publish a new edition on the first Thursday of each month.

For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.

_________

Education

_________

Science, Health, Technology and Sports

LMS or LXP – Confused?

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LMS or LXP – Confused?

In the past few months, pre-pandemic and in our current state, I’ve been hearing from a lot of people on the consumer side (i.e. not suppliers), on what they are seeking in a learning system, often noting the LMS and an LXP.   Some want a hybrid of the two, others want features that they believe may not exist in one system or another.  Some are unaware or unsure what exists in an LXP, which creates added confusion and leads to the mythical hybrid LMS/LXP.

Sure a vendor can say we are an LXP, but a LMS too or vice versa.  Part of the problem is that many LXPs are adding features to make themselves an LMS, but still pushing the narrative we are not an LMS.   LMS vendors on the other hand are adding LXP features, to counter, and in some marketing may note, learning experience blah blah.  

I have seen a few posts on LinkedIn by people calling a learning system – learning software.  No, it is not learning software.  The Sierra Titles of the 90s and early 2000s, were learning software offerings.  Who can forget, err remember the “Western Trail” PC version? 

I mention all of this, because it adds to the entire quagmire.

At a high level (very high) –  LXPs offer as key components

  • Playlists (some refer to them as channels)
  • Ability to share playlists via social, within the platform to other end users, via e-mail – Some systems you can share specific content within the playlist

Common Playlists

  • User-generated – based on topics/interests and/or skills – most LXPs allow only for one user-generated (i.e. by that end user) playlist. 
  • Recommended –  Supposedly based on what the end-user is taking and/or completing. Some LXPs require the end-user to complete the content, in order for the algorithm to push out recommended. 
  • Trending or Most Popular –   This is based on all other end-users in the system for that company/business/etc.   i.e. what content is trending or most popular by views (which honestly, shouldn’t be “most popular”, rather it should be listed as “most views”,  – popular is ambiguous with these playlists, because it isn’t necessarily based on ratings from end-users,  or likes/dislikes. 

One vendor Linkedin Learning bases it on everyone in the system, regardless if they work at your place or not.  Excluding them, though, the majority of LXPs it is based on the client’s employees/customers only.

  • Assigned – This is content assigned to the learner by the manager/whomever. The learner must complete all the content in this playlist.   It is not optional. 

Newest Adds

  • Suggested –  This may appear with some LXPs
  • Manager Recommended –  Starting to appear in LXPs,  optional, so many do not turn it on as a default.
  • Other user-generated – This is where you Learner – subscribe -vendors refer to it as “following” – to another end-user’s playlist of content.  
  • Vendor Select –  Only a couple of LXPs have added this option, which are playlists the vendor has put together for end-users to look at and either add to their playlist home screen, or just go into the content.   It is a work in progress.

LXP Commonalities Include

  • Netflix appearance.  It’s everywhere and yet, plenty of them also offer a horizontal old-school hierarchy view – yuck.  Stick with the grid look and the playlist view.
  • UI is very visual and slick.  Modern is the key here.  Fluidity is a necessity
  • Content marketplace/exchange – Multiple off-the shelf content providers, some are free, most are fee-based.   You, as the client buy the content you want in the LXP for your learners to use.  Most LXPs, you (on the back-end) can see the off-the-shelf content providers in the marketplace and then move forward and choose to put into the system (via free) or buy and then it goes into the system.
  • Skills-Oriented –  Heavy into the skill development and growth aspect. Upskilling is big. Skill Ratings are not universal, but LXPs were the first ones to really utilize them.   The end-user rates their skills BTW, and some systems – not all, allow the manager to view and change the rating, and/or the admin too.  Plenty though, do not.   
  • Job-Role driven.  Personally I am not a fan of job role driven angles, because when you do so,  you are changing the premise of an LXP which was all about personal and professional development and growth, which uh, doesn’t always synch with their job role.  There isn’t anything wrong with providing content to improve the skills of their role, or offer new skills to move up if they so desire, but the systems should be focused on their initial goal – personal and professional development which still utilizes skill development.    – This i.e. job-role driven – is a new trend happening in the LXP space as a whole.
  • Poor classroom management and event management.  Most systems do not offer these features.  It it slowly starting to change and I suspect most LXPs will have it by the end of 2020. 
  • E-commerce?  If you want e-commerce, an LXP is not for you.  They skew heavily towards employees.  I can count on my two hands the number of LXPs that have built-in e-commerce. 
  • Social – Most have it, but it isn’t anything that hits the WOW factor.  Trust me, I’ve seen better in some LMSs and learning platforms. 
  • Metrics – They offer it, but rarely will it be as robust as an LMS (as a whole).  If you want extensive KPIs, heat maps, data visualization, BI capabilities, an LXP is not for you.  Some are getting better, but they are not there yet. And to be fair, a chunk of LMS vendors aren’t either.  But generally speaking, reporting and metrics tend to favor LMSs, and some learning platforms.

LMS Key Components (Majority of them offer it)

  • Classroom management – including resource mgt, facilities management – CM is for ILT – as in a physical internment.
  • Event management – This is primarily for webinars, but it is also for seminars because it has a calendar, where events can appear on, details of the session, sign-up, waitlist and so forth.
  • Notifications  – Some offer SMS/Text, majority still do not – Event mgt tied to notifications is big.  As well as when someone signs up for a course, a notification goes out.
  • Compliance feature sets – Document management tool, digital signature, workflows, and so forth.  Many systems have at least five compliance features, some have more, and some have zero.  It is a common presumption to think that LMSs were designed for or built for compliance.  That is 100% FALSE.  And most people do not use their LMS for compliance/regulatory.   
  • Social – It is there.  
  • Competencies at some level –  nowadays the term being used is skills development/management – at I say “YEAH”.  Competencies always bothered me, sounds like your deficient at some stage, and who wants to hear that about themselves?
  • Management and Instructor areas and capabilities – Tends to be stronger on the LMS side of the house, especially Instructor.
  • Certification management – i.e. certificates assign to a course, a catalog, some can do multiple catalogs, multiple content.
  • E-commerce

I won’t state that an LMS is job-role driven, nor assigned role driven, because it really comes down to the client, and always has.  I built an LMS in 2000 (never do that), and it was for our customer training.   So, no on job-role, nor role-driven.  

Other systems that I bought, some were for employees, agencies; just as some were for customers and employees (using a multi-tenant), and even for an association.   Some of the content was proprietary, most was not. 

I have always been a believer in having personal and professional development content for my learners, even if a couple of required due to compliance was included. All the content if built, was interactive and engaging. Couldn’t always say that was the case with off-the-shelf.

The key here is “traditional” is a garbage term. 

I once had a five-level LMS with a gallery, library for checking out materials, “lounge” for chat rooms, and group rooms, ‘classrooms’ for instructor led, with a connection to a web conferencing tool for webinars. Oh and the system was in the “cloud”.  The year? 2002.  All skinned including the ‘carpets’ that end-users would see when they entered the system.  

LMS and an LXP similarities (they have these in common, but not necessarily as good versus the other, even within their own markets)

  • Learning and administration environments
  • Mobile 
  • Skills Management
  • Social
  • Off the shelf content marketplaces – More LMSs are starting to have them viewable for their clients, most still follow the “call us, and we will angle”
  • Gamification
  • Manager area
  • Reporting and Analytical data i.e. metric visualization
  • API integration
  • HRIS, HCM, Payroll, Salesforce, SharePoint integration
  • Machine Learning – Sometimes referred by vendors as AI.
  • Skill Gap Analysis – it has existed in LMSs since 2000, they just didn’t refer to it as the term.  Anyway, you can do this in any system out there. 
  • Coaching – LMS leads big here.  But it is not universal.  Some LXPs are trying to close the gap. 
  • Ask an Expert – LMS as a whole leads.
  • Content Curation – LXPs were the first ones to really take it to a new level, curation capabilities that is, LMS vendors are playing catch up, with a few matching and surpassing as we speak, but from the bookmarklet angle for content – LXPs are the leaders here.   Again, not the entirety of either market, as there are plenty in both areas that are poor in content curation.
  • UI/UX – LXPs lead with Netflix, but actually truth be told, the true leader were VLPs (Video learning platforms, specifically MediaCore, who were the first ones to be truly Netflix like-in appearance).  A percentile of LMS vendors are going Netflix in UI as we speak.   On the user experience side, LXPs as a whole lead.   Looking at market comparison to market comparison.   

For example, Absorb, CrossKnowledge and SAP Litmos have very nice UXs, just as EdCast and Learn Amp do on the LXP side.  Cornerstone continues to improve with each new release and depending on what they extract from Saba, could really shake things up a bit. 

Performance Management

It is rearing up once again.  Whenever a vendor tells me they are performance support, I become concerned, especially if they want B2B/Customer training market.   Performance support means performance management, which is employee-focused first and foremost.   If I want performance mgt, I will be an HCM or purchase a PM module.  Learning should be about learning/training.  

On another note, let’s end the term talent management.  Old school and outdated.  Replace with workforce development.  Then you can incorporate that for those who wish into their learning system, and thus it opens up more windows, as they say.  

Think This

If you are playlist driven and want an LMS, they exist out there with playlists. In fact, it is more than common these days.  What is the wild card, is whether they have their algorithm tied to them and what playlists are available. 

User-generated and share with others is available in plenty of LMSs out there, in fact, they were the first ones to offer it, LXPs as a whole have done a better job, but this is because of the topics/interests approach they went.

If an LMS vendor offered the ability for an end-user to pick topics of interests/skill interests, the first time, they logged into the system (which would require the client to have purchased some content in order for any content to appear), and then the learner sees a couple of playlists based on that selection, then you have a whole new ballgame here.

As of now, it is extremely uncommon.

I won’t get into custom domains, SSO (they all do it),  and other specifics, that is for next week’s post with the documents you can download and use. 

When LXPs started to appear they saw themselves as an add-on or bolt-on to an existing learning system, usually an LMS.  This still exists as the primary, but there are plenty who are now focused more on the standalone angle, which explains why they are adding common LMS features. 

If I was buying today, I would go my hub route (which is already in full swing, based on the folks I talk to), whereas I would have my LMS for my B2B/Customer Training, and then get a DLP (Digital Learning Platform – replacement term for an LXP) for my employees, and never use the “assigned learning playlist”.   Then my next spoke would be my cloud based Authoring Tool.

If I am an association, I’d follow the same route because the DLP angle would open up quite a bit.  Then I’d add my SaaS authoring tool (3rd party) as another spoke and so forth. 

By going the hub route with both systems you are now truly establishing a learning ecosystem.  And you may down the road decide to have your own contentplace with the content providers who are pushing their content to your learners on both platforms.  It isn’t that far fetch.

One area that is not mentioned by should, especially during the pandemic, is web conferencing, which folks are now referring to in as vILT (virtual ILT), rather than saying webinars. 

Regardless if it is an LXP or an LMS, 90% can integrate with a web conferencing solution via an API.

But, what many cannot do is extract/push out the data from the web conferencing solution back into the LMS or LXP.   Nor do the majority have an app for that web conferencing tool or vice versa. 

Some systems already have a partnership in place, so they have a preferred web conferencing vendor, and thus a tighter integration.  If you love Zoom, you can find vendors with integrations already with Zoom.

If you are doing a lot of webinars and/or vILT sessions, then ask the learning system vendor who they integrate with, and what data/information can be pulled from the web conferencing solution into their system.

Bottom Line

The duality that is occurring in both markets will not be going away any time soon.  What will make the change will be innovation on each side. 

And content. 

But in the end, something that so many people tend to forget is that regardless of what system you purchase, it is only a system.

The person who will either make it a success or failure

is you.

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Addressing the cloud talent drought alongside AWS with online learning

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Addressing the cloud talent drought alongside AWS with online learning

By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer at Coursera 

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds around the world, it is disrupting the nature of jobs and the skills that underpin them. The World Economic Forum predicts that the core skills required to perform most roles will change by more than 42 percent by 2020, meaning that the skills that once fueled industries, companies, and roles will no longer suffice. To help individuals prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, Coursera offers accessible, hands-on credentials from more than 30 industry leaders at the forefront of this fast-changing jobs landscape. 

Demand for cloud computing and e-commerce remains as strong as ever, as remote workers turn enmasse to cloud-based tools from tech industry leaders. One major way we at Coursera are tackling the increasing gaps in technical talent is through industry collaboration, like the work we’re doing with Amazon Web Services to address the cloud skills shortage. 

Building talent to enable cloud industry expansion 

AWS is the world’s leading provider of cloud solutions, holding over a third of the market share. That ubiquity has led to an abundance of high-paying tech jobs for IT professionals versed in AWS, with demand only predicted to continue climbing. The challenge, however, is that the cloud, as with other digital sectors, is rapidly evolving. What used to be a two-year product release schedule is now more like a two-week schedule, with talent struggling to keep up. 

The shift to the cloud – and the corresponding lack of skilled cloud professionals to service it – will continue to affect organizations of all sizes and sectors, including those outside of the traditional tech world. In fact, 86 percent of IT leaders think a shortage of cloud talent will slow down cloud projects in 2020. From cybersecurity to compliance and database management, cloud skills have swiftly become a critical component of running any business in the 21st Century. To take advantage of this market opportunity, both employees and employers will need to make cloud-focused upskilling and reskilling a priority. 

The value of industry-recognized credentials

In collaboration with AWS, we’ve been able to make cloud skills more accessible through online learning to those interested in entering or moving up in this high-growth field. This means providing in-demand skills that cover a variety of critical cloud topics, including migrating to the cloud, getting started with GluonCV, and building serverless apps, to name a few. Since 2018, AWS content on Coursera has already connected over 100,000 learners with career-relevant cloud training. 

By keeping pace with the latest industry tools and trends, Coursera has become a go-to destination for IT workers looking to stay ahead of the cloud curve and remain professionally viable in the future via industry-recognized credentials. We’ve seen that hiring managers, and even higher-ups, value these types of credentials for several reasons. Firstly, they clearly show an employee’s baseline knowledge, laying out what they can contribute to the team from day one. Secondly, they often mean an employee can communicate with team members using a common, industry language. With even just a standard knowledge base and set of terminology, teams are consistently more efficient, better at troubleshooting, and benefit the organization more overall. 

Cloud talent built from within 

Enterprises around the world are in desperate need of cloud skills to keep pace with the digital transformation affecting business. By developing a corporate learning program, organizations can train an existing employee for as little as one-sixth the cost of hiring an external candidate. An L&D program targeted at cloud-focused employees could mean anything from individually taking one AWS course a quarter to organizing lunchtime study groups for specific topics or courses. For a sweeping IT infrastructure initiative – like creating a company-wide cloud strategy from scratch – these kinds of L&D programs can lead to major savings and increased overall organizational efficiency. From an employer brand perspective, establishing a culture of learning within your organization boosts worker satisfaction and retention while helping attract top talent moving forward. 

As companies commit to increasingly complex cloud strategies, upskilling current employees will retain invaluable historical context and long-term cross functional rapport that an external hire cannot offer. While training results in major savings and benefits for companies down the line, it also takes time. In order to prepare for imminent, large-scale cloud solutions, organizations will need to begin training employees immediately.  

The future of cloud talent 

As both individual employees and companies navigate the cloud skills drought, more role-based training from AWS will be added to the Coursera platform. Just last month, AWS launched a new Specialization on Coursera: the AWS Fundamentals Specialization, which outlines the core AWS skills and concepts needed to begin working with AWS and get AWS certified.

Looking into the next decade and beyond, reskilling and upskilling will become the norm across industries as digital transformation increasingly changes the way we work. We’re excited to continue collaborating with leading industry educators like AWS to provide career-relevant learning content to help learners and enterprises everywhere face this evolving skills landscape. 

 

Coursera in Toronto Engages the Local Tech Community

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Coursera in Toronto Engages the Local Tech Community
In early February, nearly 50 members of the Ladies Learning Code community joined us in our Toronto office for a two-part workshop on artificial intelligence.

by Ashley Sutherland, Office Manager, Toronto

As our team in Toronto grows, so does our mission to transform lives through learning. We were humbled recently to take that mission beyond our platform with an AI workshop earlier this year in partnership with Ladies Learning Code, a program of Canada Learning Code that offers hands-on learning experiences to help beginners become digital creators. Nearly 50 members of the Ladies Learning Code community joined Andres Rutnik, an engineering manager in our Toronto office, for a two-part workshop with sessions on Using Data to Solve Problems: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Beginners. 

Both evenings were fun and enlightening as we focused on the important role data plays in the products, services, and organizations that we interact with every day. Andres showed how to leverage that data using machine learning to make decisions that normally would require human expertise, then followed up with a discussion on the ethics of the technology and the importance of bringing end users into the development process.

All of us were thrilled to support Ladies Learning Code and to foster a space where women explicitly are welcome to learn. As our team tackles the technical challenges that come with scaling online learning around the world, we are equally committed to growing the diverse tech community here in Toronto.

Coming up next…

In fact, we’re looking forward to partnering with Women Who Code Toronto to host Lightning Talks with Coursera on April 7th. The event will be hosted virtually given the city’s shelter in place order in response to the spread of COVID-19. We invite you to attend and hear from members of our Data and Engineering teams as they discuss a number of topics including GraphQL, data flows, and managing remote work. Learn more and register on Meetup.

If you’re an engineer, developer, product manager, or designer in Toronto and want to join a team that is committed to engaging with our community, browse open roles at about.coursera.org/careers.

 

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