Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Going into 2020, the push for institutions to support all students on their path to success underpins many of the top IT priorities for higher education leaders, according to new survey findings released this week by Educause.

“The focus of the student experience is very, very important and it’s reflective of a larger trend in higher education,” Susan Grajek, Educause vice president for communities and research, told EdScoop. “We are starting to recognize it’s not just students’ job to be successful, it’s the institutions job to help make them successful.”

A growing number of academics are experimenting with new technologies powered by artificial intelligence, but many of the technologies aren't yet ready for prime time.

An increased focus on measuring learning, along with putting more thought into redesigning learning spaces, are two trends with great significance for higher ed in the next couple of years, according to the Horizon Report.

Here are six trends that will have wide-ranging impacts on higher education.

by Michael Gaebel and Thérèse Zhang

Trends 2018 examines how learning and teaching at European higher education institutions evolves in the context of changing demands, technological and societal development, and European- and national-level policies and reforms. This EUA flagship report gathers data from more than 300 higher education institutions in 48 European countries.

With dozens of figures and tables, complemented by an in-depth analysis, Trends 2018 offers a wide mapping of the developments in learning and teaching across Europe. It also frames the discussion on this topic and why it is becoming ever more present in higher education institutions and in policy debates across Europe.

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Educators, administrators, and those in higher education who are committed to ensuring quality experiences for students across the ages (and for new growth opportunities for themselves too) should be excited for the year ahead. There’s no question that 2018 will bring light to a variety of topics and issues that could monumentally affect the way we teach and the way students learn. Read on to learn about some of our predictions and trends in education that we’re seeing and anticipating, and be sure to follow the embedded links to explore the topics in more depth.

The Centre for Distance Education at the University of London has held an annual conference under the ‘RIDE’ strapline almost every year since its institution in 2005. These meetings have become a popular fixture in academics’ and learning technologists’ calendars in and beyond London, and this year’s, held at Senate House on Friday March 24th, was very well received. It was ably chaired by two CDE Fellows, Stylianos Hatzipanagos of King’s College London and Alan Tait from the Open University, and the programme included speakers from as far afield as the Universities of Plymouth and Lorraine (France) as well as many home-grown London ones.

At its new Waterside Campus the University of Northampton is doing away with lecture theatres in favour of more flexible ‘teaching spaces’.

It’s the latest evidence of the university’s developing approach to using digital technology to enhance teaching and learning. Already, Northampton has redesigned two-thirds of its courses to support its ‘active blended learning’ approach and the new teaching spaces are part of a strategy to give students best value from face-to-face time with teachers.

This article was written by Gilly Salmon

More than 1,000 years of formal university learning and teaching does not change quickly, or without a struggle. But we are starting to see some key tech trends engaging staff and students – and therein lies the secret to change!

Here are five key trends emerging across the global higher education sector.

EDUCAUSE is proud to continue the tradition of excellence begun by the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) work on the Horizon Report. The report serves as a reference and technology planning guide for educators, higher education leaders, administrators, policy makers, and technologists.

This year’s Horizon Report has been updated with new features and improvements including Fail or Scale essays revisiting past forecasts to see where we are now, companion data points providing connections to other data that support the expert panel determinations for 2019, and new quotes from expert panel members highlighting their insights and engagement on the issues. Updated topic summaries throughout the report provide a fresh overview of new and old trends.

EDUCAUSE have published the results of their annual survey (1,400 members of the Higher Education community - I assume North American members of EDUCAUSE) on key issues in teaching and learning. The issues are: 
1. Faculty Development and Engagement; 2. Online and Blended Learning; 3. Instructional and Learning Experience Design; 4. Digital and Information Literacy (hurrah! this was no. 5 last year); 5. Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL); 6. Competency and New Methods of Learning Assessment; 7. Learning Analytics; 8. Open Education;

It’s popular these days to complain that college teaching hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. And sure, it’s possible to find some professors on any campus holding yellowed lecture notes, or clinging to dusty chalk. But the reality is that the internet and digital technologies have already brought profound changes to instructional styles and tools in higher education.
So what are the new teaching approaches catching on at today’s campuses? And what are the broader cultural changes around college teaching?

I have often heard the adage, “In education, what’s old is new again.” While this is true of some initiatives, I’ve been in education long enough to know these strategies are improved upon as they come around each time. I also know that there are definite emerging trends that are completely new to the world of education for the current generation of students. I’m going to discuss four of the hottest right now, though they definitely have areas of overlap.

Identifying Organizational and Technical Patterns
Key Takeaways

• What are the top learning analytics challenges among institutions in the UK?

• What organizational and technical considerations need to be addressed to pave the way for a successful learning analytics initiative?

• When it comes to learning analytics, are institutions ready?

Annual report explores the trends, challenges, and technology developments poised to disrupt higher education worldwide.

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) jointly released the NMC Horizon Report – 2017 Higher Education Edition at the 2017 ELI Annual Meeting. This 14th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are placed directly in the context of their likely impact on the core missions of universities and colleges.