Better security verification for online courses, combined with immersive technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will take MOOCs to the next level. 

The popularity of Online Courses has steadily increased in recent years. Millions of students have enrolled onto MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by prestigious institutions around the globe and facilitated by platforms like Coursera, EdX and Futurelearn.

But although this growth shows no signs of slowing down (Coursera alone currently has 26 million users and over 150 university partners) the drop-out rates have been shown to be much higher for MOOCs than campus-based courses, with some studies placing the average completion rate at around 13%.

The popularity of Online Courses has steadily increased in recent years
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One of the main reasons for this has been a certain credibility issue. While some people are quite happy to sign onto these courses for sheer personal development, the main motivation for busy professionals to complete, for instance, an MBA, is to improve their employability and career prospects. If the validity of those qualifications is brought into question however, this undermines the whole premise and renders that investment– of both time and money – worthless.

We need to ensure that the person collecting the certificate is the same one who did the work
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One key issue here is the fact that it has been traditionally difficult to determine whether the person doing the coursework is the same one as has their name on the certificate issued. And although this isn’t a problem unique to online courses, it’s much easier to find such loopholes where sign-up processes only require an email address, for example.

This is something that looks set to change, however, as more people have become used to stricter checks in relation to processes such as online banking, tax returns, or immigration assessment. Which is why one of the world’s largest visa application contractors – VSF Global – has just announced that it is entering the online education space to effectively help bridge that credibility gap.

VSF Global identity verification expertise to improve MOOC credibility
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They have partnered with UK EdTech start-up Oxademy to extend their identity management services – which they already provide to over 50 governments including the US, Russia and the UK – for the purpose of processing passports and visas. By importing the same kind of security techniques they have developed for verifying visa information into education, and also including a final exam where students have to be physically present with their ID, they’re hoping to make online courses (specially in emerging economies where this type of fraud is endemic) much more attractive to potential employers.

VFS-Oxademy will provide internationally accredited post-graduate and executive education programmes in full online and ‘blended’ modes combining online with classroom learning for students worldwide. These courses will be affiliated with top universities in the UK and US, and will include Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Masters in Strategic Leadership (MSL) and Masters of Science in Organisation Leadership).  Although still requiring a substantial financial commitment, these online MBAs are significantly more affordable at £7,000 (compared to over £21,000 average for many other on-campus providers).

They plan to grow by targeting companies looking to invest in their workforce, particularly in developing countries, by taking advantage of those relatively lower costs. This also ties into the work placement element of the courses, where MBA students have to take part in a work placement as part of final stages of their course. This will enable students in the Middle East or India to work with a company in the UK via virtual technologies, something that also suits employers who often struggle to find office space for work experience students but are happy to interact with them virtually.

Oxademy courses will personalise content with Artificial Intelligence
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Both the identity-checking and blended learning elements require a physical infrastructure in place, which is why is why VSF is in quite a unique position to implement the model effectively, since it already has 1,900 visa centres in 127 countries distributed around the globe.

Oxademy will also address the lack of personal engagement which feeds into those high drop-out rates by leveraging Artificial Intelligence to personalize its courses. Its cloud infrastructure system called OX360 will provide real-time analysis of performance data and include features such as a chat facility so that students can speak to tutors direct at any time, plus a mobile app to prompt students on which course material they need to study ahead of their next online session.

AI systems judge if a learner is struggling with an exercise and adapt
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The AI system can judge, for example, if a learner is struggling with a particular exercise or spending a longer time than average to read through it, and alter the course content accordingly. By identifying each learner’s particular strengths and weaknesses and generating individualized learning paths, the hope is that students will feel the same level of engagement and support as they would if they were consuming the same content on campus. In a digital world where we’re seeing immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality develop at exponential speed, it follows that students will increasingly see this as a viable and worthwhile option for furthering their education.

This article was originally published on EdTech Digest

Taking MOOCs to the Next Level https://t.co/Fyyee099bg pic.twitter.com/3MUhFe7pXe

— edtech digest (@edtechdigest) August 3, 2017

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Powering Up MOOCs in the Virtual Age appeared first on Tech Trends.

17% growth expected in the Education Technology sector over the next  4 years according to EdTechX Global and IBIS Capital report.

Mendeley is one example of a start-up that thrived in the London Education Technology ecosystem
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The fastest growth is currently being experienced in Asia, showing that the current dominance of US companies in that space is shifting. The UK looked set to play a large part in that trend, as the country had experienced something of an EdTech boom in recent years. It’s unclear, however, how the decision to leave the European Union will affect the technology industry in general,  the Education sector in particular over the long term.

Mendeley is one example of a start-up that thrived in the London Education Technology ecosystem; it was founded in 2008 by 3 German Entrepreneurs and later acquired by Dutch Publishers Elsevier in 2013 . It is hard to imagine this type of success story happening as easily without the collaboration and free movement of talent that the European Union fostered, and without London being a gateway to the broader European Market and technology ecosystem.

At the EdTechX Europe summit, which took place in June just before the Brexit vote, the mood had been optimistic. The conference attracted record numbers, and many European companies were ranked as global technology champions in the first “Makers and Shakers of Education Technology Index” published prior to the event. The index highlighted the role of innovators such as Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi and Lego Education in advancing Education Technology.

There is an increasingly pressing need for investment in the sector to accelerate the digitisation of education, especially in Europe
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Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO of WISE – the World Innovation Summit for Education which co-curated the rankings said the purpose of the list was to recognise thinkers and doers pioneering innovative approaches to addressing challenges in education. The criteria used in compiling the shortlist included disruptive innovation, individual vision, impact, and contribution to education.

According to Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet, Co- Founder of EdTechXGlobal, the index elevates education innovators and thought leaders to the level of “social rock stars”.

Beyond social recognition for the sector, however, there is little doubt that the enormous commercial opportunities around EdTech remain largely underexplored, in spite of the growth we’ve seen so far. The digital market is now worth over $5tn (this is 8 times the size of the software market and 3 times larger than the media and entertainment industry) yet education is only 2% digitised. There is, the report concludes, an increasingly pressing need for investment in the sector to accelerate the digitisation of education, especially in Europe.

There is little doubt that the enormous commercial opportunities around EdTech remain largely underexplored
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Digital models offer new routes for re-skilling as well as addressing widespread labour shortages
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There is also a growing realisation of the impact EdTech will have in the way the 21^st Century workforce acquires and develops skills, and an acknowledgement that this will be driven by mobile. The most substantial growth is expected across emerging markets, with mobile being a catalyst for delivering and supporting learning. 90% of the world’s population under 30 live in those markets, and it follows that education and vocational training in the area will be led by mobile-first strategies. This is a view that strongly chimes with the strategy set out by Aape Pohjavirta, from Finnish Mobile Learning start-up Funzi.

The report also predicts a continued rise of MOOC platforms such as Coursera (which is set to reach yearly revenues of $30m) as the global demand for education rises and traditional provision models will simply not be able to grow in step with rise in global population numbers. At the same time, we can expect a global workforce crisis powered by extreme automation, a so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ which will see AI replacing not only highly repetitive low-skill jobs, but routine medium-skill too.

“50% of current jobs won’t exist in 2025,” says Vedrenne-Cloquet, “so there will be a growing need to re-train the workforce in order to address current skill gaps and increase the use of continuous learning.”

Digital models, he concludes, offer a way to capture these changes and offer new routes for re-skilling as well as addressing widespread labour shortages.

There is a growing realisation of the impact EdTech will have in the way the 21st Century workforce acquires and develops skills
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Edtech Market to Reach $252bn by 2020 appeared first on Tech Trends.

Data Scientists are the rock stars of the tech world, and London start-up Pivigo helps them get their mojo 

If you’re in the tech business, pray you’re never tasked with recruiting a Data Scientist. Good ones are rarer than hen’s teeth, and the people lucky enough to have them will fight to the death to keep them. One  foolish company – which shall remain unnamed – that recently made its Data Scientist feel rather unloved. That person casually started exploring options on a Monday, and had his pick of six very attractive job offers by Friday that same week.

Data Scientists are people who not only understand data, but can spot amazing things you can DO with it
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But why, you might ask, are they in such high demand? To put it simply, these are people who not only understand data, but can spot the amazing things you can DO with data, then work with others to turn these insights into products.

Economies are now data-driven, and as we go about our ‘always on,’ constantly connected lives, we’re constantly feeding new data streams into a myriad of different systems. There’s more data out there than ever before, and the sheer volume of it continues to grow exponentially, hence Big Data.

Data Scientists spot trends and stories in these complex goldmines of information, helping companies extract actionable insights from them. They communicate well and work with teams across the company, using their analytical super-powers to help optimize processes and come up with new product and services.

A blend of analyst and artist, a good Data Scientist is what you might call a Renaissance person
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Working in the tech industry, I’ve been lucky to work with many gifted individuals over the years. Some were technical geniuses; others had a knack for creating and marketing successful products. Yet it’s very rare to get someone combining both. Those people are Data Scientists. And we need more of them.

And that’s where Kim Nilsson comes in. She co-founded Pivigo in 2013 with Jason Muller to help tackle this chronic industry shortage, and help gifted individuals acquire the right skills to become Data Scientists.

“The problem is that university degrees are great at teaching you theoretical knowledge such as statistical concepts and logic or programming methods, but horribly bad at teaching you the practical skills that the industry needs. What we offer is a sort of finishing school to those with an academic degree, equipping you with the most up-to-date, commercial skills for instant employability.”

Pivigo works with companies on a sponsorship model that allows them to offer heavily discounted rates for academics looking to acquire those industry skills.

“Academia will always struggle with giving students real experience of working with messy, confusing, and uncoordinated data,” says Nilsson. “We prepare them for working in a commercial environment with deadlines, business priorities, communication problems and the pressure that comes with that.”

“We’re now building a platform – a trusted data science marketplace – where we can connect data scientists with organisations continuously. We already have a lot of experience working with companies, and delivered over 45 data science projects to clients like KPMG, Royal Mail, British Gas and Marks & Spencer.”

So far, over 200 students from 40 nationalities have graduated from the programme, with over 35% of these being female (a very healthy representation rate in STEM). Nilsson wants to democratise data science even further, however. She’s hoping that Pivigo’s newly launched online course will reach a much bigger audience in a market worth around £4bn globally, and growing 25% per annum.

Pivigo’s newly launched online course will reach a much bigger audience in a market worth around £4bn
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In this fast-evolving landscape, private initiatives have the advantage of remaining nimble, unlike universities that have to set their curricula years in advance. Nilsson believes it’s crucial for universities to catch up with those standards and speed up learning cycles by incorporating technology tools such as MOOCs into their structure. “Learning should be continuous, adaptive and flexible, with Nano-degrees that can be updated from one month to the next to cover the most recent developments in a field” She says .

Learning should be adaptive and flexible, with Nano-degrees that can be continuously updated
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“There’s also a need to strengthen the prestige and reputation of vocational training and apprenticeships. We need practical skills in society. These may still be of very high complexity, but they must be directly relevant to what industry wants and needs. And this learning is best done on the job.”

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

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