Current Trends in EdTech

The Educational Technology Landscape is constantly changing. The topics and technologies below are a brief summary of the current trends that are gaining momentum in Higher Education. 

MOOC: Massive Open Online Course

A MOOC is a course that is offered completely online and aims to have a high level of response and participation. These courses are similar to college level courses, yet have typically not provided credit and the assignments and activities are considered optional. Despite this history, the landscape is rapidly changing and MOOCs have recently been gaining momentum in Higher Education. The New York Times called 2012 The Year of the MOOC and several independent MOOC providers have become available such as, Coursera, Udacity, and edX.

Higher Education is trying to incorporate the excitement surrounding the MOOC into its preexisting culture and funding streams. Many universities around the world have begun partnering with the independent MOOC providers to offer content.  The American Council on Education has already recommended five of these partnership courses available on Coursera for credit.

Stemming from this momentum, Ohio State has decided to enter a partnership with Coursera. Ohio State continues to add courses to the OSU Coursera page as it continues to explore this avenue of education and how it can best support OSU’s goals for education. If you would like to explore MOOCs further, please contact the ITS Helpdesk. 

The Flipped Classroom

The Flipped Classroom Model is a new and exciting technique in education and follows a hybrid model of course design. In this technique students attain and learn course content outside of the classroom in an online environment and then use this knowledge to participate in discussions, activities, and projects conducted in the physical classroom.  Many instructors are using this method to transition their courses to a hybrid model. With a hybrid model instructors and students do not meet face-to-face as often. To learn more about the Flipped Classroom Model please view the resources below.

• Educause: 7 Things You Should Know About Flipped Classrooms
• Knewton: Flipped Classroom Infographic
• TechSmith: Flipped Classroom

To learn more about how the Flipped Classroom Model can be used with your course, please contact the ITS Helpdesk. 

NBC Learn 

NBC Learn is the educational division of NBC News. For years NBC News has been producing world class content and now this content can be used for your course. OSU has purchased a license for NBC Learn content. NBC Learn contains:

• Six million hours of content including 15,000 video clips, historical documents, and charts
• Most of this content comes from NBC News programs and shows although NBC Learn has started to produce their own original collections
• Most video content is between 1 and 6 minutes
• All bibliographical information is provided for each resource
• Each video has a transcript and closed captioning
• Business Administration has its own sub category

This resource can be accessed at: http://highered.nbclearn.com. If you are on campus when you select this link you will be authenticated automatically as an OSU user. If you are off campus, you can create your own account and link your account to OSU so you can use the resource no matter where you are. With your own account you can also create custom playlists of content. The Library has also created a link to authenticate off campus without an account, http://go.osu.edu/nbclearn, this may be useful for student viewing off campus.

If you would like to explore NBC Learn further, please contact the ITS Helpdesk. 

New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizons Report 

The NMC Horizons Report for Higher Education looks at emerging technologies that may have an impact on teaching and learning in higher education for the upcoming year. You can view the full report by selecting the link below. 

• NMC Horizons Report for Higher Education 

Emerging Educational Tools

Tools that can be used in Education are emerging daily. Below are a few tools that we find engaging for educational applications. 

• Jing is a Screenshot and Screencasting tool that allows you to take pictures of or record your screen. Using this tool you can walk students through difficult equations, give tours of your Carmen site, or point out important information on websites.  
• Prezi is a presentation tool that allows users to break the mold of PowerPoint slides and create in a “zoomable canvas” nonlinear presentations.  
• Sophia is a social learning and teaching site where users can learn about topics through lessons created by other users, or create their own lessons to teach others. 
• LearnFree.org is a part of the Goodwill Community Foundation and houses over 750 free lessons on topics centralized around Computers (including lessons on Microsoft Office), Reading, and Math. 
• VoiceThread goes beyond the traditional online discussion board and allows for conversation through video, voice, and text. 

To learn more about any of the tools above and to discuss how they could be used to enhance your instruction, please contact the ITS Helpdesk. 

Return to Teaching and Learning Services Home