Extension Engine
Blog

You have something you need others to learn. Perhaps it’s professional growth, a new online course, or training for a new product. The task at hand is to create an online learning program that will not only explain the intended learning objectives but, hopefully, deliver that information in a way that will result in actual learning. If your teachable stuff sticks its landing, then you’ve maximized your ROI.

There is an evergreen debate in higher education about outsourcing: Which services and capabilities are appropriate to trust to a third party, and which are not?

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. MAY 17, 2019

Extension Engine, a leading provider of custom learning experiences is pleased to be chosen to support Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR).

Changing a name isn’t easy. A name is a vitally important indicator; it captures the essence of a person, company, or service line and communicates it properly. At Extension Engine we changed the name of our service from ‘instructional design’ (ID) to ‘learning experience (LX) design’ because it better captures the full range of what we do.

I am sitting at the SeaTac airport waiting to fly back to Boston from the 2019 UPCEA Annual Conference, and I thought I’d share some observations from my conversations with conference attendees.

Our colleagues at Quality Matters and Eduventures Research (the research division of ACT | NRCCUA) have just released the third edition of the The Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE): Behind the Numbers. The report is a hefty summary and analysis of data collected through a comprehensive survey of 280 chief online learning officers at colleges and universities across the United States.

As we enter 2019, many institutions that have tiptoed around the digital landscape are coming to grips with the realization that online learning is almost certainly in their future, one way or another. One driver is declining overall enrollments; the latest statistics show a drop of 90,000 students — or a half of a percentage point — during 2017, the most recent period for which we have data. At the same time, enrollments in online learning increased by 350,000, or 5.7%.

Student enrollments in online learning continue to increase but are very concentrated in public institutions and large private universities. Left out in the cold — and seemingly content to remain there — are the smaller private institutions.

Goldie Blumenstyk’s recent column, “Online Learning Is Misunderstood. Here’s How,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, raises compelling issues about online learning.