Thanks to a new deal highlighted in the New York Times, the U.S. State Department has committed to a partnership with massive open online course (MOOC) provider Coursera to open in-person “learning hubs,” where students can access free MOOCs and meet with discussion groups. This is an interesting change in course for MOOCs, the entire premise of which is built on ... Read More »
We do hope you’re sitting down for this one, folks. A recent story in the Higher Education section of The Economist is blowing the lid off a secret that has been kept tight for centuries. Ready? The world of academia does not always enthusiastically rush to embrace change. Now, listen—if your pulse is still racing, you might not want to ... Read More »
As we move education into a realm that makes greater use of online learning and we ponder how we award traditional course credit for courses taken in the MOOC model, an important consideration is our ability to verify that the person receiving the credit truly is the person doing the work. An obvious advantage that the traditional face-to-face education model ... Read More »
Depending on who you talk to, online education is either the big man on campus (BMOC, for the acronym-minded) or the elephant in the classroom. Colleges and universities are launching new or expanded online programs for a multitude of worthwhile—and sometimes hotly debated—reasons, but the basics come down to these: to attract new students, boost enrollments, diversify student populations and ... Read More »
In a previous post, we linked to this item from the Boston Globe, which noted that a number of high-profile higher ed institutions were hopping on board the edX bandwagon. And now the story’s getting bigger; not only moving from local to national (hi, HuffPo), but looping in the online education company, Coursera. This Huffington Post piece points out that 10 large public university systems, including the ... Read More »
Daphne Koller makes a compelling case that her company Coursera (which partners with universities to offer free online courses open to anyone) and its massive open online course (MOOC) counterparts have the potential to transform lives. During a recent presentation at Northeastern University, Koller shared rich anecdotes about learners who live far from their U.S.-based courses of study who have ... Read More »
The recent announcement from the California State University (CSU) system regarding its embrace of edX Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is both interesting and depressing at the same time. As with many aspects of the MOOC phenomenon, it comes packaged with good and bad aspects bundled up together. Instructors will offer a “special ‘flipped’ version of an electrical engineering course…where ... Read More »
Last month, a Tech Crunch article trumpeted a Chronicle of Higher Education survey that found 72% Of Professors Who Teach Online Courses Don’t Think Their Students Deserve Credit. It was a compelling story—and one that drew lots of social sharing and dire predictions about the imminent death of MOOCs. But digging a little bit deeper, the story is more nuanced (isn’t ... Read More »