Struggling with low completion rates, some providers of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have launched a new strategy to increase student motivation. And it’s social. Social media platform LinkedIn announced this week it would begin a pilot program to allow students to display online courses they have completed on their LinkedIn profile. That way, students may be able to market themselves ... Read More »
At Information Week, education section editor and columnist David F. Carr recently posted a column that outlines the results of a survey of newly-enrolled MOOC students and students with existing MOOC experience. This survey found that the primary reason that students enroll in a MOOC is an interest in the class’s core topic. Its findings are helpful benchmarks for any ... 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 »
What motivates higher education faculty members to teach online courses? This has been an interest of mine for a number of years, and is particularly salient given my own institution’s decision to launch a fully online Masters in Strategic Leadership. In fact, this topic interested me so much that I decided to make it the basis for my dissertation, which I recently ... Read More »
Last Friday HuffPost Live hosted a Google Hangout about MOOCs and the decision by Amherst College not to join edX. Amherst President Biddy Martin was part of the disucssion, saying, “The faculty isn’t yet certain that it’s the right moment to get involved in any of the particular firms that are out there. That doesn’t mean the faculty isn’t interested ... Read More »
Jeff Selingo, editor-at-large of the Chronicle of Higher Education, has just come out with a new book, College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students. In a recent NPR interview, he discussed the rising costs entailed in enticing students; gourmet dining halls, luxury dorms with en-suite kitchens, and leisure-time attractions like climbing walls—everything short of ... 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 »