At its Blackboard World event in Las Vegas this week, course-management software company Blackboard—whose products drive numerous online and on-site education platforms—revealed plans to launch its own MOOC platform. The new platform will be free to use for existing Blackboard customers, but, according to this article by Jeffrey R. Young, at the Chronicle of Higher Ed, “there might be a fee if ... 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 »
Looking for a good long read this weekend? This New Yorker article fits the bill. Written by Nathan Heller, the piece introduces readers to the concept of MOOCs, particularly as they relate to storied educational institutions such as Harvard, Stanford and MIT. Regular readers of Aspire will find a number of familiar references (Amherst, San Jose State, edX and more), but as ... Read More »
In a recent Aspire post (College at any Price?), we referenced Sophie Quinton’s NationalJournal.com article on San Jose State’s financially-motivated adoption of online education tools. But the story doesn’t end there; on the heels of that article came one in the New York Times, in which a contrasting viewpoint is expressed by members of the school’s faculty. The focal point of the debate ... Read More »
It’s the best of times and the worst of times to be a student. On the one hand, technological advances have made online education more accessible and credible. Along with MOOCs, this represents a huge step forward in making higher education available and affordable to an exponentially wider student base than its traditional counterparts. On the other hand, those traditional ... Read More »