As libraries continue to digitize special collections, ARL and Ithaka S+R have released a report Appraising our Digital Investment: Sustainability of Digitized Special Collections in ARL Libraries (PDF) that offers a snapshot of research libraries digitization efforts.
This week, the University of Oxford took the extreme action of blocking access to Google Docs, due to security concerns. The block lasted two and a half hours because “the impact on legitimate business was greater than anticipated, in part owing to the tight integration of Google Docs into other Google services.” Subsequently, Oxford University Computing Services apologized to their users.
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This week Inside Higher Ed broke the story on Edwin Mellen Press suing a librarian and McMaster University over a blog post. Is this an attack on academic freedom? What questions does it raise for librarians expressing their opinions as professionals? It’s been a developing story all week and one we’ll be sure to follow on Eduhacker.
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Stakeholders in educational technology drafted a Bill of Rights for online learners, which then drew criticism from other stakeholders as published in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. That criticism prompted a thoughtful rebuttal from Cathy Davidson. As MOOC companies become more entwined with higher education, expect greater calls for transparency and unease regarding student data and revenue streams.
Speaking of MOOC’s, ironically, Coursera’s class “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application” was cancelled due to difficulties with design and technology. A student from the class blogged about feeling cheated because of the course’s failure. It raises questions about the relationship between students and MOOC’s. What is the commitment from an institution to non-paying students? Are MOOC’s all just a grand experiment? What does it mean to be cheated out of something that is free? For those of you interested in teaching a MOOC, read Tucker Balch’s post “Teaching a MOOC: Lessons Learned & Best Balch Practices.”
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We know how to operate in different timezones. Set a clock, add or subtract X amount of hours from your local time and do business. But what about different speedzones?…
Who cares about accreditation if you can connect students with employers?
This afternoon, Coursera launched career services, “with the goal of helping Coursera students find great jobs.” It’s an opt-in service for registered students. Once logged in, students can list their status from “actively looking for a position,” “not looking, but open to hearing about possibilities,” to “not looking.”
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“If you don’t watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
This is a story about failure. It’s a story about learning and lofty goals; but, still, it’s a story about failure. And, the failure is all mine.
In September, I wrote a post, Lifelong Learning: MOOC’s vs Liberal Arts Colleges, and stated my intention to experiment by enrolling in both MOOC’s and a real course. Right there, did you catch that? I said, real course, and that’s an issue with MOOC’s. Put another way, it’s a thought process that led to my failure.
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In the last six months the buzz has been about Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, and edX, but what about the Saylor Foundation? If you want to learn more about the…
Marketplace recently did a story on massive online courses - nothing too earth shattering, but it did draw attention to the fact that some of the biggest players are for-profit…
As proof that the idea of online education is (one might say 'finally') gaining traction in many disparate fields, a recent episode of Econtalk discussed the topic: Arnold Kling, economist…