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UC Calls for Faculty Volunteers for Online Education Project

Byuclafaculty

UCOP announcement reproduced below:

UC Online Instruction Pilot Project

Today the University of California finds itself confronting a tremendous challenge: In recent times, there has been a transformation in how students learn. Increasingly, technology and the computer play central roles in their lives — affecting everything from how they gain knowledge to how they communicate with others.

In response to this transformation, UC seeks to reach out to this new breed of students, enriching their academic experience with all that technology offers and at the same time maintaining the superb caliber of undergraduate education offered at UC campuses.

As part of this effort, the University is launching an Online Instruction Pilot Project. Its goal is to test whether online instruction can use technology’s tools to give undergraduates educational opportunities comparable to the superb classroom instruction that helped build UC’s stellar reputation worldwide.

To do this, the University must find a way to define the key ingredients of a UC “quality” education and measure whether online instruction can effectively teach students what they need to know. In making this crucial assessment, the Project will involve the faculty at every step of the way and will gather knowledge that helps shape UC’s future course in this arena. By conducting this examination, the University of California is doing what universities exist to do — testing big ideas. That’s our role.

Message above at http://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/onlineeducation/

Volunteers sign up at http://groups.ischool.berkeley.edu/onlineeducation/project-participants

It’s so much cooler online:

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Byuclafaculty

At the Regents meeting of January 22, 2014, Gov. Brown seems to be searching for an online course that requires no human interaction.  Such a course, he reasons, could have unlimited enrollment because it is completely self-contained.  He gets some pushback from UC Provost Dorr, who thinks courses should have such interaction.  You can hear this excerpt at the link below.  The entire meeting of the Committee on Educational Policy of the Regents was posted yesterday.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tYFLJvrE3g?feature=player_detailpage]

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Byuclafaculty

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Byuclafaculty

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Byuclafaculty

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