Author: admin

online education

It’s getting hard to turn your back on the MOOc stampede
Byadmin May 30, 2013

No one wants to be BEHIND the times. The latest entries in the stampede to MOOCs: From the San Jose Mercury-News: Coursera strikes huge online-education deal with state university systems The movement of “massive online open courses,” which began with elite universities making their courses available online to the masses, is rapidly moving into the trenches of public higher education. On Thursday, 10 large public university systems — including the giant state systems of New York, Tennessee, Colorado and the University of Houston — will announce plans to incorporate MOOCs and platforms offered through for-profit Coursera of Mountain View into…

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miscellaneous

Evaluation
Byadmin May 30, 2013

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this instructor? Exodus 4:10: Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” We don’t know how the Israelites evaluated what Moses had to say on a scale from 1 to 10 – ten is the obvious upper bound in his case – but those who are non-eloquent might take comfort from today’s Inside Higher Ed: Imagine you receive the same lecture twice:…

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miscellaneous | UCLA

Those Empty Westwood Stores
Byadmin May 29, 2013

Despite efforts to revitalize Westwood, there remain all of those empty storefronts up and down Westwood Boulevard between campus and Wilshire. Yet there is lots of foot traffic related to the university in Westwood and the proximity of a large student community. So why the empty stores despite all of those students? The LA Weekly thinks it has the answer: Living in Westwood is like being trapped in Footloose’s Bomont, Georgia.* There are no clubs, no open mics, no student centers, no anything. It’s bad. They’re even shutting down one of the only two bars students go to with much…

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Harvard | privacy

Harvard Was Shocked and Appalled that Emails Weren’t Private: Now Comes the Aftershock
Byadmin May 29, 2013

In an earlier post, we noted a brouhaha at Harvard in which a dean authorized a search of other deans’ emails to determine if any of them had leaked some information about a cheating scandal. Faculty at Harvard were shocked and appalled that such a search could occur. We noted that at public universities, emails you may think of as private really aren’t. Apparently even at private institutions, the same cautionary note applies, although for other reasons. Even if you use a private email account such as gmail to send messages to recipients at UCLA or any public university, the…

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Georgia Tech | online education | UCLA

Udacity’s MOOC Contract Details: Lesson in Audacity? (And then there is GlaxoSmithKline’s invitation to UCLA faculty)
Byadmin May 28, 2013

Inside Higher Ed today is running a feature on a contract between MOOC supplier Udacity and Georgia Tech to run a master’s program in computer science. The essence of the story is that the contract calls for some of the folks actually running the course to be company employees: …Georgia Tech this month announced its plans to offer a $6,630 online master’s degree to 10,000 new students over the next three years without hiring much more than a handful of new instructors. Georgia Tech and Udacity, a Silicon Valley-based startup, will work with AT&T, which is putting up $2 million to…

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miscellaneous | UCLA

UCLA Pre-History: Cemetery
Byadmin May 27, 2013

The veterans’ cemetery in Westwood long predates UCLA’s presence in the area. The cemetery dates back to 1889 and originally was meant for Civil War veterans. However, the statue at the Wilshire Blvd. entrance (see photo) refers to the Spanish-American War of 1898: “The United Spanish War Veterans monument, also known as the Spirit of ’98, is a bright white marble composition of three figures completed in 1950 by sculptor Roger Noble Burnham. The memorial crumbled after a 1971 earthquake. In 1973, sculptor David Wilkens re-created the monument out of concrete and plaster, reinforcing it with rebar. The plaque from…

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miscellaneous | UCLA

Movie Delay
Byadmin May 26, 2013

The old AVCO movie theater on Wilshire a block or so east of Westwood Blvd. was supposed to be reopened by now after reconstruction as a high-end, upscale affair with prices that seem beyond student budgets. According to LAObserved, the reopening has been delayed until maybe Thanksgiving due to discovery of asbestos issues in the theater. That is, the revamped theater will be open again around Thanksgiving or beyond as-best-as we can tell. Full story at http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2013/05/delay_in_opening_wes.php.

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miscellaneous | UCLA

UCLA History: Smile for the Camera
Byadmin May 26, 2013

UCLA Dentistry grads in 1968

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fund raising | UCLA

Food Gift for Thought
Byadmin May 25, 2013

From the Westwood-Century City Patch: A $4 million gift to the UCLA School of Law will go toward establishing a program to study and improve food law and policy, it was announced Friday. The Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy, said to be the first program of its kind at a major law school, will explore ways to hasten improvements in food safety, distribution and access, according to UCLA. The gift from the Resnick Family Foundation provides for as much as another $3 million in matching endowment funds. Lynda and Stewart Resnick ,who own such companies as POM Wonderful,…

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Harvard | online education

At Harvard, Apparently, Many Faculty Feel that the Oversight of Online Courses Was Overlooked
Byadmin May 25, 2013

From the Harvard Crimson: Fifty-eight professors from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences requested in a letter Thursday to FAS Dean Michael D. Smith that he appoint a faculty committee to draft “ethical and educational principles” that would provide a framework for FAS engagement with HarvardX, the University’s curricular contributions to edX. The letter, shared with The Crimson by one of its signatories, asks that those principles be brought to a faculty vote in the 2013-2014 academic year. “It is our responsibility to ensure that HarvardX is consistent with our commitment to our students on campus, and with our academic…

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Author: admin

It’s getting hard to turn your back on the MOOc stampede

Evaluation

Those Empty Westwood Stores

Harvard Was Shocked and Appalled that Emails Weren’t Private: Now Comes the Aftershock

Udacity’s MOOC Contract Details: Lesson in Audacity? (And then there is GlaxoSmithKline’s invitation to UCLA faculty)

UCLA Pre-History: Cemetery

Movie Delay

UCLA History: Smile for the Camera

Food Gift for Thought

At Harvard, Apparently, Many Faculty Feel that the Oversight of Online Courses Was Overlooked

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

UC Faculty Associations

Higher Ed Policy

Labor and Advocacy

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