You can find out from a weekly column by yours truly available at:http://www.employmentpolicy.org/topic/403/blog/mitchell%E2%80%99s-musings-8-5-13-heads-we-win-tails-you-lose-online-higher-education [Click on the pdf option.] Or read below:
Readers of this blog already know that the bill sponsored by state senate president Darrell Steinberg that would have required MOOCs at UC, CSU, and the community colleges is dead (for now). What is interesting is how that bill is being seen in Sacramento: A bill backed by Coursera, a high-flying online education company, that would extend academic credit opportunities for California public university students is likely to be put on hold, the bill author’s office says.The Senate sent SB 520 by Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to the Assembly in May over the opposition of teachers’ unions and higher…
Articles published in professional journals are often not readily available online, particularly as journal publication has been taken over by commercial publishers. Many blog readers will undoubtedly have looked for an article and found only an abstract online, as per the accompanying picture. But change is (hopefully) coming: MEDIA RELEASEFriday, August 2, 2013UC Office of the Academic Senate The Academic Senate of the University of California has passed an Open Access Policy, ensuring that future research articles authored by faculty at all 10 campuses of UC will be made available to the public at no charge. “The Academic Council’s adoption…
So reports today’s edition of Inside Higher Ed about state senate leader Darrell Steinberg’s bill to mandate MOOCs at UC, CSU, and the community colleges. You can find the article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/01/controversial-california-bill-outsource-student-learning-dead-until-2014-or-later
Shakey’s Model for a Grand Bargain? Higher ed excerpt from today’s presidential speech: …(T)his week we’re working with both parties — (applause) — this week we’re working with both parties to reverse the doubling of student loan rates that happened a few weeks ago because of congressional inaction. (Cheers, applause.) So this is all a good start, but it isn’t enough. Families and taxpayers can’t just keep paying more and more and more into an undisciplined system where costs just keep on going up and up and up. We’ll never have enough loan money, we’ll never have enough grant money…
Inside Higher Ed today has a lengthy article on a MOOC stampede. That is, according to the article, public universities are rushing to sign no-bid contracts with MOOC providers: [excerpt] …While MOOC providers have been able to escape competitive bidding and sign major deals at large and prestigious institutions in a relatively short period of time, traditional technology deals by state-run institutions can require lengthy evaluations, said Phil Hill, a technology consultant who has advised higher ed institutions on learning management system procurements. “We’re in this situation that is sort of nonsensical,” Hill said. “So you have very strict procurement processes for pretty easy decisions,…
From the Chronicle of Higher Education comes the sad tale of a MOOC in waiting: It was big news last fall when Colorado State University-Global Campus became the first college in the United States to grant credit to students who passed a MOOC, or massive open online course. For students, it meant a chance to get college credit on the cheap: $89… Yet almost a year after Global Campus made the announcement, officials are still waiting for their first credit bargain-hunters… Full story at http://chronicle.com/article/A-Universitys-Offer-of-Credit/140131/ Our advice is to be patient and wait for a student. Someday he will come: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niwn2pOEno?feature=player_embedded]
Readers of this blog will know that the governor and legislative leaders have been pushing UC to do “more” online ed. The governor originally earmarked $10 million in the UC budget for that purpose but then line-item-vetoed his own language on the promise that UC would do it anyway. The Regents next week will consider a report on online higher ed at UC. What is interesting about the report is what is highlighted and what gets little mention. At the January Regents meeting, guest speakers from commercial MOOCs were given the floor to tout their wares. But the report for…
Herb Stein Herb Stein, President Nixon’s chief economist, once said, “That which cannot go on forever must come to an end.” There is a school of thought – to which our governor arguably belongs – that says that because tuition at colleges and universities has been rising faster than inflation, there is a bubble that will inevitably burst, maybe around now. Bette Billet, president of the UCLA Faculty Women’s Club for 2013-14, passed me an article that argues that both higher ed and medicine are in the same boat. So, one might assume, a university with a med school is…
Apparently, efficiency in the 21st century is not all that different from efficiency in the 20th century. From Inside Higher Ed today: Some students taking free classes from Coursera may never know the right answers. A University of Michigan professor teaching one of the company’s massive open online courses, or MOOCs, told students this week he could not provide them with correct answers to questions they get wrong because doing so would reduce efficiency… Full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/05/one-mooc-professor-wont-let-students-know-right-answers Yours truly is sure it’s just a temporary glitch that can be easily remedied with the right technology as demonstrated in the last…
