The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

This MOOC Needs No Instructor

A group of online-learning ventures is collaborating on a new kind of free class to be offered this fall, known as a mechanical MOOC (for “massive open online course”), that will teach a computer-programming language by patching together existing resources from open-learning sites. Unlike courses already available online, the new class will not require a traditional instructor, or a large start-up investment. Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/education/mechanical-mooc-to-rely-on-free-learning-sites.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&hpw=&adxnnlx=1345551353-5T6RbHiChrJTV5rRhhJcCQ

Online Teacher Education Programs Now Award The Most Degrees

Virtually unknown a decade ago, big online teacher education programs now dwarf their traditional competitors, outstripping even the largest state university teachers' colleges. four big universities, operating mostly online, have quickly become the largest education schools in the USA. Last year the four — three of which are for-profit — awarded one in 16 bachelor's degrees and post-graduate awards and nearly one in 11 advanced education awards, including master's degrees and doctorates. Online schools such as Phoenix and Walden University awarded thousands more master's degrees than even the top traditional schools. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-08-07/online-teaching-degrees/56849026/1

Elite Institutions Throw Open The Digital Doors To The Masses

From Harvard to Stanford, a growing number of elite universities are throwing open their digital doors to the masses. They're offering their most popular courses online for no charge, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to learn from world-renowned scholars and scientists. Many colleges have offered Web-based courses for years, but the participation of top-tier research universities marks a major milestone in the expansion of digital learning. Read more at:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/elite-colleges-transform-online-higher-education-16934298#.UCAUOk1lTYg

Florida Explores Creation Of A Statewide Public Online University

Florida, not known as a higher-education innovator, nevertheless might become the first state in the nation to open an all-online public university. As even venerable institutions such as Harvard University and MIT join the push to offer more coursework online, the "mail-order diploma" is losing its stigma. Nicknamed "Online U," it would be Florida's 13th university. It's one option of several under consideration by the state's Board of Governors as it grapples with an increasing need for an educated workforce, rising tuition and a loss of utility tax money for construction of new buildings. Read more at:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-07-30/features/os-mct-tampatrib-online-u-waits-in-wings-0729-20120729_1_online-courses-online-university-online-options 

 

Faculty Can't Do Online What They Can Do In The Classroom

But can online education ever be education of the very best sort? It’s here that the notion of students teaching teachers is illuminating. With every class we teach, we need to learn who the people in front of us are. We need to know where they are intellectually, who they are as people and what we can do to help them grow. Online education is a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It tends to be a monologue and not a real dialogue. The Internet teacher, even one who responds to students via e-mail, can never have the immediacy of contact that the teacher on the scene can. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-education.html

The Most Important Experiment In Higher Education

As of yesterday, a year-old startup may well have become the most important experiment yet aimed at remaking higher education for the Internet age.  At the very least, it became the biggest.   A dozen major universities announced that they would begin providing content to Coursera, an innovative platform that makes interactive college classes available to the public free on the web. Next fall, it will offer at least 100 massive open online courses -- otherwise known as MOOCs. Read more at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/the-single-most-important-experiment-in-higher-education/259953/

With A Dozen More Institutions Coursera's MOOCs Could Reach Millions

As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce on Tuesday that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally. And some of them will offer credit.“This is the tsunami,” said Richard A. DeMillo, the director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech. “It’s all so new that everyone’s feeling their way around, but the potential upside for this experiment is so big that it’s hard for me to imagine any large research university that wouldn’t want to be involved.” Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/education/consortium-of-colleges-takes-online-education-to-new-level.html?_r=1&hp

Is Udacity The Future Of Higher Education

Educators and policymakers have long dreamed of providing universal, low cost, first-class higher education. Their wish may come true soon thanks to an unlikely source: Silicon Valley. One of the men responsible for what may be an Athens-like renaissance is Sebastian Thrun. Realizing the potential at his fingertips, Thrun launched Udacity, an independent online education company that provides high quality education at low cost to virtually everyone. Udacity offers 11 STEM courses like "Introduction to Physics," "Intro to Computer Science," and "Web Application Engineering" -- all free. I asked Thrun whether his enterprise and others like it will be the end of higher education as we know it. Read more at:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/opinion/bennett-udacity-education/index.html

Online Learning Improving With Even Better Interactive Technology

Using a proprietary technology platform developed by a New York-based company called 2-Tor, the Kenan-Flagler program creates a virtual classroom that is more intimate than 90% of the seminars I’ve taught in or taken.  That’s because a quarter of every student’s computer screen is a grid of the dozen other students in the class – in close-up!  As Doug Shackleford, a senior professor of economics at the Business School put it, “Everybody sits in the front row; everybody is going to get called on.” The front row he is referring to is in the twice-a-week “synchronous” class that is part of every course.  Read more at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecohen/2012/07/01/the-interactive-future-of-higher-education-2/2/

Incentives Failed To Lure U Of California Faculty To Go Online

When the University of California dangled a $30,000 incentive to thousands of professors in 2010 inviting them to create UC-worthy online courses, just 70 responded, and only a few classes materialized. It turns out that California professors' wariness of online education is shared by faculty across the country, according to a survey released Thursday by Inside Higher Ed, an online publication widely read by academics. Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Online-education-has-teachers-conflicted-3654171.php