As massive open online courses (MOOCS) have exploded in popularity educators are coming under increasing pressure to make an effective use of the new technology. To help instructors realize the potential of the new content delivery platforms Georgia Tech is unveiling a MOOC about creating a MOOC. The six-week course, entitled "Fundamentals of Online Education", [...]
Tech company 10gen and not-for-profit, massive open online course provider edX have partnered to offer MOOCs to train developers and business professionals on how to use 10gen's open-source, document-oriented, NoSQL database MongoDB. The courses will be hosted through 10gen's website and are geared towards teaching programmers how to utilize server-side JavaScript execution within MongoD, as [...]
Sam Houston State University (SHSU), in Huntsville, TX, has signed a partnership agreement with Pearson to provide its nearly 19,000 undergraduate students with access to Pearson's MyLab and Mastering products. The agreement is part of the school's effort to improve student performance. SHSU students will be able to take advantage of more than 80 of [...]
The National College Credit Recommendation Service recently approved three Saylor.org course exams for recommended credit. The course exams—political science 201: introduction to western thought, business 205: business law and ethics, and business 210: corporate communications—will be accepted at more than 1,500 colleges and universities. To receive credit students will have to take a proctored exam [...]
Massive open online course (MOOC) provider Udacity was founded by artificial intelligence expert Sebastian Thrun and Stanford professors David Stavens and Mike Sokolsky. The platform grew out of a free computer science class offered through Stanford University in 2011 which attracted an enrollment of 160,000 students. Udacity launched in March 2012 with two classes, initially [...]
The University of Massachusetts Boston recently decided to launch two massive open online courses in spring 2013. The classes will be offered through the university's Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning. The inaugural pair of courses that being offered are molecular dynamics and coasts and communities. Molecular dynamics is a 12-week course that was developed [...]
Massive open online course provider edX is announced a new slate of courses for spring 2013. The new schedule includes the not-for-profit's first forays into the humanities and social sciences. With the new courses, edX brings a variety of subjects, from political philosophy to quantum mechanics, online. The second semester also marks the debut of [...]
Hybrid Pedagogy, an online education journal, will host a massive open online course (MOOC) about massive open online courses. The course, which is being delivered through the Canvas Network, runs from January 6 to January 13. Despite having previously offered a MOOC on MOOCs, the editorial board of Hyrbid Pedagogy felt that the subject warranted [...]
As the year of the massive open online course (MOOC) winds down, educators and commenters have already begun looking to see what the future of MOOCs will look like. While the disruptive potential of the latest idea to take academia by storm is only beginning to be understood, some commenters are already pushing for MOOCs [...]
When MIT launched MITx in December 2011 no one knew that it was the seed that would grow to become one of the largest massive open online course providers in the world. However, when Harvard joined with MIT and transformed the experiment into edX, with an investment of an additional $30 million, the project took [...]
Failures may hurt, but they can actually have some positive effects on your life and mind.
North Idaho College is considering allowing students to take massive open online courses (MOOC) for credit. The Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based community college is considering using MOOCs as a means to reduce the cost to students. As part of its evaluation process, the school has assembled an administrative task force to explore the possibilities. Among the [...]
Two-weeks ago the headline was "UK Universities are wary of getting on board the MOOC train." At the time U.K. universities thinking so small that investors weren't even interested in writing them checks. How quickly things change. Twelve of the U.K.'s top universities have joined together to offer their own version of massive open online [...]
Jake Morgan, a microbiology sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, is the driving force behind the university's decision to dip its toe into the waters of massive open online courses (MOOCs). As part of a pilot program, the university has authorized interested optional, informal groups for students who wish to enhance their education by participating [...]
Thanks to mobile web access, paper-based news and communication is becoming increasingly obsolete. Whether this makes you nostalgic or not, the truth is that mobile news is increases audience access to information and limits costs to publishers and our planet. If you haven’t already, now is an excellent time to begin familiarizing yourself with the [...]
Khan Academy helped kick off the third-party provider online education boom in 2006. The site hosts 3,600 micro lectures on subjects ranging from healthcare to history and 380 practice exams, primarily in mathematics. Khan Academy has delivered more than 200 million lessons to 202 million viewers, and recently launched a mobile device app. Because Khan [...]
U.S. based massive open online course (MOOC) providers like Coursera and edX may grab headlines but closed source nature of the program has concerned some open education advocates. However, a program that launched earlier this year in Spain helps to ensure that MOOCs are open in every sense of the word. In October Spain's National [...]
Georgetown University has partnered with massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX. Although over 200 schools have inquired about joining edX, Georgetown is only the sixth to be admitted into the non-profit organization. The university, the oldest Catholic and Jesuit school in the U.S., will begin distributing courses through edX by fall 2013. While the [...]
Launched in 2010, Udemy is an online learning platform that allows professors to host courses. The service was conceived in 2007 by Eren Bali while he was living in Turkey. He and Gagan Biyani decided to create Udemy as a way to provide the technology capabilities necessary to teach over the internet. When Bali and [...]
After having its application to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a grant to develop a massive open online course (MOOC) in introductory psychology denied, San Diego City College is considering how to move forward with developing MOOCs. The college is assembling a task force to explore the possibilities of MOOCs, and whether the [...]
Massive open online course provider Coursera has created an academic advisory board. The board, a first for the company, will feature nine senior academic officials from universities offering classes through Coursera. The board will advise Coursera on strategic academic business decisions. Membership on the panel will rotate between the universities partnered with Coursera, with three [...]
Open University Learning Design Initiative, a pilot project from a consortium of universities throughout the United Kingdom to redevelop design education, is launching a massive open online course (MOOC) on Jan. 10. While the course, "Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum," was created with education professionals in mind, it is open to anyone interested [...]
For-profit education company Coursera was founded by two Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller in 2011 as a platform for delivering massive open online courses (MOOC). The company, one of the fastest growing MOOC providers in the world, has partnership agreements with 33 universities and community colleges and has over 2 [...]
Whether you’re a new teacher or an experienced one, try using these methods to motivate your students and to encourage them to live up to their true potential.
It’s no secret that the phenomenon of social media not only dominates the communication pathways of younger generations, it’s also completely revolutionized the way people interact with each other the whole world over. If you’re like hundreds of millions of other people in this world, there’s a good chance you partake in some form of [...]
Morgan State University, a Baltimore-based Historically Black College or University (HBCU), has reported that it is close to reaching a deal with massive open online course (MOOC) provider Udacity. The agreement, which is expected to be finalized in January, will make Morgan State the first HBCU to experiment with MOOCs. While the specific terms of [...]
Unlike U.S. massive open online course (MOOC) providers, who have focused their platforms primarily around science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes, the Academic Financial Trading Platform (AFTP) is designed to teach students the skills necessary to run a business. The platform, which was developed by two Carnegie Mellon University professors, immerses students in traditional business [...]
Making your voice heard in Washington, D.C. may feel like an overwhelming endeavor to the average college student, but regardless of age, the road to making a meaningful change often starts with a single person. After all, like voting, lobbying Congress is your right as a United States citizen. Every important piece of legislation passed [...]
The web has widened the job market for everyone. Even the novice can easily navigate digital want ads once they know where to look. By taking advantage of the best digital employment and networking sites, savvy job seekers boost their careers and pocketbooks. Background Check After conducting a traditional background check, a common next step [...]
American Studies is quickly becoming one of the more popular fields for college students and continuing learners alike. And it’s no wonder. As one of the most interdisciplinary majors available, American Studies is becoming more and more relevant in today’s complex job market. Like other interdisciplinary fields such as Comparative Literature and Ethnic Studies, American [...]
Two of the massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by the University of California Irvine, through its partnership with Coursera, are among the first to be evaluated by the American Council on Education. The classes, algebra and pre-calculus, are being considered for inclusion in the council's college credit recommendation service, which will make them eligible [...]
We can’t think of a better time than the holidays to learn a few forgotten tenets about the craft of listening.
Massive open online course (MOOC) provider Coursera launched a new recruiting service to match students with employers. The new service, called Coursera Careers Service, will allow the company to begin creating a revenue stream by selling students' information to potential employers. Because it's currently limited to high-performing students working in software engineering, the service has [...]
Education Portal, a one-year-old test prep startup, claims that it has crossed the one million student mark. The company offers 18 video courses for students looking to take the CollegeBoard's College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests. Each of Education Portal's classes use short video clips, as well transcriptions and assessment materials to help students prepare for [...]
When it launched this past summer CourseTalk was designed to be a clearinghouse for information on massive open online courses, but over the last few months the site has evolved into a beta-version of Yelp for MOOCs. A simple, straightforward interface allows users to rate and review courses from providers like Coursera, Udacity, and edX. [...]
Wellesley College—a private, non-profit, women only, liberal arts school in Massachusetts—will be has joined massive open online course (MOOC) provider edX. Wellesley is the first liberal arts college to join edX, and the first women's college to offer a MOOC. Beginning in fall 2013, Wellesley will offer four liberal arts classes through edX. Administration officials [...]
The Atlas Society, a research and advocacy organization promoting Ayn Rand's ideas, has launched a series of video courses. The courses, which are designed to serve as an introduction to Rand's objectivist philosophy, will feature presentations from Society members and other experts in Rand's philosophy. The two introductory lectures will help viewers understand why Rand [...]
If you find yourself scratching your head asking yourself what on Earth the Oyez Project is, don’t feel too bad, because you are definitely not alone. This project was started in 1997 by Jerry Goldman, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, and has since grown to become the world’s premier unofficial resource for [...]
Khan Academy has partnered with the Arabic content community Taghreedat to translate over 3,500 of the online education nonprofit's videos into Arabic. The partnership makes Khan Academy one of the first online education providers to move into the Arab world. To effectively translate the thousands of videos available from Khan Academy, Taghreedat will rely on [...]
Kids don’t have all the fun; adults can enjoy these educational games on the iPad.