By Jeff Selingo. During the partial shutdown of the federal government, which ended Wednesday night after 16 days, it was the barricades closing national parks and monuments that received a disproportionate share of media attention related to the budget standoff. Few seemed to care that useful online databases of statistics about higher education, such as the College Navigator and the College Scorecard, went dark (except a handful of reporters and perhaps those who didn’t want to take time off from the college search). More...

By Megan O'Neil. Carnegie Mellon University is convening a high-powered consortium of educators, researchers, and technology-company executives that will spearhead efforts to develop standards and promote best practices in online education. The Global Learning Council—to be led by Carnegie Mellon’s president, Subra Suresh—will also look for ways to leverage education-technology resources and disseminate data in an education landscape that some think is being turned on its head. More...

By Hannah Winston. Do massive open online courses offer countries around the world an affordable way to democratize higher education? Maybe, speakers said at an event on Monday here at the Embassy of Norway, but at best such a possibility is a long way off. The discussion was part of Transatlantic Science Week, an event sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research that looks for solutions to problems shared by Norway, Canada, and the United States. Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, Norway’s minister of education and research, said MOOCs have the potential to “give people all over the world access to education.” But he said he knew of no MOOCs reaching into developing countries in South America and Africa. More...

By Lawrence Biemiller. Facebook—a high-profile user of open-source computer code—on Wednesday unveiled a project in which it’s collaborating with a Stanford University professor to match computer-science students with open-source mentors and tasks and let the students earn academic credit as they work. Called Open Academy, the effort has expanded to 22 institutions in the United States and elsewhere, including Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College of London, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Helsinki. More...

By Lawrence Biemiller. A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday would encourage the creation of free online textbooks by offering grants for pilot projects that produce high-quality open-access textbooks, especially for courses with large enrollments. Grant money would also be available to help faculty members find and review such textbooks, as well as to conduct research on how well open-access textbooks meet students’ and faculty members’ needs. More...

By Megan O'Neil. Legislation introduced on Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives would require colleges either to make instructional technology accessible to disabled students or to provide them with equivalent, alternative resources. Rep. Tom Petri, a Wisconsin Republican and senior member of the House education committee, said his bill would ensure that disabled students were given equal treatment as technology plays a larger and larger role in instruction. The bill is called the Technology, Equality, and Accessibility in College and Higher Education (Teach) Act. More...

By Karin Fischer. President Obama is poised to name a senior official to act as a liaison between universities and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The appointee, likely to be a former university leader, also will act as an “internal champion” within the agency for working with higher education, Eric G. Postal, an assistant administrator at USAID, said in a speech here on Sunday at the annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. More...

By Nick DeSantis. A report released on Tuesday by a coalition of advocacy groups highlights the impact of federal budget cuts, including those made through the process known as sequestration, on programs related to higher education, job training, scientific research, and other areas. The report, “Faces of Austerity: How Budget Cuts Have Made Us Sicker, Poorer, and Less Secure,” released by NDD United, lays out a series of examples of how people have been affected by such cuts. More...