16 février 2013

Unless you've been in a very long meeting you can't have missed the story about the Coursera/Georgia Tech MOOC that ran into difficulty and was cancelled (yes, we get the irony that it was Fundamentals of Online Education, no need to go on about it). The Georgia Tech MOOC was trying to do some different things, maybe they didn't all work, but I don't think it was the disaster it's been portrayed as. In the early MOOC days this level of experimentation would have been accepted (I didn't sign up for it, so I'm just going on the reports of others here). It seems that the level of expectation around MOOCs has made this level of flakiness unacceptable. This is but the most publicly embarrassing example of a growing trend I've noticed. As MOOCs have become mainstream and high profile there is increasing pressure on them to be very high quality, robust and efficient. There is a good deal of brand reputation now invested in them. In short, they have become the equivalent of television broadcast. Read more...

MOOCs and Language Learning seems to be a natural fit for each other. I previously wrote about the suitability between Language Learning and MOOCs, and have expanded some ideas on the topic. (I’ve also created a website that tries to communicate the LMOOC vision).
One of the reasons why Language Learning and MOOCs fit so well together is that MOOCs can create interaction. For language learners in non-target language speaking countries, this can increase the amount of target language feedback that they receive. This is a major part of the barrier in trying to learn language in an EFL setting. However, one of the challenges of increasing this feedback, is helping learners develop strategies for increasing this feedback, and guiding them in how to use this feedback effectively. A LMOOC isn’t based in Educational Technology (like many MOOCs are, making them more like conferences), but rather uses educational technology as a means for connecting.
Thus, the two main goals of the exterior LMOOC structure would be Increased Feedback and The Promotion of Autonomous Distance Educational Skills (Learner Autonomy). Read more...

By Steve Krause. The March of the MOOCs continues as the American Council on Education has approved Coursera MOOC courses as being worth of actual credit– or, more accurately perhaps, “ACE CREDIT,” as the Coursera announcement puts it. The Chronicle of Higher Education article on this is pretty straight-forward, while the Inside Higher Ed piece is a little more critical (though not much).  Some “fun facts” I gleaned from both pieces. Read more...

Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques.Le 29 août dernier nous écrivions dans ce blog, à propos du rapport du premier médiateur de Pôle, Benoît Génuini, un article intitulé Et si Pôle emploi devenait une structure respectant le droit?
Cet article comportait la phrase suivante “Deux ans et demi après que ce rapport ait été rendu public, rien n’a changé, si ce n’est l’accentuation de la tendance des responsables de Pôle emploi à fixer eux-même des règles, fut-ce au mépris de la loi. C’est le cas, entre autres, de la radiation pour absence à rendez-vous téléphonique, alors que les textes précisent bien que cette radiation est fondée sur l’absence à une convocation, et que la convocation suppose de demander de faire venir à soi (voir à ce sujet les nombreux cas traités par le site Recours radiations), de la pratique généralisée de l’effet rétroactif de la suspension au moment de l’absence et non à celui de la notification, contraire à toute règle de droit, sujet sur lequel le médiateur, Jean-Louis Walter, a vainement demandé que les pratiques changent (voir Vers la fin de la rétroactivité de la radiation des demandeurs d’emploi ?), ou aux pratiques de reprise d’indus ne respectant pas le principe de la quotité insaisissable, pourtant déterminé avec précision par la loi, dont Le Canard enchainé du 8 août s’est fait écho, dans un article intitulé “Pôle emploi passe la tondeuse sur les chômeurs”. Suite de l'article...

Sur le blog de Michel Abhervé pour Alternatives économiques. Dans la mise en place du programme des emplois d’avenir, la formation joue un rôle déterminant pour la réussite.
Nous avons suivi ma mise en place de ce volet pour les jeunes employés dans les collectivité territoriales (voir Formation des emplois d’avenir: des moyens mobilisés davantage dans l’ESS que dans le public et Le CNFPT ne veut pas payer la formation certifiante ou qualifiante des emplois d’avenirs des collectivités territoriales) et nous nous félicitons que la première étape du dispositif soit en place, et présentée sur son site.
Elle comprend “une formation d’adaptation des emplois d’avenir (FAEA) à la fonction publique territoriale. D’une durée de 2 jours, elle est dispensée à tous les bénéficiaires des emplois d’avenir. Elle a pour objectif de leur permettre de se repérer dans l’environnement territorial, d’inscrire leur parcours dans un projet territorial et de leur fournir les outils pour situer leur rôle en tant qu’acteur du service public local; identifier les droits et les obligations d’un agent de service public; connaître le fonctionnement d’une collectivité territoriale; s’approprier les règles communes de santé et de sécurité au travail.”

By R A Johnston. Adults faced with retraining for careers, especially in the critical areas of science, technology, engineering and math, are more frequently heading to community colleges, writes Cherise Lesesne in Diverse. These two-year degree programs are sought not only by high school graduates, but also by many who already have university credits and degrees.
It’s the result of a far-thinking design approach by the community colleges, Lesesne explains. Many of them have designed practical career-training programs that quickly lead students into proficiency with tech skills they need for work. Although they offer general humanities courses, most community colleges have specialized in medical, industrial and other engineering-related programs. Called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs, these certificate courses are drawing far beyond the community college’s usual base of students. Read more...

By R A Johnston. Do Americans think that education beyond high school is vitally important, and what barriers hold some of them back from having post-secondary degrees and certificates? The Indiana-based Lumina Foundation teamed up with Gallup to ask 1,001 Americans these and other questions. The poll was released February 5, reports the Fort Mill Times, and it shows that Americans take higher education seriously.
The poll of adults over 18, including houses with landlines and cell-only households, showed that no more than 3% are willing to say that education past high school is not important for financial security. Those without any education past high school often think about trying to go back for more certification, even in later life. Read more...

By Anita Singh and Howard Adelman. Traditional universities will have to respond to new challenges. In June 2012, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan was unceremoniously fired. According to university board members, Sullivan's inadequate response to initiatives underway in MIT, Stanford and Harvard to online education prompted the drastic action. While her reinstatement was instigated by protesting students, administrators and faculty, and "(S)oon after her reinstatement, the university announced a partnership with Coursera, a for-profit online initiative."
University presidents fired for not being sufficiently dynamic in initiating online education! What is happening? Does such an event portend a vast shift from bricks-and-mortar to the online realm? Ira Basen, in a recent CBC special, pointed out that the current postsecondary structure is too expensive, too restrictive, and too inaccessible for the needs of the contemporary world and its potential students. Recent decisions of high-profile universities to offer online classes through Coursera or Harvard and MIT’s OpenCourse project, customarily with recognition for completion but not accreditation, are replies to that critique. The response has been overwhelming. In a little more than a year, massive open online courses (also known as MOOCs) have been accessed by over 100 million people. Read more...

For a provincial government desperate to manage expectations, the grim accounting now being conducted at Alberta's post-secondary institutions must be a cheering development.
But even as universities and colleges brace for a cash crunch looming in the provincial budget March 7, the Redford government should take care to remember the genuine value of the learning investment. The future payoff is even more compelling at a time when all provinces are anxious to educate and retain their young people to meet the growing shortage of skilled workers.
The premier and her cabinet are locked within a box, no question, and if it's not exactly one of their own making it is still one they have helped fortify in accordance with the prior practice of earlier Tory regimes. Now that the chickens have come home to roost and the province is struggling with sharply reduced resource revenues and a rapidly growing demand for services, something clearly will have to give. Read more...

By Hélène Perrault. Over the last 12 months, Quebec has been subjected to a deep social crisis in which students have taken centre stage to denounce our university system, and more specifically to protest against the projected increase in university tuition fees.
The conflict stems from a perceived or potential threat to access to education for all, which has been a guiding principle of Quebec higher education ever since it was set down 50 years ago in the Parent report. Beyond the debates and number-crunching exercises to define the appropriate dollar cost of tuition fees, there is a consensus that education remains a fundamental societal value for the growth and development of Quebec. Read more...