Massive open online course provider Coursera will provide physical spaces in which to use its digital content, the company announced on Thursday. Along with five partner organizations, including the U.S. State Department, Coursera will establish "Learning Hubs" at more than 20 locations around the world, including at campuses and U.S. embassies. The hubs will provide free access to the Internet and Coursera's MOOCs, but the company is also promising a more traditional learning experience. Some courses will feature in-person sessions, which can range from tutoring to discussions, moderated by a "local facilitator who has familiarity with the subject." Read more...
03 novembre 2013
Coursera to Improve Access Abroad With Physical 'Learning Hubs'
Humanities Jobs Decline
By Colleen Flaherty. After two years of slight growth, hiring for faculty positions and other full-time jobs in English and foreign languages was down year-over-year, according to a new report from the Modern Language Association. The annual report on the MLA's Job Information List is published each fall and includes all jobs advertised with the organization for this academic year (reflecting ads posted during the most recent hiring season). Although not every job is advertised with the MLA, the vast majority of full-time, tenure-track positions are, making the list a trusted indicator of the job market. Read more...
Duncan's Timeline on Ratings Plan
By Michael Stratford. The Obama administration expects to have a first draft of its college rating system by this spring, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday. After soliciting public input at town hall discussions and hearings at college campuses across the country this fall, the department will convene a “technical symposium” early next year to discuss ratings methodology before releasing a preliminary version for public comment at some point in the spring, Duncan said. Read more...
Cheating in Dubai
By David Matthews for Times Higher Education. Almost one in eight students at part of a British branch campus in Dubai have been found guilty of cheating, it has emerged, with low entry standards being blamed for the figures. One hundred and twenty-five students out of 1,045 in total were found guilty of academic misconduct at Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus’ School of Management and Languages in 2011-12. Read more...
China’s 10 new and surprising school reform rules
By Valerie Strauss. Earlier this year China began a major education reform initiative designed to increase student engagement and end student boredom and anxiety. Curbing standardized testing was one aim. Scholar Yong Zhao wrote about it first in this post, and, now, below, gives us the latest developments. Yong Zhao is the presidential chair and director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he is also a professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. This is an updated version of a piece that appeared on his blog. Read more...
International school students: rootless and without a home?
By Hannah Smith. Growing up between countries makes it hard to define home, says a student at an international school in Beijing. Remy Shea is a sixth-form student at my international school in Beijing. When I ask her where she is from, she says: "I'm Canadian-Chinese but, at the same time, I'm neither."Most students at my school aren't from one particular place. Sure, our passports might say we're British or Malaysian, but it's more complicated than that. Where you're "from" is less about birthplace and more about cultural identity; as an expat student your cultural identity ends up being difficult to categorise. More...
What makes a student disadvantaged?
By Graeme Atherton. Is university access really wider in London? Graeme Atherton says it's time to rethink the way we measure widening access. London is the driving force of higher education participation in England, and widening participation in particular – at least that's what the latest Hefce report would have us believe. Participation in higher education has increased by more than 13% in London since 1998-99. And in the city's low participation neighbourhoods, participation rates have almost doubled. More...High prices leave students homeless: can you afford to live at uni?
By Abby Young-Powell and Libby Page. Homeless students, poppy-trashing and the poshness of Oxbridge names: in our new blog we discuss this week's student news. Two homeless students have come to the union at the University of the Arts London (UAL) looking for emergency housing, because they can't afford student halls. More...
Part-time students: six ways to better support them
By Claire Shaw. From flexible learning to employer involvement, experts from our recent live chat offer their advice on how we can move forward. 1) Communicate the benefits of part-time learning
"Almost all the effort that went in to communicating the new fees and funding system was directed at young people intending to study full time at the expense of mature and part-time students, so there's still a lot of misperceptions out there. But there's also a price issue. We know that mature learners are much more sensitive to debt than their younger peers. Without a sizeable government subsidy for part-time higher education that enables universities and colleges to bring down their fees, not much is going to change." (Katy Morris, million+)
"Part-time students also need to know this support is available, and how to access it. This is complicated by opening hours and the fact that some support workers aren't fully aware of how certain things like the benefits system works for part-time students compared to full-time students." (Bez1of14, commenter). More...
Is Britain closing its doors to overseas academics?
By Harriet Swain. The case of an 81-year-old Algerian historian highlights how overseas academics are being denied short-term entry to the UK – much to the disgust of British conference organisers. When organisers of a workshop held earlier this month at All Souls College, Oxford, invited an eminent Algerian academic to be a keynote speaker, they assumed his visa would be a mere formality. Sid-Ahmed Kerzabi has had a long and distinguished career as a historian, film-maker and specialist in cultural heritage, and is a former director of both the Tassili National Park, a world heritage site in the Sahara, and of the Bardo Museum in Algiers. He is also connected to the Algerian ministry of culture.But despite repeated visits to the British consulate in Algeria, Kerzabi was refused a visa. His talk had to be read out in Oxford by another delegate. There was no way to recoup his £400 airfare, which had been bought via an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant. More...
