By Matt McGarrity. Last year I agreed to teach a public-speaking MOOC on the Coursera platform. I wasn’t a MOOC advocate, but I believe that the study of speech and rhetoric benefits individuals and society as a whole. I routinely offer speech workshops for civic and professional groups around Washington State. A MOOC on public speaking would allow me to run a speech workshop on a global scale. More...

By Jennifer Howard. This past spring, after years of hopeful talk, the idea of a U.S. national digital library took the leap into reality. The early signs are promising. After only seven months, the Digital Public Library of America, or DPLA, serves as the central link in an expanding network of cultural institutions that want to make their holdings more visible to the public. It has attracted financial support from foundations and government agencies, among them the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and, mostly recently, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And it's begun to attract not only users in search of far-flung information but also developers who want to build new tools and applications on its open-source platform. More...

New numbers about college costs and student debt provide a sobering reminder of the importance of planning for college and informing students about the realities of those costs. 
The numbers also provide a caution for college leaders to redouble efforts to hold down costs.
The average student debt of a graduating college senior in 2008 was $23,450, the Institute for College Access & Success says in a new report that looks at public and private nonprofit four-year institutions.
By 2012 the average debt load for new grads had climbed to $29,400. More...

By Stephen Adkins. College students who graduated during recessions were extremely satisfied with their jobs compared to those who found employment during economic booms, according to an Emory University study. Emily Bianchi, assistant professor of organization and management at Goizueta Business School, said that when people start their jobs in good financial times, they tend to question their career choices and advancements. On the other hand, recession graduates are more than happy to have found a job and are less likely to ponder over alternate paths. More...