By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Targeted Learning in Healthcare Research
Susan Gruber, 2016/01/15

This article is focused on the big data in electronic health records and claims data sets being put to secondary use in studying questions of drug safety and efficacy, but it applies equally to learning analytics. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Technology and the Imminent Disruption of Higher Education: Is Fear the Path to the Dark Side?
David Wheeler, Academica Forum, 2016/01/14

Good article from Cape Breton University president David Wheeler examining some of the major trends in university education today. Here's a quick summary. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. 2015 Open and Online Education Trend Report
Marjon Baas, Janina van Hees, Ria Jacobi, Martijn Ouwehand, Robert Schuwer, Fred de Vries, Nicolai van der Woert, SURFNet, 2016/01/14
How is open education impacting on-campus education? Are new target groups being attracted to open and online educations? These are the sorts of questions addressed by this report. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Survey of the Shared Design Elements & Emerging Practices of Competency-Based Education Programs
Public Agenda, 2016/01/14
This report (36 page PDF) gathers baseline data on competency-based education (CBE) initiatives and looks at the adoption and evaluation of various CBE practices. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. The Banality Of Death
Stephen Downes, Jan 14, 2016.

No matter how pointless or meaningful we are told that it is, each death is to someone the ultimate tragedy. All deaths are the same. Once we come to realize this, together, we can begin thinking about how we can live together, work together, and begin to cherish this most beautiful thing in the world: life. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Personalization, Not Isolation
Jennifer Carolan, Medium, 2016/01/13

Personalized learning, writes Jennifer Carolan, is on everyone's minds these days. But effective teachers know that personalization means much more than simply working on one's own. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Making Networked Sharing Socially Beneficial, Not Just Predatory and Profitable
David Bollier, News and perspectives on the commons, 2016/01/13

The so-called 'sharing economy' will almost certainly impact education, but what form will it take? Now is the time to be thinking about it. The economy actually breaks down into four types of practice, according to this article. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Ed-Tech Patents: Prior Art and Learning Theories
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, 2016/01/13

Good overview of some recent history regarding the (now-abandoned) Blackboard patent, as well as some more recent patents held by the Khan Academy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Supporting Open Textbook Adoption in British Columbia
Mary Burgess, David Porter, BC Campus, 2016/01/13

Short article, supplemented with video clips from innovators such as Brian Lamb and Scott Leslie, on the progress and development of the Open Textbook project in British Columbia. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thinking Together: A Duoethnographic Inquiry Into the Implementation of a Field Experience Curriculum
Jackie Seidel, Laurie Hill, in education, 2016/01/12
As an empiricist, I am both fascinated and challenged by the papers in in education. They do not, to say the least, follow the typical pseudo-scientific methodology of sample group, interventions and analysis employed by putative research journals in our field. More...