By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOCs and Open Educational Resources: A Handbook for Educators
Peter B. Kaufman, Intelligent Television, 2017/02/09
This is a longish guide (60 page PDF) outlining MOOCs for instructors and (mostly) developers. There are long sections devoted to video and open licensing, which I consider to be the least important aspects of a MOOC. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How will education change in the next 10 years?
Various authors, Quora, 2017/02/09

This is a question thread on Quora which has just been graced by Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What Research Says About Transferring Explicit Knowledge: To Share or Not to Share
Nancy Dixon, conversation matters, 2017/02/06

As always, convenience is the major usability factor when introducing new technology. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. What the Acquisition of Meta Means for Scholarly Publishers

Joseph Esposito, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2017/02/06
Meta is a tool that analyzes scientific publications. For example, in one study it predicted the number of citations a published article would receive. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Against mass consumption of ‘already certified’ credentials
Doug Belshaw, Open Educational Thinkering, 2017/02/06

Doug Belshaw bemoans the unsurprising co-option of digital badges by established institutions. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Coursera’s New Strategy Takes Inspiration From Netflix—and LinkedIn
Jeffrey R. Young, Sydney Johnson, EdSurge, 2017/02/02
Coursera is continuing its migration from being a MOOC provider offering free online learning to a subscription-based learning provider charging fees for access to learning materials. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Transversal Competencies and their Assessment: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific
Ramya Vivekanandan, Esther Care, Rebekah Luo, UNESCO, 2017/02/02
'Transversal skills' is the term adopted by UNESCO to refer to things like 21st century skills, critical thinking, persitence, and related skills. This article observes that they are being more widely valued world-wide. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Knowledge Science: The Great Big Beautiful Puzzle
Dennis Thomas, Learning Solutions Magazine, 2017/02/02

This is a view of knowledge and learning that I think is wrong (and would argue has been disproven in application) but which is nonetheless believed - either implicitly or explicitly - by many. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Building a Chatbot: analysis & limitations of modern platforms
Javier Couto, Tyro Labs, 2017/01/26
Good article exploring the strengths and weaknesses of various chatbot platforms. "The chatbot ecosystem is moving very fast and new features are being released every day by the numerous existing platforms." There are non-technical platforms aimed at average users: Chatfuel, ManyChat, Octane Ai, Massively and Motion.ai. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Global Survey on the Quality of MOOCs
Open University of the Netherlands, 2017/01/26

This is a call to participate in a global research effort: "The survey addresses MOOC learners, MOOC designers and MOOC facilitators. More...