By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. How was it? The UK’s first Coursera Moocs assessed
Chris Parr, April 18, 2013
Here's something you don't read every day: "Introduction to Philosophy the most popular, drawing almost 100,000 participants." It was one of five MOOCs offered in Britain by the University of Edinburgh. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Punked
Brian Lamb, Abject, April 18, 2013
As Brian Lamb observes, a recent post of mine on the rebranding of MOOCs has struck a nerve in the community (Lamb lists responses from Jim Groom, David Kernohan, Martin Weller, Tony Hirst, David Wiley, D’Arcy Norman, Pat Lockley, Richard Hall). Some of them have been supportive, some less so, and some incomprehensible. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. My eBook on MOOC and how to set up #MOOC yourself
Inge de Waard, Ignatia Webs, April 18, 2013
Inge de Waard has offered and published an eBook on designing and setting up a MOOC. She has been one of the few people running a MOOC using my own gRSShopper software, so her perspective will be a bit different from the cookie-cutter Coursera MOOCs. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Education Giant Pearson Adapts To Digital Learning
Ellis Booker, Information Week, April 18, 2013
According to this article, half of Pearson's revenues now come from digital products and services. Pearson is also adapting to the changing learner demographic. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOCs: taxonomy of 8 types of MOOC
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, April 17, 2013
I don't see the need for the rude poem, which requires that I post a language warning here. But beyond that, the list of eight types of MOOC is, well, a taxonomy. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. MOOCs and the Elite Edupunk Way
Darren Draper, Drape's Takes, April 17, 2013
Darren Draper summarizes a response from David Wiley to a recent post of mine in which I argue (or complain) that "MOOCs were not designed to serve the missions of the elite colleges and universities. They were designed to undermine them, and make those missions obsolete." As one of the people who actually developed MOOCs, I figured I was in a good position to say why they were designed, but apparently not. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. An alternative perspective on the meaning of ‘open’ in Higher Education
Jenny Mackness, April 17, 2013
Jenny Mackness proposes, "maybe a 'step' towards an understanding of the meaning of openness is through collaboration across institutions and countries. Whilst this does not address 'open' as in 'free' nor 'open access', it does begin to address 'open sharing' and what it means to 'be' open." I don't know. I've observed collaborations across institutions for decades, without a corresponding increase in openness. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Huge attack on WordPress sites could spawn never-before-seen super botnet
Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, April 14, 2013
Those using WordPress (and thousands of edubloggers do just that) are advised to take extra security precautions as a huge botnet is targeting WordPress sites with a brute-force attack. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Diagramming sentences
Mark Liberman, Language Log, April 14, 2013
The problem with sentences like "Man arrested with fake CIA badge" is that it suggests the fake CIA badge was used to make the arrest. Obviously there's a problem of ambiguity here, which is corrected with proper grammar. But how do we represent, and subsequently teach, the correct grammar? For decades, the Reed-Kellogg system has been used in schools; it diagrams the same basic sentence elements that might be found in, say, phrase structure rules. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. A report from Keith Devlin's and Coursera’s Introduction to Mathematical Thinking MOOC
Seb Schmoller, Fortnightly Mailing, April 15, 2013
There is not nearly enough time to follow every MOOC out there, so I'm attending closely to summaries of different MOOCs like this one from Seb Schmoller. He reports quite a positive experience taking Keith Devlin’s 10 week Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. More...