Starting several years ago, massive open online course (MOOC) providers began releasing online degree programs, in partnership with universities. This trend started out slowly, but has been gaining momentum.
The first MOOC-based degree, the Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) from Georgia Tech and Udacity, was announced back in 2013. More...
Yesterday was a very sad day for me – not just because Stephen Downes’ cat has died, you have my sympathies, Stephen – but also because the United Kingdom has finally and completely exited the European Union.
Since I emigrated from Britain 30 years ago, I have carefully avoided getting involved in British politics. However, when even members of the Royal Family start emigrating, you know that something terrible has gone wrong. More...
I was away last week in Denmark, helping with the development of a new business degree at Aalborg University. I was there to do a keynote and run workshops for faculty on choosing appropriate mode of delivery (getting the best mix of online and face-to-face teaching), and choosing the best use of media. More...
Today, I want to talk about how that approach is likely to sabotage the governing United Conservative Party’s goals when it comes to post-secondary education and more generally look at what the government has to do to reach 2023 without a major disaster in the system. More...
I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in Alberta last week, and I would spend some time writing about the ways in which Alberta higher education is structured differently from the rest of the country. For that, I have to get into the public finance weeds. More...
On Monday, the Alberta Government released some details about the Performance-Based Funding (PBF) scheme it wants to implement for next year. Herewith, the lowdown.
The Good News: It’s a performance-based funding scheme, which leapfrogs Alberta about two stages ahead of where it currently is in terms of funding planning (it is currently one of the largest jurisdictions in the world with no funding formula at all). More...
It’s Davos time, when we get to find out what the world’s power elite would like everyone else to freak out about for the next twelve months. What is happening this year? The theme is “stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”, and while my impression is that the emphasis will be on the latter (Greta Thunberg has already had a powerful headliner), I think cohesion will still get some attention. More...
For the last decade or so, “the rise of Asia” has been a common refrain. It alludes to the region’s economic rise (which is undeniable) but then goes on to equate the region’s higher education offerings with this economic rise, usually in a way that poses a threat to “western” higher education. The most recent example came in this week’s edition of University World News and an op-ed entitled Will the 2020s See Asia Pull Ahead in Higher Education?
As these stories go, it’s pretty-run-of-the-mill and largely inaccurate. More...
I’m heading to Alberta for a couple of days this week, so I’ve been looking more carefully at some of what’s going on there, particularly following the MacKinnon Report on government financing. And frankly, I’m a little perplexed at what I am seeing. More...
A few weeks ago, the Brookings Institute – America’s oldest and possibly most influential think-tank – published a paper called The Case for Growth Centers: How to Spread Tech Innovation Across America. The paper’s problematique is the narrow distribution of tech growth in the United States (my favourite factoid here is that 90% of the growth in the country’s 13 highest-tech industries occurred in just five metro areas: Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and Seattle) and that for the good of the country the federal government needs to encourage more spatial distribution of this growth. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
