Is academic citation data fit for use in decisions on tenure and promotion?
In Commentary, Roger Y Chao Jr and Stig Arne Skjerven anticipate re-energised efforts in the Asia-Pacific region to enhance higher education access, quality and mobility with the Tokyo Recognition Convention coming into force next year. Hazri Jamil, Wan Chang Da and Ooi Poh Ling say Malaysia’s transformation from a sending country into a destination country for international students needs an additional focus on internationalisation-at-home policies to widen the benefits to all students. And Claudia Frittelli says findings show that African academic diaspora linkage programmes leverage additional funds and expertise, and African governments should recognise the benefits of both.
In Features, Yojana Sharma reports on evidence emerging that academics in Xinjiang have disappeared after major purges of the region’s universities in Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur Muslim population. Wagdy Sawahel reports that Iranian universities are rapidly expanding their branches in Sub-Saharan Africa, which higher education experts see either as enhancing academia or an attempt to expand Iran’s soft power and influence. And Sharon Dell reports on Professor Adekeye Adebajo’s contention that transformation of South African universities will have to be fought for in what is likely to be a “long and tortuous battle”. More...
21CIF Self-Guided MicroModules
21CIF Self-Guided MicroModules
This is a useful resource that has some good features. It is a page of short, self contained modules addressing specific concepts in information literacy. They are thus good examples of reusable resources. I found, however, the pretest to be annoying - there was no way to get around the form, even on my second visit. More...
Babel's Children
Babel's Children
Fans of Star Trek are familiar with the Tamarians, a species that speaks entirely in metaphor (for more, see the The Darmok Dictionary). We use metaphor in English, but the bulk of our communication is of the noun-verb construction. This, too, is the form of metadata languages such as RDF. But some languages, such as Riau Indonesian, do not distinguish between noun and verb. More...
Wem gehört die Mona Lisa?
Wem gehört die Mona Lisa?
The English translation of this article is a bit rough, but you can get the meaning: though the image of the Mona Lisa has long since passed into the public domain, a new sort of property has been created by restricting who can photograph the artwork, then copyrighting the photos. So who owns the (image of) the Mona Lisa? Bill Gates. More...
Depth and Superficiality: E-learning and Global Culture
Depth and Superficiality: E-learning and Global Culture
Outline and link to a presentation looking at the impact of culture on e-learning. The author argues that while most e-learning today merely presents content, such e-learning will not produce a lot of change in the learner and will need eventually to be replaced with new, "deep", technology. More...
Canadian Elearning Workshop 2004
Canadian Elearning Workshop 2004
Good coverage of today's Elearning workshop in Vancouver, including my own talk this morning. The meeting is a summary of projects funded by CANARIE, including our own eduSource project. More...
Machine learning benefits and risks by expert Stella Lee #AI #data #learning
By Inge Ignatia de Waard. Machine learning has moved from a mere rave into a real strong, acknowledged learning power (not only in the news, but also on the stock market of AI, e.g. STOXX AI global indices - I was quite surprised to see this). Machine learning has the power to support personalized learning, as well as adaptive learning, which allows an instructional designer to engage learners in such a way that learning outcomes can be reached in more than one way (always a benefit!). More...
David versus Goliath: The past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK
The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) is publishing a report on the past, present and future of students’ unions in the UK. Released just before the new academic year begins, the report traces the history of student representation in higher education to show its role in higher education debates. More...
New funding package means less cash and higher debts for Welsh students
From this autumn, undergraduates from Wales will no longer get a tuition fee grant. As a result, tuition fee loans will more than double (to £9,000 for those studying in Wales), embedding high tuition fees and loans across more of the UK. Maintenance support is changing too. Although there is to be a new universal maintenance grant, many will be expected to take on larger maintenance loans. More...