By Phil Hill. It is gratifying to see WCET pick up the mantle with their analysis of distance learning based on the new IPEDS data. They have several posts up already, and today’s post is quite good and important. If only more people jumping into the fray on higher education history and reform would start with a grounding in facts, the public debate and resulting recommendations would be much more useful. More...

By Phil Hill. One month ago 2U filed its registration for an IPO in 2014. 2U is an online service provider that helps traditional universities develop fully-online programs, currently based on 9 customers at the master’s level (see here for summary of revenue per student and per customer). On Monday the company set the terms for the IPO, as described by Bill Flook in the Washington Business Journal. More...

By Phil Hill. One development covered here at e-Literate this year has been the US State Department and Treasury Department forcing the MOOC providers to block access for students in Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Syria. Kris Olds has also provided excellent coverage as well as Carl Straumsheim at Inside Higher Ed. In late January Coursera had to start blocking students in these four countries while edX continued working with these students. Then in early March edX had to start blocking students in Iran, Sudan and Cuba. More...

By Phil Hill. The Department of Education (DOE) released their proposed State Authorization regulations this week as part of the negotiated rulemaking process that seeks to replace previous rules struck down by courts in 2011. While the new process is more transparent than before (which was the basis of the court rulings), the proposed rulings would represent a dramatic increase in federal control of distance education and compliance burden for institutions. More...

By Michael Feldstein. I don’t often get to write these words, but there is a new must-read blog post on educational technology by a venture capitalist. Rethink Education’s Matt Greenfield argues that there is no generalized bubble in ed tech investment; rather, the problem is that the venture community has a habit of systematically betting on the wrong horses. It’s worth noting that Matt is not your typical VC. For starters, he doesn’t live in the Valley echo chamber. Perhaps more importantly, he has a background as an academic. More...

By Hedda. 1st European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN) will take place in Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barchelona, UAB) during July 1-4, 2014. The conference has a broad focus on Social Networks with various thematic sessions. In addition, 16 workshops will be offered on  the theory, data collection, methods of analysis and visualization of social networks. One of the thematic sessions has also focus on universities in particular, with a title University Networks. See more...