By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective
Francisco Iniesto, Patrick McAndrew, Shailey Minocha, Tim Coughlan, Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME), 2016/12/28

From the abstract. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Open Society Needs Defending
George Soros, Project Syndicate, 2016/12/28

Argument from George Soros to the effect that, yes, the open society needs defending. "Open societies are in crisis," he writes, "and various forms of closed societies – from fascist dictatorships to mafia states – are on the rise." A bit sgtrong but we'll accept thes. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Student Assessment of Quality of Access at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)
Juliet Obhajajie Inegbedion, Folorunso Israel Adu, Christine Yetunde Ofulue, Open Praxis, 2016/12/27

The more interesting part of this article is in the opening sections as we learn about the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and in particular how it is positioned to meet government objectives of access and open education. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Assessing Critical Thinking in Higher Education: Current State and Directions for Next-Generation Assessment
Ou Lydia Liu, Lois Frankel, Katrina Crotts Roohr, ETS Research Report Series, 2016/12/27

This is quite a good paper from a couple years ago on the topic of assessing critical thinking. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Could online tutors and artificial intelligence be the future of teaching?
Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, 2016/12/27
I think it would be surprising if these new technologies did not play a significant role, particularly in environments where teachers are too expensive or scarce to provide the necessary learning support. We are already looking at significant employment of tutors to support learning. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Learning through life rather than exams
Calvin Yang, Strait Times, 2016/12/27

Singapore, noted for its top 10 finish in the recently released PISA test results, is shifting its focus away from rote and testing. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Simplicity
Alan Baker, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016/12/23

Keep it simple. Yes, that excellent advice - but what exactly do we mean by "simplicity". As this article notes, on the one hand there's ontological simplicity, in which the fewest number of objects possible is contemplated. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People
Maciej Cegłowski, Idle Words, 2016/12/23
This is one of the better things I've read in a while, and I also like the way it's presented. The point of departure is the concern, expressed by many, that artificial intelligence might exceed humanity and ultimately wipe us out. Maciej Cegłowski has very clearly thought about this in some depth, and the argument he lays out against superintelligence is a nimble application of demonstration and reason. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Principles
Ray Dalio, 2016/12/23

While I agree that it is important to understand the values and principles that guide your life, I am cautious about formalizing them into rules, and I warn against self-serving rationalization. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Why Faculty Still Don’t Want to Teach Online
Robert Ubell, Inside Higher Ed, 2016/12/14
Online learning is a lot more convenient for students, offers potential cost savings for institutions and public education systems, and often offers a superior learning experience thanks to the affordances learning technology offers. More...