edX MOOC Research Gives Clearer Picture, Challenges Assumptions
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, 2015/04/07
The results from one LMS and 68 courses do not define the picture of learning for all time. But it's hard to deny that they're in a different league from the stereotypical 'class of 40 psychology undergrads' when it comes to research on students and learning. More...

The Future of On-Campus Higher Education?
Margaret Andrews, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/04/07

I'm not sure exactly when this came out (it's copyrighted 2100) but it's more Stanford hubris, 'discovering' a future the rest of us have been talking about for years. Here are the major elements:

• Education will be fully envisaged as a lifelong journey, rather than a one-shot, four-year stint
• The education will focus more on skill acquisition than disciplinary topics and therefore the university will be organized around competency hubs, rather than academic fields
• The education model will move from an industrial revolution-style, one-size-fits-few freshman/sophomore/junior/senior classification to a personal-paced learning program
• The school will move away from having students declare a major, toward having them declare a purpose

Of these, the last is the most interesting. More...

Competency-based education is all the rage: What is it?
Kimberly K. Estep, The Tennessean, 2015/04/07
James Morrison recommends this article as "the clearest explanation of CBE that I have read." As the author, Kimberly K. Estep, makes clear, "simply put, competency-based education measures learning rather than seat time." Put like that, how could anyone possibly object to competency-based education. More...

The Virtues of Moderation
James Grimmelmann, The Yale Journal of Law & Technology, 2015/04/07
This is a careful, deep, sophisticated article that consumed a large chunk of my morning working my through its 68 pages of detailed explanation and rich referencing. In many respects, this account of internet moderation can be considered authoritative. More...

Open ends?
Brian Lamb, Abject, 2015/04/08
I answer this in the affirmative: "Would the cause of open be better served if we go further in this direction, and stop talking about 'open' as a goal and instead focus on using it as a tactic to support allies who care about authentic, engaged, accessible, sustainable, and relevant public education?" In Sausalito last week one person said that people were convinced to adopt OERs only when pointed out that they help the students learn. More...

Gathering requirements for a student app for learning analytics
Niall Sclater, Sclater Digital, 2015/04/08
"What data and analytics should be presented directly to students?" This is the question posed by Niall Sclater in his review of a JISC workshop in London a month ago. More...

Inside America's Subscription-Box Obsession
Elizabeth Segran, Fast Company, 2015/04/08
One of the great things about the internet is that it's possible to find entire communities devoted to things you've never heard of. This article describes the phenomenon of subscription boxes: the idea is that for a set fee you receive a box every month or so with a selection of items around a theme. My Subscription Addiction lists hundreds, maybe thousands, of these, with reviews. More...

The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much
Paul Campos, New York Times, 2015/04/08
I saw this post the other day and was suspicious when I read the phrase "legislative appropriations to higher education" being compared to U.S. military spending. This could mean anything. More...

Contributions and Connections
Bonnie Stewart, Inside Higher Ed, 2015/04/08
I mostly agree with Bonnie Stewart's comments in Inside Higher Ed (and note in passing that Inside Higher Ed has recently opened up its circle of authors beyond the fairly narrow political spectrum that characterized its contributions until now). More...

Competency-Based Education: A Framework for Measuring Quality Courses
Jackie Krause, Laura Portolese Dias, Chris Schedler, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 2015/04/08
"There are no defined standards that directly address quality of competency-based courses," write the authors. "This problem is exacerbated because competency-based programs are often self-paced, requiring students to be more self-sufficient and self-directed than in instructor-led courses." They survey several other quality rubrics and observe that these typically include an evaluation of the interactivity supported by the course. More...