Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Jonah Newman. A debate is raging about whether rising student-loan debt constitutes an existential crisis in American higher education or the natural outcome of more Americans’ pursuing a college degree. That debate was stoked this week by the release of Andrew Rossi’s new documentary film, Ivory Tower, and a report, by Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos of the Brookings Institution, that made waves on the Internet after David Leonhardt wrote about it in The New York Times on Tuesday. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. A team of researchers from Cornell Tech, Cornell University and Stanford University have released a study that provides the most comprehensive look to date at how students engage with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). With their global reach and often staggering enrollments, MOOCs have the potential to become a major new mechanism for learning, but very little is actually understood about how participants engage in these courses and how their success should be judged. The new study from Cornell and Stanford concludes that MOOCs serve very different goals than traditional courses, and students should be assessed accordingly, beyond just course completion and their grade. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. Higher One, a leader in providing financial services and data analytics to more than 1,900 colleges and universities nationally, announces the addition of the Chinese yuan to its international payments service, which is powered by Higher One’s partnership with Western Union Business Solutions. The yuan follows the recent additions of Korean won, added earlier this year and the Indian rupee, added last year. According to Open Doors 2013 “Fast Facts,” students using the yuan, the won and the rupee represent more than 50 percent of international students in the U.S. —a constituency Higher One now serves through its international payments services. More...

By Lauren Williams. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram continue to be the most widely used online recruitment mediums for higher ed marketers, who may want to consider delving into other platforms now popular among high school seniors. Nearly four in 10 high school seniors reported using Snapchat, a photo messaging mobile app, but fewer than 3 percent of colleges and universities recruited with it, according to the “2014 E-Recruitment Practices Report” from Noel-Levitz. More...