Formation Continue du Supérieur

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Understanding and learning outcomes.
Gardner Campbell examines "the seemingly endless fascination with 'learning outcomes'" and the ingenious idea that "teachers should think about what they believe should happen in the student as a result of the class." But this, he says, leads toward a behaviourist paradigm and away from "the cognitivist turn" that has characterized education in recent years. It leads toward 'specific knowledge'. "Two of the words we must never, ever use are 'understand' and 'appreciate.'" - we are told that these are vague words, when (as Chronicle blogger Robert Talbert says) we should specific words to describe outcomes. More...

By EvoLLLution NewsWire. On Tuesday, leaders from community colleges across the United States gathered at the Community College National Legislative Summit and roundly critiqued the proposed federal college rating system. Jeff Appel, deputy undersecretary of education, admitted that there are many shortcomings and obstacles to implementing President Barrack Obama’s rating system, which proposes tying federal funding to performance measured by specific metrics that are yet to be defined; rewarding high-performing institutions with more funding while reducing funding to institutions performing poorly. More...

By EvoLLLution NewsWire. On Friday, the Obama administration proposed a new set of gainful employment rules that will tighten federal oversight of for-profit colleges and universities if passed into law. The last set of regulations — which included loan-repayment expectations — were struck down by a federal judge in 2012. After that, the Department of Education went back to the drawing board to protect students from low-quality, high-debt programs while keeping access to career-focused programs open. More...

By Di Xu - EvoLLLution. In two recent articles written for The EvoLLLution (found here and here) on semester-length, fully-online college coursework, I discussed the challenges many community colleges students face in an online learning context, particularly those who are male, ethnic minority students and those with lower entry GPAs. More...

By Jean Floten - EvoLLLution. A college degree can result in higher lifetime earnings and an improved quality of life. Increasingly, employers want employees who have obtained degrees. Compelling reasons for a college education, right?
At the same time, skyrocketing tuition and massive student debt burdens are crushing the higher education hopes of many. More...