Word of the Year? Obamacare!
‘The Guardian’ Opposes Zombie Rules
The Jargon Prize
Old Hat (Warning: Adult Content!)
Women in Science (or Not)
By Ann Adjie Shirley-Henderson. After a few drinks with male scientists at a bar, I was hit with the question, “So what do you babes in the sciences want?” The quick answer I gave, after suppressing an obscenity, had to do with creating a level playing field. But that’s not what I really want. I want retribution, remuneration, and recognition, right now. But I would settle for an even split between male and female scientists in all favorable factors for success, immediately. More...
Library of Congress Web Sites Go Live Again
By Jennifer Howard. In a rare piece of good news this week out of Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress announced it had restored access to its Web sites. They had gone dark, along with many other federal agencies’ sites, because of the government shutdown. Many scholars and researchers rely on the library’s sites for access to its vast collections. Read more...
Deal Eases Coursera’s Entry to Chinese Market
By Lawrence Biemiller. Coursera, a pioneer of massive open online courses, said on Monday night that a new partnership with a Chinese Internet company would allow Coursera to offer courses to millions of the company’s customers across China. The Chinese company, NetEase, provides Internet connections and online games, and claims to operate China’s largest e-mail service. Read more...
Desire2Learn Enters MOOC Market as It Updates Its Platform
By Hannah Winston. The course-management company Desire2Learn unveiled a MOOC-enabled version of its online-learning platform on Tuesday, joining two competitors, Blackboard and Instructure, in entering the market for massive open online courses. Read more...
Faculty Leaders Caution Against Profit Motive in Online Ed
By Steve Kolowich. As technology companies have increasingly eyed higher education as ripe for “disruption,” faculty leaders have been wary of entrepreneurs’ gaining a toehold on campuses. The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, a coalition of faculty advocacy groups, has articulated many of those concerns in a report released on Wednesday. The report warns administrators and politicians not to take the private companies at face value when it comes to their promises of increasing access to higher education. Read more...