From GED to PhD
Krista M. LeBrun dropped out of high school in ninth grade, earned a GED at 17 — and kept on going, she writes in a Community College Week commentary. Tired of of being treated as a loser, LeBrun went to Meridian Community College (Mississippi), where Browning Rochefort, then director of adult education, “looked at me as though [...]
Best teacher may not be an ‘elite’ prof
Higher education will be transformed by online learning, argues Jeffrey Selingo in College (Un)Bound. “These free courses developed by elite institutions that serve tens of thousands of students at a time will likely become the content provider for the core courses that every college offers. By using online materials to power these face-to-face courses, colleges [...]
Credits without hours?
There’s a growing wave of enthusiasm for degrees based on competency rather than credit hours. Echoing Sherman Dorn, Matt Reed asks whether high ed should just drop the “hours” from “credit hours.” His answer: Because then “credits” could mean anything or nothing. For-profit providers have an incentive to inflate credits, writes Reed, who’s worked in the [...]
Creative destruction meets higher education
Higher education is due for some creative destruction, predicts John Backus,managing partner at New Atlantic Ventures, in a Washington Post commentary. In the next few years: At least 10 states will require their state universities to accept MOOCs for placement and for credit, helping taxpayers save money on education. Many of the most talented professors [...]
Online learning reveals generation gap
MOOC enthusiasts should consider a Community College Research Center survey that found many college students want “in-person discussion and on-the-spot feedback,” writes Mandy Zatynski on The Quick and the Ed. There’s a generational divide in online learning separating young students from those 30 and older, she writes. . . . my brother and I are galaxies apart in terms [...]
Is online learning for steerage?
Is online learning for steerage passengers, while only the elite actually meet their professors? Peter Sacks worries about stratifying and standardizing higher education on Minding the Campus. Online learning will reduce higher education costs without harming student learning outcomes, argues former Princeton president William G. Bowen in Higher Education in the Digital Age. Bowen estimates teaching labor [...]
Online courses for ‘novice learners’
Can “novice learners” succeed in all-online courses? Many believe remedial and entry-level students need lots of personal attention to succeed. But San Jose State is working with Udacity on three online basic math courses that include round-the-clock online mentors, hired and trained by the company, reports the New York Times. The tiny for-credit pilot courses, open to [...]
Online completion gap is narrowing
The completion gap between online and traditional courses is narrowing, reports a Instructional Technology Council survey on Trends in eLearning at community colleges. Nearly half of colleges surveyed said online students are as successful as students in face-to-face courses, reports Fred Lokken, dean of the WebCollege at Truckee Meadows Community College. Distance education enrollments at community colleges continue [...]
Khan offers self-paced, online remedial help
Self-paced online courses backed by data analytics could help community colleges get students up to speed, said Khan Academy founder Salman Khan at the San Francisco convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. “About six million people around the world watch Khan’s free online tutorials each month, writes Paul Fain on Inside Higher Ed. Khan thinks his [...]
California eyes exam-based university
A proposed “New University of California” would award credits to students who pass exams proving mastery, regardless of whether they learned the material in class, online, at work or whatever, reports KQED. Assemblyman Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, proposed AB 1306 to expand access to college degrees. New University would not offer classes, hire professors or charge tuition, but [...]
