Monthly Archives: February 2016

Accessibility Issues

Link: Accessibility as a Civil Right

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Many campuses do a great job of documenting what needs to be done to ensure that courses and campus resources are accessible, but few of us step back and take the time to figure out how we can mount a campus-wide campaign to get buy-in from faculty, staff, and students.

In my opinion, the most successful campaigns have a common thread: they promote accessibility as a civil right and explain how accessibility fosters diversity and inclusiveness.

Art Morgan. “Accessibility as a Civil Right.” EDUCAUSE Review. January 25, 2016.

 

Growth Strategies, Innovative Programs

CS + X: Stanford Joint Majors in Computer Science and…

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Stanford’s CS + X joint major program allows undergraduate students to marry computer science skills with an interest in the humanities. The CS +X degrees include specialized courses that involve both aspects of the student’s chosen educational path.

CS+X degrees may not be meant for students who want to do deeply technical work as programmers, but rather for those who want to use data collection to analyze topics such as politics, society, and the environment, says Jim Kurose, assistant director for computer and information science and engineering at the National Science Foundation.

See:

Ruff, Corinne. Computer Science, Meet Humanities: In New Majors, Opposites Attract. Chronicle of Higher Education, January 28, 2016.

as well as Stanford’s description and listing of these joint majors.

Innovative Programs, New Online Programs

Link: MIT Dean Takes Leave To Start New University Without Lectures Or Classrooms

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What if you could start a university from scratch for today’s needs and with today’s technology? MIT Dean Christine Ortiz is hoping to answer this question through a new venture–but unlike other efforts, hers will be not-for-profit.

Ms. Ortiz says she plans to create a nonprofit institution so that “all of the revenue can be reinvested in the enterprise to serve the public.”

Young, Jeffrey. MIT Dean Takes Leave to Start New University Without Lectures or Classrooms. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 1, 2016.

Adult Learning, Competency-Based Education, Corporate and Industry Partnerships, Federal Policy, Growth Strategies, Hybrid Learning

EQUIP Round-Up: Slides, Articles, and Links

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EQUIP, or Educational Quality Through Innovative Partnerships, is a new program from the U.S. Department of Education. The department will provide access to Title IV funds to chosen partners (both traditional and non-traditional), while waiving the rules about the use of content from other entities.

The goal of this experimental program is to allow traditional schools to lower educational costs and increase access by partnering with nontraditional providers, such as MOOCs or code academies or boot camps, by creating hybrid programs that are eligible for enrolled students to access financial aid.

Introductory PowerPoint slides created by the Department of Education are embedded below:

[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/edtechknowledge/files/2016/02/EQUIP112315-1x8kedp.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

Want to know more? Here are some starting points: