I think graduate education is about to undergo a massive disruption.
Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera, suggests that innovative online graduate programs–such as the “stackable” online MBA programming now offered by the University of Illinois, entirely through MOOCs–will expand in the coming years.
Read full article here.
Category Archives: Innovative Programs
Link: 7 Trends That Will Revolutionize Online Learning
The idea that online learning could actually be better than face-to-face instruction has gained credence in recent years as new technology solutions promise to make the educational experience more personalized and engaging. Has that time finally arrived? Here, eCampus News looks at seven trends that have the potential to remake the world of online learning.
Read full article here.
Link: An iPad in Every Home
Straumsheim, C., (2014) An iPad in Every Home
Lynn U.’s tablet revolution marches on. Its next initiative: affordable online degree programs delivered exclusively through iPads — at tuition rates that are a fraction of what the university regularly charges.Since its moment in the national spotlight, Lynn has replaced textbooks with Apple’s iPads and iBooks, adopted iTunes U as its learning management system and built its own attendance and gradebook app. Its revamped distance education programs, launching next fall with seven degree options, will extend the tablet revolution to Lynn’s online students at a fraction of what the programs used to cost.
Read full article here.
Link: The Quest for Demonstrable Outcomes
Schejbal, D., (2015) The Quest for Demonstrable Outcomes.
There is a buzz, even a frenzy, about competency-based education (CBE). Brought together by the Lumina Foundation-sponsored organization C-BEN (the Competency-Based Education Network), 30 institutions and 4 university systems have developed or are developing competency-based programs. About another 600 schools have claimed to be developing CBE programs, though there is no accurate data to substantiate that number. Why and why now?
Link: Cleveland’s Thinkbox is a Big Bet on University Makerspaces
Case Western Reserve University’s new 50,000 square-foot, $35 million center for innovation provides a space for anyone–especially students, faculty, and alumni–to tinker and creatively invent.
Charnas explained that the seven floors have been designed to accommodate different stages of development for a person or a project. The first floor is dedicated to community, a gathering place; the second floor is for ideation with lots of whiteboards and open space for brainstorming. The third floor is for prototyping, while the fourth floor is for fabrication — don’t ask me to explain the difference. The fifth floor is open projects space, essentially workbenches and storage. The sixth floor organizes resources for entrepreneurs and the seventh floor serves as an incubator for small groups that form to develop a new product.
See also the think[box] web site.