Intellectual Property Is a University’s Best Friend
Joseph Esposito, The Scholarly Kitchen, January 7, 2013.

Joseph Esposito writes, "it simply is not in the interests of major research institutions to support the liberalization of IP policies when they are themselves the biggest creators of such IP in the world." When the interests of the universities clash against the needs of wider society, who should win? And if he answer is "not society," then we must ask the follow-up question: should society continue to fund these institutions? Clamping down on IP may address a university's short term needs, but will cause it significant harm in the long run, in my view. This post argues, "most other institutions, not to mention corporations and some governmental agencies, both domestically and abroad, are free riders." But universities themselves are the ultimate free riders.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Research]

A Qualitative Analysis Framework Using Natural Language Processing and Graph Theory
Patrick J. Tierney, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, January 6, 2013.

Graph theory is the mathematics that describes network structures and properties. In this interesting paper, graph theory is used to analyze natural language. It is represented by the author as a way of capturing qualitative properties using quantitative methods. The technique "has the potential to substantially reduce the amount of time required to analyze qualitative data and to assist in the discovery of themes that might not have otherwise been detected." It is this sort of approach, applied across large quantities of student work posted publicly, and compared with that of other students, that I believe will in the long term enable open assessment and recognition of student work to become possible.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Networks, Assessment]

Anmeldung
Monika Koenig, Dörte Giebel and Heinz Wittenbrink, MOOC, January 5, 2013.

Via email, the following: "We are offering a MOOC from 16 January onwards (till 22nd February). The course shall take place in a connectivistic manner (cMOOC), we call it 'MOOC Maker Course' as it will focus on the process of developing and running an Open Course. Hashtags at Twitter and Google+ are either #howtomooc or #mmc13. Unfortunately information in our blog is provided in German, you might find it interesting to have a quick look at it nevertheless. The URL is http://howtomooc.org/. What makes the MOOC special (at least in our opinion) is that we created some special roles to involve all interested folks in different ways. E.g. there are so-called 'reflectors' and even some “wiki supporters” as we will work out a sort of howtomooc-tutorial in a wiki (the URL is not open yet)."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Twitter, Web Logs, Google]

Why predicting online learning developments is risky but necessary
Tony Bates, Online Learning and Distance Education Resources, January 5, 2013.

Tony Bates argues, convincingly, that we cannot avoid making predictions, not even in higher educations (after all, our jobs may depend on them), but if we must, then we should do them well. He points out how little data we have to work on, and considers some other authors (mentioning in passing how inaccurate Horizon Report has been over the years).

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Online Learning]

MOOC MOOC Starts Sunday, January 6, 2013
Sean Morris and Jesse Stommel , Canvas Network, January 5, 2013.

Via LinkedIn: "In just a couple of days, the Hybrid Pedagogy online journal group is starting a MOOC MOOC to study and evaluate MOOC's within an open online course environment. I figured this group may be interested in joining the conversation and participating in the course. The course will be taught by Sean Morris @slamteacher and Jesse Stommel @Jessifer and will begin Sunday, January 6, 2013."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Academic Journals, Academic Publications]