Education Giant Pearson Adapts To Digital Learning
Ellis Booker, Information Week, April 18, 2013

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According to this article, half of Pearson's revenues now come from digital products and services. Pearson is also adapting to the changing learner demographic. "'[They] need flexibility,' said Todd Hitchcock, senior VP of online solutions and business development. 'So access becomes more online and blended.' Similarly, although Hitchcock isn't sure that massive open online courses (MOOCs) will transform education, they have had the effect of 'shining a light on online learning, access and affordability models.'" 

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Online Learning, Blended Learning]

My eBook on MOOC and how to set up #MOOC yourself
Inge de Waard, Ignatia Webs, April 18, 2013

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Inge de Waard has offered and published an eBook on designing and setting up a MOOC. She has been one of the few people running a MOOC using my own gRSShopper software, so her perspective will be a bit different from the cookie-cutter Coursera MOOCs. But the book is not at all about the software: "This MOOC eBook gives a short overview of options on how to set up your own MOOC and how to tailor it to your own needs, tools and target audiences. The challenges and benefits of MOOCs are highlighted and guidelines on how to build an optimal MOOC experience are shared. Online learning best practices' are listed with a focus on MOOC specific learning characteristics, certification options and pedagogies."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Experience, RSS, Online Learning]

Punked
Brian Lamb, Abject, April 18, 2013

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As Brian Lamb observes, a recent post of mine on the rebranding of MOOCs has struck a nerve in the community (Lamb lists responses from Jim Groom, David Kernohan, Martin Weller, Tony Hirst, David Wiley, D’Arcy Norman, Pat Lockley, Richard Hall). Some of them have been supportive, some less so, and some incomprehensible. Brian Lamb picks up on the suggestion that my conception of MOOCs, like Edupunk before it, means we do everything on our own, with no help from anyone else. Which is of course a mischaracterization. It was much more simple: “Corporations are selling us back our ideas, innovations, and visions for an exorbitant price. I want them all back, and I want them now!” But history, as Lamb notes, is being rewritten by those with time and money to do so.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Branding, Open Content]

How was it? The UK’s first Coursera Moocs assessed
Chris Parr, April 18, 2013

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Here's something you don't read every day: "Introduction to Philosophy the most popular, drawing almost 100,000 participants." It was one of five MOOCs offered in Britain by the University of Edinburgh. The one I saw most was the university’s E-learning and Digital Cultures Mooc (#edcmooc) and this is the focus of the article, which marvels at both the completion rate (12%) and the level of community-formation around the course. “There was a very engaged group that began forming a community before the course even started,” Knox explains. “They were using social media to meet each other, and were very happy with the idea of self-directing their study. They got it.”

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Scotland, Traditional and Online Courses, Great Britain]