Moody’s Says MOOCs Could Raise a University’s Credit Rating
Sara Grossman, The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog, June 26, 2013

I would have to say that this is the point where MOOC coverage jumped the shark (yes, I'm using the expression 'jumped the shark', because it fits exactly here).

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Blogger Navbar Not Accessible
Lanny Arvan, Lanny on Learning Technology, June 24, 2013

Following Lanny Arvan,I ran an ADL compliance test on my website. I scored 79 percent, which is OK - I need text alternatives for non-text items, ADL-compliant forms, and user-control over automatic page refreshes (which I use to access some services). Pretty easily managed - I'll do better after I upgrade the site.

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The Death and Rebirth of Sakai OAE
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, June 24, 2013

If you are wondering whatever happened to Sakai OAE (Open Academic Environment), the open source (or, more accurately, community sourse) learning management system (LMS) created by a coalition of major universities, well, it basically died. "The vastly reduced project team, consisting mainly of Cambridge, Georgia Tech, and Marist College, went into quiet mode as they attempted to figure out what could be salvaged. Now, about nine months later, they have re-emerged with a late beta of a completely re-architected system, promising a 1.0 release in early July. They have also rebranded them project as Apereo OAE, named after the new organization that is the merger of the Sakai and Jasig Foundations." Feldstein suggests that there is a future for the project: "I could see, for example, how OAE could be a terrific hub for Connectionist MOOCs, particularly if it were to add RSS aggregation and sharing capabilities or even deeper WordPress integration." Yeah, just add that, it's easy.

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FlowReader Makes It Easy to Transfer Google Reader Subscriptions
Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers, June 24, 2013

As we get toward Zero Hour for Google Reader, here's another thing to look at for saving your RSS subscriptions. "To start using FlowReader just visit the homepage and click "Import Your Google Reader Feeds Now." After clicking that button authorize FlowReader to access your Google Reader feeds and all of your feeds will be imported into FlowReader."

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Open Range: exploring the frontiers of OER
Doug Belshaw, OER13, University of Nottingham, June 23, 2013

Doug Belshaw's keynote at OER13. He outlines his work with the Mozilla Foundation on open badges and new web literacies, explaining their close relationship to OERs (and not just by means of the 'OER developer' badge). I'm still somewhat sceptical of badges, partially because I think they (along with other credentials, like degrees) will be replaced with direct learning data, and partially because badges are more opaque than the system they replace (eg. from the image, one of the badges is 'A Lister' - what does that mean, exactly?).

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