Yup, Something (Good) Is Up at Blackboard
Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, August 9, 2013

Blackboard hasn't been relevant in the innovation space for some time, but according to this column from Michael Feldstein, they may be rediscovering their roots as a product company (or, maybe, discovering new roots as a product company). He predicts bright things for them. "We think there is a reasonably good chance that Blackboard will make some product moves that could starting putting pressure on their competition in the next 12 to 24 months." See also Phil Hill, this is not your father's Blackboard.

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Will e-book access determine the fate of libraries?
Doug Noon, Blue Skunk Blog, August 9, 2013

I guess if you can have movie rentals from iTunes you can have eBook loans from libraries. But publishers don't like the idea and as Doug Noon reports they have changed the rules regarding libraries a lot, including: "Limiting the number of circulations before needing to be repurchased, selling for a hugely inflated cost (5X the cost of a print title), leasing rather than selling ownership of titles, and refusing to sell to libraries altogether are some of the conditions major publishers have imposed on library sales - especially of popular titles." I'm not really sure libraries make sense in the digital age - no, not replaced by eBook rentals, but rather, replaced by free and open content. Of course, publishers like that idea even less.

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Moodle.org introduce their first MOOC
Matt Bury, matbury.com, August 9, 2013

Moodle has been used to host a large num er of MOOCs - we even used it to partially support CCK08 - but now according to this post Moodle.Org is launching their first MOOC. "Moodle for teachers: An introduction is a 4 week introductory course with a recommended total of 8-12 hours participation time. Registration opens on 19th August 2013 and the course starts on 1st September 2013. There are no fees for taking the course and successful participants will be awarded a Mozilla Open Badges course completion badge."

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Learning analytics – What is the “end in mind”?
David Jones, The Weblog of (a) David Jones, August 2, 2013

"You’re excited about predictive analytics," writes David T. Jones. "You see the potential value of it. There’s just one problem: You don’t have a specific goal in mind." My own feeling would be that it is to aid student success in some way, but let's press on. Diversity, he writes, is a problem. "The 'end in mind' is going to be different for different academics." Probably for student, too. But in the end, "Most University learning analytics projects seem to focus on retention. i.e. the bottom line." Students want to learn and get out there into the world; universities want to keep them in class.

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