Gamification, personalization and continued education are trending in edtech
Sean O'Connor, TechCrunch, 2016/04/18

The real story here is buried: "While the market is small and fractured today, GSV Capital estimates that education will grow from 9 percent to 12 percent of America’s GDP over the next decade. This equates to a trillion-dollar opportunity." That's an awful lot of opportunity. Good article with good insight on some rising companies and key trends.

[Link] [Comment]

Higher education is trapped in a competition fetish
Rajani Naidoo, University World News, 2016/04/18

Interesting take. Makes some points that need to be made. Rajani Naidoo writes, "I am arguing against is the idea of competition as a fetish – the idea that different types of competition can be unthinkingly applied to answer all the unsolved problems of higher education. Or the idea that competition has become so powerful that other ways of organising are rendered obsolete."

[Link] [Comment]

MOOQ
Various authors, 2016/04/18

Somehow I think that my understanding of MOOC quality will be different from their understanding of MOOC quality, but I wish them the best. "MOOQ’s mission is to develop a quality reference framework for the adoption, the design, the delivery and the evaluation of MOOCs in order to empower MOOC providers for the benefit of the learners. The main goal of MOOQ is therefore the development and the integration of quality approaches, new pedagogies and organisational mechanisms into MOOCs with a strong focus on the learning processes, methodologies and assessments." I will say that the design on the web page reminds me of the inoffensive corporate art you see outside banks or at Canary Wharf.

[Link] [Comment]