OLDaily

UK HE exercising caution over use of aggregators
Will Nott, The PIE News, 2021/06/29

Here's the issue, in a nutshell: "sites such as ApplyBoard, StudentApply, Adventus and CatalystGEM enable agent recruiters to funnel applications through a 'master' site which has commercial relationships with many more university partners than a small independent business or adviser could expect to have." The problem here is not so much the use of the aggregators as in what applicants are being told, so nobody knows what aggregators an institution uses and what deals an aggregator may have with specific institutions, which (as usual) benefits everyone in the system except the student. Combine this with AI-enabled recruitment and there's a real transparency problem here.

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Dear Google: Public domain compositions exist
Daniel Benjamin Miller, 2021/06/29

One of the dangers of near-monopolies in a particular domain is that their policies have the effect of substituting for law. For example, we have the right to publish public domain songs. Fair use and fair dealing even gives us the right to reproduce parts of copyright materials. But on YouTube, these rights do not exist. And this is a problem. Via Kottke.

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2U set to acquire non-profit edX for deal north of $600M
Natasha Mascarenhas, TechCrunch, 2021/06/29

It must really be the end of the pandemic because online education companies are cashing in while the market is still hot. TechCrunch reports, "2U, a SaaS platform that helps non-profits and colleges run online universities, plans to acquire all the assets of Harvard and MIT-founded edX for a deal north of $600 million." Inside Higher Ed reports it a bit differently: "2U and edX, two major players in the online learning ecosystem, announced Tuesday that they would combine." Perhaps the most significant aspect of this transaction, reports TechCrunch, is that EdX will transition from being a charity to being a public benefit corporation. "edX as it currently stands – a massive education non-profit – will no longer function as it currently does in the future."

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Instructure Files IPO Paperwork to Go Public . . . Again
Phil Hill, Phil on EdTech, 2021/06/29

Phil Hill reports, "Instructure, maker of the Canvas LMS, has filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) just 16 months after private equity firm Thoma Bravo took the company private." The company s focusing more narrowly on the academic market after cutting loose Bridge, the corporate learning LMS. There's more from edScoop, which includes this warning: “We have a history of losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future,” the prospectus reads.

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Guess Who Just Joined The Skills Cloud Market? Oracle. And They’re Serious.
Josh Bersin, Bersin Associates, 2021/06/29

This fits right in with recent stories about artificial intelligence (AI) being used to hire people. One tool central to this effort is the skills taxonomy; this is a description of sets of skills or competencies required for different occupations or employment categories. Measure for the skills, and put people into positions. This article describes Oracle's latest foray into the skills taxonomy arena. "Oracle Dynamic Skills has three major components: Skills Nexus, which is an intelligent skills toolkit to define, curate, and organize your skills... tailored to the organization (using) Oracle’s AI to normalize, curate, and identify skills on an ongoing basis. . Skills Advisor, which is the matching technology that uses skills data to recommend learning, job moves, pay changes... Skills Center, which is a place where employees can identify their skills gaps, proactively improve their skills, and manage their own career and work experience."

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What the Pandemic Should Have Taught Us About Effective Teaching
Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, 2021/06/29

I guess what bothers me about this article is that it could have been written before the pandemic, and without reference to the pandemic. The clue is in the title, where we are told this is what we should have learned. Maybe we didn't? I don't know. But the lessons don't really mesh with the pandemic experience. We read: teaching online is hard work, it's easy for online student to disengage, social and emotional are as important online as content, and coverage and pacing pose a big challenge. This is basically the introduction I was given when I was first hired as a tutor for Athabasca University in 1987, except we said 'distance' instead of 'online'. The eight or nine ethical issues that follow are similarly generic. Via Janice Florent, who summarizes the article.

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