OLDaily

Draft Notes of Privacy Principles and Ethical Web Principles
W3C, 2022/05/12

As this page notes, " The Technical Architecture Group (TAG) has published First Public Draft Notes of Privacy Principles and Ethical Web Principles. These documents provide principles that should guide the development of the Web platform." It's interesting that these are separate, as so many people equate ethics with privacy. The ethical web principles is the more fundamental of these and includes such statements as "there is one web" which is "for all people", that it "should not cause harm to society" and "must support healthy community and debate". The privacy principles, meanwhile, are based on individual autonomy and collective governance. These documents are still in their preliminary stage (especially the privacy document).

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The portrayal of the future as legitimacy construction: discursive strategies in highly ranked business schools’ external communication
Zsuzsanna Géring, Réka Tamássy, Gábor Király, Márton Rakovics, Higher Education, 2022/05/12

How do schools - highly-ranked business schools, say - establish their legitimacy? This super-interesting study (19 page PDF) looks at the language they use to establish that legitimacy. It finds that it is very future-focused, describing in glowing terms a "positive future-picture with positive agency frames is not surprising in itself, however, as a strategic choice not only invokes positive emotions in the reader but also provide an action set (shape, prepare, explore, responsibility etc.), which indicate active and responsible behaviour from the business schools." Of course, as the paper notes, this future-focus follows from "the general decline of trust in their competency regarding useful knowledge transfer." It also notes that these schools have no data about such future states, so their legitimacy is based on hypothesis only. It also acts as a way of responding to social pressure, for example, adding 'responsibility' to the language after criticism for their role in the 2008 economic crisis.

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What’s Driving Retention in Online Degree Programs? New Insights from our Data-Backed Report
Coursera Blog, 2022/05/12

This report (24 page PDF) from Coursera is clearly aimed at institutions looking to convert MOOC participants into degree-seeking students. Viewed from that perspective we can begin to assess their data in a brighter light. Success leads to success, for example: "Students who complete an open course are 12% more likely to persist in their degree." Is 12% a good conversion rate? I don't know - it would have to be compared with other strategies. The report also states, "When students are not paying but simply enrolling in open courses, we see a negative effect on later degree retention," which makes sense, but only because the student was never pursuing a degree to begin with.

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Tooshare: Launch of Vast Graduate Scholarship Program of One Billion US$
E-Learning Africa, 2022/05/12

This is a press release and I don't have much information beyond the basics. Tooshare describes itself as a "digital alternative to schools and universities is 100% African and that combines an e-learning platform and a social network." The program is funded by Tooshare and IU Group, styled as "Germany's largest private university group," and is managed with Study Access Alliance, which already partners with IU for  € 1,000 scholarships. I think the program consists of tuition discounts and not actual payments. "A pilot project will be launched in June that will provide 10,000 scholarships to talented young people from Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana, South Africa, and Morocco." The program speaks to the scale of the funding needed (and I would invite readers to compare the billions spent on war as a contrast).

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Professional Development Opportunities in Educational Technology and Education #47
Clayton R. Wright, Stephen's Web, 2022/05/12

Clayton R. Wright writes, "The 47th Professional Development Opportunities list comprises 2,158 in-person and online selected events focused on educational technology and education. While compiling this list, I sometimes found myself in a world described by George Orwell in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. An event date would be moved by one or two days and sometimes weeks or months, but no mention is made that the date of the event was moved in time and/or location or format. It was as if the new or revised dates, location, or format were the original dates, location, and/or format (in-person, virtual/online, or hybrid). These changes can play havoc with your travel arrangements and meeting schedules. Thus, carefully re-check the dates, time, and location of any event that you plan to attend or set out time to participate in. Note that the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged many organizations to embrace online learning so that 65% of the list comprise online events as opposed to face-to-face conference events. Times are a changin' - it is easier than ever to participate in events that occur beyond your borders, near or far!"

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