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"This volume considers how current transitions in postsecondary education are impacting Higher Education (HE) institutions and subjects in a number of Northern nations, as well as how these transitions are indicative of the wider shift from the welfare to the market state. The university is now considered a key site for training and wealth generation in the so-called 'knowledge economy' that operates in a globalising, high tech world. Further, these transitions are underpinned by neo-liberal economic ideas that assume that the public sector is a drag on the economy unless it is subject to the rules, regulations and assumptions that govern the private sector. This excellent volume - an important contribution to Education as well as Economics and Politics - furthers our understandings of universities as marketable entities as part of the globalized economy. "

A precis of this appeared in NEA Higher Education Advocate Sept 2013

"Thrun seems to have 'discovered' that open-access, distance-education students struggle to complete," wrote Martin Weller, a professor of educational technology at the Open University, in Britain. "I don't want to sound churlish here, but hey, the OU has known this for 40 years."

"Ironically, U.S. military doctrine purports to value "critical" and "creative" thinking.  Unfortunately, that emphasis hardly fits with the realities of promotion and command selection.  A recent empirical analysis by faculty from West Point's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership concluded that "promotion and command boards may actually penalize officers for their conceptual ability."  In other words, more intelligent, educated, and skeptical officers - those with "higher cognitive ability," according to the study -- don't fare so well in the competitive promotion game."

What does this say about online learning platforms and courses? (Do they ever come with red, yellow and green lights that administrators see when they sign contracts for $$millions without knowing the educational effects of the online systems?) Note other skeptical views expressed in the comments section.

"life online is seen as a chance to "wind up" the anxious, dupe the powerful, trash the earnest, alienate the already marginal. There doesn't need to be a larger aim. "