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[123 p PDF] - This is the BIS literature review of MOOCs and other forms of online distance learning. Published today.

Hagiography about Thrun, as Udacity switches focus. (The company's strap line has changed from "Invent your future through free interactive college classes" to "Advance your education and career through project-based online classes). A couple of reactions:http://hapgood.us/2013/11/14/thrun-enters-burgeoning-sieve-market/; http://hackeducation.com/2013/11/14/thrun-as-saint/ Aren't both tilting a bit at windmills?

I was reminded of this today. Worth having it in mind. Just about.

The usual thoughtful stuff from Keith Devlin about learning maths - in this case "Quantitative Reasoning" using MOOCs.

It gets a bit proselytising towards the end but the notion of evaluating proofs could generalise to evaluating other types of mathematical statement so, although we are not interested in mathematical proof in our course, the article could still have some relevance to us.

Excerpt: "Now Stanford is looking to reclaim some leadership in the MOOC movement from the private companies down the street. For some of its offerings it has started using Open edX, the open-source platform developed by edX, an East Coast nonprofit provider of MOOCs. And Stanford is marshaling its resources and brainpower to improve its own online infrastructure. In doing so, the university is putting its weight behind an open-source alternative that could help others develop MOOCs independently of proprietary companies."

But... I understood that Open edX does not exist yet? I thought Open edX was the result of the marriage of (the currently only betrothed) edX and Course Builder. I suspect this is just sloppy journalism, but if Stanford has fast track access to Open edX, can we get it too? Something to check with Michel?