Applied Maths for Ordinary Citizens

Udacity's partnership with San Jose State University seems to be on the rocks.

Several angles of interest on this, from our own perspective (as prospective uses of data) and that of our prospective learners

Worthwhile piece by John Duhring commenting on MOOC production methods, and with plenty of emphasis on Keith Devlin's Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. For more on the latter see my http://fm.schmoller.net/2013/06/second-report-from-keith-devlins-itmt-course.html

Interesting sample of findings from use of analytics in xMOOCs

This is a long shot, but might the IMF want to encourage some of its learners with limited maths competence/confiden to do our course first?

Staged interview with one of the designers of Saylor's Real World Math courses

For market comparison. Like all Saylor courses, this one largely curates OERs from other sources, including Khan Academy

Interesting, trenchant riposte to the http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/the-faulty-logic-of-the-math-wars/

Worth bearing in mind from the point of view of the course as a service

Upbeat piece in the Economist about the imminent impact of "adaptive technology" on school eduction in the US (and then on the world).

Useful resources - especially the linked slideshare presentation - from Tony Hirst, providing pointers to tools and techniques for making use of learning analytics

Jenny Mackness on the experience, and some of the pitfalls,mot peer assessment on Coursera (Seb Schmoller has also written about this)

I blushed reading this........

"But as Gates's higher-education activism grows, so does anxiety over the consequences." Worth us being properly aware of issues associated with how charitable money is beginning to be viewed in HE in the US. The discussion of the piece is interesting, in that there are some strong counters to the line advanced in the article.

Curiously revisionist history of MOOCs that centres on a Maths MOOC aimed at preparing students for US college courses that requite some maths proficiency

Rather breathless interview with the "brains" behind adaptive learning company Knewton (sic). Jim may well have comments on this.

Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics have been used to suggest there is a crisis in the literacy and numeracy skills of Australian adults. This study challenges this current view by looking at the issue from a worker's perspective. Production workers, together with their managers and trainers, from three manufacturing companies were interviewed and observed. Little evidence of a direct link between increasing literacy and numeracy skills of workers and improved productivity was found.

This Audrey Watters piece putting the boot into learning analytics, predictive modelling, and adaptive learning shows that our project is on quite highly contested ground.