Disruptive Technology UNB

The most disruptive change is the shift from the ability to continue to control from the top-down.

Millions of dollars are poured in this project. As the article states, tuition could creep to normal levels once the initial money runs out. Still, it's an interesting experiment.

What the article doesn't mention is this, lifted from another recent article in Chronicles: But that plan, too, could encounter institutional challenges. Benjamin Flowers, chair of the university's graduate curriculum committee, says he and his colleagues have "at no point been given, to review, any written proposal for any new graduate degree program." Officials seem to have circumvented the committee by casting the Udacity partnership as a "modification" of an existing computer-science master's program, says Mr. Flowers. He says his committee is not done with the Udacity proposal, and may raise the issue in the university's faculty senate when the body reconvenes this fall.

A balanced search for a sustainable MOOC business model: "The reality is that online solutions are still underused by higher education, but we are left to wait for genuine innovation that is capable to provide alternatives in line with academic rigour, quality assurance and student needs in higher education. Students cannot be engaged by simple conversions of boring lectures into online videos that are even more boring, affected by clunky and poorly designed technological solutions and rigid platforms for discussions and 'forums'."

5 minute video

infographic

George Siemens slide show

Very thought provoking, in a good way. Interesting that he cited two Maritimers, Stephen Downes of Moncton and Dave Cormier of UPEI.

Very thought provoking, in a good way. Interesting that he cited two Maritimers, Stephen Downes of Moncton and Dave Cormier of UPEI.

UAlberta opens a MOOC for credit.

My notes will be posted in the wiki in about a day.

(click to enlarge)

Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Intro video for Educause Sprint, Jul. 30 2013

"Ebooks are a sustaining technology that are being mismanaged into devaluing an entire industry (that mismanagement is a subject worthy of a series blog posts) while the true disruptors get to work in peace. (In the long run, Google is the real winner here.)"