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Jared Stein

The Campus Tsunami - NYTimes.com - 5 views

www.nytimes.com/...brooks-the-campus-tsunami.html

david_brooks education editorial technology online e-learning

shared by Jared Stein on 04 May 12 - No Cached
  • If a few star professors can lecture to millions, what happens to the rest of the faculty?
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      This is perhaps the most interesting point, but should lead us to discussions about how local teachers leverage these materials for blended learning experiences, rather than to imply that regular folks will end up out of work. See, there is no _direct_ competition between the "star professor" and the local teacher. A teacher is not yet a commodity that can be reproduced at little or no cost--unlike digital _content_, which is a non-rivalrous resource. So, while the lecture may be available via the web, but the professor is not. We're talking static multimedia content in most cases, but even with MOOCs we find that it's not the "star professor" interacting with a world of students, but rather TAs, RAs, or the community itself that must take responsibilty for interaction.
  • What happens to the students who don’t have enough intrinsic motivation to stay glued to their laptop hour after hour?
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      This is like asking, "What happens to the students who don't have enough intrinsic motivation to travel to campus and stay awake in a hard seat through hours of monotonous lecture?"
  • online learning will give millions of students access to the world’s best teachers
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Brooks means, I think, "open online learning". But even then it's not "access to the world's best teachers", but merely access to their teaching work. Almost in the same way we have access to the world's best researchers through the library.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • accounting classes from Norman Nemrow of Brigham Young University
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Perfect example: this accounting course has the online materials and quizzes available online for free as OCW, but not access to Dr Nemrow himself.
  • Online learning could extend the influence of American universities around the world.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      True that. But this is an example of what some have critiqued the open education movement for: hedgemony and the re-establishment of the elite name brand. I don't necessarily agree with this critique, but it's a strong argument.
  • Research into online learning suggests that it is roughly as effective as classroom learning.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      "roughly" is disingenous. There are decades of research comparing f2f to independent study or online that shows "no significant difference". The US Dept of Ed's 2009 report actually favors online, and then blended over f2f for outcomes. True, that report is a meta-analysis with flaws, but it's better evidence than anything that argues to the contrary.
  • Online learning seems especially useful in language
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Probably only because language learning, which requires lots and lots of rote practice, has been doing technology enhanced learning longer than any content area. See CALL.
  • A brain is not a computer
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      And yet cognitive scientists still maintain that the computer is the best analogy for the human brain that we have...
  • There is absorbing information
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Brooks's "Step 1" (see below).
  • Online education mostly helps students with Step 1.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Huh? No, online knowledge resources like Wikipedia help with Step 1. Tools like Quizlet help with Step 1. The average online course results in learning processes similar to those Brooks describes through all his "steps".
  • In an online world, colleges have to think hard about how they are going to take communication, which comes over the Web, and turn it into learning, which is a complex social and emotional process.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Is this 1995? Does Brooks really think there is not already significant (and growing) research on exactly this kind of thing in ed tech?
  • My guess is it will be easier to be a terrible university on the wide-open Web, but it will also be possible for the most committed schools and students to be better than ever.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      I think this editorial was written, submitted for publication, then subsequently lost for years. If you check the metadata on the WordPerfect document, it likely shows a creation date of 1997.
  • subjects that are harder to digest in an online format, like philosophy
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Discussion and dialogue based courses are probably benefit the most from online modalities, because asynchronous discussions disrupt the classroom limitations of time and space, allowing for deeper discussions, fuller participation, preparation, reflection, and an emphasis on critical writing skills.
  • The elite, pace-setting universities have embraced the Internet.
    • Jared Stein
      Jared Stein on 04 May 12
       
      Correction: the elite, pace-setting universities have embraced _open education_. Online learning has been around since the birth of the internet in various forms. But even if we're talking about open education, let's not forget that MIT pioneered OpenCourseWare over a decade ago.
Jared Stein

From Assessment to Accreditation (Software Required) | Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...assessment

shared by Jared Stein on 06 Aug 13 - Cached
  • Collect data from different sources; use multiple assessments to create as many data points as possible; evaluate both alumni and employer satisfaction once students graduate; institute program reviews
  • Before an accreditation site visit, a college needs to know that it will be ready with any kind of data it's asked for -- and that requires a systemwide approach, illustrating how specific goals were achieved (or altered) because of assessment data.
  • collecting this data on our behalf from either the admissions office, registrar’s office even our graduate programs, and we track down students all the time who graduated 10-15 years prior so that we can keep up with our needs
  • Jared Stein on 06 Aug 13
     
    "faculty should have a central role in planning and evaluating programs; that standards clearly align with each other and with accreditation requirements; and that measures are internally consistent."
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