GlobalSkillsCC

By Anthony S. Bryk in Phi Delta Kappan April 2009, vol 90 (8), pp. 597-600. Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation, argues for a "Design, Educational Engineering, and Development infrastructure...." Abstract available on this page. Full text by subscription. Check with your local library; they might be able to obtain it for you through interlibrary loan.

According to their About page, "MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity." There is also a note on this page that each published course "requires an investment of $10,000 to $15,000....Courses with video content cost about twice as much...."

By Catherine Gewertz, Education Week, February 2 2011. A new report, Pathways to Prosperity, published by Harvard's Graduate School of Education, argues that the "college for all" goal might fail students best suited for emerging "middle skills" jobs (e.g. construction manager or dental hygienist). The researchers feel that many who are not suited for college fall out of the educational system completely rather than pursuing other post-secondary options.

Automated essay scoring (AES) has many benefits such as immediate grading, reliable reporting, and diagnostic feedback. While automation poses certain operational and technical challenges, more states are adopting AES for both formative and summative assessments. This presentation presents empirical data from the state of West Virginia online writing assessments on the reliability and validity of machine scores.

By Billie Hara, as part of the ProfHacker column in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 27 2011. This instructor posits that when students say "Just tell me what you want" (for this assignment), it might mean that the professor has proved him/herself unclear or "untrustworthy" in the course of the semester. There are also interesting comments at the end of the article.

Based on the 1977 book about architecture, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, and three subsequent volumes, this website expands upon the ideas of architectural pattern, looking at community, but also at computer patterns. "A Child's History of Pattern Language" (first click on the pattern link) attempts to make these ideas even more accessible.

While on the surface, architectural patterns have little to do with pedagogy patterns, the underlying ideas here seem very similar to those of GSCC. Also interesting to see how they've built them out on the web.

A press release published by Creative Commons, January 20 2011. As part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT), over $2 billion will be invested over the next four years, part of the program to support President Obama's goal of increasing college graduates by 2020. This program is of interest to Creative Commons because all such projects must be released using a Creative Commons attribution (CC BY) license.

Published by the Lumina Foundation. Draft published January 2011. Authors include Cliff Adelman, Peter Ewell, Paul Gaston, and Carol Geary Schneider. This report attempts to describe what broad body of knowledge constitutes a post-secondary degree at the associate's, bachelor's, and master's level.

By Doug Lederman in the News column of Inside Higher Ed, Jan 25 2011. The Lumina Foundation has released a draft of their Degree Qualifications Profile (see link in article), with broad "degree objectives" for those who earn associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees. This article briefly describes the report and also provides some context, including some criticism from those who work in higher education. See degree_qualification tag for more.

By Melissa Ludwig in San Antonio (Texas) Express-News Jan 21 2011. A pilot program in San Antonio points "students who test at the lowest skill levels toward shorter vocational programs or adult basic education" rather than the remedial classes at community college where they might previously have been assigned. The student profiled participated in a 10-14 week PACE program (combining basic education with college readiness skills) rather than the 4 semesters of remedial classes she would otherwise have been assigned.

By Elizabeth M. Zachry, December 2008. Achieving the Dream model of instructional reform implemented for developmental education courses at three community colleges: Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro, North Carolina; Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap, Virginia; and Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, Virginia.

By Beth Fertig on WNYC News. Main page with links to full series.

By Amy Gerstein, John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. For The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Problem Solution Exploration Papers. This paper explores faculty professional development to address limitations of developmental education.

A little old, but some basics about how to create community online in a learning community and a blended situation - but some ideas would work for just online

Created by The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A large collection of handouts related to college-level writing. Categories include Writing the Paper (e.g. argument, audience, brainstorming); Citation, Style, and Sentence Level Concerns; Specific Writing Assignments/Contexts (e.g. Abstracts, Speeches, etc.); Writing for Specific Fields.

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

Camtasia video created by the Extended Learning Institute (ELI) of the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). Helps students to understand how to use MLA format to cite their reference sources.

NH used this video in her demonstration of citing reference sources (week 6, fall 2010 semester).

By Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister, published by hackerhandbooks.com, this book helps students to navigate use of MLA when citing sources in their research papers.

NH used this link in her ePort for week 6, fall semester 2010.

The brain works differently in readying to solve a puzzle, and then solving it. This article describes how neuroscientists are mapping the brain to look at the entire process of solving puzzles, not just the solution part. And, humor and a pleasant experience prior to solving puzzles enhances the process!