Red Balloon Resources

"Amazon says Kindle books are outselling hardcovers By Joseph Galante Tuesday, Jul 20, 2010 Washington Post Amazon.com said Monday that growth in sales of its Kindle digital reader accelerated every month in the second quarter and that it's selling more electronic books than hardcover editions. The pace of Kindle sales also has tripled since the Internet retail giant cut the price on the device to $189 from $259, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement. Announced last month, the 27 percent price cut was aimed at helping Amazon fend off a threat from Apple's iPad tablet computer, which includes book-reading tools. Amazon hasn't disclosed Kindle sales since releasing the device in 2007, saying only that it has sold millions. Its release of growth figures may be aimed at quelling concern that the iPad has crimped Kindle demand, according to Dmitriy Molchanov, an analyst at Yankee Group. "There's a real perception that the iPad has completely squashed the e-reader space and that's really not the case," said Molchanov. "Amazon is doing really well and both companies can profit at the same time." Amazon said it sold more than triple the number of Kindle books in the first half of the year as it did in the comparable period last year. More than 81 percent of its 630,000 electronic books cost $9.99 or less. "We've reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle," Bezos said in the statement. "Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books -- astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months." "

"Outsourced Ed: Colleges Hire Companies to Build Their Online Courses Michael Tricoli, a manager at a medical-device company who has a young daughter, wanted an M.B.A. He got one online from Northeastern U., which outsourced much of his college experience to a private company. By Marc Parry Michael Tricoli was a middle manager looking for a leg up in his career, so he got an online M.B.A. from Northeastern University. Well, not only from Northeastern. Much of his college experience was outsourced to a private company. The company, Embanet, put up millions to start the online business program. Its developers helped build the courses. Its staff talked Mr. Tricoli through the application. It even pays-and, in rare cases, refers for possible hiring-the assistants who help teach students. In exchange, Embanet gets what Northeastern's business dean calls "a sizable piece" of the tuition revenue. He won't say how much. But Embanet's chief executive says its share can swell to a whopping 85 percent. As more colleges dip their toes into the booming online-education business, they're increasingly taking those steps hand-in-hand with companies like Embanet. For nonprofit universities trying to compete in an online market aggressively targeted by for-profit colleges, the partnerships can rapidly bring in many students and millions of dollars in new revenue. That's becoming irresistible to an increasingly prominent set of clients. George Washington University, Boston University, and the University of Southern California, to pick just three, all work with online-service companies. But the new breed of online collaboration can tread into delicate academic territory, blurring the lines between college and corporation. Derek C. Bok, a former president of Harvard University and author of a book on the commercialization of academe, questions companies' encroachment into teaching. He worries that bottom-line thinking will drive decisions about how colleges deliver courses.

After noting that two major sources of support for postsecondary institutions - state appropriations and university endowments - are down, the report goes on to point out that the demand for public higher education is growing as more people seek skills needed for today's workforce. The report also finds while higher education generally saw declining state support in FY 2009, funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) allowed certain states to slightly increase spending on higher education in FY 2010. Even with ARRA funds, 23 states spent less on higher education in FY 2010 than FY 2009. State policy developments in response to revenue declines highlighted by NCSL include California's efforts to decrease enrollment, Florida's decision to tighten residency requirements, and the reduction or elimination of programs in North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah. The report concludes with a table summarizing the significant higher education funding developments in the states over the past two years.

"A different kind of university for a different kind of future" Kaplan University ad Kaplan University is dedicated to helping anyone with talent develop it. It's why we're a different kind of university. It's how we're rewriting the rules of education to put an end to wasted talent. Our campaign is a rallying cry for all people with talent. It's an invitation to join the conversation about America's educational system. It's our time to say ... it's your time. To view the TV commercials and print ads, click the images below."

Gardner Campbell of Baylor examining technology literacy from different vantage points. Argues that everyone needs to be a visual artist. Reflects the frustrations of faculty at learning new technologies.

Here is a Sept '09 resource from JISC in Scotland that reports data from employer needs for graduates with digital literacies http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/bpllidav1.pdf

"Transforming Course Design is a process to improve student learning while simultaneously addressing the issue of instructional costs. Faculty from a variety of disciplines and institutions describe the steps they took to redesign their course structures to meet these goals, and the impact on their students and on their own perspectives on instruction. [more on Course Redesign] "

"The transition within the book publishing industry from physical inventory stored in a warehouse and trucked to retailers to digital files stored in cyberspace and delivered almost anywhere on earth as quickly and cheaply as e-mail is now underway and irreversible. This historic shift will radically transform worldwide book publishing, the cultures it affects and on which it depends. Meanwhile, for quite different reasons, the genteel book business that I joined more than a half-century ago is already on edge, suffering from a gambler's unbreakable addiction to risky, seasonal best sellers, many of which don't recoup their costs, and the simultaneous deterioration of backlist, the vital annuity on which book publishers had in better days relied for year-to-year stability through bad times and good. The crisis of confidence reflects these intersecting shocks, an overspecialized marketplace dominated by high-risk ephemera and a technological shift orders of magnitude greater than the momentous evolution from monkish scriptoria to movable type launched in Gutenberg's German city of Mainz six centuries ago."

"Bridgepoint has skyrocketed in revenue from $8 million in 2004 to $454.3 million last year. Using online technology for part-time students, it offers 60 degree programs and 125 specializations, ranging from bachelor's degrees in biology and homeland security to a master's in business administration and doctorate in sports psychology. The company owns two tiny colleges - Ashford University in Iowa and University of the Rockies in Colorado - but 99 percent of its 54,000 students take all their courses online and communicate by phone and e-mail with academic, enrollment and financial advisers in San Diego and other locations. Roughly 2,430 adjunct professors teach 1,150 five-week courses, using chat sessions and online taped lectures and reading and writing assignments. As an example of its aggressive marketing approach, Bridgepoint this week announced discounted programs in a partnership with Blockbuster to benefit its 38,000 employees seeking college degrees"

This article appeared in Planning for Higher Education v.38 no.3 April-June 2010. It discusses planning for organizational change in the context of the use of the 2010 federal financial stimulus funds. It defines best practice as a balance in policy, procedure, and the relationship of key players.

Organizational change can be a daunting prospect, but when broken down into manageable chunks the key factors of successful continuous process improvement can be applied. The U.S. Army confronts this issue all the time and part of their knowledge library outlines the critical success factors in planning and implementing such change. This process can readily be applied in higher education with just a bit of tailoring.

"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the Department of Education's final priorities and the grant application for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). The fund, which is part of the historic $5 billion investment in school reform in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will support the development of path-breaking new ideas, the validation of approaches that have demonstrated promise, and the scale-up of the nation's most successful and proven education innovations. "