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"Across all geographic regions, the study found that MOOC students have high levels of educational attainment: 83 percent of those who responded said they had earned either a two- or four-year post-secondary degree, far more than international averages."

Bucknell University, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will host its first annual international digital scholarship conference. The theme of the conference is "Collaborating Digitally: Engaging Students in Faculty Research" with the goal of gathering a broad community of scholar-practitioners engaged in collaborative digital scholarship in research and teaching.

"Imagine anyone in the world having access to a world-class education online for free, and getting credentials for it. With the launch of Open Educational Resources University (OERu) on November 1, that's exactly what is now possible. The launch is a significant milestone in higher education globally, and marks a transition from an international collaboration prototype to a sustainable, scalable program of accessible OERu study."

Once the MOOC "revolution" got underway, universities, usually slow-moving and tight-fisted institutions, couldn't run fast enough to put their own MOOCs online. And, right now, we're seeing the results. In January alone, 180 MOOCs from major international universities, will get underway. Below we've highlighted some of the courses that intrigued us most, but you can peruse the complete list here and make your own choices."

"It's International Working Out Loud Week, also known as #WOLWeek. Working Out Loud is a relatively new term for me, picking it up from John Stepper in 2012. I have used the term, narrating your work, which to me is the same thing, though some may differ. My observation is that combining transparency (in the workplace) with narration (of work) results in increased serendipity, or more chances of fortuitous outcomes."

Chrystal chose to come down on the side of internal development. "We want to do in-house instructional design with our curriculum people, our professors and our production people. We really feel then that we can make quick changes the way we want them. If something doesn't work, we can make the change right now. We don't have to be in line with the four other clients that the company has."

"This site is developed by and for the international community of Xerte toolkit users working at every stage of education. Xerte toolkits is a free, open source content creation tool. Every tutor and every learner in your organisation can create interactive content with rich media and high accessibility. Xerte toolkits integrate well with online videos and many other web-based tools. Learning objects created with Xerte can be easily shared and repurposed or exported for off-line use."

"avid Allen, the author of the international bestselling productivity bible, Getting Things Done, has been teaching people how to reach higher levels of cognitive thinking for almost two decades. Like Eastern mindfulness, his solution is simple but challenging to fully implement. Clear your mind. Yes, that's it."

"students using the openly licensed material were able to more efficiently internalize and remember the information conveyed. Students also rated the quality of the print version of the OER higher than the commercial equivalent, although the digital version received a lower ranking. The authors acknowledge that "the open textbook (in its first edition) and the commercial textbook (in its tenth) are written by different authors with differences in the breadth and depth of content coverage, organization, and writing style" and that a text's quality leans on several other factors besides the nature of its copyright."

"United Classrooms is a service connecting classrooms across the world. The service allows teachers to create classroom profile pages. On their classroom profile pages teachers can post assignments, projects, messages for students, and announcements for parents and students. Teachers can monitor and manage all of the communications between students on the classroom profile page."

Lani Gunawardena is the co-author of a forthcoming book on global culture and online education. She said some global distance education evangelists tend to assume everybody speaks English and has the same priorities as they do.

"You have no doubt worked hard to become a physician and scientist. I know that you have published many research papers. It just doesn't make sense. Whether the pressure to publish is so intense, or whether the culture where you work is relatively permissive such that plagiarism is not taken as seriously, or whether getting caught seemed unlikely-it is hard to imagine why you would take this chance."

"In January 2013, Leuphana University ventured into global online learning with the launch of Leuphana Digital School's prototype course "ThinkTank - Ideal City of the 21st Century", a cost-and-barrier-free academic platform that offered collaborative web-based learning led by distinguished scholars and experts. This new program introduced a fresh, unique approach to collaborative learning - a university project open to participants from all over the world, regardless of where they live and what they do."

"In the United States-where public universities are hurting for funds, tuition and debt levels are growing, and graduation rates are stagnant-debate has focused on whether MOOCs represent a necessary innovation or the deplorable cheapening of elite university education. The question is: Could the hybrid, small-group model that's evolving abroad also provide a needed alternative for underserved American students?"

"I don't mean to imply any untoward motives by the makers of MOOCs. I'm not arguing that the content or methodologies of most current MOOCs are wrong because they are based on the dominant Western academic approaches. But I do believe it is important to point out that a powerful emerging educational movement strengthens the currently dominant academic culture, perhaps making it more difficult for alternative voices to be heard."