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HabWorlds Beyond explores the formation of stars, planets, Earth, life, intelligence, technological civilizations and, ultimately, is a quest of exploration as we attempt to answer one of the most profound questions: are we alone in the universe? Produced by Prof. Ariel Anbar and Dr. Lev Horodyskyj from Arizona State University, HabWorlds Beyond is now available for faculty to teach at your university.

"So here's what I want to tell you about the online portion of Trump University: It probably puts your university's online courses to shame. It certainly makes a mockery of what Silicon Valley darlings Coursera and Udacity call courses."

"His overall charter is to create the digitally enabled university. That encompasses many areas, including flipping the classroom, tapping into learning analytics, and embedding digital literacy into the core curriculum."

"All of these companions have arrived in my life courtesy of the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast, a free and fantastic resource for college and university faculty. Curated by Bonni Stachowiak, of Vanguard University, the podcast offers weekly episodes in which Bonni and her guests explore, in her words, "the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning." Some episodes also focus on personal productivity for academics."

"Although massive open online courses (MOOCs) are seen to be, and are in fact designed to be, stand-alone online courses, their introduction to the higher education landscape has expanded the space of possibilities for blended course designs (those that combine online and face-to-face learning experiences). Instead of replacing courses at higher education institutions, could MOOCs enhance those courses? This paper reports one such exploration, in which a Stanford University Machine Learning MOOC was integrated into a graduate course in machine learning at Vanderbilt University during the Fall 2012 semester. The blended course design, which leveraged a MOOC course and platform for lecturing, grading, and discussion, enabled the Vanderbilt instructor to lead an overload course in a topic much desired by students. The study shows that while students regarded some elements of the course positively, they had concerns about the coupling of online and in-class components of this particular blended course design. Analysis of student and instructor reflections on the course suggests dimensions for characterizing blended course designs that incorporate MOOCs, either in whole or in part. Given the reported challenges in this case study of integrating a MOOC in its entirety in an on-campus course, the paper advocates for more complex forms of blended learning in which course materials are drawn from multiple MOOCs, as well as from other online sources."

"In this "Profiles in Learning," Joe Cates, Ph.D., Assistant Professor University College, discusses Civic Engagement and the duties we have being an urban university, intertwined within the city of Richmond. This allows the students to actively engage with one another and inquire about topics related to their community."

Worth tracking...

The external auditor's report told Paire that Temple was on par with other institutions that hadn't really addressed this issue, and the university needed to address gaps in learning spaces, labs, instructional materials and the Web. Some institutions focus mainly on Web accessibility, Paire noted. "But when we looked at what happened at Penn State, it was obvious we couldn't just focus on the Web. We needed to address the institution as a whole. We needed a much broader scope."

"A new grant program, announced on Thursday, takes aim at ugly-duckling research projects that have a big upside but are too nascent or implausible to win the attentions of federal grantmakers or venture capitalists. Amazon will provide $2 million initially for the grants, and the director of the program will be an Amazon employee, according to a legal agreement signed last spring. Individual grants will be worth anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000, said Vikram Jandhyala, the university's vice provost for innovation. The barriers for entry are purposefully low. There is no fixed application window. Anybody who works for the university, attends courses there, or is otherwise affiliated with the University of Washington is eligible to apply. The online application form asks for basic information and then a series of questions, beginning with: What's the problem, what's the solution, who will benefit, and why is now the right time to do it? The company is encouraging students and scholars of all stripes to apply, not just techies. "

Effects of long-term systematic educational development on the beliefs and attitudes of university teachers.

""In sum, plaintiffs were deceived into spending tens of thousands on tuition alone for a program that functionally required them to teach themselves the material," the complaint reads. "They paid more than their peers who completed the same degree in a classroom, and yet received far less.""

Ongoing series of profiles on new University building construction, including a few learning spaces.

How Tiny, Struggling Southern New Hampshire University has become the Amazon of Higher Education http://t.co/a8WbHl8n3K via @slate

FYI, Coursera's "University Teaching 101" is just starting. Basic SOTL, best practices, know your students, developing instruction plan, working in small groups, teaching online.

" "We don't have time to go to meetings in the center for teaching and learning," he says. "We have research to do.""

This is the homepage of the University of Oklahoma's Domain of One's Own project.

"Manifesto for teaching online: Digital Education, University of Edinburgh, 2015 Online can be the privileged mode. Distance is a positive principle, not a deficit. Comment: I can see why these sentences have been included, but do we need to oppose online and offline education. They can both be privileged and positive principles."