Group items tagged

""Academic innovation is where creativity, comprehensive excellence and our aspirations for societal impact all come together at the University of Michigan," Schlissel said. "Our new initiative will formally help us consider how we can leverage networked access to information, new modes of communication and data analytics to strengthen the quality of a Michigan education, tailor it to the needs of each individual student, and enhance our impact on society.""

"We can do better by our students. The number one thing would be to inculcate the idea of the university *as* a workplace, and all of us as professionals in it. And of course, many professors (me!) need a lot more training in the mechanics of the workplace than we ever get. The next, and much easier thing, would be to offer opportunities to acquire basic workplace technical skills: using software, running meetings, emailing like a grownup, navigating the org chart."

"Students presented their work. They had about 30 seconds. A few students served as a panel (if we're sticking with "Shark Tank", these are your Mark Cubans, your Mr. Wonderfuls, etc.). The teacher had prepared a few scripted questions, which the panel asked psuedo-randomly. The presenters knew these questions ahead of time and had to be prepared to answer them. Students responded to the questions that were selected. The panelists convened with their groupmates to discuss the presenters' responses and to develop deeper, more probing questions. The presenters also had a couple minutes to regroup and confer. After convening, the panelists return to their station and ask the questions that they and their group came up with. The presenters respond. From this point, it becomes semi-conversational as all the panelists are interested in getting their question answered.he presenters then answered those questions, which were generally more specific in nature and based on the initial responses of the presenters."

What are the implications for universities committing to learning analytics?

Indiana University - Dream Big

"Digital Storytelling 106--better known as "ds106"--sprouted in 2010 as a computer science class on digital storytelling at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded by Jim Groom, educational technology consultant Alan Levine, and instructional technologists Martha Burtis & Tom Woodward, ds106 has evolved into a model for all instructors and students who aspire to experience, explore, and extend connected learning."

ds106 as gold standard for open...amazing...

"How many colleges and universities are integrating MOOC content into new and/or existing credit-bearing courses in academic programs? If so, what is the impact on the course, program and institution?"

"It seems disruption is hard when poor people insist on existing. Thrun has the right to fail. That's just business. But he shouldn't have the right to fail students like those at San Jose State and the public universities that serve them for the sake of doing business."

""We were initially torn between collaborating with universities and working outside the world of college," Thrun tells me. The San Jose State pilot offered the answer. "These were students from difficult neighborhoods, without good access to computers, and with all kinds of challenges in their lives," he says. "It's a group for which this medium is not a good fit.""

"The online offerings will also save students money. Online tuition for in-state students is capped by state law at 75 percent of what students attending classes in person pay-which will come to $112 per credit hour-while students from other states will pay "market rates" in the vicinity of $450 to $500 per credit hour, the university says."

"To repeat: I do not see the queen sacrifice as a desirable move for American higher education.  I do not relish the reduction of programs, nor the devastation inflicted on the lives of faculty.  But this seems to be a strategy colleges and universities can choose in our current climate, and we must discuss it openly."

"The most widely read paper of Jeffrey Hancock's career was not conceived in a university laboratory. The data were collected by machines. The subjects were unwitting. The methods were not approved by an institutional review board."

"A recent Twitter conversation that cast doubt on the conclusions of a genomics study has revived a debate about how best to publicly discuss possible errors in research. Yoav Gilad, a geneticist at the University of Chicago in Illinois, last month wrote on Twitter that fundamental errors in the design and data analysis of a December 2014 study2 led to an unfounded conclusion about the genetic similarities between mice and humans."

Not in agreement with the 'taskmaster' element but I have similar concerns about teaching evaluations. "Michele Pellizzari, an economics professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, has a more serious claim: that course evaluations may in fact measure, and thus motivate, the opposite of good teaching. "

"Christine Greenhow, an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, argues that using informal social-media settings to carry on debates about science can help students refine their argumentative skills, increase their scientific literacy, and supplement learning in the classroom."