How EdX Plans to Earn, and Share, Revenue From Free Online Courses - Technology By Steve Kolowich How can a nonprofit organization that gives away courses bring in enough revenue to at least cover its costs? That's the dilemma facing edX, a project led by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is bringing in a growing number of high-profile university partners to offer massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Two other major providers of MOOCs, Coursera and Udacity, are for-profit companies. While edX has cast itself as the more contemplative, academically oriented player in the field, it remains under pressure to generate revenue. "Even though we are a nonprofit, we have to become self-sustaining," said Anant Agarwal, president of edX. Legal documents, obtained by The Chronicle from edX, shed some light on how edX plans to make money and compensate its university partners. According to Mr. Although the edX-supported model requires cash upfront, the potential returns for the university are high if a course ends up making money.
Stop writing the objectives on the board How often have you been told that writing the lesson's objectives on the board is best practice? Can you think of even one reason why doing this might be a bad idea? Because the prevailing wind of conventional wisdom consistently blows in favor of content-bloated, prefabricated externally mandated standardized standards, it takes courage to pause and reflect. Mike Fishback offers this post titled Objectively Speaking where he identifies three reasons why we should question the wisdom behind writing the lesson's objective on the board. Communicating objectives to students sends a strong message about who is driving the learning.Communicating objectives to students gives away the ending before the uncovering even begins.Communicating objectives to students discourages students and teachers from pursuing potentially constructive lines of inquiry that appear tangential to the objectives.
MOOCs: The cutting announcement of the wrong revolution | betrokken wetenschap A litany of recent complaints shows that something is wrong with higher education: Cost are rising with 10% every year (US), content has lost track with the explosive development of new knowledge, alumni’s competences do not match with the requirements of the labour market, teachers deliver lectures in the same way as their predecessors did for centuries, revenues for society are unclear. 40% of all students are leaving without a grade. Universities are inside looking, fixed at ratings, complacent and self-confident and consequently do not consider any reason for change. According to Christensen[1], universities are on the eve of disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation is the fast acceptance by the public of affordable new products and services, which were disregarded by established companies and are mostly offered by new entrants. Less than one year ago, the first MOOCs (massive online open course) were launched. However, this is the wrong revolution. Learning processes
50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks An absolute gem of an article by John Brandon and Graham Barlow from MacLife on 30th March over at TechRadar. This is going to become my iPad manual from here on in. Customised iPads for all iPad 2 tips and original iPad tips - get 'em here! iPad 2 review It's also fully capable of running the latest version of Apple's iOS operating system and great apps like iMovie and GarageBand. 1. iOS now supports folders. 2. Double-clicking the Home button shows you all the apps that are running on your iPad in a bar along the bottom of the screen. 3. The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. 4. If you're carrying around sensitive data, you can now enable a feature that'll erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. 5. First, turn on Home Sharing in iTunes (Advanced menu) and on your iPad (Settings > iPod and enter your Apple ID). 6. Have you ever played Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone?
Reviewing Christensen’s Disruptive Technologies (Harvard Business Review, 1995) in MOOC Terms One of the common citations in xMOOC artifacts and discussion is the idea of xMOOC as a disruptive technology. The concept, developed by Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen, is tossed into discussion as if it’s vital reading I should already know…none of the authors do more than give a cursory definition to the concept in abstract fashion rather than concrete, and in all of the articles I have read, I don’t see consensus on the definition. This makes me think several possibilities: 1) this is a concept so integral to this field that I should know all about it and am an idiot for not having a foundational knowledge, or 2) this is a concept not fully understood but thrown out there in a way that sounds erudite but lacks foundation. I think it’s a mix of both. I realize my first introduction to this topic was in a Leadership course during my doctoral work. Like this: Like Loading...
Disruptive Innovation Some examples of disruptive innovation include: As companies tend to innovate faster than their customers’ needs evolve, most organizations eventually end up producing products or services that are actually too sophisticated, too expensive, and too complicated for many customers in their market. Companies pursue these “sustaining innovations” at the higher tiers of their markets because this is what has historically helped them succeed: by charging the highest prices to their most demanding and sophisticated customers at the top of the market, companies will achieve the greatest profitability. However, by doing so, companies unwittingly open the door to “disruptive innovations” at the bottom of the market. Characteristics of disruptive businesses, at least in their initial stages, can include: lower gross margins, smaller target markets, and simpler products and services that may not appear as attractive as existing solutions when compared against traditional performance metrics.
No Significant Difference - Presented by WCET The Trouble with College, Online or Off There is an editorial in the New York Times entitled "The Trouble with Online College" this morning about online education. It argues that online education has high attrition rates and that students who are unprepared for college will not do very well. The "therefore" is that we should think twice before seeking to attempt the MOOC model (Massive Open Online Courses). The article makes no distinction between "traditional" online classes or MOOCs. To begin with, I generally agree with this article but disagree with the take-away. There is a large body of research in online learning that shows that there is no significant difference between face-to-face and online learning that has been going on for decades and is routinely ignored by many educators and columnists. Student OrientationWe designed a free, fully online student orientation that used all the tools that the school's learning management system used.
AUDIO | Exploring MOOCs from the Corporate Perspective AUDIO | Exploring MOOCs from the Corporate Perspective While individual companies might look at the MOOC model as an approach to delivering training to its employees, there is still a way to go before they are—in their current form—considered to be acceptable training options during company time. The following interview was conducted with Dan Pontefract, TELUS’ senior director of learning and collaboration. To listen to The EvoLLLution’s interview with Dan Pontefract, please click here. 1. Well, first of all, paying homage to my Canadian brethren who came up with the term MOOCs, I’m still not a big fan of the term. So, I’ll just jump into the example because that way, it provides the context because I do believe that they can work; it’s just I don’t necessarily believe they should be called “Massive Online Open Courses”. So, our Lead and Grow Series is a topic where we pick a topic for about a six-week period and it’s open to the entire organization. 2. 3. 4. 5. Tags: Business