OLDaily, by Stephen Downes

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March 25, 2013

If you like learning, could I recommend analytics?
Bill Jerome, e-Literate, March 25, 2013


Quick summary of learning analytics. I like the tack taken, as Bill Jerome begins by emphasizing that there aren't easy analytics to be had (at least, not in learning). "Don’t get me wrong," he writes. "Every student kept in school via an early warning system is an achievement.  But it’s not the big promise of learning analytics.  It’s an achievement of website analytics very similar to those studied by the commerce sites.  The more a user stays engaged with their sites, the more profit they generate.  The comparisons to those kinds of analytics pretty much end there.  Unfortunately for those looking for the easy path, our outcomes are complex and the inputs aren’t actually that obvious either."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Online Learning]


MTOPs: Micro-Targeted Online Programs - (The Anti-MOOC?)
Joshua Kim , Inside Higher Ed, March 25, 2013


Asking, "Why should MOOCs get all the ink?," Joshua Kim describes the "anti-MOOC", an "online (or blended) program with 50 or fewer students per year, Narrowly focused, with a specialized curriculum and student demand profile...." etc. etc. In other words, business as usual in most universities. Not massive, not open. Not the future, either.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Blended Learning]


No. 8 aha moment: web 2.0 will change everything in online learning
Tony Bates, online learning, and , distance education resources, March 25, 2013


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The latest in his series of 'aha moments' from Tony Bates, this one enters more familiar territory: "web 2.0 will change everything in online learning." So what does that mean? "Because these tools give learners the power to find, adapt, create, share and publish information easily, and at very low or no cost.... this represents the potential for a very significant shift in power from the teacher to the learner."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Books, Online Learning]


Mozilla Releases Long-Discussed Software to Offer ‘Badges’ for Learning
Jake New, The Chronicle: Wired Campus Blog, March 23, 2013


Dismissive article from the Chronicle about the launch of the Mozilla badge initiative. "Similar to Boy Scout badges that represent pitching a tent or riding a horse, the digital badges denote specific skills that employers might look for, like community service, social networking, or experience with HTML." Among those misrepresented in the article are the Boy Scouts, who don't have badges for "riding a horse" or "pitching a tent," but whose badges for horsemanship and camping actually represent substantial achievements.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Networks, Experience]


The Aussie Coursera? A new homegrown MOOC platform arrives
Bella Counihan, The Conversation, March 23, 2013


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According to this article, "The first Australian free online education platform has been launched in Canberra today, by tertiary education minister Chris Bowen. Open Universities Australia, a private distance and online education organisation, has stepped into the world of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with a new online platform called Open2Study." I'm thinking right now that traditional LMSs could have countered this whole trend simply by having an 'open courses' option on their LMSs. But they didn't, because they listened to their customers.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Australia, Online Learning]


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Copyright 2010 Stephen Downes Contact: stephen@downes.ca

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