OLDaily

Innovative Models for Collaboration and Student Mobility in Europe
Piet Henderikx, George Ubachs, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, 2019/05/14

This report (65 page PDF) outlines the road ahead in Europe for student mobility and credit transfer. It reports that "the European Commission has proposed the creation of a European-wide hub for “online learning, blended/virtual mobility, virtual campuses and the collaborative exchange of best practices." This is directly related to the Common Microcredential Framework (CMF) mentioned here yesterday - here is a slide presentation from the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) outlining the motivation and approach that will be taken to establish the CMF.

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When is a campus not a campus? When it’s a micro-campus
Paul Greatrix, Wonkhe, 2019/05/14

A long time ago (a long time ago) there was this concept of the 'triad model', whereby a student studied at a remote institution while being hosted by a local learning centre. I wrote about it here, borrowing the term 'host-provider framework' from somewhere, and using my experiences supporting Athabasca University courses offered through vocational colleges in northern Alberta as a model. This model has never really disappeared, and we see it (sort of) revived with this article. The difference is that the name has been modernized ('micro-campus') and (in the case of this article at least) the learning centre offers courses from only one university (why?) and is located on some other university campus (why?). I can still forsee a role for local learning centres, offering access to support and coaching, the use of tools (such as a hololens or 3D printer) that students can't afford, and proving meeting space and project rooms.

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Process Design of Cooperative Education Management System by Cloud-based Blockchain E-portfolio
Sukosol Wanotayapitak, Kobkiat Saraubon, Prachyanun Nilsook, International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineerin, 2019/05/14

This paper is written in poor-quality English, so adjust your expectations. Additionally, it is focused at the conceptual level, and contains a proposal only. Having said that, it succinctly describes the communications problem in the use of e-portfolios in cooperative education, and describes how a blockchain-based solution would address the issue. The paper is short of the many details that would need to be attended to in creating such a solution, but it's a glimpse into a possible future.

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Why an Online-Education Pioneer Bucks Some Mega-University Trends
Goldie Blumenstyk, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019/05/14

This is a good overview of Penn State's World Campus. A bit of a misnomer, World Campus is the public university's online branch and serves mostly US-based students. It enrolls 20,000 students and earns $170 million a year, making an everage pricetag per student of $8,500. The article focuses mostly on how Penn State stayed small, forgoing the splashy ad campain of (say) University of Maryland-Global, or the high-profile partnerships of Arizona State University.

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