Blog: February 2013

A Massive OOps Calamity

A planned, tuition-free, six-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) intended to reach more than 40,000 students recently unraveled in six days, the reasons for which are painfully detailed in a report from The Washington Post. But as if this online disaster were not bad enough in its own right, guess what the course was intended to be all about? Ready? “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.”  That’s right! It was a program designed to teach the fundamentals of how to create an online course.

UMassOnline Founder and Former UMass President Jack Wilson on “Innovation in an Era of Disruptive Change”

Dr. Wallace E. Boston is President and Chief Executive Officer of American Public University System (APUS) and its parent company, American Public Education, Inc. In a recent blog post, he filed a report about a University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (GSE) conference entitled “Innovation in an Era of Disruptive Change.” At this forum, attendees heard from Dr. Jack Wilson, President Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts, who spoke on the topic: “Evolution or Revolution: Everyone Wants Universities to Change but Exactly How is Not so Clear.”

University World News Reports on US and Global Quality Assurance Initiatives

There are two points to this post. One, as the headline suggests, is about the growing wave of educators worldwide seeking to continue and enhance quality assurance programs, especially now in the light of open education movements, online learning developments and trends, and, in general, what it means to become educated in ways other than through the traditional system.