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Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

ODL for Life Long Learning: Insiders’ Perspective

ODL provides the learners more access to higher education with its flexible approach, wider choice of courses, qualitative instructional methods and cost effectiveness. The advent of ICT has added the e-learning aspect to ODL as well. The open and distance system has reached a phase wherein it is important to look inwards, to understand the […]

Transformational Change in Delivery at Open Polytechnic, New Zealand

As long ago as 1992, Greville Rumble was writing about the “competitive vulnerabilities” of single-mode distance teaching institutions [universities]. In the intervening years the challenges he described have only intensified, especially so as advancing information and communication technologies have enabled increasing numbers of campus-based tertiary institutions to enter distance learning, usually targeting the part-time adult […]

(Re)Tracing the Everyday ‘Sitings’: A Conceptual Review of Internet Research 15 Years Later

In 2003, Kevin Leander and Kelly McKim made the argument for connecting scholarship on physical spaces with that of online spaces. They named this fusion of scholarly areas connective ethnography, termed by Christine Hine (2000, as cited in Leander & McKim, 2003). At that time, they asked: “How might we develop research practices and frameworks […]

Higher education, impact, and the Internet: Publishing, politics, and performativity

This paper considers how and why scholarly publishing has changed over the last two decades. It discusses the role of the Internet in overcoming earlier barriers to the rapid circulation of ideas and in opening up new forms of academic communication. While we live in a world increasingly dominated by images, the written word remains […]

The Open University secures £50m investment in social learning platform FutureLearn

SEEK Group (ASX: SEK) will invest £50m to become a joint, 50% owner of The Open University’s FutureLearn social learning platform, it was announced today in a deal thought to be the largest ever private-sector EdTech investment in Europe.

The Publishers’ Move to Capture Campus Data

Analysis commissioned by advocacy group documents how major companies’ business strategies could help them lock up research and learning data that colleges and scholars need. Inside Higher Ed  

Arizona State Adopts AI-Powered Calculus Learning Platform

Arizona State University is expanding its use of an online calculus application with built-in artificial intelligence. Currently, two courses — Calculus for Business and Calculus for Engineering — are using Gradarius from Castle Point Learning Systems, which personalizes the learning based on topics already understood and those still to be learned. The university expects to […]

Cengage and McGraw-Hill to Merge, Providing Students with More Affordable Access to Superior Course Materials and Platforms

NEW YORK and BOSTON – May 1, 2019—McGraw-Hill and Cengage today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger on equal terms. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, will bring together two premier learning companies that will deliver significant […]

What can virtual reality tell us about real-world psychology?

The use of VR in psychology experiments is being driven not just by increasingly affordable technology but also by concerns about the reproducibility of many real-world studies. But do humans really behave in the virtual world as they do in reality? And does it matter? David Matthews investigates Times Higher Education

Massive Open Online Course Instructor Motivations, Innovations, and Designs: Surveys, Interviews, and Course Reviews |

This mixed methods study explores instructor motivations for offering massive open online courses (MOOCs) as well as the instructional innovations used to enhance the MOOC design. The researchers surveyed 143 MOOC instructors worldwide and then interviewed 12 of these instructors via Zoom. They also extensively reviewed the MOOCs of the interviewees. The primary motivations for […]