Long-time readers know that I have had a close affiliation with the Sakai Foundation at teams and served on the Board of Directors relatively recently. This year, Sakai merged with the Jasig Foundation to form the Apereo Foundation. The purpose of the new organization is to become a sort of Apache Foundation of higher education […]
Purdue University Has an Ethics Problem
It’s fair to say that Purdue University has sparked several important conversations in ed tech through their work on Course Signals. First, they pretty much put the retention early warning system as a product category on the map, conducting ground-breaking research and building a system that several major ed tech players have either licensed or […]
Patent Troll Sues Blackboard for Patent Infringement
A company called Sampo IP, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of patent troll Marathon Patent Group, is suing Blackboard for patent infringement. The patents in question appear to be incredibly broad and have also been asserted against Salesforce as well as high-profile customers of collaboration companies Jive, Hyperoffice, and Rally, including Dell, Starbucks, Hewlett-Packard, Aetna, […]
Comments from a Researcher on the Course Signals Kerfluffle
Doug Clow of the Open University has published a thoughtful and detailed blog post in response to the Course Signals effectiveness controversy. He covers far too much ground for me to attempt to summarize here, but I think there are some common themes emerging from the commentary so far: The concerns over the one study have […]
Purdue’s Non-Answer on Course Signals
Inside Higher Ed’s Carl Straumsheim has some reporting on the Course Signals data controversy. He was able to get Purdue research scientist Matt Pistilli on record about it. Here is the sum total of the quotes from the article: Pistilli defended the claims about Signals’ ability to increase retention — with the caveat that more […]
Course Signals Effectiveness Data Appears to be Meaningless (and Why You Should Care)
My father likes to say, “If you stick your head in the freezer and your feet in the oven, on average you’ll be comfortable.” Behind this pithy saying is an insight that is a little different from the “three kinds of lies” saying about statistics. It suggests that certain types of analysis produce a false […]
Apereo Foundation Reception at EDUCAUSE Tonight
This is just a quick note on behalf of my friends at the Apereo Foundation to note that their reception will be at 6:30 PM at the Hilton tonight at EDUCAUSE. For some reason, it got left off the program. Details are here. I, unfortunately, will not be able to join, but if you’re interested […]