I wrote a series of posts last fall about security testing for higher ed LMS products. In my initial post I called for more transparency. We need more transparency in the LMS market, and clients should have access to objective measurements of the security of a solution. To paraphrase Michael Feldstein’s suggestions from a 2009 post: There is […]
Where xMOOCs and Adaptive Analytics Both Fail (For Now)
No, this isn’t just an attempt to cram as many sexy keywords into one post title as possible. xMOOCs and adaptive analytics share an ambition: They both are at least partially motivated by a desire to teach at scale. With MOOCs, the goal is obvious. With adaptive analytics, less so, partly because there are multiple […]
MOOCs in 2012: Dismantling the Status Quo
The dominant story in higher education for 2012 was clearly the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), particularly the xMOOCs such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX. There has been a lot of debate on the merits of xMOOCs in terms of disruption, business model and academic quality. While I think these questions are interesting, […]
Postscript to “This Time Is Different: Enrollment and Employment Divergence”
In a post two days ago, I showed US data comparing enrollment and employment trends. The salient feature of the data that I called out was the significant divergence of the two trend lines since 2006. When you look at the data from 1970 – 2012, the results could explain some significant pressures experienced by higher […]
This Time Is Different: US Enrollment and Employment Divergence
When looking at long-term trends for higher education, it is useful to step back and look at the big picture. With this goal in mind, consider the comparison of post-secondary enrollment in degree-granting programs to the total number of jobs (both based on the US). The enrollment data is based on the National Center of Education […]
The World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) and Richard O’Dwyer
On Monday, delegates from 193 countries began meeting in Dubai at the World Conference on International Telecommunications. The resulting International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR) could change the operation of the Internet. Russia Today summarized the event as “Free Internet=American Internet?” Intense lobbying by Google and Russia’s 17th November proposal focus on retaining the current Internet governance […]
Initial Thoughts on McGraw-Hill Education Acquisition
Update (12/1): Added excerpts from NY Post article re. Apollo holding of Cengage debt Earlier this week came the official news that McGraw-Hill Education (MHE) was being purchased by Apollo Global Management, a publicly-traded global alternative investment firm – roughly the equivalent of private equity in nature. Based on the PR Newswire report: The McGraw-Hill Companies […]