A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the BbWorld conference and conduct a private interview with Chief Technology Officer and President of Academic Platforms Ray Henderson.1 What I learned is that the company is embarking on a fairly radical, high-risk/high-reward strategy of re-architecting both their platform and their business model. The implications […]
Blackboard Inc.: The Rise of the New “Online Learning” and the Race for Profits
In organizing the resignation of University of Virginia President Theresa Sullivan, Rector Helen E. Dragas may have expressed the concerns of many higher education boards of directors about the impact and effective use of education technology. Other Presidents and Chancellors may now have a similar career-threatening incentive. History in technology suggests a wave of implementation […]
Competency-Based Online Education: The Rising Tide of College Affordability
One of the interesting trends over the past year or two is the emergence of educational delivery models as a locus of innovation – with new business models, applications of technology, and tight integrations of educational content and delivery platforms. In part 1 of this series, I described a new landscape of educational delivery models. In part 2 I described […]
Online Education and the College Crisis: A Student’s View
There are a lot of useful opinions and debates on the role of online education in solving various problems of higher education, but I find that we too often lack the student’s view on the subject. Towards that end, I am sharing the comments from a student about affordable access to the courses needed for […]
LMS Market Updates: June and July News
Since my most recent post on LMS market updates almost two months ago, there have been a number of LMS selection projects that have been completed. This time period includes the users’ conferences for most of the major LMS solutions. Below are some of the notable selections in reverse order of number of students (a subjective measure, […]
The Odometer Flips at e-Literate
Phil Hill pointed out to me a while ago that we were approaching our 1,000th post here on e-Literate, and I am tardy responding to the occasion. This post is mainly to say thank you for sticking with us. I am continually amazed and humbled by your interest and participation. On related note, I still am […]
Four Barriers That MOOCs Must Overcome To Build a Sustainable Model
Given the hype of national media coverage of massive open online courses (MOOCs), it is refreshing to see more recent analysis looking at important attributes such as revenue models, dropout rates, and instructional design. Steve Kolowich at Inside Higher Ed wrote a revealing and important article looking at early demographic data. Jeff Young at the […]