Learning Ecosystems

MOOC-Skeptical Provosts — from insidehighered.com by Ry Rivard

Excerpt:

The provosts of Big 10 universities and the University of Chicago are in high-level talks to create an online education network across their campuses, which collectively enroll more than 500,000 students a year.

And these provosts from some of America’s top research universities have concluded that they – not corporate entrepreneurs and investors — must drive online education efforts.

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But the provosts are now questioning universities’ need to partner with external providers in the first place.

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“The main thing for us is… how can the CIC schools be proactive in terms of innovation and learning?” he said. “How can we be of more benefit to students jointly?”

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Right now, the high-level talks among administrators has yet to trickle down to faculty. Provost Adesida said the Illinois faculty will play a big role in deciding whatever comes next.   “We don’t move without consulting with faculty,” Adesida said.

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From DSC:
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think MOOCs are done baking yet…but…

• Funny how a little serious competition causes some eyes and ears to be open to change.
• Funny how Thrun and Koller/Ng had to leave traditional higher ed in order to develop Udacity and Coursera, respectively.
• Funny how when one’s peers finally move forward with something, then one thinks that now they need to move forward with that same thing. 
• Funny how folks are suddenly interested in innovation when their wallets/enrollments/businesses are being impacted.
• Funny how higher ed wakes up from partaking in its own conversations/journals/publications/research when the true “customers” now have choices.

I wonder how much more innovation we might actually see from insider higher education if a big player does purchase Coursera…?

Addendums:

• The Academe-Academic Complex –– from HuffingtonPost.com by Peter Weddle
  Excerpt:
  Now, to be perfectly clear, a college education is absolutely essential for many jobs in a modern economy. It is not, however, sufficient for sustained or even initial employment — at least as that education is currently delivered. What’s missing? An equally rigorous education in the body of knowledge and set of skills required for effective career self-management. Why? Because for the past 75 years, America’s colleges and universities have been graduating career idiot savants. They’ve taught their students a whole lot about this or that field of study, but absolutely nothing about how to make a career in those fields.
  …
  From discovering one’s inherent talent to setting effective short and long goals, from dealing with the inevitable obstacles that arise in a career to ensuring one’s expertise stays at the state-of-the-art, there is more than enough to be taught, more than enough to be learned in a career self-management course of study, and it’s high time the academe-academic complex embraced it.
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• Mozilla’s debuts Open Badges to showcase out-of-school learning and skills — from edsurge.com