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Stories filed under: "mooc"

DailyDirt: Higher Education, Not So High-Minded Anymore?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Going to college used to be a reliable education path to a well-paying career — as well as a way to create a society of engaged and informed citizens. The workforce has changed a bit over the last few decades, and college degrees aren’t necessarily the best indicators of employee performance anymore. Sure, everyone still needs an education, but being able to learn on your own and pick up skills years after you’ve been handed a diploma are far more important than where that diploma was printed. Considering that student loans are rarely ever forgiven, people might want to choose their institution of higher learning with a bit more deliberation.

• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker almost removed the Wisconsin Idea from the mission of the University of Wisconsin system. Instead of a statement that commanded the university to “search for truth” and “improve the human condition” — a draft of the budget proposal for the university system would have required an education that “meets the state’s workforce needs.” [url]
• State universities don’t actually need to change their mission or mottos in order to fundamentally shift their philosophies. Ohio State University hasn’t changed its motto, but the way it’s doing business is more modern now — selling off anything it can for short term cash, e.g., getting millions for its campus soft drink rights to Coca-Cola and leasing its parking lots to an Australian investment firm for 50 years. [url]
• Universities in Australia have several strategic options available to them in the future. However, the “old model” of broad-based teaching and research might not be a viable direction. [url]

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Filed Under: college, degrees, education, mooc, teaching, university, wisconsin idea
Companies: osu

DailyDirt: The Coming Education Revolution

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Providing digitally-distributed educations isn’t as scalable as it might seem. Some topics, like math, might be a bit easier to teach with YouTube-esque videos, but some subjects may need a bit more of a human touch. Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are still in the development phase, so they may one day overtake traditional classes (but not right now..). Here are a few online courses to keep an eye on to see if they rate better than “needs improvement” someday.

• MIT is starting to offer a big data class online with a MOOC aimed at working professionals (that’ll be $495 for four weeks of classes, please). MIT has provided free online course materials for years, but this course is part of the first set of Online X classes. [url]
• Minerva is a “startup” university that aims to offer a quality education for less than $20,000 per year. Minerva aspires to have admission standards that are “higher than current Ivy League levels” and focuses on teaching skills rather than traditional academic subjects. [url]
• Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun knows that developing a MOOC ain’t easy, admitting “We have a lousy product.” Experiments with online classes apparently are teaching some folks what doesn’t work when it comes to teaching. [url]

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Filed Under: big data, college, education, massively open online course, minerva, mit, mooc, online classes, sebastian thrun, students, teaching, udacity, university

DailyDirt: No More Classes, No More Books…

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The field of education is looking ripe for disruption as “distance learning” becomes more and more practical with internet connections and algorithmic grading systems. There are still plenty of bugs to be worked out for digital education, but it’s coming. (And famous dropouts from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg seem to suggest some flaws in the traditional university system.) Here are just a few links on how schools are changing and developing new kinds of classes.

• Massively open online courses (aka MOOCs) have the word “open” in their name, but these classes don’t necessarily have to be open. Online classes can be closed and proprietary, and maybe massively “closed” online courses are less of a threat to public education? [url]
• EdX, Coursera, Udacity and the Khan Academy are just a few examples of online schools. The ease of signing up for an online class also makes it easy to drop out of an online class, but that might not be a bad thing. [url]
• University rankings often emphasize how many applicants are turned away instead of how many graduates are competent in their chosen field (or employed). In the future, colleges might get rid of the traditional September-to-June school year, change how long it takes to graduate, or allow all classes to be taken online without using heavy printed textbooks at all, but the cost of college is likely to stay the same: expensive. [url]

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Filed Under: certification, college, degree, distance learning, education, massively open online courses, mooc, university
Companies: coursera, edx, khan academy, udacity

DailyDirt: Who Cares if You Went To A Good School?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The field of education seems ripe for disruption — with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other forms of online classes. However, it’s difficult to judge the quality of these online programs and compare them to the traditional classroom experience. The conventional wisdom has ranked prestigious universities in roughly the same order for decades, so it’ll be interesting to see how online courses and degrees might factor into these lists. Here are just a few interesting links on the quality of higher education.

• The college/university rankings from US News & World Report is not as meaningful as most people assume, according to Malcolm Gladwell. Any ranked list generated by weighting multiple variables depends greatly on those weights — and a simple, single score may be too simple to capture the most important characteristics of a diverse set of schools. [url]
• The US News college rankings don’t heavily weight the value (or “bang for the buck”) of the schools it covers, but the Washington Monthly ranking does. In 2013, Amherst College is listed as the “best bang for the buck” school, and Harvard/Princeton don’t seem to be in the top ten…. [url]
• Northwestern University was once known as a horrible football school, setting a 34 consecutive game losing streak record in 1981, but its football team has turned itself around recently. Unfortunately, there’s no special recognition for schools that simultaneously have good academic and athletic performance. [url]
• Newsweek and the Daily Beast have ranked 2,000 US high schools according to their effectiveness to produce college-ready graduates. But after going to college, how much does high school matter? [url]

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Filed Under: certification, class, college, degree, education, high school, mooc, ranking, school, university

DailyDirt: Can Computers Grade Written Essays?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Technology aimed at education could really benefit an incredible number of students by making classes and learning (potentially) a more pleasant and efficient experience. Computers can’t replace a really good human teacher, but they can make it easier for good human teachers to reach a vast audience of students. Massively open online courses (MOOCs) promise to change how education works, but there are some technological tools that might be missing. It’s pretty straightforward to test students on math problems in an automated way, but grading essays is a much more daunting problem. There have been some calls for automated grading software from various organizations (like the Hewlett Foundation). But at the same time, the National Council of Teachers of English argues that computers simply can’t grade essays. Here are just a few more links on this debate over the use of algorithms over English professors (or grad students).

• EdX, the non-profit started by Harvard and MIT, is releasing some software to automagically grade human-written essays. Some see this software as just another tool for educators to use for more immediate feedback to students, while others are worried that these algorithms will be used incorrectly and lead to disastrous educational policies and outcomes. [url]
• There are studies that show algorithms are statistically comparable to humans when it comes to ranking essays on a 5 point scale. There are things machines can do better and things humans do better — just make sure you know the differences and automated essay grading can be done productively in the right context. [url]
• Automated essay readers can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. The Educational Testing Service is testing out automation, so students may soon be facing algorithmic grading for their college entrance exams. [url]
• Grading a few sentences can be harder than it might look. Professional (human) teachers are obviously better at interpreting the insights and ideas behind the words a student writes, but computers scale much better and never tire of horrible spelling mistakes or misplaced modifiers…. [url]

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Filed Under: ai, algorithms, artificial intelligence, automation, education, edx, essays, ets, exams, grading, mooc, nlp, tests
Companies: harvard, hewlett foundation, kaggle, mit