The sharp increase in the number of Internet-connected devices that students are bringing to campuses has left many universities struggling to find ways to provide the necessary bandwidth to meet the demand, according to a survey of campus technology officials released this week.
A report describing the survey’s findings, released by Acuta, the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education, illustrates concerns that the trend of increasing bandwidth use shows no signs of slowing, driving up costs as budgets are tightening.
The “2013 Acuta/Nacubo State of ResNet Report” is the technology association’s second annual study of the issues facing campuses and their residential networks. The group collaborated with the National Association of College and University Business Officers for this year’s survey, and the respondents include business an…
Georgia State University is adopting a new policy that could allow students to receive class credit for taking massive open online courses, or MOOCs.
Students who have taken MOOCs, which are often open to anyone without admission requirements, will be able to work through the university’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions and academic departments to determine if they have the required understanding of the material.
“Essentially, this is aligning MOOCs with our other transfer credits,” said Andrea Jones, a spokeswoman for the university.
Georgia State already grants course credits to students who have earned similar credits from other accredited institutions, as well as to students who take university-vetted examinations like Advanced Placement tests. If a student demonstrates mastery of the material learned in the MOOC, then credit will be granted in the same manner, Ms. …
Articles about how free online courses, or MOOCs, could disrupt higher education dominated the headlines last year here at the Wired Campus blog, and they were the most popular with readers as well. Several articles about e-textbooks also topped our list of most-read articles of 2012, highlighting what has been a time of change, and anxiety, for colleges and universities.
Coursera and Udacity appear most frequently in this year’s top headlines. Both offer MOOCs, or massive open online courses, and both were founded by Stanford University computer-science professors who are now on leave. Together, they now claim more than two million students, though some of those sign up but never complete work in the courses.
The most popular episode of our monthly Tech Therapy podcast highlights another anxiety among college leaders—how much raw time all this personal technology use eats up….
’Tis the season to reflect on the biggest trends in technology. Rather than looking back, though, we’re thinking about emerging leaders and the ideas they’re advocating.
In 2013 we plan to publish another list of top technology innovators in higher education, a follow-up to a popular feature we published last February. And again we need your help in finding the most interesting and influential people to profile.
You can find details on the nomination form below. Please share your suggestions and spread the word to colleagues.
Last year readers made more than 100 nominations, some of whom appeared on our list. Others ended up being featured in Chronicle articles later in the year. We also compiled the profiles, along with essays from each of the innovators, into an e-book, Rebooting the Academy.
Update: The deadline for submitting nominations was Friday, January 4, 2013,…
Salman Khan’s dream college looks very different from the typical four-year institution.
The founder of Khan Academy, a popular site that offers free online video lectures about a variety of subjects, lays out his thoughts on the future of education in his book, The One World School House: Education Reimagined, released last month. Though most of the work describes Mr. Khan’s experiences with Khan Academy and his suggestions for changing elementary- and secondary-school systems, he does devote a few chapters to higher education.
In a chapter titled “What College Could Be Like,” Mr. Khan conjures an image of a new campus in Silicon Valley where students would spend their days working on internships and projects with mentors, and would continue their education with self-paced learning similar to that of Khan Academy. The students would attend ungraded seminars at night on art…
Make sure campus technology is accessible to everyone who needs it before you adopt it. That’s one of the takeaways from a video set to premiere today at the annual Educause higher-education technology conference.
The 15-minute video, “IT Accessibility: What Campus Leaders Have to Say,” features university leaders and campus-technology staff members speaking about the importance of using technology to make college campuses more accessible. The AccessComputing project, run by the department of computer science and engineering and the Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology Center at the University of Washington, produced the video with funds from the National Science Foundation.
The idea to create the video stemmed from panel discussions on technology accessibility at the Educause conference last year, said Terrill Thompson, a technology-accessibility…
A proposal to phase out incentive pay for teaching online courses has become a sticking point in contract negotiations between the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and the system’s faculty union.
The system has provided professors with financial incentives to develop and teach online courses since 1999, shelling out about $5-million annually, said Kenneth D. Marshall, a spokesman for the 14-campus system. But system leaders have proposed cutting those incentives in negotiations for a new contract, and the professors’ dissatisfaction over that plan and other issues may lead them to strike.
The professors receive $800 per credit for each online course, as well as $25 per student taking the course, to cover the time they spent developing the materials or learning new technology tools. They also receive extra payments if the course is reused in following years, said…
Washington — Arguing that free online courses could be “a piece of the solution” to challenges facing higher education, Education Department officials held a conference on innovative technology on Monday that brought together college leaders and officials from companies offering massive open online courses, or MOOC’s.
The conference, called “Innovation to Drive Productivity in Postsecondary Education,” was hosted by the agency and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to discuss technology’s increasing influence on higher education. The 175 attendees included ed-tech industry leaders like Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera; university representatives; and leaders from nonprofit organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
During the opening address, Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, asked meeting attendees to work together to come up…
In a puzzling about-face, a nonprofit library association that had announced the appointment of a new president just two weeks ago said this week that—never mind—the current president is sticking around.
The group is OCLC Online Computer Library Center, which released a statement Wednesday saying that its Board of Trustees had decided not to move ahead with the appointment of Jack B. Blount as president and chief executive. It didn’t say why, causing librarians to take to their blogs and Twitter feeds to try to figure out why the appointment, scheduled to take effect July 1, had been rescinded. It was also a topic of discussion between sessions at the American Library Association’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.
The OCLC’s statement said that Jay Jordan, who has served as president since 1998, had agreed to postpone his retirement to continue as president.
Washington—The White House and the National Science Foundation today announced a new technology effort to increase broadband coverage and develop apps for education, health care, public safety, energy, and manufacturing.
The effort, called U.S. Ignite, is designed to help various government departments connect with start-ups, businesses, and universities developing wireless technologies. Founding sponsors include Mozilla, Verizon, AT&T, and Cisco.
At an event at the White House to announce the project, Tom Kalil, deputy director for policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said one goal is to spur student engagement in technology. “One part that is particularly important is the role of students in fostering innovation,” Mr. Kalil said. …
The MIT Press and other critics say proposed legislation to
limit public access to the results of some studies would work
against the open exchange of ideas.
Budget restrictions are an ever-present threat to innovation on college campuses. Learn how top technology companies are working with institutions to advance online learning as programs continue to expand on campuses across the country. This special sponsored section features resources available to help develop a successful online education program at your institution.
Salman Khan’s dream college looks very different from the typical four-year institution.
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Budget restrictions are an ever-present threat to innovation on college campuses. Learn how top technology companies are working with institutions to advance online learning as programs continue to expand on campuses across the country. This special sponsored section features resources available to help develop a successful online education program at your institution.
