Comments for JISC Blog

Comment on Top 5 tips for improving your e-Safety by Kevin Spencer

Kevin Spencer — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:38:51 +0000

The Jisc Regional Support Centres (RSCs) are encouraging all our supported providers to get involved in Safer Internet Day. See our campaign page at http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/esafety/safer-internet-day-5th-february-2013.aspx for details on events and resources.

Comment on JISC Mobile is live: what do you think? by Tarik - Web Design UK

Tarik - Web Design UK — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 06:38:34 +0000

It’s great that you chose to embrace the mobile but the approach is a bit under scrutiny. Big players like Google say that it is a bad idea to serve the same content in two different URLs like the one you have(m.jisc.ac.uk) It rather inspires to develop a responsive website through CSS3 media queries or just by designing with fluid layout, fluid images & videos. But design vise it’s looking perfect.

Comment on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) by alison

alison — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:13:53 +0000

Could aseparate fund be considered for those students who do not have the fiscal means to digital technology could this be
Organised through jisc as a collaborative pfoject with interested institutions or with engagement with local business who may provide funding engaging with local concerns

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Shale Bing

Shale Bing — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:55:36 +0000

John

You say you are disgusted… the text of your remarks isnt here… and when I go to your website it seems to be saying how wonderful Coursera is!

Confused of Scotland

Comment on UK contributes to European Open Access progression by Rachel Bruce

Rachel Bruce — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:30:55 +0000

Thank you for your comment. I think the national points of reference are still being appointed. I also would like to know who these are and will follow this up with the Commission. To get the latest position you should contact the EC.

Comment on Where there’s MOOC, there’s brass? by Mark Stimpfig

Mark Stimpfig — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:55:39 +0000

We have a cloud based language lab solution developed out from Sony US called SANSSpace which will add further value to any MOOC, as it has a unique compartaive recorder and player to allow teachers to bookmark any video and students to post their comments against that video in text, audio or video. All student reponses can be assessed and marked remotely by teachers. http://www.connectededucation.com/products-services/sans-space/

Comment on Where there’s MOOC, there’s brass? by Tod Cury

Tod Cury — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:23:28 +0000

It is great news to hear that FutureLearn is being set up to promote free online course offerings.

I run a private UK based college and we have a free online learning programme in clinical hypnosis and hypnotherapy. We have been offering this for the past year and now have over 500 registered global students. We deliver the programme using Moodle.

The course is validated by the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council, however I would welcome interest from any university/HE that would want to validate/accredit the programme as part of their free offering.

We support MOOCs!

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Felicity Hoolihan

Felicity Hoolihan — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:57:08 +0000

If there are millions of people doing courses that use to be offered to only a few hundred how is that going to help overall demand for these skills? I work within a profession which had 100% employment rate when I finished university. Since completing my degree I have seen all universities within my country increase class numbers. Now every year I see people who have spent three years of their lives studying a specific course unable to get their first professional job. Whilst I am lucky to be employable in the area I have studied I have experienced first hand how non transferable my skills are to other sectors of the labour market. I’m deeply skeptical of the wider social good purported by Coursera’s providers. Why would you want the poor and isolated people within our communities being taught law, computer science, economics only for them to be unable to get a job due to excess supply of graduates. To have few opportunities in life is one thing but to be offered an opportunity only for it to amount to nothing is truely heart breaking. With the introduction of MOOC it is worth pondering whether a high school graduate may be better off to become a butcher, baker or candle stick maker. I think MOOC is going to further increase the educational attainment necessary for the most basic of jobs.

Comment on Prioritise systems integration to improve your financial health by Boazi

Boazi — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:15:04 +0000

Hi Adam,Well done, another rellay interesting blog!Have always been a great Dale Carnegie fan. In these challenging times, there’s an enormous opportunity to energise action by releasing positive thinking. Have a good weekThanksDr Alf Oldman

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Savannah

Savannah — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 17:36:02 +0000

Thank you for this, C Sipocz. More prep-time, new and fresh resources, pro-d and onnile instruction and support for teachers, a tighter curriculum, a safe onnile portfolio, smaller class sizes, a pilot project approach and/or a grassroots level and frontline engagement this is exactly what we need! We need to make sure the powers that be are listening to vital suggestions like these if the plan is to succeed!

Comment on UK contributes to European Open Access progression by Jacek Kornacki

Jacek Kornacki — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:18:15 +0000

Hello, where can I find the list of the national points of reference? Is it possible to get that kind of information from you?
Regards,
Jacek

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Muvaffak GOZAYDIN

Muvaffak GOZAYDIN — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:16:19 +0000

John
Do not worry about the students paying $ 50,000 to MIT .
MIT , seeing this , says they will give the ceertificate as MITx .
Like Harvard extension degrees . Still they are good .
We employers are smart enough to distinguish the real MIT degree and MITx degrees as well . Well still we will hire MITx graduates at higher wages than regular college graduates from unknown colleges .

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Muvaffak GOZAYDIN

Muvaffak GOZAYDIN — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:09:34 +0000

1.- Unfortunately we get reports that some Coursera courses are good some are bad .
2.- It is good to hear that all MITx Harvardx berkeleyx courses are good ç Good thing is these courses are same as oncampus courses No difference .
3.- The cost of online course including
- Professors intellectual property rigjts + his design effort
- All technical help from simulators, animators, sofyware engineers
- 10 semester of hosting , TAs salary, instructors salary,
- all overheads of the school
is only $ 1,000,000 ( may be even less )
Now asume only 5,000 students taking a course online that is 50,000 in 10 semesters, 5 years , then cost per person is
$ 1,000,000 / 50,000 = $ 20
If MIT charges only $ 25 per course they will make millions $ profit .
That is the beauty . Quality important, quality means brand name .
If demand is high as in any business then high demand online is good too .

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Muvaffak GOZAYDIN

Muvaffak GOZAYDIN — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:00:44 +0000

Bill
Do not worry. EDX is a money machine they will make billions $ profit within few years .
The cost of an online course
including
intellectual property rights of the professors plus his effort to design
all technical support
all hosting for 5 years
all instructors and TAs salary
is at most $ 1,000,000 ( may be less )
If only 5,000 enrollments per semester that makes 50,000 in 5 years .
Divide $ 1,000,000 / 50,000 = $ 20 per course .

If MIT charges only $ 25 per course they will make billions when they reach to 1 billion students as they claim .
MIT has a vision, Harvard followed them . Be careful number of demand is the most important to make money as in any bussiness .
I wish Stanford and Yale had followed them too .

Comment on How e-portfolios helped us to improve our college’s digital literacy by Lisa Featherstone

Lisa Featherstone — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:04:33 +0000

Pete this is a great case study and we at TechDis are delighted that the college are using Infolio to increase the skills of both the learners and staff. I really like the idea of using a Personal Learning Plan with InFolio that allows students to monitor their own targets and objectives. It has become clear to us that different colleges have used Infolio for a wide range of objectives such as person centred planning, accreditation or as a record of achievement. If you look at the case study that Margaret McKay has highlighted the 5 colleges in Scotland used it successfully in 5 very different ways.

Both Deeside College, the Scottish Colleges and many others are using a version of InFolio which is hosted by JISC TechDis. In this way we are able to offer training and support as needed. It is such a delight to see students using the system to record and share their experiences of college, work and leisure. So thanks again Pete for sharing the unique way that Deeside College are using a very flexible system.

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by John Hibbs

John Hibbs — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:49:07 +0000

Platforms, like Coursera, that have as their prime motive should be covered by license agreements as strict with compliance standards as getting a license from Rolex or Rolls Royce; have you ever seen how thick those agreements are? And the penalties for shoddy “performance”. My observations of Coursera make me guess that they have a solid plan to turn the number of enrollments and the brand images and the elite nature of the Universities and the “Priceless Value” into a “package” that will bring tons of profit to Coursera’s ventur capital firm – their $20 million wager with a 100 to one shot seems a likely good bet. For them. But how about what an inferior class does to the image of the providing institution? What about student outcomes? Where are the metrics to support providing your brand to them? As to revenue sharing agreements, these are as mystic as a witch’s broom. Where is the revenue is the classes are free? Having said all this I do think there is a relatively good advertising model not far from Google, youtube, etc. At $10 per class net, net cost per student, shouldn’t be hard to find advertisers to cover that cost. But in the end the product must be of very high level, or if I were the Provost at Stanford, Yale, Princeton and Columbia I would be extremely concerned that my alumni might be all over me — in court? — for debasing their diploma…as of course is the case by having courses delivered with lower levels than that demanded from the “regular” campus student.
http://oregonhibbs.com/2012/11/14/global-conference-hibbs-prepared-remarks/

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by John Hibbs

John Hibbs — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:38:25 +0000

I believe there are affordable ways to provide Help Desks – I call them life boats – open at least 80 hours per week and manned by real human beings. Most of the help they would be asked to provide are routine – even pointing them to the precise FAQ would be pretty simple. I think the “helpers” could be drawn from the University, perhaps given some credits as interns, or some cash, or a combination. Or I think there might be sufficient demand from the students to pay a modes fee to have live help on demand — a few dollars for modest help would go a long way to improve retention rates…the more TLC the better the outcome, we all know that. One has to be as imaginative in the human help that is provided as is done with alll the technology wizardry. See more here
http://oregonhibbs.com/2012/11/14/global-conference-hibbs-prepared-remarks/

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by John Hibbs

John Hibbs — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:32:20 +0000

The drop out rates from Coursera MOOCs are very, very high. Did anyone ever consider what damage could accrue from the comments made by those dropping out do the brand image of the originating University? Take a Coursera class from the University and have a bad experience…Suppose 20,000 enroll and 80% (easily) drop out. That means 16,000 highly motivated, globally networked individuals have something that the MIGHT say bad about the University. In a world where “going viral” is common, what damage occurs the the campus students and the alumni as their diploma is not reduced in value. More? See
http://oregonhibbs.com/2012/11/14/global-conference-hibbs-prepared-remarks/

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by John Hibbs

John Hibbs — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:24:36 +0000

This is very sound advice and should be considered closely. At first I was hugely encouraged by Coursera. But having taken their a few of their classes and see how badly they are “run”, and having been deeply involved in online learning for almost 20 years, I am now disgusted by what Coursera is doing to the brand image of those they represent; and the impact that is sure to come by their pace. Here’s the text of my remarks at the Global Education Conference a couple days ago.

All thoughts welcome by return email. skipper@bfranklin.edu
portfolio web site oregonhibbs.com

Comment on How e-portfolios helped us to improve our college’s digital literacy by Margaret McKay

Margaret McKay — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:57:01 +0000

Excellent post Patrick and really interesting to hear how different institutions are using In-Folio. I particularly like the collaborative nature of the work with other colleges which is then evidenced in the students In-Folio accounts.

I have been involved in working with some Scottish FE colleges who are using In-Folio in some really interesting ways and I plan to share your article with them. It is excellent to see how a ‘community of practice’ is emerging with the different ways that people are using In-Folio with learners.

If you are interested in hearing what tutors and students thought of In-Folio, you can read more about the Scottish FE Colleges In-Folio pilot here – http://tiny.cc/InFolioPilots .

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Matt Ewens

Matt Ewens — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:14:29 +0000

Hi Bob,

I just found this on my travels, might be of interest to you: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n1rth

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Matt Ewens

Matt Ewens — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:06:53 +0000

Hi Bob,

There are some case studies here: http://www.delicious.com/elearningcasestudies/tag_bundle/Strategy – these may have something of use related to strategy, although broadly covering different areas of interest.

Comment on Open Futures in Open Access by Amber Thomas

Amber Thomas — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:34:03 +0000

Well … 3pm came and went and it looks like you were busy at your work, dear readers! The comments we had were:

For open data, open is just the start. We need to address the challenge of making it usable for a wide audience.
Opening up data and scholarly discourse will give the public a better chance to engage with, question and enrich research.
tension between overwhelming human case for openness and existing business models hardening during global economic depression
Open futures will be underpinned by open standards: Not necessarily their creation, but their effective implementation.
We haven’t yet made the change to exciting, innovative, student based assessment – how about students negotiating with their tutors as to how they will meet the learning outcomes and how these will be marked?
Effective communication within / between communities; devs (implementing open standards), pedagogs, students, lifelong learners

We’ve hardly scratched the surface of what our readers really think.

So what can be said about the future?

“The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different”
Peter Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 1, Chapter 4.

“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”
William Gibson, repeated in “The Science in Science Fiction”, Talk of the Nation, NPR, 30 November 1999,

This thought-provoking “map of the future” [ http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-map-of-the-future/319690 ] is a reminder of how hard it is to imagine how things might be. But for sure, open access to knowledge has a crucial part to play in getting us there.

Comment on Open Futures in Open Access by Amber Thomas

Amber Thomas — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:18:04 +0000

Thanks Debbie – it does seem that there is a surge of interest in the sorts of learning approaches described in the OU’s Innovating Pedagogy report: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/innovating/ . As you say, it’s not just about academics having the ideas but about the funding environment being conducive to different ways of doing things. That’s also why Open Access mandates from funders are so important to innovating in open scholarship too. Thanks for your comment!

Comment on Open Futures in Open Access by Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:28:44 +0000

In terms of Higher Education, we haven’t yet made the change to exciting, innovative, student based assessment – how about students negotiating with their tutors as to how they will meet the learning outcomes and how these will be marked? Students can then start to develop / seek out / consider OERs to classify, explore, repurpose, reuse, adapt, adopt, as part of a wider student journal to expertise in their discipline area – much of the assessment process is still institutionally driven and to pseudo measurements so much in vogue by current Government policy – an old adage – what gets measured gets done….

Comment on No such thing as a free MOOC by Dr Abba Wakil

Dr Abba Wakil — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 13:49:15 +0000

Interesting comments on MOOCS, especially for the developing world.
I am interested in academic psychiatry, and looking for an online course, and a mentor in this subspecialty of psychiatry.
Wakil

Comment on Wikipedia in universities and colleges? by Bash Bosh Blogging

Bash Bosh Blogging — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 17:30:23 +0000

Hello Amber,

Thanks for this informational post. A very good presentation indeed. I also think that you should upload a bigger image for this infograph – its kinda blurry and all us with a bad vision cant see the important thing in it

http://blogging.bashbosh.com

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Bob Harrison

Bob Harrison — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:19:50 +0000

Thanks Matt, Really helpful….and as you say some interesting case studies across all sectors.

Can you direct me to any case studies that address some of the needs identified in the AoC technology survey? Eg Strategic Leadership etc?

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Matt Ewens

Matt Ewens — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 08:41:29 +0000

Hi Bob, I think that Paul was probably looking for a specific eProgress review case study. But in terms of case studies in general, there are some excellent examples of how technology is being used across the sectors.

I would recommend visiting our Delicious area, where you can search for any area of interest: http://www.delicious.com/elearningcasestudies – use the tags to filter.

Comment on Supporting colleges to get the most from their technology by Stan Unwin RSC East Mids

Stan Unwin RSC East Mids — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:00:24 +0000

An interesting report that contains few surprises but one that once again highlights the ‘level playing field’ for FE & Skills. This report identifies:
Technology resourcing as a core function of College business processes; and
Specific funding for the development of e-learning.
as two requirements if Colleges are to make the most of technology. I wonder how they would cope if like WBL they had very limited access to any funding??