Thanks to Larbi for this one –

In the US, it seems that a steadily rising number of people believe in the quality of online education. This is despite the fact that, in the US, online education is all too often equated with somewhat tarnished institutions like Phoenix and a range of smaller shady or worse private providers (apparently I can get another doctorate in the US for a mere $25, according to spam I have received) that have not done wonders for the cause. It would be interesting to know what the results might be in countries that have a more visible tradition of high quality distance education provision, like Canada, the UK, India, Turkey, the Netherlands, etc.

In my (very direct) experience, students with distance taught qualifications are, on average, more self-starting, highly motivated and skilled when compared with students taught more conventionally. I’d definitely be one of the employers who would favour an online qualification over a traditionally taught one, all things being equal. But, as for any qualification, I’d look very closely at which institution it came from.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.gallup.com/poll/168416/americans-trust-online-higher-education-rising.aspx

Interesting commentary on privacy concerns using ProctorU, a third-party monitoring service for online exam taking. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it is indeed highly invasive and suggests some notable privacy concerns, but is not too far removed from what we already do for face-to-face exams. The biggest problem for me is the notion that an exam itself is a solution to the accreditation problem, not that there is yet another sophisticated and somewhat dubious weapon in an unwinnable arms race. In all its summative guises, the exam is a technology that is well past its sell-by date. We need better, more authentic, less-invasive, less expensive, less easily corruptable methods of accreditation. 

Address of the bookmark: http://spartandaily.com/119401/online-proctoring-raises-privacy-concerns

From Joe Bower, a good, straightforward summary of most of the reasons not to grade learners, and some sensible suggestions about how to largely avoid using grades etc within a system that requires them. Though situated in a face-to-face school context, this very closely matches my own views on the subject and the methods I use to get around a system that is built on grading.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.joebower.org/2014/03/heres-my-chapter-from-book-de-testing.html

Steve Wheeler (a fine contributor to the world of online learning himself with a blog worth subscribing to and a very active Twitter presence with a Twitter handle that beats most) interviews our own Terry Anderson about distance learning and Terry’s views on related topics.

Disclaimer: this includes good plugs for both the Landing and books that I have contributed to and that I have cowritten with Terry, plus Terry is a good friend of mine. But he is also, as Steve says, “one of the famous figures of contemporary education, and his list of achievements is lengthy.” It’s worth reminding ourselves from time to time that we have a very good percentage of the most significant thinkers and researchers in distance and online education in the World here at Athabasca University, of which Terry is one of the great leading lights.

Address of the bookmark: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.ca/2014/03/interview-with-terry-anderson.html?utm_content=buffer457d6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

From Dave Noon, what Boing Boing describes as a ‘Lovecraftian rant’ about how much the author hates Blackboard. Brilliant.

If you don’t know Blackboard, it is a learning management system from the Blackboard corporation. The company produces very weak products for the educational market but has captured quite a lot of the territory using a business model built on deliberate lock-in (it was able to gain a foothold early on and keeps its position by making it very hard to migrate to a different platform) combined with an ‘acquire and eliminate’ approach to superior but less-entrenched competitors and, where that fails, aggressive patent trolling.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/01/christ-i-hate-blackboard

My friend and inspirational thought leader George gets well-deserved recognition in this in-depth Chronicle article that gives George’s background as well as an overview of some of his ideas, particularly as they relate to MOOCs. The article has one minor error: it’s Dr Siemens, not Mr Siemens – he has at least two doctorates, one earned, the other awarded.

Address of the bookmark: http://chronicle.com/article/George-Siemens-Gets-Connected/143959/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Interesting and free evolving handbook for learning with and from others without formal structures and courses.

It’s a little overblown in singing its own praises and a little lacking in much substance yet, not to mention having a cringeworthy (albeit memorable and descriptive) name. But it is still evolving and there are some very sound ideas from the connectivist family gathered together here in a very digestible, non-scholarly, practical form, from a number of excellent thinkers, and it is nice to see that it practices what it preaches. A worthwhile resource that should help to move things forward in useful ways.

Address of the bookmark: http://peeragogy.org/