:: The 4th Era ::

by Carl Staumsheim

summary by Carnegie Perspectives

"San Jose State University on Wednesday quietly released the full research report on the for-credit online courses it offered this spring through the online education company Udacity. The report, marked by delays and procedural setbacks, suggests it may be difficult for the university to deliver online education in this format to the students who need it most. The report's release lands on the opposite end of the spectrum from the hype generated in January, when university officials, flanked by the Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun and California Governor Jerry Brown, unveiled the project during a 45-minute press conference. The pilot project, featuring two math courses and one statistics course, aimed to bring high-quality education to students for a fraction of the cost of the university's normal tuition. Wednesday's report went live on the university’s website sometime before noon Pacific time, appearing with little fanfare on the research page of the principal investigator for the project, Elaine D. Collins. Collins serves as associate dean in the College of Science. The article is in Inside Higher Ed."

by Jeff Cattel

"It's been a month since Blackboard announced plans [mid-July 2013] to offer a dedicated, purpose-built platform to house massive open online courses for any of its clients. The news sent ripples through the online education world and threatened less-established education startups, such as Udacity, Coursera and edX, all of which offer the opportunity for educators to create MOOC-type products. So far, dozens of Blackboard's more than 37,000 worldwide clients have joined on — a respectable number, but not something that will upend online education as we know it.

"But MOOC domination wasn't Blackboard's plan when entering the market. Part of the company's value proposition when it comes to adding MOOCs to its Blackboard Learn platform is an already established familiarity with the interface and platform. Professors at thousands of higher education institutions across the country already use the company's learning management system."