October 31, 2006
The Open University launches OpenLearn
The Open University launches OpenLearn , 25 October 2006
"The Open University’s commitment to broadening access to education is being taken to another level with the launch of OpenLearn, its major new open content initiative. The OpenLearn website will make educational resources freely available on the internet, with state of the art learning support and collaboration tools to connect learners and educators.
This £5.65 million project, supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will cover a full range of subjects from arts and history to science and nature, at all study levels from access to postgraduate. Available to learners and educators throughout the UK and worldwide, the project will be of particular significance in The Open University’s efforts to open access to hard-to-reach groups and tackle educational disadvantage both within the developed and developing worlds.
OpenLearn will be formally launched in London on 25th October 2006 at 1 Great George Street, Westminster. Keynote speakers include Bill Rammell, MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education and Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford University."
Posted by mlindema at 09:18 AM
June 29, 2006
Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education
On June 22, 2006 the of Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education released a 27-page preliminary report that heavily criticizes higher education in the United States of America.
It is interesting to read this report along with Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. Both the Secretary of Education and Friedman make the cast that there is a need to “flatten” higher education.
From the Future of Higher Education draft… “What we have learned over the last year makes clear that American higher education has become what, in the business world, would be called a mature enterprise: increasingly risk-averse, frequently self-satisfied, and unduly expensive. It is an enterprise that has yet to address the fundamental issues of how academic programs and institutions must be transformed to serve the changing educational needs of a knowledge economy. It has yet to successfully confront the impact of globalization, rapidly evolving technologies, an increasingly diverse and aging population, and an evolving marketplace characterized by new needs and new paradigms.”
The report finds that “The challenges and opportunities we found in our nation’s higher education system fall under four general headings: Access, affordability, quality and innovation, and accountability.”
"We want a system that is accessible to all qualified students in all life stages, regardless of their financial status"
"a remarkable absence of accountability mechanisms to ensure that colleges succeed in educating students."
Some recommendations to address these issued include:
“Another cost-reduction strategy would simply be to strengthen relatively new competitors to traditional four-year institutions, notably community colleges and non-traditional providers. The lower cost of community colleges and private for-profit providers suggests that great reductions in average per student costs are obtainable by increasing the proportion of students using these less expensive alternatives. This can be partially accomplished by reducing barriers to the transfer of credit between institutions, and reducing unnecessary accrediting constraints on new institutions.”
“Do more to support and harness the power of distance learning to meet educational needs of rural students, adult learners and workforce development.” P. 20
“The Secretary of Education should take the lead in developing a national strategy to keep the U.S. at the forefront of the knowledge revolution, creating a system that encourages knowledge and skills to be obtained and continuously updated on a regular basis through a lifetime of learning. The Secretary’s plan should emphasize innovation incentives, development of tailored, digital delivery of knowledge, ability to transfer credits among institutions easily and the ability to acquire units linked to skill certification in addition to degrees.”
See the Commission’s Draft Report at http://insidehighered.com/index.php/content/download/70817/971018/file/Draft%20Report%206.22%20watermarked.pdf
Further information:
A Stinging First Draft
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/27/commission
By Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, June 27, 2006
Panel's Draft Report Calls for an Overhaul of Higher Education Nationwide
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/education/27educ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
by Karen W. Arenson, The New York Times, June 27, 2006
Commission Draft Report Calls for Shake-up in Higher Education
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060626-1418-highereducationcommission.html
by Justin Pope, The Associated Press, June 26, 2006
Draft Report From Federal Panel on Higher Education Takes Aim at Academe
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006062701n.htm
by Kelly Field, The Chronicle of Higher Education (requires subscription), June 27, 2006
Posted by mlindema at 09:39 AM