Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Courses without colleges?

The image of American economis professor Clark...
The image of American economis professor Clark Kerr (1911-2003) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Clark Kerr, chancellor of the California higher ed system, once defined the faculty as a collection of entrepreneurs united by a common parking complaint.  New technologies and new business models are making it possible for profs to be more independent and entrepreneurial than ever.  A number of enterprises are making it possible to offer free standing, online courses.  Provided the students can persuade their institutions to accept the credits, the instructors don't need to be on a college faculty at all.

One such outfit is StraighterLine:

http://chronicle.com/article/Ambitious-Provider-of-Online/129052/ 

http://chronicle.com/article/New-Platform-Lets-Professors/136251/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Another is Instructure, which is using its popular Canvas platform to launch Canvas Network next spring.

http://www.instructure.com/higher-education

When it's launched, I plan to be onboard:

http://jamescastagnera.wordpress.com/ned-mcadoo-2/


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1 comment:

  1. I see in today's Chronicle that Straighter Line allows faculty to add a premium to the base price of their course.

    http://chronicle.com/article/New-Platform-Lets-Professors/136251/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

    Do you suppose Rider would let me do that?

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