Radical ideas

Seen in the Guardian ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/10/innovators-academia-universities

"There are lots of radical innovations that could be tried. For example, a university could move much closer to being a degree awarding body that examines but does not teach. EThames graduate school teaches students for degrees that are examined and awarded by the universities of Sunderland, Bradford, Greenwich and De Montfort."



 

Mahara

Getting acquainted with Mahara, an eportfolio application.

https://mahara.org/

Never used one before, so this will be a journey of discovery.

dbee LIFE?

Email just in with a slightly spammy feel, promoting dbee life.   

"We are a UK-based collective, working alongside Lancaster University,".   Hmmmm.

It's " a real-time social network designed to provide a monitored debating platform for higher education environments."  OK, seems promising.

http://www.dbeelife.com/uni/university.htm

I'll take a look when I get a minute ...

Should we give students more hints?

We don't give students help with the module assessment.  It's supposed to be strictly their own work.

But students need a bit more help.   This is not because they are weak academically.  It's because the assessment is a one-shot process at the end of the module. There are no second chances. And how well you do often depends crucially on the quality of your assumptions.

So I think I'm going to have to give out more hints about the assessment during the module study period. The risk is that students will seize on the hints like terriers and start thinking that if they follow the hints to the letter, they are sure to get A grades.

Numbers crunch for MBAs.

This FT report suggests that the "traditional" full-time British MBA is in decline.    It remains to be seen if the trend is cyclical or - more likely - structural.  Other models such as EMBA or "blended" MBAs are coming along to replace it.

Wonkypedia

It's the day of the Wikipedia "strike" against SOPA.   Mr Wales has made an error, I think; this will hurt Wikipedia's hard-earned reputation.   Meanwhile here .....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/17/wikipedia-blackout 

... is a nice riposte by @IAmTimDowling to those silly people - usually academics, sadly - who still claim the articles on Wiki somehow aren't real knowledge.

Piazza

Used to be a star baseball player (Mike Piazza), now it's something intriguing in online education.

http://paper.li/brianc999
https://piazza.com/

So what is it?   Will it compete with Blackboard?   Can't wait to have a closer look.

DiaryFolio

This type of student assignment is new to me.   Indeed I met my first example today.  It must be a fairly recent development.    All I could find with a very quick google is:

http://www.scm.tees.ac.uk/pathfinder/assets/resources/MyriamMallet.pdf

Inflation

Not money inflation, but grade inflation!

One of my university teaching clients just came down with a bad dose of it. Normally, grade inflation is a slow, insidious problem, stealthily devaluing your hard-earned qualification.   But at this client - a young ambitious operation - the grade inflation was sudden and violent. One year, everything was ticking along nicely. The next, students were complaining bitterly when they didn't get 90% for very ordinary assignments. It turned into quite a mess. The external examiner threatened to resign. It was painful to unwind and cure.

The lesson? Grade inflation is just as damaging as financial inflation.