Digital scholarship

Project Information about the The SOCSI/COMSC Research Network, Cardiff School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, Wales, UK.

Over the last few years, Techdirt has been reporting on a steady stream of victories for open access. Along the way publishers have tried various counter-attacks, which all proved dismal failures. But there are signs that they have changed tack...

Two of my favourite people in the academic world are my friends Rachael Pitt (aka @thefellowette) and Nigel Palmer. Whenever we have a catch up, which is sadly rare, we have a fine old time talking...

While many top universities -- including Harvard and Stanford Universities, along with many others -- were announcing partnerships and launching their first MOOCs, Yale sat back, watched, and evaluated.

In December, some eight months after Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor joined Coursera and three months after Brown, Columbia, Emory, and Vanderbilt Universities did the same, Yale’s Committee on Online Education, a faculty committee, submitted its online report and recommendations to the dean of Yale College. Though the report suggests that Yale investigate different MOOC platforms, there is no timeline for when the university, seemingly already late to the MOOC party, might select a company or start providing MOOCs. Cornell University similarly just completed a committee review of its MOOC strategy; the university will likely announce a MOOC partnership in the next few weeks, according to the dean of faculty, Joseph Burns.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/29/yale-takes-time-reflect-evaluate-jumping-moocs#ixzz2JSocgzqK ;
Inside Higher Ed

"  Phonar is an Open Undergraduate Class Hybrid (from now on referred to as an OUCH). It is a regular undergrad class, a version of which lives and leverages online. That means it doesn't incur the massive start-up costs of Coursera or Udacity (which, when used as examples prompt managers to question price-points and returns on investment etc). Instead it re-thinks what my valuable product as teacher actually is and turns that "learning experience" (sunk cost) into an outward facing and long-tail asset - which means:"

In an unusual arrangement with a commercial company, the universities hope that those who pass the free courses will pay tuition to complete a degree program.

Jisc infoNet helps organisations in the Higher Education and Further Education and Skills sectors to operate effectively, get best value for money and deliver excellent quality learning, teaching and research.

In the largest survey of instructors who have taught massive open online courses, The Chronicle heard from critics, converts, and the cautious.