Randall Stross, New York Times; Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension:
"“Unlocking the Gates,” by Taylor Walsh (Princeton University Press) is a recently published history of M.I.T.’s online venture, as well as those of Columbia, Harvard, Yale, the University of California, Berkeley, and others. Comparing the book’s case studies, I found that Carnegie Mellon seems to have made the most progress in developing fully self-contained online courses. Anyone can use them free, with the proviso that Carnegie Mellon doesn’t offer credit."
Showing posts with label CMU's Open Learning Initiative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CMU's Open Learning Initiative. Show all posts
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Why Some Elite Colleges Give Away Courses Online; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/19/11
Mark Parry, Chronicle of Higher Education; Why Some Elite Colleges Give Away Courses Online:
"Q. Some of these projects are very popular, but is there evidence of their learning effectiveness?
A. That's part of what makes the OLI [Open Learning Initiative, based at Carnegie Mellon University] so unique, is that built into the environment itself, that accomplishes the teaching, is the mechanism for assessment. ... They have given a control group and a variable group the same final, and found that the students using OLI aren't hurt in the slightest by not having had the same level of in-person instruction—that the system did just as well, if not better, at teaching them this material. ... Beyond those two studies, there really hasn't been a systematic appraisal of learning outcomes based on openly available material writ large. No one disputes that these open-courseware initiatives have done much good. But it's impossible, with the currently available data, to determine how much good."
"Q. Some of these projects are very popular, but is there evidence of their learning effectiveness?
A. That's part of what makes the OLI [Open Learning Initiative, based at Carnegie Mellon University] so unique, is that built into the environment itself, that accomplishes the teaching, is the mechanism for assessment. ... They have given a control group and a variable group the same final, and found that the students using OLI aren't hurt in the slightest by not having had the same level of in-person instruction—that the system did just as well, if not better, at teaching them this material. ... Beyond those two studies, there really hasn't been a systematic appraisal of learning outcomes based on openly available material writ large. No one disputes that these open-courseware initiatives have done much good. But it's impossible, with the currently available data, to determine how much good."
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