The rise of Big Data brings tremendous possibilities and frightening perils
Debates are raging about whether big data still holds the promise that was expected or whether it was just a big bust, The Huffington Post reports. The failure…
Month: April 2014
Group urges checks on online learning at MIT
Concerned about the pace of change brought about by online learning, an Institute subcommittee is now preparing to recommend a “face-time” degree requirement, strong oversight of on-campus MITx…
Take me out to the MOOC game
Baseball’s opening day is behind us, but if you can’t get enough of this spring ritual, you can savor another opening day of sorts May 29, when a…
Blended learning gets the Khan Academy treatment
In a somewhat ironic twist, blended learning has been lacking in a resource it aims to help promote: video resources. However, thanks to a new partnership between a…
Will book publishers go the way of ice delivery?
A Virginia community college is piloting a textbook-free degree program comprised entirely of open educational resources (OER) — from textbooks to the program itself, the components of which…
Innovation corner: Technology solutions for boosting retention
Student retention, once a back burner issue for many colleges and universities, has emerged as a pressing issue for campus decision makers, who have increasingly looked to technology…
Why STEM needs a community to succeed
Washington, DC -- When journalist Judy Woodruff was in college, she wanted to be a mathematician, but a professor discouraged her from pursuing math as a career. "He…
Are college campuses obsolete?
On one recent night, the Intelligence Squared U.S. debate series put forth a motion on Columbia University’s campus: “More Clicks, Fewer Bricks: The Lecture Hall Is Obsolete.” This…
Hadoop there it is: Big Data tech gaining traction
As companies collect more data on how consumers interact with their businesses, the Hadoop open source storage system is emerging as a key technology for breaking up large…
The student becomes the teacher
Over the past year, a boy genius from Mongolia has been schooling MIT on how to improve the elite institution’s free online courses, Slate reports. When he was…