MOOCs Archives - Wally Boston

The Future of Business Education and the Value of MOOCs

July 8, 2021 Wally Boston

One of the chapters in Jason Wingard and Christine Farrugia’s book, "The Great Skills Gap: Optimizing Talent for the Future of Work," is “The Future of Business Education.” Written by Anne Trumbore, Executive Director, Digital and Open Enrollment, Executive Education – Lifelong Learning at The Darden School at the University of Virginia and formerly at The Wharton School, the article focuses on results from a study investigating in-course behaviors as related to post-course career advancement.

Online Education

Technology and Its Ability to Eliminate Jobs

January 20, 2016 Wally Boston

Technology and education has been a personal interest for nearly 25 years. As a board member of McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, I was part of an ad-hoc committee to recruit a technology director in the early 1990s to spearhead the utilization and standardization of personal and faculty computers, classroom projectors, learning management systems, etc.

Technology

Internet, Policy & Politics 2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy

October 1, 2014 Wally Boston

Last week, I presented at The Internet, Policy & Politics Conference to debate whether or not MOOCs will satisfy learning effectiveness, satisfaction, and overall quality. I took note of the opening keynote speech by Dr. Chris Lintott, an astrophysicist and Citizen Science project lead in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Dr. Lintott is the principal investigator of Zooniverse and is also the cofounder of Galaxy Zoo, an online crowdsourcing project where the public can volunteer to classify more than a million galaxies.

Online Education

MOOCs and 78 Banbury Road

September 25, 2014 Wally Boston

Dr. Paul Rich is President of the Policy Studies Organization, an academic partner of APUS and publisher of many academic journals. His enthusiasm for affordable learning through technology mirrors mine and I asked him if he would provide an introduction for the conference that we are attending this week at Oxford.

Every two years, American Public University System (APUS) is part of a conference held by Oxford University on aspects of the Internet.

Grading the American Education System and Federal Education Policy

July 1, 2013 Wally Boston

Last month, the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) Renewing America initiative published a progress report and scorecard on federal education policy, providing striking comparisons between the US system and those found in other developed nations. The report sheds light on the grimmest details of federal education policy and the shortcomings that led to the nation’s decline in worldwide educational rankings.

Online Disruption, MOOC Mania, and Change in Higher Education – How Crazy (or Bad) Will it Get?

June 10, 2013 Wally Boston

(keynote delivered at the Distance Learning Administration Conference on June 5, 2013)

I began writing this speech nearly three months ago. A week and a half ago, I wrapped it up and thought I had better run through it one last time in case any new educational technology had been released that I needed to discuss today.

College (Un)Bound by Jeffrey J. Selingo

May 14, 2013 Wally Boston

As a writer, editor, and now Editor-at-Large for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeff Selingo has observed and written about higher education for more than 15 years. My assessment of his observations noted in his book, College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education and What it Means for Students, is not unlike a statistician analyzing a very large dataset where every independent variable is technically significant.

Education Innovation: Fad or Burgeoning Industry?

April 24, 2013 Wally Boston

I had the pleasure of attending last week’s Education Innovation Summit 2013 in Phoenix. Co-sponsored by Arizona State University (ASU) and GSV Advisors, this year’s event was the fourth and the largest by far. Because of my role in online education at American Public University System (APUS), I have been a member of the ASU/GSV advisory board and have attended all four conferences.

Some Thoughts on Inside Higher Ed’s 2013 Survey of College and University Presidents

April 8, 2013 Wally Boston

This article is part 1 of a 2 part series reviewing the results of Inside Higher Ed’s most recently-released surveys. The first survey sought the perspective of college and university presidents regarding higher education. The second survey asked similar questions to parents of students in grades 5 through 12. While both offer insightful glimpses into the ways in which each group views the current trends in online education, there are notable differences in how respondents of the two surveys view the higher educational situation in America today.

Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States

February 1, 2013 Wally Boston

For the last ten years The Sloan Consortium has been publishing the results of their annual survey about online learning in the United States. This year’s edition, “Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States,” contains some noteworthy information. Published in partnership with Pearson and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this year’s survey focuses a significant amount of attention on MOOCs.

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