Another "must-take" online course

Last update: Sunday 7/22/18

DLL Editor's note -- Regular readers of this blog know that from time to time I celebrate the excellence of some of the online courses that I myself have taken. The bizarre graphic on the left side of this intro appears in the opening frames of the 50 plus lecture videos in Professor Robert Ghrist's "Calculus: Single Variable" course (University of Pennsylvania via Coursera).

Six features to look for in job-oriented MOOCs ... (4)

Last update: Monday 1/29/18

In August 2017, I posted a discussion of job-oriented MOOCs on this blog that provided lots of data about some U.S. providers. The following note provides guidelines and recommendations based on that data and on my personal experience in passing almost 50 job-oriented MOOCs in the last three years. 

Academic Innovators as Community Organizers -- Part I

Last updated: Monday 9/1/14 @ 8:36 am

DLL Editor's Note -- An earlier version of this article was posted in March 2014

Preface

These notes recommend that HBCUs produce online programs for off-campus students at a much faster pace. The author's recent experience as the planner/community organizer of a comprehensive online initiative launched by Howard University, the wealthiest HBCU, suggests that HBCUs cannot accelerate their production of online programs fast enough by acting alone, even if they receive substantial technical and financial support from a corporate partner. If HBCUS are to assume a leadership role in the development of online programs for the nation's black students, they will have to form strategic alliances with each other wherein they pool their limited resources and share the costs and tuition revenues derived from the online programs that they develop together.

Catching the Online Waves

Last updated: Monday 4/7/14 @2:29 pm

HBCUs missed the last decade's first wave of black interest in online programs (2001 to 2010). Those of us who think that HBCUs not only made significant contributions to black higher education in decades past, but are uniquely positioned to make comparably significant contributions in coming decades must ensure that HBCUs do not miss the far larger second wave. The first wave was part of an American high tide; the second will be part of a global tsunami.

Community Organizing for Academic Innovation

DLL Editor's Note -- This piece has been withdrawn. A revised version has been posted ==> Click HERE <==. 

The DLL apologizes for this inconvenience.

HBCUs on iTunes U

Last updated: Thursday 3/6/14 @ 2:34 pm

Which of the 106 HBCUs are on iTunes U? The following HBCUs were found on the list of members displayed by running the app for iTunes U on an iPad Mini. As higher education becomes more mobile whether the courses are blended or 100 percent online, course delivery will shift from PCs and laptops to tablets, phablets, and smart phones. While iTunes is not the only mobile platform, it will probably remain one of the most important for the foreseeable future.

Some Challenges for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs Launching Blended & Online Courses and Programs -- Part 2

Last updated: Sunday 12/29/13 @ 12:31 pm

This note continues the discussion begun in Part 1. It presents the author's personal perspectives on some of the most significant challenges faced by HBCUs and Virtual HBCUS when launching blended and online courses and programs for their on-campus and off-campus students

Some Challenges for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs Launching Blended & Online Courses and Programs -- Part 1

Last updated: Saturday 12/28/13 @ 9:36 am

The following notes discuss some of the most significant issues that I have encountered since January 2011 as the principal planner for my HBCU's efforts to encourage our faculty to develop more blended and online courses for our on-campus students, and then to repackage our online courses into online degree and certificate programs for our off-campus students. 

Directory of Potential Strategic Partners for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs

Last updated: Sunday 11/17/13 @ 1:12 pm

HBCUs and strategic alliances of HBCUs ("virtual HBCUs") can engage online service providers as strategic partners to help them launch online degree and certificate programs. A list of some of the nation's most prominent online service providers that have been engaged by HBCUs and non-HBCUs as strategic partners appears in Table 1 (below). 

Blended, Flipped, and Hybrid Courses for HBCUs

Last updated: Friday 10/11/13 @ 2:03 pm

Although online courses and programs have attracted the lion's share of the media's attention in the last few years, blended courses will provide far more cost-effective investment opportunities for an HBCU's limited resources for the foreseeable future. Indeed, the development a wide array of blended courses for its on-campus students will provide an HBCU with a firm foundation for its subsequent development of a wide array online programs for off-campus students.

HBCUs' Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2013

DLL Editor's Caveat -- The 2013 report is obsolete because it is based on obsolete 2013 data. Readers are therefore referred to the HBCUs -- Online and Blended Degree Programs -- 2014 report that is based on the DLL's 2014 survey. The 2013 report has therefore been removed from this blog until further notice. 

Directory of HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2013

CAUTION ==> The data in this table is obsolete. Some programs offered in 2013 are no longer offered in 201, and new programs are offered in 2014 that were not available in 2013

The new 2014 directory can be found ==> Click HERE.  
The 2013 table has therefore been removed from this blog until further notice.

Directory of HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2012

The following table lists the online and blended degree programs offered by the 105 HBCUs in June 2012. (Note: the 2014 Directory is now available)

Disruptive Innovations

Disruptive Innovations in a Turbulent Academic Environment

Who's Doing What???

Last updated: Thursday 12/12/13 ... Work in Progress 

The following table provides a compact framework for tracking the innovations in higher education that have received the most coverage/buzz in the academic and national media during the last few years.

A Framework for Developing Online and Blended Degree & Certificate Programs for Non-Traditional Students

This framework distills the ideas and data that were discussed in detail in the "Related Notes" previously posted on this blog that are listed at the end of this paper.

MOOCs and Other Online Courses Don't Have to Be as Good as Face-to-Face Courses

OK, I'm kidding. But now that I have your undivided attention, let me take this opportunity to turn the tables on all of the shrill critics of online education who are still out there, and you know who you are -- those of you who nodded in sage agreement when you read about the Babson Group's survey "Conflicted, Faculty and Online Education 2012," that found that most of the faculty respondents expressed "more fear than excitement" about online education.

Seven HBCU Strategies for Survival and Success

Impending Collapse

Like other members of the HBCU community, I have been concerned for many years about the long-term survival of HBCUs. My obsession with this question has been expressed in four notes on this blog titled, "Why Are HBCUs Still Needed?" (Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV) and related notes ("From HBCUs to BCUs", "HBCUs as a National Laboratory", etc).  But in recent months my thinking has returned to its engineering roots. Being needed is not sufficient to ensure the survival of any institutions under any circumstances. So my question has become, "What should HBCUs do to survive the impending flood of IT innovations in higher education that will overwhelm so many non-HBCUs?"

HBCUs and MOOCs

Last updated: Friday 12/13/13

A. The edX Partnership

Academia's good news last week was the announcement by Harvard University and M.I.T. that they were forming a partnership called edX that will offer online courses. Each partner will invest $30 million in this venture. (Click here for a video of their press conference.)

Why Are HBCUs Still Needed? -- Part IV

Keepers of the Dream
This is my fourth attempt to address this question, and each version has been more pessimistic than the last as to the likelihood that the non-HBCUs in the integrated mainstream of U.S. higher education will close the persistent academic achievement gaps -- in retention rates, graduation rates, GPAs, participation in STEM fields, etc -- between their black and non-black students. (For example, see The Education Trust's May 2012 report "Replenishing Opportunity in America") The persistence of these gaps becomes ever more ominous as the percentage of black students enrolled in non-HBCUs rises to 90 percent and beyond.