In a step toward improving college access and affordability, California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law two bills that will provide students with free access to digital textbooks.
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10/24/2012
I recently had the opportunity to interview Richard Baraniuk for our continuing series on “Education Innovators.” Baraniuk, a professor at Rice University (Texas), is the founder of Connexions, an open education resource project, and its offshoot OpenStax College.
10/3/2012
In a step toward improving college access and affordability, California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law two bills that will provide students with free access to digital textbooks.
Bills 1052 and 1053, passed last week, call for creating free, open source digital textbooks for 50 of the most widely taken introductory courses among the University of California, and California Community College systems, and creating a state digital open source library to house the texts.
9/26/2012
While the role of international campuses of U.S. institutions of higher education has been much debated in recent years, their primary purpose and capacity for constructive, new developments is often overlooked. With much controversy over motives, money and visions of soft power, the critics rarely look at the realities that brought these overseas ventures to fruition in the first place—or the drive that keeps them operating and expanding.
9/26/2012
Just because your institution maintains a Facebook page and a Twitter account does not mean that you’re utilizing social media channels to the maximum benefit of your college or university.
9/26/2012
This year, the iconic black and white Oreo cookie celebrates its centennial. One hundred years since the chocolate wafer sandwich first went on sale in the U.S., this favorite treat is now beloved around the world with $2 billion in global sales. Second only to the U.S. in Oreo cookie consumption is the world’s most populous country of China. But if you’ve traveled to the Far East, you’ll find the cookie you dunk in Shanghai is nothing like one you savor in St. Louis.
9/26/2012
Over the last few years, high-profile laboratory incidents at major institutions have made front-page headlines. The latest resulting in the death of a graduate student at UCLA, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) decision to pursue criminal charges against both UCLA and the individual principal investigator (PI) in charge of the lab.
9/26/2012
Institutions of higher learning around the globe are turning green. They are embracing sustainability for many reasons, some of them economic, some of them because their student body and faculty are requesting it, and some of them just because it is the right thing to do.
9/26/2012
As education leaders and policymakers debate how best to reengineer the university learning experience, we take pause to recognize the quiet renaissance occurring at institutions where the captains of engineering innovation are educated in the new global economy.
9/26/2012
Prior to 2011, the sports and events facilities at the University of Mary Washington (Va.) were nothing to write home about. The university’s Dodd Auditorium had a capacity of 1,300 for concerts and other special events, and the Woodard Campus Center gymnasium, which was built in the 1950s, could only seat 500 and couldn’t be used for anything but sporting events.
9/25/2012
Earlier this year in March, college and university presidents convened in Washington for an annual meeting to discuss the state of education. I was a panelist for a session entitled “Staying Ahead of the Curve: Rethinking the Higher Education Model.” While I don’t believe that the days of the traditional educational model are over, that model is on life support for most of us.
9/25/2012
Sree Sreenivasan is a journalist and technology expert at Columbia School of Journalism. As anyone who has sat in his class or watched one of his YouTube videos will attest, Sreenivasan’s particular strength is in explaining technology to students, faculty, and consumers. He is the former technology reporter for two New York television stations, a social media blogger for CNET, and producer of his own weekly web-based call-in show.
9/25/2012
The experience students have on campus is what will keep them coming back, both while enrolled and after. But even if they love their classes, that joy can be overshadowed by frustration dealing with student services offices. The new report “Making the Grade: Optimizing the Higher Education Student Experience” from Oracle checks in on how administrators and students think higher education institutions are doing.
9/25/2012
The food truck craze that’s hit cities large and small across the nation has made its way to college and university campuses, offering up new dining options in new spots with more hours. Bringing a food truck to campus isn’t as easy as throwing in an oven and hoping students are hungry, though.
