This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
The purpose of this P2PU study group is to create an open space for interested University of Wisconsin Parkside faculty and staff to learn about the proposed UW System competency-based Flexible Degree Option. Participants in this group will have a better understanding of what competency-based degrees look like and the external social and economic forces driving universities, including the UW System, to develop such degrees. UW Parkside faculty and staff are welcome to participate using their uwp.edu email account. Postings from real people with real names are welcome. (Anonymous or pseudonymous comments will not be posted by the moderator.)
The news media ran a number of stories and commentaries on the proposed Flexible Degree Option when it was announced in mid-June. These stories should provide the Wisconsin context for the proposed degree, although not everything reported has been accurate.
UW System to Offer New Flexible Degree Option
UW flexible degree a valid innovation
Need more details on flexible degree option
UW System's flexible degree a good start
UW System Chancellors discuss new flexible degree program
Another state to assess skills
Online degree lets students test out of what they already know
Here's a link to a story in Inside Higher Ed about the results of a recent survey of faculty and administrators regarding attitudes toward digital learning.
Here's a link to the first report:
/media/uploads/files/ProvostBrown/2012/08/26/DigitalFaculty.pdf
Here's a link to the second report:
/media/uploads/files/ProvostBrown/2012/08/26/IHE-BSRG-Conflict.pdf
...Even as traditional universities have embraced massive free courses, those institutions have drawn a line on the matter of offering credit. Some professors send a letter of recognition to students who succeed in the free, online versions of their courses, but the universities have refrained from offering those students course credits that count toward the completion of a traditional degree. So far the only way students might redeem their success in MOOCs for formal college credit is by seeking validation thruogh prior-learning assessment apparatuses...
Fred, thanks for posting this.
Terry
Top Universities Test the Online Appeal of Free
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Online courses have been around for years. But now big-name colleges and competing software platforms have entered the field, which is evolving with astonishing speed.
A new article about the expansion of Coursera offerings and UVa: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/17/uva-and-11-others-become-latest-plan-moocs
And still another article on the use of MOOC's...
Here's an article from this morning's Chronicle that tells a bit about Coursera's users:
http://chronicle.com/article/Coursera-Throws-a-Massive/133227/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
