Filter & Sort
Higher Education Can't Wait
Talk about fundamental changes is well and good, but colleges can and should adopt proven reforms (expanding access to bottleneck courses, lowering textbook costs) right now, write Gene Hickok and Tom Shaver.
MOOCs and the Quality Question
Because of their lineage, the highly publicized courses are widely assumed to set the standard for online education. But the first wave of them don’t come close, writes Ronald Legon.
Digital Public Library of America
Making books, artwork, and historical documents of all kinds universally available for free is a great ambition. Scott McLemee thinks the job will require a little more, though.
Making the Best of Assessment
Professors are right to doubt the motives of many of those pushing for precise measures of student learning, but that doesn't mean the ideas behind assessment aren't valid or that they are inconsistent with the liberal arts, writes Adam Kotsko.
Engaged Students
Students may be more willing to welcome significant learning experiences than critics of academe realize, at least if professors make the right assignments, writes Robert M. Eisinger.
A Better Factory Model
The factory production model can work as a means for evaluating community college efficiency, write Clive Belfield and Davis Jenkins.
Socrates at the Center
Jonathan Marks challenges those who say that advocates for liberal education must put civic engagement at the core of their arguments.
Notes from the Underground
A new book explores the subterranean connections between geology and mythology. Scott McLemee returns from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.