Opinion

This year’s drinking game at the League would be to drink whenever someone uses the word “data.” You’d be out cold before lunch. It’s all data, all the time. Or pretty much all the time. We’ll have to crunch the numbers first.

Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are wonderful things. We should applaud MOOCS, participate in MOOCs, teach MOOCs, and encourage our institutions to participate in the MOOC movement. But what MOOCs may not do is lower the costs of higher ed. In fact, an argument could be made the the rise of the MOOCs will put new cost pressures on institutions, introducing new expenses over and beyond the direct cost of producing and delivering a MOOC. These additional costs incurred by the MOOC movement may show up in higher tuition prices.

Last month I made the last payment on my daughter’s college tuition. She’ll graduate, debt-free, in two months (knock wood). And last week, to make me feel even older, my son got his learner’s permit. When his sister got hers, he was still in elementary school and I had a lot less grey in my hair. (Not that I’m making any claims about cause and effect — she’s a terrific driver.)

Bill Gates laid out his ideas to help solve current issues in higher education at the recent SXSW conference.

President Obama's ideas about changing federal student aid policy to factor in "value" and "price" are likely to end up hurting low-income students and the colleges that serve them, writes Christopher P. Loss.

Sometimes grad students need more support than they can find on campus, writes Rachel Leventhal-Weiner.

With apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sherman Dorn considers the hype over massive open online courses.