Opinion

Blackboard unveiled a new UI today, something that certainly seems a response to not just user complaints but to the flood of new learning management systems entering the market. But is a UI change sufficient? A look at the Berlin-based iVersity shows a very different approach to thinking about what an online learning platform can be.

Is digital identity development part of your institution's orientation program? It's understandable if it isn't. After all, orientation programs are generally at capacity and an extra addition to the schedule is nearly impossible. However, I suspect that eventually, digital identity development will be present at almost all orientation programs.

Don't think you can do anything meaningful to help adjuncts? Think again.

Geez. What a week it’s been for women’s health rights. The Susan B. Komen Foundation flip-flopped after the online outrage for defunding Planned Parenthood. (Over a million Planned Parenthood Tweets!) Now the Obama administration appears to be hedging on a decision to require all health plans, including Catholic universities and hospitals, to cover contraception.

Over at the Chronicle, Scott Carlson had a really good article a couple of days back. Based on the observations of a number of faculty members on different campuses, he suggests that our education system tends to segregate us from how the physical objects we deal with really work, get made, could be improved.

We do, because of the Internet and its intersection with business, law and people. All one has to do is...

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to discuss a proposed and relatively dramatic policy change with someone fairly high in state government. I objected to the change with some vigor, and outlined several objections that I thought added up to a compelling case. She listened politely, and then gave an answer for which I hadn’t prepared.

Western academics can find good positions and plenty of the comforts they crave (with a better standard of living) far from home, writes William Roden.