Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
MOOCs + Meetups = Better Learning
The man behind the ‘Beyond Silicon Valley’ MOOC is very enthusiastic about these massive online courses, but he sees adding a dash of the human touch as making the resulting learning experience even better.
Studying Economics: Of the Elites by the Elites
UK universities have had to become much more responsive to changes in the pattern of demand and compete with one another for different revenue streams. New universities have retreated from offering economics programs even as student numbers have risen substantially.
Playing the Game of REF
A very strong overall REF performance signifies a large concentration of outstanding work. It is an unambiguous plus. All the same, precise league table positions in the REF, indicator by indicator, should be taken with a grain of salt.
With the REF, We Can Evaluate the Impact of Impact
Measuring impact was a key feature of the just-released Research Education Framework in the UK. But ‘impact’ isn’t as fair a measurement as we could hope.
How Will Zero-Hour Contracts Change UK’s Academic Culture?
‘I did not contemplate the possibility that academics might rewarded for years of study, teaching, hard work with a no-obligations, no-guaranteed-income employment contract,’ says Daniel Nehring. And yet with zero-hour contracts entering academe, that un-reality is now here.
Peer Review Has Problems. Let’s Fix Them
In a conclusion to his two earlier articles on post-publication peer review, Andy Tattersall argues that while new ways to measure scholarly value may not be perfect yet, it’s still high time to start introducing them more widely.
Will SPOCs Live Long and Prosper?
We’re familiar with MOOCs — massive online courses. But what’s happened to the smaller — and more human-sized — online courses of yore?
Students Don’t Know What’s Good For Them
When students evaluate their courses and instructors, they tend to rate higher when they got good grades, and not good learning. That’s pretty common sensical, so why do we keep asking students if they’re happy?
