Blogs

Quantity without quality, particularly in the context of higher education, is simply meaningless and wasteful—perhaps dangerous. The ongoing phenomenon of mergers and consolidations taking place in South Africa, as controversial as it may be, has some lessons for Africa in an expansion mode.

I spent last week getting to, attending, and then getting back from this year's AASHE conference in Los Angeles. As I headed west, I had planned to post pretty much every day, giving my reactions to things I'd experienced at the conference. But as reality overcame expectation, I found I didn't really have anything to say on a daily basis. Indeed, it took me a while to form an opinion on the conference which -- like all conferences everywhere, it seems -- offered some interesting moments within a generally unremarkable context.

Every time I see the acronym MOOC, I find myself filled with some combination of excitement and apprehension.

Last week I had the chance to talk to a group of new full-time faculty. Someone in the group asked me what I considered my goal as an administrator, especially regarding faculty. It was a nifty question, and I probably should have expected it. But since the question came out of the blue, my answer did, too

We may not like to admit it, but many of us can describe a time when we’ve made a mistake during the progress of a study. These mistakes can range from mixing up wires or forgetting to turn on an amplifier to forgetting to collect an essential piece of information that either requires additional processing time or prevents you from analyzing a certain variable altogether. Increased computing power and technological advancements have also made it easier than ever to collect data.

Brian Kibby is president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education This e-mail interview was inspired by his 8/3/12 IHE Views piece "Digital Deadline". What I found interesting is Kibby's willingness to make strong statements in print, namely that in 36 months higher ed should be completely digital.

Or, more accurately, who gets to claim they do DH?

Sometimes, I want to be wrong. I suspected it would to be tough to return to the grind this fall after the glorious summer I had. Particularly, after a three-week gig teaching Shakespeare to junior high students, I wondered how I could (once again) face a first year composition class at the big university where I’m working on my doctorate.