Opinion

Yesterday, I posed (and pointed to an answer for) the question I've used to stop many an economist dead in his/her tracks. But I shouldn't pick on economists (at least not on this count). Most people in most professional concentrations are readily stymied if asked to justify or explain what they do in terms of first principles. Sustainability folk are no different. Ask "what's sustainability for?" or some variant thereon. Then prepare to ignore a certain amount of stammering and nervous weight-shifting.

One of the most intriguing elements of the new online education startup Coursera was its use of peer assessment rather than automated grading software. But many students are taking issue with the peer feedback process in several of Coursera's courses. What's gone wrong here, and why?

Patrick Sanaghan outlines the five characteristics that distinguish exceptional leaders from the so-so.

A hug. At its best it communicates affection, love, respect, admiration — a spontaneous expression of (positive) emotions. At other times, it’s an obligation — a turned cheek, a sloppy hand over a shoulder, a quick pat on the back and we move on, relieved to have put the encounter behind us.

Strategy can be described as making purposeful choices about what to do and what not to do. Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy from Harvard Business Review Magazine deftly explains how two seemingly opposite approaches to strategy formulation – creative brainstorming and structured analysis - can work together.

On Monday August 20th Instructure's cloud based learning management system (LMS) Canvas experienced "slow loads or timeouts on certain pages".

A recent essay on InsideHigherEd discussed how academics commonly disregard deadlines. When reflecting on this, I began to think that this habit begins as grad students.