The Redgate Read On Online Learning

As a college sports nut, I love this time of year.  College basketball’s Final Four — do I need say anymore?  We’ve whittled our way down from 65 teams all the way down to just two.  Memphis and Kansas will do battle tonight and tip-off is scheduled for a little after 9pm EST.  

I must confess that when Xavier and Texas lost my brackets were toast so I am just enjoying the ride at this point.  My wife, Melody, on the other hand is a secret Memphis fan and loves their coach, John Calipari.  Her love for Memphis comes from a New York City trip we were on several years ago when I was EVP at InService America.  One of my clients was the V Foundation for Cancer Research, one of the finest charities in our land.  Each year they host a men’s basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden and I was fortunate for several years to attend.   I would take my wife with me because not only does she enjoy basketball (I’m so lucky!) but New York City during the holiday season is a magical place to be.   During this one trip, she, being the coffee addict that she is, was in line at a Dunkin Donuts near Grand Central.  She struck up a conversation with the server and told her that she was in New York for a basketball game.  From behind her a man asked, “What game are you here to see?”  Yes - it was Coach Calipari.  She tells me he spent about ten minutes just asking questions about our kids and talking with her about his early coaching days in Virginia.   Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a preliminary decision that rejects all 44 claims Blackboard Inc. made regarding the controversial patent it was granted for an online-learning system. If upheld, the decision could have sweeping ramifications for Blackboard’s competitors and universities that use course-management software. 

Who really knows how this decision will affect the pending litigation between Blackboard and Desire2Learn, whose Learning Management System was found by a federal jury to have infringed on Blackboard patent rights.   What I can say is that competition is good and, as an industry insider, I hope the decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sticks and that the Blackboard verdict against Desire2Learn is overturned. 

I learned yesterday that the University of Massachusetts Online signed a groundbreaking agreement to provide online learning in China.   This could position University of Massachusetts Online to be the first foreign university to provide online learning in China.  

Although this what I would consider a “milestone achievement,” I know from the international work that I have been involved in that UMass still has a number of signficant obstacles in front of them.  The international educational market, as a whole, is still not that accepting of foreign schools or educational entities who make investments in brick mortar much less online learning.  Most markets are problematic for online learning for a variety of reasons including internet infrastructure within the country, the operating environment within a country for foreign schools, computer access for students, state or country governance, and the adherence to traditional views of educational delivery. Read the rest of this entry »