The December 2012 issue of Digital Education Review has a number of articles related to digital storytelling that warrant attention. The introductory article sets the stage, "This article provides a critical review of some of the most relevant studies on digital storytelling and proposes a genre typology that allows an initial classification of digital storytelling into two main types: educational and social."
Pearson, a major force within the academic publishing world, announced the purchase of EmbanetCompass for $650 million. This move continues Pearson's expansion from a publishing company into a learning services company.
Inside Higher Ed reports on the growth of large online enrollments by non-profit universities. Apparently eleven non-profit universities claim over 10,000 online-only students. This includes Liberty University, the largest and only Christian institution included in the list.
World Magazine includes a brief introduction to Massive Open Online Courses (aka MOOCs) in their Fall "School Choice" issue. They highlight the major MOOC platform providers, namely Coursera, edX, and Udacity, and also note that the issue of online learning was part of the recent dust-up at the University of Virginia.
For many college students, textbooks can be one of the most expensive parts of a college education. Publishing companies have begun to distribute e-textbooks that should help ease the amount of money students spend on textbooks. Many times; however, the e-textbook is as expensive as the printed version. This has increased the number of pirated e-textbooks. According to an article in The Chronicle for Higher Education, e-textbooks are being pirated and distributed to students at a greatly reduced cost.
