Inside Higher Ed: Many Uses for ‘New York Times’ Distance Ed Venture
Instead of sifting through existing texts to find case studies suitable for his course, Matt Cookson decided to go straight to the source. In his Introduction to Public Relations class, which he teaches as an adjunct at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, he uses content pulled directly from online archives of The New York Times — embedded within the course management system itself.
Except it isn’t a course management system, exactly, though it does allow faculty members to post assignments and readings online for students to download. Calling it a social network wouldn’t be fair either, though it does offer personalized profiles for students and professors. An “integrated online course content, portfolio and communications tool” is a bit closer, but its actual name is Epsilen. Last September, the Times announced a partnership with the service in its push into the distance learning market.
Last month, it finalized a deal to purchase a 53 percent majority stake in the holding company that markets Epsilen, an environment that was originally developed at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’s Purdue School of Engineering and Technology. (For the record, Felice Nudelman, director of education for the Times, called it “the most robust Web 2.0 learning platform in the world.”)
Follow
