Is this the biggest news in higher education for 2010?

Did everyone sleep through this announcement?  Did we fail to notice this landmark agreement that has the potential to reshape higher education?  And oh yeah, it's distance education related.  Implications: public private partnerships in a new way; education the 'Walmart way'; reaching an unserved population; expanding educational opportunities; exploring the value of higher education for firms and their workers. 

Some will decry the potential for a 'Walmartization' of education, but hello - what's wrong with a major employer understanding the needs of their workforce and building something that supports it.  Not one thing wrong. 

Watch this one.  Let's see where it goes. It's not a slam dunk but it sure has potential to shake things up for all of us.

Wal-Mart’s Partner in Education Earns High Profile - NYTimes.com

What promises to be a lucrative arrangement between the country’s largest retailer and an education company based in West Virginia started with an unsolicited e-mail message in October.

The retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, was looking for a partner to offer online college courses to its work force in the United States. Might American Public Education — which runs two Web-based universities — be interested?

By January, American Public put together a team devoted to landing the Wal-Mart contract, and last week, the two companies announced an agreement. Wal-Mart committed to spending $50 million over the next three years in tuition and other assistance for employees who enroll.

Mayadas is a funny man: wry observations on the nattering nabobs of negativity at UC

In Crisis, U. of California Outlines a Grand and Controversial Online Learning Plan - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The University of California's decision to begin its effort with a pilot research project has also raised eyebrows. The goal is to determine whether online courses can be delivered at selective-research-university standards.

Yet plenty of universities have offered online options for years, and more than 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall-2008 term, notes A. Frank Mayadas, a senior adviser at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who is considered one of the fathers of online learning.

"It's like doing experiments to see if the car is really better than the horse in 1925, when everyone else is out there driving cars," he said.

If the project stumbles, it could dilute UC's brand and worsen already testy relations between professors and the system's president, Mark G. Yudof.

As the system studies whether it can offer quality classes online, the bigger question might be this: Is California's flagship university system innovative enough to pull online off?

Women in higher education...make a note

All interested in higher education and education in general should make note of the following:

Census says women equal to men in advanced degrees, yet they still lag behind men in pay | Oregonlive.com

Women are now just as likely as men to have completed college and to hold an advanced degree, part of an accelerating trend of educational gains that have shielded women from recent job losses. Yet they continue to lag behind men in pay.

Among adults 25 and older, 29 percent of women in the U.S. have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 30 percent of men, according to 2009 census figures released Tuesday. Measured by raw numbers, women already surpass men in undergraduate degrees by roughly 1.2 million.

Women also have drawn even with men in holding advanced degrees. Women represented roughly half of those in the U.S. with a master's degree or higher, due largely to years of steady increases in women opting to pursue a medical or law degree.

At current rates, women could pass men in total advanced degrees this year, even though they still trail significantly in several categories such as business, science and engineering.

"It won't be long before women dominate higher education and every degree level up to Ph.D.," said Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan-Flint who is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank. "They are getting the skills that will protect them from future downturns."

Another reason institutions and organizations must be 'eyes up' in using cloud services or web 2.0

Ning, a great little network creation service, finally moves from free to fully paid.  Nothing wrong with that.  One always wonders how these folks earn a living providing free social network hosting for millions of people anyway.  But the lesson here is for anyone who builds a network:  Better have a backup plan, an escape route, or shell out for the services.  Any of these three options are acceptable.  Expecting free services - not too smart.

Ning Blog » An Update from Ning

As part of this change, we’ll be phasing out our free service. On May 4, 2010, we will share with you all of the details of our new offering, including features and price points, through a series of blog posts, emails, and conference calls. We recognize that there are many active Ning Networks for teachers, small non-profits, and individuals and it’s our goal to have a set of product and pricing options that will make sense for all of them. For Ning Creators using our free service who choose to move to another service, we will offer a migration path and time to make that change.

Change is inevitable, but sometimes unexplainable

In a case of "there's more here than meets the eye", it appears UT is determining a different direction for system support of distance education.  I'm neither connected enough, nor smart enough, to pretend to understand the full situation.  But I do have a solid understanding of the historic contribution made to higher education by the UT TeleCampus.  As I've commented in several other venues and forums, the TeleCampus has made groundbreaking in their impact on education.  Notice I did not say distance education - I say higher education in general has been transformed and moved as a result of the TeleCampus and their work.  For that, we all owe a great debt and should not let this organization slip quietly into the darkness without celebrating her success and achievements.

U. of Texas System Plans to Close Its Central Distance-Education Arm - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"The decision has been made to cease the operation of the UT system administration TeleCampus, yes. And the reason for that primarily is because the sophistication of distance-education courses at the various UT institutions has really matured and grown over the last 12 years since the TeleCampus was created."

He added, "Their mission is completed and has been successful. ... There's no need for the current structure of the TeleCampus and what it currently offers with regard to services to the campuses."

Twenty-three employees will be laid off, said Mr. de Bruyn. They will be eligible to apply for work in a new, smaller office, he said. As the news release described it, that new office will support "campus efforts by serving as a central clearinghouse for innovations, implementing start-up programs, and assisting with distance-education marketing and recruitment efforts."