Ep. 7 -An Interview with MOOC Pioneer Barb Oakley Since the early days of the university in the 11th century, professors have lectured increasingly large numbers of passive and often bored students. With the advent of educational technology (EdTech) and massive open online courses (MOOCs), the possibility for scaling both the benefits and difficulties of higher education has been received…
Ep. 6 -Lessons from 'A Whole New Engineer' for the Transformation of Higher Education When educators think about transforming higher education they almost immediately start with modifications in content, curriculum, and pedagogy, but a recent book suggests that this approach is fundamentally flawed. Join the writing team of A Whole New Engineer: The Coming Revolution in Engineering Education, Mark Somerville…
Ep. 5 -The Future and Transformation of Higher Education Funding Since the founding of the University of Bologna in 1088, non-profit universities and colleges have dominated the landscape of higher education. With the rise of for-profit universities such as the University of Phoenix, of non-traditional non-profits such as Southern New Hampshire University, and of coding schools and other certificate schools,…
Ep. 4 -The Lassonde School and the Education of Renaissance Professionals After years of relative stability in higher education, a small number of engineering schools are emerging around the world to forge a new vision of what it means to be a professional. In this episode host Dave Goldberg interviews Janusz Kozinski, founding dean of one of the newest engineering…
Ep. 3 - John Kotter: Leading Change in Higher Education Organizations are facing unprecedented calls for change, higher education included, yet leading change in established organizations is a daunting task. One of the keenest architects and practitioners of effective change leadership processes and practices is John Kotter, Harvard Business School professor emertitus and Chairman of Kotter International. In this episode,…
Big Beacon's latest endeavor to spread the word about transforming higher education is Big Beacon Radio, a monthly broadcast on Voice America. Listen here, or subscribe on iTunes. The first episode featuring Olin College's Rick Miller is available here.
If engineering education is going to change, then that change needs to be advocated by the students who will make up the future of engineering. Meet Athena Lin, an undergraduate engineering student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who is doing just that. How did you first get involved with Big Beacon? Last June, I came across Dave’s writings about engineering…
Today, Kate MacArthur of the Blue Sky blog of the Chicago Tribune posted an interview with Big Beacon president Dave Goldberg. In it Goldberg was quoted as saying: What do we want today? We want the next Steve Jobs. We want young people that are courageous. We need to move from a university system that demands obedience of its young…
@OlinCollege and @BigBeacon are pleased to announce the short course Facilitating Change that Sticks, 9-11 June 2015 (Tues-Thurs) at Franklin W. Olin College. According to the announcement This three-day workshop develops participant skills and strategies for creating change that "sticks." In particular, we dive into a set of personal and organizational skills that will help participants develop both personally and professionally as effective…
The 2nd Big Beacon Real Innovators and Innovations show of the year is looking forward to speaking with real innovator Rohit Bhargava, Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign talking to Dave Goldberg about the new innovative program Illinois Cancer Scholars. This new program, launched in the fall of 2014 engages freshmen in the forefront of cancer research and…