Coursera to offer new MOOC options for teachers

A leading platform for the popular "massive open online courses" offered by elite universities is moving into a new realm: the expansive field of continuing education for teachers.

Coursera, the California-based for-profit platform for MOOCs from 62 leading universities such as Stanford, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, planned to announce Wednesday a new range of partners that include education schools and, in a first, non-degree granting institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History that help train teachers.

The announcement would give teachers pursuing their continuing education requirements, or courses that could give them a salary boost, a new set of options to learn from master professors at leading education schools such as Vanderbilt and the University of Virginia, along with a handful of museums and other institutions.

It would be up to the schools or districts that employ teachers to decide whether the courses meet their requirements, but Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller said she expects they will find them high-quality. Another advantage: The courses are free — a preferable option to the training, often expensive, that districts often pay for themselves.

The classes could also be more flexible for busy teachers, Koller said, and their large size could be an advantage.

"If you're the sole physics teacher in a small town somewhere, you really don't have a peer network," Koller said in a telephone interview. "This is creating a nationwide and in fact a worldwide peer network."

Coursera currently offers 341 free courses built around video lectures and interactive components, on topics ranging from pre-calculus to introduction to guitar, but has been moving more into more professionalized continuing education topics. Nearly 3.5 million students have signed up, though most don't finish the courses.

Coursera isn't a university so it cannot award credit itself, though for a small fee students can get their completion verified, and Coursera and other MOOC providers are increasingly partnering with institutions on "blended learning" models with institutions that are able to award credit.

The new offerings will include courses with titles such as "Art and Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies For Your Classroom" and "Surviving Your Rookie Year of Teaching." Dave Levin, co-founder of the KIPP schools network, will offer a course on "Teaching Character and Creating Positive Classrooms."

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Online: www.coursera.org

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Senators push Obama for military options in Syria

Black smoke rises from a building due to Syrian government forces shelling in Aleppo, Syria. (Aleppo Media Center, …Democratic Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. John McCain, pressed President Barack Obama on Thursday to consider “limited military options” to help rebels topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“We believe there are credible options at your disposal, including limited military options, that would require neither putting U.S. troops on the ground nor acting unilaterally,” McCain and Levin urged Obama in a letter.

The goal, they said, would be to work with key allies in the Middle East and Europe “to stop the killing in Syria and force Bashar al-Assad to give up power.” The means? Target Syria’s air force and support Turkey if it is prepared to set up a “safe zone inside of Syria’s northern border," they wrote—notably by deploying Patriot missile batteries to deter Assad’s air power and to protect against Scud missile attacks.

The two lawmakers urged “precision airstrikes” against Syrian aircraft, noting that the top military commander in the Middle East, Gen. James Mattis, testified last week that they could take out “a fair amount” of their targets.

“Such a mission could also include Assad’s SCUD missile batteries and would not require American or allied pilots to fly into the reach of Syria’s air defenses,” Levin and McCain said. “We urge you to work with our friends and allies, as well as regional organizations, to consider this limited option.”

And the two lawmakers pushed Obama “to provide more robust assistance directly to vetted opposition groups” in Syria—that is to say, rebels deemed by the U.S. and its allies not to be extremists.

“We believe such assistance should include tactical intelligence and increased deliveries of food and medicine, fuel, communications equipment, medical care for the wounded, and other humanitarian assistance,” the senators argued. “To this end, establishing a safe haven inside Syria would also serve the important goal of delivering humanitarian assistance more effectively.”

Levin and McCain stopped short of urging the administration to provide weapons directly to the rebels, something Obama has repeatedly rejected over the course of the bloody fighting for the past three years. Independent estimates have placed the death toll at about 70,000.

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Explore Housing Options for International Community College Students

International students looking to attend community college in the United States may have one greater challenge than their peers headed to four-year institutions: housing.

Two-year schools aren't generally known for a wide variety of housing options. It's typical for U.S. students who attend community colleges to live with their parents or commute from their own homes.

"Community colleges are starting to identify on-campus or close-by housing as an important marketing advantage for recruiting international students," says Ross Jennings, associate vice president of international programs for Green River Community College in Washington.

At many community colleges with a large international population, a housing program exists with options ranging from host family accommodations to traditional university dorms.

[Discover more about studying in the United States.]

"Many more rural community colleges have had housing for many years, either on-campus provided by the colleges themselves, or nearby, provided by private owners," he says.

Many international students desire an environment with more English speakers, even if dorms or apartments are readily available, Jennings notes. Interaction with native speakers in their residences helps students pick up or improve their English skills faster.

Green River offers a homestay program with 400 active families, he says. In a homestay program, international students pay a fee to stay in a private room of the home of a host family or individual. Programs are available with and without meal options.

[Find out how to be successful in community college.]

Staying with a family helps the student transition to living in the United States and allows the student's family to feel more comfortable about sending their children abroad, he says.

Green River student Erin Qiao, from China, chose the homestay program and said her first consideration when choosing where to study abroad was not a school's academics, but how much it cares about its students. She wanted "to make sure that I can survive at a strange country first," she says, noting that her homestay program helped her adjust.

[Explore ways to make cross-cultural friendships.]

However, student Lynn Shi, also from China, chose to live on campus in order to speed up her adjustment to American life. Compared with staying in a host family, she found living on campus more challenging and exciting "because it meant that I have to live independently and develop the ability to manage my life," she says.

Cynthia Fox, owner of International Housing Placement Service, finds homestay opportunities for international students across the country in locations from San Francisco to Boston. Not all hosts are families; some are individuals or couples. But all have committed to not just providing a place for international students to live but also to "participate in cultural exchange and open up their lives to them," she says.

To make both parents and students feel comfortable, hosts go through extensive screening with home visits, background checks, and reference checks. Students should ask services about their prescreening procedures, as well as the following questions about housing options:

1. Is it guaranteed I'll find housing? This question is especially important in rural areas, Fox says. She has no problem finding hosts for students in Boston, but finding housing in a small New Jersey town was much more difficult.

At Green River Community College, dorms are available for 340 students, enough for more than 20 percent of the college's fall 2012 international student population.

2. What is the maximum distance from campus? Especially in rural areas without a lot of public transit, host families should live very close to campus. This is also important with any off-campus rental a student chooses. International students need to know if their housing is close to campus or public transportation.

3. Is there a cost for meals? Homestay programs can come with or without meals, just like many on-campus housing programs. It's important for students to ask if meals are included and how many. For instance, International Housing Placement Service offers homestay pricing that ranges from no meals to two meals per day.

4. What if a host family and student don't get along? Not all homestay programs allow a student to transfer between hosts, Fox says, but her company has a policy of allowing students the ability to switch once. She says 95 percent of host family placements for students work out well.

"A student needs to know they have a support system and a way out of a situation where they're uncomfortable or unhappy for any reason," she says. "Students need to feel secure in their new homes."

For more international student tips and news, explore the Studying in the United States center.

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