Online Education

Emiliana Simon-Thomas, the science director at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, is teaching a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, on the science of happiness this fall.

The Daily Californian sat down with UC President Janet Napolitano at her office in Oakland on Friday to talk about some long-standing issues the university will continue to face in the coming months and years.

In a continued effort to improve online education at the University of California, UC officials announced a series of new initiatives to expand online offerings last week.

The debate over online education resurfaced in a recent study challenging the notion that online courses can reduce the costs of higher education for universities and students.

After presiding over the UC system during some of the most tumultuous five years in its history, Yudof stepped down Sunday to make way for former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. His departure signals the end of what may be the most significant chapter in Yudof’s decades-long career as an educator and administrator.

Despite opposition from UC officials and faculty, California state senators unanimously passed a controversial online education bill on Thursday that creates a grant program for faculty at the state’s institutions of higher education to develop online courses.

Since March 20th, over 1,600 people have signed an online petition expressing “deep concerns” about a California State Senate bill requiring the state’s schools to award credit for approved online courses.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker spoke to the campus Wednesday to confirm that even with increasing tuition rates, a college degree remains the “world’s best investment.”