Morning Bell: Portage School Board Takes ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Stand, MOOCs, Sands Speaks

Portage Township School Board calls for fiscal cliff resolution by Dec. 31 – “Monday night the board took a stand, passing a resolution provided by the National School Board Association calling for the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to resolve the issue before the end of the year.” Times of Northwest Indiana

Richmond Community Schools might borrow $8M – “Richmond Community Schools could be headed toward borrowing $8 million in 2013 to pay for what the administration is calling overdue building upgrades and repairs.” Richmond Palladium-Item

Essay on the challenges posed by MOOCs to liberal arts colleges – “The MOOC, then, is essentially a high-tech extension of the traditional industrial-age university lecture-hall experience — and one, moreover, with an unproven financial model. Despite the apparent resonance with the traditional university lecture hall, there remain challenges for MOOCs even in the large research university environment.” (MOOC = Massively Open Online Courses.) Inside Higher Ed

Conversation with Purdue’s acting-president for November – “WBAA’s Mike Loizzo talked with Purdue acting-President Tim Sands… [about] the university’s Academic Program Assessment and the Foundations of Excellence effort.” WBAA