Growing pressure to provide more virtual instruction is spurring efforts to design large courses that balance standardization of content with flexibility for instructors. Each course uses a common template, which sets out lesson objectives, lecture material, practice activities, and assessments. The process results in a single version of each…

Every spring, millions of 18-year-olds graduate from high school and start on one of three paths: (1) college; (2) the military; or (3) work. College is the choice encouraged most often by high-school guidance counselors, and for good reason. By 2020, two out of every three jobs will require some sort of higher education, according to the Center…

Providing college students with free textbooks is no easy task. That seems to be the major lesson from several efforts to produce e-books that are low-cost or free to help reduce students' costs. Money pressures, slow adoption by professors, and quality concerns stand in the way as these projects hope to rival traditional publishing. Take Flat…

OMICS Publishing Group is an open-access publisher operating under an author-pays model. Unlike traditional journal subscriptions in which readers or institutions pay to read content, OMICS relies on its contributors for financial support. Although the author-pays model is not a new phenomenon in the realm of open access, its recent popularity has…