These Students Are Learning About Fake News and How to Spot It - Alina Tugend, NY Times

Research has shown that an inability to judge content leads to two equally unfortunate outcomes: People believe everything that suits their preconceived notions, or they cynically disbelieve everything. Either way leads to a polarized and disengaged citizenry. Other recent research suggests that while so-called digital natives — preteens and teenagers — are technically savvy, most of them fail when it comes to assessing the veracity of news articles and images.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/education/learning/news-literacy-2016-election.html

OER Can Save Colleges Money, Too - Madeline St. Amour, Inside Higher Ed

A new study shows that open educational resources can help students save money, which encourages them to enroll in more classes.  The report found that students who enrolled in OER courses earned more credits than their peers who did not take OER courses. Students also saved $10.7 million on the cost of learning materials over the time of the initiative. Colleges also saved money, the report found. Researchers looked at five institutions and estimated they would recover their investments in OER and, in some cases, generate new revenue from the efforts.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/02/20/oer-can-save-colleges-money-too

The differences between MOOC-based degrees and online degrees - Study International

It is typically easier to apply for a MOOC-based degree compared to an online degree, which often requires students to submit a full application and take proficiency tests such as IELTS or the GRE for Master-level courses. Dhawal Shah, the founder of Class Central, a MOOC discovery platform, wrote on EdSurge that the application process for MOOC-based degree programmes is more open, as they are designed to operate at larger scale and can accept all students with the potential to be successful instead of limiting admission to a certain number of applications. Online degrees by universities are often subject to traditional admissions processes, but MOOC admission processes are more innovative.
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/mooc-based-degrees-online-degrees/

Cyborgs, trolls and bots: A guide to online misinformation - David Klepper, Daily Progress

Cyborgs, trolls and bots can fill the internet with lies and half-truths. Understanding them is key to learning how misinformation spreads online. As the 2016 election showed, social media are increasingly used to amplify false claims and divide Americans over hot-button issues including race and immigration. Researchers who study misinformation predict it will get worse leading up to this year’s presidential vote. Here’s a guide to understanding the problem:
https://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-commentary-cyborgs-trolls-and-bots-a-guide-to-online/article_f11c5ca6-a2ad-5b3a-8dc3-bddd9db2a074.html

C.D.C. Officials Warn of Coronavirus Outbreaks in the U.S. - Pam Belluck and Noah Weiland, NY Times

The coronavirus almost certainly will begin spreading in communities in the United States, and Americans should begin preparations now, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. “It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a news briefing. In the event of an outbreak, communities should plan for “social distancing measures,” like dividing school classes into smaller groups of students, closing schools, canceling meetings and conferences, and arranging for employees to work from home. “We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” Dr. Messonnier said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/health/coronavirus-us.html

Universities brace for lasting impact of coronavirus outbreak - Joyce Lau and John Ross, THE

While much harm has been done by epidemic, institutions could use crisis to sharpen strategies and practices in areas such as internationalisation and e-learning, experts say. In the most affected areas, universities face the prospect of losing an entire semester or more. In China, where the health emergency started and where most of the cases have occurred, institutions – including foreign branch campuses – have called a halt to in-person teaching. Administrators in Hong Kong universities, which are among the most internationalised in the world, have been frank in their assessment that a return to normal teaching in early March is “unlikely”.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-brace-lasting-impact-coronavirus-outbreak

How the skills gap is changing the degree path - Mikhail Zinshteyn, Education Dive

Pressed to respond to students' concerns about the rising cost of higher education and their sometimes-foggy understanding of how their learning translates into jobs, some colleges are reshaping the degree pathway. Their motivation for doing so is not only internal. Nontraditional education providers are proving to be stiff competition. Bootcamps prepare information technology and web-development workers in months, not years. And multinational firms now produce their own certificates that promise to be gateways to meaningful entry-level work.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-the-skills-gap-is-changing-the-degree-path/572382/

AI and machine learning will dominate the CIO agenda this year - Steve Phillpott, Information Management

Some industry experts say over 90 percent of the world’s data was generated in the last two years alone. By 2023, enterprises, machines, industries, consumers, science and more will be generating 103 zettabytes per year, according to IDC. Now more than ever, organizations realize that to manage this unprecedented data growth, a solid data strategy must be front and center for them to survive and thrive. This includes thinking about where your company’s data should reside and how to incorporate the latest innovations to harness that data and turn it into valuable insights.
https://www.information-management.com/opinion/ai-and-machine-learning-will-dominate-the-cio-agenda-this-year

How one university is teaching through the coronavirus outbreak - Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Colleges with campuses in China have been affected more directly. New York University has turned to remote communication and instructional technology at its Shanghai campus, which so far has been delayed from opening until Feb. 17. About half of the 1,500 students there are are Chinese nationals. Uncertain about when travel to the region will reopen, the university expects to rely on a mix of digital and classroom-based instruction this semester. While NYU has had to respond to situations in which students are unable to get to or from a campus, the scale of the current outbreak is "unprecedented," said Clay Shirky, the university's vice provost for educational technologies.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-one-university-is-teaching-through-the-coronavirus-outbreak/572385/

Holistic Approach for Nontraditional Students - Madeline St. Amour, Inside Higher Ed

Community colleges need to create holistic student supports to serve their increasingly diverse student populations, according to a series of briefs released by Achieving the Dream. The holistic student supports approach requires colleges to tie support services into a "seamless, timely and personal experience for every student," according to the nonprofit group. It includes comprehensive advising, scalable case management models, a change leadership framework and assessment using technology to improve these strategies as time goes on.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/02/14/holistic-approach-nontraditional-students

U., peer institutions oppose White House cutting research and education budget - David Veldran, Princetonian

In the press release, AAU President Mary Sue Coleman wrote that the proposal “reduce[s] investments in student aid and vital scientific research at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other agencies” and “drastically cut[s] or end[s] several Education Department student aid programs including Federal Work-Study, the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.” In an email to The Daily Princetonian, University Spokesperson Ben Chang confirmed that the University shared the AAU’s concerns, adding that the University will be working with the New Jersey congressional delegation and other congressional members “to ensure that the final budget provides robust investments in education and research funding.”
https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2020/02/white-house-proposes-cuts-to-education-and-research-funding

Will Coronavirus Crisis Trigger an Enrollment Crisis? - Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed

The biggest story in international education over the last decade was, in a word, China. As the number of students from China studying in the U.S. grew rapidly, fueled by a big increase in tuition-paying undergraduates, colleges and universities grew reliant on them to balance their budgets. And as Chinese universities grew in stature, American colleges created innumerable partnerships with their Chinese counterparts in research and other areas.  Now the global public health crisis precipitated by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, COVID-19, in China -- and the imposition of travel restrictions barring entry to the U.S. of most foreign nationals who have traveled to China within the last 14 days -- threatens student flows and other forms of collaboration. More than 1,100 people have died from the virus, which was first identified in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/02/13/longer-coronavirus-crisis-persists-bigger-likely-impact-chinese-student-enrollments

Know Your Students - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Far too often we begin planning a class with the content, pedagogy, technology and outcomes in mind -- without first researching the students. When teaching, it seems logical to begin with the content or the pedagogy and then apply technologies to meet the outcomes we see, yet this misses the most important foundational step in the process. It is to get to know the students who have enrolled in your program in the past or for whom you are designing the class. We cannot make assumptions. Over time the characteristics, knowledge and aspirations of enrolling students change. Especially today, with a range of career changers, adult learners and online learners from different regions, continents and cultures, we must be vigilant to monitor them to make sure we are meeting their needs.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/know-your-students?

Microsoft, Twitter and Walmart want to help you get a job in tech — without racking up student loans - Greg Iacurci, CNBC

Firms like Ford, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Sony Electronics, Sprint, Toyota, Twitter, Visa and Walmart are exploring, and in some cases implementing, apprenticeship programs for careers in technology. Tech apprenticeships offer a new way for Americans without a college degree or tech background to land a job in the field without going back to school.  The average student loan balance is around $30,000, up from $10,000 in the early 1990s.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/how-a-walmart-apprenticeship-can-help-those-without-degrees-land-a-job.html

Deal with online giant threatens Pennsylvania colleges, Moody’s warns - JILL BARSHAY, The Hechinger Report

If you want to understand how online degrees are shaking up traditional colleges and universities, look at Pennsylvania. In January 2020, the state’s 14 community colleges signed an unusual agreement with a private nonprofit university far outside Pennsylvania’s borders to encourage students to complete their bachelor’s degrees online.
https://hechingerreport.org/online-giant-threatens-pennsylvania-colleges/

The Analytics Revolution in Higher Education - Jonathan S. Gagliardi, Tomorrow's Professor

If effectively harnessed, the massive amount of information born out of the analytics revolution can allow institutions to better understand student needs; enhance the quality of teaching, learning, and advising; drive down costs; and predict and avoid risks (Cai & Zhu, 2015; Denley, 2014). Despite this, the sheer volume of data and the multitude of tools for analysis are inconsequential to colleges and universities unless the conditions exist for their effective use. In fact, while artificial intelligence and machine learning grab headlines, most colleges lack that level of analytics sophistication, and they do not need it. Many institutions would benefit from a solid foundation of data that is based on accuracy, timeliness, relevancy, integration, and security.
https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1763

Higher Ed's 2020 Trend Watch & Top 10 Strategic Technologies - EDUCAUSE

This research examines technological investments institutions will spend the most time implementing, planning, and tracking in 2020, as well as the related trends that could influence institutional IT strategy. The trends and technologies reviewed in this report were identified through an EDUCAUSE survey conducted in the summer of 2019 and completed by 312 US institutions.
https://library.educause.edu/resources/2020/1/higher-educations-2020-trend-watch-and-top-10-strategic-technologies

3 trends impacting major for-profit college operators in 2020 - Hallie Busta, Education Dive

The election could be a key deadline for complex nonprofit conversions and change of control applications, and colleges are "at the wire," one analyst said. The potential for the November elections to shift the balance of power in the legislative and executive branches makes this year important for operators of for-profit colleges. Already, 2020 has seen the continuation of the sector's years-long shift into new business models, at least partly in response to stricter oversight from the Obama administration. One way is by selling their colleges or spinning them off as nonprofit entities and then moving on to function as an ed tech services provider — in some cases for their former institutions.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/3-trends-impacting-major-for-profit-college-operators-in-2020/571517/

Report: Students earn associate degrees, certificates at equal rates to bachelor's - Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive

Colleges awarded roughly the same number of associate degrees and certificates combined (1.95 million) in 2016 as bachelor's degrees (1.92 million), according to a new report from Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce​.  Though the authors describe the four-year degree as the "gold standard" for stable employment, they found that depending on field of study, workers with an associate degree can earn more than someone with a bachelor's. In some cases, certificate holders can outearn those with a bachelor's. The center's analysis highlights the growing focus on alternative credentials, which comes as colleges look for ways to make their programs available to a wider range of prospective students than before.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/report-students-earn-associate-degrees-certificates-at-equal-rates-to-bac/571344/

More Trustees Fear for the Future - Rick Seltzer, Inside Higher Ed

More than 40 percent of trustees are now very concerned about the future of higher education, up 14 points from last year, according to a survey. Trustees have grown significantly more concerned about the future of higher education in the last year, according to new polling released today that points to financial sustainability and the prices students pay as top sources of anxiety. And trustees aren’t just worried about the sector as a whole. A majority are also concerned about the future financial sustainability of their own institutions or systems.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/29/trustees-growing-increasingly-worried-about-future-higher-education-us-polling-shows

Quantum Computing Will Personalize Higher Education - Ray Schroeder Interviewed by Helix Education

“I will begin with a caveat,” Ray told us. “As we get into this area, we have to be aware of privacy rights and potential issues.” If a student is willing to share background information, then quantum can take control of designing programs. Even while the course is underway, it can adapt to the student’s achievements and abilities as well as backfill where they might be a little foggy. “This requires developing two pools of data sets,” Ray said. “Those of the students and those of engagement. Then of course, creating a relational database for the outcomes.”
https://www.helixeducation.com/resources/uncategorized/quantum-computing-will-personalize-higher-education/

Teaching and Learning Perspectives on the EDUCAUSE 2020 Top 10 IT Issues - Malcolm Brown, et al: EDUCAUSE Review

From a teaching and learning perspective on the 2020 Top 10 IT Issues, integration is the key theme. This theme consists of multiple layers: technology integration, certainly, but also integrations of cross-organizational collaboration, leadership, learning ecosystems, and learner and instructor success. For 2020, integration emerges as the single most important avenue leading to overall institutional academic success and also as the critical prerequisite for institutional transformation.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/1/teaching-and-learning-perspectives-on-the-educause-2020-top-10-it-issues

The Overlooked Value of Certificates and Associate’s Degrees - Anthony P. Carnevale, et al; Georgetown University Center for Education and the Workforce

The new rules of the college and career game confirm that education level matters, and that more education is generally better when it comes to earnings potential.2 What is less well known is that program of study and major matter even more to potential earnings than education level. As a result, less education can often be worth more. In fact, some certificate holders can earn more than those with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, and some associate’s degree holders can earn more than those with a bachelor’s degree. In other words, certificates and associate’s degrees—credentials on the middle-skills pathway—can be viable routes to economic opportunity. https://1gyhoq479ufd3yna29x7ubjn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/CEW-SubBA.pdf

Why International Students Should Consider an Online U.S. College - Anayat Durrani, US News

"For international students who want to interact with learners from around the world without having to travel around the world, an online degree is a great option," says Bill Fritz, director of admissions and financial aid at Pennsylvania State University—World Campus, which offers Penn State degrees entirely online. According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, 35% of international students took at least one online course in 2015-16, but only about 6% were enrolled in programs that were taught exclusively online.
https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/why-international-students-should-consider-online-colleges-in-the-us

OER by Discipline Guide: McMaster University - Joanne Kehoe and Olga Perkovic

An Open Education reference of OER listed by subject area and disciplines with McMaster academic programming.  The OER by Discipline Guide: McMaster University, is an in-progress (open creation) this lists a broad range of open educational resources organized by Faculties and programs at McMaster. The purpose of this guide is to capture OER as possible — primarily open textbooks  — and organize them so faculty can easily locate resources in their subject area. This guide will be updated as new resources are identified.

https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/mcmasteroerdiscipline/

A New Player in the College Completion Market - Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

Online learning provider Coursera took another step into the undergraduate education market yesterday with the launch of its first bachelor’s degree program at a university in the United States. The University of North Texas, a public research institution in Denton, Tex., will offer its bachelor of applied arts and sciences (B.A.A.S.) program through Coursera beginning in fall 2020.   The bachelor’s degree program is aimed at working adults with some college education and course credits but no degree, said Adam Fein, vice president for digital strategy and innovation at UNT. He hopes the degree will also attract community college students, veterans and students based overseas.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/24/coursera-launches-college-completion-pathway

How Digital Assistants Are Changing Higher Ed - Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

The evolution of artificial intelligence and its impact on virtual assistants is stunning week by week, let alone month by month or year by year. Virtual assistants are becoming less prone to informational parroting and are starting to be developed with conversational capacities far exceeding what’s currently on the market. With enhanced virtual assistants in tow built to specifications, they could begin to have an impact on all sorts of new areas in the higher education process. They could also be used as custom study agents. And even crazier, they could be used as supplemental resources for lectures. In time, they could even become advanced enough to work as a teacher’s assistant normally would – fielding questions, helping grade certain assignments, etc.
https://www.thetechedvocate.org/how-digital-assistants-are-changing-higher-ed/

Whoever leads in artificial intelligence in 2030 will rule the world until 2100 - Indermit Gill, Brookings

So, who’s most likely to succeed during the next decade? My money is on the United States. Productivity growth will pick up again as businesses take advantage of new technologies, consumers will take home big price and quality gains, and policy types will stop fretting about fears of secular stagnation. If enough of the tax burden is shifted from labor to capital, the incomes of middle-income households will keep pace. Expect the United States to call the shots for the rest of the century.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2020/01/17/whoever-leads-in-artificial-intelligence-in-2030-will-rule-the-world-until-2100/

Moving a Taxonomy of Inclusive Design from Theory to Practice - Lorna Gonzalez and Kristi O'Neil, EDUCAUSE Review

Educators can use a number of practical strategies to incorporate accessibility and inclusion into their teaching and learning practices. This is the second post in a series that explores concepts, practices, and organizational shifts that are central to inclusive pedagogy in higher education.
https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2019/12/moving-a-taxonomy-of-inclusive-design-from-theory-to-practice

Gartner: 10 Ways Technology Will Change What It Means to Be Human - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

Understanding technology's impact on the human condition is particularly important for IT leaders, as evolving user expectations drive institutional change. "Technology is changing the notion of what it means to be human," noted Daryl Plummer, distinguished vice president and Gartner Fellow, in a statement. "As workers and citizens see technology as an enhancement of their abilities, the human condition changes as well. CIOs in end-user organizations must understand the effects of the change and reset expectations for what technology means."
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/12/04/gartner-10-ways-technology-will-change-what-it-means-to-be-human.aspx