UPenn is offering an online master's degree in computer science — for one-third of the on-campus cost - Connie Chen, Business Insider

Students who don't come from a computer science background but want to enter the valuable and lucrative field of computer science can now do so with the help of UPenn's online Master of Computer and Information Technology (MCIT) program.  The online version of the on-campus graduate-level course, it takes 16 to 40 months to complete, comprises 10 courses, and costs about $26,000 (one-third of the on-campus cost).
https://www.businessinsider.com/university-of-pennsylvania-online-masters-degree-computer-science-coursera

What’s the government done to relieve student loan borrowers of their burden during the corona crisis? - Caitlin Brandt, Louise Sheiner, and Kadija Yilla, Brookings Institution

Forty-two million Americans, or one in every eight, have student loans, and they owe a total of $1.6 trillion, the second largest pool of consumer credit after mortgages. According to the Federal Reserve, 20 percent of adult borrowers who borrowed for their own educations were behind on their payments in 2018. Of those who are paying their loans, typical monthly payments are between $200 and $299. With unemployment soaring due to the coronavirus pandemic, some people may not be able to make their monthly loan payments. What has the government done to relieve the burden of student loans?
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/16/whats-the-government-done-to-relieve-student-loan-borrowers-of-their-burden-during-the-corona-crisis/

7 mental health resources to help college students during the coronavirus pandemic - LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

7 mental health resources to help college students during the coronavirus pandemic - LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
The coronavirus has closed campuses across the globe, and many students may need help regulating their mental health and dealing with anxiety. Colleges and universities across the globe have closed campuses and moved instruction online in an attempt to stop community spread of the novel coronavirus. Many students find themselves back home with family, quarantining while their campuses remain physically shut down. Others may be out of work and worrying about finances on top of attending online classes. Still others are international students who might not be able to return home. According to researchers at the University of California, Irvine, many people experience psychological distress resulting from repeated media exposure to the crisis.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/04/14/7-mental-health-resources-to-help-college-students-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

Here’s why non-degree credentials matter in our economy - LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

Adults who do not hold college degrees, but who have earned non-degree credentials, report greater income and happiness with their educational paths compared to adults without credentials, according to a report. The report comes from the Strada Education Network and Lumina Foundation. Certified Value: When do Adults without Degrees Benefit from Earning Certificates and Certifications? intends to fill the still-empty space around what is known about the value and impact non-degree credentials, such as certificates or certifications, have for those who earn them.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/04/13/heres-why-non-degree-credentials-matter-in-our-economy/

Educators can adjust online classes to fit learning styles - Shawna De La Rosa, Education Dive

Educators must balance many learning preferences as students adjust to online learning, which will be a good fit for some and difficult for others, District Administration reports. Some students will struggle with change and others will have a hard time dealing with isolation.  A paper by the University of Illinois Springfield lays out four styles of learners and how educators can adapt online curriculum accordingly. The visual/verbal learner, for example, does best when information is presented through visual aids, textbooks and class notes. They prefer to study in quiet environments, and the online environment is particularly well-suited to them.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/educators-can-adjust-online-classes-to-fit-learning-styles/576054/

A learning process: Teachers adapt to first weeks of distance learning - Erik Newland, St. Cloud Times

In the two weeks since St. Cloud-metro schools began distance learning, teachers and families have found new and creative ways to connect and make sure kids are still learning. Many teachers said the first week went surprisingly well. But there's still room to improve. Some classes and grade level are more difficult to teach online than others. Teachers also are working out ways to get students the kinds of social interaction they would normally have in class, and how to give individual attention to students who need it.
https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/2020/04/10/learning-process-st-cloud-area-teachers-adapt-first-week-distance-learning-coronavirus/2972899001/

COVID-19 and cyberattacks: What you need to know - Roy Zur, eCampus News

As schools and workplaces move online in the wake of the coronavirus, cybercriminals are preparing to launch cyberattacks. COVID-19, or the coronavirus, is causing a global crisis of historic proportions—it’s not only changing the way we work, learn, travel, and interact with each other, but also increasing online security risks for both individuals and organizations. With the coronavirus forcing millions to work and study from home and interact more online than in person, cybercrime and cyber-attacks are on the rise.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/04/08/covid-19-and-cyberattacks/

How do you manage college online — quarantined with eight people?

Meredith Kolodner, Hechinger Report
For many students, the switch from the classroom to studying at home is mostly a disorienting inconvenience. They miss their friends, their freedom and learning from a human being instead of a screen, but their chances of graduating are unlikely to change.For low-income students, though, the situation can be dire. Earning a degree is challenging in the best of circumstances — graduation rates for low-income students have remained stubbornly low for decades.
https://hechingerreport.org/how-do-you-manage-college-online-quarantined-with-eight-people/

Moody's: Higher ed's recovery from coronavirus impact partly depends on government response - Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive

How state and federal governments respond to the coronavirus pandemic could make it harder for U.S. universities to recover from the economic fallout of the crisis, according to new research from Moody's Investors Service.  If the U.S. does not quickly stem the outbreak, international students will likely be wary of coming here for their education, the analysts write. The nation's public universities are also at a higher risk of declining government support than are foreign institutions.  The report is yet another dire prediction that the pandemic will cause the U.S. higher education sector to struggle in the 2021 fiscal year and beyond.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/moodys-higher-eds-recovery-from-coronavirus-impact-partly-depends-on-gov/575749/

Out of Work, Uncertain About the Future - Lilah Burke, Inside Higher Ed

A new survey suggests more than 60 percent of Americans have lost income amid the pandemic and recession. Those seeking more education are looking online.  These results are the second weekly batch in a multiweek longitudinal study. The share of respondents who have lost income is up 15 percentage points from the previous week's results. Strada's data suggest that degrees and credentials are not insulating Americans from the economic effects of the pandemic. Two-thirds of associate or vocational degree holders and 63 percent of bachelor's degree holders reported lost income, compared to only 54 percent of participants with some college experience but no degree.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/09/americans-are-losing-income-and-preferring-online-education

EDUCAUSE COVID-19 QuickPoll Results: Help for Students - Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE Review

Institutions reported that bandwidth and/or Wi-Fi access is presenting students with the most difficulty, followed by acquiring the devices necessary to support remote learning.2 Most institutions are responding with equipment loans and access to free or very-low-cost services. Institutions report somewhat more students are having difficulty accessing institutional services (with the exception of advising services) than they are transitioning to fully remote learning. Most institutions have developed safety nets for students who need food, housing, and/or financial help. The particular types of support options available to students vary by institutional type.
https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/4/educause-covid-19-quickpoll-results-help-for-students

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning - Charles Hodges, etal; EDUCAUSE Review

Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning

These Washington University faculty had rejected online classes — until coronavirus. Here’s how they made the switch - Valerie Strauss and Peter Kastor, Washington Post

This is not the story of how online education — by now a well-established system — is finally taking over the traditional classroom. Rather, it’s a story of how faculty members and administrators are struggling to adapt their courses to an online medium. The response is both individual (as faculty members adjust their courses and students respond to their new circumstances) and institutional (as universities scramble to provide resources and create new policies). And to understand what is happening at so many universities across America begins by looking at those three phenomena: faculty members who are using online education without actually becoming online educators, students who must suddenly take classes online, and universities finding a way to shut down most of their daily campus activities without destroying all that they do.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/04/these-washington-university-faculty-had-rejected-online-classes-until-coronavirus-heres-how-they-made-switch/

Rethinking Your Assignments for Online Learning - Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed

The current crisis has changed the way we deliver our courses. It should also alter our instructional activities. We need assignments that can’t be completed with a Wikipedia or Google search, and that encourage immersion, engagement, and active processing of information. Our activities should involve research skills, weighing evidence and arguments, critical analysis, and application. In creating your assignments, make sure that your students can complete the activity successfully regardless of their circumstances.  Also, tightly align your activities with your learning objectives.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/rethinking-your-assignments-online-learning

Coronavirus Complicates an Already Tricky Balancing Act for Adult Learners - Emma Dill, Chronicle of Higher Ed

For adult students working in the medical field or in the military, expecting them to complete coursework alongside their heightened responsibilities due to Covid-19 may be too ambitious, said Matt Bergman, an assistant professor in the University of Louisville’s department of educational leadership, evaluation, and organizational development. “Those frontline workers are dramatically impacted by this and by their ability to balance the competing responsibilities. In some cases, it’s unreasonable to even ask them to do so,” Bergman said. Some of his adult students are considering reducing their course loads or pausing their education until the fall.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Coronavirus-Complicates-an/248406

Post pandemic outlook for HE is bleakest for the poorest - Philip G Altbach and Hans de Wit, University World News

We think that, broadly, global higher education will remain fundamentally stable. But significant short-, medium- and perhaps long-term consequences and disruptions are inevitable – and becoming increasingly serious as the crisis continues. Our purpose here is to outline what we think are likely implications.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?

Time for universities to show their commitment to society - Qiu Yong, University World News

Since the establishment of the University of Bologna in 1088, universities have served as the physical and spiritual shelter for intellectuals. Some individual universities have temporarily closed, but never on such a large scale. The pandemic is a great challenge for us all. All nations, universities and individuals ought to address the pandemic as a community.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200401154815248

Emergency Distance Learning and Fair Use - Heidi Tandy, IP Watch

While educators revised policies, two decisions were published; each has the potential to broaden how copyright-protected works can be used in virtual classrooms. On March 24, 2020, the Ninth Circuit said in Tresona Multimedia, LLC v Burbank High School Vocal Music Association that “the defense of Fair Use, if applicable, should cover ‘teaching’ whether in a private or public setting.” The same week, the Supreme Court ruled in Allen et al. v. Cooper, Governor of North Carolina, et al., 589 U.S. ___ (2020) that a state could not be sued for copyright infringement by a company that held copyrights in photographs. Justice Kagan wrote for the unanimous court that “Article 1’s Intellectual Protection Clause could not provide the basis for an abrogation of sovereign immunity.”
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2020/04/02/emergency-distance-learning-fair-use/id=120328/

What Students Are Doing Is Remote Learning, Not Online Learning. There’s a Difference. - Ryan Craig, EdSurge

What millions of students around the world are experiencing right now on Zoom and other conferencing platforms is not online learning, but rather remote learning. Susan Grajek of Educause, the association of education technologists, distinguishes remote learning from “well-considered, durable online learning.” Remote learning, she said, is a “quick, ad hoc, low-fidelity mitigation strategy.”
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-02-what-students-are-doing-is-remote-learning-not-online-learning-there-s-a-difference

'It will never be the same:' Coursera CEO on impact of coronavirus on education system - Akiko Fujita, Yahoo Finance

With 1.5 billion students, 9 out of every 10 around the world, unable to go to school because of COVID-19 related containment measures, Maggioncalda believes the scale may have tipped in favor of online education. “We’re seeing a huge acceleration in something that’s already been happening, which is a move towards online education. When things get to a new normal, certainly people will go back to school, but it will never be the same,” Maggioncalda said.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/it-will-never-be-the-same-coursera-ceo-on-impact-of-coronavirus-on-universities-184118346.html

Why online learning is better than face-to-face learning - Study International

With technology becoming so advanced – and a pandemic underway shuttering campuses everywhere – online learning is standing out as the better option in many important ways. Online learning used to primarily consist of a student going through reading modules, submitting assignments through e-mail, and/or watching pre-recorded lectures. Interactive features today allow for the social element that face-to-face learning offers, such as through live video conference classes or virtual Q&A sessions.
https://www.studyinternational.com/news/online-learning-better-face-learning/

This ‘National Emergency Library’ is offering free online access to 1.4 million books - Huw Oliver, Timeout

The Internet Archive, a non-profit organisation best known for creating the Wayback Machine archive, has removed waiting lists from its comprehensive library of digitised books and other materials donated by libraries and universities around the world.
https://www.timeout.com/news/this-national-emergency-library-is-offering-free-online-access-to-1-4-million-books-032620

How Theory, Research and Instruction Come Together in Active Learning - Marilla Svinicki, Tomorrow's Professor

Some instructors have tried to get students to be more active in class with varying degrees of success. Others have had very active class sessions involving lots of participation and creativity, but not much improved learning when the test comes around. So simply telling the faculty that “active learning” produces better learning is not convincing; they might be more impressed if they understood why we think that’s true. Let me show how cognitive researchers bring together theory, research and instruction to help faculty target the “active” part of active learning more accurately.
https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1784

5 ways to focus on student success in a pandemic - Debbie Fowler, eCampus News

The coronavirus outbreak and the resulting social distancing has led hundreds of schools and universities to move their instruction online. For students and educators who are comfortable with in-person learning and instruction, this rush to online education may be overwhelming. Fortunately, we live in a digital era where both students and educators are familiar with digital tools. Here are a few tips and tricks to support student success in online education if you’re an instructor learning this new way of teaching.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/04/01/5-ways-to-focus-on-student-success-in-a-pandemic/

Why does it suddenly feel like 1999 on the internet? - Tanya Basu and Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review

The coronavirus pandemic has turned back the clock to a kinder time on the web, before the novelty of virtual connection wore off. It’s like turning the clock back to a more earnest time on the web, when the novelty of having a voice or being able to connect with anyone still filled us with a sense of boundless opportunity and optimism. It harkens back to the late 1990s and early 2000s—before social media, before smartphones—when going online was still a valuable use of time to seek community.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615442/why-does-it-suddenly-feel-like-1999-on-the-internet/

Announcing a National Emergency Library to Provide Digitized Books to Students and the Public - Internet Archive

To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020, the Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners. This suspension will run through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later.
http://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/

Udacity offers free tech training to laid-off workers due to the coronavirus pandemic - Susan Caminiti, CNBC

Online learning platform Udacity is offering free tech training to workers laid off as a result of the pandemic. The hope is that while individuals wait to go back to work, they can get training in fields — such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing and data analysis — that are driving so much of today’s digital transformation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/udacity-gives-free-tech-training-to-laid-off-workers-from-coronavirus.html

Will Shift to Remote Teaching Be Boon or Bane for Online Learning? - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

So today this column will focus on a question that is generating a good bit of discussion among thoughtful observers of teaching and learning issues: What impact will this sudden, forced immersion and experimentation with technology-enabled forms of learning have on the status of online learning in higher education? Below, 11 experts share their thoughts on how the explosion of remote learning -- much of which may be primitive and of dubious quality -- could affect attitudes and impressions of a mode of learning that already struggles to gain widespread faculty and student support.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/03/18/most-teaching-going-remote-will-help-or-hurt-online-learning

Industry gurus on navigating digital learning during social distancing times - Erin Jones, Ray Schroeder, Ceceilia Parnther; Unicheck

Recently, the coronavirus pandemic caused all educational institutions across the globe to shift toward digital learning. This situation made the Unicheck team think about how we can help educators handle these tough times. So, we’ve contacted a few of the education industry’s thought leaders to discuss the challenges and ways to make this time effective and rewarding.
https://unicheck.com/blog/how-to-navigate-elearning-in-uncertain-times

Planning for Mode of Course Delivery in Summer and Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

As many of us are still grappling with the daily details of remote delivery of campus classes, we must turn our eyes to the summer and fall. Many of us have been working day and night to launch our campuswide remote learning response to the virus. Exhausting as that is, we should carve out some time to look ahead. Will this continue through the summer? Will it spill over into the fall? How will we respond? How should we plan?
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/planning-mode-course-delivery-summer-and-fall?

Five things you (maybe) didn't know about AI - Gina Neff, Google Blog

While there’s plenty of information out there on artificial intelligence, it’s not always easy to distinguish fact from fiction or find explanations that are easy to understand. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Google to create The A to Z of AI. It’s a series of simple, bite-sized explainers to help anyone understand what AI is, how it works and how it’s changing the world around us. Here are a few things you might learn:
https://www.blog.google/technology/ai/five-things-a-to-z-ai/