As I write in my book, Designing and Delivering Effective Online Instruction: How to Engage Adult Learners, the concept of presence is a key component of the Community of Inquiry Model developed by Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2005), which relates to instructors developing collaborative working relationships and interacting with learners in order to bridge the distance and generate greater engagement and success. Through your presence, you are able to connect, engage, lead and collaborate when you are communicating on virtual platforms. So, how would you rate yourself?
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Friday, July 30, 2021
Minerva, Higher Ed Outsider, Is Now Fully Accredited - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
The unabashed “Ivy League alternative,” birthed from an investor-backed start-up, gains a very traditional stamp of approval. Accreditors are an easy target for those who think higher education is stuck in the past; the quality-assurance agencies are frequently blamed for stifling innovation and requiring colleges and universities to focus on compliance and minimum standards rather than excellence or student affordability. "I reject that, and we're absolute proof" that accreditors can and will embrace approaches or practices that break with the higher education norm, Nelson said in a Zoom conversation Wednesday.
Thursday, July 29, 2021
The Dark Shadow of COVID: Mental Health Impact Persists - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
In recent months, more and more campuses have announced they will reopen, but the dark shadow of mental health issues will extend into the fall semester and beyond.We are now experiencing a rise in COVID cases around the country, but hope persists that science will eventually be successful in quelling this deadly virus. However, that does not mean that the consequences of the pandemic are over. For students at all levels, the mental health problems continue. Anxiety, depression and suicides are lasting effects of the isolation, fear and loss generated by the disease. Loss extends far and wide. It includes the loss of those who have died and those who suffer long-haul COVID. The need for understanding, flexibility and broad perspectives will continue for semesters and years to come. Lives have been altered.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Show Students Their Data: Using Dashboards to Support Self-Regulated Learning - Jennifer Love, Sean DeMonner and Stephanie Teasley, EDUCAUSE Review
Student-facing learning analytics dashboards aim to improve learning by presenting students with actionable information grounded in how they (and their peers) engage with a course. These dashboards are becoming increasingly available and, in fact, are standard in some LMSs such as Blackboard and Moodle. However, their development has outpaced our understanding of effective design and how these tools do-or do not-support learning. With that in mind, faculty researchers from University of Michigan's School of Information and School of Education partnered with the Teaching & Learning team in Information and Technology Services to develop a learning analytics dashboard for students based on research-informed design and with the intention to learn more about the efficacy of such a dashboard in student learning.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Assessing Faculty Leadership of Online Programs - Rebecca Hoey & Fawn McCracken, OJDLA
This research gathered data from chief academic officers in the upper Midwest about their institutional practices surrounding evaluation of online program directors. Findings suggest most colleges and universities regularly evaluate faculty who serve as online program directors, but the evaluations may not specifically pertain to the unique responsibilities of that role. While about half of respondents reported the evaluations were used for tenure and promotion, that work was generally categorized as service – the least important of the teaching-scholarship-service trifecta of tenure and promotion. Recommendations for future research are presented.
https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer242/hoey_mccracken242.html
Monday, July 26, 2021
The Future of the Physical Campus - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
The vast majority of institutions plan to operate this fall more like they did in 2019 than they did a year ago, but that doesn't mean their leaders aren't rethinking how they might use their physical spaces in the years ahead. Few are confronting the questions as directly as the University of Akron, which announced in February that it would consider selling, repurposing or otherwise rethinking the use of up to one million of the roughly eight million square feet of buildings and land it owns. COVID-19 didn't start the conversations at Akron, which were driven in part by enrollment and financial pressures. But as is true in many corners of our lives, the pandemic accelerated the university's discussions.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/07/16/whats-future-physical-college-campus
Sunday, July 25, 2021
The Systemic Scarcity of Tenured Black Women - Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, Inside Higher Ed
For Black women, underrepresentation continues and increases posttenure. Of all the colleges and universities in the data table, as many as 573 (39 percent) had no tenured Black women faculty. And very few other higher ed institutions were doing much better. Another 732 colleges and universities (50 percent) only had one to nine tenured Black women on campus. Only 10 percent (153 colleges and universities) had 10 or more tenured Black women.
Saturday, July 24, 2021
What the edX Acquisition Means for the Future of Higher Education - Vijay Govindarajan, Anup Srivastava, and Luminita Enache; Harvard Business Review
In a recently announced transaction, 2U will acquire all edX assets, including the brand, about 3,500 digital courses, and the website — with its 50 million learners. This development should serve as a wakeup call for other colleges and universities, which must start thinking about how to unbundle the value chain and outsource areas where others possess superior core competencies By partnering and controlling significant parts of value chain instead of resisting them, universities can gain a significant portion of revenues that would steadily migrate toward EdTech companies. Those additional revenues can provide seed capital to universities to drive their own EdTech initiatives. Right now, they’re mere spectators in the game.
https://hbr.org/2021/07/what-the-edx-acquisition-means-for-the-future-of-higher-education
Friday, July 23, 2021
Academic Cheating: Are We Asking the Right Questions? - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
In recent months we have frequently seen reports of cheating among students at colleges, universities and even military academies. Is this entirely the fault of students or are faculty contributing to the problem by emphasizing rote memory of facts, figures and formulas? The anecdotal reports of more cheating in online courses may be more a function of closer online scrutiny and the use of proctoring tools. We should be more about teaching methods, processes, reflection and creative/critical thinking than recalling facts and figures that are available to us in an instant online. Should we, then, focus our efforts on engaged teaching and assessing through unique -- even personalized - problem solving, collaboration building, leadership and communication?
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Online Learning Is Not the Enemy - Kathleen Ives, Edsurge
Particularly at the many institutions that had not previously offered online courses, instructors lacked the preparation time, resources or instructional design expertise required to develop and build an online curriculum—not to mention the infrastructure required to support their efforts at scale. For faculty members who had not received professional development in online teaching, it felt just as stressful as if they had been suddenly forced to teach in a foreign language. The need to manage a single digitized space for teaching and learning often evolved into a shell game as they tried to bet on which moving part would contribute to an optimal learning experience, with limited support.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-07-12-online-learning-is-not-the-enemy
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
AI Technology in Education Will Grow 40% Annually Until 2027 - IBL News
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the education market will cross $20 billion by 2027, according to market research and consulting provider Global Market Insights. It is expected to grow at a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% between 2021 and 2027. K-12 will account for over 30% of the revenue share. The rising demand for online learning platforms after the COVID outbreak has prompted the development of innovative AI machine learning-based solutions. AI is helping to improve student’s learning styles by offering personalized tutoring, immediate feedback, and gauging pre-existing knowledge.
https://iblnews.org/ai-technology-in-education-will-grow-40-annually-until-2027/
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
IMPORTANT NOTICE to e-mail subscribers of this blog
Dear Reader — Thank you for your loyal support and subscribing via
email to this blog. I wanted to let you know that later this month we are
switching to a new email provider for the daily email update service. I
apologize for any inconvenience — our current email provider is being
sunsetted after July. The blog and emails will continue free of charge,
and with only minor formatting changes.
For e-mail subscriptions to this blog you will need to opt-in to continue receiving emails by clicking the link at the top of the first email of the the feed that comes to you today.
Once you opt-in, email updates will continue in the same general format
at the same time to which you are accustomed. As a reminder, by simply
clicking at the bottom of any email, you may unsubscribe at any time.
Thank you for your support over these many years — and I am looking
forward to many more to come!
-ray
Number of colleges still accepting applications drops from pandemic high - Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive
Last year's number of colleges that volunteered openings, which ultimately totaled 775, was record breaking for the admission trade group's database, which it has put out for more than 30 years. At the time, it revealed the extent to which the coronavirus was suppressing college enrollment. Now, colleges are prepping for largely in-person instruction this fall after coronavirus cases fell sharply across the U.S. As of Friday afternoon, NACAC has logged 532 institutions across the country, as well several outside the U.S., with open seats.
Monday, July 19, 2021
What lasting changes can we expect in post-pandemic learning? - Matthew Hubbs, eCampus News
Student demand has long been the catalyst for the use of modern technologies in the classroom, especially as many have grown up as well-versed digital natives, and the current state of education has only solidified this call for new and improved options across the board. Academic institutions are now challenged with embracing the changes accelerated by COVID-19, using their experiences, available technology, and industry advancements to address students current and future needs. Here are a few of the lasting changes we can expect to see in post-pandemic learning:
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/07/09/what-lasting-changes-can-we-expect-in-post-pandemic-learning/
Sunday, July 18, 2021
IMPORTANT NOTICE to e-mail subscribers of this blog
Dear Reader — Thank you for your loyal support and subscribing via
email to this blog. I wanted to let you know that later this month we are
switching to a new email provider for the daily email update service. I
apologize for any inconvenience — our current email provider is being
sunsetted after July. The blog and emails will continue free of charge,
and with only minor formatting changes.
For e-mail subscriptions to this blog you will need to opt-in to continue receiving emails by clicking the link at the top of the first email of the the feed that comes to you on July 20.
Once you opt-in, email updates will continue in the same general format
at the same time to which you are accustomed. As a reminder, by simply
clicking at the bottom of any email, you may unsubscribe at any time.
Thank you for your support over these many years — and I am looking
forward to many more to come!
-ray
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Walking the talk of diversity, equity and inclusion in HE - Ted Sun and Mariale Hardiman, University World News
The DE&I movement is here to stay and is a crucial part of social dimensions aimed at combating systemic racism and is a standard in the business world. As a university, your DE&I efforts should be much more systemic than generic tickbox training and quotas. One way of finding out is through examining how the organisation 1) seeks diversity of people, perceptions, experiences and thoughts; 2) treats every individual equitably, including when it comes to compensation, access to information, opportunity to learn and job advancement; and 3) provides an inclusive culture in which all individuals feel confident in having their ideas heard before decisions are made.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210706110219143
Friday, July 16, 2021
Fitch raises higher ed outlook but sees growing gaps between colleges - Rick Seltzer, Inside Higher Ed
Fitch Ratings raised its outlook for U.S. colleges to stable Wednesday as institutions plan for mostly in-person instruction in the new academic year, revising what had been a negative view of the sector. The credit ratings agency cited improving application numbers, a solid state budget picture and the possibility that auxiliary and student fee revenue could improve as campuses reopen. But Fitch expects highly selective and flagship research universities to be better positioned to handle future challenges than smaller institutions, which may have fewer financial resources and face weaker demand in some markets.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
New Research Center Aims to Address Inequities in Online Learning in College - SRI Interenational
The U.S Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has awarded $10 million to SRI Education and the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University’s Teachers College. SRI and CCRC are partnering with Achieving the Dream, a national leader in championing evidence-based institutional improvement with a network of more than 300 colleges, and a group of nine broad-access colleges—community colleges and other schools that accept more than 70 percent of applicants—to conduct research on how educational technology and instructional strategies can bolster students’ skills for managing their own learning.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/research-center-aims-address-inequities-151800780.html
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Admission by lottery: A proposal to reimagine college acceptance - Andy Uhler and Erika Soderstrom, MarketPlace
Over the years, Michael Sandel, a political philosophy professor at Harvard University, noticed a shift in his students. He observed that increasingly his students believed their admission into college was based primarily on years of hard work. This view, however, disregards the roles that outside assistance, luck, privilege and affluence play in college pursuits. To help shed light on these forces, Sandel has proposed an admissions lottery system, highlighted in his book “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” The process would work just like it sounds: Create a pool of qualified applicants that have hit a certain mark, then randomly distribute them until spots at schools are filled. That’s the basic process, although there are variations of the admissions lottery system Sandel has put forth.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Business partnerships with community colleges help funnel workers into jobs - Olivia Sanchez, Washington Post
Mesa Community College’s partnership with Boeing is one of several models that could be replicated if a bipartisan bill to help finance community college workforce training for short-term credentials makes it through Congress.The Assisting Community Colleges in Educating Skilled Students to Careers Act — or ACCESS to Careers Act — is designed to increase the number of students who earn these types of credentials and the number of colleges meeting the needs of local employers. It could provide states with up to $2.5 million a year for up to four years to develop policies around this type of workforce training and provide community colleges with grants of up to $1.5 million each to carry out the programs. The bill was reintroduced in May by Sens. Todd C. Young (R-Ind.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) after a February 2020 version languished without success.
Monday, July 12, 2021
Prediction: The future of CX - Rachel Diebner, David Malfara, Kevin Neher, Mike Thompson, and Maxence Vancauwenberghe, McKinsey
Today, companies can regularly, lawfully, and seamlessly collect smartphone and interaction data from across their customer, financial, and operations systems, yielding deep insights about their customers. Those with an eye toward the future are boosting their data and analytics capabilities and harnessing predictive insights to connect more closely with their customers, anticipate behaviors, and identify CX issues and opportunities in real time. These companies can better understand their interactions with customers and even preempt problems in customer journeys. These benefits extend far beyond the people typically thought of as “customers”—to members, clients, patients, guests, and intermediaries. Early movers in the world of customer-experience analytics herald a fundamental shift in how companies evaluate and shape customer experiences.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Georgia Tech's Online MS In Computer Science Continues To Thrive. Why That’s Important For The Future of MOOCs - Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes
What may be the most successful graduate degree program in the United States - the Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) - has begun its eighth year of operation. The program started in January 2014 with an inaugural class of 380 students and five courses. It’s enjoyed steady growth every year since, and now has more than 11,000 students enrolled in more than 50 courses. making it the largest computing master’s program in the nation - and probably the world. Its total number of graduates now tops 5,000.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
AI Is Starting To Understand Us, But How Well Do We Understand AI? - Thomas Dhollander, Forbes
Governments are still primarily thinking in small increments and struggle to fit in new disruptive economical models. Perhaps it is time we become more proactive in stimulating new job types and in thinking about their social implications, instead of holding on to current recipes. Bold thought experiments are needed here. For instance: What would the labor market look like if we remove the difference between self-employment and payroll status altogether, so everyone can more flexibly compile their own job package? And if we do so, how could we guarantee that our social system does not collapse and everyone remains sufficiently protected?
Friday, July 9, 2021
OER and Teaching Through the Rearview Mirror - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
In this 21st century, technologies are changing the landscape of industry and society at a rate not previously documented. Are our courses keeping up? I fear that far too many of our colleagues are using the same texts, the same syllabi, and sharing the same -- now stale -- facts in their classes with not enough attention to the changes that technologies and social shifts are making in their field. The increasing rate of change shows no signs of abating. Increasingly, we are under pressure as educators to ensure that what we teach is not outdated. We must not be teaching for jobs and career paths that are dwindling away to the dustbin of history. It is incumbent on us to perform the due diligence to assure that what we are teaching will be more relevant tomorrow than yesterday.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
OER and Teaching Through the Rearview Mirror - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
In this 21st century, technologies are changing the landscape of industry and society at a rate not previously documented. Are our courses keeping up? I fear that far too many of our colleagues are using the same texts, the same syllabi, and sharing the same -- now stale -- facts in their classes with not enough attention to the changes that technologies and social shifts are making in their field. The increasing rate of change shows no signs of abating. Increasingly, we are under pressure as educators to ensure that what we teach is not outdated. We must not be teaching for jobs and career paths that are dwindling away to the dustbin of history. It is incumbent on us to perform the due diligence to assure that what we are teaching will be more relevant tomorrow than yesterday.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
HE institutional autonomy is under siege across the world - Judith Eaton and Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, University World News
We came together because, in our view, we are witnessing a disturbing strengthening of the forces that constrain that autonomy in various countries. And, also in our view, this situation calls for an emphatic response from those of us in the higher education community. Around the world, nationally, regionally and internationally, institutional autonomy is under siege and is an increasingly pressing issue. It was a sobering conversation. Examining both the questions and the constraints, we asked: Where do we go from here? What is a 21st century view of institutional autonomy? And we came up with three action steps for consideration.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210622133956498
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
3 ways to boost applications and enrollment - Lauren Goldenberg, eCampus News
It’s no secret: 2020 was a tough year on application and enrollment for schools, academies, colleges, and universities. The pandemic changed how and when students start school. Many waited to start new education programs and deferred as remote learning became the norm, and the entire system faced an upheaval. Declines in enrollment have added to mounting pressures to ramp up interest. And the best way for higher education marketers to reach students is, of course, where they already live: their mobile phones. Incoming candidates often ignore traditional ad campaigns like print catalogues and brochures — while favoring text message marketing, social media, and other digital strategies.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/06/24/3-ways-to-boost-applications-and-enrollment/
Monday, July 5, 2021
UK students want tuition fees refunded as they face third year online - Rachel Hall, the Guardian
Students are facing a third successive year of online learning, after an Observer analysis suggested that most universities are planning to offer a mix of in-person seminars and online lectures when term begins again this autumn. It prompted fresh calls for students to be refunded at least part of the fees they are charged each year if they are mostly taught online. The exact blend of teaching will depend on social distancing rules and whether young people are double-vaccinated in time. “It’s just not fair to charge £9,250 a year for YouTube tutorials,” said Rhian Shillabeer, a second-year politics student who wrote an open letter to her university, Kent, signed by hundreds of students. Shillabeer, who was angered that all three years of her degree would be disrupted by the pandemic, called for universities to prioritise in-person learning.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
11 Takeaways From the 2021 CHLOE Report - Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed
If you are worried that your deans, VPs, directors and various provost-type people may not have time to absorb all the data and analysis of CHLOE 6 fully, here are 11 big takeaways. (Note: the 69-page report does include an excellent two-page executive summary.) Takeaway No. 1: Higher education is more agile than most anyone had previously believed. The fact that more than 4,000 postsecondary institutions in the U.S. were able to nearly instantly pivot from residential to online instruction for roughly 20 million learners is truly astounding. Higher ed's response to COVID has forever destroyed the popular idea that colleges and universities are incapable of agility and speed. Takeaway No. 2: The pandemic will accelerate online learning growth. Eighty percent of chief online officers anticipate that their schools will grow online enrollment over the next three to five years.
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/11-takeaways-2021-chloe-report
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Tips from Women for Women Seeking Leadership Positions in Higher Education - EAB
Wisr co-founder and CEO Kate Volzer is joined by Dr. Angela Clark-Taylor, Director of the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women at Case Western Reserve University. The two talk about their chance meeting in 2019 and the work they’ve done together since to support and empower women working in higher ed. Dr. Clark-Taylor shares actionable advice derived from her research on gender equity. Both offer insights they’ve collected through their work leading professional development conferences and webinars designed to help women push through career barriers and pull other women up along the way.
https://eab.com/insights/podcast/workplace/women-leadership-higher-ed/
Friday, July 2, 2021
Will Open Access Destroy the Quality of Research? Debunking This and Other Myths About Open Access Journal Publishing - Marissa Massare, IGI Global
While open access (OA) publishing is gaining traction in the publishing industry, there are many myths and misconceptions that are being shared within the academic community that can deter researchers from considering it as a possibility when submitting their work to scholarly journal publications.
https://www.igi-global.com/newsroom/archive/will-open-access-destroy-quality/4872/
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Attention College Students! Advice to Shorten Your Time in Debt - Patrick Jones, UniversityHerald Reporter
[Let's not forget the heavy financial burden our learners must carry - ray]
Interest rates for a federal student loan range anywhere above 2.5% to 6% and are the loan type of most student loan holders. Private student loans are next in popularity to federal loans and generally run higher with a broader interest range, varying from 3% to 13%. With student loan rates more than doubling since the 1980s, today's most educated individuals are less likely to own their car or home before the age of 35. Using the above numbers, a rough calculation of how much a recent college graduate will pay within 10 years of graduation is twice as high as the average entry-level position's salary. Consistently paying off your debt in monthly installments in the amounts of $300 is good for your credit but will only prolong your debt. Over a 10-year course, you will still roughly spend $40,000 in attempts to eventually pay off your student debt.
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