Growing Cyberthreats, Surging Insurance Costs - Suzanne Smalley, Inside Higher Ed

Ransomware attacks are skyrocketing at a time when many colleges are finding they can’t afford cyberinsurance — or can’t even get it.  Higher education institutions seeking cybersecurity insurance today are not unlike homeowners living on the water in a hurricane-prone coastal community: the riskier the environment, the harder it is to get insured. For both community colleges and four-year institutions, cyberthreats are now very pronounced, and that reality has led to more institutions facing cyberinsurance premium hikes of as much as 400 percent—or even discovering they are uninsurable.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/12/16/ransomware-surging%E2%80%94and-so-are-cyberinsurance-prices

Experts say schools are rethinking their approach to testing -Amelia Fabiano, ABC 15

As students across the Valley wrap up their final exams before winter break, experts suggest school districts should rethink the way they’re testing students. Tracy Weeks with Instructure, the company that created online learning platform Canvas, told ABC15 the pandemic presented an opportunity for state leaders and school districts to pause and evaluate how student learning is assessed. “At the end of it all, we're trying to make sure that every student is learning and growing throughout the year, and that we have ways to really make sure that they're being measured in the same way and that's really at the heart of it,” said Weeks. Weeks said some educators feel a better way to do that is with small but frequent check-in tests at the beginning of class. They can gather the same information they need about their students’ learning progress as those massive end-of-term finals.

https://www.abc15.com/news/state-of-education/experts-say-schools-are-rethinking-their-approach-to-testing

Designing Higher Ed Data Visualizations: Aim Deeper to Gain Knowledge and Understanding - Matt Jackson, Campus Technology

To gain more insight from analytics, consider whether your dashboards offer basic facts or dive into true understanding of patterns within your data. Drawing a distinction between knowledge and understanding gave these students a framework to describe the challenges they were now facing in their current university courses. Their struggles in college weren't due to a character flaw or a lack of effort on their ends; they simply had not previously been tasked with transferring knowledge across learning domains or into new contexts.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/12/09/designing-higher-ed-data-visualizations-aim-deeper-to-gain-knowledge-and-understanding.aspx

Commission takes action to improve lifelong learning and employability - European Union

At the Porto Social Summit in May, EU Leaders welcomed the EU-level target of 60% of all adults taking part in training every year by 2030. Today, the Commission has taken an important step in helping Member States meet this target by presenting proposals for Council Recommendations on individual learning accounts and on micro-credentials, as announced in the Skills Agenda and in the European Education Area Communication of 2020. A strong skill set opens up opportunities to individuals, provides a safety net in uncertain times, promotes inclusion and social advancement and provides the economy with the skilled labour force needed to grow and innovate. The success of both the digital and green transitions depends on workers with the right skills. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the need for reskilling and upskilling of workforce to adapt to the changing labour market and meet demand in different sectors.

https://europeansting.com/2021/12/13/commission-takes-action-to-improve-lifelong-learning-and-employability/

77% growth in English-taught programmes outside the ‘big four’ - Nic Mitchell, University World News

Nearly one in five English-taught programmes are now available outside of the ‘big four’ English-speaking study destinations of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Canada, according to a major survey looking at the growth in degree courses taught in English by universities in non-English speaking countries.  Until recently the main competition for English-taught programmes (ETPs) came from European higher education institutions in countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark as well as from smaller English-speaking countries like Ireland and New Zealand. But trends since January 2017 reveal it is the Chinese and Sub-Saharan African regions that have seen the fastest percentage growth rate of ETPs.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211207110915532

Moody’s Forecasts Stable Outlook for Higher Ed in 2022 - Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed

After two challenging years for higher education, Moody’s Investors Service forecasts a stable outlook for the sector in 2022, the credit ratings agency announced Tuesday. Operating revenue is predicted to rise between 4 and 6 percent as students return to campus and auxiliary revenue streams—including room and board—rebound. At the same time, labor shortages and inflation could increase institutional spending and result in tight margins for many institutions.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/12/09/moody%E2%80%99s-forecasts-stable-outlook-higher-ed-2022

UNC’s $97 Million Plan to Reach Adult Online Learners - Suzanne Smalley, Inside Higher Ed

The University of North Carolina system is leveraging $97 million in pandemic recovery funding to launch a nonprofit ed-tech start-up intended to bolster adult online education in a state with a looming need for more skilled workers. Sweeping in its ambition, Project Kitty Hawk’s five-year financial plan projects 120 new online program launches and 24,000 net new enrollments across the system’s 16 university campuses by the 2026–27 academic year, according to working papers project leaders shared with Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/12/09/unc-system-launch-ambitious-97-million-ed-tech-start

Frustration Over a Stalled Bill - David Leonhardt, New York Times

The Defense Department built the original internet — and Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others expanded it. The National Institutes of Health funded laboratory experiments — and pharmaceutical companies created treatments based on them, including for Covid-19. There are similar stories in energy, automobiles, aviation and other industries. In recent decades, however, American investment in research and development has lagged.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/briefing/federal-scientific-research-democrats-stalled.html

2020 grads get fewer jobs than any class since 2014 - Edwin Koc, NACE

In fact, NACE polling conducted during the spring 2020 graduation season found that slightly more than 4% of employers were rescinding offers made for full-time positions, and a large number—31%—expected to delay start dates for full-time recruits. Given these conditions, it will come as no surprise that the outcomes for the Class of 2020 differed markedly from the outcomes experienced by previous classes. The percent of 2020 graduates experiencing a positive outcome decreased substantially—not only in comparison to their Class of 2019 counterparts, but in comparison to every class since 2014, when NACE first began reporting outcomes.

https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/graduate-outcomes/2020-grads-get-fewer-jobs-than-any-class-since-2014/

Learning, working and winning - EDITORIAL the Australian

It’s true that fostering skills and remedying skill shortages are primarily tasks for the vocational education and training sector, which is often neglected because of a perceived lack of prestige. But higher education also has a vocational tradition – in the broad sense exemplified by medicine, law or engineering – and that expectation of a career pay-off has increased with higher fees and the rise of the corporate university. Meanwhile, micro-credentials would help universities respond more quickly to the fast-changing needs of industry if guided by more detailed feedback on skill shortages or national priorities. This is a chance for more competitive universities to seize the opportunities being opened up by online education technology.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/learning-working-and-winning/news-story/9e44ae06697a44be79c545b649ba8a4c

Want to Stop the Great Resignation? Start Building Inclusive Workplaces - Nancy Rothbard and Stephanie Creary, Knowledge at Wharton

We’ve spent decades studying the policies and practices around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and there’s no question that building a culture where everyone thrives takes a high level of commitment and consistency. Our research finds that managers are the key to making it happen. From supervisors on the factory floor to department middle managers to senior executives in the corner office, leaders who work diligently to increase a sense of belonging and respect, remove bias, follow fair hiring and retention practices, and establish safe spaces for employees of all races, ethnicities, genders and abilities will find that workers don’t want to leave. 

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/want-stop-great-resignation-start-building-inclusive-workplaces/

Email overload? These new 'right to disconnect' rules could be the answer - Daphne Leprince-Ringuet, ZDNet

The Irish Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has unveiled a new code of practice to act as future guidance for the workplace, and which gives employees the right to fully switch off from their professional duties at the stroke of 5.30pm – or rather, whenever they have agreed with their employer that the workday should be over. As part of the right to disconnect, the code enshrines three key clauses: employees should not have to engage in professional duties outside their normal working hours, nor should they be penalized for refusing to attend work matters outside of the workday; and equally, workers should respect others' right to disconnect, by refraining from emailing or calling colleagues outside of agreed working times. 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/email-overload-these-new-right-to-disconnect-rules-could-be-the-answer/

The Former edX Discloses Its New Name: The Center for Reimagining Learning, Inc. - IBL News

The former edX Inc organization, which now stewards the Open edX software, has adopted as an interim name The Center for Reimagining Learning, Inc.  This surviving nonprofit organization still led by MIT and Harvard University will announce a permanent name in the future, as a blog post the Open edX website announced this week. The edX brand, along with the edX Inc. organization was acquired by the for-profit, publicly-traded, and global education company 2U, Inc. last June for $800 million. The transaction was completed on November 16, 2021.

https://iblnews.org/the-former-edx-discloses-its-new-name-the-center-for-reimagining-learning-inc/

From the great attrition to the great adaptation - Aaron De Smet and Bill Schaninger, McKinsey

In our recent research, you found that employers think employees are leaving the workforce or are dissatisfied due to a bunch of different reasons—compensation, work–life balance, poor physical and emotional health. What’s interesting is the findings showed that while these issues mattered, there were other issues playing a significant role in driving this employee exodus that we’re seeing. What were some of those issues you found in the survey? Aaron De Smet: “Do I feel valued by my organization? Do I feel valued and acknowledged by my manager? Do I feel a sense of belonging with my organization and my part of a high-performing, trusting, open, caring team, with teammates that I like to work with? .... 

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/from-the-great-attrition-to-the-great-adaptation

Design thinking can help build cross-university partnerships - Ralph A. Gigliotti, et al; eCampus News

Discussions of the redesign and reinvention of higher education are abundant. Inspired by the challenges of this past year, leaders across higher education seem preoccupied with two sets of issues: 1. In the short term, how do we address the immediate issues posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the public health crisis on our core programs and services? 2. In the long term, how do we rethink the work of our institutions to ensure the viability and relevance of our institutions and promote the common good? Both sets of issues, the short-term and long-term exigencies posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other related challenges, require interdisciplinary collaborations, creative approaches to problem solving, and a collective willingness to embrace change.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/11/30/design-thinking-can-help-build-cross-university-partnerships/

High Performing and Resilient Teams: Preventing Burnout - Paula Davis, Knowledge at Wharton

There are plenty of factors beyond a team’s control that have an impact on its resilience, and, in turn, its performance. Most teams, for example, aren’t able to access more members, a bigger budget, better equipment or technology, or a more manageable workload. But that doesn’t mean they have no control. Resilient, high-performing teams recognize that in addition to those critical tangible resources, there are many intangible resources available, and these teams improve access to, and take advantage of, those resources. Six such resources are described below, including ideas for how you and your team can leverage them. 

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/high-performing-resilient-teams-preventing-burnout/

The “Freshman Year for Free” Platform Surpasses 300,000 Learners - IBL News

Launched in 2017, the New York City-based Modern States Education Alliance (“Modern States.org”) philanthropy offers a collection of free freshman-level courses that lead to college credit. The courses — which include lectures, readings, and practice questions — work as a public library of post-secondary education. There are over 40 top-quality online courses taught by professors from leading universities, such as Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, and Purdue. These classes are designed to prepare students to pass any of the College Board’s credit-bearing College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams.

https://iblnews.org/the-freshman-year-for-free-platform-surpasses-300000-learners/

Artificial Intelligence to Play Instrumental Role in Future of Higher Education - Susan Fourtané, Fierce Education

One of the most important benefits of AI in higher education is personalized learning, tailored to each individual’s needs and interests. Automated grading systems, conversational AI chatbots, AI teaching assistants are just a few of the trends that we are witnessing as they rise in education. All in all, the benefits attached to the incorporation of AI into the academic curriculum as well as in management and in administration are going to place education on the right path toward a new kind of learning. Indeed, AI is crucial to the future of higher education. 

https://www.fierceeducation.com/administration/artificial-intelligence-to-play-instrumental-role-future-higher-education

edX Launched a First MicroBachelors Program with IBM in Cloud Application - IBL News

This program of 11 courses in seven months and at $600 is credit-backed and worth up to three college credits from Thomas Edison State University. It is designed for learners with no prior programming or cloud experience and sets them for an entry-level role as a full stack developer — one of the top 15 tech jobs for 2021. The development of edX MicroBachelors programs is supported by American Student Assistance, Boeing, Lumina Foundation, the Truist Foundation, Walmart, the Jeremy M. and Joyce E. Wertheimer Foundation, and the Yidan Prize Foundation.

https://iblnews.org/edx-launched-a-first-microbachelors-program-with-ibm-in-cloud-application/

Promoting social inclusion through micro-credentials - Gillian Golden, Shizuka Kato and Thomas Weko Higher Education Policy Team, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Two new Education Policy Perspectives from the OECD Higher Education Policy Team provide new evidence on the opportunities and challenges that micro-credentials present to higher education systems. More work is needed to ensure higher education systems develop micro-credential programmes that are widely understood and recognised across institutions and systems. These programmes should also be inclusive, meeting the needs of a wide range of learners.

https://oecdedutoday.com/promoting-social-inclusion-through-micro-credentials/

Are Post-Pandemic Campuses Finally Ready for Competency-Based Education? - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

The basic idea of competency-based education, or CBE, is this: What if the way to get a degree or certificate was to prove to a college that you’ve learned the required knowledge and skills. It wouldn’t matter exactly how, or where you learned the knowledge—or competencies. Colleges would be in the business of certifying what students know, and giving them the coaching and materials needed to fill in any gaps to earn the credential. For this week’s EdSurge podcast we checked in with a longtime proponent of competency based education: Paul LeBlanc, the president of Southern New Hampshire University. And he lays out his latest thoughts about the approach in his new book, “Students First: Equity, Access and Opportunity in Higher Education.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-11-23-are-post-pandemic-campuses-finally-ready-for-competency-based-education

What the Metaverse Means for Higher Education - Ray Schroeder with Eric Olsen, Helix Education

Major tech companies are starting on their land grab claim to the metaverse. People who follow the higher ed news outlets might have seen this topic cropping up in publications over the last few months, too. What is the metaverse? Why is it such a big deal (or is it)? And will it matter to higher ed beyond its novelty? Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at both University of Illinois Springfield and UPCEA, returns to the Enrollment Growth University show to remind us of higher ed’s previous toe-dips into the metaverse back in the early 2000s and how institutions might start positioning themselves for the metaverse future that so many tech companies seem bent on bringing us to.

https://www.helixeducation.com/resources/enrollment-growth-university/what-the-metaverse-means-for-higher-education/

PROOF POINTS: The number of college graduates in the humanities drops for the eighth consecutive year - Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

By contrast, students are increasingly gravitating toward majors in business, engineering and health-related fields. More than 430,000 college students graduated with business majors in 2020, up 60 percent over the past 20 years. Engineering majors have more than doubled during this period; 195,000 students graduated in engineering in 2020, almost matching the number of humanities graduates. Majors in health and medicine fields have tripled in the past 20 years to more than 260,000 graduates in 2020, far surpassing humanities majors. 

https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-number-of-college-graduates-in-the-humanities-drops-for-the-eighth-consecutive-year/

South Carolina lawmakers propose ending tenure at state's public colleges - Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive

South Carolina lawmakers are proposing an end to tenure systems at the state's public colleges, a move faculty representatives say strikes against academic freedom. A group of 23 Republicans filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would prohibit public colleges from awarding tenure to those hired after Dec. 31, 2022. Instead, institutions would only be able offer employment contracts of up to five years.  The bill would not affect current tenured professors.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/south-carolina-lawmakers-propose-ending-tenure-at-states-public-colleges/610483/

Why has public belief in universities been haemorrhaging? - Nathan M Greenfield, University World News

In the final chapter of Stephen M Gavazzi and E Gordon Gee's "What’s Public about Public Higher Ed? Halting higher education’s decline in the court of public opinion," after convincingly calling for university presidents to get out more and spend time with regular folks, so they can hear for themselves the local population’s concerns, hopes and dreams, Gavazzi and Gee turn to the debate about how higher education as a whole is viewed by the divided American public. A slight majority believe it is important, a drop of 19 points in six years. In 2017, fully 58% of Republicans had a negative view of higher education and how it contributed to the nation’s problems.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211118103250672

Why diverse leadership teams increase innovation - Charles Knippen, eCampus News

Researchers, the media, and established business leaders have touted the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now is the time to go beyond discussion—business leaders need to implement the changes that will transform their ranks. A Glassdoor survey found that 57 percent of employees think their employer should be doing more to increase diversity. Fortunately, the work of diversifying reaps rewards beyond the satisfaction of doing the right thing.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/11/16/why-diverse-leadership-teams-increase-innovation/

https://bigthink.com/the-future/metaverse-augmented-reality-danger/

 At its core, augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse are media technologies that aim to present content in the most natural form possible — by seamlessly integrating simulated sights, sounds, and even feelings into our perception of the real world around us. This means AR, more than any form of media to date, has the potential to alter our sense of reality, distorting how we interpret our direct daily experiences. In an augmented world, simply walking down the street will become a wild amalgamation of the physical and the virtual, merged so convincingly that the boundaries will disappear in our minds. Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don’t actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us.

https://bigthink.com/the-future/metaverse-augmented-reality-danger/

There's a new effort to map university degrees to workplace skills - Emily Bamforth, EdSurge

The National Student Clearinghouse announced Monday it’s working with an AI company to associate the experience earned through various degrees, credentials and internships with skills needed by employers. The organization, which offers digital information services for more than 3,600 higher education institutions, is examining how to use tools from AstrumU, which develops technology to help fill gaps in the workforce. AstrumU tools, already used at universities nationwide, use data from both employers and higher education institutions to recommend students potential careers through using machine learning to parse students’ experiences.

https://edscoop.com/university-skills-mapping-nsc/

With the Metaverse on the way, an AI bill of rights is urgent - Gary Grossman, Edelman, Venture Beat

There is a lot more than the usual amount of handwringing over AI these days. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger put out a new book last week warning of AI’s dangers. Fresh AI warnings have also been issued by professors Stuart Russell (UC Berkeley) and Youval Harari (University of Jerusalem). Op-eds from the editorial board at the Guardian and Maureen Dowd at the New York Times have amplified these concerns. Facebook — now rebranded as Meta — has come under growing pressure for its algorithms creating social toxicity, but it is hardly alone. The White House has called for an AI bill of rights, and the Financial Times argues this should extend globally. Worries over AI are flying faster than a gale force wind.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/13/with-the-metaverse-on-the-way-an-ai-bill-of-rights-is-urgent/

Towards a more diversified future for higher education - Judith S Eaton and Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic, University World News

At a Virtual Conversation on international issues in higher education last month, we asked a number of experts to reflect on their future, focused particularly on the emerging role of alternative providers of education and alternative credentials in the higher education space. Is this future poised at an intersection where traditional institutions and degrees are joined, increasingly, by their alternative counterparts? Are we experiencing a fundamental shift in what constitutes this space – the types of institutions, providers and credentials that make up the ‘higher education sector’ of the future? How did we get here and what are the key issues and actions important to both traditional and alternative actors in getting beyond the intersection?

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211110115426750

The ‘great resignation’ is a trend that began before the pandemic – and bosses need to get used to it - Ion O. Williamson, the Conversation

Companies should also plan on high employee mobility to be endemic and reframe how they approach managing their workers.  One way to do this is by investing deeply in external relationships that help ensure consistent access to high-quality talent. This can include enhancing the relationships they have with educational institutions and former employees.

https://theconversation.com/the-great-resignation-is-a-trend-that-began-before-the-pandemic-and-bosses-need-to-get-used-to-it-170197