The gig workers of California community colleges face worsening conditions - Thomas Peele, EdSource

Call the part-time instructors who make up two-thirds of classroom teachers in the country’s largest higher-education system what you will. What matters most to them is whether they’re called. Every semester they wait for work assignments that may make them eligible for health benefits, pay for groceries or further a slender dream of landing an elusive, full-time, tenured job. Numbering nearly 37,000, the part-time academics commonly referred to as adjuncts are the backbone of the California Community College system that enrolls about 1.5 million students. Working semester-by-semester with little to no job security, adjuncts often take gigs at multiple college districts to cobble together something akin to full-time employment but at pay rates vastly lower than full-time professors.

https://edsource.org/2022/the-gig-workers-of-california-community-colleges-face-worsening-conditions/666835

International HE leadership needs more critical thinkers - Fay Patel, University World News

Excellence in international higher education leadership is demonstrated through collaborative partnership building, open-mindedness and versatility. Aspiring leaders in international higher education who strive for excellence walk alongside stakeholder groups on a journey into the future that is bound by ethical considerations, commitment to the social, economic and political well-being of their communities and sustainable community engagement and entrepreneurship. Excellence in leadership is diffused through an institutional culture that creates the space and opportunity for innovative practices, respectful relationships and responsible and accountable professional encounters.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220211152546671

What Is Zero Trust? A Guide to the Cybersecurity Approach - Jule Pattison-Gordon, Government Technology

The term “zero trust” is rapidly gaining attention as agencies move away from the more traditional “castle and moat” models of cybersecurity. Zero trust refers to a cybersecurity strategy or set of principles based in the understanding that just because an account or device is associated with the organization or has seemed trustworthy in the past doesn’t mean they should be assumed to be trustworthy in the future. The mindset assumes an attacker could be in the network already and emphasizes limiting a bad actor’s ability to access data and other resources. Organizations adopting zero-trust principles require users — and devices — to continually prove they are who they claim to be, whenever they want to access data or services.

https://www.govtech.com/security/what-is-zero-trust-a-guide-to-the-cybersecurity-approach

A Plan to Renew Gainful Employment - Scott Jaschick, Inside Higher Ed

The U.S. Education Department has proposed to again impose regulations to measure the gainful employment of graduates of for-profit colleges and nondegree programs at nonprofit colleges.The proposal was made in advance of next week’s continuation of negotiated rule making on various student aid regulations. Negotiated rule making requires a consensus among those who will negotiate the rules, including representatives of for-profit colleges, who are likely to oppose anything the Biden administration proposes on this topic. However, if the parties fail to reach an agreement—which is expected—the Education Department may propose regulations that it wants (although those regulations will possibly be challenged in court).

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/10/education-department-issues-proposal-gainful-employment

20 of the most in-demand skills that will help you get a job in the next five years - Business Tech

Online course provider Coursera has published its industry skills report for 2022, detailing the most in-demand skills across the world right now. The list of skills has been created using data drawn from Coursera’s 92 million learners, 2,000 business customers, 3,000 higher education institutions, and 230 government entities. Specific focus has been given to 10 ‘digital skills’ which are likely to become more prominent as technology in the workforce evolves. These are typically seen as ‘hard skills’ which will require additional training and upskilling of the workforce.  Coursera also outlined a separate set of 10 ‘human’ or ‘soft’ skills which are seen as necessary for organisational success. 

https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/556356/20-of-the-most-in-demand-skills-that-will-help-you-get-a-job-in-the-next-five-years/

If You Use These 6 Phrases a Lot, You're a Better Leader Than You ThinkThey - MARCEL SCHWANTES, Inc.

Even Warren Buffett considers developing your communication skills one of the best investments you'll ever make, stating that it "can increase your value by at least 50 percent." But to inspire people with words isn't as easy as merely talking. It takes a very human approach in the way you speak to them. Even if you believe that you're a good communicator, chances are you've run into situations where no matter how clear the message, there's a disconnect with the other person. Taking into account the countless human interactions during a normal workday, there are certain verbal expressions that may help you increase trust and enhance your relationships.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/if-you-use-these-6-phrases-a-lot-youre-a-better-leader-than-you-think.html

NFTs in education: Heading to the top of the class? - Tim Sandle, Digital Journal

Is this a fad or is there a future for NFTs in the education space? Can something like an NFT add value to teachers and students? One company branching out into new territory is Preply (an Online Learning Platform). The company is using NFTs in the education space, as an Edtech innovation. Pepperdine's Beau Brennan  calls these “academic tokens” and insists they do not have a direct monetary value. Instead, they prove the student has passed the course and contain unique details about how well the student did and information about the class and syllabus. An alternative option is with issuing NFTs as credentials. For example, Duke University has provided educational credentials as NFTs for its Master of Engineering in Financial Technology degree.

https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/nfts-in-education-heading-to-the-top-of-the-class/article#ixzz7KJYhG1nF

Empowering College Students to be OER Creators and Curators - Robert Maloy and Torrey Trust, Faculty Focus

Imagine the possibilities if students learn not only how to use open educational resources (OER), but also how to curate and design OER in their college courses. This action of shifting college students from consumers to creators of OER can have positive impacts on their learning and it can break down the walls of the classroom by making the knowledge students construct publicly available online (Trust & Maloy, 2022).

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/empowering-college-students-to-be-oer-creators-and-curators/

Delegating is Great, Except When It's Not - Alisa Cohn, Inc.

As an executive coach who works with rapidly scaling companies, I often get an earful from founders and other leaders who are trying hard to delegate but somehow, rather than saving them time, it seems to take extra time.There is a lot of mythology about delegation, as well as a lot of nuance. Even very seasoned leaders have trouble with finding the right balance between empowerment and supervision. My framework for delegation consists of three questions. When you ask them, they help you get it more right more often. 

https://www.inc.com/alisa-cohn/delegating-is-great-except-when-its-not.html

Emergency Remote Instruction Is Not Quality Online Learning - Members of the National Council for Online Education

Remote learning is an emergency measure used to assure continuity of learning. It involves taking a course that was designed for the face-to-face classroom and moving it quickly into a distance learning modality (usually synchronous and held via web-conferencing tools, such as Zoom). Online learning is a planned experience over weeks or months where the course has purposefully been designed for the online environment. The accompanying technology and tools have been carefully selected for the educational objectives. Faculty receive professional development and support to succeed in this modality.  --- The members of the National Council for Online Education include the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), UPCEA (University Professional and Continuing Education Association) and WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies).

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/02/03/remote-instruction-and-online-learning-arent-same-thing-opinion

7 Keys to Building Equity in Digital Learning - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

A new report from Every Learner Everywhere, produced in collaboration with Tyton Partners and the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities, offers strategies for investing in digital learning infrastructure while bridging equity gaps to better serve under-represented students. The organizations studied seven institutions with a variety of student populations — Cuyahoga Community College, Fayetteville State University, Georgia State University, Ivy Tech Community College, Tennessee Board of Regents, California State University, Fresno and the University of Texas at El Paso — to glean best practices and recommendations based on their digital learning implementation successes

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2022/01/25/7-keys-to-building-equity-in-digital-learning.aspx

How AI and Associated Technologies Change the Role of Higher Ed - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

As artificial intelligence and associated technologies extend their influence in our society, the role of higher education must change. We can no longer prepare learners for static careers in unchanging fields.  We are all familiar with the robotic revolution of prior decades in which assembly-line work positions were lost to robotic assembly lines. That shakeout took a toll on a skilled but less educated population. Human skills were no longer needed because “intelligent” robots could do the job faster, more consistently and at a lower cost to the business. Now, Brookings warns us that the most vulnerable jobs of the future are in better paid and better educated fields: “Our analysis shows that workers with graduate or professional degrees will be almost four times as exposed to AI as workers with just a high school degree. Holders of bachelor’s degrees will be the most exposed by education level, more than five times as exposed to AI than workers with just a high school degree.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/how-ai-and-associated-technologies-change-role-higher-ed

How microcredentials can solve the skills gap - Cecil Banhan, eCampus News

Last year, a majority of U.S. employers said that 2020 brought more difficulty in filling open jobs due to the skills gap than previous years. Additionally, a Gartner survey found that 58 percent of employees felt that they need new skills in order to successfully do their work. By leveraging existing microcredential programs from educational institutions, companies can effectively upskill and reskill their employees. Simultaneously, universities benefit from corporate partnerships with companies by offering microcredential options, creating more accessible education opportunities and expanding their reach with potential students.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2022/02/01/how-microcredentials-can-solve-the-skills-gap/

Future of Higher Ed: Digital Twin Technology on the Horizon - Susan Fourtané, Fierce Education

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a real object or system which is updated from real-time data, uses machine learning, simulation, and reasoning to help decision-making. In other words, a Digital Twin creates a highly complex virtual model which is the exact replica of a physical thing. Connected sensors on a smart campus can collect data in real-time. This data is used to create a map onto the virtual model, thus creating a Digital Twin of a campus. When you look at the Digital Twin, you can see crucial information about how the real campus is doing.  The applications for Digital Twin technology do not stop there. Students and faculty can benefit from using the technology as well. 

https://www.fierceeducation.com/student-engagement/future-higher-ed-digital-twin-technology-horizon

Unlocking talent for the global green skills revolution - Salil Sahadevan, University World News

The International Labour Organization estimates there will be 24 million green jobs worldwide by 2030. Solar and wind power jobs are growing at a rate that is 10 times as fast as the rest of the United States economy. Following COP26, more debate on green skills is underway in developing nations. As more businesses are likely to adopt sustainable practices, green skills will be valuable in all industries that are moving towards the green economy.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220125124042804

Mentoring as a strategy for investing in staff progress - Nita Temmerman, University World News

One sometimes underdeveloped strategy to improve job satisfaction, manage and foster talent development and aid succession planning is mentoring. A mentor relationship with another colleague who is separate from the line of management can provide a helpful source of professional and psychological support, especially for a newly appointed academic. It can also build scholarly confidence and promote career advancement. Positive mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial professional partnerships. They tend to be between an individual with experience (mentor) who shares their knowledge, skills and expertise with another who has lesser experience or has a specific professional goal (mentee). 

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220125100358911

These 3 charts show the global growth in online learning - Johnny Wood, World Economic Forum

 People are increasingly accessing online courses to help them navigate today’s ever changing labour market. Online learning platform Coursera recorded 20 million new student registrations in 2021. The highest rate of new learner growth online came from emerging economies. Online learning is an important tool helping to close the widening global skills gap. The number of students accessing its online courses now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, a leading global online learning platform reports.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/online-learning-courses-reskill-skills-gap/

Women-led colleges have better pay equity but are less common - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

 Gender pay equity for college administrators is better at women-led schools than those helmed by men, but institutions — especially top research universities — have their work cut out for them to improve female representation in top roles, according to two reports released this month. Only about one-third of college presidents are women, according to research from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. But senior officers, administrators and division heads who are women are all paid more at institutions with female presidents than at those with male presidents. Disparities in leadership are even worse at the 130 universities with the highest research activity, according to a report from the Women's Power Gap Initiative.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/women-led-colleges-have-better-pay-equity-but-are-less-common/617904/

SUNY stops withholding transcripts from students with debt - Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive

The State University of New York, the U.S.'s largest public comprehensive higher education system, will no longer withhold academic transcripts from students with outstanding debt, it announced this week. The decision, effective immediately, came after the state's governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul, said she would direct all public institutions to cease the practice. Hochul said she would introduce legislation to mandate all colleges in the state to do so as well. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/suny-stops-withholding-transcripts-from-students-with-debt/617784/

Warren Buffett's Lesson on Emotional Intelligence May Be the Best Advice You Will Hear Today - Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

In the early years of building the business juggernaut that is now Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett admits to not having the social skills to match his intellect. He may have been the one to tell someone else to go to hell in the heat of the moment, later to regret such a decision. But, like many great leaders, Buffett had to develop his self-awareness, an essential skill and perhaps the most important one to master if you call yourself a leader.  Tom Murphy mastered such a skill. Buffett shares in the book how Murphy "didn't have to shout or scream or anything like that. He did everything in a very relaxed manner." It doesn't mean you suppress your emotions when being wronged. But with self-awareness, you can probe your emotions in any given situation to understand what you're feeling and why before spouting off at the mouth in a fit of anger.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffetts-lesson-on-emotional-intelligence-may-be-best-advice-you-will-hear-today.html

What does the post-pandemic workplace look like? New Survey finds more investment in AI and remote work - Tanner Stening, Northeastern

 More than 1,000 C-suite executives surveyed said that, as a result of the pandemic, they are now more likely to invest in artificial intelligence, leverage remote work as a strategy to recruit new workers, and direct resources toward “upskilling” and training their employees, according to the survey published last month. Respondents represented a wide national sample of the U.S. economy, across all industries and organizational sizes. The study was conducted by Northeastern’s Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, a university research entity that focuses on the intersection between postsecondary education institutions and employers.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/01/24/post-pandemic-workplace-ai-remote-work/

Exploring and defining the Metaverse - Venture Beat

Some elements of the metaverse exist today, but we’re a ways off from seeing its full potential — or even knowing precisely what it is. How will the metaverse evolve in the next few years? While the metaverse promises to be unlike any technology we’ve seen before and will change the way we work and play, it will both borrow from lessons learned by innovations and paradigm shifts that have gone before it as well as bring us to uncharted tech territories.

https://venturebeat.com/vb-special-issue-metaverse/

Artificial Intelligence - Business Roundtable

Fully unlocking AI’s transformative potential will require supporting the innovative momentum around AI technologies and applications. It will also require building and maintaining public trust in AI — imperatives with shared responsibility across corporations and government. Business Roundtable presents three documents to inform the shared journey toward Responsible AI for American businesses, policymakers and regulators.  The Roadmap for Responsible AI can serve as a guide for companies across all industries, regardless of where they are on this journey. 

https://www.businessroundtable.org/policy-perspectives/technology/ai

Another million adults ‘have stepped off the path to the middle class’ - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Slower economic growth. Continued labor shortages. Lower life expectancy. Higher levels of divorce. More demand for social services, but less tax revenue to pay for it. A sharp and persistent decline in the number of Americans going to college — down by nearly a million since the start of the pandemic, according to newly released figures, and by nearly three million over the last decade — could alter American society for the worse, even as economic rival nations such as China vastly increase university enrollment, researchers who study this warn.

https://hechingerreport.org/the-dire-consequences-of-fewer-people-going-to-college-for-them-and-for-society/

Two years into the pandemic, Yale’s ‘happiness’ course is more popular than ever - CNN

When Yale psychology professor Laurie Santos witnessed the severity of the depression, anxiety and stress her students were facing, she decided to do something about it. Her “happiness” course — which she began teaching live in 2018 — became Yale’s most popular class in over 300 years, according to the university. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck, claiming millions of lives around the world and shutting down life as we know it, her class became more important than ever. “People were getting great evidence-based advice about how to protect their physical health — mask up, socially distance, get a vaccine — but people were struggling with what to do to protect their mental health,” Santos told CNN.

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/two-years-into-the-pandemic-yales-happiness-course-is-more-popular-than-ever/

4 questions for-profit colleges face in 2022 - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

For-profit colleges appear to have a tough road ahead in 2022, with stricter regulations and other challenges likely coming down the pike.  Education Department kicked off 2022 by conducting negotiated rulemaking, in which the agency convenes a group of stakeholders to offer recommendations on new regulations before they're issued. Ed Department officials are discussing a host of issues that could heavily impact the for-profit sector, including rules with potential to influence which students colleges recruit and whether their programs are eligible for federal funding.  Below, we rounded up and answered four questions that are top of mind for the proprietary sector in 2022.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/4-questions-for-profit-colleges-face-in-2022/617534/

Modernizing the College Transcript with Blockchain - Mol Doak, EdTech

Decentralized technology is helping students capture and share their credentials in real time.  The changing needs of students are forcing universities to explore new ways to document the academic journey. Timothy Summers, executive director of product development at ASU, understands that while transcripts and resumes are traditional benchmarks for learning and working, they often fail to showcase a person’s entire skill set. Pocket’s decentralized technology lets users capture their credentials and update their degree progress, certifications, internships and experiences in real time. This way, both current and former students can easily document and share their educational journeys right from their Pocket.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2022/01/modernizing-college-transcript-blockchain-1

California offers college students $10K for public service - Associated Press

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that 45 colleges and universities in California, including some of the most prestigious campuses in the state, will be part of a new public service program that will subsidize tuition for students who do community service alongside their studies. The program called “Californians For All College Corps” will start in the fall 2022 semester with 6,500 students who will be deployed to part-time work in areas of pressing need like K-12 education disparities, climate change and food insecurity, Newsom said in a news conference with the leaders of the state’s public university and community college systems.

https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/18/california-offers-college-students-10k-for-public-service/