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.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
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 Increasingly, we are under pressure as educators to ensure that what we teach is not outdated.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.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
How higher ed is becoming more resilient - Nicole Engelbert, eCampus News
Prioritizing certain steps, such as preparing for an innovative future, will help higher ed survive the curveball from COVID-19. The past year has put the higher education industry to the test. The onset and continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic has required a massive operational shift that many institutions were not prepared for, and schools have had to pivot quickly to make sure that systems and staff alike are as well-prepared as possible to exist in a now predominantly virtual environment. Perhaps the biggest lesson we’ve learned so far is that higher education institutions must increase their resiliency and agility in order to meet evolving staff and student needs.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/06/18/how-higher-ed-is-becoming-more-resilient/
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
How can I become an anti-racist leader? 7 questions campus leadership should ask themselves - Meacie Fairfax, EAB
College leaders want to do the right thing and combat inequities and discrimination, yet these conversations are hard. So hard that they rarely happen in a meaningful way. It is no longer enough just to commission strategic plans or documents rife with diversity, equity, and inclusion language and hope for the change to happen. Leaders need to dig in, ask tough questions, and talk about the state of race and equity on their campuses.
Monday, June 28, 2021
Rising Threat of Ransomware and Other Malware - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
The major threats to operations in higher education in past years were funding shortfalls, natural disasters and dropping enrollments. Now, criminal cyberactivity has risen to a top concern. This is a red-alert crisis for all of us: students, faculty, staff and institutions as a whole. The rising extortion of money from government and business entities should put all of us on guard. Colleges and universities are all the more vulnerable in these uncertain fiscal times. Too often, this is further compounded by a natural inclination to cover up incidents to protect public confidence and institutional reputation. The crisis is not just one for the IT department. It is one that must be met by every student, faculty member, staff member, college and department. We must be vigilant to any potential intrusions and instantly inform our experts -- day or night, weekday or weekend. And we must implement backup systems, prepare for contingencies and create serious restoration plans.
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Combining Online Courses With In-Person Supports, ‘Hybrid Colleges’ Unite - Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge
Calling themselves “hybrid colleges,” these mini campus centers have set big goals for themselves, such as bringing college within reach for people historically left out of higher education. Now, more than a dozen of these nonprofits are strengthening their bonds and committing to shared goals by creating the Hybrid College Network. “The network is incredibly collaborative. They’re proud of the model because it is serving students really well,” says Lauren Trent, CEO of AdvanceEDU in Colorado, which launched in 2020. “There is mutual interest in learning from each other, when the models are different, what is driving student success?”
Saturday, June 26, 2021
The richest colleges didn’t need to cut their budgets in the pandemic — but they did -Gregory Svirnovskiy, Vox
In part, that may be because the endowment system many schools use to remain solvent brought colleges and universities significant financial rewards amid a rapid rise in stock prices. Those gains followed a major dip in the stock market immediately after the first US Covid-19 outbreaks — and quickly falling prices, in part, led to stark austerity measures. Now, only a year after laying off hundreds of thousands of people, the higher education industry appears to be bouncing back.
Friday, June 25, 2021
6 charts showing the state of college enrollment in spring 2021 - Hallie Busta, HigherEd Dive
The higher education sector didn't get a reprieve from the enrollment losses that defined the fall term, new data shows. Instead, the numbers from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found a few enduring trends. In all, colleges reporting to the Clearinghouse brought in roughly 600,000 fewer students this spring compared to a year ago, a figure that includes graduates and undergraduates. That's more than the 460,000-student decrease between the falls of 2019 and 2020. The pandemic is exacerbating a trend in recent years of fewer men enrolling in postsecondary education. Shorter-term credentials could be one option for this group, the publication noted, though the latest Clearinghouse data shows the steepest declines at community colleges, which offer more such programs.
Thursday, June 24, 2021
What We Can Do About Biased AI - Jody Glidden, Information Week
In 2014, Amazon wanted to automate its recruiting process. Their solution was to create an AI program that would review job applicants’ resumes and feed the recruiters a score. While this did whittle down the list, by the following year, Amazon had realized there was an issue, as the system was not rating women candidates equally to men. Since the workforce was 60% males, the system incorrectly assumed that the company preferred men. Once the problem was discovered, the company quickly reverted back to the method of reading the resumes.While this illustrates how biases can creep into the systems, how do we go about laying the groundwork of establishing ethical AI systems?
https://beta.informationweek.com/ai-or-machine-learning/what-we-can-do-about-biased-ai
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Coursera: The 'Amazon' Of Online Education May Grow By Magnitudes - Harrison Schwartz, Seeking Alpha
Increasing student dissatisfaction and declining enrollment suggest that many people are rethinking traditional methods of higher education. The historical value of universities is becoming defunct as the internet allows a more efficient, less expensive, and more accessible vector of transmitting knowledge. Innovative platforms like Coursera offer students a huge "marketplace" of high-quality courses far less expensive than those in traditional universities. Given Coursera's minimal barriers to growth and its massive total addressable market, I would not be surprised to see its annual revenue rise by 10X or more within years.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Leaders who embrace on-job learning and listen to employees have more resilient teams - Rice University, Science Daily
Leaders who encourage their employees to learn on the job and speak up with ideas and suggestions for change have teams that are more effective and resilient in the face of unexpected situations, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Windsor. The researchers specifically examined the interactions of 48 teams from five Canadian technology startups. "Understanding what organizations can do to help employees become more resilient is the focus our work in my Working Resilience Research Laboratory," King said. "This research project offered an opportunity to uncover the important role of leadership and employee voice in the resilience process."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210610173947.htm
Monday, June 21, 2021
Hybrid learning, online credentials will survive edtech 'hype cycle,' edX CEO says - Emily Bamforth, EdScoop
Hybrid learning will escape the “hype cycle” that built up massive open online courses in past years, Anant Agarwal, chief executive of the online learning platform EdX, said during MIT Technology Review’s annual conference on Tuesday. The pandemic caused major shifts in education that stand up the future of stackable credentials and “micro-courses,” he said. These shorter, often-online courses are now making headlines as part of a new normal in education, similar to the attention that massive open online courses did in 2012, Agarwal said. These shifts include a move toward online, lifelong learning and a shift to blended learning on campus that could further build the relationships between higher education institutions and online course providers like EdX.
https://edscoop.com/anant-agarwal-hybrid-learning-online-credentials-hype-cycle/
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