The second edition historically contextualizes eLearning and provides needed attention to issues of diversity and equity. The majority of the book was written prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the authors eerily speak to issues that have only intensified as a result of the dramatic pivot to emergency remote teaching caused by the closure of universities worldwide in efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. A statement by Karen Swan sums up the gravity of the current state of academia and its modus apparatus: “[I]t isn’t clear that higher education will survive in its current form” (p. 293).... An assertion by Raymond Schroeder further questions the centralized authority of institutions of higher education to not only quantify learning but also to keep track of what is learned.
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
What Is Starlink? SpaceX's Much-Hyped Satellite Internet Service Explained - Michael Kan, PC Mag
If you live in a city or a big suburb, you probably enjoy fast internet speeds, maybe at 1Gbps or beyond. But imagine enduring internet speeds at 20Mbps, or even as low as 0.8Mbps, every day. What’s worse, your home only has one or two internet service providers to choose from, leaving you stranded with crummy service. Unfortunately, millions of people across the US, and the globe, are stuck in this very situation. Installing fiber in a city, and bringing Gigabit broadband to million of customers is certainly lucrative, but not so much in a rural area home to only a few hundred people. Enter Starlink. The satellite internet system from SpaceX is capable of delivering 150Mbps internet speeds to theoretically any place on the planet. All the customer needs is a clear view of the sky. Last fall, the system began serving its first users, many of whom were based in remote or rural regions of America—and the response has so far been ecstatic.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-is-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-service-explained
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
AI now most favoured major at China universities - China Daily
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the most popular new major at Chinese universities for the second year in a row amid the country’s drive to build a strong AI talent pool. The subject’s popularity is far above that of any other new major, writes Zou Shuo for China Daily. A list issued by the Ministry of Education on Monday 1 March said universities across the country applied to establish 2,046 new majors last year, with 130 universities receiving approval to establish four-year undergraduate AI-related majors. In 2019, 180 universities set up AI majors, making it the No 1 new major in that year, too.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210313122642808
Monday, March 29, 2021
Over 3 Million People Took This Course on Happiness. Here’s What Some Learned - Molly Oswaks, NY Times
The Yale happiness class, formally known as Psyc 157: Psychology and the Good Life, is one of the most popular classes to be offered in the university’s 320-year history. “Everyone knows what they need to do to protect their physical health: wash your hands, and social distance, and wear a mask,” she added. “People were struggling with what to do to protect their mental health.” The Coursera curriculum, adapted from the one Dr. Santos taught at Yale, asks students to, among other things, track their sleep patterns, keep a gratitude journal, perform random acts of kindness, and take note of whether, over time, these behaviors correlate with a positive change in their general mood.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/style/happiness-course.html
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Promoting Community in Your Online Classroom - Linda Dale Bloomberg, Teachers College Press
Instructors often fear that they will lose the interaction and sense of community they have when they teach face-to-face, but that doesn’t have to be the case! Developing learning communities has been at the heart of distance education since its inception, and the challenge of fostering community remains a focal issue. Below are my top 10 tips to optimize your teaching by encouraging a sense of community, resulting in a more effective and meaningful learning experience for you and your students right from the start.
https://www.tcpress.com/blog/promoting-community-online-classroom/
Saturday, March 27, 2021
Cautious Optimism About Teaching STEM Online - Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed
The shift to remote learning forced STEM instructors to increasingly accept online education. But concerns about how to give students meaningful lab experiences remain. The findings of a new survey, STEM Education in the Time of COVID, suggest that hesitancy to embrace online education may be changing. Bay View Analytics, a statistical research firm, published the report with the Online Learning Consortium, a membership organization that promotes the use and quality of digital education. The report was supported by Every Learner Everywhere, a network of organizations that promotes online education with a focus on equity, as well as three companies involved in distance education in STEM: Digital Ed, Carolina Distance Learning and HHMI BioInteractive.
Friday, March 26, 2021
Student Perceptions of Data Use Within Higher Education - Jill Dunlap, Iris Palmer, Alexa Wesley; New America
The use of student data to inform decision-making and communication is still evolving in higher education. Often missing from campus conversations about use of student data are student voices about their preferences and needs. NASPA and New America engaged in a joint research effort to better understand student perceptions of data use within higher education. Insights from these discussions with students led to a set of recommendations for campus administrators about the uses of different types of data, the tools for collecting and sharing that data, the areas of data-related training for faculty and staff, and the framing and delivery of outreach messages informed by student data.
https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/keeping-student-trust/
Thursday, March 25, 2021
New tool makes students better at detecting fake imagery and videos - Uppsala University, Science Daily
Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a digital self-test that trains users to assess news items, images and videos presented on social media. The self-test has also been evaluated in a scientific study, which confirmed the researchers' hypothesis that the tool genuinely improved the students' ability to apply critical thinking to digital sources.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210309132557.htm
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
As admissions season descends, warning signs appear for low-income applicant - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report
“This is hitting our students in such a more exacerbated way than it’s hitting white, higher-income students,” said Claire Dennison, chief program officer of uAspire, which helps low-income and first-generation families navigate the college admissions and financial aid maze. “They have always faced roadblocks on the way to college, and they certainly have more of those now.” There are already clear indications that fewer low-income, first-generation, Black and Hispanic students are applying to college for the coming year than in the past, while their wealthier classmates have been less affected by the restrictions imposed in response to Covid-19.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
The future of work after COVID-19 - McKinsey Global Institute
This report on the future of work after COVID-19 is the first of three MGI reports that examine aspects of the postpandemic economy. The others look at the pandemic’s long-term influence on consumption and the potential for a broad recovery led by enhanced productivity and innovation. Here, we assess the lasting impact of the pandemic on labor demand, the mix of occupations, and the workforce skills required in eight countries with diverse economic and labor market models: China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these eight countries account for almost half the global population and 62 percent of GDP.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
Monday, March 22, 2021
Practitioner Perspectives: The DOERS3 Collaborative on OER in Tenure and Promotion - New England Board of Higher Education
In the following Practitioner Perspective, Andrew McKinney, OER coordinator at the City University of New York (CUNY), and Amanda Coolidge, director of Open Education at BCcampus in British Columbia, Canada, share the development of an adaptable matrix to help faculty include OER (Open Educational Resources) in their tenure and promotion portfolios.
Sunday, March 21, 2021
In era of online learning, new testing method aims to reduce cheating - Troy Record
The era of widespread remote learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic requires online testing methods that effectively prevent cheating, especially in the form of collusion among students. With concerns about cheating on the rise across the country, a solution that also maintains student privacy is particularly valuable. In research published recently in npj Science of Learning, engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrate how a testing strategy they call “distanced online testing” can effectively reduce students’ ability to receive help from one another in order to score higher on a test taken at individual homes during social distancing.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Making Education Research Relevant - Daniel T. WillinghamDaniel T. Willingham, Education Next
No matter the reason, it seems many teachers don’t think education research is directly useful to them. We think these teachers have it right. And we think the problem lies with researchers, not teachers. The first three obstacles listed above—two concerning applicability of research and one concerning perceived constraints research puts on practice—are products of the methods researchers use. Research seems irrelevant to practitioners because it does not pose questions that address their needs. Teachers feel constrained by research because they feel pressured to use research-approved methods, and research creates clear winners and losers among practices that may be appropriate in some contexts but not others.
Friday, March 19, 2021
Pandemic Pressures - Elizbeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed
More than half of students worldwide, and three-quarters in the U.S., said their mental health has suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey of nearly 17,000 undergraduate students across 21 countries commissioned by the nonprofit arm of Chegg, a controversial textbook rental and educational technology company. Chegg.org commissioned the polling company Yonder to interview 16,839 undergraduates across the 21 countries last fall, with sample sizes in the various countries ranging from 500 to about 1,000. Seventy-five percent of American students surveyed said their mental health had suffered due to the pandemic, second only to Brazil (76 percent) and similar to the percentage of Canadian students who said the same (73 percent).
Thursday, March 18, 2021
Distance learning nightmare: What to do when your Wi-Fi goes out - ZACHARIAH NASH, Daily Cal
With instruction entirely online this semester, there is one scenario that is absolutely terrifying: having the Wi-Fi go out. When that happens, your ability to get schoolwork done and attend class is incredibly hampered or even outright impossible. It isn’t the end of the world, though. There are plenty of ways to get through it. Here are some of the steps you should take if you’ve lost connection.
https://www.dailycal.org/2021/02/28/distance-learning-nightmare-what-to-do-when-your-wi-fi-goes-out/
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Five Tips to Creating a More Engaging Online Course for Adult Learners - Jacqueline Crockford, Faculty Focus
As society changes to include more online learning opportunities, the field of education must stay abreast of these shifts and use these strategies to provide the best education possible for new and longtime professionals. When teaching courses online, consider applying evidence-based strategies to improve engagement, satisfaction, and comprehension for your students of all ages. The following five tips have been developed from research geared toward pivoting live classes into effective online or blended learning courses.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Top Zoom Tips for Better Video Calls - Jill Duffy, PC Mag
Part of what makes Zoom one of the best video conferencing services is its resiliency at keeping calls going, despite wavering Wi-Fi and faltering 4G. Zoom elegantly figures out what to adjust on the backend to keep your call as smooth as possible, despite the occasional freeze. Aside from its technical prowess, Zoom also has great features for making video calls better and more fun. You can smooth out your skin, drop in a virtual background, and automatically suppress loud noises. And yes, you can turn yourself into a cat, but—more importantly—do you know how to check that those settings are off before your next call?
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/top-zoom-tips-for-better-videoconferencing-in-a-locked-down-world
Monday, March 15, 2021
How Much Will Your University Likely Get? Simulated Distribution of Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds - ACE American Council on Education
The American Rescue Plan Act provides almost $40 billion in relief funds that will go directly to colleges and universities to support the overwhelming costs that institutions and students face in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. These sortable, searchable databases below are a simulation of how ED might distribute the emergency funds for public and private nonprofit and proprietary institutions. Click here for the methodology on how we compiled the numbers. (Note: It is not known if ED will use this methodology, but previous simulations on CARES Act and Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act have been very accurate.)
https://www.acenet.edu/Policy-Advocacy/Pages/HEA-ED/ARP-Higher-Education-Relief-Fund.aspx
How Open Education Resources (OER) Can Cross the Digital Divide - Kevin Hogan, Marketscale
Less than a decade after publishing its first free, openly licensed textbook, OpenStax — Rice University’s educational technology initiative — has saved students $1.2 billion. In this episode of Edtech Today, Kevin Hogan sits down with the Managing Director of OpenStax, Daniel Williamson, to discuss his organization’s efforts to offer openly licensed textbooks integrated with personalized learning technology.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
In defense of online learning - Nancy Gleason, University Business
While some bemoan the loss of in-person classes, the remote learning forced by COVID-19 offers us an opportunity to expand access, confront opportunity gaps, and prepare for future growth of higher education. The ongoing pandemic means that many students will continue to attend classes online for the foreseeable future. For starters, e-learning works. While some college administrators still balk at the idea that high-caliber education can be attained outside brick-and-mortar settings, the evidence suggests the opposite. Distance learning empowers educational outcomes, enables more teaching flexibility, opens doors to disadvantaged students, and is, for many college students and faculty, as effective at conveying knowledge as in-person learning. This has been particularly true during the pandemic.
https://universitybusiness.com/in-defense-of-online-learning/
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Google Renames G Suite for Ed, Adds Pile of New Features - Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
Google announced a pallet full of changes to its education offerings, including a renaming of its education bundle of productivity applications and a limit to free storage for schools and colleges. Security and engagement updates are also being added to the education version of Google Meet, and Google Classroom will see enhancements later this year. The announcements came during a 90-minute virtual session on "learning with Google." Replays of the event will be available for viewing by registered users after Feb. 19, 2021. G Suite for Education has been renamed. Starting today, it's known as Google Workspace for Education.