Sanjit Sethi and Elliot Felix, University World News
We call these assumptions the six fallacies of higher education:
• There is a ‘traditional student’.
• Learning happens Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, in autumn and spring.
• The campus is for classes.
• We measure student success solely academically.
• Costs can increase faster than quality.
• Accreditation ensures excellence.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210405080338394
Dartmouth College has deployed an artificial intelligence solution from Aisera to enhance communication with students and faculty during COVID-19. The virtual assistant, dubbed the Dart InfoBot, can answer support requests in natural language either via Slack or on the institution's client services portal. Aisera's AI Service Desk automates answers to common support questions, providing a user experience that's designed to be personalized, context-aware and conversational, according to the company. Using the self-service technology with its user base of 10,000 faculty and students, Dartmouth was able to improve auto-resolution of support requests by more than 60 percent, with a mean time to resolve of just 50 seconds.
Online instruction opens access to those who need flexibility in classes for childcare, for scheduling conflicts and because of socio-economic pressure. The pandemic has only increased the reasons remote access is needed, with many families having faced a dual pandemic of COVID-19 and economic loss. Many of our student parents no longer have childcare, or face other circumstances preventing them from immediately returning to campus. Online coursework must not be considered an inferior or cheaper option. Getting online right requires a significant investment in course development guided by professional course designers who focus on achieving and assessing learning outcomes. Best practices show that developing a quality online course takes about 10 weeks to build with the faculty member working closely alongside an instructional/course designer, and research has shown that in-person instruction improves after working with instructional designers.
Currently, SpaceX geo-restricts every Starlink dish to the subscriber’s registered residence. Hence, customers generally can’t use the dish at another location unless it's nearby. But the tweet from Musk indicates the company will lift the restriction, enabling customers to move it from one place to the next. In the meantime, the company still needs more time to build up the Starlink satellite network, which currently numbers at more than 1,300 satellites. In March, SpaceX then filed an application with the FCC for clearance to operate Starlink on moving vehicles—including trucks, boats, and aircraft—in the US.
Through seed money provided by foundations and donors, Carthage College is offering teletherapy to expand access to counseling services. Survey data from the Spring 2019 National College Health Assessment by the American College Health Association indicated that in the previous year, three out of five students experienced overwhelming anxiety, and two out of five students were too depressed to function. Many struggled with these and other mental health concerns, including substance abuse. Student mental health has been a growing concern for higher-ed administrators in recent years… then the COVID pandemic took hold, bringing with it disruptions to all aspects of campus life, including decreased or no access for students to medical and mental health services. According to an April 2020 survey by Active Minds, a national mental health advocacy group, 80 percent of college students say the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/04/05/teletherapy-expands-access-to-student-mental-health-support/
To be sure, moving nearly all teaching and learning online so quickly was challenging, especially at the undergraduate level, but one unexpected outcome was successfully recovering or "re-recruiting" 123 former students who (for one reason or another) left UMBC before finishing their degrees. Below, we describe why and how we planned and implemented the Finish Line near-completer reengagement program—which leveraged our predominantly online classes in fall 2020—and what we learned from the process. We then suggest ways to support adult learners, help them feel welcome, and foster their sense of belonging in the institution.
In a new study, women reported higher levels of fatigue associated with video calls than men. The solution, though, isn’t as simple as not having video calls. Now, research from Stanford University published on Tuesday found that women experience significantly more Zoom fatigue than men. The research, which hasn’t been peer-reviewed, suggests that video calls simply amplify the longstanding gender dynamics in group settings and exacerbate an already wide gender stress gap, with women consistently reporting more stress and stress-related health conditions than men, according to the American Psychological Association.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/zoom-fatigue-burn-out-gender.html
Artificial intelligence will accelerate the evolution of teaching and learning. Overall, AI should allow students to get personalized instruction and teachers to have more free time to prepare classes and update their information. While it’s still too early to evaluate the extent of the change in the quality and scope of instruction that AI might achieve, what is certain is that it will cause a revolution. That is because educational systems around the world remain rooted in the foundations established in the 1800s. Most of all, AI will crush the idea that all students must learn in the same place, in the same way, and at the same speed.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/04/08/ai-is-revolutionizing-education/
Learning before the 21st century was mostly about accessing and retaining theories, facts and figures; now it is mostly about applying theories, facts and figures in creative and critical ways to solve problems and advance society. Increasingly, higher education is less about memorization and more about problem solving. Over all, many students seem to do better in classes where the textbooks are open. It may not be that the OER materials are superior -- rather it may be that when the class materials are free, students actually obtain and use them. C. Edward Watson, CIO and associate vice president for curricular and pedagogical innovation at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and co-author Barbara Illowsky describe their “epiphany” in discovering the meaningfulness and impact on equity and affordability of using OER. “Yet one of the best-kept secrets for improving student equity and college affordability is within the hands of faculty: using Open Educational Resources (OER) in their courses instead of commercial textbooks and paid electronic materials.”
As your institution looks to the 2021–22 academic year, what can you, your colleagues, and your institution do to further the goals of student equity and college affordability? How might you launch or accelerate efforts associated with OER? Now is an excellent time to learn more, plan for the future, become an OER advocate, and examine how you and your institution might add OER to your portfolio of student success and equity initiatives.
Necessity is the mother of invention. And within the context of a global pandemic, necessity was the mother of wholesale transformation. The monumental challenges educators overcame in 2020 is astounding. From preschool to grad school, the race to adopt and adapt online learning platforms hit a pace and scale previously unimagined.Now, as we consider the post-pandemic academic landscape, one thing is sure: Online learning isn't going anywhere. To think otherwise is a massive failure of imagination.
The pandemic has abruptly changed the lives of both students and faculty here at The University of Akron. After writing an article last fall about how students were feeling about the transition to online learning, I wanted to give the faculty a chance to showcase how they have innovated within the shift. Four UA professors discuss adjustments and achievements in the classroom.
Barankay said videoconferencing has replaced personal engagement, which is one of the biggest sources of creativity and innovation in an office setting. With video, there are no chance encounters, casual conversations, or other interactions that can spark ideas. It’s also harder for employees to feel connected to each other or to a larger mission when all their conversations are on screen. “People have to hop off one Zoom meeting and hop on to the next one. They don’t really have room to breathe, to then become really settled and engaged with the meeting,” he said.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/zoom-meetings-are-here-to-stay-can-we-beat-the-fatigue/
As the winter term comes to a close, students are grappling with the possibility of yet another semester of online learning. Some students are asking for changes and better support after a year of exclusively studying online. On Thursday, Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi said in a statement the university will announce plans for the fall 2021 semester by June 9. He said although there might be limited in-person activities, the majority of classes will still be facilitated online. Umar Iqbal, a second-year business student, said he noticed his professors have become less available to students and are being less accommodating with deadlines.
https://theeyeopener.com/2021/03/how-students-believe-online-learning-could-be-improved/
AAC&U survey of employers shows liberal arts skills are valued and sought out in the workplace but raises questions about student preparation. First the good: employers generally have confidence in higher education and value the college degree. They believe that a liberal education -- or preparation for more than a specific job -- provides knowledge and skills that are important for career success. And increasingly, employers say, college graduates are more effective at explaining what they bring to the table. Now the not-so-great findings: employers see room for improvement in how colleges and universities prepare students for work.
The team-based project approach, meanwhile, is well suited to teaching students professional skills. Increasingly, employers are dropping the requirement of a college degree and are looking at student portfolios instead. “The real magic in an educational programme like this is in the project design,” said Michael Feldstein, CEO of Empirical Educator Project and publisher of e-Literate, an online journal about higher education. “Finding relevant content is the easy part.”The assumption of 19th century education was that building a student’s knowledge base is everything. But, today, with the biggest library that has ever existed at everyone’s fingertips (the internet), skills are what matter. The OS of education approach shifts 90% to 95% of a typical student’s time to applied learning. Content is not the problem. Learning how to learn is the future of education.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210329143743399
New collaborative research examines how changes in internal states, such as engagement, can affect the learning process using BCI technology. The collaborative research, published in Nature Neuroscience, examined how changes in internal states, such as arousal, attention, motivation, and engagement can affect the learning process using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. Findings suggest that changes in internal states can systematically influence how behavior improves with learning, thus paving the way for more effective methods to teach people skills quickly, and to a higher level of proficiency.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210401131158.htm
Evidence is mounting that women in academia have disproportionately been affected by the pandemic. Recent research points to new gender gaps in productivity and publishing, with fewer women publishing articles and manuscripts.[1] And in addition to these professional challenges, women in academia are also facing unique personal challenges during the pandemic, including balancing childcare and home responsibilities while working towards achieving tenure in an academic pipeline where it is already challenging for women to succeed.[2]
About 2.3 million women have exited the U.S. labor force since the pandemic began, compared with about 1.8 million men, according to government data. Many were driven out by layoffs in food service, health care, and hospitality — sectors that employ a majority of women and that have been most affected by the economic slowdown. Others left their jobs voluntarily, forced to stay home and care for children suddenly unable to attend school or daycare. As a result, female participation in the workforce has dropped to 57%, a level not seen since 1988. The situation is dire enough that U.S. President Joe Biden called it “a national emergency.” With schools reopening and vaccines becoming more widely available, there is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, but questions remain about whether working women will recover from such a deep setback.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/pandemic-set-female-leadership-back/
As students delay or reconsider attending college, academic departments must reinvent themselves. Universities have no other option but to explore immediate remedies. In 2021, the future of higher education looks bleak, with mounting student debt and lower enrollments exacerbated by economic shortfalls due to COVID-19. That dreary outlook will prevail for years to come if institutions insist on business as usual. The prototype for the reinvented institution values everyone, with a primary focus on student learning and affordability.
In a university sector used to gradual change, COVID-19 has brought an overnight revolution as numbers of overseas students fall and revenue suffers. When the government announced in June major changes to universities’ funding, including a 113 per cent price rise for humanities courses, Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie warned this could lead to “whole faculties gutted”. With undergraduates taking all their courses online during lockdown, it is likely that COVID-19 will further expedite a move away from the “traditional university experience”. The class of COVID-19 – the first to grow up as “digital natives” – are well prepared for this change.