Techno-News Blog

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP

Michelle Holder, a labor economist at John Jay College, said it’s unlikely that many retail workers and others whose jobs are gone for good will find work this year, given that the viral outbreak will hold back hiring until a vaccine is widely available. “It’s definitely going to be a drag on the economy,” she said. Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago, estimates that even after the virus has been brought under control, the proportion of people working from home will triple compared with pre-pandemic levels. That could result in the shuttering of many restaurants, coffee shops and other downtown businesses. The real estate data firm Zillow said last week that most of its 5,400 employees will now be allowed to work from home indefinitely.

https://apnews.com/89992979ca3c3ba72eb2cd31a9ca0e5d

Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Support for non-tenure-track faculty members continues to be a concern amid pandemic-related cutbacks and pushback over how some campuses plan to reopen. A faculty industry group this week put out a list of principles and recommendations for institutions to protect those instructors, calling for them to get paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, and extended access to rehire or promotion opportunities. The ideas come as calls for greater shared governance grow across the sector in light of the ongoing health crisis.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/higher-ed-group-offers-ideas-for-supporting-contingent-faculty/583413/

A Q&A with Travis Humble, Campus Technology

Quantum computing is a new approach to the ways we could build computers and solve problems. This approach uses quantum mechanics that support the most fundamental theories of physics. We’ve had a lot of success in understanding quantum mechanics — it’s the technology that lasers, transistors, and a lot of things that we rely on today were built on. But it turns out there’s a lot of untapped potential there: We could take further advantage of some of the features of quantum physics, by building new types of technologies.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/08/10/quantum-computing-for-the-next-generation-of-computer-scientists-and-researchers.aspx

Eileen Brown, ZD Net

Los Angeles, CA-based social content company Fullscreen surveyed a panel of more than 500 18 to 36-year-olds to determine their behaviors, habits and emotions when it comes to coping with the “new normal” of COVID-19 and going back to school in the fall. Online learning will form some part of classes this year, and this way of learning seems to be completely acceptable to returning students. According to the report, very few students (3%) are unwilling to enroll in online-only classes if it is unsafe for colleges and universities to open. And while 44% of college students are completely open to online learning, almost all of them (43%) of students expect a discount in tuition from their college or university.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/back-to-school-college-students-want-a-tuition-discount-for-online-learning/

Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes

It’s very likely that you’re reading this from your home—even if you’re working. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, many of us are finding that the new normal means not leaving the house, or at least not for work anyway. How dramatic are the numbers? A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report found that of all those employed in May, 35.2% worked entirely from home, compared to just 8.2% in February. Further, a whopping 71.7% of US workers who could work from home did so in May. Some folks who are staying home do so for safety and convenience, while others are required by their employer or the state or local government to remain at home; in Pennsylvania, for example, by Order of the Governor, “Telework Must Continue Where Feasible.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/08/12/taxes-vpns-and-office-hours-the-ultimate-forbes-guide-to-working-from-home/

Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed

Enter into this picture the growth of alternative online credentials and scaled online degrees. Keep in mind that the schools that are pioneering these programs are mostly colleges and universities with national and sometimes global brands. Increasingly, working adults will have a choice of either enrolling in a traditional (often online) master’s program from a college or university that is known mostly in the area in which they live (regional brand), or a non-degree online certificate or an affordable scaled online master’s degree from a nationally or globally known university (elite brand).

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/alternative-credentials-scaled-degrees-and-new-higher-ed-matthew-effect

Jeffrey R. Young and Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

These arrangements, often called “inclusive access” programs, tend to stir up controversy—and sometimes even lawsuits—when colleges adopt them. On this episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we examine why that is. We discuss the changing economics of textbook publishing, analyze who benefits most from bulk book deals, and take a closer look at a new textbook subscription program at the University of California at Davis, hearing from both an excited administrator and a skeptical student.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-07-28-why-it-s-so-hard-to-lower-the-cost-of-textbooks

Robert Farrington, Forbes

While the textbook industry would obviously hate for that to happen, the realities of pursuing higher education in the midst of a pandemic might bring this change regardless. Like it or not, students attending school virtually don’t have a lot of incentive to purchase a big, bulky textbook when most of their materials are presented online. With that in mind, maybe — just maybe — Covid-19 will actually have a positive impact in this tiny part of our lives. If online school could bring down textbook prices, it would be a huge win for college students who desperately need a break.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2020/08/07/will-online-college-courses-help-reduce-textbook-prices/#459ec1fc133c

American Enterprise Institute

Forward-thinking institutions will recognize that the pandemic has accelerated preexisting demographic and financial challenges to their model and will translate necessary, short-term modifications in course delivery, student services, academic calendars, and pricing and fee structures into lasting reforms.

https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/college-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-challenges-facing-american-higher-education/

Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
Colleges and universities are beginning to release the results of coronavirus tests done on students and employees upon their return to campus. Some institutions — including the University of Kentucky, the University of Washington and West Virginia University — also have public dashboards showing how many coronavirus cases the tests are turning up. These efforts can encourage colleges to be more transparent, but officials should also explain what the data means and how they’re using it to make decisions, experts say.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-begin-releasing-coronavirus-test-results-ahead-of-fall/583336/

Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive

Although the pandemic has been a boon for distance education, online program managers can still expect headwinds. On the heels of a turbulent year, 2U appears to have turned a corner. The past three months have brought “unprecedented demand” to the online program management (OPM) company’s entire suite of offerings, its CEO, Chip Paucek, said on a call with investors last week. This marks a shift from last year, when 2U’s stock tumbled after company officials said they expected to launch fewer graduate degree programs and have smaller program sizes going forward.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/2u-reports-unprecedented-demand-but-challenges-lurk-ahead-for-opms/582902/

Purdue

COVID-19 has changed the outlook for education, highlighting the potential for online learning and the need for more personalized learning options for students, according to a Purdue University College of Education professor. William Watson, associate professor of learning design and technology, said student education levels are more likely to be spread all along the spectrum this school year based on what educational support they received at home.

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2020/Q3/online,-personalized-learning-considered-the-future-for-education-in-wake-of-pandemic.html

Mike Brown, LendEDU

Not only has outstanding student loan debt ballooned to $1.67 trillion, but the coronavirus pandemic has students and parents weighing the true value of higher education and the financial burden of student loan debt that usually comes with earning a degree. This year, we found that burden continues to increase as the average borrower from the Class of 2019 left campus with $29,076 in student loan debt, an increase from the $28,565 owed by the average borrower from the Class of 2018.

https://lendedu.com/student-loan-debt-by-school-by-state-2020/

Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
Researchers at MIT’s Sloan School of Management have developed a new software platform for having private, on-the-spot conversations online. Called Minglr, the open source tool is designed to replicate the kinds of interactions people might have before and after meetings, in the lobby during breaks of conferences and around the office coffee machine, in a virtual environment. “By making these interactions possible online, systems like Minglr can further boost the desirability and feasibility of remote work, learning, and professional networking,” the university said in a news announcement.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/08/05/mit-develops-open-source-tool-to-support-spontaneous-online-conversations.aspx

John O’Brien, EDUCAUSE

Amid the unsettling uncertainties, two important trends that started well before fall have accelerated and intensified in the shadow of the pandemic. We should work to ensure these trends continue long after the current crisis has calmed. Amid the unsettling uncertainties, two important trends that started well before fall have accelerated and intensified in the shadow of the pandemic. We should work to ensure these trends continue long after the current crisis has calmed. Digital transformation and wellness are two important trends that have accelerated and intensified in the pandemic milestone of 2020.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/8/making-bets-for-fall-two-important-trends

Mordecai I. Brownlee, EdSurge

The truth is, while many institutions have used the idea of “innovation” as a marketing ploy, the pandemic has exposed the lack of innovation in academe. But student retention and persistence in the remote, online environment can be improved—if faculty are better prepared to creatively deliver engaging instruction that is relevant to today’s job market.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-08-06-after-the-pandemic-higher-education-can-t-afford-to-go-back-to-normal

LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
A new resource from Indiana University (IU) offers a look at some of the most important factors that make online learning a success. When IU closed physical classes and moved to online instruction, the eLearning Research and Practice Lab started work to gauge undergraduate students’ and instructors’ online learning experiences via a full-census survey. While the trends and recommendations that emerged from that survey aren’t intended to evaluate the university’s online learning success, they do play an important role in helping stakeholders gain insight into the practices and policies that may help to guide their planning for fall.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/08/10/4-recommendations-for-online-learning-this-fall/

Walter Hudson, Diverse Education
The University of Kentucky is partnering with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to establish a research initiative focused on education equity, civil rights and social justice. The initiative, which will be housed in the university’s College of Education, will support the NAACP’s work in ensuring that all disadvantaged students, particularly students of color, have access to quality teaching, equitable resources and a robust academic curriculum, said university officials.

https://diverseeducation.com/article/186876/

Sarah Wood, Diverse Education
A new brief from the Committee for Economic Development of the Conference Board (CED) provides recommendations to policymakers for how to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the higher education system. The brief, “Developing the Future Workforce: Revitalizing Postsecondary Education and Training After COVID-19,” lays out the challenges faced by institutions during the pandemic and recommends ways to improve postsecondary education and workforce training in a post-pandemic society.

https://diverseeducation.com/article/185717/

Eric Siegel, Predictive Analytics World

Machine learning is booming. It reinvents industries and runs the world. According to Harvard Business Review, machine learning is “the most important general-purpose technology of our era.” But while there are so many how-to courses for hands-on techies, there are practically none that also serve business leaders – a striking omission, since success with machine learning relies on a very particular business leadership practice just as much as it relies on adept number crunching.

https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/machinelearningtimes/watch-3-videos-from-courseras-new-machine-learning-for-everyone/11555/