Techno-News Blog

Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

A new study of enormous scale supports what numerous smaller studies have demonstrated throughout the pandemic: female academics are taking extended lockdowns on the chin, in terms of their comparative scholarly productivity. Yes, comparative productivity. While other studies using different metrics show that women are publishing much less now than they were before the pandemic, this new paper finds something different: at least in terms of submissions to academic journals from the mega-publisher Elsevier, both men and women’s productivity actually increased during the first few months of the pandemic, relative to the same period of time in 2018 and 2019. But women’s productivity didn’t increase as much as men’s, meaning that women are still trailing behind male peers as a result of pandemic-era increased caregiving responsibilities.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/20/large-scale-study-backs-other-research-showing-relative-declines-womens-research

JILL BARSHAY, Hechinger Report
In a Swiss experiment, women assigned to male-dominated study groups were more likely to drop an economics class.  As part of an introductory economics class, Swiss students had the option to work in study groups with their peers. Behind the scenes, a researcher randomly assigned them to groups with different gender ratios. Something interesting happened when a female was the sole woman and the other three group members were men: she was 10 percentage points more likely to drop the course.

https://hechingerreport.org/when-women-studied-with-women-they-persisted-study-finds/

Maurits Van Rooijen, University World News

The simple truth is that more than 95% of students in tertiary education are focused on a professional career and they (if not their sponsors, parents and taxpayers) tend to measure success primarily in terms of employment.  Though it would be unreasonable to assume that well-designed games offer the ultimate solution, there is now a wealth of evidence that diagnostic games can be effective in guiding individuals at any stage in life, in helping to clarify their learning and professional preferences.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201014062337394

Brendan O’Malley, University World News

The American Council on Education (ACE) has sent a letter on behalf of more than 50 other higher education associations to the White House asking United States President Donald Trump to withdraw the controversial executive order on ‘Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping’, arguing that it has caused ‘enormous confusion’ on campuses and in workplaces. The executive order, which applies to federal contractors and grantees, including colleges and universities, will prohibit contractors from using concepts the administration specifies as ‘divisive’ forms of race or sex ‘stereotyping’ or ‘scapegoating’ in their workplace training programmes.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201017110633690

Isha Trivedi and Vita Fellig, GW Hatchet
Professors said they have adapted well to virtual learning, but the threat of budget cuts has damaged their confidence in GW. Faculty said last semester that online learning forced them to adapt their teaching methods and develop new teaching strategies, and some struggled to replicate arts and science activities. At the start of this semester, professors said they were “excited” about the online fall semester, but almost halfway through the fall, they said they are bogged down by the stress of school-wide layoffs and other financial cuts.

https://www.gwhatchet.com/2020/10/18/we-need-more-communication-faculty-adapt-to-virtual-learning-but-worry-about-layoffs/

Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

Since March, Coursera has allowed any college to request free access to its library of course content for any of its students to use, with a free version of what it calls Coursera for Campus. And the giveaway led thousands of colleges to sign up, and “many tens of institutions” to start assigning parts of Coursera courses as part of for-credit classes, says Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO. “It’s a little like courseware,” he added. “I think that U.S. institutions are realizing, ‘Why am I trying to do this all myself?’” he adds. “They’re saying, ‘I can’t build this much online content. I can’t keep up with how fast things are changing. It’s a form of collaboration, I should actually take advantage of these other courses as part of my teaching program.’

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-10-15-will-the-pandemic-lead-more-colleges-to-offer-credit-for-moocs-coursera-is-pushing-for-it