Techno-News Blog

Annelies Goger and Chenoah Sinclair, Brookings Institution

One of these holistic solutions is to adapt apprenticeship for today’s economy and make it a more integral part of our education and training ecosystem in order to increase access to quality jobs, especially for young people—a group that has suffered the greatest job losses in the current recession. Apprenticeships, which combine on-the-job and classroom training over several years, can help people get a foot in the door to the labor market while also increasing access to higher education. They also help meet employers’ needs for a workforce with applied, technical, and problem-solving skills. Many peer countries are farther along in pursuing such education reform that promotes ongoing learning for a fast-paced 21st century economy.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2021/01/27/apprenticeships-are-an-overlooked-solution-for-creating-more-access-to-quality-jobs/

Rory McGreal, World Economic Forum

By 2025, approximately 100 million learners will be capable of higher education but won’t have access to it. Blockchain can support the dissemination of open educational resources on a global scale. But using blockchain in education has challenges, such as the legality of data ownership, so more research is needed before it becomes widespread.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/higher-education-blockchain-united-nations-international-educational-resources-equality

David Green, et al: Edcuase Review

Including students in course redesign pays dividends to the institution, the faculty involved, and the students themselves. A central component of the faculty support team was the medical education student fellow, who served as a liaison between course coordinators and the educational technology team. Fellows were recruited annually via a national search and had already completed at least the first two years of medical school. Each fellow served for one full calendar year and received a stipend with travel funding. During their year at UMMSM, fellows became trusted members of the internal medical education community and regularly interacted with the academic deans.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2021/1/collaborative-medical-education-students-as-partners-during-technology-enhanced-course-redesign

Knowledge at Wharton

A pair of newly published research papers co-authored by Wharton management professor David H. Hsu benchmark and explore commercialization drivers of academic science. The papers find that university research has produced pathbreaking innovations across many disciplines, many of which have been commercialized successfully. Yet, on average, universities capture 16% of the value they help create through licensing revenues or equity stakes in the startups their research spawns. Furthermore, some researchers and universities are much better able to commercialize their discoveries compared to others, even holding constant the discovery itself.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/universities-try-capture-value-research/

Antone M. Goyak, Faculty Focus

I love teaching online. I love the challenge of moving a student from, “I am really nervous about this class!” to “Thank you for your support this semester–I made it!” I love thinking of novel ways to connect with my virtual learners and make them feel cared for and part of a community, even though we will most likely never meet face-to-face. I love being active in removing their roadblocks to achievement. I also love helping a struggling student make it successfully to the end of a term, like someone coming alongside a marathoner, putting their arm around them, and helping them cross the finish line in a moment of exhaustion or despair.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-assessment-grading-and-feedback/our-online-learners-need-more-empathy-and-less-criticism/

Jordan Friedman, Josh Moody, US News

In a world shaped by the coronavirus pandemic, online education shined bright in 2020. As campuses closed, colleges shifted their courses to remote delivery and finished out the semester online. Shifting programs online allows colleges to cast a broader net and not rely on local or regional students to boost their headcount, says Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor for online learning at the University of Illinois–Springfield. Phil Regier, university dean for educational initiatives and CEO of EdPlus at Arizona State University, adds: “Students should expect to see more STEM offerings in physical sciences and data science, focus areas in social justice, and study areas that focus on the ethics and rules surrounding media and data consumption.”

https://news.yahoo.com/discover-14-current-online-learning-130000087.html

Tanya Basuarchive, MIT Technology Review
Every morning, as Nandita Mohan sifts through her emails, her college pals are in her ear—recounting their day, reminiscing, reflecting on what it’s like to have graduated in the throes of a pandemic. Mohan, a 23-year-old software programmer in the Bay Area, isn’t on the phone, nor is she listening to an especially personal podcast; she’s using Cappuccino, an app that takes voice recordings from a closed group of friends or family and delivers them as downloadable audio. “Just hearing all of us makes me value our friendship, and hearing their voices is a game-changer,” she says.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/25/1016723/the-future-of-social-networks-might-be-audio-clubhouse-twitter-spaces/

Stephanie Mlot, PC Mag

Hunches rolled out last year, reminding users to lock the front door or turn off the basement light if Alexa senses you forgot. A recent update, however, lets customers choose to have the virtual assistant proactively control compatible devices, instinctively starting the robot vacuum or adjusting the thermostat when it deems necessary. “Customers can choose to have Alexa proactively act on Hunches without needing to ask,” Amazon says. “That means customers have fewer things to think about at home, so they can spend their time on more meaningful things.”

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-alexa-starts-proactively-making-decisions-for-you

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive

Colleges would receive nearly $40 billion in direct coronavirus aid in Democrats’ latest relief package, the largest single infusion of federal funding institutions have seen since the pandemic began. Nonprofit and public colleges would need to devote at least half their cut of the funds to student grants. For-profit institutions would need to dedicate all the money they receive to students. The nearly $2 trillion spending bill doesn’t limit which students can get relief money. The House education committee as of Tuesday evening was reviewing its section of the bill, which is expected to pass. The entire package would head to the Senate floor for an expedited vote after the House signs off.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/democrats-propose-40b-in-higher-education-relief-funding/594785/

Graduate Connections Newsletter, Tomorrow’s Professor

James Lang, Associate Professor of English at Assumption College in Massachusetts, offers practical advice to fellow faculty members about how to prevent cheating by focusing on learning in Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (Harvard University Press 2013). First, Lang offers a theory of cheating (Part I: Building a Theory of Cheating); next he clarifies the motivations for cheating and how to take on cheating indirectly by focusing on learning (Part Two: The (Nearly) Cheating-free Classroom); and finally, he briefly offers advice on how to address cheating once it occurs in the classroom (Part Three: Speaking about Cheating).

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1842

Alex Engler, Brookings Institution

This year is poised to be a highly impactful period for the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). The Trump administration successfully pushed for hundreds of millions of dollars in AI research funding, while also encouraging the formalization of federal AI practices. President Joe Biden will start his new administration with federal agencies already working to comply with executive guidance on how to use and regulate AI. Beyond passing the AI spending increases, Congress also tasked the White House with creating a new National AI Initiative Office to orchestrate these developments.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/6-developments-that-will-define-ai-governance-in-2021/

LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend the college experience for students and educators, more than half of faculty are experiencing dramatically more stress and symptoms of workplace burnout, according to new research. The Course Hero study of more than 570 full- and part-time faculty at two- and four-year colleges and universities examined how the pandemic has affected faculty views toward the academic work environment and job satisfaction. “The pandemic has had far-reaching implications on the day-to-day work of faculty, as well as on their long-term career trajectories, professional aspirations, and views on the future of higher education,” said Tara Graham, Vice President of Educator Community and Partnerships at Course Hero. “Student success is tightly linked to the mental and emotional health and professional success of instructors. This research signals an urgency to expand the types of support offered to both students and faculty during this extraordinary time in education.”

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/01/20/faculty-stress-is-soaring-as-covid-drags-on/

April Glaser, NBC

Now, as the president’s choice to lead the agency, she’s likely to pick up the network neutrality baton again — which prohibited internet service providers from charging websites to reach users at faster speeds. When Chairman Tom Wheeler ran the agency under Obama, Rosenworcel boldly pushed him to create more aggressive network neutrality rules, a stance he eventually adopted and led to the network neutrality protections that were passed in 2015. And when Pai came to lead the agency with the intention to take a “weed wacker” to net neutrality in 2017, she didn’t sit quietly either.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/biden-picks-jessica-rosenworcel-run-fcc-n1255048

Justin B Hollander, University World News
Promises for a coronavirus vaccine and eventual herd immunity mean that the autumn 2021 semester at colleges and universities might start to feel normal again. But after almost a year of online and hybrid teaching, can we ever really get back to how things were before COVID-19? Do we even want to? If there’s anything truly endemic to higher education, it is probably its grounding in tradition. Few other industries regularly dress up their staff in robes (for graduation), continue to support massive libraries of hard copy books or celebrate bizarre and antiquated rituals surrounding odd events like baccalaureate or investitures.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210118070559840

KATHARINE BENTHAM, eCampus News

In a landscape where online instruction has become more commonplace due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some faculty face challenges associated with operating in an online environment. Even to those remote instruction veterans, there is certainly an element of frustration that can exist when it comes to finding unique ways to engage students as an online instructor. The following 5 tips can help you to be an innovative online instructor who engages students:

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/01/21/5-ways-to-be-an-innovative-online-instructor/

St. John’s University

Student success is not only a cornerstone principle of St. John’s University—it is the primary research focus for Ceceilia Parnther, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in Administrative and Instructional Leadership in The School of Education. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt shift in teaching modalities, Dr. Parnther was eager to uncover the virtues of remote learning. “I love the online environment,” Dr. Parnther stressed. “The modality provides an opportunity to express myself creatively and to support my students in doing so as well. We are also able to engage and work with experts from all over the country.”

https://www.stjohns.edu/about/news/2021-01-21/faculty-focus-st-johns-professor-embraces-challenges-online-learning

Michael B. Horn, Christensen Institute

As many colleges and universities face not only the financial strains stemming from COVID-19, but also the challenges of a broken business model that was in peril before the pandemic, many have sought to dig themselves out by launching new programs that generate new revenue. But a new report from Burning Glass shows shocking failure rates from that strategy over the last several years. Titled “Bad Bets,” the report reveals that a stunning number—two-thirds—of new programs launched on the heels of the Great Recession were graduating fewer than ten students a year by 2018. Roughly half were graduating five or fewer students, and 30% reported zero degrees. This matters because, as the report makes clear, launching new programs costs money. And it’s money that colleges in many cases are hemorrhaging.

https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/colleges-weighed-down-by-failed-program-launches/

Christensen Institute

Most schools and programs wholeheartedly agree that relationships matter. But far fewer actually measure students’ social capital. Oftentimes, relationships, valuable as they may be, are treated as inputs to learning and development rather than outcomes in their own right. In turn, schools routinely leave students’ access to relationships and networks to chance. To address this gap, a host of early innovators across K–12, postsecondary, and workforce development are making important strides toward purposefully building and measuring students’ social capital in an effort to expand access to opportunity. Drawing on those emerging practices, this paper offers a framework for measuring social capital grounded in both research and practice.

https://whoyouknow.org/measurement-report/

Rory McGreal, the Conversation

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared that free digitalized teaching and learning materials known as open educational resources are essential for increasing access for global learners. These materials are key to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. Rorden Wilkinson, professor of international political economy, discusses the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education. The technology known as blockchain has also been recognized as an important resource to help achieve strategic development goals. Through the use of blockchain, it could be possible to ensure the availability of more affordable, equitable and quality educational content internationally.

https://theconversation.com/how-blockchain-could-help-the-world-meet-the-uns-global-goals-in-higher-education-152885

Manchester Ink Link

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) has announced the launch of its first MicroBachelor Programs, also known as the “SNHUx Programs.” The programs, conducted in collaboration with edX, provides offerings in business analytics and data management with Python and SQL for $498 per course. Pending admission, the courses can also be apply up to six credits toward associate’s and bachelor’s degrees at SNHU.

https://manchesterinklink.com/snhu-launches-microbachelor-programs/