Techno-News Blog

Robert Ubell, EdSurge

As the pandemic wanes, a chorus of commentators are offering predictions about what mark it will leave on higher education—with some forecasting colleges collapsing and others seeing increasing alliances with commercial partners. Most anticipate the growing centrality of online learning in university life. As a longtime proponent of online higher education, I thought I’d take a stab at imagining a couple of effects digital education might have on teaching and learning in the college classroom.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-05-05-colleges-have-embraced-online-learning-will-that-open-remote-teaching-opportunities-for-faculty

Anthony Lee, Matthew Hubbs, Campus Technology
While the global COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted industries around the world – especially in the ways they reacted to the unprecedented upheaval caused by these catastrophic conditions. Yet a number of opportunities in the education sector have been revealed amidst the hardships of what was for many a quick and chaotic transition to a destination well outside their comfort zone.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/05/05/how-covid-19-created-opportunities-for-teachers-and-students.aspx

Business Wire
Revenue grows 64% Year Over Year… Professional Certificates momentum drives registered learners to 82 million. Coursera today announced financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2021, ended March 31, 2021. “The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way we learn, teach, and work. Our strong first-quarter performance reflects the continued trend of individuals and institutions embracing online learning to develop skills for a digital future,” said Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. “We believe the digital transformation of higher education is only in the early innings, and we see many opportunities to drive growth for Coursera in the years ahead.”

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210504006267/en/Coursera-Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2021-Financial-Results

By Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

The way college degree programs are currently organized, “a lot of students are not going to finish. Can we break learning into smaller units and into meaningful credentials along the way?” says Holly Zanville, a research professor and co-director of the Program on Skills, Credentials, and Workforce Policy at George Washington University. “Shouldn’t they get something for their learning?” She’s leading the “Credential As You Go” charge along with Nan Travers, director of the Center for Leadership in Credentialing Learning at SUNY Empire State College, and Larry Good, president and CEO of the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-05-04-mapping-out-a-credential-as-you-go-movement-for-higher-education

FinancialBuzz.com

Thesurvey, conducted by The Digital Learning Pulse, includes responses from 772 teaching faculty, 514 academic administrators and 1,413 students who were registered at a U.S. higher education institution for both the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. The majority of students, 73%, “somewhat” or “strongly” (46%) agreed that they would like to take some fully online courses in the future. Online learning is also structured to save time and opens several doors to immersive learning. Instead of being passive, learners can choose what they need to learn quickly and easily, from wherever they are. Overall, the global online education market size is projected to reach USD 245.9 Billion by 2026, from USD 153.18 Billion in 2020 while witnessing a CAGR of 8.2% during 2021-2026, according to data provided by Valuates Reports.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acceptance-of-the-widespread-transition-to-online-learning-grows-301282754.html

Madison Foerderer, Sarah Hoffman, Natalie Schneider and J. Roxanne Prichard; EDUCAUSE Review

Based on our own and our peers’ disappointment with the quality of online learning in spring 2020, we hypothesized that there would be a difference in student satisfaction levels across the three modalities. We predicted that face-to-face learning would have the highest level of student satisfaction and online would have the lowest. However, the data showed otherwise. Even when students had no choice but to enroll in the format their school was offering, there was not a significant difference in overall student satisfaction levels across the three learning modalities. When asked to rank their level of agreement with the statement “Overall, I liked the course,” students’ average endorsement scores ranged between “neither agree nor disagree” and “somewhat agree” (see table 1).

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/4/predicting-levels-of-student-satisfaction-during-covid-19

Steve M. Baule, eCampus News

As the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic begin to relax, many institutions are going to step back and try to reestablish institutional norms. Many educational organizations have struggled through a year or more of remote learning. The instructional and technology systems of many organizations have been strained. Some of this stepping back may be as simple as trying to return to a pre-pandemic normal. More of this review may be revision and redevelopment of institutional strategic plans, technology plans, and other such planning documents.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/05/05/post-covid-plans-should-focus-on-program-values-and-evaluation/

Sabrina Tavernise, NY Times

The birthrate declined for the sixth straight year in 2020, the federal government reported on Wednesday, early evidence that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated a trend among American women of delaying pregnancy. Births were down most sharply at the end of the year, when babies conceived at the start of the pandemic would have been born.  Births declined by about 8 percent in December compared with the same month the year before, a monthly breakdown of government data showed. December had the largest decline of any month. Over the entire year, births declined by 4 percent, the data showed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/us/us-birthrate-falls-covid.html

Vinnie Witel, the Pioneer
California State University Chancellor Joseph Castro announced the 23 campus school system will offer online classes as well as in-person classes for those who wish to continue distance learning for the fall 2021 semester. According to the Fullerton Daily Titan, Castro was quoted as saying, “For those who might want to wait, I know each campus is going to accommodate those interests.” Castro also added, “I think it’s a time again, as we’ve been throughout this pandemic, is the time to be flexible, and reasonable, and compassionate.”

https://thepioneeronline.com/43342/lead/california-state-university-system-to-offer-online-classes-along-with-in-person-classes/

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
A new study out of MIT’s Sloan School of Management explores the use of ideas and tools from the gaming community to improve online teaching and student learning outcomes. Among the techniques highlighted: using strong narratives throughout lectures; providing students with constant streams of input via a variety of media; and giving students opportunities to communicate and join in the action.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/04/12/study-gamification-techniques-can-improve-online-teaching.aspx

Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Microsoft Education

A new whitepaper, “Reimagining higher education as a student-centered experience” by Microsoft Education, explores some post-covid trends impacting higher education, and how technology can help address them.

Trend 1: Students are becoming more diverse and so are their expectations of higher education’s role in their path to employment  Trend 2: Harnessing data and leveraging AI will increasingly help institutions provide more personalized experiences and operate with greater agility Trend 3: The integration of technology with pedagogy will enable more flexible, engaging, and inclusive learning experiences.

https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2021/04/engaging-all-higher-education-students-with-student-centric-approaches

Tom Haymes, eCampus News

Digital environments, like their physical counterparts, can offer great opportunities but, in order for them to be sustainable, we need a system to define and understand how different online interactions actually work. Understanding how different online interactions lead to and support learning is critical as learning becomes increasingly digital. I call this system the Four Stages of Zoom Enlightenment.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/05/03/the-4-stages-of-zoom-enlightenment/

Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Academic science is much more diverse than it was a generation ago, even if it still has a ways to go. That’s according to a new report on women, minorities and people with disabilities from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at the National Science Foundation. The share of academic jobs held by female doctorates in science, engineering and health fields increased from 26 percent in 1999 to 39 percent in 2019. Underrepresented minorities hold more of these jobs now than in 1999, but their share — 9 percent — is still “considerably less” than their share of the population, according to the NSF. By comparison, underrepresented minorities make up one-third of the U.S. The share of academic scientists with one or more disabilities also increased over the same period, to 9 percent. Their share of the general population is about 11 percent.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/04/federal-report-shines-light-historically-underrepresented-groups-science

Shannon O’Connor, eCampus News

Particularly in manufacturing, workforce education has not been technology-based. It traditionally takes place in the field and involves in-person instruction, one-on-one apprenticeship, and printed manuals. There exists a growing skills gap in trained, qualified workers. To solve this, higher education institutions are stepping in to fill the gap and programs are being developed that employ augmented and virtual reality to teach workers new skills. The team developing the virtual factory at OHIO is led by Dr. Jesús Pagán, an associate professor in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/05/04/workforce-development-goes-virtual-to-fill-critical-skills-gaps/

Brady Beard & Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, eCampus News

Over the past several decades, academic libraries have invested tremendously in digital services and resources to support research, teaching, and learning. When the pandemic hit, forcing colleges and universities across the country to shut down and limit in-person instruction, many libraries were left wondering how to similarly pivot their spaces–frequently and lovingly referred to by many as the “heart of the college”–to a digital format. In response, a number have turned to experimenting with technologies to simulate library space virtually. At Ithaka S+R, we’ve studied how some have employed tools that are commonly licensed institutionally–like Zoom, WebEx, and Google Hangouts–for hosting group study rooms and responding to reference questions. Others have branched out to more interactive tools like SpatialChat and InSpace where users can move around more freely.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/04/29/how-to-keep-the-library-at-the-heart-of-campus-from-a-distance/

Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed

Amid hearings, meetings and press conferences centered on plans by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to consolidate six universities, a new report details potential job losses for the public university system.In the week since the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education published its 400-plus-page plan, the system has already received feedback. Public concern also has been heightened by a new report on the economic impact of the consolidation and ongoing system redesign, indicating it could mean more than 1,500 job eliminations.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/03/pennsylvania-plan-consolidate-and-redesign-system-could-lead-1500-jobs-lost

Rukmini Callimachi, NY Times

With vaccinations on the rise, many colleges are planning in-person commencements, sowing frustration on campuses sticking to online ones. Many of the schools doing in-person ceremonies are putting in extensive safety measures, like the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, which is requiring graduates and their families to provide proof of vaccination, or else a negative coronavirus test, said the university’s president, Heidi M. Anderson.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/us/virtual-graduation-coronavirus.html

Holly Else, Nature

In 2018, an influential group of research funders announced a bold pledge: the scientists they fund should publish their peer-reviewed papers outside journal paywalls. The initiative, called Plan S, caused an instant uproar over its aim of ending journal subscription models — the means by which many scholarly publications have financed their existence. Its intended start date in 2020 was delayed, and its details were tweaked. But after much sparring over policy, the project formally began in 2021, with 25 funding agencies rolling out similar open-access (OA) mandates.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00883-6

University of Colorado Boulder

Provost Russ Moore and Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Rourke today announced CU Boulder’s Online Education Team, a collaboration of university experts that will “support faculty with exciting new opportunities to offer innovative, accessible and impactful online learning experiences,” according to Moore. “Our Online Education Team will empower our faculty to leverage their research, scholarship, and creative work for the benefit of our current students, as well as for learners in all phases of life and at all points of career, anywhere on the globe,” Moore said.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2021/04/30/announcing-next-steps-cu-boulders-online-education-strategy

Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed

Provosts are confident in the academic quality of their institutions, despite negative changes brought about by the pandemic, according to the 2021 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, published by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research. About one in four provosts said that their institution had cut faculty positions during the pandemic. They said most of the positions were adjuncts (67 percent), but also cut were nontenured, tenure-track faculty (19 percent).  More provosts from private institutions than public ones said that the humanities disciplines were disproportionately cut (33 percent versus 4 percent).

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/survey-shows-how-provosts-faced-pandemic

Tessa DeLaquil and Lizhou Wang, University World News

As national systems of higher education and individual higher education institutions grapple with loss of funds in this pandemic year, recent months have shown that the consequences may have dire implications, especially for doctoral education. By undervaluing the role of doctoral education in higher education, national higher education systems risk critical long-term damage, not only to higher education, but also to economic and human development.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210430131651833