Educational Technology

Faye L. Lesht, David Schejbal, Roxanne Shiels, Unbound

Unlike traditional programs, students of online programs often work independently and may never step foot on the campuses from which they earn their degrees. These students can make great alumni, but they are often overlooked by the institutions from which they earn their online degrees. This paper lends insight into factors influencing student satisfaction in online courses and ways to connect the online student experience with alumni development both while students are earning their degrees online and after graduation.

https://unbound.upcea.edu/engagement/student-services/alumni-relations/students-of-online-programs-make-great-alumni/

Howard Aldridge, Tomorrow’s Professor

For the foreseeable future, our connections and communications will be mediated by facial coverings and spatial distance. In classrooms, faculty and students will be wearing face masks. For remote instruction, faculty and students will be watching each other via webcams and smart phones. Under these conditions, what can instructors do to establish and sustain connections with students? Based on what I’ve learned so far from blogposts, research articles, and my own experience, I have some suggestions for adapting to the new realities. My colleagues at UNC-CH were particularly helpful in sharing their teaching experiences during the transition to remote emergency teaching this past spring.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1813

the Conversation

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a rapid shift to online learning at all Australian universities. This presents unique opportunities for both educators and students, but also new challenges. Recent media reports suggest online learning might not be meeting the needs of all students. In particular, university students with disabilities report they are struggling with online learning that lacks the features they need to fully participate.

https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803

Merritt Neale and Matthew Tryniecki, EDUCAUSE Review

The critical importance of maintaining strong data privacy and governance policies and protocols has only increased with the shift toward a remote delivery model in higher education due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Although there is an abundance of ethically neutral or potentially positive uses of students’ personal information, there are at least as many questionable, or “gray,” areas not covered by current legislation. In these instances, higher education leaders are forced to make difficult decisions.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/8/the-post-pandemic-evolution-of-student-data-privacy

Danny Palmer, ZD Net

Not only has the number of ransomware attacks increased, but ransomware has continued evolving, with some of the most popular forms of ransomware last year having disappeared while new forms of ransomware have emerged. In some cases, these are even more disruptive and damaging. “Looking into the evolution of last year’s ransomware families and how they’ve changed this year, most of them have actually gone down in numbers. This year’s popular ransomware families are not last year’s popular ransomware families,” Liviu Arsene, global cybersecurity researcher at Bitdefender told ZDNet.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-huge-rise-in-attacks-this-year-as-cyber-criminals-hunt-bigger-pay-days/

Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

This month Gardner came out with a different kind of book, one where he looks inward. It’s a memoir called “A Synthesizing Mind.” In it, he reflects on the interdisciplinary work he did that led to his theory of multiple intelligences. And he has suggestions for how to encourage that kind of broad thinking so that others can make new insights across whatever fields they’re working in. He argues that we need more of these kinds of thinkers in this challenging moment of polarization and pandemic.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-09-01-howard-gardner-on-his-theory-of-multiple-intelligences-and-lessons-for-covid-19-era

Salil S, Deccan Herald

If you have ever used an exercise app, you know how a screen-based app prompts you to do non-screen physical activity. Similarly, the design of learning activities shall prompt the student to do non-screen activities too. The screen becomes only an instruction point, touch point, and reporting point of each activity. The way is to ensure sufficient interaction, appropriate activities, and appropriately curated content leading to the desired learning outcome. Let us step-out and witness the departure from the misunderstanding of teaching as talking.

https://www.deccanherald.com/supplements/dh-education/distance-learning-sans-the-screen-883963.html

Graham Glass, Training Journal

Any successful training programme has at least three intertwined aspects: content, time, and people. It has to provide the right content, at the right time, to the right people. To achieve this – whether through traditional, instructor-led training or online training – talent development professionals have to personalise learning experiences based on employees’ various backgrounds and differences in knowledge and experience and align them with the desired learning objectives.

https://www.trainingjournal.com/articles/features/three-steps-successful-online-learning

JOHN WOODS, Campus Technology

COVID-19 is changing the future of online learning—and smart institutional leaders will pay attention to what students need learn and succeed.
As a growing list of colleges and universities reverse course from their previous plans and opt for a fully-remote, online learning approach instead, the risk that many will approach the transition focused more on mere survival than success is growing every day. Granted, no institution should be expected to assemble a comprehensive online learning infrastructure overnight. Most of the schools that began investing in online education before COVID-19 envisioned it as at least a five- to 10-year project. The pioneers in online learning have been innovating for decades and still have not perfected every aspect of it. However, there are some initial steps in the right direction that schools can take as they work to design and refine their online learning infrastructure.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/09/07/a-strong-online-learning-infrastructure-is-key-to-higher-eds-future/

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Online learning can be extra challenging as students often find themselves with a lack of motivation. It is difficult to seek help when struggling with work, which can lead to students sometimes feeling alone in their studies. However, there are a few ways in which students can improve their results. We will be discussing 6 basic ingredients that can lead to online learning success.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/6-basic-ingredients-to-online-learning-success/

Mary Wright, Tomorrow’s Professor

Here, we outline five key starting points of anti-racist classrooms, designed to magnify the transformative impact of education but also to mitigate the negative harm. Borrowing from Kendi’s (2019, p. 18) definition of anti-racist policy, we define “anti-racist teaching” as intentional syllabus design, class content, or pedagogy that creates or develops racial equity, with applications for face-to-face and remote/hybrid teaching environments. We also commit to incorporating these principles into our own practice, in our work to support teaching and learning at Brown.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1812

GRACIE THOMPSON, Eastern Echo

Six EMU professors hosted an online seminar, “Let’s Talk About Online Learning,” on Thursday, August 27 to answer questions and acknowledge the difficulties that students may face during a virtual fall 2020 semester. Due to COVID-19 concerns, most EMU classes are being held online through Zoom, Canvas, or other online applications. This has created a rising number of questions, problems and worries for students who are forced to face this new method of learning. In response to these concerns, Eastern Michigan University held the Aug. 27 webinar, sending an email on Wednesday, August 26 inviting students to register and attend.  The webinar was recorded and is available for public viewing on Youtube.

http://www.easternecho.com/article/2020/09/lets-talk-about-online-learning-seminar-answers-student-questions-about-online-learning

Katie Wheatley, Forge Today

It’s a sad reality that the number of students experiencing mental health problems is likely to increase as a result of Covid-19 and the impact it’s had, and will continue to have, on our university experiences. However, the University of Sheffield must be commended for the number of support services they are offering and promoting. The Student Advice Centre will be providing advice via email, phone or Google meet as they cannot offer in person appointments. The counselling service offers drop-in sessions, appointments, workshops and group sessions depending on what students feel comfortable with. You can also attend a Student Access to Mental Health (SAMHS) triage appointment and receive a personalised plan. For those who’d rather remain anonymous, the university promotes Sheffield Nightline.

http://forgetoday.com/2020/09/05/online-learning-and-mental-health/

Adriana Ruvalcaba, the Runner

CSU Bakersfield, like many other universities across the nation, began the fall 2020 semester by adopting a virtual learning method to keep students and faculty safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent switch from on-campus to online learning has caused many students, including myself, stress on whether they will adapt to this new education landscape. But does anyone miss being on campus? Because I don’t.  I am glad to finally let go of these time-consuming and frustrating school rituals. 

https://therunneronline.com/27462/opinion/online-learning-the-advantages-of-never-having-to-step-foot-on-campus/

Times Higher Education

In a panel session at the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit 2020, academic and industry leaders from across four continents met to discuss best practice for digital transformation policies and the resources that have proven most effective since campuses were forced to close or reduce their capacity to teach in-person. Rorden Wilkinson, pro vice-chancellor of education and student experience at UNSW Sydney led the conversation by saying that it was clear students were “responding well” to working online, but that a key focus going forward would be the teaching of soft skills. “Making sure that students authentically network and collaborate” was important when limited to digital communication platforms, he explained. “The two things we have to work out in tandem are: how do we assess and how do we record those skills in our students?”

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/coursera/p/helping-universities-learn-change-and-grow-digital-transformation#

Adam Millsap, Forbes

The pandemic has permanently altered the labor market and many people currently unemployed or furloughed will never return to their old jobs. Instead, they will need to learn new skills to find new jobs in growing sectors of the economy. Businesses, non-profits, and higher-education institutions are partnering to provide the training people need to succeed in the post-pandemic economy and beyond.  It has always been important for workers to learn new skills throughout their careers. When skills stagnate, careers stagnate, and that’s especially true in our fast-paced service economy driven by rapid technological change.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammillsap/2020/09/04/upskilling-workers-for-the-post-pandemic-economy/

Yojana Sharma, University World News

The demands of the past six to eight months have been unprecedented for university leaders steering their institutions through the COVID-19 pandemic, planning for an economic squeeze that could heavily impact teaching and research and responding to societal upheaval caused by both the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement sparking demands for change on campuses around the world .

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200904122429941

Andrew Singer, CoinTelegraph
Blockchain can play its part in the education sector — record-keeping in 2–3 years and then adoption by the labor market? In the post-pandemic world, individuals will need to seize ownership and control of their educational credentials — documents like degrees and transcripts — from schools, universities and governments. That notion received key support last week from the American Council on Education in a study funded by the United States Department of Education focusing on the use of blockchain in higher education.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-can-disrupt-higher-education-today-global-labor-market-tomorrow

Bill Detwiler, ZDNet

Tasks that were once conducted face-to-face, now have to be accomplished remotely. Blockchain could help schools perform some of these administrative tasks with more security and transparency. Technology makes the shift possible, but challenges abound.  ASU has a goal of supporting 100,000 online learners by 2025. They are already have 55,000 students. Blockchain will play a key role in helping them meet that goal by allowing ASU to better track and certify each student’s “learning accomplishments,” Kidewell said.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/blockchain-could-help-colleges-like-asu-provide-better-more-secure-online-education/