Educational Technology

Maya Williams, the FAMUAN

As the semester begins to wind down, Florida A&M is asking for students to complete fall 2020 evaluation surveys for the FAMU Student Assessment of Instruction. The surveys ask students about the course climate and their abilities to grasp their course material. Due to the on-going pandemic, most classes this semester were converted to remote instruction. For many students, remote classes posed a challenge to be able to fully comprehend course material. Micaela Tart, a freshman at FAMU majoring in pre-nursing, is among the students who viewed remote learning as a challenge. “It is a struggle to focus with online classes and since I am a hands-on learner it hasn’t been easy grasping the course material,” Tart said.

http://www.thefamuanonline.com/2020/11/21/many-students-struggle-with-remote-learning/

Ellie Ashford, Community College Daily

Community colleges have seen an alarming 9.4% drop in enrollment this fall compared to fall 2019, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.  “Community colleges are down steeply across the board,” Shapiro said. Enrollments dropped 9.5% to 10% at rural and urban campus and 8.2% at suburban campuses. ​Associate degree enrollments declined 8.7% this fall compared to fall 2019. That follows a 2.4% drop last year.

https://www.ccdaily.com/2020/10/community-college-enrollment-plummets/

Jenna Schiferl, Post & Courier

The College of Charleston will not implement an optional pass-fail grading policy this semester, despite pleas from some students who say the change would alleviate anxiety and stress caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 4,500 people, or around 45 percent of the college’s student body, signed an online petition calling on the university to allow students the option to implement a pass-fail option for their fall 2020 courses instead of a traditional letter grade. Doing so, they said, would allow students to successfully complete their current coursework without fear and stress of it potentially negatively impacting their grade point average.

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/college-of-charleston-will-not-allow-pass-fail-grading-this-fall-despite-student-protests/article_a83c37aa-2b3f-11eb-adbe-d341316f1fcc.html

Course Hero

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend the college experience for students and educators, more than half of faculty are experiencing symptoms highly-correlated with workplace burnout according to a Course Hero study of more than 570 full- and part-time faculty at two- and four-year colleges and universities. Three out of four faculty reported significant stress as a result of challenges transitioning to new modes of teaching—the largest single source of stress for educators by a wide margin. Nearly two thirds said that challenges meeting the emotional and mental health needs of students caused significant stress. While stress was high at the onset of the pandemic, the research found that faculty anxiety appears to be increasing, with more faculty reporting peak stress now than at the beginning of the pandemic.

https://www.coursehero.com/blog/faculty-wellness-research/

George Lorenzo, Educational Pathways

All the data related to enrollment declines at colleges and universities in the U.S. point to several key issues and challenges. Here’s an overview of where and why enrollment numbers are still showing a downward trendline.

http://edpath.com/articles-g.htm

Brendan O’Malley, University World News
The digital divide off campus has been “catastrophic” for large groups of students around the world, but the return to campuses has also been “hit and miss” in different contexts, even in rich countries, according to Roberta Malee Bassett, the global tertiary lead and senior education specialist for the World Bank. “Persistence rates are likely to diminish,” Barrett said, “and will be disproportionate for at-risk and low-advantage students. The digital divide has been one of economic distribution as much as anything else.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201121084401266

Elena Cirlan and Tia Loukkola, University World News

There are many different definitions for micro-credentials. However, the majority state that a micro-credential is a small volume of learning certified by a credential. For instance, certificates, badges and some MOOCs (massive open online courses) are sometimes referred to as examples of micro-credentials. This is not a new phenomenon in our societies nor in the academic environment. But due to changing societal needs, globalisation and technology, micro-credentials have become more popular. As the need for upskilling and reskilling the labour force has gained importance, especially in the context of the recovery plans surrounding COVID-19, attention to micro-credentials has intensified.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201118105242280

Udacity

Now more than ever before, employers favor skills over degrees, and the skills learned through project-based learning mirror what employers are looking for. As we posted in our last blog, the 4th Industrial Revolution is reshaping technology, and 42% of the core skills needed to perform existing jobs will change. A massive upskill effort will be needed to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030 to get them ready for the new world of work. Project-based learning can help provide training that is focused on teaching critical thinking — figuring out all the steps needed to create a solution. As far as teaching modalities go, it offers numerous benefits to the students taking part.

https://blog.udacity.com/2020/11/project-based-learning-works-here-are-5-reasons-why.html

MEREDITH KOLODNER, Hechinger Report

The couple’s original $40,000 loan to cover the cost of their son and daughter attending public universities in Indiana, where the family lived at the time, has snowballed in those 18 years, with interest rates as high as 8.5 percent. Their bill now stands at more than $100,000.

https://hechingerreport.org/parent-plus-loan-stuck-in-it-until-i-die-parents-get-buried-by-college-debt-too/

BILL STEINIKE,eCampus News

As schools, colleges and universities navigate the new school year, teachers and administrators will be serving on the front lines of public health efforts to keep kids and communities safe from COVID-19 outbreaks. To do that, educators will need to do two things that public health officials struggle to do even when working with adults: ensure that social distancing is maintained and conduct effective contact tracing as suspected/confirmed cases arise.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/11/18/how-wearable-trackers-help-with-contact-tracing/

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)

Based on McKinsey’s 2017 projections, SREB reported that 44% of all work activities were potentially automatable from 2016 to 2030. As with most everything else, the pandemic altered these estimates. In May 2020, McKinsey and Company found that consumer and business digital adoption had advanced five years (by McKinsey’s previous projection) over just eight weeks at the beginning of the pandemic. The need for action to prepare today’s workforce for tomorrow’s possibilities could not be more urgent. If states can meet this moment, what they stand to gain is worth the effort. If states do not rise to the challenge, preparing their workforces for tomorrow’s uncertainties, the fallout for individuals and industries could be catastrophic.

https://www.sreb.org/publication/pandemics-dual-threat-vulnerable-workers

BY PRIYA HARINDRANATHAN, eCampus News

Although online courses provide access to higher education to students from diverse demographic backgrounds, the majority of colleges are opting for an in-person fall semester. In the following sections, we will examine, in light of the limitations of existing technology in online learning, why effective online instruction demands collaborative work of multi-disciplinary teams including instructors and other methodological experts.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/11/19/if-you-want-great-online-instruction-you-need-teamwork/

Rick Karlin, Times-Union

The New York Department of Labor has teamed up with the Coursera online training platform to allow people free access to nearly 4,000 job-training programs in areas like advanced manufacturing, health care and technology. The free access will also allow people to earn certificates as well as advance their skills at no cost. That should be a boon to unemployed and underemployed New Yorkers who are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant job losses.

https://www.timesunion.com/apple-entertainment/article/State-offers-free-online-career-training-through-15734436.php

Ashley A. Smith, EdSurge

Calbright College is adjusting and learning from past mistakes by focusing on hiring more faculty, building a better relationship with the other 115 community colleges across the state and fixing the student experience. As of Oct. 31, the college had 468 students enrolled, with 19 students completing one or more programs for a total of 22 certificates.

https://edsource.org/2020/after-one-year-calbright-college-makes-significant-changes-and-learns-from-mistakes

Abbie Veitch and Kelsey Carolan, American University Eagle

Uprooted from campus in a matter of days, American University students faced an unprecedented amount of stress when classes transitioned online, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But for students with disabilities, the switch posed a threat to their usual accomodations and learning habits that have been moulded for an in-person setting. The Academic Support and Access Center, which serves about 6,000 students a year, provides support for all students and more extensive accommodations for students with disabilities. When the University transitioned online in the spring, they had to adapt a virtual setting.

https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2020/11/students-with-disabilities-share-the-ups-and-downs-of-online-classes

Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning

“Although our world has changed over the last eight months, we can rely on the lessons we have learned from Yale’s online courses and programs,” said Lucas Swineford, executive director of digital education at Yale University. “We know that learners of all ages thrive when they focus on organization and learning goals. We also know that combating social isolation improves mental health and learning outcomes.” According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, more than 76 million students attended an elementary school, middle school, high school, college, or university during the fall 2020 semester.1 Many of these students have experienced some form of remote or online learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/7-Tips-for-Online-Learning

Core Spaces

A recent survey of over 1,500 college students throughout the United States reveals how Covid-19 has impacted this demographic, including their mental state, sentiment about remote learning, personal and family’s finances, and more. National student housing developer and manager Core Spaces emailed the survey to student residents at 23 of their properties across 16 cities in 14 states. The national analysis is the second that the developer has conducted since the beginning of the pandemic. Responses were collected from October 22 to October 30. “The survey data strongly suggests that the social restrictions to stop the spread of the pandemic has had a direct effect on the wellbeing of our students,” says Marc Lifshin, founder and chief executive officer of Core Spaces.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/11/17/2128653/0/en/National-Survey-Reveals-College-Students-Report-Subpar-Online-Learning-Experience-Mental-Health-and-Social-Impacts-of-the-Pandemic.html

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
As we prepare to launch another semester mostly online, we are better informed than we were in the spring and fall semesters. From experiences with rapidly applied pedagogies to better understanding of how our students’ radically altered lives impact their learning, we must adapt. First and foremost, we learned that we must be prepared for future pandemics, natural disasters or other breakdowns that disrupt our educational institutions and systems.  We know now that faculty and staff members are not immune from the impact of the pandemic. We are poised on a tidal wave of burnout.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/teaching-online-covid-crisis-what-we-have-learned