Educational Technology

Stephanie Saul and Shawn Hubler, NY Times

With nearly a year of coronavirus experience behind them, leaders at Michigan and other U.S. universities ushered in the new term pledging not to repeat the errors of last year, when infection rates soared on campuses and in the surrounding communities. A New York Times effort has recorded more than 397,000 cases and at least 90 deaths connected to campuses since the pandemic began. The foundation of most university plans for the spring semester is built on ramped-up testing to quickly identify infected students before they display symptoms, then place them in isolation to prevent the virus from spreading.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/us/colleges-covid.html

Jennifer Gonzolez, Cult of Pedagogy

t’s hard to imagine a time in recent history when we had more distractions, more challenges, more stuff to think about that is way more important than technology. But as someone reminded me earlier today, the show must go on. You still have work to do. You still have students who need an education. And the tools in this year’s Teacher’s Guide to Tech can help. Because technology changes so quickly, I update the guide every year, and when I do, I also put together a list of tools I think are worth checking out in the upcoming year. Here are my six picks for 2021.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/6-ed-tech-tools-to-try-in-2021/

Kevin Hogan, Marketscale

Less than a decade after publishing its first free, openly licensed textbook, OpenStax — Rice University’s educational technology initiative — has saved students $1.2 billion. In this episode of Edtech Today, Kevin Hogan sits down with the Managing Director of OpenStax, Daniel Williamson, to discuss his organization’s efforts to offer openly licensed textbooks integrated with personalized learning technology.

https://marketscale.com/industries/education-technology/how-open-education-resources-oer-can-cross-the-digital-divide/

Sophie Suter, Indiana Daily Studnet

IU introduced different modes for classes before this academic year started due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The three modes are in-person instruction, hybrid classes and completely online classes. One type of online class is asynchronous, in which students have no live meeting times. Asynchronous classes require students to access online materials and learn through prerecorded lectures, videos and online discussions.

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2021/02/iu-asynchronous-in-person-class-stress

Kerry Hannon, NY Times
New online tools and an array of remote classes and programs are ramping up education and training for adults. The internet has empowered adult learners by providing new online tools to ramp up education and training. “The need for workers to keep pace with fast-moving economic, cultural and technological changes, combined with longer careers, will add up to great swaths of adults who need to learn more than generations past — and faster than ever,” said Luke Yoquinto, a research associate at the M.I.T. AgeLab and co-author of “Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/education/online-learning-older-adults.html

WLTX

A new study by a professor at the University of South Carolina focuses on the effects of distance learning during the pandemic. The goal is to find what areas schools can improve on. For the study, families and teachers were surveyed on how distance learning affected them in the spring, summer and fall of last year. On Monday, Dr. Christine DiStefano with USC’s College of Education shared the results with the Education Oversight Committee.

https://www.wltx.com/article/news/education/new-usc-study-shows-stressors-of-distance-learning/101-7e790acd-13ca-4324-bca7-a9553a45ae30

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

While the students who turn to cheating would seem to be too lazy, busy or unable to learn the assigned material, one can often also say that faculty members may be too lazy, busy or unable to design custom assessments that are relevant, unique and promote creative/critical thinking. The “objective” test is founded in the realities of life prior to the 21st century. Well-formed assessments should be the pinnacle of the course. There is no shortcut to demonstrating that you can apply what you have learned to a unique, newly shared situation. It is authentic. It is only fair to the students to give them this opportunity before they leave the class and attempt to apply their skills and knowledge in society.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/vaccinate-against-cheating-authentic-assessment

Vikram Chaudhary, Financial Express

Imagine you are 30 years old and working, so being able to find time and money for a two-year MBA may be difficult. But pursuing a course such as the Micro Masters from IIMB that is available in modules (you can complete at your own pace) is easy. In fact, many people may not even need to learn everything that is taught in a two-year MBA—fort hem, learning a component is also enough. Such modular programmes are free and for about $2,000 you can earn certification as well. This cost is a fraction of what you may have to pay if you study on-campus. And MicroMasters pays—as many as 91% of those who earned Micro Masters have told us they saw career enhancement in terms of salary and promotion.

https://www.financialexpress.com/education-2/learn-in-modulesand-then-stack-them-up-anant-agarwal-founder-ceo-edx/2190138/

Hallie Busta, HigherEd Dive

As the coronavirus pandemic forced college classes online, the highered community was buzzing about an instructional model called HyFlex. As colleges took classes online, some adopted the emerging delivery model that lets students participate on their own terms. But it has limitations.  The concept wasn’t new. In its truest form, HyFlex, sometimes called hybrid-flexible, calls for courses to be created in a way that gives students complete control over how and when to participate, either in-person or online. A small subset of schools was using this format before the pandemic. But the effect of the health crisis on instruction brought new attention to it, as more schools saw its potential to address the uncertainties affecting course delivery.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/3-hyflex-lessons-from-the-pandemic-and-whats-next-1/594606/

Rahul Raj, Silicon Canals

Microsoft Corp has launched a new employee experience platform called Microsoft Viva. According to the tech giant, it is the first employee experience platform to bring tools for employee engagement, learning, wellbeing, and knowledge discovery, directly into the flow of people’s work. It is designed to offer new experiences that integrate with the productivity and collaboration capabilities in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

https://siliconcanals.com/news/microsoft-introduces-viva/

Adam Stone, EdTech

“With the pandemic, technology came in through the front door. We all recognized that technology was critically important to keeping teaching, learning, research and administration going,” says Susan Grajek, vice president for partnerships, communities and research at EDUCAUSE. “That has brought technology up into leadership-level conversations.” So, where are those conversations heading? To better prepare for the post-pandemic future of higher education, here are eight trends that leaders and IT teams are watching this year.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2021/02/8-higher-education-it-trends-watch-2021

Seb Murray, Financial Times

“Last year, for many, represented a tipping point that has undoubtedly taken business education into a new phase from which we may never return,” says Andrew Main Wilson, AMBA chief executive. Business schools are now reimagining which aspects of the MBA should be delivered online and which are better experienced in person. “Through practice and revision, conceptual content can be more easily learnt online, whereas discussions, application of theory and contextualisation can probably be achieved more efficiently in the classroom,” says Nick Barniville, associate dean for degree programmes at ESMT.

https://www.ft.com/content/ea9ed4b5-39a7-4dd9-80cb-6bdd28f3eb06

RONI KANE, Michigan Daily

With Early Action decisions for the Class of 2025 having been released Jan. 29, the newly admitted Wolverines are likely excited to begin working on the “academic experiences,” “exciting projects” and “strong partnerships” that the University of Michigan promotes at the top of their “Prospective Students” webpage. Though University President Schlissel is optimistic the Fall 2021 semester will be much closer to a normal, in-person semester, many current U-M students told The Michigan Daily they continue to feel disconnected from peers and professors in the winter semester’s online environment.

https://www.michigandaily.com/section/academics/students-faculty-embrace-collaborative-learning-another-online-semester

Natalie Schwartz, Highered Dive

Coding boot camps have long been viewed as the antithesis of traditional higher education. They focus more heavily on technical training. Their programs usually last weeks instead of years. And they are mostly free from the heavy regulation that pervades the rest of the sector. But recently, more of them have been joining forces with colleges and universities. This month, for instance, Flatiron School announced it is working with the University of Cambridge, in the U.K., to launch a 10-week data science program through the college’s continuing education department.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/more-colleges-are-partnering-with-boot-camps-to-tap-demand-for-short-term-p/594295/

Darrell M. WestFriday, Brookings Institution

Research by Netblocks, a nonprofit devoted to tracking internet disruptions, has found dozens of shutdowns and documented how they last longer and take place at the national level, thereby disrupting networks on a far grander scale. National leaders need to understand the harmful costs of this maneuver. Not only do shutdowns and restrictions harm democratic expression and public communications, they hurt the business community, limit small and medium-sized enterprises, and weaken social and economic activity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these shutdowns also have costly consequences. With more people using the internet for online education, telemedicine, e-commerce, and remote work, internet closures limit the ability of individuals to learn, work, and purchase goods and services. Shutting down the internet is counter-productive at virtually every level.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2021/02/05/shutting-down-the-internet/

Jamie Merisotis and Carrie Besnette Hauser, Inside Higher Ed

In recent years a group of colleges started offering a mix of programs challenging the notion that college credentials must come in neat two-year or four-year packages. From our respective perches, we believe that these “dual-mission” institutions offer another way forward for higher education in the post-pandemic period. We got here in part because a group of higher ed leaders, led by former University of California president Clark Kerr, worked to create some order out of a rapidly growing and changing system. The Carnegie classification system was designed in the early 1970s, a time when higher education was booming following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, rapid expansion of community colleges and the adoption of the Higher Education Act, which launched many of the federal financial aid programs that still benefit millions of college students today.

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/02/04/dual-mission-colleges-offer-novel-and-needed-approach-higher-education-opinion

Wendy Edelberg and Paige Shevlin, Brookings Institution

In this analysis, we examine the impacts of the pandemic recession across different dimensions, including employment, labor force participation, and the need to switch industries. This analysis provides texture and evidence to the emerging understanding that women and people of color, working in the service industry, have been the most negatively affected. The challenge of long-term unemployment for some workers, coupled with the high likelihood that some industries will see weaker labor demand for some time, requires a workforce development strategy that supports workers who will need to switch industries and occupations.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/02/04/the-critical-role-of-workforce-training-in-the-labor-market-recovery/

Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
Unity College in Maine, which frames itself as “America’s Environmental College,” has opened up debate about whether small institutions really need to have flagship campuses to survive. In a recently updated FAQ, college leaders wrote that for the time being, the school planned to “continue to offer face-to-face, experiential, environmentally-focused programs” on its 240-acre campus — once the campus reopens. At the same time, they noted, “If it is no longer financially viable, the college leadership has the ability to explore selling the main campus or any other college assets … in order to ensure resources are allocated to best serve our students, their needs and the long-term sustainability of the college.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/01/26/small-maine-college-asks-do-we-need-a-main-campus.aspx

Linda Dale Bloomberg, TC Press

While it is acknowledged that face-to-face teaching competencies such as knowledge of curricula and pedagogy do transfer to online contexts, it is also important to recognize some of the unique competencies required for online teaching success. Online learning systems employ a variety of online tools and software, which place new and often unfamiliar demands on the technical competence of teachers. Modes of communication differ, with a greater reliance on asynchronous communication methods which do not occur in “real time”. The ability to effectively communicate, manage technology, deliver and assess content, monitor student progress, and follow-up on issues or barriers encountered by students are critical to minimize the likelihood of student disengagement or withdrawal.

https://www.tcpress.com/blog/transitioning-world-online-learning-preparing-higher-education-instructors-students-success/

Kimberly Argueta, Daily Cougar

For some, their schedules may be full of strictly asynchronous classes or strictly synchronous classes; others may even have a mix of both. As the one year mark since lockdown approaches, most people should have a good idea of what type of online learning works for them. Ultimately, these are just online classes, not the real experience, but everyone must make the most out of this situation and continue to live life because things will get better eventually and we must be prepared for when they do.

http://thedailycougar.com/2021/02/03/online-learning-synchronous-vs-asynchronous/

Jake Williams, EdScoop

Adult learners at the Olivet Nazarene University School of Graduate and Continuing Studies can now access online general education classes for no up-front cost. The courses are part of the Christian university’s “YourWay” program, “an online, completely asynchronous flipped classroom” open exclusively to adult learners. “[These] general education courses are tuition-free, so that adult students from across the nation have equitable access to college,” Ryan Spittal, vice president for the university’s global division, said in a press release

https://edscoop.com/olivet-nazarene-u-launches-virtual-tuition-free-classes-for-adults/