Educational Technology

Shwetabh Mittal, Campus Technology

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on higher education. Here’s how to weather the emerging “new normal” for the next semester and beyond. What started as a short-term response to the COVID-19 crisis will result in an enduring digital transformation of higher education. While the move off campus won’t be permanent for all undergraduate students, higher education as we know it will evolve. The past year has been a catalyst for universities to make online learning core to their student experience, and best practices for this “new normal” have started to emerge. Here are three steps you might consider taking to future-proof your university for next semester and beyond.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/01/28/3-ways-to-future-proof-your-university.aspx

Jordan Krampf, Times-News

Frostburg State’s Counseling & Psychological Services office has been busy implementing new services with its telehealth model to keep mental health at the forefront. “Students continue to have access to our full range of services and meet with their counselor over a HIPAA-compliant program, which ensures their information remains confidential and protected,” said Counseling & Psychological Services office Clinical Director Susan Mandell. “We saw an increase in the number of students who utilized our services over the summer in comparison to past years, but as the school year progressed, less students accessed our office than in previous years. This is a trend that has been seen in college counseling centers across the state and the reason is unclear.” Frostburg State professors have also felt the effects of the pandemic when teaching formats suddenly became drastically different.

https://www.times-news.com/news/campus-transition-fsu-students-staff-adjust-to-online-learning/article_ad9f2052-6250-11eb-b7bb-b7f4067b5bf9.html

OSCAR HARTZOG, Rolling Stone

Music production is more technical than ever — but it’s also more necessary than ever. Whether you’re an aspiring hip-hop beatmaker or electronic producer (or you’re simply looking to polish acoustic recordings), being able to make music digitally and use production software can seriously advance your career. Luckily, you don’t have to attend a fancy school or even leave the house to break into the biz. You can now enroll in some of the best online courses for music production right from your home.

https://www.rollingstone.com/product-recommendations/lifestyle/best-online-courses-music-production-1121635/

Katharine Meyer and Ben Castleman, Brookings Brown Center
Policymakers are increasingly looking to workforce training for displaced workers as one solution to a faster economic recovery. Though workforce training recruitment often targets individuals who never attended college as a young adult, even individuals who already hold a postsecondary credential may need additional training to recover from current unemployment and to prepare for the post-COVID-19 economy.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/02/02/stackable-credentials-can-open-doors-to-new-career-opportunities/

Terri E. Givens, Tomorrow’s Professor

Higher education will be needed more than ever as students face a changing job market, and learners of all ages learn to pivot to new careers. I believe that our organization can play a leading role in creating a brighter future for higher education and the learners who will be relying on us. We need to create options that are affordable, flexible and relevant to the future of work. It’s time for higher ed leaders to work together to find the solutions that will allow them not only to survive the current crisis, but to thrive. We are expanding our offerings to help leaders not only manage issues like strategic planning, but also issues like diversity, equity and inclusion. We are expanding our mentoring program so that leaders have opportunities to share with each other, and to get advice from leaders who understand the unique situations facing faculty and administrators.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1844

IBM

The central, overarching question of this new era: what will it take to be essential—to your customers, your employees, your community, and your investors? The CEOs we spoke with almost uniformly emphasized that focusing on the sharpest edge of their businesses, what differentiates their organizations and delivers the most value, has become the overarching imperative. Out of the chaos has come clarity: get rid of diversions and indulgences, root out “tradition for tradition’s sake,” and exploit distinctive advantages. This applies externally, in products and services, as well as internally. Who is essential to your organization, and what is essential to the operation of your business?

https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/c-suite-study/ceo

Deloitte AI Institute
As more companies adopt AI, leaders grapple with ethical decisions about its design and use. Global AI regulations will eventually address ethics concerns, but until then the Deloitte AI Institute is working to bridge the ethics gap. While AI can deliver exponential benefits to companies that successfully leverage its power, if implemented without ethical safeguards, it can also damage a company’s reputation and future performance.

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/deloitte-analytics/solutions/ethics-of-ai-framework.html

Salma Reyes, the State Press

The basics of Zoom etiquette seem simple at first, but a year into remote learning, students and faculty realize Zoom courtesy is much more than just showing up. With the University continuing its hybrid ASU Sync model this spring, students and faculty have come up with their own tips to help make learning through Zoom as smooth as possible: Don’t forget when you’re unmuted, don’t spam the chat, try to keep the camera on and more.

https://www.statepress.com/article/2021/01/spcommunity-tips-on-making-zoom-hybrid-classes-work-asu-students-professors#

David Baume, University World News

What is that one fundamental question? I suggest: “What are we putting online?” This may not be the question you were expecting. This is not a technical question, about resources and learning activities. It is a much more profound than that. The longer version of the question is: “What are we putting online? Teaching? Or learning?” Why do I say “or”? Surely they are the same thing, or at any rate two sides of the same coin or banknote? Teaching leads to learning. What’s the problem? Why “or”? A few reasons. Which together drive us towards the question. And together suggest an answer.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210126142422302

Education Dive

The last few years have been tumultuous for many U.S. colleges. Pressure to lower tuition, stagnating state funding and a shrinking pool of high school graduates has strained many institutions’ bottom lines and questioned their long-term viability. Those pressures have caused some to close. For many still in operation, the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact is adding a host of uncertainties to already tight operations. We’ve been tracking consolidation across higher education since the fall of 2018, looking back as far as 2016.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

With enrollments falling, college budgets under strain and employers dissatisfied with the relevance of graduates’ learning, now is a time for more than replication or revision — it is time for reinvention. We are at the confluence of massive economic, technologic and social changes that demand higher education do more than small fixes. We will not thrive if we merely tweak the system to replicate practices of the lecture hall in an online delivery system. The shakeout of academic jobs, programs and even entire institutions is accelerating. We must recognize the forces at play and respond. The changes require more than merely adjusting our programs and approaches. They demand a completely new examination of the changing student needs, marketplace demand and revenue-generation models.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/online-trending-now/time-reinvention-not-just-replication-or-revision

Jan Petter Myklebust and Hanne Smidt, University World News

Wide-scale investment in upskilling has the potential to boost global gross domestic product (GDP) by US$6.5 trillion by 2030 and lead to the creation of 5.3 million net new jobs globally by 2030, according to a new report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 21 January. The report predicts that upskilling and reskilling could propel the transition to an economy where human labour is increasingly complemented and augmented – rather than replaced – by new technology, thus improving the overall quality of jobs. The number of jobs that require creativity, innovation and empathy is expected to rise with an increased need for information technology skills. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report from 2020 shows that in the majority of business sectors, companies state that skills gaps are the prime reason there are barriers to adopting new technologies that would increase productivity.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210129110449887

Colin Wood, EdScoop
“There’s huge potential for growth,” Paul Savory said. “As we look at online education, it’s going to play a critical role to support Americans as we come out of the pandemic in terms of providing opportunities.” Before assuming his latest role, Savory served at Doane University, a small liberal arts school outside Lincoln, Nebraska; Nebraska Methodist College, where he said about one third of the institution’s 800 students attended online; and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he served, amid other roles during his 18 years at that institution, as its associate vice chancellor for extended education, an online program.

https://edscoop.com/colorado-state-university-global-paul-savory-online-education/

David Bitton – The Gazette (TNS)

The Air Force Academy is reviewing its honor code in the wake of suspicion that hundreds of cadets cheated last spring after being sent home for online learning at the height of the pandemic. Two of the nearly 250 cadets suspected are no longer at the academy. Most of the remainder have admitted to cheating and are on six months of probation and remediation, according to the service academy. On Friday, the academy announced the review as well as the alleged infractions, which were discovered through faculty academic safeguards. Those infractions ranged from failing to properly cite sources and using unauthorized tutoring websites, to receiving solutions to exam questions in real time and completing final exams in small groups, according to an academy news release.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/health/hundreds-of-air-force-academy-cadets-suspected-of-cheating-during-online-learning-last-spring/article_aa395e99-0e3e-5cc4-a755-576e406c259b.html

Christensen Institute

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare systemic inequities, bringing new questions and opportunities for the future of learning. At this moment, we have an opportunity to examine the education workforce and teachers’ collective capacity to deliver deeper, more personalized learning for all students. In a conversation moderated by Brent Maddin, Executive Director of the Next Education Workforce at Arizona State University, Mahnaz Charania shares insights into the role of social capital and personal connections in the lives of students, and ways in which educators can expand and diversify students’ networks to support their social and academic success.

https://www.christenseninstitute.org/podcast/personalized-learning-will-require-personalized-connections/

Inna Pletukhina, IAEA Department of Nuclear Safety and Security

The IAEA launched the first nuclear security e-learning course, Use of Radiation Detection Instruments for Front Line Officers, in 2010. Since then, the Agency has developed a suite of 17 nuclear security e-learning courses, which are available online at no cost. From the foundational Overview of Nuclear Security Threats and Risks to the more specific Physical Protection, Insider Threat and Information and Computer Security, the courses cover all major areas of nuclear security. These online courses are essential to the blended learning approach that combines self-paced e-learning with virtual and face-to-face classroom courses.

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/10-years-of-e-learning-nearly-22000-complete-courses-in-nuclear-security

BY DARREN CATALANO, eCampus News
A Q&A with the CIO explores how a university is using data and analytics to navigate the challenges presented by COVID.  While this crisis has highlighted how an institution’s level of preparedness, infrastructure, and culture impacts its ability to respond to the challenges presented by the pandemic, there are strategies producing results that are universally relevant. Hearing how others have responded can spark ideas and elevate opportunities to try similar tactics and evolve efforts.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/01/28/a-universitys-data-driven-response-to-covid/

Brown University Harriet W. Sheridan Center

Fortunately, for much of the time, Brown instructors and students are able to teach and learn as planned in the syllabus. However, whether due to weather, travel, or illnesses like COVID-19, there are times when these plans need to be adjusted. This resource offers approaches to making these adjustments, through both lower and higher-tech means. Recommendations from Brown’s Office of Student and Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS) are also offered to address accessibility.

https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1843

Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

The public mission of four-year colleges and universities needs to adapt to encompass adult learners, according to a new report. That’s the population that may be most affected by the changes in education introduced during the pandemic — more so even than K-12 and college students, the report suggested. Not only did the pandemic expedite the “already rising need for adult educational programming,” the report stated, but it “also opened the eyes of many adults to the opportunities afforded by digital learning platforms.”  New Horizons: American Universities and the Case for Lifelong Learning was produced by the Longevity Project, whose lead content collaborator is the Stanford Center on Longevity, among other nonprofits, think tanks and media organizations.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/01/25/report-its-time-for-4-year-schools-to-welcome-adult-learners.aspx

Angel Fabre, et al; Cal Matters

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of California higher education as we knew it. In the economy, it also marked the beginning of what some observers have deemed the “Great Pause,” a time for individuals and businesses alike to reevaluate their situations and their next steps. A year later, college seniors in the Class of 2021 will graduate into one of the most volatile job markets in recent history. For this year’s graduating seniors, who have been managing pandemic hardships for months, the stakes are high as they make their future plans.

https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/college-beat-higher-education/2021/01/california-college-seniors-pandemic/