Online Learning Update

June 17, 2020

Lawyers Lay Out Legal Issues Colleges Face This Fall

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

Lindsay McKenzie and Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed
A litany of legal issues looms for colleges considering reopening in the fall, from safety to online accessibility to federal stimulus funding. Here’s what higher education lawyers say should be on college leaders’ radars. Whether institutions can be held liable for students, faculty and staff members contracting COVID-19 on campus is top of mind for leaders mulling reopening plans, but that’s not the only legal pitfall they have to worry about. Lawyers in higher education say an abundance of legal issues await them come September.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/03/lawyers-explain-many-legal-issues-colleges-could-face-whether-they-reopen-or-not

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June 16, 2020

5 steps to get the internet to all Americans: COVID-19 and the importance of universal broadband

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

Tom Wheeler, Brookings Institution
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical nature of access to fast and affordable internet service. Demand for high-speed internet access, defined as “broadband,” has soared to new heights. One measurement found that in only a few weeks the pandemic drove almost a year’s worth of broadband traffic growth. The internet is no longer “nice to have,” it is critical. Whether working and studying from home or applying for unemployment compensation, the internet has kept activities alive.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/5-steps-to-get-the-internet-to-all-americans/

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Teaching during COVID-19: Why We’re Fortunate

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Gardner Campbell, EDUCAUSE Review

If the pandemic had struck ten or twenty years ago, our ability to interact with students would be severely limited compared with the tools and technology we have today.

https://er.educause.edu/multimedia/2020/5/teaching-during-covid-19-why-we-are-fortunate

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While focus is on fall, students’ choices about college will have a far longer impact

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

An entire forest of potential future graduates is now imperiled by the cataclysmic pandemic that has large numbers of students saying they will delay their higher educations, take time off, opt for community college or shift to studying part time.  While attention has been focused on the impact of these choices on enrollment in the fall, each has also been shown to slow down or derail students on their way to degrees. For them, and for employers who need educated graduates, that means the effects of this crisis will be felt not just for one semester, but for six or more years.

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June 15, 2020

Consider the Three Ds When Talking about Digital Transformation

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

Betsy Reinitz, EDUCAUSE Review

Digital transformation is a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution’s business model, strategic directions, and value proposition.1  Institutional responses to the coronavirus pandemic have provided CIOs with an opportunity to talk with other campus leaders about digital transformation, and that conversation can start with a better understanding of digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation.

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/6/consider-the-three-ds-when-talking-about-digital-transformation

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Students deserve to choose distance learning after the pandemic ends

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Michael Dickinson, McGill Tribune
McGill’s mixed communication regarding the S/U option was quick, but not careful.   that the Fall 2020 semester will take place primarily through remote instruction was jarring news to students who have already experienced significant disruptions to their academic routines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the switch to distance learning has been challenging for some programs, there are undeniable benefits to an online education format. Even after the transition back to in-person classes, McGill should maintain distance learning as an option whenever possible.

http://www.mcgilltribune.com/opinion/students-deserve-to-choose-distance-learning-after-the-pandemic-ends/

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Universities overcome bumps in transition to online teaching

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

Toni Feder, Physics Today
Instructors grapple with how to administer exams that meaningfully assess students, suppress cheating, minimize anxiety, and preserve privacy. “Our goal was to provide all components of instruction, even while satisfying constraints and accommodating students who have challenges at home,” says Brian DeMarco, associate head for undergraduate programs in physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4492

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June 14, 2020

Microsoft ‘to replace journalists with robots’

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:12 am

BBC

Around 50 contract news producers will lose their jobs at the end of June, the Seattle Times reports, but a team of full-time journalists will remain. Twenty-seven of those losing their jobs are employed by the UK’s PA Media, the Guardian reports. One journalist quoted in the paper said: “I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI is going to take all our jobs – now it’s taken mine.” Microsoft is one of many tech companies experimenting with forms of so-called robot journalism to cut costs. Google is also investing in projects to understand how it might work.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52860247

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Coursera Will Now Offer All College Students Free Access To Its Courses

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes

Starting today and lasting until July 31, college and university students – from two- year and four-year schools around the world – can sign up to take courses and earn certificates on Coursera for free. Current undergraduate, graduate, or recently graduated students are eligible for the offer.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2020/06/01/coursera-will-now-offer-all-college-students-free-access-to-its-courses/#21d16d8d6f11

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Is this the secret of smart leadership?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

Dave Robson, BBC

It’s more than two millennia since the philosopher Socrates argued that humility is the greatest of all virtues. His timeless observation was that the wisest people are the first to admit how little they really know. Science has been slow to catch up to this argument, but the last decade has offered a spate of new studies examining this trait and its effects on our thinking and reasoning. According to this research, people with greater humility are better learners, decision-makers and problem solvers. One study even found that someone’s humility could trump actual IQ in predicting their performance.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200528-is-this-the-secret-of-smart-leadership

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June 13, 2020

New Skills For A New World

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Laura LeBleu, Forbes

More people are acquiring new skills from the comfort of their own homes than ever before. Online learning platforms like Coursera, Udacity, and EdX, for example, saw major spikes in course enrollment in March and April, much of it driven by workers at the direction of their employers. According to Leah Belsky, Coursera’s chief enterprise officer, course enrollment nearly tripled.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/servicenow/2020/05/30/new-skills-for-a-new-world/#c2d10ec34052

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Demand for online learning services soars during pandemic

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

Maryse Zeidler · CBC News
The Great Courses, MasterClass and Coursera see big rise in new subscriptions.  As the coronavirus pandemic forces many to hunker down at home, a growing number of people have turned to online learning resources like MasterClass, the Great Courses and Mango Languages. The Toronto and Vancouver public libraries say patrons have flocked to the online learning services they offer.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/online-learning-services-covid-19-1.5591100

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Community college chancellor endorses going online-only this fall

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN, Daily Democrat

California’s 115 community colleges will likely remain an online system of higher education in the fall, its chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley said. “As we transition to the fall, many of our colleges have already announced that they’re going fully online in the fall,” Oakley said. “I encourage them to continue to do so. I fully believe that that will be the most relevant way for us to continue to reach our students and to do it in a way that commits to maintaining equity for our students.”

https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2020/05/31/california-community-college-chancellor-endorses-going-online-only-this-fall/

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June 12, 2020

Digital Ethics in Higher Education: 2020

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

John O’Brien, EDUCAUSE Review

I believe we are at a crucial point in the evolution of technology. We must come to grips with digital ethics, which I define simply as “doing the right thing at the intersection of technology innovation and accepted social values.” This is a straightforward-enough definition; however, given the speed of technology change and the relativity of social values, even a simple definition may be trickier than it seems.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/5/digital-ethics-in-higher-education-2020

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Are Penn State professors prepared to continue teaching online through the summer?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

Quincey Reese, The Daily Collegian

With the increased notice that courses would be online, College of Information Sciences and Technology professor Rick Winscot was better able to prepare his assigned teaching load for IST 210.  Although the future of teaching and learning at Penn State is uncertain and challenges face professors and students alike, Winscot said he feels everyone has handled the situation to the best of their ability and won’t be thrown off course — regardless of what coming semesters hold. “We are still resilient enough to handle a little shake-up from time to time,” Winscot said.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-ne-ucf-switch-online-courses-20200530-rnou3stbfrcbtnhvwuc5eyudlm-story.html

 

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How Online Learning will Change the Education System post Covid-19

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:03 am

David Michigan, Entrepreneur

Since the pandemic, going to schools and colleges has never been the same. The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom, in their home right now. But this crisis shall not stop the learning and studies. Schools, colleges, and institutes have started finding their way out of this. The lockdown has accelerated the adoption of digital technology. Before the pandemic, most universities never truly embraced online education, at least not strategically. There were online learning programs and software available but it didn’t make much difference as the traditional face to face learning had the power. But now the ‘online learning’ is going to be a thing.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/351137

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June 11, 2020

OPINION: College in a pandemic is tough enough — without reliable broadband access, it’s nearly impossible

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 11:57 am

OPINION: College in a pandemic is tough enough — without reliable broadband access, it’s nearly impossible
by TED MITCHELL and JAMIENNE STUDLEY, Hechinger Report

Sadly, though, the reality is that millions of Americans — in rural and urban areas alike, and including many underrepresented minorities — lack the reliable broadband connections needed to access postsecondary and K-12 education in a nation that remains in partial lockdown. This longstanding digital divide for learners of all ages has morphed into a divide that is keeping these vulnerable students offline during a critical period. This means that students living in online “education deserts,” who already face significant barriers to success, are being locked out of the postsecondary education that is so important to so many individuals’ prospects for future prosperity and civic engagement.

https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-college-in-a-pandemic-is-tough-enough-without-reliable-broadband-access-its-nearly-impossible/

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5 steps to get the internet to all Americans

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:05 am

Tom Wheeler, Brookings Institute

Released in April, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2020 Broadband Development Report identified approximately 18 million Americans—principally in rural areas—without access to any broadband network. Regardless of how it is funded, the solution to universal broadband in America is not to patch the old program, but to throw it out. The program now in place was designed for a telephone-oriented world, not the internet economy. Here are five lessons we learned that should apply to any program to provide universal broadband for all Americans.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/5-steps-to-get-the-internet-to-all-americans/

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An Interview with Curt Bonk, School of Education, Indiana University: Summer Training

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:04 am

Michael F. Shaughnessy, EducationViews

These times are complex, unusual, and highly difficult for anyone in the field of education. K-12 teachers, higher education instructors, corporate and military trainers, and all others involved in education woke up a few months ago to a new normal. Perhaps, when this occurred, some of them decided to get a job in other fields or take an early retirement. However, the vast majority of educators in North America and Europe were forced to switch gears in mid-March and to begin developing online curricula and pedagogical activities for courses that they were in the midst of teaching.

https://www.educationviews.org/an-interview-with-curt-bonk-school-of-education-indiana-university-summer-training/

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Could Big Tech’s move to permanent remote work save the American heartland?

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:01 am

Mark Muro, Brookings Institution
Last week, Facebook announced that as many as half of its employees could permanently work from home in the coming years, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend traditional office routines. The push happening around remote work is as game-changing for the future of tech as the launch of the iPhone was in 2007. Facebook’s announcement, following a similar one from Twitter, may be as important for the nation’s traumatized economic geography as it will be for general office culture.  If delivered on, Facebook’s plan to allow employees to work outside of expensive, superstar cities really does seem like a watershed moment. Widespread remote work, especially in the tech sector, might very well prompt a degree of geographic healing.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/05/26/could-big-techs-move-to-permanent-remote-work-save-the-american-heartland/

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June 10, 2020

Coronavirus’ Impact on College: Nearly Half of Undecided High School Seniors Considering Online Degree or Gap Year

Filed under: Online Learning News — Ray Schroeder @ 12:10 am

Mike Brown, lendedu

LendEDU surveyed 1,000 current high school seniors and college students and found that 30% of committed high school seniors will consider not enrolling or deferring their admission if learning stays online in the Fall. While 52% of current college students believe the pandemic will extend the time it takes them to graduate. Now more than ever, students and their parents are questioning the worth of taking out all those federal and private student loans to cover the high cost of college when getting a degree online is much cheaper.

https://lendedu.com/blog/coronavirus-impact-on-college/

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