Online Learning Update

Lilah Burke, Inside Higher Ed

Four-year institutions are pushing to hold as many in-person classes as possible. Community colleges have a different calculation to make.While it’s too early to tell, it appears that demand for in-person classes among community college students differs from the demand among peers at four-year institutions. While students at four-year colleges and universities have been clamoring to return to campus, it appears that some community college students have enjoyed the flexibility that remote classes have offered. Students who live far from campus, take care of children or work while going to school may prefer remote or asynchronous styles.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/22/community-colleges-keeping-more-classes-online

Hallie Busta, HigherEd Dive

Proposed legislation from three House Democrats would codify and expand oversight of the process by which for-profit colleges convert to nonprofit status, a move several institutions have made in recent years. The For-Profit College Conversion Accountability Act would also require public notice about a potential conversion, treat the school as a for-profit for at least five years after its change is approved and establish an office within the U.S. Department of Education to oversee the deals. The bill follows a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that found issues with the way the department and Internal Revenue Service reviewed the transactions.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/federal-bill-would-expand-oversight-of-for-profit-college-conversions/598918/

Danny Palmer, ZD Net

The scale and severity of ransomware is growing at an alarming rate as cyber criminals look to exploit poor cybersecurity to maximise profit, the director of GCHQ has warned. Organisations and their employees have been forced to adapt to different ways of working over the last year, with many now even more reliant on remote services and online collaboration platforms. But while the increased use of digital technology has provided people with many benefits, it is also benefiting cyber criminals who are able to exploit it for their own gain.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-is-growing-at-an-alarming-rate-warns-gchq-chief/

University of Gronigen Library

Open Educational Resources (OER) are becoming more prominent in higher education. They facilitate a quicker transition to online teaching, help educators reuse and create innovative learner-centered materials, improve access to education, and save resources. This video introduces the topic of OER, explores their practical application in courses, and encourages teachers to use them with the support available at the UG Library. Explore the accompanying slides with additional information on OER in the slide notes.

https://www.rug.nl/library/home-news/how-you-can-use-open-educational-resources

Dan Bauman, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March of 2020, institutions of higher education have shed a net total of at least 570,000 workers, according to preliminary, seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Labor Department. Put another way, for every nine workers employed in academe in February 2020, at least one had lost or left that job a year later.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/heres-who-was-hit-hardest-by-higher-eds-pandemic-driven-job-losses

Murat Turk, Faculty Focus

There are many ways in which instructors might use AODs in their online courses, but traditionally, online students are asked in discussions to post once and respond a specific number of times. A challenge with this strategy is that once each student completes their postings and responses, they often quit reading, responding to, and engaging with what others say or think about the issue or topic under study, thus missing out on useful insights and experiences. One effective solution is to incorporate peer moderation or facilitation of online discussions, which I have been using in my own online courses since summer 2020 when I read Milman’s (2014) article about co-facilitation of online discussions.

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/co-facilitated-discussions-to-truly-engage-your-online-students-with-course-content/

Carol Nixon, EDUCAUSE Review

Accountability measures in higher education have shifted dramatically from enrollment to completion, given persistent disparities in persistence across race, ethnicity, and income.Footnote1 Institutions of higher education across the United States have dramatically increased their investments in technology-mediated advising as a key component of holistic student-support systems. And since 2020, the pandemic has magnified concerns about equity, given resource disparities across students and institutions. Some students struggle to access essential technologies, not only for advising and support services but also for teaching and learning. Although some exemplary institutions have successfully transformed their student support and advising systems and demonstrated significant gains on key institutional indicators, these improvements have not materialized widely.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/4/effective-use-of-technologies-in-student-advising-is-there-a-yellow-brick-road

Byron K. Hargrove, eCampus News

A Berkeley College professor speaks about how responsiveness and compassion with students paid off during the pandemic. The two central lessons I found to be extremely helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic have to do with being more open and adaptive to online learning and finding ways to be uber responsive, flexible and caring with my students.

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/04/21/two-principles-guiding-this-professors-pandemic-teaching/

John O’Brien, EDUCAUSE Review

Inevitably, student engagement “by design” must not happen in isolation but, rather, in the larger context of digital transformation (Dx). No narrow strategy has a chance of bringing together faculty, curriculum, facilities, recreation, student support, technology infrastructure, and engaging and innovative digital tools and courseware. For this reason, the EDUCAUSE Dx Journey microsite invites leaders and staff at every college and every university to consider Dx as a framing design strategy while contemplating student engagement initiatives on campus.

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2021/3/engaging-students-by-design