July 31, 2020
By LINDA MCINTOSH, San Diego Union-Tribune
The Oceanside Public Library, which is temporarily closed because of the pandemic, provides free online courses to help folks who lost their jobs. The courses are offered through the Coursera for Workforce Recovery program. The courses range from computer programming, digital literacy, data analytics/business analysis and software or app development to entrepreneurship, web design project management, marketing and business English among others.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/north-county-community-news/story/2020-07-21/library-offers-free-online-courses-to-help-the-unemployed
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Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
A single-question survey of more than 17,000 incoming college students across the United States and Canada has found that students believe online courses don’t have the same value as the in-person experience. The vast majority of U.S. students — 93 percent — told surveyors that tuition should be lower for online programs. Another 6 percent said tuition should have an “opt out” for services and facilities that aren’t available. Less than half a percent suggested there should be no changes to tuition. In Canada, 88 percent of students felt tuition should be lower; 11 percent wanted an “opt out” option; and just under 1 percent thought there should be no changes.
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/07/21/students-think-online-college-should-cost-less.aspx
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Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
More than 6,300 coronavirus cases are tied to U.S. colleges and universities, according to a recent New York Times analysis. The Times surveyed every public, four-year college, as well as elite private research universities and schools that compete in Division I sports. The publication found at least 14 deaths related to the virus at colleges and 11 institutions that have seen 100 or more cases. The findings suggest the coronavirus is spreading on campuses ahead of the fall term — a foreboding sign for colleges that plan to bring students back amid the pandemic.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/analysis-finds-6300-coronavirus-cases-tied-to-us-colleges/582561/
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July 30, 2020
Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
As many of us prepare for a digitally delivered fall term, we should consider the variety of options that can be employed in our classes, enabling flexibility and optimizing learning outcomes. These COVID-19 times are disrupting our lives, our work and our learning. They force us to find new ways to deliver our curriculum and to best connect with our learners at a distance. For many, remote teaching at the end of the spring term and summer session was little more than firing up a Zoom session to synchronously deliver classroom sessions. Unfortunately, this was less than satisfying to many faculty members and students. It left some with a distant feeling that was less personal and less engaged than they had felt in the prior face-to-face model. Fortunately, there are many more online options than merely turning on the camera.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/multiple-digital-learning-modes-optimize-class
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Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
Using the right technology, setting clear expectations and being mindful of the differences between in-person and remote learning are key, experts say. As colleges release their plans for the fall semester, even those hoping to reopen their campuses are leaning heavily on remote instruction to spread out students and give them more options. Under some hybrid models, instructors will teach classes in person and simultaneously livestream those lessons to remote students. But it can be tough to ensure remote and in-person students get the same quality of education when they take classes together. Here’s how several ed tech and higher education experts say colleges can prepare for a hybrid fall.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/how-colleges-with-hybrid-instruction-this-fall-can-support-online-students/582141/
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Eileen, Bielestock, EdTech
Classroom teachers and support professionals are especially burdened with the responsibility of sustaining academic growth and the well-being of their students in the new normal. With Wi-Fi hotspots and routers temporarily replacing brick-and-mortar walls, educators and students still need to connect, engage in exciting learning opportunities, strengthen and build skills, and explore and personalize learning with project-based activities. As committed educators, teachers and support professionals seek to continue using data to drive instruction, assess for mastery, differentiate based on learning abilities and styles, develop relationships, and care for the emotional and physical well-being of their students.
https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2020/07/how-improve-remote-learning-experiences
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July 29, 2020
Sheryl Burgstahler, EDUCAUSE
Lessons learned from campuses nationwide have informed an approach to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act during the process of online course design. Providing multiple ways for students to gain knowledge, demonstrate knowledge, and interact goes a long way toward making a course accessible to all students, including those with disabilities. Accessibility efforts benefit not only students with disabilities but also students who are English language learners and those working in noisy or quiet environments.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/1/ada-compliance-for-online-course-design
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Lauren Anstey and Gavan Watson, EDUCAUSE
The Rubric for E-Learning Tool Evaluation offers educators a framework, with criteria and levels of achievement, to assess the suitability of an e-learning tool for their learners’ needs and for their own learning outcomes and classroom context.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/9/a-rubric-for-evaluating-e-learning-tools-in-higher-education
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]EDUCAUSE
Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning
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July 28, 2020
BY LAURA ASCIONE, eCampus News
Continuous learning helps generations feel fulfilled, accomplished–but many young adults feel pressured to learn new skills. When it comes to updating professional skills, continuous learning is more important to Millennials and adult Gen Zers than to Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, according to a survey. More than half of Millennials (58 percent) and adult Gen Zers (52 percent) said success in their careers depends on updating their skills and knowledge frequently, compared with 35 percent of Gen Xers and 34 percent of Baby Boomers.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/07/20/continuous-learning-is-important-to-gen-z-millennials/
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EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
The hybrid flexible, or HyFlex, course format is an instructional approach that combines face-to-face (F2F) and online learning. Each class session and learning activity is offered in-person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online. Students can decide how to participate. The flexibility of the HyFlex model demonstrates a commitment to student success, and that flexibility can also enable institutions to maintain educational and research activities during a disruption. The 7 Things You Should Know About… series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies.
https://library.educause.edu/resources/2020/7/7-things-you-should-know-about-the-hyflex-course-model
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José Antonio Bowen, Inside Higher Ed
It’s time for campus leaders to start generating more innovative options for fall 2020, which means considering some wilder ideas. Any way you slice it, this fall is going to be hard on everyone. Higher education institutions are desperate for some tuition revenue, but we all know we are not offering the usual college experience. Part of the problem is that we always want to replicate rather than innovate. Forget about the past. This disruption is real and massive. It is time for campus leaders to look at some wilder ideas — even some beyond the 15 scenarios Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney have proposed.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/07/20/college-leaders-should-consider-some-outside-box-ideas-fall-2020-opinion
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July 27, 2020
Paul Darvasi, WQED
Some educators who want to make online learning more engaging and accessible are exploring the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. UDL – originally developed by researchers at the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in collaboration with Harvard University – supports special education students, but its flexibility, technology guidelines and aim to individualize learning are best practices that can serve every student. “While UDL can benefit students with disabilities, it’s a way of thinking about how to make instruction accessible for all,” said Kavita Rao, a professor in the department of special education at the University of Hawai‘i.
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56205/how-designing-accessible-curriculum-for-all-can-help-make-online-learning-more-equitable
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Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, President of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Inside Higher Ed
Pandemics rightly invite the language of science and best practice when it comes to the choices we make. If you listen, however, there’s another conversation of right and wrong and assignments of “Who is responsible?” It’s the language of ethics and morality, and, in that vein, I’ve been ruminating on the ethics of colleges and universities reopening for the fall term. Here’s a baker’s dozen.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/07/21/ethical-issues-colleges-and-universities-must-confront-when-considering-reopening
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Dan Levy, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Kennedy School of Government
An inexpensive publication (below $5 Kindle version) has been self-published by Dan Levy, Senior Lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Focused on pedagogy and practice, it addresses questions and challenges confronting faculty who are new to using Zoom in delivering their classes.
https://www.teachingeffectivelywithzoom.com/
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July 26, 2020
Brian Beatty, EDUCAUSE
When campuses closed due to the spread of the coronavirus and the threat posed by the COVID-19 illness, faculty who were teaching HyFlex classes were already prepared to teach high-quality, fully online courses. The classic HyFlex (hybrid-flexible) course design model supports both in-class and online students in the same class sections, typically by using a combination of synchronous and asynchronous online participation paths for students who choose not to, or are unable to, participate in traditional classroom instruction.
https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/5/can-hyflex-options-support-students-in-the-midst-of-uncertainty
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EMILY DERUY, Bay Area News Group
The leaders of the UC, CSU and California community college systems spoke about the challenges of educating students during the coronavirus pandemic. During a broad conversation hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California, the leaders of the state’s three public higher education systems — UC, CSU and the community college system — urged students and their families on Friday to recognize that sweeping changes at colleges and universities will not just last a few weeks or months, but potentially years. “This is not a grin-and-bear-it for two or three months, this is a couple-year, three-year issue,” said CSU Chancellor Timothy White, who in 2019 announced plans to retire later this year.
https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2020/07/19/uc-csu-community-college-leaders-weigh-online-learning-police-reform-coronavirus-changing-higher-education/
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IBL News
Coursera’s CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, announced the release of the 2020 Global Skills Index (GSI), a report that benchmarks skills proficiency for 60 countries, 10 industries, and 11 fields of study in business, data science, and technology. The index analyzed data from 65 million learners on the Coursera platform, including 15 million new users since March. Coursera’s GSI highlighted that recovery in a post-pandemic world will rely on broad reskilling. “I hope this report inspires institutions to prioritize skills development as the foundation of economic revival,” wrote Jeff Maggioncalda in a blog post.
https://iblnews.org/a-coursera-report-finds-economic-recovery-to-be-dependent-on-broad-re-skilling/
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July 25, 2020
PIYUSH PANDEY, eCampus News
Lost in the headlines is the amount of work that IT teams must do to enable remote access to HR applications for nearly all university staff and faculty. For Cal State, more than 53,000 faculty and staff need access to essential information and systems. Along with student users, in total, that is 535,000 (mostly remote) users accessing student information and HR systems from all over the world.
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2020/07/13/ensuring-data-security-during-remote-and-hybrid-learning/
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Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
Indiana University has released preliminary findings from a survey of undergraduates and instructors across its all of its campuses, examining their experiences of the transition to remote instruction this past spring. The IU survey asked 6,156 current students and 1,538 instructors for their feedback and insights. Based on their responses, researchers offered four recommendations for faculty who are planning their online courses for the fall semester:
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2020/07/16/iu-report-offers-4-recommendations-for-online-teaching-this-fall.aspx
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Dion Hinchcliffe, ZDNet
The pandemic has focused much of the remote worker experience like a laser on the lowly online meeting. Stalwarts like Cisco and HCL face intense competition from upstarts like Zoom and Slack as well as industry heavyweights Google and Microsoft. The response we’ve seen from the vendor space has been fascinating, as most of them step up and try to meet a new level of demands and remote work requirements, as well as mature existing capabilities in urgent functions like cybersecurity, safety, and privacy. These latter issues are real and significant.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/who-will-win-the-epic-battle-for-online-meeting-hegemony/
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