change

Career Tracker: Virtual firms hit an industry milestone as hires continue [Merken & Mclymore]

On 05/24/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), career development, change, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, telecommunications, telelegal, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

Career Tracker: Virtual firms hit an industry milestone as hires continue — from reuters.com by Sara Merken & Arriana Mclymore

Virtual law firm FisherBroyles announced Tuesday that it has cracked the Am Law 200, saying it’s the first non-traditional, so-called distributed law firm to rank among the top 200 highest-grossing U.S. firms.

The 300-partner firm said its annual gross revenue reached $113 million in 2020, adding that in the last year alone it added 51 new partners “almost entirely from Am Law 100 and 200 ranked firms.” It cited the role of the pandemic, which upended expectations about remote work, in spurring its growth and accelerating the adoption of its mostly cloud-based approach to legal services.

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career [Heyward, McCann, & Gross]

On 05/21/2021, in 21st century, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, curriculum, education, education reform, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, legislatures / government / legal, United States, universities, vocational / trades, workplace, by Daniel Christian

States and School Systems Can Act Now to Dismantle Silos Between High School, College, and Career — from crpe.org by Georgia Heyward, Sarah McCann, & Betheny Gross | May 2021

We offer four ways states can engage K–12:

Invest in virtual platforms that support college and career navigation.
Incentivize bold experimentation with hybrid learning to design new models that blend school and workplace learning or connect with postsecondary microcredentials.
Step in to encourage and regulate high-quality, postsecondary microcredentials that stack toward associate and bachelor degrees.
Combine policy with technical assistance to help districts credit out-of-school learning.

A second demographic cliff adds to urgency for change — from insidehighered.com by Ray Schroeder
The demographic cliff we have been anticipating since the drop in births with the 2008 recession now has a younger sibling — the COVID-19 cliff is coming with another deep drop in recent births.

Excerpts:

In sum, competition is rapidly growing; the pool of “traditional” students is evaporating; employers are dropping degree requirements; and, with student debt now surpassing $1.7 trillion, we all know that families are looking for more cost-effective paths to the knowledge and skills they seek. “The fundamental business model for delivering education is broken,” said Rick Beyer, a senior fellow and practice area lead for mergers and affiliations at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. “The consolidation era started a few years ago. It will continue. We will see more closures.”

What, then, are the bright spots for postsecondary learning?

Online learning tops the list despite some bad press for the hastily put-together remote learning of last year. Adult students, in particular, prefer the flexibility and mobility of online. Enrollment in online programs has continued to increase while overall higher ed enrollments have declined each of the past dozen years.

Counting U.S. Postsecondary and Secondary Credentials — from Credential Engine; with thanks to Will Richardson for this resource
February 2021

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Learners, educators and policymakers understand that high school completion and education beyond high school are critical to thrive in the workforce. However, until recently an inventory of the number or type of secondary and postsecondary credential opportunities in the United States did not exist. This is the third annual report from Credential Engine that attempts to count all these credentials. The report identifies 967,734 unique credentials in the U.S. in 16 detailed credential categories across four types
of credential providers:

Postsecondary educational institutions—359,713 degrees and certificates
Massive open online course (MOOC) providers—9,390 course completion certificates, micro-credentials, and online degrees from foreign universities
Non-academic providers—549,712 badges, course completion certificates, licenses, certifications, and apprenticeships
Secondary schools—48,919 diplomas from public and private secondary schools

Also see:

NLET Releases “Newest Economy” Paper

In The Newest Economy: Welcome to the Credential Currency Revolution, Gordon Freedman, NLET’s president, examines the discontinuity between high schools, community colleges, career and technical education, and workforce development programs and their alignment and linkages to high demand jobs and careers. The paper suggests moving beyond the current array of offerings and labor market tools to a marketplace solution using modern technology and data analytics to link credentials (badges, certifications, degrees) to hiring outcomes.

The paper is a collaboration among NLET, Credential Engine, Southern Regional Economic Board (SREB) and GoEducate, Inc. who together are building a Credential Alliance to further the work described in the report.

Press Release
Executive Summary
Download the Report

73 percent of students prefer some courses be fully online post-pandemic — from campustechnology.comby Rhea Kelly

“When three-fourths of students and more than half of faculty want to experience at least some courses fully online, the key takeaway is that the pandemic did not threaten but in fact accelerated the long-term growth, acceptance, and desirability of online learning, and those numbers will only improve, as emergency remote offerings are rebuilt as modern online courses and programs.”

The fate of midsize firms in a post-pandemic world [Black]

On 05/19/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, change, changing business models, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

2021 Report on the State of the Midsize Legal Market — from legal.thomsonreuters.com; with thanks to Gabe Teninbaum for this resource and the resource below

Managing through the endless changes of 2020 uncovered both challenges and opportunities for law firms. The past year was an exercise in responding swiftly and decisively to massive disruptions. 2021 may allow for a strategic reassessment of what works — or no longer works — in this new environment.

Download the “Report on the state of the midsize legal market” for a look back at midsize law firms’ performance, the strategies they employed to preserve profitability throughout the year, and the unique opportunities that exist for them.

Also see:

The fate of midsize firms in a post-pandemic world — from abovethelaw.com by Nicole Black

Excerpts:

Of course, the effect of the pandemic on the practice of law varied greatly from one firm to the next. Often, the impact was largely dependent on firm size, geographic location(s), practice area(s), and, of course, technology readiness. For example, some firms were already operating in the cloud and were able to quickly pivot to remote functionality and were easily able to communicate with clients and colleagues, accept online signatures and payments, and quickly access documents and law firm data. For other firms, the transition to remote work was a much more difficult one.

Law firms leaders quickly learned that a willingness to adopt new technologies into their firms was a requirement for survival during the pandemic.
…
The bottom line: we’re going to be entering a “new normal” on the other side of the pandemic and the old school ways of thinking and doing business simply won’t cut it. An innovative mindset is key, and this includes a willingness to: 1) adapt when needed, and 2) invest in cutting edge technologies that will ensure built-in efficiency and flexibility.

Leading the Way for Microlearning? Assess the Barriers [Defelice]

On 05/18/2021, in change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, microlearning, RSS, streams of content, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Leading the Way for Microlearning? Assess the Barriers — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Robyn Defelice

Excerpt:

Since the release of Microlearning: Short and Sweet, a book I co-authored with Dr. Karl Kapp, I have assisted several leaders in setting the stage to incorporate microlearning. From my experiences, I have identified several reasons that learning leaders struggle to achieve broad acceptance of microlearning. Below, I address common barriers that impede successful incorporation paired with approaches that help to move adoption forward.

The 6th annual International Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference

On 05/17/2021, in adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, education technology, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, pedagogy, presentations, professional development, teaching & learning, universities, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Flipped Learning Post COVID-19: Evolution of the Classroom — from unco.edu
Join us for the 6th annual International Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference!

Imagine the future of law, legal technology and new law jobs [Goyal]

On 05/12/2021, in 21st century, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, future, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, technology (general), workplace, by Daniel Christian

Imagine the future of law, legal technology and new law jobs — from canadianlawyermag.com by Monica Goyal
The year is 2025. The legal system was transformed by COVID-19 and the profession reflects that

Excerpt:

The question for all of us is what happens next? Some say lawyers will go back to their offices and things will operate as they did pre-pandemic. But what about the massive changes to global business and the impact of digitization on the profession? How will this new cyber-efficiency influence future legal jobs? Consider three different kinds of lawyers in the year 2025:

Will a Rise in Online Learning Open Remote Teaching Opportunities for Faculty? — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell (Columnist)

Excerpts:

Liberating campus-bound faculty.
Of the many remarkable things about online learning—its principal benefit—is to give students the freedom to learn almost anywhere. And that goes for faculty members, too, who might now have access to new opportunities to teach remotely for institutions around the globe—and let colleges hire online faculty with attractive strengths who happen to live far away.

That has already started to happen during the pandemic, with so many faculty and staff working and teaching from home. Since it has made no difference to their students where they were living, some, quite privileged, took off for country homes or slipped away to vacation spots, continuing to teach online as if they were at a nearby campus.

109 New University Partnerships with OPMs, Bootcamps and Pathways in Q1 2021 [holoniq.com]

On 05/07/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Africa, Alternatives, Asia, Australia, business, business side of he, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Europe, experimentation, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, India, learning ecosystem, new business models, online learning, programming, real-world assignments, reinvent, technology (general), training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

109 New University Partnerships with OPMs, Bootcamps and Pathways in Q1 2021 — from holoniq.com
Universities around the world are accelerating their adoption of Academic Public-Private Partnerships.

Excerpt:

Based on the rate of partnership growth in Q1, 2021 may deliver over 400 new academic partnerships if growth continues at the same rate.

Other key points:

The US led the development and growth of the OPM model, now we are seeing an acceleration in adoption of OPM partnerships in international markets across Australia, Asia and Europe
Bootcamp Partnerships are powering Universities with immersive, short-format programs in technology and new domains in business. Expert curriculum, deep industry relationships and hiring pathways are driving very fast growth in campus-based and online programs.
We expect the Global OPX Market to grow at 19% CAGR, reaching $13.3B by 2025.

Faculty and Staff Often Don’t Trust One Another. How Do We Fix That? — from chronicle.com by Jenae Cohn
Three ways to bridge divisions as academe prepares for the post-pandemic era.

Excerpts:

One of the few welcome outcomes of Covid-19, and higher education’s rapid move to remote instruction, is that many faculty members are more aware than ever of who the staff members are and what we do.

As Lee Skallerup Bessette wrote in October, staff members — anyone working on a college campus who is not a professor or an administrator — have been on the front lines during the pandemic: “We are the face that faculty members see when they have questions, concerns, or struggles with the technology they have been asked to use. We are the face that students see when they have questions, concerns, or struggles related to distance learning or on-campus policies and procedures.”

Yet however much academics and administrators have been turning to us for help now, they still rarely involve and entrust staff members with campus decision-making around teaching, curriculum development, and research.
…
It behooves every college and university to consider what authentic collaboration between the staff and the faculty might look like. How? Here are three concrete steps in that direction.
.
Step 1: Offer incentives for faculty-staff partnerships.
Step 2: Rethink hierarchical traditions.
Step 3: Create shared experiences.

From DSC:
Although I was an Adjunct Professor for over 5 years and have worked alongside faculty members for 20 years, the majority of my work and efforts have mainly been on the staff side of the house. So I appreciate The Chronicle hosting this article and I thank Jenae for writing it. It’s an important topic.

If traditional institutions of higher education are going to survive, there needs to be much broader governance, a much greater use of teams to create and deliver learning experiences, and a much stronger culture of innovating and experimenting with new ideas. At the end of the day, I think that the following two things will be the deciding factors on whether a particular institution survives, merges, shrinks, or closes its doors altogether:

The culture of a particular institution
Whether that institution has visionary leadership or not (and not just being data-driven…which comes up short again and again)

Also see:

Debunking six continuing fallacies of higher education — from universityworldnews.com by Sanjit Sethi and Elliot Felix

2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® | Teaching and Learning Edition

This report profiles key trends and emerging technologies and practices shaping the future of teaching and learning and envisions a number of scenarios and implications for that future. It is based on the perspectives and expertise of a global panel of leaders from across the higher education landscape.

3 Tech Trends Shaping the Future of Post-Pandemic Teaching and Learning [Kelly]

On 04/28/2021, in adjunct faculty, analytics, blended learning, change, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, data related items, education technology, experimentation, future of higher education, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, online learning, open courseware and systems, pedagogy, professional development, quality, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

3 Tech Trends Shaping the Future of Post-Pandemic Teaching and Learning — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
The landscape of higher education has been transformed by COVID-19, and that impact is a major factor in the 2021 Educause Horizon Report. Here are three key technology trends to watch as the lasting effects of the pandemic play out.

Excerpt:

What’s in store for higher education’s post-pandemic future? The latest Educause Horizon Report has identified the trends, technologies and practices shaping teaching and learning in the wake of COVID-19. The potential lasting effects of the pandemic “loomed large” in the trend selection this year, the report stated, emphasizing that although it remains to be seen whether the transformations of the past year will persist into the future, “it isn’t hard to imagine that higher education may never be the same in some important ways (good or bad).”

In the realm of technology in particular, it’s clear that the pandemic-induced shift to remote learning has dominated the trend landscape. The top three technological trends identified by the report are…

From 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® | Teaching and Learning Edition

Also see:

Students Want Online Learning Options Post-Pandemic — from insidehighered.com by Lindsay McKenzie
The experience of learning remotely during the pandemic left students with a positive attitude toward online and hybrid courses, a new survey suggests.

Jessica Rowland Williams, director of Every Learner Everywhere, agreed. “The pandemic has given us the unique opportunity to pause and listen to each other, and we are beginning to discover all the ways our experiences overlap,” she said.

Brief reflections on “How to Design a Hybrid Workplace” [The New York Times]

On 04/24/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, blended learning, business, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, online learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, society, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

How to Design a Hybrid Workplace — from nytimes.com

Excerpt:

But many companies have hatched a postpandemic plan in which employees return to the office for some of the time while mixing in more work from home than before. The appeal of this compromise is clear: Employers hope to give employees the flexibility and focus that come from working at home without sacrificing the in-person connections of the office.

From DSC:
There has been — and likely will continue to be — huge pressure and incentives put on companies like Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft, and others that develop the products and platforms to help people collaborate and communicate over a distance. It will be very interesting to see where these (and other) vendors, products, and platforms are 2-3 years from now! How far will we be down the XR-related routes?

How will those new ways of doing things impact telehealth? Telelegal? Virtual courts? Other?

Learning Ecosystems

Career Tracker: Virtual firms hit an industry milestone as hires continue [Merken & Mclymore]

A second demographic cliff adds to urgency for change [Schroeder]

73 percent of students prefer some courses be fully online post-pandemic [Kelly]

The fate of midsize firms in a post-pandemic world [Black]

Leading the Way for Microlearning? Assess the Barriers [Defelice]

The 6th annual International Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference

Imagine the future of law, legal technology and new law jobs [Goyal]

Will a Rise in Online Learning Open Remote Teaching Opportunities for Faculty? [Ubell]

109 New University Partnerships with OPMs, Bootcamps and Pathways in Q1 2021 [holoniq.com]

Reflections on “Faculty and Staff Often Don’t Trust One Another. How Do We Fix That?” [Cohn]

Brief reflections on “How to Design a Hybrid Workplace” [The New York Times]

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