Hard Truths That Higher Education Has Evaded for Too Long — from insidehighered.com by Steven Mintz
The brutal truths that institutions don’t want to acknowledge.

If we want to make higher education truly equitable and produce the learning outcomes that we claim to seek, then we must confront painful truths no matter how uncomfortable they make us.

Preaching to, and Challenging, the Liberal Arts Choir — from insidehighered.com by Doug Lederman
In a conversation with presidents of small private colleges, tech company executives praise graduates’ leadership and critical thinking ability but say they need to develop skills for a first job, too.

Excerpt:

In that more competitive landscape, Ferrick and others said, colleges should think in terms of “both-and”—delivering a four-year degree grounded in the liberal arts that remains the best preparation for a lifetime career, yes, but also building into their curricula more practical digital and other skills that can help graduates compete for a first job.

The Edge: Momentum Builds for ‘Credential as You Go’ — from chronicle.com by Goldie Blumenstyk

Excerpt:

A higher-ed credential system that’s ‘not all about degrees.’
Holly Zanville has a clear goal for the Credential as You Go initiative she co-leads: Shift the entire “degree-centric” model of postsecondary education to make it easier for people to develop skills and knowledge in shorter chunks while recognizing “meaningful learning along the way.”

Whatever you think of its prospects, you can hardly fault the effort for a lack of ambition.

Ideally, students will layer incremental credentials over a lifetime of learning.

Goldie Blumenstyk

Issue #11: Navigating the credential maze — from theview.substack.com by Gordon Macrae
Running to stand still.

Excerpt:

The credentials market for degree and non-degree programs is… complex.

A recent report from the non-profit Credential Engine identified 1,076,358 different credentials – from specialized certificates to bachelor’s degrees to PhDs.

Credential Engine started producing these reports in 2018. Back then there were “just” 334,114 credentials. In the last four years, the number of certifications has more than trebled. And from 2021 to 2022, there’s been a 38% increase in providers issuing certificates.

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When you eyeball the largest higher ed institutions by enrollment comparing 2012 to today, it’s pretty clear that online degrees have driven – essentially – ALL of the growth.

Brandon Busteed commenting on Phil Hill’s posting (also listed below)

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Fall 2021 Largest Institutions by Total Enrollment and DE Type — from philonedtech.com by Phil Hill

Excerpt:

Based on reader request after yesterday’s post, I’d like to share another view of largest US higher education institutions, this one ranked by total enrollment with color coding of distance education (DE) type. This chart combines undergrad and grad student enrollments.

Mental Health Is the Top Student Stressor — from insidehighered.com by Johanna Alonso

Excerpt:

Fifty percent of college students cited their own mental health struggles as their top stressor going into 2023, according to a survey of 1,200 students nationwide conducted by the virtual health services provider TimelyMD. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they were most concerned about their personal finances, and 37 percent named academics, while mass shootings and inflation were each cited by 35 percent.

 

14 Technology Predictions for Higher Education in 2023 — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
How will technologies and practices like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, digital transformation, and change management impact colleges and universities this year? Here’s what the experts told us.

Excerpt:

In an open call on LinkedIn, we asked higher education and ed tech industry leaders to forecast the most important trends to watch in the coming year. Their responses reflect both the challenges on the horizon — persistent cyber attacks, the disruptive force of emerging technologies, failures in project management — as well as the opportunities that technology brings to better serve students and support the institutional mission. Here are 14 predictions to help steer your technology efforts in 2023.

 

Playing with ChatGPT: now I’m scared (a little) — from tonybates.ca by Tony Bates

Excerpt:

Over the holiday season, lots of people play games such as Scrabble, cards or crossword puzzles. I decided to play with ChatGPT by testing it in areas where I consider myself an expert. (For more about ChatGPT, go to Broom, 2022)

I will first of all show you the responses I got from ChatGPT, then I will discuss the results, comparing them to what I wrote about these topics in Teaching in a Digital Age.

Example questions that Tony asked (emphasis DSC):

  • What is the difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning? Give references.
  • What are the limitations of teaching chemistry online? Give references
  • What are the affordances of video in teaching? Give references
 

Why College Students Turned From Being Down on Remote Learning to Mostly in Favor of It — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell

Excerpt:

Over time, with months of practice as the pandemic proceeded, instructors and students learned how to use remote tools. Continuously online, enormous numbers gained proficiency with digital learning software. “The quality of a well-run synchronous, online class can now rival—and in some respects exceed—the quality of the in-person equivalent,” observes John Villasenor at the Brookings Institution.

The good news is that online learning is no longer reviled and resented, but after a rocky tryout in the pandemic, it’s now just another higher ed choice in which students and faculty, after years of digital stress, have largely adapted to it.

The above article linked to:

Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Sanders, T., Parker, P., del Pozo Cruz, B., & Lonsdale, C. (2021). Video Improves Learning in Higher Education: A Systematic Review. Review of Educational Research, 91(2), 204–236. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321990713

Conclusion
Online teaching allows for learning to be delivered affordably, at scale, and with fewer infrastructure constraints than face-to-face instruction—it does not require a university to have hundreds of people in the same room at the same time. As universities move content online, staff usually turn to teaching via asynchronous videos and synchronous videoconferences (Cook et al., 2010). Videoconferences may be more conducive to student–teacher interactivity (Al-Samarraie, 2019; Bernard et al., 2009), but most studies in our review had the same level of active learning in the video and comparison condition, meaning teachers can maintain active learning while shifting to video. When they do, videos lead to better student learning than many other teaching methods, even when compared with face-to-face teaching. We suggest that these results are because videos may provide students with control over their level of cognitive load, they allow authentic demonstrations of skills, and they enable teaching staff to edit according to multimedia learning principles. Pragmatically, videos allow students to fit learning around their other commitments, and are less reliant than videoconferences on stable, high-speed internet connections (Al-Samarraie, 2019), because they can be buffered to the user’s device. Many of these findings are still contingent on students having access to online learning (Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010), so ensuring students have social and technical support is a critical challenge for universities around the world. Provided those supports are available, universities can effectively switch to video for efficient and scalable education. Video appears to have a range of benefits in higher education settings.

Online Tools and Web Applications — from schrockguide.net by Kathy Schrock

Excerpt:

Web tools and online utilities have become more full-featured and useful over the years.

Here are some links to various online tools to help both teaching and learning. The online tools all work with laptops and Chromebooks unless stated otherwise. The ones that have Chrome apps available have a link to the Chrome Web Store link.

Categories include:

    • A.I. online tools
    • Online graphic design tools
    • Online video editors/creators/downloaders
    • Online audio recorders/editors
    • Online image editors/creators
    • Online collage makers
    • Online sketchnoting and drawing tools
    • Online word processors
    • Online animation creators
    • …and many more!

Three Things to Know about AI Tools and Teaching — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff

Excerpt:

There’s lot more to say on this subject, of course, but I hope these three observations are useful as you make sense of this new technology landscape. Here they are again for easy reference:

    • We are going to have to start teaching our students how AI generation tools work.
    • When used intentionally, AI tools can augment and enhance student learning, even towards traditional learning goals.
    • We will need to update our learning goals for students in light of new AI tools and that can be a good thing.

President Speaks: To put students first, colleges need to rethink the OPM model — from highereddive.com by  Paul Pastorek
Paul Pastorek, president of the University of Arizona Global Campus, explains why his institution cut ties with Zovio, a former online program manager.

Following our separation from Zovio, UAGC has not only undertaken efforts that shift the structure and responsibility for critical decisions around enrollment, marketing and student advising to a fully in-house team, it unlocked resources that will enable us to make investments that better align with our mission: providing adult learners with affordable college credentials that prepare them for careers in a rapidly evolving global economy.

Savings from increased efficiency and reduced costs will be reinvested in the student experience — and entirely at our discretion. No longer stifled by the contractual obligations of a company primarily motivated by profit, our faculty and staff are already expressing they have greater freedom to innovate and find new ways to enhance student success. We are all aligned under one common goal, working together to move the institution in the same direction.

Colleges’ expenses rose 5.2% in FY22, the biggest increase since 2001 — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak

Dive Brief:

  • The cost of running a college jumped 5.2% in the 2022 fiscal year, according to data from Commonfund, an asset management firm that tracks inflation in the higher education sector.
  • That’s the highest rate of inflation the Higher Education Price Index, or HEPI, has tracked since 2001, when it hit 6%. It’s also a sharp increase from 2021, when the college inflation rate was 2.7%.
  • But the HEPI increase was outpaced by inflation more broadly in the U.S., a rare occurrence according to Commonfund. The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, reached 7.2% in fiscal 2022.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to offer HR apprenticeships — from highereddive.com by Ginger Christ

“As demand for technology skills continues to grow across the region, UWM has a unique opportunity to solve two challenges at once: creating new pathways to high-wage jobs for our community, while also addressing a growing need for workers with those tech skills,” UWM Provost Scott Gronert said in a news release. “Together with Helios, we’re helping to address one of the most critical talent gaps faced by Wisconsin employers, and enabling our students and graduates to gain the skills that translate to success in today’s increasingly tech-driven labor market.”

Unusual majors help some colleges stand out from the crowd — and boost enrollment — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
A bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration has put a tiny Kansas school on the map

Excerpt:

That’s an unusual ambition for a small college — which is exactly the point. This particular small college has what it says is the country’s only four-year bachelor’s degree in automotive restoration, a major that combines engineering, history, business, communication, art and other disciplines.

It’s an example of the way a small regional higher education institution can stand out in a crowded field of competitors at a time when many other schools appear intent on trying to attract applicants by becoming more alike than different.

 
Imagine my delight when co-founder of Coursera Daphne Koehler came into my office in 2012 to explain the radical concept behind her new business. What if you could Partner with the World’s best universities and professors to provide FREE online courses? Like other successful FREEMIUM models, you monetize the platform downstream by creating massive network effects and convert a small percentage to paying customers (we had invested in other successful FREEMIUM models such as Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and Snap, so why wouldn’t that work here?)

Today, over 113 million learners from around the world access the platform to gain knowledge, to earn certificates and get diplomas from the top universities.

The Coursera ride has been amazing for most of the past decade, with over 100 million students, 200 universities and 5000 courses on the platform. And while the vast majority of the students on Coursera don’t pay a dime, the company has built a business with over $500 million in revenue and nearly a $2 billion market cap today.

Estimates are for the company to do $520 million in revenue in 2022, up from $415 million in 2021 and estimated $623 million in 2023. Coursera is losing money currently but has $424 million in cash and could turn profitable if it prioritized that and sells at 1.3x 2023 sales.

 

Michigan flags 112 low-performing schools for intensive intervention — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller

Excerpt:

“These are the urban high minority districts, right? So they were the ones that had the highest death rates, the highest case rates, the highest income and economic hits because of the pandemic,” she said. “We know that all of this goes into what we label as school quality even though it’s about so much more than the school or the district.”

The full list is here >>

From DSC:
I surely hope that what’s going on in the image below isn’t what’s going on within the state of Michigan (as well as other states) — but I have my fears/concerns in that regard. Though admittedly, my focus here isn’t so much about the financial pictures, but rather it has to do with the straight-jacketing of the teachers and students by legislators in Lansing (and other state capitals). If I were to redraw this image, I would have legislators in (far-away) Lansing seated in comfortable chairs and offices while frazzled/overworked educators are straight-jacketed in the classrooms.

We have too many standardized tests and too many one-size-fits-all methods of “doing school” that aren’t coming from the people on the front lines. Those same people, given the right environment, could unleash a far greater amount of joy, wonder, relevance, creativity, and counsel — for themselves as well as for their students.

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The ‘Digital Equity’ Students Need to Learn May Not Come Without Community Outreach — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

And that means, more than ever, getting an education requires access to fast, reliable internet. But while the infrastructure to make sure that everyone can use the internet has improved in the last couple of years, the process isn’t complete.

If we want to keep the digital divide from growing, experts say, it’ll mean districts thinking about themselves as just one part of the larger community composed of families, nonprofits, businesses—all of them potential partners in expanding internet access for students.

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Missing an Opportunity: Ed Dept. Criticized by GAO for Teacher Shortage Strategy — from the74million.org by Marianna McMurdock
In recent report, GAO finds key recruitment, retention challenges impacting the profession, and why current federal strategy lacks teeth to succeed

Excerpt:

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.


Addendum on 12/10/22:

 

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch — from educause.edu

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch

Also see:

2023 Strategic Trends Glossary — from educause.edu

Excerpts:

  • Closer alignment of higher education with workforce needs and skills-based learning
  • Continuation and normalization of hybrid and online learning
  • Continued adoption and normalization of hybrid and remote work arrangements
  • Continued resignation and migration of leaders and staff from higher education institutions
  • Declining public funding for higher education
  • …and more
 

The Job: Online Certifications #85? DEC 1, 2022 — from getrevue.co by Paul Fain
Growing interest in online training for medical certifications and a private university that’s offering credit for MedCerts and other microcredentials.

Excerpt:

‘Train and Hire’ in Healthcare
The nation’s healthcare system continues to strain amid a severe staffing crisis. And the mounting desperation is prodding some employers to get more creative about how they hire, train, and retain healthcare workers.

MedCerts has seen growing demand for its online certification training, with strong interest in the 28-week medical assistant and 12-week phlebotomy technician programs.

The company has enrolled 55K students and roughly doubled its offerings during the last two years. Its fastest-growing segment is the train-and-hire model, where employers cover the full tuition and training costs for students.

“We are now helping several hundred people every month move from education to high-demand careers, and our pace and scale are still growing,” says Rafael Castaneda, MedCerts’ vice president of workforce development.

Stride Inc., a large online K-12 education provider, acquired MedCerts in 2020 for roughly $80M. The company’s 50+ self-paced career training programs in healthcare, IT, and professional development typically cost $4K in tuition and other fees. Most can be completed in six months, and the company offers on-demand support to all students for a year regardless of their program’s length.

 

How to Do Screen Recording with Just Your Browser — from Hongkiat.com

Excerpt:

Do you know you can perform screen recording without using any native tool provided by your operating system or any 3rd party screen recording app?

Here’s an awesome screen recording tool by Google that you need to know about if you haven’t already. And all you need is your Google Chrome browser.

To start, go to the Google Admin Toolbox website and click on Screen Recorder.

Speaking of applications and tools, also see:

xrai.glass

 

Welcome To Day One Of #Appvent22 — from ictevangelist.com by Mark Anderson

What is Book Creator? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Book Creator is a free tool that allows users to create multimedia ebooks

Excerpt:

Book Creator is a free education tool designed to enable students to engage with class material in a direct and active way by creating multimedia ebooks with a variety of functions.

 Available as a web app on Chromebooks, laptops, and tablets, and also as a standalone iPad app, Book Creator is a digital resource that helps students explore their creative sides while learning.

The tool lends itself well to active learning and collaborative projects of all kinds, and is appropriate for various subjects and age groups.

 

Understanding the Overlap Between UDL and Digital Accessibility — from boia.org

Excerpt:

Implementing UDL with a Focus on Accessibility
UDL is a proven methodology that benefits all students, but when instructors embrace universal design, they need to consider how their decisions will affect students with disabilities.

Some key considerations to keep in mind:

  • Instructional materials should not require a certain type of sensory perception.
  • A presentation that includes images should have accurate alternative text (also called alt text) for those images.
  • Transcripts and captions should be provided for all audio content.
  • Color alone should not be used to convey information, since some students may not perceive color (or have different cultural understandings of colors).
  • Student presentations should also follow accessibility guidelines. This increases the student’s workload, but it’s an excellent opportunity to teach the importance of accessibility.
 

TL;DR: Women prefer text contributions over talk in remote classes — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak (BTW, TL;DR: is short for “too long; didn’t read”)

Dive Brief (emphasis DSC):

  • Female students show a stronger preference for contributing to remote classes via text chat than their male counterparts, according to peer-reviewed research published in PLOS One, an open-access journal.
  • Researchers also found all students were more likely to use the chat function to support or amplify their peers’ comments than to diminish them.
  • Given these findings, the researchers suggested incorporating text chats into class discussions could boost female participation in large introductory science classrooms, where women are less likely to participate than men.
 

Table of Experts: Trends in Higher Education — from bizjournals.com by Holly Dolezalek. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal held a panel discussion recently about trends in higher education.

Excerpts (which focus on law schools/the legal profession):

Anthony Niedwiecki: The legal profession and legal education are very conservative. Covid showed they can, and we as institutions can, change. At Mitchell Hamline, we were the first law school in the country to offer a partially online JD degree. We’ve had that experience since 2015, which has really helped us through Covid. But I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from our students through this process is the need for flexibility. We thought students would want to go back into the classroom at some point and be around people. No! They voted by the classes they signed up for: They signed up for the classes that were online. Some students want to be on campus, some online. So we’ve had to develop our program around different types of modalities we may not have given any thought to before. The students in the online program range in age all the way up to 73 years old. They’ve been in careers, they’re accountants, they’re doctors, they’re health care professionals, elected officials. The other thing is office hours — students like online office hours because it’s convenient, and they can be in an office where other people are talking and learn from it.

 The lesson I take from that, in some ways, even applying it to the law school, is having that partnership with people who want to hire students to make sure that they’re actually involved with the students. We’re finding they help mentor those students, help us make sure we have the right courses in place, and give them opportunities to do internships and externships. So we’ve been starting to partner with some national professional organizations that are attached to the law.
 

edX Announces 2022 edX Prize Finalists for Innovation in Online Teaching — from prnewswire.com by 2U, Inc.

Excerpt:

The 2022 finalists include (sorted alphabetically by institution):

Other recent items from GSV:

“The reason TikTok is so popular is because it’s short-form and engaging; the opposite to the usual two-hour training course.

“Spacing out micro-learning chunks across the course of a year gives you a much better chance of retaining it and actually acting on it. That’s why GoodCourse is built to engage a Gen Z workforce.”

 

Stephen Downes’ reflection on “Every Student Needs a Learning Coach” — from by Nate McClennen

Excerpt (from Stephen):

The key to making this happen, I think, is to reorganize local schooling to take advantage of online (and increasingly, AI-generated) learning services, allowing in-person educators to adopt this coaching function.

Key points from Nate’s article:

  • As learning becomes more personalized, learning opportunities expanded and unbounded, and learning science research more robust, an updated and revised advisory role is more important than ever.
  • Redefining the coaching/mentor/advisor role as the educational landscape shifts is critical to ensure success for every learner.

Also relevant to using AI in education/see:

 

 
 
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