What We're Reading & Watching
EdgeCon Winter 2024 – Edge, The Nation’s Nonprofit Technology Consortium – February 8 (Madison, NJ)
EdgeCon Winter offers higher education professionals an exciting platform where they can network, collaborate, and discover innovative content. Attendees will enjoy the unique opportunity to gain insight into how technology impacts academic institutions and student experiences, with particular attention paid to how technology, strategy, and processes interact to transform institutional operations, enhance educational quality, and secure the long-term sustainability of institutions.
EDUCAUSE Innovation Summit: AI, Friend or Foe? – February 14–15 (Las Vegas, NV)
EdgeCon Winter offers higher education professionals an exciting platform where they can network, collaborate, and discover innovative content. Attendees will enjoy the unique opportunity to gain insight into how technology impacts academic institutions and student experiences, with particular attention paid to how technology, strategy, and processes interact to transform institutional operations, enhance educational quality, and secure the long-term sustainability of institutions.
QM Research Online Conference – Quality Matters – February 16 (online)
This event brings together sessions around two key topics that help us provide increasingly high quality online learning for students: the recent research and evidence behind quality online learning and techniques for gathering data on quality assurance efforts in order to inform our future work.
Instructional Technology Council 2024 Annual Conference – eLearning – February 18–21 (Las Vegas, NV)
The Instructional Technology Council (ITC) invites you to join us at eLearning to collaborate with colleagues from across the country and around the world, at one of the friendliest and most comprehensive annual conferences for eLearning practitioners.
SXSW EDU – South by Southwest – March 4–7 (Austin, TX)
SXSW EDU Conference & Festival is an annual event fostering innovation and learning in the education industry. Located deep in the heart of Austin, Texas, SXSW EDU is the premier destination for discovery.
2024 ASCD Annual Conference – March 22–25 (Washington, D.C.)
Fuel your passion for education and help shape the future of learning at ASCD24. At this must-attend event, you’ll meet ASCD authors and education experts who will guide you in improving academic outcomes for all students and help you solve the tough issues facing your school or district.
UPCEA Annual Conference – March 26–28 (Boston, MA)
The UPCEA Annual Conference is the most significant assembly of thought leaders and practitioners today in the field of professional, continuing, and online education. The Annual Conference convenes deans and other senior university leaders, key staff, and teams responsible for the management, administration, and growth of professional, continuing, and online education programs.
Largest Source of Private Funding for Women in STEM Is Under Attack – The Chronicle of Higher Education
The nation’s largest private source of funding in higher ed for women in STEM fields is under attack by critics claiming reverse discrimination, and hardly anyone wants to talk about it.
Education Department unveils policy proposals for accreditation, state authorization – Higher Ed Dive
The proposed changes are intended to ensure accreditors and state agencies are adequately monitoring colleges under their purview, the department said.
Black students who enroll at HBCUs have higher bachelor’s degree attainment, research finds – Higher Ed Dive
But those who initially attended a historically Black college also had higher debt loads than their similarly situated peers, a working paper found.
Wisconsin’s Warning for Higher Ed – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Leaders have put off making tough decisions about their public colleges for decades. The options have only grown more difficult.
Course Design as a Gateway to Student Well-Being – Faculty Focus
Reflecting on our approach to course design—particularly with attention to how we build community and cultivate belonging—couldn’t come at a more crucial time.
Colleges Can’t Keep Up With Students’ Mental-Health Needs. Teletherapy Companies Are Filling the Gaps – The Chronicle of Higher Education
For years, college counseling centers were overrun, unable to keep up with students’ demand for mental health services. Getting them help fast became increasingly urgent. One by one, colleges started contracting third-party, higher-ed-focused teletherapy providers to assist their in-house counselors. Now hundreds of colleges use these companies.
Fostering Career Everywhere: Innovative Approaches to Career Readiness – Faculty Focus
This article highlights strategies employed across varied disciplines, and at various levels, at the University of Arizona and demonstrates that a “career everywhere” approach is effective in meeting the complementary but unique needs of students and educators related to career readiness in higher education.
Biden Announces Plan to Cancel Some Student Loan Balances Under $12,000 – The 74 Million
The president says this action will particularly help community college borrowers, low-income and those struggling to repay their loans.
What Will it Mean to be a QM Institution in 2024? – Quality Matters
The biggest issues in education today aren’t about technology (hello, AI!), aren’t about innovation, and aren’t about the cost of education — even though these are the issues that dominate so much of the discourse in our field at present. The big issues are about trust and quality, two highly related concepts.
The Shifting Impact of Regulatory Activities Targeting Online Education – On EdTech
The shift to nonprofit providers by looking at enrollment trends
2 final Title IX regulations will likely be delayed — again – Higher Ed Dive
The Education Department set a March deadline for the regulations but hasn’t yet cleared a key procedural hurdle, potentially pushing their release back by months.
A Positive Environment of Engagement and Retention in the Online Learning Environment – Faculty Focus
According to The Glossary of Education Reform (2016), engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion students show when they are learning or being taught. Engagement can extend to the level of motivation students learn during the process of learning. Students inspired by learning trends and faculty guidance have the opportunity to be positively engaged in the online classroom.
3 takeaways from final fall 2023 enrollment counts – Higher Ed Dive
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center offered insights into shifting enrollment trends at community colleges and HBCUs.
New FAFSA will now be adjusted for inflation, Education Department says – Higher Ed Dive
The president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators voiced concerns the change will further delay financial aid offers.
Faulty Logic – On EdTech
Phil Hill updates his thinking about ED plans for 2024.
Issue Spotlight: Federal Student Loan Return to Repayment – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
“The CFPB determined that the return to repayment of federally owned student loans presents significant consumer risks and initiated its supervisory response due to the number of impacted consumers (over 28 million), consumer complaints and other field market intelligence, and the history of compliance issues by student loan servicers.”
Drowning in Debt: Student Loans Weigh Down Borrowers – WGU Labs and Savi
The results of this survey of 3,000 student loan borrowers indicate that student loans are impacting the mental health of borrowers, the achievement of personal and financial milestones, and are causing borrowers to rethink the value of higher education, particularly as the repercussions noted are “especially true for African American and/or Black borrowers and Hispanic and/or LatinX borrowers.”
CUPA-HR Data Highlights Trends in Representation and Pay Equity in the Higher Education Workforce, Updated for 2023 – CUPA-HR
Colleges and universities still seek to make strides in increasing the number of racial/ethnic minorities in higher education administration roles to keep pace with the number of graduate degree-holding minorities.
2024 Higher Education Trend Watch – EDUCAUSE
“This report focuses on the workforce, cultural, and technological shifts for seven macro trends that are continuing or emerging in higher education in 2024. Across these three areas of shift, we report the major impacts and steps that institutions are taking in response to each trend.”
2023 Annual Report – Center for Collegiate Mental Health
In this year’s annual report, the data collected by the CCMH revealed a “strong relationship between discrimination and increased general distressed, social isolation, and suicidal thoughts at the beginning of treatment.”
Leading Improvements in Higher Education, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis
Leading Improvements in Higher Education with Stephen Hundley from IUPUI is a service of the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, the oldest and largest higher education assessment and improvement event in the U.S. The podcast profiles people, initiatives, institutions, and organizations improving conditions in higher education. Join thought leaders for engaging discussions of enduring and emerging topics, themes, and trends affecting colleges and universities.
Better Serving Learners Through Transformed Business Models Episode 153 – The Teaching Online Podcast, University of Central Florida
As a follow-up to the pre-2024 call-in show, hosts Tom and Kelvin talk through the need to re-examine, challenge, and change existing institutional structures as we seek to serve learners better – both existing students and a wider variety of potential new students.
Inside the Push to Bring AI Literacy to Schools and Colleges – The Edsurge Podcast
This episode of EdSurge Podcast dives into the issue of AI literacy and how AI fits into schools, featuring Susan Gonzales (founder of nonprofit AIandYou) and Le Lo (professor of libraries and learning sciences at the University of New Mexico).
Course Materials Cost Students More than Money, Online Learning Consortium, January 18, 2024 – 1:00pm–2:00pm (ET)
A recent survey by Bay View Analytics shows that the majority of students are worried about meeting the cost of their course materials. Additionally, students report that the cost of course materials have academic consequences including getting poorer grades, failing courses, and even affecting their choice of major or institution. This webinar will review the results from the recently completed Pennsylvania student survey on course material costs. The survey also included a national sample, providing a benchmark for comparing Pennsylvania’s response rates to the broader trends in course material costs, academic choices, and preferences. The student responses will be reviewed before moving into a panel discussion about the impact of these costs on students. The panelists will also discuss how these results can help support advocacy efforts at their institution and statewide.
Advancing Education: Fostering Inquiry and Collaboration – Forward Edge, January 18, 2024
Immerse yourself in the world of project-based learning (PBL) as we uncover how this innovative approach transforms the learning process. Discover the principles and benefits of PBL, and explore strategies to design captivating projects that ignite inquiry and promote collaborative problem-solving. Learn to assess and measure student progress in PBL, while fostering reflection for deeper learning. Don’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize your teaching with project-based learning, creating an environment where students thrive as inquisitive thinkers and collaborative contributors.
XR in Higher Education: Adoption, Considerations, and Recommendations – EDUCAUSE Review
As extended reality continues to be adopted in colleges and universities, higher education leaders need to consider regulatory and ethical implications. The authors offer a three-phased implementation approach.
Rethinking Technology Integration in the Post-Covid Environment – EdTech Digest
How to best support educators to implement and integrate digital resources.
The Visual Storyteller: Using Imagery To Enhance eLearning – eLearning Industry
Education is always changing and now, visuals are taking center stage. Mixing pictures with learning, especially in online classes, is turning ordinary experiences into something truly engaging.
What’s Next for Ed Tech in 2024 – Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed spoke with experts who predicted what might be next for classrooms and institutions in the months ahead.
New Tech Tools to Try
https://www.flaticon.com/
On Flaticon you can download icons and stickers in multiple formats, completely free of charge. Even better, before you download, you can also customize the icons with whatever colors you like.
https://animoto.com/
Animoto is a video-creation platform that helps users create professional-looking videos using photos, video clips, music, and text. It can be used to create videos for business, education, or personal use.
New Amazon Study Reveals How AI Will Transform the Workplace in Five Years – Campus Technology
In a recent study, “Accelerating AI Skills: Preparing the Workforce for Jobs of the Future,” 73% of employers said they consider AI skills a hiring priority, while 75% can’t find trained talent to fill those jobs.
Arizona State University Partners with OpenAI to Explore Gen AI Potential in Education – Campus Technology
Through a new partnership, Arizona State University has become the first higher education institution to work with OpenAI to explore the potential of generative AI to enhance teaching and learning.
AIs Enrolling as Students in Michigan University’s Experiment – Inside Higher Ed
Ferris State University introduces Ann and Fry, AIs enrolled in courses at the university as an experiment to garner feedback on the student experience.
To Understand ChatGPT’s Impact on Higher Education, Think Like a Scientist – EdSurge
When a technological breakthrough creates a fog of confusion, rigorous research is the best way to illuminate the path forward.
Survey: How AI Is Impacting Students’ Career Choices – Inside Higher Ed
The rise of artificial intelligence is influencing what many students want to study and pursue as a career, according to a new flash survey from Student Voice. Students also say they want to be prepared for AI and the workplace.
