Student engagement is paramount, especially in the world of online learning. Initiatives donāt have to be effortful or time-consuming, even the small things like daily emails are a great way…
Educator
Teaching in the Virtual Classroom: An Instructorās Perspective
Elizabeth Wood | Business Instructor in the Center for Continuing Education, McMaster UniversityTeaching in the virtual classroom means prioritizing student needs above all else. Remain flexible, open to adapting, and willing to listen as we navigate these unprecedented times. On March 11th,…
Despite having been studied since 2010, and institutions having many assessment tools at their disposal, prior learning assessment (PLA) is still largely underutilized. In the next decade, it will be…
How Competency-Based Education Contributes to a Healthy Democracy
Margaret Moodian | Tutorial Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Brandman UniversityThe pandemic has brought many shifts and innovations to the higher ed space. One of the most significant is the more widespread adoption of competency-based education, which gives students the…
Integrating certifications into degrees may seem antithetical to some academics, higher ed institutions that do are primed to better serve their students and set them up for successful employment post-graduation.Ā …
Coaching Practices in Higher Education: Coaching for Performance and Coaching for Growth
William Johnson | Student Success Navigator, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Alicia SepulvedaThe best and most effective academic coaches are the ones who combine both performance and growth approaches. Outline the goals of your practice to determine which elements of each approach…
Remedying the issue of education deserts starts with taking stock of the geographical and economical inequities that affect studentsā access.Ā Rosenboom and Blagg[1] estimated that nearly 41 million adults in…
Purpose Pathways: Guided Pathways on Purpose
William Johnson | Student Success Navigator, University of North Carolina at GreensboroPurpose Pathways offer students the help they need to articulate their individual pathways on their own terms.Ā College is a very expensive undertaking. The most important and stressful endeavor for…
Student veterans are willing and wanting to be a part of the higher education conversationāleaders need to give them the platform on which to share their experiences.Ā Coming out of…
Will COVID-19 Be the Catalyst to Comprehensively Addressing the Transfer Problem?
Vistasp Karbhari | Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The University of Texas at ArlingtonIf higher education wants to serve its entire learner population optimally, it needs to remove the barriers to credit, offer transfer-specific services and communicate with other institutions. Stories abound of…
Harvard Law School maintained such an illustrious reputation despite its unfit deans, homogenous student population and a questionable teaching approach known as āSpartan culture.ā Today Harvard Law School is prominent…
Facultyās Changing Roles and Responsibilities as a Result of COVID-19: How Universities Can Better Support Them
Vistasp Karbhari | Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The University of Texas at ArlingtonItās critical that institutions recognize the additional workloads, responsibilities and pressures on faculty to support them as much as they support their students and communities. Looking back at the months…
In academia, we often apply the term ālifelong learnerā to mature or non-traditional students, but all students should reframe their higher education experience to include explorative, self-directed and self-initiated learning…
Could āEmergency Remote Teachingā Accelerate a Re-Envisioning of Active Learning Through an Online Environment at Scale?
Vistasp Karbhari | Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The University of Texas at ArlingtonActive Learning is often linked to Jean Piagetās theory of cognitive development wherein the learner builds an understanding, and Dewey's theory of progressive learning through experiential assimilation.Ā As described by…
In the face of the present disruption and unknown future ramifications wrought by a global pandemic, higher education faces a reckoning of revolutionary proportions. In many ways, this revolution is…
Growth Year vs Gap Year: The Catalyst for Change
William Johnson | Student Success Navigator, University of North Carolina at GreensboroāWhat now? Whatās next?ā Surveys show that 16% of high school seniors (The Hechinger Report) and 20% of college students (American Council of Education) plan to take a gap year…
Advancements in technology have unequivocally influenced the nature of work and continue to contribute to the conversation surrounding the value of a bachelorās degree and its necessity for employment. Higher…
Turbulence for Boeing: A Crisis of Corporations and Curricula
John Thelin | Professor of Higher Education and Public Policy, University of Kentucky Eric WeberBoeing has crashed and been burning in the media spotlight for months concerning engineering and business failures that have cost lives, but their influence on higher education should worry us…
Games and simulations are two things that often get discussed in the same circles. Sometimes they even get misinterpreted for one another. Games and simulations do share some of the…
Lifelong Learning Starts Young: The Virtual Lab School and the 21st Century Land-Grant Mission
Stephen M. Gavazzi | Professor of Human Development and Family Science, Ohio State University Cynthia Buettner, Sarah LangIn the 2018 book Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good, Ohio State professor Stephen Gavazzi and West Virginia president E. Gordon Gee sought to clarify…
The postsecondary needs of rural residents have gained increased attention in recent years. As part of this expanding conversation, it has become clear how difficult it is to reach out…
Designing4Engagement: Design Thinking in the Program Quality Review Process
Christine Boyko-Head | Professor of Liberal Arts, Mohawk CollegeProgram review is a systemic, ongoing process intended to impact educational quality within a program and also across an institution. This continual, reflective process, however, does not always transfer…
The modern era demands more from marketersāmore focus on customer demand, more focus on effective messaging, more creativity in channel use. Higher education marketers arenāt immune from this shift. Given…
Closing the Backdoor and Nailing Shut the Sidedoor: An Admissions Cautionary Tale
Jay Halfond | Professor of the Practice, Boston UniversityRick Singerās brazen business channeling bribes from wealthy parents to coaches and test proctors has unleashed a wave of self reflection across the academic landscape. The backdoor has long existedādonations…
Online teaching isnāt new. In the 1960s, people took correspondence courses, where teachers would mail assignments to students to complete and return. In the computer age, these courses were moved…
Supporting Mental Health and Wellness for Adult Learners
Kristen Lee | Associate Teaching Professor in the College of Professional Studies, Northeastern UniversityAcademic achievement is tied, inextricably, to mental health. But in a world of deadlines and course readings, mental health can be severely overlooked.In this interview, Kristen Lee talks about the…
We are on the verge of crossing into the next wave of technological advancement where fantasy meets reality. My favorite memories from childhood are moments when I was engulfed in…
Set Your Guideposts: Defining and Pursuing Success in Competency-Based Education
Cori Gordon | Assistant Clinical Professor of Liberal Arts in the Personalized Learning Program, Northern Arizona UniversityāSki the slope, not the mountain,ā a wise professor once told meāmeaning donāt worry about everything you will encounter down the mountain, only focus on what is right in front…
Social media is no longer a nice-to-haveāit is an integral part of an overall marketing strategy for any organization. Yet the rate of change for social media presents a challenge…
The Online Cap: Why Itās Critical to Maintain Small Online Class Sizes
Erica Vail Young | Executive Director of Online Learning, Clarks Summit UniversityAs an instructional designer, I often make suggestions to faculty on how to make their online courses more engaging for students through project-based learning. I also advocate for building an…