A new network of research teams, led by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) in partnership with the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center and the University of California, Davis Wheelhouse Center for Community College Leadership and Research, is embarking on a three-year project to study ways to combat community college enrollment drops and learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new partnership between the Grand Valley State University NextEd Co-Lab and Littera Education will provide every K–12 school district in Michigan with access to research-based, high-impact tutoring.
According to nonprofit ECMC Group’s latest Question The Quo Education Pulse survey of 14- to 18-year-olds, high-schoolers are paying attention to the career landscape and workforce shortages, and they’re looking for the fastest, least expensive route to careers in high-demand fields.
In this free, one-day event, education and IT leaders will offer ideas and best practices based on expertise and research in the field, to help inform your digital transformation strategy.
A new project out of Oregon State University is calling for submissions from college students, faculty and staff about how they've coped with the psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this free, one-day event, education and IT leaders will offer practical insights and advice to help your institution navigate the many facets of digital transformation.
A new book shares new students' reflections on college during COVID.
IT leaders, faculty and a student offer a variety of perspectives on the future for their campuses in the new year.
The Michigan Association of State Universities, representing the state's 15 public universities, has announced a partnership with Uwill, a teletherapy solution specifically designed for students, to provide on-demand counseling services to the 270,000 students enrolled at its member institutions.
A new report from the RP Group outlines the near-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transfer experiences of California Community College students.
With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across the United States, colleges and universities face a familiar dilemma: Will COVID force a pivot to online when classes begin in the new year? A new project kicked off by futurist Bryan Alexander aims to crowdsource the answer to that question in a shared Google spreadsheet.
To meet an increasing demand for mental health services on campus, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has partnered with college mental health provider Uwill to make 24/7 teletherapy immediately accessible to students.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left the global workforce in a state of flux, with the vast majority of employees — including those in the education sector — looking for changes in their careers and in the workplace.
Cybersecurity experts at Proofpoint have identified a dramatic increase in phishing attacks targeting mostly North American universities, many of which leverage COVID-19 themes including testing information and the new Omicron variant.
IT and analytics teams have had their time to shine during the past 18 months, as they integrated systems, built dashboards and tackled data governance challenges in order to provide the information needed to keep the campus community safe.
The right combination of technology and training will ensure your learning spaces can adapt to ever-changing modes of instruction. Here are key considerations for future-proofing classrooms, supporting faculty and surviving the next pandemic.
EducationSuperHighway is shifting its attention away from the needs of K-12 internet connectivity and to the unconnected American household. The nonprofit, which helped close down the "classroom connectivity gap," has a new mission: to make sure the 18.1 million households that can't afford to connect to broadband get it.
Digital Promise has launched SEERNet, a five-year program that's intended to inspire research on digital learning at scale in both higher education and K-12.
Globally, traditional PCs are continuing to see growth despite bottlenecks in the supply chain. However, according to a new report from market research firm IDC, in the United States, traditional PCs saw their first quarterly decline since the beginning of the pandemic.
Outdoor spaces have been a boon to the continuity of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a solution to safety and social distancing concerns. But they also hold potential for new pedagogical approaches that can improve the student experience.
In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share how they are planning for the unexpected, identifying efficiencies and utilizing technology to help their institutions excel in these challenging times.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the mental health of students, faculty and staff alike. But IT in particular has borne the brunt of keeping institutions' technology infrastructure afloat through relentless change, often in the face of budget cuts and staffing shortages. Here are ways to help mitigate stress and better support IT teams during this challenging time.
The computing device market is seeing slower-than-expected growth this year, owing largely to shortages caused by the public policy response to the pandemic. Nevertheless, overall growth in 2021 will be positive, according to a new report. However, that growth will continue to slow through 2025, with tablets actually going seeing negative growth. Education is one of the positive drivers.
A new study of data generated by an education platform has found that college students and other adults spent at least some of the pandemic rethinking their career plans.
In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights and best practices for making meaningful use of data now and building a data strategy for the future.
When a recent survey asked higher education leaders if the pivot to remote learning during the pandemic changed their institution's priorities, the majority of respondents (53 percent) said yes.
In 2015, California State University launched Graduation Initiative 2025, an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps in degree completion across the system’s 23 campuses. Then halfway through that work, COVID hit — and all those student supports and services had to shift online. We find out how CSU kept students on track despite the challenges of the pandemic, the technologies and infrastructure that were needed to support students remotely, and what will remain in place going forward.
Online student support became a key issue for higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their top priority: providing academic support services such as tutoring or academic advising, according to the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report.
Across all sectors, including K–12 and higher education, procurement is making a big shift toward online, propelled in large part by the pandemic. Some 85 percent of organizations report they pushed more of their procurement to digital as a direct result of the pandemic, and 96 percent of those expect to continue doing so beyond the pandemic, according to a report released this week.
In a new COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge, the White House and U.S. Department of Education are asking higher ed institutions to make a commitment to help get their students and communities vaccinated.
The prevalence of distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic is helping to drive staggering growth in the worldwide e-learning market.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting pivot to online learning in higher education increased mainstream adoption of many education technology tools, according to the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its COVID-19 guidance for institutions of higher education.
A recent survey from Top Hat asked college students about their online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and their expectations for instruction in the Fall 2021 academic term.
For many years, the Horizon Report has been tracking trends, technologies and key practices in teaching and learning. In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Kathe Pelletier, director of EDUCAUSE’s Teaching and Learning Program and co-author of the report, about key technology trends, their impact on IT departments, new education models and more.
Undergraduate enrollment this spring has dropped 5.9 percent compared to last year — the steepest decline since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
In a recent Cengage survey, nearly three-quarters of students — 73 percent — said they would prefer to take some of their courses fully online post-pandemic. However, only half of faculty (53 percent) felt the same about teaching online.
The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding grants ranging from $50,000 to $1 million to institutions supporting distance learning and telemedicine in rural communities. The deadline for this competitive grant program is June 4.
Claremont Graduate University maintains a high-contact experience for students, based on exceptional access to faculty — even during pandemic times, when many academic and administrative functions must be suddenly transformed to remote processes.
There's no doubt that the pandemic caused incredible upheaval in higher education — but the positive impacts of that disruption are significant. Here's how the shift to online learning will benefit both faculty and students moving forward.
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.
When you picture a university innovation center, what comes to mind is usually a lot of hands-on collaboration and networking. But what happens when that heavily in-person experience is forced to go virtual? For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Matt Segneri, executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, to find out about the past year’s challenges and successes converting in-person student activities into virtual experiences that still capture that entrepreneurial vibe.
The United States Department of Education has issued a request for information on how schools, colleges and universities, and early education providers are reopening, operating safely and supporting students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a recent survey, 60 percent of IT security practitioners agreed that remote work conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic have created data security issues within their organizations.
Every college and university must redouble its focus on IT security in these unprecedented times. In this one-day event, education and IT leaders will share their insights, best practices and predictions for security and privacy in the post-pandemic era.
Almost three in five students (59 percent) in a recent Wiley survey complained that they are doing more assignments online than they ever did in their in-person classes, and nearly as many (55 percent) protested that much of it felt like "busy work."
Many students have struggled with reliable internet access during the pandemic, according to a new report from Educause.
There's a lot that faculty have done right teaching with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic — but there have also been times when technology use has been subpar.
Audiovisual technology manufacturer Aver Information USA has launched a new camera for education that uses AI to “seamlessly track” instructors as they move around the classroom.
In a recent survey, the majority of faculty (71 percent) reported that their teaching in Fall 2020 was "very different" or included a "number of changes" compared to pre-pandemic times. And almost half (47 percent) felt those changes would remain in place post-pandemic.
Even as many community college students juggle classes, work and family support with the additional challenges posed by the pandemic, most aren't aware of the help their colleges might offer, according to a recent survey undertaken by the Center for Community College Student Engagement.
While student data has long been mined to support retention efforts and institutional decision-making, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new and sometimes troubling uses for data in higher education.
EDUCAUSE recently released its first Information Security Edition of the Horizon Report, profiling important trends, technologies and practices shaping the future of IT security and privacy in higher education. For this episode of the podcast, we talk with Brian Kelly, director of the cybersecurity program at EDUCAUSE, to discuss the new report, the technological trends on the horizon in IT security, how the pandemic is impacting privacy concerns, and more.
Financial pressures, political unrest, health concerns — here's how the pandemic and concurrent equity challenges have impacted both institutions and their students.
Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center now houses United States COVID-19 testing data — taking the reins from the COVID Tracking Project, which has compiled the data from publicly reported sources for the past year.
In a recent survey from Barnes & Noble Education, the vast majority of college students (94 percent) said they think schools should charge less for online courses. In contrast, less than half of administrators and faculty (43 percent and 41 percent, respectively) believe the same.
One unintended impact of the pandemic in higher education is the strain that remote work and learning has put on IT security. In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Stephen Heath, chief information security officer for Intrinium, an IT and security consulting and managed services company, to learn more about the security challenges institutions are facing — as well as evolving threats like ransomware.
When it comes to interactivity among classmates, nothing beats texting. Nearly a third of students (31 percent) in a recent survey chose that over any other interaction option in online learning, including interactive whiteboards (mentioned by 29 percent), breakout rooms (18 percent), live surveys and polls (14 percent) or gamification such as badges and contests (7 percent). That's according to a survey from customer experience company Sykes.
What would students give up if they could head back to college in person? Seven in 10 would relinquish their AirPods for a month if it meant a month back on campus, according to a poll undertaken by Grand Canyon University.
A new public data dashboard is intended to track the impact of COVID-19 on higher ed in three areas: state, institution and student. The "MAPS Project," as it's called, is being produced by the Sorenson Impact Center, which is part of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah.
As students adjust to the realities of college life during a pandemic, the majority (71 percent) are having trouble staying focused on their coursework, according to a fall 2020 survey.
To help academic administrators improve entry-level courses for digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Every Learner Everywhere and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have created a free guide focused on best practices for equity and student success.
The longer the pandemic lasts, the more students question the value of a college education. A December survey by New America and Third Way found that nearly three in five college students (57 percent) agreed with the sentiment that higher education was no longer "worth the cost," a bump up from 49 percent in a previous survey in August.
A new resource from Georgia Tech's Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, developed with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CDC Foundation, provides COVID-19 information in accessible formats for people with disabilities.
The hybrid approach being taken by most colleges and universities to get through the pandemic could turn out to have the positive effect of making those schools more student-centered, not just in education but across the board. That's the takeaway in a new report by Deloitte.
In a recent survey focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in introductory-level courses this past fall, faculty reported increases in DFWI rates (the number of students who receive a D or F grade, withdraw or fail to complete a course) — particularly at two-year institutions or those serving Pell-eligible students.
How will higher education evolve as we head into — hopefully — post-pandemic times? Is it even possible to make predictions with circumstances still in flux? In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, we talk with Richard Garrett, chief research officer at higher education research firm Eduventures, about his predictions for 2021, the impact of the pandemic on online learning and ed tech, and the opportunities he sees for higher ed in the coming year.
Rhode Island's Brown University has announced its plan to hold commencement in person for graduates while members and guests will attend virtually.
Higher education's response to the pandemic has required agility, flexibility and perhaps most important, innovation. Join us Feb. 24 for this free one-day event, in which education and IT leaders will share how they are managing the challenges of remote work and learning, adapting to change and solving problems with outside-the-box ideas and practices.
Even as the Biden administration has begun pushing for the next recovery package, educators are still sorting out the details of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, otherwise known as "CARES Act 2."
A project dedicated to sharing best practices in COVID-19 data visualization is offering free resources to help colleges and universities create their own dashboards for disseminating public health information to students, parents, faculty and staff.
To measure how many people are visiting a space in real time, BlueZoo's BlueFox Count uses sensors to continuously count probes from mobile phones.
If you’re looking for software and services to augment online and blended instruction this year, start here.
In a recent survey, 70 percent of global IT leaders reported that more than half of their companies' employees are working remotely due to the pandemic. That's roughly triple the share of staffers working remotely before the COVID-19 shutdown, according to a report from Infoblox and Zogby Analytics.
When Boston University launched its hybrid learning initiative this fall, it also created a Classroom Moderator program: an army of student workers deployed in the classroom to help ensure that hybrid learning could run smoothly. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Ernie Perez, director of educational technology for BU Digital Learning and Innovation, and Jill Beckman, executive director of Client Services, talk about how they rolled out the classroom moderator service and made it a success.
The shift to online learning in response to COVID-19 has revealed pedagogical benefits that will carry on into the future.
The reopening of campuses post-pandemic won't necessarily spell the end to online learning, according to a recent survey from Top Hat.
A look back at the most-read stories of the year in higher education IT.
A new "rapid expert consultation" on COVID-19 testing from the National Academies explores strategies to help college leaders prepare for the spring 2021 semester.
The National Academies has issued a new "rapid expert consultation" that provides strategies for encouraging students to behave in ways that will help stem the spread of COVID infections on college campuses.
Due to changes in education wrought by COVID-19, the number of 2020 high school graduates who went to college immediately this fall dropped by nearly 22 percent, compared to 2019 graduates.
This institution has found new uses for data analysis to guide campus leaders, improve user experiences and work with researchers.
The University of Arizona has announced that starting in the spring it will require weekly testing for COVID-19 among students living in dorms or attending in-person classes. If they refuse or forget, they'll lose access to the campus WiFi network.
The pandemic has put higher ed institutions at an increased risk of liability and lawsuits. Here's how to navigate the legal considerations of reopening.
Rice University is using Google Cloud's data analytics tools to track COVID-19 cases among its campus community and make real-time decisions to keep students, faculty and staff safe.
On the six-month anniversary of the signing of the CARES Act, the U.S. Department of Education has launched on online portal intended to show how much states have spent of their education allocations for K-12 districts and colleges and universities.
An online tool developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helps project back-to-school COVID-19 outcomes based on data such as testing frequency, number of in-person classes per day per student, mask-wearing compliance and more.
For colleges and universities that have pivoted to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evolution is not over. In order to better meet student needs both today and in the future, here are three key considerations.
Panopto and Webex users will now be able to transfer their video recordings to their media library. Panopto produces video management applications; Webex is a videoconferencing program.
Last fall, Oregon State University launched an Ecampus online program for its introductory physics courses, with an emphasis on collaborative, hands-on work. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Senior Physics Instructor KC Walsh and Associate Department Head David Craig talk about how they’ve used technology, open educational resources, take-home lab kits and more to engage students from a distance.
As touch becomes a dirty word, voice technology is positioned to provide a safer alternative. In a survey by Adobe of a 1,000 voice technology users in the United States, nearly a third said sanitation (such as not needing to touch high-traffic surfaces) was a big benefit of voice technology.
Getting students actively engaged in their remote learning has a difference on the outcomes during a pandemic, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Jones College's move to a paperless workflow happened to coincide with COVID-19 lockdowns. Here's how going digital enabled the institution to navigate through the pandemic, a summer enrollment increase and beyond.
For information technology leaders in higher education, one silver lining of the pandemic has been the opportunity it has given IT to shine at a strategic level. In this bonus episode of the podcast, university CIOs Jill Albin-Hill and Paige Francis share how they have been able to get involved in pandemic response planning, fast-track IT projects, provide critical solutions to campus challenges, elevate the position of IT within institutional leadership, and more.
COVID-19 hasn't just damaged new enrollment rates within most colleges and universities. According to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, transfer enrollment has shrunk too, by 4.7 percent overall compared to fall 2019. However, transfer rates varied wildly depending on the type of transfer being measured.
As the pandemic continues, what's happening to all the data being collected by the various programs being used by colleges and universities to deliver remote learning? That's a question explored in a new report published by think tank New America.
The Utah Education & Telehealth Network, which connects the state's K-12 schools, colleges and universities, public libraries and healthcare providers, is forging ahead with plans to set up a private LTE network to address the digital divide.
Parents are more comfortable than students with the virus response undertaken by colleges and universities. A recent survey from online bill payment company ACI found that while 57 percent of parents thought campus precautions were satisfactory, just 46 percent of students said the same.
Carnegie Mellon University is tracking mask use across the country, along with testing availability for COVID-19 and the test results, as part of a symptom survey distributed each day.
Since students have returned to school and remote learning this fall, there has been a dramatic increase in internet searches related to academic fraud — that’s according to data from Cisco Talos. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Jaeson Schultz, technical leader at Cisco Talos, about his research into academic fraud and the potentially hazardous websites and applications that go along with it.
Two Connecticut universities are working together to run a saliva-based COVID-19 testing program. Sacred Heart University has adopted SalivaDirect, a testing method developed by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health that produces quicker results with a less invasive procedure and no need for specialized equipment.
Higher ed's response to the novel coronavirus has exposed issues of pedagogy, equity and more — but also offers opportunities to reshape the future.
When asked about the most pressing issue on their campuses, college and university presidents in a recent ACE survey deemed the mental health of students their top concern.
In a recent survey, three-quarters of U.S.-based students, faculty and administrators reported that COVID-19 has negatively affected student engagement. Nearly as many (73 percent) said the pandemic has damaged their work and career readiness. And seven in 10 (70 percent) said they believed that more students are falling behind in their studies as a result of COVID-19.
A recent report from Every Learner Everywhere and Tyton Partners recommended five key actions institutions can take to ensure they are delivering high-quality digital learning experiences for all students.
Faculty feel ready to teach online this fall, either partially or fully. In a recent survey produced by Bay View Analytics in partnership with four online learning organizations and underwritten by Cengage, 49 percent "strongly" agreed that they're prepared, while 35 percent said they "somewhat" agreed.
In a recent ASU+GSV session, five college presidents gave their views of what’s next for higher education.
As colleges and universities navigate the ever-shifting challenges of higher education's "new normal," they are also looking ahead: How can the lessons learned from the pandemic redefine teaching and learning moving forward? On Oct 20, the Campus Technology Distance Learning Summit will convene education and IT leaders to share their ideas, experiences and outlook for the future.
China’s Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University was one of the first to shift to remote learning when the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year. Now, it’s stepping things up for the fall by outfitting classrooms for the HyFlex model. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Roland Sherwood, manager of the university’s educational technologies team, to find out more.
While 40 percent of IT higher education IT leaders and instructional technologists said in June 2020 that their college or university was planning for "mostly in-person" classes for the fall, that share plummeted to less than 5 percent by August, according to a recent study by Educause.
The University of Kentucky has expanded the use of technology in classrooms to accommodate whatever format is appropriate for the course content and faculty and student preference. As the home page for the institution stated, "Work Anywhere. Learn Anywhere. Teach Anywhere."
Nathan Mentzer, an associate professor in Purdue University's Polytechnic Institute and College of Education, got an early start with the HyFlex model just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to impact higher ed institutions across the country: He started blending both face-to-face and online instruction in his classrooms weeks before Purdue officially shifted to remote learning last spring.
Southern California's Pepperdine University has upgraded 166 classrooms on campus with hybrid learning technology for the Fall 2020 semester. While fall instruction will remain fully online, the institution wanted to ensure its learning spaces could accommodate any combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning, according to a news announcement.
"Documenting COVID-19: Stony Brook University Experiences" is a new digital archive project set up to "collect, preserve and publish" the history of the institution "during this unprecedented moment in history."
According to a recent study out of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, students need a sense of community and connection in order to thrive in remote learning experiences.
Indiana's Ivy Tech Community College has partnered with Cengage to provide all its students — numbering 90,000 across the state — with textbooks and digital course materials through Cengage Unlimited.
Survey software and experience management company Qualtrics has created the Return to Learn Hub, a tool for performing daily symptom checks and contact tracing, as well as gauging student and staff sentiment on campus decisions.
In a recent survey, just over half of faculty in higher education expressed doubt about the new academic year: Fifty-one percent said they were "uncertain" about the fall term. Yet 55 percent have said they're moderately or very satisfied with the plans their schools have publicly stated for the fall, and six in 10 said they'd rate the level of clarity their schools have provided regarding how students will be taught as either "excellent" or "good."
Student success-focused nonprofit InsideTrack has launched a new initiative to provide emergency coaching services for college and university students facing crisis situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fall semester is beginning, and we are finally starting to see reopening plans play out at colleges and universities across the country. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly explores the pandemic decision-making process with Dr. Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, and also the chair of UK’s Pandemic Response Team. He talks about how the team is structured, what types of data they monitor, what kinds of challenges they have been working through, and how they are approaching contingency planning.
Research and advisory company Gartner recently released its latest "Hype Cycle" analyzing emerging technologies that "show promise in delivering a high degree of competitive advantage over the next five to 10 years." Notably, social distancing technologies have fast-tracked to the top of the cycle — the "peak of inflated expectations." They are also anticipated to reach the "plateau of productivity" in less than two years.
As colleges, universities and K-12 schools navigate hybrid and remote work and learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic, administrative challenges abound, according to research from SAP Concur.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, student interest in transfer and course replacement has spiked, according to data from CollegeSource.
As students, faculty and staff return to campus this week, the University of Kentucky is using Work.com from Salesforce to manage the health and safety of the campus community.
Healthcare has become a big topic of interest to college students. In a study by Quizlet, analysts found that while participation in healthcare (as measured by activity in the company's study tools) initially dropped to 86 percent of usual levels of interest as school closures took place, it rose to 113 percent as remote learning got underway.
Babson College, like so many schools, is priming for the start of fall classes, which begin in just a few days. Here's how the Boston-based institution has positioned itself to succeed.
In a recent survey of learners of all ages around the globe, 79 percent of respondents agreed that colleges and universities will fundamentally change because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stony Brook University in New York has introduced a virtual version of its "involvement fair," intended to help students on and off campus partake in club activities and meet other students, even if they can't do it in person.
In fall 2020, the University of Rochester is planning a hybrid online and in-person approach to meet standards of physical distancing. The university recently adopted a new technology that monitors foot traffic, which it will use in concentrated locations on campus, starting with its main library.
A survey of college students found that most were comfortable heading back to campus. The survey was done by OneClass, a company that sells study guides posted by students and faculty.
A survey by online education solution provider 2U has found that nearly three-quarters of prospective students said the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more likely to consider online programs.
As students, faculty and staff return to campus at Fairfield University, they will report their daily health symptoms through the mobile campus safety tool LiveSafe Mobile App.
This fall, students at any of the seven participating Big Ten Academic Alliance universities will have access to free online courses at other Big Ten schools.
In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College in Southern California, talks candidly about how his institution is making strategic decisions for the fall and what kinds of policies and infrastructure they are putting in place to move forward. The conversation comes from Campus Technology's recent Distance Learning Summit – a virtual event focused on the most critical considerations for managing higher ed's "new normal" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The University of Southern California is investing close to $2 million in a project to deploy an AV network to cover 248 classroom spaces for hybrid learning.
Software startup QU-in has launched a program to help colleges and universities do capacity and line management.
The University of Illinois Center for Health Informatics recently collaborated with the World Health Organization/Pan-American Health Organization to create an experiential learning program for students.
The University of St. Augustine faces a problem unique to programs delivering healthcare training — how to help students prepare for clinical careers.
Zoom Video Communications has announced a new device specifically designed for home videoconferencing. But at least one analyst suspects the price may keep buyers at by. In mid-July Zoom announced it would be taking pre-orders for Zoom for Home, a dedicated appliance for allowing employees to meet and collaborate online. Currently, the device is available for pre-order.
A new lab launched at MIT hopes to help people from around the world solve problems related to COVID-19.
Terra Dotta is drawing upon its experience providing higher education travel, study abroad and international program management solutions to develop a new tool for mitigating health risks and monitoring student health as colleges and universities reopen their campuses.
A new study has tracked nationwide effects of spread of COVID-19 by college students returning from popular Spring break destinations.
Just a few weeks after announcing a phased reopening plan for the fall semester that would have included both in-person and online instruction, Spelman College has made the decision to switch to an entirely online model.
As more and more colleges and universities have shut down their campuses to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
Online reservation company OpenTable is making its service available to college and university dining facilities free of charge, to help institutions manage socially distanced dining on their campuses.
When the University of Arizona's fall semester begins on Aug. 24, instruction will be a mix of in-person and remote learning — with more than half of all classes including an in-person component.
Julie Johnston, director of learning spaces for Indiana University, has been working hard to make classrooms safe for students and faculty this fall. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, she talks with Executive Editor Rhea Kelly about how the new reality of COVID-19 is impacting IU’s campuses, the challenges of preparing classrooms for the fall, and technology’s role in ensuring a successful teaching and learning experience.
Google has unveiled some of its plans for updates to Meet, the web conferencing tool that's part of the company's G Suite for Education. The basic thrust is to give instructors more control over their real-time sessions and help them make the classes more engaging.
Two campuses have announced plans to require virus testing of students as part of coming back to campus.
A survey among college-bound students in California has found that four in five have had to change their college plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
Mobile communications company Full Measure Education has introduced a new library of Fall Reopening Solutions, mobile engagement tools designed to help higher education institutions reopen safely in the fall.
Public universities and community colleges are positioned to most benefit from changes in student enrollment in the fall. The reason for that, according to a new Moody's Investors Service "Sector Comment," is because the COVID-19 pandemic may force students to choose schools closer to home.
The current pandemic is exacerbating the laborious process of reviewing verifications for student FAFSA applications — placing increased demands on financial aid offices at colleges and universities everywhere.
In the first two months of the pandemic, little changed about student movement in higher education. However, researchers suggested, "early signs of broader impacts" have begun to surface, including signals of a dramatic reduction in new enrollments.
Spelman College in Georgia has announced a phased reopening plan that includes both in-person and online instruction, in a "low-density hybrid" model.
Pre-pandemic, a slim majority of students considered affordability the most compelling driver for choosing their online school.
The University of West Georgia has announced plans for a "full return" to campus on Aug. 12, for in-person instruction. The school has also developed contingency plans, one for fully online classes and one that shifts from on-site to online at some point during the fall term.
A recent survey found that retention of current students is the highest student success priority for higher education institutions as they grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raleigh, NC-based Wake Tech Community College students won't be paying the typical extra fees this fall. Under the college's "No Fee Fall" deal, the school will be waiving its technology, student activity and campus access fees.
A new artificial intelligence consortium has funded 26 projects intended to advance the use of AI to mitigate COVID-19 and future pandemics.
A new company has formed specifically to provide COVID-19 testing and logistics services to universities and colleges. Campus Health Project has promised that it can generate test results in 24 to 48 hours, as part of helping institutions resume activities on campus, including college sports.
In a survey done pre-pandemic among members of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, researchers found that many of the big challenges cited by higher education leaders then are the same ones they're grappling with today.
According to a recent survey by education technology company Cengage, nearly nine in 10 colleges and universities (86 percent) haven't yet announced plans for the fall semester.
Extreme Networks has compiled a bundle of products that's being promoted as a ramp-up for hosting virus-safe esports and athletic events at schools and other locations.
In this first episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, "A Futurist's View of the Fall Semester," Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with futurist Bryan Alexander about higher education's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the fall semester might play out as colleges and universities reopen.
A Florida university is working with a software company to produce a mobile application to help campuses manage data on the health of their returning communities.
Universities are rethinking their campus approach to communications and collaboration in light of the changes introduced by stay-home recommendations.
More learning content than ever before has migrated online, bringing accessibility concerns to the forefront. Here's how higher ed institutions are making progress toward equitable access.
Colorado State University's online campus, CSU Global, has joined the Higher Education Course Recovery Consortium, a network of institutions that are sharing high-quality online courses to help connect students with the courses they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A university in the northwest is using mobile mapping technology to sort out plans for the fall return to campus.
Research firm Gartner recently came out with a set of recommendations for CIOs to help get their organizations through the financial fallout from COVID-19.
With the COVID-19 pandemic escalating, the University of Evansville made the decision in March to send all its study abroad students home. Here's how the institution navigated the situation.
Refer your college students to these services to help them keep up with school work.
Now that the initial fires of COVID-19 response have been put out, institutions are faced with a lot of unknowns for the fall semester. Campus Technology is convening campus leaders and ed tech experts to share their ideas and best practices in a second virtual event July 16.
New Jersey Institute of Technology started the process of planning its return to campus with a strength — the concept of converged learning — and began building from there.
Online learning provider Coursera has opened up its certificate programs to current undergraduate, graduate or recently graduated college and university students.
In these uncertain times, it's important to consider the ways crisis response is influencing the security and privacy of institutional systems and data.
In a statement today from President Michael McRobbie, Indiana University announced its plans for resuming fall instruction.
Pennsylvania State University has acquired 500,000 masks in preparation for resuming work and classes.
Arizona's Prescott College will reopen on-campus classes this fall with a new risk-management strategy: using a flexible block-class schedule to minimize contacts among faculty, staff and students.
Nearly half of high school seniors (45 percent) in a recently Encoura Eduventures survey are at least moderately concerned that COVID-19 will force them to change their college choices, and eight in 10 (81 percent) have some concerns that COVID-19 might delay their enrollment.
Even as the University of Arizona announced that it would hold classes on campus in the fall, along with a heavy emphasis on testing for COVID-19, the university has also appointed a former surgeon general of the United States to lead the reopening process. Richard Carmona will head the "reentry task force," which is steering the development and execution of a return-to-campus plan.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently came out with additional guidelines to help institutions of higher education protect students, faculty and staff and slow the spread of COVID-19.
In a special arrangement with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a new course by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Health is training people to do COVID-19 contact tracing.
A "playbook" from a team of higher education organizations provides advice and tips for faculty on how to design their courses for online delivery, enhance their online instruction and pursue continuous improvement.
Google has just made premium functionality in its online video meeting software freely available to anybody with a Google e-mail account.
A nonprofit maker organization is working with a company that creates computer kits to encourage people to make respirators for their communities.
From determining a remote learning strategy to planning for the new normal and enabling standards-based practices, these five phases describe the progress institutions are making toward excellence in teaching and learning online.
This fall, California State University will be keeping most of its institutions' courses online, in response to the ongoing health and safety concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
College students are now feeling much more enthusiastic about the prospect of returning to school in the fall.
The University of Arizona plans to resume in-person classes this fall, after the state began statewide antibody testing with help of the university.
A new set of guidelines from the American College Health Association has provided a run-down of key considerations for safely reopening institutions of higher education as the COVID-19 pandemic slows.
College and university advancement teams are evolving their strategies to help their institutions persist through uncertain times. Here are five examples to learn from.
The University of Arizona has expedited plans to launch a global campus, involving other institutions of higher education on five continents, to reach international students whose plans have been disrupted by COVID-19-induced campus closures, international travel restrictions or visa moratoriums.
MOOCs — massive open online courses — have become a major part of the online learning conversation with the advent of school closures due to coronavirus. Class Central, a site that tracks and catalogs the online learning platform segment, reported a "surge" of attention on MOOCs beginning on March 15, a date when "social distancing" became part of the common language.
Thunderbird School of Global Management, a school within Arizona State University, is planning for a robot-filled graduation. The institution will be using telepresence robots equipped with a tablet computer to provide video and audio of the graduating seniors.
Three universities have gone public with their use of remote laboratory equipment from National Instruments (NI) to give students hands-on practice with live data and instrumentation, even as they made the switch from in-person to remote classes.
Video lectures may have worked as a stop-gap measure in the emergency move to online learning, but they just don't cut it for the long term. Here are nine ways to bring distance education courses to the next level.
Nearly half of faculty in a recent survey said they lowered their expectations about the amount of work they could expect from their students after the switch to online learning in response to school closures caused by COVID-19.
In an April survey done by education technology vendor Top Hat, a quarter of college students said they're undecided about whether or not to continue their education in the fall.
This community college was one of the first to announce its plans for the fall semester. And no matter what students might prefer, they won't be returning to standard classroom settings anytime soon.
Higher education's current move to online learning may be leaving a sour taste in the mouths of students and faculty across the country, but there is a silver lining.
Ed tech company ProctorU has created a "student bill of rights" that outlines seven areas of expectations students should be able to count on from their academic institutions.
The United State Department of Education has launched a new grant program offering $307.5 million in funds for states to "create adaptable, innovative learning opportunities for K-12 and postsecondary learners in response to the COVID-19 national emergency."
California State University, Fullerton has had to mop up the confusion generated when local news stations reported that the campus would be delivering its courses virtually on the first day of classes in fall. According to a statement issued by Provost Pamella Oliver a day later, the reporting was wrong.
A Missouri community college will shortly be running its first open esports tournament. That will take place online between May 1 and 3, 2020 and be hosted by Crowder College, a two-year college serving nine counties in the state. The event will feature one-on-one competitions with Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on Nintendo Switch. The semi-finals and finals will be live-streamed on May 3.
Carnegie Mellon University has created five interactive maps intended to paint a more detailed picture of COVID-19 across the country and help in forecasting disease activity. The COVIDcast maps bring together real-time data on symptoms, doctor visits, medical tests and browser searches related to COVID-19, offering some unique insights into what's happening at the state, metropolitan area and county level.
A Nevada university has begun its recruiting of the class of 2024 through online means, including virtual tours, web conference advising sessions and other digital outreach. Officials at the University of Nevada, Reno said the goal was to remove barriers from incoming high school seniors who might be stymied by the current stay-at-home directive.
When Arizona State University shifted the whole student body to online learning during its COVID-19 campus closure, it had an advantage: Lessons learned by EdPlus and ASU Online. In this interview, EdPlus CEO Phil Regier shares the pain and the promise of digital education at distance.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly all higher education institutions (90 percent) in a recent survey used some form of emergency distance education to complete the Spring 2020 term. And 56 percent of faculty who moved courses online were using teaching methods they had never used before.
According to former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, some companies are withholding free access service from families who have outstanding bills or other debt problems with the company.
A cross-disciplinary team at Stony Brook University in New York has prototyped and tested a ventilator that could be used as an alternative to standard ventilators should the supply run out. The project was done in 10 days.
At last count, 4,235 higher education institutions across the United States have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic — affecting an estimated 25,798,790 students, according to a visualization from Entangled Solutions.
Amazon Web Services Education has introduced a set of free resources intended to help teachers and faculty in K-20 with their transitions to remote teaching and learning.
With nearly all campuses transitioning to online learning during the COVID-19 outbreak, California's community colleges will let students continue their science lab-based education by giving them access to virtual laboratories.
Lamar University in Texas is using a chatbot to help share information with students during the coronavirus pandemic.
Johns Hopkins University has launched a United States-specific COVID-19 tracking map with comprehensive county- and state-level data.
Colleges and universities have been impelled, in recent weeks, to conduct nearly all academic and business processes online for our health and safety amid the hazards of COVID-19. Out of this, a persistent question has emerged: Are we really able to carry on the best values of higher education through our online presence? Gardner Campbell considers the question.
To take advantage of the momentum created by a quick switch from face-to-face courses to online version, one Texas university is ramping up plans for a major online summer session too. Rice University, which switched to distance learning in March in response to coronavirus, has decided to offer all of its summer courses online.
COVID-19 is part of this year's Call for Code Global Challenge, run by the Clinton Global Initiative University and IBM. The challenge is a global program to entice students, developers and other problem solvers with both technical and non-technical backgrounds to create practical applications that use cloud, data and artificial intelligence and can make an "immediate and lasting impact on humanitarian issues."
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have turned to Twitter data to find out whether social distancing recommendations are having an effect in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
State University of New York Canton Professor Matthew Burnett has been making face shield components to help medical staff protect themselves against COVID-19 as they deal with a deluge of patients in that state. To build capacity and expertise out in the wider world, Burnett has begun offering free weekly instruction via Zoom for those who are interested in 3D modeling and printing.
Two education organizations have created a free Apple iOS app to help demonstrate how far to stay away from other people to practice safe physical distancing. The program, "Social Distancing Trainer," was produced by Discovery Education and Afterschool Alliance. The app uses augmented reality to get the idea across.
How does COVID-19 get transmitted? Researchers from New York University are out in the streets right now capturing examples of activities where people are coming into contact with surfaces that could host the virus left behind by others who have already touched the same surfaces.
Some students are hitting Minecraft during their "self-quarantines" to recreate their campuses. And at least one group is planning a national graduation ceremony to take place in their virtual world.
The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed into law on March 24, 2020, includes about $30.75 billion directly dedicated to the needs of public education.
Blackboard has launched a free tool for boosting the accessibility of digital course content. File Transformer, Powered by Blackboard Ally, allows students to convert files into a variety of alternative formats, such as HTML, audio MP3, ePub, electronic Braille or Beeline Reader.
Colleges and universities everywhere are rushing to move courses online and keep teaching and learning going during the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how to cope with what may feel like an impossible task.
IT operations might be the farthest thing from your mind during the coronavirus pandemic, but it's more important than ever to focus on equipment, systems, security and IT support.
Colleges all over the country are helping out COVID-19 response efforts by producing health equipment with their 3D printers, including face shields and respirator masks.
While university instructors around the world scramble to implement delivery of their courses online — a medium with which they may have only limited experience — they can learn from the field notes of their counterparts at the largest international joint-venture university in China.
Tomorrow, Campus Technology is teaming up with Future Trends Forum for an online discussion on the coronavirus pandemic, higher education and technology.
This year's report on The Changing Landscape of Online Education comes as nearly every college and university in the land is taking its courses online in response to COVID-19. In an 11th-hour addition to the report, CHLOE researchers suggested that the immediate goal for any institution right now should be to have faculty communicate with students on completing the tasks and assignments they need to satisfy course requirements.
Johns Hopkins University has upgraded its COVID-19 tracking map to include local data from every city and county in the United States.
The rushed transition to online instruction during the coronavirus pandemic can be wrought with anxiety, technical issues, concern for students and more. What's the best way to stay positive and support faculty?
With the coronavirus pandemic closing college and university campuses everywhere, faculty are tasked with a quick move to online instruction. Here, education experts offer advice on how to make the transition.
In the face of coronavirus concerns, Monmouth College in Illinois has sent out word that it plans to delay its graduation, which was scheduled for May 17, 2020. And universities and colleges in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Minnesota, Texas, Utah and most other states have made similar decisions.
Two research teams — one in Oxford and the other in Suzhou, China — have come up with a rapid-testing technology for coronavirus (COVID-19). The project is taking place at the University of Oxford and Oxford's Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research.
As coronavirus changes life as we knew it, these education experts offer advice on how to make the transition to online instruction.
Foundry College, a two-year-old institution that provides "face-to-face" classes online, has spun off its active learning platform as a stand-alone service.
As described in a World Health Organization report on COVID-19, Chinese disease officials sent out more than 1,800 teams of epidemiologists with five people per team in Wuhan to track down the individuals that sick people may have come into contact with before they quarantined. A project underway at Oxford University wants to make that process instantaneous.
A tuition-free university, the University of the People, said it would make its online courses available to American universities, enabling their students to take courses for credit.
2U just launched "No Back Row PRO," a free set of services to help faculty who are part of its university partners ramp up their online delivery of courses.
As more and more colleges and universities are shutting down their campuses over the next several weeks in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, education technology companies have stepped forward to help move student learning to the virtual realm.
VitalSource is offering free access to digital learning materials through the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester, to aid those students attending colleges and universities that have closed in response to COVID-19.
Learning management system company Blackboard has enabled a self-service portal where colleges and schools can immediately subscribe to its digital collaboration platform, Blackboard Collaborate.
Quality Matters, a nonprofit focused on standards for online learning, has created a set of checklists for rapidly moving classes online in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kahoot! has begun offering free access to the "premium" version of its game-based learning software. This move comes in response to the number of schools and colleges that are shifting to online education to minimize face-to-face contact during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country's largest community college system, Los Angeles Community College District, announced this week that it is moving as many courses as possible to online formats across its nine colleges, at least until April 13.
With universities all over the world looking to quickly move face-to-face classes online, massive open online course companies Coursera and edX have stepped in to offer access to their vast portfolios of course content.
Each year researchers at Carnegie Mellon University run a flu forecasting process to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with data that can help scientists understand timing, peak and intensity of that year's flu season, which typically runs from October through May. This year, however, at the request of the CDC, the researchers will stay on the job into summer since scientists don't yet know whether COVID-19 will follow the same cycle of subsiding as the weather warms up.
In the face of coronavirus, institutions large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year are canceling classes for the foreseeable future to reduce the likelihood of face-to-face interactions as much as possible.
The SXSW EDU conference has been called off, owing to fears over the coronavirus. SXSW EDU is an annual education-focused event held in Austin, TX, the week before the main SXSW festival, which has also been canceled.
The Flipped Learning Global Initiative has launched a free online course to help instructors and institutions that need to make a quick move to remote learning.
Researchers at Augusta University are creating an app that will allow users to assess their COVID-19 infection risk at home in minutes, based on how they feel and where they've been.
The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University has developed an interactive, web-based dashboard that tracks the status of COVID-19 around the world.
All categories of computing devices, including tablets, desktops, workstations, laptops and smartphones, will be impacted in 2020 by COVID-19 and its hit on the supply chain and global economies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued interim guidance for higher education administrators on how to respond to coronavirus.
To help institutions prepare for emergency situations such as a coronavirus outbreak, the Online Learning Consortium has put together a list of tools and advice for handling a quick shift to online courses.
While the physical campus at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has been closed due to coronavirus (now referred to as COVID-19 by health experts), faculty have quickly adopted an online teaching platform to reach their students through remote instruction.
As universities in China move courses online to serve students remotely in the face of COVID-19 lockdowns, instructors are rushing to modify their pedagogy and incorporate digital teaching tools. To help ease that transition, we've gathered our top stories on online teaching and instructional design, chock full of tips and best practices from the trenches.
When New York University closed its NYU Shanghai campus in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in China, little did it realize how much students would appreciate the efforts the university went through to keep their learning on track. The spring 2020 semester kicked off with school officials determined to use digital tools to deliver learning online as an alternative.
