Can states no longer afford their free college plans? Reported by Education Dive, Oregon lawmakers have cut their state’s free college program funding by $3.6 million, revoking some already offered student grants. Similarly, New York is publicly considering a reduction of their free tuition scholarships to prioritize current recipients. The takeaway? Some dramatic budget priorities […]

Reported by Education Dive, Google has launched a million dollar digital skills training initiative with 20 historically black colleges and universities. The semester-long digital training program is designed to help students, especially first-generation students, navigate the nuances of corporate America. The takeaway? This Grow with Google HBCU Career Readiness Program is part of Google’s recent […]

Remember that big community college enrollment boom many predicted for this fall? Reported by Education Dive, it didn’t happen. In fact, community college enrollment fell 7.5% year-over-year, the biggest decrease out of any institution type. The early prediction was based on the fact that, if students weren’t going to be able to have a “traditional” […]

Is COVID increasing the popularity of college consortiums? Reported by Education Dive, with colleges having been forced to migrate so quickly to online instruction, many colleges found consortium partnerships to be their best route. More than 70 institutions have joined the Council of Independent Colleges’ Online Course Sharing Consortium since the pandemic began. For many […]

The limitations of COVID contact tracing on college campuses are becoming more apparent. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, at many campuses, students are not getting notified if their classmate tests positive for COVID. Specifically, because if the classroom is set up for social distancing, the chance of spread becomes theoretically low. The takeaway? There is […]

What spring break? Reported by Education Dive, in order to limit the amount of student travel to and from campus, especially across state lines, many institutions are scrapping spring break, and instead plan on bringing students back to campus a week later for the spring term than usual. The takeaway? The correlation of college towns […]

College tuition just experienced its largest month-over-month decline since 1978. Reported by Education Dive, the Consumer Price Index for college tuition and fees declined 0.7% from July to August due to some institutions reducing fall tuition prices in order to stay competitive and attractive during a pandemic to students and families skeptical of the same […]

Is the financial reality of fall affecting our spring campus decisions? Reported by Education Dive, some colleges have already begun to announce their spring plans, including the University of Connecticut and Pennsylvania State University, which are leaning heavily toward online and hybrid instruction. But with many institutions having much rougher fall enrollments and revenue, how […]

How many of our students actually come to our institutions to “watch” sports? Reported by EdSurge, while many have written about the potential revenue effects of campus sports cancellations and the enrollment risk of the athletes themselves, did we perhaps underestimate how important the campus sports culture is for our other students who choose to […]

If 2-year colleges are truly a competitive threat, why don’t 4-year institutions build their own? Reported by Education Dive, The John Dee Bright College will begin offering associate degrees in the fall of 2021 with an annual tuition of $18,500, less than half the tuition price at Drake University itself. The takeaway? While this 2-year […]

How has COVID affected faculty tensions with university administration across higher ed? Reported by Education Dive, strikes and “sickouts” at University of Michigan and University of Iowa highlight the exacerbation of existing faculty-admin tensions on our campuses, with many administrations pushing for on-campus in-person instruction, and many faculty fighting for more flexibility due to the […]

Rapid COVID testing alone isn’t good enough for our college campuses. Reported by Education Dive, while The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had been hailed for its aggressive testing strategy to prevent the spread of coronavirus, in its first week back, the campus saw 700 new cases. The takeaway? Even twice-a-week mandated testing alone, which […]

Which institutions are at the most revenue risk this fall? Reported by Education Dive, it’s the institutions most revenue-dependent on auxiliary income outside tuition that are the most at risk this fall. For instance, Wheaton College in Massachusetts depends on auxiliary income such as housing, dining, and athletics for 30% of its operating income, compared […]

Should colleges cancel classes on election day? Unlike many countries, the United States does not offer Election Day as a national holiday. And therefore, it can be difficult for many working adults to get to the voting booth while balancing work, family, and education. Reported by The Washington Post, students at many institutions, including American […]

U.S. News & World Report has updated their college rankings methodology. And after doing so, there are absolutely no changes in the top three positions year-over-year. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, these methodology changes include a reduction in the weighting of SAT and ACT scores (from 10% to 7%), a reduction in the weighting of […]

What if every single college didn’t try to do every single thing on their own? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Amherst, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, Swarthmore, and Williams Colleges are teaming up for 1-stop admission events, offering joint virtual events, speaking about the benefits of liberal arts colleges to students, parents, and counselors. The takeaway? While […]

Will test-optional admissions continue next year as well? Reported by Education Dive, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has asked that public institutions not require entrance exam scores for the 2021-22 academic year. The takeaway? How might this affect the broader test prep industry? If the ACT and SAT aren’t the tricks to […]

Will the Black Lives Matter movement affect curriculum on campus this fall? Reported by Education Dive, the University of Pittsburgh is requiring first-year students to complete a course on anti-black racism. This one-credit course is designed to educate students about the Black experience in America. The takeaway? This course mandate is partially a response to […]

Will more students finally find community colleges this fall? Reported by EdSurge, community college has long felt like the hyper-rational economic choice. And yet, despite their affordability, year after year, millions of students would go on to choose a private college counterpart instead. But this fall, many of the reasons for choosing the private experience […]

What if we let our smart phones do our contact tracing for us? Reported by Education Dive, a test pilot at the University of Alabama is utilizing the GuideSafe app, developed using Apple and Google tools, to let students know if they’ve been exposed to someone who’s contacted the virus, based on whether or not […]

If you stay enrolled this year, we’ll make your make-up term free, if you need it. Reported by Education Dive, some institutions, such as Pacific Lutheran University and St. Norbert College, are choosing to offer an extra term or year after the student’s expected graduation date for free if they stay enrolled this year. The […]

To prevent campus closures from COVID, would colleges need to test students every other day? Reported by Education Dive, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests such, and that after modeling thousands of scenarios with an institution of 5,000 students, the incredibly high bar of every other day testing with […]

Are across the board budget cuts coming for higher ed? Reported by Education Dive, a new survey from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) reveals that more university presidents expect to have to implement across-the-board budget and benefit cuts than they did back in March at the beginning of COVID, including a full […]

Is now the time to reevaluate how we evaluate? Reported by EdSurge, our faculty were fairly forgiving this spring when it came to grading, knowing that everyone was getting used to a very new normal. But with increasing concerns about increasing plagiarism and the ability to cheat online, some institutions are experimenting with ungrading initiatives. […]

How can we navigate the student privacy issues involved in contact tracing? Reported by EdSurge, when a student is identified as testing positive for COVID-19, re-tracing their steps on campus can be a fairly easy digital process. A college could see when the student swiped their keycard to enter a building, or when a student’s […]

Is our faculty’s role as curriculum creator or curator? Reported by EdSurge, we may have made the challenge of spinning up new online classes this year harder than we needed it to be. Because many of our faculty hold a belief that their course needs to be all theirs. But with thousands of faculty teaching […]

Should FAFSA completion be mandatory? Reported by Education Dive, Louisiana and Texas have moved toward policies requiring high school seniors to either complete or formally decline the FAFSA as part of the college admissions process, in hopes of ensuring more low-income students will qualify for Pell Grants and unlock their college affordability pathway. The takeaway? […]

What are the incentives to lie about student COVID symptoms? Reported by Forbes, 10 members of the Colorado State University football team  alleged their coaches asked them not to report coronavirus symptoms due to the potentially negative team ramifications of having to quarantine. The takeaway? The incentives for lying about symptoms in the athletic arena […]

As students cross state lines from across the nation to fill up their college town, what are they bringing with them? Reported by The New York Times, The University of Iowa, facing a $75 million budget shortfall due to the pandemic, recently welcomed students back. In Iowa City, with 75,000 residents, more than 26,000 are […]

How can institutions enforce social distancing? Reported by BuzzFeed News, Northeastern University is doing so through incredibly tough penalties for non-compliance, and has suspended 11 first-year students for the remainder of the semester after they were found together, a breach of the institution’s coronavirus policies. These students will not be eligible for a refund on […]

How do we welcome new students coming from travel-banned states? Reported by Education Dive, with many states having quarantine orders for out-of-state visitors, how can our campuses welcome back our traveling students this fall? For instance, many states not only recommend but mandate quarantine for out-of-state visitors upon arrival. That means that your students may […]

Can we learn off other institutions’ hybrid-learning curves? Reported by Education Dive, as we seek to figure out technology solves for this next chapter and challenge of online learning across higher education, let’s make sure we understand what others have built and tested already. For example, Harvard University’s heavy-investment hybrid learning experiment includes many cameras […]

Will the design future of the college campus be heavily focused on HVAC systems? Reported by Education Dive, the trend in design planning for the college campus over the last 10 years has focused on conversations about “maker spaces”, and co-learning environments where students can study, learn, and work with their peers and instructors. But […]

Will this fall’s virtual learning be better than our student’s spring experience? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, this will often depend on what the student’s institution was focused on this summer. Many institutions spent the last few months figuring out how to make in-person learning work by any means possible, even if that meant a […]

With so many of our students learning online this fall, do we need to finally do a better job solving for online cheating? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, more and more institutions are ramping up their proctoring technology along with their broader moves to online learning. But is technology our only answer, or can we […]

Should we be encouraging our 4-year students to enroll in community college, too? Reported by Education Dive, a new study from Community College Research Center has found that students who take as many as 10 credits at a two-year institution while enrolled in a 4-year program increase their chances to graduate on time and earn […]

Google is making their next attempt at certificate-first education. Reported by Inc, Google Career Certificates are 6-month skill programs Google themselves claim will count equivalent to a 4-year degree requirement for new employees they’re hiring, including project manager, data analyst, and UX designer. The takeaway? Google’s efforts echo a broader trend of helping students increase […]

Will the algorithms that replace admissions tests prove to be any less biased? Reported by EdSurge, many institutions have dug into their data over the last five years to learn that admissions tests like SAT and ACT aren’t reliable predictors of a student’s success at their institution, and are moving toward test-optional admissions policies. And […]

What is higher ed’s liability if our students and faculty get COVID? Reported by Education Dive, more and more colleges are looking to their states for liability shields offered to some hospitals and other businesses, both to prevent legislation from students looking for refunds if they close campus, and also from students looking for liability […]

Are blended classes the resiliency answer? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, higher ed has done a formidable job immediately translating in-person courses into online experiences. But if higher ed’s delivery mode needs to be more resilient moving forward than our physical campuses have been, are blended courses the solution? Where students have the opportunity to […]

Just kidding, we’re coming back online. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, hundreds of colleges with optimistic intentions of coming back with in-person instruction options to start the fall semester have recently reversed course and announced that fall will begin with online-only instruction. The takeaway? Often citing “new scientific evidence”, many of these institutions were likely […]

Are tuition cuts higher ed’s only path to a financially healthy fall? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many universities are starting to offer significant tuition discounts for fall. And while many are hesitant to label these as “online” discounts out of concern for valuing their online offerings less so than their in-person offerings, they are […]

College sports are canceled this fall. Reported by NPR, the Big Ten and Pac-12 have both announced that their fall sports schedule have been canceled for the remainder of the academic year. Originally, colleges were hopeful they could limit COVID risk by playing all games in-conference, but safety concerns and flare-ups nationwide have proven too […]

Students are looking for financial aid answers during an incredibly difficult economic time. Reported by Education Dive, a recent survey from Ithaka S+R indicated that roughly 50% of the 15,000 students surveyed were looking for more communication from their financial aid offices. Because many students are concerned about both their aid and academic standing. They’re […]

Just a friendly and terrible reminder that higher ed was already struggling before the pandemic. Reported by Education Dive, a lack of governmental funding, enrollment pressure, affordability concern and a growing volume of student mental health issues was already creating incredible difficulty before a global pandemic came in to add chaos to an existing crisis. […]

We have another setback study for those waiting for behavioral economics interventions to improve higher ed’s online completion rates. Reported by EdSurge, researchers from MIT just completed what may be the largest research study regarding behavioral nudges and their impact on online student success, which included nearly 250,000 students. But while faculty interventions led to […]

Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Siena College did a test run of 3 socially distanced fall learning options for us, including a face-to-face collaborative classroom, a lecture course, and an outdoor seated collaborative class – all of which seated students 6 feet apart with some students attending via ZOOM as well. The primary learnings? Physically […]

Reported by Forbes, 20% of Harvard’s incoming class have chosen to defer their enrollment and forgo their undergraduate education option this year. The takeaway? Forgo for what is still not super clear. But with many thinking that the elite institutions would be relatively spared from enrollment issues this fall, if Harvard’s having enrollment issues, the […]

If it’s our algorithms telling us that standardized tests aren’t helpful predictors for college success, should we let the algorithms themselves replace our requirements? Reported by EdSurge, with so many colleges going test-optional after digging into their data, the question is whether the data is good enough now to create the requirements for us? The […]

Let’s say we get students to come back online this fall. Are we heading for a student retention crisis shortly after? Reported by EdSurge, higher ed’s online student retention rate is historically between 5 and 35% lower than our in-person retention rates. It’s a higher barrier format to keep students engaged with, even when you […]

For those fighting for a return to in-person learning as normal, we may not be prepared for what we’re actually wishing for. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, for those institutions who do open their traditional doors this fall, the isolation of the new in-person experience may be overwhelming. Largely empty classrooms with students safely separated […]

Is active learning inherently at odds with social distancing? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a reversion to physically distanced classrooms may cause some faculty to revert back to the traditional lecture who may have been experimenting with active learning experiences. The takeaway? Will a physically distanced in-person classroom divided by plexiglass actually be harder to […]

85% of the top 100 liberal arts institutions are test-optional this year. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, COVID has greatly accelerated the trend toward test-optional admissions policies, specifically because COVID prevented so many test takers from completing the ACT and SAT this spring. So much so that 85 of the top 100 liberal arts schools […]

Are the ACT and SAT going away or being replaced? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the trend toward test-optional admissions continues and is growing due to COVID-19 preventing many of the spring tests from being able to take place this year. Some institutions have seen no data correlation between success on these tests and success […]

Are higher ed’s trust banks empty? Reported by EdSurge, the grace period our students and their families gave us may be running out. It is impossible to know the future. And yet, announcing plans and reversing course just weeks later rightfully strikes our students as a trust loss for us. The takeaway? How can we […]

What will college fundraising look like this year? Reported by Education Dive, with a new EAB survey that shows college advancement officials predicting a 10% or drop in philanthropic revenue this year, what will those donor relationships look like? We’re asking alumni to no longer invest into the identical experience they had, but making sure […]

Are the colleges calling fall for online-only simply the ones who can? Reported by Education Dive, the ivy league and elite schools making the early decisions for an online-only fall may have the confidence that their students will accept the decision, and be able to learn in that online environment. Whereas, some institutions more dependent […]

Is being smart enough to get into college as good as going? Reported by Education Dive, this is a common misconception – that those who attend college earn more than those who don’t because they have the intellectual advantage that enabled them to get in. But a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic […]

This fall’s international enrollment drop could cost higher ed $3B. Reported by Education Dive, a forecasting survey of 346 institutions from NAFSA suggests an estimated three billion dollar loss in international enrollment revenue this fall from coronavirus issues, travel restrictions, and exclusionary federal policies. The takeaway? Already in a recession, a $3 billion international enrollment […]

Our brand-new online faculty need better online training. Reported by EdSurge, helping our faculty dig into the last three decades of online teaching practice research may prove invaluable to creating better online-first pedagogical habits. The takeaway? There are courses, webinars, blogs, and research on best-practice online instruction. Even our own courses themselves, to give our […]

So many studies have focused on our students’ perception to our emergency remote teaching this spring. But how has spring affected our faculty’s view of online learning? Reported by Education Dive, 40% of surveyed instructors view online instruction “not so highly” or “not at all highly”, with only 22% viewing online instruction “very or extremely […]

Will the COVID recession usher in new progressive financial aid policies? Reported by Education Dive, the mission of making college affordable for those who need it the most is more critical than ever. So how can we look to recent test pilots for inspiration and direction? Like University of Michigan’s recent HAIL Scholarship study, which […]

A reality check is hitting higher ed’s once optimistic fall plans. Reported by Education Dive, with confirmed coronavirus infections surging in the last few weeks, several colleges have publicly reversed their original plans to re-open campus this fall, including the University of Southern California and Loyola University Chicago. The takeaway? The benefits of making a […]

Do our students need the humanities now more than ever? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Coursera’s biggest growth in courses this year came from a 780% increase in the humanities, including the most popular overall course on the platform being The Science of Well Being. The takeaway? Perhaps we’re so focused on making sure students […]

What online accessibility challenges do colleges still need to decode before fall? Reported by EdSurge, the two biggest challenges making sure students could transition to online learning this past spring were physical accessibility (making sure students had computers), and connection accessibility (making sure students had internet). That latter one is often the trickier challenge that […]

Will we learn anything from this asterisk year for our rising freshman? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, it was a year of a whole lot of firsts, and a whole lot of no’s for many. No SAT. No ACT. No college visits. No counselor visits. But will it be hard to learn all too much […]

Are the 20% enrollment drop fears behind us? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, regional public university enrollment projections have leveled out. For instance, the University of Florida is only down 1% in paid deposits same time last year. While this doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be a surge of pull-outs right before the fall term […]

International students must attend on-campus or leave the country? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Harvard and MIT have sued in federal court to block a new federal policy, prohibiting international students in the U.S. from enrolling exclusively in online courses. The problem? Harvard and MIT aren’t offering on-campus courses this fall. So what happens to […]

Campus visits are returning, via car ride. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the University of Southern Indiana has launched a safe way to bring back their campus visits – offering car tours of campus, led by an admissions staffer in their own car. These 45-minute tours will take up to 5 cars, connected via ZOOM […]

Do colleges have a new student pool in their backyard? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with so many students now quarantined with their parents, will a local commutable college option feel like the safe choice come fall? California State University, Fresno is offering a “local” enrollment program this fall specific to students from the neighboring […]

Where’s the adult student recession boom? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, while economic recessions historically point adults back to college to up-skill, up-credential, and find that new career path, a report from Eduventures shows that we haven’t necessarily seen those early indicators we might, and that adult students may be losing confidence that a new […]

Are brand new enrollments our biggest melt risk? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a Carnegie Dartlet survey shows that 33% of high school students are likely to defer or cancel an admission offer rather than attend an online-only college this fall. Hence perhaps the pressure many institutions feel to figure out some sort of on-campus […]

Do our counselors need to get to students earlier in the process? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a new study published in Education Next shows that high school guidance counselors one standard deviation more effective than the median graduate students 1.7% more likely to attend a four-year college, 1.4% more likely to persist in college […]

In an online-only world, does the cheapest college win? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Park University is placing that bet with a big new marketing promotion advertising their institution as a gap year destination where students can continue their online studies, for a flat $9,000 tuition rate. And then of course, they can transfer right […]

What college will crack the online community challenge first? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with so many institutions focused on upgrading their online instruction experience, who’s focusing on solving the community issue? Because while we want to make our online experience as wonderful as possible, perhaps our community was the experience. More so than our […]

Do colleges have enough financial reserves for creative tuition policies this fall? Reported by EdSurge, while institutions are doing everything they can to retain the students who were originally planning on fall, they’re also thinking about other incentives they’ll likely need to offer to make their class. Tuition freezes and discounts? Financial aid increases? One […]

Is forecasting for fall out the window altogether? Reported by Education Dive, when we look at past year’s enrollment funnels to forecast, we must remember how unlike last year this year is. That past results were never a guarantee of future performance, but oh how much even less today. The takeaway? Even deposits are going […]

Do we deserve our students’ confidence? Reported by EdSurge, calling your college’s general number right now may show off our deep and very dysfunctional communication best practices  – and worst of all, right on the very front lines where students see them the clearest. Many university phone lines are going straight to voicemail. And students […]

Will a COVID gap year end up being an all too common note on student’s resumes and transcripts moving forward? And if so, how can students make the most of their gap story? Through internship opportunities? Service work? Creative exploration? Getting some Gen Eds out of the way? The takeaway? For those individuals wanting to […]

Is our brand language inherently COVID un-friendly? Small class sizes. Intimate community. The poster language for our brands may also be the scariest sounding for someone looking to safely return to class this fall. A hotbed of intellectual community is also sadly, a potential hotbed for viral spread. The takeaway? In this new world, does […]

Are adult-serving institutions being hit the hardest right now? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, federal coronavirus relief aid was distributed based on full-time equivalent (FTE) students instead of total student head count. That means that Amarillo College, serving 10,000 undergraduate students in the Texas panhandle received the same relief dollars as Brown University, […]

What have the hardest courses to teach online been? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, many faculty have struggled with recreating the intimacy of the small discussion-based seminar online. The first instinct may be to try and recreate this intimacy through live ZOOM classes. But many pedagogical experts believe that asynchronous models may be […]

Colleges want to re-open in fall. But will students come back? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, as of late June, a whopping 65% of colleges are optimistically planning for in-person learning come fall. But will students show up if they do? Whether for health concerns, experience concerns, or value concerns, students may be […]

How can we deal with our students’ summer learning loss? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, despite our best efforts, many of our students may not have received the full education experience of our traditional courses this spring. And our rising freshman may have had a difficult last semester as well. So, are they […]

As we build out our online learning capacity, should we be building out our online mental healthcare offerings as well? Reported by Education Dive, our students have undergone significant trauma in these past few months. Prior to the pandemic, our mental health departments were likely overwhelmed and underfunded. How much worse today? And what can […]

What a challenge our new graduates and career services departments have in the time of coronavirus. Reported by Education Dive, our career services departments are trying to help our new graduates land a new job during all-time high unemployment rates. But a lot of departments are getting creative. First accepting that this is a terribly […]

International student enrollment has already been declining. Will coronavirus kill it? Reported by Education Dive, new international student enrollment declined 10% between fall of 2015 and 2018, partially due to un-friendly immigration policies. Today, international enrollment makes up a little more than 5% of total higher ed enrollment, and a much higher revenue source given […]

Live online or on-demand learning? Reported by EdSurge, many teachers are “hedging” with the current advice of education experts. That students learn best differently, so how can we serve both through compromise? And therefore we’re often left with a weekly live online gathering we hope works for most parties, and the remainder done throughout the […]

What does the future of campus policing look like? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with a nation in outrage over police brutality and anti-black racism, the focus on institutional relationships with campus and non-campus police is already coming into view, with protest calls for defunding and disbanding campus police departments altogether. With Minneapolis at the […]

Will COVID-19 provide a boon to post-traditional student institutions? Reported by Education Dive, the colleges most prepared for this coronavirus reality have been the ones catering to the remote online learner the longest. Many institutions with the largest post-traditional student focus, with an avg. student age in their 30s, may very well find themselves top […]

MOOCs, take two? Reported by EdSurge, will the pandemic provide room for another MOOC moment? Could on-campus students who avoided online courses turn to MOOCs over their first-choice institution in the interim for the cost savings alone? Could incoming freshman who may have preferred a “gap” year, but with nowhere to travel to safe just […]

Will states be able to afford their generous “free tuition” plans any longer? Reported by Education Dive, while free tuition policies have been gaining both popularity and policy across the country over the last several years, will states be able to afford them now? Coronavirus’ impact on tax revenues and therefore, state budgets, will likely […]

Should higher ed move to a subscription-based model? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the subscription-based model provides interesting win-win scenarios. A potentially steadier and more predictable cash flow forecasting for the institution. An incentive for the student to finish their credential quicker. Plus, an easier post-graduation option to make continuing education an expected next step […]

What if a bunch of our incoming freshman ask for a deferred decision? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with many incoming freshman grieving their potentially lost first-year college experience, they are also considering their cost options. “Is it cheaper to go to a community college and get some online Gen Eds, or will my transfer […]

How should we evaluate our online teachers this spring? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, with many faculty concerned they may be harshly critiqued for their well-intentioned and unplanned pedagogical scramble this spring, what are the different ways institutions should be thinking about performance assessment? In the article, Jody Greene suggests evaluating professors on […]

How do state affirmative action decisions influence higher ed enrollment? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a new study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis shows the long term enrollment impacts of 19 public universities in states that banned affirmative action. The results? The underrepresentation gap between their share of underrepresented students compared to the […]

What are rising high school seniors putting on their college applications? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many of the highlight reel moments were canceled. The SAT. The math competition. The debate team finals. And these same students are nervous about having blanks on what prior may have been an impressive track record of success. So […]

Coronavirus isn’t in the faculty-staff handbook. And the problem is, many higher ed leaders require the handbook. These peacetime leaders are uniquely great at operating in the normal. The problem is – this is war. A whole lot of really critical decisions have needed to have been made quickly. A whole lot more to come. […]

Forget fall. Higher ed may lose 10% of our annual revenue through the loss of summer programs alone. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, summer athletic, academic, international, theater, musical, travel and co-curricular programs can account for up to 10% of a college’s annual income. The takeaway? Even while waiting to see how much […]

What will students end up doing this fall? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, back in March, 1 in 6 students claimed COVID had changed their college path. How much more so in the next several months? Will community colleges with solid online experiences see an increase in enrollment? Will gap year programs, especially […]

Will ACT and SAT suffer from the coronavirus? Reported by Marketplace, the University of California’s Board of Regents voted to drop the SAT and ACT as part of the admission process across their nine campuses, which currently enroll more than 225,000 students. With this season’s ACT and SAT testing dates having been canceled, and more […]

Is higher ed too big to fail? Reported by Education Dive, dozens of educational organizations, consortiums and policy groups are pushing for broader higher education funding to ensure our institutions remain viable post COVID-19. With 0% interest rates and suspended payments on student loans already pushed through, will there be a broader set of funds […]

Does higher ed have a broader responsibility to credential the existing labor market? Reported by Education Dive, 63 million workers without a bachelor’s degree have the skills to earn at least $7 an hour more than what they’re current making. What’s separating them? The credential. The takeaway? Can higher ed play a role here? Many […]

Is now AI’s time to shine? Reported by Education Dive, with institutions feverishly trying to scramble and put together high-quality online education plans to save their enrollment if the COVID-19 pandemic keeps campuses closed come fall, is now the opportunity for AI to play hero? Through chatbots that handle instantaneous customer service? Through recruitment pool […]

Some institutions are already starting to call online-only for fall, too. Reported by Education Dive, California State University, the largest public system in the U.S., has announced the decision to their nearly 500,000 students that most of their classes would be virtual this fall. The takeaway? Will Cal State’s lead make it easier for other […]

2/3 of college graduates would choose a different major if they could do it over again. But is that a bug, or a feature of higher education? Reported by Education Dive, this new study from BestColleges also shows that while 82% of graduates believe their educational investment was worth it, that students wish they had […]

Will higher ed go up during this economic downturn? Reported by EdSurge, historically, higher education has been countercyclical to the market. As people lose their jobs, they turn to higher ed to get upskilled, earn their degree, and secure their next career opportunity. But that may not be a sure thing this time. With the […]

Colleges said they wanted to enroll more lower-income students. But then they didn’t. Reported by Education Dive, in 2016 the American Talent Initiative (ATI) successfully signed 128 institutions on with a commitment to increase access for lower-income students. But despite a strong start, in the last two years, ATI members reported a net increase of […]

Is an employer vs. higher ed war on the horizon? Reported by Education Dive, Apple, IBM, and the Ad Council, in partnership with the White House, are launching a national ad campaign focused on non-traditional workforce education paths and challenging the idea that a college education is the primary vehicle for career success. The takeaway? […]

While 2/3 of Americans support tuition-free public college, what might the college affordability conversation look like this election season? Reported by Education Dive, while a full 83% of Democrats favor free college,  the presumptive democratic nominee Joe Biden, has proposed only making up to two years of community college free. The takeaway? During the democratic […]

Are internships inherently adult student un-friendly? Reported by EdSurge, while internships have always aimed to fill this experience “gap”, more and more adult students are shut out of the internship world since they’re already full-time employees at another company. Many of these adults are willing to pursue night and weekend opportunities, but these don’t often […]

We need to talk about online cheating. Reported by EdSurge, with new innovations in AI-written term papers, and a slew of new students learning online, our institutions are going to need to revisit our cheating policies and prevention strategies. For instance, some of the largest players in online education like Western Governors University utilize virtual […]

Are internships an equitable differentiation for students? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, while the Center for Research on College to Workforce Transitions cites the correlation between students who have internships on their resumes and their likelihood of getting hired, they also cite the inherent equity issue in this outcome. For instance, many internships […]

Are we graduating good cultural fits for the workforce? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, companies expressing concern that our new grads aren’t fully prepared to hit the ground running on day one may simply not love the specific unicorns that come to interview. And perhaps its not because of a skills gap, but […]

How can we convince our admitted students to enroll? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Loyola University New Orleans is letting their product speak for itself and offering a three-credit course to new admits free of charge. The goal is that the experience of these courses, taught by hand-picked teachers who excel at teaching new students, […]

Do our new online faculty need triage help? Reported by EdSurge, the Instructional Design Emergency Response Network is a volunteer network of 300 instructional designers and counting, established and willing to help faculty currently scrambling to provide quality online educational experiences. The takeaway? Higher ed is such a generous community, and we need that generosity […]

What will higher ed look like this fall? Reported by EdSurge, many university administrators are currently developing multiple game plans. Remote learning as it is today, with improved online practice. A rollout return with social distancing and testing implementations on campus. Or potentially offering both online and in-person modalities for students too concerned themselves to […]

How can we protect our faculty from 24/7 burnout during COVID-19? Reported by EdSurge, faculty adjusting to remote teaching now find themselves responding to new round-the-clock requests that students were typically batching during their in-class gatherings. Our faculty trying to be responsive to these student requests is absolutely admirable. But we may be in this […]

Are we currently aiming for “good enough” online education? Many students have been forgiving of our emergency learning continuity plans in the midst of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. They know we did what we could. But come Fall, many won’t continue to pay a premium price point for an underwhelming experience. The takeaway? How can […]

The virtual campus tour has quickly evolved from a novelty to essential. Reported by EdSurge, many universities including the University of Oregon have been utilizing virtual campus tour technology through Google Cardboard for several years now. Partially seen as a promotional gimmick as well as a utility for those students unable to easily travel for […]

How can we migrate accessibility to the online classroom? Reported by EdSurge, as educators begin thinking through potentially longer-term transitions to online education, it’s important to ensure you translate the accommodations you’ve already made in your academic classroom for students with learning disabilities online as well. The takeaway? Most learning management platforms have built-in accessibility […]

Washington State is testing a new nudge chatbot, Otter. Reported by Education Dive, high school seniors across Washington are receiving financial aid reminders from a new chatbot launched this past fall. With only 1/3 of high school seniors in Washington completing the FAFSA (ranked 39th in the nation), this chatbot is designed to help students […]

What if we conducted an ethical evaluation of our institution’s endowment investments? Reported by Education Dive, Georgetown University announced they will divest from fossil fuel companies within a decade. For many institutions, their endowment investment is how they subsidize the majority of their operations. But do our institutions have an ethical responsibility for where we’re […]

Is yours a surveillance campus? Reported by EdSurge, more than 40 colleges have made statements that they are not and won’t use facial recognition technology on their campuses. Whereas, many universities are actively utilizing facial recognition technology for meal payment, dorm security, and other privacy applications. The privacy concerns and hyper-surveillance potential of the modern […]

New research defends the test-optional college trend. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a new study published in Educational Researcher showed that high school GPA is a 5x stronger predictor of college success and graduation than an ACT score. The takeaway? The evidence continues to mount against test scores as a strong indicator of college readiness. […]

Are dual enrollment options available to the most underrepresented students? Reported by Education Dive, dual enrollment options designed to improve college affordability are underrepresented by the very students these programs were most designed to serve, with a new report from Wheelhouse showing that only 27% of black students and 30% of Hispanic students taking advantage […]

Is the bachelor’s degree still higher ed’s primary credential? Reported by Education Dive, colleges are awarding slightly more certificates and associates degrees (1.95 million) per year as they are bachelor’s degrees (1.92 million). New certificate programs continue to be created for these new positions that require more than a bachelor’s degree but less than a […]

Can a negotiated curriculum increase engagement? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, some professors of Gen Ed requirements know that many of their students “have” to be there vs. “want” to be there. So they’ve discovered that the best way to turn the “haves” into “wants” is to give their students control of the […]

Can you use your Gen Ed’s to solicit new majors? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Andre Audette from Monmouth College uses their introductory American politics course to win over students still searching for their career path. For those students who are engaged, show interest, and perform well, Audette simply asks them if they’ve […]

California’s public college system is running out of room. Reported by Education Dive, by 2030, some 144,000 state residents qualified to attend a public California university will be turned down due to capacity limitations. At the same time, by 2030, College Futures predicts a shortfall of 1.1 million workers with a bachelor’s degree necessary to […]

Coursera has launched their first online bachelor’s degree in the U.S. Reported by Education Dive, The University of North Texas has partnered with Coursera to provide an adult online completion degree, a bachelor of applied arts and sciences through one of seven concentrations. The takeaway? A Coursera degree. With University of North Texas on the […]

Will your social media profile keep you from getting into college? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, 36% of admissions officers are checking applicant students’ social media profiles. Of those doing so, 38% percent claimed it had a positive impact on the enrollment decision, while 32% claimed it had a negative impact. The takeaway? Should social […]

Do our students have the technology to learn remotely? According to a 2019 Wolff-Eisenberg survey, only 78% of community college students reported having reliable access to a computer or laptop. The takeaway? While most of our students likely have access to a phone, how mobile-friendly are these courses we’re scrambling to spin up? And if […]

What nudge communication helped make community college students more likely to return? Reported by Education Dive, a new research study from University of Florida showed that a one-course tuition waiver with clear return steps made students 21% more likely to return. The takeaway? It’s not just about communication volume and timing. It’s about the communication […]

If tuition is free, do our campuses become our difference? Reported by Education Dive, Georgetown College in Kentucky is experimenting with full-tuition scholarships for students from neighboring counties who enroll full-time and live on campus. While this is an enrollment growth initiative for a tuition-dependent institution currently struggling financially, is this also a potential model […]

What would a federal free college plan look like? Joe Biden has adopted Bernie Sanders plan that looks a lot like New York’s, where state residents whose families make up to $125,000 a year can attend the state’s 2- and 4-year institutions tuition-free. Reported by Vox, some downsides seen from New York’s plan has been […]

Do we need to figure out job placement? Higher ed has long been apprehensive about promising job placements for students, rightfully concerned to promise something we don’t have full control over. But according to a new Strada Education report, guaranteed employment outcomes would indeed be a leading factor that could convince more of the 36 […]

Is your campus ready to go vegan? Reported by Education Dive, the University of North Texas and the University of California, San Diego both have all-vegan dining halls, designed through evolving student demand with a growing preference for plant-based eating. Other institutions have “Meatless Monday” programs, plant-based food trucks, and are increasingly shifting their menus […]

Do students really understand their career options? Reported by Education Dive, more institutions are working to better connect their students with working mentors, able to help them navigate from the academy to the workforce. And a new study out of the University of Houston shows that students who are paired with professionals in their field […]

What happens when your state’s community college system makes an enormous transfer agreement with an out-of-state private institution? Reported by Education Dive, students from Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges will now be able to transfer up to 90 credits to Southern New Hampshire University and complete their degree for $288 per credit hour, a 10% discount […]

Did ACT just change the college testing game? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, as more and more institutions go test-optional, ACT just announced that students will be able to retake individual sections of the test to improve their overall score. While this will likely increase the odds of students opting in to retake the test, […]

What if our students ask for their money back? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with campus closures, many students have started asking about their room and board fees. It likely won’t be long before some students ask for their tuition money back altogether – those who either don’t care for the remote experience, or from […]

Will this forced immediate adoption of remote learning help or hurt higher ed’s move online? Reported by Education Dive, the majority of American institutions are flipping the switch and trying to teach their live in-person classes remotely. Yet, many faculty are ill-prepared to do so. Two MOOC providers, Coursera and EdX, are opening up free […]

Reported by Education Dive, a recent analysis of federal data showed that both first-generation and underrepresented minority students attending community colleges feel a greater sense of “belonging” than at 4-year colleges. The takeaway? A student’s sense of “belonging” is a feeling we can greatly impact. And if we are committed to student persistence and success, […]

This isn’t an online education test. While many publications are suggesting we finally have a great opportunity to test online education outcomes due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) closures, it’s important to remember that this isn’t what this is. Many live in-person classes are going to be delivered remotely – to students who may not be […]

While higher ed continues to explore new competency-based education models, the Department of Education is ending their experiments. Reported by Education Dive, the U.S. Department of Education is ending their experiment on June 30th, which allowed competency-based programs to receive federal aid. Institutions with direct-assessment approvals will be able to maintain these programs, and new […]

More adult learners are putting off college. Reported by Education Dive, with a strong economy and a 3.5% unemployment rate, more adult learners are finding answers to their economic issues in the workplace, with adult enrollment declining by 2.7% in the fall of 2019. While skepticism about the value of higher ed has been increasing, […]

Low income students can’t afford free college. Reported by Education Dive, in 47 states, low-income students whose families earn less than $30,000 a year still need to find $3,000 to cover the cost of four-year public school attendance. The takeaway? With so many free college initiatives in the works, we need to remember that if […]

Will class recordings hush helpful discourse? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, many online courses have begun recording their classes for students to be able to review afterward and for students who aren’t able to make the live class due to illness or scheduling. But some faculty are resisting this trend out of concern […]

Would a Yelp-like system for reviewing higher ed degree programs be more helpful to students than U.S. News & World Report rankings? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, ranking graduate schools by more student-centric measures could be much more helpful to the discerning prospective student. How was the advising? The career counseling? The job […]

Is fighting to keep struggling students in class the ethical choice? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, a new book by Jennifer Morton, Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility attempts to answer this difficult question. As our retention services have improved on campus, we’re getting so much better […]

Higher ed enrollment has hit a 10-year low. Reported by Education Dive, new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that total higher education enrollment has dropped below 18 million students for the first time in a decade, with private non-profit institutions the only group growing in Fall 2019 – by 2.7%. The […]

Are states free college plans learning off each other’s curves? Reported by Education Dive, Virginia’s new $145 million free college plan is designed to provide students with two free years of community college, specifically in programs designed to match the jobs and skills gaps they’re seeing in their state, including health care, IT, and early […]

Has higher ed’s current online education experience hit a growth ceiling? Reported by Education Dive, the growth rate of students taking at least one online class has slowed – with 35% of students in 2018 taking at least one distance class, up only slightly from 33% in 2017. Is the growth of online education running […]

Do humanities students need their own lab space? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, STEM labs on campuses serve a technology housing purpose, but also an essential community and collaboration purpose. That’s why Johns Hopkins University created their Classics Research Lab, to increase the opportunities for connection between students and scholars. The experiment has […]

Can we save the bachelor’s degree by adding to it? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, industry not-for-profit Workcred believes the bachelor’s degree should be reimagined, with the new 3-legged stool being the academic degree, work-based learning, and an industry-recognized credential. The takeaway? Embedding industry-credentials and certifications into our degree programs seems like the […]

What happens after bootcamp grads get their coding job? Reported by EdSurge, there are growth mindset and resiliency skills that not all bootcamps are preparing students for. Can they handle their technical interviews? Can they handle receiving critical feedback on their work? Can they communicate well and problem-solve with their peers? The takeaway? For students […]

Can chatbots outsource your customer service? Reported by EdSurge, while chatbots are growing in popularity and designed to provide more immediate customer service to prospective students during their investigation process, making sure that customer service goal stays primary can be challenging. For instance, if the real “unsaid” goal is to eliminate your phone banks, or […]

What can eSports teach us about building community in online learning? Reported by EdSurge, while eSports can be played anywhere, more and more universities are building eSports arenas. Why? There are technological and affordability considerations for sure. But there’s also an intentional desire to build a greater sense of community – to make these players […]

Will micro-degrees find a home in higher ed? Reported by EdSurge, edX is following up their MicroMasters degrees with the very first MicroBachelors programs. The first two offerings being Computer Science Fundamentals from NYUx, and the second, Information Technology Career Framework from WGUx. Pitched as a credential-first starting path toward a bachelor’s degree, it will […]

Would blockchain have prevented the Varsity Blues admission scandal? Reported by EdSurge, the “side-door” opportunities for students to get enrollment couldn’t have happened on a blockchain controlled campus. Those fake athletic profiles and the like just wouldn’t be possible in a tamper-proof record environment. The takeaway? As higher ed seeks to earn back and gain […]

Are educational podcasts the next MOOCs? Reported by EdSurge, there is a growing subculture of educational podcasts run by academics outside of their office university responsibilities, often from those who want a larger audience than their university classroom provides. These podcasts provide a fascinating platform to go off-curriculum, while digging deeper into their personal passions, […]

What happens when our students value convenience more than anything else? Reported by EdSurge, the most convenient university may very well win. Digital services in industries outside of higher education have created a new expectation for seamless customer experience that most of us are still falling drastically short of delivering on. And today, more than […]

How should enterprise organizations help their employees navigate upskilling opportunities and career advancement? Reported by PR Newswire, McDonalds’ new Archways to Careers app is designed to help employees identify potential career opportunities, and be mapped to a student coach to help support their educational plan. These paid educational offerings could include earning their GED, learning […]

Should flexible class hours start in high school? Reported by NPR, a Lansing, Michigan school is experimenting with a 3 to 8 pm schedule for students looking for a better way to accommodate part-time jobs, internships, dual enrollment opportunities, and family commitments. At Eastern Flex Academy, students start school at 3 PM right after the […]

Are we getting better at helping students finish what they started? Reported by Education Dive, research out of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that the college completion rate is at an 8-year high, with nearly 60% of students who entered college in 2013 having earned a credential in the past six years. Public […]

How did Rowan University grow enrollment by 60% in 6 years? Reported by Education Dive, president Ali Houshmand consistently cut Rowan’s annual tuition increases, and aims to keep these increases at or below the rate of inflation moving forward. In this same time period, Rowan’s percentage of underrepresented students has risen from 15 to 30% […]

Are colleges overly incentivized on helping students get their first job versus preparing them for the rest of their careers? Reported by Education Dive, only 50% of employers are even listing “required majors” on Handshake, a career services platform specifically designed for new graduates. More and more of these employers are looking for skills, and […]

How can we keep students’ attention in introductory courses? Reported by Education Dive, many of our large lecture classes handle the scope of the course the wrong way – going a mile wide and an inch deep. When instead, we can still provide that broad overview of a subject by focusing exclusively on the very […]

Are private non-profits holding strong? Reported by Education Dive, while many have been predicting a deep consolidation of non-profit institutions, enrollment in this sector has remained roughly flat, growing slightly from 4.27 million students in 2017 to 4.28 million in 2018. The real enrollment crash has occurred with the for-profit institutions, having lost 36% of […]

A virtual advising pilot didn’t improve college enrollment rates. Reported by Education Dive, a new attempt at “nudging” behavior didn’t work as expected. A new study out of UCLA offered socioeconomically disadvantaged high school students free virtual advising to help with their transition from high school to college. While the students in the study reported […]

Why are companies paying for their employees to go back to college? Reported by Education Dive, it’s a recruitment and retention advantage for sure. But it’s also an investment in upskilling. For instance, Walmart charges their employees just $1 a day to earn degrees in business, supply-chain management, technology or healthcare. And it’s because that’s […]

Will IBM help spin up new data science degree programs even faster? Reported by Education Dive, IBM is working with the University of Pennsylvania and the Linux Foundation to build an open-source data science curriculum that any college can adopt. And once available, other universities will be able to contribute their own open-source materials for […]

Will early student alert systems create privacy concerns? Reported by Education Dive, Virginia Commonwealth University is piloting a system where student attendance is tracked in the class through the wi-fi of their phone or device. The well-intentioned goal is to be digitally aware of student absences so the institution can proactively intervene in the case […]

Would anonymity increase student participation? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, when a professor asks the class if anyone has any questions, no volunteers doesn’t always mean no questions. That’s why Perry Samson from the University of Michigan designed an anonymous backchannel where students could submit questions for a teaching assistant to answer. The total number […]

Will Second Life-esque virtual campuses make a comeback in higher ed? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Stanford University has partnered with VirBELA to design a virtual campus where students from their certificate program can design their avatars, virtually wander campus using their keyboards, and chat with other student avatars in their vicinity. The takeaway? While […]

How will physical-dependent courses translate online? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, NYU’s new master’s in integrated digital media is testing the waters, with faculty designing creative solutions for evaluating physical art projects traditionally designed in an on-campus lab. Through the student’s own documentation of the process using photos and videos, as well as live video […]

Can we put a value tag on colleges? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce has released their first attempt, aptly titled, “A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges”. This study uses College Scorecard data to attempt to rank domestic institutions based on their ROI. But by […]

Harvard is creating a new 2-year work gap pathway from undergrad to law school. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Harvard has created a free law school deferral program for junior undergraduates. In this program, junior students can apply for and receive a law school admissions offer contingent on them taking two years off after undergrad […]

Will Coursera’s new bachelor’s completion degree be able to scale? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Coursera has partnered with the University of North Texas to launch a degree completion program, Coursera’s first bachelor’s degree program. Incoming students can transfer up to 84 credits earned elsewhere, but must earn at least 34 credits through UNT in […]

The student housing collapse is coming. Reported by Education Dive, despite representing less than 6% of loans, student housing currently accounts for 40% of loan defaults in the multifamily sector. Enrollment declines, the rise of online learners, and last decade’s housing boom creating an all-time high in student housing property prices have created a perfect […]

Is the MBA only declining in the United States? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, international enrollment trends for the MBA are much more encouraging than what we’re seeing in the U.S. 50% of business schools in Indi a saw application increases. 63% for European and Asian-Pacific schools. And 73% in China. The takeaway? As our […]

Is online education an entirely different product than traditional higher education? Reported by EdSurge, many of us think of online education as simply a difference in modality, and therefore the question becomes how do we deliver the same experience through a different channel. But we really need to understand how absolutely different the average audience […]

A new study out of Georgetown proves that a liberal arts education is worth it, eventually. Reported by the Washington Post, a new searchable study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce shows that while the return on a liberal arts education is not often immediate, the median 40-year return is 25% higher […]

Will job automation lead to a new surge in employer education benefits? Reported by Education Dive, a Bright Horizons survey of 30,000 workers showed that 52% of workers rank tuition reimbursement as their most desired employer benefit. This is because workforce automation is no longer seen as a distant threat. With studies showing that automation […]

Is the hostile political climate leading to a surge in HBCU enrollment? Reported by Education Dive, one-third of historically black colleges and universities have seen record enrollment numbers within the past three years. Some theorize that recent public philanthropic gifts for HBCUs has ushered in a new understanding of the underfunding issues some HBCU’s have […]

Should the Fed get into the college banking game? Reported by Education Dive, The U.S. Department of Education is piloting a prepaid debit card program that will allow students to pay for nontuition expenses using their financial aid award. Purdue University, University of Georgia, Jackson State University and University of California, Riverside are the four […]

Could the test-optional admissions trend become a mandate? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with more and more institutions moving to test-optional admission policies after looking at their data and seeing that ACT and SAT test scores weren’t correlated with academic success, some groups are now suggesting that the existence of admission test mandates could be […]

How can we make sure we’re truly innovating at our institutions vs.playing “innovation theater”? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a recent Harvard Business Review article provides us with some red flag signs to avoid when pursuing innovation at our institutions. One of the most common? Lots of new activities with very few operational changes. Beware […]

Does higher ed need to start experimenting in order to find its future faster? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, when considering working with Coursera on an online electrical engineering degree, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Provost and CFO both saw the opportunity as one to test the future of higher education. The takeaway? Isn’t this […]

Pace University takes a hyper-intentional approach to enrolling underrepresented students. Reported by Education Dive, Pace’s ranking as the top college in the country for upward economic mobility comes from their intentionality in doing so. Removing application and enrollment barriers such as student and family income. Building a pipeline through high school visits to underrepresented communities. […]

Higher ed presidents claim they’re not ready for the future of higher ed. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, an American Council on Education survey showed that on five market trends, including a growing competitive set and declining federal support, not more than 1 in 7 higher ed leaders felt “very confident” in their institution’s capacity […]

Will community colleges help solve the skills gap? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Unmudl is a new platform offering noncredit courses from an initial cohort of five community college partners, meant to provide local employers with affordable and online ways to upskill their employees. For instance, an employer could customize an educational program path for […]

Do we need PhDs in Learning Innovation? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with exciting new innovations in learning science research and the rapid growth of online learning, the conversation about these digital innovations seems to mostly be happening digitally. Where historically, such massive thought around similar systemic change has largely happened in peer-reviewed journals, conference […]

How will quantum computing change academic programs? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, quantum computing promises to give us answers to the world’s questions – the ability to instantly sort through vast worlds of data and come back with correlations could unlock so many discoveries across all knowledge sectors, including higher education. For instance, many current […]

Is there a disconnect between higher ed leadership and digital learning? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a recent survey from the Campus Computing Project shows that only 40% of IT officials believe college leaders are “well informed” about digital learning and digital transformation. The takeaway? We’re unfortunately still in the early days of digital learning. […]

Boston College is embracing Learning Experience Design (LXD). Reported by EdSurge, Boston College’s Carroll School of Management takes a different approach when determining course modality. They avoid the binary choice of online vs. on-ground. Instead, their faculty are working to build flexible, accessible and customizable hybrid courses for digital natives. This means animated videos, synchronous […]

Are we entering a new golden age of teaching and learning? Reported by EdSurge, Matthew Rascoff from Duke University believes higher education has really turned the corner from early adoption with a lot of tech-driven pedagogical breakthroughs to the mainstream. That we know more about how students learn, and how we need to teach than […]

How can we encourage students to attend office hours? Reported by EdSurge, while faculty office hours can be an incredibly helpful resource for students to get 1-on-1 time to talk through academic roadblocks, the concept of office hours can be both intimidating and inflexible for students. Virtual office hours offer two large benefits – the […]

Could embodied cognition improve students’ academic performance? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, faculty within the chemistry department at Miami University are committed to the concept of embodied cognition, learning about things like atomic movement, by recreating the movement yourself. Spinning, vibrating, and match-making around the classroom. The results so far? Students in these […]

When you consider adding new academic programs, consider your entire academic portfolio. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, institutions should consider individual academic programs, only in relation to the entire portfolio, and where they contribute to mission (your focus), market (student demand) and margin (net profitability of the program). The takeaway? Continually analyzing the […]

It’s in the syllabus, Karen… Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Loepp from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater has an interesting strategy for making the important information in his syllabus more usable for his students. He puts it in FAQ form. From “What do I do if I miss class?” to “How will […]

Should online and on-campus students be in the same class? Reported by Education Dive, when remote students “call in” to an on-campus class, they’re often passive participants. But Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education is experimenting with a new course format called HELIX, in which large monitors in the front and back of the classroom display […]

California State University Channel Islands is teaching students how to learn online. Reported by Education Dive, CSU Channel Islands launched Learning Online 101, a 1-3 hour course allowing students to practice using online course technology, along with the time management and networking skills required for successful online learning. 92% of students thus far have reported […]

IBM believes its high-tech jobs don’t necessarily require a traditional college degree. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, IBM has deepened its relationship with 19 community colleges across the country to help train students for jobs in cloud computing, cybersecurity and other high-tech fields – roles they anticipate filling up to 20% of their new hires […]

What can Arizona State University’s experiment in adaptive software teach us? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, ASU has moved their algebra class from a 100-student lecture to 100 students on their laptops, while a professor and five undergraduate assistants roam and assist. The adaptive software tests existing competency, and then customizes the next-step learning path […]

What happens if state funding for higher ed disappears? Reported by Education Dive, the gap between federal and state funding on higher education has nearly closed due to per-student state funding falling a full 31% from 2000 to 2015. This while federal Pell Grant spending has climbed 71% over the last decade. This begs the […]

Are we simply making it too hard for students to transfer into our institutions? Reported by Education Dive, the reason many students may stop after their 2-year degree is simply the friction point of moving forward. Partnerships like the one between University of Dayton and Sinclair Community College are attempting to solve for this. Today, […]

Could on-campus student services help rural students’ online persistence? Reported by Education Dive, rural Shasta County in Northern California has no four-year universities and only two community colleges. But through grants from the Lumina Foundation, Shasta is now offering localized support, including tutoring centers, a library, and a health center, for those students studying online […]

Frito-Lay is offering college credit for apprenticeship training. Reported by Education Dive, students who enter Frito-Lay’s apprenticeship program receive elective credits for basic engineering and maintenance skills through Central Georgia Technical College, as they learn skills that prepare them for entry-level manufacturing roles. Through this program, Frito-Lay has created pathways to successful hires as well. […]

A new gift makes the California Institute of Technology an immediate leader in the climate science field. Reported by Education Dive, a $750 million dollar private donation to Caltech is designed to scale the institution’s environmental research as well as open a new 75,000 square-foot center for energy and sustainability research. Plus, new core courses […]

Should students investigate their college’s financial health before enrolling? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with college closures and mergers happening more and more frequently, the question of a college’s financial health is starting to become a decision point for prospective students. Given the fact that the reputation of having a degree from a closed school […]

How can we bring high-touch interactivity to online learning? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, online courses, for all their pedagogical rigor, often miss many of the benefits of in-person interactivity. But there are several ways institutions are working to incorporate high-touch into the online degree program. From in-person residencies to heavy team-based projects, and client-based […]

How did the Community College of Rhode Island quadruple their 2-year graduation rates? Reported by Education Dive, the Rhode Island Promise program provides high school graduates with free community college tuition contingent on them enrolling full-time. This along with other institutional initiatives has risen their graduation rate up from 4% to 18%. The takeaway? Full-time […]

How important is social media for the college purchasing decision? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a recent EAB study has shown a significant leap in the importance of social media for college discovery in the last two years, with the percentage of students saying they “discovered” a college on social media growing from 19.2% in […]

The upcoming teacher shortage is upon us, and we haven’t economically solved for it yet. Reported by Education Dive, the teacher shortage gap is now at more than 110,000. And while higher ed is ready to help solve that educational gap, state salaries for teachers are still ignoring the incentives necessary to attract more students […]

Is the handoff between admission and retention services our very problem itself? Reported by EdSurge, the 6-year completion rate in higher ed is only 60%. Our admission and enrollment teams do a great job of convincing students they can do it. And then 4 in 10 end up not. Is the division of labor between […]

Does higher ed’s call to “earn your degree” need to get more specific? Reported by EdSurge, there are currently 738,428 unique credentials in the U.S., according to a recent study by Credential Engine. So is our clarion call in higher ed for students to get any of them? What about the more than half of […]

What are New England colleges doing to prepare for the upcoming student demographic collapse? Reported by EdSurge, the number of high school graduates in New England will decline 25% between 2007 to 2030. With demographic trends no longer in their favor, many institutions are seeking to determine their new position and identity. Colby-Sawyer College is […]

From university library to maker-space, a physical transformation is happening on our campuses. Reported by EdSurge, once judged by the size of their collections, the modern university library is now being valued for how well it helps our students navigate the information age. With some institutions transforming their physical collections into maker-spaces, innovation studios, and […]

How do we replicate the informal social learning that takes place in dorm rooms and quads for our online students? Reported by EdSurge, online students are increasingly disconnected from the channels that spark social learning, interaction, and educational development. The late-night dorm experiences. The serendipitous bumping into new people, opportunities, and experiences on the quad. […]

What did we learn from Arizona State University’s great EdX MOOC experiment? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the results of this Global Freshman Academy have been disappointing. Out of 373,000 students who have enrolled in the program, just 2% completed a single course with a C or better. Less than ½ a percent paid to […]

If income-share agreements run into regulatory trouble, will income-based tuition plans replace them? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, with more and more institutions exploring income share agreements to provide students with an alternative financing option, Simmons University is launching an income-based tuition alternative, allowing a nursing student to defer their tuition until after graduation, and […]

Can we do a better job offering mental health services to our online students? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many institutions are seeing up to 50% increases in their on-campus students seeking appointments for psychological services. But how can we address these same challenges for our online student populations? Post University, for example, is now […]

Let’s not give up on nudge communications just yet. Reported by Education Dive, while a long-term College Board study recently came back showing low effectiveness of student-focused nudge communications, a different randomized trial has shown more promising results. Community college STEM students persisted at a 16% higher rate than those students who opted not to […]

Are state flagship institutions unaffordable for their residents? Reported by Education Dive, a new study from the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) shows that nearly all state flagships are largely unaffordable for their low- and middle-income residents. In response to this financial reality, some institutions, like University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Texas […]

Home delivery meal kits are going to be coming to college, from college dining service companies. Reported by Education Dive, Aramark’s recent acquisition of Good Uncle has prompted the launch of their own Home Chef meal service. Arizona State University, an Aramark-serviced institution, now offers a Home Chef express dining plan, in conjunction with their […]

California is about to launch their new free online skills-based community college, Calbright. Reported by Education Dive, Calbright will offer three academic pathways, including medical coding, information technology support and cybersecurity. Today, these courses do not offer credit that can be transferred to other colleges. Instead, the college offers job placement assistance upon completion through […]

Where should fintech live at your college? Reported by Education Dive, the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and cryptocurrency are all creating new curriculum and governance questions about cross-department collaboration for these emerging programs. University of the Cumberlands chooses to split the courses from their global business and blockchain degree between the […]

The new social mobility college scores are out. For the first time, U.S. News & World Report has released a separate category ranking for social mobility. The goal with this ranking is to see which colleges actually do the best job lifting students up between enrollment and graduation, not just enrolling the best and brightest. […]

Would increasing math requirements negatively impact diversity? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, The California State System has proposed requiring an additional high school course in quantitative reasoning to qualify for admission, based on data which shows that students with those capabilities are much more likely to succeed at Cal State. While this wouldn’t require any […]

Is the enrollment growth fight about to get even crazier? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the National Association for College Admission Counseling is under pressure from the Justice Department to remove “antitrust” provisions that could be seen as limiting student choice. This would remove the May 1st “Decision Day” provision, and allow colleges to continue […]

Students prefer great lectures to active learning experiences. But their grades don’t. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, a new study out of Harvard University surprisingly shows that students from an introductory physics course not only preferred a lecture to the active-learning experience, but also believed they had learned more in the lecture. The […]

Will nudge economics work on our faculty? While a long-term College Board study recently came back showing low effectiveness of student-focused nudge communications, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the California State System is testing a new system where professors themselves will receive personalized nudge communications. These messages will highlight differences in academic performance […]

Who is responsible for retraining workers? Higher ed or the employers themselves? Reported by EdSurge, a recent Gallup survey in partnership with Northeastern University showed that 73% of Americans believe employers are responsible for retraining. The problem? Most employers don’t see retraining as their responsibility, nor are they often deeply embedded in the education game. […]

Robots are coming for the under-educated first. The problem? Community college enrollment fell 11% from 2012 to 2017. Reported by EdSurge, with flat 4-year college enrollment and decreasing 2-year enrollment, economists are concerned that a lot of low-skill jobs on the docket to be replaced by automation are going to leave a lot of adults […]

Do adult students require different EdTech? Reported by EdSurge, a new study from the U.S. Department of Education finds that adult learners and traditional learners likely need very different EdTech tools. For instance, when an LMS serves as a complement to the traditional classroom vs. the entire classroom experience, it probably needs to be designed […]

Are colleges solving for economic inequality or reinforcing it? Reported by EdSurge, the new book “The Years that Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us” by Paul Tough, tells a troubling story about the lack of social mobility college affords those who need it most. Some of its findings? That the highest ranked colleges […]

Student retention is an engagement game. Reported by EdSurge, a recent study from Civitas Learning shows that the highest correlation for improved student retention rates are involvement in non-academic activities on campus. The takeaway? In our desire to increase student retention, we often first try to connect students with our academic services. But is it […]

Is guaranteed job placement a promise higher ed can realistically make? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, DePauw University’s Gold Commitment is promising an entry-level job or grad school admittance within 6 months of graduation, or they will provide them with a full-time entry-level job for six months through an employer partner. While many in higher […]

Do institutions have such a hard time creating a great transfer student experience because we just don’t like the idea of being picked second? The popular narrative and excuse for the subpar transfer experience has always been that higher ed operations have historically been focused on the traditional student and their 4-year journey. But now […]

Do new alumni need to be taught to give? Reported by Education Dive, Villanova University just wrapped up a 5-year capital campaign that came in $160 million over their $600 million goal through 78,000 donors, half of whom gave for the very first time. While major gifts drive campaigns, many advancement offices believe that ignoring […]

How will changes to Google’s college search features impact community college enrollment? Reported by Education Dive, while Google’s “college search” features have historically only included 4-year colleges, community colleges will now be included in these search rankings. As these typically low-priced options are added to rankable college search listings, will this small database change vastly […]

While 65% of City University of New York’s budget runs off city and state support, one university president believes the future of private institution support needs to come through employer partnerships. Reported by Education Dive, Jayson Boyers, president of Cleary University, believes industry-education partnerships may provide the revenue stream diversity so needed by private institutions. […]

Indiana University’s attempts to remove some of the stigma behind mental health issues appears to be working. Reported by Education Dive, the peer-led U Bring Change to Mind (UBC2M) has been holding events, “de-stress” activities, and bi-weekly meetings in attempt to boost mental health awareness and services across campus. Longitudinal surveys have shown a decrease […]

The University of Maryland is opening a brand-new tech hub near Amazon’s new HQ2 headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Reported by Education Dive, the University of Maryland joins Virginia Tech and George Mason University in building new facilities near HQ2 in attempts to partner with and leverage the proximity of Amazon for their own technology initiatives. […]

Southern New Hampshire University is now offering course credit for free Salesforce training. Reported by Education Dive, SNHU will now count completion of Salesforce’s free online training program, Trailhead, as a technology elective. This follows the path of more and more colleges and universities partnering with and incorporating popular technology and software credentials into their […]

Why is Davidson College’s Career Center playing substitute teacher? Reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, when faculty at Davidson College have conflicts that prevent them from making it to class, they are asked not to cancel the class, but to call the Career Center instead. This is just one way Davidson’s Career Center attempts […]

Sure, online education can help scale higher ed. But when will it finally personalize it? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the promise of online education has always been broader than merely teaching more students at once. We’ve used like predictive. Adaptive. Personalized. But are we finally getting there? MIT Sloan Professor Erik Brynjolfsson claims that […]

What can we learn from other countries’ “free college” initiatives? Reported by Education Dive, a new study from the American Enterprise Institute suggests some potential unintended consequences of free college. Specifically in these international use cases, you find a high correlation between an increase in federal subsidies and lower admission rates. This is partially because […]

Who owns mental health services on campus? Reported by Education Dive, a recent American Council on Education survey of more than 400 college presidents provides some interesting answers regarding their perceptions of higher ed progress on mental health issues and services. 92% of respondents believe their Dean of Students or Head of Student Affairs runs […]

Faculty diversity is still trailing student diversity trends. Reported by Education Dive, new data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that while 45% of undergraduate students are now non-white, up from 28% two decades ago, non-white full-time faculty still make up only 24% of those positions. And many of the positive trends in […]

Are nutrition benefits a college completion strategy? Reported by Education Dive, The College Student Hunger Act of 2019 is a legislative attempt to expand the existing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP. With a growing food insecurity problem across college campuses, and with more and more nontraditional students trying to balance the finances […]

Southwest Airlines is building university pipelines. Reported by Education Dive, with the aviation industry experiencing a shortage of skilled workers, more and more airlines are working directly with universities to create customized academic pathways and apprenticeship programs. Southwest Airlines is the most recent, partnering with Arizona State University, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, University of Nebraska […]

Students in competency-based assessment bachelor’s degree programs at Capella University are graduating 59% faster. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the promise of competency-based education is that freed from the credit hour, students would be able to progress through the curriculum as fast as their mastery allowed, saving time and tuition dollars. This experiment at Capella […]

There’s a price penalty for part-time students in higher ed. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many colleges still retain “plateau tuition” policies, meaning that a student taking 18 credit hours a semester pays no more than a student taking 12 credit hours. These policies are designed to encourage full-time enrollment and help students graduate faster. […]

What could long-term higher ed planning possibly look like? We don’t need a different college every 10 miles to effectively serve the student population. Everyone’s going to study online. They’re going to make a hyper-rational value-quality decision based on widely available data. And there will be 25 mega-schools that teach everyone. What does real-term higher […]

Does higher ed need to do a better job educating students on how to pay for college? Reported by Education Dive, while some colleges are trying to do a better job proving the market value of their degrees vs. the alternative of merely a high school diploma, some are working to incorporate personal financial education […]

Is cannabis coming to college? Reported by MarketWatch, with more and more states legalizing marijuana for medical and/or recreational use, the industry as a whole is looking to evolve. From ag science, to business operations, the business of cannabis is quickly creating a need for a specifically educated workforce. And a few institutions are starting […]

Are employers looking for coders or kindness? Team-building. Conflict resolution. Leadership potential. Empathy. Resilience. Reported by Education Dive, these “soft skills” are becoming the stand-outs more and more employers are looking for in new grads according to the 2019 Job Outlook Study. The takeaway? At what point do we start referring to these “soft skills” […]

The Gates Foundation’s early alert initiatives designed to improve student persistence and retention have proven largely ineffective to date. Reported by EdSurge, a new study examining the impact on these early interventions funded by the Gates Foundation at three separate universities has “not yet produced discernible positive effects on students’ academic performance.” This is a […]

Despite online education allowing a student to learn from anywhere, the vast majority of students still choose to attend a university with a physical location within 50 miles of their home. Reported by EdSurge, this interesting reality opens up an interesting opportunity for hybridized student services, and is why many institutions are creating coworking spaces […]

Can higher ed learn online education best practices from McDonalds? Reported by EdSurge, Arizona State University’s Chief Technology Officer, Donna Kidwell, is looking to incorporate the best-practices of corporate training programs into online education. Because in a fast-growing franchise model, the new owner needs to learn very specific best practices for how to run and […]

Those Masterclass videos are coming after higher education. Reported by EdSurge, the founder behind those celebrity video courses you see advertised in your Facebook feed is now offering university-level courses through a new company called Outlier. Outlier has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to ensure the credits earned are transferable, and each course costs […]

How can we avoid the discriminatory design of artificial intelligence in higher ed? Reported by EdSurge, unchecked, artificial intelligence may tell you that low-income students are a higher risk admission chance, and suggest denying their entry. It may judge teachers on the exit point of the students taking their course and ignore their entry point. […]

Could employer-funded college ruin publicly-funded higher education? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, while many see employer-funded education as an amazing move toward accessibility for adult learners, some, like Geoffrey Cox from Stanford University, have grown concerned that this trend may cause a de-funding of public education and lock both healthcare insurance and education […]

Boston University is launching a second-tier priced online MBA. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, while many institutions make no pricing, or respective quality, distinctions between their online and on-campus degree programs, Boston University is promoting a purposely different online MBA. Specifically designed for the part-time student, this online degree offered in conjunction with edX, offers […]

“If I ask that question, they’ll think I’m stupid.” The fear of bad optics prevents many from asking questions in class when they’re legitimately confused about the subject matter. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, recent research from the University of Michigan shows that students are more likely to ask questions if they’re able to do […]

Will online education become less expensive to run than on-campus education over the long-term? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the popular belief that online education is inherently cheaper than on-campus education due to the lack of buildings required is simply inaccurate. The technology and development costs required to bring a degree program online can be […]

Will online education prove to be the rural attainment equalizer? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many areas within rural America are known as “education deserts”. And state systems like the University of North Carolina are now including goals within their strategic plans of increasing rural degree attainment by 20%. One obvious answer to the geographic […]

Is “right-sizing” an enrollment excuse or a strategy? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many are asking that question after George Washington University’s president, Thomas LeBlanc, announced plans to intentionally cut undergraduate enrollment by 20% over the next five years. This “better, not bigger” model is becoming a popular anthem in higher ed right now, but […]

Is social emotional learning coming to higher education? Reported by Education Dive, George Mason University is one of many institutions working with Education Design Lab to bring soft-skills badging, including social emotional learning, to higher ed. These credentials, including empathy, resilience, and collaboration can currently be obtained by both undergraduate and graduate students through standalone […]

Is a lifetime membership a solution for educating the lifelong learner? With many colleges thinking through their support mechanisms for the lifelong learner, including stackable credentials and continuing certifications, could a lifelong membership option be on the table? Some institutions like Boise State University are coming close with a subscription-based model, but this subscription currently […]

Will visa delays be what prevents many institutions from hitting their numbers this fall? Reported by Education Dive, visa delays by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are making colleges and universities nationwide so concerned about their international enrollment, many higher ed leaders are petitioning congress and the Department of Homeland Security to step […]

Is a degree of embedded certifications the next step for some of our tech-centric degree programs? Reported by Education Dive, with more institutions attempting to prove the market value of their degree programs, many are following the lead of community colleges, and incorporating credentials and market-friendly certifications directly within their degree programs, including Broward College, […]

In what many economists consider to be a “strong” economy, we’re not seeing this strength show up in new grad salaries. Reported by Education Dive, the average starting salary for new graduates has actually stayed fairly flat-line since 2015, at around $51,000. The takeaway? With many prospective students beginning to question the value of higher […]

Is federal legislation coming for income share agreements (ISAs)? Reported by Education Dive, new legislation coming out of the senate is seeking to better define the scope of ISAs, which are intended to decrease a student’s upfront payments and overall debt risk by having students repay their loans based on a percentage of their post-graduation […]

More and more colleges are jumping on the esports enrollment trend. Reported by Education Dive, at Ohio State University, students now can major in esports, choosing from three curriculum tracks, including esports and game creation, esports management, and the application of games in medicine and health. The takeaway? From the growing popularity of varsity esports, […]

What if faculty’s role was less about subject matter expertise, and more about student learning expertise – working to personalize content delivery based on the individual learning profile of each student? Reported by Education Dive, Maryville University President Mark Lombardi is going all-in on personalized learning, using learning diagnostics and life coaches to make sure […]

What did free community college do for four-year institutions? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, two years into the Oregon Promise program, which provided Oregon students with tuition-free community college, there was a 4.2% increase in community college enrollment and a 2.9% enrollment decline at the state’s 4-year colleges. 4-year institutions have been fearful of what […]

Should computational thinking be taught outside the lab? Reported by EdSurge, Tom Hammond from Lehigh University believes that like critical thinking, computational thinking should be brought into every classroom and serves as a great hands-on way to make learning come to life. For example, in political science courses, where students can dig into the data […]

Does your university have an enrollment strategy for Africa? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many colleges and universities aren’t considering how important Africa will be as a political, economic, and enrollment player in the future. On track to double the continent’s population by 2050, at which point 25% of the world will be African, very […]

Students with a growth mindset are getting better grades. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a recent study by the Center for Community College Student Engagements shows that students who think they can improve their intelligence in a particular course do indeed go ahead and do so. This is a remarkable insight regarding the power of […]

What will autonomous vehicles mean for higher ed? Reported by EdSurge, while a bachelor’s degree in Tesla may not yet be on the horizon, the autonomous vehicle industry is absolutely going to influence higher ed degree programs in the near future. From math and computer science, to robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, a big-picture […]

Where do College Board and ACT live in a test-optional world? Reported by EdSurge, with more and more institutions going test-optional in their admission requirements, the College Board, which runs the SAT, and ACT are trying to carve out new positionings away from single-test score assessments (that may not be powerful indicators of success) toward […]

Would competency-based hiring put competency-based learning back in the spotlight? Reported by EdSurge, more and more HR managers are exploring and championing this concept of competency-based or skills-based hiring. And this could move us away from the degree being the primary signal of a new candidate’s talent, and more toward skills alignment to a company […]

Boston University is halving the cost of their online MBA through a partnership with EdX. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the new MOOC version of their master’s in business administration through EdX has a sticker price of $24,000, less than half of their traditional MBA. The takeaway? BU is counting on the potential scalability of […]

Is Amazon going to “educate” 100,000 of their employees, or merely “retrain” them? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Amazon announced they will spend $700 million dollars over the next six years retraining their frontline workers whose positions may be eliminated by automation. But should we consider this re-training to also be educating? Or will Amazon […]

Will employers solve the skills vs. degrees debate? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, more and more large companies like Apple and Google are starting to post job descriptions for technical positions where they do not require a college degree. But the vast majority? They still do. The takeaway? Until employers decide to forgo the degree […]

How does class video capture impact attendance? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, more and more institutions are utilizing video capture of live lectures as a convenience to those unable to attend. But does this feature incentivize non-attendance? Research from the University of Leeds demonstrates that while lecture courses have an 85.7% attendance rate on average, […]

Last year, the University of Chicago announced it would drop their SAT requirement and offer test-optional admissions. The results? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, first-generation and low-income student commitments are up a whopping 20%, with between 10-15% of total incoming freshman taking advantage of the policy change and not submitting an SAT or ACT score. […]

May 1st increasingly means nothing to higher ed. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, National College Decision Day on May 1st no longer means turning off the enrollment engine for the vast majority of colleges and universities. For institutions facing enrollment growth challenges, summer melt is too precarious of a ratio to not keep doing everything […]

What cultural expectations exist about college attendance? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the High School Longitudinal Study tracks student and parent expectations of college achievement over time. The findings? Student expectations for their future academic achievements are slightly increasing, with students assuming a high school diploma or GED to be the end of their education […]

Alaska’s governor is looking to cut 41% of the University of Alaska’s state funding. Reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, this not only puts the institution on the path toward severe faculty and program cuts, but may put a lot of offered scholarship dollars up in the air. A recent declaration of financial exigency […]

How can skills mapping help prove the value of higher education? Reported by Education Dive, The University of South Florida is reverse-engineering online job descriptions in order to determine the skills gaps that exist within their existing degree program curriculum. This means utilizing job data to determine the most frequently requested skills from target occupations, […]

How can we find the college and universities that are best serving Latino students? Reported by Education Dive, the Seal of Execelencia from the Execelencia in Education group is attempting to shine a spotlight on those Latino-friendly institutions. Earning this designation is based upon several factors including existing Latino enrollment, retention and graduation metrics, financial […]

What if our degree programs were composed of stackable employer credentials? Reported by Education Dive, Harold Washington College is partnering with Facebook for a co-branded digital marketing certificate program, one of 20 institutions to do so thus far. This push to partner with employers to ensure our graduates are gaining market-friendly skills is wonderful, but […]

What will a $15 an hour minimum wage mean for higher ed? Reported by Education Dive, 14% of private institution staff and 8% of public institution staff currently make less than this $15 an hour. And with several states moving to this mandate along with federal conversations about a nationwide wage law, many institutions are […]

The University of Utah believes income-share agreements may expedite time to graduation. Reported by Education Dive, university officials found that many of their students were taking longer to graduate out of reluctance to take out large loans. But slowing down or pausing your degree program can significantly increase your risk of non-completion. So, the University […]

Will Pell grant expansion provide aid for short-term training programs? Reported by Education Dive, the JOBS Act was introduced in Congress, which would expand Pell Grants to be used in training and certificate programs as short as eight weeks long (down from 15 weeks and 600 clock hours today). The takeaway? This would potentially open […]

Associates degrees in the liberal arts have doubled since 2000. Reported by Education Dive, a new study from the Community College Research Center shows that contrary to the assumed death of the liberal arts, more and more students are choosing associates degrees in the humanities. And this could prove great for employers claiming that our […]

How will a $183.8 million investment injection into apprenticeship training affect higher ed? Reported by EducationDive, twenty three institutions and university systems received apprenticeship funding from President Trump’s 2017 executive order to expand apprenticeships. Some employers see these apprenticeships as a great way to specifically train potential employees while vetting them. Some institutions see apprenticeships […]

A professor at North Dakota State University wanted to better understand and empathize with the student experience. So she became one. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Carrie Anne Platt spent three days shadowing undergraduate students, and was reminded of the “overwhelmed” nature of being a student. And because of that, she restructured her […]

George Mason University has developed a cloud computing bachelor’s degree in partnership with Amazon Web Services. Reported by Education Dive, along with Northern Virginia Community College, George Mason has created a seamless path to a four-year bachelor’s degree preparing students for their cloud computing career. This program includes curriculum that prepares students to earn additional […]

If only 5% of students qualify for your state’s “free college” program, is it doing what you had hoped? Reported by Education Dive, while 19 states now offer some sort of free college program, some states’ eligibility restrictions, including an unwillingness to pay for housing or transportation costs, keep these programs away from the very […]

What could a live-work space mean for your institution? Reported by EdSurge, The University of Utah’s new learning, making, and living space, Lassonde Studies, combines 400 student residencies with a 20,000 square foot maker’s area. Since the studios’ opening in 2016, the number of startup teams has quintupled to more than 500, and the University […]

Will online IP rules become a competitive advantage for some institutions? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, for your faculty who write textbooks, the IP is often clear. The textbook is theirs. But the online course they design? Who owns those materials? Determining these rules as an institution is important to catch up with the evolution […]

May the best male win. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, while a 2012 study revealed significant gender bias in hiring within biology and physics departments, a more recent study unfortunately shows more of the same. With these studies, resumes were submitted for roles with identical qualifications, yet with different first and last names. While the […]

What if students didn’t have to wait 4 full-time years to increase their earning potential? What could a certificate-first degree path look like for an IT professional, for example? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, Google’s 8-month IT support certificate program is designed to help train students for unfilled entry-level IT support staff roles, with a […]

What if Catholic universities all shared their online courses together? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a few catholic universities have created their own consortium, all offering the same online master’s program in public administration, with mutually beneficial revenue splits, based on where the student is enrolled. The takeaway? What if even more of the 230 […]

Should our online courses err on the side of uniformity or flexibility? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, many institutions are looking to lock in course models and course design to create a more uniform student experience across all of their programs. The problem is, preventing faculty from updating courses themselves means that unless their centralized […]

A behavioral economics “nudge” didn’t solve the college undermatching problem. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the long term results of a College Board study aimed at increasing high-ability low-income students’ applications to selective institutions came back ineffective. The goal was that by sending direct mail, emails and texts to these students about these more selective […]

Is online education mostly a flexibility benefit for your local market? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the number of online students studying at an institution whose campus is within 50 miles of their home has gone up from 50% to a full two-thirds. The takeaway? While online students theoretically “can” learn anywhere, they’re choosing brand […]

Is the next enrollment growth spike going to come from low-income students? And if so, what does that mean for our existing student support services? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, with more and more institutions looking to hit their enrollment numbers, new analysis by the Pew Research Center shows the least selective institutions […]

The University of Wisconsin is teaching its undergraduate professors to teach. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, many college professors are subject matter experts, but have little to no teacher training experience. The University of Wisconsin is attempting to solve for this by incorporating educational research and teacher training into its graduate programs in […]

Will the real digital learning badge please stand up? For more than a decade now, higher ed has been waiting for “the” badge system that employers finally recognize for the proven mastery of alternative credentials and competencies. Mozilla seemed to be leading the charge a decade ago. Today, many feel LinkedIn is probably the closest. […]

Do we have an international enrollment growth crisis? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, 83% of institutions cite the current visa-application process as a significant deterrent for international students, whose application and enrollment rates have declined for three years straight. More and more international students are now choosing more welcoming countries, selecting American institutions […]

Why are universities doubling down on literacy programs for undergraduates? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, there can be an assumption that students have adequate reading skills by the time they get to college. The problem with that assumption is that many don’t. And therefore, their reading comprehension limitations are making course comprehension nearly […]

Earlier this year, Virginia Tech University announced plans to build out a billion dollar Innovation Campus in Alexandria, Virginia, just two miles from Amazon’s new HQ2 headquarters. Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, today, Virginia Tech has 1,000 more incoming students for this fall than they had planned on, and are offering cash incentives […]

College enrollment declined 1.7% year-over-year. Reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the only noticeable enrollment growth winner during this decline? 4-year private nonprofits, who grew 3.2% year-over-year. And where is this respective decline and growth coming from? Adult students, who are moving away from for-profit institutions (down 20% YOY), and toward non-profit institution options. […]

Does higher ed need to move from being keepers of knowledge to facilitators? Reported by Education Dive, Maryville University president Mark Lombardi believes that despite the advent of the digital age, our institutions and practices have not evolved enough to best facilitate this transformation. This would mean further moving away from the constraints of a […]

A new online directory is helping show students their alternatives to college. Reported by Education Dive, this Alternatives to College online directory is an attempt to help prospective students better understand their non-degree options that may be a better match for their current economic and timing situation, including bootcamps, apprenticeships, and more. The takeaway? Rather […]

Similar to how recent reports show employers less than enthused about our graduates’ market-ready preparedness, do our own institutions feel the same about the readiness of high school graduates? Reported by Education Dive, a new paper from the Center for American Progress (CAP) shows that only 4 U.S. states (Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota, and Tennessee) […]

Are college accountability measures helping us understand the value of the institution or the quality of the student coming into them? Reported by EdSurge, this surge in outcomes data we’ve seen over the past decade hasn’t done too great of a job helping us truly understand college effectiveness. And rather, we need to understand the […]

What are MOOCs missing? Reported by EdSurge, what these massive online open courses are missing is the individual support. It’s why MOOC completion rates are so dismal today. If you get stuck, and can’t figure something out yourself, where do you go from there? One MOOC through Case Western Reserve University is attempting to solve […]

Video feedback is teaching faculty to become better instructors, not just better online instructors. Reported by EdSurge, many institutions are utilizing video capture tools like GoReact to video themselves delivering online instruction, in order to review, self-assess, and improve. And this exercise, now made easy through recent technology, is helping both online and on-ground professors […]

Why does higher ed need to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence training? Reported by EdSurge, AI is beginning to invisibly become a part of many industries, and already helping making civic choices such as parole decisions, and financial loan approvals. But what if the data the AI is making these decisions on is […]

The College of the Holy Cross has ended their need-blind admission practice. Reported by Inside Higher Ed, the beauty of a need-blind admission practice is that low-income students know their financial need won’t be a factor held against them. The problem? This practice has become financially unsustainable for all but a few select institutions, with […]

Will a parental push toward practical outcomes change higher ed? Reported by Inside Higher Ed, a new Kaplan University Partners survey finds that 79% of students believe a top goal of colleges is to teach students marketable skills, while less than half believe that colleges are doing a good job preparing their children for the […]

Will Bill & Melinda Gates crack the value of college question? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, in a time of growing skepticism regarding whether or not a college degree is truly worth the cost, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have created The Commission on the Value of Postsecondary Education. This national effort […]

Should we be utilizing play to re-engage intimated learners? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nadja Cech, a chemistry professor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro believes that when students feel intimated by the subject matter, they get nervous and may shut down. And that’s when she recommends you need to bring […]

How do we chase down new program launches with speed yet caution? Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Penn State World Campus has a simple litmus test when preparing to launch new programs. They ask their graduate and doctoral staff to review the prospective curriculum, and ask if they’d be excited to admit a […]

Adversity as an enrollment decision factor? Reported by Education Dive, the College Board has created a new adversity metric to gauge the level of hardship from applicant students. Colleges, not students, will be able to see the score composed of a variety of public and private data including neighborhood crime and poverty rates, and the […]

450 colleges were enrollment shy come decision day this year. Reported by Education Dive, this is the 5th straight year this NACAC list number has increased as of May 1st, with many administrators surveyed claiming they needed until June 1 or July 1 to really understand what their fall number would look like. The takeaway? […]

New babies born in Colorado will start off with a free $100 college savings plan. Reported by Education Dive, every child born or adopted into the state as of January 1 will receive $100 toward a 529 savings plan, available until the child’s 5th birthday, hoping to help incentivize college savings and long-term college enrollment. […]

What does student-parent financial aid need to look like? Reported by Education Dive, a new study from the Urban Institute shows that only 13.2 of families are receiving federal childcare assistance due to education compared to 78% who receive it because they’re working. The takeaway? Given higher ed’s focus on the adult learner, do we […]

Employers are embracing a moneyball-like hiring strategy for Tier 2 institution graduates. Reported by Education Dive, The Future of Data Talent report from Correlation One is reminding employers that Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions graduate 75% of the top 10% performers. So while everyone else is focusing on the same few top-tier institutions with […]

Do we need a new alternative credential marketplace? Reported by Education Dive, with more and more career education programs rolling out, states and national organizations are trying to put together guides to help their residents navigate the value and outcomes of these disparate offerings. The takeaway? Is a new credential marketplace needed to help students […]

Employers are going to fund free college in Washington state. Reported by Education Dive, the Workforce Education Investment Act will provide free tuition at public institutions for students from families making $50,000 or less a year, as well as invest in computer science and health care programming and student service resources at those same public […]

Should higher ed double down on certificate programs? Reported by Education Dive, a new Strada-Lumina study shows that adults with a non-degree certificate report a 50% higher annual median income ($45,000) than those with no credentials (at $30,000). In fact, some institutions, like BYU-Pathway Worldwide are moving to certificate-first models as part of their degree […]

Does higher education need a new model for the lifelong learner? Reported by Education Dive, with the pace of change faster than it’s ever been, and with employees needing to continually upskill over the course of their careers, does a 2-, 4-, or 7-year degree program make sense anymore? Or do institutions need to start […]