Many Young Adults Choose Work Over College

As colleges around the country resumed in-person learning in the fall of 2021, many educators expected students to return to campus after taking a pandemic gap year. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Ivory Tower: even fewer students showed up than during the worst months of the pandemic in the fall … Continue reading →

Half of All College Students Take Online Courses

An analysis of newly available federal data shows that a far larger proportion of college students take at least one fully online course than was previously understood. The analysis, first conducted by the ed-tech consultant and blogger Phil Hill, shows that based on 12-month reporting — which the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System only … Continue reading →

FTC threatens hefty penalties against for-profit colleges for false claims, warning 70 schools

The FTC outlined several cases it previously determined are illegal because they are deceptive or unfair. They include misrepresenting “directly or by implication” employment prospects for an institution’s students, graduates’ earning potential, and an institution’s ability to help students find jobs. They also include misrepresenting employment requirements in a field for which an institution trains students. Continue … Continue reading →

U.S. Department of Education Announces Transformational Changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, Will Put Over 550,000 Public Service Workers Closer to Loan Forgiveness

[On Wednesday, 10/06/21] the U.S. Department of Education announced an overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program that it will implement over the next year to make the program live up to its promise. This policy will result in 22,000 borrowers who have consolidated loans—including previously ineligible loans—being immediately eligible for $1.74 billion … Continue reading →

‘Demographics Are Not Destiny’

There’s increasing public appetite for college accountability measures, but community college programs are a “complicated” case because factors such as the strength of local labor markets and the kinds of students the colleges serve also play a role in postcollege outcomes, said co-author Cody Christensen, a doctoral student in the leadership, policy and organizations department … Continue reading →

Transforming Asynchronous Learning Spaces

Although there are many articles and recommendations to improve learning, often centered on a theory or concept, we have found a gap: Many of the recommendations fail to translate because there are no steps beyond the general. To enact a transformation of the asynchronous learning space, defined actions and obstacles provide instructors a way to … Continue reading →

Can colleges compete with companies like Coursera?

If you believe the underlying premise of Arthur Levine’s and Scott Van Pelt’s new book, the country is moving from a national, industrial economy to a global knowledge economy — and that has significant ramifications for higher education…. They say colleges will see their control over the market slip while consumers increase their power. New … Continue reading →

Why I Went from Proctored Exams to Open-book

The pandemic encouraged me to re-think the way we can assess student learning in large general education courses. Last spring, the proctoring centers had to close down, and live proctoring with a person at the other end was no longer an option. There was an automated system in place, but there were technical difficulties with … Continue reading →