Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Do women in STEM experience hostile work environments?

Women in STEM jobs are more likely to experience hostile work environments, including discrimination and sexual harassment, according to a new nationally-representative Pew Research Center study.

Research in the study reveals that gender “is perceived as more of an impediment than an advantage to career success.”

Women in three particular groups are more likely to see workplace inequities: women who are employed in STEM settings where men outnumber women, women who work in computer jobs, and women who hold postgraduate degrees.…Read More

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Shocking: 82 percent of women lack bachelor’s degrees

A new survey reveals that 76 million of adult women in the U.S. do not have a bachelor’s degree, although many of those women had started their educational journey but were unable to graduate as a result of various life factors.

According to a new study just released by The American Women’s College at Bay Path University (TAWC), conducted by Research Now, 82 percent of adult women surveyed didn’t complete college because they were putting other priorities first–family, work, and financial obligations, just to name a few.

More than half of the women in the survey, which focused on 2,000 women ages 25-44, had attempted to but never finished their degree. Of this segment, 94 percent claimed they would feel better about themselves if they received their bachelor’s degree.…Read More

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4 actions to improve the future of higher education

Following four national priorities, including increasing completion rates and strengthening the student educational experience, could exponentially improve the future of higher education, according to a report based on two years of research.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York, convened the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education (CFUE), comprised of leaders from higher education, philanthropy, business, and government. The Commissioners were charged with assessing the state of undergraduate education and making recommendations for a future with better institutions and better-positioned graduates.

The report, The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America, zeroes in on four national priorities that offer actionable solutions to improve undergraduate education and increase the number of students who complete their education without unmanageable debt, said said CFUE Co-chair Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., president and CEO of TIAA.…Read More

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Admissions officers spy decline in international applicants

More than half of admissions officers said they are concerned that a decline in international applications could become a nationwide trend, according to a Kaplan Test Prep survey.

Though 63 percent of the 392 admissions officers surveyed were alarmed at the implications the decline could have for higher ed as a whole, just 32 percent said they anticipate a decline in the number of international applicants to their own schools.

Additionally, more than one quarter of admissions officers (28 percent) say they are concerned about their school losing American and international students to colleges in Canada and elsewhere.…Read More

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The top 7 programming languages to learn in 2018

Software development is a dynamic field. New programming languages, frameworks, and technologies can emerge, become popular, and then fade away in the course of a few years. Developers need to constantly be learning new skills to stay relevant. At Coding Dojo, we’re continually evaluating which programming languages are in high demand from employers so we can prepare our students to enter the job market. There are many ways to measure a programming language’s popularity, but we believe examining job demand is most useful because it shows developers how to improve their career prospects.

To accomplish that, we analyzed data from job website Indeed.com on 25 programming languages, stacks, and frameworks to determine the top seven most in-demand coding languages as we move into 2018. This analysis is based on the number of job postings for each language. Some languages like Swift and Ruby didn’t make the top seven because they have lower job demand, even though developers love them. You can read the results of similar analysis from 2016 and 2017 on our blog.

Here’s our list, in order from most to least in-demand.…Read More

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Here’s what students say about online education

Cost continues to be one of students’ biggest concerns when it comes to making decisions about online education, according to a new survey about the state of online learning.

Surveyed students said cost estimates, finding funding sources, and navigating the financial aid process is confusing and challenging.

Seventy-two percent of students said job and employments goals are the primary drivers of their enrollment, including transitioning to a new career field (36 percent) and earning academic credentials in a current field of work (32 percent).…Read More

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3 ways to actually support nontraditional learners

Nearly 60 percent of today’s U.S. undergraduate students are nontraditional learners, according to new research–and institutions can follow a few key steps to support these learners.

Nontraditional students, as noted in the report, are students who are 25 or older, working full-time, are financially independent, or are connected with the military. These students include single parents, immigrants, veterans, and those working full-time jobs.

The Post-traditional Learners Manifesto Revisited: Aligning Postsecondary Education with Real Life for Adult Student Success, from the American Council on Education (ACE), notes that more than 1 million Americans could get out of poverty if everyone in the U.S. 25 years or older, with some college but no degree, earned an associate degree.…Read More

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6 emerging cyberlearning areas

Six emerging design themes are impacting cyberlearning, or the future of learning with technology, according to a new report.

Cyberlearning researchers investigate this learning future, and while many cyberlearning projects are in initial stages and don’t aim to produce market-ready products, they do yield early results with proof-of-concept designs or theoretical insights.

Those researchers also believe they can explore how people learn by designing innovative technologies that draw from findings from the learning sciences and experimenting with those designs in real-world settings.…Read More

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Why your institution should have a Chief Innovation Officer in 2018

Most higher-ed institutions recognize the importance of innovation, but few universities have taken steps to create roles for chief innovation officers, who focus on reaping revenues from innovation, according to new research.

Though most research universities have a technology transfer office (TTO) that helps bring new discoveries to market, a dedicated innovation officer is not as common–but that’s changing, according to The Emergence of the Chief Innovation Officer in Higher Education, a new report from Russell Reynolds Associates.

But the emergence of the chief innovation officer position is spurred by various changes in higher education. As government funding declines, as nontraditional education opportunities increase, and as educators focus on how students learn best and turn to new learning experiences, some universities are rethinking how they position their institutions.…Read More

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5 key steps in developing a system for digital credentials

A new field guide for community college and university leaders outlines five key strategies to help institutions develop a system for digital credentials.

The guide, “Partnering with Employers to Create Workforce-Relevant Credentials,” is intended to steer faculty and administrators through a collaborative design and implementation process for developing a workforce-relevant credentialing system.

The five digital-credential strategies come from best practices of institutions profiled in the report.…Read More

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