Humanizing education with community
As we enter our second year of the pandemic and as most of us look forward to another semester of remote teaching, it is important to recognize that there are two paths that we can take. The well-worn path is to continue to try to replicate systems of education that have the effect of turning students into widgets and serve to alienate them from their learning. Alternatively, we can address this challenge by pivoting to more humanized forms of teaching and learning.
Like much of the planet, our students are feeling alienated, isolated, and alone. School is a part of their identity at this stage in life and that identity is centered on the communities that they create or join in college. At some institutions, these communities are firmly centered on learning. All human communities have suffered during this trying time, but perhaps none more so than our communities of learning.
Easy ways to ensure feedback supports student success
Last week, I participated in a workshop about addressing social-emotional learnings (SEL) and cultural awareness issues in the classroom. One of the articles the facilitator had written about was building confidence in teachers. It made me think about how we build confidence in our students.
I have had many students express frustration with a lack of support from faculty and supervisors in the past. I have often reminded students that they will get through the academic process and everyone else in the course is also going through the academic hurdles for the first time. I thought maybe an ounce of prevention would be more effective and reduce student stress levels. I have watched my own college-aged children struggle with the “new normal” of a difficult academic year for many.
3 keys to success using cloud solutions
Like a wide range of industries, higher education institutions have adopted cloud solutions that offer a variety of immediate and longer-term benefits specific to the needs of universities and colleges.
Cloud computing is especially effective in supporting content services platforms that aggregate documents and information across multiple repositories to connect disparate applications. Content services are integral elements of a comprehensive digital transformation strategy, according to Gartner.
15 strategies to keep students safe on campus during COVID
One of the biggest challenges in reopening campuses is building and encouraging behaviors and habits that will keep students safe as the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the nation.
Research from the Societal Experts Action Network, an activity of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has produced 15 recommended behaviors and actions that can keep students safe as they resume close-to-normal class attendance on college and university campuses.
A university’s data-driven response to COVID
Like with any significant moment in time, “Where were you in 2020?” will likely become a topic of conversation for higher ed leaders for years to come, quickly followed by, “What did you do?”
Beyond the comradery that comes of shared experiences, there is significant value in this reflection, not just in the future, but today as colleges and universities steel themselves for an uncertain spring and chart their path forward.
How to prevent 96 percent of COVID infections on campus
The combined effectiveness of three COVID-prevention strategies on college campuses—mask-wearing, social distancing, and routine testing—are as effective in preventing COVID infections as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to a new study co-authored by a Case Western Reserve University researcher.
The research, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, has immediate significance as college semesters are poised to start again—and as the distribution of approved vaccines lags behind goals.
10 insights on COVID-19 testing for campuses
As spring semesters begin on campuses across the nation, leaders are pressed to employ COVID-19 testing strategies and mitigation efforts that will allow learning to proceed, while at the same time preserving the health and safety of faculty, staff, and students.
A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine seeks to describe various COVID-19 testing strategies and how they apply to colleges and universities with different unique needs and situations.
Inskilling: A both/and proposition
During my undergraduate years, one subject captured my heart: sociology. My dad felt differently. Like the good Indian engineer father he is, he insisted that I study “something practical.” My solution? I worked my behind off for a double major in sociology and economics. Most importantly for 19-year-old me, it satisfied the man with the checkbook. But it also gave me a set of skills—from market analysis to multicultural awareness—that I have used again and again in my career helping colleges around the world. Dad, you were right all along!
Someone else who knows a thing or two about Indian dads (being himself a Mumbai native and a father) is the writer Fareed Zakaria. In his book In Defense of a Liberal Education, Zakaria shows how a similar “do something practical” attitude, taken to extremes, has translated into a movement to rid U.S. colleges of allegedly “useless” liberal arts subject—like sociology—in favor of those seen as teaching more work-ready skills, like computer science.
5 innovative cybersecurity training strategies to try in 2021
As much as 88 percent of data breaches are caused by human error, but only 43 percent of workers admit having made mistakes that compromised cybersecurity. In the past year, one-third of the breaches incorporated social engineering techniques and the cost of a breach caused by a human error averaged $3.33 million. The need for consistent and effective cybersecurity training is evident.
To mitigate the risk, enterprises develop complex cybersecurity strategies and action plans, yet they are insufficient unless acknowledged by every member of their organization. Half of chief information security officers (CISOs) plan to extend cybersecurity and privacy into all business decisions and that makes it every employee’s concern.
5 ways to be an innovative online instructor
In a landscape where online instruction has become more commonplace due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some faculty face challenges associated with operating in an online environment.
Even to those remote instruction veterans, there is certainly an element of frustration that can exist when it comes to finding unique ways to engage students as an innovative online instructor.
The following 5 tips can help you to be an innovative online instructor who engages students:
1. Assess the level of student engagement
This can be done individually or collectively by observing the types of interactions you are having with your students. Consider if your current students tend to want to have discussions or are your discussions like pulling teeth? Are you struggling to get the students to interact with each other or with you?
Classes tend to have a mix of students who have clear preferences for interacting in different ways. Some students consistently turn their cameras on, while others prefer not to ever show their faces. There are students who participate, but you will never hear their voices. These are the students who interact by using the chat feature in the live classroom. Then there are students who prefer to communicate with you, but do not like to interact with their peers.
Sometimes you have to meet students where they are and understand that they may have their reasons for interacting in a particular way. For example, many adult learners are working and going to school simultaneously. Due to work constraints, they may not be able to turn on their cameras or speak with you live, but they are present and interacting in an alternative way. Additionally, many students are at home with their children, while working and going to school. The added complexity of a chaotic environment may not be conducive to them always turning on their cameras or speaking with you. These scenarios don’t mean that you shouldn’t encourage interaction; just don’t allow it to be a barrier in your instructional methodology. Get creative and meet students where they are if necessary.
2. Leverage technology
Evaluate what technological tools you have at your disposal. This can be anything from the classroom platform capabilities that you perhaps are not fully leveraging, to including free tools such as Padlet to add a layer of fun to the online classroom experience. The challenge here is that the online platform used by your school may have limitations, but that does not mean you cannot incorporate a supplemental tool. Supplemental tools can be used for far much more than just posting information or videos. Many platforms use HTML and a simple copy/paste of codes can bring a whole new world of interactive games, pictures, and message thread abilities that promote interaction. If your school’s platform does have additional tools that you are not currently leveraging, get support from a peer or platform SME regarding how you can get the most out of the tools you have been provided with. If integration of tools is possible, but not permitted, consider sharing the supplemental tools with students separately.