Campus Technology Insider

Over the past few years, online learning in higher education has gone through a period of disruptive change. Not only did the pandemic trigger a massive shift from in-person classes to online, but it also brought new models of hybrid learning to the forefront. And micro-credentials, programs certifying specific competencies that can stand alone or be applied toward a larger degree, have gained momentum as learners have needed to reskill and compete in an evolving workforce. To explore these trends and more, we spoke with Dr. Betty Vandenbosch, chief content officer at Coursera, about the state of online education, the future of the traditional four-year degree, and what universities should be doing to keep up with alternative credential pathways.

Resource links:

• Coursera

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 25 minutes

Transcript

A team from Indiana University set out to expand the scope of pedagogical research by creating ManyClasses, a model for studying how students learn not just in a single classroom, but in a variety of different classes across multiple universities. For this episode of the podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with researchers Emily Fyfe and Ben Motz about how ManyClasses works, the challenges of using a learning management system to conduct research, what they learned from the first ManyClasses experiment, and more.

Resource links:

• ManyClasses project
• “ManyClasses 1: Assessing the Generalizable Effect of Immediate Feedback Versus Delayed Feedback Across Many College Classes” (Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, July 2021)
• Unizin
• Terracotta

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 33 minutes

Transcript

In 2015, California State University launched Graduation Initiative 2025, an ambitious plan to increase graduation rates and eliminate equity gaps in degree completion across the system’s 23 campuses. Then halfway through that work, COVID hit — and all those student supports and services had to shift online. For this episode of the podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with Dr. James Minor, assistant vice chancellor at CSU and leader of the Graduation Initiative, to find out how CSU kept students on track despite the challenges of the pandemic, the technologies and infrastructure that were needed to support students remotely, and what will remain in place going forward.

Resource links:

• CSU Graduation Initiative 2025

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 34 minutes

Transcript

For many years, the Horizon Report has been tracking trends, technologies and key practices in teaching and learning. But this year, there’s one striking difference: the impact of a global pandemic on practically every aspect of higher education. In some ways, colleges and universities may never be the same — but in other ways, trends that were important before COVID-19 have persisted, even as we view them through a new lens. To make sense of it all, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with Kathe Pelletier, director of EDUCAUSE’s Teaching and Learning Program and co-author of the report, about key technology trends, their impact on IT departments, new education models and more.

Resource links:

• 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition
• Learning Lab: Designing Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) Courses to Support Multimodal Learning Environments
• Learning Space Rating System
• IMS Global Comprehensive Learner Record

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 37 minutes

Transcript

When you picture a university innovation center, what comes to mind is usually a lot of hands-on collaboration and networking. But what happens when that heavily in-person experience is forced to go virtual? For this episode of the podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Matt Segneri, executive director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, to find out about the past year’s challenges and successes converting in-person student activities into virtual experiences that still capture that entrepreneurial vibe.

Resource links:

• Harvard Innovation Labs

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 32 minutes

EDUCAUSE recently released its first Information Security Edition of the Horizon Report, profiling important trends, technologies and practices shaping the future of IT security and privacy in higher education. For this episode of the podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly speaks with Brian Kelly, director of the cybersecurity program at EDUCAUSE, to discuss the new report, the technological trends on the horizon in IT security, how the pandemic is impacting privacy concerns, and more.

Resource links:

• 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Information Security Edition
• EDUCAUSE Privacy Showcase

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 25 minutes

One unintended impact of the pandemic in higher education is the strain that remote work and learning has put on IT security. Decisions made out of necessity in the heat of the moment, to preserve the continuity of teaching and learning, can potentially put campus networks and data at risk. In this episode of the podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Stephen Heath, chief information security officer for Intrinium, an IT and security consulting and managed services company, to learn more about the security challenges institutions are facing — as well as evolving threats like ransomware.

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 19 minutes

How will higher education evolve as we head into – hopefully – post-pandemic times? Is it even possible to make predictions with circumstances still in flux? In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Richard Garrett, chief research officer at higher education research firm Eduventures, about his predictions for 2021, the impact of the pandemic on online learning and ed tech, and the opportunities he sees for higher ed in the coming year.

Resource links:

• Higher Education Predictions for 2021, Part 1
• Higher Education Predictions for 2021, Part 2
• Educause Top IT Issues, 2021

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 38 minutes

When Boston University launched its hybrid learning initiative this fall, it also created a Classroom Moderator program: essentially an army of student workers deployed in the classroom to help ensure that hybrid learning could run smoothly. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Ernie Perez, director of educational technology for BU Digital Learning and Innovation, and Jill Beckman, executive director of Client Services, about how they rolled out the classroom moderator service and made it a success.

Resource links:

• Boston University’s Learn from Anywhere initiative

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 38 minutes

Last fall, Oregon State University launched an Ecampus online program for its introductory physics courses, with an emphasis on collaborative, hands-on work. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly talks with Senior Physics Instructor KC Walsh and Associate Department Head David Craig about how they’ve used technology, open educational resources, take-home lab kits and more to engage students from a distance.  

Resource links:

• Oregon State University Ecampus
• Lightboard

Music: Mixkit

Duration: 28 minutes