Reported by Education Dive, The University of Maryland is redesigning its physical spaces away from the traditional lecture style classroom, in favor of rooms “in the round” that promote more student collaboration.

In discussions about “personalized learning” in online education, the conversation often turns toward artificial intelligence and the promise of self-paced learning. And those conversations are absolutely exciting. But there is another aspect of personalized learning in online education that often gets overlooked. The actual person. And their interactions with other persons. Where we move from mere knowledge transfer to true understanding.

Reported by The New York Times, higher ed is taking in more transfer students than ever before, with a full 62% of the University of Central Florida’s last incoming class made up by transfer students.

When people start to question the high costs of college, many point to on-campus amenities as the scapegoat, and make jokes about climbing walls and lazy rivers being the reason for high-cost tuition.

But reported by EAB, the main driver of colleges costs is simply teaching students, making up between 1/3 and ½ of total institution spending.

Reported by EAB, at Penn State University, their first-generation need-based students work 22 hours a week on average. These work requirements make it difficult to maintain a full course load, participate in additional extra-curricular academic experiences, and finish on time.

Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, David Gooblar from the University of Iowa cites the book, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching for how we can better understand and leverage the three main variables of student motivation: value, expectancies, and environment.

Reported by EAB, a new poll by Elon University shows that graduates who had between seven and 10 positive faculty or staff relationships during their college tenure were 3x more likely to rate their college experience as “very rewarding”.

While women beat out men when it comes to higher ed enrollment, women also hold a disproportionate two-thirds of the nation’s student-loan debt.

Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, women are also more likely than men to attend a for-profit college because of the online flexibility offered, and end up making less than their male counterparts as well.

How can college and university presidents better engage with students?

Reported by EAB, Texas State University president Dr. Denise Trauth, has an online calendar open for students or student groups to schedule 15-minute meetings with her to discuss any concern they might have.

Would an accounting bootcamp teach students how to use Quickbooks?

Reported by EdSurge, accounting courses at the University of Texas at Dallas teach students classroom theory, and then practice applying that theory using real-life work scenarios via the popular accounting software, Quickbooks.