Why are universities doubling down on literacy programs for undergraduates?

Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, there can be an assumption that students have adequate reading skills by the time they get to college. The problem with that assumption is that many don’t. And therefore, their reading comprehension limitations are making course comprehension nearly impossible.

Earlier this year, Virginia Tech University announced plans to build out a billion dollar Innovation Campus in Alexandria, Virginia, just two miles from Amazon’s new HQ2 headquarters.

Reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education, today, Virginia Tech has 1,000 more incoming students for this fall than they had planned on, and are offering cash incentives to encourage some of these students to defer their enrollment.

College enrollment declined 1.7% year-over-year.

Reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the only noticeable enrollment growth winner during this decline? 4-year private nonprofits, who grew 3.2% year-over-year.

Does higher ed need to move from being keepers of knowledge to facilitators?

Reported by Education Dive, Maryville University president Mark Lombardi believes that despite the advent of the digital age, our institutions and practices have not evolved enough to best facilitate this transformation.

A new online directory is helping show students their alternatives to college.

Reported by Education Dive, this Alternatives to College online directory is an attempt to help prospective students better understand their non-degree options that may be a better match for their current economic and timing situation, including bootcamps, apprenticeships, and more.

Similar to how recent reports show employers less than enthused about our graduates’ market-ready preparedness, do our own institutions feel the same about the readiness of high school graduates?

Reported by Education Dive, a new paper from the Center for American Progress (CAP) shows that only 4 U.S. states (Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota, and Tennessee) have high school courses effectively setting their students up for success at four-year public universities.

Are college accountability measures helping us understand the value of the institution or the quality of the student coming into them?

Reported by EdSurge, this surge in outcomes data we’ve seen over the past decade hasn’t done too great of a job helping us truly understand college effectiveness. And rather, we need to understand the value of a college based on who their students are.

What are MOOCs missing?

Reported by EdSurge, what these massive online open courses are missing is the individual support. It’s why MOOC completion rates are so dismal today. If you get stuck, and can’t figure something out yourself, where do you go from there?

Video feedback is teaching faculty to become better instructors, not just better online instructors.

Reported by EdSurge, many institutions are utilizing video capture tools like GoReact to video themselves delivering online instruction, in order to review, self-assess, and improve.

Why does higher ed need to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence training?

Reported by EdSurge, AI is beginning to invisibly become a part of many industries, and already helping making civic choices such as parole decisions, and financial loan approvals. But what if the data the AI is making these decisions on is based off a system with existing societal bias, and therefore marginalized groups become even more so, a vicious cycle?