The Key with Inside Higher Ed

Ep 59: Reshaping the Federal Role in Higher Ed

The Biden administration has promised once-in-a-generation investments and changes in higher education. Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this month would take meaningful steps in that direction.

This week’s episode of The Key digs into what could end up being one of the most significant pieces of federal higher education policy making in many years: the Build Back Better Act. It includes the American College Promise, his plan to make community college tuition-free, significantly expanded funding for Pell Grants, and, for the first time, a fund that would give colleges incentives for retaining their students and ensuring that they graduate. It would also reshape the relationship between federal and state governments, through a partnership that would give state governments billions but require a lot from them in return.

The episode includes conversations with Michele Streeter, associate director of Policy & Advocacy at the Institute for College Access and Success; Jee Hang Lee, senior vice president (and incoming president) at the Association of Community College Trustees; and Will Doyle, a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University.

This episode is sponsored by D2L. 

Ep 58: Teaching and Learning in (Another) Fluid Fall

Most of us had hoped for a lot more stability this fall, but here we are. For those of you involved in teaching and learning at your colleges and universities, that means continuing to live in that sometimes uncomfortable space you’ve inhabited for the last 18 months: Will my class have to go remote tomorrow? Have I designed my course to withstand that kind of disruption? Can I be effective no matter what setting we’re in?

These may not be fleeting questions for institutions and instructors, as higher education deals with a new reality that whether it’s a global health pandemic, or hurricanes or forest fires, or any other kind of interruption or disruption, circumstances may require – and students may demand – flexibility in how and when academic instruction is delivered.

This week’s episode of The Key features a discussion with Jeff Borden, chief academic officer at D2L and executive director of Institute for Inter-Connected Education. The conversation examines how colleges are striving to balance and mix in-person and virtual modalities; the growing recognition of students’ non-cognitive as well as cognitive needs; and how the pandemic may have altered student and faculty expectations.

Sponsored by D2L

Ep. 57: Career and Technical Education Goes Hybrid

Much higher education coverage related to COVID-19 focused on 18-year-old students being displaced from their dorms and listening to history lectures or watching biology videos in their childhood bedrooms. Relatively little attention was paid to the pandemic’s impact on career and technical education, much of which involves hands-on learning.

In this week’s episode of The Key, Shayne Spaulding, a senior fellow in the income and benefits policy center at the Urban Institute, discusses research the think tank released this spring about how the pandemic may have changed the role of online and blended learning in community college career and technical programs. The conversation also explores the role of alternative providers in the CTE space and whether vocational learning is undervalued in American society.

This episode is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Editor Doug Lederman. 

Sponsored by ECMC Foundation.

Ep. 56: A New Pathway for Working Adults?

A wide range of education and training providers strive to help working adults enter or advance in the workforce. Community colleges and a growing number of other nonprofit and for-profit universities are intensifying their longstanding efforts. Companies like Amazon, Google and others are investing in their own programs, with and without colleges. And an almost endless array of startups, funded by investors seeing a new market, are creating shorter, less expensive programs aimed at getting people into well-paying jobs fast and without significant time out of the workforce.

This episode of The Key explores another approach to serving working adults. Merit America is a nonprofit organization that connects adults to short-term certification programs and to professional coaches to help move them quickly into high-demand jobs like IT support and data analytics. Its co-CEOs, Rebecca Taber Staehelin and Connor Diemand-Yauman, join The Key to talk about their work and how it fits into the larger landscape for working adults. They’ll discuss their unusual mix of corporate and philanthropic funding, how they think training providers like them should be judged, and how they plan to grow from about 1,500 learners this year to 10,000 and ultimately 100,000.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by ECMC Foundation.

Ep. 55 Resetting, Not “Fixing,” Student Transfer

The set of programs, policies and pathways by which learners move between colleges and universities is complex and often incoherent. Many students enter the transfer maze and never get through it, costing them time and money.

That’s especially problematic because the students who seek to transfer are disproportionately those whom higher education has historically served least well – students from low-income backgrounds, members of underrepresented minority groups, working learners.

This week’s episode of The Key discusses the work of the Tackling Transfer Policy Advisory Board. The group of national experts convened to try to “fix” transfer, but its new report, out this week, concludes instead that this moment really demands a broader “reset.”

Marty J. Alvarado, executive vice chancellor for educational services at the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office and a leader of the advisory board, discusses the effort and the transfer landscape.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode of The Key is sponsored by ECMC Foundation.  

 

Ep. 54: Dealing With Students’ Learning Loss

“Learning loss” – the idea that students failed to stay on their previous trajectory – has been much discussed in K-12 education during the pandemic. We hear far less about it in higher education, even though students and faculty members alike consistently say they believe students have learned less in the last year than they usually do.

In this week’s episode of The Key, we discuss what colleges and universities will be facing as most prepare to welcome students back to their physical classrooms this fall, and how professors and staff members who work with students might go about understanding which students have been set back and in what ways, and how to get them back on track.

We talk with Natasha Jankowski, former executive director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment who is now a consultant on student learning and a lecturer at New England College, and Ereka R. Williams, associate provost for academic strategy and institutional effectiveness at Winston-Salem State University, in North Carolina.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

Ep. 53: College Students’ Expectations for the Fall

Students have offered mixed assessments of their learning experiences during the pandemic year. Many of them have complained about the lack of interaction with peers and professors in virtual environments, but appreciated the flexibility they gained in when and how they learned.

With many colleges planning a significant if not full return to their physical campuses this fall, what will students be expecting from their institutions and their professors when it comes to learning?

Have the last 15 months reinforced their appreciation for learning in person, or will they expect to have the option to attend class remotely when it suits them? 

Will professors who changed their teaching practices when they were forced to teach virtually embrace some of the new approaches or tools they adopted during the pandemic, or will they revert to their old ways of doing things?

We’re joined in this week’s episode of The Key by three experts on student learning and online education: Justin Louder, associate vice provost for eLearning & Academic Partnerships at Texas Tech University; Michelle Miller, professor of psychological sciences at Northern Arizona University; and Alexandra Salas, dean for innovation, teaching, digital learning excellence and educational support services at Delaware County Community College.

This episode is sponsored by Blackboard.

Ep. 52: Preparing for a Fall of Caring for Students

Many college students and professors will return to their physical campuses this fall, and it’s tempting to think things will return to “normal” when they do. But given the events of the past 15 months, what happens in the classroom come September is likely to be anything but normal.

In this week’s episode of The Key, Mays Imad, professor of pathophysiology and biomedical ethics and coordinator of the Teaching & Learning Center at Pima Community College, looks both back at what students and instructors experienced during the past year and ahead at how they can prepare to teach, learn and support each other this fall.

Imad, mixing her personal story with practical advice, draws on her writings for Inside Higher Ed, including her March 2020 column that has been viewed more than 800,000 times and a new essay with 13 steps educators can take to promote students’ mental health (and their own).

This episode of The Key is sponsored by Blackboard.

Ep. 51: Race, Leadership and Engaging With Contrary Viewpoints

Listening to alternative points of view isn’t a particularly favored activity in many corners of society these days. But it remains one of the best ways – perhaps one of the only ways – of bridging the many divides (racial, economic, cultural) currently afflicting many aspects of our world. So argues Ronald A. Crutcher, president of the University of Richmond and author of I Had No Idea You Were Black: Navigating Race on the Road to Leadership (Clyde Hill Publishing). 
 
In this week’s episode of The Key, Crutcher discusses his leadership style, his views on campus race relations and affirmative action, and the importance of understanding the pain words can cause while still favoring free speech over limiting it. 

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Wiley Education Services.

Ep. 50: A Better ‘Transcript’ for Learners and Employers

What skills, knowledge and abilities do students develop as they navigate through college? How do students themselves know, and how do institutions arm their graduates to show prospective employers what they know and can do?

This week’s episode explores an effort to iterate beyond the academic transcript, which has historically been the main tool available to students, institutions and employers alike to sum up what’s gained during the college experience. And a not very effective one at that.

In this episode, Insiya Bream, assistant vice provost for data and systems at the University of Maryland Global Campus, explains the “comprehensive learner record” it has created for its MBA students. And Matthew Pittinsky, CEO of Parchment, describes why a “better transcript” – which is often discussed in the context of professionally-focused learning like at UMGC – could actually help liberal arts institutions make their case for the value of what they do.

Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman.

This episode is sponsored by Wiley Education Services.