Education

EDU News Curated by Kiosk: Alternative Education and Other Higher Ed News

Embracing Competency-Based Education to Differentiate Your Institution

From Kiosk: In the evolving landscape of higher education, alternative forms of education are gaining traction. Embracing these trends not only differentiates institutions to prospective students but also re-engages alumni and those who have previously paused their education. These approaches can significantly enhance your institution’s appeal and success.

View the full article from Kiosk.

 

Interest in Skill-Based Learning Not Keeping Up With Demand

From Inside Higher Education: “The report by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), a network of colleges and universities across the country, states that despite a majority of higher education faculty and staff (86 percent) agreeing with the need for academic programs designed to build specific skills, far fewer (22 percent) said their institutions had actually implemented a campuswide competency-based framework. ‘While this is a really hot topic when it comes to thinking about skills-based hiring, I’m not sure that higher education institutions are fully on board or prepared to be a part of that kind of ecosystem yet,’ said Becky Klein-Collins, vice president of research and impact at CAEL and a co-author of the report.”
View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

Think Outside the Classroom – Your Students Do

From CAEL: “Learning from experience has long been a key value in education. According to John Dewey, in order for both the individual learner and society to fully benefit, education ‘must be based on experience – which is always the actual life experience of some individual.’…If you believe that learning counts, no matter where or how it is acquired, your programs need to find ways to assess and recognize that learning. That’s where credit for prior learning (CPL) — also known as prior learning assessment (PLA) — comes in.”

View the full article from CAEL.

 

Can This University Change its Teaching Culture?

From The Chronicle: “The University of Georgia is trying to establish itself as a place where deploying active-learning techniques in a thoughtful way is the norm. Active learning, an approach that aims to get students to construct rather than consume knowledge, is supported by evidence that it improves student learning over all and can also reduce performance gaps for underrepresented students. It’s a teaching-focused answer to the big question of how to support this generation of students, many of whom bring with them work and family responsibilities and mental health challenges, and whose educations were disrupted by the pandemic.”

View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

AI’s New Conversation Skills Eyed for Education

From Inside Higher Education: “‘I thought, right away, this is going to change personalized learning,’ said Ajjan, associate dean at Elon University’s Love School of Business in North Carolina. ChatGPT’s newest version, GPT-4o ( the ‘o’ standing for ‘omni,’ meaning ‘all’), has a more realistic voice and quicker verbal response time, both aiming to sound more human. The version, which should be available to free ChatGPT users in coming weeks—a change also hailed by educators—allows people to interrupt it while it speaks, simulates more emotions with its voice and translates languages in real time.”

View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

7 Realities For Black Students in America, 70 Years After Brown

The Hechinger Report: “The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education found that separating students by race was unconstitutional, but segregation’s legacy remains… Here are some of the racial realities of American public education today: 25: That’s the percentage increase in Black-white school segregation between 1991 and 2019, according to an analysis of 533 districts by sociologists Sean Reardon at Stanford University and Ann Owens at the University of Southern California…6: This is the percentage of teachers in American public schools who are Black. By comparison, Black students make up about 15 percent of public school enrollment.”

View the full article from The Hechinger Report.

 

Is Higher Education Growing or Shrinking?

From The Chronicle: “A Chronicle analysis of federal data from more than 2,000 four-year public, private, and for-profit colleges shows no evidence of a significant decline in bachelor’s-degree programs or completions over a 20-year period. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: Between 2002 and 2022, higher-education institutions expanded their number of programs by nearly 23,000, or 40 percent — a period during which undergraduate enrollment grew 8 percent. As enrollment levels off, the growth trajectory of programs may shift, which will become clear as new data become available.”

View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Re-Evaluating the ‘Essay Carveout’

From Inside Higher Education: “After the Supreme Court barred affirmative action, many selective colleges added essay prompts focused on identity and diversity. Sonja Starr, a law professor at the University of Chicago, has been analyzing changes to college essay prompts since the fall…For Starr’s analysis…she examined applications for U.S. News and World Report’s top 65 colleges and universities—which are more likely to have used affirmative action in the past than most institutions. She found that 43 of them had essay prompts addressing diversity, identity or adversity in the latest application cycle, up from 35 the year before. Thirty-one had mandatory questions on these subjects, an increase from 21.”

View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

Unpacking ASU’s OpenAI Partnership

From Inside Higher Education: “Gonick (ASU’s chief information officer) said ASU is tackling the partnership in a two-pronged, ‘laser-focused’ approach—versus what he calls a ‘spray painting method to see what sticks.’ The first prong seeks out proposals from faculty on the best ways to utilize the technology. The proposals fall into three buckets: teaching and learning outcomes; research and the public interest; and improving the university experience, such as better customer service and streamlining work between departments…The university approved 104 projects for the spring and 114 for this summer…A second proposal round that included ideas from students closed earlier this month.”

View the full article from Inside Higher Education.

 

Colleges Have Agreed to Pay Athletes. What’s Next?

From The Chronicle: “The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the five most lucrative athletic conferences approved a plan this week to pay their athletes directly, a monumental step that could change college sports — and shake up the institutions that house them — for generations to come.The plan is part of an agreement that would settle three antitrust lawsuits — House v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA, and Carter v. NCAA — if it’s approved by a federal judge. It includes a $2.75-billion payment to former athletes who sued the association and the so-called power conferences for back pay for the rights to their names, images, and likenesses. The burden of the payment will be shared by Division I colleges and issued over 10 years.”

View the full article from The Chronicle.

 

Five Takeaways From the UCLA, Northwestern, Rutgers Antisemitism Hearing

From Inside Higher Education: “House Republicans spent a little over three hours Thursday admonishing the leaders of Northwestern University, Rutgers University and the University of California, Los Angeles for how they responded to antiwar protests and antisemitic incidents on their campuses, arguing they failed in their central obligation to protect students. … However, with witnesses prepared to stand their ground this time, Republicans didn’t appear to score the kinds of political points they did in previous hearings, although they trumpeted several moments on social media afterward.”

View the full article from Inside Higher Education.