Happy #OEWeek! This week we celebrated with our WCET, higher education, and open education community on social media and learned through a wonderful guest post from Jenny Parks and Regina Gong. Check out their post for information on leveraging partnerships to create and develop a state-wide OER community.
Today we get to take a global journey through all the ways the community celebrated open education with our Director of Open Policy, Tanya Spilovoy. Tanya details the great events and highlights some of the learning opportunities shared by other open education experts. Thank you Tanya!
Enjoy the read and enjoy your day,
Lindsey Downs, WCET
Open Education is continuing to grow in spite of and in response to the challenges we’ve all faced in 2020/21.
“The event showcases projects, resources, and ideas from around the world that demonstrate open education in practice.”
– OE Global Website
March 1-5, 2021 was Open Education Week, a global celebration of all things open, spearheaded by OE Global. For those who work in Open Education, OE Week is like a holiday–a celebration of all the efforts and events, people and places—led by like-minded practitioners who have dedicated their craft to making education accessible, affordable, and equitable.
Global Perspective
This week has given me the opportunity to travel virtually to places around the world and see the good work being led by the open community even though I’m at home on my computer. To start my virtual travel, I explored the Open Education week schedule (to which anyone can add their OE Week events), and although events are listed in many different languages, I can see the countries, events, and start times for each submission. There is definitely something exciting about going to bed knowing that while I sleep, open education will continue to be celebrated at 2:00 AM in Slovenia, at 3:00 AM in Cuba, at 4:00 AM in Rome, and at 5:00 AM in Switzerland. A person could literally attend open education events 24/7 for the entire week! I’d definitely need more coffee.
My favorite thing is seeing Governors like Brad Little, ID and Jared Polis, CO endorse open educational resources and champion the benefits of Open. And a huge shout out to Open Oregon Educational Resources for their tweet encouraging gratitude.
Policy
“No matter what the circumstances are…there will always be things that we don’t predict or prepare for…the key to surviving all of these is to stay focused on work that has lasting impact. Leveraging the opportunities that do present themselves to you, and making sure that you use the privileges that you have to provide opportunities for those that don’t.”
– Sharon Leu
For those interested in policy, you will want to watch the recordings from Open Education Conference keynote speaker, Sharon Leu (who is now the Entrepreneur In Residence with Jobs For the Future Labs), ACRL, SPARC, and UNESCO. The ALA Copyright, Legislation, Education, and Advocacy Network (CLEAN), held a free webinar called “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources.” The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Coalition (SPARC) featured a webcast on “Open Education Policy in the U.S. and Canada: Trends and Opportunities.” And UNESCO held a webinar on “Open Education Week: OER Dynamic Coalition Webinar”.
If you missed any of these exciting and important sessions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the speakers for a recording; I know they’ll be happy to share (that’s what OER folks do.).
Institutions
Many individual institutions also held events. Campus events showcased OER initiatives, faculty champions, and student ambassadors. A must-listen is the Missouri A&OER Symposium’s keynote by Professor Jasmine Roberts which centered around care. Student perspecives are always impactful; the Open and Affordable Education committee at Iowa State partnered with student government leaders on a new project to amplify the student experience with course material costs. Watch their intro video here. I’m excited to hear student stories and learn more about this initiative. If you’re interested in reading more about student perspectives regarding course materials, read the new U.S. PIRG report “Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, Third Edition.” It was also fun to see Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU)’s tweets celebrating its magnificent Z Degrees and Open Education Faculty Champions.
What Are You Waiting For? Take Your Trip!
Open Education week has so many events, resources, activities, and people that there is no way to capture all of the goodness in one blog post. There’s enough content to get us through the pandemic (and then some). I’ve just barely introduced you to the awesome variety available for free to anyone who is interested. You are invited to take your own trip around the globe to explore all that open education has to offer. All are welcome.
Happy Open Education Week! What can be accomplished when we all work together for educational equity?
This week’s blog post by Jenny Parks and Regina Gong answers that question (Hint: the answer is going to blow your mind and make you want to get involved). Working with Jenny and Regina to scale open educational resources in the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) region has been challenging, exciting, and rewarding. And now the same model is being duplicated and shared across the US as we work with all of the regional compacts (MHEC, NEBHE, WICHE, and SREB) and their corresponding states. Read on to find out how they did it!
In spring 2018, I (Jenny) received a call from my friend and colleague Tanya Spilovoy, Director of Open Policy at WCET. We had worked together for years on other projects, and when she asked me to brainstorm with her about possible collaborations centered on Open Educational Resources (OER), I was thrilled. I had been working on ideas for a Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) OER initiative for about a year at that time, but a structure and strategy for the initiative had not taken form. After a few weeks of discussion, we decided upon a strategy that was grounded in principles important to MHEC and the Open Education movement: volunteer-led state action teams who would work in each of the twelve MHEC states to create and increase the capacity to implement OER.
With Tanya’s help, we secured a grant from the Hewlett Foundation which covered about half the cost of the November 2018 meeting in Chicago. The rest of the meeting was covered by funds MHEC’s Commission had designated a few years earlier to support an OER initiative. Tanya started reaching out to presenters, and I started to identify and recruit state team members. We invited five individuals from each state to attend the meeting, with some teams having one or two fewer or additional attendees. Importantly, all costs of attendance were covered by the MHEC and Hewlett funds, as we knew this was the only way to ensure that representatives from states and institutions with lower levels of funding would be able to attend.
The most pressing challenge at the time was to identify OER leaders in each of the states, especially since we wanted to recruit folks from all sectors of higher education and PK-12. There really were not many established “go to” networks in each of the MHEC states at that time, so I spent four weeks calling, emailing, and seeking ways to identify those I knew were doing the work, silently, invisibly, and often, in isolation. Eventually I was able to recruit folks and prepare for the meeting, knowing that it would be an important event that would change how we thought about and implemented OER work in the Midwest. If we could create a sense of community, mission, and identity as a region and as state action teams, we would have a way to communicate with each other, share ideas, and collaborate in the future.
The meeting was more successful than any of us could have imagined. Though it was longer than most meetings, it provided individuals with time to become acquainted with others in their states who were doing OER work. The extra time also provided folks the opportunity to connect with their counterparts in other MHEC states. Finally, the time allowed the state teams to take a long, hard look at the “OER infrastructure” in their states and to create plans to enhance it.
Working with State Action Teams
For the first half of 2019, I scheduled and facilitated monthly calls with the State OER Action Teams. During this time, we reached out to others in the states whose input was needed to round out team membership as well as to provide a way to communicate across educational silos. Each state team immediately had its own style and character, with some focusing their efforts on gathering information and deploying surveys, some approaching their State Higher Education Executive Offices (SHEEO) to create state level OER committees and task forces, and some creating or building on their existing OER networks. The Michigan team fell into the third category. They worked across the state, in all sectors of higher education and K-12, orchestrating events, conferences, and trainings to an ever-expanding group. Led by Regina Gong, the Michigan group met on a regular basis outside the calls arranged by MHEC and continues to do so to this day.
During the second half of 2019, we changed to a quarterly call schedule for the state teams and refreshed their six-month plans. There have been a range of outcomes from the work of the State OER Action Teams, including the creation of multiple state level OER committees and task forces; the collection of institutional data; the collection of student data; the launching and expansion of state OER conferences and summits; the combining and aligning of repositories; and many other activities that have increased the capacity in each state to implement OER. My conversations with the twelve state teams over the course of a year also provided me with a unique understanding of how some of their needs overlapped and how MHEC as a regional actor might be able to provide additional support to their efforts.
The strongest area of need was to increase awareness about OER. Organizations across the nation provide training for librarians, faculty, and instructional designers, but at the time, none offered training targeted at the individuals who made OER-related decisions such as resource allocations, adding OER to job titles, or authorizing course markings. The folks adopting, adapting, and creating OER depend upon the decisions and commitments of senior level administrators and leaders to support and sustain their work. Thus, in collaboration with the Open Education Network (OEN), MHEC sought a second grant from the Hewlett Foundation and hosted the Senior Leaders Open Education Seminary in December 2019. We recruited and covered the travel of approximately three senior leaders from each MHEC state to come and learn about OER and the types of organizational decisions and strategies that work well to incentivize and support OER implementation.
Consolidating OER Efforts Across Regional Compacts
In 2020, MHEC joined the other three regional higher education compacts in forming the National Consortium for OER (NCOER). We sought a way to coordinate, scale, and provide a nationwide structure to share research, best practices, and other OER successes. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed our work, but in November 2020 the four compacts were awarded grants from the Hewlett Foundation to continue and build upon their previous OER initiatives. Each compact will engage in its own processes of community building, research, and policy advocacy. For MHEC this work will involve research on best practices for calculating the costs savings attributable to OER implementation; technical and logistical support for virtual state OER conferences; state level senior leaders training; development of OER for areas of high need in CTE fields; and collaborations with the work of the other regional compacts. For example, Michigan had to cancel its state OER conference in 2020 due to the pandemic. To ensure that Michigan has its conference in 2021, MHEC will provide the technical support needed to plan, market, register, recruit, and host the virtual Michigan OER conference in August. In doing so we maintain the momentum of the Michigan OER State Action Team and the MI-OER Network. Supporting the OER communities of practice across the Midwest has always been the core goal for MHEC’s OER initiatives. The work with the Michigan OER community since 2018 is a great example of how we are meeting that goal and accomplishing much, much more.
Sometime in August 2018, I got an email from Jenny Parks, Vice President of MHEC, informing me (Regina) that I was recommended as one of the statewide OER leaders representing Michigan during the multi-state MHEC OER summit held in late November. At that time, I was still working for Lansing Community College (LCC) and had been a founding member of the Michigan Colleges Online (MCO) OER Initiative steering committee. This group had representation from all 28 community colleges in the state and has already gained considerable success in OER adoptions and usage across many institutions. The group had organized statewide OER summits featuring prominent national speakers that were well-attended by educators, administrators, librarians, and students from all types of higher education institutions, including K-12. In addition, I was leading a very successful OER program at LCC that has served as a model and an inspiration for other community colleges to emulate within the state and nationally as well. I readily accepted Jenny’s invitation because I knew that we could move the needle towards more awareness, buy-in, and support of open education across the state with my leadership in OER.
It was with so much excitement and hope that six of us came together to represent Michigan in the first MHEC OER state leaders’ summit held in Chicago. All of us were from different institutions (MCO, community college, public university, private college, and MI Department of Education) and different roles and responsibilities (librarians, instructional designer, faculty, state employee, executive director). We were an all-women delegation, and we came to the summit buoyed by our initial success and the possibility of even more impact if we can scale it statewide.
MI-OER Network Project Begins
The two-day summit was an excellent opportunity to learn about what the other MHEC member states have been doing concerning OER and other affordable learning options. All twelve states were at different stages in their OER efforts. It was an eye-opening experience to hear each state’s unique challenges, success, and plans for implementing their strategies. The summit’s primary goal was to provide a space and an opportunity for members to develop strategies and processes that can help us achieve our goal of scaling OER awareness and usage across the state. And I think that gathering helped a great deal for us to visualize and even dream of what might be possible.
For our state action team, our overarching goal was to remove the silos that have been in place in Michigan. We wanted to integrate the efforts done by our colleagues from the K-12 sector with their involvement in the #GoOpen initiative and the MCO OER Initiative involving community colleges. We felt we needed to provide a connection between the disparate efforts we all are doing. More importantly, we envisioned further collaboration and partnership with the four-year colleges and universities (public, private, research-intensive) since OER efforts in these institutions were still at the nascent stage or even non-existent. Having our statewide efforts integrate and work together to serve our diverse learners in all stages of their education was something we aspired to achieve.
For our state action item, we came up with the idea of putting together a coalition that spans institutions from K-20 that will consolidate and support each other’s OER efforts. We named this organization the MI-OER Network, which we formally launched in October 2020. The MI-OER Network serves as a collective voice for the community to encourage the development and use of OER for educational, instructional, and public information purposes. It is also a community of practice among higher education institutions and the K-12 sector to promote, advocate, and support OER use and facilitate collaboration among its members. Our mission is to support institutions and organizations in the fair and equitable use of OER for all learners in the state. With the addition of a few more members, most of the original conveners now serve as members of the Steering Committee. I’m currently serving as the steering committee’s de-facto chair until we can formulate a sustainable organizational structure.
Our Next Steps
We have built a website and created a listserv to highlight our work and communicate with our members. We are still meeting every month and are planning to invite more volunteers to serve in leadership roles and committees. The statewide OER summits that have been held for the past four years will transition to MI-OER Network’s responsibility. On August 11-12, 2021, we are holding another OER summit, which will be held as a two-day virtual event for the first time. We have asked Angela DeBarger, Program Officer in Education, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Lisa Petrides, founder and CEO of ISKME, to be our keynote speakers during the summit.
Another important next step is to provide continued professional development and support to our members through workshops, webinars, dialogues, and discussions. Of course, partnering with MHEC to leverage the power of OER to effect the needed change in higher education that ensures access, equity, affordability, and student success. We plan on doing many things, and I hope that we can come together as a community to effectively realize the goals we have set for ourselves so that we can serve all learners equitably.
Providing and supporting education today requires instructors and practitioners to be highly knowledgeable, flexible, and adaptable, and to have a whole toolbox full of technology and teaching related skills. This is especially true now that they are teaching or supporting teaching in remote, online, or blended environments.
These challenges are why I’m so thrilled about the Expert Network from Every Learner Everywhere. This Network provides on-demand coaching to faculty, course coordinators, instructional designers, and academic leaders. The expert coaches are well-versed in all aspects of digital learning, including advancing equity and inclusion. Today I’m happy to share more information on the Network and the free one-on-one coaching they offer.
Thank you to the Every Learner Everywhere team and the Expert Network for providing these much needed services, and thanks to the team for sharing about the program today.
Enjoy the read,
Lindsey Downs, WCET
Many in higher education have been facing unprecedented challenges and stresses for months, and continue to experience them in the new year. From the emergency shift to online learning last spring, to hybrid course implementation, or returning to in-person learning, and the urgent need for equity-first instruction — the Every Learner Everywhere network recognized the imperative of providing support to those at the forefront of higher education.
During a time of dramatic changes, the network sought to connect faculty seeking guidance with experienced professionals. Thus, the Every Learner Everywhere Expert Network powered by ISTE framework was created and seven experts, each bringing a unique wealth of knowledge and experience, joined the network to offer free 50-minute, 1:1 coaching sessions.
The scheduling process was built to be as seamless as possible for participants. When visiting the Expert Network landing page, scroll to find the expert you would like to meet with and click the ‘Meet with’ button. Explore the expert’s availability and schedule your session, a confirmation email will be sent to your inbox shortly.
Experts Elaine Villanueva Bernal, Tatiana Bryant, Kristal Moore Clemons, Tazin Daniels, Cherise McBride, Chandani Patel, and Blaine Smith bring deep knowledge in equity, inclusion, and digital learning.
Dr. Tazin Daniels shared in a recent interview, “One thing I love about being an educational developer is the exponential impact you can have. Every time I see an educator have an ‘aha’ moment, I know that may have just changed one hundred lives.”
“One thing I love about being an educational developer is the exponential impact you can have. Every time I see an educator have an ‘aha’ moment, I know that may have just changed one hundred lives.”
Dr. Tazin Daniels
The 1:1 sessions are open and available to all who work in higher education and are a great forum for ‘aha’ moments. The experts are ready to listen, with no question being too small.
“My goal is to help people understand that they’re not alone,” says Dr. Chandani Patel. “Faculty often struggle because they don’t know where to ask for help. As a coach, I’m there for them, but also there are a ton of resources that I can connect them with.”
Whether you have a specific question or are seeking broader support, we highly encourage educators to take the opportunity to connect with the incredible team of experts.
“I’m excited to consult with people from a wide range of disciplines,” says Tatiana Bryant. “I’m curious to see where there’s synchronicity among the faculty who are interested in equity and online learning.”
“My goal is to help people understand that they’re not alone…”
Dr. Chandani Patel
The team of experts specialize in a multitude of areas: anti-racism, equity, inclusion, digital learning, curriculum design, STEM education, and more. No matter how specialized or generalized the inquiry, there is an expert who can help.
So, how did the mass media view online education two decades ago? On February 18, 2001, the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes ran the segment “Online U,” which discussed the emergence of online offerings at the University of Phoenix and Duke University. Also interviewed were critics of these innovations and those challenging higher education to do more to change.
After watching it back in 2001, I obtained a transcript. And I kept it all this time.
This post quotes those interviewed. I also reflect on the areas on which we have made great advances and those in which the criticisms remain the same or are, sometimes rightfully, now much louder.
I will comment on the quotes in the 60 Minutes interviews. Of course, I am the first to admit that it is easier to judge those statements given the insights of history. But, sometimes, by looking at the past, we can appreciate how far we have come and what unforeseen wonders the future might hold.
Life in 2001
For context, I offer some history lessons from February twenty years ago…
A president was serving his first month in office after an election disputed by quite a few people.
Rookie Tom Brady just completed a total of one pass in his rookie year. In 2002, he would win his first Super Bowl as the youngest quarterback to do so (Whatever happened to him?).
Western Governors University (WGU) had been open for enrollment for only two years and had a fraction of the students it now has.
The music-sharing app Napster lost a federal appeals court judgement. It closed that summer.
WebCT was a big provider of Learning Management System software for online courses. In February 2006, it is acquired by Blackboard.
The launch of a social media platform called “The Facebook” was still three years away in February 2004 (Disagreements with crazy uncles happened mostly in-person and at Thanksgiving).
The fact that hits me the most from the 60 Minutes segment is that the press was just discovering that distance education even existed. Meanwhile, WCET had been around for twelve years serving member colleges who provided, what else but, online and distance education.
What Caught Their Attention about Online Education?
The answer is money.
Long-time “60 Minutes” reporter Leslie Stahl begins the segment this way: “Almost every day, another dot-com company goes bust…But there’s one area of Internet business that shows no sign of slowing down: e-education. Entrepreneurs are spending millions to create for-profit universities of the Internet. And the smart money is betting that by the time your middle-schoolers go off to college, they may not really go anywhere. Their campus may be your basement, their computer their classroom.”
While this was certainly true, I must issue a heavy sigh. While for-profit institutions certainly benefited from online education, some critics still think that online education is synonymous with for-profit motives. With the exception of an expensive Duke University program, there is no hint in this segment that public or independent, non-profit institutions are involved in online learning.
It is also amusing to reflect that in 2020 the vast majority of middle-schooler and the university students would be in that basement taking online courses.
Arthur Levin of Teachers College at Columbia University and a noted scholar and critic of teaching practices opines: “There’s a sense that here’s an industry worth maybe $300 billion which people believe is low in productivity, high in cost, bad in management, doesn’t use technologies. One entrepreneur told me…’We’re going to each your lunch.’”
Levin goes on to paraphrase what he believes students were wanting: “’I want great service. Give me convenience classes 24 hours a day. In-class parking wouldn’t be bad, high quality instruction and low cost. And I don’t want to pay for anything I’m not using.’ They’re prime candidates for instruction in the office or at home.”
These sentiments are true today for many adult students and leads to more observations about the influx of adult learners.
A Changing and Growing Student Population
Levin offered this insight of the changes and misconceptions in the students being served by higher education, even back in 2001: “The image of the college student is somebody that’s somewhere between 18 and 22 who attends college full-time and lives on a campus…That person now makes up 16 percent of the college population. The rest…are older, part-time, working.”
To represent the changing demographic, Vicki Esposito is featured throughout the segment. She is a student attending the online version of the University of Phoenix. As a 32-year-old mother working in a full-time job on Wall Street and living on Staten Island, Stahl asks Esposito when she does her college work. Her response is one that is familiar to us: “when they go to bed.” This is followed by joint reflections that this leaves little time in the day for sleep.
Stahl follows-up with an observation on changing student needs and predilections: “So many students like that idea that, believe it or not, Phoenix, which is fully accredited, has become the largest private university in America.”
While this statement seemingly implied that the University is fully online, that was certainly not the case. Many major cities had University of Phoenix locations for in-person instruction situated near a major interstate highway.
An unidentified woman student in Duke University’s Online MBA underscores the motives of the adult learner by saying: “It’s allowing me to push forward in my career at the same time while I’m getting my degree.”
These sentiments are just as fresh today. Many students find that online education fits into their life needs. It was also attractive for Esposito as the $4,000 price per online course was paid by her employer.
In subsequent years, online learning would grow to additional populations. K-12 students in dual credit courses often do so online. The use of digital educational technologies has expanded through many on-campus or blended college courses.
Certainly, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford Would Never Go Online
Photo of the transcript
Commenting on the future of the internet and online learning, John Chambers, the CEO or Cisco Systems offered this opinion about universities: “If they don’t change, the students aren’t going to be there.”
Stahl follows up: “Are you saying that if a Harvard or a Yale or a Stanford doesn’t get—doesn’t start teaching online, that they won’t exist in 20 years?”
Chambers: “If they don’t change, you will get left behind.. And it isn’t just teaching online.”
Stahl: “Even Harvard, Yale, Stanford, all of them?”
Chambers: “Even Harvard, Yale, Stanford.”
Of course, all the predictions of major universities going away if they do not go online were so much hyperbole. Before the pandemic occurred, we witnessed many institutions experiencing economic difficulties, with some forced to close. Even institutions traditionally focused on their on-campus experience added online options to boost the bottom line.
A mere decade after this interview, professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng began offering a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at Stanford. A year later they started Coursera, which still offers courses from Stanford on their platform. For those of us with years of experience in distance and online education, it was enlightening that these newbies had “discovered” online instruction, online discussions, and online testing. Subsequently, Coursera has found its lane in offering courses and in being an Online Program Management (OPM) service for institutions.
Back to 2001 and to provide another opinion, Robert Berdahl, Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley said of Chambers’ urging universities to go online: “He’s in the Internet business; I’m in the education business.” And went on: “How do we make certain that the students are the same quality that we have on campus?”
In 2012, MIT and Harvard started their own MOOC platform, called EdX. This graphic is taken from the EdX “About Us” page and speaks to where the Berkeley campus is today on online learning:
Apparently, the University of California at Berkeley has found a way to find quality students.
I still recall listening to the stream of the press conference announcing EdX, which was created by MIT and Harvard. A reporter asked if the EdX team had reached out to learn from other institutions offering online learning. The response was that they did not see a need to talk to for-profit institutions. This still galls me as it ignored the fact that most online learning was provided by public and private, non-profit institutions. And regardless of tax structure, it might be helpful for a research university to learn from those who had gone before. EdX has been successful with its open learning platform and offering courses from numerous institutions to students throughout the world.
Teaching, Interaction, and That “Quality” Question
As is still true now, those who have not experienced an online course have grave questions about quality and how the in-person experience can be replicated. Berdahl, the University of California at Berkeley Chancellor stated: “I think that is the core issue. How do we make certain that a degree is truly worth a degree and make certain that—that—that we don’t have the equivalent of diploma mills on the Internet? I don’t think chat rooms and virtual discussions are the—the functional equivalent of being in a classroom.”
In the best quote of the segment, Carole Fungaroli, a faculty person at Georgetown University said: “Your education is like sex on the Internet. You can get it online, but it’s better in person.”
Stahl asked about what is lost in the interaction in an online course. Fungaroli says: “There is some sort of marvelous energy that gets going between me and a student when I know that the student is really catching on. I can tell. I—I can read eyes…. Not only do I not know that would happen with someone online, I don’t know how I’d care. And caring I think, is a lot of it. How do you care about someone you’ve never met or you don’t know?”
Stahl returns to Esposito for the student perspective on connecting with others in her class, asking: “Do you know who the other people in the class are?”
Esposito replies: “Yeah, you do. In a traditional school, I may never know the person sitting next to me. There would be no reason to even speak to them. Online, the first thing you do is send a bio when you go into your class…introducing yourself and who you are and what you do. So, you get to know the people and—learn about them.”
Unfortunately, Stahl knocks down that student experience: “If you can call typing messages back and forth getting to know someone.”
Stahl asks Esposito as a student: “Do you worry that people will view this degree as a lesser degree because it was online?”
She replies: “In the beginning, yes, I was skeptical; I wasn’t sure. But it’s proven to me that it’s—it’s accomplishing the same thing. Once I actually get that degree in my hand, you’re not going to know any different.”
Faculty Control and “Rock Star” Faculty
In the segment there is a very quick reference to the MBA program at Duke University using what are called “software engineers” (presumably instructional designers) to work with the “content experts” (faculty) in creating a quality course. Concern is raised about faculty having to share control of the course.
As was common back in those day, the myth of the star faculty person was introduced. Commenting on what Duke University was doing, Columbia College’s Levin said: “I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. And what they’re going to do is say, ‘Professor Jones, have I got a deal for you. I got you a book contract with Random House. I got you a show on PBS. You’re going to do one of the for-profit online courses. I got you three product endorsements and a consulting contract with Russia, and they’re paying up front. And for that, I can give you $5 million’…These guys are going to be like rock stars.”
Twenty years later, the examples of celebrity faculty are extremely rare and they certainly are not making $5 million. What was not foreseen was the exact opposite problem taking hold. In both in-person and online courses, the use of contingent (adjunct) faculty at a very low rate of pay has exploded. Instead of a few faculty becoming rich, many faculty are paid wages that are below the cost of living. Again, that is not a problem that is restricted to the online environment, but we should strive to do better.
The Digital Divide
Stahl poses this problem to Fungaroli as a faculty person: “…one of the big topics is whether the Internet will create a have and have-not divide.”
Fungaroli replies: “As long as there are going to be parents with deep pockets there are going to be—there’s going to be in-person education. I just don’t want to see it for the elite. I want to see it for a more democratic representation.”
As someone from a lower, middle class faculty of first-generation colleges students, I had to choke a bit at this one. An in-person education at Georgetown University was not within my financial grasp. So, the “elite” argument falls a bit short with me.
On the other hand, the recent experience with the pandemic shows that those with the fewest financial resources were most severely affected by the lack of technology and internet access. The digital divide was made deeper for non-elite students.
Online Education Was Still Nascent with a Bright Future (From a 2001 Point of View)
In 2001, the University of Phoenix content was all reading. The fact that YouTube would not launch until 2005 reminds us that videos were rare. I recall the difficulties of struggling with non-compatible video formats. Some did offer videos, which Stahl comments (accurately) as that “herky-jerky professor in a box.”
In talking about the online course experience in 2001, Cisco CEO Chambers says: “The applications are very rudimentary. They are not very effective…It would be very kind to say it’s at stage one. I’d say we’re in the very first pitch of the first game.”
Stahl: “You can see the potential in a few courses now…animation, interactivity. But just wait.”
Chambers: “Ten to 15 years down the line, what we could have is holograms of other people sitting in your living room with you, and here’s the professor sitting right in front of you.”
Well…we are still working on holograms, but there have been great advances in discussion tools, videos, simulations, and other instructional tools.
In Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. As happens with the national press, there is the view that higher education is defined by the elite colleges. Meanwhile, for-profit institutions are seen as a new interloper. Absent from this discussion is the vast majority of institutions outside these two categories. I know that they have less than 20 minutes for a story, but there were numerous institutions with experience in online education at the time from the public and private, non-profit institution sectors.
The old adage “the more things change; the more things stay the same” struck me as I read the interview.
We have made great progress in many areas. Some criticisms remain, both fairly and not. Many challenges stay lay in ahead of us.
But wait, there’s more!
I was able to locate and contact Vicki Esposito, the student interviewed for the 60-minute story. We asked her a few questions and she kindly sent us her answers. Thank you, Vicki, for walking down memory lane with us!
How did the find you? It was pretty interesting putting the weight of all adult students on your shoulders.
Someone on Leslie Stahl’s team called me directly, or perhaps she emailed me. I think they received my information from University of Phoenix. I was kind of young back then with three little kids at home, so I don’t think I even thought of how I was a voice for other adult students.
Looks like you graduated from the University of Phoenix, which you were interviewed about. How was that online experience? How did it prepare you for future work?
So, the online experience was interesting but a few things to keep in mind: First I was in IT, so I was comfortable with the technology. Second this was 20 years ago so we didn’t have Wi-Fi or even cable. When I think back it’s almost scary to think the technology was even able to handle this. Phoenix was very diligent on how this worked so as long as you could keep yourself working within their structure it was fine but that did take some getting used to. Of course, getting a degree prepares you in many different ways but as an adult and working full-time I think it was the structure and deadlines that I had to meet. Of course, each individual course provides knowledge that you use at different times in your career but being able to meet deadlines at the time stood out for me.
I know that they interviewed you for quite a while, but only snippets make it into a story. Is there anything that you said that got cut or you wish that the viewers would have known?
Yes, they didn’t use all of the interview. I distinctly remember one particular question that was cut, which surprised me because I loved the answer although I don’t think Leslie like it. I think she wasn’t in agreement with online schooling which is why this particular question/answer was cut. Again, keep this in perspective as it was 20 years ago, and it wasn’t a pandemic. She asked about the need for social interaction and the importance of it. My response was basically that I had plenty of social interaction especially since I had young children who were involved in their own schools and after-school activities, so I didn’t feel the need for specific social interactions. In this pandemic world the social interaction is missing because students of any age are no longer able to have those interactions.
I hope I answered your questions. 20 years later I can tell you that the online experience definitely made me a better technologist as you weren’t just sitting in a classroom. The structure University of Phoenix had required you to “raise your hand” that’s what I called it, several times a week. In a traditional classroom, I could have just sat in the background and never said a word.
2020 sure was challenging, difficult, unique, interesting (?), and [insert other adjectives here].
As we said last week, we’re in a new year, but are, sadly, still facing similar issues as we were just a few months ago. But who knows, maybe 2021 will bring us some positives. We asked several of our friends and colleagues, who just happen to be outstanding experts focused on higher education and digital learning, for their predictions and hopes for the year. Last week we looked at the predictions and this week and this week we’re focusing on the hopes.
Our practitioners had several hopes for the year:
Positive steps toward addressing equity and inclusion within higher education.
A digital transformation for institutions.
More interest and involvement in open education.
Programs and initiatives to address equity and digital divide challenges.
Easier transfer options for students.
Creation and appointment of chief online learning officer type roles.
Closure of the information gaps between licensing boards and postsecondary institutions.
Renewed interest and focus on competency-based education (CBE).
Thank you again to the WCET members and leadership who responded to our call for predications and/or hopes for this year.
Thank you,
Lindsey Downs, WCET
Robbie Melton, #1 Appologist, Associate Vice President SMART Global Technology Innovations Center, Dean, Graduate School, Graduate Professional Studies, Tennessee State University
That higher education administrators, faculty, staff, and students address cultural and diversity responsiveness throughout all academic disciplines, curriculums, and most importantly, with others.
The pandemic has offered us an opportunity to make advances in creating equitable digital learning experiences for students. Over the last year we learned that by genuinely listening and amplifying student voices, we can better serve those students who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID and its long list of challenges – from digital access and job stability to personal, familial, and emotional struggles. The feedback we receive from students allows us to better support faculty and administrators by identifying and delivering the online curriculum and teaching strategies that help students succeed. My hope is that institutions and organizations will continue to amplify the voices of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and poverty-affected students and allow their experiences to guide our work.
I hope that higher education uses the difficulties that we faced in 2020 as a driver for sustainable and committed actions focused on digital transformation at all levels within and across institutions, breaking down the arbitrary silos we’ve created between face-to-face, blended, and online education.
Bryan Alexander, futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher
That we refocus higher education’s attention on improving learning.
2021 may not have started like we all hoped it would, but the first few weeks of this year underscore the importance of the work we’re doing to make the world more open and equitable. I hope we can all move through this coming year with grace and care—for ourselves and for each other—and that we continue steadily working for the dream that every student has equal opportunities for educational success.
Dale Johnson, Director of Digital Innovation, University Design Institute, Arizona State University
Faculty will continue to use the skills and technologies from the remote learning experience this year in their courses in the future.
That students would be able to maximize their opportunities to transfer academic credits based on the merits of their academic achievements and evidence of student learning.
Megan Raymond, Senior Director, Programs and Membership, WCET
The annual WCET predictions and hopes for the new year blog is always one of my favorites. As the year draws to a close it’s fun to look back and see what the hits and misses were. I skipped the review for 2020 knowing that the most significant challenge to higher education struck without anyone anticipating it- major pandemic, its impacts, and long-lasting ripples. My hope for 2021 is that we all take the lessons learned, primarily that we in higher education can respond more dynamically than we ever imagined, and use the opportunity to create a truly impactful and valuable 21st Century education. High-quality digital learning provides access and effective teaching in learning in remarkable ways. The key is improving digital learning through sharing experiences and effective practices. I look forward to seeing continued collaboration and sharing through WCET in 2021.
I hope that institutions can recover students that have been lost to higher education in 2020 and holistically support them from access to completion, especially those that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
From our focus with the WCET| State Authorization Network (SAN) on out-of-state activities of institutions, my one hope is to close the information disconnect between state professional licensing boards and postsecondary institutions. Not only must institutions obtain any required program approvals by the state licensing boards where students are located, new Federal regulations require institutions to provide professional licensure notifications about the institution’s curriculum meeting state educational requirements in each state nationwide. The new regulations address an important purpose to serve future professionals to pursue training for their chosen career. However, the research of state requirements is difficult, and time consuming for the institutions to complete and periodically review the requirements.
This information disconnect can be closed by each leg of the higher education’s regulatory triad taking some responsibility.
With this mobile society and continuous development of digital learning opportunities, that are often offered to students across state lines, it is no longer sufficient for institutions to be singularly focused on state licensing requirements where the institution is located. Clarity and access to state educational requirements for licensing is vastly important for our future professionals.
My hope is that the heroic migration to remote learning last year will result in a universal expectation that a senior leader is required to manage online learning at the enterprise level. Much like the rise of CIOs in the nineties and early 2000s, the chief online learning officer (COLO) must be understood as a key strategic driver whose presence at the highest levels of campus decision-making is now a given, and whose key attributes are nimbleness and an entrepreneurial spirit.
That postsecondary education will move away from using the eugenics-inspired credit hour (equal time to learn) as a comparative measure of learning to rank and sort student by ‘smartness’ and move towards equitable, competency-based models, that build mastery for all students.
I have many hopes and dreams for higher education in 2021 and beyond; however, one is more thoughtful attention, resources, and strategies to leverage technology and digital delivery for our learners who may be technology-insecure, not yet digital-literate, or for whom an on-campus experience is not a goal, option, or desire, to obtain ongoing access to higher education and to benefit from those competencies and experiences in a rapidly changing economy and to advance a more perfect democracy.
Shannon Riggs, Executive Director of Academic Programs and Learning Innovation, Oregon State University Ecampus – WCET Steering Committee Vice Chair
I hope there will be re-investment in higher education to lessen the tuition burden for students.
Tina Parscal, Associate Vice Chancellor for CCCOnline and Academic Affairs Colorado Community College System – WCET Steering Committee Chair
My hope is that states, higher education institutions, and systems will sustain the cooperation and collaboration created in response to the pandemic and channel that spirit of cooperation to close the equity and access gaps.
Over the last year, many people were forced to step out of their comfort zones and rethink some of their previously held assumptions. Students and faculty all experienced digital learning in some form or another and perhaps some who thought it would be terrible, thrived, and others who expected greatness, were disappointed – many were somewhere in between. Similarly, some who thought working remotely was impossible realized more could be accomplished than they thought, and others who thought they would be just as productive at home, realized they truly valued their experiences on campus or in the office. My hope in the future is that we will all be more willing to break out of our comfort zones and be open to thinking and acting creatively so that we can accomplish more than we ever thought possible!
Russ Poulin, Executive Director, WCET and Vice President for Technology-Enhanced Education, WICHE
Inequalities of student access to digital learning technologies was brought into stark relief during the pandemic. We are already seeing some states addressing internet access for all. My hope is that we will see an infrastructure imperative on par with the vision that led to a transcontinental railroad and the interstate highway system.
What are your hopes and predictions for 2021? Let us know here in the comments below or tweet them to us at @wcet_info.
2020 sure was challenging, difficult, unique, interesting (?), and [insert other adjectives here].
Now that we are in a new year, (but are, sadly, still facing similar issues as we were just a few months ago) WCET is curious what higher education practitioners predict for digital learning and higher education in 2021. We are even more curious about what those practitioners hope for this year.
So, we asked several! Here are their replies. I’ve broken these hopes and predictions into two separate posts due to the… proclivity of our lovely interviewees to provide eloquent and loquacious responses.
But first, here are the general trends of the predictions and hopes:
As far as predictions go, our practitioners believe that in 2021…
Higher education will reassess the institutional approach and strategy for online learning.
AI and SMART technology will be used in all aspects of campus (class, eSports, etc).
There will be a decreased focus on centralization.
There will be increased scrutiny of Online Program Management companies (OPMs).
We will see an increased use of portfolios to address student needs and foster educational communities.
Changes made during the shift to remote learning will persist in some form and there will be an increasing ubiquity of online learning or hybrid learning models.
New roles will emerge and be brought more into focus, such as learning analysts.
We will see (or send out?) calls for meaningful educational research.
Our practitioners also had several hopes for the year:
Positive steps toward addressing equity and inclusion within higher education.
A digital transformation for institutions.
More interest and involvement in open education.
Programs and initiatives to address equity and digital divide challenges.
Easier transfer options for students.
Creation and appointment of chief online learning officer type roles.
Closure of the information gaps between licensing boards and postsecondary institutions.
Renewed interest and focus on competency-based education (CBE).
Thank you to the WCET members and leadership who responded to our call for predictions and/or hopes for this year. Below are the predictions for 2021 and next week we’ll learn about their hopes!
Thank you,
Lindsey Downs, WCET
Robbie Melton, #1 Appologist, Associate Vice President SMART Global Technology Innovations Center, Dean, Graduate School, Graduate Professional Studies, Tennessee State University
Due to the impact of the pandemic where higher education had to immediately transition into a remote and virtual environment, my prediction is that higher education will pursue SMART A.I. technology innovations from telemedicine to eSports to transform our curriculums and deliver education, healthcare, and business in a global digital workplace.
Though the efficacy and impact of quality online education is not new in any way, this past year has ushered many more individuals into the community of practice of equitable and inclusive online learning. I predict that with this influx of new champions and advocates, we’ll see innovative new methods born of the challenge of the pandemic for ensuring access to education for all learners.
Bryan Alexander, futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher
Financial stresses driven by state budget woes, increasing campus costs, decreasing enrollment in many institutions, and the general recession will change a great deal of higher ed. We’ll see continued personnel cuts, from furloughs to early retirements to RIFs (reduction in force). We should also see more program cuts in fields with lower student enrollment, especially in the humanities, even as some COVID-related fields experience growth. Non-COVID-related research will slow down.
It feels like cheating, writing this prediction in mid-January and not January 1st, but one trend I believe we will see in 2021 is significantly increased pushback against the wave of digital learning centralization that accelerated last year. Late in the year we saw the cancellation of systemwide RFPs for LMS, online tutoring, and online proctoring in the Alabama Community College system due to flaws in the evaluation process. We also saw the cancellation of a systemwide RFP in Tennessee over similar concerns. While the K-12 space is different from higher ed in many regards, there are some common issues we face. The nation’s fourth-largest K-12 district, Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, with more than 270,000 students, had a series of technical problems disrupting students from taking class, leading to the cancellation of a $15 million no-bid contract and a scramble to migrate back to Zoom and Microsoft Teams usage.
To keep my methods transparent, yes, I am relying on past events to inform my look forward. Simply put, I believe these were not isolated incidents of poor processes or bad technology decisions, but rather that they represent an accelerating movement towards centralization that we are seeing in the digital learning world. And that we will see many more mistakes made and public pushback against these efforts.
This is not a Manichean world of centralize = bad and pushback = good. There are some strong reasons backing up the moves towards centralization, including the need to provide minimum services for digital learning infrastructure during a period of enrollment and budget chaos for many schools. And there is the underlying CARES Act funding that encourages centralized infrastructure spending in a tight timeline (spend those dollars soon before you lose them!) in the messy area of teaching and learning that needs careful consideration. It is likely that we will see additional pandemic-related federal government funding that replicates the effects of the CARES Act in early 2021. There can be some real benefits of centralization with improved resource sharing, increased collaboration, and better opportunities to measure and learn what works and what doesn’t. But centralization is messy and will always be risky in higher ed.
One reason that I am focusing on the pushback side of this story is that centralization by its very nature raises the stakes. Bigger implementations driven by administrative or even legislative offices quite removed from front-line educators is a recipe for public angst, much of it quite warranted. Let’s hope that the higher community can learn from the past and upcoming messiness of centralization.
When thinking about a prediction for the next year given all that has been happening in higher education in terms of the fiscal struggles, affordability concerns, public confidence, and a changing education marketplace, I find it a bit difficult to focus on one. Certainly, the COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated the many challenges we faced going into 2020. Given where things stand now, I think I would say that this next year will be one for the relaunch of online learning that will be in some ways similar to the initial ramp up almost 20 years ago.
I would suggest that we will see a 3R’s approach over the next year or two. I believe that colleges and universities will reassess their online learning and other academic programs in light of what they have learned during COVID-19 and the need for a new approach. There will be some retooling in the areas of administrative structure, analytics, student support systems, academic policies and procedures, and perhaps credentials offered. And once done, we will see a relaunch of online learning operations that have more depth in the academic and student services operations of the institution, more streamlined policies and procedures and a more aggressive student-centered approach than pre-COVID-19.
So, in a nutshell, I think we will see the beginnings of a renaissance for higher education with online learning and support services playing a major role in the shape of things to come.
Dale Johnson, Director of Digital Innovation, University Design Institute, Arizona State University
Higher education enrollment will increase by 10% in the fall as students who deferred in fall 2020 return to start their education.
A growing dependence on Online Program Management (OPM) services will lead to increasing scrutiny of OPM-institution partnerships, revenue share agreements, and the resulting student outcomes. Accreditation will play a major role.
New models will emerge in online learning. I expect institutions to continue to experiment with a full spectrum of delivery modalities to increase flexibility, match student expectations, reduce cost, and enhance continuity of learning.
Institutions and their faculty became more comfortable with instructional technologies in 2020, in many cases due to the necessity of remote learning. 2021 will likely see institutions and their faculty innovate by using instructional technology portfolios to best serve their students. These portfolios will promote flexibility to address unique student needs while fostering educational communities in the face of student and faculty isolation.
I predict that the increasing ubiquity of online instruction and learning will continue post-pandemic, with institutions further harnessing its ability to support more flexible, equitable access to higher education, and credential completion.
BUT, my concomitant hope is that we can better bridge the digital divide by addressing lack of equitable access to the internet (including availability and affordability of broadband as well as access to adequate devices to connect to the internet).
My prediction for the new year is that some of the changes that we’ve seen in response to the pandemic will persist in some form after we’ve returned to a more normal time. Specifically, I am hearing from more and more faculty at my institution who are interested in retaining the benefits of some level of remote instruction for their classes. The positive side of this interest is that it can open a conversation about how best to integrate digital tools in a meaningful way.
The mass exposure of students and faculty to remote learning during the pandemic will accelerate the long-term enrollment growth of online learning. Even traditional students now expect a mix of online and in-person classes, and many faculty members previously indifferent or hostile to online learning have discovered they like it after all. This healthy new dynamic will largely offset on-campus enrollment losses, once again saving higher education from another potentially calamitous year.
I know WCET was probably looking for one grand prediction for higher education, but for my prediction I will focus on what leaders on campuses will wrestle with this year.
TL;DR…2021 is the year everyone starts to figure out what they are doing with online (again) at their institution.
In 2021, institutions will have to rethink their entire approach to online learning. I know, I know, you did that in 2020. But I mean REALLY RETHINK your ENTIRE approach to online learning.
Previously settled territory will have to be reassessed and renegotiated.
How are you defining online, web-enhanced, hybrid, remote, hybrid flex courses, and programs? How are you ascertaining if a course or program falls into any of those categories?
Are “online” courses and programs only asynchronous, always?
Are faculty required to work with an instructional designer for a course to qualify as an online course?
What quality assurance and accessibility reviews will you do?
Your strategy for resourcing and growing online at your institution needs to be audited. Online learning (really all learning technologies) is core to the institution now. We’ve proven that they are critical to the continuity of operations. Treat them as such. If you do not have an online strategy and a senior leadership role responsible for online, you need them.
That the skill set (and possibly role) of a ‘Learning Analyst’ will become more prominent as institutions amass, analyze, and make actionable more and more learning-level telemetry generated by the LMS and associated courseware.
Shannon Riggs, Executive Director of Academic Programs and Learning Innovation, Oregon State University Ecampus – WCET Steering Committee Vice Chair
I predict that experienced online educators will emerge more fully as leaders in higher education and will help to improve access to educational opportunity.
Tina Parscal, Associate Vice Chancellor for CCCOnline and Academic Affairs Colorado Community College System – WCET Steering Committee Chair
The emergency pivot to remote instruction in 2021 fostered some amazing innovations in digital learning. I predict we will see some exemplary effective practices in synchronous teaching and learning.
Tongue in cheek prediction…
I predict that 2021 will be a challenging year to make accurate predictions.
This past year demonstrated to all of us how digital learning can be more fully integrated into the fabric of higher education – not just on some campuses or in some programs or in continuing education. We all experienced it – the good, the bad, and the ugly – on some level. Going forward, I predict that colleges and universities are going to more effectively tap into the potential of effective distance education and hybrid models to not only to serve students in a period of continued uncertainty around the health crisis, but also to leverage dollars in a constrained fiscal environment, and importantly to reach students who have been left behind. I don’t envision a return to a pre-pandemic landscape, and my hope is that we take the hard lessons that we have learned and transform them into positive action. Now is our chance.
Russ Poulin, Executive Director, WCET and Vice President for Technology-Enhanced Education, WICHE
The conversation around the price (tuition, fees, and other expenses) that students pay for higher education and the ROI of that investment has only just begun. Parents, students, legislators, and the public are already questioning whether college is worth the investment. State legislators are weighing how to handle reduced appropriations in most states. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will release the Postsecondary Value Commission report later this spring. Additionally, students who decided to opt-out for a year or two due to the pandemic will wonder whether they should return. We, in digital learning, will find new ways to meet the student affordability challenge.
What are your predictions for 2021? Let us know here in the comments below or tweet them to us at @wcet_info.
Join us next week to chat about our hopes for the year!
Since the inauguration, we have been very focused on what Jed Bartlett would say is “what’s next?” WCET Frontiers will be publishing a great deal in the weeks to come about the priorities of the new Biden Administration. However, today we share a look back on the pre-inauguration activities of Congress and the Department of Education under the Trump administration that will affect “what’s next.” So, “Ginger, get the popcorn” as we share two late term items of the Trump administration which have higher education (especially with a digital or distance learning bent) impacts that will carry over into 2021.
New Spending Bill for the 2021 Federal Fiscal Year
Late in December, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 was passed by Congress and was then signed into law on December 27, 2020. The Act funds the Federal government for fiscal year 2021. The text of this act is a mere 5593 pages! This government funding bill includes higher education provisions such as simplification of the student financial aid application (FAFSA). Wide ranging funding allocations for higher education that affects distance education can be found under multiple provisions of the act, including support for broadband telecommunication in rural areas, aid to some military affiliated students, and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA). Page numbers are shared based upon the pages of the overall Appropriations Act pdf document.
Key funding provisions of note that affect distance education for higher education include:
Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband Program (p.61)
Grants for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas.
National Guard Distance Learning Project (p.338)
Chief of the National Guard Bureau may permit use of equipment on reimbursable basis with the amount of reimbursement established on a case-by-case basis as directed by the Chief of the National Guard Bureau.
Amounts collected by the reimbursement are to be put towards the National Guard Distance Learning Project and available to defray costs for use of equipment and such funds not subject to fiscal year limitations.
Veterans Affairs Funding Provisions in Response to Coronavirus (p.545)
Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to treat programs converted to distance learning due to the emergencies and health related situations the same as other education programs at educational institutions.
Includes for purposes of paying full housing allowance stipends for students in online-only courses due to institution pivot of face-to-face to online course delivery.
Note that this is not a permanent fix to veterans taking a fully online courseload getting only half of their housing allowance.
Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act 2021 (CRRSAA) (p.1823). – Specific for Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (p.1880)
Noteworthy difference from the Cares Act. The CRRSAA provides an allocated amount for students exclusively enrolled in distance education courses. (p. 1882-1883)
1% allocation based on FTE of Pell recipients who were exclusively enrolled in distance education courses prior to the qualifying emergency.
1% allocation based on total number of students who were Pell recipients and who were exclusively enrolled in distance education courses prior to the qualifying emergency.
$20.5 billion to public and non-profit colleges and universities.
$684 million to propriety schools.
Public and Non-profit institutions can use their awards for financial aid grants to students, student support activities, and to cover a variety of institutional costs including lost revenue, reimbursement for expenses already incurred, technology costs associated with a transition to distance education, faculty and staff trainings, and payroll.
Proprietary schools must use their awards exclusively for financial aid grants to students.
Allocated to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund II (HEERF II)
Other allocations in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 of note for higher education include:
District of Columbia – Federal Payment for Resident Tuition Support (p.545)
Eligible DC residents may receive funds to cover the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public institution of higher education, or students my receive $2500 each year to attend an eligible private institution.
Awarding of funds may be prioritized based upon academic merit and need.
Historically Black College and University – Capital Financing Program Account (p.1050)
To subsidize loan principals for loans to support HBCUs.
For deferment of loans to eligible HBCU’s based upon need and financial responsibility score of 2.6 or less.
The funding provisions highlighted above will be administered by various Federal agencies including the Department of Education. We anticipate additional information and additional COVID-19 relief packages to be announced in the next few weeks under the new administration.
Back in September 2006, which was the second term of the George W. Bush administration, the Department of Education released Dear Colleague Letter GEN-06-17 addressing accreditation requirements for institutions that participate in Title IV Federal financial aid programs and offer distance education programs. The guidance included a four-page letter that was sent to institutions that the Department had identified as having a primary accrediting agency that did not have distance education within its scope of recognition. This particular Dear Colleague Letter is identified on the Department website as “Maintained for Historical Purposes Only.”
Fast forward to August 31, 2020, the Secretary of the Department of Education announced in the Federal Register that the previously mentioned letter was being rescinded because it was one of several documents that were found to be outdated after conducting a review of previous guidance as directed by an Executive Order.
New Guidance on Accreditation and Eligibility Requirements for Distance Education was released by the Department on January 19, 2021. You will note that this guidance was released on the last full day of the previous administration. The guidance is addressed to accrediting agencies and institutions with current requirements for institutional eligibility for distance education. Note, the new release indicates that the requirements are waived until after the national emergency regarding the pandemic is lifted.
The guidance is provided within a document attached to the announcement titled: Department of Education Guidance on Accreditation and Eligibility Requirements for Distance Education. The key focus of this new guidance is to address that the previous view of a 50% threshold related to distance education in regard to participation in Title IV, HEA programs was in conflict with current Federal regulation, 34 CFR 668.8(m).
The now-rescinded previous guidance indicated that institutions were required to be evaluated or approved by an accrediting agency with distance education in its scope of recognition, if the institution offered more than 50% of its courses by distance education, enrolled more than 50% of its students in distance education, or offered more than 50% of its educational programs by distance education. However, for purposes of participation in Title IV HEA programs, 34 CFR 668.8(m), the effective regulation, directs that an institution that offers a program in whole or in part through telecommunications (the old term for distance education that is used in this current regulation), that the program must be accredited by an agency that has accreditation of distance education within its scope of recognition. So, this current regulation requires accreditation approval of an institution if as little as one program is offered at a distance.
The new guidance directs that before an institution offers “any” distance education programs eligible for Title IV, the institution is required to be evaluated and accredited by an agency recognized to review distance education for effective delivery of distance education. After approval by the accrediting agency, an institution may offer distance education programs without the need for further approval, unless delivery of a program exceeds 50% by distance education or the institution delivers more than 50% of its programs through the distance education modality. This 50% threshold, as directed by Federal regulation 34 CFR 602.22(a)(1)(ii)(C), would cause the institution to seek a substantive change though the institution’s accrediting agency.
Guidance to the accrediting agencies reminds accrediting agencies that Federal regulation 34 CFR 602.27(a)(4) provides the process for an accrediting agency to add distance education to its scope of recognition. Upon written notification from the Department, distance education will be added to the agencies scope of recognition.
One should note that Department guidance is not binding and does not carry the force and effect of law. The guidance is meant to provide clarity and the viewpoint of the Department when applying the regulations. Unless changed by legislation (or an incoming administration), this guidance indicates the expectations to which accrediting agencies and institutions will be held.
So, What’s Next?
So, how might this affect you and what should you do about it?
Institutions should be aware and be prepared after the national pandemic emergency to ensure that their distance education programs are properly reviewed and accredited by an appropriate accreditation agency. Some accrediting agencies are no longer using the approval waivers provided by the Department and are holding institutions to pre-pandemic standards as much as possible.
Regarding higher education financial support, institutions may wish to seek further information to ensure that they may avail themselves of the various appropriations.
Stay tuned, because as of this writing, news reports indicate that higher education groups are asking for almost $100 billion more in coronavirus relief and the White House is aiming for another COVID relief package to be passed by Mid-March. We will keep you informed!
Having started with some West Wing quotes, I will close with one of my favorites that I used at a recent workshop: “Every time we think we’ve measured our capacity to reach a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that capacity may well be limitless.”
We are encountering many challenges and changes right now, but we will all continue to adapt, adjust, create, and innovate to support students. WCET will be there to report, analyze, and assist as we watch the direction, executive actions, and announcements from the Biden Administration.
For much of 2020, the pandemic had us trapped in Blursday…the nagging feeling of déjà vu that one day is very much like every other. If you’re like me, you probably expect to wake up each morning to “I’ve Got You Babe” playing on the radio as happened in the film Groundhog’s Day.
https://youtu.be/OyBSrBqogPY
Even with the repetition, I experienced a nagging, aching feeling. There is something that not only have we not done every day, but we have barely done at all. What we have missed is that we have not properly celebrated the digital learning heroes who simply saved colleges from the pandemic. They were there when higher education and its students needed them.
Beginning last March and through the start of the current term, we have witnessed selfless acts dedicated to continuing learning. To achieve these heroic acts required faculty and staff to work endless hours and exhibit amazing creativity…all of this often in a very short window of time.
We all have heard (or are) of examples, such as:
Instructional designers trying to support many times the number of faculty they normally do.
Experienced online faculty mentoring their colleagues in how to succeed in a remote setting.
IT staff having to find computers and internet access for hundreds to thousands of students without proper access.
Student services personnel assuring that students had access to all the administrative, health, mental health, and financial support services that they needed.
In 2021, we should pause for a second to appreciate the miracle of what happened last year.
We Invite You to Honor Those Heroes and Share Their Stories During Groundhog’s Week.
We want to hear stories of WCET Members who went above and beyond to continue instruction and support services. By February 5th (the week of Groundhog’s Day), share with us….
A story of no more than 500 words describing the heroic actions of colleague or unit.
You may nominate an institution, an organization, a unit, a team, or an individual person. While we’d love to hear stories about how your dogs, cats, and other pets have supported you, they unfortunately won’t be eligible for the prizes below. Nominee must be a current WCET member.
Want to volunteer with your Cooperative? Please email us at wcetinfo@wiche.edu if you’d like to volunteer as a judge.
Winners will:
Receive a digital WOW Award to display electronically on your website.
Be featured in a post on WCET Frontiers.
Be showcased as a Digital Learning Hero in WCET’s community platform, wcetMIX.
Receive free registration for the 2021 WCET Annual Meeting for up to three staff members.
As you read last week in Frontiers, my colleague Mollie McGill has retired after 32 years of dedicated service to WCET. Mollie wore many hats at WCET, including directing membership. With her exit, I’ve been gifted her metaphorically huge shoes to fill. I’m honored to be the interface between members and WCET. In the 14 years I’ve been with the organization, I’ve connected with our nearly 400 member organizations through events, programs, and sponsorship. I look forward to meeting more of our members and bringing new members into the WCET fold of digital learning leaders and practitioners.
We have some exciting things in store for members in 2021! Here’s a glimpse of what is to come.
Starting this year, we will also be using MIX to house all of our member only content and resources. All current members will be auto-added to our platform so they can access this new content. This content will include guides around important topics, recordings of interviews and member only webcasts, how-tos, and more!
For 2021 we have some wonderful new programming coming. Each month we will focus on a specific topic theme, beginning with Hyflex Learning and Lifelong Learning. The themes will have exclusive resources available in MIX including invitations to “Closer Conversation” virtual chats, “Closer Look” guides on various topics, and discussions. Webcasts and blogs will also be developed and available to everyone.
“Closer Conversation” chats are the evolution of previous “dinner parties” and are loosely organized discussions lead by experts and practitioners. All members are invited, and live participation is available for up 50 people. Stay tuned to WCETNews where the topics and dates will be announced.
“Closer Look” guides will be handy topic overviews with video summaries from experts, equity and accessibility considerations, and nuts and bolts guidance.
MIX discussions around the key topics will be a forum for participation asynchronously. Members will be able to share their lessons-learned, advice, and ask questions. Often, a topic expert will participate and answer your questions.
More on 2021 Themes
Although WCET will continue to provide content, programs, and events around digital learning issues, including policy implications, the following themes will guide the first quarter’s member-community resources and discussions:
February – Black History Month & Addressing Burnout (personal, staff, and student burnout).
March – International Women’s Day & Women in Tech #ChooseToChallenge.
April – Scenario Planning & Budget Implications.
What other topics would you like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments below or contact us at wcetinfo@wiche.edu.
Other Community Improvements
WCET will soon be piloting unmoderated posts and replies in the MIX community WCETDiscuss. Community is a vital part of our lives amidst the challenges of the pandemic and remote work and learning, creating more opportunities for interaction and engagement should help facilitate interaction and information exchange.
We invite you to view information in the FAQs about MIX to help you manage digest settings and email frequency, sign-up additional members, and tips for participation. We recently released our new tutorial videos to help you learn all about MIX! Each Tuesday in our WCET Weekly Update we also send out a weekly MIX tip to help you learn more about the platform.
WCET Team
In the New Year, I wanted to take a moment to also introduce the entire WCET Team, we have a small but highly knowledgeable and responsive crew. Get to know us and let us know how we can help you navigate the opportunities and challenges in 2021.
On December 31, 2020, our beloved Mollie McGill ended 32 years of serving WICHE, WCET, and their members. Mollie embarks on a well-deserved retirement. Unfortunately, the pandemic limited our ability to have a blow-out bash for her, in person. We have had several surprise honors for her with unexpected “voices from the past” suddenly appearing in our Zoom meetings.
Mollie grew up in the Kansas City area in a big Irish Catholic family. After a stint in the Los Angeles area, she joined her sister in Boulder, CO. Even though her sister eventually moved on, she fell in love with the area and stayed ever since.
Seeking employment, she earned an entry level job with the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). Demi Michelau, WICHE President, figured out that in the same year:
Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, performed the rare feat of defeating an incumbent President.
The Apple Computer Company was formed.
“Rocky” was popular in the theaters.
Russ Poulin appeared on the TV quiz show “It’s Academic!”
At WICHE, Mollie worked successfully on several projects and was elevated to the role of executive assistant to the WICHE executive director, as the leader was then titled. In a recent video session, Holly Zanville (who just left the Lumina Foundation) recalled her days at WICHE. Holly was named to head a new project and needed help. She could tell that Mollie had skills and potential well beyond her current role. The executive director initially denied the request to move Mollie, but Holly would not be daunted. Together they created what came to be known as the “Holly and Mollie Show” as they toured the western states. This is all part of Mollie’s progress of upward professional mobility with help from a great colleague.
Holly and Mollie also recalled a loose coalition of workers who dubbed themselves the “WICHE Women.” They had buttons with that phrase on it and they displayed lots of mojo. Prior to the pandemic restrictions, many of the group members were still meeting for lunches.
The Founding of WCET
In the mid-80s, the WICHE Commissioners had the idea to share information about the increased use of telecommunications to offer learning across great distances. In that pre-internet world, courses were offered via phone, satellite, recordings, public television, local microwave, two-way analog or digital video, and other means. To learn more, see the WCET pre-history from Ray Lewis.
While many were experimenting with different tools, there was no single, good answer. It made sense to learn about all of the different ideas from those testing them. The WICHE Commissioners sought to facilitate information sharing among the states. WICHE’s deputy director, Dick Jonsen, picked Mollie to help develop (what was originally called) the Western Regional Telecommunications Cooperative. In 1987 – 89, Mollie and Dick traveled to each state to conduct meetings to ascertain the viability of such an organization.
Mollie at the 2010 WCET Annual Meeting
David Lassner (now President of the University of Hawai’i) recently recalled that he was the new guy on staff at the University at that time. He organized the initial meeting in his state and convinced the leadership that it was a good idea to join. Not only did David serve on the first WCET Steering Committee, but he also recalled how he, Mollie, and Charlotte Farr led the dancing contingent at Annual Meetings. I, wisely, stayed clear.
The idea for the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (as it was then called) was catching fire. At our first meeting, Oklahoma (a non-WICHE state) came to petition to be allowed to participate. That was the beginning of WCET growing to having members in all fifty states, even though currently only about one-third of them are in WICHE states.
My Personal Recollections
Like David, I was selected to plan the organizational meeting in North Dakota. Although I’m sure that the near-zero temperatures for the Bismarck meeting was much colder than those at the Hawai’i convening.
Through this process, I met Mollie. We were on the phone several times. We connected because we were both planning weddings in the near future. She invited me to observe the Montana meeting for pointers on how we might run our own. I still recall being in the hotel in Helena having breakfast. This small bundle-of-energy entered the room. Although I’d never seen her picture, I said to myself: “that’s Mollie.” And it was her.
Sally Johnstone served as the founding director of WCET, providing the inspiration, vision, and leadership to make it happen. Mollie was the assistant director and was the cosmic force that everyone came to know well. She always had a smile and a warm greeting for all.
Sally and Mollie invited me to come be the fourth staff member with Dale Cracraft (running meetings and operations….and a character in her own right) being the third. It was great to move back to my home of Colorado for what was only an 18-month contract. Working with Sally and Mollie on something new was very enticing.
As expected, it was a joy working with Mollie. In one of our recent recognition sessions, I said: “Mollie is everyone’s friend.” That’s a great colleague to have on your team.
Imagine my chagrin when, a few years later, Mollie announced that she was leaving to work for the University of Colorado System. Of course, she went there to demonstrate her excellence and was named “Administrator of the Year.” Meanwhile, Mollie and I would stay in touch and would sometimes have lunch at Carelli’s in Boulder.
Mollie Named Administrator of the Year in the University of Colorado System.
She couldn’t stay away and, after about a decade, she returned as WCET’s membership guru. It was great to have her back. As Sally Johnstone observed recently, “Mollie is the soul of WCET.”
Recognizing Mollie
It is exceedingly difficult to properly thank someone who gave so much in the creation, the foundation, and the success of our organization. Here’s what we did:
The Gnorman Award
Gnorman the gnome is a traveling award that goes to WCET staff for outstanding work.
We gave Mollie a larger, scholarly-looking version of Gnorman that she can keep for all time.
WICHE and WCET Painting
Local artist Anne Gifford has painted several landscapes of Boulder and Colorado in all seasons. One of her paintings hangs near the office of WICHE President Demi Michelau. We knew Mollie liked the painting and we decided to get one for her. However, Mollie liked it so much that she started inquiring about it. Both Demi’s office and our staff “forgot” who painted it or “lost” the name of the painter. Being her resilient self, Mollie found it for us and we were worried that she would buy one.
Back when we could congregate, Demi and Russ presented a commemorative painting to Mollie.
Once it was ready, Demi and I organized a lunch at the St. Julian Hotel. We picked because it is expensive, has good food, and few people go there, especially with no one traveling. This made social distancing easy.
The inscription on the painting:
Mollie McGill 32 years at WICHE and WCET You brought energy to WICHE and life to WCET. Wishing you boundless energy and the joy of life in retirement.
The 2020 Richard Jonsen Award
Mollie with her 2020 Richard Jonsen Award Plaque
The Richard Jonsen Award is “given each year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the elearning community and WCET during his or her career.”
It has never before been given to an existing staff member.
During one of our surprise Zoom meetings in December, we were very glad to present Mollie with the award.
We were separated, so she did not get the actual award (or the gnome) until later.
And a “New” Award
The 2020 Richard Jonsen Award is the last of its kind. We asked Dick Jonsen if he would be willing to share billing with Mollie, just as he shared time traveling with her to every WICHE state so many years ago. He agreed upon one condition…”no one knows who the hell Richard Jonsen is, so you need to change my name to Dick Jonsen.”
Your wish is granted. In the future, the award will be known as the:
Dick Jonsen & Mollie McGill Award
A great recognition to the duo who performed much work to make this Cooperative a reality.
Congratulations Mollie!!!
Share your Memories and Well Wishes
We have created a padlet for everyone to share their memories of Mollie and to wish her well in retirement. So that she knows who the comment is from, be sure to login or put your name at the bottom of the post. While you are there, take a look at the kind thoughts shared by others.
What’s Next?
Mollie is not sure what interests she will pursue. She will continue volunteering and mentoring a young girl she was paired with through a local program. She does plan to improve her French, in which she was fluent as a youngster, and spend some time in France. She will spend some time with her twin sons, who currently work in Colorado ski country. Lindsey hopes she’ll visit the one-person WCET office in Montana at some point.
And we will certainly seek her advice. Megan Raymond assumes Mollie’s membership duties and has been trying to download 30+ years of knowledge and wisdom. We might not have accessed it all.
Given her personality and dynamism, she is sure to make a mark with whatever she tries next.
For WCET staff and members…
We miss her already. We have shed tears of sadness and of joy. We will remember her fondly. We can’t thank her enough.
Congratulations Mollie. We will miss you…but we have your phone number.
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