Practice
Writing the Next Chapter: Distance Learning in the American Higher Ed Story
Published by: WCET | 8/6/2026
By Van L. Davis, Ph.D. As America marks its semiquincentennial, it’s leading me to reflect on its 1976 bicentennial. One of my enduring childhood memories is of the Freedom Train that traveled around the United States, carrying various historical documents, including George Washington’s personal copy of the Constitution, a replica of the Liberty Bell, and […]
Practice
When the LMS Goes Dark: Rethinking Contingency Planning in Higher Ed
Published by: WCET | 8/4/2026
By Betsy Piland When hackers took Canvas offline in May, institutions quickly learned that “too big to fail” was not a contingency plan. Cynthia Pascal, Northern Virginia Community College’s Associate Vice President of eLearning, detailed a scenario that will sound familiar to hundreds of institutions across higher ed: a ransomware attack that came at the […]
Practice
AI is Reshaping Digital Learner Behaviors and Expectations
Published by: WCET | 7/10/2026
By Dr. Tekoya Boykins There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence has already changed how people work, access information, and develop new skills, but it is essential for those of us working in higher education to understand that it is also changing learners’ expectations. Risepoint’s 2026 Voice of the Online Learner report suggests that AI is […]
Practice
A Historian and Accidental Technologist’s View of Higher Education’s AI Moment
Published by: WCET | 7/2/2026
By Van L. Davis, Ph.D. Hi, I’m Van, and I’m an accidental technologist. (A what? I know. Just stick with me.) The first time I encountered the internet, I was sitting at a terminal in Vanderbilt University’s computer science building, which still housed the mainframe. It was the early ’90s, and I used that terminal to log into the National Archives and pull up the text […]
Practice
Supporting the Whole Online Learner: Innovative Approaches to Student Behavioral Health and Well-Being
Published by: WCET | 6/29/2026
By Karly Dickinson, Psy.D. When we talk about supporting online learners, we’re quick to focus on course design, technology, and academic support services—and rightfully so! Those are all critical aspects of a successful digital learning experience. But those students are more than just learners logging into an LMS. They are employees, caregivers, military service members, […]
Practice
Students Aren’t Just Learning With AI—They’re Leaning on It
Published by: WCET | 6/18/2026
By Ashleigh Golden, PsyD, MSCP, Chief Clinical Officer, Wayhaven; Adjunct Clinical Faculty, Stanford Medicine Tens of millions of people across the U.S. and Canada are turning to general-purpose AI for help with anxiety, decisions, loneliness, grief, and the general overwhelm of being human. A meaningful share of those people are college and university students, many […]
Practice
Report: Online Students and Faculty are Aligned on GenAI Use
Published by: WCET | 6/11/2026
By Mary Ellen Dello Stritto, PhD, and Naomi Aguiar, PhD You’ve likely heard that students and faculty are on opposing sides in their perceptions of how generative AI (GenAI) tools are used in higher education. These narratives are based on assumptions and stem from personal stories or any number of recently published opinion pieces. To […]
Practice
What the Canvas Cyberattack Revealed About Higher Education’s Digital Dependence
Published by: WCET | 6/4/2026
It is not lost on me that the very thing that we often contingency plan around is now in need of its own contingency planning. Online learning, with the LMS at the center of it, is what we turn to in times of extreme disruption, whether that be a global pandemic, a wildfire, or an extreme weather event like a hurricane. What do we do when the LMS fails?
Practice
Building Internal Capacity: How the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Moved Beyond Its Online Program Manager
Published by: WCET | 5/14/2026
Authored by Rae Mancilla, EdD, Executive Director of University Digital Education; Natalie Baney, MBA, Executive Director of Digital Enrollment; Anthony Delitto, PhD, Associate Provost of Digital Education; and University of Pittsburgh Center for Excellence in Digital Education (Pitt EDGE). Institutional Tradeoffs of Outsourcing the Online Enterprise Institutions of higher education have faced mounting fiscal pressures […]
Practice
Online Education Has Come a Long Way—So Why Do the Myths Persist?
Published by: WCET | 5/7/2026
A recent Washington Post article about online education, competency-based education, and accelerated degree programs elicited the comments you might expect. I lost count of those decrying such programs as degree mills. Not surprising. We continue to see a general misunderstanding of online education—even though the majority of students today are enrolled in at least one […]