Best collection of e-Learning articles, e-Learning concepts, e-Learning software, & resources.

Blog:  Learning Innovation The 9.9 Percent: The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture by Matthew Stewart Published in October of 2021. Matthew Stewart, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, makes three big arguments in The 9.9 Percen t. First, Stewart situates America’s extreme and expanding levels of income and wealth inequality as the fundamental determinant of political polarization and extremism, the health and healthcare crisis, and our looming climate change driven environmental catastrophe. Second, Stewart blames our increasingly stratified society not on the very wealthy but on the 9.9 percent of professionals that benefit from and maintain the economic status quo. Third, the proper arenas to combat runaway stratification are politics and policies that benefit workers rather than wealthy investors. Some definitions: If your total net worth ranges somewhere between $1.2 and $20 million, you are in the top 9.9

Image:  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill continues to make history in its treatment of Black people. This month, the university won (at the district court level) a federal suit challenging its use of affirmative action to admit students. The judge in the case ruled the university was appropriately considering students’ races in making admissions decision. But in the spring, the university declined to award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones , an acclaimed New York Times journalist. The university said she could come to the university without tenure -- even though past holders of the chair she would have assumed had been awarded tenure. Hannah-Jones is Black; the board members ruling on her tenure case were white. The university eventually relented on offering her tenure, but Hannah-Jones took another job, at Howard University. Most of Getta N. Kapur’s new book -- To Drink From the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation’s Oldest Public University -

Image:  Some U.S.-based scientists are withdrawing from collaborations with Chinese scientists due to concerns such engagements could attract scrutiny from federal prosecutors, according to a new survey finding evidence that the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative is having a chilling effect on scientific research. A growing number of scientific groups and civil rights organizations have raised alarms over the past year about what they see as racial profiling of scholars under the China Initiative, a Department of Justice program launched by the Trump administration. Ostensibly aimed at targeting economic espionage and trade-secret theft, the initiative has fueled unprecedented scrutiny of researchers’ scientific ties to China. About a dozen university-based academics have been charged under the initiative for fraud-related charges, typically based on accusations they lied about Chinese affiliations or funding sources on federal grant applications or other federal

Image:  Speaking to a packed ballroom at the 2021 Educause annual conference on Wednesday, Susan Grajek, Educause vice president for partnerships, communities and research, unveiled the list of this year’s top 10 IT issues in higher education . The trends were selected based on feedback from several IT expert panelists at colleges around the world and included how universities can better develop infrastructure and workforce skills to secure data and supply chains, how to hasten digital transformation to improve operational efficiency, how to ensure faculty have the required digital fluency to effectively engage students, and how to best create a blended campus that effectively balances digital and brick-and-mortar priorities. Grajek told the crowd that panelists’ work was motivated by their desire to help move institutions from “the higher education we had to the higher education we deserve.” In the coming years, it will be increasingly important for colleges to “democra

Image:  The White House and Democratic lawmakers unveiled Thursday the latest iteration of President Biden’s social spending plan -- which includes a total of $40 billion in higher education and workforce development investments -- with hopes that the substantially smaller package than originally proposed will finally garner enough support to pass Congress. Though tuition-free community college -- the original centerpiece of Biden’s college affordability agenda -- was cut from the legislation during negotiations, the now $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act includes several wins for higher education -- albeit, smaller wins than hoped for. Notably, the bill increases the current maximum Pell Grant award of $6,495 by $550, slightly more than what was originally proposed. If that’s combined with the proposed $400 increase to the award through the appropriations process, the purchasing power of the Pell Grant would be boosted from covering 29 percent of tuition, fees and room a

Image:  Earlier this month, Scottsdale Community College hired a professional photographer to take photos of Indigenous students, staff and faculty in their native dress. One image shows student Rozin Kiona Herrera wearing a men’s ribbon shirt, a cotton or linen shirt with colorful ribbons appliquéd or sewn into the seams, which is a symbol of Native pride. In another photo, student Diondra Descheenie wears traditional Navajo woman’s outfit, consisting of moccasins, a pleated velvet or cotton skirt, a matching long-sleeve blouse, a concho or sash belt, and jewelry. The photos, displayed online, are part of the Arizona college’s annual “My Culture Is Not a Costume” campaign, designed in part to teach students how to dress with cultural sensitivity when they celebrate Halloween. Located on the land of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the institution has deep ties to the local population. “​​I think our big thing is, and I was trying to share this not just with st

Blog:  Confessions of a Community College Dean On a Zoom with some friends around the country this week, the conversation turned to childcare. We all work at community colleges, and we all see the same dilemma. There is a desperate need for childcare if we want folks to get back to work. Good childcare at scale requires training. Most daycare facilities pay their workers terribly. Points 1 and 2 would seem to argue for pouring resources into growing early childhood education programs. Point 3 would seem to argue for shutting them down. That makes no sense. The childcare dilemma isn’t new in America. When TB was little, we used to spend $250 a week in 2002 money (about $380 per week, or about $20,000 per year in after-tax dollars, in 2021 money) for his daycare. That was more than in-state tuition at Rutgers, and there’s no financial aid for daycare. When TG was born, we did the math and realized that we’d have to effectively sign over TW’s entire paycheck for daycare.

The California state Legislature approved $5 million in additional funding for the Los Angeles Community College District to sustain programs that promote academic success for African American students at California community colleges, according to an announcement from the college district Tuesday. The programs, offered through an education organization called Umoja, offer resources to affiliated California community colleges to help them provide culturally responsive pedagogy and community for Black students. “Equity is at the heart of everything we do at LACCD, and there is no better way to ensure that than by making sure valuable programs like Umoja are adequately funded,” Steve Veres, president of the community college district Board of Trustees, said in a press release. “This additional funding from the legislature allows us to invest in long-term planning that will make sure Umoja programs are here as a student resource for many years to come.” Francisco C. Rodriguez, chanc

A growing number of major research universities have announced COVID-19 vaccination mandates for employees in recent days, in light of President Joe Biden’s order mandating vaccination for employees of federal contractors. The mandate is broadly framed , covering all employees -- including student employees -- who work on or in connection with a federal contract, or who may potentially come in contact with a covered employee, such as in shared dining areas, parking garages or common areas such as meeting rooms, elevators and stairways. Major research universities that have announced vaccine mandates for employees in recent days in order to comply with the Biden rule mandating COVID-19 vaccination for federal contractors include: Auburn University, in Alabama East Carolina University, in North Carolina Georgia State University Georgia Institute of Technology Kansas State University North Carolina State University Rutgers University, in New Jersey The University of Alabama

Voter turnout among college students jumped to a record high of 66 percent in the 2020 presidential election, according to a new report from the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education . That was 14 percent higher than college student turnout in the 2016 election, the report found, and just a shade lower than the national rate of 67 percent for all voters in 2020, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The student "yield" rate -- the rate at which students who registered to vote actually cast their ballots -- hit 80 percent, which the report called "an important milestone and signal that they are vested in their own futures and the health of democracy." In 2016, the yield rate was 60 percent. Other data found that younger students outvoted older ones, with those aged 18 to 21 voting at higher rates than the 30-and-over crowd. The report, which analyzed voting records from nearly 1,200 campuses, noted that students were motivated to vote; 97 percent of ca

The Department of Education has deferred its decision on whether to continue recognizing the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, as it announced Thursday the recognition status of nine accrediting agencies. A decision will be made on the renewal of recognition for ACCSC -- an agency that predominantly accredits for-profit career institutions and has come under fire for approving institutions with poor student outcomes -- once it submits further information about its monitoring, evaluation and actions related to high-risk institutions, according to the department. ACCSC was at the center of the debate among members of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity during its July meeting, at which the advisory committee broke from the department in recommending that a senior department official renew ACCSC’s federal recognition for three years. The department also notified three other agencies -- the Accreditation Commission for Acupunct