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Imagine, for a moment, if America’s thousands of accredited colleges and universities mustered the willpower and coordination to simultaneously go on strike. Theoretically, it could never happen. Yet in Israel, presidents of the country’s eight research universities implemented precisely that strategy this week. Following the government’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the continuation of its judicial overhaul plan , the universities decided to halt classes and instruction beginning on Monday morning. In doing so, Israel’s higher education system joined the unprecedented stand confronting the threats to the foundations of our nation’s democracy—and many might say that, in light of the government delaying its judicial overhaul legislation , our actions actually worked. We called on the prime minister and members of the governing coalition to stop the legislation and immediately enter talks for the purpose of reaching an agreed-upon, broad outline for more sensible

Blog:  Higher Ed Gamma Nothing goes out of date faster than a scholarly history book.   This is, of course, a terrible shame.  It not only leads junior scholars to disregard earlier scholarship and attempt to reinvent the wheel, but it means that alternate methodologies, sources, and conceptual and interpretive frameworks are often considered out-of-date and are therefore overlooked. A quarter century ago, Harvey J. Graff, a leading historian of literacy, published a fascinating study of the trajectories that American youth in four distinct historical eras navigated as they made the tangled transition to adulthood.   Conflicting Paths , which drew upon some 500 published and unpublished autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and personal letters to capture the subjective experience of young people as they matured, underscored the uncertainties, confusions, and challenges the young encountered in their divergent paths to adulthood.  Biases in the extant first-person sources lim

Blog:  Learning Innovation Dr. Kelly Heuer and I have been collaborating in the context of my college’s portfolio of online programs on the edX platform. In our work together, I’ve been impressed with Kelly’s understanding of academic culture paired with her deep expertise in learning science. Kelly graciously agreed to answer my questions about her alternative academic (alt-ac) journey from Philosophy to edtech. Q1. Your PhD is in Philosophy. How did you end up at edX? I studied philosophy at Harvard and Georgetown University, with every intention of becoming a lifelong academic. But my first academic position—a postdoctoral fellowship at Georgetown—put me on a direct collision course with the world of edtech. My fellowship was focused on helping to design and launch a MOOC on edX ( Introduction to Bioethics ). The project was fast-paced, experience-driven, and impact-focused. It was a real contrast with some of my previous academic work, and I absolutely loved it. I wi

Many students worry about succeeding in gateway college-level mathematics courses needed to enter most community college degree and certificate programs. Their concern is not surprising given that gateway courses in math have traditionally had some of the highest failure and withdrawal rates at colleges, particularly for first-generation students and students receiving Pell Grants . Gateway courses in general—including college algebra or English in the general education curriculum—are courses that allow students to advance in their majors (such as Introduction to Business in business administration or first-year chemistry or biology in allied health fields). But even these courses can be gatekeepers—rather than gateways—and lead many students to stop out. For example, students who have nearly earned enough credits for a degree cite never getting past gateway courses in mathematics and science as a crucial factor in leaving school. At the same time, succeeding in these courses cor

Blog:  Just Visiting When I wrote the proposal for the book that would become  The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing , I described it as an alternative to the text  They Say/I Say  by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein for a couple of reasons. One was that  They Say/I Say  had sold several million copies and is one of the most widely used textbooks – regardless of subject – and publishers like to know that there is a potential market for a book before they decide to publish it.  Another reason was because my sincere intention was to write a text that served as an alternative to  They Say/I Say . I had used  They Say/I Say  as a text in my own first-year writing courses and while I liked its overall framing of academic writing as being part of a “conversation,” my experience with utilizing the templates in  They Say/I Say  revealed what I felt were some shortcomings around transfer of knowledge from one writing occasion to another, and helping

Blog:  Higher Ed Gamma As psychological anthropologist Nat Kendall-Taylor  recently noted , When the College Board revised the draft African American studies curriculum, it removed the word “systemic.”  The result: To discourage students from learning and thinking “critically about the connection between the design of our institutions and the uneven way in which opportunity and resources are meted out in America.” Among the lessons that recent protests should have made patently clear is that social, economic, political, and cultural systems and institutions can perpetuate and reinforce inequalities, regardless of the intentions or beliefs of individuals within those systems.  Thus, racial and class bias can be embedded in the policies, practices, and norms of institutions and organizations, and can result in unequal access to opportunities, resources, and power for individuals and groups. Systemic and structural bias are often manifest in disparities in education, healthcar

The University of California has proposed, for the first time, a guaranteed admission plan for all qualified community college students, but the plan applies to the UC system, not individual campuses. So students would be assured of a spot in the system, but not on a particular campus, The Los Angeles Times reported. Community college students would need to complete a new unified set of general education courses required by both UC and the California State University System, complete specific coursework needed for their intended majors, and earn a minimum grade-point average. Those who are not admitted to their campuses of choice would be offered a spot at UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced or UC Riverside. The proposal comes amid a debate over another plan for community college transfer to the University of California, Los Angeles. That plan, from Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, calls for UCLA to create a guaranteed transfer pathway for community college students or forfeit a chunk of

The growing demand for online learning isn’t new, but it’s here to stay. From 2012 to 2019, pre-pandemic, the percentage of students enrolled in at least one distance education course increased from 25.5 to 36.3 percent . And the number enrolled exclusively in such courses increased by almost a third, from 2.6 million to 3.4 million students . With new enrollment and student and faculty survey data emerging every day, the more recent and significant growth in demand may have more sticking power than many anticipated, especially as systems and individual institutions aim to diversify revenue streams, distinguish themselves from market competition and pursue curricular innovation to align with evolving student needs and preferences. Although distance education has long been perceived by some as inferior in quality, more than half of American adults surveyed in 2022 believe that the quality of online instruction in higher education is the same as—or better than—in-person instruction,

Blog:  Learning Innovation All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia by Simon Garfield Published in February of 2023. The only time that I ever worked outside of higher education was when I worked for Encyclopædia Britannica. If you are interested, that story is detailed in a blog post I wrote in 2010.  My professional connection to Britannica is why I couldn’t wait to read Simon Garfield’s new book All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia. I recommend All the Knowledge in the World to even those who never worked for an encyclopedia company. Anyone fascinated by the origins, evolution, and ultimate mortality of print encyclopedias will love this book. Wikipedia enthusiasts, from casual consumers to dedicated contributors, will also gain much from reading the book. While I am confident that my experience working for Britannica makes me biased, I have long believed that those of us in higher educati