The world has entered a new era of blended remote and in-person interaction. This new approach has removed boundaries of distance and time. People are more facile with--though some would say burned out by--Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other virtual meeting platforms. This digital revolution has brought educators greater power to engage and…

The shift to online learning has challenged instructors to create courses that are as engaging online as they are in person. As many faculty prepare for online learning again this fall, open educational resources (OER) can be part of the solution to help students stay safe and be successful. OER are free and openly licensed online teaching and…

With the growing number of colleges moving to online learning, the author has been asked: Can online learning incorporate trauma-responsive strategies? The short answer is yes. Current events, including the lack of an endpoint in terms of the pandemic, have heightened the stress that students, faculty and staff will feel when colleges and…

For the past several decades, student engagement has been an increasingly popular subject of research in higher education. The conversation around engagement has become even more critical in in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as institutions navigate a rapid shift to remote learning. A body of research indicates that an approach to…

Students choose small liberal arts colleges for the learning that unfolds when they are deeply immersed in intellectual collaboration with faculty and with one another. The photos that festoon promotional materials are not mere marketing--students spend a lot of time with one another in close quarters. Faculty and staff are truly invested in…

The opening of brick-and-mortar colleges and universities in fall 2020 will present a challenge due to the absence of a vaccine for COVID-19. With the reality of COVID-19 in mind, can we imagine clustering students, faculty and staff in residence halls, small classrooms, lecture halls and offices in fall 2020? What if COVID-19 flares up on…

The majority of college students were largely disappointed by remote learning this past spring, with many reporting a strong preference for in-person instruction. Bearing in mind the low expectations that many students carried into online courses this fall, what advice can be given to help them succeed in this final month? As colleges across New…

Post-baccalaureate education has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of higher education. Over the past decade, master's degree enrollment in the U.S. has grown 35%--and the share of adults that hold a master's degree has gone from less than 7% to nearly 9% of the population. Keeping the supply and demand dynamics of basic economic…

This article begins with the following pitch:"Without having to miss out on fun, just outsource your test to us, an expert will take it and you will get the awesome grade that you deserve. All at prices you will not believe. How does that sound?" For years, students have been reporting anonymously having cheated and plagiarized--more…

In a historic unanimous vote on May 20, 2015, the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education welcomed College Unbound as a degree-granting postsecondary option in the state, designed to serve the more than 110,000 Rhode Island adults who began but did not complete bachelor's degrees. The college is the adult-learning initiative of Big Picture…

Previously, this author had suggested that a gradual redistribution was occurring across American higher education, especially among adult learners. Local hegemony was at risk, as online interlopers, increasingly from top tier universities and other academic behemoths, offered students choice they never had before without having to relocate. A…

Many countries are challenged by the need to build both capacity and quality simultaneously in order to meet the accelerating needs of their society. Should what already exists be renovated, or should new institutions be created? Innovate from within or from without? Or perhaps some combination of both? In the U.S., postsecondary…

As online education becomes more ubiquitous nationally, it becomes even more strategic locally on each college campus. Some higher education institutions have been more dynamic and decisive, and others paralyzed to act. The very balance of academic power--as measured by enrollments, institutional reach and public awareness-- has begun to shift…

In April 2013, the "New England Journal of Higher Education" ("NEJHE") launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends, and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. In this installment of the series, DiSalvio speaks with American…

Massive Open Online Courses ("MOOCs") are free online courses offered by institutions of higher education to individuals across the world, without any admissions criteria. Through web-based courses hosted by MOOC platforms, student-participants learn by accessing media, including documents, pictures and uploaded lectures on the course…