Major Updates

  • U.S. Department of Education Provides Updated FAQs for CARES Act Funds

    Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released updated FAQs around the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) allocations. This included clarifications that it would not take enforcement measures against universities who issued funds to students who were not Title IV aid-eligible prior to the Department issuing an interim final rule saying those students were ineligible for aid. They also clarified the institutional portion of the allocation to universities could be used  “to purchase equipment or software, pay for online licensing fees, or pay for internet service to enable students to transition to distance learning as such costs are associated with a significant change in the delivery of instruction due to the coronavirus. An institution may also use Institutional Portion funds for any other costs for computer system upgrades that are reasonably related to ‘significant changes to the delivery of instruction due to the coronavirus.’ This would not include, for example, previously planned upgrades to computer systems.”

    Read more and access the FAQs


Other News

A series of events has converged to put new impetus behind sharing courses online. The COVID-19 pandemic, rapid deployment of remote learning, growth of MOOCs and mounting financial pressure on colleges and universities have combined to open minds on this topic.

Make no mistake, higher education is under siege around the world. It is not just COVID-19, but rather a complex combination of factors that have cast our field into full blown crisis. Colleges are closing, faculty and staff are furloughed and laid off, institutional solvency has headed south, overall college enrollments have dropped annually for a decade, and our primary product, the college degree, is in decline. For the past dozen years, I have chronicled the economic and resourcing decline in higher education through the Recession Reality in Higher Ed curated reading list. At no time in those dozen years have conditions been as universally bad as they are today.

Colleges and universities have a long history of collaborating in research and in areas of broad purpose, but they have been notoriously cautious about collaborating in the development and delivery of their own courses and curricula. Holding a unique university identity on the academic side has been a revered aspect of institutional pride that stands in the way of large-scale sharing.

I learned this lesson well when I received funding from an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to found the New Century Learning Consortium in 2010 with the goal of linking a dozen regional universities to share faculty/staff development programs and, ultimately, courses. It seemed logical to me — a decade ago — as I launched the initiative that course sharing would allow for greater choices for students, more efficient support for a broad curriculum across the discipline and an enriching diversity of faculty. The NCLC faculty/staff development initiatives were most successful. University of Illinois Online director Burks Oakley and NCLC director and University of Illinois Springfield associate director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service Shari McCurdy Smith cultivated an assortment of very successful collaborative programs. While we promoted course transfer opportunities, I was never able to break through administrative resistance among the top administration at the member universities to actually offer courses for meaningful sharing across institutional lines. In those days, they held their trademark as paramount, even above the prospect of closing small programs rather than sharing with other quality institutions.

UIS now is also a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC). It has broken through the barrier to offer classes and portions of classes across institutions. UIS executive director of online professional and engaged learning and research Vickie Cook, who served on the committee arranging the guidelines for collaborations, reports that the association has developed a set of understandings that will enable future sharing.

Of course, the Great Plains IDEA program is one that has successfully navigated these waters over the years. Some 20 universities collaborate in this long-running project to contribute to degrees with courses offered from member institutions. The Council of Independent Colleges has also expanded their course-sharing initiatives since March with a 150 percent increase in shared class enrollments.

The former College Consortium has morphed into Acadeum, a network of more than 200 course-sharing institutions that offers a range of solutions for students in a variety of circumstances to accelerate progress toward their degrees.

It is impossible to chronicle all of the course-sharing initiatives that are springing up almost daily around the world. Yet one must recognize the largest and most influential initiatives that are founded by MOOC providers. Most notably, Coursera and edX offer classes, certificates and entire degree programs online. During this pandemic, they have extended opportunities to more traditional universities that are suffering from decreased revenues, dropping enrollments and campus closures. They are leading the way in broadly seeding such sharing across academe.

As the pace of such sharing of courses and degrees across colleges in this time of COVID-19 is rapidly picking up speed, so have the range of models among otherwise fierce recruitment competitors, who also happen to be affiliated universities, for example:

The Big Ten Academic Alliance, which includes large, public research universities such as Michigan State and Pennsylvania State, recently announced an online course-sharing consortium meant to give students more academic opportunities amid the pandemic.

In mid-September, the University of Massachusetts announced a similar initiative. Through its Inter-Campus Course Exchange, students enrolled at one of its four undergraduate institutions can take online courses through the other campuses. UMass President Marty Meehan in a press release called the exchange a “silver lining” of the pandemic that will benefit students “long after COVID-19 is a distant memory.”

Meehan is right — this is not a flash in the pan. It is one more step toward creating the higher education model for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Motivated by efficiency, rapid responsiveness and quality, these collaborations are part of the remaking of higher education.

A late friend and colleague, John David Viera, who was revered for his creativity and vision, would ask if our efforts were more like a fleet of rowboats bobbing around in the ocean, or that of a streamlined ship cutting through the seas? In these times of retrenchment and cutting faculty lines, is your university bobbing alone in the ocean of recession and competition, or are you reaching out to exchange courses with other universities for the sake of efficiency and retaining programs?

This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning.

Cannabis can be confusing, but its emergence in our society is undeniable. Is cannabis a therapeutic or a recreational drug? Is it legal or illegal? Is it a fad or is it here to stay? What role can higher education play in answering these questions, as well as educating the workforce on the science, policy and business of cannabis? The cannabis industry is relatively new to our economy. It has the potential to create new products and services and thus many new jobs, new job titles, and new ways to develop supply chains.


To keep up with market changes, institutions of higher education have the opportunity to take the lead by developing new and relevant degrees and credentials without getting too far ahead of the market. For some disciplines related to cannabis, such as bioscience and agricultural studies, experts may already exist within higher education. In areas which are rapidly changing, the volume of expertise may lie outside the academy and within corporations. Drawing similarities to coding and cybersecurity, independent cannabis education programs can be found outside higher education institutions, such as with UPCEA partner Green Flower. Green Flower offers certificates in all areas related to the cannabis industry, such as cannabis law and policy, agriculture, and enterprise.[1] Additionally, some colleges and universities already offer certificates and degree programs. The University of Washington, Northern Michigan University, the University of Maryland, and Harvard University are just a few of the institutions that have joined the ranks of U.S. higher education offering programs within the cannabis industry.

 

Just like with any other emerging industry, starting a new educational program on the topic too quickly can pose many risks, but also offer significant rewards. Proper market research and well-structured advisory committees at both the degree and noncredit levels could minimize the risk in moving out too aggressively. No matter where your institution lands on this spectrum, cannabis-related certificates and degrees are well underway. With the industry forecasted to reach $52 billion globally, the education of professionals will soon follow.[2]

 

Emerging industry education starts somewhere. We saw it with coding bootcamps a few years ago and currently in cybersecurity and even in eSports. The cannabis industry is not far behind as acceptance is growing and applications for CBD licensure have expanded immensely over the past few years. CBD can be found in health and medical treatments, but also in beverages, oils, coffees, candies, and other products. The science will change, as will the commerce and supply chain possibilities. Grab a gummie, sit back and read on for more about this evolving industry and how higher education can be more involved.

 

 

[1] https://www.greenfloweredu.com/

[2]https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/weed-us-marijuana-industry-facts-2019-5-1028177375#the-us-marijuana-market-is-worth-52-billion-but-87-of-sales-were-on-the-black-market7

WASHINGTON, October 22, 2020 — UPCEA, the Washington, D.C.-based association for college and university leaders in professional, continuing, and online education, announced changes this month to its Online Leadership Roundtable Advisory Council.

 

The Online Leadership Roundtable (OLR) is the body for senior leaders charged with driving online strategy at the unit or campus level. The Online Leadership Roundtable Advisory Council is a select group of OLR representatives serving in an advisory capacity related to the work and goals of the OLR. 

 

UPCEA wishes to thank the following members for their service and dedication to the OLR Council:

  • Marni Baker Stein, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Western Governors University
  • Karen Z. Bull, Dean, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  • Patty Feldman, Chief of Staff and Chief Culture Officer, Arizona State University
  • Cristi Ford, Chief Academic Officer, Akilah Institute
  • Tyler Ritter, COO, Carolina Office for Online Learning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • Ted Rockwell, Director of Marketing, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Jason Ruckert, Vice Chancellor, Online Education, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  • Kim Siegenthaler, Associate Provost for Online Strategies, Georgia State University

 

“Because of our roles and expertise in online and distance learning and professional development, we have all been called upon for help by people all over our campuses because, without the online unit, many campuses wouldn’t have successfully made the emergency online pivot this spring,” said Justin Louder, Online Leadership Roundtable Council Chair and Associate Vice Provost & Interim Superintendent, TTU K-12, Texas Tech University. “Similarly, the Online Leadership Roundtable would not have been as successful as it has been over the last few years without these departing friends and colleagues.”  

 

UPCEA and the Online Leadership Roundtable Council are also pleased to welcome the following new members:

  • Tonya Amankwatia, Assistant Vice Provost of Distance Education and Extended Learning, North Carolina A&T State University
  • Tom Cavanagh, Vice Provost for Digital Learning, University of Central Florida
  • Gregory Fowler, President of SNHU’s Global Campus, Southern New Hampshire University
  • Cheryl Murphy, Vice Provost for Distance Education, University of Arkansas
  • Todd Nicolet, Vice Provost for Digital and Lifelong Learning, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • Barbara Kopp Miller, Dean, University College, The University of Toledo

 

Continuing Council member and Vice President of Online & Continuing Education at Louisiana State University Alexandera (Sasha) Thackaberry said, “What a great group of cool, innovative, geeked-out, passionate colleagues. I am so fortunate to be among you, those who are leaving this group and who are joining.”                                         

 

Learn more about the Online Leadership Roundtable here. 

 

# # #

 

About UPCEA

UPCEA is the association for professional, continuing, and online education. Founded in 1915, UPCEA now serves most of the leading public and private colleges and universities in North America. With innovative conferences and specialty seminars, research and benchmarking information, professional networking opportunities and timely publications, we support our members’ service of contemporary learners and commitment to quality online education and student success. Based in Washington, D.C., UPCEA builds greater awareness of the vital link between adult learners and public policy issues. Visit www.upcea.edu.

 

UNBOUND’s 2020 issue is being released in smaller, digestible installments. In the second installment, we find an amazing and inspiring story with Maria del Carmen Gonzalez, how online students make great alumni, and more.

The Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has launched a new program allowing learners to pursue career-focused course bundles that can be applied as academic credit toward a graduate degree.

Starting with two 100% online graduate certificates — a Mechanical Engineering Controls Certificate and a Petroleum Engineering Data Analytics Certificate — the program aims to make it easier for remote learners to earn relevant skills and stack credentials.

The stackable certificates are available to individuals who have been admitted to the university as either degree-seeking or non-degree-seeking graduate students, and external learners are encouraged to apply to enhance their engineering skills. Students can apply credit from certificate coursework toward a master’s degree, creating a stackable pathway for advanced education.

Read more here.

We are planning for AI to help universities recruit, oversee adaptive learning and drive intelligent chat boxes, but there is much more ahead in the near future. Are we are underestimating the future of AI connected through a brain-computer interface in education?

We all know that AI is already in place in our daily lives. It enables the processing of very large data sets, learns from daily life, helps us to both create and identify “deepfakes” and promises to replace millions of jobs in the coming few years. Of course, there are prototype autonomous cars — even self-driving buses operating on some university campuses.

In the sphere of learning, artificial intelligence drives adaptive learning models today that can personalize the learning experience. This is not a trivial advancement. It heralds a new era in pedagogy and practice. No longer will we need to aim our presentations to the middle of the class, ignoring those advanced learners, eager for more, and those less prepared learners who may be lagging behind the rest of the class. AI now adapts and individualizes the presentations to meet the students where they are with a goal to bring all to mastery of the learning outcomes for the class.

Georgia Tech professor Ashok Goel proved the viability of an AI virtual teaching assistant “Jill Watson” years ago, and he continues to refine the model. This may further place AI onto the front line of directly engaging students in learning. The potential is enormous. AI can take the tedious roles of teaching, such as repetitive answering of elementary and procedural questions such as “when is the assignment due, and how many pages are required for this paper?” It is already making teaching faculty more efficient at their jobs.

All of these are huge steps forward. Yet these advancements pale compared to what is coming next!

Brain-computer interface (BCI) is just what the name implies — it is directly connecting the brain and the computer. There is no need for eyes, for ears, for keyboards or for voice instructions. BCI perceives your thoughts and responds with actions that can be directly inputted to the brain.

Jo Best, ZD Net’s tech expert reporter, writes, “Researchers have been interested in the potential of BCIs for decades, but the technology has come on at a far faster pace than many have predicted, thanks largely to better artificial intelligence and machine-learning software.”

Most early prototypes have been developed as brain-implanted sensors for those with physical impairments. However, more advanced technologies such as Neuralink — originally founded by Elon Musk — take a different approach. These approaches use external or implanted sensors to interpret thoughts in language form, not articulated vocally, and direct them into a computer running an AI algorithm:

Like a lot of BCIs, Neuralink’s was framed initially as a way to help people with neurological disorders, but Musk is looking further out, claiming that Neuralink could be used to allow humans a direct interface with artificial intelligence, so that humans are not eventually outpaced by AI. It might be that the only way to stop ourselves becoming outclassed by machines is to link up with them — if we can’t beat them, Musk’s thinking goes, we may have to join them.

The direct connection of mind and computer raises many questions, such as what is human memory? If you need to only think a question in your mind to get an instant answer to that question from a computer, is that the equivalent of virtual memory?

For example, you might think, “I wonder what the weather will be today” and you receive an instant response in your brain with the forecast. Nothing is vocalized. Nothing is heard. The response is instant, as if you knew the forecast all along and were just recalling it.

The director of the National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies, Jonathan Wolpaw, describes the current state of research:

“The unique thing about BCIs is that they provide the brain with a new kind of output, which is output from brain signals. Instead of driving muscles, you go directly to a part of the brain, measure its activity in one way or another, and you convert that into some sort of action. The individual pieces of the brain that have evolved, as far as we understand, with the sole purpose of controlling muscles, they are now being turned into the outputs themselves,” Wolpaw says. “The basic question for BCIs is how well the brain can learn to do this new kind of thing that it wasn’t designed for, and it wasn’t evolved to do. And the answer up to the present is, it can sort of do it, but not all that well with our current methods,” he added.

As this is refined, what will this mean for education? If creating virtual memory and developing virtual instant recall are possible at speeds that already exceed the speed that pulses travel along human nerves, what will be left to teach and learn at the advanced levels? If AI programs can apply critical thinking, philosophical frameworks and more, what is left for education? Who at your institution is considering the impact of BCI and AI in the coming five years? How will you prepare?

 

This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog.

 

By SmartBrief Editors

This post is produced in partnership with UPCEA.

As the Associate Vice Provost for Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Delaware (UD), Dr. George Irvine has spent the last six months transitioning his division’s programs from in-person to wholly online due to the pandemic. He chaired a university-wide committee to prepare UD faculty to teach predominantly online in the fall 2020 semester. In this Q&A, Dr. Irvine shares his insight into the direction of continuing education for the remainder of this year – and beyond.  

  

Question: Tell us about your journey into and in the professional, continuing and online education field.

Answer: Ever since grad school, I’ve been in the field but didn’t know it.  My first job out of graduate school in 1996 was promoting American environmental policy and technology in 11 Asian economies by using training programs, study tours to the US and symposia in Asia.  These were all geared toward industry and government leaders, i.e. working adults learning new skills and technologies.  I was already in the continuing education field! 

When I “officially” joined the field in 2008 by joining UD’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies, I immediately recognized the connection between my international development work over the prior decade and UD’s in-person and online professional development programs.  The online portion of my work has ballooned over the last three years given its importance to deliver education in our new pandemic-caused reality but also due to our students’ preference to learn online given its convenience and accessibility.  The journey in the field has been a fun ride to date.  We’ll see where it goes from here.      

 

Q: How has the work you did in your doctoral program informed your new role as associate vice provost? How has it shaped or changed your current thinking?

A: Short answer – in a whole lot of ways!  Long answer – I see a university as an ever-changing organization that continuously serves its diverse publics, not just a monolithic “public.”  It doesn’t matter if it is a private or public university.  These are just legal definitional terms.  All universities are public organizations because they educate citizens, conduct research that fosters economic development, provide valuable public goods in the forms of degrees etc., but they are also accountable to the public.  It is this on-going process of serving the public while simultaneously responding to the public’s demands for service that shapes a university’s publicness. 

So how does this affect continuing education, you ask?  We in the field of continuing education find ourselves on the leading edge of change in academia because we are fundamentally attuned to this changing university publicness that I described.  We interact with industry, government, our students every day to do our work and, in the process, we become open to and happy to change and be entrepreneurial.  Now is the time for us to bring our change readiness to bear on the acute problems facing higher education today – to help save the rest of the university from the pandemic’s on-going negative effects.  We can’t just be the kitchen junk drawer of the university.  We have to get out the drawer and help the kitchen run smoothly! 

 

Q: You have extensive experience working with the corporate community in Delaware. Can you tell us about that, and what others should know when building corporate relationships? Are there other things happening in Delaware that would be of interest to others in the field?

A: Our small size gives us the advantage to forge close ties across sectors – industry, government, nonprofit and the university.  We have open communication with corporations who do business here in Delaware.  They tell us their workforce development headaches and we help them address them.  Recently, we partnered with a major multinational bank that is domiciled here in Delaware to provide successive cohorts of its employees with a data analysis certificate.  The bank needed data scientists and analysts and we are helping them develop them.  This partnership grew out of open lines of communication between the university and the bank. 

So, the first step in working with businesses and corporations is to listen to their needs rather than tell them your program lineup.  Then, be honest with them if you can help them or not.  Sometimes our expertise and programs fit, sometimes they don’t.  Then, delight the customer by delivering research-based knowledge that it is hard to get elsewhere.  After they assess the outcomes of the learning, 80% of the time, they come back to us for more.  It just all starts with listening rather than selling.  We’re currently working on using this approach for online learning, which comes with a different set of challenges and opportunities. 

 

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges for leaders in our field today? What new and exciting things do you see on the horizon?

A: The university’s traditional currency – the degree – is becoming less popular due to changes in technology, changing workforce development dynamics, and declining household income due to the pandemic.  Families are rebelling against ever-increasing tuition rates and, in turn, legislators press universities about cutting our prices.  Plus, some companies are not requiring a degree for jobs that just a few years ago would have required at least a bachelor’s degree. 

A decline in the demand for degrees poses an existential threat to universities.  We, the leaders of continuing, professional and online units, must help the “core university” create new forms of knowledge that are shorter, cheaper and accessible because that is what students and employers are asking from us. But, we must ensure that these are quality educational programs, not just off-the-shelf products that don’t reflect our research knowledge. This should be easy for us to do if we can overcome institutional biases in favor of degrees and shrink our fixed cost base that has been supported these many years by degree tuition.  We can certainly help the university evolve this way.  We invented the system that we must change, after all.  Helping the university evolve as a role leader in our field should embrace.  If we don’t, someone else will lead it after all.

 

Q: What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

A: Oddly enough, I didn’t follow the best career advice that I ever received!  My grandfather, who helped establish the United Nations, advised me to specialize in my studies and then generalize in my career, i.e. be a specialist in something since it is then easier to become a generalist later rather than vice versa.  I went the other way around and in hindsight I can see the merits of my grandfather’s advice.  Specialize and then branch out as you apply your specialization in different contexts. 

 

 

George Irvine

Dr. George Irvine serves as the Associate Vice Provost for Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Delaware (UD).  In this role, he leads the Division of Professional and Continuing Studies, the portal for non-traditional learners to UD degrees and programs, including credit, non-credit, online and lifelong learning programming. 

Dr. Irvine’s career to date spans the fields of higher education and international development.  In addition to his work at UD, his higher education experience includes: directing executive education programs for UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics; managing international education and development programs for UD’s Center for International Studies and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.  In the field of international development, Dr. Irvine managed foreign assistance projects in Eastern Europe and Asia as part of US-government and foundation-funded programs.  His award-winning public policy dissertation focused on the changing publicness of American research universities between 1975 and 2015.  He has work and travel experience in 25 countries on four continents, with language proficiency in German and French.  As a practitioner of lifelong learning, he is currently learning Latin with Duolingo’s help.

UPCEA is excited to be supporting a new study of community college workforce education, funded by Lumina Foundation and spearheaded by Opportunity America. Opportunity America and Lumina Foundation are partnering with Wilder Research to conduct this national study.

 

What. The study aims to answer the following questions:

  • How extensive is the workforce education offered today on community college campuses?
  • How extensive are the workforce programs offered by community college noncredit divisions?
  • What share of colleges are adopting the innovations seen at pioneering two-year schools, including intensive employer partnerships, shorter job-focused programs and stackable credentials?

 

Why you should participate. At a time of dwindling education spending, the results will be essential information for state and federal policymakers – evidence to support increased funding for workforce education.

Institutions that take part will be entered in a drawing, and three will receive donations of up to $10,000 to fund scholarships for noncredit workforce students.

Participating institutions will also receive customized reports that allow them to compare their institutions to an aggregate of other colleges that take part – a tool for planning and innovation.

 

When. The study will be in the field from mid-October 2020 through January 2021.

 

If your institution would like to participate, please visit https://opportunityamericaonline.org/ccstudy/.

Worldwide, lives are stressed and strained by COVID-19. Nowhere is that more evident than in the lives of students, staff and faculty members engaged in the transformed role of online learning.

As higher education adapts to teaching and learning at a distance, the workload and the learning load of adopting a new delivery mode is taking a huge toll on the lives of those in higher education. This is an immense problem that is growing rapidly. While there are some students who are thriving through online learning, the toll of the virus, isolation, increased workloads and other associated effects are rising among many students, staff and faculty members. It must not be underestimated. Every institution must address these challenges that threaten the well-being of their constituents.

Faculty members are feeling the huge stress of remaking their classes into effective digital forms. The additional workload and concomitant anxiety are heaped upon the already multifaceted responsibilities of faculty. The added load has heightened the concerns over faculty burnout. So many faculty members who already live on the edge of burnout in meeting the teaching, advising, research and publication expectations are facing an emotional letdown or even collapse.

Too often we separate the consideration of mental health from physical health. These two are deeply interrelated. The mental and emotional pressures faculty and students may be experiencing can be expressed in deteriorated physical health. Anxiety and stress can lower immunity, subjecting people to illness, and not just the common cold. People with high levels of self-reported distress are found to be 32 percent more likely to die of cancer; depression has been associated with heart disease. These are not trivial effects. They are life altering and destructive.

Most students are feeling the strain. For many, that strain begins with the eyes. Those unaccustomed to squinting at poorly adjusted computer screens in suboptimum ambient lighting are subjected to eyestrain that can have lasting effects. Ophthalmologists recommend taking breaks from screen reading every 20 minutes and adjusting room lighting to avoid glare and reflections.

Supporting the mental health needs of online students is a critical mission for each university. The radical change in lifestyle can feed loneliness, anxiety and even lead to depression. Faculty members are now at the front line of responsibility for identifying emotional and mental health issues. No one else is monitoring the students in most cases. On campus, those students may be observed by classmates, resident advisers and other campus staff who observe students informally every day. But, online, those students often are not seen by fellow students, advisers or others. They are living in unobserved anonymity. Faculty are often the primary direct contact with online students. A number of key indicators of possible concern are identified in this article by Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti, which cites important research by Bonny Barr of Creighton University.

The COVID-19 crisis is taking a heavy toll, much of which has not been recorded. But, early on, it is clear that the stresses are disproportionately placed on the shoulders of women. The international aid organization CARE conducted a study of indirect impacts of the crisis among more than 10,000 men and women:

One of the biggest disparities they found in their research was that 27% of women had reported increases in challenges in relation to mental illness. This compared to 10% of men. They identified that due to the fact that unpaid labor in the house had increased exponentially in many cases this had led to stress, worries about food, work and health care. Women were also almost twice as likely to report that accessing quality healthcare services that they needed had been harder during the pandemic.

The report also found that more than half of the women studied had encountered some sort of income loss as had one-third of the men. The loss of income, added to the pressures of less contact with others and the need to adapt to digital exchanges makes for even more challenges.

So, those at the front line of engaging students have enhanced responsibilities in this COVID time. We need to be both vigilantly observant of possible symptoms of serious problems while at the same time, being gracefully supportive of our learners. As Howard Aldrich, Kenan Professor of Sociology at UNC Chapel Hill, writes:

Remember to be flexible and empathetic. As one commentator noted, “College students taking classes this fall are likely to be unusually vulnerable and will need lots of support as they navigate financial, health, and safety concerns.” The students who were most disadvantaged before COVID are also most likely the students who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-related deaths and illnesses, financial challenges, and other stresses due to unfolding political events.

Do your faculty members know what to look for in identifying emotionally struggling students, especially, do they know how to connect these students to help? Is there an enhanced institution-wide atmosphere of generosity, support, tolerance and grace in this COVID time? What are you doing to help address this slowly unfolding crisis?

 

This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog.