Online: Trending Now
Unique biweekly insights and news review from Ray Schroeder, Senior Fellow at UPCEA.
Is the Metaverse Finally Emerging?
The Web is constantly evolving. Emerging now is a more immersive 3D environment that features augmented reality (AU), virtual reality (VR), and persistent connections. It is called the “Metaverse,” and it may transform online learning. Coming out of science fiction is the vision of a three-dimensional Web in which we all are connected virtually, wherever…
No Return to ‘Normal’
The placid ivy-covered walls and calm quad will remain when COVID is vanquished, but the university will never be the same. We are forever changed — by the disease and by the advance of technology and competition in this, the fourth industrial revolution. It has been said that you could walk into a classroom at…
Higher Ed: Short Term & Long Term
We are witnessing the remaking of higher education. Strategies for mainstream colleges and universities must change from the short term to the long term as large-scale collaboratives and huge corporations enter the field. The pandemic has accelerated trends that were already established in the past decade. Over the prior centuries, universities competed for students with…
AI Is Leading a Revolution in Roles, ROI and Opportunities
The world is in the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, which is what the World Economic Forum describes as a new era that extends the impact of digitization in new and unanticipated ways. The fourth industrial revolution has shown up first and most prominently in the high-tech fields. Unsurprisingly, they are the ones leading…
Demise of the Baccalaureate Degree
Overpriced, outdated and no longer required by an increasing number of employers; is the baccalaureate in a death spiral? Enrollments at American colleges and universities have been on a decade-long skid. This past year, enrollments dropped by 600,000 or 3.5%. While some of those drops may have been prompted by the pandemic, the trend is clear; fewer…
Trends in the Near Term and an Emerging Concern for Higher Ed
We have experienced dramatic changes in the past year and a half as Covid disrupted our campuses, classes, research and services. What can we expect in the coming academic year? Turmoil persists as we approach the opening of the fall term. With only a couple of weeks to go, we are experiencing a massive new surge…
Ray Schroeder is Professor Emeritus, Associate Vice Chancellor for Online Learning at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) and Senior Fellow at UPCEA. Each year, Ray publishes and presents nationally on emerging topics in online and technology-enhanced learning. Ray’s social media publications daily reach more than 12,000 professionals. He is the inaugural recipient of the A. Frank Mayadas Online Leadership Award, recipient of the University of Illinois Distinguished Service Award, the United States Distance Learning Association Hall of Fame Award, and the American Journal of Distance Education/University of Wisconsin Wedemeyer Excellence in Distance Education Award 2016.