A Road to Somewhere

July 31, 2020.Reading time 21 minutes.

Last month I asked our readers to contemplate whether or not we’re “on a road to nowhere” as we prepare for the fall and beyond. Today, I want to take a look at where we are on that road and consider what this journey may look like for the next several months. So where are […]

Fall and Beyond: Higher Education in the Age of COVID-19 and Other Disasters

May 8, 2020.Reading time 24 minutes.

Even before the COVID-19 global pandemic, higher education was struggling to make sense of what David La Piana and Melissa Mendes call a VUCA world in The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World. Originally coined by the US military to describe a post-Cold War world, VUCA stands for: Volatile– The world […]

Promising Practices for Navigating “What’s Next”

April 23, 2020.Reading time 31 minutes.

I have long marveled at how quickly and effectively WCET pivots to support its members when we most need assistance. Remember the announcement of new guidelines that regional accreditors were going to use to evaluate distance education (CRAC-2001)? State authorization enforcement by the Department of Education? WCET helped us navigate around those icebergs. The Coronavirus […]

Considering the Future, Now!

April 21, 2020.Reading time 33 minutes.

I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks (months?) have felt surreal. Not only on a professional level, but on a personal one as well. That uncanny feeling I have about ‘these times’ has continued as our local and state leaders and our federal governments are discussing what it will take to start […]

What’s Next? #2: Wichita State and Broward College Move Forward on an Uncharted Journey

April 10, 2020.Reading time 15 minutes.

photo of the night sky with the words "What's next?"

Today we provide our second installment of the “What’s Next” stories, featuring the experiences of colleges and universities moving from the initial rapid deployment phase to the next phase of planning for how to deal with the reality of medium-term impacts of COVID-19. Using Russ Poulin’s metaphor, just as we have just finished bailing out […]

Not Fooling – A Third Package of Proposed Regs Has Arrived

April 1, 2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

**Update: On 4/2/2020, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it amended the public comment period timeline. The text below has been updated to reflect this update.** The third package has arrived! In the midst of managing rapid conversion of face-to-face courses to online to maintain academic continuity during a pandemic, we received the third […]

Accreditation, Continuity of Operations, and COVID-19

March 12, 2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

On March 5, 2020, the Department of Education issued guidance to institutions facing possible interruptions of study because of COVID-19. WCET’s Cheryl Dowd, Director of the WCET State Authorization Network, provided an overview of the guidance for WCET Frontiers. As of the morning of March 12th, a growing number of institutions, especially those on the […]

Evaluating Faculty Participation in Online Workshops

February 27, 2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

Example of a network analysis graph for the discussion-based workshop. Each circle represents a participant in the workshop, while the shaded groupings represent different sections of the workshop. Circles show how particpants are grouped in large circles. The lightly facilitated group is more dispersed and have lines drawn between participants showing how they interact. The Facilitated discussion forum is one tightly connected circle with more interaction.

Last week we welcomed Lynn Wahl, Instructional Designer for UNC Charlotte, to discuss how they used design thinking to create online faculty development workshops. In a continuation of the topic, Lynn joins us today to talk about how to assess a learning opportunity such as the online workshops to ensure they continue to engage attendees […]

Design Thinking for Faculty Pedagogy Training

February 21, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

a circle graph showing the "innovation sweetspot." Three circles labelled "desirability, viability, feasibilty" all interlapping. The innovation sweetspot is right in the middle of the three other circles.

Have you heard of design thinking? This process is a non-linear, iterative process that focuses on understanding users and redefining problems to create innovative solutions and prototype said solutions to make them even better (interaction-design.org). We can use design thinking in a variety of arenas, not the least of which is to design courses. Today’s […]

Breathing New Life into the Collaboratory, Reviving an Innovative Teaching Space

August 31, 2018.Reading time 14 minutes.

Many of us have an interested in increasing the opportunities for our students to work collaboratively. An excellent way to help facilitate group work is to make sure our learning spaces are conducive to group conversations, work, and study. Many in higher education are also interested in making sure our learning spaces are equipped with […]