By Matt Zalaznick. Enhancing instruction, improving access and saving costs through digital lab experiences.
Last month, the institution, which has 150 locations around the world, launched a virtual version of the lab. While not meant to replace the real-life lab, it may offer remote students a more extensive experience of simulated accidents, its designers say. More...
Why online labs are spreading
By Matt Zalaznick. Some online labs require little or no equipment, and take up no space on campus.
Budget crunches and crowded courses are two reasons online science labs are becoming more popular in higher ed. Some online labs require little or no equipment, and take up no space on campus. More...
Required: On-campus housing, all four years
By Matt Zalaznick. Students more attached to campus when required to live there.
Next fall, Susquehanna University will begin enforcing a long-standing policy requiring most students to live on campus all four years, officials at the Pennsylvania school say. More...
Closing the gender gap in science
By Tim Goral. How university leaders can help level the playing field.
A March report commissioned by the cosmetics company L’Oréal focused on the disproportionate role of women in science. In a nation that prides itself on scientific achievement, the report reveals, less than a third of women actually enter the field, and even fewer graduate and go on to careers. More...
Mass Transit
By Herman Berliner. My education was also facilitated by mass transit. High school was either a long walk or one subway stop away on the number 1 train. College was a half dozen stops away and graduate school was slightly more than a dozen stops away. But when I started working at Hofstra, life changed. Traveling to Hofstra from Manhattan via mass transit was a subway, train and bus ride away. If everything worked well, the commute was two hours each way; I quickly switched to traveling to and from campus by car. On most days, traveling by car cut my commute by 50%, though finding a legal parking space in Manhattan was sometimes a challenge. Read more...
Towards harmonization of higher education in Southeast Asia
The Complexities of Cross-Border Engagement
By Darbi Roberts and David Stanfield. Several forms of cross-border or transnational engagement have received attention in the higher ed press recently. The articles focus on alternatives to the highly scrutinized brick and mortar international branch campuses. Numerous models of cross-border engagement exist and institutions are wise to consider the full spectrum when developing internationalization strategies. Descriptions of these alternatives tend to focus on what’s working and how a particular institution has benefited, while ignoring the many challenges that are inherent in transnational work. Much like the international branch campus, all forms of transnational engagement have advantages and disadvantages and pose unique challenges, including global centers and academic partnerships. Read more...
What Rape Culture?
By Susan O'Doherty. I found everything about this project interesting and hopeful. I was especially struck, though, by the activists who cited getting administrators to understand the prevalence of rape culture as their biggest challenge. It is difficult for any bureaucracy (or any person, really) to acknowledge and address a systemic flaw. Read more...Excuses, Qualifiers and the Invisibility of Motherhood
By Laura Tropp. At the beginning of every semester, I discuss my attendance policy with my students. I explain they can have two absences for any reason; after that, points are deducted no matter the cause. I tell them that I don’t need, or even want, to know why they were absent because I prefer not to be put in a position where I have to judge the quality of their reasons. However, I’ve begun to rethink my policy. Read more...From MOOCs to Dragons
By Dan Butin. It used to be that medieval and renaissance maps placed sea monsters and dragons in those seemingly dangerous and unexplored places where seafarers were best to avoid. This is why “here be dragons” is a shorthand expression for stumbling into uncharted territory. Read more...