Page 6 - Campus Technology, October/November 2020

OER GRANTS. The United States Department of Education is inviting consortia of colleges and universities to develop programs to produce open educational resources under grants that will range in size from $500,000 to $2 million. The grant program has three priorities in its funding: to select projects involving at least three schools as well as instructors and subject- matter experts, workforce stakeholders and, possibly, trade or professional associations; to address gaps in the open textbook market; and to boost student success, by promoting pickup of the new OER materials and monitor the impact of the open textbooks “on instruction, learning outcomes, course outcomes and edu- cational costs.” Applications are due by Nov. 16. READ THE FULL STORY ONLINE.
ONLINE THE NORM. While 40 percent of IT high- er education IT leaders and instructional tech- nologists said in June 2020 that their college or university was planning for “mostly in-person” classes for the fall, that share plummeted to less than 5 percent by August, according to a recent study by Educause. And whereas in fall 2019 most institutions were offering one in five or fewer classes online, a year later that was flipped: A majority of schools were offering 80 percent or more courses online this fall.
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SYSTEMWIDE ESPORTS. The State University of New York is working with Extreme Networks to launch a systemwide esports league. The goal: to promote “safe competition, connection and cama- raderie” among students at SUNY’s 64 campuses, while they’re being encouraged to physically dis- tance from each other. “As we navigate the coro- navirus era, our students need safe avenues for connecting, building camaraderie with their class- mates, and simply enjoying life,” said Chancellor Jim Malatras, in a statement. “This new league will harness the growing talent and enthusiasm for esports across SUNY to bring people together in a safe and socially distant way.”
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FALL ENROLLMENT DIP. According to a prelimi- nary study from the National Student Clearing- house Research Center, overall enrollments across the United States are running 2.5 per- cent below last year’s level (compared to a 1.7 percent drop in fall 2019 from the previous year). Community colleges are hurting the most; they’ve lost about 7.5 percent of students. Four- year private nonprofits are down 3.8 percent. The “first-look snapshot” was based on report- ing from 22 percent of colleges, as of Sept 10. READ THE FULL STORY ONLINE.
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | Oct/Nov 2020