Higher Education

Laura Perna of the Graduate School of Education wrote an opinion piece about students’ need for transparency about the true cost of college, not just the sticker price.

Ira Harkavy and Rita Hodges of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and others co-wrote an op-ed about higher education and systemic oppression. “Just as many colleges and universities are reckoning with their own institutional histories of exclusion, higher education as a field must recognize where it has failed and come up short. Only then can it come honestly to tables with communities, governments, and citizens to build inclusive, antiracist democracies together,” they wrote.

The pandemic has necessitated innovation in remote learning. “There’s been a move to using high-quality interactive online learning environments,” says Ryan Baker, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education who studies how data can be used to improve online learning. Baker predicts that although most schools will return to more traditional modes of teaching, the online platforms that gained a foothold during the pandemic will come to shape the future of homework by bringing it more online.

Joni Finney of Graduate School of Education is quoted on the effectiveness of the chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. 

Rebecca Stein of the Online Learning Initiative responded to an op-ed that suggested universities open multiple campuses in order to diversify the student body. “Teaching online allows universities to reach more students, and more diverse students. It is the path to meeting both the high bar of quality and the goal of inclusion,” she wrote. “Instead of building a campus in Houston, let’s be bold and build a virtual campus.”