Digital Learning in 'Inside Higher Ed' This Week

The following developments related to online and digital learning received coverage in Inside Higher Ed this week:

• Student performance in re-engineered courses improved as successive groups of students took the course -- in part because students increasingly linked certain aspects of the course to their learning gains in surveys, a new study found. The study, published in PLOS ONE, is called “Knowing Is Half the Battle: Assessments of Both Student Perception and Performance Are Necessary to Successfully Evaluate Curricular Transformation.” It examined the use at a small college of a new introductory biology curriculum featuring modules or scenarios focused on real-world problems rather than lectures, and found that student opposition to the new curriculum diminished over four years -- and measurable student learning increased. One of the researchers said, “We found that there was surprisingly very little resistance from students, and that this resistance lessened every time we taught the course … This underscores the need for faculty and administrators to understand the time frame over which student buy-in to change occurs. Both patience and persistence are needed.”
• As part of its proposed rewrite of federal rules governing higher education (see articles elsewhere in "Inside Digital Learning" this week), the Trump administration wants to reconsider -- some critics say gut -- the authority of regional accrediting agencies. The deliberations got off to a contentious start in Washington last week.
• An apparent diploma mill in Texas is offering online degrees -- ranging from associate degrees to doctorates -- for under $1,000. The telephone number at its Denton, Tex., address rings and rings.