Tag: Online

  • Smarter Support: How to Use AI in Online Courses and Teach Your Students to Use It Too – Faculty Focus

    Smarter Support: How to Use AI in Online Courses and Teach Your Students to Use It Too – Faculty Focus

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  • Smarter Support: How to Use AI in Online Courses and Teach Your Students to Use It Too – Faculty Focus

    Smarter Support: How to Use AI in Online Courses and Teach Your Students to Use It Too – Faculty Focus

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  • 3 Questions for Online Learning Pioneer Robert Ubell

    3 Questions for Online Learning Pioneer Robert Ubell

    Whenever I write something halfway decent (sometimes) or astoundingly dumb (often), I can count on a thoughtful response from Bob Ubell. Our conversation took place during the period when Bob published two books, Going Online (2017) and Staying Online (2021), as well as numerous articles in EdSurge, IHE, The Evollution and other publications.

    Bob’s online education career goes at least back to 1999, where he was the dean of online learning at Stevens Institute of Technology. Subsequent leadership roles include vice dean of online learning at New York University Tandon School of Engineering and vice dean emeritus, online learning, at NYU Tandon.

    Bob is a 2011 Fellow of the Online Learning Consortium and a member of the Advisory Board of Online Learning. In 2012, the Online Learning Consortium (then called the Sloan Consortium) awarded Bob with the A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award, the organization’s “highest individual recognition for leadership in online education.” Most recently, Bob took up a role serving on the CHLOE Advisory Panel for the Quality Matters Changing Landscape of Online Education Project.

    In a profession where many of us are making things up as we go, Bob stands out for his long-term experience thinking about and leading online learning initiatives. I asked Bob if he would answer my questions about his career and the future of online learning, and he graciously agreed.

    Q: According to your Wikipedia page, you have been working at the intersection of higher education, technology and publishing since you graduated from Brooklyn College in 1961. What does the next decade hold for you as you think about your contributions to our online learning community?

    A: I’m not optimistic about what’s ahead, not only for digital education, but also for the nation’s wider academic enterprise. It’s impossible to answer your question in isolation without reckoning with the ugly scene now taking place in higher ed. Challenged by the federal government’s attacks, early this spring, 600 higher ed leaders warned about “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” Since then, the present administration has continued to follow a treacherous path, destabilizing campuses across the country, targeting faculty and student academic freedom, and, in a new Supreme Court decision, ultimately dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.

    In an opinion column in this publication earlier this year, I predicted that American colleges and universities faced a terrifying cascade of autocratic moves “set by leaders in Hungary, Turkey and elsewhere … selecting college presidents, controlling faculty hiring and advancement, punishing academic dissent and imposing travel restrictions.” Many of these despotic actions have already been implemented and continue to be imposed on schools in this country.

    Last month, to restore about $400 million in federal research funding, Columbia University bowed to tyrannical demands by officials. In an unprecedented agreement, Columbia will pay more than $200 million in fines for dubious accusations of antisemitic student theatrics. It also opened the gates for government intrusion in the school’s academic prerogatives in hiring, admissions and curriculum. Keeping Columbia in academic handcuffs, the deal will be overseen by an outside monitor, reporting to officials every six months.

    The midcentury philosopher and cultural critic Hannah Arendt, in her masterful account of totalitarian regimes, revealed that they rely on systematic suppression of individual thought and freedom to maintain control, undermining the very purpose of universities—institutions that encourage critical thinking, open debate and intellectual autonomy, essential in a democracy. Recent power plays against Columbia, Harvard, Brown, Duke—and, just this week, UCLA—show how brutal our government can be in imposing its will.

    The noted Columbia genocide scholar Marianne Hirsch, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, who teaches a class on genocide with a book by Arendt, is considering leaving Columbia following its adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts criticism of Israel as hate speech, a provision in the new pact with the federal government. Hirsch fears it may force her to face official sanction for even mentioning Arendt, who criticized Israel’s founding.

    “A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,” Hirsch told the Associated Press. “I just don’t see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.” Reactionary governments always find an innocent mark to target. In the 1950s, it was American Communists. Today, it’s pro-Palestinian faculty and students.

    The downstream effects on remote learning are already being felt, with the perception overseas—following arrests of foreign students and other threats against students and scholars from abroad—that the U.S. is turning its back on international recruitment, undermining our reputation as a leading destination for higher education and potentially impacting foreign student tuition revenue, face-to-face and online. In the U.S., the demand to shut down DEI programs will surely affect the greatest number of online students—80 percent of whom work and a third [of whom] are first in their families to attend college.

    On a personal note, I worry that closing the [Education Department] will cripple and may even end higher ed data collection and reporting, giving us less reliable information on the status of American college students. Over my career in higher ed, I’ve depended on federal government data, especially in supporting findings I’ve disclosed in my writing. “We’ll soon be in the dark,” I warned in a recent IHE column.

    Turning to your question, asking what sort of contribution I might make to the remote learning community. Like so many others, I don’t feel my voice possesses much force against what’s happening. Nor do I feel competent to articulate what might make a difference. Academic opposition to what we face has been scattershot and largely ineffective, except for various successful legal maneuvers. More broadly, on a national scale, resistance has been disappointing, with few voices, in and out of electoral politics, with enough momentum to capture our yearning for democratic fresh air. To get us out of this nightmare, I dream that someone will rise in this desperate time to gather all of us together in an inspiring and powerful national movement against tyranny.

    Q: There is a growing concern across higher education about the job market for new college graduates, as employers are increasingly utilizing AI to accomplish the work previously done by entry-level workers. What role should online learning leaders be playing at our institutions in evolving and adapting our institutions to the AI revolution?

    A: Since the pandemic, it hasn’t been that easy for recent college graduates to find a job in our digital economy–even before the invasion of AI. In March, recent college grad unemployment was at 5.8 percent, the highest in the last decades, excluding the pandemic, and nearly double the rate of all workers with a college degree, now at 2.7 percent, nearly a historic low.

    “For the first time in modern history, a bachelor’s degree is failing to deliver on its fundamental promise: access to professional employment,” observes a troubling report from Burning Glass, the big labor market analysis firm. “Young graduates face unemployment rates that are rising faster than any other education or age cohort, while over half of them land into jobs they didn’t need college to get. The traditional pathway from college to career is becoming less reliable.” In addition to other causes, the report singles out AI.

    As with all radical technological innovations, the reception of AI is fraught with contradictory predictions on its impact. Touted by champions as an economic miracle, others fear it as a devilish intrusion, disrupting our material well-being, especially for college grads who have historically outpaced the economic success of others. In the postwar years, most American workers found middle-class manufacturing or clerical jobs, but in the last 40 years, new jobs are either in highly paid professional fields or low-wage service industries, a disastrous national calamity that has largely generated our present political trouble.

    Sorry, but I don’t have exciting new ways to recommend to recent college grads to extricate themselves from the present dilemma, other than—not a very original idea—encourage them to enhance their knowledge gained in college classrooms with online or in-person nondegree courses in AI and other technical disciplines, giving them a leg up with attractive additional credentials.

    Not being knowledgeable about AI, I reached out to Alfred Essa, an insightful colleague and author of the forthcoming Artificial Intelligence: Shaping the Future of Innovation, who advised, “Students must think of themselves as designers, creating AI-powered applications to solve problems, not just in the short-term, but over their careers, positioning themselves in industry, capable of building and changing things with AI.” Essa emphasized that his advice is not only for technically savvy students, but for others who are creative in aesthetics, humanities and other disciplines.

    Essa worries that the present higher ed leadership is obsolete. “For colleges to succeed,” he urged, “they must be led by a new generation who will adopt the new AI environment.” In the meantime, for my part, higher ed needs to welcome AI as a technical innovation, in the long tradition of typewriters, calculators, computers and digital education. Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t stick it back in. Restrictive, retrograde rules are foolish or punishing—or both.

    Q: What advice do you have for folks like me who are thinking about ways to stay active and engaged in online learning and higher education once we retire from our university administrative roles?

    A: Cicero found that the way we lived in our youth prepares us for retirement. The choices we made when we were young naturally lead to the life we will live as we age. He argued that preparation for our later years is not a separate phase, but a continuation of the life we led all along. “The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessings previously secured,” he wrote (Cicero De Senectute, translated with an introduction and notes by Andrew P. Peabody [Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1887]).

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  • Promoting and Sustaining a Growth Mindset in Online Classrooms – Faculty Focus

    Promoting and Sustaining a Growth Mindset in Online Classrooms – Faculty Focus

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  • Promoting and Sustaining a Growth Mindset in Online Classrooms – Faculty Focus

    Promoting and Sustaining a Growth Mindset in Online Classrooms – Faculty Focus

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  • What do you dream about for your online presence, academics?

    What do you dream about for your online presence, academics?

    Let’s talk about dreams for your digital life

    What do you dream about your online presence that you’re not at now? Is there something you think you want in the future, but you just can’t see it happening? Feel like it will take more work than you have capacity for right now?

    That’s how I felt about my blog/podcast/updating my website. At one point, I felt not good about each of these things. You see, website updates are something that can happen anytime. For professors that might include adding a new publication or speaking engagement.

    But when there are substantive changes you dream about? Or a new project? Sometimes that list of to-do’s can add up. That makes it more than updating what you already have.

    For your online presence, that might look like doing an overhaul of your LinkedIn profile. Writing a new academic bio or faculty profile. Doing a professional photoshoot for photos of you.

    So what sparked taking action for me? Doing it for myself wasn’t enough. It’s when I thought about who this would help, the people who were involved. Which is you! The readers! And all the academics to come.

    I was open about the fact that I was behind on this with my friends, Brittany Trinh and Jennifer Ho. They happened to need to update their websites too. I ended up hosting a coworking day for us. It was fun to do it together, each of us using our energy towards better communication. Sharing a clear representation of who we are on our websites is always a good use of time.

    That’s true for clients I work with on their websites. We’re doing it together. The process of dreaming can make it beautiful. If you have a friend or colleague who is also interested in their online presence, I encourage you to do it together and cheer each other on too.

    That’s one thing I love about websites: it allows me to create an open source trove of articles and interviews that people can find, and people do find, even years after they’ve been shared.

    I’m sharing this story with you because of what came after my redesign, when there was no more to-do list and I had space to think and dream again. That’s when creative opportunity sparked.

    I want to have more conversations with professors, grad students, researchers, the people who help them… because telling our own stories is really powerful. 

    When we can build community and share what we’re open about with people in ways that could help them, we have to make that work for our lives. It has to be doable within our creative constraints, equipment, budget, tech, skills, and time. There are all these things that might impact how we feel about our dreams. 

    For me, having my podcast has always been not consistent. I don’t release episodes on a set schedule. I don’t have the regular publishing schedule that I admire in other podcasters. But I love being able to share in these more accessible ways. 

    I love that you can experience an interview in written form, or watch it on YouTube, or check it out on Spotify. Creating in written, audio, and video format makes it interesting for me to create and it helps more people. I have the capacity to do that. Consistency is the only thing I sacrificed.

    Subscribe to The Social Academic blog.

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    The Social Academic Live

    Actually, I remember my first time being open to being on video for my podcast (which had been audio only for 1+ year). I interviewed Dr. Ruth C. White about being on video and TV. She shared a story about pitching herself to the local TV station in the middle of the night. In the morning, she had an invitation to appear on their show that day as an expert on mental health.

    I thought, ‘Wow! I’m so glad I was open to trying out putting myself out there when I didn’t know if I was going to stick with it.’ To be honest, I thought I’d go back to audio and leave YouTube. Nothing was set in stone, except my willingness to try.

    When the spark came that I wanted to highlight more people on The Social Academic this year, I realized my current process of getting episodes out wasn’t going to be within my capacity.

    I’d been teaming up with an audio engineer, Sir Nic, and my husband, Matthew, was doing the video editing. We had a process we were happy with that worked for a long time. But the time frame to get episodes out wouldn’t have allowed me to highlight all the people that I had dreamed about.

    That’s why The Social Academic interview series is now a live-first format. And honestly? That kinda makes me laugh. It brings up a memory of a friend from college, Jose, who was a YouTuber. He was well known enough that some people recognized him. And he made it work, recording in his college dorm room. Jose used to livestream on a platform called YouNow, which is how I met one of my favorite DJs. And, where I first forayed into livestreaming.

    At the time, I was deep into research for my creative thesis, a collection of poetry based on the pianist, Glenn Gould. Gould had a fascinating view of the relationship between audience and performer, and became reclusive later in life. I was a singer. And my own relationship with performance had shifted. It was like better understanding Gould helped me make a more informed decision for myself.

    I no longer wanted to sing for people in person. But I was curious about how musicians were opening themselves up to performing virtually. It seemed like a different relationship, one that created distance while also sharing this more intimate personal side of the musician livestreaming. And the musicians? They seemed mostly relaxed.

    I wanted to explore how I felt performing live to strangers. It touches me to think back to that moment of bravery because opening yourself up can be scary for many people. It certainly was for me. I tried livestreaming a few times. I even got a couple virtual tips. And while my livestreaming experience on YouNow was shortlived, it opened up my mind to what it meant to hold space for people. And, to create space for yourself too.

    Sometimes, the things we try out aren’t your dreams. But they help other people. Maybe they build your capacity. Or, help you to better understand yourself.

    While I never dreamed about being a livestreamer, it really works with the kind of openness I am hoping we can create for each other in that conversation when we are live on The Social Academic interview series.

    LIVE ON THE SOCIAL ACADEMIC

    P.S. There is another live on YouTube this evening! Dr. Lily Rosewater joins me to talk about what it means to be more visible as an expert.

    When you want support to make your dream happen

    What dreams do you have? What dreams have you been holding back? Is there something you’re open to, but you aren’t sure how to get there?

    You don’t have to move forward with your dream now. I just love that you’re open to it for yourself in the future. If I’m more open to my dreams, if my guests are open to their dreams, if you the reader are more open to your dreams…we can better protect higher education in the ways that we care about it.

    Research is important, teaching is important, faculty, and each person on campus has value.

    I want people to be able to have a voice.

    It’s ok if the way you dream about sharing your voice doesn’t feel accessible to you right now. There may be ways or opportunities for you in the future. Naming your dream now can be a gift to ourselves.

    I want to wrap up with a personal story. My father-in-law, Bob Pincus, was one of my first clients back when I started The Academic Designer LLC in 2018. His online presence was not something he dreamed about. Social media in general was not a priority for him. He’s an art history professor, and a local celebrity here where he was art critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune for many years.

    Whether social media was a priority for Bob or not, his audience of people who already care about and were connected with him, were on social media. Every time he posts on Facebook, people are excited to talk with him. Do you have a professor friend like that?

    I’m sharing this story with you because Bob, who never loved social media, had a new dream recently. And actually this is funny, because none of us can remember what first sparked it. My mother-in-law, Georgie, says it was my idea. My husband, Matthew, says it was Bob’s. One day at the Costco in Carlsbad, California, we’re sitting at the outdoor bench having a slice of pizza. By the end of the slice, a plan for his YouTube channel was already in the works.

    Someone who never dreamed about having a YouTube channel now has multiple episodes in progress. He’s sharing in meaningful ways with the public about art in America through video.

    When Bob was laid off from paper, like many excellent journalists around the country were, people suggested he create something for himself. They said, “You should start a podcast!” or a blog. More recently he’s been encouraged to try Substack or a LinkedIn newsletter.

    But you have to want it for yourself.

    I’m so glad that when the spark for sharing on video came to Bob, he was open to the conversation. To turning the idea over in his head and seeing what we could make happen for him as a team. While you can totally start your YouTube channel on your own like I did, Bob knew he didn’t want to get there on his own. When you have an idea, it’s okay if you’re like Bob, thinking, “I need collaborators on this.” Maybe your idea is best solo, but it’s okay if you need a team to support each other too.

    One professor I chatted with who dreams about a podcast to talk about her research field, shared that a reason she’s wanting to be more active on social media is in hopes of finding a co-host for that dream.

    When we have a dream that feels like us and helps share our voice, it’s ok if you don’t know how to get there. These academics were all DIY for their YouTube. I’ve met podcasters who have started on their phone. I’ve met people whose university was able to support them in creating their podcast.

    There are awesome professors out there who turn their class into a limited-time podcast, and encourage students to create video even if it’s something they’ve never tried before.

    I want you to believe that if you don’t know how to do something, there’s an opportunity to explore your dream in the future when you’re ready.

    What’s your dream, academics?

    Here’s a few ideas for what you may dream about for yourself as a professor or researcher. You can help more people by being intentional about how you show up online. If it’s something you want for yourself? I’m excited for you. You’ve got this. Find resources on The Social Academic blog to help you.

    Subscribe to The Social Academic blog.

    The form above subscribes you to new posts published on The Social Academic blog.
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    Looking for the podcast? Subscribe on Spotify.
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  • VP Online Enrollment, Integrated Marketing Solutions, Carnegie

    VP Online Enrollment, Integrated Marketing Solutions, Carnegie

    The last time we caught up with Shankar Prasad, he was telling us about his new role as chief strategy officer at Carnegie. Shankar reached out, saying that he is recruiting for the key role of Carnegie’s VP of online enrollment and integrated marketing solutions. As I’m on the lookout to share information with our community about roles at the intersection of learning, technology and higher education change, this job seemed perfect. Shankar graciously agreed to answer my questions about the role.

    Q: What is the mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the company’s strategic priorities?

    A: Carnegie’s Online Program Experience (OPX) business line is an important growth area. The company aims to be the premier provider of integrated marketing and enrollment solutions for online programs. The mandate of the VP of online enrollment and integrated marketing solutions is to build and own the sales plan for this OPX business, drive revenue growth, and ensure that Carnegie’s full suite of services (research, strategy, digital marketing, lead generation, creative and website development) are successfully cross‑sold to new and existing clients.

    The job description states that the VP will “lead our sales strategy and execution to achieve our revenue targets,” shape the OPX growth strategy, and establish Carnegie as the premier provider of online program solutions in higher education. To do this, the VP must create the OPX sales plan, drive sales, meet goals and targets, and deliver growth through new clients and client‑expansion opportunities across Carnegie’s entire suite of services.

    This work aligns closely with Carnegie’s strategic priorities. The company positions itself as a leader in higher education marketing and enrollment strategy and emphasizes human‑centered, data‑driven solutions. By spearheading integrated marketing and enrollment solutions for online programs, the VP advances this mission—ensuring that Carnegie’s OPX offerings evolve with market trends, deliver measurable results and reinforce the organization’s leadership position. The role also requires thought leadership, cross‑team collaboration and partnerships, which support Carnegie’s focus on innovation and authentic human connections

    Q: Where does the role sit within the company’s structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across the company?

    A: The VP of online enrollment and integrated marketing solutions is Carnegie’s leader of integrated sales for OPX. The position sits within the company’s growth and revenue organization and is accountable for the sales plan, revenue forecasting and team performance. The description notes that the VP “owns the development of all sales pursuits related to OPX” and partners closely with the SVP of marketing and the chief growth officer to develop messaging, positioning and proposals. This indicates that the role reports into or collaborates with senior leadership on growth strategy and marketing alignment.

    The role is highly cross‑functional. It requires partnering with marketing and business development to support inbound and new business pursuits and providing training and support to sales representatives in those divisions. The VP must collaborate with leaders of all business units to share feedback and optimize the OPX solution for clients.

    Day to day, the person will work with colleagues in sales, account management, production, senior strategists, client success, executive sales and enrollment strategy. They will also work with growth team members to craft proposals and coordinate with the marketing leader on business development materials and events. Additionally, the VP manages OPX revenue forecasting and ensures visibility across all accountable parties. This matrixed engagement means the VP acts as a connector between sales, marketing, product and leadership, ensuring that OPX solutions are delivered seamlessly and that market feedback informs strategic decisions.

    Q: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?

    A: In the first 12 months, success would involve laying the groundwork for a high-performing OPX sales organization. The VP should build and execute a sales plan, recruit or train a team, and cultivate strong relationships with marketing, business development and other unit leaders. Key milestones would include securing new OPX clients and expanding revenue from existing accounts, delivering on initial sales goals, instituting accurate revenue forecasting and establishing Carnegie as a respected thought leader at conferences and webinars.

    Three years: By year three, the VP should have turned OPX into a mature, scalable business line. The sales plan would be continuously optimized based on market feedback and the team would be driving sustained revenue growth across Carnegie’s services. Market penetration should be evident through a diversified client base, with high renewal and upsell rates. The VP should have built a strong network of external relationships and should be contributing to product evolution by monitoring industry trends and competitor activity. Measurable outcomes might include year‑over‑year revenue growth outpacing the market, higher average contract values and expanded partnerships or acquisitions that enhance the OPX offering.

    Beyond (five-plus years): Over a longer horizon, success would mean that the OPX division is a significant growth engine for Carnegie and a well‑recognized market leader. The VP will have built a resilient, data‑driven sales organization capable of adapting to changes in the higher education landscape. They may spearhead new offerings or strategic acquisitions and could play a central role in broader company leadership. The division’s revenue contribution might warrant further expansion into related services or international markets, ensuring Carnegie remains at the forefront of online program marketing and enrollment strategy.

    Q: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?

    A: The VP of online enrollment and integrated marketing solutions oversees sales strategy, team leadership, revenue forecasting and cross‑functional collaboration. With 10-plus years of experience required in higher education enrollment and marketing for online programs, the role prepares someone for broader executive positions. Potential future roles could include:

    • Chief growth officer or chief revenue officer, because the VP manages revenue planning, sales execution and cross‑unit coordination.
    • General manager or president of a business unit, given the experience in developing a business line, building teams and driving profitability.
    • Chief marketing officer or chief commercial officer: The position demands collaboration with marketing leadership and deep knowledge of enrollment strategy.
    • Consulting or strategic advisory roles in higher education marketing and enrollment strategy, leveraging expertise in market trends, client relationships and integrated solutions.
    • Entrepreneurial leadership roles within the higher ed technology and services space, capitalizing on the growth mindset, executive presence and strategic thinking emphasized in the qualifications.

    By leading a high‑growth, cross‑disciplinary sales organization, the VP will develop a skill set that translates to senior leadership roles not only within Carnegie but across the broader higher education services sector.

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  • ‘The Sirens’ Call’ and Online Program Marketing

    ‘The Sirens’ Call’ and Online Program Marketing

    The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource

    by Chris Hayes

    Published in January, 2025.

    Imagine that you lead a team whose job is to generate qualified applicants for your institution’s online degree programs. Challenges abound. Post-pandemic, the supply of new online degree programs has grown faster than student demand. Inflation and job insecurity have stressed and immobilized the potential online master’s applicant population of working adults. Prospective applicants have low-cost master’s and alternative online credential options. The job of online program recruitment has never been more challenging.

    Being the wayward academic you are, you believe that the answer to any question and the solution to any problem can be found in a book. You need the right book for you and your team to read and discuss, out of which a strategy will emerge to engage and inspire online program applicants. What book do you choose? (Any nominations?).

    I recommend Chris Hayes’s The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource. 

    As a fan of lateral thinking, the working hypothesis that I’ve been testing over my career is that the best way to understand how to make a positive impact from within colleges and universities on our institutions is to read books that have nothing to do with colleges and universities. (Of course, I also read college- and university-focused books, which is a both/and sort of hypothesis). The effort required to apply books not about universities to universities often yields productive ideas that can be used for non-incremental organizational and institutional change efforts. Of course, it is possible to go horribly wrong with this approach, as with almost every attempted application of Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma to university innovation efforts, but that is another story. 

    I’m recommending The Sirens’ Call, which has nothing to do with higher education or online program marketing, because this book is about attention. The reality that we live in an attention economy will come as no surprise to anyone even remotely involved in the business of persuasion. What is excellent about Hayes’s book is how he expertly unpacks how we arrived at this place of universal distraction, the impact that divided and fragmented attention has on individuals and society, and how we might extricate ourselves from this (largely self-imposed) mess. 

    For teams looking to find ways to move prospective students through the admissions funnel (as we say in the biz), The Sirens’ Call provides an attention-centric framework to which to structure our campaigns. As Hayes writes about his world as a cable TV news host, his competition for viewers’ attention is not only the competing news programs but every video, article, post and scrolling feed available on the screen in the smartphone slot machine that never leaves our hands.

    Suppose the battle to generate prospective student interest in online programs is part of a larger war for attention. In that case, there are some steps that university marketing teams can take. First, it is essential to understand that deciding to apply to an online program—and even learning about which programs to potentially apply—is part of a much broader set of choices. Working adults thinking about upgrading their credentials and skills are thinking first about their careers. Their focus is not on universities, degrees or programs but on career progression. Getting and keeping the attention of these working adults may be easier if universities focus first on providing practical and actionable information and resources that directly address the career-related challenges and aspirations of workers. 

    How many online degree program university websites also contain articles, videos and data related to the careers that the master’s program is designed to prepare graduates to enter? We collect much of that data, including employment trends and projections, in the market research that underpins the decisions about which online programs to roll out. But how often do we make all that data available to prospective applicants? 

    As Hayes describes in The Sirens’ Call, a divided attention landscape changes the metabolism in which we all engage with information. Today, we might take weeks or months to finish a book, as we read in small chunks whenever we can find the time. Movies that once were watched in a single sitting in a theater (or on a Netflix DVD) are now viewed over days or weeks in small chunks across multiple screens. 

    We must keep the new pace of abundance-driven information consumption and absorption in mind as we communicate our online programs. Today’s full-time working adults thinking about applying to an online master’s degree (the population we are all competing to gain attention from) will likely research schools and programs over many months. They will secretly shop these programs first, not wanting to commit their attention to filling out expression of interest (EOI) online forms embedded on our sites, as they are not ready to receive the outbound admissions counseling calls, emails, and texts they know will be coming. 

    Understanding that the drawn-out decision-making process of potential online program applicants has everything to do with attention might change how we practice the art of digital marketing. A long game requires providing value at each step of the discovery, research, action and decision process. Anything that feels transactional will be a turn-off when everyone feels so much pressure to transact. Prospective students will not be persuaded to become applicants unless they believe that the online program on offer was designed to meet their needs. This new understanding may require rethinking how much information about our online programs we share pre-EOI, as working adults become ever-more reluctant to give those forms their scarce attention.

    How are you thinking about online program marketing in the context of our attention economy?

    What are you reading?

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  • Free speech still reigns, but faces setbacks online

    Free speech still reigns, but faces setbacks online

    This essay was originally published by The Dallas Express on July 21, 2025.

    Don’t want to publish an opinion on your blog you disagree with? Too bad, the government forces you to publish it. Criticize the mayor? Go to jail  — and good luck trying to sue the mayor for violating your First Amendment rights. Want to access online content legal for adults without jeopardizing your privacy and reputation? Think again, your state legislature demands you reveal your identity first.

    That’s not the America I know. Nor is it one a robust First Amendment would ever allow. But those constitutional threats came up before the Supreme Court during its past two terms, thanks to state legislatures and government officials who would prefer to play thought police instead of obey the First Amendment’s commands.

    For the most part, the Supreme Court did as it has for decades: It upheld the First Amendment as a mighty check on government intrusion into our thoughts, on public debate, and in the search for truth. Still, a couple of the Court’s decisions this year broke from that trend, causing First Amendment defenders everywhere to raise their collective eyebrows.

    Americans’ pilgrimage to the online world has placed free speech on the internet at the forefront of the Court’s recent First Amendment decisions. And that includes a case involving our Lone Star State. Last July, in Moody v. Netchoice, the Supreme Court considered Texas and Florida laws that tried to dictate how social media companies decide what political and ideological content to allow, and how to present it.

    Before the Supreme Court sent the cases back to the appeals courts for another look, it made one thing clear: The First Amendment bars the government from telling social media platforms what they can and can’t publish, just as it bars the government from telling newspaper editors what they can or can’t print. As Justice Kagan remarked, “on the spectrum of dangers to free expression, there are few greater than allowing the government to change the speech of private actors in order to achieve its own conception of speech nirvana.”

    In another pair of rulings, the Supreme Court considered two instances of local officials blocking citizens from commenting on the officials’ social media pages about the government’s performance. Although the Court didn’t rule in favor of either party, it confirmed the First Amendment limits officials’ power to block Americans from commenting on social media pages an official uses to conduct government business.

    With these social media decisions, the Court underscored that core First Amendment principles apply just as strongly in the digital age, helping to secure free speech online from government overreach.

    On the other hand, this most recent Supreme Court term found the Court twice deferring to governmental regulations of online expression. First, in TikTok v. Garland, the Court held the federal government’s effective ban on the popular social media app TikTok does not violate the First Amendment, even as half the United States uses the platform to speak and to receive information. The Court largely yielded to the government’s asserted concerns over national security, despite, as many pointed out, Congress’s failure to provide enough evidence showing TikTok poses a national security threat. In fact, the administration’s continued unwillingness to enforce the ban punctuates how suspect Congress’s national security concerns were.

    And in another decision, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Court upheld Texas’s law requiring adults to verify their age before accessing websites with sexually explicit material that is, while legal for adults, “obscene for minors.” Breaking from decades-old prior precedent that invalidated similar laws, the Court held the First Amendment doesn’t protect adults “accessing material obscene to minors” until they verify their age — even though that material enjoys full First Amendment protection.

    While the Court noted the accepted practice of ID checks for sexually explicit material in the physical world, it all but skirted the unique and serious privacy implications digital ID checks impose, in a time where Americans suffer harm from regular data breaches. Those privacy scares will chill many adults from seeking speech the First Amendment protects for their use.

    For all that, both the TikTok and Free Speech Coalition decisions are narrow ones. So on the whole, they should not undermine the broad protections for internet speech the Supreme Court has confirmed in prior terms. Still, any time the government censors speech on shaky evidence about national security concerns, or tries to burden adult access to protected speech in the name of childproofing the internet, it raises a First Amendment red flag that should concern us all.

    Outside of the digital world, the Supreme Court handed down several decisions over the last two terms vindicating the First Amendment as a vital check on overzealous government officials abusing their power to silence opinions they don’t like. For instance, in NRA v. Vullo, the Supreme Court held officials in New York violated the First Amendment when they coerced financial services and insurers and underwriters to sever ties with the National Rifle Association — all because the state disagreed with the NRA’s constitutionally protected advocacy. That’s hugely important for freedom of speech, affirming that the government can’t strong-arm third-parties into silencing Americans because of the views they express.

    Another decision centered on a San Antonio-area woman was a good step towards ensuring government critics have a robust remedy when officials wrongfully arrest them. In Gonzalez v. Trevino, the Supreme Court clarified that Sylvia Gonzalez, a long-time government critic, could sue the local officials who singled her out for arrest after she called for the city manager’s removal.

    And just this May, the Supreme Court halted the Maine Legislature’s denial of State Representative Laurel Libby’s right to vote just because the legislature’s political majority took offense to the lawmaker’s First Amendment-protected social media post about a transgender athlete participating in a high school event. Not only did the majority’s act infringe Rep. Libby’s First Amendment right to comment on public issues, it also deprived her constituents of the representation our republican form of government guarantees.

    At its core, the Court’s ruling in Libby v. Fecteau underscored a vital constitutional principle: Political majorities cannot censor and exclude others from the democratic process based on the views they express. That’s a first principle worth upholding, no matter where a speaker falls on the ideological spectrum.

    And we should all be glad the Supreme Court upheld that principle here, in a time where protecting the uniquely American freedoms to dissent and voice our opinions without fear of the government’s strong hand is as important as ever.

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  • Organization of Educational Historians National Conference, September 26-27th Online

    Organization of Educational Historians National Conference, September 26-27th Online

    Save the date – September 26-27! As a non-profit educational organization, we hope you will join us at our annual conference! If you are looking for a conference that includes sharing histories of education to help define present processes and inform the development of future responses, we hope you will join us and attend our annual conference. This year’s conference will include at least one panel on aspects of how artificial intelligence will impact educational history, but there will be many other panels. While the final conference schedule is still in development, this poster features examples of previous topics at the annual conference, so we can’t guarantee sessions on all these topics yet, but they demonstrate our past conference topics and may be indicative of what will be in this year’s conference. Our conference being offered online ensures low cost as we seek to invite many scholars into the organization by keeping travel costs low – and a full year’s membership, complete with the journal and attendance at the conference, remains affordable with a student rate ($60) and a regular rate (non-student) ($120)! With a peer-reviewed journal, an annual conference attendance complete with a noted keynote speaker, and a membership, we are dedicated to ensuring as many people as are interested can attend our conference. As you look to the fall, save the date and register here to attend: http://www.edhistorians.org/annual-meeting.html

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