Tag: students

  • Combining AI and Human Expertise to Better Protect K-12 Students Online

    Combining AI and Human Expertise to Better Protect K-12 Students Online

    protect-student-online-harmful-cyberbullying

    Content warning – this article discusses suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call, text or chat 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or visit 988lifeline.org for more resources.

    AI was one of the major themes of 2024.The discussion frequently revolved around its impact on work, but there are innovative ways it can be used to complement human insight to address significant societal challenges.

    For example, suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 (2022) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This impacts everyone from families to educators. In one small Missouri town, a K-12 Safety Support Specialist was alerted when a student searched, “How much Tylenol does it take to die?” and “What is the best way to kill yourself?” These online searches triggered the school’s student safety tool which uses machine learning to identify harmful content. A specialist was immediately notified and was able to quickly intervene, providing the student with the necessary support to prevent self-harm. 

    There is an urgent need for effective solutions to protect students from threats like suicide, self-harm, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful content. A combination of machine learning detection to allow for speed and scale, and human review to allow for context and nuance, is required for a comprehensive K-12 student safety tool. This allows schools to act when needed, as guided by their own Safety Plan. According to Talmage Clubbs, Director of Counseling for Neosho District in Missouri, “Our students know about it [student safety K-12 tool]. We have students purposely typing in keywords so they can be pulled in and talked to about their suicidality, their mental health issues, anything like that because they are struggling, and they just don’t know how else to reach anybody.”  

    Another example where human intervention is essential is when a machine learning-powered solution flags anatomical text as explicit content, but this might be for legitimate science coursework. Human reviewers can verify educational intent by examining context like student age and subject. 

    In the 2022-2023 school year, 94% of public schools report providing digital devices, such as laptops or tablets, to students according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This is a 28% growth from the number of devices provided pre-pandemic in middle schools and a 52% growth for elementary school students. As students spend more time online for school, they also use these devices for extracurricular learning and making social connections. However, they also have easier access to inappropriate content online. The challenges of ensuring online safety have become increasingly complex, as more students may seek harmful information or engage in distressing or inappropriate behaviors.

    To truly support all students — regardless of their socioeconomic background or technological literacy — in the digital age, solutions must be user-friendly and adaptable to the diverse needs of schools and districts. By collaborating — educators, technology providers like GoGuardian, and policymakers can create a future where AI enhances educational experiences for students, fosters healthy human connection and empathy, and ensures privacy.

    This also supports educators in today’s digital world who require innovative safety and security solutions to enable students to thrive physically, mentally, and academically while ensuring their well-being and academic progress. “You can rest well at night, knowing you are changing districts and saving lives,” says Dr. Jim Cummins, Superintendent of Neosho District.

    To learn more, visit GoGuardian.com

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  • HEDx Podcast: Time to partner with students and tech – Episode 147

    HEDx Podcast: Time to partner with students and tech – Episode 147

    The last episode from HEDx’s Future Solutions conference features interim pro-vice-chancellor of teaching and learning at the University of Queensland Professor Kelly Mathews.

    She joins Martin Betts to discuss a survey of over 8000 university students about how they use artificial intelligence.

    She is followed by a panel that included deputy vice-chancellor (education and students) at the University of Technology Sydney Kylie Readman, deputy vice-chancellor (academic) at Deakin University Professor Lix Johnson, vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University George Williams, president of Torrens University Linda Brown of Torrens, and industry executive of higher education at Microsoft Katie Ford.

    They call on universities to partner with students and the tech company eco-system. Is HE brave enough to get out of its lane?

    Do you have an idea for a story?
    Email [email protected]

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  • Solutions for Students Skipping Classes: Tips to Boost Performance

    Solutions for Students Skipping Classes: Tips to Boost Performance

    High education institutions and colleges are trying hard to suppress student skipping rates to boost performance and improve education standards. Management is trying hard to tackle truancy by imposing strict penalties on students skipping classes. Suspensions can only count as time missed from classroom instructions. Parents also face a blitz on attendance, and they are trying to keep students in higher education.

     

    No more students skipping classes – try these out!

    With nearly 25% of students admitting to skipping classes, we have churned out 10 sure-fire ways to tackle the issue behind students skipping classes. Easy to adopt, try these out for a result in a split-second.

     

    Techniques to tackle students skipping classes

     

     

    Monitor Attendance

    This is practically the first and foremost way when trying to clock in to stop students from skipping classes. Monitoring attendance at high education is not new. Forget the days when faculty used to pass a piece of paper around the classroom to check attendance. It was ideally to support students who silently disengage. But trust us, of the hundreds of students attending lectures, 10-20% can even be missing without the lecturer realizing. Do not think of suspensions – for even they count as time missed from classroom instructions. Having an attendance policy in place works better! With electronic registrations, there can be a more structured attendance pattern. RFID-based attendance management system tracks unauthorized absence or lateness of higher education students in real-time. This will reduce the scenario of students skipping classes keep up-to-date records for all courses and improve student outcomes.

    Track Discipline

    When it comes to tackling the problem of chronic absenteeism, students who already have a track record of skipping class can be a particularly tough crowd to sway. So infectious they could be! The overall strategy for tackling such high education absenteeism should be to prioritize discipline. Getting into a friendly discussion helps. Figure out ways to help such students. Pool in mentors! Take complete ownership. Alternatively, manage and track behavior incidents of students using discipline software and generate automated reports for quicker decision-making.

    Parent Communication

    Get parents involved! This can be a way to reduce tardiness amidst such irregular students. Increased communication with parents will curb the notion of students skipping classes. Today, there are many parents connect software that provides real-time access to student’s academic information.

    Manage Assessments

    Another reason for students to skip classes could be their exam anxiety. If these classic signs of test uneasiness fill your classroom, attendance muddles will be there. Make assessments tension-free by creating online tests and assignments and sharing results with students and parents often. This will reduce the rising numbers of withdrawals from assessments and remove fears and inhibitions from students and parents.

    Review of Curriculum

    Hard to believe, but yes attendance truancy could be a result of the ill-fitting curriculum too. Teachers can review the curriculum and align the portfolio of courses to deliver quality learning for the institution. The curriculum management system provides student access to all the relevant course and curriculum data.

    Smart Classrooms

    Students feel aloof when teachers do not spend little or quality time with them. With smart classrooms paperwork gets eliminated, enabling teachers to spend quality time to improve teaching and learning.

    Teacher Evaluations

    Never neglect students who are chronically absent themselves – be all ears and resolve it at the earliest. This strategy works better! Analyze the teacher’s effectiveness in classrooms with a strong evaluation system and set performance goals to improve their skills. An ineffective faculty is but a drabby asset to the class. After all, it is they who matter the most in the classroom.

    Role-based Security

    The high education management system provides role-based authorization which facilitates discipline and eliminates privacy concerns of students. This information is protected and will be visible only to the targeted students or groups. Parents will be able to access and see the information about his or her children.

    Event Management

    Turn mundane days into gripping ones by scheduling events and announcements! With many departments and units, scheduling an event might seem like a task. Using an online calendar can be a lifesaver here. With such a calendar in place, make instant academic information available to students, teachers, parents, and alumni for specific purposes.

    Automated Notifications

    Don’t wait for the students to turn up the next day to notify them. Sending mass notifications with pre-built templates helps! Dish it out to students, teachers, staff, and parents via email, SMS alerts, and push notifications.

     

    How Creatrix Campus Cloud Can Transform Your Institution and Simplify Student Life

    Here’s a tip: Cloud and mobile technology can tackle regular and chronic absenteeism and benefit in many ways. They drastically result in increased attendance rate, improved student performance, reduced staff workload, and improved efficiencies of the institution.

    Creatrix Campus offers the most advanced cloud and mobile-based cloud suite of solutions designed for higher education institutes. Adaptable, it easily integrates with other modules and provides secure access to track all your information in a single unified system.

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  • Supporting Students Formerly in Foster Care

    Supporting Students Formerly in Foster Care

    Title: Addressing Challenges and Support for Youth Formerly in Foster Care

    Author: Ellie Taylor

    Source: Trellis Strategies

    Youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) face complex and heightened demands with regard to postsecondary education. In a new brief from Trellis Strategies, the author discusses the distinct needs of YFFC who pursue higher education.

    Trellis Strategies’ 2023 Student Financial Wellness Survey found that YFFC have considerably lower levels of food security compared to their peers, while the share of housing insecure YFFC students is 28 percentage points higher than that of non-YFFC students. Additionally, more than seven in 10 YFFC students did not know if their institutions had aid programs for them.

    Most institutions do not have a means of identifying YFFC if they do not first identify themselves, complicating their ability to help students. However, less than 40 percent of students who indicated their YFFC status on their FAFSA reported receiving more funding. While 18 percent of students knew about institutional aid opportunities and 25 percent knew about state aid opportunities, 63 and 54 percent of students who were aware of these programs, respectively, participated in them.

    The report highlights four key policy recommendations:

    • Fund and appoint liaisons for YFFC. Institutions should have a full-time staff member dedicated to supporting YFFC students.
    • Cultivate more awareness of support for students. Develop and sustain communication between higher education institutions and foster programs in order to build a robust awareness of resources for YFFC students and identify YFFC students.
    • Develop accessible programs for YFFC. Make programs, including trauma-informed counseling and academic support, convenient and free for YFFC.
    • Offer food and housing assistance. Designate specific housing for YFFC and provide aid to ease the financial burden of housing and food.

    Read the full report here.

    —Kara Seidel

    If you have any questions or comments about this blog post, please contact us.

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  • 5 Ways to Advocate for Your Students During The U.S. Election

    5 Ways to Advocate for Your Students During The U.S. Election

    Election Day in the U.S. is just around the corner. On top of carrying multiple academic and employment responsibilities, some students will also be voting for the first time. Others, such as those from marginalized or historically underrepresented populations, may be overwhelmed with what the election results could mean for them. In the lead up to Election Day, a healthy dose of empathy will be essential in ensuring students have a chance to fulfill their civic duty—and the opportunity to consider its consequences.

    Being flexible with due dates, considering students’ wellbeing and ensuring learners are armed with the resources needed to vote are the most important things you can do as Election Day nears. Read on to learn how professors advocated for their students during the 2020 election—and how you can do the same.

    Consider making November 4 and 5 free of assignments (or even classes)

    Exams can cause some students a great deal of stress and anxiety. Lillian Horin, Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD student at Harvard University, urges educators to keep BIPOC students in mind when scheduling high-stakes tests.

    Consider swapping your exams or problem sets (Psets) with a trip to the ballot box. Jacob Light, Economics PhD student at Stanford University, writes that this simple gesture may allow students to exercise their civic duty.

    Other students like Anna-Sophia Boguraev, Bioengineering PhD student at Harvard Medical School and MIT, say that TAs have the power to amplify student concerns and requests—none of which should be ignored.

    If your assignments can’t wait, build in flexibility and timeliness

    Self-paced learning can allow students to visit the polls and complete coursework at a time that works for them—so says Jesse Fox, Associate Professor of Communication at Ohio State University.

    Election Day can also be a good opportunity to let students catch their breath in your course. Give students a chance to study and review material that they haven’t had a chance to look over, suggests Scott Grunow, Instructor in English and Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

    Should your institutions provide little leeway in your assessment choices, at least incorporate real-time events into your discussions. Derek Bruff, Associate Director, Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia, notes that relating course content to the election can help students see the value of what they’re learning.

    Real-time political events and policy proposals can make for discipline-specific conversations. This also allows students to apply what they’ve learned in your class to the real world, as Andrea Gomez Cervantes, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Wake Forest University, proposes.

    Mobilize your students to show up at the polls

    Gen Z students are motivated to vote. In the 2018 midterm elections, the student turnout rate increased by 20 percent compared to the 2014 midterms.1 Ensure students are equipped with the resources to vote as soon as possible, writes Wendy Christensen, Sociology Professor at William Paterson University.

    Similarly, ask students about their voting plans. Consider working with your class to ensure they know where to go on November 5, suggests Margaret Boyle, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College.

    Ensure your voter registration information and resources appeal to all students, regardless of what political party they support. Meghan Novisky, Assistant Professor of Criminology at Cleveland State University, emphasizes the importance of using non-partisan guidelines.

    Some scholars like Sara Wheeler-Smith, Associate Professor of Management at Manhattan College, even plan to offer a grading incentive for visiting the polls.

    Incorporate guest lectures and learn from your colleagues

    Navigating election week with students in mind might be an unfamiliar undertaking. Consider leaning on faculty at your institution for support, writes Heather Mayer, Director of Educational Technology at Everett Community College.

    Some students may be undecided voters, while others may have missed the presidential debates. Incorporate forms of debate in your classroom—with the support of scholars from other institutions, as Yujin Jung, Political Sciences PhD student at the University of Missouri, plans to do.

    Keep in mind the importance of mental and physical health

    Check-ins with students have gained new meaning in the midst of an election. Andrea Kelley, Sociology Professor at the University of Michigan, tends to her students’ socioemotional needs before assigning readings and lectures.

    Election Day can come with a range of emotions for many students. Cate Denial, Distinguished Professor of American History, Chair of the History department, and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College, removes the expectation for students to pay attention and participate in class.

    References

    1. Thomas, N. et al. (2018). Democracy Counts 2018: Increased Student and Institutional Engagement. Tufts University. https://idhe.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/DemocracyCounts2018.pdf

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  • Infographic: What 21,000+ Students Say About Top Hat

    Infographic: What 21,000+ Students Say About Top Hat

    It’s that time: the days are becoming shorter, temperatures are beginning to dip and more importantly, educators and students have returned to the classroom. At Top Hat, we recognize the value of ensuring every student comes to class prepared and excited to learn. We recently surveyed more than 21,000 students who used Top Hat in the Spring 2024 term about the impact our engagement platform and content solutions had on their academic journey. From interactive readings to in-the-moment study support, here’s how Top Hat made a tangible difference in their studies.

    Greater preparedness = better retention

    When students arrive to class feeling prepared, they’re more likely to persist. Data from the American Council on Education and the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles backs this up. The report finds that three out of five students surveyed state academic underperformance drove their decision to leave college for more than one term.

    Faculty have made tremendous strides in providing opportunities for frequent, low-stakes knowledge checks during the term. The emphasis on bite-sized assessments hasn’t gone unnoticed among students. “Real-time quizzes and polls not only helped reinforce key concepts but also encouraged active participation among students. Top Hat has truly enhanced our classroom interaction and made learning more enjoyable,” says Muhammad Ali Gajani at Indiana University Bloomington.

    An image that reads: 87% of students say that Top Hat helped them feel engaged in the learning process.

    Students bring an array of opinions and interests to your course. It’s why they value the opportunity to be active participants in the classroom. Research also shows that students who learn using active learning methods perform better on tests than those who sit in long-form lectures. Students echoed the impact Top Hat’s interactive polls, quizzes and discussions had when applying their knowledge. “Top Hat helped me perform better in my class as well as apply my understanding to my homework and exams,” shares Jacob Purcell at West Texas A&M University. An anonymous student from Texas State University at San Marcos chimes in. “It helped me to pay attention and stay engaged, getting me a better grade.”

    Turning static readings into an interactive experience

    We hear from educators that students don’t always complete their reading assignments before class. Over the years, students have tried to take shortcuts to their readings by searching for online summaries. How have educators responded? For starters, they’ve chosen to create ‘snackable’ content with media and real-world case studies that reflect an ever-changing world. Faculty have also relied on Top Hat’s personalized and interactive content solutions to ensure students have opportunities to read and then apply their understanding of concepts in the form of embedded polls and discussions.

    An image that reads: 90% of students who used a Top Hat Interactive eText recommend their instructor use Top Hat again.

    No matter discipline, students have responded favorably to using Top Hat titles in their course. “I loved the interactive aspect of my Top Hat textbook. Engaging with models, watching videos, and answering questions in chapters was really interesting and valuable to my learning experience,” shares an anonymous student at the University of South Dakota. Learners also appreciate the digestible nature of Top Hat Interactive eTexts. “With Top Hat, I felt that I could easily understand the information and stayed focused throughout my reading for the first time,” shares an anonymous student at Northern Virginia Community College.

    Making participation less intimidating

    An image that reads: 2 out of 5 students say that being able to ask questions to their instructor anonymously helps foster a sense of belonging.

    Raising your hand in a large class can come with a good deal of intimidation. Students place increased importance on asking questions anonymously and without fear of judgment. It’s why millions of students have flocked to Generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT for instant study guidance. Educators have tapped into the heightened interest in AI and have shared ethical use principles with students. Some faculty have even allowed students to build off content generated by a Large Language Model. For instance, English professors may let students use ChatGPT to form a thesis statement for an essay and ask them to critique the strengths and weaknesses of the generated response.

    An image that reads: “Ace was helpful. There were several occasions where I had questions that needed to be answered immediately and Ace was always there to save the day.” Student at the University of West Florida

    More than 630 of our survey respondents used Top Hat Ace, our AI-powered teaching and learning assistant, in the Spring term. Their comments revealed three primary ways that they relied on Ace through the course of their study. 

    1. Provide clarity: Students valued receiving clarification on challenging concepts covered in lecture or while reading their assigned text. “I liked that [Ace] asked a thought-provoking question after answering to promote continuous understanding of the topic, not just giving me the answer,” shares an anonymous student at Oakton Community College.
    2. Personalize study support: Students often relied on Ace for course-specific guidance when completing homework. The best part: since responses are built from the context of the course, students feel like they’re learning along the way versus being handed answers. “I love Ace! I would ask questions and Ace always believed in me that I could answer the question on my own so it would just recommend a section of the module to re-read,” says Nazli Kircicek at McGill University.
    3. Assess knowledge on the fly: Several students highlighted how Ace allows them to reduce their knowledge gaps in advance of tests. Many also used Ace as a tool to apply their understanding of concepts in a low-stakes, low-stress environment. “Ace was able to create sample exam questions relating to the content we were learning in class to prepare for exams during lectures,” shares an anonymous student at Grand Valley State University.

    → New Ebook: FREE strategies to use AI effectively in any course

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  • Assignment Help Online for Indian Students Studying Abroad

    Assignment Help Online for Indian Students Studying Abroad

    We provide Turnitin report  as a provide for plagiarism free assignment writing service for students who hire for premium service. Peace of Mind reduce the anxiety associated with

    Students often struggle with academic pressures from university due to Plagiarism issue while submission of the report and often the report gets rejected and students loose their academic years. At mba project guide we offer complete Peace of Mind to tackle this issue.

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  • How to Equip Your Students With Essential Soft and Hard Skills Using Ed Tech

    How to Equip Your Students With Essential Soft and Hard Skills Using Ed Tech


    Today’s employers don’t just hire based on educational achievement. They’ve increasingly prioritized higher-order learning skills during the hiring process. To help students become job ready and land a role in the current workforce, professors need to empower learners with the necessary 21st-century skills, often called ‘soft skills.’

    This guide lays out key information on how to create opportunities for skill-based learning to help smoothen the transition from college to the workforce. It will also describe how to develop these skills in students while they’re still in the classroom. Most significantly, you’ll learn how educational technology can sharpen the essential soft skills students need beyond your course.  

    Below are 15 soft and hard skills that make up 21st-century learning.

    The 4 Cs of 21st-Century Learning

    The first four of these higher-order learning skills are widely considered the most vital 21st-century skills in the classroom for students to learn. Commonly known as the 4 Cs of 21st-century learning, they comprise:

    1. Critical thinking:

    Critical thinking is about problem-solving, and being able to bring a skeptical, discerning perspective to assertions of fact and opinion. Students are given opportunities to question and challenge the information presented to them. Troubleshooting and IT support are two hard skills that rely heavily on critical thinking as a foundation and are in-demand skills for the wide variety of technology-based careers in today’s job market.

    How Top Hat helps: Donna M. Smith, a math instructor, is a recipient of the Top Hat Black Educator Grant. A teacher of College Algebra at Sierra College, she has leveraged Top Hat to build a framework that helps students learn how to develop critical-thinking skills, and other soft skills like teamwork, adaptability and time management. She uses this framework to provide students with practice opportunities that demand specific actions from students, then gauges their higher-order learning using Top Hat’s range of assessment tools, spanning all six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. As a result, she reports, she’s found her students’ rate of success improved dramatically.

    In the same vein, 93 percent of students surveyed in a Top Hat research report said the variety of assessment types Top Hat offers help them learn how to develop critical-thinking skills.

    2. Creativity:

    This is the process of approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, including ones others might not notice. It helps develop trust in one’s own instincts and helps students seek out new solutions to old problems.

    3. Communication skills:

    This is the ability to convey thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively. In a 21st-century education, that includes being able to communicate well digitally, from texts, emails and social media, to podcasting and video conferencing.

    How Top Hat helps: Top Hat’s Discussion feature helps develop skill-building via collaboration in the classroom. While not all students are always on an equal playing field when it comes to comfort in group discussions, this Top Hat feature meets students where they are by allowing them to respond to comments and questions from any device. They can use simple text or incorporate images, sound bites and videos to propel the conversation forward. Teachers can even employ anonymity to make students comfortable engaging in sensitive topics. Teachers can use this Top Hat feature to drive up classroom participation significantly.

    4. Collaboration:

    This is the ability to work with others as a team to solve a problem or achieve a shared goal. It helps develop the abilities to share control, pitch solutions and discuss and decide with others the best course of action. It also helps students learn to effectively deal with others who may not agree with them, develop the critical abilities to resolve conflicts effectively and consider different viewpoints from their peers.

    Research shows that students who enter the workforce with knowledge and experience in the 4 Cs of 21st-century learning tend to be more adaptable and flexible in the constantly-shifting workplace environment. The 4 Cs of 21st-century learning, in turn, empower students to work better across cultures and are more prepared to take on leadership roles.

    Key Higher-Order Learning Skills

    Other important 21st-century skills in the classroom include:

    5. Problem-solving:

    This is the use of both conventional and innovative methods to solve different types of unfamiliar problems. It involves identifying and asking meaningful questions to clarify different viewpoints and arrive at more effective solutions.

    How Top Hat helps: The Top Hat Assignment feature enables teachers to provide students with interactive homework assignments that actively engage them in their own higher-order learning outside the classroom. A multimedia-friendly tool with 14 easy-to-use question types and automatic grading, this versatile feature keeps collaboration, communication and other essential skills front and center. It incorporates reading, answering questions and viewing media with worksheets, case studies and simulations to help students develop a deeper understanding of a problem and a multifaceted approach to its potential solutions. An added benefit for instructors is that it provides insights into students’ comprehension, participation and completion in real-time.

    6. Information literacy:

    This includes the ability to access, evaluate, utilize and manage information, critically and efficiently. It also involves the accurate and creative application of available information to the current problem or issue. It requires managing data flow from multiple sources, and the application of fundamental legal and ethical knowledge regarding access to and use of that information.

    7. Technology skills and digital literacy:

    Often abbreviated as ICT literacy (Information, Communication and Technology,) this is the collective set of abilities that allow students to effectively apply digital technologies to researching, evaluating, organizing and communicating information across digital channels. This may include using computers, mobile devices, social networks and other communication tools. Jobs in machine learning, product management and software development require understanding of technological platforms and apps. Individuals in these careers must be proficient in these skills in order to suceed.

    How Top Hat helps: Top Hat improves general literacy and digital literacy at the same time with Interactive Textbooks. Dynamic courseware incorporates text with high-quality images, videos and 3D simulations to captivate students’ interest and help them absorb and retain information better. They include case studies and customizable, interactive assessments, and students can access them anytime and from any device. Teachers can use Top Hat’s interactive textbooks in combination with physical textbooks, or on their own.

    Incorporating interactive textbooks and other digital technologies also helps students with skill-building and better prepare them to enter the 21st-century workforce by providing one-to-one computing, giving them the technology required to utilize their higher-order thinking skills in coursework.

    8. Media literacy:

    This includes the ability to analyze media and create media products. It involves understanding how, why and for what purpose various entities construct media messages, including what values and viewpoints they choose to include or exclude, and why. It also examines how people interpret messages differently and how that influences behaviors and beliefs. 

    9. Global awareness:

    This is the use of 21st-century skills to comprehend and address issues of global magnitude, and to collaborate with those from diverse backgrounds. It also involves taking an equitable or inclusive mindset when presenting new information. For example, educators might draw connections between cultural references in an English or cultural studies course. Teaching students the importance of global awareness also starts with reflecting on current and real-time events in your teaching, such as incorporating case studies on political or social uprisings.

    10. Self-direction:

    This is the ability to effectively set goals and manage time, as well as to work independently. It requires determining tangible and intangible criteria for success and balancing short-term tactical goals with long-term strategic ones. It also requires demonstrating initiative and commitment and working independently, including defining, prioritizing, monitoring and completing tasks without oversight, while reflecting on past experiences and learning from them.

    11. Social skills:

    This is the ability to effectively interact with others and work in diverse teams. Students recognize the appropriate times to listen or speak while remaining open-minded to diverse values and ideas. Students also learn how to conduct themselves professionally in a respectful manner, including when working with people from different backgrounds. Those looking to pursue careers in nursing or other areas of healthcare must be proficient in providing both emotional and physical care to patients. Common hard skills required for these careers include Basic Life Support (BLS), Patient Safety and Critical First Aid.

    12. Perseverance:

    This is the ability to persist in a determined effort in spite of obstacles and setbacks. It requires many of the other higher-order thinking skills, including problem-solving and self-direction, to employ effectively.

    How Top Hat helps: Top Hat’s 21st-century learning suite includes many tools that help educators make sure no student falls behind. Not least among them is learning insights. By tracking every interaction between a student and the software automatically, Top Hat enables you to see which students need additional help, in what area and when. Gauge attendance, progress, comprehension, participation—and act on these insights proactively in real-time.

    13. Literacy skills:

    Basic literacy skills include the abilities to create, comprehend, analyze, absorb, retain and recall written information. In the 21st-century workplace and modern economy, they especially apply to business, economic, financial, health and entrepreneurial interests.

    14. Civic literacy:

    Students become familiar with how civic decisions have local and global implications. This type of literacy involves effective participation in civic life by remaining informed and comprehending the processes of government. It also requires knowing how to exercise citizenship rights and obligations.

    15. Social responsibility:

    This encompasses everything from human rights, labor practices, the climate and the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement and development. It requires accountability, transparency, ethical behavior and respect for stakeholder interest, the rule of law, international norms of behavior and human rights.

    Why 21st-Century Skills Are Important

    Importance of Soft Skills for Students

    At its most basic level, teaching 21st-century skills, like critical thinking, provides a framework for higher-order learning. Beyond that, however, it also helps students develop the skills that ensure they will thrive when they leave the classroom and enter the workforce.

    Today’s workplaces are changing constantly, and the role of technology is ever-evolving and growing. That means that persistent, continual learning is essential to succeed and an emphasis on the importance of soft skills for students. Today’s graduates require not only the knowledge and skills for their chosen careers, but critical-thinking skills to navigate an always-changing landscape.

    Good for the World

    The greater community also benefits from new workers entering the workforce with a 21st-century education. The wellbeing of our broader society requires workers with competence and experience in:

    • Civic engagement
    • Critical thinking
    • Digital literacy
    • Effective communication
    • Global awareness

    Graduates equipped with these higher-order learning skills comprehend their role as good citizens and their connection to their neighbors and their shared environment. This way, they are more tolerant, they think more equitably and they aim to build a more diverse workforce. They are empowered to approach all they do in their work with a civic-minded focus.

    Conclusion

    As a 2017 research review in Nurse Education in Practice reported, “Technology has advanced in quantity and quality; recognized as a requirement of 21st-century learners.” Integrating curricula on critical thinking and other soft skills in your classroom will help your students enter the 21st-century workplace better equipped to meet the challenges facing future workers and leaders. As technology becomes an increasingly inseparable part of the working world, it’s becoming more evident that teachers who make effective use of it have an advantage in helping students prepare for life beyond the classroom.

    The developers and designers of Top Hat, including professional educators themselves, are singularly focused on employing the latest in 21st-century education technology to help educators empower students to achieve these aims.

    References

    Ross, D. (2017, April 24). Empowering Our Students with 21st-Century Skills for Today. Getting Smart. www.gettingsmart.com/2017/04/24/empowering-students-21st-century-skills/

    What is social responsibility? (n.d.). ASQ. asq.org/quality-resources/social-responsibility

    LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise 2022: The 25 U.S. roles that are growing in demand (2022, January 18). LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-jobs-rise-2022-25-us-roles-growing-demand-linkedin-news/


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  • Are students fleeing to the south to avoid The Woke? Three possible answers.

    Are students fleeing to the south to avoid The Woke? Three possible answers.

    The three answers to the question in the title, in case you want to cut to the chase, are “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe but we really can’t tell for certain.”

    This has been a point of discussion for some time.  The completely neutral publication Southern Living, with absolutely nothing to gain from publishing this piece, for instance, was convinced it was true back in 2022. 

    The American Thinker had similar observations, but made it about politics in this piece. And finally, among the articles I’ve seen, at least, is this one, in The Free Press where the money quote is “Even if I could have gotten into Harvard, I wouldn’t have gone,” an observation which seems like it was made for a gif.

    There are a lot of anecdotes in these articles, of course, and we all know that three anecdotes are more than enough to build a story upon: My lawyer’s neighbor’s son’s girlfriend is going to Alabama because she liked the rush videos, for instance, can be the basis for a whole research paper in sociology.  Or, of course, an article in a publication that pays by the word.

    I have a stubborn old-fashioned preference for data, however.  And–just to spoil the fun–even data won’t tell us everything we need to know to answer the question.  But it’s a good start, and it’s perhaps a bit more robust than political hit pieces described as documenting societal trends.

    And good news for all of you who don’t like to interact with Tableau visualizations: This one is just pictures.

    First, let’s take a look at the shape of the market to have a place where we can put our feet down.  We’ll start with WICHE data, which I’ve found to be very reliable, but of course imperfect, showing high school graduates over time, with years after 2019 being projections.  For all of these views, I’ve broken things out by my own state regions, colored on this map. (Click it or any image to view larger).

    Here is the breakdown of high school graduates by these regions, showing the percentage of total in each year. Columns total to 100% in each year.

    If you know anything at all about higher education data, you already see a problem as we try to establish some framework: Each state and each region has different college going patterns.  In wealthier states, and states with higher educational attainment among parents, college-going rates are higher.  Within states, there are differences too: About 8% of all college students in the US attend community colleges in California, for instance, and almost all of those students are California residents.

    Now, let’s take a look at undergraduate enrollment over this same period.  Because much of the national discussion is focused on first-time freshmen, I’ve limited this enrollment set to only those traditional, four-year institutions that enroll undergraduates and accept freshmen.  I’ll just call this The Filter Set going forward.

    You’ll probably notice that the patterns are about the same, but you see the effect of the California Community Colleges here: Many more students don’t attend four-year colleges in the state, which makes it different from other parts of the country.  For reference, here is the same visualization showing all undergraduate enrollment in all institutions (not just in The Filter Set).  You’ll note the re-balancing, which is a function of the vast majority of college students going to college close to home.

    Here is the historical pattern of first-year student migration, from 1988 to 2022.  As you can see, about seven of ten students stay in their own state for college, which means the number of students who cross state lines is small, making even big swings in those patterns hard to measure and describe as meaningful.  It’s also interesting to note that more students today are more mobile than in the past, for a lot of reasons I won’t go into here, but as always, you can start the finger pointing with Ronald Reagan. 

    For the sake of clarity (or confusion) here is the same data for The Filter Set.  Similar pattern, slightly different numbers.  More students cross state lines to attend these institutions with wider draws.

    And if you want to break it out a little bit, here is a view over time of The Filter Set and the migration patterns between regions in 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. 

    And this data shows only those students who left their home state and who attended one of the colleges in the Filter Set, to help amplify the migration patterns. 

    Over time, the percentage of first-year applications submitted has grown in the Southeast, but not the Southcentral region.  Actually, what’s remarkable about this chart is the consistency over time.

    The breakouts of enrolling first-year students by region?  Also stable and showing similar patterns.

    So, maybe there is a slight trend along the margins of college attendance.  But what’s causing it?  Most social scientists (going out on a limb here) would say it’s probably best when researching a problem like this to dive more deeply than interviews with a dozen students who fit the pattern you’re trying to demonstrate.  What I see in the overall patterns appears to follow population shifts, which is probably the biggest “duh” of all: If population in the Southeast is growing, you’d expect college enrollment to grow as well.  

    But let’s discount that obvious answer for a moment.

    Why would students be applying to more southern locations?  Well, first, they’re easier to get into, in general. 

    For another thing, they cost a lot less, on average, based on sticker price.  Each dot represents one college, and the gray boxes cover the middle 50%, with the divider between dark gray and light gray showing the median.  You can see that for both public and (especially) private colleges, tuition seems to be much lower than other places. I’ve not tried to normalize this by Carnegie type or selectivity, to be clear.

    Private colleges in the south net a lot less cash per freshman, too.  This does not always mean students pay less, but it’s a pretty sure bet in general it costs less after aid to go south as well. (I only calculate this for private institutions because discount rates at publics are fairly meaningless given different tuition levels and state funding models, in case you were wondering.)

    But the publics do a pretty good job of funding nonresidents, too. They recruit hard and roll out the welcome mat for students, especially on price.

    We don’t have 2023 data yet, and we won’t have 2024 data for about another 18 months, at least, so maybe we’ll wake up one morning and find that these small sample size stories are dead-on.  But I seriously doubt it.  For every student fleeing the north because of The Woke, there is probably a student fleeing the less Woke states below the Mason-Dixon Line.

    And yet, we know many–perhaps most–17-year-olds are afflicted with still-undeveloped prefrontal cortices that might keep them from being political, rational, and/or sophisticated when it comes to college choice.

    The answer to the headline?  You probably already knew the answer, didn’t you?  The lesson is that media pundits who look at a little bit of data and talk to a few people to confirm their perspectives often shape the narrative, which gets stuck in the collective consciousness of the American conversation.  It’s not something I can fix.  Maybe you can make a little dent if you share this with people.

    But it’s important, when we see increasing criticism of our institutions, and increased turmoil on campuses, that we–the people who work in higher education–provide the balanced and rational perspective we so often claim to impart to our graduates.

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  • Private college discount rates for first-year students, 2021

    Private college discount rates for first-year students, 2021

    Two quick additions/clarifications to this:  The definition of full-pays is those students who receive no institutional funds.  EM people don’t care where the cash comes from, only the discount.  Second, yes, I know some institutions use endowments to pay for institutional aid.  That percentage is likely very small, although concentrated at a few institutions.

    Before we begin, here is what this post does not do:

    • It will generally not tell you where you can get low tuition, with a very few exceptions.  And when it does, it won’t be at one of “those” colleges.
    • It will not tell you which colleges are likely to close soon, although after the fact, you can probably find a closed college and say, “Aha! Right where I expected it would be!”
    • It will not show you net costs to students.
    • It will not adjust for things like church support, enormous endowments, or the cost of living in that high-priced city where Excellence College or Superior University is located.

    Got it?  Good.

    This will show you the discount rate on first-year students at about 1,000 four-year, private, not-for-profit colleges in 2021-22.  Discount as I define it is the total unfunded institutional financial aid divided by the total charged (gross) tuition and fees.  A university that charges (published tuition and fees times the number of students) $10,000,000 and awards $4,000,000 in aid has a discount rate of 40%.  At most colleges, this discount is simply an accounting transaction, much like a coupon to save a dollar on a sandwich at Subway.  That, of course, is a gross over-simplification of the “what” of discounting, and it doesn’t touch the “why” of discounting at all.  But if you want an explanation, I’ll gladly talk to your trustees for a reasonable fee.

    And there is a difference between discount and net revenue, although at any given tuition charge, the two are perfectly related.  Unfortunately, as  you’ll soon, see, colleges all set their own tuition.  To wit:

    • A college charging $50,000 with a 20% discount has net revenue (the cash you can spend) of $40,000 per student.
    • That same college with a 50% discount has just $25,000 per student.
    • A college charging $30,000 with a 10% discount has $27,000 per student.
    • That same college with a 40% discount has $18,000 per student.

    As a college, you don’t care where the cash comes from: Pell grants, state grants, loans, or the student’s family.  This means, hypothetically, a student with low institutional aid might pay less than one with more aid.  Confused?  Good.

    If you use this with your trustees to explain your own college’s market position, consider supporting my costs of time, hosting and software by buying me a coffee.  Just click here to do so.  If you counsel high school students, or your a parent of a prospective college student, must keep reading and don’t feel any obligation at all.

    Here is the data, in three views.  The first two are box and whisker plots, where half of the colleges fall inside the gray box on each column to show you the middle 50%.

    The first view shows net revenue per freshman student, arrayed by the institution’s Carnegie type.  Use the controls to filter region, highlight region, or highlight an individual college.  To do the latter, type any part of the name in the box, hit enter, and select from the options.  Hover over dots for details; each dot is a college.

    The second view is identical, but it shows discount rate, the number people obsess over while missing the more important net revenue figure.

    The third view shows those two values arrayed, with the same highlighters, allowing you to filter on Carnegie type, or even the percentage of the students who are full-pay (that is, they get no institutional aid at all.)

    You’ll soon see that discount and net revenue don’t seem to be big issues at the big name, strongly endowed institutions.  That’s because, at many of these places, undergraduate education is essentially a sideline business, and only a minor source of revenue.  The money they bring in (or don’t) on this presumably core function of the university is managed to best optimize to reputation or selectivity, or other factors (including, sometimes, mission).

    Note that I’ve done my best to remove some outliers with wild data that throw the charts off.  Many of these are colleges I have never heard of, and they’re tiny.  Others are places with strong religious missions (like Yeshivas or Seminaries) that may be externally funded in ways this can’t account for. 

    Enjoy

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