I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~attributed to Etienne de Grellet~
Most borrowers owe more than 3 times what Biden is willing to cancel. This is like the difference between drowning in 10 feet of water or 40 feet of water. Either way, you're drowning. We need to bring people to shore, not drown them in half the water.
Free access to this FORUM piece--brief think pieces on current issues--ends tomorrow. Check out contributions by Brandon Bayne, Valerie Cooper, Gastón Espinosa, and me, all scholars of religion writing about the impact of the pandemic on higher education broadly. You can download now and read another day if you don't have time today. In my... Continue Reading →
It's not online education. It's a return to physical campuses in the fall. And while this is in part practical--When you kill students, retention necessarily falls.--it goes beyond the numbers of dead and lifelong injured that will result from a physical reopening. Reopening campuses is an admission that science, math, logic, moral reasoning, history, and... Continue Reading →
This post is part of an ongoing series to help you prepare an online course thoughtfully but, if needed, quickly. If you begin at the beginning, I'll take you through the major decisions you need to make to launch a class as quickly as possible while still doing a great job. Today's post is about... Continue Reading →
This post is part of a series designing online courses. We've been at it for awhile now, so if you are new to online course design, you may want to begin at the beginning. This post, the previous few, and the next two will focus on designing to ensure the validity of online assessments (that... Continue Reading →
"Be kind to your sibling." "I AM being kind--they're the one being a jerk!" "Be kinder. Be kinder. Be kinder than you think you need to be. Be kinder than you think they deserve." It's a regular interaction in my household. Someone--possible more than one someone--has been a jerk, a meanie, an obnoxious brat. Probably... Continue Reading →
Thanks to Beth McMurtie for reporting on efforts to pivot to remote teaching that are compassionate, reasonable, and realistic. This is part of a larger discussion about the culture of overwork, presence bleed, precarious labor, and more that will likely happen in higher ed as we continue into an economic crisis. The illustration above is... Continue Reading →
Rebecca Barrett-Fox 