The Key with Inside Higher Ed

Exploring obstacles rural students face in higher education, the Opportunity Realize program at Miles Community College focuses on essential soft skills and aligning student skills with business requirements. State support and private grants enabled a free college course, and integrating college courses into high school curriculum led to enrollment growth. Initiatives promoting equitable access to education at community colleges have had positive outcomes.

A panel of news hounds discusses some of the biggest stories involving colleges. This week’s episode features a conversation about some of the hottest news developments unfolding in higher education today. Topics include how the recent formation of a union for basketball players at Dartmouth College might help to reshape college sports, the turmoil created by the federal government’s botched roll-out of the federal financial aid form, and what Inside Higher Ed’s recent survey of college and university presidents says about higher education and about campus leaders themselves. Joining the discussion is Katherine Knott, who covers federal policy for Inside Higher Ed, and Erin Hennessy, executive vice president at TVP Communications and an acute observer of higher education. The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by Coursedog.

Affordability is a top concern for higher education leaders, and professors are directly responsible for the affordability of their course materials. In this episode, Patty Goedl from the University of Cincinnati at Clermont discusses her OER e-textbook, which she wrote and developed to make her managerial accounting course more accessible to learners. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by InsideTrack.

Mauro F. Guillén, a professor at Wharton and author of *The Perennials*, discusses the future of higher education in a post-generational society. He explores how lifelong learning will become the norm, challenging traditional age stereotypes and life stages. Guillén argues that educational institutions must adapt to blend work and learning throughout our lives. He highlights the importance of flexible, innovative curricula and the role of technology in fostering continuous personal growth, emphasizing that age should no longer limit educational opportunities.

The episode features two higher education professionals, Mike Krause from the John M. Belk Endowment and Ashley Flood from Purdue Global, on adult learners. Krause and Flood talk about the needs of adult learners, how an institution can support their success and practical ways to assist students.   Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by InsideTrack.

This week’s episode of Voices of Student Success features Jody Greene, associate campus provost for academic success at the University of California, Santa Cruz, on the relationship between faculty and student success, how UCSC is empowering faculty to practice equitable course design and the future of academic success. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by InsideTrack.

This week’s episode of Voices of Student Success features Adelí Durón, the inaugural director of the Latinx Resource Center at the University of California, Irvine, on its mission and how she works to ensure student voices inform programming, engagement and center leadership. Hosted by Inside Higher Ed Student Success Reporter Ashley Mowreader. This episode is sponsored by InsideTrack.

Three years ago, Inside Higher Ed created a podcast to try to give its audience insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting colleges, employees and students, with a particular focus on the more “invisible” students who too often fly under the radar of journalists and campus leaders.  This week’s episode, The Key’s 100th, features a discussion with Paul Fain, who as Inside Higher Ed’s news editor launched the podcast and nurtured it through its first year. Paul, whose newsletter The Job explores the intersection of employment and education, talks with The Key’s host, Doug Lederman, about the people working on behalf of those invisible students and the issues they’re addressing.  The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Gateway courses” are supposed to clear the path to fields of study, but for millions of students who struggle in those key classes, they often shut the door prematurely. This week's episode of The Key digs into early efforts to develop courseware for 20 high enrollment courses that can make or break whether students from all backgrounds persist and ultimately complete their educations. The goal of the initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to bring together colleges, companies and research organizations to build digital courses that can be used on dozens if not hundreds of campuses to eliminate gaps in performance by students from different backgrounds. Ariel Anbar is a President’s Professor at Arizona State University, which is working with Carnegie Mellon University and the publisher OpenStax to create a general chemistry course heavy on active learning and real-world problem solving. Jeanette Koskinas is chief product officer at Lumen Learning, which is developing an intro statistics course in close collaboration with students and instructors at institutions like Rockland Community College and Santa Ana College. The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The complex, confusing process by which students move between colleges has been an acknowledged barrier impeding postsecondary completion, particularly for underrepresented students. The issue is drawing increasing attention from policy makers, given rising concerns about value and equity. This week’s episode of The Key looks at some of the transfer work being done by the major college and university systems that enroll a majority of today’s learners. Two experts participate in the discussion. Dan Knox is director of the Institute for Systems Innovation and Improvement at the National Association of System Heads, known as NASH, which is undertaking various efforts to align the work of state systems on attacking this problem. Rebecca Karoff is associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Texas System, where she oversees a transfer advisory group and works with other systems in the state on these issues. The Key is hosted by Inside Higher Ed Co-founder and Editor Doug Lederman. This episode is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.