EDUCAUSE Policy: Interesting Reads

With our "Interesting Reads" blog posts, the EDUCAUSE Policy Office highlights recent articles on federal policy issues and developments that are directly relevant to members or provide insights on higher education policy in general.

• The Politics of Academic Innovation, Inside Higher Ed, March 18, 2018. (In the confines of academic rules, regulations, and relied upon procedures, academic innovation can be hard to achieve.To increase the success of such endeavors, institutions should take certain steps.)
• Online, Cheap – and Elite, Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2018. (Georgia Tech’s experiment in offering a high-profile graduate program online and at a fraction of the cost appears to have paid off, some argue.However, challenges remain.)
• Does Online Reinforce the Color Line? Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2018. (While policymakers may consider educational-technology to be cost-cutting and a way to justify decreased investment in education, new trends – like online education – may have other impacts on learning and students.)
• Forging New Territory Online, Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2018. (California Governor Jerry Brown has proposed a completely online community college to target a population of “stranded workers” who find themselves at career plateaus due to a lack of educational opportunities.)
• Privacy issues emerge as major business risk for Facebook, Reuters, March 19, 2018. (Privacy experts assert that the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is supposed to prevent events similar to the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal.)
• Universities Collaborate to Tackle Cyberthreats, Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2018. (Indiana University, Northwestern University, Purdue University, Rutgers University, and the University of Nebraska Lincoln have launched a cybersecurity initiative called “OMNISOC.”)
• Machine Learning, Big Data, and the Future of Higher Ed. Inside Higher Ed, March 21, 2018. (Adaptive learning, big data analytics, and machine learning present tremendous opportunity for higher education, but stakeholders should consider the implications that their expanded use would have on a variety of areas – including student privacy.)
• Senate approves legislation to curb sex-trafficking, sending it to President Trump for signature, USA Today, March 21, 2018. (While FOSTA, legislation which seeks to combat online sex trafficking, has now passed both the House and Senate, the fight over parts of the legislation amending section 230 of the Communications Decency Act could now move to the courts.)

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Kathryn Branson is an associate with Ulman Public Policy.