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.

• Political Sex-Trafficking Exploitation, Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2018. (Legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives with the intent of combatting online sex trafficking may have broader implications for internet freedom through a provision amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.)
• A Guide to Good OER Stewardship, Inside Higher Ed, March 5, 2018. (OER advocates, concerned about commercial publishers profiting from open educational resources, have teamed up to create a framework for how to be a good actor with regards to OER.)
• Look Who's Championing the Degree, Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2018. (Providers of massive open online courses are beginning to place an increasing focus on launching academic programs in conjunction with big universities.)
• Stop Me Before I Text Again, Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2018. (A newly formed Stanford University student group, "Stanford Students Against Addictive Devices," plans to draw attention to the issue of smartphone addiction, which they characterize as an "important public health issue.")
• Washington state's net neutrality law is the beginning of a big headache for Internet providers, Washington Post, March 6, 2018. (Washington became the first state to enact its own net neutrality rules. Other states, like neighboring Oregon, plan to enact their own rules; a practice that may create a patchwork of rules for internet providers.)
• AI + Student Evaluations = the Future? Inside Higher Ed, March 7, 2018. (A new app for student evaluations includes artificial intelligence that could expand opportunities for engagement between students and instructors.)
• Bias Affects Instructors' Interactions with Online Students, Study Finds, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 7, 2018. (A new Stanford University study finds that online instructors show bias in their interactions with their students, with white males benefiting from this bias.)
• Closing the School Broadband Gap, Morning Consult, March 7, 2018. (Broadband accessibility advocates are dismayed with the FCC's implementation of rules administering the E-rate program — a federal initiative that makes telecommunication programs more affordable for schools and libraries.)
• US appeals court in San Francisco will hear net neutrality appeal, Reuters, March 8, 2018. (The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear challenges to the FCC's new net neutrality order.)
• What Should Reauthorization Be Like? WCET Frontiers, March 8, 2018. (WCET dives into Congress' efforts to reauthorize HEA and what those efforts could result in.)
• Confusion Over Distance Education Rules, Inside Higher Ed, March 9, 2018. (New distance education rules are set to take effect in July, but stakeholders have expressed uncertainty about how to comply and are awaiting further guidance from the Department of Education.)

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Jen Ortega is an outside consultant for EDUCAUSE.