The “dream school”

Without taking acceptance or cost into consideration, students and parents were asked what their dream school would be. Here are the results:

Students and parents agreed on seven schools: MIT, Stanford, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, Princeton, and the University of Michigan.

Students seek career readiness, academics an afterthought

The academic reputation of a school and the education students would gain from a degree proved to be unpopular priorities for most students and parents.

More respondents chose a “College with the best program for my (my child’s) career interests” (38%) than they did a “College with the best academic reputation” (11%) for an institution they’d most likely select. Additionally, almost half of the respondents believed the biggest benefit of a college degree is the potential for a better job and income while only 23% chose its educational value.

Financing school is the top roadblock for applicants, parents

In 2003, 52% of respondents chose “Won’t get into first-choice college” as their biggest worry while 8% chose “Level of debt to pay for the degree.” Twenty years later, the respondents flipped the survey on its heads.

• 42% of respondents chose the answer “Level of debt to pay for the degree.”
• 27% worried that they “Will get into first-choice college but won’t be able to afford to attend.”
• Only 23% chose “Won’t get into first-choice college” as their top worry.

Similarly, 98% of respondents said financial aid will be necessary to support themselves or their child while 54% said the need would be “extremely likely.”

Access to scholarships and additional aid is one of the leading reasons students chose to take the SAT or ACT even though Ivy League schools and others no longer require standardized testing for admission consideration.

Read more on UB: Community college students hit an academic ceiling, report finds

Test-optional policies get mixed reviews

While access to scholarship money and other avenues of financial aid was the second-most quoted reason to take the SAT/ACT (33%), the leading reason was in hopes that standardized test scores could distinguish their application (43%).

Overall, schools’ test-optional policies aren’t creating such a hoopla. Nearly 70% of respondents reported that their policy didn’t affect their application decisions. However, 23% of respondents said they were more likely to apply to a test-optional college.

“Our hope is that all students bound for college can access resources to identify the school best for them, get accepted to it, get funding for it, and graduate to rewarding and successful careers,” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review and director of the survey.

The post Survey: Students and parents stress cost and career prep when picking a college appeared first on University Business.

University of Oregon’s Teaching and Learning Center recommends two to three hours of study time a week per class on average, which comes up to about 30 hours a week for a full-time student. Higher education advisor Blanca Villagomez identifies that this workload doesn’t account for students taking more rigorous classes, who face a more robust work schedule.

“Essentially, college students are encouraged to treat their classes and study time as full-time jobs. However, the reality is very different,” Villagomez said. “Right now affordability is a significant concern for many students, as the cost of tuition and living continues to rise, and loans become an inevitable loyal companion.”

Students earning current minimum wage

If college tuition continues its ascent while the minimum wage remains constant, the majority of states would demand students work 60+ hours, three of which would require more than 90 hours. Students in 18 states would have to work between 40 and 60 hours.

Students in all but three (!) states would have to work more than 40 hours a week to pay for school and living expenses. New Mexico, Missouri and Florida all have a minimum wage in the $11 range.

• Pennsylvania (minimum wage: $7.25): 100 work hours to sustain $37,578 annual tuition and living costs.
• Wisconsin (minimum wage: $7.25): 88 work hours to sustain $33,334 annual tuition and living costs.
• Georgia (minimum wage: $7.25): 72 work hours to sustain $27,174 annual tuition and living costs.
• Texas (minimum wage: $7.25): 69 work hours to sustain $26,112 annual tuition and living costs.
• New York (minimum wage: $13.20): 57 work hours to sustain $28,484 annual tuition and living costs.
• California (minimum wage: $15.00): 43 work hours to sustain $33,492 annual tuition and living costs.

States like Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey had some of the highest minimum wages – upwards to $14.25 an hour – and still the average required working hours for students exceeded 50 hours.

Students earning $15 minimum wage

With a federal wage boosted to $15, half the United States would enjoy needing to work less than 40 hours a week. However, states—primarily in the Northeast—would still demand from their students 45+ hours of work. Adding in an average of 30 hours a week a student needs to study outside of class, their “workload” comes out to more than 70 hours a week, which does not include time spent in class or transportation.

Also, of the 25 states featuring students working less than 40 hours a week, 17 of those still required 30-40 hours of $15 minimum wage work.

Even with the federal minimum wage doubled, high tuition costs, like in Massachusetts and Arizona, offsets student ability to pay for school.

• Massachusetts: 65 work hours to sustain $51,024 annual tuition and living costs
• Vermont: 57 work hours to sustain $44,688 annual tuition and living costs
• Virginia: 46 work hours to sustain $35,470 annual tuition and living costs
• Maryland: 45 work hours to sustain $35,388 annual tuition and living costs
• Arizona: 45 work hours to sustain $34,964 annual tuition and living costs
• Illinois: 41 work hours to sustain $31,858 annual tuition and living costs

This is a glass-half-full/half-empty situation: Should we celebrate that half the country can work fewer than 40 hours a week, or should we be concerned that half the country still can’t support its students at $15 per hour?

“In an ideal world, balancing a full-time academic load with 12-15 work hours every week would be ideal for student success,” said Villagomez. “The benefits? It allows students to dedicate the majority of their time to studying and completing their assignments.”

More from UB: How Vermont is winning the fight against falling enrollment

The post With tuition costs so high, a new minimum wage won’t help students appeared first on University Business.

The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI), in partnership with The Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program, brought together 22 different college and university campus stakeholders ranging from students, faculty, staff and administrators to analyze how they respond to campus conflict. Assessing stakeholder anecdotes and solutions to hypothetical scenarios involving free speech, CDI and The Aspen Institute released a joint research report that identifies how to best strengthen communication and cooperation on campus when exploring contesting ideas.

Stakeholders concluded that conflicts were most likely to occur with visiting campus speakers between or within student groups; between individual students, faculty and/or staff; between student groups and the administration; between faculty and/or staff and the administration, and between the institution and its surrounding neighbors.

More from UB: Defend your college’s academic freedom: Here’s a toolkit to help you do it

Why (extreme) campus conflict has escalated

Respondents noted that a healthy dose of campus conflict is essential to uphold the mission of higher education. Open dialogue of contesting beliefs exposes its community to new ways of thinking and creates a more informed citizen as a result. However, campus conflict that goes too far can do the reverse: It instills fear in those who wish to speak and in turn inhibits speech.

The report discovered these underlying issues adversely affecting constructive dialogue:

• External pressure facing the school: The most incendiary external pressure may be coming from state legislation meddling with school values. Competition among institutions has become fiercer to keep enrollment up. As a result, they’ve increased their availability of amenities and are enrolling a more diverse student body. However, offering more amenities raises costs, which in turn raises tuition and threatens affordability. Additionally, with a more diverse student body, school leadership has been slow to mirror these changes, and staff is collectively homogenous.
• Internal pressure: Schools are in a cycle of mistrust that both create and reinforce negative behaviors on campus. For example, students don’t feel like their schools are doing enough to ensure academic equity. Couple that with increasing political polarization among individuals and you get a campus that fears speaking openly, for they believe they will face financial and social consequences. This leads directly to the next issue.
• Overreliance on policy: Because the campus community doesn’t trust they can handle conflict among themselves in a professional fashion, they are quick to demand certain ideas are punished or reprimanded through policy. However, policy in most cases cannot take definitive action on speech. As one administrator put it: “Words on paper don’t change behavior.”

While these problems stir issues naturally, social media is a powerful agent exacerbating these issues, “rewarding reactionary, rather than thoughtful, behavior.”

Principles and strategy

CDI and The Aspen Institute found eleven principles students and nine subsequent strategies campus leaders can take to establish a rich market of ideas. Here are some of them.

• (Principle 3) Help activists think past the protests. An institution can’t stop its community from protesting certain issues, but it’s up to the school to help its community make informed decisions. By communicating to faculty, staff and students ahead of time how their actions may go against school policy, the consequences they may receive won’t seem like the school is responding out of a place of retaliation.
• (Principle 5) Prioritize those immediately affected by a campus conflict. Among the dozens of micro-communities and diverse stakeholders across campus, it can be overwhelming to create a tailored response to each one. Schools must concentrate their efforts on communicating thoughtfully with those directly affected.
• (Principle 11) Get out of the reactive space. School stakeholders can sometimes put unwieldy demands on schools that place them “between a rock and a hard place.” When the possible solutions carry too many negative ramifications, find ways to reframe the issue by incorporating stakeholders into the problem-solving. Between leadership and stakeholders, a third path may arise.
• (Strategy 2) Create a low-stakes environment to practice open dialogue. When students and faculty have designated spaces they associate with open communication, they can act as “release valves” when campus conflicts begin to really percolate. Formal designations like town halls don’t attract new voices, so implementing these practices where people already are, like classrooms and staff meetings, might just do the trick.
• (Strategy 8) Invest in and engage expertise. Local expertise coming from social psychologists, experts in crisis communication, ombuds and others have a closer eye on issues than school leaders. The best part is most colleges and universities already have a strong supply of people to go to.

The post How your school can maintain a healthy environment for open dialogue appeared first on University Business.

The Cloud Lab isn’t a science project—it’s the future of science as we know it.

“I’m not interested in building just a cloud lab at CMU,” says Doerge. “Yes, we’re the first academic institution to do it, but I really want to change how science is done in the United States and worldwide, eventually.”

With access to a stable Wi-Fi connection, students and faculty around the world have access to over 200 different lab instruments at their fingertips. After learning the lab’s protocols, they send their AI-assisted experiment parameters to the facility’s trained technicians—and robots. Following the coded commands, the lab assistants will execute experiments on their behalf. Although the lab is located only a stone’s throw away from campus, no one from CMU will ever have to step foot in the lab.

“We are automating science. We don’t want faculty in the facility because they don’t need to be,” Doerge says. “They can code their experiment anywhere in the world—in an airplane, in an office, wherever. Submit the code, the science is done.”

As the first academic institution to embrace the cloud lab, it only makes sense that the only private research facility to harbor such technology helps them acclimate. Staff from Emerald Cloud Lab, founded by two CMU alumni, will help run the facility for the foreseeable future until faculty get their feet wet.

More from UB: Ditching their legacies, colleges and universities embrace switch to Cloud

Democratizing science

Only the best-resourced institutions in the world can attempt to render the experiments of the field’s most gifted scientists. Unfortunately, faculty and students around the world have been limited by their area’s capital- until now.

“I have friends and colleagues from under-resourced places that will never have the instruments and the environment they need to do the science they’re capable of. This takes it all away,” Doerge said. “With an internet connection and access to a cloud lab, you can do the science you’re capable of.”

It also further evens the playing field for individuals suffering from disabilities.

Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, Andrew De Young successfully graduated from CMU with his Ph.D. in January 2021 while restricted to a wheelchair and hooked up to a breathing tube. The school provided Andrew with assistants who could help him type, and they acted as his surrogate in the lab. Doerge introduced De Young to the cloud lab system, and De Young quickly learned that instead of relying on others to do his work by hand, he could do it himself by code.

“I can’t believe CMU is going to have one of these,” he said, according to Doerge.

The only real limit to what a scientist can do in a cloud lab is the extent of their own ingenuity.

Expedient, cost-effective testing

A hallmark of the scientific method is that experiments and conclusions must be reproducible by other scientists in their respective labs. Consequently, scientists spend a lot of time—and money—trying to replicate each other’s work.

Working from one centralized lab, however, dramatically streamlines this process. Instead of having to reproduce the work of a colleague, someone can review the code that went into their experiment and simply modify it to render the next experiment. Not only does this push science forward faster, but it also saves scientists from committing errors during the replication process which further slows the process down.

Dmytro Kolodieznyi, a Ukrainian student with whom Doerge acquainted the cloud lab, was able to replicate his thesis research out of Emerald Cloud Lab’s facility in San Francisco in only a few weeks when it had originally taken him years to put it together.

Additionally, because all of CMU’s experiments will be run from one centralized source, one particular instrument can fill the needs of a hundred students, maximizing the potential of the expensive equipment. Costs associated with machinery breaking down from shutting down and ramping back up are now a thing of the past. It cost CMU $26 million to acquire the lab’s instruments, but their continuous operation and maintenance ensure they’ll get bang for their buck.

Pushing science into the Now

EPAM Systems, a product engineering company, helps its clients in education technology and beyond leverage cloud-based technology to expand its capabilities without sacrificing significant resources to infrastructure. He believes we must adopt emerging technologies to survive in a new digital landscape.

“Our society is fundamentally tied to technology and technology advancements. As educators, as facilitators of education and as a society, we need to embrace that approach and push students to learn technology—embrace it, learn it and figure out how to leverage it, because that’s where innovation comes from,” says Brian Imholte, Head of Education & Learning Services at EPAM Systems.

Doerge shares a similar sentiment, believing that the scientific method is in the prime spot to be renovated for a new age. “Science has been done the same way for hundreds of years,” she says. “We have a cellphone that’s not even 20 years old that’s basically a hand-held computer. It’s ridiculous to be looking at science the same way.” 

The post The new disruptor: Carnegie Mellon’s Cloud Lab ‘automates’ science appeared first on University Business.

“I think the pandemic accelerated the trend that was there, and the trend that’s there is more and more training going online,” said Tim Springer from Level Access, an accessibility compliance service. “Even on-campus student experiences now are a mix of virtual learning and in-classroom experience.”

As for students with learning impairments or disabilities, COVID-19 catalyzed two technological trends that have further democratized education for disabled students: emerging digital-based learning tools and web accessibility.

Tech tools

Digital tools with granular-level accessibility adjustments that can be tailored to most student needs have changed the ways students prefer studying course materials and meeting with faculty.

“One of our graduate students who is pursuing his Ph.D. is very functional but legally blind,” said Rodd Newcombe, director of Student Success at Florida Tech in Melbourne, Fla., in an email. “He found that during the COVID lockdowns his one-on-one advisor meetings were held on Zoom or Teams. This allowed him to have more effective meetings where it was easy for him to electronically take notes or have an example shared on a screen at extra-large resolution that enabled him to understand and share in the specific topic better.”

The student has chosen virtual meetings ever since, noting the supplemental information virtual tools can provide to absorb information more effectively.

Occupational therapist Jennifer Castilloveitia from Beacon College in Leesburg, Fla., the first accredited baccalaureate institution dedicated to educating neurodivergent students with learning and attention challenges, has worked with many visually and audio-impaired students through the pandemic, and she believes “the digital world is going to work in their favor.”

“The digital world is creating more access to students with disabilities, especially those with vision. When it’s on the digital format, you can adjust it, magnify it, and use a bunch of assistive technology,” she said.

Students provided digital textbooks, for example, can use Kurzweil 3000, a disability solutions software, to download files and convert them to .mp3 audio files. Google and Microsoft provide similar services. One of her students struggling with a visual impairment was able to use a Microsoft accessibility tools that reversed the screen’s contrast, dramatically alleviating their vision disability while browsing content.

“COVID has shown the world that certain resources are available to everyone,” said Tynisha Henderson-Mitchell, director of student accessibility services at Western New England University in Springfield, Mass. “As we continue to create space for everyone, we have to give some grace to students because they’re all learning in different ways.”

More from UB: Designing for inclusivity

Web Accessibility

Aside from assistive digital tools, Springer also notes how a progressive “societal tone” over the course of time has evolved and how important digital accessibility is today in higher education.

“If I were to tell you 10 years ago that access to online courses was a civil right—or even a human right if you want to be more aggressive—you probably would say, ‘Maybe. I don’t know if I buy that.’ Now if I told you that everyone should have access to online courses, you probably would just take that as a given. And 10 years from now, it will be fully implemented in society.”

Springer also believes the increased activity and the vigilance of OCR offices during the Biden administration has helped ensure that colleges are following web accessibility compliance. Level Access also helps organizations efficiently update their services when working across hundreds of different web pages.

“In pretty much every organization, there is an officer for ADA compliance, so their ability to provide alternatives and accommodations is pretty good. What’s different with digital accessibility is that all of a sudden they have to do it across all of these courses, and it requires a lot more technical knowledge versus just providing accommodation.”

While Castilloveitia understands that not all students facing disabilities can ever fully migrate online without assistance, finding the right digital tools for a specific student’s needs is a necessity in today’s world.

“It can be tedious to find the right tech for the right person and the right software and tools, but there’s a lot of hope out there,” she said. “I think it should be incorporated into all levels of education. What can we continue to do to continue the accessibility regardless of the disability.”

The post Disabilities and edtech: How the pandemic sparked a revolution appeared first on University Business.

Nearly every job requires its employees to have a considerable range of digital skills, according to a report from the National Skills Coalition, an organization that seeks inclusive and high-quality skills training for all. Most students meet this expectation on their own, considering many students have access to the internet and a mobile device or computer. Schools can further prepare students for a successful future in tech through a multitude of career prep programs. How about a career in one of the most dominant industries in tech: app development?

Appy Pie, a no-code development platform, recently announced a free app development workshop designed for K12 and college students. The program aims to provide students with hands-on professional experience and introduce them to the world of app development. By removing coding from the creation process, teachers can utilize the workshop in their classrooms without any barriers to entry.

“We started back in 2015,” says Joel Perez, senior relationship development manager at Appy Pie. “Around that time, everything was program-based or code-based, so if you wanted to do anything you needed to know some kind of advanced coding. To jump this hurdle, we came up with a solution so now it’s a drag-and-click kind of process where you’re just building it and designing it.”

It does require some degree of configuration, he says, in order to set up the app. But it’s “really minimal.”

Since its inception, according to Perez, they’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and professors.

“They love it,” he says. “They love that we’re starting these courses showing people how to build apps. It’s a great place to start and get that hands-on experience. With the app builder, you can create an app within five minutes and test it on your Apple or Android device. That’s how quickly you can have something done.”

Notable colleges and school districts around the world are utilizing the program, such as Reed Union School District, Fresno Unified, Montecito Union, Coleg Cambria (UK), Texas Southern University, and Westminster & Emirates College of Advance Education (University of Westminster).

Professors and students can participate in a pre-recorded curriculum where students can learn at their own pace with live sessions tailored for that particular course throughout. Perez says students have access to a variety of other opportunities beyond app development.

“We do automation, we have a website builder, a chatbot builder and other different products,” he says. In addition, for college students or more advanced users, they’re able to remove the “no coding” feature to obtain those real-world skills.

“We do have a code page that they can add to the app and they can develop apps themselves,” he explains.

Perhaps one of the most valuable features of the program is that students can tangibly see the value in their product. According to Perez, schools can implement students’ apps into their daily operations.

“Maybe you need a school directory app, for example,” he says. “Or an app that’s going to display school programs, events, maybe newsletters. We have schools using the actual apps in the real-life school environment.”

More from UB: How a college’s mobile app connects students when they can’t connect

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In the post-pandemic world, young adults are more skeptical about the traditional high-school-to-college funnel, noting its financial burden, lack of workforce focus and how bewildering it can be going in without a sense of belonging or real-life skills. Colleges embracing the times are implementing strategies to stay ahead of enrollment and retention.

Curricula pivot to prioritize labor-market learning

As of May 2022, 39 million students completed only some college or left without a degree, according to National Student Clearinghouse data. Half of all community college students struggle with picking classes around their job. With a student body losing steam midway through a college or university program and facing barriers to even finding time to schedule classes, stackable credentials are an emerging model for people hungry for education on a tight routine.

Employers are highly interested in their value as well, with 76% of them more likely to hire a candidate who has earned a professional certificate.

Applicants are risk-averse to burdensome debt

Three in five prospective students cite paying for college as their top concern for attending college, which can create a barrier to enrolling in the first place—and their fears are not unfounded. Over 60% of students from the 2015-16 graduating class are still paying off debt.

Some schools are bold enough to explore implementing “no-loan” policies that promise students 100% of their expenses will be met with grants, scholarships and other tuition assistance strategies. An initiative like this, however, requires millions of dollars and is obviously not feasible for every institution. Instead, schools are exploring better ways to advise students on how to curb their expenses, such as streamlined pathways to encourage Advanced Placement courses and employer-sponsored tuition assistance programs for nontraditional students.

More from UB: Reaching Gen Z: Action steps colleges can take to ensure they are interested

Revising revenue streams

Cost-cutting may seem the most obvious way to help institutions maintain long-term solvency amid wilting enrollment numbers, prohibitive inflation hikes and declining respect for a college education.

With federal grant funding at nearly $200 billion, colleges and universities are devising stronger initiatives to be competitive for those dollars. While fundraising is a time-tested revenue stream, schools less endowed with wealthy donors are coming up with creative new revenue-generating ideas. Unity College in Maine, for example, is instating public workshops and offering customized workforce training for businesses.

Cultivate community for tender students

Students seek a strong sense of belonging, especially among a diverse student body adjusting to living in a completely new environment. More than 50% of students reported being singled out at their institution based on their identity, which is likely to contribute to the one-third of students who have seriously considered withdrawing from their programs in the past six months.

Hanover suggests culturally relevant services be offered that help affirm student individuality. For at-risk students skeptical about professional services for mental health needs, nontraditional resources such as peer-supported mental health programs can do the trick.

Here are five more strategies Hanover suggests to boost student retention.

Innovative marketing tactics with measurable results

Traditional media and outreach models aren’t as effective as they once were. Colleges are moving toward a digital-based, business-like approach to their marketing strategies, such as employing data analytics to maximize ROI and refine campaign tactics. Institutions are also reportedly leveraging social media “influencers” and developing branded partnerships.

The post Getting creative: How higher ed is finding solutions to post-pandemic problems appeared first on University Business.

More than 70% of respondents agreed that job applicants with non-degree or alternative credentials have increased the past two years and those hires helped their organization fill an existing skill gap (74%) and improved the quality of their workforce (73%). It’s no wonder, then, that 71% affirmed that their organization is becoming more accepting of non-degree or alternative credentials in lieu of traditional four-year degrees.

A résumé containing micro-credentials is increasingly advantageous. A whopping 95% of employers said a résumé listing micro-credentials benefited the candidate because it demonstrates a willingness for skill development (76%), and most employers were not concerned about non-degree credentials having an adverse effect on the workforce.

With alternative and non-degree credentials becoming increasingly more appealing to employers, colleges and universities are in the perfect position to corner the market. However, schools may be bungling this opportunity. Less than half of employers were approached by schools to build micro-credential programs.

“Micro-credentials can play a critical role in the new economy. However, similar to how online degrees were perceived two decades ago, some are critical about the quality of non-degree programs, despite a lack of evidence to support a systematic problem,” said Jim Fong, Chief Research Officer at UPCEA.

More from UB: How AI and other technology will fix value leakage in higher education

How schools can benefit from a joint-developed micro-credential curriculum

Sixty-eight percent of employers would like to be approached by a college or university to develop micro-credentials, and there are multiple reasons this would be beneficial to both parties.

As students struggle with staying engaged in classes and feeling disconnected from the real world, the majority of employers agreed micro-credentials’ greatest benefit is that they give people practical, real-world experience. Schools can motivate a student base lacking purpose by exposing them to opportunities built with direct input from the industries they aspire to join after graduating.

Most organizations work with four-year colleges or universities (49%) and community colleges (45%) to provide training or learning opportunities to their employees, so while collaborating on micro-credentials may be unfamiliar territory, the connection is well established.

Executives, supervisors and HR staff still more highly value a traditional degree over non-degree credentials. They are more of a supplement than a replacement.

University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) and edtech company Collegis partnered for this study, which reflects the opinions of 514 employers from different organizations. Each individual surveyed oversees or directly works in employee development and hiring, operates at an organization with more than 100 employees, is above an entry-level position and is deemed qualified to speak about their respective company’s needs in training and professional development. The majority worked in finance (14%), followed by healthcare (13%) and manufacturing (12%).

The post Why higher ed needs to get on board with micro-credentials appeared first on University Business.

OpenAI, the chatbot’s creator, launched its own AI-writing detector several weeks ago, yet it’s not 100% accurate, according to the company. They recommend that the classified not be the sole indicator of plagiarism, but instead “as a complement to other methods of determining the source of a piece of text.”

Most recently, the well-known plagiarism catcher Turnitin announced that it has successfully developed a generative AI detector that is capable of identifying 97% of text written by ChatGPT with a less than 1% false positive rate. It is expected to be available as early as April 2023.

“Based on how our detection technology is performing in our lab and with a significant number of test samples, we are confident that Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities will give educators information to help them decide how to best handle work that may have been influenced by AI writing tools,” said Chief Product Officer Annie Chechitelli in a statement. “Equally important as our confidence in the technology is making the information usable and helpful and in a format that educators can use.”

The company also published an AI writing resource page to support educators in their efforts to address AI writing and generated text.

“As AI text generators like ChatGPT quickly evolve, our educator resources will, too,” according to their resource page. “Curated and created by our team of veteran educators, our resources help educators meet these new challenges.”

For example, there are resources outlining what educators are saying about AI-generated text, as well as a guidebook for approaching tools like ChatGPT in the classroom.

“We are very happy to see productive conversations taking place across the education community about academic integrity and tools to ensure the authenticity of authorship,” said VP of AI Eric Wang. “Teachers should use Turnitin’s detector to have fulsome conversations with students about this technology.”

More from UB: ChatGPT a cheating tool? These educators think you’re looking at it wrong

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The report surveyed over 5,000 students and almost 2,500 college instructors and found that 53% of students are having trouble retaining class material, 55% of undergraduates are struggling to stay interested in their classes, and 66% of instructors find it challenging to keep students engaged.

The main culprit for the chasm between the student and the classroom seems to be financial and emotional stress, which corroborates reports from TimelyMD’s study on student’s top stressors.

“Students are facing a wide range of financial and emotional challenges in today’s new normal,” says Wiley Executive Vice President Matt Leavy. “These challenges are leading to disengagement that threatens their success and the outcomes and objectives of the schools serving them. Students will need extra support to remain in school, stay engaged and ultimately meet their academic and career goals.”

Specifically, 51% of students struggled to pay their tuition and appropriate materials, which is a 7% bump from last year, and 43% are having a tough time covering living expenses—a 14% hike.

Students are also at a loss with how their degree is conducive to success outside of college, and their qualms are well-founded: A similar Wiley report found that companies are finding it harder to recruit people whose talents align with their mission.

Wiley’s recommendations

• Provide more financial and mental health assistance at schools. If a sufficient amount of resources are in place, increase awareness of the programs.
• Check in with students earlier in the semester and maintain contact with them throughout the semester. Especially ensure at-risk students are being heard and understood.
• Connect what students are learning to relevant career experience. For example, present students with real-world case scenarios and professionals who can link what they’re studying to what they should expect after they graduate.
• Boost transparency between the degree they’re pursuing and the relevant careers they can expect to pursue.
• Ensure every course students take is passing the “So what?” question: How is what they’re learning preparing them?

More from UB: Guest speakers on campus: Here’s what students want

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