Giving Compass' Take:

• EdSurge discusses with higher education experts how higher ed systems are changing due to COVID-19 and what models are successful. 

• How can donors support alternative models that boost student learning during COVID-19? Where do institutions need the most support? 

• Read how some colleges and universities are supporting students during coronavirus. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a cloud of uncertainty over higher education. Colleges around the country have shut down and moved teaching online, and no one knows when it will be safe to reopen and resume normal operations.

That reality was highlighted during a live online discussion EdSurge held this week in partnership with Bryan Alexander’s Future Trends Forum. This is the second installment in what is now a weekly video town hall on how colleges should respond to the pandemic.

Among the topics addressed were what colleges have learned from campuses in China, where COVID-19 hit sooner; whether the pandemic might lead to more adoption of microcredentials and other alternative higher-ed models; and whether colleges should do more to evaluate tech-teaching skills when evaluating faculty members.

We were joined by:

  • Sean Gallagher, founder and executive director of Northeastern University's Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy;
  • Noah Pickus, associate provost and a senior adviser at Duke University;
  • Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University, who teaches a MOOC called “Learning How to Learn,” one of the most popular free online courses ever taught.

You can also read the highlights from the partial transcript below, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jeff Young: Noah, at Duke you had an early experience with COVID-19 disruptions because your university has a campus in China. Can you tell us about that?

Noah Pickus: Duke had a trial run with our global platform to go online and figure this out immediately. I think that both for DKU in China and for Duke there have been a couple of aspects. One is to set clearly what your guiding principles are, principles like high quality, maximum equity, flexibility, community, and being super prescriptive about the broad policy decisions that need to be made. And then be super attentive to a [group of] decentralized deans, divisional leaders, chairs and individual faculty, and trusting them in the implementation.

Read the full article about pandemic changing higher education by Jeffrey R. Young at EdSurge.