Welcome to the Meratas Memo’s Weekly Roundup! This is your weekly fix of higher education and alternative financing news. Here are this week’s stories:
Seeking a Zoom Alternative
The pandemic has certainly shifted the way we do things, especially as it pertains to work and education. One of the biggest benefactors of this shift is Zoom, which has now deeply ingrained itself into those two areas of our day to day life. So much so that many students now say they are attending “Zoom University”. The problem with this is that Zoom wasn’t specifically designed for education. But one company is looking to change that.
ClassEDU announced that it has secured $16 million to develop a Zoom add-on with education in mind. This add-on will give teachers tools that will allow them to take attendance, get insights into student participation. and even issue quizzes during class through Zoom.
Read the full story on Inside Higher Ed here.
Staying Open to Worldviews When You Can’t Leave the Classroom
One of the many benefits of college is the chance to meet and connect with people with drastically different backgrounds from your own. It is a chance to learn from someone who may come from another part of the country or even another part of the world. However, trying to do that in the middle of a pandemic when your classes are mostly online seems nearly impossible.
In this post by Edsurge, they take a look at the importance of these kind of “interfaith” relationships and how to build and maintain them during a time when face to face classes aren’t an option.
Read the full story on Edsurge here.
How COVID Will Affect College Transfers
Traditional, 4-year colleges rely on transfers now more than ever. With the overall population of high school students dwindling, experts say they already needed more transfers from 2-year institutions to stay afloat. Now, the pandemic has magnified this issue.
While higher education is still surrounded by questions, better transfer relationships may benefit both smaller and more traditional colleges and help them weather the storm of the pandemic.
