Alyson Stoner, 26, is an actress whose credits include various Disney and Nickelodeon productions. She has also independently developed an online audience of over one million who turn to her for advice about wellness and creativity.

Last month, as Hollywood sets went dark, her second career ramped up. By mid-March she was feeling caught in a hamster wheel of work. Thats when she got a call from Josh Zimmerman, her life coach.

Zimmerman, 35, helped Stoner prioritise her projects and narrow the scope of her responsibilities. Within 24 hours of their call, she had a plan for a timely series about grief, gratitude and self-reflection called 14 Days of Mindfulness, which she would share on Instagram Live and YouTube.

To track all live updates from the coronavirus pandemic, click here

She shelved other projects that were taking up too much time. I reclaimed my mornings, and that structure has allowed me to maintain a sense of stability and sanity during quarantine, she said.

Zimmerman has, in the course of two years, become a go-to adviser for creators. Through one-on-one coaching sessions, conducted via Zoom even in the absence of a pandemic, he has helped dozens of people navigate their lives as influencers.

What a lot of people dont understand is that the process of making content is stressful and very lonely, Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman is not an agent. He doesnt help clients negotiate brand deals or take a cut of their revenue. He is not a therapist either. He is a life coach, and he is very upfront about the difference.

I work on anything the talent wants to work on, unless it veers into mental health, he said.

While a therapist might help an influencer diagnose mental health issues that arise from the emotional toll that comes with being in the public eye, Zimmerman develops tactical solutions, like career planning and focus techniques.

When I see what Josh is doing, it seems very unique but fills a very specific need in the creator community, said Earnest Pettie, a trends insights lead at YouTube. Its no secret that some of the best performing executives have executive coaches. Creators are an emerging class of media professionals, and so its great to see them engage with experts who can provide support and resources to help them remain productive in a positive way.

Zimmermans role feels especially vital now, in the midst of a health crisis that has sent half the world home for an indefinite period and glued many of them to their phones. The pandemic has been a boon for influencers who can provide actionable advice to followers in the coronavirus era fitness coaches, food bloggers and medical professionals, for example but those in other sectors, such as travel and fashion, have collectively lost millions in brand deals and ad revenue.

Most creators have continued working, business as usual or even more than usual. In a time when everything is shutting down and businesses are closing, the general populace is turning more to entertainment and media, Stoner said.

And the competition is fierce. Youre putting out more content, but your audience has been diluted because theres all these other people going live at the same time or putting new stuff out, Zimmerman said. Youre trying even harder to get those eyeballs and the money is not coming in as it should be, and maybe the brand deals youve relied on have disappeared.

There are also platform changes to navigate. YouTube initially demonetised any video mentioning COVID-19, prompting YouTube stars to steer clear of the coronavirus as a topic.

It scared a lot of my clients from putting anything out there because they didnt want to get demonetised, even for spreading the word about helping people stay inside and stay safe, Zimmerman said. Theres been an onslaught of creators who are uncertain and really reaching out for structure in their lives.

YouTube later reversed its decision. As COVID-19 has become a part of our everyday lives, we want to support creators and news organisations covering this important topic, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. As previously announced, weve expanded monetisation of COVID-19 content to all creators in the YouTube Partner Program.

Many creators turn to Zimmerman because of his rsum; he has worked in the influencer space for years and knows the ins and outs of the business.

In 2013, Zimmerman took a job clearing video rights for YouTube Nation, a YouTube news show with more than 2 million subscribers, and fell headfirst into the world of YouTube stars. I had no idea who any of these creators were at first, but I really came to admire them, he said. Within three years, Zimmerman had founded his own management firm, JZ Management.

He liked working with creators and was struck by the toll creating content and growing a personal brand took on them. His father has worked as a life coach for high-profile business executives for years, and in 2018, Zimmerman decided to follow in his footsteps. He founded CreatorCoach.com, declaring himself the first-ever life coach dedicated to creators.

That same year, burnout became an open topic of discussion. A handful of top YouTubers announced they would be taking a break from the platform. Some influencers left the business or quit the internet entirely. The raison dtre of CreatorCoach became clearer.

Influencers face a unique set of challenges. Creators dont separate from their work because they are their work, Zimmerman said. We go home and turn our computers off; they are their own brand. They are their own IP. Theyre never off, which leads to fatigue and a whole bunch of things that are not helpful to the creative process.

He said that the pressures the crisis has created uncertainty about money, uncertainty about who you can trust, uncertainty about staying relevant have made the job all the more consuming.

Plus, fans expect a level of responsiveness and intimacy that most celebrities dont offer. Consequently, many influencers have been inundated with messages asking for help or advice on how to handle the current moment.

Its the juxtaposition of businesses shutting down, but everyone wanting more from us, said Stoner, asking us to be the connection that they cant get anywhere else. One misstep could lead to massive online backlash.

While some people have suggested that the pandemic may mark the end of influencer culture, Collin Colburn, a Senior Analyst at Forrester, a market research and advisory firm, begs to differ.

I dont think its the end of anything, he said. There could be a collapse in print advertising; there could be a collapse in out of home advertising; there could be a collapse in influencer marketing. I dont think any of them are going away.

Zimmerman agreed. This is not the end of influencers or creators, he said.

Such opinions, he said, disregard the range of ideas, interests, platforms and demographics influencers represent. Theres quilting creators; theres woodworking creators; theres anything you can think of. Any hobby, any idea, there is an influencer or someone making content, Zimmerman said.

The pandemic has even turned more people into online creators. Late-night hosts are now vlogging, noncelebrities have begun livestreaming on Instagram and #withme videos, where people bring viewers along for often mundane daily tasks, have seen a 600 percent spike in viewership since the pandemic hit.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here

But ad revenues will undoubtedly tighten, and certain sectors of the creator community may face trouble. If you look at past crises or recessions, its just a recalibration of the marketing budget, Colburn said. Maybe influencers will command less of the budget than they did before, but there will always be brands who want to engage these people who have influence over their followings.

Zimmerman said hes started working with some clients pro bono in light of their lost revenue. He wants to help as many people as he can during these uncertain and chaotic times. The industry is moving at lightning speed, and every hour its different, he said. Everyone is like, Its a marathon, not a sprint, but its a marathon at 100 miles an hour.

c.2020 The New York Times Company

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BY COREY STOLZENBACHsports@dcherald.com

His teams at Ferdinand never won a sectional championship when he was there. Not only that, but those teams had the dubious distinction of losing to the eventual champion in the sectional tournament three of the four years he manned the program.

Those tough losses still resonate with Larry Klein almost 50 years after coaching the final basketball game in Crusaders history in the 1971 sectional tournament against Jasper. Klein remains good friends with his former assistant coach at Ferdinand, Jim Hagedorn. Theyll get together once a month, and still talk about the times when they coached together. Its always the same, though. The Crusaders never won a sectional under Klein or any other coach, for that matter.

Larry Klein

When you look back on your career, the time that you spend coaching, the games that you seem to recall the most are the hard losses, Klein said.

Its not all negative, though, far from it. Hes proud of how well his players competed when they played against the Evansville schools the Crusaders went a combined 7-1 against Mater Dei and Rex Mundi when he led the way.

Having a lack of size was a common theme for his teams at Ferdinand, but Klein went 54-30 in his four seasons as the head coach of the Crusaders. All four of those teams finished with a winning record.

We were kind of dedicated, too, to have a winning season, a winning year, when it was all over, the year was over, we could look back and say, We were a winner, and you can carry that with you for the rest of your life, he said.

Klein coached different sports at Ferdinand baseball, cross country, track and, later, golf at Forest Park, but basketball was his real passion. He was already acclimated to the Ferdinand basketball program as an assistant coach, first under Jim Wahl and then Ben Finley. Finley resigned after his only season in 1966-67 to become a head coach in Henderson, Ky., and Klein took over from there.

He was already familiar with the players and he thought he was ready to step into that position. Klein learned a lot from Wahl and Finley, lauding both of them for their dedication and running good programs. He thought Finley promoted a conservative style of basketball, which he changed when he took over the team.

That wasnt what I really liked to do, Klein said When I came in, we picked up the pace. We didnt have the 3-point shot back then, but we scored a lot of points.

Ferdinand started 2-0 in 1967-68, but Woody Neels Holland Dutchmen proved to be foil for Kleins Crusaders, both that year and afterward. Holland went undefeated that regular season, won a sectional championship and was the last undefeated team at the state of Indiana largely at Ferdinands expense.

The Crusaders played the Dutchmen close. Ferdinand took Holland to overtime in the first meeting, but a 63-60 defeat in overtime put the Crusaders in the loss column for the first time that season. They held a 53-52 lead against the Dutchmen in the county tournament, but then threw a pass out of bounds. A Gary Dougan basket won the game for Holland, 54-53.

Ferdinand got one more shot at Holland in the sectional championship. Stan Ruhe sank a free throw to give the Crusaders a 49-44 edge with 3:04 to go in the fourth quarter of the sectional title game. However, Holland overwhelmed Ferdinand with its full-court press and went on a 10-0 run. The Crusaders made it a one-point game, but could not reclaim the lead. Final score: Holland 57, Ferdinand 53.

I felt that we could handle their press, but I probably shouldve called timeout sooner than what I did, but I just felt that we were good enough to handle that press, but we made a couple of turnovers right close toward the end of the game, Klein said.

Four players for the Crusaders made the all-sectional team: Ruhe, Lee Begle, Dennis Verkamp and Paul Niehaus, but Hollands Don Buse led the sectional with 63 points, 14 more than the second-highest total Begles 49 points. Buse wouldnt be around for 1968-69, when the Crusaders roared for much of the regular season.

Klein thought this team, of the four, was the best. He praised their shooting and balance, and they could pass and shoot without turning the ball over much. Klein thought Ferdinand had a lot of confidence that it could beat anybody following the 1967-68 sectional runner-up finish, and that carried over into the next year.

However, Ferdinand also lost three of its final five games, ending the year at 16-4. The Crusaders met Holland in the sectional, but the Dutchmen once again stomped out Ferdinands season, this time in the teams first sectional game. Holland totaled 38 points in the fourth quarter, pulling away from Ferdinand, 88-66.

Ruhe and Verkamp both graduated in 1969, but Klein thought the 1969-70 campaign was a really good year. The Crusaders went 14-7 despite not having size. He thought Ferdinand played hard and tried to win as many games as it could.

Ferdinand got some production out of Ed Gudorf, who averaged 14.8 points per game as a senior in the regular season, and 11 points per game from junior Pat Lueken.

However, the big fish for the Crusaders that year was senior Tom Weyer, who scored 411 regular-season points with an average of 20.6 points per game. Klein lauded Weyer as a terrific shooter.

We had some certain plays set up for him, get him wide open, because if we got him open for a shot, hed probably make half of them or more, he said of Weyer.

The Crusaders faced Huntingburg in the 1970 sectional. The Hunters finished the regular season 10-10, but got off to 11-1 and 15-3 starts against Ferdinand. The Crusaders didnt surrender that easily, grabbing a 22-21 lead, but that proved to be their only one.

Ferdinand tied Huntingburg multiple times after that. However, the Hunters began to pull away on an 8-0 run after a 40-40 tie. Ferdinand would close the gap to 64-61 before Huntingburg finished on a 10-2 run. The Hunters won the game and eventually the sectional.

I think our size kinda caught up with us in that game, Klein said. And then the next year, when we played Jasper (a 77-53 loss), I think it was pretty much the same thing. We just didnt have very many tall players those last two years I had.

Thered be no fifth season with Klein and the Crusaders. Ferdinand and Birdseye consolidated into Forest Park for the 1971-72 year, and its been that way ever since. Hagedorn remained on as an assistant, but Klein declined to pursue the coaching position with the Rangers. He wanted to spend more time with his family and take classes to earn his masters degree.

It wasnt easy, he said. It was a hard decision. I felt really good about my service to the sports program, and thought it was time to move on.

Klein, 80, is a retired math teacher. He left Forest Park in 1997, but still taught on a part-time basis for the next 10 years, and now hes grazing in the fields. He lauded the camaraderie his players had with the Crusaders, and that camaraderie has remained intact for decades.

He held his 50th wedding anniversary Mass at Jaspers St. Josephs Church. Family members and close friends were on hand to attend the event. However, Klein turned around and looked back during the Mass. He saw some familiar faces who werent invited, but were a pleasant surprise. It was the starting five of the final Ferdinand team he coached in 1970-71 and their wives in attendance to witness the event.

Boy, you talk about something meaningful and really touching, that was special. But I think it goes back to how well we all got along back when we were competing, Klein said.

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Klein was Ferdinand's last basketball coach - The Herald

This article is part of our latest Learning special report, which focuses on the challenges of online education during the coronavirus outbreak.

A professor at Loyola University New Orleans taught his first virtual class from his courtyard, wearing a bathrobe and sipping from a glass of wine. Faculty at Lafayette College, in Easton, Penn., trained in making document cameras at home using cardboard and rubber bands.

Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., set up drive-up Wi-Fi stations for faculty members whose connections werent reliable enough to let them upload material to the internet. And students in a musicology course at Virginia Tech were assigned to create TikTok videos.

The disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has prompted cobbled-together responses ranging from the absurd to the ingenious at colleges and universities struggling to continue teaching even as their students have receded into diminutive images, in dire need of haircuts, on videoconference checkerboards.

But while all of this is widely being referred to as online higher education, thats not really what most of it is, at least so far. As for predictions that it will trigger a permanent exodus from brick-and-mortar campuses to virtual classrooms, all indications are that it probably wont.

What we are talking about when we talk about online education is using digital technologies to transform the learning experience, said Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouths Tuck School of Business. That is not what is happening right now. What is happening now is we had eight days to put everything we do in class onto Zoom.

There will be some important lasting impacts, though, experts say: Faculty may incorporate online tools, to which many are being exposed for the first time, into their conventional classes. And students are experiencing a flexible type of learning they may not like as undergraduates, but could return to when its time to get a graduate degree.

These trends may not transform higher education, but they are likely to accelerate the integration of technology into it.

This semester has the potential to raise expectations of using these online resources to complement what we were doing before, in an evolutionary way, not a revolutionary way, said Eric Fredericksen, associate vice president for online learning at the University of Rochester. Thats the more permanent impact.

Real online education lets students move at their own pace and includes such features as continual assessments so they can jump ahead as soon as theyve mastered a skill, Dr. Fredericksen and others said.

Conceiving, planning, designing and developing a genuine online course or program can consume as much as a year of faculty training and collaboration with instructional designers, and often requires student orientation and support and a complex technological infrastructure.

Not surprisingly, when we really do this, it does take more than seven or eight days, Dr. Fredericksen said wryly.

If anything, what people are mistaking now for online education long class meetings in videoconference rooms, professors in their bathrobes, do-it-yourself tools made of rubber bands and cardboard appears to be making them less, not more, open to it.

The pessimistic view is that [students] are going to hate it and never want to do this again, because all theyre doing is using Zoom to reproduce everything thats wrong with traditional passive, teacher-centered modes of teaching, said Bill Cope, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Undergraduates already seemed lukewarm toward virtual higher education; only about 20 percent took even one online course in the fall of 2018, the consulting firm Eduventures estimates.

Sentiments like these suggest theres little likelihood that students will desert their real-world campuses for cyberspace en masse. In fact, if theres a silver lining in this situation for residential colleges and universities, its that students no longer take for granted the everyday realities of campus life: low-tech face-to-face classes, cultural diversions, libraries, athletics, extracurricular activities, in-person office hours and social interaction with their classmates.

The beauty of a residential education has never been more apparent to people, said Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University.

But advocates for true online instruction say that students experience of taking courses on their own schedules over mobile platforms may come back to them later, when theyre ready to move on to graduate or professional educations.

Online higher education is a thin diet for the typical 18-year-old, said Richard Garrett, the chief research officer at Eduventures. But todays 18-year-olds are tomorrows 28-year-olds with families and jobs, who then realize that online can be useful.

Already, more than half of American adults who expect to need more education or training after this pandemic say they would do it online, according to a survey of 1,000 people by the Strada Education Network, which advocates connections between education and work.

It isnt entirely students who will move this needle, observers say. Its also faculty.

Even those who had long avoided going online have had to do it this semester, in some form or other. And they may have the most to learn from the experience, said Michael Moe, chief executive of GSV Asset Management, which focuses on education technology.

Along with their students, faculty were thrown into the deep end of the pool for digital learning and asked to swim, Mr. Moe said. Some will sink, some will crawl to the edge of the pool and climb out and theyll never go back in the pool ever again. But many will figure out what to do and how to kick and how to stay afloat.

If theres anyone whos banking on this, its the ed-tech sector. More than 70 percent of such companies have been offering products and services to schools and colleges free or at steep discounts this semester, anticipating sales later, according to the consulting firm Productive.

Cengage, for example, is providing free subscriptions to its online textbooks, and says it has seen a 55 percent increase in the number of students who have signed up for one. Coursera is providing 550 colleges and universities with free access to its online courses.

Administrators and educators are reframing their attitudes, said John Rogers, education sector lead at the $5 billion Rise Fund, which is managed by the asset company TPG and invests in ed tech. That really is the difference-maker. The pace of adoption of those tools will accelerate.

People resist new ideas until external shocks force them to change, said Dr. Govindarajan, who cites as an example the way World War II propelled women into jobs that had traditionally been done by men. We are at that kind of inflection point.

Faculty, he said, will ask themselves, What part of what we just did can be substituted with technology and what part can be complemented by technology to transform higher education?

Universities should consider this semester an experiment to see which classes were most effectively delivered online, he said big introductory courses better taught through video-recorded lectures by faculty stars and with online textbooks, for example, which could be shared among institutions to lower the cost.

Students who want classes best provided face to face, such as those in the performing arts or that require lab work, would continue to take them that way.

Lets take advantage of this moment to start a larger conversation about the whole design of higher education, Dr. Govindarajan said.

We had better not lose this opportunity.

This article was published in cooperation with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news organization that covers education. Sign up for its newsletter.

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Will the Coronavirus Forever Alter the College Experience? - The New York Times

Every morning, Michelle Martin-Sullivan rises with her toddler and begins her biggest task of the day: making contact with all her students, who are scattered among the foothills of rural eastern Kentucky. Some she calls by phone, others she chats with over text, and some she sees in class on Zoom.

Like teachers across the US, Martin-Sullivan is working remotely, and the transition has proved difficult almost everywhere. Rollouts of online portals have been plagued with technical issues in many districts, while others have struggled to distribute devices like laptops and iPads amid shortages from suppliers.

For Martin-Sullivan, though, the issues often go deeper than teaching itself. Many of her students are essential workers at stores like Walmart and have begun picking up extra shifts to support their families. Other students, as well as some teachers, dont have internet access at all.

Teachers have been conducting their phone calls and check-ins with students from random parking lots, like church parking lots, the Walmart parking lot, [or] just anywhere that you can get wifi, she says.

The results of these struggles with distance learning will remain unclear for some time. Many standardized tests have been delayed or canceled, which means school districts wont get data on their students progress.

On this episode of Reset, we explore how the pandemic might affect students going forward, and how long those effects could last.

According to Matt Barnum, a national reporter for the education news site Chalkbeat, traumatic effects have big impacts on students lives, both on how much they learn and long-term factors like college enrollment rates and income.

Theres this idea that children are resilient. Theyll just bounce back from whatever you throw at them. And from a research perspective, thats just not the case, he says. We know that things can affect students, both good or bad. We know that early trauma can affect students for bad. We know that a high-quality teacher or access to early childhood education can affect students for good in the long term. So I think its not unreasonable to think that this is going to have long-run negative effects.

Still, there are ways that policymakers can decrease these negative impacts, as Barnum explained. Research shows that one easy way to help students catch up is to add extra instructional time to the end of the school day or make the school year longer.

We have evidence from research: There is a study in Florida that when low-performing schools extended the school day, students did better on state tests. We have another study in Louisiana showing that summer school helps students who are struggling in reading, he says. And so it just makes a whole lot of sense that if you want to make up for missed instruction, you should just make up for missed instruction.

For students who have struggled more than their peers, some experts have suggested that the federal government should fund an army of recent college graduates to tutor students with the added benefit of helping prop up a dismal job market.

Finally, students will also likely need emotional support when they go back to school. Aside from the interruption to their education, they may know people who got sick or died from Covid-19.

If schools want to hit the ground running academically, they also probably need to be thinking about addressing the trauma that students may have faced. Presumably the best way to deal with that is to have trained professionals in schools, who can work with students to talk this through and support them in this, Barnum says.

Whether government officials will take any of these actions remains to be seen. But policy options that can help students through the pandemic exist. The question is mostly whether governments especially during a massive economic downturn will make them happen.

Subscribe to Reset on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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At home, Bryce (7) and Beck (5) Machacek officially begin the McFarland School Districts Distance Learning program, which was implemented in response to COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures, on Monday, March 23. Madison Metropolitan School District students are expected to begin a virtual learning program April 6.

STEVENS POINT A few items from a journal

As for many in these times, emails and phone calls have arrived from near and far. Family, friends, business associates and news sources over the years have reached out.

One came from Charles Wurster, a scientist who had a pivotal role in Wisconsins efforts to ban DDT in the 1960s. Wurster lives in Maryland, but Wisconsin is close to his heart. He was angered when we held an election during the pandemic, endangering lives and making a mockery of democracy. Trumpublicans want a Trumpublican dictatorship, he wrote. They want as few voters as possible, and the virus is helping them. I hope Charlie is wrong, but April 7's gruesome deed makes one wonder.

Up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, Wisconsin native Patrick Herzog sends along his recipe for strengthening the immune system. Herzog, a wildlife biologist, author and educator who has spent most of his adult life in Canada, knows something about the topic. Twenty years ago, he was stricken with an aggressive form of leukemia, requiring a long-shot experimental treatment regime. He survived, and he told the story of how nature helped him heal in an inspiring 2017 book, Tiger, Tiger: A life Restored by Nature. He says folks in his rural setting have been quick to comply with Canadas stay-at-home advice. His own cancer regime required the same of him. I, of course, have been through the self-isolating gig before, one that was indeed a means to health and future life, he said in a recent message.

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Bill Berry: Online education, immune boosters and an election: More COVID-19 journal entries - Madison.com

The plan was solid, but its execution began as a dumpster fire.

Thats how Stefan Troutman, an instructional coach at Moses Lake School District, described it: plagued by tech glitches, his effort to host daily online check-ins for district staff went south quickly.

But in the weeks since schools closed statewide and at this rural school district 180 miles east of Seattle, Troutman and his colleagues began to figure it out. Every weekday morning, roughly 100 educators get online for a new ritual: to swap online learning tips and motivate each other to keep experimenting and finding new ways to serve their 8,700 students.

As school districts grapple with the fact that education wont resume in person this school year, Moses Lake and others across Washington are taking seriously their mandate to find creative virtual solutions. Getting students laptops and internet access were the first and easiest steps many made since school buildings have closed, though its unclear how many students still lack devices.

What districts do next to transform their curriculum will dictate whether children slide backward. Students already behind because of systemic inequities may slide the most.

While Washington requires school districts to teach remotely, districts arent mandated to track student attendance or individual teachers instructional plans so its hard to say, definitively, how its going. Some districts immediately distributed laptops and began online instruction, but others, such as Seattle Public Schools, first delivered devices weeks into the states mandated closure.

Students in low-income families and those who are homeless are less likely to have an internet connection, let alone basic needs such as food and shelter. And children who need extra attention, because theyre learning English or have a disability, for example, are fighting for the services schools promised them.

Online schooling has a mixed reputation. Its marked by the failures of several for-profit virtual schools and credit recovery programs. But experts say online education is now at an inflection point. Going online is no longer a choice, and schools have been thrust into a grand experiment that could transform forever how learning virtually is done.

In Moses Lake, the daily online meeting is an important part of that. At 9 a.m. on Monday, teachers and staff were getting pumped up.

No thumping music. No jumping jacks. Just pure, earnest praise to get hyped for the week. We are doing it, and were rocking it, a district instructional coach said. Troutman is the master of ceremonies. From his living room at home, Troutman casts to YouTube a livestream of these impromptu professional development sessions. The goal up until now has been survival, Troutman said. But the conversations were about to start having are, how do you redefine your lesson?

Teachers in Moses Lake and beyond are learning by trial and error: Many are teaching over video platforms, while others are sending students recorded lessons. Some are printing out materials to drop off at students homes.

Teachers are all being thrown into this, said Gary Miron, professor of education at Western Michigan University. It doesnt mean they are all going to act responsible and be totally prepared to switch and start testing ideas. But it gives us an opportunity right now with this crisis, if we can, to start considering new models for instruction.

Existing research on best practices in online learning will only get educators so far. When you are being asked to implement online learning in the way our research suggests you should, but you are being asked to do that in a 12-day period, thats nearly impossible, said Annalee Good, co-director of the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

There is no single set of practices that will fit every school district, she added. What matters most, she said, is each districts context and preparedness.

The evidence machine

Its been a decade since anyone took a hard look at online education. Back then, researcher Barbara Means and her colleagues compiled studies from 1996 to 2008 at the request of the federal government, and compared how people fare when taught face-to-face, online only, or some combination of the two. A blended form of learning won out a model that cant work now. But perhaps more interestingly, Means found, very few studies looked at online K-12 education. Most focused on college.

A decade later, federal officials are launching a follow-up. And theyre in a big hurry.

This is one of the rare occasions where there has been a simultaneous crisis of this type where rigorous evidence is needed by everyone, all at once, said Matthew Soldner, commissioner at the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education. What is something we could do to fire up the evidence machine really, really quickly and see what can be done?

The answer: a meta-analysis similar to Means study. This time, officials are crowd-sourcing the studies they include. Theyre hoping to reduce the time it takes from the typical 18 months to roughly 2.5 to winnow and analyze research that meets a rigorous set of criteria. They hope outside research teams will be enticed to do a deeper dive into the studies and glean sets of best practices.

Techniques used by online-only schools might be appealing, but experts urge caution: Taking up the methods of such schools likely wont work for most public school districts. Online schools often employ too few teachers (sometimes 1 for several hundred students) and pay them poorly, Miron said. Students often dont get to know their teachers, and vice versa. Its failing because its geared toward profiteering, he said.

Many online schools have a poor track record. Kevin Huffman, former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education who tried to take down a virtual school run by a controversial company called K12 Inc., said that school had a high attrition rate. For those who stuck with it, their first-year results were abysmal compared to their typical public school peers, he said. Theres a massive learning curve, which we dont have time for right now, Huffman said.

Public school districts, in contrast, have a lot going for them. They typically have lower student-teacher ratios, and relationships between children and their teachers are already formed, Miron said.

While federal officials continue their research, experts such as Miron and Means suggest researchers and school districts collect data now.

If we knew some schools did A in the spring and some schools did B in the spring, then we could look at the aggregated data and try to tease out what were some of the more effective practices, said Means, who is now part of Digital Promise, an education nonprofit in Washington, D.C. We dont want to punish students or teachers because of what happened this spring. But we do want to learn from this experience.

Absent hard data on what works and what doesnt solutions are beginning to bubble up from inside online classrooms.

More than a device

Every weekday morning, Kathleen Claymore, a culinary teacher at Moses Lake High School, launches a Zoom room for her students. She mutes herself, but leaves the video on. Students can come and go as they wish, hang out and work together, or request help. Its just for them to see your face, she said.

Access to technology is an important first step, but its not everything Good said. Even having a laptop wont bridge the digital divide. In communities where most families live in poverty and many are learning English, as is the case in Moses Lake, teachers will need to find unique ways to keep students in attendance and engaged.

The type of regular, quality interaction that Claymore offers is important, experts say.

Moses Lake is well positioned relative to others across Washington: School officials gave Chromebooks to all students as school closed, and many teachers have some facility with digital learning tools. But about 65% of the districts students live in poverty. To acknowledge that many need extra help, administrators set up tech sites for students with broken or lost equipment. Staff deliver replacements to students without transportation. Teachers such as Claymore are finding ways to make lessons flexible.

Claymores assignments double as a way to ensure her students are eating regularly. If students need ingredients for a recipe, Claymore provides them. And instead of running her classes in real time, Claymore posts lessons to Google Classroom. Many students wouldnt show up if she hosted lessons live: Several assist their parents in nearby fields or spend their days caring for younger siblings. But Claymore said shes pleasantly surprised that about 65% of her 135 students have been handing in assignments.

Washington may also learn from other high-poverty districts that are further afield. In Milwaukee Public Schools, staff are considering how an online learning program they launched about five years ago, called Telepresence, could be used more broadly during coronavirus closures. High schools that cant offer a whole suite of Advanced Placement classes let students take them virtually from teachers at other Milwaukee high schools. A 2019 study of the program suggests that boosting teachers professional development, and providing ample resources for students without technology at home, are critical for making such online programs work.

These takeaways are particularly important for districts as they consider how to serve students with few resources or support at home, or those in special education. A few major school districts, including Los Angeles Unified are trying district-wide online learning programs, though early reports suggest many students are failing to participate.

Many Washington families report their children are not receiving special education services theyre entitled to; as of April 10, state officials had received at least five formal complaints about special education services.

Officials here could take notes from schools such as Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, which serve about 4,000 students with disabilities and offer several forms of remote instruction. One lesson: not everything can be accomplished online, but that doesnt mean you should give up.

Michael Berger, a teacher who works with visually impaired and blind students aged 3 to 5 there, filled green plastic bins with paper lesson plans and supplies for each of his students when he learned Utahs schools would close. He regularly swings by his students homes on a recent Friday, he donned a mask and spent three hours dropping off supplies on their porches. Batteries for one child whose assistive technology device went dead. For a student without internet at home, an iPad preloaded with videos of himself teaching new lessons.

Berger also teaches his students during brief, individual weekly online sessions.

His personal takeaway: Parent involvement is huge. How are [the children] going to engage with me over a camera and my voice? Parents have to be very hands on with them during the lesson, he said.

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There's no roadmap for teaching online, so Washington's teachers are creating their own - Seattle Times

DC DISPATCH-It was only a few weeks ago -- although it now seems like a different age -- that I began preparing my return to graduate school using an online distance learning platform rather than an in-person classroom.

At the time, I detected bias against Internet classes as being somehow lesser than in-person sessions, and even found myself explaining that there were also on-campus requirements and the entire educational world was headed toward a hybrid, campus-and-online future.

What a difference a few weeks has made, in so many ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the paradigm of how we think about online education, as millions of students from elementary school to graduate school have experimented and realized this is a viable alternative to crowded in-person classrooms. The pandemic threat has compelled hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide from USC to MIT to close their classroom doors and shift instead to online education.

The question is, when the age of COVID-19 passes, how many of these schools will shift back to in-person education after millions of students have seen firsthand the potential benefits of the online education alternative. Any lingering confusion or stigma about online classes is quickly being erased, as students from elementary school to medical school are now getting their education over the internet instead of in person.

Make no mistake, the virus has changed American education forever and the biggest misconception is that we are quickly transitioning into a temporary fix. College campuses will eventually re-open and students will return to mostly in-person instruction, but their distance learning experience willleave lasting impressions -- either good or bad, depending on how well they and their educational institutions adapted to the new model.

A recent story in The Washington Post, It Shouldnt Take a Pandemic: Coronavirus exposes Internet inequality among U.S. students as schools close their doors, illustrates the chaos. The Post reported on a teacher at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., who asked her liberal arts students, how they would feel if instruction next term shifted online. The Post reported that in response, she heard a wave of concerns from her class students didnt like message boards, they werent sure where they would live, they werent clear what they would eat, and they were concerned about issues of technology. She also noted also noted that some of the students use smartphones, not desktop computers, to access online assignments.

Yet, the use of smartphones is another reason the advances in distance learning will stick. It shows that, really, this future was already well on the way.

Even K-12 students were typically accessing some aspects of education online, albeit homework and school communications. Those systems were ill suited to adding classes, but they are being pressed into service. Indeed, even commercial workplace services like Zoom are being applied to education.

So now, millions of students and their families who would have given little thought to distance learning are arranging at-home desks and logging on. Even this most basic acceleration comes with a full measure of chaos, especially in K-12 where economic disparity and the digital divide more often collide, but this is a shared national experience like few others. Only weeks ago, distance learning was being marketed in terms of cost savings for prospective students, realistic mid-career alternatives for at-home parents who need to care for children, continuing careers while earning degrees online, and expanded access in under-served communities that lack on-campus educational opportunities at all.

Now in this time of pandemic, by giving millions of students a way to continue their education without classroom learning alongside dozens or hundreds of strangers, distance learning is saving lives.

The long-term distance learning future is easy to see, even if the timetable remains unclear. Just this month, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would allow schools to use online learning techniques without having to go through the usual approval process.

The next phase of the distance learning acceleration will be the migration away from the stop-gap chaotic systems adopted in haste and by necessity by educational institutions nationwide into organized, structured platforms designed to take advantage of online learnings upsides while minimizing the downsides.

In this respect, the colleges, universities, and programs that already have established online programs will have a clear head start and be best positioned to benefit from the heightened awareness of online educations potential advantages.

The program Ive applied for, the Masters of Science in Integrated Design, Business and Technology, already illustrated the hybrid dynamic, promising that students work closely with peers, professors and industry and field experts to apply the skills and knowledge they gain in real-world scenarios the online learning environment, as well as in-person residency experiences, allow us to facilitate this dynamic and engaging experience. I received my formal acceptance letter last week and am thrilled at the prospect of returning to my Alma Mater.

The USC online management partner for years has been 2U, a Maryland based company that has been partnering with colleges for more than a decade and counts more than 70 universities in its portfolio not the stuff of chaos hodgepodge and an example that the future was already here for some of us.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to adapt in all kinds of ways but in rare instances, to learn and grow as well. Millions of students of all ages have had the enforced opportunity to discover the possibilities and alternatives that distance learning can present.

Its hard to see any silver linings when youre social distancing in your basement, but at least this is one.

(SaraCorcoran is publisher of the National Courts Monitor and writes for CityWatch, Daily Koz, and other news outlets.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

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Of Pandemics and Paradigms: How COVID-19 has Transformed Perspectives on Distance Learning - City Watch

GODFREY - Lewis and Clark Community College has been honored to serve and be a part of the communities that make up District 536 for the past 50 years. The college district was given the opportunity to purchase the historically significant Monticello College campus in 1970. The all-female college was established in 1838 and saw its last graduating class in 1971. The Monticello College Foundation continues to support Lewis and Clark today through financial contributions and scholarship support.

Although 2020 hasnt shaped up to be the 50th anniversary celebration we envisioned, were here to weather the storm alongside our communities, and were reinventing ourselves to serve our students and others in a time of great need.

The college is currently conducting instruction online, in lieu of face-to-face meetings, and preparing for online instruction through the summer. Weve added extra supports to help transition academic and student services to a virtual environment to keep our constituents safe and at the same time, empower students to overcome obstacles and achieve academic success.

Current students will soon be able to access more than $1 million in emergency federal aid to help with education and training at Lewis and Clark through the CARES Act. The Lewis and Clark Community College Foundation is also raising money to create a Student Emergency Relief Fund for additional support.

The college strives to be a good neighbor and community partner as well. We are working with our area healthcare providers to understand their needs at this time and to develop ways we can be a support for those on the front lines of COVID-19.

We are proud that many of those on the front lines are Lewis and Clark alumni nurses, EMTs, paramedics, law enforcement, firefighters and more all working harder than ever to keep our communities safe. Were beyond proud of their contributions and honored to call them fellow Trailblazers.

We know that many in our communities are struggling and perhaps rethinking their future in the wake of this pandemic. Lewis and Clark is here to help.

Students eager to retrain quickly or join the workforce sooner can earn a certificate or a degree and get started in a new career in just two years or less. Transfer students can save an average of $18,396 on their bachelors degree if they come to Lewis and Clark for two years before moving to a four-year institution.

In addition to numerous two-year transfer degree options, Lewis and Clark also offers more than 40 career and technical education programs from Dental Hygiene to Truck Driver Training. Many of our career programs offer students the opportunity to earn competitive salaries upon completion of their certificate or degree. Starting salaries for some programs can be as high as $50,000-100,000 annually. We also offer adult education programs and other non-credit continuing education offerings for everyone from infants to senior citizens.

April is Community College Month. Now more than ever, Lewis and Clark remains committed to making high quality education and career training opportunities not only affordable, but also accessible, to any and all students who wish to pursue their dreams or change their course in life.

Although our campuses remain physically closed, Lewis and Clark remains focused on providing our district residents with these valuable academic and training opportunities. We are here for you during these very challenging times, and reaffirm our commitment to helping our community heal during and beyond this pandemic.

We look forward to the day we can reopen our campuses and welcome everyone back. Until then, we encourage everyone to continue to stay home and stay well during this time.

On behalf of the entire Lewis and Clark Team, we thank the community for its continued support of Lewis and Clark. We look forward to serving you now and in the future.

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April is Community College Month and Lewis and Clark is Reinventing Itself in its 50th Year to Reach Students Through Online Education in the Face of...

Every student can excel in a distance education course, especially at a university with established infrastructure and experience. Source: Bay Ismoyo/AFP

Students pursuing distance education are turning to digital platforms more than ever before, surpassing its traditional correspondence methods.

Research has assessed the capability of online, or e-learning, against more traditional teaching mediums. The benefits of online education stretch far beyond student experience alone, producing graduates who are not only literate but fluent in the most cutting-edge technologies.

One of the most influential studies derives from the US Department of Education. In its report, the Department notes that students who took all or part of their courses online performed better than those who took the same course solely in a traditional face-to-face environment.

On top of this, distance education gives students the chance to sculpt their degree around existing work commitments and future aspirations for a much more affordable price.

Thats why, in the words of educational technology expert Elliot Masie, We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning.

Here are three leading US providers of online and distance education for your consideration.

UNM online programmes promise flexibility without compromising quality, empowering students with the same graduate outcomes found on more traditional degrees. Courses are offered in a flexible eight-week format, five times per year. Attending UNM online means you have the freedom to earn your degree while you continue to manage the demands of work and family obligations.

At UNM Online you will access course content and interact with peers through a range of multimedia technologies. Every module is delivered in its own unique style, blending to create a study experience free from global boundaries and borders.

UOs Distance Education is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Online courses are offered for a wide range of disciplines, giving students the chance to earn a degree from anywhere with an Internet connection.

The university employs powerful web-based tools to elevate the learning experience. Courses are presented via the Canvas course management system, while some require students to take in-person, proctored exams.

UOs Distance Education programmes stick to the same term schedule as on-campus courses, and credits are awarded in the very same way. One thing that sets UO apart from both regional and global competition is that there is truly no difference between the online curriculum when compared to a classroom-based course.

OSU Online, ranked as the top Online Undergraduate Programme by US News and World Report, prepares all student participants for lasting career success. Here, exceptional members of faculty prepare you to tackle some of the worlds most pressing issues, placing you among like-minded individuals whose potential knows no bounds.

5 major benefits of online learning

A day in the life of an online student

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3 leading online and distance education providers in the US - Study International News

Universities should charge less for online education and weave collaborative learning into their virtual courses or risk dismal completion rates, according to the founder of a low-cost, online university.

Shai Reshef, president of the California-headquartered University of the People (UoPeople), said he feared that moving [education] online without the right systems and expertise may result in a similar outcome as massive open online courses (Moocs). A2013 studyfound that the average completion rate for Moocs was 6.8 per cent.

All universities are now moving online. But they dont really know what theyre doing, Mr Reshef said in an interview withTimes Higher Education. It reminds me of the Moocs era, where they videoed the professor and believed that was the answerI certainly hope that the experience the universities offer their students right now will not ruin it for them.

Mr Reshef added that some universities are already talking aboutpotentially not opening [their campuses]next year and UoPeople was the natural answer for any displaced students or any institutions that wished to enhance their online offering.

UoPeople, which launched in 2009 and relies on volunteer instructors, is a non-profit online university aimed at disadvantaged students from around the world. Tuition is free but students pay $100 (81) for each exam they sit, taking the total cost of an undergraduate degree to $4,000.

The institution has 31,000 students, 7,000 of whom started this month, and is recruiting 1,000 volunteer instructors. Mr Reshef said that it had seen unprecedented growth from students in China, Japan, South Korea and Italy, many of whom have been laid off and are pursuing degrees to aid future job searches. He expected enrolment to grow to 40,000 by September and 80,000 a year later.

Mr Reshef said that the success of his institution was partly down to pedagogy centred on peer-to-peer, interactive learning. He also recommended that traditional universities charge less for their online courses because the cost of online is a fraction of the cost of traditional face-to-face teaching and were going to have an economic crisis following coronavirus.

Almost every university in the Western world has some courses online, if not full degrees. The challenge, though, is that many of them charge the same amount if you go online or if you do it face to face, he said.

It may be that some universities will say: every year you take x courses, 30 per cent of them will be online, and well reduce tuition by 25 per cent. I think some will go even further and say: study the first two years online and then come to campus for the final two years. Others will just do what we do and go all the way online.

Mr Reshef added that UoPeople had opened up its courses to students at other institutions and offered to train academics on how to deliver their courses online.

Im somewhat worried about the future of online, because if [universities] do it wrong the students will suffer, they will all hate it and then they will decide online doesnt work. My interest is to show them that online is great, but do it right, he said.

Is Mr Reshef concerned that the rapid shift to online education will threaten the USP of his own institution?

If one day I wake up and see that our model worked and all the universities of the world opened their gates to everyone and all the students in the world are being served, I will wake up that morning with a big smile, go back to sleep and probably wake up with another dream, he said.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com

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Online university head fears students will 'suffer' from shift online - Times Higher Education (THE)