"One-Third of Employees Are Shifting Their Hiring Practices into Skills," Says WGU's President

"One-third of employees are shifting their hiring practices into skills," said yesterday Scott Pulsipher, President of WGU (Western Governors University) during a sat down interview conducted by JFF's CEO, Maria Flynn, at the SWSW EDU conference in Austin, Texas. The panel titled "The Edges of Learning & Work" explored promising innovations in workforce education along with their potential for equity. Scott Pulsipher pointed out that his institution's challenge is based on "how to enhance technology to improve the quality of curriculum design." "It's about how to better invest in technology to improve outcomes for students," he added. Mr. Pulsipher insisted on the idea of mapping skills and geo-locating them. "WGU has been at the forefront of innovation with its competency-based model," said Maria Flynn. SXSW EDU Launch and Student Startup Competitions' Winners During the same SXSW EDU event — which concluded yesterday — organizers announced the winners of the 2022 Launch and Student Startup competitions. In the first competition, the award winner was the Pala Indian Reservation, California-based Our Worlds, Inc. This company provides place-based, primary source, educational content about Native Americans in Extended Reality 360 degrees across the world. The six finalists pitched innovations ranging from platforms supporting emotional literacy education to speech AI. The Student Startup Competition winner was AUesome, based in Sunnyvale, California. This company was selected for its work to make therapy more accessible and affordable for children on the autism spectrum.

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Stanford University Launches Its First Full Class in Metaverse Virtual Reality

Stanford University launched its first class in virtual reality, using Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 headsets. Taught by Professor Jeremy Bailenson, Communication 166/266 Virtual People deals with the emerging VR technology and its use cases. It covers the expanding influence of VR in many different fields, including popular culture, engineering, behavioral science and communication. The course is part of a study carried out by Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The research is looking at how virtual technologies can be effectively used in educational settings. Professor Jeremy Bailenson came up with the idea after teaching students about VR for nearly 20 years. After that time, he decided that the best way to demonstrate its abilities was to create a full course experience with VR. He is the author of the seminal VR text Experience on Demand, which also is one of the class’ assigned readings. According to the course structure, students will use lecture time to take part in VR experiences by themselves or as a group, including class discussions. In 2021, 263 students, all with their own VR headsets, across 20 weeks and two courses, spent over 3,500 shared hours together in the Metaverse. Each week, the course centers on different areas where VR can be used in the real world. According to the course structure, students will use lecture time to take part in VR experiences by themselves or as a group, including class discussions. Among the class exercises was a guided meditation in outer space. Students were able to create performances with different avatars. "In Virtual People, the students don’t just get to try VR a handful of times. VR becomes the medium they rely on," professor Bailenson said in a statement. "Nobody has networked hundreds of students with VR headsets for months at a time in the history of virtual reality, or even in the history of teaching." The class has drawn students majoring in diverse disciplines, including economics, political science, communication, anthropology, biology, computer science, film and media studies, comparative literature, art practice, psychology, and sociology. Facebook’s parent company Meta, creator of the Quest device, says that such headsets will play a big part in a future "metaverse" it plans to build with other companies. In addition to the headsets, the course also uses the Engage virtual communication software to connect the students and teachers. Engage is used by major companies and educational organizations to hold virtual meetings and events. .      

Colleges Start to Move Classes to Distance Learning Due to the Fast Spread of Omicron

With the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus on the rise American colleges and universities are starting to take measures, that will impact the spring 2022 semester. The concern is that even vaccinated individuals contract the virus, disrupting institutions' plans. Schools are closely monitoring the situation before alerting students to any changes. The input received from public health experts will mostly determine their course of action. Beyond this wait-and-see behavior, some institutions have made public announcements: Harvard University already announced a transition to fully online learning to start in 2022. At least the first three weeks of classes will turn into remote learning. Stanford University reported that it will start the winter quarter online, from January 3 until January 18. DePaul University canceled on-campus classes until after January 17. Penn State will begin the semester in person as planned. However, the school might alter plans. An update is expected in December. 30. The University of California, Los Angeles, said it has yet to decide about returning to campus in January. Before December 25, the university will share more information with students. Seven universities of California campuses — Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Riverside — announced that they will start instruction online in January. Cornell, Princeton, Tufts, Towson University, and other schools are shifting final exams to online. Athletics and sports events are being called off in an increasing number of institutions.  

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Cornell and Princeton Move Final Exams Online After the Rapid Spread of the Omicron Variant

Cornell University put its Ithaca campus into alert level red, moving all final exams to an online format yesterday. This measure followed the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 among its student population. Around 883 students tested positive in the week ending Monday. In addition to moving finals, President Martha E. Pollack announced that all university events and social were canceled, including the December 18 recognition ceremony and athletics competitions. Also, libraries, fitness centers, and gyms were closed to students. Other measures involved the shut down for visitors and guests. "It is obviously extremely dispiriting to have to take these steps," Martha E. Pollack wrote in a letter to the community. "However, since the start of the pandemic, our commitment has been to follow the science and do all we can to protect the health of our faculty, staff, and students." Other colleges have also taken measures recently to head off the spread of the virus on campus. Princeton, Cornell, and Middlebury College in Vermont shifted to remote exams, while others, such as Tulane, gave students the option of finishing the semester online. Princeton University canceled indoor gatherings and encouraged students who plan to travel home for the holiday break to leave campus as soon as possible. According to Princeton statistics, more than 50 students of 8,200 who attend the New Jersey Ivy League university tested positive for Covid-19 Monday and Tuesday. Princeton, which requires all students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19, is now also requiring all eligible students to receive a booster by January 31. DePaul University in Chicago and Southern New Hampshire University each said this month that they would switch to all remote instruction, at least for a time, when classes resume in January. The Omicron variant generally causes milder cases, particularly among vaccinated individuals. The Omicron variant now represents roughly 3% of Covid-19 cases in the country, according to the CDC. Early data shows existing booster vaccines provided sufficient protection against the Omicron variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said Wednesday.  

SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras Resigns Over Text Messages to Cuomo Victim

Jim Malatras, the Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), submitted his resignation on Thursday following intense bipartisan political pressure for him to step down. His resignation will go into effect on January 14, 2022. In the last week, the controversy over his allegedly "toxic management style" loudly increased until provoking his fall. Jim Malatras, an old Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's ally, faced mounting criticism over text messages that showed him belittling one of the women who had accused the now-disgraced politician of sexual harassment. The New York State Attorney General's Office's release of text messages sent by him accelerated his decision to step down. In his resignation letter to the SUNY Board of Trustees, Malatras wrote: "The recent events surrounding me over the past week have become a distraction over the important work that needs to be accomplished as SUNY emerges from COVID-19." "I believe deeply in an individual’s ability to evolve, change and grow, but I also believe deeply in SUNY and would never want to be an impediment to its success," he added. Malatras’s tenure at SUNY was short. On August 21, 2020, the Board of Trustees selected him without a national search process, prompting a vote of no confidence from faculty members who criticized his little higher education experience and his close relationship with then New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He was the first SUNY graduate ever to become Chancellor — the 14th, in this case. In July, Malatras defended a New York State Department of Health report that effectively absolved the Cuomo administration from responsibility for the rise in COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes. He was also questioned by investigators in September about how many working hours he spent editing and fact-checking Cuomo’s personal memoir. In November 2021, the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, released old text messages that showed Malatras mocking Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Cuomo, after she tweeted about a toxic work environment in the governor’s office several years ago. "Let’s release some of her cray emails!" Malatras texted to a group of current and former Cuomo staffers after a colleague suggested Boylan was using drugs. Jim Malatras was an expert in the science of politics. He received his bachelor's degree, master’s degree, and a doctorate in political science from the University at Albany and is the first SUNY alumnus to serve as Chancellor.

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Saturday, November 22, 2025

Education technology today is marked by rising AI adoption among educators and innovative personalized learning approaches.

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Today in AI & EdTech

Saturday, November 22, 2025

AI is transforming the education technology landscape as more teachers adopt intelligent tools, driving forward and adaptive learning experiences.

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