This Virtual Life: How the Pandemic is Reshaping the Higher Ed Experience

Higher Ed ReWired

About This Episode:

Higher education is beginning to reassess the college experience in response to the pandemic. Universities are updating curricula to offer larger or more robust professional programs, expanding remote options to ensure students with disabilities and other needs have equal access, and adopting innovative pedagogical methods to effectively teach students from all backgrounds in a variety of modalities.

In this episode, we speak with the president of Ohio University about how recent enrollment shifts may affect which programs universities choose to expand; two students with differing views on the future of remote courses; and a geology professor at Coastline College about the benefits and challenges of remote instruction and what college will look like moving forward.

Featured on This Episode:

• President Hugh Sherman is the 22nd President of Ohio University. He earned a B.A. in economics from Guelph University (Canada), an MBA from Northeastern University, and a Ph.D. in strategic management and international business from Temple University. His research interests include corporate governance, international business, entrepreneurship, and economic development.
• Mayor Steve Patterson is serving as the mayor of the City of Athens, Ohio. Mayor Patterson earned his BS in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the University of North Dakota. He earned his Ph. D in Health Psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He served in the United States Air Force for 23 years in both the Enlisted and Commissioned ranks and retired in 2003 as a Major with the District of Columbia Air Nation Guard 113th Fighter Wing. Mayor Patterson lives in Athens, Ohio where he was an Associate Professor of Health Psychology at Ohio University for 18 years until he began his term first term as Mayor in January 2016.
• Kelly Rupert is a part-time lecturer at Cal State Fullerton and a full-time geology professor at Coastline College. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from the University of California, Riverside.

Resources for This Episode:

• City of Athens, Ohio
• Ohio University
• Education Data Initiative
• Coastline College
• California State University, Fullerton