RALEIGH – At the very time thousands of businesses have ordered layoffs in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the leaders of Bandwidth Inc. on NC State University’s Centennial Campus did the opposite. Bandwidth, which makes software for voice conferencing by Zoom, Google and other customers, announced last week that it will spend $30 million for… READ MORE
Community colleges live up to their name
Thousands upon thousands of gloves, masks and face shields from nursing, respiratory therapy and even cosmetology programs. Disaster loan applications. WiFi hot spots in parking lots. Tablets and laptops for students who must suddenly take class online. Four ventilators given – not loaned – by rural Stanly Community College. And the Craft Beverage Institute at… READ MORE
WiFi: Part of our name is ‘Community’
SHELBY – The shift to online classes has revealed anew North Carolina’s digital divide.1 So, because North Carolina community colleges also tend to have plenty of parking lots that can accommodate social distancing, several colleges set out to help bridge that divide for their students and their communities. “We know that rural broadband access in… READ MORE
50,000 classes online
CHAPEL HILL – ‘Disruptive’ can be a loaded term. But if anything’s been disruptive to higher education – in North Carolina and around the world – it’s the coronavirus. Jim Ptaszynski, Vice President for Digital Learning for the University of North Carolina System, put the enormity of UNC institutions’ abrupt shift to remote learning into… READ MORE
Virtual class and a 3-foot cheeseburger
CHAPEL HILL – When word came that UNC-Chapel Hill would move all classes online due to the coronavirus, Associate Professor Steven King didn’t hesitate. King shipped virtual-reality headsets to the 28 students in his class on emerging technologies in journalism. They now meet in a virtual classroom where everyone appears as an avatar with their… READ MORE
An Act of God – All of Higher Ed Goes Online
By Buck Goldstein If you’d asked me a month ago what it would take to get all faculty on my campus teaching an online course, I would have glibly answered, “An act of God.” I imagine a lot of administrators across the country would have felt the same. But an epic disruption in the form… READ MORE
Mother of invention: UNC System responds to COVID-19
CHAPEL HILL – At the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year on University of North Carolina campuses, few would have predicted the year would end in a global pandemic. Yet here we are. “We’re in the midst of a very serious health crisis,” Interim UNC System President Bill Roper told the UNC Board of Governors… READ MORE
Caudill: If ever basic research mattered…
By W. Lowry Caudill CHAPEL HILL – We need an answer for coronavirus in a hurry. Scientific research generally doesn’t happen in a hurry. So thank goodness for the work Dr. Ralph Baric has done for the past six years in a secret lab at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Baric and… READ MORE
Cancelled MerleFest = cancelled student aid
WILKESBORO – When officials cancelled MerleFest this month due to the threat of coronavirus, it meant more than a lost chance to hear Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss and Mavis Staples. It was also a lost opportunity for students at Wilkes Community College, host of the annual music festival. MerleFest helps fund critical programs at the… READ MORE
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