Technology and new media

Offloading virtual learning to third-party ‘partners’ doesn’t always work for students but remains a blind spot for quality assurance, says Nora Carrol

Students from Syria and Sudan unable to progress because of lack of access to certificates

Our innovative, empathic and cooperative approach to the pandemic needs to be used to address more deep-seated problems such as poverty and inequality, says Chantal Jouannet Valderrama

Transitioning to remote and hybrid modes has made the university experience about more than the transmission of knowledge, says Sergio Pulgarín Molina

Artificial intelligence will soon be able to research and write essays as well as humans can. So will genuine education be swept away by a tidal wave of cheating – or is AI just another technical aid that teaching and assessment will evolve to take account of? John Ross reports

Authorities probe competition implications, as plagiarism giant insists it needs scale to meet customer demands

Sheffield corporate services head to join UK sector technology body

Deal will enable for-profit provider 2U to reach almost 40 million learners on edX 

Calls to use US federal research spending in universities to boost heartland regions gain political traction

Grand challenges won’t be solved unless disciplinary research data are opened up to all, says Nathan Cunningham

Some students have abused privacy allowances and marking latitude – but others’ ongoing engagement has been heartening, says Robert Zaretsky

‘Hua Zhibing’ to study alongside and interact with human learners

Academics fear California-based company is gaining monopoly on plagiarism detection services

Software tools need to be properly valued for their vital role in facilitating research, say Bilal Mateen and Tariq Khokhar

Major scientific breakthroughs require people to be in their labs well beyond nine to five, and we ought to acknowledge this openly, suggests Eneli Kindsiko

A podcast constructed and targeted well can amplify faculty expertise and build public trust, says Paul M. Rand

Expecting academics to effectively review potential cheating incidents is unrealistic and ineffective, says Scott McFarland

Researchers say system has potential to spot ‘hidden gems’ that may miss out on funding

Imperial creates tool to analyse geographic distribution of authors on reading lists and socio-economic status of their country

Decision will impact other tools that relied on Microsoft’s database and raises questions about relying on private firms, critics say

Proposed acquisition of Ouriginal would give academic integrity giant vast majority of market

‘Tesla’ creators say accuracy and security in design were more important than rushed roll-out

Entrepreneurship skills can benefit students and society, but many universities aren’t giving the area the attention it needs, experts tell Anna McKie

UK watchdog calls for universities to commit to tackling essay mills, after Australian agency warns of malware redirecting students to contract cheating sites

Tough choices and bold strategies are needed if universities are to navigate the perilous landscape that lies ahead, argue Michael Braun and Scott Latham

The loss of the human touch, plus potential tech headaches, make interviewing online an even greater challenge, says Gábor Sarlós

Video platform made powerful by pandemic agrees to largely let universities police content

Academics are often unusual jobseekers with specific skills − LinkedIn allows you to take control of your professional self-narrative, says Stacy Hartman

BAME scholars have relished the chance to be creators and performers in their own space, free to express themselves fully and creatively, says Jonathan Wilson

‘Black hat’ techniques from drug sales and information warfare used on students seeking legitimate university services

We must fight the urge to want to play with shiny new toys even more than educate our classes, says George Justice

Despite evidence that images can support higher-level thinking, their application is still marginalised, say Nataša Lacković and Zoe Hurley

To attract PhD students, advisers must portray competence and warmth. Ben Marder and Sebastian Oliver explain how to optimise your staff profile

New assessment strategies are required to promote the types of learning needed in the 21st century, says Danny Oppenheimer

‘Significant increase’ in attacks recorded by National Cyber Security Centre since February

In a world accustomed to beautiful, frictionless digital experiences, most online education looks like websites from the 1990s, says Louise McElvogue 

Team of experts will pilot AI products and provide support and training to institutions

Will institutions be willing to invest in the spaces, technology and workload support required to effectively teach these methods? asks Amanda White

Profound change is in the offing for higher education, but history suggests non-Western students’ voices will not be heard, says Farish A. Noor

We do our students a disservice by not educating ourselves on disruptive technologies such as VR and machine learning, says Christine Janssen 

Students’ gravitation towards communal living may be exactly the insight we need to solve the stubborn problems of remote learning, says Carlo Ratti

Successful learning design can happen only when academics and learning designers work in partnership, says Amy Sampson

Departures of Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell has prompted academics to ask if they should reconsider links with the technology giant

A video by a professor for only their class is akin to the single-copy, handwritten book disseminated to just one room of people, says David Kellermann

Unlike Dutch universities, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research cannot pay a ransom to attackers because it is a public body

The pandemic brought out the best in teaching staff in many universities. Yet countervailing forces are stamping out their creativity, warns Andy Farnell

We know that employing learners as active co-creators of their learning builds opportunities for knowledge absorption, say Guy Daly and Andrew Turner

Anna McKie reports on latest innovations in chatbots and how AI-based technology can be developed to improve teaching and learning in universities

Many students have not had their expectations met, but it’s unhelpful to assume this is a systemic online teaching and learning issue, says Linda Kaye

We know from bitter experience that poor or misguided online practice can have serious safeguarding consequences, say Emma Bond and Andy Phippen

The University of Groningen’s response to the pandemic has been widely lauded. Key to it was taking teachers and students seriously from the start, says Klaas van Veen

Actors? Videographers? Graphic designers? Covid has forced academics to wear many uncomfortable hats, say Christine Rivers and Anna Holland

What if I could be in 2,000 breakout group discussions simultaneously, nudging students along a more productive path? asks David Shrier

The great loss is the more subtle stuff, such as arching an eyebrow at a pal when Professor X starts droning on, says Athene Donald

My research inspired laptop bans in classrooms around the world, but we need nuance in our thinking about using technology, says Danny Oppenheimer

Many institutions may find it challenging to translate the crisis experience into an immediate enhancement of teaching and learning, says Michael Gaebel 

Given the year we've just had, we might expect some acknowledgment of the need to address student welfare online, say Andy Phippen and Emma Bond

‘Warming up’ the screen needs to become a priority for educators, especially for video-based tutorials and seminars, says Lucinda McKnight

We must find ways to balance integrity, privacy, accessibility, workload and student expectations, say Jennifer Lawrence and Kylie Day

An ideological gap has grown, where some universities have different ideas to students about the concept of a university, says Steve Davies