This book argues that the structure of public education is a key factor in the failure of America's public education system to fulfill the intellectual, civic, and moral aims for which it was created. The book challenges the philosophical basis for the traditional common school model and defends the educational pluralism that most liberal democracies enjoy. Berner provides a unique theoretical pathway that is neither libertarian nor state-focused and a pragmatic pathway that avoids the winner-takes-all approach of many contemporary debates about education. For the first time in nearly one hundred fifty years, changing the underlying structure of America’s public education system is both plausible and possible, and this book attempts to set out why and how.

What's it really like to learn online?Learning Online: The Student Experience Online learning is ubiquitous for millions of students worldwide, yet our understanding of student experiences in online learning settings is limited. The geographic distance that separates faculty from students in an online environment is its signature feature, but it is also one that risks widening the gulf between teachers and learners. In Learning Online, George Veletsianos argues that in order to critique, understand, and improve online learning, we must examine it through the lens of student experience. Approaching the topic with stories that elicit empathy, compassion, and care, Veletsianos relays the diverse day-to-day experiences of online learners. Each in-depth chapter follows a single learner's experience while focusing on an important or noteworthy aspect of online learning, tackling everything from demographics, attrition, motivation, and loneliness to cheating, openness, flexibility, social media, and digital divides. Veletsianos also draws on these case studies to offer recommendations for the future and lessons learned. The elusive nature of online learners' experiences, the book reveals, is a problem because it prevents us from doing better: from designing more effective online courses, from making evidence-informed decisions about online education, and from coming to our work with the full sense of empathy that our students deserve. Writing in an evocative, accessible, and concise manner, Veletsianos concretely demonstrates why it is so important to pay closer attention to the stories of students—who may have instructive and insightful ideas about the future of education.

COVID-19 has placed American higher education at a crossroads. This book is the roadmap. COVID-19 triggered an existential crisis for American higher education. Faced with few safe choices, most colleges and universities switched to remote learning during the 2020 spring semester. The future, however, provides more choices about how institutions can fulfill their mission of teaching and research. But how do we begin to make decisions in an uncertain and shifting environment? In this concise guide, authors Edward J. Maloney and Joshua Kim lay out clear ways colleges and universities can move forward in safe and effective ways. The Low-Density University presents fifteen scenarios for how colleges and universities can address the current crisis from a fully online semester to others with students in residence and in the classroom. How can changing the calendar or shifting to hybrid models of blended classrooms impact teaching, learning, and the college experience? Could we emerge from this crisis with new models that are better and more adapted to today's world? The Low-Density University focuses primarily on teaching and learning, but student life (housing, athletics, health, etc.) are core to the college experience. Can we devise safe and effective ways to preserve the best of that experience? The lessons here extend beyond the classroom. Just as the pandemic will change American higher education, the choices we make now will change what college looks like for generations to come.