The Edge: Your Favorite Reads of 2021

Newsletters dealing with online education topped the chart this year. ADVERTISEMENT [Academe Today Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. I’m Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle covering innovation in and around academe. We’re making some changes in The Edge. I’ll continue to report, write, and produce this newsletter, but some weeks, it will lead off with contributions from my colleagues. This week, you’ve got me. Newsletters concerning online ed topped your favorite reads of 2021. The far-and-away most-read issues of The Edge in 2021 centered on online ed. Nearly two years into a pandemic that has highlighted the strategic importance of online education, I can’t say I’m surprised. And as colleges struggled to regain some sense of normalcy over the past 12 months, I also find it heartening that newsletters dealing with student success and equity — highlighting where colleges did well and where they fell short — also drew so much of your interest. With the initial crisis of Covid-19 behind us (even if the disease itself isn’t), it’s nice to see that these issues — vitally important to my focus on innovation — continue to resonate as with readers of The Edge. The two other topics that clicked most were newsletters about money — a perennial favorite for my readers — and those dealing with issues that continue to worry me: the challenges of winning over the vaccine-hesitant, and the little matter of the growing political and cultural divide that threatens our democracy. ADVERTISEMENT UPCOMING EVENT [Join us January 18-22]( for a virtual professional development program on overcoming the challenges of the department chair role and creating a strategic vision for individual and departmental growth. [Reserve your spot now](. Space is limited. The two newsletters that topped this “top 10” list were [Enrollment May Be Down, but Some Established Online Providers Are Seeing a Surge]( which offered one of the first glimpses at how online-ed powerhouses captured market share during the early days of the pandemic, and [What This Week’s $800-Million Deal Means for the Future of Online Education]( my first take on the ramifications of the sale of the edX MOOC platform to 2U. I say “first take” because, as I noted in that piece, I think the biggest ramifications of that deal are yet to come. Most of the industry analysts are focused on how this might reshape the online-program-management business. I’m still more interested in what edX’s founders, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will do with the new nonprofit to be formed with that $800 million. Stay tuned in 2022 for more on this. (All that said, if you’re at all curious about that industry side of things, check out [this new report on OPMs from Penn State researchers]( — especially the sections that offer rationales for increasing regulation on that industry to better protect students as consumers and provide some oversight to “a strategy for extracting profit from a mostly nonprofit educational model.”) Five newsletters on the student-success front cracked this year’s most-read list: [The ‘Dirty Secret’ That Obstructs Transfer]( which discussed the systemic and cultural barriers that keep community-college students from moving on to four-year colleges; [What 11 Colleges Leading the Student-Success Movement Have Learned]( my look at the University Innovation Alliance after seven years; [What Keeps Low-Income Students Enrolled]( a follow-up to my piece on how most of the members of the American Talent Initiative hadn’t met their goals for enrolling such students; and [The First]( ‘Gap That Still Exists,’]( describing strategies that are helping students navigate the unfamiliar landscape of college. The lead pieces of two of these — the one on transfer and the other on first-generation-college students — were written by my colleagues Scott Carlson and Maura Mahoney, both of whom will continue to write periodically for The Edge. As for the fifth newsletter on this topic? That was one of my favorites of the year: my look back at whatever happened in a much-ballyhooed $5-million prize contest to find an app to improve graduation rates. The headline for this newsletter, [What Does It Mean If a Big Prize for Student Success Has No Winner]( was a bit of a spoiler, but the piece also examined the risks of counting on silver-bullet solutions for complex problems. This is the third year that I’ve shared the results of this (admittedly imperfect) exercise in measuring reader engagement. Once again thanks for this analysis go to my colleague Josh Hatch, who pulled the stats for me. While I’m at it, thanks, too, to Sara Lipka, who edits this newsletter. If you’re curious, last year’s rundown is [here]( and the one from 2019 is [here](. Two money-themed newsletters hit a chord with you this year. One was [Where EdTech’s $2-Billion Year Leaves Colleges]( a look at how new investment capital was having an influence. The other, a more macro take, headlined [What’s Different About This Recession and Why That Matters to Higher Ed]( already feels partly anachronistic now — and partly all-too relevant. That anachronistic part was the focus I had on people involuntarily out of work. (In my defense, it was February, and that was the story then.) The still-relevant part concerned people’s reluctance to start or return to college. That trend [continued]( through the fall, as higher ed experienced [the biggest two-year drop in enrollment in over 50 years](. Will the spring semester mark a rebound? Stay tuned. (Also a confession here on this recession story: It was actually No. 11 on the list, but it was a virtual tie with No. 10, so I included it.) The last topics in the “top 10” were also two of my favorite newsletters: My exploration of the [“Our Common Purpose”]( report with the political scientist Danielle Allen (whom I interviewed just days after the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol), and a rundown from my conversations with several Christian-college students working as vaccine ambassadors among their peers. As I wrote in that vaccine piece, [How Some Christian-College Students Are Trying to Win Over the Vaccine-Hesitant]( I found lots to admire in the empathy, patience, and courage those students were displaying (courage because they recognized they might be alienating friends while pursuing this important cause). I guess I wasn’t alone in that. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences report on democracy took on some big themes, and I enjoyed connecting some of those to higher ed in the newsletter [How Higher Ed Can Repair Our Democracy](. Many of you did, too, judging by [the responses and examples I heard from you](. Keep that work coming. As a nation, we sure could use it. Recommended reading. Here are some education-related stories from other outlets that recently caught my eye. Did I miss a good one? Let me know. - Public-benefit corporations like Guild Education aim to do well and do good. “Guild does well by keeping as much as a third of the tuition dollars for itself,” [Bloomberg]( in this profile]( of the company and its founder — a piece that also describes periods when some student coaches had caseloads of 300 to 1,000 students each. - The technology divide that colleges encountered when the pandemic forced classes online didn’t affect only students. As [this commentary in]( College Daily]( highlighted, it also played out among faculty members, especially those who weren’t full-time: “Our part-time faculty have been, for the most part, left to their own to obtain the devices and access they needed to teach,” wrote a board member of the Instructional Technology Council. - Barring further extensions, nearly 43 million people with federal student loans will have to start making payments on them again beginning February 1. “As the deadline looms,” [this piece by]( Hechinger Report]( “advocates are raising alarms that the loan system is not ready for the pressure.” A programming note. The newsletter won’t be published for the next two weeks. It will be back in your in boxes, and online, on January 5. But before I call it a wrap for The Edge in 2021, I’ll add one more “thank you” to the ones above. And this one is to all of you. I couldn’t write The Edge without your insights and feedback. Please keep that coming in 2022. With hopes of actually seeing many more of you beyond the Zoom screen (!) in the year to come, Happy Holidays. Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, [find them here](. To receive your own copy, free, register [here](. If you want to follow me on Twitter, [@GoldieStandard]( is my handle. Goldie’s Weekly Picks 'ALWAYS AN EDUCATOR' [The Reinvention of Rebecca Chopp]( By Megan Zahneis [STORY IMAGE]( She built a life around a profession that prizes the mind. Then she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. SPONSOR CONTENT | university of florida [Learn how colleges are advancing technology and learning across academic disciplines.]( FREE SPEECH [A Professor Called a Public Official ‘Some Flunkie.’ The State Attorney General Wants Him Punished.]( By Francie Diep [STORY IMAGE]( The comment came after a debate over Covid-19 vaccine rules at Louisiana State University. THE EVOLVING CAMPUS [The Risks Behind Your Walls]( By Scott Carlson [STORY IMAGE]( Colleges are not prioritizing — or cannot afford — deferred maintenance. How can they begin to grapple with backlogs in the billions? SPONSOR CONTENT | university of colorado denver [Affordable Access to High-Quality Education]( In a time of shifting demographics and increasing wealth disparity, learn how public urban research universities are making higher education work for all. 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