This is the last week the ITC is accepting applications for the 2026 Leadership Academy – the deadline is June 22^nd.  We have a great class of participants, but took advantage of some marketing of the event at the recent AI Teaching and Learning Conference hosted by Central Florida University.  So I wanted to make sure our members are aware of the extension as well.  The Academy is being hosted by Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon.  Ian Coronado is our “host with the most”.  The dates are July 13-15.  You can use this link to learn more about the Academy as well as the specifics of applying:  https://www.itcnetwork.org/distance-education-leadership-academy

Leslie Van Wolvestear, from Oakton College in Illinois, is responsible for getting the Academy together each year; the curriculum of the Academy is always reviewed and updated.  We have an amazing faculty again this year – and we are looking forward to our time together in Eugene.  This will be the 16^th year of the Academy; I always like to recognize the pioneering leadership of Ronda Edwards and Mickey Slimp; they co-chaired the Academy from its inception in 2009.  The ITC Board of Directors believes deeply in the Leadership Academy; launching this level of Professional Development was designed to better prepare Distance Learning leadership at community colleges.  Over the years, the Academy has attracted candidates from a variety of backgrounds and with an equal variety of career goals.  Consequently, the Academy has adjusted and now focuses on preparing leadership for careers in higher education.

I have a passion for “strained metaphors” and use them on a regular basis in the classroom.  Students sometimes audibly groan, but that only encourages me!   Metaphors provide more “aha” moments than most other teaching strategies.  It is important to know this so as to understand the following story - - metaphor.  

The Strained Metaphor:   My wife and I took a drive a week ago.  As we passed this pasture, I noticed the situation captured in the photo – essentially, a large number of cattle were grouped under the only shade tree in the pasture.  But there were a lot of cattle that apparently didn’t fit under that tree, so they were scattered hither and thither – and totally ignored by the cattle grouped under the tree.

By now, I assume many of you have reviewed this year’s Horizon Report; the annual report was released by Educause on May 18^th.   If you have not yet reviewed this year’s edition, I have provided a link:  The 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report:  Teaching & Learning Edition.  Educause has been responsible for the annual report since 2017 – but the New Media Consortium (NMC) was the originator of the report, publishing the inaugural edition in 2005.  The Horizon Report has always focused on the bleeding edge of technology.  The report has always intended to provide a “heads up” as to what the emerging trends in new technologies were.  It was edgier in the beginning AND the ITC participated for several years in providing information about the trends at community colleges. 

This year, the Horizon Report is likely more of a “must read” than it has been in recent years.  As an article in this week’s eNews puts it, “Higher Ed’s warning light is flashing”!!!   As you might suspect, the winds of technological change are blowing at hurricane strength these days.  And many of our campuses seem to be living in a state of denial.  They indicate awareness, but can’t seem to see the forest for the trees. After all, there are many warning signs pointing towards tremendous change:

For many of us, the recent Canvas Ransomware attack was ill-timed (right at the end of our spring term) and unsettling.  Regardless of our LMS solution, we have had an odd complacency – because we had never had a disruption like this, we assumed immunity.   That complacency was seriously disrupted with this attack. 

It was reported that half of all colleges and universities are now on Canvas.  Since the disruption, a number of institutions have been looking to cancel contracts and pivot to another LMS solution.  To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what LMS you are using.  Actually, it doesn’t matter what third-party solution you are using for anything on your campus – be it your student information system or your accounting program.  Seemingly everything is vulnerable – cybersecurity has become a major concern.  And with the arrival of Generative AI, the variety and complexity of attacks are expected to increase exponentially.

The US Department of Education released the final regulation for the Workforce Pell Grant Program. This has been monitored closely since the launch of a major “redesign” of the program, and the related reduction in funding. The estimate is that $11 billion will be directed to this new approach, but that is substantially reduced from previous commitments AND there are numerous associated expenses that states are expected to cover (filling any funding gap from previous program, cost of collecting data from employers, students, etc. the actual certification process each governor must now put in place and the increased demands on program eligibility/requirements). 

I wanted to share some information – this is certainly not an EdTech issue – yes, online learning is used in some of the approved programs – but this is a big issue for our institutions. Given the changes, the number of Pell eligible career programs has been substantially narrowed.  There is also an accountability factor – ROI – for these career tracks.  There is a logic for doing this – but we have historically supported programs that are critical – like childcare  - even though the ultimate income does not correlate to the degree expected.

There are several articles this week about the recent Canvas Ransomware event.  For our campus, it occurred during the week before the last week of the spring term.  That week is a big deadline week – usually writing assignments are due.  We were disrupted – for a day.  Canvas contacted all of the campus IT and Distance Learning administrators with the guidance to not have anyone try to log in.  Our president also sent out a campuswide message.  And we waited.  I sent a campus email message to each of my classes to reassure – I’m not a deadline guy and my students already know that, but many indicated they appreciated the reaffirmation that all of my dropboxes are open until the last day of the class.  Turned out, that worked very well and reduced any angst.

Many of us are on Canvas – it has 41% of the market share in higher education with over 9000 individual institutions.  Plus some 3000 K-12 schools as well.  And the sad reality is that any of the LMS solutions – as well as our various enterprise services on our campuses – are vulnerable to this type of an attack.  In fact, with the arrival of AI, the risk of ransomware attacks has increased.

As you know, ITC has offered an outstanding Leadership Academy for the past eighteen years.  We have now had nearly 300 complete the training, and have offered the Academy from St. Petersburg FL to Milwaukee, Wi; from Asheville NC to Portland, ME; from Reno, NV to Costa Mesa, CA; from Minneapolis, MN to Buffalo, NY;  from Portland OR to Ft. Worth TX; and from Glassboro, NJ to Charlottetown PEI Canada. 

This year, the ITC Leadership Academy will be hosted at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR.  The three-day training has a robust schedule of sessions designed to prepare the next generation of leadership.  Over the years, we have had a wide variety of participants with a wide variety of backgrounds.  Certainly, we do include Distance Learning and Technology, BUT we prepare leadership to lead ANY program or department. 

The recent Federal Government announcement that Title II Accessibility compliance was being delayed for a year was quite a surprise.  I know so many of you had been working so hard this past year to ensure you would be ready by the original deadline – I actually heard more frustration than relief.

Why?  For those who work directly in the world of accessibility compliance, it has often been hard to get others on campus to buy into what is needed to comply.  The Federal deadline had finally gotten everyone on the same page – and the unexpected delay, may now be counter-productive to the progress made.   There can be no expectation that the new deadline for next year will be extended, so it remains “all hands on deck” in identifying deficiencies and framing a set of solutions most appropriate for your institution.  

At this year’s ITC National Annual Conference, Ian Coronado and I presented on the results of the 2025 national survey.  For any of you that have been members for any length of time, you know that the ITC has conducted an annual survey since 2004 – focused on Distance Learning, it surveyed consistent data points to build a longitudinal understanding of the challenges and successes of Distance Learning at America’s community colleges.  We missed a beat during the first year of the pandemic – we were all very distracted at that time – but have otherwise annually reported the seemingly continuous growth of Distance Learning.

Our membership has repeatedly expressed appreciation for the data – our survey results have been used extensively at many campuses to improve budgets, staffing and/or adoption of key practices to improve the quality and success of Distance Learning.  Our membership also pointed out that completing the annual survey was becoming a struggle – so many questions!!

When I served as our campus’ dean of WebCollege, I was able to enshrine a set of “Standards for Teaching Online”.  Honestly, it was edgy for the time.  And the proposal met with headwinds from those that wanted as limited set of expectations as possible.  Nonetheless, the Online Standards were adopted and have provided a baseline of quality for the past several years.

Fast-forward to this semester, and the WebCollege Committee – now a standing committee of the Faculty Senate – has been developing a set of updates and timely improvements to the original document.  I had the opportunity to review their draft – and was very pleased to see how they had further strengthened – and expanded the document.  It still has to go before the Faculty Senate for approval, but keeping my fingers crossed.

For those of you that joined us in Austin, Texas for the ITC Annual National Conference – thank you!!!  It was a wonderful conference – and represented the ITC’ return to staging our annual conference on a community college campus.  A major “tip of the ITC hat” to our host, Matt Evins, the director of Academic Technology at Austin Community College. He, and his wonderful staff, made everything work and flow so well. The tech support was wonderful, the food and refreshments were wonderful, the Highland Campus (one of twelve campus locations) was gi-normous but worked well for our conference.  As you can imagine, most of the board members were immersed in selecting session applications, arranging for keynote speakers, coordinating the Grand Debate or the Awards Ceremony, hosting/participating in our “power panel session, recruiting exhibitors, creating awards and give-aways, planning receptions and facilitating sessions.   And the ITC board leaders were “everything, everywhere, all at once” for the entire conference.  All deserve a hale and hearty “Hizzah!!” for a fabulous job!

There were many highlights at the conference, but some of our best news concerned the introduction of our new ITC management team as well.  No surprise here – you’ve been interacting with our team:  Craig and Holly, as they helped with membership renewals and conference registrations over the past eight months – as well as fielding any questions or needs from our membership. But to make this sound official, we formally introduce: