Leveling the Learning Curve: Creating a More Inclusive and Connected University

Will the COVID-19 pandemic be remembered as a turning point in how universities deliver teaching and learning? How might the widespread use of digital tools change higher education?

This groundbreaking book explores the role of digital education at this crucial crossroads. Built on interviews with more than fifty leading practitioners from major universities and ed-tech firms, Leveling the Learning Curve is an indispensable guide to the inner workings of digital education. Written for university managers and leaders, it explores how new tools can allow universities to reach new audiences and address long-standing imbalances. The authors examine challenges to implementing digital education programs and provide insight into how universities have managed to balance the needs of faculty and on- and off-campus students. The book traces the history of digital education initiatives from Khan Academy, TED Talks, and MOOCs through the pandemic, examining both successes and failures. It offers compelling examples of what a ＂connected university＂ looks like in practice, sharing ways digital tools can bring in wider audiences, expand interdisciplinary teaching and learning, connect students to real-life issues, help meet equity goals, and open new revenue streams.

Designed as both a manual and an in-depth study, Leveling the Learning Curve is required reading for educational leaders looking to navigate the complex waters of postpandemic digital education.

William B. Eimicke is professor of practice and founding director of the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and has led major online learning projects at Columbia and with partner institutions around the world. His books include Social Value Investing (with Howard W. Buffett, 2018) and Management Fundamentals (with Steven Cohen, 2020), both published by Columbia University Press.

Soulaymane Kachani is the senior vice provost of Columbia University. He oversees the university’s teaching, learning, and innovation strategies and the expansion of its online and hybrid offerings. He also focuses on propelling Columbia’s excellence as a global university, working to enhance existing international academic partnerships and develop new ones, and to make its campuses ever more welcoming to students and scholars from around the world.

Adam Stepan is the director of Columbia’s Picker Center Digital Education Group. He is also an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and the author of more than thirty Columbia and Open Society University Network Case studies, and he serves as a digital education consultant to universities in the United States and abroad.