"The Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education"

DCAL's Director of Online Program and Strategy Joshua Kim recently published a new ebook "The Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education," from Johns Hopkins University Press. Kim co-authored the book with Eddie Maloney, executive director of The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University. In April 2020, the two wrote a blogpost on Inside Higher Ed called "15 Fall Scenarios," which described many possible scenarios for schools as they to returned to classes in the fall. The post was widely read and inspired a blogseries detailing each scenario. Kim and Maloney were featured in the LA Times, NPR and other publications for the series. 

The new text focuses not just on teaching and learning in this time of the coronavirus, but the full student experience. In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Kim said, "The pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated the inequalities of opportunities that students must navigate. Students from resource-deprived and financially or health-stressed households have had to manage numerous personal and educational challenges in continuing their college careers during COVID-19. So while we think that issues of equity, inclusion and social justice are at the forefront of the thinking of academic leaders, we would argue that these concerns should be vocally foregrounded and articulated in the communications of academic plans." "The Low-Density University" is available for free to all on Project Muse.

Earlier this year, Kim and Maloney also published "Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Education," which Book Authority named One of the 9 Best University Books to Read in 2020.