--- title: Students Are Learning From Events in Short-Term Classes description: Students are learning from events in short term classes, the next U.S. president could push African countries into China's arms and more. canonical: https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-15T17:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:19.724Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Students Are Learning From Events in Short Term Classes og:description: These are toady's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Students Are Learning From Events in Short Term Classes twitter:description: These are toady's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Students Are Learning From Events in Short-Term Classes by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 15, 2016 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 15, 2016 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Students at this university are learning from public events in short-term ‘pop-up’ classes.**](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/11/bennington-colleges-experiment-short-term-pop-courses) By Kasia Kovacs at Inside Higher Ed **2\.** [**The next U.S. president could push African countries into the arms of China.**](http://qz.com/837567/election-2016-a-donald-trump-presidency-may-push-african-countries-away-from-america-and-closer-to-china/) By Cobus van Staden in Quartz **3\.** [**Facebook has a fake news problem. These students solved it in 36 hours.**](http://www.businessinsider.com/students-solve-facebooks-fake-news-problem-in-36-hours-2016-11) By Julie Bort at Business Insider **4\.** [**Can student-athletes lead the next national conversation about race?**](http://theundefeated.com/features/student-athlete-revolt-2-0/) By David Leonard in the Undefeated **5\.** [**These lab-grown ‘mini-brains’ are helping scientists battle Alzheimer’s and Zika.**](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/13/501257433/minibrains-could-help-drug-discovery-for-zika-and-for-alzheimers) By Jon Hamilton at NPR  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/"},"headline":"Students Are Learning From Events in Short-Term Classes","datePublished":"2016-11-15T17:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:19.724Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/","keywords":["Innovation","Athletes","Education","facebook","China","Alzheimer's"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4571348/students-are-learning-from-events-in-short-term-classes/","name":"Students Are Learning From Events in Short-Term Classes"}}]}] ```