Higher Ed GPS: How Will We Get Where We Are Going?

Studies show that the major reason students drop out today is financial, not the level of engagement or difficulty of curriculum.    In short, the things that impact student success today are much different from the influences on the elite agrarian society for which the original system was designed.    And success lies not in education itself, but is now defined much more pragmatically as achievement in     the workplace.   Thus, how quality is defined must be couched in terms of how students succeed.    And if success is now defined as achievement in the workplace, higher education must ask how to relate the concept of quality to workplace success and determine where it resides and what it looks like.   Job placement and earnings, which are frequently used as proxies for quality, are subject to many pragmatic factors, like the state of the economy, skill sets acquired, and the interpersonal skills of the individual. ...

Vital to the success of a new model, or any model, of higher education is the issue of quality, specifically what it is and where it resides.   Never before have students, governments, and taxpayers clamored so loudly for increased accountability and transparency in education. The demand to link quality, the learning experience, and ultimately success in the workplace is affecting all levels of education. This situation is complicated by efforts to define academic quality in specific terms. The collective wisdom of academia and the federal government has not been able to reach consensus. Over time, various metrics have been proposed as significant indicators of quality, such as graduation rates and job placement data.   While such measures help to quantify institutional performance, they are difficult for many to understand as markers of quality, and they are subject to a wide variety of interpretation as to efficacy. As higher education seeks answers,  it must look t...

The truth is that there is no such thing as “Online Education.”  The term was used to create a false dichotomy to describe what some saw as an alternative to the physical classroom experience. It was conceived at a time when the capabilities of a virtual environment were not well understood. As a result, online classes and programs were often segregated from mainstream higher education and treated as different kinds of "things."   Much as the unorthodox, misunderstood experiment of Dr. Frankenstein, online education was at first widely reviled and feared by the higher education establishment. Trust me, I was there as the villagers came with their pitchforks and torches.  But today many aspects of the early virtual milieu are now commonplace, such as virtual libraries and course materials. And many institutions now regularly incorporate video and chat into the curriculum.  Frankenstein’s creation should have faired so well....

A recent study from the Lumina Foundation entitled “Today’s Reality” concludes that we must do more for those students whom we used to call “non-traditional.”   The study points out that today’s students are older, often work, have family obligations, and are increasingly students of color.     But wait, this was true for yesterday’s students, too.   And the same was true for students a decade ago, and even further back than that.   The report also suggests ways to address the issues attendant to “today’s” learners.   The proposed solutions are as old as the demographic data.   More disappointing, however, is the fact that the president of a reputable university took the Lumina report as one departure point for a discussion (read: redundant rehash) of issues such as the value of the credit hour system and the need for flexible formats for students.   We have known that adult learners are different from 18-year-olds since at least 1976, w...

A current article by Meris Stansbury in eCampus News (“Is it time to rethink the term nontraditional student?”) cites recently released data (not recent data) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in suggesting that we need to take a closer look at traditional vs. nontraditional students.   The data include characteristics of postsecondary nontraditional students, e.g., having one or more dependents, and being employed full-time.   Additional data show percentages of students who fit the nontraditional profile.   All of the data points to an increasing number of students who fall into the nontraditional category. The article concludes that the definition of a traditional student may be outdated, and that institutions should be doing more to serve the nontraditional population. While the article itself and the NCES data are accurate, they are both sadly out of date.   The article notes that the NCES data show essentially the sa...