business side of he

Aligning the business model of college with student needs: How WGU is disrupting higher education [Dunagan]

On 09/15/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, cost of getting a degree, digital learning, disruption, education, education technology, elearning, faculty, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, Lifelong learning, more choice more control, online learning, society, staying relevant, student-related, teaching online, tools, United States, universities, Using teams, vision, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, by Daniel Christian

Aligning the business model of college with student needs: How WGU is disrupting higher education — from christenseninstitute.org by Alana Dunagan

Excerpt:

Since its inception, Western Governors University (WGU) has aimed to serve learners otherwise shut out of the traditional system. Now, the groundbreaking institution has both graduated 100,000 students and has over 100,000 students currently enrolled. These milestones demonstrate WGU’s ability to scale its high-quality, low-cost model, signaling a momentous shift in the higher education landscape.

In the mid-1990s, governors of 19 states across the western United States were concerned about bringing accessible college education to rural populations, especially working adults.These governors, led by Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, decided to explore building a new university to address the challenge. As the memorandum of understanding between those governors that officially marked the founding of WGU stated, “The strength and well-being of our states and the nation depend increasingly on a strong higher education system that helps individuals adapt to our rapidly changing economy and society. States must look to telecommunications and information technologies to provide greater access and choice to a population that increasingly must have affordable education and training opportunities and the certification of competency throughout their lives.”

Now in its third decade, WGU has students in every U.S. state and has over 100,000 enrolled students—a 230% increase since 2011.

Excerpts from their paper:

The potential of competency-based education
Competency-based education is an approach to learning that allows students to determine the pace of their learning and move ahead once they demonstrate mastery in a concept. As described by Clayton Christensen and Michelle Weise:

Competency-based programs have no time-based unit. Learning is fixed, and time is variable; pacing is flexible. Students cannot move on until they have demonstrated proficiency and mastery of each competency but are encouraged to try as many times as necessary to demonstrate their proficiency. Although skeptics may question the “rigor” behind an experience that allows students to keep trying until they have mastered a competency, this model is actually far more rigorous than the traditional model, as students are not able to flunk or get away with a merely average understanding of the material; they must demonstrate mastery—and therefore dedicated work toward gaining mastery—in any competency.

Competency-based education first took hold in the K-12 education system, but it is also growing in higher education. As of fall 2015, roughly 600 institutions were using or exploring competency-based programs in higher education.13 However, only a handful of institutions are using competency-based education exclusively and have designed their business models around it.

…

WGU offers programs across four industry areas: education, business, information technology, and healthcare. All of these programs are offered online; unlike most higher education institutions, WGU has no physical campus. Instead, it has invested heavily in a technology platform that allows it to deliver curriculum asynchronously, to wherever students are. In addition to its online platform, another unique aspect of WGU’s resources is its approach to faculty. In traditional institutions, faculty are responsible for academic research, course development, teaching, assessment, and advising students. Alternatively, WGU’s model unbundles the faculty role into component parts, with specialists in each role.

Coursera’s CEO on the Evolving Meaning of ‘MOOC’ [Schaffhauser]

On 09/12/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, business, business side of he, career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, Content aggregration, content development, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, faculty, freelancing, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, learning, Learning Agents, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Coursera’s CEO on the Evolving Meaning of ‘MOOC’ — from by Dian Schaffhauser
When you can bring huge numbers of students together with lots of well-branded universities and global enterprises seeking a highly skilled workforce, could those linkages be strong enough to forge a new future for massive open online courses?

Excerpts:

Campus Technology: Coursera used to be a MOOC operator, but now it’s a tech company, an LMS company, a virtual bootcamp and more. So how are you describing Coursera these days?

Maggioncalda: As a learning platform. We like to say to our universities, “Coursera is a platform for your global campus.”

You have [traditional universities] teaching with some of the world’s best professors, with some of the most cutting-edge research, to a population of people who have sat right here in front of you, on a small parcel of land, and who pay a lot of money to do that. It’s been very high quality that’s been available to the very few.

What we’re interested in doing is taking that quality of education and making it available to a vast group of people. When you think about our business model, I like to think about it as an ecosystem of learners, educators and employers. What we do is we link them together. We have 34 million learners from around the world. Our biggest country represented is the United States, followed by India, followed by China, followed by Mexico, followed by Brazil. A lot of the emerging markets and the learners there are coming to Coursera to learn and prosper.

…

[Editor’s note: Coursera currently hosts 10 online degree programs. And most recently, in July 2018, the University of Pennsylvania announced that it was launching its first fully online master’s degree, delivered through Coursera and priced at about a third of the cost of its on-campus equivalent.]…

…

CT: Let’s talk about the University of Pennsylvania deal. Do you think that’s going to put some competitive pressure on the other Tier 1 schools to jump into the fray?

Maggioncalda: This is a very well-regarded program. The University of Pennsylvania is a very well-regarded university. I think it’s causing a lot of people to re-evaluate what they were imagining their future might look like: Maybe learners really do want to have access that’s more convenient and lower cost and they don’t have to quit their jobs to take. And maybe there is literally a world of learners who can’t come to campus, in India and Europe and Latin America and Russia and Asia Pacific and China.

As a learning platform. We like to say to our universities, “Coursera is a platform for your global campus.”

Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO

In two years we’ve had over 1,400 companies hire Coursera to deliver university courses at work to their employees.

Now we’re starting to link the 34 million learners out there to the employers who are looking for people who have certain skills, saying, “Look, if you’re on Coursera learning about this thing, there might be companies who want to hire people that know the thing that you just learned.”

Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO

Learning from the Living [Class] Room:
A global, powerful, next generation learning platform — meant to help people
reinvent themselves quickly, cost-effectively, conveniently, & consistently

A new, global, collaborative learning platform that offers more choice, more control to learners of all ages – 24×7 – and could become the organization that futurist Thomas Frey discusses here with Business Insider:
- “I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.
A learner-centered platform that is enabled by – and reliant upon – human beings but is backed up by a powerful suite of technologies that work together in order to help people reinvent themselves quickly, conveniently, and extremely cost-effectively
A customizable learning environment that will offer up-to-date streams of regularly curated content (i.e., microlearning) as well as engaging learning experiences
Along these lines, a lifelong learner can opt to receive an RSS feed on a particular topic until they master that concept; periodic quizzes (i.e., spaced repetition) determine that mastery. Once mastered, the system will ask the learner as to whether they still want to receive that particular stream of content or not.
A Netflix-like interface to peruse and select plugins to extend the functionality of the core product
An AI-backed system of analyzing employment trends and opportunities will highlight those courses and “streams of content” that will help someone obtain the most in-demand skills
A system that tracks learning and, via Blockchain-based technologies, feeds all completed learning modules/courses into learners’ web-based learner profiles
A learning platform that provides customized, personalized recommendation lists – based upon the learner’s goals
A platform that delivers customized, personalized learning within a self-directed course (meant for those content creators who want to deliver more sophisticated courses/modules while moving people through the relevant Zones of Proximal Development)
Notifications and/or inspirational quotes will be available upon request to help provide motivation, encouragement, and accountability – helping learners establish habits of continual, lifelong-based learning
(Potentially) An online-based marketplace, matching learners with teachers, professors, and other such Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
(Potentially) Direct access to popular job search sites
(Potentially) Direct access to resources that describe what other companies do/provide and descriptions of any particular company’s culture (as described by current and former employees and freelancers)
(Potentially) Integration with one-on-one tutoring services

Is higher ed shooting itself in the foot? [Christian]

On 08/22/2018, in 21st century, adult learning, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, Christian education, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, face-to-face, for-profits, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, heutagogy, higher education, ideas, informal learning, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, liberal arts, Lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, perfect storm, platforms, real-world assignments, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, training / L&D, trends, universities, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

15 more companies that no longer require a degree — apply now — from glassdoor.com

Excerpt:

With college tuition soaring nationwide, many Americans don’t have the time or money to earn a college degree. However, that doesn’t mean your job prospects are diminished. Increasingly, there are many companies offering well-paying jobs to those with non-traditional education or a high-school diploma.
…
Google and Ernest & Young are just two of the champion companies who realize that book smarts don’t necessarily equal strong work ethic, grit and talent. Whether you have your GED and are looking for a new opportunity or charting your own path beyond the traditional four-year college route, here are 15 companies that have said they do not require a college diploma for some of their top jobs.

From DSC:
Several years ago when gas prices were sky high, I couldn’t help but think that some industries — though they were able to grab some significant profits in the short term — were actually shooting themselves in the foot for the longer term. Sure enough, as time went by, people started looking for less expensive alternatives. For example, they started buying more hybrid vehicles, more electric cars, and the sales of smaller cars and lighter trucks increased. The average fuel economy of vehicles went up (example). The goal was to reduce or outright eliminate the number of trips to the gas station that people were required to make.

These days…I wonder if the same kind of thing is happening — or about to happen — with traditional institutions of higher education*? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

Traditional institutions of higher education better find ways to adapt, and to change their game (so to speak), before the alternatives to those organizations gain some major steam. There is danger in the status quo. Count on it. The saying, “Adapt or die” has now come to apply to higher ed as well.

Faculty, staff, and administrators within higher ed are beginning to experience what the corporate world has been experiencing for decades.

Faculty can’t just teach what they want to teach. They can’t just develop courses that they are interested in. The demand for courses that aren’t attractive career-wise will likely continue to decrease. Sure, it can be argued that many of those same courses — especially from the liberal arts colleges — are still valuable…and I would agree with some of those arguments. But the burden of proof continues to be shifted to the shoulders of those proposing such curricula.

Also, the costs of obtaining a degree needs to come down or:

The gorillas of debt on peoples’ backs will become a negative word of mouth that will be hard to compete against or adequately address as time goes by
The angst towards higher ed will continue to build
People will bolt for those promising alternatives to traditional higher ed where the graduates (badge earners, or whatever they’re going to be called) of those programs are hired and shown to be effective employees
I hope that this isn’t the case and that it’s not too late to change…but history will likely show that higher ed shot itself in the foot. The warning signs were all over the place.

The current trends are paving the way for a next generation learning platform that will serve someone from cradle to grave.

* I realize that many in higher ed would immediately dispute that their organizations are out to grab short term profits, that they don’t operate like a business, that they don’t operate under the same motivations as the corporate world, etc. And I can see some of these folks’ points, no doubt. I may even agree with some of the folks who represent organizations who freely share information with other organizations and have motivations other than making tons of money. But for those folks who staunchly hold to the belief that higher ed isn’t a business at all — well, for me, that’s taking things way too far. I do not agree with that perspective at all. One has to have their eyes (and minds) closed to cling to that perspective anymore. Just don’t ask those folks to tell you how much their presidents make (along with other higher-level members of their administrations), the salaries of the top football coaches, or how many millions of dollars many universities’ receive for their television contracts and/or their ticket sales, or how much revenue research universities bring in from patents and so on and so forth.

Addendum on 8/24, per University Ventures e-newsletter

2. Facebook Goes Back to College (emphasis DSC)
TechCrunch report on how digital giants are buying into Last-Mile Training by partnering with Pathstream to deliver necessary digital skills to community college students.
Most good first jobs specifically require one or more technologies like Facebook or Unity — technologies that colleges and universities aren’t teaching. If Pathstream is able to realize its vision of integrating industry-relevant software training into degree programs in a big way, colleges and universities have a shot at maintaining their stranglehold as the sole pathway to successful careers. If Pathstream’s impact is more limited, watch for millions of students to sidestep traditional colleges, and enroll in emerging faster and cheaper alternative pathways to good first jobs — alternative pathways that will almost certainly integrate the kind of last-mile training being pioneered by Pathstream.

America’s colleges and universities could learn a thing or two from Leo, because they continue to resist teaching students the practical things they’ll need to know as soon as they graduate; for instance, to get jobs that will allow them to make student loan payments. Digital skills head this list, specifically experience with the high-powered software they’ll be required to use every day in entry-level positions.

But talk to a college president or provost about the importance of Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot, Tableau, Adobe and Autodesk for their graduates, and they’re at a loss for how to integrate last-mile training into their degree programs in order prepare students to work on these essential software platforms.

Enter a new company, Pathstream, which just announced a partnership with tech leader Unity and previously partnered with Facebook. Pathstream supports the delivery of career-critical software skill training in VR/AR and digital marketing at colleges and universities.

Addendum on 8/24, per University Ventures e-newsletter
3. Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College
Inside Higher Education Q&A on upcoming book A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College.
Last-mile training is the inevitable by-product of two crises, one generally understood, the other less so. The crisis everyone understands is affordability and unsustainable levels of student loan debt. The other crisis is employability. Nearly half of all college graduates are underemployed in their first job. And we know that underemployment is pernicious and lasting. According to the recent report from Strada’s Institute for the Future of Work, two-thirds of underemployed graduates remain underemployed five years later, and half remain underemployed a decade later. So today’s students no longer buy that tired college line that “we prepare you for your fifth job, not your first job.” They know that if they don’t get a good first job, they’re probably not going to get a good fifth job. As a result, today’s students are laser-focused on getting a good first job in a growing sector of the economy.

Why higher ed should do more with blockchain tech — from by Dian Schaffhauser
Oral Roberts University recently held a conference to persuade higher education institutions that it’s time to get on board the blockchain train. Its recommendations: Learn about the technology’s potential, test it out and collaborate.

Excerpt:

As CIO Michael Mathews, the event’s organizer, explained, blockchain will be as important to transforming education as the internet was. He said he believes those colleges and universities that jump on the secure public ledger concept early enough and begin testing it out will be the ones who could see the biggest benefits.

Mathews believes blockchain will have the “biggest payback” within an organization’s processes where trust is essential as part of a “value chain”: student application processing, transcript evaluations, articulation agreements. Blockchain “templates” that run in the cloud could replace “entire cumbersome processes”…

From DSC:
It could easily be that blockchain-based technologies and processes feed into cloud/web-based learner profiles in the future. That’s one aspect of the next generation learning platform that I’m pulse checking — I call it Learning from the Living [Class] Room.

Blockchain could be involved with cloud/web-based learner profiles in the future

Blockchain -- something to keep on our radars in higher education

Also, from a while back…

Oracle to Launch Blockchain Products This Month — from investopedia.com by Shobhit Seth

Excerpt:

Tech corporations are seeing big opportunities in the blockchain space, and are now in a closely contested race to seize them sooner rather than later.

Oracle Corp. has announced that it will unveil its blockchain software later this month, reports Bloomberg. Oracle will launch its platform-as-a-service blockchain product later this month, which will be followed by launch of the decentralized ledger-based applications next month.

The Redwood City, California-based software giant is already having clients on board for its blockchain offerings. Santiago-based Banco de Chile is one of the early clients that Oracle is working with to record inter-bank transactions on a hyperledger. The world’s second-largest software company is also working with the government of Nigeria, which is aiming to document customs and import duties on a blockchain. Oracle is also hopeful of offering solutions to a large number of pharmaceutical companies to efficiently track and locate batches of drugs to help them reduce the number of recalls. Thomas Kurian, president of product development, said that Oracle’s products will be compatible with other platforms.

“The scary amount that college will cost in the future” DC: This line of thinking — and trend — needs to come to an end.

On 05/18/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, higher education, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning spaces, liberal arts, library / librarians, Lifelong learning, Microlearning, more choice more control, online learning, parents, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, smart classrooms, society, streams of content, student-related, Technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, universities, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, youth, by Daniel Christian

The scary amount that college will cost in the future — from cnbc.com by Annie Nova

Excerpt:

Think college is expensive now? Then new parents will probably want to take a seat for this news.

In 2036, just 18 years from now, four years at a private university will be around $303,000, up from $167,000 today.

To get a degree at a public university you’ll need about $184,000, compared with $101,000 now.

These forecasts were provided by Wealthfront, an automated investment platform that offers college saving options. It uses Department of Education data on the current cost of schools along with expected annual inflation to come up with its projections.

Excerpted graphic:

From DSC:
We had better be at the end of the line of thinking that says these tuition hikes can continue. It’s not ok. More and more people will be shut out by this kind of societal gatekeeper. The ever-increasing cost of obtaining a degree has become a matter of social justice for me. Other solutions are needed. The 800 pound gorilla of debt that’s already being loaded onto more and more of our graduates will impact them for years…even for decades in many of our graduates’ cases.

It’s my hope that a variety of technologies will make learning more affordable, yet still provide a high quality of education. In fact, I’m hopeful that the personalization/customization of learning will take some major steps forward in the very near future. We will still need and want solid teachers, professors, and trainers, but I’m hopeful that those folks will be aided by the heavy lifting that will be done by some powerful tools/technologies that will be aimed at helping people learn and grow…providing lifelong learners with more choice, more control.

I love the physical campus as much as anyone, and I hope that all students can have that experience if they want it. But I’ve seen and worked with the high costs of building and maintaining physical spaces — maintaining our learning spaces, dorms, libraries, gyms, etc. is very expensive.

I see streams of content becoming more prevalent in the future — especially for lifelong learners who need to reinvent themselves in order to stay marketable. We will be able to subscribe and unsubscribe to curated streams of content that we want to learn more about. For example, today, that could involve RSS feeds and Feedly (to aggregate those feeds). I see us using micro-learning to help us encode information and then practice recalling it (i.e., spaced practice), to help us stop or lessen the forgetting curves we all experience, to help us sort information into things we know and things that we need more assistance on (while providing links to resources that will help us obtain better mastery of the subject(s)).

DC: How soon before we can do this with learning-related spaces/scenes/ALCs & more?

On 05/02/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, business side of he, change, changing business models, Christian education, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, disruption, drama/theater, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning spaces, Lifelong learning, love of learning, more choice more control, multimedia, music, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, society, tools, training / L&D, trends, vendors, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual reality / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC regarding Virtual Reality-based apps:
If one can remotely select/change their seat at a game or change seats/views at a concert…how soon before we can do this with learning-related spaces/scenes/lectures/seminars/Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs)/stage productions (drama) and more?

Talk about getting someone’s attention and engaging them!

Excerpt:

(MAY 2, 2018) MelodyVR, the world’s first dedicated virtual reality music platform that enables fans to experience music performances in a revolutionary new way, is now available.

The revolutionary MelodyVR app offers music fans an incredible selection of immersive performances from today’s biggest artists. Fans are transported all over the world to sold-out stadium shows, far-flung festivals and exclusive VIP sessions, and experience the music they love.

What MelodyVR delivers is a unique and world-class set of original experiences, created with multiple vantage points, to give fans complete control over what they see and where they stand at a performance. By selecting different Jump Spots, MelodyVR users can choose to be in the front row, deep in the crowd, or up-close-and-personal with the band on stage.

See their How it Works page.

With standalone VR headsets like the Oculus Go now available at an extremely accessible price point ($199), the already vibrant VR market is set to grow exponentially over the coming years. Current market forecasts suggest over 350 million users by 2021 and last year saw $3 billion invested in virtual and alternative reality.

Over one-third of university students are facing food and housing insecurity, says a new report

On 04/05/2018, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, higher education, parents, society, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

OVER ONE-THIRD OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE FACING FOOD AND HOUSING INSECURITY, SAYS A NEW REPORT — with thanks to Angela Baggetta for this resource

PHILADELPHIA, PA (April 3, 2018)—A new report led by Temple University Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab and her team at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab finds that over one-third of university students have faced food and housing insecurity in the past year. Nine percent of university students also have been homeless.

“Still Hungry and Homeless in College” is the third report issued by the Wisconsin HOPE Lab assessing food and housing insecurity among college students across states. This year’s study surveyed 43,000 students at 66 community colleges and universities in 20 states and the District of Columbia (list of participating institutions follows). Previously the reports focused only on community colleges; this year the report also includes data from more than 20,000 students at 35 universities (30 public and 5 private) in 14 states and the District of Columbia.

“While the report does not include estimates that are ‘nationally representative,’ it is currently the best source of information on the prevalence of basic needs insecurities at colleges across the country,” said Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, who conducted the research with her Temple colleagues Joel Schneider and Clare Cady, and her Wisconsin colleagues Jed Richardson and Anthony Hernandez. “Other studies have focused on single systems of higher education within states, or draw on household surveys (where college students are often missed) to look only at food insecurity. But food and housing insecurity and homelessness are overlapping issues that are best understood together. Until we do so, we can’t formulate lasting and effective solutions to promote degree completion.”

The report finds that overall:

36% of university students were food-insecure in the last 30 days, as were 42% of community college students.
36% of university students were housing-insecure in the past year, as were 46% of community college students.
9% of university students were homeless in the past year, as were 12% of community college students.
Less than half of all students surveyed reported being completely secure, meaning they did not experience any food or housing insecurity, or homelessness, in the past year.

The report also finds a disparity in risk endured by certain types of students. For example:

More than 60% of former foster youth were both food and housing insecure, and 24% had experienced homelessness in the last year.
Students identifying as non-binary and those who are homosexual or bisexual were greatly overrepresented among students enduring basic needs insecurities.
African-American and Native American students were much more likely than non-Hispanic white or Asian students to experience food or housing insecurity.
The Pell Grant does not provide sufficient protection: Compared to non-Pell recipients, Pell recipients are 14-20 percentage points more likely to experience food and housing insecurity, and 4-6 percentage points more likely to experience homelessness.

While university students are more likely than community college students to have access to on-campus housing and meal plans, even these supports do not shield students from these challenges. For example, the report finds that 26% of university students with a meal plan and 26% of university students living on campus experienced food insecurity within the last 30 days. And 7% of university students who dealt with homelessness said that they struggled because residence halls were closed during breaks.

Students who experience basic needs insecurities are clearly committed to school and are trying to work to make ends meet. But their academics still suffer. The study found that:

At both community colleges and universities, rates of food and housing insecurity were higher among students who worked longer hours. For example, 34-38% of students working 6-20 hours per week were food insecure, compared to 48-51% of students working 40 hours or more per week. Moreover, community college students who were unemployed but seeking work exhibited rates of food and housing insecurity comparable to those of students working 40 hours or more per week.
The amount of time committed to college—both time spent in class and time spent studying—is very similar for students whose basic needs are secured and those who are enduring food and/or housing insecurity.
But that time commitment does not translate into similar levels of success. Among students who reported receiving D’s and F’s in college, more than half were food insecure, with more than 40% at the very lowest level of food security. Rates of housing insecurity among these students were even higher: over the last year, more than 55% were housing insecure, and more than one-fifth were homeless.

Despite the evidence that food and housing insecurity and homelessness are real challenges to students today, there are precious few support systems in place at community colleges, universities, or in the broader community. Only 26% of food insecure students at 2-year colleges and 12% at 4-year colleges received SNAP. And of the students who experienced homelessness in the past year, only 8% of 2-year students and 5% of 4-year students received housing assistance.

The full report can be found here:
http://wihopelab.com/publications/Wisconsin-HOPE-Lab-Still-Hungry-and-Homeless.pdf

And the companion FAQ can be found here:
http://wihopelab.com/publications/Wisconsin-HOPE-Lab-Still-Hungry-and-Homeless-FAQ.pdf

Also see:

Hunger And Homelessness Are Widespread Among College Students, Study Finds — from NPR.org

Excerpt:

As college students grapple with the rising costs of classes and books, mortgaging their futures with student loans in exchange for a diploma they’re gambling will someday pay off, it turns out many of them are in great financial peril in the present, too.

More than a third of college students don’t always have enough to eat and they lack stable housing, according to a survey published Tuesday by researchers at Temple University and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab.

Overall the study concluded 36 percent of college students say they are food insecure. Another 36 percent say they are housing insecure, while 9 percent report being homeless. The results are largely the same as last year’s survey, which included fewer students.

The 2018 numbers are even higher when broken out to include only community college students. Forty-two percent indicated they struggled the most to get adequate food, as measured by the researchers’ scale. Nine percent said they had gone at least one day during the last month without eating because they lacked the money. And 46 percent said they had difficulty paying for housing and utilities.

Addendum on 4/18/18 — from Angela Baggetta:

COLLEGE STUDENTS BATTLING HOMELESSNESS, HUNGER, AND OTHER FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES INVITED TO SHARE THEIR STORIES IN NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION

#RealCollege: Voices for Change Kicks off April 18

PHILADELPHIA (April 18, 2018)—College students across the country who have encountered hunger, homelessness, and other financial and social roadblocks as they pursue their studies are invited to share their stories in a national awareness and education campaign kicking off on Wednesday.

#RealCollege: Voices for Change was created by Temple University’s Sara Goldrick-Rab and her team at the forthcoming HOPE Center for College, Community, and Justice. The HOPE Center, which launches in September, will be an evolution of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, also founded by Dr. Goldrick-Rab. She is the nation’s leading expert on the many financial burdens facing college students today, and best known for her research finding widespread food and housing insecurity among college students.

“Many people harbor stereotypes and misunderstandings of today’s college students. They think they don’t work, abuse financial aid, or are otherwise lazy and academically adrift. Data contradict those assumptions,” said Dr. Goldrick-Rab. “Our goal is to provide students who often feel invisible with a platform to have their voices elevated and heard, so that they can help correct the story. There are so many aspects of being a college student that are just not known by administrators, professors, parents, and other policymakers.”

Students will become teachers by providing submissions that can educate people about the challenges of attending college today. Some of the students who submit their stories will be asked to attend and speak at the #RealCollege conference at Temple University this September. Others will be invited to testify about their experiences before lawmakers and policymakers at the local or national level.

“As a longtime practitioner, I can tell you that students’ voices matter in how we do our work—and they should matter even more than they do now,” said Clare Cady, Director of Research Application and Dissemination at the HOPE Center.

Students can submit their audio stories on the #RealCollege website under the “Voices for Change” tab: https://realcollege.org/voices-for-change/submissions/. A full list of eligibility requirements can also be found on the site. Stories will be accepted from April 18 through August 17, 2018. To be eligible to submit their stories, students should have been enrolled at least half time in an institution of higher learning during spring, summer, or fall of 2018. That said, it is acceptable for the student to have left school for any reason. In fact, that may be an important part of their story.

Students also may record their audio stories in person at two events this spring. The first takes place April 18 on the campus of Temple University in Philadelphia, and the second takes place May 10 on the campus of Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is a Community College of Philadelphia student, and soon-to-be graduate, who is working with the HOPE Center team. “I’m a returning citizen and was homeless during college. But you won’t find stories like mine on TV. We need to change that,” she said.

Sponsors of #RealCollege: Voices for Change include Boston Foundation, New Profit, and PayPal.

“Blockchain: Is it Good for Education?” [virtuallyinspired.org] + other relevant resources

On 03/30/2018, in accreditation, adult learning, Blockchain, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, IBM, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, Lifelong learning, MBA, Microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, platforms, professional development, project-based learning, society, strategy, student-related, tools, universities, vendors, vision, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Blockchain: Is it Good for Education? — from virtuallyinspired.org

Excerpt:

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a public ledger type database made up of records called blocks that are linked together like a chain. It is a shared unchallengeable ledger for recording the history of transactions. Here, the ledger records the history of academic accomplishments. An education ledger (blockchain) could store academic information such as degrees, diplomas, tests etc. It could be kind of digital transcript.

A Few Potential Applications of Blockchain

Learning Credentials Repository – A blockchain database of credentials and achievements can be a secure online repository. Digitized records/blocks replace paper copies for sharing proof of learning and can be easily accessible and tracked. Blockchain can make it easy to access all of your academic accomplishments in a digitized and ultra-secure way. Each record is a block. Your records would be chained together and new credentials will be added as you go throughout your lifetime of learning.
Lifelong Learning Building Blocks – Informal learning activities could be captured, validated and stored in addition to formal learning accomplishments. This can be as simple as noting a watched video or completed online lesson. We’re already seeing some universities using blockchain with badges, credits, and qualifications.
Authenticating Credentials – Institutions, recruiting firms or employers can easily access and verify credentials. No more gathering of papers or trying to digitize to share. Blocks are digital “learning” records and come in multilingual format eliminating the painstaking task of translation.

What’s more, with diploma mills and fake credentials causing havoc for institutions and employers, blockchain solves the issue by providing protection from fraud. It has two-step authentication and spreads blocks across numerous computer nodes. It would take hitting over 51% of computers to falsify a block.

Sony and IBM have partnered and filed patents to develop a blockchain educational platform that can house student data, their performance reports and other information related to their academic records. Some universities have created their own platforms.

Also see:

Blockchain in Education — from by Alexander Grech and Anthony F. Camilleri

Context
Blockchain technology is forecast to disrupt any field of activity that is founded on timestamped record-keeping of titles of ownership. Within education, activities likely to be disrupted by blockchain technology include the award of qualifications, licensing and accreditation, management of student records, intellectual property management and payments.

Key Advantages of Blockchain Technology
From a social perspective, blockchain technology offers significant possibilities beyond those currently available. In particular, moving records to the blockchain can allow for:

Self-sovereignty, i.e. for users to identify themselves while at the same time maintaining control over the storage and management of their personal data;
Trust, i.e. for a technical infrastructure that gives people enough confidence in its operations to carry through with transactions such as payments or the issue of certificates;
Transparency & Provenance, i.e. for users to conduct transactions in knowledge that each party has the capacity to enter into that transaction;
Immutability, i.e. for records to be written and stored permanently, without thepossibility of modification;
Disintermediation, i.e. the removal of the need for a central controlling authority to manage transactions or keep records;
Collaboration, i.e. the ability of parties to transact directly with each other without the need for mediating third parties.

Sony wants to digitize education records using the blockchain

Mapping the Trends on Our Doorstep: The Pace of Change Has Changed [Christian; evoLLLution.com]

On 02/19/2018, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, Christian education, cognitive computing, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, leadership, organizational change, pace of change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, Technologies for your home, trends, United States, universities, vision, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Mapping the Trends on Our Doorstep: The Pace of Change Has Changed — from an article that I did out at — and with — evoLLLution.com [where LLL stands for lifelong learning]; my thanks to Mr. Amrit Ahluwalia, Managing Editor out at evolllution.com and to his staff as well!
The higher education industry has changed significantly over the past decade, and given the pace and significance of change hitting other industries as a result of technological advances, it’s fair to say the postsecondary space is ripe for further transformation.

From DSC:
From the perspective of those of us working within higher education, we see massive changes occurring in the corporate world, and we see innovations and changes also occurring in the world of K-12. Higher education should also be adapting, changing, questioning, and reflecting upon how we can best prepare our students for a rapidly changing workplace.

Below is another interesting item that I believe gives credence to the idea that we are now on an exponential pace of change. Companies are coming and going on the S&P Index…at an ever faster pace.

The 33-year average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 in 1964 narrowed to 24 years by 2016 and is forecast to shrink to just 12 years by 2027 (Chart 1).

Here is the video:

This is the transcript with the original graphs in it.

This is a nice PDF file from evoLLLution.com with the transcript, with some different graphics and some other

This is the type of thing that will be offered in our future learning ecosystems. [Christian]

On 02/16/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, cognitive computing, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, formal learning, future, future of higher education, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, Lifelong learning, more choice more control, new business models, online learning, parents, platforms, reinvent, Smart/Connected TV, staying relevant, student-related, Technologies for your home, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Here’s a quote that has been excerpted from the announcement below…and it’s the type of service that will be offered in our future learning ecosystems — our next generation learning platforms:

Career Insight™ enables prospective students to identify programs of study which can help them land the careers they want: Career Insight™ describes labor market opportunities associated with programs of study to prospective students. The recommendation engine also matches prospective students to programs based on specific career interests.

But in addition to our future learning platforms pointing new/prospective students to physical campuses, the recommendation engines will also provide immediate access to digital playlists for the prospective students/learners to pursue from their living rooms (or as they are out and about…i.e., mobile access).

Artificial intelligence working with enormous databases to build/update recommendation engines…yup, I could see that. Lifelong learning. Helping people know what to reinvent themselves to.

Career Insight™ Lets Prospective Students Connect Academic Program Choices to Career Goals — from burning-glass.com; also from Hadley Dreibelbis from Finn Partners
New Burning Glass Technologies Product Brings Job Data into Enrollment Decisions

BOSTON—Burning Glass Technologies announces the launch of Career Insight™, the first tool to show prospective students exactly how course enrollment will advance their careers.

Embedded in institutional sites and powered by Burning Glass’ unparalleled job market data, Career Insight’s personalized recommendation engine matches prospective students with programs based on their interests and goals. Career Insight will enable students to make smarter decisions, as well as improve conversion and retention rates for postsecondary institutions.

“A recent Gallup survey found that 58% of students say career outcomes are the most important reason to continue their education,” Burning Glass CEO Matthew Sigelman said. “That’s particularly true for the working learners who are now the norm on college campuses. Career Insight™ is a major step in making sure that colleges and universities can speak their language from the very first.”

Beginning an educational program with a firm, realistic career goal can help students persist in their studies. Currently only 29% of students in two-year colleges and 59% of those in four-year institutions complete their degrees within six years.

Career Insight™ enables prospective students to identify programs of study which can help them land the careers they want:

Career Insight™ describes labor market opportunities associated with programs of study to prospective students. The recommendation engine also matches prospective students to programs based on specific career interests.
The application provides insights to enrollment, advising, and marketing teams into what motivates prospective students, analysis that will guide the institution in improving program offerings and boosting conversion.
Enrollment advisors can also walk students through different career and program scenarios in real time.

Career Insight™ is driven by the Burning Glass database of a billion job postings and career histories, collected from more than 40,000 online sources daily. The database, powered by a proprietary analytic taxonomy, provides insight into what employers need much faster and in more detail than any other sources.

Career Insight™ is powered by the same rich dataset Burning Glass delivers to hundreds of leading corporate and education customers – from Microsoft and Accenture to Harvard University and Coursera.

More information is available at http://burning-glass.com/career-insight.

Previous Entries

Learning Ecosystems

Coursera’s CEO on the Evolving Meaning of ‘MOOC’ [Schaffhauser]

Why higher ed should do more with blockchain tech [Schaffhauser]

DC: How soon before we can do this with learning-related spaces/scenes/ALCs & more?

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