community colleges

Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions — from cew.georgetown.edu

Summary:

Did you know that in the first year after graduation you can make more money with an associate’s degree in nursing from Santa Rosa Junior College in California than with a graduate degree from some programs at Harvard University? Data from the College Scorecard reveal many more surprising details of post-college outcomes for students and families about that all-important first year after graduation. Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions finds that first-year earnings for the same degree in the same major can vary by $80,000 at different colleges and universities. It also reveals that workers with less education can often make more than workers with more education, and that higher levels of education do not always result in higher student loan payments.

Speaking of Georgetown, also see:

Georgetown University partners with Coursera to launch an online bachelor’s completion program for adult learners — from blog.coursera.org

In the U.S. alone, more than 39 million students leave college without a degree. Black, Latino, and Native American students are overrepresented in this population.

SCS’s program is designed to help students of all backgrounds complete their degrees and unlock their earning potential. The degree’s most recent on-campus cohort is composed of 62% students of color and 40% military-connected learners. SCS is introducing this fully online degree to scale this program to learners worldwide.

edX Announces 2022 edX Prize Finalists for Innovation in Online Teaching — from prnewswire.com by 2U, Inc.

Excerpt:

The 2022 finalists include (sorted alphabetically by institution):

Professor Dr. Thomas Scheibel, Biomaterials and Biofabrication: Design, Engineering and Innovation, University of Bayreuth
Professor Dirk van Gameren, Global Housing Design, Delft University of Technology
Professor William Jack, Impact Evaluation Methods with Applications in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Georgetown University
Associate Professor Constantinos Coursaris, Associate Professor Camille Grange, Pierre-Majorique Léger, Dr. Annemarie Lesage, and Professor Sylvain Sénécal, UX Design and Evaluation, HEC Montréal
Professor Aren M. Maeir, Biblical Archaeology: The Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Judah, IsraelX – Bar-llan University
Dr. Reiner Hutwelker, Professor Dr. Holly Ott, and Professor Dr. Martin Grunow, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, Technical University of Munich
Associate Professor Dr. Peter Westley, Salmon, People, and Place, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Dr. Darren Gravley, Dr. Sam Hampton, and Dr. Kate Pedley, Foundational Field Skills for Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Canterbury
Dr. Ian Yu-Hong Wong, Professor Stephen Wing-Keung Cheng, and Professor Kent-Man Chu, So You Want To Be A Surgeon?, University of Hong Kong
Dr. Peter Crosthwaite, Academic English, The University of Queensland

Other recent items from GSV:

Black Families Look to Continue Pod Schooling Movement Beyond Pandemic — from the74million.org by Linda Jacobson
But rather than go private, some pod leaders say they will stay connected to traditional schools — ‘for better or for worse’
Strada announces $4 million commitment for 11 community college and employer partnerships working to connect learners with opportunity — from prnewswire.com by Strada Education Network
Is GoodCourse the future of corporate learning? — from businesscloud.co.uk by Jonathan Symcox
Micro-learning platform’s short-form content and TikTok-style explainer videos have the potential to transform development in the workplace

“The reason TikTok is so popular is because it’s short-form and engaging; the opposite to the usual two-hour training course.

“Spacing out micro-learning chunks across the course of a year gives you a much better chance of retaining it and actually acting on it. That’s why GoodCourse is built to engage a Gen Z workforce.”

Best webcams as well as wireless keyboards/mice for teachers and students [Edwards

On 11/17/2022, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Apple, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, faculty, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), Hyflex learning, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, Microsoft, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, parents/guardians, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Best Webcams for Teachers and Students — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the best webcams for teachers and students to help with hybrid learning and more

The Logitech C922 Pro Stream was selected as the best overall webcam for educators by techlearning dot com

Best Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for Teachers 2022 — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
The best wireless keyboard and mouse for teachers keep you connected to devices while staying mobile

5 items re: higher education

On 11/15/2022, in business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, higher education, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

When Colleges Close, Students Aren’t Likely to Re-Enroll — from insidehighered.com by Johanna Alonso
Data from the National Student Clearinghouse show that fewer than half of students attending an institution that closes transfer to another institution.

Excerpt:

The study, produced by the National Student Clearinghouse and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, followed 143,215 students who were enrolled in 467 institutions that closed between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2020. Those that closed generally enrolled larger populations of students of color than institutions that remained open—55 percent versus 46.4 percent—and more Pell Grant recipients as well.

Just under half the students whose institutions closed—47.1 percent—re-enrolled at another college or university. Of those who re-enrolled, only 36.8 percent went on to earn a credential; 52.9 percent dropped out, and 10.4 percent were still enrolled as of February 2022. Students of color, male students and non-traditional-aged students were the least likely to re-enroll and complete a credential.

“Once it becomes likely an institution will close, states need to ensure teach-out agreements are in place to provide all students with a pathway for completing their credentials,” the study reads. “Additionally, states need to thoroughly vet the teach-out institutions to ensure they are capable of completing the terms of the teach-out agreement and are financially viable.”

When Campuses Close, Most of Their Students Are Stuck Without the Credentials They Wanted — from chronicle.com by Katherine Mangan

Excerpt:

Nearly three-quarters of the students whose colleges closed between 2004 and 2020 were stranded without adequate warning or plans to help them finish their degrees, and fewer than half of those students ended up re-enrolling in any postsecondary programs, according to a report released Tuesday.

Hardest hit were Black and Hispanic students enrolled in for-profit institutions. “Their schools’ closing effectively closed the doors on the students’ educational dreams,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, said in a briefing with reporters.

The research center worked with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, also known as SHEEO, on a series of three reports that will examine the impact of college closures on students and how states can better protect those whose education plans are disrupted.

‘Universities must engage in lifelong learning’ – UNESCO — from thepienews.com by Helen Packer
The future of universities depends on their ability to provide ‘lifelong learning’ that equips non-traditional students with in-demand skills, UNESCO warned last week.

Excerpt:

David Atchoarena, director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, called on universities to engage with continuing and adult education at the first Global Lifelong Learning Summit held in Singapore in November.

“As we face salient changes in citizenship, climate change, health and wellbeing, among others, more countries are seeing the increasing importance of lifelong learning and are putting measures and strategies to make it a reality,” said Atchoarena, later adding that universities should “really define their mission so that they play their role”.

New Study Details Challenges Facing Native Students, and How to Address Them — from the74million.org by Angelique Albert
Albert: From funding for tuition to housing, food aid and financial literacy training, what schools can do to make education truly affordable

Excerpt:

A newly released National Study on College Affordability for Indigenous Students brings much-needed visibility to this disparity, which has long been ignored in the public dialogue about educational access. The report provides comprehensive data and a fresh set of powerful personal testimonies that illuminate how Native students experience the many facets of funding their college education. It offers recommendations for making higher education more financially accessible to Native students, such as providing aid for non-tuition expenses.

New Report on Re-Enrolling Adult Learners — from insidehighered.com by Sara Weissman

Excerpt:

A new report offers guidance to community college leaders seeking to re-enroll adult learners who earned academic credits but left college without a degree or credential.

The report, released today, was produced by InsideTrack, a nonprofit organization that helps institutions enroll students and improve academic outcomes through coaching. The report notes that community colleges lost almost 830,000 students nationally since spring 2020, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data. Meanwhile, there are currently 39 million Americans who attended some college but never graduated.

Teaching: Flipping a Class Helps — but Not for the Reason You’d Think — from the Teaching newsletter out at The Chronicle of Higher Education by Beckie Supiano

Excerpt:

The authors propose a different model of flipping that gives their paper its title, “Fail, Flip, Fix, and Feed — Rethinking Flipped Learning: A Review of Meta-Analyses and a Subsequent Meta-Analysis.”

Their model:

Fail: Give students a chance to try solving problems. They won’t have all the information needed to arrive at the solution, but the attempt activates their prior learning and primes them for the coming content.
Flip: Deliver the content ahead of class, perhaps in a video lecture.
Fix: During class time, a traditional lecture can deepen understanding and correct misperceptions.
Feed: Formative assessment lets students check their level of understanding.

I find this paper interesting for a number of reasons. It ties into a challenge I’d like to dig into in the future: the gap that can exist between a teaching approach as described in research literature and as applied in the classroom.

From DSC:
Though I haven’t read this analysis (please accept my apology here), I would hope that it would also mention one of the key benefits of the flipped classroom approach — giving students more control over the pacing of the content. Students can stop, fast-forward, rewind, and pause the content as necessary. This is very helpful for all students, but especially for students who don’t have English as their primary language.

I like this approach because if students fail to solve the problem at first, they will likely be listening more/very carefully as to how to solve it:

Drawing on related research, we proposed a more specific model for flipping, “Fail, Flip, Fix, and Feed” whereby students are asked to first engage in generating solutions to novel problems even if they fail to generate the correct solutions, before receiving instructions.

Plus, students will begin to recall/activate their prior knowledge on a subject in order to try to solve the problem. That retrieval practice in and of itself can be helpful.

The Shrinking of Higher Ed — A Special Report from The Chronicle of Higher Education
A special report on the implications of the enrollment contraction.

Excerpt:

Nearly 1.3 million students have disappeared from American colleges since the Covid-19 pandemic began. That enrollment contraction comes at a precarious moment for the sector. Inflation is driving up costs and straining budgets, stock-market volatility is putting downward pressure on endowment returns, and federal stimulus funds are running out. Why is the enrollment crunch happening now? How are colleges responding? What might turn things around? Those are the questions fueling this special report.

A Public Regional on the Edge — from chronicle.com by Eric Kelderman
New Jersey City University’s plan to grow its way out of financial trouble backfired. What went wrong?

Excerpts:

NJCU’s story is a cautionary tale for similar institutions — small public regional colleges with ambitions to expand in a crowded higher-education market. While its real-estate dealings have drawn unfavorable scrutiny, the university was responding to challenges that face its peers, in northern New Jersey and around the country: increased competition for a declining number of high-school graduates.
…
Public regional universities, like NJCU, enroll about 40 percent of all college students nationally, and a far larger percentage of minority, low-income, and first-generation students than better-known flagships and top research universities do.
…
But a lack of state support, limited ability to attract students from outside the region, and sparse fund raising have made the university vulnerable to economic downturns and demographic shifts that have led to fewer high-school graduates, especially in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Linked to in the above article was this article:

Declining enrollment has Western Michigan University on budgetary tightrope — from mlive.com by Julie Mack

Excerpts:

KALAMAZOO, MI — Western Michigan University has 17,835 students this fall, its lowest enrollment since the 1960s.

The number is down 6% from last fall. Down 27% from a decade ago, when the fall headcount was 24,598. Down 41% from 20 years ago, when WMU’s fall count peaked at 29,732.

And thanks to a declining birthrate and a shrinking percentage of new high school graduates enrolling in college, that downward enrollment trend is likely to continue indefinitely.

Rather, “what COVID did was force our hand after years of pressure created by declining enrollment and demographic trends that suggest declines will continue for the next decade,” she said. “So while COVID brought our financial situation into sharp relief, the budget cut was a measure taken to relieve pressure created over many, many years.”

A relevant addendum here:

Avoiding the Trap of Too Little Too Late — from tytonpartners.com by Trace Urdan; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpt:

The challenges facing higher education are well understood: a demographic cliff of traditional-aged applicants, a declining proportion of full-pay families, and a growing skepticism of the value of (ever-more) expensive post-secondary degrees with resulting student consumerism. Add to this rapidly rising technological complexity, deferred maintenance on deteriorating physical assets, escalating administrative costs associated with student services and supports, and a burgeoning array of college substitutes, and the challenges are clear. The combination of lower tuition revenue and higher costs points toward an inevitable sector consolidation. And while many college administrators will readily acknowledge this point in the abstract, few will consider that it might apply to them.

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class [Williams]

On 11/13/2022, in 21st century, Alternatives, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, parents/guardians, participation, society, sociology, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class — from fortune.com by Bytrey Williams with thanks to Ray Schroeder for this resource out on LinkedIn

Excerpts:

Looking at a cohort of borrowers from 2009, the report highlights that 50% of undergraduate debtors hadn’t repaid their loans. Across different types of loans, borrowers owed between 50% to 110% of their original loan 10 years after repayment began.

A college degree is undoing the American Dream
Getting a college degree has long been heralded as a staple to the American Dream, viewed as the path to wealth that will eventually buy a house in suburbs with a white picket fence. But the Jain Institute report shows that’s no longer the case.

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch — from educause.edu

Excerpt:

This report focuses on the workforce, cultural, and technological shifts for ten macro trends emerging in higher education in 2023. Across these three areas of shift, we report the major impacts and steps that institutions are taking in response to each trend. Some trends overlap with the 2022 Higher Education Trend Watch report. However, while some topics and issues remain consistent, significant shifts have occurred across many of the trends for 2023.

You want your students back in the classroom? Give them a good reason! [Mihai]

On 11/10/2022, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

You want your students back in the classroom? Give them a good reason! — from educationalist.substack.com by Alexandra Mihai

Excerpt:

Right now what I would like to do is turn things upside- down and bring the physical classroom and the in-person teaching and learning into the spotlight. After almost three years of doing things differently, for better or worse, I believe this is a crucial exercise that will help us calibrate our practice moving further. Ironically, despite our expectations that students will happily rush back to campus, many of us noticed a different reality: low attendance levels and in some cases also low engagement.

So, a few questions we could start by asking ourselves are…

So the next time someone asks “why should students come to class?” let’s try to answer anything else than “because they have to”.

Post-Conference LMS Market News [Hill]

On 11/09/2022, in adjunct faculty, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, education technology, faculty, higher education, instructional design, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, platforms, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Post-Conference LMS Market News — from philonedtech.com by Phil Hill

Excerpt:

Educause used to be THE EdTech conference, and the LMS market news tended to deliberately coincide with the fall event – with vendors releasing news that week. The conference competition has heated up and Educause is now one among several EdTech conferences, but it does tend to remain the premier event in North American higher ed in terms of combined exhibitor booths and marketing presence.

Having seen so many LMS vendors at #Edu22 (Instructure Canvas, Google Classroom sort of, D2L Brightspace, Anthology Learn, Open LMS, Sakai, and Cypher Learning), it is worth collecting some items in one place after the conference, organized this time around market wins of significance.

DSC: Will this become a trend within higher education (i.e., more transparent, accurate pricing)?

On 11/09/2022, in business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, higher education, new business models, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Will this become a trend within higher education (i.e., more transparent, accurate pricing)?

Why so many colleges have been resetting their tuition — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke
Colby-Sawyer College is reducing its prices by 60% so tuition more accurately reflects what students pay. Other institutions are doing the same.

Excerpt:

Starting next academic year, Colby-Sawyer College will be decreasing tuition, but it’s not just shaving a few hundred dollars off its sticker price. The college is cutting its price from $46,364 to $17,500, a drop of more than 60%.

The move, said President Susan Stuebner, is intended to make more students consider attending the private New Hampshire college.

“We really recognize the need for transparency in pricing and we’re trying to align the published price more closely with what students currently pay,” she said.

But for Stuebner at Colby-Sawyer, the choice was clear.

“The pattern of higher education being on this trajectory of high-price, high-discount has just gotten so confusing for families. We’re really doing a disservice to them,” she said. “And they’re starting to push back.”

How can colleges better serve students with autism? [Spitalniak]

On 11/09/2022, in accessibility / UDL, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), colleges, community colleges, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, higher education, neurodivergent/special needs, psychology, student-related, United States, universities, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

How can colleges better serve students with autism? — from by Laura Spitalniak
Professor Sarah Howorth says her program at the University of Maine helps bridge the gap between high school and college for students with autism.

Excerpts:

In 2019, Howorth led the pilot for the University of Maine’s Step Up to College, a program meant to model how colleges can effectively support students with autism spectrum disorder.
…
There are so many myths and misunderstandings out there about what a person with autism is like. Autism is not necessarily associated with cognitive impairment. I have a 16-year-old son who is on the autism spectrum. He is also very intelligent, and he’s definitely college bound. There’s a lot of kids out there like him on the autism spectrum.

Individuals on the spectrum bring a lot to communities, whether that be university campuses, or high schools or businesses. Oftentimes, we focus on the challenges they face, but I think they have many, many more strengths than challenges.

Look at things from a Universal Design for Learning perspective. The things that you offer for students with autism on college campuses, like peer mentors, will help all students.

Also relevant/see:

The Intersection of Autism and Trauma — from aane.org by Janet Barbieri
Exclusion and Trauma — from aane.org by Brenda Dater

So what can we do to decrease the exclusion and bullying that leads to trauma? We need to create activities and spaces where autistic people can be their authentic selves and be accepted without having to mask to fit in. We need to eradicate the isolation that is so commonplace by creating supportive communities that are truly safe and inclusive.

How AI will change Education: Part I | Transcend Newsletter #59 [Arenaza]

On 11/05/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, assistive technologies, bots, change, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, creativity, education, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, platforms, reading, teachers, teaching & learning, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

How AI will change Education: Part I | Transcend Newsletter #59 — from transcend.substack.com by Alberto Arenaza; with thanks to GSV’s Big 10 for this resource

Excerpt:

You’ve likely been reading for the last few minutes my arguments for why AI is going to change education. You may agree with some points, disagree with others…

Only, those were not my words.

An AI has written every single word in this essay up until here.

The only thing I wrote myself was the first sentence: Artificial Intelligence is going to revolutionize education. The images too, everything was generated by AI.

Are Microcredentials Finally Gaining Traction? — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim

Excerpt:

This month, the London School of Economics expanded its degree partnership with 2U to launch a series of edX microcredentials that provide learners with a flexible, stackable pathway towards pursuing a fully online undergraduate education. Wim Van der Stede, LSE’s new academic dean for extended education, graciously agreed to answer my questions about these new programs.

In that time, we’ve seen the power that online learning has to meet learners’ needs at every stage of their lives and careers.
…
The world around us is changing, rapidly, and we need to support professionals, alumni and students in refreshing and adapting their knowledge and skills, as and when they need, through evolving lives and careers. This is at the heart of LSE’s mission as a global social science hub of research and education, and plays a key role in achieving our mission to educate for impact by empowering students to develop the skills to solve society’s most pressing issues in an ever-changing world.

A side thought from DSC:
Speaking of Economics, I wonder if and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact the field of Economics?

Coursera is Evolving into a Third-Wave EdTech Company [Feldstein]

On 11/02/2022, in Alternatives, business, business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, education technology, global / globalization, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, pace of change, platforms, training / L&D, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Coursera is Evolving into a Third-Wave EdTech Company — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein

Excerpts:

This is the vision of Coursera’s three-sided platform at scale, connecting learners, educators and institutions in a global learning ecosystem designed to keep pace with our rapidly changing world.

Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda

Coursera's diversified model with 3 segments -- consumer, enterprise, and degrees

The point of this slide is to show the diversification of Coursera’s business. Degree programs may be down, but enterprise licenses and direct-to-consumer certificates are up. But it also indicates Coursera’s ability to diversify revenue streams for its university content providers. The enterprise business provides a distribution channel between universities and employers. From what I can tell, it’s a Guild competitor, even though the two companies look very different on the surface. The consumer segment started as the MOOC business and has expanded into the “tweener” space between courses and degrees: certificates, microdegrees, whatever.

Learning Ecosystems

edX Announces 2022 edX Prize Finalists for Innovation in Online Teaching + other recent postings from GSV

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class [Williams]

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch [Educause]

You want your students back in the classroom? Give them a good reason! [Mihai]

DSC: Will this become a trend within higher education (i.e., more transparent, accurate pricing)?

Are Microcredentials Finally Gaining Traction? [Kim]

Coursera is Evolving into a Third-Wave EdTech Company [Feldstein]

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