DC: I’m surprised more universities haven’t built and marketed their offerings by using such buildings.
“U of _____”
https://t.co/lr8TBWZrpa— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) September 6, 2022
On 09/02/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), accreditation, Cost of legal services - including access, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, expectations, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
ABA cleans up accreditation rules surrounding distance education for law schools — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke
Dive Brief (emphasis DSC):
- Recent amendments to American Bar Association accreditation standards addressed definitions of distance education, but Leo Martinez, immediate past chair of the ABA Council for the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, says the resolution won’t change much for law schools without waivers allowing them to conduct extra distance education.
- The changes, made at the ABA’s annual meeting in August, were meant to clarify language in accreditation standards.
- The ABA, which serves as the accreditor for 199 law schools and programs, requires waivers for institutions that want to offer more than one-third of J.D. program credits online. But it remains interested in reviewing distance education.
From DSC:
For an industry in the 21st century whose main accreditation/governance body for law schools still won’t let more online learning occur without waivers…
…how can our nation expect future lawyers and law firms to be effective in an increasingly tech-enabled world?
Here’s the pace of change in the world today:
The exponential pace of change is like warp speed for the U.S.S. Enterprise (Star Trek) or the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon (Star Wars).
Yet here’s the pace that the American Bar Association (@ABAesq) has been taking — and continues to take — at least in the area of supporting online-based learning as well as in developing sandboxes/new methods of improving access to justice (#A2J):
.
It’s high time the ABA did their research re: online-based learning and majorly picked up their pace. Undergraduate online-based education started back in the late 1990’s for crying out loud! (And the number of students taking one or more of their courses completely online has been increasing ever since that time.)
Plus, many law school students are adults who have jobs as well as families. They often don’t have the time nor the money to travel to campuses in order to take part in something that they could have easily accomplished online.
It’s also appropriate to recognize here that the current learning ecosystems out there continue to move more towards hybrid/blended learning models as well as a hyflex model.
The ABA is not serving law school students nor our citizenry well at all in this regard.
On 08/26/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, career development, changing business models, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, personalized/customized learning, platforms, society, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Below are some reflections based on an article entitled, Understanding learning transfer through Archwell Academies. It’s from chieflearningofficer.com and was written by Erin Donovan and Keith Keating.
Excerpt:
To capitalize on learning transfer and extend learning beyond traditional training periods, practitioners have established capability academies. According to Josh Bersin, capability academies are the evolution of traditional training and self-directed learning. Bersin posited:
Capability academies are business-driven, collaborative learning environments that facilitate learning retention. . . . Going beyond rote lessons, capability academies help companies prepare for transformation by helping employees develop complex skills and providing guidance on how to apply them in the context of the business.
The core concept of capability academies rests on the importance of collaboration between the trainers and the business. The intention is to provide learners with practice of conceptual understanding and comparative scenarios in the context and environment where they will ultimately apply their skills. Capability academies focus on providing training distinctly aligning with learners’ job responsibilities.
From DSC:
First of all, I have a lot of respect for the people that this article mentions, such as Josh Bersin and Will Thalheimer. So this article caught me eye.
It seems to me that the corporate world is asking for institutions of traditional higher education to deliver such “capability academies.” But that makes me wonder, could this even be done? Surely there aren’t enough resources to develop/deliver/maintain so many environments and contexts, right? It took Archwell, a global mortgage services outsourcing provider, an entire year to systematically design and develop such customized capability academies — just for their clients’ businesses.
The article goes on:
The core concept of capability academies rests on the importance of collaboration between the trainers and the business. The intention is to provide learners with practice of conceptual understanding and comparative scenarios in the context and environment where they will ultimately apply their skills. Capability academies focus on providing training distinctly aligning with learners’ job responsibilities.
Context. Skills. Acquiring knowledge. Being able to apply that knowledge in a particular environment. Wow…that’s a lot to ask institutions of traditional higher education to deliver. And given the current setup, it’s simply not going to happen. Faculty members’ plates are already jammed-packed. They don’t have time to go out and collaborate with each business in their area (even with more sabbaticals…I don’t see it happening).
I’m sure many at community colleges could chime in here and would likely say that that’s exactly what they are doing. But I highly doubt that they are constantly delivering this type of customized offering for all of the businesses in each major city in their area.
I can hear those in corporate training programs saying that that’s what they are doing for their own business. But they don’t provide it for other businesses in their area.
So, what would it take for higher education to develop/offer such “capability academies?” Is it even possible?
We continue to struggle to design the ultimate learning ecosystem(s) — one(s) whereby we can provide personalized learning experiences for each person and business. We need to continue to practice design thinking here, as we seek to provide valuable, relevant/up-to-date, and cradle-to-grave learning experiences.
The problem is, the pace of change has changed. Institutions of traditional higher education can’t keep up. And frankly, neither can most businesses out there.
I keep wondering if a next-generation learning platform — backed up by AI but delivered with human expertise — will play a role in the future. The platform would offer products and services from teams of individuals — and/or from communities of practices — who can provide customized, up-to-date training materials and the learning transfers that this article discusses.
But such a platform would have to offer socially-based learning experiences and opportunities for accountability. Specific learning goals and learning cohorts help keep one on track and moving forward.
This stunning image shows a “golden swirl” of newly born stars in a distant galaxy — from by
The latest image from the ESO’s Very Large Telescope reveals a distant galaxy that is full of freshly created and highly energetic stars.
/2022/08/15/image/jpeg/Bv8MnhLNsguEzBEJm8NOgtJWJMxfCZxrGQ6uxVhQ.jpg)
From DSC:
The above image reminds me of some scripture:
Psalm 19:1-3:
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
On 08/13/2022,
in Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business side of he, colleges, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, ideas, innovation, IT in HE, leadership, society, strategy, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
College Rankings Are ‘a Joke,’ Education Secretary Says Brianna Hatch
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Education Secretary Miguel A. Cardona called college rankings “a joke,” and took aim at selective colleges’ obsession with them, as he made a broader push on Thursday for closing stubborn equity gaps in the nation’s college-graduation rates.
“Many institutions spend enormous time and money chasing rankings they feel carry prestige, but in truth do little more than Xerox privilege,” Cardona said, attributing the phrase to the president of a historically Black college.
There’s a “whole science behind climbing up the rankings” that leads to misplaced priorities, Cardona said. The best-resourced colleges are playing a prestige game instead of centering “measures that truly count,” he said. “That system of ranking is a joke.”
…
Cardona called for a “culture change” in higher ed so that institutions would value inclusivity, use data to help students before they dropped out, and create more-accessible pathways for adult learners, rural students, and first-generation students.
“Let’s confer prestige on colleges’ breaking cycles of poverty. Let’s raise the profiles of institutions delivering real upward mobility, like all of you,” Cardona told attendees, echoing an essay he wrote for The Chronicle on Thursday. “Let’s turn the universities that walk the walk on equity into household names.”
From DSC:
The above item re: culture change caught my eye. Coming out of college, I didn’t think about the culture of an organization. It didn’t mean anything to me.
But as the years went by — and especially as I was working for Kraft Foods at the time when it got acquired by Philip Morris — I began understanding the power and influence of the culture of an organization. That power and influence could be positive and helpful or it could be negative and could stunt the growth of the organization.
I personally question whether many of the existing cultures within our colleges and universities have the ability to change. Time will tell. But the culture of places where I’ve worked had a (sometimes strong) distaste for the corporate world. They didn’t want to be called a “business.” I put that word business in quotes purposefully — as the term was spoken with disdain. The higher calling of higher education could not be considered a business…yeh right. Looking at things these last few years, one can certainly not claim that any longer.
The cultures of our traditional institutions of higher education may be the biggest challenge to their survival. Perhaps some tips in this article may help — though it has to go waaaaay beyond the IT Department.
On 08/13/2022,
in business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, learning ecosystem, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
How higher education lost its shine — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Americans are rejecting college in record numbers, but the reasons may not be what you think
Excerpt:
“With the exception of wartime, the United States has never been through a period of declining educational attainment like this,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University’s Miller College of Business.
There has been a significant and steady drop nationwide in the proportion of high school graduates enrolling in college in the fall after they finish high school — from a high of 70 percent in 2016 to 63 percent in 2020, the most recent year for which the figure is available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Myriad focus groups and public opinion surveys point to other reasons for the dramatic downward trend. These include widespread and fast-growing skepticism about the value of a degree, impatience with the time it takes to get one and costs that have finally exceeded many people’s ability or willingness to pay.
From DSC:
This again reminds me of my concerns captured in this graphic I created with Mr. Yohan Na back in 2009:
.
On 08/13/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, drama/theater, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, library / librarians, love of learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, reading, research, smart/connected TV, story, storytelling, tablets, UK, vendors, vision/possibilities, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
Augmented Books Are On The Way According To Researchers — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
Excerpt:
Imagine this. You’re several chapters into a captivating novel when a character from an earlier book makes a surprise appearance. You swipe your finger across their name on the page at which point their entire backstory is displayed on a nearby smartphone, allowing you to refresh your memory before moving forward.
This may sound like science fiction, but researchers at the University of Surrey in England say that the technology described above is already here in the form of “a-books” (augmented reality books).
The potential use-cases for such a technology are virtually endless. As previously mentioned, a-books could be used to deliver character details and plot points for a variety of fictional works. The same technology could also be applied to textbooks, allowing students to display helpful information on their smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs with the swipe of a finger.
From DSC:
- How might instructional designers use this capability?
- How about those in theatre/drama?
- Educational gaming?
- Digital storytelling?
- Interaction design?
- Interface design?
- User experience design?
Also see:
Attend a metaverse job fair in VR later this month: https://t.co/gE1VIDewBT pic.twitter.com/l4t5RgZ9xa
— VRScout (@VRScout) August 6, 2022
“Average Student Not on Track to Graduate in 5 Years” [Greenberg] + other items re: higher education
On 08/10/2022,
in business side of he, career development, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, learning ecosystem, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Average Student Not on Track to Graduate in 5 Years — from insidehighered.com by Susan H. Greenberg
Excerpt:
The average full-time college student doesn’t even attempt to take enough credits to complete a bachelor’s degree within five years, according to a new Postsecondary Data Partnership Insights report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The report evaluated the credit-completion ratio—the ratio of credits earned to those attempted—and the credit-accumulation rate of more than 900,000 first-time students at 342 postsecondary institutions during the 2019–20 school year.
College students average less than 22 credits in their first year, too few to graduate on time — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer
(Excerpt from Dive Brief)
- Barely over half of a group of first-time, full-time students — 51% — earned 24 or more credits in their first year of college, meaning most aren’t on track to graduate in four or even five years, according to research released Tuesday by the National Student Clearinghouse.
- The average full-time student took classes worth under 27 credit hours and earned fewer than 22. Just 28% of students earned 30 hours of credit or more in their first year, which is the annual pace typically required to graduate on time from four-year bachelor’s programs.
More High School Students Are Taking College Classes. But Not Everyone Gets the Chance. — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig
Can better pathways help schools, colleges and students avoid “random acts of dual enrollment”?
Excerpt:
Dual-enrollment programs help nearly 1.4 million high school students take college courses each year. It’s an opportunity that offers lots of proven benefits, like enabling more people to graduate from college, saving families money on higher education and helping community colleges attract more students during an era of falling enrollments. It’s even popular across the political spectrum.
But as dual enrollment grows across the country, access to the option is not distributed equally, according to a new report produced by nearly two dozen higher ed researchers and experts, with funding from the Joyce Foundation.
College is increasingly out of reach for many students. What went wrong? — from npr.org by Terry Gross; with thanks to EdSurge.com for this resource
Excerpt:
Journalist Will Bunch says instead of opening the door to a better life, college leaves many students deep in debt and unable to find well-paying jobs. His new book is After the Ivory Tower Falls.
What’s working in community college baccalaureate degree programs — from ccdaily.com by Tabitha Whissemore
Excerpt:
A growing number of community colleges are offering baccalaureate degree programs.
According to a national inventory published in 2021 by the Community College Baccalaureate Association (CCBA) and New America, there are nearly 570 community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs in the United States, operating at 148 community and technical colleges across 25 states. Most of the programs focus on healthcare or business, though newer programs also are being offered in computer and information sciences, and other STEM fields, as well as education.
It’s Time to End Higher Ed’s Gimmicky Sales Tactics — from chronicle.com by Barmak Nassirian
Teaming up with online program managers comes at a steep reputational cost.
Excerpt:
Initially trumpeted as an innovative model to expand access and drive down costs, the programs have seen a spate of recent media stories that paints a far less favorable picture: College-OPM partnerships are Faustian bargains that drive up tuition costs and reduce educational quality.
How did it come to this?
From DSC:
Though much of what Barmak is saying may be true, the gimmicks were going on long before OPM’s came into play. We should stop blaming everything on OPMs, or on the pandemic, or on online learning, or on this or that technology. The causes of higher education’s current issues go back a long way — such as approving standard/annual cost increases over the last several decades.
On 08/10/2022,
in Daniel S. Christian, education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, personalized/customized learning, teachers, teaching & learning, United States,
by Daniel Christian
States Crack Open the Door to Teachers Without College Degrees — from edweek.org by Madeline Will
Excerpt:
As states brace for the potential for starting the school year with thousands of unfilled teacher vacancies, several are easing certification requirements. But Arizona and Florida have gone one step further by lifting the requirement that teachers hold bachelor’s degrees in certain instances.
From DSC:
You can probably guess where I’m going to go with my comments here…and you’re right.
Teaching is extremely hard. To do it well, one has to have a lot of knowledge and practice. I, for one, would not want to be thrown into the deep end of teaching without a fair amount of background knowledge and experience.
Even highly experienced teachers can’t do it all. Even they can’t provide a personalized, customized education for 25-30 students at a time — each and every day. Even they can’t address a spectrum of abilities and paces of learning. They are operating within a system whereby the train leaves at specific times and travels at a specific pace and then stops at specific times.
I hope the experiment works and that it can diversity the profession — and be open to trying different things in different ways — as proponents assert. But I must admit that I’m a bit skeptical here.
I’d rather see the system change than try to make the existing system work with different people. I do like what Tonya Strozier said:
“If we want something different, we’ve got to do something different,” Strozier said.
Which reminds me of what Kelly Niccolls said out this piece from GettingSmart.com:
I’m hopeful for the rebuilding of what can be and for the doors that open for folks with skill sets that otherwise have been ignored or devalued. These skills are what we need now for these new times.
Kelly Niccolls
Also relevant/see:
- Severe Maryland teacher shortage highlights difficult working conditions at K-12 schools — from baltimoresun.com
On 07/25/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, training / L&D, workplace, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts — from theguardian.com by Mattha Busby
From DSC:
After seeing the above article, I wondered:
- How might the future #AR glasses help with this situation?
- Could such devices help the relevant employees automatically scan each bar code for where to route (or not) the luggage? (As I’m sure is already happening in many situations that occur away from what’s occurring on the tarmac.)
Will AR glasses be used for such training-related applications in the future? For such logistical applications? Hmmm…time will tell.
On 07/25/2022,
in 21st century, accreditation, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communities of practice, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, Cost of legal services - including access, credentialing, cryptocurrencies, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, emerging technologies, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, future, higher education, Holographic comms, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Metaverse, Michigan, Mixed Reality (MR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, organizational change, pace of change, platforms, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, robotics, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, technology (general), telelegal, trends, Uncategorized, United States, universities, using teams, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, Web3, workplace, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Given:
- the accelerating pace of change that’s been occurring over the last decade or more
- the current setup of the legal field within the U.S. — and who can practice law
- the number of emerging technologies now on the landscapes out there
…I think we’ve run out of time to effectively practice law in the U.S. — at least in terms of dealing with emerging technologies. Consider the following items/reflections.
Inside one of the nation’s few hybrid J.D. programs — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
Shannon Gardner, Syracuse law school’s associate dean for online education, talks about the program’s inaugural graduates and how it has evolved.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
In May, Syracuse University’s law school graduated its first class of students earning a Juris Doctor degree through a hybrid program, called JDinteractive, or JDi. The 45 class members were part of almost 200 Syracuse students who received a J.D. this year, according to a university announcement.
The private nonprofit, located in upstate New York, won approval from the American Bar Association in 2018 to offer the three-year hybrid program.
The ABA strictly limits distance education, requiring a waiver for colleges that wish to offer more than one-third of their credits online. To date, the ABA has only approved distance education J.D. programs at about a dozen schools, including Syracuse.
Many folks realize this is the future of legal education — not that it will replace traditional programs. It is one route to pursue a legal education that is here to stay. I did not see it as pressure, and I think, by all accounts, we have definitely proven that it is and can be a success.
Shannon Gardner, associate dean for online education
From DSC:
It was March 2018. I just started working as a Director of Instructional Services at a law school. I had been involved with online-based learning since 2001.
I was absolutely shocked at how far behind law schools were in terms of offering 100% online-based programs. I was dismayed to find out that 20+ years after such undergraduate programs were made available — and whose effectiveness had been proven time and again — that there were no 100%-online based Juris Doctor (JD) programs in the U.S. (The JD degree is what you have to have to practice law in the U.S. Some folks go on to take further courses after obtaining that degree — that’s when Masters of Law programs like LLM programs kick in.)
Why was this I asked? Much of the answer lies with the extremely tight control that is exercised by the American Bar Association (ABA). They essentially lay down the rules for how much of a law student’s training can be online (normally not more than a third of one’s credit hours, by the way).
Did I say it’s 2022? And let me say the name of that organization again — the American Bar Association (ABA).
Graphic by Daniel S. Christian
Not to scare you (too much), but this is the organization that is supposed to be in charge of developing lawyers who are already having to deal with issues and legal concerns arising from the following technologies:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) — Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), algorithms, bots, and the like
- The Internet of Things (IoT) and/or the Internet of Everything (IoE)
- Extended Reality (XR) — Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), Virtual Reality (VR)
- Holographic communications
- Big data
- High-end robotics
- The Metaverse
- Cryptocurrencies
- NFTs
- Web3
- Blockchain
- …and the like
I don’t think there’s enough time for the ABA — and then law schools — to reinvent themselves. We no longer have that luxury. (And most existing/practicing lawyers don’t have the time to get up the steep learning curves involved here — in addition to their current responsibilities.)
The other option is to use teams of specialists, That’s our best hope. If the use of what’s called nonlawyers* doesn’t increase greatly, the U.S. has little hope of dealing with legal matters that are already arising from such emerging technologies.
So let’s hope the legal field catches up with the pace of change that’s been accelerating for years now. If not, we’re in trouble.
* Nonlawyers — not a very complimentary term…
I hope they come up with something else.
Some use the term Paralegals.
I’m sure there are other terms as well.
From DSC:
There is hope though. As Gabe Teninbaum just posted the resource below (out on Twitter). I just think the lack of responsiveness from the ABA has caught up with us. We’ve run out of time for doing “business as usual.”
Law students want more distance education classes, according to ABA findings — from abajournal.com by Stephanie Francis Ward
Excerpt:
A recent survey of 1,394 students in their third year of law school found that 68.65% wanted the ability to earn more distance education credits than what their schools offered.
On 07/20/2022,
in business side of he, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, funding / grants, higher education, organizational change, teaching & learning, United States, universities, using teams,
by Daniel Christian
Higher Ed Is Looking to Refill Jobs. But It’s Finding a ‘Shallow and Weak’ Candidate Pool. — from chronicle.com by Megan Zahneis
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
While higher education has largely recovered nearly all of its pandemic-associated job losses, the task of recruiting and hiring administrators and staff members has become a daunting one, according to a Chronicle survey of college leaders, hiring managers, and administrators that was conducted with support from the Huron Consulting Group.
Nearly 80 percent of the 720 respondents said their campus has more open positions this year than last, and 84 percent said that hiring for administrative and staff jobs has been more difficult in the last year.
Those positions are harder than ever to fill, too: 78 percent of leaders said their campus had received fewer applications for open jobs in the last year, and 82 percent agreed that they’d fielded fewer applications from qualified candidates. Said one person who took the survey: “The pools have been shallow and weak.”
From DSC:
Ask any ***staff*** member who has been working within higher education these last 10-20 years if this development is surprising to them, and they would tell you, “No, this is not a surprise to me at all.” Working within higher education has lost much of its value and appeal:
- Budgets have been shrinking for years — so important/engaging new projects get taken off the plate (or indefinitely postponed). So opportunities for personal growth and new knowledge for staff members have been majorly curtailed. Also, members of administrations may decide to outsource those exciting projects that do survive to external consultants.
- Oftentimes, salaries don’t match inflation — and they were never stellar to begin with.
- Staff are second-class citizens within the world of higher education
- They aren’t part of the governing bodies (i.e., the Faculty Senates out there don’t include staff). Faculty members have much more say, control, and governance over things and get the opportunities to travel, learn, present, grow, share their knowledge, etc. much more so than staff members.
- There are few — if any — sabbaticals for staff members.
- Even those working within teaching and learning centers and instructional designers don’t have their hands on many steering wheels out there. Many faculty members prefer to hold their own steering wheels and they won’t listen to others who aren’t people they consider their “peers” (i.e., essentially other faculty members).
- They often don’t get the chance to do research and to make money off that research, like faculty members do
- Staffing levels are inadequate, so one takes on an ever-increasing amount of work for the same pay.
And others could add more items to this list. So no, this is not a surprise to me at all. In a potential future where team-based content creation may thrive, it appears that some team members are dropping out.