Stanford assigns Vice Provost of Online Learning — from technapex.com by Molly Gerth
Excerpt:
This week, Stanford University announced the appointment of John Mitchell to serve as Vice Provost for Online Learning. This signifies the university is getting serious about the Stanford Online initiative to reach more students around the world and to address the transforming 21st century education system.
![The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Siege of Academe [Kevin Carey]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TheSiegeOfAcademy-Sept2012.jpg "TheSiegeOfAcademy-Sept2012")
Excerpt:
The ongoing carnage in the newspaper industry provides an object lesson of what can happen when a long-established, information-focused industry’s business model is challenged by low-price competitors online. The disruptive power of information technology may be our best hope for curing the chronic college cost disease that is driving a growing number of students into ruinous debt or out of higher education altogether. It may also be an existential threat to institutions that have long played a crucial role in American life.
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From DSC:
If higher ed doesn’t respond more forcefully/significantly to the perfect storm it finds itself in, people will find other ways of getting employed and staying employed. The conversation continues to move away from institutions of traditional higher education (here’s but one example). Control is an illusion.
California State University selects Pearson to launch Cal State Online — from PRWeb.com
Fully online program to increase access to higher education for students.
Excerpt:
The California State University, the nation’s largest four-year university system, has selected Pearson to launch Cal State Online, a fully online program designed to increase access to higher education. Cal State Online will launch in January 2013 with a selection of undergraduate degree completion and professional master’s programs, leveraging the multitude of programs currently available across the CSU.
Also see:
![The incredible impact of the Internet on higher education [infographic]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ImpactOfTheInternetOnHE-July2012.jpg "ImpactOfTheInternetOnHE-July2012")
Excerpt:
Young people are eager users of technology, especially when it makes their schoolwork easier. College students are driving their schools to implement more and more technology in the classroom, in the library and across the entire campus.
But what is it they want? The infographic below gives us a glimpse into the mind of today’s college student. According to SEO.com, 93 percent of students search online rather than go to the library, and Wikipedia is the most used research resource. We recently posted an article about how to use Google to find credible, citable sources and how to use Wikipedia to find sources and bibliographies. These collections of information are literally at the fingertips (or thumbs, if we are talking smartphones) of nearly every college student, and the continued reliance on these sites raises the question of whether professors should allow them to be used.
The Internet is changing more than the way students research. Social media, websites and online courses are also hot topics for students and educators.
Also see:
Also see:
The financially sustainable university — from bain.com, a Bain Brief by Jeff Denneen and Tom Dretle
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Still, at the majority of institutions, the pace of change is slower than it needs to be. Plenty of hurdles exist, including the belief that things will return to the way they always were. (Note: They won’t.) But the biggest obstacle is more fundamental: While leaders might have a sense of what needs to be done, they may not know how to achieve the required degree of change that will allow their institution not just to survive, but also thrive with a focused strategy and a sustainable financial base.
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Too often, stakeholders believe that the current cash crunch and need for change is a temporary phenomenon that will subside as the economy continues to improve. But those who see things this way probably haven’t been exposed to the data presented here and in other reports that show convincingly that this time is different. Faculty and other key stakeholders must be shown clear and compelling facts to disprove the “return to the status quo” notion and to clarify the corresponding negative implications and consequences of inaction.
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Colleges and Universities Raise $30.30 Billion in 2011 — from Council for Aid to Education (CAE)
Excerpts:
Contributions to the Nation’s Colleges and Universities at $30.30 Billion
Charitable contributions to colleges and universities in the United States increased 8.2 percent in 2011, reaching $30.30 billion, according to results of the annual Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey. The findings were released today by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE). Adjusted for inflation, giving increased 4.8 percent. Giving for capital purposes, such as endowments and buildings, increased 13.6 percent (10.1 percent, adjusted for inflation).
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Charitable Gifts Concentrated at the Top
As is true of the nonprofit sector overall, most of the charitable dollars go to a small number of institutions. Twenty-five percent of the responding institutions raised 86.3 percent of the dollars reported on the VSE survey. The next 25 percent account for under 10 percent, and the next two quartiles of institutions together account for less than 5 percent of the total.
From DSC:
My encouragement to Development Offices/Departments:
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Student debt hits the middle-aged –– from the NYT by Josh Mitchell
Excerpt:
Student debt is rising sharply among all age groups, but middle-aged Americans appear to be struggling the most with payments, according to new data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The delinquency rate—or the percentage of debt on which no payment has been made for 90 days—was 11.9% for debt held by borrowers aged 40 to 49 as of March. That compares with a rate of 8.7% for borrowers of all ages.
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From DSC re: the item below — an example of the opposite of true leadership
(To see an example of TRUE leadership, see my immediately previous posting re: Christensen and Eyring.)
Give colleges more credit — Op-Ed at the LA Times by Barry Glassner and Morton Schapiro
Doomsayers are wrong. America’s higher-education model isn’t broken.
Barry Glassner is president, and a professor of sociology,
of Lewis & Clark College in Oregon.
Morton Schapiro is president, and a professor of economics,
of Northwestern University in Illinois.
From DSC:
I was going to title this posting “‘America’s higher-education model isn’t broken.’ Easy for you to say Morton and Barry.”
An excerpt from their article (emphasis DSC):
While for-profit colleges enroll an increasing percentage of all undergraduates, the demand for education at selective private and public universities and colleges continues to grow, as evidenced by dramatic declines in the percentage of applicants they admit.
Nice. Let’s see how many people we can decline — that’s a great way to serve our society! Then let’s pride ourselves on this shrinking percentage of people who actually get into our university. Woo hoo! That will help with our ever-important ratings/prestige/branding even more! (Please note: The dripping sound that you are now hearing is the sound of drops of sarcasm hitting the floor.)
A few brief questions for you Barry and Morton…
You two are so far removed from the society — that you say that you are trying to help and serve — that you don’t even recognize the strength of the current that you’re swimming in. You swim with — and serve — the 1% (not the 99%).
One other thing worries us. There is a surefire way to make today’s dire predictions come to pass — if educational leaders feel compelled to listen to scaremongers who are all too anxious to force us to adopt a new model that eliminates outstanding professors and their passion for teaching, research budgets and the pursuit of new knowledge, the residential college experience and the core commitment to excellence that have made American higher education the leader in the world. If that were to happen, we might end up with colleges and universities that aren’t worth saving.
For transparency’s sake, I attended Northwestern University — and did very well there. It’s a great school in many ways. But I wonder what the percentage of professors are at NU who are there to work on being the best professors/teachers that they can possibly be. I question how many have a true passion to teach. Research? Yes. Teach? Not so much.
In fact, from my experiences at NU, I remember several graduate students grading my work or teaching our classes. Speaking of those folks…I wonder…were those graduate students trained in teaching and learning? Were they given a background in any sort of School of Education? Or pedagogical training? BTW, those same questions can be asked of NU’s full-time, tenured faculty members; and I’ll bet you that the answers are not pretty. Also, in many other of the courses I took at NU, I had hundreds of students in them so I seriously doubt that any of my professors even knew who I was.
BTW, what does a year at NU cost these days? From what I can tell from NU’s website, roughly $60,000+ for 3 quarters worth of tuition, room, board, and associated fees.
The system’s not broken you say…hmmm…seems to me I have to pay the price of a pretty darn nice house in order to get an undergraduate degree at your place. But then they tell me that an UG degree isn’t worth much these days…that what you really need is graduate work to get a good job. Hhhmmmm…
Northwestern and other universities and colleges like it have strayed far off the noble path from which they began their journeys. Look out for #1 has not only been Northwestern University’s motto these last few decades (replacing the long held Quaecumque Sunt Vera motto) , it is the unofficial teaching/undercurrent that it delivers to its students year in and year out.
![Online College Students 2012: Comprehensive Data on Demands and Preferences [Aslanian & Clinefelter]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/OnlineCollegeStudents2012-Aslanian-Clinefelter.jpg "OnlineCollegeStudents2012-Aslanian-Clinefelter")