Also from Robert Gordon out on LinkedIn:
The Big, Profitable Education Race To Detect ChatGPT — from forbes.com by Derek Newton
On 12/31/2022,
in change, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, higher education, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, new business models, podcasting, strategy, United States, universities, vocational / trades,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
For those who dog the “doomsayers” of higher ed…
- You need to realize many “doomsayers” are trying to get traditional institutions of higher education to change, experiment, lower their price tags, collaborate with K12 and/or with the corporate/vocational realms, and to innovate
- While many of those same institutions haven’t closed (at least not yet), there are many examples of budget cuts, downsizing, layoffs, early retirements, etc.
- Many of those same institutions are not the same as they were 20-30 years ago — not even close. This is becoming especially true for liberal arts colleges.
Here’s one example that made me post this reflection:
Why some rural universities are dropping dozens of programs — from npr.org by Ason Fuller, Lee Hale, and Sarah McCammon
NPR’s Sarah McCammon talks with Hechinger Report Author Jon Marcus about the financial woes of rural universities and why some are dropping dozens of programs.
Excerpt:
Many colleges and universities in rural America are slashing budgets as enrollment numbers continue to dwindle. And often, the first things to be cut are humanities programs like history and English. It’s forcing some students to consider transferring to other schools or leaving higher education altogether. Jon Marcus has been covering this erosion of funding at rural universities and its domino effects with The Hechinger Report, and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.
On 12/29/2022,
in adjunct faculty, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, learning ecosystem, strategy, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Some Day In Higher Education: Predictions And Possibilities For A Jolly Academic New Year — from forbes.com by Ann Kirschner
Excerpt:
- Partnering with the private sector. Some university will have a clear strategy and adequate staff to develop strategic partnerships with key regional economic players. These would include internship/apprenticeship student opportunities and curricular initiatives including part-time teaching roles for professors of practice in rapidly changing technologies.
- Looking for presidential talent in new places. Some university will vet its new president for skills and experience as leaders of complex organizations in an era of disruption, with a Ph.D. as a optional nice-to-have. There just aren’t enough good ex-provosts and deans to go around.
- An educated board of trustees. Some university will provide its trustees with a realistic understanding of the highly competitive and complex world of higher education today. Nostalgia for the good old days and a roomful of well-meaning financial experts can strangle innovation at a time when the university should be the leader in solving the world’s challenges, starting with the exploding need for advanced, scalable, affordable education.
Redefining the professoriate. Some university will reject the institutional shame of relying on overworked and underpaid adjunct faculty and on graduate students who are headed for those same dead-end adjunct positions. Some university will evolve the tenure process into one that celebrates and supports faculty as innovative teachers and rewards their critical role in student career development and service to the university.
On 12/21/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Alternatives, business, business side of he, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, United States, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpts from Michael Moe’s recent EIEIO e-newsletter (emphasis DSC)
Imagine my delight when co-founder of Coursera Daphne Koehler came into my office in 2012 to explain the radical concept behind her new business. What if you could Partner with the World’s best universities and professors to provide FREE online courses? Like other successful FREEMIUM models, you monetize the platform downstream by creating massive network effects and convert a small percentage to paying customers (we had invested in other successful FREEMIUM models such as Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and Snap, so why wouldn’t that work here?)
…
…
…
Today, over 113 million learners from around the world access the platform to gain knowledge, to earn certificates and get diplomas from the top universities.
Today, over 113 million learners from around the world access the platform to gain knowledge, to earn certificates and get diplomas from the top universities.
The Coursera ride has been amazing for most of the past decade, with over 100 million students, 200 universities and 5000 courses on the platform. And while the vast majority of the students on Coursera don’t pay a dime, the company has built a business with over $500 million in revenue and nearly a $2 billion market cap today.
Estimates are for the company to do $520 million in revenue in 2022, up from $415 million in 2021 and estimated $623 million in 2023. Coursera is losing money currently but has $424 million in cash and could turn profitable if it prioritized that and sells at 1.3x 2023 sales.
On 12/07/2022,
in adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, Blockchain, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, copyright/ownership/NFTs, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, cryptocurrencies, data related items, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, health, higher education, hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, privacy, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
2023 Higher Education Trend Watch — from educause.edu
Also see:
2023 Strategic Trends Glossary — from educause.edu
Excerpts:
- Closer alignment of higher education with workforce needs and skills-based learning
- Continuation and normalization of hybrid and online learning
- Continued adoption and normalization of hybrid and remote work arrangements
- Continued resignation and migration of leaders and staff from higher education institutions
- Declining public funding for higher education
- …and more
On 12/03/2022,
in adult learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, lifelong learning, new business models, skills, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Udacity’s Train-to-Hire Program Now Available in AWS Marketplace — from prnewswire.com by Udacity; with thanks to GSV for this resource
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Udacity, the digital talent transformation platform, today announced the availability of its Train-to-Hire Program in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the addition of this program, AWS customers can now address technical talent gaps in their organizations by working with Udacity to create customizable, hands-on learning programs that attract and upskill net-new sources of talent. Through these Train-to-Hire Programs, AWS customers can transform the breadth and depth of their talent pipelines, lowering recruiting costs for in-demand roles and improving the diversity of their workforce by offering new opportunities to candidates from underrepresented communities.
As enrollment falls and public skepticism grows, some colleges are cutting their prices — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
The cost of college has stopped rising faster than inflation for the first time since the 1980s
Excerpt:
Colby-Sawyer College, a nearly 200-year-old institution that inhabits a campus in the heart of this bucolic scene, has announced that it will lower its tuition next year for undergraduates by 62 percent, from $46,364 to $17,500.
The move is among the first of what experts are predicting could be many colleges’ so-called tuition resets. Other schools are adjusting what they charge in different ways.
Fewer than one in five families understand that the “sticker price” colleges put on their websites and in their catalogs is almost certainly more than they will have to pay, and six in 10 say it’s made them walk away without even bothering to apply.
From DSC:
That’s very understandable on that last item/quote.
Next Chapter Matters – Two More Universities Launch Midlife Programs For Every Budget — from forbes.com by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for this resource
Excerpt:
Whether you are retiring with millions in the bank or stuck at midlife desperately dreaming of a career pivot, there may soon be a university program for you. The latest offerings coming to the market are a testament to the diversity that is likely to develop as educational institutions start to respond to ageing societies and the future of work.
The idea that you get all the education you need up front in a four-year bundle at 18, should fast fade as careers lengthen towards the six-decade mark and retirement ages drift ever upward. There are now 12 programs on offer, and the two latest launching this year in the US are the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado Denver. (I’ll be looking at programs launching in Europe next).
Report: Progress on College Completion Rates Stalls — from insidehighered.com by Safia Abdulahi; with thanks to GSV for this resource
Excerpt:
A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that college completion rates have stagnated, with 62.3 percent of students who enrolled in 2016 completing a degree by June 2022—virtually unchanged from last year’s six-year completion rate of 62.2 percent.
Is This the Beginning of the End of the ‘U.S. News’ Rankings’ Dominance? — from chronicle.com by Francie Diep
Excerpt:
If the law deans’ criticism sounds familiar, it’s because it echoes the complaints that have been leveled for decades against an even bigger project: the magazine’s ranking of undergraduate colleges and universities. There, too, critics have said the magazine’s metrics are flawed, opaque, and harm equity efforts.
But seldom have institutions acted on their concerns, as Yale and its peers have recently. And if elite colleges are willing to withdraw their support from one U.S. News ranking in the name of equity, why not another? In other words, is the undergraduate ranking the next venue for this kind of protest?
Not yet.
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky: Skills, Not Degrees, Matter Most in Hiring — from hbr.org
Summary:
Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, thinks the site should be a place where its members’ billions of years of collective work experience should be freed to upskill anyone, anywhere, any time. Skills, more than degrees or pedigrees, are the true measure of what makes a great new hire, he argues, especially as the workforce evolves in fast and dramatic ways.
On 11/29/2022,
in adjunct faculty, career development, change, changing business models, culture, dangers of the status quo, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, United States, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
How the University of California Strike Could Reshape Higher Education — from news.yahoo.com by Katie Reilly
Excerpts:
“To have this many workers on strike is really something new in higher education,” says Rebecca Givan, an associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers, who is also president of the union for graduate workers and faculty at her university. “The willingness of these workers to bring their campuses to a standstill is demonstrating that the current model of higher education can’t continue, and that the current system really rests on extremely underpaid labor.”
…
The striking workers argue that their current pay makes it challenging to afford housing near their universities, in a state with one of the highest costs of living in the country. Jaime, the Ph.D. candidate, says he makes $27,000 per year as a teaching fellow and pays $1,200 in monthly rent for an apartment he shares with two roommates. (Median rent in the Los Angeles metropolitan area is about $3,000, according to Realtor.com.) “We are the ones who do the majority of teaching and research,” he says. “But nevertheless, the university doesn’t pay us enough to live where we work.”
Also relevant/see:
Hundreds of UC Faculty Members Stop Teaching as Strike Continues — from chronicle.com by Grace Mayer
Excerpt:
The strike is shining a spotlight on a longstanding problem within higher education: Today, tenured, full-time faculty members make up a smaller percentage of university employees than they did 50 years ago, in part due to the financial pressures facing universities amid funding cuts. The proportion of other university employees, who receive less job security and lower pay, “has grown tremendously,” says Tim Cain, an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Higher Education, who studies campus activism and unionization.
“There’s such stratification between the tenured full professor and a graduate student employee or a postdoc or a tutor,” says Cain. “They’re doing a great deal of the work, and the work that they’re doing in the classroom is often very similar to the work of others who are getting paid substantially more.”
Speaking of schools in California, also see:
- UC Berkeley agrees to make online content accessible to settle Justice Department lawsuit — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
On 11/25/2022,
in 21st century, adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, trends, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Table of Experts: Trends in Higher Education — from bizjournals.com by Holly Dolezalek. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal held a panel discussion recently about trends in higher education.
Excerpts (which focus on law schools/the legal profession):
Anthony Niedwiecki: The legal profession and legal education are very conservative. Covid showed they can, and we as institutions can, change. At Mitchell Hamline, we were the first law school in the country to offer a partially online JD degree. We’ve had that experience since 2015, which has really helped us through Covid. But I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from our students through this process is the need for flexibility. We thought students would want to go back into the classroom at some point and be around people. No! They voted by the classes they signed up for: They signed up for the classes that were online. Some students want to be on campus, some online. So we’ve had to develop our program around different types of modalities we may not have given any thought to before. The students in the online program range in age all the way up to 73 years old. They’ve been in careers, they’re accountants, they’re doctors, they’re health care professionals, elected officials. The other thing is office hours — students like online office hours because it’s convenient, and they can be in an office where other people are talking and learn from it.
The lesson I take from that, in some ways, even applying it to the law school, is having that partnership with people who want to hire students to make sure that they’re actually involved with the students. We’re finding they help mentor those students, help us make sure we have the right courses in place, and give them opportunities to do internships and externships. So we’ve been starting to partner with some national professional organizations that are attached to the law.
On 11/20/2022,
in 21st century, adjunct faculty, Alternatives, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, computer science, cost of getting a degree, design, Design Thinking, engineering, experimentation, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, future of higher education, higher education, ideas, instructional design, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, new business models, real-world assignments, research, staying relevant, teaching & learning, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Can a Group of MIT Professors Turn a White Paper Into a New Kind of College? — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young
Excerpt:
A group of professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropped a provocative white paper in September that proposed a new kind of college that would address some of the growing public skepticism of higher education. This week, they took the next step toward bringing their vision from idea to reality.
That next step was holding a virtual forum that brought together a who’s who of college innovation leaders, including presidents of experimental colleges, professors known for novel teaching practices and critical observers of the higher education space.
The MIT professors who authored the white paper tried to make clear that even though they’re from an elite university, they do not have all the answers. Their white paper takes pains to describe itself as a draft framework and to invite input from players across the education ecosystem so they can revise and improve the plan.
IDEAS FOR DESIGNING An Affordable New Educational Institution
The goal of this document is simply to propose some principles and ideas that we hope will lay the groundwork for the future, for an education that will be both more affordable and more effective.
…
Promotions and titles will be much more closely tied to educational performance—quality, commitment, outcomes, and innovation—than to research outcomes.
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.
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.”