The National Dialogue on Higher Education Accessibility and Affordability Grows
Posted on December 14, 2011 by Ken Udas | Leave a Comment
Lately I have been giving a lot of thought to accessibility. More specifically, I have been asking myself and others if accessibility can ever really exist if affordability isn’t also present. Turns out, I’m hardly alone in weighing this and related issues. And, it seems, more and more educators and institutional leaders are giving voice to their thoughts, sharing their views, and fostering a bigger and broader national dialogue on the topic of accessibility and affordability. One recent contribution comes in the form of a new book entitled, Courageous Learning: Finding a New Path Through Higher Education. Full disclosure compels me to note that I have not as yet had a chance to read it, but may download the e-version and perhaps find time over the holidays to absorb its contents. You might want to as well, whether you’re a student or a teacher because its authors, Excelsior College President Dr. John F. Ebersole and co-author William Patrick, say the book was written for for higher education students, policymakers and educators who are questioning college affordability and access.
According to the news release about the new book, highlights include: interviews with graduates of adult-serving institutions; interviews with eight of the nation’s most outspoken proponents for education reform including Martha Kanter, U.S. Undersecretary of Education, Mark Milliron, former deputy director for postsecondary improvement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and James Applegate of Lumina Foundation; definitions of terms such as online learning, credit by exam, credit by assessment and transfer credit; and, guidance on taking a non-traditional approach to higher education.
Dr. Ebersole puts it more familiarly: “Courageous Learning was written to say, ‘Yes, you can finish your degree. Yes, you can do it affordably. Yes, you can do it with schools that have excellent credentials. Yes, you can do it on your schedule. And here’s how.’ “
Sounds interesting, wouldn’t you agree?
You can access the news release about this new book at this link.
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Through Online Outreach, Volunteer Educators Aim to Lift the Resources in At-Risk Regions
Posted on December 14, 2011 by Som Seng | Leave a Comment
If you’re like me, from time to time you wonder how in the world an education gets delivered and received in parts of the globe where the day-to-day conditions are, to say the least, miserable. I got my MBA online in the United States. It was a challenge to balance working full-time, buying a home, planning a wedding and completing my MBA. But if I contemplate what an ordeal it might have been were I in a war-torn country or in a region of extreme poverty, well, obviously, there’s just no comparison. But now a new initiative recently formed in Canada is attempting to bring together skilled volunteer educators with educators in impoverished and war-torn countries to provide online assistance and mentoring, all online.
While it has only been about three months since this effort was launched under the auspices of the Canadian International Learning Foundation, significant growth has occurred. This according to a recent news release about the volunteer effort: EducatorVolunteer.Net is an online community where teachers in regions of war, poverty and illness receive one-on-one assistance plus online training and resources. The Network launched in September with the bold vision of providing a team of online volunteers for every educator in need. Over 50 volunteers have joined as well as seven schools in Nepal, Uganda, Liberia, Tanzania, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
Turns out, too, that the organization is seeking volunteers with skills other than teaching excellence. The group is seeking help as well from people with experience in communications, Information Technology, infrastructure, and business or project management.
The news release about this initiative is available at this link. More about the Canadian International Learning Foundation can be found here.
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Study Finds Majority of Corporations Using Online Learning to Build Leadership and Management Skills
Posted on November 29, 2011 by Som Seng | Leave a Comment
More and more corporations are implementing online learning in support of ongoing employee training. That, at least, is the conclusion from a survey report published by Virtual College in the U.K. From the report: Research showed that online learning technologies are increasingly becoming a vital part of standard working practices and that more and more company chief executives are implementing them into their training schemes.
The article doesn’t specifically say if the survey was limited to U.K. companies only, but it is probably reasonable to think this trend is broadly applicable. Now, for Virtual College, which provides online e-learning training and development modules, I’m guessing their point in publishing the piece is that it supports their offerings to a corporate audience. My point in bringing attention to this recent survey is to make two very different but relevant points about its implications to online higher education.
The first point is that as more and more corporations discover the value of online learning for their own employee training, more and more corporations are of course also discovering that employees with a traditional college or university degree and those with online degrees earned from reputable institutions are equally qualified. In other words, these corporations are finding that online learning works. It has value. It helps people learn. For students today taking UMass online courses, this means that credits and degrees earned online will be seen as valuable and credible in the job market.
The second point is this: online learning technology, whether used on campus by traditional students or by distance learners, prepares students for continued online learning in a corporate setting. In fact, much of the technology used and mastered by online learners is used to power a great many corporate operations. This point is given a glancing acknowledgement in the article: Laura Overton, managing director of Towards Maturity, an organisation to help working environments include virtual solutions into their standard methods, said: “Our in-depth study has highlighted how new ways of learning are making a significant difference to the skills that businesses really need to survive and thrive - from leadership development to getting new products out to market quicker.”
You can see the full report at this link.
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Survey Finds Job Market for College Grads ‘…appears broader, deeper and more stable…’
Posted on November 29, 2011 by Som Seng | Leave a Comment
According to a recent United Press International (UPI) report, Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute has finished its survey of more than 3,000 companies in the United States to gain insight into this year’s hiring trends, with an emphasis on college graduates. If you have a degree or are currently earning one, you’ll be interested in and encouraged by the findings as reported by UPI under the headline, Job market looking up for college grads.
With time you might consider the benefit of at least scanning the article firsthand. In it, Phil Gardner, the director of MSU’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, specifically discusses how this year’s findings look and feel very different compared to last year’s results and why, in his view, this year’s job market feels broader, deeper and more stable. The article also mentions six specific professional categories where hiring is expected to be particularly strong.
In the meantime, here is a summary of the survey findings as reported in the article: Forty-two percent of the 3,300 companies surveyed said they plan to hire in the next year, the highest mark since 2007. Hiring for graduates with bachelor’s degrees is expected to jump 7 percent, with employers adding 26 new employees on average, while MBAs will see a 6.4 percent increase. Doctorate-degree hiring will see the biggest jump at 12 percent and professional degree holders will see an 11 percent increase.
The full report by UPI about this recent MSU survey is here.
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