APUS is a Finalist for a Climate Leadership Award

By on April 1, 2013 in Environment, President's Climate Commitment

I have written about some of the sustainability initiatives at American Public University System (APUS)  in the past.  I signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in September 2007, making APUS a charter signatory to this initiative with a mission of making colleges and universities more sustainable.  Even though our status as a university with only online programs reduces our impact on the environment, we have worked diligently to minimize our carbon footprint. 

APUS has received notification that it is a finalist for this year’s Second Nature Climate Leadership Award for member institutions of the ACUPCC. … Read the rest

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The Idea of the Digital University

By on February 27, 2013 in Book Reviews

digital-universityDr. Frank McCluskey worked for me as Provost at the American Public University System (APUS) for six years before retiring and moving to a new role as Scholar in Residence.  During his tenure as Provost, we spent a lot of time discussing the rapid changes in online higher education.  Frank’s experience as a faculty member in traditional and online courses, interest in technology, and passion for lifelong learning sparked many of these discussions and helped guide our management decisions.  Frank earned his doctorate in philosophy and, perhaps because of his education, has been a fan of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University, a compilation of lectures originally published in the 1850’s when Newman was asked to head the Catholic University of Ireland (now University College, Dublin).… Read the rest

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Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States

By on February 1, 2013 in Business of Education, Online Education, Trends in Higher Education

For the last ten years The Sloan Consortium has been publishing the results of their annual survey about online learning in the United States.  This year’s edition, “Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States,” contains some noteworthy information.  Published in partnership with Pearson and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this year’s survey focuses a significant amount of attention on MOOCs.

I’ve written about MOOCs several times on this blog and the topic is receiving increased attention from a variety of sources. … Read the rest

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Another Conversation About MOOCs

By on January 26, 2013 in Business of Education, Current Events, Online Education

As an alumnus of the doctoral program in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (GSE), I attended Penn GSE’s recent conference entitled “Innovation in an Era of Disruptive Change.”  Conference attendees and alums of the grad school heard Dr. Jack Wilson, President Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts, discuss his topic “Evolution or Revolution: Everyone Wants Universities to Change but Exactly How is Not so Clear.”  Dr. Wilson discussed his experience with online education in the early days of establishing UMass Online. … Read the rest

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Pilot Program Forces Discussion of Online Learning, MOOCs, Student Retention, and the Future of Higher Education

By on January 18, 2013 in Business of Education, Online Education, Student Persistence, Student Retention, Technology, Trends in Higher Education

Earlier this week, the California State University System (CSU) announced an online pilot program with Udacity, a for-profit provider of MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses).  Udacity will provide a remedial algebra course, a college level algebra course, and a statistics course as part of the pilot that will initially be limited to 300 students at San Jose State University and several local community colleges.  The cost of each course will be $150.  Udacity will provide mentors to the students to answer their questions and encourage them to complete the assignments and stay enrolled in class. … Read the rest

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Considering the Rising Cost of College and Administrative Bloat

By on January 10, 2013 in Access and Affordability, Accountability, Business of Education, Cost of a Degree, Trends in Higher Education

During the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, fewer articles about higher education are published, primarily because colleges and universities are closed and faculty, students, and administrators are not around.  On December 28, 2012, however, The Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “Deans List: Hiring Spree Fattens College Bureaucracy- and Tuition.”  The article doesn’t appear to have been picked up in too many other places.  I read an article entitled “Administrative Bloat at America’s Colleges and Universities,” however, on December 30 in Outside the Beltway that wrote about the WSJ article and added a few comments as well. … Read the rest

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The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World

By on December 31, 2012 in Book Reviews

Frans Johansson (author of The Medici Effect) has written a book, The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World, with two provocative ideas.  The first thought is that success is random.  The second is that individuals and corporations can do more to shape their success by identifying and focusing on the opportunities as they occur.

In Part 1 of the book, Johansson presents a number of real world examples of the random nature of success.  He disputes that there are formulaic patterns for success and only allows for high chances of success for a profession where the rules don’t change such as tennis (court size remains the same), chess, and mastery of a musical instrument. … Read the rest

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Disruption in Higher Education

By on November 6, 2012 in Business of Education, Online Education, Trends in Higher Education

You can’t read a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education or Inside Higher Ed without seeing an article discussing the disruption that technology or MOOCs (Massively Open Online Course) are having or will have on the higher education sector.  Because of the publicity, I receive questions from colleagues at conferences and other events asking me for my opinion about the potential for higher education disruption, the roadmap that it will take, and who will survive.  I have written about MOOCs in the past (see “What is a Massive Open Online Course?… Read the rest

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What to Make of All the Rapid Innovations in Higher Education?

By on August 6, 2012 in Access and Affordability, Business of Education, Online Education, Technology, Trends in Higher Education

I was a panel participant at a conference last Thursday in Washington, DC.  The conference was sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and was called Stretching the Higher Education Dollar.  The five panels that were convened included:  The Case for Reform, Opportunities and Obstacles at Existing Institutions, Unbundling College Degrees in Theory and Practice, College in Pieces: Cost Effective Approaches to Student Services and Credentialing, and Implications for State and Federal Policy.  Videos of the discussions are available at the previous link and papers written by some of the panelists on the topics will be available as well.… Read the rest

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College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be

By on June 22, 2012 in Book Reviews

Judging from Andrew Delbanco’s experience as a professor of Humanities at Columbia University, I thought his new book, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, would provide the standard defense of a liberal arts education.  While he strongly advocates the merits of critical thinking utilizing a broad knowledge of history and philosophy, it’s not the dominant theme of his arguments.  One sentence in his introduction, “it is a nightmare society that affords the chance to learn and grow only to the wealthy, brilliant, or lucky few,” foreshadows the book’s conclusion.… Read the rest

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