Ithaka S+R recently published a report funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and titled, “Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education.”  I have written extensively on this blog about the economic constraints facing institutions of higher education, issues of student persistence and retention, and the litany of other issues daunting the American higher education system today.  In their report, the authors explore many of these same topics explaining why they believe online education could be a boon for higher education in general and students, faculty, and individual institutions specifically. 

Though the authors state in the Introduction that, “We believe such [online] systems have the potential to improve faculty productivity and lower instructional costs without sacrificing educational quality,” online education continues to face staunch critics.  Fundamentally, the report notes that the onslaught of online education in the higher education landscape has the potential to completely transform our concept of and basic approach to educating the nation’s college students.  The concept of online education is so foreign to many that there is some resistance based solely on it being “different.”  The authors conducted interviews with a variety of institutions utilizing online education in a variety of ways.  Not surprisingly, considering the relatively recent arrival of online education on the higher educational scene, institutions are still working to figure out how best to utilize new technologies to reduce instructional costs, improve student learning outcomes, and maximize faculty effectiveness.

Online education is becoming such a disruptive force (to use Clayton Christensen’s terminology) in education that the authors state, “Online learning is taking place at just about every college and university in the nation.”  In their interviews with administrators and faculty at institutions implementing online education in some way, there were some common themes uncovered discussing the rationale for the introduction of online education.  Many institutions, for example, see online offerings as a revenue generator.  Online education has the ability to reach non-traditional students (adult learners who are not able to attend class in a physical, more traditional setting) as well as students who would otherwise not enroll with the university due to geographic location.  While there are significant startup costs associated with implementing an online environment, many schools anticipate eventually recouping that initial investment through decreased use of facility space, increased enrollments thanks to the online offerings, and more effective use of faculty time.  Interestingly, some universities have seen cost savings as well as increased revenue yet the authors point out, “Very few institutions are using either the savings from online education or the net incremental revenue to reduce the price of education to students.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I had the honor of hosting the ribbon cutting event for American Public University System’s (APUS) latest addition to its Charles Town campus, a 1,660 panel solar array.  The array is the largest solar project in the state of West Virginia and will produce approximately 480,000 kWh of energy.  The energy produced will provide between 40 and 50 percent of the energy needed to power the 105,000-square-foot green Finance Center which is under construction adjacent to the array and being built to US Green Building Council’s LEED Gold standards.  The array features 15 universal electric car charging stations and doubles as covered parking for the university’s staff and guests.  The array was fully constructed with American-made components and will produce enough electricity to power 30 average size homes annually.  To equate this to vehicles and commuting, the amount of electricity generated by the array would enable the average gas-powered vehicle to travel 1.9 million miles, the equivalent of 120 commuters driving 15,000 miles each year. 

I was joined at our ribbon cutting event by several notable dignitaries including West Virginia Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito.  Vice Mayor of Charles Town, Don Clendening and Mayor of neighboring Ranson, David Hamill were also on hand to commemorate this event.  Congresswoman Capito, Vice Mayor Clendening, and Mayor Hamill have all expressed and demonstrated their own commitments to sustainability and sustainable development so it was especially fitting to have them in attendance.  We were able to demonstrate the universal electric car charging stations thanks to three local car dealerships (Apple Valley Chevrolet in Martinsburg, Younger Auto Group in Frederick and Hagerstown, and Renn Kirby Mitsubishi in Frederick) that showcased their own electric vehicles during the event.  The APUS Sustainability Committee also hosted an information booth to share information with visitors about the university’s comprehensive sustainability initiatives. 

Today’s event and the comprehensive sustainability program at APUS not only represent our own commitment to sustainability but also illustrate the American spirit of ingenuity and innovation in general.  It was as much about providing renewable energy for our university as it was about making a commitment to our local and extended communities that we will continue to work to promote a more sustainable future for us all.  In 2007 when I signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) as a charter signatory, I did so because I believe higher education has a unique opportunity to shape the future of the nation in addressing the issues associated with climate change. 

With access to some of the best and brightest minds, higher education would be remiss if it did not use that opportunity to address one of the nation’s – the world’s – most pressing problems.  The hallowed halls of the university can, in the most traditional sense, be seen as places for the exchange of theory and ideas.  Higher education has a unique opportunity, however, to lead by example and turn those theories and ideas into action.

It has been a little while since I’ve provided an update on American Public University System’s (APUS) sustainability efforts.  There seems no better time to do so than Earth Day.  Despite my lack of updates on this blog, the APUS Sustainability Committee has been working diligently and partnering with other groups on campus to promote sustainability and make APUS a greener place to work and learn. 

One of the most visible sustainability efforts that we have undertaken relates to buildings.  As part of our commitment to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), we have pledged to build all new construction to at least US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Silver standards.  Our new 45,000-square-foot Academic Center, built on a brownfields site, is currently in the LEED certification process and we hope to achieve a Gold designation.  There are many green features in that building which we completed and occupied in late 2010.  The HVAC system is highly efficient and operates through multiple zones, for example.  In addition, the building is outfitted with energy efficient windows which are covered with sunshades to assist in further regulating indoor temperatures.  Occupancy sensor lighting fixtures and ENERGY STAR appliances can be seen throughout the building.  All materials used in construction and all furniture originated within 500 miles of the building site, decreasing the carbon emissions associated with materials transportation.  Perhaps, the crowning achievement of the Academic Center is 99 solar panels situated on the roof which supply approximately 7 percent of the building’s total energy needs.

Read the rest of this entry »

In celebration of Earth Day, and in the spirit of giving more than just one day to the consideration of our planet and our impact on it, this is the first in a series of articles which I’ll post this week and into next related to sustainability in higher education.

In September 1962 Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking work, Silent Spring, documenting the negative impact of pesticides on the environment, specifically on birds.  The book received nationwide acclaim and landed on the New York Times best-seller list where it stayed for 31 weeks.  In 1962, the New York Times wrote of Carson and Silent Spring, “’She tries to scare the living daylights out of us and, in large measure, succeeds.’” The editors of Discover Magazine recently included Silent Spring among its list of the 25 greatest science books of all time.  Prior to Carson’s book, environmentalism and sustainability were lofty ideals that had very little concrete application and brought even less sense of collective urgency.  As a result of Carson’s book, however, tangible actions were taken (the banning of the harmful pesticide DDT).  Carson proved to us all that even the voice of one individual can make a difference and with her voice, given to us through her work, Silent Spring, the modern environmental movement was born. 

Through various fits and starts, the American environmental movement has continued to gain momentum.  The passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1970 was a promising step in the right direction and represented the world’s first national policy on the environment.  The NEPA met with resistance in the United States, however, but sparked a larger movement and environmentalism as a discipline and practice began to spread across the globe.  National efforts to address environmental problems including climate change became more commonplace and the United Nations established its Environment Programme in 1972 as a result of the UN Conference on the Human Environment.  In recent years, despite international criticism regarding the United States’ stance on several international environmental treaties (most notably the Kyoto Protocol) Americans are beginning to see sustainability featured more prominently in their daily lives.  Addressing what is arguably the world’s most pressing collective issue will take more than a conscious recycling effort.  We must realize that negative changes to the environment impact every aspect of our lives and must be addressed in a holistic and comprehensive fashion.  One sector of American life is taking sustainability very seriously – American higher education is leading the march toward promoting sustainability. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Vincent Tinto’s research related to student retention is well known among academicians.  His 1975 paper in the Review of Educational Research creating a theoretical construct of the major factors leading to student retention has been cited in hundreds, if not thousands of papers and publications.  Additionally, Tinto’s sociological construct of the college dropout influenced future researchers toward examining the cause of dropouts instead of blaming the victim.  In 1987, Tinto published Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition (and later reprinted a second edition in 1993). That book is particularly significant to me for several reasons. 

In 2004, the American Public University System (APUS) Board of Trustees elected Dr. Kate Zatz as a new board member.  As APUS’s newly appointed president, I visited Dr. Zatz who worked at Hudson County Community College in Newark, New Jersey.  We talked about a number of things during my visit and I asked her if she could recommend any publications about student retention.  She handed me a copy of Leaving College and told me that it was an excellent resource for reading about student attrition research.  I read it and distributed copies to others at APUS.  Later on, Leaving College and my interest in student retention would inspire my doctoral dissertation and subsequent research related to online student retention.  When I received a pre-publication notice for Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action a few months ago, I ordered a copy.

In the preface to Completing College, Vincent Tinto states that the goal of his book is not to develop a new theory of retention but to suggest a framework that institutions can utilize in applying policies and actions to improve retention and college completion.  Based on the quantity of dog-eared pages and highlighted paragraphs in my copy, I would say that he has accomplished his goal.

Read the rest of this entry »

The state of the economy is a well-known story these days and the unemployment rate is just one indicator of the trouble.  Unemployment rates linger around 8.3 percent (as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS] on March 9 for February 2012).  The number of long-term unemployed (classified as those unemployed for 27 weeks or more) remained unchanged in February, hovering at 5.4 million people (approximately 43 percent of the total unemployed).  The statistics related to unemployment among America’s veterans, however, are especially troubling. 

According to a March 20 report from the BLS, for those veterans serving active-duty since 2001 (known as the Gulf War-era II veterans) the unemployment rate was 12.1 percent in 2011.  The jobless rate for all veterans was 8.3 percent, comparable to that of the US population as a whole.   The BLS report points out that 26 percent of Gulf War-era II veterans reported a service related disability in August 2011 while only 14 percent of all veterans reported the same.  There can be little doubt from these statistics that America’s bravest men and women, those who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the nation’s safety, have come home to a bleak employment situation. 

Unemployment among veterans has been a persistent problem.  In a 1972 report of the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education, Chairman Lawrence Davenport encouraged “an all-out national effort” to address the “crisis” of unemployment among returning Vietnam veterans (during a time of otherwise relatively high general unemployment).  In another era of high unemployment, America’s veterans are returning home to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles in finding meaningful employment.  It is encouraging, however, to see that some organizations are taking this collective responsibility as their own and working to make a difference in the lives of our military men and women and their families. 

On March 21, Aon and Wounded Warrior Project hosted their 4th Annual Salute to America’s Wounded Warriors at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.  Approximately 45 wounded veterans had the opportunity to meet with recruiters from more than 60 companies with open positions and a commitment to supporting the nation’s veterans.  In addition to the veterans in attendance, a handful of military spouses also participated.  Without question, military spouses and families make a tremendous sacrifice as well as their loved one in uniform and we should support their achievement as well.  While I was not at this event, I asked several American Public University System (APUS) recruiters and staff to participate.  They reported back that they were impressed by the high quality of the candidates they met. 

Read the rest of this entry »