The “myths” that AMU or APU are diploma mills or unaccredited are invalid.  In most cases, the myths are more than likely disseminated by individuals who do not care for online colleges and universities.  Faculty and staff members of accredited institutions that operate partially online or totally online have heard the negative perceptions about online education for years and have worked hard to demonstrate the evidence that supports learning in online programs.  A May 2009 study published by the U.S. Department of Education entitled Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning:  A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies stated that students learn better in online programs than in face-to-face programs .  The researchers examined over 1,000 published research papers involving online and face-to-face learners.

The FACTS about AMU’s existence and accreditation are irrefutable.  AMU is one of two universities that form the American Public University System (APUS).  APUS is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association (NCA), one of eight regional accrediting bodies in the United States and the largest regional accrediting body in terms of the number of colleges that it accredits.  You can find our name, accreditation status, and other pertinent information listed on its website at:   http://hlcommission.org/component/option,com_directory/Action,ShowBasic/Itemid,184/instid,2853/lang,en/.     Among the 1,000 plus colleges and universities accredited by NCA are the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and Northwestern University.  The accreditation process is lengthy and complex and includes many visits by very well educated academics.  A diploma mill would not survive such a review process.  The American Public University System has also been accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council since 1995.  The link for AMU is at this address:  http://detc.org/school_details.php?id=169.  APUS is licensed in West Virginia and Virginia which are the two states where we have offices with our administrative and academics leadership and staff.  We have over 60,000 students and over 10,000 alumni.  Two-thirds of our students are active duty military personnel.  The Department of Defense requires all colleges and universities that participate in its tuition assistance program to be accredited and licensed by a recognized accrediting body.

Additionally, APUS has over 1200 faculty members whose names and credentials are listed on our website.  These professionals would not stake their reputation by working for a diploma mill or unaccredited institution.  Our faculty and staff present at many conferences each year and proudly list their affiliation.  Most, if not all, of these conferences would not accept presenters from unaccredited institutions. 

Lastly, whenever anyone has a concern about a statement that is made about our accreditation, please do not hesitate to contact our Office of Institutional Advancement at accreditation@apus.edu.  They will be glad to help you set the record straight.

Meanwhile, students, alumni, and friends who are members of the Coast Guard, please accept my apologies.  Please also accept my sincere thanks for the many efforts that you engage in daily to keep our nation’s ports and waterways safe for all.

According to a May 2009 report published by the Brookings Institute, enrollments in community colleges increased between 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 by 2.3 million students.  In total, community colleges enroll approximately 45 percent of the nation’s college students.  Community college populations represent far greater diversity than is found on traditional four-year campuses.  According to the Brookings Institute, in 2004, 67 percent of Latino and 47 percent of African-American students entering college were enrolling in community colleges.  Given the large volume of community colleges in the nation, they provide affordable and convenient options for many groups otherwise underrepresented in other higher education institutions.  Community colleges are also appealing for non-traditional-aged college students, many of whom are juggling families and full time jobs. 

Federal, state, and local funding for community colleges has been abysmal when compared to funding for public four-year colleges and universities.  By one estimate, four-year public colleges receive greater than three times the amount provided to community colleges per full time student.  According to the Brookings Institute report cited above, “from 2003 to 2008, state budgets for all public services – Medicaid, transportation, corrections, public assistance, and other expenditures – grew at an average rate of nearly 6 percent, but growth in state support for higher education lagged 1.5 percentage points behind.”  This translated into substantially less funding for community colleges leading to additional problems including significant cuts in amount spent per student at these schools, lack of resources for effective faculty training, and neglected maintenance projects on community college campuses. 

A recent article from Time Magazine noted that “these institutions are our nation’s trade schools, training 59% of our new nurses as well as cranking out wind-farm technicians and video-game designers – jobs that, despite the ballooning unemployment overall, abound for adequately skilled workers.”  An article on CNN.com quoted the President as saying, “’jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college experience.’”  Community colleges are quite appealing to many students who seek associates degrees.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that many community colleges are facing such overwhelming enrollment increases that some students are being turned away, unable to enroll at all. 

While visiting Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, President Obama outlined the specific elements that would come with the American Graduation Initiative.  Telling the crowd that “Time and again, when we placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result,” he likened the significance of the program to that of President Lincoln’s innovative land-grant program that established numerous colleges around the country and President Roosevelt’s signing of the GI Bill.  According to the president, the American Graduation Initiative “will reform and strengthen community colleges…so they get the resources that students and schools need – and the results workers and businesses demand.  Through this plan, we seek to help an additional 5 million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade.”  For those perhaps concerned about the program’s impact on an already unprecedented federal deficit, President Obama added, “And let me be clear: We pay for this plan – this isn’t adding to the deficit; we’re paying for this plan – by ending the wasteful subsidies we currently provide to banks and private lenders for student loans.” 

A White House “fact sheet” on the program outlines several specific actions to be taken under the American Graduation Initiative.  To address the low completion rates found in many community colleges (the Brookings Institute notes that only one-third of community college students obtain a degree of any kind within six years of enrollment), President Obama’s plan will provide funds for community colleges that develop innovative strategies for addressing low completion rates among their students.  Additionally, funds will be earmarked for maintenance and renovation of out-dated buildings as well as for updating equipment and resources in labs and other “hands on” disciplines. 

Interesting for those in the online education community is President Obama’s plan to establish an “Online Skills Laboratory.”  “Teams of experts in content knowledge, pedagogy, and technology” will develop the courses and the Departments of Defense, Education, and Labor will work together to provide the courses online for free through one or more community colleges as well as the Defense Department’s learning network.  There has been little doubt that the Obama Administration understands the benefits of online learning; the Department of Education recently released a report that highlighted the effective and beneficial nature of online education (see my recent blog article on this topic). 

Many are touting the significance of the American Graduation Initiative.  A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education quotes David S. Baime, vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), as saying, “’There’s never been a federal program anywhere close to this size targeted specifically at community colleges.’”  In an email to member presidents, Molly Corbett Broad, President of the American Council on Education (ACE), wrote, “The president should be applauded for his effort to enhance the good work being done at our nation’s community colleges.  This investment will go a long way toward meeting our nation’s work force needs at this critical time when the economy is struggling to rebound.” 

There is no doubt that America’s community colleges provide access to higher education for millions of American students and they will play an integral part in the president’s overall higher education agenda.  I have one concern regarding this program.  To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing that prohibits states from shifting money away from two year colleges to four year colleges.  If other initiatives relating to the Stimulus Act are any indication, I am concerned that this money will not prove to be incremental funding to community colleges, but instead will be a back-end subsidy of other programs inside the states most strapped for money.

The term she referenced originated with Marc Parensky, founder of Games2train and considered to be one of the world’s foremost experts on the relationship between games and gaming technology and the learning experiences of today’s young people.  Parensky holds Masters degrees from Yale, Middlebury and the Harvard School of Business and has been an advocate for the use of technology in classrooms for years.  Parensky has even worked with the Department of Defense to establish an educational program that embraces the use of games as positive educational tools.

The lesson I learned from observing my daughters at play was that children who have access to technology are able to utilize it and to think, act, and learn in ways that are vastly different than the way we learned years ago.

Today’s issue of Inside Higher Ed features an interview with John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, which focuses significantly on data collected at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where both work.  The two explore the digital context in which today’s young people are learning and analyze the impact of their digital environment on their learning experiences.

Digital Natives seem to have an advantage in today’s world (and, according to the Berkman Center, not all youths are digital natives; it is a label that depends on the individual’s access to and frequency of use of digital technologies).  Technologies are expanding and shrinking our world simultaneously, opening doors to means of communication and commerce that 100 years ago were not conceivable.   At the same time, technology brings far off international neighbors directly into our homes via emails and webcams.  Today’s students have access to a wealth of information (including a growing number of primary documents which, as technologies improve, have been provided as images on many websites, including the Library of Congress) that their parents did not.  Even with such remarkable educational opportunities available via the Internet and other technologies, there are problems associated with the use of such technologies which require serious consideration.

Advocates of the use of the Internet and other technologies in classrooms, Palfrey and Urs state that given the omnipresence of digital technology in a student’s world, teachers must become fluent in the issues associated with copyrights and discerning between legitimate Internet sources and those that lack academic legitimacy.  The authors note that many of the young people with whom they spoke did not know that Wikipedia entries can be edited by anyone with an Internet connection.  Only a minority of the students, according to Palfrey and Urs, realized the problems that the Wikipedia system posed to the site’s credibility.  They also discuss the academic challenges associated with a rising “cut-and-paste” culture among digital natives and conclude that parents and educators must proactively inform digital natives about the ethical and unethical use of other people’s work. 

While there are obvious dangers in the prevalence of digital technology in the classroom, the benefits, I believe, are worth the risk, a risk which can largely be avoided by a systemized curriculum which integrates the use of technology with frequent lessons on the responsibilities associated with using it.  Of course, not every course lends itself to the use of technology and academia must remain mindful of this as they define the balance between appropriate uses of technology and inappropriate uses of technology in the classroom.  As an online university, APUS is obviously a strong advocate of the use of technology in the classroom.  In fact, it is online technology that forms the cornerstone of our classrooms!  We have the distinct advantage of being able to use the Internet to provide quality educational opportunities to our students while using our Discussion Boards as a means of providing the typical Socratic method of dialogue between students and teachers, a mix that allows students to benefit from both.

When I cast an eye on the broader K-20 educational platform, it is imperative that we provide our students with not only the access to the technology but also access to teachers who have been trained in the appropriate pedagogies to provide learning experiences that inform and enrich the student and prepare them for the challenges of an ever shrinking or “flattening” world.