Author: Wally Boston

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Posts by Wally Boston

Saint Francis University Returns to On-Campus Classes This Fall

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In April, I published a two-part interview with Father Malachi Van Tassell, T.O.R., President of Saint Francis University, and Dr. Karan Powell, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Saint Francis University. Like many colleges and universities, Saint Francis had cancelled its on-campus classes and converted to online classes for the rest of the semester (read Part I and Part II of the series). Dr. Powell and I spoke recently, and I discovered that Saint Francis elected to return to on-campus courses this semester. I asked her if she and Father Malachi would be willing to update me regarding their preparations for the fall. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: The Pandemic

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Shortly after EDUCAUSE conducted its survey of higher ed presidents, provosts, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) but before it published Grajek and Brooks’ Grand Challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The pandemic caused the closure of most campuses, required students and faculty to learn and teach from home, and impacted the revenue and expense stream of most colleges and universities. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: External Competition

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It’s my guess that EDUCAUSE researchers Susan Grajek and Christopher Brooks purposely listed External Competition as the fourth Grand Challenge for higher education institutions to rise to overcome through a digital transformation. Understanding that the requirements for a digital transformation require digitization and digitalization as the first four steps is not enough, as they point out. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: Reputation

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This article is Part 2 of a two-part series on the digital transformation of educational institutions and solving two of the Grand Challenges in higher education: reputation and relevance. This article discusses reputation and how American Public University System (APUS) has met that challenge. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: Relevance

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This article is Part 1 of a two-part series on the digital transformation of educational institutions and solving two of the Grand Challenges in higher education: reputation and relevance. This article discusses relevance and how American Public University System (APUS) has met that challenge. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: Financial Health

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Of the four Grand Challenges to higher education, financial health is foremost among the minds of many traditional higher education institutions, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently published articles and books call attention to the warning signs and at-risk metrics for traditional institutions that are financially troubled. For example, I’ve written about Robert Zemsky’s College Stress Test, Scott Galloway’s Value-to-Cost ratio and Vulnerability Score, and the Hechinger Report’s Financial Fitness Tracker. […]

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Meeting the Grand Challenges to Higher Ed: Student Success

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After writing about the four Grand Challenges to higher education, I decided to write about how a digital university, APUS, has addressed some of these widespread concerns. Student success was the first widespread concern written about by Grajek and Brooks, and they further refined their definition in multiple subparts which is helpful. […]

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Grand Challenges: A New Approach to Digital Transformation

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In the latest issue of the Educause Review, Educause researchers Susan Grajek and D. Christopher Brooks write that Grand Challenges should be issued to encourage institutions to solve some of the biggest issues in higher education and that a digital transformation could be the best way to solve those challenges. For the uninitiated, a Grand Challenge “describes desired outcomes to problems that are extremely difficult (but not impossible) to solve and that are widespread, if not global, in scope.” […]

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Could There Be a Silver Lining Amidst This Pandemic Chaos?

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With the likelihood of most colleges and universities teaching the fall — and perhaps spring — semesters online, it’s clear that many educational institutions will improve over their improvised performances in the spring of 2020. There are many people, including me, who are writing about the financial distress due to room and board refunds and lower enrollments due to freshmen taking a gap year and international students choosing to not visit the U.S. for a potential online college experience. Based on my 18 years of experience in online higher education, I think there are opportunities for colleges and universities that survive financially. […]

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Subjects of Interest

Artificial Intelligence/AI

EdTech

Higher Education

Independent Schools

K-12

Science

Student Persistence

The Future of Work

Workforce

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