Visioning: Future of Higher Education
Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus
Senior Fellow, University of Illinois Springfield
https://sites.google.com/view/dupagevisioning/home
First: a word about presentation format. For the past fifteen years, we have been "power point-less" at the uis center for online learning, research and service. Rather than using a static, aging format, we prefer to create web pages for our presentations to assure that they are easily accessible, updatable, and always available. I will not be following every link. The intent is that this will serve as a reference meta-site for you on the topic. Please follow along on your own device (or visit at a later date) to delve more deeply into the links and videos that interest you.
Higher Education Is in Flux
Fewer high school graduates envision a future degree - it is an ROI value question
$1,700,000,000 in student debt - enough is enough
After so many years of being the unquestioned path to career prosperity - alternatives emerged
Learners are looking for shorter paths to launch new careers
As evidenced by the "Great Resignation" - Americans are looking for something different/better
Baccalaureate schools face greatest risk - Community Colleges, the greatest opportunity
Competition Is the Key Factor
Non-Profit institutions enjoyed a near monopoly in centuries past - no longer the case
We also enjoyed a geographic advantage - until the advent of online learning
Colleges controlled policies and practices - increasingly the marketplace (learners) are in control
Unlike colleges, the largest corporations are the experts in market-responsiveness
Our fastest-growing competitors are:
Coursera, edX, and other consortia offering high-quality, low cost classes, certificates
Google! Microsoft! Facebook! Linkedin! A host of other industry-credible corporations are now offering more and more certificates. For example:
Coursera Certificates $59/mo https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates
edX microbachelors $166/credit hour https://www.edx.org/microbachelors
Google Career Certificates $39/mo https://grow.google/certificates/
18 of the new top 25 enrolled classes in the US this fall are by Google - take notice!: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/google-education-online-tech-classes.html
https://www.classcentral.com/report/most-popular-courses-2022/
Microsoft Certifications https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/
Facebook's latest: https://wersm.com/facebook-launches-new-certifications-for-marketing-analytics-and-spark-ar/
LinkedIn Learning https://www.linkedin.com/learning/subscription/topics
Credentialing
Credentials Today
Micro-credentials: The solution to the skills gap and accessible education
Nearly 1,000,000 different credentials (967,734+ and counting) in US alone!
https://credentialengine.org/counting-credentials-2021/
Credential Registry - Credential Engine map the field and maintain records
Credential Finder
Rutgers non-degree credential framework
Making sense of the increasingly crowded market of non-degree credentials can be a challenge. These credentials include a wide range of awards, including noncredit and credit certificates, industry certifications, occupational licensure, apprenticeships, and badges and microcredentials, offered by educational institutions, private training providers, industry associations, unions, and others. Over one quarter of U.S. adults have some type of non-degree credential according to a recent survey by the National Center for Educational Statistics. In the increasingly crowded credential marketplace, there is little to guide how individuals, policymakers, employers, and educational institutions evaluate the quality of non-degree credentials. A system is needed to measure quality and ensure these credentials do not offer false promises, particularly to individuals from marginalized groups who may be particularly drawn to non-degree credentials for their potential to lead to employment and rewarding career pathways. This paper outlines a broad framework to guide the development of standards and processes to evaluate quality of non-degree credentials.
National Skills Coalition (funded by Lumina)
A quality credential provides individuals with the means to achieve their informed employment and educational goals. Individuals cannot achieve their employment goals without meeting the needs of employers.
The definition should support equitable credential attainment.
There must be valid and reliable, transparent evidence that the credential satisfies the criteria that constitute quality.
States should have discretion in making operational decisions such as determining whether to combine criteria in a composite rating, while still safeguarding quality.
States must have a public process to determine which credentials are quality, a process that ensures integrity and includes input from key stakeholders and an appeals process.
Ray's pre-release AltCred curated reading list
You are the first to get the link to my trial altcred reading list. One item a day is posted to keep control of the firehose of information in this sphere. If we judge it to be worthwhile, an auto-email function will be added. https://altcred.blogspot.com/
Modalities
In-Person
On campus can provide visible service to community
Full utilization of campus buildings
Social benefits outside of class meetings
Not as avaialbe to the variety of working schedules
Commute expenses
Remaining potential for pandemic or other exposures
Online
Available to all students in asynchronous mode - everywhere - rich multi-cultural classes
Unlimited repeats of videos; can be media intensive - soon VR, AR, MR
Metaverse is on the verge of rich simulations
Although audio/video/text chat, not in-person
As with on-campus it can leave the less-prepared (often no fault of their own) behind
Blended / Hyflex
Combines the best of on campus and online
Consider the Metaverse - this will be platform for the LMS in the coming year
Continues to leave the less-prepared behind
Adaptive/Self-paced
Combines the best of all above, plus, it provides adaptive AI-controlled lessons to bring the less-well prepared up to speed:
https://elearningindustry.com/instructional-design-techniques-adaptive-learning
https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/11/11/viewpoint-can-ai-tutors-help-students-learn/
Services/Resources
Student Needs/Expectations
We need to provide credentialing and stackable paths.
Badging
https://elearningindustry.com/why-online-course-creators-use-digital-badges
NFT and Blockchain transcripting and e-portfolios
We need to provide just-in-time and up-to-date learning
These require close connections with industry
OER and Teaching Through the Rearview Mirror
OER is preferable
Obvious cost reduction, can be customized, better learning outcoms- right on target
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2020.00072/full
Student support - real-time advisors every day and 18 hours/day
AI (self-service and self-learning) 24/365 Chat Bots that improve with every querry
https://www.ibm.com/products/watson-assistant/artificial-intelligence
Structure of learning terms (lengths, admissions, transcription, etc.)
Approach Every Step from the Learner's Perspective
The semester is an artifact of prior centuries. It remains an archaic, artifact of physical campuses, agrarian society, and the convenience of the faculty and institution. None of those are relevant today!
We now must look anew from the perspective of the learner - when, how, how much and how long are all to be determined for the benefit and preference of the learner.
Some Essentials for Entry
Multiple paths to entry - provide as many as feasible and relevant (requires research)
Pre-requisite courses could be one path
Assessment of prior experience could be second path
Demonstration projects could be another
Pre-testing could be yet another
Consider subscription enrollment alternatives rather than credit hour (note Coursera and Google)
Transcripting
Multiple dissemination modes
Traditional
Online, secured database
Blockchain
Consider ways you can allow your learners to best "own" their learning - not just the institution
The "semester" begins Today - or - Next Week - every week!
This is the payoff. It is one of the new realities of the 2020s. If you start only three or four times a year, you will lose half of your prospective students. Learners need their learning now! This evening would be just fine!
Radical change in the form of student-centeredness is upon us. We must out-perform our competitors to overcome their marketing, reputation and budgets.
The stakes are high!
Ultimately, we can expect downsizing, mergers and closures at non-selective colleges, while selective colleges continue to thrive. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211108081833404
How Can You Keep up with Trends and Daily Developments?
Online: Trending Now: Ray's bi-weekly columns in Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/users/ray-schroeder
Ray's Daily Curated Reading Lists and Social Media. Blogs with daily updates on the field of online / continuing learning in higher education:
UPCEA Professional, Continuing and Online Education Update http://continuingedupdate.blogspot.com/
Economics and Change in Higher Education
http://recessionreality.blogspot.com/
OER Update
https://OERupdate.blogspot.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayschroeder
Twitter @rayschroeder
https://twitter.com/rayschroeder
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Contact Ray
rschr1@uis.edu ~ rayschroeder@gmail.com ~ ray@upcea.edu
@rayschroeder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayschroeder/
Professor Emeritus, Senior Fellow
University of Illinois Springfield
Senior Fellow, University Professional and Continuing Education Assn.
217-206-7531