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

https://universitybusiness.com/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

https://credentialengine.org/about/

Credential Finder

https://apps.credentialengine.org/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.

https://smlr.rutgers.edu/faculty-research-engagement/education-employment-research-center-eerc/eerc-projects/non-degree

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.

https://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/blog/higher-education/defining-quality-non-degree-credentials-is-crucial-to-putting-students-on-a-path-to-success/

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

https://www.helixeducation.com/resources/enrollment-growth-university/what-the-metaverse-means-for-higher-education/

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://educationaltechnology.net/adaptive-learning-what-is-it-what-are-its-benefits-and-how-does-it-work/

https://elearningindustry.com/instructional-design-techniques-adaptive-learning

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/google-announces-ai-for-individualized-tutoring-and-advising

https://www.ecampusnews.com/2021/11/11/viewpoint-can-ai-tutors-help-students-learn/

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-11-29-one-of-the-world-s-best-funded-edtech-companies-is-investing-in-ai-moonshots-can-it-work

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

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/tech-trends-higher-ed-metaverse-nft-and-dao

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/badging-blockchain-documenting-skills-learned

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

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/oer-and-teaching-through-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

https://www.ada.cx/ai-chatbot

https://mainstay.com/platform/web-chat/

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