https://sites.google.com/view/higheredcontext/home

First: A word about presentation format. For the past dozen 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. 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.

Setting Context

• College enrollment declines - every term for last decade https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/11/12/enrollment-declines-continue-national-student-clearinghouse-finds

• Moody's latest outlook for universities https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Outlook-for-US-higher-education-sector-remains-negative-in--PBM_1255981

• Demographic cliff coming by mid decade, Midwest and Northeast to be hit hardest: https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/01/08/new-book-argues-most-colleges-are-about-face-significant-decline

• Eduventures report on motivation for students to return to college - nearly 90% are work-related https://encoura.org/how-job-automation-influences-prospective-students/

• While overall higher ed enrollments have steadily declined over the past decade, a subset of higher enrollments have steadily climbed. - online learning. The top 14 trends in online learning observed by US News last month (note UIS is linked in the article and cited several times): https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/slideshows/discover-10-current-trends-in-online-education

• Good, updated reference data site on Online Education https://educationdata.org/online-education-statistics

Just Published:

• Time for Reinvention, Not Just Replication or Revision by Ray Schroeder 2/18/21
  https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/online-trending-now/time-reinvention-not-just-replication-or-revision

Do you remember these ... Where have they gone?

(Is the small/medium college campus next?)

Higher education resisted the digital disruption of the web for a long time. We were able to use it for our benefit without major erosion of base. Inevitably, it has caught up with us; preceding us were such information, social and service-centric areas as:

• Encyclopedias

• Almanacs

• Local newspapers - Since 2004, about 1,800 newspapers have closed

• Great magazines Life, Time, Saturday Evening Post, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_American_magazines

• Video rental stores - In 2017, it was reported that about 86% of 15,300 video stores that were open in the US in 2007 were closed, bringing the number down to about 2,140 remaining stores

• Record stores - more than 4,000 have closed http://www.vinylives.com/faq.html

• Record albums vinyl or CD - sales of CDs have dropped by 95% since 2000 https://www.statista.com/chart/12950/cd-sales-in-the-us/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Recording%20Industry,album%20topped%20the%20Billboard%20charts.

• Local news stand - became Google News

• Local and chain bookstores - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/technology/bookstores-final-shakeout.html

• Local clothing stores - and, not just clothing stores, so many brick and mortar stores https://moneywise.com/a/chains-closing-the-most-stores-in-2020

• Libraries - fewer, smaller and more visits online than in person http://ijiset.com/vol2/v2s4/IJISET_V2_I4_74.pdf

And, whatever happened to that local college?

Unity College considers closing campus entirely https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/01/26/small-maine-college-asks-do-we-need-a-main-campus.aspx

Local colleges - Hundreds of small/medium size colleges are lost to the ages - lost to the economy and cyber delivery competition - this list is updated regularly with new closures and mergers https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/

College Mergers - For example, Pennsylvania state colleges in the PASSHE system are preparing to merge https://www.inquirer.com/education/state-system-universities-merger-integrationsports-20210204.html

Recession Reality in Higher Education

I have published, for the past dozen years, a chronicle of the impact of societal changes in higher education. This daily chronicle now has more than 12,000 entries. Note that many in our field regularly view this blog to see how peer institutions are affected:

https://recessionreality.blogspot.com/

Course Sharing Synergies - a personal example

In 2004 to 2006, Chicago State University and UIS collaborated on a state of Illinois Higher Education Cooperation Act grant to merge classes between the two institutions using a shared classroom Blackboard platform. The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) is a small/mid sized rural university - Chicago State University (CSU) is a small/mid sized urban university. I joined CSU Professor Julian Sceinbucks in coordinating the grants in which eight to ten pairs of faculty members - one from each institution - shared their classes online.

• The students intermingled in the Blackboard space, conducted group projects, and received grades and credit at their home institution

• Faculty members developed a common syllabus, drawing on the strengths of each of their individual syllabi.

• In many cases, the faculty members alternated weeks of supervising the sessions - although most were not lockstep scheduling.

• The students from each institution were graded by their home institution faculty member

The synergies were significant.

1. Students gained a cultural perspective from the other institution's students and faculty in every class.

2. Rural students came to better understand urban students and their priorities and vice versa. Some built lifelong relationships and shared networks.

   1. Education students were particularly affected as they engaged in group projects that explored differences between rural Illinois and Chicago city public school policies, resources, challenges and approaches to problem-solving. This understanding continues to play out as those engaged in the project move to teaching and principalship positions across the state.

3. Faculty members learned at multiple levels from their collaborators. These included pedagogies, content perspectives, social perspectives, and career perspectives. In doing so, they built lasting relationships as colleagues.

4. Faculty members from each insitution contributed to diversity and a broadening of perspectives at the collaborating university.

5. We broke down the barriers of understanding between rural and urban lives.

Though cost-savings were not a priority in this grant-funded project, several smaller classes were allowed to be offered because of the unique benefits that would not otherwise have been afforded at each institution.

Some Colleges and Their Experiences

• Eureka College is highlighted in this article https://www.highereddive.com/news/the-shift-online-has-colleges-looking-to-share-courses/586346/

• Domestic and international colleges are pursuing course sharing collaborations https://edsource.org/2020/colleges-can-blunt-economic-impact-of-pandemic-by-sharing-online-courses/640052

• Two and four year colleges are pursuing sharing agreements in Texas https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2020/04/06/this-time-of-adversity-calls-for-a-new-approach-to-meeting-demand-in-online-education/?sh=55ae3ba74a0d

• The 13 Great Lakes Colleges Association hosts a Shared Languages Association for its members - details on arrangements are here: https://www.glca.org/faculty/shared-languages-program/shared-languages-faq-for-students/

• The Five Colleges Consortium based in Amherst, MA links five colleges together with shared classes - details on the arrangements are here: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/consortium/faq

Ohio Department of Higher Ed - a "how to" guide

Section 3333.90 of the Ohio Revised Code requires the Department of Higher Education (DHE) to establish a course and program sharing network that allows Ohio’s public colleges and universities and adult career centers to share curricula for existing courses and academic programs with one another.... There are a number of tools and examples used in an effort to be successful in sharing courses and programs. The following are real-life program sharing tools and resources that Ohio’s campuses are using to implement this practice.

Guide and links to actual documents currently in use such as:

MOUs, Consortium Financial Aid Agreements, Curriculum Sheets, Handbooks, Miscellaneous tools and resources, FERPA Forms, etc.

https://www.ohiohighered.org/institutional-collaboration

How can you keep up with the daily developments and trends?

Ray's Daily Curated Reading Lists and Social Media. Blogs with daily updates on the field of online / continuing learning in higher education are read by tens of thousands in our field every week.

• UPCEA Professional, Continuing and Online Education Update (more than one million views) http://continuingedupdate.blogspot.com/

• Recession Reality in Higher Education is rated #54 among higher ed blogs http://recessionreality.blogspot.com/

• UIS OER Blog https://uisoerblog.blogspot.com/

• Online Learning Update is among the longest-running, top rated blogs in elearning http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/

• Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayschroeder with daily postings

• https://twitter.com/rayschroeder with daily postings

Contact Ray

rschr1@uis.edu ~ rayschroeder@gmail.com - ray@upcea.edu

@rayschroeder

Associate Vice Chancellor for Online, Professor Emeritus

University of Illinois Springfield

Senior Fellow, University Professional and Continuing Education Assn.

https://rayschroeder.com

217-206-7531