The Second Internet Wave Comes to Higher Education
The Good Fortune of the Ivy League Reject
Free to All
“On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five,” as Longfellow put it in “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” Paul Revere did not merely warn the farmers of Lexington and Concord that the redcoats were coming. His “midnight message” was a call for liberty. To free Americans’ access to knowledge may not be so dramatic, but it is equally important; for Revere and all the founding fathers knew that a republic could not flourish unless its citizens were educated and informed. Read more...
New MOOC Provider Says It Fosters Peer Interaction
Online-Learning Portal Allows Educators to Create Adaptive Content
Competency-Based Education Advances With U.S. Approval of Program
What Colleges Can Learn About Applicants From When They Apply
By James Roche. Several years ago, as director of institutional research and a member of the enrollment-management team at Washington State University, I and some of my colleagues were reviewing our admissions process. As we pored over an already-very-thorough application-review procedure to see what else we could consider, one member of the group joked that maybe we should just admit students as they applied, first come first served, until we hit our enrollment target. While we never pursued that route, the idea made me wonder if there was a connection between when in the admissions cycle applicants submitted their application and other factors, such as their incoming quality measures and their performance and persistence at the university. Read more...
How Should Colleges Ask About Students’ Sexual Orientation?
By Tammy R. Johnson. In recent years, there has been increasing interest among admission officers regarding the identification of LGBT students on campus. Reliable statistics about LGBT populations on campuses across the country are all but non-existent, and many progressive institutions are aiming to remedy that problem. It is a growing concern: How can schools provide outreach and support (and increase retention rates) for LGBT students if this at-risk population continues to be invisible? Likewise, LGBT campus groups are almost uniformly in favor of collecting reliable data that will document the presence of LGBT students on campus, which would help these groups advocate more successfully for funding and support. In the research-based environments of most college campuses, there is little opposition to collecting data to identify LGBT students. Faculty and staff who are even remotely familiar with the unique struggles faced by many LGBT students understand the justifications for identification. Disagreement usually arises, however, when campuses begin to wrestle with the question of how to collect the data. Read more...
Invest in Your Staff—It Can Pay Off
By Ed Trombley. For the past several years, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has partnered with the University of Central Florida to offer the Leadership Enhancement Program to populations that are underrepresented within the university management structure, specifically women and minority faculty and staff members. Operated under the supervision of each university’s Office of Diversity Initiatives, the stated goals of the program are to enable participants to gain career enhancing skills and experiences to become successful leaders. The program is tailored to meet the individual needs and career goals of participants, and to empower them and help them develop a sense of who they are. Read more...