By David Schejbal - EvoLLLution. For decades, the higher education credentialing system has been a monolithic edifice impervious to alternatives. Associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees reign supreme. Higher education institutions and other providers have developed certificates, CEUs and a smattering of other credentials, but few have any market value. More...

By Dezi Waterhouse - EvoLLLution. One of the things that I worry a little bit about when I see an increase in attention towards technical careers is that it is really, really important that students learn how to think critically. For me, it’s really important to have a degree program that gives a good balance and also provide some really tangible skills. Sometimes, with some of the highly technical or vocational programs, you don’t get those critical thinking skills. More...

By Dezi Waterhouse - EvoLLLution. Innovation in higher education is ongoing and includes specific, defined interactions with adult students beyond the classroom. Specifically, the model for academic advising has changed, and yet vestiges of the old way have remained for more than 144 years. This legacy is to the detriment of the adults. More...

By Laura Bristow - EvoLLLution. Are students our “customers”?
Many would strongly say so. In today’s climate, non-traditional higher education (and, increasingly, traditional higher education) is offered as a retail product: advertised heavily, priced competitively and packaged in instructional modalities and offerings that fit students’ lives and work schedules. More...

By Terry Rawls - EvoLLLution. In this series, we’re exploring the lessons traditional institutions and successful for-profit institutions can share with each other, and in this installment we will focus on strategic planning. The darling of accreditors, in reality strategic planning in higher education, ranges from PITA (no, not the Middle-Eastern bread or the anti-meat group) to Guiding Star. More...

By Elizabeth Yohn - EvoLLLution. If higher education is a bubble, when will it burst?
The sudden decline in overall student enrollment in 2012 posed serious problems for certain institutions with regard to short‐term revenues and long‐term viability. More...

By Edward Abeyta - EvoLLLution. In January 2014 the White House published a report, “Promising Models and a Call to Action,” in which leading experts convened to identify the barriers to increasing college opportunity.[1] Test preparation was one of the barriers noted in the report. Continuing education leaders have the opportunity to respond to this issue and position their units as a central resource to improving higher education access for low-income high school students. More...

By Leif Anderson - EvoLLLution. The market has changed significantly over the last 10 years, driven by the pattern of disruptive innovation that actually makes things better over the long run. The debate, which was so present in our institution six to eight years ago [was] about whether or not our information systems investments were going to be single-vendor integrated investments. That was essentially the nirvana, the goal; could we get everything on the same vendor’s platforms. More...