Category: Blog

The Current State of Competency-Based Education in the US

by Daniel Fusch

Recently, I had the privilege to sit in on a press release of the very preliminary findings from a joint Eduventures/Ellucian survey reporting on institutions’ level of commitment to competency-based education (CBE). The full report on the survey will not be released until June, and in fact the survey is still open. But as of late April, 261 institutions have responded, representing a diversity of Carnegie classifications and institutional types, and some of the findings are illuminating. The findings listed below were shared with me by Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer at Eduventures, and Carie Ann Potenza, Director of Academic and Grant Services, Teach and Learning, Ellucian. I have also asked several leaders of innovative CBE programs (who will also be speaking at our upcoming conference Developing and Managing Competency-Based Education) to comment on the initial findings, and their comments are also below. Findings: Everyone is Interested in CBE, Few are Scaling It First, some quick demographics. Of the 261 early respondents: These are preliminary findings only, and the survey’s administrators haven’t yet segmented the data to learn more. However, Richard Garrett has noted that preliminary segmenting by Carnegie classification has revealed very little variance in response across types of institutions. […]

Students with Goggles: Virtual Reality and Adaptive Learning in the Classroom

by Daniel Fusch

I was recently invited to visit Ellucian’s Innovation Lab to speak with Brian Knotts, Ellucian’s Chief Data Scientist, and to sample some emerging learning technologies first hand. We discussed machine learning, virtual personal assistants, and I had the chance to don a set of virtual reality goggles to experience what it might be like for college students participating in a virtual reality simulation. After I adjusted the focus (I am afflicted with very poor eyesight), I was at once confronted with what appeared to be skittering, giant cockroaches. To my relief, the scene quickly shifted to a sandswept environment populated by cloaked figures that looked as though it had been plucked from the pages of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Two things struck me as I looked up, down, and around in these VR goggles: How Colleges are Already Using this Tech In fact, some colleges and universities are already putting the technology that we currently have to use, both in and out of the classroom. For example: Brian Knotts explained some of the affordances to me, with a sense of childlike wonder I could easily appreciate: “You fired arrows at targets. Now imagine you were doing something less martial. Suppose you stepped […]

Leveraging Parents as Allies in Student Success

by Daniel Fusch

by Daniel Fusch (Academic Impressions), interviewing Marjorie Savage (University of Minnesota) While some colleges are seeking positive ways of managing parent involvement throughout the college years, others have established farewell rituals near the start of a student’s first term to deliver the message that parents are expected to let go and step back. These separation programs range from a formal ceremony at Morehouse College to sessions on “Letting Go” during orientation at other institutions. Not Just About Letting Go Although introducing programming to encourage parents to “let go” may be a way to define the separation process for both students and student services staff, this approach (especially if adopted in isolation from a more holistic strategy for parent engagement) precludes opportunities to leverage parents as key resources in promoting the academic and social success of your students. Marjorie Savage, researcher on the topic of parent/college relations and author of the books Not Helicopters but Allies: Partnering with Parents to Better Support Students (Academic Impressions, 2016) and You’re on Your Own (But I’m Here if You Need Me) (Simon & Schuster, 2009), suggests that parents can be an asset to the institution and play a key role in student success — if that role and the […]

Start a Young Alumni Council? Yes or No?

by Ashlyn W. Sowell

WHERE THIS ARTICLE BEGAN… Ashlyn Sowell was a faculty member at AI’s conference on Strengthening, Strategy and Growing Engagement for Alumni Boards. This article was sparked by conversation among schools at the event who were considering the next steps for adding a board or council to their young alumni programs. Some critical questions were raised; here, we start to answer them. Should You Start a Young Alumni Council? The Answer is Maybe Volunteer groups can be a great asset, but do require cultivation and meaningful work to engage with your institution. Here we will talk more about how Gettysburg College made its decision and what the outcome has been. Gettysburg College has a strong history with its alumni board, dating back many years. Around 2008, alumni relations staff began thinking about ways to engage young alumni who made up a large percentage of the overall alumni population and had  unique ways that they wanted to interact with their alma mater.  As such, a proposal was made to the Board of Trustees, and we created the BOLD Council (Burgians of the Last Decade), a young alumni council of 25 members. The council’s strategies include ways to engage alumni through communications, interaction […]

How RIT is Building An Adjunct Community

by Lisa Cook

MORE FROM RIT RIT’s strategic plan calls for the institution to become a “model of inclusive excellence for all faculty and staff in the areas of professional development.” Here are further examples of what RIT has been trying recently: Beyond Workshops: How RIT Incentivizes Faculty Development “George”: How RIT is Encouraging Interdisciplinary Collaboration When thinking about a student issue or working on a syllabus, faculty members often seek the advice of a colleague — usually by just walking to the office next door. For adjunct faculty, however, the colleague next door has often left for the day and administration offices may also be shut. Adjunct faculty often operate largely on their own, and have a difficult time meeting colleagues who can provide feedback and support. When institutions deliberately build adjunct communities, this allows the faculty to support each other, helps make adjunct faculty feel appreciated and rewarded, and improves adjunct teaching and student success in the classroom. The Rochester Institute of Technology is working to build an adjunct community to foster the kinds of relationships that many full-time faculty and staff take for granted. We talked with Anne Marie Canale and Cheryl Herdklotz, Faculty Career Development Consultants, to learn more about the […]

For Fundraisers: How to Build a Successful Partnership with Your Athletic Director

by Josh Azer

It doesn’t matter if you are a Major Gift Officer working as a liaison to the athletic department or a Director of Athletic Development. Now more than ever, to effectively raise money for your college athletic department you must have a successful partnership with your Athletic Director. Many advancement professionals working with college athletic departments do not have a background as a coach or an administrator. So how can you, as the athletic fundraiser, build a successful partnership with your Athletic Director? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to help build this relationship, but here are four steps you can take to get started: 1. Schedule a weekly meeting with your Athletic Director. If a weekly meeting isn’t possible, then make sure it is at least bi-weekly. These meetings will ensure that you, as the frontline fundraiser for the athletic department, have a strong understanding of the current needs of the department. While you’re meeting, you’ll also have the opportunity to coordinate upcoming travel and additional events that require the Athletic Director’s attendance. It may also be helpful for you to attend athletic staff meetings and for your Athletic Director to attend development meetings going forward, to further strengthen the connection […]

A Tool for Increasing Application and Retention Rates for At-Risk Students

by Lisa Cook, Daniel Fusch

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 18 colleges, universities, and organizations that are innovating to solve critical challenges with access, recruitment, retention, and student success. At AI, we have interviewed each of the recipients to learn more about the projects these institutions are pursuing, how their approaches are unique, and what other colleges and universities can learn from these new efforts. 2015 was the second year of the First in the World grants. You can read our interviews with the 24 institutions that received 2014 grants here. Is college choice always an informed choice? Often, first-generation and low-income students enroll at a college or university that someone in their family knows about, or simply enroll at the institution closest to home, regardless of whether that student and that institution are a good fit. First generation and low-income students may find themselves overwhelmed with promotional materials from several colleges but lack the knowledge to determine which institution will best suit their skill sets and goals. And often they can’t rely on the prior experience of other family members to help them make the best choice. Yet there is research to […]

Juggle Smart: Steps for Managing the Intersections of Clery Act, Title IX, VAWA, and DFSCA

by Daniel Fusch

For this addition to our ongoing column on managing regulatory compliance in higher education, we’ve reached out to Bev Baligad, Director of Compliance at the University of Hawai’i – West O’ahu. When we asked Bev what Title IX coordinators and others on campus should be paying closer attention to this year, she pointed us to the overlap between multiple federal regulations, and argued that coordinators need to do more to “juggle smart” and manage these intersections. In this interview, she offers practical steps for doing that. Interview with Bev Baligad Daniel Fusch. Bev, thank you for joining us for this conversation. Given the array of overlapping federal regulations dealing with student safety issues, what do you wish more institutions understood about the ways Clery Act, Title IX, VAWA, and DFSCA intersect? Bev Baligad. Aloha, Daniel! I believe many institutions are missing valuable opportunities in programming and training by only focusing on Title IX, VAWA or Clery separate and apart from each other. By understanding the big picture of the basic training and programming requirements for these federal laws, institutions can address several “birds” with one stone.  And many times, they can be addressed simultaneously. Daniel Fusch. What parties need to be talking to each other […]

Assistance Animals and Compliance: What You Need to Know About Recent Developments

In at least three recent lawsuits, post-secondary institutions have come under fire for failing to comply with provisions of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) that make it unlawful to deny housing based on a person’s handicap and that require institutions to accommodate “assistance animals.” What most institutions don’t realize yet is that the federal definition for an assistance animal is much broader than the definition for a service animal under the ADA. (A service animal can only be a dog or, in some circumstances, a miniature horse. An assistance animal can be any type of animal and need not be specially trained.) While colleges and universities do have a long history of accommodating service animals, the concept of accommodating assistance animals is relatively new. But though it’s new, failing to comply can still create legal risk for your institution. Three Recent Cases In three recent cases: In all of these cases, the institution in question fell back on traditional housing policies regarding pets. And in these cases, the institutions faced legal action for holding to that exclusion. As our researchers at Academic Impressions note, “No one wants to pay $40,000 for a guinea pig.” It’s important to be aware of how […]

“Game On” for the Liberal Arts

by Mary Hinton

Over the past few years, the liberal arts have become an easy target in the current narrative about higher education. From politicians to parents we’ve heard a never-ending cry questioning the value of the liberal arts and bemoaning their “real world” applicability. There is solid evidence that the long-term arc for students earning liberal arts degrees is overwhelmingly positive—personally, professionally and for our democracy. Those of us in higher education know this firsthand. Yet the prevailing narrative continues to focus on “hire-ability” and that first job out of college. There’s also a perception that liberal arts colleges take students away for four years and insulate them in a cocoon of academia before dumping them, unprepared, into the “real world.” Both of these are short-term views and provide a dangerously incomplete picture. The Challenge: Making the Case In fact, part of what has made the liberal arts so easy to attack is the general lack of response from within our sector. For many of us, the value of the liberal arts is so self-evident we likely never imagined a world in which we would have to not only promote, but defend, the value of critical and creative thinking, strong communication skills, […]