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How One Institution Makes Faculty Development Exciting While Keeping Costs Down

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

A FACULTY DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY With minimal budget for faculty development, McKendree University has taken a unique approach to: Here is the story of what McKendree University has tried and what is working. At McKendree University, the idea to attach a theme to a week of faculty development activities was initially a bit of a fluke according to Tami Eggleston, associate dean for institutional effectiveness and professor of psychology. She was preparing for a series of professional development workshops offered in conjunction with provost Christine Bahr after classes ended in May, and they decided to decorate the conference room. She bought some beach balls and sand buckets as decorations, and faculty liked it enough that they specifically mentioned it in their post-workshop evaluations. Since then, the university has raised the bar each year to keep faculty development engaging and fun while also addressing specific themes to improve teaching. We talked with Eggleston to learn more about how McKendree spices up their development activities on a small budget — and why she advocates for May as the perfect time to tackle faculty development. Keeping Faculty Development Fun After classes end in May, McKendree faculty are invited to participate in a couple of […]

How Higher-Ed Leaders Need to Rethink Tuition Discounting

Rising institutional costs and greater price sensitivity on the part of prospective students and families have caused many institutions to strategically rethink their tuition discounting strategy. The following is an excerpt from a brief interview conducted with enrollment management expert John W. Dysart, president of The Dysart Group, who spoke at Academic Impressions’ conference on tuition discounting in Phoenix, AZ on . Sarah Seigle Peatman, AI: John, conversations about the discount rate in higher education continue to steal headlines in 2015. What has especially caught your attention this year? John Dysart: The trends in the most recent NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) Discounting Survey are not encouraging, especially for small, private colleges and universities: Discount rates continue to climb for newly enrolled freshmen.  The rate reached a record 44.8% in 2012 was projected to top 46% in 2013. Discount rates are rising while enrollment often remains flat and 17% of the participating institutions reported declines in freshmen enrollment of at least 10%. These two trends in particular are cause for concern. The important outcome of the current conditions is that net tuition revenue has remained virtually flat over the last decade when adjusted for inflation. The news is […]

Cultivating the Next Generation of Wealth

by Mary Solomons (opens in new tab)

We are in the midst of a tsunami of wealth transfer. It is predicted that over the next 50 years, anywhere between 20 and 40 trillion dollars of wealth will pass from parents to their children. This year the federal estate tax exemption is nearly $5.5 million dollars, or roughly $11 million if two parents are leaving funds to a child. To look at it another way, 10% of wealth is changing hands every five years. Millennials are inheriting their wealth at a rate faster than their parents or their grandparents; one third of millionaires under the age of 32 inherited their money. As fundraisers, what are we doing to engage this next generation of wealth? Changing the Way We Cultivate the Donor Pipeline Historically, when did we begin to engage with children of means? Alumni might connect with their alma mater when their children are beginning the admission process. We might approach them when we’re looking to fill a board seat or leadership volunteer role. However, this is usually years after they graduated, a period during which these potential young philanthropists have already established their philanthropic priorities—and you may not be among them. We know that Millennials think about their charitable giving […]

Spotlight on Innovation: How Hampton University Plans to Increase STEM Retention and Completion through Course Redesign and Engagement

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

How do you increase the number of underrepresented minority students attaining STEM degrees? Hampton University has a holistic approach. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities 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. Hampton University has set a specific goal of increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who graduate with STEM degrees, and Hampton is looking to address several obstacles to degree completion for minority students, including access, affordability, and engagement. Hampton intends use its $3.5 million First in the World grant to identify students who have declared a STEM major and engage them with a number of activities designed to boost success and completion. The project includes partnerships with several other organizations to facilitate internships and other opportunities for STEM majors. To learn more, we reached out to Dr. Ira Walker, project director of the grant and associate professor […]

10 Ways Leadership Development Programs Fail in Higher Ed

Diagnosing Leadership Development Programs In the past decade, institutions of all types and sizes have started in-house leadership development programs—programs aimed at developing key faculty, staff, and administrators. While building in-house leadership development programs is a critical long-term strategy, these investments are not without risk. These programs often come at considerable cost and can potentially alienate some members of campus who are not selected to participate. To set programs up for long-term success, campus officials need to be cognizant of common pitfalls that derail a program or limit its effectiveness. In this paper, we review ten of the most common ways internal leadership development programs fail and some strategies to deal with them. Read the paper. Come to the Conference Get more out of the time and resources you spend developing your faculty and staff. At our Building an In-House Leadership Development Program in Higher Education conference, join us for a one-of-a-kind program that will help ensure your in-house leadership development program is highly effective and impactful over the long-term. We will cover key components of organizing your LDP as well as dozens of resources and activities that you can incorporate in your program. See Other Topics in Leadership

Spotlight on Innovation: How Central Georgia Technical College Success Coaches Will Provide Collaborative Support to At-Risk Students

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

Here’s how Central Georgia Technical College is expanding a student success coach program, focusing especially on GED students and students placed in developmental education. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities 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. A little more than half of the students at Central Georgia Technical College are first-generation students who may not have the family support they need to successfully navigate college. Officials at the two-year college have spent more than a decade incubating strategies to effectively support first-gen and other underrepresented and academically underprepared students through graduation. This includes an effective model for using success coaches and a college success course to help guide students through their academic career. Now with the help of a $3.2 million First in the World grant, CGTC will expand the success coach model to all three CGTC campuses. They are also […]

Preparing Tomorrow’s Leaders: Leadership Coaching in Higher Education

Spotlight on Leaders in Transition In this paper, leadership experts Beth Weinstock and Patrick Sanaghan walk you through: Benefit in this paper from Weinstock and Sanaghan’s combined fifty years of experience working to develop higher-ed leaders. Read the paper. Academic Impressions Provides Coaching That’s Specific to Higher Ed – Find Out More

How One Institution is Using Competency Based Examination to Accelerate Degree Completion

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab)

Seeking to provide students with multiple paths to earn credit toward a college degree, Colorado State University-Global Campus already offers a wide range of alternative credit options, including Prior Learning Assessments (PLAs) and credit for CLEP and DSST exams. But recently — in June 2014 — CSU-Global added a new option, allowing students to take Competency Based Exams (CBEs) in a wide variety of undergraduate courses. We recently talked with Dr. Jon Bellum, provost and senior vice president at CSU-Global, to learn more about how his institution is using this credit alternative. How Competency Based Exams Work CSU-Global began working to offer CBEs for the majority of their undergraduate courses about a year ago, after a series of small-scale pilots to determine whether CBE was a good fit for their programs. They discovered that it was a good fit for all but a few courses and subsequently rolled out the program more widely. The CBEs were developed in-house, with faculty and instructional designers working together. The tests are designed to measure the outcomes of the class that students would otherwise take, just as projects measure outcomes in traditional online courses. CSU-Global faculty write each exam, which consists primarily of multiple-choice […]

Spotlight on Innovation: Purdue To Study Why Active Learning Works

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab), Daniel Fusch (opens in new tab)

Active learning models are becoming more common – but do we know why they’re effective? Researchers at Purdue are investigating. SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities 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. Active learning models are becoming more common as professors seek to engage a wider array of students. Project-based learning, clickers, flipped classrooms and other strategies have transformed classrooms — but little scientific research has been done to determine why active learning models are successful. Knowing that could guide more targeted pedagogical strategies. Researchers at Purdue University plan to address this gap through a $2.3 million First in the World grant that will allow them to conduct a large-scale controlled study about why active-learning strategies improve student retention and completion rates. Four years ago, Purdue began transforming large-enrollment courses from lecture-based courses to ones with active, student-centered learning as […]

Spotlight on Innovation: Game-Based Strategies for Improving Access for First-Generation Students at USC

by Lisa Cook (opens in new tab), Daniel Fusch (opens in new tab)

SPOTLIGHT ON INNOVATION SERIES The US Department of Education has awarded multi-million dollar “First in the World” grants to 24 colleges and universities 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. For low-income and first-generation students, navigating the college and financial aid application process can be challenging. Without a mentor or experienced family member to guide students through the process, steps like requesting letters of recommendation and applying for scholarships can seem overwhelming. To exacerbate this problem, many first-generation students attend high schools without counselors or with overburdened college counselors. Researchers at the University of Southern California set out to ease the process through online games that students can play to simulate the experience of applying to college. USC’s first such prototype, Mission: Admission, was launched in 2011 through a partnership between the Pullias Center for Higher Education and the USC Game Innovation Lab. Their work has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, which recently awarded […]

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