Link: Future Students, Future Revenues [EAB restricted content]

“This brief, based on conversations with over 150 higher education leaders across North America, analyzes the fundamental forces that will shape higher education over the next decade and highlights the strategies and competencies that colleges and universities will need to be successful.”

“Over the past decade, universities were able to grow revenue primarily by growing enrollment and increasing net tuition per student. But demographic and economic changes will make it increasingly difficult for all but a handful of institutions to grow tuition revenue at historic rates. Despite rising access rates, demographic projections suggest that the number of high school graduates will decline over the coming decade, leading to a dramatic drop-off in the overall rate of enrollment growth.”

Key Takeaways:

  •  Nontraditional students will drive enrollment and revenue growth, not traditional student population (18-22 year olds).
  • Need to invest in serving nontraditional students.
  • Online and hybrid education can assist, but strategy should be driven by student needs, not external forces.

“Future Students, Future Revenues — Thriving in a Decade of Demographic Decline.” EAB report. April 13, 2014.

Link: Adult College Completion in the 21st Century

Comprehensive report on adult students and college completion. Sections include: demographics, marketing and outreach, institutional services, promoting academic success, and strategic partnerships. Published June 2015.

Figure 1 from report

Interest in adult college completion, both for adults with some college credit and those who have never before attended college, has dramatically increased across the higher education community. This report draws from the considerable body of recent research focused on various populations of adult learners, including data gathered during Higher Ed Insight’s recent evaluation of Lumina Foundation’s adult college completion efforts. The goal of the report is to synthesize what has been learned about the needs of adult college students, particularly those returning to college after stopping out, as well as to identify areas where further inquiry is needed in order to demonstrate effective ways to support degree completion for adults.

Erisman, Wendy and Patricia Steele. “Adult College Completion in the 21st Century — What We Know and What We Don’t.” Higher Ed Insight. June 2015.

File: Scaling Up Online Exam Delivery

A white paper produced by Clemson University and Software Secure (RPNow) presenting the use of RPNow for proctoring services to help grow online learning programs at the university.

“I believe that in many cases – academic integrity is kind of the red herring of online education. At the same time, we’ve got questions from legislators and accreditors that want to know what we’re doing to protect academic integrity. I think this is a great way of demonstrating we’re putting a requirement and solution in place – without overburdening any one person or group.”
Witt Salley, Chief Online Officer
Clemson University

File: UPCEA and OLC Issue Joint Letter to Congress on Integrity of Online Learning

In August, UPCEA and OLC sent a letter about online learning to the leadership of the House Committee on Education and Workforce as well as the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in response to recent public statements which appear to question the integrity of online education.

As early as 2010, a Department of Education meta-analysis of research into the relative effectiveness of online and classroom-based learning put to rest any remaining question that what goes on in a classroom is inherently superior to what can be accomplished online; indeed, that study, and others that have followed, indicate that online learning is often superior in achieving measurable learner outcomes2. To question the inherent “integrity” and “quality” of online learning in 2015 is simply unsupported by overwhelming evidence.

UPCEA and OLC Joint Letter to Congress, August 28, 2015.

Infographic: Student Mobile Workspaces

CampusTechnology provides a  snapshot of how students consider and use mobile devices in their Student Mobile Workspaces Infographic, including:

  • The value of technology from the students’ perspective
  • How students feel their devices are viewed by their institution
  • Ed tech leaders weigh in on the importance of remote access for students
  • Bridging the gap between user expectations and higher ed capabilities

94% of higher education leaders agree that students should have access to applications and data anywhere, on any device, but 55% said their institution does not provide this level of access to students today.

If you are a member you can read more about this infographic in CampusTechnology, September 17, 2015.

 

 

Link: The Use of Learning Contracts to Promote Student Success in Online Doctoral Programs

 

A research report produced by five faculty from NorthCentral University, a  fully online institution, exploring the effects of using learning contracts with students pursuing graduate degrees in their institution’s programs.

This quantitative study provides evidence of the benefits of learning contracts in online higher education. In this study, data were gathered from doctoral students who had completed all course work and comprehensive exams, but failed to make expected progress on dissertation. The students were given the opportunity to participate in a voluntary program requiring the execution of a learning contract.

Melanie Shaw, Diane Blyler, Jama Bradley, Scott Burrus, and Raymond Rodriguez. “The Use of Learning Contracts to Promote Student Success in Online Doctoral Programs.” Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, (University of West Georgia, Distance Education Center) Volume XVIII, Number 3, Fall 2015.

Link: Why We Should Build Classes Around Mobile Tech

A University of Maryland communications professor sees mobile technology as key to engagement, learning and student success.

According to Yaros, without a systemic change in how we engage students in and outside of class, technology can be — and often is — viewed as getting in the way of learning.

Fuhrman, Toni. “Why We Should Build Classes Around Mobile Tech.” Campus Technology. September 9, 2015.

Link: Research Uncovers MOOC Cheating Strategy

This article addresses recent research of student behavior through an analysis of data from 1.9 million course participants in 115 MOOCs offered by HarvardX and MITx from fall 2012 to spring 2015. In a small number of cases, the researchers uncovered a unique from of cheating, that can be stopped by a few simple steps.

The researchers are ultimately hoping that course content creators will put some of the prevention strategies in place. “One of the most interesting lessons from the paper is that there are ways to mitigate cheating that are straightforward and implementable by the teams creating online course content,” Chuang said. “We also expect platform improvements, such as virtual proctoring, to help reduce cheating.”

Dian Schaffhauser, “Research Uncovers MOOC Cheating Strategy,” Campus Technology, August 26, 2015.