Category Archives: Course Design

Adult Learning, Corporate and Industry Partnerships, Course Design, Graduate Education, New Online Programs, Pedagogy, Professional and Career Education

Link: Understanding the Changing Market for Professional Master’s Programs

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Education Advisory Board (EAB), “Understanding the Changing Market for Professional Master’s Programs.” July 2015.

In both core disciplines and new niche fields, the key to capturing emerging market growth is customizing offerings not just to “working professionals” but to distinct segments within this group— career starters, career advancers, career changers, and career crossers—through features such as flexible delivery, stackable credentials, practical experience, accelerated format, interdisciplinary pathways, and professional development.

With the market for master’s degrees growing and changing, this segment is estimated to outpace all other degrees. The program focus will be on specific job skills that help students gain a new job or advance in an existing position.

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Adult Learning, Competency-Based Education, Course Design, Degree Completion, Graduate Education, New Online Programs

Link: Facing Flattening Enrollments? Alternate Student Pathways Might Help

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David Godow, “Facing Flattening Enrollments? Alternate Student Pathways Might Help.” Education Advisory Board, October 2014.

Godow argues that enrollment growth can most sustainably be sourced from four previously underrepresented populations: international undergraduate students, community college transfers, adults returning to complete degrees, and professional master’s degree students. While institutions have historically shied away from targeting these populations due to the perception that such students have inadequate preparation for the university environment, developing targeted programming for these groups, including alternative paths to the degree, has proven successful.

Successful institutions have found that the different needs of these populations can often be met through “pathways” offering an alternative route to a degree. Pathways acknowledge that these students start from a different point and need a unique set of services and pedagogical approaches to be successful.

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Active Learning, Course Design, Hybrid Learning, New Online Programs, Pedagogy

File: Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership

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University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership, April 2015 and updated in June 2015.

This report is part of a process to identify the range of what will constitute successful online leadership on America’s campuses—not merely what many might be doing now, but those standards, aspirations, and principles essential far into future. The intent is to provide information to help establish the full array of professional skills and services necessary to successfully support online learning, and to guide university leaders, faculty, students, and the public at large to embrace online education as integral to academe.

The Hallmarks of Excellence identify seven areas of concentration in online course and program leadership and development: Advocacy and Leadership Within the University; Entrepreneurial Initiatives; Faculty Support; Student Support; Digital Technology; External Advocacy and Leadership Beyond the University; and Professionalism. Each of these facets includes useful definitions and justifications, providing suggestions for specific implementation strategies, structures, and plans.

UPCEA’s Hallmarks of Excellence have been endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE), the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), Quality Matters (QM), and EDUCAUSE.

 

Course Design, Flipped Classes, Hybrid Learning, Pedagogy

Link: “Flipped classrooms” provide better approach for instruction of students

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David Lockett,  “’Flipped classrooms’ provide better approach for instruction of students,” Daily News Journal, April 18, 2015.

Given the flexibility afforded by digital technology, we have a significant opportunity to modify the way we present material to students, such that presentation is strategically designed to increase the efficiency of learning.

This brief article considers the role of MOOCs as “a way to enhance the educational experience itself ” by incorporation into traditional class offerings. The use of MOOC materials, innovative video lectures, and other digital tools to present information allows in-class activity to focus on the promotion of active learning by engaged students.

Course Design

Link: Discover Emerging Trends in Online Education

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Quillian, Ian. “Discover Emerging Trends in Online Education.” U.S. News & World Report, May 4, 2015.

The definition of online higher education is becoming increasingly broad as new models incorporate more real-time instruction, turn course work into competition or rethink how student learning is assessed, experts say.

This USN&WR article summarizes three emerging trends in online education: synchronous instruction, gamification, and project-based learning. Key examples of each of these activities at U.S. universities are discussed. In summarizing this article, the EAB also suggested reading its own 2012 research brief, “Developing Centers for Innovative and Online Teaching and Learning.”