Disrupting Higher Education for Educators

We've been asking this question for years. Accreditation agencies have been trying to figure out ways for HE to demonstrate its students learned anything.

"The study’s bottom line: 45 percent of students in the study made no gains in their writing, complex reasoning, or critical-thinking skills during their first two years of college. After four years, the news wasn’t much better: 36 percent failed to show any improvement."

This is alarming, depressing, not surprising. I fear that too many college faculty at far too many institutions haven't the stuff to challenge their students in productive and valuable ways. I fear far too many college faculty aren't interested in professional development to learn how to improve their teaching, their assignments, or anything else. I fear there is a malaise among too many university faculty who may be too disconnected from the "real world" to make sure their students are prepared for that world. And shame on us if that's true.

Imagine, if you will, a culminating educational experience in which doctoral students are allowed, nay, encourage to pursue projects that replicate the professional worlds in which they might find themselves and in which their dissertation committees further encourage them to look ahead to what could be in their chosen fields. If you can imagine this, you are in the Doctoral Twilight Zone.

It's no surprise that the traditional ways of running a university are outmoded; there is a lot that's outmoded about traditional universities. And for them to survive, they need to think differently about everything they do. And it wouldn't hurt if they started thinking very actively about what college and career readiness means in the higher education space.

Because if you like books, this is something you absolutely have to know.

It makes sense that liberal arts colleges need to evolve. Why shouldn't they? Such institutions are perfectly situated to take advantage of Common Core and its implications for career or work place readiness. But they need to step up to learn about Common Core and begin to implement that kind of thinking. Now.

Online courses have been around for nearly 20 years. I think it's easy to forget that. And for 20 years we've been talking about how online learning is going to change education.

Students typically self-select for online courses and for many of the reasons stated in this article.

"Online classes kind of get a bad rap for being not as complete as an in-person class, but I think you actually end up learning more because you're not wrapped up in a conversation that changes five or 10 times," she said. "In an online class, everyone has to stop and think of what they're saying."

Online courses require a lot of self-discipline and allow students plenty of time to think about their answers, to work through their assignments. It can be a boon for many students, but online education is not yet an answer for everyone.

This is important for ALL educators, but higher education faculty have really got to get it going with mobile learning.

Speaking of ways to think differently about higher education.

I'm intrigued by the resiliency of MOOCs, which have been around in some form since the mid-1990s. I'm intrigued by the implications not only for higher education, but for businesses. I'm interested to see how corporate thinkers and leaders will respond to MOOCs and the possible learning and experiential outcomes.