Spotlight on Nontraditional Students and Accountability in Higher Education
We are back with more great articles about higher education and online learning. Here are the articles we most enjoyed reading and sharing this week; covering subjects including the growth of nontraditional students, the desire for accountability in higher education, and more in online learning.
Insights and Advice for Continuing Educators: A Conversation with Alice Warren – JMH Consulting
The development of and acceptance of alternative credentials for working adults is on the radar of continuing education leaders. Alice Warren, the Vice Provost of Continuing Education at North Carolina State University and current President of UPCEA, shared with JMH Consulting her opinions on higher education trends, threats to continuing education, avenues for departments to invest in in order to achieve long-term success, and advice for someone who is new to continuing education.
Shaken By Economic Change, ‘Non-Traditional’ Students Are Becoming The New Normal – NPR
The number of students enrolling in higher education institutions that are older, working, and have a family is growing, presenting a challenge among universities. A thirty-year old single mother points out to NPR that nontraditional students such as herself face hurdles that are drastically different than hurdles faced by traditional students. Successful higher education departments and institutions will adapt and become better equipped to meet the needs of this growing population.
Does Presence Equal Progress? Tracking Engagement in Online Schools – EdSurge
The education landscape is evolving with the growing presence of online education. A new mindset and new criteria is required for measuring online success. EdSurge discusses how online learning benefits both educators and learners. The call to action for higher education, though, is adapting accountability measures that work well with these new learning paths and outcomes within online learning.
An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master’s Degree for a Mere $7,000 – New York Times
Georgia Tech is taking a different approach to the problem of college costs – inexpensive online programs. The school offers an online master’s in computer science that is one-eight as much as its most expensive rival program. The New York Times spotlights the success of Georgia Tech’s program and how more colleges need to incentivize enrollment in similar cost-cutting ways for potentials students.
Who Will Guard the Guardians? Accountability in the New Age of Higher Ed Accreditation – Eduventures
The Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) is piloting a set of dashboards to clarify the higher education accreditation process. These new dashboards make it possible for two institutions to be reviewed by different accreditors to receive different penalties for similar infractions. Eduventures believes these dashboards are an important step in improving higher education accreditation.
Check back next week for more of what we’re reading about in higher education and online learning. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to have daily access to higher education and edtech news.