Beyond Academics asks to hear your thoughts, comments, and opinions on the topics we’ve covered throughout the week. Let’s keep the conversation about Higher Education going.
Our Posts
“Higher Ed: What Are You Paying For?” by Matt Alex
In this article, Matt Alex talks about creating value in a campus that is primarily digital. We want to know your thoughts. Where is the value in a digital campus? Are students still going to be willing to pay for the university name? What justifies tuition costs, especially now?
“The End of Sneakernet” by John Thompson-Haas
John Thompson- Haas explains how the old administrative processes of colleges and universities, the “sneakernet” cannot sustain the shift to digital learning. How is your organization evolving their systems to accommodate both faculty and students? (That is if they’re updating their systems at all.)
“Who Is the Man in the Lobby?” by Matt Alex
We must begin holding ourselves accountable for the future of Higher Ed. We need to create true value for students and stop being a part of lobby transformations. Are you the man in the lobby? How are you adding actual value to your organization?
“What A Prospective College Student Is Looking For: A Hybrid Experience” by Sureya Alex, College Prospect
Today’s students are not only capable of hybrid learning, they crave it. The comfort, independence, and preparation that go along with hybrid learning are of great value to prospective students. Does your organization offer true hybrid learning? Or is it just traditional learning with an online add-on that fails to meet expectations?
Other Posts
“Colleges Should Go Back to School on Remote Learning” from Inside Higher Ed.
This article by Ryan Craig sums up how higher ed institutions continue to fail to focus on the right initiatives.
BA Bold Thoughts:
- Schools continue to teach in the traditional model (live lecture) without evolving to a true digital learning culture… “exacerbating inequality, with underrepresented minority and low-income students facing even more roadblocks to engagement and persistence.”
- Schools will say they tried to improve online learning but they invested so much time on the prescriptive academic year and hosting students on campus that lost focus on the medium that creates their value now.
- Remaining Status Quo will never produce better outcomes for students and faculty. It’s time to focus on initiatives like creating an online culture that rivals Netflix. This will produce exponential growth and value.
“Will COVID-19 Revive Faculty Power?” from The Chronicle of Higher Education
While the pandemic has almost shuttered traditional learning, it has now shined a huge light on the opportunities that showcase the true asset of an institution, that is the faculty and the knowledge they disseminate.
BA Bold Thoughts: 4 Opportunities for Faculty
- Become Digital – Being digital is more than zoom, it is creating culture of learning and engagement.
- Use Modern Learning Platforms – to teach to all the 5 learning chemistries of digital natives.
- Unbundling Content – will shed light on amazing content that can be absorbed on demand and could tailor academic paths.
- Educational Market place – iTunes has empowered music, app stores have empowered developers, educational marketplaces will empower knowledge disseminators to create amazing artifacts for their educational domain. This will also foster peer to peer collaborations & allow access to all students.
“All Majors Allowed” by Kate Szumanski
This is a great article to justify why campuses have to reimagine the Future of the Academic Enterprise. While yes, businesses have to hire liberal arts majors, it’s as important for universities and colleges to create cross disciplinary academic paths.
BA Bold Thought
Liberal Arts majors run many of the top tech companies. It’s time to rename these majors and design and instill them with various cross-disciplinary topics, like AI, Blockchain, Future of Work, Google, Design Thinking, just to name a few.
Tell Us Your Thoughts
Comment on this post, reach out on LinkedIn, or submit your take on any of these topics via email. We want to talk with you about the future of Higher Ed.