Learning with Others by
How can colleges and universities engage students in ways that prepare them to solve problems in our rapidly changing world? Most American colleges and universities assimilate students into highly competitive undergraduate experiences. By placing achievement for personal and material gain as the bedrock of a college education, these institutions fail to educate students to become collaborative learners: people who are committed and prepared to join with others in developing promising solutions to problems that they share with others. Drawing on a three-year study of student persistence and learning at Minority-Serving Institutions, Clifton Conrad and Todd Lundberg argue that student success in college should be redefined by focusing on the importance of collaborative learning over individual achievement. Engaging students in shared, real-world problem-solving, Conrad and Lundberg assert, will encourage them to embrace interdependence and to value and draw on diverse perspectives. Learning with Otherspresents a set of core practices to empower students to enter, nourish, and sustain collaborative learning and outlines how to blend the roles and responsibilities of faculty, staff, and students; how to adopt best practices for receiving and giving feedback on problem-solving; and how to anchor a curriculum in shared problem-solving. Bringing together lessons learned from more than 300 interviews, along with notes from 14 campus visits, 3 national convenings, and examples from across our nation's colleges and universities, Conrad and Lundberg explore ways in which successful antiracist networks of problem-solvers are learning to contribute to the flourishing of their communities on campus and far beyond. Outlining strategies for identifying and dismantling barriers to participation, Learning with Otherswill pique interest among faculty, students, and administrators in higher education and a wide range of external stakeholders--from families and communities to policymakers and funders.
Designing the Online Learning Experience by
This book provides instructors with a holistic way of thinking about learners, learning, and online course design. The distinctive strategies derived from an integrated framework for designing the online learning experience help create an experience that is more personalized, engaging, and meaningful for online learners. The focus of this book is on the learners and the design of their online learning experiences. The authors refer to learning design instead of instructional design - which focuses on instruction and places the instructor at the center stage of the process. Therefore, the focus is on approaching a learner's online course experience as a journey consisting of a combination of learning interactions with content, instructor, and other learners. In most online courses, instructors and learners are separated in time and space and depend on technology to facilitate interactions that often lack a strong personal dimension. As online learning continues to proliferate and mature, the emphasis on simply making content available to students online is no longer acceptable. Creating online courses now requires a new way of thinking that incorporates new design ideas and approaches from a variety of fields; it also requires a new set of learning design skills for instructors and course designers. Organized into eight chapters, this volume focuses on enhancing online learning experiences for each of the major aspects of an online course, providing evidence-based principles and strategies to promote learner engagement and deep learning. The concluding chapter provides an example illustrating a real-world application of the principles and strategies covered in the book, using Design Thinking to create learning experiences. This book provides strategies for approaching the learning experience from an integrative perspective for both experienced online instructors and those new to online course design. These strategies are based on evidence-based learning design principles and encourage the reader to adopt an empathic mindset focused on the experience of the learner.
Academic Advising in the Community College by
In this seminal work on academic advising, the authors of three overarching chapters address the key issues and challenges of academic advising. (Available in physical form in Youngstown and digital form.)
Resource Management for Colleges and Universities by
How comprehensive activity-based models can help university leaders and faculty reshape their institutions through better resource management. Resources in higher education steer colleges and universities both strategically and tactically. They drive incentives and accountability for faculty and staff while providing academics with the infrastructure they need in order to perform effectively. But while American colleges and universities remain the gold standard for worldwide higher education, Resource Management for Colleges and Universitiesargues that their decision-making cultures and business models are beset by serious flaws. In this audacious book, William F. Massy writes that resource allocation in colleges and universities needs to become more responsive to academic mission, marketplace realities, and the requirements of financial sustainability. Such improvement is needed, he asserts, because few institutions currently have the evidence, know-how, and cultural capacity to take advantage of modern information systems and models. Luckily, today's academic resourcing models enable academic leaders and faculty to close the gaps and do a significantly better job of controlling costs and improving academic performance. Massy describes three kinds of contemporary, comprehensive AR models: internal economic, external economic, and mission-market-margin. He explains how these models, if used correctly, support mission-critical academic decisions and reveals why they are game-changers for college and university management. Describing how real universities are using these models to understand their teaching and research revenues and costs and to predict changes needed in budget planning, Massy also provides numerous insights about how academic organizations function and how they can be induced to adopt needed changes. Building on Reengineering the University, Massy's earlier book, Resource Management for Colleges and Universitieswill provide readers with the wherewithal, and the motivation, to fundamentally transform their institutions.
Design for Change in Higher Education by
It's time to design the next iteration of higher education. There is no question that higher education faces significant challenges. Most of today's universities aren't prepared to tackle issues like demographic change, the continued defunding of public education, cost pressures, and the opportunities and challenges of educational technologies. Then, of course, there is the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, which will reverberate for years and may very well usher higher education into an era of significant structural change. Some critics argue that a premium should be placed on change functions--that is to say, on creativity, innovation, organizational learning, and change management. Yet few institutions of higher education have functions focused on thoughtful, iterative problem-solving and opportunity identification. The authors of Design for Change in Higher Educationargue that we must imagine and actively make our way to new institutional forms. They assert that design--a practical art that is conceptually rich and visible in its concreteness--must become a core internal competency of the university. They propose one grounded in the practical experiences of a specific educational design organization: Michigan State University's Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology, which all three authors have helped to run. The Hub was created to address issues of participation, impact, and scale in moving learning innovations from the individual to the collective and from the classroom to the institution. Framing each chapter around a case study of design practice in higher education, the book uses that case study as the foundation on which to build design theory for higher education. It is complemented by an online playbook featuring tactics that can be used and adapted by others interested in facilitating their own design work. Touching on learning experience design (LXD) as an increasingly critical practice, the authors also develop a constructivist view of designing conversations. A playbook that grounds theory in practice, Design for Change in Higher Educationis aimed at faculty, staff, and students engaged in the important work of imagining new forms of education.
The Agile College by
Following Grawe's seminal first book, this volume answers the question: How can a college or university prepare for forecasted demographic disruptions? Demographic changes promise to reshape the market for higher education in the next 15 years. Colleges are already grappling with the consequences of declining family size due to low birth rates brought on by the Great Recession, as well as the continuing shift toward minority student populations. Each institution faces a distinct market context with unique organizational strengths; no one-size-fits-all answer could suffice. In this essential follow-up to Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, Nathan D. Grawe explores how proactive institutions are preparing for the resulting challenges that lie ahead. While it isn't possible to reverse the demographic tide, most institutions, he argues persuasively, can mitigate the effects. Drawing on interviews with higher education leaders, Grawe explores successful avenues of response, including * recruitment initiatives * retention programs * revisions to the academic and cocurricular program * institutional growth plans * retrenchment efforts * collaborative action Throughout, Grawe presents readers with examples taken from a range of institutions--small and large, public and private, two-year and four-year, selective and open-access. While an effective response to demographic change must reflect the individual campus context, the cases Grawe analyzes will prompt conversations about the best paths forward. The Agile Collegealso extends projections for higher education demand. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study, the book updates prior work by incorporating new information on college-going after the Great Recession and pushes forecasts into the mid-2030s. What's more, the analysis expands to examine additional aspects of the higher education market, such as dual enrollment, transfer students, and the role of immigration in college demand.