The Redgate Read On Online Learning

The journey to 25,000 students has been one filled with accomplishments, mistakes, and vision.  I have to say that the journey has also been a learning experience.  Although I was an “early adopter” when I first came into this industry twenty years ago, my reentry from the private sector just two years ago forced me to adopt a new outlook as it related to my pedagogical prejudices, recruiting strategies, operational preferences, administrative protocol and the list goes on.  Looking back, I was fortunate to be able to bring some of what I had learned in the private sector to the table.  This space we call online learning or distance learning is becoming more complicated at every turn. 

I have attached a picture of Liberty University Distance Learning Program’s Vice Provost, Dr. Ron Hawkins and me cutting the cake at our recent celebration luncheon for reaching the 25,000 student mark.  We celebrate this week what most in this industry would consider a great milestone and accomplishment.  However, the business and visionary side of me asks the question, “what’s next?”  All I know is that the journey is not over with, at least not yet.

I am pleased to announce that enrollment in Liberty University’s Distance Learning Program topped the 25,000 student mark for the first time on Tuesday.  Enrollment figures for the program were confirmed by LU Registrar Lawrence Shackleton in an e-mail to school officials.  Officially, the 25,000th student enrolled at about 9:15 a.m yesterday.

School officials announced the enrollment to the student body during the school’s Wednesday convocation.  Distance Learning  staff members, all of whom played a significant role in this remarkable achievement, were told of the achievement on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

Soon, you might not need to set foot in a classroom to get a degree from the NYU School of Law.

Starting this fall, the school is offering a new graduate program that will let part-time students attend NYU and get a degree over the internet.  In a recent article in the Washington Square News, NYU will be offering an “Executive L.L.M. in Tax” which will feature online videos of prerecorded lectures, often taught in conjunction with “live” sections of classes. All students will take the same exams and be graded on the same curves, Faculty Director and law professor Noël Cunningham said.

The law school will admit 25 online students this fall, he said.

“The tax program at the law school is the best in the country,” he said. “We thought if we offered something online we would be able to allow people - lawyers in other cites, in other countries - to get the benefit of what we teach.” Cunningham said that there would essentially be no difference between the online program and the current in-residence program.

I imagine this has created a stir within the hallowed halls of NYU Law especially from those who espouse the traditional pedagogical interaction between faculty and student.  This is a bold step by NYU and, although I am a proponent of online learning, it will take time to see if a law program can be successful online.  Time will tell!

Have you ever submitted a request for information for an online school and subsequently received information and/or calls from not only that school but several others?  Is your online search turning up a myriad of schools and sites that is more confusing than helpful?  Have you visited sites that promised you the best match with a school after you provide them some basic information?  If you have answered yes to any or all of these questions than welcome to the swirling vortex of online lead generation and recruiting.

Read the rest of this entry »

In reading the mission statements of many institutions of higher learning, whether brick and mortar or online,  one will generally find a reference  to “leadership.”  I guess that producing leaders is an expected outcome of the educational process, or so I have been told.   I just have to wonder how institutions define leadership and how integrated a model it is. 

The best model I have seen is the MIT Sloan one which describes four core capabilities needed for effective leadership: sensemaking – the ability to make sense of ambiguous situations; relating – developing key relationships within and across organizations; visioning – creating compelling images of the future; and inventing – turning visions into reality.

Wouldn’t it be revolutionary if some facsimile of these four core capabilities were consistently integrated into a learning process?