In the movie City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays a radio advertising salesman going through a mid-life crisis. He and his friends deal with the humdrumness of life by participating in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado — an experience that turns out to be a kind of epiphany for all of them. At the end of the movie as they prepare to return to New York and the familiar routine, Billy Crystal explains to one of those friends the concept of a “do-over.” Do you remember, he says, when you used to play ball as a kid? Sometimes when you fouled things up, you would get a “do-over.” Simply, it was a second chance to swing at the pitch.
This is the first time I have really had legitimate concerns over this form of policy movement of the Department of Education:
Officials of For-Profit Colleges See Department’s Proposed Rule Changes as ‘Aggressive’
By Jennifer Gonzalez
Washington
Any thoughts that the U.S. Department of Education planned only to tweak existing regulations that affect for-profit colleges and other higher-education sectors were dashed on Monday when the agency released a draft of proposed revisions to a panel of negotiators. Many people in higher education, especially those in the for-profit sector, were taken aback at the substantial changes proposed, with some calling the move “aggressive” and “surprisingly strong.” The panel, whose members include federal officials and representatives of institutions and associations affected by the regulations, has been charged with re-examining 14 rules in a process known as negotiated rule-making.
Among the department’s proposed changes are eliminating the 12 “safe harbors” adopted in 2002 to clarify a ban on incentive compensation for student recruiters. The safe harbors specify types of compensation plans that do not violate the ban. Other proposed changes deal with assuring the integrity of “ability to benefit” testing procedures, defining a high-school diploma, and determining how institutions ensure gainful employment for their students.
Ripples in the Markets
By far, the most significant change to come from the department is the proposal to eliminate the safe harbors.
Consumer advocates and admissions officers from traditional colleges have urged the department to do away with the safe harbors, arguing that the exemptions, which allow colleges to pay enrollment-based commissions under certain circumstances, encourage recruiters to sign up unqualified students. Officials of for-profit colleges and lobbyists favor keeping the safe harbors, saying they provide much-needed clarity on whether specific types of payments are in compliance with the law. Read the rest of this entry »
25 Nov
Kill The Commute To Class
Have you ever thought how much the commute to your college class actually costs you? If you are one of the thousands of adult learners who commute to day or evening classes, you might want to take a minute and do some cursory calculations. When doing your calculations try to include those “hidden casualities.” Here are some considerations:
1. Actual commute to class (meets 2 or 3 times weekly) represents a 30 mile roundtrip. Cost of gas and vehicle maintenance must be part of this equation.
2. Time “suckage” associated with that commute due to sitting in “parking lots” called highways. Remember, time equals money. The unpredicatiblity is another factor since there are no consistent routines with the commute to class.
3. Parking and ancillary fees associated with the commute.
4. Lost wages because you have to “beat the rush” to class.
5. What ill effects will the stress associated with the commute have on you today, this week, next month, next year?
6. How does the commute and those evening classes negatively impact your family and the relationships that mean the most to you?
With all the advances in online education, the “zero commute” option is a viable alternative to earning your degree and enhancing your life. What you are doing to improve yourself through earning your degree is hard enough. Don’t add things that will make that journey more difficult.
19 Nov
Dr. Steve Kerr Appointed As Executive Director of Jack Welch Management Institute At Chancellor
CLEVELAND, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ — Dr. Steve Kerr is a business man, academic, author, advisor, and father to a six-year-old. He’s also a long-time friend of Jack Welch and is the newly appointed Executive Director of the Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI) at Chancellor University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Before getting re-connected to Jack Welch through JWMI, Dr. Kerr was formerly the Chief Learning Officer at GE where he and Welch first collaborated. More recently, he is a senior advisor to Goldman Sachs, where from 2001-2006 he was a managing director and their Chief Learning Officer.
His academic credentials include being on the business school faculties of Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Southern California where he was dean of the faculty and director of the Ph.D. program. He is also a former president of the Academy of Management, the world’s largest association of academicians in management. Read the rest of this entry »
If a school that is either wholly online or has a significant online presence is worth its salt, the key stakeholders of those institutions must constantly be strategizing on the emergence of new technologies for teaching and learning. Just this afternoon, I participated in a demo of Ellimunate which is a live eLearning solution and collaboration software. Although its benefits for asynchronous learning are not as broad as they are for synchronous, a tool like this has value. Why? Because it enhances the learning experience of the online learner and offers that person a better chance of meeting with success.
Also, as it relates to enhancing and improving online student’s learning experiences, in a recent Eduventures (www.eduventures.com) survey, respondents indicated that enhanced discussion boards and virtual lab simulations are technologies that faculty and online course designers will require in the next three to five years. I also feel that other technologies that embrace the social networking forums will be key in the coming years.
And don’t rule out this new phenomenon called Second Life (www.secondlife.com), which is the 3D online virtual world. I am still trying to understand the “education regions” within Second Life, but it is certainly a platform favored by many institutions and instructors.