Dillard University Academic Calendar 2011-2012
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Elite Colleges Fail to Gain More Students on Pell Grants
Pete Marovich for The Chronicle
During the past decade, the country's wealthiest and most elite colleges have faced heightened pressure to serve more low-income students. Many of the colleges responded by pouring millions of dollars into generous financial-aid policies and increasing their recruitment efforts.
But those measures seem to have barely moved the needle. The share of undergraduates receiving federal Pell Grants, which go to financially needy students, at many of the nation's wealthiest institutions has remained relatively flat in the past five years, according to a Chronicle analysis
Just under 15 percent of the undergraduates at the country's 50 wealthiest colleges received Pell Grants in 2008-9, the most recent year for which national data are available. That percentage hasn't changed much from 2004-5, around the time that elite institutions focused their attention on the issue. And Pell Grant students are still significantly less represented at the wealthiest colleges than they are at public and nonprofit four-year colleges nationwide, where grant recipients accounted for roughly 26 percent of students in 2008-9.
Individual colleges among the wealthiest have made gains in enrolling Pell Grant students, who generally come from families with annual incomes of less than $40,000. But others have lost ground.
It may be that these elite colleges are simply competing with one another for a small group of low-income students rather than increasing the number willing to consider selective colleges, says Christopher N. Avery, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, who is studying the college-selection process of students in Virginia.
"The colleges are fishing in the same pool," he says. "The goal has to be expanding the pool of students who are applying, but that's very hard to do."
Elite colleges have countless competing priorities when crafting a class: academic excellence, undergraduate research, sports teams and artistic endeavors, finances, racial and economic diversity, global connections, their own prestige. "No student that we admit is being admitted because they represent single quality X," says Jeffrey Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale University.
Some priorities, of course, present a zero-sum game. Colleges that enroll large numbers of international students, for example, are filling seats with students who aren't even eligible for federal financial aid.
The Chronicle analyzed 12-month Pell Grant disbursement figures from the Education Department and the 12-month enrollment numbers that colleges report to the federal government. This measure includes students who enter in the spring. But it also includes summer enrollments, which may include many students who are taking a class or two but are not normally enrolled at the college. That makes those colleges' share of Pell Grant students appear smaller than they would be if only fall and spring enrollments were considered.
That helps explain why the University of California at Los Angeles saw one of the biggest declines among the 50 colleges in the proportion of Pell Grant recipients over the past five years. The university expanded its summer enrollment during that period, while its proportion of Pell recipients among regular fall and spring students has been fairly constant, university officials say.
Among the 50 wealthiest colleges, the share of undergraduates receiving Pell Grants in 2008-9 ranges from 5.7 percent at Washington University in St. Louis to 30.7 percent at UCLA.
These well-off colleges educate a small slice of the country's undergraduates. Still, the choices they make can set the tone for admissions and financial-aid policies across the country. Many elite colleges have rolled out new financial-aid policies that eliminate or cap loans for financially needy students. The no-loan programs vary quite a bit, depending on each college's priorities and its financial resources. Michigan State University's program, for example, is for in-state students living at or below the federal poverty level.
Other colleges offer loan-free aid packages to families with much greater resources than the typical American family. At Harvard, loans are no longer packaged for any undergraduate, parent contributions have been eliminated for families making up to $60,000 a year, and such contributions have been capped for families making much more. Similarly, Princeton University considers a family making $60,000 to be financially disadvantaged, and the university looks at families up to that cap when measuring its progress serving low-income students, says Robin A. Moscato, director of undergraduate financial aid.
Officials of elite colleges say using data from 2008-9, in particular, fails to capture some of the progress that they have made in just the last two years. For one, they've had more entering classes under their no-loan policies since then.
The Pell Grant program also grew significantly in 2009, when an increase in the maximum award and expanded eligibility kicked in. Students' Pell Grant eligibility depends on both the government formula used to determine financial need and the size of the maximum grant, both of which have changed over time.
Even so, the data from 2004-5 through 2008-9 capture a period when many selective colleges were putting more effort into enrolling low-income students. The colleges' experiences shed light on institutional practices that can make a difference, and highlight the challenges that colleges face in educating more needy students while also meeting other priorities.
Research shows that students' standardized-test scores correlate with their family income. And less-affluent students may have fewer opportunities to stand out in high school. "Selectivity is discriminatory against low-income students," says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Finaid.com, a student-aid-information site. It's not that the colleges are keeping out needy students on purpose, he says; it's that low-income students are less likely to be able to afford the SAT-prep classes or expensive extracurricular activities that could make them stronger candidates.
On top of the performance gap between low-income students and their peers, low-income students are less likely to apply to as many colleges or to ones that are highly selective, further limiting their choices, says Sarah E. Turner, a professor of economics and education at the University of Virginia, who is working with Harvard's Mr. Avery on the college-selection research. "This is really a structural problem," she says, "not a transitory problem."
A Hard Message to Deliver
Yale has long offered strong need-based aid. But "even after 40 years, Mr. Brenzel says, "that message is still hard to deliver, because the assumption the schools are out of reach is so deeply entrenched."
The university has taken the usual steps to increase its low-income enrollment, offering more-generous aid and increasing its outreach efforts. And while its share of students receiving Pells dropped slightly from 2004-5 through 2008-9, it has since bounced back, to an estimated 12 percent in 2010-11, according to Mr. Brenzel.
Smith College has been able to maintain a relatively high proportion of Pell Grant students—23.6 percent of undergraduates in 2008-9—in large part because of a campus program for 150 to 200 women who are resuming their college educations as independent students, whose parents' incomes are not considered for financial-aid purposes. That makes them more likely to receive Pell Grants than are dependent students, whose parents' income and assets are considered as resources. Smith's share of Pell Grant students did drop slightly from 2004-5 to 2008-9, partly because enrollment in this program shrank during that period.
The colleges that had the largest increases in the proportion of their students receiving Pell Grants from 2004-5 to 2008-9 attribute their progress largely to improvements in their financial aid and their outreach. Those that have lost ground cite expanding their international, out-of-state, or summer enrollment, among other factors.
Williams College saw the largest jump in its share of students receiving Pells in this period: 4.4 percentage points. "It was a very conscious decision on our part to increase our share of low-income, high-ability students," says Richard L. Nesbitt, the admissions director.
The college took a "multipronged" approach, he says, making changes to its financial-aid policies and increasing its outreach efforts. Williams reduced loans for low-income students about a decade ago, and eliminated them from aid packages in about 2004, he says. That step wasn't publicized as widely as the college's later elimination of loans for all students (a policy it said last year that it would discontinue), but it was something that was highlighted in recruiting needy students.
At the same time, Williams worked with community-based organizations, expanded its fly-in program for low-income students to visit the campus, and began working with QuestBridge, a nonprofit program that connects high-achieving low-income students with colleges.
"Hopefully the message is getting out, not just for Williams, but on colleges with significant endowments, there's access and very strong support for these kids," Mr. Nesbitt says.
The University of Richmond, which has one of the smaller shares of students receiving Pell Grants among the 50 wealthiest colleges, saw one of the larger increases in its share over the five-year period, from 5.5 percent to 8.8 percent.
Unlike some of the most selective private colleges in this group, Richmond offers merit and athletic scholarships as well as need-based aid. Still, about a third of the university's own aid dollars now go to Pell-eligible students, says Nanci Tessier, vice president for enrollment management.
For Richmond, the change really began back in 2002, when the university, which was already need-blind in its admissions, began to meet students' demonstrated need, Ms. Tessier says.
The university has also worked with community-based organizations around the country. In 2005 it began meeting the financial needs of students associated with those groups without using loans. The next year, Richmond started offering the same aid to students from Virginia whose families made $40,000 a year or less. The university has also worked to increase its communication with families, creating materials highlighting its affordability and branding its financial aid as "Richmond in Reach."
No Silver Bullet
Wellesley College, on the other hand, saw one of the larger drops in its share of undergraduates receiving Pells from 2004-5 to 2008-9—a 2.2 percentage-point decrease. The college began making efforts to reduce students' debt levels in 1999, says Jennifer Desjarlais, dean of admission and financial aid. Back then, a larger share of the college's students received Pell Grants.
But over time, fewer of the low-income students whom Wellesley admitted decided to enroll. From what college officials can tell, they lost low-income students to their peer institutions, which had upped the ante by eliminating loans from aid awards. So, in 2008, Wellesley announced that it would eliminate loans for students whose families made less than $60,000 a year. Since then, it has regained its footing among low-income students, Ms. Desjarlais says.
The changes in Harvard's financial aid, which it made in several stages starting in 2004-5, have been among the most aggressive. The university has seen its share of Pell Grant students grow since then, although it has one of the smallest shares among the 50 wealthiest colleges. Harvard focuses on the socioeconomic diversity of the 6,000 or so traditional undergraduates at Harvard College rather than the larger enrollment figure in the chart (see Page A4), which includes the university's extension school, says Sally Clark Donahue, director of financial aid and a senior admissions officer. A larger share of that group of students receives Pell Grants, and that share has also grown over time.
Still, Ms. Donahue says, "I think also, change takes time." After all, when Harvard reaches out to eighth graders, it has to wait years to see if they will consider applying.
She says that a commitment to reach talented low-income students could wind up being expensive: "The success of our outreach will cost us in the long run."
Generous financial-aid programs are expensive, and the colleges offering them know it. In 2010, two of the wealthiest 50, Williams and Dartmouth Colleges, said they would scale back their no-loan aid programs, although the neediest students will not be affected by the changes. Dartmouth will still package loan-free aid for students whose families make $75,000 a year or less, and Williams said its low-income students with typical assets wouldn't be expected to borrow.
Duke University, which has one of the lowest proportions of students receiving Pell Grants among the 50 colleges, has never been able to afford a fully no-loan program, says Alison Rabil, director of financial aid. Instead, the university offers loan-free aid packages to students whose families earn under $40,000 and eliminated parent contributions for families making under $60,000. Those limitations make Duke's policy harder to explain to prospective students, especially those from families just over the $40,000 threshold.
"There's a certain amount of reluctance to borrow on the part of students whose families are first-generation and who may not have parents who have grown up in the States," she says. "If you're choosing between a couple of schools that you feel equally excited about going to, that might make a difference."
Still, that doesn't mean offering no-loan aid is guaranteed to bring in droves of qualified low-income students. Like many of its peers, the California Institute of Technology offers no-loan aid. Its program, started in 2008-9, packages aid without loans for students whose parents make $60,000 or less. But even with that policy, and in a weak economy, Caltech has seen the average family income of its financial-aid applicants increase, says Don Crewell, director of financial aid. "Instead of getting the kind of economic diversity we hoped for," he says, "we're even more elite."
At the University of Virginia, which has one of the smallest proportions of undergraduates receiving Pell Grants among the 50 colleges, geography is a big factor. "It's certainly not for lack of effort," says Greg W. Roberts, dean of admission.
The university eliminated loans for low-income students and aggressively recruits students in less-affluent parts of the state. But, he says, the university has a lot of out-of-state students, who tend to be able to pay full freight, and many of its resident students come from wealthier parts of the state.
Kyle Trowbridge, a Virginia resident who will graduate in May, says he applied to UVa in part because he assumed that he could not afford a private college. Even so, he was surprised to get a full scholarship through the university's Access UVa program, which packages grant aid for low-income students.
He says that he also had preconceptions about UVa as a "fratty" Southern college lacking diversity. "There is this connotation of 'I drive an MG and I pop my collar,'" says Mr. Trowbridge, who now tries to fight that stereotype as a board member of 'Hoos for Open Access, a student group that promotes socioeconomic diversity on the campus.
Bill Witbrodt, director of student financial services at Washington University in St. Louis, faces similar challenges in enrolling more low-income students. For several years, he has telephoned each Pell-eligible student admitted, encouraging them to enroll. And the university has unveiled a no-loan aid program for low-income students. Still, Washington had the lowest proportion of students receiving Pell Grants of all 50 colleges in 2008-9.
Part of the problem seems to be geography, Mr. Witbrodt says: Low-income students admitted from the East or West Coasts tell him they worry about being so far from home. "We have a hard time yielding them," he says. "We have very pleasant telephone conversations, and they say they're interested and they're coming, and they don't."
At other colleges, the concern is less about how to get low-income students to enroll and more about how to continue to support them. The University of Texas at Austin has one of the largest shares of undergraduates getting Pell Grants in this group, 21.4 percent. Austin steers all the institutional, federal, and state aid it can to its neediest students, says Tom Melecki, director of student financial services.
But the federal Academic Competitiveness Grant program will be ended, along with the National Smart Grant Program for science and math students, and Pell Grants might be reduced. And in Texas, two big state grant programs might be eliminated. "We are looking at some fairly draconian cuts," Mr. Melecki says.
Even though the university is pouring more of its own money into financial aid, if all of those cuts go through, that would significantly increase the loan burden on its neediest students.
"My fear is that we will not be able to keep this institution affordable for those high-need students," Mr. Melecki says. "What happens if this become the University of Texas just for rich kids?"
Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Paying for Pell Grant Program Requires Stark Choices
by Charles Dervarics
For higher education advocates, President Obama’s 2012 budget offers a delicate balancing act. While trying to protect the popular but underfunded Pell Grant program, the administration would make other student aid changes that may leave some low-income students paying more next year.
Pell has undergone tremendous growth in the past two years as a result of an increase in the maximum grant and heavier participation in the program during the recession. The U.S. Department of Education reports that the number of grants has increased from 6 million in 2008 to 9.6 million in 2010 as more young adults forgo the job market for college.
To maintain the current maximum grant of $5,550 and meet demand, the Obama administration would eliminate in-school Stafford Loan interest subsidies for graduate students and the policy of offering a second Pell Grant for undergraduates who enroll in college year-round.
Despite proposing tough choices, the administration is “keeping the Pell Grant program viable for the millions of students who rely on it to pay for college,” says Rich Williams, a higher education advocate for US PIRG. “Something has to be done to keep the program sustainable for the long term.” The cuts have caused concern, however.
The proposed changes “will undeniably have a negative impact on students,” notes Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. But he adds that, facing a potential $20 billion Pell shortfall in an uncertain political and economic climate, maintaining Pell “is our highest priority.” The year-round Pell is a new program that began with the 2009-10 school year and allows low-income students to get a second grant, usually for summer classes.
A dearth of summer jobs may be pushing more undergraduates toward year-round college. “This benefit has proven to be extraordinarily costly — up to 10 times the initial estimates — and has not yet shown any evidence of accelerating students’ college completion time,” the Education Department said. The policy is costing the government about $7.6 billion.
Some higher education advocates say they are surprised by the administration’s recommendations. So far, the government had provided few numbers on use of year-round Pell, says Jason Delisle, director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
“This has caught all of us off-guard,” he says. “This clearly was an issue within the Department of Education. They were the only ones that had the numbers” on program use.
Republicans now controlling the House of Representatives’ education committee signaled that they are open to Pell policy changes.
“We all recognize the importance of Pell Grants, but unfortunately the Democratic-led Congress expanded the program beyond what taxpayers can afford,” says U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the new chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee. “We need to make tough choices now to strengthen the program for students most in need.”
The administration also would save money by ending the in-school interest subsidy for graduate students. Through this subsidy, federal student loans are interest free for low-income grad school borrowers while they are in school.
The Education Department says these subsidies have little effect on whether students pursue graduate school and that flexible repayment options — including loan deferrals and income-based repayment — already give these students more flexibility. Delisle agrees, saying the priority should be on undergraduate education.
“All graduate students are broke,” he says, yet most continue with their education to reach a long-term goal or a higher-paying job. He adds that the subsidy also has only a small effect on how much students repay on their loans.
The subsidy typically reduces student loan payments by only $20 to $40 a month over a 10-year repayment period, he says. Yet it costs the U.S. Treasury a considerable sum — $13 billion over five years and $29 billion over 10 years.
“If we’re trying to target more aid to needy undergraduates, it’s worth it,” Delisle says.
The graduate subsidy has been a target for budget cutters recently. Late last year, the Bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform recommended ending the subsidy. House Democrats even floated the idea in their original version of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act before dropping it prior to the law’s approval.
The Council on Graduate Schools, based in Washington, D.C., expressed concern about the plan because of its potentially damaging effects on students of color.
“We understand these are very difficult budgetary times. But eliminating the in-school subsidy for graduate and professional students will have a differential impact on some graduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups,” says Debra Stewart, council president.
Citing data from the National Center for Education Statistics, she says Black and Hispanic students at the master’s and doctoral levels have higher average loan debt compared with White and Asian students.
“We are concerned that eliminating the in-school subsidy for needy students might decrease access to graduate education,” she says. “We look forward to working with policymakers to address these particularly adverse impacts.”
According to the council, 44 percent of all master’s level students and 32 percent of doctoral students finance their educations with loans.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
South Carolina State University Job Postings: Director, Center for Teaching and Learning & Program Assistant ASA (Academic Success Academy)
SCSU has an opening for a Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (faculty development) under the Academic Success Academy (ASA), and for a Program Assistant also under the ASA. Do you know of any possible candidates? Attached are the job descriptions. These are Title III funded positions. Potential applicants should contact Dr. Johnson to indicate their interest.
Stephanie Aisha Steplight Johnson, PhD, Executive Director
Academic Success Academy
Academic Success and Retention Programs
Moss Hall Room 210
SCSU
300 College Street Northeast
POB 7641
Orangeburg, SC 29117-0001
ssteplig@scsu.edu
(803) 533-3926
Monday, March 28, 2011
Accepting Proposals for 11th Annual Summer Conference, Learning in Action: Innovative Pedagogy & Course Redesign XI, Wed. – Fri. June 1-3, 2011
Dear POD Colleagues,
We are delighted to invite you to submit a proposal for our 11th annual summer conference, Learning in Action: Innovative Pedagogy & Course Redesign XI, Wed. – Fri. June 1-3, 2011.
Our theme this year is “Learning in Action.” While all submissions are welcome, we especially encourage team and cross-disciplinary presentations. We welcome you to consider presenting your own projects in concurrent paper sessions, in a panel discussion, or through a hands-on demonstration. Submit a 350 word proposal (with 50 word abstract) by Fri. Apr. 8; see our for details: http://www.fairfield.edu/cae/cae_conference.html
This year, we’re pleased to have keynoter Michele DiPietro, who will discuss How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching as well as lead morning yoga practice before breakfast. Michele is the executive director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw State University and associate professor of statistics. He is the incoming president-elect of the Professional & Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, and winner of the 2008 POD Innovation award. Michele’s interactive keynote will focus on intellectual development and metacognition, providing practical exercises and strategies to foster both.
Located amidst rolling hills and trees on the Long Island Sound, Fairfield University’s campus is one-hour by train from New York City, registration includes receptions, and we provide housing to the first 50 registrants. We hope you can join us on June 1-3, 2011. Feel free to share this announcement with others who might be interested. If you have questions about the conference, feel free to contact me.
All the best,
Kathy
Kathy Nantz
Acting Director, Center for Academic Excellence
Associate Professor of Economics
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06824
(203) 254-4000 x-2868
cae@fairfield.edu or Nantz@fairfield.edu
SPELMAN COLLEGE NEWS: FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA TO DELIVER COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS TO THE SPELMAN COLLEGE CLASS OF 2011
March 25, 2011
Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad to receive Honorary Degrees
Teach For America CEO Wendy Kopp to receive National Community Service Award
ATLANTA - A dedicated proponent of service and working with young people, first lady Michelle Obama is an example of how one woman can positively influence the world. On Sunday, May 15, at 3 p.m., at the Georgia International Convention Center, Mrs. Obama will inspire more than 500 graduates to also leave their mark on the world when she delivers the commencement address to the Spelman College class of 2011. Mrs. Obama will also receive an honorary degree.
Honorary degrees will also be bestowed upon director, actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, and her sister, actress and director Phylicia Rashad. Wendy Kopp, CEO and founder of Teach For America will receive the National Community Service Award.
"Having Mrs. Obama as our 2011 Commencement speaker is a true honor because she embodies the Spelman College mission which is to prepare women to change the world in a meaningful way," said Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D., president, Spelman College. "I know our students will be inspired by her powerful presence."
As first lady, Mrs. Obama uses her platform to support military families, help working women balance career and family, encourage national service, promote the arts and arts education, and foster healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country. In 2010, she launched the Let's Move! Campaign, a nationwide effort to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
Underscoring the important contributions made by all the honorees, Dr. Tatum said "Our honorees have made a significant impact on the world just as Spelman women do. They offer our graduates empowered examples of excellence in action with game-changing results. We could not be happier!"
Honorary Degree Recipient: Debbie Allen, director, choreographer and author
Debbie Allen continues to be one of the most respected, relevant, and versatile talents in the entertainment industry today. She is an internationally recognized director, choreographer and author. Allen has received three Emmy awards honoring her choreography, and two Emmys and one Golden Globe for her role as "Lydia Grant" in the hit series "Fame." Allen has choreographed for artists such as Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Janet Jackson, and also holds the distinction of having choreographed the Academy Awards a total of ten times, six in consecutive years. She has accumulated a long list of directing and producing credits for television, including "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "The Parkers," "That's So Raven," "All of Us," "Girlfriends," "Everybody Hates Chris," "Hellcats" and "Grey's Anatomy." She also produced the Steven Spielberg epic film "Amistad" in 1997.
Honorary Degree Recipient: Phylicia Rashad, actress, director
Phylicia Rashad is an actress, director and singer, best known for her role as Claire Huxtable on the NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show." She is the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her role in the revival of "A Raisin in the Sun." Rashad recently made her directorial debut at the helm of Seattle Rep's production of August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean." Her other Broadway credits include "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Dreamgirls," "The Wiz" and "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death." Rashad has received many awards, including an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her roles on "The Cosby Show" and the CBS sitcom "Cosby," on which she played Ruth Lucas. She has also been nominated for two Emmy Awards and has received two People's Choice Awards.
National Community Service Award Recipient: Wendy Kopp, CEO and founder, Teach For America
Wendy Kopp is CEO and founder of Teach For America, an organization established to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting the nation's most promising future leaders in the effort. Today more than 8,000 Teach For America corps members are in the midst of two-year teaching commitments in 39 regions across the country, reaching over 500,000 students. Last year, more than 20 percent of Spelman seniors sought Teach for America posts.
Kopp is the author of "A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All" (2011) and "One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way" (2000).
Baccalaureate Service:
Spelman will hold its Baccalaureate ceremony on Saturday, May 14, 2011 on the Spelman College Oval beginning at 9 a.m. This year's speaker will be Emilie M. Townes, Ph.D., Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African-American Religion and Theology at the Yale Divinity School.
###
Spelman College:
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a prestigious, highly selective, liberal arts college that prepares women to change the world. Located in Atlanta, Ga., this historically black college boasts an 83 percent graduation rate, and outstanding alumnae such as Children's Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman; former U.S. Foreign Service Director General Ruth Davis, authors Tina McElroy Ansa and Pearl Cleage; and actress LaTanya Richardson. More than 83 percent of the full-time faculty members have Ph.D.s or other terminal degrees, and the average faculty to student ratio is 12:1. More than 2,100 students attend Spelman. For more information, visit: www.spelman.edu.
Faculty Resource Network 2011 National Symposium Proposal Submission Deadline Approaching
The 2011 Faculty Resource Network National Symposium “Emerging Pedagogies for the New Millennium” will be held on Friday and Saturday, November 18-19, 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We invite breakout session and poster submissions in all areas related to the topic of this symposium. We particularly encourage submissions that illustrate how participation in an FRN-sponsored activity (e.g., a seminar during Network Summer or Network Winter, time spent as a Scholar-in Residence, etc.) has inspired a change in classroom practice, the utilization of new instructional technology, or the development of innovative assessments.
For additional information please see the link: http://www.nyu.edu/frn/programs.events/national.symposium/2011.national.symp.callproposals.html
Proposal submission deadline is Friday, April 8, 2011.
Friday, March 25, 2011
NIDRR-Grant-Writing-Workshop-April-26-29-2011
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9_KwJdDOiGrODI2MjA3ZWYtYjI4Zi00OTJjLTgzZjgtZDIyODk5NDk0MDcx&hl=en
The Rehabilitation Capacity Building Project Under-represented Populations (RCBP-UP) at Southern University, funded by Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education, invites faculty members of minority institutions of higher education to attend the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) focused Capacity Building and Grant Writing Workshop.
Minority institutions of higher education represent:
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian and Pacific Islander Institutions (APIs), American Indian Tribal Colleges, and other institutions of higher education with at least 50% minority enrollment.
Attached please find the informational flyer and registration form.
Please disseminate this information widely and nominate interested faculty.
Sincerely,
Dr. Madan Kundu
__________________________________________________________________________
Madan M. Kundu, Ph.D., FNRCA, CRC, NCC, LRC
Chair and Professor
Project Director:
Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment (VEWA)
Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD)
Rehabilitation Capacity Building Project (RCBP)
Rehabilitation Research Institute for Underrepresented Populations (RRIUP)
Minority-Disability Alliance in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) for Students with Disabilities
Chair, Work and Employment Commission, Rehabilitation International
Department of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies
Southern University
229 Blanks Hall
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70813, USA
Phone: 225-771-2325
225-771-2667
Fax: 225-771-2293
Email: kundusubr@aol.com
website: www.subr.edu/rehabilitation
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Learning Online Info: 5 Strategies for Staying on Top of Schoolwork While Traveling
This is a guest post by Ripley Daniels.
You’ve heard the catch phrases about it being a mobile, interconnected world. That’s true enough, but like many things, putting it into practice is another thing. By adapting the solutions business people use you can reduce the stress and keep up with your schoolwork during a trip.
Plan
This shouldn’t come as a surprise; after all, the same caveats apply as they do in school. Preparation is critical.
•Time – when will I have time to read/study/write? Travel time is excellent. Along with a few hours scheduled at stops, this time is usually squandered watching a movie or zoning out.
•Location – Since much of what you will be doing requires either Internet access or power for a mobile device, you need to know what will be available. Surprises can be eliminated by calling ahead of time or visiting websites. This is especially important if you will be traveling overseas – check wifi availability, carrier and consider electricity. You don’t want to be caught without the right adapter or assuming that tropical resort has power 24/7.
•Resources – What will I need to take and how much material will I have to cover? The rule here is to go beyond what you expect. There are two good reasons for this. The first is because you may inadvertently miss some resource that stops you from working on task X, and task Y will fill in. But there’s another element as well. We tend to back off without the pressure of work to be done staring us in the face. And why not be optimistic? It’s entirely possible that you will have more downtime to get things accomplished.
•Connections – For business people, connectivity is critical. It can also be expensive. Multiple countries might require multiple SIM cards or an expensive pay-as-you-go plan. For this reason, try to plan your connection time (e-mail, assignment submission, online backups) for discrete times when you know there will be a local wifi hookup – usually through your hotel or public hotspot.
Practice
Once you have an idea of your basic game plan, you can find out how realistic it is by putting it into play ahead of the trip. Once the trip starts, you’re stuck with whatever you brought with you. Practice will also show you the gaps in your resources. Do you depend on books as references or class notes? Can you manage without them? A little bit of pretending will show you your own problems and help you modify your plan.
Networking
Have all the phone numbers and contact information you need before you go. This means a contact with faculty (TA’s or profs) as well as classmates. If you haven’t made any social contacts with classmates, here’s your chance. Only by touching base will you be able to find out what’s actually happening on the ground in your absence. Face to face is the best way to go. Let everyone concerned know about your trip – how long you’ll be gone and what you’ve planned to meet your obligations. Most instructors are quite flexible about assignments. Some may agree to taking work by e-mail or suggesting alternates. The key thing is to talk to them before you go and stay in touch while you are away.
Your Device
A trip is not the time to buy something new – unless you are committed to using it for awhile before you go. The reason is simply familiarity. You don’t want to be stuck on a steep learning curve. You don’t have the time for this and it’s a recipe for frustration and stress. It is better to modify what you already use rather than buy something new. That said, you may find your home system just won’t do. In that case, it’s essential to upgrade or switch as soon as possible. You’ll have to make sure all your essential software works or become familiar with what’s available on the new device.
There are usually two problems with mobile devices, no matter what type. Either memory will be an issue, or battery life. USB chargers offer one solution for the latter, and thumb drives will help with the former. One trick is to use several thumb drives – one per subject. I keep mine in doubled plastic ziplock baggies (waterproof). This is a way to scan in gobs of information (like a chapter or two of a textbook) without hogging all the native memory on a device. With images of relevant course material scanned in, I can use my iPad as a reader and swap sticks depending on the subject. My personal favorites for traveling are the newer tablet PCs. These have excellent battery life and a good deal of on-board memory. They are also in the Giga-Hertz range for processing speed.
Essential Backups
Backups are crucial. This means having a thumb drive with install programs – a browser, a saved bookmarks file and contact information. I also recommend getting a free trial of an Internet backup service with the same things stashed there. Bandwidth might be a problem if you have to restore, but it will be worth it. Another backup will be having someone who can act as office personnel for you. This might mean printing off an assignment and running it over to your professor’s office, checking a posted grade sheet, or scanning and sending you some important info. Consider a little barter here – something you can get while away and gift when you return. The way to think about your backups is to think worst-case scenario. You are robbed or you fall into the water while rafting, along with your mobile device…what would it take to recover?
Ripley Daniels is an editor at Without The Stress, a passport, travel visa, and immigration advisory firm located in Los Angeles.
5 Strategies for Staying on Top of Schoolwork While Traveling is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.
Related posts:
1.American Memory: The Learning Page
2.Microsoft Teacher Guides: Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills
3.Ericsson Education Online
4.Big Think: YouTube for Ideas
5.Getting Results: A Course for Teachers
6.How Online Education Can Benefit from the Social Media Model
You’ve heard the catch phrases about it being a mobile, interconnected world. That’s true enough, but like many things, putting it into practice is another thing. By adapting the solutions business people use you can reduce the stress and keep up with your schoolwork during a trip.
Plan
This shouldn’t come as a surprise; after all, the same caveats apply as they do in school. Preparation is critical.
•Time – when will I have time to read/study/write? Travel time is excellent. Along with a few hours scheduled at stops, this time is usually squandered watching a movie or zoning out.
•Location – Since much of what you will be doing requires either Internet access or power for a mobile device, you need to know what will be available. Surprises can be eliminated by calling ahead of time or visiting websites. This is especially important if you will be traveling overseas – check wifi availability, carrier and consider electricity. You don’t want to be caught without the right adapter or assuming that tropical resort has power 24/7.
•Resources – What will I need to take and how much material will I have to cover? The rule here is to go beyond what you expect. There are two good reasons for this. The first is because you may inadvertently miss some resource that stops you from working on task X, and task Y will fill in. But there’s another element as well. We tend to back off without the pressure of work to be done staring us in the face. And why not be optimistic? It’s entirely possible that you will have more downtime to get things accomplished.
•Connections – For business people, connectivity is critical. It can also be expensive. Multiple countries might require multiple SIM cards or an expensive pay-as-you-go plan. For this reason, try to plan your connection time (e-mail, assignment submission, online backups) for discrete times when you know there will be a local wifi hookup – usually through your hotel or public hotspot.
Practice
Once you have an idea of your basic game plan, you can find out how realistic it is by putting it into play ahead of the trip. Once the trip starts, you’re stuck with whatever you brought with you. Practice will also show you the gaps in your resources. Do you depend on books as references or class notes? Can you manage without them? A little bit of pretending will show you your own problems and help you modify your plan.
Networking
Have all the phone numbers and contact information you need before you go. This means a contact with faculty (TA’s or profs) as well as classmates. If you haven’t made any social contacts with classmates, here’s your chance. Only by touching base will you be able to find out what’s actually happening on the ground in your absence. Face to face is the best way to go. Let everyone concerned know about your trip – how long you’ll be gone and what you’ve planned to meet your obligations. Most instructors are quite flexible about assignments. Some may agree to taking work by e-mail or suggesting alternates. The key thing is to talk to them before you go and stay in touch while you are away.
Your Device
A trip is not the time to buy something new – unless you are committed to using it for awhile before you go. The reason is simply familiarity. You don’t want to be stuck on a steep learning curve. You don’t have the time for this and it’s a recipe for frustration and stress. It is better to modify what you already use rather than buy something new. That said, you may find your home system just won’t do. In that case, it’s essential to upgrade or switch as soon as possible. You’ll have to make sure all your essential software works or become familiar with what’s available on the new device.
There are usually two problems with mobile devices, no matter what type. Either memory will be an issue, or battery life. USB chargers offer one solution for the latter, and thumb drives will help with the former. One trick is to use several thumb drives – one per subject. I keep mine in doubled plastic ziplock baggies (waterproof). This is a way to scan in gobs of information (like a chapter or two of a textbook) without hogging all the native memory on a device. With images of relevant course material scanned in, I can use my iPad as a reader and swap sticks depending on the subject. My personal favorites for traveling are the newer tablet PCs. These have excellent battery life and a good deal of on-board memory. They are also in the Giga-Hertz range for processing speed.
Essential Backups
Backups are crucial. This means having a thumb drive with install programs – a browser, a saved bookmarks file and contact information. I also recommend getting a free trial of an Internet backup service with the same things stashed there. Bandwidth might be a problem if you have to restore, but it will be worth it. Another backup will be having someone who can act as office personnel for you. This might mean printing off an assignment and running it over to your professor’s office, checking a posted grade sheet, or scanning and sending you some important info. Consider a little barter here – something you can get while away and gift when you return. The way to think about your backups is to think worst-case scenario. You are robbed or you fall into the water while rafting, along with your mobile device…what would it take to recover?
Ripley Daniels is an editor at Without The Stress, a passport, travel visa, and immigration advisory firm located in Los Angeles.
5 Strategies for Staying on Top of Schoolwork While Traveling is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.
Related posts:
1.American Memory: The Learning Page
2.Microsoft Teacher Guides: Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills
3.Ericsson Education Online
4.Big Think: YouTube for Ideas
5.Getting Results: A Course for Teachers
6.How Online Education Can Benefit from the Social Media Model
Faculty Focus: Make the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching: Online Courses: Step-by-Step
Eager to teach online, but dreading the “tech” part? Relax … this new program picks up where on-campus training leaves off and will help any faculty member make the transition, comfortably and confidently!
A three-part, self-paced online course • $299
There’s been a steady migration, if not an outright stampede, into the online classroom in recent years. Many of your colleagues are teaching there now.
What about you? Are you interested in bringing your passion for teaching into the online classroom, but are uncertain how to get there? Are you concerned about a long and painful learning curve? Or are you teaching online now but are finding the experience is less than what you expected?
If so, you’ll be pleased to discover there’s an online program developed especially for you. It’s called Online Courses: Step-by-Step, and it will help make your transition to online teaching easier and more fulfilling than you ever thought possible.
It’s focused, it’s fast, it’s practical, and it’s virtually painless.
To be successful in the online classroom, you don’t need to be a technology whiz … you don’t need to be a programmer … you don’t need a sophisticated understanding of the online world. You simply need to be a committed educator interested in engaging students in exciting new ways.
Organized into three convenient modules, Online Courses: Step-by-Step covers:
Module One: Online Pedagogy
Discover how teaching methods differ between the traditional and online classrooms. You’ll get an in-depth look at:
The history of the virtual classroom
Best practices for online teaching
Content delivery methods
Class interaction and discussion
ADA issues in online education
And more
Module Two: Design & Assessing
See how to work with your instructional design team to put your course online. You’ll learn about:
Reconceptualizing your course
Guidelines for development
Use of blogs, wikis and other social tools
Integrating video and other media
And more
Module Three: The Tools
Here you’ll learn about the tools you have at your disposal as an online educator, and how these tools can be applied to:
Class discussion
Assignments
Quizzes
Grading
Peer communication
Teacher-student communication
By program’s end, you’ll have the knowledge you need to get online, and the confidence that you’re doing it right.
Maximize your investment
The cost for this comprehensive program for one person is just $299, and the more people from your campus who sign up to take the course, the lower cost per person:
# of people Cost per person
1 $299
2-9 $269
10-20 $239
21-50 $209
Presenter: Dr. John Orlando
For this unique training program, Magna has partnered with a leading voice in online education — John Orlando, PhD., instructional resource manager of Norwich University’s School of Graduate Studies. Dr. Orlando is a 10-year online teaching veteran and a long-time faculty trainer. You’ll find his style friendly and engaging, and his grasp of the material impressive.
If you have any questions contact Customer Service at: 800-433-0499 or (608)246-3590 or email us at facultyfocussupport@magnapubs.com.
Faculty Focus: Improve Feedback with Audio and Video Commentary
By John Orlando, PhD
While online discussion is generally deeper and more active than face-to-face discussion, even online discussions can eventually become a drudgery. Nobody likes reading long blocks of text online, yet discussion in an online classroom is text based.
One way to break the monotony is through video discussion. The sound of a voice adds interest that is not possible in text discussion. Phil Ice (article referenced below) demonstrated the power of voice when he compared voice feedback on assignments to text feedback. He found a number of advantages to voice feedback:
•Improved Ability to Understand Nuance: Students indicated that they were better able to understand the instructor's intent. Students also indicated that instructor encouragement and emphasis were clearer.
•Increased Involvement: Students felt less isolated in the online environment and were more motivated to participate when hearing their instructor's voice.
•Increased Content Retention: Students reported that they retained audio feedback better than text feedback. Interestingly, they also reported that they retained the course content to which the feedback was related better than with text feedback. These self-reported findings were supported by the fact that students incorporated into their final projects three times as much audio feedback as text feedback.
•Increased Instructor Caring: Students interpreted the instructor as caring about them and their work more when they received audio feedback over text feedback. This difference was due to audio feedback coming across as more personal than text feedback.
Video takes this one step forward by providing a visual image along with the voice. A $100 webcam is all you need to start recording video and posting it to discussion.
One particularly good place to use video in the online classroom is during the instructor's wrap-up at the end of each week. I use weekly video posts to provide thoughts on what I believe to be the most important insights to come out of week's discussion. They are also an opportunity to give video shout-outs to students who made interesting points during the week.
Another option is to do video interviews with student on their thoughts concerning the discussion. These can be done with WeToKu, a free service that allows two people with webcams to record an online video on a split screen that shows both participants at once. Students especially like being about to see and hear another student online.
There is no need to worry about production values in creating these recordings. The lighting does not have to be perfect, and there is no need to edit out the "ums" and other comments. Just make sure to avoid the common mistake of looking at the keyboard rather than the camera. Talk to the camera like you would to a friend. Your language will naturally become more expressive than with text comments, and looking away briefly, rolling eyes, and other facial expressions go a long way toward adding interest. These are a lot of fun to make, and a benefit to all involved.
Reference:
Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. & Wells, J. (2007). Using Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students' Sense of Community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.
Resources:
WeToKu: http://wetoku.com/
Magna Online Seminar on CD: How to Evaluate the Impact of Faculty Development Programs
Seminar CD only $259
Seminar CD w/ Campus Access License $459
Faculty development programs are an important way of building the skills and capabilities of the professors on your campus.
When these programs are high quality, they deliver valuable training and can greatly enhance teaching and learning at your college or university.
When they are ineffective, however, they can be a big waste of time and money.
Few administrators or faculty developers understand how to accurately measure the effectiveness of faculty programming. That is because there is very little available guidance on optimal evaluation procedures. In fact, correcting this deficit was noted as a key priority at the recent 35th Annual Professional Organizational Development Network Conference.
In How to Evaluate the Impact of Faculty Development Programs, Dr. Sue Hines will fill this gap by showing you how to create a feasible plan for measuring the success of your faculty development efforts. She will also share best practices that can be used to judge your existing programs and help you plan for needed improvements.
In this 75-minute seminar, you will learn strategies for:
Customizing a framework for program evaluation
Measuring the impact of faculty development
Implementing effective evaluation practices
Examining expected outcomes
Designing useful evaluation measures based on best practices
Dealing with the challenges of measuring program effectiveness
Determining the application of program evaluation, assessment and review
Identifying situational factors impacting your evaluation plans
Developing a plan to assess satisfaction and goal-achievement
This seminar includes participant polling questions, demonstration of an evaluation framework, and a relevant case study.
Who will benefit from this seminar?
This audio online seminar is for everyone interested in improving faculty programming, including:
Faculty developers
Directors of Faculty Development
Directors of Teaching and Learning Centers
Academic Deans
Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs
Cost
The cost to purchase this 75-minute seminar is $259. Invite an unlimited number of viewers to watch the CD from a single location on your campus. To maximize the value of your investment and coordinate your faculty development plans, we suggest that you reserve a large meeting room or conference center in advance and include all of your faculty developers and related administrative personnel in this session.
Your presenter
Sue Hines, Ed.D. is the director of Faculty Development at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. She has over 26 years of teaching experience in higher education combined with several years of academic administration, consulting, and research. Her research area is faculty development program evaluation, including a 2007 statewide study and 2010 national study examining program evaluation practices at established teaching and learning centers at major U.S. universities.
The quality of your faculty development programming will impact the skills of your entire faculty. Learn how to implement effective assessments to optimize your faculty development efforts by registering for How to Evaluate the Impact of Faculty Development Programs today.
Now includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators
Participating in a Magna Online Seminar as a team can help leverage unique insights, foster collaboration, and build momentum for change. Each seminar now includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators which provides step-by-step instructions for generating productive discussions and thoughtful reflection. You’ll also get guidelines for continuing the conversation after the event, implementing the strategies discussed, and creating a feedback loop for sharing best practices and challenges.
Dillard University 2011 Annual Honors Convocation Decorum
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 3:00 p.m.
Lawless Assembly Hall
Because the annual Honors Convocation is hosted to acknowledge all currently enrolled full-time students of high academic achievement, this year, to improve the overall experience and to respond to various student requests to more personalize the experience, follow the decorum below. As high achievers, you must also demonstrate professionalism at every turn in every way. Move quickly and quietly; this should not prolong the ceremony much.
Line up in alphabetical order by classification.
Be attentive. Be quiet. Stand when your name is called.
When 12 student names are called, quietly exit to the right.
Quietly and quickly walk to line up facing the audience.
President Hughes, or Provost Taylor, or Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy will shake each hand and hand you a blue folder representing your certificate.
After you receive your award, quickly and quietly return to your seat; re-enter your seat from the center main aisle.
Some students will return again for certificates for scholarships, honors’ societies; continue as stated above.
Your parents or a friend will be allowed pictures from the opposite (left) side of the Chapel only; no one else should come forward.
Continue to check your Dillard email for details.
Be sure to urge family and friends in courtesy, quiet, and quickness with picture taking.
Office of the Director of the Daniel C. Thompson/Samuel DuBois Cook Honors Program 504-816-4138; 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70122
http://www.dillard.edu/
New Orleans Poet, Folklorist and Educator Mona Lisa Saloy's Prize Winning Poetry Volume "Red Beans and Ricely Yours"
NEW ORLEANS (WWNO) - Today - on "The Sound of Books" - with Fred Kasten - New Orleans poet, folklorist and educator Mona Lisa Saloy's multi-award-winning volume of poetry "Red Beans and Ricely Yours" - which is now available as an audio book...
To find out more about Mona Lisa Saloy's reading on Saturday, March 26, 2011 - at the Tennessee Williams Festival - please click here .
For more information about Mona Lisa Saloy - and "Red Beans and Ricely Yours" - please click here . © Copyright 2011, WWNO
Inside Higher Ed: Creating Academic 'Dream Teams'
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/
March 24, 2011
A fantasy football-style application has been launched that allows research managers to compare the performance of their own researchers with that of imaginary "dream teams" drawn from other institutions.
Elsevier’s SciVal Strata tool allows users to draw together information on individual researchers or teams of researchers based on data from the Scopus database of bibliometric information. Researchers can be compared according to a number of metrics, including their annual publication output, citation counts and h- and g-indexes, which combine assessments of output and citation impact.
One of the system’s developers, Lisa Colledge, product manager at Elsevier, said the tool would allow research managers to judge how their team’s performance might be improved if they recruited specific individuals from other institutions, as well as how an envisaged dream team for a new center of excellence might perform.
"You can drag and drop researchers into any group and see what would happen," she said, adding that the tool had been developed on the basis of feedback from researchers, students, research managers and administrators.
"The most urgent gap people identified was of being able to drill down into an organization or across organizations and look at the teams of researchers [involved]. The tool allows people to say: 'We have a strategy, now how do we implement it?,' or: 'We are only as good as the people we have so let’s take a closer look at them.' "
John Curtis, director of research and public policy at the American Association of University Professors, warned that measures of research productivity advantaged "projects that are marketable or lead to immediate published results, to the detriment of basic science and broader conceptual works that are the building blocks for the exploration of new ideas."
He said using research productivity as the basis for individual assessment risked undermining teaching and weakening researchers’ commitment to their institutions by "de-emphasizing the importance of participating in the development of institutions that contribute to the common good."
Colledge admitted that there was increasing demand from research managers for metrics because they were "crying out" for simple, transparent ways to do a "quick comparison" of people. But she said that the Strata tool was not intended to abolish the necessity for them to assess each researcher's output in the light of their particular circumstances. "Strata should not replace anything they are doing already. I hope it will be seen as a complementary tool that gives a different way of looking at things, that quickly throws up a few other points of interest that they would then look at in other ways, such as talking to somebody’s line manager," she said.
Further, Colledge admitted that citation and output data were not yet normalized, making comparisons of researchers from different disciplines problematic. But she pointed to a "citation benchmark" option that allowed researchers to be assessed against the citation average in a particular field defined by a specific range of journals.
She said the system also allowed researchers to be meaningfully compared with others of an equivalent level of seniority in a similar field. Colledge added that researchers themselves might also find the tool useful to illustrate their prowess when writing funding applications, as well as to defend themselves against unfair appraisals.
"Our impression from talking to researchers is that they are used to being assessed from above and not having easy comeback to challenge things they think are unfair," she said. "With Strata, if they thought something being said was not justified, they could take a look themselves and understand it – or come back with some other information."
— Paul Jump for Times Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed: Comparing Online Programs
March 24, 2011
Much of the debate about online higher education turns on comparing online courses to face-to-face ones. But with colleges of every type increasingly venturing into the fray of online teaching regardless, some have turned toward the practical question of comparing online programs with other online programs.
This, too, has been tricky. Kaye Shelton found this out when she was researching her 2005 book, An Administrator's Guide to Online Education, which she co-authored with George Saltsman, an educational technologist at Abilene Christian University.
“When I came to the chapter on quality, I just ended up chucking it,” says Shelton, now dean of online education at Dallas Baptist University. While attention to online programs as a recruitment battleground was growing, she says, the literature on how to compare quality was just too thin.
Now, with help from the nonprofit Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) and dozens of veteran online education administrators, Shelton has developed a “quality scorecard” that she hopes will serve as a standardized measure for comparing any type of fully online college program, regardless of discipline. “I’m hoping that it will become an industry standard,” Shelton says.
The scorecard has 70 metrics, developed over six months by a panel of 43 long-serving online administrators representing colleges of various classifications, including several for-profit institutions. It builds on the Institute for Higher Education’s “Benchmarks for Success in Internet-Based Distance Education,” which was published in 2000 and outlines 24 metrics. Shelton and her panel used that set of benchmarks, which it thought still valid a decade later, as a “starting point,” adding on 45 additional metrics and dividing and combining some of the original 24 to round out the 70 quality indicators.
Francis X. Mulgrew, president of the for-profit Post University, which offers both face-to-face and online programs, said the Sloan-C metrics could prove influential among accrediting bodies, whose expertise in assessing Web-based education is limited compared to that of Sloan-C. "These are metrics that can be adopted by accrediting bodies that are maybe struggling with how they might evaluate online programs at both traditional and nontraditional universities,” Mulgrew said.
All of the scorecard's 70 metrics are weighted equally, each accounting for three possible points (for a total of 210 points). But certain categories contain more metrics, and therefore account for more points, than others. The categories, in descending order of aggregate weight, are support for students (24.3 percent), course development and instructional design (17.1 percent), evaluation and assessment (15.7), course structure (11.4 percent), support for faculty (8.6), technology support (8.6 percent), teaching and learning (7.1 percent), general institutional support (5.7 percent), and social and student engagement (1.4 percent).
Sloan-C, an influential group that convenes annual conferences and publishes research on online education, has thrown its full weight behind Shelton’s new scorecard, which it describes on its website as “versatile enough to be used to demonstrate the overall quality of online education programs, no matter what size or type of institution.”
Perhaps as a result, the specific metrics within the larger categories are mostly broad and nonprescriptive. For example, under the "support for students" heading, one metric asks if "efforts are made to engage students with the program and institution." In the "course structure" category, it inquires if "instructional materials are easily accessible and usable for the student."
The tool was conceived as a private self-study tool for institutions rather than any sort of U.S. News & World Report-like measuring stick for consumers, although it is too early to tell how the scorecard might evolve, says John Bourne, Sloan-C’s executive director. Janet Moore, chief knowledge officer for Sloan-C, said the scorecard might also prove “invaluable for institutional reporting.” Mulgrew, the Post University president, said institutions being assessed by accreditors might bring their scorecards to the table as evidence that they are going above and beyond the basic accreditation requirements in order to increase their odds of a favorable review.
Bourne says the consortium is planning to evangelize the scorecard to all its 150-plus member institutions (and other curious institutions) as a tool for improving their online programs, and possibly as the centerpiece of an online forum where administrators can swap notes. The consortium plans to open an “interactive” version of the scorecard on its website on April 23.
For the latest technology news and opinion from Inside Higher Ed, follow @IHEtech on Twitter.
— Steve Kolowich
Council on Undergraduate Research: Initiating and Sustaining Undergraduate Research Programs
May 25-27, 2011 University of Portland, Portland, OR
The purpose of the institute is to provide directors of undergraduate research programs the means to develop and effectively run their programs. Recognizing the different models of offices of undergraduate research offices, we encourage applications from those that run programs on full and/or part-time basis as well as from committees that might have this responsibility on their campus. Models will be from all types of institutions; PUI, regional comprehensive to Research I institutions.
Application Deadline: April 1, 2011
Apply Now!
http://cur.networkats.com/members_online/submissions/substart.asp?action=welcome&cid=72
More information
http://www.cur.org/institutes/isurp.html
Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Federal Shutdown Averted, But Some Education Cuts Take Effect by Charles Dervarics
March 4, 2011
While a newly approved bill will stop a federal government shutdown for at least two weeks, the legislation comes at a price – terminating a long-standing $64 million student financial aid program.
The bill terminates Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships (LEAP), an incentive fund that encourages states to offer their own need-based student financial assistance. The LEAP initiative “generated about $1 billion in state student aid with that incentive investment,” said Rich Williams, a higher education advocate at US PIRG.
Past and current presidents – including President Obama – have proposed eliminating the program as a budget savings, noting that, after many years, LEAP has institutionalized state aid programs and served its purpose. But Congress always saw fit to continue the program, until now.
In recent days, higher education advocates had urged Congress to continue its long-standing commitment to the program.
“At a time when the federal government is seeking to do more with less, eliminating the LEAP Program is particularly shortsighted,” said a letter signed by Mary Corbett Broad and David Warren, co-presidents of the Student Aid Alliance. Broad is president of the American Council on Education and Warren is president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
The $1 billion in state student aid generated through LEAP provides about $1,700 per needy student, or “the difference between earning a degree and dropping out of college for the over 80 percent of LEAP families earning less than $40,000 a year,” they wrote.
“If our economy is to recover and thrive again, we will need precisely the kind of skilled workers the LEAP Program has produced.”
Given that Congress was the entity to save the program in the past, LEAP is an unlikely candidate for revival after lawmakers voted for termination, advocates said.
Overall, the new two-week budget bill terminates more than a dozen federal education programs. In addition to LEAP, another program eliminated is the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program. Funded at $3 million a year, the program provides “low-income, minority, or disadvantaged secondary school students and college students with the information, preparation and financial assistance needed to gain access to and to complete law school study,” according to the U.S. Education Department’s website for the program.
Funds can support pre-college programs, undergraduate pre-law programs, information and counseling, tutoring services; a six-week summer law institute; mid-year seminars and other educational activities.
Other program eliminations include $24 million for Reading is Fundamental, $18 million for Teach for America and $40 million for arts in education programs. Some federal literacy programs also would see their funds reduced.
Williams said small programs are ideal targets for budget cutters since they can tout progress in reducing spending at a relatively low cost. Lawmakers can “show how many programs they’ve cut,” even if the programs do not total a large sum of federal dollars.
Budget cuts remain on the minds of many education advocates both in Washington, D.C., and states. On Thursday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan met with reporters to discuss guidance he has offered states on how to use federal education funding flexibly during the recession.
“Governments at every level face a critical need to cut spending where we can in order to invest where we must,” Duncan said. Calling the current environment “the new normal,” he urged states not to lay off effective teachers and to explore innovative approaches such as transferring money between programs where possible and combining funds in small rural districts.
“There’s a right way and a wrong way to cut spending,” he noted, adding that the overarching goal is to “minimize negative impact on students.”
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Learning Online Info: Balancing Work and Going to School Online
March 4, 2011 in Distance Learning,e-Learning,Online Courses
Campus Technology Free Webinar: Faculty Voice in Online Education: Enhancing Relationships Between Faculty and Students for Learning Success
In an online learning environment, what you say is not as important as how you say it. When your “online voice” positively affects the relationship between faculty and learners, student retention in online education is greatly enhanced.
Join us on March 31st for a free webinar that will help you identify your online persona and ways to improve it. You’ll learn how to apply an active listening model that strengthens relationships between all members of the online learning community and improves the learning experience, overall.
Talking points include:
Is your language positive or punitive?
What color and font size should you use to communicate?
How does your persona come through in teaching?
Presented by: Dr. Ronnie Kramer, president, Communication Dynamics, Inc.
Moderated by: Matt Villano, senior contributing editor, Campus Technology
Campus Technology: Video Tutorials To Support Instruction
Screencasting software has allowed Full Sail University to develop and revise online video tutorials for its distance learning and traditional students.
By Bridget McCrea03/23/11
When Full Sail University of Winter Park, FL, launched its distance education program in 2007, the institution started looking for a quick and easy way to capture video and audio and then edit those components and prep them for online streaming. Already using lecture capture to handle audio files, the school turned to its existing vendor to explore other tools.
On the faculty's wish list was a program that would allow them to receive real-time feedback on media pieces in the online environment and also let students create machinimas (for the generation of computer animation) in Second Life for digital storytelling assignments. The tool had to allow students to create screen captures, edit them, and render them without the need for a standalone video editing system.
"We were already using ScreenFlow for other activities, so when we went online we implemented the company's screencasting software program," said Eric Rosenfeld, program director, Digital Arts & Design and Graphic Design. "We liked it because our material changes frequently, and we didn't want to have to dump it into Final Cut or another editor and then recompress it and re-export it."
Rosenfeld said the screencasting program blends well with the fast-paced media and entertainment instruction that Full Sail specializes in. It's particularly effective for bridging the gap between students who take distance education courses. "We're able to deliver instruction to a lot of students who can't rearrange their schedules to come on campus," said Rosenfeld, "but who still need the information."
Creating Video Tutorials
Using the screencasting software, faculty members can create video tutorials, gather feedback from students, and create instructional videos for both online and campus classes. Rosenfeld said he uses the technology to make his Adobe Photoshop classes "more personal and a lot more interesting." A hour-long, on-campus demonstration, for example, can be boiled down to a five-minute video training session.
"We'll create a longer example with the screencasting program and then embed shorter videos into an interactive PDF," said Rosenfeld, "so that the students can see the videos as well as the text and image support. That allows us to give a lot more information about the videos all in a single, contained capsule."
Rosenfeld can also do quick screen captures and then encapsulate the graphics into a PDF and make it available to students. That helps him achieve one of his primary goals as an educator: observe areas where students are having problems and react quickly to address the issues.
"We can update the information promptly," he explained, "by, say, adding video to a PDF when students get stuck on a specific topic area."
As part of Full Sail's computer graphics and design course, for example, students are expected to complete vector self-portraits of themselves. Using two- or three-color computer-generated graphics, those students rely on a series of outside resources to complete their self-portraits. When the lesson isn't resonating with its pupils, Rosenfeld can "make a connection" using the video tutorials that are generated through the screencasting software.
Connecting with Students
The software also helps create connections with distance education students whom instructors don't have the opportunity to meet and interact with on a daily basis. "Students who have never been on campus before recognize us from our video tutorials," Rosenfeld said. "The technology helps us make connections that e-mail and online chat can't facilitate."
Since taking his department's curriculum online, Rosenfeld said he's been challenged by the need to keep the content fresh, relevant and accurate. "There's a constant need for revision because online instruction is an ever-changing target," he said. "However, when you use online video, you can fall into the habit of reusing a clip over and over again, or just putting Band-Aids on it instead of redoing it."
Rosenfeld said the screencasting software helps him tackle that challenge, although taking the impetus to remove old content and replace it is a daily job. "Technology only goes so far," said Rosenfeld. "As a faculty member, you have to be willing to pull it down off of the Web, and reshoot or recapture it, in order to keep everything updated."
With Full Sail's screencasting software fully implemented and in use across campus, Rosenfeld is now looking to expand the university's use of a Web-based design collaboration tool that's engineered around the needs of creative professionals. Known as ConceptShare, the service allows design instructors to share their print, Web, and video projects, make changes to those projects, and participate in online, group critique sessions.
"We've been using ConceptShare for a while with our online graphics program," said Rosenfeld, "and now we're looking to expand it across other degree programs, and across the rest of the campus."
Monday, March 21, 2011
Magna Online Seminar: Helping Faculty Help Students Who Need Mental Health Care
Event Date: 5/11/2011
Time: 1:00 pm Central
Length: 90 minutes
Three ways to order:
1. Online
2. Mail/Fax in form
3. Phone:800-433-0499 ext. 2
At colleges and universities across the country, faculty and staff are seeing more and more student cases of mental illness. And naturally, they’re referring these students to traditional counseling services.
The problem: Many of these students simply won’t go.
Students are reluctant to seek traditional counseling because of cultural barriers or stigma. As a result, faculty and staff are often unsure how to respond and feel they have neither the resources nor the skills to address these mental health problems.
In the audio online seminar Helping Faculty Help Students Who Need Mental Health Care, you’ll discover two unique programs at Cornell University designed to address these issues. The presentation will include a review of these two proven approaches:
The Let’s Talk program, developed for students who will not seek traditional counseling services. The program offers informal, pre-counseling conversations with mental health professionals in locations outside counseling centers.
Community Consultation and Intervention (CCI), which provides intensive consultation to faculty and staff, “student support” meetings to students in need of counseling, and crisis intervention coordination.
By understanding the merits and structure of these two programs, you’ll be able to better support your faculty. You’ll discover:
How to create alternatives for students in distress who won’t go to traditional counseling.
Why a “one-size-fits-all” approach to just sending people to counseling centers has its limitations.
What you can do to develop programs similar to Cornell’s on your campus.
Whether you choose to follow Cornell’s lead or not, by the end of the audio online seminar you’ll be aware of the challenges of today’s mental health issues on campus. You’ll also see the benefits of thinking outside the box for unique solutions to these complicated issues.
Who Should Attend
Consider inviting faculty or staff members or academic advisors. You may also want to include student affairs professionals, counseling center directors, and staff.
One Fee Covers Unlimited Attendees
Mental health issues can affect your entire faculty and staff. We want you to invite as many of them to the seminar as possible, so our fee is priced per connection. Feel free to fill up an entire classroom or auditorium–you’re only limited by your own space.
About the Presenters
Gregory Eells currently serves as the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services and the Associate Director of Gannett Health Services at Cornell University. Dr. Eells regularly publishes articles in scholarly journals, presents frequently and has discussed college mental health issues on CNN, ABC News, and National Public Radio. His areas of interest include leadership, staff morale, mental health delivery systems, self-injury in higher education, and providing care to challenging students. Dr. Eells has worked in higher education mental health for 17 years and has served as a director of a university counseling service for the past 13 years.
Matt Boone is a clinical social worker and therapist at the Counseling and Psychological Services at Cornell University. He is the coordinator and primary developer of Let's Talk, an innovative outreach program designed to reach students who are reluctant to access traditional counseling services. Let's Talk offers informal, pre-counseling conversations with professional counselors in locations outside of the counseling center such as advising offices and community centers. He has written and presented on a variety of subjects, including Let's Talk, eating disorders, counseling center outreach, attitudes toward professional help-seeking, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Now includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators
Participating in a Magna Online Seminar as a team can help leverage unique insights, foster collaboration, and build momentum for change. Each seminar now includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators which provides step-by-step instructions for generating productive discussions and thoughtful reflection. You’ll also get guidelines for continuing the conversation after the event, implementing the strategies discussed, and creating a feedback loop for sharing best practices and challenges.
Dillard University 2011 Annual Honors Convocation
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 3:00 p.m.
Lawless Assembly Hall
Congratulations on your Academic Achievement!
The annual Honors Convocation is hosted to acknowledge all currently enrolled full-time students who earned a 3.2 and above term GPA during the spring and fall 2010 semesters. Recent graduates are included in this list. Invite your family and friends. As a participating student, urge your guests to arrive early for the limited seating.
In preparation for this mandatory University event, the following is required:
Wear all black, business attire; a white top is permitted.
NO prints allowed.
Arrive in the first-floor lobby of Kearny by 2:15 p.m.
Line up by 2:30 p.m. (ushers will offer directions): Seniors first, followed by Juniors, then Sophomores, then Fresh persons.
Begin processional from Kearny to the Lawless Assembly Hall by 2:45 p.m. (Ushers will offer directions).
Continue to check your Dillard email for details.
Return to the lower level of Kearny, after Convocation ends, to complete a survey. Obtain your official honors certificate(s) Monday from your Department or directly from your Honor Society.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Learning Online Info: How Discussion Boards Are Used in the Online Learning Environment
March 16, 2011 in Distance Learning,Guest,Online Courses
This guest contribution was submitted by Mariana Ashley. Mariana is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.
Some students are leery of going to college online because they feel they will miss out on the social interaction that comes with a traditional classroom environment. This is partially true. After all, you won’t be able to raise your hand and have your question answered immediately by your professor in an online learning environment, nor will you be able to turn to a classmate and ask what they thought about a lecture. However, that doesn’t mean you miss out on social interaction completely when you choose to go to school online. Here we’ll discuss how discussion boards are used in the online learning environment to facilitate conversation between students and faculty.
When you log in to your online classes, you will generally have access to an array of information, including your class syllabus, links to lectures, and information on assigned reading, projects and required homework. Another thing many online professors are making available to students are discussion boards. Different teachers will use discussion boards in different ways, but often they will pose a question to their students and ask for feedback from their class. Students can respond to the professor’s question individually with a post and then respond to what their fellow students post as well. What often happens is the discussion board thread continues on and on until the professor poses another question, prompting an entirely different discussion.
Many online professors actually require students to participate in online discussion board conversations as a means of gauging their class participation. If a student decides he or she would rather not contribute, his or her grade may suffer. This is especially true in courses such as philosophy and psychology, where professors aim to build students’ critical thinking skills by getting their class talking and debating about the material.
Not all professors have this standard, however. Whether you professor requires your participation or not, it’s a good idea to share your thoughts on what you’re learning as a way of letting other people get to know you and to learn more about other students in the class. In fact, friendships can even be developed in these discussion boards when students carry on their conversations off of the discussion boards and on to live chat.
Online discussion boards are great for timid students who might feel awkward if a professor put them on the spot in a traditional classroom. With discussion boards, students can think about the question they are asked and take their time to craft an answer. This often prompts more students to participate than maybe would in a traditional environment, where usually only the loudest and boldest are heard.
Discussion boards are yet another way online colleges help students feel more connected with each other and with their instructors and professors, especially considering they may never actually meet in person. When used with live chat, video conferencing, and email, you can learn online and not miss out on the rich social interaction that makes traditional college so inviting.
How Discussion Boards Are Used in the Online Learning Environment is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.
This guest contribution was submitted by Mariana Ashley. Mariana is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.
Some students are leery of going to college online because they feel they will miss out on the social interaction that comes with a traditional classroom environment. This is partially true. After all, you won’t be able to raise your hand and have your question answered immediately by your professor in an online learning environment, nor will you be able to turn to a classmate and ask what they thought about a lecture. However, that doesn’t mean you miss out on social interaction completely when you choose to go to school online. Here we’ll discuss how discussion boards are used in the online learning environment to facilitate conversation between students and faculty.
When you log in to your online classes, you will generally have access to an array of information, including your class syllabus, links to lectures, and information on assigned reading, projects and required homework. Another thing many online professors are making available to students are discussion boards. Different teachers will use discussion boards in different ways, but often they will pose a question to their students and ask for feedback from their class. Students can respond to the professor’s question individually with a post and then respond to what their fellow students post as well. What often happens is the discussion board thread continues on and on until the professor poses another question, prompting an entirely different discussion.
Many online professors actually require students to participate in online discussion board conversations as a means of gauging their class participation. If a student decides he or she would rather not contribute, his or her grade may suffer. This is especially true in courses such as philosophy and psychology, where professors aim to build students’ critical thinking skills by getting their class talking and debating about the material.
Not all professors have this standard, however. Whether you professor requires your participation or not, it’s a good idea to share your thoughts on what you’re learning as a way of letting other people get to know you and to learn more about other students in the class. In fact, friendships can even be developed in these discussion boards when students carry on their conversations off of the discussion boards and on to live chat.
Online discussion boards are great for timid students who might feel awkward if a professor put them on the spot in a traditional classroom. With discussion boards, students can think about the question they are asked and take their time to craft an answer. This often prompts more students to participate than maybe would in a traditional environment, where usually only the loudest and boldest are heard.
Discussion boards are yet another way online colleges help students feel more connected with each other and with their instructors and professors, especially considering they may never actually meet in person. When used with live chat, video conferencing, and email, you can learn online and not miss out on the rich social interaction that makes traditional college so inviting.
How Discussion Boards Are Used in the Online Learning Environment is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the emerging learning technologies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)