I
went to Arizona earlier this month to see what the college of the future might
look like. What I found taking shape is an exciting new era of higher education
that will help more students get a great, personalized education at
an affordable price.
This
future may not always include the lecture halls,
dormitories, football teams and other features of the traditional
college experience. Instead, the colleges I visited are experimenting with ways
for students to get their degrees online, allowing them to take courses
anyplace and at any time.
These
“colleges without walls,” as they are sometimes called, are at the
forefront of the effort to broaden access to higher education, especially for
low-income students juggling their studies with full-time jobs and
families. During my visit, I heard inspiring stories of students who are taking
advantage of these flexible learning models to pursue degrees that can put them
on paths to new careers.
One
of those students is Shawn Lee, a student at Rio Salado College in Tempe. He
has a compelling story: After dropping out of college decades ago, he found
himself in a series of low-paying, often back-breaking jobs. He recently
decided to get his degree—and I’ve found this is a pretty common refrain at
community colleges—when he had his first child and wanted to start building a
better life.
Tucked away in an industrial
park in Tempe, Rio Salado doesn’t look much like a traditional institute of
higher education. There were no students running to class. No ivy-covered
walls. Just a couple of glass-faced office buildings.As we walked inside for a
tour, there was an even bigger surprise.The college has just 22 full-time
faculty serving 60,000 students, with more than half of them attending their
classes online. (The full-time faculty depend on 1,400 part-time teachers who
manage individual class sections, review/grade assignments, and consult with
students.) Students can start any of the school’s 1,000 courses almost any
Monday of the year. Classes cost $84 per credit hour, far less than what other
colleges charge.I also visited the University of Phoenix, a for-profit
institution with more than 300,000 students, where teachers and staff are
working to make online learning even more flexible. One of the most popular
innovations is a mobile app that gives students the freedom to study virtually
anywhere. With the app they can keep track of their grades and assignments,
participate in class discussions, and receive alerts from their teachers about
their courses.If your idea of college is a professor lecturing in front of a
classroom full of students, some of these innovations may be surprising, even a
little unsettling. But this kind of out-of-the-box thinking is needed to
address the challenge facing higher education. College tuition is rising faster
than any other cost in the U.S.—pricing many students out of a degree. More
than 40 percent of college students drop out, depriving them of the chance to
earn more money and leaving the U.S. without the highly-trained workers we need
for economic growth. The fact is, we face a real dilemma. We need to educate
people in a better way without increasing cost.Most mornings I listen to online
courses while walking on my treadmill. In my experience, what separates the
great courses from the mediocre ones is the quality of the professors, whose
passion and expertise bring their subjects to life, as much online as
in-person. That’s why it’s critical that during this time of transition
we keep our focus on the instructors. They are the ones who inspire and guide
students. The best online learning technologies expand the reach of the most
inspiring professors by allowing more students to be part of their classes.The
risk of this mass approach to education, of course, is that students might get
lost in such an impersonal setting. That’s why Rio Salado and other
institutions are researching new approaches to student advising. Using
the growing body of data available about online students’ learning habits—for
example, are they completing assignments and logging onto their courses
regularly?—the institution can intervene to help students at risk of falling
behind or dropping out. “Students don’t get lost because no one can just sit in
the back corner. Everyone is in the front row,” a Rio Salado faculty member
told me.Several students I met during my visit said they liked learning online
better than in a classroom. “I’ve taken college classes in a big auditorium
with herds of people. There was no personal connection,” one University of
Phoenix student said. “Now I can reach my teacher with the click of a
mouse.”Other students said they liked the fact that they can learn at their own
pace and fit school into their busy schedules. What still needed improvement,
however, was a connection with other students. They said they struggled to
complete team assignments online because it was too difficult to coordinate
schedules. Lab work for science classes and other hands-on learning can also be
problematic, although Rio Salado is addressing this issue by giving chemistry
students a lab kit to use at home. Marine biology students get a frozen squid
to dissect.The biggest challenge facing all higher education institutions is
how to ensure more students stay in college or university and complete their
degrees. They are looking everywhere for solutions. Arizona State University,
for instance, discovered that the college catalogue overwhelmed students with
too many class choices and gave them too little guidance. So the university
redesigned the entire experience. The new, personalized online catalogue
features “major maps,” which outline a major’s key requirements, optimal course
sequence, and career options to help keep students on the path to
graduation. I left Arizona feeling quite optimistic about what the future
holds for higher education. It also reminded me how much work still needs to be
done. What’s most exciting is that the institutions I visited are not standing
still. They are taking risks and using their creative and intellectual powers
to reinvent themselves for the future. In doing so, they will give many more
students the opportunity to do the same with their own lives.
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