Bad day for 2U highlights vulnerability of online program management companies. An hour before Chip Paucek, CEO and co-founder of 2U, held an investor call late Tuesday afternoon, the online program management company's stock was valued at $36.50. Over the next 24 hours, as investors responded to the news he delivered, its stock plunged to $12.80 -- a decrease of almost 65 percent. In that investor call, Paucek delivered a set of messages that wouldn't have surprised many who watch the online education space closely. Online program management is a difficult business to be in. Online education is increasingly competitive, student acquisition and marketing costs are going up, and the regulatory landscape is becoming more complex.
Story continued below… The core business for 2U -- helping selective institutions such as the University of Southern California launch large online graduate programs -- isn’t growing as hoped. To adapt, the company is planning to significantly slow down the number of new graduate programs it launches, said Paucek.
Retention. For Profits and Not For-Profit. How to Make Digital Learning Work in Seven Easy Steps - uncompromisingEDU. The Boston Consulting Group and Arizona State University Foundation recently released a case-study investigation into the ROI (return on investment) of online learning. They approached ROI in three ways: impact on student access, impact on learning and completion outcomes, and impact on economics. The group investigated the online learning practices at Arizona State, University of Central Florida, Georgia State, Houston Community College, Kentucky Community and Technical College System, and Rio Salado Community College, and detailed its selection methodology in the report.
In general, each of these institutions have size (greater than 20,000 undergraduates), scale (at least 20% of students studying online), serve financially diverse populations (20% or more of students are Pell Grant eligible), and meet the study’s minimum graduation rate standard. Use Vendors Strategically: The institutions did not have to “go it alone” and develop everything on their own. Private colleges go west for students, don't find them yet. Six Millennial Suggestions on Surviving Higher Ed Tax Policy - Welcome to Encoura. While it may feel like the distant past, let’s take a moment to reflect on where we were just a few short weeks ago as 2017 came to a close.
At that time, the near constant media coverage of higher ed tax reform negotiations was like a 24-hour storm team covering an unpredictable hurricane as the event of the century. The interest deduction for student loans will be disallowed! Graduate tuition waivers will be considered taxable income! The sky is falling! Oh, wait. In the end, the final tax reform bill put these controversial changes aside. Looming on the horizon is the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act, from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Taking the Pulse of Current and Prospective Students Remarkably, we received the highest response rate for a student survey in recent memory; a clear sign of interest in this topic. Most lay somewhere between these two extremes. 1. “Don’t make it *less* affordable! 2. 3. 4. Finding the ROI of Online Programs -- Campus Technology. Online Learning Page 2 of 2 Finding the ROI of Online Programs Because the Action Lab was working with the Gates Foundation, which has "really good relationships with schools through past research work they've done," Pugliese said, the team was able to take a subset of those schools and target them for "immediate access.
" "Getting things up and running to do this research is hard," acknowledged Pugliese. By poking through the Gates portfolio, the researchers could fast-track that part of the work and identify those candidates "that fit a particular category: Did they bend the cost curve in lowering cost? Do parts of their portfolio have mixed institutions in terms of types — four-year, community college, private, for profit, etc.? " The researchers felt it was important to get a cross-section of institutions that could also cover a number of criteria "We went through a lot of universities that were very willing and anxious and wanted to [participate in the study]," noted Pugliese.
Advice for faculty members about overcoming resistance to teaching online (essay) At nearly all colleges and universities, online education is almost never mentioned in academic rules that judge faculty members and determine if they advance. If you teach online, you may do it for extra compensation -- called “overload,” pay above your basic salary -- or for the personal satisfaction of participating in what some believe is the next stage in the evolution of higher education. But teaching online may not be a wise move to further your academic career. Teaching online can even be a dangerous career move, departing from the comfortable respectability of conventional classrooms for the exotic, suspicious digital world.
In the hierarchy of status, if you teach online, do you compromise your position? In fact, academic departments at some colleges and universities even strongly discourage young faculty from teaching online. For the most part, that’s because many faculty members still don’t have a very high opinion of online education. Disruption False Dichotomy. Who Will Guard the Guardians? Accountability in the New Age of Higher Ed Accreditation. By Howard Lurie, Principal Analyst@EVhowardlurie While we’ve seen dashboards measuring everything from student completion rates to library circulation patterns, we’ve yet to come across a tool designed to monitor the organizations empowered to watch over the entire higher education system: institutional accreditors. That has changed. The Department of Education’s (ED) National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) is piloting a set of dashboards designed to make sense of higher education accreditation.
Released in June, NACIQI’s pilot is part of ED’s broader attempt to cast a spotlight on both accreditors and the schools within their accreditation portfolios. While it’s too early to gauge the long-term impact of these dashboards, it is now easier to watch the proverbial watchdogs, and evaluate how well accreditors monitor and improve underperforming schools. The Regulatory Context NACIQI’s accreditor dashboard pilot is both timely and relevant. Register Today. Gates Foundation Pushes More Data Tracking in Higher Ed, Linking Outcomes to Funding -- Campus Technology. Policy & Funding Gates Foundation Pushes More Data Tracking in Higher Ed, Linking Outcomes to Funding The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is once again calling for change in higher education.
Among other things, the politically influential Gates Foundation is now pushing for reforms that are reminiscent in some ways of the K-12 reforms the organization has forwarded in recent years, including all-encompassing tracking of student outcome data and connecting such data to institutional funding. Data Collection, Funding, Financial Aid According to the foundation's latest report on its priorities for post-secondary education, one of its major priorities in the coming years will be to "[s]upport the development of a comprehensive national data infrastructure that enables the secure and consistent collection and reporting of key performance metrics for all students in all institutions.
Data collection and sharing is, of course, already widespread in higher education. Microsoft LinkedIn and the Looming Shake-Up of Career Services. By Jeffrey Alderson, Principal Analyst@eduventuresjeff Microsoft’s announcement of its intent to purchase LinkedIn for $26.2 billion has inspired countless media outlets and education analysts to speculate about what this will mean for education. It has even caused some commentators to predict that the deal will bring about some sort of data apocalypse. With such a high price tag, Microsoft clearly sees value in LinkedIn’s 80 million users, but they aren’t the only ones. One behind-the-scenes story of the LinkedIn acquisition is that Salesforce was involved in a bidding war with Microsoft, pushing the final price up 22 percent.
We believe that the real value of this deal will be based less on Microsoft’s ability to monetize the profiles of existing LinkedIn users, and more on its success in using this asset to develop entirely new solutions for neglected problem areas in education. The True Value of LinkedIn’s Relationship Data A Languishing Career Services Market, Ripe for the Taking. Eduventures Student Success Ratings are Here! By Kim Reid, Principal Analyst In June, legions of graduates feel the momentary joy of accomplishment just before the reality of becoming a responsible adult sets in. It’s also when Eduventures pays tribute to the institutions that best help their students navigate to graduation through our annual retention ratings.
This year, we’ve also learned and grown and have graduated to a more comprehensive rating system that accounts for both retention and completion. It’s certainly not a complete definition, but these two metrics are some of the first indicators of student success. Before we get to the ratings, let’s understand the landscape for student success in the last ten years. As a whole, public institutions have improved both retention and graduation rates more than private institutions. While public institution improvement has been modest (2.6% retention, 4.5% graduation), private institution improvement has been negligible (0.3% retention, 1.2% graduation). No More Business as Usual: Evidence that For-Profit Schools are Gearing up for Change. By Howard Lurie, Principal Analyst For some for-profit institutions, 2016 has gotten off to a rocky start. Twelve states have called for a ban on the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the largest accreditor of for-profit universities.
Earlier, headlines maligned Trump University and the infamous University of Northern New Jersey. Depsite this noise, more significant trends are shaping the future of for-profits. Compared to their non-profit and public counterparts, for-profit schools remain highly susceptible to cycles of growth, contraction, and competition. Appeals Court Upholds Gainful Employment On March 8, 2016, a panel of three judges, led by Supreme Court nominee Justice Merrick Garland, ruled on Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) v. These revisions tied access to Title IV funds. A program would be assigned a failing grade if it failed for two out of three consecutive years or had been under review for four consecutive years. Survey: Not Enough Training, Instructional Support for Online Adjunct Faculty -- Campus Technology. Research Survey: Not Enough Training, Instructional Support for Online Adjunct Faculty By Dian Schaffhauser11/16/15 Colleges and universities are increasingly relying on adjuncts and part-time faculty members to teach their online courses.
A quarter of schools have increased the use of online adjunct instructors by five percent or more; 31 percent have increased their use by up to five percent. Yet often, these instructors don't receive training on how to teach online; the schools lack formal policies for faculty expectations; and faculty are expected to create their own online courses with or without institutional help. The researchers defined online education using the same definition followed by the Babson College Survey Research Group and the Online Learning Consortium: 80 percent or more of the course is taught online. The survey found that 35 percent of responding colleges use adjunct teachers for business courses; the count is 50 percent at private institutions. Florida Universities Take System Approach in Addressing Growth of Online -- Campus Technology. Distance Education Florida Universities Take System Approach in Addressing Growth of Online By Dian Schaffhauser10/27/15 The Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida is putting final touches on a strategic plan for online education.
The idea is to create a framework around which all 10 institutions in the system with online programs can pool their "collective talents and resources toward a common purpose" — helping Florida citizens earn credentials that will "improve their lives, lead to new discoveries and advanced Florida's economy. " The goal of the "2025 Strategic Plan for Online Education" is intended to guide development and implementation of system policies and legislative budget requests related to online education with a focus on three primary elements: quality, access and affordability. The latest 23-page draft lays out five strategies for creating a "culture of quality for online education": In the area of access, the task force offered three recommendations: The Big University. Many American universities were founded as religious institutions, explicitly designed to cultivate their students’ spiritual and moral natures.
But over the course of the 20th century they became officially or effectively secular. Religious rituals like mandatory chapel services were dropped. Academic research and teaching replaced character formation at the core of the university’s mission. Administrators and professors dropped spiritual language and moral prescription either because they didn’t know what to say or because they didn’t want to alienate any part of their diversifying constituencies. The humanities departments became less important, while parents ratcheted up the pressure for career training. Universities are more professional and glittering than ever, but in some ways there is emptiness deep down. But things are changing. Technology is also forcing change.
The trick is to find a way to talk about moral and spiritual things while respecting diversity. Learning Colors Collection Vol. 2 - Learn Colours Monster Trucks, Garbage Trucks, Tow Trucks. "The Great Unbundling of Higher Education" In 2003, the iTunes Store unbundled the CD. For the first time, consumers could purchase the songs they wanted rather than the bundle designated by the artist and label.
Sales of digital singles soared but overall revenue fell 50 percent in a decade. Prior to this transformation, the business model for the music industry relied on bundling the music that consumers wanted (singles) with the music that they didn't want (the rest of the album). That meant the music industry made money it wouldn't have made without the bundle. The music industry isn't the only place unbundling has driven fundamental change. In television, thanks to DVRs and Netflix, viewers now watch individual shows rather than channels or networks.
As viewers are given a mechanism for paying only for the shows they watch rather than the thousands they don't, expect cable and satellite TV bills to collapse. Unbundling was also the undoing of enterprise software. The "Just-In-Time" Revolution The U.S. Dancing with Debutantes. Most Innovative Schools | National Universities | US News Best Colleges.
White House Gives Up on Grading Colleges and Universities -- Campus Technology. Policy White House Gives Up on Grading Colleges and Universities By Dian Schaffhauser09/14/15 The White House has relinquished its efforts to grade colleges and universities. The announcement came during President Obama's weekly address this weekend. The ambitious plan to maintain a college scorecard has been replaced with a more modest offering that will publish open data on individual institution costs, graduation rates and student debt and earnings, among other information. The administration emphasized that the new program was "designed with input from those who will use it the most — students, families and counselors. " But the goal remains the same: to help those users identify "which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck. " The original notion for a college scorecard was first broadcast during Obama's 2013 State of the Union address.
However, the new college scorecard, located at CollegeScorecard.ed.gov, tries to take a less contentious approach. About the Author. Small but Mighty: 4 Small Colleges Thriving in a Disruptive Environment. International Innovation: The Meteoric Rise of Swinburne Online - Eduventures. Best Practices Can Elude Colleges Wooing Adult Learners -- Campus Technology. Keeping Your Institution out of the Breakdown Lane. College Ratings and the Idea of the Liberal Arts. The Learning House – Retention. Infographic- Winning Online Enrollments. Report: Online College Students Choose a Program and Institution Before Applying -- Campus Technology. Scott_walker_and_the_post_tenure_university_an_apocalyptic_scenario.2. Review agency hits UNC-Chapel Hill with probation | News & Observer News & Observer.
Online Degrees Show 'Net Positive' Campus Impact -- Campus Technology. Spotlight on Innovation: Arizona State University Rolls Out Project-Based Modular Learning to Improve First-Gen Student Retention and Completion. Oregon commission votes to fund public universities based on degrees awarded, not seats filled. Higher education, lower standards: Column. Customer Experience Strategy – Millennials Don’t Wait by Woody Bendle. Harvard and M.I.T. Are Sued Over Lack of Closed Captions. Thinking too highly of higher education. Online Course Quality is Not a “Nice To Have.” - Eduventures. State employees eligible to receive tuition discount with WGU Missouri | Community News | Lee's Summit Journal. Enrollment rebounding for some universities. Research shows university evaluations are often misused. This Exclusive Hotel Chain Is Teaching Colleges How To Treat Students | TIME.
Feds Sue Corinthian Colleges For Pushing More Than $560M In Predatory Loans On Students. College in a box-online Cookie Cutter Courses. Obama: Everyone Should Be Able to Afford Higher Education. University presidents oppose Obama’s college grading system. Administrators with fewer credentials often outstrip tenured professors in pay - Norman Transcript: News. Online University Courses Have Growing Pains, But Are Supported By Secular Trends - Equities.com Global Financial Community. Many college freshmen need remedial work, often delaying graduation, increasing costs. Starbucks Isn't Spending As Much As It Wants You To Think For ASU Scholarships. College Ratings and Paying for Performance. FACT SHEET on the President’s Plan to Make College More Affordable: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class. College Scorecard. College Degrees Aren't Becoming More Valuable -- Their Glut Confines People Without Them To A Shrinking, Low-Pay Sector Of The Market.
Campus Technology : March 2014, Page 12. Colleges Risk Becoming Obsolete | Wired Opinion. Disrupting the Degree? Credentialing in 2023. $60,000 a year for college is actually a discount, says Duke administrator. Higher Education and the Poetry of Ideas | Boria Sax. New IPEDS Data: Top 20 online US institutions by sector | e-Literatee.