“Americans and many around the world are not terribly satisfied with the state of democracy and the institutions that undergird it. Experts who were canvassed about the relationship between people’s technology use and democracy also expressed serious concerns about how things will unfold in the next decade.
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Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor of online learning at the University of Illinois, Springfield, said, ‘We are already seeing the advent of sophisticated fact-checking, image validating and information assurance initiatives. These will continue to expand to assure that people can rely upon the established media, social media and websites are legitimate. People will demand accuracy and value in their consumption of information. This will come in formal and informal conduits. Truth and veracity will be honored and strengthened following the current difficult period of exploitation of facts. The public deserves and will demand no less.'”
- COVID 19 – CARES Act Funding + Reopening Policies
The past few months have been confusing for institutions wishing to disburse COVID-19 emergency grant dollars due to the Department of Education changing allocation calculations and requirements, including eligibility for who can receive grants from the relief legislation. One of the main groups that the Administration has decided are not eligible for the grants are undocumented students, including individuals covered under DACA. DACA, the program protecting children brought to the United States who do not have citizenship, was upheld by a recent Supreme Court decision. Critics believe the action to deny these individuals the grant dollars may not be upheld in legal challenges.Amid this confusion, Senators from both sides of the aisle have said they would like additional funding for higher education to help support safe reopening policies and to address the losses caused by coronavirus. Earlier this month, a hearing was held in the Senate on how to safely reopen institutions with university presidents and a public health expert providing testimony. Just this week, Senator Alexander (R-TN) has stated he would be open to spending additional dollars on schools to help them reopen.- Resource: A recent toolkit for universities and colleges titled “COVID-19: Planning Guide and Self-Assessment for Higher Education” authored with input from Johns Hopkins University and CHEA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation)
- Many Regulations Taking Effect July 1
In the midst of everything else going on in higher ed policy (COVID funding, fall plans for reopening and new Title IX regulations, to name a few), there are a plethora of new regulatory requirements going into final effect July 1, including some major disclosure/information requirements. Here are a few of the most important to our community to review and be sure their institutions are up-to-date on:- Borrower Defense to Repayment (BDR) – As of Friday, Congress had rejected the bipartisan BDR legislation, the party-line vote sided with the President’s veto, stopping previously passed bipartisan legislation intended to block the administration’s changes. So, the administration’s ruling will move forward and into effect July 1. Amid financial calculation changes, the rule requires internal dispute resolution and arbitration processes to be communicated as part of the student’s borrower entrance counseling.
- Administrative Policy Disclosure – requires the publication of the institution’s: refund policy; contact info for filing complaints with the accreditor and state authorization agency; whether the institution is required to maintain a teach-out plan by its accreditor, and why; and notice of any enforcement actions or prosecutions brought against the institution, where a final judgment against the institution, if rendered, would result in adverse action by an accrediting agency, state authorization agency, or eligibility under Title IV.
- Student Demographic + Outcomes Disclosures – requiring the publication of percentages for enrolled, full-time students at the institution who are male/female, Pell eligible, and self-identified as a member of a racial/ethnic group; placement rate, if the institution uses it in marketing or advertising, or if the state requires the institution to report it; retention rate of certificate or degree-seeking, first-time, full-time, undergraduates entering the institution.
- State Authorization – student “location” vs “residence” switch goes live. For distance education, to determine the requirements for state authorization, the institution must know where the student is actually located when taking the course, and not just where they indicated their home address. This rule also implements a disclosure requirement for programs leading to licensure or certifications.
- Gainful Employment (GE) – a rescission of the entire rule related to this topic, and any GE related activities should cease prior to July 1.
- Accreditation and Innovation – greater flexibility and responsiveness for innovation will now be allowed under accreditation standards as well as oversight for accreditors over their institutions. Changes to competition through the historical regulation of location-based regional accreditors has been untethered.
- Transfer of Credit Disclosure – institutions must publish their transfer of credit policy, articulating whether other institutions have established an articulation agreement with them, as well as any criteria used to evaluate prior learning experience and awarding credit for demonstrated competencies/learning.
- Institutional Arrangement Disclosure – requires institutions to publish a description of any written arrangements that the institution has entered into which may include: a portion of the educational program that the institution which grants the degree or certificate is not providing; as well as estimated additional costs students may incur as a result of enrolling in an educational program that is provided under this arrangement.
Institutions of higher education are faced with major challenges and have leaned toward many of their professional, continuing and online (PCO) education units to not only assist with bringing traditional teaching faculty into a more aggressive world of online learning, but to also supplement lost revenue and enrollments due to students not returning to campus or choosing to sit out a semester or year. PCO units have traditionally been tasked with helping adults complete their degree; develop online or low residency master’s degrees online for working professionals; launch and deliver training to executives, managers and front-line workers in the form of noncredit or certificate programs; and serve special audiences such as dual-degree K-12 students, academic youth campers and retirees among others. With the pandemic, PCO units have been asked to do more and are often better positioned to react in this marketplace. However, many are faced with dire financial situations and have to make difficult choices. Cutting marketing and enrollment management should not be one of them, as these units are critical in the generation of revenues in a chaotic market.
PCO units are even more critical to the institution, as due to the pandemic they have been asked to generate additional revenues from existing audiences, serve as a safety net or option for traditional students, and develop new programs and services to reach new audiences. PCO marketers and enrollment managers will be critical in the process and will need to accomplish the following as institutions work through the pandemic and post-pandemic era:
- Comfort existing students by communicating that their current investments in the degree or certificate programs they are in are sound and have value in the new economy, post-pandemic. Retention is more critical than ever. Marketers and enrollment managers need to reassure students who may be midstream in an online master’s degree that the return on investment to keep moving forward toward completion outweighs abandoning their investment as a sunk cost. Ignoring existing students would be yet another leaky revenue bucket, in addition to potentially losing traditional students.
- Help the PCO unit, as well as the institution, with adapting their use of marketing tools and media choices, as well as messaging given the pandemic and sensitive social issues. Marketing in a pandemic may require new messaging and creative approaches, as well as shifting to new media to generate new inquiries. Messaging during a crisis requires that communications be more compassionate, authentic and appear to NOT be taking advantage of the consumer who might be in a disadvantageous situation.
- Represent the voice of the customer on value and pricing decisions. As a result of values and financial situations changing, PCO leaders no longer have strong intuitions or reliable historical data on value and pricing. UPCEA has been working with a number of members on re-pricing of programs, especially for those delivered in a new format. Gathering information from consumers and students on how much they might pay for a virtual format over a face-to-face format program is critical in setting value-driven pricing and optimizing gross or net revenues. Market research tools such as the use of surveys or techniques such as the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter could help units with pricing decisions. The figure to the left demonstrates how UPCEA helped one group on pricing. This shows that, depending on whether or not the programmatic strategy is to generate more enrollments at a lower per credit price point or more net revenue (or profit) at a higher price point, there are options to choosing the most appropriate price point.
- Marketers may have to create new strategic marketing plans or interim, short-term plans as a result of the pandemic. For those with strong customer relationship management (CRM) systems, being able to track return on investment (ROI) of new or supplemental marketing spending could be a strong measure of the success of short-term marketing initiatives. Every marketing dollar spent to generate new revenues is likely to be scrutinized. Positive ROIs may show the PCO unit and institution the path to survival or success. Otherwise, marketers may be spending marketing investment monies blindly…not knowing a net positive return.
“Message and tone coalescence has never been more important. Lead generation advertising still has to meet the need of the viewer to drive action and with the current consumer uncertainty, we are finding ourselves confirming those same messages all the way through the funnel.”
-Stacy Snow, Director of Marketing & Communications, University of Missouri System Office of eLearning
In addition to top of the enrollment funnel activities, PCO marketers and enrollment managers need to revisit the customer experience with mid- and end-funnel activities.
While retention is critical, how inquirers and prospects are engaged and treated in the process is more important than ever. With consumers and employers having less training and education funds, the expectations will be higher. Should PCO units fail to communicate correctly, the new lead will most likely shop elsewhere. PCO marketers and enrollment managers will need to self-examine their steps to matriculation. The figure to the right charts enrollment funnel progression in an UPCEA study of 66 marketing departments. Units will need to map out processes to ensure that every action or scenario is addressed to maximize inquiry to matriculation rates.
In these uncertain times, given the pandemic and societal disruption and change, the challenges to higher education are magnified as the old economy is changing and moving to one of greater automation and technology. Generational power is shifting from Boomers to Millennials. Generation Z’s greatest new digital video fad (whether it becomes a trend or not) is TikToK, which also offers advertising opportunities through the use of influencer marketing. Under-represented ethnic and income groups are seeking equality. Communicating and marketing and the exchange of money has become increasingly more complex. Smart, resourceful, data-driven marketers and enrollment managers will be more important as society works through the pandemic and the new economy that will follow.
In recent weeks America has come to a reckoning over long-unmet societal values on racial justice, equity and commitment to diversity. Why now? What has changed?
It was the cruel and seemingly senseless killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, and the accumulation of lives taken before his, that finally jarred most Americans to search their souls and many to take to the streets in outrage. Inequities and criminal persecutions have gone on for decades, even centuries in the historical lynching and persecution of “others” in our society. Horrific as that is, one must wonder, what has changed? What awakened the conscience of America?
What if no one had captured video of the murder in Minneapolis? What if it was not shared on the news channels, newspapers and social media? But there was video, and the video was played again and again to hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of people worldwide. In this case, the video was clear and obvious. It became the “truth” to the world. And that truth could not be diluted by any subterfuge of an excuse. It was the truth, and very plain to see with our own eyes.
As we move forward, there will certainly be more cases of wrongs against people because of race, gender, preference or simply otherness. But, increasingly, video will be there. In cellphones of witnesses and video security monitors placed around the world, eyes will be upon us all. Though privacy is being lost day by day by the proliferation of video, the nearly ubiquitous presence of video shines a virtual light on the mundane day-to-day activities, but also on the bigotry and crimes that are committed.
The time of truth telling, backed by video, has arrived to ensure our standards of justice and equity. And it is not just video technology. Big data have a role in telling the story. Through the gathering and analysis of big data, the truth is being exposed every day. Recently, the World Economic Forum published five graphs and charts that clearly show areas of disparity among racial groups in America. Most notably for those reading this, they show the wide educational gaps among white, Hispanic and black Americans. The data also show the disparity in earnings, unemployment, health care, life expectancy and imprisonment. These credible data are the undeniable truth. They are evidence of our shortcomings as a society.
The technologies of big data gathering, analysis and visualization have arrived. Much in the same way that video has been used to illuminate social injustice and crimes, big data enable us to closely examine equity and fairness. The big data results are undeniable as video. They can show the underlying trends that reveal success and shortcomings in our society.
Even with these technologies, we must still be vigilant. Facebook recently released a database of 100,000 deep-fake video clips showing altered videos that make people appear to say things that they did not.
Just as videos can be doctored to show things that didn’t happen, so too can statistics be manipulated. After all, it was Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) who more than a century ago famously claimed, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” However, if we are very careful to validate sources and methods of both videos and big data, we will arrive at the truth. The truth is there to see if we are prepared to search vigilantly and to verify.
And the truth delivered by technology can set us free. That is our hope for tomorrow: that increasingly truth will be collected, verified and disseminated through technology. That truth will lead to greater justice, more freedom and better lives for all.
These skills are key to the success of our students in their careers as well as their personal lives. In the 21st century, it is also an important responsibility for those of us teaching in all disciplines in higher education to address these skills in our students. It is incumbent on us to assure that our graduates are prepared to critically assess the veracity of information, including photos and videos.
What are you doing to teach our students about validating news sources and scrutinizing data? Is there a program at your university to assure that these skills are developed in students across the institution? Who is responsible for this important task?
This article was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog.
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“UPCEA calls on all members and member institutions to assume personal and institutional responsibility for the recognition and elimination of inequity and barriers to access and success.” We are called to first listen and then take meaningful, outcomes-focused action; and identify and eradicate systemic racism or injustice as individuals, as institutions, and as members of UPCEA.
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“UPCEA encourages all to respect the value of diversity; when we respect the viewpoints, values, talents and experiences of others, we all benefit.” We are called to not just value diversity but to actively seek out the viewpoints, talents, and experiences of the diverse array of individuals in our communities and to cooperate and collaborate with them; and to proactively identify and overcome our unconscious biases.
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“Understanding we will not always get it right, our intentional and relentless pursuit of human equity, co-existence and inclusion is conscious and genuine.” We are called to initiate and engage in dialogue and actions about race and social justice in the context of professional, continuing, and online education, some of which may be unfamiliar and uncomfortable and that challenge the mindset of ourselves and our institutions.
Twenty-nine (29) higher education associations and organizations, including UPCEA, joined EDUCAUSE on June 5, 2020, in sending a letter to Congress on significant broadband issues for higher education. The groups asked Congress to consider the needs of economically distressed college students in relation to efforts to bridge the digital divide during COVID-19 pandemic, specifically citing the Supporting Connectivity for Higher Education Students in Need Act as an important option for doing so. They also requested that Congress include proposals for strengthening the nation’s research and education (R&E) networks in potential broadband infrastructure funding, given the significant role that R&E networks play in providing advanced broadband access for community anchor institutions and the academic research community. Finally, the letter encouraged federal policymakers to further enable the efforts of colleges and universities to extend their networking and technological capabilities in response to the learning, research, and service demands driven by the pandemic.
Even as budgets are slashed and enrollments dip, we must strive to emerge from this crisis with more resilient and responsive programs.
We have endured the most extraordinary spring semester, and soon summer, in the history of higher education. Remote teaching and learning have been implemented in incredibly short time frames of a few days to two weeks. Faculty developers, instructional designers and faculty themselves stepped up to make the best of the very difficult situation caused by the pandemic. It is testament to our commitment to the students that we have responded in this fashion. This has not been merely an American initiative — higher education around the world has responded in similar fashion.
Recently, at the kind invitation of Abdullah Alwalidi, director at the Saudi Arabia National Center for e-Learning and the facilitation and moderation by Fahad Al Shahrani, general manager of academies at Human Resources Development Fund KSA, I had the most rewarding opportunity to engage hundreds of faculty members from Saudi Arabia in a webinar on the future of e-learning. We shared the same concerns about the impact of the virus on learning and our aspirations to offer enhanced learning opportunities in the future. Worldwide, the higher education challenges are the same: to become more resilient to disruption by disasters and more responsive to students and the workplace.
It is certain that this past semester and summer will bring about changes in the way we all deliver learning. We have learned that our delivery mode must be more resilient that our physical campuses can be. We have known that our campuses can be vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but now we are acutely aware that “the way we have always done things” is vulnerable to epidemics. Wisely, we are considering ways we can be more resilient.
So, what are our options?
Certainly, we can offer more online classes. Though some early studies show that many students were disappointed with the hastily drawn remote teaching by faculty members inexperienced in distance teaching, there still seems to be a likelihood that students will appreciate the safety of that distance in the fall or until this epidemic is largely resolved. Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute says, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see enrollment in residential college programs drop by roughly 10 percent or so in the fall, and revenue to fall around 20 percent if students won’t be able to attend in person in the fall,” Horn told CNBC Make It. “On the flip side, I think we will see enrollments in online programs rise quite a bit, driven by adult learners — many of whom have been recently laid off — looking to wait out the recession and use their time productively by skilling up.”
We can hedge our bets by offering more blended classes. By blending classes, we can mix both online and on-campus sessions. In the case of lab classes, some of the otherwise lecture or discussion sessions can be online while the labs can be scheduled on campus. In this way, if a second wave of the pandemic occurs or some other disaster hits, our students and faculty members are already prepared for online sessions. In this case, we can attempt to strategically schedule online sessions to minimize disruption.
One more option that is gaining traction is the “HyFlex” or “blendflex” model in which a course is built in both the online and face-to-face delivery mode. Experimentation with this model has gone on at a small scale across many universities over the past 15 years. Students may choose to attend as many online or on-campus sessions as they wish as the semester progresses.
“They can seamlessly at any time during the semester move back and forth within that course delivery,” said Carol Lee, director of educational technology at Central Georgia Technical College. The mode may have originated with Brian Beatty, now associate vice president for academic affairs operations at San Francisco State University, who called his new mode HyFlex when he conceived it in the mid-2000s. According to Beatty, approximately 20 institutions have experimented with variations on this learning mode.
Of course, this model requires faculty to, in effect, offer two concurrent sections — one online and the other on campus. However, it gives the greatest flexibility to students and provides an instant response to an emergency that may close the campus. It is uncertain, of course, whether we will see a second wave of the pandemic or if we will see another widespread disaster of that scale and scope in the near future that may close campuses, but the possibility exists.
How is your university preparing for the fall? Are you ready for the next disaster that may close campus? Who is leading the initiative at your university to prepare for a better environment for transitioning classes for your students?
This article was was originally published in Inside Higher Ed’s Transforming Teaching & Learning blog.