Posts by UPCEA

Not everyone agrees about what Web 3.0 will be, let alone how it will impact higher education, but the time to begin preparing is now. It’s not at all surprising that a definitive vision for the future internet has not yet been shared, because there is no agreement on what the next iteration of the…

One of higher ed’s challenges is to close the loop on relevancy for every student in every module of every class. Too often in our classes we present history, equations, assorted facts, data and retrospective analyses without supplying the current and future context of application of all of those components. The applicability of the class…

In 1997, Sylvia Manning, then VPAA of the University of Illinois system, later president of the Higher Learning Commission, declared, “The online learning train is leaving the station—get on board or be left behind!” That prescient message by one of higher education’s most astute leaders of the past quarter century certainly proved to be true.…

This is a challenging time to lead, as a provost, dean, director or department chair at a college or university. That is not to say that there are not successes and rewards to be achieved, but they come harder than in decades past. One can say that every era in our field has brought challenges.…

This is a rather dark Dickensian time in higher education, caught in the storm of societal and economic sea change. Yet, there is hope for those institutions who recognize and respond to the changes that are upon us. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of…

Too often we assess our own learning by how pleasant the learning experience is, rather than assessing retention as well as how authentically relevantly and meaningfully those experiences and outcomes apply to real-life situations. For nearly half of my faculty career, I taught mostly through a face-to-face lecture mode. Yes, I dabbled in simulations and…