The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

A Sampler Of Potential Solutions For What Ails Higher Education

It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention. As we have shown in our first three posts in this series on higher education, there is much necessity. This necessity has spawned "inventions" and innovations ranging from system changes at the federal, state and local levels to individual initiatives. In this final post, we provide a Whitman's sampler of some of the approaches that are being discussed or are underway in the areas that we analyzed in our prior posts: costs; graduation and placement rates, return on investment, career education and skill development, teacher preparation; technology and education; and the nation's primary and secondary education system. Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-munoz-frank-islam-and-ed-crego/higher-education-reform-i_b_1830397.html

The Wal-Mart Model Could Work Well For Higher Education

The Walmartization of the university (also called the corporatization of higher ed) is a common complaint by some faculty. The charge is that the university is more interested in corporate values – cost and revenue – instead of the core educational mission. I don’t accept the pejorative implication, but I think Walmartization is actually a pretty good description of the future of higher education. Read more at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2012/08/23/walmart-state-college/

Six Ways Higher Education Is Likely To Change

Having just finished my very first online lecture on the history of the internet, I am both heartened and dismayed by the experience. Heartened that 34,077 students can enroll in a class taught by a single professor, but dismayed that education (online or otherwise) continues to push learning-by-rote and a lecture based knowledge-transmission model. One thing remains clear – this is only the beginning of the disruption of higher education as we know it. Read more at:
http://www.businessinsider.com/6-predictions-on-the-future-of-higher-education-2012-8

Financial Analysis Points To Signs Of Trouble In American Higher Education

Long-term debt at not-for-profit universities in America has been growing at 12% a year. A new report looked at the balance-sheets and cashflow statements of 1,692 universities and colleges between 2006 and 2010, and found that one-third were significantly weaker than they had been several years previously. All this suggests that colleges have good cause to worry about their debts. Unlike grades, they cannot be inflated away. Universities that fail to prepare for the hurricane ahead are likely to be flattened by it. Read more at:
http://www.economist.com/node/21559936

Latest Issue Of University Business Now Online

The July/August 2012 issue of University Business offers articles on digital display technology, award winners for efficiency in delivering services, risk management, campus audio systems, scheduling technology and more. Find the issue at:
http://www.universitybusiness.com/toc

Latest New York Times Education Life Supplement Now Online

The New York Times has published its most current edition of the Education Life Supplement, a compilation of recent articles - both in depth and light - about what's happening in higher education. This edition contatins articles on an experiment in community college education, using big data on campus, startup incubators, the Theirl Fellowship, merit aid, internships, MOOCs, adult education and more. Find it at:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/edlife/index.html?ref=us 

Thiel Fellowship Encourages Students To Drop Out Of College For Startup Dreams

TAYLOR WILSON has big dreams: to build nuclear fusion reactors that will solve the world’s energy crisis. “I’ve got some technology that will really change the world, so college right now is not the best option for me,” said Mr. Wilson, who is just 18 but built his first working reactor at 14. He plans to start a company, aided by a $100,000 grant as the recipient of a “20 Under 20” Thiel Fellowship. Before tackling a new form of energy, he will address slightly more modest tasks: detecting nuclear weapons and diagnosing cancer with his technology. But the Thiel Fellowship has also fueled a fierce debateabout the value of a college education in a changing economy. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/education/edlife/the-thiel-fellowship-aids-young-entrepreneurs-with-grants.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

With A Dozen More Institutions Coursera's MOOCs Could Reach Millions

As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce on Tuesday that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally. And some of them will offer credit.“This is the tsunami,” said Richard A. DeMillo, the director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech. “It’s all so new that everyone’s feeling their way around, but the potential upside for this experiment is so big that it’s hard for me to imagine any large research university that wouldn’t want to be involved.” Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/education/consortium-of-colleges-takes-online-education-to-new-level.html?_r=1&hp

Quantifying The Value Of Higher Education

Phrased another way, for every dollar society puts into a school — either through direct government funding or by granting tax-exempt status — how much public benefit is realized? It is a deceptively simple question that has defied an easy answer. But as tuitions rise and the economy drags, there is a newly keen desire, especially in a college town like Boston, to measure higher education’s overall return on investment. Attempts to quantify the value of higher education gained credence about a decade ago, when cities began to lean more heavily on their nonprofit institutions for money.  Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-07/news/32579542_1_higher-education-universities-colleges

The Top Disruptors Of Higher Education

New online learning models are bursting from startups and top universities, bridging the educational divide. We are in the midst of a revolution that will bring high-quality education to hundreds of millions of people who have never had access to this level of learning before. Here are the leading new platfoms disupting the education world. Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-hidary/online-distance-learning_b_1493319.html?utm_hp_ref=college&ir=College