Students – Page 2 – The Future of Higher Education

The Future of Social Media in Higher Education – Part 1

March 27, 2012 Grant Sabatier

This post is the first post in a three part series on the future of social media in higher education. These posts will be released over the next few weeks. I spend a lot of time thinking about where social media is headed and also, what potential it has to continue to revolutionize the way we learn, communicate, and experience life. In fact I have been thinking about this for a long time and now it is part of my…

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Is a Campus a College when Everyone Studies Online?

March 21, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

We’ve written a lot lately about aspects of colleges that will have to change over the next few years, like admissions, and technology, and teaching styles. We have talked about some of the economic theories that help explain why this is occurring. We have also talked about some of the forces upholding the old model of higher higher education that has been resistant to change, such as marketing and accreditation (and here). But what about the very core of your…

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The Future Graduate School

March 15, 2012 collegeof2020

Below is the presentation we gave recently at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools on “The Graduate School of the Future”. There is some good data, as well as insights applicable to graduate schools as well as higher education generally. College of 2020: The Future Graduate School Tweet

A Good Fit: Rethinking College Admissions

February 9, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

I have a friend who used to be the brand manager for Kingsford charcoal. One day, he was asking his team: “Who is our competition?” His team piped up: Royal Oak? Store brands? No, my friend replied. Our competition isn’t another charcoal. It’s the gas grill. Cooking out is a lifestyle choice, with all of kinds of positive feelings associated with it — time with friends, fun, fresh air. And our potential customers are switching to gas, and getting all…

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Economic Scarcity and Higher Education

February 7, 2012 Martin Van Der Werf

It used to be that if you wanted to buy a record, you had to go to a record store. If you wanted the news, you had to buy a newspaper or watch TV. If you wanted to mail a package, you had to go to the post office. Those businesses were dominant because they were the only source of a good that you wanted. The products were valuable because they were essential and scarce. They came basically in one…

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Notes from an Uncomfortable Chair

December 21, 2011 Martin Van Der Werf

Higher education needs to come up with some new ways to talk about change and success. OK, call me grouchy, but I’ve been ruminating about two recent higher-education conferences I attended. Both had good speakers and good information, but both also showed why higher education is stuck in a deepening rut. Let me start with the most recent one, a conference on The Future of Higher Education, held at The New School earlier this month. The event featured an impressive list of speakers, including…

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A.I. Replacing the College Professor?

December 9, 2011 Martin Van Der Werf Comments 3 comments

The end of face-to-face college instruction! That is the startling scenario that a panel contemplated Thursday night as a forum opened on The Future of Higher Education at The New School University in New York. Looking 20 to 30 years out, “The wealthiest institutions will continue to provide face to face instruction. Other universities will not be able to afford to deliver instruction face-to-face any longer,” said Neil Grabois, former provost of Williams College and president of Colgate University. He is now dean of the…

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College Debt Nears a Tipping Point

December 5, 2011 Martin Van Der Werf

Is it beginning to feel like we are at a tipping point on student debt and the cost of college? President Obama is summoning college presidents to the White House today to talk about college costs and what can be done to control them. The Occupy Wall Street movement has turned its attention to the level of college debt, and asking for interest-free loans of debt forgiveness. Its online petition that seeks forgiveness of all student loan debt as a means of stimulating the economy….

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The College Experience: Preserving Culture

November 16, 2011 Grant Sabatier

I remember the snow falling on the quad and my friend Allen muttering “The only people for me are the mad ones.” He had recently read Kerouac’s On The Road and was convinced that people around him weren’t really living… “like really living, man,” he said. It was the middle of the night and The University of Chicago campus, with its ivy, and benches, Gothic towers, and sidewalks – was like a turn of the century movie set. We were…

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OpenCloud and Free Learning Management

November 1, 2011 Grant Sabatier

Pearson – the world’s largest provider to educational support materials and textbooks has launched OpenClass, a free, cloud-based, Learning Management System that is tightly integrated with Google Apps. Last week the Pearson OpenClass story spread like wildfire. Is OpenClass really as groundbreaking as it seems? OpenClass is truly a cloud-based service. There is no hardware, licensing or hosting costs for the users. In the same way that free e-mail has become an indispensable part of many peoples lives, Pearson is hoping that a free Learning Management…

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