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Theron DesRosier

News: 'The World Is Open' - Inside Higher Ed - 1 views

www.insidehighered.com/...bonk

education open opensource 2.0 learning

shared by Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09
     
    Perhaps there is a need to adopt the approach of Western Governors University and certify or grant credit to individuals based on skills that they have obtained. Or perhaps there is a need for facilitators or guides to walk one through this free and open content when and where needed. Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People have sprung up in 2009 to apparently address this very issue. The world community will be curious to see the results.
  • Theron DesRosier on 31 Aug 09
     
    From the interview: "Perhaps there is a need to adopt the approach of Western Governors University and certify or grant credit to individuals based on skills that they have obtained. Or perhaps there is a need for facilitators or guides to walk one through this free and open content when and where needed. Peer-to-Peer University and the University of the People have sprung up in 2009 to apparently address this very issue. The world community will be curious to see the results."
Gary Brown

Western Governors U. President Wins a McGraw Prize in Education - The Ticker - The Chro... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...27252

outcomes competency future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • The university's president, Robert W. Mendenhall, was cited for creating "a compelling example of how technology and a competency-based academic model -- where students earn degrees by demonstrating what they know and can do -- can expand access to higher education."
  • Gary Brown on 28 Sep 10
     
    Western Governor's getting some attention
Gary Brown

Saving Public Universities - 0 views

www.convergemag.com/...aving-Public-Universities.html

Western Governors

shared by Gary Brown on 17 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Many public universities do offer online courses while primarily maintaining traditional ones. But the public higher-education model for the future may already exist: the completely online Western Governors University (WGU), launched in 1998. Back then, it was described as highly controversial. Now WGU is the largest virtual university in the United States, using technology to offer a flexible structure and reasonable pricing to meet adult learners’ needs.
  • keeps its costs down by relying heavily on technology and independent learning resources, and by using a student-centric model versus a professor-centric approach
  • Additionally WGU is the first and only system that gives students credit for what they know rather than the courses they complete.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “As you take a course at WGU, you pass it by passing certain tests along the way,” Thomasian said. “Your tests aren’t on a set schedule in terms of, ‘You have to take it this month or that month.’ You can start moving those tests ahead, passing that competency and moving to the end of the course, and passing the competency for that.”
  • It was fun to cross the 10,000 student threshold about two years ago,” Partridge said, “and we’re right at the door of 20,000 right now.”
  • Now he said the university enrolls approximately 1,000 new students each month.
  • Gary Brown on 17 Aug 10
     
    The rise of the faculty free institution--should we worry?
Gary Brown

Free Online Courses, at a Very High Price - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

chronicle.com/...48777

Open education Western Governors competency credentialing

shared by Gary Brown on 14 Oct 09 - Cached
  • At this point in the openness conversation, the example you hear over and over is a little-known university in Utah that took the old model, and, in the words of its president, "blew that up." That is Western Governors University—a nonprofit, accredited online institution that typically charges $2,890 per six-month term—where students advance by showing what they've learned, not how much time they've spent in class. It's called competency-based education. It means you can fast-forward your degree by testing out of stuff you've already mastered. Some see a marriage of open content and competency-based learning as a model for the small-pieces-loosely-joined chain of cheaper, fragmented education. "We view the role of the university of the future as measuring and credentialing learning, not the source of all learning," says Robert W. Mendenhall, the president.
  • Gary Brown on 14 Oct 09
     
    Wiley gets prime time along with challenges to open ed from the "Chronicle of Ancient Education," but blooming in the desert is an emergent species of education. This piece echoes cites Nils' has marked in emerging market nations, but through the Chronicle's lens.
Gary Brown

Opinion | Legislature's waning support for higher education creates chasm for middle cl... - 1 views

seattletimes.nwsource.com/...2012959173_guest22smith.html

future of education

shared by Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Today in Washington, the traditional on-campus experience is increasingly enjoyed primarily by children of the wealthy or the very poor who are very bright.
  • The Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board reports that based on the number of degrees per 100 residents, our children are not as well-educated as their parents.
  • we rank 48th in undergraduate enrollment and 49th in graduate enrollment. We are losing business to other states and need to realize they probably have better educated work forces.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • If our public universities do not get increased support from the state of Washington, they will decrease in quality and need to become increasingly private.
  • it is time for Washington to return to the concept that all individuals, regardless of their incomes, should have the opportunity to have access to an affordable, high-quality education.
  • Samuel H. Smith is president emeritus of Washington State University, a member of the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board, and a founding board member of the College Success Foundation and the Western Governors University. He is also a member of The Seattle Times board of directors.
  • Gary Brown on 22 Sep 10
     
    An old friend...
Nils Peterson

How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education | Page 3 | Fast Company - 0 views

www.fastcompany.com/...who-needs-harvard.html

shared by Nils Peterson on 13 Aug 09 - Cached
  • If open courseware is about applying technology to sharing knowledge, and Peer2Peer is about social networking for teaching and learning, Bob Mendenhall, president of the online Western Governors University, is proudest of his college's innovation in the third, hardest-to-crack dimension of education: accreditation and assessment.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 24 Sep 09
       
      Spoke too soon
  • Theron DesRosier on 13 Aug 09
     
    "We said, 'Let's create a university that actually measures learning,' " Mendenhall says. "We do not have credit hours, we do not have grades. We simply have a series of assessments that measure competencies, and on that basis, award the degree." WGU began by convening a national advisory board of employers, including Google and Tenet Healthcare. "We asked them, 'What is it the graduates you're hiring can't do that you wish they could?' We've never had a silence after that question." Then assessments were created to measure each competency area. Mendenhall recalls one student who had been self-employed in IT for 15 years but never earned a degree; he passed all the required assessments in six months and took home his bachelor's without taking a course.
Nils Peterson

Goal 2025 - Lumina Foundation: Helping People Achieve Their Potential - 0 views

www.luminafoundation.org/...goal3.html

attainment lumina assessment higher_education

shared by Nils Peterson on 16 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Nils Peterson on 16 Oct 09
     
    "Based on current estimates, to reach the 60 percent level by 2025, the U.S. higher education system must produce 23 million more college graduates than are expected at present rates of production. The actual size of the gap will shift annually, as we make progress and new data become available. Obviously, we can't close this gap overnight. But, for example, if we can start to increase the rate of attainment each year and produce 150,000 more graduates than the year before - an annual increase of about 5 percent - we will reach the big goal by 2025."
  • Nils Peterson on 16 Oct 09
     
    adding 150,000 more college graduates/year each year from now to 2025 is a significant scaling up. Spread over 5000 institutions its only 30/institution on average, which many could manage. Or perhaps Western Governors could absorb many of them.
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