Higher Education

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 24, 2018

Will Artificial Intelligence Disrupt Higher Education?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the landscape of higher education.

According to Dr. Keng Siau, artificial intelligence will “perform an array of general tasks with consciousness, sentience and intelligence.” That could mean that higher education may no longer be the path to a professional career.

University degrees have always led to professional careers; AI may change that path and offer new forms of learning. Ultimately, AI will change the way colleges have approached education.

Complex data and collaboration

Artificial intelligence will disrupt higher education; there’s no doubt of that. Already AI has been assuming some of the more basics tasks in academia, such as grading, data analysis and seeking correlations.

So far these automatic tasks have been within a single university system, but there’s no reason to believe that AI will continue to function in the isolation of the ivory tower. AI will connect academia to other industries, performing elaborate cognitive processes that search for connections between a variety of fields.

Think transformation, not disruption

Disruption describes an abrupt change in a process. The result may or may not be better. Transformation, on the other hand, has the connotation of a more well-thought- out approach, like a change that gradually evolves into something better.

Change is never easy for anyone, but universities who choose not change may be left behind.

Universities have an opportunity to transform practices and adopt new artificial intelligence technology.

Global reach

With students more interested in personalized learning, AI has the potential to provide increased opportunities for learning to more students at one time. Made possible through adaptive learning, these new systems meet students at their last point in the learning continuum and take them forward.

Artificial intelligence can do more for a larger student population. Professors may already have two and three hundred students in a classroom, but they are not able to reach every student and meet his or her personal needs the way an AI adaptive learning program like ALEKS or a personalized program like Udemy can do.

Changing skill sets

AI won’t likely replace the instructional practices in higher ed, but it will redefine the way students learn. Expect a blended learning model that seamlessly integrates input from AI and professors.

That will change faculty skill sets, allowing more time for research and AI begins to take over the more banal tasks of classroom instruction.

Will artificial intelligence disrupt higher education? The answer is yes, and that’s a good thing. The disruption will force the acceleration of our cognitive thinking skills as we strive to stay ahead of the advance in AI.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 23, 2018

What Community Colleges Do that Universities Won’t

Community colleges once were considered the step-child of higher education.

Academics looked down at coursework taken at a two-year college, considering it to be a weak bridge between high school and a university. That perception has changed drastically in the last decade.

A two-year school is a valid option for many students because community colleges do what universities won’t do.

Provide excellent instruction in a flexible environment

Classes at a two-year college are comparable to those at a four-year university.

The professors at community colleges have master’s degrees, and most have a doctorate. Their classes are every bit as rigorous as a university class. University professors are often engaged in research, leaving instruction to inexperienced teaching assistants. Community colleges, on the other hand, assure that the professor will be your teacher.

Also, community colleges have the flexibility to hire subject matter experts from industry, especially science and business. These professionals offer student insight that professors cannot. Community colleges can create authentic learning experiences for their students by helping them build tangible products and create personal meaning.

Smaller class sizes and lower tuition costs

Smaller class size means better student engagement. Attending lecture-style classes at the university along with hundreds of peers can make students feel disconnected from the instruction as well as their university experience. Two-year colleges, however, are more likely to encourage student participation in class because smaller class sizes permit it.

One of the top reasons for attending a community college is the cost. Not only is tuition more affordable, but many students live at home because the community college is often closer, which saves more money. The cost difference per year between a two-year and a four-year university can be as much as $20,000.

Community colleges can keep their expenses down because they have fewer extracurriculars, such as athletics teams.

Partner with the workforce

When industry tells schools exactly what they are looking for in employees, and colleges produce candidates with those skills, it’s a win for everyone.

Students with associates degrees are finding work in their chosen fields, and the community colleges are doing an excellent job helping them prepare for their careers. Almost 35 million grads with associate degrees are employed, and their number is steadily rising.

Community colleges are doing what universities won’t do, and they are doing it successfully.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, Higher Education, Higher Education EdTech February 22, 2018

Student Outcomes Is the Only Metric That Matters in EdTech

EdTech companies use lots of metrics to measure the success of their products. Profits, number of products sold, and market share are among the ways that EdTech firms use to determine whether a product has been successful. But none of these metrics are as important as one thing—student outcomes.

In most industries, companies are primarily focused on profits. In EdTech, you have to do business with schools or universities. These institutions don’t operate like traditional businesses. Working with non-profit institutions requires a different mindset than the corporate world.

The goal of education is to teach students, not to make money. That means when designing an EdTech product, the only metric that companies need to look at is student outcomes. Student outcomes are the first thing schools will want to hear about when purchasing an EdTech product. If you can show that your product will deliver the results they want, other factors won’t matter.

EdTech companies that put student outcomes at the center of their product will not only impress schools, they’re more likely to make big sales. Like in any other industry, trends move fast in education. If school districts or universities see neighboring districts or competing institutions doing something that works, they’re going to want it too.

Too many companies get into the EdTech business thinking they can focus on student outcomes while also squeezing every last penny out of customers and cutting costs. These companies would be wiser to focus solely on student outcomes and let the money work itself out. A truly great EdTech product sells itself.

Of course, there’s another reason student outcomes matter so much. EdTech companies, by entering into the world of education, have a responsibility to students. Although the goal of any business is typically to make the biggest profits possible, EdTech companies must operate within a world not driven by profits. By choosing to go into this industry, companies also must accept the responsibility of working to improve outcomes for students.

So yes, while EdTech companies need to be profitable to stay afloat, money cannot be the sole driving factor behind an EdTech firm. Student outcomes should be the only way that we measure the success of an EdTech company, and student outcomes should be the only metric that matters to EdTech entrepreneurs.

How do you think EdTech companies can strive for better student outcomes? Do you think we need more focus on student outcomes in EdTech?

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 20, 2018

Are Universities Driving Racism?

Look at news reports or read your social media feed, and you’ll be convinced that racism is rampant on college campuses everywhere.

In reality, the number of reported incidents of racism has remained constant since the end of the twentieth century, when the Department of Justice first began collecting data on it. Since that time, college enrollment has increased significantly.

If racism has existed on college campuses for decades, are universities driving it?

University-driven racism

American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Michael Rubin suggests that universities have entrenched themselves in “identity politics and race-based theories.”

Rubin has theorized that higher education is purposefully establishing race as the single most critical variable in learning, regardless of the subject. By doing so, he says, universities are driving racism.

He’s not alone in his thinking. Kehinde Andrews, professor of black studies, has also said that universities drive racism, claiming that it is institutional. It’s built into an antiquated curriculum that remains largely isolated from minority issues and interests.

According to Andrews, colleges are not doing enough to challenge racism when it occurs, and minority students are being victimized because of it.

In reality, colleges do more to eliminate racism than promote it.

Campus enrollment

Colleges purposefully seek diversity in their enrollments.

By bringing together students of different backgrounds, beliefs, and races, a university intentionally creates a milieu that will foster a deeper understanding of people. That’s a critically important skill to have, considering the growth of our global economy. People of diverse backgrounds are expected to work together and to learn from each other.

Many students at their universities will meet peers from diverse ethnic groups for the first time. Campuses recognize that there will be racial dissension. They also realize that racial tensions abate more quickly at schools with ethnically diverse populations.

Students at these schools learn to be more accepting of racial diversity and less tolerant of hate speech.

Recognizing racism

As a whole, campuses are seeing less prejudice in universities than in the past, but racism still exists. It takes the form of micro-aggressions, which are small behaviors or words that cause suffering, whether intentional or not.

Micro-aggressions are considered hostile, and universities work hard to help students understand how to recognize them and prevent their continuation.

How campuses address racism

Although racism continues to be a problem on university campuses, colleges are doing more than ever before to put a stop to it.

Students and have faculty have access to support groups, and schools teach classes on tolerance and diversity. Most importantly, many campuses help people of all races to participate in critical conversations about race.

Is it perfect? No, but hopefully campuses are driving racism right out of existence.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 16, 2018

How Colleges Nickel and Dime Students

College tuition rises at almost six percent above the national inflation rate. Yet, students aren’t just paying astronomical sums in tuition; colleges are also collecting millions in hidden charges either rolled up into tuition or assessed seemingly at random.

Some of these fees, like parking and activities fees, aren’t about to go away. But other fees, like $3,049 to choose a major in digital media and animation, are both egregious and esoteric.

What Are Hidden Fees?

Universities use hidden and additional fees as a way of hiding the price of college to entice more students while covering the cuts made by state legislatures.

For example, the University of Oklahoma charges a $3,324 “academic excellence fee” for every student; the money goes towards recruiting and paying faculty, which is the job of the school budget and the state government, not individual students.

These figures are damaging for all students, but they can be particularly horrifying for students who arrive at college with scholarships covering 100% of their tuition only to find university fees of $10,000 aren’t included.

Of course, receiving a five-figure bill for additional fees isn’t exactly nickel and diming, but it is a symptom of what colleges are trying to do to recoup the money being cut from state budgets. And they’re trying to do it without being transparent about what the fees are, who owes them, and why students should pay them.

An Epidemic of Confusing Fees

These fees aren’t limited to public universities suffering from funding cuts in conservative states. They are an epidemic across the nation and are sometimes far over the price of tuition itself. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the mandatory fees charged by the school cost six times more than in-state tuition.

These large mandatory fees aren’t the only way colleges are coming after students for more money.

Students are hit with other fees for “freshman counseling,” “undergraduate entering,” and strangely enough, one college levies a fee for a free HIV test. Paying fees can severely impact students’ finances, but not paying them can result in academic probation or even force them to drop out.

These fees are added for a few reasons. In some cases, states lock tuition in at a set rate regardless of increasing costs for universities, forcing schools to re-label increase in costs as fees. Additionally, “fee” is recognized as being more palatable than tuition increase, even when universities have the option to call a spade a spade.

Fees aren’t going away, but universities can aim to be more transparent about what they cost and what students get for paying them.

Has your school sent you a bill for surprising fees? Share your story in the comments below.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education February 15, 2018

How Can Universities Build Their Brands?

Students in higher education today have an array of choices when it comes to selecting the university provides the best fit for their needs.

Ivy League schools and the Big 10 always have a waiting list of hopeful admission candidates. Their iconic brands are legendary, characterized by academic excellence, elitism, and selectivity.

State universities and private colleges competing for the same students have to build a brand to attract their students. The question is, “How can universities build their brands?”

The marketing strategy that works

Colleges and universities can no longer exist as separate ivory towers that wait for hopeful students to tap at the admissions door.

Smart universities have discovered their focus, and they promote that niche at every opportunity. Purdue University has the OWL Writing Lab, and Dartmouth University offers education leadership advice. MIT provides open courseware – free classes that anyone can take. These schools deliver complementary services, and the quality of information piques the interest of prospective students.

Providing useful content is a typical business to business (B2B) strategy designed to convert prospective clients into customers. Universities can do the same thing by curating content that helps prospective candidates take the next step in enrolling.

Take advantage of cross-platform marketing

Decades ago, all of the marketing materials for higher education were printed. Bound undergraduate and graduate catalogs described courses and outlined degree plans. Glossy pictures portrayed idyllic campus life.

Today’s marketing, however, exists in several formats and across many platforms, including a website, video channel, and social media sharing tools.

Universities that develop a consistent and easily recognized brand, complete with consistent colors and stylized logos, are on their way to building a universally recognized names.

Be the brand

A brand is more than an attractive logo or clever videos.

Authentic branding takes place when the brand permeates the job of everyone on campus. If your university values stewardship, then your work should demonstrate stewardship at every level, whether you are teaching or conducting research.

Marketing and branding exist in a vacuum if the college leadership and faculty do not get behind the brand. The school’s mission must be something that every employee can articulate and model in every interaction they have with the public.

These three brand-building strategies aren’t the only way to build a college name, but they can get universities started on the right path to creating a consistent definition of their role in higher education.

Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, Higher Education, Higher Education EdTech February 12, 2018

How to Create Your Own Classroom Edtech Tools

You know you need to get on board with using educational technology in your classroom. But you’re having trouble finding just the right app to meet the needs of your students. Sometimes, it can seem like the implementation of new edtech tools drains the valuable time that it’s supposed to save.

If that’s the case, have you considered creating edtech tools of your own?

You may think you don’t have enough time or expertise, but building edtech for your own students is easier than you think.

Here are some ways to get started.

Learn Relevant Technical Skills

Never tried coding or UX design? Do you think it’s too hard to learn? Think again! You can pick up coding skills for free at sites like Codecademy, or take a tutorial on computer programming at Khan Academy. Share your knowledge with others and take advantage of the expertise of your colleagues, too.

Collaborate With Edtech Companies

These companies are eager to serve the needs of educators, but they are limited in their understanding of tools that teachers would be most likely to use. Many entrepreneurs, although they have ample technical expertise, have not spent enough time in classrooms to have a practical understanding of the day-to-day life of a classroom. For this reason, they constantly seek input and feedback from teachers. Partnerships with edtech companies can provide helpful connections while you build your entrepreneurial and technical skill.

Work With Other Teachers

In 2015, a group of teachers at a charter school called KIPP Bay Area created an app that customized Khan Academy playlists by aligning them with MAP assessments and with the Eureka Math curriculum. Because of their collaboration, these teachers were able to identify a need within their teaching community and pool their expertise to create a solution. Powerful things happen when teachers work together to solve problems.

Pilot a Program

Once you have acquired the skills and the connections and identified a problem in your school or district, it’s time to start a pilot program. Whether it’s an app to facilitate the flipped/blended learning process or a tool to easily aggregate assessment data, get your colleagues on board with testing it in their classrooms. Make sure you track and document the effect of your pilot on student achievement and learning. You may be amazed at what you are able to accomplish.

Teacher-created tech tools are well within your reach, effectively putting you in the driver’s seat of edtech in your own classroom.

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Higher Education January 31, 2018

Mistakes that Can End a College Presidency

The college presidency is the apex of university leadership. No other role defines the institution’s image like this position.

Getting in this office and staying there takes skill and wisdom. By the time a higher ed candidate becomes a college president, that person has likely held a variety of leadership positions at various colleges and amassed a wealth of experience.

Even then, the college presidency can be a difficult job. Errors in judgment happen. Some mistakes can even end your college presidency.

Tunnel vision

New college presidents sometimes rely heavily on the advice of close insiders. It’s natural to trust the closest advisers in your cabinet, but doing so limits your point of view, resulting in a one-sided opinion. In essence, it’s like wearing blinders.

Academic Impressions cites heavy reliance on the kitchen cabinet, a counsel of insiders, as one of the common mistakes new college presidents make. It’s tempting to solicit counsel from your most trusted advisors, but doing so can give you tunnel vision.

Dirty laundry

Nothing fuels gossip and ignites a tailspin like the scent of a scandal.

College presidents are human. They make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are scandalous. Scandal can destroy a presidency, especially in this era of transparency. Social media has become the vehicle for sharing this information, and news travels fast.

Affairs, DUIs, and domestic disturbances are the fodder for scandal, and scandalous behavior can derail your presidency.

Poor contract negotiations

Employment contracts may be tedious reading, but the college president who doesn’t peruse his or her contract will be frustrated before the end of the first year. All too often, a candidate is eager to accept the position before taking the time to understand the contract and performance expectations.

Your contract should fit your requirements as well as those of the college. Make sure your agreement includes not only the benefits you need but also the benefits you want.

More importantly, have your attorney review the document.

Failure to take care of money and people

Universities run on finances and culture. College presidents who understand neither will find their career-derailing quicker than university students leaving on holiday. Neglecting finances will signal the demise of a career. Staying on top of financial reports is critical. College presidents personify the culture of the campus at every event, and donors look for an alignment with the college’s philosophy.

Mistakes like these can end your college presidency; learning how to avoid them may lead to your success.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education January 27, 2018

Why Can’t Most College Graduates Write a Decent Essay?

Writing is a recursive skill.

It involves reading and analysis as much as it does writing and editing. After twelve years of writing instruction in school, students should have mastered the art of writing before coming to college. University-level scholarship should be where they refine their rhetorical skills while exploring courses of study.

Instead, college students are graduating with gaps in their instruction, a lack of writing experience, and desultory writing skills. In fact, most college graduates seem unable to write a decent essay.

Gaps in instruction

College students do not master the art of writing, in part, because they have not been held accountable for quality writing in middle and high school. The instructional focus has instead been on reader-writer workshops that cheat students out of understanding the basic building blocks of language. A focus on whole language has destroyed student writing.

Attention to syntax and spelling has waned over the last decade, but that’s not the only challenge. Students are mostly incapable of mounting a coherent and logical argument. Their rhetorical skills are deficient and their grammar appalling.

Who is taking responsibility for the deficit in writing skill? No one, it turns out.

Lack of writing experience

College students have limited essay writing experience. Teachers do not require their students to write essays, largely because the teachers themselves have difficulty grading them.

Evaluating writing is labor-intensive, and teachers often skip giving an in-depth analysis and feedback of writing in favor of holistic scoring.

Mediocre writing is commonplace

Students are ill-prepared to write, and the result is mediocrity.

Excellent writing skills are rarely taught anymore. High school teachers do not teach rhetoric because they haven’t learned it. College professors do not have time to instruct students in logic and rhetoric because they have a course of study to present. It’s assumed that college students will already have the skills needed for writing, and it goes without saying that students should be able to write a grammatically correct sentence.

Instead, most college students can’t put their thoughts together on paper. They are unable to express themselves clearly and coherently in writing, they lack vocabulary skills, and the businesses who are hiring college grads have noticed the deficiency.

Writing is thinking. Until we teach writing in a systematic way that includes not only grammar, usage, and mechanics, but also logic and rhetoric, we’ll continue to award degrees to college graduates who can’t write a decent essay.

Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education January 23, 2018

In College Remedial Classes, Unprepared Students Get Unprepared Instructors

If you feel unprepared for the rigors of college, you’re not the only one. The chances are good that your instructor is equally unready to teach you.

Universities assign remedial classes to teaching assistants, adjunct instructors and sometimes the newest faculty members. Those with the lowest standing – and often the least amount of teaching experience — teach remedial classes. Elite professors of distinction teach only upper-level classes; you won’t have access to the best in higher ed.

Unprepared students get unprepared instructors.

How the system works

Remedial classes are most often assigned to part-time instructors. These teachers often have only a bachelor’s degree. Many work for several colleges, and in doing so, keep minimal office hours. Colleges do not require that the instructors have a background in teaching.

Assigning full-fledged university professors to remedial classes offers little hope for ameliorating the situation. Universities do not mandate that their fully-tenured faculty have backgrounds in education. These professors have been hired because of their prominence in their fields of study, not for their ability to close learning gaps.

Thought-leadership and remedial instruction are worlds apart.

Who gets left behind

As a result, remedial classes are failing students.

According to the Community College Research Center, three out of every five students enrolled in remedial college English classes don’t acquire the skills needed for college coursework. The prospects are worse for remedial math classes, where 80% of students never make it to college-level math.

Good grades are no indication of success

You may have earned As and Bs in high school, but even a 4.0 GPA is no guarantee that you’ll be able to skip developmental classes in college.

Prepare now

Having to take remedial college classes adds to the cost of a college education, requiring both money and time.

Enrollees will not see a tuition break for remedial classes. All tuition hours are billed the same, but the hours spent in remedial courses will not count toward a degree plan. Instead, these courses hold students in limbo until they are ready for the rigors of authentic college work.

To prepare for your college education and skip remedial classes altogether, do these things:

Take your high school classes seriously by studying the material and mastering it.
Get a feel for a college class by taking a dual-enrollment course Close gaps early. Hire a tutor and sign up for study sessions to get the help you need.
Close learning gaps early. Hire a tutor and sign up for study sessions to get the help you need.
Do well on standardized assessments and placement tests by reviewing what will be testing and practicing for the exam.

Hopefully, you’ll be prepared enough to skip remedial classes.