July 13th, 2010
Education News
Roundup
Articles posted by five reliably interesting sources of
news about higher education.
What does 'open' really mean?
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52859
July 13th, 2010
Another article on open education hidden behind a journal
paywall, but who cares when we have Tony Bates to provide
us with what is probably much more insightful analysis. And
I certainly support his observation about the model being
described here: "I think the idea of opening up classes to non-
registered students is a good one, but not just making them
relatively ‘outside' participants of a class designed deliberately
for face-to-face teaching. Wouldn't it be more logical to
open up classes deliberately designed for distance delivery
to non-registered participants, and design them carefully
for joint use?" Yes. This is what George Siemens and I
have done with the Connectivist-style courses. Bates also
says "our systems are unnecessarily restrictive in allowing in
particular mature adults to access university programs. The
real problem is a lack of places in the system, and hence over-
zealous admission requirements, rather than finding means
to combine registered students with others." Too true. Tony
Bates, e-learning & distance education resources, July 12, 2010
[Tags: Connectivism , Adult Learning ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Getting It Right the First Time
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/ccdc
July 13th, 2010
WASHINGTON — Starting an educational institution from
scratch is a hard task. But it does have its advantages. Just
ask the founding set of administrators and instructors at
the Community College of the District of Columbia, which
wrapped up its first academic year a few months ago.
They believe the institution's relative newness — and therefore
its lack of entrenched faculty and staff — give them the ideal
opportunity to implement the academic and administrative
practices considered likeliest to improve student success.
Though college officials hope to create an institution where
data collection is an everyday occurrence and nearly all
academic decisions are based on that evidence, they have
to get substantial buy-in from faculty and staff, who haven’t
Published by: philosophyandrew
had enough time to become entrenched but have plenty
of preconceived notions of their own about teaching and
learning.
“We have some barriers to break down internally,”
acknowledges Jonathan Gueverra, the college’s founding chief
executive officer. “Even if you have the luxury of bringing in all
new people, you have the problem of trying to present before
them a blank slate and then showing them what we want done.
The one thing I know about all faculty is that they recognize
the need for students to succeed. Using data and knowledge,
we want to provide them with that springboard.”
So far, the community college has only 37 full-time faculty
members and well over 100 adjuncts. Many of them came
directly from teaching at the University of the District of
Columbia — the troubled land-grant that, for ages, was the
city’s lone public institution. Now, it is the incubation site for
the new community college until it moves across town and
becomes a freestanding institution.
Marilyn A. Hamilton, the college’s Achieving the Dream
program coordinator and an early childhood education
instructor, is among those at the new community college
leading the push for data integration at all levels. Currently,
she is working with professors across disciplines to infuse
technology into their teaching.
For example, she hopes that by finding a way to gauge
students' work over the length of a course, instructors will be
able to identify the areas in which students are deficient before
gaps in learning grow. Then, using everything from online
games to YouTube, students can walk themselves through
tutorials to catch up on whatever specific course material they
still don’t understand, instead of sorting through everything
all over again.
“Every discipline at the college is up for program review,”
Hamilton says. “We’re helping faculty design their courses in
a way that is more interactive and so that it is clear to students
what the expectations are. We want to embed that technology
into the course delivery to build a culture of evidence. This
should be able to help students be even more successful in
discipline-specific courses as well as remediation.”
As part of the college’s curriculum review, each course’s
objectives must align with its student outcomes. Hamilton
noted that for certain courses, this means a capstone
experience where there was none, or a new set of exams. Many
of the courses at the community college were given in the
first two years at UDC and so are now being adopted for the
new institution. For her early childhood education courses,
students will now have to create a portfolio of their work
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July 13th, 2010
throughout the semester, much like their counterparts at the
baccalaureate level do.
“It’s all about changing the mindset of people,” Hamilton says.
“It’s not so much starting from scratch, but introducing people
to a new way of doing business. Some of them having been
teaching the same way for 20 years, and they have their own
way of doing things. We have to be more data-driven. Some are
already there, and others will have to be brought along kicking
and screaming.”
So far, though, Hamilton says the transition among faculty
who came to the community college from UDC has been
relatively smooth. And though two semesters' worth of data
is hardly enough to make any concrete judgments about the
institution and its students, the initial retention numbers are
pleasing to Gueverra and his team.
For example, the college retained 70 percent of its 688
first-time freshman students who enrolled last fall to the
spring semester. But this figure doesn't tell much about the
institution given that most comparable data sets compare fall-
to-fall retention instead of fall-to-spring retention. Of these
first-time freshmen, 82 percent of them required at least some
remediation.
Reforming remediation and further boosting this percentage
also depends heavily on data collection. Gueverra notes that
college staff members made over 400 phone calls in the past
week to reach the first-time freshmen who did not return
to the college, find out what happened, and adapt remedial
coursework to future students’ need based on what they heard.
The same team of student support staffers is also blanket
testing all incoming students in need of remediation as well.
“If we do this right, we’ll know at some point what we’re
doing to make a dent to stem to number of students in
developmental education,” Gueverra said. “We’re also going to
assess every student up front, as early as possible, and alert
faculty members to begin to provide them with information
about their students that’ll help them succeed.”
If Gueverra and company are unsure whether they’ve made
an impact on the way their existing faculty and staff go about
their business at the new community college, then they will
certainly leave their mark on all newly recruited professors to
the institution.
“All new faculty must be familiar with an assessment of
student learning,” says Jacqueline Skinner Jackson, dean of
academic affairs. “They must be familiar with online learning
and must be familiar with instructional technology. We want
those skills embedded into the culture to feed student success."
New Take on Work Force Education
When C. Vannessa Spinner, the college’s associate dean for
workforce development, was told by Guevarra that he would
like there to be no divide between the workforce and academic
sides of the new community college, she responded with a
resounding, “Hallelujah!” she recalls
The way Spinner sees it, too many community colleges
operate with highly bifurcated missions, pushing academic
and workforce development faculty, staff and students apart
from one another when they could be best served by working
Published by: philosophyandrew
together. So, at the new community college, work force
development is operating differently.
First, the college shed programs like barbering, cosmetology
and any unattached apprenticeship work — programs that had
been offered by UDC — that did not result in an industry-
recognized certificate or credential. Then, it began adopting
stackable credentials for fields like nursing, so that students
earn progressively greater certification as they go along. For
example, nursing students are certified as a home health
aide and then a nursing assistant while they work toward an
associate degree in nursing. With this approach, students are
guaranteed at least some credential if they have to stop out,
or can work in jobs with advanced-salary potential as they
continue on their career pathway.
Additionally, Spinner notes that all workforce development
students are now earning college credit for their work, whether
they are aware of it or not. All workforce development
programs at the college also have embedded basic academic
training, improving the students' reading and math skills as
they learn job-specific skills, and eventually making them
eligible for credit-bearing work. Washington State’s much-
lauded Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (or I-
BEST) program, an initiative aimed at helping “underserved
students,” was cited as the model for this method.
“I don’t want to sit here and say, ‘You’re going to have to
complete four years’ worth of literacy work before you can take
a job training program to assist you to help your family,' ”
Gueverra said.
A Promising Start
Students who have been around Washington long enough to
see the ups and downs at UDC — whose graduation rate has
hovered below 20 percent and is among the lowest in the
country — are pleased with their time at the new community
college and believe it could have a positive impact on the city.
Ricardo White, a 49-year-old who recently graduated with
an associate degree in early childhood education, says he
hardly noticed the transition of his program from UDC to the
community college last year, noting that his professors fully
explained the change and helped students figure out what it
meant for them. The new attitude of fellow students, faculty
and staff at the new institution, he says, is a far cry from what
he saw two decades ago when he came to UDC right out of high
school to become a paralegal -- and eventually dropped out
because of a lack of support from his professors.
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July 13th, 2010
“I just felt like I was given the cold shoulder,” White says of the
faculty and staff he encountered at UDC in the 1980s. “People
are changing. There are so many highly motivated people and
there is so much more community involvement. Just being
here, you can tell the commitment the community college has
to your success. This is where change starts. I think it can
change Washington.”
Michelle Adams, a 42-year-old community college student in
early childhood education, echoes her classmate’s sentiment.
She, too, dropped out of UDC in the mid-1980s when she
enrolled there right out of high school, but now says her
experience is much more positive.
Adams says she was anxious about her program — which she
enrolled in while it was still part of UDC — moving to the new
community college, but says the change has helped her focus
on her career goals.
“When I first heard about the change, I said ‘What’s to become
of me?’ ” Adams says. “I had this fear that I was going to be too
old for a community college. I thought I was going to be the
only 30-year-old here, but when I started I realized there were
a lot of people like me. It’s been great to be so focused and so
open with one another.”
Both White and Adams hope their success at the new
community college will inspire their friends and family to
attend and further their education. The opportunity for D.C.
residents to attend a community college in their own city, they
say, has been a long time coming.
Keiser University is a regionally accredited, private, career
university that provides educational programs at the
undergraduate and graduate levels ...
The purpose of Southeastern Institute is to offer quality
career education. Our programs focus on specialized skills and
knowledge needed for today's ...
Keiser University is a regionally accredited, private, career
university that provides educational programs at the
undergraduate and graduate levels ...
Transparency law for
professors sets off academic
freedom debate
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52858
July 13th, 2010
Professors oppose transparency. Or, at least, this is what
might be concluded from opposition to a new "transparency
law" in Texas. The law requires "universities... to post
professors' syllabi, curriculum vitae, published works and
salaries. Attendance costs and departmental budget reports
also must be posted." Brian Leiter says , "this new law has one
and only one purpose: to make it easier for right-wing crazies
and ignoramuses to target and harass faculty." That may be
true, It doesn't make it a bad law, though. What does make
it a bad law is that it is aimed at state institutions only. I'd
Published by: philosophyandrew
like to see transparency applied across the board. I'd like to
know what private schools teach, and what it costs them. I'd
also like clear reporting of corporate and executive salaries,
the contents of the reports and analyses they send each other,
holdings, subsidiaries, and agreements and cartels with other
corporations. Once we have this information, we can make
an informed decision on how overpaid and underqualified
professors are, and how well public institutions compare
with their private counterparts. Leigh Minsil, Dallas Morning
News, July 12, 2010 [Tags: Schools , Online Learning , Books
, Academia , Private Schools ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Rev. Paul Locatelli, Key Jesuit
Academic, Dies
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/qt/
rev_paul_locatelli_key_jesuit_academic_dies
July 13th, 2010
Rev. Paul Leo Locatelli, who was for 20 years president of
Santa Clara University, died Monday morning of pancreatic
cancer. At the time of his death, he was secretary of higher
education for the international Society of Jesus. Details about
his life may be found here.
Online Learning and
Traditional Universities
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52857
July 13th, 2010
Online learning is making clear the contradiction between
equity and elite institutions. This contradiction is especially
apparent when the things that define an institution as "elite"
have nothing to do with learning. The real objection is
loss of faculty control, as University of California staff argue
that e-learning "not only degraded education but centralized
academic policy that undermines faculty control of academic
standards and curriculum as well as campus autonomy…
a picture emerges of undergraduates jammed through a
mediocre education and ladder rank faculty substantially
removed from both control over and involvement with
undergraduate education." If faculty showed any interest in
keeping costs down,reaching more student, or even making
academic papers openly accessible, I'd have more sympathy
with their desire for control. But the relation between the
professors and their entitled students is symbiotic - they
need each other, to reenforce the idea that they deserve
to be there, that they are better than other people. George
Siemens, elearnspace, July 12, 2010 [Tags: Online Learning ,
Accessibility , Academia ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Protect Unpaid Internships
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/07/13/aoun
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July 13th, 2010
July 13th, 2010
Under new regulations proposed by the Department of
Labor, unpaid college internships are preferable if the intern
“performs no or minimal work.”
That’s right: Even as many colleges and universities are
expanding experiential learning, federal officials are issuing
guidelines that would water down this powerful approach to
education.
In April, the Department of Labor crafted a six-part “test” that
employers, students and colleges must satisfy to ensure that
unpaid internships qualify as legal. Among the six criteria is
the following requirement: “The employer that provides the
training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of
the intern.”
Whether or not the Labor Department’s proposal would have
a direct impact on most college internships is the subject of
debate. Defenders of the policy argue that it is simply a more
stringent application of the longstanding Fair Labor Standards
Act. Their goal is laudable: to protect students from being used
as free labor, particularly by for-profit companies.
However, just the threat of increased regulation could have
a chilling effect on the willingness of employers to offer
internships -- paid or unpaid. With experiential learning on
the rise, through co-ops, internships and other approaches, the
country cannot afford to create disincentives for employers to
play a valuable role in the educational enterprise.
Why is American higher education heading in the direction
of experiential learning? The value proposition is clear:
According to the National Association of Colleges and
Employers’ 2010 Job Outlook Survey, 75 percent of employers
prefer job candidates with relevant work experience. More
than 90 percent prefer to hire interns or co-ops who have
worked for their organization.
But the real benefits of experiential learning go far beyond the
practical advantage it affords students entering the workforce.
Educators are increasingly realizing that the integration of
study and practice is a more powerful way to learn.
Perhaps more than ever before, this generation of graduates
will need to navigate the unknown. They will need to be nimble
and responsive to change, and become leaders of change. A
strong foundation in their field of study is essential, but less
tangible skills will be just as important: confidence, poise,
adaptability, and the ability to work collaboratively. These are
the foundations of leadership.
When students participate in well-developed internships or
co-op experiences, they immerse themselves in professional
settings, ranging from multinational corporations to small
not-for-profits. They bring their experiences back to the
classroom, enriching the curriculum for themselves and their
peers. They gain knowledge that will serve them for a lifetime.
Rules that encourage student interns to perform “no or
minimal work” are antithetical to the premise of experiential
learning. Under these rules, internships or co-op positions
would deteriorate into job shadowing, a pale imitation of true
experiential learning.
Published by: philosophyandrew
We all share the Department of Labor’s concerns about
the potential for exploitation, but the role of determining
the educational value of an internship or co-op should rest
with educational institutions. Colleges and universities must
continue their active monitoring of experiential learning
programs, and place students in secure and productive
environments that further their education.
A sustained commitment to experiential learning includes
developing a strong network of employers who regularly
provide employment opportunities for students. Through this
network, institutions cultivate partnerships and work closely
with students to find the best fit for both sides. Schools can and
should require employers to provide detailed job descriptions
that set clear expectations. In addition, employers should
outline the learning outcomes students are expected to achieve
upon completing their experiences.
An interesting consequence of the Labor Department’s
proposal is that it may create more demand for overseas
internships. At Northeastern University, where we just
celebrated 100 years of cooperative education, we believe the
second century of experiential learning will be global. This
is vitally important for today’s students, who are more likely
than previous graduates to live and work abroad. A co-op
or internship in another country is, by definition, more than
academic tourism; it is true global education.
But we don’t want international expansion to come at the
expense of what we’re doing here at home. In a recent letter
urging the Labor Department to proceed cautiously, Sen. John
Kerry underscored the importance of experiential learning to
the country as a whole: “Be it through internships, fellowships
or co-op programs, this symbiotic relationship helps foster
economic development and a competitive workforce.”
As we invest in our future by investing in higher education,
we should look for ways to expand, not diminish, the impact
of experiential learning. We owe this to our students, our
economy, and our society.
This position is responsible for the coordination and
implementation of "Bulls Nite Out" programming, outreach to
commuter, non-traditional and ...
The Dean of Students is responsible for providing innovative
direction and overall management for the Student Life unit.
The Dean of Students is a ...
While the Director of Learning Outcomes Assessment has
the primary responsibility for implementing the college's
outcomes assessment plan, the ...
OLNet Fellowship Week 2 –
Initial Thoughts on Tracking
Downloaded OERs
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52856
July 13th, 2010
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Scott Leslie describes how to track the use of learning
resources, and deals with the objections to them. "I can hear
the objections already... does this infringe on the idea of
"openness"? What level of disclosure is required? ... I do want
to respect these concerns, but at the same time, I wonder how
valid they are. You are reading this content right now, and it
has a number of 'web bugs' inserted in it to track usage yet is
shared under a license that permits reuse." For the record, I do
not use 'web bugs' or other tracking software in OLDaily. I find
it distasteful, like looking in people's living room windows.
Your mileage may vary, and I'm not making judgements.
Scott Leslie, edtechpost, July 12, 2010 [Tags: Operating
Systems , Open Educational Resources ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
New Programs: Leadership,
Homeland Security, Labor
Relations, Taxation
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/programs
July 13th, 2010
GF Education Group, Inc.
An education company specializing in the testing and
evaluating of college graduates is seeking to engage educators
in designing and writing test ...
Lansing Community College
Qualifications: EDUCATIONAL/EXPERIENCE
REQUIREMENTS: - Bachelor's Degree required in education,
instructional design, instructional technology or ...
Brown University
This position works closely with academic departments and
in alignment with CE strategic goals, this position develops
programs at the executive ...
Brown University
This position oversees a number of curriculum designers who
produce online course content and assist faculty in instruction
and students in course ...
University of Maryland University College
The Program Director, Criminal Justice is responsible for
providing administrative and academic support for the MSM/
Criminal Justice and Intelligence ...
Anne Arundel Community College
While the Director of Learning Outcomes Assessment has
the primary responsibility for implementing the college's
outcomes assessment plan, the ...
Knee Jerk Reactions
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52855
July 13th, 2010
Raj Boora asks, "is the edtech-sphere disliking the BB
Collaborate announcement because of some real concerns
Published by: philosophyandrew
with regards to BB and how they do things to those systems
that they acquire, or is it something more 'religious'?"
Given the mistrust Blackboard has generated over the last
few years, it's not surprising to see disappointment over
the latest announcement. And in Canada, as Tony Bates
notes , it's disappointing to see yet more of our innovative
technology sold south of the border. But overall, with a
"well played" from Siemens and acceptance that it was a
smart move by Blackboard, the edublogosphere has been
remarkably moderate in its response, and not really knee-jerk
at all. Raj Boora, EDITing in the Dark, July 12, 2010 [Tags:
Connectivism , Canada , Blackboard Inc. ] [ Link ] [ Comment
]
Land Grants Are Selling Their
Cows
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/qt/
land_grants_are_selling_their_cows
July 13th, 2010
Fring's mis-use of Skype
software was damaging to our
brand and reputation
Source: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=52854
July 13th, 2010
It would be nice if web conferencing systems like Skype all
interoperated, but that seems not to be in the cards. Fring is
accusing Skype of blocking them . "Now that fring expanded
capacity to support the huge demand for video calling for all
users, Skype has blocked us from doing so. They are afraid of
open mobile communication. Cowards." Skype denies that it's
a block, exactly. "Fring was using Skype software in a way it
wasn't designed to be used – and in a way which is in breach of
Skype's API Terms of Use and End User License Agreement."
And accusing Fring of doing the blocking . Either way, it's
pretty petty. Robert Miller, Skype Blogs, July 12, 2010 [Tags:
Audio Chat and Conferencing , Branding , Conferencing ,
Video , Interoperability ] [ Link ] [ Comment ]
Academic Outcomes of Study
Abroad
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/abroad
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July 13th, 2010
In 2000, researchers began an ambitious effort to document
the academic outcomes of study abroad across the 35-
institution University System of Georgia. Ten years later,
they’ve found that students who study abroad have improved
academic performance upon returning to their home campus,
higher graduation rates, and improved knowledge of cultural
practices and context compared to students in control groups.
They’ve also found that studying abroad helps, rather than
hinders, academic performance of at-risk students.
“The skeptics of study abroad have always made the argument
that study abroad is a distraction from the business of getting
educated, so you can enter the economy and become a
contributing member of society,” said Don Rubin, professor
emeritus of speech communication and language education at
the University of Georgia and research director for GLOSSARI
-- the Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying
Abroad Research Initiative. “I think if there’s one take-
home message from this research as a whole it is that
study abroad does not undermine educational outcomes, it
doesn’t undermine graduation rate, it doesn’t undermine final
semester GPA. It’s not a distraction.
“At worst, it can have relatively little impact on some students’
educational careers. And at best it enhances the progress
toward degree. It enhances the quality of learning as reflected
in things like GPA.”
The GLOSSARI project is of impressive scope and scale, and
not every finding shows a positive impact of study abroad
-- self-reported knowledge of world geography, for instance,
actually decreased across time both for study abroad students
and for a control group, and researchers found no significant
difference in knowledge of global interdependence between
the two sets of students. Rubin and Richard C. Sutton, director
of the GLOSSARI project, executive director of international
programs at Western Kentucky University, and formerly
assistant vice chancellor for international programs at the
University System of Georgia, presented these and other
findings in a “final report” on the GLOSSARI project at
the recent NAFSA: Association of International Educators
conference in Kansas City.
Among their findings:
Graduation Rates and GPA: Researchers compared
graduation rates and grade point averages for 19,109 study
abroad students, from across the state system (which includes
community colleges, research universities and institutions in
between), with a control group of 17,903 students selected to
match the institution, semester of study and class standing
of the students who’d studied abroad. “What we’ve tried to
do in this project is to be very, very careful about who we
compare with study abroad students,” said Rubin. “There are
all these arguments that say the reason why graduation rates
are higher for study abroad students are they are of higher
socioeconomic status, or they may be more industrious, or
they may be choosing easier majors.”
Study abroad students, in other words, aren’t representative
of all students in the Georgia system. So, rather than merely
compare the study abroad students’ graduation rates with
system-wide rates for first-time, full-time freshmen, who drop
Published by: philosophyandrew
out for any number of reasons, the researchers compared
study abroad students to a control group of students who
had already persisted to the same point in college. They
also constructed the control group to closely represent the
institutions the study abroad students were coming from (the
University of Georgia sends more students abroad than, say,
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and the control group
was created with a goal of reflecting that). “Our goal,” said
Rubin, “was to isolate the effect of study abroad and to make
our groups as comparable in every respect except that one
group studied abroad and the other did not.”
They found that the four-year graduation rate was 49.6 percent
for study abroad students, compared to 42.1 percent for
students in the control group (and 24 percent for students
in the University System of Georgia as a whole). Six-
year rates were 88.7 percent for study abroad participants
and 83.4 percent for students in the control group(and
49.3 percent system-wide). The effect held across various
subgroups of students divided by gender, race and SAT
score, but was particularly pronounced for certain groups
– most dramatically, four-year graduation rates for African-
Americans who’d studied abroad were 31 percent higher than
for African-American students in the control group. Four-
year graduation rates for other nonwhite students who’d
studied abroad were 18 percent higher than for their peers
in the control group. Nationally, nonwhite students remain
underrepresented in study abroad -- according to the latest
data, from the Institute of International Education’s Open
Doors survey, 81.8 percent of Americans studying abroad in
2007-8 were white.
The GLOSSARI Project found that for students who’d studied
abroad, their mean cumulative GPA prior to going overseas
was 3.24 and the mean cumulative GPA afterward was 3.30.
For the control group over the same period, the mean GPA
increased from 3.03 to 3.06. Researchers found a particularly
pronounced effect of study abroad on academic performance
among students who entered college with the lowest SAT
scores. Among students who entered college with a combined
SAT score of 800 (on the verbal and math sections), those who
studied abroad ended up with a GPA of 3.21 compared to 3.14
for those students who stayed stateside. On the other extreme,
for those students who entered college with a perfect SAT score
of 1600, study abroad had no effect on their GPA, which on
average was 3.25 regardless.
“The conventional wisdom is that students who are at risk
should be discouraged from studying abroad altogether,”
Rubin said. “But this suggests that study abroad can actually
be an intervention to enhance the success for college students
who are at-risk. Rather than derailing them, rather than
diverting them, it actually focuses them.”
Intercultural Learning Outcomes: In another phase of the
study, researchers administered a 29-question intercultural
learning outcomes instrument to 440 study abroad and 230
non-study abroad participants from 13 Georgia institutions.
“There are so many different ways in which students are going
overseas and we had to look at a way to assess that across this
variety of platforms,” said Sutton.
From pre- to post-test, study abroad participants surpassed
non-study abroad participants in measures related to
6
July 13th, 2010
functional knowledge of cultural practices – the ability to say
what’s funny in another culture, for instance, or take a train
or bus to reach a destination. Study abroad students also grew
in their knowledge of cultural context – for example, in their
knowledge of how different cultural settings affect one’s own
reactions and interactions with others – relative to non-study
abroad students.
Again, on measures related to knowledge of global
interdependence and world geography there was no significant
difference between the control group and study abroad
students. (The general decline in knowledge of world
geography – the ability to name four rivers in Europe and three
in Asia, or name six countries in Africa – was, unfortunately,
a common finding irrespective of time overseas).
The GLOSSARI project did not consider outcomes related to
second-language acquisition during study abroad (although
lots of other studies have considered these questions).
Researchers did find, however, that time spent speaking
a target language was correlated with higher intercultural
learning more generally, Rubin said.
Disciplinary Learning Outcomes: Another phase of the study
considered student learning in courses taught on campus
and abroad. Researchers looked at three case studies of
courses taught on the home campus and overseas – a
Novels of Jane Austen class (taught in Oxford), a French
Revolution and Napoleon class (taught in Paris) and an
Intercultural Communication class (also taught in Paris). “I
was disappointed that despite some vigorous efforts we ended
up with only three really good case studies,” said Rubin.
“There were a variety of reasons why. We insisted that the
majority of the learning objectives had to be the same [in
both versions of the course]… another requirement was that
they had to be taught by the same teacher.” Researchers also
wanted the student assignments to be the same on campus
and overseas, as external evaluators looked at student work in
gauging student learning.
Students seemed to acquire more “fact detail” knowledge in
courses taught on campus -- in the Austen class, for instance,
students who took the course on campus cited more examples
in their essays. One external rater noted, of the campus-
based class, “I saw more answers that demonstrated a deeper
understanding, not just of Austen’s body of work, but also of
the political and social climate during the time of her writing.”
In some ways, Rubin said, this finding is to be expected, as the
duration of the study abroad version of the course was shorter
and students in that class read fewer of Austen’s books.
“On the other hand the big-picture kind of learning, the more
conceptual learning and the sense of why this is important or
why this is still relevant, clearly came across more strongly in
the study abroad classes,” Rubin said. For instance, students in
the French Revolution class “saw how the events of revolution
are interwoven into contemporary France, which is something
that students who studied it domestically never achieved. For
them it was just a history class.”
“One of the implications that people who design programs
might think about is the value of what’s now being called
hybrid learning abroad -- classes in which a substantial
component is done domestically,” Rubin said.
Published by: philosophyandrew
The GLOSSARI project was funded in part by a $547,000 U.S.
Department of Education grant, which expired June 30. Their
data collection work completed, Rubin and Sutton are now
making the GLOSSARI database available to other researchers
to pursue further questions.
Outcomes Research in Study Abroad
“What’s distinctive about the GLOSSARI project is that it’s
system-wide,” said Brian Whalen, president and CEO of the
Forum on Education Abroad. “No other project really matches
it, I don’t think, in terms of the scope and the coherence.”
But there’s no question that there has been a huge increase
in research into study abroad outcomes, as study abroad has
grown and as colleges increasingly emphasize the need to
assess student learning outcomes more generally. As the latest
indication of this, a NAFSA task force recently issued a report
on assessing international education -- which should, the
report argued, “be fully integrated into the broader assessment
of U.S. higher education."
Whalen, the editor of Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary
Journal of Study Abroad, said increased assessment activity
is happening on both institutional and faculty-driven levels.
“Projects such as the GLOSSARI project, which are very
comprehensive and are institutionally-based, are becoming
more common as institutions are seeking to establish
very good benchmarks for international education,” he
said. “Accrediting associations are holding those institutions
accountable.”
”And then you have another wave of research that’s coming
out of faculty members in disciplines” – many of whom
have led short-term study abroad programs. A recent issue
of Frontiers, for instance, included an article by education
scholars on the role of study abroad in teacher education,
and another article -- its first author a molecular and cellular
biologist – documented changes in intercultural knowledge
and competence as a result of international, undergraduate
research experience.
That same issue also highlighted the findings of the
Georgetown Consortium Project, another major, cross-
university study that which compared language acquisition
-- gains in oral proficiency, specifically -- and intercultural
learning of students who studied abroad and those who
studied the target language in U.S. classrooms. As the authors
of the latter study write, in outlining the context for their
research, research in student learning abroad has “increased
dramatically. During the 1970s, 189 research studies were
published; that number had increased 675 by the 1990s.
During the first decade of the 21st century, the number will
almost certainly exceed 1,000.”
The research on study abroad outcomes covers a broad
range of topics and uses a variety of instruments in asking
questions related to second-language acquisition, or changes
in attitudes, beliefs or knowledge as a result of study abroad.
Among the many tools being used in study abroad research
are the IDI (the Intercultural Development Inventory), the
CCAI (the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory), the OPI
(the oral proficiency interview), the SOPI (the simulated oral
proficiency interview), and the BEVI (the Beliefs, Events and
Values Inventory). The Beyond Immediate Impact: Study
7
July 13th, 2010
Abroad for Global Engagement (SAGE) project, based at the
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, uses an instrument
called the Global Engagement Survey to track long-term
outcomes of study abroad on dimensions including civic
engagement, knowledge production, philanthropy and social
entrepreneurship.
“There has been some outstanding research that’s already
been done in second-language learning overseas, in personal
development, intercultural growth, and attitudinal and
behavioral changes that occur as a result of study abroad,”
said Sutton, the GLOSSARI project director. “But what we felt
when we began the GLOSSARI study was that there had been
limited efforts and attention paid to learning outcomes and
knowledge acquisition and skill acquisition that we felt really
needed to be addressed.
“We saw this very much as a first step, although it turned out
to be a very long step.”
Designs and maintains a Center web-site that promotes the
program and offers comprehensive resources associated with
all aspects of Vietnamese ...
This position works in concert with the Senior International
Student and Scholar Advisor and other OIE staff to provide
student-visa advising, SEVIS ...
Responsibilities The Office of International Study Programs
seeks a qualified candidate to work with the Director and other
personnel in the Office to ...
The Feinstein International Center's goal is to develop and
promote operational and policy responses to protect and
strengthen the livelihoods of ...
Bailout for Tennessee Prepaid
Tuition Program
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/qt/
bailout_for_tennessee_prepaid_tuition_program
July 13th, 2010
Tennessee lawmakers are authorizing $15 million to stabilize
a prepaid tuition program that was supposed to be self-
sustaining but that is in danger of falling behind on its
commitments, Nashville Public Radio reported. The bailout
follows one in 2007 as the stock market started to decline.
Teaching vs. Research
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/grad
July 13th, 2010
It’s common for many at research universities to say that just
because they value scholarly production doesn’t mean they
don’t care about teaching. But a new study of political science
departments at doctoral institutions -- published in the journal
PS -- suggests that there may be a tradeoff.
The study examined 122 departments at universities that grant
doctorates in political science to see which institutions offer a
course for doctoral students on how to become good teachers.
It turns out that only a minority of departments (41) do so --
even though the American Political Science Association and
Published by: philosophyandrew
other have urged graduate programs to recognize that the
odds favor their students finding jobs at institutions that place
as much or more value on teaching as on research. Of the
41 programs with courses, 28 are required and the rest are
optional.
The analysis then tried to determine which programs were
most likely to offer these courses. The size of the department
and the size of the universities -- both of which could be
thought to measure the resources available for courses -- were
found not to be factors.
But there was an inverse relationship between research
productivity in departments and the odds of offering such
a course. The relationship, while significant, had notable
exceptions in the survey among public but not among
private institutions. Some of the public institutions with
strong research records -- such as Ohio State University, the
University of California at Berkeley and the University of
Wisconsin at Madison -- do have such courses. But as a general
rule, highly ranked private university departments do not.
Over all, public institutions were seven times more likely than
private institutions to offer such courses, the study found,
citing as a possible explanation “the public service component
of state institutions or the fact that public institutions are
consistently faced with state-mandated programs to enhance
teaching generally.”
The study notes that there are innovations that go beyond just
having a single course on teaching techniques. For example,
Baylor University, a relatively young doctoral program in
political science, has placed an emphasis on the idea that it is
training future college teachers with a “teaching apprentice”
program. In this program, grad students are assigned to work
with senior professors teaching an undergraduate course -- not
by becoming teaching assistants, but by analyzing the course.
The grad students prepare an annotated syllabus -- different
from the syllabus used -- to explore various teaching issues.
During the fourth year of the program, the grad students are
“instructors of record” for a course, but then in their fifth
year they shift to a focus on finishing dissertations. The study
suggests that this approach provides in-depth exposure to
teaching issues.
The paper on these issues was written by a professor (John
Ishiyama) and two doctoral students (Tom Miles and Christine
Balarezo) at the University of North Texas.
Position Summary: The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-
Determination in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton
University invites applications for a ...
Position Summary: The Department of Politics at Princeton
University is seeking qualified candidates who can contribute
through their research, ...
Position Summary: The Department of Politics at Princeton
University invites applications from senior scholars for
positions as tenured associate or ...
Position Summary: The Department of Politics is seeking
applications from well-qualified individuals for a position in
the field of Comparative ...
8
July 13th, 2010
Position Summary: The Department of Politics is seeking
applications from well-qualified individuals for a position in
the field of American Politics. ...
Mergers and Survival
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/07/13/mergers
July 13th, 2010
Like so many small private colleges, Dana College, a small
Lutheran institution on the outskirts of Omaha, has long been
precariously close to its death.
“I’ve worried about the college as long as I’ve known the
college,” says Myrvin Christopherson, a 1961 alumnus who was
Dana’s president from 1986 until 2005. During those 19 years,
not only did he weather several years of budget deficits and a
fire that destroyed the college’s Old Main, but he also increased
the college’s endowment from $1 million to more than 10 times
that. “It was always able to pull through.”
And that was the mentality that many alumni, donors, faculty
members, administrators and residents of the small town of
Blair, Neb., maintained, at least until a few weeks ago: Dana is
special, Dana is strong, Dana can survive.
But now that the college is almost certainly dead -- after the
Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association
of Colleges and Schools denied Dana’s request for continued
accreditation after a change of control that would have put it in
the hands of a group of investors -- supporters and observers
are wondering what else could have been done to keep Dana
alive.
Again and again, they turn to the same potential solution: a
merger or partnership between Dana and Midland Lutheran
College, in Fremont, Neb., another small institution of modest
financial means and below-capacity enrollment.
For decades, officials and supporters of Dana and Midland
occasionally considered joining forces, including when a key
donor to both institutions exhorted them to do so a few
years ago. But each time, the conclusion was reached that
a merger would be too expensive, or too wrenching to the
institutions and their towns, to succeed. "There's never been
a keen desire on the part of the faculties or administrations of
either institution," Christopherson says. "We were both critical
to the culture and education and life of these communities."
At many other small private colleges that have considered
mergers, the story is the same. Their institutions are unique,
special, like no other place on earth. Backers believe that their
institutions will be able to survive dwindling enrollments, high
tuition discount rates and rising costs. Though they've faced
scares during previous recessions -- as Dana and Midland both
did -- they've been able to make it through, and with that
history and confidence in their institutions, presidents and
boards take the leap of faith that they will be able to continue
on without merging.
Even at a time when the business model of nonprofit higher
education is perhaps being challenged on more fronts than
ever before, it's not clear that the leaders of struggling colleges
are considering mergers more seriously than they have in the
Published by: philosophyandrew
past. But, for some, the death of Dana might prove a cautionary
tale.
Mulling a Merger
For many years, neither Dana nor Midland Lutheran took
the possibility of a merger or partnership seriously. A mix
of passion, rivalry and ego led decision makers at the two
colleges to see their institutions, though small and heavily
tuition dependent, as endangered only abstractly. They knew
in their hearts that alma mater would live on indefinitely.
The most serious consideration of a merger happened just
a few years ago, after an Omaha World-Herald article in
December 2006 conveyed an ultimatum from a major donor
to both institutions: no capital donations until the viability of
a merger was thoroughly studied.
On first glance, and at a common sense level, a merger
would’ve been logical. Two small colleges, 25 miles apart, both
struggling to get by on enrollments far smaller than their
capacities and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America.
Upon closer inspection, though, a merger didn’t seem to make
sense to many of the parties involved. After the donor made
his plea, the two colleges brought in Presidential Practice, a
consulting firm staffed by former college presidents, to study
whether it would be possible to unite the colleges. “They
indicated that they didn’t feel a merger was feasible,” says
Dennis Gethmann, president of Dana's Board of Regents.
“The culture of the two colleges was too different” and their
resources were insufficient to make a merger work.
Had the colleges decided to move ahead on a merger, it’s likely
that one of the campuses would have had to close, he adds.
“Can you imagine the politics that would’ve been involved in
that?”
Christopherson says that the colleges would occasionally
consider collaboration, especially after they both became
affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in
the late 1980s. “Wouldn’t it be good if we had one Lutheran
college near Omaha?” he recalls many people at both colleges
thinking. “As small private colleges with small endowments,
we’ve both been really challenged for a long time. We were
looking for savings."
He wishes he had more seriously pursued a merger while
president. “In hindsight, maybe we should’ve come together.
I probably would have preferred that there would’ve been
some way that Dana could’ve been preserved rather than
this tragedy.” He adds: “Of course you always look back and
wonder, ‘What else could I have done, should I have done?’ ”
After rejecting the idea of a merger, and with the college
teetering over a cliff, Dana's Board of Regents decided in
March that handing over the college’s name, resources and
history to a for-profit corporation would be the only way
to keep the college alive in any form. The Higher Learning
Commission, though, threw a wrench in that plan when it
said it would deny the college continued accreditation under
the for-profit owners. After scrambling for close to two weeks
since that denial, both the buyers and the Dana board have
acknowledged that the college is almost certainly dead.
9
July 13th, 2010
The board held its final scheduled meeting on Monday
morning, appointing a receiver who has authority over the
college’s assets (owned by bondholders) and making plans to
ensure that students have access to their transcripts. “We’re
wrapping up the affairs of the college,” says Gethmann, the
board’s chair. An executive committee of four will stay on
to “take whatever steps to cease operations” in the coming
months.
The nonprofit Dana’s accreditation, he adds, will likely
continue until next spring, so that students who would’ve
been seniors this coming academic year can receive Dana
diplomas after completing their coursework elsewhere. Many
are heading to Midland.
Benjamin E. Sasse, who became president of Midland this
spring and grew up in Fremont, says many people at his
institution regret not doing more to save Dana. “A lot of us
wish that [a merger] had been pursued more aggressively.”
But the fact that there was no merger has been at least
a temporary boon for Midland. About 300 of Dana’s 550
students, Sasse says, have enrolled for the fall, bringing
Midland’s projected enrollment up to about 900. Before the
recession, the college’s enrollment peaked at 1,100 but often
hovered, with relative institutional health, around 900.
“We’re being mindful that these students chose to come here
but understand that Dana lives on for them,” he says. Former
Dana students will be housed with the friends they planned to
room with, and one home football game may be played on the
Dana campus.
Only time will tell whether the future applicants who would
have headed to Dana will find a niche at Midland.
Can Colleges Merge?
As the U.S. economy tumbled two years ago, some experts on
private colleges started to foresee an era of mergers. Though
there have been some mergers and partnerships, the killer
wave hasn’t hit the shore and some experts aren’t sure it will.
In August 2008, Richard H. Ekman, president of the Council
of Independent Colleges, told Inside Higher Ed then that
“we may be in an environment in which colleges in difficulty
are going to be willing to try more ambitious solutions,
such as mergers.” Between rising energy costs, institutions’
dependence upon tuition discounts to attract students and the
shrinking of donors’ wallets, “circumstances now are more
extreme than they have been,” he said.
Today, Ekman isn’t quite as sure. “Mergers are not the magic
bullet for most of these situations,” he says. “Some of the places
that can’t distinguish themselves are likely to continue at low
quality and in tough financial shape, and some of them are
going to close."
David Breneman, a professor at the University of Virginia’s
Curry School of Education, says that while the start of this
recession, like the start of previous ones over the last few
decades, hinted at the possibility of mergers, there haven’t
been nearly as many as some anticipated. “I don’t believe there
is a huge record of successful mergers in this country,” he says.
“It’s just pure geography. No one wants to give up their campus
and I think to successful merge … you probably need to be
Published by: philosophyandrew
in reasonable proximity to one another.” Even the 25 or so
miles between Dana and Midland may have proved to be too
far. “Why would anybody want to merge with them unless
they’re close enough that they can actually make meaningful
savings by selling some buildings and integrating the faculty
and administration?”
Alice Brown, former president of the Appalachian College
Association, wrote last fall in Inside Higher Ed that one small
college that she studied (in a project looking at institutions
that eventually closed) started off the merger process seeing
it as “salvation.” Within two years, administrators from the
dominant institution had dismantled most of what was left.
Her warning to colleges in dire economic straits: resist "hope"
that the institution will make it through, or the precedent of
other struggles it was able to survive
A senior fellow at the National Association of Independent
Colleges and Universities, Jon Fuller, says he doesn’t think
mergers are the best way for institutions to collaborate.
Instead, he points to regional partnerships like the Claremont
Colleges in California and the Five College Consortium in
Massachusetts. Twenty private colleges in Wisconsin have
come together to consolidate back office functions and have
saved millions of dollars.
But for colleges that have already passed the point of searching
for efficiencies, mergers are one final hope at keeping the name
and traditions alive.
Ekman notes that “there haven’t been too many where
two equally struggling institutions decide to join forces as
even partners.” As in the case of Dana and Midland, many
institutions of that sort that consider a merger do so once it’s
too late, and neither institution is able to play a dominant role.
Lucie Lapovsky, a consultant to colleges who has done work
for Midland and is a former president of Mercy College, in New
York, agrees. “There’s always a clear rationale why one college
is seeking out a merger with another,” she says. “Usually in this
day and age, one school is stronger than the other.”
Cases in point: the mergers of New York University and
Polytechnic University, Fordham University and Marymount
College, George Washington University and Mount Vernon
College -- all in the last decade or so. In all those instances,
the more dominant institution has taken over. Marymount has
been dissolved. Mount Vernon is another campus on the other
side of Washington, D.C.
“How you merge two cultures is always very challenging,” she
says. “It’s a series of compromises and that’s why most mergers
don’t work.”
University of North TexasBudget AnalystDepartment
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10
July 13th, 2010
When Technology Doesn’t Help
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/
confessions_of_a_community_college_dean/
when_technology_doesn_t_help
July 13th, 2010
By Dean Dad July 12, 2010 9:36 pm
Joshua Kim’s piece yesterday reminded me of a basic, but
widely ignored, truth.
In most industries, new technology is adopted because it’s
expected to lower costs and/or improve productivity (which
lowers costs over time). It doesn’t always succeed, of course,
and the usual vagaries of faddism are certainly there. But by
and large, the point of adopting a new technology is to make
the underlying business stronger.
But that doesn’t apply in either higher education or health
care. In both of those, institutions adopt technology to meet
rising expectations, whether it helps with cost or not. Much of
the time, it actually leads to increased costs.
For example, take the typical college library. Libraries don’t
bring in much revenue on their own, if any; they’re pretty
pure ‘cost centers’ for most colleges. They’re central to the
educational mission of the college, to be sure; I’d suggest
that in the context of a commuter campus, that’s even more
true than elsewhere. But income is tied to credit hours, and
libraries don’t generate credit hours of their own.
In the past, typical library costs included labor, acquisitions,
utilities, and not much else. Tables, desks, chairs, and carrels
could be expected to last decades (and judging by some
of the graffiti I saw at Flagship State, they did.) Yes, you
might find microfilm or microfiche, but even there the space
requirements were minimal and the purchases could last for
decades. (For younger readers: microfilm was sort of like
cassette tape...no, wait, you wouldn’t know that...it was sort
of like movies watched really slowly...no, not like dvd’s...ah,
screw it, I’m old.) It wasn’t at all rare for the highest-tech thing
in the library to be the coin-operated photocopier.
Now, students expect/demand that the library offer plenty of
computer workstations with high-speed internet access, good
wifi everywhere, all manner of ‘assistive technology’ for the
visually or otherwise challenged, and access to proprietary
(paid) databases for all sorts of materials. There’s nothing
wrong with any of that, but none of it displaced what had come
before, and none of it came with its own revenue sources. And
that’s before mentioning the price pressures that publishers
have put on traditional acquisitions.
As a result, the library is far more expensive to run than it
once was. It isn’t doing anything wrong; it’s just doing what
it’s supposed to do. The problem is that the technological
advances it adopts -- each for good reason -- don’t, and won’t,
save money.
Something similar holds true in the health-related majors.
As medicine has adopted more high-tech equipment and
methods, we’ve had to adopt them, too, to train the students
on them. But we don’t get any of the gains from that. We have
to pay for it, but the productivity gains, if any, accrue to the
industry rather than to us. Worse, many of the purchases are
Published by: philosophyandrew
so complex and high-maintenance that they require dedicated
staff, thereby adding higher labor costs to the equation.
There are excellent societal reasons why that’s a good idea. I
like the idea of the rookie Nursing student making his first
medical mistakes on simulators, rather than on people, for the
same reason that I like pilots to use flight simulators before
they first fly planes. Fewer casualties that way.
But the college doesn’t capture the gains from that. It’s saddled
with the costs, heaven knows, but not with the other side of the
equation. And in an era of declining state support, there are
only so many places to go to find the difference.
I agree that certain applications of technology can save colleges
money, and that colleges should take those opportunities
seriously. But to assume that it will only be deployed where it
saves money, or even that it will be a net financial gain, strikes
me as reaching. We train people on the latest stuff because we
have to, whether it saves money or not.
The New iPhone Audible App
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/
the_new_iphone_audible_app
July 13th, 2010
By Joshua Kim July 12, 2010 9:24 pm
Audible just launched it's new iPhone app. I'm so excited.
I've played with the app a bit. Here's what it seems to do:
1. You can see and download anything that is in your Audible
library.
2. Some advanced playback features.
3. The ability to Tweet, Facebook, or e-mail what you are
reading.
4. A note taking tool.
5. News and Events - including featured customer reviews,
YouTube Audible links, Audible news and lists.
What am I missing?
As you know, I'm an Audible junky who loves audiobooks but
hates the Audible.com website. For a list of my audiobook
collection click on this link. It blows my mind that I can't share
my list of books with other Platinum Listeners and audiobook
freaks through either Audible.com or the new iPhone app.
I find Audible.com continues to suffer from a
poor recommendation engine, terrible integration with
Amazon.com (the owner of Audible and the place for a much
better book browsing and discovery experience), slow and
awkward navigation, and a generally poor social features.
What I do like about Audible.com are the same things I
like about the new iPhone app - namely that I can see and
download my whole collection in one place.
One thing that seems to be missing from the Audible iPhone
app is the ability to browse and download books. Will I be
able to do this from the Amazon iPhone app? Is this feature
coming? Am I just missing something?
We should say thank you to the people at Audible for bringing
out this iPhone app. This app will push me to put more books
11
July 13th, 2010
in my Library, so they are available for download should I ever
find myself bookless and without a computer.
I hope over time the social features of both the Audible.com
site and the iPhone app develop. Us audiobook listeners are an
oppressed group. We have to endure air quotes when people
ask us what we are "reading" lately. We want to connect with
each other. We want recommendations, we want to see each
others libraries and wish lists, we want to know when someone
(who has given us permission to see) buys a book.
Have you tried the new Audible iPhone app? What do you
like? What would you like to see included in the next version?
ps. I'm just finishing "reading" Sonic Boom: Globalization at
Mach Speed, by Gregg Easterbrook - it is amazing!
Mothering at Mid-Career:
Organizing the Office
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/mama_phd/
mothering_at_mid_career_organizing_the_office
July 13th, 2010
By Libby Gruner July 12, 2010 9:14 pm
(My last blog post contained a spoiler alert—this one may need
a “book nerd” alert, for I fear that its musings are only of
interest to folks like me whose books threaten to take over their
living spaces. Consider yourself warned.)
A couple of new colleagues are moving in to their offices today.
They’ve just moved to Richmond, and are sorting out what
stays at home and what comes to the office. I see the piles of
boxes outside the offices and know that books are going in —
but which ones? How do we choose?
I was thinking about the question myself because I recently
reshelved the books in my office. This is one of those end-of-
the-year mindless tasks that I usually try to do in May, but
somehow I only got to it in early July this year. Over the course
of a semester (or, to be honest, the whole academic year) my
books tend to scatter. Some go on the “teaching now” shelf.
Others make their way to the “consult for research” shelf—
many of these are library books, but there are also novels and
critical works of my own sharing shelf space with them. Others,
of course, were pulled off a shelf for a quick consultation and
didn’t make it back. And then there are the myriad books that
seem to shuttle between home and campus, as I try to prep
another novel at home, or get optimistic about working on my
research over a weekend. These tend to end up in tote bags
until I panic that they are lost for good, at which point I explore
all the shelves, bags, boxes, and flat surfaces around me until
they turn up. While in years past I have on occasion actually
used my home office for research (and therefore shelved a
good number of books there) recently I’ve found working from
home too distracting, so most of my books have ended up in my
campus office. But not all—for some reason, children’s fantasy
(my major area of research) is still mostly at home.
You’ll have gathered that my organizational strategies leave
something to be desired.
This summer, I resolved to do something about it. So when it
was time to tackle the office mess, I didn’t just reshelve the
books that had, over the course of the semester, made their
Published by: philosophyandrew
way off my shelves. This time I rethought their organization as
well. For years I’ve had literary criticism in one set of shelves,
Victorian literature in another, with another few devoted to
“other things I might teach” or “other things I have taught.”
There are a couple of shelves of writing books, and several of
feminist theory as well. But it was the shelves of “things I might
teach” or “have taught” that were posing the problem, as they
threatened to take over my office. (And believe me when I say
I have ample shelf space — my office is in a former library,
with built-in bookshelves reaching from the floor almost to
the ceiling along three walls. A window interrupts one set of
shelves but otherwise that’s pretty much all that’s in here.)
I spent a full day at it. I climbed up on my desk to reach some of
my bookshelves, moved the library ladder around to get to the
rest, and organized. Novels that had fallen out of alphabetical
order were sternly returned to the proper location. Children’s
books — the bulk of my teaching over the last ten years—finally
got their own shelves, and their own organization. For at least a
day, I knew where everything was — I even tracked down some
books I’d loaned out, and got them back on the right shelves.
This won’t last, I know. This morning I brought in a tote bag
filled with books from the fantasy series I’m now writing about
—they’d been on the home shelves for too long. But they’ll
continue to move back and forth with me as I take notes on
them in the evening (or at least as I imagine that it’s possible
that I’ll take notes on them in the evening — some nights,
certainly, they will simply stay in the book bag and come back
to the office the next morning).
I can’t tell my new colleagues which books they’ll want here,
which at home. Perhaps instead I should suggest they invest
in plenty of book bags, and get comfortable with the idea that
the decisions they make today can always be revisited. Again,
and again, and again.
Compared to What?
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/the_world_view/
compared_to_what
July 13th, 2010
By Daniel Levy July 12, 2010 11:12 am
Hardly a day passes when we don’t read about poor
performance in higher education. This is true for those who
follow the international scene and it’s true for those who follow
mostly the US or virtually any other single country. The nearly
relentless message is that we are not doing well in higher
education. Modified, the message is at least that we are not
doing nearly well enough.
But compared to what? That should be an obvious and
omnipresent question. Yet it is often ignored or left vague and
inexplicit. Alongside many specific and valid gauges, the too
common comparison is really to desires or goals. We should
be “there” but we are still “here.” We should be at performance
indicator or benchmark x but we are at y. “Report Cards”
usually show “poor” performance. Even further, it is common
to refer to higher education in crisis. Again, compared to
what? Primary and secondary education, health care, higher
education somewhere else, higher education ten years ago?
How long or often can something be in “crisis” without just
representing a reality, however lamentable?
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July 13th, 2010 Published by: philosophyandrew
There is of course nothing inherently wrong with desires and
aspirations. They can indeed have positive effects--reminding
us or our values, even our dreams, or exhorting us to larger and
better efforts. A particularly good rationale in international
comparison, is spurring via embarrassment: “our higher
education system is on a level with Ghana’s?”
But invidious comparisons to unrealistic standards can also
have negative effects. The economist Albert Hirschman
repeatedly pointed to such effects and failure syndromes.
Hopes, expectations, and goals that are dashed again and
again can lead to cynicism and a feeling that effort is worthless.
Politics and the policy process have dynamics that often
push to unrealistic goals: It is a way to “be for” grand
things, sometimes even without much invested effort or
resources. Common in UNESCO, World Bank, and many
other international documents and projects is comparison of
the developing country or region in question to developed
countries. “See how far country x trails Western Europe in
higher education access or expenditure” when more pertinent
is comparison of access or expenditure to that of a country
at a similar economic level (not that such comparisons
are non-existent). Similarly, comparison to invented and
declared standards can have pernicious effects. Leading
work on numeracy in Latin America shows on metric after
metric that country x or the region overall is way behind.
Proliferating higher education accreditation bodies worldwide
(which have vital roles to play) are demonstrably vulnerable
to the temptation to set requirements at levels of what
they think should be. Also tempting are metrics that are
inappropriately applied to certain kinds of institutions (non-
university, technological, private) even if those metrics are
appropriate for universities of high standing.
Comparisons are essential to good higher education study.
They can also serve useful purposes in higher education policy.
But many prominent and repeated comparisons are either
pointless or worse.

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