Enrollment Builders' Blog

From time-to-time we like to take a break from covering industry news exclusively and let readers and potential clients get to know Enrollment Builders better. After all, market information and insight is most valuable when it’s applied to drive an institution’s goals forward and feed into specific and well-considered initiatives. With that in mind, let’s examine two of Enrollment Builders’ key assessments – assessments that our consultants are consistently asked to perform for institutions of all sizes and two that we think can provide institutions with immediate benefits.

In 2007 Canada saw the potential of using the internet for education. For people living in rural areas the internet reduces the distance and cost of education. In the 6 years between 2007 and 2013, the internet has changed education more than anyone could have possibly predicted. Education from one particular university can now impact the world through the internet. It begs the question whether online education is replacing on-campus education.

No doubt you’ve heard or at least benefitted from the Open Access movement in publishing. Open Access, or OA, is the practice of making scholarly research, book chapters, journal articles, and other professional content available online and free of charge. Designed to give unrestricted access to published work for the common good, OA is typically defined by degrees — Gratis open access, where full access is provided completely free of charge; and Libre open access, where content is delivered free of charge and other usage privileges may be applied.

Competency-based learning, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation, CBL, is a learner-focused educational approach that’s buffeted and supported by other flexible learning tools such as MOOCs, flipped classrooms, and adaptive learning environments. It’s designed to give students a highly-personalized online education experience so they can learn at their own pace and apply prior knowledge that’s been gained through personal, professional, or academic experience.

On July 1, the interest rate for federally-subsidized Stafford loans doubled — jumping from 3.4% to 6.8%. After months of heated debate and weeks of wrangling, members of Congress were unable to coalesce on an action plan that would have reduced or avoided or delayed or the spike in interest. A last-ditch effort to reach agreement failed in the Senate on July 10 and, though there is some hope that retroactively-applied solution can be reached that would cap annual interest rate increases for Stafford loans, negotiations will likely remain ongoing.

Earlier in June, we covered the benefits of blended learning and how it can offer very real advantages for students, instructors, and institutions. But with blended learning continuing to take a more prominent role in education, let’s explore what its future holds and see what current trends will likely shape the next phases of this learning model:

No doubt you’ve heard about blended learning and the opportunities it presents to students and institutions alike. Defined broadly, blended learning combines in-class instruction with some component of computer-mediated activity, giving students an element of control over the pace, timing, or method of their education.

If there were a competition for hot buzzword of the year, MOOC would certainly be in the running for top honors. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course and both the term and the idea has proliferated wildly throughout higher ed recently. But what’s behind all the buzz and what permanent role, if any, will MOOCs play in the ever-evolving learning landscape?

As education in general, and learning tools and methods in particular, continue to evolve, flipped classrooms are getting a lot of press. The idea is intriguing—the flipped classroom is a type of blended learning approach that “flips” the old teaching model most of us are familiar with. The traditional approach goes something like this: students read a section of text outside of class, discuss it the next day during class and then write a paper or complete a project to demonstrate their knowledge. But in the flipped classroom, students begin by studying topics independently, usually via video-based lessons that are prepared by their instructor. During class time, instructors take on a more tutorial or coaching role as students apply their learning through project-centered or task-based work.