Enrollment Builders' Blog

By Martin Lind

In late August, President Obama unveiled the details of his administration’s College Affordability Plan to curb the cost of higher education. While specifics of the plan can be found on the White House’s fact sheet, we wanted to examine the broader pieces here and explore what each could mean for institutions across the country.

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.