Enrollment Builders' Blog

Enrollment Builders will be exhibiting at the 19th Annual Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning this week at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort - Lake Buena Vista, Florida November 20, 2013 - November 22, 2013. The theme is - Online Learning: A Universe of Opportunities.

For a few years now, SaaS, or software as a service has been challenging business-as-usual in higher education technology. And happily for students, faculty, and institutions’ budgets, Google Apps for Education is leading the way at no cost. Google Apps is built around a set of cloud-based services that include email, hosting, word processing, and file storage and file collaboration tools. The benefit for institutions is clear; Google Apps allows colleges and universities to ‘plug and play’—leveraging valuable technology without huge investments in planning and development, data centers, and IT staff.

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.