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Quote of the Week

We're next headed away from hard, confined definitions of learning timeframes. We're trying to change from the old agricultural cycle—or whatever it is that semesters are currently based on, because nobody really knows—to cycles based on learning outcomes. That might mean a course could take two years and other courses could take three weeks. How can we allow students to individualize their learning in a structured institution? We're looking to use technology and analytics to help us move into a much less constrained time structure.

Diana Oblinger, of EDUCAUSE, interviewing Michael M. Crow, president of ASU. These are two of SCUP’s favorite prognosticators. Where do they think higher ed is going? Worth a look at ‘No More Excuses’: Michael M. Crow on Analytics. 

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At SCUP–47, the awards jurors took the time to make several presentations about themes and trends they observed among the awards applications. We captured the remarks of three jurors on (handheld) video. These are the remarks of Victor E. Sidy, Head of School and Dean, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, served up from YouTube. An organizing slide from his presentation is also shown below. (Click on them to see a larger version.)

He shares juror observations, using examples from award recipients and from those which did not receive awards (not each project illustrated in this talk received an award) about some of the best new trends and campus buildings this year.

A Summary Slide

MIT should have done much, much, more than it has with MITx, according to Dan Butin. What do you think? 

MIT could have done so much more. They should have done so much more. In fact, I want to suggest that there is indeed a real revolution in the making, but it has little to do with the size or scope of such MOOCs. Rather, what MITx has stumbled into is the opportunity to create a never-tiring, self-regulating, self-improving system that supports learning through formative on-demand feedback. Formative "just in time" feedback (rather than summative "end of course" testing) is the holy grail for learning theorists because it turns unidirectional teaching concerned mainly with delivering knowledge into a recursive guide and springboard for learning. If MIT had done that, they would have changed just about everything about how we think about higher education. But let's take it a step at a time.

 ^{Go directly to the original of the resource described below.}

This is good for a basic understanding, but what we most wanted to share—in case you don’t click and go read it—is a concept that we just finally understood: Flipped Learning uses technology before and after class, to support the engagement of learners and faculty in the rare and valuable face to face moments we call “class time". There are other interesting concepts in this piece, as well:

 ^{Go directly to the original of the resource described below.}

Eran Ben-Joseph is a professor of urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Rethinking A Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking. In this essay for The New York Times, he shares some of the book’s ideas and philosophy. (You can purchase the book at Amazon here and, without increasing your cost, the society will receive a small bit of revenue.)

This article from Planning for Higher Education's January 2010 issue, is the updated results of an ongoing environmental scanning process by Herman Miller. We've decided to share it with the larger higher education audience, so please do let your colleagues know that this is available here. The embed below, is from SCUP's publishing presence on Scribd. We'd like to call your attention to the authors' trend #7:

Advances in technology will drive ongoing changes in all aspects of college and university life and offer new opportunities to enhanced and broaden learning experiences. ... There is no service of activity conducted in higher education that will not be affected by advances in technology. t is time to conduct a comprehensive and holistic institutional review of this rapidly growing tool.

There will be a related conversation on SCUP's Linked in group of ~2,500 participants (newly named the Integrated & Well-Planning Campus) this week, beginning in the afternoon of Tuesday, June 21, led by SCUP board member Michael Hites of the University of Illinois Administration and Kelly Block, also of the University of Illinois. They are presenting a half-day workshop on Sunday, July 24 near Washington, DC, titled: Designing IT Governance to Facilitate Decision Making Across the Organization. It's the kind of workshop you want to attend when you consider the quote above about the impact of technology on everything and everyone.

People who plan need to find relevant and credible information streams. SCUP provides those streams. From @SCUPNews, the society's daily environmental scanning tweet stream and the weekly SCUP Email News • to publications like Planning for Higher Education and Trends to Watch In Higher Education • to networks on LinkedIn and Facebook • to the society's annual, international conference and idea marketplace (July 23-27, ~DC)

We've titled this post "Are Students Brains Changing Faster Than Higher Ed Can?" It's actually an untitled item from the Learning section of 2010's Trends to Watch and takes the form of an observation with related thoughts.

"Trends" is written by SCUP's director of education and planning, Phyllis T.H. Grummon, who will facilitate SCUP's Pacific Region's June 10 Trends in Higher Education Symposium the Claremont Colleges.

Learning

Observation

Changes in the learning environment, sometimes very subtle, can affect the performance of students in classrooms.

• Exposure to the letters “A” or “F” at the start of an examination seems to have an affect on how well students score. Subjects receiving an analogies test with the label “Test Bank ID: A” scored significantly better than students with “Test Bank: F”, with a “Test Bank ID: J” scoring in the middle.
• A study of high school students found that the gender of the images of scientists affected test scores for females. When all male examples were used, girls’ test scores were lower. They increased when textbook pictures were either all female or equally divided. 
• Recent research reports that a variety of skills are enhanced by playing action video games, including better visual selective attention and better focus.

Our Thoughts

Technology is also introducing changes in the environment. Our interaction with it appears to be influencing how our brains are wired. The power to increase learning comes with the reality of our evolving nervous system The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, (2010) Carr, N., W. W. Norton).

• Math software developed by the University of California-Irvine, based on neuroscience research, significantly increased the passing rate on a state examination in 64 of the lowest performing elementary schools in the state.
• Devices that track eye movements while reading on a screen can now be combined with software that infers a reader’s progress and provides help when eyes pause on words or names.
• Informal learning through television, video games, and the Internet has increased students’ abilities with visual-spatial reasoning.

We've been hearing a lot of good things about this recent article from SCUP's journal, Planning for Higher Education, and requests to be able to read it. So we've brought it outside password protection for a wider audience. SCUP hopes you find this integrated planning look at things to be both useful and inspiring.

Tell us, below, if you find this kind of information resource valuable, or not. It is the parts of SCUP's daily Twitter feed of its environmental scanning, sorted into geographically pertinent items, by region.

You'll need a free registration, and to log in, in order to read this 2011 outlook by ASUmag's Mike Kennedy.

And older students will continue to make their way to college and university campuses with the expectation that they will have access to an affordable, high-quality post-secondary education on a secure and welcoming campus.

Meeting those expectations will be more difficult as education institutions have to lay off instructors, aides, custodians and other personnel; raise class sizes; eliminate programs no longer seen as affordable; delay or cancel needed facility expansions and equipment upgrades; and defer the upkeep that enables facilities and equipment to last longer and continue to perform effectively.

Some of the areas covered include: budget/funding, community colleges, construction, sustainability, technology, and enrollment, leadership.