Posts Categorized: Technology

Trendsetting: A New Way to Keep Up With Trends & Indicators in New England’s Education and Economy

Introducing NEBHE's new Trends & Indicators ... It should go without saying that data is tricky (or is it are tricky?).Take the issue of student aid as one example. Some states have annual budgets; some have biennial. Some states report all kinds of aid in one place; others leave it to observers to patch together the hodgepodge of merit and need-based programs from the state’s gener...

Coming to Terms with MOOCs: A Community College Angle

When MIT approached Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) to participate in edX, the new Harvard/MIT massive open online course (MOOC) initiative, we reacted with both interest and skepticism. What did MIT have in mind for Bunker Hill Community College? How would edX “transform the way that community college students learn” as edX President Anant Agarwal claimed, when he discussed the l...

Degrees of Durability and the New World of Credentialing

Those that believe a higher education degree is becoming increasingly superfluous make reference to the fact that 19 of the top 100 chief executives in the Fortune 500 lack college degrees. In consideration of that, a recent U.S. News analysis of the Fortune 500 CEOs reports that many of those CEOs who hold academic degrees choose not to mention their degree as among their achievements in their c...

To Close the Skills Gap, Re-Value the Associate Degree

A number of economists, policymakers, elected officials and employers cite a “skills gap” as the reason the nation is not putting more people back to work. The problem, they reason, is that too many people have the wrong skills for today’s jobs, and colleges and universities are not doing enough to prepare people with the right skills.The idea of a skills gap is tempting to buy i...

I Am Not a Machine

An education dean reflects on MOOCs … I am not a machine. This makes my college students happy. Though, to be honest, they assume as much since I walk into the classroom, make some small talk and launch into my lecture. After a few minutes, I may stop, ask for questions, prompt some discussion and perhaps tell a few bad jokes. Which should prove once and for all that I am human and fallibl...

The 2013 Guide Arrives

Announcing the 2013 Guide to New England Colleges and Universities! The 2013 Guide to New England Colleges and Universities, produced by NEBHE in association with Boston magazine, lists key data for each college, such as: admissions application deadlines and acceptance rates; faculty-student ratio; enrollment totals and breakdowns for part-time, commuting, female, international and minority stude...

Bubble Wrap: Higher Education and the Value Gap

A recent report by the College Board might be an indicator of how fast the sands of higher education are shifting. The prices that most people actually pay for college, which had remained stable for several years, are on the rise again, as tuition and other cost increases outpace financial aid awards.In its latest annual survey, the College Board reports that after rising swiftly since the 1980s, ...

“University Unbound” Rebounds: Can MOOCs Educate as well as Train?

In the days since NEBHE convened hundreds of educators and opinion leaders in Boston for the University Unbound conference, we've received a surge of reactions including this one from George McCully, founder of the Catalogue for Philanthropy. NEBHE has begun focusing the attention of New England institutions on the MOOC movement, which will affect them all. Already, within months of their pub...

University Unbound! Higher Education in the Age of “Free”

Innovators and entrepreneurs are using technologies to make freely available the things for which universities charge significant money. MOOCs ... free online courses ... lecture podcasts ... low-cost off-the-shelf general education courses ... online tutorials ... digital collections of open learning resources ... open badges ... all are disrupting higher education's hold on knowledge, instructio...

Colleges Can Improve Outcomes for Veterans and the Economy

Veterans play a critical role in the U.S. economy. For many returning veterans, education is the first step to successfully reentering civilian life and the workforce. Since the inception of the first GI Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act) in 1944, higher education has been responding to the needs of military students. There were over 555,000 veteran and active duty beneficiaries of the Pos...