Vision for Extended Learning

In my current position at Caldwell College in New Jersey and in my previous two positions at Marist College in NYS and at Chapman University in California, I have focused on solidifying operations for adult and graduate learners within higher education institutions which, until recently, had focused primarily on traditional undergraduate students.  The challenge required that I assist in establishing a new vision for extended learning.  Essentially, I had to focus intellectually and practically on the full meaning of the concept of “life long learning” - and what this concept implies for a higher education institution.

ENVISIONING AN EXTENDED UNIVERSITY

My vision for an extended university that integrates traditional and continuing education supports a significant expansion of an institution’s mission. The university's contributions to its current clients through high quality research and teaching and outreach services would be extended to people of all ages and diverse backgrounds outside of the traditional university’s setting or offerings. In other words, extended learning should unfetter learning from the constraints of time and location as well as the barriers of age or life circumstance. These purposes should be enhanced by several actions which would not conflict with the current mission, including: the provision of services out-of-state and internationally, to the extent cost economies and curricular enrichment derive from this extension; the integration of some portion of the university’s regular educational operations with extended programming which would enrich both and provide the opportunity for time-shortened study to traditional students through internships, cooperative educational activities and community-based volunteer endeavors supervised at-a-distance; and various collaborations with other educational entities as well as public, business and not-for-profit agencies. Enlarging and expanding the mission of Extended University should occur in recognition of national trends through the implementation of a more comprehensive networked learning program, with the utilization of greater internal and external collaborations, and by expanding services to new student populations not currently served.

The Environment for Higher Education

As American society enters the second decade of a new century a number of worries have emerged concerning a changing role for the US in the world. Increased competition and the high costs of combating terrorism threaten the high standard of living most citizens have enjoyed since the end of World War II.  Most observers would argue that service industries are less threatened by increased competition in the world economy than manufacturing firms. However, as the health care reform debate illustrates,, the rising costs of technology, increasingly more discriminating consumers, and rising productivity by employees has produced a situation of an increasingly "Darwinian" nature in the health care industry in which "only the strong survive." What about higher education? Many would argue that the two sectors are not comparable. A healthier population may reduce the need for health care but a better educated population does not reduce the need for education. Or, alternatively, better technology may decrease the need for health care professionals but not the need for educators. Therefore, higher education will not have to face the equivalent of "managed care." Or will it?

Although higher education is different than the health care industry, the impact of escalating costs, technology and changing consumer preferences as well as changes in American society and the role of the U.S. in the world are likely to have a profound impact. It is likely that the future, perhaps even the long term future, will enable the survival of some fairly traditional colleges and universities with costly infrastructures, increasingly prohibitive tuition costs and continuing reliance on rich in quality but highly labor-intensive instructional delivery systems and with learning objectives which either preclude practical, career-oriented curricula or relegate them to "second class" status. Most higher education institutions, however, will need to focus on more non-traditional market niches in an increasingly competitive environment. The outcome is not likely to result in a dichotomy between traditional and non-traditional approaches but rather will reflect choices along intersecting continua depending on the extent to which institutions employ technology in instruction; offer study which is less dependent on class schedules, i.e. greater time flexibility ; seek to offer programs with direct career opportunities as a result of completion; or engage in partnerships with other higher education institutions and organizations outside of the higher education sector.

As a growing number of colleges and universities have recognized, institutions will need to "extend" learning with "open" or "adult" or "extended" studies capacities either as the primary mission or an important portion of a more traditional mission. Comprehensive institutions, many of which have long histories of “extended” learning, may be in the best position to reach-out even more thoroughly to new populations, Change, of course, is fraught with anxiety - some imagined and some real. In the health care industry, responsibilities are descending to less costly para-professionals and technology is replacing the need for some staff. Some in higher education fear that impending changes will reduce the need for full-time, tenure-track, Ph.D.-trained faculty who will be replaced by technicians and adjuncts. Pressures in this direction will no doubt occur as institutions struggle to retain significant student enrollments but reduce costs. In the most effective extended learning operations, however, the role of faculty will change but not lessen in importance although on-line or other packaged courses and focused, highly interactive contact with students may replace lecture formats. Partnerships with corporate or not-for-profit entities also will be increasingly useful bringing dependable student cohorts, opportunities to utilize networked learning systems and fruitful symbioses between training and study for certificates or degrees. Highly focused marketing is becoming the norm.

The key to success, if not survival, in the competitive years ahead, is for a higher education institution to adapt to consumer expectations within a set of practices reflective of its mission and to acknowledge that the need to instill the capacity for "life-long learning" is no longer just the shibboleth of openly non-traditional institutions.  The institutions with the best chance of success will be operations with a student-centered, flexible approach to learning which is sensitive both to the career needs of enrollees and the changing nature of careers as well as capable of harnessing technology to empower faculty and students to take advantage of the "information era.” The necessary learning may be delivered differently and ought to be career-sensitive but must remain "liberal" in nature both in the sense of its derivation from accumulated scholarship and its "liberating" qualities. Only learning connected to the liberal arts and sciences can truly equip a person to prosper and live a fulfilling life in an increasingly interdependent world.

A More Comprehensive Networked Learning Program

Although print-based, distance courses and on-line, computer-based courses currently are being delivered successfully by a number of higher education institutions and should be continued and expanded, the key to expansion both in terms of enrollments among a wider population base and across a greater assortment of curricular areas is to employ techniques that simulate features of traditional study which are highly valued: high quality, individualized academic guidance and the utilization of technologies to provide group interaction through conferencing, including asynchronous on-line methods or synchronous audio or video connections. Courses developed for extended networked learning should include user-friendly, software packages enabling easy student access to on-line course materials, innovative use of CD-ROM and other technologies and effective use of information on the Internet. Where feasible, networked strategies should be combined with short-term residential experiences either on campus or in regional locations more accessible to students not able or facing severe constraints in traveling to the campus. The array of support services traditional students have come to expect should be available as well to distance students, including: academic counseling, library access and highly responsive systems for ordering and receiving course materials and textbooks. Students should be able to access networked courses and support services at home, in the workplace or in community-based locations affiliated with the university.

Internal and External Collaborations

Considerable variation exists among higher education institutions regarding the organizational "home" of extended operations. A few institutions are wholly (or primarily) "nontraditional" either in student clientele or delivery or both. Other institutions combine sizable traditional and nontraditional operations but with varying, sometimes minimal, integration in curriculum or support services. Many institutions, including a number of recent entrants, have small, adult or evening/weekend operations which are nontraditional only in the sense of the age groups served and usually secondary in status to the institution’s primary mission. To an extent "separateness" for extended learning ventures is a virtue, especially in the early period of operations, to assure clarity of mission, an "esprit de corps" among faculty and staff and to assuage worries about fiscal drain from the traditional programs. In the future, it is appropriate to suggest that some integration of extended and traditional programs would be mutually beneficial. Internal collaborations among faculty and staff would be stimulated by encouraging extended students to complete some residential study activities (this might require some "unpacking" of traditional courses) and traditional students to accelerate their study or reduce terms in residency by utilizing extended offerings. Opportunities for faculty to extend curriculum development and rewards in performance reviews for such undertakings also would be appropriate. External collaborations with other higher educational entities and/or partnerships with public, business or not-for-profit agencies also would be enhanced by the ability to market a package of traditional and extended services, especially "on-site" combinations of group-based and networked instruction.

Expanding Services to New Populations

Improved marketing with the curricular and delivery suggestions aforementioned and greater attention to career expectations will produce expanded enrollments, especially if targeted to particular student populations. Efforts underway to recruit students from minority populations and from emerging technical fields should be expanded. Non-credit offerings also should be expanded both because of the inherent value in serving people generally in this way but also because of the "window" on the university it provides and the subsequent possibility of credit enrollments which may result. Consideration should be given to the assessment of learning from work and life experiences from sources other than the classroom via mechanisms other than CLEP exams. The establishment of tightly controlled procedures with appropriate faculty involvement and solid quality assurances to verify credit for work and life experience would enable more effective marketing to two primary audiences: individuals with vast experience but minimal exposure to formal higher education and organizations with high quality training programs seeking to encourage employees to pursue college study. For both sets of potential students, an appropriate assessment process would provide not only a time-shortened route to a college degree but, more importantly, the empowerment deriving from the validation of valuable knowledge acquired through career and community activities.

Summary

To fully harness the vision articulated previously, it is necessary to return to the notion of life long learning. If an institution is to market its educational products successfully to potential students and the organizations with which these students are or will be employed, there are several constraints to transcend. In a book published earlier in the decade,, entitled: Making Sense of Lifelong Learning, author Norman Evans posits that there are four barriers preventing many adults from embracing lifelong learning.  These adults, Evans asserts, find continuous or frequent exposure to learning opportunities to be: unappealing, unnecessary, unavailable or uninteresting.  He suggests that “unnecessary” and “unavailable” are external (or environmental) constraints and that “unappealing” and “uninteresting” are internal (or motivational) constraints.  I submit that each of these constraints be considered in leading a higher education institution in the development of products that address workforce needs.  I equate availability with accessibility, suggesting that training venues or course and program delivery systems that reflect the rhythm of lives more fully might be key.  To address the necessary criterion requires collaboration with employers or potential employers to assure that programs are truly relevant.  Additionally, employers need to fully embrace that a well-educated workforce needs more than temporary “hot” skills and to accept that capacities such as critical thinking and communications abilities, which are the result of exposure to the liberal arts and sciences, are equally if not more crucial for the long-term.  As for the interest and appealing criteria, content that is perceived to be relevant is only a portion of the challenge.  The quality of the pedagogy and the interactivity utilized also are fundamental.   

The vision articulated herein would more completely implement the mission of higher education entities, build naturally on continuing education activities, encourage greater integration of extended operations with the university, assure competitiveness in a increasingly competitive and changing environment, as well as fully actualize the concept of life long learning. It also would extend the university to all citizens and, where appropriate, bring to the world the high quality offerings of America’s diverse educational enterprises.

Dennis R. DeLong, Ph.D.

Ossining, NY

October 30, 2009