Thursday, August 26, 2010

Looking for Volunteers

CAP is Looking for Volunteers.
I hope this message finds you doing well.  I know the August push has arrived and hopefully the enrollments at your institution are up.  Please take a moment to breathe and read this short message.

We had a dynamic CAP Annual Conference on July 21 - 23, 2010 in Denver, Colorado, hosted by Metropolitan State College of Denver. We developed new energy and enthusiasm for our jobs and for the accelerated program delivery model.  We also discussed the viability of CAP, which I am happy to say is a thriving organization.  The Executive Board and Jeannie McCarron have done an excellent job this past year trimming the budget and coming through with a balanced budget plan.  One of the initiatives the Executive Board is taking on this year is to connect with the membership.  We want to hear from every CAP member this year!  At our last Board meeting, we created a new position: Membership Connection. This sub-committee chairperson will coordinate our CAP volunteers. 

CAP volunteers?  What is that?  I am so glad you asked!!

If you are willing to volunteer one hour (60 minutes) a month (yes a month) to assist the CAP Membership Connection Team, then you are a CAP volunteer.  Please email Jeannie McCarron (jmcarro@regis.edu) right now to become a member of the team!  The Membership Connection Chair will have a list of the members of CAP and he/she will divide up that list among the volunteers and assign everyone five to ten people a month to contact via email or phone call.

Why would you contact a member in CAP?  Another great question!

As you might have heard (if you reading the Accelerated Program blog or the CAP Newsletter), then you would know that accelerated programs are being attacked from within and without.  For CAP to be a proactive organization and a voice for Accelerated Programs, we must hear what is happening to our members and their institutional programs.  Our Membership Connection Team members will chat with colleagues from another institution and ask how things are going.  Then, you will be asked to email who you contacted, any updated information (job titles, email, phone) and triumphs or challenges back to our Member Connection Team Chair who will make a monthly report to the Executive Board.   It is as easy as that!

CAP needs volunteers to spend one hour (60 minutes) a month talking with other CAP members.  Please join us in this endeavor to reach everyone in our organization this year!  Email Jeannie McCarron at jmccarro@regis.edu. right now!

Looking for Volunteers for just One Hour a Month!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Scrutiny Continues

Please know that I am in NO WAY condoning bad behavior on the part of any institution (for profit, non profit, or public).  However, quality programs have the potential to be penalized because of the actions of others exposed for unethical practices.

The news continues in InsideHigherEd:
The August 9th article, Has the Conversation Changed, still has the for profit institutions in the news.  What I want to highlight is the attach on accreditors and the ideas of thinking the "entire orchard" is bad. 

"Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and other members of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voiced concerns about the GAO's findings and cornered the leader of a national accreditor, who insisted that his agency’s standards were “rigorous,” even though the accreditor had given approval to some of the campuses where the GAO found problems. (While it’s not an accreditor’s responsibility to hunt for fraud, some senators wondered how people examining the institutions could miss such seemingly endemic problems."

“Are we talking about a few bad apples or are we talking about the entire orchard being contaminated by a business model that churns students, that provokes the kind of recruitment and unethical conduct we saw in the GAO, because of a need to increase profits?” Harkin asked, rhetorically, at the hearing. His repeated use of "systemic” to describe the problems suggested that he is going after the whole orchard.

This view of higher education is upsetting for all educational professionals in the field.  All CAP institutions should be documenting their quality and writing their Senators and Congresspersons. Tell the the good side of the story.  It seems the "bad" is the only one being shared.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Definition of a Credit Hour

I hope everyone is reviewing daily the Department of Education new proposed language.  The Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 117 / Friday, June 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules has the new proposed language defining a credit hour.

The Department proposes to add to § 600.2 a definition of a credit hour that would measure credit hours in terms of the amount of time and work during which a student is engaged in academic activity using commonly accepted academic practice in higher education, and further would provide for institutionally established equivalencies as represented by learning outcomes and verified achievement.
(emphasis mine)

What all accelerated and online degree programs must do is fully articulate their learning outcomes for degree programs and verify the achievement by the students.  If the institution has a degree program that is face-to-face and one that is accelerated or online, then the learning outcomes must be the same and must demonstrate equivalent learning achievement by the students.  We must resist the pressure of our financial aid officers to give a number of hours of seat time or number of hours of online engagement.  Butt in seat does not equal learning. Credit hours should not be defined by time, but by learning achieved.  If you are asked by your financial aid officer to define a credit hour in time, send the financial aid officer to the above proposed language and then attach your assessment plan.  If any institution does not have an assessment plan for every degree program offered, they must develop them immediately.


This is the time to stand up for our programs and the learning that is achieved.  Those with accelerated and online degree programs know that this format reaches a population that would otherwise not be able to earn a college degree.  These adults are working full time and trying to improve themselves and the earning ability for their families.  I truly understand the issues with bad degree programs and diploma mills; however, the format is NOT the issue.  The leadership ethics at the institution might be closer to the issue. Thousands of adults earn a college degree every year because of the accelerated program format. This the workforce the Obama Administration is trying to educate.  Why would we jeopardize their careers by counting hours?  Learning is what is important here!