What an Incredible Conference

Okay, I intended to blog each day.  I guess I got too busy being Association Chairwoman.  I will add entries about the events.  Let me just say now that every plenary speaker was fabulous.  For those that had to leave early, you missed a dynamite session on accreditation.  If you are an HLC institution, you really must check out the changes that HLC is making to the accreditation process.  No longer will institutions be left alone for 10 years....more to come!

Remember from my speech.  Social media is only social if you participate.  I look forward to your comments!

CAP Annual Conference

Over the next three days, professionals from institutions who have degree programs for adult students in an accelerated or intensive format will gather in Denver, Colorado, at the campus of Metro State College of Denver. We are discussing how to develop accelerated programs, faculty development programs, marketing, admissions, academic advising, and accreditation issues. Stay tuned and I will add comments each day.

How Can We Help Students Complete Degrees?

While this article may not be of interest to some in the field of accelerated programs, I think it does help with our continuing dilemma of retention.  In this article, Exploring Emotional Intelligence, Learner Autonomy, and Retention in an Accelerated Undergraduate Degree Completion Program the researchers look at why some students in a degree completion program complete all the "gap" credits (as they refer to them).  In degree completion programs, students usually have to transfer into the institution a minimum number of credits to start a degree program.  Within that degree program, a set number of courses and credit hours (usually equaling to a major in undergraduate studies) are offered.  The number of semester credits in these undergraduate degree programs range from 30 to 36.  This leaves a number of credits around 20 or more that the student still need to fulfill to graduate.  Anyone who works in academic advising or student services understands sometimes it is quite difficult to get these students to engage and complete those last credits.  I once tracked a student for a year, calling her at least once a month about the one credit hour she needed to complete a bachelor's degree.  As the Director of Student Services, I tried all sorts of motivations to try to get her to enroll in ONE credit.  I honestly think she would have never finished the bachelor's degree if I hadn't made it my mission to not allow her to give up.


Buvoltz, Powell, Solan, and Longbotham (2008) investigate emotional intelligence and learner autonomy (self-directed behaviors).  They were looking at students' ability to stay engaged with learning, to persist to completion.   Something I think all accelerated programs could learn from this study and keep in mind as they market the program as well as through the academic advising stage is this one nugget: "an adult's persistence in autonomous learning related more to the anticipation of future rewards of present learning than the choice to engage in learning activities over non-learning activities"(p 38).  Thus when we are counseling our undergraduate adult students, it might be good to keep bringing the issues of future rewards (e.g., new job opportunities, better employment possibilities, or life fulfillment) rather than talking about the important place education should take in their lives at this moment.  Just food for thought!

Community Colleges Accelerating

Well, more community colleges are looking at picking up the pace for their programs.  This is a new article just released by InsideHigherEd on July 6, 2010. Community colleges are a great place for adult students who are looking for new skills to improve employment possibilities.   We have several community colleges in the Commission for Accelerated Programs membership.  With other community colleges beginning to look at a different delivery format, the four year institutions with accelerated programs have a great opportunity to partner with them and create 2+2 degree programs.  Remember the higher the education level a person achieves, the higher their income possibilities become.

If you haven't signed up for the CAP 2010 Annual Conference, this might be a good time to learn more about the how this organization can help your institution create accelerated programs.

News Items

For all that are in the Middle States Accrediting Association if you are not in the loop with this information, you might want to follow it.  Perhaps there is something you could do from your institution to assist with the matter.

Another accreditation agency is also in the news, the Higher Learning Commission.  If you have not heard, they have recently made some changes to their accreditation process.

At the Annual Conference in July, we have a panel discussion scheduled concerning changes and processes with accreditation agencies.  These two associations will be addressed by consultant evaluators.  If you haven't signed up yet to attend, I encourage you to do so.  Go to the CAP Network Website and click on the 2010 CAP Conference brochure.  I hope to see you there!

Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements

The Center on Education and Workforce released a report Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018.  If you are looking for new degree programs to grow in your area, I recommend investigating this report.  You might even be able to use it in your marketing material.  Here is just a sample that I found interesting:

"Sales occupations will provide 6.3 million total job openings between 2008 and 2018: 1.7 million net new jobs and 4.6 million openings from retirements. Some 4.2 million of these new and replacement jobs will require some college education or more. The largest proportion of workers hired for these positions (29 percent) will require a Bachelor’s degree." p. 30

We certainly need to help adults transition to new jobs and align our curriculum to help them gain the skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow.  I still believe that accelerated programs are the answer to the need in the United States to ramp up the education level of our workforce.

Carnegie Unit Once Again

Hopefully, you are following the latest Higher Education News. The government is once again trying to mandate the definition of a credit hour. Inside Higher Education reported on June 16, 2010 that the new proposed definition:

• a credit hour as "one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester or trimester hour of credit," or equivalent amounts of actual instruction for quarters or other time periods.

Why are we back to the archaic method of measuring learning and education by "butt in seat time"? Numerous reports have proven that different delivery formats are actually better or equivalent to creating the learning necessary.

To their benefit, the also included an alternative definition:

• a credit hour "[i]nstitutionally established reasonable equivalencies for the amount of work required in [the previous definition] for the credit hours awarded, including as represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement."

Why doesn't the committee look at their own Department of Education report: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. They reported on page xiv: "Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction." Face-to-face time with an instructor is not the answer to providing a quality education.

Institutions with online and accelerated programs need to watching carefully this development (that would be practically every higher education institution in the United States). When will we let the professional educators determine learning? Although an alternative definition was given, I am still not convinced the accreditation agencies won't succumb to the pressure and demand that institutions count "butt in seat time" and we will be back to letting the "bean counters" tell professional educators how to really do their jobs.