|
NMC Report Addresses Higher Ed’s Biggest Challenges
A strategic brief identifies eight obstacles impeding the spread of innovative practices in US postsecondary education and illuminates potential solutions.
Anaheim, CA (October 26, 2016) — The New Media Consortium (NMC), an international not-for profit organization focused on educational innovation, is releasing a strategic brief in conjunction with the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2016. Serving as a call to action
to postsecondary leaders to devise effective strategies,Scaling
Solutions to Higher Ed's Biggest Challenges is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and delves into eight significant challenges that stand in the way of students graduating. A focus on the implications for equity and access
specifically asserts the need to better support low-income, first-generation, and minority students.
 The
US is currently on track to produce at least 11 million fewer certificates and degrees than our economy will require by 2025. At the same time, nearly half of students who most aspire to filling that need end up dropping out. According to a White House report,
half of all people from high-income families earn a bachelor’s degree by age 25, as opposed to just 1 in 10 people from low-income families. The one-size-fits-all approach of many traditional higher education paradigms is in stark contrast with an increasingly
diverse student population.
Scaling Solutions to Higher Education’s Biggest Challenges aims to identify the problems obstructing student success and provide exemplars that, if adequately cultivated, can support the widespread
adoption of real solutions.
The eight challenges, illustrated in the graphic enclosed in this release, were crowdsourced from more than 120 higher education leaders from colleges, universities, educational organizations, and digital learning companies with inaugural discussions taking
place in March 2016 at a special workshop at SXSWedu. From an initial list of fifteen challenges, the NMC identified eight where participants had pinpointed viable ideas and strategies that have the potential to scale. The report formalizes and expands these
discussions, providing definitions, overviews, implications for access and equity — all grounded in current research. With an emphasis on evidence-based learning, each challenge section concludes with successful real-life exemplars, or proofs of concept of
solutions that can be adapted, applied, and scaled across the field.
“It is our hope that this report becomes a catalyst for more informed strategic planning and action at higher education institutions across the US,” said Peggy Snyder, Interim Executive Director of the NMC. “If we are to help more low-income, first-generation,
and minority college students graduate and achieve their goals, solving these challenges will be instrumental.”
The release of the publication just marks the beginning of the conversation. A special workshop is planned for the OLC Accelerate conference in November 2016, in which leaders from the field will devise strategies for implementing the solutions to four of the
eight challenges. Participants will assemble into task forces that address the need for standard readiness and evaluation frameworks, more grant opportunities for institutions focused on bolstering student access and equity, and improved marketing and dissemination
around digital learning initiatives so the continued narrative is deeply understood by a broad audience.
More face-to-face and virtual convenings will follow as the solutions are designed and implemented with the aim of turning these events into a movement. In this movement, the NMC envisions a nation where millions more students graduate and thrive in their careers.
Both tenured and adjunct faculty are adequately supported through technology deployments and leadership changes and they are all personally invested in spreading innovative teaching practices. Institutions continuously collect holistic data on student performance
and leverage it to better cater to needs and develop effective programs. Postsecondary leaders espouse a mindset of transparency, sharing data, best practices, and pain points, and packaging initiatives in a way that make them easier for others to adapt.
Scaling Solutions to Higher Education’s Biggest Challenges is published under a Creative Commons license to encourage broad dissemination.
>
Download the report (PDF)
> Download the infographic (below)
 ###
About the New Media Consortium (NMC)
The NMC is an international not-for-profit consortium of learning-focused organizations committed to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. The NMC is world-renowned for its NMC Horizon Project, which produces the NMC Horizon
Report series, charting the uptake of emerging technologies in various learning sectors worldwide. Since 1993, the NMC and its members have dedicated themselves to analyzing and developing potential applications of emerging technologies and progressive approaches
for teaching, learning, research, and creative inquiry. To learn more, visit www.nmc.org.
|
