LearnmoreMN Blog

Should we be spooked by MOOCs?

By Todd Bloom, October guest blogger

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a popular topic in higher education. But what will be their impact on student learning and outcomes?  Are they a short-lived trend or a means to transform education opportunities for all types of learners?

The idea of scalable free online courses has gained traction quickly: the for-profit company Coursera, for example, recently added 16 higher education partners, more than doubling the number of institutions they work with and expanding the number of courses they offer to nearly 200.  And edX, a nonprofit founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now hosts courses from Berkeley and the University of Texas System as well.

What type of learning experiences do MOOCs offer? Like online learning in K-12, the MOOCs with the most successful student outcomes impart discrete knowledge and focus on technical content — STEM courses, for example.

While MOOCs give large numbers of people access to the course content of renowned institutions, the scale of the classes limits the support available for students. Contrary to in-person and traditional online courses, students generally don’t receive help from the instructor when they raise their hands or exhibit other signs of needing assistance.

MOOCs normally do enable peer interaction, but beyond crowdsourcing, successful students must be independent and thrive in a relatively inflexible instructional environment. EdX did a limited study of students who performed well in a MOOC and found most had taken a similar course before and had completed any suggested academic preparation.

In September, the Gates Foundation announced that they will award 10 grants for the creation of MOOCs to provide remedial coursework. In particular, they want applicants to focus on introductory classes with a primary audience of low-income and first generation students. Educators will be watching to see if the grantees can maintain the scale of MOOCs while delivering the individual support successful remediation requires.

Students have a variety of reasons for taking MOOCs, which tend to fall in three categories:

• Personal satisfaction and growth
• Mastery of content that can be shown to an employer
• Academic credit (see LearningCounts.org as an example)

The University of Texas System recently took a step toward using MOOCs as a means to accelerate degree completion while containing costs. System leaders believe that having more options for students taking bridge courses (introductory classes required for multiple degree programs) will alleviate the problem of those courses being over-enrolled.

As institutions find creative ways to use MOOCs to broaden educational opportunities for all students, colleges and universities need to go a step beyond putting in place a credentialing process. Students in MOOCs need the same support as traditional students in developing an academic roadmap.

MOOCs are a huge opportunity for institutions to give students a taste of their best offerings and for students to get a taste of college success. What do you think? Can MOOCs promote student achievement and degree completion?

Helping adult learners be successful

By Anne Marie Leland, October guest blogger

As Minnesota State Economist Tom Stinson said earlier this month, “Focusing just on expenditure cuts may be short sighted — productivity growth and long term cost saving may require investments which increase short term expenditures.”

Suggesting that the state consider expenditures that don’t have a “right now” economic impact may be considered difficult in light of the current Minnesota budget woes. There is ample data and rationale to suggest otherwise when we consider the population of Minnesota adults who are low-wage and educationally underprepared.

As discussed in my first post, postsecondary education is critical for our economic competitiveness. By 2018, 70% of all jobs in Minnesota will require some postsecondary training beyond high school. Currently, 40% of working adults have no high school diploma, only a high school diploma or have some postsecondary education (no degree or certificate). Current demographics make it impossible for this need to be filled solely from new high school graduates. Minnesota FastTRAC aims to be a key strategy to help close that gap by creating adult career pathways for low-wage, low-skilled Minnesotans.

According to the 2008 US Census — American Community Survey, Minnesota has a significant population of working learners, ages 18-64, who may not have the basic skills required to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Of these working learners,

• 251,210 have no high school diploma or GED
• 892,744 have a high school diploma but have not entered college

Adults with basic skill needs entering postsecondary and career and technical education (CTE) programs are often at a disadvantage. Adult working learners face a myriad of other challenges — the need to work, support a family, upgrade digital literacy skills — that make persisting in education difficult. Typical challenges for some of these adults include lack of:

• affordable childcare
• transportation
• knowledge in enrolling in postsecondary education
• study skills compared with expected college behavior
• time to enroll in education due to economic and family constraints
• successful experiences in traditional education settings
• stable housing

According to the 2010 US Census, there are now about 544,000 Minnesotans in poverty, comprising 10.8% of the state's population. About one million or one in four, are considered near poor with incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty threshold. When set in the context of Minnesota’s poverty rate hurdles that face low-wage, low-skilled adults present a challenge when addressing the skills gap.

For some, it is difficult to think about investing in adult education when there are comparable issues facing our youth. Yet, there are very strong linkages between investing in parents’ education and positive outcomes for their children.

FastTRAC partners see at least three promising connections between the Minnesota FastTRAC initiative and the state’s early education efforts:

1. As the evidence shows, increasing parents’ educational levels is good for their kids, and FastTRAC is based on nationally promising career pathway models to assist low-wage adults in particular to access education, good jobs, and family-sustaining careers;
2. Possible connections between existing early childhood education programs and FastTRAC adult career pathway programs to systemically pursue “dual generation strategies” and provide the quality child care/supportive services adult career pathway participant need; and
3. FastTRAC adult career pathway programs in the early childhood education field to help prepare quality early education practitioners (who can really relate to the low-income parents of the children in these programs).

As noted by Tom Stinson, increasing productivity — especially among our state’s working adults — is a prudent and wise investment. The FastTRAC model fits this paradigm in that it has the potential to greatly increase productivity for the target population of low-skilled adults AND the investment can be made through the proven use of re-directed existing funds and collaborative partnerships.

For an up close look at a local FastTRAC program in Southern Minnesota, please watch this video and hear from students, service providers and employers.

Bridging the skills-credential gap

By Anne Marie Leland, October guest blogger

Minnesota faces the reality that it needs to educate adults to help meet our future workforce needs. According to a recent study conducted by Georgetown University, Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2018, 70% of Minnesota jobs will require education beyond high school by 2018. Yet today, only 40% of working-age adults in Minnesota have a postsecondary degree as stated in Minnesota Measures: 2009 Report on Higher Education Performance. Minnesota FastTRAC is one strategy to close the 30% postsecondary skills gap in Minnesota — it is among a set of complementary strategies the state will pursue to address the skill/credential gap.

Minnesota FastTRAC is a cross-agency initiative to increase adult postsecondary credential attainment in high demand occupations that lead to family-supporting wages. It is a pathway back-to-work strategy that integrates basic skills education, career-specific training, and support services to meet the needs of low-wage, educationally-underprepared adults. Each local FastTRAC program consists of a series of connected educational and training programs that allow low-skilled adults to advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment in a given sector, from basic skills education to a postsecondary credential.

By addressing local skills gaps, FastTRAC programs work as effective supply chains for employers in need of skilled labor. This ensures that students have good job prospects once they finish their program. Currently, Minnesota has 27 operating FastTRAC programs throughout the state made up of partnerships of employers, Adult Basic Education, workforce development, and Minnesota State Community and Technical Colleges.

With collaboration among a wide array of public, nonprofit, and business stakeholders, the FastTRAC Initiative is beginning to change the way Minnesota approaches talent development for adults. Moreover, the FastTRAC approach is significantly more successful than traditional postsecondary education/training approaches for nontraditional adult learners: studies, such as Building Bridges to Postsecondary Training for Low-Skill Adults: Outcomes of Washington State’s I-BEST Program from the Community College Research Center, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, show that students in programs like FastTRAC are 29-35% more likely to earn a postsecondary credential.

Minnesota is already hearing from employers that FastTRAC works:

"In the health care industry where the majority of our staff are certified nursing assistants, this FastTRAC program has been a godsend. People who are unsure of their desire to do this type of work can get a feel for what it will be like. Those who perhaps have a limited job history or limited successful job history are coached and shown how to achieve success. Those who are successful now have an avenue to enter advanced training and get a taste of college courses.   

This is an indispensable program and the time, money and effort spent on it needs to be maintained. We find that those who have been through this program easily get through their crucial first year of employment, and those who have shown interest in the advanced training are usually 5 plus year employees."
—Deb Barnes, Administrator/Regional Director, Parker Oaks Communities, Elder Care of MN

What are other examples of how more Minnesota adults are successfully pursuing a postsecondary credential?

Advocating for Adult Learners

By Laura Gilbert, May guest blogger

For generations the U.S. has been a world leader in postsecondary education both in quality and in the percentage of our population with a two- or four-year college degree. Estimated to be about 40%, this number has remained steady for the past 40 years. Eager to compete in an in information-driven, global economy, other countries stepped up efforts to educate their population. To remain competitive the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems estimates the U.S. must produce 15.5 million more degrees than current trends are likely to produce between now and 2025 — or one million additional degrees annually for the next 15 years. If we succeed, the U.S. might match the percentage of graduates in Canada, Japan and South Korea. Failure could have significant economic and social consequences for our country. Estimates suggest traditional-aged students may complete 1.3 million additional degrees during that time period. That still leaves us 14.2 million degrees short.

The solution? Re-engage our adult learners. Three Minnesota efforts are leading the way to do just that.

Becoming college ready
In 2008, the Minnesota State College and University system and Minnesota Department of Education Adult Basic Education launched Minnesota FastTRAC: Training, Resources And Credentialing. FastTRAC is designed to develop pathways to sustainable employment for the 692,000 Minnesotans who hold a high school diploma/GED or less and who are of prime working age. FastTRAC is a systems-level education and training initiative with an emphasis on helping adults who lack the basic skills necessary to enter and complete postsecondary degree and certificate programs. Since its inception, FastTRAC has developed key partnerships to deliver its programs including the Office of Higher Education, Department of Human Services and the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Finish what you started
An estimated 17.2 million U.S. adults possess some college credits but hold no degree including 336,000 in Minnesota. In fact, the U.S. ranks near the bottom of industrialized countries in the percentage of entering students who complete a degree program. The Midwest Higher Education Compact is exploring the creation of a multi-state credential repository for education, skills and training — Midwest CREST. This program would provide a web-based platform to bank or store college credits earned from multiple institutions. Partner colleges could assess a student’s transcript and “bid” for the opportunity to facilitate his or her completion of a degree. By establishing portability of credits, individuals in our increasingly mobile society will have an opportunity to complete a quality degree no matter how often life requires them to move. Program recommendations will be complete in late 2010.

Engaged in the second half of life
The vision for work after age 50 is changing. Increased life-expectancy, loss of retirement funds and/or one’s job and even the baby boomer culture of “making a difference” or “giving back” all play a part in this shift. Today, four out of five people over 50 plan to work in retirement, whether for enrichment or necessity, often in positions for which they must acquire new skills. Consequently, baby boomers are returning to school in record numbers. To meet this need, in 2008 the American Association of Community Colleges launched a three-year “Plus 50 Learner” initiative across the country to benchmark and showcase innovative community college programs that target the 50+ learner. Century College in Maplewood was one of five institutions selected nationally as a mentor college for the Plus 50 Initiative. Century’s PrimeTime/Plus 50 offers short-term courses in skills development, enrichment and service opportunities; all under the phrase, “Re-hired, re-wired and re-inspired.” In addition, Century has partnered with other Minnesota community colleges to offer a variety of programs of interest to the Plus 50 learner.

Adult learners are quickly becoming the new face of postsecondary education. Federal legislation, philanthropic grants and private ventures have joined higher educational institutions in the effort to increase adult access to educational opportunities and guidance to ensure success. Minnesota stands to be a leader in the process.

Laura Gilbert, Ph.D., Back to School for Grownups; serving the adult learner community through coaching, consulting and conversation.

Higher ed: Not just for kids anymore

By Laura Gilbert, May guest blogger

This month college students across the country will burn the proverbial midnight oil writing final papers, studying for exams, and bidding a summer goodbye to friends. Jack Slotnick is one such student. With good grades and family support he is on track to earn a psychology degree. Jack wants to work with returning veterans — for free. One more thing about Jack: Jack is 84.

Although Jack is the only “80-something” in his class, non-traditional students are becoming the norm. This is good news as it helps to ensure we have an educated workforce that can bend and flex with an ever-changing job market. In Hidden in Plain Sight, Peter J. Stokes states that fewer than 3 million of the 17 million students in higher education fit the traditional 18-22, full-time, living on campus model. Other studies suggest non-traditional students make up 42% to 85% of post-secondary enrollment (the low figure reflects state institution enrollment; the high figure includes all post-secondary institutions.) The face of today’s college student is changing.

Economic and societal shifts underlie this development. Gone are the days of the single lifetime career. Experts suggest seven to fourteen careers are today’s norm, often requiring training, certification or a degree. The past decade’s explosion of degree-completion, community college initiatives and MBA programs can barely meet current demand as laid-off and skittish adults turn to educational institutions to gain new skills, complete degrees and re-energize their spirits. Others returned after President Obama unveiled his $12 billion American Graduation Initiative and encouraged the unemployed and underemployed to return to school to prepare to fill forecasted job vacancies, 40% of which require some post-secondary education (5 million of which are predicted to go unfilled by 2018 due to a coming labor shortage.)

Even the image of retirement has changed as baby boomer retirees choose fitness and community learning centers over golf and bridge clubs. A recent AARP survey found that 16% of people age 50 and over intend to return to school (more than half headed to community colleges); that’s roughly 12.5 million people.

Regardless of one’s age or motivation, learning has moved from a one-time event to a lifetime reality. School is often a place of community, hope and growth where individuals who might otherwise never meet come together through common interest. As Craig Lien from Concordia University, St. Paul recently said to a group of business professionals, “higher education is no longer preparation for an adult life, but is a continual process throughout one’s lifetime”; that’s a belief fully embraced by our friend Jack.

In my next post we’ll look at a few local and national programs leading the way to help adults return to higher education. Visit Back to School for Grownups to see hot-off-the-press news items, hear inspiring stories, read tips for adult learner success and more.