Author: Norma Sutton

More Than Brains

I saw this commercial for the University of Phoenix a few times and I really like it. The first time I saw it, I had no idea what it was for until the end. Now when I watch it, I see it with a totally different perspective. It is showing that students today are not free to just be students. They have other responsibilities that need to be taken care of. It reminded me of what we said in class that a lot of students are full time students and also work one or two jobs. It really sends a message out that the university understands what a current student’s life could be like. Plus, I really like the accompanying song (a remake/rendition of the Wizard of Oz song).

Oh, and the caption for this video on their YouTube channel is this: “University of Phoenix students come with more than just brains.”

Online Learning Done Badly?

Discussing all these great online courses and programs in class and from my peers who have experience with them really gave me a good outlook at the opportunities they provide. Reading this article in Inside Higher Education about a George Washington University online program reminds me that not everything is perfect. I mean, I am in an online course now in Brooklyn College and I dont necessarily enjoy it but it’s not because of the way it is offered.

I am wondering what other graduates who have used this program have to say because at the end of the article there was a quote from Vice President of media relations, Candace Smith. She said, “Since the security and safety leadership program began in 2009, 341 students have graduated, and many have gone onto successful careers…” They didnt mention how many students are a part of the program each year and how many graduate. It seems like the number of students that are complaining is small (11 signed a letter complaining about the program). So maybe it’s just these few students…? But the way they described the program (blurry photocopies of the textbook and unresponsive teachers) made it sound bad.

Another thing that I thought was interesting was that the program costs a lot. It costs about $33,300, $4000 more than the in person program would cost. I thought these online courses and programs were supposed to be more affordable!

Those are just some thoughts of mine that I had as I was reading the article.

Here’s the article: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/15/george-washington-u-alumni-sue-university-over-quality-online-program

 

Information Preservation for the Future

Miriam recently told me that she thinks she will never stop paying for Spotify. I said that we never know what might pop up to replace it; just look at iTunes! We never thought of Spotify as an alternative until it was made possible. That got me to think that somehow, one day, it is possible I wont be able to listen to the music that I have on iTunes.

The article from Inside Higher Ed titled, Preventing a Digital Dark Age, discusses this problem in regard to digital documents, research, photos, etc. This is a problem especially since most of the world, including higher education institutions, is moving towards digital technology for production and preservation. However, unforeseen future technology may not be compatible with the digital research that we have now. That would mean that the research and documents that were worked in and created from our present could be lost. Or even something disastrous could happen, which would cause us to lose all our information!

The DPN organization was created to help solve this problem if anything would go wrong. DPN allocates five terabytes to universities (annually) in order to store and preserve the information that the university decides to secure. This information will be stored in three different locations and in many different ways in order to insure access in the future. All the information that is a part of this preservation membership is in a “preservation ecosystem.”

One problem with this ecosystem is that there is a lack of diversity. Most of the members of DPN are large to mid-sized universities. Part of the reason is because smaller universities may not have the budget to pay for the preservation. For larger universities who are not members have the problem of wanting more storage. For example, the amount of digital information that the largest universities would like to store is worth a petabyte, which is 1,000 terabytes. DPN is not even able to store that much information.

There are other organizations like DPN that are working to avoid the loss of all the information and research that is being generated. I never thought of this problem on such a wide scale. Universities today are not just places for people to go for education, they are places for research and innovation. Many universities are hiring experts to work to preserve and decide what to preserve. Not only is there so much research to still be done and information to gather and build on in the future, we now need a way to insure that all this information is accessible to the future generations. They can’t move forward without previous information!

College (Un)bound: Chapter 8: Degrees of Value

This chapter discusses the value of college. Selingo mentions that since there are many different ways in which college is valued it is hard to figure out a way to fairly rank schools (page 139). I think the fact that the “one size fits all” mentality isn’t relative nowadays justifies the incapability to rank all the universities in the nation. The top school for one person may not be the top school for another. So saying that Harvard is the top school may not hold true for all individuals.

Selingo asks the question, “Does the student make the institution or the institution make the student?” (page 136) This is critical when someone is deciding which college to attend. If the latter part of the question is true than the school is a major part in molding the student into the person they will become. Each person will evaluate a school differently according to their priorities. Alternatively, I think that if the former were true then that means it wouldn’t matter which school is good for the individual; it only matters what the individual does while in a college. The student would be able to mold the school into a place they can use to grow and learn.

One thing that Selingo suggests students and parents should have as a priority is the average salary for each major after graduation. This is putting a monetary value on the college degree. Some people may choose school A over school B because of the higher average salary of the graduates. Without that information the student might choose school B thinking it is a better “fit.” It is also interesting that students still choose the major that they are interested in even if it is one that would not get them a high paying job (page 130). I wonder if it would be better to major in something that is higher paying rather than the desired major that may be difficult to land a job with. Would graduates be better off in a job that may not interest them than unemployed with a degree they enjoyed acquiring?

Something that I am a little confused about is what Selingo says employers seem to want. I get the feeling that he mentions employers want more of a well rounded employee and will tend to hire graduates that have experience in a few subjects, showing that they are able to adapt or think critically. However, I also understood that starting schooling with a more specific focus, even for a shorter amount of time like with Carey in Northern Virginia Community College (pages 124-125), is better for getting employed after college. These two ideas seem contradictory to me. Employers want well-rounded workers, yet are hiring those with an education in more specific fields?

In the last couple of pages in this chapter, he mentions a standardized test that is encouraged for public colleges to give to see how much students have learned from their freshman year to their senior year (pages 140-141). Selingo mentions that it is the most controversial solution to ranking colleges. It is already implemented in more than a thousand schools. I don’t like this idea of standardized testing because I dont see how it is possible to compare the results from one school to the next. Although there may be similar majors in the schools, they definitely do not teach the same things or in the same style. Often times within the same school courses of a particular subject aren’t even taught in one way. The test may be formulated in a way that is more similar to one school’s style of teaching than another. But who said that is the right way?

Yes, graduation rates and salary numbers can be used to rank schools but that cannot and is not the only factor that plays in the role of colleges. It still comes down to a matter of opinion and priorities.