In the article “The Trouble With Online College, the author alludes to the fact that having taken online courses would make such a student’s studies  less effective in a real life setting. However, does that stem from the fact that online courses are not as effective, or rather that the students themselves may not be as academically equipped, even prior to taking those courses?

How would one put a measure to the cost-effectiveness of technological classroom advancements? As in, an argument might state that the money being funneled into providing classrooms with more advanced equipment is too much or too little. But is it more accurate to measure that through grades, student participation, and/or average test scores compared to other, less advanced classes?

The idea that Ivy League colleges provide trends that other colleges are likely to follow is supported by precedence. However, many of the policies Ivy Leagues put in place are not to be seen in other community or public colleges. Is Dean Kirschner’s assumption that Ivy League colleges will be followed as pioneers truly accurate?

Are credit hours likely to change in the coming future as a measure of how much “education” a student has received for a certain class?

Will MOOCs eventually grow into a developed hierarchy, just like regular public and private colleges? As in, will there eventually be non-open, merit based MOOCs that may not offer admission to certain students? If this is a potential factor in the future of education, what effect will this have on society’s interpretation of a degree?

Will the money that is being pumped into MOOCs eventually be repaid by students taking those same classes? Are MOOCs simply a long-term investment that will eventually grow to be something more than they are now?

These are old reading questions that I didn’t originally post.

3/6: History of HE

According to Lagemann, one of the duties to be fulfilled by a college curriculum is to promote student awareness of civic understanding. Do you think civic education should occur on a college campus or during K-12 education?

Lagemann also stresses the concept of “long term global thinking,” as a necessary element of the college curriculum. Does this concept of “global thinking” perpetuate into all college majors? Does a focus on world issues seem pertinent to all college studies?

3/13: History of CUNY

After discussing the different structures of CUNY and the California state college systems, which system seems to be most effective for the student body? For the faculty? For the administration?

Would it be possible to implement a system similar to California’s in New York City? What would be some the logistical struggles and some of the benefits?

According to many people, SEEK is considered “systematic remediation.” Does a program like this fit into the mission of senior colleges or community colleges?

3/20: Governance of Higher Education

Recently the role of a college president has evolved to include many overarching features, such as organizational, political, and possibly religious involvement. With this considered, does the prospect co-presidency hold a logical place in the college environment? What challenges would face co-presidents and their ability to effectively lead?

We read about several different accrediting organizations, including regional and departmental accreditations. Is it necessary to have multiple accreditations or would it be more logical to offer accreditation for each degree program?

When forming a college’s mission statement, there are many important factors to consider. It should distinguish the institution from others and bind the administration, faculty and students. Yet, it should also be adaptable. How can a college avoid “mission creep” while still adapting to the changing student population and their needs?

Many institutions are experiencing a shift from full-time tenured faculty to more part-time contingent faculty. This helps the college remain adaptable to students needs, but what can be done to increase the mission commitment of these faculty members and involve them in governance of the institution?

The college environment is not simply run by internal parties. The academic environment is fiercely influenced by external organizations, including the government and other intuitional authorities. How much involvement should be allowed by these external sources? Should the government intervene with the internal workings of private colleges? If so, is there a limit on the government involvement?

1.Economist says that generation Y is not passive and wants an active role in the work environment, but it also says that this generation is not as independent as previous ones. How are these two reconciled? Aren’t they contradictory?

2.The Trouble with online colleges – this articles quotes a study saying that students in community and technical colleges who took more online courses were less likely to graduate. The writer does not take in to account the fact that community colleges may have weaker students who didn’t get in to the upper colleges due to academic weakness. Does this have an effect on success in online courses?

3.Udacity points out that having online support, great professors, and student engagement means more students stay in the online class. These factors are also what make a student stay in a traditional classroom. It seems that what makes good teaching work is important in traditional and online classes. Is there more of a connection between these two ways of teaching than we may initially think?

4.Does providing competency testing water down education?

5.Dean Kirschner suggests that Ivy League colleges should be the pioneers and role models for change in higher education, because if they do it, others will likely follow. Is this a correct assumption? If Harvard makes it possible to earn competency-based degrees online, from Harvard, will other institutions follow suit?

6.Right now, it is possible to get a good paying job with a bachelor’s, but the more people who have bachelors, the more people will need masters and PhD’s, no? If yes, what are the social and economic ramifications of making a BA that much more accessible?

7.Right now, MOOCS are free or offer some sort of credit for a small fee, but what happens when people start charging? Will they? How can they not? Professor put in a tremendous amount of time, so at what point will they stand up and demand more pay? And if that’s the case, where is that money coming from?

8.Where is the money that is being poured into MOOC’s ($60 million from MIT and Harvard) coming from?

9. One article briefly mentioned “elite MOOC’s.” What is this and what is the point of something like that, given why MOOC’s were originally started?

10. Is it possible that MOOC’s will stratify society by creating a situation in which the elite who can afford college in the traditional classroom, pay, and those who can’t, take MOOC’s?

Bowen: Universities suffering from near fatal “Cost Disease:”

1-    Competition exists in elite universities, and top-tier schools will do whatever it takes to ensure the best educational experience. This has led to many American research universities serving as the some of the best in the world, but do you think there is too much competition brewing? Is this beneficial?

2-    It is stated in the article that students do not always go to the right school for themselves, aiming either too high or too low. How can colleges and universities better accommodate the needs of the students in a cost-appropriate fashion?

3-    How can we continue to promote innovation in colleges and universities, when we cannot afford all of these research universities? Where is the balance?

Dinapoli: The Economic Impact of Higher Education in New York State

1-    How is it that the education sector has grown rapidly during good and bad economic times, and even continued to expand during the current recession?  Furthermore, why is it that the number of jobs in higher education has been growing more rapidly that employment in the rest of the economy?

2-    Among the states, New York has the 3^rd largest higher education employment in the nation (7.7% of all such jobs nationwide). Moreover, through the licensing of technologies, more than $380 million for New York schools was generated, and 42 start-up companies were created to use technology licensed from NY schools.  It appears that NY is revitalizing and diversifying its economy phenomenally through higher education, so how can we best extend this vast economic development observed in NY to other states?

Jaschik: Study casts doubt on idea that spending more per student leads to better educational outcomes:

1:  Do you think it would be a plausible, cost-effective idea to replace full-time faculty with part-time faculty members, and save money by increasing courseloads?

2:  Higher education institutions at the high and low end of per-student spending showed similar levels of good practice with regard to education (“similar scores on the educationally valuable practices”) and there was only a VERY small relationship between spending on education and the quality of the educational experience. Therefore, where is all of the money going in the more expensive colleges, such as private residential institutions? Is it that they are simply charging more for prestige, or is there more to the story?

Guskin and Marcy: Dealing with the future now.

1: Taking into account the dire budgetary circumstances, if a new higher education institution was created, what would it look like?

2:What would happen to the faculty work life and student learning if budget reductions continue to exert their negative effect on education? How can we preserve it?

3: Considering the way in which the “muddling through” approach can undermine the nature of the academic profession (i.e. cut salaries to the point where they are not competitive with other forms of employment, increase workload for faculty, cause loss of the best faculty members…) is the “muddling through” approach, a feasible one? Or is it destined for failure?

4. The first transformative action states that an assessment of common institution-wide student learning outcomes should be established as a basis for an undergraduate degree. What would these assessment tests look like? Would it be similar to any student assessment exam already in place (such as the SAT, GRE…)?

5. In the article, one particular area that needs internal restructuring and an assignment to a more prominent role in education delivery is the library, so that students and faculty members can use it as a portal to access global network information and to become a true learning center. Are there other specific areas on university campuses that are in need of internal restructuring to help promote education delivery?

Johnstone: Financing Higher Education

1-    How can costs of colleges and universities be effectively reduced without damaging academic qualities?

2-    Should public aid be based on a student’s academic performance and or family financial aid?

3-    In the public sector, should the taxes we pay be used to hold down tuition or toward expanding need-based aid (and “have public tuitions raised closer to the full average costs of undergraduate instruction”)?

4-    The National Center for Education projects an enrollment growth for the decade 2008 t o 2018, and this expansion will occur unevenly, since most of the growth will be concentrated in states of the West, Southwest, and South. Why is it the case that the growth will be concentrated in those regions?

5-    While some schools such as Wheelock, UMass, Boston, may be cheaper per student than Harvard, we cannot say that they are less efficient or less productive than Harvard, since we do not have a measure of output to judge this fact. Can you think of a way to effectively and objectively measure the output of different universities in a way that many would agree on?

6-    What is the best method to divvy up the financing of higher education between the four parties (taxpayers, parents, students, philanthropists)? Should it be split up equally or should one party have a greater responsibility over the others?

7-    How long should parental financial responsibility continue? Should they be responsible for their child’s education only during the undergraduate years or should it continue into the mid-twenties (such as when they finally settle into a steady career path)?

8-    From article: Do you think tuition should reflect differences in instructional costs; should tuition be higher in research universities than in four year or community colleges? “Should they reflect differences in individual program costs, as between, say, engineering and sociology? Or should tuitions reflect market demand, as between a more selective and a less selective public college?”

9-    Why has there been a shift in the cost burden from the taxpayer to parents and students?

10- Do you agree with this statement in the article, “a higher-priced public higher education might discourage ambivalent, ill-prepared students, who advocates of high tuition-high aid assume are taking up space in and wasting precious resources of our public colleges and universities?” And how do you suggest we get these students motivated to attend school and make the most of its resources?

Kiley: Moody’s report calls into question all traditional university revenue sources.

1-In a collective way, the model that has been employed in higher education since the 1960’s is being called into question by external factors, and colleges are going to have to rely more on strategic leaders. Who are these strategic leaders they are referring to?

2- The article mentions that strategic leaders will address the financial challenges through the better use of technology to cut costs, create efficiency in their operations, demonstrate value, reach new markets, and prioritize programs. What would happen if faculty members and/or institutional constituents disagree with the efforts of these strategic leaders? How would educational reform best be handled in that case?

3-Some reports have noted that alternative sources of revenue, not mentioned in the Moody’s report, include the educational sector partnering up with the private sector, since this has worked well in the past. How can this be implemented? What would this partnership look like?

4-Is there potential for online courses (such as MOOCs) to completely overhaul the traditional system of higher education that has been in place for years?

Lexington: Higher Education: Is it really the next bubble?

1-    Peter Thiel states that higher education is overpriced, people are not getting their money’s worth, and that people take on such enormous debts when they g to college because that’s what everyone’s doing. Conversely, Professor Grubb states that education has not stopped delivering its expected returns. Not in terms of income or unemployment. It is because a BA is no longer sufficient for profession or managerial occupations, that there is an education inflation of middle-class students going for MA and professional degrees. Who’s stance do you agree with?

Kirp: This little student went to market, ch. 8 in Hersh, R. H. and Merrow, J. Declining by degrees: Higher Education at Risk.

1-It appears that schools at the top of the ladder battle unscrupulously to maintain their elite position. For example, staff members at Princeton’s admissions office went as far as to hack into Yale’s admission website. Some universities have even unethically manipulated the system by inflating students’ SAT scores and the proportion of alumni donors, just to make their school look more selective. How do we prevent this type of immoral behavior carried out by prestigious institutions of higher education?

2-Is the statement “money follows money, not need” applicable to institutions of higher education?

3-Institutions of higher education appear to be heavily influenced by the competitive marketplace, (trying to attract students with prestigious-sounding names, fancy amenities on campuses, exotic international trips etc.) to the point where students are applying to certain colleges for the prestige and not for the caliber of education. How can this type of behavior be reduced?

4- Do you think the No Curriculum system employed at Brown University, which allowed students to go straight into learning what interests them, could be implemented in public institutions of higher education today?

1. Is there still an elitist sense in schools such as the Ivy League that looks down upon knowledge that can be immediately utilized (page 14 of Traub) and if so, are their students negatively impacted by this?

2. Did the idea of having an institution with only the “purest intellectual elite” do anything for City College in the 20s and 30s besides increase its prestige?

3. Is the teaching method that involves primarily lecturing with little input from students hindering the original notion of students increasing intellectual wisdom, or is this style effective and necessary for the large student populations?

The system or “non-system” of financial support for higher education in the United States is evidently in need of great change. However, due at least in part to its complexity doing so through the inside is like untying the Gordian Knot. Is it time to cut the knot? Should there be drastic reform?

Tuition rates have been increasing at rates that are way above inflation. There are many explanations for this, including the need for new equipment, personnel to handle it, rising wages of professors,etc. However, the rate of the increase is such that it is possible that some of the money is not being used in the best fashion. Do you think that there is rent-seeking? If so, where?

Could the increasing tuition rates be viewed as a bubble from the economic lens? If so, what happens if it bursts? Is it and should it be artificially kept together?

Johnstone (2011), argues that the financial situation of higher education is similar across the world (in terms of measuring productivity, faculty size, ect vs tuition). Is there something to learn from these places? Is there something to copy?

Education statistically leads to higher wages. Should it? Do all of the professionals of today need the degree that they received to do their work? Are too many people attending college?

1. Wouldn’t the decline in net revenue and the hunt for possible donors distract colleges from their goal which is to provide a good education to their students?
2. Do students that choose not to attend college because they think it won’t lead them to a career see a college education as more than just a pit stop in their road to their future career?
3. Is a college’s ROI having a negative impact in terms of how many students apply to the college?
4. Shouldn’t having a college education be more important for the government in the long run than Medicaid and prisons?
5. It seems as the quality of education is declining especially because classes are getting bigger and are being taught by graduates. This might make it more appealing for students to not to go to college. But what about our future generations. Will not having a college degree become common in the future? What does this mean for us in terms of competing with other nations in various sectors including technology and finance?
6. Is having too many research institutions necessarily bad? Aren’t they why America is at the top of the game when it comes to research?
7. It might be true that the ivy league schools are charging more for prestige but do employers know that? A student that graduated from Harvard has a higher chance of getting the same job than a student from a public school because they are deemed to be “smarter.”
8. Should the government allocate a fund for paying for public colleges that isn’t effected by the downturns in the world economy?
9. Will we see in a growth of non-liberal arts colleges as more and more people want to get the most out of a college education in terms of getting a job?
10. Will a degree from a MOOC be valued as much a degree from a four year college in the near future? Are people that have a degree from a MOOC getting the jobs they want?
11.  Schools like Beaver college prove that they were never following their mission statement and that higher education is just another business. Do you agree?
12. If students are deciding where to go to school by what kind of facilities are offered in the dorms and the lounges, aren’t they being distracted from the real purpose of why they should be going to college? This will inevitable have a negative impact on our future generations as students will come out from colleges that didn’t match with their needs.