The Other 85 Percent

Robert G. Henshaw has written a very interesting article about technology in higher education through 2035 in the current issue of the Journal of Online Education.
This is a thoughtful piece that describes higher education institutions as being at a crossroads. He states that institutions to date have too often “simply bolted on technology to [...]

As readers of this blog are aware, I have been keeping track of the presidential candidates’ positions on higher education and watching for recognition of the other 85% – adult, part-time, financially independent students.
This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a report on the first day of the Democratic National Convention and adoption [...]

I have previously posted about the education positions of the presidential candidates and criticized both candidates for failing to address the needs of adult, part-time, and financially independent students—the other 85%.  In a comment to my August 4 blog post, one person suggested that I was expressing my “political loyalties” and asserting the other 85 [...]

Recently the Chronicle of Higher Education had two articles on the same day reporting on accountability issues being discussed at the annual meeting of the Association for Institutional Research.
http://chronicle.com/news/article/4552/colleges-must-prepare-for-new-wave-of-federal-oversight-speaker-warns?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/05/2972n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
In the first article, the speaker “expressed regret” that the relationships of colleges, accreditors, and federal regulators are being transformed and predicts a number of new data [...]

This article highlights a new federal requirement to “authenticate” that online students are who they claim to be. Ostensibly this is to curb cheating on tests. Never mind that no one has demonstrated that cheating is a bigger issue online than in the classroom. But what is happening, as reported in the [...]

I have previously checked the Web sites of presidential candidates to see if they even acknowledge the other 85 percent of higher education students that are the reality today. As of July 25, 2008, neither candidate has indicated any awareness of part-time, adult, or working college students. Their focus is on PK-12 education, [...]