New Academy | EDUCAUSE

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Definition and Importance of Key Theme

The academy is at the intersection of three major vectors of change:

	Teaching: changes in what society's needs and perceptions are for education as a social good.
	Learning: changes in our understanding of how people think and learn, as well as students' needs for education and their perception of it as a private good.
	Technology: opportunities to teach and learn in new ways that new technologies bring.

The economy is another significant driver of change. Institutions of higher education are pressured to decrease costs, deliver return on investment, and manage scarce resources effectively. The slumping economy and state budget shortfalls have led to surging tuitions (more than a 20 percent increase at some state universities), while the value of college investment portfolios has diminished by half or more. Even more troubling, research indicates that by the end of the decade in the United States, nearly four-and-a-half million college-qualified students will be unable to enroll in a four-year college, and another two million will be denied any access to college, due to the prohibitive cost of higher education.

There are almost "elemental" forces that are acting on our society, and on higher education as a consequence-globalization, technology, demographics, and above all, economy. These forces, while powerful, are blind in that they can have many unintended and negative consequences. On the other hand, if we channel such forces intelligently we might minimize negative and unintended consequences and focus instead on valuable outcomes. Perhaps the leadership higher education needs is provided by people who can leverage energy already in motion and focus it toward the desired vision. In all of this, timing is crucial. As Debra Friedman notes, "It seems to me that we must be alert to those moments at which something truly transformational becomes possible. The moment itself is exceptionally difficult to predict, but it is not so difficult to predict that such a moment will come. The challenge, then, is to do the preparatory work so that the moment matters." ("Leadership in the New Academy," New Academy VCOP discussion, 2/21/03).

The deepest question of all is: As all these pressures are exacerbated by shrinking resources and budget cuts, do we continue with business as usual, making incremental cuts and changes, in the hopes that these pressures will fade? Or is this an opportunity to demonstrate the remarkable creativity that has been an attribute of our community, and begin to design and build the new academy?

NLII Research and Analysis Questions

The members of the New Academy Virtual Community of Practice have been discussing the topics described here, and many of the key research and analysis questions listed below were suggested or posed by members of the community as were the resources. These are many of the same questions we tackle with our members at the institutional level, but with this key theme we want to tackle them at the system level-the system of higher education in its entirety.

General Questions

How can we begin to design and build the new academy for creative and principle-driven response to these forces for change?
Where do external forces seem to be pushing us, what is our vision for learning and teaching in higher education, how do these two match or mismatch, and what strategies can we leverage toward our evolving, collective vision?
What should we be teaching in this world reshaped by long-term international, economic, technological, and geopolitical forces?
How should we fundamentally change our teaching practice, to reflect both our new understanding of how people think and learn and how they need to be prepared for lifelong learning?
Is the academy prepared to address the challenges of new and next-generation learners?
How do we go about making good and appropriate choices in investments in technologies to support teaching and learning?
How can we address the dangers of a "Fast Food Future" for higher education-the danger that a short-term, bottom-line, mass market driven-by-profit motivations will not be informed by the values of discovery, collaboration, and exploration of ideas for their own sake?
How do we begin to tackle one of the most challenging aspects of the transformation of the academy-the conflict between the recognition that just as faculty will be central to the success of the new academy, equally imperative is the need to foster deep change in the heart of the traditional faculty culture?
Which change is meaningful and transformational, and which is simply evolutionary and unpreventable?
Who is making thoughtful assessments and rational choices that define this new academy?
How do we think about and manage the change so that it's happening for us all (students, faculty, staff, admin, institution) rather than to us all-and can that be done with evolutionary change that happens too quickly?
How real are our idealizations of the academy as a rich socializing experience, and how do these ideas relate to the reality of vast number of commuting students?
The student's transcript represents only a modest (and fleeting) part of the qualities and experience that shape a conscientious democratic citizen and what employers-and graduate/professional programs-look for in applicants. What are the other factors in education, and how can we enhance our delivery of them and assess them?

Research and Practice

The challenges and developments concerning teaching and learning have been catalogued in the pivotal research and policy work of the past decade, which includes but is not limited to Harvard Assessment Seminars (Light, 1990), How College Affects Students (Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991), What Matters in College (Astin, 1993), Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities (Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research Community, 1998), Powerful Partnerships: A Shared Responsibility for Learning (American Association for Higher Education, American College Personnel Association, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 1998), NASULGC Universities Connecting with the Future (National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, 1999), How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (National Research Council, 2000), and Returning to Our Roots (Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, 2001).

What is the evidence that this research and policy work has affected practice?
How can the gap between research and practice be bridged? Leadership
What are good examples of the kind of leadership that the new academy needs?
How can leaders in an environment with many distractions (for example, accountability mandates, fads, third-party "experts") help their community keep a focus on what is important and valuable, namely, the core mission of serving students through the improvement of teaching and learning?
What role do leaders play in getting and keeping the right stakeholders engaged internationally?
What are the processes and structures that need to be in place in order to provide the ongoing commitment and support to the development of the new academy?

Models for Transformation

What are useful models for understanding the transformation of complex organizations?
What are the characteristics that influence institutional change and the locally specific factors that are at play?
How do cultural artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions influence the distribution of a new idea? (Schein argues that individuals rarely change the culture they are in; rather, they influence it by using its strengths. This one set of factors-cultural artifacts, espoused values, and basic underlying assumptions-could influence distribution of new ideas.)
Another course of action is to look for opportunities for small changes capable of achieving significant results. Will the "new academy" be a "redesigned academy" in which we use technology to redesign existing services or to introduce new services that allow us to achieve measurable academic goals (quality) conveniently and cost-effectively?
How can the principles and practices of transformative assessment facilitate the transformation of the academy? (See the Transformative Assessment key theme page.)
The NLII Framework for Action is a new model adapted from Finnish developmental researcher Yrjö Engeström's structure of human activity. It serves two purposes: to help explain the multiple dimensions of the transformation necessary to channel the forces acting on higher education and create the new academy which meets the NLII's goals, and to make clearer how the NLII's themes and activities are designed to engage in that transformation. Carole Barone unveiled the framework in her presentation during the opening general session of the 2003 NLII National Meeting (for more information on the model, see "Overview" in the NLII 2003 Annual Review ). How useful is the framework in understanding the NLII and in conceptualizing the transformation of the academy in more general terms at a variety of scales? How could it be improved to better represent the NLII and the complexity of action which produces transformation?

NLII Projects and Activities

The New Academy was the theme for the NLII 2003 Annual Meeting. As noted above, the New Academy Virtual Community of Practice continues to explore these issues, in structured as well as open-ended discussions. A white paper will be developed based on harvesting the work of this community, for presentation at the NLII 2004 Annual Meeting in January.

Resources and Readings

The resources below were suggested by members of the New Academy VCOP.

2002 Society for College and University Planning, National Planning Roundtable, "New Forces and Realities: Making the Adjustment"

Alexander, Bryan, "Teaching in the Wireless Cloud: Students with mobile devices are slowly redefining some fundamental campus rules"

Association of American Colleges and Universities, "Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College," AACU, 2002.

Carlson, Scott, "Are Personal Digital Assistants the Next Must-Have Tool?," Chronicle of Higher Education, Information Technology, October 11, 2002.

Cox, M. D., and Richlin, L., "Emerging Trends in College Teaching for the 21st Century", Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 4, 1–7

Goetz, William W., "Ravitch and Reform: Should Left Back Be Left Back?", Teachers College Record, 104, Number 6, September2002, pp. 1204-1228.

Graves, William, "New Educational Wealth as a Return on Investment in Technology," EDUCAUSE Review, July/August, 2002.

Johnson, Cynthia S., "Higher Education Trends for the Next Century: A Research Agenda for Student Success"

Kuh, George D., "What We're Learning About Student Engagement from NSSE," Change, March/April 2003.

Maki, Peggy, "Moving from Paperwork to Pedagogy: Channeling Intellectual Curiosity into a Commitment to Assessment," AAHE Bulletin, May 2002.

Morrison, James L., and Newman, Frank, "The Technology Revolution: An Interview with Frank Newman," The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/), January/February 2003.

Morrison, James L. and Rossman, Parker, "The Future of Higher Education: An Interview with Parker Rossman," The Technology Source, January/February 2003.

National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, "Beyond Dead Reckoning: Research Priorities for Redirecting Higher Education"

National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, "The Application and Implications of Information Technologies in Postsecondary Distance Education: An Initial Bibliography," NSF 03-305, Project Director, Eileen L. Collins (Arlington, Va., 2002).

Norris, Donald M., Mason, Jon and Lefrere, Paul, "Transforming e-Knowledge: A Revolution in the Sharing of Knowledge," Society for College and University Planning, 2003

Olsen, Florence, "Using High-Speed Links, Researchers Transmit Sensation of Touch Across the Atlantic," Chronicle of Higher Education, Information Technology, October 30, 2002.

Policy and Global Affairs, National Research Council of the National Academies, "Preparing for the Revolution: Information Technology and the Future of the Research University," The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2002

Schein, Edgar H., The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1999. Trowler, P., Saunders, M. and Knight, P., "Change Thinking, Change Practices: A Guide to Change for heads of departments, subject centers and others who work middle-out," April 2002. Twigg, Carol A., "Redefining Community: Small Colleges in the Information Age"

Wulf, Wm. A., "Higher Education Alert: The Information Railroad Is Coming," EDUCAUSE Review, January/February 2003.