EDUCAUSE | Innovation

Exploring and Designing Breakthrough Models in Higher Education

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:09:34 +0000

Trending Now: Recent News in the Postsecondary World of Next Generation Learning

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:08:20 +0000

Pathway to Possibility: A Framework is Renovated and Refined

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:45:54 +0000

Last September, Next Generation Learning Challenges published a white paper laying out our perspective on what next generation learning is and what it requires. The six dimensions of the framework were built out of observations of the work of NGLC grantees and a scan of the field. Since then, we have been collecting comments, feedback, and suggestions for making the framework “work” for a broad audience, so that it may serve as a guidepost for those who are planning and designing technology-enabled next generation learning—including those applying to NGLC’s currently open Wave IV grant competition. We asked the EDUCAUSE community and others involved in this work, “What will it take for next generation learning to help more students attain better outcomes more affordably?”

The Future is Bright: Reflections on Innovations 2013

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:08:18 +0000

More than 3,600 administrators and faculty from the nation’s most creative community colleges came together in Dallas March 10 to 13 for the 15^th annual Innovations Conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College, and more than a few of them heard something about next generation learning while in attendance. NGLC staff were at the front of the room for two of the sessions and in the audience for many others, watching eyes light up. If enthusiasm and awareness spreads so easily, can scaling be far behind?

The following Innovations 2013 presentations featured strategies under development and lessons being learned through the design and implementation of NGLC projects and programs:

How Disruptive Is Information Technology Really?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:29:07 +0000

How disruptive is this technology revolution, and what does this expansion of the world of knowledge portend for higher education? Certainly the boundaries that once separated teacher from student, research from teaching, and basic scholarship from practice are disappearing. This leads to some interesting questions about what lies ahead for those of us who chose to cast our lot with the academy. Who will be the teachers in the future, and who will be the learners? What role will a sense of place play in defining the distinctive character of learning? When will learning be informed by personal experiences, and when will it be more universal in character and conducted in cyberspace?

Thinking about Accreditation in a Rapidly Changing World

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:02:50 +0000

Online learning has provided a platform for rethinking delivery models, yet much of accreditation is not designed to account for these new approaches.

Kicking Up Dust in Austin at SXSWedu

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:19:16 +0000

By, Van L. Davis, Ph.D., Director of Special Projects, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

This week, NGLC headed off to SXSWedu in sunny Austin, Texas. Only in its third year, this conference has grown to 6,000 attendees from 30 countries and draws an exciting mix of instructional designers, faculty, policymakers, funders, and educational technology entrepreneurs. Keynote speakers this year included Asenath Andrews (principal of Catherine Ferguson Academy, an alternative public high school for teen mothers that provides early childhood education services to their children), Anant Agrwal (president of edX), Andrew Ng (co-founder of Coursera), and—as a culmination on Thursday –a closing keynote by Bill Gates, accompanied by Dianne Tavenner of Summit Public Schools, another NGLC grantee.

Advancing the Next Generation of Learning through Evidence: What We Learned at ELI 2013

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:44:19 +0000

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the NGLC blog at nextgenlearning.org.

Several conversations, sessions, and keynote speakers at this year’s annual meeting of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, ELI2013, focused on

Emerging Technologies, Innovation, and Academic Transformation: A Report on the ELI Focus Session

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:42:30 +0000

On October 2 and 3, 2012, the ELI teaching and learning community gathered for an online focus session on emerging technologies, innovation, and academic transformation. This white paper is a synthesis of the key ideas, themes, and concepts that came out of the focus session. This white paper also includes links to supporting focus session materials, recordings, and resources. It represents a harvesting of the key elements that we, as a teaching and learning community, need to keep in mind as we explore higher education incubator models, various pilot structures and processes, rubrics and methodologies for evaluating pilots, and considerations and tools to scale innovations to varying degrees.

Hallmarks of the Breakthrough Models, #1: Modular Courses

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:35:11 +0000

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a series from Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC). Each post highlights a distinguishing design characteristic of NGLC’s recently funded Breakthrough Postsecondary Models, as described in their profiles. This post originally appeared on the NGLC blog at http://nextgenlearning.org/blog.

Lessons Learned from Virtual Schools: Experiences and Recommendations from the Field

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:10:40 +0000

Virtual schools are a vibrant movement in education reform—extending the possibilities of learning beyond time and space constraints, and opening access for all students to a world-class education. Across all fifty states, there are students taking online courses in 82 percent of K–12 school districts.

Online learning is expanding access to courses in K–12 education and providing a new network of highly qualified teachers to students in underserved communities. Online learning has numerous benefits, including expanding course offerings, offering customized and personalized learning, giving students a second chance to master a subject when they have struggled, and providing a rigorous, interactive learning model for schools that is data-rich.

Lessons Learned from Virtual Schools: Experiences and Recommendations from the Field is important because it shows the dynamic models, progress, and pitfalls from the perspective of many of the state virtual schools and pioneers in virtual learning. As shown in this book, no two programs are alike. There is complexity and uniqueness in what these virtual schools do, how they do it, and the stages of growth and progress they have experienced. Lessons Learned from Virtual Schools seeks to inform others about the existing opportunities, challenges, problems, and solutions across supplemental programs and virtual schools.

Virtual schools are emerging as a powerful force for designing new educational experiences and changing the notion of what is possible. Virtual schools offer a glimpse into the future through new models for digital curriculum, performance-based assessment, and technology platforms—and serve an important function while shedding light on early and emerging transformations in next generation learning.

We are grateful to the authors of this book for sharing their pathway—their vision, 20/20 hindsight on lessons learned, identification of crossroads, and willingness to walk us down their "road less traveled"—to motivate us to make a difference.

Online and blended learning is a disruptive innovation that is powerful—and for kids, learning online comes naturally. It is time to empower students with next generation learning and to realize that the revolution in digital education is underway. Thanks to the pioneers who are leading the way and for dedicating their professional lives to enhancing student-centered approaches in virtual schools across the country.

Written by Richard E. Ferdig, Cathy Cavanaugh

Clearing the Path: Creating Innovation Space for Serving Over-Age, Under-Credited Students in Competency-Based Pathways

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:06:03 +0000

This paper provides guidance on creating competency-based approaches for over-age, under-credited students that have fallen off the track toward graduation. Drawing on a wide range of expertise, this paper explores how states can create space for innovation, including design principles, minimum policy conditions and options for moving forward.

Written by Chris Sturgis, Bob Rath, Ephraim Weisstein, and Susan Patrick

School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:46:29 +0000

America’s system for financing K-12 education is not neutral about innovation and the use of new technologies. Indeed, that system is stacked against them. To remedy this, our education-funding system needs to shift dramatically. Instead of today’s model—which rigidly funds programs, staff positions, and administrative structures, instead of schools and students—we need an approach in which funding follows the student. At present, America’s charter-school finance structure provides the best prototype, but even it does not go far enough. An appropriate school finance system must also be able to defund ineffective schools and provide space and incentives for online providers to bring their products to the marketplace.

Written by Paul T. Hill

Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:09:30 +0000

This paper examines new models of instruction made possible by digital technologies. Pilot projects from across the country are experimenting with different organizations and delivery systems, and transforming the manner in which formal education takes place. By itself, technology will not remake education. Meaningful change requires alterations in technology, organizational structure, instructional approach, and educational assessment. But if officials combine innovations in technology, organization, operations, and culture, they can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and reimagine the manner in which schools function.

Written by Darrell M. West

Next Generation Learning: Defining and Scaling the Opportunity

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:23:51 +0000

Parthenon’s Education Practice is pleased to share the publication of Next Generation Learning – Defining and Scaling the Opportunity, co-authored by Parthenon’s Seth Reynolds and Tammy Battaglino, in partnership with Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Opportunity Equation and Stupski Foundation. The emerging Next Generation Learning market has the opportunity to fundamentally transform the K-12 learning experience and shift many deeply embedded notions about when, where and how learning should occur. If fulfilled, Next Generation Learning will be a key driver in dramatic improvements to global education system.

Written by Seth Reynolds, Tammy Battaglino

Interview and Interactive Q&A Session with General Session Speaker Elizabeth Coleman, Bennington College

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 23:03:05 +0000

Join us for an exclusive interview and take advantage of this unique opportunity to engage in dialogue with the general session speaker who will comment on and discuss her presentation from the face-to-face program, "Improvisation and Innovation: Rhetoric and Reality."

Building Blocks for College Completion: Blended Learning

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:36:46 +0000

Ten projects funded by Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) in the initiative’s first round of investment in 2011, known as Wave I, sought to scale the adoption of blended learning models. The intent was to realize the potential of those models to improve student outcomes and reduce costs. NGLC’s funding of their solutions was an opportunity to discover the strengths of different blended learning models, the elements of those models that may be widely adopted, and strategies for addressing implementation challenges. Grantees spent much of their project effort interacting with expansion campuses that were adopting their approaches, although several grantees also needed to complete the technical development of their approach in order to scale it. This report includes details about the designs of their scalable models and the strategies for scaling that they implemented.

The report concludes with suggestions for future development and adoption of blended learning, included as primer questions and a resource list, which are based on grantees’ work in progress.

NGLC accelerates educational innovation through applied technology to dramatically improve college readiness and completion in the United States. To learn more about NGLC and the grantees it supports, visit nextgenlearning.org

Improvisation and Innovation: Rhetoric and Reality - Sponsored by Tuition Management Systems

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:29:15 +0000

We are unlikely to achieve the kind of institutional agility we desire—openness to new ideas, responsiveness to a changing world—if we persist in addressing questions of innovation, improvisation, and collaboration outside the context of our institutional reality. Hence the address will focus on issues of institutional design as they relate to the likelihood that improvisation and fresh thinking (for that matter, thinking at all) is a serious option.

Cultivating a Culture of Creativity and Innovation: Learning from Jazz Improvisation - Sponsored by Acquia

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:29:15 +0000

Today's world involves change at an unprecedented pace. Managing creativity and innovation is becoming the most important responsibility for leaders in this new century. Leaders must build this capability in their people at all levels of the organization to initiate and implement the innovative solutions that can improve organizational effectiveness. This presentation will provide a model for creating an organization designed for maximum learning and innovation. Using jazz improvisation as the metaphor, participants will see how jazz players do what leaders find themselves doing: inventing novel responses without a plan or without certainty of outcomes and discovering the future that their action creates as it unfolds. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of factors that support innovation and creativity.

Napster, Udacity, and the Academy

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:42:48 +0000

Clay Shirky provides a thoughtful discussion in this blog on MOOCs and its early stages of possible disruption of higher education.

Podcast: Leading Sustained, Desired Change

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:02:50 +0000

Speakers:

Laurie G. Antolovic, Deputy Chief Information Officer, Indiana University Bloomington
Michael Kubit, Director ITS Run, Case Western Reserve University

Emerging trends in higher education require fundamental changes in our IT organizations. Without the right strategy and approach, attempts at organizational change could return unintended results that negatively impact an organization for years. This session will present how evidence-based approaches can be used to facilitate and focus positive organizational change.

Music: "New Pop Wave" by sebastian6

Flipped Session: Working Successfully with Emerging Technologies and Innovations

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:03:07 +0000

Watch this 30-minute introductory video How to Think about Disruptive Innovation by Alex Castellarnau of IDEO and be prepared to discuss the session at http://www.educause.edu/eli/events/eli-fall-focus-session/2012/how-think-about-disruptive-innovation
We'll also be discussing and using some of the rubrics found here: http://tinyurl.com/goodpilot.
Please bring a laptop or tablet to the session.

Flipped Session: Working Successfully with Emerging Technologies and Innovations

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:02:13 +0000

Continuously innovating and transforming our current practices is critical to keep pace with teaching and learning as it evolves. While there is no shortage of candidate innovations, the process by which to discover them, to select them for pilots, and to consider full-scale implementation, can be challenging. Join in this flipped session where we'll explore these issues and how they map to higher education units like yours. In short, we'll review the processes that help us identify the innovations and opportunities critical to continued student success. To participate in this flipped session, you'll need to watch this 30 minute introductory video: How to Think about Disruptive Innovation, by Alex Castellarnau of IDEO. and be prepared to discuss it during these session. We'll also be discussing and using some of the rubrics found here: http://tinyurl.com/goodpilot. Please bring a laptop or tablet to the session.

Educational Innovation: Can a New LMS Help Set the Stage?

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:32:16 +0000

Universities are under growing pressure to innovate, with the dual objectives of improving quality and reducing costs. Instructional technology can play a role in satisfying both objectives. But experience shows that new technologies are not always readily adopted by academic institutions. How do instructional culture and partnerships contribute to successful introduction of new technology? In this panel session, you will learn about one university's experience with the launch of an LMS pilot. This panel brings together different perspectives (faculty, instructional staff, and campus central services) to discuss key steps in technology adopting that can set the stage for educational innovation.

Venture Academy

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:05:44 +0000

Opening in Fall 2013, this 6-12 charter school in Minneapolis MN is designed to educate the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs and inventors who can use knowledge to pull apart, reassemble, and redesign ideas. Like inventors, they are expected to be driven, self-motivated directors of their own learning, using assessment feedback to develop their individual learning plans. They rotate through stations to learn academic content and test their own inventiveness.

The two-page grantee profiles from Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) provide factual information about the secondary school and postsecondary degree program designs awarded grants under NGLC's third wave of funding, which focused on two areas, "Breakthrough Models for College Readiness" and "Breakthrough Models for College Completion." Each profile describes what makes each model "breakthrough" and offers important information about the instructional and financial models, student demographics, hardware and software choices, and contact info. These profiles serve to illustrate the innovations of these new blended and online models, with practical details of interest to those starting a new school or degree program.