bodner089

The second most viewed post on this blog is titled, “Revenue Sharing and Support for Branch Campus Growth.”   ( http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2010/02/revenue-sharing-and-support-for-branch.html ).   I tend to write shorter, more focused posts, these days, but so it goes.   Among other things, I described the approach to funding in Ohio, which worked well for a very long time.   Unfortunately, recent changes may make things harder for university branches; I am concerned about the long-term implications for enrollment. In the same month, I also wrote a post titled, “On Being an Entrepreneur in Higher Education.” ( http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-being-entrepreneur-in-higher.html )   That post stemmed from my frustration with institutional leaders who claim to be entrepreneurs, but do not appear to understand what it means to empower innovation, especially in a disruptive environment. Good information is available on how to develop...

A few years ago, I wrote a piece for this blog titled, “Rate of Change and Predicting Which Institutions Will Thrive in the Future.”   You can find it at http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2010/05/rate-of-change-and-predicting-which.html . The post was based on a quote from Jack Welch:   “I’ve always believed that when the rate of change inside an institution becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight.”   Sobering words, but the logic is compelling.   Over and over again, we have seen that established organizations in a wide range of industries lose out to more innovative, nimble organizations with an idea that disrupted the status quo . I am revisiting this topic, because the rate of change in higher education clearly accelerated in recent months.   The stories are stunning, as the availability of MOOCs and other online options are expanding.   The emergence of “free” courses has rapidly spawned remarkably low-cost...

Through most of my career, I both enjoyed and benefited from the fact that people at the main campus paid little attention to their branches.   For all the frustration and difficulty of getting programs or courses approved, the circumstances worked to our advantage.   In addition, because we were financially separate from the main campus, we developed a deeper understanding of higher education finance than most of the chairs, deans and vice presidents with whom we worked.   (Not bragging; just sharing the facts.   My experience with finance or budget administrators really was no different, because they tend to focus so strongly on cost control and risk avoidance that we found negotiations usually worked to our advantage.   Keep in mind that I am a devotee of mutual gains bargaining, so our success was mostly a matter of careful listening and addressing the interests of others, but with a strong understanding of our own interests.   Thus, i...

There is no question that lots of things are happening in higher education.   New programs and new strategies show up at a rapid clip.   As you think about the future, you will necessarily make choices about course and program delivery, and those choices will have a major impact on how attractive you are to prospective students. Consider this range of possibilities for delivery: ·       Face-to-face in a traditional classroom ·       Synchronous delivery with some students in the same classroom as the instructor and others participating through interactive video ·       Hybrid delivery, which may include asynchronous streaming videos, online elements, and occasional classroom meetings, which themselves can occur in a variety of forms; this might include use of the “flipped classroom,” which offers significant creative opportunities ·         What I’ll cal...

When I suggest that most institutions of higher education are in trouble, I am in good company.  Many people say the same thing, and most point to the remarkably rapid emergence of very low cost alternatives for earning credits, especially in the lucrative area of general education, as well as alternative ways of certifying learning that tie to the needs of employers. For example, at StraighterLine, one can earn a full year of general education credits for about $1000, and those credits will transfer to many institutions.   Companies, community colleges and a few universities are breaking new ground by providing free non-credit options that can be turned into transferable credits, through exams that may cost less than $100.   In short, the higher education financial model is breaking down. Moreover, because leaders are convinced that spending on “amenities,” (athletics, additional buildings, etc.) is necessary in order to compete for residential students, they are i...

Today (February 4, 2013), there are several stories in Inside Higher Education that illustrate the point of my last post, and I want to use two of them to express a relatively strong statement of concern.   I simply do not believe that many leaders in higher education understand the train that is bearing down on them. The first piece is titled, “Free Course, Inexpensive Exam” ( http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/04/free-online-course-providers-pair-credit-bearing-exams ).   The story describes the decision of a student to take a free online course, and then receive three credits at his home institution by taking a CLEP exam, for just $99.    The piece then discusses some of the many options that more and more students undoubtedly will choose over paying much higher tuition at a university, or even at a community college.   The course was a general education course in psychology, and the student makes a perfectly understandable point t...

I start most days by checking email and reading/scanning various newsletters.   I work from what I like to think is a holistic, almost intuitive sense of direction, and that seems to require immersion in information.   I wish I did a better job of retaining specific sources and details, but at this point in my life I’m going to roll with my strengths and not worry too much about my deficits.   (That’s a shout-out to all my strengths-based leadership friends!) I realize that most people lack the time to invest that I do in exploring ideas, whether through reading online newsletters, networking, or otherwise pursuing new developments.   I hope to provide a brief series of posts, here, to capture a few key elements, as I think they might relate to administrators at branch campuses or other small public and private institutions. I recommend that anyone interested in emerging change subscribe to at least two online resources that I check out every day. ...