The New Media Consortium (NMC) is releasing a strategic brief in conjunction with the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2016. Serving as a call to action to postsecondary leaders to devise effective strategies Scaling Solutions to Higher Ed's Biggest Challenges is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and delves into eight significant challenges that stand in the way of students graduating. A focus on the implications for equity and access specifically asserts the need to better support low-income first-generation and minority students.
The US is currently on track to produce at least 11 million fewer certificates and degrees than our economy will require by 2025. At the same time nearly half of students who most aspire to filling that need end up dropping out. According to a White House report half of all people from high-income families earn a bachelor's degree by age 25 as opposed to just 1 in 10 people from low-income families. The one-size-fits-all approach of many traditional higher education paradigms is in stark contrast with an increasingly diverse student population.
Scaling Solutions to Higher Education's Biggest Challenges aims to identify the problems obstructing student success and provide exemplars that if adequately cultivated can support the widespread adoption of real solutions.
The eight challenges illustrated in the graphic below were crowdsourced from more than 120 higher education leaders from colleges universities educational organizations and digital learning companies with inaugural discussions taking place in March 2016 at a special workshop at SXSWedu. From an initial list of fifteen challenges the NMC identified eight where participants had pinpointed viable ideas and strategies that have the potential to scale. The report formalizes and expands these discussions providing definitions overviews implications for access and equity -- all grounded in current research. With an emphasis on evidence-based learning each challenge section concludes with successful real-life exemplars or proofs of concept of solutions that can be adapted applied and scaled across the field.
"It is our hope that this report becomes a catalyst for more informed strategic planning and action at higher education institutions across the US " said Peggy Snyder Interim Executive Director of the NMC. "If we are to help more low-income first-generation and minority college students graduate and achieve their goals solving these challenges will be instrumental."
The release of the publication just marks the beginning of the conversation. A special workshop is planned for the OLC Accelerate conference in November 2016 in which leaders from the field will devise strategies for implementing the solutions to four of the eight challenges. Participants will assemble into task forces that address the need for standard readiness and evaluation frameworks more grant opportunities for institutions focused on bolstering student access and equity and improved marketing and dissemination around digital learning initiatives so the continued narrative is deeply understood by a broad audience.
More face-to-face and virtual convenings will follow as the solutions are designed and implemented with the aim of turning these events into a movement. In this movement the NMC envisions a nation where millions more students graduate and thrive in their careers. Both tenured and adjunct faculty are adequately supported through technology deployments and leadership changes and they are all personally invested in spreading innovative teaching practices. Institutions continuously collect holistic data on student performance and leverage it to better cater to needs and develop effective programs. Postsecondary leaders espouse a mindset of transparency sharing data best practices and pain points and packaging initiatives in a way that make them easier for others to adapt.
Scaling Solutions to Higher Education's Biggest Challenges is published under a Creative Commons license to encourage broad dissemination.
> Download the report (PDF)
> Download the infographic (below)
