In my last blog for 2008 I ask you to consider what it means to “push the envelope” in higher education.
What is the “Envelope” we are Talking About Anyway?
When we use the term “push the envelope,” we are not referring to the container for letters, but to the “flight envelope,” the collection of factor limits beyond which it is thought to be dangerous to fly. These factors include speed, altitude, and engine power, to name a few.
Obviously, the “flight envelope” has changed over time. Safe speeds and altitudes in 1943 have been far surpassed thanks to advances in technology. Today’s flight envelope would be unthinkable to the aviators of WWII. How did aviation make progress? Innovators pushed the “flight envelope” a little at a time.
The Education Envelope
Let’s relate this concept back to education. If we defined an “education envelope” we would include those factors and limits beyond which believe it is impossible to educate students. These factors might include course length, mode of delivery, place of learning, and faculty type. In the past, the higher education envelope was defined by 15-week, face-to-face courses on campus, with a full-time professoriate. Thanks to innovators who questioned these parameters (including UMUC), we now know that shorter course lengths, online formats, alternate learning sites (including bases in Iraq!), and well-trained adjunct faculty can be part of quality education.
We now have a proliferation of innovative institutions moving into adult-focused education. Private for-profits and not-for-profits have been serving these students for years. More recently, we have seen the ascendency of public institutions such as UMass, Illinois and North Carolina in the online sphere. All these institutions are pushing the education envelope every day by using learning outcomes as the measure of educational quality and then designing innovative methods to educate students.
Pushing the Education Envelope by Learning From Others
As UMUC and SUS seek to serve a larger, global student population, we will need to continue to “push the education envelope” to maintain our leadership in higher education for adults. Many good ideas come from within our own institution and we should constantly seek these out. And many good ideas can come from other institutions whose mission it is to serve adult students.
My question to all of you is this: what practices, models, services or approaches to educating students have you experienced at other institutions that we can learn from? It should not matter if the University is for-profit or not-for-profit, private or public, faith-based or secular. We should be constantly scanning the environment to learn how others are “pushing the education envelope,” piloting those practices that may help us serve and educate students better, and adopt those that work, regardless of their origin.
I want to hear from you. Please share your ideas within your 999s and write to me at deanundergrad@umuc.edu. In my next blog I will share some of the ideas that were suggested.
Marie Cini
Vice Provost and Dean
