Faculty, Staff Can Influence Career Readiness

About a third of college students leave school feeling unprepared for the workplace, according to a new survey. One way institutions can help is by making officials and faculty aware that initiating contact with students about their career readiness makes a big difference.

Researchers found that students who had a conversation with at least one instructor or staff member were more likely to feel ready to begin their careers. About 40% of those students said they were confident they would graduate with the necessary skills to be successful in the job market.

When faculty or staff failed to initiate the career conversation, just 25% of students said they were convinced they would find success in the job market.

“We tend to think in higher ed, that’s the job of career services,” said Carol D’Amico, executive vice president of mission advancement and philanthropy for Strada Education. “Well, we learned that most students don’t access the career services department, so it’s really everybody’s job at the university or college.”

More than 32,000 current students from 43 four-year institutions selected at random participated in the survey, conducted by Gallupand the Strada Education Network. The schools ranged from large public universities to small liberal arts colleges, but for-profit institutions were not included.

The study also reported that 62% of students earning science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees strongly agreed that they would find a good job. Just 40% of liberal arts majors and 51% of business majors felt the same way.

“If I was still a chancellor … I would be concerned by that and I’d want to know about my own students,” said D’Amico, a former chancellor for Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana. “This is a nationally representative sample so I think they should want to know where their students stack up.”

Higher Ed Focused on Social Media

Conventional wisdom suggests that Fortune 500 firms are on the cutting edge of social-media usage while higher education lags behind. In fact, higher-ed executives are 10% more likely to be using social media compared to their corporate counterparts, according to a report from the social-media monitoring firm Hootsuite.

The Social Campus Report: 8 Opportunities for Higher Edin 2018 noted that student use of technology has institutions increasing their focus on social media to keep pace. It also found that 63% of campus administrators say they believe that social media is important to strategic planning and fulfilling their institution’s mission.

Students are more likely to use social media regularly, making it an easier and more cost-efficient way to communicate with them. The report also found that many administrators view a robust social-media presence as a way to gain an advantage over other colleges and universities.

“There’s this kind of vacuum of knowledge on social and how it has impacted education,” said Phil Chatterton, industry principal for higher education at Hootsuite. “This has changed the way people communicate and education is a big part of that.”

Robust Mobile Apps a Must on Campus

Students don’t always bother with email, but they do check their smartphones, making it more important for colleges and universities to have a mobile strategy. The University of Texas at San Antonio (USTA) investigated its approach and found three issues institutions must address to connect with their student bodies through a mobile app.

The initiative was part of a 2015 grant the university received to develop its PIVOT for Academic Success Program. PIVOT stands for prepare, inspire, validate, orient, and transition students, and is part of an effort to understand the needs of the increasing number of first-time Latino, low-socioeconomic, and first-generation students on the UTSA campus.

Researchers found that push notifications about grade announcements, assignments, and tuition deadlines helped keep students on track, particularly those struggling to balance their academics and family responsibilities. It also discovered low-income students don’t always have access to a personal computer at home, so it created a mobile app that allows them to add and drop classes, buy textbooks, and communicate with faculty within the app.

The university integrated its student information system into its app so personal financial-aid information can be accessed, such as balances, charges, and alerts when payments are due, right from a student’s mobile devices. Along with all of the campus life information found on most mobile apps, the USTA tool also is compatible with most of the languages found on the USTA campus, which makes communications with students easier.

“Effective communication is key to keeping today’s diverse, mobile-first students engaged,” wrote Chris Hopkinson in an article for eCampus News. “As higher-education institutions continue to focus on boosting graduation rates for all students, a robust mobile strategy is quickly becoming the mainstay to increasing engagement and promoting an inclusive student experience.”

Colleges Provide More Internet Access

Colleges and universities appear to be doing a good jobmaking bandwidth available, with more than 70% offering 1GB or more per student, according to the 2017State of ResNet Report. The study found that available campus bandwidth has increased threefold in the last five years, with about a quarter of the campuses in the survey offering 7GB or more per student.

The survey of 320 colleges and universities reported that while desktops and laptops consume the most bandwidth, smartphones have moved past tablet computers into second place. Smartphones are now seen as academic tools because they allow a more flexible learning environment for multitasking students.

The ResNet report also noted that video entertainment platforms, such as Netflix, consume the largest percentage of campus Wi-Fi, followed by web-based rich content, music, and video games. Classroom learning tools, such as interactive digital textbooks and e-books, were at the bottom of the bandwidth-consumption list.

More than 80% of the institutions reported using bandwidth-management tools, but only 18% cap usage. In addition, 61% of the schools charge a general tech fee to pay for the services.

While bandwidth numbers have improved, a third of the students responding to a 2016 multinational survey said they felt their institutions could still do more. Students claimed that current campus technology was cumbersome and should be more like the apps many use each day on their devices.

Some Schools Finding Ways to Manage Fees

While college students have always been quick to complain about textbook prices, the fees added to tuition are rapidly becoming as great a concern. A study from Project Muse found that student fees at a four-year public university averaged more than $1,700 each year, adding an additional 27% to the cost of tuition.

The fees pay for everything from student activities to maintenance. In one case, a school of business even charged a “professional development fee” for a subscription to The Wall Street Journal. That has some students seeing red and a few institutions thinking about other ways to approach the issue.

The University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, has rolled fees into its tuition since 2013, making it possible for students to use their financial aid to cover the bill. The results have been promising. The first class of students eligible for the program is set to graduate this year and the university said they borrowed 15% less to pay for their education. Dropout rates also fell, along with the number of applicants who didn’t show up for their freshman year after receiving their first bill.

Dayton is also saving money. The university no longer sends out up to 40,000 separate bills each year to students for the fees.

“This is very much about building trust,” Jason Reinoehl, vice president for strategic enrollment management at Dayton, said in an article that appeared in The Hechinger Report. “It’s our beacon. I think the whole industry is going to have to do this.”

Survey: Americans Don't Trust College Value

Many Americans are unhappy with state of higher education and no longer convinced it’s worth the trouble. Nearly half of the respondents to a poll taken in August by Public Agenda said a college education is no longer a good investment because of the debt incurred, while 44% said they considered schools to be wasteful and inefficient.

About 60% also said institutions are mainly concerned about their bottom lines and that a college education is no longer necessary to be successful. Even more troubling is that the results were similar to a February poll conducted by the Gallup Purdue Index.

The outlook isn’t much better for students already on campus. An annual survey of more than 140,000 low-income students reported that because of costs only half actually enrolled into their school of choice. A third said they couldn’t afford their first choice and nearly 90% picked a school based on cost.

“Students are also less likely than in the past to go to college just to learn, the survey found,” education writer Jon Marcus wrote in an article for Hechinger Report. “A record 60% said they were pursuing degrees because they want to get good jobs.”

College graduates did admit to researchers that their education made an impact on their lives, but not necessarily in a good way. One poll found that about a third of grads who borrowed money for college had put off buying a house and a quarter postponed starting a business because of the debt.

Coming to Grips with Higher-Ed Value

Voters often complain that the U.S. Congress needs to change, while continually voting their own representatives back into office. A new survey found something similar in higher education: Academic leaders agree that college and universities are responsible for why institutions are delivering less value than 10 years ago, but that doesn’t include their own school.

In the report, from the research firm Eduventures and set to be published Sept. 29, about half of the administrators said their own institutions provided either more or somewhat higher value than a decade before, while another quarter said the value was roughly the same. When asked to rate the value of higher education as a whole, nearly 75% said it had decreased or remained the same.

“What I’m sensing is a bit of a vacuum,” James Wiley, principal analyst for Eduventures and author of the report, said in an article for Inside Higher Ed. “Leaders are pulled in all directions, and if there’s no real ownership or space to do anything, then what fills that void?”

One conclusion from the report is that colleges and universities may be suffering from “initiative fatigue.”

“Higher education is drowning in initiatives right now,” said Gunnar Counselman, CEO of the ed-tech firm Fedelis. “What’s happened in the last 10-12 years is that higher ed has recognized that what got them here is not going to get them there. They’ve recognized that they’re going to have to change and, as a result of that, they’ve put a dozen initiatives in the water.”

Enticement for Graduating on Time

Many colleges and universities are working on ways to encourage students to graduate in four years. Marymount California University, Rancho Palos Verdes, has come up with a pretty unique enticement.

The school partnered with a local car dealership to allow incoming freshmen to purchase new Mini Cooper automobiles at fleet pricing. Students have to make the first four years of payments, but if they graduate on time, the university will make the fifth and final year of payments, up to $5,000.

“Our students will commute to and from our campuses, drive to their internships, and explore the abundance of beauty, culture, and fun that Southern California has to offer,” said Marymount President Lucas Lamadrid. “And our graduates who participate in the My Marymount Mini will have a reliable and ‘cool’ car that’s fully paid for to drive to their first job after college.”

Study Identifies Website Flaws

Colleges and universities want their websites to attract prospective students, but too often fail to make a good impression, according to a new report from the higher-education web development firm KDG.

“Our research revealed five mistakes that colleges often make on their website,” Kyle David, CEO of KDG, said in an article for eCampus News. “These mistakes may seem trivial, but they are the primary reasons many students often choose an inferior college that just happens to have a better website.”

The first problem for many college websites is that most incoming freshmen use social media regularly and have become accustomed to reading short chunks of information. Long forms that must be filled out are another issue that prompt prospective students to leave a website.

Institutional sites should guard against cluttered home pages that force students to click several times just to find out about a single aspect of the college. Fake imagery of college life and clichés can also send students looking elsewhere.

“A poorly organized site loses visitors and applicants, and you can ill afford to lose either,” said Rick Martin, a writer for the KDG blog. “Your biology department may be on the verge of curing cancer, but if your website wastes students’ time, you will fail to attract the bright minds that you need to keep your college strong.”

Amazon Expanding Staffed Pick-up Spots

Amazon continues to make a push on campus, now listing job opportunities at the Berkeley and Santa Barbara campuses of the University of California and the University of Cincinnati. The listing appears on the company’s website and offers candidates $13.15 per hour to work at new Campus Pick-Up Point (CPP) locations.

The CPP program began last February to provide students living in dorms or apartments near campus with an easy way to receive their online orders from Amazon. It’s also seen as part of a move into the college market that includes co-branded websites with UC Davis and Purdue University and taking over course materials operations at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, according to a report in Fortune.

The Cincinnati Business Courier reported that Amazon took out a building permit in a building development near the Cincinnati campus and lists Nov. 13, 2015, as the approximate start date for employees of at that location.

However, the job postings and building permits don’t necessarily mean there’s a partnership between Amazon and the universities.  According to Fortune, a spokesperson for UC Santa Barbara said the school was not associated with any Amazon venture.

Universities Create Tech Consortium

While universities offer different programs to attract students, the technology infrastructure necessary to deliver them is often the same. That led Colorado State University, Indiana University, the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan to join forces.

The schools created a consortium called Unizin to negotiate contracts with technology vendors for products and services they purchase individually. Schools are currently paying millions to build and buy systems for storing and managing digital content, but Unizin is designed to allow its members to purchase a set of services in an effort to create a common infrastructure.

“Right now, that stuff is going into digital shoeboxes, one campus at a time,” Bradley C. Wheeler, vice president for information technology at Indiana, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The goal of Unizin is to allow member institutions to share data and learning materials through the common infrastructure without losing control of student data or intellectual property. The effort follows a 2013 position paper from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation that suggested institutions needed a better way to make smart technology decisions.

“It’s not about owning everything,” Wheeler said. “It’s about owning the rights to make choices that are in the interest of universities.”

College Stores Can Help With Digital Output

Frank Lowney returned from CAMEX 2013 with a fresh appreciation for campus bookstore, but he has a key piece of advice for them.

Lowney,  project coordinator of the Digital Innovation Group, an initiative of the University System of Georgia and Georgia College & State University, went to Kansas City as a Thought Leader presenter at CAMEX, discussing course materials in a digital age.

He saw firsthand at the CAMEX trade show that collegiate retailers are diversifying their product mix, but wonders if that will be enough if students no longer go to the store to obtain required course materials. And, as he wrote in his TeleRead blog post, that day may be getting closer.

In the end, Lowney’s best advice for college stores is to explore every possible avenue to help institutions create and distribute their own digital course material.

“Campus bookstores, libraries, and university presses (where they exist) are natural allies in this kind of effort,” he wrote. “Faculty creating e-textbooks may have the content expertise, but they will need lots of help in all the other aspect of book production.”

Digital requires teamwork

"Etextbooks attracting involvement of the FFC, Education Department, and Higher Ed" highlights several initiatives currently underway that is transforming this country into a digital nation.  Examples such as the Digital Textbook Collaborative, the MUSE project, and institutional “bulk-purchases” of etextbooks are mentioned in the story.  But the main takeaway from this article can be summarized by quoting FCC chairman Julius Genachowski,

“We will all win if the players in the digital learning ecosystem—including publishers, device manufacturers, platform providers, internet service providers, schools—work together to accelerate the adoption of digital textbooks.”

If the leadership on college campuses is serious about adopting digital course materials, all players in the campus community should be involved to make that change.  A successful digital campus requires a coordinated effort from across the campus and the discussions surrounding this topic should include as many people who are affected by the change.  This includes folks from the college stores, as much as faculty, students, IT, library, and other areas.  Given that we are still in a period of trial and error, this is a good time to bring others on board to get their insights. Remember, it take a whole campus to educate a student.

CAMEX question answered: campus relations

There are not many “CAMEX questions” left – and those that remain are a bit more complex or challenging to answer in the space of a blog post. This week’s question relates to campus relationships with administration.

Q. How do I convince my administration that they need to partner with the bookstore to develop digital strategies for the future? Is there a ‘how to” from other schools?

Good questions. The answer to the first question likely depends on many factors such as school size, reporting structure, how the store has traditionally been positioned on campus, etc.. On the second question, I am not aware of a “how to” guide, but NACS does have some resources for members on how to engage different groups on campus. There is the communications toolkit, which includes templates and questions for talking with different administrative groups on campus. There are new resources and case studies being built relative to the College Store of 2015 initiative within the Foundation. Additional resources are in development.

If your store currently has little partnership with the campus administration, then now is an excellent time to start. Relationships are built on trust, and building trust takes time. Work on building relationships long before you need them.

One tactic you can use is to find out what initiatives are underway on campus. Likely pockets of activity are in IT (look for instructional designers or folks who work in academic computing), or in the library.

Look at your current textbook adoptions compared to prior years. Which faculty use technology (e.g., MyMathLab or clickers) or an open source textbook? Has a textbook adoption disappeared?

Is the faculty member using nothing, or are they using materials put on e-reserve in the library, placed elsewhere, or being acquired directly from the content provider.

Another tactic is to become a resource expert for your administration on digital course materials. Point them to good articles or resources on the transition to digital: case studies of what other campuses or bookstores have done; trend reports; reports on other technologies or experiments; or industry analysis.

Another approach to building expertise is to sponsor or help coordinate a campus or committee meeting on digital course materials strategy. There are multiple ways to approach this depending on your school size and type, along with other factors. Consider inviting an administrator to a webinar or meeting. We have conducted digital sessions for a fair number of institutions and are likely to do so again in the future as time and other resources permit.

Put some skin in the game – innovation is a contact sport. Experiment with digital or communicate to administration how you are helping reduce the cost of course materials – or what you are learning from digital sales and experiments at your store or others.

Remember to be optimistic yet realistic. Convey that you have a positive sense of urgency about the role of digital course materials and your store’s willingness to be part of the future and solution. Also articulate the strengths your store brings to the table that explain why you ought to be a part of that future. People like solution providers more than obstructionists. If you find yourself arguing that something cannot be done make sure you are not doing so because that is the way you have always done things.

There are many other tactics to consider and I ask readers to share their ideas here, via email, or on NACS listservs. I think the above boil down to some key concepts:

(1) Adopt a winning mindset (and think like a retailer).
(2) Be a resource and point of expertise.
(3) Find out who the influencers are on your campus relative to digital.
(4) Experiment.
(5) Think of your job as store advocates – to students, faculty, and administration.

Good luck, and thanks for a great question.

ASU, Michigan Test Ways to Work with Digital Texts

Putting e-textbooks into the hands of faculty members may be an avenue to wider acceptance of digital course materials. A Campus Technology article highlights efforts at Arizona State University, Tempe, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to that end.

ASU adopted the CourseSmart Faculty Instant Access program, which allows instructors access to course material to review without waiting for delivery of the printed copy. The program also provides multiple text versions for faculty to consider through a cross-book searching function. Faculty can order e-textbooks through the school’s My ASU information portal and, as soon as an adoption has been made, the e-textbook is available for purchase through the CourseSmart web site.

In Ann Arbor, a working group made up of personnel from the library, Office of the Registrar, Information and Technology Services, and Instructional Support Services is testing a program that integrates digital titles directly into the university’s learning management system. The group is conducting surveys and focus groups to learn about student and instructor expectations and experiences with e-books throughout the semester, and then report to campus leaders on e-book implementation.

Additionally, users are able to access the digital material from any computer or browser-based mobile device. There are also iPhone and iPad apps, and users with vision disabilities can download customized versions.

KnowledgeWorks 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

The KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s second future forecast entitled 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning is now available. The forecast explores the key forces of change that will influence the next decade and the actions that we can take today to shape the future of learning. The forecast is designed to help users make connections among things that may seem unrelated and to help them understand how challenges occurring today fit within the larger context of patterns of change. KnowledgeWorks first forecast entitled 2006-2016 Map of Future Forces Affecting Education is still relevant but includes trends that have evolved in recent years. The new forecast is organized into six future forces and within each force there are signals, trends, and ways to take action. Some of the relevant trends for college stores include: transliteracy, eco-schools, open leadership and sociability, visual literacy, and open-source assessment. Additionally, the website features scenario planning information that you may find useful. The information is intended to help users: make use of the forecast in their own educational organization, spark conversation about future challenges, and to build support for change.

Communicating digital in the store...

Over the past few years, I and others have repeatedly advocated that stores must improve at "telling their story" and marketing what they do to their campus and community. NACS formed a Community Relations Committee that has been developing a living toolkit to help stores with this critically important process.

A couple days I received an e-mail from Lina Lipscombe, director of the bookstore, computer store, and digital store at Concordia University in Montreal. I have long respected what a number of the Canadians are doing, and Lina is no exception. I asked if I could share her message, as I think it is a great example of what stores can do if they embrace this concept of communicating and educating the campus community:

Mark,

Last summer you shared with me the draft document re digital content. Included was the importance of communicating and educating the campus community. We signed with Jumpbooks this summer and started including e-books to our course list as an option for students. I took your advice and sought ways to communicate this to our community. Well one little article led to many other opportunities. Here are a few,

I contacted the editor of the Concordia faculty and staff paper and the following article appeared in the first week of classes

http://cjournal.concordia.ca/archives/20080911/door_opens_for_digital_textbooks.php

this article was then picked up by a student newspaper and they wrote the following

http://thelinknewspaper.ca/articles/153

The Quill and Quire national publisher magazine also contacted me and asked questions about digital (have not seen article yet) and finally the local television news company came in a did a video (I am not exactly star quality, but I think the message got through)

http://montreal.ctv.ca/cfcf/news/cfcf#news_25867

Thought you might be interested how some schools are trying to bring attention to this new content delivery.

It started with a simple outreach to the campus faculty/staff newsletter, and resulted in national and local media coverage. The media is interested in what stores are doing digitally. It can be a great selling point on the value of the college store. Do others out there have stories about how they have communicated with their campus community around their use of digital? This is information and knowledge we should be sharing!

Forces affecting higher education -- update...

Yes, as I noted in the prior posting, this is the 2006 map and a new one is under development for 2009. If you sign up for the updates they tell you that:

In 2006, we released the Map of Future Forces Affecting Education. The broad theme of that map was the impact on learning of new forms of participation. It spurred many discussions, presentations, and connections for you. In January, we are releasing a new forecast map that reflects evolving trends in the world of education. Participation has advanced to such a level that the focus of the 2009 Map is on remaking learning to meet the needs of local and global communities.

If you sign up for the updates, they will give you "sneak peeks" into some of the elements that will be on the new map in 2009.

Forces affecting higher education

Rich Hershman in our DC office shared with me yesterday a link to the Knowledgeworks Foundation Map of Future Forces Affecting Higher Education. It is an interesting tool, and one that stores could use in their own strategic planning/visioning process. I easily identified several items on the map of high relevance to college stores.

The map is interactive through the above link, allowing you to drill down, etc. However, if you register you can download a .pdf version that is a little easier to work with. The interactive version does allow you to drill down to links that the .pdf does not however, so there is a tradeoff. Downloading does provide some limited license for reproduction to use as a discussion tool.

The .pdf also comes with some useful suggestions about how to use the tool as a strategic discussion catalyst. The goal of the map is to serve as a "conversation catalyst." For stores looking for ways to start discussions with other campus departments, such as the library, IT, faculty, registrar, or others, this tool could help. The makers of the map suggest three steps to work through discussion, but certainly other approaches could work too. Their approach suggests "Foresight to Insight to Action" as follows:

Foresight: Using a marker or sticky notes, identify spots on the map that resonate with you as you think about your role in education or the issues that matter to you most. These may be specific trends on the map or combinations of trends. Why do these trends resonate with you? What questions do they raise about the future of education? (or the future of the college store?)

Insight: For each highlighted spot, imagine the implications for stakeholdres, providers, and beneficiaries of public (or private) education. What is the deeper meaning of this trend for education or your organization? These insights may form the basis of a strategy for your organization or group.

Action: For each insight, develop a list of possible strategic actions, including new research, partnerships, competencies to develop, communication plans, and programs.

I also thought the tool could be useful for scenario planning -- coming up with "what if" scenarios for the college store that could be used to develop similar action plans. If you are looking for a good tool to start the strategic thinking and discussion process in your store -- or with others on campus, this is one to consider. I think they may be providing an updated version of the map in 2009, but the current one (developed in 2006) is still very relevant.

The Amazon among us

So earlier this month I hinted that a new development might be underway. At this point we still are collecting information. However, I will share what we know or have been told. I am still being forwarded among e-mail addresses at Amazon, so I have not been able to confirm anything with them yet.

So what we know is that Amazon has approached the IT department at several institutions -- public, private and for-profit. These include campuses with lease, independent, and private stores. One of the CIOs I spoke to could not tell me much, but here is the general gist of what he shared. He tells me that Amazon is essentially proposing something similar to a laptop program, which many universities have invested in over the past decade, which is often run out of the IT area of the institution. These programs take several forms -- fromm rentals, to purchases, to accounting for the cost in the price of tuition or fees, etc. The idea is that the Kindles would be used in teh classroom for the downloading of course materials -- textbooks, readings, etc. and that the institution/IT area would potentially receive a commission on downloaded textbooks.

We also learned of a project at Gettysburg College where the CIO has involved the store. I spoke with the store manager there aws she discussed their project at CAMEX. In this case, the IT department bought about 30 Kindles and are testing them in an upper level course. At the end of the semester the CIO and campus store will conduct a focus group with the students about their experience with the Kindle, what they would be willing to pay for the device, pros and cons of the device for textbook delivery, etc. We have asked the store manager to work with us to write up an article of their experience after the end of the semester.

Not a whole lot of information, but at least a little bit. This is an important development for our industry as it signals a few things. First, new players are entering the market. A big player like Amazon could have a large impact in a short time period. This is also soemthing of a different approach for Amazon, based on what else we have seen, so that is an interesting departure and we do not know exactly what that means for the campus stores. Second, it is another signal that college stores MUST improve campus relations and talk with other campus departments, such as that of the CIO. This is an opportunity to both educate campus stakeholders as to the value provided by stores, and an opportunity to learn more about what is happening with course materials and digital on campus.

If we learn more about the Amazon offering, or are able to get a response to our inquiries, I will post that information here as appropriate. The stores offer a good partnering option for Amazon and we will be trying to find a way to bring this opportunity to the store community.