The Economic Advantage of Online Education

Susan Gilbert, Dean of the School of Business and Management at Thomas Edison State College, wrote this article for the Huffington Post. It discusses some of the advantages of online education. Here is an excerpt: 

When an economist refers to a "revolution", he/she means a dramatic change, not a battle; as in Industrial Revolution, Agricultural Revolution, Information Revolution. This change is often attributed to the introduction of a technology that changes the way things are done; e.g., a reaper, a steam engine, a personal computer. However, as Peter Drucker pointed out in 1999, the real revolution and resultant cost savings that occur in an industry do so as a result of industrial engineering and the teachings of Adam Smith, rather than the technology itself. (The Wealth of Nations, 1776). Yes, a sewing machine may increase the seamstress' productivity from 1 shirt to 5 shirts per day; but it is the assembly line and specialization of labor that can magnify those results. Can we apply these lessons of Adam Smith to higher education? Can colleges be compared to tee shirt factories? These are the burning questions of our times, at least for those of us in higher education.

Distance education has been around for nearly 30 years, if we go back to the first Computer Assisted Learning Center in 1982; and web-based services in the area of education
date back at least 15 years. Blackboard was founded in 1997. Around 2000, I began using Webex for Sunday night help sessions with my executive MBA students. I recall the freedom of "working" in my pajamas (no web camera, please) coupled with personal savings of time and gasoline for me and the students. There were no labor savings to the institution; the technology provided greater access.

Click on the link to read the full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-gilbert/online-education_b_1282646.html

Academy of Art University Awards Over $100,000 in Scholarships to California State Summer School for the Arts Alumni

This article is from San Francisco Chronicle 
The Academy of Art University, the largest private school of art and design in the United States, announced today that it has awarded scholarships totaling over $100,000 to Miguel Flores, 17, of Mammoth Lakes High School in Mammoth Lakes, CA and Odell Smith, 17, of New Millennium High School High School in Carson, CA. Both students are 2011 alumni of the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA), the rigorous four-week summer pre-professional training program for California's most talented high school students in visual and performing arts, creative writing, animation, and film.

Smith, a stand-out CSSSA Music Composition student, will receive a Presidential Scholarship which includes four years of full-time tuition. Flores, who will receive a two course Summer Grant Scholarship, will continue to develop his design, painting and photography skills at the Academy.

Proposed reconfiguring of N.J. universities to be discussed by state Senate committee

This article is from the New Jersey Real-Time News  

New Jersey lawmakers are trying to join the conversation about whether to reconfigure some state universities.

The state Senate's Higher Education Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing today about a plan endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie that would fold Rutgers University's Camden campus into Rowan University.

Rutgers' main campus in New Brunswick and Piscataway would absorb three units of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The remaining parts of the medical university would be renamed the New Jersey Health Sciences University.

There's been protest from Rutgers-Camden officials, students, faculty and alumni who object to a name change for their campus.

Christie has not laid out a process for making the changes.

Ball State University Selects Campus Management's Talisma CRM and Fundraising to Support Enhanced Student Lifecycle Communications

This article is from Market Watch Wall Street Journal 

"The manner in which we communicate with our key constituents is paramount to the continued success of Ball State University; this includes applicants, students and alumni. By taking a holistic approach to communications, we are confident that Ball State graduates will continue to maintain strong ties with the university, and we place a premium on that," said Ball State President Jo Ann M. Gora. "We view this program as a way to extend and enhance our relationships with alumni, and help them stay engaged with us."

Hudson Akin, vice president for university advancement at Ball State, further noted, "Maintaining life-long relationships with our students, alumni, friends and partners is paramount to Ball State. This program promises to complement our efforts to strengthen the relationships that represent the foundation of our success."

The program will be launched in two phases. The first phase will focus on student admissions and retention through the implementation of Talisma CRM. The solution will allow Ball State to more effectively communicate with its 22,000 students through a variety of media formats, including email, chat and SMS text messaging. In the second phase, Ball State will employ Talisma Fundraising, a donor and alumni management system, to help it achieve alumni fundraising goals. The fundraising module will be integrated into the CRM platform to help the University transition graduates from college students to alumni donors.

"This program will allow us to deploy a common set of tools to communicate across a broad spectrum of constituents across campus, and across the globe," said Phil Repp, Ball State's vice president for information technology. "The partnership with Campus Management will help us achieve this lofty goal."

"With the help of Talisma CRM and Talisma Fundraising, Ball State is revolutionizing the way it approaches communications, allowing the University to more effectively communicate with students throughout the student and alumni lifecycle," said Timothy B. Loomer, president and chief executive officer of Campus Management. "Instead of limiting interactions with students to the four years spent on campus, Ball State will now start to communicate with students before they arrive on campus and extend these relationships beyond graduation and well into the future."

"Effective communications are critical to any enterprise, and coordinating across many audiences can be a daunting challenge," said Tom Taylor, vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications. "Campus Management's solution promises to enhance our efforts to connect with key audiences in a meaningful way, while tracking these efforts to ensure our messages are on-target."

About Campus Management Corp. More than 1,700 colleges, universities, foundations, and other organizations in 26 countries rely upon Campus Management Corp® enterprise software products and services. The CampusVue® Ecosystem is a vision for a fully integrated, centralized administrative and e-Learning platform that unifies services, academic delivery, administrative management, and reporting for the range of public, private, and proprietary postsecondary institutions. The ecosystem includes the CampusVue Student administrative system and CampusVue Portal solution, as well as Talisma® Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) and fundraising software.

CampusVue Student is used by 78 percent of the largest U.S.-based career and online colleges. Additional offerings include performance analytics software, financials, HR, and payroll solutions. Campus Management employs associates worldwide, providing clients with a full range of consulting, implementation, support, training, and integration services.