Are Students Now In The Driver Seat For Their Education?
This is a question I have pondered for years both as a student and working in the industry for years. In a series of articles, I will share my thoughts and observations on this question.
Most of todays education systems has been built on institutionalizing education with day care, elementary, high school and post secondary systems. Before government initiated educational systems, religious institutions were instrumental in the formalization of the education system. Before this there was the concept of apprenticeship to develop skills and pass these skills on to the next generation of a work force. For most of time education systems were restricted to noble families and even basic skills like reading and writing limited to only a few civilizations. In fact, it was in the 1st century AD that Jewish civilization insisted on the educations of children for reading and writing.
My experience with the system is mixed throughout my elementary and secondary experience I can only think of two teachers who made a real difference in helping me discover how I learning and some of my passion talents. Most teachers just wrote out on the blackboard what was in the text book and assigned homework. I can remember playing penny hockey in one math class as I decided to just read text book and do some practice problems and pass the course writing the final exam. I passed and can remember the teacher challenging me that I must have cheated. I found the class time of no value, but was forced to attend. I can honestly say if it wasn’t for one teacher I had in grade 12 and 13 for math, I wouldn’t have gone to university. I found the experience in university very similar and can remember chasing professors to their lab to ask a question. Most of the time they were not accessible. It seemed many of them their passion was their research and teaching was only something they had to do.
When I worked for Ontario Colleges Application Services (OCAS) I found change in the system very slow and most decisions were institutional driven vs. student driven. I can remember a discussion I had with a parent of a student who took police foundations program at one of the Ontario public college. They felt it was criminal that their son spent 3 years in a program that would result in low probability of getting career in an Ontario Police force. They wonder why the placement data was not openly available to applicants at the time of decision. They felt the time and money was not worth it and was not the best decision for the career goals. OCAS today is likely spending as much as 1/3 of its applications fees on system data collection yet shares very little of this information with prospective students trying to make an informed decision on their education. Applicants pay for this work with the high application fees collected from them, but receive very little in direct benefit.
Trends I notice over years in the Ontario Post Secondary Education System
1) Declining full-time student enrolment
2) Declining secondary applicants
3) Increase continue education enrolment
4) Increase online course offerings http://www.ontariolearn.com/
5) Increase offering students transfer credit both national and international https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php
6) Increase partnerships provincially, national wide and international
7) Increase international enrolment
8) Increase competition both private, special interest groups, professional support associations, global providers
9) Increase provincial programs like second career, free tuition.
To answer the question if students are really in the driver seat of their educational needs, I have asked myself these questions:
1) How important is it really to get a degree or a diploma?
2) Why do employers put on their position posting things like must have a university degree?
3) What is most important to qualify for a job? Having a degree or having the ability to proof skill competencies?
4) How important is life long learning in today’s workforce?
5) Parents breach to their kids what they found work to get their careers, but is this good advice today?
6) Can governments really afford the continued investment in traditional institutional based education with growing deficit budgets?
7) Who is really the customer of most educational providers (employers, students, research funders)?
8) Why do I even have to apply and pay to apply to college or university?
9) Why is traditional education so expensive?
10) Why is there a big gap between what the work force and the human resource supply chain?
11) How is technology, globalization and new economic realities enabling opportunity for students
12) What are the important attributes that would say now students are in the driver seat of their education?
There are huge opportunities for change in Education and in my next article I will dive deeper into the questions. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
There are many signs that big changes are in the air that may have more students in the driver seat for their education. The articles and resources are just a small example:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/business/dealbook/court-to-hear-suit-accusing-law-school-of-inflating-job-data.html?referer=https:/news.google.com/&_r=1
http://mycollegeguide.org/blog/2010/01/apply-college-paying-fee/
http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/too-many-canadian-kids-are-going-to-university-ken-coates-in-the-post/
https://www.chs.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/value_of_education_with_degree.pdf
http://www.heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/HEQCO_Canadian_Postsecondary_Performance_Impact2015.pdf
http://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/16/money-wont-fix-whats-wrong-with-post-secondary-education/
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/30/coursera-launches-data-science-masters-program-fraction-university-prices/?
https://www.coursera.org/
http://ht.ly/10mrvc
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-6-2016-1.3617742/all-post-secondary-students-should-do-internship-or-co-op-says-employment-and-education-group-1.3617868
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unemployable-graduate-crisis-how-we-can-fix-alistair-cox?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/university-tuition-rising-to-record-levels-in-canada-1.1699103
http://www.theobserver.ca/2016/12/04/new-fee-for-university-applicants-comes-under-fire
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21714173-alternative-providers-education-must-solve-problems-cost-and
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-01-17-34-9-million-us-students-up-10-4-million-since-2015-now-connected-online
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/biggest-crisis-higher-ed-isnt-student-debt-its-students-michael-crow?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-hero-22-null&midToken=AQEJavxaRkZ-8Q&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=1DNzth9h1hJ7A1
http://monitor.icef.com/2017/01/global-mooc-enrolment-jumped-last-year/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Most of todays education systems has been built on institutionalizing education with day care, elementary, high school and post secondary systems. Before government initiated educational systems, religious institutions were instrumental in the formalization of the education system. Before this there was the concept of apprenticeship to develop skills and pass these skills on to the next generation of a work force. For most of time education systems were restricted to noble families and even basic skills like reading and writing limited to only a few civilizations. In fact, it was in the 1st century AD that Jewish civilization insisted on the educations of children for reading and writing.
My experience with the system is mixed throughout my elementary and secondary experience I can only think of two teachers who made a real difference in helping me discover how I learning and some of my passion talents. Most teachers just wrote out on the blackboard what was in the text book and assigned homework. I can remember playing penny hockey in one math class as I decided to just read text book and do some practice problems and pass the course writing the final exam. I passed and can remember the teacher challenging me that I must have cheated. I found the class time of no value, but was forced to attend. I can honestly say if it wasn’t for one teacher I had in grade 12 and 13 for math, I wouldn’t have gone to university. I found the experience in university very similar and can remember chasing professors to their lab to ask a question. Most of the time they were not accessible. It seemed many of them their passion was their research and teaching was only something they had to do.
When I worked for Ontario Colleges Application Services (OCAS) I found change in the system very slow and most decisions were institutional driven vs. student driven. I can remember a discussion I had with a parent of a student who took police foundations program at one of the Ontario public college. They felt it was criminal that their son spent 3 years in a program that would result in low probability of getting career in an Ontario Police force. They wonder why the placement data was not openly available to applicants at the time of decision. They felt the time and money was not worth it and was not the best decision for the career goals. OCAS today is likely spending as much as 1/3 of its applications fees on system data collection yet shares very little of this information with prospective students trying to make an informed decision on their education. Applicants pay for this work with the high application fees collected from them, but receive very little in direct benefit.
Trends I notice over years in the Ontario Post Secondary Education System
1) Declining full-time student enrolment
2) Declining secondary applicants
3) Increase continue education enrolment
4) Increase online course offerings http://www.ontariolearn.com/
5) Increase offering students transfer credit both national and international https://www.ontransfer.ca/index_en.php
6) Increase partnerships provincially, national wide and international
7) Increase international enrolment
8) Increase competition both private, special interest groups, professional support associations, global providers
9) Increase provincial programs like second career, free tuition.
To answer the question if students are really in the driver seat of their educational needs, I have asked myself these questions:
1) How important is it really to get a degree or a diploma?
2) Why do employers put on their position posting things like must have a university degree?
3) What is most important to qualify for a job? Having a degree or having the ability to proof skill competencies?
4) How important is life long learning in today’s workforce?
5) Parents breach to their kids what they found work to get their careers, but is this good advice today?
6) Can governments really afford the continued investment in traditional institutional based education with growing deficit budgets?
7) Who is really the customer of most educational providers (employers, students, research funders)?
8) Why do I even have to apply and pay to apply to college or university?
9) Why is traditional education so expensive?
10) Why is there a big gap between what the work force and the human resource supply chain?
11) How is technology, globalization and new economic realities enabling opportunity for students
12) What are the important attributes that would say now students are in the driver seat of their education?
There are huge opportunities for change in Education and in my next article I will dive deeper into the questions. Please feel free to share your thoughts.
There are many signs that big changes are in the air that may have more students in the driver seat for their education. The articles and resources are just a small example:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/business/dealbook/court-to-hear-suit-accusing-law-school-of-inflating-job-data.html?referer=https:/news.google.com/&_r=1
http://mycollegeguide.org/blog/2010/01/apply-college-paying-fee/
http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/too-many-canadian-kids-are-going-to-university-ken-coates-in-the-post/
https://www.chs.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/value_of_education_with_degree.pdf
http://www.heqco.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/HEQCO_Canadian_Postsecondary_Performance_Impact2015.pdf
http://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/16/money-wont-fix-whats-wrong-with-post-secondary-education/
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/03/30/coursera-launches-data-science-masters-program-fraction-university-prices/?
https://www.coursera.org/
http://ht.ly/10mrvc
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-6-2016-1.3617742/all-post-secondary-students-should-do-internship-or-co-op-says-employment-and-education-group-1.3617868
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unemployable-graduate-crisis-how-we-can-fix-alistair-cox?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/university-tuition-rising-to-record-levels-in-canada-1.1699103
http://www.theobserver.ca/2016/12/04/new-fee-for-university-applicants-comes-under-fire
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21714173-alternative-providers-education-must-solve-problems-cost-and
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-01-17-34-9-million-us-students-up-10-4-million-since-2015-now-connected-online
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/biggest-crisis-higher-ed-isnt-student-debt-its-students-michael-crow?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-hero-22-null&midToken=AQEJavxaRkZ-8Q&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=1DNzth9h1hJ7A1
http://monitor.icef.com/2017/01/global-mooc-enrolment-jumped-last-year/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
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