Five Minutes with ACHE

I have been reflecting on the conference theme for 2010, Continuing Education - Reflecting upon and Responding to the National Agenda, and have been reading news events within continuing higher education over the last few weeks. Consider the following news items:

• “Christie's N.J. budget has Rutgers absorbing Thomas Edison State College,” March 22, 2010 from The Star-Ledger

• “To the Front of the Line,” March 23, 2010 from Inside Higher Ed

• "The Specialists," April 5, 2010 from Inside Higher Ed

It seems to me that in addition to the ever-changing landscape of continuing higher education as suggested by the above stories, our membership is also feeling stress from within their organizations driven by the current budget crisis. As I talk with colleagues from across the country, there is a sense of urgency. How can we most effectively maintain our continuing higher education operations given fiscal cut backs, layoffs, and demand for more training to meet workforce needs from the state and federal level? Now is the time for us to embrace professional development for ourselves as well as for our institutions. I encourage you to attend your ACHE regional conference as well as our national conference in New Mexico. ACHE can help meet some of your professional development needs. The conferences are also a get place for you to network and share ideas for best practice in these tough times.

To that end, I would like to share with you the results from the conference survey that was sent to the ACHE membership last month. The survey requested workshop topics you would like to see on the 2010 conference agenda. The most frequently mentioned items are listed below:

• Social networking as marketing
• Managing budgets in tough fiscal times
• Distance learning
• Managing a continuing education unit and personnel
• Marketing
• Military markets
• Emerging trends in continuing education
• Adult learning demographics and trends for markets
• Marketing self for new positions in continuing education as the units downsize
• Recruiting and retaining adjuncts through faculty development
• Partnerships
• Challenges to continuing education from internal and external sources

The Planning Committee is working to ensure that as many of these topics as possible are covered in New Mexico. We in continuing higher education should upgrade our own skill sets so we are ready for the ever-changing landscape of continuing higher education!

Until next month,

rox

Roxanne Gonzales
ACHE President, 2010

President Roxanne Gonzales is very interested to hear about success stories in continuing education, things that your units are doing to change the lives of adult students. In addition, we are always looking for articles on the following topics:

• Experiences in marketing a continuing education program
• A profile of a unique continuing education program at your institution
• Experiences as a professor in adult continuing education
• Article or book reviews

Name: Eric Cunningham
Title: Associate Dean
Organization: Columbia College
Region: Great Plains
Candidate For: Board of Directors; Director-at-Large

Profile: I am a second career continuing educator having spent more than twenty years as an Army officer in a variety of assignments. Two of those assignments were on university campuses in the ROTC departments at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst and the University of Missouri (MU). At MU I served as the Professor of Military Science and the Chair of the department. After retiring from the Army I joined the staff at Columbia College (MO) in what is now the Division of Adult Higher Education (formerly the Extended Studies Division). Our division manages an extended campus network, a large evening program on the main campus and a very robust online campus. During my 14 years with the college the extended campus has grown from 22 to 34 campuses and the online campus was conceived. Our division has a very close relationship with the military services. Seventeen of our campuses are on military installations.

I have been a member of ACHE since 2002 and have served the Great Plains Region in every leadership capacity. During my years in regional leadership positions, the regional conferences grew in attendance three-fold and the quality of the programming was significantly enhanced. Above the regional level, I continue to serve on the Committee on Inclusiveness. The friendships I have made among ACHE colleagues are among my most cherished aspects of my higher education career. I regularly call on my ACHE colleagues, and they on me, for a variety of professional reasons.

My goals for ACHE include: 1) Increasing our membership in the face of hard fiscal times in higher education; 2) Outreach to underrepresented groups and to areas of the country and specific institutions who have no ACHE affiliation; 3) Outreach to younger continuing education professionals.

I have had the privilege of serving ACHE in the following capacities:
ACHE Great Plains Region (formerly Region 8)

• Immediate Past Chair, 2008-2010
• Chair, 2006-2008
• Chair-elect, 2004-2006
• Secretary, 2003-2004
• Regional Conference Host 2005 & 2006
• Program presenter 2007 & 2010

ACHE National

• Annual meeting planning committee – Madison, WI
• ACHE Leadership Institute participant 2006 & 2007
• Presider at numerous ACHE annual meetings

Name: Francine Fink
Title: Dean, Center for Accelerated & Professional Studies
Organization: Becker College
Region: New England
Candidate For: Board of Directors; Director At Large

Profile: I have been privileged be a member of ACHE since 2003 and have served the New England Region in several leadership capacities: Chair Elect, Chair, Past Chair, Nominating Committee Chair, Treasurer, committee member of professional development programs and Spring Conferences, as well as workshop presenter and participant in panel presentations. On a National level, I served as Treasurer for the Newport National Conference and served on the local planning committee.

I believe that attending a National meeting is as much about my continuous learning as it is about getting involved. Being a session moderator, day chair, hosting regional business meetings, supporting onsite registration and initiating informal discussions continues to provide the rich learning experiences that come with being a servant leader. Throughout my 20 years plus experience working in the field of adult education, I am constantly reminded of the transformational power of education – one student at a time. Each semester, students tell me about how education changes their lives, and I feel privileged to have chosen (or it chose me) a career that continues to make a difference in the lives of so many adults, their families, and communities.

Although there are common threads that will drive strategic goals for ACHE over the next few years, I have listed a few goals for your consideration:

1)  Leveraging government initiatives such as "Accelerating Achievement" or “Achieving the Dream" programs as part of a National Outreach/Marketing Campaign with the expectation of increasing members at both the regional and national levels.
2)  Developing a Leadership/Mentoring program for new and seasoned professionals that can be delivered in multiple formats resulting in a recognized credential through the delivery of an evidence-based research project, white paper, or publication that can be shared multiple stakeholders.
3)  Commission a study to determine retention and graduate rates for adult learners in both public and private institutions of higher education resulting in the development of regional and national benchmarks.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my profile for your consideration.

Name: Elizabeth Oliver
Title: Assistant Dean
Organization: Bronx Community College
Region: Northeast Metropolitan
Candidate For: Board of Directors; Director-At-Large

Profile: My goals include positioning the association for international recognition through development and execution of a strategic 21st Century organizational plan. The plan would articulate the continuing higher education mission supported by a diverse membership and recognition by a wide range of international educational, political, and social entities. I am committed to diversity, inclusion, and using technology to enhance communications and association services to the widest audience possible. I share the current vision of greater alignment among the regions and look forward to working within that model as ACHE expands its reach. My personal value that informs these endeavors is one of professional/personal service.

Recipient Regional Exemplary Program Award (2005)
Membership Chair (Regional)
Program Committee (Regional)
Vice Chair (Regional)
Chair (Regional)
Membership, Recruitment and Retention Committee (National)
Committee on Inclusiveness (National)

Name: Thomas Fuhr
Title: Director
Organization: SUNY Potsdam
Region: Northeast
Candidate For: Vice-President

Profile: As an active member since 1997, I have and am currently serving ACHE on both the regional and national levels. From 1998 to 2002, I was Region II’s (New York state, southern Ontario and Quebec) chairperson. At the national level, I have been a member of the 2003 Charlottesville Annual Conference Program Planning and the Nominations and Elections Committees. Currently, I am a member of the Inclusiveness and Research Committees, having served as acting chair of the Research Committee in 2009, and on the 2010 Albuquerque Annual Conference Program Planning Committee. Finally, I am in my second year of a three-year term as a Member-at-Large on the Board of Directors. In my over twenty years of professional experience in adult and continuing education, I have served in various leadership roles in two-year community college, four-year public, and private four-year institutional settings. I have developed a thorough understanding of and deep appreciation for the significant role each of us play in fulfilling the personal and professional educational goals of adults, their families, and the communities they reside in.

If elected vice-president for ACHE, my primary goals will be twofold. First, I would like to broaden and expand (nationally and internationally) our membership to ensure that ACHE remains a strong and meaningful association that continues to play a central role for each member as he or she strives to meet the challenges and opportunities of our profession. Secondly, I will work with the Board, our regional and committee chairs, and our members to identify specific strategies that will thrust ACHE into a more active and central role at the state and national levels in the development of meaningful and effective programs and policies that increase access, affordability, and degree completion rates for adults.

Name: David Grebel
Title: Director of Extended Education
Organization: Texas Christian University
Region: South
Candidate For: Vice President

Profile: I owe much of my development and identity as a continuing educator to my predecessors and friends in ACHE. You helped to shape my understanding of the important role we play, and you provided expertise, guidance, support, and encouragement in facing the opportunities and challenges of our profession. And you’ve taught me one very important lesson - the work that we do matters. We make a difference: we renew people, we reengage our institutions, and we revitalize our communities. We serve as connectors bringing individuals, groups, and organizations together in meaningful ways. We grow and learn. We serve. We give voice to others. ACHE continues to be an organization that makes a difference even as it faces the challenges of shifting membership numbers, geographic concentration of membership, growing specialization within the profession, and tighter financial realities. Its vitality is expressed in the strengths of ACHE – its strong informal networks and meaningful relationships, the breadth of its members’ expertise and experience, and its ability to remain close to its constituents. Perhaps our greatest challenges continue to be how we express the importance of our work within our institutions and how we can expand the network that supports and encourages our members in their work. Our ACHE membership represents an outstanding group of complex and diverse practitioners even as our shared mission is straight-forward – to advocate for lifelong learning and the individuals and institutions who champion adult learners. We have a solid foundation and members deeply committed to that mission.

To support our mission and to build on the work of our members, as Vice President I would like to: 1) investigate new professional development paths for emerging professionals; 2) continue to develop strategic partnerships with other lifelong and adult learning organizations; 3) increase the opportunities for participation, leadership and voice; 4) further strengthen the connections between us through robust communication including further use of social media. These steps will continue to enhance our role as the inclusive network for lifelong learning professionals.

Just as past and present ACHE members have supported and guided me, I would like to provide leadership, support, and guidance to current and future members of ACHE. I am thankful for the opportunity to have served ACHE in the following ways:

Member, Board of Directors, 2007 – present
Program Chair, 2007 Annual Meeting in Roanoke, Virginia
Member, ACHE Program Committee

• 2010 Annual Meeting Finance Director
• 2009 Annual Meeting Finance Director
• 2006 Annual Meeting Day Chair

ACHE South (formerly Region 7)

• Chair, 2005-2006
• Executive committee, 2003-2007
• Chair-elect, 2004-2005
• Secretary, 2003-2004
• Chair, Local Arrangements Committee, 2006
• Chair, Program Committee, 2005
• Chair, Awards Committee, 1999

Presenter at numerous ACHE annual and regional meetings

Name: Clare Roby
Title: Associate Dean
Organization: California State University, Chico
Region: West
Candidate For: Vice President

Profile: I am honored to have been nominated for Vice President. From my first annual meeting in 1999 to joining the Board in 2008, I have found ACHE to be a valuable resource for new ideas, helpful strategies, and supportive colleagues. I served at the regional level as Treasurer, Chair-Elect, and Chair for Region 9. I have served as Regional Conference Co-Chair and Program Co-Chair as we invigorated the West’s regional activities. I presented “Sustainability and Continuing Education: Doing Well While Doing Good” at the annual meeting in 2006. I am committed to promoting sustainable business practices in continuing education operations and programs, so the chance to share that passion with my ACHE colleagues was particularly meaningful. Currently, I’m serving as Director-at-Large for the ACHE Board and Secretary for the West Region.

My goals for the Association include building on the priorities of our current leadership to position ACHE to help our members meet the challenges faced by continuing higher education: shifting markets, rapidly evolving technology, funding challenges, barriers to access, changing economic conditions, and daunting political climates, to name a few. As the network of leaders for lifelong learning, ACHE is uniquely positioned to help its members garner the resources and knowledge that are necessary for continuing higher education to thrive, not just survive. To that end, my goals for ACHE also include building appropriate, value-add partnerships; strengthening outreach to grow and diversify our membership; continuing the path of effective stewardship of our resources; and fostering the professional development of the next generation of continuing higher education leaders.

I am committed to serving the Association with energy, a passion for lifelong learning, and humble appreciation for the opportunity to be part of ACHE.

The Research Committee urges ACHE members to assist the Committee in contacting current doctoral students and their submission of a grant application. (Please note: members of the Research Committee, national officers and Board members are not eligible to apply for a grant.)

For further information and questions, please contact Dr. Amber Dailey-Hebert, Acting Research Committee Chair at adailey@park.edu or by phone 816-584-6339.

ACHE South April 11-14, 2010 Cocoa Beach, Florida Join your ACHE South colleagues and friends at the 2010 South meeting and conference in beautiful Cocoa Beach, Florida.	ACHE West April 29-30th, 2010 BYU Salt Lake City Center Hotel Accommodations: Hyatt Place Hotel Conference registration now open!
ACHE New England April 16, 2010 Portsmouth, New Hampshire Roger Williams College What’s the Number?  Recruiting and Retention Today All ACHE members are welcome! Get registered!	ACHE Northeast Metropolitan May 6, 2010 Hosted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York ACHE Northeast Metropolitan will be holding their 2010 conference via webinar. Get registered now!

Communities have many points of contact with their local colleges and universities. Beyond teaching and preparing young adults for careers, postsecondary institutions offer a multitude of discrete opportunities for community connection—from fine and performing arts presentations that bring culture and enjoyment to the community, to hints on handling farm and garden pests, to guidance on successfully bringing up our children. Postsecondary schools also offer a multitude of athletic teams representing the school and community as well as a host of health-related contacts to enhance and extend physical and emotional well being. The list of potential points of school-community contact could continue for pages. Yet none of these reflects the entire spectrum of educational activity or offers so recognizable an ongoing point of school-community contact and interaction as does the institutional Continuing Education office.

Continuing education units serve as the place where community adults and a rising number of traditional-age students go to begin, continue, or complete college degrees, take mandated annual professional development, enroll for bridge lessons or ballroom dancing for fun and social contact, or travel with a group to some distant location, CE offices are in effect, the most comprehensive, most recognized, most readily accessible point of interaction communities have with their local college or university.  The ongoing flow of CE brochures, Internet postings, and media mention of upcoming events and offerings makes community members see institutional CE offices as their places to interact with their postsecondary school. On that basis, continuing education units are obvious choices as focal points for school-community interaction. The large and growing number of ACHE-member continuing education units that also carry titles associated with outreach and engagement testify to this fact. Your institutional CE unit may be one of these.

Beyond being in units well situated for university-community interaction, continuing educators are also professionally and temperamentally well suited to the role as university-community liaisons.  CE staffs must be intelligent, diplomatic, flexible, responsive, knowledgeable of their schools, and quick to act. If they weren’t, their programs would end rapidly. Given this profile, continuing educators are excellent ambassadors for their schools and conduits for community needs and interests.

Community people regularly find it hard to navigate the welter of administrative offices, colleges, departments, and centers of their postsecondary school to find the answers they need. Many university people have equal difficulty in successfully traversing community organizations and structures. Continuing educators, on the other hand, live their professional lives at the interface between college and community needs and wishes.  To be successful, continuing educators must understand and be able to articulate the needs, values, and goals of their institution and their community. They must be realistic in their financial estimates and be trusted by both school and community. So again, continuing educators make obvious middle men or women between school and community. In doing so, they become forces and facilitators for engagement.

And even if, as a continuing educator, you can’t tell a quack from a quark, many high-level federal entities annually awarding billions of dollars in science-related funding now require community dissemination components in their major grants.  It makes much more sense for continuing education units to handle the dissemination components of these grants than to have the faculty subject matter experts take time away from research to set up and oversee community dissemination activities.

In summary, continuing education provides the most recognized university-wide point of contact, communication, and interaction between school and community. Continuing educators understand and relate to both their university and their community. The success of continuing educators depends on their ongoing ability to make interactions advantageous to both school and community. They must be knowledgeable, organized, responsive, and flexible.  Who would better represent their postsecondary institution in serving as a point of contact or in overseeing and fostering school-community connections?

In most of these pilots, traditional students are the focus.  With one partnership a library uses the Sony e-reader and allows students to “check-out” the reader with preloaded content on it.  All of the students had mixed reactions to the devices and provided many pros and cons.  In most cases these e-readers (Kindle/Sony) were not compatible with the hard sciences because they did not provide rich color diagrams.  Other complaints included difficulty in note taking, the lack of visual appeal, the price point, the slow refresh times when moving from one page to the next and battery life.

One particular publication pointed out that the use of the technology was not a generational issue but a physical one.  Most people “will not read lengthy, linear texts on fixed monitors,” even if they are portable (Sottong, 2008, p. 47).  This shines a light on the fact that maybe the best population to pilot e-textbooks/e-readers on would be adult students.  In most adult programs you have a structured and sometimes “packaged” program where adults take the same set of classes.  Sometimes these adult students are in a cohort together while other times they pick and choose courses from a specific set provided by the college or university.  In either case, most adult programs are more structured and easier to monitor versus a group of traditional students that may go in several different directions throughout their college career.

Imagine a cohort of adult students starting a program together and instead of having to purchase multiple books throughout their program, they receive one e-reader device with all of their textbooks preloaded on it.  They receive training on how to use it, the cost is packaged into their program price, and they get to keep it after they graduate.  This is very similar to many colleges who provide traditional students with laptops when they start as freshmen.  Not only would there be considerable costs savings versus purchasing tangible texts, but there would also be environmental benefits.

Of these e-reader devices, the Apple IPad may be the most promising.  It is a multifunctional device that allows the user to do more than just e-textbook reading.  If partnered with CourseSmart (a provider of e-textbooks that is partnered with many major higher education publishers), then the imaginable may become a reality.  The CEO of CourseSmart developed a scenario demonstration of how this partnership may work.  While it is still geared towards a traditional student population, it is very applicable to the adult student as well.

View the video here. http://www.coursesmart.com/go/ipad/index.html

While there is still much to consider and more partnerships to be made (between publishers, colleges/universities and e-reader companies), the possibility of these technologies being used for adult students is closer than we think. 

Bibliography

Sontag, S. (2008, July/August). The e-reader experience: An inside look at the leading e-book readers in action. Retrieved January 2010 3, 2010, from ECONTENTMAG.COM: http://www.econtentmag.com

Sottong, S. (2008). The Elusive E-Book: Are e-books finally ready for prime time? American Libraries , 45-48.

Sottong, S. (May, 2008). The elusive e-book: Are e-books finally ready for prime time? American Libraries p. 44-48

Young, J. (September, 2009). This could be the year of e-textbooks. The Chronicle of Higher Education, LVI, 3. A1 & A12.

Young, J. (February, 2010). Tablet may help e-textbook market: Publishers hope. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  LVI, 21. A1 & A16.

Given demographic trends and attainment rates among young adults, it is highly unlikely that the nation can meet its growing need for college-educated workers by continuing to focus primarily on recent high school graduates. All states need to increase the postsecondary participation and success of adults, many of whom have some college credits but lack a degree.

The current economic downturn is already funneling hundreds of thousands of over-25 Americans into postsecondary education -- and that trend is sure to intensify as the global, knowledge-based economy demands workers with ever-higher levels of education and training. Overall, this adult-learning boom is a positive trend, and one that holds tremendous promise for individual Americans and the nation as a whole. It is a trend we must embrace if we hope to return the U.S. to a position of global leadership in college degree attainment. We must increase the number of degree-seeking adults, and we must do everything possible to ensure their success.

Through the Adult Degree Completion program, Lumina Foundation plans to provide grants of up to $8 million during the next four years to support large-scale efforts to increase degree completion among adults with some college credits.

I urge you to consider this important grant opportunity.

Best regards,
Jamie P. Merisotis
President and CEO

The Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop provides the opportunity for administrative leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers to discuss blended learning in higher education.  Attendees will engage with one another throughout this conference by networking, considering effective practices and discussing assessment strategies.  As an attendee, you and your institution will benefit from this highly interactive conference as well as gain the ability to continue discussion and interaction via Sloan-C's asynchronous online Moodle site and online workshops.

Online registration and additional information is available here.

This symposium is designed to bring together individuals interested in the technological aspects of online learning.  The symposium tracks focus on the technologies that drive online learning, highlighting research, applications and best practices of important emerging technological tools. Experts, intermediate users and novices are welcome to participate in symposium activities that will include face-to-face and virtual components.   

Online registration, proposal submission, and additional information is available here.

Join NC State in Raleigh for the 11th annual meeting as we explore how universities "Sustain Authentic Engagement."

Visit the 2010 NOSC Website for more information.

The 2010 National Outreach Scholarship Conference will explore authenticity and sustainability as critical components of engaged scholarship. The important questions of what, where, who, how, and why will be the foci of the Conference reflected in five sections: Program, Place, People, Process, and Philosophy. These focus areas invite a diversity of perspectives and experiences reflecting the academy's authentic and sustained commitment to engaged discovery, learning, application, and integration.

Sponsored by the National Outreach Scholarship Conference partner universities. View a complete list of partner institutions.

To be added to the mailing list for this conference, please email ContinuingEducation@ncsu.edu