Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 8 (October)
Daytona State Moves to E-books
In an effort to lighten the cost burden on students, Daytona State College has decided to eliminate the used-book and rental markets on campus and have all students buy e-books. The college expects to save its students as much as 80 percent on course materials, said Rand S. Spiwak, Daytona State’s chief financial officer.
Instead of having professors tell students what books to buy and then letting them try to find the cheapest option regardless of medium, Daytona State will buy a license from publishers to grant students access to electronic versions of the texts and charge them a digital materials fee. The college would require publishers to provide e-books that can be read by multiple types of e-reader, including regular computers; students would have to buy a device if they do not already have one, but the college said even then the new system would save them so much on course materials that they would still be paying 50 to 70 percent less than before (the college also owns 4,000 computers that students can use).
Since Daytona State is essentially guaranteeing the equivalent of one e-book sale per student, per course, per semester, the college has been able to negotiate huge discounts from the publishers. According to Spiwak, the digital materials fee will probably end up being less than $30 per textbook. “Very few” courses at Daytona State use more than one book, he said. That is less than half the retail price of many e-textbooks, and about a quarter the price of many new print textbooks.
In related news, the California State University system recently announced that it is embarking on a pilot program that would have 32 courses switch to e-books, which would be licensed through the college at a substantial discount to students. It plans to survey the students in those courses extensively. “The promise is that for the buy-in on the content you get the best price,” said Jack Gunther, manager of the digital marketplace project in the California State University chancellor’s office. “And if the pilot suggests that it is going to be viewed favorably within CSU, then that’s a business model that we’d want to keep developing.”
First Penn State Students Graduate
from Online Engineering Program
Twenty-seven working professionals from around the nation recently became the first graduates of the new Master of Engineering in systems engineering program offered by Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies and delivered online through the university’s World Campus.
Neil Barnas, a captain in the Air Force who was one of the 27 to complete the program, is preparing for his new assignment at the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office, a Department of Defense unit involved with aircraft weapon systems for the U.S military and its allies. “I wanted a quality education that would make a difference in my career,” he said. “Penn State really sets itself apart in that regard.”
Wayne Smutz, Ph.D., executive director of World Campus and associate vice president for academic outreach, said Penn State’s online education programs aim to attract working professionals like Barnas. “Adult learners need accessible education options to keep their knowledge base fresh and their skills updated,” he said.
Systems engineering is a holistic approach to managing complex engineering projects that was first developed in the aerospace industry and the military, but is being adapted by other industries. Courses emphasize the identification, modeling, analysis, architecture, integration and management of complex systems and processes.
Chicago State Maintains Accreditation
Chicago State University, which was in danger of losing its accreditation over low retention rates and a graduation rate of 14 percent, is holding on to its accreditation. In response to some of the concerns expressed by accreditors, the university has started a series of programs to improve retention.
“When you are trying to select a school, you will probably go to an institution where no questions were asked,” said Chicago State President Wayne Watson. “We think that played a large part in it. That is why we were so pleased to get confirmation that accreditation has been renewed by the Higher Learning Commission, the region’s accrediting agency.”
To address concerns about the public school’s high dropout rate, Chicago State has started several new programs to help students who are struggling. Among them is an early alert system that every month flags students who are missing class, not turning in homework or failing exams. Tutoring is then offered to those students.
The university also hired a dean to focus on the needs of freshmen and a newly created executive director of graduation to identify students who have reached 85 credits and work with them to get to 120 credits and a diploma.
“It is unbelievable the kind of results we have started seeing,” Watson said. Last year, the Higher Learning Commission cited “grave” concerns about the school, including a “remarkably poor” graduation rate of 14 percent and a freshmen retention rate of 58 percent. Officials said that retention of freshmen from last fall to this fall is up about 3 percentage points.
In March, the Higher Learning Commission sent a team to evaluate the school. Last month, the group confirmed that accreditation would continue. The next review is in 2013.
According to Watson, the university has made changes large and small to help students succeed. The library is now open until midnight, and the university purchased textbooks that are kept at the library for students who can’t afford their own. The university also worked with the Chicago Transit Authority to add a bus stop on campus.
Following a comprehensive review, Chicago State may decide to eliminate some of its academic programs, Watson added.
Hiram College to Collaborate with State Universities
Hiram College plans to work with area universities on streamlining classes and sharing facility space. According to Tom Chema, the school’s president, the college is exploring ways to reach its target enrollment of 1,300 through distance learning options and cohabitation with area schools.
“If we got much over 1,400, we’d need to add more to the physical plant,” said Chema. This would mean building additional dorms, dining halls and other facilities. Instead, Hiram is looking to share existing facilities or take up space in future additions of other schools.
Chema has been talking with University of Akron President Luis Proenza about UA’s plans for a former youth rehabilitation center in the Hudson area. Discussions are preliminary, but the facility has the potential for collaboration on biological studies. Among the collaborative talks, Hiram is weighing options for working together with community colleges, public and private universities and for-profit colleges. Hiram currently collaborates with Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University and Ursuline College on a program in which students can take courses on the classics, such as Greek, at any of the four campuses. “I’d like to have the same discussions with Kent State University, Lakeland Community College . . . and others,” Chema said.
During Chema’s six years as president, eight new buildings have been built on campus, with two other major renovations. Although enrollment has seen steady increases each year, Hiram has maintained a small classroom average of 13 to 15 students.
A key goal, according to Chema, is to deliver a quality education through distance learning to adults returning to school because of a job loss or other unexpected reason. “We’ve got to find ways to get to that potential adult learner,” he said.
Private College Groups Launch Web Loan Tool
Private, nonprofit colleges in Ohio and 11 other states have launched a new Web tool to help students find private loans for school. C. Todd Jones, an Ohio official who helped develop the Website called the Marketplace, said students can find it daunting to shop for bank or credit union loans needed to fill the gap between government grants or scholarships and the cost of attending college.
“The big difference in this is that it will now allow a transparent marketplace where students can find out how much they are going to be charged for their loan before they make a loan application, and they won’t have their credit rating dinged five times,” said Jones, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio.
One of the big benefits of the Web service is that it can save lenders overhead costs and therefore eliminate fees and markups that sometimes surprise student borrowers. The service is currently operating in Ohio, California, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.
According to the College Board, private loan volume hit $24 billion in constant dollars during the 2007-08 school year (about a quarter of all college borrowing), before declining by 50 percent the next year.
“In the last two years we’ve seen a precipitous drop in private borrowing to where it’s around 13 percent,” said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “That drop wasn’t because of a decrease in demand. It was because, like the rest of the financial market, the private student loan market was seizing up.”
Faculty Pushback at Texas A&M
Faculty members at Texas A&M University are objecting to plans to calculate a financial ranking for all professors. Under the plan, the university will calculate the revenue that faculty members bring in through grants and also through teaching. University officials said the system will show the value provided by professors and the university.
Information gathered would be financial in scope, allowing school officials to add the funds generated by a faculty member for teaching and research and subtract that sum from the faculty member’s salary. This would result in a profit-loss statement for faculty members that could help with decision-making.
“As being partly paid by the public purse, I believe we owe the public some degree of accountability—I don’t have a problem with that at all. What I have a problem with is silly measures,” said Peter Hugill, head of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Tentatively called “The Texas A&M University System Academic and Financial Analysis,” the project will be presented to the A&M System Board of Regents and, when complete, be available to the general public.
According to Adam Myers, a senior lecturer in the Mays Business School who was invited to view the document and provide input on it, “Any analysis that can enhance the education of students and make the best use of taxpayer money is a good thing for the university. But merely looking at the raw numbers without some analysis of the information that gives one knowledge of why the numbers are the way they are would be insufficient.” ♦