Adr Burhan Book Center Sarai Naurang: Course: Higher Education (828) Semester: Spring, 2021
Adr Burhan Book Center Sarai Naurang: Course: Higher Education (828) Semester: Spring, 2021
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
combination of increased computing power, diminishing prices
of hardware and software, improvement of wireless and
satellite technologies, and reduced telecommunication costs
has all but removed the space and time barriers to information
access and exchange.
The recent World Bank study Globalization, Growth, and
Poverty: Building an Inclusive World Economy, by David
Dollar and Paul Collier, describes how 24 developing
countries that integrated themselves more closely into the
global economy experienced higher economic growth, a
reduced incidence of poverty, a rise in the average wage, an
increased share of trade in gross domestic product, and
improved health outcomes. These countries simultaneously
raised their rates of participation in higher education. Indeed,
the countries that benefited most from integration with the
world economy achieved the most marked increases in
educational levels. In addition, there is growing evidence that
university education, through its role in empowering domestic
constituencies, building institutions, and nurturing favorable
regulatory frameworks and governance structures, is vital to
a country’s efforts to increase social capital and to promote
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
social cohesion, which is proving to be an important
determinant of economic growth and development.
Despite great progress in the past few years, children are
denied education. We must understand that education and
development go hand in hand. The Role of education in
developing countries is a very important one as lack of
education causes poverty and slow economic development
of a country especially if the country is a developing
country. Education is very important for everyone it’s a
primary need of any individual, every girl or boy child
should have the right to quality education so that they
can have better chances in life, including employment
opportunities, and better health.
The role of education in poverty reduction is huge. Some
advantages of education are: it boosts economic growth and
increases the GDP of a country. It even reduces infant
mortality rate, increases human life expectancy. Education
is an important investment in a country as there are huge
benefits. Education guarantees lifetime income; it promotes
peace and reduces drop-out rates from schools and
colleges and encourages healthy competition. Many children
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
dropout form colleges as they are not aware of the
advantages of college education.Education helps in making
the right decisions at the time of conflicts.
These days school students are restricted only to
academics. We also need to ensure that school education
equips children with necessary life skills. Special focus
needs to be given the most vulnerable and groups (including
children living in slums, children with disabilities, and girls)
who are most likely to be affected because of lack of well-
trained teachers, inadequate learning materials, and
unsuitable education infrastructure. Good teachers are a
very important ingredient in every Childs education.
Educated girls and women tend to be healthier, earn more
income and provide better health care for themselves and
their future children and these benefit also are transmittes
from generation to generation and across communities at
large, making girl's education one of the best investments a
country can make.
In India, a combination of discrimination, social attitudes,
poverty, lack of political will, and poor quality of human and
material resources leave children with disabilities more
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
vulnerable to being excluded from education. It is essential
that societies adapt their education systems to ensure that
these children can get educated and have a better future.
Children who have access to quality educational programs
perform better and are successful in their lives. It is vital
that the education system in developing countries must be
built in such a way that students apply their minds in the
development of their country.
Access to education can improve the economic and financial
lifestyle of citizens and determine the prospects of future
generations, especially in developing countries. However,
achieving these goals is complicated. Policymakers have
implemented various measures to increase access to
education but the results are mixed.
Q.2 Elaborate the meanings of assessment, evaluation and
appraisal in higher education. Highlight significance of
assessment at this level.
During the process of gathering information for effective
planning and instruction, the words measurement,
assessment and evaluation are often used interchangeably.
These words, however, have significantly different meanings.
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Measurement
The word measurement, as it applies to education, is not
substantially different from when it is used in any other field.
It simply means determining the attributes or dimensions of
an object, skill or knowledge. We use common objects in the
physical world to measure, such as tape measures, scales and
meters. These measurement tools are held to standards and
can be used to obtain reliable results. When used properly,
they accurately gather data for educators and administrators.
Some standard measurements in education are raw scores,
percentile ranks and standard scores.
Assessment
One of the primary measurement tools in education is
the assessment. Teachers gather information by giving tests,
conducting interviews and monitoring behavior. The
assessment should be carefully prepared and administered to
ensure its reliability and validity. In other words, an
assessment must provide consistent results and it must
measure what it claims to measure.
Evaluation
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Creating valid and reliable assessments is critical to
accurately measuring educational data. Evaluating the
information gathered, however, is equally important to the
effective use of the information for instruction.
In education, evaluation is the process of using the
measurements gathered in the assessments. Teachers use
this information to judge the relationship between what was
intended by the instruction and what was learned. They
evaluate the information gathered to determine what students
know and understand, how far they have progressed and how
fast, and how their scores and progress compare to those of
other students.
According to educator and author, Graham Nuthall, in his
book The Hidden Lives of Learners, "In most of the
classrooms we have studied, each student already knows
about 40-50% of what the teacher is teaching." The goal of
data-driven instruction is to avoid teaching students what
they already know and teach what they do not know in a way
the students will best respond to.
For the same reason, educators and administrators
understand that assessing students and evaluating the results
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
must be ongoing and frequent. Scheduled assessments are
important to the process, but teachers must also be prepared
to re-assess students, even if informally, when they sense
students are either bored with the daily lesson or frustrated
by material they are not prepared for. Using the
measurements of these intermittent formative assessments,
teachers can fine-tune instruction to meet the needs of their
students on a daily and weekly basis.
Accurately measuring student progress with reliable
assessments and then evaluating the information to make
instruction more efficient, effective and interesting is what
data-driven instruction is all about. Educators who are willing
to make thoughtful and intentional changes in instruction
based on more than the next chapter in the textbook find
higher student engagement and more highly motivated
students.
In fact, when students are included in the evaluation process,
they are more likely to be self-motivated. Students who see
the results of their work only on the quarterly or semester
report card or the high-stakes testing report are often
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
discouraged or deflated, knowing that the score is a
permanent record of their past achievement.
When students are informed about the results of more
frequent formative assessments and can see how they have
improved or where they need to improve, they more easily
see the value of investing time and energy in their daily
lessons and projects.
In the Master of Science in Educational Leadership online
program offered by St. Thomas University, Professor Scott E.
Gillig teaches a class called Educational Measurement. In this
class, students are introduced "to elements of assessment
that are essential to good teaching. It provides students with
an understanding of the role of assessment in the instructional
process," including the proper evaluation of assessments and
standardized tests, and how to make better use of the data in
their daily classroom instruction.
Data-driven instruction, using accurate measurements,
appropriate assessments and in-depth evaluation, is changing
the way we view tests and instruction, as well as the way we
communicate information to both students and families.
Teachers who have a clear understanding of how and why
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
these issues are important will find these changes give them a
better understanding of their students and better
opportunities to help their students achieve academic
success.
Q.3 Explain the concept of wastage in higher education. What
measures can be taken to minimize wastage in education?
The year 2005 promises to be significant for colleges and
universities in large part because of the impending
reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Act (HEA).
This Act currently provides $38 billion annually in loans to
support postsecondary study and $14 billion annually for
programs, over $10 billion of which are awarded to college
students in the form of Pell Grants. The HEA also enacts
policies to be administered by the Department of Education
that range from regulation of postsecondary distance
education providers to institutional accountability for
educational outcomes. HEA programs and policies potentially
affect 6,600 postsecondary institutions and 15.1 million
students.
In this article, I address one particular complex of issues
being considered by Congress as part of the HEA
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
reauthorization process. These issues have to do with the
rising costs of college attendance, their consequent impact on
accessibility, and the appropriate federal role, if any, in
regulating price increases.
In the ten-year period between 1994-95 and 2004-05,
average tuition and fees, after being adjusted for inflation,
grew by 36 percent in private four-year institutions and by 51
percent in public four-year institutions (College Board 2004a,
Table 6b). Such increases have fueled concern that college is
being priced beyond the means of low- and middle-income
families and of black and Hispanic students who are
inordinately represented in the ranks of the economically-
disadvantaged. Critics have cited tuition increases in excess
of inflation as evidence of mismanagement and waste. In
Congress, discussion continues on whether the HEA should
be amended to include sanctions against institutions whose
future tuition increases exceed a to-be-determined federal
formula based on cost-of-living indices. Threatened
sanctions might range from institutions being put on a watch
list, which would require them to submit a detailed accounting
of expenses to the Department of Education, to the
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
discontinuation of federal aid to students enrolled at those
schools.
As a higher education administrator, I find the prospect of
federal legislation to monitor or control the price of tuition
alarming. The proposal is based on a misunderstanding of the
economics of higher education, especially of institutions like
Butler University that are dedicated to personalized
undergraduate teaching. I would like to dispel some of that
misunderstanding.
The economics of liberal arts teaching institutions
Unlike the 248 doctoral universities in the United States,
which balance teaching with cutting-edge research and
economic enterprise, teaching institutions include 217 national
liberal arts colleges, which award at least half of their
degrees in the liberal arts, as well as 572 master's
universities and 324 comprehensive colleges, which offer
both liberal and professional studies leading to the
baccalaureate.1 These 1,100-plus institutions comprise the
classic image of American undergraduate education, where
small groups of students interact with professors in and out of
class, and each student is known by name and face.
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
In teaching institutions, our product is our graduates. We
cultivate mature human beings who can think critically,
communicate effectively, work collaboratively, and act
ethically. Liberal education is not simply about the inculcation
of knowledge; its end is the development of each student's
capacities to interpret and serve the world. This kind of
education is necessarily personal and relational, for its
outcomes are taught by modeling and exhortation as much as
by testing and writing papers. My wife Suzanne has described
classic baccalaureate education as an instance of preindustrial
production. The object is not mass production of a
standardized unit. Like shopping for fine clothes, each
graduate should be "custom tailored," not fitted "off the rack."
Undergraduate education done right is an apprenticeship, not
a production line.
What are the economics of this kind of education? It is
relatively costly. It eschews the "efficiency" of lectures to
600 students in favor of small classes taught by professors,
not teaching assistants. Increasing productivity by reducing
the workforce, having a professor teach more students, would
be contrary to the ideal of personalized education. It also
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
entails serious consideration of institutional size. Butler
University, for example, has made a commitment not to grow
beyond 4,000 full-time undergraduate students because there
is evidence that, beyond that number, the quality of
educational outcomes declines (National Survey of Student
Engagement 2001, 12). For the last three years, we have
capped the freshman class at 915. While this has led to
increased selectivity as the applicant pool has continued to
grow, it also means that the university does not realize the
potential savings found in increased scales of production.
Teaching institutions like Butler do not become more
economical by producing more graduates every year. The
very quality of the education they provide depends on limiting
production.
If the ratio of students to staff is fairly inelastic and
production is limited, then two customary avenues to
increased productivity in industry are closed to teaching
institutions. College administrators continually seek ways to
control costs, stemming in recent years especially from rising
expenditures for health care and technologymdash;two
recurrent pressures on businesses in general. But
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
mechanisms for increased productivity in industry cannot be
thoughtlessly applied to higher education. The very mission
and educational pedagogy of teaching institutions may militate
against cutting costs by reducing staff or increasing net
revenues by simply accepting more students.
Tuition and fees
These economics of baccalaureate education, however, are
underlain by a more pervasive reality that is often not
understood: tuition and fees have never covered the cost of
college. In the public sector, tuition levels traditionally have
been significantly lower than institutional costs because of
state funding to subsidize costs (College Board 2004b, 2).
However, that arrangement may not be sustainable. In
Indiana, state appropriations for higher education rose in the
1990s, but with more students attending college, the actual
share per student became smaller. Because of state shortfalls
in recent years across the nation, the proportion of total costs
covered by state appropriations has declined, necessitating
the increases in tuition and fees mentioned earlier. Private
colleges and universities charge higher tuition than public
institutions, but even their tuitions don't cover the full cost of
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
education. The difference is subsidized in large part by
endowment returns and annual giving, and shortfalls in these
areas caused in recent years by the economic recession have
contributed to tuition increases. At the same time, much of
the rise in tuition and fees has gone to increasing grant aid to
students in order to maintain accessibility. According to the
College Board (2004b, 5), "institutional grants doubled in
constant dollars over the decade."
With this as context, I must dispute the perception that
increases in tuition and fees have made college too
expensive. In a recent op-ed piece, Purdue President Martin
Jischke (2004) asserted that "going to Purdue today doesn't
cost a student any more than it did 10 years ago." That is
correct. A fundamental error is to confuse the rising sticker
price of college with the actual cost of attendance. According
to the College Board (2004a, 4), which publishes an annual
report on college pricing trends, 60 percent of full-time
undergraduates receive federal, state, or institutional grant
aid, not counting loans that have to be repaid, and about ten
million taxpayers benefit from federal education tax credits or
tuition and fee deductions. This underwriting must be
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
subtracted from published tuition and fees to arrive at a net
price. The cumulative effect is that, in constant 2003 dollars,
the net price for public four-year colleges and universities
nationally in 1993-94 was $1,500; in 2003-04 it was $1,300,
a decline of $200 (College Board 2004a, Figure 7). During the
same period, the net price for private four-year colleges and
universities increased from $8,600 to $9,600, a growth of
$1,000 over the decade. Nationally, the rise in tuition and fees
has also been accompanied by tax benefits and grant aid that
have mitigated those increases. It is simply false to
characterize higher education as being guilty of runaway
costs that have unreasonably escalated the net price of
college.
"Discounts"
Why is there a difference between the published price and the
net price of college? In the private sector, the published price
is an institution's best estimate of what it can charge its full-
pay students relative to the perceived value of the education
it provides. It serves to balance the supply of places in the
entering class with the demand of students for one of those
places. This would be a straightforward example of the
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
equilibrium point at the intersection of supply and demand
curves, but in actual practice no institution charges all
students the published price; there are always scholarships
and grants that "discount" the price paid by certain students.
These "discounts" take place because a college is not
primarily in the business of maximizing revenue. It is about
providing education of the highest quality it can achieve.
Improving quality includes attracting students of ability
regardless of their capacity to pay and ensuring a diversity of
experiences in the student body as part of preparing
graduates to live in a pluralistic world. Scholarships and
grants are merit-based to attract the academically able and
need-based to reduce the economic barriers to college for
middle- and low-income families, including families of color.
Some institutions can fund a large proportion of scholarships
out of earnings from substantial endowments. Most private
universities, however, create pools of grant aid by
redistributing tuition revenues from families that pay all or
most of their children's way to students of ability and need.
So while the published price may be an indicator of how much
the education at a particular institution is valued, the net price
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
reflects a "discount" that is oftentimes redistributed in the
form of scholarships and grants to attract the academically
able and the economically needy. According to the National
Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (2005,
2), students in the private sector "receive more than four
times as much grant aid from institutional sources as comes
from federal sources" and the "proportion of minority students
enrolled at independent four-year institutions is slightly
greater than at state four-year institutionsmdash;29 percent
at independent and 28 percent at state colleges and
universities."
Far from being complacent about issues of access and
affordability for minorities and the economically
disadvantaged, it is inherent in the educational mission of
most institutions to strive for cultural and economic diversity
in the student body. While the net price of tuition and fees has
risen in the private sector by $1,000 over the past decade,
much of the increase has been devoted to "discounting"
efforts to ensure that students of modest means aren't locked
outmdash;in other words, to maintain and increase their
access.
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
The role of government
The suggestion that the federal government ought to monitor
or control tuition increases flies in the face of the economics
of higher education. Especially as state grants for students
pursuing postsecondary education decline, public colleges and
universities have begun to emulate the private sector by using
endowment campaigns and tuition increases to create pools of
institutional financial aid.
One might object: why should economically prosperous
families see part of their tuition payments underwrite grants
for other students? One answer is that the diversity of
students, whether in terms of talent, culture, economics,
region, or legacy, helps determine the value of the very
degree that one's own child is seeking. Another is that
without access to higher education, the economically
disadvantaged risk becoming a permanent underclass. Unlike
many European countries, which place students into
vocational tracks in middle school and reserve university
education for those in college-preparatory tracks, the United
States has believed that the prospect of higher education
should be open for all. It is the key to national prosperity.
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Historically, higher education has been regarded as a public
good, and states have heavily subsidized in-state students at
their public universities. In exchange for state appropriations
for higher education, the published tuition for in-state
students at public institutions is artificially constrained and
kept low relative to that charged at comparable private
colleges and universities. A better comparison to tuition at
privates is what a public charges out-of-state students.
Published 2004-05 tuition and fees at the University of
Michigan for an in-state student are $8,868; for an out-of-
state student they are $26,854 (U.S. News amp; World Report
2004). (The published price for an out-of-state student to
attend Michigan is higher than the published prices at most
private liberal arts teaching colleges and universities.) For an
in-state student from a prosperous family, paying the full
$8,868 for a Michigan education is a bargain. For a low-
income student, without scholarships and grants, $8,868 is a
barrier to access. But as state funding has declined, Michigan,
like other prestigious state universities, has considered
enrolling more out-of-state students, because they bring
more redistributable tuition income, and becoming more
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
independent of the state legislature, which sets tuition for the
school at levels lower than the school might need to meet its
research and teaching responsibilities.
Controlling the price of tuition, whether by the state or the
federal government, is insufficient to buttress access to
higher education because current published prices may
already be too high for low-income families. With the decline
of state funding, and the prospect dim for significantly
increasing federal higher education aid in the face of current
record deficits, institutional aid must grow. If you've followed
my reasoning, you'll see that growth in institutional aid may
entail increases in tuition and fees. On the very grounds of
accessibility and affordability, then, federal price controls on
tuition are exactly the wrong answer.
What might be more fruitful approaches? For state and federal
government, let there be a recommitment to the underwriting
of higher education as a public good. President Bush's recent
proposal to increase the maximum amount allowable for Pell
Grants is a step in the right direction. With regard to tuition
and fees, let the free market work. Let institutions continue to
control their own finances. Higher education has
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
demonstrated a continuing commitment to access and
diversity, and tuition increases have actually been a means at
colleges and universities like Butler of maintaining that
access and diversity.
Q.4 Highlight the major problems in revamping higher
education of Pakistan.
Q.5 Elaborate different styles of learning in higher education
and their effect on the students' achievement.
Technology has the potential to revolutionize the traditional
teaching and learning process. It can eliminate the barriers to
education imposed by space and time and dramatically expand
access to lifelong learning. Students no longer have to meet in
the same place at the same time to learn together from an
instructor. Fundamentally, modern technologies have the
ability to change the conception of a higher education
institution. No longer is a higher education institution
necessarily a physical place with classrooms and residence
halls where students come to pursue an advanced education.
Thanks to recent developments in technology, the standard
American image of a college or university as a collection of
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
ivycovered buildings may need to be revised for the first time
since the founding of Harvard in 1636.
Computers and telecommunications are the principal
technologies reshaping higher education. Due to advances in
each of these domains, electronic mail, fax machines, the
World Wide Web, CDROMs, and commercially developed
simulations and courseware are altering the daily operations
and expanding the missions of colleges and universities.
Forces Promoting and Inhibiting Technology Use
Powerful forces are promoting higher education's adoption of
new technologies. The rapid advance of globalization that is
lowering international barriers and transforming the business
world is also expanding the potential reach of colleges and
universities. With sophisticated communication technologies,
institutions of higher education are no longer limited to
student markets or educational resources in their geographic
regions. Likewise, the growing need for lifelong learning
opportunities to keep pace with social, economic, and
technological changes fuels demand for accessible
alternatives to traditional real-time, campus-based
instruction. In addition, competition among higher education
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
institutions contributes to technology's advance within
colleges and universities. Not wishing to be outpaced by
competitors, many institutions are active participants in a
technology "arms race" that requires the rapid adoption of
new technological innovations as soon as they become
available. The alternative is to fall behind other schools that
are attempting to recruit the same students, faculty, and
donors.
In spite of technology's promise, its integration throughout
higher education has not been rapid or painless. Many
barriers to technology-based innovations exist within
colleges and universities. Academic traditions, such as the
faculty-centered lecture, make many professors reluctant to
adopt alternative instructional strategies using the computer
or telecommunication devices. The cost of many technological
applications also prohibits their easy adoption at many
resource-limited institutions. Before technology became such
a central part of institutional operations, many colleges paid
for new or improved technologies from funds left over at the
end of their annual budget cycle. Now that technology has
become an essential and recurring investment, most schools
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
must locate additional funds to meet their increasing needs
for technology resources.
Limited support to help faculty and staff members learn how
to take full advantage of technology is another factor
inhibiting more widespread use of technology in colleges and
universities. According to the 2000 Campus Computing
Survey, the single most important educational technology
challenge facing colleges and universities is helping faculty
integrate information technology into their teaching. The
second most important challenge is providing adequate user
support. According to Kenneth Green, director of the Campus
Computing Project, higher education's investment in
technology hardware is, by itself, not sufficient to reap the
full benefits of new technology advances. Green concludes
that "the real [information technology] challenge is people,
not products" (p. 1). Technology will neither reap its full
potential nor revolutionize higher education if these barriers
to its adoption are not resolved satisfactorily by individual
institutions or the educational system as a whole.
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Impact on Teaching and Learning
No aspect of higher education remains untouched by the
technological developments of the 1980s and 1990s.
Academic administration, as well as the instructional process,
has been dramatically altered by new technologies. When
compared to other college and university operations such as
student services, housing, and administration, however, the
teaching and learning process probably is being changed most
dramatically by technology.
Traditionally, professors have used much of their class time
with students to disseminate information through lectures and
follow-up discussion. This was especially the case in
introductory-level courses, where students lack a foundation
in the basic concepts and principles of a field. In an era of
advanced technology, this approach to instruction seems
archaic and inefficient. Computers, especially web-based
resources, can disseminate basic information more efficiently
and more cost effectively than human beings can. For
example, Gregory Farrington recommends that instructors
use the web to do what it can do well. This includes
presenting information to students in a variety of formats,
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
twenty-four hours per day. Students can access course
material when it is most convenient for them and return to it
as often as they need to achieve basic comprehension,
competence, or mastery.
This approach to information dissemination can save precious
class time "for the intellectual interactions that only humans
can provide" (Farrington, p. 87). Following this revised
method of facilitating learning, traditional lectures can be
replaced or pared down. In their place, classes can be more
informal, seminar-like sessions with more free flowing
discussion structured by students' interests, questions, and
concerns. In other words, appropriate use of technology
applications can help instructors to structure more active
learning opportunities. Research shows that active
engagement in the learning process helps to motivate
students and enhance their learning outcomes. New
technologies can facilitate active engagement in learning by
reducing the amount of class time where students sit
passively listening to lectures.
Technology can also help to make education a much more
interactive and collaborative process. Email, course-based
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
websites, and computer-based chat rooms are some of the
technology-enabled resources that facilitate communication
and teamwork among students. Research by education
scholars has shown that collaborative learning opportunities
enhance recall, understanding, and problem solving.
Technology can greatly ease the work of collaborative design
teams, peer writing groups, and other types of collaborative
learning groups, even among students who do not live in the
same geographic area and who cannot meet face to face.
While technology helps to promote collaborative learning, it
also helps to personalize and individualize education. By
reducing the need to deliver vast amounts of information,
technology can free an instructor to devote more time to
individual students. With more time to interact and get
acquainted, professors can adapt their teaching strategies and
assignments to bring them more in line with the interests and
needs of the students in their classes. Technology's capacity
to deliver large quantities of information over networks also
expands the potential for tailoring educational programs to
the specific needs of each learner. Dewayne Matthews argues
that technology-enhanced programs "can be custom-designed
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
around the needs and interests of the recipient instead of
around the scheduling and resource needs of the provider" (p.
3). With the help of technology, educational programs–even
full degrees–can be structured around flexible course modules
that students can combine in a variety of forms to meet their
personal and professional objectives. Matthews suggests that
technology-mediated education makes traditional academic
calendars and rigid curriculum structures obsolete because it
can adapt education so well to individual learning interests
and needs.
If education's goal is to help the learner reach his or her full
potential, why should education be designed for the
convenience of the instructor or the educational institution?
Essentially, technology is empowering learners to take more
control of their education than ever before. The expanded
reach that technology affords educational institutions has
encouraged many new providers to offer educational services.
This increased competition enables consumers to choose the
learning opportunities that best meet their needs within the
constraints of their life circumstances. As technology
transforms the educational marketplace, the balance of power
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
is shifting from the education provider to the education
consumer. Education consumers are now freer to pick and
choose, from a variety of sources, the learning opportunities
that meet their goals. In this fluid educational environment,
the old system of accumulating credits from one or two
nearby institutions becomes too restrictive for many students
who are balancing a variety of personal and professional
roles.
There is a related shift underway as technology transforms
the teaching and learning process. The traditional higher
education measure of educational achievement, the credit
hour, is also being questioned. Matthews argues that "learning
outcomes, as measured by student competencies [rather than
course credits], is the quality measure that makes the most
sense to consumers" (p. 4). In the new educational
environment defined by technology, innovative institutions
such as Western Governors University award degrees by
certifying that students have achieved certain required
competencies, regardless of where those competencies were
acquired. Such a dramatic shift in the way educational
achievement is documented would have been unthinkable
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
before the advent of the free market educational system
stimulated by the technology advances of the late twentieth
century. Measuring competencies rather than credit hours
represents another shift in favor of the consumer. As long as
a student can document competence in a subject or skill area,
it makes no difference where or how the learning occurred.
Technology's potential to lower the cost of education has
been one of its principal appeals. The ability of computers and
telecommunications to reach large audiences with the same
high-quality educational programs has raised hopes for
economies of scale never possible in the very labor-intensive
traditional forms of instruction. To date, technology's promise
to lower instructional costs has not been realized. Developing
the infrastructure to support technology-mediated teaching
and learning has been a very expensive proposition. The
possibility remains, however, that new, advanced
technologies may eventually lower the costs of higher
education as researchers and educators learn how to blend
technology-delivered and traditional instruction in a more
cost-effective manner.
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Impact on Professors' Roles
Technology has already changed the lives of college
professors in significant ways. As the twenty-first century
unfolds, professors' roles will most likely evolve further as
computers and telecommunications media are more fully
integrated into higher education. Professors can now use
technology to prepare for classes, conduct research, deliver
instruction, and keep in touch with their students and
colleagues in far away places. Electronic mail, fax machines,
computerized databases and search engines, and high-tech
classrooms are some of the technologies that have
transformed the work of college professors. Many experts on
teaching and learning and instructional technology are
suggesting that a fundamental shift in faculty duties is
underway as more technology applications are adopted in
higher education. Because technology calls into question the
professor's role as a knowledge transmitter, educational
reformers such as James Duderstadt, former president of the
University of Michigan, suggest that professors should
become "designers of learning experiences, processes, and
environments" (p. 7).
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Semester: Spring, 2021
Rather than serving primarily as a subject expert who shares
specialized knowledge with students, this new type of
professor acts more as a consultant or coach. With the aid of
technology, his primary instructional role is to inspire and
motivate students, to construct an environment that promotes
learning, and ultimately to manage an active learning process.
Ideally, in this carefully designed context, students take more
responsibility for their learning and construct meaning
themselves, rather than passively absorbing information from
a professor. According to conventional wisdom in
contemporary higher education, the professor has moved
from being "a sage on the stage to a guide on the side." This
individual knows his subject deeply, but is also skilled at
constructing situations conducive to learning. Effective
utilization of instructional technology is part of the twenty-
first-century professor's redefined duties.
There has been some discussion that technology may
eventually make many instructional positions obsolete, the
same way it eliminated the need for telephone operators or
police to direct traffic at busy intersections. Why employ
undistinguished professors to lecture in classes when
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
sophisticated telecommunications technology can bring
world-renowned authorities into classrooms via satellite or
the World Wide Web to inspire students and share the latest
information in their fields? Critics of this proposal counter by
arguing that big academic "stars" do not hold office hours,
grade papers, construct exams, or counsel troubled students.
They believe that professors should not lose their jobs to
automation. According to this view, there will always be a
need for many of the conventional faculty functions, such as
designing learning opportunities, motivating students, and
evaluating performance.
The future probably lies somewhere between these two
contrasting options. Higher education will undoubtedly
supplement its local talent with other human resources that
have become easily accessible through technology. Yet it will
also continue to employ professional staff members to design
curriculum, manage academic programs, and work closely
with students.
Technology is loosening professors' control of the curriculum.
Faculty and academic administrators once wielded nearly
absolute power over the academic programs their institutions
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
offered. However, technology has now made it possible–and
commercially viable–for publishers, software companies, and
other providers to design and distribute a wide variety of
courseware and instructional modules. This alternative to "in-
house" production of courses and academic programs is
appealing for financial as well as educational reasons.
Spreading the development costs of technology-enhanced
educational products permits the integration of sophisticated
instructional strategies, such as gaming and simulations, into
educational programs. On the other hand, moving the design
of educational programs further from those who know an
institution's students best causes many educators some
concern. Technological advances usually lead to trade-offs.
In this case, the benefit of being able to integrate high-tech
elements into courses is counterbalanced by the reduction in
local control of the curriculum.
Rethinking the Concept of College
Since higher education institutions first emerged, they have
been physical places where people gather together to learn.
Although higher education institutions have grown and
become more complex over time, their basic essence has
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
remained constant. Technology now calls into question the
very idea of a college or university. Some accredited
institutions of higher education, such as Jones International
University, now exist entirely in cyberspace with no campus,
classrooms, or athletic teams to tie together the academic
community. The traditional campus-based institutions that
have served the United States so well are being challenged in
the early twenty-first century by a host of nontraditional
competitors that offer education at a distance. Many of these
entrepreneurial institutions are aided by an assortment of
technologies, including computers, satellites, and electronic
streaming video. Technology has vastly expanded the demand
for education over the course of a lifetime. It has also
released education from the confines of the conventional
classroom. It has even removed the restrictions imposed by
the clock by enabling people who have access to Internet
technology to convene for the purpose of shared learning.
The multipurpose American university was so successful
because it brought together the array of facilities, experts,
students, and funding needed to educate the masses and
expand the boundaries of knowledge in service to humanity.
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
The university assembled the critical mass of talent and
resources necessary to meet the knowledge needs of a
dynamic society. Although this formula worked throughout the
twentieth century, technology is challenging this comfortable
arrangement. It has enabled many other organizations, such
as corporate colleges and for-profit firms, to provide
educational services such as degree programs, professional
certificate programs, and a host of outreach services that
were once monopolized by the higher education community.
The result of this "unbundling" of higher education roles
remains in doubt. Technology has led to a vast expansion of
the postsecondary education market, and it is calling into
question conventional views of what a higher education
institution is or should be. However, no one knows precisely
what a college or university (physical or virtual) will look like
once the other side of the technology revolution is reached. In
the past, when higher education adopted technological
innovations, the educational system became more open, more
complex, and more dynamic. If the past history of higher
education can serve as a guide to its future, the technologies
now working their way into the system will lead to a more
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
diverse and responsive educational enterprise. How that
enterprise resembles the system that functioned throughout
the 1900s remains to be seen.
Special Challenges of Technology
In spite of its nearly irresistible appeal, technology presents
higher education with difficult challenges. Systematic planning
of technological enhancements to educational programs is
difficult when technology changes so quickly and
unpredictably. Academic planners are continually playing
catch-up to implement new technology applications that
appear more quickly than a careful planning process can
anticipate. Similarly, paying for new technologies with
exciting educational applications remains troublesome for
institutions with more needs than resources. Authors who
wrestle with the funding issues raised by technology argue
that new budgeting strategies are necessary to keep
institutions from lurching from one technology-funding crisis
to the next. Institutions must view technology as a routine
expense, not an exceptional special expenditure.
Training faculty and staff members to utilize technology
effectively remains a challenge that many colleges and
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
universities have not resolved satisfactorily. It seems clear
that building a physical technological infrastructure is not
enough. It is also necessary to build a human resource
infrastructure for technology to fulfill its promise to higher
education.
Finally, adequate evaluation of technology's contribution to
higher education remains a challenge. For example,
in Teaching with Technology, Wake Forest University vice
president David Brown concludes that "the case for
computers [in collegiate education] rests on scant amounts of
hard evidence"(p. 5). Much of the immense investment in
technology that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s was to a
large extent an act of faith. Brown argues that the logic in
favor of using technology in higher education is compelling,
however. He believes that "more choice leads to more
learning" (p. 4), and that technology greatly enhances the
"box of tools" a professor can employ to reach diverse
students. According to Brown, most of the evidence that
supports using computers in education is indirect. In his view,
research demonstrates that repetition, dialog (question and
answer, point and counterpoint), collaborative learning, and
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ADR;BURHAN BOOK CENTER SARAI NAURANG
Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
visualization and animation (using pictures to support
learning) enhance learning. Because computers and other
technologies can support these proven educational strategies,
Brown concludes that the weight of logic comes down firmly
on the side of technology use in colleges and universities.
Although Brown makes a strong case for technology, more
empirical evidence is needed to justify higher education's
massive investment in computers, high-tech classrooms,
distancelearning programs, and other technology-based
initiatives.
An Emerging New System
Duderstadt asserts that the United States needs a new
educational paradigm in order to deliver educational
opportunity to a broader spectrum of humanity. The advanced
technologies available at the beginning of the twenty-first
century are laying the foundation of a new higher education
system, better equipped to meet the needs of a complex and
rapidly changing society. The outlines of this system,
transformed by technology, have begun to appear. The
educational system that George Connick believes will
eventually result from the current technology revolution has
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Course: Higher Education (828)
Semester: Spring, 2021
four defining attributes. First, it is easier to access than the
old campus-based system. Second, it is unconstrained by the
barriers of time and space because technology can liberate
education from the restrictions imposed both by the clock and
geography. Third, it is student-centered because technology
can increase students' learning options. Fourth, it is cost-
effective because technology can reduce the labor-intensive
nature of higher education and permit the reorganization
necessary to make institutions more responsive and
competitive.
No one knows what higher education will look like in 2025 or
2100. It is certain, however, that colleges and universities will
be very different places than they were in the year 2000.
Many factors will contribute to the changes that will occur as
the higher education system moves into the future. There is
no doubt that technology will be one of the driving forces
contributing to the educational transformation that is already
well underway.
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