Arkansas Times posted two interesting articles this week:
The Battle of ASU
Arkansas Times
5/12/2009
KAIT in Jonesboro reports that Arkansas State University has completed its first year of a distance learning program that lets students take master-level classes over the internet. The courses are designed by faculty, but the large number of students requires "coaches" to do most of the grading and interacting with students on a day to day basis. ASU administrators say the program has been a success. That depends on who you ask. The program was started by a private company called Higher Education Holdings and has created quite a stir on the campus. Companies like HEH are able to offer schools huge class sizes (which means more $$). Some professors think it's akin to outsourcing a master's degree. Others say it will hurt the school in the future because students who graduate from the program will have no physical connection to the campus, and might not make donations to the university's endowment. According to an article in Inside Higher Education that appeared a couple of months ago, faculty at ASU were not consulted about the decision to use the compnay. If the fight over Higher Ed Holdings at Toledo was an all out brawl, the debate at Arkansas State University has been more of a boxing match -- but gloves are still optional. The concerns Toledo faculty expressed are shared by many at Arkansas State, where professors fear they’re being forced to develop cookie-cutter courses that can be used by thousands of students at a time...“I simply refuse to be part of this HEH scam,” wrote Rowe, who is president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, as well as vice president of the state chapter. “ASU-[Jonesboro] has decided on quantity over quality and I will not participate in this ‘pending’ fiasco.”
Arkansas Times
May 14, 2009Cyber degrees
Arkansas State University is calling its distance learning program, which lets students take master's-level classes over the Internet, a success. The program, offered by a private company for ASU, Higher Education Holdings, just completed its first year at the Jonesboro university.
But the on-line program is creating a stir on campus, where, according to an article in Inside Higher Education, it was implemented without consultation with professors. They've compared the program to outsourcing a master's degree.
One ASU professor told the Times this week that ASU's partnership with HEH may end badly. “At the very least, the university's reputation will be a casualty. It could result in investigations into how ASU is funding this degree through state appropriations and sending 80 percent of student tuition fees to a corporation in Texas,” he said.
Companies like HEH are able to offer courses for a lower cost to a huge number of students, sometimes numbering in the thousands. “Coaches” do most of the grading and interacting with the students.
Markham Howe, executive director of public relations for ASU, says that students enrolled in the HEH program count toward the school's total enrollment, which has an impact on state appropriations. School officials say they have the full support of the governor and their board.
American Veritas wonders why the governor of Arkansas would support a state university sending 80% of its tuition to a private Texas coporation?
Showing posts with label higher ed holdings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label higher ed holdings. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sam Houston State Univeristy
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY'S CAUTIOUS DELIBERATIONS -- BRAVO! Sam Houston State University has been involved in negotiations with Higher Ed Holdings since last fall. How refreshing that a state university would actually take adequate time to consider the full ramifications of a partnership with venture capitalist Randy Best and HEH. The following item can be found in the minutes of Sam Houston State University's April 2nd, 2009, Faculty Senate meeting: "Although administration has made no final decision, thoughts are that current draft agreements with Higher Education Holdings afford insufficient university control of academic issues."SHSU administrators and faculty should consider what is happening at Arkansas State University, where administration, in cahoots with HEH, are violating shared governance, altering curriculum to fit HEH's model, and wreaking havoc with the university in general. Most agregious is HEH's unabashed emphasis on high enrollment above quality and their dubious advertising stratgies. See the article below about HEH's Diploma Mill Promotion. Rest assured, SHSU, once you've signed on the dotted line with HEH, you'll discover that they assert a great deal of control over curriculum. You will soon discover that faculty developing HEH courses are given strict limitations on assessments, assignments, and even how long a video clip should be. You will discover that faculty members are really not supposed to interact with students or alter courses once they're online (so much for formative assessments to help direct instruction -- or teachable moments). Administrators are warned by HEH that faculty will obstruct their efforts to move forward with a contract and HEH will even tell administrators how to work around issues of shared governance. HEH will oversell the high numbers of students their program will bring to the university -- because of the reduced tuition and convenience. HEH WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT YOU WILL GAIN A REPUTATION AS A DIPLOMA MILL. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT ACCREDITATION AGENCIES ARE SCRUTINIZING THEIR FIVE WEEK ONLINE COURSES. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION ARE CONCERNED, AND EXAMINING, THE EXPLOITATION OF HEH AND THEIR PARTNERING UNVIERSITIES OF STATE APPROPRIATION FUNDS TO FATTEN THE COFFERS OF RANDY BEST AND HEH. No wonder HEH always pushes for a quick decision by universities. They warn universities that if they don't sign the contract quickly, they will find themselves in competition with HEH soon. HAH! That may be true, but it's also true that partnering with HEH can be ruinous to a university on many levels. The HEH/public university model has only been in existence for less than 2 years. If the difficulties being experienced by ASU are any indication, this whole HEH experiment could be a disaster on a number of fronts.
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY'S CAUTIOUS DELIBERATIONS -- BRAVO! Sam Houston State University has been involved in negotiations with Higher Ed Holdings since last fall. How refreshing that a state university would actually take adequate time to consider the full ramifications of a partnership with venture capitalist Randy Best and HEH. The following item can be found in the minutes of Sam Houston State University's April 2nd, 2009, Faculty Senate meeting: "Although administration has made no final decision, thoughts are that current draft agreements with Higher Education Holdings afford insufficient university control of academic issues."SHSU administrators and faculty should consider what is happening at Arkansas State University, where administration, in cahoots with HEH, are violating shared governance, altering curriculum to fit HEH's model, and wreaking havoc with the university in general. Most agregious is HEH's unabashed emphasis on high enrollment above quality and their dubious advertising stratgies. See the article below about HEH's Diploma Mill Promotion. Rest assured, SHSU, once you've signed on the dotted line with HEH, you'll discover that they assert a great deal of control over curriculum. You will soon discover that faculty developing HEH courses are given strict limitations on assessments, assignments, and even how long a video clip should be. You will discover that faculty members are really not supposed to interact with students or alter courses once they're online (so much for formative assessments to help direct instruction -- or teachable moments). Administrators are warned by HEH that faculty will obstruct their efforts to move forward with a contract and HEH will even tell administrators how to work around issues of shared governance. HEH will oversell the high numbers of students their program will bring to the university -- because of the reduced tuition and convenience. HEH WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT YOU WILL GAIN A REPUTATION AS A DIPLOMA MILL. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT ACCREDITATION AGENCIES ARE SCRUTINIZING THEIR FIVE WEEK ONLINE COURSES. THEY WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION ARE CONCERNED, AND EXAMINING, THE EXPLOITATION OF HEH AND THEIR PARTNERING UNVIERSITIES OF STATE APPROPRIATION FUNDS TO FATTEN THE COFFERS OF RANDY BEST AND HEH. No wonder HEH always pushes for a quick decision by universities. They warn universities that if they don't sign the contract quickly, they will find themselves in competition with HEH soon. HAH! That may be true, but it's also true that partnering with HEH can be ruinous to a university on many levels. The HEH/public university model has only been in existence for less than 2 years. If the difficulties being experienced by ASU are any indication, this whole HEH experiment could be a disaster on a number of fronts.
Purdue University Calumet
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Purdue University Calumet - BEWARE! HEH is busy negotiating a contract with Purdue University Calumet and it's apparent that the HEH sales force is busy capitalizing on the stressed economy to work its sales magic on administrators! http://webs.calumet.purdue.edu/chancellor/2009-convocation/ HEH actually warranted a mention at Purdue University Calumet's April 16th Spring Convocation: "HEH is a private corporation that will provide marketing, course management software with infrastructure and technical support, instructional designers to aid course conversion and “coaches” to support instruction. Purdue Calumet controls faculty, course content, student admissions and student evaluation and grading. In other words, quality is our responsibility and in our hands. This partnership, which already exists with other universities, has the potential to allow us to serve an additional 2,000-3,000 students without additional buildings or significant major additional investments in technology infrastructure. Revenue from this endeavor can feed growth in these schools while at the same time producing enrollment funding that will benefit the rest of the university. Should these programs be successful, in partnership with HEH, we will be able to develop additional distance education programs that are capable of attracting large numbers of students."Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, it is.Eight days earlier, on April 8, 2009, Purdue University Calumet's College of Education Leadership Team discussed HEH: www.education.purdue.edu/dean/lteam/minutes/2009/April%208%20LT%20Minutes.doc - HEH (Higher Ed Holdings) Update. HEH is a commercial enterprise to get on line masters programs. HEH is negotiating a contract with Purdue Calumet. Dr. Moon is on a committee regarding HEH with Chris Ladisch from the Provost’s Office. Dr. Moon handed out a series of e-mail regarding HEH. Mike Ludwig has looked at the contract and has some questions. Dr. Moon and the Team discussed potential issues that from our perspective need to be discussed. They included:• Who owns the material? The contract says HEH owns it and Dr. Moon feels this would not be agreeable to our faculty. • Section 2D states that if Purdue cannot find faculty to teach the on line courses, HEH finds the faculty without us being able to check their credentials. • Our adjunct positions are unpaid. If on line teachers were assigned as adjunct position, the only way this would work is if HEH paid them directly. ...• Dr. Kelly should meet with Bob Rivers from Purdue Calumet Education to get more details about their possible contract with HEH before Dr. Moon gives her feedback.• Dr. Rud talked about the University of Illinois and a similar on line venture called Global Campus; however, Global Campus is part of the University, not an outside entity. • Dr. Rud said it is a virtual entity but the Global Campus was set up as a 4th campus which has not worked well and the University is looking at restructuring. • Dr. Lehman is aware that there are other entities beyond HEH and they might be looked at. The task force he is on is looking at the issue of on line classes at Purdue. It is a complex problem. • It was suggested that Continuing Education/Distance Learning should be included in the meetings on HEH. • Quality and lack of control are the biggest issues. • Dr. David voiced concern about how the HEH vision fits within the University and College vision for the future of on line learning, could it hurt the Purdue brand? It sounds like the leadership team had a few good questions. Were all those questions answered satisfactorily 8 days later when the Chancellor spoke at the convocation? Purdue University Calument facutly members should scrutinize administration's big HEH push and heed the warnings of faculty members at the University of Toledo and Arkansas State University. I predict they are in for some stormy days ahead. Suggestions for PUC Faculty: investigate violations of shared governance, the role of academic coaches, the lack of interaction faculty have with students, the percentage of tuition that is sent to HEH in Texas, the misuse of state appropriation funds, the promotional practices of HEH (who willingly will advertise PUC as a diploma mill in order to recruit students), the altering of curriculum to fit into compressed 5 week course formats, and the list goes on and on. As happened at Arkansas State University, negotiations take place at the end of spring, just in time for faculty to become distracted with final exams and end of the semester plans. That's a perfect time to avoid shared governance practices and rush through contracts. If faculty are fooled into believing that they truly have control of curriculum under the HEH model, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd love to sell them.
Purdue University Calumet - BEWARE! HEH is busy negotiating a contract with Purdue University Calumet and it's apparent that the HEH sales force is busy capitalizing on the stressed economy to work its sales magic on administrators! http://webs.calumet.purdue.edu/chancellor/2009-convocation/ HEH actually warranted a mention at Purdue University Calumet's April 16th Spring Convocation: "HEH is a private corporation that will provide marketing, course management software with infrastructure and technical support, instructional designers to aid course conversion and “coaches” to support instruction. Purdue Calumet controls faculty, course content, student admissions and student evaluation and grading. In other words, quality is our responsibility and in our hands. This partnership, which already exists with other universities, has the potential to allow us to serve an additional 2,000-3,000 students without additional buildings or significant major additional investments in technology infrastructure. Revenue from this endeavor can feed growth in these schools while at the same time producing enrollment funding that will benefit the rest of the university. Should these programs be successful, in partnership with HEH, we will be able to develop additional distance education programs that are capable of attracting large numbers of students."Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, it is.Eight days earlier, on April 8, 2009, Purdue University Calumet's College of Education Leadership Team discussed HEH: www.education.purdue.edu/dean/lteam/minutes/2009/April%208%20LT%20Minutes.doc - HEH (Higher Ed Holdings) Update. HEH is a commercial enterprise to get on line masters programs. HEH is negotiating a contract with Purdue Calumet. Dr. Moon is on a committee regarding HEH with Chris Ladisch from the Provost’s Office. Dr. Moon handed out a series of e-mail regarding HEH. Mike Ludwig has looked at the contract and has some questions. Dr. Moon and the Team discussed potential issues that from our perspective need to be discussed. They included:• Who owns the material? The contract says HEH owns it and Dr. Moon feels this would not be agreeable to our faculty. • Section 2D states that if Purdue cannot find faculty to teach the on line courses, HEH finds the faculty without us being able to check their credentials. • Our adjunct positions are unpaid. If on line teachers were assigned as adjunct position, the only way this would work is if HEH paid them directly. ...• Dr. Kelly should meet with Bob Rivers from Purdue Calumet Education to get more details about their possible contract with HEH before Dr. Moon gives her feedback.• Dr. Rud talked about the University of Illinois and a similar on line venture called Global Campus; however, Global Campus is part of the University, not an outside entity. • Dr. Rud said it is a virtual entity but the Global Campus was set up as a 4th campus which has not worked well and the University is looking at restructuring. • Dr. Lehman is aware that there are other entities beyond HEH and they might be looked at. The task force he is on is looking at the issue of on line classes at Purdue. It is a complex problem. • It was suggested that Continuing Education/Distance Learning should be included in the meetings on HEH. • Quality and lack of control are the biggest issues. • Dr. David voiced concern about how the HEH vision fits within the University and College vision for the future of on line learning, could it hurt the Purdue brand? It sounds like the leadership team had a few good questions. Were all those questions answered satisfactorily 8 days later when the Chancellor spoke at the convocation? Purdue University Calument facutly members should scrutinize administration's big HEH push and heed the warnings of faculty members at the University of Toledo and Arkansas State University. I predict they are in for some stormy days ahead. Suggestions for PUC Faculty: investigate violations of shared governance, the role of academic coaches, the lack of interaction faculty have with students, the percentage of tuition that is sent to HEH in Texas, the misuse of state appropriation funds, the promotional practices of HEH (who willingly will advertise PUC as a diploma mill in order to recruit students), the altering of curriculum to fit into compressed 5 week course formats, and the list goes on and on. As happened at Arkansas State University, negotiations take place at the end of spring, just in time for faculty to become distracted with final exams and end of the semester plans. That's a perfect time to avoid shared governance practices and rush through contracts. If faculty are fooled into believing that they truly have control of curriculum under the HEH model, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd love to sell them.
Randy Best Has a Plan
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Randy Best Has a Plan (from stophehcorporateplundering.blogspot.com)
Public colleges of education are under assault. For decades, under the auspices of free market economic theory, public education in the U.S. has been portrayed as a failure. Of course this portrayal has been heavily promoted by policy makers with a very public agenda to privatize public education and create another marketplace for profiteers. It was just a matter of time before higher education would be tapped as another source of revenue by private industry. What is surprising, however, is that the blatant manipulations of Randy Best have been successful in light of his very recent history of corruption with Reading First and his commercial reading program Voyager. As a matter of fact, he sold Voyager at the height of congressional investigations into charges of conflicts of interest, cronyism, and corruption and turned his attention to colleges of education. He used the profits from the sale of Voyager to launch Higher Ed Holdings and enter the wide open market of higher education.Randy Best is not an educator. He is an entrepreneur. He does things in a big way. It would be hard to overestimate the magnitude of his quest. Higher Ed Holdings represents the newly formed Whitney International University -- a network of for-profit online colleges for international students; Early College for high school students; and the American College of Education (ACE), a for-profit online college. In 2006 Best declared: "Our dream is to be truly the first national college of education."http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052906dnmetbestplans.d8b4622.htmlRandy Best's most problematic efforts have been reflected in his infiltration of established universities, by contracting with them to provide a "delivery platform" for online programs in exchange for their NCATE accreditation. It's unbelievable that universities would fall for such an obvious ploy with the potential for wreaking havoc with faculty, students and stakeholders. University of Toledo successfully, through faculty and student action, prevented the signing of a contract with HEH. Arkansas State University's faculty members were not so successful. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/24/hehHEH represents a threat to universities and any stakeholder in public education. Randy Best has a track record of making profit; however, as he did with Voyager, he has a track record of having little regard for integrity and accountability.
Randy Best Has a Plan (from stophehcorporateplundering.blogspot.com)
Public colleges of education are under assault. For decades, under the auspices of free market economic theory, public education in the U.S. has been portrayed as a failure. Of course this portrayal has been heavily promoted by policy makers with a very public agenda to privatize public education and create another marketplace for profiteers. It was just a matter of time before higher education would be tapped as another source of revenue by private industry. What is surprising, however, is that the blatant manipulations of Randy Best have been successful in light of his very recent history of corruption with Reading First and his commercial reading program Voyager. As a matter of fact, he sold Voyager at the height of congressional investigations into charges of conflicts of interest, cronyism, and corruption and turned his attention to colleges of education. He used the profits from the sale of Voyager to launch Higher Ed Holdings and enter the wide open market of higher education.Randy Best is not an educator. He is an entrepreneur. He does things in a big way. It would be hard to overestimate the magnitude of his quest. Higher Ed Holdings represents the newly formed Whitney International University -- a network of for-profit online colleges for international students; Early College for high school students; and the American College of Education (ACE), a for-profit online college. In 2006 Best declared: "Our dream is to be truly the first national college of education."http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052906dnmetbestplans.d8b4622.htmlRandy Best's most problematic efforts have been reflected in his infiltration of established universities, by contracting with them to provide a "delivery platform" for online programs in exchange for their NCATE accreditation. It's unbelievable that universities would fall for such an obvious ploy with the potential for wreaking havoc with faculty, students and stakeholders. University of Toledo successfully, through faculty and student action, prevented the signing of a contract with HEH. Arkansas State University's faculty members were not so successful. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/24/hehHEH represents a threat to universities and any stakeholder in public education. Randy Best has a track record of making profit; however, as he did with Voyager, he has a track record of having little regard for integrity and accountability.
Welcome to Truth in Public Education
This blog is dedicated to the truth that the best of America is revealed in its public educational systems. In spite of our country's efforts to provide the highest quality education accessible to all, our public educational system is under attack. While I will discuss the efforts of those who seek to protect public education at the K-12 level, waging war against free market proponents intent on mass privitization, the majority of the posts on this site will focus on the battle to maintain the integrity of public universities under assault by private corporations seeking to tap into the resevoir of potential profits created through a combination of student tuitions, federal grants, student loans, and state appropriations.
I invite blog readers to post comments and open up a dialogue in the truest spirit of American truth seeking. At a time when corporations are exerting draconian controls over public discourse, it is important to remember that freedom of speech is a treasured right we still enjoy in this country.
I have been following a particular coporation's foray into the higher education market -- Higher Ed Holdings (HEH). Until recently I was reading, with great interest, a blog entitled Stophehcorporateplundering@blogspot.com. Unfortunately, that blog no longer exists. I hope Diligent Educator will continue to inform the public about this important issue. In the meantime, however, I feel compelled to continue to illuminate the public about what I consider to be a very important, high stakes, issue -- corporate plundering of higher education. I saved many of the postings on the aforementioned blog and will begin my postings by republishing several of Diligent Educator's postings.
I invite blog readers to post comments and open up a dialogue in the truest spirit of American truth seeking. At a time when corporations are exerting draconian controls over public discourse, it is important to remember that freedom of speech is a treasured right we still enjoy in this country.
I have been following a particular coporation's foray into the higher education market -- Higher Ed Holdings (HEH). Until recently I was reading, with great interest, a blog entitled Stophehcorporateplundering@blogspot.com. Unfortunately, that blog no longer exists. I hope Diligent Educator will continue to inform the public about this important issue. In the meantime, however, I feel compelled to continue to illuminate the public about what I consider to be a very important, high stakes, issue -- corporate plundering of higher education. I saved many of the postings on the aforementioned blog and will begin my postings by republishing several of Diligent Educator's postings.
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