A quality educational experience

The Spellings Commission report, along with work being conducted by organizations such as the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), highlight the struggle to define a quality educational experience. What components make for a quality education? Most agree the answer to that question is complex.

Luskin believes a key component is learning how to learn; the ability to write and speak clearly and to think critically and creatively. Another component, adds Dan Devine, CEO of Compass Knowledge Group, is to be able to complete one's formal education with a marketable skill that will allow one to adapt to the needs of the marketplace. Says Lendo: "Students must be prepared to live and work in a `flat,' 21st century environment rooted in global competition and complex, strategic partnerships."

Read cites as an important component is excellent teachers who are knowledgeable, enthusiastic and, when relevant, able to relate their research activities to their teaching. Other important components, he says, include: a stimulating cohort of students; a balance of passive (reading and lectures) and active (projects, production, performance) learning; good facilities and resources; and awareness and confirmation of the knowledge and skills being acquired.

"On what level does one define `educational experience?' asks Allen. "Does it include the menu of services an institution wraps around its courses and programs to support a student's progress and needs? Is it a student's experience in a particular class from her interaction with faculty, classmates, course materials, and learning objects? Is it the student's measured growth in knowledge, skills, and abilities between the beginning and end of that experience? Is it a student's measured growth over a program of courses? I would argue that a quality educational experience includes all of these, as defined in some set of agreed upon metrics, however imperfect."

Technology can serve as a powerful enabler of the learning experience, particularly for the new majority of students: the older, working adult student with working and family obligations as well as a non-traditional schedule and outlook. Says Read: "By supporting the learning process and flexible learning, technology allows students freedom from the tyranny of time and geography."

Lombardi defines learning technology as simply the implementation tools for the work that higher education wants to accomplish. "Technology is always expensive, and its value is hard to predict. People should sell their stuff, see if it gets used, and watch markets emerge. Whoever figures out how to make YouTube, iPod, and Facebook useable technologies will win the war. Short term, however, there's lot of money to be made in specialized niche products that give gee-whiz value to standard educational products."

Learning technology can enhance not only the access to content, but also the interaction that takes place between students and faculty, and improve assessment through the use of data, reporting analytics and assessment portfolios, says Kelsall. "With the right information, faculty and other stakeholders can use this data to enhance the learning experience in a more systematic fashion than is possible if relying purely on in-classroom information. Educational technology is a tool; the effectiveness in the use of this tool requires training and experience."

Kuttler notes that as an increasing percentage of students opt to complete their educational programs online, it is incumbent on educators to "use the new technology tools effectively to promote student-to-faculty and student-to-student communication, to work collaboratively, and to engage in higher order skill development in areas like critical thinking."