A Word About Assessment & SAT Scores

Do students achieve the stated learning objectives? What is the percentage of faculty with terminal degrees? What is the acceptance rate? What College Board http://www.collegeboard.com/ tier groups comprise your new class? We see program assessment, classroom assessment and the noted "general" assessment categories. Each provides a set standard of practices and a schedule for reporting results. When navigating the minefield of assessment with an eye that is focused on what's important, how do we determine what counts?

The answer may be an easy, 'it depends on your perspective' but if we had to select one assessment of the higher education experience, what would (or should) it be?

Those of us who work in higher education are aware of the challenges of pleasing multiple constituencies: administrators, trustees, directors, regulators, accreditation commissions, faculty governance, unions and not to mention students and their parents. We debate assessment regularly. This article discussed the issue of making SAT scores optional during the admissions process http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/26/sat. In this case we are assessing the validity and impact on making SAT scores optional as an admissions requirement. This is an important issue to discuss and the early results of this study appear to reveal what we could have guessed: dropping the SAT as an admissions requirement increases diversity and average GPA's of the incoming class and in public institutions results in higher academic achievement. Great! All public institutions should drop the SAT as a requirement. Since public institutions are usually more affordable and dropping this requirement increases diversity and diverse populations tend to have a greater financial need, from an enrollment marketing perspective, this is a win-win-win situation.

One Very Obvious Take on Online Learning Marketing: Affordability

There are many positive aspects to online learning, but one that should be stressed is affordability. Considering the average cost of a four year education, and considering the economic situation that most Americans find themselves in, any opportunity to save money would be very much welcomed.

By following the link below, you can get to a service that finds and ranks online education programs, and does so within financial parameters that you suggest.

http://geteducated.com/

eLearning and Software as a Service (SaaS)

1. You don't need to buy or lease expensive hardware or software which is a real money saver.
2. You simply sign up and your eLearning system is ready to go in a very short time - usually within a week to 30 days.
3. The LMS provider can focus their efforts and spend a lot more money than you on such things as security, scalability, back-up systems, technical support and maintenance, etc.
4. Good eLearning SaaS companies charge a fee per user rather than sell you a license based on what you might use in a year. This helps you with your Return on Investment (ROI).  
5. Your LMS provider makes all the upgrades as part of the service.  This ensures your program remains competitive and you won't have to buy a newer system.
   
6. You don't need to add FTE to your IT department. The LMS is staffed by the vendor which also provides 24/7 Help Desk support to you and your students.
   

Online Learning Course Content