Some Challenges for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs Launching Blended & Online Courses and Programs -- Part 3

Last updated: Tuesday 1/7/14 @ 11:43 am

This note concludes the discussion begun in Part 1 and continued in Part 2. It presents the author's personal perspectives on some of the most significant challenges faced by HBCUs and Virtual HBCUS when launching blended and online courses and programs for their on-campus and off-campus students

Some Challenges for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs Launching Blended & Online Courses and Programs -- Part 2

Last updated: Sunday 12/29/13 @ 12:31 pm

This note continues the discussion begun in Part 1. It presents the author's personal perspectives on some of the most significant challenges faced by HBCUs and Virtual HBCUS when launching blended and online courses and programs for their on-campus and off-campus students

Some Challenges for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs Launching Blended & Online Courses and Programs -- Part 1

Last updated: Saturday 12/28/13 @ 9:36 am

The following notes discuss some of the most significant issues that I have encountered since January 2011 as the principal planner for my HBCU's efforts to encourage our faculty to develop more blended and online courses for our on-campus students, and then to repackage our online courses into online degree and certificate programs for our off-campus students. 

Directory of Potential Strategic MOOC Partners for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs

Last updated: Saturday 12/7/13 @ 11:22 am

HBCUs and strategic alliances of HBCUs ("virtual HBCUs") can engage online service providers as strategic partners to help them launch massive open online courses, a/k/a MOOCs. A list of some of the nation's most prominent providers of support services for MOOCs that have been engaged by HBCUs and non-HBCUs as strategic partners appears in Table 1 (below). 

2014, a Good Year for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs to (Quietly) Flip and MOOC

Last updated: Monday 7/21/14 @ 5:14 pm

As the year 2013 wound to a close, the Academic Old Guard lulled itself into an inertial stupor, convinced that the previous two years' discussions of the pending MOOC "revolution" in higher education were just the blatherings of ambitious con-men, a noisy media vaudeville that would fade away if ignored for long enough, leaving things as they were before, as they were meant to be in this best of all possible worlds. The (mostly white) sages would remain firmly entrenched on center stages; technology would remain relegated to its proper place inside but on the outer fringes of the classrooms; and the Old Guard's preferred, self-serving solutions to the persistent achievement gaps between white and underperforming minority students would remain at the top of the national agenda ==> more funding for more (mostly white) researchers.

Why Are HBCUs Still Needed? -- Part V

Last updated: Sunday 11/24/12 @ 12:23 pm

This is my fifth and probably my last attempt to answer to this question. IMHO HBCUs are still needed because the non-HBCUs in the mainstream of U.S. higher education have provided inadequate opportunities and inadequate inspiration for the nation's black students.

Directory of Potential Strategic Partners for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs

Last updated: Sunday 11/17/13 @ 1:12 pm

HBCUs and strategic alliances of HBCUs ("virtual HBCUs") can engage online service providers as strategic partners to help them launch online degree and certificate programs. A list of some of the nation's most prominent online service providers that have been engaged by HBCUs and non-HBCUs as strategic partners appears in Table 1 (below). 

Digital Gold Rush -- HBCUs, Virtual HBCUs, and Snapchat

Last updated: Friday 11/15/13 @ 2:56 pm

This week's announcement that the two young co-founders of Snapchat  received a $1 billion buy-out offer from Facebook (NY Times, 11/14/13) echoed Facebook's $1 biilion buy-out offer that was accepted by the two young co-founders of Instagram (NY Times, 4/9/2012) about 18 months ago. 

Recent eLearning & Related News -- DLL Favorites

This page has been relocated to here
==> http://hbcu-levers.blogspot.com/p/elearning-news.html

We apologize to our readers for this inconvenience ... :-)

Virtual HBCUs, Mobile Apps, and Hip Hop Moguls

Last updated: Sunday 11/3/13 @ 9:09 am

Last month I posted a note on this blog, Booker T 2, that suggested that HBCUs should emulate Booker T. Washington's successful efforts to obtain substantial support from wealthy patrons by appealing to their patrons' abiding, deep rooted self-interest, rather than to their sporadic impulses to "do good."

Virtual Groups at Virtual HBCUs Developing Mobile Applications in Virtual Labs

Last updated: Thursday 10/31/13 @ 7:26 am

By convening the HBCU Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley (at Stanford University, 10/30/13 to 11/1/13), UNCF has proclaimed a game changing challenge for the HBCU community. Of course we won't know how well our community rose to this challenge until a few years have passed, i.e., until we witness the emergence of a wave of black entrepreneurs whose success can be traced back to the ideas and collaborations that emerge from this meeting.  

Virtual HBCUs -- Three Potential Strategic Alliances

Last updated: Saturday 10/26/13 @ 4:03 pm

Welcome to "Fantasy Alliance!!!" -- the serious game wherein readers who are deeply committed to the future well-being of the nation's 106 HBCUs configure strategic alliances among small groups of HBCUs. These alliances would act as virtual HBCUs whose members would pool their resources via the Internet so that they could share costs and benefits. 

Strategic Partnerships and Strategic Alliances

A concise presentation of strategic partnerships and strategic alliances for any kind college or university, not just for HBCUs, can be found ==> HERE

Virtual HBCUs Should Offer MOOCs for Internet-based Black Entrepreneurs

Last updated: Saturday 10/26/13 @ 1:21 pm

Yes, dear readers, the title of this note contains some of the most ubiquitous jargon found on the Websites of HBCUs, HBCU media, and the Facebook and Twitter pages of just about every person on the planet who has ever had the slightest interest in the future well-being of HBCUs.

Virtual HBCUs as Strategic Alliances

Last updated: Friday 10/25/13 @ 12:08 am

What follows is a modified version of a good idea whose time has finally come ==> the Virtual HBCU (V-HBCU), a notion that was first announced to the HBCU community over ten years ago in "Going Online with V-HBCU" (Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 4/25/2002). As per the article in Diverse, the original V-HBCU consortium had six members: Alabama A&M University, Bethune Cookman College (now "University"), Florida A&M University, Grambling State University, Morgan State University, and North Carolina Central University. 

The Last Edition of the Gateway's Announcements -- 10/13/13

Last updated: Monday 10/14/13 @ 7:35 pm

The table of links to the previous week's announcements by HBCUs of their academic news and events -- announcements related to their research, teaching & learning, and community service activities -- was deleted forever from the Gateway's page on this blog yesterday, 10/13/13. For the last three or four years, Google's stats consistently showed that the readership for this feature had declined to such a low level that it was not worth my effort as the Gateway's editor to search for these announcements on the 106 HBCU Websites every week.

Sloan-C Redefines Blended and Hybrid Courses ... Why???

Last updated: Friday 10/11/13 @ 2:07 pm

Earlier this week a colleague called my attention to the fact that The Sloan Consortium, a/k/a "Sloan-C", changed its definition of "blended" courses, a/k/a/ "hybrid" courses. Sloan-C's Website now provides the following definitions of "blended" or "hybrid" courses:

The Next President of Howard University

Last updated: Tuesday 10/8/13 @ 2:51 pm

The sudden retirement by Dr. Sidney A. Ribeau on Tuesday 10/1/13 from the presidency of Howard University was surprising.  Indeed, the classy letter he sent to the Howard community that announced his departure in December 2013 contained no hints as to why he was leaving, thereby unleashing torrents of ill-informed speculation.

The Other 91 Percent ... Again

Last updated: Sunday 10/6/13 @ 2:58 pm

About a year ago, I posted a note on this blog that asked the question, "But what about the other 91 percent???"

Booker T 2

Last updated: Tuesday 11/5/13 @ 7:16 am

Dr. John S. Wilson, the former Director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs and now President of Morehouse College, posted an op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education last year that was titled,"Wealthy Americans, Meet Historiclly Black Colleges. Again." (Chronicle, 11/5/12)

Strategic Partners for HBCU Online Programs -- Part 4

Last updated: Thursday 10/24/13 @ 11:39 pm

Please read Part 3, that contains section D, before reading this note. It will be found ==> HERE 

As noted in Part 3, each of the prototypical course development strategies -- Home Brew and Outsourcing to a Strategic Partner -- has its pros and cons; so this fourth and final discussion suggests that HBCUs should pursue strategies that merge these prototypes into more effective combinations. It also suggests that combined strategies may become even more effective when groups of HBCUs form strategic alliances.

Notes on the HBCU Week Conference 2013

Last updated: Sunday 9/29/13 @ 12:39 am

This year's HBCU Week conference sponsored by the White House Initiative on HBCUs was held on Thursday 9/26/13 and Friday 9/27/13 at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Unlike last year, there was no dinner session at the end of the first day, so no chance to hear an inspiring after-dinner speaker, like last year's speaker, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.

Blended, Flipped, and Hybrid Courses for HBCUs

Last updated: Friday 10/11/13 @ 2:03 pm

Although online courses and programs have attracted the lion's share of the media's attention in the last few years, blended courses will provide far more cost-effective investment opportunities for an HBCU's limited resources for the foreseeable future. Indeed, the development a wide array of blended courses for its on-campus students will provide an HBCU with a firm foundation for its subsequent development of a wide array online programs for off-campus students.

Strategic Partners for HBCU Online Programs -- Part 3 of 4

Last updated: Sunday 9/29/13 @ 4:10 pm

Please read Part 2, that contains section C, before reading this note. It will be found ==> HERE 

D. Strategies for Developing Online Courses and Programs
Most of the courses offered by most HBCUs are still in traditional face-to-face formats; a small percentage are blended; and an even smaller percentage are fully online. Therefore most HBCUs have not yet developed most of the online courses they will need to launch an array of online degree and certificate programs for off-campus students. But how should they develop these courses?

Strategic Partners for HBCU Online Programs -- Part 2 of 4

Last updated: Wed 9/25/13 @ 8:49 pm

Please read sections A & B, in Part 1 before reading this note ==> Click HERE

C. Producing High Quality Online Programs
In the view from 10,000 feet, three factors loom largest in determining the quality of an HBCU's online programs ==> students, instructors, and courses.

Strategic Partners for HBCU Online Programs -- Part 1 of 4

Last updated: Friday 1/10/14 @ 11:13 am

In an ideal world HBCUs would have no use for strategic partners because they would have enough money and enough expertise in instructional technology, online marketing, and online recruitment to be able to develop their own state-of-the-art online courses for off-campus students, to market their programs to off-campus students, and to recruit interested off-campus students to enroll in their programs.

HBCUs Produce the Most Black Alums Who Receive Doctorates in Science and Engineering

This note provides a closer look at some of the data that was originally presented in a recent report from the National Science Foundation (NSF), "Baccalaureate Origins of U.S.-trained S&E Doctorate Recipients" (Mark K. Fiegener and Steven L. Proudfoot, March 2013):

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323

In other words, which undergraduate institutions had the most alums who subsequently earned research-oriented doctoral degrees in science and engineering (S&E)???

The Digital Learning Lab's HBCU Manifesto

Last updated: Monday 2/19/15

This manifesto poses some "inconvenient" answers to "inconvenient" questions.

Question 1. Why Are HBCUs still needed?







Answer 1a ...  All 107 HBCUs, like all colleges and universities, will always be needed by their local stakeholders, i.e., by their students, faculty, staff, administrators, alums, etc. Currently enrolled students need their HBCUs in order to complete their graduation requirements; faculty, staff, and administrators need their jobs; alums need their alma maters as references for jobs and for admission to other higher ed programs; and local communities need their HBCU contributions to the local economy.

HBCUs' Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2013

DLL Editor's Caveat -- The 2013 report is obsolete because it is based on obsolete 2013 data. Readers are therefore referred to the HBCUs -- Online and Blended Degree Programs -- 2014 report that is based on the DLL's 2014 survey. The 2013 report has therefore been removed from this blog until further notice. 

Directory of HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2013

CAUTION ==> The data in this table is obsolete. Some programs offered in 2013 are no longer offered in 201, and new programs are offered in 2014 that were not available in 2013

The new 2014 directory can be found ==> Click HERE.  
The 2013 table has therefore been removed from this blog until further notice.

Directory of HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs -- 2012

The following table lists the online and blended degree programs offered by the 105 HBCUs in June 2012. (Note: the 2014 Directory is now available)

HBCUs -- the Best Producers of Black Graduates in STEM

Using data from the IPEDS Data Center, this note demonstrates that the HBCU community continues to be a more effective producer of black STEM graduates at the undergraduate level than the nation's non-HBCUs taken as a whole. To be more specific, HBCUs are almost twice as productive as non-HBCUs with regards to black female graduates in STEM and more than five times as productive of black female STEM graduates as the for-profit institutions that have enrolled substantial numbers of black undergraduates in recent years

HBCU Websites & Profiles -- 2013 edition

Last updated: Tuesday 4/15/14 @ 7:20 am -- Helping you select the best HBCUs for your needs -- Profiles of each HBCU include undergraduate data for average price (Column 2), Pell grant allocations (Column 3), total enrollment (Column 4), black enrollment (Column 5), percent female (Column 6), retention rates (Column 7), 6-year graduation rates for bachelors and 3-year for associates (Column 8) ... plus links to each HBCU's Website, and links to each HBCU's U.S. Net Price Calculator Center page, comprehensive profile provided by U.S. College Navigator (with Google maps showing HBCU locations), and its online & blended degree programs ... Important data about the entire HBCU community are found in the FAQs About HBCUs ... (Note: Five of the 106 HBCUs are not accredited, so their data rows are mostly empty; three are special graduate level institutions, so their data rows are also empty)

Average Graduation Rates of Black Students at Public HBCUs

HBCUs are located in 20 states and 2 territories, mostly in the Southern United States. This note reports the weighted averages of the 6-year graduation rates of black students enrolled in 4-year HBCU programs by states and territories, where the weights are the black enrollments in the HBCUs in each state or territory. It finds that the average graduation rates for public HBCUs in some states and territories are substantially higher than the average graduation rates in other states and territories. These substantial differences suggest the possibility that changes in the public policies of the lagging states and territories might raise the graduation rates of the black students enrolled in the public HBCUs in those states and territories. (Note: Source of  black enrollments and graduation rates for the HBCUs = IPEDS Data Center)

Graduation Rates of Black Students at HBCUs -- Public & Private by States

The 6-year graduation rates for accredited HBCUs offering bachelors degree programs appear in the following table. The data was obtained from the Website of the IPEDS Data Center

HBCU Enrollments

Enrollments in HBCUs during the Fall 2011 semester are shown in the following table. HBCUs are listed by states, then by public vs. private, then by name. The table shows total enrollments (2), black enrollments (3), percent of total enrollments that are black  (4), black male enrollments (5), black female enrollments (6), and percent of black enrollments that are female (7). Source = IPEDS Data Center. Note: IPEDS only provides data for 100 of the 106 HBCUs because some HBCUS are not accredited.

Tools for FInding the Best College or University ... For You!!!

Sorry, this page has been moved to the DLL's Website:
 http://www.dll.org/p/best-colleges.html

American Baptist College = HBCU 106

This morning's (4/25/13) online edition of Diverse Issues carries an article by Ronald Roach, one of the most reliable reporter/editors covering issues related to HBCUs, that asserted that the U.S. Department of Education designated American Baptist College (ABC) in Nashville, TN, as HBCU number 106 last month (March 20, 2013). When I read the first few paragraphs, I was skeptical.

Why North Carolina's Five Public HBCUs Are Still Needed -- Part 1

A Very Bad Idea Whose Time Will, Hopefully, Never Come

In a recent article (Consolidate UNC Campuses But Give Savings to HBCUs, Newsobserver.com, 3/26/13), Mr. Rick Martinez lamented what he regarded as the unacceptably low graduation rates of North Carolina's five HBCUs -- Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A&T University, North Carolina Central University, and Winston-Salem State University. He proposed to raise their graduation rates by merging them into a smaller number of institutions and passing the savings that he anticipated from the lower costs of operating the more efficient consolidations to the merged HBCUs.

MOOCs as eBooks

My belief that opportunities for greatest personal growth tend to lie along the lines of one's greatest weaknesses led me to decide about 15 or 20 years ago that I had to greatly increase my minimal knowledge of modern biochemistry. 

Black Students Online

Columbia Teachers College recently issued a report that was designed to increase our understanding of the effectiveness of online programs, "Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas" (CCRC Working Paper No. 54, February 2013).

Disruptive Innovations

Disruptive Innovations in a Turbulent Academic Environment

Who's Doing What???

Last updated: Thursday 12/12/13 ... Work in Progress 

The following table provides a compact framework for tracking the innovations in higher education that have received the most coverage/buzz in the academic and national media during the last few years.

The 10K-BA ... A Good Idea Whose Time Has Come

 Updated on Saturday 2/16/13

Here's a quote that inspired me when I was a grad student in urban planning many, many decades ago. I beg the reader's indulgence in advance for the now politically incorrect male chauvinism of its phrasing:

Emerging Black Academic Elites ... (modified ... 4/4/13)

In previous notes on this blog, I have cautioned HBCUs against framing their continuing relevance to the nation's well-being in terms of their historically disproportionate contributions to the production of black graduates. For example, nowadays less than 10 percent of the nation's black American undergraduate students attend HBCUs; more than 90 percent attend non-HBCUs.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Dream speech & Birmingham letter

Fortunately for the rest of us, Dr. King was not just a man of great wisdom, but a man whose mastery of the written and spoken word enabled him to share his wisdom in a manner that made his sharing one of the unforgettable experiences of our lives. So on this day that we celebrate his birth, perhaps the best tribute we can render is to listen to some of what he said and read some of what he wrote, yet again:

Confessions of a MOOC Dropout

A.  Mea Culpa
I am a MOOC dropout. There. I've said it. Now the whole world knows that I have become one of the millions of MOOC dropouts, the 80 to 90 percent of MOOC enrollees who don't finish their courses. No doubt the dreaded High Demons of MOOC will burn a scarlet "D" in the middle of my forehead while I'm asleep tonight ... :-(