Invisible is the new black

Last update: Tuesday 3/27/18

This morning's online edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education contained an article titled, "They Wanted Desegregation. They Settled for Money, and It’s About to Run Out." I suggest that this excellent article is a "must-read" for anyone concerned about the condition of Black students in U.S. higher education. I mean the 300,000 Black students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) ... AND ... the invisible 2.7 million Black students who attend non-HBCUs.

Search All HBCU Websites Simultaneously

The search function has been moved to ==> HERE

The DLL apologizes for this inconvenience.

2014 ... Also a Good Year for HBCUs and Virtual HBCUs to Think About Competency-Based Education

Last updated: Thursday 1/2/14 @ 2:31pm

Competency-based education (a/k/a "competency-based learning") is a truly disruptive innovation that hasn't received much discussion at my HBCU, nor have I seen signs of it gaining much attention at the other 105 HBCUs judging by what's on their Websites, nor within the Twitterverse of the HBCU media. I posted a note about it on this blog at the beginning of 2013.

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. 

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). 

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.

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.

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???"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Response to an Unpublished Comment

Yesterday a reader submitted a provocative comment on the "Best of Blogs" page. The following note is an edited version of an email that I sent to the reader in response. I've omitted any references to the names and statistics mentioned in the reader's comment that could identify specific persons associated with a specific HBCU for reasons noted in my opening paragraphs. As it happens, Gmail returned my response as "undeliverable" ... Given that I copied and pasted the reader's email address into my response, the reader must have mistyped his or her email address when submitting the comment ... or deliberately entered a false address in order to preserve his or her anonymity from me. No matter. The comment merited a serious response.