Call for speakers

UBTech 2013 will examine the shifting—and disappearing—boundaries that have previously defined how, when and where higher education delivers on its mission. Now new challenges and opportunities face every department on every campus. Join the conversation. Seeking presentations in:

•            Campus IT
•            Finance
•            Enrollment/Retention
•            Facilities/Planning
•            Teaching/Learning

Share your experience and expertise with peers from across the country.            

To submit a proposal, visit ubtechconference.com/2013.

Learn a new language through ETSU Rosetta Stone language instruction

In 2010, East Tennessee State University’s Honors College and Office of Professional Development began a program that offered online language-learning courses available in 25 languages through Rosetta Stone, a leading provider of technology-based, language-learning solutions.

A 2011 user satisfaction survey gave Rosetta Stone® Classroom high marks for being accessible, convenient and user-friendly. Among the most popular of the 25 languages available are Italian, English, Japanese, Latin, French, Spanish and Greek.

The non-credit professional development instruction is available to the community and does not require formal admission to ETSU. For a registration fee of $60, users receive two months of independent study in one language, available at all proficiency levels.

For more information, contact Angela McFall of the ETSU Office of Professional Development at (800) 222-3878, or register online at https://etsuaw.etsu.edu/.

ETSU’s Alliance for Continued Learning to offer fall classes

East Tennessee State University’s Alliance for Continued Learning (ACL) will offer a wide range of classes and activities during the fall session beginning Tuesday, Sept. 25, and ending Wednesday, Oct. 31. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. every Tuesday and Wednesday.

To give new members an opportunity to become acquainted with the group, the ACL will welcome all participants at a continental breakfast on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 9:30 a.m., at Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church, 610 E. Watauga Ave., Johnson City, followed by a performance of the ETSU Bluegrass Band. Most courses will be held at the church.

The fall session provides a wide variety of opportunities to learn something new. More music and the history of bluegrass, old-time and country music will be provided by ETSU’s Dr. Lee Bidgood. Peter Paulin of the Jonesborough Fine Arts Gallery will present the second part of his art history series on painting from the Renaissance to the modern era. Rich Hayward, a retired detective from the Miami-Dade Police Department, will give a travelogue of his photography tour of Africa.

Retired minister Dr. John Martin will discuss religion in the period from 800-200 B.C., while ETSU’s Dr. R. Andrew Dunn will examine the future of journalism. For the ecologically-minded student, Konnie Lewis of the Tennessee Valley Authority will offer “The Tennessee River System: Navigation, Flood Control, Electricity, Water Supply, Recreation, Wildlife Habitat and More,” while activist Jennie Young will explain mountain top removal.

ETSU’s Dr. Robert Pack will offer “Educating Students for Roles in Local, National and International Public Health Services,” while Dr. Zachary Walls of the ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy will present “Disease Mongering,” the practice of advertising diseases to sell treatments.

Field trips are planned to the ETSU and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site, as well as a visit to the ETSU Valleybrook facility, with remarks from ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland and a buffet lunch.

Sponsored by the ETSU Office of Professional Development, the ACL is “member-powered, member-driven and member-governed.” Participants decide the study groups, forums, classes and other activities to be held, identify leaders for the sessions, and elect officers.

No educational pre-requisites, examinations, or grades are involved in the courses. Although a $40 fee allows participants to attend any or all sessions, some trips may require additional fees.

For more information or a schedule of classes or special arrangements for those with disabilities, call the ETSU Office of Professional Development at (423) 439-8084.

ETSU Professional Development encourages early registration for clinical medical assistant training

East Tennessee State University’s Office of Professional Development, in partnership with Boston Reed College, is offering a Clinical Medical Assistant Training Program. Early registration for the popular course is encouraged. The course will meet at ETSU at Kingsport from Sept. 4-Dec. 13. The class consists of 134 hours of instruction, including 42 hours of online training and a clinical externship of 160 hours. The program fee of $2,520 (which is subject to change) includes textbooks, program materials, externship placement and a certificate of completion. Clinical medical assistants can pursue employment as health care professionals in a physician’s office or a clinical setting by helping with procedures, caring for patients, performing simple laboratory tests and administering medications. Also available is a free online information session, “Discover a Career in Health Care,” offering information about careers in health care, training programs, financing options, prerequisites and externships. For further information, contact Boston Reed College at (800) 201-1141 or www.BostonReedCollege.com or the ETSU Office of Professional Development at (800) 222-3878 or www.etsu.edu/professionaldevelopment.

The next big thing

Dean Dad reflects on the how the next sure thing in higher education rarely lasts.  Remember telecourses?  Satellite conferencing?  From Inside Higher Ed.

The Last Future

I’m just old enough to remember when evening classes were the hotbed of enrollment growth. 

Back in the late 90’s, when the economy was booming, many employers had programs that paid for employees to take classes at night.  I made a habit of teaching at least one night class per semester, even after moving into administration, just because the night students were so good.  They were mostly older, and for whatever academic rawness some brought with them, they had drive.  They were on a mission, and as any teacher can tell you, that’s half the battle. 

Now, evening enrollments are struggling.  Employer reimbursements are much scarcer than they once were.  (That’s why Amazon’s new program was newsworthy.)  Adult student enrollments are being cannibalized by online programs. 

Oddly, while evening programs are struggling, day programs aren’t.  The most traditional offerings are as solid as they’ve ever been.  From mid-morning to early afternoon, the place is packed.  (Summer is an exception.)  The traditional-aged students like to take classes in the morning and early afternoon so they can go to their jobs in the late afternoon and evening.  And adult students who work during the day are often happier to go online than they would be to schlep to campus after work. 

I’ve seen the shift on the student support side, too.  As recently as a few years ago, the active discussion was about evening coverage in the various offices.  Now, it’s much more about developing online chat capability, and making sure that we have enough tech-savvy people in each area at the right times.  Chat software doesn’t help if there’s nobody at the keyboard. 

We still have evening programs, of course, but we’re in that awkward transitional phase when the old method is declining but still important, and the new one still isn’t universally accepted.  So we run both, with all of the support costs that entails.   

Even weekend classes have been slow to take off.  It wasn’t all that long ago that evenings and weekends represented the new frontiers.  Now they seem like landlines in a cellular age; still useful for limited purposes, but not where you’d put new resources.  For a while, weekends looked like the Next Big Thing, but they never quite made it.  Online courses have supplanted them.

ACHE South awards

The following awards were given this morning at the Association for Continuing Higher Education South awards lunch:

• Distinguished Program Award-Non-credit: The Auburn University Academy of Lifelong Learners. Program Coordinator--Mary Quinn Burkhart


• Outstanding Faculty Award: Russel Jacques, Florida Institute of Technology


• Joseph P. Goddard Scholarship: Victoria Culbreth, Northern Kentucky University. Victoria is working on a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University.


• Wayne Whelan Research Grant: Elizabeth Laves, Western Kentucky University. Elizabeth will "investigate online distance education courses offered as concentrated study in three or five week formats to determine if and how teaching presence as proposed in the Community of Inquiry Model impacts student perception of learning from both the students' perspective and the faculty perspective."


• Mini-Grant Award: C. Keith Young, Northeast State Community College at Elizabethton. Keith will "identify models for public-private partnerships between community colleges and the public sector."

You can link to the Awards Program at www.ache7.org/sp07conference/awards.pdf

Continuing education and the recession

Although it’s unclear whether we are actually in a recession, the next academic year looks troubling. It’s conventional wisdom that higher education and continuing education do well in poor economic times because (1) people who cannot find jobs return to school to increase skills and (2) people afraid of losing jobs return to update and learn new skills. High gas prices may increase enrollments in continuing education programs, especially online and outreach programs where students do not have to drive to campus. I expect the University of Phoenix to start touting high gasoline prices as another reason to enroll at their institution.

Education is often seen as a relatively recession proof area (although salaries are often tied to the economy). Teacher education programs may thrive, and Rachel Zupek at Careerbuilder.com lists education as its top recession-proof job:

With more teachers retiring and an increasing number of students enrolling
in grades K-12, the demand for skilled teachers is rising. The National Center for Education Statistics predicts that in the next eight years, 2.8 million teachers must join the existing 3.2 million teachers because of retirements, higher enrollment and teacher turnover. http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/03/24/cb.recession.proof/index.html

And Randall Hansen, at QuintCareers.Com, gives this advice in Seven Strategies to Recession-Proof Your Career: Build Your Future Regardless of Health of the Economy:

Focus on Professional Development Opportunities. A hallmark of successful people is that they never stop learning more about their profession/industry/career. Dispensable employees are those who still insist on doing the job as it has always traditionally been done while indispensable employees are on the cutting-edge of their profession. Find conferences that offer seminars in which you can learn new ways to perform your job -- or do it better. Consider additional training, certifications, and degrees. Continuing education is required in certain fields (healthcare, education), but it’s truly vital to your professional growth and success as well -- and not just for trying to save this job, but for yourself. http://www.quintcareers.com/recession-proof_career_strategies.html

Young continuing education professionals may well worry about positioning themselves to weather poor economic times. Our conferences and meetings must focus on giving them the skills to do so.