The Next Open Decade and Higher Education:
Toward Equity of Access for Unemployed Workers
Proposal submitted for:
Universities as Economic Drivers: Measuring and Building Success
The First Annual Critical Issues in Higher Education Conference
Sponsored by the State University of New York
Edward Warzala, Tina Wagle, Alan Davis, SUNY Empire State College
May 31, 2011
The proposal responds to the following conference themes and objectives:
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To assess, based on the best available evidence, ideas, and practices from
across the U.S. and around the world, how universities and colleges can exert
greater impact on economic growth
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To cultivate greater understanding among elected officials, business
representatives, policymakers and other concerned parties about the central
roles universities and colleges play in national, state, and local economies
Why This, Why Now?
American public higher education was established to provide access to individuals who
for one reason or another could not attend private, elite colleges and universities. The
State University of New York (SUNY) was founded in 1948 primarily to serve this end.
Despite this fundamental commitment, displaced workers and adult learners are not
adequately served by traditional, public institutions. The majority of public colleges and
universities still adhere to the traditional term based calendar of scheduling and
traditional classroom teaching, which serves traditional age (18-24) residential students,
but does not benefit adults who must work, support families, and are often place bound.
With official national unemployment rates hovering around 10%, and with pockets of
unemployment reaching 25%, the need for flexible, open and online educational
alternatives is called for. Open learning reduces barriers and only public higher
education is equipped to provide affordable access that adults and displaced workers
need to retrain and reenter the workforce.
The Open, Public Model of Higher Education
This research proposes an alternative, open, public model of higher education that is
designed to serve adults and displaced workers. The model illuminates how public
higher education can serve directly as a driver for economic development and recovery.
A global economy in transition is forcing the need for innovation in higher education.
The model proposed in the research draws on evidence derived from American,
European and world models of open universities and on the emerging theories of open
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learning, open resources, and open knowledge. It is argued that public institutions have
an obligation to expand access and that it is through open learning that this obligation
can be met. The open, public model consists of the following components that are
elaborated fully throughout the research project:
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Learning Technologies and the Ubiquity of the Web
Open Resources, Open Learning, Open Knowledge, Open Everything
Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition
Assessment and Academic Quality Control
Workforce Demand and Skill Sets for the 21st Century
Learning Technologies and the Ubiquity of the Web
The research assesses the measures of access that the web can provide and examines
the growing demand for online distance learning. The potential for development and
application of emerging personal learning and information technologies is evaluated.
The evidence suggests that adults and displaced workers demand flexibility and
personalized treatment from institutions of higher learning and that the open, public
education can efficiently answer these demands.
“Building on SUNY’s current open and online initiatives, Open SUNY has
the potential to be America’s most extensive distance learning
environment. It will provide students with affordable, innovative, and
flexible education in a full range of instructional formats, both online and
on site. Open SUNY will network students with faculty and peers from
across the state and throughout the world through social and emerging
technologies and link them to the best in open educational resources.” i
The next open decade will certainly witness widespread application and development of
affordable learning technologies and easy access to an abundance of learning content
and information.
Open Resources, Open Learning, Open Knowledge, Open Everything
A significant body of scholarly literature forecasts the potential of emerging digital
technologies to open up access for students and faculty to high-quality and affordable
resources, software, courses and programs.ii SUNY and most public universities have
the unprecedented potential to coordinate and leverage size and scope to take
advantage of digital open learning initiatives. This can be accomplished through critical
networking and strategic planning, the result of which will offer bold ideas within
unprecedented plans. Open public higher education will embrace the open learning
resource movement and the emerging technologies that support it.
Open educational resources (OERs) are becoming more sophisticated and growing in
number and ease of access. Through system-wide licensing agreements, OERs have
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the potential to reduce costs for institutions and individuals as well as expand access for
networked learners.
Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition
Lifelong learning and work experiences are common sources of college level learning
for many adults. Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) is the process by
which experiential, prior learning is assessed for credit worthiness. Open learning
environments are not limited to online digital sources. In a sense, prior work-related or
experiential learning can be considered the ultimate open source and the recognition of
informal learning can help displaced workers in their efforts to return to the workforce.iii
Displaced workers have a special interest in having their learning accredited, as PLAR
reduces time and cost of degree completion.
“The data from 62,475 students at the 48 postsecondary institutions in our
study show that PLA students had better academic outcomes, particularly
in terms of graduation rates and persistence, than other adult students.
Many PLA students also shortened the time required to earn a degree,
depending on the number of PLA credits earned.” iv
Public higher education will need to keep pace in the realm of PLAR with forprofit institutions, who are aggressively marketing their approaches to learning
accreditation. Public universities can assure high standards of PLAR, and in so
doing, lend legitimacy and recognition to the learning of adults and displaced
workers.
Assessment and Academic Quality Control
A model of open learning will need to demonstrate learning outcomes equal or
superior to learning outcomes in equivalent programs of study at traditional
universities. Strict measures of outcomes are essential for academic quality
control.
More difficult to measure is the potential impact of open learning on the
development of digital skill sets that are increasingly valuable in the information
based economy that is emerging. In the pursuit of educational credentials, the
open learner necessarily employs the skills to continue learning in a content-rich
environment.
“An integrated approach to open learning leverages technology to create
access to educational resources (with open licenses) to educate for
openness and effect a more generous and engaged, inventively
competitive, knowledgeable and just world.” v
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Open universities and open programs of study may actually advantage learners
in the development of information age skills and competencies that are
marketable in the information economy.
Workforce Demand and Skill Sets for the 21st Century
In light of the swelling ranks of the under and unemployed, a public, open model of
higher education is necessary and timely for the state and nation to remain competitive
in a time of global economic transformation. Economic dislocation and the shift to an
information economy have increased demand for alternative public higher education,
and so far, public education has not fared well in the competition with for-profit
institutions.
The growing numbers of for-profit institutions have targeted displaced workers and have
garnered for themselves the most rapidly expanding sector of the higher education
marketplace. The for-profits have siphoned off state and federal financial aid, in some
cases, more for the benefit of stockholders than for the learners they serve. The
mercurial growth of for-profits, with the largest, University of Phoenix, approaching
500,000 students, is evidence of the socio-economic demand for online distance
learning, but still missing from the equation is the “openness” that public higher
education can offer.
The for-profits have focused their attention on professional degrees and practical, joboriented programs of study that appeal to displaced workers. Despite high tuition rates
(approaching four times the rates charged by SUNY), they have effectively marketed
online distance learning and have demonstrated its appeal to growing numbers of adult
learners. Public higher education may criticize the for-profits, but it should also
recognize the economic shifts that have contributed to their success. “This new
generation will be entering upon a life shaped by technology, and a new workforce
disrupted by that technology and its networking capacity, together requiring a human
capacity for work unlike any generation in history.” vi The pace and magnitude of
economic change warrants a rethinking of public higher education’s role, and this
research explores a model of public higher education that responds to new economic
forces at work in the global economy.
Ten New Work Skillsvii
1. Sense-making: the ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of
what is being expressed
2. Social intelligence: the ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to
sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions
3. Novel and adaptive thinking: the proficiency at thinking and coming up with
solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based
4. Cross-cultural competency: the ability to operate in different cultural settings
5. Computational thinking: the ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract
concepts and to understand data-based reasoning
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6. New media literacy: the ability to critically assess and develop content that uses
new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication
7. Transdisciplinarity: literacy in and the ability to understand concepts across
multiple disciplines
8. Design mindset: the ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes
for desired outcomes
9. Cognitive load management: the ability to discriminate and filter information for
importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a
variety of tools and techniques
10. Virtual collaboration: the ability to work productively, drive engagement, and
demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team
Conclusion
This research argues that adults and displaced workers demand and benefit from
models of open education. The “Open SUNY” pledge in The Power of SUNY crystallizes
the opportunity to break the iron triangle of access, quality and cost through innovation
in our teaching and learning models and the smart use of emerging technologies. There
is no longer an excuse for not dealing with the startling fact that higher education is
doing a better and better job for those already positioned to succeed, but far less well
for those facing closed doors to their futures. SUNY and public higher education now
possesses the radical power to open these doors and remove the locks on
socioeconomic opportunity by focusing on the needs of learners as individuals who at
last can be connected to all the richness that public higher education has to offer.
i
The Power of SUNY, cited in Talk about Big and Hairy: What Open SUNY Could Mean, Warzala, Edward, and Davis,
Alan. (2011). Submitted for publication to SUNY UFS Bulletin.
ii
EDUCAUSEreview. (2010).
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/ERVolume442009/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume45/209245
iii
Warzala, Edward and Wagle, Tina, The Ultimate Open Source: Prior Learning and Prior Learning Assessment.
(2011). in progress.
iv
CAEL. (2011). Underserved Students Who Earn Credit Through Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) Have Higher
Degree Completion Rates and Shorter Time-to-Degree. Retrieved May 4, 2001 from
http://www.cael.org/pdf/PLA_Fueling-the-Race.pdf
v
Riley, Dawn, Open Learning in Open Education. (2011). p. 15, internal research document.
vi
Ibid, p. 19
vii
University of Phoenix research study. Future Work Skills: 2020. (2011) (http://www.phoenix.edu/researchinstitute/publications/2011/04/future-work-skills-2020.htm). Cited in Riley, Dawn, Open Learning in Open Education. (2011).
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