Future of Higher Education

A Mediaplanet Guide to Industry-Changing Solutions for Higher Ed Leaders

Future of Higher Education

Sue Ellspermann The president of Indiana’s Ivy Tech shares how her school has helped students succeed throughout the pandemic

What ACE is doing to create global collaborations for institutions of higher education Read online about Admissions Connect, Salesforce’s new tool to aid in enrollment and admissions

MARCH 2021 | EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

An Independent Supplement by Mediaplanet to USA Today

Making High-Quality Online Education Radically Student-Centered Colleges and universities quickly transitioned to online and hybrid education during the COVID-19 pandemic, but steps must be taken to ensure access for all students.

I

f there had been a question about it before, the global COVID-19 pandemic provided the answer: Information technology is at the center of higher education.

Of course, for decades, technology has supported institutional operations. It’s helped with information sharing, marketing, data analysis, security, and myriad other functions. But during the pandemic, the advancement of technology’s role in higher education reached warp speed, when students and faculty were forced to rely on technology to continue their educational pursuits.

Students have been using technology for educational purposes for years. In 2011, Babson Survey and Quahog research groups reported that 31 percent of all higher education students were taking at least one course online. By @MEDIAPLANETUSA

2018, a little over one-third (34.7 percent) of all college students were taking at least one course online.

Warp speed And then COVID-19 hit. In the midst of the spring 2020 semester, large numbers of college students were sent home, and after a short break, they were welcomed back via technology. In a NACUBO survey of 105 of our member institutions, 94 percent reported transitioning to online education in two weeks or less.

For many institutions, online education continued through the summer, and in the fall, hybrid instruction largely took its place. This spring, many institutions are still offering hybrid education as they work to retain and accommodate the health and safety needs of their students.

There’s well-earned pride in how quickly faculty and @EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS

Susan Whealler Johnston President and CEO, National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) students transitioned from in-person to online instruction. Following on that success, there is speculation that even after the pandemic resides, online instruction will remain as an important part of a menu of offerings for most institutions. It can help open up markets and it can address the new ways of learning many college-aged students find attractive. But if higher education is to rely on technology to deliver education in a significant way, there is important work to be done.

Increasing access Access to higher education has received a lot of attention in recent years, but typically this attention has focused on affordability and financial support for students. With online and hybrid learning, access has a different meaning. Do students have access to the equipment they need — computers, printers, phones? Do they have convenient access to the internet?

Traditionally underserved students may be the same students who have challenges with access to a digital classroom. Students from low-income backgrounds may thrive on campus — with in-person classes, easy availability of professors, and tutoring — but struggle mightily when they move online for a variety of reasons, chief among them being access to equipment and broadband. How will institutions address equity from a dis-

tance? What can institutions do to make the equipment available? What can local, state, and the federal government do to ensure all students have access to broadband?

NACUBO believes colleges and universities need to be radically student-centered. In a new world in which online and hybrid education are the norm, we cannot reach this state without attention to the practical issues of how instructors deliver education and how students have access to it.

While this is an institutional challenge in part, it cannot be addressed as thoroughly as necessary without governmental assistance.

Only when all college students have access to high-quality online and hybrid education in practical, affordable ways, can we truly say that we’ve reached the goal of being radically student-centered. We don’t have time to waste. n

INQUIRIES: US.EDITORIAL@MEDIAPLANET.COM AND US.ADVERTISE@MEDIAPLANET.COM

PLEASE RECYCLE

Publisher Eliana Marzullo Business Developer Joelle Hernandez, Mac Harris Managing Director Luciana Olson Lead Designer Tiffany Pryor Designer Tiffany Jackson Lead Editor Mina Fanous Copy Editor Dustin Brennan Partnership and Distribution Manager Jordan Hernandez Director of Sales Stephanie King Director of Product Faye Godfrey Cover Photo Provided by Ivy Tech Community College All photos are credited to Getty Images unless otherwise specified. This section was created by Mediaplanet and did not involve USA Today.

2

READ MORE AT EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

SPONSORED

D

emand for mental health services at colleges and universities has been rising for years — and that was before a global pandemic led to an increase in students reporting a need for mental health support.

“The student experience connects to every aspect of campus life, both in and out of the classroom,” said John Fry, president of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Lessons learned While the pandemic has disrupted the student experience in unprecedented ways, there are reasons to be optimistic.

According to a resident survey of American Campus Communities (ACC), the nation’s largest student housing provider, most students of the 42,000 surveyed said COVID-19 wasn’t getting in the way of their academic success.

Universities have had to monitor in new and different ways to determine if and when a student needs support. For example, Drexel University has been aggressive about reaching out to students if their grades drop. “Maybe it was just an email,” said Lisa Daughen, a mother of two Drexel students and Chairperson of the Drexel Family Association. “But letting them know there are academic support services available has been great.”

While demand for mental health services has increased, many are still unaware of their university’s offerings — just 41 percent of students surveyed

by ACC were aware of the counseling services offered by their own university.

How Universities Are Improving the Overall Student Experience

Now more than ever, universities are focusing on improving their approach to the student experience, including services for academic and mental health.

“The need for support has certainly been compounded with COVID-19,” said Beth Drewett, a mother of four, with two still in college at two different Texas universities.

“It has been validating to see my sons’ universities doing all they can to reassure them they will persevere.”

The loss of the social aspect of the university experience is what students miss the most,

and is one reason 85 percent of students responding to ACC’s College Student Fall 2020 Mental Health Survey reported they had higher levels of stress than the year before.

“The pressure to be academically successful along with the feeling of being short-changed for lack of social activities or even communal dining like my older sons experienced is very real,” added Drewett.

Evolving for success To help students continue to achieve academic and personal success as the country begins to come out of the pandemic, universities will need to take these lessons and apply them across a broad range of initiatives.

“Colleges and universities must be radically student-centered,” emphasized Susan Whealler Johnston, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer

of The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). “Whether they’re learning online or in person, it’s crucial to adapt to students’ needs and provide access to services including tutoring, advising, mentoring, and physical health and mental health counseling.”

To help raise awareness about the importance of mental wellness and where to access resources, American Campus Communities has partnered with nonprofit, Hi, How Are You Project, to foster a culture of open dialogue with its more than 200 resident communities nationwide.

In addition to more mental health support resources, onand off-campus facilities will need to cater to student needs in new ways, including reviewing dietary offerings in dining halls and fitness options like workout spaces in residence halls.

President Fry says, “Residence halls and student apartments should be renovated to combine the traditional experiences of campus life with the needs of today, such as individual study spaces — for Zoom meetings or private phone calls.

We must all work to combine the in-person and online experience, ensuring that on-campus resources allow for engagement in all forms.”. n Jeff Somers

To learn more about American Campus Communities’ initiatives, visit https://www. americancampus.com.

MEDIAPLANET

3

SPONSORED

Using Learning Design to Create Equity in Education The future of education is learnerfocused, community-based, and experientially designed.

Higher education is in crisis. Only 60 percent of college students complete a degree within six years overall — and the numbers are much worse for non-white and lower-income students.

“We can’t expect diversity, equity, and inclusion to happen through an office,” says Brett Christie, Ph.D., director of learning design at O’Donnell Learn, a leading learning design firm. “Inclusivity has to happen in the classroom.”

“A little saying that I have is ‘an educator’s job is to teach people, not information,’” says Gerard L. Hanley, Ph.D., director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility (CUDA) and professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Long Beach. “It’s the student who is learning.”

Purposeful learning design Re-imagining education requires a purposeful approach. One example of this new thinking is the Purposeful Learning DesignTM framework developed by O’Donnell Learn, a leading learning design firm. The framework focuses on authentic learning, learner empathy, and equity and inclusion. It incorporates concepts of experiential learning, where learning is aligned with real-world experiences and students and faculty form “communities of learning” to support each other in a supportive social setting.

Equity is the goal The goal is better equity in education. “The key to equity in education is making things more learner-centric,” Christie says. “A more welcoming course introduction and syllabus, an inclusivity statement, [and] a learner connectedness survey helps them to adapt and think through a more inclusive mindset.”

Jeff Somers

To learn more about learning design, visit www.odlearn.com

4

Why HBCUs Are Models of Equity and Innovation in Higher Education Studies show that higher education at large can learn a lot from the methods used by the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

In the wake of both the sustained demonstrations of civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd and a global pandemic, higher education has seen renewed commitments and new prioritizations to racial equity. Throughout 2020, the public saw myriad colleges and companies release statements taking a stance against racism, some vowing to address issues of systemic racism and underrepresentation on their campuses.

This is a particularly daunting task for higher education institutions, as lost funding related to campus closings leaves institutions with fewer resources to address challenges. Remarkably, at the intersection of demands to address inequity and precarious financial situations, the nation’s HBCUs, which have long suffered from severe underfunding, have emerged as models for the future.

Success during the pandemic Numerous HBCUs have been touted for their success in safely

READ MORE AT EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

housing and educating students throughout the pandemic, with HBCUs maintaining lower COVID-19 infection rates during operation. Related to racial equity, HBCUs, largely founded in the South during the era of Jim Crow, are the only type of institutions in the nation with founding missions to increase racial equity by ensuring Black people have access to higher education. These missions are demonstrated in their success serving Black students, particularly first-generation and low-income students labeled “at-risk” by other institutions.

Where other school’s struggle to educate first-generation students, we see equal economic success from HBCU first-generation students and the larger population, and larger gains in social mobility.

In 2018, the American Council on Education’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy found that HBCU students achieve more upward mobility, in many cases almost double that of non-minority serving institutions. Even in the pandemic, we’ve seen HBCUs mobilize to support underserved students and communities, providing everything from emergency aid and gas cards, to com-

munity COVID-19 tests, and now vaccine distribution.

Taken together, equity-centered missions, success with social mobility, and innovation engendered by doing more with less, spotlights HBCUs as possibility models in this new normal for higher education. As organizations move to rapidly develop programs and partnerships with HBCUs, and institutions regroup to implement common HBCU practices to achieve their goals around equity, it’s important to consider that the approaches to working with institutions working on behalf of Black students and communities requires a culturally relevant approach.

Culturally relevant practice In UNCF’s recent research report “Culturally Relevant Practice: Implementation Among Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” UNCF highlights a successful HBCU and organizational partnership aimed at ensuring more HBCU students are “engaged to learn and ready to earn,” and the importance of a culturally relevant and purposeful approach to partnering. As the entire field pivots to an increased focus on underserved students, institutional success will require the incorporation of these practices.

Not only does historical context remain pertinent, but current issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including ravaged family finances, and mental and physical health concerns, disproportionately affect already underserved students. The higher education field has much to learn about racial equity, operating with insufficient support, and forced innovation from HBCUs, but success will require substantially different approaches. n LaToya Owens, Ph.D., Director, UNCF Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute

Guiding a College Through Digital Transformation We talked to Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman College, about the tools and practices that have helped her school go virtual, for the pandemic and beyond.

The rapid onset of the pandemic forced students and faculty members into a virtual learning environment with no warning.

By necessity, faculty members had to become experts at teaching online and students had to become adept at learning in a virtual environment.

The timing of this transition could not have been more auspicious. Spelman had begun the process of building an online educational program targeted toward adult learners.

The excitement of repurposing existing courses and developing new ones coincided with the college’s plan to establish online learning for working adults. Our plans for online gained momentum as faculty members engaged in the creative opportunity to develop courses, certificates, and stackable credentials for a brand new audience.

In the years ahead, successful higher education institutions will become much more agile and versatile as they customize educational offerings along a broad lifetime spectrum. From young adults coming of age who cherish a residential experience, to

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SPELMAN COLLEGE

This past year has challenged the traditional model of higher education in many ways. What excites you about the way higher education is evolving?

mature working adults who are managing a family, work, and school, higher education will be more adaptable to the needs of more expansive audiences.

How do you view the relationship between arts and sciences?

Art and science, practiced at their highest levels, have a great deal in common. My husband, George Campbell, Jr., Ph.D., was trained as a theoretical particle physicist and I

was trained as an art historian.

From our respective perspectives, art and science are efforts to make sense of the world.

Both are creative endeavors that require imagination, invention, and risk-taking.

What tools have been most helpful to Spelman in its digital transformation during the pandemic?

Spelman’s digital transformation began when the decision was made to migrate its pri-

mary administrative systems to the cloud. This move triggered a new approach to system implementation and instigated the transformation of our many essential processes and the way we store and access data.

The pandemic provided an opportunity to accelerate this digital transformation through the introduction of new tools and the updating of existing ones. Leveraging the cloud as a means for providing flexible, on-demand, and secure access to digital resources will

continue to be a critical component of our transformation going forward.

Consistent access to high-quality broadband is another important tool and an area in which some faculty, staff, and students struggle.

Spelman provides hotspots, laptops, and technical support as needed, but this situation clearly demonstrates that broadband access is not as ubiquitous as previously thought.

This is a barrier that needs to be addressed at the national level.

The Learning Management System (LMS) was, and will continue to be, a critical component of our digital transformation. It provides the interface where synchronous, remote teaching and learning happens.

Going forward, plans for a new LMS will enhance the college’s ability to realize its goal of making the Spelman academic experience available to digital learners anywhere in the world.

In addition to high-quality broadband access and the LMS, a messaging and collaboration platform provides cloud-based communication tools, such as email and chat. This platform also provides on-demand meeting, collaboration, and cloud storage, and allows the community to engage with one another for a variety of activities, including counseling, collaboration, and socializing. n

MEDIAPLANET

5

SPONSORED

How Higher Education Can Build and Maintain Student Loyalty The pandemic has been a disruptor for higher education.

While institutions of higher education have pivoted from traditional models to remote and hybrid learning, it has been a challenging situation.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, net tuition revenue in 2021 is expected to decline 3.3 percent at private colleges and 0.9 percent at public colleges, in part due to declining enrollment projections even before the pandemic’s impact.

The remote and hybrid learning experience is causing many students and alumni to critically assess the investment they make.

“Now is the time for institutions to focus on the intersection of strategic planning for student and alumni initiatives, and how best to leverage technology to improve the experience and outcomes,” says Vincent Salvato, a Huron managing director.

Huron helps colleges and universities improve transparency in their constituents’ journeys and interactions, starting in recruiting and continuing through alumni donor status.

Customer relationship management Many institutions of higher education are beginning to focus on customer relationship management (CRM) as they evaluate how to increase loyalty. “Educators have had limited opportunity to interact with students face-toface, build those relationships, and get to know them,” says Alex Faklis, senior director at Huron.

“It’s now about how you translate the core aspects of that into a virtual and hybrid environment.”

Colleges and universities want to know a student’s interests, affiliations, and affinities, from the moment of interest in applying, through enrollment, graduation, and beyond.

Alumni outreach Establishing an enterprise CRM vision, strategy, and plan will help you more effectively engage with your constituents.

“It’s really about that coordinated constituent experience and collecting data so that higher ed leaders can learn about a population that’s ripe to continue to engage with their institutions,” says Faklis.

Kristen Castillo

To see how your university or college can build and maintain student loyalty, connect with Huron at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/industry/education

6

READ MORE AT EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

Creating a Symbiotic Relationship Between Technology and Human Capital

The emergence and global spread of COVID19 has resulted in broad global societal changes, including how and where education is delivered.

The pandemic has catalyzed advancements in existing technologies, and is fundamentally challenging how we use these tools to build deeper relationships with one another and meaningfully connect with the rest of the world.

It has never been more necessary for our global higher education community to develop longterm strategies, invest more resources into collaborations and partnerships, and create innovative delivery models to advance learner success, workforce development, and internationalization goals.

Higher education must think beyond the boundaries of institution, geography, and time to maximize learning outcomes and growth opportunities to reach all of our students, now and in the future.

It is imperative that education technologies adapt to meet the

changing needs of human capital, and not the other way around.

Human capital encompasses the talent, values, and culture, embodied in the academic, administrative, and financial systems that individuals perform on campuses, while education technologies include digital applications, artificial intelligence, and online systems and platforms.

The increasing advancement of education technologies is meaningless unless they are used in a way that nourishes human ingenuity and relationships.

Investing in collaboration Investing more resources in collaborative technology will provide greater flexibility to higher education institutions, as they are impervious to shifting world situations. Higher education leaders who can foster a culture of support, trust, open communication, and collaboration in a digital space will be able to integrate these new technologies in ways that optimize campus efforts to yield better learner outcomes, manageable learning pathways, stronger partnerships, and affordable prices.

The American Council on Education is working with U.S. and international universities and colleges, supporting senior leadership, administrators, and faculty through a structured planning process for institutional transformation. This process is modeled on examples of campuses that have been successful in undergoing a step change in how technology and human capital work together to advance critical institutional priorities for long-term success.

There is a mutual symbiotic relationship happening between higher education and digital technological innovation. The pandemic has simply exacerbated this fact. Although technologies have disrupted and changed the current approach to many operational processes, it more importantly presents a new opportunity to improve how colleges and universities teach, learn, work, and interact. n Veronica Onorevole, Senior Program Specialist, American Council on Education

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Fundraising Higher education has witnessed countless changes throughout the years. Many seemed monumental and sure to change the way the world worked. However, not until 2020 did we see disruption at scale from within our own walls.

Within advancement, we’ve seen the need for gifts grow, colleagues furloughed and laid off, and a business model that’s stood the test of time face stark uncertainties. Amid all of this, forward-thinking advancement leaders have looked to technology to fundamentally change the way the practice works in higher education, and an astonishing 82 percent believe artificial intelligence (AI) will help solve the challenges created by COVID-19. So why AI? Why now?

Fundraising today must reassess its true north. Jerold Panas set the bar and plotted the course that defined the gold standard in fundraising for the past few decades. Even if we followed these tried-and-true methods to a tee, the results of our philanthropic efforts would meet a sharp decline because we are now living in a new economy.

It is apparent that we may have the resiliency (and enough duct tape) to power on through our current fiscal years. But that’s not true for the next fiscal year, and all sequential fiscal years are severely

impacted by 2020. Many of our recent successes come on the shoulders of relationship development that began before the chaos of 2020. Advancement needs a successful fundraising model sooner, rather than later, and those who find it will emerge as the next crop of top leaders in our profession.

Advancing AI In our work for the AI in Advancement Advisory Council’s (AAAC) 2020 State of AI in Advancement report, we found that 73 percent of nonprofit advancement shops faced budget restrictions and hiring freezes, forcing leadership to uncover new solutions to reach giving targets. As a result, we found that two-thirds of advancement professionals are looking to technology for a solution. But we cannot stop short and assume incorporating video conferencing as a tool to continue “face-to-face” donor meetings, albeit virtual, is the innovation we need.

What 2020 showed us is that advancement needs to rethink how we develop funds that drive our institutions’ missions, because addressing symptoms is equivalent to putting a bandaid on a larger problem. What we need is innovation.

This innovation can be found in the way many leading institutions are applying AI to fundraising. From transitioning staff to digital-first fundraisers, developing major

giving pipelines, and transforming our historic assumptions of efficiency, AI is actively empowering advancement professionals and leaders to step up to the challenges that have been accelerated over the past year.

Workforce efficiency Workforce efficiency is a term that has more weight today than it has in the past as advancement leadership considers how to “do more with less.” AI tools like Gravyty are empowering frontline fundraisers to do four times more personal outreach and inspire first-time donors at a scale previously unthinkable.

As AI technologies become the standard toolset that frontline fundraisers use to maximize their personal outreach with donors, we’re encouraged that they will help set new benchmarks for success within higher education fundraising.

Pipeline development In terms of developing the gift pipeline, 2020 created a lot of uncertainty for the future.

Many major donors stepped up to close the giving gap and send money to emergency funds.

Those gifts, while timely, also have leaders concerned about donor fatigue — will they be able to go to the same well in the current fiscal year?

There are two solutions to this problem: increase both the opportunities we open in

the pipeline and the quality contacts our organizations have with prospects. The strategies we activate to address these two metrics will define the rate at which we can grow pipelines in these uncertain times.

Eighty-two percent of advancement leaders believe AI can effectively prioritize and reach more prospects, which is why they believe the technology is a part of the solution, and one that goes hand-in-hand with workforce efficiency.

The digital gift officer Still, there remains the question of how. Philanthropy and fundraising are based on relationships. Before COVID, the assumption was that meaningful relationships required face-to-face visits. However, during COVID, fundraisers found traction with a digital-first approach, giving rise to a newer role in our field: the digital gift officer.

Before decentralized workforces became the standard, digital gift officers were likely among the few using apps like Zoom as standard staples of their donor outreach. Now organizations are working to define the metrics that effectively track the results of a digital gift officer’s engagement because the role allows large-scale personalized outreach without the hefty costs of in-person events and prospect visits. For example, a digital gift officer is expected to leverage

technologies like AI so they can manage larger donor portfolios, qualify more prospects, make more phone calls, and send more personalized emails.

Just as technology should be extended based on purpose and need, so should the roles within advancement. Forward-thinking organizations and those willing to adapt to today’s world will find that marrying technology and relationship-building at scale will build broader pipelines and inspire more giving. AI that empowers advancement professionals to focus more time, energy, and resources on building relationships is powerful because it addresses critical drivers of fundraising ROI. Successful fundraising in today’s landscape is possible.

AI is made up of amazing technologies that will certainly help us get there, but they are only effective when they are specifically created to solve the challenges we have in advancement. This is precisely the time to seek out AI partners who focus solely on advancement. Now is our time to reinvent fundraising with a digital-first approach that moves significant relationships forward at scale. n Adam Martel, Co-Founder & CEO, Gravyty, AAAC Member; and Reed Sheard, Vice President for College Advancement and CIO, Westmont College, AAAC Chair

MEDIAPLANET

7

The data is clear: The path to familysustaining wages runs through higher education. But the transition between K-12 and college is full of barriers.

What we often see happening is that once a young person graduates from high school, they’re on their own. Then it’s up to higher education organizations to pick up where K-12 left off. There needs to be collaboration to clear the pathway.

In 2014, our associations — the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and AASA, The School Superintendents Association — joined to bring together K-12 superintendents and community college leaders. The discussion centered on the importance of partnering to remove barriers, and promote college readiness and student success. Successful collaborators highlighted programs that benefit students and their families, as well as local employers.

Why community colleges At the K-12 level, there’s a lot of emphasis on kids graduating high school and going to college — college usually meaning a fouryear institution as opposed to the community college. By doing that, we have in essence deprived 60 percent of our students with opportunities to realize much more rewarding goals for themselves.

Community colleges are accessible to all students and are the on-ramp to a better life. But access is not enough.

By working collaboratively with K-12 partners, we can remove barriers to college attendance and completion.

We must be intentional about finding ways to ensure students have a clear pathway from high school to community college and beyond.

Walter G. Bumphus, President and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges (AACC); and Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director, AASA, The School Superintendents Association

8

Helping Community College Students Succeed During a Pandemic Dr. Sue Ellspermann, president of Ivy Tech, Indiana’s only full-fledged community college, shared how improving students’ access to course materials and technology increased success rates.

The goal of higher education is to give students the knowledge and skills they need to get and perform jobs. Because their tuition is more affordable than that of four-year universities, community colleges are a key resource for getting people from low-income backgrounds into the middle class.

“We know the vast majority of Americans are going to need a post-secondary credential to enter the middle class,” Ellspermann said.

“So as we build our systems, we need to build that kind of equity to make sure higher education is accessible and our students can succeed.”

The nation’s community colleges have seen a 10 percent drop in enrollment over the course of the COVID19 pandemic. To combat this, and meet the changing needs of students well into the future, Ellspermann and Ivy Tech have had to adapt.

“Our students needed flexibility,” Ellspermann said. “They needed technology, they needed access to the internet. Many of them depended on the resources that could be received at the community college.”

Increasing access Even before the pandemic, research found that more than a quarter of community college students don’t purchase the necessary materials for their classes. To counter this, Ivy

READ MORE AT EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

PHOTO:IVY TECH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Why Collaboration Is Necessary for More and Better Dual Enrollment Programs

Tech started offering students free subscriptions to Cengage Unlimited (the leading provider of Ivy Tech course materials), and almost immediately saw a 2 percent bump in student success rates.

“Our hope is to get to an inclusive tuition model going forward,” Ellspermann said, “because we believe community college students have to have everything they need for their first night, their first class.”

Because many of the people attending community college are low-income and working students, the goal is to make sure their educational investment is worthwhile.

“We want to make sure that when students come, they have a very high probability of success,” Ellspermann said. “That means having access to all course materials and technology.”

Learn anywhere One of the most successful programs Ivy Tech has implemented is called Learn Anywhere, which gives students the choice to attend classes in-person, watch an online stream of the class in real time, or watch a recording of the lecture at a later date.

“So if I am a single parent and my child is sick one evening, I might want to go in to class, but I can’t,” Ellspermann said. “So now I can do it virtually, or I can do it asynchronously. And the next week, when I’ve got my life back in order, I can go in person, if that’s what I want to do.”

Ivy Tech has applied the same flexibility to its advising and career coaching, letting students and advisers connect virtually, and even during evenings and weekends.

Meeting goals When students succeed, entire communities benefit. Indiana aims to have 60 percent of its workforce be college-educated by 2025, and Ellspermann believes Ivy Tech is a key part of that mission.

“I think we can be the best partner in the community,” she said.

“We can partner with employers to understand the programs that they need, and help build the pipeline of workers in those careers. We can partner with community organizations to provide the wraparound support these non-traditional learners need. And we can partner with our community and state leaders to ensure the ecosystem of higher education provides an equitable way for citizens to be students, and to be graduates.” n Dustin Brennan

5 Student Leaders Share the Issues That Matter Most to Them

Savannah Berryman Northwest-Shoals Community College (Ala.)

Jared Smith West Virginia University at Parkersburg (W.V.)

Yasaman Nassab Irvine Valley College (Cal.)

Samiha Syed College of DuPage (ILL.)

Kari Warne Yavapai College (Ariz.)

Some of the nation’s top community college students share the outstanding work they’ve been doing to improve their schools and communities.

ommunity colleges are filled with great students. Last year alone, more than 80,000 community college students completed an associate degree with grade point averages that were near perfect. Each year, a national panel of judges is given the almost impossible task of whittling down that group of 80,000 students to 20, as representatives of the prestigious All-USA Academic Team. So, what sets these students apart?

In the South, the members of the All-USA Academic Team would be referred to as “the crust on the biscuit.” They are the students who make the grades, while also committing themselves to activities that center around leadership, volunteerism, and scholarly research — all with the goal of being difference-makers on their campuses and in their communities.

Research points to the pressing issues facing higher

education — state and federal funding shortfalls, affordability, mental health, food and housing insecurity, and concerns about student loan debt.

But the real evidence comes from highlighting the work of the experts themselves — the students.

Savannah Berryman lives in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

After graduating from Northwest-Shoals Community College, she plans to transfer to the University of Alabama and then attend law school.

Savannah works on a number of initiatives — covering food insecurity, voter registration, and Census awareness — but her primary passion is being an advocate for college affordability. Savannah works with the National College Attainment Network and Alabama Possible to educate congressional lawmakers and staffers on the diminishing power of the Pell Grant, and the need to increase it for low-income students.

Jared Smith is a non-traditional student and combat military veteran. He will soon complete his associate degree from West Virginia University at Parkersburg and ultimately plans to earn his master’s degree in human resources/ human development. Smith’s singular focus is to improve the lives of disabled military veterans. He has served as president of the Ohio State Association of Veterans Service Commissioners, and assists the Ohio Department of Veterans Services in providing education and training to the Veterans Service Commissioners.

Yasaman Nassab is the first person in her family to go to college and will soon graduate from Irvine Valley College in California. She plans to complete a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, and then earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Nassab works with several nonprofits

focused on improving mental health awareness. Most recently, she was accepted to the Stanford Arete Fellowship program, where she is helping to create a global mental health mobile phone application.

Samiha Syed will soon graduate from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and then begin working toward a Ph.D. in medical research.

Samiha volunteers at several local medical clinics, where she assists with the intake and patient health screenings of uninsured community members. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Syed created ChapsUnite, an organization focused on connecting students in need to resources ranging from mental health counseling and support groups, to virtual study groups, college resources, and basic needs assistance.

ChapsUnite is now a permanent Student Leadership

Council at the college and will continue to support students academically, socially, and emotionally.

Kari Warne is a single mom who is currently majoring in criminal justice at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona.

She plans to continue her education in hopes of working as a member of law enforcement in federal intelligence.

Warne’s research and volunteer efforts resulted in a collaboration with the National Center for Prevention of Community Violence to advocate for the “Actively Caring for People” (AC4P) community policing model, which she presented to Arizona’s 50 Associations of Chiefs of Police.

She is active in working to address the issues impacting law enforcement, including first responder health and wellness. n Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner, President and CEO, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society

MEDIAPLANET

9

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT

Finding Opportunity at the Intersection of Data & Healthcare One health informatics professional is driving the data that’s transforming patient care at one of the largest healthcare systems in St. Louis.

Mark Brinley says there is no better time to be a part of information technology in healthcare. As the vice president of enterprise applications at Mercy — one of the top health systems in the United States — Brinley applies his knowledge of health informatics to his career, creating a more efficient and effective way to manage data and communicate with patients.

Today, the 23-year Mercy veteran maintains one of the most sophisticated electronic health records in use.

“Our industry has been heading toward more predictive and proactive analytics for some time,” he said. “The ability to tap into electronic health records and integrate more outside data to create a comprehensive 360-degree view of a patient’s health is vital.”

Five years ago, Brinley recognized a desire to advance his professional career through education. He was attracted to the flexible format of the online Master’s in Health Informatics at Logan University in Chesterfield, Missouri. There, he found an engaging community of colleagues and faculty, many of whom held active roles in the healthcare and healthcare technology industries.

“Knowing they were peers in the industry was a comforting feeling and made the learning experience so much richer, as I applied what I was learning in the moment,” he said.

Brinley says as more consumers are being pulled into technology and healthcare, the greater the need there is to provide better-informed care through the sharing of information.

“It’s imperative for healthcare IT leaders to be educated, and health informatics is absolutely essential in my field,” Brinley said.

Nina Kult, Logan University

10

Giving Health Information Students Real-World Experience The CEO of AHIMA shows how the organization is giving health information management students invaluable, real-world experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every facet of American life, including higher education. My organization, AHIMA (the American Health Information Management Association), is the leading voice of health information, and meeting students where they are has been a priority for us more than ever during the pandemic. We have worked to increase our robust online education offerings to health information students preparing for an exciting STEM career in our complex, challenging, and fun field.

The AHIMA VLab™ is at the center of our online education strategy. The AHIMA VLab™ is a virtual practice environment where health information students can explore healthcare technology and build their knowledge through interactive activities. Practice meets theory in the AHIMA VLab™, as health information students are able to learn

READ MORE AT EDUCATIONANDCAREERNEWS.COM

first-hand how the accuracy, protection, and accessibility of health information impacts every step of a patient’s health journey.

Expanding the platform I’m excited about many of the new features in the AHIMA VLab™. In 2020, we announced that MEDITECH Expanse is now available on the platform. MEDITECH Expanse is a real-world electronic health record (EHR) system, a safe place where health information students can get comfortable working in a digital EHR. Using software like Expanse prepares students to hit the ground running after graduation.

More than 150 realistic patient case scenarios were recently added to AHIMA VLab™, reflecting our continuing commitment to enhance the learning experience for health information students. Each patient case has been coded, with up-to-date coding answer keys that are also available to educators.

The Ciox HealthSource Gym was another important 2020 addition to AHIMA VLab™. This experiential coding training and assessment solution is a web-

based application powered by clinical content, making it more efficient than ever to train and assess medical coders and even clinical documentation integrity (CDI) professionals already working in the field.

It’s probably becoming apparent that AHIMA and those we collaborate with value health information students learning in a realistic environment that offers the same types of challenges health information professionals tackle each day. By working with actual, commercially available applications used in healthcare, students develop an understanding of the uniquely human characteristics of health information and discover why its proper management requires a diverse range of expertise. They also learn to adapt in a space that is in constant evolution and become familiar with the latest technology.

Better for all So many groups of people benefit from AHIMA VLab™, including the students who obtain valuable experience they can’t get elsewhere; educators who are able to offer increasingly diverse educational opportunities; employers who are able to fill critical job vacancies with talented candidates; and providers and patients, who benefit from health information professionals being well-prepared when they enter the field.

And ultimately, that is who we are at AHIMA. We empower people to impact health, because health information is truly human information. To learn more about a career in health information, visit AHIMA.org/ Careers. n Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Ph.D., CAE, CEO, AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association)

MEDIAPLANET