Education Futures

“We talk a lot about grit in higher education. Grit only goes so far if you’ve never experienced success and grit only goes so far if you have no idea what to do next. What this partnership does is it teaches them what to do next. It gives them confidence.”In this interview, Dr. Rob Reynolds talks with Dr. Karen Ferguson, Provost and VP of Enrollment at Salem University, about the challenges and opportunities in serving non-traditional and rural students. Dr. Ferguson discusses her own ...

Careers often take a winding path. TEL's Director of Curriculum knows this first-hand. Brooke Heard took the helm of TEL’s Curriculum department earlier this year and is helping the non-profit organization find options that meet students where they are. In this conversation with Executive Director Rob Reynolds, they discuss some of the reasons why TEL is adding options such as course bundles and certificates to meet the needs of employers and adult learners.

Being poor should not be a barrier to education. Dr. DeWayne Frazier grew up in rural Appalachia. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, much less go to college. Even before becoming a higher education administrator, he understood the importance of education. And he knows first-hand the extra hurdles poverty can create during a student’s academic journey.In this podcast episode, Dr. Frazier talks about his passion for making education accessible for any student who ...

“This is directly from [OKWU President] Dr. Dunn: 'Educating the head, but also the heart, the hands, and the habits.' So this is the thought of educating the whole person. That can't just be something that is done outside of the classroom, where the professor is in charge of the head and we'll let other people in the university deal with all these other aspects. It has to be integrated into our pedagogy, and integrated into how we are interacting with the students.”Oklahoma Wesleyan Universi...

"That's exactly where I see asynchronous learning going. It's not necessarily capital A asynchronous. It's maybe lowercase a [asynchronous] with some support from the institution where the student enrolled."Dr. John Morrison is TEL's Director of Product Vision, helping our teams coordinate our products and services while also growing and expanding what we offer to schools. In this interview with TEL's Executive Director, John shares why he is so passionate about helping students from disadvan...

“Our goal really from the beginning was to administer the test, to make sure it is a fair test and that all students were operating under the same ruleset. It wasn't about catching cheaters. People have this idea that people online cheat more than they do in the classroom. And that's just not true from my experience. If you provide the proper supervision and replicate or make it comparable to the classroom, you're going to see students put in their best efforts. Truth of the matter is, it's a...

"We have some people that come to us that maybe they tried college 20 years ago, and life happened, or it didn't go well, or they made some bad decisions, whatever it is, but just respecting them for coming now and knowing that they bring strength and experience to the table. How do we honor that, walk alongside them, and give them confidence as they re-enter higher end?"In this episode of the Education Futures Podcast, Rob talks with Dr. Sada Knowles, the Dean of New College at Oklahoma Chri...

"On top of this learning that you are doing about content that you are also learning this layer about being a better learner, being connected, gathering tools that you will use for the rest of your life."In this second podcast conversation with Executive Director Rob Reynolds and Chief Information Officer Stacy Zemke, they go deeper into the Student Learning Dashboard and the specific features students can expect. Starting now, students can take advantage of the tools to make learning visible...

"That's where backward design is really valuable because it's not starting with, 'What textbook are we going to read?' or 'What assignments are we going to do?' It really starts with what do we want the students to be able to do."Dr. Cat Jackson is TEL Education's Chief Learning and Research Officer and manages the curriculum team behind the TEL courses. In this podcast with Dr. Rob Reynolds, they discuss the foundations of our curriculum and how they focus on helping students show mastery. T...

"The whole idea of the dashboard is to make all of those invisible things visible. To give them a place where they can see, 'Oh, okay, I took these classes and these classes are tied to these skills. And hey, I'm making progress on learning that skill. That's kind of cool. I can see that now.' There should be no mystery in what they are learning."For several years, TEL's Executive Director Rob Reynolds and Chief Information Officer Stacy Zemke have been talking about how to make learning visi...