Post University: The Future Ruth Coleman

Post University Established in 1890 that is committed to individual growth and career success of its students. Post provides a quality educational experience through a curriculum designed and delivered by a dedicated faculty recognized for its creativity and flexibility. (Post University, 2015) Post University is a private, for-profit University. Over the years, Post University has grown in both enrollment and stature within the larger academic community. While maintaining a traditional residential campus, Post has become the largest provider of fully online higher education programs in Connecticut with a rapidly growing presence throughout the United States and internationally.

Technologies Electronic Course Materials: The goal of Post University is to move to full implementation of faculty enhanced resources and incorporate e-books into courses where faculty have not yet developed or cannot develop ECM’s. This will ensure students have their materials the first day of class. This creates ease of use for the student and is a substantial cost savings as well. Enhance the Instructional Spaces: Post wants to optimize the use of instructional space, enhance the appearance, and create an environment more conducive to collaborative, hands-on learning. Post University wants to engage students and have them drive their learning.

Futuring Technique: Scenarios Scenarios are a futuring technique where different possible futures are a synthesis of different paths that lead to desired possible futures (Mietzner, D. & Reger, G., 2005, p. 223). o The different scenarios will allow for the exploration of multiple variables, both internal and external, to reflect many possible future realities. ProsCons Multiple futures are developed and can be placed side by side. This allows for flexibility and can be adjusted. Creating scenarios is time consuming. They open the mind to multiple possibilities and challenge institutions beliefs. A limited number of scenarios can be fully developed in detail. Able to recognize weak signals, trends that may be on the horizon, but haven’t gained momentum yet. Finding qualified people to participate could be a challenge. Expertise in the field being investigated is crucial. Scenarios improve communications by allowing institutions to create common language for dealing with strategic issues. There is always a danger of groupthink, which would limit the creativity of the possible scenarios. Institution learning and the decision making process is improved.

Futuring Technique: Scanning Scanning is a futuring technique to systematically explore the outside environment focused on public policy, economies, social, technological, and other dimensions to stay on top of trends and current happenings. o Newspapers, podcasts, magazines, television, websites, wikis, friends, blogs While a benefit is constant analyzing of trends to stay current in the marketplace, a negative is the tremendous amounts of information available for analyzing. The key is to stay focused on specific issues and for this technique to be an ongoing practice.

Public Policy & Trends Higher education institutions need to comply with both state and federal regulations on disability discrimination, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. With the rise of technology and online courses, institutions need to adapt and comply with ADA and Section 504 for online accessibility. Enrollments in online courses are rising at a much higher rate than traditional face-to-face universities. In 2012, 33.5% US Students were taking at least one online course and online enrollments were growing at a rate of 6.1 % in an environment where overall enrollments were growing at a rate of 1.2% (Kent 2015). 27% of Americans live with a disability that interferes with activities of daily living (Kent 2015) and is on the rise due to age and environmental factors.

Policies and Design To make a meaningful impact, institutions need to establish and implement electronic information policies and procedures as well as be a priority of administrators. Resources and training for compliance need to be made available to staff and faculty. If accessibility issues are taken into consideration proactively when designing online courses, then the costs are inexpensive and the process is fairly easy because the course does not have to be retrofitted (Glazatov, 2012). Developing a course utilizing the universal design process allows for different media and learning preferences to be taken into consideration when developing instructional activities and materials.

Liability Harvard and M.I.T. were recently sued for failing to provide closed captioning in their online lectures, courses, podcasts and other educational materials (Lewin, 2015). In February 2014, a complaint was filed against University of Colorado regarding lack of access for visually impaired students with accessing textbooks, websites for homework and course content to name a few (Kuta 2014).

Vision for Post University Create a Student Disability Services Department. The department will be the expert resource for Disability Services with the following goals: To provide outstanding customer service to students. To create and implement policies, standards, and procedures for courses to be in compliance with federal laws and ensuring access for all students. To ensure current buildings and classrooms are compliant. To educate Post faculty and staff about disabilities, federal regulations, and accommodation methods. To evaluate courses to ensure compliance. To create a world-class Disability Services website that provides access to training, development, community, and knowledge for everyone.

Plan for Change “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” -Benjamin Franklin Develop a committee to research adding Student Disability Services Department including timeline and budget. Research Universal Design for Learning as well as other strategies and technologies. Develop goals and statements to be shared with faculty, staff and students. Hold informational meetings with faculty and staff prior to implementation. Develop job descriptions and postings. Join professional organizations.

Call for Action New Student Disability Services Department Collaborate with different departments in Academic Affairs to develop, implement, and support the policies and procedures. Be committed to accessibility to ensure that students and potential students know of their commitment to accessible design, how to report inaccessible design features they discover, and how to request accommodations.

References Grummon, P.H. (2012). A primer on environmental scanning in higher education. Planning For Higher Education, 41(1), Hignite, K. (2007). Make the most of tomorrow. Planning for Higher Education, 35(2), Hines, A. (2006). Strategic foresight: The state of the art. Futurist, 40(5), Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A., (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. MacPhee, L. (2009). Learning spaces: A tutorial. EDUCAUSE Review. McKerlich, R., Ives, C., & McGreal, R. (2013). Measuring use and creation of open educational resources in higher education. International Review Of Research In Open & Distance Learning, 14(4), Mietzner, D., & Reger, G. (2005). Advantages and disadvantages of scenario approaches for strategic foresight. International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 1(20), Rollins, L. (2014). Futuring for optimum outcomes in higher education: Addressing the needs for today's adult learner. Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2),

References Continued Crow, K. (2008). The legal environment of accessible postsecondary online learning. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), Glazatov, T. (2012). Inclusiveness in online programs: Disability issues and implications for higher education administrators. Journal of Applied Learning Technology, 2(1), Kent, M. (2015). Disability and eLearning: Opportunities and barriers. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(1), 4. Kuta, S. (2014). CU-Boulder student seeks accessibility through federal complaint. Colorado Daily. Lewin. T. (2015). Harvard and M.I. T. are sued over lack of closed captions. The New York Times.