Keynote for the University System of Maine's Summer Academy for Adult Learning and Teaching for Faculty

1. Higher Ed,
Lower Ed,
Open Ed:
Pitfalls and Potential
in Adult Learning
@actualham
#AdultsLearn207

2. Book Costs Move Off the Charts
https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/textbooks.jpg

3. • 56% of students pay
more than $300 per
semester &
20% of students pay
more than $500 per
semester
(FL Virtual Campus 2016)
• Students worry more
about paying for books
than they worry about

4. CreativeCommons
Reuse
Retain
Redistribute
Revise
Remix

5. OER
OpenStax Books

6. Student Success
“students who use
OER perform
significantly better on
the course throughput
rate than their peers
who use traditional
textbooks, in both
face-to-face and
online courses that
use OER.” (2016)
Throughput Rate
an aggregate of:
drop rates,
withdrawal rates,
C or better rates.

8. WHY
Open
Educational
Resources?
It’s not only about
access to textbooks.
It’s about access to
higher education.

9. Wages, Completion, and College Debt
• Americans with 4-year
degrees made 98% more an
hour than people without a
degree. (Leonhardt 2014)
• 95% of new jobs created since
the Recession ended in 2010
went to people with an
education beyond high
school. More than 70% of
those new jobs went to
people with a bachelor’s
degree or higher. (Meristotis 2017)
University of Maine
CCBYSNND College InSight

10. Adults Learn?
•Working-age
population in
Maine with high
school diplomas:
93%
•Working-age adults
in Maine with
postsecondary
degrees: hovers
around 30%

11. Adults Learn?
• 33% of all public
regional university
and 60% of all
community college
students are over the
age of 24.
• 82% of adults age
24+ enrolled in some
type of
postsecondary
education are
working jobs at the
same time.

12. Adults Learn?
• More than 31 million
students have failed to
complete college in last
20 years. (NSCRC)
• 111,285 people started
college in Maine but
didn’t make it to
graduation. (2013)
(NSCRC)
• Of the 14,707 “potential
completers” in Maine,
90% are 24+. (NSCRC)

13. Postsecondary Ed: A Transforming Landscape
Competency-based education, corporate universities, and
prior learning assessment are all indicators of nations
striving to meet the demands of their labor markets for post-
secondary knowledge and skills and educate post-traditional
learners in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
~Louis Soares

14. • We now think of a college education as
an individual good, rather than a
collective good that benefits society.
• When we offer more credentials in lieu
of a stronger social contract, it is Lower
Ed.
• There's so much disdain for for-profit
students/schools. And so little for labor
markets that produce/sustain them.
• We used to solve labor market crises
with public responses. Now we push it
onto individuals, who are pressured into
credentialing.

15. How do we build a public adult
learning initiative based on
serving the public good?
How do we build a public adult
learning initiative that treats
students as learners rather
than as customers?
How do we build a public adult
learning initiative that focuses
on ACCESS: to knowledge, to
Higher Ed, and to knowledge
creation?

16. WHY
Open
Educational
Resources?
It’s not only about
access to knowledge.
It’s about access to
knowledge creation.

17. “Beginnings
to
1800”
AMERICA

18. Collaboratively Built:
Alums, Incoming Students, Professor

19. My Story

20. Constantly
Evolving:
Students & Teachers
Add, Improve, Share

21. MultimediaContributions

22. Interactive and Public

23. An Open
“Textbook”
Can Be:
• Interactive
• Collaborative
• Dialogic
• Dynamic
• Empowering
• Contributory
• Current
• Accessible
• Multimedia
• Public
• (Free)

24. Rebus, Funded by Hewlett Foundation
Managing Editor Tim Robbins
@20 additional academic contributors so far

25. Co-Creation: OERs, Knowledge, Higher Ed
Interdisciplinary Studies:
A Connected Learning Approach
Opensem: A Student-Generated
Handbook for the First Year of College

26. In which domains does your teaching engage?

27. The REAL
Cost of College
• (Tuition)
• Transportation
• Child Care
• Food & Shelter
• Opportunity
Costs
• COURSE
MATERIALS

28. The Digital Divide and
Digital Redlining are
real and insidious.
Open is not
the opposite of private.
EdTech is
selling something.
Open is
a process,
not a panacea.

29. In which domains does your teaching engage?

31. Domain of One’s Own
• Drag ’n Drop → Design
• Digital consumer → Digital
creator
• Data mining → Data control
• Audience of 1 → Public impact
• Web as broadcast station →
Web as open lab
• Work attached to course →
Work attached to student
• ePortfolio → ePort
http://kayleighbennett.com/

32. Twitter

33. IDS taught me to be responsible for my learning and growth. You
learn to expand your returns. We do not post our “homework”
to a hidden, school controlled website. We share our work for all
of the world to see. This idea of owning your own domain allows
you to be confident in your work and take responsibility for
what you are learning, how you make connections in the world,
and how you share your knowledge. To me, this style of learning
and sharing is a good idea for Interdisciplinary Studies and all
other majors. Academic settings need to work on sharing each
other’s work, and being engaged in the world outside of
classroom walls.
madisongroberge.plymouthcreate.net
from I’m not graduating
“on time” & that is OK.

34. These ePorts are a way for us to really explain the type
of future we want to lead. They express who we are,
how we feel, how we learn and SO much more.
Personally, I have found my ePort to be a way to cope
with my illness. Before this school year, I was so lost,
sad, angry and essentially broken. I was given six
months to live and felt okay, why should I even try to
further my life if it’s just going to end. Well, here I am,
almost TWO years later doing great things with both
my education and my life.
Tiffanyrichards.plymouthcreate.net
from
IDS REALIZES $H!T HAPPENS!

35. Twitter was a way for us to expand our knowledge and
let our voices be heard all throughout the country. We
share our personal goals and share how we feel about
certain issues going on in the world. We follow people
who surround the field we are pursuing. I constantly
have TweetDeck open on my laptop now, go figure. For
example, I follow @PatientsRising. They advocate the
importance of access to vital therapies and services for
patients facing life-altering diseases. Get this, they
followed me BACK. I just think it is so cool how PLN’s
can build yourself a name. Tiffanyrichards.plymouthcreate.net
from
IDS REALIZES $H!T HAPPENS!

37. • A generation ago, public colleges/unis got an average
of 75% of budget from state. Today, it's about 50%.
• 23% of low-income sophomores worked a job
between the hours of 10pm-8am.
• Survey at 10 community colleges (4312 students
responding): 1 in 5 students was hungry, 13% were
homeless.
• 50-80% of sticker price comes from non-tuition costs.
• More than 3 in 4 students attend colleges within 50
miles of their homes. Esp. true for low-income and
minority students.
• The average net price for a year at community college
equals 40% of a low-income family's annual income.
• A year at public university ranges from 16-25% of a
middle-class family's annual income.
• 60% of Americans ages 25-64 don't have a college
credential, but 22% of them earned credits trying to
get one.

38. Private sector “reforms”
are not the cure for the
college cost disease-- they
are the college cost
disease. They set up a
devolutionary cycle that
shifts resources away from
education while raising
rather than containing
costs.

40. • Private market benefits of college
degree: $31,174 per annum
(2007 dollars)
• NONmarket private benefits:
$38,080
• Social benefits (direct and indirect):
$31,180
The personal monetary benefit
of a college degree
is about 1/3
of the overall value.
(Economist Walter W. McMahon)

41. • Increase ACCESS to Higher Ed
• Engage our students with their
communities of practice
• Enable learners to CONTRIBUTE
to the knowledge commons
• Build a collaborative Maine
system
Make a case for Higher Ed as a PUBLIC GOOD.

42. Open Education
Practices
• Open gates to learning
• Center access in their design
• Connect learners to their
communities of practice
• Thrive in learner-designed
architectures
• Leverage the open license
• Enable learner contributions to
the knowledge commons
• Approach tools and
technologies critically, with a
focus on privacy
• Build toward a publics-oriented
vision for Higher Education

43. Q&A
tweet thoughts, questions, ideas
@actualham
#adultslearn207