Recommendations for Documentation Standards
and Guidelines for Post-Secondary Students
with Mental Health Disabilities
A project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities' Mental Health Innovation Fund
Responsible leadership is rare. It is not that most leaders are irresponsible, but responsibility in leadership is frequently defined so that an important connotation of responsible leadership is ignored. This article equates responsible leadership with virtuousness. Using this connotation implies that responsible leadership is based on three assumptions—eudaemonism, inherent value, and amplification. Secondarily, this connotation produces two important outcomes—a fixed point for coping with change, and benefits for constituencies who may never be affected otherwise. The meaning and advantages of responsible leadership as virtuous leadership are discussed.
This is a "best practices" article focused on sharing six new academic scheduling strategies recently employed by the BYU Salt Lake Center to optimize course offerings and increase enrollments. These strategies are generalizable to other academic programs that help extend academic programs at a distance, including online courses. The Center is an extended campus in Salt Lake City, Utah situated 46 miles to the north of the main campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The distance between the flagship university and its Center pose unique challenges in relation to course and enrollment optimization. Some of these strategies are made possible with the help of new software tools recently licensed by the university to help mine "big course and enrollment data" (current and historical) of a large university with 30,000 students.
Vocational education and training are highly valued by many. The European Ministers for Vocational Education and Training, the European Social Partners and the European Commission have issued in 2010 the Bruges Communiqué, which describes the global vision for VET in Europe 2020. In this vision, vocational skills and competencies are considered as important as academic skills and competencies. VET is expected to play an important role in achieving two Europe 2020 headline
targets set in the education field: a) reduce the rate of early school leavers from education to less than 10 percent;
b) increase the share of 30 to 40 years old having completed tertiary or equivalent education to at least 40 percent. However, there is limited hard evidence that VET can improve education and labour market outcomes. The few existing studies yield mixed results partly due to differences in the structure and quality of VET across countries.
Students waste about one-fifth of class time on laptops, smartphones and tablets, even though they admit such behavior can harm their grades, a new report [1] found.
The average student uses those devices for “nonclass purposes” -- in other words, texting, emailing and using social media -- 11.43 times in class during a typical day. Since the survey was first conducted in 2013 [2], the number of times students check their devices has increased from 10.93, according to the results.
The primary goal of this study was to identify a wide range of characteristics of college students that may influence their decisions to select online courses. The motivation underlying this study is the realization that online courses are no longer exclusively being taken by non-traditional students (for undergraduates, that would be students age 25 years and older with career, family, and/or social obligations). In fact, there are recent reports indicating that traditional undergraduate students (on-site students that are age 18-24) are now including online courses in their course curriculum. To accomplish the goal of this study, an ordered logit model was developed in which a Likert scale question asking students how likely/unlikely they were to take an online course was used at the dependent variable. The independent variables were based on a wide range of responses to questions regarding student demographic, experience, and preference information (these are the students’ characteristics). The data for this study is from a 2010 Oklahoma State University campus-wide student survey. The results of the study have identified a number of considerations that may be helpful to administrators wishing to improve and/or expand online course offering, as well as areas that can be further investigated in future studies. For example, undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in business majors were more likely than those in other majors to select online courses. On the other hand, undergraduate students(traditional and non-traditional) enrolled in engineering majors and graduate students enrolled in anatomy,biochemistry, biology, and botany major were the least likely groups of students to select online courses.Freshman and sophomores were found to be more likely than juniors and seniors to select online courses, and were much more likely than graduate students to select online courses. With respect to residency, out-of-state/non-residents (not including international students) were the most likely to select online courses, while international students were the least likely to select online courses. Finally, a significant and positive relationship was identified between some web 2.0 technologies, such as online social networking (e.g.Facebook) and live video chatting (e.g. Skype), and students’ likelihood of selecting online courses.
This!project!researched!the!impact!of!bachelor!degrees!on!colleges!and!students.!It!includes!four!main! methodological!components.!The!first!was!an!extensive!literature!review!of!the!literature!in!Ontario,! Canada!and!international!relevant!jurisdictions.!This!is!included!in!the!main!report.!The!literature!review! also!analysed!39!theses!on!college!baccalaureates!in!the!North!America,!including!seven!based!on! Canada.!This!is!included!as!Appendix!2.!The!second!is!the!process!of!data!analysis!which!had!two! components.!The!first!component!was!analysis!of!open!access!policy!and!accreditation!documents!and! college!websites.!The!second!component!was!analysis!of!the!Ontario!Student!Satisfaction!Survey,!the! Graduate!Outcomes!Survey,!the!Ontario!Employer!Survey!of!college!graduates!and!college!enrolment! data!and!graduation!rates.!The!second!consists!of!interviews!with!102!people,!including!policy!leaders,! institutional!leaders,!faculty!members!and!degree!students.!The!fourth!is!a!curriculum!analysis!that! compares!and!contrasts!four!degrees!in!colleges,!four!degrees!in!universities!that!emphasise! experiential!learning,!and!four!degrees!in!traditional!universities.!
Over the past decade or so, the bachelor’s degree has undergone major changes in much of the world. The most important set of changes was brought on by the adoption, across Europe, of the Bologna Process. This led not only to the introduction of bachelor’s degrees in countries where no such qualification had previously existed, but also to a pan-continental harmonization (more or less) of the length of the degree, at three years. More recently, a number of universities in the United States – where a four-year degree has been sacrosanct for decades – have started experimenting with shorter degrees. At the same time that systems have been altering the length of degrees, there has also been a trend for systems in Europe and elsewhere – including Ontario and other parts of Canada – to open up degree provision to non-university Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This has broken the centuries-long monopoly of universities over the provision of granting degrees. These two major experiments in changing times and changing places are the subject of this report, which was undertaken by Higher Education Strategy Associates for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).
Although several theories have been advanced to explain the college persistence process [6, 44, 45, 50, 52], only two theories have provided a comprehensive framework on college departure decisions. These two theoretical frameworks are
Tinto's [50, 52] Student Integration Model and Bean's [7] Student Attrition Model. A review of the literature indicates that the Student Integration Model, for instance, has prompted a steady line of research expanding over a decade [see, for example, 37, 42, 30, 35, 24, 46, 18]. This research has validated Tinto's model across different types of institutions with differing student popula tions. In tum, the Student Attrition Model [4, 5, 6, 7, 10] has also been proven to be valid in explaining student persistence behavior at tradi tional institutions [3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 18], while modifications to the model have been incorporated to explain the persistence process among non traditional students [9, 26].
Wilfrid Laurier University (Laurier) recognizes an individual’s right to work, study and live in an environment of mutual respect and understanding that is free from discrimination and all forms of Gendered and Sexual Violence. As such, Laurier is committed to addressing Gendered and Sexual Violence within the University Community through education, awareness, prevention, support and
accountability. Laurier acknowledges that deeply held social attitudes contribute to the perpetuation of Gendered and Sexual Violence and operate to minimize the understanding of the extent and impact of Gendered and Sexual Violence in our communities.
In Germany, strong public and private investments in apprenticeship training have created a well-coordinated and functional
apprenticeship system. Its success renders the German apprenticeship system a model that other countries look to for ideas and inspiration. Nevertheless, German governments, businesses, employee groups, researchers, and other stakeholders continue to seek ways to improve the system.
This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency and are having an increasing effect on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list
of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings
to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation.
It feels like a truism to say that law has advanced the vital mission of public schooling. Even a cursory examination of the major legal developments that have occurred over the past 60 years highlights the indelible imprint of law on education. Brown v. the Board of Education (1954) began healing the festering wounds caused by the unconscionable separate but equal doctrine enshrined by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Lau v. Nichols (1974) ruled that a school had not provided non-English speaking Chinese students with an equal educational opportunity to learn English. Congress subsequently enacted section (f) of the Bilingual Education Act (1974) that created a responsibility to remove language barriers. State regulations on cyberbullying often surpass existing federal protections and help vulnerable students who can be endlessly tormented beyond the supervised safety of the schoolyard. These are only a few highlights from a much broader array of precedents demonstrating law’s ameliorative effects on education. Despite these imperfect attempts at using legal means to better instructional experiences across schools, there are still a number of areas where protection through law has not guaranteed an equal level of educational opportunity for students.
Whether the separation is voluntary or not, losing a tenure-line or otherwise full-time faculty member is always a costly to an institution. The departing professor will take any external research grants with him or her, not to mention the sunk costs of hiring and training. Then there are additional costs that are harder to quantify, such as those to morale, mentorship, service and leadership in a department.
TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2017 /CNW/ - A new national survey released today reveals a bold portrait of Canada's Millennials (those born between 1980 and 1995), that for the first time presents the social values of this generation, and the distinct segments that help make sense of the different and often contradictory stereotypes that so frequently are applied to today's young adults.
The results show that Millennials cannot be lumped into a single group defined by their age, or by other demographic characteristics such as gender, region or socio-economic status. They are a diverse part of the Canadian society, made up of six social values "tribes", each reflecting a distinct worldview and approach to life. While Millennials may share some common experiences and aspirations as befits their stage in life, there are notable differences in outlook and life path across these tribes, be they "Engaged Idealists," "Bros and Brittanys," or "Lone Wolves."
Background/Context: Despite burgeoning racial and ethnic heterogeneity within the United States, many students grow up in racially homogeneous schools and neighborhoods. This lack of interracial interaction appears to play a substantial role in shaping students racial attitudes and world views upon entering college.
Prior knowledge is essential for learning because it helps us make sense of new ideas and information. But when that prior knowledge is incomplete, confused, or flawed, it can create barriers to learning. Consider the following scenarios.
Many countries strive to make postsecondary education maximally accessible to their citizens under the assumption that educated citizens boost innovation and leadership, resulting in social and economic benefits. However, attempts to increase access, especially in contexts of stagnant or diminishing financial support, can result in ever-increasing class sizes. Two aspects of large classes are extremely worrisome. First, economic and logistical constraints have led many such classes to devolve into settings characterized by lectures, readings and multiple-choice tests, thereby denying students experience and exercise with important transferable skills (e.g., critical thought, creative thought, self-reflective thought, expressive and receptive communication). Second, such classes are depicted as cold and impersonal, with little sense of community among students.
But there’s one question that we should all put down immediately, and rage against with the last shreds of our academic
freedom: the old refrain, "When am I going to use this?"
This question, I think, manages to embody the worst of our cultural situation. It is a complaint, a subterfuge, an insult, a lazy way out. And before you think I am simply railing against the generational deficiencies in our current crop of students, I’m not. I’ve heard versions of the theme from parents, administrators, politicians, and even, I am chagrined to add, esteemed colleagues. We must put an end to it all.
This paper is the response of the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario (ACAATO) to the consultation on adult education in Ontario. It provides an analysis of the elements of an adult education system, the role of the colleges, the trends which are shaping the environment as well as responses to the six questions posed in the Discussion
Paper.