Higher Education Tuesday
Getting ready for the weekend has already started to occupy planning concerns. Most of the last few days have been devoted to preparing a conference paper for final submission and editing the Knowledge Area Module. Normally writing is not the challenging part of finishing a paper the process of editing is usually the major challenge. In the case of the Walden University Knowledge Area Module process the breadth, depth, and application sections require the writer to work across a diverse set of issues within the same document. Editing can be a challenging endeavor in a short paper, but when a paper becomes a stack of over a hundred pages editing challenges can become daunting. For some reason several people have stumbled across this functional journal by searching for criticism about Walden University.
Walden University provides a hybrid forum for education that combines residencies at traditional universities or conferences with online classrooms. Diversity is a trademark of Walden University. Every class has continuing education students, retired military students, international students, and minority students. Last year Walden University ranked in the top five for institutions granting doctoral degrees to minority candidates including Native Americans. Most of the professors at Walden University are retired from other intuitions of higher education or retired professions bringing an entire career worth of experience into the classroom. Like any institution of higher education, Walden University can stand some criticism to improve processes and increase the educational potential for future students.
Regardless of criticisms about online education, several facts deserve consideration.
First, having all students share papers publicly in a classroom and requiring that other students provide feedback to each paper increases the educational potential by the number of students involved. When a paper is being writing for a professor a student can cut corners and design the paper to please the professor, but when the paper is public for the entire class to see a new set of standards apply. Professors provide written feedback for every paper and are responsible for grading, but learning is the responsibility of everyone involved in the class. Students and educators should embrace collaborative models of public discourse in all institutions of higher education.
Second, institutions of higher education have been slow to realize the value of continuing education for adult learners. For society to continue to function at a high rate of advancement and achievement learning cannot stop at the attainment of a college degree. At some point the units higher education is broken into has to change. Adults need a forum to be able to seek additional education for advancement in the workplace or individual betterment through the acquisition of knowledge. However, the traditional method of residing in residence at an institution of higher education is reasonable for people who do not have commitments or large families. People need to be able to continue current employment and seek higher education at the same time.
Third, learning has is something anyone can do at anytime. Certainly individual differences exist in ability and desire, but the simple fact remains that anyone that wants to should be able to purse knowledge. Walden University does not accept everyone to the university. Academic requirements, work experience, and demonstrated ability to work independently are all prerequisites to being able to attend Walden University.
This essay will receive additional refinement and expansion at some point in the not so distant future.
