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On Campus Blog

Notes in the Margins: Real classrooms, NCAA academics and the male education gap

Online Education Will Be the Next ‘Bubble’ To Pop, Not Traditional University Learning  Online education would bring with it real economic value if employers actually cared about the knowledge gained on campus. The problem is that they don’t. Education has little value no matter the school. (Forbes via CareerCollegeCentral) National Academy’s Troubles Shadow Report on Humanities…
by Alex Friedrich

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Why not all STEM jobs require a four-year degree

Why not all STEM jobs require a four-year degree

Mary Rothchild, director of strategic partnerships and workforce development at MnSCU, tells the Star Tribune that many people don’t realize that many jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) don’t require a bachelor’s degree, and that such skilled technical support positions provide a middle-class livelihood: “People think about these as being jobs for mostly…
by Alex Friedrich

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How MnSCU is trying to turn its campuses into savvier fund-raisers

How MnSCU is trying to turn its campuses into savvier fund-raisers

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system officials are trying to beef up the fund-raising arms of the system. Last week they rolled out a campaign to raise $20 million in donations over the next two years for scholarships to benefit 16,000 students — an effort MnSCU officials call their most ambitious. It’s also the…
by Alex Friedrich

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Grades disappearing from St. Cloud State transcripts

Grades disappearing from St. Cloud State transcripts

Stephen Hornstein, president of St. Cloud State University‘s faculty association, tells MPR reporter Conrad Wilson about mysterious changes made to some student transcripts:  “A number of faculty members raised concerns that they believed from what they were seeing that student’s grades were actually disappearing off transcripts. A student would take a course, get a poor…
by Alex Friedrich

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Notes in the Margins: Islam, Republicans and transfer rules

Campuses bridge gap between Islam and homosexuality Religious affiliation, particularly among younger demographics, may be becoming less of a determining factor in stances on homosexuality. (USA Today) Professors take lessons from online teaching Researchers mine a trove of data from courses offered free on Web. (The Boston Globe via NAICU) College Coaches Use Transfer Rules to Limit…
by Alex Friedrich

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6 highlights from this year’s college commencement season

6 highlights from this year’s college commencement season

Here are snippets that jumped out at me from six commencement ceremonies at Minnesota private colleges. Most are humorous, but a couple gave me insight or made me realize how things had changed from the time I was in college. Feel free to send in bits from other speeches I missed: Retiring University of St.…
by Alex Friedrich

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Did the disappearance of shop class have an unintended consequence?

Did the disappearance of shop class have an unintended consequence?

Owner Darlene Miller of Permac Industries in Burnsville tells the Twin Cities Business Journal how the disappearance of vocational education has harmed students: “I don’t think it’s coincidental that when our [high school] dropout rate increased by 30 percent was when all of our technical classes in our high schools ended.” She helped start the…
by Alex Friedrich

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Notes in the Margins: Energy consumption, study abroad and the hot new M.B.A.

Are Students Who Go Far Away to College More Likely to Study Abroad? The correlation between going far away for college and studying abroad in more challenging countries has not been studied closely, experts say, but more general indications of comfort level often prove determinative. (The New York Times) ‘Old time’ video teaches tricky commencement custom…
by Alex Friedrich

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What it’s like to teach a MOOC

Alex is off today, but in his absence I offer up this discussion from The Daily Circuit with U of M chemistry prof Chris Cramer, who’s about to enter that uniquely 21st century world of massive open online courses.
by Bill Wareham

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UMN response to union complaints about treatment of laid-off employees

UMN response to union complaints about treatment of laid-off employees

Here’s the University of Minnesota’s response to my previous post about complaints by the AFSCME clerical union regarding how the U recently laid-off some of its employees: On May 20, the University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology (OIT) made the very difficult decision of laying off 25 OIT employees from their positions in data…
by Alex Friedrich

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