For almost a thousand years, the academy has been a collegial, self-governed community of scholars, gathered around shared resources, and designed to advance the frontiers of knowledge through research. Particularly at research-intensive universities, tenured faculty compete to avoid undergraduate teaching – and undergraduate learning is an entirely different thing. From convoluted bureaucracies and a plethora of deadlines, to the semester system and course credit model, to lecture theatres and multiple-choice exams, many fundamental aspects of the modern university seem as though they were in fact designed to impede student success. As provincial governments start to consider performance-based funding for higher education, as increasing participation rates bring less and less prepared students to our campuses, and as skilled labour shortages loom in the decades ahead, it is becoming crucial to rethink our assumptions in order to enhance the success of every student.
Ken Steele is Canada’s leading higher education monitor and futurist. He co-founded Academica Group, created the Academica Top Ten, manages Eduvation Inc, co-authored Canada’s first book on enrolment management, and hosts a weekly webcast, Ten with Ken, that reaches thousands of subscribers on a dozen platforms. Ken brings his unique perspective and insight to a broad range of audiences, from faculty and instructors, boards and senior administration, to information technology staff, concerned parents, and Canada’s most powerful corporate CEOs.
In this lively and provocative presentation, Ken Steele will get your audience thinking about student success, and just what a learner-centred institution would really look like.
Here are some relevant episodes of 10K, for a sense of Ken’s approach and as potential examples to share with participants in advance:
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