Initially, Michael Wesch wasn’t thrilled about teaching online. He didn’t love the idea of talking into the camera and worried that students’ learning experiences could suffer. To him, part of the joy of teaching came from being with students in a classroom.

Over time, Wesch has come to see more opportunities through online education when it’s facilitated the right way. In his new video, Teaching Without Walls: 10 Tips for Online Teaching, Wesch shares about his own experiences with online instruction and gives viewers an inside look at his own pedagogical approaches. Wesch, a featured ACUE expert and ACUE-credentialed professor of anthropology at Kansas State University, says he doesn’t want the video to be a one-way conversation and wants ACUE readers to share their thoughts in the comments. Check out the video below and our interview with Wesch, then share your story in the comments section or tweet to @ACUE_HQ and @mwesch to share your story. #ACUE!

Q: What made you focus on “teaching without walls” in your latest video?

A: I want to show my students that an “online class” does not need to be contained to the screen but is best experienced as a class “out in the world” — a classroom without walls. This was an idea first inspired in me by Ryan Klataske. We ultimately created anth101.com together based on this core idea.

Q: In your experience teaching online, what is the most challenging barrier when it comes to engaging with students and facilitating their learning?

A: A screen — whether it be on a phone or a computer — has more potential distractions than just about any physical space imaginable. Our content has to be just that much more engaging, compelling, and relevant in order to compete. If students are not fully invested in the class, they can easily “game” assignments and discussions by fabricating comments and contributions just to “get by” rather than truly engage. In short, I think the bar for us is raised substantially by competing in a digital marketplace of education and entertainment of astounding quality.

Q: What online learning opportunities are you most excited about?

A: I get the chance to help students see how they can learn anytime anywhere through a wide variety of different formats, including podcasts, audiobooks, and videos. I get a chance to share great podcasts and videos and to create my own, opening new pathways for them to discover outstanding educational material they might never have encountered before. My main goal is not just to inspire them to love my class. I want them to fall in love with the tremendous wealth of all-the-time on-the-go learning materials available to us all.

Q: Can you share a reflection about your own online learning experience as a “student” in ACUE’s Effective Teaching Practices course?

A: The format of the ACUE course was even more educational than the content. The course design models several great online teaching practices and also gave me a student’s perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

Read More

• Four Types of Discussion Forums in Online Courses

• Walking a Mile in Our Students’ Shoes

• How to Connect with Online Students at Midsemester

ACUE sat down with Derek Bruff, director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and Learning, to discuss his new book Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. In this Q&A, Bruff shares favorite stories from the book, busts a common myth about digital natives, and argues that effective use of technology can’t happen without effective teaching practices.

Your new book tackles teaching with technology. Why did you decide to focus on this topic? 

As part of my job at a teaching center, I’m always meeting faculty and other instructors who are using technology in creative and effective ways to foster student learning. I’m always taken by stories of technology use that involve learning activities or outcomes that would be challenging or impossible without the tech. I’ve been collecting these kinds of stories for years, and I wanted to share those stories in a way that would inspire other educators to be intentional in their technology use.

You’ve written about the “surprisingly long conversations” you had with editors about the title. Why did you settle on Intentional Tech?

When new technologies enter the scene, we’re not always sure how to use them to support student learning. If there’s not some alignment between how we’re using the tech and our teaching and learning goals, it can become a distracting shiny object. My goal with the new book is to give readers some principles and practices they can use to be more intentional in their use of educational technology, thus the title, Intentional Tech.

It took a while to settle on the title because I’ve written a technology book that’s as much about the humans involved as it is about the tech. I share a lot of stories in the book, including stories from my own classroom and life, as well as stories of faculty in a variety of disciplines and teaching contexts. My editors and I had some rich conversations (over several months) about possible titles that would convey both the practical purpose and the narrative approach of the book, and we think Intentional Tech does the job.

Would you tell us a favorite story about how and why a faculty member is using a particular technology tool?

One of my favorite stories in the book is about Ashley Hasty. She uses a tool called VoiceThread to teach visual merchandising at Indiana University. She asks her students to work in groups and design window displays for local non-profits. Hasty asked her students to upload photos of their finished displays to VoiceThread and add audio annotations to explain their design.

The effect was revealing. Hasty learned why her students made the choices they did. In some cases, what looked like a poor design decision turned out to be the result of a constraint the client placed on the display. In other cases, students struggled to articulate why they had made particularly effective design choices; the technology forced a level of self-reflection that might not have otherwise occurred. These audio annotations allowed Hasty to be more responsive to her students’ learning needs through insights that weren’t self-evident in the final products.

I love this example because it’s a great match between technology and pedagogy. I learned about a tool I had never used in my own teaching, and I got to explore a discipline I don’t know much about. And I only learned about Hasty’s story because I posted an inquiry about creative uses of VoiceThread on Twitter and a mutual colleague connected us!

As you were researching and writing the book, was there anything that surprised you or challenged your thinking?

Something that challenged me was a realization I had while writing my chapter on multimodal assignments. When giving students nontraditional assignments like infographics or podcasts or digital stories, students usually need a lot of scaffolding. That is, they need assistance figuring out how to do the thing and what’s expected of them. This can mean having students submit proposals or drafts for feedback, analyzing finished products to reverse engineer how they’re put together, or helping to draft their own grading rubrics. These learning activities are just as important for more traditional assignments, because a lot of our students aren’t that experienced at writing research papers or giving presentations, either!

I think one of the advantages of exploring ways to use new technologies in our teaching is that we’re prompted to think more deeply about how and why our students learn, with or without technology. As my former Vanderbilt colleague, John Rakestraw, used to always say, “You can’t talk about teaching with technology without talking about teaching.”

You’re a big proponent of using concept maps and visualization tools—not just in your teaching and presentations, but also as a way to guide your writing for this book. Why do you think they’re effective and what advice or resources would you recommend for someone who wanted to learn more or start incorporating them into their work? 

One of the harder parts of learning something new is seeing the big picture. What ideas and concepts are more important? Which ones go together and how are they related? How do particular examples and applications slot into organizing categories and principles? These are hard questions to answer, whether you’re a first-year undergraduate learning chemistry or an author writing a new book.

Visualizing the big picture as you currently understand it can help you refine and enhance your mental map of that domain. That’s why concept maps, flow charts, timelines, sketch notes, and other visualization tools are useful in learning and in writing. In the book, I share the story of having students in my first-year writing seminar construct a debate map on the chalkboard exploring arguments about privacy and surveillance, along with other examples of using tools like Prezi to help students visualize their big-picture understanding. And when planning the book, I spent a lot of time at my whiteboard moving photos and Post-it notes around as a way to figure out what I wanted to say in the book and how I wanted to organize it.

To learn more about this kind of visual thinking, I recommend The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam and The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde. Or read some of the visual thinking posts on my blog, Agile Learning.

One of the first times you spoke with us on the ACUE Community, you talked about a SoTL pet peeve—the myth of “learning styles.” Is there a common misconception around teaching with technology that you can dispel?

There’s been a persistent belief in the idea of a “digital native” since Marc Prensky coined the term back in 2001. This is the idea that people under a certain age, having grown up with the internet and smartphones and the like, are better at using technology and more inclined to do so than older people. There’s some truth to the idea, of course, which is why it’s caught on. If you started using an iPad regularly in sixth grade, then you’re going to be fairly comfortable using tablet technology when you hit college.

But the idea of a digital native also has some problems. For one thing, not all traditionally aged college students grew up surrounded by technology since technology is expensive and not all households have equal access. For another, a student who knows the ins and outs of Instagram isn’t necessarily going to be quick to learn geographic information systems or text encoding tools, for instance. There’s a learning curve for new technologies or for familiar technologies used in academic settings. Moreover, being comfortable using a particular tool doesn’t necessarily mean you’re able to think critically about how the tool works. And while we all know teenagers who seem to treat their smartphones like extra appendages, I’ve also known college students who opt out of digital technologies or prefer analog approaches for some tasks.

For all these reasons, the ways our students approach technology in their education varies widely, and that’s important to keep in mind as we plan our instruction. Our students will need assistance as they engage with technology, and the kinds of help they’ll need will be different for different students. And they will surprise us, perhaps by finding something challenging we didn’t expect, or by showing us how to use technology in a way we didn’t predict. And all of this is okay.

If there is one thing you’d want a reader to take away from reading Intentional Tech, what would it be? 

We often teach as we were taught, which is an understandable place to start, but we can’t stop there. We need to develop and expand our teaching skills throughout our careers. There are always new courses, new students, new technologies, and new teaching strategies to try. I would encourage readers to think of teaching as a creative act, one that requires a little risk-taking. Inspiration is important for creativity, and I hope that readers of Intentional Tech will be inspired to explore technologies that fit within their teaching contexts and help them meet their teaching goals. I know I’ve picked up a lot of ideas for my own classroom as I interviewed faculty for the book!

What to read next:

* Video: Derek Bruff Talks Visual Learning Tools

* Connecting the Dots: Visual Learning in an Election Year by Derek Bruff

“You are the changemakers,” extolled Chancellor Nancy Cantor in an impassioned call for an inclusive world that “brings more people to the table of prosperity.” In her remarks during Rutgers University–Newark’s 2019 Convocation, Cantor reminded new students that “those willing to take the risk of shifting tried and true narratives, those who dare to take a new and different lens on the world, themselves, and others” don’t do it alone. “They get help, collaborate, and find partners” adding that Rutgers University–Newark “is the place to find them.”

Chancellor Nancy Cantor

Pedagogy, Professional Development and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship

The university’s P3 Collaboratory supports excellence in teaching, high impact and publicly engaged scholarship and leadership development under a general rubric of faculty and student collaboration and co-learning. The P3 is bringing scholars together to engage in critical challenges facing the Rutgers University–Newark community and is promoting student and faculty success across the entire university.

The P3 Collaboratory for Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship was conceived in 2016 by the university’s New Professoriate Study Group. It advances key priorities of Rutgers University–Newark’s strategic plan and enjoys strong support from Chancellor Cantor and university leadership. “As provost, I have to make a lot of decisions about investments,” said former Provost Jerome Williams. By comparison, “when we invest in our faculty, it pays off year after year.”

Investing in Faculty to Impact Students

Among the P3 Collaboratory’s initiatives, cohorts of Rutgers University–Newark faculty are earning their credential in effective college instruction through the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), with transformative results. Psychology instructor Christina Zambrano-Varghese explained how the experience changed her sense of professional identity. For much of her career, she believed it was her job to “deliver knowledge.” But now, she’s prepared to “facilitate student learning.” She added that the bonds she formed with other faculty have made her feel even more connected to the Rutgers University–Newark community.

Thanks to the work of Zambrano-Varghese and other faculty changemakers, more Rutgers University–Newark students are succeeding. A recent study by the Center for Advanced Study of Education at the CUNY Graduate Center found that students were significantly more likely to earn A, B, or C grades in courses taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty than in comparison classes. Completion rates were higher and surveyed students noted professors’ use of effective practices. This study joins other recent findings of improved learning and narrowed achievement gaps from effective instruction.

Rutgers University–Newark’s P3 Collaboratory is at the forefront of an important shift in the country’s student success movement. As noted in a new paper by the American Council on Education, “efforts must involve those people on campus who have the most frequent contact with students: the faculty.”

Bonnie Veysey, director of the P3 Collaboratory and acting dean of Rutgers School of Criminal Justice agrees. “When we help just one instructor, he or she will impact 40 students in one class and then 40 students in the next semester and on and on.”

This insight, and the P3 Collaboratory’s support, has been welcomed by faculty. Rachel Emas, an instructor from the Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration who earned her ACUE credential in 2017, shared, “It was the most important investment I’ve made in my academic career, hands down. There is no instructor on a college campus who doesn’t need more engaged students, or more evidence-based teaching practices, or more effective learning strategies. Every professor, every student and every university would benefit from that type of knowledge.”

By Alison Kadlec

The latest in-depth studies from CCRC, describing the journeys of AACC Pathways colleges successfully scaling guided pathways reforms, are receiving a lot of attention for good reason. In documenting the incredibly hard work undertaken by a diverse group of colleges that are redesigning programs, processes and systems at scale—while helping everyone at the institution think in different ways about how to support success for students—the research reports highlight a common set of themes that should focus the attention of reformers. One of the clearest of those themes is the need for deep, ongoing engagement of faculty as true partners in the work.

At Sova, we believe that the creative energy of faculty—who spend the most time with students—is essential for scaling and sustaining the real change students deserve and our country needs. The reports serve both as validation and as a rallying call for their more authentic engagement.

Hundreds of institutions have committed themselves to making structural changes required for the implementation of Guided Pathways practices, but only a fraction of those are actually implementing the most essential practices at scale. What’s the difference? Our experience, illustrated repeatedly in the CCRC research, is that difference comes not just in the commitment to scale and the quality of visionary leadership from the top, but also in the quality of implementation in the context of that commitment.

A key determinant of progress that cuts across both scale and quality of implementation is the role and experience of faculty. When faculty are engaged early, often, and authentically (i.e. before key decisions are made, not after), and when they are prepared and supported to bring their passions to the complex work of student-success reform, truly impressive results for students can be achieved. Whether it’s through cross-disciplinary dialogues in which faculty bring their expertise to collaborative work around creating clear programs for students, or through high-quality professional development experiences that build the confidence of faculty members to creative powerful learning experiences that meet the evolving needs of today’s students, the research provides countless examples that show the fundamental importance of faculty leadership in guided pathways.

The examples and CCRC’s report highlight, again and again, that holistic reforms take years to seed, cultivate and bring to fruition in the form of a wholly redesigned experience for students with evidence of stronger outcomes. Such long-term work requires not just visionary leadership from the top, but a reservoir of commitment on the part of faculty that cannot be compelled from outside but only sustained through internal motivation.

SOVA’s partnership with ACUE is aimed at supporting the conditions for scaling deep and meaningful engagement of faculty as creative drivers of guided pathways. Ensuring that those closest to students have a rich understanding and strong sense of purpose around employing evidence-based strategies to create clear, coherent, well-supported learning journeys for students is an indispensable aspect of scaling student-success reform. As the members of the college community who have the greatest influence over the student experience, we’re honored and excited to support faculty through the co-creation of this new certificate with a concentration in Guided Pathway’s reform. In the year-long R&D that’s now underway, ACUE is doubling down on its proven approach of combining the most important insights and evidence into a certificate experience that is controlled locally by faculty in the context of peer learning communities.

Hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism, the components of psychological capital that play a significant role of internal motivation, are factors that are impacted first and foremost by work environment. Too many faculty members in America, particularly those in access-oriented public colleges and universities on the front lines of the fight for the future of the American middle class, feel beleaguered and disrespected. In most of the institutions where we work, psychological capital is flagging and the burden is on institutional leaders at multiple levels to build a shared sense of purpose and mutual support befitting the ambitious student success goals they’ve set for themselves.

Alison Kadlec, PhD

Founding Partner, Sova

Dr. Kadlec specializes in building cultures and climates for innovation in higher education and workforce development. She has worked with dozens of colleges and universities across the country with the U.S. Department of Education, state policymakers and system leaders in more than half the states in the U.S. to support the capacity of institutional leaders and faculty at every level on behalf of student success.

By Sara Abelson

Mental health disorders are common, consequential, and largely untreated on college campuses. These findings are evident through data from the Healthy Minds Study, which has examined college student mental health at more than 200 institutions in the last 14 years (and counting), on which I serve as a co-investigator.

Among our findings:

• On clinically-validated mental health screens, 42% of students report thoughts of suicide or symptoms indicative of a likely diagnosis of depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or non-suicidal self-injury if they were to be seen by a clinician

• Among students struggling with mental health problems, almost half (45%) are not receiving treatment

• 77% of students report that emotional or mental difficulties hurt their academic performance one or more days in the past 4 weeks

These aren’t the healthy levels of stress that help the learning process, such as when students feel accountable to deadlines, program requirements, and standards for quality work. Rather, the levels of distress we’re seeing interfere with students’ ability to concentrate, function, engage with material and peers in meaningful ways, and complete assignments. In other words—their ability to learn.

Research indicates that most faculty members believe it is their role to help identify at-risk students. Many struggling students have received crucial support and referrals from a caring and alert professor.

While not all college students face mental health disorders, ALL students have mental health. College offers both an opportunity and a reason to learn to take care of it. Faculty can play an important role in creating learning environments that support health and well-being, decrease anxiety, increase learning, and encourage seeking help when needed.

1. Include a syllabus statement on mental health

We see that students find it helpful when faculty include a statement on mental health on their course syllabus. Doing so helps to set expectations, normalizes the need to seek help, and emphasizes the link between mental health and academic success. Including information on campus resources further removes barriers between students and support services. Authentically conveying that mental health matters to you and for your course is powerful.

2. Be open about your own struggles and successes

Students need role models to learn how to cope with challenges and to recognize that seeking help is a sign of strength. Sharing your own experiences about struggles, failures, successes, and coping strategies is a good way to connect and foster a climate that supports mental well-being.

Some colleges and universities are creating programs to encourage faculty to speak out. The Story of Failure initiative at Tulane University encourages students, staff, faculty, and alumni to share their own personal stories of failure and resilience. The project combines storytelling, events, programs, and academic skills coaching to motivate and support students as they experience setbacks that are a normal part of a rigorous education. These stories highlight for students that the road to meaningful and productive lives is often messy, frightening, uncertain, and unpredictable.

3. Be prepared to recognize, respond, and refer students in distress

Gatekeeper training refers to programs that seek to develop individuals’ ability to identify those at risk, determine levels of risk, and make referrals when necessary. Trainings available for college and university educators include QPR, At-Risk for University and College Faculty by Kognito, and Mental Health First Aid. In addition to gaining the skills and knowledge to recognize and respond to students in distress, it is important to know the mental health resources available to students at your institution as well as the appropriate mechanisms for raising the alert regarding students you are concerned about. There are national resources like the Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK) and Crisis Text Line (text 741741) and likely services offered by your college or university.

4. Establish class conditions and norms that promote well-being, social connectedness, inclusivity, and a growth mindset

For just one example, we know that sleep is important to mental health and a small change to deadlines can reinforce, in a subtle way, good sleep habits. Assignments can be due by 5pm, instead of “by midnight” or at 9am. Although this change won’t guarantee that students get the sleep they need, we can avoid signaling an expectation that work should be done into the late hours of the night. Better yet—be explicit about the importance of a good night’s sleep!

Dozens of other practical and evidence-based ways to establish a healthy learning environment are among the core competencies defined in ACUE’s Effective Practice Framework. Also, many institutions are providing a growing set of resources to educators to help them foster conditions for well-being in class. The University of Texas at Austin’s Well-being in Learning Environments guidebook is a particularly good example.

On campuses that are perceived to be supportive of mental health issues, rather than stigmatizing, students are over 20 percent more likely to seek treatment in general and 60 percent more likely to do so on campus. By taking steps in these four areas, faculty can help to foster a campus culture that supports student health, success, and well-being.

This essay was developed from remarks delivered at the American Council on Education’s 2019 South Winter Summit.

Sara Abelson is a co-investigator and lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Projects with the Healthy Minds Network and a PhD candidate in public health at the University of Michigan.

Bio 181 at Northern Arizona University used to be known as a “weed out” course, with about 30% of students dropping out. It’s a gateway too—required for 25 majors, meaning that about 2,400—or 1 in 10—students need to pass it. When a companion study skills class didn’t improve retention, Ana Araya-Anchetta and Mar-Elise Hill, biology lecturers, and Melissa Welker, NAU’s former executive director for undergraduate retention, completely redesigned it. Araya-Anchetta and Hill, ACUE-credentialed faculty members, incorporated active learning strategies, helped students improve their metacognitive skills, and created a greater sense of community—resulting in increased exam scores and fewer DFWs.

“Our NAU e-Learning Center, and particularly Flower Darby, director of Teaching for Student Success initiatives and our facilitator throughout the ACUE Effective Teaching Practices course, was also instrumental in providing us the pedagogical and instructional design expertise required to make meaningful changes,” said Araya-Anchetta.

Previously, Araya-Anchetta’s students set long-term and summative goals like “get an A.” In retrospect, she compared that to “having a goal to swim the English Channel without strategies around preparation, practice, and progress.” Now, she helps them also adopt intermediate goals attached to specific learning practices. Together, they re-visit goals as the semester unfolds and adjust study approaches as needed—with students becoming better managers of their learning.

Araya-Anchetta also makes a point to better explain why content and assignments are important, creating a shared sense of purpose and community. Key to building community and purpose is also a more strategic use of group work. Araya’s teaching assistants lead specific groups, learn students’ names, and guide students’ thinking rather than simply providing clarifying answers.

It’s a different day in Bio 181—students now report they “belong.”

By Philip G. Rogers

From accreditation to enrollment to policy, much of higher education is located far from the classroom. But, in reality, teaching and learning are the most crucial part of higher education: colleges’ and universities’ first and fundamental mission is to educate students.

Not to mention, the public’s trust in higher education also rests in the classroom. The debate about college cost, for example, is not if an education should cost money. It’s largely about if that education is worth the money.

A worthwhile education can come only from excellent teachers and engaging classrooms. But not all instructors are born great teachers.

Teaching the teachers

Thankfully, teaching can be learned and cultivated. In 2016, ACE partnered with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) to help move the needle on classroom instruction by providing faculty with high-quality courses on comprehensive teaching methods proven to help them become more effective educators.

Faculty enrolled in ACUE’s courses learn evidence-based teaching practices that promote student engagement, persistence to graduation, career readiness, and deeper levels of learning. By helping faculty improve their classroom practices, many more college students succeed.

This work is mission-aligned for ACE—and it makes a difference. ACE’s mission is to mobilize the higher ed community to foster high-quality, innovative practice. And ACUE’s work identifies an area ripe for innovation: effective instruction. Today, there are more than 1 million contingent faculty, representing two-thirds of the professoriate. The preparation of most faculty—adjunct or otherwise—rarely includes intentional and comprehensive preparation in the teaching practices that improve student outcomes.

As a result, there is a need to promote quality instruction nationwide, through the development and adoption of scalable and high-quality resources, that faculty would embrace.

To help meet the need, ACE invested in ACUE and applied our quality assessment expertise to the courses and programs. By doing this, ACE not only ensured that its members would have access to excellent teaching resources, but it was also able to help build the ecosystem of creating more effective educators and make the case for why investing in teaching matters.

The impact of instruction on students

We hoped our collaboration with ACUE would move student success in a real way. Our hope has become a reality: today, over 5,000 faculty have been credentialed and enrolled for the fall. ACUE has formed partnerships with over 100 colleges and universities across 38 states, along with other collaborations, such as with the Council of Independent Colleges.

Most importantly, students taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty are succeeding. Here are some specific examples:

• A course completion gap was eliminated between Black/African American and other students at Texas Woman’s University.

• Students learned more, earning better grades, at City College of San Francisco.

• Success rates went up and DFWs down at Delta State University.

• Students were more engaged at Miami Dade College, in a study by John Hopkins University, and grades improved.

• Students experienced evidence-based teaching approaches more often at Broward College.

• Students were significantly more likely to earn A, B, or C grades in courses taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty than in comparison classes at Rutgers University-Newark.

• Students gave stronger marks on course evaluations—that improved over time—for ACUE-credentialed faculty, and earned higher grades than students in comparison course sections at the University of Nevada, Reno.

A rising tide lifts all boats

When students succeed, the whole institution is lifted. A recent ACE report noted the ripple effect improved instruction can have on an institution:

While quality instruction directly impacts student learning, it also impacts student motivation, pass rates, and interest in a subject, all of which link to decreased time to degree and course retakes. Instructional quality has also been found to be positively associated with student retention, which often leads to increased net revenue by avoiding gaps and inefficiencies. For example, recruiting a new student can cost three to five times what it costs to provide services for an already enrolled student. One student remaining for four years generates the same amount of revenue as four new students who leave after one year.

In other words, teaching and learning isn’t just at the heart of higher education—it drives the institution. Of course, how an institution will be impacted varies: some will see greater classroom engagement, and others might see smaller attainment gaps. But when students succeed, the rest of campus breathes a little easier.

ACE is proud of the work we do with ACUE, and, unsurprisingly, we encourage all of our members to explore how improved teaching and learning could make a difference at your institution. Click here for more information about ACUE and its certificate course in Effective Teaching Practices.

This article originally appeared on Higher Education Today and has been reprinted with permission from the ACE.